#obligatory this is unserious

[1989deluxealbum]

Taylor Swift is no longer an LGBTQ ally. She is public enemy #1 after playing ivy in fucking Ohio

[del-stars]

sorry i just think it's so funny that sirius fully thought remus was the spy and like. didnt tell anyone. kept that shit to himself. just imagining an order meeting where moody, dumbledore etc are all WHO could the traitor be and sirius, who is fully convinced that his boyfriend is the spy, is just like "yeah good luck figuring that one out guys"

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

Lupin special where the Seven Pillars of Wisdom are 'reinterpreted' as a legend of seven actual jewels that Lawrence hid out in the desert or w/e

mfw I remember the awful Lawrence-related Part 2 episode:

[whoviandoodler]

grandma's real bad for my 'don't anger yourself into further digestive disorders' goal

[todayisafridaynight]

SORRY I MEANT TO FOLLOW UP EARLIER but I got caught up in talking about The One And Only Thing I've ever added to Jo's backstory and gotten invested in so I lost track of time 😭BUT NO YEAH GOING THROUGH THE LIST WAS A 10/10 EXPERIENCE... I just really enjoy your commentary and seeing your takeaways so I don't need anything In-Depth to have a good time, even just finding out what your faves are is pretty neat; as a guide I definitely think it sells the works while setting realistic expectations overall :] On That Note would love to hear your thoughts on the movie!

LMAO YOU'RE GOOD i wasn't expecting a follow up anyhow so it's alright :]

and im glad the list was enjoyable. i suppose LMAO AGAIN i tried not to go too much into things so my thoughts are relatively sparse (because rest assured i have PLENTY of notes on everything i've seen but i didn't want the thing to be 100 pages long (╯▽╰ ) ) but as long as it gets the job done then that's fine with me:)

OH BUTTHE MOVIE YAYAYA I WATCHED THE CORRECT ONE THIS TIME LMAOOO IT WAS EPIC definitely enjoyed it A LOT and was a really great way to end the series !! again i love the sound design and track and i esp loved the music that played when the team was working out how to sneak into the house of representatives (i've noticed that bitches LOVE acoustic guitars in this series and While Unexpected it works SOOOO good)

the whole Handcuff Bit with inoue still gets me like My Brother In Christ How Long Have You Worked Here BUT I ALSO GET IT. AND ALSO WHEN HE WENT TO ARREST OGATA AND OF COURSE DIDN'T HAVE ANY CUFFS... GIRL I DIED FR...

anyway 11/10 movie SOOO glad you directed me to it LMAO

[angeltism]

i believe in you 🥺 you know what they say shoot for the stars and if you miss youll hit the moon 😄 im fogged brain i just woke up

I'M GONNA CRYDHAHRHSHRAHAHAHAAA. I would personally trust Shiz.uku Hino.mori to land it if I had to pick one pj.sk character. Can someone teleport her into our universe and let her try once and then immediately put her back into pj.sklandia I think she could change the world for the better

[argisthebulwark]

Pretty Please?

summary: Asking them to let you tie a bow around their bicep💕 gn reader, no gendered pronouns or y/n used. feat: Farkas, Vilkas, Brynjolf, Miraak, Mercer warnings: some swearing, unserious threats (Mercer) masterlist

"Oh hell yeah." Farkas isn't ashamed to admit that he flexes just a little when you wrap the cute ribbon around his bicep. He loves the excited gleam in your eye and the shameless way your hands linger on his muscles even when the task is complete. "Now what?" He laughs, enjoying the satisfied smile on your face. "You keep it there." "For how long?" "Until it falls off, I guess." You shrug, allowing his arms to wrap around you. Farkas can't help himself from drawing closer to you, there's something magnetic about being in your presence. Any silly little joke is worth seeing you smile. "What if it breaks?" "How would it break?" Oh, you've played right into his game. Farkas flexes his triceps, feeling the flimsy ribbon strain and snap around his muscles. He adores the pout you force to cover up the clear amusement when you pluck the pink fabric from his arm. "You just wanted to show off." "C'mon, tie another one. I promise to leave it all day." Of course he's true to his word. Farkas double checks your knot on the second bow, strangely invested in this one staying as long as possible. He's thrilled to talk to the new recruits about his lovely partner who'd placed it there, fingers brushing the soft fabric sentimentally each time he thinks of you.

Vilkas grumbles something under his breath, eyes never straying from his book. Behind the locks of dark hair you spot his expression, noting the lack of real annoyance. Fighting back a grin you play along with his obligatory protests. "It's just a cute little bow." "What purpose does it serve?" "I can ask someone else." You sigh theatrically, turning on your heel. Right on queue Vilkas huffs, a strong hand closing around your wrist and tugging you closer. "Just put it on." He growls just as you'd expected. He thinks he's so scary, but Vilkas sits eerily still and allows you to tie a pretty pink ribbon around his bicep. Despite his protests it remains there all day. One sharp glare shuts down the giggling from a group of whelps resting in the main hall, though the older Companions are harder to quiet. Farkas nearly combusts when Vilkas breezes past him without saying a word, his gleeful expression matched only by yours. After a few boring meetings you scurry down to the marketplace in search of your partner, thrilled at the sight of him pawing through bits of armor while merchants and civilians stare pointedly at your ribbon. It had started as a funny suggestion but seeing him now makes your heart melt. Fully aware that you're killing his tough persona, you skip closer until Vilkas' large hand instinctively reaches for you. He continues haggling with the merchant, seemingly unaware of the pink ribbon flapping in the gentle afternoon breeze. "You doin' this for all the lads?" Brynjolf smirks, holding his arm out to you. "Why?" You hum, so carefully tying a perfect bow over his muscled arm. He isn't sure why you've chosen to add a pink ribbon to his armor but for you he'd do anything. "Would that make you jealous?" "Oh, desperately." He deadpans, enveloping you in his arms. Brynjolf relaxes when you brush through his hair, grateful for the distraction from the endless stacks of paperwork towering on his desk. "Just you, Bryn." You assure him, adjusting the bow until it's perfect. "Thank the gods for that - but did ya have to choose such a bright color, love?" "Some of the recruits have been eyeing you a bit too much for my liking." You admit, sinking deeper into his touch. "Had to stake my claim." "I live and breathe for you, love." From a man who's spent decades lying and stealing, those are the truest words he's ever spoken. Brynjolf loves the excited way you fuss at his bow, ensuring it will stay in place. "What if I get called on a job? This frilly pink'll surely get me caught." "Good thing you're the best there is." "Aye, love. Got that right."

"Absolutely not." Miraak lies, resolve already cracking. He can never say to no to you for long. "Why not?" "Why should I allow this?" "I think you'll look cute." He groans at your words, fully aware that he can not resist that sweet tone of your voice. Dropping whatever tome he'd been reading for far too long he allows you to crawl into his lap. It's painfully difficult to not just give in to you. Miraak knows that his intimidating persona is all but shattered in your presence but that does not stop him from grasping at its last remaining shreds when he can. "I have slain thousands. I could end you with a word. I am not cute." "Fine." You huff, still clutching the frilly piece of ribbon. "You're pretty, is that better?" "It is not." He grumbles, putting up no fight when your fingers dance up his arm. "Would this please you?" "Greatly." His heart swells at that smile, the one you've only shown him. To the rest of Tamriel you are a being of myth, the Last Dragonborn, the only one who holds the world's fate in the palm of your hands. You could save or condemn continents with a word. Yet here you sit, face cupped in Miraak's gloved hands and pouting over a cute pink ribbon. He sighs, unable to maintain the act any longer. "As you wish, my Dragon."

"Try it and I'll gut you." Mercer grunts, content to ignore your request - until he sees the disappointment shimmering in your eyes. That excited smile fades and your hands fall to your sides and oh, the guilt kicks his ass. He turns behind the desk, disgusted by how badly be wants to please you. Wordlessly, he raises his left arm. He glares down at the list of recently recovered oddities without absorbing any information when you happily bounce closer, touch featherlight as you tie the scrap of fabric around his arm. "You markin' me for some sort of hit?" He snarks, attempting to distance himself from the sheer pleasure of you leaning so close to him. "There's easier ways to kill you, honey." Your voice is light, unaffected by his refusal. "I'm goin' away on a job for a while, I just figured you'd think of me when you saw this." Mercer grunts noncommittally once more, swallowing the words threatening to escape - you think he requires a silly bow to think of you? Every moment you're away from the Cistern he's worrying over your safety, counting the hours the job should take until his chest is tight. He doesn't mention it again, though after your departure he catches a few other thieves snickering behind their hands. He strides through the Flagon without looking at them, summoning the most cutting voice he can before speaking. "Say another word and you won't live to see sunrise."

[lambygoat]

Honestly, i really do consider all people who treat Vatred as this, just like constant stain mark on the shows reputation and plot of the episodes he's in to be deeply unserious. Especially when it comes to the type of show they are watching.

No I'm not only referring to the 'aha the adult swim show from the early 2000s is being edgy again please laugh' aspect but like, the inherent importance of change when it comes to the show's narrative. Did we watch the same show? The same episodes? Did we perceive the same character?

I obviously understand some folk's kneejerk reaction to molestation being mentioned/implied/shown, and at first i too was disgusted with Hatred's character, but I feel like ignoring his following characterization on the show in favor of still viewing him through a running gag that was clearly made in bad faith at the start of the character's introduction, BEFORE he joined Team Venture and went through a very explicit character arc, to just be sooo blatantly choosing to ignore the point the show's trying to make on this one specific character.

Just like all other main characters on this show, he was/(still is but no longer in that direction) a bad person who did terrible things, characterized this way just for the sake of shock value who then went on to develop more as a person with real motivations behind him and who then stopped being a one-off gag character and started being someone worth caring for.

Believe me, I wouldn't have been even CLOSE to liking Hatred's character if he had remained as he was pre-joining and I would've, in fact, pretty openly despised him and believed him to be a bad choice to keep around. But that wasn't, and isn't what Vatred's character is now.

He wasn't even a pedophile by no fault of his own but as a side effect of the Supersoldier serum, and when he became part of the main cast, the show wasted no opportunity to drive in how ASHAMED he was of that fact. He explicitly took meds for it. (All of these choices obviously made by the writers to have a basis to build off of after deciding to pick him up as Rusty's bodyguard in Brock's absence).

When he finally had a chance to be redeemed, he took it. He made a consistent effort to be a good example for the boys, to be an efficient bodyguard, to be that other fatherly figure Hank and Dean needed when Brock was gone. Hell, I can even say with confidence that he WAS a better fatherly figure than both Brock and Rusty combined. He made an effort to better himself, clearly recognized the dangers he posed to the boys, and dealt with it with a clear intent NOT TO HURT THEM. He got better. And even after not having the obligation to, he stuck around with the Ventures. He wanted to be a part of the boy's lives. He cared. He was not the same character as he was before. It was a gradual and intentional change the show chose to make him go through.

You guys are attaching real-world importance to a previous character trait that is, by now, long gone, regarding the character and the state he's in. Real-world importance that seemingly does not apply to other crimes constantly being committed by the rest of the main cast (see: Brock and his unabashed killing of henchmen and uninvolved people in general, Rusty's obvious disregard towards consent and constant sexual harassment of Sheila and many other women on the show, not to mention the various unethical experiments he has conducted on other people without their knowledge i.e That Whole Dome Episode and also Cloning his Sons...), and, honestly, it really does feel like people are being reactionary when addressing him and only him as the Single Worst Character of Venture bros. Please interpret media better thank you in advance 🙏

(Obligatory 'I am not supporting real-life pedophilia I am talking about a character from an adult TV show.' sign)

[pebblume]

guys i haven’t had time to write in weeks and it’s driving me INSANE. to help cope here are a bunch of percabeth fic ideas i have rattling around my brain that i may or may not get around to writing at some point

annabeth is assigned for cabin inspection and percy slept in (cue speed cleaning and attempted flattery and bribery to avoid punishment). this one is deeply unserious

since we didn’t get it in the show with the spider trap in the tunnel of love i’d love to write some other situation where annabeth gets scared by spiders and percy helps her through it and they talk about their fears 

ok ok. hear me out. pjo tv trio watching the lightning thief musical. i’m normally not into “characters watch their own media” type fics, but i think it could be fun to write while also allowing for some introspection! they’re just experiencing this weird uncanny valley where everything is familiar but it’s so different at the same time and also everyone is singing?? percy laughs at his own jokes of course and grover is a theatre kid so he’s nerding out and annabeth is confused (the only musical she’s ever seen is the wizard of oz) but entertained. i think it could be silly

lovesick au with an extra dose of angst. percy gets accidentally drugged with aphrodite’s love magic (and naturally annabeth is the first person he sees) so now she has to deal with a very clingy percy who's sweet and considerate and would do anything she asked but it's not her percy. like she wanted him to like her back but not like this ;-; happy ending tho obviously

hypervigilance and hyperfixation - annabeth has always had to be aware of her surroundings and never let her guard down (ptsd from her childhood and being a demigod), until this boy comes into her life and now all her attention zones in on him whenever he’s within a 50 yard radius. just a little drabble on all the little things you notice when you’re constantly aware of your crush and how even their annoying habits or flaws become hopelessly endearing

annabeth with glasses would be so cute?? (credit to @vicwritesfic for the idea!). basically just some percabeth moments told through glasses: annabeth first getting them and percy helping her feel comfortable with them when she gets self conscious, annabeth losing them in the lake and percy retrieving them, percy trying her glasses on because i think that’s a universal glasses wearer experience, percy finding her asleep at her desk with her glasses askew and taking them off gently, etc. etc. you get the idea

ok y’all know that saying that’s like “you know you like your crush when they get an awful haircut and they’re still attractive to you”? that’s it, that’s the fic. i’m thinking percy gets an unwilling haircut and he gets all embarrassed because his head is a fuzzy egg now, but annabeth still finds him cute because she's down catastrophically bad. he gets his curls back at the end tho don’t worry!

percy is cursed to be honest when he lies to a god and now he can’t stop telling annabeth how pretty her eyes are and how much he admires her; he can’t even use sarcasm - he’s defenseless! basically an excuse for me to torture percy and make him finally talk about his feelings

post tlt. annabeth ran away again after fighting with her father, but instead of going back to camp she goes to stay with the jackson’s (with the obligatory shows-up-on-their-doorstep-sopping-wet-and-pathetic scene and sally decides to adopt her immediately). it was supposed to be for a weekend, but percy convinces her to just stay until they have to go back to camp (about three weeks) and cute domestic shenanigans (and angst) ensue!

percy just got his driver's license after the titan war and takes annabeth for a ride to montauk to meet grover (she obviously has to tease him about the time he was 12 and crashed a car because he was too busy looking into her eyes). they sing along to their favorite songs and percy gets road rage and they stop for ice cream. basically a chance for them to be normal teens because they deserve it!

pen pal au where percy and annabeth write each other letters during the school year (takes place after tlt). just little moments in their lives told through letters and photos and mementos (sally insists on express mailing annabeth blue cookies after a fight with her parents ofc). it’s not the same as having each other there in person, but it helps with the distance. my way of coping with the hiatus between tlt and SoM ;-;

bi percabeth my beloved!! fic about percy’s bi awakening after reflecting on all his boy crushes (childhood friend, luke, beckendorf, etc). he comes out to annabeth after the war and they have this very touching moment where they talk and hug it out. then annabeth is like “oh also I like girls” “you couldn’t have led with that??” “i didn’t want to steal your moment!”

i've also been drafting out some percy pov chapters to my fics "i miss you like a little kid", "nothing's going to hurt you baby", and "punched in the gut (feels like being in love" so those are in the works!!

phew. and that's not even all of them (i think about them an unhealthy amount). i miss writing these two so much, but i won't really have a chance to breath from my school work until spring break so wish me luck ;-;

as always you can find my finished fics here :3

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog 11: Episode 7, Bashi the Shark

AKA the one where I admit I think my naming scheme for these liveblogs is actually unspeakably stupid, yet will not proceed to change it.

Joris, I will be real, the reasons are too long to list.

Your whole life is a sad story, old man. Every episode of this show should have a "a little sad" content warning by this logic.

For all the shit I give Kerubim, he's teaching Joris something pretty important — to talk about his emotions, instead of bottling them up, — and he repeats it often enough that Joris uses this particular line to make fun of Kerubim, meaning it comes up a lot. ...I think what makes him try and hammer this lesson into Joris, is that he's scared Joris will grow up to be like him: obsessed with being Cool and Awesome, emotionally unavailable, and isolated from other people due to his nasty personality and mental illnesses. Time will prove that Joris is a guy who is literally ALL of these things, albeit in some very un-Kerubim-ish ways. Which is both sad, and hilarious. History did not just repeat itself, — it swerved, and wrote a really sick haiku, by making Joris into a sort of an... Even-More-French-Kim-Kitsuragi. Even if Keke couldn't prevent it, the attempt still counts. He gets a cookie for being a good dad, this once.

JORIS NUCLEAR ":3" MOMENT, I REPEAT, JORIS NUCLEAR ":3" MOMENT. A LEVEL 10 "( ￣ω￣ )" EVENT. LITTLE CATBOY DETECTED.

They're so funny together, and they love each other so much... I don't have good analysis. I just want to gush.

For all the jokes I make, they have one of the most realistic and well-written "single parent & single child" relationships in any media I know, with all the positives and negatives that includes.

Obligatory pointing out of food: They are both drinking water with ice, though Kerubim has a lemon and leaves (perhaps it's mint? Or catnip, if we're being spicy?) in his, while Joris has a lime.

Second of all:

I love how his nickname is just "THE negotiator". Despite Kerubim's more whacky antics, he's a pretty very smart guy. He wouldn't be known as "THE negotiator" otherwise.

He tries to hide it, but even as a young adult he's very well-read, which, when paired with his social skills, becomes a pretty good arsenal for negotiating and emissary work.

For someone who's very fun-loving and sillywhacky in his personal life, he can act surprisingly cool and collected during a job, even while scared, while still being unserious enough to do some really insane shit if things go wrong.

This entire description, and his body language, remind me a lot of another negotiator-emmisary character, though.

I wonder why.

Unlike Joris, though, he's not that good at rushing into situations with a fearless, almost iop-like "FUCK IT WE BALL" attitude.

He still rushes into them, I mean, but he rushes into them afraid and praying, y'know?

[trickerys-domain]

Y'all ready for my hilariously candid unpopular UMK ranking!

Obligatory preferace that I'm just an opinionated bitch. This selection is overall really strong and I'm very much excited for the live show. I think a lot of these songs will make or break during the live. I also think there is an odd disparity in the obvious budget and set quiality for the 7 music videos. Almost like they had a different line-up and some songs were last minute replacements.

I also did not factor in whether a song would do well in eurovision at all because frankly rn I do not care.

This ranking will also probably change so like who cares, I'm ready to enjoy a great liveshow full of people who give a shit about their art.

Ok, here we go!

7. Vox Populi - Mikael Gabriel

The general sound of this one is fun and easy. Good filler or backgroud music. Like if it came on in shuffle I probably wouldn't skip it. However, the lyrics are like really bad. Especially in context of the seeming general opinion of this man I am seeing. Also, this man is strategically pandering and a. Its not working, b. No on seems to have noticed. The use of Matti and that obviously käärijä influenced face in the music video smacked me on first watch. He is capitalizing and I'm very curious to see what he does with the live. Not excited, just curious.

6. Dancing with Demons - Cyan Kicks

I liked Hurricane better. There its been said. I do enjoy listening to this but I forget about it a lot. It also took me until basically now to kinda remember what it sounds like. Meanwhile I can still think of the Hurricane chorus 2 years later having not listened to it since UMK 2022. I do think Cyan Kicks has a really good fun sound, I just don't vibe with this song all that much.

Also, this bears no weight on my opinion of either song. But I need to call out the hypocrisy I've been seeing online. I've seen so many people comment that they don't like the amount of autotune Sexmane uses in Mania and then go on to say how much Dancing with Demons showcases Susanna's voice. Like...... there is so much autotune on Dancing with Demons. It will not sound like that live. And that's fine, its clearly an artistic choice that fits with their musical style, like Sexmane. But pls just sit with that for a bit before complaining about the, frankly much less, autotune in a rap song. Tangent rant over.

5. Kuori Moi - Sini Sabotage

This is where my ranking will probably swap a lot. This song is really catchy and I ingeneral like this type of music. I call it chill sex. This is also a very fun unserious song and video played straight, and I appreciate that. I am worried about something with vocals this chill live. They're good vocals, but very intentionally monotone and if the staging isn't engaging it might fall flat. This song is mostly at 5th place because I dont have anything bad to say about it, but it doesn't stand out quite as much as some of the others. I adored her interview tho.

4. Paskana - Sara Siipola

This is a great power ballad while still being upbeat. It doesn't drag. The vocals are great. The music video is great even while being very simple. The lyrics and message are really really good too. This song gets stuck in my head a lot and I think it is, on a technical level, the stongest song this year. I really hope the staging supports the song but with how raw and peeled back the vibe of the song is it will be difficult to make staging that is engaging without being distracting.

3. No Rules! - Windows95Man

Pure unashamed 90s nostalgia schlock. This is very much the type of trashy eurodance I enjoy, so home run for me. I think the staging will be very fun, but maybe too much. Or it will be organized chaos like Portion Boys last year. Speaking of, this is definitely this years silly fan fave that will be well received but probably not win, a la Portion Boys and Teflon Brothers. For being trashy eurodance, I do think it is construced very well. It flows and it actually written well, its bad on purpose and it is successful. Is it the most original or masterful, no. It is very enjoyable and fun and low pressure, yes.

2. MANIA - Sexmane

This one gets stuck in my head the most. Good beat, good flow. I really like the sound of the chorus, including the auto tune. The lyrics hold more than I think comes across initially and you can tell Sexmane really connects with this song the way his voice delivers even in the studio version. This is the song that I'm most excited to see live because I wanna know what kind of staging he pulls out. Side note: I think it's really funny that the brother called Sexmane is less sexual musically than the one just called Isaac.

1. Glow - Jesse Markin

This is just a really phenomenally written and positive song. It is really nice to have some good classic rap at a competition like UMK. The flow is impeccable with his rapping too. There's a lot of American artists who can't write that well in english. The message of this song is really uplifting without feeling hollow because it recognizes you gotta actually work at being in a good place. Jessie is someone who knows exactly who he is as an artist and person and that translates into the song. Also Alpaca!

I think the the songs that have the biggest chance of winning are Paskana, Dancing with Demons, and No Rules!

But truly I have no clue how this will go. This is a very evenly matched line-up both in quality and fan reception. The live perfomances will 100% decide the outcome.

[dilatorywriting]

*pokes with stick* hey.. you alive there, buddy..? You know what time it isssssss, obligatory check up once every blue moon time for dilatory timeeee 🙇

How you doing so far? How’s the wife? The ranch? The family business 👩‍💼 ?

Came back to binge your writings after getting stuck on a thing i was writing. I had a tone but didn’t really know how to express it. A sort of, unserious but serious type of style (a crack treated seriously) so I went to read some of your docs cause they have one of the prefect tones for that, you know to a b s o r b the essence, the flower language, the wax poetry, the sarcasm, the humor—. And when I tell you I had the gall to forget how ✨immaculate ✨ your works were—

Just.. 👌✨ I praise. also I think I have sort of a plan on how I’m gonna write my shit, so thanxuuu

-🍄

I'm slowly crawling out of my grave lol

But yes the last month was a bit of a nightmare, but I think we're getting back around to normal(ish), which is good! The ranch is doing great, but I've killed all my cows so perhaps not so great after all. Huh. What a time.

But ahhhHHH thank you! I'm so glad I could help give your brain worms something to feast on! Happy writing!~

[blackwaxidol]

The sense that psychiatry as a field is rather skewed, nitpicky and in some cases disconnected with reality comes about as an obvious thought when you are a teenager discussing your issues, and with time you hear two medical professionals throw about various words between you and themselves. You consider these and wonder if there is something lacking, if your symptoms can be aligned with so much.

Borderline Personality, Bipolar, Schizotypal, Schizoid... yet ultimately choosing a keenness to just examine it as anxiety and depression—which irritated me. Yes, certainly... I have the excruciating anxiety of a schizotype and a schizoid's apathy and disinterest in people and how forcing speech feels like drowning, a borderine's uncontrolled emotional intensity, but if you are taking so much from so many different places... then what at all does it really mean or matter?

It seemed obvious to treat my symptoms. This did not occur, because the desired treatment for depression did not affect me, as I knew it wouldn't. I humoured a few different medications for the sake of leverage... I do that a lot with doctors, you play their little games so that your compliance makes your opinions rather level-headed when the time comes that you can express them. I didn't mind being fucked about with medication, what made me the most difficult was when I was invited to... whatever it was, cognitive behavioural therapy.

Useless, useless... I am not a good talker, I have never found a point in discussing myself with a therapist because it does nothing for me. What am I supposed to feel? Accomplished? I don't hate that therapist or those psychiatrists, it means nothing to me. Unserious profession. Before I was discharged one of my last meetings was during my breakdown in 2018, I told my therapist about my homicidal ideation. The gormless response is "Did you do it?" and it has cemented the notion that there is no consideration of the "why". Why was I so unstable? Why was this my reaction? No thought whatsoever. Had I divulged my childhood I would have gotten a diagnosis of PTSD instead, equally useless in my eyes. What afterwards? More talking therapy? More obligatory speech and worksheets that I care not for..? I always asked directly what the point of this exercise was. I don't remember the answer.

Whatever. I don't feel any particular way about this, it doesn't light a fire under my ass to want to talk antipsychiatry. I read discussions about it from one mutual and that is fine by me. I don't mean to sound disinterested, but the kind of social apathy or anhedonia has never left me and in a lot of ways has worsened significantly. I don't have any mutuals newer than a few years, because I have grown deeply disinterested in getting to know new people, I mention this already to some extent but it would warrant its own post to describe in full.

This post has no point to give, or not one that I am able to see, just a thought of mine I have had for years that I am ready to shelve.

[crguang]

just found out a bunch of things watching hsr youtube videos cause this is turning into a fixation…. mostly about kafka because. um. because. (literally cannot stop thinking about that woman) im late asf but who cares!!! this will be kinda long .

first things first…. she needs to be executed. why would she lie about this😭😭😭😭😭😭 omg. can you imagine not knowing anything about yourself or where you come from, only vaguely remembering this random woman who ABANDONED you in a space station full of strangers, you ask her who she is and she says shes your MOM…? then goes “taking care of you was so hard ugh i dumped you the minute the opportunity presented itself hehe” with the chuckle at the end?! potentially giving the TB an identity crisis and abandonment issues for a silly game of truth and lies is deranged😭😭😭 i wouldve looked at her with the craziest expression of disbelief she’d have to lose her composure and let me know it was a lie because… evil!!!!!!

i went back to her mission and looked at the answers for the options i didnt choose and guys….. they must’ve spent so much time together oh my tummy hurts… kafka teaching the TB everything they know im going a bit insane. now that conversation after fu xuan used the matrix of prescience is much more interesting and i understand why she cares (allegedly…) about the mc. its so cute😭❤️

the ipc is very very unserious. “wanted dead or alive for 10 billion credits” after she leveled an entire planet is just ridiculous. what do you mean “or alive” we’re past trials at this point….. shes my wife but i never realized when they called the stellaron hunters criminals they meant the “destroyed planets and entire ecosystems” type of criminal…😭 my goodness. shes so silly. plus the ipc just let silver wolf participate in their aetherium wars championship like theres not an active million dollars bounty for her that THEY PUT OUT😭 unserious ass company

obligatory “shes so sexy” mention…. the tie, the gay ass suspenders, the thigh garter, the gloves… i’d be in her dms like pleasepleasepleaseplease. the head i would give her would be jaw breaking.

i love her answers here specifically because she says a lot without saying anything and i think its so on brand. but also im particularly loving the “i wonder how many of them are lies” seed she plants in our minds at the beginning because now we’re on the fence when i think she’s mostly being truthful 😭 she defined beauty the same way in her voicelines so it’s not a lie, i don’t see the SH being the same as the express crew either so yeah, she didnt reveal a thing that she didnt already tell the TB about elio’s script…. she also doesnt say anything of substance about her spirit whisper. it’s probably the only “lie” in here. ugh i love her

i have so much more things to say but i’ll be normal and leave it at that… its crazy how quickly she became my favourite character shes just the type of character that i gravitate towards and im finding it so fun to analyze her every sentence just because shes a professional liar. i love her so bad

[etirabys]

Very spoilery review of Project Hail Mary. I don’t recommend reading this if you ever plan to read PHM (go in as fresh as possible), but it provides enough context for people who haven’t read it. I liked the book, and this review is largely about my ideas for how it could have been even better.

Ryland Grace, a scientist who wakes up with amnesia on a spaceship with corpses in the other two coma pods, slowly pieces together that

he used to be a schoolteacher

who also became one of the world experts on a planetary catastrophe

he was on a 3 person mission to another star system to find the solution to said planetary catastrophe (star-eating microbe whose life cycle involves zipping back and forth between Venus and Sol)

the mission was a suicide mission

he did not want to go, and had to be physically coerced into getting on the spaceship when the original scientist crew member died in an accident.

Ryland Grace is basically interchangeable with the protagonist of The Martian – more a vehicle for explaining the solutions to a bunch of physics problem set questions in a layperson-friendly way than a person.

This is a pity, because unlike The Martian, Project Hail Mary has a very specific shape that would fit a very specific person that Ryland Grace almost is. But before that, let's get to the spoilery part, which is that Grace

picks up the energy readings of another spaceship in the same star system

makes contact with the sole inhabitant, a five-limbed spider-lookin' engineer (nicknamed Rocky) from an ammonia planet with a much higher temperature and gravity, who has traveled to the Tau Ceti system for the same reason as Grace

quickly learns the Rocky's language (within weeks) and starts working together with him to find a solution

finds a local predator (nicknamed taumoeba) of the star-eating microbe, and selectively breeds it to survive the atmospheres of Venus and (the alien's equivalent of Venus)

parts ways with Rocky

At this point I have to make the obligatory complaint about how unseriously Andy Weir treats the challenge of establishing a mutual language with an alien species! After showing how Grace and Rocky establish what their terms are for "velocity" or "nitrogen", we fast forward to the state of affairs where Rocky is approximately a fluent English speaker who uses words like "sad" or "amaze" (no explanation of how those were conveyed!).

Andy Weir cares 99% about engineering problems, and the remaining 1% of caring is thinly buttered over all the other topics. I can't find it in me to be too annoyed about this – it's endearing, honestly – but when 80% of the emotional interactions in a novel are with an alien (largely because Weir so ardently wants to avoid writing about humans talking to humans...), it's disappointing that the alien is basically Some Guy but with mercury for blood.

...back to the plot. On his way home, Grace realizes there was a problem with the containment system that will lead to the taumoeba escaping and eating all of the fuel in Rocky's spaceship. He solves the problem on his own ship, and changes course to intercept Rocky. Rocky is indeed out of fuel, and Grace chooses to use his ship to take Rocky to his home, Erid. There isn't enough fuel for both of them to return to their respective planets.

(Taumoeba samples, and explanations on how to deploy them, are sent back to Earth on four tiny backup rockets.)

Over a decade later, Grace receives news from his alien hosts that Sol's energy output is restored and Earth's crisis has been averted. He rejoices and hobbles over on a cane (Erid's gravity is hell on his joints) to a different part of his habitat whose window opens up to a classroom, where it is revealed that he has resumed his vocation as a schoolteacher – to Eridian children who are extremely psyched to receive instruction from an alien.

So. This is a bittersweet ending! It's a hell of a thing to be the only human being on an alien planet, even if you like your hosts – living alone in a habitat that none of your hosts can survive in, eating burgers grown from your own stem cells, and knowing that you're going to die without ever being touched by a conspecific again. This would be a depressing ass fate for the vast majority of people. It only kind of works because the Eridians are depicted as so psychologically similar to humans.

And Grace's reaction is kind of, "Ah, well, it was hard to get this going. I have some health problems. Life goes on though."

But you know what would make this reaction sensical? If Grace had been significantly more socially maladjusted! Here's more about Grace:

Left academia after he published a paper on alien life (that sounded pretty mainstream to me, but apparently in this universe it got him laughed out of the door)

Doesn't have any romantic partners because he's not suited to coordinating with other people at close contact (this comes up ONCE when his new boss is psychoanalyzing him and never again)

Is a schoolteacher and loves it – seems much more comfortable teaching children than interacting with peers

Refused to join the crew of his because he was not down with going on a suicide mission, even though he cares about Earth’s survival and recognizes he’s far more suitable than the second best candidate

He's a very bland protagonist – aside from having to be forced to get into the robot spaceship, he has no conflict with other human character. Nor does he expresses judgment or discomfort or alienation about other people, aside from a brief incident where someone overshares about his sex life. But if you leaned into how his discomfort with other human beings, his exile in Erid retroactively becomes a relief and a freedom that, personally, I find more narratively satisfying than "dissonant bittersweet".

It wouldn't even take that much adjusting!

Play up how averse he is to dating or having close friendships

Play up how much he likes teaching children because the social rules are so explicit and he has clear value to them as a source of entertainment and information

Switch his motivation for working on the mission from "want to save humanity" to "I honestly am not capable of caring about humanity itself due to my alienation from it, but find this research problem super intellectually interesting and it would HURT to not get to work on this" (which would make the scene where he's forced to become a backup crew member more compelling – in the text as it is, he sounds incongruously cowardly and irrational)

Sprinkle in more minor conflicts with other researchers due to obliviousness/anxiety/contempt/discomfort

I'd also make the aliens more alien, so that there's less camaraderie between himself and Rocky – which would actually sets him at ease, because the Grace Prime I'm designing is much more comfortable with intellectual problems than interpersonal negotiation, and the more Rocky presents as the former than the latter, the happier Grace Prime is. I think they should be friends, as in canon, but friends who struggle to communicate anything that isn't technical. Grace Prime takes comfort in Rocky's presence the same way he would in the presence of a dog, and doesn't even attempt to talk about his feelings to Rocky. It comes to Grace Prime as a relief, in fact, that doing so would be so linguistically difficult that he doesn't have to debate whether it's socially appropriate!

Grace Prime, in his exile on Erid with enough alien technology to chew on for the rest of his life, is cut off permanently from potential growth as a social animal but doesn't regard it as a tragedy (although the reader may).

This characterization and ending is particularly suited for a book written by an author who so clearly prefers to write about a guy solving problems, safely separated a million miles away from any other human being – it would just need to come out of a writer who finds this fact about himself interesting. And Andy Weir doesn’t.

[scribl1ta]

shuffle your favorite playlist and post the first five songs that come up. then copy/paste this ask to your favorite mutuals <3

From my on repeat auto generated playlist! (obligatory zero shared vibe disclaimer + you can tell this is genuine because the first two songs are predictably from the same unserious soundtrack)🎶

Quant' abbondanza c'e' Carlo Rustichelli

Gloria al sole Carlo Rustichelli

I GOT IT ANNA

Fenomeno Don Backy

M'Aresei Evangelia & Negros Tou Moria