#so they don't just remove all my additions. that would suck

[theofficialpeanutgallery]

Anybody know how to request updates on wikipedia pages? Like, the real-life pages, not the fandom ones.

[fortheb0ys]

I LOVE OLD MEN IN BRACES🙏 JEFF WOULD LOOK SO PRETTY IN THEM! Not my best work but I'll fix it later:)

FEM ALIGNED + MINORS DNI

Jeff sat on his knees, a pout on his face and an avoidance of eye contact. He mindlessly played with his fingers. Even though he looking everywhere but you, he could feel your heavy gaze weigh on him.

You stood tall and dominant over him. He felt small compared to you. Maybe that's what turned Jeff on so much. Just sitting there under your lustful eyes, his dick painfully hard in the confines of his jeans. The toes of your shoes pressing slightly down on his bulge. Jeff felt like he could cum at any second.

"Aw bady, don't be so shy. Give me a smile. Let's see how pretty you are with your new addition." You press down harder on his cock. Jeff chokes out a small moan, holding with every ounce of will power not in cum in his jeans. He was feeling all new sorts of things that he definitely didn't never felt before.

Jeff looked up, tears welling up in his eyes and gave you the best toothy grin he could muster. His shiny new braces on display. He looked absolutely adorable.

"Please."

He was imaging what he look like in the state he was in. A pitiful man sitting kneeling at the feet of another, begging for any touch. If it was anyone but you, he would have ran and hide in the farthest corner of the earth.

"Please what, doll?" You give Jeff a smile matching his own. A slight mocking in your tone.

Jeff snaps his eyes shut, feeling your eyes burn deep at him. He's trying with every fiber of his being to not moan out his pleas.

"I-I want you in my mouth...please." Jeff moaned out his final word.

"There ya go, good boy."

Jeff felt his mouth water as you undo your pants. You weren't going to tease farther, he asked politely.

A sign leaves your mouth as relief washes over as you pull out your cock. By the looks of it, you were enjoying Jeff's pitiful sight. This wasn't a new thing for the two of you. Jeff's favorite thing was to be knelt in front of you, taking completely your cock. It's heavy weight on your tongue. His mouth watering at the thought of having that happen so soon.

Now adding to the thrill was Jeff's new braces. My smile slightly innocent.

You guide your cock to his closed lips, giving them a couple taps before lifting his top lip slightly. He looked like a growling dog as someone withheld a treat.

"Open up, doll."

Jeff hesitates no farther, mouth open before you could finish your request. You follow just as quickly to guide your swollen member into his mouth. He leaves a few licks against the tip before taking you as much as him could.

A muffled moan leaves Jeff's mouth. The vibrations send shivers down your spine. Jeff suddenly jumps as your foot begins to rub against the tent in his pants.

Jeff hallows out his cheeks and being sucking more frantically. Licking long strips on the underside of your cock. The veins tracing on his tongue.

Grunts slip your mouth. Your toes dig deeper into his pants. Jeff pushes forward to the grinding pleasure. A wet spot begins to soak through the front of his pants.

Jeff tugs at your pants to get your attention. You lock eyes and understand the plea behind. He wants you to go faster. To go harder. You know he can take everything like a champ.

You begin to thrust into his mouth at a bruising pace. Jeff chokes on the intrusion, spit begins to slip past the corner of his lips. Jeff enhales a deep breath through his nose and relaxes his throat to take you farther.

"Doing so good, doll. I don't think I can last much longer." Jeff can taste your precum as you give him the warning.

Your hand finds it's way to his top lip, lifting it up to run your fingers against his braces. It'd be such a shame for the removal. You'd have to take a picture as material for masturbating. It was the perfect sight.

Jeff is determined to stay focused at the task at hand, brow frowned. His knees started to ache and will definitely continue to the following day. His voice will surely be hoarse, He'd have to get someone else on sales duty. Or maybe he'd just call in and have you fuck him till the early hours of the morning.

Jeff seemed drift farther into his daze, mindlessly taking everything you gave him. Sex always made him feel fuzzy. The aches were worth it.

A gentle slap on his cheek brought him back to reality.

"Wanna cum with me, Angel?"

Jeff gave the best nod he could with your cock still down his throat. You thrust hard and fast, not letting up to let him breathe properly. Jeff groaned, lungs crying for air. His eyes rolling to the back of his head. You give a few more hard grinds against his cock and cums, his pants now completely dirty.

You'll pull out just enough till so just the tip rests at the front of his teeth. A few more tags, you cum. White painting his teeth but most of had fallen down his chin to drip down the neck of his collar.

Loud panting filled the silence space. Jeff looks like he's about to pass out.

"Such a good boy." You praise him once you've caught your breath.

With the last bit of his energy he could muster, Jeff gives you another smile. His shiny braces now covered in a sticky white. He'd have to get used to washing your seed out of his braces cause he knew this wasn't going to be the last time that he'd find them dirty in the same manner.

[room-surprise]

Dungeon Meshi Anime Review, Season 2, Episode 19 review

Izutsumi arrives! And Marcille has a nightmare.

This is an interesting episode but I know my spouse and I had desperately hoped that they would re-organize things somehow. Marcille's plot in this feels painfully tacked on and unrelated to Izutsumi's introduction, and the concept of the nightmare is so good, it could have easily been expanded to be an entire episode on its own. I wish they'd done that. They could have paired Izu's intro with the ice golem story to have one all-Izutsumi episode and then one all-Marcille episode... alas.

Those are changes I would have LIKED to see, but here's some changes I didn't like:

(MAJOR MANGA AND ANIME SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT!!!)

Trigger removed Laios' mother's only speaking line in the manga. It would have taken SO LITTLE to have someone read this single sentence, and removing it, in my opinion, has a negative impact on the story as a whole.

It SOUNDS like a generic thing when she asks Laios "When will you give us grandchildren?" But this is actually really important. Laios is afraid of being forced to make a family and participate in society. This is unusual because he's a man, most men in a historic time period of this don't really care about such things, but Laios is so afraid of it, it's a recurring nightmare!

This is also why he acted so weird seeing a loving father/baby scene in the magic paintings chapter. He hated seeing a father talk about how much they love their baby.

Laios is named after a story about murdering your children before they can hurt you. Like an Oedipus Complex supposedly means that a son wants to have sex with his mother, a Laios Complex means a man wants to kill his sons. Kui did not pick this name and then have Laios repeatedly be uncomfortable with children, marriage and fatherhood for no reason.

Obviously Trigger didn't make any of these connections and so they didn't think it was necessary for Laios' mom to speak this line out loud, but I vehemently disagree.

This is similar to my beef with them removing Yarn Floke's only dialog in the story and removing her from the scene with the Island Governor. That moment told us that Mr. and Mrs. Floke were equal partners, and now anime watchers assume she's just his wife who doesn't do anything. That sucks.

The addition of paintings of Marcille's father in the nightmare. Woof. I really don't care for this, if they wanted to do it i would have preferred it if they'd obscured the paintings somehow so it wasn't obvious that Marcille's father wasn't an elf.

I think this makes the later reveal of her half-elf status WAY less surprising.

Also, in the manga, the complete silence around her father created a strong subtext that Marcille's mother was her only parent that mattered. They could still accomplish this but I think it won't be as shocking.

People reading the manga probably thought "her dad was an elf and he died young and that traumatized her" (this is what Laios assumes I'm sure)

People watching the anime will think "her dad was a tall-man and his natural death of old age is what traumatized her" which is true, but they aren't supposed to actually know that yet...

Overall the episode was good aside from these issues. I liked that the nightmare sequence was in black and white, and the transition to color at the end was spectacular and very impactful... But part of me wishes they had done something else to differentiate the nightmare state from the normal animation. The black and white was good, but almost too subtle because the DM palette is already so desaturated.

[storiesofsvu]

Solace in Solitude Ch 2

Emily Prentiss x reader warnings: language, medical/injuries talked about (i googled, don't come for me if they're not 100% right), hurt, minor anxiety, two buttheads not getting along.

You were right, Emily was exhausted. And she was annoyed. Both that she was so tired and that you had been right about it. Not that she expected to be full of energy bounding around the room, she’d just wanted to pull one up on you, prove that you were wrong, that she could and would do better. Instead she’d ended up sleeping most of the rest of the day, her brain still foggy, not fully able to pick up whatever French programs were playing on the television. With her attention lacking, she drifted off more than once, only waking up when a nurse was back in the room prodding at her body again. Her body ached, even just getting out of the bed and making it the eight steps to the bathroom winded her, which of course just made her more tired and even more annoyed.

This whole recovery thing sucked.

At least you weren’t so early on your rounds when you checked in on her today, she was awake, half paying attention to the television, a breakfast tray on the small table at the bedside.

“Morning Valerie.” You greeted with a smile, “how’re you feeling today?”

“Bout the same.” She grumbled.

“Have you managed to get up at all? Even within the room?”

“A couple of times.”

“Good.” You flipped open her chart, checking any additions since you’d left the night prior, “let’s keep that up for a few days and then we can start with trips down the hall, make sure your body’s up to it.”

“I didn’t think you meant it when you said I’d be this tired.”

“Yeah, anaesthesia can be a bitch like that.” You commented, checking a few of her vitals before you eyed the still full tray of breakfast, “not to mention your body needs fuel if it’s going to heal.” You moved back to the foot of the bed, scribbling into her chart, “you need to eat.”

“They’re withholding coffee.” She grumbled, sinking back into the bed.

“And you thought that warranted a hunger strike?” You huffed a laugh, “without a spleen you’re going to need to limit your intake of coffee, among other things. Didn’t a nurse drop off those pamphlets?”

“Yeah.” Her gaze drifted over to the bedside table where they sat untouched, she figured her life was already altered enough she could go another day without knowing every other change she would have to accommodate just to survive.

“Then eat.”

“Would you touch that?” She gestured toward the tray, wincing at the pain in her side as she did and you let out a soft sigh. The tray had a container of applesauce, a banana, a couple pieces of bread, “who eats jello for breakfast?”

“I would if I had just had my spleen and part of my stomach removed and it was advised and instructed by my doctor.” You cocked a brow in her direction as you continued to update her chart, she simply scoffed at you.

A nurse wandered in to check on a couple of things and make sure there was a large fresh bottle of water left on the table. You seamlessly swapped over to French while they were in the room, continuing to check in with Emily about how she was feeling, getting more specific on details and you checked over the stitches on her incision before the nurse finally left.

“Your French is really good.” You commented, readjusting her gown back down and loosely tucking the bedding in before peeling off your gloves, “you speak anything else?”

“I dunno.” She grumbled, rolling to face the window, “am I allowed to talk about that?”

“Ah.” Your lips pursed, holding back a sigh, “well, I’ve got some other patients to see. They can page me if you need anything and I’ll check on you before I leave. And you better have eaten something by then.”

Emily didn’t dare move; she didn’t dare breathe until she was certain the door was shut behind you before she suddenly let out the choke of a breath. Tears welled in her eyes and she couldn’t help as they rolled down her cheeks, not bothering to wipe them away, this didn’t just suck, this was absolutely horrible.

*

She’d barely managed to calm herself down by the next time a nurse came into the room, this time they seemed to be focussed on her breathing and heart rate. Whatever panic soaring through her was being reflected by the machines she’d forgotten she was hooked up to. The nurse talked her down until she felt like she could breathe again and Emily curled up on her side with her back to the door when it was suggested she try to eat something. There was a pit in the deep of her stomach, heavy and lingering, almost creeping through her body with waves of nausea and she was certain that food wouldn’t help with that, no matter what medical professionals said. Reaching out she hit the button to send more pain meds into her IV, the stifled cries and deep breaths sending shooting pains through her side, her hand gingerly clutching where the stitches were, moving to rub softly at the ache in her ribs. She didn’t want to be doing this, didn’t want to be here especially not like this, without someone by her side. The longer she was conscious the more memories she found were coming back to her, she could see the haze of Derek hovering over her as he pleaded for her to hang on. Penelope’s voice strangled with sorrow on the voicemail she’d left. If it hadn’t been for you mentioning a blonde she would’ve thought she was going crazy, that her mind was sending her some kind of guardian angel in the form of JJ while the ambulance sired blared, she could almost feel her hand in hers.

It had already been over three weeks and she couldn’t help but wonder if her team was already beginning to forget her. If she would be nothing but a long lost memory to them by the time she was finally able to get out of here. She caught herself spiraling, wondering if she ever actually would be allowed out of here, if she’d ever get the chance to go home, maybe this was supposed to be home permanently now.

*

You spent the majority of your day switching between the ER and the OR, there had been a couple of call ins of other doctors so you were actually kept relatively busy. A handful of smaller injuries, stitches to be done, tests to run to rule out worse conditions before sending them back home or off to a different specialty, an easy appendectomy to spice up your day with a little bit of surgery. You got outside for your lunch break, thankful to breathe the fresh air without the smell of hospital for an hour, it always helped you relax a little bit more. You’d been thumbing your way through a novel with the intention of getting a chapter or two in over the break but the words were all starting to blend together. After countless amounts of paperwork in French your brain was starting to not want to comprehend it anymore, practically begging to revert back to English. So you let out a soft sigh and closed the book, hopefully your afternoon would involve more cutting than paperwork.

Reluctantly, you returned back inside the hospital, checking through a few charts before you got called off to another surgery, thankful that you could immerse yourself into that and not have to worry about anything else for the next few hours. There were no issues, the patient pulling through perfectly before being sent off to recovery and you headed back to the nurses station to finish up on a few things. You made sure the chart was updated with details from the last surgery and assigned a nurse to keep watch on them overnight in case anything popped up.

The day was winding down and everyone could feel it, the extra excitement buzzing through the air thanks to it being Friday, chatter of weekend plans, date nights, family outings all around you. You were going through your patients charts to see how everyone had faired through the day and if there was anything you’d need to check up on before taking off, adding in notes here and there, signing off that you’d seen them. Across from you a few of the other doctors were wrapping up their own things, asking if the others were doing something that evening. When the resounding answer was no there was an invite for drinks, one that extended to another nurse as they walked up to the desk. Your eyes flitted up briefly but the group was so wound up in each other they barely even glanced your way and you huffed quietly. While everyone here was professional and approachable enough, they’d help out if you had questions or needed something but there was absolutely no interest when it didn’t happen within the four walls of the hospital. You’d been rather friendless for the past three weeks and you highly doubted that was going to change anytime soon.

Emily’s chart was the last one in your pile, the last thing you had to go through before you achieved freedom. Naturally, that became a bigger obstacle than you’d been hoping for. As you read through the updates from her day and checked through things you let out a frustrated groan, letting the chart fall shut before you tossed it back into the rack. Just as you pocketed your phone you heard someone speaking French but this time, actually directed to you.

“Your VIP girl?”

“Yeah.” You grumbled back in the same language, “turns out the ‘p’ is for pain in my ass.” They chuckled,

“Sucks. Goodnight.”

“Night.”

Gracing them with a friendly smile and a small wave you turned from the counter, wandering down to Emily’s room. As per usual, the door was shut, thinking maybe killing with kindness would help you gently knocked, waiting a moment before slipping into the space. Emily’s eyes flicked up from the book in her lap, practically glaring you down as the door swung shut behind you.

“Great. What’d you want?” She grumbled, looking back down to the book.

“You to realize that dumping your uneaten breakfast in the bathroom garbage doesn’t go unnoticed by the nurses.”

“Maybe if they weren’t so nosy.”

“Valerie you need to eat.” You let out a quiet sigh, folding your arms onto the table at the foot of her bed, “I know you might not be hungry yet but your body needs nutrients to heal properly, even if it’s just a couple of bites at a time.”

“Whatever.”

“You know, we see this a lot in people who have gone through traumas, that’s part of the reason I pushed for someone to come down from psych today.”

“That was you!?” Her gaze shot up to you, cutting you off instantly as she glared you down, her voice hardening as she spoke, “you sent in the shrink? Why would I need a shrink?! You’re being ridiculous.”

“I get that you’re upset, but you really don’t need to be mad at me about following hospital policy. It’s standard procedure for patients like yourself. At the very least, just let me make sure the paperwork reflects that we’re doing the right thing?”

“Paperwork said he was here, he was here. Believe me.”

“Okay.” You held up your hands in submission, “normally we do wait a week or so depending on everything else but considering the whole food thing I thought it might be worthwhile. Clearly I pushed too soon.”

“Yeah. You did.” She glared, “I’m fine.”

“Well… for what it’s worth I do think it’s a pretty good idea for you to talk to someone.” You stated, readjusting your stance against the table.

“Oh? So what, now you’re gonna shrink me?”

“Not my specialty.” You shrugged, “but if you decide to open up to me then so be it. Otherwise I can put the call in to psych and have someone come down again when you’re ready.”

“You want me to open up? Really?”

“That’s the general idea of talking to a shrink, yeah.” You nodded and her eyes narrowed in your direction, you could see the tension building in her body as she spoke.

“And how exactly am I supposed to do that when I’m supposed to pretend that I died a month ago? You want me to talk to someone about what happened that night but half my medical records are redacted, destroyed or simply don’t exist. When I woke up this morning? I couldn’t even remember the name that was on my hospital band, and you want me to be able to twist up some weird fake stories to help my mental state?!” Her voice shook, the raw emotion starting to break her cool fa��ade, and she took a heavy breath, dropping back into the bed, “you say it was a car accident, it was a car accident.” She held up her hands to signal that that was it, “I clearly had a head injury, I don’t remember the details and I’m not about to do a cognitive interview on myself, okay?”

She picked up the book again but you could tell her eyes weren’t focussing on the words and you could see the shimmering of tears in them, knowing just how frustrated she felt. Emily truly didn’t understand how this was supposed to be helping, she just had to keep shoving everything down until this was all over, she was good at that, she could do that, but not if you kept prying into her life and shattering the illusion that it was going to be okay.

“Well,” you let out a sigh, “then I guess if you’re ever ready to talk, you really are stuck talking to me.” She didn’t reply, keeping her gaze on the book as she did her best to ignore you so you pushed off the table, “if you’re not gonna talk at least do me a favour and eat something. If you haven’t by the next time I see you I’m putting in a feeding tube, understood?”

“Sac a merde.” She muttered and you let out a small laugh.

“I’m fluent, remember?”

“Vai a fotterti.”

“Ah, Italian, now we’re getting creative.” This time she did look up, a glare still on her face as you pulled the door open, “eat your dinner.”

With that last warning you were gone from the room and Emily was left to let out an angry growl, tossing the book onto the bedside table. There was still a pit in her stomach but this one was beginning to gnaw away at her and she was starting to think maybe it was hunger related. She picked up the bottle of water to take a couple of sips, her eyes landing on the brochures one of the nurses had brought by earlier. Maybe if she read through them she’d understand what was going on with her body a little better, maybe it would make this easier.

*

Unlocking the door to your apartment you let out a sigh of relief, kicking off your shoes as you entered the code for the security system. You’d picked up dinner on the way home, you couldn’t be bothered to cook, not now, not with the limited amount of mental energy you had left. You needed a drink. A stiff one.

Keys were dropped on the counter along with your bag and dinner before you disappeared into your bedroom to change out of work clothes. Once you were cozy in a pair of shorts and a tank you padded through the apartment, tidying up a couple of things you’d left out during the busy work mornings. You pulled down a wine glass, filling it higher than usual with merlot, scooping up your phone and food to take out onto the balcony. This was one of your saving graces, the nightly ritual that had been to unwind out in the cooling air, taking in the views of the city as the sun sunk in the sky. It calmed you down after long days at the hospital and you certainly needed it tonight. This entire project had been one you’d been apprehensive of from the start but you’d at least had time to let things sink in, to get used to the new routine in a new place. It had been considerably easier when Emily was still unconscious and you let out a groan at the thought of having to deal with her again in the morning.

A chorus of laughter burst from down in the street below and you felt a wave of melancholy shoot through you, thinking about the others from work out on the town tonight. You understood being on the outside and you understood why you were, but it would be a lie to say that some nights it didn’t get a little lonely. You’d thought that maybe you and Emily would’ve bonded over that, being trapped in a life that you didn’t necessarily want. That you’d be friends, have each other’s backs until this whole thing was over. You took a hefty swig of wine, shaking your head at yourself, at how naïve and ridiculous you’d been. She wasn’t going to be your friend, that was for sure, it was almost like she blamed you for waking up in Paris, like you had personally made the call and lugged her halfway around the world yourself. Your gaze drifted out onto the horizon, watching the last few rays of sunlight dancing through the sky as you let out a small sigh. You’d let her keep playing the victim card a little longer, after all, she did have the reason to be miserable. You knew she’d tire out of it eventually and come around, it would just be a test of willpower to see how long it would take her to cave.

At least you weren’t trapped in a hospital bed. You had some sense of freedom around the city, a freedom she was likely jealous of and that certainly wasn’t helping things. Hopefully things would change once she was discharged.

________________

@mickey-gomez @momlifebehard @daddy-heather-dunbar @maybe-a-humanbean @rustyzebra @ilovemycrayons @mandy-asimp @leftoverenvy @kades95 @dextur @supercriminalbean @daffodil-heart @its-soph-xx @just-a-torn-up-masterpiece @hopelesslyfallenninlove @peanutbutterprincess @emilyprentisssluvr @lex13cm @zizzlekwum @emobabeyy @riveramorylunar @s1ut4nat @scorpsik @prentiss-theorem @strongsassysexysloane @happenstnces @sapphicprentiss @geekyandgay98 @pagetboobstarcomments @onmykneesformarvel @inlovewithemilyprentiss @desperate-gay @amypoehlfey @overtrred28 @theclassicgaycousin @regalmilfs4me @kalixxh @ara-a-bird @five-bi-five-mind @niyizh @inlovewithmiddleagewomen @tommyriddleobsessed @hotchs-bitch @ollysmulti @iluvsreid @kmc1989

[novankenn]

My Wife is Dwarven Ghost! (Ep3)

Original Idea by @weatherman667 Additional Inspiration by @noneatnonedotcom

Kelric was at his wits end. His wife, the recently deceased Queen of the Red Mountain Dwarves, as a ghost had learned a new trick. It had apparently happened while he was praying to Kali... and being blown off by the patron deity of his family.

Thoria had gone to check on her cousin Mary. One of the almost endless list of dwarven women Thoria was trying to convince Kelric to bed. Despite his hesitancy and resistance to the idea. It had come as a shock after Thoria's first appearance as a ghost, that Kelric suddenly realized that "marrying into the family" really meant something different to dwarves.

Anyway Kelric was currently sitting in his and Thoria's private chambers, listening to her give a complete and DETAILED recounting of all of Mary's fetishes and fantasies... many which apparently involved him and a leather strap.

"It was so strange, but awesome at then same time!" Thoria shouted in a voice only Kelric could hear. "I mean I forgot I was you know..."

"You forgot you were dead?" Kelric deadpanned

"Don't say it like that... but yeah. I did."

"How?" Kelric felt like his mind was being sucked out by a Mind-flayer, "How could you possibly do that?"

"I just did, okay?" Thoria replied. "Anyway that's not important, because when I went to hug her, because you know she missed the wedding I went inside her!"

"Okay. And?"

"And I saw all the kinky stuff she's into and dreams about you!" Thoria exclaimed excitedly. "This is great!"

"It's great that your cousin, is having fantasies about your husband?"

"Yes!" Thoria clapped her translucent hands together. "Yes, it is!"

"Why?"

"Because I thought she'd be the hardest one for you to seduce! Which is totally not going to be the case!"

"I don't want to seduce any of your family!"

"Like seriously, she'd jump into bed if you look at her with a disapproving look... yeah just like that one!" Thoria beamed a wide smile at her husband "Add in a little swat to her plump behind and she'll be popping out babies before you can blink!"

"Thoria!"

"What?"

"Babies?"

"Well, yeah."

"Seriously?"

"Well, yeah."

"Seriously!?"

"Wait, are you not interested in seeding fertile fields? Like I know sexy-times are fun, but there has to be an end game."

"AHHHHH!!!!!" Kelric screamed in frustration as he fell back on to the massive double dwarven sized bed of their room. As he lay there his hands pressed against his face trying to suppress the urge to sob, his mind drifted and thought about how exceedingly large the bed was.

It was easily able to hold multiple people, at least half a dozen. Probably more.

"Honey, I don't understand? Seriously, I don't." Thoria commented, "I thought every man would love to have their wife's express permission to bed hotties?"

"Not every man." Kelric muttered from behind his hands. "And not me."

"My lord?" came a stern and concerned voice, from the direction of the entrance of the room. "Is everything okay?"

Kelric removed his hands and sat up, shooting the heavily armored and armored dwarven Shield Maiden a gentle smile, as she stood in the open doorway shield at the ready and hand on the hilt of her heavy-mace.

"Sorry. Everything is fine."

"But you screamed, my lord?"

"It was nothing. Just some frustration I had to let out."

"Very well my..." The Shield Maiden stopped, frozen in mid motion. Kelric was about to speak up when he saw an ethereal hare sitting upon the young woman's head. It titled it's head towards him, flicked it's ears, and then thumped the young woman on the head with it's hind foot before jumping off and vanishing into the shadows of the room.

"What the... Thoria did you..."

"My lord?" the clatter of metal against the smooth carved stone of the floor drew Kelric's attention back to the entrance of his private bedchambers.

"Wait? What?" Kel;ric stammered as he back pedaled over the massive mattress as the young woman assigned as his protective detail sauntered forward, stripping out of her armor and clothes.

"Let, me assuage your frustrations, my Lord."

"Oh good choice!" Thoria cheered, as the increasingly growing nude dwarven lass continued to close upon Thoria's shocked husband. "That's Patty, well Patricia, but she prefers Patty."

"How are you okay with this?" Kelric shouted at his ghostly wife as he desperately tried to mot look upon the nude figure now crawling across his bed towards him. "I thought the contract was for only your family?"

"She's my thirty-seventh cousin, on my father's side." Thoria informed her now panicking husband. "Do you want me to check her out before you?"

Kelric didn't reply, and did the manliest thing he could think of, in a situation such as this. He threw a sheet over Patty, and bolted for the door, slamming it shut behind him.

As Thoria floated off to locate her fleeing husband, and Patty extracted herself from the tangle of sheets, with a sullen look upon her face, the ethereal hare sat upon it's hind legs shaking it's head in disappointment.

"He's going to be harder to crack than I thought." Frejya commented to herself.

/==/Other Episodes /==/

[slotumn]

Fuck it, in-universe historical analysis on the logistic impossibility of physically getting read of Crests, and why the Crest nobility system was probably the best thing the Adrestian Empire and Church could come up with to relatively peacefully rule the entire continent in their early days.

First, on the impossibility of literally getting rid of Crests. Like, not abolishing inheritance/class system based on Crests, but actually physically removing it from the gene pool. There was a very short window when that would have been feasible and morally justifiable to do, and that was when the Elites were the only ones with Crests.

But from what we know of Fódlan history, that train had long passed by the time Rhea gathered the means to fight back against them. Let's look at what we can glean about the Elites from canon crumbs:

They lived for hundreds of years

They were probably something like pre/proto-centralized state "barbarian" clan/tribe leaders who gathered under Nemesis

1 implies that the Elites had already been ruling for centuries when Seiros showed up at Enbarr, and 2 would imply that the Elites used marriage and blood relations to secure and maintain power within their territory. In other words, at Imperial Year 0, the Elites must already have fucked and had lot of kids, including more Crest-bearers, and those kids had lots of kids, so on and so forth.

That's already way too many people just by officially recognized clan members, and if you include bastards, the number would go even higher. You guys know that statistic about how 8% of men from Northeast China to Uzbekistan are descended from Genghis Khan? The situation with Elite descendants would already have been something like that when the War of Heroes started.

You can see why it would have been a logistic nightmare to physically hunt down and kill all Crest-bearers or potential parents of new Crest-bearers; not to mention that prolonging the war and spending additional resources on doing that after a general military victory in the north would probably have been unpopular among the soldiers and the southern civilians, too. It would also have been highly unethical, but my point is that we don't even need to involve morality to see why this wouldn't work.

That brings us to the second point, about why the Crest nobility system was probably the best thing the Empire and Church could use at the time to incorporate the northern territories into their rule.

Again, considering the whole clan/family rule thing, many of the important political/administrative positions up north were probably taken by the descendants/relatives of the Elites, and many of them probably had Crests. Regardless of whether the individuals in those positions were qualified for it or not, the plain fact is that you can't just kill everyone in important positions without finding decent replacements first if you don't want society to descend into complete chaos. And regardless of how much the Elites themselves sucked, there were probably descendants and relatives who were liked and trusted by the local people, so one way or another the Empire would have had to deal and work with those guys.

Plus, if you look at real history, the smoothest/easiest way for empires to gain legitimacy in newly conquered regions has often been to absorb the local elites into their ranks. That's what the Adrestian Empire appears to have done with the Elites, and they even had very a good ideological justification/excuse for doing it, too: "Well you guys have Crests, which means the goddess still recognizes you as legitimate rulers just like the southern clans who have the Saints' Crests. Now play nice according to the Empire and Church's rules and you'll be fine, okay?"

This isn't to say that the Crest nobility system is without flaws (ideologically and in practice) or immune to decay and corruption and exploitation— but at the time of its establishment, it was probably the least damaging way to transition northern territories from the Elites' rule to the Adrestian Empire's rule. It might have grown outdated and be doing more harm than good by the time of 3H canon, but that doesn't mean it always was.

Tl;dr 3H fandom please learn how to analyze/consider in-universe history better if you wanna sound smarter with your character/faction stanning or bashing

[brostateexam]

Let's talk about stage 3 colon cancer.

That's what my BiL has. He's been feeling kinda bleugh for the last few months -- diarrhea, cramping, bloating. He had an abdominal CT that showed a kind of mass in his upper GI tract, so they did a colonoscopy to see what was going on in there.

The results were not awful but not great.

On the plus side, the cancer hasn't spread to other organs (ie not Stage 4) which is super important when you have any cancer in your abdomen because there's a lot of organs nearby. They removed the tumor on Tuesday and as of today he's already walking around and recovering at home, albeit in a greatly diminished sense compared to someone who didn't just have laparoscopic surgery on their abdomen. As someone who has had that: your core strength is just gone after that happens, and that's quite disconcerting. Also, they put the IV in his hand and it sounds like he's having a non-dangerous but painful complication where his hand hurts a lot and gripping stuff is agonizing.

As for the bad stuff, beyond the fact that it's cancer so it's inherently not rainbows and ice cream sundaes, it was a really, really big tumor, and the surgeon said he'll likely need chemo afterward, too, so the recovery process is gonna be months, and it's really going to suck.

My personal feelings on all of this are honestly complicated by the fact that I do not care for my BiL at all. He's a bad husband to my sister and a terrible father to my niece and nephew. He is constantly whining about what a terrible life he has -- and prior to this cancer diagnosis, he really didn't have much to whine about. He lives a middle-class suburban existence in a nice house with two cars and two kids. He has enough money to buy himself a new guitar to noodle around with every six months or some other toy like that, he works from home, his wife is the primary breadwinner at this point and also the primary caretaker of their kids, housecleaner, and cook.

And still, constant negativity, dissatisfaction, and whining.

I'm about 95% sure that they're heading for divorce. My sister has said that she's not going to try to leave him until after he's done chemo and the addition in the house is complete, whichever happens last, but I think in a few years time he won't be an aggrieved hovering presence during the holidays and frankly that would be lovely. Watching him yell at the kids makes me want to throttle him, and when I'm around I know he's behaving better than he would otherwise so I can only imagine what happens normally.

Anyway, I do hope he gets better. I don't want him dead. I just kind of want him gone.

[naanima]

PEOPLE, I'm deep diving into the pits of Reddit reading about the Jake trade. Lololols. I'm just fascinated. Also, I'm gonna talk about what I THINK about the Pens etc, just my own personal take. IGNORE at will. But also realise I DON'T have that much of an emotional attachment to Jake as a lot of fans do, I love him but he isn't one of my guys.

I like the Jake trade, and I think a lot of the anger from fans is that they think trading Jake is admitting that the Pens aren't making it into the playoffs. And I'm just like, um yeah. It is pretty obvious we aren't, or the likelihood of us making it in is fucking low with the season we have had. Jake is NOT going to make a difference in whether we make it to the playoffs or not.

Jake is an UFA in 3 months time. We DIDN'T have a contract with him, of course we are gonna trade him for futures. It is the SMART trade decision. The return we got for him is OBJECTIVE high. He is a 3 months long RENTAL, NO team in their right mind would willingly offer up their first round pick WITHOUT conditions. Unless all we are getting in return is a first round pick and a player. THAT'S a shit deal.

First round picks are worthless UNLESS they are a guaranteed success - generational talents, someone that's practically a guaranteed hit. The NUMBER of first round picks that never make it is HIGH! In addition, I'd like to remind everyone that Jake was picked up in the fucking THIRD ROUND of the draft.

Kyle gave the Pens the WHOLE season to get better, and don't give me the bullshit about how he got us shitty pieces, ALL his trade on paper was excellent (barring Jarry and Graves). We are INDIVIDUALLY better, but as a team we just fucking suck.

I know Sid is pissed, and that's good, it would be fucking off if Sid ISN'T pissed about losing, and having his eldest daughter being traded away. He is a player that's what he should be focused on. But guess what? Kyle's job is about providing the best chance for the team to win (he did with all the summer trades etc, the team just somehow fucking sucks), and to build a future for the Pens (which he is doing by SECURING us prospects and future picks, bcos we HAD BASICALLY NOTHING). For whatever reason we fucking suck.

Actually, I 80% believe the reason we suck is bcos of our coaching staff. I LOVE Sully, I think he has TRIED everything this season to make us win, but the FACT NOTHING worked says a LOT about his position with this team presently. Sometimes people can get TOO comfortable in an org/place etc. or sometimes a person is just NO longer what an org/team needs. And I truly believe it is time for Pens and Sully to part ways. The truth is Sully is gonna get snapped up straight away and most likely win another Cup, just NOT with the current Pens. And I 100% believe Sully wasn't fired this season so far bcos FSG likes him and gave him a FUCKING EXTENSION. No way was Kyle gonna be able to remove him. But hey, there's enough evidence to show that we REALLY NEED A FUCKING COACHING CHANGE.

Also, our PP sucked so bad this year that truly fucked us over completely. It was MENTALLY impacting our players, our commentators and the fans. It is a fucking problem. Fire REIRDEN for fucks sake.

Oh! And 20% maybe we suck is because we had so MANY changes in the roster meant it was gonna take us a whole-ass season to figure shit out.

I'm just really fascinated by the Pens future.

[zooophagous]

Hi! I'm here from a popular post of yours about humanity's love for sheep and saw you were a sheep caretaker. This is a job i really want to do. That said i am extremely frail (i have no disability that i know of, but it still sucks) and fear that the job might be too physical for me. I cant find any resource detailing the average day of a sheep caretaker in my native language except for websites trying to hire. So i guess my question is... what does your day look like (or can you get accomodations of sorts, like focusing on milking the sheep idk)! I am really motivated and ready to accept a part time job but if i knew i could manage with a full time contract i would love to get that extra money lmfao

Hi friend. I'm glad the post inspired you to love sheep as much as I do.

I will preface this with a very important distinction: my sheep were petting zoo sheep. It was a very small managed herd in a relatively small area that was kept immaculately clean.

These sheep had lots of 1 on 1 time with humans and saw caretakers as a source of food and safety. A commercial sheep operation has the potential to be VERY different.

Range sheep are often barely handled except to be given vetting on a tight schedule, and otherwise live in large flocks outside where they don't directly interact with people on a daily basis. These range sheep can be semi feral and not at ALL cooperative like a small herd of sheep managed by a hands on shepherd like what you might see on, say, a smaller farm or just for fun operation.

So suffice to say, if you're working with a very large herd of range sheep, your experience will differ from my experience with my Jacob's sheep pals who saw me every day and got hands on messing with several times a day.

I know exactly how you feel with being frail. I've never been a strong person and I have a low heat tolerance. Farm work, even on a petting zoo setting, is always going to be very hard work.

My day consisted of raking out the sheep pens daily, including sweeping out any old hay or straw and replacing as needed. The entire pen, even the outdoor areas, was cleaned. I would then feed the sheep (a hay bag with approximately 5 pounds of hay per sheep) and water the sheep (five gallon bucket which had to be dumped and refilled and carried back to the pen by hand)

I also gave the sheep enrichment items such as branches or small pieces of fruit. Old enrichment items had to be removed and reusable items like balls or toys had to be cleaned. Reusable items would be taken back to the dish station far away from the pens, scrubbed, and returned.

In addition, I would also take the sheep waste in a large trash bin to the compost heap with the help of a small tractor. The waste bin containing the droppings and old hay could weigh anywhere between 15 to 40 pounds depending on how much water waste got into the hay that day. This bucket had to be loaded by hand into the back of the compost tractor.

These tasks would continue every day no matter what weather. Our weather here is highly variable and can range from 100F in summer to -50F in winter.

It is a very physically demanding job to care for a petting zoo, and while I was often physically exhausted, I did also gain quite a bit of muscle from the experience and by the end of my time there I had more strength and endurance than when I had started.

Keep in mind, if you were to get a position similar to mine, you would be dealing with more than just sheep. I was also personally responsible for horses, cattle, goats, chickens, rabbits, alpacas and a giant sulcata tortoise. So you will be doing all of the same stuff you did for those sheep for the other animals in your care, and if you get big ones like cows, the weight limit goes up. I often had fifty pounds or more of cow waste alone. And that too was loaded by hand.

My animals were friendly and a joy to take care of, but the level of cleanliness demanded by the facility meant that the work done was very messy and had lots of lifting.

If you work with range sheep, you probably won't be scooping poop with a rake while a friendly lamb bothers you for attention. You may be physically pinning an angry ewe nearly as big as you are in a pen to force feed her an antibiotic while she tries to smash you. You may be herding sheep on a four wheeler. You may be assisting with births and expected to perform procedures such as banding, docking or mulesing.

If that level of activity is off putting, you may be able to find some fulfillment in volunteering for a livestock rescue or even working part time at a livestock auction house. If you're strong enough to manhandle a sheep you could even learn to shear. But regrettably there isn't any physically easy way to care for sheep that I am aware of.

I hope this helps you get a feel for the level of activity you'd expect in a similar role. Livestock animals are very fun and rewarding despite the effort they take. I hope to own my own small herd of Jacob's sheep as pets and pasture ornaments some day.

[swaglet]

hi i’m a mutual who’s like fighting hard to not relapse rn. i just moved out and like i just haven’t been eating bc i don’t have my mom to tell me to and my friends up here don’t know about my issues which im not sure they’d believe me bc im currently overweight anyways

anon don't do it do Not do it don't relapse. i'm sorry if all the posting about it lately has brought it to the front of ur mind. but seriously no amount of starving will ever achieve any type of feeling or body shape that will offer enough relief unfortunately. it will go on forever n it will slowly kill u im so serious. if i didnt starve myself i probably wouldnt have had to get my gallbladder removed because of the damage and could have just taken medicine that dissolved the stones, my heart probably would have been healthy and strong enough to withstand covid and i wouldnt have developed a hole in one of my valves from it. i was super healthy as a kid, i probably wouldnt have developed stomach issues or joint problems to the severity i have if i hadnt starved myself. im 22 turning 23 in a few months and all my doctors are like "youre just too young for all this to be going on! this sucks!" and when i retroactively mentioned the whole starving myself thing and being severely underweight for a long time they all were like oh thatll do it. chasing an underweight bmi and an ideal i couldnt fit all for nothing in the end, because it didnt even ever make me feel any better, it never made me feel relief, it never made me feel free from the situations i was in that i thought i could escape through the means of starvation, i never felt protected by it. i promise you it is so not worth it.

if i'm honest with you girl, in the long run, it doesn't matter that you're overweight. if it makes u feel any better and like ur not alone, i'm also currently overweight being in the 150s, and even though i really want to make some sort of comment about it, i'm not going to because it's just a neutral thing about my body. it's just the way my body is using the nutrients i'm putting in and reacting to the energy i'm expending right now, in addition to how it's reacting to my medications. whether or not i'm upset with myself or proud of myself at the moment, i have to accept that i'm just living my life rn and life will go on no matter how much i weigh, and my weight is just background information in the story of my life. if i want to change it, i can. if i want to not look the way i do right now, if i want to build more muscle and get rid of a little excess body fat, i can do that by slowly changing some things little by little. i can lift a pair of dumbells 10 times each morning and jog up and down the street, or even jog in place. i can make a smoothie with my protein and add some creatine to it and get into a routine of doing that every morning. even if i just do that, and only that, and nothing else, that's still a step towards changing the thing i don't like about myself as long as i do it consistently.... which is better than what i would have been doing when i was starving myself, because i'd starve for days and days and days and then eat enough for 3 grown men and feel so sick 24/7.

if being overweight concerns you enough, and you have access to a primary care physician that's affordable, you can always bring it up to them and talk to them about your concerns. it may not always bring about the best result, especially if you have a male doctor instead of a female one, but i recently mentioned this at my yearly checkup (about 8 months ago i was 130 pounds, and i put on 20ish pounds in the span of those 8 months and i can't tell if it's muscle or fat redistribution/gain from birth control or both so i thought i would bring it up) and he said all my blood tests look as normal as ever but that he'll monitor it with me while i get back to a normal workout schedule that doesn't aggravate my joint pain.

also, don't be too afraid to open up to your friends; if they don't believe you, then those may not be friends you want to have around in the first place anyway... but hopefully they do believe you. i wish u luck and i believe in u. when it's too hard for me to bring myself to eat something, i keep a mini fridge full of nutritious drinks in my room like Naked Rainbow Machines and Fairlife Strawberry Milk (With Protein) and other fuckass shit like chobani yogurt smoothies

thank u for reaching out to me and opening up... i'm proud of u nonnie u got this

[crystalelemental]

When I was a child, there was something that really bugged me in Pokemon games. Why was it that some Pokemon showed up so late? I really like Misdreavus, but it's all the way in Mt Silver! Even smaller issues like Seel in FRLG felt annoying. I have to beat five whole gyms without this thing? Why even pick it up? This led, inevitably, to my first hacking device: a GameShark for Gen 3. I have a vivid memory of replaying FRLG, excited to hack in my own personalized and very normal starter, Articuno. Articuno was so great when you caught it! Surely it would be even better if I could use it all game!

Now...I did not have the internet at the time. And by Gen 3, I was perhaps overconfident about not needing a strategy guide. So while you may know what happened already, I did not know what was coming. Articuno sucked. Like, really bad. If you look at it, it turns out the answer is obvious: it only knows Gust and Powder Snow as attacks until Ice Beam at level 49. Which...hey, wait a second. That's only one level below what you catch it at to begin with! And it turns out, this was similar all over. Seel didn't learn anything but Headbutt until level 17, it was useless against Brock despite its typing. What is going on? Why do all these Pokemon I like when I catch them at the intended time suck so badly when I get them early?

At the time, I blamed it on the Pokemon being bad and just hacked rare candies. But over time, you begin to suspect that maybe, just maybe, the game was designed on purpose? That maybe there was a structure to the game at large that kept things in balance. With age, it stops being "this was badly designed because I didn't get what I wanted out of it," and starts to become its own thing. To quote a famous Nuzleaf, I believe all of this is happening for a reason.

Friends...let's talk Sword and Shield.

My team was Rillaboom, Thievul, Butterfree, Mr. Rime, Alcremie, and Dragapult kinda sorta, with additional showcasings for Carkoal and Perrserker. I say sorta kinda on Dragapult because I intended to use it, but it didn't fully evolve until after I beat Leon. Oops!

If the intro wasn't a giveaway, I want to talk gameplay first. While we'll get to the story issues, I think gameplay matters more to Pokemon, and is the bigger problem that keeps Galar low on my list. To get some small housekeeping out of the way first:

I will not be harping on graphics, I don't care. Yes I know performance isn't good, but it's mildly annoying at worst.

I will not be harping on designs, they're largely fine. The starters are one of the weakest sets, and the box legends might be my least favorite, but there are plenty of good ones to the region as well.

I will not say "game too easy," but I will be discussing factors that led people to that assertion.

I will not be talking about Dexit. While I hated it at first, having calmed from it, I think it's for the best. I liked when Gen 5 forced you to use the new stuff to generate new favorites, and if anything Dexit should go harder by removing Home so they can more severely tweak stats and movesets between generations.

My problem with Gen 8 gameplay my very well be my own preferred means of playing, but I'm going to attempt making my case with three examples.

First: Growth via TM progression. In my Crystal run, I ran a Togetic, and have a pretty rough time of it. Togetic was never particularly strong, but it had an arc, picking up Mud Slap for Morty, Sunny Day/Solarbeam/Flamethrower for several Kanto gyms, and then falling back on Psychic/Zap Cannon when the earlier set wasn't working out. Togetic had an arc of struggle, in which it had to find tools that made it work for each phase of the game, that came down to recently acquired TMs the game provided naturally. Barring Flamethrower, all of these were free acquisitions.

Compare this to Thievul is Galar. It also is pretty bad, despite access to Nasty Plot, because its best attacking move is Snarl. It needs TMs to learn anything else. But in Galar, TMs are no longer infinite, as TRs now cover the really good moves. And the only way to get them is random den drops, and random shop items around the Wild Area for thousands of Watts, when a full den gives only 300. Acquiring the specific TM it wants is next to impossible. Dens aren't guaranteed to be Dark type, and even if they are, you could get other dark moves like Crunch. The shops aren't guaranteed to sell Dark Pulse, and even if they are, how long will it take to farm 5000 Watts? There is no control over what the Wild Area produces, and thus no arc to be had for anything specific.

Second: growth via learnset progression. In Emerald, I ran a Mawile. Caught at level 37 in Victory Road, we needed several levels before it could learn the move that would give it relevance, and the EXP options were scarce. I had to use an EXP All, cutting the entire team's EXP gains just for Mawile to catch up, while trying to find optional areas with trainers left, and at times trying to keep Mawile in to win the fight herself. There's a struggle and a cost to the growth unit perspective.

Compare that to my Butterfree. Until it gained Quiver Dance, Butterfree contributed little beyond the occasional Sleep Powder lockdown. It took off once it learned Quiver Dance, but the means of getting there was just...have it in the team. Even on the back row, it'll be fine and catch up with no real issue. There's not much of a struggle to overcome, or a sense that you're building things. It just kinda happens to you.

Third: Galar's Intent. I do not have a comparison point for this, but Mr. Rime. Probably my MVP! Once it hits Mr. Mime, it has Icy Wind, Psybeam, and Dazzling Gleam. With a Thunderbolt TM I had randomly picked up from an early den, it had excellent coverage that took down a majority of the region past its evolution. This was a fairly fun find.

I think that's the intent of Galar's structure: accidents. Surprises. The Wild Area lacks any sense of control, holding events locked to the day and forcing save commitments that refuse to allow soft resets for different outcomes. If you can roll with the punches, and accept whatever comes at you, this game probably is a lot of fun. That's probably why my wife likes it so much. But if you can't...well, you're like me, and this game is really difficult to appreciate.

I will, however, argue that it's not just me. The Wild Area's structure is awkward, being the sole home of a lot of different Pokemon, who will only show up under specific weather conditions and at very low rates. Look up how to find Dreepy some time. But the dens lack control as well, unless you manipulate the system's clock in the right way. Then, even if you find something you want, you have to hope for the random TM to drop too. I decided to use Rillaboom because I never once ran a starter, and part of Rillaboom was wanting TMs that required time manipulation to find in stock. If you come in wanting literally anything, the Wild Area is very likely to deny you. You have to come in wanting for nothing at all, working only with what's handed to you, to have a good time.

Which feels crazy disingenuous to me? Pokemon is all about the little critters you can find, and growing an attachment to things you want to catch. Not everything even comes from what's randomly found, sometimes you see something in an enemy team and get really excited for that thing. Like, imagine seeing something like Cursola in Allister's team, and going man, that looks cool! Regional Corsola and it gets an evolution, sign me up! So you go out into the world hoping to get it, only to find that it shows up exactly 5% of the time under one (1) specific weather condition in one (1) region of the Wild Area. Better hope that one area has the right weather condition or there is no way in hell you're getting that Corsola!

I just...I get that replaying Pokemon games is a thing, and that each experience can be different, and that having some random outcomes is beneficial. But Galar takes it way too far. I think their intent was to give players technical access to what they want right away, without making it actually available. See, this is something I heard and agree with: Pokemon is most engaging while you're building the team. Postgames have felt difficult for me to appreciate because my team is done, my moveset is done, I don't want to do the volcano in Platinum I just want to finish. You need to have a ladder to climb and a goal to reach for the game to remain engaging. But players are also impatient, and have gotten worse with this series over time. Learned movesets went from situations where Gyarados learns very little of value naturally, to learning its best Water move at like level 21. Players will tell you they want the feeling of being done early, but that provably kills the experience.

Another thing I'd do with hacking as a kid was bring in all TMs. Yeah, let's start HGSS with a Swinub that has Ice Beam, Rock Slide, and Earthquake, what could go wrong? It turns out everything at once, as you just clobber the entire early game with no resistance. There was no real challenge to approaching the game in this way, and the run turns stale fast because oops, Swinub had its best moveset right out the gate. I started a lot of runs in those days but rarely finished, and it's why nowadays I do have some compulsion about the purity of a run. It can actually take away part of the joy. And more than likely, the devs know this too. So if players demand the ability to kill that joy, but you want to sustain it, what's the compromise?

Make it all so random that it's borderline impossible to account for anything. Yeah dude, you can get everything right away! But you can't get anything specific at all. Which solves nothing and creates new problems. Because now there's no progression toward the endgame outside of learnset, and some learnsets in Galar are hilariously bad. You ever looked at Coalossal's moveset? Its best Rock move is Rock Blast at 54. Good luck not using TMs and making that thing work to any enjoyment. It feels like they overshot the mark, and for anyone who plays like I do, thinking about what Pokemon you want to run or trying to chart a course for the game, it's naturally going to be miserable. Galar still ranks really low for me, but I at least feel like I understand what Galar may have wanted to do.

Gameplay aside...it's time to talk about the aspect that got my wife laughing at me, and will probably have @alphakuriboh saying some things too. Story.

Much like XY, Galar is generally considered a low point for story. Doesn't make sense, antagonist is stupid, etc, you know the drill. However, I do think they Galar was cooking to some degree.

Rose is the main sticking point regarding story, because...again, the antagonist's actions are the only story we get in Pokemon. And he kinda pingpongs. Worried about a millenium from now, he refuses to wait 24 of god's own hours for Leon to finish his sports tournament, and unleashes hell. He acts sad about the state of affairs but resolved that he must do it, then after you beat him is back to borderline cheerful about how fun battles could be. You solve the problem, and Rose turns himself in, never to be heard from again. That is. An event, my dude.

Thing is, I think his actions make more sense given his character, and the theme of Galar. Galar's big theme is a sort of "passing the torch," best summarized by Opal. The old need to know when to step out of the way, but we're not done yet. Opal's stance and her actions tell the full picture. It's not that the old blood needs to disappear, but rather that at some point, the young need to take ownership of their future. They're the ones most impacted by the conditions going forward, after all, and it's important they be granted the ability to decide for themselves what they want.

Rose, as a character, denies that entirely. He manipulates the younger generations for his own ends, and his motivation is about maintaining his own view of things and his legacy 1000 years in the future. Yes, it's a far off problem that can be solved a bit later, but that's not the point. This is his problem, and it has to be solved his way. And most importantly, solved how he commands it. His lack of patience isn't about truly being so hasty. It's about forcing Leon back into compliance. Even if Leon didn't strictly say no, it wasn't a yes, and that's not how this goes.

Rose acts kind, propping up Leon as the unbeatable champion and giving Bede his position and mission. But his actions aren't altruistic. Leon now holds the same neuroses as Rose, taking everything on as his own responsibility. Accidents at the power plant? He'll talk to Rose, you all go on. Dynamax Pokemon going out of control? He'll take care of it, don't worry. Eternatus is unleashed? He'll catch it and take care of it. That last one is even what Rose wants! Leon falls completely into his expected role that Rose shaped for him. Bede also falls exactly into the role he expects, even if it results in discarding him and banning him from the competition as a result. Rose controls the youth in order to shape his vision of the future.

While I didn't play it, I imagine this is the intent with Shieldbert and Sordward, too. Control over the truth of the past alters what you think to do in the future, and so they are just another iteration on this idea, albeit less fleshed out.

Rose's future also lacks accounting for everyone's future. Spikemuth is in horrible poverty because they lack a power spot to draw energy from, or to Dynamax for spectacle from. Any future Rose builds will continue this inequality. His vision of preserving the future isn't a net positive for others, but that's not important. What's important is that it's his future. Which is why he lets himself be locked up. If the energy crisis was really the main concern, then your character catching Eternatus and beating Leon should result in another attempt. It never comes because at this point, whatever happens next is no longer his future. He can't care if it's not what he wanted.

The flip flop on his general mood state is a little harder to read with certainty, but I imagine the intent is one of cycles. I doubt he crafted this company from nothing, and his family likely had their own expectations of him that led to him perceiving every little thing as his concern and losing connection with the fun of things. It's a bit messy, but I'd be lying if I said the start of his fight with him gripping the Pokemon wasn't a cool individual scene.

Now before I get too positive, I do think Galar's story is also rife with problems. Primarily, its refusal to engage the player in anything. We feel utterly disconnected from anything going on with Rose or the region, because Leon's taking care of it instead of us. It does hinder the feeling that we're doing anything particularly important or special.

I also feel like some of their decisions were rather...poor, regarding passing the torch. Mostly Magnolia, if I'm honest. I think the decision to not even use your first old female professor to play up her 20-something granddaughter is...telling. God forbid female professors be old, they have to be super young and pretty. I just think it would've been more interesting to have Sonia acting as assistant to Magnolia and piecing together what your player character does instead. It gives Magnolia more spotlight, and gives Sonia like...an actual function beyond turning to you all the time to ask what you think, rather than posit ideas of her own.

Lastly and most vitriolically...what is the point of Marnie? No really, why is she here? Spikemuth's situation is understood, but Piers carries all the interesting stuff. Refusing to Dynamax as a statement about the inequality and the value of its residents is fantastic, and Marnie just throws it out the window. She holds no convictions, and at no point in the story does she really do anything. She's around for the ride until Piers shows up and has an actual emotional stake in things. His own passing the gym leader torch to her doesn't even feel valuable because she's so disconnected from his philosophical stance. I think Marnie should've been the one out here making that statement by refusing Dynamaxing while climbing the League's ladder, and Team Yell benefits from this as their interference can be interpreted as concern that their one chance for a Champion is playing risky by not using Dynamax for some political point. She just feels pointless.

The less said about postgame the better. That entire sequence is just tedious and annoying and completely missed its mark dramatically.

Unlike Kalos, Galar remains low on the list. I'll admit, I have been harsher on the game than was strictly called for, but I maintain it's one of my least favorites. Its entire design is just so functional antithetical to what I like in these games.

Next...I'm gonna be real, I have no idea. I'm kind of in stasis right now. I don't feel like replaying Gen 9, that's too fresh. I considered White 2 but didn't love White 1, so I'm hesitant. I considered ORAS, which...might be next. And for my own console time...it's either BDSP or I pick up one of the games in my backlog. We'll see what I feel like doing tomorrow.

[pinkpinkmermayyy]

Nah but it's the way every time a story features or is about women or a woman's story, people always want to try to make it about men or say "what if there were men instead?"

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Six: the Musical both have parts of their fanbase(although thankfully in Six it's not the majority) saying that there should be a version with all men or going "what if this female main cast had a male main cast instead"? Even though the point of both is to provide representation for women, MLP is about how there's no wrong way to be a girl and changing the way girls'/girly shows are seen as shallow and less good, and giving girls multiple strong female characters to see themselves in instead of just one token/cookie cutter archetype, while Six is all about REAL-LIFE women whose lives were destroyed because of misogyny, it is all about girl power(same as mlp) and women getting to reclaim their stories from a patriarchal society that shortchanged and silenced their voices throughout history, but no let's make it about men lol.

The same is true for Sailor Moon, I have seen some people say that it's sexist or "misandrist"(as if that's even a thing lol) because it's all about women and the women are more powerful and how Tuxedo Mask "always needs to be saved" like goddamn let the girls be the heroes who save the world for once.

And for that matter PRECURE. Unpopular opinion that will surely get my head bitten off by fans but I don't think Precure NEEDS male Cures and it's not "erasing" feminine boys or saying boys can't be feminine or "reinforcing gender roles" to point that out. Precure is a franchise about female characters being the heroes and main characters who are powerful while also being feminine, it's supposed to place the women center stage and give them the spotlight when most media doesn't do that, trying to fit boys in it is just ruining that message imo. Tbh I would be happy if there were no male Cures at all, idgaf about your "but let boys be feminine" shit cuz I mean yeah but like go watch Cute High Earth Defense Club Love or something, that show seems more your speed(@ sexist Precure fans who say this, not you). I once got my comments removed TWICE for trying to point this out to someone, to the point where I just blocked them lol. One person even went so far as to make a petition for Toei Animation to make an all-male Precure season, again, just go watch Cute High, bc clearly that's what you're looking for.

I also saw some people complaining about Project MC^2 being "sexist" against boys and making them out to be stupid just because it's about girls being smart spies and good at math/art/science, one review even said "teach girls that boys matter too!" oh rly like they don't know already??? Like the world doesn't already tell them that each and every single day??????? The second girls get the spotlight everybody acts like boys are being attacked, but when boys get the spotlight it's all crickets and shit bc boys are supposed to take center stage like no one cares about girls getting attention. Your seven-year-old son isn't going to enter a self-hating misandrist crisis because one wee show said "women do run the world!" we still live in a patriarchy ffs.

Also in Cardcaptor Sakura the main character is a girl and the story has many female characters and is very empowering to women in general(while also having a great deal of powerful men and even a canon m/m couple), and yet I still saw this one annoying guy write an entire screed about how Sakura sucks as a character and should never have been Cardcaptor, the cherry on top was them saying that Syaoran should be the Master of the Clow Cards instead...because it's not enough that this show has multiple representations of positive men/masculinity in addition to women/femininity, it's still not good enough if it's a girl power fantasy, it MUST make a boy the hero!

I also saw someone say that Touhou, which has an all-female cast, needs more men. Wonder if they'd say the reverse if it had an all-male cast(correct answer: they wouldn't).

And then there's the Encanto fandom's entire can of worms where they went through that phase of wanting the female-dominated cast to be all about Camilo and Bruno, sidelining the women in the process. Like bruh. 😕

I really do wish that people would stop this shit, female-centric media is really never allowed to exist without people wanting men to be prioritized in it and take away from the female representation even though men have enough representation already lol, people can't handle when not everything is about men. It's why I will never listen to or take anyone seriously when they complain about shows like these being "sexist against men" and say that anything I write is too female-centric. Like. GOOD. The world needs more female-centric casts to shake up the status quo! You guys love complaining about shows being gendered and wanting gender equality in fiction only towards female-centric works, because you don't want to see women playing central roles without men also being there. Sucks to be on the other side of the playing field now, huh?

Anyway, I was inspired to write this to you rather than make it an original post because of your comment about people wanting Jennifer's Body to be about men(with Miguel as Jennifer) and yeah that is so disgusting and irritating. 🤢 I didn't even know that was happening but I'm not surprised because nobody ever lets shows about girls just center girls first and foremost. It truly is everywhere and I'm sick of it. Not everything needs to be about men, just let the women have something. Please.

Sorry this was long lol. 😅 Thanks for reading this far lol. You're a trooper! Have a nice day!

THIS ASK IS SO REAL ON SO MANY LEVELS!!

this also extremely effects lesbians and trans women because with lesbian women you’ll have people being like “do they really have to be gay? Why can’t they just be normal?” And with trans women it’ll be like “why can’t we just have normal nonqueer characters” or even “why can’t men just be men anymore” it’s like they hate any and all women and girls no matter what we do and it’s so insane to me

also I talked a little about this same phenomenon happening with Jennifer’s Body (2009), where there were people making aus of that movie with mainly MALE characters which downplays the whole message and plot of the god damn movie and it’s so ughhh

anyways sorry I took so long to get to this ask but everything you said is extremely true and I’m glad you brought attention to it!

also btw RADFEMS AND TERFS FUCK OFF THIS POST IS NOT FOR YOU

[cursedvibes]

Can I ask your top 10 fav fics ever (from any fandom, if you don't mind)?

Also, just curious, is there a story behind your name "cursedvibes "?

I called myself "cursedvibes" because I thought that's the kind of impression the fics I want to write give off. My first beta reader @kaitakushi agreed (hehe) and so it was decided. As for fanfics, I'm not really gonna rank them but more list them by fandom...

JJK

Complicity by SenZen_Travers

Mahito/Kenjaku and my favourite fic of their ship. The characterization is really good and this might sound silly, but I'm glad Kenjaku is allowed to bottom here for once (very rare with Kenjaku ships in general unfortunately...)

King's Ascent by Acromos

Unfinished, but best Sukuna/Uraume fic I've ever read. Uraume is asexual and nonbinary. Love the world building and general prose here. Most of the chapters are focused on how the two grew up and they only really meet in the last one, but it's still incredibly good.

CSM

Well Prepared by Gay_as_fuck

Fic about Santa Claus and Tolka, his feelings for her and how she used him and gradually turned him into a weapon. There are only two fanfics about Santa Claus on AO3, but I'm glad this is one of them, it has exactly what I'm looking for. It's sweet, but also eerily creepy.

Houseki no Kuni

Shards of the Two of Us by undeadrabbit

Technically Kongo/Phos, but their love is platonic. Absolutely wonderful, kind of like someone wrote down all my thoughts about what happened between scenes or you got some additional canon material. Very heartbreaking to see them slowly drift apart and hurting themselves and each other despite still caring about the other.

Naruto

xenograft by Misfit_McCoward

AU where Sakura becomes Orochimaru's student while he's in Konoha and they do lots of experimentation together, on humans and animals alike. I like how Sakura slowly gets sucked in deeper in Orochimaru's machinations and loses any moral qualms she would otherwise have about the research they are doing, going so far as to compromise her own health for it. Just the sort of Mad Scientist story I like.

Be It Ever So Humble by Orochimartyr (ffnet)

A civilian enters one of Orochimaru's abandoned bases and inspects what has been left behind. I love stories that show the horror we are often familiar with in a story from the perspective from an outsider, especially if it involves the discovery of medical malpractice. There's a creeping sort of terror as we discover with this person what happened and piece together what horrible acts have been committed here. It actually really influenced my writing and was what I always aspired to write as well.

JJBA

can you tell that I like the Pillar Men?

I'll Follow You by Opus_Love

A Kars and Pillar Men origin story with Fix-It elements to it, since this is the 37th version of Kars we follow and this time he has the chance to make things right and not lose everything only to be cast into space. I especially love the slow development of Esidisi and Kars relationship and the little tidbits of information we get about the society they originated from.

We turn that old wheel round again by dratinigirl

AU where Kars lands on Earth again after being shot into space, but it's present day and Esidisi has been incarnated as a regular human, which gives Kars quite the culture shock. Very sweet, a bit angsty, but all ends well.

Youth, Man, and Father by dratinigirl

Another Pillar Men origin story. What can I say, I love the whole culture and society people come up with and I'm a sucker for EsiKars slowburn.

Monster

Five Roads Home by Lindra (ffnet)

Post-canon. Dieter and Johan bond over the child abuse they suffered and how it affects them even now. Johan is being cagey of course, but still more friendly than during canon events. It feels in-character though. Also found it nice to see Johan living as a woman now, but removed from the identity of "Anna".

[blackbird-brewster]

You Give Me Fever

Tara/Emily || Rated: E || WC: 1960 Fills: Sensation Play (for @cmkinkbingo2024), Heatwave (for @storiesofsvu bday bingo) Additional Tags: Fluff and Smut, Married Sex, Established Relationship, Ice Play, Oral Sex, Fingering

A heatwave pushes Tara's menopausal hot flashes into overdrive. Luckily for her, her wife knows just how to cool her down.

[Read on AO3] || [Kink Bingo Masterlist]

Tara growled in discomfort as she stuck her head in the kitchen freezer. DC was in the middle of a heatwave and the soaring temperatures, plus the recent onset of menopause had her feeling like she was going to combust from her hot flashes. There was just a constant fever under her skin, boiling her alive from the inside out. She was absolutely miserable.

Emily chuckled, taking in the sight of her wife in nothing but a pair of shorts, head completely hidden behind the open freezer door. "Guess I don't have to ask how you're doing today."

"This fucking sucks."

Emily grabbed a clean kitchen towel and wet it with cool water. She draped it over Tara's neck, then wrapped her arms around her waist. "Yeah, I hated this part."

Tara pushed her wife's arms off. "Too hot for cuddling, Em."

"Well, will you at least come out of the freezer for a second so you can kiss me good morning?"

"Shit. Sorry," Tara replied. She did as requested, abandoning her cold sanctuary so she could kiss her partner. Emily's hands naturally moved back to Tara's hips and she was fairly certain they were going to leave handprints branded into her flesh, like a searing hot iron. "Em, hands!"

Emily removed them, holding them up in the air quickly. "Wow. That bad, huh?"

"I feel like every part of my body is made of lava. Who the fuck invented menopause? This shit is torture!"

Emily bit her tongue to keep from laughing at her wife's misfortune. She was only a handful of years older than Tara, but she was already on the tail end of menopause herself. For the most part, Emily skated through the process without suffering through the worst symptoms. She'd only experienced hot flashes for the first couple of months, but they were mild compared to the emotional instability that followed. Mood swings, outbursts, crying at every SPCA commercial, Emily spent nearly two years at the mercy of her hormones. Tara lovingly laughed at her at the time, but now that the tables had turned, Emily thought better of returning the teasing. Not when her wife looked like a polar bear trying to stay afloat on the last piece of ice in the whole Arctic Sea.

"What can I do?" Emily asked.

Tara groaned, her shoulders slumping in helplessness. "Go buy fifty bags of ice and pack me in the tub with it until this stupid heatwave passes?"

Emily tapped her finger on her chin as if to ponder this request. "Well, the ice is going to melt by the time I get it home. You might have to strip down and hop directly into the freezer section at Giant."

Tara's sour expression softened. "Tempting, but I think that'd cause quite a scene."

"True," Emily replied thoughtfully. "The headlines would read 'Deranged FBI Agent Caught Naked Amidst Frozen Vegetables'. I'm sure the bureau would love that."

"Nah, I'd definitely be in the ice cream aisle. At least I could eat my feelings while staying cool."

"Hm, ice cream and you naked," Emily grinned. "All we'd be missing was whipped cream."

Tara laughed and offered her hand, instantly pulling Emily into a hug as soon as she'd accepted the gesture. "I love you."

Emily kissed her softly, while mindfully leaving a couple of inches between their bodies. "I love you too. Now, what do you want for breakfast?"

Tara decided the momentary torture of having her wife pressed against her was worth it as she pulled her into a deeper kiss. A pulse of heat moved through her body, settling between her legs, and sending her into a fever. She kept kissing Emily while backing her into the counter, clawing at her shirt to pull it up and over her head.

This was, admittedly, the most surprising menopausal symptom to-date. While a large portion of people experienced lowered libido during menopause, Tara was on the opposite end of the spectrum. She'd become absolutely insatiable lately. She felt like a teenager again, one kiss or intimate touch from Emily would send Tara into a horny frenzy. The pair had been together for going on eight years, but their sex life had always been excellent. They'd actually become more sexual the longer they'd been together and yet, none of that compared to how much sex they were having ever since Tara hit menopause.

At least once a week, she'd come marching into Emily's office, locking the door and closing the blinds behind her. Emily was more than happy to help her wife get off, but after a stint of extremely close calls the fear of getting caught was too much to handle. They'd agreed to stop hooking up at work from now on, which only meant Tara was on her wife non-stop at home.

It was a Saturday morning, no case, no other engagements, all the time in the world.

Tara ravished Emily with kisses starting at her neck, moving down to her clavicles, then very inch of her bare chest. The need to fuck her far superseding the hot flash still flushing her skin. From the day they met in a New York police station, to their wedding a few years ago, to this moment, Tara had never been able to resit Emily Prentiss.

"Bed," she muttered into hurried kisses. She pulled Emily off the counter, their lips never parting as she started leading her back to the bedroom.

By the time she was pushing Emily onto the mattress, they were both naked. Tara nudged a knee between Emily's thighs, grinding against her clit while they made out. She wasn't surprised for it to be met with slick arousal. She grabbed Emily's waist and guided her hips up and down her thigh, "You like that, baby?"

It was rhetorical, but Emily nodded all the same. "Fuck, you know I do."

They'd barely started, yet sweat was already beaded at Tara's brow. She quickly used the back of her hand to wipe her forehead, trying not to let her dysfunctional temperature regulation ruin the moment. As Emily continued riding her thigh, Tara slipped a hand between her own legs, running her fingertips through her wetness. Ever spot her fingers touched came alight with fire, her cunt felt like it was going to ignite if she kept touching herself. The sensation was so jarring, she jerked her hand away as if she'd physically touched a hot stove.

Emily looked at her wife with pity. "Oh god, is this awful for you?"

"No, no," Tara replied. "It's great..."

"Tara, you're already sweating on me," Emily laughed, as she pushed her wife off of her.

Tara burst into laughter too, plopping onto her back on the mattress next to Emily. They caught their breaths while staring up at the ceiling fan as it gently wobbled with each rotation.

Emily finally rolled onto her side, propping her head up on one hand while they other ghosted up Tara's stomach without actually touching her. "You know, we may not have enough ice to pack the tub....but, we definitely have enough to play with."

Tara grinned and tipped her head in agreement. "Now that could be fun."

Without another word, Emily pressed a kiss to her lips and got up to run back to the kitchen. Barely a minute later, she returned with a cup in hand, ice cubes softly clinking and sliding against the glass. Another cube was already pressed between Emily's lips, she dipped down and traced it over the shape of Tara's mouth, before kissing her deeply to pass the ice off to her.

Tara eagerly sucked on it, enjoying the cool liquid as it slid down her throat. Even just the little bit of water gave some relief to her current discomfort. She moaned in satisfaction and looked to Emily expectantly. "Go ahead, love. Cool me down."

Emily kissed her way down the length of Tara's chest. She took another ice cube in her teeth and teased circles around her nipples until they grew taut. The ice melted down, leaving trickles of liquid rolling down Tara's breasts, until it began to pool in the valley between them. Emily trailed the tip of her tongue through the water, before leaning back up to share it with her wife in a passionate kiss.

Tara tangled both hands in Emily's grey hair, pulling her closer into a fierce kiss. Just like that, the fiery mixture of arousal and heat simmered under her skin again. "Fuck me, Em."

Emily placed sloppy kisses down her torso, flicking an eager tongue here and there as she went. She got comfortable between Tara's thighs and fished another cube from the glass. It was already half-melted, so she wasted no more time, quickly sucking it into her lips she glided it over Tara's clit.

Her hips jerked from the stark contrast of freezing cold and molten heat. It felt absolutely incredible. She spurred Emily on by stroking her fingers through her hair while she lazily traced the ice through Tara's folds. She moaned, already lost in the experience. "That's so fucking good, baby."

The last of the ice turned to water, mixing with Tara's increasing wetness. Emily curled her tongue into her cunt, taking with it the cold sensation. Tara's hand tightened in her wife's hair as she blew gently against her cunt, only elevating the cool feeling.

Emily repeated the cycle with another cube, gently fucking Tara with it until it melted completely against her skin. She'd always been good with her tongue, she could have Tara coming over and over with little else, but the added sensation of the ice truly brought a whole new level to Emily's oral prowess.

Tara writhed underneath her, gasping, moaning, her fingertips digging into any part of Emily she could get a hold on. Within minutes, her hot flash was long forgotten as her cunt ached and throbbed from the cold touch of ice and Emily's skilled mouth.

Emily fucked her tongue deep into her wife, the tip of her nose brushing against Tara's clit with each motion. When Emily ran out of ice, she tipped the remaining water in the glass into her mouth, then sucked on two fingers to cool them before she slipped them into Tara.

"Ohhh, fucccck, right there, yes, yes, yes!" Tara's hips rocked in time with each motion Emily made, until she was gasping through sharp breaths, panting and pleading as Emily finally pushed her over the edge.

Emily fucked her through the orgasm while still using her tongue to lap up the mixture of cum and water soaking her wife's cunt. She replaced her fingers with her tongue, happily humming in delight at the taste, trying to lick up every drop. When she was satisfied with her work, she crawled up the bed on all fours, lowering herself on top of Tara once more to kiss her so she could enjoy the very last bit of cold before it warmed in her mouth.

Tara pulled away with a dazed grin, her freckled nose scrunching up in sheer bliss. "Holy shit, babe."

Emily folded her arms to rest her chin on them while she watched her wife recover underneath her. "How's your hot flash?"

Tara pretended to think for a moment, then in the flash of an eye she'd flipped their positions to pin Emily underneath her. "Ohhhh, I'm sure it'll subside," she rolled off the bed with a twinkle in her eye, "Especially after I refill the glass and return the favour."

[nrilliree]

"Thanks to grrm we had a good faithful adaptation of Fire and Blood with House of the Dragon ! So he is right to preach about crappy adaptations and those who think they can do better than the author and the original story !"

I'm not kidding... I actually saw someone say that. HOTD a FAITHFUL adaptation ?! In addition, this person insinuated that GRRM is in fact subtly criticizing the adaptation of The Rings of Power... I'm hallucinating. Man, it's not all about this crap show. Plus who tells you he doesn't also talk about HOTD in a subtle way ? Who tells you he completely agrees with all the changes ?! Doesn't anyone remember GOT or something ?!

And then even talking about the screenwriters who think they are doing better than the author...

I remind you that the original story deals with misogyny, and that they preferred a discourse on everyone being equally bad. They totally tried to change the entire message of the story !

They modified Alicent thinking that their version would be much more feminist and less misogynistic ! Because apparently the trope of the bad mother-in-law is misogynistic now...

They're adding gratuitous violence that didn't exist in the source material towards female characters who were already experiencing horrible things in Fire and Blood, but apparently that wasn't enough girlboss for them.

They make people commit crimes that are literally impossible compared to Fire and Blood, like Daemon killing his first wife or Rhaenys in episode 9 !?

They also think it's feminism to say that they have female dragons that they voluntarily make smaller than the males when the dragons are basically hermaphroditic ?!

The ages of the characters ?!

The HOTD writers literally butchered their adaptation with ridiculous changes trying to be more feminist. Literally what most people complain about TOO much. I'm sick of people saying this kind of shit. And obviously, generally it's always guys who have this type of speech.

Remove most of the female characters' agency and true personality ? Literally, Rhaenyra is very basic feminine, and now she's the prototype tomboy, which she never was. They wanted to do that ? Well they had Baela !

But strangely, people don't have a problem with Rhaenyra becoming a tomboy, but Galadriel in armor ? Shitty feminist ! Not like this character was called woman man by Tolkien and she was actually a warrior in his texts...

Now Rhaenys doesn't want to be the one to use the dragons in war as quickly as possible, but Daemon is, to make him appear hungry for war and blood. Because women cannot actually want war ! They are naturally soft !

In short, HOTD's bullshit was a good faithful adaptation that made me unblocked. I have the impression that these people live in a parallel reality.

Wait… GRRM's words can be interpreted differently than that he is trying to suggest that HBO sucks at adapting his books and making too many changes, but he can't say it directly because he has contracts and it's about money? Here (in my country) even pop culture websites write about it, lol. That GRRM criticizes changes made to GoT and HotD, and potentially spin-off scenarios. I have to tell the editors that they are completely wrong and an anon on the internet just figured it out…

[incomingalbatross]

Finished my first week (I don't go in on Fridays) of Commute Listening! (Plus a day technically because I did have to go in last Saturday.)

Here's the summary of the undertaking so far...and of just how much car/public transit time I've logged:

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 My beloveds--the only classical music that IS for sure on my faves list, because in the period when I had a CD player in my bedroom and about three CDs, these were two of them. Still not sure how well I could identify them, but I recognized them once they started playing and greatly enjoyed them.

Artifexian podcast ep 1. Interesting! All about worldbuilding. Just far enough removed from my own interests (yes I love fantasy, no I don't enjoy worldbuilding, it took me years to process that) that I can listen as, like, a spectator, but also listening to two people who do love worldbuilding makes me feel more positive about it. Like the energy.

Several Masses by Haydn (St. Cecilia, Mass in B flat, Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin). Beautiful, obviously, but... did not grab me. Might just be that Masses and commuting are not the right combination. Might be my chant-inclined mind going "you're drawing out the words too much." Idk.

Art of Manliness ep 1, about Easy Company. INteresting and informative—a window into a subject I wouldn't have sought out on my own.

Out Alive ep 1. About a skier buried in an avalanche! Again, not something I would have sought out myself, but hearing the skier and the other people involved talk about the impact of a crisis situation and near-death experience, without any polish or dramatization... oof. Really interesting.

Reply All Billed as a "podcast about the internet," the first ep was about a social situation enabled by the internet. Also interesting as a window into someone else's personal experience that I don't think you'd quite get in any other medium than this unpolished interview format. This time about relationships instead of death, though.

In the Wind (album) by Peter, Paul and Mary. Branching aside from classical for some folk, since I was in the headspace for something between podcasts and instrumentals. Good! I recognized several of the songs but definitely not all. They also reminded me of several other country and folk artists I could listen to if I want to keep going down that road, in addition to listening to more of their work.

Vivaldi Concertos for Diverse Instruments GOOD. I loved these! They got stuck in my head afterward! Definitely want to try more Vivaldi. Also reinforcing my theory that any kind of music is good music if it involves violins going wild.

Mozart Violin Concertos 3-5 ALSO very very good. And I think I could hear the cleaner/plainer sound of Mozart as opposed to the baroque I'd just been listening to.

My Writing Sucks podcast ep 1, in which an author lovingly roasts her 14-year-old self's writing. Very fun. Endearing. Kinda makes me want to pull out my oldest, worst writing and approach it from an outside perspective, which I think would be Growth if my fragile ego could actually follow through on that. :P Maybe after a few more episodes of this.

Pints With Aquinas episode 1. This is an introductory episode giving background on Aquinas, as opposed to later episodes which will have more actual theology. Already good, though. Little harder for me to stay focused than some of the more fun ones, but I'll be coming back.

Classics for Kids Short and educational segment about classical music. Definitely told me things I don't know! A little short and a little flat in delivery for my needs, but good stuff.

Stuff You Missed in History Class ep 1. Interesting, but same issue as the above—it was just short. I need to check if episode length varies, and if they're all short I might load up six or so at once to give it a better trial. It was interesting but I couldn't get much flavor from one segment.

In conclusion, this project is definitely a success so far. I've been enjoying my commutes even when there's traffic, and I feel like I'm taking in things that I enjoy and are constructive in some way! It's fun for me. And I have a bunch of podcasts in store for next week that I haven't even touched yet.