#we made titmouse

[hypnosiacon-archived]

System brains seem to love having a theme, it's so strange. We have a bunch of immortals, the majority of whom are revival-immortals (ones that can die, but always come back in some manner). Maybe being a "mythic" or something like that might suit you better than deity - related to a/being a mythical creature?

I'm not mythic, no, I don't think so.

Yeah I used theriomythic in the past, but it still doesn't feels right (also the word itself gives not the right color-vibes.... do I have an synesthesia or not???) like uuuhhh Dovah were pretty much real, even if there they are not present here, and still they are "fictional". And the demon is... not exactly mythical it's like... a local legend or idk. And a bunch of my alterhuman identity is not related to myths in any way, I think.

I remember I used cryptid when I discovered my demon type, and it's still kind of the best way to explain my behavior in relation to this type. Servant doesn't feels right either, like Leviathan is not really a servant, not really a chosen one, but still is something important for a deity, that created him. I feel like there should be a word for something like this, I just... don't know, I feel like something red-orangy-dark-gray or something idk

[lonelywretchjervistetch]

The State Birds Initiative: Connecticut (#5)

Hoo boy, it's been a minute! But hey, here we are again, after taking some extra time to figure stuff out. Welcome to the fifth official poll of the State Birds Initiative! Before the poll, though, one thing real quick. My suggestion is that you read the post below before voting in the poll below. That's especially important if you're lacking any context about the birds being presented as the new (or old) State Bird of the Nutmeg State, Connecticut. This is to be fully informed as to why these are being presented, and to make your choices appropriately. Lastly, some of these birds, you will notice, may go against some of the rules listed in the introduction post. All is explained after the jump where the explanations are, I promise you that. And apologies in advance, the spiel before the actual bird selection is...long. But with that...OK! Here's the poll!

Welcome to the Nutmeg State! A small state, mostly known for being between Boston and New York City, this is one of the foundational states of southern New England, while also having a somewhat...divided identity, we'll say. So, I grew up in CT, for part of my childhood, in both the classic upscale suburbs, and in the middle of the goddamn woods, right on the Connecticut River. For the record, the name "Nutmeg State" is based off of salesmen from the state known for peddling nutmegs. However, there's some speculation that the nutmegs sold were actually made of wood, but that's also probably from people who didn't know that nutmegs were supposed to be grated, and instead assumed they had to be cracked like walnuts. They tried, that failed, and they accused Connecticut Yankees for selling fake nutmeg as a result. So, yeah, a confusing legend at the root of the state's nickname.

You'll notice my use of the word "Yankee" there. Well, despite New York's domination of the term, it should arguably be most associated with Connecticut. "Yankee Doodle" is literally the state song; people from CT were previously and historically referred to as Yankees (which was also an epithet applied to northerners in general, to be fair); and it's actually possible the word was first used by the Dutch in reference to Connecticut settlers, according to multiple theories and historical references. But maybe most prominently, Yankee was used as a demonym for people from CT by one of its most favorite residents: Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain.

Twain is, of course, Connecticut's most famous author, having written some of his most famous works while living with his family in Connecticut in his West Hartford house (which every central Connecticut middle school kid has been to at least once, I guaran-goddamn-tee it). Fun fact, though! Did you know...uh...ah, fuck it. Why keep stalling at this point? Look, as much as I love talking about Mark Twain, he was nothing to do with this post. Fact of the matter is...this was a hard one.

Look, I love Connecticut. It was the first state I remember living in, having moved there when I was a kid from the United States Virgin Islands, which I had been really looking forward to for a bunch of reasons. Admittedly (and unsurprisingly), a lot of that was because I was looking forward to seeing the birds! As a kid, I was also obsessed with birds, and I had never seen the birds in the US mainland before. It was an exciting time for me, and I honestly enjoyed growing up in CT, for the most part. I'd be there for almost 6 years of my life, and I have a lot of fond memories of the state. But, uh...ironically enough...finding State Bird nominees for Connecticut has been HARD AS HELL.

We will, of course, talk in GREAT detail about the American Robin (Turdus migratorius), as it's an important bird for more states than just Connecticut, but I'll give you a spoiler now: this is a boring choice for a State Bird. For any state. Don't get me wrong, I love robins! They're an extremely charismatic and iconic bird, and everybody has seen them at least once in their life if they live in the USA. They're also most likely an early bird (pun slightly intended) for people to encounter on a personal standpoint. Again, we'll get to them, but they're a notable entry in this list. And if one of the states kept the American Robin, I would understand. But, uh...is that state Connecticut?

OK, let's look at the state in the same vein as we have others. I'm sure this won't be the last difficult state to examine in the future of this project, so why not do the same here? Starting with habitat, Connecticut is another state placed within the Northeastern Coastal Zone, with a ton of deciduous forests dominated by oak, chestnut, hemlock, and white pine. There was a lot of clearance during early settlement and beyond, but succession has taken over in recent years to grow the forests back. The state's cut in half by the Connecticut Valley, with large floodplains dominated by maple and cottonwood, with the large Connecticut River right in the center of the valley. Finally, the Berkshires in the northwest corner of the state give us some classic New England flair with sugar maple (Acer saccharum), ash, beech, birch, oak, and hemlock trees on higher-altitude slopes, creating a hilly area that turns beautiful colors in fall. Man, I love Connecticut autumns. And the rest of the year, for that matter.

OK, what are Nutmeggers most known for, culturally and historically? It's a diverse state with a lot of mixed culture, partially as a result of its proximity to New York City. A lot of people tend to joke that Connecticut is just New York City, especially people from elsewhere in New England. And having been to NYC a lot when I was a kid, with a mom who worked there part of the week, and an aunt who lived there all of the week...yeah, fair. But Connecticut has a much more detailed culture than that. It's the home of the cotton giiiAAAAAAH, bad place to start that list. Uh, let's see, it's the home of whaliiiiiiing. Jesus. Uh...home of Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe? OK, that's better. It's a major seat of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, leading to it being a production hub for textiles, clocks, typewriters, machining, sewing machines, steam engines, aircraft, and honestly, women's rights to a certain degree. After all, it's the home of the Radium...Girls. Huh. OK, CT's history has some bumps in it, but what state's history doesn't?

As for modern Nutmeggers, they're industrious, generally well-educated, and honestly quite a bit eccentric. I've gone back to the state a few times in the last couple of years, and I forgot how honestly weird people are there. In a good way, not in the fucked-up MAGA sense of the word. It's a state whose people are unafraid to express themselves, from my experience. Probably a result of the diversity in the state, and the diverse perspectives that result. Its political atmosphere is a bit complicated, but overall pretty liberal. Which...doesn't translate super-well into birds at first blush, but hey, we'll see what we get!

OK, with that, let's jump into the selection of the birds for this list. Real talk, if anybody has a suggestion that I hadn't brought up here, send it my way! I will absolutely add another poll if there are entries I think could bear fruit. But, in the meantime, read on if you're interested in the possible choices for the State Bird of Connecticut!

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find an citizen of the United States of America who hasn't seen a robin. This is, by far, one of our most iconic songbirds, and is certainly one of the most common and widespread. For some of us, they're a sign of spring. For others, they used to be a sign of spring, until global warming prompted some individuals to stick around through the winter, shifting their diet to frugivory a bit more and brightening the snow as well. They're prolific breeders with bright blue-green eggs (which are iconic in their own right), and can have up to three broods in a given season! Extremely successful and very common. And that...is a problem, for our purposes.

See, Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin have the American Robin (Turdus migratorius) for their state bird, and none of them actually have a good reason for that choice. In Wisconsin, it was chosen by schoolkids because it was recognizable. That was also the reason for the Michigan Audubon Society to choose it as state bird. And Connecticut? Absolutely no goddamn idea. It's almost certainly for the same reason, but there is no real recorded reason for the choice of the American Robin as a state bird, as far as I can tell. For literally all of those states, it's a pretty bad choice by virtue of not being a good choice, at the very least. But that said...I mean, it's not the worst possible choice for a State Bird. For one state, anyway.

Robins, for the record, were named after a different robin entirely: the European Robin (Erithacus rubecula). Another red-breasted and beloved songbird, the European Robin was an immediate thought when American settlers saw the American Robin, hence why I keep saying "American". The two are so often confused in pop-culture, even Mary Poppins was guilty of it! That GIF above comes from the film, and in case you haven't realized it yet, that's an American Robin in England. Yeah. Wrong bird to use as a model for your animatronic, Disney. That has bothered me since I was a little kid, I swear to GOD. Erroneous film biogeography is one of my biggest pet peeves...but that's a separate conversation.

Back to the American Robin. Personally, I love robins of all species, and even recently did some genomics work with them (DNA extraction is fun). They're a commonly seen species, and a great entry-level bird for kids to get into birdwatching and nature. As an American icon, I genuinely think these guys should get some recognition...but I'm hard-pressed to say Connecticut needs them as a State Bird. We'll see what people think, but there's not a great case for them to get the title. To keep it...like I said, we'll see. Maybe the others won't be deemed as good a fit for the state. For now, let's move on from a popular backyard bird to a MUCH less popular one.

Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora cyanoptera)

Here's the eBird pick for Connecticut, and for good reason! The vast majority of the Blue-winged Warbler's (Vermivora cyanoptera) breeding population is in...Wisconsin. Wait, what? Hold on...yeah, actually, Wisconsin, New York, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia all have higher shares of the population that Connecticut, with 5% overall. That's still a lot better than the American Robin's share in CT (0.2%), but still...seems like that eBird article is SEVERELY outdated, or I'm using the database wrong somehow. Either way...huh. Well, let's make an argument for the Blue-winged Warbler, anyway.

Blue-winged Warblers are a species of some conservation concern, making them automatically of interest. They're also extremely interesting to geneticists and ornithologists because of their relationship to other members of Vermivora, especially the Golden-wined Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) and extinct Bachman's Warbler (Vermivora bachmanii), with having documented hybrid offspring with the former that's of interest for various reasons. But outside of that, they of course breed in Connecticut, and represent an interesting bird to look for and find, with a recognizable song and appearance. It's also prized by birdwatchers, and would be a good bird for any aspiring or experienced birdwatchers. It also inhabits shrubland, which is of some conservation interest to CT government and environmental officials. But other than that...not too much else.

Connecticut Warbler (Oporornis agilis)

No. Look, I'm just gonna say this now: no. The Connecticut Warbler (Oporornis agilis) not only doesn't breed in the state (and possibly has never bred in the state), but it's pretty much not found there. Like, at all. This is not an easy warbler to get anywhere in its range in the US, but Connecticut isn't included in that distribution. "But lonelywretch," you scream at your computer screen, "why is it called the Connecticut goddamn Warbler if it isn't even from the state?" First of all, not to police your emotions, but stop screaming; way overboard for this situation. Second of all, it's called the Connecticut Warbler because its describer, ornithologist Alexander Wilson, first saw it in a fly-by during migration while in Connecticut. And...yeah, that's it. They do fly through the state very occasionally during migration, but it's definitely not a reliable bird to count on for local birders there. Honestly...bad bird for the state.

Side note here: there's a lot of talk about renaming birds that are named after people, and I agree with that in almost every case. But here's a hot take to elaborate on in another series: location-based names need to be re-examined. Not all of them are bad by any means, but the Connecticut Warbler is a great example of a bird whose name makes NO FUCKING SENSE. Rename this bird, I BEG of you. If anybody has suggestions for a renaming of this bird, throw them in notes for something! Keep in mind, Gray-headed Warbler is taken (by Myiothlypis griseiceps), so come up with somethin' else. Warranted inclusion in the list for its name, but we're gonna move on.

Osprey (Pandion halieetus)

It's at this point in the list where we get into some interesting candidates...and where I had the most trouble. But I'm fairly satisfied with what I've come up with, so let's move forward! This entry's a somewhat controversial pick for a few reasons, but an interesting one for a bunch of reasons. Now, I don't know about you, but I love Osprey (Pandion halieetus) a whole bunch. An iconic raptor, as well as a very unique one, they're a pescivorous bird found throughout the entire continent. And in Europe. And Asia. And Africa, Australia, and South America. Yeah, they're a cosmopolitan species, found in every continent except for Antarctica. That automatically should make them a bit dodgy of a choice for a State Bird, since they can be found in every state (yes, even occasionally Hawaii). So, why Connecticut?

First off, Connecticut has an intimate connection with the shore and rivers, especially the Connecticut River. Seemingly a loose reason, but the Osprey, AKA the river hawk or sea hawk (we'll get to that later) is an iconic riparian raptor, and a common sight in Connecticut. Having grown up on a river in the state, we used to see Osprey all the time, and it was awesome every time. But their commonness in the state is an important story in and of itself. And, if you know anything about Osprey at all, you know where this is headed. And Connecticut is a great example of this story.

The Osprey is one of the most iconic victims of the DDT crisis that hit the country, as well as a symbol of the environmental success story that resulted from its banning. I won't go into the full story if you haven't heard it, but the short of it is that the pesticide DDT was inadvertently ingested by fish-eating raptors, especially the Bald Eagle (Halieetus leucocephalus) and the Osprey, causing the eggs they laid to have weakened, soft shells. This caused a massive decrease in these and other species, nearly driving both into extinction. However, once environmental movements prompted by Rachel Carson and her book Silent Spring advocated for its eventual banning, the populations recovered. And in Connecticut, they've recovered A LOT.

In 1940, somewhere near 1,000 nests were recorded for Osprey between New York City and Boston. By 1970, the number in Connecticut was down...to 8. Jesus Christ, that's a hell of a crash! One of the worst in the country, in fact. However, today in Connecticut, there are 688 active nests in the state. Which, yeah, doesn't seem like the ultimate success compared to previous, but what's interesting is the rate of increase. Because in 2014, according to the Connecticut State Audubon, there were only 210. In ten years, the number of breeding ospreys known was more than tripled. That's incredible. This has quickly made the Osprey a symbol of conservation in the state, because of a massive amount of monitoring increase. There are states with more of a population, but Connecticut has a pretty good argument for having the Osprey. But that said...other states could also claim this species. Florida and Maryland definitely have claims on it for population size alone, not to mention, well...the most iconic state of all when it comes to having ospreys as a symbol. But we'll get to that one WAY later. just keep that in mind before you vote for Connecticut to have the Osprey.

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus)

The Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus OR Astur striatus as of recent taxonomic proposals), on the other hand, is another bird of interest. The smallest hawk in the United States of America, this already seems a fitting choice for one of the smallest states in the country. It's listed as endangered in the state, immediately making it of interesting conservation focus. The reason for this status is likely because of window-strikes, which are common for the species in Connecticut, meaning that there's some public outreach needed to protect it. Protecting the forests they nest in (which are in danger) is one thing, but putting up protective window decals to help the species is another. Definitely a cause for focus.

However, there is one...minor detail that makes this a harder fight for public opinion, as well as a potentially ironic one. This is the first species we've discussed whose diet is basically exclusively birds. If you're in the Northeastern United States, and you've seen a bird get attacked and taken at your birdfeeders, it's almost certainly this guy. Which is cool, and important for the species' survival, but the average person being asked to protect a bird that kills other birds, especially birds like the American Robin, is...a palpable irony. Granted, it genuinely needs protecting, and has monitoring programs in the state, and it is a genuinely interesting raptor! But, this is a slightly harder fight to win because of that noncharismatic factor. But hey, it's a cool bird in genuine trouble in the state, it's a scrappy bird for a small state, and it's an interesting species to highlight!

American Black Duck (Anas rubripes)

This is another difficult bird to fight for, but one that needs attention, for God's sake. The American Black Duck (Anas rubripes) is a rapidly disappearing duck species, and not for the reason you think. Let's get to Connecticut representation first. It was the first bird to be used for the Connecticut Migratory Duck Stamp in 1993, the first one issued for the state. It's one of the few states in which it breeds (although it's not the primary state of focus, detracting from its candidacy). And, it's a controlled bird by Fish and Game, meaning hunting of the Black Duck is extremely limited. There is, surprisingly, a point to that statement, but I won't be elaborating here. We'll see how the vote goes, and I'll address it in the Results post.

So, why is this a potential issue? Well, Maine and New York arguably should get this bird instead, as they have a higher population. And the breeding population of this bird is incredibly important to promote, because it's disappearing. Why is it disappearing? Well, some of you may have looked at that picture and asked yourselves: "Wait...isn't that just a female Mallard?" And the answer is, no! But a lot of people think that. A lot of birds think that. Mallards think that. Which means that hybrids between Mallards and Black Ducks are incredibly high. SO high, in fact, the species is being bred and hybridized out of existence! They're so similar to Mallards on a genetic level at this point, that they'll be subsumed if their individual populations aren't preserved. So, yeah, these guys deserve some focus. Do I think they're a great Connecticut symbol? Well, to be fair, the state is regularly assumed to be either greater New York City or greater Massachusetts by outsiders. And it's not; it has its own identity that deserves to be preserved for what it is. So, yeah, maybe a good fit for Connecticut after all.

Also, it's the state in New England with the highest proportion of Black Americans (yes, even more than Massachusetts), so...I dunno, that's also something? Probably not, but as a black dude that grew up in CT, I felt the need to bring that up.

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)

OK, sing it with me now!

Yankee Doodle went to town, a-riding on a pony; Stuck a feather in his hat, and called it "macaroni"! Yankee Doodle, give it up! Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mind the music and the step, and with the girls be handy!

Ooh, that last line aged a little rough, but Yankee Doodle! The Connecticut state anthem! Yes, really. Most Americans in the Northeast know this song, but it's got a unique resonance for Nutmeggers, seeing as it was allegedly based on the son of a Connecticut mayor! The state chose it as their song in 1978, and it's been a beloved symbol ever since. But, for the uninitiated (and probably to most school kids like I was), there is one weird word in there that needs a little explanation: macaroni.

Now, this does not, of course, reference the easy cheesy favorite of every child (and college student). No, this is a reference to an old 18th century term for a form of fashion back in the day. It's what the 2000s called "extra", or bourgeious (pronounced "bougie", of course). Basically, it's somebody who dressed WAY over the top in high-designed clothes and accessories to the point of looking...well, extra. Another applicable 2000s term would be "metrosexual", I guess. The macaroni became a satirical character in British culture, and would later become another character known as the "dandy". It's sort of a class-related satire, to be honest. In any case, the macaroni was known for over-the-top fashion, including...wigs.

So, what does literally any of this have to do with the Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)? More than you'd expect, actually. First off, the egret has a pompodour-like crest of feathers that makes it look quite like a stereotypical macaroni, in my opinion. Secondly, it does breed in Connecticut, albeit extremely rarely, sparely, and barely. Its population in the state used to be a lot greater...until people came around and starting hunting it down. Why, you ask?

Let's just go ahead and call that macaroni now, while we're at it. To be clear here, quite a lot of birds were used in millinery back in the day, but the Snowy Egret (and the Great Egret (Ardea alba), for that matter) are special. Those long white feathery plumes were heavily prized as hat decorations, enough so that the species nearly went extinct from hunting them for the hat trade. As a result of that, people began to turn their eye towards conservation of the species, and the protection of birds in general. Two women, Harriet Hemenway and Minna B. Hall, got a group of women together to protect the birds. They rallied the troops, and their organization became fairly popular. Eventually when they sought to name it, they did so after one of the most famous ornithologists in American history at the time: John James Audubon. And from there...well, you can guess.

The Audubon Society is one of the premiere bird conservation organizations in the world, and especially in the United States, and is well-known to the public sector. And it was born right here in...Massachusetts. Oh. Wait, have I jumped the gun on this one? Maybe a little, yeah. But, in my defense, the macaroni is linked to Connecticut through its state anthem, and the Snowy Egret is linked to the macaroni, as mentioned. But, OK, maybe this is a better proposal for Massachusetts, not Connecticut. But, uh...there may be another contender. Kind of.

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)

OK, here me out on this one. Look at this picture of a classic macaroni character (on the right, for the record). Does that hairdo not kinda look like the crest of the Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)? Like, just a little bit, at least? I dunno, I can definitely see it. But OK, outside of that, is there another reason for the Tufted Titmouse to be the State Bird of Connecticut? Well, they're extremely common, they've got some charisma to them, and they're definitely found breeding in Connecticut. But...I don't know. I think they're plenty charismatic, but I'm not sure that makes them a great contender.

Still...they should be represented somewhere, right? I mean, the species breeds entirely in the USA, even though it can be found in Canada as well. Plus, other than being very recognizable, they're also an easy bird to find and support with backyard birdfeeding. And, if you want a fun fact about them, they're prone to kleptotrichy. That means, they pluck the fur from mammals to use as insulation in their nests! Yeah! They actually pick the winter coat off of dogs, and use it for their nests! Adorable. But yeah, does this really count for a good State Bird of Connecticut? I doubt it, but I'll let you vote! And I swear to God, it better not be just because of the name that it gets votes.

There you have it. Some complex and controversial choices. I miss any that you think are a valid choice for the state? Do let me know, and I may just issue another poll if this one isn't good enough. We shall see. But, for now, I think it's time to move onto the next state. And lemme tell you, I'm real excited about that one, since...well, I live there! And I have some ideas, lemme tell you. And some people will...disagree with me. For sure. Anyway, see you next time in Boston, kid!

See you next time, and happy birding!

[dearheart42regenerated]

MOTORCITY SEASON 2 MASTERPOST

once upon a time, over 10 years ago, just a few months after the announcement that Motorcity was officially canceled...the creators of the show took pity on their heartbroken fandom and gave us several glimpses of what season 2 might have been like. they saw how much we loved Motorcity and gave us every scrap of info they could at the time, so that we could use those scraps to imagine our own personal "Season 2" - whether it continue on in our fics, our fanart, or simply our own heads.

I'm making this masterpost so that none of this material will be lost or forgotten, and so any fanartists/fic writers still hanging around today can use it for inspiration. if there's any related material I've missed, PLEASE feel free to add it in a reblog or let me know in my inbox! I want this list to be as complete as we can make it! :)

--

The Season 2 That Never Was: A Comprehensive List

Motorcity Season 2 Rough Intro "Scratch audio by our very own Chris P." (x)

-> backup download

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Season 2 Writer's Wall posted (and later deleted) by @chrisprynoski on twitter, and shared on tumblr by @peopleofmotorcity, these pictures of the writer's wall showed us a "rough sketch" of what could have been, and gave our imaginations SO many fun theories and possibilities to play with. every blurry sticky note was a treasure to us. :')

-> original tumblr posts: x x x x x x x x x x x x -> image masterpost -> google drive folder

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Chris Prynoski's Fan Interview + Tumblr Q&A's this whole interview on youtube is a delight to listen to, and Part 2 in particular has some interesting bits about season 2. (skip to 17:10 for some good stuff about Texas and Chuck's backgrounds!)

-> Part 1 -> Part 2

Chris P also answered several juicy season 2 questions on tumblr. sadly his blog is deactivated now, but you can still read through all of them at the links below!

-> image masterpost -> google drive folder

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Capri Chilton - Mike Chilton's long lost big sister! I can't remember where or when it was first revealed that they were considering giving Mike a secret older sister, and I haven't been able to track down the origin. that being said, when it was revealed, the fandom loved the idea so much that they begged the creators to make it canon. Chris P busted out the "magical canon stick", gave us this delightful concept sketch, and "Capri Chilton" was born!

--

The Motorcity Series Bible "To help you all understand what it is you are reading, this is the material that Titmouse used to help pitch Motorcity, and it was also a tool for writers to use when coming up with episodes to help understand who the characters were before there was any other reference. That being said, this was one of the very first documents about Motorcity, so many things have changed or evolved from these early concepts." (x)

-> original tumblr posts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 -> image backups -> PDF download

EDIT: the COMPLETE series bible has now been leaked by Lost Media Busters on X (Twitter) and helpfully shared by @waksworldrebooted!!

--> here is a google drive download for the full PDF file!

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Motorcity Series Bible - Redacted Version (Pages 1, 2, 17, 19, 20) funfact: @peopleofmotorcity was the official? unofficial? tumblr blog for Motorcity, and it was run by a guy named Mac - an animator for the show who loved to tease and joke around with the fandom. before revealing the actual first 13 pages of the series bible, he posted this censored version as a prank - a mix of truth and trolling! it's up to the fandom to decide which is which. ;)

-> original tumblr posts: 1 2 17 19 20 -> image backups -> PDF download

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MTV Era Motorcity Masterpost a fantastic collection of glimpses into the original pilot/pitch trailer that would evolve into the show we know and love today, found and compiled by @waksworldrebooted. "In 2000, Chris Prynoski pitched a cartoon called Motorcity. He made a card and a website promoting the show, which wouldn't see the light of day until the Walt Disney Company got their hands on it."

--> tumblr masterpost (including wayback links to the old website) --> twitter sources from Chris P himself :)

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Motorcity Unaired Pilot - 2009 Disney Version Originally aired during Comic Con 2012, the pilot was recorded and then posted on YouTube by Allison Simmons in July of 2012, later being privatized in 2022. The video was re uploaded onto VKVideo 22 days after its original posting to YouTube and is still currently available to watch online. (x)

--> backup download --> also viewable here!

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if I find more material, I will add it here! :)

[lightspeed777]

Based on how the announcements and release timings have been for TLOVM with how in November of 2019, Amazon Studios announced that they had acquired the streaming rights to The Legend of Vox Machina and that production for the first 2 seasons had begun/were ongoing at that point. Season 1 premiered in January of 2022 and season 2 premiered in January of 2023 with it being renewed for a third season in October of 2022.

Knowing that season 3 will conclude The Chroma Conclave Arc, it can be reasonably presumed that the show would need another season/season and a half in order to finish the Taryon Darrington and Vecna Arcs. I predict that season 3 will probably premier in January of 2024 with season 4 following in January of 2025 and maybe season 5 if needed in January of 2026.

With all that out of the way time to get onto the actual reason I made this post in response to the recent Mighty Nein animated series announcement. I predict that just based on the pattern of release for TLOVM and the fact that Mighty Nein takes place 20-25 years after the end of TLOVM, it would be weird for it to release alongside the remaining seasons of TLOVM. Considering all this and that fact that with Titmouse working on both TLOVM and Mighty Nein simultaneously or at least in similar time windows which will probably delay the release of both. I predict that we can expect season 1 of Mighty Nein to premier around 2026-2027.

[karlicartoons]

Have I talked to y’all yet about how STOKED a good chunk of the crew was to find out Beavis and Butthead drank piss in one of the season 2 eps?

We had been drawing and joking about them drinking piss and pissing on each other for months before we knew it was an actual upcoming episode

We talked about piss frequently enough that one of the character designers made shorts involving piss for Titmouse’s 5 Second Day:

Last year

This year

(Love you Chase)

Our producer set up a cute watercooler Google Hangouts link for us to all hang out in (the job was WFH) so we could bond as a crew, and do you know what the gremlin ass artists he hired decided to call it??

That’s right.

The Watercooler Full of Piss

[offdensen]

i wrote a review for army of the doomstar on letterboxd for my third watch (after marathoning the entire show in one day) and i wanted to share it here, too.

spoiler free.

⛧⛧⛧

i think it's time for me to say something actually substantial about this film now that i've rewatched it after having gone through the entire series once again.

the thing is, it's impossible for me to judge this fairly or objectively. my attachment to this series, to the music, to the characters, to anything that brendon small touches means i can never be unbiased about the production of the film. i spent years lamenting the lack of a proper ending, thankful for 2017’s galaktikon II: become the storm providing an infringement-avoidant ending but still left wanting. having a proper conclusion after so long is a wonderful gift, one that’s made me cry every time i’ve gone through it.

what's so incredible about this film is that it’s as if no time has passed since the doomstar requiem. i can certainly feel that ten years have come and gone since this series was unceremoniously cancelled by the powers that be at [adult swim], and i definitely carry at least some of the teenaged bitterness from that still, but army of the doomstar picks up so well from where we left off that it's a testament to the passion and love the cast and crew have for this silly little show about death metal musicians.

you can tell that these characters live in brendon small so intensely after all this time. he picks them up effortlessly, not just in his performance, but also in his writing and direction. tommy blacha is as strong as ever, particularly as a haunted, tormented murderface. how extraordinarily lucky we are to have victor brandt, mark hamill, and malcolm mcdowell returning to give their characters one final hurrah.

visually, it's an absolute treat. army of the doomstar feels cinematic in a way that makes it stand out not just compared to its source material, but also to its [as] contemporaries. it still has that slight titmouse jank that i dearly love, enough that it doesn't feel divorced from its roots; it is the logical conclusion to the art evolution the show had been endeavoring through every season. not showing this on the big screen, even for a very limited run, is an injustice.

music has always been metalocalypse's high-point and it remains true here. brendon small never really departed from that heavy sound during the show’s temporary death, having expanding upon it in galaktikon II with a stronger emphasis on synth. this really shines in the film’s score, balancing its orchestral and guitar-forward metal elements delicately well. dethklok itself is as technically impressive as ever, returning with that more mature sound from the last season. dethalbum IV works delightfully well as a companion piece.

i don’t know how this film would fair to those that haven’t revisited the show since it was still airing new episodes, to those that never kept up with the overarching story, or to those who were particularly married to what we were given in galaktikon II. the grand spectacle of become the storm was traded for something that better resembled the thesis of the show, the thread seen throughout that tied ego and selfishness to loss and destruction, not just to others but also to oneself.

i also don’t think it could be evaluated fairly as a standalone film. truly, how much does it matter how well something stands on its own when it's sewn from a grander piece?

army of the doomstar is different, both in overall tone from the show and plot-wise from its proxy from 2017, and i think this is to its betterment. it is still funny like its origin, but it is also heartfelt, it is genuine, it is sorrowful, it is hopeful. it is a love-letter to the music it was birthed from and to the fans that kept it breathing. it is niche, but it is ours.

thank you, brendon, for not breaking up with us.

[hawkinsmafia]

day 12 : birdsong

featuring Billy Hargrove x oc Natalie Henderson

summary: Billy’s not-quite-girlfriend teaches him to use bird identification to ease his anger

rating: general

wc: 1.2k

cw: titmouses

an: written for the 200 Words Challenge.

She could tell Billy was getting agitated, saw the glances he was darting toward her mother and her barrage of questions. Her mother didn’t understand—couldn’t, really—what she was doing, still being kept in the dark about great big swathes of Billy’s trauma. But Billy wasn’t ready to open up to Claudia about it, and it wasn’t Natalie’s place to share, so all she could do was lay her hand over Billy’s tight fist and interrupt her mother with, “Hey, why don’t you come step outside with me for a minute?” It took an added “Please?” before Billy’s glower softened enough to agree, and as they scooted their chairs back across the linoleum, Nat shot her mother an apologetic look that she hoped would be read as ‘I’ll explain later.’

She led Billy out the back door and onto the patio, fully lit by the midmorning sun, and made sure to close the door behind them.

“Sorry about her,” Nat said quickly. “She’s nosy as hell, but she really does mean well.”

Billy gave an irritable scoff. “What are we doing out here?”

“I just thought maybe you could use a few minutes to recenter.”

“The hell does that mean?” He hiked the collar of his jacket up in an annoyed fidget and reached for his cigarettes.

“You know, like when something’s getting to you, pissing you off or something, it makes you feel out of balance? Just sort of… wrong? Like you need to reconfigure yourself and do a hard reset so you can go back to being centered and balanced.”

He didn’t respond as he lit his cigarette, but he didn’t fire off a smart ass remark either, which was good enough for Nat.

“C’mon, sit here with me.” She plopped herself down on the steps that led to the open yard, the cellar doors, and the woods beyond, and had to hide her surprise when Billy did the same without hesitation. The steps were wide, but he sat close enough that their thighs touched, and Nat didn’t try to pull away.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, surrounded by the sounds of nature. Billy puffed heavily on his cigarette at first, but Nat noticed that after a while he mostly just held it between his fingers, flicking ashes off as it smoldered.

“So, like… what do we do?” Billy asked after a moment.

Natalie shrugged. “I just like to sit for a while and listen to the woods. Can you hear all the birds?”

“Yeah, they’re noisy fuckers.”

“I try to identify them by their songs. Listen. Do you hear that nasal one?” She paused, letting the call happen again, then mimicked it softly. Billy nodded. “That’s a blue jay. And that one that’s like—” She whistled a quick-fire warbling tone, and something high up in the trees echoed the song back; Billy raised his gaze, looking for the source. “That’s a cardinal. He’s looking for a mate. I guess he must be pretty desperate if he’s answering my call.”

“Shut up with that shit.”

Natalie looked at him, eyebrows raised in surprise. “What shit?”

“Talking about yourself like that. Stop.”

She blinked, not expecting that at all. She’d thought he was annoyed by her bird calls. “I… I just meant that I’m a human. And he’s a bird.”

He looked at her, his eyebrows flat and skeptical.

“Our families wouldn’t approve,” she continued, and that made him crack, looking away again with a small smile.

“What’s that one?” he asked.

“Which one?”

“That one. The… the peep-peep-peep-peep one.” It wasn’t a great mimicry, but it was cute.

“That’s a tufted titmouse.”

“I like that one.”

“It’s a pretty song.”

“I like it because it’s a tit-mouse,” he smirked, and he bumped his knee against hers.

She laughed. “If only they actually had tits.”

“Maybe they have mouse tits, just too small to see. How it got its name.” They both chuckled, and Billy took a draw off his cigarette before smashing it out on the step. “Can you see it from here? The titmouse?”

“Mhmm, it’s right there.” She pointed toward where the tufted titmouse was hopping from one pine branch to another, warbling its call hopefully.

“Where? You just pointed at like a million trees.”

“Here, see the wagon right there?”

“Yeah.”

“Go two trunks to the left of the wagon, then follow it up about thirty, thirty-five feet.” She watched him move his head as he followed the trunk toward its branches, squinting at the needles.

“I still don’t see it…”

“Hang on, stay still.” Nat squirmed up one step higher on the stairs and scooted herself behind Billy. With their height difference, her head was only an inch or two higher than his now. “Follow my finger,” she instructed, stretching her arm over his shoulder and pointing to the titmouse.

To his credit, Billy was trying, even leaned his head against her arm to line his sight up with her point. “Oh, I think I—no, that’s a fucking squirrel.”

She giggled behind him. “The squirrel is close. A little higher from there.” She put her other hand in Billy’s hair, guiding his head into the right angle. “See it?”

Billy made an uncertain hum.

“Oh, he just flitted to the next branch, did you see him?” She adjusted his head again, aiming his gaze to the other side of the tree trunk.

“Oh! Is that it? Little grey guy? Tiny nose? Beak, whatever.”

“Yeah!”

“That’s how he’s gonna charm the lady-tits? Wearing grey and going peep-peep-peep in one note? No wonder he’s striking out.”

“It gets worse, male and female titmouses are pretty much identical anyway.”

Billy looked over his shoulder at Nat with a disgusted expression. “Never mind, that’s not my favorite bird. Zero effort. Try harder, bird!”

“You might like a sage grouse.”

“What do those sound like?”

“I don’t know, we don’t have them here, they’re more around the Rockies. But there’s pictures in the bird book. Wanna check it out?”

“Yeah, show me this cool bird.”

Billy stood up first, and turned and offered Natalie a hand, which she accepted and pulled herself to her feet again. Dusting off her backside, she led him back inside, through the den and into the living room, easily finding the book she wanted on the huge book shelf occupying one wall.

“Okay, so, you know how female birds are always kinda boring to look at?”

“Yeah, they could put in some more effort too.”

“Female sage grouses are just kinda mottled brown and smooth, nothing special. But this is the male at rest.”

She turned the book toward him so he could see the full-color photograph of the bird. He peered at it, frowning. “He’s kinda boring too…. I mean, the spikes are kinda cool, and that white fur collar thing, but—”

“And here he is attracting a mate.”

Moving her hand revealed the opposite page to Billy, and he immediately snorted. The bird looked the same in both photos, save for one notable difference: a pair of yellowish-green bulbs sprouting from his breast, fully inflated and looking every bit like an imitation of human breasts.

“You wanted a bird with tits, the sage grouse delivers!” Natalie grinned, putting the book back on the shelf. Billy was still smiling when she turned back to him. “If the birdwatching did anything for you, I can get out my binoculars for you, maybe help you find the birds more easily…”

Billy bit his lip and glanced toward the kitchen, as if checking that they were still alone out here, before taking a step closer to Natalie. “I, uh… I could see the bird just fine,” he admitted, still smiling.

“Then why…?”

“I just wanted you to keep playing with my hair.”

dividers by @saradika-graphics

They’re real.

[bala5]

It is said that the tufted titmice are symbols of good luck if seen by chance in a dream or vision. Your breakthrough is just around the corner.

Titmouse is teaching us that if we just observe carefully and meditate, the truth with be presented to us. Moreover concentration can help us reach a higher sense of knowledge.

We are going in a war on our daily basis, war against poverty, crime and other things that serve as a hurdle to a peaceful life, titmouse is telling us that the bet armament in this kind of war is our abilities and talents, and so it’s best to utilize them every day.

People with a titmouse totem are naturally curious, they want to explore and know everything, and they are born inventors and have a gift to recreate things in their own way. When this creature presented itself to you, he’s probably asking you to change your old habit and start anew.

Change is not bad and not something to be feared of. Changes are made to create a better you. our old habit might not suffice to support you today, not just financially speaking consider also your social behavior.

Titmouse teaches us to express our ideas but with the right timing, laying a solid foundation to build your plan is a good defense. Preparation and waiting for the right time to execute your plan in order to achieve your hopes and dreams. How amazing that a creature this small can teach us a lot of things. Meditate on a titmouse and ask for the message he wants to tell you.

Titmouse shows up as a spirit guide when

You are not standing up for the things you believe in no matter how small.

You fearful of the larger things around you such as new changes.

You are sitting idly by watching as the world moved on without you.

You are not fully seeing your true potential.

Call on a Titmouse as a spirit guide when

You need to express yourself.

You need help kicking your habits.

Help building a plan for taking on task that at hard.

you need help focusing on the bigger picture.

Words by By Flo Saul

https://richard-laeton.pixels.com/.../oak-titmouse...

[foxorian]

Update 2019 to Today

If you don’t follow me on other platforms, here’s a quick update as to what happened with me over the last few years: a fast recap.

In 2019 I moved from Boston to Los Angeles! It was a big, tiring and expensive move, but a necessary one in order to jump to a career I actually wanted. I love my home city of Boston, but the opportunities for artists just weren’t there --- and I had student debt to pay off.

I went to Lightbox Expo in 2019 and got a little weirded out by it, but was able to drop off my portfolio in a few studio booths. A few moths later I was contacted by Netflix Animation to potentially start work on a new show being produced by Alex Hirsch. I took an art test, completed it successfully, and was hired full time as a background designer for Inside Job.

(You can check out the work I did for the show here!)

Starting my career on Inside Job was like boot camp. Thrown into the deep end, learn fast and get things done. It was crazy, but I couldn’t have asked for a better first job in animation. The team I worked with was great, I was really enthusiastic about the show, and I’m really proud of the work I made for it. (Part II just went live on Inside Job today! I need to update my portfolio with work I did for those episodes too. We worked on Part I and II at the same time in 2020.)

After Inside Job wrapped, I was contacted by TItmouse to do some work ofr the upcoming animation anthology for Amazon “The Boys: Diabolical.”

I was selected to do a bunch of design work for the final episode based on my illustration style, as this episode was more anime-like in approach. As being one of the only background artists on that episode, it was another big step up of a challenge to tackle the look of the episode more or less as I saw fit. It involved a lot of industrial environments with loads of damage needed lol. It was a quickie, but helped introduce me to Titmouse as a client.

Almost right after The Boys, I was contacted by Titmouse again to do some freelance for the season 2 finale of Star Trek Lower Decks. This was honestly not a show that was on my radar that I wanted to work on, but work is work! I took it on, smashed it, and they offered me a full time position for BG Designer on Season 3 coming back later that year.

(You can see some of the work I did for Lower Decks here!)

Working for Lower Decks has been awesome -- the show has a wide variety of environments, genres, and concepts to draw from. While Inside Job and The Boys were more consistent (urban office-like places vs industrial etc,) Lower Decks is ALL OVER the place. You’d think it’d just be a bunch of interior shots of the ship -- but no, alien cities, alien planets, outer space, space stations, science fiction technology, natural environments, you name it we need to draw it. Season 3 was a blast to do work for, and we were able to bring in a lot of our own design sensibilities to the show to bump up the art quality. Season 3 just concluding airing at the end of October, and if you watched it I hope you enjoyed it!

I’m currently working on Season 4 of Lower Decks and it’s every bit as entertaining to work for as season 3. Here’s hoping it comes back for season 5, (aaaand looks like I’ll be going back to Netflix after Lower Decks wraps for even more future work!)

It’s been a BUSY last few years for me, I’ve made more art in the last 2 years than I have before probably combined. -- And it’s been 100% work from home. A little strange to start a new career and not meet any of the awesome people you normally would have been hanging out with every day in a studio, but hopefully sooner than later that might finally be changing.

[canmom]

L'Aventur de Canmom à Annecy - Mercredi 4: WTF 2023

WTF (read 'what the fuck' in a heavy French accent) seems to be a kind of annual collection of weird online shit. Titmouse is involved in some capacity, although I don't think they're necessarily the ones who picked the films. And while I did recognise one selection (umami had a film) most of it was new to me and there were some crazy good ones...

... but most of all the atmosphere of the late night screening was amazing. I got in at the last minute and somehow ended up in a reserved seat for Titmouse, since I guess they didn't show? Which meant I had one of the best views in the house. The theatre was completely packed and full of excitement.

So then this guy comes out in the skintight purple vest and cape and rainbow stockings. The boss of Titmouse comes on stage and picked up one of the paper planes to invite whoever threw it to come and bite a balloon in half (which would have been a better bit if the person actually did it).

Then came the directors of the films, mostly to tell jokes ("there's too much business and not enough fucking at Annecy" declared one director, instructing us to have sex tonight). After these guys... some Gobelins instructors came out to throw shirts into the crowd, people went absolutely nuts for these shirts. Then: films.

Actually a bunch of these are available online so... here, watch along x3

To open we had this stop motion earworm, Du vélo à St-Malo, du kayak à St-Briac. By the second chorus, the audience was singing along. The images are a bit lolrandom but I can't deny it's infectious in its editing.

Next up came the debut of David by Patrick Ward, about a seriously injured footballer confronting his rival framed through the story of David and Goliath. Lots of little visual jokes that made it flow even if the overall thrust of the story remained a little opaque to me.

Umami's Safe Mode was a natural fit; if you've seen an Umami film you know what to expect. Surreal character designs and a guy with a monotone voice. Looking forward to more of this series.

The Rubbings of Trajectories by Cheng-Hsu Chung from Taiwan took things in a rather Adventure Time direction in its drawing style, full of wild perspective shifts and morphing. I was a little too caught up in the visuals to take a lot from the voiceover lol.

Insomnie by Paul Utkay leaned on Stable Diffusion interpolation for its surreal shifting visuals. This was I think the only time, besides the one after this, I've seen AI in the festival, and right now the main use of AI seems to be like this, a visual effect.

Following this came Two Gracious Uncles Smooched To The Beat (currently password locked so I can't embed it) by Jon Dunleavy, a completely frenetic sendup of the whole AI art 事件. Rather than being made by AI it's mostly deliberately janky cgi, rapidfire jokes, and wrong subtitles as an extra layer, which made for a fun watch. The thesis was maybe something like, "this is all a bit silly". As a programming move, putting this right after the AI film was kind of genius.

A Kind of Testament by Stephen Vuillemin was simply fantastic, absolutely the highlight of this collection. The framing device is that a woman stumbles on a website created by another older woman with the same name as her, consisting of incredibly elaborate animations based on her social media photos. As we watch more, we learn more about this mysterious animator, who died shortly after the protagonist contacted her. Ultimately though this framing device is just a vehicle for some really tight imaginatively grotesque shorts that gradually start to connect up more and more. I hesitate to call it ero-guro because it's not exactly ero, but it definitely put me in mind of e.g. shintaro kago. the framing device works just right, linking the shorts and providing a certain frame for interpretation - the animator is terminally ill, so jokes about foot killing parasites and regrets make sense - without being overbearing. honestly just a really great film, the perfect level of enigmatic. i hope i can show more than the trailer some day.

Internet Gaga by Reinhild Bidner slammed into a much faster pace, a pastiche of Radio Gaga by Queen with the music video consisting mainly of cutout animation and AI deepfake animation of memes. Two minutes was about the right length for this lol. But yeah, haha, the internet, what a mess amirite

Todo está perdido by Carla Pereira Docampo and Juan Francisco Jacinto Prados was a fascinating oddity though. Stop motion, with these wildly distorted models - built in forwards or backwards slants and birdlike eyes. The story concerns a suburban nuclear family where the mother lays eggs, which they mostly eat, but decide to fertilise one one day, resulting in a baby with a wrinkled head hatching. The B plot concerns their other child who gets a rat inside her skin by accident during surgery. As you can imagine it went for the squick reactions. I can't find an online video of this one but here's a previous project by the same directors.

From this point on things got pretty wild. First up we had Uncle Babysitter 2 by Tung Yin Ng aka Tungwood.

as far as toilet humour goes? This was actually great, just relentless gleeful escalation. I got to chat a bit with Tungwood and his friends after the films, and funnily enough he was very shy and would run up to people saying 'souvenir' and give them a card for the film. It was very funny talking to a group of animators, which in my eyes is like the peak of the world's professions, and have them act impressed when i say I'm a game dev.

Anyway, this was a really fun short about a baby's adventure inside a man's stomach as the man desperately tries to pull him out. The breakneck editing really makes the stupid jokes work, it's kinda Imaishi in that way.

Granny X by DD Sheahan relaxed the pace only barely, telling the story of an old lady in a nursing home having a vivid lesbian fantasy that in the waking world leads to her careening around strangling nurses and stuff. It was fun visually, although the humour seemed generally a little meaner.

Monsterfuckers by the Tohu Animation Collective led by Ori Goldberg was something like a multi animator project with loops contributed by different animators around the vague prompt of monsters having sex. So this one's like, straight up porn but weird porn so it gets to be in here lol. The editing to the music was tight and many of the clips were really creative - but no sign of it online as yet so I can't show you.

We were really on a roll at this point. The final part was the music video for Cool Party by Simon Medard for a band called Cocaine Piss, which pushed the jank factor to maximum. It didn't do a lot for me but it kept the energy going. After that we spilled out onto the lawn outside Bonlieu and everyone gathered in small groups. Not really wanting to just walk away, I inserted myself into conversations here and there, said some nice things to the showrunner, met Tungwood... and then at last time to go home, packed on the last bus like sardines.

Honestly, even if it could have been a little weirder to be truly 'what the fuck', this event was a blast. I mean you know how much I like this kind of thing lmao.

As for Thursday... haha god it's 2am. I'll write about it tomorrow... or maybe on Saturday... but the very short version is that I saw Art College 1994 (solid, donghua with a realist style and richard linklater energy), Kensuke's Kingdom (impressively elaborate adaptation of a Michael Morpurgo story, had a bit of an Iron Giant feel visually), White Plastic Sky (a very compelling scifi dystopian drama from Hungary in a rotoscoped style similar to A Scanner Darkly), stood in line for two hours for Mars Express and still didn't get in, watched a bit of Perspectives block 1 (mostly bad, it's the block for serious social issues rather than compelling storytelling) and then tried Graduation Films 3 (sadly could not live up to Graduation Films 2). So a bit of an unfortunate end to the day but that's how it be sometimes...

Tomorrow I've got another packed day so I'm gonna end up really behind on these writeups but stand by lol. Annecy is amazing, I don't want it to end...

[jinlian]

Oh I didn’t mean it as a bad thing they sorta have the same quirks lol. Did the animators make Percy look like that on purpose.

hahaha i figured you didn't mean it as a bad thing! i'm just a 2012 lok fandom survivor lmao so I'm always prepared

BUT while there's no way to know for sure if they made percy look like mako on purpose, i'm fairly certain that it was for multiple reasons:

Percy's initial design--both for his official character art on stream (art by Kit Buss) and initial concept art by Phil Bourassa, the lead character designer, look a bit different:

Percy is actually in his early 20s, so you can especially see why the initial LOVM designs were changed to emphasize his youth, but note that he also didn't have the sharkbrows, the duckbutt hair, etc.

2. We know that the CR cast are big ATLA fans. Keyleth's story is very obviously pulled from heavy ATLA references (Janet Varney even voices her mother in the show), Sam Riegel's daughter's favorite cartoon character is Korra (she has taste!!), and Percy and Keyleth were best friends on stream. I wouldn't be surprised if it's an in-joke visual reference to make Percy closer to an Avatar character for that reason alone--each of the core cast got input on their character designs and redesigns, so Taliesin would have definitely had some say here. But the Titmouse crew are also big anime and ATLA fans, so there's no possible way in my mind that they accidentally settled on a design that is just so Mako that he looks like a palette swap reskin or Video Game Character Player 2.

It's extremely possible that the similarities were coincidental or for ease of animation, but my instinct is that it's not entirely accidental, especially since the people working on the show would definitely notice it. so that's just my guess

long story short: yeah

[missamyrisa2]

Fingertips tapping your flower belt buckle on your tummy. Teasing and slowly tickling your royal parts under some silky panties until you ticklegasm. Watching as the taps and teases tickle you silly until you explode, now that's tickle hot ����

Nmmmhmmmmunnhh~~!!! Okayyyyyy okay okay okay okayyy that's mmmh riiiight thereeeee you can't even you're hacking my body and I don't like I love iiiiit but this isn't the dance I wanted to dooo I'm do do doiiing such ridiculous things when you tap the flower it's like every petal is a dance button seeee that one made my leg wiggle all funnnny and now my arms are doing the wacky tube flailing inflatable tube mannnnunnhhh man oh gosh oh dear my princess part can't take ittt whyyy am I wired like this and whyyy do you have to do this I was teasing everyone so bad and now I'm wreckled because you just hadddd to know how to quite literally push my buttons mmh stupid belt fetissssh it tit tickles that's right it's a new thing the tit tickles when you tickle someone so badly they flutter like a titmouse that's right what were you thinking titties like boobies you're such a naughty tickler getting in the gutter like that you silly goose you meeeeheheheanieee~ I'm not the naughty oneeee I just mmmhh happen to get a little worked up when someone bullies my flower buckle like this and bullies my princess part like that and these silky pantiiiiess aren't helping anything as you can plainly see so let's just split the difference I can gooohhohohounnh back to teasing the silly tickleessss and maybe we can forget about just making me make princess fireworks~~~~? <3333

[popculturebuffet]

Tal'Dorei Travelogue: Dragonic Nightmares, Beyond Any Measure, Will Friedle Daydreams To Treasure Forever (Rise of the Chroma Conclave, Trials of Vasslehiem, The Sunken Tomb)

Hello all you happy critters and welcome to a new feature on this blog: Tal'Dorei Travelogue, where I take a look at each batch of Vox Machina episodes as it comes out. For those new here, I review comics and animation and i'm a MASSIVE fan of this show, to the point that despite having tons of other work i've decide to give a try to covering it every week simply because I love talking about it that much and didn't want to miss out again like I did last year. While I haven't seen much of critical roll...

I know, I know, I've bought the book, and deeply loved season one of this show, an epic fantasy about vengance, accepting who you are.. .and pulling on scanlans motherfucking beads. It nicely blended the kind of bullshit i'm told is normal for a DnD campagin with the epic fantasy that's just as normal, gorgeous animation and made it's main cast personal faviorite va's of mine.. except Ashley and Sam. They were already there since childhood. So my anticipation was through the roof for season 2 and after a VERY rough year for animation and a rough start to go along with that... I really needed this and the show not only didn't disapoint but somehow topped itself from the high it left off on. So join me under the cut but be warned.. there be dragons.. and also full spoilers for this weeks episodes.

Rise of the Chroma Conclave: So kicking my 2023 in animation (As I haven't yet watched the one Great North i've gotten yet and i'm not getting near Velma till me and my friend @jess-the-vampire (Who I also swept into this very show), are good and ready) with one hell of a bang, The Scouring of Emon, as i'm calling it as a big nightmarish fantasy event needs a cool name and I need something to call this to my therapist after this whole thing gives me nightmares for month, is easily one of the most tense events i've seen in animation. The first ten minutes of this episode is a mixture of the Chroma Conclave killing everything in their path in the most brutal way possible, and our heroes running for their lives and BARELY surviving. It sells just how BIG an event this is and just what a full power DnD dragon can do, something I really wasn't aware of not playing the game no matter how badly i've wanted to: it only takes what seems like MINUTES in story and seconds in real time for them to utterly destroy emon, kill most of it's people, and for Thordak to grandly delcare they scan serve them.. or they can die. There is no other option. The dragons are also played well, with Lance Reddick, who I previously saw play a villian masterfully on Ducktales with Lunaris utterly top himself with a deep terrifying growl, and continuing a trend of using a voice acting legend for one of their main villians instead of a guest star, Cree Summer nicely follows up Grey with her turn as Raishan, something they set up last season and i'm glad they followed through with. I haven't seen her play a villian in a while but god does she do as amazing as you'd expect, and with just a few lines she sells our heroes are fucked and why they barely escape her alive. Matthew Mercer and in a surpise as the voice was so diffrent from Vax, LIam O'Brian, do wonderful as Umbrasyl and Vorugal, completing the quartet. The CGI is also leagues better than last time: While Brimscythe was intimidating and all, the crew outright said that Titmouse worked overtime to make sure the dragons felt like the full characters they are instead of just beasts and it works, and thus the CGI instead helps sell that these beasts are BEYOND our heroes, beyond strength, and beyond hope.. and all they can do is run and HOPE to survive for now a Thordak hyper beams emon to cinders.

Our heroes are thus less terrfied as the king dies (Tragically, and with dignity, simply smiling that his family lives on as he bleeds out his eyes) and their left simply running, seperated and scared. And we get some close calls to show just how outclassed our heroes are: Percy nearly DIES. While obviously given both the trailers and how early it is this wasn't going to happen, the show doe swhat good fiction does and still sells you on the danger and it still utterly jarred me to see my faviorite of the group's skin melt off and Pike BARELY save him in time. Meanwhile the other half of the team.. faces Raishan... and in nice final boss preview fashion... their best efforts do NOTHING. Grog's move that served him so well last time, raging then splitting a dragon open... looses him his faviorite head chopper, simply breaking off on Raishan, and the most Scanlan can do is literally put a foot in her mouth, which only delays her for a moment. We also see Gilmores, one of the best locations of the last season... as burnt out husk. Gimore himself barely lives and it's telling that he's so shaken he offers them anything they need at a discount.... then just says fuck it and lets them loot whatever he has left. Scalan gets stuck with a broom, but everyone stocks up well for the rough road ahead. I also like how the lance of epic dragonslaying from last season isn't forgotten.. but also isn't allowed to make our heroes quest easy, being smashed quickly with Percy just sighing "of course".

This leaves our heroes retreating and welcoming in refuges, with some wanting to fight.. but Percy suggesting fleeing to whitestone instead.. and being you know.. right. And not just because he's my boy: they BARELY escaped with their lives, the dragons will be on them soon, and it's the only safe haven they have. These dragons just took the captial of the land hostage in a second. The rest eventually agree... though Keyleth wonders if this was their fault after Brinscythe, though while that's a neat question i'm glad they don't dwell on it as Percy ultimately points out it isn't: Emon had the best army in the world before him, so it was clear this was in motion a long time and while it goes unsaid, them stopping him likely meant as many survivied as they did rather than have Brinscythe destroy the entire army outright and possibly start the invasion sooner.

What I like is that the castle bit gets you a few seconds of breather.. before VORUGAL comes dowon on them, kills most of the refuges, and once again proves our heroes have no chance as they are as Scanlans gambit from last time.. is dispeled in seconds as Vorgual can see through illusions. It's another nice bit of storytelilng: As keyleth said earlier "Do they have magic?" And it proves they do. Brimscythe was not only have the size.. but also a brute in combat, simply using his sheer strength as a dragon. His allies are stronger, smarter, and our heroes can only hope to run and get stronger , get help and get out alive, barely escaping with maybe 20 people tops. So with some help from Cassandra and the Keeper our heroes keep them safe. And it's also telling for her leadership that Cassandra wholeheartdly agrees to keep the refuges safe here as Whitestone's isolation, which helped the briarwoods keep their iron fist on the place, is now working for the city as it's not a major target. It dosen't mean they have forever though: our heroes need a plan and having seen the pilot again recently... it's a really nice subtle show of character growth: in the pilot when just facing ONE dragon sacking emon eventually... our heroes response was...

Only turning around because they saw the people they'd just seen moments ago dead, all dead at Brimscythe's hands. Here there once again backs to the wall, now by FOUR dragons who are all smarter, stronger and deadlier than the dragon they BARELY defeated a few months ago, just likely weeks at best days at worst after they again barely (if not by as close a margin) beat a powerful necromancer, a god and rid their friend of a smoke monster. It's not only more understandable to run completely this time but almost expected.. and yet it takes little convicing for most of the party to agree. Vax and Vex are mildly reluctant but agree quickly, with Vax being skeptical.. but also likely understanding this is their duty. It's heartwarming to see these guy go in just a few month from scoffing at the idea of doing something heroic... to all but two fully agreeing to leap into this and find some way to defat the dragons. Their the defenders of the realm and while the guy who gave them that title just melted, it still means something. The only holdouts make sense: Grog is unsure of his strength after the axe thing, and Scalan being the most cyncial .. is the one just outright saying...

The speech that follows is also inspriing as the team join scalan.. and have also gotten closer as instead of laughing, or anything they just simply find him and Vex and Percy point out what they've acomplished and what whitestone has: in just a few days to a week they already have their surrounding wall almost repaired, and it shows what our protaganist have become: true heroes. Because a hero... inspires people. There someone to look up to and to whitestone they see not fuckups.. but people who risked their lives to save them, freed them from a nightmare, and did more than they ever could've dreamed of. Their heroes wether they like it or not and in this dark time SOMEONE needs to act like it. And if they die.. at least they die gloriously. Scalan caves with the instant classic line of "Can't do my world tour without the band" and it's off to the holy city of Vasslehiem for help. This episode is a tightly packed thrill ride I love to death: it only lets the audeince catch their breath twice to really sell just how fucked Emon is, how much our heroes have lost, and how dire everything is. There's still some great jokes, but the humor is kept either to the quiter moments or simply kept brief as it should: The show knows when to be hilarious as fuck... and when to really sink in how dark things have gotten and how far away the dawn is.. granted in this case the dawn is another year away as they seem to be splitting this arc over two seasons, but it sets up an epic world tour for our heroes, and that they need to take some serious levels in badass , and as we've see their already pretty high up, if their going to survive, much less win.

The Trials of Vassleheim Our heroes manage to enter a tree with Yennins vauge directions and after a hilarious bit that was released to promote the season with Kiki saving the twins and pike by flying like the wind and Scalan saves the rest of the party with a giant ass.... percy... takes it suprisingly well

Vasselheim itself.. ends up being no better. Percy suffers some humilation with his wheeling and dealing failing (Vex assures him it happens to all the nobles), and Pike trying to appeal to their council... fails because Highbearer Vord and co.. are your standard council of assholes who won't do anything if ti dosen't effect them. Insert your own politics joke here but i'ts one of the most common jokes in fiction and despite the fact that you know, their going to come for them eventually, they decide not to help.. the despite the fact that they don't even need to send an army or something, they could you know have given our heroes weapons, knowledge you know... on the sly. Anything besides "Gee that's rough buddy". Thankfully one of the guys working for them actually has a working soul and directs them to the Slayers Take, some bounty hunters who are rough tumble.. but their patron deity can help. Also all the while Vax is seeing creepy visions of death and is thus more protective of Vex than usual. Well not exactly death but for those who haven't read campaign spoilers a book or what have you, I shan't tell you what he's seeing, though you can likely guess after the next one.

The story then splits in half as Craven Edge, Silas' creepy sword starts talking to Grog who mistakes it for his stomach and thus wonders off for a fun grog solo adventure. And after eating and suprisingly without visting a whorehouse , Grog wonders his way into an arena where he finds Earthbreaker Groon, a badass monk played by Ike Amadi, a va I hadn't heard of but whose had tons of rolls from Martian Manhunter in the Tommorowverse to Aaron fucking Davis Prowler in the insomniac spider-man games. He's awesome here and the traning sequence... as it is here is one that will stick in my head for a while. Groon simply breaks down Grog asking where his strength comes form.. and suprisingly to me and Grog it isn't the typical "heart" answer I thought he was going for. It also nicely shows how utterly outmatched grog is in a way I always love seeing: Grog gives everything he has from craven edge, to raging.. and never even gets CLOSE to landing a blow, often never even drawing a punch. Groon meanwhile simply uses a few strikes. It's one of those things I just love when I see, to signal the begining of a heroes climb up to that level: that someone can outclass them that easily. Being used a lot in manga, it's likely not a suprise a bunch of nerdy va's who love anime used this trope and bless em for it. Grog finally stops getting made into hamburger when he admits he dosen't know, and that's the first step. The next ones are his. While an old man beats up Grog, the rest of our heroes head to the slayers take, which Vax says is a bad idea and refuses to explain why... until they get in there and we find out the take is pissed at the twins for stealing a bounty on a hydra from them, a nice nod to the origianl stream where VM first met the take fighting a hydra they had marked and had to join them to avoid arrest. It was a whole thing I have not scene. Point is our heroes are mostly marked for death by voice acting legend Will Fredle!

Yeah it's been a while since I heard him though he DID play Star Lord in that guardians of the galaxy show I forgot existed, so he hasn't stopped working, he just hasn't had any high profile gigs for a while is all. If you don't know him

And second I don't qutie mean that but it's still weird as he's played Terry Mcgunnies,Doyle Saturday Jamie Reyes, and of course the one the only best boy of all boys Ron Stoppable. He's been in this buisness a while with many more under his belt. He's not here because of that though but because Will Fredle actually guest starred on Critical Roll along with Mary Elziabeth MCgleenn as Zahara, a warlock and fellow take member whose just as eager for said revenge. It was part of that arc I mentioned, which was heavy on guest stars, including Felica Day who I hope gets more of a roll down the line, either as her character or just as someone period. To explain to people like me who only watch the cartoon, Critical Roll will occasionally have someone else sit at the table, bring in a character for the session that sort of thing. It's the tabletop equilvent of when someone TECHNICALLY joins your party in an rpg but you either have no control over them or their only there for the dungeon. Zahara and Kash were some of the most popular, so it's no suprise they made it over eventually, simply compressing thing: most of the party meets the take here instead of in the past, and one part of Kash's story, his flirting with Keleyth, was moved here. I won't say what I know backstory wise, as it may be revealed here later.

Anyways the take is overulled by their patron, who has them drop the party into her sarlac pit. It's there we get my faviorite sequnece of the episode: the fact it dosent have boy meets world's brother sucks but instead we get Allana Ubach, aka Manny Rivera herself, as Osysa, an ancient sphinx who quickly sets out to test our heroes.. and how is simple: break their spirit and see if they get back up: being a sphinx she apparently knows everything and thus needles our casts weakensses: Pike is afraid she wont' be good enoguh to save her friend smuch less the world, Percy is still wondering if he can ever earn back his friends trust after what he's done or evne forgive himself, the twins have seperation anxiety with Vax being afraid of loosing his sister and Vex having tried desperatley to please a father who will never love her back, Kelyeth faces the fact she's been avoiding doing her armante, and Scalan gets the biggest put down of all "No one cares about you and i'm no exception". She offers to let the heroes leave.. but PIke is steadfast standing up and refusing to leave , even willing to die to prove a point, and everyone is behind her.. and that, in classic fantasy fashion.. was the point. It was a test of resolve. To see if they were worthy and if they can do what's necessary: to fight even in impossible odds and be ready to sacrifice anything to succeed.

Their tools.. are something awesome that was ironically, thank you book for this knowledge, cooked up to solve a common dnd problem, and one that plauges video game rpgs too: you often get cool weapons, rely on them, come to value them as part of you.. ,but due to it's nature as a game you have to give them up eventually. Matt's solution? The Vestiges of Divergence. While there's KIND OF an explination in the show, here's the short version of teh long version: Long ago there war between the good gods and the evil betrayer gods. To help save humanity the gods gave their various patrons the vestiges, weapons embued with the power of gods from weapons to armor to cloaks. The weapons were either lost or hidden after the war, and thus wait for new bearers. When the bearer undergoes an emotoinal turning point, the vestige becomes awawkened and thus stronger. So in short a characters development... makes the item stronger and thus keeps it around, and nicely translates to tv storytelling. They can give our heroes the leg up to fight the dragons

The first is in a tomb in the lake to the west, The Deathwalkers Ward. We'll learn more about it in a moment but for now our heroes have ana ctual plan: get the vestiges, kill the dragons and then profit.. that's.. literally how vex puts it suprising no one. Our heroes decide to spend a night getting good and hammered first, before preapring to set out Edit: Crap on a crap cracker! While i'm not going to kick myself too much fo rmissing something most of the time I nearly didn't mention victor. He was a recurring charcter in the stream apparently tha tnaturlaly matt not only reprised here but they found a way to include.. and he's every bit delightful as he was built up to be, casually exploding his place by the end of his apperance, talking jolliy,.. and still being nicely integrated as a random shop keep is easy to put in a stream but here not only does Percy getting some black powder before he heads off make sense.. but it reveals Ana ripley is not only around.. but got some herself. percy decides to keep this to himself but there's no way this can possibly end well.

The Sunken Tomb

Or as I call it

Yeah even knowing what's ahead.. didn't help. This episode hurt. And for the first third or so it's just okay: Pike is a bit wory about the pitch black sword made of pure evil wielded by a spooky vampire Grog is using, Scalan indulges in his foot fetish, Percy's only suggestion when some creatures from the black lagoon attack him is "KELEYTH TURN INTO A BIRD OR SOMETHIGN" i'ts normal. The only diffrences are Zahra and Kashaw, who are commencing with operation "steal the vestige out from under them" an d"Get into kiki's tunic dress whatever" respectively.

This does lead to one of the shows funniest moments so far and one I had to replay at least twice before I could move on: the tomb as it turns out is the temple of Purvan... which for some reason Matt insisted be prounounced pur-von.

Yeah as you can probably imagine the original livestream, which I luckily found a clip of this moment on youtube so I didn't have to dig for it, went off the rails for a second after this as the entire cast laughed at it for some time while Matt vainly tried to both restore order and defend the purv. So i'm delighted the gang's knee jerk and entirley justified reaction of chorttling like middle schoolers was kept, with the entreity of vox machina bursting out into laughter, and with the best two jokes given to their actors respective characters with Scalan wondering if his last name is Pedo Bear and Vax admitting we all need to get our perv on sometime. IT's somehow made better with Kash's deadpan "You guys are the worst", which is clearly echoing what Matt was thinking in the moment. The rest is a prettty standard dungeon crawl, though spiced up with the sense of impending dread: the mysterious figure of the raven queen keeps stalking vax, his paranoia at his sisters death is hightned.. and then they get seperated. It's also telling he's hung up on this as he only reacts maybe once to Kiki moving on to someone else... whic is refreshing as you can only see so much scooby doo before your sick of "Daphne gets mad at fred despite them not being together" #87, so good on him. Worry about his sister now. Admitely i'm not on team Vax because it's the clear endgame. Being the clear endgame.. does not necessarily make a ship good. For instance i'm mostly supporting the main ship of miraculous ladybug out of fatigue at this point. Just because the writers want a relatoinship dosen't mean the audience is rooting for it. But the two have genuine chemstiry, to the point it just happened organically in the game, while Kash.. just seems to be hitting on her because he thinks she's pretty. Which.. she is. I mean this entire team is a smokeshow. Even grog who I kinda put to the side last season has gone up a notch thanks to him getting a breard. Also him getting his beard was comedy gold, from him putting on the belt of dwarvenkind to Kash sarcastically brushing it off.. only for Grog to get in his face. As for why this is a big thing apparently Goliath's, Grog's race, are naturally smooth let's say.

At any rate, we get two parties, and a nicely tense fight scene with the fish man, as well as Vex's exasperation that one of them is a wizard. It's a fun fight, and we even get trinket eating some guys then letting pike ride on his back.

And more disturbing and plot relevant.. grog gets a bit too into murdering which starts funny (it's because his beard was half shaved off, a nod to a prank from the stream i'd heard of), and .. then gets creepy as he gets very slasher villian into his bloodshed to Pike's horror. No time to talk though as the slayers booked it and went down a hallway to possible doom.. as it turns out when Vox machina enters and finds out the secret entrance they found is not the one they need. Instead Vax goes investigating instead of vex.. which proves to be a fatal mistake. Not for him, he's fine and finds out where their informant is. But Percy flirtly egging Vex on with "your brother wouldn't like it", which is also what he calls oral, finds them the grave and the vestige. Which normally would be great: magic item found, flirting between my faviorite pairing on the show, a good time for all.. but well... this show likes to hurt us and matthew mercer like sto hurt his players so .... Vex .. is well....

An arcane bolt hits her, and she disturbingly just.. htis the floor.. her eyes dead. Probably not the best time to see this given my cat died two weeks ago and had the same look. It's well done and makes you think for a second it might not be undone. All the party can do is scramble to her while Scalan, despite being often at odds with both twins, screams for him to get up here. And just to twist the knife further, the episode spent a good chunk of it's runtime somehow making us feel worse as we get some backstory for vax and vex. It's one of the nice thigns about the medium: instead of just saying the backstory, which is a necity in tabletop and still can be done hauntingly well as, having seen the first episode of the whitestone arc, Talisen Jaffe did a soulcrushing performance of percy telling everyone his. But here you can flesh it out an dhave the players actually act out their tragic pasts.

So going back a bit, we focus on the day Vax and Vex left their abuse father. IT's been mentioned their mom was killed by a dragon but what hasn't come up till now.. is their father. See their dad Sygorn is..

He's a racist asshole who basiclaly abucted the twins from their mom.. then proceded to emotoinally abuse them, being cold distant and feleing like they were an embarssment for being half human. He is a giant back of fuck you good sir and his first scene has him getting overly pissed at Vex for trying on and accidently breaking a diadim, then calling them out on their "Muddled" blood. Vax has enough and says their getting the fuck out of there and while Vex hestiaties, badly wanting her dad's love... the fact her dad dose n't put up a fight crushes her enough to go along with it. The two end up fighting with Vex, feeling vax needs her too much, leaves. She succesfully hunts and is fine on her own... but finds a sobbing Vax. As it turns out his clingyness wasn't because he felt she needed him.. but because he felt worthless and needed HER. They reconclile and promise to mever be apart. It puts a LOT of Vex's clingy behavior in season one in a more sympathetic light: she's utterly horrible to Kiki, true, and it's still not okay.. but given her brother is easily hurt, she just wants to, if entirely misguidedly protect him. It also explains why despite Vex being openly flurtatious with percy so far Vax hasn't returned the same: While Vex likely worries her brother can't handle himself (he can), Vax knows she can and only got scared and overportective when he kept getting portents of death.. and given said portent caused her death, I can't blame him. TH eending is just.. liam doing som heartbreaking sobbing. And true to form that's where we leave the week.... Mercer you bastard. I'll hopefully be here next week but if not catch me on twitter @lanternmogo and thanks for reading.

[aspiringpolymath]

Mid Year Reading Check In

I compiled this at the end of June, so it's not up to the minute accurate, but a good indication of how my reading year has gone so far. I tweaked the questions a bit to suit my reading style. If anyone sees this and wants to answer them PLEASE tag me so I can see what you are reading!

Mid Year Book Check In Questions:

Did you set a reading challenge; if so, how’s it going? (AKA How many books have you read?)

Best book(s) you’ve read so far?

Best sequel or book in a series you've read so far?

New release you haven't read yet, but want to?

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year?

Biggest disappointment?

Biggest surprise?

Favorite new author? (Debut or new to you)

Newest favorite character (for whatever reason)?

Book that made you cry or saddest book you’ve read?

Book that made you happy?

Favorite review you've written this year? (Can be glowing or a takedown)

Favorite cover for a book you've read this year?

What books are your priority to read by the end of the year?

Answers:

According to GR, I’ve read 239 books (tho I prefer ‘title’ since some are pretty short. I read a mix of novels, novellas, shorts and manga/comics.) My GR goal is 365, so I’m ahead of schedule!

Bests

Manga - Restart After . . . duology by Cocomi

Graphic novel - Mamo by Sass Milledge (ff ya)

Non LGBTQ+ romance book - The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna (still casually queer)

Short book - Bisclavret by K.L. Noone

Standalone mm romance book (there are not a lot of these, lol) - We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian (I didn’t want it to be over, so I really took my time.)

3. Three way tie between The Missing Page by Cat Sebastian, Malibu by Emmy Sanders, and Out of the Wild Night by Marina Vivancos. Oh, and Muscle Cub by Slade James!

4. Loads, but I still haven’t read The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles and I really need to get on that.

5. I’m looking forward to the next volume of Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide by Mone Sorai. Oh, and Gentle Chaos by Tyler Gaga (ghosthoney on IG and TikTok)

6. I was most recently disappointed by How To Say I Do by Tal Bauer - not hugely, just wasn’t what I was hoping for.

7. I was really pleasantly surprised by Show Me How to Trust by Ray Celar. I didn’t have high hopes after book 2, but this one really took the time it needed to with the characters. Not a perfect book, but really lovely.

8. I’ve read a couple of short things by her in the past, but this year Crystal Lacy has become a new go-to author.

9. Sal from The Demon’s Mate by Delaney Rain, and maybe Collin from Off-Ice Behavior by Hannah Henry.

10. Some I’ve already mentioned made me cry, but I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain by Will Walton made me cry no fewer than five times. It’s a weird prose poem YA book about grief and generational addiction, I thought it was so well done. A book that made me cry mostly happy tears was Keep Me by HJ Welch.

11. The audiobook of Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green made me legitimately lol.

12. Well, the one that has gotten the most likes on GR is my 1 star of The Right Wrong Number by Katie Warren, but I did like my pithy review for So These Rude Grumpy Arrogant Jerks Fall In Love and It’s Gross by TJ Land. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5353619286

13. The Roger Crenshaw books by Taylor Titmouse have amazing covers, and illustrations inside, too.

Also, Haunt, Heart, Havoc by Freydís Moon has a super striking cover.

14. I’d like to get back to In Memoriam by Alice Winn. I started it, but there were holds and I knew it was going to get very sad. Oh, and this probably should have been listed above, but I also want to get to Something Wild and Wonderful by Anita Kelly soon.

[ragecndybars]

top 5 mbs characters, bc im predictable, and then top 5 persona ...ships? if you don't do a lot of shipping than characters works.

unfortunately i don't actually follow persona all of my knowledge of it is just me voting for whatever you say to in the various polls you reblog (i gotchu homie).

and then just for the sprinkles on top, top 5 favorite birds. they can be specific birds (ie steve the magpie, a local magpie in your area, or big bird) or bird breeds (parrots, a titmouse, lilac breasted roller, etc) up to you. 🎉

or only do one, or two, or all of these! no offense will be taken. im giving OPTIONS

aaaaa thank you!!! for the ask, for the options, and also for supporting my little blorbos in those silly polls 😭

Top 5 MBS Characters:

Kate Wetherall. I. Was. OBSESSED with Kate as a kid. I do prefer her in the books but I love her show incarnation as well!! The weird girl energy, the autism, the ADHD, it's all off the charts. Fav line from book Kate is still "Well of course it's not funny, but what do you want me to do? Cry?" List of sentences that changed my brain chemistry as a child.

Not to be a basic bitch, but Nicholas Benedict. Oh my god, I loved him in the books already -- we love to see a "wise, all-knowing mentor" character with actual personality and limitations -- but the direction the show took his character in was truly inspired. His discussion with Reynie about the white knight in the books is PEAK.

Reynie Muldoon. Understandably, since he's the POV character, he was the one I actually related to most as a kid. I love the "always trying to stay calm" thing he has going on, and how the narrative never punishes him for trying to be kind and genuine and earnest even though so many books and shows nowadays feel the need to equate niceness with naivete.

My funky little Milligan. Yet another character who I loved in the books already and adored seeing more of in the show. I especially love how much more autistic they made this man. "Geez, how 'bout a hello?" "........Hello." / "I'll be back." [vanishes] [reappears] ".......I'm back." King shit. And no matter what incarnation it is, his reunion with Kate will always reduce me to tears. The memory that was so deeply ingrained into his brain that even Curtain couldn't take it from him... was just that memory of his little girl asking him to go to the mill again... AUGH.... 😭

Constance Contraire. Like Kate, I prefer Book!Constance, but I adore the way the show portrayed her as well. First of all, she's hilarious. Second of all, while she's often being irrational, she also can be a voice of reason in some ways, and we love that. Funky little psychic child. And I just ADORE how kindly the book treats her. Even when she's getting on the other characters' nerves in a big way, the book never suggests that she's a detriment to them, that she needs to sit down and shut up, that they would be better off if they ditched her, or any number of other things that a less understanding narrative would be claiming.

Top 5 Persona Ships

Hamugis. Ohhh my god. MFW the overwhelming guilt I feel for having potentially ruined someone's life by sealing Death inside of her as a child slowly transforms into admiration as I meet her again and begin to see her as a strong leader and then love as I begin to discover my own humanity through her. MFW "I don't want you to love someone else... I don't want that, even if that's what would make you happy!!" MFW I touch my robot GF's literal heart and leave an indelible mark on her very being. Also uhh that one post. "I do not understand hookup culture!!! Die in my arms!!!" yeah. Aigis and Kotone for number one love story of all time.

Akimina. Much less canon interaction to go off of with these two but stay with me here. T4T autism4autism. I love Akihiko's earnestness and Minato's bluntness and how they combine to make a relationship that lacks miscommunication while also leaving a lot unsaid because neither is much one for conversation. I like the idea of Akihiko's intense desire to be strong to protect someone playing off of Minato's much more reserved, almost lackadaisical attitude, despite Minato's strength, and I think it would be so interesting to watch them move in opposite directions -- Akihiko learning to cut himself some slack and trust others rather than thinking he has to protect everyone alone, while Minato learns to break out of his shell and actually care about those around him and want to protect them -- while they also, at the same time, are learning almost identical lessons about relying on other people.

Ulamaya. The two girlies of all time. I adore how Ulala's combined jealousy and affection for Maya play off each other and how Ulala is one of the only characters in the game who feels like she's fully seeing Maya as she is -- a human like any other, even if she presents herself as eternally optimistic and strong so that others can lean on her. Their relationship feels so... equal. If that makes sense. Which, as much as I appreciate KatsuMaya, can feel a little lacking in other Maya ships imo, bc it always feels like other characters (ESPECIALLY the masked circle) tend to idolize Maya. And Maya's forgiveness of Ulala's betrayal... what's that one Hozier line... "I'd be the immediate forgiveness in Eurydice." Yeah.

Pegoryu. God I just love how ride-or-die Ryuji is right off the bat. You meet him, have a near-death experience with him, and ten minutes later he's shoveling more food onto your plate insisting that you need to eat more. Even before then, it may be Akira who saves Ryuji from Kamoshida, but it's Ryuji who tackles him away, yells at him to run and save himself, who gives Akira the faith in humanity that the rest of the world had eroded away at that point.

Tie between Saoriham and Kannao. Saori's social link is one of the best parts of Persona 3 straight up, and Kanji and Naoto are just so goddamn cute together.

Honorable mentions: TatsuJun ("I... have nothing to give you in return..."), YukiChie ("Yes, Chie is my prince..."), ShinjiMina ("If the burden of command gets to be too much, just let me know."), KatsuBao ("Idiot... What were you going to do if I pulled the trigger?" "I knew you wouldn't.")

Top 5 Favorite Birds

Orioles!!! I have such fond memories of helping my grandma skewer orange halves and fill jars with grape jelly as a kid to attract the orioles (though I thought they were called oreos for the longest time, lmao)

Robins. We get a ton of them around here and I love seeing them hop around on the sidewalk.

Magpies. Haven't seen one meself but they're such cool birds. If I could have wings I'd want them to be magpie-style.

Crows. Another bird we get a lot of around here, their calls are so Autumncore.

Falcons. They're just cool and I like them. (insert Madge joke here)

[chudwaffle52]

An incomplete list of my favorite songbirds

Tufted Titmouse - I really like their colors and they are very cute. Also when I wake up every morning, my hair gets pushed into the same shape as theirs. They also have really big eyes.

Black-Capped Chickadee - I loved chickadees since I was in kindergarten (we made bird feeders for them out of toilet paper rolls, peanut butter, and nuts; these people came in to teach us about them and they taught us how to make their calls). They are one of my first favorite birds and I really enjoy seeing them. It helps that they are really common. Plus they are really round and fuzzy.

Carolina Wren - a pair of wrens made their nest above my backdoor. it was a really cool experience to watch their chicks grow and start their fledging. I loved listening to them and their songs every day, but it's sad that they are gone now. I just wish they would have stayed longer.

Northern Cardinal - I like that the males are really brightly colored so I can identify them almost anywhere. I also like their songs. Sometimes when they are molting they look funny too.