#it's one of those things where you improve with time

[magiturge]

How did Hank and Sheriff first meet? And develop their relationship further?

well.. for their first meeting, you know. it left an impression.

with hank momentarily hesitating on the trigger to relish in the success of their rampage, just to lay with their brains on the table. it’s a lasting image.

in terms of developing their relationship more i need to back things with more context lest i wake some day, read this and feel a harrowing emptiness.

so if you’ll take a seat, pardon me, it’ll be long.

hank killing sheriff left a lingering grudge on him, printed on his mind for the years to come and as a result, hank became the target of almost any anger that came of the sheriff. even if more of sheriff’s mental strain and break came from jeb, his anger would funnel towards hank because his wrongdoing was more cut and dry than what jeb did to him.

the grudge festers and it’s almost as if it’s been put on a pedestal, kill hank j wimbleton, get your get back. give them the bullet you owe them, straight to the dome. you’ve got a force of men behind you, a fortress of some kind so do something with it. get that revenge.

and yet, those feelings aren’t reciprocated, because it was never that personal for hank.

..

the question here is “what does it mean to be recognized and acknowledged by hank j. wimbleton?”

what does that mean?

it’s what the sheriff wants, or atleast thinks he wants. for hank to get it into their head when he finally takes the shot that the sheriff is above them. you’ll see that i reign above you, that i’m better than you and you won’t get that jump on me again. you’ll answer to me, i’ve got the edge over you.

it’s just that hank doesn’t care.

even hatred isn’t reciprocated.

..so when they cross into the industrial sector, perhaps on their way to a different mission, and a particular grudge bearing cowboy puts his boot down, with years of actually toughening up under his belt, things are different.

somethings are the same though.

because when they have a spat on the wall of the industrial sector, and despite sheriff’s grand improvement in his capabilities in combat, when he gets slipped under and hank gets the upperhand, what does it do?

it relishes on the trigger, just the very first time.

because hank doesn’t respect anyone, hank doesn’t respect the sheriff.

and that’s how it gets its victory rugpulled out from under it, because he isn’t a defenseless coward anymore, he’s a coward that’s got a tougher shell and knows a way around a gun.

this should feel good, that he gave hank that bullet to the dome he owed him, but it doesn’t. not because he feels guilt, or remorse but that feeling that clarity that.. he’s watched hank clearly die in front of him long ago, and they came back. they always came back. even in a more grody, wretched shape they came back.

what made this death any different. and what stops them from coming back and chasing him down for this loss.

you’re acknowledged, at what cost.

one thing i like to clarify with hank, is they don’t have an issue with dying itself, but they have an issue with the way they die. if it was a stupid reason, a win stolen out from under it, bullshit that makes it all an inconvenience.

and that was all 3.

this is where i like to imagine they begin to have reoccuring spats between the two of them, across the industrial sector. ending in tight draws, be it from mutually sustained injury or sheriff ducking under the bullets of his own men into safety, a scummy tactic to escape his own loss.

..

hank is fragile. even in their hulking, tall and ominous frame they’re fragile. a network of bodies that don’t belong to them but they bear anyway. skin that isn’t theirs, grafted onto injuries. a heart that beats oddly, an inorganic jaw, muscles meeting the end of recruitment.

they’re a skilled killing machine, but they’re not immune to bodily exhaustion.

when you’ve got a score to settle, a petty useless on and off fight, with an equal parts FRUSTRATING target to catch. a practical moving turret, a once aimless useless coward knowing his way around a revolver, it gets exhausting.

so even when you’ve got the motivation to fight on, at some point, your frankenstein’s monster of a body will fail.

i’ve neglected to mention throughout this on sheriff’s side, he’s been continuously ruminating on just getting hank to buzz off again. that anger got washed away in victory and the clarity of this useless, resource wasting spat comes in.

so when hank’s body gives out in exhaustion, and they’re staring at each other. instead of gunning him down he..

..runs.

instead of keeping it up, he runs. instead of making sure hank is dead, even knowing as he glanced that the body is still moving, he runs.

..something about hank, is that it views many things through the lens of how optimal it would be in combat.

and the choice of a coward, turning his back on them, choosing to not shoot him dead like any reasonable mercenary would, his ‘stupidity’ was intriguing.

that’s how it begins.

because one of you is a script, and the other an actual entity. there are differences to be worked with.

their relationship develops more in the way of trial and error as hank is a rather independent, socially avoidant person in the sense it has little use for small talk, talking to people in general, sparking a conversation. sheriff also holds a certain image of hank in his mind as a killing machine incapable of grasping things like affection, friendship, even the idea of caring for someone, being considerate.

hank doesn’t have faith in anything, it just does.

sheriff has little expectation, but hungers the most.

it’s all still a cat and mouse chase, still with knives and guns but with an addition of chasing down thoughts and emotions.

a curious, intrigued desire to understand.

because you’re peculiar, and you did something stupid. you’re not the same as i last remember you being, a coward that put up so little of a fight and ran. you know what you’re doing now, and that irritates me.

sheriff is the most human of the cast to me, having had a social life, a job, a rational and completely reasonable fear of someone chasing him with a gun with intent to kill. a seldom seen sense of self preservation. he’s jaded and he’s desensitized but he doesn’t forget.

those kind of human treats, those luxuries of affection, of consideration and care.

hank doesn’t know that by default, it’s taught, it’s learned, it’s attached.

they never stop fighting, but they also never stop exploring each other.

they never normally vocalize their want of the other but they never stop digging their nails into each others skin when the embrace isn’t tight enough.

it’s a rocky, unpleasant and jagged path they’re walking..

and it feels good.

[shtern-and-art]

Welcome to the little AU I like to think about, where Viktor and Jayce both live in Zaun, and Arcane is actually about class struggle and oppression. Let's start with Jayce's backstory (you can find Viktor's here).

First of all in this house we fully accept the theory that Jayce and his mother are not from Piltover. They moved there to live with Jayce's dad when Jayce was still a kid (most likely from Ixtal). We appreciate and dig deep into mixed immigrant kid Jayce Talis narrative (yes, there will be more posts exploring this theme in canon later). 

With that in mind, let's begin.

THE PILTOVER DREAM

- Let's imagine that house Talis was a bit further on the decline when Ximena and Jayce moved to Piltover. Couldn't keep up with the capitalist progress and the demands of high society anymore, losing even more of the status and wealth each passing day.

- They already downsized to owning only one factory somewhere in Zaun already. And eventually Jayce's dad had to sell it, too, to close the last debts.

A fun point to think about, because it was either leaving his grandchildren paying off the failed business expenses decades from now, or losing everything right now, and living in poverty, but without that shadow over the family. Let's not think too deeply about aggressive business takeovers and monopolies of Piltover, it'll get too sad and aggravating fast.

- Eventually, and rather fast in the grand scheme of things, Talis and his family moved to Zaun. Where he continued working as an engineer at the last Talis factory he had to sell. How about that turn of events, huh.

- Now imagine you and your mum escape poverty, get to the bigger, shinier city in another country to reunite with your dad... but end up spending only a year there at most, before you all have to move to the local poverty capital. And all the kids there look at you like "ew, you're one of those bourgeois bitches".

- So yeah, Jayce's formidable years were not as fun, not a lot of friends made between his autistic straightforwardness and the shadow of Piltover making up an imaginary chip on his shoulder.

- His dad had a nicer official job, too. Gained somewhat of a passable, if not overly friendly, reputation. Worked hard, and didn't complain or bring up any hazing. He needed this job and this reputation, after all.

"It's complicated" status on LinkedIn.

- He taught Jayce what he could in the late evenings, and let him rampage through the family's library before starting to slowly sell it off.

- Nice times didn't last long, though. Couple of years after the move to Zaun, Jayce's dad passed away at work, in a gruesome accident. Crushed to death while fixing up the broken machinery. The funding of the factory was dropping even more rapidly now, and it was not possible to keep up with all the safety protocols anymore.

- His family received a small compensation (he wasn't following the safety protocols, after all), and had to size down again, and move even deeper in the undercity.

- Ximena had to take on more work again, just like when Jayce was a (smaller) child. But now she couldn't take some of the finer, less stressful jobs, because of the missing fingers. This stuck with Jayce. This character will remember this from now on and forever.

But hey, at least there's no need to go into the mountains on the regular despite the weather conditions, right? Ha ha.

JAYCE (AND TALIS)

- Jayce stopped using or mentioning his last name even before his father's death. Though it stopped haunting him with biting remarks from the peers only after him and Ximena moved again.

- But Jayce still had his ambitions, his -dream-, his drive, the sleepless nights, and the remains of his father's library.

Never really leaving the bottom of the pit, ground 0, from the start, did make him even more passionate about harnessing magic and improving the lives of the workers.

- But let's be real here, he is kinda selfish about that. About his passion.

He could've gotten a job as an assistant in some repair shop or with a local mechanic. Be safer, have better chances of the job and salary growth. Of supporting his mother.

- And oh Jayce is all about that, that is also his big goal in life. He moved out and got a job (way too early) in his teens, to take some pressure off Ximena.

- But he got a job in the formerly Talis owned factory. The same one his dad died in.

- Because, you know. If Jayce wanted to make progress in his research, he needed access to the industrial forge and the finer quality equipment.

- So small repairs stayed as just a side gig, while teenage (maybe he was around 14 or something?) Jayce began the fast journey to permanently fucking up his back doing manual labor.

- And yes, his official position was linework, loading and/or (later in the timeline) smithing. Because they couldn't hire an engineer, no matter how promising, without papers confirming proper education. It was a proper Piltover factory, after all. They gotta do things the right and legal way.

- Instead of Kirammans, Jayce got the shift manager that lets him tinker with his own stuff at dead hours, because Jayce is a good boy who's ready to work two jobs, one under the table, all for under the table scraps pay.

- And when I say "moved out", I mean Jayce is living in prime real estate of a big industrial crate that got written off from the factory he works at. It's propped somewhere really close by to it, in the back alleyways that never see the sun.

Very practical of him, can catch more hours in the factory, and not worry about traveling back and forth, cutting down his research and work time.

- Only a few people in the factory know he's the kid of the Talis. Jayce puts a lot of effort into not bringing it up. No need to complicate things, and make more obstacles for his actual work and life goals.

- Jayce still signs every page of his research, though. But only with his last name. He thinks he's being bitter and conspiratorial about it. 

THE INCIDENT x1: THE CRASH

- But guess what. Nice times didn't last long, yes. After (at most) a year and a bit at the factory, the disaster struck.

Jayce was working his usual late hours all alone, fixing some heavy machinery that broke down for the third time that week, when some very out of date mechanisms gave out and very unfortunately crushed Jayce's leg way ahead of the schedule.

Oh, Jayce almost dying on company time, just like his father before him. And in an eerily similar fashion, too.

- He didn't die, though. He was brave, and (after waking up) put his bone back into its place, and (after waking up after -that-), asked the shift manager for his non-mandatory monthly couple of days leave. Like a champ.

- He was still young, and stubborn, and terrified by what happened, and of the look the shift manager gave him after dropping Jayce off at the crate.

So he laid there on the floor (no carpet in the crate) in a daze of pain and delusions, not thinking about how this injury may cost him this job and the chance of continuing his research. Like a champ. Until the night of his last day of leave.

- And when no new miracle came through, Jayce gathered all the scrapes he could reach to make a makeshift splinter and a crutch. Maybe even from the hammer prototype handle. And set out on the long trek to the local meat vendor guy.

People at the factory mentioned him sometimes as some sort of underground doctor that helps out factory workers that can't afford visiting a proper clinic. And asks a reasonable price, it seems.

- Neither gods nor Jayce know how he managed to get to this guy's place on his own, but it took a lot of hours.

- Imagine Jayce, already pumped full of not approved for humans painkillers slumped over the metal table, doing his best puppy dog eyes like "Can you do something quick? I have to make it to the morning shift, dowctor 👉👈"

And the local butcher shop surgeon going "Yeah, me too, boy".

-

Doctor: How did you get here, boy? Jayce: Hamner ✨✨✨✨✨*

His Best Friend.

*that's Jayce throwing up over the surgery table.

-

- Yes, Jayce's vague hopes of getting a really good splinter went out of the window real fast.

The doctor, looking at the cracked open leg with big signs of infection and pieces of bone all over the place: “Meh, not today. Not gonna perform a puzzle. You clearly won't be paying for the extra hours, and my slop coffee's getting cold.”

- Jokes aside, he did explain to Jayce that trying to fix his leg will take a long time and probably multiple surgeries, and even with all that it will never work properly again. He will not be able to get back to his previous work for a long while. Most likely – at all.

- And Jayce couldn't have that. So he swallowed his initial panic and agreed to the amputation. Because he may have a shorter recovery time, if he's lucky. Because he can start walking again in a shorter span of time. If he's lucky. Because, sure, he can't afford the prosthetic, but he can figure it out, he can make something himself, whatever, crank it, chop it off, boss.

THE FOLLOWUP

- And, well. Jayce did eventually figure it out.

He probably had to move back in with Ximena for a while, while he recovered, and build his new leg with some input from the back alley doctor. It was quite simple and basic, his first model.

- Jayce had to keep building new ones over the next few years, as he grew older and bigger.

- He did return to the factory as soon as he could (perhaps a bit too soon, even), and continued his research.

- Jayce tried to not draw attention to his missing leg. There were plenty of amputees on the job, but all of them got their work injuries way later in life, and had plenty of strength and experience backing them up. Jayce didn't have any of that yet, only the vague rumors that he's an outsider following him all his life. So he kept quiet, and to himself. A perfect cog in the machine.

- Meanwhile, his continued research of body augmentation and prosthetics got him into a new side gig.

As payment for his operation, the back alley surgeon got Jayce to work on prosthetics for his other clients.

As in, after their operations and/or amputations, the doctor would refer people to Jayce. For a reasonable fee, of course.

- The problem in Zaun lies not only in the low life expectancy and the amount of severe injuries in the workforce. Prosthetics can make life bearable for most. It's in the prices, too.

Can regular old uncle Fedya from the nail making factory get a pair of relatively ok working fingers to keep sorting nails 16/6 after he got his hand stuck while cleaning a press? Without going into lifelong debt? Much to think about.

- The market of prosthetics is monopolized by that sickly cat chem-baron that Sevika cut into pieces. But that will happen in the future, back then he was still very much alive and ready to absorb or eliminate any competition.

- So Jayce worked on the downlow, and never took money for his work.

- And even with that he eventually ended up on that baron's radar. The fact that he did his prosthetics for free made it even worse, actually. Hah.

- But Jayce's patients didn't rat him out. The earliest ones, at least. Maybe later the back alley doctor made the rule of blindfolding patients before Jayce will work with them. Just in case.

- Sometimes families of the people Jayce helps pay him back in food. Sometimes they bring supplies for the secret lab he definitely doesn't have, shhh. Such a bright gentleman can definitely find some use for all this toootally useless junk they had lying around. He takes it, or they throw it away, you know. Or whatever. 

THE OVERVIEW 

- I think it will be fun to have Jayce be a silent mechanic with no name.

The patients for prosthetics never see his face, or hear his voice much. Or at all. Jayce learned to work in silence. He never leaves signature markings on his prosthetics and machines. He learned to linger in the shadows and not draw attention to how he looks or moves. To who he is.

The need to fit in and being needed forced Jayce into another version of the same rigid mold.

- Jayce has unchecked social anxiety, and gets nervous and uncomfortable when too many people pay attention to him. Or just being around big groups of people for long periods of time. He, unlike the Arcane!Jayce, was not prolongedly trained to stomach it. Social events tire him 10 times faster.

- He doesn't ask many questions, he's just there. Slouching, to occupy less space with his (smaller and shorter than in Arcane, but still) giant frame, and also because of the back pain.

- And yes, almost 10 years of hard labor starting from teen years (with not much proper training, too!) got Jayce chronic lower back pain way earlier than his coworkers. It mostly bothers him at night though, so it's alright, hahah. Doesn't impact his work much. Still easy to hide, so it's basically neglectable. Ha ha.

- Jayce doesn't keep up with his appearance that much. Looks somewhat like a stray dog. Unkept, and sometimes grimy from work, but mostly clean. Hair reaching the chin, pulled into a half ponytail, Vander-style. It's only long enough for the layer of soot to protect from the fire and metals.

- He is mostly going by Jay in this timeline. At first, he did only at work, to have more distance from his family name. But then it just stuck.

Only his mum (and later Viktor) calls him Jayce.

- Sometimes Jayce traded various knick-knacks at Benzo's. He didn't always have the money to buy things, but Jayce can barter for stuff and do little repairs.

- And no, he's not gonna stay for a full-time job, thankyouverymuch. Jayce is -very- into 16-hour shifts and his damp crate in the alley. He's all good

- Yeah, put the box of discount parts near the door, Ekko. It's for the stray.

- The back alley doctor is a big, intimidating looking guy, who runs a meat selling or other kind of food shop. With the vibes of that food stand guy from Arcane.

(To the reader: if someone knows a character from the league that would fit the bill, then do tell. I will gladly adjust and implement more canon stuff).

--

NEXT UP:

Viktors bio / the story

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hello!

First of all: thanks for this blog. I know you put a lot of time and effort into it and it's helped a lot of people, myself included, improve at characterization and art and writing in general. I've learned a lot about stereotypes and how to write better representation and so has everyone who keeps up with this blog. You can't be thanked enough for that. That's one of the main things I wanted to say in this ask.

It means a lot to me that you're here and you're putting in the time to teach us about so many important things when you absolutely have no obligation to.

Onto the ask itself, I wanted to know: Is there a next best thing when it comes to sensitivity readers? If you don't have the resources to hire one, what should you do instead? I'm concerned that just reading this blog and doing general research isn't enough.

If you find the time to answer this, thank you so much!

You're welcome!

I hate to say it like this, but Black friends 😅 The best way to better understand Black people is to build community with us, be in spaces where we're actually speaking on things we care about on our media. You'd learn how to spot those things in your own work. That's gonna take time (and shouldn't just be for your stories, btw). If you're in a fandom, there are probably Black voices struggling to be heard with the very answers you seek.

I'm always suggesting reading Black authors who are in the genre that you want to write in and studying their skill as well. Might just have to take a pause from writing and read. It's a practice!

Other than that, you might just have to be vulnerable and post your work, and make it clear that if something is concerning that you'll accept feedback for that from any Black readers that you have. You'll never get everything perfect and that's not the expectation, but you have to be willing to hear the free constructive feedback if that's really what you want.

[9amartt]

“Blindly” trusting Allah is the epitome of sight. 

I entrust my affairs to Allah, from the smallest issues to those that could twist my life’s plot, from my daily decisions to those that have a great effect in my entire life.

I heard, and I believe that the affairs of the Mu’min are always good. Whatever Allah decrees for the believers is good for them either in dunyah or akhirah. 

Anything that comes from my Lord is good, and I am pleased with it and grateful, and since gratitude is Ibadah, I worship Allah by being grateful to Him.

I know that since the day I uttered La Ilaha Illa Allah with my tongue, believed it with my heart, and acted upon it with my limbs, and didn’t commit that which nullifies it, that I am a muslim from the muslims, and a believer from the believers, from those believers who are under the mercy and protection of Allah at all timed and all places. 

Now the only thing left good expectations from my Lord and creator, -the one who is more merciful to me than my own mother!- And loads of Du’a and taking asbab. 

This is the recipe of success for those who seek it. 

You may say: “Okay now I took all the possible asbab. What do I do?” 

The answer is easy: 1-Dua Dua & Dua (which you should have been doing from the beginning) continue making it. Never despair in du’a and don’t get tired of it at all or ever expect anything but a response from Allah in sha Allah. 

And know that the answer of a Du’a is always good, either you get what you wished, or a protection from an evil, or a raise in ranks.

2: Never ever think or utter the phrase: ”it’s impossible” and even if shaytan causes you to, rush to repent from this since it’s an insult to Allah و العياذ بالله. 

3: Wait with patience and perseverance and increase in Ibadah (especially istighfar and Qiyaam Al Layl)

4: Abandon sins!! I really can’t stress this enough. Perhaps Allah didn’t answer your dua yet because of your sins!!

ويل الفتى دعى ربه ��عصاه فلم يستجب له!

Woe to the young man, he makes dua, then sins and Allah doesn’t respond to his dua because of that sin. 

Try to abandon sin, and even if you fall or slip (and you surely will) rush to istighfar and tawba. Be as clean from sin as possible. 

And that’s it really, the actions themselves are relatably easy, patience is the hardest part, and to increase your patience you must read the Qur’an and ponder upon it, and also count your blessings, reminisce old times in which Allah’s blessings showered you.

And remember, good is in that which Allah chooses for you.

This ‘waiting stage’ is a real blessing wallah, take advantage of it. 

In it, you worship Allah out of need, and slowly get closer to Him to the point where you love Him and your relationship with Him improves, and you may even -with the assistance of Allah- reach the level which many of the salaf narrated about: the level of living in Jannah while in dunyah. 

So make your goal getting closer to Allah with every trial and every blessing. 

And I don’t know what each one of your dreams and ambitions or trials may be, but if you can get at least one thing from this patience of yours, let it be being closer to Allah and starting to truly Love Him to the point on which everything you see reminds you of Him, and to the point which He becomes the first one you think about when you wake up and the last one you think about before going to sleep, and to the point that every sin you commit becomes painful to you and you cannot let it pass without repentance, and to the point where you cannot keep your love to yourself, you will feel like you have to tell everyone about how much you love Him! 

Wallah. 

And it is one of the best feelings if you maintain it. May Allah grant us all such feeling, and may we return to Him in such state. Ameen.

[lolziesitsame]

Okay I'm about to yap get ready guys (nocturne season 2 mahoosive spoilers)

Fucking I'm obsessed okay so first absolutely love the drolta backstory I was already in love with her but omg after all that ? Yes pls

Then alucard god I missed him and all the fucking fight scenes with him were so awesome (well talk more about that in a minute ) and cmon the scene where he comes out of the water with his hair all wet? Kill me

Speaking of that holy shit the art and animation fucking stunning like I loved the og series style but oh my god nocturne improves on it so much ESPECIALLY with richters fire and all of the scenes with Annette in the spirit world

Speaking of Annette god my girl she's so strong when she met her mother in the spirit world Ngl guys I cried and god her kicking that snake guys ass in the lake boat scene beautiful

Now richter time god I love him so much like Ngl on the first season i wasn't the biggest fan of him but oh my god he KICKED ASS this season and don't get me started on how dorky he was with Annette that whole romance was so cute and I can't wait to see more of them in season 3 (please)

Maria' oh my god girl summoned a godamn DRAGON and like as bad as it was for her mental health I'm glad that her father is gone bc that fucker is the Bain of my existence and the whole reason this shit happened in the first place and Tera my god the stuff with her is crazy but we'll get to that in a bit (I say this a lot I have a lot to say)

Now for the guy who's totally not my favourite olrox ...him and Mizrak oh my god I felt like I was being edged the entire time with those two like one minute Mizraks crying into his arms and the next he's insulting olrox crazy times .

The scene where like olrox is being branded I was like "nah they aren't actually gonna the next scene will show that somehow he got out of it-"

Then his sad face when it was shown he DID get branded and at that point I was itching for erzsebet (hope I spelled that right ) to get beaten to a pulp

Speaking of that let's talk the last two episodes and a bit more

(I'm nearly done I promise )

So when olrox was shown Yk on the boat about to leave I was sad bc he was leaving Mizrak and I was wondering what the hell was going to happen AND THEN

When everyone was fighting in the last 2 episodes I said "if olrox comes back to help fight I will scream " and boy did I my mum thought I was being murdered

Fucking that whole ass fight scene was fantastic like I see why this took two years to make Castlevania animators you're like gods actually

Bloody erzsebet girl would NOT stay down and then she was rescued ONLY for drolta to go " nah my turn now" girl I thought sekmet wouldn't win until season 3 at that point but I was quickly proven wrong

When like Mizrak was injuring and olrox came running I think like something like shattered in me my god the love sublots in this season were fantastic

Speaking of those two I did NOT expect olrox to make Mizrak into a vampire but it was a welcome suprise

And finally before I exceed tumblrs word count the twist that tera is possessed by that old man demon dude ??? God I can't wait for season 3

Anyways if you read this whole thing thanks sorry for the yap

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I wholeheartedly agree with you that all signs point toward season 6 a soft reboot of the show. there’s this general consensus that “of course they’re going to deal with everything that happened in the season 5 finale” but i can’t help but get the terrible underlying feeling that a lot of the original plot of the show is going to be considered collateral damage to the writers rather than a plot device by the end of the season.

Fandom is expecting this to turn into an angst fanfiction… but ultimately, it’s a show for 8 year olds.

I’m also entirely disinterested in Lila being the main villain, because the “all 14 year old girls hate each other and come up with schemes to rip each other down” is now taking center stage instead of being reserved for a B-Plot. It’s just a big bucket of “cool, I don’t care.”

(Post this ask was in response to)

Never say never, but I will be genuinely shocked if we get something even remotely close to a satisfying resolution to anything that has happened in the show so far. The writers spent seasons four and five establishing a clear pattern of ignoring big plot points or resolving them in the least satisfying way possible. I don't know why that would change now. The last "satisfying" thing the show gave us was Chloe's "damnation arc." While I will always disagree with calling it that, at least we got to see her setup to fall and then fall. Everything after that has been a lackluster nothing burger.

The temp hero identity reveals at the end of season three might as well have not happened

Chat Blanc apparently has no impact on Marinette (but somehow does on Adrien?)

Alya getting her Miraculous full time led to nothing

Marinette being the guardian didn't change anything

Lila's lying disease confession meant nothing and she still had all her power

Season four could have been cut and season three could have just ended with Gabriel escaping with the miracle box since he already had it and only lost it because of a random power we'd ever seen before (naming a new guardian)

The list goes on and on. I don't expect perfection from any fictional work. Everyone has a bad book or a bad episode or even a bad season, but this goes beyond a minor blip in the road. Seasons four and five retroactively ruined many elements of the earlier seasons by making it clear that there was no master plan for those moments. Or if there was, it's an impressively bad one.

I also fully agree on the Lila point. I cannot stand her or the way her character influences the rest of the cast. Her episodes feel tailor-made to drive me up a wall and I have no interest in watching a show where that writing is the new standard. I'm fascinated that people expect her writing to somehow improve now that she's the big bad after multiple seasons where she consistently drags the show to new lows.

This is a formula show for little kids. Every plot and plan will have to be established, carried out, and resolved in 20 minutes. That makes it impossible to write her as anything more than a petty brat. Just look at how poorly Gabriel came across! He had the power of being a highly-influential adult and still ended up looking completely incompetent most of the time. How is Lila supposed to be better? My plan is still to not watch, but please let me know if the show somehow surprises us all and gets good.

[misty-memories09]

I've been thinking about S.P.E.W and it's failure alot.

Well, where she went wrong was with her approach. The idea was totally nice, no one deserves to be a slave and house elves were treated miserably. The problem came with her attitude about it, she's pretty close minded it's something I briefly talked about in this post. In it I mentioned about S.P.E.W in the second paragraph, this is the specific line I'm talking about :

She's quick at thinking that others are wrong and generally does not like to think from other perspectives.

This was her biggest mistake that lead to S.P.E.W being totally useless and unfruitful. The truth is, house elves are treated so horribly that they themselves do not recognise/realise that what is happening to the is wrong. Hermione created S.P.E.W. to promote the liberation and rights of house-elves, who are treated as enslaved workers in the wizarding world. She believed that house-elves should receive wages, pensions, and other benefits similar to those of regular workers.

What she did not do was communicate, the flow of ideas only happen when you communicate, if the house elves themselves do not realise that what's happening to them is absolutely disgusting then how do you expect them to support your cause? And how do you expect for your cause to be fruitful if the people who you're trying to work for do not promote this?

An argument used against her by other characters is generally that house elves want to be treated like this. How does she solve this? Arguing back even louder. Not trying to improve the root of the cause or just ignore the people saying this because they are objectively wrong to say this, not in a way that house elves do not like being enslaved but the fact that it is absolutely disgusting to say this.

She tries to free them against will, by knitting hats for them and tricking them into being freed instead of...you know? Trying to talk to them and also listen to their views because this idea is actually pinned down in their brains that it's in their nature to submit to their masters. If you do NOT communicate with the community your trying improve the living standards of, if said community is not educated due to a viscious cycle, you can not expect them to be on your side.

She had also been completely impatient and forced Ron, Harry and Neville — people who do not quite agree with her — to join her. Which, is just stupid. If you're making an organisation you should be recruiting people who are willing for it to be more effective. On top of that Hermione is not a good leader, she's too bossy, she does not believe that there is a ‘right’ opinion except her own, forcibly tries to recruit people, does not know how to actually work effectively about her cause.

let's be real here, change doesn't happen overnight as she expected it too, she disbanded it but that's a mistake, the fact she gave up on it is a mistake, the fact she did not try to go further with a different approach is a mistake. These kinds of things take time and her impatience and unwillingness to listen to others became the downfall of S.P.E.W all this without a greater effort to gain a deeper understanding of the issue.

Aside from this, I decided to look online to see others view on this and...

Despite this, I believe that the way Hermione Granger made and promoted SPEW goes against her character and the way she would really behave. If Hermione did her research well, she would have easily realized that the majority of house-elves are happy and that SPEW would have offended them. The way she put out the hats in the Gryffindor common room was stupid of her, and Hermione – being the cleverest of the trio – should have realized that the house-elves wouldn’t take the hats. If I was Hermione, when she was promoting this organization for protecting house-elves, I would have focused more on stopping house-elf abuse, not attempting to free them.

This is...a take, to say the least. My intentions are not to start any fights or anything but this is crediting Hermione way too much. I s'pose this is a stan, because all I ever see is stans just overlooking the character's flaw and honestly, S.P.E.W. could be seen as a way to show her flaws. Also, saying that she shouldn't have attempted to free the house elves...feels really really gross.

Yes, the person said that they would've focused more on stopping the house-elf abuse but...this is basically saying that house elves should stay enslaved, not directly but the meaning is right there. And no, the house elves living conditions would not improve if they're still enslaved because they do not have a say in anything, their masters can still abuse their powers over them AND you can never guarantee that they are actually getting treated wrong, so the last statement is objectively wrong.

I personally believe that if Hermione had been more sensetive, communicated with the community she is trying to work for and recruited people who believe in her cause, she would've reached atleast one point. It's obvious freeing the house elves would be a long drawn process, had she been more patient with everything i just stated, I believe S.P.E.W could have not been such a great failure.

Tl;dr : It was not the idea but her approach that was flawed, and it is related with her flaws as a person itself. The idea was great but the execution? Not so much.

[mormtastic]

it makes me so upset when people act like writing is inherently an inferior art form to visual art (such as drawing and painting and whatever else)

and i say this AS a visual artist who doesn’t even post his writing. it just genuinely makes me so upset that you people don’t seem to care for writers anymore

i’ve two things i’d like to talk about on this topic, one being in regard to fandom, and the other being in regard to ai. so read more for a yap idk

1. in fandom

i hate when people act like fanart is more valuable— or respectable, even— than fanfiction in fandom spaces. you people act like because SOME fanfiction is “cringe” or “not well written” it makes the entire form of fan content embarrassing to talk about / engage with / create. it’s so upsetting to me. fanfic writers, in a lot of cases, are extremely talented people. the ability to understand a piece of media and the characters in it to the point where you’re able to create new stories from it is so cool. and a lot of fanfiction writers have quite literally spent years improving their writing, and learning how to phrase things in ways that best fit the story they’re trying to tell. it’s so so awesome to me and it makes me upset when people belittle fanfiction writers because of some predisposed assumption that fanfiction is inherently cringe or childish

2. in regard to ai

i’d like to start off by saying, ALL AI IS BAD. ai has terrible effects on our environment, with the energy it consumes and the waste it produces. it’s also just bad for society in general, promoting laziness, incompetence, and the spread of misinformation

however, i’m aware that certain people hold the view that ai is “only harmful in creative spaces”

this is objectively wrong, but to entertain that view for a moment, those of you who claim to hate ai “in creative spaces” and then turn around and hop on character.ai are SO ANNOYING.

at that point, by “creative spaces,” i’d assume you were for some reason only referring to visual art. which, again, is just so demeaning. what is writing to you if not an art form??

and the fact that you’d use artificial intelligence to generate written fan content rather than, i dunno,

-writing it yourself

-finding a real person to roleplay it with/write it with

-requesting a fanfic writer to write it

-looking for fics with a similar premise that already exist

is so evil and lazy. by supporting ai roleplay sites you are INHERENTLY diminishing creative writing spaces in fandom. i hope you know that.

it’s genuinely so frustrating, too, because i’ve met people who are literally on character.ai for multiple hours of the day. do you know how many fanfiction writers you could have shown support to within that time frame? real people? real people who put love and effort into creating written content, just for you to turn around and act like an AI is more worth your time??????

oh my GOD

ok sorry rant over 🙏🤲 for now

TL;DR written art is just as valuable as visual art. and especially in fandom spaces, you people really need to realize that. it’s genuinely so frustrating, even AS a visual artist, to see yall completely disregard the talents of writers in fandom

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

Part 3 - Citroën Makes Italian Luxury

During a time when one of those pricy Italian marques we eluded to was in severe financial struggle-

Okay, okay, let's rephrase. In the late 60s, Citroën's quest to make a high-end flagship called for a more substantial engine than what they had available - and their rotary experiments ("how can our engines be bonkers too?") would. So they looked at a Maserati engine, the astonishing 4.2 V8 they were making for the equally astonishing Indy.

And I, like anyone who's seen this video, cannot judge any interest in a 4.2 Maserati V8.

But they didn't just stop at striking a deal for engine supplying, no sir. They bought the entire company. Again, looking at a Maserati engine and realizing the Maserati around it is tantalizingly cheap, highly relatable.

However, the cold water - and the actual reason so few high-end performers ever came from France: their wartime tax on big engined cars, aiming to push manufacturer focus on the smaller, cheaper cars devastated France desperately needed, was still looming over (it still does today!), making any engine bigger than 2.8L unrealistic in their homeland, where their market share was at a staggering 30%.

No worries though! They could just obtain a 2.8L V6 by asking the Italian sportscar manufacturer to lop two cylinders off an engine design that never considered such reuse in an outrageously short -in the case of their reaction, literally- six months.

Foreshadowing is a literary device that-

Entertainingly, not even the Maserati script the S(erie)M(aserati) was named after can steal the spotlight from the rest of this engine bay. I couldn't improve on the words of confoundingly deep automotive knowledge well Andrew Wilson, so here those are:

y’all ever wonder if the engineers closed the hood on the SM for the first time and looked around the room with that knowing look in their eyes like “we got away with it, I can’t believe we got away with it”

The two balls on the side, by the way, are that of the -say it with me- hydropneumatic suspension, which was now improved with anti-bodyroll stabilization - see the effect on a DS prototype taking the same corner as a normal DS at its same speed.

But that's not, by far, all the balls in store for us! That same pressurized fluid that brakes and suspensions shared was now in fact employed in automotive history's first commercialized self-centering speed sensitive power steering!

Whatever speed you're at, a pair of fingers can take care of any corner, and then the car will steers itself back straight for you. All that's left for you to do is punt the thing forward - and the SM eased that task as well.

Look at that front end -the stare being the only thing that won't slip right off of it- and at smooth, truncated rear slope (Kammback in car parlance). Like the aforementioned Indy, or the Honda Insight. You'll see the result of wind tunnel development, a revolution that would take decades to become mainstream on non-supercars.

You may not see the results, but that's what I'm here for.

This is the Speedtail, McLaren's most aerodynamically efficient hypercar ever - its website doesn't even take three sentences to bring that up. And it makes sense: the fugly front covers stabilizing wheel turbulence, the rear carbon panel bending upwards to forego a separate airbrake's panel gap...

...hell, they named the thing after its streamlined rear!

Yes, the Speedtail is a hypercar that needs different proportions, downforce, and frightening amounts of engine airflow, so this is apples to oranges. But when 2018 McLaren's apple has a drag coefficient of 0.278 and 1970 Citroën's orange a 0.26 we can still agree it must be a damn good orange.

And the above isn't even all the SM's exterior had in store - since that shiny red example above was from a right hand drive market, which didn't get its incredible directional headlights that turned, and rather drastically, with your steering.

Unfortunately, the US market they so ardently aimed for (har har) forbade both those and the glass in front of them.

Turns out you don't need tariffs to discourage foreign goods.

Not that the SM was appealing enough stateside anyway - it did not have the engine size to match its competition and was heartbreakingly expensive to boot. Not to mention, it was apparently...

...too unconventional.

And as if that wasn't enough, there were engine issues (the car with an oil can in the engine bay from factory? Say it ain't so) which customer service fumbled. But the US decided to chuck an unwarranted double whammy at an already defeated opponent. Typical.

The 1973 "safety bumpers" act, requiring bumpers protect the car from any damage up to 5mph, meant Citroën would've had to reengineer the SM and make it uglier still - all at a great investment that would've been poured down the drain given, whammy #2, the 1973 oil crisis had just hit, pulverizing the already low interest.

And let's be clear, America was the epicenter of that crisis, but it hit hard in Europe as well. So in 1974, after not 13 thousand units, the SM was no more, and the following year same could be said for Citroën's Maserati ownership. Another year and a chaotic bankruptcy later, Citroën had been merged with Peugeot, creating the PSA group.

So weep not for the BX's Group B failure. The SM's Moroccan adventures proved not even "first rally, first win" bragging rights could turn a Citroën's fortunes around anyway.

But not to worry - the SM's technologies would trickle down into many other products further down the line, chief among them its successor... but that's a topic for tomorrow.

Hi I really like this blog and since you're also a European you might actually have an answer

What's your favourite Citroën? I'm really partial to the 2010 era Picassos mainly because it was my first car.

INTRO - Citroën Makes a(nother) Cubist MPV

I'm also quite familiar with the C4 Picasso, as I've mentioned before, and its predecessor the Xsara Picasso, as I've also mentioned - the latter actually being the first car I was there for the purchase of! I remember it rather fondly, but looking back at it it was a rather cheap vehicle, with levers that snapped off, rear trays that popped out, and the overall feeling of being inside an electric toothbrush upon exceeding highway speed limits. And of course, the repeated engine failures that pushed us to update.

The C4 Picasso had its flimsy and questionable bits as well, but much less so - though, unlike its progenitor, it did once leave us stranded, the clutch living up to the C4 name. But hey, it was one time. And it had some cool features, even beyond the piéce de resistance brought up in that post. The little side pods containing the climate controls...

...the integrated perfume offered by a little capsule we definitely bothered to get refills for, as perfectly illustrated by this lovely YouTube thumbnail...

...a trunk light that detached to become a flashlight, a handbrake I once again dare readers to spot, gloveboxes atop the dashboard, and yet more still... including, perhaps most importantly, a windshield so humongous that it required a two-stage sun visor.

I am a big believer in the power of glass when it comes to improving a car's experience (see how hard I raved about a sunroof) and this really did do much more than give the car alopecia.

But it could only bring so much excitement to a cheap, anemic MPV in the famed grey I've gone over my distaste for and an interior color best described as "dirty interior".

The design of the C3 Picasso, which I seem to be completely alone in appreciating...

...was apparently inspired, along with Smeg fridges, by iPods (and judging by these pictures, the car's size seems to be somewhere between the two).

And, well, my hazy recollection of our C4 has it feeling a bit closer to an iPod bootleg - a funky, ambitious design writing a check that its build quality couldn't quite cash.

And indeed, that chapter ended when we weren't willing to fork over for the nth repair. But since the dealership offered us such a pittance to trade it in, family friends were able and willing to muster a better offer and so it lives on under their ownership. I'm happy about that - and, since we let it go before I began driving, I would be curious to give it a try. But it's no love of mine.

And not because it's too everyday a vehicle to be that - I don't need a supercar to get excited.

But, as we'll see tomorrow, it does help.

[insomnya777]

hi! how do you. describe characters so you don’t just use pronouns like 37 times in a row

(Especially when characters all use the same pronouns 😭)

omg ok wait this is one of the hardest things ever. i hate using like descriptive words like "the blonde man" "the taller one" etc because it just like icks me out for some reason so usually i just use character names often and then switch to pronouns. it can still get vague or confusing sometimes so then i try to just reorder the sentence/phrase it differently

[abrielarnold]

Not quite understanding, Knives declares with pride, “All in Haven are mine.”   Blaze chokes on his beer and coughs it down.  Knives blinks innocently as he drinks the last of his fourth beer before saying, still high on alcohol and pianos, “I am theirs as well.”

Love and Violence by @thelightningstreak continues to impress. It's so so delightful throughout and some of the recent chapters have been especially gut punchy. (Have I cried? Yes.)

[meownotgood]

I'm going back to bed the moment I post this but I've been having a super rough and stressful night... so for whatever reason I went back to read some of the kind asks I've received since I saved a lot... some since the first time I started writing... and I got so emotional and just began sobbing haha.... I can't believe how lucky I am...... I love writing so much.........

[katyspersonal]

Effect I've shown to have on people in this fandom from time to time that I am proud of is making them actually speak their opinions and put them in the TAGS! Like, you guys don't know how it feels, to see someone go from "no I am afraid to say a thing because I don't want to be harassed" to "fuck it we ball tonight *passionately disagrees with the takes of toxic popular people and tags the post with fandom and character* 😎"

Like... guys, this IS the way to go, okay? More of you should finally beat it in your head that bullies draw their power from people that are AFRAID of them! If nobody covered in fear before them, they'd be nothing but stupid clowns in their stupid echo-chambers that just block away from the world and eventually having no one left to torture eat their own! This is NOT the norm when people are scared to post their interpretations in the fandom for videogames that specifically demand interpretations, shamefully resort to lurking in some private Discord servers just to share their art and thoughts, stay away from discussing a character they like because too many toxic fans put their claws on them and so on! I don't understand why many people are okay with this kind of fandom experience? And so many of them are older than me or unlike me have enough reputation to make REAL difference in the fandom, why?? I don't remember who owns a blog for suggesting headcanons for Soulsborne games but iirc they allowed bullies to scare them into making a rule against suggesting headcanons about Gwyndolin's gender because "people are mean to each other so it's a nono now and Gwyndolin is only they/them now 🥺". Like.... congratulations, you've betrayed the very point of your blog, which is to share different headcanons, to do what? To cover in fear before jerks that didn't grasp the concept of "up to interpretation"? Why would you do that, instead of showing people who can't respect different interpretations that they are NOT welcomed?

I don't know, man.. it is normal for autists to care about fandom a bit too much, I suppose. I don't see it as something inherently inferior to The Reeeeeal Life uwu. And so, I just hate to see people just willingly lend the power to bullies? Of course they are going to continue to make the fandom unpleasant, if they see that they can own the place by just leaving disheartening comments, laughing at someone with their mindless sheep mutuals in a reblog or sending a couple of anon hates! But like, when I realized a few other people saw this is unfair and should not be encouraged, and started at least saying something too.. idk, it gives me hope. It is hard to explain but I think 20+ or even 30+ age category is more than enough to move past the dumb high school dynamic! Not in the passive "eh who cares about fandoms anyway, it is not worth it and I am too mature to care" way, but in the "nah I won't stand for Cool Kids and bullies and nor should others" way

[aria0fgold]

Okay like, I think it'd be too long to put in the tags of the last post so I'm making my own post but ngl that method helped me A LOT. It helped me unlearn So Much stuff by having that first thought, interrogating it, and replacing it. Cuz way back, the thing I'd do is have the first thought, hate myself for it, never try to have it again which isn't helpful At All. And then I reached a point in my life where it was like, have the first thought, avoid it, which is just as worse.

And then last year, when I realized A Lot of stuff bout me, I had to work on unlearning so much during then and like okay, this is like treading the territory of "you gotta be unwell a lil bit to heal" typa thing, like imagining your favourite characters Right There. But mine is like, a lil to the left. Cuz when I realized all the stuff I gotta unlearn, there wasn't any character from a media that can count for that just yet (I got hyperfixated on Cain months after the realization but if I've known him earlier he would've ngl took on the patron saint role in my life of unlearning unhealthy stuff)

So what I did was... used an OC. It wasn't Alec and Ray surprisingly enough cuz in my head they have their own lives and it was a lil harder for me to put them in that role. And it just so happens I have One OC that is specifically made with an awareness that makes it seem like he's a self-insert but not really. It's Alerik. The designated creator of the universe that is practically aware of the truth behind that universe and his own existence so it was easier to pull him. And it worked.

Cuz whenever I do the have first thought, interrogate it, replace it thing, I can't get it right in a way that when I think of interrogating Myself, my brain's immediate reaction is always "hatred" so then when I got Alerik to do the interrogation, my brain couldn't react immediately cuz it isn't just Me, there's Alerik now and he's both me and not at the same time, he's a piece of me. That I love. So my brain couldn't react with "hatred" towards a character I made with love, it worked. I could interrogate myself, figure out "why" I reacted the way I did, "why" I had that first thought, and what I could do moving forward without hating myself or avoiding anything. And I love it. Cuz after a year of just that, slow and steady, I managed to unlearn most of the bad habits and get rid of the self-hate. I love myself now! And the world! And everything just seems so much beautiful this way.

[icewindandboringhorror]

me everytime I am preparing a meal with multiple elements I have to balance so they all finish cooking at the same time: Wow this is just like the 2009 hit Nintendo Wii game 'Food Network: Cook Or Be Cooked'

[isekyaaa]

To be honest, I think the thing about wanting to be liked by people, but not getting the validation you'd like about being a likeable person is like... people assume that people should like them for who they are. And when faced with this dilemma is that most people go in two opposite directions. They either stick adherently to the person they believe themselves to be or they change themselves into what they assume is the person most people would like.

The truth of the matter is that neither of these routes will get people to the place they want to go. When you stick to the first route, you become inherently self-absorbed. You show no consideration to the feelings and thoughts the people around you, what they are and are not comfortable with, etc. If you go the second route, you essentially become a robot following a preprogrammed path and responding in a preprogrammed way. Nothing you say is truly you.

I'm not going to say there is a magic formula to being the most likable, but the more you stray to the edges, the more conventionally unlikable you'll become.

I think the most difficult thing here for people is that the key to finding a good middle ground is confidence. It is only through confidence in yourself as a person that'll help you to stick to what your beliefs when you differ from others, but also being able to relax such convictions when there's no need for them.

Taking a chance by taking a step in the opposite direction of where you currently stand is scary. But you will never get anywhere if you stand still. All journeys start with the first step, as they say. But there's no rush. Everyone has the right to go about it slowly. But it will be worth it.