#nor will I ever

[mossy-rock-in-a-field]

Several weeks ago, my retirement-age mother requested that I play Baldur’s Gate 3 for her because she has trouble with controllers/keyboards and wanted “to see what all the fuss is about with that cute wizard boy.” For context, my mother and I have done this sort of thing in the past with certain RPGs (dragon age, mass effect, etc.), but it’s been a few years since she’s personally requested a game like this. Basically, I control her Tav but let her make all the choices so she can determine how the story plays out without worrying about mechanics. She treats it like a choose-your-own-adventure book.

Anyway, here is a list of some of the things my mother has said and/or chosen to do throughout the course of BG3 in no particular order:

She is (obviously) romancing Gale. She is quite smitten with him and his passion for books and learning; she also thinks he’s polite and qualifies as “relationship material.” She also REALLY likes the things he’s said about his cat so far (my mom is a cat lady), so I know she’s gonna flip shit when we meet Tara in Act III.

She’s playing a normal druid Tav with a generally good alignment. Her favorite spell is Spike Growth because she thinks it’s hilarious whenever enemies walk into the AOE and die. I usually end up having to cast it at least once per battle per her request. Sometimes twice.

Contrary to her alignment, my mother tasks me with robbing every single chest, crate, barrel, and burlap sack we come across; this also includes people and their pockets. The party is always at max carrying capacity. ALWAYS. She doesn’t like selling things because “what if I need them.” The camp stash is in literal shambles. There is no hope of organizing it. She’s got like fifty seven sets of rags and a billion pieces of random silverware.

She MUST talk to every animal and corpse in the game. I think five hours of her total playtime so far (47ish) has been spent speaking to animals as many times as humanly possible. Like, I was thorough in my own playthroughs, but this is on a whole other level.

She did NOT get Volo’s lobotomy, but she did let Auntie Ethel take her eye in hopes of a cure for the tadpole. I did not understand the logic then. I still do not understand it now.

She is far more interested in fashion than equipment stats. Do you have any idea how much gold I’ve had to spend on dyes just to make things match? SO much. Same vibe as that “please someone help me balance my finances my family is starving” tweet but instead of candles it’s thirty thousand fucking bottles of black and furnace red dye.

We broke the prisoners out of Moonrise, but they got on the boat too early and bugged the fight by leaving Astarion and Karlach behind. Wulbren Bongle somehow got stuck in combat mode even after engaging the cutscene on the docks below Last Light; he he kept trying to run ALL THE WAY BACK TO MOONRISE nine fucking meters at a time while I frantically tried to finish the fight with the Warden, otherwise Wulbren would have run straight into the shadow curse. (I would’ve let him go; fuck Wulbren Bongle, all my homies hate Wulbren Bongle. But my mom didn’t know that, and she wanted to keep him safe. So.)

She had me reload a save like eighteen times to save the giant eagles on top of Rosymorn Monastery. Wouldn’t even let me do non-lethal damage just to get past things. I think getting that warhammer for the dawnmaster puzzle took us like an hour and a half alone. (Yes, I know you can use any warhammer, but SHE didn’t.)

She’s started keeping an irl notebook to keep track of her quests between play sessions. She writes down ideas and strategies when she thinks of them during the week, then brings them to her next game session at my house. I think she wrote about three pages on possible approaches to the goblin fortress alone.

She insists that I pet Scratch and the owlbear cub before every single long rest, no exceptions. Sometimes I have to do it multiple times until she is absolutely sure that the animals know exactly how much she loves and cherishes them. She has also commissioned a crocheted owlbear plush from a friend of hers and is very excited.

I’m sure there’s a bunch of stuff I’m forgetting, but those are some fun things I thought of. She’s enjoying the game and is telling all of her retired friends to get it and play it for themselves. She asked me “what is Discord” yesterday and I think my life flashed before my eyes.

anyway shout out to my mom for being neat

Part 2 — Part 3 — Part 4 — Part 5

[dapper-lil-arts]

There's this show called "So Weird" on Disney plus, you kinda remind me of the main character Fi.

I wonder how and why!

[skoulsons]

I just watched gran turismo please be patient with me I’m having an awful amount of thoughts.

MAN. ok first what a film. now moving on.

Specifically Jann and Jack (platonically my goodness I do not enjoy seeing shippers out there).

their relationship. so good.

ok so. main thing I noticed from the movie, and I don’t believe this to be a stretch at all, is the difference between Jann’s relationship with Jack and his relationship (or lacktherof) with Danny

Danny (yes I am fully aware that he is the marketing guy for Nissan. I do not believe that discounts their relationship or how Danny still treated him compared to Jack. Some of this way just be personal opinion and observation. I’ve only watched the movie once.) cared about him and his talent for show. For publicity. When it was convenient. When all the SIM racers are driving and Jann beats Matty by a millionth of a second, Danny wants to pick matty instead, and his main reason bc of how matty is in front of the cameras. His concern is for how it’ll make Nissan look and not the kids themselves.

Jack, on the other hand, says ‘no, jann won. he’s the one’. He notices him for his talents and how he, fairly, beat matty, despite how he may get flustered in front of the camera (something that isn’t even a thought in Jack’s mind).

And then, after Jann has his crash. Obviously it speaks so much closer to Jack than to Danny because Jack, too, was involved in a very terrible crash and took Jann’s very personally.

And yet Danny, sitting in one of the chairs next to Jann’s bed, talks about how “I don’t know how we’re gonna explain this to Nissan” and how they’re going to have to open up an investigation. And without even giving Danny a glance, the first words out of Jack’s mouth are “that’s what you’re thinking about right now?”

Jack’s thought, his only thoughts are spent worrying about the kid in the hospital bed right next to them. Danny, on the other hand, is again worried about the company. Not the kid. Not purposefully, at least.

ok I’m sure there’s more but I have to shut up about Danny and talk purely about the other two bc holy fvkdhjdxh (going in order of movie events according to my screenshots)

Yes, Jack has that tough love sort of encouragement (which can be a very good thing when it’s used well—example being this movie). Telling the kids they’re not good enough and they won’t make it in real racing. Playing that card to push them. And he really nails into Jann when he sees his potential. He does it to push him.

And then, my goodness, from there on out, the man spends almost every ounce of his breath encouraging, reassuring, motivating, and grounding Jann through every race.

I’ll be on comms the whole time. You’ll be fine. Stay with me. You got this.

Breathe! I don’t want you to oversteer! I want you to keep it together!

Even telling others (Danny) that the kid is good. Telling Danny “give him some time” when Danny starts to doubt Jann.

I know you can do this, Jann.

Those are all before his crash. And, when Jann confronts Capa for what he tried to do, Jack pulls him away and tries to put Jann’s attention to getting in fourth place, which is exactly what they needed. He did it! Hey! Hey! You came in fourth! You did it! You did it! Forget that guy! You got your (FIA) license!

And then, multiple times, intentionally checking on him with a “you okay?” Before every single race.

And then, of course, his crash. Jack stands still at the box, completely shocked and not moving for a good few seconds before he just runs. Runs and tries to wave down the ambulance so he can get to Jann faster.

Again, a lot of Jack’s trauma and experience comes through during this whole time, and I feel like his initial shock speaks to that. We see how it’s affected Jack physically on his shoulder and the scars on his back. And now with Jann, this talented kid that he’s mentoring, getting in the crash, it comes back to surface level.

Eventually, they reach the helicopter. Jack stays in, a hand over Jann’s heart the whole time.

When in the hospital, Jann moves slightly and Jack is up, immediately at him with a “hey”. Jann tries to sit up and Jack grabs his arms lightly and lowers him down, sitting on the bed himself.

Hey. Come on. You need to rest, you need to rest.

Immediately, first words out of Jack’s mouth are, yet again, a reassurance. It wasn’t your fault, okay?

And, by God, his eyes are wet and he looks scared.

From experience, that’s what Jack believes jann needs to hear in that moment. Jann doesn’t know what exactly happened or what his crash did, but Jack still settles on trying to reassure him.

It was a freak accident. It was an accident. It is certainly not on you.

And, in almost the same breath, instead blames himself for what happened.

It is on me. I should’ve pitted you sooner.

AND THEN CUT TO HIM DRINKING IN A BAR AND BORDERLINE CRYING??? no. no he’s not upset over that family or who they lost. jann is the freshest thing on his mind, as is his own crash. jack’s regrets are fresh. he wants to see jann succeed and not make the same mistake he made himself. it’s all fresh in his mind.

Jack says that “someone is dead because racing is dangerous”. He does everything he can to try and keep that blame from settling too heavy on Jann’s shoulders. But Jann, fresh out of a gnarly crash and injury + unconscious state, a loss, and a revelation that someone died because of what happened, yells at both Jack and Danny to get out of the room and away from him.

Next is when Jack drives Jann out to Jann’s crash site and tells Jann the story of his crash at Le Mans.

(My screenshots didn’t save NAURRR it’s fine it’s not like I don’t remember the scene at all lol)

Basically, Jack talks about his crash. The guy who collided with him died on the way to the hospital. And, the driving point of his story and what he wanted Jann to hear, was his regret of never getting behind the wheel again. How he quit after the crash and never raced again and how he wished he changed that. He says this to the kid he knows it’s going to resonate with and who he knows needs to hear it. Jack gives him the key, and Jann finishes his lap.

Then cut to Le Mans. 24 hour race. They bring in Matty and Antonio, the two other highest SIM racers. Jann starts off the first three hours.

You make your day, survive the night, you live to fight tomorrow. Good luck.

At the start of the race, two racers collide and one hits the nearby wall, setting on fire. Jann is reminded and his first question is “is he okay?” over comms with Jack.

Instead of Jack saying “doesn’t matter, pay attention. keep going” or any other sort of thing, Jack keeps the conversation on the crash, but optimistic instead in an attempt to clear Jann’s head instead of avoiding it altogether and making Jann worry more.

All right, they’re pulling him out. He seems alright. He seems alright.

Then, after giving that assurance that the guy is OK, Jack goes back to what Jann needs to start hearing. They can’t stay on the guy too long, so Jack goes back to normal.

Okay, keep your head in, all right? Focus.

THEN, oh a delightful part I absolutely loved this.

Jann starts to lose it. He slows down, a lot. He’s passed by a number of racers and he’s not hearing a word that Jack says over comms—yet Jack never stops talking. Never stops asking for him. Never once raises his voice, only tries to get him to hear him.

Hey, buddy? Hey. Hey, Jann? Hey, stay with me. Stay with me, okay? Stay with me. Look, safety’s left, okay? We gotta make up some time. Jann, talk to me, pal. Jann. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Jann.

He then, with the new gift Jann actually bought for him, Jack plays some Kenny G. The music that usually calms Jann down before races pisses him off. He’s furious at Jack and finally gets his radio off, but Jann still hasn’t picked up any speed or really gone anywhere.

Jack celebrates Jann’s anger. He tells him it’s good. Tells him to use it. And the last thing Jack says to Jann before Jann takes off is a fierce Go get ‘em!

As the race goes on and Jann gets closer to first, he remembers back to GT. How he never followed the lines and would pass on the outside. Instead of following Jack’s instruction on how to navigate and pass, Jann asks him to trust him.

Danny cuts in, scared that Jann won’t get on the podium, which is the whole reason they’re there. Jack says fuck it, follow your line, Jann.

He follows it and he gets 3rd place by a mile. We see Jack celebrating as he kneels to the floor and pulls his headphones off, blown away and equally as happy that they made the podium.

Jann pulls in and congratulates with Danny, Matty, Antonio and some others before he’s met by Jack.

They celebrate and embrace and congratulates him on being one of the best racers in the world

anyway yeah my goodness this made me crazy 🤠

[autismbedamnedmyboycanworkagrill]

TUMBLR WHY IS THERE A LUFFY TAB?

i am not even shitting you why is there a Luffy tab on Tumblr

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

My Great Grandma who loved her babies very much

Reference that I used for the face!

[hhhhunty]

How funny that she never considered that.

[tizzymcwizzy]

here's another illustration assignment i never posted,, we were tasked to create an animated google doodle and i did mine on osamu tezuka, the creator of astroboy!

it was really fun to research his life and works, he had an affinity for bugs and animals apparently :)

[mikufanclub]

Do you have any cool fish facts to share?

ummmm i likeys them

[valenfieldsgf]

"help. i'm still at the restaurant."

/

"everybody moved on. i, i stayed there."

(right where you left me by taylor swift.)

it’s been two weeks since hope for an endless sunset

[morganbritton132]

Eddie: *overhears some girls gossiping about how Steve and Nancy got in a fight in an alley and the police got involved*

Eddie: *hears someone else say that Nancy Wheeler was taken to the police station*

Eddie: *sees Steve jumpy as hell with bruises on his face*

Eddie: *notices that Steve doesn’t talk to his friends anymore. notices that Steve and Nancy always seem miserable together. notices that only one of them is trying to please the other*

Eddie: *witnesses the halloween bathroom fight*

Eddie: *sees Steve confused, beat up, bruised to hell, and single the literal next time he sees him*

Eddie: *puts the pieces together and draws a conclusion*

Conclusion: *is wrong*

Eddie, accosting Steve at lunch: Hey, did you know that if a guy is getting hit by somebody that it’s abuse? Even if it’s a girl doing it.

Steve, confused: Oh-kay?

Steve, deciding that Eddie is reaching out to him for a reason and draws the same wrong conclusion about Eddie: I mean, yeah. That’s - yeah? That’s true. And messed up. You should tell someone if that’s, uh…going on.

Eddie: Yes, exactly. You should.

[aesthetic-uni]

Miles “Who’s Morales” vs Gwen “Gwwwwanda” vs Pavtir “You seem like a nice young woman I do not know” FIGHT

[moonlitfrogs]

can’t sleep how is everyone doing i need to be knocked out with a 2x4 and maybe that would fix me

[ID/ an image of a Mario character (I think?? Can’t tell sorry) edited to be much darker with higher contrast. It is captioned with “It would be so awful—it would be so cruel /end ID]

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Wrapping up the season with a redraw (Jan 2024)!

Thank you all for these last 6 months, I have loved making so many people laugh from my silly comics B*)

[sillylotrpolls]

Bonus internet points will be awarded to anyone who actually tries this exercise before voting.

Assume you need to get the spelling at least somewhat close, and if a character has multiple names, only one counts. Also, if a character doesn't have a canonical name, I'm sorry, but "that guy's wife" doesn't count.

For reference, if you can name the 9 members of the Fellowship, the eponymous Hobbit and his 13 dwarf buddies, 3 prominent women, and the guy who runs the Rivendell B&B, that's 27 characters right there. And you probably also know the name of a dragon.

For further reference, Tolkien Gateway has 637 (!!) pages dedicated to Third Age characters. (Don't click that link until you've voted, of course)

Edit: Your humble pollmaker gave this a try, and got as far as 73 before deciding she was too tired to keep trying to remember dwarf and Silm names. If you also want to share (and don't mind people being incredulous at your having forgot ____), pastebin allows you to paste text and share it for free. :)

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 187

Clockwork would openly admit that he couldn’t see Danny’s timelines. Not since the moment he stepped into that portal and became something more. A child of Infinity, of the very Realms itself. 

But he’ll also admit that it always meant that the child surprised him all the time. This just happened to be a startling surprise, and an admittedly amusing one, even if Danny was openly complaining about the situation. 

“It’s not fair! You have to be able to fix this, right? Right?!” the ghostling, quite literally now, practically yanked at his cloak. “Clockwork, I was going to graduate, I can’t be two! Please, you’re the master of Time, you can fix this right!?” 

No, no he could not, seeing as young Daniel was in fact, immune to timeline machinations, doubly so for his own. To the ghostling’s open distress, which he did his best to soothe. What he could do instead, was stop time in his home dimension, and instead let him age back up again. 

Which the young halfa wasn’t happy about, but it was the best thing they had, so Clockwork supposed he had a ghostling now. A tiny adorable ghostling who kept pouting each time his much younger body had any sort of effect on his behavior. 

He’d never exactly had a ghostling before, nevermind one who was part human, but he would admit he honestly was enjoying it. Most time was spent alone, something he hadn’t realized until Danny ended up crashing into his unlife. 

Honestly he would openly admit that he absolutely adored his little ghostling. Who was now around four, at least physically, and had gotten into the adorable habit of curling up in the pendulum in his chest. Which was honestly the safest spot in Long Now, he’d admit. 

The singular issue however, with this habit, was that when someone attempted to summon him, they got his ghostling as well. And well, normally he could very much control himself for these summonings that happened every few hundred or so years, but well. There was a reason why even the Observants had stopped popping in the moment they realized he had a ghostling. 

Nesting ghosts do not mess around should they feel one is messing with their very vulnerable child, and really it’s not his fault the mortal cultists woke up and startled Danny. Perhaps deleting them from the timeline was a bit too far, if the other mortals rapid paling was to go by, but oh well. 

[itspileofgoodthings]

one of the things that continues to strike me on reread is how much the character of Darcy, and Austen through him, finds Mr. Bennet dead. And how much Elizabeth, in growing and changing and discarding her past blindness, has to move past her way of seeing her father and thus of seeing reality, because the two are connected! Darcy’s letter exposes her father’s flaws to Elizabeth in a way she’d never been able to see before. Most especially the way his laziness and neglect of his own gifts have hurt his family and that ultimately he doesn’t. care. Not enough to change. It literally says that she comes home from Hunsford and tries to laugh at her sisters’ and mother’s folly (the way she used to; the way her father has taught her to by example for her whole life) and she can’t anymore! It sticks in her throat. She is grieved by the failures that she sees in him, all the more so because she IS his favorite and she loves him! And the thing about Mr. Bennet is he never changes. The Lydia/wickham situation exposes to him sharply his own conduct and the consequences and he feels it! Because he is neither stupid nor unfeeling. But he, like everyone, has free will. And he chooses not to change when the opportunity presents itself. He even jokes about how quickly his feeling bad will pass and how soon everything will go back to normal, to his laziness and his selfishness. He is set in his ways and he serves as a contrast to Elizabeth’s personal journey because he embodies a version of a person she could have become and was in danger of becoming if her only goal at all times was to laugh at and judge people from the sidelines.