#mostly tagging to be safe

[buggachat]

i do just have to say though.................... i feel like people who really really loved the movie's portrayals of the characters are adding aspects of the show characters onto them? you know what i mean? like i see people say that adrien and marinette were more likeable in the movie than the show, when movie adrien didn't perform a single act of kindness in the entire 2 hours despite kindness being a core trait of adrien in the show? marinette was normal and not particularly weird at all and just kind of a generic protagonist? were adrien and marinette actually more interesting in the movie than the show, or are you just cherrypicking the aspects of them you like the from the show and putting them on the movie characters to make your favorite amalgamation?

marinette fell for adrien not because he showed vulnerability and forgiveness and kindness and opened his heart up to her.... but because he awkwardly tried to help her up after being kind of weirded out by her? so like i guess she thought he was hot and that was basically it? chat noir fell for ladybug not because she was strong and confident and showed determination in the face of fear... but because she begrudgingly helped him up in the middle of a battle? so like i guess he thought she was hot and that was basically it? they fell for each other over just the bare minimum interactions? most of their relationship was a montage? like, did the movie do the work to convince you of lovesquare's romantic potential, or did you go into the movie already shipping them because the show had already convinced you?

thats totally a valid way to enjoy the movie ftr! i'm just saying.... idk it's weird to see people praising the movie for being "better" when i feel like a lot of the enjoyment of the movie actually hinges on watching the show as context for their characters. and i guess im just a cringe slow-burn enjoyer but i find it weird that people are using "faster" as a synonym for "better"

[supernormalblogname]

the venomful biter.. theyre putting them both in gay people jail for this. and also theyre putting me in there as well

[clownsuu]

BRO WHEN I TELL YOU I DID A FULL DOUBKE TAKE ON THAY HOWDY DRAWING—

GYAT

Devouring your art rn

Honestly big bozonga howdy is probably the funniest shit I’ve ever drawn smhhh

Very helpful smh

[sexygaywizard]

Btw for everyone worried about maia arson crimew's safety or it getting arrested, I'm not saying don't be bc anything can happen but maia is, for one thing, Swiss-- I think a lot of people assume it's American? And in Switzerland you cannot be extradited to be tried for foreign crimes without your consent. Furthermore tbh the no fly list thing was hardly even a hack-- it was found on an unsecured server through an online device search engine. maia said itself on its blog that all it took was the patience to scroll through the different servers and folders. So it would be pretty hard to convict maia of a crime here, the fault actually lies with the airline company that had the list on an unsecured server. Mainly what maia would need to worry about would be prosecution for its hack of Verkada two years ago and again, given Swiss extradition laws it is relatively safe.

[samwinchesterthewitch]

but can we talk about how excited Dean is to have his brother back in the first episode???

he doesn't tell Sam it's him because he wants to spar with his baby brother. he tells Sam he doesn't wanna do this alone. he looks over at Sam while the girls in the diner are talking way before Sam looks at him, and then he looks again so that they're looking at each other.

it seems like he takes any excuse to touch Sam, even if it's just smacking him. he keeps asking if Sam wants anything to eat and offers to pay for it. he lets Sam know he's 'super' with a little ok hand because his baby brother's worried and he's gotta both reassure him and make him laugh.

he acts like a rejected date when Sam says he's gotta go home. "yeah. whatever, i'll take you home." like he's trying not to get into another argument but he still has hopes Sam'll say yes with that "we made a great team back there". and then pretends to believe Sam when he says he'll catch up later.

Dean's desperation in the pilot is just so obvious and endearing to me. i literally can't watch it and NOT think about how toxic and obsessive and controlling this man's gonna get, and think about finale Dean admitting he would drive by Stanford with John to check up on Sam, ESPECIALLY when he tells Sam "in two years i haven't bothered you once"

i just

[lostwords-found]

Oh god. Okay. SO. The Protocol red string board is going places and I am chewing drywall.

Note: I've been working on this post for a few days and nothing in here involves episode 27--I don't talk about episodes before they're out for everyone, so no worries about patreon spoilers.

Quick recap of some suspicions about Protocolverse I've written about previously:

1. I think this universe runs on a kind of balance of good & bad luck (or suffering and happiness), and that it's possible--under certain circumstances--to pawn the bad stuff off on other people and keep the good that arises to balance it out. I suspect a big piece of Protocol's overarching plot is going to be about the different ways people go about trying to come out ahead in that bargain.

2. I think some alchemists figured out how to attach bad luck and/or other similarly abstract ills into physical form.

3. I think they were trying to use this to cast out bad luck to other worlds (including that of Archives) and get good luck back. I think this is how the Fears got to Archives in the first place.

4. I think the books and coin in the tomb from MAG 23 got there this way, probably with the involvement of Protocolverse Albertus Magnus. The year on the coin -- 1279 -- is the year before Albertus Magnus died.

We'll come back to that stuff in a bit.

There's an apparently minor detail that was nagging at me recently: in TMAGP 22 Hans Berger specifically mentions having switched to silver wires in his experiments, and this change enabling his breakthroughs. It's through these silver wires, implanted directly into Herr Schmidt's brain, that he later receives the desperate telegraph signals that appear to be from a previously unheard part of Schmidt's brain.

By itself, that wouldn't ping any alarms. Silver wires are in fact what Berger used in real life; silver's highly conductive so if you're trying to read electrical impulses from the brain, probably a good choice of material. But the writing is very deliberate about mentioning them, and coming only three episodes after another historical letter about a scientist also working with silver -- Newton's tree in TMAGP 19 was a fantastical variant of a Tree of Diana, dendritic silver -- Berger's wires start feeling like maybe they're not just there for accuracy.

If, as it appears from Newton's work, consuming silver in certain forms can cause a new kind of consciousness to arise--and also, uh, turn you into a tree--what might implanting silver wires in a human brain do? Is the silver contacting or awakening something that was already there, or is it putting something there? Was that desperate OUT OUT OUT message really from half of Herr Schmidt's mind--or from something in the wire itself that was trying to get out?

That would be weird though. I mean--what, Protocolverse silver's inherently evil or something? But then I got back to thinking about alchemists trying to transmute things into precious metals. Gold's the one we mostly think of, but silver was also of interest. Which in real life is where you got stuff like the tree of Diana--alchemists thought that was a precursor to the philosopher's stone.

So... then I start thinking, if I was right in my other post that alchemists were figuring out how to put evil / misfortune / suffering into a physical form that could be used to transfer it somewhere else, what if silver was involved in that? What if they were either turning misfortune into silver, or trapping it in silver that already existed?

What if they did that, meaning to send it away, and some of that silver made its way into use?

Then I started looking some stuff up.

Did you know silver used to be mined in the Black Forest, in Germany? One mine there had a name meaning "Blessing of God." That mine dates back to the 1200s--Albertus Magnus's lifetime.

Did you know that starting in the 1600s, the G strings on high quality violins were typically wrapped in silver wire?

Do you know why movies are called the silver screen? In the 1920s, literal silver was used to make cinema screens. This fell out of favor as other cheaper designs were worked out, BUT in the 2000s silver has come back into use a bit because it works well for 3D movies. I would not be surprised at all if the screen that Tom went to see Voyeur on had silver in it.

Did you know that in the early 90s there was a specific plant in the UK that manufactured CDs covered with a layer of silver? This later turned out to cause some problems as the silver reacted with sulfur (oh hai, another alchemically significant substance!) and slowly degraded the discs. In real life these CDs were manufactured up through 1993. Per TMAGP 10, Mr Bonzo made his debut in '96 (the interview is from 2021 and is the 25th anniversary of Mr Bonzo's first appearance). The two times Mr Bonzo has appeared in person he's been summoned by playing a CD of his theme song. I wonder where and when those CDs were manufactured...

Did you notice the caterer Lady Mowbray hired in TMAGP 15 mentions that his company did silver service events? Betcha that particular feast was served on literal silver platters.

...I'm starting to think it's a really good thing ink5oul didn't end up tattooing Gwen with that silver spoon.

Okay. This all seems like there's maybe a theme here, but let's take a step back. Some materials have just been used for a lot of things throughout history; it could be coincidence. IF the above is actually on the mark--IF these were all intentional majorly-plot-relevant inclusions of Things Wot Involve Silver--where else would we expect to see this cropping up in the story? Because the topic of silver has barely been raised directly at all; I'm extrapolating wildly here, mostly on the basis of a couple episodes.

Well, here's a thought: silver was used in everyday currency for a long, long time. If there was a bunch of Evil Silver floating around surely someone would have stuck it into some money at some point. "Ill fortune" in the most literal possible sense, or whole new meaning to the phrase "bad penny" -- there are various bad jokes there that more or less write themselves. Though whoever was doing this would have had to to mark the bad money somehow so that they could avoid it...

Hey, um, remember how the OIAR's offices are in the building that housed the Royal Mint for like 150 years?

Actually, while we're on that subject, here's a funny little tidbit: Before it moved to Royal Mint Court, the Royal Mint was in the Tower of London for several centuries--its first home after being centralized. Wanna guess what year the Royal Mint was established in the Tower of London? Go on. Guess.

1279.

The same. Fucking. Year. As was on that coin waaaaaay back in MAG 23. Which was a thing I had noticed a while back when looking at the Germany eps, but I hadn't been considering a "what if some metals can be Bad" angle at that point and had just written it off as an odd coincidence.

Which I mean, it's probably still just a weird coincidence, I'm building this entire elaborate framework out of assumptions on top of assumptions on top of -- hang the fuck on, let me look something up real quick, I've gotta be misremembering--

I'm not misremembering! Isaac Newton was the Master of the Royal Mint for the last 30 years of his life.

Cool. Okay. So that's--hm. I think I'm genuinely starting to convince myself none of this is a coincidence.

Then I start poking through Wikipedia, and you wanna know some other interesting things? One, Newton himself apparently saw his work in economics as a continuation of his alchemical work. And two, during his tenure at the Royal Mint, he put limits on how much gold people were allowed to exchange for silver, and this led to a silver shortage. Because apparently, when other countries imported goods to them, the British paid for those goods in silver coins. When they exported goods to other countries, though?

They would only take payment in gold.

And there it is--there's the exact outsourcing scheme I was looking for. Stick all your suffering and pain and misfortune into your money, use that money to pay other countries, and get only the good stuff back. That... sounds really believable for the British Empire, honestly.

So I really think I might have some decent guesses on the historical stuff at play here. That only goes just so far though, because these days, silver doesn't really get used in coinage much.

Know where it does get used? Circuits. Electronics.

Computers.

If I'm right, whatever machinery the Mint used to store the intangible evils of the world in physical coinage for exportation, I would guess the OIAR is now using to instill all of those evils into FR3-D1 instead. One all-containing artifact of misfortune.

What the endgame is there, what the government gets out of it, I'm still not 100% sure--but I can't help thinking about Jonah's line in MAG 160 that Jon is not the Archivist but the Archive. That he is the record of fear, the physical embodiment of it.

There's people wanting to outsource absolutely fucking everything to AI these days, I guess.

SO THAT'S BEEN MY WEEK this is what my brain does when I have to drive all the way across the US alone, apparently. How are you all?

[hottest-girl-around]

FAVOR TREE - The Tree looms above you, high and mighty. Isabeau said that this was the largest tree in the area, and that people think that means it can grant favors.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Trivial: Success] - Leaves big and small litter the path to the favor Tree's Trunk.

MEMORY OF MEMORIES [Medium: Success] - You should grab one. You'll need them to make a wish to the Tree, after all.

Look around for a leaf to make a wish with.

Back away and do something else.

YOU - You look around for a leaf you like. Picking the biggest one you can find, you pause for a second and think.

LOGIC - Asking a favor from a higher power, like a tree, is basically like a wish, right?

MAL DU PAYS - A HOLLOW ACHING IN YOUR CHEST. YOU HAVE FELT THIS BEFORE. A FEELING OF FAMILIARITY. A FEELING OF SOMETHING MISSING. SOMETHING IMPORTANT.

MEMORY OF MEMORIES [Impossible: Failure] - But you can't remember what.

EMPATHY - A wish, a wish... The Favor Trees seem popular among the people of Vaugarde. If they've all been making wishes, then surely they must all have wished for their country to be saved.

LOGIC - Right. So adding another wish like that to the pile seems useless. The Trees are probably on it, anyhow.

SAUVEUR DE LA VAUGARDE - But wishing for something big... That would be taking away from their wish, wouldn't it? So something small, then.

LOGIC - Something simple.

EMPATHY - Something nice.

You wish to visit more places with Mirabelle.

You wish to wear clothes Isa has made.

You wish to go with Odile to see her country.

You wish to be there with Bonnie when they reunite with their sister.

YOU - Traveling with your friends, you've talked about a lot of things. Serious things. Not-so-serious things. But through it all, it's been a fun experience. You think you want to stay with them. Yeah, that's a good enough wish.

MEMORY OF MEMORIES [Medium: Success] - Wish in in mind, you breathe it into the leaf, repeat it thrice, and fold it closed, to keep it safe.

YOU - Gently letting the leaf go, you watch as it flutters away into the wind. Wish made, you get up and look back at the town.

SIEVEBRAIN [Trivial: Success] - You have a sleepover to attend today, after all.

[the-sussy-imposter2]

I thought Will would like messing with louise sometimes. Louise doesnt seem to like his sense of humor, though.

(Characters are will and louise from @peachnewt 's story, getting in deep !!)

[that-nerd-who-writes-fanfiction]

Am I writing a frankly ridiculous number of Merlin and Arthur “almost” hugs into my fic?

Yes. Yes I am.

What about it?

[medi-bee]

your header image is KILLING me oh my god the death grip on the pup PLEASE

naughty thieving pups get forcefully escorted from the premises (Five Pebbles)

[bbb-bbbbbbb]

touched up some daisy, daisy fanart i made at least a year ago but never got to post

[awakenthebeing]

MIX OF STUFF i am feeling brave tonight and want to place down some goodies i don't think i've shared here <:3!!! Mainly Peaches au critters and stuffs tho both new and sort of olde but ALSO bonus Glory (mm oc on 6th images with purple and yellow colors)

[saneandrocking]

heyyy confession time: i don't give a fuck about cait. like, not an once of a fuck actually. the gold coffin was the last drop for me. this is not to say she's not a good written character, but yeah fuck that fascist she can gag on that gun of hers all she wants. fuck all of pilltover btw never expect me to have something to say to defende them.

[unforth]

Hey if you're a white person (as I am too!) and reading the stuff about End OTW Racism (@end-otw-racism) is making you uncomfortable CONGRATULATIONS THATS THE POINT bipoc have been uncomfortable in fandom for decades and some of yall can't face being uncomfortable for five seconds and still have the gall to have shit like BLM in your descriptions.

Put your money where your mouth is. Be uncomfortable. Actually read what they're talking about and what changes they're proposing instead of jumping right to BuT wHaT aBoUt My DaRk FiC (they want to protect your dark fic and help ensure you're safer from harassment over it!)and ThEy'Re PrO-cEnSoRsHiP (they are explicitly not).

I'm so fucking tired of having my posts and those I reblog on this topic largely ignored on my personal account, but ESPECIALLY I'm furious about how ignored posts on racism in fandom are when I put them on the danmei art sideblogs.

I see racism every single fucking DAY as part of running those accounts. This isn't some nebulous thing happening elsewhere, this is us!

If you don't care, I really need you to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask yourself WHY DONT I CARE?

Because YOU SHOULD FUCKING CARE.

[trevisos]

i think some of the trouble i’m having with figuring magpie out is that i initially planned them to live in a world where elves are oppressed and the crows are an organization that trains children to kill so rigorously that many die before becoming proper assassins and until ~10 years ago the majority of mages lived locked in towers because the general population found them too frightening to live freely and bioware kind of smoothed out many of these edges in veilguard and now i don’t have like. any of those hooks i expected to have to anchor magpie as a Person In The World. i mean granted the mage thing was always going to be less of a big deal bc ik the culture around mages in antiva was different even when the circles Did exist but the other stuff i like… idk i guess i didn’t Expect the whole elven oppression thing to be so smoothed over and sanitized. but it’s barely mentioned?? bellara straight up was like “will people dislike elves after this?” as if they don’t already? the shadow dragons are fighting slavery in tevinter, a thing that has historically happened Mostly To Elves, and yet that’s never mentioned directly. as an elf rook i never get to have an opinion on being an elf in minrathous. i don’t Get to tell bellara that they already hate us. i recognize it was prob wishful thinking but i had hoped we could play a smidge more with the dynamic of being a city elf contending not only with the fact that the elven gods you’ve never worshipped are real but also that they’re Evil. instead every other character talks to magpie as if these are her gods too and they’re not!! they never were! but there’s never really an option to outright say that! the only chance i’ve had so far to say they’re not my gods was worded as if i rejected them for being tyrants with no option to acknowledge that i’ve NEVER worshipped them?? as if city elves no longer exist to bioware when like. to Me that was the most interesting part of elves!

and obvs i figured the crows would be humanized a little more but it really does feel like everyone there has Chosen to be an assassin and could leave if they wanted. the fledgling jacobus is treated with like. kid gloves by both heir And the two talons present which is not exactly consistent with Training So Grueling It Kills Children? this is a much less big deal for many reasons (including that there is definitely a certain Lens the crows are allowing you to see them through as an outsider (and/or because you have outsiders with you for a crow rook) that may easily conceal many of the realities of the org. and also bc it’s just not a big deal) but it is still kind of baffling to come up against when i came into the game as zevranlover69

[thoughtsfromthefiverealms]

plural friends/support groups

So I've seen some pretty hot takes from r/systemcringe. I'm not even sure where to start to be honest. I guess I'll start with the one that's echoing through my brain. Actually, there's two but I'll give them each their own post.

They seem to think that someone wanting plural friends is some gross statement of wanting people to suffer. Now this is mostly from a trauamgenic standpoint.

Having had a group of plural friends I hung out with some years ago, I can honestly say that none of us were thinking "I wish more of my friends suffered". Mostly what we were thinking was "Oh, you go through some of the same shit I do, you can understand in a way singlets don't." We could talk openly with each other about system stuff in ways we couldn't with singlet friends and family without having to stop and explain what "this" is or what "this" means. Sometimes you don't want to be the teacher, you just want to hang out with some friends.

It gave our system mates a chance to learn safe interactions, if they didn't know them. To learn that not everyone was evil or ready to abuse us. To learn that we can have friends too. And it gave us people to lean on in the bad times, people who understood just what those bad times were like. It gave our system mates a chance to be out for more than trauma and therapy things, to learn to have fun like "normal" people did.

It's definitely NOT a bad thing to want plural friends. It has nothing to do with wanting other people to suffer and everything to do with wanting a peer group. And you know what? Systems are allowed to want that, too.