#nobody asked for this but here you go

[inkskinned]

this is just my opinion but i think any good media needs obsession behind it. it needs passion, the kind of passion that's no longer "gentle scented candle" and is now "oh shit the house caught on fire". it needs a creator that's biting the floorboards and gnawing the story off their skin. creators are supposed to be wild animals. they are supposed to want to tell a story with the ferocity of eating a good stone fruit while standing over the sink. the same protective, strange instinct as being 7 and making mud potions in pink teacups: you gotta get weird with it.

good media needs unhinged, googling-at-midnight kind of energy. it needs "what kind of seams are invented on this planet" energy and "im just gonna trust the audience to roll with me about this" energy. it needs one person (at least) screaming into the void with so much drive and energy that it forces the story to be real.

sometimes people are baffled when fanfic has some stunning jaw-dropping tattoo-it-on-you lines. and i'm like - well, i don't go here, but that makes sense to me. of fucking course people who have this amount of passion are going to create something good. they moved from a place of genuine love and enjoyment.

so yeah, duh! saturday cartoons have banger lines. random street art is sometimes the most precious heart-wrenching shit you've ever seen. someone singing on tiktok ends up creating your next favorite song. youtubers are giving us 5 hours of carefully researched content. all of this is the impossible equation to latestage capitalism. like, you can't force something to be good. AI cannot make it good. no amount of focus-group testing or market research. what makes a story worth listening to is that someone cares so much about telling it - through dance, art, music, whatever it takes - that they are just a little unhinged about it.

one time my friend told me he stayed up all night researching how many ways there are to peel an orange. he wrote me a poem that made me cry on public transportation. the love came through it like pith, you know? the words all came apart in my hands. it tasted like breakfast.

[yuwuta]

roommate katsuki lore time: 

your job isn’t as physically demanding as that of a pro-hero, but it is equally, if not more time intensive. your friends often comment you seem dead on your feet way more often than they do, and you have to agree. so when you decide to scrounge up some extra money and hire a private chef, you think it’s the best decision you’ve made in a while. 

your friends would seem to agree—and some tease that maybe you should ask your guy if he can cater to izuku, too. except for katsuki, who seems appalled, betrayed, and disgruntled. it takes all but one week about you gushing over the meals your chef has prepped for you for katsuki to show up to your apartment in the middle of the day, while you’re at work, and the chef is in your kitchen, kindly ask him to leave forever, and get to work himself. when you come home, you’re confused and pissed when you realize katsuki has fired your saving grace, but the anger falls flat on your tongue when you’re interrupted by the blonde spoon-feeding you the most delicious bite of steak that you’ve ever had in your entire life. he’s way too smug watching you physically melt about the food, and ordering you to sit down and have a proper meal. 

he tries not to be endeared by your stuffed cheeks, but there’s a satisfaction brewing in him that he can’t quite place. all he knows is it won’t be taken away from him again; that’s why he flicks your forehead, throws a dish towel over his shoulder, and says, “make room for my shit here by the end of the week. and don’t complain when i put all your spoons together in one drawer,” before heading over to the sink to wash up. 

you don’t even get until the end of the week before katsuki is barreling into your apartment with boxes and clothes and, “this is what we call a stainless steel pan in the wild. ever seen one before?” prompting you to reach up and pinch his ear even as he cackles all the way to the kitchen. you suppose, in the end you can’t complain. you get to live with your best friend, you get free catering, free cleaning, and it takes you two months of living together to find out katsuki’s paid off your rent for the rest of the year, too. you know, what friends are for. 

[claraoswalds]

#mrs flood who are you: time lord edition

[oneroomjestershow]

CHICKEN NUGGET!!!!!!!!!!!!

I deep fried him for you

[ministarfruit]

just had a somewhat cursed outfit swap idea

[entities-of-posts]

all my friends feel only slightly intimidated by the fact that, for each of them, i have information about them that they'd never voluntarily tell anyone. half the time it isn't even things they've told me, i just happen to Find Out. not that i would go around telling everyone. but just sometimes hinting that i know is enough. and funny enough, i like doing it, not really to threaten them, just to see their reaction yknow?

...i am not beating the eye avatar allegations i fear

You are not, but isn’t it so fun? Isn’t it exhilarating to know more than people want you to? To watch their faces when they realize?

[front-facing-pokemon]

Not a pokemon but..Can we get the elegy of emptiness from Majora's Mask?

okay i was worried this would happen. am i going to have to move "i don't take requests, it was an april fools joke" to the TOP of the FAQ instead of the bottom. guys. guys. this is why i had asks closed for like three days

also,

this happens to me a lot with retrofit evos and prevos. i understand why they're ordered the way that they are but sometimes it does feel a little arbitrary. i think it would be cool if they ordered the natdex in like. the order the pokémon were designed/conceptualized. that'd be pretty cool

anyway. still don't do requests. if you came here from all the april fools jokes, those were april fools jokes. this blog runs on a queue and that is how it has always been and i do not do requests except on april fools

[sundial-bee-scribbles]

i dont usually post stuff like this but the circumstances are rly funny so i will.

my brother got me the ryoji plush for my bday and got me makoto/minato as an xmas present. however it hadn't arrived yet on xmas and lo and behold it eventually arrived on DEC 31ST. 😭

funniest possible date for it to arrive on. anyways i got silly with them

[tinysnailtales]

Inuyasha Chapter 119

Kikyo's Arrow

Probably a 5/5 chapter. Continues to explore established themes and digs into the characters of Kikyo, Inuyasha, and Kagome and their “love triangle.” This chapter essentially is the "love triangle" manifesting in a physical fight while Miroku remains fixated on how Inuyasha's body will fuse with the demon's whether he wins or loses the fight.

There is not a lot regarding Inuyasha’s thoughts on the situation, at least not directly, but his actions enable us to draw conclusions about his feelings while also leaving some wiggle room for interpretation. Kikyo and Kagome are a more direct commentary on the dynamic between these three characters, with both girls coming at the situation with their own biased perspectives.

We get "'I've got to get Kikyo's body to a safe place!' If I don't, Inuyasha will continue fighting that demon, in order to protect her...because Inuyasha will never abandon Kikyo!" from Kagome and "Fool...now that you've shown up...Inuyasha has lost his reason..." from Kikyo.

Though Kikyo’s perspective is informed by her dislike for Kagome and her belief that Inuyasha prefers Kagome, she comes off as a more objective observer simply because she can tell that what Kagome says about Kikyo is true for Kagome as well: Inuyasha will never abandon her. Kagome’s reflections are also tainted by sadness–she is hurt by Inuyasha’s dedication to Kikyo–while Kikyo’s are more tainted by annoyance and anger.

Inuyasha fights to defend both girls, but when he notices Kagome is there, it does come across as his rage slamming into a wall of shock, like a weightier role of protector falls on his shoulders. His thoughts reiterate: "Blast it. My only choice is to fight!"

Kikyo’s presence made him think “Why is she here…?!” (which is also what Kagome thought) whereas Kagome’s feels more like “oh shit.” To be fair–her arrival means he now has to protect two people he loves.

Regarding Kikyo specifically, she continues to be a fascinating character. The poison imp steals the souls of the dead inside of Kikyo's body and declares: "The woman...she ain't human, eh? Then I'll make her part of me..." and so we get the continuation of the question: what is Kikyo? What are the impacts of death? How do souls factor in? Kikyo possesses a body made of clay; a fragment of Kagome/her original soul; and the stolen souls of girls who have died, but she is not human and not living. And now this demon, which consumes other demons, wants to make her part of it. Has Kikyo become a semi-demonic figure? She wanted Inuyasha to become human but has ended up becoming something not quite human herself.

This also connects back to Kikyo’s observations about Naraku in the previous volume: “The evil aura that permeates the castle…emanates from this man…?! What is this man?! I cannot feel any life force within his body at all. It’s as if he’s dead from the neck down.”

There’s a bunch of should-be-dead people in this love tangle (adding Naraku to the triangle), with demons giving Kikyo and Naraku new “life.” If the Shikon Jewel keeps playing out its own history in an endless cycle, I guess it is fitting that it now goes through the motions of that history with the dead like a haunting.

[ratcandy]

Big Huge Irritated Rant About The Latest COTL Update's Story Choices and the Implications

So the lore drop in the new Cult of the Lamb update, Unholy Alliance, pisses me off. The writer's confirmation of what that lore drop means pisses me off more.

Why? Because it's unnecessary recontextualization that was made pretty obviously in favor in one character in particular, and somehow in that process makes that very same character way less interesting. I think it's incredibly detrimental to the story and I will Explain Why in a second.

But before I do, I just want to put this out there: Prior to this update, my opinions on the Bishops and Narinder and that entire plotline were pretty neutral. I'm an NPC enjoyer, I spend my time thinking about that moth with two lines of dialogue. I did not previously have strong opinions on Narinder or Shamura outside of mild dislike for fandom treatment. So I'm not coming from a place of bias here (or at the very least I'm not trying to be). I genuinely, wholeheartedly, 100% believe this writing decision was unnecessary and the Wrong one to make, and I think it severely undercuts the original plotline because this was a retcon and one that sucks pretty bad.

Ok we're on the same page here? Ok awesome. Long rant ahead, and obvs spoilers for the Unholy Alliance update

So first, what the hell am I talking about? What part of the update do I not like? Let's clarify that first.

It's Shamura's dialogue. Like, all of it. For ease of understanding, here is all the dialogue I will be talking about:

"Ah... we gathered here, the four of us, a council of war and I the general. I have not forgot. I did not tell them that chains to bind a God must be forged of Godly matters. What matter of Gods? What matters of Gods? I have not forgot. The betrayal of kin, the breaking of spirits, blood spilled, his and ours. ...the sacrifice of what we had sacrificed so much for... ...shaped into shackles for our own brother. And our wounds always to weep. Such sharp claws..."

--

"He sought to break nature's own laws. Death was his, yet he placed his sacred duty in peril. His experiments... Experiments I encouraged. I am not... blameless. My soul, stained... yet I do not... Ah, The story. Yes the story... He wanted to open the doors between Life and Death, to... to allow their return. Those mere... mortals. Even though he knew their sacrifices, their faith, their fears sustain us. Death must be the end. Otherwise, what use would they have for Gods? They began to flock to him. What he promised, we could not match. He swelled with devotion... while we waned. Would he have let us perish? I could not take... the risk... the hunger... You are lucky there are none left to force such a choice on you. Hail, Lamb. Last God... lonely God... Ah... I feel... unburdened..."

And for fun, before anyone tells me I'm misinterpreting any of this or that it's left up to interpretation or is intentionally vague, Word of God (the writer of CoTL):

And it's this being Word of God that's spurred me into making this post to begin with. Because prior to this, I just seethed about this dialogue's implications in my server and hoped I was wrong. But now it's been confirmed what this means, and I'm . Disgruntled, to say the least!

And since I've started writing this post, there's been another addition made to further clarify parts of this. But I'm going to go over that addition more towards the end, because it also irritates me for separate reasons.

So, let's get this straight.

Prior to this update, the specifics of what happens between Narinder and the Bishops were pretty vague. We were told Narinder was "gluttonous in his ambition," per Shamura's previous dialogue, and that they "introduced him to ideas of change" but "Death cannot flow backward." Heket somewhat elaborates on this by saying he preached "heresy" and "noxious ideals" that would not be tolerated. Heket also notably refers to Narinder as a flat-out "monster." Narinder attacked his siblings and left them each with a big, symbolic wound. Then he was chained by the four of them, with Shamura the one to lead it (in their own words).

There's a lot of talk of betrayal, but before this update, it was unclear if the betrayal was meant to just be Narinder's experimenting with death (which even then was pretty heavily suggested to be resurrections) or the wounds inflicted upon his siblings. There's also a lot of talk of sacrifice, i.e. from Leshy if you kill Heket before him: "After everything we did. After everything we sacrificed. He will not be satiated."

Regardless, the picture this painted was of Narinder being this ambitious, evil, violent God that even his fellow Gods (Kallamar) feared and felt needed controlling. The idea that the wounds could have been in the nail in the coffin to this entire ordeal made sense; as they were obviously planned by Narinder to some extent (otherwise why be so intentional about who got what wound?) and a fair reaction to Being Mutilated would of course be to chain him.

Then of course there's the idea that the wounds were given while he was being chained and in self-defense, which only seems possible if you think Narinder could take on all four of his siblings at once like that and only manage to lose his claws in the ordeal (which was only revealed in this update to be something he's implied to have lost thru the relic). I thought this at first too, but realized it seems pretty impractical for that to have been the case if the wounds were also purposeful in who got what. I mean, sure, they could all be coincidentally symbolically appropriate for each Bishop, but I have doouuubts?

but now we're here, with this update, and all has been revealed.

And what's been revealed exactly?

Narinder's thing he was doing was indeed resurrections (we knew that)

Shamura encouraged him to do it (we also already knew this)

It seems like he did literally nothing else outside of that

His siblings got pissy about this because it made their domains purposeless and got all their followers to flock to him

"Would he let us perish? I could not take the risk" - Implies they literally did not even ask him

Shamura knew that in order to forge chains that could keep Narinder down, it would require a sacrifice of their bonds AND their flesh

They DID NOT tell the other Bishops this

Their wounds were requirements to chain him. They had to get the wounds they bear now in order to chain him. ONLY Shamura knew this. That means they allowed their siblings (and themself) to get attacked knowing full well what would happen. They may have even encouraged it, perhaps provoked Narinder into it, seeing as they knew the wounds were necessary to have him chained. (Or they just knew he would retaliate. Which, like. Yeah. They're condemning him after he went down a path they encouraged and, as far as we can tell, nothing else.)

And for... what?

In this version of the story, Narinder was experimenting with resurrections, and Shamura told him to keep doing that. Then he was successful, mortals turned to him, and his siblings (including Shamura, the one who told him to do it) got mad. That's it. That's their reasoning for chaining him. There's nothing else given. "Would they perish?" We have no idea. Is that how it works? Seems like Shamura doesn't know either. Or at the very least doesn't know if Narinder intended for that at all. Gives the vibe that literally no effort was made to talk to him and figure this out. They don't even really go down the "it puts nature out of balance!" path, which would at least have some merit, maybe. It's literally just "we are no longer sustained. What's the point of Gods in this world?" <- idk babe you had all the other ones slaughtered. So you tell me

And then Shamura just took it into their own hands, leading their siblings to their shared wounds (WITHOUT consulting them) and their inevitable destruction because of........... reasons, I guess. (I mean, if you think about it really hard, they probably also already knew what would happen following all this. With the lamb genocide and Narinder's resurfacing and etc. And they had their siblings wounded anyway. For no god damn reason)

And now why does this make me mad?

Because, honestly, in and of itself, there's not anything necessarily wrong with this added context. It's not contradicting anything in the main game. Shamura knowing what was needed makes sense, after all.

But it's... unnecessary. It screws up the motives and makes them more shallow, less nuanced, more... petty. Making gods petty is cool and all, I love doing that honestly, but in this case it just feels like a waste of potential.

But beyond all that. But most importantly.

This entire recontextualization of events REEKS of being made specifically to absolve Narinder.

I mean, come on. He's made out to be the victim, here. Shamura knew what he would do, knew what he would become, and knew exactly what would happen to their siblings if they sought to chain him (without doing so much as talking to him beforehand), and yet they encouraged it.

All blame is being shifted on Shamura. All Narinder did specifically against his siblings was inflict the wounds, which at this point seems to be hinted as self defense or a retaliation against threat or insult (assuming he was provoked into attacking, somehow). Because the wounds were part of the process.

And almost equally irritating, this seeks to arbitrarily absolve Leshy, Kallamar, and Heket as well, as they had no idea what the plan was and were just strung along. Which is just kinda worse, right? As far as they are aware, Narinder did just randomly attack them for no reason, and this wasn't foreseen, and surely couldn't have been stopped. All because Shamura didn't tell them any of it.

Shamura is being made into the big bad. Shamura is at fault for everything, for all of it. Narinder is a victim of Shamura encouraging him down a path they later condemn him for, their siblings are victims of Shamura and Narinder both (the latter of which could have been resolved at any point prior), and now any possible intrigue about Narinder being this big bad guy who tore apart his siblings due to his own ambition getting the best of him is ERASED.

It's GONE. All in favor of making him more sympathetic.

And sure, about a million different excuses could be made for Shamura, or could be used to headcanon whatever you want about exactly what happened. But with what we're given right now, just from the source, no attempt as made to stop Narinder before it got to this point. It is literally suggested they didn't even talk to him.

"Maybe they were too scared" - For the other three, maybe. Shamura is the eldest and clearly the most respected one, by Narinder as well (he holds some amount of respect for them even STILL. After EVERYTHING). They at any point could have stopped this.

"Narinder could still have been a bad guy outside of the attacks" - Sure, but we're given little to nothing on that front. In the old dialogue, literally all that's mentioned is the resurrection stuff and the wounds. Shamura is the one who said his ambition made a glutton of him, by the way. And hell, this isn't even touching the very real possibility that all of the Bishops (Narinder included!) are unreliable as hell.

"But Kallamar feared him even before his chaining, that suggests he was still a bad guy beforehand" - Sure, it could! But that's about all we get! And hell, in this new update, Kallamar's fears are fucked with, too. He states:

"Once, long ago, Followers would worship at my altar just to glimpse the beauty of my temple… of course, it could not last forever. Perhaps my siblings did not understand this, but I have always known. It did not make me less afraid. Cowardly Kallamar, ha…"

Here, it seems Kallamar's fears have been changed to be more about the decline of his temple and the loss of his followers, which was happening because of Narinder. He refers to Narinder's plans as "foolish" as opposed to... idk, horrifying, or threatening, or whatever. He also fully takes on the 'cowardly' title, giving the impression that his fears were somehow unfounded, which wouldn't make a lick of sense if Narinder indeed sucked ass outside of the wounds.

Not to mention he "didn't want to hear it" when Shamura "revealed the plan," but we know because of Shamura that they didn't mention anything about the wounds, so Kallamar didn't want to hear that they... had to chain Narinder? That's literally all he could've been told about the plan. Why wouldn't he want to chain Narinder if he was scared of him up until that point?? Doesn't make any sense!!! EDIT AFTER I POSTED: On reconsideration this might just be referring the lamb genocide plan, but that's hardly better, because now this update absolves Narinder, Leshy, AND Kallamar by making them blameless in everything (both Leshy and Kallamar expressed not fully understanding the plan for the slaughter or, in this case, not wanting part in it). What's up with THAT. Why is Shamura getting the blame for LITERALLY EVERYTHING.

Anyway, my point is

This was a story decision made to make Narinder sympathetic. It's so blatant. And it's so, so irritating. It gets rid of so many potential cool flaws of Narinder and replaces it with "Actually, Shamura was the bad guy the whole time! Huzzah!"

And honestly, had the entire game come out like this to begin with, released at the start how it is right now, I don't think I'd care this much. But being added now, as an afterthought, after the fandom and devs alike have grown to favor Narinder above all others, it just...

It reeks of favoritism. It smells of revising the story to make Narinder more likeable. It's just erasure.

And for what. Like, I don't want to be That Guy, but I cannot help but notice that one of two nonbinary characters (outside of the Lamb/Goat themselves) is being this heavily demonized in favor of absolving a Man of his crimes. What's, uh. What's up with that.

Oh, and that addition by the writer I mentioned was made while I was writing this.

This was made after Jojo was questioned whether this was a retcon as to who caused the wounds, as this whole thing could also certainly be read as Shamura being the one to directly wound their siblings (which I didn't think was the case, but still).

"I don't know if they thought it would be so severe" - How do I put this in a nice way. This feels like a weaseling out answer. This feels like giving Shamura an out only after being questioned on this writing choice. How could they possibly not know how severe it would be. This spider is Knowledge. This spider has Foresight of some kind. And how do you not know what they thought. You are the Writer. If you want to clarify something like this you gotta say it with your full chest.

Not to mention a good portion of the fandom probably won't even see these tweets, so this context is all missing from the story presented in the game. This is Tacked On Context on top of already Tacked On Context. It's unnecessary retconning all the way down.

Anyway. I realize the fandom at large will not care about this, because (and I mean this in the nicest way I can manage) the Narinder favoritism in this fandom is already impenetrable, but for me personally? This retconning that was so clearly done out of that favoritism?

It ruined Narinder's character for me. More than the fandom possibly could have. I mean, if it's fanon, it can be ignored. But this was canonized. Because Narinder is the dev team's favorite guy.

And I can't stand it.

[randomalistic]

HEY HOMIE I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS i had no idea you like lapfox stay based 🔥

THANK YOU SOBS... I appreciate your kind words a lot :'3❤️❤️ AND YAY FELLOW LAPFOX FAN 🤝!!!!!!!!!!!!

[shaykai]

yesss we need the good vat coronation drama please please please

I’m gonna be honest I have not worked more on it djdjjdjd (I do have three pages sketched out, but they’re from a while ago, here’s some panels from them in no particular order)

[leonsliga]

I've really been missing Müllendowski lately. As cute as Harry and Thomas are, Thomas and Lewy are just on another level. When Thomas became Bayerns record player, Robert said that his relationship with Thomas is unique, and Thomas said that they have a very special bond. I just want them back 😪

Nothing wrong with that ❤️ Thomas always seems to get on well with his strikers, and while Harry’s no exception, what he and Lewy had was beyond special. Once in a lifetime, even. There was just this beautiful selflessness to it, ya know? Their relationship was never about one trying to outdo the other, as so many similar relationships in football tend to be. No…theirs was about trying to get the best out of one another, whether that came in the form of a Thomas assist and a Lewy goal or vice versa. Pretty much any form of self-sacrifice—perhaps foregoing a shot on target in a favor of a pinpoint pass—was almost always generously rewarded with a goal. That’s how good they were. And while Harry and Thomas are certainly building a similar bond (which I absolutely love!), Lewy and Thomas have longevity on their side; 8 years tearing up the Bundesliga together is no small feat!

Their partnership was implicit—telepathic, almost. There wasn’t a move one couldn’t anticipate the other making. They just got each other. And sure, I could wax poetic about the nature of their relationship, but I like to think they tell it better themselves 😁

And of course, as you pointed out, there’s perhaps no better insight into the depth of their bond than Robert’s literal love letter to Thomas when he became Bayern’s record player:

But it’s not just kind words with them, it’s the electricity in every touch—the passion in their joint goal celebrations and the comforting caresses in the haze of defeats:

Not to mention the bedroom eyes literally every time they looked at each other because they were so helpless and neither of them had anything even remotely resembling a poker face (especially not Lewy lmao):

[rxj-the-punk]

Help I made myself sad. (spoiler below the cut)

[immunetoneurotoxin]

“Not a soul assigned to their case at the Bureau could make sense of their existence. There wasn’t a single scientist, parapsychologist, doctor, or specialist with over a dozen PHD’s under the sun that could figure them out. Pyrokinesis in a human? They defy every law of nature, yet they exist amongst humanity regardless. How do you explain that?” “The truth is that there are a lot of unknown things out there in the world that mankind hasn't even begun to scratch the surface of. Everyone flocked to this case trying to find rational answers, but there aren’t any. Look at the files in your hands. By the eyes of science, Pyro should not exist. Don’t you know what happens to things mankind doesn’t understand? The Bureau has done sickening things to them in the name of research.” “That’s why I helped them escape, Conagher.”

Excerpt from the novel INCENDIARY; A TF2 Pyro origin story Read the latest chapter of 'Incendiary' on AO3 here! Artwork created by the incredible @narklos ♡ 

[butdaddyilovehim99]

Official YSL Myself Review

I now own both versions of YSL Myself and boy are they different!

Eau de Parfum

Immediately I smell the bergamot and orange blossom

It’s quickly followed by the muskiness of ambergris and woody patchouli

Refillable black glass bottle including the tiny travel size

Definitely more gender neutral with the musk AND the floral notes

I have only worn this one out and about but people constantly compliment my “perfume”

Le Parfum

Very spicy, the black pepper and bourbon are the first things that I note

Amber follows

The longer I smell it the more I catch the orange blossom and woody notes

This one is more “masculine” in my opinion, while it does have floral notes, the spicy pepper is the star of the show

matte black glass bottle

For me personally, I prefer the OG the Eau de Parfum, perhaps it’s because I’ve been wearing it everyday for two months but it is lovely for someone who is wanting a more “feminine” fragrance