#this is some bonkers stuff

[strugglingyetvibing]

in case this is helpful for anyone:

i also went in through Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Apps (you need to scroll to the bottom to the section called "Siri App Access" to see this) to turn things off

you still need to turn each app off individually, but i found more apps than when i went under the general apps section

for example:

under Settings > Apps, i found "Books" and "Brave" listed under the letter B

under Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Apps, i found "Booking.com," "Books," and "Brave" listed (the listing is not separated like under the general apps list above)

i HIGHLY RECOMMEND going through Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Apps to make sure you've turned this setting off for every app you have!!

FYI iPhone users!

[abd-illustrates]

I might’ve spoiled the plot of Natlan | Genshin Impact THEORY

In which I read so much lore that I gained the power to see the future (maybe) This ended up being a real challenge to make - but it was also really fun! Please do lemme know what you reckon of these ideas, and whether y’all wanna see me pattern-recognition my way into several corkboards worth of theories about any other topics sometime down the line! (^^)/

(also: HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🥳🎉 Here's wishing y'all every good thing for 2024)

[saturdaysky]

midst people...you were right. i'm only finishing episode 3 but it's so cool

[to-be-a-dreamer]

Loving the fact that the current Young Avengers mentor lineup includes the most Normal Dude in the MCU and the ghost of a centuries old spirit witch in a complicated relationship with Death herself who is haunting the son of her ex-situationship because they trauma bonded over having accidental murderous tendencies

[blackjackkent]

(tldr: read to end for my new favorite thing to have EVER happened because of RNG in this game, holy shit)

So. Yeah. When Orin said that Bhaal demands a duel, I was thinking the usual situation for "duels" in CRPGs, where it's nominally a duel but you're also allowed to bring your 2-4 closest friends who happen to be in the party with you.

AND BOY WOULD IT BE GREAT IF THAT WAS THE CASE HERE.

This is deeply not what I expected. I was actually low-key kind of excited for the standard Tav fight, because Rakha just hit level 12 and got the Spirit Guardians spell that I sank six levels of bard for, and I was real excited to see if they worked for buzz-sawing through the Sanctuary'd cultists.

No such luck, however. It's just us and Orin.

[slowly and carefully taps the reload button and examines Rakha's spell loadout]

There is actually some good news here too. I'm playing on easy so Orin's hit points aren't particularly terrifying, and far more significantly, she doesn't seem to have the buff from her cultist buddies, meaning she does not have stacks of Unstoppable and we can damage her immediately.

The downside is basically everything else. :P

Everyone else in the party currently has a condition called Duel: Murder's Chosen -

Very ominous. Even switching to any other character makes everyone get Big Mad:

At this point, the fight basically converts to normal, Orin recovers her Unstoppable stacks, the cultists start chanting, etc.

So I guess, ultimately, we could play this the Tav way if we wanted, but that seems counter to the spirit of the thing. XD Let's do this duel.

-----

POST FIGHT REPORT:

holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit

Y'all know how in tabletop games sometimes the RNG just plays out perfectly to do something never expected that nevertheless makes perfect story sense and feels like a brilliant thematic conclusion to everything that happened previously?

Rakha's fight with Orin started off pretty bog-standard. It's a pretty scary duel, but Rakha has her level 6 spiritual weapon out from the Harper Sacredstriker staff she's wielding, and it's doing a pretty good job of distracting and confusing Orin's AI and running her in and out of the Spirit Guardians that Rakha has up. She also landed a solid hit of Dethrone, "pulling on strands of the Weave" to "shred [Orin's] very essence."

All well and good.

Second round, she casts Misty Step to bring herself close to Orin for Burning Hands, and...

...well...

She wild-magic surged and unlocked Lae'zel's restraints on the altar.

Incredible. In-fucking-credible.

AND she is under our control as, basically, a summon for Rakha.

AND the Bhaalists don't consider this fight interference.

------

Perhaps it is simply random chance. It's happened before, after all - moments when her magic surged wildly out of her control, chaos incarnate to match the chaos in her brain.

But it feels like something more than that at this moment. A desperate reaching through the Weave in this moment of greatest need, her heart pounding with terror as she faces down her dark sibling. Jaheira and Minsc and Minthara and Wyll are beyond her reach, but something in her - mind or magic or something deeper still, some guidance from some force even Bhaal cannot stand against - reaches out and breaks the chains on her closest, oldest friend.

Help. Me.

The bonds break, and with them the enchantment that held Lae'zel unconscious. Her eyes snap open and she is on her feet in an instant, a sudden bursting release of tension and rage to match Rakha's own. For a moment their gazes lock, and Lae'zel blinks with recognition and astonishment and something like joy - and then her face hardens and she moves to stand at Rakha's side, shoulder to shoulder against the beast before them.

Her blade glints in the torchlight like sharpened flame.

[mymarifae]

i want to talk about an.

i want to talk about an in “kick it up a notch!” specifically, and correct a slight misconception i’m starting to see pop up about her character development and how it relates to the rest of VBS but mostly akito.

an is alone in her fear of being left behind and all her other feelings of inadequacy and jealousy in regards to kohane’s astounding growth as a singer. akito is not going through the same thing she is. for one, that’s not his partner. he’s not the one who plucked kohane out of a crowd and he’s not the one who designated himself as her mentor and expected to always be the teacher and never the student.

that was all an.

that’s why this is hitting her so hard. she assumed that she was the natural talent of the vivids - and i’ll get to why that is in a second; bear with me. and no, akito does not feel this way about toya. at least not anymore.

akito’s able to pick up on what’s going on with an so, so easily because he’s extremely observant and emotionally intelligent for his age. and because yeah, he’s been through his fair share of struggling with abandonment issues and feelings of inadequacy.

key words: been through.

akito isn’t... over his problems by any means, but he’s already felt what an feels now. all the way back in middle school, when he and toya were just BAD DOGS. hell, he felt it during that soccer game that made him quit the sport altogether. and just... in general, with the way the shinonome household is, he’s well-versed in feeling untalented, and like he’s not special, and like he will never accomplish anything in his insignificant life.

he’s gone through this shit before. he’s confronted those nasty, traitorous feelings of jealousy and the fear and the despair, and he worked through them with toya. and they came out on the other side stronger and closer than ever.

i’ll get into why in just a second again, just keep bearing with me, but i need to stress that an has never been seriously challenged before. that’s why this is happening the way it is. that’s why she has no idea what these feelings are or how to deal with them. it will probably be easiest for her to lean on akito as she works through this because he understands best the very specific circumstances of her emotional turmoil:

“i picked some guy off the street and made them my partner and it turns out they’re better at singing than me.”

but akito is old friends with negativity and he knows how to channel it into positive energy, into something that will push him forward and push him to prove everyone wrong. and you know what? he’s finally getting somewhere.

“find a way out” was literally about him starting to realize that he’s not... just endlessly chasing after the rest of vbs anymore. he’s managed to close that distance he’s felt for the past... 325734254889 events.

performing against the musician that bullied him all those years ago let him see his improvement objectively. he’s better than he was in middle school, and he’s better than the guy who humiliated him and that guy improved too! that’s just how much akito has grown. he’s surpassed a lot of his limits, barriers that he once thought were impossible for him to overcome. he’s flying high above many, many people’s heads now. that is what akito started to realize that night. (and i say “started” since he kind of freaks out afterwards - because he’s not used to thinking of himself like that. he’s not used to being proud of himself. which breaks my heart but that’s getting off topic.)

the point is. akito is very, very close to overcoming this idea that he will always be the worst at everything he loves. or he’s hell of a lot closer to it than an is. and even if he’s not, he knows how to cope with those feelings and fight against them.

an doesn’t.

why? because like i said, she’s never been challenged. everything has almost always just been handed to her. i don’t mean that like she’s spoiled or something; i just mean... everyone has always looked at her and seen Shiraishi Ken’s daughter first and foremost.

“you want to learn to sing? hah! of course you do! you’re ken's daughter!”

“look at you go! of course you’re a natural at this! you’re ken's daughter!”

“you want to surpass RAD WEEKEND? well, if anyone’s got the abilities to do it, of course it’ll be ken’s daughter!”

this is the dialogue an has grown up hearing. just an endless mantra of: “you’re naturally talented / you’ll be fine / go and do your own thing / you don’t need any extra help / you don’t need any push or shove.”

“you’re ken’s daughter!”

think of it this way: what almost always happens to “gifted kids” in school? they start off miles ahead of their peers. they are separated from those peers. they are not given the same resources their peers are given because they don’t need them. inevitably, those children once praised for being so so so much smarter, so much more talented and special, fall behind as their peers begin to catch up. they weren’t given the tools they needed to continue growing, so they stagnate.

that’s close to what’s happening here with an. the rest of vbs has begun to grow beyond what she was able to achieve innately, and that scares her so fucking much. especially when it comes to kohane because there’s no way around it: an expected to always be better than her. not in a nasty, self-centered way, of course; that’s not the kind of person she is. this was just her subconscious expectation because that was how she was taught to think about herself. but now reality’s catching up to her, and she lacks the tools she needs to keep moving forward with everyone else.

she doesn’t need breathing exercises or extra warm-ups or anything like that. what she lacks is an emotional tool set. she doesn’t know how to cope with feeling inadequate and worthless and good lord it took her like an entire event to learn what jealousy is.

an is alone in her feelings right now. she can lean on her teammates - she can lean on akito especially. but she’s the only one that can free herself from these chains rusted over with fear. no one’s going to save her. no one can save her. as painful as it is, this is the push she needs. if she never learns to process and deal with these feelings, she’ll never be able to keep up with the people she loves.

but don’t take these somber words the wrong way. this is project sekai, after all! this is a game about love and friendship and growing up, and accepting your flaws and shortcomings and pushing yourself to be the best you can be - to always strive for a bright future.

an will be okay. vbs will be okay. it’ll sting for a bit, sure, but they’ll make it through.

[thelaurenshippen]

genuinely think it's good and healthy to follow at least one person in each of your fandoms who reblogs good gifsets but has just...absolutely dogshit takes on the show, or who ships that ship you despise. keeps things fresh. keeps things grounded. you gotta stay humble

[lunarharp]

the miracle that colours the world

[pilkypills]

News to me that modern bagginshield aus aren’t super popular. I love em. I also love ridiculous, crazy aus. I wish that kind of out there writing was as common as it used to be.

[italoniponic]

did any of you ever randomly whispered to yourself "have no fear, Zig-Zag the grand-vizier is here" in the middle of the night? for me it's like, one time in a couple of weeks

[pmpwbrrs]

dark does NOT want to get its bag wet. beige helps to prevent that

im not sure if these two are capable of compassion tho. do not be fooled

also floewrs 💦💦🌷🌿🌷🌿🍃🌸🌿🪻🪻🌿🌼💦🌼

[greasydumbfuck]

also just for the record. no matter how much utterly stupid shit i say or draw about him, frank actually makes me so deeply sad. this old man should be picking up his grandkids but he cant. i think about him too much and im so sad

[honeyconez]

guys hear me out would painis cupcake pay taxes? Because he’s not like mega insane like ass pancakes I think he’d pay his taxes in my professional opinion.

[volfoss]

i think honestly what irritates me about yoshidas work SO much is that people will tell you that banana fish is THE gay manga (ignoring the many things that came before it and were more groundbreaking, ie MW literally having on screen (or like. on panel but still.) gay sex in it and that came out like a decade before BF did) when there really isn't barely any gay rep outside of the pedophiles and the one time ash drops the f slur. like im sorry but somehow yasha, a work she wrote in 1996, has more gay rep in it but also has the same issues.

i truly do not get how people can enjoy banana fish with the rampant racism every 2 pages or the rampant sexual assault plotlines (on women and ash bc he is just... written like how yoshida writes women lmao) that are handled IMPOSSIBLY bad and sincerely i hoped yasha would be better because it had been like a decade or so between works. and then it proceeds to continue with the heres our blonde genius protagonist who everyone is weird as fuck to and will sexually harrass and everyone finds it a VERY funny joke to point out how feminine he is when theres barely any women in the work (if you exclude the ones that are being raped/killed/creepy to minors. which to be fair yasha has toned down the sa a LOT) and that its funny that hes kind of gay except not really!! and its just absurd to me how it just persists in all of her stuff because she is not an author that handles gay stuff well. like the scene in banana fish where ash is completely ok getting gang raped and did it solely to get into the hospital when its been SHOWN that he has a lot of trauma with that. and then right after his friend makes a joke at ash's expense about that. like sincerely and genuinely is this what we are hyping up as the old retro gay manga. go read some tezuka and stop reading shit that the most the main characters do is share a kiss in a nonromantic sense and is obsessed w making every gay person be evil!!

[averlym]

some very very quick costume shorthands!

[ridgystasis]

that single tweet from johnny yong bosch is about to ruin my life until april cause before they had my curiosity but now they have my attention