#the app itself has been a nightmare!

[nateconnolly]

Onion Headline: Man Who Does Not Know How to Work Discord Invites Strangers to a Book Club on Discord

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Autoenshittification

Forget F1: the only car race that matters now is the race to turn your car into a digital extraction machine, a high-speed inkjet printer on wheels, stealing your private data as it picks your pocket. Your car’s digital infrastructure is a costly, dangerous nightmare — but for automakers in pursuit of postcapitalist utopia, it’s a dream they can’t give up on.

Your car is stuffed full of microchips, a fact the world came to appreciate after the pandemic struck and auto production ground to a halt due to chip shortages. Of course, that wasn’t the whole story: when the pandemic started, the automakers panicked and canceled their chip orders, only to immediately regret that decision and place new orders.

But it was too late: semiconductor production had taken a serious body-blow, and when Big Car placed its new chip orders, it went to the back of a long, slow-moving line. It was a catastrophic bungle: microchips are so integral to car production that a car is basically a computer network on wheels that you stick your fragile human body into and pray.

The car manufacturers got so desperate for chips that they started buying up washing machines for the microchips in them, extracting the chips and discarding the washing machines like some absurdo-dystopian cyberpunk walnut-shelling machine:

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/desperate-times-companies-buy-washing-machines-just-to-rip-out-the-chips-187033.html

These digital systems are a huge problem for the car companies. They are the underlying cause of a precipitous decline in car quality. From touch-based digital door-locks to networked sensors and cameras, every digital system in your car is a source of endless repair nightmares, costly recalls and cybersecurity vulnerabilities:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/quality-new-vehicles-us-declining-more-tech-use-study-shows-2023-06-22/

What’s more, drivers hate all the digital bullshit, from the janky touchscreens to the shitty, wildly insecure apps. Digital systems are drivers’ most significant point of dissatisfaction with the automakers’ products:

https://www.theverge.com/23801545/car-infotainment-customer-satisifaction-survey-jd-power

Even the automakers sorta-kinda admit that this is a problem. Back in 2020 when Massachusetts was having a Right-to-Repair ballot initiative, Big Car ran these unfuckingbelievable scare ads that basically said, “Your car spies on you so comprehensively that giving anyone else access to its systems will let murderers stalk you to your home and kill you:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

But even amid all the complaining about cars getting stuck in the Internet of Shit, there’s still not much discussion of why the car-makers are making their products less attractive, less reliable, less safe, and less resilient by stuffing them full of microchips. Are car execs just the latest generation of rubes who’ve been suckered by Silicon Valley bullshit and convinced that apps are a magic path to profitability?

Nope. Car execs are sophisticated businesspeople, and they’re surfing capitalism’s latest — and last — hot trend: dismantling capitalism itself.

Now, leftists have been predicting the death of capitalism since The Communist Manifesto, but even Marx and Engels warned us not to get too frisky: capitalism, they wrote, is endlessly creative, constantly reinventing itself, re-emerging from each crisis in a new form that is perfectly adapted to the post-crisis reality:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/books/review/a-spectre-haunting-china-mieville.html

But capitalism has finally run out of gas. In his forthcoming book, Techno Feudalism: What Killed Capitalism, Yanis Varoufakis proposes that capitalism has died — but it wasn’t replaced by socialism. Rather, capitalism has given way to feudalism:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451795/technofeudalism-by-varoufakis-yanis/9781847927279

Under capitalism, capital is the prime mover. The people who own and mobilize capital — the capitalists — organize the economy and take the lion’s share of its returns. But it wasn’t always this way: for hundreds of years, European civilization was dominated by rents, not markets.

A “rent” is income that you get from owning something that other people need to produce value. Think of renting out a house you own: not only do you get paid when someone pays you to live there, you also get the benefit of rising property values, which are the result of the work that all the other homeowners, business owners, and residents do to make the neighborhood more valuable.

The first capitalists hated rent. They wanted to replace the “passive income” that landowners got from taxing their serfs’ harvest with active income from enclosing those lands and grazing sheep in order to get wool to feed to the new textile mills. They wanted active income — and lots of it.

Capitalist philosophers railed against rent. The “free market” of Adam Smith wasn’t a market that was free from regulation — it was a market free from rents. The reason Smith railed against monopolists is because he (correctly) understood that once a monopoly emerged, it would become a chokepoint through which a rentier could cream off the profits he considered the capitalist’s due:

https://locusmag.com/2021/03/cory-doctorow-free-markets/

Today, we live in a rentier’s paradise. People don’t aspire to create value — they aspire to capture it. In Survival of the Richest, Doug Rushkoff calls this “going meta”: don’t provide a service, just figure out a way to interpose yourself between the provider and the customer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn

Don’t drive a cab, create Uber and extract value from every driver and rider. Better still: don’t found Uber, invest in Uber options and extract value from the people who invest in Uber. Even better, invest in derivatives of Uber options and extract value from people extracting value from people investing in Uber, who extract value from drivers and riders. Go meta.

This is your brain on the four-hour-work-week, passive income mind-virus. In Techno Feudalism, Varoufakis deftly describes how the new “Cloud Capital” has created a new generation of rentiers, and how they have become the richest, most powerful people in human history.

Shopping at Amazon is like visiting a bustling city center full of stores — but each of those stores’ owners has to pay the majority of every sale to a feudal landlord, Emperor Jeff Bezos, who also decides which goods they can sell and where they must appear on the shelves. Amazon is full of capitalists, but it is not a capitalist enterprise. It’s a feudal one:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

This is the reason that automakers are willing to enshittify their products so comprehensively: they were one of the first industries to decouple rents from profits. Recall that the reason that Big Car needed billions in bailouts in 2008 is that they’d reinvented themselves as loan-sharks who incidentally made cars, lending money to car-buyers and then “securitizing” the loans so they could be traded in the capital markets.

Even though this strategy brought the car companies to the brink of ruin, it paid off in the long run. The car makers got billions in public money, paid their execs massive bonuses, gave billions to shareholders in buybacks and dividends, smashed their unions, fucked their pensioned workers, and shipped jobs anywhere they could pollute and murder their workforce with impunity.

Car companies are on the forefront of postcapitalism, and they understand that digital is the key to rent-extraction. Remember when BMW announced that it was going to rent you the seatwarmer in your own fucking car?

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/02/big-river/#beemers

Not to be outdone, Mercedes announced that they were going to rent you your car’s accelerator pedal, charging an extra $1200/year to unlock a fully functional acceleration curve:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/23/23474969/mercedes-car-subscription-faster-acceleration-feature-price

This is the urinary tract infection business model: without digitization, all your car’s value flowed in a healthy stream. But once the car-makers add semiconductors, each one of those features comes out in a painful, burning dribble, with every button on that fakakta touchscreen wired directly into your credit-card.

But it’s just for starters. Computers are malleable. The only computer we know how to make is the Turing Complete Von Neumann Machine, which can run every program we know how to write. Once they add networked computers to your car, the Car Lords can endlessly twiddle the knobs on the back end, finding new ways to extract value from you:

https://doctorow.medium.com/twiddler-1b5c9690cce6

That means that your car can track your every movement, and sell your location data to anyone and everyone, from marketers to bounty-hunters looking to collect fees for tracking down people who travel out of state for abortions to cops to foreign spies:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7enex/tool-shows-if-car-selling-data-privacy4cars-vehicle-privacy-report

Digitization supercharges financialization. It lets car-makers offer subprime auto-loans to desperate, poor people and then killswitch their cars if they miss a payment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U2eDJnwz_s

Subprime lending for cars would be a terrible business without computers, but digitization makes it a great source of feudal rents. Car dealers can originate loans to people with teaser rates that quickly blow up into payments the dealer knows their customer can’t afford. Then they repo the car and sell it to another desperate person, and another, and another:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/27/boricua/#looking-for-the-joke-with-a-microscope

Digitization also opens up more exotic options. Some subprime cars have secondary control systems wired into their entertainment system: miss a payment and your car radio flips to full volume and bellows an unstoppable, unmutable stream of threats. Tesla does one better: your car will lock and immobilize itself, then blare its horn and back out of its parking spot when the repo man arrives:

https://tiremeetsroad.com/2021/03/18/tesla-allegedly-remotely-unlocks-model-3-owners-car-uses-smart-summon-to-help-repo-agent/

Digital feudalism hasn’t stopped innovating — it’s just stopped innovating good things. The digital device is an endless source of sadistic novelties, like the cellphones that disable your most-used app the first day you’re late on a payment, then work their way down the other apps you rely on for every day you’re late:

https://restofworld.org/2021/loans-that-hijack-your-phone-are-coming-to-india/

Usurers have always relied on this kind of imaginative intimidation. The loan-shark’s arm-breaker knows you’re never going to get off the hook; his goal is in intimidating you into paying his boss first, liquidating your house and your kid’s college fund and your wedding ring before you default and he throws you off a building.

Thanks to the malleability of computerized systems, digital arm-breakers have an endless array of options they can deploy to motivate you into paying them first, no matter what it costs you:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/02/innovation-unlocks-markets/#digital-arm-breakers

Car-makers are trailblazers in imaginative rent-extraction. Take VIN-locking: this is the practice of adding cheap microchips to engine components that communicate with the car’s overall network. After a new part is installed in your car, your car’s computer does a complex cryptographic handshake with the part that requires an unlock code provided by an authorized technician. If the code isn’t entered, the car refuses to use that part.

VIN-locking has exploded in popularity. It’s in your iPhone, preventing you from using refurb or third-party replacement parts:

https://doctorow.medium.com/apples-cement-overshoes-329856288d13

It’s in fuckin’ ventilators, which was a nightmare during lockdown as hospital techs nursed their precious ventilators along by swapping parts from dead systems into serviceable ones:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3azv9b/why-repair-techs-are-hacking-ventilators-with-diy-dongles-from-poland

And of course, it’s in tractors, along with other forms of remote killswitch. Remember that feelgood story about John Deere bricking the looted Ukrainian tractors whose snitch-chips showed they’d been relocated to Russia?

https://doctorow.medium.com/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors-bc93f471b9c8

That wasn’t a happy story — it was a cautionary tale. After all, John Deere now controls the majority of the world’s agricultural future, and they’ve boobytrapped those ubiquitous tractors with killswitches that can be activated by anyone who hacks, takes over, or suborns Deere or its dealerships.

Control over repair isn’t limited to gouging customers on parts and service. When a company gets to decide whether your device can be fixed, it can fuck you over in all kinds of ways. Back in 2019, Tim Apple told his shareholders to expect lower revenues because people were opting to fix their phones rather than replace them:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/01/letter-from-tim-cook-to-apple-investors/

By usurping your right to decide who fixes your phone, Apple gets to decide whether you can fix it, or whether you must replace it. Problem solved — and not just for Apple, but for car makers, tractor makers, ventilator makers and more. Apple leads on this, even ahead of Big Car, pioneering a “recycling” program that sees trade-in phones shredded so they can’t possibly be diverted from an e-waste dump and mined for parts:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/yp73jw/apple-recycling-iphones-macbooks

John Deere isn’t sleeping on this. They’ve come up with a valuable treasure they extract when they win the Right-to-Repair: Deere singles out farmers who complain about its policies and refuses to repair their tractors, stranding them with six-figure, two-ton paperweight:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/31/dealers-choice/#be-a-shame-if-something-were-to-happen-to-it

The repair wars are just a skirmish in a vast, invisible fight that’s been waged for decades: the War On General-Purpose Computing, where tech companies use the law to make it illegal for you to reconfigure your devices so they serve you, rather than their shareholders:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/01/10/lockdown-the-coming-war-on-general-purpose-computing/

The force behind this army is vast and grows larger every day. General purpose computers are antithetical to technofeudalism — all the rents extracted by technofeudalists would go away if others (tinkereres, co-ops, even capitalists!) were allowed to reconfigure our devices so they serve us.

You’ve probably noticed the skirmishes with inkjet printer makers, who can only force you to buy their ink at 20,000% markups if they can stop you from deciding how your printer is configured:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/07/inky-wretches/#epson-salty But we’re also fighting against insulin pump makers, who want to turn people with diabetes into walking inkjet printers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/10/loopers/#hp-ification

And companies that make powered wheelchairs:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/08/chair-ish/#r2r

These companies start with people who have the least agency and social power and wreck their lives, then work their way up the privilege gradient, coming for everyone else. It’s called the “shitty technology adoption curve”:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/21/great-taylors-ghost/#solidarity-or-bust

Technofeudalism is the public-private-partnership from hell, emerging from a combination of state and private action. On the one hand, bailing out bankers and big business (rather than workers) after the 2008 crash and the covid lockdown decoupled income from profits. Companies spent billions more than they earned were still wildly profitable, thanks to those public funds.

But there’s also a policy dimension here. Some of those rentiers’ billions were mobilized to both deconstruct antitrust law (allowing bigger and bigger companies and cartels) and to expand “IP” law, turning “IP” into a toolsuite for controlling the conduct of a firm’s competitors, critics and customers:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

IP is key to understanding the rise of technofeudalism. The same malleability that allows companies to “twiddle” the knobs on their services and keep us on the hook as they reel us in would hypothetically allow us to countertwiddle, seizing the means of computation:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

The thing that stands between you and an alternative app store, an interoperable social media network that you can escape to while continuing to message the friends you left behind, or a car that anyone can fix or unlock features for is IP, not technology. Under capitalism, that technology would already exist, because capitalists have no loyalty to one another and view each other’s margins as their own opportunities.

But under technofeudalism, control comes from rents (owning things), not profits (selling things). The capitalist who wants to participate in your iPhone’s “ecosystem” has to make apps and submit them to Apple, along with 30% of their lifetime revenues — they don’t get to sell you jailbreaking kit that lets you choose their app store.

Rent-seeking technology has a holy grail: control over “ring zero” — the ability to compel you to configure your computer to a feudalist’s specifications, and to verify that you haven’t altered your computer after it came into your possession:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/30/ring-minus-one/#drm-political-economy

For more than two decades, various would-be feudal lords and their court sorcerers have been pitching ways of doing this, of varying degrees of outlandishness.

At core, here’s what they envision: inside your computer, they will nest another computer, one that is designed to run a very simple set of programs, none of which can be altered once it leaves the factory. This computer — either a whole separate chip called a “Trusted Platform Module” or a region of your main processor called a secure enclave — can tally observations about your computer: which operating system, modules and programs it’s running.

Then it can cryptographically “sign” these observations, proving that they were made by a secure chip and not by something you could have modified. Then you can send this signed “attestation” to someone else, who can use it to determine how your computer is configured and thus whether to trust it. This is called “remote attestation.”

There are some cool things you can do with remote attestation: for example, two strangers playing a networked video game together can use attestations to make sure neither is running any cheat modules. Or you could require your cloud computing provider to use attestations that they aren’t stealing your data from the server you’re renting. Or if you suspect that your computer has been infected with malware, you can connect to someone else and send them an attestation that they can use to figure out whether you should trust it.

Today, there’s a cool remote attestation technology called “PrivacyPass” that replaces CAPTCHAs by having you prove to your own device that you are a human. When a server wants to make sure you’re a person, it sends a random number to your device, which signs that number along with its promise that it is acting on behalf of a human being, and sends it back. CAPTCHAs are all kinds of bad — bad for accessibility and privacy — and this is really great.

But the billions that have been thrown at remote attestation over the decades is only incidentally about solving CAPTCHAs or verifying your cloud server. The holy grail here is being able to make sure that you’re not running an ad-blocker. It’s being able to remotely verify that you haven’t disabled the bossware your employer requires. It’s the power to block someone from opening an Office365 doc with LibreOffice. It’s your boss’s ability to ensure that you haven’t modified your messaging client to disable disappearing messages before he sends you an auto-destructing memo ordering you to break the law.

And there’s a new remote attestation technology making the rounds: Google’s Web Environment Integrity, which will leverage Google’s dominance over browsers to allow websites to block users who run ad-blockers:

https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity

There’s plenty else WEI can do (it would make detecting ad-fraud much easier), but for every legitimate use, there are a hundred ways this could be abused. It’s a technology purpose-built to allow rent extraction by stripping us of our right to technological self-determination.

Releasing a technology like this into a world where companies are willing to make their products less reliable, less attractive, less safe and less resilient in pursuit of rents is incredibly reckless and shortsighted. You want unauthorized bread? This is how you get Unauthorized Bread:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/amp/

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

[Image ID: The interior of a luxury car. There is a dagger protruding from the steering wheel. The entertainment console has been replaced by the text 'You wouldn't download a car,' in MPAA scare-ad font. Outside of the windscreen looms the Matrix waterfall effect. Visible in the rear- and side-view mirror is the driver: the figure from Munch's 'Scream.' The screen behind the steering-wheel has been replaced by the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.']

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[murfeelee]

Murf's Top 50 Mods - Part 3 (2020 - 2023 Edition)

I made a Top 50 list (Pt 1 and Pt2) back in 2016, talking about mods that I've used & love. But with all the goated content that the amazing TS3 community continues to churn out, I NEEDED to update my list! This one in no way diminishes or negates the other mods I've already listed--like, I shouldn't have to sit here and explain how NRAAS continues to carry TS3 on its freaking shoulders, ok. This is just MORE mods, the Top 50 most RECENT ones I've tried out since, like, quarantine.

I am a VERY niche simmer--I love fantasy gameplay, so my fave mods are the ones that not only offer general quality of life improvements, but also add new abilities and interactive objects inspired by different cultures, time periods, or genres. So y'all already KNOW which ones have earned my top spots. They're not based on which mods are "better," just which ones I personally have been using the most.

1: Smooth Patch, LazyDuchess

I've already gushed about this mod, but oh well. Like--I use an EFFTON of CC. My Live Mode gameplay itself doesn't tend to lag so much as my game's slow to LOAD, slow to save, CAS is a nightmare, I can do my taxes waiting for the Misc Decor section to open, etc etc. But the Smooth Patch loads everything so much quicker for me! 😭

One thing is that on the EA App version (curse you, EA) the Master Controller package didn't work on my end, so I took it out, but everything else has been great!

2: Search Mod, LazyDuchess

Speaking of the Misc Decor section -- HOW LONG did we ask EA for a Search function y'all? Only to be ignored. Then the second TS4 is released, it ain't got a effing thing in it, but it's got a Search function??? 🤔 ISTG it's like the simgurus were told to take all of the TS3 community's best suggestions, and poach them for TS4 (like vampire coffins--NO I'm not over it!). WHY do modders have to do your frikkin job for you, EA?! I call EA lazy all the time cuz EA you suck, so it's the most ironic thing ever that LazyDuchess is out here KILLING IT.

My ONLY "complaint" about the Search mod is the position of the icon. I use A LOT of Collection Files, and I noticed that the Search icon actually covers the Delete button when in the Collection viewer. So I can't delete items in collections with the Search icon in the way.

But this is a MINOR nitpick--I almost never delete items, it's just something I noticed is all.

3 - 8: OCCULT MODS: EVERYTHING by @puddingface1902

Y'all already know the Enhanced Witches mod is my favorite mod ever made. But PF1902 also made cool enhancements to the Fairies, Genies, Vampires, Werewolves, and Mermaids too! My sims are usually Nraas hybrids (e.g.: Sakura is a faery, witch & plantsim; Magnus Bane is a witch & genie; etc.), so it's FANTASTIC having so many new abilities for my magical occults. 😍

9 - 11: OCCULT MODS by xantak22

Even more occult mods at MTS are for enhanced Plantsims, Ghosts, and Mummies! I was dying for more Plantsim abilities, omg, they're my 3rd fave occult after Witches & Fae.

12: Sim Control Tools by Knight

Sooooo many quality of life mods have come out! ^0^

I've been ABUSING the Teleport To Me function, to quickly get sims off of lots & where I need them to be. It also lets sims unlock more Social/Romantic interactions. (Now all we need is a way to interact with sims from EA's useless thumbnails.)

13 - 18: @anitmb's mods

There are SOOOO many--most I've yet to even try. But so far newer ones I've been using are the Deck of Cards (FINALLY something other than EA's bulky AF poker table!), Farm Mod (look at all these CHICKENS!), and Hunting mod so my 8000 archer sims can actually hunt! (Ofc I've also used the Woodcutter and Anvil mods in my older gameplay posts, too.) And @mspoodle1's edit of the Cup of Tea mod is so pretty.

19: @mspoodle1's Poker table

Another excellent cards mod is this medieval style poker table I use a lot now, too.

20: @omedapixel's Wildflowers DR

I like EA's default wildflowers from SSNS, but Omeda's are just sooooo much nicer. (I haven't gotten around to trying out their Harvestable Plant DR yet.)

21: Swordfighting mod by CyrusBanefort

En garde! This mod is so freaking epic!

One thing I've noticed is that the game lags while it waits for the mod to boot up (a message has to first pop up saying it's running when you first launch your saves). But other than that this mod is excellent.

22 - 24: Yoga rugs

I've long been using the yoga rugs by Kitabalibar and the edited one from @mspoodle1. But now there's the newest one by @twinsimming, with brand new animations & features. The more the merrier I say, LOL. What's especially neat is the kids wobbling around as they try to do yoga! :3

25 - 30: TheSweetSimmer's mods--so cute! :3

Omg so frikkin many, I can't even catch up! The interactions are so freaking precious, like from the More Toddler Interactions (cuddle, look at, etc) & Biggest Little Mod (hug legs), I've never had so much fun playing with kids! <3 And I LOVE that they can Catch Butterflies and Pick Flowers--you'd think plantsim children would be able to do this by default, EA! Honestly, just grab everything by TSS, your kid sims will thank you!

31 - 33: @spheresims Medieval/Nature/Tribal mods

Y'all know I'm crazy about the Functional Fireplaces mod (the cauldrons, baby! 😈), but the One with Nature and Wildlife Hunting mods are great too, perfectly complimenting the off-the-grid realness.

34: @olomayasims/Cmomoney Smoking Mod Overhaul

The original smoking mod was on my first Top 50 list, so it's awesome seeing it get new upgrades, interactions & animations.

I've never smoked IRL, but sooooo many of my sims just puff-puff away; I'm such an enabler. U_U Now all we need is cigars and pipes!

35 - 38: Callia-Evergreen/Camkitty's CAS CC for animal hybrids at MTS

Not a "mod" per se, but whatever--my list my rules! I love ALL of their CC, but I get SO MUCH use out of animal-themed CC like the digitigrade sliders, wolf feet, lizard tails, and fae wings. Do check them out if you like to play with horror and monster-sims!

39: @greenplumbboblover's Sheep

EASILY one of the most incredible mods I've ever seen. Like....HOW? (Once @omedapixel's Goats are done I'm gonna start screaming someone do llamas pleeeeeaaaaase!!!)

40: Arsil's musical instruments mod

I used the sax most recently in my IWTV gameplay, and it was excellent, perfect for the NOLA vibes! However, although I use the flute A LOT more (for my Untamed gameplay--it's been such a GODSEND!), I really wish the hands were positioned better, preferably using the poses from Chisims' flute poseset. (But I don't eff with poses/animations, otherwise I'd do it myself. U_U) Ah well, it's still one of my fave mods though.

41 - 42: Flower Arranging mod by zoe22 + @mspoodle1's Florist Collection

Guys, I've been wanting this mod since FOREVER! ^0^ (I swear, the best thing about TS4 is all the 4t3 conversions, LMAO!) I just wish Teens could Dabble and use it, too--all they can do is stock the table.

43: Just Sit/Nap Anywhere by FloTheory

Sometimes you just want sims to fall asleep anywhere, DANG, EA!

44: @sweetdevil-sims' Toddler Food DR

Cuz EA's food is UUUUUUUUGLY~! I kept forgetting to install it, only to be rudely reminded every time I had to look at my toddler sims eating MUD.

45 - 46: @mspoodle1's mail pen quill DR and @omedapixel's pencil quill DR

I looooove quill pens IRL (ballpoint pens, not the fountain pens--I'm way too messy), so having mods that let my sims use them too is 👌

47: Fireflies Enhanced! by Canibal_MLO

I love anything that enhances the wildlife and collectibles/harvestables to be more dynamic and interactive. And I was JUST about to do a firefly catching scene for my IWTV insp. gameplay, so this came right on time! The falling leaves effect is delightful, but I kinda wish it was falling flower petals instead, cuz ofc I do. 🌸

48: Unicorn Aurora DR by Canibal_MLO

GORGEOUS. This mod replaces the unicorn mist with northern lights, like.... I love the genius ideas simmers have.

49: Custom Plumbbob Color tool by CrossTheMersey

What a neat idea! Although the default Maxis colors are ingrained in my psyche, with the iconic green plumbbob, as soon as I saw this mod I knew I wanted to at least try something different and play around with it.

50: @aa6x7's Teru Teru Bozu + other edits [Honorable Mention]

I rave about Cmomoney's Time/Weather Mod all the time, I use it constantly. AA6x7's Teru Teru Bozu (Japanese "Sunshine Monk" charms) is kinda like a simpler version of it, as it just resets bad weather back to Sunny. But it's such a cute idea and perfect for my gameplay. Plus, AA6x7 makes all kinds of neat edits/mods to EA's bulky AF meshes, so if you haven't checked them out already, DO!

And that's all the mods I've managed to try out recently!

I don't have anywhere near the kind of free time that I used to, so my simming has been put on the backburner and I've missed all kinds of cool and exciting releases. But trust: I am taking note, so that I know what to try once I have time.

All my deepest & sincerest gratitude & love to the entire sims community, for keeping The Sims 3 going--this year was the 14th anniversary! Here's to 14 more! 🥳 Happy Simming!

[starsologyy]

𐙚˙✧˖° 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐘 𝐍 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐘. ༘ ⋆｡ ˚ AN ONESHOT ft. MIYA OSAMU.

synopsis ─ during your struggle in solving a math problem, you're stressed enough to contact miya osamu for some help. when he comes over, you find out he just might have bought over some curry.

clever as one may possibly be amidst land that itself has seen varieties of intelligences and theories that date back to a singular chance in space, it’s rare to be true that you surpass the greatest of those who have or currently lived on it. on this planet where they were able to formulate their outlandish belief because a simple explosion of a vermillion star amongst the million alike has kept expanding through within this impossibly finite universe and gave them what they required. it would be extremely arrogant to say you shine brighter than their legacies.

but you’re not saying that, no. of course not. because even with the hand drilled (done horrendously by your parents) onyx frames laminated papers glued to the painted walls and other declarations of academic merit, you find yourself stuck on a math problem that photomath can’t even seem to recognize. albert einstein could do this in his sleep. apparently he was studying it at twelve, and you at eighteen can’t even get past the first lesson with the help of every resource printed on the internet. 

for hours on end, the scrabble of your 0.7 lead in your clear plastic muji pencil (that’s supposed to inspire your supposed intelligence) is already leaving dents into a paper that not even a white block eraser could possibly get rid of.  your vein randomly strengthens and appears out of your forehead through the thin skin of the overly priced honeydew facial mask, while your calloused fingertips have to feel the dent of the heavy pencil at this point of the silent night where you thought you would have been resting by now. a meal and a thirty minute nap hasn’t helped you solve it somehow, and it doesn’t help you have five exams the next day.

the very bags that drag beneath your eye are ingrained in the flushed flesh you possess, for how they so delicately hang on your face’s incomparably stable bone structure like these bags have used their claws beforehand to claim some rightful place. you know they aren’t going to magically disappear with concealer tomorrow unfortunately. their appearance has caused you to venture and wind into a rather dark path under this dim moonlight, which continues to cradle the anguished clicks of your very tongue with a soothing quietness.

and it’s all because you’re so desperate you glance at your phone to check the people on the classroom app possibly there. before you’re about to press this one person’s tiny little message icon, your  sharp fingertips pinch the fat of your thigh to see if you now have a nightmare. you don’t wake up. unfortunately. 

you sigh to yourself. it’s miya osamu, a name which lingers to be typed on the digital keyboard and at the tip of your tongue similar to a mint you have failed to savor out of human impulsivity. 

you don’t exactly admire how the corners of his blushed lips turn into a shit eating grin when you ask him for help in nutri sci. it’s not even great help, honestly.  maybe because you focused on his hands glide over to yours and grab your pencil so easily to always find an error in your procedure of a delicious pastry up for the teacher’s approval more than actually listening to what he says. when he’s done, he just gives you a knowing look before sliding it back and heading back to whatever he was doing at the moment. you always had hoped he didn’t notice you spacing out at the sight of his forearms. especially now. 

you find yourself hopeless for even texting this man, and expecting a response. but he’s also in your math class, and maybe because how good he is at somewhat approximating measurements without a look at the cup, it could mean he’s also useful in calculus. it takes your absolute strength to type, and you pray he doesn’t question who you are. you had to ask for his number for a group project once, and you worry perhaps he has forgotten your number entirely by now. 

“r u awake?”

simple text, nothing should go wrong. 

but a minute goes, and you’re about to call it quits for the night. he’s already sleeping probably. your eyes shut in a mere exhaustion, one familiar to nights where you prolong the fruit of relaxation in exchange for a stupid 100 or check mark on an assignment. 

“yeah. what’s up?” 

you sit up, racing for your phone before staring at the message. you’re grinning, and you don’t know why this is, but it’s oddly getting you quite ecstatic. it’s the idea of being able to get sleep finally that’s driving you so insane.  

but you’ll play it cool. you’re always cool right?

“i need help. on problem 21, can you tell me what you did? o_o” you text. the emoji looks cute you must say.

three minutes go by. you worry he’s suddenly asleep now. 

“nah. it’s not fair for me to just send you the answer.” he responds. “i kinda worked hard…”

you almost bite the thickness of your pale nails off like a beaver to use those jagged ends in slightly peeling your mask for some sort of relief at this anxious mess. 

“but, how about if i come over and help?” osamu texts a moment later. “keke ;)”

you forget he’s the twin of a guy who does the same exact thing over texting. 

“and i know it’s late, but my ma made some good curry and i can bring it over. unless your parents would be mad or sum idk” he adds, and your heart almost rips from the restraint of the very veins in your body from the adrenaline that makes it race at the words he so charmingly types. 

“sounds good?”

“ofc.” 

your feet plant themselves at the last step of the creaking staircase currently. the clamminess somehow is able to hold your phone tight though, and you suspect it’s out of fear that you would have to pay for a new one that would cost about a grand if you crack it. 

a) your parents would behead you.

b) miya osamu would get the weird pleasure to brag that he had a girl so “wet”, she broke an expensive phone over him. 

with either one undesirable to say the very least, you now decide to sit on that same step. in this uncomfortable silence, you now feel a bead of sweat make a slow plop on your complexion. to make yourself presentable, you first wipe that one drop of sweat, but then you overly shake at the thought he may judge you in this moment.

and if miya osamu judges you, how will you continue to exist? should you even continue to exist? (as dramatic that may sound to many). 

but it too brings the fruition of a series of questions well warranted from which friends will message when you eventually gush to them about the miya osamu being oh so angelic to have blessed your house with his very presence. perhaps it would call the notion of concern in the heavens if you mention it’s ten pm and you had been inspired to hide him from the eyes of your parents. it creates perceptions that you’re hiding him as an illicit lover, and not a woman who struggles in math class. 

for your sake of comfort though, he’s not one to be sociable, so you don’t really notice him out of classes you share much, nor do you judge him for that. assumptions of impermissible love may (relaxingly) rest in a coffin if he’s samu to everybody else but simply miya to you in that gym class you also share. 

but he’s also the nicest to you when he gives you the ball to try something out in a volleyball game in your rather boring gym class. maybe you’re not the best, but you don’t hear a single groan of complaint from him. you call out miya so airily when your spike just tips before hitting over the net, and you often notice him just stifling a laugh before helping you. he usually ditches some water break to do so. perhaps he just gets tired and feels bad that you often don’t have a ball to play with.

one day you guys can play a game at the gym, if he gets along with you tonight. 

plus, no matter how you twist this unconventional recipe for disaster, he’s not the worst guy. and he’s not the worst eye candy either. 

you should know the best out of everybody how attractive osamu is since you stare at him too often when your nutri sci teacher is about to talk you into hearing a lullaby with a burning hot stove in front of you. his eyes have a lack of hue which match the metal bowls in your shared cooking class. you stare at them often when he doesn’t realize, and you doodle his “horribly” structured face in your assigned recipe book. sometimes you draw the pupils in swirls from how the milky way reflects in them in real life instead of actually also listening to how much sugar you add in those cookies may give someone diabetes. bad habit of course. 

now that you think about it, now you want a milky way chocolate bar. oops.

his muscles are great too. especially the forearms, when you watch the stretch randomly or use it to carry things out of the oven that may break down at any moment. 

you’re about to go on another worry rampage but you hear the door knock. you falsify reality where you were simply upstairs doing work while waiting because to admit you were waiting like a fool at the stairs would cause you to faint if he ever found out, and you “calmly” open the door.

“hey.” he grins, and you have a small smile already. there’s a huge aluminum party tray in his hands, steaming.  

“hi.”

you almost stare for too long, a stupid smile on your face as you slightly sway back and forth accidentally. 

“earth to [y/n]? going to let me in? please? the curry is burning my hands.” he chuckles after a moment, and you quickly nod, “oh shit yeah—” you blurt as you let him follow up to your (now) clean room to set the curry down on your dresser next to your haphazardly piled makeup bag. “sorry!!” you add. 

“you can sit anywhere.” you chuckle nervously, in which he nods in response, sitting on your bed which is beside the desk where the homework is. “thanks for the curry by the way.”  you murmur, finding him another pencil after you knew you couldn��t stare at him stretching at the moment unless you wanted him to catch you for being some weirdo. 

“no problem.” osamu hummed, looking over the problem since it was easy to reach. “this one was weird, but i can explain it. we should eat though. you can’t think on an empty stomach,” he starts, his stomach rumbling to interrupt him. it makes you laugh admittedly. “and I can’t explain on an empty stomach.” he groans, “i got home from practice too late to eat.”

“i can get us plates and some spoons—” “forget plates, i ain’t going to want to clean it anyways. spoons will do good.” you chuckle in response, and you run back down to get the spoons mentioned. 

when you’re back, he opens the aluminum foil his mom tightly wrapped like she’s holding the secrets of her grandma’s recipe, and then gladfully takes the metal spoon from you. your eyes glance to find a seat, or to wonder if you must run back down to drag some chair up here, but he solves your issues by patting the open spot next to him on the bed. a part of your neck tilts in confusion. 

me?

sitting next to you? 

“it’s not that serious.” he answers as if he just read your mind. “just sit next to me.” he shrugs, offering you a soda he seems to have remembered at the moment after he had just rummaged through his bag for it. you almost malfunction, but you listen and enjoy the bubbling fizz on your delicate tongue. 

osamu takes a bite of the thick and silky brown curry accompanied with the soft white bed of rice, making sure to get a golden potato or two in his bite. you’re a little hesitant to reach over, but he moves over on the bed as he makes sure you’re able to also get a bite.

“is it good?” you take a big bite of the curry carrot, and he n nods. “obviously. my ma makes the best curry. i wouldn’t embarrass myself by giving a pretty girl some shit food.  I gotta take the recipe from her one day if you like it.” he grins, and your face feels like he had roasted it instead of the curry powder in the roux. 

was that a slip up? or is he that charismatic behind the closed doors and the ball which often blocks a majority of his face when he spikes?  

“she really does make the best curry,” you muffle with another five bites in your mouth, and he laughs as he does so with another six bites. you figure to let yourself go, so in this cramped vicinity of the warmth of which your bodies are only a inch apart,  you’re starting to not feel as nervous anymore to where you forget that he can see every imperfection on your face, or how you’re gobbling this curry like it’s no tomorrow. he doesn’t seem to complain that his hand accidentally touches yours when he tries to relax while he chews.

soon you’re both finished with a rim of curry around your lips, you both stifle laughter at the sloppiness of it all  as you grab a paper napkin to clean it off. a comfortable silence occurs for a minute or so as you guys steal glances at each other

you never thought his laugh would be so loud, nor do he think yours would just be so bright. 

“sooo, you going to help?” you whistle as you look away, and he nods. he looks at your paper again, glancing over at you. “your equation didn’t work in the first place because you said 10 + 11 = 22.” he laughs, and you almost screech as you grab the paper back. no fucking way you made that mistake!

“but since i’m here, i guess i can also try to explain why ten plus eleven doesn’t equal twenty two. you know, since i’m so amazing or whatever.” osamu hums, planting his head on your cherry printed pillows, that stormy cloud hue of his head full of messy hair, a rather pretty one to accompany the vibrancy of the crimson of the fruit on your sheets. you can’t help but hold your face away from his cocky and rather lazy grin, instead staring at how your feet shift back and forth to stimulate a dash away from this moment. “shut up miya. you’re so so annoying.” you huff.

“really? like i’m the one who contacts random classmates for math help at nine pm. alright, whatever you say. you got that.” he chuckles and you instinctively turn to swat his chest, accidentally brushing your fingertips along the ridges of his abs. you instantly retract your hands back, but he’s laughing now at how flustered you seem to be. “and i ain’t the one either to be all up on my random, poor classmates.”

“then just leave.” you whine, getting up from your bed as you plan to go into the bathroom to screech. “but it isn’t that deep.” he says casually. “we can hang out. just call me samu though.” osamu hums. 

you raise a brow. “i thought you would want me to call you miya, since i don’t really know you all that well.”

“well, i don’t wanna be confused with my annoying twin brother. so you’re good. plus, i like it when you say it.” you scrunch your face at that sly little flirt of his, and he laughs once more. 

“did i not tell you  miss chang won’t be here tomorrow?” he adds, and your head tilts one more. “maybe we can just not worry about your homework and just plan to do something tomorrow—”

“…no? you didn’t tell me anything.”

“oh. oops. guess i didn’t tell you.”

“I’m really debating on going out with you then. you didn’t think it was smart to tell me i had an extra day to worry about this homework before you came over?” you grunt, close to swatting his head and dragging him by the foot since he plasters a nervous smile.

“please?” he mockingly pouts.

“fine.” you roll your eyes. 

he grins. “so, you wanna go to a curry shop tomorrow?”

[writingforatwistedworld]

Self-aware au

I do not take any responsibility for you reading this no matter which age group you are from!

WARNINGS: Yandere themes, obsession, unhealthy mindset, possessiveness, spoiler for the Masquerade event (obviously)

Voicelines about you, the Overseer

Cheering to yourself you looked at the screen, confirming that you just purchased the new voicelines that you were only able to purchase during this event. To say that this event was stressful was an understatement. Heck, even the app seemed like it wanted to prevent you from earning all the materials and exchanging them for the lines of text, the App crashing and freezing whenever there was the slightest inconvenience. It was also very different from what you were used to in this game. Usually it was always light content and a few sprinkles of Angst for entertainment but this time it was like someone took the game and decided to turn it into something that could only be described with “nightmare fuel if real”. With the usual content creators of the game being unusually quiet, if not to say absolutely silent, about it there were no guides to look up, no one seemingly caring to explore the new lore presented. Tapping the screen you finally accessed the voicelines, curious about what they had to say about the individual which was at the center of said event, the Overseer

What is your opinion of the Overseer?

“There has never in history been an individual, no, simply a being so just and equal as them. One could say that they might be justice itself. Now, we are more than just aware that of course such can not be the truth. When the great calamity of blooming fire happened they were making judgments about the situation and unjust actions of the people resorting out of that also based on morale. If they were justice itself they would have purely gone the path of logic. However, like the sound of the Bell of Salvation their judgment was clear and of pure heart, understanding the resulting pain of the people, guiding the judge into the right direction. Although I am not able to understand their approval of magic. But this also only shows as well that they are indeed a kind individual.”

The view of your homeland, what is your opinion on that?

“Our view of the Overseer is already one that differences in many ways, depending on the person you ask. However, we are all able I agree that they are an advocate for justice. True justice unlike that judge that was topic of many discussions due to him accepting, well how to say this... “donations”. A stain like this upon our beautiful city like that is something everyone regrets and despises. Thus I can agree on the statement that they are indeed very deeply connected to our justice system but I would go even further with this. I would even dare to say that they are the reason why we can live in such a mostly upright and kind world like our own. But how dare those heathens of Sunset Savannah to say that they are nothing more than just a representative of equality? They are much more, they are the reason why freedom even exists!”

What would you do if you ever met them?

“That is a question I am not able to give you a definitive answer upon. All I can say with certainty is that I would most likely not be able to treat them with anything below respect. I might even make them uncomfortable... Pardon me for trailing off. But simply meeting them is an honor too great for my meek and unworthy, stained self. As I said, magic is something that is not certainly good and like a stain that needs certain treatment for it finally be eradicated. I myself am such a stain, or at least stained by it. Perfect of Ramshackle, due to you being pure unlike me I will entrust you with this secret: I highly doubt that someone like the Overseer would like someone like me but what do I expect, being someone like myself? A stain, a... parasite like me is not worth it. And yet I can not stop myself from dreaming that their bright light may reach me in the darkness. Them having the kindness and patience to look upon me as they do with those that deserve such. But I doubt I would be able to share their kindness ever again... how despicable of me...”

[sweetbbyshion]

brokenhearted (chapter 3)

-> Touya Todoroki (Dabi) x fem!reader

summary: "How can I hit rewind so I could find a single reason why you would leave with no goodbye"

Touya walked into your life with no warning and settled himself in your heart. But how do you expect to build a relationship based on lies and betrayals?

warnings: major character death, mentions of sex, angst, no happy ending

masterlist -> previous chapter

networks: @eveningatthemoviesnetwork @love-and-fiction

You don't know exactly when Touya stops showing up at your doorstep. It's gradually, you think. First, he only shows up whenever he needed a good fuck - a way to let out some steam. Everything is too fast. Most times, you don't even get your clothes off before Touya is pushing you against any surface to fuck you; then, he starts spending less and less time with you - completely ignoring aftercare or anything related to your well-being in general. The hero leaves before you catch your breath. On those days, you just lay in bed crying with the painful bruises to remind you that none of this is just a nightmare; lastly, you simply stop seeing him.

You held onto the hope that Touya was just too busy but days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months and, when you realize, it has been 159 days since you last saw him. You spend sleepless nights figuring out if you should blame yourself for his disappearance but you can't seem to find a reason why you are at fault. But you must be, right? There has to be something you're missing. Another part of you is scared that Touya is dead in some alley and no one found him yet. The memories of your first meeting keep replaying in your head and you're afraid history repeated itself, except you weren't there to save him.

The TV is on and serves as background noise to try and drown your thoughts as you helplessly try to study for your upcoming exam but a change of the image has you turning your head to pay attention to the television. Your heart stops at the sight. Touya is sitting on a couch, shirtless, shoulders down. He looks the same but you still have to take a double look. Touya has always seemed light and happy around you but this Touya looks… dead.

“I am Touya Todoroki.” The sound of his voice after so long makes tears form in your eyes. It almost makes you brush past the famous surname that leaves his mouth. “The eldest son of Endeavor.”

You get up and make your way until you're standing in front of the TV. You stare and stare at the image of Touya on the screen and you pinch yourself hard to wake up from the sick dream you're having. “To date, I’ve killed over 30 innocent people in cold blood and today I’d like everyone to know exactly what drove me to such despicable acts.”

You run to your phone and search his name online. Hundreds of people are already talking about it. News articles after news articles talk about ‘Dabi’ and everything that is known about the villain. You read those stories as your Touya speaks about his past in the background. This has to be some sick joke. A link to a livestream has you shakingly click on your screen, redirecting you for some streaming app. The fight already had started by the time you finished downloading and setting up an account. Touya (or Dabi, you’re not sure what to call him anymore) is destroying himself while all you can do is watch. For a bit, you think whether or not you should intervene but what were you supposed to do? You were a quirkless civilian that just so happened to have a sort of situationship with a wanted criminal. You would get held back or killed before you even managed to talk to Touya.

So you watch. You watch the blurred images of your Touya fighting and destroying his body along the way through tears, with sobs that shake your body and have you gasping for air. You watch your Touya get engulfed in flames as he gives his all to destroy the man who he claimed to be his father. You watched until you couldn't watch anymore, stopping just as the camera was about to move to show his unmoving body on the floor.

Incoming messages from a groupchat with your friends have you putting the device on ‘do not disturb’ so you don’t see what they are saying about the man you once dreamt of introducing to them as your boyfriend, your lover.

You let your body fall back on the couch. You cry until you can’t cry anymore, your tears dry, your sobs stop and the room is silent. You sit there looking at the TV in front of you, your reflection staring back, and you wait for Touya to come knocking at your door. You tell yourself it is just a joke - Touya will be coming back to you, smirking when you open the door while knowing you will be tending his wounds gently.

“Touya… this isn’t funny anymore.” you speak up. There’s no reply. “You’re always getting hurt. I have to keep restocking the first aid kit because of you.” You laugh but there’s no happiness behind it. “Seriously I’m going to be broke soon because of you… Either way, I’ll always take care of you. So pl-ease come home.” And just like that you’re back to sobbing loudly, totally alone in your small apartment. You keep begging Touya to be okay, hiccups making your speech barely understandable but it doesn't matter because you’re alone. Lonely on the couch where you spent so many good moments, you beg for the man who put you together just to break you again. Curled up on the couch and with the feeling of a knife stabbing your heart, you’re undoubtedly alone.

Losing Touya hurts. It keeps hurting for days and weeks and months. It never stops working but the pain becomes bearable. At least, that is what you tell yourself. You hated Touya (or Dabi, you’re still not sure what to call him) for a few weeks. You despised him for lying and for not telling you even in his final moments. You hated that you couldn't sit on the couch without thinking about him but you also couldn't sleep on the bed because of all the moments you spent there. You loathed that he still made you cry everyday before sleeping, curled up on the floor because it seemed to be the only place that didn't fill you with love and grief.

Those negative feelings for Touya prevailed until you saved up enough money to remodel your whole apartment. You didn't leave. You hated Touya Todoroki but you never left the place that reminded you of him the most. Part of you doesn't want to feel like he won - you didn't want to leave your home because of a messed up relationship. The other part was hopeful that Touya would be back one day - you couldn't risk moving places and never seeing him again.

After you stopped hating him, you started missing him. You would find yourself cooking his favorite and then setting two plates on the table. You would talk about your day and ramble about whatever was going on in your life. Silence was your only answer but you still talked. “Your little brother was on the news today. I didn't pay much attention but he looks just like you. I bet you’re proud of it, uhm?” You would say. Silence. “You always said you couldn't make amends with your siblings but I think you should try.” More deafening silence. “I know you don't like to talk about it. Anyways, work was chaotic today.”

This period of yearning never ended, unlike the time where you hated him. You changed your routine to accommodate Touya and never went back to normal.

Your friends noticed the way you changed so drastically but nothing was enough to get you to talk like you do late at night when you think you’re sharing your thoughts with Touya. They recommended therapy but you couldn't tell what had happened. You couldn't do that to him. So you played pretend. You smiled, laughed and everything went back to normal when you were outside the house. But you knew better and the void inside you was eating you slowly. You think everything would get fixed if you just had one person to talk to but you were alone. At some point, you were so desperate that you considered going to his family. Maybe you could share your moments with Touya, show them he was more than the villain TV portrayed. You end up coming to the conclusion that it is a bad idea.

Despite everything you live your life the best way you can without the man that changed your perception of love forever. You don't date or even try to even if your friends insist. You don’t look for Touya in other men and try to fill the void he left. You survive while ignoring “Why aren't you married?” and “Is there anyone special in your life?” and a hundred other questions that people in your life throw at you. You spend your days surrounded by people but still lonely and empty. You die young but with a feeling free after so many years tied up by sadness. In your final moments, you are alone. You pray to whoever is listening that you will meet Touya again, whether it is in heaven, hell, or in your next life.

You die just like you lived - isolated and hoping you will be with Touya Todoroki again, even if only in your dreams.

[niuniente]

I saw one of ur reblogs and I got confused. The one where you mentioned royal match? Isn’t that the one app that plagues your feed with the fake gameplay ads? From what I saw it’s also plagued with ads (I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be rude, I’m just really confused)

Yes and I was really, really surprised when I went to read its reviews and people were saying that it has no adds.

It doesn't have any adds! The advertisement the game is using to gain more players is really aggressive but I assume they somehow make enough money with this aggressive advertising that they don't need to do that within the game to their players.

The game itself is extremely soft and nice and easy to play. It's also generous if you ask me, and you get daily at least 1h free playtime (often 2,5 hours). On weekends, these free hours don't appear but on the weekends, they sometimes offer 1h + goodies + cold packages with 0.99€ or 2.99€.

The horrible adds of that game do no justice to it and are really off putting - completely opposite of the game itself.

I've been playing Royal Match about 6 months or so and it's one of the most relaxing games I've played. It's not too challenging or impossible either. I've at level 1600+ and haven't needed to use any extra help to finish a level more than perhaps 10 times. If you just be patient, you typically finish a difficult level in a few days.

(I love Cute Cats: Magic Adventure but I had to stop playing when I got stuck in such a horrible level that there's literally no way out of it, not even with the help I've got).

It has King's Nightmare levels occasionally (the ones you see in the add) but you can always skip these. So the game doesn't force you to beat any of these anxiety causing levels.

It has very often all sorts of easy and fun little events where yo gather and collect more items and coins.

This is the most adds you get within the game, too. There are three special sales happening now at the same time, which occasionally happens on weekend. Typically, there are none or just one. You'll get free gifts from one of these deals every time.

The Key on the right and all the icons on the left are events for free items if you wish to play them. What is really nice is that when the event is over, the game notifies you and tells you that if you want to take the free gifts from this event, they're still available for taking even when the event is over.

It has been very pleasant game! Don't believe the horrible adds.

EDIT: This isn't a collab with this game. I just genuinely love that there are still games with NO ADDS. I've tried so many games just to delete them pretty much immediately because they're just adds with some gaming function....

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale Reviews: ML Season 5 episode 25 and 26: Confrontation and Re-creation

Since both episodes are out, I will review them both. Time to find out if the finale can bring it home

Spoilers below

-Gabriel and Tomoe think they are doing this for their own good. Should have called this episode Delusion.

-So they giving everyone nightmares, at least Adrien isn’t alone in suffering

-Ladrien dream was actually Marinette in ladybug armor. It looked cool but I wanted Ladrien

-Gabriel died in the dream, still don’t get how that’s a nightmare. (Marinette really forgot chat blanc existed

- okay Marinette’s parents dreams are adorable. Tom you sweet man, and Sabine care about their children and eachother.

-oh snap, Alya’s nightmare. Actually realistic and terrifying. For her at least.

-Tikki saw the food. Get it girl.

-Adrien technically been dealing with it the longest… but now it’s not special. Everyone be suffering

-they have a tech antidote for nightmares

-Damn, that is disturbing. And Adrien will probably use it… baby no.

-Okay he resisted. Good for him. Well it wasn’t an order, but still. Adrien is trying.

-Plagg mocking Gabriel.

-Plagg gonna be a menace today

-how many rings does that robot have

-Adrien giving up his miraculous out of despair. What a surprise, he’s gonna be out of the final fight. At least for now. Plagg gotta go get ladybug.

-Tikki ate all them bread. Respect

-“it’s not personal, it’s for Adrien.” That’s PRETTY FUCKING PERSONAL

-Nathalie’s nightmare is basically Gabriel winning. Glad she realized the truth on that… even if it was too little too late.

-Nathalie got a crossbow. KILL GABRIEL WITH IT

-oh damn, I knew all meditation apps were evil!

-Plagg flying across the ocean to get to Ladybug. Plagg will always be the light of my life

-Ladybug finding out Nathalie was A Lara croft

-Plagg gonna be smart about this

-Alliance showing why tech companies are all evil

-THEY ALL DOWNLOADED THE APP! NOT THE RESISTANCE. NOW NO ONE CAN RESISTANCE

-MYLENE THE GOAT! Mylene has shot up so much in my favorite classmate rankings

-Ivan's nightmare sounds adorable

-Mylene start slapping them please. NINO MUST BE DEEP HYPNOTIZED

-NO MYLENE DONT DO IT! And she dropped down in my rankings again

-Damn it, she was tricked by her friends

-Gabriel's cliche speech to Emilie. Blah blah blah. WHAT MORALITY?! YOU WERE ONCE A BRITISH CHIP MAKER?!

-NATHALIE GONNA SHOOT HIM! DO IT! END THIS MAN NATHALIE

-Gabriel really did the 'Appeal to her humanity' then betray her. Dude said he threw away his morality.

-Imagine the last thing you see is that ugly ass costume

-Ladybug learns Nathalie had all of the stuff

-Ladybug just saw that Monarch was Gabriel. Damn. I think thats a first

-Gabriel really just out here slandering and then leaving her with the poison app.

-DID NATHALIE JUST FUCKING DIE?! SHE GAVE EXPOSITION AND DIED

-Okay this is silly how they are turning everyone against Ladybug and Chat noir

-WAIT IS THAT FEI!

-Im convinced every adult in this show is an idiot.

-Oh good, alya is being logical.

-Oh wow, okay so the charm and Cataclysm that gabriel got actually are useful to his plan. Well played. Now die

-OH That is evil. Miraculize me.

-Damn it, i wanted cat alya.

-They tracking her.

-Well I gotta admit, the Alliance minion making is probably Gabriel's most effective plan. But like all plans, the women involved did the heavy lifting

-Ladybug hid by detransforming

-Gabriel is a little TOO enthusiastic about going to find a vulnerable teenage girl in his house

-Plagg finding out that Monarch was in his house the whole time.

-LADYBUG CAT NOIR UNIFICATION!

-KICKED IN THE FACE!

-BUG NOIR!. Okay so I am very mixed on the outfit, but the entrance and that confidence is stunning.

______________________________________________________________

(This is my reaction before watching part 2, so here is my quick thoughts)

For all the stakes and reveals. If I were to rate this by itself I would say... 7/10. I dont like how Adrien is absent for this whole thing. I really hope that this changes and Adrien somehow gets pulled in. Because quite frankly... THIS IS A BIG THING

______________________________________________________________

Okay now for part 2, recreation

-Oh its Lila or Cerise or... WHOMEVER THE F*** SHE IS.

-Seems Alec also had a s*** father.

-What is Lila even doing?

-SHE DROPPED A PIANO ON HIS HEAD! Beautiful

-She's beating his ass!

-Meanwhile back on the boat.

-Rose showing why she has CRAZY ASS STRENGTH

-WANG BE SMACKING BITCHES WITH HIS WOK!

-OMG, SU HAN TRAINED JAGGED STONE AND PENNY IN KUNG FU. Which means luka too.

-hold on, so NO FERNANDO!? 0/10. Needs more fernando.

-BUNNYX! Taking Luka to Paris.

-"I cant interfere, but YOU can."

-Please tell me Fang also knows mirakungfu

-HOT DOG DAN!!!!! THE GREATEST HERO OF ALL TIME! 10/10

-Oh right, Majestia too. To a lesser extent.

-Majestia makes a point.

-Yo, they gave Knight owl an upgrade.

-So basically Majestia and Knight owl are if Super man and Batman were lesbians.

-Monarch does have a point. He has 15 miraculous.

-I do enjoy Monarch getting flipped and kicked

-Did he just cough up Dust? Oh he is dying in real time

-Doesnt he look so redeemable (Sarcasm)

-BEAT HIS ASS WITH A SHOVEL!

-Darkowl was saved

-YO! I just realized that Eagle is the perfect counter for this power.

-Alya's sister split a building in half

-Power of the buffalo. I think the sub meant bull

-Bug noir brings the house down

-FANG!!!!!!!!!!! MVP MVP

-Luka has a cute name for his sister, thats adorable. Okay only 2/10 now

-Also this proves Mirakung fu is easy as hell to learn. so WHY DIDNT SU HAN TEACH LADYBUG AND CHAT NOIR!

-Su han, "How can you resist the nightmare."

-Knight owl: "I am the nightmare." That is so batman its hilarious

-FEI COMES IN LIKE A F***ING BEAST!

-Why even use any other transformation, the Dragon is so OP.

-Okay so The typical back and forth between hero and villain. Yea this was expected.

-Adrien wouldnt want this. Adrien wants that. You know who should have a say here? ADRIEN! That would be nice.

-Marinette is clearly more right, obviously. but I still wish Adrien could speak for himself.

-Okay so the heroes are getting widdled down, lila is hacking into the mansion

-Yo! she got a ton of rings with glue and a boomerang. Nice

-She knocked the butterfly off. (which is my bet on how Lila got it)

-So bugnoir won. Nice!

"Check mate." DAMN That was a hard line drop

-And then its ruined because Ladybug sees this guy only has a few hours left to live.

-What is she doing?

-Marinette what the hell are you doing?

-You mean to tell me that Nathalie could have just tied his ass up earlier and made him watch it and that probably could have prevented the whole events.

-But lets be honest, the only reason Gabriel feels the way he does right now is because his plan failed and he is dying

-IT TOOK A 30 SECOND CLIP. 30 F***ING SECONDS

-Yes, you did ruin everything. Now die sad.

-Gabriel is like "You make the wish"

-AND Marinette gets betrayed. She tried to Steven Universe this bit but ended up Venomed.

-Well at least Gabriel is still a dick.

-Reveal yourselves?

OH DAMN! THEY LOOK SO FUCKING COOL!!!

-I can see a certain group of fans being happy with these designs.

-GIMMI. THE KWAMI OF REALITY?!

-Oh damn so thats their fused form.

-Wait, why didnt Ladybug and Chat noir just summon their kwami's god forms to fight?

-Gimmi is a whole ass mood

-Gabriel, you dont deserve to be remembered as a good father. You were s***

-So Gabriel wins. yea this f***ing sucks

-Universe gets wiped

-WTF. Its a utopia?!

-Adrien gets two moms

-Glad everyone is having a grand old time but... wtf

-Oh look a NORMAL BABY!

-There are so many jokes I can make here but I will abstain.

-THEY GAVE GABRIEL A F***ING STATUE

-A world without Gabriel agreste meme here

-I really want to see this utopia completely uprooted and turned into chaos more than anything

-It sucks because there is some PRIME adrinette moment right in front of me, but it just feels like Adrien is left in the dark and gaslit.

-A cute kiss. But something seems wrong

-So they fixed the miraculous but the butterfly is missing (called it)

-Wait, Everyone gets a miraculous now?!

ALSO NO REVEAL WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!

-Even Sabrina?!

-Wait, so Argos is allowed?! but how though?!

-Wait, how many endings does this episode have?

-Lila back at it again

-Wait... What the f*** happened?!

_________________________________________________________

Okay so this was a b**** and a half to finally watch

But yea. I do NOT like how this basically gave Gabriel his win.

Yea he's dead but he won.

Adrien has no idea that his father basically did that, and it makes the whole fight seem pointless.

Then there is all that utopia crap. (DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THIS. )

The adrinette is sweet and all that.

But ADRIEN IS BEING GASLIT. Its some bulls***

Also how does Marinette remember the wish? Wasnt it supposed to be some cosmic rewrite?

All I know is... I need some time to think. Do I even want to continue watching ML. Knowing that Gabriel wins and gets treated like a martyr.

Season 6 needs to start with some sort of Upheaval. Consequences need to be had.

As for my rating.

I cant give it an honest rating right now. I need to cool off.

Is it the worst written? No. But the ending has pissed me off

it feels tainted.

[k7l4d4]

K Reviews and Rants: Miraculous Ladybug Season 5! Finale!!

Hello all! Sorry for not posting Yesterday, I... forgot. That's really all there is to it, I forgot and lost track of time before I had to go to work, and was too tired to post when I got back. So, to make up for it, I'm posting the ENTIRE Finale review, Parts 1 and 2, today! I hope you all enjoy.

Okay, cards on the table: This finale was crap. I'm pretty sure I tackle most of the issues inherent to it in the main review that I'll be posting below, but at it's core? This 2-Parter is just a crappy attempt to try and recreate the success of Heroes' Day, and it does it BADLY. The Miraculized is an honestly interesting concept, I think, in that it shows that Gabe and Tomoe have essentially jailbroken the power of the Kwami into something capable of mass production... which is presented as a bad thing. But on its own, it is genuinely impressive; if it weren't for the lazy and honestly nonsensical brainwashing plot with the "Perfect Alliance" app, it could've been interesting to see them gather and recruit genuinely willing agents to fight for them, acting on their behalf without dealing with the idiosyncrasies of Akumas in favor of totally loyal professionals.

But, what really kills the first part of this 2-Parter is that they keep hyping up these nightmares as being this super-traumatic thing... but aside from Adrien's, which doesn't make much sense, and Alya's, which her reaction is just stupidly exaggerated in regards to, they all just come off as ridiculous and stupid rather then traumatizing. I just can't take them seriously. The fact that they go out of their way to detail the specifics of their nightmares hurts it more because it exposes just HOW ridiculous they are, rather then keeping it vague but still giving the audience an idea of WHY they are so traumatized by it.

Not to mention that, despite Felix having SPELLED OUT that "Gabriel is Hawkmoth/Shadow Moth/Monarch" it seemed to have never actually clicked to Marinette until now that "oh crap, Gabriel is Hawkmoth!!" Which makes the prior play Felix put on all the more stupid since it ultimately did nothing to give Marinette more information if that's true, and instead focused entirely on making Marinette believe Felix's excuses for his bad deeds. So... what? I just don't get this continuity at all.

But what I think the biggest case of wasted potential in this finale, for all that it's a lazy Heroes' Day clone, is how it squanders the idea of their being more heroes, non-Miraculous connected ones, out in the world to help her... and instantly ignores how the Miraculized are able to TRACK the Ladybug and Black Cat's powers. When Marinette unified them, they should've INSTANTLY started swarming her all over again, like they did the first time she transformed. THAT would've made for an actual good reason for all the heroes around the world to appear; because they are tracking the movements of the army and are stopping them from mobbing Marinette while she's duking it out with Hawkmoth.

And just... Hawkmoth. Gabriel. How can a show just drop the ball so completely on such an awful character? I mean, I get how, they have been priming this for several seasons by having everyone around Gabe insist "he used to be better," but every thing they dredge up as evidence of this ultimately amounts to either scenes without context or detail, or someone claiming he used to be different but has now changed, without any word or detail on HOW he has changed. It expects the audience to just... take their word for it. To see Marinette showing him compassion, despite the fact that she should know damn well by now that Gabe has always put what HE wants for Adrien over what actually makes Adrien happy, every single time. And the way it insists upon itself by calling Gabe's actions "Madness." No, being deluded is not the same thing as being insane; Gabe knew full and well what he was doing, what the consequences would be, and ultimately decided "I don't CARE."

His delusions stopped and ended at his egotistical insistence that he's the one in the right; he didn't become a supervillain because of "Madness." He didn't decide to keep his son isolated from everyone around him for YEARS, long before his wife died, because of "Madness." He didn't cultivate plans specifically meant to isolate and hurt others so as to make them vulnerable to his powers because of "Madness." Everything Gabe has done, he has done because at his core, he is a selfish, egotistical failure of a father who refuses to accept that he's the bad guy. It's like if The Owl House had Belos, after literally driving himself to the brink of death in his obsession with wiping out all Witches, be given sympathy by the heroes because "it's not his fault he's so awful, he was raised to be that way" and had his demise be because he "let" himself be killed after somehow destroying all magic but leaving the inhabitants of the Islands unharmed. It's excusing the actions of a man whose deeds are inexcusable.

And you want to know what makes all this worse? Adrien never once gains closure. For the entire finale, he's stuck hiding in his room, against his will. Despite his father tormenting him and isolating him from all his friends, despite his last fight against Hawkmoth as Nighttormentor involving him verbally ripping his dad a new one for how much of an utterly awful parent and human being he is... after the world is erased and rebuilt, his clone is basically told "oh no, your abusive father was actually a good man, you should want to be like him." It's a slap in the face of anyone and EVERYONE who has had an abusive parental figure, who has dealt with someone they are supposed to be able to look up to but who instead abused their authority to hurt and control them. Never in my life have I been so contemptful of people who try and deflect criticism of this show because "I don't work in the industry;" anyone who thinks THIS is acceptable, who excuses the writers who felt PROUD of putting together this abomination, screw you. It would be one thing, however low of a bar it would be, if the writers really COULDN'T present Gabe as being the bad guy in the end... but that's not the case. They were proud of it. This was "always the plan." I have no further words for how messed up that is.

Onto the main review. As always, warning for any profanity on my part... and there's a bit of a doozy of that today.

Episode 25: Finale Part 1 - Conformation

Alright, opening things up, and we immediately jump to the first day of Summer Break, and apparently the hot topic is the election, and the tourist scene... and for some reason, Nadja feels the need to call attention to Adrien's arrival in London, alongside Kagami.

Also, "arrived yesterday"?!? Just, what the HELL!? Again, how the fuck is all this time zone BS going on!? For fuck's sake, it's showing their arrival like it happened when it was bright and early, but there's no way the flight should've been that long! Paris is not that far from fucking LONDON of all places!! I'm also confused on why Adrien's personal life is important enough to warrant this kind of news; he's a teen model, not some kind of billionaire playboy or whatever. I'm thinking that Gabe might be astroturfing things by paying news groups to give attention to the little "arrangement" he and Tomoe are trying to set-up, to control the narrative. It would fit with his speech to Marinette about controlling what people want and aspire to obtain.

Yup, Gabe's manipulating things. It's not directly stated, but given that the news report mentioned a direct report from the Gabriel brand on this, I'd say it's likely. Also, regarding Kagami, WHAT "SUCCESSFUL MODELING CAREER!?" SHE HAS NEVER BEEN A FUCKING MODEL IN HER ENTIRE LIFE!! HECK, HER BEING ON THE ALLIANCE RING AT ALL WAS BECAUSE HER MOM USED HER IMAGE AND VOICE WITHOUT HER CONSENT!! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!!!

Also, yeah, creepy insistence on "Perfection" again. Seriously, the obsession this show has with the concept of "perfection" is disturbing, and I don't mean it in the sense of villains using it, like Gabe and Tomoe do, but even the HEROES use it way too much. It gets thrown around so much, I can't even begin.

Oh, and I got my answer on where the "successful modeling career" for Kagami came from; from my point of view, Tomoe is allowing Gabe to appropriate Kagami's image to make ads, all designed to sell the idea that she and Adrien are a couple. And Kagami chucks something at the screen playing the ad for "Perfection, the Drink that hydrates to Perfection." Again, they are using "perfection" too much without seeming to get what it means.

And apparently Gabe's spying on Kagami and Adrien trapped in their creepy white rooms. Just, just, WHY!? Why the fucking ROOMS!? These things are just utterly disturbing, why the absolute FUCK do Tomoe and Gabe think they need to use "WHITE TORTURE ROOMS" for their kids!? Are they insane or just fucking stupid!?

And Gabe references this "Perfect Alliance" thing, which I just know I'm gonna fucking hate. Just, just why the HELL does he think they need to be in LONDON to be safe from whatever it is!? Is it a death laser? A bomb? WHAT!? For fuck's sake, GABE HAS LITERALLY ALLOWED CITY DESTROYING AKUMAS LOOSE BEFORE WITHOUT GIVING A FUCK ABOUT THE DANGER THEY POSE TO ADRIEN, AND IF TOMOE HAS ALWAYS BEEN HER PARTNER THEN SHE HASN'T SHOWN ANY MORE REGARD WHEN IT COMES TO KAGAMI, THEY COULD LITERALLY JUST USE BUNKERS IN PARIS AND ACHIEVE THE SAME RESULTS!!!!

Honestly, that's what makes this so stupid to me; they are framing this scene as if Tomoe and Gabe are isolating their kids to "keep them safe," yet Gabe hasn't even TRIED to stop Akumas capable of wiping out Paris while knowing full well Adrien is there, so why is this time different? That same line of reasoning goes for Tomoe regarding Kagami; if she's always been Gabe's secret partner, and Kagami means this much to her, where were her complaints regarding incidents like Syren, when the literal city was FLOODED by the Akuma? What THEN!?

For fuck's sake, they are like overgrown children!!

"One day they'll understand that we did this all for their own good" NO THE FUCK YOU DIDN'T TOMOE!! YOU DID THIS TO SATISFY WHATEVER WEIRD AGENDA BETWEEN YOU AND GABE THAT YOU HAVEN'T ELABORATED ON!! YOU ARE ARBITRARILY TRYING TO DICTATE THEIR LIVES EVEN THOUGH YOU SHOULD FUCKING KNOW THAT YOU ARE MAKING THE MISERABLE!!!

...These two are abusive. Like, no duh, that's obvious, but this is LITERALLY the kind of reasoning you see in abusive parents; it's the coldblooded rationalization that they are in the right for how they treat their children, and that it's everyone else who says differently that is wrong. Now Tomoe mentions something about a "poison" and a "remedy" which I can't begin to make heads or tails of but is probably super fucking stupid.

Yup, it's fucking stupid; I still don't know what the overall "plan" is, but Gabe just reakumatized himself into Nighttormentor (for some fucking reason), is loading up on the powers of the Mouse, Horse, and Rooster Miraculous... okay, it's apparently some fucking stupid plot to give the whole world nightmares, probably in some dumb as hell rehash of the Scarlet Akuma plot.

"The nightmare has finally begun." "And our wish to bring our child together can finally come true." I just... what? What the fuck does ANY OF THIS relate to getting Kagami and Adrien together?? Like, literally NOTHING about this scene or this plot have anything to do with them beyond Gabe spying on them while they sleep! (Which is creepy as fuck, by the way) It's just the writers shoving in relationship BS when it doesn't even relate to what these idiots are doing.

Alright, now we get an utterly stupid as hell scene of Marinette dressed up in a Ladybug-themed suit of armor like a knight while riding a red motorcycle... this is her nightmare, and it's literally doing the entire "flipped fairy tale" BS of swapping the gender stereotypes but otherwise leaving them totally unchanged, isn't it? And it's gonna end in disaster since, well, it's a NIGHTMARE.

...Yup, this is stupid. In addition to this honestly giving the vibes of a pretty sexist "role reversal" of the stereotypical "knight saves the princess," it involves Marinette "slaying the dragon holding the prince(ess) hostage" with said dragon being revealed to be Gabe, and accidentally "killing" Gabe by... lightly brushing him with her sword on the arm? And Adrien asking "why did you do that, Marinette?" I just... I cannot even FOLLOW whatever shit this is trying to BE!! It's like they are trying to say "Marinette/Ladybug would KILL Hawkmoth and break Adrien's heart!!" which already doesn't make any sense since yes, he's dying, because OF HIS OWN FUCKING STUPIDITY!!! Marinette's Lucky Charm isn't even directly harmful; the only way she could kill someone would be if she was actively TRYING to do so, and she's not the type. Why the FUCK are they trying to frame this as an actual concern she could EVER EVEN HAVE ABOUT THIS SITUATION!?

...Given I already know how this finale is gonna play out, my best guess is that this idiocy is them trying to foreshadow Marinette's "big moment" at the end, but it falls apart because it is utterly fucking contrived by implanting a fear that, like the bullshit dream sequence of a nightmare that Chat Noir was subjected to despite lacking any reason to even CONSIDER IT A CONCERN, has no real basis for. It just EXISTS to generate conflict and drama. And I'm not gonna get into how "dreams are irrational" and all that, because yes, they are; but for things like nightmares, they have to be based on things a person would already be afraid of or be having concerns over. Neither Chat nor Marinette have ANY reason to have had those particular nightmares at all!!

"I have to free him from the dragon- I mean, from his father!" Marinette... no. Shut up. Shut the absolute FUCK UP. This? This entire fucking mess is not something you need to "save" Adrien from; yes, he needs to be gotten out from Gabe's thumb, but the primary fucking REASON he still IS under Gabe's thumb is because he's been sitting on his ass and avoiding actually confronting his problems, AND YOU HAVE BEEN ENABLING HIM ALL THIS TIME!!! For fuck's sake, it's the stupidity with you trying to defend to Adrien that Gabe has "Changed" despite him threatening your career and making it clear he's never going to let you be with his son if he has any kind of a say in it, ACTIVELY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS BS. You don't get to freak out about "saving him" when you can't even woman up enough to be genuinely honest with him and let him face tough times on his own instead of constantly trying to spare his fucking feelings!!

And apparently the stupid nightmare power thing causes people physical pain as well as emotional distress, because why the fuck not!? And Marinette ends up seeing one of Gabe's new ads (still doing that stupid as fuck "Perfection" thing) with the images of Adrien and Kagami. Who thinks she'll take this the wrong way? (Raises hand)

"His father won't tell you a thing, will he?" Oh, I dunno Tikki, I think the man who has kept Adrien socially isolated from everyone for nearly his entire life, actively has fought to keep him out of public school and people his own age, is secretly a terrorist (SOMETHING YOU TWO SHOULD KNOW AFTER THAT LITTLE FIASCO WITH FELIX AND KAGAMI YESTERDAY!!!), and has micromanaged every aspect of his life down to the minute would absolutely share information on where his son is with the girlfriend he doesn't approve of! /s

"Maybe he won't, but maybe his assistant Nathalie will!" Why? Why would you have ANY FUCKING REASON TO THINK THAT? This isn't even a matter of Nathalie being trustworthy or not, point to a SINGLE MOMENT where Marinette and Nathalie have interacted positively or Nathalie has indicated any willingness to go against Gabe's BS in front of Marinette that would support her having any fucking reason TO THINK THIS!!!

"Adrien told me that she was always kind to him." Why the fuck would you believe that? Seriously, this is the same guy who spoke up for Chloe (which this season went out of its way to tear apart) and let Lila run wild by "taking the high road," why the FUCK would you think he has any fucking clue what he's talking about? He speaks well of his own father half the time despite the man transparently being a complete and utter piece of shit, Adrien isn't exactly a sparkling judge of character!!

Marinette immediately runs off to find Nathalie (why the hell would she even think Nathalie's in Paris, and where the fuck would she even find her?), but is blocked by her dad. Also, something confusing occurred to me; that stupid as hell play that Felix and Kagami put on happened the same night that Adrien left (SOMEHOW), and Marinette woke up in an abandoned classroom the next morning. How wasn't she locked in? Why weren't her parents worried about where she went and why she didn't come home last night without telling them where she was? It's the BS of the show trying to pretend ANY OF THIS MAKES ANY KIND OF SENSE WHEN IT DOESN'T.

Apparently Tom is worried about his daughter running off without eating breakfast first; to be honest, that's a healthy concern to have as skipping a meal can seriously affect your energy, and it's not like taking a few more minutes is gonna make Nathalie suddenly disappear. Ooh, and then Marinette gets hit with the conveniently awful headache that stupid as fuck Nightmare power causes! Why do I call it stupid as fuck? Because currently, we aren't seeing anyone else exhibit that symptom, despite Gabe having apparently spread his nightmare power across the globe... for SOME FUCKING REASON. Seriously, why the FUCK would he bother spreading his power like that when all his efforts have been focused on PARIS!? All he's doing is making it more likely that the international community is going to come for his fucking head.

"This has nothing to do with Adrien!" No, Marinette, it has everything to do with him (unfortunately) and you saying it doesn't is, if anything, MORE of a red flag for them. Plus, your mom was ON YOUR SIDE, so you trying to shut down her reasoning to get your dad to calm down just makes things worse. Okay, NOW we see someone else get hit with the stupid as hell headache; and again, Marinette, just be HONEST WITH YOUR PARENTS, idiot!!

Apparently Tom's nightmare was about how Marinette ended up starving herself over being upset over Adrien leaving. For fuck's sake, HAVE NONE OF THESE PEOPLE HEARD OF A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP!?!? Like, him just being worried about Marinette starving is a perfectly valid fear all its own, you don't have to tack on Love Square BS into the mix!! Also, his nightmare was stupid in that he thought Marinette not eating would make her physically shrink until a mouse could eat her, instead of, you know, her just plain DYING from hunger.

Sabine's nightmare was about how TOM ended up Akumatized over his worries for Marinette. Apparently something something "trapped her in a giant brioche with an army of croissants to protect her." Like, this entire stupid scene would be less idiotic if they just left their nightmares at the most surface level explanation; getting the details just makes them sound corny and stupid, not something to actually be worried about, and makes the fact that they are still fretting over them obnoxious and hard to take seriously rather then concerning. It's hard to give a shit about people having had bad dreams when they are unironically being concerned about their kids shrinking from not eating to the point of getting eaten by a mouse, etc.

And Marinette immediately bumps into Alya, who is freaking out and convinced that Monarch is gonna find her and she'll blab the secret. See, THIS is a genuine fear to be worried about, as it actually has something resembling a basis in reality. It's still fucking stupid as Monarch DOES NOT KNOW THAT SHE KNOWS, but it's more reasonable a fear then what Marinette's parents were going through.

"We can't be seen together!" Alya, ONCE AGAIN, no one knows that YOU know Ladybug's secret (you would've had to leave like Luka and Alix did, idiot), so no, no one is going to connect you to Ladybug's secret identity, grow the FUCK up already!!

Seriously, WHY THE HELL ARE PEOPLE STILL DEALING WITH THESE STUPID AS FUCK HEADACHES!? We have NEVER had it indicated that the powers of an Akuma persist after they are de-Akumatized!! And no, Stoneheart's minions don't count because they were the result of the original Akuma multiplying. They are trying to artificially generate drama by making everyone on edge and freaked out, but it just does not work when everything is so utterly stupid about it!!

And after Marinette drives off, we now get a look at Adrien still dealing with that stupid as hell nightmare. What makes this nightmare stupid as fucking hell is the fact that, once again, THERE IS NO BASIS FOR IT!! Heck, the ONE THING that could be used as a basis for it, his hitting Monarch with a Cataclysm and setting up the idea that using his powers on other people utterly terrifies him, is shot to pieces by the fact that he has DELIBERATELY tried to Cataclysm TWO other people, ones who are a lot less fucking irredeemable compared to Monarch, for no good reason. This drama BS is annoying as hell. Seriously, why the hell is Adrien so torn up over a non-existent Akumatization based off of another Akumatization that neither he nor Monarch have any knowledge of!?

Adrien snaps awake with a gasp, and here we are. Adrien panting and gasping just doesn't work because the tone doesn't FEEL like something to be worried about; it's literally just a kid having a nonsensical bad dream. He then tries to demand the door be opened; wow, what a great time to gain a spine to stand up for yourself with!

Okay, and it's revealed that this entire fucking BS with the nightmares is to try and make people dependent on a self-help app designed to give people advice on relaxing activities to "help with their negative emotions." ...Why? WHY!? WHY THE ABSOLUTE FUCK DID THEY JUST NOT INCLUDE THAT STUPID APP AS A NON-OPTIONAL UPDATE TO THEIR STUPID AS HELL RINGS!? FOR FUCK'S SAKE, IT ISN'T THAT BIG OF A FUCKING CONCERN!!! YOU DID NOT NEED TO GO THROUGH THIS ENTIRE SHITHOLE OF A PLAN JUST TO DISTRIBUTE THIS THING!! HECK, IF YOU WANTED ADRIEN TO USE AN ALLIANCE RING SO BAD, YOU COULD'VE JUST FORCED HIM TO DO SO!!

"This is insane! My father is out of control!" NOW you realize that!? What, did the pure white room he's locked you into didn't give it away? Also, I'm more shocked that he's only saying that in relation to the ring being presented to him after having a bad dream. Honestly; it's so contrived that THIS is his breaking point.

And then we get a scene of Plagg FINALLY trying to talk Adrien into running away (by transforming into Chat Noir), and so far, Adrien's limiting his objections to the fact that there are cameras that would see him transform... when Plagg can just phase into the systems and break them. Honestly, Adrien blinding and drowning out the SECOND Camera by using the Alliance Ring's inability to stop asking people to ask for the "Perfect Alliance" is pretty clever... and then they have Adrien intending to give up the Ring and going full damsel.

"I'm too angry. at myself for falling short of Marinette's love, at my father for sending me here in London, at this stupid app and rings that use my image, it makes me sick. This nightmare gives me the horrible feeling that, if I transform, I'll get Akumatized and destroy everything with my Cataclysm! Marinette, Ladybug." And he took off the ring, which somehow didn't cause Plagg to get sucked into it. It's almost funny; if it weren't for the fact that his dream is entirely BS and he's angsting over LITERALLY NOTHING, as well as the fact that HE KNOWS REJECTING AN AKUMA IS POSSIBLE AND YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO NOT BE ANGRY TO DO SO, this would be an honestly heartfelt scene. As it is, the fact that this season has been wall-to-wall "random people reject the Akuma's influence" just makes this scene stupid as fuck; it's BS like THIS that should make it so you don't throw around "rejecting the mind-controlling villain's influence" so willy-nilly. It took what little believable tension this scene had, and shot it in the fucking foot. Good job! (Deliberately ignoring the Love Square shilling and too-little-too-late efforts of showing Adrien having a spine)

What's so obnoxious is that ALL OF THIS is too little, too late. It's trying to act as if this is some kind of tipping point for Adrien, like this is something that he had no reason to see coming, yet all of this? He's known it's been coming FOR WEEKS, more even, or it's just a rehash of abuses Gabe has already put him through. It's genuinely hard to care about what he's going through when he's been doing nothing, his character has been at a fucking STAND STILL, for the entire show.

"If I ask her for help, I'd have to give her information that would jeopardize my secret identity." NO!! YOU WOULDN'T!!! YOU COULD LITERALLY JUST HAVE PLAGG SHARE THAT SOMETHING MESSED UP IS GOING ON AND YOU HAD TO HAVE HIM INFORM LADYBUG THAT SHE NEEDS TO RESCUE YOU IN "CHAT NOIR'S" PLACE!!! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!! They are digging for any and every possible excuse to delay having Adrien do something smarter. Is his secret ID really that big of a fucking deal if it means finally being free!? Heck, NOW, of ALL TIMES, is the best possible moment to have her find out the truth!!

And thus Adrien's journey from "independent spirit chafing at his father's control" to "gender-flipped damsel in distress" is now complete! God this is fucking pathetic. Oh, and rather than maintain his efforts to not give in to his father's control, he puts on the ring, conveniently forgetting that he's not the only person in the world capable of having a bad day.

"Adrien, focus on the thing you like the most; the soothing sound of the foils brushing against one another." ...That's it? The big 'reveal' surrounding the "Perfect Alliance" is "basic advice on how to not think about something upsetting you by thinking about something else"? THAT'S ALL THE FUCK IT IS!? Also, the fact that this response is both A) wrong, Fencing is not the thing he likes the most, and B) rather blatantly tailored to Adrien by his parents, makes it pretty fucking obvious that this is an engineered scenario to push more forced shipping BS on the part of Gabe and Tomoe.

"The stimuli that Adrien is receiving on his ring are relaxing his nervous system; the images he's watching are now associated with the feeling of well-being. He's forgetting all about the nightmares he'd previously been obsessing about. Soon he'll calm down and later, fall sound asleep." ...I cannot for the life of me make heads or tails of whatever this fiasco of a plot is even supposed to be about. For starters, Adrien wasn't watching the images at all, he was just listening to the Ring's advice. And forming those kinds of mental associations take a lot stronger emotions then what amounts to a kid being a little stressed over a nonsensical bad dream, and given that these dreams are apparently targeting (really dumb) TRAUMA, then NO, they are not going to "forget all about the nightmares," it's distracting them from them only. And how in the FUCK would they have any impact over superpowers-derived NIGHTMARES!?

Seriously, you cannot make a set-up be all about how the nightmares are a supernatural phenomenon and then introduce a technological "solution" to them. It doesn't work because just getting BASIC FUCKING ADVICE on how to handle stress is not gonna change the fact that all those people are still under the influence of Monarch's power.

"Perfect Alliance is a success, Tsurugi-san." HOW!? You haven't even made whatever point it's supposed to be about!!

Oh, now Marinette FINALLY arrives at the Agreste Manor in Paris, and is intending to break into it to find Nathalie. Tikki tries to warn her off using her powers to break in, on the basis that using them for personal gain has never turned out well for her, which is a good point! Too bad she's not gonna listen.

She counters that it isn't personal this time, it's for Adrien. ...Marinette, how the absolute FUCK have you forgotten that even if it's for Adrien, you aren't doing it for him, YOU ARE DOING IT FOR YOURSELF!! You literally once broke into his room to sniff his stuff AS LADYBUG. You don't get to claim a moral high ground on this.

Oh, and now we are in Nathalie's nightmare, which is a disjointed weirdness of her being bothered by giant ads for the "Perfect Alliance" and "Monarch making his Wish." What the fuck is even happening, I couldn't say. Oh, she's making a video diary for Adrien "for when she's no longer here" and bringing up Emilie... and she couldn't even finish it, due to another ad for the "Perfect Alliance," and tries to grab her old hunting gear despite being extremely infirm. Hmm, it's almost as if she's been wasting MONTHS AND WEEKS of time that she could've used to get the proper authorities or just flatout TELL THE HEROES WHO MONARCH IS, and is now on death's door when Monarch's "brilliant plan" is right around the corner.

Oh, and apparently, instead of trying to find Nathalie, Ladybug was just snooping in Adrien's room! Of course. She only even NOTICES Nathalie trying to leave because her tech-brace is loud.

Brief look of Plagg flying to Paris with the Ring, I wonder how long that'll take him?

And now we get a look of Tom using the Alliance Ring to relax. Him and Sabine are literally too relaxed in this scene; is the Perfect Alliance some kind of brainwashing device? BECAUSE THIS IS NOT HOW RELAXATION WORKS AND THE NIGHTMARES ARE STILL A SUPERNATURAL PHENOMENON!!!

""Adrien and Kagami really form a Perfect Alliance."" Okay, yeah, I'm pretty sure this is meant to be a brainwashing thing. EXCEPT THIS IS NOT HOW BRAINWASHING WORKS YOU FUCKING IDIOT WRITERS!!!

"If I'd known it'd take so long, I'd have made myself a cheese sandwich!" I feel like the writers having Plagg state this is them trying to justify the time zone fuckery, which really doesn't work since Plagg can both A) avoid having to go by Land Routes, and B) Planes fly much higher and much faster than Plagg does skimming just above the water.

Okay, and it looks like, rather than TALK TO NATHALIE like she said she would, Marinette/Ladybug has instead decided to break into her room and snoop through her stuff! Nope, nothing morally or ethically questionable about that! Oh, and she spots a pic of Nathalie, Emilie, and Gabe in safari gear and "makes the connection" that the third woman in the picture is Nathalie wearing the outfit she's right next to. Marinette, why the fuck are you shocked by this? What is there even to be SHOCKED OVER!?

And Plagg FINALLY makes it to Paris!! And is somehow surprised to find that Marinette doesn't spend all of her time at her house. After snooping in her room a bit, he spots a picture that has Marinette and her female friends on it; I wonder where he's going with this...

Okay, now we get a scene of Tsurugi in front of a monitor screen! ...She's supposed to be blind, right? So why the hell is she always presented as not being visually impaired at all, staring at monitors and screens and other forms of visual input without any way to bridge the sensory gap?

Okay, apparently the "big plan" is them having set up this entire convoluted BS is all to facilitate making people dependent on their stupid as fuck brainwashing app, and then take it away from everyone... okay, I just, WHY THE FUCK DID YOU NEED AN AKUMA FOR THIS!? You literally could've played the long game, revealed the "Perfect Alliance" MONTHS AGO, and just gradually waited for the numbers to build up before yanking it away!! For fuck's sake, this is dumb.

I also don't get what Tomoe means by them going to the "next phase of the plan" not having a great enough shock with only 80% of all Alliance Users having downloaded the app. Like, again, you could've gotten a much bigger shock if you had played the long game, lady.

Now Plagg's at Anarka's ship and all of Marinette's friends are doing nothing but lounge around with the Alliance Ring. STILL NOT HOW BRAINWASHING AND DEPENDENCY WORKS, ASTRUC.

Oh look, here's Mylene, the "no-tech" member of their friend group whose hyper-aversion to all non-recyclable technology was shoved in out of nowhere probably just to set-up this stupid as fuck scene that's coming!

...Wow, her nightmare is honestly the dumbest one yet. Like, no joke, "all the trees uprooted by extraterrestrials." I just... what even is that supposed to mean!? Why the fuck does she think that was a "prophetic dream"? Did they seriously turn her into a full-on "New-Age Hippy" oh who the hell am I kidding, OF COURSE THEY DID.

"Put this on, Mylene. You'll feel better." ...I really, REALLY fucking hope that having Nino, the guy who looks like he's of African descent, say something like you'd expect from a drug dealer is just a mistake, because THAT LOOKS AND SOUNDS FUCKED UP.

"I refuse to touch an object that was made without respect for the Earth's resources!" Then how the fuck do you even make it outside, Mylene? HOW!? Also, yup, new-age hippy.

Yeah, this whole thing feels like it's combining internet addiction with drug addiction, and it falls flat on its face because NONE OF THIS IS HOW DEPENDENCE WORKS, and making MYLENE of all people the one pushing back against this stupidity is kinda the worst way to use her. It's reducing her to just "environmentalism" in the worst possible way. Yeah... they are just gonna keep trucking along with this, aren't they? I'm probably gonna just vibe on through this point, since nothing else of substance is happening.

Oh look, something happened with Emilie's weird as hell coffin thing that we still don't know what it does. And back to the good old "Gabriel monologuing to his wife's corpse" scene! Been awhile. Yadda yadda yadda, "I've given up my ambitions (lies), my morality (true, VERY true), but I've never given up on you," and all it cost you was your son's love and respect, not that you had it before given you haven't changed how much of a toxic control freak you are in the slightest.

"I only have a few hours left now," HMM I WONDER WHY!? SURELY ALL THE TIMES YOU HAVE WASTED ON LOOPING THROUGH TIME HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!!!

And after nearly, FINALLY admitting Emilie is dead while monologuing about bringing her back, Nathalie finally bursts onto the scene with her crossbow... she's not even remotely a threat, she is a fucking moron, and this "act of defiance” is utterly fucking stupid. She had her chance, and she fucking blew it. She's gonna die here, and it's all her own fault.

"If you make the wish to bring her back, someone will have to go in her place." Yeah... you are the last person to say that, given what you've been doing.

"Emilie would never have agreed to this!" Again, last person to be saying this. You could've stopped him at any time, this is entirely your own damn fault.

"Do you think I'd be monstrous enough to sacrifice a human being!?" Oh, I dunno, you haven't given any kind of fucks about enabling others to do just that (Pharaoh), when you aren't also enabling villains capable of rendering the entire city devoid of life (Syren). So... yes, she has every reason to believe you would do just that.

"Do you really think that I'm a monster?" YES!! DUDE, YES YOU ARE A FUCKING MONSTER!!!

And he knocks her out cold. Big surprise there.

Now we're back to Marinette snooping in Nathalie's room! Hmm, it's almost as if she's totally forgotten the reason she broke into this place entirely! Hey, she found Fu's stolen tablet. It's almost as if she hadn't learned that Gabriel Agreste is Monarch a day or two ago!

"It can't be!" Marinette... YOU LEARNED ALL THIS LESS THEN TWO DAYS AGO FROM FELIX AND KAGAMI!! Then again, given that Felix hyper-fixated on his "play" being all about making Marinette feel sorry for him in spite of his crimes, it's possible it just slipped to the back of her mind. But no, you should ALREADY KNOW THIS BY NOW.

Oh, and Monarch entered while carrying Nathalie into the room.

And Gabe begins monologuing about how he knew she would betray him and had been prepared... the FUCK YOU DID!! Seriously, she hasn't done anything to act against you all this time, even when she actively said she was betraying you she did nothing to try and stop you, and even after she DID interfere with your attempts to control Adrien, you STILL let her keep the means of doing so!!! Oh, and Marinette's trying to inform Chat Noir in the background.

"You will be loyal to me until the end, after all." So, either he intends to sacrifice HER to bring back his wife, or something like that, because otherwise, this is all just BS posturing on his part. I'm honestly surprised he isn't planning on, I dunno, sacrificing Marinette or something so that she'll cease to be a diversion to his goals of keeping Adrien and Kagami together.

I would hardly call being locked up in a stark white room, the kind used for White Torture, is "safe."

"Monarch is going to send all of human kind after you and Chat Noir." ...HOW DOES THAT RELATE IN ANY WAY TO THIS BULLSHIT PLAN!? For fuck's sake this is dumb.

Them having this weird filter thing going on with Marinette at the moment is dumb. It just looks out of place, and using it over and over again is just distracting from the tension of the scene.

Oh, now I get it, they are intending to have all their brainwashed minions be conditioned to hate Chat Noir and Ladybug by having them interfere with their images on the ring. Once again, this is not how brainwashing or dependence work, so this is just BS. Seriously, how can people who are using the Ring in the same room fall for this? Why the fuck would ANYONE fall for this!?

...And this is where it all falls apart. They are literally having people think that "Adrien" and "Kagami" were kidnapped by "Chat Noir" and "Ladybug." Instead of, you know, some asshole hacking the Perfect Alliance APP!? How fucking stupid ARE THESE IDIOTS!?

Seriously, how the hell have these idiots forgotten that what's shown on the Alliance IS JUST AN AI IMAGE!! IT IS NOT THE REAL PEOPLE!!! For fuck's sake, some of them were literally having totally different "relaxation programs" running while in the same room, they should KNOW that it's not possible for two people to be doing multiple different activities simultaneously! Oh what am I talking about, this is just stupid.

Oh, apparently Monarch found a way to weaponize his Cataclysm wound. That'd almost be clever if it weren't something he absolutely hadn't planned ahead of time and amounts to a BS asspull to artificially increase the stakes.

Seriously "Miraculize me?" ...Honestly, it isn't the worst phrase ever. I might even like it. If it weren't part of the most bullshit asspullery this season has had to date; how the absolute FUCK does this make any sense!? How were they able to, I dunno, recreate the power of transformation that all Miraculouses possess in those Rings? Probably via however the hell the Transfer system works, admittedly, but COME THE FUCK ON THIS IS LITERALLY JUST A CHEAP RIP OFF OF HEROES DAY!!!

What makes this stupidity even worse is that it's deliberately presenting this as those who have "Miraculized" being fully aware of their actions. Ugghhh...

Seriously, Alya, JUST TAKE THE FUCKING RING!! You getting Akumatized really isn't a risk since, you know, you can just RESIST IT LIKE YOU HAVE ALL THE OTHER TIMES.

Also, how everyone who is "Miraculized" doesn't realize that they are using the stolen Miraculous powers makes no sense to me. This is stupid. Then again, I'm getting the feeling that this is some new spin on Akumatization.

And with that, we get the debut of... sigh... "Bug Noir." Lame name aside, not the worst costume ever. This is just stupid... And with THAT, this episode is DONE!

Episode 26: Finale Part 2 - Re-Creation

Opening with a creepy room with, oh look, Tomoe's missing laptop, so this is obviously Lila's current base. For some stupid reason, we have Alec's new "empowering" show playing in the background, instead of something like, you know, the news so she could stay up to date on what her nemeses are doing!?

And she's apparently smirking over seeing Alec having a meltdown because of that stupid as hell Nightmare power. Seriously, there is NO TENSION here. I'm not even sure what this scene is supposed to convey; is she just being sadistic and getting a kick out of his nightmare? I don't know what this is supposed to mean. Nothing of progress is happening here.

Oh look, a breaking news story in the middle of Alec's breakdown. Apparently Nadja, who was the one to spread the very obvious lie that Adrien and Kagami had been kidnapped by Chat Noir and Adrien, is now reporting on the Miraculized villains. Kinda funny how everyone apparently recognizes that they are villains when, by all accounts, the transformation is AN INTENDED EFFECT OF THE RINGS THAT GABE JUST MADE PUBLIC!!! I wonder if that'll be relevant at all going forward? I doubt it.

And with a quick costume change, Lila hops on her bike and takes off to do... something.

Now back to our regularly scheduled fight between Monarch and Marinette, with Monarch realizing that he should've known Marinette was Ladybug; how? Dude, you fucking KNOW that the Transformations obscure the wielder's identity, you wouldn't have gone to the utterly idiotic amount of trouble of making a step counter in the Alliance Rings that would alert you if someone wearing one performed superhuman feats! There's no reason you should've "known" she was Ladybug, unless you are counting that one time you attempted to Akumatize her in Derision that failed to take hold and didn't result in you somehow realizing who she is like you realized Luka KNEW WHO SHE AND CHAT NOIR ARE!! (Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit~!)

He comments on how many times he's nearly Akumatized her, with Marinette emphasizes the "nearly" aspect of it, which is a fun way to tweak the edgy drama king's nose. He remarks that that's only because of her outrageous luck... which is spot on. Marinette averting Akumatization so often boils down to either dumb luck or deus ex machina on the part of the writers.

"Luck is something you make." Got to admit, a line like that right after her dropping a piano on him is actually a good line. If only it weren't ruined by the fact that this scene involves Marinette completely and utterly stealing any and all of the spotlight from Adrien because "reasons."

Okay, it looks like the show is abandoning the pretense that the Miraculized need to consent to it, given that two random people on the bridge just transformed without any sign they asked for it to happen. Oh, and Rose shows off a surprising degree of athleticism by shoulder-checking Ivan so that their friends can take his ring off; and after smashing it, he turns back to normal. I don't know why they'd need to smash it, but at least it shows that the Miraculized are exactly what I said they are... a lazy ripoff of the Scarlet Akumas during Heroes Day. Heck, they are WORSE than the Scarlet Akumas, since they are apparently weak enough that random civilians can pin them in place, and they have nothing but the same pool of powers to tap. You know, this nonsense could've been slightly interesting if they had made it so that the Miraculized being able to channel all the powers of Monarch's Rings was harming them, since people aren't MEANT to be able to have so many of those things active at once... but we all know the show isn't gonna mention that.

And apparently the Miraculized are still stuck under the bullshit Nightmare Akuma powers, going by Ivan getting a group hug.

Now we get a scene of the Miraculized attacking Marinette's uncle for some dumb as fuck reason. I say "dumb as fuck" because whatever coolness would be had at seeing Wang be badass is completely undermined by the fact that THE MIRACULIZED HAVE NO REASON TO GO AFTER HIM!! Seriously, they can TRACK CHAT NOIR AND LADYBUG!! Why the hell would they have any reason to think the two of them are currently in a Chinese Restaurant?!

Oh look, it's Fei, the living example that Gabe has already caused permanent casualties in his obsession with bringing Emilie back and thus the permanent rebuke of him being "redeemable" since her adoptive father is dead as an explicit result of Gabe's actions! Apparently she's also suffering the bullshit nightmare power for some reason. Apparently she's been staying with... Wang for some reason? Which, I guess it'd make for an interesting plot, Fei being like an adopted cousin for Marinette, if only something like THAT was being given focus instead of the utterly pointlessness of them being harassed by the Miraculized.

...Okay, I call bullshit. When the absolute FUCK was it ever hinted at that Penny and Jagged were getting training by Su-Han? WHEN!? Hint, IT WASN'T EVER HINTED!! And once again, the Miraculized really have no reason to be attacking them in the first fucking place!!! Oh, and Luka too; him, admittedly, I could actually see getting training, if it weren't, I cannot reiterate this enough, NEVER ONCE HAVING BEEN HINTED AT OR ALLUDED TOO!!!

Oh wow, we are getting all the bullshit today. Bunnyx pops in just to let them know that they'd be more useful in Paris. This is in spite of the fact that, despite retransforming and even UNIFYING the Black Cat and Ladybug Miraculouses while fighting Monarch, Marinette hasn't seen a hint of the Miraculized since throwing them off her fucking trail!!

Oh, now we're in New York, and guess who's the first hero we see getting harassed by the Miraculized? Not Aeon, not Liberty, not anyone like that... no, it's a guy themed around Hot Dogs of all things, and who gets his powers from... I am not even kidding... Magic. Hot Dogs. They, they really aren't even TRYING, are they? Okay, now Majestia is on the scene, and... I'll be blunt, she looks kinda weird. I just... do not like her design. And for fuck's sake, why are the Miraculized showing up like this to attack NON-Ladybug heroes? Seriously, THEY CAN TRACK HER!!! Also, wow, Majestia's nightmare is basically "I'm not perfect enough" wangsting.

Now Knight Owl's on the scene and is apparently no longer disguising her gender. I'm genuinely baffled on WHY, since I can't recall her ever alluding to needing to make a change.

Oh look, it's Eagle, the very on-the-nose Superheroine who looks like an incredibly racist Native American stereotype, wondering what the heck is causing all the Miraculized to have shown up. Aeon shows up, I refuse to call her "Uncanny Valley," and remarks that she can detect the Quantum Imprint of Miraculous Powers, which I'm sincerely confused by since her only prior experience with Miraculous Powers are the Butterfly, Eagle, Black Cat, and Ladybug; I guess this is either confirmation that the Miraculization transformation is based on the Butterfly's Akumatization, or the others having the characters say things as a hand-wave to move the plot along.

"Something must have occurred in Paris!" ...Yeah, no fucking DUH. Leaving to the side why Gabe would even HAVE Alliance Rings outside of Paris, given that it's not as if Hawkmoth has a habit of showing up anywhere but there, all the Miraculized ranting about needing to find and demanding to know where Ladybug and Chat Noir are SHOULD HAVE BEEN A VARIOUS OBVIOUS CLUE that something had happened in Paris. Also, the fact that they don't know already REALLY makes the Media in London's focus on Bustier's running for Mayor bizarre.

Now, back to the fight against Monarch! Ladybug cuffed them together, and declares she'll take back all of the Miraculouses. That would be more impactful if she hadn't squandered TWO key opportunities to get them all, or at least a solid majority, back prior to this. Apparently she's gonna just try and yank them off mid-fight... yes, that is something utterly stupid to do, why do you ask? Doubly so because they are HANDCUFFED TOGETHER meaning she's got one less hand to grab with and defend herself with.

Seriously, she'd have much better luck just defeating him THEN grabbing the Rings. It is not that alien of a thought, is it!?

Hawkmoth makes a good point that, between the two of them, she's honestly the more foolish of them in how she came right into his lair wearing the Miraculouses he needs. Ladybug counters that he always loses. Which would be a weak comeback if it weren't true; Hawkmoth has routinely squandered every advantage he has possessed, failed to leverage his powers for maximum effectiveness, and has largely gotten as far as he has off of dumb luck and other people grabbing the idiot ball. Neither of them come off as particularly competent here, so I'm not really engaged with the fight. The fact that Marinette thought it was a good idea to Handcuff herself to the villain currently wielding a paralysis power kinda highlights that.

The fact that she keeps insisting on trying to Cataclysm the Shell-ter he puts up around his fist instead of, you know, hitting him unconscious with her staff, really highlights how her priorities in this fight are both dumb and actively harmful.

"The Kwami are my prisoners, pathetic little beasts in cages! There are people content with following the rules, and people who bend the world to their wishes!" This really evil rant would honestly be pretty badass if he weren't collapsed on the ground, coughing up ashes. Seriously, WHY IS LADYBUG NOT YANKING OFF THE REST OF HIS RINGS WHILE HE CAN'T MOVE!?!? It's the same exact shit the last two time, she's got him right where she wants him, and is doing NOTHING to actually try and fucking stop him!!

"You played Guardian of the Miraculous, I reinvented their magic!" Again, this would be a lot more threatening if he wasn't monologuing while struggling to pick himself off the ground while Ladybug just stands there and listens to him. Also, he's kinda right; horrific abuse of the Kwamis aside, he actually figured out a way to fuse their magic with advanced technology and made their powers into something anyone can access.

And after one last threat at Ladybug, he manages to escape using Voyage, once again showing off why Ladybug not doing all she can to disarm him when she KNOWS he's in no shape to stop her is SUPER FUCKING STUPID!!!

I'd say that his making the portal open up above her to perform a superman landing directly on her head (or attempted to at least) WOULD be cool if he hadn't been struggling just to MOVE right before he did so. She used her Lucky Charm to create some kind of... giant flyswatter I guess? Instead of, you know, attacking using the staff she still has access to. Big brain move right there.

Also, never mind, it's a giant hammer.

After blasting Hawkmoth through a wall, we return to the Miraculized wandering through Paris, with one being followed by boxes shuffling around. Hmm, I wonder who this could be- It's obviously Nino and the rest of Marinette's friends. For fuck's sake, why the HELL haven't the Miraculized realized she's still in the Agreste Manor!? They are tracking her by the signature of her FUCKING SUPERPOWERS, and she has both the Ladybug AND Black Cat active, they should be right on top of her all over again!! This would be the perfect time for a badass moment of all the Miraculized attempting to swarm her again, only for all of Marinette's friends and allies from around the world to be holding them off so she can focus on Monarch, but because they SOMEHOW haven't realized where she is, we get THIS SHIT instead!!

And apparently they went to all the trouble of de-Miraculizing... Principal Damocles. WHY!? Then the superheroes of New York show up and De-Miraculize Nora; which is... kinda dumb that they wasted time not immediately rushing her, taking her down, and then moving on to the POTENTIALLY MILLIONS OF OTHER MIRACULIZED IN THE FUCKING CITY!! Seriously, They have someone with superspeed on their side, AND someone who can undo the Nightmare Power (again, WHY is it still in fucking effect!?), so... I'm not sure why they emphasized taking Nora down so much.

Back to the fight against Hawkmoth, and Ladybug revealing she knows who he is... and all this fucking does is highlight how absolute BULLSHIT IT IS THAT CHAT NOIR ISN'T THERE!! For fuck's sake, we literally got TEASED with how much he's itching on the inside to tear his dad a new one for all the shit he's caused and put his son through just two episodes ago, so this reveal is just such an absolute fucking WASTE!! What makes it even worse is that both A) Monarch himself now knows who Ladybug is yet still is unaware of his son's alter ego and B) that he didn't seem to realize that monologuing about how Ladybug had "walked into the Monarch's Den" would BE A MASSIVE FUCKING SIGN TO WHO THE FUCK HE REALLY IS!!!

And, once again, we get someone capable of using Cataclysm using it on a person. For fuck's sake, we literally had Marinette have a fucking NIGHTMARE over this exact set-up, harming Gabe and Adrien hating her for killing her dad, why the FUCK would she think that using Cataclysm on him is a FUCKING GOOD IDEA!? Not even mentioning that she FUCKING KNOWS HE HAS THE OX, WHY IS THE FACT HE'S ONLY NOW USING IT TO BLOCK CATACLYSM IS SUCH A BRILLIANT IDEA!?!?

Also, why did she call it the Power of the Buffalo...? For once, I'm just gonna go with "that was a genuine mistake" and not the Writers being fucking morons.

Oh, and NOW the fact that she's under that Nightmare Power makes itself known, after the ENTIRE FUCKING FIGHT UP UNTIL NOW hasn't had it negatively effect her at all.

Seriously, we once AGAIN FUCK THIS SHIT TO HELL have a case where Ladybug essentially wasting her time and not taking the initiative in the fight to disarm Hawkmoth biting her in the ass. Since, you know, she literally had the perfect chance to strip him down of his stolen Miraculouses, and did NOTHING with the opportunity!!

And after a brief moment of Ladybug having "Resistance, Voyage, and Venom" highlighted with her "Buggy Vision," she ends up Cataclysming the floor.

After which, we immediately swap over to the "Resistance" getting chased around by the Miraculized... FOR SOME REASON. Like, WHY!? That is my root issue with this, WHY are the Miraculized going after anyone who isn't Ladybug or Chat Noir!? They are explicitly hunting them, and are equipped with tech that lets them TRACK them, so why in the world would they give a crap about random civilians that aren't their targets!?

Seriously, whatever tension could be found here is completely undercut by the fact that THERE IS NO FUCKING REASON FOR THEM TO BE GOING AFTER MARINETTE'S FRIENDS!!!

Now we get Su-Han and his "students" arriving to help fight, with Su-Han shouting "Storm of Justice!" Like... why? Just WHY!? It sounds like something out of a cringy, badly dubbed Chinese film. Even ignoring the vaguely racist-sounding quotes from Su-Han, the fight is... bad. Like, no joke; the moves are stilted, low-energy, and look more like something you'd see at a Martial Arts demonstration, and those typically aren't happening at the speed of an actual fight.

Then we get Juleka and Luka reuniting. Oh look, her "stutter" is completely gone, what a surprise. She's also curious on where Luka learned his moves, something I'm curious about as well. And of FUCKING COURSE it gets brushed aside with "That's a long story." Yeah, almost like it's a more interesting plot then this shoddy knock-off of Heroes' Day. Because more and more, that's what this is; there is no reasonable explanation behind the Miraculized going after random folks who aren't also Miraculized, especially not when they have tech designed to facilitate their ACTUAL GOAL, they are just copying Heroes' Day's "all hands on deck" set-up.

Okay, and now the "United Heroez" (really cringe name, Astruc) have shown up to bail the Guardians out. Which kinda reminds me of Marinette's angry rant to Socqueline during her debut; the show has a strong vibe of "you need superpowers, or tech advanced enough that it makes no difference, to be a hero" vibe to it. Also, I'm genuinely confused on how Su-Han is effected by the Nightmare; for fuck's sake, this is the guy who no-selled being Akumatized BY SLAPPING IT, he should absolutely have some mystic technique thing that lets him resist mental influences that aren't possession-based.

Knight Owl going "I am the nightmare" does not feel impressive, Astruc, it feels dumb. It's just a lame knock-off of Batman's routine, and it doesn't work when said during broad daylight in a costume that uses soft shades of violet to color it; it makes her look dumber more than anything. Oh, and it adds nothing to the scene since it explains NOTHING on how she can actually resist what is a literal magical curse on people.

Oh, now we got Ladydragon on the scene in Dragon Form. I'm sincerely confused on how in the WORLD she could target a literal blast of lightning so that it only damages the Alliance Rings. They... really aren't even pretending to give this fight real stakes, are they? It also highlights the issue with Fei's Dragon Form, in that she's so overwhelmingly powerful while using it that she can no-sell all but the most OP of enemies in the Miraculous-verse.

Hey, one of the Miraculized actually gave a reason why they are being targeted "They are Ladybug and Chat Noir's accomplices!" Which makes sense NOW that they are actually making progress in stopping the Miraculized... but doesn't explain WHY THE HELL THEY WERE TARGETING THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE UP UNTIL NOW!!!

Seriously, this entire fucking FIGHT is utterly stupid since, as I will keep repeating, THESE IDIOT VILLAINS CAN TRACK THE MIRACULOUSES!!! Or rather, they can track the power they generate while in-use. Hmm, didn't Orikko say Hawkmoth couldn't ask for a power that would do exactly that since it would "be a wish"? Not looking like much of a wish right now.

"Ladybug, what are you doing?" Alya, think for a second and consider what in the world could make Ladybug not intervene with a situation like this. Like, I dunno, maybe the fact that whenever a "big scheme" like this is set off, the culprit is always Hawkmoth and he always directly confronts the heroes, so she's probably off fighting Hawkmoth directly. That, or she's getting FUCKING SWARMED BY THE LITERAL ARMY OF SUPER POWERED BRAINWASHED MINIONS!!!

She isn't, but the fact that Alya hasn't thought of this is eye-roll inducing.

And now we are back to the fight between Hawkmoth and Ladybug!! Hawkmoth demands Ladybug hand over the Miraculouses so he can make his wish... instead of, you know, attacking her while she's scrambling for a weapon in the dirt and yanking them off her. Why is he so fixated on the idea of someone GIVING him the Miraculouses rather than sincerely getting his hands dirty in nabbing them?

Oh hey, he finally actually attacks her when she leaves herself open! That happens so rarely these days that it is genuinely noteworthy.

"Are you so sure that no Wish is worth that price, Marinette?!" Dude... YES!! You have crossed so many fucking lines in your obsessive pursuit over obtaining it that it really makes you and you alone the bad guy in this instance. Even if you WON, you have utterly failed as a father, disrespected your wife's wishes, are implied to be planning to KILL your old friend in the pursuit of disrespecting said wishes, and have been tormenting the city for nearly a fucking YEAR with massive risks of lost lives!! You are not the only person in the world who is hurting! You are not the only one whose feelings and opinions FUCKING MATTER!!! You are a monster, and all this BS is just you trying to ensure that you control everything!! YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!

"No, this is impossible!" She says as she sees Emilie's corpse in a glass coffin. HOW is it impossible!? You KNEW Emilie was "gone," and as much as the show dances the hell around the topic of death to the point of stupidity, why the FUCK is the reveal that Hawkmoth is such an obsessed maniac that he's preserved his wife's corpse so fucking impossible you idiot!?

Hawkmoth now going on a ridiculously obnoxious rant on how Emilie being back will allow Kagami and Adrien to become the eternal "perfect icons of this world, and we will be here to witness their absolute triumph!" Note how all of this involves this lunatic utterly ignoring how he is ignoring what LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE INVOLVED WANTS except for himself; this is not about bringing back his wife for his son or their family, this is all for HIMSELF. He is doing all this FOR HIMSELF. Always has, always will; he STILL refuses to accept that Adrien is unhappy with his controlling and toxic BS, and probably hates him by this point for him being an abusive piece of shit, because doing so means admitting that he doesn't actually CARE about Adrien's happiness, just his own, just how HE gets to make everything fit into neat little boxes.

"How many lives are you going to ruin in the name of your crazy dreams!?" YES!! For the first time in this fucking season, MARINETTE IS TALKING SENSE!? Also, still annoyed that she's not trying to keep fighting him since he is LITERALLY JUST STANDING THERE WITH HIS ARMS SPREAD AND NO LONGER HAS THE TURTLE RING TO SHIELD HIS RINGS FROM BEING STOLEN BY HER!!!

And here we get the part where Hawkmoth spells out that he knows full and well the consequences of the Wish, that it'll mean forcing his suffering of the Cataclysm onto someone else as well as killing someone to bring back Emilie, and basically asks why Marinette isn't willing to suffer for "Adrien's happiness" all while conveniently ignoring that HE has been sabotaging Adrien's happiness for YEARS because it wasn't the "happiness" Gabe decided he should have.

Now we get Marinette calling Gabe out on him putting his own butthurt feelings over Adrien's wellbeing and thus being a total failure as a father, and Gabe, being the projecting asshole that he is, claims that Adrien would CLEARLY do the same thing, despite the fact that Adrien's prior episodes that involve the lost of Emilie have all basically spelled out that he's made peace with it and MOVED THE FUCK ON!!! Something Gabe refuses to do because doing so would mean admitting he can't control this situation.

It's kinda hilarious in a bad way how Marinette says to Gabe "Adrien means nothing to you anymore," implying that he ever meant anything as a son to him at all, despite the fact that Adrien has basically been a prisoner in his own house SINCE LITERAL CHILDHOOD. Gabe stopped giving a damn about what Adrien wanted a long time ago, well before Emilie got hurt or sick. The fact that the show glosses over the fact that Adrien's isolation predates Emilie's death is one of the most sickening aspects of this show, as it shows how committed they are to ignoring the truth they've crafted in favor of their own BS narrative.

Oh, and we get a short clip of Lila using the stolen laptop to open Gabe's security system and entering the manor.

"All I want is for him to be happy" He says after having forced Adrien to leave his entire life behind, forced him into a fake relationship with a girl he isn't in love with, actively tried to sabotage any chance of Adrien getting together with Marinette despite her, on paper, making a far better partner in terms of optics compared to Kagami, who is utterly out of place in the Gabriel brand and the fashion/modeling industry altogether. Dude, pull the other one, YOU DO NOT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT HIS HAPPINESS.

And after a needlessly complicated rube goldberg device to disarm Hawkmoth (ignoring how she literally has had MULTIPLE CHANCES TO DISARM HIM BY JUST YANKING THE STUPID THINGS OFF OF HIM!!!) that also brings down a support column/elevator down onto the general direction of Emilie's coffin, Marinette has finally bested Hawkmoth, yanking off the Butterfly Miraculous and rendering him powerless! Now all that's left is for her to bring him to the police, expose him to the world, and who the fuck am I kidding there's no chance the writers will let that happen.

Okay, and now the Butterfly Miraculous has fallen into the water!! With Hawkmoth now ordering Nooroo to bring his brooch back; funny how we get scenes like this when the end of S3 had the Kwamis deliberately ignore Chloe even while she actually WAS wearing the Miraculouses.

Now Ladybug is hauling him away from the edge... slowly. And says... this:

"I'm still the Guardian, and the Guardian just took the Miraculous of the Butterfly back from you!" ...No. NO YOU FUCKING DIDN'T. YOU KNOCKED IT OFF HIM AND ALLOWED IT TO FALL INTO THE RANCID WATERS BENEATH THIS WEIRD-ASS SECRET BASE GABE HAS BENEATH HIS FUCKING HOUSE. They are seriously fucking trying to use "the rules" to defang Gabe, instead of, you know, having had her YANK THE FUCKING THING OFF WHEN HE WAS HELPLESS, and citing some unexplained magical BS as the reason this works instead of, again, JUST YANKING THE THING OFF OF HIM.

Seriously, they are just acting as if Marinette knocking the thing into the water is this magic "cure all" that just... prevents Nooroo from being compelled to obey Gabe. What the hell is this even supposed to be based on!? It's not as if any Guardian picked Gabe in the first place!!

"Someone that I'll be choosing!" ...Marinette, literally the ENTIRE FUCKING REASON you were even chosen in the first place was to take the Butterfly Miraculous out and off the playing field, because the Miraculouses are meant to be used SPARINGLY. How the fuck do you even know if you'll even be ALIVE by the time a new wielder would even be NEEDED!?

Then Gabe tries to use Venom, despite the fact he isn't transformed anymore and has already been disarmed of his rings by this point. Really clutching the idiot ball hard.

"I can just say the word, and the rings will be destroyed." ...WHEN THE FUCK WAS THAT EVER ESTABLISHED YOU FUCKING IDIOT!? WHEN!? WHEN WAS THIS STATED!? "You'll be powerless." HE IS ALREADY POWERLESS!! YOU HAVE WON!!! JUST KNOCK HIM OUT AND HAND HIM OVER TO THE FUCKING COPS ALREADY!!! Also, the WAY she is saying this sounds like something a villain would say; just saying.

Seriously, even when she is phrasing her actions as good, you know freeing the Kwamis, undoing the harm Gabe has caused with the Ladybug Miraculous, and getting Plagg back to Chat Noir, the way she is talking right now, that is villain talk. The style of speech is just EERIE. Call me petty, but it just sounds disturbing the way she's monologuing; seriously, why the fuck are you wasting your words on this guy who has already established he is willing to burn down the world for his fucking selfishness.

"Everything will be back to normal." ...Somehow I doubt it.

And again, I must reiterate, WHY IS SHE WASTING HER WORDS ON HIM!?

"Except you will only have a few hours left to live." Yes, yes he will, BECAUSE OF HIS OWN FUCKING STUPIDITY. He WILLINGLY forced Chat Noir to hit him with a fatal attack, despite him having the perfect means of defending himself at the time; there is NO ONE BUT HIMSELF TO BLAME FOR HIS OWN DEATH.

"So does Nathalie, a victim of your madness." NO!! NO SHE IS NOT!!! SHE WAS HIS WILLING ACCOMPLICE FOR HER OWN SELFISHNESS, JUST LIKE HE WAS!!! NO ONE FORCED HER TO USE THE FUCKING BROKEN PEACOCK!! SHE CHOSE TO USE IT DESPITE KNOWING WHAT IT WOULD DO TO HER!!! GABE EVEN WARNED HER AGAINST USING IT!!!

And all while she is trying to "reach out to him" he's just staring at the fact that she's holding his hand with the one that has the Black Cat Miraculous on it. Nothing she is saying is effecting him at all, he is just waiting for her to give him a fucking opening. You can TELL he doesn't give a damn about what she's saying.

"And Adrien will be miserable." I mean, he'll have learned that his father, who has been abusing him emotionally for literal years, is a terrorist. Like, YOU are the fucking one who went out of her way to call out Gabe on clinging to the past while Adrien has moved on with his life; YES he is going to be upset that his dad is gone, NOTHING YOU DO CAN CHANGE THAT YOU FUCKING IDIOT!!! Bad things happen, and Gabe is a terrible father who Adrien probably despises by now. THIS is why Chat having been taken out by those stupid fucking "nightmares" is so obnoxious; Marinette is arbitrarily speaking on his behalf to his father, without any regard for what HE would want!! It's just like when she tried to talk up how much Gabe has "changed" when all that has "changed" was that he swapped one form of exploitation for another and he has even LESS free time now then he did back when he was a model, all by Gabe's design. Gabe is a terrible person; yes, Adrien would be sad at the loss of his father, because he's not a psycho, but NOTHING Gabe could say or do would make Adrien change his feelings about how Gabe has hurt him without any regret or restraint.

And what makes this all such a fucking joke is that they are describing Gabe's actions as "Madness," as if he wasn't fully aware of the consequences of his actions and choices. Because no; Gabe is fully, fucking sane. He is just a spiteful, petty, selfish asshole who doesn't give a shit who he hurts if he can get what he wants, even his own son. You don't need to be crazy to do shit like that, so trying to rationalize his selfishness as him being "insane" is an insult to the mentally ill. Grow the fuck up.

"If you meant what you said earlier, then we both want the same thing." Marinette, shut the fuck up; this is the guy who explicitly threatened your future, your CAREER, because HE can't stand the idea of anyone but HIMSELF choosing who Adrien will spend his life with. Heck, it was apparently something PRE-PLANNED. He NEVER gave a shit if Adrien would actually even LIKE Kagami that way, or if she would reciprocate; all it was was two awful older folks being awful.

Trying to appeal to his wife's memory isn't liable to work given that this entire fiasco was based on him IGNORING her wishes for his own selfish obsession, and he has kept Adrien alone and isolated long before she passed away. Why the hell are you giving this asshole the benefit of the doubt? Why the hell should you when he spelled out that he was fully intending to kill someone just to bring back his wife, and curse another person with THEIR eventual death in exchange for his own life, all while having trampled upon his son's autonomy? WHY DO YOU THINK YOUR WORDS ARE GONNA REACH THE GUY WHO HAS MADE FINDING A NEW LOW TO SINK TO HIS MISSION IN LIFE!?

(Inhales angrily) Put. The fucking. VIDEO. OF EMILIE. AWAY!!! IT WAS LITERALLY ALREADY ESTABLISHED THAT GABE HAS ALREADY SEEN THEM AND CHOSE TO IGNORE THEM!!

Also, her describing creating her own son as a "mistake" is super classy. /s

And once again the video diaries pretending Nathalie wasn't fully complicit in keeping Adrien under his father's thumb and that she was never portrayed as close to Adrien EVER. And them acting like him "having his father" is such a big benefit despite the fact that Gabe has kept Adrien miserable LONG BEFORE EMILIE DIED. STOP TRYING TO PRETEND GABE WASN'T A SHIT FATHER LONG BEFORE HIS WIFE PASSED AWAY!!! FOR FUCK'S SAKE SHE DIED LITERALLY LAST YEAR!!!

STOP CALLING WHAT GABE IS DOING MADNESS!!! MADNESS IS NOT SOMETHING YOU "GIVE UP!!" HE FULLY KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING, HE JUST DOESN'T CARE SO LONG AS HE GETS WHAT HE WANTS!!! It's telling that they are insisting that what Gabe is doing is an anomaly despite so much of the entire series going "no, this is how he's always been" and trying to act like him doing monstrous things is because he "isn't in his right mind," whereas when it's Chloe doing awful things "it's because she's a brat, nothing more." Funny, isn't it? /s

NO HE WOULD NOT!!! HOW COULD HE BE HAPPY BEING LOCKED UP INSIDE A HOUSE WITH NO FRIENDS TO TALK TO OR ANY CHANCE TO EXPERIENCE LIFE ON HIS OWN FUCKING TERMS!? YOU ARE BASICALLY SAYING THAT HE SHOULD BE KEPT IN A GILDED CAGE!!!

"Adrien has learned to live, and build his own happiness." Yeah, because he kept trying to escape the cage Emilie and Gabe BOTH PUT HIM IN. Losing someone is not this absolute, insurmountable obstacle in life; plenty of people lose loved ones every single fucking day, Gabe has long crossed the point where grief could explain his actions, and it does NOTHING to absolve him of literal YEARS of forcibly isolating Adrien from everyone around him. Seriously, him going to your class was HIS FIRST EVER DAY OF PUBLIC SCHOOL, OR ANY KIND OF SCHOOL OUTSIDE HIS OWN HOME. He "learned to live" by getting out from Gabe's thumb and escaping a prison he's been in for years by this point; Gabe's abuse is nothing new. His toxicity is nothing new. Emilie is not an explanation for his behavior; he has always been this monster before you.

"While cherishing the memory of his mother." He never even mentions her.

"I just can't live without her." Cool motive, still an abusive piece of garbage; if you actually cared about your son or your wife's legacy, you'd turn yourself over to the police for however long you have left.

"I loved her so much." Yet you apparently never gave much of a shit about your son, given that he's been kept trapped in your house for basically his entire life without any friends besides a girl he used to know when he was a small child, and forced to be a model, and exploited his image anyway even when he said he didn't want to be one.

The sketch-drawings of Adrien's childhood is kinda contrasted by the fact that you LOCKED HIM IN YOUR HOUSE HIS ENTIRE CHILDHOOD. Seriously, STOP GLOSSING OVER THE FACT THAT YOU BOTH KEPT HIM ALONE AND WITHOUT FRIENDS HIS ENTIRE LIFE.

"Adrien was not alone, he had Nathalie and me." No, he was still extremely alone since the two of you are adults who have jobs to do, yet you never once let him go out and have friends or live his own life.

I CANNOT REITERATE HOW FUCKING OBNOXIOUS THEM GLOSSING OVER ADRIEN'S FORCED ISOLATION IS.

There is a vast difference between not being very outgoing and thus not having a large circle of friends, and being deliberately KEPT from having ANY FRIENDS AT ALL. I am speaking from personal experience on this; seeing how the show is trying to romanticize Gabe's toxic as fuck behavior and ignoring how he has been abusing and neglecting Adrien long before Emilie died is fucking annoying. It is telling in all the worst ways that the only images we get of Adrien this scene are of his very early childhood, yet Emilie only passed away around a year ago.

"I've ruined everything." Yeah, who knew that grabbing the idiot ball in ways that are now costing you your life, alongside your accomplice doing similar, would have consequences?

"Adrien will have no one left!" He has. A fucking. GIRLFRIEND. One that YOU have gone out of your way to try and keep him from to forcibly pair him with someone he isn't into. That's hardly 'no one left.' Not even getting into all his other friends, all of which he made AFTER breaking out of the cage you shoved him in.

"I'm sure we can figure out a solution." THERE IS NO SOLUTION!!! YOU SAID AS MUCH YOURSELF, HE IS DYING!!! For FUCK'S SAKE, if "closure" means so much to you, just use Voyage to go to where Adrien is and have him apologize to his son for being such a bad father so that he can at least do SOMETHING in his final moments that means something!!!

Also, it's "funny" how utterly superfluous to the plot Tomoe is at this point; it's almost as if she was only brought in to give a reason for Gabe to try and shove Adrien in the direction of someone who isn't Marinette!

Marinette, he has barely a few hours left, and you just watched as part of his finger crumbled to dust. There is nothing that can be done in this situation; STOP BABYING THE TERRORIST.

SEE!? THIS IS MY EXACT POINT!! Even after she TRIED trying to talk him down, his first solution is have HER make the Wish!! He refuses to accept that there isn't something that can be done and that Emilie will probably NEVER FORGIVE HIM for what he's done up until now, or that no matter what 'impossible solution' she comes up with, someone ELSE will still have to suffer for it. The idea that HE HAS LOST refuses to click to him. He's beyond help.

I'm just gonna tune out what's being said until the inevitable betrayal occurs, otherwise I'm gonna blow a gasket. This is such bullshit.

Yup, she turned back to normal and, right after Plagg and Tikki warn her not to trust him (LISTEN TO THEM!!) he immediately Venoms her... somehow. Despite not actually being transformed and thus the Rings shouldn't work (how the fuck DO they work anyway!?).

After taking the Miraculouses, he orders Tikki and Plagg to "reveal themselves." Also, them being forced to obey him once again contradicting Marinette's claims THIS EPISODE about how as the Guardian SHE decides if someone can use a given Miraculous (apparently!!) or can just order the Miraculouses to break (APPARENTLY!!), and once again insisting that Kwami HAVE to obey their wielder ("Miracle Queen" says "Am I a joke to you?"). Fucking BULLSHIT!!!

And now... ugghh... the reveal of "Gimmi." Absolutely stupid as fuck name and color scheme aside, I've got nothing to say past my unshackled anger and loathing at this petty as fuck jackass getting away with his evil plans.

Once again the show proves unable to not try and make a bad joke out of what is supposed to be a serious situation. Seriously, we didn't need Gimmi to demonstrate the idea of a Wish requiring Balance by having them describe "garden peas to turn red, Strawberries would turn green."

"Marinette, make sure Adrien never learns about the villain that I was, and that instead, that he remembers the times I tried to be a good father." NO NO NO FUCKING FUCK NO!! FUCK THAT BULLSHIT!!! YOU HAVE NEVER TRIED TO BE A GOOD FATHER!!! YOU HAVE BEEN THE ABSOLUTE WORST FATHER IN THIS FUCKING SHOW TO DATE!! YOU HAVE ISOLATED HIM!! ABUSED HIM!! LIED TO HIM!!! TRIED TO DICTATE EVERY ACTION HE TOOK IN LIFE SO THAT IT WOULD FIT YOUR DISGUSTING NEED TO CONTROL EVERYTHING AROUND YOU!!! GET THE FUCK OVER YOURSELF AND DON'T YOU DARE TRY AND MAKE THE GIRL YOU HAVE THREATENED THE LIFE AND SAFETY AND HAPPINESS OF ACT AS YOUR PERSONAL STOOGE SO THAT YOU CAN ONCE AGAIN ESCAPE THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS YOU FUCKING COWARD!!!

"What do you wish for?" "Read my heart." "What do you sacrifice?" "Read my soul." ...[CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED] WITH A FUCKING [CENSORED] WHILE [CENSORED]!!! GET THIS SHIT OUT OF MY SIGHT!!! YOU DO NOT GET TO FUCKING PUSSYFOOT AROUND HIS WISH, NOT AFTER FUCKING YANKING OUR CHAINS ALL THIS FUCKING TIME YOU ROTTEN BASTARDS!!! YOU DO NOT GET TO DO THAT!! YOU ESPECIALLY DO NOT GET TO ACT AS IF THE SACRIFICE IS SOMETHING PEOPLE CAN PICK AND CHOOSE, SINCE NOTHING THE SERIES HAS DONE HAS INDICATED THAT THAT IS POSSIBLE!! Oh yeah, AND WE ALREADY HAVE IT ESTABLISHED THAT MAKING THE WISH ERASES THE UNIVERSE AND MAKES UP A NEW ONE!!!!

DON'T YOU JUST FUCKING LOVE HOW THE FACT THAT THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE BEING REBOOTED IS JUST GLOSSED OVER AND TREATED LIKE IT IS THIS HUNKY DORY GOOD TIME FEELING!? I DON'T!! I HATE IT!!! I HATE ALL OF THIS ENTITLED, SELF-SERVING BULLSHIT WHERE A FUCKING TERRORIST GOT AWAY SCOTT FREE FOR ALL HIS BS!!! I HATE EVERY SECOND OF IT!!!!

Oh, now here we are in the new reality with Marinette's clone kissing Adrien's clone awake! WRITERS THE STUPID AS HELL FAIRY TALE SYMBOLISM IS NOT FUCKING CUTE YOU ASSHOLES!!!

Then we get an infuriating scene of everyone acting like it's all a happy fun time, as if reality wasn't undone and remade at its seams. Then we get the start of a broadcast featuring Alec who looks... really different; and I don't just mean the hair. He's interviewing Miss Bustier, who SOMEHOW won the position to be Mayor. HOW!? She's apparently "completely changed Paris." Oh boy…

She describes her getting her position as a "revolution by the people of Paris that forced the Bourgeois' out of power." THAT IS NOT HOW RUNNING FOR MAYOR FUCKING WORKS!!! NOTHING WAS STOPPING PEOPLE FOR VOTING FOR A DIFFERENT MAYOR!!!

"The Eco Rule; It consists of very simple principles. Don't take more from the Earth then what it can give us, distribute its riches equitably, and don't pollute more than it can recycle." ...HOW THE ABSOLUTE FUCK IS THAT EVEN SUPPOSED TO FUCKING WORK!?!? ON WHAT STANDARDS IS "MORE THAN IT CAN GIVE US" DETERMINED!? HOW ARE THEY BEING DISTRIBUTED AND WHAT DETERMINES THAT DISTRIBUTION!? AND MAYBE JUST DON'T POLLUTE AT ALL AND PROVIDE SERVICES MEANT TO FIGHT POLLUTION INSTEAD!!! FOR FUCK'S SAKE IT IS JUST AUTO-ASSUMING THAT THIS "UTOPIA" IS JUST GOING TO FUCKING WORK WITH NO BUSINESSES FIGHTING IT OR OPPOSING IT ON ANY LEVEL!!!

"We've reorganized everything to remove the need for cars, wrappers, and it's been working great!" HOW!? HOW THE ABSOLUTE FUCK DOES ANY OF THAT WORK!?!? HERE IS A NEWS FLASH, MOST PEOPLE LIKE OWNING CARS AND TREAT IT AS A STATUS SYMBOL, SO EVEN IF YOU INCREASED PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION PLENTY OF PEOPLE WOULD DRIVE THEIR OWN CARS ANYWAY BECAUSE RELYING ON A FIXED TRANSIT IS NOT PRACTICAL!! I SHOULD KNOW AS I AM RELIANT ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION TO GET TO AND FROM WORK, AND I HAVE TO CUSTOM SCHEDULE RIDES BECAUSE IT ISN'T POSSIBLE TO USE THE NORMAL RUNS!!! AND GETTING RID OF WRAPPERS ISN'T PRACTICAL AS DOING SO WOULD MEAN GETTING RID OF NINETY PERCENT OF GOODS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE GO BAD IN THE OPEN AIR, OR GET PEOPLE SICK!!! IT WOULD BE MORE FEASIBLE TO SWITCH OUT WRAPPERS FOR MORE BIODEGRADABLE MATERIALS INSTEAD!!! FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!!

"All the Alliance Rings that were Hijacked by Monarch have been recycled to design the statue in honor of the great Gabriel Agreste." GET THIS FUCKING SHIT OUT OF MY HEAD!!! HE WAS MONARCH ALL ALONG!! WHY DID YOU FUCKING COVER FOR HIM, MARINETTE!? WHY DID YOU LIE TO THE CITY, LETTING THEM BELIEVE THE MAN WHO HAS BEEN TORMENTING THEM FOR OVER A FUCKING YEAR FOR HIS OWN SELFISH STUPIDITY WAS SOME KIND OF FUCKING HERO!?? WHY!?!?

"Beyond a visionary entrepreneur, and a genius creator, it's the hero who we celebrate today." OH LOOK IT'S TOMOE, BITCH MOTHER OF THE YEAR RUNNER-UP AND MONARCH'S ACCOMPLICE!!! I know that Marinette SOMEHOW never found out Tomoe was Gabe's accomplice, but for FUCK'S SAKE WE NEVER EVEN LEARNED WHAT SHE EVEN WANTED FROM THE WISH IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! AND SHE IS ENABLING GABE BEING GLORIFIED AS A HERO!!! FUCK YOU BITCH!!!

"And tomorrow it's his legacy that I will continue on." WELL NOW ISN'T THAT AN OMINOUS AS FUCK STATEMENT FROM SOMEONE WHO FUCKING EMOTIONALLY ABUSES HER DAUGHTER!! Seriously, now would be the PERFECT moment to show Kagami cringing back and being comforted by her friends at the facade of compassion her mother is putting up to the world. TOO FUCKING BAD WE GET THIS SHIT INSTEAD!!!

"Why don't you tell us about this new school you've imagined?" "Oh, it isn't my school, but the result of a collaborative effort; in this new school, there will be no classes, or struggling to get good grades. Children of all ages will be able to intermix and freely access all kinds of activities. They'll be able to try their hands at everything, learn at their own pace, and help each other until they've figured out what they want to do later in life. This school will be their second home. Children are our future. If we want it to be bright, we must help each child to shine."

(Breathes in deep) To keep from screaming and possibly breaking a wall, I'm gonna break down this BS as fast as I can:

"No Classes" is a terrible fucking idea. The entire POINT of classes is that unless LITERALLY THE ENTIRE SCHOOL is self-motivated to learn, NO ONE IS GOING TO LEARN because you NEED to ensure that kids show up and are actually trying to learn.

"No grades" THAT is slightly more reasonable, as that is something that is done in some schools IRL, but I don't know the details, and all it does is compound the idiotic design of this place.

"All Age Groups intermix" THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA!!! Kids of different age groups typically have radically different interests and emotional experiences, having no set boundaries is a time bomb waiting to go off.

"All can freely access all kinds of activities." This is a mildly good idea, as many electives correlate to skills that can be genuinely valuable in life, or just plain a relaxing break... but it's the kind of thing you would still need an overall standard plan on what you are going to teach kids, not just "kids do whatever when they feel like it."

"They'll be able to try their hands at everything" This statement means nothing. It's literally just a platitude.

"They'll learn at their own pace." That is literally how learning works; the issue IRL is that schools follow curriculums that are designed to keep moving forward because stopping and making personal deviations for people who either can't keep up or are going too fast is impractical and doomed to make everything crawl to a stop; it's better just to have free and round the clock tutoring services designed to help kids approach lessons from a variety of different avenues until they find a way to learn that works best for themselves.

"They'll help each other until they figure out what they want to do later in life." I've said it once, I'll say it again THIS IS NOT SOME REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPT. This is LITERALLY how education basically already works and anyone who thinks that what they want to do in life NOW is what they are always going to want to do is an idiot, and that what they want to do may not even be possible due to the constraints surrounding it, it's just throwing meaningless shade at a nonexistent problem of schools 'forcing kids to choose early on in life.'

And the rest is just empty air. Fuck that.

"Ladybug gave it to me, she told me how my father helped her to defeat Monarch, at the cost of his life. I don't know if I'll ever manage to be like him." YOU SHOULD NOT WANT TO BE LIKE HIM!! HE WAS AN ABUSIVE PIECE OF FILTH WHO TREATED YOU LIKE SHIT AND KEPT YOU LOCKED UP IN YOUR OWN HOUSE FOR YEARS, INTERFERED WITH YOUR LOVE LIFE, AND LATER SUBJECTED YOU TO WHITE TORTURE!! MARINETTE, YOU HAVE GASLIT YOUR BOYFRIEND INTO IDOLIZING THE MONSTER WHO MADE HIS LIFE A LIVING HELL!!! FUCK YOU AND FUCK YOUR BULLSHIT PROMISE!!!!

"You don't need to be like him, just be yourself." That would be more touching if you weren't ACTIVELY LYING TO HIM ABOUT HIS FATHER'S IDENTITY AND RETROACTIVELY ENABLING THE ABUSE HE WENT THROUGH!!!

"You're the only one who can decide what to make of your life." Yeah, something his father DID NOT BELIEVE AS HE ACTIVELY TRIED TO CONTROL EVERY ASPECT OF HIS LIFE!!! SERIOUSLY WHY IS ADRIEN NOT MORE CONFLICTED OVER THIS!? HE KNOWS HIS FATHER WAS A FAILURE AS A PARENT AND A PIECE OF HUMAN TRASH, HIM "LEARNING" THAT HIS DAD APPARENTLY HAD A MORAL LINE HE WOULDN'T CROSS DOESN'T INVALIDATE ALL THE ABUSE HE PUT HIM THROUGH!!!

"You always find the right words, Marinette." NO SHE DOESN'T!! OFTEN HER WORDS JUST MAKE SHIT WORSE!!!

"When I'm with you, I feel so... free!" SINCE FUCKING WHEN!? IT IS REALLY IRONIC TO SAY THAT GIVEN THAT SHE IS TRAPPING YOU IN A CAGE OF LIES!!!

The whole "kiss scene" going on is ruined by the fact that Marinette is lying to Adrien and that Adrien never once was allowed proper closure for how much of a failure of a parent and an abusive piece of crap his dad is. This is a toxic shitstorm of gaslighting and mutually enabling toxic behaviors between the two of them.

Oh look, a news report where that scientist lady who created the Pigeon Dinos is on the screen, I wonder why she's the special guest being called up to talk about how crazy things have been, given that she's apparently someone who works with DNA.

Apparently Marinette SOMEHOW remodeled the Rings back into their original forms. I'm genuinely BAFFLED as to HOW, and I honestly think it could've been more interesting if they'd been kept as Rings with the heroes having to work out how to use them in their new configurations while Marinette has to research a way to get them back to normal in the next season... all except 2 1.

"Still no sign of the Miraculous of the Butterfly?" Hmm, given that the last ANYONE saw of it involved it falling into what I can only imagine is water that leads to the sewers after getting knocked off of Gabe's chest, I wonder WHY it's gone missing again!!!

Her saying that now all the heroes are responsible for their own Kwami is something that should've probably happened AROUND SEASON THREE, NOT SEASON FIVE!!! Also, really annoyed seeing all the Temp Heroes with the awed and overjoyed expressions at being reunited with their Kwami, considering they barely even KNOW the Kwami and didn't really have any emotional attachments to them, last I checked. The fact that fucking ARGOS is counted among the heroes is something I will NEVER forgive.

Damocles is sorting Paperwork and just got a voice message from a "mysterious new student" who is clearly Lila as she didn't even BOTHER DISGUISING HER VOICE. For fuck's sake, here we go again. SOMEHOW Lila got the Butterfly; Don't even FUCKING START WITH ANY "but she showed up at the Agreste Manor" BS!! She showed up to find a GIANT GAPING HOLE SEVERAL STORIES DEEP and there was a massive battle raging in Hawkmoth's lair and Marinette took out the Elevator, there IS NO POSSIBLE WAY SHE COULD'VE GOTTEN DOWN THERE AND GOTTEN THE MIRACULOUS AFTER IT FUCKING FELL INTO THE WATER!! IF SHE HAD MADE A DIVE FOR IT, THEY WOULD'VE HEARD HER!!! And it ends with some kind of energy portal opening up behind her. Why do I hate where that stupid cliffhanger is leaving off...?

And with that, I am FINALLY FUCKING DONE WITH THIS SEASON!!!

[meownotgood]

btw has anyone else's tumblr app just been a buggy nightmare recently... sometimes I can't even use it for a full minute before it has a heart attack and restarts itself lmao

[whatislovevavy]

WC: 4.4k

Synopsis: An exploration of why Bucky decided to cut his hair

AN: This has been in my Google Drive for about two years and finally got around/had the motivation to finish this. This piece was technically my first ever piece of fanfiction I ever wrote. My writing mostly pertains to Top Gun and Top Gun Maverick so this was a nice little brain break from that. I thought I'd include the original author's note I put together, having never written fanfiction at the time, just for nostalgic sake and if anyone wants to know just how new to this I was lol. Also this divider is not mine and I was unable to tag the account that made it since it was deleted. This work will be posted on my side blog @sophs-writing-nook.

Original Author’s Note: Hello everyone :) This is the first fanfiction I’ve ever written and I really hope you guys like it because I’m a bit nervous about it. I’ve had this idea since I saw the first promotions for the Falcon and Winter Soldier series and didn't really do anything about it for a variety of reasons. I haven’t seen a lot of fics exploring this concept so I decided to write this on a camping trip in my notes app where I didn’t have reception so I apologize if there is bad grammar, spelling errors, etc. If there happens to be a similarity to another fic, it is purely coincidence and I don’t intend to plagiarize anyone. Please let me know if it does appear I have. I have a lot of respect for fanfic writers and don’t want to disrespect anyone and steal anyone’s work unintentionally. 

Warnings: Blood, Trauma (PTSD), sadness with some bittersweet moments sprinkled in, supportive Sam because that’s a warning in itself. 

None of these characters are mine. Read at your own discretion.

Bucky had tried finding a routine after coming back: Get up by 7, go on a run make breakfast, try to keep in touch with his friends he had made since coming back, try a new recipe, maybe try online dating, catch up on what he missed the past 70 years, try to forgive himself for all the atrocities he didn't have a choice in committing, make dinner, shower, and sleep by 9.

That's what his therapist, Darlene, told him to do at least.

She wanted him to write in a journal the names of the people and families he wanted to make amends with, things he wanted to explore and try out, and good things he remembered before he was the Winter Soldier.

Darlene had kept encouraging him to keep referring to the Winter Soldier as if he were his own separate person, and not affiliated with James Buchanan Barnes.

It helped a bit with passing the blame, but not by much. He, naturally, chose the last remnant of Steve he had- his journal- to hold these thoughts.

Steve saw the best in him when he couldn't. 

He made an effort to try and forgive himself for everything he did, for Steve’s sake. 

Why Steve had left him, he didn't fully understand. 

It didn't make the "forgiving himself" part any easier. 

If his lifelong friend, who had been with him through thick and thin, decided to leave him now in this time of his broken, mutilated life, what did that say about him? 

Was he wrong about him? 

Did he truly believe he was worth being fixed and forgiven? 

There were small moments of hope that he could be fixed, but they were few and far inbetween.

His nightmares had gotten worse.

If Darlene would ask, he’d tell her, “no, they haven't", "they've stopped", or "I haven't had one for a while.” Bullshit excuses that anybody who saw the dark circles under his eyes wouldn't believe. Darlene knew he was lying and would try to reassure him that their space was safe and it would help him to get his nightmares out in the open.

He didn't think so.

This woman didn't know what it was like to have the same horrific scenarios play out in his mind every time he went to sleep. 

To see himself killing innocent people like he was in the backseat of his mind. 

The blood. 

Their faces, some close friends and others strangers. 

Their pleas and calls for mercy were what always broke him. 

He was forced again and again to witness himself taking their lives and couldn't do anything to stop himself. Forced to use any part of himself for Hydra.

Nothing was spared.

He felt unforgivable, these nightmares were a sign of the Winter Soldier still being in his head, buried and ready if Hydra got their hands on him again. 

He was tired of fighting and worrying, only wanting lasting peace and a full night's rest.

He had started renting an apartment in downtown Brooklyn near where his family had lived during the 40's. It was near the church cemetery his mother, father and sister, Rebecca, were buried. They were placed in the row closest to the street behind the church his family frequented during his youth. 

His parents had passed from old age when he was imprisoned by Hydra. 

A small part of him was thankful for that. 

They never had to learn that their son had done such horrible things.

They lived with the good memories of him.

His sister had passed during the time half the population was gone, the Blip people called it, from Alzheimer's. He visited her once before, but she was in the late stages, and was a shell of who he remembered growing up. 

His little sister Rebecca, whom he protected, opened jars for, teased, and made sure the boys she liked would be good to her, was now unable to remember him. He was told she passed peacefully in her sleep a few months after he disappeared.

Darlene thought that buying an apartment so close to his family's resting place might be overwhelming for him, but he wanted to be close to them and the memories he had.

The apartment consisted of a basic floor plan; kitchen, bathroom with a shower and bath, living room, bedroom, closet. However, he only used the kitchen, bathroom, and living room.

He didn't have many things when he moved in, and didn't feel he needed all the space allotted to him.

He had invested in a modest tv set, a microwave, blender, and a camping mat, courtesy of Sam's encouragement. 

He had tried sleeping on a mattress, but he felt that he was going to sink through into the floor with how soft and marshmallow-like it felt. He always slept on the floor with a few blankets and sheets. 

Sam had the same experience when he came back from Afghanistan.

Sam had tried to help him adjust to things since coming back, and had done a lot for him, including to help him find his apartment and encourage him to try new things.

There were times he had trouble getting out of his headspace to return Sam's calls and initiate with his friend. Darlene had been saying that for a person who allegedly had no one left, he seemed to have a safety net in Sam. She pushed him to call someone other than her and initiate with him. It was another case where he felt she didn't fully understand how difficult it was for him to build relationships, and "get his nightmares out in the open" since coming back.

He had gotten home late that night from the store, buying ingredients to make a recipe Darlene recommended: chicken tikka masala, he thought she called it.

He was amazed at the amount of change he had missed, especially from a grocery store. His family would boil everything with what minimal spices were available, other than the usual salt and pepper. He found solace in trying new recipes and exposing himself to the technological wonders of the 21st century, including learning how to use a DVD player and the iPhone he recently bought. He tried online dating but found it was too overwhelming and made him feel like a fish out of water. Asking people on dates and seeking relationships came easily to him when he was younger before the war, but everything felt so different now. 

He felt so different and foreign to himself. His arm. His mind. He felt like a shell of the person he was before the Winter Soldier.

His groceries were unloaded into the fridge and he started to prepare his dinner. He placed a bowl on the counter for mixing chicken marinade and marinating the soon to be cooked slices of chicken. The chicken slices were placed into a pan on a low heat to begin cooking. They wouldn't take long since they only had to cook halfway through initially. He gathered the spices for the marinade.

The soft smells of turmeric, ginger, cumin, and garam masala reminded him of the evenings he spent helping his mother cook during the summer. His mother would rummage together some cash every once in a while to buy a few sachets of spices from the local grocery. It was an indulgence she took part in that, compared to now, seemed simple and less of an everyday luxury. 

Sure, the spices she would bring home were more mild and less "exotic" than what he had available to him now, but it was the familiar memory of being taught to cook and the soft smells of his mother's cooking.

His conscience told him to use the spices sparingly despite himself being confronted with a substantially sized grocery aisle complete with spices from almost every corner of the world a mere few hours ago.

Maybe it was his upbringing during the Great Depression and watching his parents worry about where the next paycheck would come from.

Or maybe it was his instinct telling him this small semblance of peace he had found in his Brooklyn apartment would be snatched away, and that he needed to savor every new experience in stride. 

Because if he let himself enjoy them too much, it would make the snatching that much more painful.

He couldn't decide.

He finished the marinade and would have to wait an hour or two to start the sauce and cook the chicken. He placed it in the fridge and made his way to the bathroom for a shower.

The warm water felt nice on his warped, scarred flesh around his arm on his left side. The area would often become sore and plagued by knots. Sam recommended warm showers, aloe vera, a massage and spa place nearby, and Advil. The thought of people he didn't know touching his scarred flesh made him feel nervous, so the rest of his suggestions were his go to. 

His scar tissue and long hair were the last physical mark of Hydra on him. 

He was thankful he didn't have to see the red star that had branded him for so many years when he looked in the mirror anymore, since leaving Wakanda.

But there was still his hair.

His hair that had blood, dirt and grime stained into it for his 70 years of service. No matter how many times he showered, he knew the blood would never leave his hair or his hands. His mind would drift through waves of hopelessness in quiet moments like these more often than not.

He dried himself off with a soft towel, changed into a pair of boxers, and began to gingerly apply aloe vera to the junction where his arm met his shoulder. His shoulder was still a bit sensitive after all these years despite the enhanced healing from the serum. Shuri theorized it was because the metal cavity of his arm continuously tore through the underlying tissue. She was able to remove the bits and pieces of metal embedded in his shoulder. His arm was in the healing process, but it would take a while after years of damage even with the serum. After he finished rubbing in the aloe vera, He put on a dark t-shirt and made his way back into the kitchen to finish the sauce.

He carefully prepared the onions, garlic, and spices for the sauce the way his mother taught him to. 

He couldn't help but think about how his parents and sister would have loved to have tried this recipe with him.

He could almost hear his mother's voice in his head telling him to "cut the onions a bit smaller" or "don't let the garlic and onions burn in the pan".

Rebecca's eagerness to try the sauce prematurely with a perfected pout and whines of protest when denied so.

His father's quiet yet strong presence at the kitchen table reading the daily paper and soft scolding of his sister.

Steve drawing in his journal at the dinner table on evenings when Sarah Rogers would be working late at the hospital.

The radio softly playing in the background as a soothing ambiance.

The kitchen window opened to let the aroma of the Barnes’ family dinner wander through the back alley of the apartment building, and let in the sounds of the neighbors' soft conversations, clothes oscillating in the wind on the clothes line, and car engines humming as people made their way home at dusk.

All qualities of his family's evening routine and upbringing he longed for, but took for granted in his youth.

The stark smell of overcooked onions brought him back to the task at hand, pulling him from his thoughts but leaving his buildup of emotions he felt were about to rupture. He added the heavy cream, spices, brown sugar, and let them stir with the marinated onions and garlic. He felt tears start to form in his eyes. Letting the sauce thicken, he turned the pan onto a low heat, and added the marinated chicken to finish cooking. 

He placed the spatula down on the counter top with a shaky hand, placing his hands on the counter to support himself as he let out a shaky breath, blinking away tears that formed in the corners of his eyes.

God, he wished they were here with him. Steve. His mom. His dad. Rebecca.

He wished he had somebody who knew him before the Winter Soldier that could help him to pick up the broken pieces of himself and to become the person he was again.

He wished he could have said goodbye to his parents, Rebecca, and that Steve hadn't left him.

He wished he could've held his parents one last time before they passed, met the man that Rebecca fell in love with and had a family with, and fought harder for Steve to stay with him and help pick up the pieces.

All things that he couldn't do anything about now.

He wiped his tears away and returned to stirring his chicken masala. Thoughts of his family blending with the thoughts of his recipe like the spices and heavy cream in his pan as a cope. Darlene had mentioned that the recipe goes best with garlic buttered rice or naan, so he had bought ingredients for both, but opted for the naan. He turned on the oven, placed some naan from the store on a baking sheet, and into the oven before returning to stirring the contents of the pan. 

He remembered Sam wanted to come over and check in on how he was settling into his apartment, sometime the next day. Maybe he would want to try some of his dish. 

"Initiate, take small steps to initiate". This counted as initiating, right? He hoped so.

His chicken masala was well blended and deemed done. His naan close behind. He placed a bowl and plate on the counter, served up his recipe and naan, and sat down at his two person dinner table, and prepared to eat. Darlene had told him that making a makeshift taco with the naan tasted good if he opted to not make the garlic butter rice. He took his first bite and let himself experience each incredible flavor. 

He would definitely be making this recipe again.

Maybe he could make a batch for Sam. 

It would be a small way to return the favor.

He made his way through his dinner, and would start heading to bed soon. It was almost 9 anyway. Shuri told him that consistent good sleep would also help him heal mentally along with his therapy and the treatment she provided.

He made a mental note to try making the garlic butter rice, thank Darlene for the recipe, and ask her if she had any more favorite recipes he should try during his next session.

He brought his dishes to the sink, moved to the bathroom to brush his teeth, and shed himself of his shirt. Sleeping shirtless was normal for him both during the war and after getting the serum, finding that he would warm up easily and end up tossing and turning in the night. 

His escalated body heat helped him to survive the frigid Siberian winters during his imprisonment, but not the mild to warm summer nights in Brooklyn.

Laying on the hardwood floor with the lights out left him with his thoughts. He remembered the nights he and Steve spent laying on couch cushions on the living room floor of his parents apartment. 

The nights he and his sister would read The Hobbit under the covers of his bed when they were younger, while their parents thought they were sleeping. 

He liked to sleep with the TV on at a low volume and the window opened so he wouldn't be lost in his thoughts for too long. 

He didn't have as much trouble falling asleep as before. Darlene told him to take deep breaths while resting his eyes and had gotten better at it since seeing her. 

Breathe in for 5 seconds, exhale for 10, and repeat till he felt calm enough to drift to sleep.

He steadily awoke hours later, feeling warm and groggy.

 It was quiet. 

The TV was off and the window was shut. 

He was none the wiser in his hindered state of being as he lifted himself off of the floor and trudged to the bathroom, the soft sound of his bare feet pattering on the wood floor like rain drops on a window, encompassing his apartment in a soft echo.

He turned on the soft bathroom light and twisted the cold faucet on, leaned down and scooped cold water in his hand, and poured it on his face. Supporting himself by his forearms, he closed his eyes and relished in the feeling of cold on his face and cascading down his neck. 

The water felt warmer now and had a distinct iron smell to it.

He opened his eyes and was met with his hands drenched in blood. Blood flowing into the sink from the tap. 

He slowly turned to meet his reflection. Met with the cold, dark, blank eyes of the Winter Soldier. The blood stained leather vest, black muzzle, and the long brunette hair stained black from blood falling over his face. 

He was there with him, as clear as day. 

He felt a stark and deep rooted sense of fear awaken and burrow itself in his chest as he quickly retreated from the sink, pressing himself against the opposing wall. Eyes wide and breathing heavy, he felt the walls of the bathroom constricting him.

The Winter Soldier reached out his metal arm, severing the separation between the mirror and his bathroom, and brought it down onto the counter top with a resounding crack, small remnants of the cheap countertop tumbling to the floor. He lunged for the door and twisted the knob but it wouldn't budge. Desperately, he tried to break down the door, knuckles bleeding and eyes teary. He could feel the Winter Soldier getting closer to him and was too terrified to turn back and face him. He broke through the door with a splitting crack, splinters in his hands. Awaiting on the other side was a long dimly lit corridor lined with bars and cold concrete walls. 

His heart stopped. 

He knew this corridor. 

He would always know this corridor. 

He didn't want to go forward, but he had no choice. Breaking into a sprint, not looking back and praying he didn't trip over himself, he felt a sudden, strong grip on his leg, pulling him backwards. Landing on the hard concrete with a groan and turning himself to face his captor: Two dark, army clad figures awaited him. He shuffled away from them as fast as he could but couldn't get to his feet fast enough to avoid being dragged to by his feet towards the bathroom. His screams echoing off the walls, and hands burning from friction against the cement floor at his attempts to escape their grasp.

He couldn't believe what was happening, he thought he was free from Hydra. 

Free from these corridors. 

Free from the chair.

He felt his nails fruitlessly catching on the small ridges of the cement floor as he was mercilessly dragged. The hallway enclosed in darkness behind him and the bathroom light ahead of him, serving as a beacon of pain and suffering. 

He was left on the bathroom floor, shaking and crying, accentuated by the sound of the slamming of a steel door. His teary eyes searched for the figures but found none. Instead, his eyes landed on the dull gleam of the worn metal frame in his bathtub, tinged with small droplets of blood, smoothed down edges, and strained leather straps.

If he wasn't sobbing before, he was now. He felt so trapped, his heart beating out of his chest; his lungs made of tin, unable to expand.

His shaking frame was folded on the floor by the bathroom door. A few moments of silence flooded by the drops of his sink tap and his attempts to catch his breath. 

Abruptly, a handful of his hair was grabbed, his body dragged to the chair as he let out seethes of pain and cries. 

He was held down in the chair as he was strapped in by faceless, dark army figures. Soft whispers and murmurs of pleas for mercy and forgiveness settled around him, originating from every vent and faucet in his bathroom, nestled their way to his ears. 

They grew louder and droned out the sound of leather going through buckles and the mechanical "wrrrrr" of the head plates assembling towards the top of the chair. 

He struggled and screamed, but it was no use. 

Trapped in the chair, no chance of escape; Limited by his mind and not his body. 

He anxiously waited and dreaded for the excruciating pain of electricity to course through his body, to hear the words Hydra spent so much time and care to drill into his mind.

But both never came.

He awoke with a startle, eyes wide, body and blanket soaked with sweat, lungs gasping for breath. 

His window open, letting in his neighbors everyday routine squeeze into his apartment. 

The TV on a low volume, playing auctions for nic-nacs and heirlooms people didn't find use for. All drowned out by his racing thoughts and attempts at breathing.

The blanket pooled around his waist as he shifted to lean against the wall, closing his eyes and trying to focus on his breathing. 

He needed his hair gone. 

Like a wounded animal, he made his way to the bathroom with shaky breaths and uneasy strides. He flipped the bathroom light on, feverishly opening and closing drawers to find what he needed most.

A pair of scissors.

A raspy sigh left his lips as his hands met the plastic frame of the twin bladed tool.

His eyes shifted from his reflection to his hold on the scissors. 

Carefully, he brought his metal hand to his hair, extending one of his many locks of hair.

His eyes drifted from the lock of hair to the metal blades that almost fully encased it. 

Snip.

He watched as the lock frayed till it was severed completely, feeling the freed lock in his hand and watching it fall to the counter.

A sigh of relief left his lips as tears pricked his eyes as he met his reflection in the mirror. 

Snip.

Snip.

Snip. 

His tears were flowing fully down his cheeks as almost the entirety of his left side was covered in frayed, unevenly cut hair. 

He gingerly ran his flesh hand along his head, relishing in the short tufts of hair, and began repeating the same frenzied cutting on the other side of his head, and towards the back

If the tears weren’t flowing before, they were now. 

He placed the scissors onto the hair ridden counter with a clang, keeping his relieved gaze on himself, feeling his chest wrack with sobs, body slowly crumbling against the sink and to the floor.

He had never felt such relief in his life. 

His hands ran over the chopped hair, savoring the uneven patched of hair, his head laying back to rest against the wood cabinet below his sink,  eyes fluttering shut.

Muffled knocks softly rose his mind from the depths of sleep. 

He let his eyes adjust to the bathroom light, feeling his neck ache from how he slept against the drawers of the cabinet. 

Sam. 

He rose up to his feet with a groan, trudging to his front door.

His front door opened with a click.

“Hey, man-woah.”

He rose his eyes to meet Sam’s wide ones, giving him a small smile, “Hi, Sam.”

Sam swallowed.

“Late night hack job, huh?”

He gave Sam a tight-lipped smile, nodding. 

Sam’s lip quirked. 

“I, um, I made something for you if you’d like to try it.”

Sam watched as he rubbed the back of his neck with his flesh hand.

He moved from the door, leaving it open for Sam to come in.

Sam carefully stepped into his apartment, taking in the rumple of blankets on the livingroom floor. 

“It’s chicken tikka masala, my therapist recommended it.”

Sam took the plastic container he held out for him.

“Thanks for this…We should go get you a haircut. You can’t be walking around Brooklyn looking like you had a blender cut your hair.”

His lip quirked, nodding.

After a few minutes, he met him back at the front door in jeans, a t-shirt, and his bomber jacket, and glove.

“Ready to go?”

He wordlessly nodded, closing, and locking the door behind them. 

—

“Alright, what do you think?” 

The hairdresser adjusted his chair so he could see himself fully in the mirror. 

He could feel his eyes glaze over.

His previously poorly chopped locks were no where to be found, replaced by almost buzzed cut hair with a bit of length towards the top. Barely enough for anyone to get a good grip in.

“It’s perfect, thank you Melissa,” he muttered to the woman that gave him a kind smile in return. 

He tried to hand the man at the cashier station some cash, but Sam interjected with his card.

He looked at Sam with slight bewilderment.

“You’ll cover me next time.”

His lip quirked, as Sam nudged his shoulder as they made their way to the exit.

He stopped in front of a window for a store on the way back to his apartment, seeing his reflection in the storefront.

And for once, he didn’t have a deeprooted distaste or fear of what he saw. 

It almost made him cry.

He needed this.

His long hair gone. The last remnant of his time in Siberia, of the shackles that held his mind down under water like an anchor, gone. 

Out of sight. Out of mind.

Sam stopped a few paces ahead of him.

“You wanna stop in?”

Sam’s voice broke him from his trance.

He gave Sam a small smile.

“No, just taking it all in.”

Sam gave him a comforting smile as he caught up with him.

They continued on to his apartment to give Sam some of his chicken tikka masala, running his hand through his hair periodically with a smile on his face. 

[sunriseverse]

@glasscoffingirlfriend replied to your post “duolingo emailing me like pwease come back and use...”:

wait what happened ive been thinking of using duo even tho i know its not ideal for actual language becuz its free and i figure its an ok place to start

​okay this is going to be long but there's a number of reasons i have umbrage with duolingo. i should start off by saying that duolingo is where i started learning languages in 2016, and it got me past the initial awkward phase with german. in the past, i viewed duolingo as a useful app, if not something that can actually teach you a language to a proficient level by itself.

however, over the years, my opinion has changed on this. it started with two things in specific: duolingo removed its forums, a place for users to interact with each other, ask questions about language learning, grammar, and so forth, and talk to native speakers of their target language (this went into effect in 2022, as this duolingo forum announcement explains), and the grammar/guidebook section that used to be available was phased out (first with the app, then on the website; i can't find a post by duolingo officially explaining when/why they removed it, but reddit posts i've dug up say this happened in 2022/2023), initially only accessible through specific links before being entirely removed and rendered inaccesible. these two things are, in my opinion, incredibly key functions, and draws to duolingo over other programmes/apps, which allowed people to study on a more extensive level, which have now been entirely removed without explanation or alternative.

secondly, duolingo sunsetted its volunteer contributor programme in 2021, and in 2023, announced it would put its welsh course on pause to "plan[s] to focus on languages in higher demand including spanish, french, and german". while the welsh course will remain available, no further work will be done on it—and, while only welsh is specified, i personally think this doesn't bode well for its other, "lower demand" language courses. as for the volunteer contributor programme being sunsetted, this means that duolingo no longer works with others to create new courses—a number of "lower demand" courses were created with the volunteer contributor programme, and wouldn't exist without it. the volunteer contributor programme allowed native speakers to contribute to and improve existing courses, and develop new courses (there used to be petitions for languages to be added, and if these calls were loud enough, there was a good chance that that language would be worked on, first as a beta course, then as an official course).

finally, more and more, duolingo is pushing monetisation. while i understand that duolingo is a business, that doesn't change my disappointment at it going from an entirely free, fairly useful resource (if not one that should be relied on alone), to an increasingly simplified, superficial platform riddled with ads, constantly trying to convince you to buy a subscription in order to access functions that used to be entirely free (anyone else remember when you weren't limited in hearts?).

i've tried not to let my subjective opinions colour this response too much, and keep it objective, linking sources into it, but yeah, overall, my opinion is that duolingo has started to suck a lot, and i wouldn't recommend it, especially when there's usually more extensive, more useful resources to be found. if you have a specific language you want to learn, and don't know where to start, and don't want to pay for a programme, you can send me an ask and i'll do my best to put together resources for you, or at least point you towards blogs that might have a better answer for you.

(also, the chinese course sucks. i cannot imagine trying to learn it from scratch—the lack of explanations of tone and grammar would probably make it a nightmare.)

[abronzeagegod]

ETS WIP Chapter 12: Here's The Problem, It's a Big One

[first]|[more]

"How do you know I'm the real one?" Aeth asked Lyta as they looked down at the dead body of the nightmare.

Lyta looked at Aeth. "Really?"

"There are weirder things out there. I can be anyone! Anything!"

"There's only one of you and you're it."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because the Aeth I know and love doesn't have a body that looks like a shed skin and eat and consume people. And you came first."

"But-"

Lyta cut off their existential crisis with pure, simple, concrete statement. "You are you. That's how it works. This thing is not you because it couldn't be by virtue of being itself."

"What?"

"Exactly," Lyta said firmly.

"But-"

"Nope."

Aeth clearly wasn't allowed to have a moment of self-doubt with Lyta around. Not about their nightmares becoming them.

"Why is my apartment so cold and covered in snow?"

Lyta finally faltered. "That's a longer story."

Several minutes later when Aeth had recovered enough and get into a shower, with Lyta outside cleaning up she explained.

"My magic font was all rage and vengeance and with this Swwarm app doing something weird to everyone is was super mad, I was super mad, and I was basically overflowing with magic. When I finally snapped out of whatever was happening I raced over here," Lyta explained as she tried, and failed, to mop the snow up.

"Why did you choose rage and vengeance?" Aeth asked loudly from within the shower.

"I didn't really, I built a font and kind of had to figure it out."

"Why is your rage cold?"

"Look, we can get into this all day later, and I'm happy to talk about this with you, but there's a whole thing with this App that seems terrible and I'm covered in magic power, and your nightmare got out. This all feels bad."

"I was looking into it before... everything," Aeth said as they finally turned the shower off.

"What did you find out?" Lyta asked from her position outside the bathroom door. She had given up trying to clean up the snow. She hadn't fully managed to desummon her sword and it wasn't helping so she just kind of gave up and leaned against the wall outside Aeth's bathroom.

Aeth exited the bathroom with a towel around their head and a fluffy bathrobe on. Whatever they said was lost on Lyta.

Even though it wasn't an especially sexy look, or anything even remotely revealing, Lyta was still a bit stunned. Aeth was here, they were back, they were looking cleaned and better, and that made Lyta so inexplicably happy.

"What? Do I have something on my face still?"

"No. You look fine. I'm just happy to see you."

Aeth moved quickly into their room because suddenly they felt very hot despite the freezing temperatures in the apartment. "As I was saying. I went looking into the app and it's all very suspicious."

"Suspicious how?"

"It basically has no listed creator, team, company, or anything that would indicate it was actually an app that was made."

"As opposed to what?"

"A virus."

"To like harvest data or something?"

There was silence before Aeth came out in their favorite worn overalls and black tank top. "This is my new crazy idea, so hear me out."

"Always."

"I think this app is a ritual, something to make people tense and on edge."

Lyta stopped to consider it, and to consider Aeth. "For what purpose?"

"Chaos? Maybe? Or to feed off our anger or something."

Lyta frowned, "I don't know this feels like we're missing something."

"I have notes I was making, some of them are still open on my phone."

"You remember what they were?"

Aeth shook their head. "I don't everything has been a bit fuzzy the last couple of days."

Lyta frowned. "Just be careful. I still have a terrible feeling about this whole thing."

Aeth went to find their phone, itself a small task, since 3812 didn't use the thing and Aeth couldn't remember where they left it since the whole vent started. When they did eventually find it underneath the the dining room table.

They reached for their phone, put in their password, and things immediately went wrong.

A purple-pink tentacle reached out of the phone screen and swiped at Aeth.

They quickly dropped the phone as the tentacle drew blood. The moment the phone hit the floor another three tentacles drew themselves out of the phone screen and started to flail around madly to prevent anyone from getting close.

Lyta, without thinking, summoned and threw a frozen spear at the phone. The fractal blade cut the device in half and embedded itself in the floor.

"What the hell?" Lyta asked.

Aeth rubbed the back of their hand. The cut wasn't that bad. Their heart was pounding though, and wasn't showing any signs of slowing down.

"What do we do now?" Lyta asked. "Is there somewhere we can go? Someone we can talk to? This is getting so far out of hand that I don't even know what to do."

"I have one idea. It might not be the best idea though."

"Am I going to hate this?"

"No. But it might be awkward."

Several minutes later, and inside of Lyta's car, that mercifully hadn't been ticketed or towed, Aeth gave their friend directions.

The drive was the opposite of pleasant. It was deeply terrible actually. More so than usual it felt like no one was able to drive. The road rage was heightened and Lyta was holding on to the wheel with both hands and a grip that could crush glass.

They were cut off constantly, with people driving recklessly and distracted.

Lyta's grip on her anger was tenuous at best, if it wasn't for Aeth being next to her she might have lost it and succumbed back to the anger spiral.

The drive took entirely too much time, but they finally made it.

Their destination was a small, cozy looking house. It felt like a home.

A small child runs out of the house to greet them as Lyta parked the car in front.

"Hey!" she screams in the bright voice of a happy child that can only communicate the sheer level of happiness via screaming. "Sir Lance Corporal wanted to see you! He's gonna be so excited to see you!"

"What the fuck is happening?" Lyta whispered to Aeth.

"It's a very long story, but this is a place where we might be able to get something to help us out."

i have a kofi if you'd like to leave a tip to encourage me to write more

[steddieas-shegoes]

Call Me Sunshine, Send Me To Space

Everyone has really loved this one on tumblr and on AO3. The tumblr app is a fucking nightmare (affectionate) and resets itself as if it has short term memory loss and people have mentioned that halfway through reading something, they lose it, and have to try to find it again. I know it’s happened to me plenty, so I wanted to also post the AO3 chapter by chapter links here so you don’t have to worry about losing it! 

Chapter 1: nothing in life is permanent, but tattoos and you and me Chapter 2: crashing to earth, your hands hold me down Chapter 3: can't be alone for long, you're the company i need Chapter 4: touch me just enough, send me closer to the sun Chapter 5: something’s different here and now, come and part the clouds Chapter 6: this flying feeling, it's natural babe Chapter 7: he drops, we fall Chapter 8: keep your fingers there, inside, where they belong Chapter 9: i love you, do you know how much Chapter 10: sweetheart, sweet thing, my love Chapter 11: you deserve to feel beautiful, say it with me Chapter 12: a lifetime of breakfasts with you Chapter 13: testing the binds of these hands you've tied up, cutting the rope that holds us Chapter 14: my love is not a loan, you can feel it in your bones Chapter 15: easy to love, even when it's hard Chapter 16: no cloud can cover my shine Epilogue Bonus Buckingham Chapter        

I plan on keeping my tag list open on here until I reach the second to last chapter (which won’t be for a while so don’t hesitate to ask to be tagged!), but as a backup I do recommend subscribing on AO3 if you’re invested. Sometimes I post from my phone (shocking and risky I know) and the tags don’t always work because as I said above the app is a fucking nightmare, and also I am forgetful. 

Everyone has been so fucking nice it blows my mind. I have no clue what I’m doing, just here to have a good time, but you guys have been so supportive and I cannot tell you how much it makes my day to see your likes, reblogs (with the most insane tags please continue to do that omg), and replies. And not just with this, but with ANYTHING I post. I haven’t had something that’s for me in a really REALLY long time, and this has been something that gives me a lot of happiness. I’ve never been a confident bitch, and I’m still not, but I’m working on it and letting myself enjoy being a part of the fandom more actively than just reading whatever everyone else posts. 

This also feels like a good post to say that if you feel I miss any tags on AO3 as this goes on, please let me know! I never want anyone to get surprised by something. I update the tags as necessary for every chapter, but I’m human and may miss something or may consider something a tag that’s already there that may be a new one to others. This goes for ANY of the stuff I post on there, but especially the chaptered fics like this one. 

SENDING ALL MY LOVE ALONG THE WIRE BABES ❤️❤️❤️

-Mickala

[luminousjellyfishy]

@spirirsstuff ok I was writing the answers to your OTP number ask thing, but Tumblr thought it was too much of a shitpost, so the app crashed, and now the ask is gone. Yeah, it deleted itself.

BUT I STILL HAVE THE QUESTIONS, SO HERE I GO AGAIN

9. When they sit side by side, do they touch one another? For example, does one person has their arm around the other, do they sit holding hands, or linked arms, ECT.

WELL I MEAN IT IS ERRORMARE. So yeah. When they first met, there was barely any touching as Error is haphephobic, despite passive Nightmare being fairly touch starved (ok, but in my headcanons, um. Yeah not really, it’s very controversial… people would pretty much hate me if I posted it XD). After Nightmare corrupted they became a sort of destructive buddies and bonded further and all that weird ship backstory. So yeah, after they had been together for a while, there was more ship stuff like, um, handholding??? Bro I don’t know. When they’re sitting on the couch beside each other, Nightmare is never the one to initiate any form of physical contact, as that’s up to Error, but as his tentacles aren much of a trigger, he will offer them to be cuddled or held or something.

14. Who would make a playlist for the other person? What would be featured on the playlist?

YEAH ERROR IS DEFINITELY MAKING THE PLAYLISTS NO DOUBT. Considering that Nightmare basically grew up in a village with minimal technological influence around him, and Error grew up in my headcanon place called the Creatorverse (ASK ME ABOUT IT. It comes my very traumatic backstory for Error) which was much more technologically advanced than Nightmare’s puny village. SO, considering that Error had much more experience with computery stuff, I’ll give that to him. Ok, so I tried writing what Error would put on the playlist, but I have no idea what it would be. I’ve never made a playlist for someone else before, so I have no idea how it works. It might have something to do with violin covers of songs Nightmare likes??? Those are very good, 10/10 highly recommend.

Thanks so much for the ask!!! I really appreciate it!

But yeah I have some… uh, traumatic… backstories for those two. Hahaha…. Yeah, no it’s not funny.

[pluralismajestatis]

Oh boy! Having CPTSD is great!

Ever since starting trauma therapy, we've struggled with insomnia and severe nightmares. There's been this background nagging whether the insomnia itself isn't just the nervous system never leaving fight/flight. We've particularly struggled with waking up into panic attack symptoms, or having our heart rate pick up into the hundreds when we fall into light sleep - particularly for naps. There seems to be long-term evidence of sleep losing its safety completely for us when we started tearing down the dissociative barriers.

Well! Tonight, boy, have we had confirmation. For the first time ever, had a full-scale night terror: in a half-dreaming state, engaged in life/death combat with our blanket, and evidently in the rush of it, attempted to escape bed but instead fell over the frame at the end and retreated. The impact was so painful that it triggered freeze state, and even in that state, lying down as flat and silent and unmoving as possible so that The Assaulter wouldn't see us or would think us dead, it was the combination of the recognisable symptoms of a full-blown panic attack that actually woke us up. Heart going 4000bpm, hyperventilation, etc. All easy enough to recognise, so, becoming aware, focusing on our breathing is the first and easy thing to do. Almost immediately, though, the awareness of holy SHIT what did we DO hits in with the pain. Arm, ribs, left index finger. The latter hurting so bad it honest to god might be broken. Can't bend it, the only thing we can do is rock back and forth and try not to scream. Lovely.

We stagger to the kitchen, grab a towel and an ice pack, eat a sedative because fuck that, and return to bed to listen to first some calming Sleep Stories and then guided sleep meditations from Calm, not sponsored, I just sincerely find this app so helpful for our mental health. Fell asleep.

Cue this morning! The finger is severely fucked. Going to the A&E tomorrow when it's not three hours away by bus, this definitely needs an x-ray. Something cronches if I straighten the finger, gently, with my other hand and it can't bear any weight or force, and by that I mean I can't press a mechanical keyboard's keys with it without feeling like the joint is loose. Totally fucked this thing up. Theory is that we, scrambling to escape from the bed, stumbled over the wooden frame and landed on the finger and ribs. There's a big old bruise on the ribs too but it's superficial at least.

Today's measures have been manifesting splints out of household objects. First, I used the miniature Frostmourne from a Lich King figure, but that bugger's got a sharp handle so it started digging into my skin over time. The kinesiology tape we got for our shoulder has been a godsend, though. Replacing the sword as a splint, I found a used piece of aluminum wire from our clay projects. And you know what. Holy shit. Damage photos underneath but this thing looks so solid. Such fashion. Wow.

So yeah. Trauma is fun, I sure do love feeling safe about going to sleep every night, and tomorrow I'm gonna spend the whole day queueing up at the hospital. Joy!