#it's insanely funny. THEY'RE insanely funny. And also just plane insane.

[tora-the-cat]

Itachi quietly and distantly absolutely fucking LOATHING Obito and Obito SWEATING over it but trying to laugh it off is just. such an underrated dynamic

[haneys]

I have new ocs btw lol and once again they came to me inna dream. breezy surferbro bleached blonde. roots showing five o'clock shadow on. flip flops on. Hawaiian shirt flaying open. corny top scars tatts. he really dgaf. trans biaro. he's just kinds letting the days go by chilling and being dope. no the sharpest tool in the shed but he emits chill vibes plus is a handyman so ppl vibe with him. big family. there's also this other guy who's kinda a rich fail son that's being very burned out by the whole yoire gonna take iver the company from ur dad so now ur basicislly being ceo junior and trying to learn how to not tank it. and there's also the dad. the dad was like the fucking vampire dad from hotel transylvania fucking help me. surfbro and failson met for a brief moment because the Richfam were doing some how about we all spend a day like Nirmal People I prommy were not detached from how normal people live trust me. and then they were having like the worst day in the beach the dad was really like well this fucking sucks while the mom (I want her so bad) was like meh but also thought it was funny to see the dad be mad as hell. failson before all that was like yeah I'm straight I'm just so busy with the whole ceo thing I don't have the time to date and think abt women👍 and then he ran into the surfbro amd he was like oh I am a homo. cool. this is not confusing at all and also I'm gonna behave so normal and natural rn. surely. and it was like the worst floppiest try at flirting ever. and I mean to be fair he kinda just had a personal revelation and also tried to date like probably once in his life but still it was really funny to see. surfbrobdidnt even register he was being hit on. he was like you're kinda weird lol let's hang out. failson had like heart eyes aura the entire time. the dad was like YOURE FUCKING KIDDING ME.???? he really didn't like that. not even the fact that turns out his son is gay he dgaf it was just the person he chose. like litersly super diving behind a McDonald's wpuld get someone better. he was seething and malding. the mom thought it was VERY VERY funny exactly because he was malding. but oh well the day comes to and end and thay all can move on surely right. 🤨 wrong. anyway to make it short failson gets surfbro to work for him, mostly secretary style, since he was looking for a more stable job than his odd jobs and repair work around the neighborhood. failson is having a great time. the mom really likes surfbro and thinks he's funny to have around. all the staff loves him. the dad tries to kill him. I mean no like litersly he's so mad 80% of the dream was dad teying to kill him looney tunes style he tried to drop a piano on him. he tried to flatten him with a mullet. the got surfbro escaping a big rolling stone. litersly cartoon saw traps. but surfbro has maxed out luck Stat he isn't even AVARE. failson is like hey I know my dad doesn't like u too much I hope he haven't been giving u any problems and surfbro is like nah it's ok 👍 unaware there's an angry lion waiting for him in the break room but becayse if bizzare chain if events he ends up safe and sound and the lion mauls the dad etc. it was so so so great. genuelly the dad surfbro stuff was better to me than the gay love winning thing. truly the dream of all time

[sschizoid]

Hello :3 may I pretty please request like, hcs of the tulpar crew traveling together?

I mean imagine this, they gather all their last paychecks from Pony Express and decide a place to go, how, what to see...etc

I just think I'd have some fun dynamics

omg hehe this ask has so much room for fun interpretation, like where are they going, how they're getting there, etc. but I think I'm gonna narrow this down tooooo badadadadadadadadum AIRPORT! where they're going is up to you!

-- curly

he's what you would call an Airport Dad™. wakes up EARLY to pack everything into the car and to pick everyone else up. keeps worrying that they're going to be late but they end up arriving 3 hours before boarding

overpacks. has a checked luggage just barely within weight parameters, as well as a carry-on AND a backpack. he packs for every scenario, every weather type, every activity

he's the one that bought everybody's ticket and holds onto them for safekeeping. he's also got one of those airline SkyMile credit cards, so he got everyone a pretty good deal regarding expenses!

brought one of those neck pillows since he gets stiff pretty easily when sitting down for too long. also brought one of those cooling eye masks and comfy socks. bro is the plane equivalent of a passenger princess

jimmy

he was still sleeping when curly got to his house. oh also he forgot to pack the night before, so he makes everyone wait in the car for 30 extra minutes while he takes his sweet ass time shoving random shit into a backpack

probably the least traveled of the group. his family never took vacations when he was growing up, so the furthest he's been from home is just a state or two, and even then it was just for work and not leisure

takes up as much space as humanly possible, stretching his legs, spreading his elbows wide, etc. if the person sitting next to him tries to ask for a bit more space, he puts on headphones after the fact then pretends he doesn't hear them

definitely the type to glare at the mother of a crying baby in hopes of making her feel embarrassed or ashamed

anya

super forgetful and cannot remember if she packed toiletries or not. oh god, what about socks? did she pack socks ??? ends up spending $50 on various airport-priced items just in case

lowkey really scared of flying. she's done it tons of times before but still white-knuckle clenches the armrests during takeoff

brings lots of books. this is a great time for her to catch up on the reading she's been putting off with all of her work and schooling

never gets to reading said books, and instead sleeps like a log the whole trip. she's tired !!

swansea

was the only person ready in time when curly came around to pick everyone up. like, standing outside on the porch, bags at his feet ready

waits 20 minutes in line for coffee, but when he gets to the front and sees that a 12oz black drip is $5 he turns around and walks away. complains about airport prices for the next few hours, talking about "highway robbery" until they're finally boarded

"remember to pop your ears, you'll get a headache if you don't"

aisle seat. NEEDS an aisle seat. if the ticket curly bought him isn't in the aisle, he'll shamelessly ask other passengers to switch with him. he likes the extra leg room and ease of access to the bathroom

daisuke

makes the metal detector go off multiple times. "oops, forgot my belt!" BEEP "oh, man, that's probably my keys, sorry." BEEP "oh shit, my phone!" BEEP "waitwaitwait hold on hold on—"

his goal is to be that one person you see in passing at the airport that is just the most beautiful stranger you've ever seen. his hair? styled. his skin? dewy. his fit? fun, colorful, and literally insane for the setting. he dresses to impress!

checking out all the shops and food options before boarding, just straight wandering off without saying anything. comes back 20 min later with a keychain that says "I LEFT MY ❤️ AT ______ INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT" because he thinks its funny as fuck

insists he take the window seat but keeps the curtain closed the entire flight because the sun is casting a glare on his handheld

--

THANK UUUU for your request, I hope this is sufficient! if anyone else has any requests; my asks are open !! ⁽⁽ଘ( ˊωˋ )ଓ⁾⁾

[luckyofthelawnvariety]

I've finished Etho's s7 hermitcraft so guess who's back with a slightly updated/slightly consolidated list of things about ethoslab I have noticed! or just enjoy!

(the previous list)

I have no idea when he learned to noteblock. I don't know if he knows. he knows how to noteblock tho. he's really good at it.

on that note, did you know that there is not a single piece of non-noteblock music in etho's s7 after the first episode? there might not even be any in the first episode. every single timelapse or montage is set to noteblock music

(he sang along to parts of his paper planes noteblock cover too. he was going shopping. I was entirely too delighted)

(also, there is some like...sitcom music theme that I don't know what show it's from. it's bothering me that I don't know. what you need to know is that throughout his s7 etho uses said sitcom theme as the transition before Shenanigans With Fellow Hermits clips play. his life is a sitcom. yes it is the noteblock version.)

I think that etho desperately needs minigames for enrichment. if he's not playing one he's working on one. he needs them and he will let them completely consume his life

the etho decked out 1 runs are hilarious, partially because it's funny to see him play it and realize how absolutely insane decked out 2 is, and how much of a madlad tango is. etho is still the same menace with great luck and skills. I had forgotten about the hole to the void in the middle out decked out 1 tho, that was a fun reminder

etho could make a career out of translating classic type games into minecraft. he kind of has, but it's a pattern.

he also keeps coming up with new games that are minecraft only and is good at figuring out how to balance them well.

again, king of minigames. he will in fact analyze them as much as possible. he caught on to the pattern of impulse's whack a mole game in like...2 rounds? maybe 3? he's good at pattern recognition and will put it to good use no matter the minigame

etho, I cannot stress this enough, is a little shit and enjoys being such. free glass is obviously an iconic moment, but I had forgotten about him scamming scar out of diamonds for "information" about the resistance, or about sneak-e-e's business model (you can't tax what you can't find!), or about how he kept being extremely ridiculous with beef in regards to record shop payments...the list goes on

etho is also very competitive. I mentioned this in the last list, but man...he joins like every single competition he can. he wants to win. he's not like, a sore loser, but he likes to win, and he'll get a little upset if he doesn't.

etho and beef have clearly known each other a long time and ngl I miss their interactions a bit. let them bother each other a bit more please. I want to see them trying to kill each other in ridiculous ways again please. or doing minigames together. they're so silly.

kind of similar, but etho loves getting a rise out of people and it is the best thing ever actually. it's fun watching him use dirty tricks to beat bdubs to sleeping for a prize. it's perfect actually.

that being said, I still really like when etho is just on his own working on stuff too. s7 has a lot of moments where etho will go "I'm gonna use this block palette!" and I will think "bro that's ugly" and then he will make an extremely cohesive build that I want to live in out of it. I think a good way to describe it is that for example bdubs is really good at detailed builds with texture and not much color, and a very realistic twist to them. etho is not afraid to use color at all, and embraces how the colors can work together or contrast. it's fascinating to watch and I love it.

he is also a redstone genius. I feel I am starting to understand how some things with redstone work. could I design something myself? absolutely not but I could work from a tutorial and not feel completely lost on why I have to use a dispenser and not a dropper now.

I think s7 etho is really experimenting a lot with style and how he wants to do things. he does a few more elaborate intros, for example, that are very planned out, but he also does a lot of the classic "hello everybody this is etho and welcome back to hermitcraft!" it's fun and it works, but I honestly feel he might be more confident in some ways now in s10, which is nice to see.

(side note—I think etho has some trouble with tone sometimes, where he really wants to make sure everyone's having a good time, but also he really wants to tease people. this works well with like Beef, who he's known a while, but especially in people he's known less he's quick to catch on if they take what he's saying too seriously, and clarify that he is teasing. it's nice to see tbh, just the clarity even with his audience)

speaking of llamas, I had not realized how recent some really big updates were. bamboo and pandas were new at the start of s7. the nether update came like halfway through?? I was more in the casual build side of mcyt at the time but man...I didn't realize how crazy that is to think about.

just...the way that etho visualizes builds is great. not just like, leaving space for farms, but filling in the spaces with a lot of details that make sense but also work with the space to cover anything it needs to AND to connect with the rest of the base. the sightlines thing is something I see a lot of other builders using but etho really uses them a lot in the Monstrosity in order to keep it from being Too Much as you walk through.

really just...he wants to have fun, and he wants to learn, and he wants to experiment and figure things out. if he can mess with some friends when he does it, that's a great bonus, yknow?

man. what a guy.

[thearchercore]

Also Charles congratulating Max on Austria 2019 by tagging him on his post and then literally unfollowing him will never not be funny to me 😭😭 like we know you were planning his murder right there Charles, who held you at gunpoint to write that post

And Max is such a petty bitch for never mentioning Charles in his insta posts but always alluding to him like what do you mean trouble came to me why are you so extra 😭

It’s a miracle we came out of 2019-20 without any restraining orders being filed

them unfollowing each other while being on the same plane home? like???

they're so dramatic but like the way you just know max is TRAUMATIZED after austria 2019 because he never apologizes but RAN to apologize to charles for the turn 1 incident in vegas the second charles did not greet him (charles was initially not happy about ferrari strategy, and not max, so it was a false alarm - which max did not know)

but like just the possibility freaked him out so much, it was really funny. you will never see max go on such a big apology tour like that one lmao

you can notice they must have built a decent friendship after they managed to deal with the years of lore they had, but just the growth from austria to now? insane.

[bookishdaze]

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a...Chimpanzee?

How bird imagery, planes, mentions of flying, and Noa's intelligence could be foreshadowing Noa taking flight.

Get out your tinfoil hats. It's theory time!

I've been thinking about what'll happen to Noa and how the rest of the story will unfold. While doing so, I came up with this crazy theory. You'll have to forgive me for my wild imagination at times, haha.

To make this sound a little less...insane, I'll start with evidence that is in the actual movie itself before I start branching out towards more speculative territory.

Noa and Bird Imagery

Throughout the movie, Noa is likened to a bird through bird imagery. One way this is done is through feathers. Feathers are worn by the apes in Eagle Clan as necklaces, arm bands, baldrics, and other accessories, with elders like Koro wearing a lot more. Younger apes and apes of lesser status wear feathers too, just not as many. Even some of the children wear necklaces with a singular feather. These feather accessories come in blues, browns, and whites.

Here's the thing: Noa is the only one without colorful feathers.

Take a look at this image of the trio. Soona has her blue feather necklace, and Anaya has his brown feather arm accessory, but Noa doesn't have any similar adornments. It can't be because Noa is the youngest since we see children have feather necklaces, and we know Soona and Anaya aren't that much older than Noa, for they were "born within a sunset."

Noa has some feathers near his belt, but they're white and stringy, and don't match with the more elaborate feather accessories of other apes in the clan. They remind me of white fluffy baby eagle feathers, while everyone else's accessories have the larger, colorful feathers of a more mature bird.

Having Noa not wear colorful feather accessories while other apes do means that feathers are symbolic of Noa's character growth.

Noa starts off with little to no feathers because he's still a young ape at the beginning of his hero's journey who is yet to undergo his trials and break free out of his shell. To further emphasize Noa being likened to a bird, the catalyst of his journey is the literal cracking of an egg. When hatchlings are first born, they're featherless. He's even called "baby bird" by Lightning after he first arrives at Proximus' kingdom.

After Noa has defeated Proximus, brought Eagle Clan back home, and returned from his journey back to the ordinary world with new knowledge, our "baby bird" Noa has sprouted his first mature feathers. Look at 'em. They're so blue and pretty.

And I assume after the death of Noa's father, Noa will become the clan's new Master of Birds, or is at least on his way to become one.

The Planes

One thing that really stood out to me were the multiple planes in the background. We see these planes where Raka lives, which appears to be an abandoned airport. They're all rusted and crumbling apart after centuries of rotting. There's six planes in these two images alone.

Along with these abandoned planes, there's also this moldy mural of humans looking up at planes in the sky. There are so many planes in these scenes at Raka's home that I couldn't just chalk it up to mere coincidence. It could just be a cool way to show how much time has passed since humanity's downfall and how nature has reclaimed the earth, but I also think it might be foreshadowing staring at us right in the face.

Mentions of Flight and Falling

Ok, moving away from planes now. There's a few lines that caught my attention. One is right after Raka meets Noa. The friendly orangutan helps Noa up to his feet, then says to himself in amusement:

"Apes falling from the sky."

It's an unusual line, almost prophetic-sounding. Kinda funny, too. Reminds me a bit of the saying "when pigs fly," which is used as a figure of speech when describing something as impossible. Pigs will never fly, because it is impossible. Apes falling from the sky? Unthinkable. It sounds ridiculous, because it'll never happen...right?

Another line is when Proximus tells Noa of all the things humans used to do when they were the dominant species. We even hear these lines in the trailer, but in the movie, they're slightly different:

"In their time, humans were capable of many great things. They could level mountains. They could speak across oceans. They could fly, Noa! Like eagles fly!"

Proximus uses eagles when describing flight. The same type of bird Noa's clan raises and is named after.

And this might be a bit of a stretch, but Proximus mentioning Noa's name to bring his attention to the idea that humans could fly makes me feel like it was a purposeful decision by the writers as a little slip of foreshadowing for future events.

Ok, so what do planes, bird imagery, Noa being compared to a bird, and references to flying and falling have to do with each other?

From this point on, this is where I start heading towards more tinfoil hat territory, but indulge me, and bear with me. Remember, at the end of the day, this is all just fun theorizing. Here we go!

I think at some point, Noa will fly.

By the end of Kingdom, Noa has started to grow his first feathers, but there is still a long journey ahead before he can take flight. There will be a point in the story when Noa has fully grown into the ape he's meant to be, and just like a bird, will get to spread his wings for the very first time.

But why stop at just bird imagery? Why stop at metaphor, and have him literally fly?

Remember those planes? Could they have been foreshadowing that Noa will ride one?

As to why or how he finds himself in a plane, I'm not sure. It's too early to tell. Maybe humans are flying a plane that he has to sneak onto. Maybe humans force him onto a plane. Maybe he willingly agrees to ride one and go with the humans somewhere far (The humans from Fort Wayne are far from the west coast). Maybe he has to stop a plane. Maybe he's in a falling plane. Maybe him and Eagle Clan have to ride one to get to safety. The possibilities are endless.

Now let's take it a step further. What if Noa were to fix and pilot a plane?

Noa As An Engineer

Noa fixing and flying a plane sounded crazy at first, even to me, but in an early interview, Noa has been described as an "engineer" by Owen Teague.

We definitely see Noa's ingenuity multiple times in Kingdom. More specifically, Noa is really good at fixing things. When he finds the frame for the fish broken, he spends the rest of the day whittling away at a piece of wood for the frame, staying up late at night to finish his work.

When he finds one of the electric staffs, he spends a few nights tinkering with it until he finally gets it to work. This is important, because later on it is revealed it was Trevathan who built these weapons. When Proximus tells everyone at the dinner table that Noa was able to fix it, Trevathan gives Noa a look of shock, as if this were the first time he encountered an ape capable of doing so.

We also see Noa slowly picking up on how electricity works through his multiple encounters with it. He has his first encounter when Sylva uses the electric staff to shock Noa through metal as a conductor not once, but twice.

His second encounter is when he's repairing the electric staff. His third encounter is when he watches Proximus' apes try to open the vault, observing how they use electricity to set off the explosions.

Through careful observation and learning, Noa comes to understand how electricity is a power that runs through a wire when setting up the bombs with Mae to flood the vault. This is to show us that Noa is capable of understanding human technology.

In addition, the movie doesn't just want us to know Noa is smart, but that Noa's intelligence is a source of fear for the humans. Remember Trevathan's shocked look? Noa's intelligence even frightens Mae.

In this interview with Freya Allan about one of the other versions of Noa and Mae's goodbye scene, she mentions how Mae was going to kill Noa because his intelligence scares her. She doesn't want to, but she feels like she has to.

On Reddit, Wes Ball gives his perspective on what Mae bringing the gun means. One thing he mentions in parenthesis is to pay attention to the deliberate look Mae gives Noa when he repairs the staff.

One way I interpret Mae's look is her realizing what it would mean for apes to have the power to understand and even build advanced technology.

Think about it. The only advantage, the only chance humans have against the apes is their human technology. Apes are bigger, stronger, can survive in the wild, and will overpower a human in physical combat any day of the week. But as long as humans have their weapons and machines, they have a chance of reclaiming the world. That's another reason why Mae cannot under any circumstances allow Proximus to have this technology, for humans would lose their only advantage.

But it won't matter how many vaults humans flood or how much old technology they destroy so apes don't get their hands on it. If apes can just learn and build it themselves, clever apes like Noa are now a threat to humanity's future.

My overall point is that they're heavily emphasizing how smart Noa is by having him fix things, understand human technology, and how his intelligence scares humans.

Why show us all of this if it's not going to come into play in some big way in the future? What will he fix in the next movies? What other human technology could he pick up on? What could be scarier for humans than apes mastering electricity?

How about an ape fixing an airplane, understanding how it works, and mastering the ability of flight?

Airplanes Inspired by Birds

One way they could set up Noa to fly a plane is to have him develop a fascination for flight, particularly through birds.

"They could fly, Noa! Like eagles fly!" -- Proximus.

With Noa as an engineer and with plenty of birds at his disposal, especially if he becomes the clan's new Master of Birds, Noa could start studying birds to understand how they fly.

A quick Google search will show that a lot of the early ideas for flight were inspired by birds. It's called biomimicry, which is design based on the study of something found in nature. Take a look at these pictures as examples that I found while researching this.

Humans have been looking up towards the sky and dreaming of one day being able to fly, so they started inventing ways to be able to do so by first studying birds. The more ape society advances, it makes sense that apes will one day yearn to do the same.

Noa's Thirst for Knowledge

Noa starts the movie as a rule follower. Follow the law. Don't go to the forbidden valley. Listen to the elders. Eagle Clan has to submit to their new king Proximus, for it is law.

This all changes when Noa looks down at the symbol of Caesar, a reminder of a leader who had led with strength and compassion, a leader so unlike Proximus, and realizes with clarity that the law is wrong. The elders were wrong. The elders did not tell him everything because they do not know everything.

The story ends with Noa back at home with Eagle Clan. However, Noa has had a taste of what's beyond the borders of his village. There are books with strange symbols he can't understand yet. He found this strange machine that allows him to see stars far into the void of space. He doesn't know how, but somehow, humans could fly. He knows there's more out there. He's intelligent, and he's curious. He'll want to reach for the stars himself. The movie even ends with Noa gazing up at the sky. They're setting Noa up to be a character that wants to learn and understand all these new things.

This also reminds me of this quote, which is fitting, considering the topic of this theory.

"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."

In Conclusion, Why Fly?

Having Noa fly could be how this trilogy continues the parallels to Noah's Ark and the Flood by having Noa and Eagle Clan get on an airplane that Noa fixes and flies in order for them to escape some great danger.

This could also be how Noa, Master of Birds, becomes a mythical figure for the apes by having him be the first ape to fly, the same way Caesar became a mythical figure by having him be the first ape to speak.

If not a mythical figure, this could make Noa one of the founding fathers of science in ape society, setting up the stage for ape scientists in the future like Zira and Cornelius. I could also jump the shark and talk about how Noa's dreams that were only mentioned in the trailer were not dreams of the past, the future, or Caesar's ghost like we all thought, but were the dreams of a scientist's mind coming up with the first ideas for innovations like electricity and flight.

In the trailer, Noa said his dreams were of strange things. New things.

Do you know how many great inventions came from dreams? Einstein's theory of relativity. The periodic table. The model of the atom.

Having Noa fly could be great for so many reasons. Not only for his character arc, but for the worldbuilding of ape society and ape mythology, especially if they have more movies set far in the future. They have plans for 9 total movies!

Finally, I want to share a scene from The Planet of the Apes (1968) where Cornelius and Zira, two chimpanzee scientists, question Taylor's ability to fly.

Having Noa, a chimpanzee, learn to fly, something considered an impossibility by apes, would be such a wonderful way to have this story rhyme with what came before.

[puppyscatorccio]

a thought about lottienat based on s2, but like - what if you're nat's closest friend (nat could be trans or fem) and they're rlly protective over you that nat tries to ward you off from lottie's beliefs/rituals becaue nat thinks its bs and it won't do no good but lottie sees this and grows poss/obsessive towards you? full on corruption kink and just being a pervert

anon, i'm gonna hold your hand when i say this: you're a genius. i tried my best to do justice to this lovely idea. / mdni, transmasc!nat & transfem!lottie, cnc

nat was your closest friend, even before the crash. you guys knew eachother since you were kids, so it was natural that he was your closest friend on the team. hanging out together after games, spending weekends together, it was just natural routine.

your friendship didn't change much when the plane crashed. in fact, it brought you closer than ever. you relied on eachother for comfort through the hard times and you helped him hunt. you weren't nearly as good as him, but you tried.

things only changed when winter rolled around. it was impossible to find food, and you could tell nat was growing frustrated with the group feeding onto lottie's beliefs. it all got so, so much worse when he saw lottie trying to convince you to join their morning prayer. the last thing he wanted was for lottie to get her hands on you, to convince you to listen to the trees or whatever other bullshit they did.

he didn't even think, just shoved himself between you and lottie like a protective barrier, grumbling about how you weren't interested. though lottie found it funny, she decided to let it slide that time. but whenever nat wasn't around, she'd corner you, telling you to join her and that nat was being unecessarily skeptical. it was satisfying to her, watching how you thought so hard about it, not wanting to disappoint your best friend but also being a little afraid of lottie. she was taking full advantage of it.

it doesn't take too long for nat to notice how different you're acting. you're pulling away from him, quieter than usual, and he won't have that. when you guys are out hunting, he pushes until you give in, telling him that you're thinking about joining in lottie's rituals. as expected, he hates that idea.

"what, so you wanna talk to the fucking trees and wind now? can't you see that this is a bunch of bullshit?" "no, i'm not gonna let you do that. they're clearly fucking insane, i'm not gonna watch you go down this path too."

first thing in the morning, lottie is dragging you to the prayer circle. you go, but the guilt gnawing at your chest hardly lets you focus on anything. you can feel nat's gaze burning on you, so full of anger and hurt. the moment you get back inside the cabin, he's on you. "was it fun? are you gonna start drinking blood next?"

he's ready to scold you like you're a clueless child, but with lottie watching so closely, he decides against it. it's better to not cause any huge fights, not now. but he lets it simmer, his anger growing with each time you go along with their weird cult bullshit, putting a strain on your friendship. he wants to protect you, but it's hard to when he sees you falling for this so easily.

lottie doesn't waste that opportunity. with your friendship with nat getting more and more complicated, she comes in as a savior for when you're troubled. comforting you, hugging you when you need, gentle touches that slowly turn bolder. she can see your discomfort, but she doesn't seem to care much, slowly convincing you that it's okay, this is all necessary. it builds up to the point of her dragging you outside and pushing you down on the snow, pounding onto your hole like a feral animal because "it's what the wilderness wants. don't you want to please it?" and it doesn't take long for it to become a constant thing.

nat craves to be there for you, to grab you by the shoulders and yell in your face that it's bullshit, to beg for you to come back to him. he misses you to the point that it feels like there's a hole in his chest, but every interaction is short-lived and awkward, with lottie always watching over you. sometimes, he wishes he could just punch her in the face, maybe punch you too to knock some sense into your head.

it's a constant push and pull, trying to keep your friendship with nat afloat while also pleasing lottie. trying to balance the both of them feels harder than surviving, sometimes.

[betterbemeta]

I understand that everything about scale in The Transformers (any series, comic, movie, etc.) is bad.

I do. I really understand. I accept it. I have no choice to.

But it drives me insane.

A consistent sense of scale is what helps us understand objects in space. Including objects that are characters. We can understand how heavy they are, how tall they are, what spaces they can move through and which ones they can't, what their perspective is, and what a typical human perspective is of them.

This is actually the thing that makes the live action Transformers movies 'work'-- they aren't always consistent but because human characters and environments keep the same scale and establishing shots of most of the characters include that scale, all of the explosions and fights and "wow!" is relative to actual live-action human beings.

But when that isn't the case, the scale in transformers is often relative. Robots that are 'large' (Bulkhead, Lugnut & many other Decepticons, etc.) are scaled bigger than robots that are 'small' (cassettes/minicons, robots that are motorcycles, Bumblebee, etc.) and some robots that are 'important' are given a relative size that has to do with conflict that they face. The most obvious examples of that last one are Optimus Prime and Megatron, who are both often Large but may have different relative sizes as the key trait here is actually 'important'-- Optimus Prime is usually Large in relation to his team but never Large enough to win against Megatron without a Struggle to His Limits (or more heroic means like the power of teamwork etc.)

Relative scaling also applies to human characters who tend to be 'as small as giant robots make you feel.' Especially if they're a child. Which is... okay, but the whole point of Robots Being in Disguise is that they sampled a human environment with scale and are taking it with them. We SHOULD be able to assume their altmode, if it's an effective disguise, can also be a way to measure scale. But this isn't the case; TFA has a lot of weirdly sized buildings and almost all of TFP takes place in barren environments, or in Ships and Bases where the scale changes around surreptitiously.

Space robots don't have to be exactly the weight of whatever earth thing they transform into and sometimes that's totally impossible but who-is-more-massive is kind of important when your show has so many physical smackdowns. Relative mass can take us pretty far, but it can't take us all the way. Sir Isaac Newton IS the deadliest son of a bitch in space! Much more exciting confrontations can happen when we have a better understanding of what physics are possible even if we don't adhere to realism perfectly. Sort of like how drawing from life can make fantasy illustration more effective and imaginative.

And even outside of confrontation, if any characters want to interact with each other or their environment, we as an audience get SO much information based on their scale and sense of mass. Optimus Prime Has You In His Hand is more powerful if your mutual points of view are consistent. We can tell which robots can easily shake hands or hug, who can use a shipping container as a convenient thing to lean on vs a dumpster, how 'far away' stuff is for different characters, how much energy they have to use to cross a distance, and more.

Even Weird Stuff is better if we care a little bit more. In TFA, Blitzwing drops directly out of the sky if he transforms from a plane into a tank midair. We assume this is just because tanks can't fly, which IS funny. But what size of tank does he become? Is it a realistic size for a main battle tank in the modern day? Does he put on 52 tons when he changes from something the size of a F-15 Eagle to something more like an Abrams tank?? Instead of that being some kind of oversight or mass displacement thing what if we leaned into it and used this thinking to make even funnier jokes?

Many MANY mecha shows are very detailed about the specifications of their robots, which lines up with how people who are in to real life vehicles (and military technology...) obsess about the numbers. We don't need to go that far, but Vehicles and Technology are one of THE autistic things to care about and yes, I know, most of this material is 'for kids.' But who do you think is memorizing all of the Facts about Trains or Planes or Trucks out there? Why do kids care about vehicle robots, is it really just haha hot wheels vroom vroom or are some of them actually interested in what there is to like about real, non-imaginary giant metal constructs?

It drives me bonkers that the 'toy' aspect of Transformers where 'who cares, its toys' overtakes a lot of the things that help imagination play with toys in the media that's kind of the starter-imagination-play-scenario WITH the toys. Just a littttle bit more effort into consistency and leaning into showing it off would absolutely blow people's minds with what's now possible for action figures beyond vaguely bonking against each other.

[mallowdarling]

I miss my boys so I will rant about them cuz they're so fangtastic. . .

Lucifer is just a sad man, he wants kisses and hugs but don't know how to ask and that's okay I give it to him and also a pet on his head cuz I know it's hurting like hell. Can I tuck him in bed? I hope so, I hope he doesn't escape :((

Mammon is my everything, my beginning and my end, he's so girly pop and also so :3 yknow? He just hides it cuz he's silly but he's very >w< to me. I hope he gets paid today like 100000000000 grims and I hope somebody validates him

Levi is pathetic and cute and soggy wet cat and that's self explanatory. I think somebody should shrink him so I could carry him in my pockets or ontop of my head. Like ratatouille! But snake version!!! I think he should do the sssssss thing tbh. Like imagine imagine.. he's nervous and then he keeps accidentally prolonging his S sounds waaaaah (^o^)/

Satan is so funny haha he's all angry and he kills people I think but he's so funky talking about cats like that's the only thing keeping him from going completely delulu on his blonde head and it's also very distinctive the way he will put a whoopee cushion on the chair for you to sit and laugh his ass off. He's the number one Tom & Jerry fan me thinks

Asmo is the girliest of the girly pop but like in a maniacal way. He's actually insane and very murderous, he is a psycho but the "pretty litte" kind of way, yknow the song. He's so pretty and smart and beautiful and divine. He's very monster high, you see it don't you? But still he just needs a kiss and true love just like a princess, oh honey <3

Beel is live laugh and love. I am not great at cooking but I could make him a ramen you get what I mean cuz he deserves it. But also more than hungry he's so very sweet, he's a family guy! He's so cute that I would let him hug me even after his fangol matches when he's all sweaty and dirty, idc. He makes fly noises when his wings are out too, I know that cuz I was there when it happened, and I think that's great, super kudos for him for that. I hope he also makes the hand rubs flies do

Belphie is a BRAT! Gotta love him. He's also a psycho and an actual killer but like he said he was sorry :( I still hold that against him but I will throw that in his face and humiliate him while I hand him cookies and a glass of milk. I hope he falls face first on the floor but then stay there and have a comfortable nap. His voice is so cute the cutest I want to strangle him with my bare hands. I hate him, I want him to be happy!!! I want him so so happy just so I can ruin his happiness and leave him miserable and then restore his spirit by shaking him and giving him a kiss on the cheek and then slap his face as hard as I can. I hope he falls off a plane with a parachute in hands of course but like I want him to feel the fear

[itwoodbeprefect]

catching up!! watching 911 season 7 episode 1!! let's goooo

the first three minutes of this episode are like "athena watched a cruise ship disaster on tv and it affected her for life. here's a cruise ship disaster we're putting on your tv (hehehe)."

i briefly stop watching mayday/air crash investigation episodes, only to STILL see a plane crash into a house. let's get greg feith and his excellent colorful ties in here asap

okay not actually technically relevant but. i googled "greg feith ties" and found this:

and the answer is no!! shut up!!

anyway. bi buck and his bi saw! (i may be too early.)

ahhh, the face i've already seen a dozen times:

buck was missed. <3

god, i love chimney. presumably this honeymoon life plan of his isn't going to work out perfectly smoothly, but it's adorable.

athena's dress is great, but this is a prime Just Talk To Bobby Please sort of worry she's having. i mean, literally, talk to him, and she'll probably find they do have things to talk about.

THREE DATES A WEEK. yeah, there we go (affectionate), that's gonna be a mess. very sweet, very stupid!

a spreadshEET. i love themmm. still very stupid though!!

"except only in one case is there underlying sexual tension [sprays using phallic looking object at hip height]" is definitely a little insane, you were all correct. also EXTREMELY a conversation that feels like they knew what they were doing, considering i now know where this is going

eddie is a nester! he nests!

christopher doesn't get this from eddie, implying he gets it from buck somehow. feelingssss.

god. buck taking save the trees a bit too figuratively:

throwing the champagne glasses to the side while you're in the pool is i guess a cool carefree no fucks given thing to do in theory, but it's going to be so much less cool and carefree when you step in the glass while walking around barefoot later. i mean, on top of the waste of a perfectly good glass

i HAD seen the angsty mom-left-us (and eddie is listening in) part of the buck&chris conversation, but not the entire part before it with buck very earnestly trying to find his way through this parenting talk eddie enlisted him for, and it's great, i love it.

"i feel like you're trying to avoid me." < thank you for Saying The Thing, bobby.

lola is resting..... this man has blood behind his ear...... this is 911...... he killed lola?

"i don't think we're gonna see much of lola any time soon." oh, she's VERY dead. and/or locked in their cabin, which would potentially be good and dramatic when the ship starts sinking

he made a list!! love you, bobby

athena going full "norman peterson murdered his wife!!!" and bobby being very convinced that he didn't and athena is making things up to avoid him is a) finally a funny turn for this subplot and b) even funnier in light of bobby's behavior in the rear window episode.

"... o-or he murdered his wife." i love when this show does comedy and the timing is just right. thank you, peter krause

one of the things about this show that i still think was a terrible writing choice is the way they killed shannon, so i'm glad they're at least dealing with the impact all of the parental shuffling and absence had on christopher. it's great that they brought the actress back for that one moment.

"did i read the spreadsheet wrong?", reminding me of the spreadsheet, and "did something else happen on a call?", meaning maddie immediately knows what would have changed chimney's mind again - maddie and chimney are flawless, no notes.

THEY took lola!! so that's how the ship activity manager or whatever that guy with the weird vibe's job is will turn out to be evil and/or in evil cahoots with lola

dongle. i haven't heard that word in forever. didn't know they were being used for bitcoin

oh, 911. just a ship in a weather-related emergency isn't enough, we also need terrorists holding everyone hostage. at times i could almost start to think i was watching h50

[starryybugs]

i just wanna know more about the worldbuilding in demonoier au, literally whatever occult lore you wanna share. are there different kinds of demons, or angels for that matter? hierarchies? different planes? how do they feel about human beliefs about them, any superstitions they find funny or annoying? (you absolutely don’t have to answer all of these, also i hope you feel better soon!!)

moth I owe you my life for this strap the fuck in. ^_^

okay so! demons and angels used to be like one species, and they split like thousands of years ago. heaven and hell used to be more of what people think of as an afterlife, but now they're really just where demons and angels are born.

because of angels and demons stemming from the same source, it's easy for one to become the other under the right circumstances. like roier just leaving and being happier not being an angel was what turned him from a more feathery fallen angel and into how he is now.

demons and angels integrated into mortal society around 500 years ago by the time the au takes place, so everyone's pretty used to them hanging around. and there's a lot of people with angels or demons in their family trees

heaven and hell aren't accessible unless you've got a portal or a spell to get there. they used to be, like thousands of years ago, but it's not a good look for mortals to somehow fucking stumble into them so they're hidden.

okay so onto types of angels and demons!

so for demons what you are is more of just how you came to be, there's not a lot of demons who are the way they are for a job so to speak.

like roier is officially classified as a fallen angel, he used to be an angel and now he's not. or dapper and ramon who are twin demons, demons who used to be one singular being before they were born. there are demons of lust but nobody in the story is one of those, cellbit just thinks melissa is but she's not.

bad is one of the few demons who is a demon because of what he does, he's a reaper. technically anybody can become a reaper but they're usually demons or angels.

phil is like his angel counterpart, an angel of death. he does the same job as bad, the only difference being he's an angel.

etoiles is another type of angel, a guardian angel. he's a protector of the people around him, they used to be sent down specifically for certain people but now they usually protect an area or their families.

antoine is an Angel with a capital A. his true form is always hidden because it would probably drive any mortal who saw it to insanity. he's honestly just hanging out and there's not a lot of angels like him.

there's also risen demons, aka demons who became angels. that's what kameto is even though I've literally never spoken about him before

there's not really hierarchies in demons and angels anymore, there haven't been since heaven and hell became more like earth.

I'm also gonna talk a bit about summoning, since it's a huge part of the story.

summoning is basically speed dial for demons and angels, and depending on how you do it it's either like facetime or there's now a man in your house. (looking at you cellbit)

roier thought he closed his summoning line ages ago, back when bobby was born, so he was pretty fucking surprised when he showed up in cellbit's attic. he did eventually shut that one down and make a new one, and another one that won't pull him out of his house randomly.

roier's favorite superstition is the idea that he can steal souls. he absolutely can't, but he loves scaring the shit out of people who think he can. getting someone's soul is basically fucking marriage, and there's really only one soul he even wants.

[nozomijoestar]

On a completely speculative note about Asulili, what do you think their relationship is like at home? I really want to know how close they are at this point. I wonder if they are at a stage where they do hug each other or hold hands, or one using the others lap as a pillow. I feel like Lili deep down is so soft for Asuka. I feel like Asuka's the type to act like she's mad about having her head on Lili's lap and getting her hair stroked but her protests are so weak that they're laughable.

They're so funny I feel like they bounce back and forth between being all over each other and just stewing in it from across the room. Shifting from intentional to unintentional affection and back too as easy as changing hats. I've written several scenes like this but say for example one is just doing her skincare routine and the other is looking at bicycle mags and they're both giving each other looks in between, which builds to comments, which may or may not build to sitting next to each other with their arms over each other's shoulders or something. Or Asuka coming over and leaning and smiling while she watches Lili work.

That's affection and touching without really thinking about it, and teasing each other over one feeding the other at dinner so that it escalates into play fighting etc. Or not touching at all but definitely looking until someone breaks into action. Then being more direct is straight up going for it whatever the contact is and not breaking it or stopping till it gets too much or something snaps them out of it.

They at the very least are holding hands in canon. 100%. Asuka of all people let Lili drag her away by the hand to keep her from fighting Devil Kaz because Asuka is insane enough to think she could just go for it. I love that Lili seems like she knew Asuka would do that and immediately went to get her bf to stop her from dying lmao. The fact Asuka let her and held her back makes it feel normal now or at least accepted. There's probably other small touches they get away with; I hesitate to assign anything bigger just because we got no FUCKING scene showing how deep they bonded they just ARE being friendly now for literally any reason. But that's just bad writing and I don't like saying something is true when I can't find reasonable evidence enough to take an educated guess. I laugh though just imagining the fucking third wheel XiaoJin and Panda were on that walk to the air strip for Lili's jet because you just KNOW that Lili would have turned it into a lecture/argument on why Asuka shouldn't have tried going for Kaz before they make up over it on the plane. And everyone else there stuck in the couple's argument has to decide how gay what they're looking at is.

Everything else is kinda fair game since we don't really know. Hugs however I feel are reserved for intense moments of emotion. But Lili absolutely has a soft spot for everyone she cares about or wants to care about (Her father, Sebastian, even trying to be connect and be concerned for Eliza in Eliza's 7 ending despite that going nowhere) and Asuka would be no exception. When she wants to give Asuka affection well Asuka's just gonna have to deal with it unless she expresses that she's genuinely not in the mood. But if she's not genuinely furious then 100% I also see Asuka as playing up annoyance or being fake mad or her anger simply melting before returning the favor or letting Lili give her affection. It stops being worth it to stay angry at her. She puts up a half hearted fight meanwhile Lili laughs and chuckles in her face knowing the truth. Oh you hate it this much? Then why are you leaning into my fingers through your hair? lol. Asuka too has to soften up herself around someone caring about her specifically. Up to this point nobody but Asuka's dad has shown her affection or cared about what she's doing- because everybody threw her away after Feng and the Jin family connection.

They're both very gentle with each other if they'd let themselves be, both openly and making it part of their little game of pride imo. Even in things like sparring I get the sense they never intend to actually hurt each other seriously, we'd probably have seen that or gotten dialogue about it if so, it's pure games at this point. It's also a mutual test of each other's abilities; in Lili's 7 ending Asuka actually says "This sucks but I can admit it's my loss!" which means hot head Asuka ISN'T taking this the same as fighting gang boys. She's not fighting to pummel and subdue she's fighting to enjoy the challenge. It's one fighter to another and if Lili proves herself better then Asuka can put her pride aside to admit that. Her unique victory line against Lili says "It's my win but feel free to come at me again." (more literal translation). In both 7 and 8 she tells Lili this time they'll settle everything. To me that sounds like she gives her and their fights a level of respect and restraint. It means something beyond I'm Good You're Bad I Punish You. And should someone (most likely Lili let's be real) get hurt to a level that makes it uncomfortable then the first aid comes out after the fight. If they're already holding hands then by Tekken 9 we will see marriage even more PDA casual or not I bet you.

EDIT: The fact Asuka has to be provoked at all to fight Lili and now in 8 she has lines remarking on changes in Lili's strength/technique is a massive indicator that she doesn't equate Lili with how she fights boys. When Asuka has fought boys SHE is the one doing the provoking (see her TT2 ending because it's the only direct glimpse we get on how she handles gangs) while technically you can say "Asuka isn't provoking people she's just telling them to not fight" YES BUT- she deliberately uses a belittling tone and patronizing language in doing so. Pay attention to the way she phrases things. In Japanese she even directly calls what the boys do "being an eyesore". She also doesn't explain why they shouldn't hit each other in public beyond it's just a bad thing to do. She talks as if either she herself has a simplistic view of the situation (ie. Her child like moral view in general) or as if she's purposefully talking in a way to provoke the kinds of people she knows will be provoked to hitting her this way. Or both.

Now I might include this in La Vie en rose i'm not sure lmao

[always-just-down-the-street]

A Random Thought About MST3K

(We will resume your regularly scheduled Inanimate Insanity angst soon after our breaking news.)

So I'm watching Season 13 of MST3K, or at least the part of it currently showing on the MST3K Forever-a-thon, and I finally realized something that always made the reboot seasons feel off in comparison to the originals- and it's not the hosts, Jonah and Emily and Joel all do great, it's not less funny, it's not the Mads, it's not the multiple versions of the bots or the fact that it's on the moon.

It's the host segments...but not the part you think.

A thing with MST3K is that the host segments all kinda tend to follow different patterns, at least what from what I've seen watching a ton of it. Now, each Host Tenure? Hosts Tenure for the latest, but each division lets say tends to have a higher focus on a certain type- not saying the other types don't exist, but each section tends to focus on one more.

Joel's tenure as host includes a lot of guest characters- characters that'll appear in that little window up in the Satellite of Love, generally from the movie they're riffing but there are exceptions depending on the circumstance.

Mike's tenure instead utilizes a lot of unique plots, especially once we get to the Sci-Fi era- these can be one-off like Crow biting Mike in Werewolf, the time travel plot in Time Chasers, the mirror universe from Last of the Wild Horses, or they can be larger overall plots- the Ancient Greece Arc, Deep Ape, the Observers, or the space children for a smaller example.

Jonah/Emily's* tenure has a lot of songs- famously there's Every Country Has a Monster, but there's also Concepts, Sing a Song for Jiger, Monster RSVP, a host segment entirely dedicated to some song that some or all characters on the SoL sing.

(*I didn't include Joel because I wanted to focus on the hosts exclusive to the reboot.)

Now, again, I'm not saying these are mutually exclusive- The Gauntlet is practically a season-long arc for Jonah, Mike encounters plenty of guest characters, and who could forgot that classic Joel-era song Idiot Control Now? But looking over the general vibe of the reboot-era host segments, I realized something that lead to a bigger realization.

Guest characters are now no longer shown through the Satellite of Love, instead being shown through transmissions, they're in other spacecraft- befitting of the more sci-fi elements of the reboot literally being on the moon, but...

...you ever notice that the reboot-era host segments have a less physical feeling than the classic episodes? It doesn't really feel like anyone's on a set anymore, like actual physical locations. Sure, there can still be depth but...it's hard to put into exact words but the locations shown in host segments now feel 2.5D instead of 3D. Most action happens in a straight line, all camera angles are straightforward. It feels less like a location and more like a big, long table with a background. Hell, it's something I noticed occurring more and more- up until Season 13 Moon 13 was a 3D location, but in the Gizmoplex era...now they're also on a 2D plane.

Now let's not get it twisted- I'm not saying they're bad, they're still funny and by all means that's the main requirement, I like the return of the invention exchanges that vanished early-ish into the Mike era, hell I like that S11 actually made a small arc that you have to pay attention to out of them to know it's even there- if you haven't watched it yet, I'm not gonna spoil it, it's free if you have Netflix. But it's just a small thing I noticed in the reboot era that I felt like I had to get down somewhere.

Anyway, back to Experiment 1310- H.G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come.

[lanaevyssmoved]

i dont think ive seen any of ur pcs other than afhiri (who i adore) basically i am here to say if u want share pics and some facts abt ur other pcs!! :D

this is rue she is my durge and her playthrough got murdered by durge related bugs that i didnt wanna deal with and would rather wait for them to fix the cutscenes <3 also known as rue the impaler shes a wild magic sorcerer who got fed up of being one shot and became a tank with a barbarian multiclass <3 afhiri is a resist durge who i can explain best as those uncomfortable and uneasy to be around strange emo girls who stare into ur soul with lifeless eyes. shes pretty... but shes weird

my oc dru kind of got cannibalised by rue but still exists.. cuz dru's intended path literally doesn't work because i made her before i finished the game and the ending doesn't allow her to exist and it would have to be rewritten by me so much that i just don't have the energy so dru just lives in my lil au "what i wish the ending allowed" space in my brain <3 i'm not gonna share a picture because this also allows me to have her exist outside of the games limitations so no picture <3 she's so much cooler than the cc allows <3 dru is a high elf who is delusional and thinks shes actually a fey eladrin and is very uncomfortable to be around because shes just insane. completely isolated from society and the world and would have the hermit background if they didnt remove it .. larian literally didnt want her to exist.

unfortunately due to my pc death i no longer have asuras cc stuff so she will need to be remade but... this is asura shes literally terrible. shes my unfortunately extremely power hungry character who will accept every single option to make her stronger. she fucks mindflayers. and minthara. and she and minthara will rule the entire world together as tyrant wives and maybe they ascend. true love stuff. asura won't live until i'm confident minthara isn't a broken fucking mess . i think playing asura will make me worse. shes like how people play bhaalist durges who love their daddy but shes not the durge. shes just a bad person

THIS IS TAV. yeah his name is tav. they're just a tav man idk. this is my first character from full release tav is an ancients paladin whose entire vibe is "you don't quite suite your oath" and that's fun. they are the most lawful good boring ass motherfucker you ever met and literally my favourite type of character. he's all about Justice and Order and Goodness and Sacrificing Your Happiness For The Greater Good. that kind of annoying paladin! <3 tav never got to finish the game because my pc died and killed them. oh and tav has a twin who dedicated their life to annoying tav because .. like. lawful good paladin? DESERVES to be annoyed

which is really funny because the twin is my EA character! also tav! see the thing is. paladin tav is actually tav. but this monster? tav isn't their name. but they go by tav. just so they can hopefully fuck with their twins reputation. doing terrible things in their lawful good twins name!!! i still can't decide if i want twin tav to work with the guide and kiss nine-fingers keenne or work with the zhentharim and kiss rugan. or maybe they're a double agent and kiss both. idk!!! twin tav has literally no moral compass and just does shit for money mostly. and to make their twins life hell <3

and lastly i have this dude who doesn't have a place on my oc page because he doesn't have a name or nothing like. he's completely blank beyond i KNOW he's something to do with afhiri. so fun fact afhiri's lore was leading towards this dude being some sort of outer planes entity, either a god (dead star) or the herald of such, and baited afhiri through a portal as part of her destiny. this is how she gains her wild magic. BUT this was scrapped for what ended up happening (afhiri befriends a chwinga. cuteness ensues). HE STILL EXISTS IN AFHIRIS LORE SOMEWHERE - HE IS LITERALLY A COMPANION IN HER PARTY - when my pc stops crashing every time i play bg3 he's going to be on my blog a lot because im gonna use fancy editing to make him a companion and shove him in cutscenes. afhiri and he will kiss btw. i definitely don't want him to be actually a tiefling though this is just a form he uses to walk faerun and not to cause any ruckus... and to make afhiri feel ease around him <3 ALSO HES NOT ACTUALLY AFHIRIS GUARDIAN... u will see who is when my pc stops dying <3

[o-uncle-newt]

Cabin Pressure Advent Day 8: Helsinki

OK, so Helsinki doesn't get the ultra-enthusiastic "HELSINKIIII" that I've been giving to episodes like Fitton and Gdansk because, well, it's just not a favorite of mine particularly. It's been a while since I listened to it, and there were a BUNCH of things that I noticed that really surprised me on relisten.

Like, it's significantly nastier than I'd remembered! I was expecting Ruth to be horrible and Kieran to be an annoying little shit, but I didn't expect Martin to actually hit Kieran (I remembered a contretemps and Kieran beating Martin up but couldn't remember Martin's precise role) and I also, less flashily, didn't expect Douglas to directly call Arthur an idiot while addressing Carolyn, and her basically being okay with it. I guess in the context of a defense of Arthur's zealousness in trying to find Carolyn a present for her 63rd (that very significant birthday...) she let it go? But I feel like that's a lot.

(Also, as one of four children... Arthur is the onliest only child I have ever heard of. Like, everything about every one of his plans and interactions this episode... wow.)

I was also kind of surprised that the plot felt a bit weaker than usual- it's hard to really understand why Carolyn was okay with paying for a whole flight largely on the strength of Douglas's ulterior motives. I can't decide whether the Northern Lights viewing is meant to have been one of those ulterior motives and is therefore worth it for her... which is sweet, but doesn't really explain her taking him at his word for what would seem to be, on the surface, literally no reason with every reason to reject him (the cost, the fellow passengers...). Maybe this is me not being subtle enough or something, but I was really surprised when she agreed to do the flight, it felt under-justified. Idunno, YMMV.

It's interesting- I REALLY can't decide whether I think that the Martin and Kieran scenes work better alphabetically or as aired. Is it funnier to listen to it in Helsinki already knowing that Martin isn't paid, or is it funnier to take this scene for granted as written and then only the next week in Gdansk have it be suddenly retroactively funnier? I'm not really sure, and I welcome all opinions on the matter.

The episode as a whole was definitely on the darker and bitterer side, and I can't decide what I think about it. Martin hitting Kieran is pretty insane, though of course after Arthur LITERALLY MANSLAUGHTERING A GUY it's tame relatively speaking, and while Kieran is annoying as fuck the storyline is fine. I did feel, though, like I would have liked just a bit more of a throughline for the Carolyn and Ruth storyline. It's SO vitriolic and angry, and I feel like, in order to be entertaining and not just discomfiting it needed to either have a clearer emotional throughline OR to just be funnier/sillier. Them leaving Ruth and Kieran behind, and Philip hiding away on the plane and turning out to not be deaf, is very funny, but it doesn't really change, for me, that their fight felt very bitter but in a bit of a pointless way. We learn a bit about Carolyn and her past and some of her sore points, but Ruth herself as a character is basically just there to be nasty and I wish she could have been there for just a bit more than that. (NOT that I think that they should have reconciled or whatever- just that their interactions felt kind of pointless except for the sake of being mean. And she was right that the fact that Martin hit Kieran is nuts, and ideally to be funny a character like that shouldn't be right about anything...)

Helsinki has some super funny bits (obviously- the fact that I keep saying that feels a bit redundant at this point- it's Cabin Pressure, obviously there are funny bits- so I'll point out that Arthur celebrating his numbers winning the lottery is precious), the birthday celebration at the end is sweet and a sign that they're simpatico with each other by now, and of course this is the episode that launched a thousand and one Douglas-centered ships. So it's fine- but not really the kind I go for.

Unlike tomorrow... when we go to IPSWICH!

[hermannsprecursors]

Hetalia x Pacfic Rim AU official stuff yay!

HERE I HAVE ACTUAL REFERENCES FOR THIS AU INSTEAD OF JUST SCREENSHOT REDRAWS. PLUS SOME EXTRA STUFF. THIS IS GONNA BE A LONG POST. SORRY. LMAO. HERE. MERRY CHRISTMAS. PLEASE TELL ME IF YOU WANT MORE BECAUSE I HAVE OTHER CHARACTERS AND LIKE. ACTUAL PLOT ESTABLISHED. THESE ARE JUST THE MAIN GUYS

PILOTS

EXTRA STUFF: -Did I not tell you? This is an Ameripan au! Yippee! -Alfred has universal drift compatibility-- meaning they have the capacity to drift at least semi-successfully with everyone. However, he's had a pretty bad track record, and most of their drift partners have had serious accidents befall them. They quit for a year after his carelessness caused Lovino to get hurt. -Kiku went through a HEFTY breakup with Casper before being thrown into a partnership with Alfred (I'm not immune to nedpan propaganda, dear viewers). He is very bitter about it. -Kiku worked tech and development for about 7 months before being partnered with Alfred. -Initially, they were incapable of drifting. Alfred forced them to be able to. -Technically this au's Mako and Raleigh if you're keeping track of canonic similarity

EXTRA STUFF: -The two ended up really disliking each other initially. They've since grown on each other. -Initially, though, a lot of that dislike was just because of a language barrier-- that being Casper refused to speak anything but Dutch or occasionally Japanese and it just confused Matt. They're better now! -These lucky bastards have THE most recent model of Jaeger known to date, and by far have the fanciest tech. -Not only are they drift compatible, they're also compatible via star sign. Matt thought that was really funny when they first got together. -Roderich regrets pairing the two every single day. Alfred and Kiku may be this au's main couple but these two are the most chaotic duo and everyone hates it.

EXTRA STUFF: -These two are just. A mess. Both are absolutely RIDICULOUSLY traumatized and no one knows how they're still able to drift or how they're drift compatible but they make it work. -Nobody knows if they're dating or if Feli is just really clingy. It's very much so the latter, they're just besties. Feli just doesn't know boundaries. -Feliciano walks with a limp considering he has pins in his knee keeping it together via brace! Let's hear it for accidents while piloting -Also all of the burns and scars Ludwig has ALSO comes from accidents while piloting. Said accident kills his brother. Like I said, traumatized. -Literally NOBODY knows how they got put back in the Jaeger program. They literally just showed back up one day and Rod was like "eh alright, let's test them for compatibility because the world is gonna end in like 2 weeks"

SHATTERDOME STAFF

EXTRA STUFF: -And they're all married! (Well, Elizaveta and Roderich are married. Antonio is just there. Gilbert was also part of the polycule but he's dead lol) -Roderich has NO idea how he ended up in charge, but he's been the director of the Shatterdome since 2018 once he started to develop symptoms of MS and couldn't pilot anymore. -Elizaveta hasn't been able to pilot with anyone but Roderich and she's PISSED at him for it because she wants to PILOT AGAIN, DAMNIT -Roderich will greenlight literally ANYTHING, considering he has 8 months of spending, it burns up in about 3 weeks as of the starting date of this AU's story, and he has NOTHING to spend it on -Yeah Roderich is officially in charge but Antonio is really the one who makes most of the important decisions which is DEFINITELY for the best

EXTRA STUFF: -Science guys! (Which is SO weird considering Arthur and Francis used to be ACTUAL pilots. Like, plane pilots) -POINT AND LAUGH AT THE DUMB BRITISH MAN WHO'S DRIFTED SOLO WITH A KAIJU 3 TIMES (they're technically clinically insane at this point and Yao and Francis have no idea how they're alive) -Arthur was removed from active pilot duty after it was revealed they were exposed to radiation during early testing, as they were one of the test pilots in the Jaeger program, courtesy of the RAF. Francis was supposed to take their place but wasn't compatible with any open pilots. -Yao is HONESTLY the only sane one here and nobody knows how considering he's surrounded by FREAKS. -Also Yao was the only of his family to do the science-- all of his siblings went into actual piloting. -Yao and Arthur are technically the Hermann and Newt of this AU. Again, only if you're looking for like contingency with the actual plot of Pacific Rim

EXTRA STUFF: -These two aren't related in any way they literally just work here. Both are victims of Alfred's bad luck streak though! -Seriously. Alfred's trauma from previous drift experiences wrecked Ivan's psyche so bad he's incapable of drifting and had to move to munitions and Lovino was partially paralyzed after a mission gone wrong (same one that ruined his brother's leg) that Alfred couldn't be there for because they were ill. -Lovino gets to run missions for other people now so he just gets to sit and be petty over a microphone all day now. -Ivan WOULD have universal drift compatibility if he didn't undergo such psychological trauma. Plus he just really isn't well and should not be anyone's drift partner. -Lovino on the other hand only ever drifted with Alfred and her brother. In fact, Vino and Alfred were partners (both drift and romantic partners) for about a year and a half before the accident

YAY THERE'S CHARACTER STUFF! PLEASE TELL ME IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN ANY PLOT STUFF BECAUSE I LOVE PACIFIC RIM STILL AND I WANTED TO COMBINE IT WITH A FANDOM STILL VERY VERY VERY SPECIAL TO ME