#so imo she performs the moves in the correct way! she is turned out! she knows what she is doing! this is not due to lack of training!

[sengoku-nadeko]

[darkpoisonouslove]

HotD S02E02

My thoughts are still all over the place. I wasn't able to watch the episode yesterday and seeing some very vague spoilers had me shaking with curiosity and the need to watch it. It was my first order of business for today and I did like this more than last episode! Of course, the writers will never not be on their Blacks agenda but that could never stop me from loving the Greens even more. And believe it or not, I wasn't super annoyed by the Blacks this episode. Except for Daemon, of course. More about it all under the cut:

The chaos in the beginning and that bloodied sheet did more than showing any actual gore would have imo. And later in the episode when they're taking apart the crib and you see a man carrying a white mattress and you know it will be bloody on the other side only for him to turn it around and the sight still gut-punching you despite that. Especially because the mattress is so small; it's clearly for a child. Ohhhhhhhhhhh.

Aegon smashing the Valyria Lego set was 10/10. Good for him! Unfortunately, I made the mistake of looking at people's opinions and the idea that that's a symbol of him destroying Viserys' legacy and being rash and unfit to be king to differ from his father is just… Lesson learned! Do NOT fucking engage with any HotD content that's out in the wild and hasn't come from my carefully curated tumblr circle.

That said, yes, this is Aegon destroying Viserys' work and thank god! Aegon is rightfully mad about what has been done to his child to differ from Viserys, who just stood by and did fuck all when his son was mutilated. I may not agree with the way Aegon proceeded to handle things but at least he fucking did something! Take notes, Viserys!

That Otto and Alicent scene! The way he (belatedly) tries to offer some kind of comfort and she pushed him away because she's drowning in guilt! She thinks this is all because of her and she doesn't want any comfort, especially since there won't be any for Helaena (and Aegon). I am SOBBING!

That Small Council meeting! I could never put all my emotions and thoughts about it in words but it was just… VERY GOOD! I love how Aegon brings up the fact that Rhaenyra's sons are bastards right before throwing a cup. Because what was he doing when the murder of his son was happening? He was drinking and mocking his nephews while trying to come up with titles for himself. He feels guilty but he cannot express that in any capacity just like he's not afforded enough space for his grief and anger. There's always the next thing that has to be done, the next performance to be acted out. Every move has to be calculated in order to benefit him and his family rather than harm them and he's just… not good at that. In general. But also, in this specific moment it's completely understandable that he's not good at that. He shouldn't have to be! Alicent herself lost her temper when her child was mutilated and she got burned too. Oh, this must be awful for her to watch and still have to guide Aegon away from his outbursts.

(If anyone wants to come after Criston for having sex with Alicent, you can fuck right off! The man cannot be expected to be guarding the family 24/7 and it was made clear that it wasn't his watch at that time. Even if it was, he guards Alicent's chambers so he still wouldn't have been able to do anything. The writers just decided to remove all the guards from the premises and would now love to throw the blame onto Criston. Same with that "why wasn't Helaena given a sworn protector?" line. Because then they would have actually needed to write something clever instead of employing the most brain dead conveniences, silly! Why else?)

Larys interrupting like "Hello! I have been efficient! :)"

Love when Aegon went "Hey, you know what? Maybe I should kill everyone!" I knew he'd do that!. He's such a volatile little shit and YET… cannot even compare with his grandfather.

Otto in this episode is hateable and yet so, so correct and necessary. I loved all of that. He is such an opportunist and that's why he's been in the game for so long! And his advice makes total sense on a strategic level. All they have to do is disregard all their emotions like he's guided and coerced them to do all their lives… Sir… SIR… *crying* this is all your fault (I mean the fact that they're all emotionally stunted, not the war (though to be fair, he's largely responsible for that too)). Sir, the monster that you are.

I especially adore the contrast between Aegon and Otto. In the face of such unmoved calculation, Aegon's pain is front and center of the scene. He doesn't want his son to be used as a prop to win the war. And he turns to Alicent for advice because he knows that she has empathy and understands his emotions, his agony, that she's not pure strategy like her father only for her to tell him that they have to be strategic at the moment and then end up forced into the performance herself. The way that she keeps enabling Otto's exploitation of their lowest moments because that's all they've ever done, because they're trapped in this song and dance now.

It becomes even more cutting in the scenes with Helaena, who just wants her pain to be private, doesn't want to be gawked at by people she doesn't know. Them sharing her pain doesn't bring any consolation because they're not sharing anything. To them she's a symbol and even if they understand the pain of losing a child, they cannot understand her pain of losing her child. Only Aegon can and not in the exact same capacity as her so in the end, they just stare at each other without words and then keep on walking past one another. But the way that she had a panic attack at so much freely given "sympathy" for her pain only to search for some from him and he can't really offer it because they don't speak the same language and he cannot let his guard down in that way and be vulnerable when he's already been weakened as king and no one takes him seriously, and he's grappling for any shred of power, hungering for any violence he can do to someone just to feel a little bit less helpless, and he knows that that's not what she needs and he can give her nothing, which just makes him feel even weaker… Nnnnnnnngh, I am howling in pain!!!!!

The way Blood was acting all tough and menacing last episode only to instantly spill everything just at the sight of Larys was peak performance! Shows how pathetic he is and how scary Larys is. He has worked for that reputation and people really should be afraid of him. But then Aegon steps onto the scene and just bashes that guy's head in. Any wonder Criston and Aegon have teamed up to head the Club of Bad Decisions?

I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the fight between Daemon and Rhaenyra. I like that she said she's never fully trusted him and that she was visibly afraid of him and expected him to try to choke her again. Only other thing that should have happened was her feeding Daemon to her dragon tbh (yes, we're back to the Daemon hate).

Initially, I found the scene between Rhaenyra and Baela touching but then I remembered that Rhaenyra didn't allow Jace to scout King's Landing, probably being afraid he'd be killed like Luke, but it's okay to send Baela, I guess. Who cares if she dies? I did want to take this as her trusting Baela but I just cannot gloss over the fact that she was so swift to forbid Jace from doing the exact thing that she's sending Baela to do.

Not Criston projecting like crazy onto Ser Arryk. I have to admit that that was amusing. Also, as someone said, that plan to assassinate Rhaenyra is "not the worst" that has ever been hatched around these parts.

I liked the scene with Jace and Baela for the fact that she knows about him being a bastard and they talk so openly about it. Both of them have gotten nothing so far and they are also trapped in performances (just like team Green) that this was interesting but also… I can't latch onto any character conflicts or development when we've barely seen anything from those characters.

Aemond, my man, you desperately need to be teleported to a therapist. Those mommy issues are running rampant! The fact that he was so angry at Alicent last episode only to then show that he completely understands why she was mad at him in this one and say all those things that he should have said to her to someone, who's clearly meant to represent Alicent. This would all be 10 000x more efficient if he just said all that to his mother but he just cannot because he cannot be vulnerable in front of her when she's disappointed with him since he's so used to being Mommy's Special Boy. Him and Aegon are such foils in that regard.

Am I the only one who got the impression that Rhaenys is ready to get into some Otto Hightower-type shit and "guide" Rhaenyra to where she wants her?

I'm getting tired of typing so let's wrap this up. Aegon's course of actions is not the smartest but I cannot blame him for it… too much. But seriously, showing the dog mourning Cheese was fucking awful. That dog should be trying to scale the wall and rip his corpse apart after he kicked it last episode. Get the fuck out of here with this!

I was very much cackling during that enire scene with Aegon and Otto. Otto may dislike it all he wants but the two of them are much more similar than he'd like to admit. The second they are hurt, they bring out all their cruelty to strike back. But also, Otto's "the apocalypse is upon us" faces were absolutely priceless! I do want him to stay simply for the fact that he always stirs so much shit but at this point the events don't need his help and Criston and Aegon are absolutely going to Fuck Shit Up TM so things are good anyway.

The Erryk and Arryk fight was crazy! There's zero way to tell who's who but the fact that another guard showed up and instead of leading Rhaenyra away to a safe place (and finding reinforcements) after she was almost sis kebabed twice… makes me think that all the guards are just stupid. There's just a force in Westeros that affects all guards and makes them absolute morons.

I did know spoilers about the book, though, so I was wondering how this will go down. Since obviously both of them had to die but that scene was having a clear winner. I did not expect him to take himself out but yeah, that makes sense. Really makes both the twins and their fate so tragic (would have been nice if we'd been led to care more about them while they were still alive, though).

Otto and Alicent having a touching moment and finally truly seeming on the same page and having a genuine understanding between them only for him to cut her off like that again… Ouch!

SURPRISE DAERON MENTION, AAAAAAAAAAAAH! Finally, a sneak attack from the writers that isn't meant to upset me!

Alicent wanting to comfort Aegon and then just… choosing not to as if she's passing down Otto's disapproval and tendency to punish her (whether she's done anything or not) through emotional distance. They are all so damaged! MY BABIES!!!!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

The scene with Criston… The kiss was hot but I wish they would actually give them a whole scene where they talk. I cannot believe we got Corlys x Rhaenys pillow talk but we are yet to get anything on Alicent and Criston, who are a newly established relationship. I want to know more about Criston's perspective on this! If he feels so much guilt (which he obviously does), why did he even start this? Let him be a dimensional character with his own agency, dammit! I don't like how they are making him look like Alicent's lost little puppy dog the way he just doesn't really display any kind of agency in their interactions. And the way that they've ended both episodes with them having sex even though Alicent said they wouldn't anymore/was angry at him makes it look like the narrative is passing judgment. Like "Oh, god, these two are fucking again when everyone else is having a really bad time. Can you believe the nerve? *eye roll*"

That's it for this week. I cannot wait to see how much messier the Greens will get next time. Somehow they keep winning with their characterization despite the writers' best efforts!

[jellybracelet]

what happened with jordan?

Oof so long story short, Jordan Chiles was last to compete in the floor finals. IDK how much you know about gymnastics scoring, but theres an open-ended D (difficulty) score based on the elements you perform, which are each worth different values, and an E (execution) score out of 10.0. Deductions are taken from the 10.0 E score, and then the D and E scores (minus neutral deductions, such as stepping out of bounds) are combined to create the final score.

After doing the routine, the D-panel judges will determine the final difficulty score. If a gymnast doesn't complete a rotation, twist, etc., that skill will be downgraded, resulting in a lower D score than they expected. The E-panel judges will then determine the execution score based on taking deductions from 10.0.

After Jordan went and her score was shown, it looked like Romanian Ana Barbosu had won bronze and Barbosu started celebrating. However, at the same time, Jordan's coaches submitted an inquiry to the judges panel because they thought Jordan didn't get the correct D-score, which means that the judges had decided that some skill in her routine didn't deserve credit. You can only submit an inquiry for the D-score, not the E-score.

The judges then decided in Jordan's favor after reviewing the video, and Jordan was moved into bronze and the Romanian who was cheering with her flag started sobbing after seeing the board change and it was a whole mess.

We're not totally sure what skill this was about, but most people think it was the Gogean (split leap with 1.5 turns) that Jordan doesn't usually get all the way around on and often doesn't get credit for. IMO, after looking at the slow-mo, she didn't get the skill all the way around 1.5 (it was like a quarter short), and the inquiry should've been rejected, and Barbosu should've won. That's my opinion.

There was also another inquiry that happened right before from the other Romanian that was rejected. That's not super relevant but is also noteworthy. Also, Barbosu winning bronze would've been Romania's first women's gymnastics medal since 2012.

[kradogsrats]

I just want to return to What We Know About Ghosting(tm) for a minute since we've now seen three Ghosted Moonshadow elf characters with very different reactions to it:

The Convict: Redfeather is Ghosted for an unknown reason, but one she claims not to regret, she has essentially leaned in to it and rejected Moonshadow society and her previous identity in turn. Redfeather implies that many Ghosts react as she did and discard everything from their previous lives, including their names.

The Penitent: Tylluan is Ghosted for being kind of a shitty leader, and has come to accept their sentence while still deciding to work to fix their final mistake, not with the intent to reverse their punishment but to help their former community in the way they should have before. Tylluan is a bit weird about their name—it's possible the implication is supposed to be that the closer they get to their goal of fixing their mistake, the more comfortable they feel reclaiming it? They go by Feathershawl for the entirety of "The Lost Oasis," but then switch to saying they prefer to be called Tylluan at the start of "The Gloaming Glade." (It's noted that "most elves" refer to them as Feathershawl, whatever that means.)

The Martyr: Rayla, of course, is Ghosted for a misunderstanding of what was actually an incredible sacrifice on her part, for which she still blames herself rather than her community, but still holds to her identity and (it seems) the hope that one day she can return. Rayla, as far as we know, never even considers the possibility of abandoning her name.

Ghosting appears to be very localized to individual communities, since Tylluan, for example, is invisible only to the people of the town he was exiled from—a Moonshadow PC is not indicated to have any problem seeing him. Mechanically, it's something that can be done to an individual in absentia by all of the community members undergoing a ritual, but it's not clear if this is the only way to do it or if it can be performed on the individual instead (which seems like it would be more efficient, at least).

(I will note that there are a lot of things that make absolutely ZERO sense about ANY of this, such as the fact that a Ghost can still enter their community and simply cannot be seen or heard—but can still affect their surroundings. I, for one, would hesitate to punish someone in that way simply because APPARENTLY THEY CAN COME BACK AND FUCK WITH YOU AND YOU LITERALLY CAN'T STOP THEM IN ANY WAY. Maybe there's some intricate thing going on that prevents a Ghost from doing actual harm to the community that exiled them and its members, and Tylluan is able to affect things in the Hollow Wood because they are acting in its defense, but... that's really needlessly complicated, imo.)

Following the very community-centered nature of Ghosting, Tylluan can be un-Ghosted depending on how "The Gloaming Glade" plays out, so we know it's both reversible and, again, basically subject to the whim of overall community majority attitude. This very localized status is interesting, since it implies that Moonshadow communities are not only insular with regard to other elves, but even with regard to other Moonshadow elves. Unless there's a way to detect if someone has been Ghosted by a community, it wouldn't be quite as devastating to just... pick up and go to another community. The implication here, I think, is that moving between communities is regarded as generally suspicious unless there's a negotiated reason (marriage, training in a trade, etc.)—you can't just show up, because you will presumably be actively rejected.

Finally, the fact that we know Ghosting can be reversed makes Moonshadow justice in general just... even more bonkers. I feel like one of two things has to be true: either a) there's some kind of super-Ghosting that is used for actual severe crimes and expels the individual from ALL of Moonshadow society, not just their local community, or b) Rayla is actually correct in her somewhat naive assumption about Redfeather's crime being a circumstance similar to her own, where she was served a legalistically simplistic punishment over a very complicated situation with mitigating circumstances. ADDITIONALLY, Rayla is, or is at least willing to believe that she is, STILL GHOSTED two years after it has presumably come out that she SAVED THE DRAGON PRINCE'S LIFE AT LEAST TWICE. Did Zubeia just like... not dispatch that memo to the Slivergrove, because it kind of seems like the least she could do, given that it was on her order that the assassins were sent in the first place? Is the Slivergrove SO insular that it only accepts messages from even the fucking DRAGON QUEEN if they include assassination orders? The alternative is that everyone in the Silvergrove is so fucking insane that they heard all of that and were like, "yeah, but..." and let the punishment stand, despite presumably knowing Rayla since she was a baby. (Though to be fair, they probably knew all the assassins who died since they were babies, as well. But still.)

Now, maybe the happy alternate to that will be that they DID un-Ghost Rayla, but she's so self-hating that it doesn't occur to her that would ever happen without some further grand redemption gesture on her part, and they just literally couldn't find her to tell her that. (Ethari like "OH MY GOD RAYLA IF I EVER SEE YOU AGAIN YOU'RE GOING IN THE TODDLER LEASH FOREVER" and crying.) Maybe now that she's back in fairly static, predictable company (Katolis, Callum and Ezran, etc.) the news will reach her?

Anyway, TL;DR: Moonshadow Ghosting: still absolutely fucking insane, possibly the most bizarre thing we're supposed to accept about the setting.

[alovelyburn]

It’s an old ask and can’t find it rn but just imo grifflotte is miserable. Griffith, even with all of his power, is again in a way “forced” to use his body and charms to achieve his goal, something we see quite a lot happening in his youth and being his big issue. He has everything that should allow him to actually make his dream come true, but he still needs to pay a prize for it. I’m not saying it’s the same as Gennon, but the theme is always there. Charlotte being happy is also not the best? Like, I think it’s mostly narrative fault and the way women are presented in the story, but it is so sad. She is happy because she is manipulated into that happiness and lives through fantasy of some kind. And I hate how it can be interpreted as positive. And I do think theres a big chance we gonna see a child too, but I hate the idea of that kid inheriting Griffith kingdom and being destined to rule it, without the baggage (quite popular theory in normal side of the fandom) instead of an actual princess with good ideas who should already have much more growth tbh. It’s like her character ultimately gets turned into just incubator for the next cycle. Not the worst fate in berserk but I hate it so much. Women in berserk are better-ish than most characters we used to but that don’t make them good. But hey, that’s just me wanting more

All right, I think I get where you're coming from now. It's just not how my head works, so I had to kind of adjust my perspective a little. When someone says a relationship is miserable my assumption is that they mean the characters are miserable, but it seems more like commentary on the type of relationship it is. Sort of similar to the child/heir thing - less about the story supporting it than that you perhaps find the turn unsatisfying or undesirable from the perspective of what you'd rather see. I might still be off base, feel free to correct me. But yeah, I mean I'm not here to argue with people's preferences, it is what it is.

From my own perspective...

I do think Griffith pre-eclipse seemed to perceive his relationship with Charlotte as being in the same vein (not to the same degree) as his encounter with Gennon in the sense that he was once again "paying" for something he needed by trading his... body (and the performance of affection in Charlotte's case) for that thing. I think this is part of the reason for his post-coital breakdown with her - this sense that he had lost someone he loved and wanted and is now left with this person that he will always feel he is "selling" himself to on some level.

Honestly, even allowing the Godhand to destroy the remnants of his human flesh and carve his heart out in exchange for his ascension is in some ways just the extreme end of what he's always done: giving away pieces of himself in exchange for things he needs in order to accomplish his goals. Even the external sacrifice is described as needing to be something that is essentially so loved as to become a part of the person making the sacrifice.

"Take hold of the world in exchange for their own flesh and blood," as they say.

And I do think that is incredibly tragic - he's a tragic character. Absolutely. I'm just not sure whether that's something Griffith cares about at all post-eclipse due to the destruction and reconstruction of his emotional world.

Anyway, I'm of two minds about the whole thing because... I've written at some length about my frustration with Casca, the way her character is constructed and the motivations she's given. Yet, at the same time, if I think about what could/should happen with her character, I can only do that from the reality of what she is in the story rather than a hypothetical about what I would have made her or would have preferred her to be.

Plus my writer brain is stronger than my fan brain, so when I think about things like this I always think about them as being one of many moving parts within a narrative. So I think things like, if Charlotte were the sort of character to take over like a boss after her father passed away then the whole story about Griffith courting her so he can run a country makes no sense. That being the case, she's designed to be a person who doesn't do that because... that's just the role she has in the story.

All that said, and now I'm just continuing to talk about this grifflote child concept as though I'm invested in it and I just akjnakjnsd like I'm REALLY NOT I'm just thinking from a narrative perspective since it keeps coming up...

Let's say she has a kid, and then Griffith dies.

The kid would be like... an infant. So wouldn't she need to step up anyway?

ETA: And I have no idea what the mainstream western fandom is doing aside from performatively spitting fire every time Griffith's name is mentioned. Still, they can't be wrong all the time. Stopped clocks and all that.

[bonesandpoemsandflowers]

confession time! I was out with a friend watching a concert near halloween, and I swear there was someone hiding behind the tubes of the pipe organ. My friend didn't believe me but I swear there was a humanoid shape there but my friend said she didn't see anything. We both joked it was the phantom even though it was probably just a stagehand or something, and then since the audience area was so dark because we weren't allowed phones out during the performance, I got the idea to catch the person's attention. My friend said no, and because I'm a dumbass, I proceeded to do so without thinking, holding my lit up phone over one side of my face to mimic the phantom's mask, and she slapped me and I got scolded by the usher but I managed to prove that there WAS something or someone behind the organ all this time because whoever it was vanished and didn't appear again. Now that it's happened I can't stop thinking about it and giggling a little. Brought this up with my friend because I felt like it and she said I would be the first to die in a horror movie AHAHA

btw potnential thought experiment. if someone saw Erik and signalled that they could see him like I did (but with a mirror flash or something because phones didn't exist back then) how do you think he would respond

this is SUCH a fun message because I spent several sentences expecting a copypasta or a tree tree fiddy joke, but no! we're just all mildly Unwell about this fictional man and consider him potentially anywhere and everywhere!

My answer might be a bit different from most. I do not think Erik is socially "awkward" or inept at all, and I firmly, wildly, passionately disagree with the current dominant fandom take that's like "haha yeah he's so socially stupid." (and imo even worse: "haha he's so stupid obviously this is and this alone means autism I am so Enlightened about marginalized mental health issues.") Especially going by book canon, Erik is brilliant and in many ways CORRECT about his plight: Christine outright says that it's his face that's the issue, and more than once says she would stay if he were handsome. etc. etc. Most of Erik's deranged behaviors make absolute sense in the context of: nosferatu looking motherfucker that gets screamed at, scorned, banished, blah blah blah each time somebody sees his face.

So, with THAT in mind

My concept of Erik is that he is, most essentially, at his core, a performer. Chronic theatre kid energy. He is in full black tie attire at NOON. this man is SO extra and he's like that on purpose and he's a massive troll. He takes the time to make or acquire elaborate masked ball costumes with DO NOT TOUCH embroidered on.

I firmly believe this man is ready and willing to do a magic trick at ALL TIMES.

So if Erik's in a FUN mood and you see him--I think he's delighted. I think he probably can't help but to fuck with you a little. He's gonna throw his voice and whisper in one of your ears and then the other. You'll feel a ghostly brush against your shoulder and then turn around and see nothing. You get echoing footsteps when you leave later that night. You get twinkling in the eaves, something moving not quite right in the mirror, a floating candlestick in the distance. THE WORKS. The opera ghost is IN and he's having a fine time. tbh you're providing him enrichment in his enclosure. It's like giving a tiger a meat stuffed watermelon to roll around.

Nothing malicious, though. He pick pockets something and it turns up in a different pocket. He steals some change and tips Giry with it or he leaves you a tip instead. Probably folds bills into weird ass origami. Nothing malicious, again, and nothing untoward. He is, ultimately, a gentleman.

But if he scares you a little bit, if you're a teensy bit uneasy, actually, if the venue is actually kinda too dark, in places...I think he probably likes that, too.

Erik in a bad mood?

DAGORA I SWEAR EVERYBODY IS TRYING TO KILL ME. JUST TONIGHT SOMEONE IN THE AUDIENCE THREATENED ME. THEY WANTED ME TO KNOW THEY WERE WATCHING. Little do they know I am watching THEM. I am going to make them step into a muddy puddle, just so that they know that I know that they know. What? Of course I'm going to let them fall into my traps if they try to find my house. That's not even murder.

(Erik is a big believer in the Castle Doctrine.)

[fbfh]

thankful for my (found) family - demisquad + reader thanksgiving special

2.4k

platonic everyone + reader, implied future/potential leo x reader if you look real close, thalia has a girlfriend that I had to make up bc they never mention hunters of artemis but go off rick, calypso is not included bc she acts more like an antagonist imo, gif doesn’t have anything to do with it besides nostalgia lmao

happy thanksgiving <33

You and Leo are cooking in the kitchen 

You have been all day

The doorbell rings, and Annabeth goes to answer, binder full of travel plans in hand

“That should be-”

Clarisse enters with a loud greeting and a hug to everyone in arms reach

Percy’s loud cheers echo from the living room as he calls out the new score of the football game he’s keeping everyone updated on

She drops her bag, hopping over the back of the couch to watch with Percy

“Woah woah, catch me up Jackson! What'd I miss?”

Hazel is helping Rachel make cute diy table settings and party favors 

Rachel, as with most art projects she takes on, is very focused on making it Martha Stewart levels of cute and amazing 

Frank and Piper are keeping everyone updated on the parade 

Frank pops down the stairs, calling out, “The last performance just ended, the dog show starts in 5!”

Hazel drops what she's doing and exclaims, “THERE’S A DOG SHOW?!” 

She runs upstairs to watch with Frank, her yellow dress swishing behind her

You chuckle, calling over to Annabeth as you mix batter in a bowl, " Hey Annabeth, how are the travel plans looking?"

She shuffles through some papers in her binder

"Magnus and Alex had another layover, but they should still be able to make it in time. Thalia and her hunter friend will be here in 10, and Travis's flight got delayed because of a sudden snow storm."

"Really?" You reply, "This time of year? That's pretty ironic for a son of Hermes..."

"I know, I'm looking at some shuttle services to see if that would be faster…" Annabeth replies

Nico enters, stealing a couple appetizers, "This is so stupid, I could just go get him."

Will, right behind him, eats the appetizer Nico hands him and replies, "No you can't. Doctors orders."

Nico starts to protest 

Will shoots him a look 

"Boyfriend's orders."

Nico tries in vain to stare him down,  "… Va’ a farti fottere." he says, cracking a smile

"Love you too," Will counters 

You and Leo shoo them out of the kitchen before they steal more of your recipes

Jason and Grover walk by with a bunch of pillows and blankets, setting up guest rooms. 

Grover calls through the pile of fluff he's carrying, "Hey, we're gonna need a few more pillows-"

Jason, over his pile of bedding, corrects, "A lot more!" And Annabeth runs over to help carry some of the blankets he's about to drop

"-A lot more pillows…"

You grab your keys

"okay uh… Grover, do you want to head to the store to get some more pillows-"

Leo, vigorously sautéing something adds over his shoulder, "And basil! And, uh… red wine vinegar, olive oil, and potatoes."

You rip a piece of paper off the notepad on the fridge and scribble a quick list 

You're probably going to need some more ice, too 

Tyson, very distressed, holds up an empty container of mellowcream pumpkins, declaring, "THERE'S NO MORE BABY PUMPKINS!" :(

you loudly add candy pumpkins to the list

Rachel approaches. 

"Are you going to the store?"

"Yeah," you reply, "how's crafting going? You need anything? "

"We're almost out of glitter and mod podge. It's not looking good. We could use some more fake leaves, warm toned glitter, and rhinestones - the nice ones."

Grover looks slightly lost 

You narrate as you add to the list, "Fancy rhinestones, mod podge, fake leaves, red, yellow, orange, and brown glitter…"

Tyson, still distressed, yells, "AND BABY PUMPKINS!"

:(

You hold up the paper, "Already on the list, bud, Grover's gonna get them!"

"What if he gets the wrong kind?" Tyson asks 

You, turn to Grover quietly, "Grover, can you take Tyson?"

Grover nods

"Hey Tyson, Grover has a lot of stuff to get, could you go be his shopping buddy? That way you can pick out the right baby pumpkins."

He doesn't look convinced

He wants to keep working on a secret project he’s been doing out by the garage

"And…" you add, sweetening the deal, "you can get two candies for the way home."

He agrees

You turn to Grover; "I'll call you guys an uber-"

"I'll drive."

You all turn around, shocked to see Reyna awake. 

You thought she was still passed out 

She showed up at 9am and immediately fell asleep from traveling all night 

"Reyna, hi! Are you sure-"

"We'll be fine, I need to stretch my legs a little." She proves by rolling her shoulders

"Okay, as long as you're sure," you hand her the paper, re-entering the kitchen

She takes the paper from your hand as you shut off the beeping timer and grab a pair of oven mitts from the drawer

Reyna examines the paper, "...This is a weird list. Where are we supposed to get all this?"

Leo moves to the side as you pull out the rolls from the oven, using tongs to set them on a wire cooling rack, "Maybe target?"

Leo, still very focused on cooking, announces, "If you get me generic brand spices I will burn this place to the ground."

"O-kay," you turn back to Reyna, laughing, "there's a Wegmans and a Joanne's right next to the TJ Maxx, you can probably find everything there."

"We'll be back within the hour." She states, taking your keys. 

Rachel meets her at the door. "Here, use my card. Also, make sure you get the flat backed swarovski crystals. And please pick some glitter with a nice color shift!"

You remind them to call or text with any questions and be safe

Heading back into the kitchen, you fill up a big bowl with carrots, celery, cucumbers, and mushrooms

You grab two cutting boards, knives, peelers, and a plastic bag for the peels, tips, and tails

You set it all down on the coffee table in front Percy and Clarisse

“Can you guys get the relish tray started?” 

They agree, and immediately return to yelling at the referee

You shake your head laughing, and head back to the kitchen

“How we looking, Sparky?”

“Stuffing cups just went up in the oven, pie crust dough is chilling, and the green beans are almost done sauteeing. Rolls are cooling - could you stir the cranberry sauce? - and… the turkey is going up as soon as the stuffing is out.”

You stir the sauce as you continue talking

“Great! We’re making good time so far. Oh, I found a recipe for brown sugar pie, which Frank requested - apparently it’s a Canadian Thanksgiving thing - so I figured if you’re doing turkey I can handle the pies.” 

He pours some cooking wine into the pan, and shakes it as the alcohol burns off

“Sounds like a plan, babycakes.” 

You laugh at the nickname, and grab butter, salt, some herbs, and a stick blender to finish the potatoes

A few minutes later, you hear the door open 

Reyna and the boys are back already? That was quick

You wonder if they need help bringing groceries in

“Eeeey get over here you knucklehead!” 

Bags drop, and you hear Jason laughing in protest

You poke your head out of the kitchen, and see Thalia with Jason in a headlock

In spite of the fact that he’s about half a foot taller than her, she’s still noogie-ing him, pretending she can’t hear him objecting through his laughs

She finally lets him go, greeting everyone as he adjusts his glasses

She bear hugs Annabeth, punches Percy in the arm, and high fives and hugs pretty much everyone else

You run up the stairs to the guest room Grover was setting up before he left

You finish making the bed head back down, meeting Frank and Hazel on the way 

"Oh, Hazel, what did you think of the dog show?"

"It blew my wig!" She says giddily 

A confused smile settles on your face

"It was awesome and she loved it," Frank translates smoothly

He and Will are understandably best at deciphering 40s slang

Thalia is introducing everyone to Amber, a girl she’d met on the hunt and become really close with

You greet her, and turn to Thalia

“Your room is all set up if you wanna get settled in,” you turn to Amber, “and yours will be ready soon,” 

They share a look

“Oh,” Thalia starts grabbing their bags, “that’s fine, we can share a room. We share a tent on the hunt all the time, right Ambie?”

"Oh,”

And then it clicks

“yeah, however you’re comfortable.”

You grab one of the bags, and help them upstairs

“Why don’t you guys take a while to settle in, I’ll tell the others you’re resting.”

They thank you, and you start to leave

“By the way,” you poke your head back in, “you two seem really cute together. Welcome to the family, Amber.” 

She blushes and Thalia gives you an appreciative look

You nod and head back down

You let the others know they’re going to nap for a little while, and not to wake them up

“Hey, any travel updates?” You ask Annabeth, on your way back into the kitchen

“Alex just texted, she and Magnus are finally on their way, should be here in the next few hours. As for Travis…” 

She holds out her phone, showing you Travis’s tiktok

He’s filming the mirror in the airport bathroom

“So uh, my flight’s delayed, I’m bored, I’m gonna fuck with some people,” he holds out a hand full of stickers that look like outlets

He records himself putting them around the airport, then gets people’s reactions when they try to use them

He ends the video asking for more prank ideas

You look back up at Annabeth, holding back a laugh, “Seems like he’s doing okay,” 

“Oh,” she replies, “that’s not all.”

She scrolls up, showing the next prank video where Travis goes around the airport having fake phone conversations to get people’s reactions

Conversation topics including ‘I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but slept with your grandma’, ‘hey bro I can’t come to the party, also turns out I’m going to be your stepdad’, ‘hey dude remember that old lady we used to cat sit for? Well, I found out I got chlamydia from her, so…’, and ‘yeah man, I’m so excited for the poetry slam. Also, it turns out my jazz fever is actually syphilis.’. 

Your hand flies over your mouth, trying not to laugh loudly enough to wake Thalia and Amber

“Yeah,” Annabeth says, fighting her own laughter, “he’s doing okay.”

You start putting together ingredients for pie filling

“That is the most in character thing I could have imagined,” you laugh, and Annabeth shows Leo the videos

“There’s a bunch more, too,” she adds, “Around making tiktoks, he found a bus heading this way. He’ll be here in a few hours.” 

“Cutting it close,” you muse, filling pies, “I’m glad he’s not stuck at the airport though. How about Connor?” 

“Haven’t heard much from him, but he said he'll be here in time for dinner."

A little while later, Thalia and Amber re enter, joining Percy and Clarisse in the living room 

The door opens shortly after, and Tyson enters, arms full of containers of candy pumpkins 

Reyna and Grover are right behind him

You take Grover's bags, announcing that Thalia got here a little while ago

He bleats excitedly and runs to hug her, Reyna right on his heels

Piper and Tyson bring in the rest of the groceries

Tyson sets down the last bags in the kitchen, looks out the window, yells, "IT'S ALMOST SUNSET!", and runs back out into the back yard, presumably to finish his mystery project 

Everyone eventually makes their way to the living room, nibbling on appetizers and watching classic Thanksgiving specials 

The food is almost done, all that's left is decorating the pies and a little tidying up 

You walk over to Leo, placing your hand on his shoulder 

He looks up at you

"Why don't you go take a quick shower and change before dinner," you muse, knowing the hoodie and jeans he's been cooking in all day isn't the outfit he'd picked out, "I'll wrap things up in here,"

He thanks you, dramatically presses a kiss to your forehead, and exits the kitchen 

You decorate the pies distractedly, catching the doorbell right before the second ring 

You smile at the people about to enter

"Annabeth," you call, "Magnus and Alex are here!" 

She drops what she's doing, and runs over to greet them 

Leo is back down stairs a short while later 

His brick red hoodie replaced with a burgundy one - his fancy hoodie as he calls it - a heavy flannel layered on top, and a beanie pulled over his almost dry hair

His pyrokinesis makes you forget how cold he gets sometimes 

You're about to go upstairs to change out of your cooking clothes when Tyson enters dramatically 

"The surprise is done!"

Everyone files outside to see what Tyson made as he leads you all out to the garage 

Perfectly attached to the side, is a very small horse stable 

"Wow!" Percy starts, "Great job, dude!"

Tyson is beaming as he's showered with confused praise 

"So uh," Percy ventures, "what did you build it for?"

"Maybe something like this?!" Descending voices declare in unicen 

Travis and Connor land in front of you on no other than Blackjack

Everyone erupts into cheers

“I thought you were stuck at the airport! What about those tiktoks?”

“Saved in my drafts, baby!” Travis laughs

Percy greets Blackjack and everyone else heads back inside with Travis and Connor 

You run upstairs to shower quickly and change, and are back downstairs just in time for appetizers and drinks 

You're about to take a sip of coffee when the door opens 

An irregular set of footsteps echoes into the room, along with a familiar voice 

"Ah, children, I hope there's room for one more," 

Everyone turns in surprise as Chiron enters the room 

After lots of warm excited greetings and making sure he has a warm cup of tea, he settles in to chat for a while

"I was on my way to meet with my more, ah, rambunctious cousins, but I couldn't let a day like today pass without stopping by."

After two cups of tea and lovely conversations, Chiron heads out to meet up with the other party ponies 

Thalia, Percy, and Will get all the food on the dining room table while Rachel makes the finishing touches to the centerpieces 

Everyone finds their seat, and you make the first toast

"I think I can speak for everyone when I say I'm thankful for you guys - my found family."

Every glass is raised

You can all drink to that. 

[xbaebsae]

OTP Questions

Tagged by @f0xyboxes , @dieguzguz, @nightwingshero, @deputyrhiannonhale and @returnofthepd3 thanks for thinking of me sweethearts♥

(art by minilev)

Rheese Bennett & Jacob Seed (idk if anyone even reads these except me but under cut because long post)

DISAGREEMENTS

Who is more likely to raise their voice?  Jacob. Now don’t get me wrong, he doesn’t loose his cool all that easy but Rheese can be a pain sometimes and he lacks the patience.

Who threatens to leave but never actually does?  Neither of them.

Who actually keeps their word and leaves?  This is actually what Rheese does when they break up about three months before the game. He finally is too deluded by Joseph’s demands of him that she cannot get through to him anymore and keep him from hurting people. They have a pretty bad fight about him torturing people that ends with him actually slapping her with the intention of making her shut up because she wouldn’t stop arguing against him. She gives him one moment to apologize for that, but he doesn’t so she leaves :’)

Who trashes the house?  They frequently throw things at each other.

Do either of them get physical?  Depends on when. Jacob pushes her around sometimes or touches her pretty roughly when he suffers from the effects of his PTSD. No domestic violence though. They also land real blows in training fights, same level bad on both sides really.

It’s worse during the arrest when they aren’t together anymore. Jacob was pretty devastated when he realized she actually left for good (he interpreted ‘i am leaving’ as her going home). It resulted in a lot of self blame (justified) which his family couldn’t really deal with. Joseph convinced him in the end that she was just another test he had to overcome in his life to find his correct path. So, he pretty much behaves just like he does in-game. She doesn’t get special treatment, she gets starved and thrown into murder trials like everyone else.

How often do they argue/disagree?  Pretty often. In the beginning it’s all they do, until they realize that having normal conversations every once in a while isn’t so bad actually.

Who is the first to apologize?  Apologies are for the weak :)

SEX

Who is on top?  Jacob

Who is on the bottom? Rheese (though she won’t admit it if you asked her)

Who has the strangest desires?  It’s nothing very strange tbh (at least not by my definition of strange... god i’ve seen ... things on deviantart. Definetly none of that!)

Any kinks?  Yeah, the perfect combo of wanting to feel powerless and wanting to feel in control. It complies with their character really. Rheese was forced to take care of herself ever since her teen years, which developed her into a pretty tough person. She likes the control she has over her life, and doesn’t let herself be pushed around by anyone. Feeling stripped of that control is however really exciting for her. Jacob’s kinda the other way around (imo anyway) in that he’s constantly following orders nevermind when or where, even within his own family (to not disappoint Joseph).

Who’s dominant in bed?  Jacob, Rheese only if he forces her to be :)

Is head ever in the equation?  Yes

If so, who is better at performing it?  Rheese. Slightly unfair though because she’s simply worse on the receiving end.

Ever had sex in public?  Yeah, much to her dismay.

Who moans the most?  Rheese

Who leaves the most marks?  Both do in different ways.

Who is the more experienced of the two?  Jacob

Do they ‘fuck’ or ‘make love’?  Even the nastiest sex is ‘making love’ to them really. It’s frankly a form of talking to them because they both truly suck at verbal communication. Also, Rheese has the old fashioned rule in her life that she won’t sleep with people she isn’t sure about, so before actually being together they don’t have sex. Tho she’s close to breaking that rule multiple times.

Rough or soft?  Rough, sometimes foreplay is soft.

How long do they usually last?  Depends on time and mood. Also Rheese is a lot younger so she sometimes could go again when he can’t. However that doesn’t mean he gets the best of her sometimes :’)

Is protection used?  Yes on her side

Does it ever get boring?  No

Where is the strangest place they’d have sex?  Some small cabin at the place they train Judges. It was kinky, they got caught and she prefers to just not talk about it ever again.

FAMILY

Do they plan on having children/or have children?  No, they never wanted to. Their daughter Jaina was an unwanted accident.

If so, how many children do they want/have?  They have 1 and that’s already more than they wanted.

AFFECTION

Who likes to cuddle?  Rheese

Who gets naughty in the most inappropriate of places?  Jacob usually. But sometimes she’s good at it as well.

Who struggles to keep their hands to themself?  Jacob, and it bothers her a lot in public. He doesn’t really care about what his people think of him, he knows he’s the boss so they can’t say shit. It’s also a way of just showing off that she belongs to him and that’s exactly why she doesn’t like it, cause she ain’t property. Also, people might believe she only became a Chosen trainer because she fucks the boss, which isn’t true because she got that position from someone other than Jake, based entirely on her performance.

How long can they cuddle until one becomes uncomfortable?  Until Rheese falls into deep sleep and starts spreading her limbs everywhere uncontrolably.

Who gives the most kisses?  Jacob

What is their favourite non-sexual activity?  Honestly, just existing next to each other is enough. They are just as happy just sitting in the same room, doing their own tasks, as they are going out for a fishing trip (actually she hates fishing, but the lakes are nice).

Where is their favourite place to cuddle?  The bed

How often do they get time to themselves?  Usually evenings and nights. They would have more time together if Rheese didn’t value her alone time. Sometimes she prefers to spend her days off alone, going on a ride through the forests or just relaxing without anybody around. He doesn’t quite approve of that but she doesn’t let herself be locked up.

SLEEPING

Who snores?  None of them

If both do, who snores the loudest?  Nobody

Do they share a bed or sleep separately?  Share a bed when living together.

If they sleep together, do they cozy up together or lay far apart?  Usually fall asleep cuddling but where they end up is entirely up to chance.

What do they wear to bed?  Underwear usually. Though t-shirts along with that in the beginning.

Are either of them insomniacs?  Jake has trouble sleeping and often wakes up. Her presence helps him but she’s not a magic sleeping pill so the issue never fully disappears.

Can sleeping pills be found by the bedside?  Nah

Do they wrap their limbs around each other or just lay side by side?  Usually the first, when it’s too hot the latter.

Who wakes up with bed hair?  Both. Rheese loves his messy hair, especially after she bullied him enough into letting it grow a bit. He however calls her hay-head, because her hair gets all tangled up and poofy despite being tied into a braid.

Who wakes up first?  He does, good luck getting her outta bed before 10.

Who prepares breakfast in bed for the other?  Nobody does, they aren’t romantic.

What is their favourite sleeping position?  Rheese digging her face in the space between his neck and shoulders while one leg and one arm hugs him and he has an arm around her.

Do they set an alarm each night?  When there’s work the next day.

Can a television be found in their bedroom?  No, though she sometimes uses his laptop to watch movies.

Who has nightmares?  Jacob has real ones, Rheese only the occasional bad dream we all get sometimes.

Who has ridiculous dreams?  She dreams demented shit sometimes, never talks about it though.

Who sprawls out and takes up most of the bed?  Rheese, she’s a restless sleeper. Got kicked out of the bed for it more than once.

Who makes the bed?  Neither of them. They don’t care about it being untidy.

What time is bed time?  Depends. Usually Rheese stays awake longer to finish watching movies.

Any routines/rituals before bed?  Nothing special, sometimes talking, sometimes a movie, sometimes sex, sometimes just hugging in silence.

Who’s the grumpiest when they wake up?  Jake, esp when she talks too much in the morning.

WORK

Who is the busiest?  They both are pretty equally busy.

Who rakes in the highest income?  It doesn’t really matter to them. The cult pays food and since they don’t care much about materialism, they don’t need much money.

Are any of them unemployed?  They have their job in the cult. Rheese works as a deputy before and after her stay there. so no.

Who takes the most sick days?  Neither really take any unless they are really so sick they can’t move. It’s an unhealthy work ethic but they feel useless when just lying in bed all day.

Who is more likely to turn up late to work?  Jake didn’t before, but he sometimes does because of her in the morning. Not that he really minds though, who’s gonna say anything against him?

Who sucks up to their boss?  Jacob in regards to Joseph, which Rheese thinks is very unhealthy. She doesn’t like how he lets himself be used so much and mostly blindly follows whatever his brother says. They have a lot of arguments about this and in the end it’s what ruins their relationship.

What are their jobs?  He’s head of security at Eden’s Gate. She’s a deputy, then pseudo joins the cult and works herself up to become a trainer of the Chosen, then she returns to her deputy position for the arrest.

Who stresses the most?  He does

Do they enjoy or despise their careers/occupations?  Police work wasn’t her passion. It was just a career she thought wouldn’t be boring. No noble motives and such. She only reprises her role as the deputy for the arrest because she falsely blames herself for everyone who’s been hurt by Jake’s hands after she left him. Her return is based on her trying to redeem herself. She had fun training Chosen, but she wouldn’t want to be part of any torture cult.

Jacob barely has any opinion on his work. He believes what he does is what needs to be done and he’s the best suited person for the job. You won’t find him complain, though he secretly just wants peace in his life. He hopes the cult’s actions will ultimately lead to that.

Are they financially stable?  They have enough.

HOME

Who does the washing?  Neither until one of them is fed up with the pile in the sink or the lack of clean plates in the shelf.

Who takes out the trash?  Usually Rheese is bothered by it first.

Who does the ironing?  They don’t

Who does the cooking?  She makes good pancakes. But other than that? Don’t allow her in the kitchen because she can’t cook for shit. He can cook a couple of things but is often simply too lazy to ‘play housewife’ so their dinners often consist of very simplistic things. Occasionally one of them will bring home takeout.

Who is more likely to burn the house down just trying?  Rheese, just...keep her out of the kitchen.

Who is messier?  Both pretty much. His place is a mess and she isn’t bothered by it because her apartment looked the same.

Who leaves the toilet roll empty?  Jake, to annoy her.

Who leaves their dirty clothes on the floor?  They both just throw them wherever.

Who forgets to flush the toilet?  Jake, again to annoy her. (her ‘ewww you’re fucking nasty’ face is really entertaining)

Who is the prankster around the house? Neither, they diss each other a lot, sometimes joke on the other’s cost but no deliberate pranks.

Who loses the car keys when it comes time to go somewhere?  Doesn’t really happen.

Who mows the lawn?  No lawn

Who answers the telephone?  They answer their own cells respectively. He refuses to get a smartphone.

Who does the vacuuming?  They don’t own a vacuum cleaner. Only a broom and a mop.

Who does the groceries?  Usually he does.

Who takes the longest to shower?  Rheese, she enjoys the feel of hot water on her skin.

Who spends the most time in the bathroom?  Not much difference there. Rheese doesn’t bother anymore with any routines and such after Jake told her he hates when she wears makeup because it makes his hands sticky when he touches her face :’) Though sometimes she will still put eyeliner out of habit.

MISCELLANEOUS

Is money a problem?  No, they don’t need much.

How many cars do they own?  Jake own an old truck and a motorcycle, Rheese used to have a car but sold it. She prefers riding on her horse Nugget anyway.

Do they own their home or do they rent?  She had an apartment in Missoula before ‘joining’. Then she lived at Stone Ridge for a while, then she moved in with him to his place. A tiny cabin far up a mountain at the far outside of the region.

Do they live in the city or in the country?  Country

Do they enjoy their surroundings?  Yes, especially the forests.

What’s their song?  You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi

What do they do when they’re away from each other?  Working, doing their own thing, living. He’s more possessive about her than she is about it. But they both function normally when not being together.

Where did they first meet?  Technically at the church during her very first sermon to ‘join’ the project. But they only interacted about a week later when he’s supposed to bring her to her initiation at John’s place. They immediately hate each other :’)

Who spends the most money when out shopping?  Whoever does the grocery shopping? They both aren’t big on other shopping trips.

Who’s more likely to flash their assets?  She’s not very show off-y. Jacob likes showing she ‘belongs to him’.

Who finds it amusing when the other trips over?  Both

Any mental issues?  Rheese doesn’t really, she lost her parents and her family is extremely distant but it never gave her trauma.

Jacob still deals with the aftermath of war esp. His PTSD gets bad sometimes and he has sleeping issues.

Who’s terrified of bugs?  She is afraid of spiders, and would appreciate if he killed them when they are in the house. But usually he ends up throwing them at her and tells her it’s therapy to defeat her fears.

Who kills the spiders around the house?  Neither, see above

Their favourite place?  A small lake behind a mountain near his cabin.

Who pays the bills?  The cult

Do they have any fears for their future?  Yeah, they are very conflicted about it. Neither of them know where it all leads and their differences (esp the age one) is an issue at times.

Who’s more likely to surprise the other with a fancy dinner?  They don’t really do that.

Who’s the tallest?  He’s 6'1, she is 5'2. He constantly calls her ‘Shorty’, not in any endearing cute nickname way, but purely to mock her height.

Who’s more likely to just randomly hop into the shower with the other?  Happens with both of them frequently. Tho Jacob is more prone to this because he showers less on his own. So when she’s in there he’s often like ‘might as well join’.

Who wanders around in their underwear?  Rheese starts this trend which he really doesn’t complain about. She also argues that it makes sense because then there will be less laundry to take care of. Can’t really argue with that really.

Who sings the loudest when singing along to the radio?  She does, very very badly cause she can’t sing.

What do they tease each other about?  Her short height and his age. Always.

Who is more likely to cringe at the other’s fashion sense at times?  Doesn’t really happen but he does judge her Power Rangers T-shirt she wears for sleeping.

Who crushed first?  They both kinda did. They blamed it on physical attraction at first, which made Rheese mad because he wasn’t her type. It takes them a couple of months to actually admit they might eventually possibly perhaps maybe have feelings for one another :)

Any alcohol or substance related problems?  Not really

Who is more likely to stumble home, drunk, at 3am?  Rheese does once, and another time they do it together.

Who swears the most?  Jacob, though she’s pretty good at it too.

Tagging @joeyhxdson @fadedjacket @shallow-gravy @chazz-anova​ @ja-crispea​ if you want to. Idk who did this by the time this gets posted.

[mazqueen]

I’ve seen a handful of posts/some replies to me/etc explaining why people think she’s a lesbian and not bisexual, but I haven’t really seen anyone talk about why Petra is bisexual and not a lesbian even though I see a lot of people who do think she’s bi, like I do. So I’ve volunteered to do the honors because I have a lot of feelings about Petra Solano and I have no life. And obviously I’m not claiming I’m right, or anyone is wrong? But this is really just the way I see it, how I feel about it.

I’ll start from an outside perspective and why I think Petra as bisexual is important: bi visibility.

We already have three confirmed lesbians in canon. Rose, Luisa and Krishna. All of whom have been around throughout seasons despite not being regulars. Granted, so far it’s been poor representation overall but regardless of how they’re written, they’re there. People are pretty much assuming JR is also a lesbian. I don’t know if this is something they’ll confirm but regardless. So I’m thinking what are the chances the writers would add another lesbian onto the list when bisexual is a very clear (and for me makes more sense) option for Petra? Plus they’d have to re-explain Petra’s past with men both romantically and sexually into something less than what it’s been already canonically portrayed in order for them to portray her as a lesbian. I don’t know how they’d do that without veering into bi erasure because that’s certainly how it’s going to feel for me and I’ll get into that more later when I talk about why I think Petra being bisexual fits her story within JTV’s narrative.

The only bi character we’ve had is Adam, who is not a main/recurring over a long span of time the way Rose, Luisa and Krishna are. I’ve seen/talked to some people suggesting the episode was also in some way a precursor to Petra’s biwakening. They knew they were going toward that direction with Petra’s character, so they inserted Adam correcting misassumptions including and specifically focusing on: that bisexuality isn’t a pitstop to being gay. I initially felt the timing of Adam’s departure was insulting, given he left not two seconds after it was revealed he’s bi, but if it’s true that the episode was at the same time a precursor to what’s happening with Petra right now, everything actually kind of fits into place. This way they can tell Petra’s story with hopefully the chunk of misinformed audiences’ misconceptions about bisexuality already corrected as well, and it makes sense for it to have been Adam and not Petra do so especially because Adam will have had time to understand this more than Petra would at the place she’s at right now. He’s definitely in a better position than Petra to clarify bi misconceptions since this would be new territory for Petra that she’s only starting to explore and might not have a full understanding of yet.

(Also mildly significant, Gina Rodriguez retweeted bisexual Petra and while that isn’t an official confirmation, they’re filmed up to 4x13 by now soooo… she knows more than we do, there’s that to consider.)

Petra as bisexual would be such a good representation. Petra as a lesbian would be good representation for lesbians but personally, I feel would deadass be horrible for bisexuals especially the bi erasure that would happen, imo, which is already such a problem for bi’s to begin with. So I don’t see how that could possibly end well.

Now, I’ll talk about why apart from being good bi representation, I also think bisexuality fits into Petra’s narrative and doesn’t clash with what’s already canon as opposed to her being a lesbian.

I’ve seen some suggest Petra’s a closeted lesbian. Closeted suggests she’s aware, but that she’s keeping her sexuality a secret. I don’t think this is the case because first, Petra doesn’t strike me as the type to hide something like that and deny herself. In the last episode, she tells Jane in one of her voice memos that if you want something, you go get it or something similar. I can see her being in denial over a short amount of time at best, or confused. But denying herself for a long period of time? Not very Petra-like for me. Second, and I suppose more significantly. The narrator said ‘sexual awakening’ in the last episode after she woke up from her JR dream, confirming that it was… well, an awakening. Which means she wasn’t aware she was attracted to women before. That’s already canon, confirmed.

Moving from that, I’ve seen a few others suggest she’s a lesbian because of her problematic relationships with men in the past. And while I know this has been the experience of some and that’s valid, in Petra’s situation in particular, I truly feel that her unhealthy/problematic relationships have more to do with (1) who and how Petra is and how she treats people in general and/or (2) her being gullible and her inability to judge people whether they’re good or bad / their intentions, etc in general (not just people she’s dated) rather than the gender of the people she’s dated. Why? Because Petra doesn’t only have problematic romantic relationships with men. Petra has had problematic relationships with literally every single person at one point or another in every aspect of her life (familial, platonic, romantic) so far, save for the twins.

This is a list of all the people in or have been Petra’s life that we’ve seen her interact with: Magda, Milos, Lachlan, Rafael, Roman, Jane, Chuck, Krishna, Anezka, Luisa, JR.

Let’s start with Magda. Her mother. That relationship was problematic as hell. Manipulation, lies, death threats, you name it. This is self explanatory and has less to do with Petra and more to do with Magda though I do think her mother is the root cause of a lot of her problematic ways because she played such a huge role in Petra’s development as a child. This problematic relationship lasted because Magda’s been lying for her for years and she had no clue. Because as I’ve mentioned before, Petra can be very gullible when it comes to people. She likes to think she’s a good judge of character but she’s honestly just… not. Take a look at Milos (turned out to be an abusive pos), Lachlan (she believed him in s1 and thought she was playing him, turns out he played her), Roman (turned out to be a kidnapper working for Sin Rostro), Chuck (not as bad as the others but still a liar), Anezka (do I even need to get into this), and finally JR (who has been pardoned now and proven herself...so far, but I’m not just gonna ignore the fact that she started out with the intention of framing Petra and Petra totally missed that). These are problematic men and women she let into her life. I’ll reiterate that it’s a common theme for Petra to do so in all aspects of her life, not just in romantic relationships with males.

Krishna, Jane, Rafael and Luisa are all different relationships but I do think all of them fall under problematic relationships in the first category I mentioned : that it has to do with who and how Petra is, the way she acts etc. She doesn’t really treat Krishna well. Luisa… not exactly either. She’s tried to manipulate Luisa several times on the show now. Her relationship with Jane, as much as my Jetra heart hurts to say? Is rocky at best. Petra’s done a lot of shit to Jane, and if Jane wasn’t such a forgiving person they’d never have reached what they are now. And I’d like to point out that what they are now? Uh. Not exactly something I’d describe as healthy either (though less problematic than others yeah). As for Rafael, I’d say this is more both of them contributing to the occasional problematic af nature of their relationship.

Bottomline: Problematic and/or unhealthy relationships for Petra has been, like I said, with LITERALLY every person in her life at one point or another, in all types of relationships she’s had. Not just with men, not just romantically with men. So I can’t attribute her problematic romantic relationships with men to her being a lesbian subconsciously, or unconsciously. If she actually had a healthy relationship in any other aspect with someone? Anyone? Any one person then yeah, I’d consider it. But there isn’t. And the closest we’ve gotten to Petra having a healthy romantic relationship with anyone is with Raf. So let’s talk about that and bi erasure.

Rafael was (is) the most prominent man in her life. Rafael, whom she married. Rafael, whom she fell so deeply in love with, and I do believe that Petra loved him as much as she was capable of, as much as she knew how to, all things, especially her problematic past, considered. Rafael, whom we’ve seen flashbacks of Petra in the happiest we’ve seen her throughout anything we’ve seen on the show so far. (We see her smiling at JR the same way as Raf!) At the very least, in the flashbacks we’ve been given (since s1 gets a bit complicated), I’ve always felt like the love she felt for Rafael was real. Genuine. It never felt forced, it never felt fake. Let me list a few instances that explicitly show Petra’s feelings for Raf were real and not forced, not fake: I remember in s1, she admitted how hard it was to see Rafael and Jane together, building a family. And that was something that she and Rafael were supposed to have. The heartache there was real. When she told Rafael ‘I never stopped loving you.’ That felt real to me. And it wasn’t just me. The narrator confirmed it was real, ‘Turns out, it's easy to give a good performance when what you are saying is actually true.’ Petra, who told Zaz she hasn’t cried since she was a child, Petra who rarely breaks down in front of other people, Petra, who thinks crying would mean embarrassing herself couldn’t help but cry anyway. Even when they were no longer together, and Petra was still lowkey in love with him? I remember she made that one stupid decision about the alcohol license permit because she let her feelings for Rafael get in the way. She caved and let Raf have his way, even though she had nothing to gain from it. A lot of us have done stupid things for love. And there are more but the point is, her romantic relationship with Rafael has always felt real to me.

Petra and Rafael fell apart because of two outside circumstances that they weren’t able to handle as a couple: miscarriage, cancer. Before that? They were happy. Building a family together. But those are huge things for people to go through and they were young. They didn’t know better, I don’t think they knew how to handle things when it came to it. The people giving them advice? Magda, whom we know is trash I mean come on, she basically tells Petra to use sex to her advantage and Luisa, whom I recall was encouraging Raf to leave Petra and be honest (without malice though!) but idk? No one ever tried giving them an advice I feel would be more appropriate for a marriage like: How about they give the relationship a try, actually make an effort and try to make things work. Maybe go to couples therapy. Something, anything that involves at least an attempt at fixing things. Because the fact is they fell apart and they never tried to mend it until 1x02/3 but it was too late by then. Like I said, they didn’t know better. And I think the fact that those two grew up with trash parents also contributes to how they handled problems when they arose. Parents are crucial to a child’s development. But just because they fell apart, doesn’t mean the time that they were happy and in love doesn’t count. They do count. Her relationship, marriage with Rafael, a male, counts. Just because it fell apart, doesn’t mean Petra wasn’t in love with him. I know JTV likes to pretend sometimes that all Petrael ever were was problematic but they weren’t always.There are scenes to prove it. External forces caused them to crumble, yes. After that, it was a roller coaster, yes. But that relationship, the feelings they had, more importantly that Petra had was genuine, romantically, sexually. To say that it isn’t when the narrator has confirmed it was or to lessen it or whatever, personally? is bi erasure to me. And while in s4 Petra realizes Raf isn’t what she wants anymore, it doesn’t change the fact that he was exactly what she wanted in the past. People ARE capable of having real feelings for someone in the past and then moving on. To negate her feelings in the past because she feels differently romantically now, is bi erasure.

…especially when literally in the last episode she talks about her sexual attraction for Raf. So much so that she gets herself worked up : look at her in the scene once she starts talking about sex, you can see how it affects her. That scene was the build up for Petra having that sex dream. Her JR dream was a combination of Petra working herself up with thoughts of how good Raf is in bed along with her attraction to JR she wasn’t fully aware of. Bi.Sexual. It also isn’t the first time they’ve touched on Petra and Raf’s sex life. s3, the narrator thought it was noteworthy they had sex thrice, Raf whispering to Petra about Paris? felt sexual to me too. Petra’s relationship with Roman? Significant in its sexual aspect too. Petra’s sexual attraction to men? Real. As real as her sexual attraction to women. (Briefly bringing up the way Petra looked at Luisa’s boobs early s4, which I now think was put there intentionally.) If Petra having sex with JR in the future turns out to be the most amazing sex she’s had? It doesn’t make her not bisexual. If Petra falls in love with JR and her love is deeper for JR than it was with Raf?  It doesn’t make her not bisexual.

And so yeah. With all of that, if Petra doesn’t turn out to be bisexual in canon? It’ll feel like bi erasure to me. It’s been outrightly conveyed more than once that her feelings, romantic and sexual, for her male partners (not all of them because she was just using some lol) were real. Taking that back to fit a narrative where Petra is a lesbian would feel like rewriting it (and I can see how it can be done, for sure) and would leave loopholes, imo. That’s just me. Anyway, I’ve yet to read other theories that have made me believe otherwise sooo. But until JTV confirms it, it’s hard to conclude anything, really.

[welcometoteamz]

Hiya Hiya folks. Since it was a two-part episode, I decided to give them one more episode to win me back.

Did they do that?

Short answer is... no. Maybe I'll catch up once it's on Netflix, but for now, I'm out. Nothing but respect for you guys, and not to rain on anyone's parade, but I'm just not enjoying the show at this point in time.

Blaine’s regression. They seem determined to remind us he’s done terrible things, huh? Between the Mama Leone backstory, and what he’s done now by delivering her to Chase. In my opinion, turning him back into a mustache twirling villain… is a bad move. It cheapens the character and makes him less interesting.

And I guess he really did steal the cures himself, huh? Okay, but I still don’t like it. It was the lowest hanging fruit. If the answer to ‘whodunnit’ is literally the first suspect, it’s a bad mystery imo.

In the same episode Liv confronts him, we see that Candy has to remind him of the orders they need to fulfill, as he’s sort of fallen behind and just given up. Wallowing in self pity. Which In my opinion, makes his descent back into villainy tragic. 

He claimed to change his life, and how people viewed him. He wanted a simpler life, free of consequences for his old one. Even after his ruse was exposed, initially, it would have appeared he kept his nose clean. He lied before Peyton expressed renewed interest in him, if we’re to assume he had his memories back by the s2 finale/s3 premiere. Before he even ran the brain business again, before Don E. split off.

He didn’t lie to win Peyton’s affections, that was just an consequence of his actions that he was willing to exploit.Back to my earlier point though, Blaine picked the brain business back up again when Don E left, but it wasn’t a priority for him. Yes, he had the blue juice recipe and tried to experiment with that… but honestly… that’s another thing where  it seemed like was some sort of disconnect there with the writing. In my opinion. It was ignored the next two episodes before coming back around, and we see him from giving a sinister smirk to drunkenly singing love songs and asking Candy what ‘it’ was all about. 

And really, would the money he lost from only losing only 15 potential customers be anything compared to the millions he signed over as part of his inheritance? I suppose in the long term, the 25K per person per month would equate to him losing 375K in one month. If my math is correct.

But back to it making him less of a tragic villain… if he hadn’t stolen the cures, it would mean he didn’t go back into his old ways until after Angus had him shot. His actions following that were about survival, and he was able to take out all his feelings on his father, a man who abused him and he considers to be largely responsible for him ending up the way he did. Once he found himself with The Scratching Post, the proposal to partner with Fillmore-Graves… it was a distraction, something to distract him from his feelings, and honestly? It wasn’t like he had much else going for him. 

3x08 was basically ‘Blaine Gets His Groove Back’.. to have Blaine go back to being nefarious, have him be the one who stole the cures makes it a bit less impactful, in my opinion. Again, yes he had the blue juice recipe, but that sort of fell into his lap due to Liv’s carelessness. Was it ethical? No, but at the same time, he wasn’t harming anyone. He didn’t technically steal it.

Blaine aside, the brain in this episode was still overacted. Rose’s performance was… I’m sorry, cringey.  I say that only knowing she’s so much better than that. Also, they compare Blaine to Rick in Casablanca before the season starts, and Ravi gets the comparison in universe? Bummer, but at least Blaine got to quote him.

[the-real-xmonster]

Hi there! I was wondering if you have watched Evgenia's SP at Ondrej Nepela Trophy because I was going through the protocol and apparently J1 (Canada) gave her 9.25 and 9.50 respectively for skating skills and transitions while J6 (Slovakia) gave her 8.50 and 8.25 respectively. I was wondering what could justify such a huge gap. Also, feeling really sad about Mai's SP at Autumn Classic. I thought she would at least score in the 70s. Still need to check the protocol though. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Hello! PCS is a pretty subjective area so significant variances among judges’ scores are not that uncommon. I’m not saying that it should be so, because for what it’s worth, the PCS guideline issued by the ISU is pretty clear-cut especially on Skating Skills and Transitions. Sadly, the fact remains that the ISU rule book does tend to appear merely decorative on a disturbing frequency. IMO a rather large number of judges like to give out PCS according to their perception of the skater’s relative placement within the current field. Basically those judges would semi-consciously look at all the currently active skaters, or maybe all skaters who are competing in the same event they’re judging, and arrange them into a virtual Bell curve. That “ranking” would serve as the basis for their judging, i.e. they’d give the skaters who fall into the top 5% 9.00 to 9.50, 8.00 to 8.75 for the middle group, and 7-ish for the tail end. Again, I’m not saying that this is the correct way to do things because it is awfully subjective, but it could potentially explain why Judge 1 gave Janny such high scores. 

Now I’m no judge, obviously, but if I interpret the ISU component criteria correctly, I’d also give Janny around 8.50 in Skating Skills, same as Judge 6 did. She’s got pretty good flow and energy, no overuse of two-footed skating, and a nice balance of multi-directional turns. However her edges are not the cleanest. Outside of step sequences her turns can be a bit scratchy (unclear edges and blurry curves) especially when she performs them at a faster speed. An 8.50, which is between Very Good and Superior sounds about right.

For Transitions I think Judge 6 was a bit too harsh on her, I’d give Janny a 9.00 for that program. Her choreography, as usual, is jam-packed with transitions. I mean, sure, her moves can be rather in-your-face but regardless of your taste, they are varied, difficult transitions and they should merit a high PCS. Same goes for her Tano and Rippon jumps really. You can hate them all you want but it doesn’t change the fact that varied air position counts as a GOE bullet and there is no rule against skaters performing as many as they like (or as they can, Tano and Rippon are harder than you might think).

I just managed to catch up on Mai and her protocol. Looks like the key issue was the edge call on her flip - that one by itself lowered her score by at least 3 points. I tried to slow mo her takeoff and IMO the call was rather harsh - she wasn’t exactly on outside edge at the moment of takeoff. Who knows, maybe the tech panel had access to a different camera angle. On PCS, between PE, CO, and IN I think she deserved about 0.50 points more (basically I agree with J1′s scores on those components). The rest of her protocol looks fair enough; Mai really needs to put some more work into her transitions. I do like what I saw so far from her though and I look forward to seeing how she’s going to develop that program throughout this season :)   

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Czech Republic to Eurovision with an unexpected geographical sight name

Another year, another Czech attempt at a national final that wasn’t televised also BUT this time we got some excitement announcements out of them - even if they were blatantly boring, kind of.

Keep in mind though that I know that the revamp's out, BUT this whole review is just me reviewing the version we all witnessed back when ESCZ hit. The one and only.

So the NF’s here because we saw Mikolas succeed from it the last time (eventhough it’s just a secret internal selection for just the Mikolas’s song and there’s no no denying hihihi), right? And thanks to that we got pseudo-official-but-not-so-official hotel music videos of each contestant’s songs just in case they decide to... like... change it for something different. Like those lyric videos last year. Eventhough they looked so very lowbudget this year, I still liked them to some degree, and eventually I had to witness this one video (set in presumably mostly the living room) where the lead singer confettis all over himself win this year (well not really the video as much as I only got to first hear that song on ESCRadio hahaha). Well, just the lead singer of it. As the buddies were on the other official video (the one I’ll talk about in my revamps update I guess but has anything changed other than the singer singing one of his talking parts?). As a whole the Czech entrants this year are known as Lake Malawi (it exists) and “Friend of a Friend” is their A-game! Let’s listen!

I liked it ever since my first acknowledgence(??) of it through ESCRadio. It reminded me of those happy-clappy 80s synth sounds (eventhough the 80s songs were mostly about gloom and doom), somehow somewhat mixed in with a bit of that ‘modern’ synthpop sound from the British music scene (Years & Years maybe? Nah that’d be too far-fetched). The lyrics, while cheap enough, at least paint a bit of a picture? I don’t think the person in the song was “making love” to his ‘old’ neighbouress back when she was 13, anyway. She’s, afterall, the “friend of a friend”. Who is a friend of a friend. Who is a friend of a friend. Who is a friend of a friend’s COUSIN~

The thing is that some songs out here are enjoyable besides their lyrical content. Or even without the singer’s background (still looking at those who’re shading Sheppard’s family business - shut up and enjoy “Geronimo” in peace, geez!). I, for example, jammed to RiRi’s “S&M” for my lifetime - yes, even since when it got big, and the pop music was being made to sound trashy, and not like something that sounds too somber and ‘foggy’, and with lyrics from r/im14andthisisdeep, and then later slapped on those a e s t h e t i c moodboards with tulips and liquid (of colour blue/red) splashed onto them to make it loof more effective, and placed in front of a yellow background on a white table. I miss late 2000s-early 2010s pop a whole lot, because at least it had fathomable-to-the-ear hits of the time - cheap, fast food, techno melodies with overproduction and lyrics that actually mean something more intimate and grotesque (with sometimes even hinting to the love surface) - that was the shit. Now it’s just drowsy stuff with blurry melodies and lamentings of lost love and devotion in an equally slurry, pathetic, vocal whine. I’m so tired of it. It’s unsettling. Get it off me. And thankfully, none of that invades this small little bubble of Eurovision’s just as of now (unlike the other pathetic musical cliche of nowadays that’s Soundcloud rap - ‘thanks’ a lot USNK). And I guess I shouldn’t be blessed that Lake Malawi brings this “this bangs but the lyrics are... a choice, but it still bangs so idc” back onto Eurovision? Like, come on, we all have had such kinds of songs like those all of that time. From “I Can’t Go On” (a man being a slut for love???) to countless of national final shlocks made by these usual suspects from rent-a-songwriter corner, ESPECIALLY in the 00s, to some of those actual 00s entries that made it - so stupid to sing along to, yet so infectious you can’t drag your earworm out of your ear canals just now. What does “Friend of a Friend” have for itself? Keyboard melody in the 2nd half of the chorus that is easily stuck in MY head, with a female voice (I assume it’s the song’s protagonist’s subject of speech - the neighbourina herself) reassuring that “[she’s] only [his] friend” - not in a “haha I’m friendzoning you forever >:)” way, but “ehhhh there’s truly nothing between us as he says, we’re just friends, not lovers, don’t give me that look” way. Sure it’s believable, sure. It might as well turn out that these neighbours are indeed doing the same thing as in all those local anecdotes where a family’s mother or father has an affair with a next-door neighbour for shits and giggles to move the joke’s plot forward.

So it is, as a whole, a fun little throwback-ish piece of fine and smooth music, accompanied with the lead singer’s ‘British’ ‘accent’ (aha so this is why I get a lot of British radio vibes from this - not to mention, tropical beach ones too for some reason!), some sort of spoken dialogue, energy and the ability to raise you up from your seat the 45875th time you’re actually giving in to all of this. You know you want to, despite this song possibly not being your cup of tea. But I see you, and I look forward to seeing you bopping to this fully in May, no matter if this isn’t Mikolas you’re dealing with anymore, and no camel spaghetti. Ahw yeah!

Approval factor: Although it’s also slowly wearing off me like it already wore off everyone else back then, I’m still giving it one hell of an approval. Yay!

Follow-up factor: I definitely like it more than “Lie to Me” as well. Somewhat. Honestly. Don’t bash me in secret.

Qualification factor: the naysayers are saying this will flop but imo they’re mostly just upset that Barbora didn’t go (even if they were only still upset back in the say), STILL. Ugh can’t they just leave. I am positive about this song’s chances somewhat, just hoping it gets a really memorable and stand out staging and maybe it will escape this hellhole of its semi. Not very confident, just positive. (Also they rocked the Vidbir stage so hard even the uncomfortable question queen Dramala couldn’t not give in the dance, lolz.)

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

Honestly, the best possible thing that came out of this NF was the oh-so-unexpectedly-expected winner choice, and it is like this because, yet again, people couldn’t get over Barbora losing at first, to which I’m like “to be quite honest, you were all into it because that’s the closest thing to Lana del Rey you’d ever get in Eurovision because Lana herself is American and America should NOT set their foot into ESC... besides, she wouldn’t probably do it anyways”. ESCZ wasn’t pretty bad of a NF honestly:

• people actually laughed at the fact every single video of this NF is so low-budget that it looked like it was all filmed in the same hotel room! (in reality I’m just jealous at the slick-ass hotels they’ve had on there, feels like someone’s house more than a hotel actually)

• Pam Rabbit, one of Mikolas’s last year’s backings, brought the second-best NF song this year imo (Barbora for me is likeable but not to THAT degree, lol calm yer tits), as it was a lowkey bop and I can’t not appreciate one!

(her officially official MV is here but in the spirit of this NF’s, you’re gonna have to subject yourself to this above in order to witness spectacular budget-MVs that happened for this NF especially, come on. Hardly a cool NF without its own little perks!)

• Fine, I’ll bring up Barbora Mochowa too. I gotta say she DOES sound like Queen Bee Lana, same to say on her earlier works which, among them, has one enchanting and haunting forest-like ballad. “True Colors”, her ESCZ entry, is just a pop ballad, which is not THAT bad, it’s just that... did y’all see any more in that song beyond the Lana vocals? Sure sure the melody is pleasant but... did ya?

(Lord alive, she also has a live video for this song on her channel, which is in fact the ESCZ’s unplugged version video!)

• The ex-ESC entrant jury is back for another year! This time though, the votes of all of the participants in it were all up and public (unlike secrety mcsecret ones from 2018 where I’m not even sure if the Eurojury panel was correct), and most of them were #TeamMalawi or #TeamBarbora... up until AWS (yes AWS are relevant enough for their own panel!), being the “wait do we still have to do Eurovision related things??? it’s sooooo 1 year ago already, let us go goddammit!!” type of participants that they are, totally and utterly half-arsing their own experience in there by 12ing Andrea Holá. The thing is that she’s first alphabetically from the artists so that’s probably the best possible theory why. “GIVE ME A HINT, ANDREA!!!”

• The best part? The NF itself taking place in the second floor of an abandoned warehouse somewhere in Czech Republic (Czechia go to hell), in the middle of the day, with no live performances, just that video above played in full motion and some random people speaking in between. Silly of them to leak my ideal NF design location if I ever were a Lithuanian HoD. And yes, it was streamed on Facebook, the platform that I can barely play livestreams on my 11-year-old laptop on, while suspiciously enough, it worked for FiK 56... which meant that I was barely able to grasp a screenshot but I managed!

Well of course I didn’t get to watch much but after someone said Lake Malawi (or, in their words, Lake Malala <333) won, I almost believed it until I found out that the show’s still going... and only saw the thing on the projection screen later out of nowhere. IDK who’s hugging who and if that audience on the right are all the participants then I may have an idea but for now IDK. Ahh, relevant video media being projected on projection screens (duh) <33 giving San Marino, Albania’s Powerpoint scoreboards and Belgian 2013 radio NF runs for their money.

I might find mistakes and off-the-wall blabbers in this write-up later but for now I’ll carelessly submit this beauty to Tumblr today and wish the best of luck to Lake Malawi in Tel Aviv! May you qualify for the 2nd year in a row for CZ ^^

[clickntreat]

Can’t get a read more to work, so sorry, you’re gonna have to scroll past this whole thing if you don’t wanna read about horse training stuff 

(or just press j if you’re not on mobile)

So, more background to explain what Lady knows/what I’ve done with her so far since some have asked and for a bit of clarification. Some video has been posted and more will be posted soon too. This is concerning the behavior analysis/ training post I made last week so I’m tagging those that responded

@themotherfuckingclickerkid @clickerhorse @clickercake @mylittlehony @french-link @theclassicalhorse @spanishequestrian

(I hope I didn’t miss anyone?) and @anyone else who is interested/wants to help: As far as NH stuff, (skip this paragraph if not relevant to what you meant you needed to know? kinda long. it covers about 8 years of our lives. I summarize at the end of this paragraph with a tl;dr anyways) taught her the typical groundwork stuff like backing up and moving hind and forequarters away from pressure via direct pressure applied to her sides/chest/nose as well as those “mean looks” backed up by waving sticks around aggressively and hitting if she was unresponsive and wiggling the rope and whatnot. “Desensitizing” to swinging the whip around, ropes tossed around her, plastic bag, being touched everywhere, etc. and the NH version of “lunging” / “lunging for respect” (ugh). Did the whole join up thing, spent some time using John Lyons stuff which inspired me to teach her to set herself up at the mounting block (kinda) uh… then my journey took me to Parelli so did the basics of his games, which taught her somewhat to target things (I used this to actually get them to allow me to deworm them without restraints by just giving them treats first for targeting the dewormer, then for letting me stick it in their mouth further and further, etc. Went very well! Probably a key part of me beginning my clicker journey lol). She was always very laid back and very lazy, and therefore very motivated by rest, I learned to use after way too long, and also food ofc, but that was a no-no. I needed Respect from her, not to bribe her. She nearly always required at least one physical hit to get her anywhere beyond a walk, under saddle and on the ground. Under saddle, I rode in a more western fashion, and was inspired like many other little girls by Stacey Westfall’s bridleless performance, and so tried to train for that just by giving a cue to turn that required no reins (I always used outside leg to turn her away from the pressure, idk what you guys consider correct) before backing it up with a neck rein and then a direct rein. Made… some progress there. When I rode bridleless, at the best I got using -R, could get w/t/c with a whip and Lady was always willing to stop so that was no problem, but turning was basically only if she wanted to turn that way anyways. Things improved slightly when I began rewarding big efforts like attempting a jump or trotting/cantering on cue with a break or ending the session, then it reached the point she began charging at the nearest jumpable object if I asked for anything more than a walk just so she could stop. Began rewarding for not charging at a jump uncued/not rewarding an uncued jump and that helped… soon after I began clicker training..

(tl;dr she knows basic NH groundwork, and is essentially green broke with those methods, and was never very willing to cooperate/took a lot of force usually to do anything besides walk aimlessly and I don’t blame her)

Side note, also summarized at the end, I did train her to do some tricks during that NH time period, and I did train those with +R, “because they were tricks, not necessary behaviors” or whatever. Those include smiling, giving kisses, hugs, standing on a platform, striking her foot out when I did to train spanish walk (never got that finished), started training a bow??, which would’ve led to lay down but decided to not train that bc I was afraid she’d just start laying down to get out of work lol, I now regret training bow bc 1. I never finished it and 2. she offers it when I pick up her left foot and hold it for longer than she likes, and smiling bc she offers it sometimes when I just wanna touch her face and isn’t very impressive lol, but the others are great. The kiss is good for when she doesn’t seem to be getting what I’m asking, so I use that to kind of “restart” before trying again with a smaller step or clearer cue or something, and it and the hug are just cute af imo, and she never offers them in an aggressive or nervous way so it’s okay when she offers them off cue, I just don’t reward lol. The leg thing is especially useful. On trails or in new places, when she’s nervous, I can use it to bring her focus back on me and it calms her down very well. It also set us up for “do as I do” so she now steps forward/backward/on things with the same foot I do, which is also very useful. With another horse they might not have worked that way, but for her they’re great.

(tl;dr she knows some tricks)

Idk how to summarize the rest so no more tl;dr’s

Last summer (2016) was when I began clicker training. I spent several sessions - with all the horses actually- charging the clicker with non-mugging exercises, clicking and treating when they quit searching my bag for treats, and once that was solid, clicking for calm, head forward behavior. Once that was solid and they made it obvious they knew click=treat, I started working on other things, but not much with the other horses so just talking about Lady again now: I made a target with a ~6″ section of pool noodle slipped over the end of a riding crop, did some work with that; in general did everything I used to do, but would only ask with the lightest pressure and reward any attempt with a click and treat, and never punish if she didn’t do as I asked. (example: lightly touch her shoulder with my finger, maybe kiss to let her know “I’m asking you to move” and if she leaned her weight slightly away, great, I’d click and treat. If not, I just didn’t reward. eventually of course she would actually step until i quit asking and rewarded) She became much more willing in everything. 

Side note just to brag: My favorite development since using clicker training with her is that since we only have the pasture and the round pen to work with, and with treats they all want to be by me to get some, I need them restrained away from me, so I pour some grain in the round pen to lure the horses in then lock them up, and when they’re done eating, take the one I want to work with out. After a few times, Lady began walking out with me instead of eating the grain with her buddies! I can think of no higher honor than being chosen over grain with her buddies… she’s “second in the hierarchy” so it’s not like she has to fight for it. and if for whatever reason I make her stay in there, she nickers to me whenever I look in her direction <3

Anyways, so with clicker training, on the ground, as far as things she has down very well, she has learned to not mug/default to standing calmly with head relaxed and somewhere not in my pockets and to boop a target. I also use clicker training to reward standing still for grooming and fly spray and for allowing me to clean and trim her feet, which are things she already did, but now I reward her for it. idk if that’s good/bad/neutral or what...

Under saddle, first I taught her to position herself by the mounting block when I stood there. I did this to give her a chance to tell me she doesn’t want to be ridden. I don’t ride much right now bc I’ve become more concerned with saddle fit/bareback hurting her (I’ll probably be asking for help with that soon) so she doesn’t really know this, but end goal is to have her consent to being ridden by standing there for me (obviously, not standing there would be her refusing), and to be able to tell me she doesn’t want to anymore by returning to the mounting block. Under saddle, after maybe two or three short bareback and bridleless sessions using clicker training, she now turns willingly every time I ask. 

On the ground, what I have been working with her on  since I got back home from college is just staying by me and doing as I do, not getting ahead of me, etc. and she actually offered a behavior last week that I’ve been shaping since. I was at her side and turned about 45 degrees from her, and she stepped her hindquarters over so that she was aligned with me, facing the same direction, and that’s kinda what inspired the work on the ground that I’ve been doing. Just stay by my side, if I turn, you turn, if I step over, you step over, if I step back, you step back, etc. I use (what I think is?) a high rate of reward, never asking for more than like… an absolute max of 6 steps/strides before rewarding, and usually averaging closer to 2 or 3, even with stuff we’ve done for a long time, and of course clicking for the slightest try for new things. I break up that work with rewarding for standing still when I’m not cueing anything to remind her that sometimes I just want her to stand still.

The only time she pins her ears is when I ask her to trot/canter, and she never does anything actually aggressive/puts me at risk, and her ears aren’t even super pinned, just laid back a bit more than usual. Anyways, hopefully I can get the rest of the videos up today, but this explains everything I can think of, some of which might not have been caught on video. 

[clickntreat]

More background? To explain what Lady knows/what I’ve done with her so far since some have asked and for a bit of clarification. Video will be posted soon too. This is.. pretty long so I made it a read more (or tried to. I hope it works. also, no one I tagged should feel obligated to read or help) This is concerning the behavior analysis/ training post I made last week so I’m tagging those that responded @themotherfuckingclickerkid @clickerhorse @clickercake @mylittlehony @french-link @theclassicalhorse @spanishequestrian (I hope I didn’t miss anyone?) and @anyone else who is interested/wants to help:

As far as NH stuff, (skip this paragraph if not relevant to what you meant you needed to know? kinda long. it covers about 8 years of our lives. I summarize at the end of this paragraph with a tl;dr anyways) taught her the typical groundwork stuff like backing up and moving hind and forequarters away from pressure via direct pressure applied to her sides/chest/nose as well as those “mean looks” backed up by waving sticks around aggressively and hitting if she was unresponsive and wiggling the rope and whatnot. “Desensitizing” to swinging the whip around, ropes tossed around her, plastic bag, being touched everywhere, etc. and the NH version of “lunging” / “lunging for respect” (ugh). Did the whole join up thing, spent some time using John Lyons stuff which inspired me to teach her to set herself up at the mounting block (kinda) uh... then my journey took me to Parelli so did the basics of his games, which taught her somewhat to target things (I used this to actually get them to allow me to deworm them without restraints by just giving them treats first for targeting the dewormer, then for letting me stick it in their mouth further and further, etc. Went very well! Probably a key part of me beginning my clicker journey lol). She was always very laid back and very lazy, and therefore very motivated by rest, I learned to use after way too long, and also food ofc, but that was a no-no. I needed Respect from her, not to bribe her. She nearly always required at least one physical hit to get her anywhere beyond a walk, under saddle and on the ground. Under saddle, I rode in a more western fashion, and was inspired like many other little girls by Stacey Westfall’s bridleless performance, and so tried to train for that just by giving a cue to turn that required no reins (I always used outside leg to turn her away from the pressure, idk what you guys consider correct) before backing it up with a neck rein and then a direct rein. Made... some progress there. When I rode bridless, at the best I got using -R, could get w/t/c with a whip and Lady was always willing to stop so that was no problem, but turning was basically only if she wanted to turn that way anyways. Things improved slightly when I began rewarding big efforts like attempting a jump or trotting/cantering on cue with a break or ending the session, then it reached the point she began charging at the nearest jumpable object if I asked for anything more than a walk just so she could stop. Began rewarding for not charging at a jump uncued/not rewarding an uncued jump and that helped... soon after I began clicker training..

(tl;dr she knows basic NH groundwork, and is essentially green broke with those methods, and was never very willing to cooperate/took a lot of force usually to do anything besides walk aimlessly and I don’t blame her)

Side note, also summarized at the end, I did train her to do some tricks during that NH time period, and I did train those with +R, “because they were tricks, not necessary behaviors” or whatever. Those include smiling, giving kisses, hugs, standing on a platform, striking her foot out when I did to train spanish walk (never got that finished), started training a bow??, which would’ve led to lay down but decided to not train that bc I was afraid she’d just start laying down to get out of work lol, I now regret training bow bc 1. I never finished it and 2. she offers it when I pick up her left foot and hold it for longer than she likes, and smiling bc she offers it sometimes when I just wanna touch her face and isn’t very impressive lol, but the others are great. The kiss is good for when she doesn’t seem to be getting what I’m asking, so I use that to kind of “restart” before trying again with a smaller step or clearer cue or something, and it and the hug are just cute af imo, and she never offers them in an aggressive or nervous way so it’s okay when she offers them off cue, I just don’t reward lol. The leg thing is especially useful. On trails or in new places, when she’s nervous, I can use it to bring her focus back on me and it calms her down very well. It also set us up for “do as I do” so she now steps forward/backward/on things with the same foot I do, which is also very useful. With another horse they might not have worked that way, but for her they’re great.

(tl;dr she knows some tricks)

Idk how to summarize the rest so no more tl;dr’s

Last summer (2016) was when I began clicker training. I spent several sessions - with all the horses actually- charging the clicker with non-mugging exercises, clicking and treating when they quit searching my bag for treats, and once that was solid, clicking for calm, head forward behavior. Once that was solid and they made it obvious they knew click=treat, I started working on other things, but not much with the other horses so just talking about Lady again now: I made a target with a ~6″ section of pool noodle slipped over the end of a riding crop, did some work with that; in general did everything I used to do, but would only ask with the lightest pressure and reward any attempt with a click and treat, and never punish if she didn’t do as I asked. (example: lightly touch her shoulder with my finger, maybe kiss to let her know “I’m asking you to move” and if she leaned her weight slightly away, great, I’d click and treat. If not, I just didn’t reward. eventually of course she would actually step until i quit asking and rewarded) She became much more willing in everything. 

Side note just to brag: My favorite development since using clicker training with her is that since we only have the pasture and the round pen to work with, and with treats they all want to be by me to get some, I need them restrained away from me, so I pour some grain in the round pen to lure the horses in then lock them up, and when they’re done eating, take the one I want to work with out. After a few times, Lady began walking out with me instead of eating the grain with her buddies! I can think of no higher honor than being chosen over grain with her buddies... she’s “second in the hierarchy” so it’s not like she has to fight for it. and if for whatever reason I make her stay in there, she nickers to me whenever I look in her direction <3

Anyways, so with clicker training, on the ground, as far as things she has down very well, she has learned to not mug/default to standing calmly with head relaxed and somewhere not in my pockets and to boop a target. I use clicker training to reward standing still for grooming and fly spray and for allowing me to clean and trim her feet. 

Under saddle, first I taught her to position herself by the mounting block when I stood there. I did this to give her a chance to tell me she doesn’t want to be ridden. I don’t ride much right now bc I’ve become more concerned with saddle fit/bareback hurting her (I’ll probably be asking for help with that soon) so she doesn’t really know this, but end goal is to have her consent to being ridden by standing there for me (obviously, not standing there would be her refusing), and to be able to tell me she doesn’t want to anymore by returning to the mounting block. Under saddle, after maybe two or three short bareback and bridleless sessions using clicker training, she now turns willingly every time I ask. 

On the ground, what I have been working with her on  since I got back home from college is just staying by me and doing as I do, not getting ahead of me, etc. and she actually offered a behavior last week that I’ve been shaping since. I was at her side and turned about 45 degrees from her, and she stepped her hindquarters over so that she was aligned with me, facing the same direction, and that’s kinda what inspired the work on the ground that I’ve been doing. Just stay by my side, if I turn, you turn, if I step over, you step over, if I step back, you step back, etc. I use (what I think is?) a high rate of reward, never asking for more than like... an absolute max of 6 steps/strides before rewarding, and usually averaging closer to 2 or 3, even with stuff we’ve done for a long time, and of course clicking for the slightest try for new things. I break up that work with rewarding for standing still when I’m not cueing anything to remind her that sometimes I just want her to stand still.

The only time she pins her ears is when I ask her to trot, and she never does anything actually aggressive/puts me at risk, and her ears aren’t even super pinned, just laid back a bit more than usual. Anyways, I’m using this free day to dig up the footage I have and post it so I’ll have it up, but this explains everything I didn’t get into video.