#they last for like 3 months nowadays maybe less than that

[luminlunii]

Could you draw a modern Lackadaisy au Ivy Pepper please??? And thank you!😸

Genuinely, I don't think she would have the ends of her hair blunt. But she would keep it short.

[flythesail]

Everything about the Acolyte cancelation just feels so off. I want to be hopeful when seeing the strength of the renewal campaign or even the number of big news sources writing about it, that something like a wrap up movie could be possible, yet nothing about this situation says "normal."

There were reports from so many places (with no evidence) that Acolyte merch was intentionally taken offline. (For the record, nothing came up when you searched "Andor" either.) Then soon after, the merch is back. (Presumably because it was out of stock.) What I find surprising is that the news spread like wildfire. Why? When for most of its existence, the Acolyte has been thrown under the bus - from review bombing to racist attacks from so called "fans" - why was everyone suddenly jumping on the cancelation news when doing little to defend or support the show from the start? Merch seems like such a minor thing within the grand picture.

Many, okay most, shows are canceled after one season nowadays. But this is a first just by default of falling under an IP as large as Star Wars. Shows that are not renewed go "quietly." Kenobi was written as a single season. Tbobf might have been up for a second, but after the way it was used as a bridge for Mando seasons 2 and 3, a lack of renewal is not a shock.

There's so much proof the Acolyte was on course to be renewed and the cancelation was not planned. As recently as last month they were looking for directors for season 2. I believe there were reports of a writers room in February.

Lee Jung-jae says in an interview he's surprised about the cancelation, and right after there's "coincidentally" news that Keanu Reeves would have been Master Sol if not for scheduling conflicts. Lesley Headland has ALWAYS said JJ was her first choice. Which says what? That Lucasfilm wanted to punish JJ for showing support for the show that they canceled. This is on top of doing absolutely nothing to protect Amandla from all the disgusting racists on Instagram. This is on top of them announcing Manny for SW Celebration, which isn't until NEXT year. Wtf is he going to talk about?? Thanks for canceling my show last year! I sure would have loved to continue it! The cancelation news was even publicized on his birthday. This comes after recent news for tie-in novels, an art book, and a visual guide.

My best guess would be that plans for season 2 were underway, and a higher up got scared. Of what? Taking creative risks. Or maybe scared of the people who claim to be "fans" and have done nothing but trash the show from the start with no basis.

I'll play advocate, what if it was just for viewership and budgetary reasons? It does cost a lot to make. But then why not adjust the budget? Why not adjust the marketing strategy for season 2? The success of something like Star Wars cannot even be entirely measured by viewership or Disney+ subscriptions, less so a month after the finale. What about merchandise sales or growth over time, as the Acolyte perfectly slots into a space in canon that quite frankly, is unexplored but adds so much to the overall narrative longterm!

Even if the show is expensive, you will never convince me Disney of all companies doesn't have the money for it. Something happened and it happened fast. Whatever did happen, to cancel the Acolyte is a cowardly move. I want to hope it can come back and that this "scrambling" to change the narrative in the media is a sign of regret, yet it's most likely a poor attempt to control the narrative in their favor and push the blame to everyone who actually cares about the show.

At the very least, I hope the response is a wake up call. That Star Wars fans will not stick around no matter what. That you cannot treat your creators, actors, and fans, primarily women and poc, as lesser time and time again and expect them to continue to support your product. This decision is telling in more ways than one. It's unfair and if nothing changes, Star Wars will only get worse from here. Which is disappointing, because I love it and have been a fan on and off since I was 11 years old. But I cannot deny that everything about the way the cancelation is happening feels like a betrayal.

The Acolyte dared to be inventive. It dared to be diverse. Whether that be the cast or those behind the camera, this story was made by and made for people Star Wars has continually neglected, and it still felt like true Star Wars that anyone could enjoy. It was a step in the right direction. If given a chance, it would have only become bigger. When is the last time a Star Wars project brought in new fans like this? You can only retell the same stories so many times before they lose what made them special in the first place. As a true fan, Lesley brought fresh perspective. From Amandla's performance as Mae and Osha, to JJ's performance as Master Sol, which he learned English for. Or Manny as the Stranger, a mystery turned sith turned lead love interest. The Acolyte explored the grey era between good and evil, the decisions that define us, what it means to feel, and the power of that. The Acolyte dared to exist and a cancelation can't erase the fact that it matters.

If you're still reading, please do sign and share the petition. It might not bring the show back, but it is a show of support for the cast, crew, and fans it stood for.

[kobold-that-bites-people]

dunno if this will get to anyone that it's relevant to, but as a transfem that's had bottom surgery (a rather standard penile inversion vaginoplasty) and is mostly recovered at this point, i'd like to give a few notes on my experience. hopefully it reaches some people who are considering and would be helped by such anecdotes. anyway, in no particular order,

it's major surgery. recovery is gonna suck about the same as other major surgeries. that said, a lot of the discomfort is frontloaded. in my case, i experienced about 2/3 of the pain i could attribute to recovery over the last six months, in the first week. the sheer drop in pain once the catheter came out alone was night and day. the first week was miserable though, you *need* someone, ideally multiple someones, who can look after you through that stage. (if you are in the green lands of not america, or just are well funded, many hospitals will look after you for the first week or so, but as a broke american i was only in hospital for about a day and a half. maybe two days, memory is a little fuzzy from the opiates (which i stopped almost as soon as i got out of the hospital, the brain fog from opiates is real)

it's been said other places, but it is really likely you will experience a lot of emotions during recovery. this can take a lot of forms, but in my case i had to grapple with a lot of "doubts" about if it was even what i wanted, if it was worth it to me, if it even looked natural enough, and so on. part of that is just that it's a major change in your body image, so doubts are normal and expected. part of it is that after major physical trauma like surgery, your body will amplify a lot of emotions intensely. try not to listen to the dysphoria talking when things still need to heal. the difference between a week from the surgery and a couple months later is *massive*.

this might be obvious to a lot of people, but for people like me that have only ever been even slightly intimate with partners that have cocks, pussies come in a *lot* of shapes. the very limited range depicted in a lot of common art and porn and games and so on, is simply not a representative sample of all the shapes that a pussy can be. despite my anxieties over my own, every person that has seen it so far has either had explicit compliments, or at least backhanded ones about how "normal" it looks.

despite how cautious doctors will be about promising function, it is entirely possible you'll have every function you might expect from a natal vagina. i get a not insignificant amount of self lubrication, can feel everything better than i dared hope for, and despite having to completely relearn what motions work for it i can reliably reach orgasms just as well as i could pre-op. that said, i don't self lubricate quite as much as *some* cis women manage. it's usually enough for fingering myself, but if i wanted to use a toy, or be penetrated by a partner, it simply isn't reasonable to go without generous lube. mostly because while i have some self-lubrication, it isn't exactly produced *quickly*, and friction can quickly dry it up, especially outside my entrance.

dilation can be many things, but it's usually mostly just tedious. it hurt *some* at the start, but once the swelling went down it generally only hurt as i went up a size. nowadays i only feel a miniscule amount of pain with the stretch as i work my largest dilator in, and that fades within about 30 seconds. the better you are at getting it done reliably, the less it will hurt. missing a session, especially earlier in recovery, will be *felt* the next time you dilate.

if you are open about your having had bottom surgery, or end up hospitalized from complications thereof, (as i did, i'll spare the medical details) there are a lot of people that will try to justify wanting to see, for motives that i'll leave as an exercise to the reader to deduce. such people will include doctors, nurses, and plenty of people with more spurious motives. i've had more people barge in on me while i was dilating within the last months since i had bottom surgery, than ever barged in on me while i was masturbating in the earlier 26 years of my life. *please* be aware that part of being perceived as "more a woman" is that you will likely experience more such attentions, in the various forms that takes. sometimes positive it is true, but usually not.

[vickyvicarious]

I find the detail that Jonathan was going to spend the night away from home but then sent a telegram that he'll take the 4hr commute back to be home with her tonight pretty interesting. Did he change his mind? We never see his telegram, but Mina seems to suggest he gave as reason that she'd not be alone at night?

I was thinking recently about what day it might be when considering the timeline for Arthur's note to Jack after the funeral for his WRWD. To sum up, it looks like the 25th is probably a Monday. The other option was that it's Sunday, which seems less likely but does make him wanting to get home sooner if he could more likely. I guess in a way that's not very relevant to the specifics of your question. I was just reminded...

Anyways. Your suggestion that Jonathan came home for the (stated) purpose of ensuring Mina didn't have to spend the night alone is interesting, and I see where it comes from:

And yet, if it be true, what terrible things there are in the world, and what an awful thing if that man, that monster, be really in London! I fear to think. I have this moment, whilst writing, had a wire from Jonathan, saying that he leaves by the 6:25 to-night from Launceston and will be here at 10:18, so that I shall have no fear to-night.

If that last phrase is continuing the description of what Jonathan's message said, then yes, that does seem to be his stated reasoning. However, I've always personally read that as a modifier/response to her own earlier line about "I fear to think" - basically, I've assumed Jonathan just said he would make it home, and it was Mina who added that now she won't have to worry about him tonight. Of course, some of that was based on my assumption that Launceston is in London and so she was worried about his proximity to Dracula. But Launceston, I've just learned, is actually in the opposite direction, further west than Exeter. So... perhaps that's not what's going on. Maybe I've been wrong and your interpretation is correct.

Regardless of whether Jonathan said it or Mina did, I think the fear referred to here is her worry about him. He did just have a total collapse a few short days ago (3, to be precise). And that happened while traveling. Not to mention, the last time he went on a business trip away from her for more than a day, he went missing for months and turned up horribly traumatized. So even if she 'knows' it's just an overnight trip and he will be fine, she could be feeling understandable anxiety about this. All the more so after losing Mr. Hawkins and Lucy.

However, equally relevant is Jonathan's own feelings on the matter. I think whatever worry Mina might be feeling about his business trip will be just as intense for him as well, if not even more so. He was obviously trying to dive into his work to both distract himself and live up to the responsibilities he now has as Mr. Hawkins' heir. He may well have agreed to or arranged this trip in an attempt to prove he's fine/make himself fine/fulfill others' expectations. And then perhaps in the train there, he began to regret his choices...

He didn't send Mina his message until around 6:30pm, just about the time he was catching the train home. That's after the close of business for most offices nowadays, at least. Probably back then as well. I think it's quite possible that Jonathan either worked as hard as he could to finish everything early (regretting his choice very soon after leaving) and only told her once he was sure it was all done so he could go home, or was already going to have finished things but originally didn't want the long trip back at night. But he changed his mind at the last minute and told Mina as soon as he did, so that he could get back to her side and not have to spend a night alone away from here.

I definitely think both he and she would hesitate to be apart at night, at least at first. All the more given his night terrors, and a 'business trip' would be worse than some other reason, given the history there. If the need arises I'm sure they could/would, but if Jonathan realized he didn't have to, he'd try not to.

I'd be remiss not to also mention another theory I saw a while ago. I don't have the specific post but I believe there was speculation that Jonathan realized Mina had opened his diary before she told him, and some of his throwing himself into work was him deliberately giving her space to read it. It also might have been him trying to avoid any reaction she might have, in case that dredged up things he didn't want to face. If so, him turning back around and heading home would indicate a willingness to face the truth, or at least see how she looks at him now. I don't tend to buy this one myself because she read the diary a couple days earlier, and so the timing doesn't quite match up for that to be related to his trip.

[wonsheep]

Got My Number

genre: fluff, friends-to-something-more

pairing: Jake x gender-neutral!reader

warnings: reader being referred to as beautiful, mentions of an unhealthy relationship, but only briefly, lmk if there's anything else!

word count: 1.2K

sheep's note: hello, everyone, it's been a long while since i posted actual content here, and i truly missed it, this is my first longer work on here, so please enjoy. i had fun imagining this, slughtly inspired by monsta x's got my number, but maybe i'll write something based more on the song in the future eheheeh in the meanwhile, this is my comeback and i'll try to be more sctive and practice writing in english more :DD

permanent taglist: @soobin-chois

thank you and enjoy reading!

Jake had been wondering why you haven't texted him yet. He thought your last date (actually, it was a friendly hangout, but a guy can dream) went well, and awaited your message inviting him to do something fun together.

But nothing new came up on his screen when he opened your chat for the nth time that week, only the last goodbyes you exchanged.

Y/N: had fun <3 talk to you later

The bright, white letters seemed to be mocking him as he wondered what time interval 'later' was equal to.

He was about to try and distract himself from you and your 'later'.

Hmm.

 '<3'.

Less than three. Three what? Days? Weeks? Months? No, that would be just cruel. He wanted to see you again way sooner than months.

Suddenly, three little dots appeared on the bottom of his screen, indicating that you were typing something.

It was a little stupid how Jake's heart sped up from looking at the animated circles, but he blamed it on being easily excitable.

He knew he shouldn't explore too much on his feelings for you, because it would end up awkward on your side and in a week of moping around on his.

The thing is, you already had a boyfriend. Even though you have told Jake before that nowadays, the relationship wasn't as fun as it used to be at the start, you stayed very committed.

"I'm just not really satisfied anymore, I guess…" you breathed out in a sigh, dangling your legs from the asphalt block you and Jake were perched on, next to a grassy portion of the park. "It's starting to feel like I'm more of a burden to him than a partner."

Pretty far into the night, it was quiet, only the rustling of birds settling into their places on trees and a few faraway laughs could be heard from your spot. The nearby streetlamp illuminated your features when the caress of a breeze passed by, blowing some hair into your face.

Jake moved involuntarily to remove the strands covering your eyes.

He couldn't have possibly helped being attracted to you, it would have been a nearly impossible task to not be drawn to your enticing persona.

For one, Jake thought you were effortlessly beautiful. You sometimes made him burst out laughing, without caring who could hear him, and there never was a dull moment while being with you.

You made him forget everyday struggles and made things seem better when discussing hardships you both went through as days passed by.

Jake's stomach dropped a little when you first mentioned your boyfriend, and he felt a little embarrassed, because he was in deep. Too deep already. 

So deep, in fact, that his ears went red in excitement from seeing you were about to contact him. Jake was met with disappointment yet again, when the little dots were gone, replaced by no new texts, just a blank screen.

He couldn't hold it any longer, jumping up from his bed he was previously spread out on to grab his jacket and leave the apartment immediately.

While he was locking the door, his phone vibrated with a new notification. Guessing it was probably Sunghoon telling him to wash the fucking dishes already or Riki sending one of his weird memes, he thought it wasn't urgent.

Jake pocketed his keys and started walking in the direction of your flat, not too far away, luckily, and decided to check his notification now.

His jaw dropped as he almost stopped in his tracks.

Y/N: my bed's empty without you

Yes, he had been to your room before, yes, he had laid in your bed too, but the wording… It seemed suggestive, nothing like pillow fights after a movie marathon or wishing goodnights and you asking him to stay a little longer. He brushed off the feeling though, setting his priorities and making a mental note to ask you about your wording.

Jake started putting one foot after another way quicker, and took a few deep breaths. Deciding that he had plenty of time to reply in real life, he shoved his phone into the backpocket of his light washed jeans.

There he was, faced with your door, alternating between raising his fist to rasp his knuckles against it and having a stare-off with the little stepping mat that was spread on the ground.

Taking a final calming breath, a desperate attempt at calming his racing heart, he knocked.

One, two, and then three seconds passed.

As expected, you were the one who opened the door. Looking nothing short of breathtaking in Jake's humble opinion with hair tucked away from your face, no makeup, a dark tank top and shorts.

Your lips stretched into an all-too-familiar half-smile as you recognised your visitor.

"If I knew you would appear on my doorstep after  that text, I would have sent it way sooner."

"Well, why didn't you?" Jake surprised himself with being able to put a coherent sentence together after being stunned by your beauty yet again.

Instead of answering immediately, you averted your gaze and stepped further from the entrance, inviting your friend in.

You lead Jake to the couch in front of the TV, grabbing both you and him a glass of water from the kitchen nearby.

"We broke up." You thought it would be better to be straight-forward about it, since it wasn't like being freed from this relationship was a sensitive topic for you. Obviously, you weren't nonchalant about it, but you felt better.

"Oh," Jake's mouth parted, hesitating on whether to console you or simply just accept this important fact you have thrown at him. "I'm sorry."

He wasn't sorry at all, maybe only for the fact that you might be disheartened after these events, even though you seemed fine.

The living room was bathing in warm tones thanks to the standing lamps you insisted on keeping around in the area, instead of hanging lights from the ceiling.

Your nose cast a shadow on one of your cheeks, and Jake suddenly had the urge to touch the presumably soft skin, as if he would be able to feel the dark outline of your nose.

"Don't be," you shrugged.

Jake gulped and took a sip of much needed water when you pulled up the strap of the tank top that slipped down on your shoulder.

"I'm pretty sure I will have to end things with him a second time, since he left with saying I can't break up with him, because he doesn't agree, but I'm completely done with his shit at this point." Your eyes wandered around the room while elaborating, the scene of your ex-boyfriend slamming the door to your house replaying in your head.

Catching up in the comfort of your living room and the soft pillows decorating your couch, you explained to Jake that you didn't want to risk dragging him into the ongoing fight between you and your ex, and since he would have jumped at even an innocent text from your friend, you decided on radio-silence while dealing with the problem.

Jake was only a little upset, since he found your actions reasonable, but it still bothered him that he wasn't able to help you.

After the sun dipped behind the clouds of the evening, Jake slowly got up from his seat, smiling warmly.

"See you soon?" you asked, your eyes shining.

"Yeah. Text me."

Jake lifted an arm to wrap around your waist and pull you against his chest. He moved his face so that his soft, plump lips were aligned with your ears and whispered, leaving a feather-light kiss on the side of your face.

"You've got my number."

THE END.

[bitterkarmaa]

20. “Nobody touch me! Except you, you can touch me.” maybe with BloodMoon and Eclipse? <3

ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY MORE MORE MORE BLOOD AND ECLIPSE <33 ESPECIALLY RIGHT NOW THEY TAKE UP LIKE 90% OF MY BRAIN

I would suggest reading this since this is kinda inspired by it? It explains Blood’s injuries.

“Nobody touch me! Except you, you can touch me.”

-Blood Moon & Eclipse-

Blood Moon went in and out of consciousness for the next couple of days, each moment fuzzier than the last. Their waking moments were filled with pain, dizziness, fear, fatigue, and Eclipse’s worried face. It was���odd seeing him so concerned after what they had done. It was as if their father had dismissed the memory of their attack, instead opting to focus on their recovery, stupidly enough. Shouldn’t he be focusing on Rays?

Then again, they suppose, there were times when they woke up for a few fleeting moments and Eclipse wasn’t there. They considered that, maybe, he was helping the others then. They hoped so. It would make them feel less guilty to know that Rays was getting help.

Their fingers twine lazily with the blanket draped over them, eyes going in and out of focus. Their head remains planted on the pillow, as lifting it is a futile venture that will only make them more dizzy. They’ve learned this from earlier attempts.

Why had they lost control like that? Why couldn’t they stop? It felt like a hunt, but it couldn’t have been, right? They hadn’t hunted for weeks. They could go for a month at a time without one nowadays. It…almost felt induced. Like a trance, stuck in the mindset of a killer so wrought up with jealousy that they wouldn’t have stopped until-

They inhale sharply, forcing themselves not to finish the thought.

The door clicks open, and they take it as a welcome distraction from the plaguing thoughts in their mind.

“Ah, you’re awake.” Eclipse’s voice has a hint of relief in it, though he keeps his tone steady and calm as to not spook his already-anxious sons.

Blood Moon mumbles something that is supposed to be closer to an actual coherent sentence than it really is, and then pauses as if processing how the English language works.

“No need to talk, boys. Save your strength.” Eclipse strides across the room, hand lingering on Blood Moon’s head for a moment as he passes. They lean into his touch, comforted by his familiar presence and odd, uncharacteristic gentleness that they have begun to grow accustomed to over the past few months.

Eclipse kneels at their side, a small frown on his face. Blood Moon blinks at him sluggishly, one eye at a time.

“You…don’t seem to be doing much better, huh? I’ve been so caught up with Rays that I suppose I haven’t noticed your own struggles…sorry, boys.” He murmurs apologetically, reaching out a hand to tug the blankets up around them, tucking them in as best he can. They simply shake their head, the dim light of their eyes casting a faint hue onto the pillow underneath them.

“More hurt.” They curl into themselves, eyes looking everywhere but at their father. Eclipse hums.

“That’s…not the point, Blood. You’re hurt, too.”

They forcefully turn away from him, shame gnawing a hole into their chest that somehow hurts more than the ache in their head. They hide their hands underneath the pillow, afraid of the claws that adorn them.

“Our fault.” They croak, unwilling to allow themselves to cry, but wanting to portray their guilt, to show that they don’t want to dismiss this. It isn’t within their right to dismiss a mess that they caused.

But did we cause it? That stupid brat-

No excuses, Sickle.

“Let’s not start with the ‘who did what’ business. Focusing on repairing the damage done is far more important than dwelling on who truly caused the damage.” Eclipse explains gently, laying a careful hand onto his sons shoulder. They snarl and snap at him, but he pushes them back with one precise, firm claw.

“No need for such attitude, boys.”

“All the need for attitude! You don’t realize why? Why all happened? Blind! BLIND!” They snap, bristling like a cat under their father’s penetrating gaze.

“Well, yes. But only partially.” Eclipse motions to his blind eye, and Blood Moon lets out a groan of exasperation. Their hands unravel from their places beneath he pillow, darting out to grab Eclipse by the front of his vest.

“NOT JOKE TIME!” They shout, mere centimeters from his face. Eclipse seems shocked for a moment before it dissolves into…nothing. His expression is blank. Blood Moon’s grip loosens, slight unease slipping into their actions.

“Then what time is it, Blood? Please, do tell.”

They fully release him, backing off as the venom in his voice seems to melt their fury back into meek submission. The sarcasm that drips from his tone is painfully obvious. Eclipse seems to notice it too, since he takes a deep breath to calm himself before he further frightens his already anxious children.

“Sorry.” All three say at the same time, followed by a very tense silence.

Would things ever be the same? Would they have to learn to deal with that little shit, or would he leave before they had to relearn their way of life? Could they scare him off, perhaps?

He did seem afraid…

That’s what I was thinking.

The others wouldn’t be fond of our acts, though….

Let them whine! We won’t share our father with a beast!

Everyone thinks we’re the beasts right now, Sickle.

…damn, you’re right…

The next thing they know, Eclipse has gotten closer, one hand coming forwards to gently lift Blood Moon’s chin, watching their eyes closely as they dilate and unfocus in uneven intervals.

“What’re…what’re you…” They begin to ask, though they trail off as the dizziness begins to set in. Eclipse frowns, instinctively brushing his thumb over their cheek in what he hopes is a comforting gesture. It seems to help, since they begin to relax.

“Checking to see if you’ve gotten any better is all, boys. Sadly enough, I don’t believe you have….in fact…you might’ve gotten worse…” Eclipse mutters under his breath, voice laced with concern as he gazes steadily at his unsteady sons.

“Worse…?” They can’t help the tremble that creeps onto their tongue, no matter the effort they put towards trying. They’ve never really been hurt before- not like this, at least. The first fight with that…Veil all that time ago gave them quite a bit of trouble, but it was mostly spent resting and watching TV with Lunar. Nothing to worry about. Sure, they got looks from the permanent scarring it managed to cause, but…that was the thing, they suppose. They didn’t feel that. They knew it was there, but it mattered little due to the fact that it didn’t effect their day-to-day life.

This, however…this does.

“It’s alright, boys, I’ll take care of it, alright? Just try to relax.” Eclipse soothes, slowly retracting his hand as Blood Moon slumps forwards onto him, nuzzling his shoulder like a kicked puppy.

“Don’t like.” They murmur drowsily, eyes fluttering closed as they curl against their father for comfort. He seems to get the hint, because he shifts from his kneeling position into a sitting one, cradling them close to his chest.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“No. No sorry.”

Blood Moon receives no reply, at that, but they can tell that Eclipse is still rather guilty. Despite this, they can’t help but begin to slip away in the warm hold of their creator, darkness enveloping their sight…

It’s almost like looking in a mirror. Standing, facing the other half of themselves. Surreal, as it always has been, and always will be.

“Will we wake up?” Sickle twitches, eyeing their twin as the other turns away, gaze downcast.

“Yes. Our body needs to rest. Don’t be so stressed.” Scythe replies, tone dull- unfeeling. Their stance and voice give nothing away. Sickle can’t help but find that remark a slight bit irritating, as this whole situation has been a mess from start to finish- how are they supposed to let this stress go when it’s all they can think about?

Sickle sneers. “Easy for you to say. Nothing bothers you.”

“That’s not true.” Scythe turns to face their twin once again, narrowing their eyes as if challenging Sickle to make such an outrageous assumption again. The other remains silent, at that.

When the tension finally begins to recede from Scythe’s shoulders, they let out a heavy sigh. One filled with an exhaustion that Sickle, unfortunately, completely understands.

“Dad’ll make sure we pull through. Even if it isn’t because he cares, he’ll still make sure of it. He’s stubborn like that.” Sickle’s tone is tainted by hesitance, and Scythe knows why.

He didn’t care for so long, and it’s still hard for the twins to believe that he does now.

Scythe gives their other half a deadpan look. “He always saves himself first. That tendency is his worst.”

“But he’s not in danger, which means he’ll help us!”

“Even after what we did?”

Sickle pauses, the hopeful expression on their face dimming. They can’t find anything to say to that, so, instead, they stay silent, staring helplessly at their twin across the mindscape. Scythe turns away once more, trailing deeper into their subconscious, dragging lazy claws over frozen code that lingers like phantoms under their fingertips. Sickle knows that they’ll be back, knows that this wasn’t an argument, but a discussion to uncover the realism behind their own fantasies. After the stunt they pulled, they’d be lucky not to be scraped, or worse.

Separated.

The thought makes a shiver run down their spine, sudden terror gripping them at the mere thought of being alone. In a surge of desperation, they call out after their twin. “Scythe! Come back!!”

The other pauses. They feel Sickle’s fear. Normally, the feeling would excite them.

But it’s coming from their brother, so, of course, it doesn’t. It fills them with unmistakable despair, instead. Without further hesitation, Scythe turns back towards their other half, quickly making their way back to their side. They scoop Sickle up into their arms, holding them close as they begin to cry.

Scythe doesn’t realize the tears slipping down their own face until a single drop settles onto Sickles shoulder. They allow themselves this moment of vulnerability, if only because they are around their twin, and no one else.

The two curl up together in the center of their mindscape, their only comfort being the other’s presence. This is how it usually is, after all, and they assume it won’t be changing anytime soon. The only person you can really trust is yourself.

And, technically, they’re one in the same.

When they wake up next, it’s hard to think. Normally, it wouldn’t bother them, as thinking has always been a chaotic process for them anyways- however, this time, they can’t get through to the other. Words are muddled messes of syllables that mean little to nothing to them.

Their panic only intensifies the moment they open their eyes, surrounded by fuzzy faces. They blink mildly, a calm comparison to their internal breakdown.

Eclipse crouches in front of them, Lunar perched on the armrest of the couch nearby. Sun and Moon sit a few feet away, crisscross applesauce, hands in their laps. Rays and Veil are nowhere in sight- at least, not for Blood Moon, of whom can’t turn around to score the room in search of the two missing animatronics.

A larger…much scarier version of Moon stands idly behind Eclipse, sharp red eyes boring into Blood Moon like lasers. They shrink back instinctively, still unable to speak to one another, incapable of sharing the other’s confidence and comforting presence. Instead, they are horrifically alone.

Lunar hops down from the edge of the couch, scampering over to Blood Moon with a wide grin on his face.

“Bloody! You’re awake!!” He squeals excitedly, but they snarl at him before he gets within touching distance. His smile fades, transforming into a crestfallen frown.

“Nobody touch me!” They snap, barely able to support themselves on their terribly shaking limbs. With slight hesitance, they meekly glance at Eclipse, of whom seems more concerned than anything else. “….except you. You can touch me.”

Eclipse gives them a small nod, shifting closer as unexpected tears well up in their eyes.

“Why the ‘me’ talk, boys?” Their father asks, watching worriedly as Blood Moon begins to wave their arms wildly, as if trying to shake off some pesky bug that just won’t seem to leave.

“It’s quiet!! So quiet!!” They yowl helplessly, throwing themselves onto Eclipse. He lets out a grunt, but otherwise seems unperturbed by their sudden clinginess.

“Quiet?” He asks softly, wrapping his arms around them as they let out another wail.

“Can’t hear them!! Can’t hear Scythe!!!”

Eclipse finally seems to understand, pulling out of their grip just long enough to give them a conflicted look that somehow comforts them the slightest bit. He’s going to fix it. He has to fix it.

Eclipse is brilliant. Eclipse knows how to fix things, and he…he knows how to fix this, right? He always knows.

As they gaze up into his eyes, they realize, with slight horror, that…they haven’t needed him to know anything up until this point. Before, his random tangents and articulate plans, speech patterns- all of that wasn’t for them. It just made Eclipse look capable. Smart.

But he proves his intelligence quickly enough, reaching forwards to carefully rearrange a few wires and flip a few switches, which seems to do the trick.

This CANNOT be happening-

Scythe?

Sickle?

YOU’RE BACK!!!

The body goes limp as Sickle throws themself towards their twin, toppling them over on impact. They roll together in fits of relieved giggles before eventually coming to a stop in a warm, secure hug. For a while, they simply hold each other, trembling at even the slightest among of time apart.

It makes them wonder…

What would they do if they were separated?

The hug tightens, the twins clutching one another as if afraid the other might simply disappear.

Eclipse wouldn’t let anyone separate them, surely. He has to know how much they mean to one another after all this time. He isn’t clueless, and he knows their speech patterns well enough to tell the two apart. Knows that their speech pattern’s specifically mold into one another- puzzles designed by the same creator, sharing the same pieces, yet creating different pictures. After all they’ve been through…

Would someone have a reason to separate them?

…

Would someone have the NERVE?

[centrally-unplanned]

RIP: Board Game Geek’s Game of Thrones Play-by-Forum

Due to a discussion about setting up an online Game of Thrones Board Game match (h/t @bookworm-blackshoe & @k-simplex ), I dug up the old tools for asynchronous play that everyone used for Board Game Geek Play-by-Forum games. It was a really big and active community; over 500 games were played it looks like, they developed custom maps for easy play, custom variants of the game for balance, and all that. The most successful was the Five Kings and a Prince variant, which had a tweaked map, new house cards, and unique ‘crisis’ cards instead of just wilding attacks over and over:

I played a few games like 5 years ago or so, but more often what I did was read the games; because it was Play-by-Forum and most had a ‘No Ravens’ rule where all diplomacy had to be done publically, the entire narrative of the game is written out for you. Some roleplay, others chat about their lives as they play, etc. I still remember some of the epic plays or in particular the yelling-at-screen blunders you saw in these games. 

Something that is really cool about this is that the ‘meta’ is essentially recorded-over-time through these games. Greyjoy’s overpoweredness is apparent early on; Lannister in particular develop key strategies to mitigate this, like a first turn CP-muster on Lannisport becomes really common. “Openers” like the Greyjoy 4-Castle Riverun play or the Stark Turn-2 Eyrie Snipe become known and named, etc. The history of the game on this forum is preserved at 100% resolution in this way, which is really great.

The forum is dead now of course - the last game, #518, had its last post in March 2022, and it was essentially dead by 2021. I was reading through the last 5KaaP variant game, and its last three turns took over a year to finish as players dropped out and the hunt for replacements got more and more difficult. Everyone knows its the last game of the forum, its the only reason they pushed through - and they finished, in a really close 3-way tie finale (tiebreaker mechanics gave the win to House Baratheon). Very happy they did, it should end that way.

Why the forum died is probably obvious. Its a forum, forums overall are dying slow deaths even if this one had its heyday way later than most. Apparently the Game of Thrones Board Game had a Steam release? I didn’t know that - it has ~50 daily active players, which is not stunning but honestly the forum never had much more than that, its a fine player base and likely cannibalized some of the forum population, even if its primarily synchronous as opposed to asynchronous play. VASSAL as a board game engine exists and has a GoTBG module, maybe it has players?

Bigger culprits are like time itself - we are at the tail end of the Golden Age of Board Games right now, and A Game of Thrones was a pretty early entry into that era. It is an extremely complex game with tons of edge cases and bespoke rules clarifications, it takes 4 hours to play in person, all of that. It is thoroughly modern in its design, for sure, but the past ten years of game design have really pushed towards simpler design philosophies and less demanding playtimes, GOTBG isn’t as much in step with the market now. Additionally, communities like these have ‘anchor’ members - the people who made these mods & tools, people who served as moderators and drummed up players, etc. When a few of them leave the community becomes adrift and fades away faster, and that definitely happened here.

Meanwhile the franchise of a Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire itself has of course declined quite markedly - primarily through the organic passing of time, but less organically through the ritual suicide of the latter half of the televion show and George RR Martin’s tease-and-denial fetish when it comes to his book publishing schedule. I think those intersect too - Game of Thrones fans are nowadays normally older, and the older you are, on average, the less time you have for months-long play-by-forum overly complex board games. Apparently the default mode for the Steam version is for a game to be 6 turns long instead of 10, I think that reflects the changing demo. 

Anyway, goodbye to the Board Game Geeks Game of Thrones Play-by-Forum community. May this post serve as a stone in your cairn, and hopefully a reminder of its existence to anyone out there who was also a member and stumbles across it.

[kairos99]

The first paragraphs of a new fanfic I've literally just started to write. They're right out of the oven, and I might look at this in the morning and cringe at some parts, but here they are regardless. I hope you'll give them a read if you've got two or three minutes to spare.

----------

Kirito hadn’t always known who he was. This is true for everyone at some point, especially when they’re fourteen years old. When you’re that age, it feels like everything’s changing constantly: your moods, your friends, your relationships, even your own body. New expectations are placed on your shoulders, and to top it all off you’re expected to keep up with all of it flawlessly. With such a heavy burden, it’s no wonder that people begin the process of becoming adults with anything other than a stable sense of identity. 

But Kirito was lost even by the standards of kids his own age. He was aware of this, and for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why. He’d be hard pressed to point out the exact moment everything began to go downhill. Perhaps it was when he stopped attending social events he’d previously enjoyed going to, despite being more of a wallflower. Perhaps it was when he began to skip kendo classes and did it so often one day he stopped going altogether. Or perhaps it was when his relationship with his cousin quickly deteriorated after that, for no apparent reason other than his lack of commitment to the sport they’d both dedicated themselves to for years. 

By the time he realized what was happening, he was spending every minute of his spare time glued to his computer and leaving his room only to go to school or for basic necessities such as eating or going to the bathroom. He spent as much time as he could playing games, watching movies, reading ebooks, because if he didn’t keep busy somehow, he would become aware of how hopelessly unhappy he was, how every day felt like a repetition of the last and how the future promised no hope that things would get better. 

Kirito was miserable, and it seemed to him that he’d remain miserable for as long as he lived. 

This would all change in a couple of months. They’d be the hardest months of his short life even compared to the positively terrible existence he used to inhabit, but once everything was said and done, he’d come out the other side feeling more grounded and at home in his own body than any fourteen year old had any right to be. He’d still continue to face challenges no person would face if the world was a kinder place, but he’d be more than ready to meet them after those months had run their course. Some might say he’d become a new person, and maybe there was a bit of truth in that, but it’d be far more accurate to say that he’d become more himself. And boy would he have to shed a lot of falsehoods in order to do that. Even his name wouldn’t be spared. 

And it all began, like many love stories do, with a girl. 

----------

This is all I've got for now. Like I said, I've just started writing this. I'm terrible at writing nowadays because perfectionism has consumed my life and I can't think of a single plot without convincing myself it's utter shit, but somehow I got this out of my system. Barely. These are less than 500 words, but it still took me like two hours to type.

This is all to say that any progress I make on this fanfic, if I even keep on writing it, will be slow. Like, super slow. As such, if you've enjoyed this little excerpt, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know that you liked it in whatever way you want. Anything, no matter how little, would help me fight the perfectionist goblin in my head and encourage me to keep on working on this project. I can't guarantee I'll finish even a single chapter, and the outline I laid out for this story has *12 chapters* in total. But I have to try. I owe myself a lot of things, and giving myself a chance is the first one. So yeah.

Thanks for reading this far, and hopefully I'll see you along the line with another update. <3

[warritb]

ok ok I'mma send you this ask simply to prompt you to infodump about your most recent hyperfixations. that's how socializing works right

you give me something i like to talk about i will talk my ass off about it. im a bomb of information who will go off at any mention of something i enjoy. i can do some summaries tho so i dont take 20 years off your life!

main hyperfixation (for like over two years now) has been dnd and ttrpgs. i love em. incredibly good creative output for me and i love making stories with my friends and watching the stories other people make. the power of games like these are immesurable and i cant picture my life nowadays without them, its actually kinda nuts lol

i havent really had much time recently to dive into new things because of end of semester university bulk, but a couple things come to mind that i wanna talk about. first is a little game called risk of rain 2 that got a new update this week! new dlcs!! and a billion bugs!!! gearbox fucked up bad but i still love the game and have been enjoying it for a couple months now. i put 100 hours into it within a month of buying it a while back. its such a crazy game and i cant recommend it enough, but maybe wait for a patch for the absolute bonkers game breaking bugs.

another thing thats been helping me keep my sanity through the end of the semester has been celeste speedrunning! celeste is my favorite game of all time, its so special, its so fun, and i absolutely adore it. i replayed it and tried playing som modded maps but im pretty bad at the game all things considered, and speedrunning was the easiest type of content i could do like on switch. had an absolute blast chipping my time down, current pb sits at a 43:55 iirc, and im happy with that. i grinded runs with a friend doing races and it was really awesome! i love celeste so much, i wanna pick up runs again when im less busy.

i guess the last thing ill mention that ive been fixated on has been heathers the musical. i watched it like 2-3 weeks ago and have not been able to get it off of my mind. ive relistened to the soundtrack more times than i can count, have rewatched the musical like twice now, and have been getting constant ideas for art about it, as well as dumping to my friends about every piece of symbolism in lyrics, music and rhythm between songs. its insane how much ive latched onto that musical

i guess thats all ill mention for now. ive been drawing, working on comic and animation projects, but havent had much free time to work on those. anyway, i spent 15 minutes writing this!

[marshiestars]

Tag 9 People You Want To Get To Know Better

thank you @scrawnytreedemon for tagging!! let’s begin, shall we? :3c

Three Ships: ughhhhh this is real hard because I JUST invented the most horrible, wonderful “why does it work” crackship a few weeks ago, but if I want to include it, I have to ignore one of my three big zelda ships :C

1. Ghiralink. because of course. I feel like it’s illegal to leave this one out or put it any lower. it’s the good food. it’s well-established. I can afford to be picky with my content. it’s great :D

2. Astlink! sorry Kohlink, but Astlink is less likely to scare half my audience away 😔.

tbh I’m still VERY surprised that Astor and Link aren’t paired together nearly as often as Zelast (Astor / Zelda). don’t get me wrong, both are rare pairs, but somehow Astlink is even *rarer* shksjhdjhsshs, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. either way, it's 'moody goth bitch rejected by society (or maybe he rejected society first, it's a chicken or egg situation tbh) with the perfect golden person that everyone admires who secretly has their own issues'!! and it's about how they're on the complete opposite sides of this huge conflict and yet they find unexpected parallels in each other! and having everything fall apart but deciding to be a better person, even when the rest of the world says it's too late, because that one person believes in you and is willing to give you a chance! darkness and light! it's GOOD FOOD

(...man, I really gotta finish chapter 3 of swordsman and the seer.)

3. ...fuck it. scrawny, I hereby challenge you for the title of Weirdest Fucking Crossover Ship. Ghirahim x Godrick? Sephiroth x the Hollow Knight? I'm intrigued, but not crumbling to ash at the thought.

and so I give you this in place of gushing about Kohlink, which is unbelievably rare, but damn it, at least they're from the same source material! besides, I wasn't the first person to pair them by a long shot, no, no, no.

but there’s a special, lonely sort of pride in knowing you’re probably the first of 8 billion people in the world to ever even think of a pairing. ready? here it is:

R*x D*ng*rv*st x S*np*i from FNF.

(censored their names like that because if this shows up in the tags I’m gonna jump out a window)

yeah, man. I don't even know either.

I mean, I do know, somewhere, and my original train of thought is buried in the memory slush of a few months ago, gone forever. so now we're here. fuck. kill me. why am I writing shit for these two. girl what the hell is this

everyone who reads this post, I want a brick emoji in my inbox to simulate getting one through my window

First Ever Ship: ANYWAY, fuck, I don’t even remember at this point, I've been in greater fandom for so long. wait... oh, son of a bitch, nevermind, I do.

*sigh*

it was Billdip.

DO NOT COME AFTER ME, I DON’T SHIP IT ANYMORE. haven’t for years. I was 12. but I loved Bill Cipher (still do, he's my funny meow meow blorbo <3) and was very upset when the finale happened even though I knew that was how it had to be. but every time Billdip art came across my screen, I saw cool art where he: # 1. was still around and # 2. was more often than not a pretty human / humanoid (this was at the height of his sexymanification). hell, I didn't even give a shit about Dipper honestly, I just wanted more Bill content. and again, being literally 12, I didn’t really stop to think abt any moral implications. but yeah.

(also nowadays I hc Bill as ace sooo)

Last Song: 'She Had The World' by Panic! very nice to sing to, it's right in my range <3

Last Movie: does ‘My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas’ count? it’s a childhood film and practically tradition for me to watch it every year for christmas lol. although this year I’ve been replaying it for... research purposes. yeah. totally not for a lethally cursed fanfic, no sir.

if that doesn’t count, then ‘The Lego Movie’!

Currently Reading: nothing atm!! even as my 'to read' pile gets taller by the day, hhhh

Currently Watching: Minty Christmas, again, but definitely not so I can copy the dialogue verbatim to use as the base for a coked-up christmas crack fic

Currently Consuming: soup <3

Currently Craving: instant ramen, good god, especially if it’s spicy. they have cups for sale in vending machines around campus but they’re all beef and chicken flavour :C

I won't tag anyone else in this because nine people is a lot; far too many to bother with this wall of personal nonsense shdhdj but thanks anyway for tagging me scrawny, my beloved mutual!!! <3

[tjerra14]

15 questions!

Stealing these from @foibles-fables because my laundry takes ages and I need to do something to pass the time

1. Are you named after anyone? Technically, more something. My mother nowadays denies any and all involvement of a certain somewhat popular newspaper cartoon duck my (older) sister loved reading about, but at least the inspiration was there. (Although I’m unable to find any mention of the duck now. Maybe this was all a fever dream.)

2. When was the last time you cried? For once, I can’t actually remember. Maybe two weeks ago? I did get another corneal injury a week ago, and I kinda stop crying when that happens (which is entirely weird but well.)

3. Do you have kids? No. Unless fish count.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot? I used to, it’s become a lot less in recent years.

5. What sports do you play/have you played? Volleyball, lacrosse, and did German longsword/HEMA for a while. I really miss the days of whacking guys with a sword, ngl.

6. What's the first thing you notice about other people? Their hair, probably? Not sure. If they’re in the company of their pet, definitely the pet, though. 

7. What's your eye colour? Hazel.

8. Scary movies or happy endings? Happy endings!

9. Any special talents? My co-workers joke I’m a vampire because I manage to draw blood from just about anything (except for once every four months when I just fail), but other than that, nothing I’d know of

10. Where were you born? Germany

11. What are your hobbies? Aquaristics, gaming (...tbf. It’s more photo mode than that sometimes), writing, drawing

12. Do you have any pets? A fish tank!

13. How tall are you? 175 cm/ 5′8.8″

14. Favourite subject in school? Biology.

15. Dream job? Small animal vet, which I’m working as. Going from here, maybe I’d like to specialise in neurology?

Not tagging anyone except everyone who wants to do this!

[random-thought-depository]

Some notes for this project, specifically about those people's home planet.

Tentatively orbits the star Tau Ceti, though I might move it somewhere farther away if it strains credulity too much that a radio-emitting civilization there wouldn't be detected by real life radio astronomy or if somebody finds an unsuitable planet between e and f (82 Eridani, a broadly similar star, is a possible secondary candidate).

Tau Ceti is a dimmer, older, and less metal-rich star than Sol. For approximately Earth-equivalent illumination, this planet will have to orbit between planets e and f, at around .7-.8 AU from the star. This implies a year length between 7 and 10 months. It's Earth-like, so day/night cycle will be similar to Earth. Axis obliquity is somewhat less than Earth's, but still enough for very noticeable seasons (so maybe something like 15 degrees).

An older and less metal-rich star also likely means a less massive, less metal-rich and less dense planet. Earth's density is 5.5 g/cm^3, Mars's density is 3.9 g/cm^3, this planet will probably be more dense than Mars just because it's bigger and has more gravity and it might be somewhat more metal-rich, let's give this planet a density halfway between Earth and Mars; 4.7 g/cm^3 and about 70% of Earth's mass. If I've done my math right, it will have a diameter of 5900 km (.93 Earth diameters), a surface area of 441 million square kilometers (about 87% of Earth's surface area), and a surface gravity of .8 G (7.9 m/s^2). I might end up making it bigger and heavier gravity though, I dunno, these are just tentative figures. The planet has no moons (no natural ones, anyway, but nowadays there are many artificial space stations and satellites).

This planet has less land than Earth, both in absolute terms and relative to its surface area. I'm going to say its surface area is 75% ocean and 25% land (compared to Earth's 70% ocean and 30% land). That would mean it has a land surface of about 110 million square kilometers (Earth's land surface is about 150 million square kilometers).

This planet being smaller, less metal-rich (and hence less rich in radioactive heavy elements), and older than Earth, one would expect it to have a cooler interior and less geologic activity, which would imply relatively little surface volcanism and mountain-building and probably low atmospheric carbon dioxide. This suggests a cool world with lots of heavily eroded flat ancient terrain, probably mostly covered by ocean because most of the continental crust has been eroded down to below sea level. And it probably did look like that forty million years ago. However...

I'm tentatively going to suggest that, as this planet's interior cools, it's entered something a bit like a much milder and less violent version of Venus's stagnant lid/global melt cycle. There are long periods of low activity in which plate tectonics is slow or even "locks up" entirely, but during these eras the crust thickens and internal heat is unable to fully escape and builds up until it "breaks through" in a dramatic temporary spike in plate boundary activity, hotspot volcanism, new rifting, and wrinkling/deformation of the crust (this cools the interior until the planet becomes relatively quiescent again, restarting the cycle). The planet is presently in one of these spikes of increased geologic activity, and has been for at least the last 10-20 million years. This sounds bad, but it's actually mostly good; all this geologic activity creates new land and new fertile soil (and fertilizes the ocean too) and releases carbon dioxide, which warms the planet and fertilizes the plants. Biomass is probably way up compared to what it was a few tens of millions of years ago.

The oceans are actually shallower than Earth's, but the average height of the continental platforms relative to the abyssal plains is lower, so relative to the average height of the continental platforms sea levels are higher. Actual land is maybe 25% of the planet and much of it is relatively young and rugged, but these relatively small and young continents are surrounded by extensive shallow seas that cover ancient heavily eroded shallowly submerged plains (so kind of like Cretaceous Earth). The result is fractal coastlines with lots of peninsulas, bays, and offshore islands.

The spike in geologic activity also means a recent and ongoing spike in island arc formation and mid-ocean hotspot volcanism; oceanic crust is relatively thin, so the internal heat is mostly "breaking through" there. The shallower ocean means more volcanic mountains and highlands get tall enough to poke out above sea level, and when they do the resulting islands are bigger and take longer to erode away when plate tectonics moves them away from the hotspot. More-or-less every major ocean is island-dotted in the way our Pacific is, and with more and bigger islands than in our Polynesia. The increased island arc formation and shallower oceans also means lots of substantial offshore archipelagos.

The continental crust is highly fragmented, i.e. there are a bunch of continents and they're separated by pretty wide oceans in most places. However, they have a bunch of peninsulas and island chains extending out from them, and the continental configuration is such that from a statistically average spot on the planet's land surface it's possible to access most of the major lands on the planet without extensive ocean crossings, just crossing narrow straights or island-hopping along island chains.

The high carbon dioxide means a warm hothouse climate, kind of like Cretaceous Earth. This contributes to the ease of moving around the planet without long ocean crossings; if Earth had a climate like this planet (but still had humans), Alaska, eastern Siberia, Kamchatka, and the Aleutians would be a heavily developed and densely populated area and a historical cross-roads of trade, migration, and cultural exchange.

I'm not sure how the productivity of hothouse world open oceans would compare to those of our world, but I think the extensive shallow seas of this world might be quite rich with life. The warm climate should enable coral reefs (or equivalent bio-communities) to grow farther north and south than in our world, I think? And the shallow seas will be enriched by run-off from the continents and will have large areas where the sea bottom is close enough to the surface to receive some sunlight. I think this would be another factor encouraging precocious development of water-craft; coastal peoples will be tempted to sail deeper into these shallow seas by opportunities to fish and to hunt big ocean creatures. A lot of these shallow seas would also be kind of sheltered, lots of them will be basically big bays or even basically inland seas in the middle of continents with only narrow inlets/outlets to the ocean; imagine if the Caspian and Aral Seas connected to the Black Sea and to each other. This, incidentally, will be a big factor making the planet more habitable; lots of areas that would otherwise be arid continental interiors will have a big inland sea connected to the ocean there, moderating temperatures and generating rain. Imagine if Australia has a nice big inland sea in the middle of the Outback, connected to the ocean. Similarly, as on Earth, lots of those volcanic islands in the middle of the ocean will have coral reefs (or equivalent bio-communities) around them, so the oceans will be at least nicely dotted with oasis of bio-productivity.

I don't really have a very solid idea of what biome distribution would look like on a hothouse climate planet; best source of information I can find about it is this. Going off what I have read...

Assuming fragmented continental configuration, climate belts would be broadly similar to Earth. There'd be a humid belt at the equator, then arid belts around 10-30 N and 10-30 S, and then the temperate zones poleward of 30-40 N/S would be wetter and mostly warm.

The tropics and subtropics would be the least different from Earth, somewhat hotter than equivalent regions on Earth but not by very much; the big difference between hothouse and icehouse climates is icehouse climates have a much bigger equator-to-pole temperature difference. I think it might be a toss-up whether the tropics and subtropics of a hothouse world would be more or less habitable than ours. On the one hand, really extreme heat would be more of a problem, and hot air can hold more water which might mean less rain, and the greater heat would supercharge storms. On the other hand, a hotter climate would mean more evaporation from the oceans, which might mean more rain, and hotter air being able to hold more water might mean more rain gets to continental interiors. On Earth, the ice ages were cold and dry.

A hotter climate might also mean a poleward expansion of the Hadley cells and thus a poleward expansion of the arid zone, so the latitudes that are temperate on Earth (30-50 N and 30-50 S) might be more arid in a hothouse world. Those Cretaceous climate maps do give the impression of a wide arid belt, especially in the southern hemisphere, though the northern temperate zone, which is a better analogy for this planet, looks relatively wet. I think this effect might be more pronounced on the west side of continents? On Earth, that's where you get summer-dry Mediterranean climates. So maybe a hothouse world would have something like a summer-dry Mediterranean belt on steroids? The west side of continents between 30-50 N and 30-50 S might be hot and summer-dry/winter-wet and have lots of dry forest, open woodland, grassland, scrub, desert, and semi-desert? Then again, Earth precedent might be misleading here, I'm really not sure about this.

I think the wetter parts of the 30-50 N and 30-50 S zone would have a climate kind of like southern China or the US southeast?

The far south and far north would be wet. The impression I get is in the Cretaceous the polar lands were forested and warm in summer but cold and snowy in winter; I think Yunnan and Appalachia might be the best modern analogy? If there are any permanent glaciers on a hothouse world, they'll probably be on high mountains in the far south and far north.

Applying this to the Tau Ceti planet, a world inhabited by humans (though not Homo sapiens)...

I'm going to go out on a limb and say their tropics and subtropics overall trend kind of nicer than ours, though it's a mixed bag. The continental configuration means much of the land has a wet maritime climate, and it helps that their biggest continent has a mountain, highland, and desert complex that generates an effect similar to the Asian monsoon and draws a lot of rain to its south. The abundant volcanic soil ameliorates one of the major downsides of Earth's tropics, the tendency of tropical jungles to have poor soil (this probably does a lot to make this planet more habitable in general). Humans are different enough from the native animals biologically that disease-causing viruses, bacteria, fungi, animal parasites, etc. adapted to parasitize off them mostly can't infect us, which means much less tropical disease. Still, I think the majority of the planet's population might live in the temperate regions, because they're cooler and wetter.

I'm going to say there's not very much land in the polar regions. But I think the far northern and far southern lands that do exist may be important cross-roads of trade, migration, and cultural exchange. The circumference of a planet at 60 N or 60 S is half of its equatorial circumference. So the far northern and far southern regions are likely to be places where otherwise widely separated continents almost touch and where ocean crossings are relatively easy.

You can see this effect even on Earth. When humans reached the Americas, they did so by crossing Beringia, near the north pole. The first visitors from the east were probably the Vikings, who also followed a far northern route, island-hopping from Europe to Iceland to Greenland to what's now Canada. But on Earth the usefulness of these northern routes was limited by cold. On the Tau Ceti planet, equivalent routes will pass through much friendlier territory and be much more useful.

Imagine this planet's equivalent of Anchorage, Alaska. It's a big thriving mega-city; not quite as impressive as the biggest cities of the temperate and tropical lands, but with almost ten million inhabitants it's comparable to New York. It's also one of the oldest cities on the planet; it was founded in the fifth millennium BCE, before the construction of the Great Pyramids on Earth, and it's been getting rich off trade ever since. It's in a densely populated and highly developed area that's been a crossroads of trade, migration, and cultural exchange for millennia. Since prehistoric times voyagers in water craft suitable for short ocean crossings of dozens of kilometers have travelled west along the long peninsula this city sits on and then "island-hopped" along the long chain of islands that bridges the thousand kilometer gap between two continents, or made the symmetrical opposite journey from the other continent. Tourists visit royal tombs almost as old as the Great Pyramid, then get their photo taken in front of the distinctive city hall, which was built in 2052 (CE) and houses an administration that claims continuity, admittedly very tenuously, with the monarchs those ancient tombs were built for. The southern aurorae, fascinating museums, and vibrant night life are said to be well worth the discomfort of visiting in winter, when the city endures months of continuous chilly night but its bustling port remains busy thanks to brilliant illumination provided by powerful electric lights.

As I said, the geography of this planet will encourage precocious development of boats and sea travel. And I think these people will have some biological factors that may encourage precocious technological development. They also had a more intense and hence faster self-domestication process, which means they're probably in a sense an older species than us, having developed their present anatomical form long before we did. On the flipside, easy birth control, strong particularist/localist solidarity, and possibly a stronger tendency toward long term thinking may have meant a tendency to get stuck in high equilibrium traps.

Put this together, and I think these people may have developed some capacity for deep ocean voyaging tens or even hundreds of thousands of years ago. I don't think they'd have colonized all the ocean islands that early, but they have some populations that have a kind of floresiensis-like history of having spent thousands of generations as island-dwellers. Some of these populations have started evolving in the same general direction floresiensis did; they haven't had time or evolutionary impetus to get as extreme as floresiensis did, but they are noticeably smaller than the mainlanders.

Also, the way I imagine this species behaving might lead to long-established island populations getting a bit weird. These people have totally the kind of society where a woman might have a couple of kids with her regular partner and one kid with the one guy in her village who has red hair cause she thinks that's exotic and cute and sexy. Zoom out from that a bit and you have harmless minor mutations being promoted by sexual selection, leading to increased physical diversity. Have that happen in a population scattered across fifty islands with not a lot of gene flow between them, and you might have a recipe for relatively rapid divergence into fifty quite physically distinct populations.

And I think the islands might have been hotbeds of early cultural and technological innovation. Before motorized transport, long distance transport over water was much easier than long distance transport over land. Island and coastal communities had access to food from the sea and thus they tended to be bigger than inlander communities, more likely to stay year-round in a single location, and better able to support specialists.

With relatively easy birth control, these people are less likely to be pushed to become intensive farmers by population pressure than we were. Instead, I think on their world intensive agriculture might have developed through a "beer came first" pathway in which the initial impetus was provision of special foods for feasting events which enhanced community solidarity and the prestige and power of a leader. And I think that likely happened first in island and coastal communities.

If islanders developed intensive agriculture first, they might have spread back to the continents as farmer-settlers and there ended up eventually outnumbering and absorbing a lot of the original continental populations (because the inlanders weren't farmers or farmed at lower intensity so their populations were less dense).

Islanders might also have been the first to develop kingdom-equivalents, i.e. military organizations and systems of socio-political control that scale up relatively easily, which is another advantage they might have had over continentals early in the history of civilization.

This planet also may have at least one continent that's somewhat isolated from the rest, like Jaredia's Tropica. This continent may have stayed uninhabited until people capable of far-ranging ocean voyages reached it - meaning it likely got settled by one branch or another of the islanders. Alternately, humans on this world might have started out on a single relatively isolated continent, with the rest of the world being settled by various branches of the islanders.

[twatkcox]

[The Keihancarl Diaries: September 14, 2024]

Keihancarl here. The weather feels kind of unpredictable, as there’s the possibility of rainfall during the weekend. Well then, I’m heading to the SMX Convention Center for this year’s Manila International Book Fair, the sixth MIBF event I’ve attended since 2017. And of course, if the weather cooperates, there’s a chance I’ll get to visit Ayala Malls Manila Bay for the second time, as well as the Parqal Mall, both located in the nearby Aseana City.

xxxxxxxxxx

I’m going all-black for this weekend. Not that unusual, right? Well, I have to make sure to make the most out of this day so I really have to leave the house early. I'll probably have to deal with traffic along the way, but I guess it's pretty normal nowadays. Anyway, it was still sunny when I left, and (luckily) traffic was light along Commonwealth Avenue, well, except for North Fairview. I managed to reach North Avenue about an hour later.

On the way to North Avenue, I was having a hard time deciding between riding the MRT-3 to Taft (with a short jeepney/bus ride to SM Mall Of Asia) or taking the EDSA Bus Carousel all the way there (and save me the trouble of switching transport later). I ended up taking the MRT anyway.

I load up my Beep card and head inside the train. Looks like there's rain in the Ortigas area, but only for a bit. Well, the weather report says that there’ll be a chance of scattered rainfall throughout the day. I was hoping it wouldn’t rain in the Pasay and Parañaque areas, since I’m planning to visit a couple of malls at the Aseana City after the MIBF.

Reaching MRT Taft Station, I took a short bus ride (EDSA Carousel) to the Mall Of Asia Complex. Oh, and I happened to see the LRT-1 Gen 4 trains while passing by the overpass to the EDSA Bus Carousel. Would love to ride these new trains soon, well, probably on my 34th birthday.

I reached SMX about 10 minutes past twelve. As soon as I got inside, I decided to have a hotdog (on a stick) at one of the stands. Although I’m starting to get hungry, I don’t feel like having lunch just yet… well maybe later. 

I decided to check some of the booths on the first floor, including Fully Booked, National Book Store, and the Precious Pages Group (including Black Ink Comics). I bought a copy of The Restaurant Of Many Orders (at 20 percent off) at the Fully Booked booth, and three bargain-priced manga books at the NBS booth.

Heading to the second level, I passed by a couple of booths, Komiket and Tankobonbon. I bought a couple of books at the Komiket booth.

This is the first time since 2019 that the MIBF occupied two floors of the SMX Convention Center, excluding Function Rooms 4 and 5 (which are closed). And yes, this is the first time that I actually had a large haul of books from the event.

National Book Store finally made a comeback to the MIBF for the first time since 2019. Tuttle Publishing, however, was not among the list of exhibitors. The latter is one of the exhibitors I always visited at most of the previous MIBF events. But at least I bought one of the publisher’s books (the manga version of The Restaurant Of Many Orders) at the Fully Booked booth.

It was already 2:00 in the afternoon, but there was a lot of time left so I decided to leave the event (and the Mall Of Asia Complex) to visit Ayala Malls Manila Bay. It’s been more than 4 years since I last visited that mall (exactly a month before the COVID lockdown), but I knew that it was doing well since then. Might as well visit Parqal Mall while I’m there.

It only took me 10 minutes to walk to Parqal Mall, which is actually a strip mall with a large roof above it. The area was breezy when I got there, not to mention that it is close to the bay. Since I didn't have anything to drink since leaving the house, I stopped by The Marketplace Supermarket to buy something to drink (it's just a bottle of C2) and consumed it along the way.

From the Parqal Mall, it took me less than 5 minutes to reach Ayala Malls Manila Bay. I visited several shops inside the mall, including Flying Tiger Copenhagen (probably the Danish version of the Japanese brand Daiso) and Biblio. There was an event by Foot Locker at the mall’s atrium.

I was getting hungry, considering that I didn’t have anything but a hotdog for lunch. I suppose it’s time for Pepper Lunch (after noticing it from the other side of the balcony). Besides, it’s already 3:00 PM and I’m only at the mall’s second level.

I decided on beef pepper rice, which is so far the only item I ordered at Pepper Lunch (I initially thought of trying their salmon pepper rice). I took a moment to write this post while waiting for the food to cool down a bit. The weight of the books I bought at the book fair adds up to the slight feeling of exhaustion, along with the crowd of people at the venue. It was also quite stuffy inside since the air conditioning unit was under maintenance, hence the portable air coolers.

I then continued checking the rest of the upper floors, as well as some of the shops. The Sun Garden on the fifth floor is already open, the last time I was there it was still closed. So far, I believe only Zus Coffee is open.

After checking the rest of the mall, I headed back to the Mall Of Asia Complex and passed by the Neo Chinatown area. It only took me less than fifteen minutes before I reached the SMX Convention Center, though I didn't bother checking the MIBF again. Anyway, it's time to visit the two malls in the complex, starting with the S’Maison Mall. I got inside the mall via the bridgeway from SMX.

I only checked the Fully Booked branch there, which had already relocated to the ground floor from the second floor. Nothing much, considering that I’ve already bought what I wanted at the MIBF. And yes, all of the books are 20 percent off. Also, I didn't bother checking the rest of the shops inside the mall.

I made my way to SM Mall Of Asia using the other bridgeway at the other end of S'Maison. Once I got there, I checked Decathlon first. After that, I immediately head to the esplanade.

Looks like a reclamation project has commenced near the MOA Eye. Some parts of the esplanade were cordoned off as well. Also, I’m not sure when these lamp posts were installed, but they sure brightened up the area.

From the esplanade, I made my way to the other side of the mall, the part near The Galeon. I then checked some of the shops inside.

Feeling parched, I decided to have a drink from ChaTraMue, at the MOA Food Hall. I ordered a plum red tea, with konjac jelly. The drink was kind of sour and salty at the same time, like kiamoy (dried sour plums/prunes covered by some orange powder). Is that how the drink is supposed to taste like?

I took a moment to check some of the shops. Nitori is opening soon, as well as a gashapon shop.

I then checked the Sky Park for a while, and Aperitif (cafe/restaurant) is now open. I decided to skip the Fully Booked x Kinokuniya branch at the mall due to time constraints.

Later on, I dropped by IKEA at the MOA Square. I was taking pics of some amazing displays, but the gamer’s room was the most awesome. And the kitchen.

And it’s time to go home. Unfortunately, there were no more UV Express vans to SM Fairview so I’ll have to find another way to get home. I could’ve probably taken the MRT-3 or the EDSA Bus Carousel to North Avenue, but getting a UV Express ride from Trinoma or SM North is quite a hassle, especially if I’ll have to line up for about 15 to 30 minutes. Instead, I took a jeep to the Taft Avenue-Buendia intersection and took the UV Express van from there. Traffic is mostly light, with slight traffic in North Fairview.

I got home before 11:00 PM. That was the first time I’d been out on a mall-hopping trip for more than 13 hours, and my hips and my left shoulder hurt so much from walking too much and my bag’s weight respectively. Despite this, I had a lot of fun at the event, and I’m quite pleased with this trip, even with some minor problems.

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It sure was a fun weekend, even though I ended up feeling worn out. My all-black outfit sure was kind of ordinary, but it was complimented well with my usual accessories (particularly the black fingerless gloves).

I’m planning another trip for my 34th birthday (it’s less than a month away). When or where it will happen will depend on the situation, but I’m really pushing for it to happen. Manila might be the obvious choice, but I’m considering Ortigas/Greenhills or Alabang as well (the latter two I’ve yet to revisit). Of course, I’m gonna wear all-black on that trip as well.

I suppose this is where I’ll end this post. Until next time! Ciao!

All pics are uploaded to my Instagram account, @kcox_105, and shared to my Threads account.

[the-autistic-agoraphobe]

Autistic April Day 7: Safe Foods.

I have always been able to eat plenty of different foods without any sensory issues however with drinks it's a different story.

When I was one or two years old my parents attempted to introduce me to drinking water instead of milk but there was a problem I didn't like water. My parents were worried about how I could get hydrated because I couldn't go drinking only milk forever. So they tried me on all of these different kinds of drinks. At last they had success with Cottees Orange Crush cordial. Which I have included a picture of with this post here.

I remember being upset because water didn't quench my thirst like cordial did. I had meltdowns when I was thirsty and cordial wasn't available and I remember crying and saying that water only made me more thirsty. My parents than learnt that I had to have cordial available at all times.

One time my mum couldn't find the cottees cordial in the supermarket so she brought another brand of cordial and put it in my drink bottle for school. At school that day I noticed that my cordial tasted different to usual. So I told my mum about it. She told me about what happened and I had a meltdown.

I also had cordial at school camp in 2008. I was away for 5 days and there was a lady who was a carer to me because of my disability. She made the cordial up for me. Her cordial was drinkable but only my mum could get the perfect cordial to water ratio that I liked at the time. I have attached a photo of me at school camp in 2008 fishing.

Sometimes in high school I would get thirsty and run out of cordial and need more so I went to the office when they called my mum or my grandparents and they would bring cordial to the school.

In 2015 I went on my first overseas holiday to Bali. They didn't sell cottees cordial in Bali so we had to bring cordial with us in my suitcase. We also brought a doctors letter explaining the situation to the Indonesians. Despite the language barrier we didn't have any problems. I had a wonderful time in Bali.

In 2016 I was 20 years old and I decided to experiment with drinking a set amount of water each day. I thought water was neutral and maybe if I drink a set amount of water each day I won't get thirsty. So I drank a set amount of water each day and found myself needing cordial less and less until I didn't need it at all. Nowadays I drink about 2 litres of water each day.

Image Descriptions:

1: There is  cordial that is in a plastic bottle with a handle that has orange liquid in it. On a sticker on the front of the bottle it says "real fruit juice cordial cottees orange crush" it has a picture of a slice of orange on it.

2: This is a picture of me when I was 12 years old on my school excursion in Victoria Australia. I am a white girl and I am wearing a long cream coloured hooded coat. I have dark brown hair that is covered by a hood. I am wearing a navy blue knitted scarf and red woolley gloves. I am holding a blue fishing rod and I am smiling. I am standing between a wire fence and a lake. There are people behind me fishing in the lake. I have placed a purple heart to cover their faces.

3: There are a list of prompts for each day of the month for Autistic April. The top and bottom of the image is light purple and the middle part of the image is white with black text on it. The black text says "Autistic April 2024 Prompts: 1: Special interests 2: How you found out you were Autistic 3: your favourite stim 4: alternative forms of communication 5: your favourite fidget toys 6: textures you hate 7: safe foods 8: other disabilities you have 9: LBGTQI+ 10: childhood special interests11: comfort items 12: your favourite Autistic celebrities or characters13: unmasking 14: sensory aids 15: misdiagnosis 16: Autism friendly places 17: Disability support you have received 18: animals 19: favourite thing about being Autistic 20: echolalia 21: idenity first or Person first language 22: the spoon theory

23: colours that represent Autism (not blue) 24: Autistic owned small businesses 25: meltdowns and/or shutdowns 26: Your clothing prefences 27: Self care 28: Relatable Autism memes 29: Accessibility 30: routines" There is an infinity symbol that is half red and half gold on the top right corner of the white section. End Descriptions.

[pwhlmontreal]

okay, why not. I havent introduced myself on this blog yet anyways! thanks for the tag @barkingfortheocean

1. nickname - gigi (aka what I go by online)! (sometimes just 'g')

2. height - 176cm/5'9"

3. last google search - "muppets take the ice hockey cards" (i want that miss piggy card so bad)

4. song stuck in my head - Ricky Baker from Hunt for the Wilderpeople (such a great film) and Our Song by Taylor Swift

5. number of followers - I'm not sure? probably like 12 (i just checked and its 42, which is surprising, I just know the little band of hockey mutuals)

6. amount of sleep - typically between 8 and 10 ? but like 3 nowadays because midterms and assignments & finals are right around the corner

7. dream job - Sport/Performance Scientist or Biomechanist! (currently what I am in school for!)

8. wearing - black underarmour exercise pants, a school shirt, and my blue era's tour crewneck

9. movie/book that summarizes you - One Last Stop by Casey McQuinston, specifically because of the character August Landry. she is literally me and I am her in the sense that we are big fucking gay nerds. however instead of solving mysteries i am studying sport science LMFAO.

10. aesthetic - granola gay. if you know, you know.

11. favorite authors - CMQ is great, Rick Riordan is a classic (embarrased to say i haven't read a new book in a very long time, especially since I love reading, I jsut haven't had the brain power)

12. favorite song - girl i have no idea. I love so many songs. maybe Must Be Love by Laufey (absolutely heartbreaking) or Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac, which just scratches an itch in my brain so hard. Like the Dawn by the Oh Hellos is also a fave.

13. random fact - uhhhhh I graduate in less than 3 months and i am absolutely terrified and I can only find job openings in the states (im Canadian, i guess thats a second random fact)

tagging: anyone who wants to!

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

THE WILD ROBOT, the new Chris Sanders animated adventure from DreamWorks - adapted from Peter Brown's book series, finally carries a rock-solid official release date, and it's one a lot of us were suspecting for a while:

September 20, 2024...

Nice to see a DreamWorks movie actually get a concrete release date. Everything else is still weirdly up in the air. *But* it's actually good to get the date when you KNOW you're going to make it, otherwise, you're just whetting the mouths of investors. It appears the movie is full speed ahead, and the only thing that could possibly upset its final months of production is a possible animators/VFX strike when the Animation Guild contract is up in July. Maybe the movie will be finished by then? Who knows.

Anyways, it's probably smart that they locked the date around this time, instead of saying 2-3 years out that it's going to be released on a very specific date... And that's how you get the "c'mon, whaaaa?" when, say, Pixar delays something for a full year and a half. DreamWorks movies moved back years tons of times, they're quieter nowadays on what's on the horizon. If it were like 2013-times, we'd see a slate that goes up to 2028 and would be stacked to the brim with titles.

We don't even know if half of the titles DreamWorks announced were the works over the past 3-5 years are still even happening. THE WILD ROBOT announcement came right out of nowhere, throwing off *any* predictions I might've had about what the 2024 not-sequel movie from them would be. (I previously predicted RONAN BOYLE, from director Fergal Reilly.)

While there are rumblings of Universal/DreamWorks releasing movies on specific dates, some of which are unsourced as far as I'm concerned, the Universal website is up to date and only lists the studio's two 2024 movies. Nothing is hard-set for 2025 and beyond.

So... Anyways, fantastic news!

On the other hand...

Either Walt Disney Animation Studios is buckling up for an animator/vfx strike, or they are set to do some course-correction...

They appear to be, via an updated release schedule, skipping 2024 altogether. This comes from a pretty reliable scooper, but I want to take it with a grain of salt 'til the trades themselves or Disney say something:

Now, it could be a small error, because Pixar's Disney+ series WIN OR LOSE is entirely absent from the list... and this list includes a bunch of undated Disney+ shows... and that series is supposed to be out next year... Plus... There are some typing errors here and there, too, and usually Disney's theatrical slates are just for theatrical - no streaming. The presentation here isn't clean: There are some hyphens next to titles, no hyphens at all, some that are a combination of two. Usually the Disney slates have a nice clean presentation. Like this, for example...

I know, the example I used is very outdated, I'm just illustrating a point. So yeah, it could very well be fake...

But, given how STRANGE WORLD and WISH turned out at the box office, maybe course-correction is happening at that studio. Whatever that may look like... Evaluation on why the last two films didn't connect? The way they were released? Jennifer Lee stepping down as CCO? Less baby-ifying their movies during test screenings? I don't know. Whatever decision they make, I don't work there, I can't protest it, but I'll probably have my piece to say on here lol.

Either way, if true, that'll be a historic skip. Disney Animation only missed fall 2020 by a hair because of COVID-19, RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON would've been a Thanksgiving release that year but ended up opening in March 2021, sharing the year with the studio's fall title ENCANTO. So that's more of a world circumstances-driven thing than a creative/management one.

Disney Animation sat 2015 and 2017 out, as Pixar put out two those years: One in the summer, and one in WDAS' usual Thanksgiving slot. WDAS released two films in 2016 (ZOOTOPIA and MOANA), and they were *supposed* to release two in 2018 as well, but only released one: RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET. So that was a gap right there.

But ever since MEET THE ROBINSONS in 2007, they try to get one out a year, and typically in the Thanksgiving slot. The two exceptions were THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG (an inexplicable early December release, should've went to Thanksgiving instead that OLD DOGS movie, could've probably had more ground to run) and WINNIE THE POOH. (spring in Europe, in the summer against HARRY POTTER 8 in North America) But they don't always have to aim for that frame, and I think that sometimes hinders them. And as STRANGE WORLD and WISH show, it's not always a lucrative time to open something. If audiences don't want to see it, the choice of release date really does not matter.

But again, we'll see. I'd like them to take a breather and figure out how the next of batch of films will be, but I'll wait til official word gets out on this...