#my musing

[sayakxmi]

Finishing chapter 6 in Reverse1999:

Thoughts under the cut. Including spoilers, obviously.

Boy do I have thoughts. Most of them already shared with Yudja, as usual, but I felt the need to post them, too, lmao.

These bitches weren't lying, when they were saying that the writing of this chapter [6] elevated R1999 to one of the best written gacha games, because, man. Don't get me wrong, R1999's writing is fantastic in general, but the last chapter especially had me go through such a rollercoaster of emotions and opinions that I found myself changing my pfp to Kakania on discord out of respect. It sounds funny, but after going on and on as to why I liked her, I thought, you know what? Time for a change. I don't think I've ever changed my Sayaka pfp there, lmao.

Anyway. Silly thing first is that I was super proud of myself, bc in the 5th chapter when that plane appeared, I guessed that it was around 1914. And kept guessing until I had it confirmed in the 6th chapter. Listen, if it was stated earlier, I overlooked it, and I just went on my history knowledge & I'm very happy with myself.

Which also kinda made me go "uh oh" when I checked the date under some of the parts early on, and saw 1/7... and then I realized it was the USAmerican date format, so it's just January. Lmao.

Anyway, the chapter was a ride, and the sheer amount of dread it had caused me was something else. You just things were about to go horribly wrong, but I had no idea how and what exactly would happen.

Also, funny thing is that aside from the fact that it was supposedly super well written (turned out to be a fact), I also got spoiled on two things, Hofmann's death (I just knew she was going to die, not how), and that yuri was doomed.

Man, was that yuri doomed.

Honestly, I'm super glad I got spoiled on this factTM, bc I ended up with assumptions, which ended up being compltely wrong in the best way.

Ngl, maybe it was some internalized ableism from me, but I kind of expected Isolde to be the "victim" in the doomed yuri, as in, Kakania doing something that would cause Isolde to turn away from her. But I was wrong in the best possible way, because I think it managed to write a tragedy for the both of them that wasn't some form of character assasination.

I think the writers took a bit of a risk with Isolde that ended up paying off. I mean, they wrote a mentally ill character who causes lots of deaths, but managed to do it in a way that didn't demonize her, but also didn't excuse her actions. Imagine stricking that kind of balance these days... And aside from that, you can even understand what led her to that kind of state of mind. I mean, aside from curses and expectations and being deemed hystric, she was a medium for ghosts, which included ghosts from the future. I'm fairly certain she references both world wars when she explains things to Kakania, and all in all, it's difficult not to sympathize with her. And it's easy to see why Manus sought her - she was suffering, especially from her mental illness, and aside from Kakania, nobody really treated her with respect and gentleness she deserved (no wonder she fell for her), so she made an easy prey for them.

But, you know, she still got a bunch of people killed.

It's as good time as any to talk about my favorite character of this chapter, Kakania - it took me by surprise. The media made me really distrustful of fictional doctros & psychologists, huh. But anyway.

What I loved about Kakania is that she wasn't fine with any of this. Even if Isolde said she'd done it for her, to realize her dream, it was so refreshing to see a character be genuinely horrified by another character's actions, regardless of the intentions or mental health.

It's such a popular trope, accepting somebody who'd done awful things because of love, and I do like it (when it's well written), but it was so incredibly refreshing to see R1999 not go for it. Reverse1999 really said that it was still awful, and there was no justification for that.

By God it was all so painful - it was painful for Isolde, because she just wanted to make Kakania happy, and it was painful for Kakania, because she was essentially betrayed by her dearest friend, and indirectly caused so much pain and destruction. You'd truly want nothing but for these two to make up somehow, for Kakania to hold Isolde close and tell her everything's gonna be alright - but Kakania doesn't do that. And you know what? I fucking respect her for it. She values human life too much to budge out of love. Even if it hurts. Isolde has simply caused too much pain and destruction to swipe it under a rug.

And, god, the last part, the hypnotism. As if I wasn't in enough pain already. It hurt to see Kakania, who hates hypnotism with burning passion, use it on somebody she cares so deeply, and it hurt to see Isolde in the end just accept that. Even if it gave the Foundation a fighting chance against the Storm, it was still hard to watch. It still meant Kakania crossing the kind of boundary she'd never wanted to cross, and for yet another person to take Isolde's agency away from her. But in the span of this entire chapter things changed, they changed. And Kakania was willing to do anything to help, after indirectly causing that hell.

I think in a way that ending... honestly this entire chapter speaks volumes about the dangers of "idealism" and "meaning well". There's a reason why the saying "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" exists. Idealism alone can lead to a catastrophy, and at the same time, sometimes something that goes against your principles might be more helpful in the long run.

As Madam Hofmann had said.

Honestly, moving to another character - Madam Hofmann. Not gonna lie, if I didn't spoil myself that she's gonna die, there's a chance I would've grown more attached to her... but watching Marcus beg her not to die was still heartbreaking. In general, her death was painful to watch. For most of the chapter she was so composed, but in the end she was stil just a person, and being in so much pain naturally broke her. Seeing her fight with her thoughts, clinging to her more rational side was painful.

I also loved her relationship with Marcus, especially since at first I was a bit unsure, given her rather cold demeanor, but, again, that one was on me and my assumptions. Hofmann was a great mentor. [*] A few quotes that I especially liked:

I think I like this one especially, because it manages to explain the problem, reassure Marcus, and at the same time doesn't bagatelize the issue. Like, that's how people your age are, but that's still not great and you need to get your shit together eventually.

A different quote, from Kakania's monologue this time:

But anyway, last but certainly not least, Marcus. I'm gonna be honest, I don't care about her all that much, but that is to no fault of her or her writing. Sometimes you just don't vibe with a character the right way. That being said, watching her growth throughout the entire chapter was a fantastic experience, and by the end I felt proud of how far she'd come. You did it, Marcus, you saved that mission. Madam Hofmann is definitely proud of you, too.

What a banger of a chapter.

[pythiaapollonia]

Why Lord Apollon? 🌻 .•° ✿ °•.

Some of you may be asking why i choose to stick with Lord Apollon for as long as I have! Well we've been working together for most of my practice....i never realized it before.....but now i see it. He's been this figure that's been appearing in my dreams long before i realized my spiritual journey. When i first started i started researching wicca and learned its ways....it didn't feel right for me and i felt the need to keep searching then i wiggled my way through many pantheons before finally finding the greek one. The myths are so familar to us because we learn them in school.

But to back track a bit before my spiritual journey even began. I visited Greece with my highschool back in 2014. We visited Athens, Santorini and Delphi. We went up to the temple at Delphi and I had this most wonderous feeling of awe and a sense of coming back home. And a couple years ago , I thought back to that time after meditating with Lord Apollon. and then i went ah ha. Yes it all makes sense now. He's always been there for me. Even in past lives if those believe in that. I'm a witch and a hellenic polytheist so i do believe in both. I've also noticed we have very similar energy, happy, joyful, sunny, both love sunflowers! So many syncrecities. He's also my patron deity I was a priestess for a different deity for awhile but after a long discussion with my spirit team, I decided to make the switch to Lord Apollon. You can switch in Hellenic Polytheism but its not all that common. But I found out that this was the best path forward for me. I still worship my previous goddess and still work with closely but we decided that my intuition and intense connection to Lord Apollon made the most sense to continue my journey. I don't have much to relearn but since it was a much different energy i have a bit to relearn and we both felt it was right to stay in training for the length of my mentorship with priestess i am under. I hope you all follow me on my journey!

[thetoastedalmonds]

Fun (?) Visual musings regarding Simon's white streak

You think that over time this could've at least been partly spurred on by the fact he has gotten so many electrical shocks over the course of the seven years in prison?

Oh right also I hc he has tremors cause of the whole electrical shocks thing- nerve damage is no joke people

[thicc-astronaut]

I think in the future humans will evolve beyond the need for sleep so that we can stay awake browsing the web all night long

[cupcraft]

The Ed Sheeran concert may make me late to lovejoy and jts general admission so I need to get there early oh my goddd

[salvadorbonaparte]

"tiktok has massive problems that even if you don't agree with a complete ban have to be addressed for all social media platforms" and "the Chinese government is doing pretty awful things" and "there is a lot of sinophobic fearmongering and double standards in the conversation about tiktok" and "people should exercise basic caution signing up to foreign or domestic social media" and "most Chinese citizens like US citizens are just people living their life and cultural exchange between them can be beneficial for both sides" and "some people being on the same social media site isn't going to solve everything " and "I want to study the linguistics happening there under a microscope" are opinions that can coexist

[deadlypoetacademia]

[oh23]

Jason is that one unemployed sibling who texts you weird shit at 3:27 pm on a Tuesday.

Like, Dick, sweating his ass off in his police uniform getting a text from Jason, which btw, extremely rare- and it's just a Twin tomato (two tomatoes grown as one ykwim) and captioned w "ur ass"

or Tim is in the middle of his board meeting and he gets an email from Red Hood and hes like stressing out chcking it only to find a pic of his apartment's kitchen's pantry asking "why dont you have salt?"

and then damian coming back from school to see his phone full of texts from Jason and it's all pics of ugly animals and every pic is captioned with "u" "u again" "wow u"

Bruce getting a morse code going "check phone" and it's a video of Jason flying away on an alien helicopter contraption with Roy yelling after him asking him to get down and jason saying he doesnt know how this shit works.

[quinloki]

I think the wildest thing about the TikTok Ban is that TikTok decided to adhere to it beyond the letter of the law.

They bent their knee willingly and gave up space and a platform they did not have to. They consciously decided to fuck over their user base when there was no valid reason for them to do so.

I've seen people talking about how you absolutely do not want to obey ahead of authority, and to see TikTok do it is... weird. It's unsettling. It feels like a dangerous stunt.

Specifically, it feels performative. It's got the marks of a Great Drama™, and given Trump's first 4 years and his absolutely bonkers love for theatrics over anything else, this just feels hollow. Like TikTok is trying to turn it's - generally younger - user base into "fans" of the republicans.

They can't really scoop up youths any other way, honestly. But using a big impactful story and putting Trump as the "hero" who saves their beloved platform.

It's not even the 20th and I just don't like how this new administration is starting. I do not like a private company complying beyond the letter of the law in advance of that law either. Because the only thing the law laid down was that they couldn't update the app on Apple and Google.

There wouldn't have been any fines or legal ramifications.

[the-crafting-gremlin]

I just sat down and looked at the pattern I was planning for my next sweater...and it just dawned on me that I could use this yarn to do some kind of colorwork sweater outside of stripes and blocks. I've done those. I've done cables (which the next pattern has). It's a more advanced pattern than any of the others I've done, but it's still not anything that new for me.

I have a sufficient amount of two colors (and a bit of a third color) to actually try one of the gorgeous fair isle sweaters or something that I keep adding to my ravelry library. This is an excellent opportunity to try a new technique, and it would be on a yarn that's fairly forgiving to being ripped out if I mess up. (Which some of my other yarns would probably not be, so I've been hesitant to use them on anything I haven't done before.)

So I've decided to change my plans and find a colorwork sweater pattern instead, and now I'm even more eager to finish my current sweater!

[sayakxmi]

Feferi and Equius are very fun to analyze together, because they are each other's opposites in a way.

While Equius loudly proclaims his support of the Empire and hemospectrum at any given opportunity and even attempts to convince others, his actions prove he isn't all that dedicated to it himself.

Meanwhile Feferi loudly claims that highbloods and lowbloods are equals, and that culling (as it is) is wrong, but her plans for it prove she is, in fact, very hemocasteist and apparently completely oblivious to it.

[pythiaapollonia]

Post ideas for the month

🌻 devotional moodboard 🌻 my helpol journey this far 🌻 the gods i worship versus are devoted too 🌻 Why Lord Apollon for me? 🌻 Oracles and The Pythia 🌻 Delphi in general 🌻 Priestess studies updates 🌻 Ko-Fi shop full unveiling

[thicc-astronaut]

I've been having fun drawing zombies lately

[cupcraft]

Also btw trump recognizing only "the two biological sexes" harms intersex people too. I am a researcher of sex and it's affects on disease, and sex is far more complicated than "two sexes" and it always will be. Sex is multifaceted and there are far more than two binary sexes. Keep that in mind too. Don't fall into bioessentialism as you fight for trans people and intersex people.

[thatdisasterauthor]

If you have a family group text, you must also have the parallel siblings only group text where you dissect what the FUCK is going on with your parent(s) as a running live commentary on what's going down in the main group text.

[weewtomee]

Retrowave Rin and Len