#with how it's usually used it just doesn't fit

[gotta-winwin]

OT13 Reaction -- the aha moment

or...how they realize they're in love with you

seungcheol doesn't get that aha moment, falling in love isn't something that happens within seconds for him. it's like he's slowly drifting into love, not even realizing you've become the focal point of his entire existence. when it finally hits him, it's a quiet, simple moment. he's watching you make him breakfast in the morning, admiring you quietly from the kitchen counter. he zones out for a moment, blinking suddenly and realizing damn. that's my woman. and he knows he's ruined for life.

it's kind of silly, how jeonghan realizes he's in love with you. he's just returned home from a busy day at work, entering the house to find it empty. searching the place top to bottom, he's about to call you when - BOO - you jump out from one of the closets and scares the soul out of him. he's clutching his chest, watching as you collapse onto the ground in a fit of giggles. he can't help but laugh along, realizing through the chaos that he's found his soulmate, and he'd be damned not to admit he's in love with you.

joshua's a simple man by nature. he's easily happy in life, only needing his members, his job, his lifestyle, and of course, you. it doesn't take long into your relationship before he realizes he's in love, as the two of you take a stroll along the Han River after a long day. he's watching the setting sun reflect against your figure, taking his phone out to snap a few pictures. it's when he notices his camera roll is full of pictures of you does he think well, that's it. i'm in love.

upon meeting his family, jun notices how much work you've put into it. you're doing your best to speak his town's dialect, communicating with his parents in a language that made them most comfortable. his heart swells when he sees you amidst his childhood home, trading stories and eating with the people who raised him. it's when he notes that you look so perfect here that he realizes you just fit. he's in love.

as if everything else is with soonyoung, his aha moment is full of fireworks and pizzazz. having just finished the most record breaking performance of his life, he finds himself with one thought only: i want to go home. usually, it's because he's tired. but now, ever since you stumbled into his life, he finds himself wanting, needing, to go home so he can hold you and recite everything that happened today. he's practically thrumming with energy to rush home, and everyone around him sees what is so painfully obvious. he's so in love.

wonwoo's always credited himself to be a loner. not a lot of people can fit with his quiet personality, so when you offer the idea of "parallel play" he's a little confused. his heart warms when you explain that you don't mind doing separate things as long as you're in the same area, understanding that he needs more time to himself than others might. it's when you tell him you love him enough to compromise does he think im so in love with this girl right now.

woozi's used to writing songs dedicated to his fans and members. he sits down for another writing session, brainstorming ideas and the thought of you pops into his mind. he shrugs, thinking it might be nice to mix it up a bit, sitting down to write something about you. it's when he reads his own words back does he realize he's irrevocably screwed and so in love with you. thought about settling down, buying her a house and saying screw the music. yeah, he's in love.

having always been a realist, minghao doesn't necessary believe in true love, or love at first sight. he understands there's going to be someone out there for him, but he's skeptical that that someone is going to be perfect. all his beliefs go out the window the moment he sees you - it's like you're surrounded by a golden glow - and he realizes maybe love at first sight can be real.

seokmin loves and gives as easy as breathing. he's always been a generous guy, and it's when you sit him down and kindly remind him to leave some for himself does he stare at you and realize ok i've found the one. you've become that steadiness in his life that used to be just his members, and you love and give to him like it's as simple as breathing too.

having always been the resident cook, mingyu's eyeing your food creation like it's some kind of poison or drug. he had insisted you didn't need to cook for him, he's always been the cook and doesn't mind it, but you were stubborn and he relented. it's when the first bite blows him away does he realize he kinda misses having someone cook for him too. if you're this good at cooking i might just have to marry you, he says, ignoring how you blush, going back for another bite.

seungkwan's always been the entertainer. he doesn't mind it, he enjoys the fact it's his job to make everyone laugh. but when times get tough and he's in no mood to be the entertainer, you're right there to support him. it's when he gets home to you after a particularly rough day and you welcome him in with open arms, murmuring how he's done well and doesn't need to do more. it's when he realizes he can just be seungkwan - not seungkwan the entertainer, but just seungkwan - and he loves you for that.

vernon never really thought about finding the one. he always just assumed that they would find him. and that's exactly what happens, when you bump into each other at the movie theatre - both there alone just cause. it's when you're enthusiastically going band for band with vernon about movies that he's forced with the realization that shit. maybe i have found the one.

chan's always known he was in love with you. he doesn't like to admit it cause he thinks it makes him sound sappy, but he truly never questioned his love for you. it was a simple thing in his mind - this person makes me so fucking happy - i must be in love. and how could it not be simple for him? he's staring at you quipping about some joke to his friends and he's thinking i love you. he's watching you just wake up from a nap and he's thinking i love you. he sees a text from you on his phone mid-dance practice. i love you. he's always been in love with you because he loves everything to do with you.

[kitnita]

what do you do when giffing non-white players to keep from whitewashing them?

so! first of all, the non-white player i gif the most is obviously robo. every human person's skin looks different — what i do for him him won't work exactly for every person you want to gif, but i think generally that there is no one kind of coloring that works universally on every person in every video or clip or whatever. i'm advocating for not whitewashing non-white players, but i'm also advocating for letting everyone's skin look like Their Skin.

second of all, i love a stylized coloring, but mine usually focuses on enhancing the warm tones in people's skin. so: my exact advice may not fit everyone's preferred style. even if what i do doesn't work with what you like to do, i hope talking through my process helps someone figure out how to go about finding what will work with their style.

third of all, this is my second time ever putting together a photoshop tutorial so please bear with me. the actually informative part has a lot of text & screenshots & gifs, so it's below the cut!

i guess to illustrate what i meant in my first post on this subject, i'm going to use a coloring i saved from a fairly distinctively colored otter gifset from last season & show how it would look if i tried using it for robo unchanged.

the spots where the harsh locker room light bounces off the high points of jake's face are very obvious with this kind of coloring. the contrast is high — he's wearing a dark color in front of a dark background, so even though my coloring enhances the warm tones in his face, there's a lot of 'white' coming through his skin.

here's an unedited screenshot of the same postgame, just to show how much this coloring makes the already-harsh locker room lighting even harsher:

& here's a screenshot from jason's most recent media availability, which i'll be using as my example here:

they're pretty similar shots! both guys are wearing a dark color and are looking in the same direction so the light is hitting their faces in about the same spots. the locker room lighting washes both of them out, but it's still clear that robo's skin has a deeper & warmer tone than otter's. the spots where the light hits the high points of his face don't read as white, whereas the bridge of otter's nose & apple of his cheek do. jason doesn't have significantly darker skin than jake, but it's noticeable that they don't have the same skin tone.

now, here's the coloring from the gifset applied to both clips at the same point as the above screenshots:

the difference isn't as noticeable now!! the shadows on robo's face have a deeper tone, but the 'white' points on his face are much more pronounced. if i use the color picker on the white on both of their cheeks, the colors i get are way more similar than they should be.

to fix this, i'm going to first look at the group labeled 'base,' which is just the set of basic adjustments i do to every clip before going in for more fun coloring. even when i'm reusing a previous coloring psd, i typically do a new 'base' group for every clip so it can be as tailored as possible. the ice doesn't always look the same in in-game clips, the lighting isn't always the same in every locker room, etc.

the first screenshot above is robo with the same base as the original otter gifset had, and the second screenshot is with a custom base. the levels & vibrance are practically the same. the main difference between the two is that in the second screenshot, i did not touch the color balance, and did add a selective color layer where i made adjustments to white, which can be seen in the screenshot. additionally, in the first screenshot brightness is at a +15 when it's at a +10 in the second.

here's what the rest of the coloring looks like on top of that base:

and he's less whitewashed!! the coloring is still obviously & intentionally not true to life, but it doesn't wash jason out as much. the high points of his face don't reflect the harsh locker room lighting as white, which allows his skin tone to read as deeper without touching my more 'fun' stylized coloring.

final steps that i take for any gif before i post it:

adjust the speed. most movements look too fast if you leave the speed as-is, so for media availabilities i'll typically slow it to 80%; for clips taken during games i'll slow it to 75% unless i want it more slowed down & then drop it to 65%.

then i adjust the image size — tumblr's preferred width is 540, so for a wide gif that's what i use.

once the image size has been adjusted, i'll add my actions overtop layer 1 of the video group, which is just the clip.

the final products:

i'd say both gifs still look pretty distinct — you can tell they were made by the same person using the same coloring techniques. but robo's frankly insanely clear skin has a deeper tone than otter's, as it should! it's distinct and stylized without making robo look whitewashed. he also doesn't look so different from otter that it would stand out from the rest of my gifs if this was the default coloring i always used for media availabilities.

it takes some extra steps to make the same coloring used for white players work for non-white players … but honestly not that many extra steps, and it's so worth the effort!!! i hope this was at all helpful but if you have any more questions please feel free to send them my way <3

[redsrooftopprincess]

Renfaire Headcanons

Okay everyone! Faire (Renaissance Festival) just wrapped and I'm sad, so I'm making it everyone else's problem. Here are some headcanons!

Leo

Faire can be a lot for Leo. There are a lot of moving parts, and if you're at a crowded faire, expect him to be on guard at all times. But, if you're at a smaller faire and/or you can get him to relax, he's actually a blast.

Chivalry is this guy's middle name, or it would be if he had a middle name. Does he have a middle name? If he does, you've never heard it. The minute you walk in, he's looking for the flower vendor. Expect a lot of "Yes, my (honorific of choice)," "No, my (honorific of choice)." Kisses to the back of your hand while looking deeply into your eyes. The works. This guy is Prince Charming, and just like all the other roles in his life, he takes it seriously.

His favorite events are the Joust and the Falconer. He's placing "gentleman's bets" on the knights with Raphael, and they have a really great time just being brothers and watching sports. He also loves the falconer and spends almost an hour chatting with him after the demonstration is over. By the end, the falconer is so charmed they help him leather-wrap his arm/hand (they don't exactly have a glove that fits), and teach him to fly the birds.

As for games, he won't pick up a sword because he knows it wouldn't be fair, but he really enjoys showing off his archery skills. And show off he will. Mike may be the one usually grabbing hold of the spotlight, but don't think for one second that Leo can't be a showman. Especially if it's something he knows he's good at. Any and all archery/ninja combo tricks he can think of, and by the end the hay bale will be reduced to a scattered pile. Be watchful of his anxiety levels before he heads to the range, however. If he's not in a good place, all the attention/cameras could cause him to panic.

As for food, all the greasy, fried things don't really sit well with him. He does, however enjoy High Tea with the queen, and will spend a lot of that time cleverly waxing poetic about you and making elegantly veiled innuendos, while you blush furiously into your cucumber sandwiches.

Shopping will be all about you. He lives to spoil you, and if you even *hint* that you like something, expect it to "randomly" show up in your bags when you're unpacking at the end of the day. He might even be using this as an opportunity to figure out your ring size and/or what types of jewelry/stones you like.

...

Raph

Expect your knight in shining armor to be doing his job. If it's a crowded faire, he won't be as visibly anxious as Leo, but expect him to be a little distracted while keeping an eye on everything. Very protective, but it only takes one conversation for you to explain to him that you're dressed like this because you want to be noticed. Still eyes anyone who seems like they might be getting a little too handsy.

Once he's more comfortable with people just randomly coming up to hug you and others standing at a distance to ogle you, he's good. Raph loves an excuse to get out and have a good time, and RenFaire is not only no different, but it's one of those places that tends to embrace the weird. Rather than screaming and running people are enthralled and constantly asking him how he made his "costume." ("Trade secret" 😉). 🤭

He loves the Joust and he and Leo will have a great time betting and bonding, loser buying the next round of drinks. But Live Steel Combat is by far his favorite. The second he passes by a pit of armored combatants beating the shit out of each other, he's hooked. After the fight, he spends some time talking to the fighters and even exchanging techniques.

Raph doesn't care about showing off, he's just there to have a good time, so he'll be a little surprised when he turns around after spending 15 minutes destroying the dagger/hatchet throw boards to see a crowd has gathered. He'll recover quickly, however. Activate Full *Gaston* mode. Showing off and shooting flirty winks and comments at some of the more thirsty patrons that are paying attention to some of his more dexterous moves. Flexing at every opportunity. But don't worry, his last trick will be hitting the bullseye while dipping you into a kiss that reminds you that he's only yours. Drink up those nasty looks. You've earned them.

My guy likes to keep it simple when it comes to food. How many turkey legs? How many you got? They will learn to dread the hulking figure in red and green coming up to the stand, and you may have to gently remind him at one point that the other patrons need to eat, too. After that, he'll be happy to try the other things, he'll particularly enjoy the scotch egg.

On vendors row, he spends more time talking with with artisans and craftspeople than doing any actual shopping, and will end up leaving with "gifts" to get started on his own projects. He particularly likes the leatherworkers and fiber artists. Don't think he isn't paying attention, though. Weeks later, you'll start finding handmade gift on your windowsill similar to, but more beautiful than, those things he noticed you notice.

...

Donnie

It isn't often this artificer gets to indulge in the *other* side of the geekdom coin, he carves out a few hours a week for D&D, but other than that, his mind won't let him get away from his engineering fixation all that often. But when you give him an opportunity to flex his creative side while still making his "gotta-build" brain happy, he'll put your ass to work. You'll spend the months leading up to faire together, in the back of the lab building matching steampunk engineer costumes that actually freaking work. Expect to own the competition.

The costume contest is, of course, the most important event. You may not make it if he spends too long talking about your rigs with interested parties, so set timers and plan for people to stop the two of you on your way there. After easily taking the win and smugly taking your hand, kissing it, and helping you down the wooden steps, expect him to look for the Irish Step Dancers. The rhythm and synchronicity will help him regulate after all the attention.

Donnie will munch on whatever sweet, fried thing you put in front of him, but he seeks out the mead tent. He doesn't drink much or often, but he does appreciate the time and care that goes into the fermentation process, and he'll really enjoy trying every flavor they have before buying a bottle of your favorite for the two of you, and another one that his father might like.

Donnie is not really interested in the wares in the vendor booths, so this time with you is all about research. Much like Leo, he's learning what you like and what you don't like. Colors, textures, patterns, all filed away for later. If you find something you really love, he'll pull the "I'll be right back," move, once you're three booths away, then hand the bag to you without a word, link his arm with yours, and keep walking. He may also have a discrete conversation with the leatherworker about some *ahem* custom items.

...

Mikey

Let's. Fucking. Go. He is ready, baby. He only just learned about Renaissance Festivals, but you do not have to ask him twice he is down. The two of you will spend a little time putting together some casual fun costumes the day before, and then proceed to fully forget half of what you wanted to bring by the time you're parked and unloading, but that's okay because it's RenFaire babyyy!

This guy will lay it on thick. Leo may be Prince Charming, but this Jester has your heart and will be doing everything he can to make sure you and everyone else remembers why. Expect comments and compliments dripping with innuendo that make you more red than the tomatoes at the dunk tank...

Which just happens to be one of his favorite things! A quick wit and good aim turns the game into a show and a crowd will gather as he and the dunkee toss insults back and forth. He'll occasionally punctuate his barbs by tossing a tomato and hitting the button just enough to make the platform almost give out. Eventually, once he and the actor have come to some kind of verbal truce, he'll give them a sweet smile, before throwing his last fruit, and landing them in the water.

This will be a theme all day. Any/all raunchy/adult-themed comedy shows are on his agenda. In fact, expect him to be constantly checking the schedule. He loves a good show! He'll even make time for some of the performances geared toward little kids. At one point, happily playing an ogre in one of the twisted fairy tale performances (the ogre is the good guy 😁).

Food is easy. It's it bad for you? Would his dad give him a look while he eats too much of it? Awesome.

Shopping will start pretty much immediately. My dude walked in, saw ✨Fashion✨, and said "Yes please! 😃" He is at the Cordwainer in minutes talking about a pair of custom Rennie boots, and he is NOT leaving without a rainbow utilikilt. He'll be a little bummed he can't get elf ears, but he'll find a dope-as-hell flower crown that'll more than make up for it.

.....

Tag list

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[enixamyram]

Rewatching the episode to give even more thoughts in every detail because I am so obsessed right now!

I don't give a f*ck what the anti's whine. I actually think Stella is a good villain. I genuinely like how much of a dumbass bitch she is. She's fun and entertaining and I can't wait for her downfall where I predict she'll throw a tantrum worthy of her usual hissy fits.

(Also, side note, I love her voice actress.)

I love the mugshots of Moxie, Blitzo and Millie. But I have to wonder, where is the Loona picture from? She looks so happy and sweet.

I know a lot of people have fawned over that moment where Loona tucks the picture away. And I love that moment too. But I also love this one. Blitzo has such nervous enthusiam meanwhile Loona's just kind of impressed.

And why does this one shot hit me so hard?! No one splits up M&M!

And these are the faces of people who realized that so long as Blitzo was allowed to represent himself, they were screwed. Someone get this Imp a lawyer to speak for him!

Side note; I love Bee's outfit!

Ya'll have no idea how loudly I wanted to scream at this moment!

(But I was still working when I was watching it so I had to settle for muffled squeaking instead...)

I said in another post but I genuinely loved what little we saw of Vassago in this episode. He immediately seems like a sweetheart and I want more of him in the future! I could honestly see him playing a fun role with I.M.P.

I have nothing negative to say about this episode... Except I wasn't crazy about Satan's singing voice... I mean the normal talking voice was good but his singing wasn't really the epic I was expecting (I think I was expecting something like Luke Holt as Zeus... but maybe that's just me...)

But anyway! They need to figure out a way to do a crossover. I need to see all the Deadly Sins meeting up with Lucifer, even if it's just for a short or something.

Someone else pointed out that Octavia doesn't run into her mums arms. In fact she actually steps back away from her and is hesitant to return the hug. Now it could be shock about what's happening to her dad but it does make me wonder if Stella wasn't a very distant mother. I mean, we saw as a young child Stella used to send Stolas to comfort Octavia after a nightmare so it's not so far fetched to believe she was a reluctant mother as well as a reluctant bride.

A brief funny moment ("So uh... Can I go then?") before Vivzie rips my heart apart.

Speaking of ripping my heart. You know what's really traumatic? Stolas is in shock so he hasn't told everyone the reality of what's happened, aka that he can't see his daughter. So Blitzo and Loona have no idea and are hugging and being sweet and it's lovely but they don't even realize they're unintentionally rubbing it in Stolas' face... It is somehow a beautiful, wholesome and yet awful, tear-jerking moment in one single screenshot.

Blitzo is so gentle with him...

Of course let's end on this screenshot...:

[alexanderwales]

Movie Review: Upstream Color (2013)

I watched Primer when it came out on DVD. It's one of the few movies that, when I finished, I immediately watched a second time. I loved it. It was dense and opaque, and benefited greatly from a second watch, which made the whole thing slot together like a nice little puzzle. It was filmed on a razor-thin budget, with one of the main characters being a writer, director, producer, and editor. I immediately put Shane Carruth on my (then short) list of directors to watch.

So I've been meaning to watch Upstream Color, his second movie, for a full decade now. The reviews for it were never very good, and every Primer fan I knew of said that it was no Primer, and I guess I had other stuff going on for literally a dozen years. I keep a "to watch" movie list, which is usually 20-30 movies deep, and other stuff kept taking priority for one reason or another. I wanted to be in the right mood for it, that was definitely part of it. So I watch a movie every two or three days, something like 100 movies a year, and that means that since Upstream Color came out, I have watched more than a thousand movies instead of watching it.

Spoilers Follow

Let's start with the obvious: Upstream Color is no Primer.

I think that I could fit the story of Upstream Color into a single paragraph. It's not complicated. When we start any movie that my wife doesn't think she'll like, she goes to look up the synopsis and reviews and trivia and stuff, and she quoted me a review that said it was an "opaque mess", and ... I don't agree with that, but I can see where they're coming from.

Here's my plot synopsis:

A man (credited as "Thief") discovers some worms that can be used to induce a hypnotic state. He uses them to hypnotize a woman, Kris, and makes her give him her entire net worth while under hypnosis. When that's done, he leaves, and she writhes around under worm control until being summoned by some music by a different, unconnected man (credited as "Sampler"). The Sampler takes the worm out of her body, implants it into a pig, then releases her. She wakes up with no memory and her life is shattered. Later, she meets Jeff, who had the same thing happen to him, they fall in love, they have a psychic connection to these pigs, they gradually get more in touch with what happened to them, then they go kill the Sampler and rescue the psychic pigs.

I don't think that there's anything in there that anyone could be confused about. The movie spells everything out. There are one or two plot beats aside from that, but this is about it.

It's how the movie does this which is unusual. It's taking show, don't tell to its limits, almost never with dialogue that clarifies anything, and its scenes muddle into each other, with none of them feeling like they last more than a few seconds. There is essentially no grounding, even when it felt to me like there should be, and the movie doesn't ever really stop being a visual tone poem. I found this grating in the first five minutes, then got used to it, and eventually started to find it grating again. I guess my best point of comparison is Terrence Malick's Tree of Life, which I thought was more effective but also did grate on me a little bit.

When a moviemaker does something like this, particularly an auteur (or would-be arteur) like Shane Carruth, I always start by assuming that this is part of the point, that we're being fed the plot one way instead of another because it ties into whatever is going on thematically. And here ...

Where I thought it was most effective was the sequence when the baby pigs were being drowned, since we're almost required to have that whole thing be done with Kuleshov effect, cutting back and forth between the pigs and Kris and the pigs and Jeff. It's a nicely evocative little bit of cinema, even if I didn't think that it emotionally landed for me. Where it's less effective is when we really would have been better served by just having some straightforward exposition, or more standard filmmaking, but I guess if you're committing to the bit, you're really committing.

So what's the story about? What's the analogy, what's the theme?

Kris and Jeff are drawn together because of the psychic connection from the worms/pigs, but also (in my opinion) because they've both been victims of this horrible thing that's happened to them, their entire life having been torn down by some thief, then made to believe that they were somehow responsible. So they've got the psychic thing going on, yes, but they also have parallel traumas, and the same sort of gap in their lives. I think this what I'll call Thesis One, the shared bond of trauma.

Another major thing that struck me when watching the movie was that both our protagonists seem insane from the outside. They have this weird connection to each other that no one could understand (though they don't seem to have friends or family or anyone to talk to who could find it weird). They mix up their memories, and sometimes fight about that. They have bouts of irrationality, paranoia, anger, grief, with no explicable-to-them source. They feel like there's somewhere they're meant to be, but they try to follow that sense, and it leads them nowhere. To me, this immediately said "mental illness", so I'm going to call this Thesis Two, the terror of knowing that something isn't right with you, but having no idea what it is, having this internal feeling inside of you, patterns of behavior that make sense at the time. This movie is basically not shot like a horror movie in any way, and does not use the language of horror films, but I think it does share a lot thematically with the subgenre "mental illness horror" where the protagonist thinks they're crazy. That our two protagonists seem intensely codependent helps push that line.

Lastly, at least some of the movie is about personal identity and meaning, though I'm not sure that I would called that Thesis Three, mostly because I don't know what it's trying to say about personal identity. Clearly both Kris and Jeff are attempting to construct meaning in the wake of what's happened to them, and their identities bleed together with their overlapping memories, but this is just not fulfilled very much, and some of it is wrapped tightly in what I'd call the mental illness stuff.

Even if I'm reasonably confident in what literally happened in the film, and what it's about, there are a few things that don't really click for me.

In a normal film, I would expect that the sequence goes:

woman gets hypnotized and wormed

life is ruined

lots of strange thoughts and adventures with another man who is equally crazy

revelation that she's not crazy after all

revenge and catharsis

But in Upstream Color, the Thief and Sampler are implied to be operating entirely separate from each other. There's a little gap which can't entirely be closed through inference, but it's implied the Sampler incidentally pollutes the water with dead worm-pigs, the organism infects plants, those plants get (totally be coincidence?) taken up by exotic plant foragers, then bought by the Thief. So the Thief and Sampler apparently don't have any relationship with one another.

And yet, it's the Sampler, who removes the worms from people and puts them into pigs, that gets killed in the end. Yes, he was the one to kill the Kris-pig's piglets, but ... I don't really understand this narrative beat. Do they assume that he was the Thief? The Thief gets away with it, and all we see of him in the end is that he's sadly shaking his head because the magic worms are all gone.

I mean, yes, the Sampler is a creep who uses his psychic connection to peep on stranger's lives, and yes, most of these people (seem to be) victims of the Thief, and it's fucked up to not give them information or closure. But if the Sampler and Thief are unrelated, which seems likely to me, then it feels like the Sampler is taking bullets better meant for the Thief? Or is it just because he killed some piglets?

And what does that mean?

I am, moreover, confused about what the function of the Sampler is when compared to what the themes are. Does he tie in with the mental illness angle? No, not really. Does he tie in with shared bond of trauma? Only in that he's preventing people from getting closure, I guess. He's a voyeur, a failed artist, some of this ties to personal identity, but again, it doesn't feel like a strong thesis, it just feels kind of random, especially since we have virtually nothing to go on as far as the Sampler's motives or history. He seemed to me like he was mostly just an artist, with the sounds of nature as his primary art and the experiences of other people as his secondary "art".

I'm going to give my hot take on this movie now, which is that I would have liked it a lot better if it were more traditionally structured. The opening five or so minutes really made me think that I would have been better off leaving it on the to-watch list. The "piecing together the location of the Sampler and getting revenge" stuff was super rushed and kind of nonsensical, and offered no catharsis, only confusion.

Overall, I would say I didn't like the movie. I think it was trying too hard to be deep (for me this is a very high bar to clear), and didn't benefit from the experimental aspects, and would have been better if it at least had a stronger idea of what it was trying to say.

I will now go read some reviews, and maybe that will help something click for me. Hopefully I haven't missed anything major.

[redysetdare]

I think the thing that makes it so hard for me to understand ships because it's almost always people shipping characters because they think they are hot and want two hot people to kiss, which i don't see the point in either of those.

Like.... i don't find people hot and i don't understand the need or want to kiss so the fact so many ships revolve around this idea of "We want these conventionally attractive characters to kiss" just goes right over my head.

Which is why whenever I do ship characters it's never in a way that i would label it shipping. Like... i just like the idea of how characters interact and change each other. How having a certain bond can make them start to rub off on each other or how their dialogue just bounces off one another so easily or in a fun way. i could care less if they kiss but to me they are inseparable. I want to see them in a quiet intimate moment of just being in each others company. that is all.

[marigraphia]

I've had this pose ref saved for a while and the Superman set photos just gave off the same energy 👉🏻👈🏻

The reference is this photo of Katharine Hepburn as Antiope and Colin Keith-Johnston as Theseus in the 1932 play 'The Warrior's Husband' (and I'd love for people to turn into a draw your otp meme pls pls pls this pose is so good)

And also, of course, the Superman (2025) set photos

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

If there is at least one thing I can credit FE for doing better than Tales in localization, it's not trying to actively go out of their way for an entire game to avoid subtext or direct text between two men that is romantic or implied romantic. Funny when it's so present that the attempt doesn't even work; infuriating that it was attempted to begin with.

So as much as I often have issues with some of FE's localizations, at least they have a leg up on loc Tales for that.

[unreadpoppy]

Saw a video and it got me in a mood so i'm making this post.

I don't think people who have never been fat knows how fucking hard it is to find clothing for bigger bodies.

The first issue is finding stuff in your actual size. Because time after time after time and time again I've gone to a store and they only had small and medium sizes. Not even large. And this was not for a few clothes, no. It was for MOST clothes that I found interesting. And then the ones that were marked as large were simply not big enough.

And I know that the reason for that is that brands simply won't make clothes for fat people. It's that because it surely isn't because the large size is selling out fast. They just don't do it. And some people have the nerve to say 'well brands are not obligated to make sizes for everyone' yeah sure, but also, I can't walk naked on the street can I?

Like I don't get it. 'oh but we want our clothes to fit a especific body' so fucking make clothes that are supposed to fit bigger bodies. Doesn't have a to be a whole ass collection.

And then we get on the second problem which is making clothes for plus size people that are ugly as hell. It's always the same stuff: ugly florals, animal print that belongs in another decade, cold shoulders, that weird extra fabric at the end of a shirt to hide the belly, or just black/muted colors.

Like fun fact. If you have big boobs, the hardest thing in the world is trying to find a bra that comes in a color that isn't white, black or beige. Because trust me, I've spent 3 hours walking in the shopping mall and I couldn't find anything that fit my breasts that was like pink (and in that situation I needed a pink bra for a play).

It feels like most clothes made for plus sized people are designed with like 50+ year old white women in mind, and not even that demographic of people are wearing those clothes (my mom is a plus sized 50+ year old white woman and often talks about how ugly some clothes made for people her size are).

It's hard trying to develop your own sense of style when none of the clothes around you are in your size, and when they do, they are just not good looking to you.

But you wanna know what's the down right worst part? Do you know what fucking brand has clothes that look good and are amde for bigger bodies?

The goddamn cancer on this earth that is Shein.

I fucking hate shein. Fast fashion is killin the fashion industry, they literally have people working as slaves and many influecers buy shein clothes by the bulk only to then throw it in the trash. Shein is awful.

But. Unfortunetly, shein is the only place that I found that had clothes that fit me and looked good. I don't like that. I avoided buying from shein for the longest time ever, but jesus christ, when you can't find clothes anywhere else you get desperate.

I tried looking for other places. I tried looking at my local clothing stores and everything was too small for me. I tried looking at online small bussinesses but they either didn't make my size, or it was sold out, or the prices were very high. Tried looking at thrift stores, also didn't find my size.

I try not to buy too much from shein or to spend long periods of time in between buying, because again, I feel bad about buying there. I don't want to buy from there.

Clothing brands/stores gotta do better. And I don't think that's asking for too much.

[wild-at-mind]

If you ever see me becoming one of those transmisandry people, please fucking call me out immediately.

[omarwolaeth]

Once I'm comfy with their designs (and also monster designs and how one of them plays because OC archetype and all that), I could probably start posting Ritual AU stuff,, don't know what I'd start with though =v=;;

[izzy-b-hands]

Reason number idk to keep my shot day more consistent (tho tbf i had been doing really well on timing up until last week lmao):

Shot day being off means i get extra weepy over just. anything. everything. My brain looks at anything and goes 'oh yeah, that's like (horrible traumatic memory), you 'member that? Yeah, sure ya do! here's a recap of that particular time for ya too.'

and like??? I am not a fan of it today. i mean i never really am but, I have shit to do rn lmao (dishes and i keep having smutty ed/izzy and nathan/pickles ideas that refuse to actually flow on the page once i open a word doc.)

[rubys-domain]

is it just me or... are the reputation rewards for fontaine underwhelming as hell?

[deadpresidents]

"What emerged in two interviews with Trump, and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world. To carry out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 millions people from the country, Trump told me, he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland. He would let red states monitor women's pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans. He would, at his personal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by Congress, according to top advisers. He would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn't carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America's founding. He is weighing pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury. He might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn't paying enough for its own defense. He would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic-preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen."

-- "How Far Would He Go", TIME Magazine's interviews with Donald Trump, April 30, 2024.

I know we're saturated in coverage of Trump and it's easy (and probably better for our mental health) to usually ignore most of the articles when we see them, especially since he's so full of shit and infuriating. But it's also important to recognize that he is going to be the Republican nominee for President and he could absolutely be elected in November, and if you thought his first term was scary and dangerous, you need to understand that in a second term he's going to have people around him that are better prepared and VERY willing to do the crazy shit that he wants to do to this country. They aren't even hiding the fact that they are seeking vengeance against political opponents whom they feel have wronged them, and are ready to fundamentally dismantle the democratic foundations that are barely holding this country together after nearly 250 years.

Just look at what Trump says about the people who he incited to attack the United States Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and halt the peaceful transfer of power that has happened every four years since 1789:

"Trump has sought to recast an insurrectionist riot as an act of patriotism. 'I call them the J-6 patriots,' he say. When I ask whether he would consider pardoning every one of them, he says, 'Yes, absolutely.' As Trump faces dozens of felony charges, including for election interference, conspiracy to defraud the United States, willful retention of national-security secrets, and falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments, he has tried to turn legal peril into a badge of honor."

Oh, and please note that Trump -- a former President of the United States and possible future President of the United States -- said on the record in these interviews with TIME: "There is a definite antiwhite feeling in the country and that can't be allowed either." We are at a point where political leaders are outright saying that in this country again, and it's because of Donald Trump.

So, take the time to recognize that Trump is straight-up telling us the country we're going to be living in if he wins again in November. And understand that your vote matters -- and WHO you vote for matters -- because, as I've been saying for years now, ELECTIONS HAVE FUCKING CONSEQUENCES.

[killerpancakeburger]

Thinking about a Reader who ends up having Scary Dog Privileges with Ghost without meaning to. It just happened.

Then they have to deal with the fact that this comes with duties too.

Tags: civilian!reader, gn!reader, mostly fluff, a bit suggestive, smug!Ghost, smooth!Ghost. 800 words.

Part 2. Part 3.

When Ghost is reluctant to getting sutured in Medical after accidentally opening his stitches, grumbling he can do it himself, who does the nurse call for? Yeah, you.

She could stand her ground, after all she's used to dealing with big, whiny men, but it's much more fun to knock on your door and smile at your bewildered gaze and gaping mouth when she explains the situation in two sentences.

"Ghost's being difficult, mind taking over?" "I'm sorry, what the hell does this have to do with me?" "C'm'on, everyone on base knows he's got a soft spot for you. Don't you want to make my job easier?"

You roll your eyes and slam your hands on your desk as you get up. Groaning as you walk past her— "I'm doing this for you, nothing else, got it?"

Mumbling to yourself "you've got to be kidding me" as you barge into the sick bay. Ghost is coolly seated at the end of a bed, large as life, casual clothes as black as his mask and— oh. You weren't told the wound was on his thigh— you weren't warned that he didn’t have pants on. You can’t help it, your eyes go down, down, your lingering gaze and your flustered silence forming a confession louder than words.

A noise — a scoff or a grunt, you’re not sure — emanates from him, breaks your trance, makes you look up. The amusement in his gaze tells you he noticed your oggling— of course he did. Nothing gets past the Ghost, and you've been remarkably unsubtle. Despite the mask, you swear you can make out the smug smirk on his lips. His cockiness reignites your irritation. Annoyance making you bolder than you really are, you charge at him, crossing the distance between you two in a stride, stopping close— too close. He doesn't back off.

"What's wrong with you?" you snarl. "Nothin'," he retorts, imperturbable.

It's actually the first time you’re overlooking him. You may be enjoying it a bit too much. Nevermind the fact that you've had to wedge yourself between his parted legs to get there.

You frown, unconvinced by his answer.

“Did Soap contaminate you?”

Bargaining to be cleared out earlier was the Scotsman's trademark.

“Johnny throws a fit cos he hates feeling useless. That's not what I'm doing.”

A smirk stretches your lips.

“Oh, no? I'm sure your reasons are much more noble.”

“Doesn't matter. Got what I wanted anyway.”

He's way too self-satisfied for a man in his underwear.

You throw an unequivocal look in the direction of his injury.

“What you wanted? A still open wound?”

“You.”

He replied without missing a beat, as confident as usual. It is both alluring and aggravating.

“And your idea of wooing me is making me upset?”

You don't add “because if it is, that's really fucking stupid” out loud, but you’re sure he got the message through your tone.

“Nah. But you're more honest when you’re angry. Gutsier.”

You only realize he slipped his index and middle fingers in your trouser loops when he sharply tugs at them. Off balance, you steady yourself by catching his shoulders.

Taking advantage of the strip of bare skin between your shirt and bottoms, the pads of his thumbs idly stroke your hip bones. The contact sends electricity through you, shivers of pleasure running down your sides.

“Ghost,” you start, severe, trying not to let the effect his touch has on you show in your voice.

“Simon,” he counters, surly. “Told ya it's Simon when we're alone, didn't I?”

He did, but you didn’t think he was serious. If that's what it takes to get him to listen… you’ll play by his rules.

“Simon. What's the rest of your brilliant plan? I'm here, but I can’t stitch you up.”

“How ‘bout a deal. I'll stop resisting… for a price.”

You raise an amused eyebrow.

“What kind of price?”

“A kiss.”

You snort. You didn’t believe him capable of something so… puerile.

“With the mask on?”

He doesn't move a muscle to get rid of it.

“Take it off.”

You usually wouldn’t obey what sounds like an order so easily, but it's the first time you get to touch the skull. Slipping two fingers between skin and cloth, you slowly roll up the mask all the way under his nose.

You gently trace the scars surrounding his lips. Then, the second you feel him relax, grip on your hips slackening and intensity of his gaze waning, you grab the bottom of his mask and drag it back down vigorously, making the holes for the eyes land way too low for him to see anything.

“If you thought you'd get a reward for acting out, you've got another think coming.”

[monkie-brainriot]

Don’t mind me just thinking a lot about how in DBK’s flashback Wukong looks shady as heck with that expression on his face, while in the unbiased flashback he looks like that, yet again this invades my brain. 

It’s rare he actually makes that expression that we see in DBK’s flashback, but I can think of one other instance that expression shows up

Edit: I’M NOT SAYING THE MONKEY IS SKETCHY, I’M SAYING IT’S WHACK THAT HE NEVER ACTUALLY MAKES THOSE EXPRESSIONS OUTSIDE OF PEOPLES BIASED FLASHBACKS (and when possessed) 

WHEN FIGHTING MAC HE LOOKS LIKE THIS 

SO EITHER THE MEMORIES ARE WARPED BY PERSONAL BIAS OR MEMORIES HAVE BEEN ALTERED BECAUSE NEITHER DBK’S OR MACAQUE FLASHBACK MONKEY KINGS LOOK OR ACT LIKE SUN WUKONG