#the geek rambles

[thatonegeekygirl]

ryan “hates to see ghosts” bergara and shane “ghosts hate to see him” madej truly make the most absurd ghost hunting duo in existence. the contradicting synergy never ceases to astound me

[tariah23]

Okay, I said I wasn’t gonna spend too much time on twitter but oh my god!?!!! This is so COOL!?? He looks amazing, omg…!

I’m glad they gave the actor another hairstyle because every black person is absolutely tired of the Killmonger mohawk/comb over 😭!!! One day, we will be free- but anyway, it looks like the name of the anime is “Kawagoe Boys Sing!”

[thatonegeekygirl]

of course she does, i survived for her

your future self loves you by the way

[parasolladyansy]

So uh.

GUYS.

I LOVE COOKING ISEKAI / FANTASY.

Like “Delicious in Dungeon”, “Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill” (isekai-ed me would’ve liked that skill lol), “Isekai Izakaya Nobu”, etc. I LOVE THEM ALL.

ALSO LIKE. So much of the food in BotW / TotK look SO GOOD. I’ve made & tried some of it as I’ve mentioned. But things like the “Crab Omelet with Rice” (which I’m 99.9% sure is a dish called “tenshinhan” in our world) is something I’d love to try!

(For comparison — second image is from Just One Cookbook, one of my go-to’s for Japanese home cooking. Might have to try her tenshinhan someday! I can’t wait to make her oyakodon tonight - it’s one of our favorites!)

I swear. Food in anime & games. Like all the recipes in BotW / TotK, PKMN Sword / Shield’s curries (playing that game makes me crave curry rice so bad!), Legends Arceus’ potato mochi (still gotta make that!), & so much more!

If I ever make that cozy witchy RPG someday (aka when I take that leap & also recruit people who know how to do all the technical stuff lol), I SWEAR: I am putting all the delicious-looking, cozy foods that’d make anyone want to run to their kitchens to make them, too!

AHHHH!

Okay. Just wanted to geek. Thanks for letting me geek 🤣

Basically, isekai-ed me is gonna be okay in Hyrule lol (even with the monsters & stuff). Good company (I mean, Link & Ingo, c’mon), cool magic rods, & all these wonderful dishes to cook. & ride out these next few years lol 🩵

[muttmoxley]

suddenly filled with such love and joyous whimsy for cosplayers and furries and nerds of all kinds. if you make and wear costumes (no matter what kind) out in public you are SO COOL!!!! it takes so much courage to do that shit and we dont talk about it enough. if you do ren faires and make crazily historically accurate costumes i love you!!! if you make hyper detailed cosplays of popular anime characters i love you!!! if you dress up as super obscure characters and never get recognized i love you!!! if you cosplay your ocs and infodump about them i love you!!! if your costumes are all closet cosplays i love you if youre a beginner i love you if you make fursuits i love you !!!!!!!! keep being a nerd it is wonderful

[thatonegeekygirl]

rip boog, you shall live on in the memory of the boogers 😔

dear god,

let boog rest in peace with all the birds i have sent to you. idk why a bird would be in heaven, but i have connections in high places and know you have a certain fondness for them... we may disagree on if birds should go to hell (they should), but let us agree on letting @shaniacsboogara rest in peace 9 feet under... or in a dust pile.... idk what they ended up doin.... actually let me know which one so i can say hi to my good good pal.

see ya!

- beth <3

[athousandbyeol]

this is such a beautiful shot. goodness. it almost feels like a dream.

i have to say, two episodes into the faifawine arc, i think this is the best storyline so far. they executed the base of their relationship so well in my opinion. also, faifa and wine feel so solid and grounded in their beliefs. they're loveable individually, more so when together. i don't know. i'm so pleasantly surprised. i like their story so much. it feels so them. the editing. the pacing. everything feels so right. i'm enjoying their arc so so much <3

[musicals-and-mushrooms]

claudia dragonprince should not be going through the horrors she should be playing christine canigula in a community theatre production of be more chill

[thatonegeekygirl]

unhealthily obsessed with this photo from the watcher tv newsletter

[snowflake-sage]

For those that don't know, I collect pikachu stuff, which includes alot of vintage plushies, and I got my hands on the 16 inch 1999 hasbro chonkachu! This is my dream pika, and they usually sell at $300 but I got this one for $72!! Its in fantastic condition too, looks right off the shelf! I'm so excited!!!

[cookiesandbiscuits]

OG post

Seeing as people are trying this, I'm gonna try it too :)

[hellinistical]

Caleb, FOR SURE, either still listens to or has listened to NightCore. When he looks at music on YouTube or sees like Mashups and they say "sped up," he just scoffs. "That's literally nightcore." And hates day core (slowed down stuff). There was a point in time when he exclusively listened to it that when he heard the original songs, he thought they were edited. "They can't be that slow. No way." He probably complained about the lack of nightcore- true nightcore- on spotify with anime cover art, too. "It's not authentic!"

He also would be super into Gundam and maybe had a couple of sets. And his slang would be pretty outdated.

[shadoedseptmbr]

Something I would like to ask if my writing friends (art friends too but it will process differently for you, I suppose)

Keep journals. Document.

Document what is happening, your views on how we got here. What you learned in school vs what you learned from the people in your life.

If the worst things happen, write down names and times and who cooperated and who didn't.

Write about who we lose. Who gets fired. About the price of eggs. About clothes and book swaps. About the librarians and the professors and the little circle at your yarn shop. About when it rains and doesn't and when the hummingbirds show up.

Do it offline, in hardcopy, if you can. Digital is brutally ephemeral.

The history of after is built on the housekeeping budget notes and the marginalia. The greatest treasures in research are common folk who thought big thoughts and scribbled a few lines of current events now and again, as an afterthought.

Heck, write your monster fucking stories in there, too. Facts certainly never stopped Herodotus.

Do it for the tired little grad student four hundred years from now who goes to their advisor with a tattered notebook and says, "I think this has some facts I need, they've got like sixteen years of climate data, even if I'm pretty sure we can ignore the bit about flanged, candy colored alien dicking."

And the advisor who gets to say, "like heck I'm ignoring the dicking."

[crazycatsiren]

I had an interesting couple of nights.

First night, nothing specific. I had a feeling that we weren't alone in our room.

Then last night, at around 2am, I heard horse hooves outside our window.

Clip clop, clip clop, lasted no longer than 20 seconds. Came out of nowhere, then disappeared just like they appeared.

Now, as an equestrian, that's a sound that my brain immediately registers. I've heard it far too many times to not recognize it right away. I didn't even have to think about it. Horse hooves, wearing horseshoes, trotting, on pavement. My nighttime medication addled brain at first thought, "who the hell out there riding a horse in the middle of the night, it below freezing out!" It took me all of a second to realize, ok that ain't a rider who's alive.

Some time later, I woke up again. I felt someone sit down at the foot of the bed on my side, the mattress dipped at the bottom, then they laid a hand on my leg. I reached a hand out next to me and touched my husband's back, heard him softly snoring, so I knew that wasn't him. I wasn't spooked at all. It was oddly comforting, and felt profoundly sad. I've had some strange dreams these two nights, that wasn't one of them.

I'm definitely planning on coming back to this inn, stay in a different room, even if it means not getting a good night's sleep when I'm in Gettysburg. Maybe next time, I try to have a conversation.

[infinitesimalvermin]

LISTEN TO ME. VIKTOR LEAGUE OF LEGENDS IN THE STYLE OF PHIL HALE. SHAKES YOU. VIKTOR ARCANE IN THE STYLE OF FRANCIS BACON. ARE YOU LISTENING

[hesbianyaoi]

The Soukokus and the Four Symbols: Pt 1

STARTING OFF BY SAYING: This is just a fun connection/"theory" (if you would call it that) I made while reading BSD, so not everything will be connected exactly to the T. I just love mythology and Byakko has already been confirmed to be a celestial being thanks to chapter 119, so in any case, buckle up and enjoy my insanity.

WHO AND WHAT EXACTLY ARE THE FOUR SYMBOLS?

The Four Symbols—also known as the Four Guardians or the Four Gods—are constellations and mythological creatures in Chinese (and other countries in the Sinosphere) culture that are believed to be the protectors of the four cardinal points: the North, South, East and West.

They also had correspondence with the Five Phases (Wuxing), the philosophy that the fundamentals to the universe were composed of elements and their relationships to one another. These elements include nature, seasons, times of day, directions, and colors.

The Four Symbols are the Azure Dragon of the East, the White Tiger of the West, the Vermilion Bird of the South, and the Black Tortoise of the North.

Sound familiar?

It's like how Soukoku + Shin Soukoku is associated with the colors blue/red and black/white. This alone wouldn't be enough for me to make this entire thing such a big post in the first place, though; it's the very nature of everything else in Bungo Stray Dogs concerning the Soukoku's and the subtle symbolism they have connecting them to these divine beings.

For the sake of my own mind, we'll be discussing Shin Soukoku in this post, as they have the most relevance to the recent update and to their associated guardians/gods. Interesting since they create such a unique Singularity, right?

ATSUSHI: BYAKKO, THE GUARDIAN OF THE WEST

We have the most information about Byakko thus far, so it only seems fair to start off with her.

Byakko's associations with Wuxing include the color white, sunsets, autumn and its desolation, and the west itself. These are things Atsushi is commonly associated with, such as sunset/moon symbolism, how the sun sets in the west during the autumn equinox, even his joke title of the Wimp of The West in chapter 33.

Atsushi's white tiger is something we already know is highly sought after from all around the world, and we already know that the tiger itself is a "bookmark" to locate the book. The Book is obviously representative of something otherworldly, something as heavenly as its association with creation and life, and of course, Byakko is the literal guide to finding it. Because of course she is.

Byakko is more than just a white tiger; it is the embodiment of justice, protectiveness, and righteousness. It is the king of beasts and a capable warrior. She's more than just an ability (as we see in Dead Apple, alongside Rashōmōn, since they're the only two that take their own forms compared to everyone else's abilities being mirrors of themselves) as she resides inside of Atsushi's body as another physical being entirely.

Canonically, abilities are described as receiving their power by their user's souls, which is why an ability will disintegrate once their user dies.

But Byakko is not just Atsushi's ability; she is an entire being residing within him, two souls in one body. And not just any being, but a god.

It's also speculation on my part, but Byakko is often referred to as the "key" to finding The Book when in actuality, she's most likely protecting it. Fitting of the White Tiger's role as a guardian of justice and morality—if it fell into the wrong hands, balance would be broken.

AKUTAGAWA: GENBU, THE GUARDIAN OF THE NORTH

Also known as the Black Warrior of the North, as the character 武 translates to warrior/knight and is a much more faithful translation. Compared to Atsushi's more blatant connection to Byakko, Akutagawa's connection to Genbu relies more on subtlety, which I would say picked up during chapters 117.

His death, becoming a vampire, and the time spanning from his death until now could also count as a form of hibernation, given the fact tortoises hibernate and winter is the prime time for hibernation to occur, which aligns with Genbu's associations with Wuxing: the color black, winter and its frost, midnight (prime time for traditional vampires), and the north itself.

From the beginning, Akutagawa has always been associated with black as his signature color. Rashomon, his armor, is his protective "shell" like that of a tortoise. In the most literal sense, he is a warrior—a true knight, further emphasized by Bram's final wishes and desires to protect. It's also worth mentioning that the Tortoise is revered as a pillar of support during challenging times.

Honestly, need I say more?

Genbu is also associated with resilience, wisdom, and most importantly, immorality. The story of the Black Tortoise (Xuanwu) varies from legend to legend, but the general base for the story is the same: Xuanwu was once a mortal who achieved enlightenment and became immortal by pulling out his stomach and intestines, the last remains of his human parts. Once he pulls them out, they become demons, and he must subdue and tame them—quite literally overcoming his own sins.

In a twisted sense, Akutagawa's death was a form of enlightenment.

He dies believing that Dazai truly didn't abandon him, that this was all just a test, and thus he dies with a smile on his face. Now that Akutagawa is awake, he doesn't remember anything besides his knightly duties. It is a new beginning for him, one without the demons of his past weighing him down internally.

He is anew. He is enlightened.

SO, WHAT COULD THIS MEAN?

That's the thing. It could mean nothing at all except for speculation. It could mean something bigger in store for the future of the story. The point is that we don't know what could happen or what any of this could mean outside of correspondence with mythological archetypes. Regardless if this actually contributes anything to the plot, the similarities between Akutagawa-Atsushi and the White Tiger-Black Warrior were too fun to resist talking about, which brings up another point.

Byakko and Genbu, Baihu and Xuanwu, Atsushi and Akutagawa, the new Double Black. They all represent the same thing: balance.

The tiger is representative of its protectiveness and righteousness whilst the tortoise is associated with its wisdom and the strength of a warrior. All four guardians are responsible for the balance of the cosmos and nature itself, and for the Soukokus, it is the same.

The balance they fight to keep is not only between themselves and each other but for Yokohama, for the fabric of reality itself. (And it's something I want to go deeper into when I focus on Dazai & Chuuya next.)