#my favorite length

[inkskinned]

the thing is there's like, a point of oversaturation for everything, and it's why so many things get dropped after a few minutes. and we act like millennials or gen z kids "have short attention spans" but... that's not quite it. it's more like - we did like it. you just ruined it.

capitalism sees product A having moderate success, and then everything has to come out with their "own version" of product A (which is often exactly the same). and they dump extreme amounts of money and environmental waste into each horrible simulacrum they trot out each season.

now it's not just tiktokkers making videos; it's that instagram and even fucking tumblr both think you want live feeds and video-first programming. and it helps them, because videos are easier to sneak native ads into. the books coming out all have to have 78 buzzwords in them for SEO, or otherwise they don't get published. they are making a live-action remake of moana. i haven't googled it, but there's probably another marvel or starwars something coming out, no matter when you're reading this post.

and we are like "hi, this clone of project A completely misses the point of the original. it is soulless and colorless and miserable." and the company nods and says "yes totally. here is a different clone, but special." and we look at clone 2 and we say "nope, this one is still flat and bad, y'all" and they're like "no, totally, we hear you," and then they make another clone but this time it's, like, a joyless prequel. and by the time they've successfully rolled out "clone 89", the market is incredibly oversaturated, and the consumer is blamed because the company isn't turning a profit.

and like - take even something digital like the tumblr "live streaming" function i just mentioned. that has to take up server space and some amount of carbon footprint; just so this brokenass blue hellsite can roll out a feature that literally none of its userbase actually wants. the thing that's the kicker here: even something that doesn't have a physical production plant still impacts the environment.

and it all just feels like it's rolling out of control because like, you watch companies pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into a remake of a remake of something nobody wants anymore and you're like, not able to afford eggs anymore. and you tell the company that really what you want is a good story about survival and they say "okay so you mean a YA white protagonist has some kind of 'spicy' love triangle" and you're like - hey man i think you're misunderstanding the point of storytelling but they've already printed 76 versions of "city of blood and magic" and "queen of diamond rule" and spent literally millions of dollars on the movie "Candy Crush Killer: Coming to Eat You".

it's like being stuck in a room with a clown that keeps telling the same joke over and over but it's worse every time. and that would be fine but he keeps fucking charging you 6.99. and you keep being like "no, i know it made me laugh the first time, but that's because it was different and new" and the clown is just aggressively sitting there saying "well! plenty of people like my jokes! the reason you're bored of this is because maybe there's something wrong with you!"

[remanedur]

tumblr music survey

because this has come up with a few friends before, i am curious -- in the replies or tags, can you list:

what you consider the average song length

what you consider 'long' for a song, and 'short' for one

a few genres you listen to the most/consider your favorite

[clarkgriffon]

Tara Maclay + Outfits (Season 4)

[milkcioccolato]

I love the Tale of Norman Reedus and his amazing fetus!

[shhroomer]

I love this orange airpod

[geryone]

Swan Song, Armen Davoudian

[pixelglam]

Robert & Valerie

[sapphicmuppet]

I’m sorry as of now in the series Jace Stardiamond they could never make me hate you. Bro has been so stressed this year literally let him be evil as a treat. He’s a single mom who works two jobs and loves his kids and never stops with gentle hands and the heart of a fighter. He’s a survivor.

[spideyhexx]

I mourn the loss of his grey streaks 😔

He looks SO good with them I mean they’ll always grow back when he grows out his hair unless he dyes it😭but I feel ya, also this pic specifically

the way the grays are like around his ear is actually fucking sick what the HELL

[tonguetiedraven]

Pirate Rin from my and @marble-wolf's "Only the Living Can Tell."

Matching Ryuuji is here

[miekasa]

Ok but-

Gojo insisting you kiss his cheek / neck / anywhere really before your lipstick is dry bc he loves to let the world know he's taken by you

Cries and yells. He’s not even subtle about his… thing (he refuses to call it a fetish or a kink, and will insist it’s just a you thing he’s got). He pretends to not pay that much attention to you while you’re doing your makeup, but the second you get to your lips, he straightens up—if he were a dog you would see his ears stand up, you’re certain of it. Follows the curves of your lips while you apply it and gives you that crooked smile when you’re done, “You look so pretty, my love. Why don’t you come give me a kiss?”

“You waited until now?” you question, turning and standing with a pout, “My lipstick will get all over you.”

Satoru shrugs, that stupid, stupid, lovesick smile still sat on his face; and it only grows wider when he watches you pout with color-stained lips. You look pretty like that too, he thinks. He wants a kiss, but maybe he should keep you talking, or pouting—briefly he wonders how your stained lips would look quivering while crying, wonders if you’d let him make that happen tonight.

“I don’t mind,” he answers, stepping forward, a gentle hand tucked under your chin—because while he doesn’t mind you smearing your lipstick on him, he knows better than to cradle your face after you’ve done your makeup, lest he really get chewed out. Though, briefly again, he thinks about how you kinda look pretty when you’re mad at him, too.

“You will when you’re covered in it,” you laugh, innocently, “And I don’t see any reason to waste it.”

He tilts his head, flickers his gaze to your lips, then your nose, then your eyes, “Is it a waste even if I’m asking?”

(“Wouldn’t you do anything for me?” is what he’s asking, “I would for you,” is what’s left unsaid).

“I suppose not,” you smile, reaching up to hold Satoru’s face between your hands. He waits, eyes closed, for you lean in and kiss him and he hums when your lips finally meet him; but you’re pulling away too soon, and his turn to pout, “More.”

He doesn’t open his eyes, doesn’t dare let you see just how desperate he is for you to touch him and claim him, but there’s an overwhelming sense of pride and happiness and mine mine mine that washes over him when you indulge him with another kiss. And another, and another, and soon he’s turning his head to make sure you hit his cheek instead, opening his eyes to catch the shock on your face. A glance over your head allows him to see his reflection in your vanity, blood rushing to his cheeks when he catches sight of his lipstick stain on his face.

He’s a bit disappointed when you firmly tell him that, no, he cannot walk into your dinner reservation with a lipstick stain on his cheek and that you won’t leave with him until he washes it off. He lets you, only because he makes you promise him one more, watching with greedy eyes as you happily waste another layer of lipstick just to bring Satoru’s hand to your face and kiss the inside of his wrist. The mark protrudes only the slightest bit under the cuff of his shirt, hidden completely with his blazer, but it feels like it burns his skin and all his layers throughout dinner.

Satoru’s practically vibrating by the time he’s asking for the check, the glimpse of his lipstick stained wrist enough to make him half-hard and delusional enough to turn down dessert in favor of getting home quickly. “It’s okay,” he muses, when he’s back on top of you, mouth and neck and collars messy with you naked under him, “I know how you can make it up to me.”

[every-single-day]

Honestly I’m grateful that they downsized Hopeless War because if I had to sit in that theatre and hear Cherry sing “You saved those kids but is there anyone who’s saving you” they would have to carry me out on a stretcher

[caq1e]

i've been trying to rationalize why clay terran's death hits me more than pretty much any other victim, even though the exact intricacies of his character are not the most plot relevant, and i think i finally got it. some of it's that he's the series' first new science freak in a while, yeah, but i think above that it's the emphasis on his ambition.

ace attorney does not like to kill real characters. it doesn't. referring to the main series for the rest of this post, we very rarely get to see a character for one section of one case before they die, with a few notable exceptions. as a result, because we don't get to know the characters very well, we as players are left to pick up the remnants based on the reactions of those still alive. ace attorney creates tragedy and emotional impact through the emotions of those who knew the victims. the victims' personas, therefore, are shaped by others' experiences with them: were they nice or mean, compassionate or abusive, nurturing or strict? while their relationships to others are crucial to their selves, they aren't everything about them.

clay is an astronaut. and unlike pretty much every victim in this series, that's not just his job, it's his life's purpose. the majority of clay's character is shaped through apollo's perception of him, sure, but what's also emphasized is his dream of being an astronaut. he wanted to be an astronaut since he was a child. he went to cosmos, became acquaintances and friends with the employees, surrounded himself with space. and he got the job. i know ace attorney ages can be taken with a grain of salt, but he was going to go into space at twenty-three, where the youngest astronaut in real life was twenty-five. any sizable gap in age below the norm tends to get lawyers deemed prodigies, excluding most themis students, so clay could probably be considered one as well. he was brilliant and remarkably hardworking and dedicated his entire life to reaching this goal, and he... didn't. he died with his dream ten steps in front of him.

when a character is an exception in one way, they tend to be in many, and they also tend to be defense attorneys, for some reason. the two victims with the most ambition at time of death, from my perspective, also have the most pre-death screen time: mia fey and dhurke sahdmadhi. their ambition may be on different scales, but they both died with tasks unfinished. mia had yet to reveal the corruption of redd white and the truth to dl-6, and dhurke had yet to restore stability to his country's legal system. they were both incredibly committed to fulfilling these goals and died while actively pursuing them.

the contrast between these two and clay is the individualism factor. dhurke wanted to see his revolution through, but he wanted a better future regardless of whether he was its leader or not. mia's connection was due to her familial involvement, but she also just wanted to uncover the truth behind redd white's obscurations and reduce corruption in the legal system. these goals are personal, but they aren't limited to them. they are goals that these two aspire to achieve, but they themselves don't need to be the ones to achieve them; in fact, they aren't. phoenix apprehends white, exposes manfred von karma, and discovers misty fey's disappearance for mia, while nahyuta and apollo work to reform khura'in's courts for dhurke. clay wanted to go to space. while a less noble goal than those i'm comparing him to, it's also more intrinsic to himself. he was supposed to be the one in space. there's no one to take over his dream because it's his alone. when he dies, that's it. it'll never be done. while his compassion definitely implies that he would be proud as long as sol starbuck touched the stars again, that isn't his dream. it's not the same as him doing it himself.

another similarity between mia and dhurke is that they are also the victims with the most post-death screen time. mia is channeled constantly through the first trilogy, to the point where she's almost as constant as any living character. dhurke lives for days, concealing his death while being channeled and not revealing the secret until almost the end of 6-5. as a result, these two get front row seats to their goals being fulfilled by their successors. mia's there to help phoenix take down white in 1-2, is certainly made aware of the results in 1-4, and even reunites with diego and re-defeats dahlia in 3-5. dhurke assists apollo leading up to the final court case, and his presence sticks with apollo as he develops his defense office.

clay does not get post-death screen time. he's only mentioned, like any other victim, after his death, and the large bulk of it is regarding the minutes before he's killed. not only is his dream unable to be fulfilled, but he wouldn't get the chance to see anything come of it, if that was even possible. he's not aura, staring out of a prison cell as part of her life's work flies off without her input. he's dead. no seeing the future, no willing on a successor to continue for him, no closure. dead and gone.

i'm not going to go crazy in depth right now, but, considering all major victims, the final truth of clay's death is done pretty poorly. as the successor to investigations, a duology that deals with international affairs in incredible detail, dual destinies is notably lacking. the organization behind the phantom isn't explored in the slightest; what was the point in making them a part of something bigger in the first place? there's no inciting event, no motive, not even a name, and from my point of view it just makes dual destinies feel unfinished, like there were plans that couldn't be made reality. there aren't any hints towards what the organization is doing, no legs to theorize on besides real life events, and it's not portrayed in a way that leaves it as a clever mystery. some international organization wants to sabotage the rocket launches for an unknown reason, so people die. that's all. clay dies due to reasons completely unknown to players, which is just so unsatisfying. not only does he not get closure, but we don't either. it makes me desperate for any new information to justify his death, to make his murder mean something, just like others who are integral to plot. this isn't entirely the point i was trying to make, but i think it's significant enough to mention. or maybe i just wanted to talk about it. not too sure.

clay terran suffers the awful fate of too much ambition and too little closure. this alone made his death have the greatest lasting impact on me. i'm not sure how it is for others, but the sadness of those left behind didn't usually trigger a large emotional reaction in me. however, the way clay's extraordinary dedication, implied intelligence, and nigh inevitable success were ripped from him right at the very end, with no possibility of a successor due to his own personal stake in the goal, made his death hit me through the heart like no other ace attorney victim. and also, just a little bit, because he's a new science freak.

[ananxiousgenz]

okay now that I've had a night to sleep on it I just wanna take a minute and go absolutely buckwild over john doe in part 26 bc like. I was expecting the "I will not let you drown" line. I've seen the fanarts of it floating around, I knew that was coming. what actually fucking killed me was the second I realized john was reciting a robert frost poem to calm arthur down. and not just any robert frost poem, one that has been quoted over and over again, usually by arthur. that made me start SOBBING bc like.

this inhuman entity, who around 4-5 months prior, wanted arthur and the rest of humanity dead just because he had power and could kill them. learned so much from this broken mess of a man. learned about stories and poetry and music and mysteries and compassion and love and fell in love with all of it so deeply that it permanently changed who he is and how he sees humans and the world they live in. changed him so much that when he saw his friend crumbling under the weight of his own grief and guilt, chose to not only comfort him, but chose to comfort him with a poem. a fucking poem. when john has been so deeply invested in the stories and poems he's heard from arthur. he heard one that he liked enough to memorize and to keep close to his heart. and he chose to give it back again when his friend needed it most. to reach a hand out to arthur with a thing he loved and tell him he's heard. he's not alone. but he needs to keep going. most human action imaginable. do you think arthur ever recited that poem to john? to keep him calm when he got scared and lashed out? and that's how john learned it? and it brought him enough peace and comfort that he figured it would help arthur too??

literally the only equivalent I can come up with for this moment is something I saw once a long time ago. so my mom was sick. like really sick. normally she's a power-through-a-cold kind of person and she was laid out on the couch, so she wasn't doing great. and our dog, who was a lot younger then, knew something was wrong, and clearly wanted to make her feel better but didn't know how. so, she got her favorite toy, and gently shoved it into my mom's mouth. a kind of "I don't know how to make you feel better, so here's something I love and I hope it helps." it was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. and it wasn't that the bone itself helped, it was the act of giving it that made everyone feel a little bit better. and that is what happened here. it's not the thing that john gave, even though it is significant, it's the fact that he chose to give it.

nobody talk to me for the next 5 business days, I'm going absolutely insane

[rinisdrawing]

in vanessa’s defense, it was a genuine question…

[cynopoe]

Old men yaoi