#my default opinion of the sport

[ssaalexblake]

Lol getting an offer to go sailing on my brother in law's home made boat... I think I'll pass thanks.

[avelera]

This is obviously my personal opinion, but my one hot take about fem!Jayce is that I see a lot of takes where fem Jayce is butch, even though Jayce even as a man is not butch. Jayce is clean-cut and a people pleaser who is trying to look socially acceptable for his billionaire patron and society in general. It's not that he doesn't have vanity, but his specific style of grooming and dress tells me a different story, personally.

1 ) First, take Jayce's two outfits we ever see him wearing in S1. He has 1) His Academy Uniform and 2) His House Colors. That's it. He is either presenting himself as a member of academia, which has a distinct Piltover uniform, or as a representative of his family's name and legacy. Jayce presents himself specifically as a particular flavor of, "What a nice young man!"

2 ) Jayce keeps his hair neatly cropped short and shaves every day, we can tell he does because he has a five o clock shadow he can't get rid of but it never grows beyond that until he's trapped in the future. This, to me, isn't vanity or at least it's not individualistic vanity. This is the patented, "What a nice young man!" haircut that a lot of guys who don't otherwise care about their appearance default to, ie, regular barber visits and wearing a suit, always being well groomed. He's not a jock, he's a choir boy.

Basically, my take on fem!Jayce would be in line with this. That would mean fem!Jayce would have:

Muscles. Yes, obviously, you can't be Jayce without them and fem Jayce works in the forge too. But it's a popular misconception that strong women are always butch or buff or that weight training bulks you up as a woman. It doesn't, not unless you deliberately pursue that look, it actually slims you down and means you leaner for the most part. In my mind, fem!Jayce is just as muscled as Vi but like Vi, that doesn't mean she's bulky.

Fem!Jayce is trying to be socially acceptable. That means, fem!Jayce dresses feminine and probably "preppy" by our standards. As we see time and again, Piltover has a surprisingly strict gender expression divide, it puts its women in dresses and skirts, even its Enforcer women, just look at Caitlyn's first uniform! For fem!Jayce again, think perfect Catholic choir girl, professional but demur dresses, possibly covering up the forge muscles and the breadth of her shoulders with long sleeved cuts (Jayce always wears his suits buttoned to the wrist and throat, and he doesn't show skin except in the forge, think fem!Jayce in a sports bra only while working there). I genuinely think you'd see fem!Jayce in a lot of skirts and dresses to play up her femininity, likely in House Talis white and as a student always wearing her perfectly maintained school uniform. Again, think the good Catholic schoolgirl look, because the good Catholic schoolboy is actually closest to how Jayce presents as a student.

For hair, think the perfect preppy feminine image, shoulder-length, well-maintained hair with a slight wave in it from a daily blowout, tasteful understated makeup, nails always clean and perhaps painted specifically to hide traces of grime from the forge. This isn't about individuality it's about the Socially Acceptable Ideal and fem!Jayce is being a good respectable girl for her widowed mother and so she can keep her billionaire patrons happy and pursue her dream of Hextech.

Anyway, there I go rambling again and because I'm not an artist I can only describe it and not draw the vision lol. But personally, I see fem!Jayce as more Wicked's Glinda than blacksmith or jock, because Jayce doesn't present as a blacksmith except in private or as a jock ever, and he's a nice boy raised by a single mother and wants to make her and his patrons proud so he can pursue his dream.

He's also likely the first of his family to go to the Academy, "nothing much was expected of him" so that also adds pressure to conform to a "Nice Young Man" image and I think fem!Jaye would also present as the "Nice Young Lady" preppy, feminine version of that image.

[s-wave-entertainment]

Okay I'm doing it I'm making that long-winded post about N-

Your honor, this boy never Actually Wanted to kill.

Now for most of you, I'm sure you already knew this. It's not all too hard to perceive, seeing as we've really only seen him in full blown kill mode twice, and there's a hypothesized good reason for the first and an ACTUAL good reason for the second. But I'm making this post anyway because this little murder robot has a heart core of gold, and he makes me so fucking sad sometimes so I just have to scream about it. MOVING ON:

Exhibit A: The Landing

Both times we see N in full blown (worker) kill mode* were in the pilot; once when he first landed back at the spire and attacked Uzi, and the other when he raided the bunker pursuing her. I'll refer to the first time here as "The Landing (TL)." In this sequence we watch him slam down onto the ship, finish off the oil in some poor sap's head, then attack Uzi as soon as he realizes she's there. What's my reasoning for this? Hunger.

N says, a little more than 3 minutes later, that he kills for one of two reasons:

1) If he doesn't, he dies.

2) It's his job, and he wants to be useful.

Now take this next take with a bit of salt, as it's completely headcanoned, but I personally think that N dislikes hunting as a whole. Despite his desire to be useful, it still means he has to kill - which I think if he CAN avoid at a given time, he will. Thus, in my opinion, N only hunts either when J forces him to, or when he knows he's at risk of overheating. Overheating does shit to robot brains, as we saw with Uzi in episode 4, so if N was out HUNTING - which he does when he's close to overheating - when TL occurred, it's only NATURAL that he sees a worker in his space and his first thought is "kill." He was ALREADY in hunting mode - I imagine it doesn't just "turn off" the second they satiate the initial urge. If it did, that wouldn't work too well for The Solver, now would it (yes I know that when the Earth AND the gala massacre occurred none of them had any jurisdiction over their bodies/actions, but the Solver openly admit to allowing them to keep their personalities, and knowing N I think the whole "killing for sport" thing doesn't work too well with his)?

So of course he attacks Uzi - he was likely still hungry, and hungry means risk for overheating, which can translate to death. I will admit, he did seem to toy with her just a little before going for the kill, but actually I think the whole "throwing her across the area with his tail" was more to disorient Uzi, as from the dodge he had just witnessed her perform could signify to him that she's more competent in a fight than the first appeared, even disarmed. Thus, the need to both injured and discombobulate her arose. I'll talk more about N's fighting style in the second incident here:

Exhibit B: The Bunker

Now the bunker has a different reason altogether: protection of his fellow squad mates. Don't believe me? I was hoping you'd say that:

He only goes AFTER Uzi after he realizes that she's made off with the weapon that took his head off. Yes, she missed and he was able to regenerate, but if Uzi had hit just a little bit lower, she would have hit his core - which would have permakilled him. Surely realizing this, he runs off and attacks the bunker with what given reason?

It wasn't about him. It was NEVER about him. It was about V. He wanted to keep HER safe, he wanted to make sure Uzi wouldn't shoot HER with that gun. Now, why all the unecessary carnage then? In THIS case, I think he defaulted to wanting to be useful and thus making all of the kills that he did. Though, it could also be argued just as fairly that he was consuming so much oil/matter to ensure that if she DID shoot him again, he would be able to get back up faster. The gun has a cool down, yes, but I don't know if he knew that. Or if he did, he couldn't have known that it only lasted for 30 minutes. Now about that fighting style I mentioned - this is why I think the reasoning here was purely for utility: N appears to have a very cut-and-run fighting style. If he has a choice, he doesn't prolong his kills - the first guy he stabs through the chest then immediately takes his head off, the second dies via missile, the third N just tackles and kills himself (we only hear the guy scream fir a second before N is seen drinking oil from his neck, which leads me to believe that the death was quick), and Braxton dies via super accurate cutting-you-in-half laser (which was probably meant for Uzi, but he couldn't see them when he fired as he was too busy drinking, so he probably just latched onto the voice that he heard and fired). All deaths which were extremely fast and without any toying, despite the multitude of weapons used. Now to me, this implies that he has a style, and he sticks with it. And that style is just to /get the damn thing over with./

And that's it! Those are the only times we see him in worker kill mode. Now we do see him switch into a "general" kill mode when he takes "Tessa's" head off, but it's pretty plainly obvious that that took every ounce of his mental strength to do. I mean shit, he basically collapsed as soon as it was over and didn't regulate until Uzi took his hand. Now I guess it could be argued that that was "his friend" so of course he's more hesitant to kill her, but I think part of the reason it was So Hard is because he ALREADY doesn't favor killing, and now he has to behead the only human who ever showed him any kindness. AND THEN IT WASN'T EVEN HER, SO-

And don't bring up the episode 8 fight - OBVIOUSLY he's gonna fight to kill, he's recovering the memory of everything this thing has done to him and now he has two new motivators: love, and WRATH. I make exception for that fight because quite frankly if he WASN'T fighting to kill at that point I would be worried. Though I do wanna bring up that he was very obviously conflicted about the whole thing. And before you argue:

Even against THE SOLVER ITSELF, he was still incredibly conflicted about killing. Again, that used to be his friend (and is wearing the SKIN OF THE ACTUAL HUMAN HE THOUGHT HE KILLED NOT EVEN A CANON 20 MINUTES AGO FOR THEM), but even still, my earlier point of "already doesn't favor killing, forced to kill" still stands.

In conclusion - your honor, N is a sweetheart. Always has been, despite everything he's been forced to do. And the amount of guilt he probably feels for the oil (and blood, now that he remembers that) on his hands is probably so, so much. Too much. Why do you think he copes with repression and positivity?

*"Worker Kill Mode" specified because I acknowledge that he kind of has two kill modes - one where he's in control and one where he's Not, as the Solver's puppet.

[dmercer91]

helpless, hopeless. me94

in which he is helpless in school and hopelessly in love. (18+!!)

i think i just gave myself a crush

“could we try a reward system or something? i can’t help that i��m not motivated when the material is this” you rolled your eyes to yourself at his words, tapping your pen on the textbook in your lap out of frustration

mark was unteachable. you were sure he knew what ambition felt like, you were sure deep down he cared about academics to an extent, because you don’t commit to umich sports without at least some drive, right?

frustration got the better of you, and your tone indicated that well with your response. “what, do you want me to throw bacon at you? the reward is passing the class, mark,”

he glared at you, his jaw ticking slightly because of the attitude you’d given him. you were both starting to think your prof was some sort of comedian for pairing the two of you up for tutoring

“i meant something i want, not something i need, but thank you for your kind suggestion, i’ll be sure to keep bacon in mind when you’re throwing questions at me” you slammed the book on your lap shut, gesturing for him to tell you his great idea for how you should motivate him to study

“go ahead, then,”

his demeanour changed, his pupils dilated, and his tongue quickly poked out to lick his lips before he shrugged.

“well, i saw-“ his body language had given you plenty of context regarding what he was about to say, and you didn’t need to hear it.

“are you out of your fucking mind? you’re lucky if it’s a hundred degrees in here and i even consider taking off my hoodie,” you shut him down before the thought could even reach his lips.

“come on, you need the extra credit. i’ll do it too, if i get one wrong, or something,” you shook your head, lips parted in exasperation.

if you didn’t think it’d get to his already big head, you’d laugh like he was telling a hilarious joke

“i need the extra credit, not the extracurriculars. i also have zero interest in seeing you without a shirt on,” he grinned for a split second, hiding it by hanging his head until he could fight it off.

“if you want my opinion, the extracurriculars might help you calm the fuck down. but sure, you don’t need it,” you sucked your teeth, not even bothering to respond to him as you stuffed your things back into your backpack and moved off his bed.

“hey, wait, i was just being a dick, y/n,” he reached his arm to grab your wrist, but you moved away, and his hand landed square on your thigh. you could see the gears turning in his head before he used the leverage to tug you back towards him.

“it seems like dick is almost your default. let me go, there are plenty of pretty boy assholes for me to tutor for my extra credit. a few in this house, actually. but nobody in their right mind is agreeing to strip if it means you’ll pay attention to them” he raised an eyebrow, disagreeing with your last remark.

“and what if i don’t want any other mean tutors to strip for me?” your cheeks went hot but you blatantly ignored the feeling, refusing to look down at him cause you knew what was waiting for you if you did.

his hands were already smoothing up and down your hips, and when you refused to look at him he stood, pressing his chest to yours.

your chin ended up just by his collar bone, and he looked down at you, a soft pout showing in his eyes but not his lips.

“this isn’t cute.” you deadpanned, causing him to smirk, tilting his head.

“no?” you shook your head, mimicking his no, but definitively rather than questioningly.

“is it convincing, at least?” he asked, a small smile playing at his lips.

you sighed in response, taking the flash cards from your front bag pouch and throwing the rest of the bag on the floor.

you both sat back down on his bed, and you glumly asked the first question on the card. he got it wrong, and eyed you til you moved to the next card.

you were half expecting him to take his sweater off, but he hadn’t.

he looked bored right out of his mind, and the way he answered showed that he was still wildly disinterested in the topic.

he wouldn’t ponder, just immediately said the first thing that came to mind so he could move on.

the next question, you knew he had the answer to. when he got it right, you paused.

he raised an eyebrow, giving you a look of annoyance when you took so long to flip to the next question.

he quickly lost the attitude when you pulled your sweater over your head and refused to meet his eyes, just moved on to the next question quietly.

he took longer to think about it this time, eventually coming up with the right answer. you look your shirt off, leaving you in your bra.

you looked up at him for a quick second to see his cheeks bright red and his lips parted, his lashes fluttering as he blinked repeatedly.

he hardly heard the next question, and stumbled until he got it wrong. you looked at him expectantly, then looked away, trying not to look back at him while he cleared his throat and pulled off his sweater

he hadn’t been wearing a shirt underneath, so you were met with his bare chest when you did muster up the courage to look in his direction.

he got the next question right, and you gave yourself a moment before you raised your hips and discarded your pants. he was staring at you, gaze soft but almost overwhelming as it took you in.

he got the next question right as well, but you didn’t budge, just gave him a small shake of your head.

“something else, then. yeah? maybe come sit in my lap,” you nodded reluctantly, taking your new place on his thigh, your side to his chest.

you ignored the bulge in his sweatpants to the best of your ability, and then he got the next question wrong, so the only barrier between the two of you was your respective underwear

you ignored the way he twitched when you moved even slightly, and you definitely ignored the way he was throbbing, too focused on the same sensation coming from your own core.

“what now?” you asked, voice meek and quiet as you looked down at him.

“i have some ideas im not sure you would approve of” he grinned, and you rolled your eyes in response, cheeks getting warm for what felt like the millionth time that night. this time, though, the rest of your skin felt a similar scorching feeling under his eyes.

“like what?” he licked his lips at that, taking the cards from your hand and setting them aside.

he kissed your lips once, but wasted no time in moving to your jaw, down your neck and to the tops of your boobs.

you let him take his time there, liking the sensation of him nipping gently at the sensitive skin, but eventually you pulled his face back so you could kiss him properly again.

you revelled in the feeling of his smile against your lips, and were quick to part your lips when his tongue slid against your lower one.

you felt his hands pull at your waist, and you let him move you, eyebrows furrowing when he set you so his thigh was slotted between your own.

his thigh jerked when you took it upon yourself to roll your hips, the sudden movement pulling a whine from your lips.

“god you’re so beautiful, baby” he mumbled, placing his hands on your thighs and rubbing slow circles with his thumb.

you buried your hands in his hair, pulling at it whenever his thigh twitched or whenever his hands would inch further up

the rhythm of your hips was steady against him and his kisses were like a drug.

eventually, he worked his kisses to your chest again, and his hands came up to gently swipe along the clasp of your bra, looking up at you as if you ask permission to take it off

his lips were swollen and red, he was panting and all you could focus on was the sweet, begging look in his eyes as you nodded, mumbling your consent.

his right hand moved to pinch at your left nipple, the sensitive skin hardening under his oddly gentle touch, while his lips closed around the other, almost hesitantly

you sucked in a breath, eyes fluttering shut in time for his left hand to move down to your core and rub sweet, soft circles on your clit through the fabric of your panties

“s’ okay?” he asked, out of breath and almost immediately returning his attention to your boob while halting his left hand to wait for your response

“yeah- yeah, s’ okay,” you whimpered, basking in all the stimulation he was providing you.

you were still gently rolling your hips, and his fingers worked in unison with that, so you were already inching closer and closer to your orgasm

you wanted to hide away in him, and though merely twenty minutes ago the idea (and reality) of being with him in an enclosed space seemed awful, he was doing well at making you feel the opposite. you wanted to be as close as possible

he took his time, eyes closed peacefully as he brought you to the edge, and eventually over it.

it was ridiculously powerful, especially for how gentle he’d been, and you bit your lip so hard you swore you tasted blood just to keep in your moans.

he brought his lips back up to your own again, hands cradling your jaw and the back of your head while he eased you onto your back, underneath him.

you pulled away from him, looking up into his eyes with an expression you couldn’t explain. he responded with a soft smile, kissing you on the head reassuringly before trailing down your jaw and focusing on your neck

his hands, now gliding along your waist, were warm and the sensation made you feel fuzzy.

“so gentle,” you stated, words coming out as a half confused whisper. his lips formed a smile against your collarbone and he pulled back a few inches, glancing up at you for a quick second

“i can be,” was his response. you blinked, taking his hands in your own and moving them to your hips, his thumb conveniently nudging at the waistband of your underwear

he moved back up so your heads were level, licking his lips before looking down by your core, then back up at you.

“i like it,” you replied, delayed but still appreciated. he tried his best not to grin like a fool, his heart feeling full in his chest

you didn’t miss the way the corners of his lips curled up, but he immediately shot them down, keeping his composure

he slid two fingers from each hand into your panties, a questioning look in his eyes and his head tilting slightly. you took a deep breath, breaking eye contact to recuperate before nodding and raising your hips, bringing your eyes back to his.

he tugged them down slowly, giving you a reassuring look before ultimately moving his eyes to where his hands were, breath caught in his throat.

a choked whine came from your throat as the cold air touched newly bare skin, and mark finally let his breath go, shakily.

“oh, baby,” he murmured, eyes somehow becoming darker but softer at the same time

your folds were glistening with both your first release and your arousal, and every touch from his fingers, even featherlight, had you twitching

you took the time he used to work his boxers off and grab protection from his night stand to catch your breath, and let it sink in

everything, how sweet he was being, how well he stimulated you, how satisfying the orgasm was, how had you been asked just yesterday, you’d have said with full confidence he’d probably never made a girl come before

maybe you underestimated his game, or maybe he just cared about you

either way, your heart fluttered involuntarily when he grabbed your hand, interlocked your fingers and rubbed soothing circles along your knuckles while he waited to push into you

when he did, you couldn’t help the surprised noise that came from your lips. not because he hadn’t warned you, but because of the stretch

he took his time, not letting go of your hand, not changing up his pace.

he looked over at you after finally opening his eyes, originally having closed them when he’d bottomed out, to see you already looking at him, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

your eyes were filled with a look of what he placed as uncertainty, and he smiled, using the hand not holding yours to push your hair back out of your face sweetly, hoping it would reassure you

you just blinked, lips parting in realization; mark truly liked you

you used your free hand to cup the back of his head, connecting your lips once again. he felt all of the previous pressure lift from his shoulders, hips pressing taught against yours and staying there for a moment before he resumed thrusting

you moaned into his mouth, and he hummed in return.

he pulled his lips away from yours, pressing your foreheads together while he gave you one last thrust, the two of you toppling harshly over the edge simultaneously

he hissed, trying to work you through your orgasm while not overstimulating himself, and it was all perfect.

your quiet huffs, struggled moans while you tried to keep quiet for his housemates’ sake, were perfect. the way your thighs twitched was perfect, and the way you hugged onto him when he collapsed onto you was perfect.

he pulled out of you, rolling over and throwing out the condom. you immediately turned onto your side, cuddling into his chest and holding onto him tight.

“y/n?” you hummed, eyes already closed and legs tangling into his

“that wasn’t just, like, a heat of the moment thing, i really- i really, really like you, y/n” you could hear his heart pounding and feel his skin go hot under yours, and you smiled.

you pressed your hand to his chest, feeling his heart slow down significantly under the contact

“are you asking me out, estapa?” you mumbled, earning a chuckle and a sweet kiss on the lips

“if that’s okay with you,” he answered, and you grinned sleepily

“more than okay”

[gilbirda]

My (subjective) thoughts on how to survive corporate hell while being younger than 30

I'm 27 and I've been working in corporate office job since I was 23 and I have some advice for any youngster out there feeling unsure if they can even make it in office corporate jobs while being younger than 40.

Don't reveal info about yourself. Craft a superficial version of yourself you can share with peers. Pick a hobby or two and repeat the same speech about what you do for fun. Points if you do something people would remember - everyone says sports and/or traveling. Say something original, but safe.

Your company is not your family. You don't owe them a minute more or less than what says in your contract. You are not less if you refuse to work unpaid extra hours. If they demand that of you, get that in writing and take that shit straight to HR.

Know your rights. If you have paid time off, you are entitled to those days off. I'm european so I have a lot of them, and my company is ALWAYS asking me if "I'm sure I can leave my team down for so long". Bitch I can take the days off whenever I want, is my right. The fact that I'm not taking them in the busiest times is a courtesy.

Be careful with what you say. Everyone will be nice, but not everyone is your friend. Some people would sell you for a potato chip, and finding out who would is vital for your survival. (Hint: if someone spills tea about other people to you, they will spill YOUR tea to other people).

Offices are just like high school. Rumors can and will spread like wildfire.

Another "high school" office cliché: cliques. Yes. Same dynamics will form and identifying them will make things easier. My favorite clique to observe is the people that are shooting for the stars and are always around the Biggest Boss licking their shoes. They will also be the first to speak about how a company project improves their personal life because their personal life and work life is one and the same and they ADORE the company.

Being young can play to your advantage. You are fresh and new, and most of the corporate toxic behaviors won't apply to you by default - but Watch Out, they will also underestimate you and dismiss your opinions. Is a constant battle and a delicate dance.

You Will Be Adopted. That's fact. Be quick to learn who exactly is trying to put you under their wing, and if you are comfortable with that dynamic. It mostly depends on what kind of career you want to make in the company - want to climb higher? Stick with the boot lickers (they will introduce you to Important People); want to be up to date with all the gossip? Attach yourself to the Nice Lady Everyone Tell Their Secrets To. Etc.

I cannot stress this enough: Don't say names. On top of everything else in this list, don't say a single name unless you are absolutely sure you are in a safe space. Names have power, and if you complain about someone and say their name, that will have consequences. Maybe that person will learn you are talking shit, or maybe you will unknowingly make a political stance depending on who you are complaining about, maybe you are implying someone is bad at their job.

Don't assume that young people are your friend. This is a tough one I had to learn, but at the end of the day we are all surviving. Other young people will understand you and stick with you, but if an opportunity opens they will take it without saying goodbye. Or they have other priorities and career expectations and just... not be your friend after all. Not because you are also younger than 30 it means you are besties.

You will be bombarded with boomers and gen Xers talking about "the old days" and "how before things were better". That if you "just worked hard enough the company repays you" and such. Ignore them. Corporate job is not what it was, this isn't the old days anymore. Getting in is not as easy and it used to be, the salary doesn't last as much as it used to be and the productivity demanded is higher than ever. Ignore them. Most of them have been pushing buttons for 30 years and wouldn't understand the hellscape the world is becoming in the last 20 years.

You have to accept the reality that none of your 45+ years old coworkers are as qualified as you. The requirements for regular entry level corporate jobs now are insane, and "back in the day" you just had to show up and have a nice smile. Yes, it sucks. Yes, higher ups are the least qualified. Crazy.

Learn how to talk corporate. Learn how to say no, how to set down boundaries, how to politely ask for help. Normal people talk will instantly work against you because you are young. Talk like them and they'll listen.

This got away from me but eh.

Disclaimer this is just based on my experience and my culture - I live in Spain, Europe. I tried to keep this general, but I understand there's a bunch of social dances and understandings that are unique to my culture and may not apply to other people.

I am also autistic and I understand that it affects how I experience social contracts and behaviors.

This is just the bunch of rules I live by and I'm doing my best at surviving. I'm not a corporate rat and if I didn't need money to exist I would definitely quit, but I can't deny I have learned a lot.

If someone has more advice to add please do!

[rockybloo]

Im a bit curious, why nana as a gymnast? In my opinion, i kinda see her more oriented towards a combat sport (like boxer).

Nana is actually pretty graceful but has a lot of strength, which is something I think would translate well over to gymnastics vs boxing. And I don't want to always have her be in a position where she's "aggressive" or "combative" in AUs since boxing by default is a pretty aggressive sport.

.

.

.

Also I like imagining her in a really pretty gymnast outfit.

[licenseplateshowdown]

The Great North American License Plate Showdown

=== Pinned Post ===

for years i have been passing silent judgement on different states’ license plate designs. well in 2022 i sat down and did the math, and it turns out that 50 u.s. states + dc + 13 canadian provinces and territories = 64 which is the perfect number for a tournament bracket. so i broke the basic license plate designs of the united states and canada into regions (or "conferences"? i am too gay to know how sports work) and paired them off one by one until i determined which license plate i considered to be the most aesthetically pleasing of all

when i was doing it, several people expressed surprise that i was conducting a tournament bracket, but not opening it up to voting or polling. this is a fair point. so now that i've put my opinions down on cyberpaper, it's time to open it up to you, the people

some details: for the sake of consistency, i will be using the same designs i used for the original bracket, which were accurate as of april 2022 but may not be the most current design for a particular state. i am only using the standard default license plate for a given jurisdiction, not optional plates. there will be qualifying rounds for utah and new mexico, both of which have three "standard" plates for motorists to choose from with (as far as i can tell) no one serving as default. most images come from 15q.net. the qualification rounds will last for one day; all subsequent polls will last for a week

let the tournament begin!

[dragimalsdaydreams]

Saiyan biology headcanons. I GUESS.

@cuddlesomeone is a fiend and the only reason I ever think abt DBZ, and I like my thoughts enough to write them down, so here we go

DISCLAIMER: I've barely seen any DB, I only know secondhand info from my dear friend up there, sorry if I misremember/misinterpret some canon info

also to be clear, I'm aware that many of these points aren't that important, considering what Dragon Ball is. it's not biological, it's just a "rule-of-cool" fighty show. yacht-sized mega-beasts are fun for big fights (if DB ever USED THEM..), cross-species kids are fun, etc. I don't actually care that much abt it, this isn't a 'critique' of the show or anything. I just like specevo, and have fun considering what my personal take on it would be 👍

1) Freeza's influence

Saiyans have several traits that don't make much sense as having naturally evolved, and I rather like the idea of these traits being forcibly induced over time. namely, I think Freeza purposely warped Saiyans over several generations, using both biological means and social propaganda to influence their bodies and cultures.

test-tube incubation (nursing pods?) is the most likely avenue for Freeza's direct involvement, and an obvious example of something that Saiyans prolly didn't start doing on their own. it would give Freeza intimate control over Saiyan population size, bodily autonomy, and direct physiological influence on the developing baby.

2) mindless violence

one of my biggest gripes abt Saiyans is their level of apparent bloodlust, sometimes to the point of extreme stupidity and selfishness. the Oozaru form emphasizes how this isn't simply a personal choice or cultural influence, but a biological imperative of the species.

and honestly, I'm just so sick to death of bioessentialism in worldbuilding, sapient species or not. there's no good reason why a species would evolve to be "mindless, violent monsters", even if it's only like one day a month. this would, in fact, be a detriment to their health and energy levels, and it's just lazy writing for a monster form IMO.

to be clear, I don't want to rewrite Saiyans as perfect little angels-- they can be a predator species with bloodsports, they can have cultures that valorize violence and domination. we see this irl with the human species after all. however, while some of these decisions are certainly influenced by biology irl (predators are far more likely to get enjoyment out of hunting and make it into a sport in the first place), violence is decidedly not a biological imperative, and there is obviously a wide array of diverse opinions on violence among humans.

which is all to say-- imo, an uninfluenced Saiyan is psychologically similar to a human, and would not automatically behave violently without some kind of sociocultural pressure or neurological influence. Freeza's empire may have found a violent, colonizing warrior culture by chance, but he took it further by rewarding that behavior for his empire's glory, and physiologically warping developing Saiyans. a combination of neurological tinkering and horrifically bad socialization during critical developmental years makes for adults that are unstable, quick to anger, and resort to violence by default.

also the idea of blasting a literal newborn off into space without any training or education, and expecting that baby to survive enough to become a useful soldier is... laughable, tbh. so I'm gonna say they're raised by Freeza's empire (away from their parents) until at least the age of 8-10, THEN blasted off and expected to survive. this at least makes some damn sense, but leaves room for the brutal "survival of the fittest" mindset.

3) Oozaru forms

"shifters" are an interesting conundrum to me in any setting, bc the more drastic the shift, the less it makes sense to me in the biological sense. I'm more willing to hand-wave it for thematic reasons, but DBZ doesn't run on themes (or biology, tbf), so it doesn't give me much to work with. not that shifters can't work biologically, but it's not as simple as just balancing out matter and mass. like, WHY do they shift? what is the evolutionary advantage?

and honestly I haven't come to an answer to that yet. I'm chewing on the idea of breeding periods and mating rituals, but I'm not fully sold on the idea yet. we'll see if I come up with anything better

I'm also not sure abt the actual trigger for it. like it's one thing to say that moonlight is the trigger for a completely planet-bound species, but what does that mean for a space-faring species? what differentiates a "moon" from a mere asteroid circling a planet? what exact properties of the light are the trigger here? what happens if a Saiyan lands on a moon?

I could just ignore this for my own sanity, but I also like the idea of Saiyans having some physiological adaptability to a given planet's rhythms. their bodies will sense the overall gravitational cycles of the planet, maybe even the moonlight as well, and adjust their shifting schedule accordingly. thus, I don't think summoning a random ball of 'moonlight' would trigger any real change in an uninfluenced Saiyan, but moons do technically impact a Saiyan's shifting schedule. though, perhaps Freeza put a 'switch' in influenced Saiyans that reacts to concentrated light on that scale so they can shift at will, idk

at the very least, I have some solid ideas abt the execution of the shift and resulting form. for one, I personally prefer shifters whose forms aren't 100% completely separate, so I like the idea of more monkey traits in their humanoid form. hell, even if they weren't shifters, I think an alien species with a furry tail shouldn't just look like a "human with a tail", that's boring. thus, I think Saiyans should look far more monkey, with snouty faces, full-body fur, and grabby feet. I'd like a different posture too-- maybe a little hunched with somewhat splayed legs, to emphasize an arboreal lifestyle. essentially, I'm picturing a smaller, leaner, somewhat more humanoid Oozaru

oh, and I nearly forgot to mention the tails-- why are they so weak? I'd maybe understand for literally any other animal, but an arboreal animal? their tails should be strong enough to at least hold up the mass of their own bodies, if not more. idk, maybe Saiyans aren't actually arboreal anymore, and their tails have weakened over time, but they still shouldn't be THAT sensitive. in any case, my Saiyan tails aren't any weaker than a regular monkey tail, and are often used as another limb for clinging/climbing

I also like the idea of gradual shifting, like bulking up on mass over several days leading up to the final, bigger shift on the full moon, then having to recover that energy/mass several days after.

speaking of mass, I'm also not a huge fan of the size of the Oozaru. I truly cannot conceive a scenario where yacht-sized mega-beasts would be evolutionarily advantageous (or even biologically viable), unless the entire rest of their planet's fauna was of similar size. but in that case, they wouldn't be a strange size for their environmental circumstances, and they prolly wouldn't have evolved a complementary tiny, humanoid base form in the first place. my take on an uninfluenced Oozaru is much smaller-- Saiyans can shift to the size of a horse or moose, maybe even the size of an elephant for particularly large/beefy Saiyans, but no larger than that. there's obviously still mass difference in the two forms, but with the gradual shifting and bulking-up I mentioned earlier, I think it's easier to hand-wave that difference away.

of course, this doesn't mean yacht-sized mega-beasts can't exist in the setting. in my view, Freeza also influenced this aspect of Saiyans, warping their Oozaru forms into something hideously large, unwieldy, and mindless. to compensate for the insane mass difference in forms, perhaps Saiyans wear special gadgets that pull mass from the surrounding environment during the shift, leaving a plain of desolation in their wake, even before the Oozaru can start wreaking havoc. but even with this gadget to help, injuries are common, and many of the larger Oozaru are left with gaping wounds from their flesh not reassembling correctly. many are also prone to joint/spine issues, as the body isn't prepared to hold that much mass at once, leading to limping, wobbly gaits. even those that escape most of these side-effects will almost always have burst blood vessels in the eyes, giving them an unsettling, red-eyed stare.

of course, these issues are not usually a problem for the Oozaru's work under Freeza-- the sheer size/power of these influenced forms is more than enough to subdue tiny, unprepared populations, despite all the drawbacks. but the after-effects of this form can leave affected Saiyans out of commission for days at a time.

and finally, my second main point hints at this, but let me say it clearly here too-- in my view, an uninfluenced Oozaru should NOT be acting like a mindless killing machine, that's completely Freeza's influence. uninfluenced Oozaru are fully conscious and aware of themselves and those around them. at most, perhaps they act a bit more uninhibited and energetic, pulling from a well of built-up energy to play, compete, court, and show-off. they certainly can act aggressive and violent, but that's not the default state, it's merely the natural fluctuation of emotions you'd find in the humanoid form as well. hell, I'd even allow for more aggression of the territorial variety, if the Oozaru form does end up being a courting/breeding thing, but it's still not mindless violence.

I'm not sure how I want influenced Oozaru to work, when they aren't supported by special gadgets to provide necessary mass from their environments. perhaps the transformation goes bad the first few times, and sorta stop-starts bc there's no mass to work with. this could be fatal, under the worst conditions. but once the body gets used to the idea of less mass, perhaps it settles back into a normal range of transformation. they're still larger than the average uninfluenced Oozaru, but not city-destroying size. perhaps they could even develop consciousness in this form, but it would likely take a lot of time and patience to overcome Freeza's psychological influence. in any case, influenced Oozaru shifting would probably still be exhausting, and influenced Oozaru wouldn't experience the same joy and freedom that uninfluenced Oozaru feel in their forms.

4) power level

we all agree that shouting out numbers is the most boring part of the show, right? right? yeah, I think it's all bullshit. Freeza just arbitrarily assigns all the Saiyans numbers and watches them bully one another into hierarchies

though I do think it's interesting to consider individual propensity for controlling life energy. surely, some ppl have an easier time than others, but you can still improve your skill, and it isn't as arbitrary and dumb-sounding as a "power-level". and I feel like there is precedent in the show for this exact logic, but it gets lost in the sea of "look how cool badass Goku is naturally!"

5) aliens and mixed species

different alien species having compatible gametes has always felt odd to me-- that just wouldn't realistically happen. on the other hand, I like Trunks and Gohan, so I GUESS I'm willing to hand-wave it so they can exist. but I'm shaking my head the whole time so the audience knows I don't agree with the biological implications

also, I'd make most of the aliens completely non-humanoid. I get that they all look human bc this is ostensibly a martial arts show, I just think it's boring when they all look human.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

I think it's time for me to come clean with something I've never admitted to anybody before. And it's not something I've done or anything like that. It's not an action I've taken. It's an opinion I have that I know is something that would cause a lot of...let's say strife with most people if they knew I had it. It's not a controversial opinion I'm particularly proud of the way I'm proud of my opinion on John Lennon being a boring hack, or my opinions on YouTube content creators being, by default, talentless nobodies compared to literally any other professional creative, or my opinion that sport hunting journalists and politicians should be, if not actually legal, than at least one of those victimless crimes that never actually get prosecuted. This opinion I'm about to share is something that my own parents would never understand if I were to admit it to them, which, to be honest, does sting a bit when I let myself think about it too much.

I know most of you don't follow me for personal BS, and I respect that, so I'm going to put a cut before I state this opinion so people who don't really care to learn more about me as a person can easily give it a skip. For the rest of you, all I ask is that you try to keep an open mind, and understand that this is as hard for me to admit as it is for you to read.

George Carlin is a terrible fucking comedian.

I know. I know.

But hear me out.

I'm not saying he's not funny, because he can be. Certainly he was hilarious to 12 year old Little Me who would watch clips of his acts on Comedy Central long after my parents went to bed. But as I got older, I started to notice something. It wasn't that I was "growing out" of George Carlin. That's silly to say. That's like saying someone grew out of watching Eddie Murphy's Raw. You're not even supposed to be watching that stuff until you're grown.

No, the thing I noticed was that he isn't actually a comedian.

He's a blogger.

Again, he does tell jokes, but telling jokes does not a comedian make. Everyone tells jokes. What makes a comedian a comedian is that they are so funny that people will pay money to laugh at their jokes. And that's not George Carlin. That's not why people go to see George Carlin. They might think it is, but it's not. No, they go to see him for the same reason he stands up in front of them and speaks.

They want to hear their own opinions parroted back at them, and then they want to cheer. Just like George doesn't really want to make people laugh. He wants to give his opinions on social issues and politics, and then he wants everyone to clap and validate those opinions. The laughter is completely secondary. It's not even necessary past the point of telling just enough jokes to both get people in the door, and to allow those people the illusion that they're at a comedy show and not reading a blog.

And Carlin isn't the only blogger pretending to be a comedian. You probably know quite a few already. The Jon Stewarts, John Olivers, and Jimmy Kimmels of the world who just want to be cheered for stating their, often idiotic, opinions on things. I used to call this "Applause Comedy", and I've always hated it with a passion. But these days I just call it blogging, because that's what it is. And George Carlin is its grandfather. His entire career is based on "telling it like it is" instead of "telling jokes". And let's be fair, some of his opinions are right. Of course, these days the people he roasts are usually not on the same side of the political divide as the ones he was intending on roasting. He is another terminal victim of the 60s, so don't ever mistake him for being even remotely right wing.

(I wonder if, were he still alive, would he be one of those few boomerlibs that actually recognize how batshit insane the left has become? Or would he be one of the ones that now supports all the things they railed against 40+ years back because their identity as a leftist is more important than their supposed principals?

I could speculate, but I won't.)

But being able to comment intelligently or eloquently on political or social issues isn't a skill one should look for in a comedian. And getting cheered for stating an opinion isn't something a real comedian should look for in their audience. A comedian tells jokes. He makes people laugh. He tells stories and weaves tales and creates an atmosphere of joy. He allows us to keep the outside world at bay for an hour or so, and leaves us with a small shield against that world when his show is over in the form of fond memories and shared enjoyment.

You're more likely to come out of a George Carlin show more angry at the world than when you went in.

And that's not comedy.

That's not entertainment.

That's blogging.

[velvetvexations]

They/themming trans people to go around using their actual pronouns is a thing that happens but as many times as I've been accused of degendering other people because it's my habit for various reasons to use they/them as the default, down to people I had a brief one-exchange interaction with, I think they mostly use the real concept as a rhetorical weapon.

I don't know myself, but check the replies later! I hope it goes well. <3

Thank you, anon. <3

golf is not a sport anon this opinion is based entirely on the vibes

It's a live service.

[fincalinde]

random question friday: what sport do you think lxc would play?

Random question Friday I answer several Tuesdays later! This fox cannot be tamed.

So lucky for you this happens to be a subject near to my heart and those closest to me are at dire risk of having it outlined to them at any given moment that LXC is without a doubt a tennis player. Here are my reasons three:

Tennis is a sport associated with wealth and social status. It has traditionally been a sport of the middle classes and above, which I have been informed is also true in China and is one of the reasons for the tennis boom there in recent years. As the leader of a prestigious clan, LXC is at the pinnacle of his society and in a modern AU would therefore participate in such sports.

Tennis requires extraordinary mental discipline. When you're on the singles court you have to solve your own problems and your own mental strength is vital because there's no team playing around you and every single point counts. That mental discipline is not a million miles from the kind of discipline required to become a truly powerful cultivator making maximum use of their talent.

Sexy Wimbledon whites.

I happen to love tennis so I'm aware I have a shocking bias, but I think it's just two keen interests I have happening to fit together surprisingly well.

As a bonus, this is my opinion on professional playing styles for the tennis AU I will never write but have bored on about privately for the past three years:

LXC - your classic elegant all court player, the most powerful one-handed backhand on the tour, as much as he enjoys singles in his heart of hearts he never has more fun than when he's playing doubles with a good partner

JGY - counterpuncher, scrambles like you would not believe, literally never knows when he is beaten and has pulled out more wins from match point down than any other player, has a completely undeserved reputation for gamesmanship via taking bathroom breaks and medical timeouts as a strategy (EVERYONE DOES IT)

LWJ - technically an all court player but drifts into pusher territory a little too often because he likes to hit perfect shots until his opponent makes a mistake - however when he does step up to play offensively, beware

WWX - loses points he should win because he's hitting tweeners for the lolz, gets seriously injured playing doubles with JC and changes his playing style drastically to shorten points, becomes serve and volley king and still hits tweeners and underarm serves whenever he wants, literally the worst doubles player known to man

JC - offensive baseliner constantly being berated by his mother (coach) to COME TO THE NET and can never volley as well as WWX does, hugely outstrips WWX in ranking after the Incident and is constantly paranoid that without said injury WWX would always have beaten/outranked him

NMJ - servebot, breaks rackets on court, has been defaulted from matches for rage hitting balls, is the toughest prospect out there on grass and hugely respected for it, retires early due to health and becomes his brother's very ineffective coach

NHS - defensive baseliner bc that's the farthest position from the balls shooting at him at 200kmph, hasn't even cracked the top 200 and all his tour-related costs are covered by NMJ, has won a couple of doubles titles where NMJ did all the work, still somehow makes more in endorsement deals than most of the rest of the cast put together

[beautifulpersonpeach]

I won't pretend to totally understand what's going on with sm (other than that they seem to have shat the bed), but in terms of how hybe had tried to buy them earlier and how it's often accused of trying to be a monopoly, do you think there's a point where hybe could get too big in a way that's detrimental to the rest of the industry? Ik they're not literally a monopoly and that there are much smaller companies than hybe, sm, yg, and jyp (hybe is also small compared to the rest of the music industry) but do you think there's any truth in the anger at how big of a chunk of the kpop industry hybe controls or is it just jealousy at them outgrowing the original big 3?

***

I feel like you answer your own question within your ask… because if we think about it: as of January 26, 2024, HYBE’s market cap is ~55% more than the rest of the Big 4 combined. HYBE is itself a hub of ‘mid-sized k-pop companies’, one of which is BigHit, which drives roughly half of their topline. Meaning, the primary driver behind HYBE outperforming and dwarfing the better capitalized and more prestigious competition, is BTS.

It’s simply a fact that HYBE is the biggest company and BTS is the reason why. Like, it’s so obvious there’s no tactful way to highlight it. And it’s a fact it pisses off a lot of people here.

If you ever get into a conversation with a typical k-pop stan, before long, unprompted, they will tell you HYBE has no really, talented idols and that whatever prestige or talent the company has in vocals or dance, was technically bought by acquiring Pledis. It’s not particularly a big deal, just something funny I first noticed in k-pop discourse about 2 years ago, once the idea of HYBE, and Seventeen as a HYBE group, started settling in with k-pop stans.

The average k-pop stan doesn’t really know how to think about HYBE in general, because HYBE is structured nothing like the rest of the Big 4, from its ethos down to its operating mechanics, and so the points of reference k-pop stans have in the Big 3, don’t always apply to HYBE, in my opinion.

Anyway, yeah there’s this weird resentment that often manifests in the misplaced superiority complex you see in some stans of Big 3 groups. In a sense, I don’t blame them. It’s the nature of this industry for there to be a hierarchy. It’s sport after all. But like I’ve said, the politics this space creates is highly toxic, the tribalism is entrenched and the primary thing k-pop stans do in fandom is stoke unending feuds, and shit talk other groups and idols. Some groups are acceptable targets for everyone to dunk on. BTS from debut was designated as one such group, but from the jump it was clear they weren’t going to settle for anything less than the top spot. BTS wasn’t supposed to be the group, to breakout. They didn’t have k-pop approved vocals cred, they didn’t have the typical idol visuals, their rapline never went on Show Me The Money, so how could they be legit?

BTS was a group that did things their own way from the start and that by default pissed off a lot of people. Most of those people are still here. And because people are predictable, some of that latent dislike of BTS bleeds into everything connected with BTS and so, HYBE.

And, not to keep wacking this horse corpse, but I want to point out yet one more obvious thing.

When people talk about Big 3 privilege, something they’re talking about is the latent buy-in those three companies: SM, JYP, and YG will always enjoy in this space. Groups from those companies will always enjoy support from a sizeable army of company stans. SM entertainment has the most, followed by YG, then JYP. This is why Big 3 stans are the people who set the temperature for what dominates the chatter in k-pop. K-pop stans will always tune in to groups and releases from Big 3 companies and are generally pre-disposed to always giving their stuff a chance on the assumption their idols are more talented.

The size of those company stans dwarf the stans of smaller companies like Cube, KQ, Pledis, and until some years ago, BigHit Entertainment. Except for BTS and ARMYs, none of these companies have company stans big enough to rival Big 3 fandoms, and so the cache of these companies are seen as inferior to Big 3 agencies. And as HYBE is simply a collection of mid-sized companies (who on their own couldn’t stand a chance compared to the Big3), examples include: Pledis, Source Music, KOZ, Be:LIFT, ADOR, then the groups from HYBE are implicitly seen as less talented than their Big3 peers. Plus they get the additional ddaeng for being linked to BTS, specifically.

All of that felt very silly to type out but it’s what I’ve observed. Watching the logical conclusions of this political dynamic in k-pop fandoms play out in real time during the SM-HYBE-Kakao drama (1st season) was super fascinating lol. It confirmed practically everything I think about k-pop stans and BTS.

[everythingsinred]

Hey, has it ever occurred to you why Mikan doesn't like her hair down?

This is a pretty interesting question! I'll try to answer to the best of my ability, but to be honest this is all conjecture. Also I made this a NatsuMikan post because discussions about Mikan's hair/Natsume's back turn into NM on principle.

Very long NM rambling under the cut...

Yes, Mikan seems to be very uncomfortable about her hair being down.

In Chapter 24, Mikan is dressed as the prince and has her hair down for the role. She's instantly insecure and contemplates putting her hair up again. She needs outside validation from an opinion she cares about (Hotaru's) to make her feel okay about it in the moment, but after this she continues to keep her hair down.

A lot of it seems to come from feeling like she looks weird somehow with her hair down, and prior to this she says she feels "antsy" with her hair down. At no point does she elect to have her hair down between this and when she's stuck in the labyrinth. If she ever switches up her hairstyle, she still keeps it up, like at the Christmas Ball or New Years. Even when she sleeps, she keeps her hair in pigtails or braided.

I am not sure why having her hair down bothers her so much, but let's discuss some possibilities.

Mikan's iconic pigtail hair style is pretty childish. That makes sense, because she is a child, but when she's aged up by the Gulliver candy, she defaults to the same style, which prevents her from looking more mature. I might say from a narrative sense that Mikan's hairstyle being so childish is supposed to set her aside as being more immature than the rest of the kids in Class B. Hotaru's short and practical hairstyle seems leagues more mature and chic than Mikan's cute little pigtail thing.

It might be nothing more than a habit. Mikan likes sports, and keeping your hair up comes in handy when you're exercising. Whatever the initial reason she built this habit is, she might be so unaccustomed to seeing herself with her hair down that it feels bizarre and wrong.

But I genuinely don't know what an in-story reason for her behavior is, because it seems much stronger than a mere preference or habit. She doesn't like herself with her hair down at all, and never has it down until this moment in Chapter 24. Maybe she's just insecure for whatever reason and thinks she looks bad with her hair down (though she definitely doesn't).

In any case, my idea is that it feels vulnerable to have her hair down. She describes the feeling as "antsy", like it doesn't feel right. I think her wearing her hair up is a comfort zone thing, where she feels more protected with her hair in a do. In a way, it might be comparable to her insistence on smiling. Mikan is, despite everything, actually very hard on herself. She doesn't think she's smart, capable, pretty, useful. She is surrounded by smart people, by people with interesting and useful alices, by people she perceives as "strong" while she is weak. And, of course, people who are beautiful, when she is not.

Just like Mikan gets very pathological about her smile after being told it's a charm of hers, I think she might rely on her hair being up. She is not pretty on her own, but if she puts extra pizzazz into her hair, maybe it'll make up for how plain she is? Maybe is she uses different hair-ties, sometimes with ribbons, sometimes with flowers, she can be a bit cute sometimes? Mikan thinks very little of herself but is very interested in making up for it.

What's really interesting is when she starts wearing her hair down more. When is that? Oh, yes, during the time she's trapped in the labyrinth after coming to terms with her love for Natsume, who told her once that she looked better with her hair down.

Mostly she wears her hair down in the labyrinth when she goes to sleep, and that could easily be brushed aside as a given EXCEPT that Mikan has always had her hair up before, even when she was going to sleep!

So what makes this time period different? Why should Natsume have anything to do with how she wears her sleep when she goes to sleep anyway? It's not like he's living in the labyrinth with her. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she can hear him calling for her every night...

She does keep her hair up in pigtails when she's wearing her school uniform, of course, but when she's out of it, we see her exclusively with her down. The best example of this, of course, is on Christmas when she stays in her room because she's not allowed to go to the party.

She dresses it up a bit with those fluff balls, of course, but it's still down. And that's a big change when we consider that Mikan used to EXCLUSIVELY have her hair up, no matter the occasion.

When I was analyzing this chapters in my essays, I did say it helps make the confessions scene seem more surreal, having him dressed like a lil bat and her with her hair down, both of them out of their uniform. The surreal nature of the scene makes it dreamlike, for both of them, almost like it never happened, and I think that's important, but it didn't occur to me at the time how important it is narratively for Mikan that her hair is down for that.

I will concede that Hotaru told Mikan in Chapter 24 that she doesn't have to put her hair up, that it looks cute down. She does say that. But what Natsume says in Chapter 38 is a bit bigger. He doesn't use words like cute or pretty, but he makes a point of saying he prefers her hair down, that her pigtails won't suit her in a few years.

He doesn't say it out loud, but this is a compliment, and it clearly means a lot to her. If Mikan feels like she's not pretty (and she is called plain by so many people in the manga it's hard not to imagine that's how she views herself), and her putting her hair up is her way of "making up for it", then Natsume saying he likes her better with her hair down is, essentially, saying she looks pretty as she is, without all the trimmings.

It's kinda akin to those love songs where a girl swoons that a guy likes her better with her makeup off. Mikan wears her hair up because if her hair is cute or styled, then it can distract from her otherwise plain appearance. But Natsume prefers her as is, that the extra work she puts into tying her hair isn't necessary because he does think she's pretty, that she has nothing to make up for.

Once Mikan realizes she's in love with Natsume, and that this love is fully reciprocated, she wears her hair down more (or at all), because it's her way of connecting with him even though she can't see him as often. Her hair is down, and it doesn't need to be up, because somebody told her she looked better with it down. And, even more than that, she wears it down when she hears his voice, or there's a chance she might catch a glimpse of him, because she wants him to see her with her hair down.

Mikan, who got "antsy" in Chapter 24 with her hair down, sees Natsume in Chapter 144 and 145 and doesn't feel antsy about her hair at all. In fact, it's down because of him. For him.

I'm not saying girls should base their entire appearances off of what boys what, but that's not what this is either and I think that would be a cynical takeaway. Please don't misunderstand me! This is a boy making a girl feel better about how she looks, to the point where she feels like her hair down is a selling point, not another plain element to her appearance. There is nothing wrong with wanting the person you like to think you're pretty, especially when the person you like helped you feel prettier in the first place.

Anyway, that's basically the summation of my thoughts on this topic. I'm really grateful to you, Anon, for bringing this to my attention. Obviously, I did know Mikan didn't like her hair down and that Natsume did, but I have never observed it all that closely. This is one more aspect to the manga I was given the opportunity to analyze more and I'm so happy with having one more reason to love these two together!

[runwayrunway]

No. 6 - jetBlue Special Livery Extravaganza

My relationship with the paint jobs of the various jets blue has been an intense whirlwind for the past few days, but there was always something else about them I wanted to cover. Like many other airlines, jetBlue has a fair few special liveries, and I'd like to talk about them. Consider it a cleanse and an opportunity to rest your eyes.

So, upfront, I'm not going to talk about all of jetBlue's special liveries. There are a lot, and many of them are just sports team logojets or the like, and I don't feel like that's something worth commenting on too much. Seriously, so many sports liveries. They generally double-dip on NY and Boston teams, except they've firmly placed their hat in the ring by being the official airline for the Red Sox but not the Yankees, so...your move, New Yorkers. The only other thing worth mentioning is that their Bruins jet, N632JB, has the absolutely brilliant name "Bear Force One".

I'm admittedly honestly a bit exhausted at this point - this is my fifth jetBlue post - but I sincerely do want to cover these and have planned to from the moment I made this blog. So here's a handful of jetBlue's single-plane creations - at least, the ones I want to talk about.

Binary Code Fly-Fi - N709JB "Connected to 01000010 01001100 01010101 01000101"

The binary code says 'blue', predictably. This plane was painted in a custom livery to celebrate jetBlue's introduction of their in-flight "fly-fi" service. I've used it. It's totally adequate internet and they don't charge for it, can endorse. That's irrelevant to my opinion of the livery.

I can actually endorse the livery too, though. I like the way it looks like it's spreading out to envelop the plane, I really like the shade of blue they chose, and it looks absolutely gorgeous with the sun lighting it up. The design is pretty simple, nothing too galaxy-brained, but it works. It's a notable improvement over the default livery.

The airframe has since been repainted with the spotlight tail variant and renamed to "My Other Ride Is A JetBlue A220", seemingly the first stage of setting up the My Other Ride Is A JetBlue E190 loop with their new A220s, which are set to phase out the E190s in the next couple of years. (The E190 being considered an older plane now is so surreal to me. Time is truly a bizarre thing. It hasn't even been that long, though. jetBlue was literally the launch customer and they're younger than me.)

Grade: B(blue)

Inspiring Humanity - N598JB "Bluemanity"

I love this. This might be my absolute favorite type of awful cloying soulless corporate design. Slap a bunch of words on it and call it a day.

The words are actually their motto - Safety, Caring, Fun, Integrity, Passion. Not in that order, but I don't care enough to look up the proper one. To be fair, they are a very safe airline (no-fatality-no-hull-loss club 23 years in) and they are also fun. But this looks like the wall I swear I've seen on every public library I've ever been to that just says 'welcome' in a bunch of different languages.

I think my favorite thing is the name itself. "Inspiring Humanity". They have like less than 200 destinations. Change it immediately to "Inspiring New York And Boston And Like A Couple Other Cities". I literally can't stop laughing. This is so stupid.

Grade: D(umb)

Blueprint - N304JB "Blueprint"

I think it's obvious why I chose the above picture despite it being useless for showcasing the livery.

I've actually had the pleasure to see this lovely girl parked on the apron in person. She's very hard to miss. I mentioned her earlier - I do think this is jetBlue's bluest plane, and I love her.

Okay, here's what she actually looks like. This is a livery that requires a bit of zooming in to fully appreciate, but the general idea is that it's a cross-section of the plane. In each section you can see depictions of what's inside the plane, be it luggage, the pilots' chairs in the cockpit, or even the inner workings of the engines. It even shows off the divide between the vertical stabilizer and the rudder.

I also think it was a good choice putting it on an E190, which has a nose that borders on being a regular polygon, instead of negotiating the adorable little round stub that Airbus puts on the tips of their planes. Despite the little details being what make it great, the basic concept is visible from a distance. It's exactly as complex as it needs to be and no more. Almost flawlessly executed.

I love this livery. It's creative, it's fun, it uses a combination of two visually pleasing shades of blue, and it's very, very memorable. They make a scale model of her and to be entirely honest I really really want it. (Again, I will edit jetBlue's website and accept scale models instead of money as payment. All they have to do is ask.)

Grade: A( very blue plane indeed)

jetBlue For Good - N809JB

Astoundingly, this is the only jetBlue plane I can find that isn't named. Why? Why couldn't you name her? Do you hate her specifically? Why doesn't she get to be anthropomorphized and also funny? Could you not come up with a pun? Here's one for you: Bluegooder. That's off the dome. Can you imagine what I could come up with if I actually workshopped this?

I'll pull from their website for the description of this livery.

This design depicts a curtain being pulled back to show what is always underneath—JetBlue’s culture of doing good.

If you zoom in pretty close you actually can see a couple small people pulling back a curtain. From any distance it's invisible, though. This livery just doesn't communicate what it set out to. The images feel like nonsense and I think nobody would ever make these connections if they happened by this jet on the tarmac.

Also, that orange out of nowhere. It looks downright yucky with the light blue shades which predominate this design and, more importantly, draws all the attention to the front of the plane and away from the design.

Grade: D(o the right thing. Give her a name. Name her. Name your daughter.)

New York Jets (2017) - N746JB "I Love JetBlue / NY"

I don't care about American Football. I mean, you should see that coming, I run a tumblr about airplane graphic design. The only New York sports team I support are the Mets. This is sort of just a sports airplane. So why am I bothering to mention this livery?

Because she's my favorite color. Yep! That's it.

These exact shades of green are my favorite colors. And I like how they look. I'm not sure I like how the plane looks overall. I think I maybe just don't like the Jets logo. The engines being the same color as the fuselage is also something I hate, though the little silver rim mitigates it a little. What I'd really like to point out is the little American Football field distance markings (if they have a real name I don't know it) on the bottom of the plane. That's neat! I enjoy that.

Also, painted nose always a plus.

Grade: C(an more airlines please use these shades of green I am starving)+

I ♥ NYC - N586JB "I ♥ Blue York"

According to their website, they are

proud to be New York's Hometown Airline®.

That's right. Registered trademark! Fancy.

Okay. Just a few notes®:

Wouldn't it make more sense to name this one "I Love JetBlue / NY" and the Jets one something like 'Blue York Jets' or 'Let's Go Blue York' or something else related to the Jets? I can't help but feel like opportunities were missed here.

I'm glad it comes off the tail a bit. But why did you have to put it on the engines?

The I ♥ NY logo is iconic. The epitome of tacky chic. You couldn't have put it more out of the way if you tried. If you got the okay to use that logo on your airplane, you might as well use it on your airplane.

I know I normally complain about the engines being the same color as the fuselage, but if they're the only thing that's a different color, and the main color is white, and the engines are dark blue, it does actually look pretty bad.

FULLY WHITE FUSELAGE ENTIRELY WHITE PLANE BIG FLYING WHITE THING SHE'S GIVING SMARTLYNX SHE'S GIVING WEIRDLY SHAPED CLOUD GO GIRL GIVE US NOTHING!

Grade®: D(on't ♥ this livery)

10th Anniversary - N569JB "Blues Brothers"

Can I be totally honest? I planned to find a bunch of 10th anniversary liveries (Air Arabia also has one, I think, and there must be others) and review them all as a little 100 follower special treat. I was going to keep doing that for every 100 followers, up to 100-year anniversary liveries as a 1,000-follower special if I ever got there. Before I could do that, I hit 200 followers, and it's only been steadily increasing from there, so that is no longer happening. But I'll still give her a shot while I'm talking jetBlue.

The design is very...modern art museum. I don't like how white the whole situation is. Could be a whole lot worse but could be a whole lot better. Why always with the orange, jetBlue? But at the end of the day I respect the commitment to a visually overhauled anniversary livery instead of just slapping a 10 Years! sticker onto an otherwise regular plane.

Despite being honored with the special livery N569JB was given an unrelated name (more than poor N809JB got), and in 2017 she was repainted to the standard livery with the highrise tail variant.

Grade: C(an't really complain about gaining too many followers, though. I love you all. It's not a bad problem to have)-

New York International - Vintage - N763JB "What's Old Is Blue Again"

Aside from Blueprint, this is probably the most interesting livery jetBlue has and one of the main reasons I wanted to make this post. Logojets and liveries bragging about how you're such an ethical company are a dime a dozen, but this is something a little different.

Well, you might say, retrojets are actually incredibly common. And that's true! But this isn't a 'true' retrojet, because jetBlue started operations in 2000.

That is to say, unlike other 'retrojets', which are heritage liveries - older, retired liveries put on new planes (see my Lufthansa post for an example) - jetBlue's is an actual example of retrospective design, an intentionally fun take on what a 1960s jetBlue livery might have looked like, filtered through their modern brand identity and design sensibilities. From their website:

We dug deep into popular 1960s branding styles and themes to create an old look that is truly original, the Retrojet livery.

And this is definitely original! While it has recognizable features of actual older liveries, it's hard to argue that someone could mistake this for actually being a heritage livery. And I think that's good.

Let's be honest - as much as this blog reads as a puff piece for older liveries sometimes, just putting cheatlines on your planes isn't enough to make for interesting design. One of the main reasons I hate Eurowhite so much is the fact that every plane looks the same, and even back in the cheatline era that was a problem. Dominant industry trends have always been a plague in any sort of visual design, and aircraft liveries are no exception. Liveries like Lufthansa's older ones were actually above average, and a lot of designs from the time were utterly identical white planes with a hockey stick cheatline. It would be so easy to make a 60s livery which is just entirely generic. And they didn't do that.

I'll be entirely honest, I'm far from an expert on the 60s, but apparently jetBlue spent a while hitting the books and looking through old 60s adverts and such. Again, I can't really evaluate it on the basis of period-compliance, but I can surely say if I like it or not. And I do. I do like it.

It might just be me, but this plane looks like she's having such a good time. Hopping around with her little wings outstretched, a small-town girl from Toulouse in the big city of New York JFK Airport for the first time and she's ready to write her name all over it. There is just something about the way the cheatlines are painted on that makes her seem like she's delighted, and that delights me in turn. Plus, always a big fan of the painted nose.

jetBlue seems to have a thing for forcing orange into their liveries, and I nearly always hate it, but I really like it here. It's a nice understated shade which straddles the line between orange and yellow. I think it adds a nice contrast which the typical-of-the-time monocolor cheatlines sorely lacked. Again, it really reminds me of my beloved 1960 Lufthansa livery, which they also liked enough to put on a retrojet.

That said, it's far from a copy. It goes for tramlines instead of the single rule, with one wrapping around the windows and the other looping down under the nose, though not quite as far as Lufthansa's does. The cheatlines take up a lot more vertical space on the jetBlue jet, rendering the text quite small, smaller than was usual for the time, and it creates a unique look.

The initial reason for the popularity of cheatlines is that airlines thought it would mitigate the shortening effect of the many windows breaking up the fuselage and make the airplane look more streamlined, 'cheating' an aerodynamic look. I think it...at least sort of works. At first glance N763JB definitely looked long-ish to me, despite a closer look revealing that to be false. That's impressive considering A320 family planes have always looked sort of cobby to me in general.

Just looking at the plane honestly kind of underscores how much effort was put into jetBlue making their own 60s self-insert OC. To begin with, the "New York International" bit might seem a little confusing at first, but it's the name they've come up with for said self-insert. Since they're New York's Hometown Airline® they based it around that for a full name of jetBlue New York International Airways, I think? Sure, they're technically an international airline, so I'll let it slide. It does stir up a bit of that lofty golden-age emotion, doesn't it? There's a world of difference between Pan Am and Pan American World Airways, so I see where they're coming from and I respect it.

With the help of my in-house font wizard @spirifage I was able to identify the fonts used here as Craw Modern and URW Franklin Gothic. I think these are fantastic choices, both on their own and especially as a set. They're both relatively common to see in period media (well, other variants of Franklin Gothic are, at least) and they pair well together, a widely-spaced narrow sans-serif all-caps font to contrast the staggered heights and snappy serifs of the Craw.

It's a bit hard to read from a distance, but thankfully they chose to make the 'jetBlue' part larger and bolder to maximize legibility. Did it work? At least somewhat. The forward slant also matches airplane design trends of the time.

...why the phone number on the nacelles, though? That's a real 2004 budget carrier move, not so much 1960s international airline. It definitely kills the fantasy for me a little.

My other major criticism is the tail. I love the design itself, all exciting and unconcerned with appearances, unabashedly fun, but all this excitement being limited to the tail is strange. While the cheatlines prevent the jet from looking unbalanced, it definitely feels odd isolating that all to one small part of the jet. Couldn't they have used the nacelles for that instead? Seriously, what a strange choice for the engines.

(At least you know what number to call if you'd like to let jetBlue know about their pilot's flying. And yes, 1-800-JETBLUE actually is their phone number.)

In all, this golden oldie design is a total gas, but wipes out just short of being the best thing since sliced bread. It's a bit of a bummer that such a marvy concept isn't as outta sight as it could be, but I still dig it.

(jetBlue, if you let me edit your website, I will let you pay me in scale figures of Blueprint and the Retrojet.)

Grade: B(ad, a word which here, as in the 1960s, means 'good')+

(oh, wait, I didn't realize until I saw this image that they do the tail pattern on the inside of the winglets too. That's neat. Doesn't change my rating.)

Well, that's it! We're jetThrough with jetBlue, for the time being. Let me know which one of these special liveries you liked the best and why it's Blueprint, and thank you for bearing with me for this wild ride through a whole blue world.

Before I go, I would like to make one final comment on jetBlue's livery:

Bluebirds. Literal bluebirds. It's right there, jetBlue. I know you're reading this and I expect my scale models in the mail as soon as shipping allows for.

[rolld20forlesbians]

Steph Curry and the GOAT Debate.

Okay I was somewhat loopy writing this essay and it really got away from me so im warning you now this essay is really long and might not be coherent when I wake up tomorrow but fuck it.

"Greatness" is a concept that is often brought up in basketball conversation. Often nebulous and rarely defined, quantifying a player's greatness (and measuring it against others) is a frequent talking point amongst basketball fans and sports media (in some cases to a nauseating degree)

It seems like every year, at some point, the talking heads of sports media like Stephen A Smith, Nick Wright, Colin Cowherd, Shannon Sharpe, and of course, Skip Bayless, eventually run out of things to talk about on their sports talk shows and podcast and default to "ol' reliable": talking ad nausem about where certain players belong in "the GOAT debate". If you go to youtube right now and search "GOAT Debate" you will find HUNDREDS of thinkpieces, video essays, rants, and arguments about who is the greatest basketball player of all time.

The conversation about one's GOAT status includes all the usual suspects. LeBron. Jordan. Kobe. Kareem. These guys are your unequivocals. If you ask anybody who they think the Greatest of All Time is, you can make a safe bet that it will be one of these four. On the fringes of those picks are guys that have a legitimate argument for GOAT status, but said legitimacy is questioned more often than not. Bird, Magic, Tim Duncan and Shaq are common names in this category.

Another bafflingly common name in this category is the subject of this essay. Steph Curry. For years, I have seen sports media talking heads and basketball twitter alike question if Steph's name should be uttered in the same breath as guys like LeBron, Jordan or Kobe. Not that people don't sing his praises. He's the greatest shooter of all time. The greatest Point Guard in NBA history (or at least in a coin flip against Magic Johnson for 1a and 1b). A first ballot hall of famer, a generational talent, the greatest player in GSW history and the beating heart of one of the greatest basketball dynasties in the last 20 years.

So despite all this (justifiable) glazing, why do these same people question Steph's place in the GOAT conversation? What more does he have to do to break into that upper echelon of "unquestionable GOAT contender?"

In my opinion? I don't think there is any. After the Paris Olympics, you'd be delusional not to put him on the same tier as other unequivocal GOAT conteders like MJ, Kobe or Bron.

In my mind, "greatness" is defined by three things. Accolades, Talent and Story. And Steph excels in all three categories.

As far as accolades go, his resume speaks for itself. Four time NBA Champ. Two time league MVP, NBA Finals MVP, Inaugural Western Conference Finals MVP, two time scoring champion, ten time all star, and after the Paris Olympics, you can add "Olympic Gold Medalist" to that list.

When it comes to talent, Steph Curry is generational. The NBA has had hundreds of great shooters in its storied history, but as far as Steph goes, I can give you about 3700 reasons why Steph Curry is unquestionably the greatest shooter in NBA history. The Golden State Warriors built a dynasty off of Steph's uncanny ability to be a threat as soon as he crosses half court. Most shooters have a preferred style of shooting, but Steph could get you a bucket any which way. Spot up. Off the dribble. In the corner. Top of the key. From 30, 40 and 50 feet from the basket, floaters down the lane. Double and triple contested. Not to mention his amazing handles and his elite off-ball movement that makes him a nightmare for other point guards to deal with.

He's also unquestionably impacted the basketball landscape. Throughout every era of NBA history, certain styles emerge and define those eras, typically influenced by the most dominant teams and players of that time. During the 60s and 70s, the league was dominated by big men like Wilt, Bill Russell and Kareem. The 80s and 90s favored the midrange game thanks to guys like Magic, Bird and Jordan. The early 2000s was an era dominated by iso play and hard defense thanks to guys like Kobe, LeBron, Shaq and Tim Duncan. The style that came to define the mid 2010s onward? A backcourt-focused style characterized by run and gun offense, spacing the floor and perimeter shooting. The primary influence for this style of basketball was unquestionably the Golden State Warriors, who built a dynasty around one of the greatest backcourts in NBA History: The Splash Brothers.

Now, what about story? Why is this important to quantifying one's greatness? What is it about Steph's story that should firmly cement him as a GOAT Contender? Every GOAT conversation has a level of subjectivity. You don't call a player great because you put their stats into a math equation to determine how many greatness points they have in comparison to other players. You call them great because of the moments attached to those statistics and accolades. Steph Curry's greatness isn't quantified by the amount of points he scored in a given game. His greatness is quantified how amazing it is to see him sink a heavily contested shot like he's in an open gym. How it feels to watch Curry close a double digit point deficit in the blink of an eye. Curry's greatness is cemented by the fact that if I say "They do have a time out, decide not to use it. Curry, way downtown..." the majority of y'all will hear the rest of Mike Breen's Double Bang Call in their head.

So, with all of this in mind, I think you'd have to be fucking delusional to question if Steph Curry belongs in the GOAT Conversation. His GOAT Status is more than cemented. Especially after winning olympic gold. From his accolades to his talent and impact to his story, his argument for GOAT Contender can more than stand up to the likes of LeBron, MJ and Kobe.

TL;DR: Steph Curry deserves to be in the GOAT Conversation and it's really weird that despite having one of the greatest careers in Basketball that people are still hesitant to call him a GOAT Contender.

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

I'm always amazed at how daring are people to go anon and tell you how you should run your blog. You shouldn't be so vocal because you have lots of followers? Tf is that? You people would rather unfollow those blogs you don't like. That's what I do, that's how it works...I follow your blog so I have the right to respectfully (lol) judge the way you use it? This is not a service theyre paying for...I swear I don't get it...

I think it equates to people treating Tumblr and, by default, fandom in the same manner they would sites like Instagram, TikTok, etc. despite follower counts being a number that isn't visible to anyone except the person running the blog.

There are no influencers here, no one is suggesting others behave a certain way, or pushing anyone to buy products.

I am simply here to write and vibe in shared interests with others. Not that I am ungrateful to the people that do follow and interact with me, but with or without them I'd continue exactly as I am.

It seems silly to me that anyone would consider me influential, I'm just a silly little blog, thirsting over a silly little man and writing silly little stories about the characters he plays. I just want fandom to be fun again, and to have the freedom to express my opinions without feeling as though I'll be hunted for sport.