#so sorry for the text in the middle but its for context

[rycusfunnies]

It can't stay in my files forever as a inside joke only posted to Discord yknow

No cap it was genuinely funny how she's mad at me now only for Greacer/Grem X Acer like good, weep. Cry about it.

i need a shirt that’s like “i survived the pixar cars harassment 2023” like those fuckin i survive books

[roimp]

novel about today

[ipso-faculty]

Is saying "intersex and/or mesosex" the same way of saying "trans and/or nonbinary"? Sorry I'm trying to (un)learn, I don't want to be seen as insensitive

No, mesosex should be thought of as a subset of intersex. I'd just say intersex. 👍️

I'm gonna give you a wall of text of context so upfront a TLDR: 😅

TLDR: positioning mesosex as in between perisex and intersex is like positioning bisexual as in between queer and not-queer. Intersex people are organizing for inclusive views of intersex and trying to create a middle ground between intersex & perisex plays into conservative efforts to divide and conquer us. 🧑‍🏫

So a big difference between being intersex and being trans/nonbinary comes from the role of medicine being far, far more powerful in its control and oppression of intersex people. In a lot of ways intersex is more like disability than like other queer identities. So much of intersex identity is gatekept by doctors. Intersex people are often told they're intersex by a doctor in a context of telling them they are disordered and broken. Fostering community amongst intersex people is hard because so many of us have been conditioned by doctors to think of themselves as rare freaks.

Right now we in the intersex community are fighting a kind of desperate battle for people to understand that it is intersex people who decide who is and isn't intersex, as opposed to it being up to doctors. And the intersex community consistently says that people with PCOS, Poland Syndrome, or even no diagnosis, who feel that their experiences line up with being intersex are intersex.

Meanwhile TERFs and other conservatives are pushing real hard to keep the definition of intersex as narrow as possible. They don't want intersex people to be common or for us to find community. They're invested in a narrative that intersex people are rare, and are disorderd men/women.

Right now, the track record of treating mesosex as not intersex has unfortunately been that it reinforces those conservative narratives. It's gotten used to imply that people with PCOS aren't really intersex, that they are mesosex instead. Same for undiagnosed intersex people. 😭

Even though this is not what I intended for the term, seeing what's happened with it in the wild it's been honestly scary and upsetting seeing this term get weaponized against an inclusive view of what intersex means. (And more experienced intersex folks raised concern about this well in advance 😨.)

Intersex being an umbrella category I think there is value in having microlabels within the umbrella category, which is why I updated my definition of mesosex rather than abandon the term altogether.

But yeah I would definitely steer far away from treating mesosex as though it's in between intersex and perisex - it's really not at all analogous to being nonbinary. I'd say a better analogy is that treating mesosex as if it is between intersex and perisex is like treating bisexual as being in between queer and non-queer.

The stakes are political inclusion and organizing - politically speaking, any effort to create a group between queer and non-queer generally serves to weaken the collective organizing of queer people. Same deal with intersex. Hope that clarifies things. 💜

[wordsmithic]

hello ! I have seen your post about greek mythology and its mischaracterization by westerners and i had some questions (im really sorry if it sounds offensive or ignorant i come in good faith). But why would a modern day greek be useful for writing about ancient greece and its culture ? Wouldnt the modern and ancient culture of greece change a lot because of the 2 millenia gap, christianization and ottoman domination ?

First of all, as Greeks and the living descendants and members of the Greek culture, we have the right to define how our heritage is presented and to have our voices heard in Greek cultural matters.

Secondly, Greeks are in very close contact with our heritage and ancient culture because we have been actively preserving it for more than 2 millennia.

We are still speaking the same language - with reasonable alterations but clearly still Greek with the same words, roots and logic. We can comfortably read and understand texts from 1000 and 2000 years ago - Koine Greek. Our customs, music, and ideas of respect for elders, heroes, important deities and heroes hold from the ancient years.

Christianity changed our religion, not our customs. Not even the structure of our temples. In fact, the anthropocentric Greek philosophy was and is part of our religion, Greek Orthodoxy.

The Ottomans made us second-class citizens and tried to wipe us out but we persisted, opening schools with our own money and surviving cultural and literal genocide.

We have a very strong archaeological sector, a ton of scholars and students who study our antiquity, and an archaeological museum in every town.

Additionally, we get educated since elementary school on the intended meaning of the myths. Since middle school (Gymnasio) we read and analyze our ancient Epics and ancient plays with graduates from classical and Greek literature studies as teachers. We also learn a version of ancient Greek, of course, from the first class of Gymnasio, when we are 12-13.

In addition, we know what happened in the years between polytheist antiquity and modern times. For most foreigners, this is a black box and they have no idea what happened to Greek culture. But we are taking exams on it.

(We study each period of our history three times during school. One in elementary, one in middle school, and one in high school). Kids who choose the Theoritiki domain learn even more and sharpen their skills enough so they compete for university entry at 17-18 years old by translating an ancient text they've never encountered before in class. (You can imagine how much study this needs, and how much consumption of ancient texts so one can prepare)

It is totally unreasonable to expect a culture to remain unchanged throughout the centuries. Not a single culture is like this. Evolution and change happens to every culture, and yet it remains a specific culture. It wouldn't be fair to deny all the ancient nations around the world the right to cultural continuation. It's just that some people cannot fathom generation after generation passing out their culture to others, but it is true in the case of the Greeks.

For someone like me who has a Greek heritage, there is an unbroken chain of Greeks all the way back to antiquity, who got passed down the Greek culture from someone else. (blood doesn't matter, just culture) The wishes, ideas, needs, and philosophy of that culture got passed from person to person, got evolved or changed based on what other Greeks wanted, or based on whatever influences were around at the time, and then got passed down to the next Greek.

In short, Greeks have this constant exposure to the wishes of the Greek people and the wisdom of our scholars early on, and the very nature of our continuous culture allows us to understand the context for many things. There are no dead Greeks you can speak to, so you can speak to the closest ancestor: a living Greek.

Scholars are also fine, of course, but when they are foreign they can have their biases or blind spots. I remember a post about Emily Wilson who translated the phrase "he is precious like my head" without taking into account how we use such phrases in Greek. To a Greek it's very obvious how this phrase is used and the context supports it. But Wilson didn't know this, so she guessed a few meanings based on a guess, guided by her own culture. I don't think Wilson's guess is better than the guess of a Greek scholar or a Greek person. Personally, I'd take more into account the opinion of the person from the native culture just because of the linguistic and cultural proximity.

Finally, in all nations, some Greeks don't care too much about their culture, but on the flipside there are many Greeks who care about it and are very knowledgeable. Both types of Greeks cringe heavily every time they see an American movie on Greek mythology, though 😂

Westerners have proven since the Middle Ages that they are viewing us under specific lends. They like to give us identities based on what they feel comfortable with, never asking our opinion or POV. So much so that when they encounter actual Greek culture they have no idea what it is. They have a separate idea in their heads and, based on that, they insist that they are the inheritors of our past. They've been calling us all sorts of names since the time of Charlamagne, viewed us through orientalist lens, sent people to loot our ancient sites again and again, called us too brown, called us too white, called us ignorant and uneducated, unable to care for our heritage, and - of course - "not real Greeks". The misconception, exoticization and sense of ownership of the Greek culture in the West have extremely deep roots.

This is a grave generalization and not directed to each individual. I'm just saying that there's history and literature just too large to ignore. No, I am not going to trust Westerners the same degree as I trust Greeks for the same reason an Indian would prefer to showcase their culture through another Indian text or person, and not by a Brit, or the same way a Native American would not trust the descendant of Spanish, German and Welsh people to showcase Native culture.

[1025flora]

skz as your best friend who is (not so) secretly in love with you

genre fluff , humor pairing ot8 skz x !femreader warnings not proofread

chan

"oh yeah yn is my best friend actually"

literally obsessed.

tries to hide the delulu (not good at it)

tells you about every single project he's working on

honestly just get married already???

most people think you're actually dating...

became your friend because he thought you were pretty, but stayed your friend because of a thousand other reasons

definitely takes notes for you when you're out

lots of dimple smiles when you do literally anything???

minho

quiet in public, but the world time yapping champion when its just you two

will say the most cruel and slanderous thing while looking at you with the most loving eyes

texts random bad selfies with no context

gags and scoffs when people suggest you two as an item, but on the inside he's eeking

"send me that pic of you from earlier"

you may or may not be the only person on his private story

attends every single event you're involved in, no matter how inconvenient it would be for him

soonie, doongie, and dori adore you

changbin

buddy (romantic)

thinks about you every second of his day

"hey look what i made!!"

needs everybody to know that you are his best friend

"she even asked me for the time..." *fist pump*

doesn't pressure you to go to the gym with him but he reeeaaaallyyyyyy wants you to

"do u hate me" texts in the middle of the night

swings his legs when you guys call

waits for you outside your classes so you can walk in between periods together

wants to be nonchalant and cool and mysterious about you SO BAD but he fails

hyunjin

ouh this man is delulu!!!

has your future lives planned out in a pinterest board

sketches you in class

"hey babe" when you are BOTH single

late night grocery store runs for no reason... he just likes how you look at night

"i forgot my wallet🥺" typa man

fully convinced you do not and will not love him romantically

a textbook hopeless romantic

will wait for you outside in any weather. coldfront, heatwave, rain, shine, that man is THERE

all the nicknames... like definitely calls you "blondie" if you're blonde

jisung

so nervous around you even though you two are best friends???

writes songs for you all the time, terrified to show you

one day wishes to sing every single one to you

"good morning!" "how was your day pook?!" "good night <3" every. single. day. never misses

prefers to just stay in and talk with you, about anything

"bbama misses youuuu" whenever you aren't at his house

you do make him flustered most of the time

a couple playlists made just for you tucked in his spotify library

wants to call you all the couple names but afraid you'll hate it

talks about you with the guys (they are SICK of it)

his thoughts towards you are just the lyrics of gorgeous by taylor swift

felix

tells you absolutely EVERYTHING

5 paragraph essay about his day every night

and yes expects the exact same from you...

you text on discord (sorry)

makes treats just for you in secret

in any setting that you aren't in, he calls you his

makes video memos for you when you're gone and secretly hopes you'll do the same

his sisters tease him daily about how he talks about you, but he doesn't care

wants everybody but you to know he loves you

his second favorite color is your favorite color

seungmin

all of the confidence and sly in his attitude vanishes as soon as you walk into the room

your personal butler

holds your hand just 'cause

"this would look so good on you"

you two share headphones everywhere

head on your shoulder, chin on your shoulder, oh and definitely elbow on your shoulder

matches his jewelry to yours

at karaoke, he points and sings at you for the love songs, but you usually think he's joking

will love you unconditionally forever, even if you never feel the same

jeongin

"but you looked hot...? why are you changing"

weirdly confident around you, like his attitude changes when you walk into the room

loves to do your makeup, and vice versa

he jokes so much that you think he's sarcastically in love, little do you know it's all from the heart

brings you coffee every morning at school/work

"this song reminded me of you"

makes sure your outfits coordinate

pays for EVERYTHING

you are his princess!!!!! in every sense of the word!!!

a/n omg first post here..... hope u guys like it 🙏 reblog or like if you read puhlease

[a-star-that-burns-brightly]

CH2-14 Thoughts

So! CH2-14, huh? This episode has been our longest in the series yet, and it has used that time incredibly efficiently, especially given it is the penultimate episode before our culprit reveal. I don't think there's much to start with, really. Let's jump right into it :D

SWEAR STATISTICS (ch2-13)

BINGO CARD

Nico

DT-Dev needs to stop drawing Nico so handsome when they're in the middle of killing someone. this has happened twice now, I am very concerned.

Nico is probably the character I have the least to say about overall, but I still think it's fair to start with them. For one, we finally got the reveal of Nico's true murder plan! I...still personally do not understand why they didn't just garrote the man from the beginning, but it's nice to finally have some answers. Nico confessing to not trusting anyone in the killing game as well as their whole speech later on is honestly very based, if I was in their shoes I'd probably not see the point in pretending to be guilty either, and I really do think it was the most mature way to respond to this situation as a whole. Nico is probably one of the more logically-driven in the cast (when Ace isn't up their ass, anyway), so it makes a lot of sense to me that this is the conclusion they'd come to.

(x) Nico: I… I just can't stand being treated like that. My teachers, my classmates, my father… I don't ever want to relive what they did to me.

Furthermore, we also learned that their father was also in on the abuse and transphobia they received, and this combined with how Levi talked about his father in the previous episode, it's just daddy issues across the board huh? Guess DT-Dev had to make up for J's mom angst somehow lmao. But in all seriousness, the fact that Nico more than likely had no one be there for them during those times is probably part of why they drifted more towards animals, besides the fact that there's no social rules with animals. (...has anyone put alien blues by vundabar on a nico playlist? I'm getting sidetracked.)

There is also a lot I could say about Nico's predominant male figure subjecting them to such treatment and how that relates to their relationship with Ace and Ace in general, but I'll leave that for a future post. All I'll say for right now is to look up VeryWellMind's page on toxic masculinity and observe how many points relate back to Ace :3

(x) Nico: I don't expect you to forgive me. Very few people ever do. So I don't see the point in acting sorry.

The last thing I really want to mention when it comes to Nico is this line, specifically the bolded text, because... am I wrong to think this is a very strange thing to say in the context of talking about your attempted murder? I've seen people say that this could be in reference to Nico's blunt way of speaking, but I feel like that doesn't fit in with this context, and the wording itself feels too dramatic for that to be the case. I feel like Nico has resorted to violence against their bullies before. I don't think it ever got as severe as the situation with Ace, but if only a few days of abuse caused Nico to choose violence, I think its almost a guarantee that they resorted to violence a few times during the years they were abused by their peers. Would certainly explain those weird ass bandages around their upper arms. anyway Nico, I adore you very much despite your bullshit murder plan. can't wait to see where you go :) (also is it fair to say that the theories of literally anyone else committing Ace's attempted murder are de-confirmed now? Like I don't think you could get a greater confirmation than the first thirteen minutes of this episode lmao)

Hu

...Oh yikes. So I have defended Hu on a few occasions, talking about how she is just defending Nico and that her behavior towards them is completely normal. And I think I must take advantage of my minimal gag reflex and gulp down that L because lord have fucking mercy.

First and foremost

(x) Hu: You’re trying to paint them as the villain just because they lost their temper at Ace once!

(x) Hu: If Arei died of a stab wound, it would be wrong for me to say you did it.

Both of these lines were fucking crazy of her lmao. Absolutely nonsensical, she is so annoying /affectionate

Second and secondmost, Hu so clearly projecting her own emotions and feelings onto Nico so that they can look weak and small and thus have to rely on her and clinging onto that perception when it continues to falter is so fucking delicious. The way I worded that makes it seem like I think Hu is being malicious, I do not, but also that is literally what she is doing, and furthermore it is not working. This episode alone brought Hu in my mind to a high-c tier, to a high b-tier because there is nothing I love more in this world than fictional women being awful. And now that I have that all typed out, I can't help but realize that this sounds very familiar...

Oh! That's right!

...Man Hu, I get that it's across the color wheel, but you really like to foil with people in red. Yeah, I think that Acevi and Huco are meant to be parallels of each other relationship wise. Both of them feature someone (Ace and Hu) projecting a certain identity onto a stranger (Levi and Nico) to satisfy their own emotional needs and their reactions when those fantasies crumble beneath them. The dynamic between Ace and Hu is so delicious to me and I think should be explored more in the fandom. Not just because they somehow manage to give divorced spouses vibes despite one of the two being gay, but because I think the way that they foil, how they are different in contrast with how they're similar in typical DRDT fashion, adds so much to both of their characters and their relationships with the others. And I'm also glad that I at least have two more, count-em two, more parallels between Nico and Levi. I will keep spreading my Levco agenda until the day I die.

Okay but, though I've kind of been taking the piss out of Hu during this section, I do actually feel very bad for her. Especially if Eden is the culprit, because Hu and Eden have shown to be close on multiple occasions, and I could not imagine witnessing the gruesome execution of someone you love after pretty much dealing with two betrayals back-to-back. And I guess since we're here I should clarify that I do not think Hu, or anyone else except the two suspects we land on in this episode, are responsible for Arei's murder. Third Party Theory seems to hinge entirely on the idea that someone other than Nico attempted to kill Ace, and as I've said before I don't think that's the case. And given the fact that we have at least 40 minutes left of the overall case, I can't really see a way from a writer's perspective to throw in such a major final twist with an entirely different character without it feeling rushed. I'm sure DT-Dev could pull it off, but just on concept, not sure how it could work and also if Eden really is the culprit, Hu is 1000% going to try and take her place as the optimistic mood-lifter, and I need to see that outside of my imagination

There isn't much else for me to add, really, part from the fact that I am very excited to see how Hu's character progresses and how her relationships with the cast progress. ... ...hey can we count Hu and Nico as toxic yur--

Ace

Funny thing, I originally was not going to give Ace his own section in this post. But I decided I would anyhow for two reasons 1. Ace is a very fun character to analyze And 2. I get to once again talk about how much of a fucking liar this man is lmao

(x) Ace: Who’s gonna stick up for me, huh? No one. Because I have a spine and I don’t need other people to lie to me constantly to keep me happy.

[Pictured: Doesn't need other people to lie to him constantly to keep him happy]

(x) Nico: What else should I say? Ace: W— "What else should I say"?? Ace: You tried to murder me. You fucking tried to murder me! And after all's said and done, you can't even say something as simple as "sorry"?!

I love this jockey the best when he is gaslighting himself. We obviously know that Ace does, in fact, need people to lie to him to keep him happy. And I don't just mean that in the context of Levi and Nico. Ace has a very antagonized view of everyone in the cast

(x) Ace: -but now they apparently also have a fucking defense brigade to shield them from even having to think about the fact that they're a murderer.

the only person defending them was Hu

And that view of his classmates, to me anyway, is very intentionally cultivated by Ace himself. He is very aware that how he's behaving is wrong, and he is clearly not happy about it

(x) Ace: You think I act like this for fun, and then I go to bed and sleep soundly at night, you dumb piece of shit?

Ace doesn't like the fact that he is being rude to otherwise innocent people, but at the same time, he knows that any of these innocent people could stab him in the back without a second thought, like Levi. So Ace demonizes the cast in his head so that he can emotionally distance himself from them, and as such, will feel less bad about treating them like shit. As a certain indie game that had its nine year anniversary once said: The more you distance yourself, the less you will hurt. The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others.

Ace does need people to lie to him to keep him happy. Which brings me to his role in this whole scene with Nico which just- I love. So much.

It is so, so funny to me that Ace is putting this pressure on Nico to give an apology. And why is that? Ace treats both Nico and Levi in pretty much the same way, incredibly volatile even more so than the rest of the cast. And that makes a lot of sense given his relationship with both characters and how both of them have threatened his safety. But there is one key difference between his interactions with both of these people

(x) Levi: Ace, I already said— Ace: "Sorry" won't cut it. You know that's just a word you say, right? You think that saying two syllables is going to make me forget how you acted yesterday at that trial?

(x) Ace: You tried to murder me. You fucking tried to murder me! And after all's said and done, you can't even say something as simple as "sorry"?!

With Levi, he repeatedly denies and mocks his apologies. With Nico, it's almost like Ace wants them to apologize to him. But why is that? Ace certainly cares less about what Nico thinks compared to Levi, so why does he necessarily care whether or not Nico apologizes to him? You could say it's because the severity of what both of these people did to Ace, but to me personally? I think Ace just wants this all to end. Nico's murder attempt on him, the scar it left him, it was the perfect kick in the ribs to everything Ace had become since the events of Chapter 1. It confirmed to him that not only was his fear that everyone is out to get him, that he's going to be next after Xander and Min, completely justified to have. But also that his efforts to appear tough and threatening to prevent that fear from becoming reality were not only null, but thrown right back in his face.

(x) Ace: You know… Heh. I've always wondered which is worse, dying young or living a long shitty life of suffering. But it turns out neither of those options are as bad as this.

He is currently at his lowest possible point. At this point, the least that he wants is for Nico to provide him with some form of closure, so that he can put that moment where his guts were spilled on the floor to rest. But Nico isn't providing him that closure, they refuse to. And with Ace now being suspected for Arei's murder, regardless of if he survives this chapter or dies with it, I think he is finally going to break down. That hidden quote of his is fast approaching. I already know.

Rose

Rose is a character that, though I love dearly and believe she is one of the most strongly written of Despair Time's cast which is saying a lot, always somehow manages to fade into the background for me. But this episode bringing her to the forefront and giving us some extra character development from her is something I loved a lot.

For one, her clear and open betrayal towards Nico's actions was very upsetting to me, especially when you take into account that Nico asking Rose to teach them how to paint was probably the first time Rose has ever been asked to paint something for someone without a contract involved. I can imagine the idea of it must've been a breath of fresh air for her, and for it to only result in another red string in Nico's murder plan had to have been crushing.

But what's possibly even more crushing is her monologue after David gets frustrated with her, because...

(x) Rose: I know I'm supposed to remember everything. I know I'm supposed to be smart. I know I'm supposed to be helpful. Rose: Yet I'm not. Rose: I… I'm sorry for being useless. Maybe if I tried harder, if I just got over myself—

Wow this woman really does see herself as a commodity that only exists to be used by other people, doesn't she?

Something I've always appreciated about Rose's character is how it commentates on the subject of big corporations seeing art as content instead of something that was the product of someone pouring their heart and soul into a canvas. And how that mindset kills the desire for artists to create. And it is so fascinating seeing how that mindset reflects how Rose sees herself as a person.

She's one of the few characters in the cast that I can never really get a read on when it comes to where her character arc could be going, but I am very excited to see where DT-Dev takes her, even more-so with this development.

Teruko

I am like, 9999% sure this sprite is the first time she has smiled throughout this entire chapter. I am so happy for her.

Teruko, as always, stays being Best Girl™, and I absolutely adore the development given to her as well. Her realizing that her attempts to over-correct by isolating herself and not receiving help from anyone not only resulted in her getting hurt, but those around her getting hurt as well. And the fact that that's what leads her to coming to this conclusion really goes to show that, despite everything, she cares about these dumbfucks so much. And this is only taken further by her decision to trust Eden despite (HOW I INTERPRET IT) already knowing that Eden is a more likely culprit than Ace. She is choosing to trust her, regardless of if she'll regret it. And I honestly think that, regardless if Eden is the culprit or not, regardless if Teruko backslides, I think the fact that she got the courage to trust Eden at all is going to stick with her. I don't really have much else to say, really. Uhh... Teruko and Rose were kinda fruity this episode, I dunno.

David

[Sighs] This man provides us with a new headache every single episode and I love/hate him so much for it. So like...basically everyone else who watched this episode, I was confused as fuck watching whatever the hell David was pulling for the last 18 minutes of the episode. But now that I have time to think about it, I think I have a pretty stable idea. So, let's get into it.

Firstly

(x) David: Because I'm actually the first person to see the body.

Now, most people are immediately brushing this off as David lying to fuck things up again. But I think that a lot of people are forgetting two things 1. David is not a compulsive liar. He doesn't just tell lies for no/little reason behind them. The lies that he tells all have reasoning and inner logic to support them. 2. There really isn't any evidence suggesting that he couldn't had seen Arei's corpse before everyone else.

So though this point is mostly speculation, I think that David is telling the truth (sorry if this seems like an asspull, there is literally five more hours until the next episode comes out I need to speed things up)

But that's not really what I want to talk about in this section anyway, it's everything that comes after this that I want to talk about.

(x) David: All I want is for Teruko to distrust others.

...So. I think David is lying off his ass when he says that this is why he is doing this. And my reasoning for why I think that is pretty simple... Why would he care?

Like, yeah given the fact that David more than likely has Teruko's secret, he has every right to suspect that she might be affiliated with the death game, and also probably wants her dead. But...what does that have to do with Teruko's distrust in others? Not much. I think this sentence is David lying about why he is doing this to keep his true intentions underwraps. But what are those true intentions?

I can answer that pretty easily as well. David's whole argument in this part of the episode is the idea that Eden is not exempt from being the culprit. He suspects that she is the one behind Arei's murder, and I don't think that's helped by the seed planted in his head by Arei that even Eden must be responsible for the harm of someone. And well...I think we know how exactly David feels about the culprit behind Arei's murder

(x) David: Ahaha. It's just so foolish. David: For someone to take advantage of Arei like that… David: It's absolutely unforgivable. All she wanted was to change. David: What a reprehensible person this killer is. I look forward to seeing their painful execution.

And that leads me to what I think David is truly trying to do here: I think he is trying to get Eden voted for.

That is why he wants Teruko to believe him, and is using her trust issues against her to do so. He's seen the first trial, he saw how Teruko was able to convict Min as the culprit and convince the others to vote for her too. He wants her to do the same thing again, but for Eden. Really, it's a win-win for him. If Eden is the culprit like he suspects, then he gets to witness the unforgivable culprit get their just deserts. If Eden isn't the culprit, then everyone ends up getting executed. Which is, y'know, that other thing he really wants.

That's my personal theory on what David was trying to do here. It's not perfect, but it'll do for now. I love you, Mr. David Chiem. Please keep being confusing.

Eden

...So yeah, if you've been paying any attention to this post, I do still think Eden is the culprit. I also think during the scene with her and Teruko she is very desperate and wants to live and as a result, may have sipped a small tiny bit of the manipulation juice. But I will get to that in a bit First of all though, I absolutely loved the scene with Teruko and Eden. There is something about all of their scenes that just resonates with me in a way I can't describe, and this one is no different. The way it is shot, with the half-and-half and then the closeup on both of their expressions, and the fucking HUG CG? Luucarii and Zel both did an amazing job bringing the scene to life with their voices, and the choice to use the same OST as the kitchen scene in CH2-3 was fucking evil, especially because of what I'm about to say. All around, a fantastically orchestrated and emotional scene, I would expect no less from DT-Dev and their team.

But now it's time to talk Eden!Culprit. This is not something I should have to clarify if you aren't stupid, but I think before I really go into it I should say that I do not think Eden is an inherently malicious character, and I think she feels horrible for what she has possibly done. I also think she wants to live, like every bundle of pixels masquerading as a human. She can feel guilt for her actions and also indulge in a bit of gaslight gatekeep girlbossing. Min already proved that those two things can be simultaneous. With that out of the way... I do think that Eden is slightly manipulating Teruko here. And there is a very big reason why I think that is because of something @thebadjoe pointed out in their theory post

(x) Eden: Teruko, relationships aren't transactional. It's not that I did something good for you that you should do something good for me.

[11 episodes later]

(x) Eden: Please, Teruko… You’re my friend, aren’t you? Eden: Friends help each other…. So please, help me…

...Eden? Darling? I thought you said that relationships weren't transactional. You can't simply change your principles because they're getting closer to the truth. Putting the fact that Teruko never even considered her a friend to begin with on the shelf for right now, these two lines from Eden directly go against each other. Saying that relationships aren't transactional, and then saying that Teruko should help her because she's her friend. I think Eden knows that she is basically backed into a corner. There is no evidence suggesting that she couldn't had done it, and David is turning the tide in a way that is leading others to begin suspecting her. And just as Arei said...

(x) Arei: -you're pathetic and weak, and you always need to rely on others to get by.

Eden's is too overcome with emotion to defend herself properly, so she comes to Teruko to defend her for her. And when Teruko initially refuses, she becomes desperate. Using their relationship so that Teruko will believe her and trust her.

I don't think Eden wants to do this, but I don't think she knows what else to do, and is terrified and just wants this trial to be over. Even if it means treating her and Teruko's relationship like it's transactional. And Teruko, ultimately, gives into this idea.

(x) Teruko: Don’t… get me wrong. This isn’t out of kindness or pity or anything else. This is only because you helped me in the last trial.

(teruko is most likely simplifying her thought-process, I think she does genuinely care for eden and wants to trust her. But the idea of relationships as transactions isn't one inherently new to her, so I do think this is partially the truth.)

And I think the fact that Teruko does agree to help Eden is why Eden goes in for the hug. This is where we take that point of "Teruko never agreed to be friends with Eden" off the shelf

Eden knows that Teruko is choosing to not be her friend, despite considering Teruko as a friend. But I think in this moment, Eden thinks that Teruko finally considers her as a friend, someone she is willing to extend her hand to. And even if this day is her final one, I think Eden will appreciate forever.

Extra Thoughts !! - TERUKO SAID IT!! SHE SAID THE WORD!! THE T WORD!! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THAT FROM HER!! another one to cross off the bingo card babyyyy - that aside, as always the voice work for this episode was fucking phenomenal. I already mentioned Luucarii and Zel's performances, but Swords and Arakachi did amazingly too. Such an amazing frosting on top of the already great storytelling.

(x) Eden: Arei is… She could have been my friend! Why would I kill her??

- maybe I'm reading too deep into it, but I honestly think this is the closest we've gotten to direct confirmation that Eden thought Arei was full of shit when she said she wanted to change. Like...she literally corrects herself. Why the fuck did she correct herself. - this isn't something I usually compliment, but the music-choice in this episode was amazing as well. Every song chosen suited the situation and the rising tension, and all of them were fucking bops. - I also adored the new sprites, as I always do. Especially Nico's

Predictions for CH2-15 - I'll be honest and say I have none. At least other than the obvious, that being that there's 100% gonna be an Ace VS Eden scrum debate.

Conclusion

This episode was a fantastic way to lead into what will probably be the last episode of the trial. I cannot wait to see what's cooking come CH2-15, which is in... [looks at my conveniently placed watch] THREE HOURS?! WHAT THE FU-

UPDATED SWEAR STATISTICS CH2-14

UPDATED BINGO CARD

[olivsie]

Something I like about epic the musical is that it Gives it's changes to the original text an actual Purpose

( The first couple paragraphs are basically a rant regarding retellings. If you only want to hear about epic Skip to paragraph 4)

1. I am a bit annoyed by the lack of. Understanding as to why RETELLINGS aren't the most historicaly accurate things in the world. Sorry to break this to you, but that's both just how they work and I would guess how they reach success. Ancient Greece is a much different culture than our own, And most of us would be terrified to actually live back then. When you are Trying to create content That is based on ancient Greece And you want it to be successful/ At least reach a wide, and notably, MODERN audience. You're likely going to have to take some creative liberty And change a few things. Don't get me wrong, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LIKE RETELLINGS KNOWING THAT FACT ( Me personally, I'm not the biggest fan of Miller's novels Even though I do like epic) BUT IT IS SOMETHING TO BE AWARE OF. And because of that I don't think I would ever expect a retelling to be perfectly accurate And I don't. I had interest in mythology LONG before epic the musical But I didn't actually read the Odyssey until getting into epic. I did not expect it To be just like the musical, I knew Odysseus was going to be much more of an asshole, along with other characters. The odyssey and epic are different pieces of media to me And I am not less of a mythology nerd for liking epic ( Though I will admit that sometimes I take tiny little fun facts of mythology And like to think of them in the context of epic, but that's just for fun.)

2. The Only time being a fan of retellings is wrong as if you genuinely believe they are perfectly accurate And refuse to listen to anything else ( Which has definitely happened, And mythology nerds have the right to be annoyed at that)

3. Some people only like to consume real mythology media, Others like both real mythology and retellings, Others only like to engage with retellings (I would hope they have the self-awareness to know It's not real mythology, From what I've seen some do and some don't, Unfortunately)

4. Ok. now on to what the title of this long ass rant says

I like that epic the musical Retells the story, Not only to both cater to modern audience But Also with its OWN purpose of man versus monster.

Obviously, this is not the point of the original text. Mythos Odysseus does not give a single fuck About the stuff that epic odysseus does. I don't know why the creator Decided to rewrite it this way, (If he's ever said why let me know) But I would assume he wanted to make something about the oddessy And this was simply a very creative way to Translate that for modern audience.

I like this because, yes, holy damn. It does have changes from the original text. But it's not JUST changing it. It's changing it with a purpose

It feels reminiscent of some kind of Dramatic play. the way that epic characterizes.

Polites' kind nature is Representative of the Concept of being merciful Represented in his lines such as " This life is amazing when you greet it with open arms" /"There is so much guilt inside your heart, So why not replace it?"

While in contrast you have eurylochus with more ruthlessness and cautious nature, this is Found in some of his lines such as "You rely on wit, and people die on it" /"we don't know what's ahead" / "I say we strike first. We don't have time to waste so lets raid the place-" /"Let's just cut our losses, You and I and let's run"

And then you have Odysseus, the man/monster. The first act of this Musical is his internal struggle With what He should be On that scale. And the other characters Represent this struggle in the song monster

" Is the cyclops struck with gilt when he kills, is he up in the middle of the night? Or does he end my men to avenge his friend and then Sleep knowing he has done him right?

When the witch turns men to pigs to protect her nymphs, is she going insane? Or did she learn to be colder when she got older and now she saves them the pain?

When a God comes down and makes a Fleet drown Is he scared that he's doing something wrong? Or does he keep us in check So we must respect him and now no one dares to piss him off"

He then Applies this to himself

" Does a soldier use a wooden horse to kill sleeping trojans cause he is vile? Or does he throw away his remorse and save more lives with guile?"

And this marks his turning point of deciding that Ruthlessness It's ultimately worth it if it means Getting home, as aeolus says "The end Always justifies the means"

It's in my opinion, a very creative way to go about retelling a myth. Is it accurate? Absolutely not. For example, circe (From what we know) is not protecting When she turns men into pigs, For all we know, she could just do it because Shits and giggles.

Her character and most others in epic is changed from the original. But it's not ONLY changing for the sake of apeling to the modern Western audience and being successful like Many other retellings. It is also and mainly changing for the sake of influencing the plot that Jorge Rivera herrans crafted For the sake of Retelling epic. It is creative and I enjoy it despite knowing it's not accurate.

[wordsmithwhumpsandfluff]

Word I think you know my request before I'm even done typing it. Ofc its Aiden! I'm thinking, since Aiden and Spirit both like horror movies, they do a little spooky movie night where they get to binge on sweets and its all fine and what not, until the last (more gross) movie, that cause Aiden to be sick in the now empty candy bowl and Spirit is being v teasing saying he got sick bc of the movie, but nope, its because his silly ass ate ALL the candy

Anon: Hi can you have one of your ocs eating too much halloween candy? It can be any reason other context just to much candy.

Two requests for my sweet boi overstuffed on sweets!! Ask and you shall receive!!!!

(P.S. Surprise ending👀👀👀👀👀???????!!!)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You’re going where?!”

“Hallo-scream at Bush Gardens, because your dad is a fully-grown 2-year-old,” Aiden’s mom said, and Aiden could almost hear her eye roll.

“So, you’re going all the way to Florida? Tonight?!” Aiden began to pace on the sidewalk outside of the college’s entrance.

“Yeah. And we were thinking about visiting your auntie there for a while, so we’ll be gone for the Trunk-or-treat this weekend.”

Aiden couldn’t help but pout. He loved Halloween, and so did his parents. Every year, they bought two giant boxes of candy: one for Halloween night, and one for the local Trunk-or-treat event in his hometown. And he was gonna drive home that very weekend for Trunk-or-treat.

“And you’re taking dad’s truck to the airport,” Aiden sighed, disappointed. “So, I can’t even do it on my own.”

“I’m sorry, Aiden,” his mom apologized. “I’ll tell you what though. We have this giant box of candy, and the airport we’re going to is near where you live, so I’ll bring you a grocery bag full of candy on our way there. You can share it with friends or something. Okay? I promise, we’ll be home for Halloween night.”

Aiden sighed, smiling a bit at the fact that his mom was clearly trying. “Yeah, it’s perfectly fine, mom. I’ll see you when you’re on your way. Love you.”

“I love you too.”

Aiden hung up. He knew he should be happier for his parents. Especially his dad since the guy could barely ever go out to enjoy himself anymore while paralyzed from the waist down. If his dad wanted to have fun, he shouldn’t stop the guy. And if he didn’t have school still, he honestly might’ve asked to go with them.

Suddenly, as if a lightbulb turned on in his head, Aiden grabbed his phone and sent a quick text to Spirit. He knew she wouldn’t see it till she got out of class for the day, but still. He sent a message saying ‘On a scale of yes to YESSSS, how much do you like candy??🍬🍭🍫‘, and then he made his way to class.

— — —

Aiden was in the middle of getting ready for his security shift at the mall when his phone started ringing with a call from his mom.

Putting on a smile, he made his way out of his apartment and downstairs to the parking lot where his dad’s truck was, window open, his mom driving and his dad smiling in the passenger seat. “Special delivery,” the smiling man said. “Did someone order a bag of candy and two parents he’s ashamed of?”

Aiden rolled his eyes, smiling as well as he made his way over to his mom’s open window. “Hey,” he said. “Excited for Florida?”

“For Bush Gardens?” his dad said. “Yes. For seeing my sister?” he pretended to shudder, and his wife rolled her eyes at him. “Rachel isn’t that bad.”

“Try being related to her, honey.”

Aiden chuckled. “When are you two coming back?” he asked.

“Two days before Halloween,” his mom stated, turning in her seat to reach for something in the backseat. When she turned around, she had a grocery bag full of candy.

“You’ll be pleased to know that your mother removed all the Tootsie rolls for you.”

Aiden smiled a bit wider. “Thanks,” he said, taking the bag as his mom handed it to him. “Shoot me a text as soon as you land, okay?”

“We will,” his mom assured him. “Love you, sweetie.”

“Love you, mom.” He looked at his dad. “Love you, dad.”

“Love ya too, kiddo. Enjoy the diabetic goodie bag— hEY!” he exclaimed as his wife slapped his arm. “Okay okay, love ya, Aiden. Bye.”

Aiden grinned as his mom shut the window, and he waved as his parents drove off.

With the bag of candy in one hand, he took out his phone with the other and checked his messages. Spirit had texted back, ‘On that scale, maybe a 8.5 out of “YESSS”, as you so eloquently put it. Why do you ask?’.

— — —

Spirit was a fucking sight.

Of course, she always was in Aiden’s eyes, but something about her outfit when he opened his door for her made his heart and stomach simultaneously leap.

Baggy black jeans with rips that sat a bit low on her hips, and he could see fishnets through the rips. The fishnets peeked out past the top of her pants, and stopped at her midriff, which was exposed because she was wearing a cropped green-and-black-stripped sweater. She has a few chains on her belt loops, a spiked choker, and her streaks had been touched up and were bright red again. Her hair was loose, and almost down to her waist.

Aiden had no idea he was staring, till Spirit gave him an embarrassed smile, wrapping her arms around her waist to hide her exposed stomach. “I don’t dress like this usually,” she said. “I get a bit carried away with outfits in October.”

Her cheeks were reddish with embarrassment, and Aiden sighed and smiled, leaning forward to plant a kiss on her forehead. “You’re so goddamn beautiful,” he told her, his own cheeks red from the sight of her.

Spirit’s cheeks only reddened more, but her smile became happier.

Spirit came inside and saw a notebook on the coffee table in the living room, as well as a humongous bowl filled with candy.

“Damn,” she chuckled. “Your parents gave you all of that?!”

“Yup.” Aiden grinned as he and Spirit sat on the couch together. “And this,” he picked up the notebook, “is our movie itinerary. You said you don’t have classes or work tomorrow, right? Cuz this will take us well into the hours of morning.”

Spirit shook her head, still smiling. “Free all day tomorrow,” she stated. “So, what movie’s first?”

“Well, I have a system,” Aiden said, sitting up straighter as he showed the list on the notebook. She almost laughed at how messy the page was, with bullet points, pros and cons, crossed out words, and even little doodles.

“How this works is that we start with a very non-scary movie, and slowly work our way to scarier and scarier movies until we get to the scariest movie I could find that wasn’t ‘The Exorcist’ since I know you’ve watched that five times. It’s called ‘Terrifier.’.

“Okay then,” Spirit grinned, looking at the list. Her smile faltered slightly at the forth movie. “Um, can we skip ‘The Reef’?”

“Oh,” Aiden said, grabbing a pen that was also on the coffee table. “Sure. Have you seen it? Is it bad?”

Spirit shook her head. “No, I’ve heard it’s a good movie. I just. . . I really hate shark movies. They’re terrifying in a not-fun way.”

Aiden did notice the way her voice deepened a little as she said that, but he chose not to say anything since he got the feeling Spirit wouldn’t want the mood to be ruined.

“Okay. I was debating between this one and ‘Unhinged’, so we can watch that instead.”

Aiden put on the first movie: ‘Hocus Pocus’. From the candy bowl, Spirit grabbed a blue FunDip and he grabbed a king-size Twix bar. He hadn’t had chocolate in a surprisingly long time, and was more than happy to enjoy it.

By the end of the first movie, Aiden had eaten two Twix bars and a bag of gummies. Spirit had her FunDip and a few caramel candies.

The next movie was ‘Gremlins’. Spirit had to pause the movie for ten minutes just to rant about the time Isaac had worn a Gizmo onesie for Halloween.

By the time they got to the third movie, ‘Coraline’, Aiden had a pile of empty wrappers by his side. Spirit, blissfully taking her time munching on a Caramello bar, was unaware of Aiden’s pile which was much larger than hers.

At around 1 in the morning is when they started ‘Unhinged’. It was the first movie that actually gave both of them some chills. He couldn’t help but wince and look away at some parts, and Spirit cringed at them but comforted Aiden by keeping her head on his shoulder.

“I never want to drive again,” Aiden said after that movie was over. “I’m now terrified of every idiot I’ve ever flipped off or honked at on the road.”

“Don’t be. Anything someone tries to do to you, I’ll do it unto them tenfold.” The way she said it so casually made Aiden feel that she literally would.

“Y’know, I’m both terrified and in awe of you.”

That made Spirit smirk. “As you should be. What’s next?”

The bowl was nearly empty by four in the morning, when they finally got to the last movie.

In all truth, Aiden had started feeling a little nauseous by the time they were halfway through ‘Unhinged’. Still, he ate habitually while watching movies—a habit—and he just couldn’t stop, ignoring the nausea as long as he could.

Spirit was only occasionally eating an M’n’M or two as their last movie began, whilst Aiden moved on to his seventh Twix bar of the night. He knew he should stop, but between his habit and the slight lingering disappointment about not getting to do Trunk-or-Treat, he just couldn’t stop.

Aiden reached into the bowl one last time, only to realize it was actually empty now. More than half that candy was in his stomach now, and without being able to distract himself by eating more, he could only feel the stuffed, sticky feeling in his body.

His mouth was flooding with saliva that he kept swallowing. Not to mention, watching TV so late was making his eyes and head hurt a bit.

He had no idea how Spirit looked just as awake and happy as she was when she got there. Witchcraft, he thought to himself jokingly.

But in all seriousness, he was actually feeling sick now, and the movie really wasn’t helping. It was gory and disturbing, and that was only making his nausea worse.

It was at a particularly horrific scene that Aiden felt his head spin and his stomach revolt. He sat up leaning forward slightly and forcing Spirit to sit up since she’d been leaning against his shoulder.

“Hey, you okay?” she asked as he just stared at the floor, swallowing the water filling his mouth.

He didn’t answer, and Spirit put a hand on his back. “Is it the movie? Too much?” There was a hint of amusement in her voice.

Aiden wanted to shake his head, but knew that doing so would only make him sicker.

“We can turn off the movie if you want to. If it’s too much, we can—”

Aiden interrupted her with a gag that came right after a loud jumpscare, and he fumbled for the empty candy bowl, barely managing to lean over it before disgustingly sweet puke poured into the bowl. He vomited harshly between gags, his stomach deciding to rid itself of all the sugar.

Spirit’s hand didn’t move from his back, and she cupped his forehead with her other hand to help him aim.

Aiden groaned, spit dangling from his lower lip. “S-srry,” he slurred. “T-too much—” he didn’t finish that sentence before gaging and puking again.

“It’s fine, I get it,” Spirit said, grabbing the remote and turning off the movie. “This really was a super intense horror movie. It’s fine if it’s too much for you.”

Aiden blushed. “N-not the movie,” he stated nauseously. “The c-candy made me sick. Too much candy.”

Spirit’s eyes widened, and she looked past Aiden and saw the pile of wrappers by his other side. “Oh, damn,” she sighed, the hand on his back reaching up to his nape, her fingers scratching the lower back of his head, making him let out a small, pleased groan.

He felt his stomach squeeze again, and he projectile vomited once again into the bowl, almost missing and trembling from the force. “This sucks,” he mumbled, spitting into the bowl. “I’m sorry I’m ruining the night.”

“It’s fine, honey,” she said without thinking, and Aiden’s eyes widened slightly, the nausea vanishing the moment he registered what he’d just been called.

He lifted his head from the bowl, looking at her. “‘Honey’?

Spirit must’ve not even noticed she’d called him that because she suddenly looked surprised, blushing furiously. “S-sorry. That just. . . came out for some reason.”

Aiden opened his mouth to say something, but Spirit interrupted him, asking, “Are you empty? Or still nauseous? Maybe you should lay down. I can clean up here.”

Aiden just looked at her and sighed with a small smile. “Still a little nauseous, but I think I’m empty. I feel way better. Less stuffed, y’know?” It wasn’t a lie at all. He really did feel better now that he wasn’t stuffed with sugar anymore.

“Okay,” Spirit said, taking the bowl from him. “I’ll clean up, and you should lay down. It’s really late anyway. Or, early, I guess.”

Aiden couldn’t say anything before she stood and walked away to the kitchen to clean out the bowl in the sink. With a heavy sigh, Aiden turned the TV off and stood making his way to his bedroom, first washing his face and brushing his teeth before crawling under his sheets, hugging his stomach since it was still churning a bit.

Spirit came to his room, hovering in the door. “You still feel sick at all?”

“Nah,” he said. He waited for her to come in, but she stayed where she was.

In the dark, he couldn’t see her blushing, but he could hear it in her voice as she said, “D-do you mind if I crash on your couch for the night? I just. . . I-I think it’s a bit late for me to be driving home, and—”

“Cuddle me,” he said, straight to the point.

He knew he must’ve caught Spirit off guard because she was speechless.

“You shouldn’t have to sleep on the couch while I’m in a bed,” he said. “You’re my girlfriend.” He paused for a second before sitting up slightly. “I-I mean, only if you’re comfortable with that,” he said quickly. “If you prefer the couch, then absolutely! I was just saying that if you want to cuddle and spend the night, then—”

Spirit came into the room and said, “Scoot.”

Aiden smiled widely, scooting over so she could climb in with him.

She didn’t touch him, and he didn’t touch her, both of them feeling hesitant.

Spirit took a deep breath. “W-want me to rub your stomach?”

Aiden let out a small sigh, smiling. “Yeah.” He turned onto his back, and Spirit moved closer. She pressed her forehead to his shoulder, and her hand rested on his stomach, over his shirt.

She started slowly rubbing, silent and still completely flushed.

“You called me ‘honey’.”

She almost combusted with embarrassment. “I don’t know why I said that. I’m sorry if it was weird or—”

“I like it.”

Spirit froze, looking at his face that she could see better with her eyes adjusted to the dark. He was looking at her as well, smiling. “I mean, we’re a couple now. Couples are supposed to have nicknames, right?” He smirked. “Right, babe?”

Spirit felt her whole body burn, and she just stared silently at him. His smirk faltered at her silence. “Spirit? Are you—” he didn’t finish, silenced as Spirit suddenly leaned forward and kissed him, her hands coming up to cup his face.

Forehead kisses were one thing, but this. . .

When Spirit pulled away, Aiden’s eyes took a moment to flutter open again. He stared at her, wondering if that had really just happened.

Spirit’s face twisted slightly when he didn’t say anything and she sat up, feeling her throat constrict and her eyes burn a bit. “S-sorry,” she said, trying not to sound all choked up. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I did that.”

Aiden instantly came back to his senses and sat up as well. “Hey hey, it’s fine,” he said, but Spirit shook her head, curling up slightly.

“I-I should’ve asked. That was out of nowhere, and you probably weren’t ready for that, and I just—”

“Spirit, shhh,” he said, one arm circling her and his other cupping her cheek. “Don’t apologize. Really, it’s fine.”

“I just—”

“It’s fine.”

Spirit met his eyes, taking a deep breath. “You sure?”

He smiled, answering her question by kissing her this time. She kissed back, and Aiden felt his heart all but burst.

He loved this girl. And he wanted to make sure she would always remember that.

When they separated, Spirit hugged him, burying her face in his chest and sighing deeply. “Thank you.”

He smiled. “The only thing you have to thank me for is for brushing my teeth so I didn’t have puke breath for that kiss.”

Spirit laughed. “Yeah. Thanks for that, too.”

[whatsnewalycat]

wake & bake

pairing: dieter bravo x ofc louella

Summary: You have a virtual smoke session with your new friend and secret crush, Dieter Bravo.

Rating: Mature (see warnings)

Content Tags/Warnings: video chat, smoking weed & getting high, swearing, fluff, flirting, pet names, attempts at jokes, primal scream, crush

Word Count: 2.1k+

Notes: Hi there! This takes place in the Psychomanteum storyline between chapters 2 & 3. I think it can be read as a one shot with the context that’s given but idk. You do need to know is that Louella/Lua, our OFC and second person POV, bakes and sells edibles, bc I don’t think that’s super clear in the text. Ok thanks have a great day 🖤✨

You settle into the middle of your bed, crossing your legs as you glance around and take inventory. 

Lighter. Joint. Ashtray. Water bottle. Laptop. 

Your emerald green curtains billow and rustle when a crisp spring breeze rolls through the bedroom. The air carries the latent, earthy scent of decay and new growth from the park across the street. A shiver weaves its way up your back, so you pull the throw blanket draped around your waist up onto your shoulders like a cape. 

Despite the chill, your hands are hot pads. You press one palm to your cheek and grimace at how fast it heats you. It’s stupid to be so nervous about this. He’s just a person. 

Just a really amusing, really sweet, stupidly handsome person. 

That also happens to be famous. Which is a fact you can’t dwell on for too long before it starts to make you queasy. So, for the purposes of this conversation, you decide to omit it from your brain. 

Just a guy. 

You take a deep breath and wipe your sweaty palms on your pants, then click Join Meeting. 

A few moments go by before Dieter’s face pops up on the screen. He looks like he just crawled out of bed. His face is all puffy from sleep and his chestnut curls are sticking up every which way.

Upon seeing him, your heart starts thudding in your throat. 

He mumbles some kind of greeting while rubbing one eye and yawning, then pulls the camera back to wave at you, revealing that he’s shirtless. The video blurs and shifts like he’s en route, and you see bits and pieces of what you assume is his house in the background. 

“Good morning, sunshine!” you call, waving to the camera, probably a little too enthusiastic. 

“Good morning, beautiful,” he croaks out, voice all groggy, “Sorry, just woke up, give me a sec.”

He sets the phone down on a flat surface, giving you a view of his ceiling as he pours a cup of coffee. 

“I’ll give you all the secs you need,” you tease, and immediately cringe at yourself. But you hear a robust laugh echo through, what you assume is, his kitchen. A proud smile stretches across your face. 

“That was good,” he grins as he picks the phone up and tucks a joint behind his ear, then grabs a steaming coffee cup. The background starts moving again as he walks through the house, “How’re you doing today, doll?”

“Busy,” you fiddle with the joint, twirling its paper tip to a point, “I’ve been up since like 3:00.”

“Pretty sure that’s when I went to sleep,” he tells you with a little chuckle, “S’pose it’s like… stoner Christmas, huh? Big day in the biz.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty nuts,” you laugh, then shrug, “Keeps the lights on, though, so I’m not complaining. Parker is gonna come over in a bit and help me with the orders going out this afternoon.”

“Oh, Parker, what a guy,” Dieter smiles, opening a sliding glass door that drenches him in sunlight.

“He’s the best,” you smirk, then look up at the laptop screen and sigh, “What’re your plans for today?”

“Eh,” he shrugs, then groans as he sits down in a white patio couch, “Little of this, little of that. Gonna meet up with some people later and go to a party.” 

“Fun,” you say, trying to picture the kind of LA parties he frequents. Your imagination makes them out to be glamorous and wild. Expensive champagne, models, celebrities, drugs galore. After looking around your small bedroom, you blow a raspberry, then ask, “Well, shall we?” 

Dieter hums and plucks the joint out from behind his ear. He closes his lips around the cardboard tip, talking around it, “We shall.” 

You follow his lead, holding your joint between your lips, then raise a lighter to the business end, pulling a few quick puffs before you toss the lighter aside. Thick, skunky smoke expands your lungs. You exhale towards the window and cough a little as THC dissipates through your body, making you feel light and buoyant. 

“What’re the parties like out there?” you ask, taking another long drag. The pot starts to smooth your nervous edges and mellow you out. 

He grunts and pulls a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, then shrugs, “Bullshit. Buncha phonies trying to one up each other.” 

“Ok, Holden Caulfield,” you snort, and it earns a howl of laughter from him that makes you smile. 

“No, but really,” he takes a drag off his joint and holds the smoke captive as he tells you, “I don’t find people like you and Parker out here,” he exhales fully, coughing a little, “Or anywhere, really. That party was the most fun I’ve had in years.” 

“Bullshit,” you laugh. 

“Seriously!” He grins and clambers up in his seat, leaning forward, “I’ve done acid so many goddamn times at so many parties. And it’s always a big group of people talking over each other, trying so hard to be profound, or have a fuckin’, uhhh, spiritual experience or whatever,” he waves his hands about as he talks, pausing to take a hit. Smoke muffles his voice when he tells you, “But they’re all so fucking soulless and shallow, I can’t stand it. I usually either end up leaving to trip alone or take other shit to make it more tolerable.”

You giggle nervously, “That sounds… I dunno, like a bad fucking time, man.”

He chuckles, then murmurs, “Anyway,” sitting back in his seat, “What’s, uhhh… what’s your scene, what kind of parties do you usually go to?” 

“Uhhhhh,” you croak as you think about this, then frown at the ceiling as you take a hit off your joint and exhale, “I guess I really don’t? I go to bars more than parties, I guess, but I usually just go there to get laid.”

He smiles wide and brings a palm to his chest, “A girl after my own heart.” 

You giggle as heat creeps through your body, up your neck, “I mean, I can drink and smoke at home. But dick? I have to outsource dick—”

Dieter’s laughter is all you can hear. He leans forward and pinches the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.

“Pussy, too, but dick is much easier to find,” you tell him in a joking way, even though it’s not a joke, “It’s just not the same alone, you know? 

“That’s absolutely true,” he chuckles, wiping his eyes as his laughter dies down, “I like you, you’re funny.”

“Hey, I like you too,” you beam, tilting your head to the side. It’s quiet for a moment as you study each other’s face through the screen conduit. You take another drag off your joint, averting your gaze to the window, then blow a thick plume of smoke towards it. 

“I have a question,” you tell him, flicking your eyes back to the screen. 

“What?” he tucks a hand under his head and lays out on his outdoor couch. 

“Do you ever have these urges to do something crazy? And, like, wonder how people around you would react?” 

“Like what?”

“Like,” you toss your head back and forth, “Like what would you do if I just took my clothes off right now, or—“

“I would die of joy, can we try that one?” he grins. 

“No,” you snort, then cover your face as it starts to heat, “It was just an example!”

“Uh huh. You came up with it really fast,” he observes, then takes a drag from his joint. 

“And you responded to it really fast,” you counter, raising an eyebrow, crushing the orange cherry of your joint into the ashtray on your knee. 

“Obviously,” Dieter scoffs and shrugs, “I would love to see you naked.” 

Your whole head is a heat lamp and your face hurts from smiling. You lick your lips and smirk, “I am very flattered. But, hear me out—”

“We both take our clothes off,” he suggests, his shoulders shaking with stifled laughter, “That’s such a good idea!”

“I am going to murder you, Dee,” you laugh, covering your face. 

“Ok, no seriously, go ahead,” he snickers, glancing over to extinguish his spent joint in an off-screen ashtray.

You sigh and pause for a beat before confessing, “I wanna scream. Like, as loud as I can.”

He smirks and opens his mouth, tilting his head to the side. 

Before he can quip a sexual innuendo and fluster you further, you explain, “I’ve felt it in my chest for so long. The scream, I mean. Like it’s just sitting in there begging to be let out. Do you know what I’m talking about? Do you ever feel like that?”

The devilish smirk on his lips falters. He nods, “Yeah, I have.”

“I want to let it out, but I’m always so scared of what my neighbors will think,” you tell him, searching his face hundreds of miles away, “And sometimes I think, what if I just said fuck it and did it? Just screamed as loud and long as I could? What would happen?”

“Well, fuck it, let’s do it,” he decides, and the camera jostles as he rises to his feet, “Let’s fuckin’ scream our little hearts out, huh? See what happens.”

You smile, “Really?”

“Fuck yeah, come on,” he says, “You gotta stand, though, really let it out.” 

“Ok,” you laugh and set your ashtray aside, then roll off your bed, pulling your laptop to the edge so he can see you standing at your window, “Ready?”

“Alright, on three,” he calls, and you wriggle your body around, trying to psych yourself up, shaking your hands out as he counts, “1, 2, 3–“

You inhale until your lungs ache, then let it out. 

The red, hot feeling of disquiet that has been restless inside your chest for months scrapes against your vocal chords, burning your throat. 

While you’re doing this, you hear Dieter through the laptop speakers, screaming in unison with you, unrestrained, primal. 

You bend over to fully expunge this guttural, animalistic noise from your body. You scream until your face is filled with blood and your heartbeat pounds in your ears. Until your throat is throbbing and your voice is hoarse. Until your lungs are empty and nothing else comes out. 

Then you turn around to the laptop, searching Dieter’s flushed face. You’re both smiling wide and wild, chests heaving. 

“That was fucking awesome,” he tells you, chuckling and shaking his head, “You did great.”

“So did you,” you grin, “Good job screaming.” 

A frantic knock sounds on your door. 

“Oh shit,” you cover your face and giggle, looking up towards the noise, “Someone’s knocking.”

“Probably making sure you’re alive,” you hear Dieter say as you carry the laptop into the kitchen. You set it on the countertop before opening the door. 

“Hi,” you answer breathlessly to the wide eyes of your next door neighbor, “I’m fine.” 

“Oh—ok, I was just making sure—”

“Yeah, I just—you know, you ever just feel like screaming?” you try to explain. 

She shakes her head and stammers, “Um, no. But—but you’re ok, right?”

“I’m perfect, it felt really good,” you tell her, and you can hear Dieter’s laughter over the laptop, “Thank you for checking on me, though. I appreciate it.” 

“Sure,” she nods, then starts to walk away, glancing back over her shoulder as she goes.

You close the door and lock it, then burst out in giggles as you go back to the laptop, seeing Dieter smiling from ear-to-ear. 

He tells you, “That was adorable.”

“That was my neighbor thinking I’ve fully fucking lost my mind,” you snort, then glance up at the the clock on your oven, “Fuck, I have to get back to work.” 

He gives you a thumbs down and jeers, “Boooooo!”

The thought of him not wanting this call to end yet makes your insides twist. You roll your eyes playfully, “It’s been lovely smoking and screaming with you.”

“Waking and baking with you has been a delight, Lua, we should do it again soon,” he smiles, running a hand through his hair. 

“Yeah?” you beam, licking your lips before asking, “Do you mean that?”

“Obviously,” he scoffs, and you’re sort of glad you can’t see his eyes behind his sunglasses when his voice softens and he tells you, “Really, Lua. I’d love to do this again. I’m not just saying that.”

“Ok,” you grin like a fool and nod, “I would love to do this again, too.” 

“I’ll let you get to it. Tell Parker I said hi give him a bit ole smooch for me, will ya?” 

“I will,” you wave,” Bye, Dee.”

He kisses his hand and presses it to the camera, then says, “Talk to you soon, doll.” 

[maniculum]

Welcome to another Scorpion Sunday! We're almost through all the ones from the original post, but I've still got a couple that people have sent me sitting in my inbox. This'll get more sporadic once we're through the list though -- only one left, I believe.

This one is from the Breviari d'amor, a book by 13th-century French author Matfres Eymengau (and variant spellings). I can't tell you about this particular manuscript of the Breviari d'amor, because it's Harley MS 4940 at the British Library, and... yeah, cyberattack still ongoing, you know the drill. The text itself is a bit odd; a "breviary" is a type of prayer book, and... well, in the absence of being able to access the manuscript listing or being willing to trawl through the university library's holdings just to fill out a Tumblr post, I'm going to just tell you that Wikipedia says this book's "sole purpose is the reconciliation of love for God with the erotic amours of the troubadour lyric". I think there's a 50/50 shot of that being really interesting or incredibly tedious, so I might have to check it out later.

As for the actual illustration, it's a bit of kismet that this one was slated for today. I originally mocked this scorpion for having a head that, let's be real, looks like a butt. Ever since, I've been getting occasional notes on that post telling me this is actually a pretty realistic scorpion head in outline. And just earlier today, @bogleech reblogged that post with an actual photograph of a scorpion with this head shape:

Which really calls into question how this illustration came about. How did the illustrator nail such a weirdly specific detail but otherwise draw something that only looks like a scorpion in general silhouette? Bogleech suggested they might have seen a damaged specimen with pieces missing and filled in the blanks; I think it's also possible that someone drew a scorpion from personal experience, then someone else copied that drawing and messed up a couple details, then someone copied that drawing... &c. You know, Manuscript Telephone. Or maybe it's a bit of both and this can be traced back to a damaged manuscript. Or maybe this artist was working from a description that included "head like a butt" but not "pinchy claws" for some reason.

Anyway, moving on to the points:

Small Scuttling Beaſtie? ✓

Pincers? ✘

Exoskeleton or Shell? ... hm. I honestly think we have to consider this one. Given the context of what that head looks like on an actual scorpion, maybe this one does have a carapace of some kind over its head. And there's something going on with that spinal ridge thing. On the other hand, the rest of it is clearly furry. I think i'm going to split the difference and give it ½.

Visible Stinger? ✘

Limbs? 6

As for vibes... would I like to meet this thing more or less than I would like to meet a regular real-world scorpion? Honestly, I think it balances out. I'm a little concerned that what I'm looking at here is a furry alligator with a weird head, but i do also think it has a certain charm, and i feel like it all boils down to just how large this thing is. If it's alligator-sized, I don't want it around me; if it's scorpion-sized, I think i'm cool with it. Again I will split the difference and give it the middle-of-the-road "about the same as a real scorpion" score: 3/5.

That means the scorpion with the strange-but-accurate head gets:

5.1 / 10

i'm sorry, it really does look like a butt

[mask131]

One thing I love with the seven Princes of Hell in Helluva Boss is that, so far, each of their "song" perfectly reflects what their sin is about. (I put "song" like that because I will count Mammon's stage-apparition at the beginning of "Mammon's Magnificent Musical")

Asmodeus' song at Ozzie's is very clear - the demon-lord of Lust is all about sex, depravity, debauchery, carnality, and abhors, disdains, rejects love in its romantic, sentimental, "pure" way. Of course we learn later that this is not true - but the song in itself, outside of the character, perfectly reflects what "lust" is in the logic of the seven deadly sins (while Asmodeus' personal healthy approach to lust is more about what "lust" is in a more general, broader sense, a play on the various meaning of the words). But the song is clearly depicting what lust is, as defined by the Christian religion and ideology/mindset - "Hump 'til your junk turns to dust". Extreme, auto-destructive sexuality. But more importantly - a sexuality devoid of love.

Due to the Christian teachings great exaggeration of "All sex is bad", a lot of people today remember (or perceive, or preach) lust as being just "Enjoying sex" or "Having too much sex". It was true for certain times, certain eras and certain areas of the world ; but when you look at the old theological texts, at the well-informed Christian teachings, and replace things in their wider socio-cultural context (lessons about love, marriages and sexuality in the Middle-Ages enlightens a LOT of Christian religious texts of the time) you very obviously get what lust was supposed to be about. In Christianity, the divide is between love and lust. Long story short: Christian minds (especially in the Middle-Ages, which was when the seven deadly sins got their true "final form") conceived love as a feeling, an emotion belonging to the mind and the soul, and opposed it to the carnal and material love - romance versus sexuality. Lust as a vice was about enjoying purely the materiality of sex and only knowing carnal relationships with others, without knowing, sharing or caring for actual love, as in romantic feelings. While this whole division went REALLY awry throughout the ages and the continents and turned into the massive "SEX IS EVIL" propaganda of the Christian churches, the original idea behind it all resonates extremely well today if you accept that a good relationship is one with a sexuality motivated by love ; while a bad relationship is one where sexuality is devoid of any love in any shape or form. The "core sin" of the vice of lust stays to this day, rape, the absolute apex of lust in the Christian sinful sense: a selfish, uncaring, harming form of sexuality devoid of any kind of love or care. One's desire imposed onto another simply for the sake of personal gratification and without any empathy, bond or attention towards the other. (Originally, the "core sin" around which lust was shaped, was prostitution, because it was also seen in this optic of being an emotionless and harmful relationship only motivated or justified by money)

If we move on to Beelzebub, sorry, Queen Bee's song, we have again a pure definition of what gluttony is. It is in the catchphrase of the song, a sentence that I personally firest understood while reading Terry Pratchett's books where he makes a clear divide about this: "I'm what you want, not what you need". Again, a lot of people don't get that the seven deadly sins (or seven cardinal vices, or seven evil thoughts, call it as you like) are not evil in their subject - but evil in the way they are done, in their intensity and intentions. The religion's fanaticism and extremes did turn a lot of these into crimes (from "Sex should only be with love and care" we went to "All sex is evil" ; from the sin of gluttony we went to "Enjoying any piece of food is evil"), but again, one needs to look at history, social evolution, and the original texts (plus modern ones) to get it all. What is gluttony about? Gluttony is about excess, not about the food. Gluttony is about eating when not hungry just like lust is about having sex when not loving ; gluttony is about waste the same way lust is about debauchery and depravity. Remember the traditional divides of gluttony (can't recall right now who made this division first): eating too much, eating too early, eating a food that is too costly, demanding a food that has too much sauces or spices, eating too ravenously... "Too much", "too costly", "too eagerly" - gluttony lies in excess. And this was most exemplified (to the point people forgot about the other ways of gluttony) by the idea of "eating too much". Aka eating when you are not hungry, eating when you do not need it, eating not to nourish your body... But because you want it or feel like it. "What you want, not what you need". What Beelzebub proudly claims she embodies.

There are subtle nods here and there about the sin throughout the song number - such as Beelzebub using her magic to make food too big for one's mouth or changing one glass into a giant drink that gets people instantly drunk. But remember what this song is about? "Cotton candy sky ; sweet as apple pie", all in a debauchery of sugar and rain of candy. The choice of these sweet, sugary food and other desserts couldn't be more perfect to embody the sin of gluttony - because this is what all these things are about. They are supposed to be little treats and enjoyments at the end or the side of the meal ; and yet here they form the feast. They are not nourishing in themselves, they just taste good and are comforting and pleasant to look at, yes, but a whole diet of them would be unhealthy and dangerous, as they are not what the body needs... But sugar, like alcohol, being a very addictive product, it is what people "want". And thus we enter the realm of gluttony. Whole feasts of un-nourishing food. Sweet and pretty addictions. (Though I personally do not like much the idea of treating addiction as being "gluttony", because an addiction is a disease while a vice is supposed to be a trait of character, a willful decision, a conscious choice to do something bad - but gluttony definitively leads to the disease of addiction when you go down this path of thought - in fact one of the main things theologian repeated is that gluttony always leads to the most physical diseases and illnesses out of the various deadly sins)

And what about Mammon? Well we do not have any actual song for Mammon - even in his introduction episode, despite being on stage for a very long time, he does not sing, it is just the others that sing. Already we see both an attack on how greed uses others to gain wealth and profit (making others sing for him), and how greed is ultimately a sterile place from which no true art can come out (Vivziepop's criticism of greed and the artistic process is more than clear in Mammon's character). But more fascinatingly is the "non-song" of Mammon when he appears on stage during the flashback to Blitz and Fizzi's teenage years. He is on stage, he has a musical instrument, he is here to perform a concert... But all he does is hype up the audience for a show we ultimately never see or hear ; a lot of decorum for nothing ; a long and complex advertisement and promotion for a very different project (the clown contest) and ultimately just Mammon "bitchin' about taxes" and angrily denying exploitation. Again all of greed is here - selling things that do not exist, using your stage to promote other, more exploitative projects instead of giving what the audience paid for, literaly being distracted out of your own show by monetary topics completely out-of-context like taxes or exploitation accusations.

So yeah, while two of the princes subvert what their sins is about (Asmodeus and Beelzebub seemingly not being as overtly destructive as their sins are supposed to be ; though Beelzebub's benevolence can be put at doubt by the fact she seems to feed off the emotion of her parties, and worries about Blitz because he gives "bad vibes" to the whole thing), so far each introduction song (or non-song for Mammon) clearly perfectly depicts what their sin is about, in a fun and clever way.

[territorialufo]

i give in can you tell me about that little iphone binch

YESS YES I CAN TELL YOU ABOUT THE LITTLE IPHONE BINCH !!!!!!!!! this is literally just rambling im so sorry. There's a lot of text blocks in the beginning but the end has more pics and silly stuff 

Also ii spoilers but its hard to talk abt mephone without getting into the recent stuff so whatever 

Under cut cause this got. Really long. whoops

Context/background of II/mephone 

“Inanimate Insanity” (ii) is a web animation originally released in 2011, considered the second “major” object show after BFDI. btw an object show is a genre of web series that features anthropomorphized inanimate objects competing for some kind of prize. I am NOT the right person to ask about object shows cause the only one ive ever been invested in to this extent is ii and theres SOO many other ones out there LMAO. Ok sorry i sounded like a bot for a second there JUST PROVIDING CONTEXT!! Inanimate Insanity’s structure is kind of interesting because it starts out as a silly comedy in s1 and most of s2 before descending into a really drama heavy storyline, with tension caused both by mephone’s past haunting him and conflict between the contestants themselves. Then suddenly s2 goes on a four year hiatus and animationepic (main youtube channel) launches s3 with new characters and artstyle, seemingly completely ditching the plot they had in s2??? IM NOT GONNA GET TOO INTO ALL THAT but it all works out timeline wise so its chill the tone switch was just rly funny at the time 😭😭😭 

ANYWAYYYY mephone. Mephone4. Mister phone. Four. The one and only four. MeFon! MePhone4 (parodying the IPhone4) is the de facto host of the in-universe reality show “Inanimate Insanity”!! As the host, he has speaking lines in nearly every episode which is super awesome and epic for mephone4 enjoyers (me). His initial vibe was inspired by Chris McClean from TDI, and was even voiced by Christian Potenza in the first episode before being switched to Mark Katz, who is the father of the creator of II, Adam Katz, which is also pretty cool i think. Since Mark Katz is a grown ass dude, mephone just has. The same voice for like the entire series SHDHF everyone else’s voices are changing and stuff as the creators got older but mephone just sounds like a middle aged man for all of it 😭I love it tho this isn’t a criticism!!! As the years go by it gets more and more expressive :) s1 is. rough. considering it was made by a bunch of kids, its very much a product of its time lol

Lore/character 

Ok lore time cause the thing w mephone is most of his backstory was kind of just hinted at (or implied with the existence of Apple irl). Like in s1 there was the introduction of mephone4s and 5, but otherwise, not much (as far as I can remember. I watched s1 when i was a kid so its been a while lmao). Then there was s2e8 where the contestants go to headquarters and we meet steve cobs (yes, like steve jobs), who’s his creator and dad?? Again some hints are dropped but nothing concrete about their relationship. And then BOOM. SEASON 2 EPISODE 13. “Mine Your Own Business” was my fave II ep for sooo long (idk what my fave is now tbh) cause THE MEPHONE LORE DROP??????? IT WAS CRAZY and also the ending of the episode with fan’s monologue and the soundtrack “shell of a fan” is my fave in the show ANYWAY ANYWAY so begins the remembering of the Horrors. 

He was “born” in Meeple Headquarters, and PLEASE KNOW THAT HE WAS BORN AN ADULT OH MY GOD there are some clowns who think hes literally 14 years old bc thats how old the iphone4 is USE YOUR BRAIN USE YOUR BRAIN AAAAA right so he basically knows nothing about the world, confined to headquarters until his eventual escape. Cobs and mephone have a pretty interesting dynamic, where cobs has most of the power. The way Cobs praises mephone but later shoots him down is so AUHGHGHGH. It’s an oppressive environment he's living in, only expected to do assigned tasks and shamed for any genuine interests, while having the pressure to impress his creator on his shoulders at the threat of being discarded. Mephone grows to hate and fear cobs, but at the same time, cobs is the only person whos known him since the beginning.

The way literally every problem mephone has can be traced back to his origin/how he was raised is so crazy. Like even before the s2e16 twist, it was extremely prevalent??? There are a bunch of analysis posts that explain it way better than I could but MANNNN for a show that the crew started when they were literally 13, they were able to tie things together pretty well, i think! 

It’s been pretty obvious since s2e13 that hosting Inanimate Insanity is just one big escapist fantasy for mephone, one where he is free to do as he pleases while ignoring all the trauma he sustained in “childhood”. Cause it’s implied he escaped Meeple, deleted his bad memories, and then started s1 right after. I mean, it makes sense, since outside of the cold, mechanical nature of Meeple, the only warmth he got was from his enjoyment of reality tv shows. If s1 is an amnesia mephone, and s2 is a spiraling mephone, then I’d describe s3 as “escapism but worse” mephone. It doesn’t ever get as gloomy as s2, but s3 has steady background reminders of “hey guys remember mephone is running away from all his problems right now!!” until it all comes to head in the finale. Some ppl dislike how mephone-centric the show’s gotten, but honestly idgaf more for me

I do want to say that he is very flawed, though. Esp near the beginning, he is really fucking rude and does not respect his contestants at all and frequently belittles them and puts them in mortal danger. he tends to view them and everything that happens to them through the lens of “its just part of the show!!!!”. He tends to brush off everyone’s problems, no matter how serious, even when he’s the one that caused them.

His reality show host personality is all a very big facade to cover up how he feels about the past (thus further submerging him in the fantasy of Inanimate Insanity). Like previous users have mentioned, this is likely due to the fact that he had no one to learn HOW to be empathetic/kind from besides reality television (which is known to be exaggerated for drama) and cobs (who is his abuser) But I famously do enjoy characters who are kind of dickheads, the confidence being a mask is like a tasty bonus to me.

The dichotomy between his arrogant host exterior and paranoid/anxious interior is really interesting and fun to watch. Compared to his relatively sweet/naive beginning personality, it’s wild to see just how much he’s changed since then because of everything that’s happened.  His relationships with the rest of the characters is also interesting, cause despite being their host, he isn’t very close with a lot of them. Other than maybe Bot, who I believe he feels kinship with since they're both robots who freed themselves from the expectations of others. Same with Mepad, since they’re both from Meeple. 

He’s a robot, but in an emotional/psychological sense, is basically a normal person/object (person is synonymous with object in this case). He feels like a person despite being an AI. which makes cobs a lot worse imo, he mistreats all his creations, but at least the other newer mephones are barely “feeling” at all, unlike 4.

Basically, 

Cobs: i have engineered a machine that is functionally a person

Everyone: you fucked up a perfectly good phone is what you did. Look at him. He’s got ptsd. 

Not to get too into ii16/17, but they basically recontextualized the entire series and made what we initially thought about mephone’s escapist tendencies and origins a million times worse. Bro was so tormented he subconsciously made his OCs come to life 😭😭😭all while projecting all his issues onto them??? Psychologically sound individual activities. Additionally, the way he was created is also. Terrible. Cobs basically invaded an alien planet, kidnapped an alien kid, and then presumably used its energy to create mephone4. Outer space colonization? In MY object show? yes!

Ok now im just gonna talk about random stuff i like about him  

His powers are so cool.,.,,. Esp as a foil to cobs/mephonex, who could represent destruction, he represents creation with his generation ability. Also something abt using his powers for non violent reasons when his creation was built upon violence uhh idk. And I think the screen turning green and the sound effect is very satisfying dlsjkfg. Oh and the fact that he canonically had to practice to get better at it? In the flashbacks he’s shown having trouble generating even a simple tree, and now he can make pretty much anything with minimal effort. 

Also MeLife, which allows him to bring contestants back from the dead, is an ability unique to him, which is super cool!!

He can create portals as well and this is never explained. He can just suddenly do it KDLJFGH this kind of renders Mepad’s teleportation ability useless but it's still fun. 

I like when he uses his face as an actual screen :)

Something something robot related stuff

He is not waterproof and will malfunction or even die when wet

His speaking function can be disabled by other people

Glitches while talking sometimes!! Delightful 

Something that gets overlooked often I think is the s1 finale, where mephone4S (mephone4's brother) basically killed himself to save mephone4 by downgrading his own OS. Technically, mephone isn’t even in his original body anymore, he’s inhabiting his brother’s. Fun!

this is unrelated but he got shot in the face with a gun once. there havent been any guns since unfortunately

Get yoinked idiot 

In conclusion, 

I heart him and im sad ii is gonna be ending soon thx for reading

[the-queen-and-the-king]

Euphoria

Summary: well, do you remember this?

Then, here is the text I wrote about this. :D

Characters: Aaron Hotchner x Emily Prentiss

Contents: angst, mention of Aaron's scars, smut, oral sex (f receiving), handjob (m receiving), alcohol consumption (but they aren't drunk) NSFW/MINORS DNI

PS : English is not my mother language so they are necessarily mistakes. Sorry about that.

___

Emily was concerned. She'd never seen Aaron behave like this, so... thoughtlessly. He'd acted alone, without waiting for reinforcements and, what's worse, didn't seem the least bit sorry he'd done it.  When Derek had tried to set the record straight – as acting director, he was in his rightful place – his former superior had retorted that he surely wouldn't have done any better than he had. Faced with this sudden indiscipline from a man whose middle name was severity, Morgan had backed off, shaking his head in annoyance. An abdication that seemed to please his opponent, who boasted a blissful smile, out of place given the context. The one he addressed to the young woman immediately afterwards – as she stared at him, unsettled – awakened a curious sensation in her.

Hotch only smiled once a year, it was said in the corridors of Quantico, when he got his fingers caught in a door. None of the BAU agents would say such a thing, since they'd been around him long enough to know it wasn't true. From time to time, their boss expressed an emotion approaching joy. A discreet, fading joy, quick to disappear. A rare joy that only a privileged few had been able to witness. A joy that had deserted his heart for several weeks now, devoured by the anguish that assailed him more than usual. His ex-wife and son were in danger, and he had no other way of helping them than to wait. To wait for the predator to emerge from the darkness and take a step towards its prey. To betray his presence so the profilers can get to him. But that moment had not arrived, and fear pulsed through his veins.

At least, that's what Elizabeth Prentiss's daughter thought.

Except that the smile he'd presented her with earlier was entirely devoid of anxiety or dread. He only looked... satisfied? Relieved? A little mocking, she was sure. As they often said during their investigations: it didn't fit the profile. Temporarily stripped of his position, his loved ones under witness protection because of an unfortunate gesture and word, he should have looked the worse for wear. Instead, he beamed and even allowed himself reflections and an attitude – towards her in particular – that he would certainly never have had before. As if the loss of his stripes had freed him from a straitjacket that imprisoned his true personality.

However, Emily had another hypothesis in mind that strongly displeased her. According to her, he had really hit the bottom and, seeing no way out, his survival instinct had abandoned him, leading him to adopt this suicidal technique which – fortunately – had failed. The surge of adrenalin in his damaged body then guided his words and movements. But every peak was accompanied by a vertiginous descent which, in his case, was not at all recommended. That's why she stood in front of his hotel room door and, after making sure none of her peers were around, knocked on the door. Her heart pounding against her ribs, she expected him to be ready to drop.

“Prentiss?” he asked, obviously pleasantly surprised.

She widened her eyes, bewildered to realize that she'd been wrong about everything. He looked at his best. And he was just as alert as a few hours earlier, in that alleyway occupied by scaffolding.

“Prentiss?” he repeated, eyebrows furrowed.

Her brain shook her. She had been mute for too long, she had to speak. She had to justify this late presence on the doorstep of his transitional home.

“I… I wanted to be sure that… that you were all right,” she admitted, feeling her cheeks flush in spite of herself.

His brown irises scrutinized her with unusual intensity. The ex-prosecutor was one of those people who stared at others when conversing with third party. She'd grown accustomed to it, but the glow in his pupils that evening was a first. She even wondered if he'd ingested some psychotropic drugs or was having a bad reaction to the painkillers he'd been taking since Foyet's impromptu visit to his home.

“Why wouldn't I be?” he bounced, almost mockingly.

“Do I have to answer that question?”

No. Definitely, there was something wrong. He wasn’t his normal self. You couldn't go from exacerbated stoicism to the rebellious self-assurance of a teenager under influence, without having taken a more or less licit substance. Aaron rolled his eyes, dropped the door jamb, and returned inside the room dragging his feet. Emily only noted that he was in socks. Which wasn't unusual when you remembered that it was way past bedtime, but it was something new for her.

“So, I'm sulking, I'm a pain in the ass; I'm smiling, I must have a problem, he complained as he spun around to face her. Explain to me what I have to do to make things right?”

She hesitated to enter, uncomfortable. She was bewildered by the situation, not quite sure which way to turn. She had nothing to fear from the Hotch she'd known all her life; but this one seemed far more unstable than the other, and his actions were bound to be unpredictable. However, it was ridiculous to continue this discussion with her in the corridor. She moved forward and dared to close behind her. He stayed where he was, waiting for her answer.

“You… you have every right to smile, she began, weighing her words, but you must admit that what you did was...”

“Irresponsible? Yes, I know,” he conceded, looking at her unblinkingly, as usual.

“Why did you do that so?”

“I heard this woman screaming, and I jumped in to help her. If I'd waited for reinforcements, she'd surely be dead. Or seriously injured and thus traumatized for life, he imagined aloud. What would you have done in my position?”

The same thing, she thought at once. It was true that the protocols were designed to be respected – they had normally been established to ensure the safety of law enforcement officers – but the reality on the ground sometimes led officers to exceed them. She wouldn't have acted any differently from Morgan or him if she'd been there, that was obvious. She sighed and lowered her nose.

“Thank you.”

She raised her head immediately, confused.

“For what?”

“For worrying about me,” he replied with a shy smile that sent an armada of butterflies soaring in her stomach.

This very discreet lifting of his lips moved her every time, without her being able to determine why. When she caught sight of it, she felt the urge to take him in her arms and protect him from everything. When he let it show, he exposed a part of himself that possessed an almost childlike fragility. He'd seen all the horrors humans were capable of, and – as she thought – hadn't had the happiest of childhoods; and yet he retained a kind of candor that systematically touched her heart. Worst of all, he wasn't even doing it on purpose. However, at this hour, she had to ignore her emotions and distance herself from what that little voice was whispering in her ear. 

“Everyone's worried about you,” she objected, her tone not quite as assured as she'd have liked.

“But you're the only one who's come knocking on my door.”

A bolt of lightning shot through her chest. He was right. After his dazzling coup, they had all more or less looked at each other quizzically, sharing the same opinion on what had just happened; but it was only she who had taken the step of checking that he was really all right. How should it be interpreted? How did he interpret it? From the smile on his face, he appreciated the gesture.

“I… You're tired, she remarked, reddening her cheeks. I should go.”

She hurried towards the exit, her heart pounding under her skull. But then he spoke again.

“Prentiss.”

She froze, her hand on the handle.

“Stay a little. I… I look okay because I'm still on adrenaline but... when it comes down, I... I don't know how I'll be able to... react.”

She bit her lip, sensitive to the quiver in his voice. He was being completely honest with her. Just as he had been on other occasions before, when it was just the two of them. She knew things about him – about his private life – that only she knew on the team. He'd never explicitly asked her to keep it a secret, but it was a given and she had no desire to betray his trust. His ex-wife had done it and it had broken him instantly. And since then, even though he's been able to put on a brave face, the cracks are still there. And there, he was afraid. He was afraid that this fall from his little cloud would be too brutal for his current wavering psychological state.

“Please.”

She turned around, retraced her steps, and sat down on the bench, with the door in view. Just in case.

“You have the right to say no,” he emphasized, remaining in the same spot.

“What?”

“I'm no longer your superior, so you don't have to follow my orders,” the giant reminded her, clearly embarrassed.

Emily realized that she must have adopted an attitude that made him think she was bending grudgingly, simply because of their difference in status. It was absolutely not the case. Unless it was his lack of personal esteem that was telling him that no one on the team was consciously standing by him to support him. Which, once again, was wrong.

“But you haven't given me any orders,” she contradicted him, smiling.

“I wouldn't want you to feel obliged to be here either.”

“You're not obliging me to do anything.”

“You wanted to go to sleep.”

“Hotch…”

The first time they'd had this kind of sterile stand-off was when they'd stumbled into the same hotel room and, at the sight of the single bed, he'd deliberately considered sleeping on the carpet. Back then, she'd won the negotiations, and that seemed to be the case tonight too, as he looked away from her steady gaze.

“So. What do you want us to do until you get back to Earth?”

Having been through this kind of situation hundreds of times, she knew that it could take several hours to get back to normal. It took the body a fraction of a second to bombard the muscles and brain with a shot of adrenalin, but an eternity for it to dilute and no longer take effect. If his body didn't receive any other stimulation, he could eventually fall asleep at around 3am. Otherwise, he could watch the sun rise without feeling tired.

“Toast.”

“What?” she croaked again, caught off guard by this suggestion.

She'd expected a lot of things, but certainly not this.

“To the success of our mission. The suspect has been apprehended and everyone is fine. This calls for a little celebration, doesn't it?”

She didn’t know how to respond to that. It was true that, notwithstanding this heroic but risky action, they had succeeded. And there was nothing unusual about celebrating the end of a case over a drink. But normally, they were all together, with Penelope; not two.

“We can toast with spring water if you like,” he said, taking out a bottle of still water from the minifridge he was crouching in front of.

“It's okay, she tranquilized him, with an amused smile. Bring out the booze.”

After all, what were they risking by swallowing the few centiliters these receptacles contained? Perhaps a slight easing of the weight on their shoulders, a brief muscular relaxation, an substitute of euphoria. Nothing that would cause them to completely lose their mind, or that would derail this impromptu tête-à-tête.

                Aaron came and sat next to her on the bench with five bottles in hand. He let her choose first, and she settled on gin. He took the whisky and tossed the last three onto the nearby bed. In silence, they unscrewed their corks, sent them to the side of the disqualified spirits and knocked their respective bottles together, barely daring to look each other in the eye. She felt like a teenager drinking in secret from her parents, and this delicious sensation moved her curiously.

“Don't tell Morgan I made you drink; he'll arrest me on the spot.”

Emily burst out laughing, almost spitting out the sip she'd just taken. Undoubtedly, he too felt they shouldn't have done it.

“Don't worry, I won't say anything, she reassured him. It’ll be our little secret.”

For some reason, she winked at him to reinforce what her words. A strange gleam immediately lit up in the eyes of her neighbor, who was now observing her with redoubled intensity.

“What?” she asked, unsettled.

He didn't answer, frozen on his portion of the bench, then, without warning, leaned towards her and placed his lips on hers. Her heart leapt in her chest.

“Are you... drunk?” she questioned him after he had returned to his seat.

She had never seen him with such an expression. It was a mixture of... joy, apprehension, amazement, and satisfaction. Anyone who didn't know him and came across him at that moment would have taken him for an unbalanced person. She glimpsed something else.

“No,” he affirmed, shaking his head, still wearing the same silly grin.

That’s what she thought. He'd taken a gamble, venturing onto a slippery slope without even knowing if she'd be receptive. He'd potentially just shot himself in the foot, but in his own way, he'd just expressed what was in his heart. Maybe for a long time. And now, he was waiting for her answer. Emily could have dithered for hours on the question, for the problem posed was a complex one: both their careers were at stake, but not only that. Their lives, their relationships with the other members of the group, with their respective loved ones, also piled up on the scales. And yet, she doesn't think that long. She leaned in and kissed him back. Then she returned to her seat, tasting the peaty flavors of the whisky he'd been sipping.

                Silence fell between them, and they stared into each other's eyes for a long minute. They no longer smiled, breathed, or thought. They both stood on the same crest of destiny, aware that a single step could tip everything one way or the other. Either they stepped back, and she walked out of that room without anything more damaging happening – and the harmony they'd had up to that point would probably be shattered forever by what they now knew of each other's feelings – or they moved forward, and their daily lives would be shrouded in secrecy – but they would live out the love they had for each other to the full.

                Aaron put the miniature bottle on the floor, near one of the bench legs so as not to inadvertently shoot into it; straightened up, took Emily's face in his hands, and kissed her again. She shut her eyes, their tongues met, brushed against each other, wrapped around each other; while their bodies drew irresistibly closer. Soon, as they continued their oral exchange after a short pause to take a gulp of air, their hands set off on an adventure, traveling along their partner's forms through the various fabrics that still clothed them. She flinched when Aaron's fingers emphasized the curve of her breasts. He withdrew them on the spot. She caught his wrists and brought his palms to where they had been just before. She had been surprised, but had appreciated the contact, even if it had been indirect. Her lower belly wanted more, but she could understand why the former director was a little reluctant to take the plunge.

A reluctance that vanished all at once when he left her lips for the nape of her neck. He changed position altogether, rising to rest his arms on either side of the profiler's legs, before gradually sinking to his knees. In the meantime, he kissed all the exposed skin of her cleavage, slipping his hands under her red top to caress her burning bust. Her heart stirred vigorously beneath her ribs, and a delicious sensation swelled inside her. As if he'd felt it, the giant descended even lower, his mouth landing on her chest, between her breasts, above her navel and between her thighs. She was dressed in her pants, but this step had its effect. He didn't stop, however, continuing to place kisses all along her leg – grazing the other with the tip of his phalanges – until he reached her shoes.

He gently removed them under Emily's watchful gaze, very intrigued by this unusual protocol. He placed her booties next to the open bottle and, brushing the seam lines with his fingers, worked his way up to the buttons on her garment. She immediately understood his intentions, and a wave of panic suddenly swept through her.

“Hotch…”

“Aaron.”

She met his gaze, surprisingly calm and assured given the context, and her flush of stress disappeared in an instant.

“Call me Aaron… tonight.”

As if on cue, she nodded, and he unbuttoned her pants. And without any haste, he pulled it down, sliding it towards her ankles before removing it completely. For a second, she thought he'd take the time to fold it, but he left it in a heap on the carpet. On the other hand, he took advantage of the return journey to kiss her feet – he'd stolen her socks in the meantime – her ankles, calves, knees, and inner thighs, not forgetting to brush all her exposed skin. Emily had kept her eyes closed the whole time, won over by subtle waves of pleasure pulsing through her abdomen. A groan escaped her as his mouth made contact with her panties. Then she felt his tongue push through the lingerie and titillate her erogenous zones. She moaned a second time. It was already good, but still not enough.

“Aaron…”

He grabbed the edges of the lace and made it follow the same path as the pants. Her intimacy revealed, she felt a brief moment of discomfort annihilated by the arrival of Aaron's lips around her clitoris. He kissed her erectile bud with the same skill as her mouth before it. He sucked, suckled, kissed her excrescence delicately and thoroughly, while his tongue flicked back and forth between and along her intimate lips. He outlined the irregularity of her ridges, zigzagged around the edge of her cavity, licked the elixir that oozed from it and, from time to time, allowed himself an incursion into this still unknown territory.

                Emily didn't know where to hold on to stem the flow of her sensations. Every micro-movement of the titan bombarded her with sparks that spread throughout her entire being. Every attention lavished on her button provoked ecstatic bursts that took her breath away as much as they made her whimper. She soon found herself on the verge of ecstasy. She then altered her position slightly, moving her pelvis forward and pushing against the expert mouth. He resumed his exactions in earnest, devouring her crotch with renewed ardor. She vocally encouraged him along this path, her fingers coming to grip that dark hair as pleasure rose, rose, rose inside her. She said one “yes” after the other and the last one died in her throat as the orgasm ravaged her chest, arching her back, tensing her muscles and blurring her thoughts. 

                She trembled once or twice more, and then released him. He moved away from her without getting up. Despite the happiness she felt at that moment, she immediately knew something was wrong. He didn't have the victorious expression a man in his position should have. On a contrary. She wanted to lean over and kiss him, but he pulled back.

“Aaron?”

“Prentiss, don’t stay here. Please,” he said with unexpected firmness.

“But… you?”

“I will manage.”

Without adding anything else, he got to his feet, turned his back on her and headed straight for the bathroom. He shut the door behind him. Emily was completely bewildered by this change of attitude. It was incomprehensible. He'd done exactly what it took to make her come and now seemed to regret it. Unless… That he suddenly realized that their relationship would never be the same again was a possibility that could explain this evasive behavior. But given his past, she imagined the problem came from somewhere else. So, she left the bench and undressed completely, determined to show him that he was mistaken.

                Luckily for her, he hadn't locked the door after him, so she was able to slip into washroom without having to negotiate through the door. Especially since he was already in the shower and therefore unlikely to hear her. She almost fell against his belongings piled up on the floor and only stepped over them with an incredible reflex. She took the two steps to the cabin and entered. His back was to her, but he heard her and turned his attention to her without facing her.

“Prentiss?”

She had expected to find him masturbating, but this was not the case. She hoped he hadn't finished already.

“Call me Emily for... what's next.”

“But…”

“Hush,” she whispered as she pressed herself against him, her hands quickly skirting his sides and running down his torso.

One of them closed around his still-hard member. She let out a sigh despite the sound of the water falling on them. She began to move back and forth, and he instinctively undulated to the same rhythm. That was what she thought. He hadn't been retroactively afraid of what he'd done or put off by the idea of her reciprocating; he simply didn't want her to see him naked. Because of Foyet. Because of the souvenirs this madman had left him. Except he'd forgotten that they didn't have to be face to face for her to give him pleasure in turn. And to prove it to him, she repeated her gesture once, twice, with more amplitude and then, faster. He quickly began to pant, looking for a place to hold on to in order to postpone the generalized tension that was invading his body.

“Emily…”

She smiled and went on. Placing her free hand on his belly, she noticed that his abdominal muscles were contracted to such an extent that she wondered how he still managed to breathe. He was resisting. Even though he didn't have to, he gritted his teeth to keep from letting it all go. It was perfectly pointless, since she'd already gotten it off and that wasn't the point of the maneuver, but you couldn't erase years of training to be an enduring lover with a few caresses. She had to make him understand that he had the right to give in.

“Everything is fine, Aaron. Come.”

As she spoke to him, she continued her frenetic back-and-forth movements, which were now drawing gasps of pleasure from the giant. His hips moved to accompany her gestures and probably amplify his sensations.

“Come on. Come.”

Mouth open, eyes closed, all his muscles tensed, his left hand suddenly moved off the glass on which he was vainly trying to lean and went to grab her wrist. Not the one that stimulated him, the other one. He clung to it with all his strength that would surely leave her with a bruise the next day. But she didn't care at the moment, because she knew she was well on the way to achieving her goal. She pumped again with energy and breathed out:

“Come.”

A vibration shook his entire torso and he exhaled loudly before she saw his shoulders relax all at once. She didn't let go of him yet, supporting his sex as it gradually fell back, and brushed against the stitched skin of his chest. She only had time to feel the relief of his first scar before the hand that imprisoned her intercepted her and pulled her away from the battlefield. Not to reject her. On a contrary. Without facing her, he intertwined his fingers with hers and brought them up to his mouth to place a kiss on it.

“Thank you,” he whispered, in a hesitant voice.

“No, thank you,” she countered, kissing his shoulder.

She closed her arms around him and, with her ear pressed against his dripping skin, listened to his slowing heartbeat. They remained embraced until the shower water began to cool. Emily then decided it was time to slip away. If one day they wished for more, they'd find each other again and, she was sure, merge in a passionate embrace. Her lips pressed against his shoulder blade one last time, then she declared:

“Good night, Hotch.”

“Good night, Prentiss,” he replied without looking at her.

A few minutes later, she was in the hallway walking towards her room, smiling a little foolishly. She was convinced that what had happened was only the beginning of something much stronger and much bigger.

___

When I wrote this text, my brain ran wild imagining a full series of smut pieces of work with those two having fun without Aaron diving into her (only handjob, oral sex, and humping). Until he left for his retirement. But I dropped the idea thinking that it'll be boring in the end.

And I already have too many (more interesting) ideas for them.

So enjoy this one-shot. :D

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

"There should be no situation where a student is talking to their teacher about sexuality or gender identity anyway." It doesn't specify talking to the teacher about it. It specifies if the teacher learns it. Doesn't matter how they learn it. If the kids friend makes an off hand comment and the teacher overhears then they're required to out them to their parents.

So, looking into this further, the bill mentioned in that ask, Arizona HB 2711, has nothing to do with requiring teachers to tell parents anything. It's a bill about restricting short term rentals from 2021. I think the bill they meant to talk about was SB 1166, which was introduced this year. Here's the full text of that bill as it currently stands:

AN ACT AMENDING TITLE 15, CHAPTER 1, ARTICLE 1, ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES, BY ADDING SECTION 15-120.05; RELATING TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS. (TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE) SB 1166

1 - 1 Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona: 2 Section 1. Title 15, chapter 1, article 1, Arizona Revised 3 Statutes, is amended by adding section 15-120.05, to read: 4 15-120.05. Pronouns; first name; biological sex; parental 5 notification; prohibition; policies; definition 6 A. A PUBLIC SCHOOL MUST NOTIFY A STUDENT'S PARENTS NOT LATER THAN 7 FIVE SCHOOL DAYS AFTER THE FIRST TIME THAT AN EMPLOYEE OR INDEPENDENT 8 CONTRACTOR OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL KNOWINGLY ADDRESSES, IDENTIFIES OR REFERS 9 TO THE STUDENT BY EITHER OF THE FOLLOWING: 10 1. A PRONOUN THAT DIFFERS FROM THE PRONOUN THAT ALIGNS WITH THE 11 STUDENT'S BIOLOGICAL SEX. 12 2. A FIRST NAME OTHER THAN THE FIRST OR MIDDLE NAME THAT IS LISTED 13 ON THE STUDENT'S OFFICIAL SCHOOL RECORDS, EXCEPT THAT AN EMPLOYEE OR 14 INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR MAY ADDRESS, IDENTIFY OR REFER TO A STUDENT BY A 15 NICKNAME THAT IS COMMONLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE STUDENT'S NAME OF RECORD. 16 B. SUBSECTION A OF THIS SECTION DOES NOT APPLY IF THE STUDENT IS AT 17 LEAST EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE. 18 C. A PUBLIC SCHOOL, SCHOOL DISTRICT OR CHARTER SCHOOL MAY NOT 19 REQUIRE AN EMPLOYEE OR INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR TO ADDRESS, IDENTIFY OR 20 REFER TO A PERSON BY A PRONOUN THAT DIFFERS FROM THE PRONOUN THAT ALIGNS 21 WITH THE PERSON'S BIOLOGICAL SEX IF DOING SO IS CONTRARY TO THE EMPLOYEE'S 22 OR INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR'S RELIGIOUS OR MORAL CONVICTIONS. 23 D. EACH SCHOOL DISTRICT GOVERNING BOARD AND CHARTER SCHOOL 24 GOVERNING BODY SHALL ADOPT POLICIES TO IMPLEMENT THIS SECTION. 25 E. THIS SECTION DOES NOT PROHIBIT ANY PERSON DESCRIBED IN 26 SUBSECTION A OF THIS SECTION FROM DISCUSSING MATTERS OF PUBLIC CONCERN 27 OUTSIDE THE CONTEXT OF THE PERSON'S OFFICIAL DUTIES. 28 F. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION, "BIOLOGICAL SEX" MEANS A 29 PERSON'S IMMUTABLE BIOLOGICAL SEX AS DETERMINED BY ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY, 30 GENETICS AND HORMONES EXISTING AT THE TIME OF THE PERSON'S BIRTH. 31 Sec. 2. Severability 32 If a provision of this act or its application to any person or 33 circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other 34 provisions or applications of the act that can be given effect without the 35 invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this 36 act are severable.

Sorry for the formatting, I copied it from here, which is a PDF file of the actual bill.

So, from this we can see clearly stated that it only applies to an employee or contractor of a public school (basically teachers and substitutes) knowingly addresses, identifies, or refers to a student by a different gender or name other than the one on their birth certificate, or a commonly used nickname for their full legal name. There's nothing about sexuality in there at all, and even if there was, it wouldn't apply to a teacher overhearing students talk about their sexuality, it would only apply to any teacher that knowingly refers to a child by that sexuality out loud, which they should never be doing anyway.

If there's a different bill introduced this year that mentions informing parents about sexuality, feel free to link it to me and I'll read it. But this is what I found when I searched.

[venaue]

- Social Media (in my TWST AU) -

this is rly short cz im procrastinating finishing my oc profiles rn... oops edit after i finished: wow i lied MY BAD i did not anticipate this... ahahahaha...

any notes (do i call it that?) would mean the world even a like will make me very happy (pls im desperate.... i did not do all this yapping for nothing... /lh /nsrs) ok first section :sparkles: Magicam :sparkles:

in my au i sorta think of magicam like insta (obviously) except there's like two main sections obviously there's the insta bit which is just . insta . yk photo based and shit

then there's also a section that's essentially just twitter like as in text based posts and twitter type shenanigans and stuff

(think of it like threads but if people actually used threads as much as they used instagram and it was like integrated into the instagram experience and culture and stuff)

therefore insta-type posts and twitter-type posts can exist simultaneously and everyone wins (that's why everyone only talks abt magicam cuz its got EVERYTHING in one) wow!!!!!!!!! ok next section... a twst equivalent of discord... it doesn't have a name idk whether to keep it as discord or not... imagine i call it magicord... /hj ok so i just came up with this idea as im writing this so we're winging it

but essentially its like a main chat system integrated into most games where essentially you login to all games through this account and your username stays the same

it also integrates into in game chat systems and shit

but it also works like discord as its own platform and you can make servers and group chats and shit too

if you add someone in a game it goes straight to their account so like you don't have separate accounts its just all one :3

that's why gloomurai and muscle_red are always the same yk like ur friends list instantly transfers no matter what game u play handy right :333 last section!!!! [ how this is relevant in my au !! ]

im so so so very sorry theres no context for any of the oc stuff i swear ill get the profiles done soon...

ok this is purely for me to yap about my ocs and canon rn so uh yea

idia (gloomurai) lilia (muscle_red) yuuto (infinitelygrey)* & mace (chainflailed) have a group chat and a server and are usually active in them almost every day. they often play games together , idia and mace carry, lilia has fun (though does his part - competitive ass), and yuuto... yuutos trying his best... he'll bite u if u tell him he's doing worse than the rest of them though

yuuto & kiyuu share a magicam page with ramshackle dorm branding n shit (@/snowyruins)**, and they both have a sign off (yuutos is yu & kiyuu's is ki) kiyuu does most of the posts, whether its of himself, or ramshackle's 'cleaning progress' or him exploring outside of their dorm yuuto pitches in once in a blue moon to post dumb memes and/or reply in the middle of kiyuu's conversations to make fun of people ;p or alternatively just a really shitty doodle of someone to embarrass them aros has a magicam account that's decently famous because of his family, though he rarely uses it except to promote his families business yuuto posts his art under a magicam acc also called @/infinitelygrey (he has to resist the urge to draw his friends schoolmates since its anon) *this is a reference... if u get it ill marry you (/j ill just be very happy) **this one i can actually explain right since since yu + ki = yuki and yuki = snow and ramshackle means like 'state of disrepair' so its basically like ruins right right right right??! ok thats all i can think of rn.... i did way too much yapping holy shit i can feel my braincells melting... stay tuned for another one of these regarding a different topic sometime soon??? i have too much brainrot >;3 im actually kinda rly nervous to post this idk why but yolo ig...

[limpfisted]

while wyll is a very well intentioned person part of the game is about subverting tropes, and to ME hes MY special princess. he is by no stretch of the imagination “perfect” n hes not SUPPOSED to be perfect, n he has glaring flaws present in the text in subtext that make him very interesting narratively

while wyll trying to fight monsters and devils to save people is objectively good

in dnd, monsters, devils, goblins, even animals in the context of this game. theyre still literally people. theyre capable of language and complex thoughts and motivations

while im not about to be like (fire emblem vc) DIMITRI. KILLS. WOMEN. wyll’s quest to be a generic lawful good human warrior male is not as black and white as he wants it to be

and he can be a hypocrite and a liar

and he can be dumb and needlessly vicious. he stands in the middle of the room with priestess guts and to her face goes “tav lets just kill her. lets kill everyone here lets blow this nasty wench to smithereens” and u have to go priestess guts i am so sorry my friend would fucking say that to you. while we are. trying. to be SNEAKY, WYLLIAM!!

he DOES try to kill karlach. he probs killed other innocent prisoners of zariel. he thought it was the right thing to do, its reasonable. but he still did it. n he never faces tbe consequences or even the guilt.in fact he only faces consequences n guilt when he does the RIGHT thing

wyll IS a very kind and tolerant person to a point but its interesting to see like. who deserves second chances to wyll. and why

like obviously being a generic goblin killer doesnt make u a bad person or anything. its good to kill momsters that are hurting ppl. but hes eventually going to hv to look back on the things hes done for mizora and the devils hes killed, and go “hm.” bc even tho he HAD to do it. he also justified it. and that makes it worse

its honestly kind of interesting he doesnt hv anything to say abt freeing 7000 hungry vampire spawn. n when ascended astarion mentions them, wyll asks how many ppl astarion has killed. “dozens, hundreds?” bro it was 7007 ppl, u know the exact number. he cant even wrap his head around it

like everything else in his life—i dont think he really knows how to weigh the burden of that decision bc he can really never let himself feel the full severity of anything without going “ok moving on” or “let my next action prove my worth.” (ie when he tells karlach hes been a beast but he still wants to prove himself, when u tell him hes a monster, he will still prove himself to the sword coast n be tbeir protector.)

its a very rich thing, hes going on his own little narrative journey here where hes realizing what kind of man and hero he wants to be, same as all the rest of them

n a part of that is coming to terms with things like balduran being a lie, n baldurs gate being so much less than he remembers

something i really enjoy abt the game as someone who considers themself an existentialist is. the burden of freedom. we are condemned to be free. despite the facticities and realities of the world n other ppls reactions to our decisions—we alone make our choices n deal with those consequences

wyll is always, always making the best of a bad situation, hes always doing the best he can, hes always doing what he thinks is right, he always tries to be kind and good and gentle to the people “who deserve it.”

but hes only human, and the road to hell is paved with good intentions

when it comes to morals and “goodness”—sometimes being guided by fairy tales and legends is…. lazy moralizing, that will lead to more pain for everyone, wyll included

wyll DID do good things for the people of the sword coast. and that matters. but u know what. everybodys got something to atone for, pobodys nerfect

again this is not a wyll hate post this is actually a WYLL IS AN INTERESTING CHARACTER AND INTERESTING CHARACTERS HAVE FLAWS post lol. hes really not as goody goody as people think. he loves murder and blood tbh, just u know, the murder and blood of evil doers