#real life is complicated and there's many situations where you wouldn't think of that and I completely get that

[running-in-the-dark]

the most infuriating thing in a book is when there's someone who's constantly lying about things they said to the main character, things that happened and stuff like that, and it causes problems. and yet the main character doesn't at any point think to use their fucking smartphone (that they definitely own because it has been mentioned several times) to record any conversations they have.

like I'm sorry but that's just ridiculous. at least write in a reason why they can't do that (phone is broken and they can't get a new one for some reason, the other person keeps surprising them in some way that makes it impossible to start recording, they can't find their phone because the other person hid it, etc.) or that the recordings are gone when they want to use them as proof (phone gets destroyed later, other person deletes recordings, etc.) or literally any reason why they don't think to do it.

security cameras are also a thing that I'm pretty sure everyone knows you can just buy for your own home at this point. they're not expensive. they're not hard to get.

honestly if this happens for let's say the fifth time and it's causing you massive problems, maybe... just maybe... you're a bit of an idiot for not at least trying to get some sort of proof.

[capquinn]

Under Red Skies | Q. Hughes

summary: after a fight with your ex-boyfriend, you go back to the one person you know will always have you. pairing: fem!reader x quinn hughes content: angst, insinuated smut, sorta fluffy word count: 935 ↪ masterlist

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

Shutting your car door soundlessly, you let herself into Quinn's apartment with the key he cut just for nights like this.

The nights that end in catastrophe when you and your boyfriend fight and breakup, and you run to the only person you know will have you.

“This is stupid,” Quinn whispers, watching the rise and fall of your body in the dark. Blue tinted and tempting.

“What is?” You question, though you already know the answer.

Stop going back to him, you hear his voice in your head. Just as he had told you the second time you found yourselves in this peculiar situation.

Childhood friends turned something more - you weren't sure there was a label that existed to describe it all exactly. There was history there, but it was juvenile. A fling as teenagers which fizzled as you both left for college, and things had remained platonic and normal ever since.

It was when you started seeing a guy who travelled in the same social circles that suddenly Quinn started looking at you differently. He found himself rolling his eyes whenever you arrived together at the bar and went looking for reasons to hate the bloke. It was hard at first but once you called Quinn that first night you had a fight, angry and crying, finding reasons wasn't such a challenge anymore.

That was when things changed between you. He had listened to your ranting and reassured you that things would be okay, and then when you were saying goodbye at the end of the night, the hug lasted for a moment longer than you were used to. His hands lingered on the small of your back, and suddenly you were friends and something more.

Quinn hesitates, unsure if this needed to be questioned again. Did he really need answers or real reasons? “You don’t have to go, y’know,” he says instead, extending a gentle hand to caress the delicate skin of your cheeks.

“You know I do,” you reply in a breathless whisper. You lean into his hand, and then turn onto your side. You're face to face, almost sharing the same pillow.

It’s silent.

You take his hand into your much smaller one, bringing it to your mouth and kissing his palm. He knows what it means. It came each time, and it hurt just as much as it did the time before that. What was once a gesture of utter adoration, he feels differently now. All that he cannot have is made explicit.

He rolls onto his back and sits up, resting against the headboard.

“We can’t keep doing this," he mutters.

You scramble to sit up. “I know,” you say hopelessly, allowing it all to come flooding right out from where it has been dammed for weeks now since that very first night. “It’s just… it’s complicated." You aren't sure if you're sticking around with this guy for the hope of things turning around and your love life lasting longer than a handful of months, or if you were protecting your relationship with Quinn. Afraid of the unknown and reluctant to jump off the precipice. "This is complicated. What if this is ruined? Will it be worth it?"

How are you both able to live on the threshold of something special and what disproves it all?

“I think it is,” he answers, reaching over to turn on the lamp.

He sees you clearly now. He’s been here one too many times before. Asked bad questions, wished for things to be different and distracted his heart from cracking until you come back the next time things went wrong.

“You deserve more than whatever he's giving you," he tells you firmly. "And you know that too or else you wouldn't come here every time you end things. Why won't you give us a try?" He's met with silence, and he feels the familiar ache in his heart. "If you're worried about what happened when we were kids happening again then you're making a mistake 'cause we're older now and I'm ready for it this time." He's not normally so forthright, and now you're dazed. It's difficult hearing what he's saying over the hammering of your heart. "Truth is, I wanna be with you."

And here's another truth. You knows his eyes. He means everything he says.

You fill the space that separates you both and kiss him. It’s electric. You're whirling around his galaxy except that he is right there underneath you.

Something thuds inside you that is more than mere heartbeats. It brings you so close to blurting things out that you probably shouldn't.

And you do.

“I love you,” you murmur, overcome with one too many truths.

He kisses you once more. “Don’t say things you don’t mean,” he mutters, his heart not quite willing to believe you. He presses your foreheads together, and he's breathing heavily, noses brushing.

“I do. I do mean it,” there’s a strain to your voice. Desperate for him to hear. “I want this. I want you.” Your lips brush his, hands clutching at his shoulders, fingers digging into bare skin.

He’s silent, and you press your cheek against his, pulling meanings out of shared breaths. Make lightning speak with your lips along his jaw in a way that he hasn’t experienced before.

Who is he to question love?

“Take what you want,” he pleads, hands sliding down your sides. “I’ve been yours all along.”

[tirsynni]

There's a popular mindset that I'm seeing within fandoms right now, and it's the type of mindset which destroys fandoms and makes enjoying any type of storytelling difficult.

"Well, I don't understand why the character just didn't do this."

"If I was in that person's shoes, I wouldn't have done that dumb action."

"OBVIOUSLY, the character just should have done this."

One, if the character did all of that stuff, there wouldn't be a story to tell. Two, if the character had such a godly, clear perspective of everything and the emotional detachment to complete all of the actions, it would be a boring story. Three, that's not how shit works. That's not how stories work, and that's not how real life works.

"Why did that character run up the stairs? That was stupid of them."

Do you think they knew what genre they were in? How many horror characters know they're in a horror story? Many of them think that if they're in any genre, it's romance or something.

In that specific moment, with the known options available and no information beyond what is immediately in front of them, what option will the character take? The viewer or reader is outside the action. They can pause the movie. They can put down the book. The character doesn't have that option.

Characters within a story are also bound by the laws within that story. If they have the time and ability to think on their options, that still doesn't give them complete freedom of choice. They are still bound by specific options, with each set of options having possible positive and negative consequences.

This character has concerns about his current military operation? What makes more sense? Dramatically going AWOL with all of its possible complications and consequences or staying in line? More often than not, the latter makes the most sense to the character at the time. They think that they have the time and ability to figure everything out. They don't have the information to know just how bad the situation is.

The tragedy within stories and what often makes them fascinating to us is all of the things which binds the characters to their negative choices. A story where a character realizes they're in a horror genre and are completely willing to get the hell out of there... except they can't. Because they can't leave their friends behind. Someone who knows their actions will probably lead to their own death but truly believes that it will benefit their loved ones. Someone who keeps making awful choice after awful choice for all the best reasons and can't back out now: they've gone too far and they're confident that the next choice will make everything better again.

The best characters are the ones whose positives are balanced by their negatives. Their strengths become their weaknesses. A character's confidence becomes arrogance which leads to their doom. Someone's love becomes obsession.

And sometimes, within the frame of the story, the character can make all the right decisions and still fail. As Captain Picard says, that's life, and that also makes for an intriguing story.

I love my fix-its. I love writing how something could have changed to make a happy ending. I rarely want the canon to change unless the writer made that awful ending for stupid reasons, though, like laziness or just going for stupid shock value. Even then, the best fix-its work with the tragedy inherent in the original story.

Darth Vader survives! Now what? It's never implied within the narrative that he thought the bad guys were wrong, after all: he just chose his son over the emperor, chose love and family over the Empire. Him surviving by a change in circumstances doesn't mean happily ever after. It opens a whole new can of worms.

And honestly? Sometimes the characters having two equal choices and choosing the bad, lethal choice is what makes the story that much more heart wrenching, because they were so close to that happy ending, and it was their lack of godly perspective and their mortal limitations which led to their tragic end. That's not a bad thing!

If every character made every proper choice and had no flaws which would impair their decision making, it would lead to a boring story. It would also be jarring within the context of the story and separate the characters from their own universe, elevate them above the narrative instead of allowing them to flourish or wilt within it. It's more fun to dissect what led to those choices than to just say, "Well I would have just done this!"

[crownmemes]

Detective Sentences, Vol. 16

(Sentences from various sources for detectives and/or muses that like to solve mysteries. Adjust phrasing where needed)

"I thought you hated the police?"

"So many people think that when you're exposed to death and suffering every day, you become immune. It's quite the opposite."

"The way I look at it, he wouldn't be trying to stop us if what we were doing wasn't threatening to him, and he wouldn't be threatened if he wasn't vulnerable."

"What makes you think you're such a catch? A scruffy copper who only comes home when he feels like it?"

"Is there a mystery here? Yes. Will there always be unanswered questions? Most likely. Sometimes that happens, and when it does, you just need to learn how to live with it and move on."

"You were right; it's not like the books."

"Would you care to be a little more specific?"

"You're cutting corners! You're threatening witnesses, and you're going to get yourself into trouble!"

"You have a very individual approach to detection, but we're all part of a team, and teamwork's what gets us results!"

"We all come out of this a lot less human than we went in."

"For once in your life, admit that you are up against something bigger than you!"

"Your attention span might be very short, but I need it all right now."

"Is this a real case, or one of those imaginary cases that happen when you’re bored?"

"In police training, you learn how to deal with every situation, but I think I must have been sick on this day."

"Bravery's good news. It's got to be maximised."

"You can read people. You understand them."

"You know, it'd have been a lot easier if you'd come clean when we first spoke to you."

"I do hope that you will be able to remember a few things. I do tend to come down rather heavily on people who are holding things back."

"You are not the first who has come to seduce me with some irresistible case."

"I just made a few mistakes tonight that made me question whether I should be a cop at all, you know?"

"Okay, bear with me here because some people sometimes consider my thought processes complicated."

"The truth can be so very hard to determine, but in this case, the truth seems very hard to deny."

"Are you going to read me my rights?"

"From the state of her face, there must have been blood everywhere - but as you can see, the place is immaculate. No blood, no mess. Everything in its place. He must have tidied up after himself."

"When you entered, I noted your shirt hadn't been pressed; you hadn't shaved in quite some time. I extrapolated you were a person for whom detail is not a major concern."

"Once you've got the smell of what human beings do to each other in your nostrils, you'll never get rid of it."

"Don't you dare play the innocent with me!"

"Eventually, you get a case, and you know it is the last one you can stomach and still know your soul."

[flilisskywalker]

I guess what keeps me up at night is asking what's the point of Sabine's search for Ezra, like... as an emotional arc.

(This text is an adaptation of the thread I wrote on Twitter)

Because when I rewatch the fourth season of Rebels, I get the impression that they are paired together in many episodes as a way to prepare us for a hurtful goodbye between the two at the end of the show, which is to me the same reason why they decided to go heavy on confirming Kanan and Hera's romance because they knew he was going to die.

I don't really know if the parallels between Sabezra and Kanera are intentional considering how Filoni talks about the former, but Ezra does become Kanan (even has a whole stretch arms sacrifice) and Sabine does become Hera (Deep grief for losing him) and not in a "The kid got this from his/her parent." sense, but in the sense of that the situation is really similar, which is interesting because it wasn't like this originally.

Ahsoka made Sabine's grief towards Ezra not being by her side all the time a thing.

Instead of simply letting Sabine's mission be about bringing Ezra home like in the original animated epilogue, Filoni complicates things a little bit by implying that Sabine is not doing this for Ezra, but for herself. Beyond that, almost every character notices how devoted she is to him and it even confuses some of them.

Thrawn, for example, has studied Sabine. He is well aware that Ezra is her compatriot and friend and yet... he is confused by her choice. Sabine states "You wouldn't understand." and then accepts to be stranded on Peridea just to see Ezra again. Once she found him and even after hearing he wants to get home, she did not say a word about Thrawn being his only ticket home. Instead, she simply enjoys time with him.

If you know Sabine Wren, you know that she would never ignore a huge Imperial threat and put in danger people like Hera, who is definitely an older sister type of role model to her, or feel that Ezra is the only family she has, so I do understand why people think she is very distant from the original show.

There might be a reason for all of this. A reason that I'm not sure Filoni wants to dive into, but the way he's been writing Sabine, the vagueness every time Ezra is the conversation's topic, feels like she has fallen in love with him during his absence and honestly? This makes far more sense than any other explanation.

We've seen in Star Wars before, fiction in general, that love is blind. Sabine's focus on finding Ezra is described by Baylan as something that blinds her. Not only this would justify her out of character attitude, but also the parallels with Kanan and Hera.

Star Wars live-action TV shows this year have been interesting to decode. In both The Mandalorian season 3 and Ahsoka season 1, there's a lot of subtle implications that characters want to build a life with somebody.

Mando does this in Chapter 22 - Guns For Hire, an episode surrounded by romantic love, where a droid bartender tells Din and Bo that human life is so short and then they look at each other. They want to be together, but that has not been verbalized yet. It is still very much in the subconscious.

Ahsoka does it in Part 7 - Dreams and Madness, by showing Sabine's lack of urgency regarding Thrawn and simply enjoying Ezra's company. It really implies that this was what her mission was all about: Be with Ezra. Her real desire is build a life with him, but that desire is still in the subconscious.

I believe Favreau knows all of that when it comes to Din and Bo.

BUT DOES FILONI KNOW THAT WHEN IT COMES TO SABINE AND EZRA?

[intertexts]

@stuck-in-the-ghost-zone WOE. NHW TRIGGER EVENTS BE UPON YOU.

-dakota was young-- maybe a bit older than in canon-- & out in the city with his parents when they all got caught in the collateral of an attack by some member of the slaughterhouse 9 (my impulse is siberian or one of the other messy ones) & dakota got lost and separated from them. the emotional state associated with his trigger isn't really even the horror of finding what was left of them. it was before that-- the sudden terror and panic and desperation of losing them and searching for them and not being able to find them in the crowded, violent packed rush to get away. he was up close to the fight when the heroes got there because he wouldn't leave without his parents (he's like. nine years old!! of course he won't :( ), close enough to be sprayed with hot blood, & saw firsthand the wanton violence and gore of it all & was half terrified because of it & also because he just saw her gut someone like cutting through soft butter. and he can't find his parents. that bone deep terror of oh, i'm *alone* & knowing that something dreadful is happening and you're not there and you don't even know where it is or where to be but you feel it in your gut. there isn't a thing in the world he could do to find them or help anyone. that was it. & also the other big part of it is how fucking sudden and out of nowhere it was. one minute you're having an awesome afternoon n the next minute it's a waking nightmare.

--virion saw his father betray the rest of his team in cold blood. he grew up around capes-- his parents both headed the independent team the greats, & the rest of them were always around the house n helped raise virion his whole life. he had so many cool aunts and uncles who did awesome hero work with his parents!! think new wave if it wasn't a torment nexus. he was never allowed out with them, except on patrol sometimes, but he never really had a burning desire to be a cape? he enjoyed being on the other side of it-- they all taught him how to shoot and fight hand-to-hand and resist mind shit & all of the unpowered parahuman response type shit, everything they knew so he could take care of himself. it was good. eventually he started sneaking out to watch their fights & shit, see what they do and how they do it. as much as he didn't want to be a cape, he couldn't just sit and do nothing! the last fight he snuck out to watch was the final confrontation between them and the real, dangerous warlord embedded deep into their city-- the lich. he shouldn't have come. it was so dangerous. they'd have been so mad. he saw their big confrontation and all the bluster and everything. saw his dad shrug and apologize to their family and toss down his weapons. it was a trap, of course, and the first time virion ever wished he had powers, realized how fucking useless his pistol and taser and flares were useless in this situation. he watch, helpless, as they all were quickly and brutally and unceremoniously killed, so efficient that the lich must have studied them for a very long time. or had inside information. he triggered from the bubbling cocktail of visceral betrayal and horror and wanting, above all, to have the power to do something, anything to help his family-- wishing, for the first time, that he was like them, and being frozen powerless.

--william is a bit more complicated (partly bc i want to learn more about deadwood and double check that all my assumptions r correct) but he triggered from the isolation. living somewhere that hated him, where it felt like there were threats in every tree, every aisle of the ancient grocery store, always something awful and malevolent behind him. & the social isolation too, especially. being alone and mostly friendless and wanting to get out, not sure if the awful things he's seeing are real or not, if he's just irreparably fucked in the head or he's living in hell, or what. everyone thinking he's fucking crazy. that always being the only thing he's ever known. anyway. he fell. i still have ambiguous thoughts as to the intentionality of it, as in canon. he didn't die, here, though. just-- mostly died. landed fucked up, bone poking out where it shouldn't and stuff, couldn't move. lay there for hours, knowing that no one would come, knowing that deadwood was still fucking toying with him even as he lay numb and in excruciating pain and bleeding out. anyway he triggered when they found him. <3 & yes it is extremely important that it was when they found him, not before. do u get what i mean?

[doloresdisparue]

i just finished chapter 24.... kinda in shock.... i have so many thoughts about charlotte and who she was as a character i should make a post when i can better organize them but the gist of it is something like how (if we are to trust H.H.'s narration) she constantly belittles her daughter and doesn't know how to connect with her and yet when she catches a glimpse of H.H.'s true personality doesn't hesitate to take steps to protect her daughter, like with the way she was shown to be so infatuated with H.H. before combined with the disregard for her daughter's existence it could've easily gone the very sour and horrible way it sometimes does in real life where partners shield and enable abusers but it wouldn't have, not if she had lived and we (and delores) were robbed of a world where charlotte started a new life for the two of them... i have a feeling that i will be thinking about her character for a long time...

I'm SO sad more people don't appreciate Charlottes character. She may not have been a good mother to Dolly most of the time but she was also a single mother in the 40s who lost both her husband and her very young son. A lot of people overlook Dollys brother and while that may not be an excuse to be so cold and harsh with Dolly it does explain it to a degree imo. She was struggling immensely, propbably depressed and as far as we know didn't have any friends. She moved to Ramsdale not that long ago and she might have had to move because the house in Ramsdale was left by Harolds mother for all of them and with his death she might not have been able to afford their living situation in Pisky(sp?) anymore at some point. And thats before the added struggle of Dolly entering puberty at which point theres always fighting even without the pre-existing trauma.

But despite all her struggles and complicated feelings towards Dolly she put her foot down when it counted. She did love Dolly and loved her more than she loved Humbert and the life and social status he could give her if she looked away and let him have his way with Dolly.

And thats only if we trust his framing of Charlottes death being an accident (which is dubious and doesn't even hold up for the entirety of the novel). He also deliberately omits (and draws attention to that omission) what he said to Charlotte before her death so you could make an easy case that she may have stood up to him even more than he lets us know.

She is a complex character and I wish more people saw past the caricature Humbert draws of her for most of the novel.

[viviennevermillion]

Benjamin Linus Trivia Headcanons

should i start writing for this fandom? would i get an audience from like, the 10 active lost blogs on tumblr.com? i can do reader-inserts and general stuff. have some random ben headcanons that live rent-free in my brain

warnings: some angst, mentions of child abuse (all my homies hate roger linus)

Ben learned to cook when he was still a kid. Roger didn't have a lot of interest in cooking anything and was probably fine living off microwaveable DHARMA meals and dry cereal. Ben often stayed over at Annie's house for dinner and learned early on how to manipulate conversations so they'd end with the adults giving him food or letting him stay for lunch or dinner because aside from that he didn't really get a lot of warm meals. Sandwiches were one of the first things he learned to make but it quickly evolved into complicated meals. He only ever cooked when his father was at work so Roger wouldn't demand to have some of the food as well and reprimand him if it wasn't to his liking. Ben eventually taught Alex how to cook.

Ben had the typical abused kid habit of hoarding stuff under his bed and wherever he could best hide his possessions in his room because he feared his father wouldn't approve of them or destroy them when he was drunk and enraged by a minor inconvenience.

This became a habit that continued way into adulthood. A lot of his drawers have secret compartment where he keeps items that aren't necessarily secret or vital to his plans but just a little more valuable to him than everything else he owns.

Ben became so used to lying as his default that after he becomes Hurley's #2 he has to actively correct himself. Hurley would ask him a question and Ben's immediate response is to lie before he goes "oh wait hold on-" and then says the truth.

After Alex dies, everytime he's in mortal danger he's struggling with the thought that now no one's going to remember the real him or hardly anything about him that wasn't based on a lie if he died

His favorite songs are "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel and "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra.

Has gone to Jacob's cabin at least once to rant about how much he thinks Goodwin sucks

One of those people who brush their teeth before breakfast

The thought that Jacob might not actually exist is definitely something that has occurred in Ben's mind and he tried to push that idea away everytime it creeped up on him.

Worst hay fever known to man. Is fine on the island but everytime he leaves it in spring or summer he has to pop 2 allergy pills a day to function normally

Has these cute little cat sneezes. People have definitely tried not to laugh about it in his presence.

He has never been held as a kid and it's very noticeable

Ben has been in many situations where his life was in danger but two of them include choking on cereal and attempting to teach himself how to drive after Roger refused to do it

Has never been drunk. Only over his dead body would he put himself into a situation where he's at risk of spilling all his secrets in an intoxicated state.

The music that plays in the bear cage when you earn a fish biscuit doesn't actually come from the DHARMA Initiative; it isn't in the Hydra Orientation video even though there's sound when they activate that mechanism. Ben added that music in retrospect for his own personal amusement. Definitely sat in the surveillance room snickering to himself whenever Sawyer got a fish biscuit.

He tried to draw an identikit of Jacob solely based on Richard's descriptions on more than one occasion.

[artsycrapfromsai]

What's been your favorite character arc for Amaryllis while you've played her?

Hewwo!

Hmm... That's a toughie. its hard to choose!

💕 one of them is about her and this Inquisition, who are all anti magic and magical creatures. They tend to just go and kill anything touched by it, including Brightmaids like Amy.

And that kinda traumatizes her a little, because she grew up learning that these people exist, and even having them hunt her down as a child, but the way these people kill those like her without any remorse and take horns and such as trophies - they don't see her as a person.

And it kinda eats at her for a while, and makes her depressed at some moments, because of that feeling of being looked at as just an inhuman thing to destroy just because she exists

But after some time, battles won, and experience, she gains more confidence and self righteous anger and is able to push past those feelings and fight/kill the man mainly responsible for them (alongside her compsnions, who experienced similar)

So that was really satisfying, bc Amy spent so much of her life hidden from this threat and becoming strong enough to defend herself, and then truly faced that uncaring evil for the first time, and like. Nothing can really prepare you for that, even when you try. But she got past it and came out the other end satisfied with herself and her actions and her own abilities

💕 another favorite of mine is Amy in regards to Percy. Because she and him were growing closer and closer- they initially started out antagonist at worst, neutral at best. But then they become friends, and maybe something more

And that's when Percival betrays the group, and sends them into the void (something he deeply regrets, which is something he never does. It wasn't a plan for them, but someone else, and he knew the risk, but went through with it anyway, and ended up with the deepest regret of his life)

And for Amy and co., Time is passing, years go by, and when they finally return to Percy and the others, time hasn't passed there.

So it's basically still right after that betrayal

And Amy spends a lot of those years away thinking about it, why it happened (it was pre- determined because the world would end otherwise), how it happened, if she should still trust him, why she still cared about him, why it hurt so much- thinking through all these scenarios about it, and agonizing about it, because she's the only person who actually got to know Percy as a person, because he hid himself from everyone else

In the end, she couldn't gain any sort of conclusion until she returned. And she wouldn't even know if the Percival she returned to would the same one she got to know and get close to, because another Percival from another timeline (Percy B) asked her to give his memories to this Percival (Percy A), because they explain all about the way his life has been manipulated and for what purpose and why.

But those memories would also change him into someone else with both sets of memories (Percy C), and there was a very real chance that her friend might have just vanished into a completely different person, and she was terrified about that

It was all a really complicated situation, with so many conflicting emotions (sadness, betrayal, regret, affection, yearning, fear...), where Amy was hurt by a man she cared about, but she finds out it wasn't entirely his decision, but she might not even have a chance to talk with him before she lost him again

That was her first real experience with betrayal and complicated feelings like that, and it was really fun to play with and explore those emotions.

In the end, Amy decided that while she loved Percy, it's his choice to choose who he'll become, and she'll respect that, bc everything else in his life has been someone else's choice.

But she still needed a genuine apology from him for what he did, because she wasn't just going to accept and forgive and move on. She deserved an apology and proof he regretted his actions and that he meant it- and he gave her that by sacrificing his hand to save her from being killed. No hesitation, it was her life or his hand, and it was an easy choice to make. And he further proved it by saying that he doesn't mourn losing the hand that hurt her so badly.

Them getting together was a really long and complicated character arc for both, and it was really fun to play with those deep and painful emotions - but I'm just glad they're together now and they can have fun, silly relationship stuff now lol

[isfjmel-phleg]

Why I like it: Mike and Psmith

It's Psmith Pseptember! I regret I haven't arranged anything formal because I have too many projects already and I feel like I ran out of intelligent things to say about this series years ago. (Apparently if you do a thesis on something you love, you will get burned out on it indefinitely. Rude.)

However: I am not an Intelligent Things To Say vending machine and I shouldn't expect myself to be. So I'm going to keep it psimple and just gush a bit on every Psunday (except this time, on Monday, because I ran out of steam yesterday, sorry) in Pseptember about why I like these books, one by one. At least, that's the intention.

I read Mike and Psmith because I wanted to get into Wodehouse, who had been recommended to me. I didn't know where to start, got the impression that the Psmith series was one of his early things, and figured I should start from the beginning. I was in my first year of community college and I interlibrary-loaned Mike and Psmith and I loved it.

The humor got my attention first, as is usually the case with Wodehouse. The book is very approachable, even for a twenty-first-century American woman with no background in cricket or Edwardian public school, because it's utterly hilarious. The narration, the situations, pretty much every word out of Psmith's mouth--it's all brilliant. Humor can be a means to get an audience invested; I probably wouldn't have loved Mike and Psmith as much if the narrative had taken them and everything else with complete seriousness. In fact, Mike and Psmith would probably be a lot less likable if they had been earnestly angsty and sullenly throughout. And furthermore, because of the humor, the more dramatic parts take on especial poignancy because of the contrast in tone.

But I fell in love with the book because of the characters. Psmith is so delightfully audacious. He says and does things that probably no one in real life could pull off but that he can through sheer self-confidence and indifference to any social norms he finds inconvenient. For someone like me, that was a refreshing escape to read about. Psmith stands out for his wit and unconventionality, but what promotes him from merely amusing to outright likeable is his capacity for caring about others and the tension between this admirable trait which he nonetheless endeavors to hide and his public persona of detached selfishness. He's complicated. But ultimately good. Meanwhile, Mike isn't really the nonentity that many readers dismiss him as, the ordinary foil to Psmith's exceptionality. He's not highly complex, but he doesn't need to be--he's real and relatable in a way that Psmith cannot be. The reader may daydream about what it would be like to be Psmith but may be more likely to see themselves in Mike (prodigious cricket talent notwithstanding). He's a believable teenager, caught up in the Supreme Tragedy of having to give up a dream as a consequence of his own poor choices, surly and belligerent at times, bad at thinking things through, but at the same time his heart is in the right place, and unlike Psmith, he is unself-conscious about it. He neither seeks praise or tries to conceal; he simply acts on his natural compassion for anyone in distress, even if it puts him out. He and Psmith are so alike and so different, and their friendship makes total sense.

The book was written primarily to be entertaining. Wodehouse was not trying to make a statement. I'm sure it has No Allegorical Significance whatsoever. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't have anything worth saying. Wodehouse's previous school stories, set in the same universe, had a more traditional public-school worldview. In these stories, the school was a community with its own particular values and code, which were not to be questioned. Those who failed to live up the community's standards--such as shunning sports--were to be viewed with suspicion and ostracized and must conform in order to finally gain acceptance. Mike and Psmith fit the pattern of the sports-shunning outsider, but they are presented with sympathy, and when they finally do choose to participate in cricket, it is not due to social pressure but because they conclude that it is the right thing to use their skills to help a friend in need. It's not a story about living up to the schoolboy code and restoring the arbitrary social order; it's about doing the right thing on a personal level, about the duties of one human being to another. A theme lightly treated, of course, but still something worth saying.

Anyway, this book helped me through a time in my life when I was just as annoyed with my new school as Mike ever was, and while I may not have met a real-life Psmith to help me survive it, I was still all the better for having made the acquaintance of Psmith on the page. Fictional characters are excellent companions in misfortune.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

JR: I want to start with kindness. So much of your writing is centered around it, including how many of us struggle with it. Why is kindness important to you?

GS: One of the first images I received of Jesus was this idea of somebody who was so aware of where he was and so selfless that he could intuit what was needed in a given situation to make it better. When I was younger, it hit me that that would be a superpower if I could do that.

Then I got drafted into doing my daughter's sixth grade graduation speech. And I thought, Well, what do I really know as an old fart? It was not much, actually. Except when I scanned back over my life, I had a couple of regrets. They almost all had to do with not being kind enough, which for me often meant being preoccupied with something else or being anxious or being too insecure to step up and do what somewhere in my body I knew was right.

I shared that with the sixth graders, and a few years later gave a version of that to the Syracuse group. At that point, I wouldn't have said that I was that interested in kindness. But you make a speech like that and it gets attention. Suddenly you're The Kindness Person.

For me, it's the practice of trying to believe that the person on the other side is just as real as you are. You happen to be seeing things through these eyes. But theoretically, you could flip around and see them through the other person's eyes, and it would be the same universe.

That has a lot of moral implications, but it also has aesthetic implications. Meaning that story is like a snow globe that you can walk around and go, “Oh, if I imagined these events from this point of view, it would look like this. If I change the perspective, it looks like that.” In the end, the holographic view of the story would be infused with total compassion because you'd know every angle and they would all seem completely reasonable.

JR: Speaking of the snow globe: So many of your characters are trying to be and do good. And it’s really complicated. What feels like doing good in one moment can change in the next based on something as simple as the character walks into a different room. Or we move into another character’s equally convincing POV that opposes or contradicts the one we were just immersed in. Is good something concrete and definable? Is there an Ultimate Truth to life?

GS: When you say, “Here's the situation,” and the reader goes, “Oh, yeah, I get it.” And then you switch, whether it's in that perspective or in another one, there's that moment of disorientation where the reader goes, “Okay, I thought there was just one truth. Now there's at least two. Might there be even more?” This is something I really love about Chekhov: you keep waiting for him to weigh in, to put his finger on the scales, but he doesn't. He's really good at making eight or four or whatever different equally weighted scales.

The ultimate moral work of fiction is to show us how quickly and facilely we judge. Then, if it's a good one, the story teaches you that you can keep several ideas going at once. You can even have several simultaneous moral judgments going at once. To me, that's the highest form of it....

GS:

Kindness doesn't mean niceness. Ultimately, I think it means realism. I always use the example of somebody goes into a coffee shop, and the barista has been crying. Okay, what's the kind thing to do? Well, we don't actually know, because I didn't give you enough information. Even when you're standing there, you don't have enough information. Then it becomes a referendum on how might one decide? And that has something to do with what's going on in your mind before you walk into a coffee shop. If you're thinking I'm such a great, generous teacher of kindness, and then that person is the crying, you’re going to leap in whether you should or not.

I think there's a natural beneficence that rises in us, but the problem is, we don't always know the truth of that situation. A lot of what we think is the truth is our mind supplying some bullshit and we react to that rather than the actual situation. So to be kind might be exactly equal to being so quiet minded that you see clearly, and then your natural goodness will just rise up. But that's all theory.

JR: So beautifully put. One of the biggest complications is that one crying barista might want her tears acknowledged, and the other one might want them ignored.

GS: That’s exactly right. I was walking through O'Hare a couple months ago, and I saw a young woman coming the other way just weeping. I thought, I could either be the obnoxious old guy interfering in a private moment. Or she might be on the very edge where somebody's got to say something to her. I couldn't tell.

That’s where I think it’s good to look at your preset. Why do I want to rush over to her and reassure her? We each have a sort of ambient preset – for me, it’s a mild saviour complex – that might interfere with what the actual moment is telling us. In other words, I was in a particular place when I saw her. And maybe that was a good impulse. Or maybe it wasn't. It’s literally that beautiful phrase, my heart went out to her. So that's an ongoing truth--and that's just somebody walking by in an airport. But what to DO about it? That’s the question. So this leads us to the question of awareness, and of how fully the dataset that is “this moment” is coming through to us.

https://janeratcliffe.substack.com/.../the-kindness...

[thanks Rebecca Solnit]

[goingtolebanon]

nobody's perfect all the time, however some have every little word dissected by many and intent projected upon them, usually unfairly. i couldn't imagine my every move being under a microscope like that! even as a queer person i'm not always a fantastic example, and part of that is unlearning old behaviours. i think it's also easy to judge from a 2024 perspective when you've basically been raised differently by online societal standards, versus being older and personally experiencing the before.

i don't think it's dissecting every little word to say that i'm not 100% on board with a straight public figure saying homophobic slurs to a crowd at a con he chose to participate in. i also think i addressed the "before" pretty clearly in my first post. i get that he experienced this firsthand. i also think it's every person's responsibility to continue to question things as they get older. to a certain extent, it's also a fandom's responsibility to not uncritically uphold a real guy as an ally.

it kind of seems like we're at an impasse. i do totally respect and empathise with where you're coming from. i also think that "he's human" means that it's also okay to critique someone. i don't think i'm doing this in an intensely negative or personal way. i'm not calling misha collins mean names, i'm not saying i hate him, i'm not saying he's annoying or whatever. i just don't love how he approaches his relationship with the queer community some of the time.

i know it's easy to lump in people who disagree with you as people who hate the person they're critiquing, but i actually think it's important to speak about someone's actions in a nuanced way because they are an actual person and to view them as such. misha seems to me like someone who is trying really hard to be supportive of the queer community and i think that is noble. i also think that he needs to be more mindful of that approach and that people need to stop enabling him when he does things that have the potential to cause actual harm to people. however, i don't think he has bad intent like you seem to be implying, and i don't think i implied that in either of my previous posts either.

do i think misha collins is (at least trying to be) a decent person? yes. do i think he has several extremely harmful takes on issues such as the ongoing palestinian genocide? yes. do i think he has been through a lot in his personal life in the past few years? yes absolutely. do i also think he should be more thoughtful about how he presents himself in situations he is literally choosing to be in? also yes. do i think he needs to speak on every issue? no! and i sometimes wish he wouldn't! i understand your empathy about public figures but again, he literally chooses to speak on these things. he's a complicated person and we are all complicated people. i'm not cancelling the guy for christ's sake i'm just saying i didn't like that he said a couple slurs 😭

i'm going to stop responding to these, at least at the length that i have been, but i do hope you have a good night (assuming these are all the same anon) and that you consider what i've said here.

[flowerbloom-arts]

thoughts on the joxter x moominpappa ship?

I'll start off bluntly and say that I don't like the ship.

Not to say that it's invalid, it just feels ill-fitting for the 2 characters at least with the way I've seen it presented.

(BIG ramble down below)

I think it mostly hinges on Snufmin's existence and thus it being a funny situation. But I don't think Moominpappa and the Joxter would ever be interested in each other in that way.

Moominpappa explicitly does not care for Joxter, he views him as incompetent yet mysterious, but rewarding to impress. Moominpappa doesn't think of him very highly, but not in an active rivalry sort of way, he just doesn't capture his interest with bright starry eyes like Hodgkins does.

I blame the 90s series with its bare-bones characterization (and mischaracterization/misrepresentation) of the characters, making them and their dynamics so boring that it leaves it all to the imagination of the audience, which gives way to the most stereotypical fandom archetypes for the characters you can dream of. Most of the ship hinges on these fanon characterizations; characterizing Moominpappa and the Joxter's relationship as a rivalry with romantic tension or as Joxter being the annoying one of the duo while Moominpappa is the Regularly Annoyed Guy.

The only people the Joxter has expressed interest in is the Mymble (romantically) and the Muddler (which he seems to have a close bond with, to the point where he stands up for him and shares food with him), I always imagined the Joxter saw Moominpappa as an annoying enigma who is far too easy to mess with and only cares for Hodgkins so they don't interact much, much of the same goes for how the Muddler views Moominpappa aswell.

I also don't understand the romanticization of the main ship's fathers having dated in the past beyond how funny the situation is. It makes me very uncomfortable to think about and I wouldn't feel so inclined if I was either Snufkin or Moomintroll. If someone would go for a "the Joxter and Moominpappa fell out so it's so romantic how Snufkin and Moomintroll got together" and uses that as some cosmic fate angle I just don't.... Know how to feel about that. It just further cements Joxpappa as purely an extension of Snufmin and Snufmin is already a ship I'm getting tired of.

We also know too much about Moominpappa, I think. The only people who occupy his mind in a very positive way are Hodgkins and Moominmamma, he sure does have friends but they're just friends to him, Hodgkins and Moominmamma were very formative people for him and isn't the type to give that honor to anyone he liked. When it comes to the Joxter and the Muddler there's plenty of wiggle room and room for speculation, Moominpappa is established as an unreliable narrator (which is an issue I'm afraid I've been having to ignore because it extremely complicates things) but what he felt at the time was real to him, we get to see inside his head throughout the books, while the Muddler and the Joxter and Hodgkins get none of that privilege. Thus it feels wrong to me to force a ship that never had a hint, especially with Moominpappa in the picture.

I also don't see the narrative benefit of Joxpappa, it doesn't fit neatly into Moominpappa's arc or themes. The dynamic of high-strung attention-seeker vs wants-to-live-life and lazy cat is a fun dynamic to think about to be sure, but I can't imagine a romantic aspect to it because they haven't actively butt heads except for the time Moominpappa was being the worst when it came to the Island Ghost debacle.

I ship the Muddler and the Joxter because the nervous wreck and aforementioned cat dynamic is both fun and gives way to many interesting themes that are backed with the pre-established dynamic of the book. I see them as two completely different people brought together by the commonality of being considered strange and having a need to care for each other.

I ship Moominmamma and Moominpappa (although relatively recently) because I see these two different people who love each other in different intensities and would do anything for each other as we see in many adaptations. I see them as opposites holding paws because their opposing traits are what keep the other from falling into extremes and they just want to make each other happy (even if Moominpappa is more than selfish and both of them rely heavily of gender norms).

The Joxter and Moominpappa I can see potential in but the fandom has soured the appeal to me in more ways than one. The intensity isn't there, there is no strong feelings for each other or even opinions, they're incredibly lukewarm and often get on each other's nerves but they don't interact enough for it to be a big pattern.

A better parallel to Snufmin would quite literally be Moominpappa and Hodgkins. Because much like Moomintroll does for Snufkin, Moominpappa has a great and obvious admiration for the man and has more than a few rambles talking about him, he payed attention to his body language, he enjoyed him immensely despite the lack of social skills, he got legitimately depressed when he left for work for a long time, he was part of his special thanks in the preface next to his wife and the Hattifatteners who gave him the adventure he craved for a long time. Hodgkins is Moominpappa's true Snufkin - albeit I don't think it can be read romantically like Snufmin, more in a fatherly manner, but it's far, far more than he could ever have with the Joxter.

And as a Moominpappa kinnie I do say most of this should be accurate.

Anyway how's about we focus on real dyanmics instead of fake ones for a bit? I'm craving Moominpappa and Hodgkins father-son bonding.

[mamamittens]

Well, I've been pondering something for a bit now so I'll just jump right into it!

Obnoxiously self indulgent OC nonsense under the cut

So, obviously, one of the things you need to consider for writing romance is the why.

Why are these two (or more) in love?

Love is a hard thing to hold onto and in real life, rarely has a clear, singular answer. It's a fluid emotion that shifts constantly, which is why we have a very wide range of things that represent, compare to, and explain love beyond the clinical, chemical reactions. To love is a uniquely powerful experience, something that literally triggers a series of chemical reactions inside of you with no conscious input. So the why of it all is a very big and complicated question that few answer in its entirety.

Think "He makes me laugh" from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It's obviously more than that but also... Isn't. For a woman like Jessica, that simple truth moves her to love the arguably very silly man that is Roger Rabbit.

Now, there are usually two approaches to this situation.

All at once or over time. First sight or after many nights. For certain characters one of these doesn't make sense.

Typically, love at first sight is believable in characters that are impulsive but self assured. They're wild enough that a single moment is all they need to just know and self aware enough to identify it without doubting themselves.

Over time is usually seen in characters who are a bit more serious but withdrawn. Even if they actually fall in love at first sight they'll deny it until the emotion is so overwhelming they can't ignore it a moment longer. Maybe they have a lot of self doubt or are so introspective they get lost in the weeds. These types of characters look before leaping even if they know it's the only option.

So, naturally, if I want to write a low-key romance, I need to decide where they are on this spectrum.

For Thatch, I'm fairly confident that he's not quite a "fall in love at first sight" kinda guy. Sure, he's quick to identify interest and make a preliminary gauge of what kind of interest he has, but he's not so naive or foolish to settle his heart so quickly. He's a good judge of character though, so it's not far behind if the chemistry is there. Gentleman enough to not be aggressive unless given a clear indication of interest.

Nikia on the other hand, would take a while to get there. Unwilling and unable to admit the depth of emotion involved for quite some time. Used to drifting out of people's lives, she'd likely ignore any interest at first, certain that it'll be moot soon enough. Or that it wouldn't be returned and is therefore useless to pursue.

So where the internal conflict between them would arise is in these two approaches to love. After all, I don't plan for there to even be a confession until after Marineford for extra angst lol

Thatch doesn't fall in love with Nikia at first sight. He sees her, thinks "damn that's a pretty lady" but it's only when he crashes at her place for like, a week that it really happens. I'm thinking he comes back from foraging for local ingredients and she makes him a hot drink and forces him to warm up before cooking. Settling a suspiciously warm blanket on his shoulders with a smile and he's just... Struck. It's a soft, quiet moment where he sees beneath the cool professionalism, feral barn cat attitude, and sees genuine care. She didn't have to, but she thought about him. His comfort. To the point that she gave him the blanket she was using before he came in and got a new one for herself from the cold closet storage. Her favorite, in fact, clear from how worn and soft it was and smelled like her so much his own shirt smells like she wore it for a day after close contact for barely an hour.

Nikia falls in love along the way. Grows fond after a trying week of cohabitating with another person for the first time in a very long time. Finds herself looking forward to his calls to the point that she predicts the times he calls and ensures she's in the lodge for them, even if it means taking patrol a little later or putting off her bedtime a bit longer than usual. Noticing how elated she is after his calls and thinking about their conversations well into the next week. And when she realizes it, she quietly puts it in a box, unwilling to pop the cozy bubble she's in. She can't ask him to stay and she doesn't think it's fair to expect commitment when he'll be gone for so long. So she stays friends and hopes if he does find someone, they can keep up with him and make him happy.

Between the two of them, Thatch is the one that likely suspects returned feelings first. After all, if she actually hated him, she wouldn't answer his calls. If she wasn't fond of him, she wouldn't be willing to talk for well over an hour about anything and everything. But this isn't something you bring up over a phone/snail call. This is an in person kind of conversation.

So it's the second time they're meeting in person (uh, second visit to her island, the second meeting is at her lodge where he's a bit of a menace and realizes his feelings while she settles from feral barn cat to real fondness). Or rather, the second visit is when he realizes that she almost certainly has feelings but doesn't recognize it. He's seen enough forlorn lovers to recognize longing and love in a glance and it genuinely throws him when he figures it out. So, naturally, he's stuck in an awkward position of trying to figure out how to encourage her to face those feelings so he can return them without being an ass.

It's obvious to him, after all, that she's never felt like this before.

But it's also not very fair to her if he reveals his emotions because what kind of a first relationship is it when he has to leave for likely another year until his crew makes the rounds back? Most have a few flings closer to home and he can't give her that kind of commitment at the moment. Setting aside the issue that he's a pirate, a Yonko Pirate at that.

He can't force her to confess, but he also can't expect her to want to act on those feelings and spend most of the year totally alone, waiting for his calls. Hoping that he comes back or even makes it out alive of his arguably very dangerous career as a pirate.

Sure, some couples make that choice, but they're not usually grown adults already and one of them in a relationship for the first time. One of them constantly socializing with new people while the other sees maybe less than a hundred people over the course of a year, most of those she's related to.

So he has to leave it for her to decide if she's ready to make the leap, knowing all the issues they'll face right out of the gate, or try and pursue a less troubled relationship. Without the pressure of knowing for sure that he's willing to try, because it's easy for him to say that since he's the one with the more dangerous profession (that he knows of, he doesn't know the 'hunting' license doesn't apply to just animals). He's not the one who'd have to wait for a sign she's still alive. And if anything happens, she's more likely to catch the consequences of their relationship. Socially or otherwise, even on the Grand Line on an island not beholden to the WG.

He's got the least to lose for trying and he knows it.

So he leaves it alone, still calling every week or so because he is still in love, until the plot catches up.

Then they both get to see how seriously Nikia takes her feelings and commitment to his memory when everyone else fails to take the shot when they had the chance.

Sorry not sorry Ace and Whitebeard. If you wanted Teach dead for good, you shouldn't have even bothered squaring up. Just put him down like he deserves.

[finding-hashem]

I've been having a crisis with my conversion, and I was wondering if maybe you could have some advice for me. Basically I contacted a (conservative) rabbi back in September 2022 and we've had a few meetings since. He agreed to sponsor my conversion as long as I take an intro to judaism course as well as solo research and monthly meetings with him. I've had a lot of financial stress, a big move, school complications (I'm a nursing student with 15 hours of hospital clinicals a week + classes), and a physical health exacerbation that caused me to have to quit my job. As a result I've missed most of the ITJ class I signed up for and haven't met with him since November. He hasn't reached out because he said he wouldn't (it's on me to schedule the meetings and keep up with my conversion). I'm afraid that at this point he's given up on me and my conversion. And I'm afraid that even if I reached out at this point, I'm still not at a place in my life where I can take on a weekly several hour class as well as solo research on top of everything else going on in my life at the moment. What should I do? Logically, I want to just send pretty much this ask to him with a few alterations, but I'm so anxious about it - about letting him down. I haven't been able to make it to services much either. I worry he thinks that I'm not dedicated to conversion. I can't ask him to wait on me for months in case I become ready this year. I may not even be ready until after graduation

Hey there, I'll do my best to answer!

First, I get it! It sounds like you've got a lot on your plate and you don't have a lot of time and energy to dedicate to your conversion right now, and that's okay. I took several breaks during my conversion process because of college, health, and finances. There is no real time line to a conversion - its my belief that if you're meant to be a Jew, you'll get there eventually! You aren't a bad person and it won't make your conversion any less valid if you take a break for months or even years before you have the resources to commit to it.

Second, as far as contacting your rabbi, absolutely do! There's no shame in letting him know your situation, and he'd probably prefer to know that you're taking a break as opposed to just disappearing. You can definitely reach out and say "Hey, I really appreciate all the time/effort/education you've given me, but I'm not able to continue the conversion classes right now. I'm still interested in conversion, there's just been too many constraints on my time/finances/etc. Is it okay if I reach out in the future when I'm able to commit more fully?" In all likelihood he won't be upset or disappointed or think you aren't dedicated or anything- things happen in life and sometimes stuff has to be put on hold.

I hope things get easier for you and you find your way back in the future if you still feel called to convert!

Followers feel free to add to this if have other advice!

[marshmallowprotection]

Yknow it’s been years of me playing this game, I can’t play it a lot like I did in HS, I’m in college. But in college I’ll sometimes be able to spare 11 days to one characters route.

And it’s like I love MM, not just because of the romance, but bc the RFA is so found family? Like all the members have such devastating backstories, extremely complicated family situations, and different personalities that clash sometimes, but they’re a family 😭.

Doesn’t matter what route you prefer, I just know that after everything that happens, we’d all log into the chat room and talk about our lives or find time to get together. Bc even Separated, with everyone pursuing different dreams/goals they set for themselves, we’re still connected.

Off topic but I think that’s one of the reasons I find it difficult to commit to SSUM (besides spending money to get a full experience) since I got used to an entire set of characters talking to eachother along with MC throughout the day, everyday. That one on one convos sometimes in chatrooms but were mostly reserved in DMs and phone calls.

There is something special about this game, and it's really hard to shake that feeling from your heart when you get that warm and fuzzy sensation. These characters feel so tangible and real that you can't help but fall in love with them and want to be friends with them. I’m grateful that I’ve had the RFA in my life. I don't think I'd be the same person if it wasn't for being able to interact with them the way I have after all these years. In the same vein, I think it could be said just the same for them.

They wouldn't be who they are if it wasn't for their friendships with each other. 

It's been a while since I've had a game capture my attention much like this one has. I definitely play other dating sims but none of them hit like this one. I think it has to do with how much dedication to found family and supporting each other was put into it. You can't help but want to be a part of this found family once you see them in action. 

I'd like to believe that they're my family. I'm sure many people feel the same way. 

I don't care much for the SSUM, either. When I'm playing an Otome, I need something to hook me in that will drag me like a fish on a lure to its fishermen. Ignoring the pure money-grab aspect of the game that I've definitely shared my distaste for before, interacting with just one character doesn't pull in the same mystery. It's slow, but that's purely by choice since you've got to be committed to the game for over 200 days. I commend anyone who's been enjoying the SSUM and liking it as the story expands! But, it sure isn't meant for me.

Granted, the only reason I would continually want to play it would be to get Easter eggs about characters from Mystic Messenger. I don't think I could go through 180+ days of Teo to get to the point where the man is in Mint Eye to get my sprinkle of Ray crumbs. 

It isn't bad that you get to interact with the character one-on-one, but there's not a lot of story pull going on since you're just interacting with one person. It takes a long time for things to be revealed because you're getting to know him in a more realistic manner and that takes time. I tend to enjoy a suspension of reality when I'm playing these games because I want so much hitting me all at once. 

So, it isn't a game that would bring me any joy to play that much. If I'm only playing it to get Easter eggs, I do not have that much fun. Because you're supposed to be enjoying the content you're getting with the new character, and even if you get a Sprinkle of something from a previous game, you're still supposed to be immersed in what you're doing. But, that's just for me personally. I enjoy having a lot more characters to interact with and things to do with myself when I'm playing the game.