#maybe 'took a screenshot' is correct

[tenderwulf]

Hey! I wanted to tell you how much you fanfic brought me back to loving Yu-gi-oh and Bakura, how much I missed them and how much I realized how much I needed them, I wanted to get a tattoo for Bakura, and your art had inspired me a lot, it’s beautiful, and I wanted to know if it was okay with you for me to get one of your Yu gi oh drawings as fl reference for a tattoo for Bakura, if it’s not is completely understandable and okay!

Don't mind me, I just got a little emotional

Oh my god???? First off, it literally means the world to me to hear that my fic rekindled your love of yugioh and Bakura. Like... I've said it before and I'll say it again: back when I started writing this fic I didn't expect anyone would read it, let alone like it. So, you know, it's still kinda surreal, but also very rewarding (and also humbling) every time people tell me how much my fic affected them. I'm so, so grateful that you shared this with me.

And OF COURSE, by all means, use my art however you like! It's such an honor! Just make sure to send me a pic if you do get a tattoo, cause I will definitely want to see it!

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

[familyofpaladins]

Stupid sibling stuff

Raph knew they would be trying to figure out what he "messed up" and them going crazy trying to figure it out is the best kind of revenge hehe

(in the part where Leo walks in, Don and Mikey are trying to see if maybe Raph punched a hole in the wall and just put the bricks back)

[thankskenpenders]

The mystery of that random magenta-haired Sonic woman: solved?

For almost three years now, there's been a little mystery in the Sonic franchise: who the hell is this lady?

Well, it seems like fans have collectively pieced together the answer. And it's more interesting than I expected.

For those who don't keep up with Sonic lore minutia like I do, this is a screenshot from the very first episode of TailsTube, released on YouTube back in March 2022. When Sonic and Tails were explaining the basics of their Earth and the fact that humans and anthropomorphic animals coexist, Tails showed a slide of some human NPCs from Sonic Unleashed. But the slide also included this never-before-seen character design, drawn in a conspicuously different, more anime-influenced art style from the Pixar-esque Unleashed characters. So... where's she from?

At the time, it was assumed that she was probably from an upcoming project. She looks like she could be an explorer of some sort, so maybe she's just an NPC from Frontiers, I thought. And then she wasn't in Frontiers. Sonic Prime, maybe? Nope, no humans in Prime. Okay, well maybe the IDW comics are going to start incorporating humans, now that the "two worlds" thing has been undone and humans once again canonically exist on the same planet as Sonic and friends. Well, if she's gonna show up in the comics, it's been almost three years and we still haven't seen her. That'd be a hell of a lead time for comics, where production cycles are typically a matter of months, not years. Time continued to pass, and we still hadn't seen her. We just had Ian Flynn teasing us with a #KnowingSmile, assuring us that she existed for some reason, just one that he couldn't talk about yet.

Fast forward to late 2024, and she suddenly makes an appearance in the last place anyone would have expected: the third live action movie, via an electronic billboard in Shibuya.

At this point it almost felt like the lore team was trolling us. Is this just a scrapped character design that's become fodder for inside joke cameos or something? Surely all of this teasing couldn't have been for a throwaway character design on a billboard in the background of a movie.

But actually, this billboard gives us an important piece of information: her name! She's labeled here as "Professor Tori." This is important because it connects her to a previous release. In Shadow Generations, Gerald's journal is prefaced with a note from the person who recovered it, addressed to the GUN Commander. In the English version, it's simply signed "T," but in the Japanese version... it's signed "Tori"!

This gives us some actual info about Professor Tori. For one, she seems to work for GUN in their Archival and Requisitions Department. She's apparently also interested in learning about Gerald and Maria's lives, like their old friend Abe is.

Jump forward again to the New Year's episode of TailsTube, and this appears in the background.

Her full name is officially given as Professor Victoria, and she's a historian. So, that seems to confirm everything we've pieced together so far.

As far as things we can reasonably assume to be correct go, this is everything we know for certain about Victoria. She's a historian working for GUN. Cool! But that's not what really fascinates me about her. For that, we have to do a little more speculation based on conjecture.

See, Shadow Generations also establishes information about the Robotnik family tree. Gerald had two sons. One of them took after Gerald's love of technology and became an expert in the field of robotics, and would go on to be Eggman's father. The other son took after Gerald's love of archaeology. This man would go on to be Maria's father. But, as Maria mentions in Shadow Generations... she also happens to have a little sister we've never met before.

So now, the question is: is this Maria's sister, Victoria Robotnik?!

We can't be 100% certain right now, but honestly, until proven otherwise I'm assuming that Victoria is Maria's little sister, now all grown up and working for GUN. It all lines up too neatly. The conspicuous reveal that Maria has an unseen and unnamed little sister, in the same game that establishes her dad was a history guy and also that there's this new historian working for GUN who just so happens to be really interested in her life. And also their names both end in "-ria." Come on!! Putting her in the Robotnik family would also explain all these cryptic clues about her identity. If she was just some random GUN agent, why be so coy and make fans piece it together?

I guess the most odd part here would be, y'know, Victoria working for the organization that killed her sister and grandpa. But Sega's been pushing the idea that GUN is trying to do better for 20 years now, ever since they established that the GUN Commander was Maria's childhood friend on the ARK and had him make amends with Shadow. Hearing that Maria's sister had joined GUN to try and gain access to information about her family history and undo the elaborate coverup of the previous administration would make sense to me, personally. And lest we forget, this would also make Victoria Eggman's cousin, giving him a family member in GUN. And that's a pretty cool storytelling tool to have on hand!

So, that's where we're at now. We have no idea where Victoria will pop up next, whether it's a game or a comic or another TailsTube episode or something else entirely. But it seems like she's fairly important, even if this speculation about her being a Robotnik somehow ends up being wrong. (But I'm pretty damn sold on this theory, personally.) Either way, it's exciting to see the human cast get fleshed out in fun ways again. If we're gonna have humans in Sonic stories, I'd rather they have anime-style designs and interesting connections to the narrative, rather than just being generic humans for the sake of having humans. I'm looking forward to seeing whatever the lore team's been cooking up here.

[thelostconsultant]

The leak

pairing: Oscar Piastri x reader

summary: Someone recorded you and your boyfriend having sex, and now parts of the recording are being released, letting the world know that you're seeing each other.

warning: mentions of sexual activities, bdsm-ish elements, dom!Oscar, dark!Oscar, aaaaaand that's it. I think. So MDNI.

note: It started out as something kinky, then I figured out who recorded and leaked the whole thing. This was meant to be a short drabble, something to take my mind off the other fic I'm working on...

This had to be a nightmare. 

Your phone began to buzz late in the afternoon, signaling message after message, but you didn't really care about it until your manager called and told you to check social media sites. And there they were, snippets and screenshots from a sex tape, showing you and your boyfriend in what seemed to be his hotel room two days ago.

Whoever recorded and shared this made sure to pick the spiciest parts. The most “popular” video was the moment he put the beige collar on you, then grabbed the golden chain to pull you into a hungry kiss. His orders could be heard crystal clear, and his dominant personality which was in such stark contrast with his usual behavior was now out in the open. 

Your first instinct was to send a message to your chronically online boyfriend, but then you realized this was an emergency and calling him was the best approach now. It didn’t take him long to answer, and his voice was so calm you thought he didn’t know anything. “Hey, baby, what is it? I’ve been thinking about you, are you–”

“Oscar, you haven’t checked social media sites lately, have you?” you asked, your voice thin from the anxiety that had taken over the moment you saw the first snippet. 

There was a short pause, then he went, “The videos? Yeah, that might be a problem.”

“Might be a problem? It’s already a problem!” you corrected him. “People know we’re together, and what’s worse, they know what we do in bed. We kept everything under wraps for a reason.”

Little did you know that Oscar was everything but surprised by this turn of events. Why would he be surprised when it was him who hid that camera in his hotel room, and it was also him who sent it out to someone he knew would spread it like wildfire. He remained an anonymous source, of course, but he knew it was all his work. And he was proud of it. 

He had been begging you to make your relationship official, but you were too worried about what your fans would say. So he decided to take matters into his own hands, showing the world what a good little girl you were for him. He was proud of you, he wanted to show you off, and he wanted you to come to as many races as you could. Just to be his lucky charm, and maybe the solution to releasing some stress if a session was frustrating. 

“Why don’t you come over until people move on from this? We can nestle in my apartment eating ice cream, watching movies… Come on, it’s gonna be fun,” he tried, his voice sickeningly sweet. 

You took a deep breath that you soon let out slowly, giving yourself time to think. “All right, my manager told me to stay under the radar anyway.”

“Great. See you soon then.”

He won. You come over, stay for a few days, and he’ll do his damn best to convince you to stay for good. You would have fun on your own. He would train you to be the kind of obedient little thing he always wanted you to be. Why would you need to make decisions when he can choose for you? You’d realize this was for the best, he just had to be smart and patient.

[ghostdiva]

ok so the new trailer for episode 3 just dropped. big hype. here are some theory's, notes, and observations.

also I took a lot of screenshots...

anyway here we go.

so the adventure is set to be "The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor". Now, I do think that Caine is gonna be the quest giver this time, sending the gang to find something inside the spooky, probably haunted manor.

small guess is that they gotta find Matilda, one of the ghosts haunting the manor, and trap her in a vacuum. idk why, it's literally just a hunch.

Jax also takes a moment to harass Pomni with a vacuum, which just makes me think of Luigi's Mansion.

anyway, the gang (minus Zooble) are gonna go in the manor and try to find whatever they're looking for, and either by agreement or random set of events, the gang is gonna split up, Pomni and Kinger being paired up. I don't really know if Ragatha, Gangle, and Jax stick together or not, as they're not really shown much in the trailer.

I am inclined to believe it is a set of events that separates the gang tho.

it's the one of the reasons I can think of that'd make Pomni climb on the door like that.

I mean... outside of the very spooky decorum.....

which Pomni has a pretty reasonable reaction to

btw, I fucking love Pomni's cartoon physics with the squash and stretch rubber-hose animation. it's so expressive and fun to watch.

anyway, it seems Caine is determined to have Zooble go on adventures. so he literally sits them down and tries to therapize them.

though with Caine being an AI with very little knowledge of how the human mind works, this goes predictably horribly.

I imagine Zooble tries on some level to convey to Caine the ludicrousness of their situation. stuck in a digital world getting repeatedly traumatized by meaningless adventures that seem to do more harm than good. though I get the feeling Caine would miss the point, leading Zooble to correct him, and/or get upset at him for not understanding. watching this verbal fight happen between these 2 will probably lead to us, the viewer, understanding more about Zooble.

anyway, back to the manor with this cute little guy.

look at him, he's so cute and squishable. unfortunately this guy is the only cute and squishable NPC here because Pomni and Kinger seems to really be going through it.

they're mostly poking around, opening drawers and stuff. maybe they're looking for a key to get back with the others or something? who knows.

they both probably stumble around in the dark for a bit, both figuratively and literally.

they might end up stumbling into an antagonist NPC, which is the only way I can explain some of these screenshots.

it looks to me like Kinger is facing something. I mean, He's missing an eye in the first one, smacking something with a gun in the second, and looking really worried in the third. Plus the fist 2 have similar lighting so I'm inclined to believe those 2 pics come from clips in close time frames to each other.

there's also another image that has similar lighting...

now... this may sound weird, but I think that either Pomni got Possessed somehow, or something tried to take her shape. Possession seems more feasible since we know at least 2 of the NPC's in this adventure are ghosts, and at least in media ghosts are known to possess people. seeing as digital circus seems to love pulling from video game mechanics, this wouldn't surprise me at all.

this would also kind of explain why in the "POMNI WAKE UP!! IT'S TIME TO GO ON AN ADVENTURE" video, in the "Kinger with a shotgun" clip, he seems to be hitting Pomni with the gun. it makes a lot more sense if Pomni ends up getting possessed somehow, forcing Kinger to hit her in order to defend himself from the ghost.

this also could tie back to the worried look on Kingers face in the screenshot before Possessed Pomni. Cause he'd know what he has to do, even though he doesn't want to hurt Pomni.

Hell, I'm pretty sure Kinger even openly protects Pomni in this episode.

because of the shot in the trailer taken from this hole's perspective

not only is Pomni hiding behind Kinger, but he has one of his hands out in front of her, as if to protect her from whatever is in that hole.

also in regards to guns, Kinger isn't the only one who gets to have a gun.

Pomni gets to wield a shotgun too, and it's likely to help both herself and Kinger fight off whatever was after them in the hole.

Ghost possession and gun-slinging aside, I do think that Pomni and Kinger have a little heart to heart in this episode.

boy doesn't that screenshot look familiar. reminds me of episode 2 with the blue lighting and concerned expression on Pomni's face. That scene in the test room where Pomni comforts Gumigoo. this time tho, she's comforting Kinger. it almost makes me wonder if this will be a reoccurring theme, with all the other characters eventually having a heart to heart with Pomni, and Pomni comforting them.

it'd really make her live up to her quote in episode 2 "I guess I just don't want you to feel like you're nothing. I don't want anyone to feel like that".

the only thing I do still have questions about, is wtf is Kinger looking at here?

I mean, it looks like the eyes of a ghost, if they could make their eyes glow like that.

ya know what, maybe he's looking at a mound of pillows or something.

yeah, like that.

[vixstarria]

A night at the inn (part 1)

A night of relaxation at the inn. Inspired by a cursed screenshot of Astarion looking loopy, drunk and high.   

Astarion x Reader, Astarion x Tav, tbc in part 2

Comfort, fluff, humour, banter, goes from very silly to very horny 

Bits that are definitely not canon that were written solely for my (and hopefully your) amusement. 

TW: It’s all very much in jest, but maybe give this one a skip if you’re struggling with any kind of substance addiction.  

Approximately 2,000 words 

AO3

“Don't be ridiculous, these silly druidic herbs have absolutely no effect on me, vampires have a natural immunity. Pass me the pipe again, I’ll prove it,” Astarion giggled uncontrollably.  

“Just hold on to it, friend, I don’t think anyone else will benefit from it,” replied Halsin. 

You, Astarion, Halsin, Karlach and Shadowheart were gathered in one of the inn’s rooms.  

Gale and Wyll were off doing whatever people who didn’t like having fun did. Possibly playing chess or reciting poetry to each other. And Lae’zel had had one look at your gathering before chk’ing, saying that someone competent needed to keep a cool head, and stalking off. 

You and Astarion were sitting crosswise on one of the beds, you nestled between his legs, your back against his chest. Shadowheart lounged on the opposite bed, with Karlach and Halsin settling on the floor between the beds.  

A scattering of glasses and opened bottles surrounded you, and a light haze hung in the air. Tadpoles, vampire lords, demons and gods could all wait until tomorrow. Tonight, for all you cared, all was well in your world.   

Earlier, Halsin had laid out an assortment of herbs, most of which you couldn’t name, and busied himself with mixing them in varying proportions and stuffing them into several smoking implements. Karlach had declined, saying there was no point and that she would stick to grog. You and Shadowheart partook in Halsin's ‘herbalist mastery' together with the druid. And now, to everyone's disbelief and amusement, so did Astarion. 

“What in the hells is in this?!” Astarion tittered, leaning back against the wall, his eyes shut and an idiotic smile on his face. You couldn’t look at him, lest it set off yet another chain reaction of giggling. 

“Part of it is moonflower, which mostly serves as an amplifier,” Halsin answered, cautiously. 

“And? What else?” You wondered whether whatever it was might help Astarion with his nightmares. The scent of the herb was vaguely familiar, but you couldn’t quite place what it was.  

“Wait! I want to guess.” Shadowheart leaned over to whisper to Halsin. He shook his head at her suggestions. Once he whispered back to her with the correct answer she collapsed on the bed with a guffaw. “Oh gods... So it is official.” 

“Halsin...” Astarion croaked. “Halsin, I will stab you... What did you give me?!” 

“I had a hunch, but it was intended as a joke – I didn’t really think it would do anything.” Halsin almost sounded apologetic.  

“Well, spill the beans, what is he smoking that’s so damned funny?! Vampire dust? Cow dung? Some kind of goblin foot fungus?” Karlach was also growing impatient.  

Halsin shook his head, laughing.  

“It’s catnip,” Shadowheart managed, still doubled over. “He’s losing his mind on catnip!” 

Once Astarion regained his ability to speak coherently, you couldn’t get him to shut up.  

Astarion hardly ever took lead in group conversations. He tended to stay on the outskirts of discussions, albeit always ready with a quip or observation. You wondered if his newfound loquaciousness was a glimpse of what he might have been like some 200 years ago. 

It helped that Karlach was bombarding him with questions about vampirism, which he was ordinarily reserved about.  

“So what happens if you consume normal food? Can you drink?” she asked. 

“Well... Kind of..? Although I think the tadpole has had some additional influence. I can drink liquids without becoming ill, as long as it’s not too much. They tend to taste vile or like nothing at all, or not have any effect on me. Coffee smells amazing but tastes like dirt, for example. But potions work, somehow,” he rambled. “Solids are a complete disaster though”. He refused to elaborate.  

“And the wine?” she persisted.  

“Red wine is palatable,” he said, swirling some in a glass that he held in his hand. “But if you want better than ‘palatable’ you really need something of good quality.” 

“You’re just a snob,” you interjected. 

“That may be so, but this is about having something called standards, darling, I’ll teach you about them someday”, he said with a kiss to your temple, as you elbowed him. “But there are ways of going around poor wine.” 

Astarion took your hand in his, pressing his lips against it. 

“May I?”  

Once he had your approval, he carefully punctured the tip of your ring finger with a fang. You idly mused about how completely unfazed you had become by having your skin pierced, as he dripped some of your blood into his wine. 

“Now stir.” He licked the drops of wine from your finger once you were done, and had a sip from his glass. “Like adding honey to tea... Now it’s delectable.” 

“Freaks,” said Karlach, lovingly.  

The conversation moved to him debating wines from various regions with Shadowheart, a subject they were both perhaps unsurprisingly well-versed in.  

“How kind of Lady Shar to leave you such detailed knowledge of something that truly matters, when wiping out so many other memories,” he observed.  

Eventually, the topic changed to Karlach’s years in the Hells, and what it had been like to set just about everything she touched ablaze until Dammon’s recent assistance.  

“Could you do me a favour and hold my hand in yours for a moment?” said Astarion, leaning towards and holding out a hand to Karlach.  

“I haven’t done this in so long this still makes me nervous, you know,” she said, taking his hand in both of hers. “Sorry if I lose my cool and burn you.” 

“I’m sure I’ve had worse,” he replied humourlessly. “...That should do it,” he said after a short while. “Gods, you really do run like a furnace.” You wondered where this was going.  

“Now could everyone look away? I’m about to do something disgustingly sentimental.” 

Immediately, four pairs of eyes including your own were locked on him.  

“Voyeuristic pricks...” he sighed. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” 

He ran the back of his fingers delicately down your cheek before cupping it in his hand. It was warm, almost hot, as you nuzzled into it.  

“Well isn’t that cute,” Shadowheart remarked into her glass of wine.  

Astarion wasn’t always cold to the touch, not exactly. He became warmer after drinking blood. His body was heated by sunshine on sunny days, just like anything else. And after spending some time under blankets with you he felt almost cozy to snuggle against. But he’s never radiated heat the way the hand against your cheek did now.  

“It doesn’t feel like you,” you mustered, looking into his eyes. He gave you a wistful smile.  

“...If there is any other bodypart you’d like me to warm up for Tav’s benefit, do fuck off before you even ask,” said Karlach, breaking the brief silence that had descended onto the room, and the tender moment was gone, overtaken by yet another uproar of laughter. 

Things quieted down as the evening wore on. 

“I wonder what Lae’zel is doing,” said Shadowheart, who had been silently gazing off into space and occasionally blowing smoke rings for the past while. “Probably something infuriating.” 

“You should go tell her how utterly unimpressed you are with her,” goaded Astarion. 

“I should... I will,” she said, suddenly getting up, determination writ on her face, exiting the room with a surprisingly steady step. 

Karlach sighed. 

“I better go look after her and make sure they don’t need to be taken apart. ...Or that no one else does, if they don’t.” She followed Shadowheart.  

“Nature calls,” said Halsin, also getting up. “And I don’t think anyone’s fed Scratch and the owlbear cub.” 

It was just you and Astarion, who had been grazing your neck with his fangs with increasing impatience. 

“Do it,” you said as soon as the door shut behind Halsin. Instantly, you felt an icy chill in your neck and released a small moan as he bit down, drawing your blood, his hands roaming your body.  

“I’ve been thinking of nothing else for hours,” he breathed hoarsely, once he had his fill. Having a miniscule amount of your blood in his wine and then being unable to sate himself more thoroughly would have been the ultimate tease for him. He really did not think that through, per usual.  

You could have offered him your wrist at some point, your companions had witnessed that on numerous occasions. But you knew you both wanted something more intimate. And private.  

You sank onto the bed with Astarion on top of you, as he continued to lick at the puncture wounds, to get them to stop bleeding.  

“Think Halsin’s coming back?” you murmured.  

“Of course he is. Haven’t you seen how he’s been looking at us?” He wedged his hips between your legs as he continued to suck and lick at your neck, more slowly now.  

"Oh, has he been looking at us in some particular way?” you feigned ignorance. Astarion raised his head briefly to shoot you a look that said ‘oh please’.  

“Do you want him..?” He rolled his hips deliciously into yours as he asked that.  

“Stop teasing,” you whispered. You knew he wasn’t going to let you do anything with the erection you felt pressed against you. 

“Never. Do you want him?” He gave you a mischievous look.  

“I don’t know what you mean.” 

“Sorry darling, I’ll try to do a better job at explaining.” He raised himself back up, his face hovering just above yours. “Do you want to feel his hot, hard cock pumping in and out of you, while I watch?” He studied your reaction closely. “Oh you would like that, wouldn’t you..?” 

“Astarion-” It wasn’t easy to make you blush, but somehow he always found a way when he wanted to.   

“Shh love, I already know everything you’re going to say.” Astarion raised his voice in pitch (resulting in something that definitely DID NOT sound anything like you) and returned to your neck, planting a kiss further down with each sentence: “’I love you, Astarion. I only want you, Astarion. I don’t think you’re ready for this, Astarion. You’re going to regret this, Astarion.’” 

“How about, ‘you’re intoxicated, Astarion’?” 

“Barely,” he scoffed. “It’s worn off.” He tugged at your blouse’s lacing with his teeth. 

“Or maybe it’s ‘no, I don’t want that, Astarion’,” you lied.  

He chuckled at those words and came back up to whisper in your ear. 

“My love... You’re forgetting I can hear your heartbeat. I can smell your arousal. Every time your breath hitches and your heart speeds up – I know. Any time blood suddenly rushes somewhere in your body – I know...”  

“That is an entirely unfair advantage,” you protested. 

“Yes, having a lover that anticipates your every need and reads you like a book is so, so tragically unfair, your poor, poor thing...” 

“And also it’s not what you said, it’s how you said it!” you continued. 

“Porridge,” Astarion whispered in his most seductive voice, grinding against you. “The philosophy and theory of divination, volume four. A bulging coin purse. Gale’s purple pajamas. ...Nope, nothing.” Astarion smirked, and continued in a more normal voice, stilling. “Now let’s try... You dripping wet and begging us both for mercy before the night is over.” He grinned wryly as you let out an involuntary whimper. “I thought so...” 

“You’ve told me yourself, you don’t want to share me with anyone,” you persisted.  

“It’s your heart I can’t bear to share. And he’s a wood elf,” Astarion said dismissively. “He may as well be a walking penis, who would get emotionally involved with that?” 

“You did not just call our honourable companion, the esteemed archdruid of the Emerald Grove a walking penis!” you hissed, choking on laughter, covering his mouth with your hand.  

“A giant phallus on legs,” Astarion mumbled stubbornly against your palm, licking it.  

You heard footsteps approaching the door.  

“Do you really want this?” you whispered, angling Astarion’s face to make him look you in the eyes, and releasing his mouth. “Be serious for a second.” 

“I want this,” he said, holding your gaze. “I really want this. As long as you do too.” 

The door opened, and you both turned your heads to regard the tall, broad figure that paused in the entryway, leaning against the doorframe.  

“Is it company or privacy you desire?” 

~~~~~

Part 2

More of my chaos gremlins

AO3

[fandomfourever]

Hmmm

Thanks to a post in the Inhun tag, I've been having more thoughts. The poster shared a screenshot of the books in In-ho's apartment:

So of course I was curious and had to go look up what this book was. Now, anything I say beyond this point is based on the 30 min research I did so please keep in mind I make no claims to be an expert on Lacan or whatever. If anyone who did study Lacan has anything to add to this or correct, please feel free. I took some screenshots of some interesting aspects about Lacanian theory that I felt seemed potentially connected to In-ho and Inhun.

In-ho having a book on this theory is interesting. If he agrees with any or all of the things Lacan says, then it makes sense why he has little regard for the players, who he sees chasing the desires they'll never truly fulfill. That they subconsciously enjoy the fight for desire above attaining the desire itself, and so they'll always go against self-preservation, if it means they continue that "pleasure". However, that last screenshot I took is particularly intriguing to me as in Inhun shipper, lol. I mean, it shows that In-ho has perhaps reflected on the fact that deep down all he really desires is love. But given the things he's seen and done, and the rest of the theory, maybe he sees that as a thing he'll never have again. If he ever truly had it (as some of the things I've been reading on the theory suggest that at it's most basic, all love is conditional and can be taken away at any moment).

We see In-ho fixating on Gi-hun, who has shown that he's willing to put aside his own desires to help others. And if he is able to disprove In-ho's views on the games, perhaps Gi-hun is capable of unconditional love, counteracting Lacan's theory.

I don't know if the creator of Squid Game also wanted to use this theory to color the entirety of the show, but I could see this being a possible indication we could get a happy ending (well, happy for Squid Game, lol, I don't expect everyone to make it out unscathed after all). That's if he intends this all to be a dispute of the theory of course, especially since the theory does have quite a number of critics. Given in an interview he said Gi-hun is based a little bit on himself, I'd imagine that Gi-hun's optimism and hope is not meant to be entirely quashed, you know?

Again, not an expert on this, but I found it something worth thinking on, especially when it comes to analyzing the character and the ship (and potentially the show as a whole).

[perfectwitchcrown]

Allusions in Make the Exorcist Fall in Love

So far in Make the Exorcist Fall in Love there’s been a lot of allusions to various texts. I thought it might be fun to compile all the ones people have noticed so far as far as I've seen. Some of these are more speculative than others and I will update as I go along. Also, I read Ekuoto as free first read chapters on Mangaplus so unfortunately I can’t go back and check much so this is largely through memory, so if anyone has anything else to add I would greatly appreciate it! All I’ve got is a few screenshots and a dream. If I get anything wrong feel free to correct me! I’ve organized this in order of allusions I’m confident about to allusions I’m less so confident about.

CW: reference to sexual violence

Dante's Divine Comedy and Vita Nuova: Dante Alighieri

This one is pretty obvious since there are characters directly named after the characters figured in Dante’s Inferno. It’s been a long time since I read it, but other details are also taken from the text, such as the frozen center of hell where Satan is located.

Lmao Leah from the Bible (who is probably Leah’s namesake) also shows up in Dante’s Divine Comedy apparently in Purgatorio.

Ok also super important to Dante retellings r Beatrice, who’s used as a symbol of divine love and is instrumental to Dante's journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise, so of course Ekuoto Dante advises Priest to fall in love lmao. So far though there hasn’t been a direct Beatrice in narrative (which there might never be one since the text has already made the Dante-Virgil connection an active choice of Virgilius's to reference the Divine Comedy rather than just an allusion by the author).

To be so real though I figure that Vergilius is probably also intended to be the Beatrice in this narrative.

The points I would draw attention in support of this would be these: 1. Beatrice is the woman who Dante has been in love with since early childhood but unable to ever be with because they both married others. Ekuoto Virgilius and Dante have known each other since childhood, and have something going on. 2. Beatrice is, like Virgil, one of Dante’s guides (through part of purgatorio and paradiso) 3. We still don’t know what Virgilius��s name was before he took that one on. Beatrice does not have a masculine form in current use and I tried finding some sort of nickname that would work and was unable to do so. However. Beatrice’s name is rendered in Japanese as ベアトリーチェ, and Beato is at least a surname. Then again, I’m not sure anyone has both a first name and last name except for Imuri so far???

"Book of Tobit"

I wasn’t familiar w this one so I didn’t notice it until I saw posts pointing it out, but the Asmodeus flashback was a retelling of the book of Tobit. Other people have already done analysis of this so I’d recommend checking other’s out. Unfortunately I failed to save the link to any of them so I can’t pass any along :’) Belfagor arcidiavolo: Machiavelli

Another one that I wasn’t familiar with but have seen people referencing. As above, I recommend checking out other’s analysis. "Those Who Walk Away from Omelas": Ursula K. Le Guin

The Brothers Karamazov: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Ok major spoilers and I also highly recommend this book, but also, its super long so I don’t blame anyone who chooses not to read. This book is about the most disgusting father alive and his three, maybe four, sons: Dimitri, Ivan, Alyosha, and maybe Smerdyakov (rumored to be an illegitimate son). Most of the action follows Alyosha, who is the youngest and probably the most idealistic character in the novel, at least in the beginning. Alyosha starts out as a novice in the local Russian Orthodox monastery under the purview of Father Zossima, an elder who really emphasizes love in religious practice. There's a series of chapters that cover a theological debate between Ivan and Alyosha.

In this theological debate, Ivan is arguing not that God doesn’t exist, but that the foundation of the world as understood by Christianity is something he fundamentally rejects.

Quotations from the Signet Classics edition:

“I don’t accept this world of God’s. Although I know it exists, I don’t accept it at all. It’s not that I don’t accept God, you must understand, it’s the world created by Him I don’t and cannot accept” (Dostoevsky 266) - “If all must suffer to pay for eternal harmony, what have children to do with it?....I understand solidarity in sin among men. I understand solidarity in retribution too; but there can be no such solidarity with children. And if it is really true that they must share responsibility for all their father’s crimes, such a truth is not of this world and is beyond my comprehension” (Dostoevsky 276)

“Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last. Imagine you are doing this but that it is essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature—that child beating its breast with its fist, for instance—in order to found that edifice on its unavenged tears. Would you consent to be the architect on those conditions?” (This quotation, although from a different translation, is the one that inspired Omelas - I think the bowling alley theological discussion between Virgilius and Priest bears some similarities to this conversation. Its not a debate about the existence of god, but rather a debate whether or not the world envisioned by Christianity is inherently unjust or not. Demian: Hermann Hesse

“The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas”

Potential references but tbh they’re a bit of a stretch:

“Book of Martha”: Octavia Butler

"Book of Martha" is an Octavia Butler short story in the Bloodchild collection about an ordinary woman who is visited by god one day who tells her to choose one thing to change about people to try and make the world a better place. It’s a very short read and I’d recommend reading it before you read the next sentence where I’ll spoil the end.

She eventually decides that the thing to focus on is people’s dreams. Specifically, to give them the things they desire most within their dreams, in the hope that people will be less violent to each other in real life. A stretch, but Octavia Butler comes from similar recommendation circles as Ursula K. Le Guin (feminist science fiction authors with overlapping periods of activity) so I don’t think it’s impossible for the most recent chapters' use of dreams to hold some sort of inspiration from this short story. Again, this one is a pretty big stretch, as the idea of dreams to escape reality is pretty common.

The Monk: Matthew Lewis

Ok! So! Demon seduces a person is like not at all an original story (The Daemon Lover, Cazotte’s The Devil in Love, etc etc). BUT! The Monk is specifically a story that’s like. What if there was this extremely virtuous young man who has never lived in the outside world ever because he was raised in the church as an orphan and then the devil sent a demon girl to seduce him.

I have not finished the book yet so I can’t comment in depth on it other than to say the concept is similar but the execution so far is very different (It's a fairly misogynistic text. Ambrosio turns evil in ways that I doubt Priest will because thematically they’d go completely against the story. Also, The Monk is veryyy lurid in terms of Lust is Evil!!! And will turn you into a murdering maniac!!!! Because evil women are out there seducing you!!! Whereas so far sexual desire in Ekuoto has been handled as a perfectly natural thing, but complicated by religion, patriarchy, trauma, etc.)

This is all I have so far but I'd be interested to see if anyone else has any other ideas!

[innuendostudios]

oh lookie another bite-sized Alt-Right Playbook. back me on Patreon plz.

transcript below the thingy.

Say, for the sake of argument, you’re twelve or thirteen, it’s the mid-90’s, you’re sitting across the table from your conservative aunt at a family reunion. (This aunt will, a decade from now, become a Tea Partier.) You have - you sweet, innocent child - brought up the subject of evolution, being too young to know it’s politicized, and your aunt has not taken well to it. She goes on one of her classic tirades, dismissing the very concept of evolution as patently ridiculous, dropping a quote that will stick with you for ages: “You can’t get snakes from chicken eggs.” And you do your best to explain, with your limited knowledge-base, that, yeah, you can only get a snake from a snake egg, but that snake is going to be a little different from its parents, and the next snake will be a little different from its parents, and you multiply that by a few million generations and you might have something very different from that original snake. Maybe something with legs, or that can breath underwater, or see better in the dark!

And your aunt stares you dead in the windows of your soul and repeats, “You Can’t Get Snakes From Chicken Eggs.”

This is an ego-saving maneuver in which a complex truth is rejected in favor of simplicity. Your aunt has a statement that is true, though non sequitur to the argument at hand. And, after your explanation of how genetics work on long timelines, she repeats her original statement to herself and it still feels true. It’s the belief that the truth is easily recognized, and that it’s always simple, because the world is simple, and, if you can’t explain it to me like I’m five, then you’re probably wrong or making things up.

This heuristic very hard to argue with. You’ve heard that same aunt claim the hole in the ozone layer is caused by sunspots. Now, we’ve talked about the memetic power of statements that are short, quippy, and wrong, and this is a fine example. You might feel the correct response is a statement that is short, quippy, and correct, but here’s the conundrum: the truth is “the hole in the ozone layer is caused by chlorofluorocarbons.” Not only is that a more complex sentence, it’s a more complex idea. If the ozone hole is caused by sunspots, then it’s probably been happening for billions of years, it’s not caused by humans, and we don’t have to do anything about it. It’s reassuring, and tells folks all they care to know without further questions. But the truth of how aerosols deplete ozone is more complex, not least because, even without knowing the science of it, it implies it’s a problem we should do something about.

Ultraviolet light makes CFCs release chlorine into the stratosphere, where it bonds with ozone, converting it into oxygen and chlorine monoxide, neither of which do what ozone does to protect us from the sun. There may be people who can explain that more simply than I just did, but there’s a floor to how simple the truth can be and still be the truth. Falsehoods don’t have that. There is no limit on how simple an idea can be when it doesn’t have to conform to reality.

You play the game of “who’s got the simplest argument,” liars win every time. You can’t get much simpler than “sunspots.” But if you can convince people that the world is complex, then simplistic explanations, across the board, become suspect. It might be too late to do that with your aunt, but maybe there’s still hope for your cousins.

If you’re wondering what they do when confronted with something they cannot deny is complicated: well, that’s your fault. You, or someone like you, took their simple world and overcomplicated it. All the conspiracy theories and fingerpointing and screenshots they’ve squiggled over in MS Paint, all of that is the story of how you overcomplicated the world; it fills in the gap between the simplicity of the world they believe in and the unambiguous complexity of the one in which we live. And, yes, that story is at least as complex as the truth you’re trying to tell them, and, no, it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s a detail. Because the moral of that story is incredibly simple: it is this way because some people made it this way, and all they have to do is take the power back from those people and things can be simple again. This is their version of “a wizard did it.”

[randomfoggytiger]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Scully just return the "Laura" when Mulder called her Scully in Arcadia? If I remember, in the scene where Mulder is picking the "blood" from the ceiling, Scully is carrying the box of dishes from the front door, says "Mulder" to which he responds "Rob". Scully doesn't give much of a response or "look", but Mulder does give a mouth response when Scully reminds him "Laura". They were both teasing and playing with one another. I see it as the Mulder-Scully tease-o-foreplay.

For sh*ts and giggles, let's say that the IV time is occurring during part of season 6. When Mulder tells her that she is making it personal and Scully is trying to get him to see that he shouldn't fully trust Diana, well yeah she should make it personal. He had more than just a work partner to lose. Scully had trusted him to be part of this crucial aspect of her life and now it was as if he was pushing this bond of theirs to the side. The threat to Scully was not just another woman who ws part of the corrupt group that has tried to kill her, took her fertility but the threat is that she would lose her partner who is helping her on this journey and subsequently lose the potential gift of a child.

Moreover, I don't buy the "all knowing man" who told Scully that he knew her real hair color and was surprised when she invited Mulder into her bed one lonely night. First of all, the syndicate knew how important Scully was to Mulder (ahem get rid of what he can't live without), so anyone paying attention/spying on them would know the depth of their relationship and what they mean to each other;therefore, falling into bed together would have been expected at some point. This leads me to think that MAYBE, just MAYBE, she let him into his bed on a lonely night early in their relationship. Perhaps after her breakup with Ethan (i know the audience didn't see that but why couldn't it have happened off screen), on one of those days when she was feeling like her life was standing still or when she was itching for companionship once she no longer had time to spend with her friend, sister, or family, maybe when he brought her home when her cancer was in remission? That, to me, would make sense of why anyone would be surprised that they slept together before he chased her across the world to save her. After that, it would be "of course they slept together. What, it's been 4 years already."

Sometimes, it seems as if the storylines were pulled out like Bingo balls without consideration of how things connected.

Hi, yes, hello-- sorry this took a bit: I was so stoked to talk about my favorite episode that I had to make sure nothing would be around to distract my focus. >:DDDD

(Your IVF premise sounds exactly like @sunflowerseedsandscience's Someday Your Child May Cry (which was my first long-form IVF arc AU, actually.) Highly recommend if you haven't given it a flip-through.

I do have a full breakdown of Arcadia-- here, here, here, and here-- that digs into the motifs and themes as well as Mulder's and Scully's separate perspectives. (And these screenshots, which will never not make me want to combust with laughter.) However! Let's do this!

ARCADIA'S ROB-AND-LAURA GAME

Arcadia begins with Mulder hamming it up, chafing under Skinner's assignment, and Scully tolerating his buffoonery as long as he doesn't make her look ridiculous by proxy (hence why she shoved him off in the house with a look-- a "that's too far, buddy" mild reproof. He nods and accepts this... then doubles down later.) Which... she's kinda right: the local speculation ends up being that she's affluent and he's a househusband himbo (post here.)

By the time the neighbors have packed up, the duo exchange mutual innuendos and Mulder has realized Scully wants to "play house"-- which sets him on a mission to make her regret that thought the rest of the episode (not unkindly, but purposefully.) Henceforth, he hams up the dutiful husband not just to the neighbors but to her, as well; and gets the ball rolling when she hauls in Big Mike's dishes:

"Mulder...." Scully begins, puzzled over their neighbor's anxiety.

"The name... is 'Rob'," he answers, pleasantly engrossed in digging possible gore from the ceiling fan. When he joins her on the ground, she steps into his personal space without conscious thought; and doesn't withdraw.

From then on out, it's a game of advance-and-retreat: Scully snuggling up to his shoulder while they talk to Wynn then Gogolak; Mulder overdoing his overtures (or locking eyes in a pointed "I see that" glance) until she retreats. After the dinner at the Schroeders, Mulder jogs into Scully's bedroom with Big Mike's caduceus and throws his shirt past her head. Scully, miffed, retreats to the bathroom; but she's not miffed enough to send him packing.

A few things become apparent:

When Mulder concludes, "I take it he's dead, Scully," she replies, "'Laura'"-- not skipping a beat. They're both alone and Scully likely believes no one's nearby to overhear them... yet, she insists on still coupling herself with Mulder. It may be a joke but the context of that joke is entirely different, given Mulder's reaction (an exaggerated "Well, aren't you bossy?" face while mouthing Okaaaaay.

She pleasantly chastises his toothpaste rolling abilities... meaning Scully's sharing a toothpaste with him, in her bathroom, in her bedroom, instead of getting a different one or sending him out to get his own....

She chastises Mulder for leaving the seat up-- "Third warning: toilet seat"-- meaning Scully let him use the toilet in her bathroom in her bedroom as long as he follows the rules (reminiscent of Bad Bood's lack of motel boundaries.) She also doesn't tell him not to use it anymore.

She slathers her face in a wash-off face mask, determined to do her pampering routines despite Mulder's domestic pearl clutching (which Scully predicted, given her non-reaction.)

When does Scully drop the 'Laura' bit? Well:

Mulder pats the bed, wiggling his eyebrows. For a split second, she's pulled up short, breath catching; then her partner doubles down on the goofy, not-to-be-taken-seriously "C'mon, Laura-- we're married now" behavior, and her face drops before she rallies and restates, "'Scully'. Mulder, goodnight."

He shuffles off, pretending to be disappointed-- "The thrill is gone"-- but she sees it, nearly rolling her eyes at his affronted posture (his "Peter Pan playing at being a married grown-up" act.) They shuffle their separate ways, personal situation successfully deflected.

The game of 'Rob' and 'Laura' is over, a tie. They quickly transition to more serious work as the case continues to unfold-- Scully going into town to investigate the mystery gunk (ketchup and garbage), Mulder "working from home" for his stakeout-- and that is the end of that.

THEORIES

Oh, the IVF journey would have certainly re-colored One Son and Arcadia. Given the scenes we're shown in Per Manum, it was undeniable that this "having a baby, this" between them was already changing the flavor of their dynamic. Personally, I don't think Mulder would have behaved the same way (or at least to the same extent) because he was duping himself into believing his read on Diana was impartial and impersonal-- she was just a "good friend"-- and that Scully was the one being partial and personal via suspicion or jealousy. (Again, Mulder's beliefs are so strong they're, to quote E.B.E. Scully, "blinding".) Those feelings would have been ten times harder to recontextualize to himself if they were in the midst of making a baby.

I don't believe the man in Season 9, either-- but, for those that do, I posit he saw Mulder and Scully walk back to her apartment post-Millennium, or soon thereafter, and built his suppositions off of that one time.

Per your theory, I think they would have to sleep together sometime post-Milagro because Padgett was preying on Scully's established bone-deep loneliness (post here.)

Scully feared her importance would always be second to "the truth"-- if Mulder had had sex with her beforehand, that fear wouldn't linger in the same way... or it would transform into an uglier fear: that her "desperation" killed the crackling potential between them, and that Mulder had decided his quest was still more important. That 'still' would be a completely separate discussion than what Milagro accurately (per Scully's reactions) presented as her struggles with isolation and raw, human want and need.

However, this is The X-Files: to borrow a @baronessblixen tag, CC changes his mind more than other people change their underwear. So, you never know~.

CONCLUSION

And that's that for this meta! :DDDDD Thanks for your theories, anon. They were definitely food for thought.

[puppersbagel-org]

Never thought i would make something like this but oh well

im here to talk about a user by the name of @ask-welcomehome and their community. DO NOT GO AND HARASS THEM. REPORT, BLOCK AND MOVE ON

I SPEAK INDEPENDENTLY AND AM NOT SPEAKING ON BEHALF OF COZY CAFE OR LITTLE CORNER

edit: i never mentioned he gave a genuine apology for this sorry for not bringing it up. i'll link it later

Basically there was an a issue a while ago between cozy cafe, an age regression community that aims to be a safe space for regressors and caregivers alike, and little corner, ask-welcomehome's community who has the same goal, on how little corner was a copy of cozy cafe. The description and about was copied from cozy cafe.

Ask welcomehome then apologised and corrected said issues, said it wouldn't happen again and all was well. Until some people started digging it up and harassing this user because of this issue, which was fixed and they were forgiven and still allowed in cozy cafe.

This drove ask welcomehome to make a post in little corner saying to report everyone in cozy cafe and to attempt taking down the community, whilst making rude remarks about people in the community and saying they're all horrible. I then attempted to inform them that what they were doing was also coming off as harrasment and that a better disision would be to report individuals that were harassing them. They then removed my comments for "irrelevance" and banned me from the community.

I thought maybe i came off as rude and brushed it off as i worded it wrong. But due to recent events i realised its simply because they dont care.

Remember when i mentioned they apologised and said they'd improve? That didn't happen.

i found a post of them asking someone in their ask box if they'd like to join their alterhuman community. This person then called them out for being a copy of their community. This was less than a week ago.

they then apologised, whilst blaming harassment for giving them anxiety, which is a very common thing they do.

user has already been informed that this isbt the first time this has happened.

What drove me to make this post is recent events were welcome home joined cozy cafe, reported some accounts that were against the rules, and used that to brag why they're better. they then blocked admin and started lying saying admin is a ghost blog/a bot.

when you block someone or someone blocks you back, you show up as a ghost blog.

welcomehome then sent an alt who they said was a friend to go "apologise"

this apology was FULL of excuses like "they were semi regressed" "they have anxiety " "theyve been dming me crying about how they wish it went differently"

i am a regressor who has unmediated general anxiety disorder and i have frequent long lasting anxiety attacks that disable me from doing basic things. i have a daily anxiety attacks yet am still able to take responsibility for my actions because anxiety doesn't MAKE you harass people. anxiety doesnt MAKE you copy communities and fake apologies when you're called out.

this "friend" never went and talked to admin before posting and there were two posts made.

the admin then took down the posts, due to it being against the rules and distressing people in cozy cafe and privately talking to said friend.

ask welcomehome was then banned and soon after so was the friend due to the screenshot below

"main home account"

this was their reasoning for this

this may have been the part where i messed up and im sorry for this

i was blocked by them after being banned from little corner so i used an alt to look at their account since people were panicking about them making up stuff. im sorry for that i had no justification other than "i was curious"

but in their description was this

thats the blog tgat was in cozy cafe.

i also found posts straight up LYING about what happened and again, using anxiety as a guilt trip which is INSULTING for someone who has extreme anxiety

they caused drama. i checked my notifs to find paragraphs of excuses used as an "apology"

"for no reason" you just stated why they were banned

"dmed them nothing but rude crap" wrong i dmed them saying that im sorry if what i said came off as rude (i said if it is them they need to log off and get mental help) and i felt like the apology was simply excuses

"over a small mistake" you make rude posts harassing the community and its members and you have not once but twice copied two communities and used being harrassed and having anxiety as a guilt trip, which then you without warning FORCED an apology on the people who dont even KNOW you whilst in a vulnerable mindset just so you can claim you're good and they're bad.

i also saw ZERO comments claiming that ur friend was a bot

the admin is an absolute sweetheart and has been trying his best to handle the situation whilst you and your friends make up lies and harrass the admin and their community

there was another rude post that was deleted

you are NOT fit to have a community and you should take a break off the internet and get HELP .

you are parasocial, you weaponise your disabilities to guilt trip others, you make empty promises and fake apologies, you harass people and throw a tantrum when you get backlash, you're a liar who makes stuff up so they get pity and you use this as an opportunity to advertise your community calling yourself better.

i hope you do learn from your actions this time and realise the severity of your actions.

Little corner and its community has done NOTHING wrong nor has cozy cafe and any other users/ communities that have been mentioned. This is @ask-welcomehome 's mistake and they should own up for it with no excuses, no "friend" speaking for them and no guilt trip/ weaponising disorders and blaming them for their actions.

pls dm my main @puppyregect-org for any further question/details or comment below

sorry for the wall of text LMAO

[ro-botany]

An Anatomical Reference of Grima, ca. 608 (Archanean Calendar)

(In essence: I got my claws on Grima's model from Echoes, and took screenshots of it in blender for your art referencing convenience. At some point later I'll reblog with some gifs of his animations if I can get them working. Enjoy!)

---

An excerpt from a worn journal attributed to an unnamed Summoner of Askr. Carefully affixed between paragraphs of chicken-scratch are several large, high quality photographs.

With the assistance of the dragon Askr, I've finally opened the correct gateway; one leading deep within the Thabes Labyrinth just around the time of the hero Alm's adventures. And it was just as the old manuscripts claimed! At the heart of the lowest levels, we found The Creation - he who would one day go on to be known as the Fell Dragon, Grima - laying in a deep torpor to conserve energy. It's taken near a month of work, and I've no doubt the rest of the Order thinks I'm nuts by now, but with a lot of one-on-one talking and the offering of several cart-fulls of quality carrion for him to eat, we've at long last built up a mutual trust! He's not quite at the point of letting any of us touch him, not even me; and he outright panics if he sees someone carrying a stave. As such, any real investigation of his physical health and detailed characteristics will have to wait. But he tolerates my flitting about with Anna's picture tome well enough, and has allowed me to take enough photographs and rough 3D scans for us to get a sense of his external anatomy. Once he's regained enough strength to move and levitate without undue difficulty, I hope to capture some short video of him in motion...

Full-Body Shots

His wings and horns are proportionally quite small compared to the much older instances of Grima I've dealt with thus far. Is this just because he's so much younger? With how much time he's spent trapped down here, it might be malnutrition stunting his growth, too...

Facial Shots

At first I'd assumed he had a pair of pharyngeal jaws like an eel, but upon further visual inspection I believe his cranial anatomy is far stranger than even that. There's no apparent gums or tongue inside the exterior jaw, and no musculature or soft tissue connecting the outer cranium to the outer jaw at the corners of the mouth; those features are confined solely to the inner pair of structures. And his lower external jaw isn't even connected to the flesh of his neck! I won't know for sure until he allows me to do a tactile exam, but from what I can see, I suspect his entire exterior "face" is actually a specialized defensive structure like the bony plates on his back. Like a big pair of horns, almost. What appears to be teeth may actually be akin to the points on a deer's antlers.

Torso Detail

His body construction really reflects his origins. He almost looks composed of two human rib cages, compressed and stacked atop one another. Complete with two lateral shoulder girdles and at least the appearance of very humanoid chest and back musculature. The range of motion on the joints of his hind limbs is decidedly NOT humanoid, though. I'll have to try to get some focused video shots of them once he's up and about.

I know we're not SUPPOSED to alter the timelines of the worlds we visit if we can help it, but... I mean, helping him has always been the goal, and the studies were always the excuse. Leaving him here would eat me alive. Maybe if I appeal to Sharena's emotions, and we get Chrom involved...

[bigmilkagenda]

Of the many, many plates of pancakes* that were offered to the listener in magp 1-07, this one may be my favourite

[ID: A screenshot of an unofficial transcript to The Magnus Protocol. CELIA is saying "Yeah. I mean, it's an old system, but it could have been worse. It's not like we're wrestling with tape recorders and manila folders." /end ID]

When we meet TMA-Celia for the second time, she's lost her name. She was Lynne Hammond, and now she's not. She doesn't seem to remember Martin, either, but it's not clear how much of herself and her life from before the change she does remember. She's freaked out by the tape recorders that start showing up, and there's no indication that she associates them with the Institute specifically.

If Celia Ripley is, as we are clearly intended to believe or consider, the same Celia as in TMA, why is she making knowing comments about manila folders and tape recorders? Tape recorders in particular are hardly standard equipment at what seems to be mostly a text data-entry and cataloguing job. She could have said typewriters, or carbon paper. Fax machines, if we're dunking on Freddy specifically.

She says "tape recorders and manila folders." Celia Ripley is referencing The Magnus Institute, particularly the outdated technologies in use in the Archives.

Maybe she learned more from Melanie about what the recorders were and did at the Institute, sometime after MAG 190. Maybe she has those specific memories of giving her statement in MAG 100, and little else. Maybe Martin grew an apocalypse beard and she remembers everything, but just didn't recognise him out of context and in a tunnel and during A Pretty Weird Time Overall.

Maybe she stuck around with Melanie-Georgie-Basira for a while after things returned, and that's how she learned about the particular significance of tape recorders.

Maybe she found some tapes and listened to a couple hundred of them.

Or maybe she's simply an AU Celia, with a knack for oddly specific and kind of clunky comparisons, drawn into this through the powers of metafiction and string theory.

Or maybe someone filled her with spiders and sent her to finish the job of spreading Fear to this particular world.

And the reason this particular plate of textual pancakes** (short stack, butter and nightmare syrup) is one of my favourites from "Give and Take" is because I genuinely have no idea! None of these are theories because there isn't enough evidence to point me in any particular direction. It's a mystery!, Jon voice, etcetera.

If you cornered me and paid me to have an opinion about it I could say which options I thought were more likely, I guess. But the odds are high that I'd be wrong, and I think the boat for me getting paid to interpret texts probably sailed fifteen years ago, besides. I'm in this for the love of the game.***

November is the true spooky season in the northern hemisphere.**** Yeah, October ends with Halloween, but you know what month starts with Halloween? Mmhmm. By November of 2019 TMA had been on my list for a few years, and someone I was getting to know and really liked recommended it to me specifically in the days after 159 aired. The conditions were correct for me to get into something new, is what I'm saying. I still remember listening to "Anglerfish" for the first time, walking home from my office job in the blustery November dark. I got home starry-eyed and red-cheeked and thrilled by the story I'd just heard.

It took a couple of months for me to catch up, and though I loved having so much to listen to there were times when I wished I'd started earlier, to have the experience of seeing things unfold.

And now we're back at a beginning, and get to experience the horrible joys of finding out.

[ID: A screenshot of an unofficial transcript to The Magnus Protocol. LENA is saying "Of a sort. I hope you're as ready for it as you think you are. Consider yourself "in." /end ID]

*Sabrina pancake meme

** the best kind, especially if it's a contest between textual and fluffy pancakes. Keep those spongy bastards away from me, I'll take the kind with a typeface instead

***Being a huge nerd

**** For more of my opinions on November, see https://www.tumblr.com/almostmolly/188799234276

[sonkitty]

The Rainbows of the Threshold Tricks

This thing is getting too ridiculous and messy to explain as part of an update to the Thresholds Trick post, so fine, here is a post about it.

I finally "found" the rainbow for The Perfect Entrance Trick. Maybe.

And I've long wanted to make a post about the rainbows for the Threshold Tricks anyway.

So, as a refresher or FYI, depending on how much you follow along with my posts...

The Pocket Trick has findable rainbows for each touch. This part is strangely easy compared to so much else in The Pocket Trick itself.

Eventually, I figured out that's because this ease is a clue about a much more complex mechanic called the Rainbow Connection through The Pocket Trick's Pocket Chain. It is also a hopefully possibly simplified way to show that yes, Earthly Objects really is a game audience members can play.

...

The rainbow in Touch #2 of The Pocket Trick is the header for this post. It has a notable purple next to the red.

Now, looking to the other Threshold Tricks, The Bigger Thresholds Trick, The Door Trick, and The Window Trick also have rainbows, but those rainbows do not have a notable purple. I think, as best I can personally tell, they go red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and then lack the purple.

I will go over them below, and you can use your own best judgment, provided you are at all interested.

Again, here is the one for The Pocket Trick, edited to emphasize the rainbow with some stronger saturation on that part:

...

Here is the one for The Bigger Thresholds Trick, both in a regular screenshot and with some editing to emphasize it:

...

The Door Trick:

...

The Window Trick:

...

The Sunglasses Trick does not get a rainbow. It has a reflection of white light in Crowley's watch due to its special layering:

...

The Perfect Entrance Trick does not get a light-based rainbow like those found in four of the other Threshold Tricks; likewise, the watch even gets a yellowish tint in its reflective surface so as to not fully give a white light reflection, as The Sunglasses Trick does.

So, back to The Pocket Trick and its Rainbow Connection.

Every Threshold Trick is linked to a ball invitation. I have long pondered why, since I had this realization that these links exist, especially considering how long it took for the realization to happen.

Well, whatever the reason, and maybe even ever so slightly partly the reason, this link can get The Perfect Entrance Trick a conceptual rainbow.

As the Rainbow Connection goes, the colors start from Red in Touch #1 and go down to Purple for Touch #3 in the music shop. The music shop has a double Purple, so then it starts to go back up.

The Perfect Entrance Trick is linked to Justine's ball invitation. During that scene, the Rainbow Connection goes from Blue all the way back up to Red. This connection shifting is happening during The Pocket Trick's Triple Part 3.

The Rainbow Connection isn't actually all just this one frame because the switches have specific frames to determine when they happen, but this frame has the relevant colors nonetheless:

Because of this extended link through the ball invitation, The Perfect Entrance Trick now has a reverse conceptualized rainbow compared to the other Threshold Tricks while also lacking a purple. It is the traveling, the shifting, of the Rainbow Connection going through those colors from Blue back up to Red.

I am reasonably sure of myself that the purple on the paper behind Crowley does not count because that is the findable rainbow for this particular touch of The Pocket Trick.

But I have been known to make mistakes and be wrong, so I will correct the matter if I figure it out better or further.

As I currently understand things, that's how The Perfect Entrance Trick gets its rainbow. The reversed order is likely related to it being the only Trick that starts and ends in episode 1 whereas the other five end in episode 6.

...

And that's it for now.

[liquidorcard]

Have you already watched joontheking video?

My thoughts:

- This is entirely speculation on my part, but I think "Val'kyr Studios" might have been a blundered, half-assed attempt on Lily's part to commit tax fraud. I'll elaborate on how Canadian small independent business tax benefits work if you'd like further explanation as to why.

-I'll pull my trans card here for a second to defend Joon's choice to include Lily's uncensored deadname. I want to make it clear that in the VAST MAJORITY OF SITUATIONS showing someone's deadname is a no-no. Lily has the right to refer to herself by her deadname if she pleases, obviously she's aware it's extremely easy to find, but it's not (in any personal circumstances) for others to use.

But the seriousness of the allegations called for total informational clarity and transparency on Joon's part, especially when it comes to Lily. Queer people, but especially trans women are often the target of pedojacketing. One of the issues, especially with criticizing her, is that just describing Lily in the abstract, she's so remarkably close to the alt-right bigoted stereotype of trans people, I'd HOPE people wouldn't take others at their word for it without doing research themselves. I know if you described Lily to ME without proof I'd have a hard time not assuming there was a good chance some poor women out there was being MAGA dogpiled by the internet, and 99% of the time that assumption would be the correct one. Lily is that one in a million irl stereotype. I believe she knows that and heavily exploits it-- maybe even leans in to some extent. It's hard to tell what parts of her are genuine and what parts are part of her are her shtick as the most victimized person to ever walk this green earth sometimes.

There was no good answer here, but that Joon said her deadname verbally ONCE for the sake of clarity, kept the screenshots and audio clips uncensored, but verbally gendered and named her correctly was a thoughtful and probably the best compromise. That he seemed careful to only include the claims with the most hard evidence or ones he could get direct testimony for and including a section trying to lightly address criticism of the authenticity of Lily's gender identity is also evidence of him taking care not to poop touch, in my opinion.

I don't know for sure, I don't know the man, and I am but a humble trans man, but that's my two cents.

-When he accidentally mispronounced Lily's name as "Loli Orchard" that almost took me out. I doubt it was intentional but 10/10, no notes, perfection. Chef's kiss.

-Seeing momma Peet show up to pick fights with Lily and Lizzy publically on twitter was wild. I had no idea that happened.

-As someone who was made known of Lily during the Becky Sucrose arc, seeing her Bhaalspawn and Brony arc comprehensively laid out in something that wasn't a bunch of disjointed posts for the first time was . . . Interesting.

-I need to make a Tara Callie wojak set.

[muffinrecord]

Ooo all this stored info is great!

But my previous ask was about the english archive app, the thing they left behind after the english magia record eos'd. Do you have anything on that?

OH

I'm sorry aaaugh

Uhhh Honestly I do not. The archive app was very buggy. It's been a while so others can correct me if I'm wrong, but if you had too many characters then it didn't record any of your account's progress.

Oh! Actually I found one screenshot I took. Here:

The images never showed and if you tried to watch the transformation video, it just gave you Tsuruno's. Needless to say, I was pretty disgusted by how useless it was and deleted it pretty quickly.

Thinking back on it, I'm thinking that the archive app at the end for NA was made by maybe one or two people who were probably overworked/underpaid trying to deliver a product that ultimately didn't work. I'm thankful that the development of the archive app gave us another month before NA's EOS though, because it gave me more time to record things.

However, for the upcoming JP Archive, we do have some select information. And it looks like it's going to be different than the one for NA.

There was a big livestream earlier this month that combined Magia Record news with Exedra news. I made a post that just copy+pasted Raz's thorough summary from discord: you can check out the link here.

It looks like you'll be able to see what girls you had along with progress on them (how many slots, magia, doppel). It doesn't look like you can look at card art, but you can see their sprites?

NA looked like a modified version of the archive, while this looks like you can see the girls in the character screen.

From the earlier Exedra stream summary, we also know that we'll be able to see:

Your Magical Girl info screen, from which you can view all of your Magical Girls and their levels/Memo Slots/Magia Levels/Transformations, etc.

Your info archive, which shows off the information of all the Magical Girls, Memoria, Doppels, Witches, and Uwasa that you have encountered during you Magia Record career.

So it combines the Archive with the Magical Girl Info screen?

The last thing I want to say is that the NA Archive sucked, but that's because I think we weren't going to get one in the first place-- it's been a while so my memory might be wrong on that. It was sort of thrown together at the end to placate angry players.

I don't think that JP is going to be as buggy and messed up as NA was. It still sucks that we won't be able to view events in the archive but it appears that the version we're getting is more comprehensive. Additionally, just based on the way the game is going out at the end, I feel like the devs do care about the player experience. Some things are very slow at getting fixed-- for example, the issue with Kimochi capped numbers-- but they were eventually fixed. This is for a game that is going to EOS in less than ten days. They didn't have to jam a bunch of cool events for two-ish months (THAT BRING THEM NO MONEY) but they did, and I think it's because-- despite all the flaws and the predatory nature of gacha games-- the devs do care about its players.

Maybe. I dunno. Probably?

My point being, I am tentatively hopeful that the upcoming EOS archive app will be far more useful than the NA one and much less buggy.

I hope this helps? I apologize that I didn't have a video or screenshot for you more than that one. I think I remember people posting images on the subreddit, if that helps with giving a direction to look for.