#keep it spoiler free please (●'◡'●)

[cocoabell]

The snail in my ear whispered something to me and I listened

Just started watching fma:b and I'm having the best and worst time simultaneously

[tytolito]

"he listened with seeming impassiveness; but his nostrils twitched and his eyes blazed as I told how the ruthless hands of the Count had held his wife in that terrible and horrid position, with her mouth to the open wound in his breast. It interested me, even at that moment, to see, that, whilst the face of white set passion worked convulsively over the bowed head, the hands tenderly and lovingly stroked the ruffled hair."

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Reasons to play In Stars and Time: Canon Pronoun Warfare.

[yyshcul]

trying to figure out how to draw their faces in my style

[marivanilla05]

I found this buried in my files and I don't think I posted this yet? I think I drew this when I first heard about m27...

[bcolfanfic]

the kid / the bikeriders dir. jeff nichols

[batw1nggg]

hi. im here to kamukoma ramble. ok so i reeaaly hate how all kamumeshi Fan Content (which is basically all kamukoma content) waters down izuru to being the dominant one and servant to being his cute little dog like i feel like its so much more complex then that.

izuru was created to be subservient, to be smart enough to see through manipulation tactics and yet not care enough about himself to do anything to stop them, always doing something to serve someone else’s interests - and even when he does do one thing in his own interest (the killing game), it was largely because of his obsession with junko, so we see her still pulling the strings on him from beyond the grave (emphasized by his convo with her in his udg cameo). he doesn’t have power and he’s been designed not to want it. he’s been robbed of his humanity over and over again and been taught to accept it. he even explicitly states all of this in talent dev plan with taka

komaeda, on the other hand, is always framed with such heavy control over the narrative - he heavily influences dr2’s ending and takes that same puppeteering role in udg too. although he has that inferiority complex, he still holds so much power over everyone else, manipulating them like chess pieces. he is just as dangerous as izuru is, considering he has not only the intelligence but the motivation to act out like this, something izuru lacks.

and so this creates a really cool complexity where servant believes he’s meant to be subservient to izuru but this may not be wholly reflected in the way he acts, and izuru most definitely does not care for/about controlling servant. and, if izuru does take a domineering role, it’s because that’s what servant wants (especially after junko’s death, when he has no one left to place himself beneath), and so izuru’s still letting himself go with whoever the people surrounding him want him to be. he’s not with servant for the power trip, that goes completely against everything he’s ever been - because, in reality, IZURU is the one who exists to serve. to serve his creators, and then junko afterwards, even after her death. his purpose has always been assigned to him, not created by him.

both characters are fucked up and morally grey. both characters are the man, both characters are the god.

this is what i wish people would focus more on when writing their general character development and the development of their relationship. because they barely get any screen time you get lots of creative freedom and you can take this concept in either a “they are going to heal and get better together” route or a “they are doomed to always hurt each other in their codependency” route or some weird thing in between; again, personal preference, and if you want to keep izuru and hajime separate postgame this opens a whole new plethora of dynamics and development to write about after komaeda becomes himself again. the flexibility of their dynamic is whats so intriguing to me - kamukoma is a very complex and fluid idea that i wish more people would mess around with like this join me and we can play with them like putty

[bengallemon]

< It's cold. That's how night works. The beach you are on is not lightless. Like home.

< It was dawn before. When you woke. That's how time works. You did not understand where you were.

< It hurt to stand. That's how exhaustion works. You struggled to get up before beginning to wander further inland, to try and find home.

< The heat blinded and stung. That's how the sun works. You headed forward until you saw houses alongside the water and beach. Almost like home.

< There was movement ahead, people seeing and rushing forward. That's how life and curiosity works. They stopped when they reached you, extending their hands.

< However. The strange ones only had arms to reach to you for, only legs to run to you on.

< You extended out your limbs to them, opened your mouth to ask where you are, why you're on a beach you cannot recognise-

< They freeze. The people stop and draw their hands away, their feet already ready to run.

< They do not recognise you as one similar to their kind, their strange, four-limbed existence, their flightless lives.

< The strange ones panic. They speak static to you, rising to show how they are afraid.

< You continue to reach, to ask, to understand. The closest figure raises their fists.

< You scream and fall back. That is how injury and pain work.

< You.

< Turn. And run.

< You do not stop running. Not for a second. This is how fear works.

< ...

< It's cold. That's how water works. It splashes against you, over you, around you. It's.... comforting.

< ...

< You realise.

< You do not know where you are.

< You do not know how to get home.

< You cannot remember where home is.

< You....

< Cannot remember home.

< You are alone, without name nor family nor memory nor home.

< This is how life will work from now on.

[feppepurin]

i'm so unbelievably worried for mel. imagine they kidnap you and you watch your assistant die, then bash an illusion of your long lost brother into the wall in order to get out of your captivity only to find out that your boyfail fiancé is off the shits COMPLETELY and has killed at least 2 people one of which was a dear friend of yours while the political scene is not much better all thanks to your mom

[archerestarcher]

My boyfriend (@underneath-shining-moonlight) saw Ryuji say "what's bonkin" in one of his confidant ranks like twice, and then decided he would say it every time Ryuji shows up. It has been probably at least like a month in-game since then, he's still doing this.

This is me at this point:

[electraascending]

While we're at it, a PSA for the Malevolent fandom. Time zones exist and people have busy lives. Sometimes it takes a while to listen to new episodes. That wouldn't be a problem, if we all used correct tags on our posts.

But, we don't. I have "malevolent 43" and "malevolent episode 43" blocked, but there are so many variations I can't possibly untag them all. Yes, I've already gotten spoilers. Am I upset? A bit. But it can be changed.

Note: "Malevolent spoilers" is too vague. Though it's certainly helpful for new listeners.

[justintaco]

I've been up for almost 24 hours so

superheavy Lonetrail Muelsyse spoilers

Besides the like, uncountable amount of stuff that blew me away in Lonetrail,

linking together Mansfield Break and Dorothy's Vision with Vigilo and Walk in the Dust

creating thematic parallels with Near Light at the end,

what really blew me away was Muelsyse.

Anyone who's followed this blog for a long time knows I'm not big on shipping and I'm semi-public with my opinion that most times shipping brain completely poisons someone's ability to actually engage with a narrative. But honest to god, even to me, they seemed to be almost writing a romance with Doctor and Mumu.

Blink twice if you don't think I'm crazy.

like any gacha you have a lot of flirty lines between the player character and a million of the girls (and guys), but like, this seemed unusually genuine and romantic?

(x)

Like besides them sharing a dance and all their cute little scenes, they seemed to be creating a genuine parallel in their backstories and who they are as people here

Mumu discovers she isn't actually the last of her race but realizes that she has so little in common with them she cannot form any meaningful connection or even find a shared language with them. Her integration into human society is like, almost all just an act of survival by her own admission, she doesn't feel any belonging there either. In fact, most of the time her real body is hiding in her vivarium because the physical world itself is becoming so poisoned by originium that it's dangerous to leave using anything but a clone. Even in her flashback with Saria and Kristen, she seems to be the third wheel.

She is by every possible metric, completely alone. And it seems like her chronic teehee backstabbing is a coping mechanism to feeling completely alienated from even her closest friends and what becomes her second family with the Rhine Lab directors. Even that dysfunctional and over idealized family is gone now too. She even says the following after she betrays Doctor for one last ditch effort to throw in her lot with Kristen and maybe find somewhere out in the stars she can belong:

Compare that with the Doctor, who in this event witnesses what seems to be the death of the last member of their race. In fact, the dialogue implies that Doctor feels an incredible amount of anguish even just pulling the plug on Trevor since it's not so quick a death. Directly after this event, after escaping the big silo bunker thing, Doctor's first thought is to go seek out Mumu rather than regroup with everyone from RI (including Saria who just reentered the atmosphere Halo 3 style). It feels like a response to an epiphany.

Earlier, Doctor had managed to actually get her to tell the truth about herself during their dance. How isolated she feels without any past or family, just like Doctor. So they go directly to her, fresh off of losing the last connection to their past life besides Kal'tsit (who is implied to not only be unwilling but in some way unable to share more info with Doctor).

You then get what is this, extremely deeply intimate conversation between Doctor and Muelsyse, commiserating over their shared loneliness.

She tries to play things off with her usual shtick but pretty quickly she admits that saving those random Control goons on the ship was her failed attempt at suicide because Saria had well and truly kicked her out of the triumvirate to confront Kristen alone.

After that she begins connecting with Doctor on a deeper level than any character I can really recall. As much as I love the ex wife Kal'tsit stuff, they really don't seem to have a romantic attachment. A very very close and intimately trusting one, maybe a past romance, but never romantic with Doctor as they exist in the present since waking up. Doctor views other characters like Amiya, Ifrit, and Rosmontis as children to be protected. But this here is these two really baring their souls and it's just crazy to see in a gacha game where the format discourages stuff like this.

Just, man I love this whole conversation. They've both just learned recently that they can't shed their loneliness with what's left of their races. Muelsyse is totally at the end of her rope, but Doctor has just learned that the only thing they can do is fully commit to the people they know in the present. So despite Mumu's one final attempt to put a barrier up between her and another person, a literal physical barrier of water

Doctor walks right into the barrier and literally reaches out to her to help save her with what they just learned that same day

Muelsyse refers to the parts not in blue here (blue usually being the only confirmed dialogue Doctor says out loud in any given cutscene) when she talks to Nasti later. That means the Doctor said all of this out loud.

Again, am I crazy or does this feel like the most romantic Doctor has ever been with another character?

A lot of himejoshis on Twitter have been mad about the event and what it means for Mumu x Ho'ohleyak, Mumu x Saria, or Muelsyse x her OT3 with Saria and Kristen, and honestly

they might have a point

[wutheringmights]

can i ask for the hot mess commentary plz?

sure

Before we crack into this, take a moment to read what I said about the neck thing. I write that up a long time ago, but it provides some important context and is a good refresher on the secret history of Spirit's bi awakening.

Also, the director's commentary for this chapter is here, in case you want to review that.

Good? Okay, let's go at it.

So.... they had sex. Yay. Insert jazz hands.

I feel like I actually have way less to talk about here than I did for the neck thing. Granted, a lot of the neck thing is behind the scenes stuff. I guess that's a good place to start.

You may recall the informal hiatus CTB went on after Spirit came back to Warriors's era. I used a lot of that time to actually work out how to end CTB and what character/plot points I would need to hit to have a satisfying conclusion.

During this time, I was listing out things about Spirit and Warriors that I need to return to. Spirit had his codependent histories with the greenhorn and Zelda, or really his strategy for offering himself up as a means of feeling more in control, that needed to be explored. I needed to do some kind of follow-up with Warriors's latent attraction.

The two topics were similar enough to make me want to tackle them at once. But the moment I did, my brain decided that they should hate fuck. (I definitely was also thinking about my old concept of Spirit's unrequited crush-- I still write the characters like that happened, even if it never actually made it into the story.)

Why hate sex? Honestly, it would be kinda funny. Plus, it's a good writing exercise to ask yourself what would happen if your characters in conflict did (not really).

I knew immediately it could only end badly for everyone involved. But I knew I needed Warriors to hit an emotional low point to motivate him to do his Castle Town plan. I knew I wanted Spirit's big speech to come at a time when he and Warriors were emotionally connecting again, and that the response to that speech needed to push him back to Time.

Shit, I thought. This might be what they do.

But, like. I love protecting my peace. I have been skirting around the edges of homo eroticism with Spirit and Warriors as much as I dared. I didn't want to invite angry anons. But then.... did I really care? I understand where people are coming from, but at the same time... this is such a minuscule non-issue. Truly, and with emotion: who even cares?

First off, we already established with the neck thing that whatever fucked up thing these two have going on does not count as shipping. And second, if it does count as shipping, then fine! It's shipping then. This is what the plot is. I've been working on this story for too long to compromise now. I'll reap the consequences, whatever they may be.

I decided to keep it on the books, half believing I would change my mind once the chapter came up.

I was feeling very confident about my choice, up until the day of posting. That was then I got slammed in the face with regret. Luckily, there hasn't been any issues. I may have overestimated as much the general populous care about CTB. If there was ever any confirmation that this story has the world's most niche audience, this is it.

And you all have been great. There's been a lot of encouragement and kind words from you the readers, after you all stopped yelling, of course.

(Though I was prepared to be an obstinate jackass to anyone who tried to complain. I found a loophole and was ready to exploit the hell out of it. I was so ready!)

Funnily enough, everyone's reactions to the past few chapters helped to reassure me the most. There was been a lot of jokes about Warriors and Spirit having the world's worst situationship (lol).

So them having sex turned into an important character and plot moment. Warriors and Spirit got built up and tore down in self-destructive ways. This experience becomes the wake-up call Warriors needed to decide that he was ready to stop being the hero and get his life back.

A lot of people expressed surprise that Warriors and Spirit would go through with it even after talking it out. To be honest, I was a little surprised too! I was half convinced that Warriors had grown enough to stop the self-destructive cycle and turn Spirit down. But when looking at the scenes leading up to them being alone-- from Twilight denounce his friendship with Warriors, Toto turning him away, and Warriors generally in an emotional rut over his intellect and lost beauty--I realized that Warriors was already in the middle of another downward spiral. He would go through with this, if only to feel valued. It was the war all over again.

Also, apparently half of you guessed that Warriors would get cigarette burns from Spirit eventually. I hope you all were happy with the results!

When I posted that snippet from the chapter, apparently all of you knew that a kiss was coming. Ooops. I'm a little glad I surprised all of you with what happened next afterward.

On to funnier things:

I meant for there to be more compare/contrasts between Warriors's nights with Icarius and Spirit. The only one I really managed to do was Link being unable to sleep next to Icarius vs Warriors falling asleep easily.

Because this chapter and the last were supposed to be one, this scene was supposed to come out around Valentine's Day. Could you imagine?

I had the silliest time trying to figure out how to get Warriors and Spirit alone in a room together. I had this grand plan about them needing to get a room in a different inn from the others, whether because they were too tired to walk home after dancing or because they were too drunk to remember the way. Then I realized that Ganondorf could just give the Chain enough money to get more rooms. I realized this way later than I should have.

If you're wondering.... they switched....

I wrote that Warriors thought that sex with Spirit felt like an argument. That is because they are both the bossiest motherfuckers in bed. They both want things done their way or else. It's combative. Unfortunately, they both like the challenge.

I did have an idea for how to end this whole matter in a funny way, both involving someone from the chain finding out.

In my first idea, Time barges into what he thinks is just Warriors's room, in the middle of some kind of rant. Then he sees both of them sitting in bed, pauses, then promptly walks out. Warriors and Spirit quickly get dress before there's a knock on the door. When Warriors opens, Time walks in casually and starts his rant again while pretending none of this had happened. He would wait until Warriors was alone to be like WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!

My other alternate scenario involves Warriors and Spirit getting a room in a different inn. In the morning, Spirit is hurriedly trying to leave when there's a knock on the door. This time, it's a few members of the chain asking if he's seen Warriors anywhere. He says no. All but one walk away. The one who stays (probably Legend) would lean and discreetly tell him that he knew the room was under Warriors's name, so if they were done, could he tell Warriors to get his ass outside? Cue Spirit burning up in embarrassment.

EDIT: I actually had a third silly scenario idea. Similar to the others, Twilight barges in to talk to Warriors about Midna (they're still friends in this scenario; this was an idea from a long time ago). Warriors is still in the bed, but luckily Spirit is in the bathroom. Warriors tries to have a normal conversation without alerting Twilight that something was amiss. And it almost works until Spirit just walks out of the bathroom, waves, and goes to put his clothes on. Cue Twilight's 404 error.

So, yeah! That's the Hot Mess. As always, it's been really fun to see everyone's reactions. Warriors and Spirit are both extremely polarizing, and I love hearing everyone's hot takes.

Does this count as toxic yaoi? Not until I see an AMV to "Numb" by Linkedin Park. Luckily, Warriors and Spirit will never do this again. Probably.

[cutiequisitor]

recently started watching Madoka Magica. have been told that i am "in for it". hmm 🤔

[green-planets]

Sharing some of my thoughts on Cinderella's Castle because I have no one to talk with irl about it (I'm sure most of my points have already been brought up by other people but whatever!) Dark fantasy is my bread and butter so I'm a little disappointed that I had such mixed feelings after my first watch through.

BE WARNED THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT!!

First thing's first, the set, lighting, PUPPETS, and COSTUMES were gorgeous!! The team knocked it out of the park with the look of the show!

Also the twists on the classic Cinderella story were *chef's kiss* The explanations for why no one could remember Ella's face, how the glass slippers worked, and the Stepmother CHOPPING OFF ELLA'S FEET!?! AND SEWING THEM ONTO PUTRICE'S SKIN SUIT SO SHE COULD WEAR THE SLIPPERS!?!?! Strokes of genius. I applaud the Langs

I wanted to see way more of Sir Hop-A-Lot and Crumb! I think they definitely would have benefitted from having a song with Ella, it would have helped solidify their bond and helped flesh out their characters (tbh Ragweed felt like he had more character than either of them 😭)

The songs were VERY hit or miss for me and I felt like a few of them didn't really match the tone of the show. Ash to Ash was a standout number (Kim absolutely killed it!!)

Bryce was amazing as expected and I'm so so happy she was the lead! Her voice is to die for and she brought so much emotion to the role of Ella

I was surprised the Prince and Tadius didn't get a comedic song. It would have worked so well for the scene where Tadius was announcing the ball! He could have been describing ideal characteristics of a queen to the Prince while the Prince goes off on horny ramblings, Tadius gets more frustrated as the song goes on until he finally throws up his hands in defeat, etc.

That being said, I was not a fan of the majority of the raunchy humor. Almost every line that came from the Prince was so unnecessarily gross. I know that was the whole point and I love James as an actor but the character just was not for me. Maybe I'm getting too old for constant streams of dick and poop jokes. I kinda wished they had stuck with a more serious tone overall

This is definitely a nitpick: the fairy godmother scene was SO GOOD (probably my favorite tbh) but I was SO distracted by the pants (AND THE SHOES STICKING OUT!!!) The costume would have looked more ethereal with a floor length skirt imo (or at least cover up her feet!)

I loved Jeff as the narrator. His interactions with Ragweed were very fun!

I had some issues with the pacing and the ending felt very rushed. Ella's final confrontation with her Stepmother should have been an epic battle but instead we got an exposition dump, a flash of light, and it was over :/ Kind of disappointing for the big climax of the show tbh

This is a criticism I've had with several Starkid musicals (aka Hatchetfield trilogy) where we have a character's friend(s) die horrifically and get very little emotional reaction from said character. So THANK YOU Langs for letting Ella properly mourn Lucy and Justine at the end!!!

I do have a lot more thoughts but they feel like nitpicks and complaints about minor plot holes and such, so I don't know if they're really worth sharing at this time. Anyway, overall I thought Cinderella's Castle was okay. The good parts were REALLY REALLY GOOD but unfortunately there were a lot a bits I personally did not enjoy as much as I'd hoped. I'll try to give it at least a second watch before my digital ticket expires to see if any of my opinions change. If not, I'll wait until the pro-shot comes out next year.

[ghostlynimbus]

I couldn't remember if I posted my "currently reading" book stacks here or not, and @limasquared was kind enough to encourage me to just post them again

So here they are (again?)

So it turns out i'm really good at starting reading books, not so good at finishing them. These are all the books I consider myself currently reading (+4 more not shown here, three because I'm reading them as audiobooks and one because I just forgot to grab it when I was taking these photos) except for "How To Sell A Haunted House" which i have finished since I took this photo.

This stack is my writing/language stack. I'm not positive which im closest to finishing in this stack, since I'm furthest into The Anatomy of Story but I'm getting through Bird By Bird much faster.

Above is my fiction stack (not pictured: Twilight, Howl's Moving Castle, and Dracula). I've finished How To Sell A Haunted House since taking these pictures (which someone at book club was super excited about which made me happy) I have no idea which I am closest to finishing from this category, maybe Dracula?

This is my general nonfiction stack (not pictured: Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving). Im closest to finishing Polysecure from this stack.

This stack is my poetry stack. Milk and Honey is a reread for me, and I am closest to finishing that one.