#jia bennett

[violetren]

Aether Chapter 27

This is the official start of my "Give Chance Rights, and also all their stuff back!" 2k23 campaign.

Of fucking course the government would lock away all their assets under the context of "we don't know if they count as a person" but that doesn't mean I'm not furious about it.

I am curious if Focus made the holo projector based on old knowledge, or if she just had one lying around as a remnant of her world/her travels.

Emilia might give her wife shit but she broke the mood perfectly after the "time at a different scale leaves us impossibly lonely" convo. It's nice for Maggie and Chance that they have each other to discuss that feeling with even if its not exactly a one to one comparison, they are the closest each other has got.

Also another instance of Varsha being a sweetheart.

Eurion is a total softie when she wants to be huh? Ordering ahead for Varsha and Maggie because she knows Varsha's metabolism, and because Maggie has been working hard and jumping on board with Jia Li's suggestion of teaching some special dragon meditation techniques the second the topic came up.

If Maggie and Varsha ever do dip a toe into polyamory they'd be far better off with Eurion than Sierra. And Eurion has been through a lot surrounded by all these hot unavailable lesbians, she deserves a little extra love.

I am ecstatic that Chance has jumped aboard Focus's peanut butter obsession train.

Oh that's what Bitch Boy Ragusa needs. Ties to a shady international cabal of criminals. He wasn't annoying enough already. Follow up book where Danny and Ayanda kick his ass into obscurity when? (mostly joking)

Also I fucking called the Unitarium funding Garrett theory! Nomi will be PISSED.

"How the fuck do you miss a whole ass fucking moon?" made me laugh because I can imagine the distress threaded into the annoyance at the levels of incompetency being shown.

I can't believe we got Chance, Stupidhead and Maggie in a room together and we didn't even get to see Chance snark at Stupidhead for how she's been treating Maggie the past couple of days because plot was happening.

Don't get me wrong, it's good plot. It's a fantastically comic-booky superhero plot and exactly the kind of story I expect and want to be happening as a vehicle to carry my messy lesbian romances. I just really want to see Sierra go from grumpy to speechless to defensively furious while Maggie puts her face in her hands and internally debates just teleporting to the other side of the planet instead of peace keeping, after Chance calls her Stupidhead to her face.

Using Emilia's origin story to explain what the potential threat was in a way that makes it clear and yet limits what we know another characters limited knowledge and perspective was a very cool way of going about this section. It expands on what we know of Airheart, it gives us an idea of the potential threat levels, and it just helps unfold more world building all in one go. Just a very clever use available writing resources, I like it.

I was so ready to just start laughing at the idea of later down the line Maggie purposefully trying to arrive to brunch after all the dragons so she doesn't accidentally get thrown into the aether when the assorted dragons roar their way in, and circumstances just never quite letting it work out. Just every other brunch Maggie's got some french toast, or a mimosa half way to her mouth and "Roar"*pop*"dammit"

But then she had some kind of revelation and now I have to balance the fact that I need to be up early to run the shop with my desire to read the next chapter rn immediately.

[aliceinoakdale]

✧♡✧ Jia Bedroom ✧♡✧

Wallpaper - Charlypancake Floor - Syboulette Switch & Sockets - Pierisim Lights - House of Harlix Lamps - Arnie Teddy bear nighlight - Milkemie Bear Rug - Sim4life Teddy Wall decor - Aira Frames - The Clutter Cat Art Frames - Hydra Tapestries - Simrinaxo Ghibli poster - Swagsimsfairy Planner - Aira Bear bag - Sims4life Bedside table - Pierisim Bedframe - Myshunosun Bedding - Peacemaker Rilakkuma pillow - Bknysimz Koala pillow - PeacerMaker Teddy bear - Milkemie Rilakkuma plushies -bknysimz Rilakuma Cherry - Bknysimz Wardrobe - Myshunosun Bookcase - Myshunosun Manga Set - Simmila Dresser - Syboulette Desk - Myshunosun Desk Chair - Cowbuild Backpack - Vixonspixels Pens - Bknysimz Pens Holder - Aira Pencil case - Around the Sims Plant - Awingllama Tissue Box - Syboulette Teddy food - Mel Bennett Tumblr cup - Ddaengsims Notebook - Around the sims School supplies - Mel Bennett Purse - Around the sims Cup - Aira Box - JoyceisFox Cat Chair - Cowbuild Cain luggage - Felixandre

CC Creators :

@charlypancakes / @syboubou / @pierisim / @Houseofharlix / @Arnie / @milkemie / @sims4life / @aira-cc / @thecluttercat / @hydrangeachainsaw / @simrinaxo / @swagsimsfairy / @myshunosun / @peacemaker-ic / @bknysimz / @simmila / @Cowbuild / @awingedllama/ @vixonspixels / @aroundthesims / @Melbennet / @felixandresims / @ddaengsims /

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Deleted/altered Monsterverse scenes in Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett

Kong: Skull Island

There's a longer opening sequence, with Marlowe discovering Gunpei's camp instead of them both crashing at around the same time.

Conrad stows away on the expedition instead of being hired as a tracker

Weaver and Conrad meet at a Philadelphia train station (no clue what the context was).

Kong swings around a helicopter while the gunner is still firing and the bullets hit another helicopter, which I think is the closest he's ever come to using a gun.

Packard's group watches Kong fight the Mire Squid instead of Chapman.

Very different take on the Iwi village, with smaller lost ships/planes incorporated into the architecture.

The big one: Conrad flashes back to an encounter with King Ghidorah in Vietnam. The three-headed monster's silhouette is basically just the Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah version, but he has at least five prehensile tails he uses to snatch up soldiers.

Conrad and Weaver are tied to a tree during the napalm plot against Kong. Another character sets them free and they go wild on a few soldiers, with Weaver hitting one on the head with a rock. The Skull Devil emerges in a separate scene.

Kong uses a plane wing as a weapon in the final fight.

The Skull Devil has a grappling tail similar to that of Otachi in Pacific Rim.

The Iwi fight Conrad's group (I think) as the Gray Fox is lowered down a waterfall with a pulley system and something ambushes Kong in the background. This one was especially hard to make any sense of without dialogue.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Jonah spies on Emma and Madison as they drive to Mothra's temple.

The video montage in the Senate hearing is done via hologram. A mushroom cloud is displayed while Serizawa argues with a senator.

Mark bows to a wolf that approaches him in a nice bit of foreshadowing.

Mothra arrives in Boston alongside Godzilla instead of turning up later.

Godzilla vs. Kong

In an alternate opening, the Iwi retell the history between Godzilla and Kong's species using highly-elaborate puppets. There's a horned character loaded with weapons who briefly traps Godzilla in a cage and transforms into a Rodan-like figure. An ancient mecha?

Text mentions that "the Pensacola/Florida Godzilla attack scene was going to be much longer, involving a mall stampede."

A massive explosion takes place on Skull Island (I believe coming from the Vile Vortex there).

Jia is first shown signing with Kong just before the fleet engages Godzilla.

In true kaiju kid fashion, Jia messes with the controls of the ship to set Kong loose.

Nathan discovers his brother's crash site in the Hollow Earth and gets into a fight with several guards. This scene was definitely filmed.

Bernie was at one point a woman (drawn with ultra-short hair, although in general the human characters in these storyboards bear little resemblance to their screen counterparts).

Kong finds a skeleton of another member of his species sitting on the throne. He breaks off the skull, stares at it, and throws it aside.

Ground troops engage Godzilla and Kong during their Hong Kong fight; neither even notices.

Mechagodzilla coils into a semi-sphere to deflect Godzilla's atomic breath.

Echoing his fight with Kong, Godzilla tries to outrun Mechagodzilla's Proton Scream through the streets of Hong Kong.

[leap-loves]

Twelve Days of Self-Shipmas - Day 2 - Going on a Date - For You, Always

Here's day 2 of Self-Shipmas, as found in this post! Next up is one of my ships for Genshin, For You, Always! Feat. Jean and Jia!

“Come oooon Jean, don’t tell me all that desk work has you out of shape!” Jia called playfully, only a short ways ahead of the Acting Grand Master.  

Jean chuckled out a sigh, shaking her head. “While I may not be as active as I would like to be, I’m not that out of practice. I’m just trying to enjoy the scenery,” she explained as she finally caught up, “Not that I imagine much of anyone could keep up with your boundless energy, save perhaps Klee…”  

Jia snickered and wrapped her arm through Jean’s to better match her pace as they meandered up Starsnatch Cliff, humming thoughtfully. “Bennett manages to keep up with me pretty well too, but point taken.”  

Silence settled between them as they continued their walk, Jean unable to help sparing a glance over towards the coliseum beside them, biting back a sigh when seeing the Ruin Guard still up and moving. She swears, the Abyss must keep repairing it…  

She wasn’t allowed to dwell on it though, Jia gently tugging her arm to encourage her to keep walking. “We’re almost there, don’t go getting distracted on me yet,” she teased, even as she followed Jean’s gaze to the Ruin Guard. “I’ll make sure we take care of it again soon. Relax for now. It doesn’t wander away from there anyways.”  

“Just please... be careful when you do...” Jean pleaded, looking at her friend worriedly. While she doesn’t doubt her skills in the slightest, the last thing that she wants is for Jia to get hurt trying to give her some temporary peace of mind...  

Jia hummed and gave Jean’s arm a careful squeeze, still guiding her further up the hill. “I’ll be careful, promise. I want to set a good example for the younger adventurers, after all,” she reassured easily, flashing her a grin.  

Figuring that that was the best Jean could hope for, she relented with a small laugh.  

Reaching the top of the cliff, Jia took to plopping down near the edge of the cliff, but just far enough away that they weren’t at any risk of falling, even if a strong breeze passed by. Jean followed her lead easily, though was still a little more careful about sitting down. Once she was satisfied that they were safely settled, she took the chance to look out over Mondstadt.  

It was still early evening, but it was already starting to get darker. The sky was a beautiful purple, but Mondstadt was still bathed in a soft golden glow, accenting the large statue of Barbatos in front of the Cathedral.  

A few lamps on the lower levels of the city were already being lit and the streets began to settle as everyone either headed home to be with loved ones or went to the taverns to enjoy the company of their friends.  

This view reminded Jean of what she works so hard for.  

Jia hummed and leaned against Jean’s arm for a moment, offering a cup of steaming hot tea. “It’s nice coming up here and looking down at the city. Seeing what you work so hard for.” For once, Jia’s voice wasn’t as loud or energetic as usual.  

It was quieter.  

Softer.  

Full of a gentleness that Jean knows only a very select few people get to hear from her, and warmed her heart to know that Jia values her so much.  

Jia kept her eyes focused on the city before them, her eyes half lidded in content. “Not many people tend to come up this way either, so it’s a good place to hide out when you need to get your thoughts together.”  

Taking a sip of her tea as she listened, enjoying the warmth of both the drink and her company, Jean could see why Jia wanted to bring her here. “It really is nice up here,” she agreed, keeping her voice just as quiet as though worried about shattering the atmosphere.  

She did find herself going slightly cross eyed when Jia shifted and held something with a sweet scent to her face. Her energy had returned in the form of a playful grin, her nose scrunched up slightly in her excitement.  

If it were anyone else, Jean would’ve been inclined to lean away some to better see what exactly Was being held to her face. However, she knows that Jia wouldn’t offer her something she wouldn’t like. So she leaned forward the slightest bit to take a careful bite from the spoon, a hand coming up to catch anything that may fall.  

It was comfortingly warm, without having any risk of burning her tongue, and it was sweet. Not overwhelmingly so, but enough to make Jean perk up.  

Turning her attention to Jia again, she bit back a laugh when seeing her with a spoon of her own in her mouth, excitedly watching Jean’s reaction.  

“This tastes really good,” Jean praised once her mouth wasn’t full anymore, “What is it?”  

Jia made sure to swallow her own serving and remove the spoon from her mouth before finally answering, offering the spoon she’d used to feed Jean to her. “It’s rice pudding! Not quite ‘traditional’, since I added more sugar than Baba usually does, but I figure it’s a nice dessert on a chilly evening.”  

Jean hummed approvingly as she took the spoon, inspecting the bowl that Jia had stored the pudding in. It was hardly anything intricate, not like what you’d expect of Liyue, but it still had a simple geometric pattern painted around the rim of the ceramic bowl. Carefully dipping her spoon into the bowl to get more of the pudding, Jean turned her attention towards the city once more.  

After enjoying the silence for a while, Jean finally spoke again. “Thank you for bringing me here, Jia.”  

Offering a small hum in acknowledgement, it took a few beats for Jia to respond. “I wanted to make sure you got the chance to take a break from everything, away from where everyone can see. But I knew you wouldn’t want to go far, so I figured this would work. A place where you can still see the City in case anything happens, but you’re far enough away it’s unlikely for anyone to easily find you.”  

Sometimes, somehow, Jean finds herself forgetting just how much thought Jia puts into everything. As energetic and all over the place as she tends to be, her thoughts still keep up with her body, and her kindness knows no bounds.  

“Thank you,” Jean insisted, taking to leaning against Jia this time, as the two of them shared the rice pudding and looked out over the city.  

[wawamouse]

Oz Rewatch 3: S4E14: Orpheus Descending

Storylines

Lockdown ends with Redding and Morales agreeing to a truce, but tensions remain; Supreme Allah makes a deal with the Latinos to get Hill to kill Redding, who has disavowed Hill

Redding and (the Colonel guy) bond over ’Nam.

Hughes continues to antagonise the Unit J peeps; Basil finally meets with his wife; Hughes shanks Basil and is placed in Solitary

Sister Pete agrees to help Beecher get in contact with Keller; Beecher meets with his lawyer; Keller tells Beecher to not call

Schillinger meets with Carrie and Jewel; a former pimp inmate (named Curtis Bennett) reveals to Schillinger that Hank pimped Carrie out a couple of times and Cloutier urges Schillinger to be patient while the situation is figured out

Said tells Glynn that Robson hired Tidd to kill him and then sent Jenkins to kill Tidd; Said asks Cloutier to convince Jenkins to confess, but the Aryans threaten Jenkins and force him to commit suicide; Cloutier’s meddling causes Schillinger to pull away

McManus challenge Vahue to 2v2 and gets Glynn’s approval for one exhibition match; McManus is partnered with Dave Bass and Vahue is partnered with Busmalis; Vahue and Busmalis win after Busmalis makes a half court shot

Deyell meets with the donor recipient for his corneas; Deyell leaves to go to the hospital to meet his heart recipient and dies in his escape attempt

Padraig Connolly (Padraic Connelly in the subs?) arrives at Em City; Kirk and Burns attack him

Suzanne visits Ryan again; Suzanne reveals that Cyril is his half-brother

Jia Kenmin gets knocked into a coma by Cyril and McManus once again pushed to have Cyril moved to Connelly Institute

Arif tells Said about seeing O’Reily kill Patrick Keenan; O’Reily asks Gloria to help him and Cyril escape

Sister: What would you be doing, sitting on your bunk or staring out your window? Me: During a lockdown? Sister: Yeah, look at all them staring out the window. I wouldn’t be standing up for this crap. Me: (inhales whiteclaw)

Sister: Does he have another pair of legs? Me: His arms. Sister: But that’s incorrect. That’s like saying your dog has a hand. Me: So what do you think? He’s like a secret centaur or something? Sister: Could be.

Me: Wow, they cuff their legs, too? Sister: Yeah… Very sexual. Me: But they didn’t cuff Miguel’s legs. Sister: Yeah, well that wasn’t sexual. And he’s already sexual. Plus this other guy apparently has all kinds of shanks. Shanking everyone. He probably has a shank in his foot. You don’t know.

Sister: Well at least with this, she gets one point… (laughing) But she has negative one thousand points right now, so it doesn’t matter.

Sister: This place is pretty nice… They got their own machine. They even have their own library. Me: yeah, but they’re not allowed to go anywhere. They even have their food brought to them. Sister: Oh yeah, you’d have to worry about the spit in the food. Me: But it’d suck if you hated the people you were stuck with. Sister: That’s okay, I’ll take you with me :) Me: To prison?!

Sister: I keep thinking that he should be evil.

Sister: Why… why is this a plot line? Me: This won’t be the last time you have to ask this.

Sister: Do the show creators think they’re playing some medieval games? Always putting on jousting matches? What’s next, hockey? They gonna put on a swimming match next? (As McManus) It’s be fine! We’ll just do it in the showers.

Sister: Listen to the balding voice of reason. So embarrassing. It’s like he’s going through a mid-life crisis because he just got stabbed again.

Sister (a big Greek mythology nerd): That is NOT how it went… Of COURSE they were sentimental… They let him go down to Hades BECAUSE they felt so bad about how sad he was and how his songs kept making everyone else so sad. And then the women all killed him because he was still moping afterward and turned away from them. Like Ovid said Bacchus turned the women who killed him into trees or whatever because he was so mad they killed his bard… Everyone was sad for him. This is fake news. (after the episode) Sister, returning to my room with a giant Greek mythology book: See, the D’Aulaires version says that the muses picked up his body off the isle of Lesbos and held a proper funeral for him because they were so sad. I think Ovid thought that Orpheus should’ve commit suicide to be with Eurydice, but that’s because he always had to tell life lessons in his versions and his whole thing was “you can’t cheat the gods”. (later, while I’m screencapping) Sister: Also, what was even the theme of this episode? I want to figure out a better story they should have used. Me (reading Hill’s opening statement): “Back in the old Greek times there lived a man named Orpheus. Loved his wife, took it easy on the ouzo, played a mean guitar. Upstanding guy. So what did the almighty gods do? They fucked with him. Made his life Hades. Why? 'Cause that's what those in power do to those of us with none.” …So I guess they were trying to do a thing about how those with power fuck the little guy over. I guess they should’ve done the Book of Job or whatever. Orpheus is like the opposite of that… They gave him every chance. Sister: Yeah, they loved that guy. They were so sad. They could done that, uh… That guy they sent out onto the water forever… Odysseus. Or Sisyphus. Me: I’m surprised they DIDN’T use Sisyphus. Sister: Or they could have done Hercules, he got pretty fucked over by everyone. Me: ��So, Orpheus wife's strolling along, gets bitten by a snake and dies. Orpheus freaks out and heads down into the Underworld to demand that his lady be returned and some Goddess says: "Okay, on one condition. If you look at her before you get back to Earth, she'll disappear." With, like, ten feet left to go, motherfucker turns around and wifey's sent right back to Hell. Orpheus should've known better; you don't fuck with the Gods.” Sister: Sisyphus would’ve worked better. Me: Yeah, but I think they wanted to use Orpheus because of the love angle. Because it was about loving his family. He lost his wife. Sister: …They weren’t married. That’s like the thing. Some tales said the reason he was so sad was BECAUSE there were going to get married that same day. Me: “Myths are supposed to teach us something, but what's the life lesson in this sad tale of Orpheus? No good deed goes unpunished? Fuck that, ain't no such thing as a good deed. Love conquers all? Never has, never will. Maybe the moral of the story is that those in power are just as fucked up as those who ain't and the worst thing a body can do is give up his or her own power to some buttheads on Mount Olympus 'cause if they're so fuckin' powerful, how'd they let us get away with all this shit in the first place. Answer me that.” …I think maybe there was a misunderstanding about the myth of Orpheus. Like they got some points right, but it's like a wikipedia understanding. Sister: What good deed? Oh, they could’ve done Asteria and Leto, too. Honestly, they could’ve picked any women out of Greek mythology and it would’ve fit better…. Io, got turned into a frickin’ cow just to hide and she was like “can you turn me back?” and they were like “no”. And then Hera kept bothering her, too. Sent a gadfly down just to bother her and chase her around. Just look up “lovers of Zeus” and you’d have a better “fucked over by the gods” story. Typical. They had to frame it around a man. (continues giving Stories It Could've Been & Rambles about Greek gods and myths for another like 15 minutes)

Me: Honestly…. Why would they think that? He’s never shown any real sign in the show of being insane or having no tether to reality...

Stray Thoughts

McManus states he was in the hospital 10 days

Em City controls:

Sister Pete indicates that it is February

The TV channel they always watch is WYAT according to the anchor

Hospital sign:

[longclawrp]

most wanted female fcs?

Omg I have so many!! Okay, of the top of my head, I would love to see Sarah Gadon, Adria Arjona, Simone Ashley, Charitra Chandran, Sonam Kapoor, Kriti Sanon, Disha Patani, Jessica Henwick, Melisa Asli Pamuk, Fahriye Evcen, Neslihan Atagül, Beren Saat, Abbie Hern, Adjoa Andoh, Halle Bailey, Lashana Lynch, Amanda Seyfried, Katie Mcgrath, Angel Coulby, Alessandra Mastronardi, Emily Bader, Anya Taylor-Joy, Aurora Rufino, Nicola Coughlan, Phoebe Dynevor, Hannah Dodd, Celina Sinden, Daisy Ridley, Eve Best, Nathalie Emmanuel, Go Minsi, Han So-Hee, Jia Nai Na, Michelle Yeoh, Ming-Na Wen, Jodie Comer, Li Yitong, Morfydd Clark, Sai Bennett, Sujaya Dasgupta, Sibylla Deen, Tamsin Egerton!

[etaliia]

i haven't been on here for a few months but wtf happened to my dash.

anyway updated muse list.

adira ( tts ) anxelin ( descendants, child of my own rapunzel ) aqua ( kh ) arlan ( honkai ) arlecchino ( genshin ) kamisato ayaka ( genshin ) barret wallace ( reeeeeeeeeeeeee ) bennett ( genshin ) chongyun ( genshin ) claudia auditore ( ac:2, brotherhood and revelations ) dabi ( bnha ) denki kaminari ( bnha ) elyon escanor / brown ( w.i.t.c.h. ) fréminet ( genshin ) ga ming ( genshin ) gepard ( honkai ) guinaifen ( genshin ) jane darling ( peter pan 2 ) johann ( vnc ) juugo ( naruto ) katsuki bakugo ( bnha ) luka ( honkai ) lyney ( genshin ) lynx ( honkai ) mika ( genshin ) orochimaru ( naruto ) rashel jordan ( night world ) roland ( vnc ) rosaria ( genshin ) sakura haruno ( naruto ) sethos ( genshin ) shion sonozaki ( higurashi ) suigetsu hozuki ( naruto ) tessa gray ( the infernal devices ) thalia grace ( pjo ) tokoyami fumikage ( bnha ) varian ( tts ) veronica de sade ( vnc ) wriothesley ( genshin ) yang xiao long ( rwby ) yanqing ( honkai ) yukong ( honkai ) yun jin ( genshin ) zarina ( pirate fairy ) oc children with @xheartpages hiroyuki, asuka ( hawks and rapunzel ) jia ( shaw and rapunzel ) érasme ( vanitas and rapunzel ) victoria auditore ( childe and claudia )

[heavenlyyshecomes]

misc reads pt. 11

The legend of the music tree, ellen rupell shell, smithsonian magazine

The depths she'll reach: freediving's alenka artnik, xan rice, longlead

Sufi Islam thrives humorous, eloquent and poetic as ever, nile green, aeon

Mars is a hellhole, sharon stirone, the atlantic

Obliterating the natural world, nathan j. robinson, current affairs

What lies beneath, julian sancton, vanityfair

A winelike sea, caroline alexander, lapham's quaterly

The centuries-long quest for the scent of god, john last, noema magazine

Hayao miyazaki and the art of being a woman, gabrielle bellot, the atlantic

The death of the ‘chic’ writer, barry pierce dazed digital

All about eve—and then some, lili anoulik, vanityfair

The archive of a vanishing world, grace linden, noema magazine

In the land of living skies, suzannah showler, harper's magazine

Daydreams and fragments: on how we retrieve images from the past, maël renouard, lithub

The haunted city, azania imtiaz khatri-patel, aeon

Princes of infinite space, kyle paoletta, baffler

Humans are overzealous whale morticians, ben goldfarb, nautilus

immortal by default, jared farmer, lapham's quaterly

Short fic:

Morning, Noon & Night, claire louise-bennett, the white review

Office hours, ling ma, the atlantic

Nights at the hotel splendido, sam munson, granta

shanghai murmur, te-ping chen, the atlantic

The hydraulic emperor, arkady martine, uncanny magazine

Goodnight, melancholy, xia jia, clarkesworld magazine

[violetren]

Aether Chapter 26

My "I'm gonna be annoyed at Sierra" senses are tingling.

At least Maggie got a cute peck on the cheek from Varsha first.

Revenge? REVENGE!? EXCUSE THE FUCK OUT OF YOU!? THE AUDACITY! THE ENTITLEMENT!

I have a mighty need for Maggie to give Chance the nod to get Eurion to punch Stupidhead.

Fucking revenge... I was right. I am annoyed at Sierra.

At this point I could probably write a fucking essay on why it's not just reasonable but healthy and better in just about every fucking way that Maggie chose Varsha over Sierra. It's probably get to like paragraph 8 before it even touched on the fact that Sierra is in a highly unstable trauma induced transitory period of her life and should not be trying to date anyone. Fucking hell. I think at this point I'm closer to thinking of her the way Maggie would think of Garrett (not wanting to be too mean because she's someone Maggie loves, and therefore giving her more credit that she's fucking due).

"She lets me be selfish" is a very interesting way of "she reminds me I have choices and encourages me to do what will be right for me and doesn't try to push me into making decisions that would suit her" but you know what basically everyone who ever puts on a supersuit and means it has this kind of thinking when it comes to letting themselves be happy so I can't even pretend to be surprised, or exasperated over it.

I live in desperate hope that Maggie will be the straw that breaks the camels back and gets Ashley to just fucking talk to Hannah already.

I kinda wonder if Maggie actually needed the heads up about Chance's pronouns. I mean... I guess a big part of Digilife is being someone else, but Chance could put their pronouns there or let slip to Maggie as they got closer online. Idk. Still nice of Ashley to give the heads up even though they're technically already friends since this is kind of a paradigm shit for them.

I'm gonna blame this on playing Synth Riders with some suprise custom songs earlier this evening, but probable hologram Change was just spotted talking to Fractal and a little gremlin voice went "oh Hatsune Miku style" followed by another thought slipping in like a wizened elder gremlin smacking the other with a stick to go "Like the Voyager EMH you heathen." Wild experience since both are pretty well valid comparisons but the important part is actually CHANCE CAN VISUALLY MANIFEST INDEPENDENTLY OF NAOMI AND TALK WITHOUT EVERYONE FEELING LIKE THEY ARE ON A PHONE CALL!

I love this for them.

It is of great comfort to me that Jia Li is consistently a flirty shit stirrer and genuinely hilarious that Eurion stands there grumping over the fact that Jia Li gets away with it when she doesn't.

There is so much good banter (and general dialogue and a decent bit of description) here that is doing a fantastic job of drawing relationship lines, (re)establishing character personalities, and showing how these people fit in a space that I cannot possibly gush over all of it and get to bed in time to be up for work in the morning. But I did want to say it was all awesome and I was delighted to finally see Maggie meet not just Chance, but Naomi, Anika, Jia Li, and Emilia. And she even managed to be so distracted as to not immediately have a gay meltdown over Emilia! Good on her!

Maggie is about to have a VERY full schedule, but she's going to have EXCELLENT company. Also the potential variety of "hot for teacher" jokes that I might get to make (if in world characters don't make them first) as she trains with Varsha is great.

It's very secondary to wanting to see Maggie become a competent ass kicker and kiss Varsha some more, but I think it would be cool af to see Hannah stop by for some of these training sessions and just be cool with Chance and Naomi (both much more open and out about their trans/nontraditional gender status) and just blow that "what if she isn't accepting" fear of Ashley's right out of the water in text.

[ninfanaiade]

I was tagged by @thatidomagirl to share some of the books that I have on my reading list. 

- Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

- Trick Mirror by Jia Talentino

-  Vulnerable AF by Tarriona Ball

- A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow 

- Threadneedle by Cari Thomas

- A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers 

- Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett 

- Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

-  Cadáver Exquisito (english title, Tender Is The Flesh) by Agustina Bazterrica

I tag: @herfleur @neshatriumphs @theblackpearlofwakanda @that-green-woman @intheindigo @ladymazzy @ai-yo 

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 36, 2021

Synaptic plasticity as Bayesian inference. Aitchison, L., Jegminat, J., Menendez, J. A., Pfister, J.-P., Pouget, A., & Latham, P. E. (2021). Nature Neuroscience, 24(4), 565–571.

Reconstructing feedback representations in the ventral visual pathway with a generative adversarial autoencoder. Al-Tahan, H., & Mohsenzadeh, Y. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1008775.

Glial amplification of synaptic signals. Beppu, K., Kubo, N., & Matsui, K. (2021). Journal of Physiology, 599(7), 2085–2102.

Increasing the statistical power of animal experiments with historical control data. Bonapersona, V., Hoijtink, H., Sarabdjitsingh, R. A., & Joëls, M. (2021). Nature Neuroscience, 24(4), 470–477.

Assessing criticality in pre-seizure single-neuron activity of human epileptic cortex. Hagemann, A., Wilting, J., Samimizad, B., Mormann, F., & Priesemann, V. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1008773.

Learning receptive field properties of complex cells in V1. Lian, Y., Almasi, A., Grayden, D. B., Kameneva, T., Burkitt, A. N., & Meffin, H. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1007957.

Learning compositional sequences with multiple time scales through a hierarchical network of spiking neurons. Maes, A., Barahona, M., & Clopath, C. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1008866.

Rational inattention and tonic dopamine. Mikhael, J. G., Lai, L., & Gershman, S. J. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1008659.

Force variability is mostly not motor noise: Theoretical implications for motor control. Nagamori, A., Laine, C. M., Loeb, G. E., & Valero-Cuevas, F. J. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1008707.

Excitatory-inhibitory tone shapes decision strategies in a hierarchical neural network model of multi-attribute choice. Pettine, W. W., Louie, K., Murray, J. D., & Wang, X.-J. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1008791.

Linear-nonlinear cascades capture synaptic dynamics. Rossbroich, J., Trotter, D., Beninger, J., Tóth, K., & Naud, R. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1008013.

Rare rewards amplify dopamine responses. Rothenhoefer, K. M., Hong, T., Alikaya, A., & Stauffer, W. R. (2021). Nature Neuroscience, 24(4), 465–469.

Optimal prediction with resource constraints using the information bottleneck. Sachdeva, V., Mora, T., Walczak, A. M., & Palmer, S. E. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1008743.

Temporal dynamics of the cerebello‐cortical convergence in ventro‐lateral motor thalamus. Schäfer, C. B., Gao, Z., De Zeeuw, C. I., & Hoebeek, F. E. (2021). Journal of Physiology, 599(7), 2055–2073.

Signal-to-signal neural networks for improved spike estimation from calcium imaging data. Sebastian, J., Sur, M., Murthy, H. A., & Magimai-Doss, M. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1007921.

Survey of spiking in the mouse visual system reveals functional hierarchy. Siegle, J. H., Jia, X., Durand, S., Gale, S., Bennett, C., Graddis, N., … Koch, C. (2021). Nature, 592(7852), 86–92.

Neural modelling of the encoding of fast frequency modulation. Tabas, A., & von Kriegstein, K. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1008787.

Addition of new neurons and the emergence of a local neural circuit for precise timing. Tupikov, Y., & Jin, D. Z. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1008824.

An elasticity-curvature illusion decouples cutaneous and proprioceptive cues in active exploration of soft objects. Xu, C., Wang, Y., & Gerling, G. J. (2021). PLOS Computational Biology, 17(3), e1008848.

Adaptive Memory Distortions Are Predicted by Feature Representations in Parietal Cortex. Zhao, Y., Chanales, A. J. H., & Kuhl, B. A. (2021). Journal of Neuroscience, 41(13), 3014–3024.

[god-of-queefs]

As It Was (TVD/Twilight) Ch - 1

WORD COUNT: 630

__________________________________________________

The world went quiet when Jia (JEE-YA) Kwan was born, or at least that's how it seemed to her father Jin (CHEEN). She had a little tuft of black hair on her head, and later after she opened her eyes he discovered that he had her mother's earthly green eyes. Sadly he couldn't celebrate her birth for very long. Her body had been weak after the birth, much too weak. So a week after Jia was born, her mother Madison passed away in her sleep. 

Jia Kwan spent the first 17 years of her life in her hometown of Mystic Falls, right by her best friend Bonnie Bennett's side. The two girls were like two peas in a pod, and they did everything together. It's not like Jia hated Caroline or Elena, Bonnie's other two friends, but she just never clicked with them. 

Bonnie and Jia only got closer when she had to move in with Bonnie's family after her father got into a fatal collision with another car on his way home from work one evening. The girls had been 13 at the time.

This brings us to the present: Bonnie and Jia are on their way to pick up Elena Gilbert for the first day of their junior year of high school. Jia and Elena didn't exactly get closer over the summer, even when both of Elena's parents died, but she was very sympathetic to the other girl. 

"Bonnie, she'll be fine. We don't want to overwhelm her when we pick her up, who knows how many people have been treating her like a glass doll ever since that night. When she gets in the car we'll treat her how we treated her before the accident." Jia instructed, knowing how awful the pity people treated you with after your parent/s died could truly be.

On their way to school after picking Elena up they almost crashed, which caused both Elena and Jia to seize up a little before they forced themselves to be okay. Jia walked into school first, not wanting to be late to AP English on her first day. 

During lunch she ate alone, preferring to do so. It would always quickly get unbearable to eat with Bonnie and her friends, mostly since Bonnie was averagely popular and friends with two very popular girls. Bonnie's whole section was always packed with girls (and guys) who Jia described as tedious and vapid attention-seekers. 

Despite being the closest friend either girl had, the two were complete polar opposites (and not just in personality). Bonnie is a five-foot-two black girl with long wavy hair, which is such a dark brown that it is nearly black, and earthy brown eyes. Jia on the other hand is a five-foot-six Chinese girl with naturally black straight hair (which she dyed green a week prior to the first day, and had gotten cut into a bob with straight bangs), pale skin with a rosy tint around the apples of her cheeks and the tips of her fingers, and moss-green eyes. 

Bonnie's personality is also much more . . . Palatable than Jia's. Bonnie is self-sacrificing, kind, empathetic, extremely compassionate, and friendly girl. Jia herself though . . . well she is kind (to Bonnie), more sympathetic rather than empathetic, rarely compassionate, and mostly self serving. 

Their fathers had also been childhood friends as well, which does help explain how Jia and Bonnie had become friends in the first place. 

The first day was entirely unremarkable, save for the new boy at school, though Jia was entirely uninterested in him. There was just something about him that screamed 'danger,' which made her very uncomfortable. She didn't know what it was about this 'Stefan Salvatore' (as she would later find out he was named) that she did not trust.

[ohmykazuha]

To Jia,

Hello love～ have you been well? I've heard of your feats all the way to Mondstadt! You surely are a popular fellow, aren't you..?

Somebody hasn't been responding to my letters this past few months, When are you coming to visit? Even Bennett has started to wonder where my partner in crime went.

..truly, will you come visit once again? I'll even save some drinks for your arrival! I'm not the only one who's missed your presence after all. Ehem, I can only hope that you'll receive this letter in good health. Shall we meet again.

ー With love, Kaeya Alberich

hi kaeya!

hehe, yes i am XD i'm sorry for not responding to your letters!!! i'll come visit in two weeks. tell benny i miss him too! you can save the wine for when i visit! :D wait, but i can't drink wine... soda will have to do. i'll have whatever diluc's having, then. see ya later!

p.s. i won't be able to see you for a while... i may have made a contract. i'll be off the grid for a week!

[jnmegan]

September 2020 List of Read-A-Likes

Notes from the GPL BiblioFile: Read-A-Likes List for 9/20

Anthology/Short Stories

               George Saunders

                               What We Talk About When We Talk About Love – Raymond Carver

                               The Largesse of the Sea Maiden – Denis Johnson

               Carmen Maria Machado

                               The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror – Mallory Ortberg

                               Awayland – Ramona Ausubel

Classics

               Jane Austen

                               Death Comes to Pemberley - P.D. James

                               The Jane Austen Society - Natalie Jenner

               John Steinbeck  

                               Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner

                               The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon            

               Vladimir Nabokov

                               Being Lolita: A Memoir – Alisson Wood

                               My Dark Vanessa – Kate Elizabeth Russell

               Alice Walker

                               Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

                               The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead

Essays

               David Sedaris

                               Wow, No Thank You – Samantha Irby

                               Running with Scissors – Augusten Burroughs

               Zadie Smith

                               Bad Feminist – Roxanne Gay

                               Trick Mirror – Jia Tolentino

 Fantasy

               George R. R. Martin –

                               The Blade Itself – Joe Abercrombie

                               Fool’s Assassin – Robin Hobb

               Diana Galbadon-

                               The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

                               The Midnight Library – Matt Haig

Graphic Novel

               Neil Gaiman

                               Y: The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan

                               Nimona – Noelle Stevenson

               Marjane Satrapi

                               Habibi – Craig Thompson

                               My Favorite Thing is Monsters – Emil Ferris

Historical Fiction

               Colson Whitehead

                               Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi

                               Pachinko – Min Jin Lee

               Madeline Miller

                               The Water Dancer – Ta-Nehisi Coates

                               Once Upon a River – Diane Setterfield

Horror

               Stephen King

                               Imaginary Friend – Stephen Chbosky

                               Full Throttle – Joe Hill

               Anne Rice

                               A Discovery of Witches – Deborah Harkness

                               The Twisted Ones – T. Kingfisher

 Literary Fiction

               Gabriel Garcia-Marquez

                               The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami

                               Migrations – Charlotte McConaghy

               Margaret Atwood

                               Vox – Christina Dalcher

                               Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

               Fredrik Backman

                               The Rosie Project – Graeme Simsion

                               The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett

               Ann Patchett

                               Such a Fun Age – Kiley Reid

                               This Tender Land – William Kent Krueger

Mystery

               Arthur Conan Doyle

                               IQ – Joe Ide

                               Moriarty – Anthony Horowitz

               James Patterson

                               The Whisper Man -   Alex North

                               Bluebird , Bluebird – Attica Locke

               Agatha Christie

                        The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart Turton

                        The Monogram Murders – Sophie Hannah

               Louise Penny

                        Case Histories – Kate Atkinson

                        In the Woods – Tana French

               Lee Child

                        Runner – Patrick Lee

                        TripTych – Karin Slaughter

Romance

               Nicholas Sparks

                               A Perfect Day – Richard Paul Evans

                               Waiting in the Wings – Melissa Brayden

               JoJo Moyes

                               Eleanor & Park – Rainbow Rowell

                               Sex and Vanity – Kevin Kwan

Science Fiction

               Orson Scott Card

                               Ready Player One/Ready Player Two – Ernest Cline

                               Interference – Brad Parks

               Octavia E. Butler

                               The Space Between Worlds – Micaiah Johnson

                               The Warehouse – Rob Hart

Thriller/Suspense

               Dan Brown

                               The Rome Prophecy – Sam Christer

                               The Order – Daniel Silva

               Lisa Unger

                               The Wife Between Us – Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

                               The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides

Western

               Louis L’Amour

                               Between Hell and Texas – Ralph Cotton

                               Crossing Purgatory - Gary Schanbacher

               Hayley Stone

                               The Sisters Brothers – Patrick deWitt

                               The Six Gun Tarot – R.S. Belcher

[lindsaysheltongross]

Year in Books 2019: The Halfway Point

I used to challenge myself to read 50 books a year, and for a few years I pulled it off! And then Netflix happened.

(Sidenote: apparently, I forgot to post my 2018 End Of Year list? Oops.)

From the archives:

2018 Halfway Point

Year in Books 2017

2016 Halfway Point; 2015 Halfway Point

Year in Books: 2016

Year In Books: 2015

Year In Books: 2014

So far in ‘19, the most interesting thing I have noticed is that I apparently no longer read anything written by men.

Trick Mirror - Jia Tolentino

God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America - Lyz Lenz

Normal People - Sally Rooney

What it Means When A Man Falls From the Sky - Lesley Nneka Arimah

How to Do Nothing : Resisting the Attention Economy - Jenny Odell

Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss 

The Apology - Eve Ensler

Magic for Beginners - Kelly Link

Feminist Fight Club: An Office Survival Manual for a Sexist Workplace - Jessica Bennett

All We Can Do Is Wait- Richard Lawson

The Great Believers - Rebecca Makai

How Could She - Lauren Mechling 

Teeth - Mary Otto

The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai

Red, White and Blue: A Novel - Lea Carpenter

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things - Bryn Greenwood

The Witch Elm - Tana French

Feminasty- Erin Gibson

Then She Was Gone - Lisa Jewell

What If This Were Enough - Heather Havrilesky

Circe - Madeline Miller

[combinedmixture]

There is a passage from Arthur Koestler’s “Darkness at Noon” that came to mind often as I read. Rubashov, the prisoner, sits alone in his cell and becomes aware that what we think of as a first-person singular is really a first-person plural—that we use “I” as a way to tease out a silent partner within us, to “gain his confidence and to fathom his intentions.” If you are alone for long enough, the “habitually silent partner” begins to speak, “without being addressed and without any visible pretext.” This partner expresses itself in fragmentary fashion, in senseless sentences and uncontrollable murmurs.

Bennett is in close touch with the silent partner, and in one extended sequence in “Pond” she inhabits it, taking the form of a syllabic and system-clearing outpour, which comes suddenly, after an interlude of tidying up outside her house. Once again, she imagines herself inside the earth, rotting and blooming. It is passionate down there, she thinks: “I believe that’s where I lost my heart.” Then: “Turns were taken and time put in, so much heft and grimace, there, with callouses, all along the diagonal. Like no other time and the time taken back, that too like none other that can be compared to a bovine heap raising steam, or the eye-cast of a flailing comet … And all day with no break to unwrap or unscrew or squint and flex or soak the brush.” It is nonsense with the heft of animal certainty and magic. The silent partner is like that—an un-beautified, unorganized soul.

-- Jia Tolentino

pond, by claire-louise bennett