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ocdude · 1 year ago

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Being an “elder millennial” or “Xelennial” or whatever label you want to call someone born in the 80s that got to play the original Oregon Trail, I got to see a lot of technological transitions. Growing up, we had film cameras. Point and shoots, mainly, with some oddballs here and there (remember those cameras that were flat and long?). At some point while I was a teenager I was gifted a used Fuji STX-2 and I became the family photographer. From that point forward I took more photos than was in them. That camera, sadly, is no longer with me. I’ve since moved on to a Canon K2 and then later a Canon Elan7 which I continue to use today (which is actually my second Elan7 after my first one met with a terrible fate).

I went to film school (the motion kind), but never really got a chance to be a “filmmaker”, for whatever that means, so I use photography as a way to exercise that muscle a bit. Aside from sharing some shots on Flickr and a few things on Instagram, I’ve never really shared my photography with anyone other than my partner, so I’ve not really worked on talking about my process or really looked at my photography objectively. Over the next year my hope is I can start being more thoughtful about the photos I take and forcing myself to write about them here might help with that.

This past month I picked up a Fujica ST801. I mainly bought it for the lenses (I’ve been collecting old, mostly soviet M42 mount lenses), but the camera is actually a fantastic little device. The shutter and the film winding lever are wonderfully mechanical. Given it’s a Fuji camera, I thought it appropriate to start off with a roll of Fujifilm Neopan Arcos 100II as my test roll. Part of the “joy” of eBaying cameras and camera equipment is not fully knowing if what you’re going to get is actually as functional as the post made it seem. In this camera’s case, the light meter is subtly messed up, but I don’t know yet if it’s because something’s actually wrong or if it’s because it’s actually meant for silver oxide batteries and I’m using alkaline. As a result, I ended up having to use a light meter app on my phone. I should probably get that fixed.

Here’s a selected few photos from that roll.

Image 1, the Caltrain station

I've never really shot this stock before despite shooting a lot of black and white film. This stock has a lot of dynamic range and not a lot of grain, which I actually really like. I actually really like this composition, though I keep waffling back and forth on whether I should have tried for a deeper depth of field or if I actually like that the foreground is out of focus.

Image 2, more caltrain station

This is a lot closer to the "style" I normally shoot, quote unquote "street photography". I like the person in the shot, and I like the deep hallway. I don't like that I don't have any of the next train signs in focus. Again, this was a pretty challenging lighting situation, and with a broken meter, I just went with a wider open f-stop.

Image 3, cat on a bombed out metermaid vehicle

As I was walking down the street I saw a flock of metermaid vehicles parked behind a fence, which was interesting enough, but as I got closer, I spotted a cat who seemed to be offended that I made eye contact. The vehicle it was sitting on seemed to be having a rough go at it, what with being burned and all, but it made for a fascinating subject. This is another one where I was impressed by the dynamic range of the film. The cat is well lit, but you don't lose all of the detail in the vehicle either. I actually have three pictures of this cat, but this one stands out the most because of the contrast in the shadow area vs the cat. A+, would potentially offend this cat again.

Image 4, fire rescue racing out of firestation

I don't know if "lucky" is the right word, considering emergency vehicles racing off is typically not a good thing, but I happened to grab this shot while walking by a fire station just as they received a radio call. This is probably the one time I regret having black and white instead of color loaded, but I really like the shadows here and the contrast between the shadow and light sides of the building. The vehicle itself seems to just pop as well. I also like that there's some minor halation on the lightbar, which is not something I was particularly expecting to catch on black and white.

Image 5, aka "this roll is 36, but I'm on shot 38"

Part of the joy of mechanical cameras that don't have any sort of DX code reader or automatic winding is you can sometimes squeeze out more frames than you expect from a roll if you are careful while loading. At the end of my walk I hit a taco truck for lunch, and took this photo, not fully expecting it to work. This was the end of the roll. Like a lot of the other shots from this roll, I'm actually really surprised at the detail you get in the darker areas. The tacos were also delicious.

Conclusion

I'm definitely going to shoot with this camera more this year. The fact that it's slighlty broken means I need to stop and consider my shots a lot more than when I'm out with the Elan with all of it's fancy autofocus and working light meter (and exposure compensation, and...). I actually really like this film stock as well. My usual goto for black and white has been Ilford HP5, but it's super grainy. While that's sometimes the feel I want (photos you can chew), it's nice to have an alternative.

#film #film photography #analog camera #35mm film #ishootfilm #neopan arcos 100 #black and white

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quantumboogaloo · 2 years ago

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The Existence of Planet X

This is a paper I wrote 4 years ago; I was just recently rereading it and thought it was worth sharing. Again, it was written 4 years ago so it may have some outdated information. Also, my apologies, but for some reason the diagrams I used have been lost to time, and I don't have the energy to track them down again.

Space has held the fascination of humanity for centuries. Even in the ancient times, people devoted their lives to the study of the stars. In the mid-twentieth century, the Space Race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union developed into one of the most important driving factors of modern technology and history, but with the end of the Apollo missions, interest in space quickly fizzled out. With the creation of the Space Shuttle Program, that interest peaked once more, but it again died with the end of the program. However, one decision, made over a decade ago, still maintains people’s attention. This decision still meets harsh criticism and hostile hatred: Pluto. Many protest the demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet. Outrage and contempt greet the scientific evidence stating Pluto could not retain the title of planet. “Why can’t Pluto have the title?” the protesters ask, “Pluto has a spherical shape, it has multiple moons, it orbits the Sun, and it has a diameter significantly greater than the Earth’s Moon. Surely that would make it a planet, right?” Not necessarily, as the qualifications for a planet have many more complications, as explained in the BBC article by Paul Rincon, “Why is Pluto No Longer a Planet?”:

On 24 August, the last day of the assembly, members [of the International Astronomical Union] voted to adopt a new resolution outlining criteria for naming a planet: (1) A planet is a celestial body that: a. is in orbit around the sun b. has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces to that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and c. has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

Pluto met the first two of these criteria, but the last one proved pivotal. ‘Clearing the neighbourhood’ means that the planet has either ‘vacuumed up’ or ejected other large objects in its vicinity of space. In other words, it has achieved gravitational dominance.

Pluto does not have a high enough mass to gravitationally clear its orbit, so it could not maintain planetary status. Other objects dwell in its orbit, and Pluto simply does not have the mass required to gain gravitational control over these other objects.

Researchers found Pluto as the first of many Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). The Kuiper Belt consists of many dwarf planets, comets, and other icy bodies reaching beyond the orbit of Neptune and to the inner edge of the Oort Cloud (In fact, if Pluto had retained its planetary status, over one hundred dwarf planets would belong to the planetary family). However, with the discovery of the Kuiper Belt came many questions. Astronomers observed that many objects in the Kuiper Belt had inexplicable, unaccounted for orbits. The inner Solar System, which includes the four rocky planets, the Asteroid Belt, and the four gas giants, exists on a relatively flat plane, with little deviation. According to “Pluto’s Unusual Orbit,” published by the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, “[Pluto’s] orbital path doesn't lie in the same plane as the eight planets, but is inclined at an angle of 17°. Its orbit is also more oval-shaped, or elliptical, than those of the planets… At times Pluto's orbit brings it closer to the Sun than Neptune.” Sometimes Pluto moves far outside of Neptune’s orbit, and sometimes it travels deep within. Astronomers have noted similar trends for many other objects in the Kuiper Belt, and some have even more dramatic abnormalities. Astronomers and astrophysicists could find no observable reason for this trend for many years, until 2015, when Caltech researchers Konstantin Batygin and Michael E. Brown proposed the theory of Planet X (also known as Planet Nine).

The peculiar orbits of the Kuiper Belt Objects fascinated Batygin and Brown, and the researchers noticed that multiple of the strange orbits lined up very similarly. Batygin and Brown found six total orbits, each nearly identical to the others, with the same orientation and plane. The researchers found this pattern incredibly unlikely to have happened randomly. In “Evidence for a Distant Giant Planet in the Solar System,” Batygin and Brown write, “the orbits of distant Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) cluster not only in argument of perihelion, but also in physical space. We demonstrate that… such a clustering has only a probability of 0.007% to be due to chance, thus requiring a dynamical origin.” The perihelia (the point in the orbit where the object comes closest to the sun) and the direction the orbits point exist almost parallely, which does not occur under standard circumstances. Batygin and Brown’s 0.007% bears resemblance to the likelihood of a lightning strike. The two men also found that random Kuiper Belt Objects just wouldn’t explain the orbits with the data they had. A theory using small Kuiper Belt objects “would require the Kuiper Belt to have about 100 times the mass it has today,” according to Kimm Fesenmaier of Caltech. To Batygin and Brown, this information left only one option: a planet.

Taken from the Caltech article “More Support for Planet Nine,” this diagram shows many of the orbital trends that led to the theory of Planet X.

But what kind of planet? There exist an infinite number of possible orbits, and just as many possibilities in terms of mass, resulting in unfathomable numbers of potential planets. Batygin and Brown took the only option they had: test out as many combinations as possible. Fortunately, the researchers ruled out several potential orbits from the start. For one, Batygin and Brown had to find an orbit with sections feasibly hidden from the Earth, in order to explain why astronomers cannot currently see Planet X. The researchers also knew their orbit had to either lasso or herd the objects into place. Eventually, Batygin and Brown found what they had searched so long for. In their paper, Batygin and Brown write:

We find that the observed orbital alignment can be maintained by a distant eccentric planet with mass 10 m ⊕whose orbit lies in approximately the same plane as those of the distant KBOs, but whose perihelion is 180° away from the perihelia of the minor bodies. In addition to accounting for the observed orbital alignment, the existence of such a planet naturally explains the presence of high-perihelion Sedna-like objects, as well as the known collection of high semimajor axis objects with inclinations between 60° and 150° whose origin was previously unclear (1).

If Batygin and Brown gave the planet a mass of about ten times that of the Earth, and placed it directly opposite the Kuiper Belt Objects, the simulations showed the observed orbits occuring; it also explained other strange orbits in the Kuiper Belt, too: orbits Batygin and Brown hadn’t even thought about. Fesenmaier writes:

“A good theory should not only explain things that you set out to explain. It should hopefully explain things that you didn't set out to explain and make predictions that are testable… When the simulation aligned the distant Kuiper Belt objects and created objects like Sedna, we thought this is kind of awesome—you kill two birds with one stone,” says Batygin. “But with the existence of the planet also explaining these perpendicular orbits, not only do you kill two birds, you also take down a bird that you didn't realize was sitting in a nearby tree.”

This diagram from Fesenmaier’s article“Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of a Real Ninth Planet” shows the orbits of the KBO’s that would be herded by Planet X (pink), the orbit of Planet X (orange), and the perpendicular orbits of the objects that Batygin and Brown recognized (blue).

To Batygin and Brown, the objects with the perpendicular orbits all but confirmed the existence of Planet X. The researchers had not even stopped for a moment to think about the perpendicular orbits, but the planet they devised explained them perfectly. Batygin and Brown need only to find the planet to prove their theory, a feat that, while it may seem easy, has proven very difficult. Planet X has not found its way into a telescope’s view, and until it has, it must remain undiscovered. Batygin and Brown’s object would orbit very far away from the Earth, up to twenty times further than Neptune. As an object in space travels away from the Earth, its visibility decreases exponentially. In the Quanta Magazine article, “Why Can’t We Find Planet Nine?” Charlie Wood writes, “Planets twice as far away look 16 times dimmer — the intensity of the sunlight weakens by a factor of four going out, and then four times again coming back.” Planet X, even at its closest, would appear as no more than a small, faint blur. Even if an image taken contained Planet X, the planet could still remain hidden by the glare of a star, caught behind another object, or lost in the haze of the Earth’s atmosphere. As dim as Planet X might seem, it should can feasibly appear with current telescopic technology. “Any object that far away from the Sun will be very faint and hard to detect, but astronomers calculate that it should be possible to see it using existing telescopes,” write Lonnie Shekhtman and Jay Thompson in the NASA article, “Hypothetical Planet X: In Depth.” Technological advancements to better current telescopes would, of course, increase the likelihood of a sooner discovery, but astronomers can find Planet X without their use.

Many astronomers, however, see the discovery of a new planet as infeasible. Stargazers have not found a new planet in over one hundred years, and they have only found two new planets since ancient times. Antranik A. Sefilian and Jihad R. Touma set out to explain the strange Kuiper Belt orbits without Planet X. The University of Cambridge article “Mystery Orbits in Outermost Reach of Solar System Not Caused by Planet Nine Researchers Say” states:

“[I]f the hypothesised ninth planet exists, it has so far avoided detection,” said co-author Antranik Sefilian, a PhD student in Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. “We wanted to see whether there could be another, less dramatic and perhaps more natural, cause for the unusual orbits we see in some TNOs. We thought, rather than allowing for a ninth planet, and then worry about its formation and unusual orbit, why not simply account for the gravity of small objects constituting a disc beyond the orbit of Neptune and see what it does for us?”

Sefilian and Touma tried simulations containing multiple small objects, and found Batygin and Brown had overlooked one major factor: the Kuiper Belt would not have have nearly as much mass as they predicted to maintain the orbits without the hypothetical planet. In fact, the Kuiper Belt would not have to contain much more than the objects already catalogued by astronomers to explain the exact same abnormalities as Planet X. Sefilian and Touma’s paper, titled, “Shepherding in a Self-gravitating Disk of Trans-Neptunian Objects,” explains the mathematics behind how Sefilian and Touma discovered this possibility and how it would work, but they could neither prove their theory correct, nor discredit that of Batygin and Brown. In the paper, Sefilian and Touma write, “Ultimately, though, we do not have secure and direct observational evidence for our proposed disk, in much the same way we do not have full proof arguments against Planet Nine.” No definitive evidence exists to confirm Sefilian and Touma’s or Batygin and Brown’s theories, any more than it exists to deny them.

Batygin and Brown, on the other hand, did not stop with the original publication of their research; they recently wrote two papers to demonstrate further evidence of the existence of a ninth planet in the Solar System. The article, “More Support for Planet Nine,” states:

The second paper is titled "The Planet Nine Hypothesis…” Based on the new models, Batygin and Brown—together with Fred Adams and Juliette Becker (BS '14) of the University of Michigan—concluded that Planet Nine has a mass of about five times that of the earth and has an orbital semimajor axis in the neighborhood of 400 astronomical units (AU).

At 400 AU, Astronomers would find Planet X would much easier than previously predicted. Parts of the original orbit stretched further than 1,000 AU, which many astronomers have called the “brick wall” of observation. Astronomers would be able to spot Planet X 16 times more easily, and it would appear bigger, brighter, and harder to hide than many researchers thought it would be. Additionally, Planet X would take on a role not yet filled in the Solar System, though very common in other star systems. Fesenmaier writes,”First, most of the planets around other sunlike stars have no single orbital range… Second, the most common planets around other stars range between 1 and 10 Earth-masses.” All eight of the known planets orbit relatively close to the Sun, and they all have either very large or very small masses. The Solar System’s very large and very small, close orbiting types of planets do not occur very often at all, and a planet such as Planet X would occur much more commonly. A ninth planet might seem extreme, but it would actually make the Solar System much less abnormal.

Several issues often come to the light at the hands of those unhappy about the prospect of a ninth planet. One such concern questions whether the ninth planet would actually qualify as a planet because of its irregular orbit. However, orbital shape has nothing to do with planetary status; gravitational dominance has the sole power over status. Planet X has achieved complete gravitational control - it affects Kuiper Belt objects even at great distance -- so Brown calls it “the most planet-y of the planets in the whole solar system.” Another concern many people have brought up says this theoretical planet should have the name Planet Ten, not Planet Nine, because they believe Pluto should still take the title of planet. Following this line of reasoning, Planet X would actually have the name Planet 200+, or, at the very least, Planet Fourteen. An estimated 200 dwarf planets dwell in the Kuiper Belt, and the Solar System has five official dwarf planets. However, dwarf planets cannot hold planetary status, so the proper name remains Planet Nine or Planet X. Finally, the question of observational bias suggests perhaps the unusual orbits do not occur at all, and they only appear unusual because of the location of the Earth. Observational bias means that a system is much more difficult to view and understand when inside looking out rather than outside looking in. Batygin and Brown, in their new paper, “Orbital Clustering in the Distant Solar System,” write,”To date, the only two suggestions for the cause of these apparent clusterings have been either the effects of observational bias or the existence of… Planet Nine (1).” When going on vacation, one must plan a route to drive. Without a map, it would take much effort, and only result in a mediocre plan, but with a GPS or something similar, the task becomes infinitesimally easier. In, “Planet Nine is Not Real but There’s Something Else Strange on the Edge of Our Solar System, Scientists Say,” Andrew Griffin writes, “[F]rom inside the system, it's almost impossible to see the whole thing at once.” Batygin and Brown found the chances of observational bias as the sole factor very low, at about .002%. Surely, at least some force acts upon Kuiper Belt objects.

The answer to what that force might result from has long eluded scientists. Until astronomers find indisputable evidence that proves or disproves a theory, Planet X will remain a theory. The theory cannot develop into anything more until researchers photograph Planet X, and Sefilian and Touma’s theory faces a similar issue. Many years will pass before a space probe advanced enough to transmit usable data back to Earth from the far reaches of the Kuiper Belt will exist. After launching a probe, an additional five or more years will pass before traveling close enough to the theoretical planet to record any data about it. Even when a probe reaches Planet X’s distant orbit, it may not run into the object, and finish with nothing to show for the extensive research and technological development needed to launch the spacecraft. Minutes or decades may pass before the Planet X theory is proven or disproven, but it will happen eventually.

Works Cited

Batygin, Konstantin, and Michael E Brown. “Evidence For a Distant Giant Planet In the Solar System .” The Astronomical Journal, vol. 151, no. 22, 20 Jan. 2016, pp. 1–12. 12, doi:10.3847/0004-6256/151/2/22.

Batygin, Konstantin, and Michael E Brown. “Orbital Clustering in the Distant Solar System.” The Astronomical Journal, vol. 157, no. 2, 22 Jan. 2019, p. 1., doi:10.3847/1538-3881.

Caltech. “More Support for Planet Nine.” Phys.org, California Institute of Technology, 27 Feb. 2019, phys.org/news/2019-02-planet.html.

Fesenmaier, Kimm. “Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of a Real Ninth Planet.” Caltech, California Institute of Technology, 20 Jan. 2016, www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523.

Griffin, Andrew. “Planet Nine Is Not Real, but There's Something Else Strange on the Edge of Our Solar System, Scientists Say.” The Independent, The Independent, 21 Jan. 2019, 17:09, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/planet-nine-9-real-solar-system-kuiper-belt-explained-truth-a8739231.html.

“Mystery Orbits in Outermost Reaches of Space Not Caused by 'Planet Nine,' Say Researchers.” University of Cambridge, University of Cambridge, 21 Jan. 2019, www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/mystery-orbits-in-outermost-reaches-of-solar-system-not-caused-by-planet-nine-say-researchers.

“Pluto's Unusual Orbit.” Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/exploring-the-planets/online/solar-system/pluto/orbit.cfm.

Rincon, Paul. “Why Is Pluto No Longer a Planet?” BBC, British Broadcasting Company, 15 July 2015, www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33462184.

Shekhtman, Lonnie, and Jay Thompson. “Hypothetical Planet X.” NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 16 Jan. 2019, https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/hypothetical-planet-x/in-depth/

Sefilian, Antranik A, and Jihad R Touma. “Shepherding in a Self-Gravitating Disk of Trans-Neptunian Objects.” The Astronomical Journal, vol. 157, no. 59, ser. 16, 21 Jan. 2019, pp. 1–16. 16, doi:10.3847/1538-3881.

Wood, Charlie. “Why Can't We Find Planet Nine?” Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 3 July 2018, www.quantamagazine.org/why-cant-we-find-planet-nine-20180703/.

#science #space #space science #astronomy #solar system #planet x #planet 9 #planet x theory #planey 9 theory #STEM #scientific theory #theory #pluto #orbit #quantumboogaloo

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balapann-blog · 3 months ago

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Day 57 - 1 November - Tbilisi Airport > Tashkent

We woke up had breakfast in the Ibis which was surprisingly expensive (basically our most expensive meal in ages) and was fine but not worth the price. After that we went to airport and checked in. Tbilisi is not an amazing airport but is much more glamorous than our other travelling high has been mainly bus or night train. We looked at wines to try and see if any of our ur wines were there (they weren’t) and got very expensive cereal bars in Costa which is apparently everywhere!

We got on the plane, it was only a 2.5 hour flight and it was interesting to see the Caspian Sea from above and to fly over Turkmenistan and see the strange geological and some man made formations below. They gave us loads of food! Which was nice of them but seemed a bit excessive for such a short flight. We arrived and I got a local SIM card with 50gigof internet for like a 5er which is much cheaper than the esims we have been using.

We had no money and then got hassled by a taxi driver who said he was on Yandex, but that would have been much cheaper but we were slightly disoriented and I think ready to be mugged off a bit. Uzbek seems to have 3 ways of spelling everything and the driver had to keep calling our host to locate our apartment. We also had to get cash, and the first atm didn’t have enough money for us to take out. We arrived and had to pay our host, but dispite having 1,200,000som, we didn’t have enough and had to go to the atm again with our host who seemed a bit bemused by how chaotic we were (we had laid out the money in 100,000 bunches to count it!

Once we were settled, we walked down to the main squares and went to this very random but slightly ritzy restaurant hat we think Zazz had recommended, and did not have Uzbek food really. We then walked home as we were quite tired. I didn’t sleep amazingly because I got bitten by this mosquito and was hot. Also had caffeine quite late in the restaurant.

Day 58 - 2 November - Tashkent

We woke up and moved quite slowly to go out. Went walked to the mosque complex which had a mixture of old and new mosques. The one we went into was really nice but there are some in Tashkent that look quite new and post soviet. Tashkent was destroyed by an earthquake in the 60s and was rebuilt as a soviet planned city which gives it quite a suburban vibe, lots of the new buildings are in what is called a neo-timurid style which is a modern take on the buildings that Timur (Tamerlane) and his descendants built in places like Samarkand but these buildings are a bit weird.

We then went to chorsu bazar, near the. Mosque complex which was huge and had loads of things from clothes to food to sell. Near a food bit I got vox popped by some girls on TikTok and asked about the food I liked from Uzbekistan but at that point I hadn’t had any Uzbek food so was quite a bad interviewee we went to the main bazar building that is a huge food market with meat cheese and pickles being sold. We got pickles and then went to a plov center nearby which was our first outing of plov the national dish. We got some veg for dinner and a bread to try. We then took the Tashkent Metro to the most famous (and most decorated) station in Tashkent named after the poet Alisher Navoi. We then went to the supermarket and bought the rest of the things for dinner. Nina cooked and we chilled for the evening. Didn’t sleep very well again as the mosquitoes were back and they really bite here!

Day 59 - 3 November - Tashkent

We moved very slowly we both read for a while in the flat. I finished my book on Central Asia and then started the Party by Tessa Hadley. We then went to the State Museum of Timurids which was a bit unhinged in a neo Timurid building. Most of its exhibits were pictures of things and then sign that said things like ‘original in the Met New York’ or ‘Original in State Museum of Moscow’ and then it had a whole wall on the top floor devoted to people that had signed the guestbook which was weird.

We then went to the most famous plov center the real one which is out by the TV tower and this was huge and full of people. We had a good Plov again. It was right by a sports center that I think was hosting the world MMA championships and had people in tracksuits of the different teams.

We went to the TV tower that was really annoying, the queue system was non-sensical and took ages. When we did get up the view was good but not amazing and we left quite annoyed but enjoying complaining ow bad it was. We took the metro to Hotel Uzbekistan which is a famous brutalist hotel in the center of Tashkent and went to the bad at the top which was very retro. The Russian MMA Team were staying there and we took the lift with one of them feeling slightly unnerved!

After that we went opera house for a concert of the opera troup’s favourite arias which was actually really nice nd a nice way to spend the evening. We walked back to the flat and bought a sweetcorn for the walk and went to bed. I slept fine as I had bug spray , no one bites Fred Mann 3 nights in a row!

Day 60 - 4 November - Tashkent > Khiva

We woke up and packed up slowly and read, during the packing I killed a mosquito that was very big that had no doubt been terrorising me the nights before. The revenge was sweet. We checked out and walked to the restaurant we were having lunch which was a really nice modern Uzbek restraint called Afona. We went to cafe beside it after and then got a Yandex to the station. Our guy was great and he weaved his way through traffic very effectively.I love when a taxi driver goes out to bat for you!

We then got to the station and bought some food for the journey. The train arrived but they needed to connect the other cars very protracted activity and meant we didn’t get on the train til about 6.15. We got into our compartment - it was very hot on the top bunks. We had 2 guys in sports gear (MMA guys?) in our compartment, they went Jizzakh. At Samarkand another guy got in o I think thought I was a bit of a fool. At one point a cockroach walked up the wall beside me on the wall Nin and I tried to kill it but the guy below had to do it with his water bottle. I slept a bit but wasn’t the most restful sleep ever, although I must have slept a bit as I didn’t notice the next guy get in to the other bottom bunk (I assume at Bukhara). We woke up near Urgench the stop before Khiva.

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wherecanifindtherobert · 10 months ago

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themes, encounters, places, motifs etc i often see in my drems:

robert (of course)

houses on fire. sometimes its my room, somtimes its some building or even half ot the city. i used to see these almost every day when i was 4. sometimes they arealready burned, with ugly black stains, once i saw a really scary burned bus

space. open space and nebulas i see thru illuminators in a spaceship, or being on other planets, or too many visible stars n galaxies in the sky, or even weird trips thru space. sometimes with aliens

inuits. often seen in dreams with space

horses i have as a pets like dogs. they usually behave like dogs

psych ward. or rehab. or combined. i hate to see these even tho sometimes the dreams itself are interesting. can be really scary shit with ruty beds, broken glass, crippled ppl and lot of blood

weird toilets. classic

weird stairs. crooked, broken, dangerous, full of trash. also classic but usually ppl see these as nightmares while in my dreams stairs like this never bring me anxiety or uneasy feelings

greenhouses, big, beautiful, overgrown and usually abandoned. sometimes its just some very exotic-looking overgrown places

secret tunnels. usualy its houses i move in with my parents. i may find a secret way to some garden. or a door in unexpected place in a large building that led to some kind of bathroom

dogs

sitting in a bath. often in unusually big bathtub in early morning(~5am). sometimes with some fine guy (nothing sexual)

little exotic animals. usually fishes, amphibias or reptilias. i often find myself taking care or a lot of them in manylittle aquariums scattered around the house

found toys. lps, mlp or plushies. i have a lot of them. i can find them on the street, near the trashcans, buried in sand, left in room by previous owners. sometimes i lose them too.

lad with tan skin and caramel colored long hair called prince. usually in love with me

weird ass building of soviet era with unimaginable interior planning. they are often located in a region i live in but in reality they are non existent or, rarely, present but just not that weird. sometimes i have to save some young rebel who will be executed in one of these buildings

the greatest fucking powerful majestic storm is coming

school. for now the most reoccurent dream is that i go into 11 class, i know that i dont need it and couldve just stay in home, usually theres not many ppl and i leave earlier. few years ago there were many dreams in which i came late and without trousers, just in my pants, but nobody really cared and it was rather nuisance rather than shame. sometimes school is abandoned. anyway alienation vibes

classmates. not always in school, sometimes in my house somewhy (it never happened irl)

malls. often at night or early morning. often weird, with dim light and almost without ppl. but always with some interesting sweets

modern building. usually white and tall, sometimes with minimalistic-futuristic design. sometimes i move in or used to live in them. often theres sound of drills

trains or trams full of young ppl. usually punks and train is in a bad state and full of tags. usually i spend theresome nights

wizards. like with a hat and purple starry mantle and magic want. usually comes with cool magic castle

bazaar. sometimes magical. usually its that one location made of old wagons in my city near school, that place was demolished almost 10 years ago

driving cars or trucks. usually i dont have a driving license and feel awkward but never crash anything

tiles on walls or floor

me doing suicide (usually with a gun)

misty flooded river at the countryside my grandparents used to live. and overall the misty landscapes

musicians or music band. especially bo ningen

hospitals or polyclinics. liminal long empty hallways. im never a patient in them

various blonde girls

cities i dont live in. can be a pleasure walk (usually its hungary) or anxious one where lost, have no money and try to find a way home

neglected flat. sometimes really awful, dirty and disgusting. often it has dark stains on the wall as if it burned. sometimes i live there. sometimes i share apartments with drug addicts

furries. like real cool anthro animals

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22ndnervousbreakdown · 3 months ago

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Omg thank you THIS IS NOT BORING AT ALL, i quite literally asked for it and i love talking abt soviet holmes!!! I agree wholeheartedly with these, I think especially with the bit about Mrs Hudson!! She's an absolute icon and I love how much in the soviet movies she Does Not Give A Shit, and simultaneously she's usually the only person in the flat with a braincel x))

As for me... I think my favourite episode is The King of Blackmail, because, yeah, it's iconic in every way: there's sweet moments and there's silly moments; they're being criminals and they're SO BAD at it; there's the scene with Lestrade LOOKING STRAIGHT AT THE BURNING SHOE and not getting it (bless him); and of course one of my absolute favourites of the whole series, the whole scene of them confronting Milverton, including THIS:

And Watson preparing to attack him with a chair <3

Then close second is The Acquaintance, because, as you said, the first half is a gem. And I love so much that they decided to do a whole introduction arch, to dedicate half of the movie specifically about establishing the characters and their dynamic!! It's really good!!

Also basically every popular Holmes&Watson moment... I think you know the ones... x))

ALSO Watson going as a priest in The Tiger Hunt!!! Oh, and Mycroft and Mrs Hudson moving Holmes's statue! Very silly I adore it. Oh, and speaking of Mycroft... While I have to admit that I like the last movies (both Agra and 20th century) considerably less, one of the things that I do like about The 20th Century Begins is Mycroft ADHD setup😭

Like I'm sorry. But this is his equivalent of playing Minecraft on one monitor, working and watching youtube in the corner of a screen on 2x speed on another, and simultaneously texting on his phone. This is me if I was productive.

Yeah, I definitely have way more favourites but this is getting long and unreadable too x), so, good for now... Also it's an interesting thought about Victorian vibe in Russian/Soviet media! I obviously have a very different perspective here, being from Russia and all, but I think I may know what you mean? I'd like to discuss it more honestly 👀👀👀

Heyyy do you have a favourite soviet holmes episode? Or a favourite scene?

Look I've been thinking of what to answer but it's too hard to choose just one because they're all gold and I could talk for hours about each of them, so let me make a list and I promise I'll ATTEMPT not to make it too long.

The beginning of the first episode is undoubtedly among my favourite parts of any adaptation EVER. I love how weird out Watson is, the poor guy thinks he moved in with a master criminal and fears for his life, while Holmes is just trolling him. Top tier introduction.

Every single time that Watson attempts to go incognito and ends up looking extremely suspicious and/or getting recognised.

These two moments, for obvious reasons:

Mrs Hudson in general, but specifically when she wakes up to smell of smoke (because Moriarty's men set fire to the apartment) and she just steps over Watson's body as he coughs on the ground, throws water on the burning furniture, and goes back to sleep. Iconic behaviour.

Speaking of which, this Moriarty gives me the chill. Excellent performance.

The whole King of Blackmail (CHAR is possibly my favourite story from the canon, if it's possible to choose just one). I love how BAD they are at being criminals.

Henry Baskerville is so silly, I love that guy and his big canadian fur. The scene where he and Watson are drunk and they're talking about his crush (who is one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen in my entire life holy shit) is so joyfully boyish.

Hug because friend is here.

Holmes' sarcasm and every time he trolls Watson, just to laugh hysterically when he can't keep it up anymore.

My goal in life is to be this cool:

Not strictly about Soviet Holmes but I find that Russian media have this... very Victorian quality, often. This is an ignorant observation from someone who doesn't know much about Russian cinema/art/literature (though I'd like to) but this is the impression I got. I'm not sure what this quality is, because it's a vibe I get more than a specific connection in themes or aesthetic.

To be honest I could keep going but I wouldn't want to make this too long and bore you. These are surely some top scenes/details for me.

Well, what are YOUR favourite scenes/episodes/things about it? And thanks for the ask!

#sherlock holmes #soviet holmes #!!! thank you for the answer i really love hearing other people's thoughts!!!#i wish i could jump into these conversations more easily because i love having them #but like it's hard to find a starting point sometimes you know?#also sorry i feel like I'm being extra unintelligible today... idk how to structure thoughts #i hope it's readable

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association-of-freed-people · 3 years ago

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youtube

I used to find Russell Brand insufferable. There was a phase in his career as he transitioned to adulthood where he was a loud intersectional prog. A facsimile of any number of politically active Hollywood personalities and as dogmatic and boring as you’d expect.

At some point several years ago, I caught him doing a promo segment on MSNBC for a book or a tour he was on and his interaction with the hosts was engaging. He was pushing back on some assertions being made and kind of fucking with the talking heads who were interviewing him.

Over the ensuing years it became apparent that unlike most progs in show business, Russell was on a journey and legitimately interested in understanding the world.

As some of you know if you followed my terminated blogs I traveled a similar path.

I was a pretty hardcore leftist in my youth. I saw injustice in the world, my family had gone through some of it, and when I was a few years out of high school I planned a trip to the former Soviet Union to stay with some people I’d met on a student exchange in the states.

I spent a couple of months in the environs of Moscow, the guy whose family I was staying with had worked on the team that developed the ICBM detection system deployed in eastern Siberia. He lived in a broken down flat and drove a lada with a pipe wrench for a steering wheel. His father was a former Soviet functionary and very well off by Russian standards at the time. Anyway, I also lived communally in the states and on the street for a while. The three experiences were formative in my journey to better understand the world we live in with the finite time we’re given. Afterwards I became obsessed with gaps in the history I’d been taught in school, I found and read Hayek and kept going down rabbit holes until I ended up settling where I am today.

Russell seems like a kindred spirit in this sense. I do not always agree with him but he’s not afraid of seeking out truth and speaking about it. He isn’t afraid to ask questions or propose plausible answers even if they’re unpopular. He has a strong humanist ethos that guides him and helps him navigate the sea of propaganda and half-truths. His YT subscriber count is approaching 5 million accordingly.

In the video above he’s covering what any journalist in a free and open society would cover; the absolute collapse of the Covid narrative.

He’s asking why these governments are doing an instant about face when the “pandemic” is still raging if not for the failure of all of their authoritarian polices, the destruction they’ve wrought and the retrograde transition of Australia to a penal colony.

There’s a flash rush to move away from what’s happened the last 24 months and never look back.

Forensic accounting of the Western response to Covid would unmask a criminal shitshow that incentivized the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, suppressed development of a treatment protocol, suppressed the origins of the virus, and unleashed a wave of mass censorship like the world has never seen.

This is why the US establishment started beating its war drum as hard and loud as possible. You need to forget about the last two years and stop asking questions.

Something that’s rarely if ever discussed is what the central bank and United States government effectively did using Covid as cover; they monetized government debt.

The inflation vortex is a reflection of this. They’ve effectively confiscated in the neighborhood of 10-15% of the wealth of the citizenry through hysteria driven money printing.

Keep asking questions. Do not move on to the next big distraction as you become poorer and acclimated to oppression.

#long post #russell brand #Youtube

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lazyevaluationranch · 4 years ago

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On a post about the Blue Haired Girlfriend's quixotic citrus breeding experiments, @voidingintotheshout asked:

I mean, if you wanted a hearty citrus relative, why didn’t you just grow Osage Orange? They can grow as far north as Michigan which is surely further north than anyone could reasonably expect to grow a citrus tree. They’re not edible but then hearty orange isn’t either. Osage Orange are so cool and such a interesting historical plant from the Shelterbelt era of American agriculture. Apparently they do smell like citrus.

This is part three of three. Part one. Part two.

Now you've done it! It's time for A Very Brief (But Also Insufficiently Brief) History of Twentieth Century Hardy Citrus Cultivation! Growing citrus trees this far north is kind of nuts, it's true, but I promise you it is not even close to the weirdest things people have done to grow citrus in places where the citrus doesn't think it should grow.

A note: This post will written using the Swingle citrus taxonomy system, including things that are definitely wrong. The citrus taxonomic tree looks like that one box of orphaned computer cords I keep moving with me to new houses "in case I need them" except some sort of adorable five-dimensional kitten has entertained herself with them and some of the resulting knots are not technically possible in our space-time continuum.

The powers that be gave us citrus because nothing pleases them like seeing a geneticist cry.

1. The Migrant Trees

The Soviet Union wanted lemons for tea, and they wanted to be independent enough not to have to trade with anyone else to get them, which meant they wanted to grow their own citrus. That part of the world is not a great place to grow plants that die when the temperature goes below zero, but at the foundation of the Soviet Union, there were citrus orchards in the warmest part of Georgia, along the Black Sea. Specifically, there was about, uh, one and a half square kilometers of somewhat implausible citrus orchard.

Hang on, it is about to get way less plausible.

This is the great citrus migration: any tree that did well in one spot, they'd try planting its seeds a few kilometres further north, or a few kilometres further east. Prizes were offered for breeding hardier citrus. Slowly the orchards spread, but they were extremely weird orchards.

It's usually a few degrees warmer at ground level than up in the air, and there's way less wind. So as the trees grew, they were bent over and tied along the ground. Some of them had the central trunk run in a straight line along the ground, with branches spreading out from it like the leaves of a fern, like an espaliered tree on its side. Others were starfish shaped, with the central trunk looped down until it ended up next to the base, and the branches sprawling out along the ground from the centre like starfish legs. The citrus trees were no taller than particularly vigorous strawberry plants, but they survived the winters, and you could throw a blanket over them to help them stay warm.

None of that helped if the ground froze solid, so they needed Underground Citrus. You'd dig a ditch, down below the lowest area where the ground froze, and you'd plant flat Starfish Trees or Flat Frond Trees running along the bottom of it, too deep to freeze. In winter, you'd just cover the ditch with boards any time the temperature was expected to go below freezing - citrus would tolerate the lack of light, but not the cold. Mandarins (Citrus reticulata) seemed to do best, so that’s most of what was grown.

It is a nearly unimaginable amount of work to grow citrus this way, along the bottoms of pits and trenches. We are experimentally trying to grow a Soviet-developed mandarin breed of unknown parentage, Shirokolistvennyi, but we will definitely not be putting in that level of effort.

2. The Mixed Up Trees

There are a couple species of citrus that tolerate cold well, but taste awful. A lot of effort has gone into crossbreeding them with more edible citrus. The results are ... mixed.

The Ichang Papeda (Citrus cavaleriei) generally survives temperatures down to -18 degrees C. It is stoic and calm and has mastered emptiness. Unfortunately, it has mastered emptiness too well. The fruit smells like lemons, with maybe a hint of rose, but there's nothing to eat here. It has a rind and seeds. No juice, no flesh.

(Photo by Michael Saalfield)

The Ichang Papeda is the parent or grandparent to several delicious, extremely sour Asian citrus types. Yuzu/yuja smells like grapefruit and clean wet stones from the bottom of a fast-flowing stream. Sudachi smells like grapefruit and leaves with dew on them. (I haven't met kabosu or any other papeda hybrids personally, but they are numerous.) They're all too sour to eat plain, unless you really need to turn your face inside out for some reason, but make for excellent flavouring.

(We have a yuzu tree and a sudachi tree and they're surviving, but no fruit yet.)

Trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata) can survive temperatures down to -30 degrees C. This may be partly because, uniquely amoung citrus, they can drop leaves in autumn or winter and regrow them in spring, like a maple tree. They also produce an internal antifreeze. They are angry, twisted, thorny little plants that yell swears when you walk past them. They make a great hedge. The fruit is furry, smells like flowers and pine trees and taste like burnt, bitter plastic. It may or may not be possible to breed the horrible taste completely out of trifoliate oranges without losing cold-hardiness, if it's due to their antifreeze chemicals. Here’s Stabby:

(Photo by Rob Hille)

Even the least terrible trifoliate crossbreeds are bitter enough to qualify as “acquired tastes.” There are recipes for trifoliate marmalade: put a dozen trifoliate oranges, a kilogram of sugar, and a kilogram of pebbles in a pot, cook until it gels, then sieve out the oranges and eat the pebbles.

We are growing a trifoliate orange / minneola orange hybrid. And, of course, someday our own trifoliate hybrids. The Blue Haired Girlfriend planted 200 trifoliate oranges a couple years ago. There are fewer now, but the survivors have lived through two winters of snow and frost, and they might have somehow gotten more stabby. We're going to breed them, to each other or to less angry fruit, try and make something new and good from them.

I've limited this post to twentieth century hardy citrus breeding, but I have to give a shoutout to somatic hybridization, a decidedly twenty first century technique, where you take a cell from each of two different plants, remove their cell walls, put them next to eachother, and shock them with electricity until they merge into a single cell whose nucleus contains all genes from both plants. Then the new plant is like, "Wow, I guess these are all my genes? It seems like a lot, haha, but it's not like somebody made me from dismembered body parts and electricity, that is not how science works. Anyway I guess it's time to do some plant stuff now."

3. The Mutant Trees

In the 1950s, people started using radiation to randomly scramble the genes of plants. You'd irradiate seeds enough to change the genes somehow, and then you'd have to plant them to see what had happened. Maybe it was people horrified by the atomic bomb desperately wanting to find some life-supporting use for atomic fission, maybe it was government-supported cold war "atom bombs are good actually, look how many we have, USSR" propaganda. Probably both.

This time period also saw serious plans for Orion, a spaceship with a huge metal plate for a butt, intended to be propelled by exploding atomic bombs under it, which I am not actually making up.

Thousands of people in Europe and the US signed up to receive seeds with random mutations in the mail, plant them, and report back on what they heck they grew into and if it had any useful weirdness. (The gamma radiation used to mutate the seeds did not make them radioactive themselves - the seeds were completely safe.) There were also more formal and carefully controlled university research programs in China, Japan, and the US, where plants where grown in a circular research garden with a coverable radiation source at the centre, so that the farther you got from the centre, the less radiation the plants got. Radiation breeding is less popular than it used to be, but Japan still has a very productive citrus radiation breeding program.

The most popular radiation-bred citrus is the "Rio Red" grapefruit and its offspring, which has a much deeper red than non-mutant red grapefruit.

There aren't many radiation-developed citrus breeds noted for cold-hardiness - with radiation you get whatever you get - but there are a few, and I want one just because I think they're neat, a monument to that lovely human vision that looks at terrible weapons and somehow sees glossy-leaved trees with bright fruit.

4. The Monster Trees

Citrus are usually grown via grafting. That is, you plant a seed from a fast-growing sturdy breed, you let it grow roots and all that, and then you cut the top off and replace it with a branch from a more delicious breed. The two citruses grow together, and you end up with a tree that's disease and cold resistant in the roots, below the graft, but makes tasty fruit above the graft.

Occasionally, this process goes Wrong.

The first recorded instance is the tree called Bizarria, discovered in 1640. Someone attempted to graft a sour orange branch onto a citron. But instead of a clean line between sour orange branches and citron roots, the graft was damaged somehow, and the two different species of cells got tangled and mixed through the whole tree. It has branches that produce citron fruit. It has branches that produce sour orange fruit. And it has branches that produce, uh ... these:

(Photo by Labrina)

Most graft chimeras are made accidentally, when the graft site is damaged. Trifoliate orange is often used as rootstock, so there are many reported chimeras involving trifoliate orange and a nicer fruit. The mixed-up cells can be arranged a lot of ways, but it's possible to have the outside layer of the tree be trifoliate orange, and the core of the tree be the other citrus (periclinal chimera). This means you could theoretically get a tree with frostproof trifoliate leaves and branches, but fruit that doesn’t taste like burnt plastic rolled in quinine.

This lucky monstrosity has, in fact, reportedly happened. Twice. There is the Prague Citsuma, discovered in a greenhouse in Prague and suspected to have been created by a Soviet breeding program. And then there is the Hormish, discovered in China and thought to have been made by frostbite messing up the clean lines of the graft. The Blue Haired Girlfriend has managed to track down budwood from the Prague Citsuma - I’m so excited! - so we'll see how the fierce thorny monster tree with a heart of gold, or at least heartwood of gold, does for us.

5. Conclusion

Humans have been trying to grow citrus trees where they don't belong for nearly two thousand years, at least since the Jewish Diaspora and people trying to grow holy etrog trees - trunks gnarled as barnacle stones and the whole tree scented like the best dream you can't remember - in Europe. Maybe longer.

The Blue Haired Girlfriend's citrus-breeding schemes aren't going to singlehandedly transform Canada into a net citrus exporter. But history shows us: it might be possible to have a little gleaming sweetness from the stony ground here, with the ravens and the fir trees and the auroras. A sweetness we made ourselves, that exists nowhere else.

Or maybe we'll just have a bunch of weird inedible fruit. I don't know, but it's worth finding out, worth weaving together leaf and thorn and stone and the light of our hands as the years unwind. Worth it to have a quixotic project we can expect to spend decades on together, hands and hearts. This is how home is made, sometimes, with a balcony full of angry thorny little trees that shout swears at passerby.

#part three of three #so much doesn't fit in this post #fog gardening #how lemons started the mafia #etrogs in diaspora #citropsis and the african citrus species #we are still discovering new citrus species in oceania!#who knows what we'll make?#and one day we'll scoop up hydrocarbons from Titan's stormy seas and polymerize them and make huge bubble greenhouses filled with citrus #small children will fling squishy citrus at their siblings by the coiled light of Jupiter #which is as it should be #thank you voidingintotheshout for an excuse for all sorts of ranting

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sugar-petals · 4 years ago

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Baekhyun Doms You: Ending Up Laughing

↳⎡NOTE.⎦thought this’d be an interesting concept & a different side to smut: what if you try things out and it’s both not your thing? w/ a humorous twist and subby bf moments sprinkled in 😄

♡ words. 4k

+ tags ⚠️ pwp hc, bondage, throatfucking, graphic, cum play, unsafe/clumsy practice: do not recreate, degradation, biting, masochist bbh, domme!reader switches unsuccessfully, whips, hair-pulling

imagine that. a wide-eyed baekhyun pacing and tiptoeing in front of your toy shelf, trying to pick a riding crop he fancies. it takes five minutes and several ‘uhh, ohh’ confused puppy noises until he’s able to decide which one he’s taking.

...literally even if he knows exactly which one does what. you’ve used all of them on him.

meanwhile, you take three seconds flat to pull out one that fits your mood and proceed to edge the living shit out of him. yes, without literal further ado. teasing his dick and marking his thighs and doing all kinds of delicious things.

he’s still going back and forth in his head without having even started out. cutely tapping and swaying from one foot to the other.

it’s like he’s back to school. priceless.

what’s even more hilarious: baekhyun practices random mean facial expressions while trying to decide. he doesn’t seem to be sure what character he’s going for. it feels like he’s rehearsing for a concert or photoshoot, even. absolutely fascinating to watch.

i mean he’s absolutely photogenic no doubt about that but

you’re sitting on the bed waiting naked like okay is this gonna be william shakespeare deluxe or what is kyoong channelling over there

“um... i think i got it! this one, okay? i’m ready!”

finally he walks over, strutting with his nose in the air and his eyes glaring, muscles tense, a mysterious bad boy charm about him, whip ready to sting, lips tight and punitive...

....and hits his pinky toe on the bed

oh the pain

great master baekhyun flops headfirst into the sheets processing the existential cruelty of bedpost pinewood and needs head pats to recover

lots of head pats

at least twenty of them

so many head pats

more time passes until kyoong is back in character i guess

you probably could have listened to exo’s whole discography in the meantime

and knitted a rug for taemin’s new flat

anyway

baekhyun tries to act very confidently finally getting into it

adopting a sharp ‘hmph’ kind of tone

endlessly teasing your back and thighs with the riding crop

so far so good sir pinky toe

but he just goes on and on

you could actually crochet a pair of socks for chen’s daughter now that you think about it

it’s you who has to tell him to get to the point and it’s clear he’s more nervous than he pretends to show

to be fair he’s not the only one

you try to get yourself mentally ready but you find yourself giving him actual orders and even correcting his stance five times cuz he’s so wobbly on the mattress like a pupper indeed

baekhyun mumbles to himself and has a hard time fully implementing the advice on posture but tries to aim well regardless. it seems to work at first

but tragically

he ends up with a miss, hitting his own thigh rather than your ass and moans out loud

now you’re the one confused because you were waiting for the whip to come down

but nope it went elsewhere did it

you wonder how he managed to do all that furious fencing in the obsession mv with an aim like that

looks like he’s so submissive, he straight up whips himself

taking matters into his own hands is he. subs these days.

baekhyun keeps on being wobbly on the bed and looks like he ran a marathon already

may i remind you that this guy does 3-hour long concerts and can practice throughout an entire night

... you both agree to immediately scratch that completely after his next flailing strike sends the riding crop flying into his unsuspecting, non-consenting plushie collection

animal cruelty

moving on

you figure that a change of location might be a good idea

baekhyun sits you down on a chair and bashfully stores away the yeeted whip

he vows to never use a riding crop again already and his teddy bears are thankful for it

now the whole plushie village and whole china knows how you don’t do it

next up is rope

what could possibly go wrong

he practiced wrist bondage on his own ankles for five days straight, you really prepared a lot of things to test out together today

and he’s seen you tie him up over and over and over

but whatever it is that he manages to install on your arms

looks like a piece of very experimental modern art that just sold for half a million at sotheby’s

what’s supposed to be a column tie is nothing but a mere... ball

chaotic like baekhyun’s personality. not surprising at all

wait that rhymed

anyhow

even alexander the great couldn’t have cut this gordian knot of a tangly masterpiece

ironically: while baekhyun’s roughly grabbing your chin for an intense kiss... the rope casually falls apart harder than the soviet union in 1991 my loves, you ain’t ready

baekhyun takes ages to notice while he’s teasing and kissing you and ends up sweating bullets when he realizes that the sublime art fell to pieces.

sorry comrade

the fantasy knots and artistic freedom increases even more when it comes to putting a collar and leash on you

and his guy is supposed to be a dog owner? mongryong, instruct your man

baekhyun is a flustered mess trying to fasten it on you even if he tries very hard to be concentrated

maybe it’s because you’re watching him with literal hawk eyes checking every move (...hoping he learned something from you oh my). you’re not really melting into your role either, huh. the only thing melting is your pussy because baekhyun is acting so embarrassed which is the actual turn-on

if that doesn’t give you away

the leash comes off in two minutes time after baekhyun miraculously ties his own hands together with it

how the fuck did that happen

how do you even manage to do that

eager are we

after whipping his own thigh, self-domination 2.0 i guess

so whipping and bondage are off the programme

this has been the most chaotic and hazardous attempt at topping in the history of sm entertainment

and they’re literally called s and m

...humiliation is next

when you planned your session you both figured hey he’s tested and tried by exo’s lively debate culture and he might be able to pull that off

and there are no props involved so he’ll have an easy time right

life is an illusion

you find out he can’t pronounce degrading names clearly because he keeps on stuttering them. which in return makes baekhyun crack up.

carrying on the joke, you correct him every time.

“i want you to repeat after me: stupid, slutty, bitch.”

it ends up as you doing what you always do

teaching and training him while baekhyun either shyly or brattily obliges. you don’t even notice how you’re doing it but from the outside, it’s blatantly obvious.

because your brain is still feeling in domme mode, you also find yourself saying the usual things to him without thinking, even when he grabs you and gives orders. “now bend over! i’m gonna fuck your brains out.” — “okay, cutie!”

which causes baekhyun’s mean face to collapse and he snap out of his command tone immediately, snorting because it’s the last thing he expected

he tries to carry on by punishing you with an actual mouth gag and a harness he can hold onto while fucking you from behind, i mean your pussy is already wet why not

guess what’s gonna ensue

wearing a harness feels kind of strange and new so you wiggle back and forth and all over the place. like what is this, what’s happening. baekhyun’s dick is going into all kinds of directions my friends, the amusement park carousel surely inspired this fucking style right here.

and wearing a gag — there’s a way different person who needs to have this in his chatty mouth.

kai and kyungsoo’s dream would come true and yet you’re the one gagged

something ain’t right

if you’re honest. you’re feeling so weird being on the other end of punishment tonight and not being able to give him any directions. your dom brain is worrying he’s all left to his own devices trying to drive that confused dick home left and right and above and below and diagonal and crosswise.

the fuck

your poor guts my god

what’s worse: his stamina is gonna sneak up behind him and tap on his shoulder like... bro that’s enough pounding for a whole month please spare these balls from deflating please do not break this device

to which your pussy agrees in unison

how are you gonna love your bub day in day out if you’re that sore

there’s nothing more frustrating than being sore and horny with byun baekhyun at your disposal

or a knocked out boyfriend trying to generate at least a sprinkle of semen after getting completely emptied in one go

probably sleeping for three days straight

alright so the harness and gag come off fast oh dear baekhyun clears those away in a heartbeat

that’s another point off the list

the more you know

carousel cringe dicking down type of dominance... bizarre, disorderly, totally erratic, not on the agenda, worst rated on bing

comrade baekhyun keeps on apologizing for making things so messy even if he tries and tries

you’re both so puzzled because you’re used to something so different and need a water chugging pause

baekhyun hasn’t sweated this hard since doing the MAMA choreography

and your pussy has never had to provide this much lubrication at once

where on earth is both of your usual stamina what happened

if a type of sex exhausts you fast and even baekhyun’s balls are suddenly moody you just know you’re wired in the opposite way

safe to say you’re better at giving and baekhyun is better at taking

leave the multidirectional powerfucking to kai or something

and being orderly to xiumin

another rug could have been knitted my friends

moving on dot org

so, you both figure to take it easier and try to go with something he usually does in passing. you know, turning a typical baekhyun habit into something you can try out casually in bed so he can tease you.

that one should work out right?

proceed: teeth action. you seated, him positioning himself above you. after your approval baekhyun pulls your hair back to expose your neck — so he can deliciously bite into it (or so was the plan).

reality: his hand gets tangled up completely.

while he’s busy nibbling and giggling about like a lil’ bunny chomping at a carrot that turns out to be extremely ticklish herself.

in fact, you start squeaking out a wonky high pitch, startling baekhyun’s fine musical ear to the bone by the obvious atonality. did she just try to outsing my vocal range with a creaking whistle note?

mariah carey would cancel you on twitter over this one

that’s how you turn a vicious, possessive bite into an eternal meme

every time either of you go for a neck kiss, you end up imitating each other. baekhyun has immortalized himself as a nervous chomping bunny and you as the vocalist anti-christ

lord have mercy

you miss your old sex life already and it’s only been two hours

cause you see... if baekhyun gives you the chance to bite him? he needs a set of long sleeves, scarves, and an extra soft pillow to sit down on for the next two days

like, no mercy bitch

you get right down to business and ravage him and do it properly until he cums in his pants

sure, the way he uses his tongue now is definitely kinda hot mind you

baekhyun is always good with his singing equipment that doesn’t suddenly change aye

and you keep your eyes closed

but with time you notice that he starts drooling and whimpering. baekhyun’s wet mouth is out there betraying him, huh.

same with your body. your reactions give you away, body language just won’t lie. you have a damn hard time staying still. you wanna do something, you wanna touch and guide baekhyun all over.

and vice versa baekhyun keeps on glitching and doing the same thing he really became a living tumblr gif now

this whole session is just so confusing and laced with all these moments of awkwardness it’s really telling you something about yourself and mister pinky toe’s ideal dynamic

baekhyun can’t even get himself to even lightly slap you properly. and when he does, his delicate hands are just so cute. it’s as if legolas came along, scented in jasmine, elegant and fabulous like it’s a l’oreal commercial

he immediately looks concerned after he manages to do it cleanly and you admit it wasn’t really that exciting a feeling yourself. it felt more like, “um ouch, and?”

needless to say, you’re weirded out if anything, baekhyun smacking and dragging you around as a cold-as-ice dom is just a strange thing to do for both of you

like even exo’s wolf era fashion was more coherent than this carrot fuckery

and those were some of the most intense turtlenecks ever

is there really nothing dominant baekhyun can pull off. come on he’s the genius idol

actually

there’s something that does work out for once

because no rule without exceptions indeed

because hey, you can learn something anyway, it’s the whole point of you going through a list of things to try as a couple

baekhyun is good at doing the more hardcore, faster kind of fingering. who would have thought, totally surprising, revolutionary i know. but that’s where you’re both agreeing hey, there’s some untapped potential you can use for the steamier evenings you have going.

cuz wow, he can get you off with flying colors.

...only to succumb to a malfunctioning bobohu wrist

even baekhyun’s boner for your legs in latex isn’t that stiff

it’s another pause until his hand loosens up again

this poor man just can’t win

and if you’re asking oi hard domming isn’t the only thing you can do

baekhyun trying to summon his inner soft dom: surprise, same old tale. here we go again.

your boyfriend thinks he generally looks way too puppy-like to be your big ole buff daddy taking care of you. oversized sweater, fluffy hair and all.

you say to him well, it’s not that doms can’t wear casual things. but it’s true that you have to feel your role and find yourself believable. regardless of your looks, in fact.

unless your partner really enjoys you dressing up as some kind of dominant hyper-archetype? looking the part is relatively unimportant if you’re absolutely made for dominance you say

pretty eye-opening moment for him

in your roleplay, he caresses and kisses you to the point, he can approach and lead you to do this or that position, don’t be mistaken. and he’s good at making presents, he’s indulging you perfectly well and actually likes doing it. but... it still ends up being more vanilla than not a few hours in. the d/s is out the door almost automatically the longer you do it.

at the end, it leaves you with a feeling of “but err, what now? give the maid outfit to charity?”

baekhyun rubs his neck in search for something else to do, both of you staring at each other with expressions blanker than kyungsoo when a prancing chanyeol is acting up.

how did the quote go again. if you scramble for inspiration, let it be?

it’s exactly that situation when baekhyun soft doms. he can hold you tight and do his thing for a while, but the chemistry of your roles is dwindling into a question mark.

in fact. there’s an uneasy silence as if great mother suho was sitting right beside you critiquing baekhyun’s sugar daddy skills

baekhyun is rich like a motherfucker and can’t even call you ‘my innocent lil’ baby girl’ without looking like he just learned a first grade tonguetwister by heart

you did play your parts with less cracking up, but you clearly tell him that there’s still something strangely clueless and “ah, awkward” (baekhyun’s verdict in response, verbatim) in between the two of you.

when you take care of baekhyun and tuck him in, you hardly run out of ideas. it just goes on and on. even when you played through an entire scene, you both come up with things to extend the scenario because it’s so much fun. you make him a hot chocolate, massage his feet, brush his hair, do some extra light bondage with a silk ribbon around his ankles to make him feel pretty, feed him pizza, have him cuddle up in your lap, pinch his ass, and do some rimming if he’s feeling a bit hornier.

the spoiling is nice at the start, but there’s something missing. you want to lead his hands and really treat him, and do it all the time, and baekhyun really finds himself craving it as well.

baekhyun soft domming quickly turns into — well just normal loving makeouts and gestures. you kiss and touch, there’s nothing hierarchical about it, nothing mega juicy or exciting.

you just don’t get into the groove, you know. there’s nothing particular happening if you try to get into those roles. it doesn’t titillate both of you for an extended period of time, it doesn’t make you curious for more. it’s like... shrug. what about it.

when you usually dominate, you know something hits home when you think about it all day. baekhyun screaming and crying with his legs twitching pops up whenever you close your freaking eyes goddamn.

you make a note to observe whether you’re going about your daily business thinking about how you could be his innocent good girl. following his every whim, making big eyes at him or something.

result: more shaky, ruined baekhyun moaning his soul out in the highest of notes and leaking cum everywhere from getting choked and his face sat on.

daddy baekhyun has simply not crossed your mind. in fact, poor guy no chance to fit in there from the get-go. his particularly whorish, extra subby counterpart is all over your brain cells with his tongue out. and you’re very tempted to grab it between your thumb and index and spit in his mouth for some very good measure. maybe cum in it as well.

um. so there’s that. the more you know.

baekhyun figures as much himself and you try the other side of the equation. oh, oh. here comes hard dom baekhyun.

who gets you on your knees and starts a wild deepthroat session while calling you names. that’s all well and good... nope. your gag reflex decides to yeet some weird coughing facial expressions and reflex cock bites at poor baekhyun who doesn’t know what’s happening. to finish him off completely, you sneeze while having a hiccup and his dick slips out.

... you both safeword at the same time.

that cleanup has scarred you both for life. what the everloving fuck. no more impulse throatfucking in this pure christian household, then.

you’ll stick to lazy, twirling, indulgent blowjobs and the usual ruined orgasms for him — the actually planned ones, jesus christ.

like seriously. you invented a whole new language with those confused gargling noises and that wasn’t french, it was advanced level klingon. baekhyun repeats asking if you’re okay and you’re still stuck realizing oh hell, that was not pretty. off the bucket list, you like sucking him off but this style just doesn’t come natural to you.

the popsicles you could train yourself with are usually gone from the freezer within a day after getting the groceries. baekhyun is wholeheartedly addicted to them.

he loves cheating on his diet since you told him his fully cheeks are your emotional support squish and kiss pillows, so.

baekhyun rightfully insists he’s better at eating pussy the wild way in the first place — and that you have no business choking on his dick like you’re on hot ones eating the world’s spiciest whatever is trending now.

or actually... baekhyun’s dick can’t be compared to a chili pepper if we’re doing a choking analogy alright. that just doesn’t fit his promotion concept. cinnamon stick is more like it.

ever saw one of these terrible cinnamon spoon videos where reckless people try to defeat god by— anyway, you’ve seen them. that’s how you looked like trying to get your mouth fucked. i think god would actually be defeated by how far away from divine elegance that was and you’re so sorry for subjecting baekhyun to this artless display.

cinnamon is still best used in small doses. say, for garnishing a creamy cake or pie y’know.

anyway. you dished up the most butchered attempt at sexy gagging in history and so, baekhyun will preach for days how he’s the one chosen by fate to push down seven big fat inches of your strap still half asleep without even blinking.

... and that his world-class operatic breath control would probably enable him to bury his face in your pussy on mount everest. baekhyun knows that every domme would sell her soul to get a sub as skilled with breathing as him.

...and that he has the official copyright for giving quality slobbery oral with quality smudged tears. as he will demonstrate to you almost daily from then on. king of messy head and going stupid with the tongue acrobatics. ugh, the noises are amazing, too. give him a grammy for his oral sounds.

gotta leave the heavy-duty work to the experts innit.

at dinner, he also poutingly brags how he can make his spit run out of his nose while he’s sucking himself through your entire dildo collection. and blow spit bubbles. and snort his own semen off his thighs and let it drop off his tongue if he’s in a particularly slutty mood. or a creampie. jeez, baekhyun, the wolf of wallstreet is strong in him. you literally have to stop him from showing off because “hey boy, i already know! i’ve seen it last week bro it was good!”

needless to say he’s talking in essays all day because he wants things go back to normal and he doesn’t have to ask twice.

for real, your candy man with the cinnamon stick has been suffering from the love bites and has to retire his cock for two days from the bruising.

mind you. the pain he can deal with. that ain’t the problem. by all means, man. he’s a fucking masochist.

it’s actually more like... submissive you has deactivated his boner and he can’t help it. it’s not you that makes him limp, it’s more like, the klingon choking and the ton of mishaps that just don’t sit right.

baekhyun feels bad about not doing well enough to make both of you have a good time as well which is lowkey heartbreaking. you have to cheer him up with ‘now repeat after me: stupid, slutty bitch’ jokes to make him chuckle at least a bit.

cuz you gotta understand, baekhyun is very ambitious to develop his talents in all areas of life. if there’s a skill he gets stuck with and he can’t work with his potential, that’s so unusual to him.

and you say man, imagine if you were some kind of uber-talented dom. that’d still not make me sneeze any less.

if you dominate him, it feels easy to do. nothing can really ruin the mood, not even when the lube runs out (baekhyun drools enough to make anything slippery okay).

except maybe when xiumin rings on landline because he left his favorite fluffy sweater in the subway and needs to vent about it. my god that’s such a tear-jerking story i’m close to sobbing. this shit could kill literally any boner.

or when your hand cramps up after shoving your fingers down his throat and in his ass for like half an hour which should be ranked first as the saddest anime betrayal of all time but it’s justifiable and you had a lot of fun beforehand.

in other words. only the things outside of your control tend to mess with your femdom business. in and of itself, nothing can kill your vibe except a dying battery obviously.

whereas you trying submission oddly spoils the atmosphere from the inside out and provides a free cringe compilation. like without even doing much, it happens automatically.

baekhyun relishes in dramatically recounting how you both looked like true clowns attempting a rendition of overexpensive, extra tangly contemporary art bondage. hell, not even employed clowns, completely retired ones, struggling to regain their tightrope tricks from summer 1912 when harry houdini was still hot shit in town.

you say oh god, that wasn’t even worth a retired clown’s skillset, clowns work damn hard man. you’d be hardpressed to find any circus artist capable of cracking a whip onto themselves baekhyun-style and moaning out loud because it was this good. seriously. that was one for the books.

if baekhyun tried to set foot in some willy-nilly maledom porn, he’d be capable of firing himself on the first day.

at the end, you just have a good laugh, man. you agree — hey, this ain’t it, but it’s good to know at least. tried and tested, been there, done that. self-whipping and carrot-nibbling and blowjob hiccups.

if you’re both so hopeless and living up to the challenge managed to upset poor mariah carey instead of giving you a hot and steamy time, you very well know where you belong. that’s a good feeling. assuring and a confidence boost for your skills. it makes up for all the clumsiness actually.

exactly because the try-out part was an entire disaster, domming baekhyun will be even more fun, you can’t see it becoming anywhere near boring. it never really was, but now you know where your strong suits are even more so. and — what to avoid, anyway.

no more unsafe practice and teddy whipping under this roof my friend

and something to incorporate more often which is baekhyun unleashing his very creative, pianoesque fingering skills on you.

you have lots of anecdotes to rile each other up as well. or, at least, tease another a bit. your high note was too legendary not to be remembered.

baekhyun will use all of these things against you in a positive way if you get what i mean. he’ll say how you being so strangely vocal made him realize just how commanding and compelling your sexy time voice is when you tell him how to kneel, how to kiss, how to revere.

and you teasing him how clumsy a dom he is makes baekhyun more self-assured in his subbing abilities. he knows for a fact you’ve not once roasted him about how well he can use his pretty mouth. cuz it’s the real deal. sloppy, skilled, and eager to please. he’s damn right about that.

hitting his toes has ruined baekhyun’s whole career as a dom and he was mad at first but he did realize that beside the clumsiness, subbing just suits him well as a principle

your experience gives you even more anticipation for all the sex you will have in the future.

you already knew what you both liked. you know it even more now, it’s underlined, it’s a big relieved yes. no more cringey “daddy, daddy, choke me please!” worship. time to make his day and sit on baekhyun’s perfect face to fuck the shit out of it.

or you know, actually land a whip on his juicy boyfriend thighs and listen to those heavenly loud reactions in a dead-on pitch (he usually moans in C minor).

long story short and cinnamon sticks aside. it’s even more fun now. you just love your cute subby boy just as he is. he doesn’t have to try to be anything else or step up his game. he’s so ideal just doing what he does like a real angel.

more subby stuff: m.list + ao3

↳⎡FINAL NOTE⎦i love writing crack lmao i hope you were rolling on the floor like i did 😂 write me your favorite part in the comments so we can laugh again and buy me a ko-fi if you wanna 👍

#baekhyun smut #baekhyun #exo smut #exo #baekhyun x reader #baekhyun hc #sub!baekhyun #baekhyun crack #exo crack #dom!baekhyun #baekhyun headcanon #sub!exo #baekhyun bullet points #exo hc #exo headcanons

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ariel-seagull-wings · 3 years ago

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UNDERRATED 70s MOVIES (PART I)

@superkingofpriderock @metropolitan-mutant-of-ark

Korol Lir (1970)

A soviet adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, directed by Grigori Kozintsev.

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Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

In this western comedy, double-crossed and left without water in the desert, Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) is saved when he finds a spring. It is in just the right spot for a much needed rest stop on the local stagecoach line, and Hogue uses this to his advantage. He builds a house and makes money off the stagecoach passengers. Hildy (Stella Stevens), a sex worker from the nearest town, moves in with him. Hogue has everything going his way until the advent of the automobile ends the era of the stagecoach. Also staring David Warner as the lecherous Reverend Joshua.

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Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)

The story of Nicholas II (Michael Jayston), the last inept Czar of Russia, set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution, as his rule is insensitive to his people's needs. It is an inside look into the private lives of Nicholas and his wife Alexandra (Janet Suzman), their daughters, their only son, and the painful secret about their son and heir apparent which bound the Imperial Couple to the mystical Grigori Rasputin (Tom Baker, before becoming famous as the 04th Doctor), and the eventual execution of the entire family.

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The Homecoming (1973)

Max is a surly pensioner who alternately venerates and vilifies his dead wife. Sam, his brother, is a supercilious chauffeur. Lenny is a smiling, snake-like pimp. Joey is a thick-witted, would-be boxer. These four men live together in a North London flat, the site of their perpetual sadomasochistic battle of words and sometimes physical violence. And then after nine years, Max's third son, Teddy, a philosophy professor living in California, comes back home for a visit. He brings his wife, Ruth. She is immediately drawn in to the family's ugly psychological games and quickly proves a worthy opponent. Soon, the game involves both of Teddy's brothers taking extreme liberties with Ruth. Based on a Harold Pinter play, directed by Peter Hall and staring Ian Holm and Michael Jayston.

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Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (1974)

An art student is thrown out of college. Depressed, he comes up with the Party of Dynamic Erection, a near-fascist "party" that promotes male sexual dominance, and which attracts a couple of other unsavory confused characters. Staring John Hurt, John McEnery and David Warner.

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Mr Forbush and the Penguins/Cry of the Penguins (1971)

Forbush (John Hurt) is young london biology student who spends most of his time pursuing girls rather than pursuing science. When the opportunity to go to the Antarctic to study a colony of penguins presents itself, he agrees to go, not so much for the benefit of science, but rather to impress the girl he has recently been chasing. The longer he stays in the Antarctic, however, the more he becomes truly interested in the penguins fight for survival.

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#classic cinema #70s movies #cult cinema #tumblr mutuals #Youtube

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anachronisticcrab · 4 years ago

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Percy Being Good To Nico

I love Percy and Nico friendship, but in canon, Percy was such an ass to Nico. So here are some ideas of how that could have been changed in a canon divergent fic

After the Battle of the Labyrinth, when Nico was trying to leave CHB and Percy stopped him, Percy gave Nico his phone number and home address in case of emergency (that’s how he knew where Percy lived)

After Percy’s birthday party that Nico crashed, Sally started getting Nico to come for dinner once a month, which caused Nico and Percy to become a lot closer

This seriously cut back on Percy’s stress because he wasn’t constantly worrying about Nico (like where he was, if he was okay, how many monsters was he fighting now, how much is he eating, where is he sleeping, when was the last time he actually performed any sort of self care, etc)

Pretty quickly once a month dinners became once a week dinners, which usually ended in Nico staying overnight

When Sally and Paul got married, they moved into Paul’s apartment, and Sally gave Nico the address. When he showed up the first Friday for dinner, he almost cried of joy (they had added an extra bed in Percy’s room for Nico to stay in)

Percy throws Nico a surprise party for his birthday every year, and Nico tried baking Percy a cake for his birthday one year. Suffice to say, it didn’t end well, but Percy still ate it with a smile on his face because his little brother made it for him

After that though, Percy and Nico agreed that Percy and Sally would stick to the baking, and Nico could stick to making meals

They had a two hour conversation after the Battle of Manhattan to talk about the Styx thing. It ended with a tearful apology from Nico, and a tearful hug from Percy. Now the two of them have a conversation twice a month about their feelings and bullshit that’s happened

Percy making Nico watch an endless stream of Disney movies (Finding Nemo, Moana, The Little Mermaid, basically anything that goes along with the sea)

When Percy finds out about Nico’s love of pirates, he gets Nico to watch all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies with him

Percy feeds Nico bullshit facts about the modern century (ie. the Soviet Union renamed themselves the Cotton Candy Brigade and then disbanded, but citizens of former soviet countries are still called Munchkins)

Nico feeds Percy bullshit facts about both the 30’s and Italy (ie. Italy is known to its citizens as the Peninsula of Cazzo, and that they didn’t have cutlery or plates in the 30’s)

Sometime between botl and tlo, Nico’s feelings for Percy morphed from romantic to brotherly

When Nico had to lie to Percy about who he was in SoN, it was the hardest thing he ever had to do. Percy knew that he knew Nico, and it crushed Nico that Percy couldn’t remember him, and that he couldn’t tell Percy anything. He hadn’t seen his big brother in almost a year, and now Percy didn’t remember him, and he couldn’t remind him

When they saw each other again on the Argo 2 before Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus, you cannot convince me that Percy didn’t give Nico a hug

Nico genuinely didn’t have a crush on Percy by HoO, he thought of Percy as a brother. He was still really ashamed of being gay, and he loved Percy (just in a very different way). That’s why Jason wasn’t sure if Nico still liked Percy or not after the Cupid thing. He could tell that Nico was ashamed and loved Percy, but he didn’t know that Nico just loved Percy in a different way

Nico got super ticked off at Percy when he said ‘are you sure you can do this’ to the shadow travel thing at the end of HoH mostly because Percy has a bad habit of treating Nico like he’s still that ten year old geek from Westover Hall

Like really. Everyone else around Nico sees a terrifying teenager who’s summoned army’s of the undead and destroys his enemies in ten seconds flat, but Percy just sees a kid with big eyes infodumping about his favourite card game wearing armour that’s three sizes too big telling him that he’s scared

It pisses Nico off because he’s not a little kid anymore, Percy! he can take care of himself! he isn’t gonna break the second he goes to fight!

Also, by extension, Nico and Tyson are siblings and Hazel and Percy are siblings (which adds Frank into their family, cause he’s Nico’s age and dating Hazel). So when Reyna, Nico, and Hedge were caught by Leah and Dakota on the boat, Nico was super excited to see his little brother again. He wasn’t even that upset when Tyson pulled him into a hug (even though he hates hugs)

When they see each other again at CHB after the Battle, they give each other a big hug. Percy tells Nico’s that he was so worried he’d never see his baby brother again, and Nico proceeds to make fun of Percy for waking up Gaia with a nosebleed

Also, after Reyna and Nico’s hug, Percy pulls Nico aside and is like ‘what’s the deal with you and Reyna’ and Nico’s like ‘she’s my sister now’ and Percy goes ‘oh, okay, cool. bring her around for family dinner next weekend’

Same with Jason, Rachel, and Meg, too. Percy’s always down for more adoptive family being around

After Nico came out to Percy and Annabeth, and told Percy that he’s gay, Percy went to the infirmary to talk to Nico. He wasn’t allowed in at first, but he waited outside for three hours so he could speak with Nico

Of course, this led to a three hour discussion, which involved a lot of apologies from both of them, and a lot of shared stories, and laughs, and a few tears. Percy told Nico he shouldn’t be ashamed of who he is, and he should’ve told Percy sooner

When Percy went home for the school year, and to see his parents again, Nico joined him. There were lots of tears, hugging and blue cookies. Then Sally grounded them both for staying away for so long and worrying the hell out of her and Paul

When Percy sees Nico and Will interact, he makes it his goal to make them a couple. He and Jason spend hours plotting ways to get them together

Whenever Nico’s away from home for any amount of time, Percy gives Nico a big hug, ruffles his hair, and complains that he stayed away

When Nico first moves to New Rome for university, Will’s living in Massachusetts for Harvard Med School, so he moves in with Jason and Percy for a few years while he gets a degree in linguistics and anthropology

Btw, Annabeth thought Percy would distract her when she was trying to study, so she moved in with Piper and Reyna, and Percy moved in with Jason. It should’ve only taken her 4 years to get her masters in architecture, but the university offers a bunch of history, math, and design classes that she took because they were really interesting (it ended up taking her 6 years)

That’s all for now. I might make another post about this cause I live for Percy and Nico friendship. Btw,, DO NOT tag as P*rcico. This is purely familial and platonic headcanons

#percy jackson #nico di angelo #hazel lavesque #frank zhang #piper mclean #jason grace #annabeth chase #leo valdez #will solace #reyna ramirez arellano #reyna avila ramirez arellano #pjo #hoo #og post #solangelo #percabeth #sally jackson #paul blofis #estelle blofis

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qqueenofhades · 4 years ago

Note

…can we get a little peak at some nadia/fedyor solidarity in PEL? i know we dont really see Nadia but even just a short conversation with her and fedyor or ivan would be cool!

"Just go out with him," Nadia says. "Just once."

Fedyor eyes her narrowly. It's a sunny morning, they're sitting in the fashionable industrial grunge of Chernyy Cooperative on Lyalin Pereulok and drinking their coffee with the rest of the Moscow hipsters, and while he's glad to see his friend and catch up, he is inordinately suspicious of this sudden interest in matchmaking him. "How do you know this guy, exactly?"

"He's a friend of a friend. He moved here from somewhere in Siberia five years ago, to do his army service. Then he got a job in a refining plant, and Oksana's boyfriend knows him. His name is Ivan Sakharov, and he's -- well, he's a bit of an odd duck, but you would like him."

"What makes you think that?" Fedyor hasn't been single quite long enough to trust a blind date, sight unseen, even if he normally bows to Nadia's judgment. (Amusing that she's better than him at picking men, considering that he is attracted to them and she isn't.) "Is this another case of you pawning your horrible friend off on me because it's such a mystery that he can't get a date otherwise?"

"Oh my God," Nadia says, rolling her eyes at the attractively exposed pipes of the ceiling. "Dmitri was once. And he wasn't even my friend, just some guy from work."

"You only say that now because he was such a narcissist." Fedyor takes a sip of his flat white. "We hadn't even gotten to the restaurant table before he was taking selfies. Who does that?"

"Well." Nadia's voice is very dry. "I can assure you, you will not have that problem with Ivan."

"Why?" Fedyor demands. "What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing." Nadia's expression turns conspiratorial. "You're going to like him. If you don't, fine, I eat crow forever. But -- "

"Have you told him about this?"

"Well, yes." Nadia pauses. "Kind of."

Fedyor sighs deeply, filling his mouth with a blueberry muffin before he says anything else ill-advised. He does know that Nadia is trying hard, since she has a confounded but endearing dedication to helping out with his love life, and it's the first time he's seen her since she got back from six months in the Congo. Both her father and mother are from there; they moved to Russia as very young children, when their parents helped found Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship University in Moscow in 1960, a symbol of improved African-Soviet Union relations under Khrushchev and a common commitment to resisting Western capitalist imperialism. Nadia is thus just as Russian as Fedyor is, and they went to MSU together, but she goes back to her ancestral homeland every so often to volunteer and work with NGOs and otherwise be brilliant and world-saving. He should trust her. World-saving people have good instincts about dating. Right. Right?

"Fine," Fedyor groans. "One date. One. That's all it's going to be, and only since I like you."

(Needless to say, Nadia has subsequently never let him live it down.)

#anonymous #ask #pel asks #lbr this is the scene we all want to see #mlm/wlw solidarity

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lupin-the-3rd-case-files · 3 years ago

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Bye Bye, Lady Liberty

Target: Super Egg

So my experience with this special is kind of weird because I honestly felt like it was fucking with me by calling the villain group the “Three Masons.” I was certain the translators made an error until about partway through when I realized the organization was originally compromised of the three individuals in the movie. I struggled to get over that for a good portion of the run time.

Bye Bye, Lady Liberty is funny glimpse into the year 1989 when computers were starting to become more commonplace but the collective conscious didn’t really understand computers. This special treats computers and viruses like literal black magic. I’m not joking, even the final “programming” of the neovirus comes off as some kind of satanic ritual. It’s clear that whoever wrote this had no real clue what computers were or what they were capable of, or if they did they didn’t care.

It’s really kind of interesting to look at this and think “This is what people thought computers were,” in comparison to another personal favorite anime of mine: Serial Experiments Lain. Lain is almost the opposite of this movie, it understands computers fully but chooses to depict them in a fantastical manner. It even predicted many of the popular trends that would come out of computers, including social media (long before myspace and facebook were ever things) and online games.

It’s just really funny to me to compare these two very polar opposites with the understand we now have of computers.

Anyway, treasure. This movie has two main “treasures” I say with quotations. The first is the Super Egg, a football sized diamond. The second is the Neovirus. Lupin wants the Neovirus so he can wipe his data from police computers because they can magically predict him and his every move. Ultimately the Neovirus takes control of the US and Soviet missile silos and tries to launch strikes on each other but they manage to stop it.

There *is* a black market for viruses but I cannot imagine there being a virus capable of just straight up brute forcing its way into launching missiles. Viruses are a lot more complicated than that, and if Mr.Robot taught me anything it’s more likely that such a fault would be the result of social engineering rather than just a black magic satan virus. I don’t want to calculate the value of such a virus because it’s so fantastical that there’s no way it could exist or be realistically valued as far as I’m concerned.

So we get to my biggest fear when it comes to these articles: diamonds. Diamonds are really hard to value. Especially unrealistically sized diamonds such as the Super Egg. Fortunately, someone did the calculations for a basketball sized diamond on quora and I’m going to choose to trust them since they seem to know what they’re talking about. However, if the diamond was flawless it would be a number I couldn’t actually get out of a calculator so I decided to just go with a normal diamond for my own sanity.

Basically we calculate the weight in grams (volume of a football is about 4800 cm^3 * density of a diamond is 3.33 g/cm^3 = 15,984 grams). We then multiply the weight in grams by 5 to get its size in carats coming out to 79,920. According to the rappaport list price per carat at 10.99 is 234,000 per carat. We multiply 79,920ct * $234,000 = $18,701,280,000. If the diamond was flawless and such it would be worth even more but as I said for the sake of sanity we’re going to keep it there.

Most unfortunate for Lupin, however, the diamond is destroyed in the collapse of the Three Mason’s tower, its value becoming nothing. Which, I would like to point out, seems silly since aren’t diamonds supposed to be one of the hardest materials on the planet? Instead it gets dropped and shatters like a glass vase. Clearly it wasn’t a real diamond after all!

So with that, Lupin makes it out with nothing but apparently a debt he’s incurred and he’s even flat broke. A sad state to leave our hero on. The special insinuates he copies the Neovirus and succeeds in erasing his data from the police computers, but we assume that’s all that happens with it.

Lupin’s reward: $0

And with that we wrap up Bye Bye, Lady Liberty. It’s a relic of its time to say the least. At least it has significantly less racist caricatures unlike the last entry that took place in America. This special just makes me appreciate Serial Experiments Lain even more than I do already.

Next up is the Hemingway Papers which I think I’ve seen but I actually don’t remember for sure.

#lupin the 3rd #lupin iii #tv special #bye bye lady liberty #discotek media #anime

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banashee · 4 years ago

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I was tagged by @givebuckyhisplumsnow - thanks very much! 😊🖤

Rules: You can usually tell a lot about a person by the type of music they listen to! Put your favourite playlist on shuffle and list the first 10 songs, then tag 10 people.

Once again I'm going for more than 10 because it's fun 🦇

1) The Beauty of Gemina - "Golden Age"

2) This Cold Night - "Lovers don't wear gold"

3) The Sisters of Mercy - "Phantom"

4) The Beauty of Gemina - "Hold on to this Night"

5) Vandal Moon - "Baby Sounds"

6) Lacuna Coil - "Fragments of Faith"

7) Whispers in the Shadow - "Left Hand Anthem"

8) Drab Majesty - "Too soon to tell"

9) This Cold Night - "Blackout Rift"

10) This Cold Night - "Gay Goth Dance Machine"

11) Brotherhood - "The Light"

12) The Cure - "Just like heaven"

13) The Beauty of Gemina - "Narcotica"

14) Social Station - "The sun and the air"

15) The Last Dance - "Rage"

16) Hapax - "Sacred, pt. 2"

17) Decades/Failures - "Fractured"

18) Faith and The Muse - "The Birds of Rhiannon

19) Faith and The Muse - "Porphytogene"

20) The Beauty of Gemina - "Dark Rain"

21) Lebanon Hanover - "The Last Thing"

22) The Cure - "A Forest"

23) Chelsea Wolfe - "Feral Love"

24) Hapax - "Survive the Night"

25) Lebanon Hanover - "No one holds hands"

26) Danheim - "Vali"

27) The Sisters of Mercy - "More"

28) Double Echo - "Life inside"

29) Clan of Xymox - "Taste of Medicine"

30) Clan of Xymox - "She"

31) Wardruna - "MannaR - Liv"

32) Diary of Dreams - "The Wedding"

33) Vandal Moon - "Blame it on the weekend"

34) New Today - "Suicidal"

35) Clan of Xymox - "Morning Glow"

36) Amon Amarth - "As long as the Raven flies"

37) Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Metal Postcard"

38) Jeremy Renner - "Main Attraction"

39) Clan of Xymox - "In Love we trust"

40) ES23 - "When I'm Gone (Solitary Experiments Remix)

41) False Vampires - "Mountainside"

42) Lebanon Hanover - "Alien"

43) Illusion of Light - "Ameisenstaat 2010"

44) die ärzte - "Plan B"

45) Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Rhapsody"

46) Sebastian Böhm - "Blue Monday"

47) die ärzte - Geisterhaus

48) Project Pitchfork - "We are one - Mirror split up into the pieces"

49) Stevie Nicks - "I can't wait"

50) Department S - "I want"

51) L'ame Immortelle - "Judgement"

52) Pink Turns Blue - "Pressurized"

53) Sonsombre - "Night child"

54) Lebanon Hanover - "Lavander Fields"

55) This Cold Night - "Time Bomb"

56) Clan of Xymox - "Lovers"

57) False Vampires - "Funny"

58) The Last Dance - "Wake me screaming"

59) Echo & the Bunnymen - "Hole in the Holy"

60) She Past Away - "Ruh (Bragolin Remix) "

61) Frayle - "1692"

62) Sonsombre - "Buried"

63) Frayle - “Stab”

64) Queen - “I want to break free”

65) M.A.D.E.S , Wice - “Nightkiller (Wice Mix)”

66) ASP - “Biotopia”

67) Faith and the Muse - “In Dreams of Mine”

68) The Cure - “Lullaby”

69) (nice) Boy Harsher - “Spell”

70) Paralysed Age - “Days that are gone”

71) Danheim - “Egilsson”

72) Angels of Liberty - “Death to wake up”

73) Jeremy Renner - “The Medicine”

74) Danheim - “Vikinger”

75) Bootblacks - “Inextinguishable”

76) Lebanon Hanover - “The Moor”

77) Amon Amarth - “Warriors of the north”

78) The Mechanisms - “Red Signal”

79) Bootblacks - “Always”

80) White Lies - “Big TV”

81) The Beauty of Gemina - “Ghosts”

82) Wardruna - “Runaljod”

83) Amon Amarth - “Cry of the Black Birds”

84) Wardruna - “Helvegen”

85) Bauhaus - “Bela Lugosi’s dead”

86) Eviør - “Trøllabundin”

87) Stevie Nicks - “Edge of Seventeen”

88) Cascade - “Nuovo Testamento”

89) The Beauty of Gemina - “Friends of mine”

90) Lebanon Hanover - “Hollow sky”

91) Danheim - “Reida”

92) The Cure - “Fascination Street”

93) Sonsombre - “Ghost Story”

94) Inkubus Sukkubus -”Wytches”

95) Leanon Hanover - “Your Fork Moves”

96) Soviet Soviet - “1990″

97) Mykur - “Gudernes Vilje”

98) The Beauty of Gemina - “Into Black”

99) Unleash the Archers - “Northwest Passage”

100) Wardruna - “Sonatorrek”

101) The Cure - “The Last Day of Summer”

102) Amon Amarth - “Embrace the endless ocean”

103) Soviet Soviet - “Further”

104) New Today - “Blood”

105) Danheim - “Call to the Gods (outro)”

106) Esoterik - “Huldufólk”

107) Creux Lies - “Silhouette”

108) The Mechanisms - “Peacemaker”

109) The Sisters of Mercy - “No Time to Cry”

110) Wardruna - “Bjarkan”

111) Clan of Xymox - “Jasmine and Rose”

112) Coffin Moth - “Night of the Witch”

113) The Crüxshadows - “Winter Born (This sacrifice)”

114) Death in June - “The Calling (MKII)”

115) Social Station - “Awfully Pretty”

116) The Sisters of Mercy - “I was wrong”

117) Lebanon Hanover - “Gallowdance”

118) The Beauty of Gemina - “Suicide Landscape”

119) The Cure - “All I want”

120) Drab Majesty - “Forget Tomorrow”

121) She Past Away - “Ritüel”

122) Killing Joke - “Love Like Blood”

123) Volbeat - “Sorry Sack of Bones”

124) Danheim - “Floki’s last journey”

125) Bragolin - “Into those woods”

126) Brotherhood - “So many stars”

127) die ärzte - “Der Graf”

128) die ärzte - “Dein Vampyr”

129) Darkher - “Spirit Walker”

130) She Past Away - “Girdap”

131) Lebanon Hanover - “Living on the Edge”

132) Danheim - “Odinn”

133) Bauhaus - “In the flat field”

134) Amon Amarth - “No fear for the setting sun”

135) Lacuna Coil - “Our Truth”

136) Leanon Hanover - “Spirals”

137) Hapax - “To the other side”

138) Lacuna Coil - “The Ghost Woman and the Hunter”

139) Hapax - “Elegy”

140) Soviet Soviet - “Around here”

141) Clan of Xymox - “Hail Mary”

142) Vandal Moon - “We are electric”

143) Generation X - “Your Generation”

144) Suldusk - “The Elm”

145) Breaking Benjamin - “Unknown Soldier”

146) Paralysed Age - “Last Mystery”

147) Depeche Mode - “What’s your Name?”

148) Kim Wilde - “You keep me hanging on”

149) Principle Valiente - “Strangers in the Night”

150) Sopor Aeternus and the Ensemble of Shadows - “Beautiful”

Let me know if you’re interested in having this as a Spotify Playlist - I’ll happily do it :D

I’m tagging you folks if you wanna share something - if not, that’s totally fine, too ♥

@stufenlosregelbar @spectralarchers @undefeatednils @lilolilyr @coffeeaddicted-stark @bananaink @littlefeatherasswithwings @gehetzterfuchs @transdeadpool @localbeefcakemoose @thoughtsoflastnight @mothmanismyuncle @asamandra @neo-classico

#music tag game #gothgoth #dark wave #post punk #and other goood stuff

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balapann-blog · 3 months ago

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Day 57 - 1 November - Tbilisi Airport > Tashkent

Day 58 - 2 November - Tashkent

Day 59 - 3 November - Tashkent

Day 60 - 4 November - Tashkent > Khiva

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