#presumably quite a lot of tories?

[afieldinengland]

i’m sorry, kemi badenoch becomes tory leader and her first move is to say that the scandal and outrage over partygate was overblown?

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

BORIS JOHNSON RESIGNS AS MP. Thoughts? The people howl for a new update to the Big Dog the Clown saga.

Yes this was not on my personal bingo card; my most recent Big Dog event was that a friend of mine works for air traffic control and recently had to delay BoJo's holiday flight by four hours, and on being told that this particular plane had to be prioritised for a runway slot because it contained an Important Clown promptly pushed it to the bottom of the priority list. Lol. And then all this! What larks.

Okay not a lot of detail yet still but LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT THE EVENTS OF 9TH JUNE, 2023 and you know what? It's been a while. Let's do it properly.

7.15am

Another day dawns in the reign of evil Grand Vizier-turned-PM Rishi Sunak. He's a very boring flavour of evil, tbh. Say what you will about Johnson, but at least there was spectacle and showmanship to his clownshow. Something for the children to boo and hiss. An animate ham in a villain's wig, something to really enjoy as you sit back, relax, and savour a tall, cool glass of schadenfreude.

By contrast Rishi just gets sycophants - who are no less ridiculous, but far more grey and boring - who pretend he's a tech bro because "he understands AI" and they think that will make him a visionary and a man of the future and maybe some sort of Elon Musk figure, because that's obviously a smashing template to be copied in a leader of a country.

This briefing was presumably drafted using ChatGPT.

Anyway, this is what we thought the day would be: another dreary overcast washout, livened up by Downing Street's latest attempt at making Sunak seem like a good idea to stave off the hulking spectre of Labour's inevitable GE win next year. How trite. How tedious. How mediocre.

What a shame it would be if... something were to liven it up.

8.39 am

Fun fact!

When a PM's term ends, as their last act in office, they get to present an Honours List. This means they write a list of all the people they reckon have been Jolly Good Sorts who have done Good Clowning and Supported The Community, and nominate those people for honours. Honours here can be anything from an MBE/OBE etc, to a Damehood/Knighthood, all the way up to entering the Peerage i.e. becoming a Lord. Traditionally, people have been fairly reasonable with these lists. Apart from anything else, the outgoing PM can only write the list - the new Prime Minister has to sign off on it, and it's usually the case, of course, that PMs are deposed by the opposition party.

Why am I mentioning this? Well: Boris, you see, has now presented his list to Sunak to validate. You may be unsurprised to learn that it contains quite a lot of clowns.

Another fun fact!

If a sitting MP is given a Peerage, they cannot continue to be an MP. MPs are elected. Lords are not. So an MP offered a lordship right now would have to stand down if they accepted, triggering a by-election in their seat that... well. That anyone could win, couldn't they? Ordinarily. Except Labour's shadow is growing, isn't it? I don't suppose Sunak would be all that happy about losing, for example, any Tory MPs nominated for a peerage right now.

What fun facts.

At 8.39am, Politics UK reveals an as-yet-unverified report that Nadine Dorries and Alok Sharma have been removed from Boris Johnson's honours list, and will go back to vetting.

(They also reveal that Big Dog's dad has been removed from the list, because nominating your dad for a Peerage is "inappropriate". Sorry, Bigger Dog. Apparently even corrupt ghoul Rishi Sunak has a limit to what open corruption he will allow, which is news to us all, most of all Rishi.)

10.41am

Nadine Dorries decides she will play to her strengths, and appear on TV to do some Public Speaking, which always goes well for her of course.

Nothing, let's remember, has been confirmed yet at all. But she's here to put people's minds at ease! No power-hungry status-chasing pink maniac, she! She is very clear in her aims.

“The last thing I would want to do would be to cause a by-election in my constituency.”

Quite right, Nadine. That would be disastrous.

11.20am

Oh, it’s Tory think tank NRG’s conference in Doncaster today.  Gideon George Osborne, pig-stupid former Grand Vizier and idiot fail-heir to David "pig-fucker" Cameron, gives a speech.  Let's see some quotes!

On the Tories’ choices of chancellors since he personally fell on his sword over Brexit left the role:

“You can see when the partnership doesn’t work. The government's paralysed and the politics is terrible.”

Fair, but also you are a government, George.

On Tories who attack the civil service:

“We’re in charge of our country’s destiny. We should stop blaming others if we don’t get things right." 

... right. But you just... Uh.

On Tory culture warriors:

“It’s really important that the Conservative Party is excited about the country we aspire to lead… and doesn’t get in to ‘we’re against all these groups of people’. We’re the inclusive people.”

Well, points for clearing that absurdly low bar, I guess. Christ, I cannot BELIEVE Suella Braverman is making George fucking Osborne look good-by-comparison.

1pm

Ooh. Nadine's attempts to put minds at ease have inexplicably not worked, can't think why not. She's such a reassuring and charismatic speaker normally.

But the rumour is now FLYING about that Nadine has indeed been dropped from the honours list, and specifically because Sunak wants to avoid a by-election that will lose him more seats at a time when he is desperate for even a mat on the floor as long as it's blue.

Sorry, Nads. Still; this morning you were very clear that the constituency comes first, so I suppose that's okay. The priority now is that she MUST stay in position, so the Tories can keep their numbers steady. It is VITAL she remains an MP. Let's remember her exact words!

“The last thing I would want to do would be to cause a by-election in my constituency.”

3.45pm

Nadine Dorries tweets her resignation.

The last thing she does as an MP is indeed to cause a by-election in her constituency.

3.50pm

Except this is Nadine Dorries we're talking about. She's found some flashy balls to juggle, look, and a boy to pour custard down her trousers.

Not five minutes after dropping the bombshell, she deletes the last tweet announcing her resignation, and tweets a new one.

The new tweet says, “it is now time for another to take the reins” as the MP for Mid-Bedfordshire.

The original tweet said, “it is now time for someone younger to take the reins.”

*

On Talk TV, Dorries says that "something significant did happen to change my mind", but doesn’t elaborate.

3.56pm

The whispers are whispering. The rumours are rumouring. The knives are sharpening.

Nadine's now-former seat is Mid-Bedfordshire, and has been Tory since 1929; a safe seat, which certainly explains how Nadine fucking Dorries managed to hold it for as long as she did.

An MP on the right of the Tory party says that if the Tories lose the Mid Bedfordshire by-election, it’ll open questions about Rishi Sunak's leadership CLOWNFALL 3: REVENGE OF BIG DOG LET'S GOOOOOO

3.57pm

Nadine Dorries is removed from the WhatsApp group.

I would love to know who leaked that image. I really should not have that image. Ah well. Now you do too.

4.12pm

Good tweet alert!

5.08pm

Phew! What a day. Let's see how Rishi's getting on.

He approves the rest of BoJo's honours list. Shall we take a look at our newly-honoured citizens? Shall we see what familiar names crop up?

Honours for staff at centre of Partygate Jack Doyle, Rosie Bate-Williams and Shelly Williams-Walker (and a lot of other terrible and disgraced people who were loyal to Johnson, and some of Carrie Antoinette’s friends).

Damehoods for Andrea Jenkyns and Priti Patel.

Knighthoods for Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conor Burns, and Michael Fabricant.

An OBE for Kelly Jo Dodge, Parliamentary hairdresser.

Also honours for Ben Houchen, currently at the heart of a media storm about dodgy property deals.  His huge regeneration project in Teesside is subject to a government investigation regarding the governance, finance and value for money.

*

(Interesting point – Tory MPs Allister Jack and Nigel Adams were offered peerages, but decided to wait, since accepting now would trigger by-elections.

Why were they offered at all, do you think?)

*

So … this means Michael Fabricant is now Sir Michael Fabricant.  Like, actually.  Genuinely.

Nice one, Rishi. Thank goodness you understand AIs.

5.44pm

The Guardian’s Pippa Crerar - journalist who brought down Big Dog one Partygate reveal at a time - tweets her guide to he honours list:

Martin Reynolds, former PPS, invited 200 officials to drinks in Downing St garden.  He told officials to "bring your own booze", later adding: "We seem to have got away with it".

Shelley Williams-Walker, getting a Damehood, was No 10 head of opps & now runs his office.  At No 10 party the night before Prince Philip's funeral she was dubbed "DJ SWW" for her banger playlist.

Jack Doyle & Rosie Bate-Williams, who get OBEs, were press spox who repeatedly denied the parties happened

Dan Rosenfield, who gets a peerage, quit in mass exodus of senior No 10 staff as anger over Partygate grew.  Former chief of staff faced reports he was among senior Downing Street officials who attended a Christmas quiz when restrictions were in place.

Shaun Bailey, who ran unsuccessfully for London mayor, gets a peerage, and Ben Mallett, a close friend of Carrie Antoinette's who ran Zac Goldsmith’s disastrous mayoral campaign, gets an OBE. Both are in this picture of a lockdown-flouting party at CCHQ:

What a sea of punchable faces.

7.58pm

But we've been so focused on Nadine! She's fucked up her juggling, look, but she's sliding around on the rollerskates, ever so distracting. But here's the thing, Tumblrs, here's the thing:

Among all of this, what's the Chief Clown doing?

The Privilege Committee reveals in their draft report that Boris Johnson misled Parliament, and recommends a sanction of more than 10 days.

Does that sound too little? Are you wishing it were smething more meaningful? Let me help put it in context.

This sanction would be enough to trigger a by-election in Johnson’s seat.

8.02pm

Boris Johnson

QUITS

as an MP

The committee said Johson had “impugned the integrity” of the House of Commons. Fascinating! I didn't know its honour had ever been pugned.

He accuses the inquiry of trying to “drive me out”!!!!

"It is very sad to be leaving parliament - at least for now - but above all I am bewildered and appalled that I can be forced out, anti-democratically, by a committee chaired and managed, by Harriet Harman, with such egregious bias".

Worth noting that the committee has a Conservative majority, mind. But you mustn't let things like facts get in the way of your feelings, BlowJo. You never have as a politician. Nor as a journalist, come to that.

(Also SIDE NOTE – “at least for now”??  What are you planning, Big Dog??  I suppose Nadine is leaving an empty seat...)

8.41pm

Christopher Hope of the Daily Telegraph reports he’s heard rumours of a THIRD Tory MP potentially resigning – and another Johnson loyalist at that. Lol. Trololol. Lmao, even. Perhaps rofl.

11.43pm

And finally, the day is wrapped up with the Guardian revealing their front cover for the following day:

Big Dog is OUT, hot trans bloke is IN.

Not a bad finish.

[mixelation]

In the reborn au, do you think over time Tori's techniques derived from her medical knowledge would eventually get noticed by other ninja to be developed further, or would Minato actually seriously have to consider banning it if it got to that point? Or do you think it would just stay an unspoken secret Tori's techniques are breaking some rules but no one is interested enough in the topic to investigate?

hmm i think there might be some assumptions/implications in this ask i don't quite understand, but i'll answer anyway.

most of tori's research is the biology of chakra. this is slowly getting developed in plasticity-- she gets interested in it because it's the basis of all these insane things in ninjaworld, but also it's an inextricable part of every living organism's biology, but also she has literally no background understanding on it. her approach to chakra is also fundamentally different from 99% of other people because she was just trained to think about how bodies work differently, so a lot of research questions she gets fixated on seem very off the beaten track from everyone else. her main thing is that, instead of looking at chakra as something very individual like most ninja, she goes: why CAN'T i just use bacteria? why are we using human blood instead of an animal? we all presumably evolved chakra from the same source. and the answer is there's enough differences in the chakra properties you have to make a lot of modifications, but yes you can use non-human chakra. and that's what's really game changing. you don't need to be limited by your own chakra and you don't even have to be a ninja

and also she's been learning to do this under extremely unideal circumstances and she's very much like "well i have no control over my environment, so i should be able to modify fuinjutsu to it instead of trying to force my surroundings to be ideal." so it's like

kushina: what does this part of the seal do tori: that's so it still works if i paint it on an uneven surface like a rock kushina: huh. smart. minato later: listen i'm very glad you could still use this under adverse conditions minato: but WHY is this the default jutsu. this takes you twice as long to draw.

the later part where she makes insane versions of seals is only really "breaking the rules" in that most people don't get the in depth training to know how to do it themselves. more adept users also sometimes do things like this as the need arises, although most people believe the more elegant solution is "just figure out a way to to it with hand signs." so very little tori does on this front is apt to be banned for fear of people stealing it.

i think in mutagenicity she keeps down the lines of research for using non-human chakra, but ALSO with access to a real lab, she probably also starts on looking at how chakra is manipulated within the body, what the limitations are, and what the biological basis of chakra is. (these questions also seem more likely for a ninja village to want her to ask lmao.) so she might ask something like "how is direction of chakra flow determined, and is the body wired to only be able to use it when it's going in that direction, and also why the fuck is it correlated with hair whorl" and what people NOT in the lab see is that she made a jutsu to reverse chakra flow and it won't kill you but it will fuck up your ability to use chakra indefinitely. like she made it to use on mice and see what happens when chakra gets flipped around to make inferences about how chakra and physical biology interact, but it just seems like wild mad science if you don't have that context. and i think this later category of jutsu is more likely to get branded "forbidden" to prevent users from hurting themselves than as, like, security concerns.

however i will say that tori has fundamentally different beliefs on sharing knowledge than most ninja. she gets protecting clan secrets of bloodline limits, but she also thinks everyone has the inherent right to understand how biology works in a general sense. so while minato might consider it a security risk if, for example, another village stole one of her seals to do their own chakra research, Tori would just be like: oh cool, collaborators. so i can see there being some friction there.

(tori is going to be SO offended when the other ninja research team literally just wants to make a weapon and doesn't care about the genetics of chakra production at all)

[greenerteacups]

Hello, it’s so good to have you back. I earnestly hope your healing journey is easy and straightforward.

I’m seeing you answer questions about Tonks, and I wanted to share how intrigued I am with the way you used Tonks’ Animagus ability to navigate and represent her estranged relationship with the Black family. Given the “mass of black hair” she sports in the Ministry and the “pixie cut shock of electric pink” at Grimmauld Place, we intuit that Tonks clearly plays around with her face to heighten and decrease her resemblance to her aunts on a situational basis. I presume she thought that resembling Bellatrix would be a tactical advantage for her Ministry interview.

In that vein, I’m curious to know what you think Draco would do with his appearance if he had Tonks’ same abilities. If Draco had the Animagus ability that Tonks does, would he also play with his face and how it resembles that of his father? I think he doesn’t mind being a resemblance of his father at Hogwarts, because none of his friends had any relationship with Lucius. But given that during Narcissa’s episodes she perceives Draco as his father, I wonder if you think Draco would change his face to avoid triggering another episode.

In general, I’m very intrigued by the idea of shape shifting and what it represents. I think in terms of his relationships with Theo and Pansy, Draco would sometimes (metaphorically) shift into the image of an ideal Slytherin, playing up his pedigree and knowledge of pureblood tradition.

This is a really cool question, and I took a hot minute to think about it. For one thing, metamorphmagus!Draco would be even more ridiculously vain than he is at present; it seems useful for all sorts of things like haircuts and spots (even fit aristocratic fifteen-year-olds get them, tragically). I don't think Draco would deliberately try to play up the resemblance to his father — in most cases. For one thing, he's very much attached to his mother, and he wears that resemblance proudly; he identifies as a Black as well as a Malfoy, if to a lesser extent, and those echoes are part of his heritage. That said, Narcissa (who's the best and only real authority on the subject) thinks Draco looks a lot like Lucius anyway, and everyone already associates him heavily with his father, so playing up the resemblance wouldn't do much for him. Playing it down, on the other hand, is an intriguing idea... except he'd probably be making himself resemble the Black side of the family more, and we're all familiar with the fates of the two most recent sons of Black.

That being said, there are places it would probably be useful. Tonks definitely played up the family resemblance to lean on Bellatrix's reputation. (Also, Tonks's normal aesthetic is very Manic Pixie Dream Witch, and it would not go over well with the wizard Tories.) It also would have changed major plot points related to the Polyjuice Potion in Book 3 (although to what extent, I'm not sure; we're never really told what a fully realized metamorphmagus's abilities could do, e.g. if Tonks could alter whole body parts, height/weight/build, or even internal organs; is she doing a glamour, or is she actually changing parts of her body, and if the latter, can she heal her own injuries; as always, the first rule of every magic system in Harry Potter is Don't Think About The Magic System).

To wit: if the current version of Draco could change what he looked like, I don't think he would, and that's quite telling in and of itself.

[brilliantfantasticgeronimo]

(vibrates) it's slug time

loving the slang... "tightness all day long" "today is toasty". also love that "babes" survives way into the future. 15 this is ur legacy. "that woman was her sister" incest implication??? 2 minutes in

TURN LEFT /triggered

the design in this is impeccable.

this is so sims coded.... from the creators of "doctor who is a tv show" theory we bring u-> "doctor who is a videogame"

if u were disappointed with the focus on magic this ep this ep is rlly giving classic scifi parody lol

CRAZY DAYS

there's a lot of wordsmith-ing in this ep….eyes emoji

i love ruby sm now she's so resourful in every ep

this episode is like "this is how an anniversary multi-doctor multi-companion multi-master webcam special could still win"

ok but seriously. ppl are gonna be like "phones bad is dumb of course people look where they are!!!" bro. they dont. and yeah it can have deadly consequences. there's a reason "dont text and drive" campaigns happen.

ruby has done SO many callcenter type jobs forreal.

SLUG TIME SLUG TIME SLUG TIME.

DR PEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

this episode is amazing

"is that thing something to do with you?" bitch (i got a bit spoiled that she's a racist (damn "looking at tumblr for 2 secs to vibe check" habit) so im looking at this with more hindsight than u are supposed to sdlkfjd)

bluie light celeste and gold motif in ruby and the doc's backdrops? also fifteen in orange <3333333 my beloved

the interior design is ON POINT this ep "you dont know how to walk without the arrows?" "condescending much?" bitch

this episode is so fun lol

"fifteen nd ruby react channel" realness (WHICH…..HEY…….DO U KNOW WHAT PPL REACT TO………………………. T V SH O W S (clown make up fully on))

ruby has done so much service calling jobs forreal lol the sheer patience

the doctor really wanting to lose their minds here but having to hold it together is peak doctor sdkjfsd (also very realistic of the struggles i expected a black doctor to work thru)

there's a bit of a theme of instinct vs programming going on here.

"surrounded by this woodland forest thing. it's like, really natural"

hashtag obsessed with it the catharsis im feelin tbh. 2 ppl being like "yo mass killing is rlly wrong" while the cacophony of the internet ~fun goes on and on. where's the [fiction]

ITS LIKE LOVE ISLAND THE PLANET. BRO. bro im so WIRED IN /clown make up intensifies

penny pepper bean still strong holding the 12 ppl still in the tory party together in the year something something

"ruby and the doctor struggle to lie in the moment" is my favorite recurring trope

the doctor using the sonic as a remote right there……………….. im running out of clown make up ya'll

"you did NOT just "@everyone" realism

no one ever listens to the goths….

until its too late…

its interesting that there's no cameras in their feeds, tho. right? like. that's the layer i think it's profoundly different to irl in this satire / social crit. ppl are *locked out* of the real world bc they're looking at their screens, but they do that bc the screens are a constant waterfall of billions of camera footage either of individuals or coporations or institutions. always producing "content". so like is not that ppl dont "see" anythign irl but they see it all thru a filter or thru editing,,,, but its fine i get what the satire is going for slkdfj but yeah. i think thats why it may feel a bit "not quite capturing" of the current ~digital ethos

fifteen so close to losing it- fifteen if u want to go for a bit of a timelord victorious i wont judge. u can have it. as a treat.

doctor who is a videogame energy bbc merch idea -> zombies run type podcast but it's the doctor and ruby telling u where to go for a job so u dont die. (russel get on this)

YOU STILL HAVE BATTERY PROBLEMS

"this is your fault!" iconic. classic who

so many ppl have presumably died so far. god bless. we needed an ep like this. proper high body count who feels good. feels organic.

rip the au where these were the beatles. thats 1 theory im really gonna mourn for the rest of the series lol

plaza 55…… orphan 55 reference???

great abrogation sounds important.

"i will get out out of here. i promise" obligatory doctor mirroring moment.

oh shit.

"thi iss SO manual"

"hands off" I LOVE THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The doctor x companion x some bland guy love triangle DREAM omg

"he says they're saving us to eat for last (snob voice)maybe we're the most tasty" scream. this ep is so fun.

pentecost's style was so on point.

wasnt her battery running out? (i may have missed something sldkjf)

bro stop hitting the fucking gas pipes oh my goddddd

holy shit. RICKY NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

that was brutal.

racists are gonna hate this episode so much lol

fifteen getting to experience all the microaggressions/outright aggressions thirteen didnt. yay progress(???) "thats voodoo" holy shi t

"maintain the standards of finetime" rtd was pissed when writting this lol

fifteen is not doing all rightkids.

ncuti's "who's my doctor? he's a black man" prophecy comes FULL CIRCLE

fifteen looking at US tho…………… this is a tv show man. this is a tv show. this is - *im struggle against my straight-jacked as im graddged back to the cushion-walled cell*

the plot twist of this ep………… phones good actually. thank u phones. u are doing a service.

CONCLUSIONS!

so there's a lot of ways to chop this one…

"racism and capitalism still exists in the future" is a trope that it's kind of limiting / always grates me in some ways (it feeds into the anti-racism of ppl whose politics doesnt trascend idealist philosophy -> that is, it is an anti-racism that can't conceive of an end to racism bc it doesn't actually have a political project that address the material causes of racism and just tries to fix the "natural prejudices" away with "education". in other words, it cant portray a word without racism bc it cant *conveive* of one.) . however i think im more open to it this time / this series since s11 onwards the focus has been so much on telling stories about the present with scifi make up on. and i think this one manages to do that rlly well. ___

another vertice to look this one on is whether... is it really "doing anything" to have racism portrayed on screen (and other bigotry) in a scifi story? if u already experience racism or understand it happens, who is served by this? it's hurtful to watch and it's like missing the chance to "show a different world" is possible thru scifi. and the counterargument to that is on a """""color blind"""""" 2020s world it is rlly cathartic and re-affirming to have stories that *show* the realities of the world, and that dont shy away from showing those realities in fear of them coming off as "over the top" (bc they arent. some ppl will still walk away from this ep thinking "haha fun satires" but like. this is literally how White Rich People Talk. in real life.......) and again in this one time i think it works really well bc doctor who has… probably never done this? lol there's moments with martha and ryan for example, but never going this hard on it. but im open to discussion tbh. i think the angle of "is this a story about racism for white people to learn or is it a cathartic for *black / brown people to experience catharsis in" is gonna be one for fruitful discussion in the future. ___

besides the socio-political points,,,, bro this episode was a thrill ngl sdlkjf like so many simple, excellent moments like the girl walking into the light post. the made up slang and the real slang!!!!. the excellent interior design. "ruby and fifteen react to doctor who". just lots of fun little details. the execution was really inspired.

character point -> tbh fifteen at the end feels like a bit of Growth from like, ten at his worst moments -> "he's not the person you would have chosen to survive, but if you could decide who lives or dies, doctor, that would make you a monster"

also kinda wonder how this episde will hit for newbies / Not Us. i think a lot of its gut punch comes from dw never doing this before and so the strenght of subverting those expectations. is this an story that stands on its own w/o all the 60 years of context? we'll have to show it to our normie friends and see lol

[swallowerofdharma]

Hi! Your top 5 characters and top 5 ships?. I'm really curious.

Hello! This is difficult lol because it a very open question. I presume we are talking animanga, so let’s see, because I actually don’t necessarily have charts readily on my mind and I also don’t read that many titles anymore. Some of the most popular manga talked about recently are aimed at a younger audience than me or are very similar to things I have already read, so they don’t hold my interest. And if I think of characters that have meant a lot to me at different times in my life, I probably will end up talking about stories that are quite forgotten now or not exciting for anyone else, because more connected to my own circumstances and life experiences. So if you don’t mind I will give you only three, but I will give an explanation of my choices so that it is easy to see how I could have mentioned other very similar characters from different manga for very similar reasons. But these three I have a visceral and deep connection with, and maybe I also projected a lot, so they stand out to me and came organically to my mind after reading your ask:

Yashiro, from Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai. Obvious choice to begin with, but I genuinely like characters that can’t conform to other people’s expectations and can’t be “toned down” or “domesticated” because they can’t discard the wild side of their loneliness, rooted in childhood trauma or neglect and lack of basic social support and meaningful connections when it mattered most. And yet, Yashiro faces reality directly because of that. And disillusionment is another trait I like about a character. And I like stories that have darker themes and don’t glimpse over the horrors humanity is capable of, and I like realism too. And Yashiro is a real “queer” character, one that can’t escape “otherness” in a world that isn’t fantastical and where the monstrous isn’t metaphorical.

Griffith, from Berserk. Because he has quite no other choice but to become the monstrous, for the same reasons I indicated above, including queerness, otherness, loneliness and failure to connect or be recognized as human, he can’t exist without provoking a conflict in others, part his own choice of challenging the order seen as “natural”, part because he has to fail in order to set up Guts’s story and fulfill the “destiny of tragic beauty”. This time the world building is very different and the story that starts on the human and historical plane and with a certain amount of realism ends tangled in a bigger picture and bigger narrative threads. He is such an iconic figure, coming to look similar to a whole lot of mythical types and other characters with similar functions in manga and yet avoiding being a simple replacement or repetition and being his own authentically and unique character.

Kikyo, from Inuyasha. I was such an avid reader of Rumiko Takahashi’s stories. I think what I liked most was their settings, the glimpses into a Japanese reality, being the contemporary world of high schoolers involved in quirky adventures or the fantastic past of the Sengoku period full of creatures and specters from a mythical and horror tradition that I got to know this way. Kikyo’s long black hair, her outfit of shrine priestess, with the iconic red and white colors, her ability as an archer: she stands out in my memory, I was in love with her. She was a ghost of herself with only certainty emotions surviving: the fascination with the unresolved. She was angry and vengeful, and yet her love too survived, just darkened. And I like the conflict between her spiritual role and strength and her relationship and connection with Inuyasha, destined both to be outsiders, two loneliness that met, defying the rules. And I think that I quite liked that at the center of her story was learning to let go.

As for shipping… I don’t know if I am even capable of it. I failed repeatedly to commit to it. I see the potential, but sometimes it is more delicious when that potential isn’t fulfilled in the literal sense. Maybe I just enjoy more the tension, than the resolution, the angst more than any “happy ending”: a sense of love as something to bring along and not renounce, even when potentially destructive, but never quite the end goal or only purpose in living. But I like fan theories, fan art and some fanfics, the angsty ones of course. The only pairing I am irrationally committed to might surprise everyone after my little list. But these two characters I have seen together since the beginning and that hasn’t changed and I am still very attached to them as a couple, and my favorite childhood friends becoming lovers proper ship, they are so well suited for each other in my eyes, without being boring together: Kuroo and Kenma from Haikyuu! Surprised?

Sorry for answering so vaguely, but I truly enjoy being open and flexible and I don’t commit truly to some fandom things like lists, ships, or being able to always have a strong opinions about everything. But thank you for asking!

[pcttrailsidereader]

Trash on the Trail -- What's Out There

Bandages, balloons, bullet casings: Here’s how much trash is on the Pacific Crest Trail

A pair of environmental scientists who thru-hiked the trail last year conducted the largest known and most comprehensive survey of litter on the Pacific Crest Trail. Illustration by Sophie D'Amato/The Chronicle from No Trace Trails elements.

Their findings reflected my own perception of trash on the PCT. The litter I have encountered does seem to be concentrated around highway crossings, campgrounds, trailheads, and high-use areas with easy road access. The issue of toilet paper along the trail is a more complicated issue . . . one that seemingly combines awareness, behavioral change, and some infrastructure support.

ByGregory Thomas and Harsha Devulapalli

Roughly 1 million people per year venture onto the wild and scenic Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,650-mile hiking route that winds through the West Coast’s soaring mountain ranges between Mexico and Canada.

That includes hikers out for a day in the woods, backpackers on multiday trips and thru-hikers seeking to conquer the whole thing in one long trek. Inevitably, some of those nature lovers leave behind micro-trash and bits of plastic litter. No one has sought to quantify the impact of trash on the trail — until now.

A pair of environmental scientists who thru-hiked the trail last year conducted the largest known survey of litter on the PCT, providing a sharp look at the kinds of materials people leave on the trail, in what concentrations, and where. The project was carried out, mile by mile, by Tori McGruer, 29, who holds a doctorate in environmental toxicology, and Macy Gustavus, 25, who holds a master’s degree in watershed sciences.

Here’s what they found.

A look at a few of McGruer and Gustavus’ findings

Graphic by Sophie D'Amato/The Chronicle from No Trace Trails elements

© OpenMapTiles© OpenStreetMap contributors

McGruer and Gustavus started their journey in March 2023 in Campo (San Diego County), near the Mexican border, the launchpad for northbound thru-hikers. They’d secured $16,000 in funding through grants and partnerships, quit their jobs and hit the trail.

From the get-go, they found significant concentrations of litter — bottle caps, gum wrappers and rubber fragments.

Over the next six months, McGruer (right) and Gustavus hiked the full 2,650-mile trail, which crosses the High Sierra and the Cascade Range, to the Canadian border. They cataloged — and usually collected — more than 1,000 pieces of trash. They found lots of snack wrappers, used toilet paper, Band-Aids and cigarette butts as well as novelties like Mylar balloons, a spent shotgun cartridge and a rusty horseshoe.

The researchers surveyed 1-kilometer segments of trail at 10-mile intervals — a total of 260 survey areas ● (a rate of about 2-3 per day). Each hiker scoped for litter on her respective side of the trail to a distance of about 6 feet from its center.

They handled trash objects with plastic salad tongs for sanitary reasons and deposited them into waterproof stuff sacks, “so if there was something gross we could put it in there and not worry about it leaching out,” McGruer said.

Certain heavy or cumbersome items, like pieces of an abandoned car, were cataloged but left on the trail. They categorized each item using Rubbish, a mobile app that helps users organize and geolocate litter in open spaces.

So, the dirtiest stretch of the entire trail?

A long segment bookending the San Gabriel Mountains on the outskirts of Los Angeles was the dirtiest of the entire PCT, presumably due to its proximity to a major metropolis. One-third of all the trash the researchers logged during their trip came from this region.

A few survey areas there contained hundreds of litter items. However, the researchers set a 100-item maximum when counting litter in a given survey area. When they hit that threshold, they believed they could extrapolate the trash concentration with reasonable accuracy, they said.

Mylar Balloons

Those shiny, metallic, helium-filled balloons are remarkably durable and capable of floating long distances. Strangely, they are winding up in remote wilderness areas at a rate that is concerning to biologists, as the Chronicle has recently reported.

McGruer retrieved several of them in the Southern California desert — one stuck in a patch of bushes, another submerged in a river. Survey aside, she made it a personal mission to remove the ones she found.

“One day I had like three partially inflated ones attached to my pack and someone passing us on the trail said ‘happy birthday’ to me,” she said.

The researchers found trash in about 60% of the 260 survey zones, meaning 40% contained no discernible litter. The hot spots along the trail tended to correlate with areas of easy access and high human traffic like highway crossings, campgrounds and day-use areas.

Brian Feulner/Special to the Chronicle

Many of the zero-trash areas were in remote mountain regions like Northern California’s High Sierra and Washington’s Cascade Range, where few people set foot.

That finding tracks with the experience of Jack Haskel, trail information manager for the Pacific Crest Trail Association, which maintains the trail on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service.

“Much of the trail is pretty pristine regarding trash but you do find hot spots where there’s a lot of it,” he said.

The most common trash materials found were: soft plastics, such as bits of bar wrappers or cuts of duct tape; hard plastics like water bottles and broken trekking pole baskets; brass bullet casings; paper shreds and used toilet paper; cigarette butts; and miscellaneous fragments.

In many instances, researchers encountered single pieces of stray trash, one at a time. But sometimes they’d find dozens of pieces of litter linked to a single event. For instance, in the backcountry of Shasta County they found 50 or more strands of tree-flagging tape used by foresters scattered on the ground.

What’s that?

In some cases, differentiating rubbish from natural ground materials was challenging. Identifying and classifying objects required four of the five senses — sight, smell, touch and, at one point, taste.

Unsure about the makeup of a smooth chunk of translucent detritus they found in the dirt –— was it plastic? glass? a natural mineral? — Gustavus popped it into her mouth and bit down. Glass, she decided.

“That’s not common,” Gustavus said. “I don’t encourage people to do that.”

Toilet paper

Used toilet paper left along the trail — half-buried, stuffed under a rock, clinging to bushes — is the PCT’s single, stand-out trash problem, according to Haskel of the Pacific Crest Trail Association. It is a gross, unsightly bane of trail rangers and volunteer stewards. The trash researchers found a lot of it — particularly in the northern states.

“In Oregon and Washington there was toilet paper everywhere,” McGruer said. “I was like, what is happening?”

In lieu of using a toilet, backpackers and hikers should bury their waste several inches deep in the ground, or use a wag bag and carry it out, and take their soiled toilet paper with them. Poop carries toxins and bacteria that, even when buried, can leach into nearby water sources and infect wildlife, Haskel said.

Biodegradables

Sunflower seeds, pistachio and peanut shells, orange peels — the researchers found them scattered along the entire trail route, and seeing them drove Gustavus “absolutely insane.” Yes, they should technically break down over time, she said, but hikers shouldn’t feel free to dump them in the natural environment.

“It’s kind of a misguided principle,” Gustavus said. “That stuff does not belong out there.”

Pictured: Pistachio shells on the trail in the mountains of Washington State.

The pair completed their thru-hike in September 2023. McGruer (left) and Gustavus are shown here at the PCT's northern terminus in the remote mountains where Washington State meets Canada.

It’s important to note that many PCT users actively beautify the trail each year.

Local volunteer groups, rangers and backpackers are all known to pick up trash they encounter on their outings as a simple act of altruism. Also, eight years ago a pair of young men made it their mission to remove the junk they encountered during their thru-hike; they ended up with more than 700 pounds of stuff, including a mattress.

Extrapolating from their data, McGruer and Gustavus estimate there to be about 200,000 pieces of trash along the trail at any given moment. But that’s not to say the trail feels trashy, McGruer said.

“We frequently saw trash, but often there would be a small piece in one of our 1-kilometer surveys. You wouldn't register that as a ton of trash,” she said. “I think what our survey findings say is that people leave a trash footprint wherever we go with these materials that really don't break down in the environment.”

The survey project, which the researchers dubbed No Trace Trails, was supported by grant funding and financial backing through the Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research in Long Beach via the Richard Lounsbery Foundation in Washington, D.C., and the American Alpine Club.

McGruer and Gustavus are putting together a research manuscript for peer review. They’re also seeking funds to help analyze the microplastic content of a series of soil samples they collected during their hike.

Sarah “Mountain Goat” Steinbauer from Austria hikes the Pacific Crest Trail near Quincy (Plumas County) on June 19, 2023. The heavy snowfall in the Sierra Nevada that year created special challenges for thru-hikers along the PCT. Brian Feulner / Special To The Chronicle

Credits

Reporting by Gregory Thomas. Reporting and graphics development by Harsha Devulapalli. Editing by Yoohyun Jung and Kate Galbraith. Design, development and illustration by Sophie D'Amato. Design editing by Alex K. Fong. Visuals editing by Ramin Rahimian. Powered by the Hearst Newspapers DevHub.

[birdsthatsingaftermidnight]

Meanwhile, Today in UK Politics

08/11/23

Why does Boris Johnson keep getting attention? He says that the Tories are drifting helplessly to election loss, but you know what? There isn't enough time or space on Tumblr for me to get into why the fuck he should just shut up. He was forced to quit by his own party for being a terrible human being. I can only assume that he was bored of getting attention only from Nadine Dorries, who presumably hasn't managed to seduce him yet, but has said that poor darling Boris was forced out of his job by a shadowy cabal.

Give it up, Nadine. He doesn't want you.

I don't remember it being that secret - there were mass resignations because Boris couldn't stop breaking the law, said he had an "oven ready Brexit deal" which he then tried to get out of signing because it was rubbish, lying a lot, trying to change the rules about having to suspend MPs because someone he liked broke the rules, and appointing sexual predators to the cabinet. It doesn't smack of conspiracy and shadowy dealings.

In the meantime, Suella Braverman - the Home Secretary (and let's remember that it goes Prime Minister, Chancellor, then Home Secretary in terms of seniority, and that the job of Deputy Prime Minster is so irrelevant that I had to go and look up who it is just now) reckons that the best way to deal with homelessness is to ban homeless people sleeping in tents. This is because homelessness, she says, is a lifestyle choice and, I don't know, she thinks having tents makes it too much fun.

I wish I was making this up.

Someone needs to tell Boris Johnson that it's not so much that the Tories are offering voters "nothing to rally behind" and need to offer a "positive agenda for change" so much as it is that they've stopped even pretending that they understand basic human decency, don't know that the word compassion even exists, and don't have any acquaintance with reality whatsoever.

[pacifymebby]

babe what were the riots in shields in the 90s??

Okay so I'm not actually sure but I'm presuming it's this? One of the worst riots in British history apparently. Started in an estate over the deaths of two lads who were in a car crash when fleeing the police.

The historic context, from what I can tell, is the same as most unrest in UK. Was fuelled by hatred for the police that had been brewing since Thatcher and the miners strikes.

The estate was built as spillover when they overhauled all the slums (they did this in Scotland too and created some of the most miserable places you've ever seen). Mostly what you find with spillover estates is that they're just like a box to put the poor people in out of sight out of mind to kind of keep them contained so you can forget about them? They end up being derelict, poverty stricken, often quite lawless dangerous places to live, people who grow up there end up trapped there by their circumstances, there's quite commonly high suicide rates in these places. Billy Connolly talked about the Glasgow ones in a documentary and described the problems quite well, they build all these tiny houses and move as many people into them as they can, get them out the slums, but they don't build shops or cinemas or cafes, no parks or green spaces, nowhere for anyone to go, nothing for them to do, no jobs for them to work etc, they just leave you there to rot kinda thing.

Then you combine this with the context of 90s north east, the miners strikes and thatchers police/military violence against the working class is still an open wound, anger against the authorities is already high and probably for the people in those estates, getting more tense day by day. Because it's the government and the police that keep you trapped in those places.

I saw this stat from 2021 (but this issue has been a problem for a long time, probably since before thatcher but certainly exacerbated tenfold by her)

(and it gives you context for songs like Dead Boys too)

This is the data for suicide rates across the country, London and the East/South east have the least which is honestly no fucking surprise at all. Generally those are the most affluent areas of the country. There's still jobs and an economy and it's where ALL the money goes.

Once you get to West Midlands and up you're above the average suicide rate for the country too which is not fucking surprising either.

Anyway the reason I added this to useful context about the riots in the 90s is that like, for all that there was a keep quiet don't talk about it culture (I say was because it was worse then) about suicide, it wouldnt mean people weren't angry.

So like when two lads died in a police car chase (which is awful anyway but also the police have a duty/responsibility not to risk loss of life even to suspected criminals obviously) it wouldn't just have been anger about that which set of the chain of events if that makes sense? Like general anger among a disillusioned and downtrodden demographic which is then sparked by one inflammatory incident is usually what causes a riot.

Anyway the riots were really bad, derelict houses, and shops (there was a lot of racially motivated hate crimes too apparently) were burnt down, the high street was left in ruins. The rioting spread quite far too.

"the fallout" from the riots is probably like, intensified tensions with the police in that area, a lot of fear and anger in a community, a fuck tone of people went to prison, governments punish towns for this shit and the Tories would have been making so many cuts to every kind of social service and giving the money to the cops instead, like just generally economic downturn and stuff. When he talks about cranes being static like, Thatcher destroyed most UK based industry, there were no jobs anywhere. But also right and this is something I think people forget to consider, the fallout post these strikes and riots was a sense of crushing hopelessness because we didn't win. The police and the government won and crushed the communities who had rebelled. Ultimately the fallout is an overwhelming sense of loss, grief, anger and the knowledge that there's no point fighting it cause when you fight the government come down harder, threaten your families.

The whole of the estate ended up being either rebuilt or refurbished and theres a new community center too now, so he could also remember seeing stuff being rebuilt, but I don't get the impression that's what he's talking about somehow.

Theres a TV show called boys from the blackstuff set in Liverpool (I think) that's kind of about this, how there was no industry and everyone was on the dole which wasn't enough to feed a family on, so people would try to work sneak jobs on the side (which lead to so much abuse of workers, kids in unsafe environments, deaths) because if you aren't even like 10p your dole would get stopped. Again all of it leads to suicides and violence. You can watch it on ITV player I think and if this stuff is something you're interested in beyond a Sam Fender lyric you should watch it, it's really emotive and like makes you angry but it really shows you how evil the Conservatives are and how their evil really remains everywhere. (and it explains so much about the north South divide and why there are kids being raised right now up north who will not forgive and forget for the sake of making friends with a southerner when they go to uni)

[terastalungrad]

BB20: Sunday 15 October

No episode of Big Brother on Saturday. Strange! That's how it was in early Channel 4 days. No use being interesting on eviction day, housemates. Very unlikely to be broadcast.

Noky is bothered by eviction etiquette. When Farida was evicted, too many people flocked to Kerry who survived eviction.

Noky confronts Olivia about this - a terrible idea, since Olivia doesn't compromise or hide her feelings, no matter how tactless. Olivia was relieved that Farida was evicted, and she was never going to pretend otherwise.

Trish and Yinrun bond over fashion.

Trish: I'm understanding your style more now. You're quite classy.

Yinrun: Yes I am.

They both laugh.

Trish: You've got classy style. I like slutty stuff.

Yinrun: I know.

Scandalised laughter!

Yinrun: Your style suits you.

More scandalised laughter!

Trish: Yours doesn't.

I LOVE THEM.

Matty talking positively about being in an open relationship. It's not about preventing cheating, he says, but about being open to experiences.

Olivia finds this unbelievable, especially that Matty's mother knows.

Henry and Jordan gather around Farida's bed.

Henry: Shall we say a few words?

Jordan: No. She wouldn't have listened to them.

Henry laughs the Toriest laugh ever laughed.

Yinrun and Jordan bonding over clothing. I think eviction night has encouraged the housemates to think about fashion.

Hehe, Dylan's realised the shopping was done badly.

Paul perceives that groups are forming in the house. The shopping will be a touchy subject, because the two broad groups have different values and priorities.

Kerry speculates with Hallie about Paul. Kerry reckons Olivia fancies him, but won't let herself "go there".

Jenkin's shocked that there's such argument over the food even though they had a luxury shopping budget this week.

Jenkin: All I asked for was a Kinder Bueno. And I didn't even get it.

Trish ordered lamb chops, and occasionally cooks them for herself. She's shocked that she's gained a reputation over snacking.

Hallie: Your snacking is fucking lamb chops and pasta, bruv.

Trish takes this in very good humour. She's happy to change her habits.

Later, Trish worries she and Olivia could be in line to replace Farida as a public enemy.

Kerry was a lifelong Tory voter, but was put off by Boris Johnson. Don't get too excited, though, she thinks Rishi Sunak is the best of a bad bunch.

Zak questions why politicians are paid so much. "They don't," says Kerry. Henry believes the reason there aren't good people in politics is because they don't get paid enough.

I really wish it was more well-known how much money MPs are able to make through their positions. Boris Johnson is going to be so much richer as a former Prime Minister than he was before. And he was already extremely wealthy.

Oh, Zak, you legend!

Zak: How much does the average MP make a year?

Henry: Between 60 and 70 -

Zak: The average person in the UK earns £20,000 a year. 80% earns £20,000 per year.

I did NOT expect accurate anyone in this conversation to be this informed!

The figures are out of date, and presumably he means 80% earn £20k or less - but still. Henry struggled to remember Liz Truss's name earlier, despite being a die-hard Tory supporter.

"I need to stop moaning about being in the highest tax bracket," says Kerry.

She says she was on just over £7k a year when she started in the NHS, and Zak points out that that money would've gone a lot further back then.

I keep thinking of Kerry as being older and a bit out of touch. She is ... two years older than me. But hey, voting Tory ages you.

Jenkin's really hurt by Kerry mentioning being in the highest tax bracket.

Trish builds bridges with Olivia. But ooh, they send Kerry away because they're having a big chat. In the bedroom! You can't hog the bedroom! This house has so many spaces for deep chat.

Chanelle given a secret mission - give housemates backhanded compliments to earn a big jar of sweets for the house. The more brutal, the more sweets.

Chanelle slags off:

Kerry's jumper. Says it looks like something from a circus. Kerry happily agrees.

Matty's hat. Says it looks like the ugly rabbit from Wallace and Gromit. Dylan tries on the hat to show that it's equally unflattering on everyone. "I think you look alright," Chanelle tells him.

Jenkin's accent. We don't do backhanded compliments in Wales, so to Jenkin she says, "As much as I like being Welsh, when I listen to you it makes my ears bleed. ... Do you want this tea or what?"

Jordan's style. Slags off his shirt, making Jordan want to go and change. Big Brother clarifies she was meant to criticise his SMILE.

Dylan's hairdressing skills. Dylan's trimming Zak's hair. "Have you done it with your eyes shut?" This inspires Dylan to ... try harder.

The house is delighted to get the sweets. Matty is delighted because his lovely rabbit hat is off the hook.

"I was ragin'," says Jenkin about his accent. "I was going to pull you aside and be like: BUTT!"

Jordan has changed his shirt.

Biggest reveal from this task: the housemates were provided with clothes from this year's sponsor.

Noky comes to collect photos of the housemates' family from the diary room.

Oh, she does a fun thing of pretending she's gathering people for a bad reason. Zak is DELIGHTED by her prank.

They talk about their families. They all cry. Except for Jordan, whose photo is of a lovely plaza he likes.

Henry is properly head over heels with Jordan. Gazing at him with stars in his eyes.

Trish and Zak bond over having list their fathers.

Chanelle in the diary room is given the final word of the episode. I think we're seeing the production team making sure everyone gets a chance to stand out.

[scalamore]

(Major spoilers/foreshadowing) Ch 104

Return of the cut

Chapter 104 is VERY unusual in that it's almost a 1:1 adaptation with its kkp novel chapter. Since season 2, the pace has quickened to be about 1.5-1.8 novel chapters to 1 manhwa chapter. I presume, from the producers/editors to get to the more interesting parts quickly since the series isn't popular enough to get a slow 1:1 adaptation like some other big name series (the lower the adaptation ratio, the more they're milking the series). Who knows? Anyways, that very obvious Rupert-leaning-in-to-kiss and being lost in his own world to not notice Tory is manhwa-original. He's so focused on Lari and in the mood that he doesn't even notice TORY staring from the background. And of course, Lari, coming to her senses, shoves him off panel where he's probably fuming and annoyed as he watches Tory and Lari talk amongst themselves ^^; (In the novel, after getting close to her, he walks out and then Tory pops in) --- An interesting bit the manhwa focuses on is the green ribbon that Lari gave Tory in chapter 62, and how Tory says "she still likes Lari". It's been 3(?) years already, yet Tory ONLY wears that one, and we see this chapter that it's worn ragged. Is it worn because she's worn it so much? or is it saying how her missions are dangerous? Another thing is - why did she remove it? Is it because she just returned from a mission and had taken it off because she didn't wan't it to get dirty, OR did she take it off because she hated it/Lari. In these volumes, Tory does that quite a bit. One moment she says that she hates Lari, and another she says she likes her. It's mentioned that her personality was eventually warped by the nature of being an alchemic doll, so she probably does feel both at the the same time: She likes lari, but she also hates her. Readers can make your opinion on that.

---- So Lari is finally now at the abandoned palace (formerly of Akan I). She finally has a chance to access it, since the Crazy Emperor is dead (although she didn't quite get permission from Rupert lol). It's interesting when you think back - she learned of this palace's existence from Viscount Coen, who told her to explore it to find her origins, yet she uses it to look for Rupert's real birthday (+ Tory's). We find out later that it's intentional - Lari CHOSE to ignore the flags about her birth, because she was happy enough with her current/situation life and didn't want to mess it up with seemingly unrelated information that could hurt her more. so she CHOSE to explore the palace to look for something more useful - Like Rupert's birthday, because she wanted to properly celebrate it with him this year ;_____; The information she learned about Eva's past... is different than what Trash dad told her in chapter 55. This recollection in the diary... is the real truth. The "Truth" we learned back in season 2... was half a lie to fit Trash dad's agenda to fool Lari. Such Trash.

I found it VERY interesting the panels they decided to adapt/change. It was very optimized since they couldn't exactly post whole paragraphs, but they omitted the part that when Eva came to Vellnelni, Tory was her young aide.

Basically the history the manhwa gives is that Akan I and his empress were very kind and frugal rulers that chose peace above all. But Crazy Emperor wanted to completely possess Eva, so he initiated a rebellion + the support of the people because he was a war hero with a lot of power behind him. During the rebellion, Akan I and his family went into hiding with the help of his close aides, and in that time Crazy Emperor had trapped Eva in the palace, and she had already given birth to Rupert (so the abuse had started years ago). Unfortunately, Crazy Emperor still managed to find Akan I and his family hiding in a room somewhere, and killed off the Empress, and their two children. There was also a baby there... but because of the situation, the baby died soon after birth at one point. In the end, the imperial family was wiped out. But of course, this is officially recorded history at that time, and no one is there to give the whole truth.

-- It's definitely a foreshadowing moment. IN terms of being kind and frugal, Akan I and Lari are very very similar. They both were unable to break ties with ppl they trusted (Crazy Emperor and Riche/Amelia/Belois), Akans died, and TL1 Lari was ignorant, but as we see from the recent developments, we know that TL2 Lari won't walk the same path, because her motivation now is to ensure Rupert's happiness. I have to say it again - Now, Lari wants Rupert to change, because if he doesn't, he's doomed to be sad and lonely for his whole life as Emperor. She wants him to be happy! (LARIIIIII T_T)

[ladykittenlena]

Mommies from my Next gen au

Catherine/Evelyn Evans - girl from Catherine's Adventure and girl in plane and cosplay girl from Poweredd (Edd's wife/Ethan and Eddie's mom)

Presumably Evie's father is American and her mother is English. Her mother, Suzanne Evans, is an elementary school teacher/kindergarten teacher. At the age of seven, Evelyn experienced a divorce from her parents. She has a very close relationship with her mother.

Evelyn was in the same class as Edd and was in love with him. One might even say obsessed with it. She is quite capable of killing her rivals (this trait disappeared later). I had a concert for her in high school, but now I will enjoy this one.

From twitter EddsHS.

In the original AU, Evelyn is very attractive, and even sexy. Her orientation is gay (it's not rofl). She loves Edd very much, and often tells him about it. About their physical contact, she likes to embarrass him, but only until Edd's patience snaps and he pushes her onto the bed to....

Evelyn can be thanked in terms of the fact that thanks to her Tom and Susan are together. She just works at the musical instrument store where Susan was sold.

Also, Evelyn is very caring and loving, which is observed in Next Gen Ay. She cares a lot about her children, and often worries about them. She is also able to chastise Ethan for taking illegal substances.

The opposite of Evelyn is Evie (opposite day). She has an even more outgoing personality and is more sweet than sexy. She also does not like when someone quarrels. When Nastya and Molly quarrel, she often shouts "No, why are you all so rude ?!"

Her Ellsworld Version is Eric. Eric is similar to the original Evelyn, with the only difference being that he is a guy.

In any au, she is friends with Susan and Tom.

Molly Adams - girl from Zombeh Nation and Zanta Claws. (Max and Marty's mom)

Molly was from a wealthy family, and a very spoiled girl. She was on good terms with both parents. Also her first boyfriend was Tord. That was until they broke up, and the next day Molly had an accident in which only she survived and she had amnesia. Later, she remembered everything, and noticed that Tord was now dating Anya. Then Annya introduced her to Matt.

Molly works as a fashion designer and is also a red army designer (designed new uniforms) and is very well paid.

At the beginning of the Next Gen, she began to drink even more, and often beat Max for a simple question. She also flirted with other men. Then, after Annya returned, she stopped drinking. She also loves her children, as well as Matt.

Molly has the opposite character in the opposite day ay. She has a fairly criminal past, she is mentally unstable after the accident and amnesia, and she does not like Tord (not that she liked him there in the original, she just does not like him, but there is a strong dislike here). She also has a complicated relationship with Matt. With Nastya they are still friends.

Ellsworld version of Molly - Modest. An exact copy of the original Molly with the opposite sex. Matilda for him is just a holy person. And when Vlada crippled her, Mody threw a tantrum on Tori (with whom they are also ex). But luckily everything ended well.

Here I will not say anything about Susan, because Tumblr does not want to and writes "this did not work, try again." So there will be a reblog. Because I already painted Susan in a draft, but it does not save!

Edit: also thing with Annya too🙄

So... It would be be pt.1

[scumbag-monthly]

The Young Ones - Summer Holiday 🌞

Original air date: 19.6.84

Reviewed by: @postpunkpontypandyphantomthief

Summer Holiday, the final flash in the pan, while The Young Ones had become a comedy sensation, all good things must come to an end “as they say” and the writers of The Young Ones made sure that this would go out with a bang, because they ran out of ideas.

The title Summer Holiday is a reference to a Cliff Richard song and film of the same name, this will be relevant later.

One of the details of Summer Holiday that makes it stand out compared to other Young Ones episodes is the emotion, while the cast of chaotic characters were definitely not devoid of that. In the previous episodes their reactions were always comedic and tongue in cheek, (ooer), this episode has some surprisingly serious moments for a British sitcom finale.

Scenes like when Rick has to process the fact his parents are dead, the lads realizing that they have nowhere else to go but the streets and Vyvyan, who sobs upon realizing SPG died in a brief car crash, some of these scenes still have 4th wall jokes thrown in but it’s still a surprise to see these characters acknowledge the dreaded reality of “the real world”, the fact that Thatcher was as ruddy terrible as Rick made her out to be, that the smug posh tory students had no idea about what it was like for working-class university students in the 1980s, being told and trained to enter adulthood only to have to deal with unemployment and bastard landlords.

Apathy is referenced quite a lot in this episode, there’s Mike being an inconsiderate git to Neil about his birthday, there’s Mr Balowski making the characters homeless, Dawn, the one-off university friend of the lads saying that surely their exam results will help them forget about the fact that they don’t have a place to live anymore and SPG, even in death as he rises up to the golden cage in the sky, he remarks that Vyvyan is a “wimp” for crying in his grief.

Part of what made The Young Ones stand out to other sitcoms was that it was anarchic and angry, with characters who hated each other, this is usually played for laughs, but in this episode, we see that realistically they have a lot of communication problems.

For starters, Mike the so-called “dad figure” for the group ends up not being the cool, voice of the reason that he was perceived to be, he’s a selfish tory who cares about nobody but himself and even when the lads are evicted, he’s only whining about the fact that he has to deal with it.

He is such a nasty git to Neil, when Neil was just trying to find the silver lining and celebrate something positive he had to just shut it down, more like Mike the cold, cruel person.

Neil isn’t as gloomy as he usually is, he ends up getting the top exam results out of all the lads, he has a few funny quips about the BBC’s music choices and getting his wig snatched, but he still moans which is mocked by someone drawing silly faces over him, to be fair he has a reason to moan, he wants to just celebrate his birthday party but the spirits are down, which makes him very “heavy”.

Not as heavy as when he briefly turns into the Hulk, throwing Rick and Mike over the grass like a wrestler, quite the change from his typical pacifist attitude, until it’s revealed it was merely him being shirtless and “presumably” high.

Vyvyan is lacking stimulation, he is very bored and sober which he makes everyone aware of at the start of the episode, even his meaningless violence feels less extreme than usual, he likes pondering about silly stop-motion ants being at discos (complete with sequins) and playing a bit of cricket which is really "let’s play swing the bat into rick’s face", while he gets top marks like Neil, he can’t celebrate for long because soon he crashes his car and kills his hamster (accidentally), his crying shows that he did actually care for SPG, they just had the typical snarky like/dislike relationship that some people can have with their pets.

Vyvyan also remarks that Rick is a pervert when Rick asks about gender in his Botticelli game, would this imply that Vyvyan is trans or transphobic, who knows, but people can make their own interpretations, he is quite offended when Rick mentions about Vyvyan being a girl's name, but let’s not forget when Rick said “I’m not a girl at all” snarkily in the interesting episode, and when he remarks “I am a boy” after making an insistent remark about blue aeroplanes on his bedroom wall, some say Rick’s a trans dude, most of the early fanwork depicts Rick as transfem, it depends.

Speaking of the transvestite sapphic with a cartoon worm on his y fronts, Rick is one of the few characters in the episode who is being somewhat sympathetic about their situation, he complains about his parents, and he tries to come up with distractions for their boredom (despite some tone miscommunication), he complains about being evicted, about fighting the establishment, referencing the Red Army Faction, issues that are relevant to left-wing/anarchist circles, while some usual performativity does show when he talks about his parents, thatcher and the unemployed, the eviction is quite a wake-up call, he’s still a bit of a pratt to Neil but not as much as Mike is, it’s implied that Vyvyan fancies him, he could be messing with him but also why else would he choose to mess with the prick so much? Why else would he go rummaging through his things?

"He was the punk and Rick listened to Spandau Ballet"~

Another actually “anarchist” thing that Rick does in this episode is that he manages to successfully steal a bus.

There are a few typical young ones regulars and tropes, Helen Lederer speaking like a robot clerk at the bank robbery, Jools Holland in the queue and John Otway singing Body Talk, if you look closely you can also find Norman Lovett of Red Dwarf fame, Ben Elton appears in a beer advert parody referencing the sexist stereotypes of adverts at the time, Vyvyan mentions Keith Harris the puppeteer, Mike mentions a Gone with the Wind quote and there’s a cutaway sketch of a dysfunctional “nuclear family” being gross and deviant, a mocking social commentary of the “family-friendly” 70s sitcoms that the young ones were up against, this reminds me a bit of a monty python sketch of a similar premise.

This might seem like just one of the many satirical cutaway gags made in The Young Ones about its mark in the comedy world at the time and how subversive it was, but it’s also symbolic in how comedy was moving forward, it wasn’t just a technical transition but a metaphorical one, as this was the last Young Ones episode aired and produced.

As the Lads drive off away from the city, they suddenly feel happy and energized, they’re just singing along to cliff Richard songs while Neil plays guitar, determined that they can still have a good life without silly o level results, Rick briefly mentions Una Stubbs, one of Cliff’s brief love interests, before they realize a Cliff Richard billboard is in their way, they then crash, turns out Rick was right, there were now at the gates of oblivion before the bus combusts into flames as the credits roll.

For some fans of the ratty britcom lads, this episode is more sad than funny, and as you read this analysis I’m sure you can see why, from 1981-1984, Britain had gotten used to these punk students on the television screen, they opened people’s minds and made a few knob and bum gags but they changed comedy and the world, highlighting the political issues of thatcher’s government aswell as the social issues teens were dealing with, complete with topical references to the popular shows and films like The Good Life, Dallas and The Hulk.

So to see these characters that we had gotten so used to, suddenly dying in a comedic bus crash, was quite a shock for some viewers, but it had to happen, how else was comedy gonna progress after that?

There was more comedic chaos to come both on Rik’s end (ooer) and from Britain’s alternative comedy circuit, but even today in modern shows like IT Crowd and Derry Girls, the influence and impact that The Young Ones had left can still be seen to this day.

The Young Ones would appear once again for a comic relief special cover performance of Cliff Richard’s Living Doll, it ended up being top of the charts for three weeks in March 1986.

Showing that their song shall always be sung.

[collymore]

Tory vampires having an argument about why the blood bank is empty!

By Stanley Collymore       The Conservatives still don't get   it, do they? All those doing the   infighting, are the very ones   who broke the party in the first place.   So there really, won't be any recovery   whilst any of this lot are delusionally   evidently involved in the Tory party's   crucially literally presumed recovery.   An action as basically effective as a   discernibly thoroughly ultra religious   Nun quite distinctively masturbating   herself to quite essentially, ease her   sexual frustration, then on that act's   ultimate conclusion, actually guiltily   and sadly most penitently exclaims:   "Good God what have I truly done?"     (C) Stanley V. Collymore   10 July 2024.           Author's Remarks:   Suella Braverman actually one of these principal vampires is obviously disliked because she's unquestionably evidently untalented, distinctively unqualified, as well thoroughly disloyal, and irrefutably a totally odious person!  Someone who was never, isn't, or will she ever be fit in any shape or form for any high office!     Unquestionably moreover, Suella is very vilely an irrefutably, evidently obsessive Stockholm Syndrome Useful Idiot, who is similarly delusionally entitled, and as well obsessively and comprehensively, automatically thinks negatively in everything she embarks on. And apart from her naturally ingrained hatred, obviously loves nothing better than her incessant penchant for undoubtedly, incessantly blaming others for her myriad failures!

[happy-tori-friends]

as promised. the true story of the Sonic OC That Was Twins With An HTF Character.

twas a long time ago, back in the days of toontown online. the good old days, where i was silly and just did whatever and didn't know what depression was. i was a big sonic fan, and one day i came across some sonic the hegdehog toons, role playing. excited, i think i jsut made a toon and didn't even ask to join. i just showed up as a royal blue cat, with the pending name of moon the hedgehog (her full name was actually moonalia, i decided later. because little me loved smashing together random sounds and making names, as one can observe with the names from one of my original series, oath of life. the names of most of those characters were created when i was younger, and i kept them for the sillies when i put them all in a new universe). i roleplayed warrior cats on toontown for a long time, so i was no stranger to role playing. except admittedly we did a lot of weird things in sonic clan, and sonic as a series ended up introducing me to Internet Horrors. that's neither here nor there though. most of the characters were cat toons. this will be important later.

now. i don't remember exactly what happened but one can assume i decided to play two accounts at the same time and, since i liked htf, i decided to make my (presumably) favorite character as a toon, and make moon his twin sister.

you might be thinking 'since your icon is shifty, your favorite character must be shifty, right? but lifty and shifty are twins, wouldn't that make them triplets?' well. no. it's actually lifty. and it wasn't either of them, back then. 'then maybe flippy? or splendid?' splendid is kind of close, actually. 'aha! splendont! and it would work too, because canonically did and dont arent twins!' no.

it was nutty.

so moon was technically... a hedgesquirrel.

rin, one of my original story ocs, would have had a red sonic character, and porcupines and hedgehogs are at least a little similar. moon is blue. and hedgehogs and squirrels are quite different.

also i made nutty as a cat toon. i think maybe a mouse would've been closer but. i also made dragons as cats in ttr. neither here nor there.

i don't remember how it was received but moon being a hedgesquirrel persisted. i actually drew her once a lot later, and had to go through old deviantart uploads to find it.

wow. that body. that coloring. good job 13 year old tori. good job.

after a certain point i always gave my sonic (and htf ocs) hair bc well, i dunno. it just felt right. it felt more. humanizing? even though they're anthropomorphic. the only exception is the ms paint cat felicity i submitted to some htf oc contest back in the day. i think. i dont know.

i don't actually have any htf art, as far as i know, from old deviantarts, but i do have some on an old youtube channel that i may show once day when i finally talk about my old ocs here.

admittedly this story is as Weird as i thought. oh well.

[words-writ-in-starlight]

Prompt: Grimly/Tori, homesickness

send in a character/pairing + prompt and I'll write a three-ish sentence fic!

Grimly has no idea where Tori is supposed to be right now--probably nowhere too particular, Kennies are always so scrupulous about following orders, but he's almost certainly given someone the slip to be in Grimly's run-down hostel room past midnight. Grimly feels bad for whoever is supposed to keep track of his friend, honestly, Torisen always seems to walk away from his minders with less trouble than falling asleep.

Perhaps that's not a good metaphor, though, because Tori seems reluctant to fall asleep, even here, curled on his side on Grimly's cot, with a hands-breadth between them. Grimly worries for him, in the barracks of the Southern Host, even though Tori insists, in quiet tones, that things are better since--since. Unspoken is since Urakarn, but Grimly thinks that Tori, clear-eyed and sensible as he is, can be a bit superstitious, and believes that speaking the word will summon the ghost back to haunt him.

Tori carries ghosts around with him so visibly that Grimly feels the same fear, as if Tori's mysterious past is a tattered cloud of weirding, and his voice might shape it into figures and voices and weapons as easily as the Weald singers shape it into ruins.

For a moment, the whimsical thought brings a rush of pain to the surface--Grimly misses home, where things are simple. Where things are easy, and he never sat up late, not quite touching a friend who isn't sleeping, no matter how good his impression is.

Ah, well. Grimly settles himself more comfortably against the wall, and begins composing another verse to his latest epic, about the battle of the vanguard at Urakarn. When Tori wakes up, or gives up on pretending, he'll still be here.