#like literally this is so manufactured and it is exhausting

[actualhumancryptid]

Oh my goddd Alicia. Jesus Christ. It's not that complicated. No man is entitled to your wifley saintyness to win elections. Marriages end, nobody cares.

Are you being held hostage by these mean showrunners because the whole premise of the show hangs on you milking the whole 'saint alicia goodest wife' thing for more seasons? Blink once for yes.

[quixoticanarchy]

Finished reading Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara and he does a good job showing how the cobalt supply chain is inextricable from incredible human suffering, near-slavery, rampant exploitation, environmental devastation, and child labor. And it’s very clear that no promise a tech or battery manufacturer makes that their supply chain is clean means literally anything bc industrially and artisanally mined cobalt are mixed into the same supply untraceably. And the book also covers the fact that cobalt supplies are finite and when the DRC’s cobalt is exhausted the industry will move elsewhere, rinse and repeat, and the people in the Congo will be left with the ongoing and unremediated -maybe irremediable - damage. All of this so that we can have smartphones, electric vehicles, iPads, electric scooters, almost anything with a rechargeable battery.

It’s also clear that the tech and battery industries are interested in good PR and making empty statements about human rights when they should be taking responsibility for the working conditions of small-scale miners (and minors) dying at the bottom of their supply chains. What Kara doesn’t really address is the demand side of this equation, not just the demand by companies whose products use cobalt-containing batteries but also the consumers sustaining that demand, who buy every new smartphone and eagerly pin their hopes on electric vehicles to let us keep our car-dependent world without the fossil fuel guilt. The book takes it for granted that cobalt will be required in high quantities for consumer electronics and for “green” tech, and to some extent this is true - as in, none of those demands or uses will cease overnight and in the meantime we should worry about how to address industrial and business practices and government corruption in order to treat Congolese miners as human beings.

But it feels incomplete without also asking questions like: should that demand continue? Can it? Do we need this many devices? What costs are acceptable? Can we really have our cake (smartphones, EVs, etc) and eat it too (slavery-free, non-exploitative supply chains that don’t kill the people at the bottom and lay waste to the environment)? What if - as the book would seem to suggest - we really cannot? If one goal of the book is for people to realize what conditions underlie the extraction of cobalt, what action is then incumbent upon us? Personal consumer choice will not undo all this harm, but it is a necessary step in rethinking or attempting other ways to live. Is it a right to have a smartphone, a new one every year or two, if it comes at the price of other people’s human rights? At what point do we say that it is not an acceptable cost that the extractive industries are perpetuating neocolonialism and near-slavery in order that we should have comfortable lives?

We know we have to stop relying on fossil fuels or we’ll burn down the planet (to a greater degree than is already locked in) but the “green energy transition” is not clean at all. Capitalism seeks the lowest price for labor and the highest profits; obviously these extractive relationships owe a lot of their horror to being conducted in a capitalist milieu. But even thinking about, say, a socialist world instead, if it aspires to still provide smartphones and electric vehicles en masse and maintain the comforts and conveniences of the “Western” lifestyle then we would still be relying on massive amounts of resource extraction with no guarantee of less suffering. The devices are themselves part of the problem. The demand for them and the extent to which “modern” life in “developed” countries relies upon them is part of the problem. It is unsustainable. It is built on blood and it makes a mockery of purported values of dignity, equality, and human rights. The lives of Congolese cobalt miners are tied to how we in the “developed” or colonizer countries live and consume. I do not think their lives will change substantially unless ours do.

[eldritch-spouse]

Eating at my own fingers for some Berle smut 😫😫😫

[Don't worry, he'll eat your fingers for you.]

TW: Foodplay; Dubious consent

Berle's steps echo around the inside of the manufacturing area.

" Lollipop! My sweet little gumdrop, my tootsie pie! "

Oh he wants something.

Finishing helping a fairly depleted chocolate flavor into a vat, you seal the exhausted slime in there and shiver as you come out of the frozen rooms, rubbing some warmth into your arms. It's crazy to think how much it must cost to keep this place so cool in the middle of literal Hell.

" Yes? "

" There you are! "

He announces, so close to the skin of your back that it nearly frightens the soul out of your body.

" Come come come- I need you to taste something immediately! "

That's half of your job nowadays. Running around taking note of which flavors are depleting, take them to the vats, and put a variety of sweet ice cream novelty flavors in your mouth. You're really hoping there's enough magic in these things to prevent you from getting cavities. Or maybe that's why he's always buying you "the best toothpaste out there for humans".

Part of you thinks sometimes Berle isn't even making you taste-test new flavors, he just wants to feed you. Which is fine by you, less time actually working.

You're dragged to the front of the shop, sort of. More like the area where people can choose to have independent scoops of ice cream from non-living samples. A sort of tasting booth, to make sure you don't just call a slime-cream to your table, taste them, only to make a face afterwards. You'd feel mildly offended in their place.

The thing is, "free tasting", in Gluttony, is about three or four fat scoops on an already large cone. You've been living here for a while, and less than that would probably be considered insulting.

In turn, that is also what Berle regularly attempts to shove in your mouth.

The prince is behind the balcony, reaching for a fresh container and twirling an original brand spoon in his hand. More than the excitement in his eyes, his own tail seems to dance behind the demon.

" New flavor? " Your eyes widen.

Berle hums brightly. " Perhaps! Oh yes, maybe! But not yet, too much to test, too much to think about legally ahah, providers, but I wanted you to test it out for me just this once, okay? Really fast- "

It's only after he retrieves a spoonful that you can see the ice cream itself. It looks creamy, swirls of soft lavender and salmon blending together nicely, a sugary sweet scent to it. Berle has such a talent for making any kind of ice cream look appetizing. This gift of his has made you reconsider an embarrassing amount of bizarre flavor mixes.

" Open wide! "

You do. Probably wider than you should have.

But it's reflex at this point. Like most gluttons, he's got this habit of simply overfilling a spoonful. Loading it with so much that one would guess his intent is to make you choke. But no such thing, Berle insisted when you pried, he merely forgot your limitations. He loved you, so he wanted you to have more, always.

Recently, the prince has gotten better with dosing for humans, in no small part due to the growing popularity of his establishment, bringing in customer diversity. You however, have choked and coughed food back out enough times to trigger a brand new survival mechanism at the mere utterance of 'open'. Your jaws part as much as your feeble human anatomy allows them to, sometimes popping in the process, and your tongue hangs to further keep things unobstructed.

Berle is bad at masking what pleases him.

He enjoys that you've learned to do this.

Seen by the tint to his cheeks as he eagerly shovels the spoonful into your mouth.

Predictably, it's so much that it makes your cheeks puff humorously, but it's manageable. You don't choke, just shiver at the coldness and try not to bite down. You let it sit in the gradually decreasing warmth of your mouth, mulling on the flavor.

Sweet, incredibly sweet, but light all the same. The burst of sugar isn't long enough to let you get sick of it, fizzing away to a pleasant freshness. You can't tell the ingredients used in this. Funnily enough, you almost never can, aside from the most common flavors such as strawberry, chocolate and caramel, for example. Maybe it's just that you don't have the same complexity in your tastebuds as a glutton does, so your brain mixes and mashes signals into something unreadable. You're aware of lot of Berle's subtle work goes entirely unnoticed to your dull palate- That he keeps trying to provide new taste experiences for you in spite of knowing you'll never get as much pleasure from any as one of his own is a testament to the prince's morbid love.

" So? So? " He grins so incredibly wide that his cheeks strain, offering you a second spoonful that is slowly accepted.

He's graced with a response as soon as you're not nearly drooling. " Amazing, as usual. It's not as heavy, I feel like I could have a lot more of this one than anything else but... "

" But...? " The demon's malleable horns shift as he tilts his head.

" But, I can't really tell what it's made of. " He hasn't even told you the name of it either, so there's hardly a hint.

" Ah yes yes, I expected you wouldn't. See, it's more uhm- Synthetic, than my usual work. Not at all like me, I think you'd know that of all people, lollipop, ahah- But part of my work does involve branching out, constantly, right? I'd usually be against something so err fabricated, so... Implicative, but I just couldn't pass this up! You understand, right? "

While he blabbers, you begin to sense a slight increase in temperature. You know damn right that Hell would blink out of existence faster than the air conditioning in this establishment could fail, so something's clearly amiss.

" -Especially after they said it would be perfectly safe for human consumption! Of course, I can't just sell this willy-nilly without being sure that things won't devolve into a rampant mess, it could be weaponized I know this- But perhaps as an offer to couples who come here together on their cute little meet-dates, right? The effects then would be harmless, like now- "

It's getting really hot. You're sweating. Should probably take that jacket off.

Wait, what did he say just now?

" The what-? "

" Hm? " Berle pauses.

" You said... " A fog clutches the creases of your mind, massaging it into a fine, aimless pulp. God fucking damn it, what did he just make you eat? " ... Effects? "

" Mhm, right right! This type of ice cream is made using material from a person, causing whoever eats it to feel madly infatuated for said person, ehh needy, if you will- This means it has to be commissioned obviously, so there's a certain wait time and the material has to be handled carefully! It could be blood, I think most people will want to use their blood, but I personally used... " Berle's peppy expression turns into something much less innocent as he watches you squirm in place, trying to keep up with his chattering. Your eyes linger on his mostly bare form and satisfaction carves its way into those mismatched eyes.

" Something else, you know? "

There's a flicker of recognition in your gradually muddling brain. You manage to offer the royal infernal an annoyed, near frigid look, reminiscing about the unsavory part of your role here. Getting to taste-test flavors is a euphemism for being a bit of a lab-rat. And while you're sure that Berle wouldn't deliberately feed you something he thinks could genuinely cause harm, he's not above this type of scummy behavior either.

A pulse of want has your teeth clenching while your legs propell you to him, causing the prince to all but giggle loudly, putting the spoon and container away when you grab onto his stupid pink apron.

" Let me... " You murmur, fevered with the desire to have him. Any way, any part, you have a strange urge to get Berle into your mouth. Flashes of you kissing and biting and tasting every inch of his skin assault your mind.

Bizarre, as if out of nowhere, you developed an erotic oral fixation that was simply overwhelming in intensity.

" Oh hoo hoo, working well working well! How are you feeling, gumdrop? "

It starts with a searing kiss.

It's less genuine affection and more of a need to cram your tongue as deep into him as you can. A laughable objective, given Berle has a tongue that puts plenty of his own kind to shame. If that weren't enough, he's always enthusiastic, so you never had a semblance of a chance. He kisses back and, sensing your fervor, generously supplies more of that multicolored muscle into you. You choked aggressively the first few times he was stupid enough to do this to you without thinking, nearly threw everything back out, but your time inside this Ring has changed you in many ways. Not only have you become more voracious, it's as if your gag reflex is often muted in select moments. Given the thing dragging over all crevices of your mouth and throat, you should have started to flinch and panic, but all that's there is an unnerving breed of glee and mild oxygen deprivation.

Berle dominates, much to your slight frustration, pulling you back when the embrace simply becomes too gross to prolong. Not that you care if your chin is soaked, not that you care if the taste of all the cloying sweets he had today is now imprinted on your own taste buds.

A shameless hand darts down, feeling what it had hoped to.

Behind the rather thin fabric of Berle's apron protrudes the very thing you're sure he'll have no problem letting you stuff yourself with. Berle shares a concubus rib somewhere in his lineage, that's likely why he wears so little all the time, why he even thought of this flavor as an appealing suggestion. It's also the reason he somehow always seems to be able to tug you away for some quick tomfoolery.

There's no doubt he's the one pleasantly surprised when you drop to your knees and swipe that apron aside.

Berle's now throbbing length has the exact same coloration as his tongue, that borderline rainbow-like hue, like a pastel gradient of sorts. You've asked him before if he was born this way, as unlikely as it seems, but he doesn't ever provide a straight answer. Rainbow body parts are something you'd expect of a mermonsters and fey types. Not a demon, certainly.

Part of you believes he just got body modifications because it makes his cock look like some kind of rare candy cane. Somewhat of a dangerous gambit, given another glutton could get confused enough to bite him, with those infernal teeth...

But you're no glutton.

All you do is lick across the length of him like he really is no more than a rainbow twister lollipop, earning yourself a shaky gasp, before putting the very tip in your mouth and swirling around it. You have no idea why this is what you want so bad, why it's making you so happy, you just know you needed to feel him exactly this way.

For all his usual rampant excitement, all Berle can do now is grab onto the counter and watch you work a sizable portion of his girth into your throat. Another perk of your prolonged stay in Hell, you could say. The you from a few months ago could never swallow this much of a partner without crying and gagging real ugly.

" O- Ohhn- I do thhink maybe some alterations should be made -Ahahn- For humans specifically? Mmmm it seems to be taking you by stohh- "

You can feel Berle pulse within the walls of your mouth, lips flush against the root of his cock, kissing his slit. Normally, this would take some effort from your part, some warmup. A nasty noise follows as you slurp all the way back to the top just to chase that hint of tang. Berle's eyes roll back for a second and a choked moan escapes him. You're relentless, pumping him while catching your breath, only to dip back down with a dirty vigor, proudly feeling him hit deep spots within you.

Berle has learned not to fuck your mouth. All larger infernals must learn this sooner or later when they pick smaller partners, and the prince is no exception. But that doesn't mean he's not digging his claws into the counter for dear life and flexing his legs for control.

The only thing that makes you pop off his candy cock is when the confectioner's phone starts ringing, this jarring tune reminiscent of a festive jingle, breaking the mood. Berle himself looks annoyed, studying the caller ID before smiling and making a 'continue' motion.

Alright then.

He's talking immediately.

" Old friend! " Pause, one hand falls to the back of your head. " Yes yes yess- " That last one must have been for you. " I did get the sample, tested it already- Why, with a volunteer of course, I have my ways... "

His scummy ways.

Perhaps it's mean of you, but you take the opportunity to tease Berle and drag him across your lips like some pervert's version of lipstick. He nearly frowns, exerting some pressure to make you quit it. Whatever gargle of surprise you make is covered by his loud tone.

" Yes- Uhuh- Look though, we'll have to tone it down a bit. " He gasps. " No, it's just- My volunteer was human, and it really took them for a spin, y'know? No, I'm serious! Not even two spoons in, they were already under, that's fast! Very fast hhnoly shit- "

You would have laughed at that slip up, but all that happens is a devilish contraction around his shaft.

" N-No, it shocked me. " Berle coughs. " You should have seen-... I don't think so, royal lineage wouldn't make it stronger just on hhh its own. I think maybe you could make it a little less sudden, give it a little buzz period, y'know, hahahn Lords fuck- "

The person on the other side of the call appears to be blabbering just long enough that Berle feels confident in distancing the phone a bit and growling, making the most out of their rant by urging you to move faster with curt bucks of his hips. Sometimes he slips out of your mouth entirely, frustrating for the two of you yet desperate in a whole other dirty way.

When Berle pays attention again, the person must have been calling for him.

" Ah- Ahah, sorry yes I'm here- Excuse me if I sound muffled I'm always running around you know it's just how the job is it never stops please continue yes- " How does he fit that much air into his lungs?

It feels like he's close to cumming. Normally, Berle would be moaning and snarling about it, but he can't be nearly as vocal right now, so all you have to guide yourself is the oscillation of his composure and his tensing lower abdomen.

At some point, the prince throws his head back and appears to lean onto the counter as if to balance himself, blowing steam through his nostrils in a way the caller might mistake for exhaustion. His tail wraps around your chest loosely, getting to your neck and squeezing briefly.

That's the cue.

No mercy.

" Hrrhn... Nno no, it's perfectly fine, I know how it is with newer products. It's perfectly fine no one got injured at ALL- It's totally okay, I'm not disappointed no nooh- " He slams a fist on the counter, mad that the call is going on for as long as it has.

You've never actually seen Berle get angry from a lengthy conversation. It would be hilarious if you weren't so fixated on getting him to cum.

" I have a lot of faith in you guys I'm sure everything will work out and I'dlovetoworkwithyouallinthefutureokaybyebyegottagotoodles- " He launches the phone at some unfortunate wall. " My pretty pretty lollipop you're gonna suck the soul out of me like that- "

And you do. Because his usual yapping is cut short only a few seconds after, becoming nothing but senseless noises as Berle hunches and pants open-mouthed, giving you the rewarding rush you wanted. Much to his distaste, you pull back to get to taste it, regretting it when it's predictably too much and forces you to pull away. The prince makes a mess of your cheek and neck, ruining even the top you had picked, before you try to get the last of it on your tongue again.

And as soon as you swallow, the urge that had possessed you earlier releases its clutches, the cloud of need turning your vision pink fading suddenly.

You're left with sore knees, an aching jaw, and the moderately gross sensation of hot ropes on cooling skin.

" Couldn't you at least have asked before starting all t- "

You're interrupted by Berle's cumstained fingers wedging into your mouth. Not even this you're allowed to waste.

" But aren't surprises so much more entertaining? I really think they are, didn't you have fun? Besides, it'll be my turn soon, don't you worry lollipop, what kind of lover would I be if I didn't thank you for such wonderful feedback- "

You wonder who that supplier is...

[bonezonejpg]

୨୧ : INTRODUCING MY INK VARIANT INX

Based off of my personal experiences. A year ago I was in a pretty bad headspace and had created him to help cope with my situation. Came upon him again and decided to make a ref+ revamp !! Anyways !! Some info about him <3 Inx deals with Chronic anxiety and Derealization. Despite the fact that knows the world around him is real, he struggles to fight with those irrational thoughts that its in fact not real. He feels like he's in a dream while existing which causes him to panic, and will get intrusive thoughts about him or others around him not being real. These intrusive thoughts can trigger panic attacks which happen to him frequently. Instead of using close range attacks, he specifically sticks with using long range attack as much as possible. Getting close to his targets causes him to panic, and most of the time he's not in a calm enough headspace to react on time and make strategic battle decisions. He tries his best to support Dream and Blue from the sidelines. He shrunk from stress.. LOL Dream is one of his comfort people. The two of them now live together and he spends most if not all of his time with Dream. When not around the other he can panic or go into spirals which take a very severe toll on his mental health. Because of this Dream makes sure to stay close to him and tries his best to accommodate him. He does have medication he uses sometimes, but he only uses it when having severe panic attacks. The viles are extremely hard to continuously manufacture so he has instead developed coping skills to deal with his issues best he can instead of taking his "medication" 24/7. The viles basically help him calm down and sort of reset his magic nervous system or whatever it would be so his panicking starts to cease. It doesn't last forever, but its a really good feeling when he takes it and it reminds him of how he used to be before dealing with all of this. These issues completely popped out of nowhere and the root cause is unknown by him and others around him. He had a thought that the world "wasn't real" and then got triggered into his first panic attack which then spread out into the issues he now has. [Literally exactly what happened to me except I'm okay now! Well sort of, not the same but def a LOT better :3] His eye will flash a bunch of different colors when he's about to have a panic attack or having one. This is a telltale sign that his stress has pretty much reached his limit and he's at his breaking point. He will leak and spill Ink from his mouth when trying to express the thoughts going on in his mind or his emotions. This is because his anxiety causes him to assume others will think he is annoying or attention seeking so he literally becomes choked up on his own words. Inx deals with constant paranoia that no one likes him and everyone finds him to be a burden. Despite others and himself trying to reassure himself, the sinking feeling that no one truly loves him also resides deep inside his bones. He doesn't get a lot of his sleep because of his derealization and anxiety. Constantly being in a state of panic makes it quite hard for him to rest because his body can't calm down enough to actually relax so he can fall asleep. He usually can only rest when with another person with some TV playing, or when he is so exhausted he literally cannot stay awake anymore.

Inx still enjoys to draw and visit AUs, it just has become quite difficult now because of the amount of stress he deals with. Obviously this has caused him to become pretty depressed so he has a really hard time picking up his hobbies, but he still attempts to use them as coping mechanisms even if he can't really make anything detailed anymore. Inx will constantly think about how he used to be before all of this and will wish that he could go back in time and just be normal again because he's so exhausted from everything.

Alrighty... For now thats all I can really think about!! I probably will look back at this and be like "awh dang why didn't I add this.." So expect me to most likely edit this little post at some point !! Also, all of these facts are 100% based off of experiences that I have went through. If you have any questions then feel free to send me an ask and I'll totally answer !! Plus some old art from when I first made him in 2023 when I was having that EP

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy reading all this despite it being super long... heh.. I'LL SEE U LATUR !!

[raelle-writing]

Hey 👋

What do you think about tee's character?! This character is so confusing he cares for white a lot and protects him but he did worse things to non. We know he also needed money for his father. What do you think about him and how white and tee met and fell in love. Tee only listens to white and also what you think about white ? Is he only related to the group because he's tee's boyfriend. Tbh I'm loving their couple,their chemistry is so good. 🫠

Thank you so much for this question!!! I actually find Tee's character entirely fascinating tbh - he's a bully but he shows these moments of complete and utter humanity that I find really sympathetic and compelling.

Like I'll never justify what he does to Non - framing him for breaking the camera and then using that debt that he manufactured to pull Non into money laundering isn't exactly excusable. But I find it so interesting that while we see Tee doing all of these insane things, we also see these little moment of humanity throughout. Like when it's made clear that Tee is mostly working with his shady uncle to help get money for his dad - we don't know what kind of medical treatment his dad is undergoing, but clearly something severe that costs a lot to treat.

Tee is in arguably just as desperate a position as Non (if not more desperate). He's stuck needing money, dragged into illegal activity by his uncle, in too deep to get out. Does that excuse him being a manipulative bully? Of course not. But it's fascinating to me because it would've been SO easy to make Tee a non-sympathetic character, and yet we see all of this depth to him.

We're also shown that he didn't want to get any of his friends involved in the money laundering, including Non. He knew it was bad and illegal, and he didn't do it until he was completely and utterly backed into a corner, until he'd exhausted literally every other alternative and his uncle gave him an ultimatum.

Which is interesting because you think he wouldn't hesitate to pull in Non even before that, since he doesn't like Non. But he does hesitate. It shows that he has some ethics, and some sense that what he's doing has the potential to ruin whoever is involved. And he doesn't want to ruin Non, despite disliking him and picking on him at school.

Of course, he reverses this action by proceeding to get Non involved. And then, when Non goes to get the rest of their friend group involved, he backs Non up. But not because he's greedy, but because his uncle is shorting him left and right and he still doesn't have the money for his father's medication OR to pay Non.

Tee's position is parallel to Non's. He needs the money. He's into illegal shit he doesn't want to be in, but is forced in deeper every day by the people pulling the strings. And he, like Non, is just a kid. He shouldn't have to be discussing money laundering with his uncle at 17 years old to help pay for his father's medical bills.

And even though Tee continues being a dick to Non throughout the past (even going so far as to help his uncle make Non disappear), he shows hesitance at every turn when his uncle demands things of him, and he tries (weakly) to defend Non when his uncle starts saying Non is a police spy.

And after he brings Non to his uncle and Non "disappears," Tee can't stop himself from asking what happened to Non. Tee doesn't even like Non, and yet he still shows clear signs of fear and upset at the thought that Non might be dead. Because he knows he'd be complicit? Maybe. But he's also a teenage kid caught up in illegal things against his will. He might genuinely feel bad about it. His expression certainly conveys more than just guilt...

Does any of this balance out the bad things he does throughout the past? Of course not. He's still a shitty person and should be in jail for the part he played in Non's disappearance. But he's also fascinatingly sympathetic in the way he's forced into all of these actions. He clearly doesn't want to be doing any of the things he's done, but feels as though he has no choice. Either because his uncle will hang him out to dry for the police, or because he still needs the money for his father's treatment.

That said, I don't find Tee's treatment of White in the present dissonant to his character in the slightest. To me, it's clear that Tee is the type of person who cares deeply about those close to him, he just doesn't let a lot of people get close because he's experienced far too much pain and manipulation at the hands of his family. Tee is soft with White, but more than that, he's devastated when he learns that Por has died.

Tee cares. He cares a lot. He cares about White, he cares about Por. He arguably cares more about himself since he often abandons White during stressful situations, and is more concerned about what White will think of what they did to Non than he is about what he actually did to Non. But I think that he knows he had no choice (or at least, in his eyes he had no choice) in what happened to Non.

Anyway, this got long ahahaha I just find Tee's characterization to be so interestingly done. He's one of the most deeply complex characters in the entire show, and shout out to JJay for conveying all of his complexities so well, he's an amazing actor.

As for White... well. White is still a question mark for me personally. I wrote a theory previously that White could be Non's brother New, and I still think that's a possibility. I've also seen a wild theory floating around that White is actually Non himself, he's just gotten plastic surgery.

It's possible that White is exactly what he appears to be, a mostly-innocent bystander. Especially since White defends Tee when the others talk about thinking Tee did something bad to Non, and shows clear horror when Tee talks about burning Dang's corpse.

I'm not sure exactly how Tee and White met, but I think they're pretty compatible. White wants someone to take care of him, and Tee likes having someone look up to him. Tee also has a lot of love and care to show, he just doesn't/can't do it easily because of his history.

Because I find Tee sympathetic, I kind of hope that White isn't using Tee as part of the revenge plan (though I know a lot of people want that) because I find the idea of the one person Tee has opened up to turning around to betray him that way completely heartbreaking. But I also know that within the narrative, Tee is the villain. He's the main catalyst to everything bad that happened to Non, so it wouldn't surprise me if the story has set up exactly some twist like that happening to him for revenge. We'll have to see where the story takes us but personally, I think they're cute together right now!

[dreamspring]

dragula season 6 is flopping for meeee i think a lot because they keep trying to turn a drag competition into something you can game by playing dirty when the entire reason why i watch this show is because i want to see cool drag and makeup and art. like i don’t want to see talented competitors go home over petty drama! i want to see everyone at their best on stage. im so tired of these stupid ‘curses’ and fright feats and manufactured drama it is literally so unimportant i want to see how they create and conceptualise their art!!! just let everyone shine and have an honest competition because this is just getting exhausting to watch

[shorthaltsjester]

once again, begging, BEGGING everyone in the cr fandom to stop making posts critiquing how the fandom is being weird about one cast member by saying "if it was x, the fandom would love this/hate this even more." it turns out the cr fandom contains Multitudes of weird ass people and just because you haven't seen those reactions (or, even funnier if you are making claims about what the fandom does/does not do to other cast members, were not in the fandom during c1/c2) does not mean they do not exist. like there are certainly different social dynamics and injustices at play in some of the reactions the audience has to cast members, but almost always it is less a case of misogyny/queerphobia and more a case of people forgetting that storytelling is about understanding choices you would not yourself make and watching characters develop through conflict/struggle.

like, you can have the most salient point to make in the world about how shitty the reaction of the fandom to a certain cast member's (not their character, but the cast member as a person) choices but you immediately undo that if you make a claim like "if liam did this, the fandom would love it." perhaps the part of the fandom you are in, but certainly not the fandom that wanted to persecute him for having vax choose keyelth over gilmore, certainly not the fandom that consistently manufactured actual dislike between him and marisha throughout campaign 2 because of character choices.

likewise you might be absolutely right in criticizing the choices of the character that one of the cast members is playing, but if then in turn you say, "if this was a female cast member, everyone would hate it." my brother in christ, You are already the person who hates that character choice and it Wasn't a female cast member, so what is the truth? unless you have the statistics on the opinions every person who engages with the cr fandom has, truly just. you can make your point without appealing to a sense of misogyny/queerphobia/favouritism or whatever that you have no actual grounds for believing exists except for the fact that misogyny in general exists.

this isn't to say that things like misogyny don't influence how people react to things, all of our opinions are mediated through the social and material conditions in which we live. obviously, misogyny exists. however, truly, truly, the bigger problem in the cr fandom (at least on twitter/tumblr, idk about reddit and that is a choice I've intentionally made) is the consistent expectation that the cast adheres to what so many fans call 'comfort media' and a requirement that one's own opinions be validated by what the majority of the fandom believes (which aside from the obvious, is also an absurd expectation because trying to gauge the 'majority' of the cr fandom would be truly so much data). the cast have made it explicit many times that they value things like high stakes and big risks in their storytelling, and sometimes that means stupid character choices, character deaths, or interparty conflict. so much of the fandom has decided to engage with cr regardless of this and then gets upset when the liveplay of a ttrpg built around conflict contains conflict. similarly, people who claim to enjoy this conflict then get pissed off when other people in the fandom disagree with them and give away the ghost that what they want is validation by arguing that it is somehow problematic for the other side to have their opinions. it is much easier to blame any lack of satisfaction on how, actually, your section of the fandom has the right opinion and, actually, if everyone else wasn't queerphobic/misogynistic then they would see the proverbial light.

anyway, this is just me ranting out of both literal and metaphorical exhaustion with the "persuasive" (heavy quotes) tactics that some people in this fandom use. please look up some tips on like, how to avoid logical fallacies or formal critical thinking or just like. state your opinions and say you dislike the other options without thinking you need to provide some (often blatantly and horribly incorrect) rationale for how you're right. accept the pretentious bastard within yourself and stop seeking validation for your opinions in the fandom around you, your opinions are already correct if you assume them to be.

[moonfirerainbow]

I recently finished Hannibal for the first time and I have some gripes but the biggest one is how Hannibal stayed under the radar for so long. Like, Hannibal’s fake ass is so obviously robotic how did the likes of Jack, Alana and psychic ass Will not realize instantly that something was off about him?? Like okay Alana was blinded by admiration and then the dick, and Jack is in an unending state of exhaustion, stress and obsession but WILL? Will Graham the fucking psychic dude who can empath his way through crime scenes didn’t pick up on Hannibal’s insincerity and perfectly crafted person suit right away?? No one thought it was odd that he was a perfectly eligible partner and hadn’t been in any serious relationships especially with all those attractive skills and qualities? No one wondered how Hannibal was somehow good at everything but so withdrawn and surface level courteous/polite?? No one wondered why his eyes were soulless and his smiles were manufactured?? No one noticed that he doesn’t have any deep, meaningful friendships until he meets Will, when he’s literally socializing and throwing dinner parties/going to the opera regularly?? He is literally a robot unless Will is in front of him how did all these people get degrees in psychology 😂

[shamebats]

The self as perfected brand, the self as digital avatar, the self as data mine, the self as idealized body, the self as racist and anti-Semitic projection, the child as mirror of the self, the self as eternal victim. These doubles share one thing in common: all are ways of not seeing. Not seeing ourselves clearly (because we are so busy performing an idealized version of ourselves), not seeing one another clearly (because we are so busy projecting what we cannot bear to see about ourselves onto others), and not seeing the world and the connections among us clearly (because we have partitioned ourselves and blocked our vision). I think this, more than anything else, explains the uncanny feeling of our moment in history—with all of its mirrorings, synthetic selves, and manufactured realities. At bottom, it comes down to who and what we cannot bear to see—in our past, in our present, and in the future racing toward us. Performing and partitioning and projecting are the individual steps that make up the dance of avoidance. What is being avoided? I think it's our true doppelganger. What Daisy Hildyard calls our "second body," the one enmeshed with wars and whales, the one benefiting from the genocides of the past and adding our little drops of poison to the great die-offs of the future. The second body that perpetually mines the Shadow Lands for its comforts and conveniences. We avoid because we do not want to be bodies like that. We do not want our bodies to participate in mass extinction. We do not want our bodies to be wrapped in garments made by other bodies that are degraded, abused, and worked to exhaustion. We do not want to ingest foods marred by memories of human and nonhuman suffering. We do not want the lands we live on to be stolen and haunted. We do not want the children we love to live in a world that is less alive, less wonderous, more frightening. How could we? It is all so unbearable. No wonder we work so hard to look away. No wonder we erect those walls, literal and psychological. No wonder we would rather gaze at our reflections, or get lost in our avatars, than confront our shadows.

— Doppelganger (Naomi Klein)

[aihoshiino]

In Viewpoint B (thank you for that TL of it, by the way!), Ai says to Kyun that she was a liar even before becoming an idol. Ai also describes herself as a liar in her inner monologue in the flashback to when she was scouted in Chapter 8/Episode 1. Do you have any ideas about what lies/"lies" she could be referring to, or how her self-hatred generates this specific self-perception?

You're very welcome – glad you enjoyed! Viewpoint B is my favourite of the sidestories so I'm really happy I was able to make it more available to everyone else, too.

Talking about 'lies' in OnK is kind of messy sometimes, honestly! I think this is where a lot of the weirder/more off base interpretations of Ai in the fandom come from because people get tripped up by how the story uses the word and assume that it begins and ends with the very literal dictionary definition of like, "an intentionally false directly expressed statement". And while this isn't not part of what OnK means when it talks about lies, there's a lot more going on than that.

'Lies' in OnK are essentially an umbrella term being used to cover a whole shitload of thematic ground via abstraction. When Oshi no Ko talks about lies, it's talking about falsehoods, inauthenticity, the sanitized and manufactured versions of ourselves we wear for social approval, the idea of persona, celebrity culture, idol culture, parasocial relationships, abuse, purity culture, misogyny, art, fiction, mental illness, love, hate and all manner of other things.

"Holy shit, Claire" you may presumably say "That's a whole lot of things for just one word to cover???"

And I would say... yep it is! But that's why just one word is used — because the story has so much ground it wants to cover, some of it needs to be abstracted just to not exhaust the audience. To quote Dan Olson's weirdly relevant video on the NC's The Wall review:

"Abstraction is, counter-intuitively, really efficient. It allows a movie to be about a lot of things simultaneously by letting symbols bleed into each other. [...] Symbols shift and merge and break apart, juxtaposed and contrasted in order to create an impression of their interconnected relationship in a way that is difficult to do with mere words."

Accordingly, it's a little hard to express this idea without just vaguely waving my hands and going "oooo the vibes" but I think it is something you end up just kind of vibing with when you have spent enough time chewing on the characters and why they do and say the things they do.

In Ai's case, when she talks about 'lies', she is generally referring to the performance of a sanitized and idealized self by omitting the parts of herself that do not line up with her public image. I've previously noodled on this topic in an older post that I still stand by and this basic idea still forms the foundation of most of my Ai analysis: "Really, the biggest “lie” Ai is telling is the one people have demanded she tell: the illusion of an eternally pure and cheerful idol. But being an idol has become so forcibly entangled in Ai’s personhood at the expense of allowing her to just be a human that of course she thinks of herself as a liar for being unable to live up to that image."

To Ai, any failure to disclose her true, ugly self is a lie. Her performance of a self that other people find lovable is the thing she thinks of as lying. It's also worth noting that in both Viewpoint B and her flashback, she's describing her younger self in hindsight and attributing the label of 'liar' to her rather than this being something Ai called herself before meeting Saitou, who went on to completely rewire her brain by teaching her that this performance for social approval was lying and that it was okay and even necessary for her to do it.

I also think Ai's history of abuse at her mom's hands also contributed to this a great deal. I, uh, don't want to go too deep into this in my silly Oshi no Ko meta tag but speaking from experience: growing up with a parent like Ayumi, you get really good at lying. You get really good at saying "I'm sorry", "I forgive you" and whatever the fuck else they want to hear from you just to calm them down and make them happy. You get really, really good at performing the most perfectly sanitized version of yourself possible just to keep the peace. Knowing just how long and how violently Ai was being abused by Ayumi, it's really hard for me to not project that survival tactic onto her.

[celestialholz]

Treasures, Ruined (or 'Are the Elite Four the Treasures of Ruin?')

My fellow thought-experimentee @serene-hatterene mentioned a little while ago that the Treasures of Ruin bear a passing resemblance to our Paldean Elite Four, and I agree... though I don't think it means a heel turn is coming. None of them are evil - there's been literally zero foreshadowing of any form, and I personally refuse to believe that there is a single shred of evil in Hassel specifically. This man is sunshine incarnate - he even goddamn looks like the sun, and is painted as such in Surrendering Sunflora.

No, no evil here. But I'll tell you what I do think.

The Treasures of Ruin are the Elite Four if they were to go down a very different and much darker path, hence the Dark typing.

That's a fun statement, isn't it? Allow me to explain...

We will start in dex order, with Wo-Chien, our Hassel counterpart.

This is most of Wo-Chien's lore.

Now, there are multiple things of note here:

Tablets were classically used pre-paper manufacturing to write or draw things upon - like a musician might wish to do, or an artist;

Hassel comes from a noble family, who don't agree with his life choices - whilst he doesn't seem to bear grudges in his present state of mind, it isn't a stretch at all to imagine that he could were his mind dark enough;

Plants. Wo-Chien drains plant life, and holds control over it.

... Now, imagine if you will a moment, a darker timeline: a timeline where, embittered by his family's treatment and his own musical failure, Hassel finds Brassius, and instead of healing and supporting and encouraging him as he does in our canon, leading them to a beautiful and loving companionship, he instead does the opposite: takes out his spite and his anger, leads Brassius instead to ruin and to the death he saved him from in another life.

... No, you're crying. (/j, I am also weeping, god I hate noticing things sometimes. IT'S OKAY GUYS THEY'RE HAPPY AND LOVED AND ALIVE IN OUR WORLD *ugly sobbing*)

This idea is backed up further by the fact that Wo-Chien's shrine must be opened via purple stakes - Poison, seeping into the Grass.

Oh, and as Bulbapedia points out:

... Huh. Imagine that, the emotional guy darkened due to his own feelings - or, indeed, that of our favourite Grass gym leader...

And then there's the fact that Hass' lead Pokemon Noivern nearly always starts battle by halving your HP with Super Fang... which has exactly the same effect as Ruination, the Treasures' signature move.

Anyway, let's move on, before I sob myself to sleep...

We arrive next at Chien-Pao, or our Larry counterpart.

Lore incoming...

Whilst Wo-Chien is represented by grudges, Chien-Pao is represented by hatred - and we know Larry a. hates his boss, b. hates his three jobs, and c. probably hates his life, as tired and done as he seems to be.

And so, imagine a world where that hatred, rather than be channeled into exhaustion and exasperation, becomes instead active - becomes instead a very powerful man who can apparently master types on a whim tearing down all before him, telling the world that's kept him down to bow before him. He becomes the boss; he becomes the hatred of those 'slain' by the corporate structure, and he simply sits there and watches the chaos.

Now, lovely little tired sweetheart Larry would rather eat onigiri, tell you you're very good at battling and go to sleep... but then, Hass would never drain Brassius either. It's all in the possibility, the alternate universe.

Interesting supplementary points here include:

Staraptor has the same base attack as Chien-Pao... who, like the rest of the Treasures, was patch-nerfed. It did have 130 atk, ten points higher than Staraptor;

It's represented by orange stakes, the colour of the Fighting type - Larry's one major weakness on his gym team, which later he adopts Flying types for and becomes strong against;

This man is a facade. He gives you the TM for it, he lives the gimmick... and when one tears down a facade, the person beneath is revealed. Not that I'm saying the person beneath wants to watch the world burn, but... not too tricky to imagine someone snapping under Larry's level of pressure, is it?

What's mightier than the sword, so the saying goes? The pen. You know, those things people use a lot in an office...

God, let's see if Rika can cheer us up a bit, although I doubt it given the topic... we move, then, to Ting-Lu.

The lore has this to say on the subject of Ting-Lu:

Ting-Lu represents fear: and if any of you have also sat there like me in fear for your champion prospects (and possibly life) as Rika stares you down during the interview process, I think we know why.

Fear... and control over the earth. The translation is a little more literal here, given that they share their specialist types.

Our Rika is fun and laid-back, but in another world, well... imagine a woman motivated by the fear of those before her, intimidating all who stand before her in both words and in battle, swallowing her enemies with the power of the earth. As a fun counterpoint, the Rika we know and love even says that you shouldn't find her worrying when you meet her during your gym challenge:

Couple of additional things:

Ting-Lu's stakes are green - Grass, life, swallowed whole by the ground;

Rika's rocking the classically evil red eyes;

Most of her Pokemon have the capacity to learn Fissure, which is referenced in Ting-Lu's bio.

We know comparatively little about Rika compared to Hassel or Larry, but the type-share kinda says it all here.

And finally, we reach everyone's favourite overachieving tiny sister, Poppy.

Here's some lore for y'all:

Now again, in comparison to Hassel and Larry, we know next to nothing about Poppy, but envy specifically is interesting. The kid is very clearly far too powerful for her age, and it's therefore quite simple to imagine envy-based corruption occurring - of her dominating her peers, of her envy that everyone else seems to fit in where she doesn't. Thankfully in the Elite Four she's amongst friends, but... the composition of this team, jesus. Take a look:

Kid is made of nuclear weapons, my god. The young mind is impressionable, easy to lead astray... except she's all fine and adorable, because she has structure, and an outlet for her power. Without that... well, Chi-Yu's on fire, so... I think this about sums it up.

Little bit more on the intrigue:

Mmm. Lighter. Well yeah, she would be...

There's a saying in gemology, or the sculpting of gems, about jade - what Chi-Yu's bead eyes are made of. And it goes like this:

... Like a bell? Like that one she has on her team?

Chi-Yu is represented by blue stakes, or the Water type; the tears of a lost little girl, her fieriness extinguished.

So, now we've analysed the similarities of the characters, let's take a look at the story of the Treasures.

'The king's greed', huh...

... Huh. Geeta, who owns a Kingambit, who is the Top Champion. Now, aside from Larry, who seems to just straight-up dislike her, we don't know how the other three feel about their 'king' here - but we do know from the gym leader rematches that multiple of those guys aren't fans of her hardline stance. She and Tulip style-clash, Katy resents her for having her go easy on challengers, and Grusha seems afraid of her power to oust him. She seems to be a divisive woman, and... well, it's irrelevant, because we're here to imagine an alternate universe, friends. In another life, Geeta greedily overworks her people, taking the desire she has to host the greatest League and turning it dark; in another life, grudges, hates, fears and envies lead to a world of destruction and rebellion instead of a united found family. What is a king there is a queen here, and what would our queen be able to do, if she was attacked by all four of her treasures at once? Very little.

Four treasures, one king, two worlds. We even have the people to 'seal them away' - us, Nemona, Penny, Arven, and all the rematch gym leaders, who at that point outlevel the Elite Four. After all, if the shoe fits... two of us have already have taken down all four of them.

Let's all be glad we live in the good timeline, folks, where our Elite Four are loved and wholesome.

... It's fascinating isn't it, that we've pulled up these stakes up, crumbled them to dust... released the Poison, the Fighting, the Grass, the Water... that we've all seeped toxicity into the earth, lost the fight, had the life sucked away, and doused youthful enthusiasm.

... Nah, can't mean anything. Can't mean anything that we're the wielders who have already defeated them. Can't mean anything that Geeta's name in Japanese is 'omodaka', which directly translates to 'heightened surface', like the high places you nearly always find these stakes on.

... Nah, guys. Just a coincidence. They're all perfectly lovely... in our world. Still, quite the AU, right? ;)

[girlreviews]

Review #438: Parklife, Blur

In some ways this review is going to be like the antithesis to the one I wrote for Pulp’s Different Class. In that, this album features songs that are so important to British culture, and individually to my formative years, that I can’t ever be mad to hear them. However, unlike my ongoing and steadfast admiration for Pulp as a band, I have way more complicated feelings about Blur, and about this album in particular. Okay, so some context and education first. Blur had success in the UK with their debut album, Leisure, but had really dug themselves into a financial hole through poor management. They owed the taxman a lot of money. As such, they were essentially forced to go on a long, arduous tour of the US to promote their successful album. In theory this would be great. But it wasn’t great. They were touring tiny towns and venues that had never heard of them. The grunge scene had just exploded out of the Pacific Northwest and literally nobody Stateside had any fucks to give about Blur, British Music, or what they were doing on this tour. The band themselves have described the space and time immediately preceding the creation of Parklife as pretty bleak. Miserable. Oppressive. They felt backed into a corner, exhausted, downtrodden, underappreciated, and homesick.

Where they sort of lose me on this is where they express feeling as if they were shamed for being British and they were resistant to just create a record that adhered to the current trend of music. They returned to the UK with a concept in mind: a quintessentially British album, about British culture, that makes a statement: British music is a thing of its own, and it’s worth your time. I mean, I don’t disagree with that. I just fail to see how grunge being a popular genre at the time meant that they weren’t able to be proudly British, and proudly produce whatever music suited them. Artists make art for the art, and if someone likes it, that’s great. But they were young men at the time and I imagine egos and the lures of chart success influenced their feelings about it. You don’t get into a tabloid frenzied ongoing rift with the Gallagher brothers because you’re a really chill bunch of guys that only care about the music. There’s an irritating overtone of testosterone and national pride that has an icky vibe to it. It’s too easy for it to be co-opted. And it was! And it still is!

So let me just get the following points off my chest and then I’ll work my way through them:

1. Parklife is and was an important record in British music

2. It’s also not Blur’s strongest album by a BIG margin, but it’s managed to persist as somewhat of a defining album for them. I’m glad they shook it off, and we didn’t just get record after record of Parklife from them. That’s honestly how a lot of people would have done it and I can respect their commitment to art as a band: we’re going to do something different than what you just loved, and if you don’t like it that’s a you problem. People did like it.

3. Parklife also paved the way for an obnoxious marketing/PR ploy from the music industry surrounding British Indie/Rock artists, that created a ridiculous craze and wave that was surfed by bands ranging from incredible and deserving, to absolute dogshit. Ladies and gentleman, I give you: Britpop. If you were there you know what it was like, and you understand all the nuance and resentment surrounding it as a “genre”. We’ll get into this more later. In hindsight it all worked out okay and we live in a world where – at least to my knowledge – you can appreciate and criticize both Oasis and Blur for their talents and their fuck ups without it representing some massive class and cultural divide. This was absolutely not always the case and it was, for some reason, a really big deal, and it mattered to everyone, a lot. Blur or Oasis? I was 7 turning 8 years old at the height of this manufactured-turned-real rivalry, and it genuinely caused me stress. As a child! I loved them both. But I felt forced to choose. I chose Blur. I understand how ridiculous it sounds, but I wish I could go back in time and refuse to choose. It mattered, and it also really didn’t. They don’t sound similar enough to compare or compete? So why did we have to? But WE DID. It was on the news. It was the biggest thing going on at the time. It dominated the papers. Bookies were taking bets on who would be #1 between the two of them. Blur won that battle with Country House. I don’t think anybody won the war. I think everybody got bored, gave up, and went home.

So Blur kicked off Britpop with their return from this grinding US tour and they made a full blown concept album about being British. And it was good. But all of a sudden there was just this… Overwhelming influx of bands who were banking their success solely on this “being British”, thing. It had a look, it had a sound, it had a style, it had a location. The same thing happened with the Indie wave in the early/mid-2000s. It’s so annoying to me though. You end up just having to sift through a whole bunch of fucking garbage to find the stuff that is legit, and would be legit with or without the “scene”. Parklife is legit. It’s just responsible for the aftermath and onslaught of bullshit. Is that their fault? No, but they definitely participated in it all for a bit. There was a lot of great music that technically fell under the Britpop genre, but essentially looking back most of it isn’t Britpop – because that was just made up. It was just good music from various genres, and they all happened to be British artists. That’s not the same thing. It was just a music industry scheme and boy howdy did everyone buy-in.

The song Parklife, is pretty genius, still. Damon Albarn, unable to commit to the concept with a cockney accent, enlisted well-known British actor, Phil Daniels (of Quadrophenia fame) to deliver the lyrics. This was both creative and super novel. People went pretty nuts about it. They still do. It’s got the same pull as Common People. If you want to see an entire nation lose their shit over a song – you might stick on Parklife. It’s just deeply entrenched into the fabric of British culture and it’s as if it was from the moment it was released. It just is. I actually saw Parklife live at Reading Festival when I was 16 or 17, and they brought Phil Daniels out. The most memorable thing about the whole thing, was that Damon Albarn fell off the stage. I guess the most surprising thing about the wider record, is that you expect it to be more of Parklife the song. And it actually isn’t. It’s just a Blur record, and a not bad one at that.

It's just so weird how a regular album took on this entire life of its own, turned into a cultural phenomenon, and produced this era of music that for better or worse is part of history now. Some of the subsequent singles from subsequent albums honestly seem like they were more “Britpop” than a lot of the tracks on Parklife. Maybe they were running with it for sometime to bank on its success, but ultimately they grew tired of it too and changed directions. I’m glad.

I guess the other thing about Blur, is the individuals its made up of. They’ve been indie darlings forever. Graham Coxon was a nerdy little weirdo, he left and came back. I think Britpop almost killed him if I’m being honest. Damon Albarn was a pretty-faced front man and has gone on to produce some absolutely insane albums for other artists and with other bands. He’s got something, that’s for sure, but it’s not always good. Some ego and misogyny always sort of leaks out and it would make my life easier to enjoy his creative output if he just kept his mouth shut. He seems to have a problem playing nice with successful women and insists on tearing them down publicly, only to be forced to admit that he hasn’t actually worked with them, met them, talked to them, or even listened to the music that he is loudly criticizing. That’s fucking annoying, but, is also par for the course regarding male opinions being inexplicably important and accepted even absent of any actual valid perspective or input. Damon, you have a lot of great things to say with your music. That doesn’t mean you have to say something, about everything, all the time.

Alex James, floppy-haired and handsome bassist, for a time was the biggest darling of them all – attracting praise for being so quirky and unique by establishing a cheese farm. Over the years, I have come to suspect he’s really just hidden in plain sight and really what you get with him is a basic man, with basic opinions, who loves some attention. I can’t ever really quite put my finger on it with him but there’s something deeply off putting about his whole persona. I’ll just say it. Whatever image he puts out and however quirky and cool he makes himself out to be: he’s just a fucking Tory, man. With that comes everything else: classism, racism, misogyny and fucking over everyone worse off than you, so long as you get yours. But hey everyone, who cares right? He makes cheese! Isn’t that so weird and kooky? He’s gotta be a cool guy! It was this exact fucking line of thinking that allowed Boris Johnson to take advantage of the comedy panel show circuit for years and years and years, elevating his reputation among liberal young voters. Everyone thought Boris was a funny joke, so let’s vote for him! He goes from MP, to London Mayor, to high-ranking cabinet member, to the fucking PRIME MINISTER. And it wasn’t a funny joke then, was it? So let’s pay attention to the things people actually say and do, and not just the music that they make and the cheese they produce. The other guy in the band, whose name I can literally never remember – Dave Rowntree – he’s just the drummer, who brought nothing to the band visually, and was just sort of along for the ride. Seems like a nice enough guy, it’s just that nobody cares.

If you’re interested in making more sense of this review, I will recommend that you turn your attention to Netflix series This Is Pop which does a pretty decent overall rundown of Blur, Oasis, and the Britpop era. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good, and I appreciate that it gives a voice to the women in that music scene at the time, who were treated like shit and had to deal with all of the masculine national pride shit that came along with it all. It’s pretty clear from listening to them: Oasis, literally didn’t give a shit – about anything – and that was pretty hilarious. Blur, despite being genuine talent with good music to offer, bought into the hype and acted like a bunch of pricks publicly. They were all pricks, it’s just some of them were more authentically pricks than others. Ha.

I guess all I can say is this: I love Blur, and I hate Blur. I don’t know that I’m inclined to agree with Parklife’s inclusion in the Rolling Stone Top 500, but I can also appreciate that I’m talking from the inside and the majority of listeners didn’t also absorb the cultural moment as it was happening. If you happened to be there, you know it was all kind of nonsense. It’s kind of wild watching documentaries or reading write-ups of a particular time in music that you were actually present for in real-time. Like how I imagine people who were at Woodstock, or when Bob Dylan went electric, or the original British Invasion of America with the Beatles. It was a whole thing, and if you were there, you remember.

[sullina]

i think one of the biggest steps we, as a society, will be able to take towards sustainability (of, like... everything) is to eliminate the concept of manufactured obsolescence. For big stuff like houses and buildings, but also smaller stuff, especially electronics of all kinds.

And this got a bit long, but the TL;DR (too long; didn't read) is: capitalism is evil and gonna destroy the entire planet unless we abolish it as soon as possible.

There's no real reason why any kind of computer/tablet/phone/etc. can't last more than like 3 years max. It should be highly illegal for companies to push updates onto our electronics that purposely slow them down, or to stop support of "old" operating systems that aren't even 5 years old yet, in favor of getting a new phone with a new operating system for no reason other than to sell people a new phone.

Same goes for storage, kinda. I have an SD card that's about as big as a SIM card and can store 250GB of data. There's no reason why my phones internal storage is only 25GB, except to push "cloud storage" onto people for companies to secretely mine that data to push more advertising onto us. And why is it always ads, anyway? Like, at least offer me a service, but they're not doing that.

And not just phones, but literally everything. There's no reason why a fridge or an oven or an automatic feeder or ANY kind of smart device should need a wifi connection to just do the one thing it's supposed to do. None. These things worked just fine in the part when we didn't have any internet of things type bullshit, there's no reason to make these things worse except to squeeze more money out of people. (I am aware that "smart things" can be incredibly helpful for disabled people to live an independent life. However, in those cases as well, there's no reason why "no internet" should be a fatal point of failure, and there's no reason why something like a thermostat needs to have an internet connection to recieve voice commands. I mean it needs to know like... 3 or 4 words: an activating phrase, "higher", "lower", and numbers. It cannot be complicated enough to require regular updates via internet.)

and non-electronics as well.

Just take clothes.

So many clothes are made out of "polyesther" or "polyacryl" or something else with the word "poly-" at the start, which usually just means "plastic". And I'm sure there are some uses for plastic clothes like if someone has complicated allergies to a bunch of natural fibers, but there's no reason to have more than 80% of all clothes available on the market be either pure plastic or half plastic. 1) it's absolutely atrocious for the environment, because these clothes leech microplastics into waters like no tomorrow while only lasting like 5 years at best 2) they're just terrible quality-wise. I used to wear a plastic jacket in winter, and i would either sweat to death with it closed without even exhausting myself, or freeze like hell with it open. Neither of which are ideal. Then i got a cotton sweater to wear in winter and i didn't sweat, but i wasn't cold either. I was comfortably warm without getting sweaty, because the sweater let my skin breathe. Plastic can't do that. 3) Vegans can yell about this one all they want, but "vegan leather" is also just plastic. there's no such thing as "vegan leather", but ACTUAL leather may harm an animal (though with as much beef that's sold all over the world, there's no way there's a shortage of cow leather), but it's only gonna "harm" ONE animal. Not every single animal on earth due to byproducts of the manufacturing process and the fact that it never fucking goes away. And real leather is so durable. Like, sure, you kill one animal and get its skin for leather (but also its meat for food and everything else, i don't even know how much), if you care for the thing you made from its skin, you're set for literal generations, because it doesn't break after like 5 years. And if that thing does eventually break, you can still break it up and use the leather for new, smaller, things. And once those things break, too, to the point where the leather can't be reused, you can throw it away, knowing that it will decompose soon, instead of sticking around forever.

And I'm sure there's plenty more things, but it all ends up leading back to money and capitalism. Capitalism tells companies to get money. More money. More money. Get absolutely obscene amounts of money.

and of course the first question that regular people always ask is "but why?" But here's the thing: the "why" isn't important in capitalism. There's no reason behind the hoarding of wealth, because the hoarding of wealth is the reason.

and remember the saying "When the Last Tree Is Cut Down, the Last Fish Eaten, and the Last Stream Poisoned, You Will Realize That You Cannot Eat Money"?

Yeah, capitalism doesn't care about the fact that you're cutting down the last tree, killing the last fish, and poisoning the last stream. As long as you're making money, the damage you're doing is irrelevant. There's no cost too great for making money, as long as that cost isn't money.

[nyxrev]

Details

Just some stuff I noticed, from small to serious.

旦那 (dan'na)

K so I found it funny Black Sperm calls Saitama “dan'na” bc the term can mean different by its context, eg. an honorific for husband, patron, or master, etc. I believe it's translated to English as “Boss” which is most fit but when I first read it I automatically associated it with “master” of the more softer nuances and not the rougher casual “hey boss” sort of vibe, so I was surprised like, huh BS is unusually deferential to Saitama, esp. bc the rest of his speech pattern is fairly casual. But, makes sense bc he's seen enough to know. Also makes sense bc on one hand, rn he has to pretend to be a benign, goofy “monkey” …idk how ppl see a black teletubby n just believe it's monkey but s'ok, story logic… to get by heroes, hence the casual goofy monkey speech, but on the other, he absolutely does not want to cross Saitama, so he chooses to refer to him politely.

master (of a house, shop, etc.)​

husband​: can be used to refer to your own, or smb else's husband (add honorifics). Some other ways of address: 夫 otto, 主人 shujin,

sir; boss; master; governor​: used to address a male patron, customer, or person of high status

patron of a mistress, geisha, bar or nightclub hostess; sugar daddy ​(パトロン)

alms; almsgiver:​ Buddhism, usually written as 檀那 for Buddhist context

As you can see, a non-exhaustive list of what it can mean. With automatic association to house -hold and patronage nuances, my mental image got mildly confused for a moment. Like can you really see an obeisant, nice little BS who humbly serves Saitama with utmost formality??

I feel myself make an uneasy face I cannot quite describe.

Also it was good to see him ask about Manako, but I do want to know if she's alive and safe.

Homewrecker? No it's (unlicensed) Demolition. Opennenoorn Get Out

^after the scene when Forte got hit, Fubuki told Saitama to go with her and said:

あなたの住処を破壊した張本人に会わせてあげる

Basically the reason she gave for their excursion was, “I'll let you meet the person responsible for the destruction of your residence.”

Whom I thought was Psykos bc at the moment, we saw parallel scenes of Tsukuyomi guy at her cell and Tatsumaki had not arrived, but Saitama doesn't know Psykos yet, so when Fubuki made her speech, Saitama confused without so much as context to who all the ppl on scene are, then Tatsumaki arrives most destructively, he must have thought it could be absolutely no other than the “chibi” who threw Genos on a wall.

Which is why Saitama went “I see, the one who destroyed my home was…(Tatsumaki) ಠ ◡ ಠ##”

But I had to wonder who did Fubuki really mean to refer to with “the person who destroyed your place”? If Fubuki meant Psykos how would Saitama react?

Fortress Haven or Death Maze?

Hige Coffee: lit. Beard Coffee (lol)

Well it's good to see Max and Shadow on break, but an emergency call cuts it short, and amidst the commotion, one of them (I assume it's Max) laments the place is so big it's easy to get lost.

What can I say, it's almost like the new HQ, with its concentrated yet puzzled pyramid structure, complete with a moat of self-isolation, remotely omniscient surveillance, a manufactured façade of paradise with luxury security atop seven hells of hidden disasters eager to be released, and so on…almost like it's a direct visual representation of HA's operation hierarchy: centralized system of power and economic monopoly, yet rife with office politics, factions at tension, dysfunctional management, corrupt unstable foundation, and unsavoury secrets to hide.

Cohesively staffed, an impregnable fortress. Yet improperly managed, an exit-less death maze.

And I say it bc the place is not only complicated and spacious but also uniform. Its grand Jenga-Lego stack of cluster structures look so similar, if not literally the same, from every angle, if you rotated it on a turntable, I couldn't tell the sides from each other nor which faced NESW at first.

Of course, part of why they got lost is, it's newly built, heroes just moved to residency, obviously, it's not out of expectation for heroes, or anyone who's never step foot there for the matter, to be unfamiliar with exact floor plan details of such a vast, complex structure, its design sleek at best and dystopian at worst.

But I must wonder, for I feel like it will become a problem later, HQ's isolated vast complexity… If it doesn't fall apart from its core first, what with overpowered resident, destructive visitors, and let's not forget the basement full of a nasty little monstrosity of pets the corrupt executives keep for cash flow they don't use to pay heroes.

Air and Blue Fire: Cyborg Surgery?

On a scale of beneficial to suspicious, question.

Notice the text right next to Air? It's an SFX.

キュイーン kyui—n (onomatopoeia): like a whirr sound effect, low sounds of machinery at work, usually small technical ones which contract or spin. For example, camera lens… how ominous, don't you think?

While Forte is eager to get out of bed and make a quick work of the noisy monsters who disturb his already bad day, blow off convenient steam, it looks like Air can't even emote natural, human facial expressions, and it unsettles me so!

If you look long enough it almost looks like he is controlled like a puppet Σ(-᷅_-᷄⁉︎)

As for BlueFire, I can't tell if it's an empty sleeve or a prosthetic arm but hopefully he got an arm with extra spicy flamethrower fingers so he can be extra terribly efficient. He'd probably max his specs to roast evildoers out of spite. I sense one step to Genos. Same age, similar personality.

Bonus: List of Every Hero Present

aka. faces you see the last moments of your life, if you happen to be a mischievous monster at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Top panel: Golden Ball, Spring Mustachio, Red Muffler, Funeral Suspenders, D-pad, bottom L hat prolly Gun Gun, Shooter, Smile Man, Skunk-Boy Gasmask, top L corner Eyelashes, Mohawk Hacker, Brass Knuckles guy, Great Philosopher, Magic Trick Man, Darkness Blade, Bones, prolly Blue Fire's back (front of Bones), All Back Man? (didn't he quit?), Butterfly DX, Kusari-Gama, Mushroom, Horse-Bone, Twin Tails, can't tell who the mop of dark hair next to her is but prolly Blizzard member, Tank-Top Al-Dente, Tank-Top Rockabilly, another two Blizzards by the suit,

Bottom: Eyelashes, Brass Knuckle, Spiked Club Blizzard, L- Max, Genji, Stinger, Tank-Top Mask, Tank-Top Racer, Crescent Eyebroll, Green, Wild Horn, Skunk Boy Gasmask, Tank-Top Al-Dente, Tank-Top Rockabilly, a sliver of Darkness Blade, Heavy Kong.

Fubuki Group? More like Mafia?

Look at how they stand. Look at how they walk. Look at their formation. If each of them were as strong as Needle Star got, fought as well as the support team cooperated, if equally valued and given opportunity to contribute their expertise, they truly would be formidable, fearsome foes, and reliable allies Fubuki can trust to hold their own and not constantly worry about. Of course part of the problem is Fubuki's own insecurities but we know she has the potential to be a great leader if she put her focus on the right path and used her power to maximum beneficial strategy

Counted around 33 members without Fubuki or Saitama. Rowdy Suit Gang. Mountain Ape n Lily stand out and you can see them from far away.

Extra Bonus: Spot the Spy 6-6

Nah cuz I really need to talk about the cursed Tsukuyomi guys. I brewed some praises n some toasty roasty jokes. I need to cook some wacky, juicy conspiracy about them. Just a little gentle speculation.

[howlingday]

Qrow: If you used to smoke, and now you vape, then you're a real piece of shit. You used to be cool, man!

Qrow: Now you're standing on some fucking street corner, slobbering all over a shitty metal exhaust pipe cock, like Foolie's pussy sibling!

Qrow: You know who I feel sorry for? Ashtray manufacturers! They're all sleeping in their fucking cars because you want fucking vape!

Qrow: And you know who else? The people who make matches! Mm?! Mm?! Mm?! Spare a fucking thought for the people who make matchbooks with nightclub logos so that grizzled, old, homicide detectives could fish one out of the corpse's pocket, and then know EXACTLY WHERE to start looking for the KILLER!

Qrow: Literally THOUSANDS of unsolved homicides because you want to vape!

[beatsboy]

8.17.24 / day 55 of being a delusional artist

day 3 of moon time

today (yesterday) was long, it was hot, i did not defend my time as an artist instead, i stretched outward, into the world, missed my apartment the entire time. the time i felt most comfortable, oddly, was during my 9am session with eugene, though that likely means that each event throughout the day merely chipped away at me, bit by bit, until i came home, exhausted, at about 6pm.

day 3 of my period, and everything that touches me feels like a needle, my emotions are like bottled live electricity and can be affected by everything and anything. on top of it all, i am in excruciating pain every so often, and it feels like every time i bounce back from a cramp attack, i am hit by another.

i used to snort coke off of toilet seats and now i am experience an intensely growing fear of plastics and toxic chemicals in everything from my food, to my clothes, my sheets, my towels, my dish ware, pretty much everything. everything is plastic, though, in this day + age, and i have to come to terms with the fact that even if this is a problem that exists and is valid in the world, i cannot afford to replace my entire wardrobe with natural cotton fibers and linens that are non-toxic and have no artificial dyes. i can’t replace every plastic thing in my home, i can’t even afford to buy all organic groceries. that doesn’t stop me from spiraling every time i go grocery shopping, though. it doesn’t stop me from panicking every time i want to eat something that i didn’t make myself (so i don’t, or i do and i immediately become afraid/anxious)

tonight i watched the first episode of the new season of the umbrella academy and in this season, victor (elliot page’s character <3) is a womanizing bar owner that has run through every woman in town (love) and klause (token mentally ill/addicted character) looks to have developed some form of OCD, especially in regards to germs and contamination. He is newly sober in this season, and has transformed into a clean freak, paranoid, control-seeking individual. Is this normal for recovering addicts? To pull a complete 180 and try to control everything in your environment? is it because we know how close we’ve been to death that we want to do anything and everything in our control to prevent it from being not on our terms?

part of me sees how i am living an unhealthy life, but the other part of me just thinks i’m right. it’s hard to tell yourself that you’re wrong when every day there’s a news story about some company/farm/manufacturer’s investigation findings being released on toxic chemicals present (above the legal limit, of course). it’s always the same; some company, whether it be kerrygold (my favorite butter), crocs (my favorite shoes), boar’s head (my favorite roast beef), raw rolling papers (supposedly natural, used them for years), simply made orange juice (literally almost bought the day before the lawsuit went public), or seltzer water (thankfully i hate that shit), it’s always the same. ok, boars head was lysteria, but the rest were all chemicals above the legal limit. arsenic, bpas, bpfs, bpss, lead, piss, whatever. poison in something i’ve consumed, worn, used.

i used to poison myself all the time, though, right? so why should it bother my this much? why does it bother me so much than it did before?

i used to think i was confident, i think i was just vacant, dissociating so much that i could be whatever people wanted me to be i never used to spend this much time thinking about my principles, how my actions, from what i buy, to what i support, to who i support, reflect myself as a person, and how they do and don’t align with who i am. i didn’t used to wince at the perfect drying rack someone sends me in an amazon link because i’m boycotting. i would have just bought it. “there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism” i would have said. sure, but some consumption is, let’s say, less unethical than others. and maybe i knew that when i was 20, in college, ordering everything for my freshman dorm from amazon because i didn’t have a car and it was easy. maybe i knew that it was unethical and wasn’t who i was as a person, and did it anyway, because it was easy. or maybe i wasn’t this person yet. maybe this person i am now, 7 years in the future, is simply the kind of person who does not do that. and maybe that’s because i got sober, and maybe that was just part of it. the tipping point, between freedom and intention. between chaos and direction. i find it hard to just let go now. the person i am now is holding on tight to rules that do not apply to the person i dream of being. the person i dream of being does not wish to control his world. the person i dream of being flows through the world, and hopes to leave it a little better than when he found it, though i suppose even that is hubris, to wish to change something else. for i know the only thing i have control over changing is myself.