#she’s kind but not nice I suppose which is probably better overall as someone that I need to interact with

[disappearingcigarette]

yeah shit is gonna be rocky I think with the friend I’m staying with

[annabtg]

Can I ask why you like James? Everything he and his friends did are toxic male traits. They deserved to be expelled for how they treated Snape. All that guy wanted to do was study and spend time with the girl he loved. Snape shouldn’t have called her a mudblood but that was provoked by James. That guy had ruined Snape’s future and made him turn to the dark arts. How can you support someone like that?. Lily was in love with Snape and I’m certain James snuck a love potion to her or manipulated her into thinking Snape was evil. Snape deserved a happy ending with Lily, and he would have been a better father to Harry than James ever could have. Unfortunately, James arrogant and bullying personality rubbed off on his son. I don’t get how you people can like character like that. Snape deserved Lily because he loved her more than James ever could have.

Is this 2015 Quora?

Well, I meant to get some writing done, but there's always the afternoon, I suppose. I can never resist an opportunity to ramble about my favourite characters!

Can I ask why you like James?

Sure you can (case in point) but why do you care? Do I know you? Do you read my writing? It doesn't seem like it, because he has a central role in it, often highlighted with tags such as "James Potter is a Little Shit", so you'd have an idea already. You're probably just asking to distract me from writing more fic about him. Slightly bothersome, but ultimately beneficial to my essay-writing skills.

Everything he and his friends did are toxic male traits.

As a pharmacist, I will tell you that the dose makes the poison. Anything can be toxic if you take enough of it.

They deserved to be expelled for how they treated Snape.

They did die in the end, which I understand is not as good a punishment as being expelled, but it will have to do.

All that guy wanted to do was study and spend time with the girl he loved.

Spending time with the girl you love is only a nice and honourable thing if she also wants the same thing. If she tells you she's not interested, it's creepy and disgusting.

Snape shouldn’t have called her a mudblood but that was provoked by James.

I fail to understand how a boy who can't even begin to utter the word and is obviously smitten with a girl, can convince another boy to call that same girl a racial slur. It seems rather counterintuitive.

That guy had ruined Snape’s future and made him turn to the dark arts.

Okay listen, I know that working with teens can be a pain sometimes but overall getting a job with tenure at the most prestigious magic school of Britain at the age of 19 is hardly a ruined future. I have many friends who would turn to the dark arts for it.

How can you support someone like that?

Well, he's hot and I have a thing for arrogant smart-arses.

Lily was in love with Snape and I’m certain James snuck a love potion to her or manipulated her into thinking Snape was evil.

Wait, no, we're not on 2015 Quora. 2015 Quora would be claiming that Lily was an ungrateful bitch who treated Snape so badly even though the poor sod loved her with all his life. Because honestly, we never see her showing any kind of love towards Snape. She's always lashing out at him or trying to get something out of him. So self-centered.

Snape deserved a happy ending with Lily, and he would have been a better father to Harry than James ever could have.

As the wonderfully loving way he treated Harry in the books proves beyond doubt, I assume?

Unfortunately, James arrogant and bullying personality rubbed off on his son.

I'm going to have to play the scientist card again but I have to inform you that genes don't work quite like that.

I don’t get how you people can like character like that.

Does this post help at all?

Snape deserved Lily because he loved her more than James ever could have.

Lily was a whole person and could choose her own partner. If she would rather marry the guy who loved her less, that's on her, not on James. I suppose he must have had some qualities that compensated for his less-than-perfect love.

[nextstop-fixationstation]

Do you think Sasha's blatant dismissiveness of Marcy's interests was just a testament to her inability to care for things that didnt interest her, or do you think, perhaps, it's something that was developed over time as Marcy didn't stop trying to get them to watch War of Warlocks and play creatures and caverns?

I ask because, if I'm not mistaken, Matt once said they would sometimes play games together when they were alone and I always found it odd how the strategic side of CC didn't appeal to Sasha, which got me thinking if she didn't feel somewhat put off by Marcy's approach to the situation?

I quite like this interpretation because it adds another layer to their communication issues, but pre-amphibia Sasha definitely looked like someone who didn't give a chance to things that didn't outright interest her.

Sorry for the long ask and I hope I made sense here!

Thanks for the ask!

to be honest, I don't think it has anything to do with inability to care or reaction to Marcy's insistence that they watch WoW/play CC. I think that this is much more a testament to the state of their overall relationship, which allowed Marcy to do things no one wanted to do in their presence and allowed Sasha to be kind of mean about it, all while Anne panicked about how to handle the situation on the sidelines.

Sasha still played games and watched the film, paying attention enough to know the plot twist at the end and to know what kinds of things Marcy liked, she just wasn't very nice about it. I think it's more of a testament to how people can get comfortable with being casually mean to each other or bully each other even if they don't actually enjoy it. In the same way, it's easy for people to settle into a routine of being fine going through the motions during shared activities instead of discussing with each other and finding things everyone can enjoy. In Marcy's Journal, Marcy talks about how they all come to terms with the fact CC isn't something they all enjoy, and Marcy resolves to find something they can all do together!

(Also, and this is an aside, I suppose, very little is actually said about Sasha and CC, and it is the case IRL that sometimes people just don't like a game system. Sasha could have liked the strategy but hated the RP or vice versa, or the dice and number system could have been too frustrating for her to enjoy. D&D has strategy and RP elements, but it's far from the best in either direction. If you wanted a pure strategy game, you could probably just go back to Chess, and if you wanted a better RP system, you could almost certainly find a better one out there by an indie creator or big company! D&D just has brand recognition.)

I think that when it comes to Sasha, it's important to note that Sasha's character and arc don't pertain very much to the concept of pure "interest." That's a very "Marcy" or "Anne" thing. While everyone in the Calamity Trio has something to do with attachment, Sasha has much more to do with power and control. Sasha and Marcy maintain a relationship wherein they don't question each other and just go along with what the other does, backing them up even if they don't care about or for what they're doing. It's why Marcy has so much confidence that Anne and Sasha will be okay with the plan with Andrias, and it's why Sasha is so convinced that Anne and Marcy will just go along with her coup. This is a flaw in their relationship, not a feature.

Perhaps Sasha wouldn't give things she didn't care about a chance if she didn't feel it interested her, but I think it's probably more accurate to frame it as it being ignored if it wasn't beneficial. Canonically, we actually see that Sasha pays great attention to things that seem to disinterest her, even if it doesn't feel that way! That's part of what makes Sasha so interesting, at least to me

[nikofortuna]

JTTW Chapter 54 Thoughts

Chapter 54 for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group!

There is going to be what could be considered some political talk at the end of this post as it is relevant to the topics present in this Arc of the story as well as to present issues and I find it important to talk about. While this Arc has definitely been funny in many places, it also touched upon some serious topics for the most part in an impressively tasteful manner.

Anyways time for the men to get objectified! Specifically the pretty boy monk, although we all know at least some of the women would be into the yaoguai look, let us be honest.

The reasoning for the marriage is quite lacklustre, if the Queen wants children this badly she can just sip some river water. But I suppose the others dare not question her and probably know the true reason themselves already.

Untrue, he did permit the harming of yaoguai, which are equally sentient beings.

Apparently the six dragons related to the carriage refer to six horses that pull it! The German translation clarified this in a trivia bit.

Hold up, semi-indirect cut-sleeve mention? And supportive Zhu Bajie?! Unexpected, but wonderful to see! Although it does make the total neglect of mentioning Sapphics even more telling on the author. Still we take what we can get and just that small mention is huge.

Overall this was quite a hilarious chapter! My critique of the last chapter still stands that this is very much written by a man and that is to be kept in mind of course, but even then it is still amusing. And for the times it is also rather progressive, showing off how women are just as capable as men with the whole kingdom being run and every job being done by them and they are all very successful! The kingdom isn’t struggling or anything, it is thriving!

The clear cut villains of this Arc also reflect these progressive notions! The first one was a man gatekeeping women’s reproductive rights to put it in modern terms, which is still a very prevalent issue nowadays, so it is especially nice to see people way back in the day considering such actions evil as well.

Then with the scorpion yaoguai we have a woman not respecting another person’s boundaries and trying to downright force them to do something they really and clearly don’t want. Both of these villains thus carry a theme of taking away someone’s autonomy and are punished for it, if in the first case not quite to a truly satisfactory degree in my personal opinion.

It is well and truly a shame that such sentiments can still be considered progressive nowadays instead of being the norm. For one the reproductive rights of women of course, but also that men can fall victim to a violation of their boundaries, domestic violence and the like as well. Not to mention the objectification aspect, which has been made very clear by putting the guys at the center of it!

It is an ever relevant Arc, which is both impressive and good to see the kindness and consideration inherent to people regardless of time as well as depressing that we still have not gotten all that far in comparison to those times and even regressed in some ways.

Here is to hope for a better future!

[thefirstknife]

I feel like Amanda's death was just too abrupt. Like yes we've been building to it, but the scene itself seemed too sudden? It felt kind of weird to me. Like the pacing was a little off.

It was a little off, probably because it's really hard to make something with such a time constraint. It can't be particularly long but has to set everything up and finish the scene. Also, I believe it should've been a little clearer about what's happening. I needed to rewatch and get confirmations from others about certain details that explain a few points.

I saw people being confused mostly about where was our Guardian; we were not in the same room. We were securing the main tunnel, Mithrax was leading the prisoners out. Amanda was in a separate room to open the gate, near Mithrax, not near us. They're two separate areas entirely.

When Mithrax activates his Splicer gauntlet, the trap triggers and a countdown to the blast starts ticking. The countdown is in Uluran so it was super hard for people to figure out what it's supposed to be. As soon as Mithrax does this:

It trips the alarm and the trap, and you can see the countdown:

The thing I circled is the countdown. This also triggered the lockdown which meant that someone had to override the system to open the gate before everything blows up. That's why Amanda is hotwiring and she's on a timer. She has to hotwire it in time to make sure the prisoners and Mithrax escape before the base blows up.

The countdown on the monitor still ticking down and obviously getting close to the end; you can see fewer symbols now so it's basically out of time for her. And she knows it. She stayed and she waited for Mithrax to tell her they're through, because that's all that she needs to hear. She willingly gave her life to save them, knowing that she's not getting out. And she also probably bet that Mithrax would not leave if she said something. The blast was also so big that it almost caught him anyway, but thankfully Eramis was there to block the entrance.

I definitely feel like it could've been done slightly clearer, especially with the countdown. Just so it's easier to understand why she couldn't leave or why someone couldn't have gone to pick her up and even why it had to be her, and not us. Some of these details were slightly lost in execution. I definitely processed the whole thing a bit better after a chat that cleared up some of these details. Like, initially I didn't understand why there was a pause when she finished hotwiring, I figured she was gonna leave. I get it now that I know she knew she's about to blow up. She had nothing else to do but wait for the blast.

It's not the worst thing ever as some comments online have claimed, but it could've been improved with a few extra details. Overall I think it was fine. I really loved Mithrax and his words at the end where you can hear him being devastated. I also enjoyed the unexpected Eramis cameo. Certain pacing issues aside, I do think that the actual blowing up scene was done really well. Could've been really distasteful or unintentionally funny, but I felt it was animated really nicely with the slow motion and music.

[pbandjesse]

Welp i thought I was doing pretty good today. Are three meals. Had a Popsicle. But just threw up so hardcore. That was not fun at all. I do honestly feel better after throwing up but man did that suck.

But thankfully for the majority of the day I felt good. It was mostly a good day. I did have very very strange dreams last night. But I did sleep pretty well overall.

When my alarm went off I was a little disoriented from the dreams, but I was okay. I got dressed and my hair felt very dirty and it wasn't helped by how humid it was outside. Obnoxiously humid. But it was fine. It would still be a good day.

We left here. James has loaded everything into the car already, which I appreciated greatly. We stopped at McDonald's for breakfast. It was nice to have my regular breakfast after so long. I didn't get a soda and I missed the combination but I thought it would be better if I didn't have so much sugar first thing. I would get a lemonade later on, when I felt like I wasn't hydrated enough.

Setting up was quick. James helped me but there was a lot of other stuff today that they had to focus on. It was skate day! The news was there! We had a bunch of extra vendors for the skate stuff. I loved how busy everything was and it brought in new and different people and that was just really great.

I was very excited when Blanche and her mom came and had a table. Blanche had a table with a million friendship bracelets and her mom had photos and paintings. It was so nice to have them.

Ann would get frustrated with some of our vendors today because they were arriving at 9, which is when we are supposed to be open and done setting up. But I still think it was a really nice and positive day.

I would focus on my temperature blanket today. After cutting all the July yarn yesterday I was determined to get that completed worked up. And it would take about 2 hours but I did it! And I was really happy about it. It was also really nice to show people what I was working on. Because even a few people who recognized the type of loom, they were really surprised that I can make panels on it and it was really cool to share that.

I would also finish the three squares for the little blanket I'm working on and I will probably get those sewn together tomorrow. I am really excited about all the work I got done.

And I made a few sales. I made $85. And I got my lemonade for free which made me very happy. James bought us some pies and snacks. And there was a really nice breeze. It was a good day.

I was happy to be done though. The last hour was pretty slow. I hate that I kept watching TikToks but I was just really bored! I would have some nice conversations but I was ready to go!

I worked up and loaded the car. And went inside the museum to hug on James. I would start helping check someone in but it was a weird one and James would tap back in to help. Perfect timing on my husband's part.

I would fill James in on my afternoon plans. Shake shack, five below, Ulta, target. I thought I might go to the craft store but I had to tap out after target.

The problem started at shake shack. At first it was great. I was really loving my sandwich. But I got halfway through and thought I was going to be sick. I sipped my drink and tried to be okay. I wouldn't force it. Instead packing my leftovers to go.

I drove to five below. Got myself a bunch of snacks. Alexi told me that sour stuff helps her stomach feel better when she feels quest. So I got this ridiculous sour gel. Which I used to love that kind of candy when I was a kid and I still like it now apparently. And I did find that it helped.

I would get myself two sanrio blind boxes. And then walked over to Ulta. Where I found the spin pins I needed to replace. And I got a new stick blush. The one I got a few months ago had glitter that I didn't know about. So I'm pretty happy that I found one without the highlight.

I walked over to target. I would get some frozen foods and a lemon. I walked around the rest of the store but didn't get anything else. I got what I needed and decided I needed to go home.

I sat in the car for a little. Opened my blind bags. Got a pompom purrien who is my favorite. And cooled off and caught my breath. And then headed home.

Google took me a really weird way home but it was fine. Got a parking space right outside our door. And was happy to be home.

I put the frozen stuff away. And took a shower. I was feeling a bit queasy and questionable. But the shower helped. Washing my hair helped a lot. And then I laid down and ate sour candy.

I was doing pretty good but the queasy feeling kept coming back. James would come home and would hang with me for a while. But eventually they went and made dinner. They had pasta. I had a quesadilla. Sweetp kept trying to steal it from me which was rude.

But I did not feel great. And that would continue. We laid in bed and James held me and I have found if they press on my side it helps the bad feelings. So we laid there like that for a long time.

I went to brush my teeth. I have had a dry bad taste in my mouth most of today. I think from being dehydrated. I was trying a tongue scraper that Jess got me when I was like. I'm going to throw up. And it was very bad and very upsetting.

James would run in and brought me some water but I was very very distressed for a bit there. But I drank some water. And brushed my teeth again. And I just had a little apple strawberry juice. And I feel a little better. Mostly I am just really tired.

Tomorrow I am hoping to sleep most of the morning away. Because I'm working a wedding from 2 to midnight. And I need to be up and ready to go! I plan on taking my anti nausea meds since today didn't go amazing. And I'll make sure I'm drinking water. And it will be a great time. There's going to be an alpaca there and I'm very excited about that.

So let's hope that this was just a one off and I'm going to be okay. I will feel better tomorrow.

I love you all very much. Send me good vibes. And send my mom congratulations because today she marks 41 years sober!! Incredible. I love her so very much and I'm proud of her for this accomplishment in self care and self restraint!! Love you mom!

Goodnight everybody!!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Hurdles and Challenges

Wow. Sometimes the world goes to lengths to give me a break. Though honestly, it's kind of backfiring because apparently the world doesn't know me very well.

See, I was debating calling out today. It was nearly 5am before I got any sleep because the stress and worry and ... well, everything ... caused pain flare and migraine. I woke up before my alarm, feeling a little bit better overall, but still kind of crap. Still, I know that we're struggling a little at work and I'm off all next week so I decided to take painkillers about it and carry on.

Apparently the Small God of IT had other ideas, because there is currently a hiccup with our patient records system and it's not letting me log in. I've spoken to IT and this is not a me-problem; this is an IT problem and while they are working on it, they have no idea when it's getting fixed. Though I have to say, IT was a little stunned when I got on the phone to them and they started the, "Have you refreshed the browser?" thing and I went, "Refreshed the browser, restarted the browser, cleared the cache, restarted the entire computer, everything. Nothing worked". I get why they had to go through all that, but I kind of wish they'd looked at their notes before running me through the "A statistically significant percentage of end users are ignorant of anything beyond 'press button to do thing'" spiel. We could have skipped a whole part of the interaction that way.

Anyway, so I'm sitting here, wiggling my work mouse every so often and keeping an eye on my email client, and honestly getting shit all done. I could check the typing queue, at least, and that honestly isn't too bad right now ... though it's about to get worse because Goblin's going out to an appointment and may or may not be back today. (I hope she's okay.) The thing I said about the world not knowing me very well is ... well. I could probably take it easier, not worry so much about immediately knowing when I can get to work, maybe even say, "Maybe this is for the best because I feel horrible and could use a sick day" ... but I can't stand being forced to not do things. I get nervous when IT things are going wrong, because what if it's a huge problem that won't get fixed for days? I need to know when it's fixed, so I'm going to keep trying. Plus, if I'm honest, I am an ornery so-and-so and I only get more determined when faced with a set of hurdles between myself and a task - whether I need to do it or I just want to, I want to know I can.

On that subject, Veilguard. I woke up nearly an hour before my alarm, which means I'm running on maybe four and a half hours' sleep right now. But I figured since I was up, I'd check in on Veilguard. Now, it would have been nice if someone had warned me how long it takes to configure shader settings, but never mind - my early wake-up meant I still had some time to poke at things. From the looks of things, I can play it, at least in early stages. I might want to look at whatever invincibility mode the thing has, and will be careful to not stand near any cliffs just in case, but I've been making it through the prologue without too much issue. It helps that this isn't my "real" playthrough yet, mostly because between compiling shaders and figuring out the character creation thing, I didn't get that much time to actually play. On short acquaintance, though, I think the issue is mostly the visual noise, so to speak. So much is happening on the screen that it's hard to know what you're supposed to be focused on at any give moment. I'll probably get used to it. I'm not going to be seeking a refund, anyway - which is good because I barely have time to do so. If games are going to spend over half an hour configuring shader settings at launch, Steam needs to be more generous with its return policies.

So ... yeah. Today's been me dealing with the hurdles technology sets. Not entirely winning, but coping. I'll have another try at restarting my work browser just to see, and then find something to do. I mean, maybe I could even get through the Veilguard prologue on this practice character. (I don't even remember what I named them; that's how tired I am.)

[chronicallydragons]

Tag Game: OC interaction

I'm finally catching up on tag games! Thanks both @tildeathiwillwrite and @illarian-rambling for the tags! I'll do both here if that's okay!

Rules: Provide a short description of your oc, then using the description given by the person who tagged you, describe how you think the two of them would interact.

@tildeathiwillwrite's oc: Hector Epsilona is Caenum's resident Watcher (which is a detective/bodyguard/mercenary-type job). He knows the law (and its loopholes) very well, and uses both extensively, and enjoys a small amount of freedom to operate outside the law if he sees fit. He is extremely protective of and attached to those he cares about, especially his apprentice, Luc. He is generally polite, if a bit stern, and is always looking for a way to turn something into a lesson. I used the Wheel again (it's a brilliant idea!) and got Sophie from my MG werewolf WIP

My OC: Sophie Beatrice Larsen is a 12 years old and is a sixth grader at Forest Hills Elementary. She's 100% in her "weird 12 year old" phase and embracing and loving every second of that. She firmly believes mythological creatures are real and will go to the ends of the earth to prove they actually exist. She's delightfully weird, incredibly passionate, and super curious. She's naturally good at tracking and investigating and looking for clues and asking questions. She's also got a large amount of sass for such a tiny human and won't just standby in the face of injustice. How I think they'd interact: Sophie would probably idolize Hector, tbh. I mean, he's a detective??? She's absolutely taking notes and copying every single thing he does so she can be a better detective too. Whether or not Hector is chill about this, I have no clue XD ---

@illarian-rambling's oc: OC: Elsind is a 20 year old changeling whose true form looks like a mannequin wrapped in raw meat with five fins ringing its face, and who can transition between a solid and liquid state. They change their disguise frequently (they can only do people, not animals) and use the pronouns of whatever face they’re wearing. As a person, Elsind is anxious, easily flustered, cries a lot, and is overall very kind-hearted, despite working as an assassin for a rebel cell. She ended up in that line of work because she wants revenge for what the nobility of her home put her through - kidnapping her at thirteen to serve as a court freak. He thinks if he can assassinate his target, he can earn his courage back and be more than another discarded toy of the ruling class, even if the idea of killing someone makes him sick. Indeed, classism is where Elsind gets very passionate, as well as talking about romance novels. They long for love, even if they think no one would accept a changeling without a disguise. I would also say she’s chronically unlucky. If anyone is going to slip in the mud in his nice new dress, it’s Elsind. All I have written down on their character notes is “eager to please, easily overwhelmed, great combo of traits,” which is pretty much Elsind’s deal. The Wheel has chosen Lizzie--also from my MG werewolf WIP. I suppose it's appropriate that the best friends get chosen together (though for what it's worth, Sophie would be FASCINATED by Elsind and would beg for them to change their face and show her what his true form is and would 100% love her true form) My OC: Elizabeth Page (Lizzie) is also a 12 year old 6th grader at Forest Hills Elementary. She has pretty debilitating POTS symptoms and is often dizzy, fatigued, and in pain. She's incredibly loyal, loving, and kind. She really sees the best in people. She's also a werewolf. Because werewolves are so often depicted as monsters and were nearly hunted to extinction in the 1500s, it's against werewolf law to let nonwerewolves know to keep them safe. Lizzie adores Sophie and wants to help with the investigations but she's not allowed to tell and she spends the first chunk of the book terrified that Sophie won't accept her if she finds out the truth. How I think they'd interact: Listen. A huge proportion of my characters are shapeshifters in someway, so it's no surprise I got a shapeshifter when I pulled a character at random. But I think the fact the wheel pulled Lizzie to meet Elsind is a really good match. Lizzie's also incredibly anxious, kindhearted, and ALSO ready to seek revenge. A big plot point is that Sophie and Lizzie find a new kid who was just recently turned into a werewolf (Lizzie was born into a werewolf family), and Lizzie's ready to square up with whoever it was that attacked a 12 year old boy. So I think Lizzie and Elsind would probably definitely get along.

I'm nervous to tag people because I'm going to try to get through the rest of the tag games and I only have like 3 or 4 people I know are okay with tags and I don't really want to spam tag anyone, so... open tag?? (if you want to be tagged, please let me know!)

[degenderates]

ok fuck it. ranking covers of a home at the end of the world by michael cunningham because guys some of these covers slap and some of them are the ugliest shit i've ever seen. this is the kind of post i would have used to make back in my tiktok days but there's no way im opening that app by my own will again. so mutuals read this post.

last place/ugliest cover first.

the stock photo. literally what is going on here. the font is practically unreadable and makes no sense. the image itself looks like someone pulled it right off shutterstock. its giving my middle school vsco account. why are there three women on the front? the story is primarily about two guys and one girl. i mean there is a second female pov but she's not part of the polycule. font is clean but ugly. bye.

the movie poster one. i have so much beef with this cover, even as a movie poster. they literally took three screenshots of the movie and overlayed them into a weird collage type thingy. why is colin farrell standing like that?? why is the character jonathan in the back?? it's giving disney channel. it's giving early 00s--in a bad way. no rights at all. 🍅🍅🍅

the perks of being a wallflower one. i guess there was a craze for late 90s books to have typewriter font in the middle of a minimalistic cover?? i hate minimalistic, abstract covers. you could choose to tell us something about the book but no. here is an orange circle and a black circle. okay.

the modern cover (i assume). i like the watercolor and how it's not too busy but there's still a discernable image (unlike a CERTAIN cover i just discussed...🙄). the font kind of fucks up the whole thing though. it doesn't match the vibes of the book at all. it's very new-adult-romance and just feels off. because yeah technically the book is about new adults and their relationship drama but it's not this...cute.

the uk cover (?). the quality of this image sucks but i literally could only find it on abebooks.co.uk so. it's not bad, just really busy. the font has a shadow so it can be readable but that makes it feel even more cluttered. i like how the angel statue makes an appearance, but all the colors and how bright it is just makes it feel like a little too much.

the color burned one. honestly while i like the vibes i'm not quite sure who this lady is supposed to be. that looks like a wing so she's probably the white angel statue, but she looks too human. and angels aren't different colors like that. i like how this is simple and black, very classy. but ultimately it doesn't really make a lot of sense.

the grey one. this is simple, but nice. it's dark but with light shining behind the house--a nice balance of hardships but also hope, which fits the story. there's a swingset, which makes sense given the story is about growing up, in a sense. and there might have been a swingset at the actual house in the book. can't remember. the font is clean. a little sci-fi/futuristic for my taste but that's alright i guess. this is the cover i have. i guess i should be lucky it's not one of the previous ones but i really wish i had the next one...

the first edition. look it's classy. it's gothic. the angel is there. the sky looks like it could be ohio or nyc. there's powerlines. the font is stylish but not over the top. it's not too bright. it's slaying. one of my favorite things about this cover is how it emphasizes the angel, because the book itself was written around michael cunningham's seminal short story "white angel" which i have talked about a lot on this blog. it also is in a similar pose to the actual angel statue it was based on, the black angel of iowa city (shown below). i'm a fan. i wish i had this cover soooo bad<333

~~~

overall thoughts: most of these covers are kind of shitty lol. this book deserves better</3 if one of y'all live in the US, dont care much about covers, and want a free copy of this book i'll send my copy (the grey cover) to you for free just so i can buy the top ranked one on ebay lol. anyways if u got to the end and found this at all entertaining, tell me so. this was fun to do except when tumblr deleted the whole thing and i had to remake the entire post!!! lol!!!! and y'all should read this book because it's very good and very messy queer and i adore it deeply. <3

[variousqueerthings]

Well, you don't steer the Tardis, you negotiate with it. The still point between where you want to go and where you need to be, that's where she takes you.

We've headed to Bill's second proper episode. The Doctor is in a somewhat non-dissimilar position to back in s3, but not spiralling into a series of suicidal urges (well...) -- in the sense that we're at "taking on a new companion is Not allowed because I'm sad (and in this case because the Master is being held in the cellar), but... well, wouldn't it be nice?" the difference between Bill and Martha is manifold, it's just interesting to imagine character change in the Doctor, who's consciously got not just Martha, but all of his companions in mind when he's interacting with Bill... and, possibly, Susan a bit, considering that picture in episode 1. Bill, to me, feels correct in being the final companion of this era, she ties a lot of emotional themes together going all the way back to Rose, and her greatest trait to me is all the questions she asks/the kinds of questions she asks

right now Bill is following the Doctor with the knowledge that out there in space, her almost-not-girlfriend-turned-puddle-creature is also hanging around...

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 10/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 7/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 7/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 5/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 9/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 8/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 5/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 10/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 6/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 5/10

FULL RATING: 72/100 (if I can count….)

this season, I tellya. I like this episode despite its flaws (flaws which come from some deeeply ingrained scifi tropes that are due a good Poking at)

OBJECTIFICATION: Woooo, we've done it! none of this Nonsense. also Bill's top is cute, and feels to me like something that didn't come out of a fashion catalogue -- I just mean by this that she's someone without a bunch of money, she'd probably have some Fits that she's really into and this gay top gives off that vibe

PLOT-POINT: Bill really engages with how she feels about travelling and the kind of adventures she's in (ofc we see even more of that in the next episode). in this one she's noticing that the Doctor runs into danger and tries to get her out of the way, and simply follows after, because she thinks there's something kind of destructive and lonely about that behaviour -- and this is what leads her to figuring out key parts of the plot as well

there's also this neat moment where there's a statue of perhaps Nefertiti and Bill stops and compares herself for a moment, and it feels very "I'm Black and I'm in space and I have both history and future" which is part of what her story is about -- before the Doctor she was very much floating from one day to the next, with all these questions she didn't have the privilege to be able to ask and have respected and answered. the Doctor really functions so often as a professor in their stories, being really indulgent with these questions, but still challenging her to figure things out for herself and letting her challenge him when she notices the flaws in his logic (or in the next episode, gaps in his truth)

COMPLEXITY: it's relatively easy to follow the twists and turns of this one, and they're quite good twisty-turns. the one thing I question is its ending, and a bit of its buy-in, but that's about Politics

I liked the feeling of this one though. I liked what it wanted to say, at heart, and I liked a fair bit of how it said it

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: Bill's first own adventure. She's noticing that the Doctor has a tendency to run into danger. she's having some feelings about what the future of humanity might look like. it's not so heavy on Stuff outside of this, but that's fine, the point is really "how does Bill react to time-and-space"

COMPANIONS MATTER: yeah yeah yeahhhh! she really does! and it feels like a conscious choice to go from River Song's "we do as we're told" type line, to now where Bill really challenges the Doctor's limitations. and because she does, vital bits of the story are revealed, to us and to the Doctor

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: I feel like I should have taken more notes on the Doctor's behaviour in this episode, because it's very much the oppossite of this/the Doctor is fallible, but I wasn't conscious enough about whether it's saying something about where the Doctor's head is at that he didn't consider that the colonists might already be there, and could have risked blowing them -- and the Vardy -- up. regardless, I think the Doctor is very happy to be travelling again and specifically to be travelling with Bill

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: this episode is very self-contained, its narrative of colonising a planet because earth is [insert some kind of catastrophe that's not quite spelt out for us] doesn't relate to any other, similar episodes of the same, and I think it could have done. it's quite a popular theme (as we will get into)

“SEXINESS”: Bill is here to tell us we're post the need for stupid faux-sexy talk

INTERNAL WORLD: I think for where it is -- that is a "post"-colonised world, and I will absolutely be talking about that in the point below -- it's very well developed. the way also it threw the Doctor for a loop that the colonists were already there!

I am fascinated by how "post"-colonised is depicted via wheat fields. mono-culture harvesting is no good! (I may be overanalysing but that's the thing about "colony" -- it needs to be complicated as concept in modern scifi, it's well overdue for it)

I also noted in "previous doctor who" that it doesn't connect to any other narratives about Something Is Up On Earth so we must leave narratives it's done, so it's sort of ambiguous handwaved Reasons that bring them to this plot. perhaps if that was more grounded, their desperation would feel more real

but it works, the way the mystery comes together. the Vardy in the wall, the old spaceship full of memorabilia from earth, the shrine to the first dead, and the pods of sleeping people. I really like all that

POLITICS: oooooohohoo it's one of my favourite kind of stories, "everyone is people!" the way to win at the end is not destroying the robots, it's to acknowledge their rights to the planet on which they live. I also like that the majority of the colonists (we'll get to that word in a sec) are South Asian, until we get to gun-man-dude, who's not meant to be in the right. there's just a lot more casual and deliberately thought out diversity from the looks of things, making the future of humanity feel far broader

that being said, there are sooome elements to the whole thing that of course I cannot help but pay attention to- first of all, of course, the idea of colonists to begin with is always something complex that conveniently tends to pretend that wherever a colonist lands is empty before they arrive. that is the case in this episode as well, where the plot asks the audience to simply run with the fact that this planet was colonised, and we arrive to the story when "colonised" is its state, that's how we the audience first see this world. what it was before colonisation is not a part of this story

I really would be fascinated in Doctor Who moving forwards grappling with that idea of the implications of "colonist" because it's been the word habitually used in scifi for so long, without thinking about it, and although there are episodes that deal with immigration, with oppression of one species over another (notably, with humans over others), and with stripping resources without "considering" or perhaps caring for the consequences (and then there are consequences), the very concept of colonist isn't so challenged yet

actually if anyone can point me towards a science fiction story consciously writing on colonialism, which I'm sure there are, I'd be very interested

anyway, for this episode, one of the prime science fiction conceits that I would like to see challenged one day, is the "empty" planet just waiting for humans to populate it. maybe this episode has already been done, but not in nu!who, so again, if anyone knows an audio adventure, a classic story, a book, a comic, I'd be very interested

I also just watched Interstellar for the first time yesterday, so now I'm thinking about the popular narrative of "something's up with earth and it's so fucked, we have to go to somewhere else" which is... well, it's very colonialist, it's very Elon Musk and billionaires in space leaving the poor suckers to die, it's very defeatist, and dare I say it without going a biiiit into sentimentalism... it's very ungrateful to the earth, as narrative. it's time we complicated that "easy" shorthand for why colonialism must be done, the same as we need to complicate the "easy" setting of the conveniently empty planet

SO this story is not about the idea of colonialisation, but the Vardy (who have been helping to prepare the planet) are self-aware, and, according to the Doctor, were here first. I think the throwaway joke at the end lets down the story a biiiit, when the Doctor asks about discussing rental agreements for the humans being allowed there, and the Vardy then show a money sign and a ding effect

don't insert last-minute capitalism on a seemingly abundant world where everyone needs to learn to get along! I think this is partly a consequence of the episode needing to end and not having enough time, but I think drops the ball on that

however! tiny swarms called The Vardy who communicate with humans via robot interfaces are people! that society could become so in a particular Cyborg kind of way as long as it's not capitalist, but that's another discussion

FULL RATING: 72/100 (if I can count….)

this is a solid episode -- it's not perfect, and it kind of falls for "easy tropes" rather than real originality or challenge to concepts, but where it really really works is Bill, in my opinion

this makes a big difference to previous companions, where that's often been the point I've rated middly-to-low, because episodes have struggled to give companions something to do and/or a reason to care about what's happening around them

Oh Bill, you're so great

[clunelover]

Parent teacher conferences:

We were supposed to have an interpreter for our meeting with E’s teacher (he’s Colombian and does speak English but not super well and heavily accented - like the words all flow together and he repeats himself so it can be hard to pick out exactly what he’s saying). But the interpreter got her times wrong and only showed up for the last 5 mins and just kind of rehashed and clarified the stuff we’d already talked about.

It was surprisingly or I suppose not so surprisingly hard to talk to him about pronouns! Even though I had come equipped with some stuff written down (like in Spanish, E would like to be “elle” instead of “ella” or “el.” And not señora). He claimed to understand, and said “I don’t want to…misgender, yes?” So he “got” it, but then just kept using she/her the whole time he was talking to us (even though I have explained xie/xer to him over email and again just now in person). His larger point though is that since Spanish is so gendered, and a lot of these kids are still just learning Spanish, he doesn’t want to introduce confusion (and then there’s the added layer of the confusion that can arise when he speaks English). Then when the translator arrived, she was translating what the teacher said about E as “he” so…yeah I don’t know. It’s hard.

On the way out we ran into parents of an NB friend in the same class (who uses they/them) and we quickly told them about the translator thing and the pronouns thing, and I said something like “maybe the pronouns conversation would have been better if the translator was there for that part” and the dad said “yeah…we have had a couple pronoun conversations with him already.” Which was…well, I was going to say it’s nice to know he gets other pronouns wrong too, like it’s not just the unusual xie/xer that’s throwing things off, but…idk, IS that nice to know? Heh

Anyway - overall, E is a great student doing awesome in reading and math, helpful to other kids, and the teacher said that while he was at first concerned about how many “breaks” xie needs, now he sees that xie does get xer work done so it’s okay (of course then we did also fill him in on the ADHD diagnosis - THERE’S A MEDICAL BASIS TO THOSE BREAKS!)

C’s teacher said he’s way ahead in math which we knew (we got him a second/third grade math workbook that he uses during independent math time) but also that he’s ahead in reading skills which always just surprises me since he’s behind where E was at that age (not that I’m pitting my kids against each other! I just had this box checked off in my head that xie learned to read in 4K, he didn’t, he must be “behind”). But she says he’s close to reading all the way! She also said he needs a lot of help with emotional regulation and has big reactions to small things, esp when he has to stop doing something he likes and move on to the next activity. Poor guy. I told her that he didn’t have persistent enough symptoms to get diagnosed with autism but that I think he probably has it, and she said “yeah I see some signs.” BUT! Then! She offered to see if he could get some in school support, talk to the school mental health team, etc - which I didn’t even know our school had, and/or I thought it was something you had to compel them to do rather than something they’d offer, just due to having so few resources. So, that was neat!

Idk today I’m feeling overall optimistic - like, yeah, both our kids are neurodiverse, but they’re getting help already, and teachers understand more than they seemed to when I was a kid (esp about the need to move and that it’s not just bad/disruptive when someone can’t sit still), and they’re very smart, and they still have friends, and it will all work out.

[repo-net]

Hi friend! As fun as Monaca was, it is good to see Nagisa is back! 💙 After “Monaca” ranked her friends, I’ve been wondering how you would rank the WOH in terms of your personal favorites? I’m assuming Nagisa is your favorite, but out of the others do you have a 2nd favorite, 3rd, 4th, 5th ect. or is it just Nagisa’s the best and the rest are kind of equal to you? (with the exception of perhaps Monaca?) Just curious but you don’t have to answer. Have a great day! 💕

Hello hello, thank you again for another ask! It was quite a fun week, I appreciated the small change in theme I took for a bit, but it's nice to finally have a refreshed and updated look again now that we're back to normal.

Ranking the Warriors of Hope, huh? I've been asked this question a few times before, but I'm not sure if I've done it here yet? I can't quite recall. I do have a personal ranking though that hasn't changed and likely won't ever change, but I'll skip number 1 since I think it's pretty obvious who's taking that spot.

5. Kotoko Utsugi

Kotoko's cute. I think she's entertaining and a lot of her lines hit the mark when she's actually allowed to have depth (something that DR tends to fail on), and she probably has my favorite design when it comes to the Warriors of Hope. Her personality is funny and I just wanna give her a hug because of the horrible messes she's been through.

But in the grand scheme of things and appreciating her overall character, I just can't overlook the clutter of mishandling of the themes in her writing. The game didn't treat it with nearly enough respect as they should've, from the weird as hell shots of her underwear, to the whole motivation machine... thing. I have an obvious issue with that entire segment, but I at least see why Kotoko would act in such a way. But the fact they turned it into a minigame...? With the instructions for it ending off by basically telling the player to not enjoy themselves too much? Leaves such a sour taste in my mouth.

For the same reason characters like Mikan are low on my tier lists (though I don't actually dislike or hate any character, the lowest grade I give is just a 'god, I really don't care at all'.), Kotoko gets the same grade. Fun character, horrible handling and presentation.

4. Jataro Kemuri

Y'know, there's a bit of a gap between Kotoko and this one. Not that big, but enough that I can decisively say every time someone asks me who my least favorite Warrior of Hope is, I would say the former. Anyways, moving on to Jataro. I think one reason he's over here is because he suffers from what I call "middle character syndrome", where he doesn't 'die' early enough like Masaru to leave a first impression, or someone late like Nagisa to really set you up for the climax. He's stuck in the unfortunate spot of having to follow up from who came first.

But that doesn't mean I don't like him. I think his trauma and backstory is one of the more unique ways of portraying mental abuse. While I think they could've done a better job of actually giving us time to digest his story and see more context in what really happened, I think his attitude (and his voice actor: god bless Michelle Ruff, she does an incredible job) and how he's so ruthless because he loves being hated is intriguing.

It's not enough to get him that high, but for what it's worth, I enjoyed Jataro while he was on screen and I wish we got to see more of him and Masaru, they badly needed more screentime. Speaking of which...

3. Masaru Daimon

Ah, here's the boy. If you thought my issue with Jataro's screentime was bad, man - Masaru's issues go way bigger than that. This poor fella gets a total of two scenes to shine in - the part where the Warriors of Hope introduce themselves, and his boss fight. If you wanna be generous and make it three, then we can count his supposed funeral, but as far as I'm concerned, the only one who got any sort of character build there was Nagisa and Monaca.

So why is Masaru so up high on my list despite the fact that he, y'know. Barely even existed? It's because he left his mark and set the tone well for the rest of his members to follow up on. Establishing himself as an arrogant, noisy brat that you just wanna pummel in his intro, with making a few lines here and there that make way for light-heartedness (wieners!). And then, he shows his weak heart. Beating his arm up (that scene was and still is hard to watch btw) and making subtle references easy enough for the viewer to make inferences from. Building what's coming.

That's what Masaru does. He lays the blueprints down for the rest of the kids, and that they all have reasons for turning the way they did. Being the first example is as important as closing off the story, and Masaru despite how little time he got was able to pass that test.

2. Monaca Towa

Yep, it's pretty obvious who my second favorite Warrior of Hope is if you've been paying attention to my blog, lol. Monaca is a horrible and terrifying child. She has done plenty of things wrong. I want nothing more than for her to receive her comeuppance and get what she deserves. And that's why pickle satan is my second favorite Warrior of Hope, my favorite villain/main antagonist in the series, and one of my favorite characters in general. And it all roots back to what I believe is most important in a character - presentation.

Believe me when I say this; a character that annoys the viewer will always be worse than a character that repulses them. You want them to think 'oh screw this guy, i hope they get owned and beat eventually', absolutely not 'oh screw this guy, get them off my screen, i don't wanna see this anymore'. You want to have the audience desire their demise, not be so irritated by them that they don't even wanna continue seeing the story anymore. Monaca plays her role of the despicable villain incredibly. She is so easy to hate in the ways that you wanna see her get destroyed.

I could go for a long, long while about Monaca and make a post of her own, honestly. Her dynamic with Nagisa is a one-sided tragedy (that I honestly think is more co-dependent than most people realize.) that ends with her pulling off one of the most horrid scenes in the series by mentally destroying the psyche of another character to the point he can't even muster the will to fight her anymore.

Her whole motive - it's initially believed that Monaca wants to be the next generation of Junko Enoshima herself, but the more you look into it, the more hints the story gives, until the buildup where the plan was for it to be Komaru all along... it's an excellent build and subversion that makes sense. Her writing works. Her character works. Everything clicks with Monaca. I just wish her arc ended more satisfyingly in DR3, even if the absurdity of it was pretty funny. Monaca's great. Love her and I'll always write about her.

Thanks again for sending the ask! I apologize this took a while, I've been busy these past few days in preparation of the upcoming school week. Hope to hear from you again, and have a great day!

[linalilia]

[meet the prisoners!] prisoner 009: kuroki riku

HE'S HERE i was so excited to post him tbh. i'm not sure if i'm satisfied with his design and i feel like i could do more with it, but for now.. it's fine, i can work with it.

also, his image color was supposed to be a dark shade of green at first, but then i was like. it probably won't look that original because i already have asahi and naomi (yes, naomi's color is closer to teal and asahi's color is very bright compared to what i planned for riku, but still) and i'm still salty because of how similar akio and shun's colors turned out to be, so. yes, he's an orange boy now. and i feel like it fits his personality better!

General info:

Name: Kuroki Riku (黒木俐暮) (his last name means "black" and "tree" and his first name means "sharp, clever" and "evening, dusk")

Age: 17 y/o

Gender: Male

Status: Prisoner 009

Birthday: April 7 (Aries)

Blood type: AB

Height: 173 cm

Image color: #FF8746

Occupation: High school student (second year)

Personality: If Kei is the most extroverted male prisoner, then Riku is a close second. He's very friendly, outgoing and if anyone wants to talk about anything, he's always there to do just that and he's okay with both talking and simply listening. Also there's just something about him that just makes him impossible to hate, Riku even managed to convince Akio to become friends with him. No wonder he was the most popular boy in his school and he had so many fans and secret admirers. Even though Riku seems like the chill type, he's actually surprisingly rebellious, though some people can tell that from his appearance: they're sure he got in trouble multiple times because of him going to a school with a strict dress code and having a style like that. Riku is okay with doing anything if it means he won't have to deal with something he doesn't like/doesn't want to happen: after he was told that he can get voted guilty, he simply flirted with one of the guards and successfully made her want to vote him innocent even though she got a bad feeling after watching his MV. Overall, Riku seems like a very nice guy, but in a place like Milgram, his kindness only makes him look even more suspicious. Riku is also very insensitive and he doesn't take things like death and murder seriously and when one of the guards warned him about the punishment he can receive after being voted guilty, he stayed calm because he thought "it won't be that bad". He also often asks other prisoners about their crimes even if they find the topic uncomfortable and he can easily turn a conversation like that into a guessing game because for him Milgram is just that: a game.

MV info:

Which canon Milgram song he would cover: Backdraft. First of all, he was in a band, I JUST KNOW HIS COVER WOULD SOUND SO GOOD and also.. Riku is actually kinda Fuuta-coded.

Which DECO*27 song he would cover: Ghost Rule BECAUSE IF WE'RE NOT GETTING A GHOST RULE COVER FROM ES MY SON WILL DO IT HIMSELF also i think it would sound nice

If he could cover a song by a different Vocaloid producer, which one would it be: .. It was so hard to find a "spoiler-free" song for him 😭😭 Like I KNOW what songs would be perfect for him, but. I think it's too early to give him something like that, so let's go with Nh-Uh-Uh by SLAVE.V-V-R for now because 1) him getting this song is really funny because Riku is a pretty loud guy and this song obviously needs a more "whispery" voice except for that one part and 2) the lyrics actually have his vibe.

His MV description:

His MV would have lots of warm colors, like yellow, orange and red, but some moments would have much darker and colder colors, like gray, black and dark green.

His MV starts with Riku and his friends preparing for a school concert and it looks like someone is taking photos of them and Riku doesn't mind, he's actually enjoying the attention. It looks like Riku is very popular: he has a lot of friends, he's the band leader and many girls want to talk to him, even though they're too shy to do that.

The concert finally starts and Riku is performing with his band. Everyone is having fun, including the band, and the chorus ends with Riku saying something like "Let me see you jump" and jumping himself, but right as he does that, he notices a white-haired boy in the crowd staring at him and showing no emotions at all. Riku looks shocked and he ends up falling, his friends look concerned and they try to help him get up. Riku continues singing, even though now he looks scared and he doesn't want to be there. After the concert, Riku is crying and his friends are trying to calm him down.

The scene suddenly changes and now we can see that white-haired boy crying in Riku's arms and even though Riku is hugging him and smiling at him, his eyes look empty and you can tell that he's not being sincere. Now Riku is sitting alone in his room and the colors are mostly gray and black. He's reading texts from his friends and we can't see most of them, but one of them makes Riku drop his phone: "Hey, but he really is talented, don't you think?" He is panicking and it's getting hard for him to breathe and he doesn't pay any attention to his phone's broken screen. He quickly grabs his guitar and the chorus starts playing again, but now Riku is singing alone in his room, without his friends, and he's still crying. He jumps in the end, just like he did that last time and he suddenly falls from his bed. It looks painful, but for some reason.. Riku starts smiling and his eyes are sparkling.

The colors are even warmer than before now and we can see Riku putting a note in somebody's locker and smiling, but something about his smile just.. doesn't feel right and it looks really creepy. Now we can see the school rooftop and Riku is standing there, waiting for someone and watching the sunset. He turns around and his smile is even wider now, it looks like that person he's been waiting for is finally here. The lyrics say that now Riku can finally tell that someone about his "true feelings".

Riku and his band are having a concert on the school rooftop, but something about all of this feels wrong. Riku's smile still doesn't look like the one he had in the beginning, his friends look just as insane as him and we can't see the person he was supposed to meet with. We can't see the audience either- oh, we're the audience actually. Hey, why is he getting so close. Hey, wasn't he supposed to do that jumping part again-

He repeats the "Let me see you jump" line, but now he's no longer smiling and he looks like he hates us. He gets close enough to the camera to push us.

Trailer 1 Voicelines:

"Hiiii!~ My name is Kuroki Riku! You've probably heard about me, I'm kinda famous online, haha. Hey, do you want an autograph? Anyway, nice to meet you- You want to know more about my crime? Well, I wouldn't call it that.. I did everyone a favor by getting rid of that person, actually."

"Hey, dude.. I know, life can be hard, but can you just.. stop venting to me all the time? Like, I would love to help you, but I'm not your therapist, you know? Come on, just calm down.. hey, I told you to stop.. JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!"

Trivia:

Murder is his only crime and he had only one victim.

He doesn't take Milgram seriously and thinks that a "guilty verdict" doesn't even exist. So yes, he thinks he'll be voted innocent.

He is very good at singing and playing the guitar and he had an interest in music since childhood. And as he mentions in his voicelines, he's very popular online and he often posts rock covers and original songs. He also wants to understand how MVs work and he would love to hear a song that the guards heard while watching his video.

Riku is a lot like younger version of Kei, if you think about it, however, Kei's reputation is much worse and he doesn't even try to act like a good person, meanwhile Riku at least appears to be someone who's very kind and his reputation is much better.

Riku always proudly says that he's friends with all the prisoners, but it's hard to say if he actually likes spending time with them or he's just being polite. You can often see him with Aimi, but if you pay attention, you'll notice that he actually looks bored and he doesn't enjoy talking to her that much. He's definitely close with Akio though and they get along really well even though their personalities are so different. It looks like Akio enjoys the attention he gets from Riku a lot and Riku is only glad to have someone he can be so affectionate with. Both of them are also surprisingly protective of each other. But Akio most likely has a soft spot for Riku simply because Riku looks a lot like his "most loyal follower". Akio and Riku also share a lot of similarities, like being popular boys, refusing to admit that they did something bad and having moments in their MVs that imply that these boys are more insecure than you would think.

The boy from Riku's MV actually didn't have any feelings for him or anything like that. He definitely was obsessed with him but not in that way.

I just think it's neat how the last male prisoner's name has a kanji that means "rising sun" meanwhile Riku's name has a kanji that means "evening". I also think it's cool because Asahi is like.. someone you would expect to have a more cute personality, but he's actually one of the most rude prisoners here, meanwhile Riku is supposed to have a more intimidating vibe because of his style but his personality isn't that bad.. but also, when you start learning more about them, you realize that Asahi is still a scared child and Riku is more cruel than you thought he is.

[lehdenlaulu]

Okay, SaB S2. I'm groggy as hell and only have time for a couple of episodes, but here we go. Ep1.

Alina looks fantastic but I have to wonder where'd she find a curling iron in the middle of the sea. Unless the ship had a convenient tailor on board.

Aw, they cute.

I'm still impressed with the visual worldbuilding and production design so far.

Yeah, the Crows' brooding cello 'theme' still makes me immediately think of 'Vodka Inferno' by Diablo Swing Orchestra, if the overall vibe of the show didn't already.

Kaz backstory here we gooo.

Wow, very well-funded police force if they can afford purple uniforms. Assuming dyes work the same way they do in our world. Which I do, since that kind of thing has to be a conscious design choice.

Aw baby.

Hi Nikolai. I don't know you yet but I know who you are.

Huh, I thought Kaz had known all along and Jesper knew he knew. But I guess they needed to spell it out for the audience.

Damn, Mal. I'm not sure if that's just fancy editing or if we're supposed to believe he's Special somehow. (I know he's supposed to be but not like that I guess??)

And these would be the twins, yes? Hello there.

And here's the dude with the Finnish name and the Scottish accent. Hah.

And Wylan. Hi, Wylan!

Nina! Nice save, babe.

"Funny guns and angry hat." 😂 Perfect.

Poor Genya.

Nice acting from Dani on the 'love of my life'. The realization when she said that out loud.

Ep. 2

There's something about Nikolai I'm not buying. Maybe it's the acting, maybe the whole pirate angle is a little much and the balance of the vibes isn't quite right. Hmm. 🤔

Like, I get that the character is probably playing a part to a degree, but... yeah. Let's see how it unfolds.

Well done with the ship, though, it's actually properly cramped instead of absurdly spacious like in many films/shows.

I still really love the lighting of this show. Especially in comparison to so many other things recently.

I like that we're seeing Kirigan in human light as well, not just as the mustache-twirling villain cliché. The scenes with Genya are fascinating and disturbing. Great job Ben and Daisy.

Honestly I'm so glad they've aged these characters up. I would never believe they're teenagers. I mean, Wylan, maybe.

Huh, flashback or fantasy? I was under the impression they hadn't gotten to that part yet in the last season.

I wish the show had explained the amplifier thing a bit better, tbh. And did we even know about the Sea Whip and the Firebird last season, at all? And if she's been dreaming of them, shouldn't we have seen those dreams?

Ooh, an Alkemi! A cute one. Very... hmm. He might make a great Armand, actually.

Am I supposed to be feeling something between Alina and Nikolai? Because I'm not. At all.

And that would be a Tidemaker, I guess?

Well, that one definitely is one.

Wylan's acting a bit like jilted ex, which is weird and sort of funny. I suppose there's a reason.

Okay, no, everyone's apparently fighting like that now, not just Mal.

Ep. 3

Yeah, I doubt you'll take the Fold down in the third episode, my darling.

Okay, Nik, let's see if I buy you better now that the charade is over.

Aww babies.

Nadia! Hi! Wait, is that the same actress? I don't think it is.

Hi Zoya, good to see you.

Yeah, I thought it was something like that about the jilted ex behavior.

I guess Jesper is musiciansexual. 🤭

Kaz and Inej are better this season, I'm starting to buy it. Well, it helps that Kaz is starting to open up a bit, of course.

I love Nina and Inej, though. Inej needed someone like her around.

Well, everyone really is fighting like that, huh? It's getting sliiiightly unbelievable, but at least it looks awesome.

He's hot all bloody and disheveled I must say. 🤷‍♀️

Get it girl get it.

Listen, I love that Mal is supportive and they're very sweet but especially contrasting with the scene immediately after, I don't really care as much as the show probably wants me to. And that's not some shippy opinion, either, I don't really have a horse in this race.

Oh that's a very good shot of Kaz. Good job with the lighting and colors and blocking.

No, I honestly think Kaz is scarier than Kirigan.

Ooh, Tidemakers have green keftas? Yup, that's the one for me then.

Heh. I wrote this. Almost, anyway. Mine was slightly less creepy.

Well, that last scene felt familiar. Hah.

Okay, now some sleep, last four tomorrow night.

[foxounderscorecube]

1, 4, 14, and 31 for the ask game!

1 - favorite character/s and why

I love The Arbiter from Halo and not just because he is very attractive, although that helps, I suppose. In the games, at least - I hear the novels don't tend to support my interpretation of him, sadly - he comes across as someone kind-hearted and loyal at his core. He and Master Chief unite toward a common goal initially, but their relationship becomes one of genuine fondness and deep respect and he even accompanies Master Chief into serious danger to try to save Cortana, which he has no obligation to do at all - but he isn't one to abandon a comrade!! He is full of Catholic guilt (Covenant guilt?) and is but a cog in a horrendous machine, poor fella. My knowledge of Halo lore indicates he was able to go on to do good things for the Sangheili outside of Covenant rule, and if I'm wrong then that's canon to me <3

All the characters I've mentioned so far have been guys, which is unfair, so I think I will talk about Roderika, who is probably the least spoken about Elden Ring NPC ever outside of, like, Nameless White Mask #2, which I find a real shame. I know she isn't one of the more lore-dense characters, but she's genuinely lovely. I mean, she gives you Aurelia, who is precious and my go-to Spirit Ash even if I know there are better ones out there (although I prefer that she just kinda... supports a bit instead of soloing bosses, to be honest?). I think her storyline, though simple, is really heartening and a rare treat in a game full of sad storylines. She has lost her home and all those dear to her, but finds her talent and a father figure and really grows into herself. She's seen horrors beyond her comprehension but she stays soft and sweet and even finds happiness in her new life, in the capacity she's given.

4 - favorite underrated band

Got to give a shout-out to Nasty Fishmonger which is a folk-punk group that consists of some very cool people I went to uni with!!! They are SO good live and have an album called "Band of Common Folk".

Also, I don't know most of their music but the EP by Shoe, "Giant Demonic Grub Seeks Shallow Swamp Can Pay $200 A Week" is a favourite of mine and nobody except to the friend who (inadvertently) showed it to me seems to have heard of it.

14 - favorite genres to read or watch?

I like reading non-fiction, mostly about natural sciences and history (nice and vague, I know). But basically, give me a book about fish or some shit and I am HAPPY. In terms of fiction, I read more or less anything. Magical realism and stuff that's a bit fantasy or a bit sci-fi is good, but really dense SFF I need to be in the mood for. I'm not a big romance person overall, but if I get invested in a romance storyline it really gives me brainworms.

31 - something your mutuals/followers didn’t know about you

My top three beverages of all time are: 1) mango nectar, 2) soy milk, 3) root beer.

[lockedtowers]

Now one thing really important imo is cassie’s autism, and as i’m audhd in real life, i feel i can talk about it really well based around not only my experiences, but those around me. and a really important thing about it is how you really cannot separate that from her. it’s how her brain was developed and how it functions, without it she’d be an entirely different person, the way the organ that all your other organs connect and listen to is kind of how one is forced to exist in any situation anyways and that’s really not any different here. but cassie, also like me, has been forced to mask so much that sometimes it would be hard for others to really spot the traits even though they’re blatantly there (which i dont mean the faerie traits, i know its a running gag that people will be like ‘oh my perfect baby was replaced by a changeling bc look at how it acts!!!) but no, like yes i do have a lot of faerie characters that are also autistic but autism is also a genetic thing, so chances are if you have it, someone else in your family has it too. you aint off the hook bish. )

now one of the most noticeable things about cassie, at least regarding her main/syfy verse, is the fact she doesn’t really have her own built strong moral compass. like she got in trouble with march and the QoH because she refused to kill a child, she felt like that wasnt okay, and that was a strong reason as to why she wanted to get away, but the stronger reasoning was placed in the arrangement with jack that she had no say in. she’s never had much say in her own life until she was assigned as march’s protégé, so it wasn’t like she wasn’t used to not making choices for herself, but she does not like jack. she does not like the way he looks at her. she hates the way he acts like he owns her. she did not want to be tied to him for any reason at all, and that well and truly fueled her desire to escape that life.

but she doesn’t necessarily understand morality at all, the queen of hearts doesn’t care for that kind of talk to begin with and prefers using the wonders to control people. march of course, while he grew fond of her, wasnt exactly a strong moral compass, but he swayed her a lot while she was with him because she was overall mirroring him. something she tends to do a lot. like, it’s very very noticeable that her best ‘moral moments’ would be when she was with hatter, because despite his own skewed moral compass he’s a better person than a lot of wonderland is, and while she still behaved the way she understood (bring him strays, for instance, because its better if he gets the humans than the hearts, even tho w some of my past friends he would extract the negative emotions from them too which is also kind of scummy but again, cassie wouldn’t understand why that’s bad, she just knows he doesn’t necessarily mind getting the strays so she’ll keep doing it.) she was supposed to, her ability to care about other people was a lot stronger while she was with hatter.

and that really continues on outside of wonderland, too. like girl gave up the freedom she hunted for for years to ensure hatter wouldn’t be killed. she is known to be foolishly loyal to a fault to people she thinks care about her. if you’re nice to her, she’ll probably follow you around and shit because she doesn’t know why she wouldn’t do that. and there are people she’s met who will call her out on shit, like ‘oh hey murders really not okay’ and she’ll be confused for sure and ask why, she’s going to ask why, because thats what she knows and what she understands, and why its ‘not okay’ isnt something she understands, especially since she was still doing it with hatter, if people threatened him she’s just off them and hide the remains because she didn’t want him to get hurt.

which is another thing entirely, how self sacrificial she is, and was, even without a moral system in her little head. because she sees someone in danger that she cares about, she’ll risk her life to save them no thoughts behind it. she’s a necromancy witch and it bled into her faerie power, she cannot really stay dead except in certain situations, but she doesn’t understand or know about that. as far as she knows, its a fluke that’ll end at some point, and if she dies protecting the people she cares about, then its fine… except she ends up protecting people she doesn’t know, too. and a lot of times she’ll do things and protect people who honestly dont give a shit about her.

but that's why i’ll say, a lot of the times, she will act similarly to the first person who finds her in any given situation depending on how they act with her. she’s never had that level of freedom before, and even with the new level of freedom, she also knows she’s still being hunted by jack. she doesn’t get why he views her as such a threat, but she knows he does. but she also doesn’t know how humans interact with each other. as her fae side is half unseelie, she is not able to lie, she physically cannot lie in any way. the worst she can do is avoid answering or respond in such a way that the information is true, but bundled so you can’t figure out what she means. as a cat, and specifically a cheshire cat, she already speaks in a ‘weird’ fashion to most, but theres reason behind that.

and she ends up behaving like the people she spends the most time around because she is always observing them, always watching, and learning their behaviors, learning their nuances, and repeating them back to the person. she’s watching, and she’s mirroring, which is both an autism related thing and a cat related thing funnily enough (a LOT of cat behaviors and autism behaviors are similar, tbh, its weird) and unfortunately most of her understanding and comprehension and mirrored traits have come from the men in her life (and any perkiness or excitability probably came from watching carlotta, tbh) and she struggles a lot with socialization since she doesn’t necessarily understand, but she will be the most loyal person you can find or have on your team. it’s just a matter of how well behaved she’ll be in the process.