#wow I would die for those funky little dudes

[leatherbookmark]

fuck or die/sex pollen, Very Specific This Is Almost Definitely The Writer's Job/Hobby AU, Magical Creachure AU

wow, anon! those are Just the tropes i wanted to talk about! it's almost as if you were me, sending this ask to myself for this exact purpose! amazing. anyway

fuck or die/sex pollen: are technically different things but i will put them together and give them an A because they're the one trope that i actually Have In The Past combed ao3 for. lol. i don't know! i don't know. usually characters losing the control over their autonomy, bodies and so on kinda bug me, and while in a certain state i can accept a/b/o, when i try to think about the Social Circumstances of everyone being aware you're in horny town/about to enter horny town/submissive and breedable/etc for more than five seconds i go insane, but. there's SOMETHING about fuck or die and sex pollen that just *clenches fist* gets me.

i haven't read many fics where the characters forced to fuck are total not even a little sexually attracted to each other*; mostly it's been ships i was interested in, and while obviously for the characters involved it's probably hell, there's often this moment of... idk, assurance that neither part is using the other? the mind-blowing sex we're about to have is 100% medicinal/situational, i am doing this 100% respectfully...!

*hold up. i have. IT WAS NIECEST. i think some guys have captured them and forced them to fuck or else, and it was hoooorrible for them both because they were NOT miserably in forbidden love with each other in this scenario. 🥰🥰🥰

except. EXCEPT. there's also the Angst Potential (which i hope to squeeze as much as in can when i get to it 😬). the "i want him to rail me into next tuesday, but of course he would never...! and yet here he is, forced to rail me into next tuesday to save my life! how horrible! i am staining his pristine body with my filthy, cursed, and horny body...! ah! what horror. what utter bliss". as well as the top version of it, aka the "ah! he would never! but here i am, having to--" etc. but ALSO the, uh, spoiler alert, "i would love to be somewhere else. instead i am railing this person, who is very dear to me in a way i can't yet explain due to reasons etc, into next tuesday. they seem into it. no, it's the curse. but they seem really into it. no, i'm victim-blaming. they would never. not that it's bad. but--"

like. Wa Hoo! nice 👍

Very Specific This Is Almost Definitely The Writer's Job/Hobby AU: fucks like a rabid rhino even in cases where i have no idea what any of those terms mean. i want to get IMMERSED! give me those DETAILS you funky little author! YEAS. A

Magical Creachure AU: AH YOU SEE. depends on everything including the creachure.

like, say, one of them is a mermaid (gender neutral). i just got reminded of a rinharu mermaid fic that i was crazy about back in the times. anyway! there's... the list of things that happen in a mermaid au is pretty predictable, i think? dude finds a mermaid, they either meet on the beach or the mermaid is injured and needs help --> into the bathtub you go; the mermaid learns about human stuff and the human learns about mermaid stuff, insert conflict either down there or up there, sex? and then A SOLUTION, which often is "the mermaid stays on land due to Love". it can be done well! and it can be done not well. it really depends!

paradoxically, i don't really like it when the creature character is too much like an animal and too little like a human. does this make sense? for example, when they eat their human's pet, don't know much about Emotions, talk about Nesting and Mating rather than, idk, finding someone to fuck... that's. that's kind of like an animal that can talk, i feel? not exactly my cup of tea, so to speak. i'd much prefer if there was some other Culture under the sea, with existing traditions and such, but a culture nonetheless. something like "i caught you this big huge fish in broad daylight because i want you to be my mate forever!" vs "oh yeah, well, when we like someone we bring them stuff, mostly good food but cool stuff from the surface is a hit too. you do that too...? ah, figures. shit listen can i bring you a hugeass fish because i don't really have cash money"

When There Are Vampires/Werewolves: i have this sad disease called "i don't really care about vampires/werewolves and i don't think blood sucking is sexy" :(

When One Of Them Can Turn Into Some Animal: yknow what. yeah. yeah that's good stuff (i bet you're all surprised). this is good. there's Human Them, and then there's Animal Them, and they both need different things, and their beloved wants to give it to them. what's cooler than a little guy chilling in the coils of a huge fuckass dragon, who is his loving boyfriend? probably that dragon boyfriend killing some annoying people for him! what's cooler than a guy cuddling a bighuge wolf who's (you guessed it!) their boyfriend who has a bad brain day and just needs to be dog for a bit. what's cooler than lan xichen holding a little bird a-yao in his hands, gently, so gently that not a feather on a-yao's person is ruffled, ready to hide him from the world, ready to kill for this tiny ball of feathers, each smaller than his little fin--hi? no i did not drop any names, you're just imagining things. anyway. S

[teriwrites]

2020 Writing Wrap-Up

Something that I do every year on the 1st is go back through absolutely everything I’ve written throughout the previous year and compile it into one massive word document. Everything from outlining notes to unfinished short stories to my NaNo project wind up in that file, where I like to read back and reflect on what I’ve gotten done through the year. 

Every year, I end up having written more than I expected, and this year was no different! 

Total for 2020: 203,119!

This is the first recorded year (I think it’s year 4 that I’ve done this for?) in which I’ve cracked 200K! It’s also the first year I’ve ever actually followed through on my resolution to share some of my writing online! So as rough as 2020 has been, I still somehow managed to break some personal records in writing. Which probably has everything to do with the fact that I joined this community earlier this year, and it’s been incredibly encouraging and supportive!

I also branched out a bit more this year in a few ways. I worked on some poetry and prose, which is not something I’ve put a lot of time into before so tends to be a challenge. It’s nothing that I’ll be posting anytime soon, but it was fun to work on in the moment, which is especially important in such a wild year as 2020.

One snag that I definitely hit was the fact that I have a lot more unfinished work than most years. A majority of the short stories I started working on never got finished. But I can’t even be too upset about that, because I totally loved being able to read back on even the fragmented pieces I ended up with. And while I do think a large part of that (for me) is discipline over inspiration, I’m willing to accept that, sometimes, things will remain unfinished. And it’s okay to stop working on them. 

My overall focus shifted a bit this year, too, which was interesting. I worked more on longer things than most years - started out the year by finishing my first draft of Castle on the Hill, continued making some edits and reworking its outline, did a large part of Beneath Alder Creek’s first draft in November. Right now, I’m working on what I expect to be a novella by the time I’m done with it. It’s a big contrast to the usual, short and snappy short stories that fill most of my previous wrap-up files. But I still definitely write those sometimes, and it’s nice to be able to try stretching and testing my own boundaries. 

This is the part of my wrap-up where I go ham throwing in some of my favorite out-of-context quotes from a variety of different things I’ve worked on. Some of them might be familiar, a lot probably won’t. I’m going to post it beneath the thing so this doesn’t become even more absurdly long!

Some of the ~highlights~ of 2020:

First Thoughts in the Morning: wow the sexual tension between me and the alarm clock right now. Later Reflection: wtf? (a literal note on my notes app that I included because I Cannot remember writing any of this and it made me laugh)

Edriele’s gaze trailed down to the woman’s armor, and her stomach twisted. “Where did you find your attire?” The woman glanced down in surprise, as though she’d forgotten she was wearing it. “It was fitted to me when I gained my ranking. I suppose it draws attention, but after my confrontation at… you mean to ask me whether I’m impersonating a Knight!” “The thought had crossed my mind,” the Sister replied dryly. (novella WIP)

“Do you need to make a stop at your house before we head to the chapel?” Leslie asked as they started off. “What for?” Winnie asked. Leslie looked pointedly at the tip of her galoshes poking out from beneath her dress. With another roll of her eyes, Winnie sighed. “Oh, I suppose so.” (Beneath Alder Creek)

When the third meeting for the Society of the Hidden Immortal Tribe was called for the decade, I knew heads would roll. Gathering the entire society together took months. Everything had to be hush-hush; that was the entire point of spreading ourselves out. Plus, every time a letter arrived in the mail, it was a reminder of the idiot who had decided we needed a name change. Everybody agreed that being deemed the ‘S.H.I.T.’ was humiliating, but nobody could agree on a better title, so it had remained the same for nearly a full century. That was the problem with living forever. You always had more time to make decisions, and, in the end, nothing ever got done. (S.H.I.T.)

When she leaves, I’m not sure I remember a word of what she’s said. But as the stresses of the semester wash back in, and my mind clears like being pulled out of a dream, I suddenly understand how one could crash upon the rocks without realizing they’d ever changed their course. (A Modern Siren)

When Georg arrived later, he found Klaus leaning forwards onto the table, staring vacuously at one of his textbooks. "Studying hard?" he taunted as he approached and dropped into the seat Ingrid had been occupying. "I talked with Ingrid," Klaus explained. Georg's eyebrows shot up in genuine surprise, but he quickly recovered and looked pointedly at Klaus' posture. "Go that well, then?" "She said I'm arrogant and completely self-involved and that I never take what a girl says into account whenever I'm on a date." With a haunted gleam in his eye, Klaus stared up at his friend. "I think she's right." "Well then it's a good thing somebody pointed it out," Georg offered, and he turned to his work. (Castle on the Hill)

Takemoto Hana rested a hand over her face. She couldn’t see the swirling of darkness over her head, but she heard the whine behind its words. With a wry smile, she asked, ‘Do you not know how to brew tea?’ ‘Of course I know how to brew tea!’ The dark spirit’s voice boomed with a defensive defiance that rang false in the funny little woman’s ears.  (The Funny Little Woman)

“None of us want to be here right now,” Edgar called out to the hall. “None of us want to go back through the handbook and listen to the steps of proper etiquette in immortality. But it seems that, once again, it’s necessary.” “Dammit, Dave,” muttered the man next to me. I said nothing, but I couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment. Dave was… how do I describe Dave? To call him an idiot would be underestimating his craftiness. To call him a genius, I’d have to ignore all of his dumb antics. Cruel was too strong. Misguided was too innocent. Mischievous fit best, but even that fell short. Dave was a trickster god, if ever one existed. (S.H.I.T.)

Ridiculous, he told me with a self-conscious laugh of someone who didn't expect to be believed. I smiled, but I didn't join in. (The Little Roads)

“Hey, where did Alina go?” Lorelai asked. Zoe shrugged, but Jaiden cleared his throat. “I think you crossed one of her boundaries, Lo. She specifically asked not to involve her girlfriend in this, and then you did anyways. I know we needed the help, but friendships have to be built on mutual trust, my dude. You should’ve at least let her know your plan before you went behind her back.” The two women stopped and shared a look. “Hey, Jaiden,” Zoe asked. “Do you know the capital of Canada?” He shook his head. “I dunno, Ontario?” “Amazing.” (Mirror, Mirror)

"We had a bet going over whether you'd make it in time," Hans told him. "Did you win or lose?" Josef replied. Hans flipped a 5-Deutsche Mark coin over to Peter, who grinned as he pocketed it. "I'm glad you have so much faith in me." Josef's voice dripped with sarcasm. (Castle on the Hill)

Taliesin reached over his head and grabbed at one of the low-hanging bows, picking leaves from it. “I’m not sure.” Winnie stopped. “What do you mean?” “I mean that I don’t know.” (Beneath Alder Creek)

While she attended to these, the man beside her began to stir. Ella could see him out of the corner of her eye, attempting to push himself up into a sitting position. ‘You may want to lie back down,’ she told him, scrubbing uselessly at her skirt. The man continued to sit up anyways, pressing a hand against the side of his face. ‘Am I killed?’ ‘No, but your savior may be.’ Ella threw her skirt back to the ground. ‘When the Madame sees the state of me, I’ll be spending my future afternoons off making a new dress out of the fabric scraps.’ A frown crossed the man’s face as he considered her words, followed by a scowl of understanding. ‘You work for them. The bourgeoisie.’ (Cinderella)

Ingrid took the seat and began digging through her bag for a book. As she did so, she explained, "There were no other tables open in the building - even in the quiet section upstairs - so I figured that I would just ask the first person I recognized if I could sit with them, and well... here we are." "Don't worry about it," Georg answered when Klaus found himself dumbstruck again. "Just ignore the oaf, he'll leave you alone." Ingrid shot a grin at Georg, and Klaus suddenly wondered whether it was a good idea to have the two of them sit together. (Castle on the Hill)

Up ahead, I could see the glass walls of the bus stop. Usually, I waited for the bus leaning against the metal frame of the stop, leaving the seats inside open for children on their way to school. But the seats were empty now. I still avoided them. (Flo’s Magical Emporium: The Pandemic)

Now, I ask that you do not feel too much self-pity. For as easy an error as it may be to mistake a visiting aristocrat’s son for the hired help, the true talent in such a display causing his immediate departure lies within you alone. And to think that the meeting was the work of your father’s tenuous sway over the court! Well, I am sure the time away will do him some good, lest you begin to consider that you’ve ruined his position as well as your prospects. (Dearly Detested,)

Edgar was at the front of the lecture hall, and standing beside him was Dave, smirking as though at some private joke that only he was in on. He was wearing sunglasses, despite the dim lighting of the room, probably because he thought he looked cool. I rolled my eyes. What a tool. (S.H.I.T.)

 The work is different now. Countryside pathways winding through the forest lie forgotten for years without the familiar steps of a traveler. Off beaten paths in the city are never unknown for long, and sometimes streets that were once crossed by thousands a day fall back into obscurity. (The Little Roads)

“How much time will you give me to think on it?” she asked suspiciously, wrapping her arms around herself as though afraid they’d reach out to him if not kept in check. “You have all the time in the world,” the golden man said. “The boy’s, however, runs out with every passing second.” He extended his hand. (Beneath Alder Creek)

You ever met a rich person? Not comfortably wealthy. Not ‘my Uncle Kenny is a lawyer’ rich. Not even ‘widow answering the door to her manor on a hill dressed in fine silk’ rich. No, I mean proper, so-much-money-you-literally-can’t-spend-it-fast-enough rich. They say it isn’t worth Bill Gates’ time to pick up a $100 bill off the floor because he’ll have earned more in the time it takes to grab it. That kind of rich. They seem to be bred for times like these. Their houses are a source of endless entertainment – movie theaters, bowling alleys, personal gyms with a view of the sprawling landscape they overlook like cruel dictators. There’s no need for them to leave during a pandemic; they have access to the equivalent of a luxury resort most families have to save up month to visit. Necessities can be stockpiled in one of the useless extra spaces in the house. I mean, I once had to hide out in a luggage room for a contract. That’s right. An entire room dedicated to holding luggage, bigger than some of the apartments I’ve rented. I thought their residential labyrinths were my greatest source of grief. But social distancing? I’m one bad contract away from retirement. (Bounty Hunter During a Pandemic)

Shaking his head, Detlef pulled a new sheet from his notebook. “Look, I’m just saying, if we can get the satire right, we can be a modern Jonathan Swift.” “I don’t want to be a modern Jonathan Swift, I want to be a student actually passing his debate course!” Peter snapped. (Castle on the Hill)

Moonlight illuminated the German’s fair hair and pale skin, the effect more malevolent apparition than man. (Face on the Other Side of a Dark Window)

Back then, he’d been known for commissioning the exact same portrait of himself every hundred years, hanging them in a hallway in his manor and trying to pass them off as his line of ancestors to any of the locals. It had been a far less skeptical age, and Dave had earned himself a small band of worshipers before Jeff Goldblum himself had been forced to intervene. (S.H.I.T.)

Clara stood before the board of advisors assisting with her thesis. She was one, very intense paper away from her M.A., and she wasn’t about to risk it all by being too proud to ask for help. When she’d made the appointment to meet with them, she expected a series of questions surrounding her topic. Instead, they’d opened by offering her a job. “You want me to steal from the school?” Dr. Pye wrinkled her nose at the suggestion. Next to her, Dr. Pritchard said, “Don’t think of it as theft, dear. It’s merely redistribution.” Clara hadn’t amassed tens of thousands of dollars in debt to be lectured on the definition of robbery. “Either way, it involves me sneaking into the Chemistry department and taking a huge risk to get you some new toys to play with.” (Origins: The Ghost)

“Why is undermining Pryderi so important to Queen Ceridwen that she would risk breaking a timeless alliance just to dismantle them?” Her stomach twisted into a knot, protesting against the answer. “There are few members of the Dusk Court that we know by title.” A shadow passed over Enid’s expression. “The Lord of the Undernell is second only to the Queen.” “Great deeds build the reputation of one in their own court. Cruelty builds it in both.” Taliesin buckled under Winnie’s weight as she suddenly leaned against him. (Beneath Alder Creek)

“Why are all my friends so quick to endanger themselves?” I muttered as I packed up Midas’ crate. Natalie swiveled around from the candy aisle. “So you’re finally willing to admit that we’re friends?” “Save it.” (Flo’s Magical Emporium: The Pandemic)

[giuliano-fan-account]

NEW CHAPTER

new chapter alert 

I am.. I cant EVEN OH MY GOD ANYWAYS

If you dont even want to hear or see anything of the new chapter i dont reccomend looking as I’m gonna talk about some things during this chapter, things that could happen after this chapter and things from clash pt 1 (ch 390).

But anyways...

This was probably my favorite part. Lynch and Zakuro have such a good dynamic im crying I cant have yet another duo in my head but yet here they are.

Seeing them again in general in a new chapter was just magical in and of itself. like dude. THEYRE BACK  . AND ITS REAL AND WOW...

“HOW CAN I GET IT TO DIE?” I LOVE LYNCH SO MUCH HELP SHE IS JUST SO BLUNT AND AND ANWYAYS.

I also love the introduction to another aspect of Zakuros ability and just the sheer amount of personality both of them have been given in the short amount of time they’ve been introduced. 

And like how does Zakuro know who Hisoka is? Do they even know??? I’m guessing that their funky little blood pellets won’t find Hisoka, but will instead find a phantom troupe member.

Give me a minute to see where everybody was the last time Togashi showed the map. (I’m hoping they’ll find machi bc... machi fan reasons)

Theyre all on teir 3 (Zakuro, Lynch, Hinrigh) in a food/shopping court, then Zakuro and Lynch go into a hallway somewhere, but other than that I dont know.

Map without locations of people: (Ch 358)

Map with loactions of people: (Ch 380)

Ok, so if Machi stays in teirs 4/5, then it’s unlikely that she’ll come across Zakuro and Lynch.

I think there could be 3 things that could happen:

1. They may run into more Heil-Ly associates such as Luini or Cashew, but Hinrigh is already kind of dealing with those people. 

Maybe Hinrigh will run into Luini and Zakuro and Lynch will run into Cashew or vice versa. Depending on how their ability works and the descriptions they were given, Zakuros ability could very well mistake somebody else for being Hisoka, as they’re just looking for anybody ‘suspicious’.

2. It would be interesting to see if the Illumi = Hisoka theory could come into play. Zakuro and Lynch are hunting down Hisoka, but what if they run into Illumi instead because Zakuros ability spotted him and recognized him as being Hisoka... Though I think Mizai and Botobai intervined this in previous chapters. The lockdown was lifted, so there’s a possibility that Kalluto and Illumi could have been released, but iirc we haven’t gone back to their perspective since.

3. Chrollo, Bonolenov, and Shizuku are at the bottom of the fourth teir, but aside from Illumi and Kalluto, they are the closest members of the troupe. Since they’re both hunting down Hisoka, a matter of things could happen. I doubt that they would want to team up, and instead, I feel like tensions would be made, as the troupe’s (specifically Chrollo’s) interaction with the Cha-R group (I think) at the dining hall wasn’t very amicable, and the associates even noted that they were trouble. Chrollo seems to REALLY want to be the one to kill Hisoka as well, so I can imagine he would have mixed feelings on two people he has no idea about looking for him, and possibly looking to kill him before he does.

Any way it goes, I can’t wait for the loose threads in the storyline to be actually tied.

Anyways, enough of going into that part of the chapter, I want to talk about Hinrigh’s ability now.

At first, tbh I didn’t think that I would be very invested in Hinrigh, but this chapter saved my opinion because like.

HIS ABILITY IS SO FREAKING GOOFY LIKE. HE JUST MAKES A CAMERA INTO A CAT AND THEN PUTS ‘EM ON “RECORD MODE”. It’s so silly but in all seriousness what an amazing ability. It’s so convenient, and the fact that he can make full on animals out of everyday animals is pretty astonishing. Imagine the type of training and how much of it you’d have to do to master that ability. 

+ The cat is so scrunkly i love it so much I would die for the RECORD MODE cat. It reminds me of those videos on youtube where the people put the cameras on the cats collar. I wonder if that was the inspiration for this, because a cat isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of recording or having another pair of eyes or whatever, and I wouldn’t put it past Togashi. Our man full on made an ability (Silent Majority) out of a song name, and put in facts about the weight of bowling balls just because he likes to watch bowling. 

MEOW... BIP

I also like to think that he just makes companions for when he’s alone on the job. Like he makes a dog out of a machine gun and bonds with it and if somebody tries to attack him because they think he’s distracted he’s like “aha!!!” and shoots them with his machine gun dog.

I cant wait to see the next chapters, even though I doubt they’ll be for free on viz, I’ll find another way to see them. I’m so excited to be experiencing the comeback of my favorite series!

Anyways you all keep being funny like that record mode cat

Those Pigeons are a Serious Problem.

[chalkrevelations]

OK, wow, Episode 29 of Word of Honor, and that was A LOT. There is just A LOT going on, and all of it is A LOT.

(Spoilers. Scroll on past and come back later if you need to.)

Well, you know where this is going to start: Both A-Xiang and I are resolutely NOT crying. Yet. But you know who is? Cao Weining. We literally get a single crystalline tear drop, and oh god, I can’t take this, the mood swing from their adorable forest stroll and the way she noms up her corn family and the way he tries to blow away misfortune from the well of her palms and the way she looks up at him as she realizes how much he wants to take care of her and protect her forever – to this poor cinnamon roll and his eyes filling up with tears as he realizes the enormity of who A-Xiang is, the enormity of what he’s potentially done bringing her back to his sect and giving the Ghost Valley a way in, the way she’s hidden something so important from him. That she could have been stringing him along this whole time? That Wen Kexing, who he knows, who he knows as a good guy, is apparently the terrifying leader of the Ghost Valley? Nothing he knows is real, none of it makes sense, and it kills me, the wordless communication between him and A-Xiang, after she finally says it, finally lets him know who she is, and he just looks at her for confirmation, because he can’t believe it, and she gives that tiny little nod, placing all of this knowledge and her fate in his hands, the hands she’s held as he’s promised to stay with her and protect her always, to not fail her. OK. I take it back. A little bit, I’m tearing up. And then he doesn’t. He doesn’t fail her. His shixiong can’t figure out what Cao Weining and A-Xiang are apparently fighting about, because apparently Cao Weining hasn’t told anyone who she is!

Also, I have to yell excitedly about something here for a minute, because OMG THE MIRRORING they continue to maintain between Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishu and Gu Xiang/Cao Weining. (!!!) I really want to point this one out, because it’s subtle but I think incredibly important, and you lose it if all you’re able to follow is the English subtitles. I have to give props to another Tumblr user (whose post I cannot for the life of me find again, and if anyone does, please let me know, so I can update this post), because I wouldn’t have caught it, with my Level 2 Duolingo Mandarin, if they hadn’t done a post a while back about the nuances of the use of “外人” (I think that’s correct) between ZZS and WKX in Ep 25 (and possibly Ep 26). In Ep 25 at 45:53, there’s a conversation about training Chengling – ZZS says something about getting WKX to do some of the training, WKX responds with something about letting “someone else” teach your disciple, per the English subtitles, and ZZS responds with “And you’re ‘someone else’?” Youku is using “someone else” here as a translation of 外人 (“wairen?” is maybe the transliteration of it?) which actually seems to mean “stranger” or more specifically “outsider” – someone who’s from “outside.” I presume in this context, specifically from outside your sect/family (which gives the whole conversation more layers, because by using this label for himself, Wen Kexing gives us another example of how he’s still resisting the idea of himself as a shidi of Four Seasons Manor, at that point, and is still unable to accept the full scope of his relationship with ZZS, even though he wants it so badly, because he is so terrified of getting it and then losing it). In Ep 26, 外人 comes up again, at 5:00, when ZZS finds WKX giving training advice to Chengling. SO, props to this currently unknown Tumblr user, because even though I kind of quickly scrolled past the post without fully reading it - because I hadn’t reached those eps yet, and I didn’t want to see too many spoilers -  the post did alert me to the word “outsider” as a meaning of 外人. And without that, I probably wouldn’t have twigged to A-Xiang’s use of “outsider” at the very end of this episode, when this shining, clever, fierce girl, who’s been taught to survive above all else, tells Cao Weining’s shixiong that he can’t just send her away for her own protection, that she’s going to stay and fight and die with the rest of them because he can’t take back his words about her being family and now treat her like an outsider. This time, the English subtitles actually use the word “outsider,” and yes, I checked the Mandarin subtitles, and she uses 外人 to claim her place as part of Cao Weining’s sect/family, the same word WKX uses – and ZZS challenges – to try to maintain his distance from ZZS’s sect/family. Ugh. My heart.

So, yeah, that’s a whole lot about A-Xiang in this ep, and it’s about 1/5 of everything that happened, so let me see if I can keep the rest of this from overwhelming anyone’s dash:

Han Ying. >: (  Show, gdi. It’s not like I haven’t said from the minute my dude gazed adoringly at ZZS, 20-something episodes ago, that he was a goner, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. This death and the scenes focused on it give us a LOT, though: Yikes on WKX’s desperation to save him, and flashback to the Four Sages of Anji – WKX knows he’s going to be out there digging another grave with a sword, and he really does not want that. Flashback to Eps 22 and 23 when Cao Weining told A-Xiang that he wanted her to be more careful because she would actually feel bad if she killed someone innocent, and ZZS told WKX he didn’t want him to have any more sins on his hands. Not to mention, literal flashback to the death of WKX’s parents, the most traumatic event of his life. Also, I noticed the difference here between WKX’s reaction to Han Ying the last time they met, which was pure vinegar, and his acceptance of him this time along with his desperation to save him, not even really for Han Ying, himself, so much as for ZZS.

Duan Pengju, omg, this asshole. Meanwhile, Chengling is getting to indulge his newfound bloodthirstiness, with the approval of his shifu. That’s right, Chengling, you should burn down his little battalion. Fucking superb, you funky little goldbean. Of course, then, we’re going to re-visit the most traumatic event of your life because everyone gets a little bit of PTSD triggering in this ep. As a treat. I … love? … that is maybe not the precisely correct word … how ZZS reassures Chengling that no, Tian Chuang will keep him alive - ZZS knows, like the rest of us, that creepster Prince Jin wants a piece of him. I do actually love how Chengling’s response is to try to wake up Wen Kexing, because he knows no one is laying a finger on ZZS if WKX is around to say anything about it. I also love the way ZZS sends Pengju scrambling backward just by stalking toward him. The minute he steps outside the Manor gate, ZZS is clearly the person in control of this faceoff, and the only reason he’s headed back to Jin in leg irons and a cage is because he’s allowing it to happen. I have a whole … thing about Zhang Zhehan’s physicality as an actor that I’m working on putting into words. Maybe next time. Also, just an aside, I cannot thank Zhang Zhehan enough for having his hair long during filming so that they’re able to integrate his hair into his wig and keep his natural hairline. It looks so much better than the typical wig sideburn look, and this scene is one of the places where it particularly strikes me, for some reason.

Last but not least, AAAHHHHHH. OH MY GOD. Stranger Danger in WKX’s dreams/memories was AWFUL YIFU. Zhao Jing, you really are THAT AWFUL.

[thanksjro]

Dark Cybertron Chapter 3: This One’s All About Skywarp. Honest!

It’s a beautiful day during Cybertron’s apocalypse, and Starscream is talking to a corpse to work through his emotions. He goes through a very brief rundown of what happened last issue, I guess because Swerve’s too busy being in space to do the Story So Far, and caps it off with an apology to Metalhawk over killing him. Rattrap watches this go down in the background, because this is Skywarp’s toy tie-in issue.

After this very incriminating conversation, Starscream goes out to see to the massive crowd standing outside, including Scoops’ little Targetmaster buddies.

I don’t care for that man’s beard.

Starscream promises to go talk to the Titan, though he really doesn’t want to, and Rattrap catches up to him to touch base. The two of them go to see Megatron, who’s still trapped in the forcefield hamster ball Wheeljack stuffed inside his chest back in RID. Starscream teases Rattrap about trying to be conniving, comparing it to his own endeavors as the Decepticon SIC, and offers a bit of advice.

Implying that Starscream hasn’t been flying by the seat of his proverbial pants since he became a main character in Phase Two.

Starscream, having met his daily quota of rubbing his success in Megatron’s face, goes off to see what he can do about this Titan situation.

Over at the Titan itself, the Autobots and Decepticons are duking it out, with the man of the hour gracing us with his presence.

Outstanding, you funky little robot.

Arcee tries a little banter, but it falls flat, and instead she just decides to sword fight a cat. Bumblebee asks Soundwave just what the hell he thinks he’s doing, and Soundwave gives a complete non-answer in the form of Decepticon propaganda, because anything else would make things too easy. This is where Starscream shows up and has his little chat with the Titan.

Back over in prison, Rattrap’s getting the skinny on the dark prophecy Scoop introduced into the narrative last issue. Rattrap wants to know just how this information got passed around so well outside of jail, and Scoop suggests that there are people who perhaps have a vetted interest in what may or may not be happening with Starscream. Then Rattrap makes it weird by A) not being terribly concerned about the potential end of the world and B) being impressed by the idea that Starscream somehow planned said end of the world.

This Skywarp issue is really good.

Over with the Lost Light, Ultra Magnus has taken command, and the lads are about to make the quantum jump to chase after Jhiaxus. But wait! Something’s off! The ship’s moving in a way that it shouldn’t be! Very odd, that. Brainstorm calls with answers, asking Magnus to grab Getaway, for some friggin’ reason, and head down to the shuttle bay.

Getaway asks Magnus how it feels to be big man on campus, and Magnus seems to think it’s a bit overrated.

Wow, someone needs to go talk to Xaaron about maybe thinking through his debate topics before he posts them, so he doesn’t get pegged as a space racist. The Universal Killswitch happened, like, last week, my dude.

The two of them get to the shuttle bay to discover that Metroplex’s thumb- which they picked up back in Spotlight: Trailcutter- is floating, and more or less pushing the Lost Light off-course. Getaway is pretty jazzed to see this thing on the ship, sort of missing the bigger picture. Brainstorm hypothesizes that Metroplex is using his severed thumb to guide the Lost Light to him.

Not sure why Getaway needed to be here for this.

Back on Cybertron, Everyone watches as Starscream flies up to the Titan. Arcee is ready to blast him out of the sky with a gun as big as she is, but Bumblebee wants to see where this goes. This pisses Prowl the hell off, and he starts yelling, but Bumblebee tells him to shut up. Bumblebee tells a lot of people to shut up in “Dark Cybertron”.

So we’ve got a team-up going on between the Autobots and the Decepticons- Bumblebee says it isn’t, but it pretty much is. Soundwave and Prowl get into a bit of a scuff, as Starscream lands and asks the Titan to chat.

Yeah, that doesn’t really work out too well.

Starscream manages to escape the Titan death blast in his alt, as the poor bastards on the ground below begin to dissolve into black fizz.

But Skywarp’s okay, so it can’t be all bad!

Yeeeeah, Skywarp.

Prowl starts yelling at Bumblebee again, as if he can’t see that the friggin’ death wave the Titan shot out of its face is still heading for Iacon, Starscream just barely managing to stay ahead of it. He lands as it hits, screaming about how Cybertron is his and he’s not gonna let some murder energy to steal his thunder, bracing his arms out as if that’ll do anything. Everyone watching him do this has about the expression you’d expect from witnessing such madness.

As the Iaconian populace gets dusted, someone else wakes up from the dead. It’s Metalhawk, and it’s time for him to become a tool of the narrative.

Metalhawk launches into the air and lands on top of Starscream, interrupting his personal diatribe to gripe about how he killed him. Still, there are bigger fish to fry, as he kicks Starscream through a wall and walks into the room where they keep Megatron.

Metalhawk releases Megatron from his hamster ball prison and carries him away, despite Starscream maybe insinuating that Megatron is dead somehow? It’s not super clear. Anyway, Metalhawk must do some pretty intense arm exercises, because he carries Megatron out and shoots into the air, holding him one-handed to his side.

Eat your veggies, kids, and you too can kidnap an entire warlord.

As the city falls apart, Rattrap and Scoop enter the scene, the prison likely having collapsed in the aftershocks of the death wave. Good thing they’re giant robots who can’t be killed by mere crushing damage. Rattrap tries to connive, but Scoop is more concerned with the fact that many people are dying, because he’s a somewhat decent person. Some of these people have begun to turn on Starscream, who takes it about as well be you’d expect.

Back on the Lost Light, the lads have decided to go find Metroplex, and to hell with bringing Jhiaxus to justice. At least for now. Of course, Ratchet tries to argue that they should do what Orion wanted them to do, but Orion isn’t here right now, is he? And Orion isn’t the space pope at this present time, now is he? So yeah. Metroplex time. They quantum jump, ending up underwater, with said water swarming with robots. That might be an issue, especially since they don’t seem to be terribly friendly.

Back in the Crystal City with Shockwave, Metalhawk’s dropped off the package, and Shockwave reminds us that he installed a space bridge in Megatron’s torso. Scientists sure do like to shove random bullshit into Megatron’s torso.

Hey.

Let’s talk about the NAILs for a second.

This is Tappet. I’ve been calling him Hat Guy up until this point, but his name is Tappet.

Everything Tappet done in the last 20+ issues of RID can be explained without him being the subject of the sentence:

The Decepticons kicked Tappet’s ass. Prowl sent Tappet to prison. Metalhawk bailed Tappet out of prison. Metalhawk brought Sky-Byte to the trashcan fire to talk to Tappet and some other neutrals. Starscream takes off his top as Tappet watches.

The point I’m trying to make here is that Tappet doesn’t actually do anything. None of the NAILs actually do anything, other than die and fill out crowd shots. Sometimes they bitch about the current situation, but even then, a lot of the time, those more vocal NAILs were actually involved in the war at some point.

This is an issue, because we’ve been presented with this entirely new group that’s in direct opposition of the war caused by every character we’d met prior to The Death of Optimus Prime.

And they have zero agency within the story. Shit just happens around them and they react. In fact, one of the major point points of RID is whether or not the Autobots should let the NAILs have agency within the very government that rules them, and it is such a point of contention that it takes literal in-story months and several disasters for them to reach a consensus. A decision that barely involves input from Metalhawk, the guy who is a NAIL, and is meant to be their advocate. Metalhawk, who is supposed to be on the same level as Bumblebee in terms of sway in the narrative.

At first, he did- he was the subtly conniving bastard who would trip Bumblebee up in front of others to make him look bad, and then deny anything of the sort happened if questioned. It was an interesting dynamic with a character that was new to the continuity. Metalhawk was interesting.

Then Starscream got involved, and Metalhawk’s role was reduced to yes-man and character motivation to both of them, because conniving is Starscream’s thing, and obviously we can’t have two bastards gang up on poor, sweet lil’ Bumblebee.

Who had a remote control that could blow up people’s heads if they pissed him off.

You remember when Bumblebee was the kid appeal character? Because I do.

The point is, the NAILs exist, but their existence isn’t justified within the story. They’re set-dressing, not characters. And now Metalhawk in particular is a prop for Shockwave, and somehow I doubt the other guys are going to be doing a hell of a lot in this story.

I dunno, it just seems like a bit of a waste.

Anyway, Skywarp sure was present in his toy tie-in issue, huh? Remember when he did that thing? And the stuff? Ah man, that was so cool!

Yeah, someone probably crossed their I’s and dotted their T’s on this one, because I’m pretty friggin’ sure this wasn’t meant to be his, even if the exclusive cover says otherwise.

[patchdotexe]

explorers of arvus: heading back / 3.11.21

zoom and enhonse

LAST TIME ON ARVUS taure passed out and we are now down a healer! also we met a disciple of halvkar, and surprisingly did not murder her. this is fine. we have instantly gotten distracted by our various carts. cats. our various cats

DID ANY OF US CATCH TAURE, SHE FELL OVER sieron tried to catch her and smacked charlie+thorne in the face (he rolled a nat1, f) BUT the catboy is to the rescue bc silje is the designated Not Incompetent of the group today

CONSULT THE CHILD hewwo yrel yrel: her mind is being consumed by the serpent of nightmares. :D charlie: HELLO?????//

so, dendar(?) the night serpent is imprisoned beneath arvus! she was formed from the nightmares of the first sentient being, and sometimes she eats people's nightmares. if she's exceptionally hungry, she'll force nightmares onto people for her to feed off their fear. yrel thinks taure will Probably wake up. there's a thing on arvus mentioned by the locals called a "sleeping sickness" where people will fall asleep for a few days, sometimes longer, but will wake up. its magical in cause, the people afflicted by it have horrific nightmares, and its just kinda. a thing. wowza

(i have gone back to spelling yrel's name as yrel bc i think it looks nice)

OH HEY SOMEONE POSTED A THEORY ON ONE OF MY STICKMOLUS ANIMATIONS man i should get back to stickmolus sometime. once dsmp releases its awful grip on me.

i keep getting distracted by seeing myself in the camera preview. i have a tooth gap! what the fuck its cute?? K I KNOW WE'RE SUPER BLURRY IN FRONT RN BUT PLEASE HELP ME STAY FOCUSED I SWEAR -leo

we're gonna build a sled! to put taure on. thorne: i have a good strength score. ....i say, out loud charlie: i am four feet tall. [cue argument between thorne & sieron about them both being horcs but sieron has a +0 bc strength is his dump stat] OH, OKAY, THORNE ROLLED A NAT20 TO CARRY TAURE. NICE

[discussion about what to tell everyone at camp vengenace] thorne: the last thing we need to do is a witch hunt charlie: --and we already hunted the witch! the witch has been hunted.

time to discuss strategy! we need to figure out how to head back to camp vengeance, eg if we want to follow the path we already took or if we wanna do some trailblazing. looks like we're gonna try and take the most direct path! which means we'll prolly risk tangoing with some undead but im willing to risk it TINY HUT STAIRCASE sorry i just remember it now and then

nyx: [meowing at his cats] thorne: uh... why is silje meowing? jorb: silje's food bowl is empty jorb: you look at silje's food bowl and there's a divot in the middle and the food is all on the sides emotionally, we must bully the catboy silje saw something interesting and started meowing

thorne: ill take first watch silje: ill also take first watch. charlie: [quietly] gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy (but, like, extended for 15 seconds)

silje: [takes watch] [rolls a nat1 and gets distracted by looking at his crush]

THORNE HAS LOCATED A DOG the dog does not give a shit about the tiny hut. THE DOG HAS PEED ON THE TINY HUT goodbye dog

EVERYONE IS ROLLING AT LEAST 1 NAT1 thorne: wow! that sure is a dog. thorne has drawn the worst possible dog. thorne has erased the worst possible dog. we dont speak of the worst possible dog its the dog version of honse. DONSE

sieron is now on watch! MAN we are havin trouble rolling today. at least kali's here to make sure sieron doesnt stare at a rock for 50000 years sieron sees a mouse! bottom text

charlie is now on watch! kali is havin a big ol thonk. nothing meaningful has come of this

i am perceiving some deer. sieron is not perceiving some deer. silje is perceiving some deer, but better the deer are fucked up and undead! silje has gone from "we should hunt these deer for food" to "we should hunt these deer for sport"

charlie: i do not feel like being jumped by five thousand skeletons

charlie takes first watch with sieron! WHY ARE OUR ROLLS SO TERRIBLE taure is super cursed right now. that's not very pog charlie: this place sucks. thorne: to be fair, we havent-- charlie: YOU'RE ASLEEP, SHUT UP

oh hey coolname galvanic finally partied. nice.

thorne is at watch! solar: hey, is leomund's tiny hut an orb? there's a critter digging around! AH, THE CRITTER IS UNDEAD. this could be a problem

solar: hey michael, how much does the horrific sin against god dog i drew look like this creature michael: [dice roll noises] about 50%.

michael: if anyone likes, they can make a nature check-- solar: ME MEMEMEMEME ME ME ME

its a bulette! aka a land shark. problem: they are not normally undead. this one is undead.

jorb: imagine if you could tame one of those and use it as a mount. leo: IT WOULD JUST DIG UNDERGROUND AND LEAVE YOU THERE

we are just calling it a weird dog

we're going to mail a letter to the heart of arvus. HEY, CHECK OUT THIS WEIRD DOG,

JORB FOUND ART OF A BABY BULETTE. WEIRD PUPPY!

solar: hey guys, check out this sick art of a bulette i found

silje kept a lookout for the weird dog but its just fucked off. goodbye, weird dog give it up for day 3!

man there's been like, three incinerations today in blaseball. what's up with that. I SWEAR IM MOSTLY PAYING ATTENTION its just been an eventful day in blaseball. also im wearing my garages bomber rn. jaylen is home wooOOOO the wind smells stinky. this is fine.

we're actively avoiding whatever combat michael keeps nudging at us bc we're carrying around an unconscious person and i SWEAR hes gonna throw something directly at us once he's done with our shenanigans

UHH MICHAEL ASKING FOR PASSIVE PERCEPTION LOL

huh. this place used to be inhabited? we're in the woods rn but there's some like, stone ruins? like, VERY ruins. like, not really any structures standing, but enough evidence to show there Were things. WE FOUND A STATUE charlie: i want to smash my face against the lore.

used to be a circle of standing stones, but most of em fell over or got overgrown. inside of the circle has been cleared, although v roughly-- ground's torn up statue is of fjolnir! warrior holding up a spear and shield. AH, THERE ARE CORPSES, a human got REAL fucked up here. one of the corpses is straight up impaled on fjolnir's spear. n ... not pog.

i am trying so, so hard to pay attention. but i also kinda wanna take a nap.

charlie: [stares at statue] [rolls a 4] i wonder if he had a dick.

okay so something rolled in, tore up the overgrowth inside the circle, and murdered a couple dudes. and was also super tall and human-adjacent. hrm.

oh my god why are we rolling so shit today. time to stealth away and hope we dont get casually dismembered

k: jorb's hair is so long... leo: K, PLEASE,

time for a break! i am very tired but im gonan see if i can push through a little further. nyx is petting his cat why do orangatangs look like that

first watch is thorne and sieron! have they even, like, talked thorne unhabby ): thorne's worried we were tresspassing when checking out the statue, meanwhile im thinking about that one time when sieron got bit by a groundhog

(oh my god this is from late 2018)

leomund's tiny hut, aka the anti-sea bear circle we are getting SO much mileage out of the tiny hut. SILJE HUMS A SONG WITH KALI cute........... FINALLY I HAVE ROLLED ABOVE A 14 wait no i rolled a 16 twice. anyway we are not dead

nearly at camp vengenace! boy howdy i hope camp vengeance didnt get burned down. AH FUCK TAURE IS UNCONSCIOUS SO WE CANT CAST FOR DETECT POISON kaepora nearly made us all shit ourselves but its okay he just saw some bison and thought it was cool Michael Is Consulting Several Tables

WHY DOES JORB'S CAMERA ZOOM LIKE THAT why am i hungry. i have so many questions

HEY, TALL GUY [smacks sieron]

camp vengeance looks better! like, nobody's Obviously Sick anymore, the medical tents arent overfilled, we did it! we saved the dayyyyyy time to report to ryder! taure's getting dropped off at the medical tent

man remember when charlie didnt wear pants

oh man, with taure unconscious charlie is now taking point with social interaction. wild. jk im making jorb do it bc im tired HAHA NAT 20 PERSUASION BC OF ME HELPIN SIERON man ryder is such a cock. he was totally ready to keep throwing troops at heaven's brazier to die until we managed to persuade him out of it. jorb: did we tell ryder about the vision? michael: you kinda just took a look at him and went STINKY BOY!

okay yeah anything that dies on arvus will just pop back up as undead. man, arvus sucks.

ryder: alright, dismissed. charlie: seeya, soldier boy! :D hahahahaha im gonna eat his knees.

SILJE NEEDS ENRICHMENT IN HIS ENCLOSURE

charlie: ive decided he sucks. silje: we've already arrived to that, you're late!

LMAO WE WALKED IN ON INGRID AND HER CRUSH they fuckin. nice. you go, you funky lesbian

jorb: we've got the tiny hut, we could go anywhere leo: we could go to SPACE! nyx: we could not go to space. leo: WITH A TINY HUT STAIRCASE, WE CAN,

we are 320 miles away from the spaceship that exists on arvus. nice.

michael: justin sees you-- roll a strength saving throw. leo: i cant wait to die! [rolls a 3] I AM CRUSHED BY MY DOG michael: he rolled a nat20.

BOSS ENCOUNTER: CHARLIE'S DOG (the small circle next to him is one of the medical tents.)

THORNE IS PACT OF THE GUN solar: PARRY THIS, YOU FUCKING CASUAL

sieron, to ingrid: seems like youve been doing well charlie: i punch sieron. sieron: sieron: the camp, of course.

man we have no idea if the heart of arvus is actually related to the prophecy or not. theres a Lot of stuff lining up, but not enough, and its hard to say how much of it couldve been literal?

solar & michael: [discussing exposition] me: [cracking up bc penn sent me a funny dsmp joke]

prophecies are weird.

charlie is just s she is just sitting here SILJE PLAYED CARDS REALLY GOOD AT ME nyx rolled a nat20 and took all my money

oh cool we can talk to yrel telepathically! time to hoist yrel. THIS IS SO SCUFFED thorne mentioned yrel and now we're trying to explain to ingrid that we have a magic talking snake charlie: I WANT TO GO HOME. thorne: we cant go, we have a GOD-KING to kill! "i think theyre insane, theyre talking to a snake" "ingrid, druids exist" "oh. im gonna go back to getting railed by my 7 foot tall girlfriend"

[terminally-karkalicious]

allow me to rant about the only thing that has been in my brain for the past two months and that is doll customizing babeyyyyy

i know there’s a 90% chance that you wont give a Shit about any of this but here we go anyways

SO first you gotta choose a doll. preferably one with a high range of motion to avoid creating new joints or having annoying limitations like not having elbow joints for some fucking reason. what the fuck mattel. give monster high dolls back their ball jointed shoulders and elbow joints. smh

the most common dolls ive seen used as bases are monster high and ever after high. most customs ive seen are highly stylized so the stylized face molds work well for those types of dolls but dolls like barbies are good for when you want a more realistic face-ups.

once you’ve got your base picked out you gotta wipe that bitch’s face off with like. acetone or nail polish remover or something strong like that. you can also use acetone to shrink doll heads which is cool as hell imo. n e way once the face is wiped you gotta chop off the hair and remove the hair plugs from the inside. ive seen this done several ways but the easiest and most common way ive seen is to dunk the head into boiling water for ~30 seconds until it gets squishy and malleable. once you’ve got the head back, you can use pliers (i think tweezers would work in a pinch) to pull out the hair plugs which are kinda icky because theyre covered in glue and other gross shit. ew

now you must decapitate the doll. dunk em back in the boiling water to soften them back up then just tug the head off. the neck pegs look funky and are usually a different color than the body so thats cool ig

once the head’s off, you can start the face-up which is basically just giving the doll a new face using stuff like watercolor pencils, acrylic paint, gouache, and a whole lot of other stuff. hell ive seen people use person makeup on these dolls.

next,,,,, hair. there’s about twenty million ways to do hair from gluing yarn wefts to sewing to rerooting with purchased nylon doll hair or yarn wefts but i’m gonna talk about the most common one ive seen which is rerooting and gluing.

before you can reroot, you need doll hair. which, as i mentioned, can be bought at stores like the doll planet or made at home with yarn in literally any color. have fun with it! make rainbow hair or something idk

to make homemade wefts, you take some acrylic yarn, cut it twice as long as you want the hair to be (keep in mind you can cut and style the hair once it’s been rerooted), fold them in half, and tie it to something sturdy like a wire coat hanger for the next step.

once you’ve got your yarn tied to your hanger, use a pet brush and brush the yarn until it’s wispy and looks like hair. then take a straightening iron and iron the weft flat. then remove from the hanger and boom. hair wefts. ta-da

to reroot the wefts onto the head, use a rerooting tool (which can be as simple as a needle with the eye cut at angle) (just google it please i’m shit at descriptions)) to poke small sections of the hair into the head. you can use the pre-existing rooting holes for your own reroot as they’re usually pretty reliable. to reroot, take a small length of you doll hair (about 10-15 strands), loop it in half, and put the middle of the loop into the reroot tool. poke the end of the tool with the hair on it into the pre-existing hole and remove the tool. the hair *should* stay in and fill up that plug!! also remember to plug thickly at the hairline and part of the hair where it's most noticeable. it doesnt matter as much in the center of the head as that’s not usually visible on the doll. once you’ve rerooted, squeeze in strong glue through the neck hole and squish around the head to make sure it covers all the plugs and secures them in place. then pour hot water onto the head to make the hair lay flat for styling later.

also, you can reroot yarn directly into the head to make thicker, more textured hairstyles. and since the yarn is thicker, you dont need to glue the inside of the head for the hair to stay in place!!

if youre not doing body modifications (which are also cool as hell) then it’s time for clothes but clothes are boring and i like body mods more so i’m gonna rant about them instead

the material ive seen most doll artists use is apoxie sculpt, which is like play doh on steroids. it comes in two parts which you gotta mix together for some reason. why dont they sell it pre-mixed. what was the reason. also once it’s dry it’s super super strong and you can sand it, drill into it, paint it, and all kinds of stuff. very nice and i want some for myself.

you can use hand saws and drills and shit to whack off doll limbs to make stuff like digitigrade legs or new joints. also dont be afraid to use other mismatching doll parts when customizing like heads and bodies and forearms and hands and shit. it literally does not matter if youre gonna recolor the doll anyways so have fun with it. make frankenstein’s doll if youre feeling spicy

accessories my beloved. stuff like tiny beads and clay baubles and shit will literally transform the entire doll plus they’re adorable and multi-purpose

i suppose i must talk about clothes now. ah well. you can find great clothing patterns if youre new to customizing on other customizer’s etsy shops and probably google although those will probably be lower quality than paid pattern pieces. and keep in mind that if it exists as clothing irl, you can likely make it doll-sized. there are literally no limits to your clothing options as long as you can execute your idea.

the once all your components have been made, you can assemble the doll again!! and finally see what all the parts look like together!! very cool 10/10 stars.

ight that wraps up my doll rant. i could really go into more detail on certain parts but thats a whole other rant for a whole other day smh. sorry for fucking flooding your inbox ender ahaha……………. you asked for this

little did you know that dolls have been one of my favorite things since like ever. if i can read a 25 chapter long fanfic i can read this B)

mattel definitely fucked up by completely ruining MH doll designs and just stopping EAH, alot of their profits most likely came from people who collect and customize dolls and by changing MH doll designs/Stopping EAH dolls they 1. most likely lost a small (or big if we're not jus talking people who customize dolls) part of their profit and 2. made it harder for doll customizers to make dolls/get commissions out rather quickly because they probably have to waste more time making joints or learning how to make joints.

EAH/MH dolls (specifically MH dolls) had AMAZING MODELS because there was so much variety with height, face shapes, etc (my favorite molds had to be the short/tall dolls and the cat molds because of the tails) and doll customizers really went all out with enhancing a molds unique features. The only "downside" abt MH dolls is that they (or atleast most)(from what i remember)) had slimmer faces but wider eyes while EAH dolls have wider faces with slimmer smaller which left a canvas for the face and not the eyes (and vice versa for MH dolls)

I've never seen any videos where a barbie is customized (maybe because i absolutely despised barbies at the time) so I'll definitely have to check those out but they seem to be good for realistic makeovers. I've seen like like semi realistic makeovers for EAH/MH dolls that were pretty good too tho (pretty sure mostly EAH dolls since yk MH dolls were used for creature makeovers while most EAH dolls weren't)

yeah i was always amazed by the head shrinking with acetone. honestly i still am?? idunno i have no idea how that chemical bullshit works. Ive seen a few of uh makeovers that just pain over the face (in multiple layers ofcourse) but that's usually when they're painting the entire body a different colour (again usually when they're turning a doll into a funky little baby man). I've also seen a few that just chop the hair off and take out the hair plugs yk without uuh like softening the head or just go straight for the hair plugs after taking off the head (i used to do that it was funny to me??). i always really liked when they used watercolour pencils or just colour pencils in general to draw/sketch on the face cause like wow ur drawing on ur doll without ruining it?? kinda epic maybe even poggers and pogchamp?? oh god my brain is failing wjshsmsj.

Watching them putting the hair back on the doll was, other than the face stuff, was the BEST part for me. Favorite type of hair was iuuuuuh was either thick yarn or brushed out yarn. Literally worship the people that would reroot the hair, theyre the most patience people on this earth!! it's literally insane but i guess that's what happens when you've been doing that for years? you guess kinda get used to it. when they put glue into the head does it just become stiff?? like it's just a clump of dried glue or does it like..hollow out again??

dude you literally cannot convince me most of the supplies used for doll makeovers. APOXIE CLAY LOOKS SO FECKING GOOD. its edible and i will die on that hill. The body mods are literally so amazing!!!!! it's so impressive how theyre able to imagine certain features THEN LIKE ACTUALLY MAKE IT LOOK ACCURATE TO WHAT THEY WANTED TO LOOK LIKE AFTER LIKE ON TRY (or many yk trial and error is very necessary for..everything). Absolutely loved when doll customizers would saw off a dolls legs and use different ones or just completely get rid of the torso to use a different one. it's like uuh that one big guy that's mismatched and sewn together. very cool. The accessories are so fun!! just small little details you seen really need but can add because it's your feckin doll!! I used to be absolutely obsessed over the doll clothes i would find on etsy, so much so that i started sewing shitty shirts and dresses for my uh "customized" dolls (they were absolute HORRORS idk WHY my mom let me feck up my dolls like that).

Thank you for this!! i haven't been able to talk about any of my interests for a while and this just really made me happy!!

Question fer u my fellow MH/EAH enthusiast: what was your favorite MH/EAH movie/episode and doll series. Mine was The fusion dolls (MH obvi) and that MH movie "Haunted" cause we got to know more about Spectra :D

[semi-imaginary-place]

rewatching decadence

ep1: so... indoctrinating kids that they life their life in service to an upper class. also like, the way deca dence takes care of giant gadoll is to punch it like no giant sword or laser canon or anything just the power of a giant mountain sized fist. this show actually has some good foreshadowing from seeing Natsume from the perspective of Kaburagi’s hud, to Natsume’s dad (Muno) finding the Solid Quake logo at the beginning of the episode and the logo again being shown in the last shot at the announcement signs off with have a profitable day which is a weird public safety announcement but makes sense as a company slogan. I’m still not sure what the “TIME 1:00  POINT SE,07,G” means. I didn’t write it down last time because I was unsure of myself, but my first thought when the cyborgs showed up was VR chatroom for the upper class.

ep2: yeahs that’s totally an advertisement that plays right after natsume realizes the human costs of war as the tankers pay respects to the fallen. I realized what it was with the cartoony designs, the bright colors and patterns, the funky shapes of all the structures aboard the space ship, it looks like a tv show for toddlers. inoffensive and deliberately cheerful to distract from the horrors of a corporation owning your person. the eng subtitles are confusing here it should be “real death(simulation) awaits” in that the company is advertising being able to experience death but not have any of its permanent consequences as a feature of the game. The cyborgs are corporate wage slaves being compensated for their labor in company credits and the only other things we seen them do outside of work is play the company’s mmo, or recreational drugs. “I should be proud of my function and to be scrapped” as property of the company. aaaa that’s terrible. aaa. what are cyborg cores??? and why are they valuable. Solid Quake has no control over the core, only the cyborg’s housing. Is it that they cannot produce more? Considering the others on the team got executed for sentenced to an eternal forced labor camp with appalling conditions, Minato really did pull some strings for Kaburagi. ooh so “time until scrapping” and “operational limit near are two different warnings. the first is a general reminder of lifespan and the second is because oxyone levels are low. now its “TIME 20:00  POINT SE,05,I”. all those new gadoll events probably wreck havoc on the tanker economy. its 400c now and i think it was 500 for 2 earlier. First time through I wasn’t paying attention and totally thought kaburagi was an assassin, but no he’s just clean up crew. ahh yes, come spend you wages at the company run stores. micro transactions... wait so where were people getting the number 13 from?

ep3: ah yes Solid Quake charges to use the media center, truly a micro transaction hell. Natsume’s character arc is about whether to push herself or not. Here Fei acts as part of a continuing dialectic saying that Tankers have no place outside of Deca-Dence, that sooner of later Natsume will die from it, and once again highlighting Natsume’s right arm. In the other level of this though, tankers shouldn’t go outside because that’s not their role in the solid quake mmo, and those who would disrupt the mmo are killed. I like how you can see Kaburagi switch from videogame logic (oh she’s low level so let’s just stick her in the tutorial zone) to real life (what skills and experiences would help in fighting). So several corporations took advantage of desperate people to sell them a service that would augment them with mechanical parts. I get that pipe in a little outfit is funny, but does no one really realize its a gadoll, i meant natsume recognizes it instantly. like the scene where Natsume talks about her right arm, the anime does a good job of showing how her feeling about it are complicated. She’s lived with that arm for years, but it also hinders her sometimes, and people will comment about it. there’s this specific type of humor that pops up in this show and given how its the same joke, my guess is that its the same person behind it. The “joke” being that Natsume is put in a position that references sexual assault. The first is with fennel where she makes up an excuse of having to go see kaburagi to get away from him. And then there’s this episode. There’s also a few stray lines here and there that alarm me in that they imply Natsume has dealt with the threat of assault before. Since they didn’t do anything meaningful with this, I’d rather it just not be there. Minato is in on the secret of Pipe’s existence and by the way the two talk, they’ve called each other before in the last 7 years. Its good to know that Kaburagi wasn’t JUST brooding for 7 years and that the two of them stayed in contact.

ep4: Natsume after having gained confidence in herself takes down several gadoll and earns her place in The Power. Its a fulfilling payoff after seeing her train for several episodes. Natsume is where she always wanted to be, fighting gadoll in the Power. gahh It really is a patch release trailer. Ohh so I assumed that the other structures on the cartoon earth were other corporations, but in this episode we see one of them (the white and red striped cone thing opposite the deca-dence dome) and the cyborgs there are talking about the game (MMO LARPing lol), so either Solid Quake owns multiple of those structures, or these cyborgs are customers not owned by Solid Quake and playing of their own volition. that would makes the cone cyborgs where solid quake is deriving its profit from since its not like it pays its workers. reading comments online, a lot of people missed that because a ranker was found to be cheating (mikey), the rankings were abolished. In the present time, gears/players are not ranked. Ah so Kaburagi was transferred to the maintenance department from the warrior department. Wow reassignment is so much better than the poop jail. I remember it being said, armor repair, doctor, and weapon shop could be employee(cyborg) run so I wonder if the medics and that one armor shop guy are tankers or not. So this anime already snuck in a sex joke with the when the poop gang swapped kaburagi’s avatar with a sex toy, so i wonder if the safetyprivatemode was made so that the mods wouldn’t have to listen to robot sex. I really wish this show could have had 24 episodes. The trend for the past 20 years has been shorter and shorter shows so I know it would have been likely impossible to get the clearance and funding for 24 eps but oooh in som alternate universe maybe... i brought up fleshing out minor characters and character relationships before but there also stuff like Natsume’s right hand almost clamping on ... Mindy? Which usually would be a narrative flag but is completely dropped because of the episode limit. And the confidence Natsume gained last episode come to work against Kaburagi trying to keep her from the suicide mission. Its only from this point on that Kaburagi starts to really change, as of this point he is still a loyal cog to a machine that does not care about him. Kaburagi and Natsume in the 2nd half of the episode continue the same dialectic that runs through the whole of the show, about giving up and learning to try again, about pushing your limit, about why someone bothers trying. On the collectivist versus individualist spectrum, Deca-Dence is on the individualist side with assertions of the importance for deciding for yourself what you will do with your life. Its an interesting counterpoint to The Twilight Mirage (Friends at the Table) which I am currently listening to in that The Twilight Mirage is a western production and strongly collectivist with one of the antagonist being sort of kind of an embodiment of independence/individualism while japanese works as a whole tend to be more about the whole over the individual than western ones. Kurenai talking about why she fights is very good and very important for 2 reasons, first it help flesh out not only her but offer a very needed other opinion on what its like to live as a Tanker, second it segues nicely into Natsume’s memories of her dad telling her about the outside world and him being the only one to believe she can do it (fight in The Power) as contrasted with flashbacks of all the other characters telling her she can’t. This culminates in Natsume gathering her resolve to fight not because of something grand like changing the world or the fate of humanity, but something very personal scale: changing herself and proving to herself that she can do it. The is also the climax of her character arc, the point of no return.

ep5: If last episode was natsume’s point of no return, then either this episode or episode 7 is Kaburagi’s. Rationally speaking, the optimal scenario would have been for Kaburagi to stall long enough for the Tankers to escape before pulling back himself, but emotionally and narratively, there’s no way he couldn’t. After all the build up of deciding for yourself how to live and pushing your limits. Its appropriate that here in defense of the girl that inspired him to live and choose for himself rather than just continue existing in the default of what Solid Quake demands of him, that Kaburagi chooses to release his operational limiter (literally pushing him limit) and derail the company’s plans. How did no one realize purple dude was breaking imprisonment to play on a hacked avatar. Like he’s still as purple and bloodthirsty as ever. He acts and speaks the same. Someone would have totally seen him and gone “eyyyyy [i forgot this guy’s name] is back” and talked to people about it and someone should have heard. So I remember reading comments from various idiots who were mad because they mistakenly thought the anime took place in a virtual space and that Natsume was made of lines of code. And first off even if that was true there’s a difference between objective reality and the lived experiences of a person and what’s to say her experiences and emotions would be any less real than yours. And second, did everyone forget The Hunger Games? Like its just another game that plays with real lives and doesn’t care who gets killed. Solid Quake is just using humans as a stage prop. Man this episode is jam packed. Its like getting punched in the face 4 times. The pacing of the last 4 minutes was really good. The quiet scene as dawn breaks acts in direct contrast to the high energy of the Stargate takedown that preceded it. After time and against not listening to him, Minato still calls Kabu to check in with him. There’s also his certainly that it was Kaburagi that saved the Deca-Dence mech (i need to be clearer when I’m talking about the physical fortress city mech, the mmorpg game, or the deca-dence system itself). And then when the world state gets reset is just so good because it make it clear that the gadoll were never the true enemy. The tankers could kill as many gadoll as they want and nothing would change. Kaburagi’s at an interesting point here, in that he’s no longer in a state of having given up like he was in episode 1 just waiting to die and following along with Solid Quake’s orders, as of this episode he has deliberately gone against the company’s rules, and yet he’s still believes that nothing will actually change. He’s broken a rule and resigned himself to punishment instead of say for example getting rid of the punishment all together. He’s still a good little employee that hasn’t rebelled against the system. And then the “Take care of Pipe” and Natsume turns around and he’s already gone, is sooo good. The final shot too of his avatar face down in the snow! The “This world needs bugs” is in direct contrast to Hugin/Fugin(?) repeating that this world must be rid of bugs, and the same phrase Kaburagi repeated 7 years ago when he was transferred to the Maintenance Department instead of being killed. I wonder how much the cyborgs feel in their original bodies  vs. how much they feel in their Gear avatars. Kaburagi doesn’t seem to care about food and no food stalls were shown in the Gear area so maybe they doesn’t have much sense of taste? The avatars also have a lessened sense of pain. And then the limit release sequence shows connections increasing between the two bodies so does it make the cyborgs more attuned with the avatar’s senses?

ep6: eh so this is another example of what I mean when I say some of the humor in this show is in bad taste. They probably put the oxyone port where the ass would be just to make this joke. But this is better then doing to it Natsume. The animators even had a gleam censor for the over where the capsule was inserted as if it wasn’t obvious enough what it was suppose to look like. Spurned on by the the promise that one day if they work hard and behave (”rehabilitated”), the cyborgs will get let out when in actuality its a forced labor camp so that Solid Quake can squeeze just a little more labor our of the cyborgs for even less compensation. The cartoony style here helps offset just how horrific there working conditions are. And Kaburagi still the good little employee (iiko) tries his hardest to play by the rules and win. Except in this game, there is no “win’ written into the rules. So finally he is forced to move outside of the system Solid Quake has made. I still can’t believe they let Donatello keep the gun... Maybe cyborg cores are brains. In 5.5 Kaburagi’s core is in the top half of his metal case, and Donatello’s is also in his head. I’m still not sure what that sequence where Kaburagi takes the head fin and an image of a cyborg core is overlayed, means.

[fart-gate]

SG1

Season 2 episode 2

"IN THE LINE OF DUTY"

Notes by me

- action scene!!!! Everybody get thru the gate before u die!!

- Sam stop trying to save people who are dead

- oh my god what the fuck was that a goauld going in her MOUTH WHAT THE FUCK

- GOAULD!!!!!

- this is like super intense I'm on the edge of my seat

- not!Sam

- wow this worm is super bitchy I guess

- she punches him in the arm and Jack just knows something wrong lol

- we get to see cassandra! Sg1's adopted child

- ok bandaged guy is glowing. I repeat. Bandaged guy is glowing

- cassie so cute with her drawings!

- how does she know????

- she said she'll only talk to Jack 💗💗

- not!Sam wants to get out of there ASAP

- daniels glasses resting on top of his head ��🤗

- Amanda tapping is such an amazing actor omg. And its kinda hot too

- punched!

- sedative finally took effect after like 4 whole minutes

- how does naquadah let cassie sense worms

- hammond assigning tealc to look for bombs around base bc hes the most qualified 💪

- theyre not telling the government that shes possessed so they dont lose her 😭

- BANDAGED DUDE IS AWAKE

- does tealc know that Jack likes Sam. Can he sense the otp vibes as well

- alright okay. Yeah shes kinda hot like this

- I love the fact that Daniel is the one to talk to victims/people and relate to them and stuff. ,,Like Karamo on queer eye

- bonding over losing significant others to the goauld 💔

- mr bandaged man is looking Funky Fresh!! What kind of cleansing cream does he use

- he replaced himself with the guard oh no

- Sam and Jack staring contest

- oh damn shes using sams voice to trick him hhmmm dont like that

- thats a lovely hand held x ray device! Would be nice if those were real

- tealc knows the goauld?

- Dr fraiser figuring it out like a boss!!!

- theres nice goaulds?....i dont trust it

- if theres an assassin after her, maybe shes telling the truth

- Tokra means Resistance.......im hoping its tru

- "we dont even know what he looks like" you do ya big dummy!

- "I'm sorry, sam" brb weeping

- 🚨SHE KNOWS WHERE SHA'RE IS🚨

- so far Jack is the only one that doesnt believe her

- code red!! Worm in the base!!!

- damn alright. Her telling the assassin that the tokra will prevail just proves that shes telling the truth

- sams not dying I will manifest

- is that Jack wiping away a tear i see??

- LMFAO IM SORRY THAT WAS SO FUNNY. Daniel sees this soldier who looks exactly like the doctor he saw in the hospital and, instead of alerting everyone theres an intruder like he should, he says "hey I know you".,,, no thoughts head empty

- like asdhsjsns I'm not mad that youre now being held hostage Daniel this is your own fault

- ok ok dont shoot my boy

- Jack not leaving sam 😭😭😍😍😍

- LMFAO tealc shooting Daniel point blank with no emotion

- "are you injured?"

"DUMB question"

- it saved her???? 😭😭 I'm tearing up here folks it was a nice worm after all

- daniel brought her flowers!

- depressed!Sam 😟

- he just sits with her 💗

- if anything can cheer her up, its her adopted alien child

- wow I guess she really bonded with jolinar? Like for real? Damn now I'm sad

~

Whump under the cut

Sam carter whump: bloody mouth, host for goauld, dying, pale, dark circles, emotional

Jack Oniell whump: punched by Sam

Daniel jackson whump: gunpoint, hostage, stunned, heavy breathing, noises!

🎶 listening to Marjorie by Taylor Swift🎶 in honor of Sam being sad that she no longer has a little friend in her head :(

[realbugmom]

Dialogue prompts, from chaotic to cursed

Alternatively called Shit My Classmates Say or “maybe it’s time to find some new friends”

1. “Why’s wheely over there throwing gang signs at me?” “That’s sign language.”

2. “Hey could you maybe not vandalize the decorations? Thanks.”

3. “You have been banned from my server, blocked and reported.”

4. “At least my mom thinks I’m cool.”

5. “Who are all the fucking gummy vitamins again?!”

6. “Those are bold words for somebody in stabbing range.”

7. “I’d kill you for a Klondike bar.”

8. “Unblock me you coward.”

9. “Who wants to start a gang?”

10. “Mom he/she’s doing that thing again!”

11. “Honey, I love you, but that is not a stray dog/cat.”

12. “I think I’d rather hit my ankle repeatedly with a razor scooter.”

13. “For the last time, Shrek is not a real religion!”

14. “Can’t man, my mom says no.”

15. “Can you babysit my 23 year old for me?”

16. “Tell me again how you got kicked out of your own baptism?”

17. “I’ve got the eggs and vinegar. Let’s party.”

18. “You know I can’t say no to free glow sticks.”

19. “You can’t just lick things to claim them as your own!”

20. “Sir/ma’am, I’m going to ask you one more time to please leave the ball pit.”

21. “See those 4 cars? A drunkard would see 8!” “But there’s only 2.”

22. “That sounds a bit morally ambiguous, and very dangerous. I’m in.”

23. “Would you be interested in buying a gently used inflatable doll?”

24. “Why’d you do that?” “I wanted to see what would happen.”

25. “I thought you said this was a church group?!”

26. “What’d you get?” “69.” “Nice.”

27. “I’ve taken a liking to biting the hands of my relatives whenever they pinch my cheeks to assert my dominance.”

28. “I’m going to punch you in the liver so hard you’ll shit yourself.”

29. “If I’m ever a brain dead vegetable, please unplug me.”

30. “Now I’m not saying I tricked them into making mustard gas, but...”

31. “Get in loser, we’re gonna go commit identity theft.”

32. “Please don’t hurt me I work at Walgreens.”

33. “Boy we sure showed them! Did you see how uncomfortable they got when I started crying?”

34. “They’re dead now. No it’s okay, I didn’t like them that much anyway.”

35. “Those are killer dance moves, my fr-oh god you’re having a seizure.”

36. “I’m just trying to get away from the three ring shit show called my life.”

37. “I’ve been teaching my parakeet a few new words. Wanna hear what he’s learned?”

38. “Thank god you’re back! Please don’t ask how I got stuck in this position, just help me out.”

39. “Are you mad at me?” “Yes! Very much so!” “Good.”

40. “What we really need an exorcist and a concerning amount of holy water.”

41. “Your money or your life.” “Bold of you to assume I have either.”

42. “Dude. You look like shit.”

43. “How the hell do you even sleep at night?!” “Usually in fetal position, sometimes while hugging a pillow.”

44. “I have an idea.” “Is it a good one?” “I said I have an idea.”

45. “Fucking hell.” “Language.” “Fucking heck.”

46. “He/she is the poster child for children on leashes.”

47. “No words can describe just how badly I’d like to hit you with a chair.”

48. “Do a backflip!”

49. “Stop acting like such a dick, we all know you’re a pussy.”

50. “You’re literally in a hospital bed, and you’re asking if I’M okay?!”

51. “In about five seconds I’m gonna make the Holocaust look like a fucking joke.”

52. “I left my knife in the wrong pants.”

53. “Sometimes self care is screaming really loudly in a car by yourself, far away from your family.”

54. “What she/he needs is a cup of cyanide and a firm punch in the throat.”

55. “All the bleeding is internal. That’s where the blood is SUPPOSED to be.”

56. “I’m here physically but mentally? I’ve checked out.”

57. “I want to go home, and take a very long nap until I forget how to wake up.”

58. “I can’t believe you’ve been hiding in the neighbor’s playhouse to do your sick deeds!”

59. “I am not above putting myself into a coma.”

60. “Mom they’re krumping on the roof again!”

61. “I had a midlife crisis at 16.”

62. “That was our only way home!”

63. “I am going to die, in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, surrounded by idiots.”

64. “My talents include falling asleep in weird uncomfortable spaces.”

65. “The only thing I’ll be waving is your decapitated head on a stick in front of your weeping mother.”

66. “You can’t fire me! I quit!”

67. “It’s like numerous tiny paper cuts on my finger webbing.”

68. “You are a very sad, strange little man and you have my pity.”

69. “That is absolutely repulsive, and I love it.”

70. “Somehow managed to get drunken sailor stuck in my head on loop.”

71. “Sleep an hour last night.” “Why?” “Got arrested.”

72. “I will face god and walk backwards into hell.”

73. “Do I look like the kind of man who dies.”

74. “As American as apple pie and mass murder.”

75. “You’re the best bad influence ever.”

76. “You are the tightest tightass who ever tightened up an ass.”

77. “I bet I could fight this alligator.”

78. “Great. Who invited the trash gremlin?”

79. “You’re my least favorite child.” “I’m your only child!”

80. “And you just say there and RECORDED it?!...I wanna see.”

81. “At least a jackass pulls their own weight, jackwagon!”

82. “Hold my beer.”

83. “Now, on the list of things that are not okay, that was really, not okay.”

84. “Who needs a real doctor anyway?”

85. “Fuck off you spooky midget.”

86. “Thou art a smelly pirate hooker.”

87. “Wow that quote was really deep. Who said it?” “Spongebob.”

88. “Is it real or fake?!” “Yes.”

89. “Fucking superb you funky little lesbian.”

90. “Thank you for coming to my TED talk.”

[nanonaturalist]

@dragonseekerart submitted:

Sorry, not the best pictures my camera didn’t want to focus… I found this little guy in the pool in my backyard, so you know what he is? He’s kind of green and has bright orange underside! I live in northern Utah if that helps!

Wow, this dude was not as easy to ID as I thought he would be! Some things I looked at while I was figuring out who this was:

Most beetles have bodies completely covered by their wing casings, so I thought this would be easy. But the beetles I knew with the pronotum shaped like a shield had all their bits safely tucked away! Luckily, beetle ID guides know this, so they use the antennae to start out the ID process. And VIOLA! We have

A Soft-winged Flower Beetle (Family Melyridae)! [link to iNat]

I think your friend is in the genus Collops. A naturalist friend of mine saw one of these in California [link to iNat]. In his photo, you can see the funky antennae a little more clearly. WEIRD!!!

Above photo copyright Chris Mallory [link again]

Initially, I had thought those little bumps on the antennae could have been ant heads! It wouldn’t have been the first time I’d seen them there! [link to iNat]

Ant head attached to a (living!) flea beetle antenna. The ants attack, grab on, die, bodies fall off, and the poor beetle just has to deal.

Thanks for sending in your beetle, that was fun to figure out!

July 7, 2019

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 163: Reunions and Provisional License Training

Previously on BnHA: Gran Torino and Naomasa cornered Kurogiri in the middle of the woods somewhere. It looked like they were about to capture him, but then this big Goron-looking dude stomped in out of nowhere and we cut away from the scene, so who even knows what’s going on with that. Back at the hospital, Deku had a chat with Mirio, who was amazingly cheerful -- the last thing Nighteye said to him was to keep smiling, and he intends to follow through with that. Deku had a moment of guilt-stricken weakness because Mirio had been so amazing while he himself had needed help from everyone. He started to offer Mirio One for All, but Mirio cut him off and said that even if it was “hypothetically possible” for Deku to give him his quirk, he wouldn’t accept because that would only leave Deku in the same situation that he’s in right now. He also said that Aizawa told him they would be working hard to figure out a way to restore his quirk. And Nighteye’s last prediction was that he would be an outstanding hero, and he believes in him. Having been successfully cheered up, Deku returned to school with the other kids. The next day, BAKUGOU AND TODOROKI HEADED OFF TO THEIR PROVISIONAL LICENSE COURSE. YOU GUYS. THEY’RE BACK.

Today on BnHA: The internship kids return to their classmates who have been WORRIED SICK and don’t hesitate to inform them of this. Ochako and Kirishima have quiet moments of reflection about why they want to become heroes and how far they have to go, respectively. The next morning, Bakugou and Todoroki head off to their supplemental training course, chaperoned by All Might and Present Mic. We learn from All Might that Gran Torino and Naomasa managed to capture Kurogiri, but were in pretty bad shape after their confrontation with the Giganto dude, who apparently leveled half the mountainside during their battle. Over at the license exam training course place, Endeavor makes an appearance, having come to watch Shouto train. He also says he wants to have a chat with All Might. Meanwhile Shouto is greeted by his new best friend Yoarashi Inasa (who is still my favorite), as well as For Reals Camie, who we’re meeting for the very first time. Also Seiji of meatball quirk fame is here as well just for laughs. The chapter ends fairly abruptly, but it’s all good because this is going to be a good arc full of fun times you guys.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 187 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

(ETA: apparently the 3rd popularity poll results were released with this chapter! I had to go hunt down the color page and the full results because they weren’t included with the scanlation I read. so I’m adding in this ETA as of finishing volume 18 and belatedly realizing there were supposed to be poll results somewhere in there lol

Bakugou in the number one spot once more! that post-Kamino character development was so good that his popularity managed to withstand 40 straight chapters of being completely absent from the plot. pretty impressive

there is literally only ONE vote separating Shouto and Deku, oh snap. Shouto’s popularity also held up pretty damn well during the Internship arc. absence truly does make the heart grow fonder

Kirishima has moved up a spot! fucking superb you funky little rock man

and a surprise guest breaking into that no. 5 spot, Iida fucking Tenya! wow! beat out Aizawa by a good 400 votes. in this post-ponytail world, that is truly shocking to me. once again I will chock it up to his being absent for so long and making us realize how much we truly loved him. although a more likely explanation is that the anime had just finished up the Hero Killer arc right around when this poll was being conducted in the tail end of 2017

I’m delighted to see Kaminari here at number 8, even before his Kacchan moment which is coming up in this very chapter! I love him so much

Shinsou’s got himself some dedicated fans, let me tell you. they are doing the lord’s work, using this poll as a way of not-too-subtly hinting at Horikoshi to drop Mineta from 1-A and replace him with this kid instead. we’ll keep holding out hope

so that’s it for the top ten (with shoutouts to Aizawa, All Might, and Ochako because I didn’t mention them specifically but OBVIOUSLY I LOVE THEM TOO OF COURSE). I think the full list is in one of the omakes, so I’ll cover that at the end of this chapter.)

[mario voice] here we GOOOOOOO

so we’re back at the fanfic dorms (I MISSED THESE TOO), and the internship kids have finally made it back after going through all sorts of “inquiries and processes”

Mineta’s screaming “THEY’RE BAAAAAAACK” and honestly it’s one of the few times I’ve empathized with him so strongly

are you kidding me. you fit 18 fucking kids into this panel but you couldn’t fit Bakugou fucking Katsuki

also I always die any time Shouji is wearing one of his legendary ponchos. lmao

honestly, even without Bakugou (and who else is missing, though? ... oh shit, Tokoyami), this one panel still feels more like BnHA than the series has in ages. I missed this

(ETA: wait a sec, was Tokoyami out on his own internship while this was all taking place? is that why he’s not here? do I need to stop dragging my feet and force my ADD brain to sit still for five goddamn minutes so I can finish the arc I’m currently on?)

Kaminari’s shouting that Kirishima and Deku (a.k.a. the two who were also involved in Rescue Squad Jr.) are always getting mixed up in crazy shit and they need to stop scaring them

they were scared, then. of course. that’s fine, it was only to be expected. it’s not like I’m tempted to stop reading right this second and go look up post-Internship Arc class 1-A genfics on AO3

but like, I really did want to for a minute, and y’all know how badly I want to see Bakugou again, so please understand that I’m loving this scene just that much

Hagakure’s hugging Tsuyu and Ochako awww

what’s this

Shouto got a mysterious text? Shouto is always on his fucking phone I s2g. get off social media for two seconds and say hi to your friends

(ETA: this seems like a good place to share my headcanon that Endeavor texts like Captain Holt from B99 and composes all of his texts like formal business letters with perfect grammar and begins them all with “Dear Shouto” and signs them all with “Sincerely, Endeavor.” yes he signs them as “Endeavor” and not “dad” or even “your father” because he’s just really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really bad at being a dad. you guys.)

Iida is divebombing in front of the returning kids and screaming at everyone to calm down

;_________;

IIDA BRINGING THOSE CLASS 1-A FEELS. THAT’S OUR CLASS PREZ

but Deku’s waving a hand at him and thanking him for being considerate, “but”

oh my god

loooooool

“ARE YOU SURE, MIDORIYA. BECAUSE I JUST MADE A PRETTY BIG FUCKING SCENE RIGHT NOW, YOU KNOW”

LOOOOOOOOOL, BUT NOW THAT HE HAS THE GO AHEAD...

IIDA FUCKING TENYA I MISSED YOU TOO YOU BIG GOOBER

Momo is running off to make some tea for them

and Satou is literally shoving cake into Deku’s face now

for some reason Ochako is being very quiet though

oh. oh no

honey it’s not your fault!

shit. this is the first job-related death they’ve experienced, though. of course they’re all going to be traumatized by it to some degree. no wonder the staff wanted to brief them thoroughly

I hope they offered counseling. they fucked up with Bakugou and they need to not do that again. class 1-A keeps accumulating various traumas and if these kids don’t get mental health support they’re all going to be a hot mess by the time they graduate

in the meantime we at least have Aizawa “Mom of the Year” Shouta on the job

is it just me or does Aizawa not even pretend anymore these days. he’s so fucking maternal. he loves them all so much, and he’s not even mad about it. they’re good kids

so Ochako is having what we call a Deku Moment

staring at the hands and everything

is this the first time she’s said this? remember, previously her goal was to become a hero so that she could provide for her mom and dad. very selfless, but she was still in it for the money rather than the whole “rescuing people” thing. so I think this is the first time we’ve heard her voice this particular sentiment out loud. and it’s great

Kirishima’s looking at her with a quiet expression that suggests that his own angst is brewing beneath the surface omg

and Sero’s slinging an arm around him aggressively

this is nice! he needs this!

aww! Mina too!

NO NOT REALLY

KIRISHIMA ;_____;

WHERE IS BAKUGOU GODDAMMIT

GASPPPP

ever the antisocial one

HERE HE IS IN HIS OWN PANEL FINALLY OMGGGGGG

omg

so he’s listening in with his resting bitch face, because of course he was worried just like all the rest of them, but like hell you’ll catch him joining in with the obnoxious crowd of people swarming them all at once

but this way he can still see that they’re all right. and maybe he can talk to Kirishima later. and maybe nod at Deku or make awkward eye contact for two seconds and then pretend like nothing happened. you know how they do

LOOK WHO’S HOPPING OVER AND MAKING THE SAME OBSERVATIONS OMG

excuse me WHAT DID YOU CALL HIM JUST NOW? AHEM??

(ETA: this is disturbingly high on my list of all-time favorite BnHA moments)

is he allowed? is this allowed?? what is this. this is the childhood nickname that only one person has ever been allowed to use. (and that one person has apparently never been told to stop using it, either, because you know he would have if Kacchan had actually asked. or demanded. and yet he still uses it, exclusively. and somehow I’ve never essayed about this? what have I even been doing with my life. but now is not the time. maybe in an ETA when I’m not so fucking hyped)

(ETA: so I did in fact write a whole big essay about this, and it got so long that I ended up removing it from this already-lengthy post and putting it up as its own separate thing. because it’s definitely something I’ve been meaning to talk about, but it was pretty off-topic.

but anyways, I just wanted to say that if me writing a 1200 word BakuDeku essay out of fucking nowhere doesn’t perfectly sum up my reaction to him being back in the manga, then I don’t know what does. lol)

I don’t know what to get excited about first. the fact that he noticed Kacchan was in fact sulking in the corner being worried but pretending like he wasn’t. the fact that he came over to bother him. or the fact that he just casually called him the nickname, again most likely to bother him, but he didn’t get blasted into oblivion for it so oh my god. does Kacchan even realize that’s just giving him the green light to do it again later

anyway so Bakugou is making a classic grumpy retreat now

YES

and also he has his provisional license course tomorrow too!

Ojiro’s asking if he’s really just going to skulk off without even saying a word to their returning traumatized friends. Ojiro have you even met Kacchan before

and actually Todoroki is now bidding everyone good night as well

and getting the exact same “what are you a grandpa” response from Kaminari to boot. Kaminari is on fucking fire tonight

oh man. this is going to be one of those chapters where I just post and comment about every single panel, huh

you see, I have to post this one because (1) bunny! and (2) Tsuyu isn’t even surprised about Bakugou. they’re all used to him going to bed this early. see, this is exactly the kind of shit I need to make a note of for when I inevitably start to write fic. this kid is early to bed early to rise

it’s literally 8:30 and Kacchan’s in bed, lights off, glaring at the ceiling

and Shouto is glaring at his phone

I swear I wasn’t originally going to post both of those panels. but I just wanted to comment that (a) Bakugou has an OtterBox-style case for his phone (which makes perfect sense, because he probably abuses the poor thing every day and throws it when he gets frustrated and tries to blow it up at times, and honestly he’s probably managed to destroy it once or twice even WITH the case. and I bet he has the special warranty that includes quirk damage. and I bet they regret ever giving it to him), and (b) I’m getting an inkling that whatever reason Shouto had for retiring to his room early, it didn’t actually have anything to do with the next day’s training

someone on tumblr told me that we would be getting Todoroki Family Drama at some point. but I’m pretty sure that’s still like 20 chapters off. but maybe this is early set-up for it? hmmmm

and now panels of the four intern kids lying in bed wide awake thinking angsty thoughts

FYI, that’s Satou’s bedroom with the light still on in the middle of the 5th floor. and below that, on the fourth floor, that room is supposed to be unoccupied lmao. so that is presumably a ghost right there. next to Bakugou’s bedroom

here, I’ll post the layout so you can see

so I’m not sure if Horikoshi maybe just spaced out and moved everyone’s rooms down one from where they’re actually supposed to be, and this is supposed to be Bakugou and Todoroki’s rooms with the lights on. but if we go by our canon reference, Satou is doing some midnight baking and the fourth floor is in fact haunted

anyway, we’re now cutting to the next day and Bakugou and Todoroki are walking to the train station

every sentence Todoroki says ends with dots

is this the arc that’s going to make me ship TodoBaku. it is isn’t it. it’s already happened for Deku, Ochako, and Kirishima, it was only a matter of time before Strawberry Shortcake got in on this too

(ETA: we’re at a solid “I’ll read it if it’s there and the summary intrigues me” level, FYI)

oh my

first of all, I highly doubt that. Bakugou strikes me as being way too much of a type A to ever be late for anything, and Todoroki also has an air of impeccable punctuality about him

and second of all, OH MY GOD

All Might looking spiffy as hell in that tailored suit with his manly satchel. and Present Mic’s out here trying to poke Kacchan in the fucking eye

so Aizawa was leading the course previously, then? he’s the one who supervised whatever insanity led to Shouto’s nose getting broken and the two of them basically looking like they’d been hit by small cars? I guess he’s only a mom when he feels like it huh

(ETA: so when All Might says “leading the group”, what he really means is “accompanying the two kids to and from their lessons for safety purposes.” which makes more sense. and means that contrary to what I just said, not only does Aizawa continue to be a mom, he’s now a goddamn soccer mom on top of everything else.)

OH SHIT I’M BEING BOMBARDED WITH SO MUCH INFORMATION AT ONCE. THIS IS GREAT. I CAN HARDLY KEEP UP

so apparently they needed Aizawa to help with Eri’s quirk! so this presumably means she’s awake? hopefully he’ll be able to help her

and Aizawa made Mic come along to protect All Might, because he cares! that’s right!

(ETA: and also, maybe not a good idea to send two of the League’s known targets and the son of the current number one hero out into the world all nicely grouped together without any backup. yeah, good call Aizawa.)

and Kurogiri was indeed captured!

but Gran’s team suffered some “serious blows” apparently

!! “there was another individual we couldn’t do anything about”

yessss tell us more about this!

oh shit he done fucked them up proper

he was that bad? bad enough that you weren’t sure whether Kurogiri was worth letting him escape? holy shit

oh snap

was this like. an entire mountain that he fucking leveled here? good lord

anyway, so All Might’s telling them to board the bus

Todoroki is acting weeeeeeird you guys

what the fuck is this kid hiding all of a sudden

so now they’re at some building and the kids’ crazy uncles are dropping them off and waving

this is the cutest fucking shit. the boys look so tiny. All Might looks like he just dropped them off at pre-k

OH SHIT

WELL WELL, IF IT ISN’T THE CURRENT NUMBER ONE PIECE OF SHIT

“I wanted to have a proper chat with you” he says, the veins in his eyeballs reaching critical levels

why does he always do this. can’t you ever just have a normal conversation without dramatically cornering someone in a random hallway

Present Mic is all “I’m going to fuck off now, so good luck”

“I’ma go buy some coffee. it’ll probably take about five hours. just to be safe. see you later”

so apparently the text that Shouto got was just his dad telling him he’d be coming to watch his training the next morning

“I hope he doesn’t bump into All Might,” he thinks. Shouto, does that sound like the kind of thing that’s likely to happen. think about you and your life and how it’s generally gone up until this point. exactly

EYYYYYYYYYYYYY

IT’S MUH BOIIIIIIIIIII

OH HUSH. HERE I THOUGHT KATSUKI WAS GOING TO BE THE GRUMPY GRUMP. COME ON NOW

(ETA: and also there are like, eight people in the whole damn class. how exactly were you planning on avoiding him)

and who’s this?

!!!!

HOLY SHIT IS THIS THE REAL CAMIE

holy shit?!

so this means she’s not dead or kidnapped or whatever! well that’s obviously good!

but just. I have so many questions all of a sudden omg. I should just keep reading

apparently she’s never seen Baku and Todo before? wouldn’t she have seen them at one of the previous courses though? I guess maybe they split up into different groups in the previous sessions?

oh hey look at Kacchan asking these important questions for me

oh my god

right, he was in the character page for this volume

but he didn’t make it past the first round! what gives!!

is that why Camie’s here too, though? were they not invited to attend previously, but then the examiners had a change of heart?

once again Kacchan is acting as my proxy here

at this rate we’re going to have more people observing than actually taking the course

I wonder what Actual Camie’s quirk is? and is she also observing or are they allowing her to take the course with them?

do they even realize it wasn’t her who passed the first half? I mean obviously her teachers and classmates must know, but are they just playing along to help her get her license now?

well at any rate, it looks like these kids are ready to throw down

WE SHALL

BONUS:

people who are too low on this poll: Mina, Mr. Compress, Nighteye, Jirou, Tsuyu, and FUCKING MIRIO, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME THOUGH

for real?? 41st place? beaten out by Stain, Overhaul, Endeavor, Seiji, and fucking Mineta??!

I’m sorry, I was going to do more commentary on this, but honestly my brain just kind of quit in outrage. honestly this poll should be ashamed of itself. the best fucking character in the manga and he didn’t even crack the top 40. for fuck’s sake

[ofthewilderwest]

Anyways here’s my add brain’s idea of a history essay about the Cold War:

In Central Oklahoma born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days; playing fantasy adventure games with my friends, we spent as much time as possible going over to the creek at school to explore. Lizards lizards lizards lizards lizards lizards lizards lizards lizards lizards lizards llllllliiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrddddddddddddssssssssss l i z a r d s l i z a r d s yeaaaaaah babey lizards are cool as heck can i write an essay about those funky little dudes instead of myself because i may not know much about myself but i sure as heck know about those scaly critters oh golly gosh this sucks

i hope filling the page with words makes it look like i’m doing something because i have absolutely no idea what to write. I remember nothing before the events of this week. And nothing has happened this week. Scooby dooby doo where are you.

Ha you know what a good word is? Plethora. Another good word? Puffin. But another good word is parakeet. Hey, they all start with the letter P! Nifty. Golly gosh i want to do something with this but what to do?

Think of their cry of their undying support. Prima donna your song shall never die think how you’ll shine in that final encore see these demands are rejected but if it’s loudly sung and in a foreign tongue it's just the sort of story audiences adore light up the stage sing prima donna once moooore. Okay thats a thing. A ghoooooost or rather a ghooOOOOoOoooOOOOooost aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa… nope im still uninspired.

Woah, google docs saves automatically?? That's totally tubular man! Perfect for a lazy cabbage like me. Piano noises. Ugh i really need to work on work. Work? Idk her. Did you know the basilisk lizard can run on water with their toe flaps? They slap the water with their big feet and create a little air pocket between their toe flaps, allowing them to remain buoyant enough to run on water. Crusty is a gross word. Worse than moist. Moist>crusty.

Textures. Triskaidekaphobia. Woah i spelled that perfectly. It would be cool to be a bicycle. Rollin’ around and having’ fun to see the world.

My wife and I sat at the bed of our only daughter Roxie. The bleak walls the decaying trees the utter depression of the soul the bitter ghost of everyday life the icy sinking of the heart for seventeen years our roxie had danced danced on the edge of a star but now following the loss of her only child a sickness has taken over. He child was stolen and she blames herself she is wasting away her liquid eyes her thin lips her pale skin her spiderweb hair floating in front of her face. Astonishment and dread in the house of usher……. Ugly.

Cannibalism is rather uncool. I could see where it could be necessary but i couldn’t just EAT A PERSON. It’s quite spicy in here. My hoodie isn’t doing any good. Alms, Alms for a miserable woman. I feel like an elderly ravioli rolling down a hill into a lake.

Wowie i kind of want a ravioli right now. Is this acceptable to turn in to [teacher]? Probably not. I really want a ravioli. I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more for a ravioli now. Yum. This dude behind me is frickign on cool math games bro you really have no fear. Not to sound like a goth but, as a goth, I love Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. Wtf am I listening to I- oh yeah I like this song I forgot. Lizards Lizards Lizards.

This is peak creativity for me today. Still thinking about the ravioli. Penny Whistle solo from My Heart Will Go On. The sticker on my computer says [school]LAB529-38. It means i’m at [school name], lab 529, computer number 38. Litty.

I have absolutely no idea what to write. This isn’t even in mla format. Big chungus. Haha. whoops i almost used a comma instead of a period haha ya silly sausage. I sound like a chipmunk vacuum cleaner when i laugh. Go go gadget.

She thinks my tractor’s sexy. I hope not. I’m not part of the cars universe. Wait can i make a carsona? Is that allowed. That would be a rip-roarin funny time. My carsona is aaaaauuuuuuhhhhhh one of those baby cars that you run with your feet sticking out to drive

advertisement is a good word yeah it’s got a lot of syllables. Ssssyllablessssssssssss. Morphine.

My phone is blue, i have a blue phone, the poison the poison for kuzco the poison chosen specifically to kill kuzco kuzco’s poison that poison. Orange has the capability to be an awful color or a cool color. I just dont really like orange.

Sitting in a library bunch of books around meeeee wow the people i’m supposed to be with are sitting far away from me i’m all alone ):|> what if googgle haha googgle i spelled that wrong haha what if google didn’t exist and we were stuck with bing or yahoo or something that's super gross right?

Imm sleeby and i can’t go home until 8:00 unfortunately so i guess i’ll just suffer. There's a shiny nickel on the floor! Wow i might be 5 cents richer wait hold tf up there’s no cent symbol on the keyboard?? Really?????????????????????????? That irks me a lot.

Class will be over soon and the five hours or feet hurty dancy time. I gotta finish my candlestick hat but yaknow it will turn out ugly or smthn.

Do you ever just love your friends even if they are not talking to each other and suff you still love them wow my friends are queens i want to ea-

[majorxmaggiexboy]

rating my Muses by whether they would survive Dracula:

Ben: slim chance of survival. Would initially have glitter eyes at drac and would be devastated at the slow realization that Something's Up but would become determined to make it a problem for all involved. Dies if he meets the brides because his dumb ass would NOT believe they aren't prisoners and would die trying to rescue them while they're stabbing him to death with glittery sillystraws. If he can get out of the castle his chances improve but he's still on thin ice because he WILL be going right back in the castle trying to save everybody from Drac, but he's NOT stupid enough to do it alone. Just might survive but will absolutely lose at least one friend in the process. 5/10

Amicia: Survival Guaranteed. Not only would she realize Drac's a monster as soon as he survives for more than two hours after being kind to her and Hugo, but Amicia would also not be trying to stick around. She's grabbing her brother and the bread sticks and trying to GTFO. The villagers are on they own unless absolutely necessary. Would beat the snow out of the Brides if they even look at Hugo. On the off chance somebody does get one over on her, Hugo will drown them in rats. These kids are golden. 10/10

Gamble: 50/50 survival odds. The vampires don't get him but no less than ten villagers and van Helsing want him dead for reasons that might or might not have a damn thing to do with vampires. 8/10 because he will not only leave others to die but will also actively attempt to get other people killed by the vampires if he thinks it'll improve his escape chances or just be kinda funny

D'Artagnan: no chance because you know those kids on ao3 going to replace Drac with all three musketeers AND rochefort and Milady will also be around somewhere. Boy might as well call up mordaunt for the funeral smh we don't go here.

Bonus, Battinson: I'm only including him bc first of all it'd be his house that Harker sells to Drac and Alfred would be like Well Mr Wayne Nobody Believed Me When I Said The House Wasn't Vacant no but also dracula would look at him and either think Wow I Can't Actually Compete. You Funky Little Vampire. Or he'd just go damn this dudes miserable enough lol and just leave.

[infinitycircuit]

Peanuts x Future Rider 'Comic Strips' | meatcopter69 | 3.3

"Wow, this sucks ass. The whole ass. Not a little fraction of ass, but just, the entire thing. Double-cheeking it."

I don't have Lindsay's sprites on this computer but it's fine because he's not looking any type of glib, flippant, or knifecat right now. If anything, his expression is a little... irritated. 

At some point during the trial he's shifted his posture, going from sitting fairly still to cuddling up against Akaji's side. Partially to show support, in what limited ways he's capable of without getting shocked by the electric fence he's built around his own capacity to show emotion, and partially because he isn't... sure if he needs to hide behind someone bigger once he's done talking.

"Anyway, dial all the other shit back for a moment, I got a limited edition Supreme gold-plated axe to grind."

"Hey, Aoyama. Can you do us all a favor and shut the fuck up about villains and justice and all that childish bullshit? What are you even trying to do, dude? I found your faux Kamen Rider mask and all, yeah, but this isn't the right time or place to express your kinfeels. I'm really getting sick and tired of hearing some sparkly motherfucker sit here and preach to me about right and wrong like you're a divine moral arbiter and not a fucking bartender."

He mimics Katashi's voice, waving a hand around dismissively. 

"You think any of us would feel grateful for that? Uhhhhh, fuck, dude, actually, I'm pretty grateful that I got my memories back. Thanks for murdering a single mom so I could remember I really like this dude next to me, Mokichi. Sorry, not to like, say the bit that's meant to be left unspoken or whatever, but let's not pretend like everyone was getting super upset about forgetting people they l*ve."

"Like, deadass, if even I was getting kind of murderous about forgetting this guy I've literally only been into since the joy ride started, you don't think it would have been a nightmare if this dragged out into the period where you forget stuff permanently, we had to vote someone off the boat to die anyway, and then people who aren't me who aren't disowned by their whole family never get those memories back?"

Lindsay isn't... really sure why he's saying this, to be honest. It's not like it isn't true, but it'd also be much easier for him to just spout off some irreverent meme and call it a day. 

But, then again, maybe he's not really saying this for himself. Maybe it isn't, like everything else he says and does, a pure act of selfishness. 

...What a concept.

He'll think about that later.

"Anyway, Mokichi. Sucks that you fucked up, but them's the breaks. I'll put a Luigi board on my speedboat so I can get your funky little raccoon dog ghost out to see the thick water in the Bermuda Triangle." 

[lattetimes]

So How About Them New Episodes, Ammirite Ladies??

here’s what i thought of the new episodes via live reactions as i watching them!

overall, it was kinda underwhelming but there were parts that i really did like! and if you liked these episodes, that’s awesome!

MAYOR DEWEY WINS

was this title a reference to the movie/book John Dies at the End, cause if so then i’m shocked i caught that

apparently it is, would you look at that. btw i kinda liked the movie.

damn, Sadie took this hard. and Steven never told Lars’ parents. so i guess Sadie has to do that herself.

why tf does Steven care if Dewey wins?!

OH, IT’S BECAUSE HE DON’T WANT SHIT TO CHANGE AND HE THINKS HAVING A NEW MAYOR WOULD BE BAD WTF DEWEY DOES NOTHING

ok wow, there’s only 24 people in Beach City and he never noticed that Lars was gone!?

“is that why the donut shop was closed?”

“we’ll hire a new donut boy!” DEWEY. DUDE. ARE YOU FOR REAL?!

“high school mayor” lmao

how did he run unopposed for 10 years!?

LARS’ MOM KEEPS A SHITTON OF TOMATOES IN HER PURSE SHE READY TO THROW DOWN ALL THE TIME

i don’t like that Steven is so adamant on Dewey winning.

jesus, Steven, let Nanefua win. she’s obviously the better person for the job

“i’m done pointing my finger at you, and now i direct all my fingers on both my hands to the citizens” top 10 anime deaths

NANEFUA WINS, OH MY GOD YES

STEVEN, DUDE, REALLY?! LEAVE CONNIE ALONE!

“i don’t know what you’re talking about, but i need to get a new job” 2018 mood tbh

episode rating: 2 tomatoes out of 5. i can’t stand Steven in this episode at all. but hey, NANEFUA WON!!!!!!

RAISING THE BARN

....was Lapis’ main concern that Steven dropped his phone on Homeworld? not the fact that he was... idk... ON HOMEWORLD?!

ok Lapis is ready to bail immediately and tbh i dont blame her

did she just uproot the entire bard wtf?! 

BARN THE DIAMONDS, BARN THE DIAMONDS, BARN THE DIAMONDS!

episode rating: 1.5 barns out of 5. BARN THE DIAMONDS, BARN THE DIAMONDS, BARN THE DIAMONDS!

GEMCATION

^ mfw Amethyst basically spat an egg out her mouth (it was kinda gross)

well. Greg got some kinda house.... still don’t get why the crew is so against having Greg get a house

also, where’s Peridot?

“remove all shoes before entering” Pearl fucking THROWS A RANDOM ASS PAIR OF SHOES

OKAY PEARL SCREAMING “PARTY GUY, NO!” WAS ACTUALLY KINDA FUNNY

S H O W M E P A R T Y G U Y Y O U C O W A R D S

“Steven, you should join me. become a raisin” ok Garnet

did. did Steven completely cut Garnet off as she was talking about Pink Diamond and the Gem War with the whole, “yeah, yeah, i get it, Mom. i already heard this story” kinda thing? B R U H that ain’t okay

AND GARNET JUST SHUTS UP AND WAS LIKE “good, you understand”

PEARL WAS GONNA STRAIGHT UP ADMIT TO SOME HUGE THING AFTER HER “THERE ARE THINGS THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO EXPLAIN” LINE AND HE CUTS HER OFF WITH “CONNIE HATES ME”

WHY COULDN’T STEVEN AT LEAST TELL THESE FOUR THAT HE WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT CONNIE HATING HIM?!

I’M KINDA GETTING SICK OF SEEING STEVEN MOPE LIKE THIS FOR 3 EPISODES STRAIGHT AND I HOPE HE DOESN’T KEEP THIS UP FOR THE NEXT 2

OH NO, PLEASE DISREGARD ALL OF THE MESSED UP THINGS YOU SAW ON HOMEWORLD CAUSE CONNIE IS (rightfully) UPSET WITH YOU. LARS D I E D.

GUITAR DAD SAVES THE DAY

i love Greg Universe

how would you not notice if you aren’t getting any service on your phone? your phone tells you when you’re getting service or not

bruh you almost made your dad drive off a cliff for you to get phone service

Greg Universe is a ride or die kinda guy

this ending shot is cute, i’ll give you that. 

episode rating: 2 party guys out of 5. Party Guy should’ve bitten Steven’s phone and his shit attitude. also PEARL WTF ARE YOU TELL US ALREADY

BACK TO THE KINDERGARTEN

Connie i miss you

“of the three things i have to do in the sink now, this is the one i least mind you seeing” B R U H

 Peridot listens to country music, this is disgusting

HOLY SHIT AMETHYST IS TOSSIN’ PERIDOT AROUND LIKE SHE WEIGHS NOTHING AND I’M CRACKING UP

“can i bring my music?” “NO.” damn Amethyst you already threw Peri around like she ain’t nothin’, let her bring her music if it’ll help her

aaaay, they’re in the train again!

dang, Peri really loved the barn.

i kinda like that Amethyst is going around trying to figure out which member of the Famethyst came out of which part of the Kindergarten. kinda cute. 

so everything is seriously determined by the nutrition, right down to the style of a Gem’s hair? ...huh. iron deposits determine hair styles.

damn, Peri went with a sucker punch to the gut with her little speech about how Kindergartens kill off life and are just “lifeless husks” once all the Gems are done being formed. and Amethyst feels awful about it, dang.

ok. there’s a flower growin’ in the Kindergarten, and that should technically be impossible due to all of the nutrients in this one area being used up. this could be interesting.

ok, so now the trio is gonna farm & see what happens. ok, ok, i can roll with this i guess.

FARMING MONTAGE

look at them flowers

they proud

don’t make Peri live here

why the flamingo thingy taller than both of them

gods i didn’t need to see Steven happily showering

they’re talking about how the flowers are probs gonna look beautiful i bet they all died, they’re too positive about this. $5 them flowers are dead.

them flowers are dead,

...now they’re arguing, cause Peri blew up on them. alright. this ain’t good.

aaaaaaaaaaaand Peri crushed the original flower that grew here. both Steven & Amethyst made pained whimpers. ok. this ain’t good.

oh it’s a Gem creature- haven’t seen one of those in a while!

IT ATE PERIDOT HOLY FUCK

SMOKEY QUARTZ IS BACK

ngl i like Smokey’s theme music

btw there’s no dialogue from Smokey, just a quick 2 second thing

Peri doesn’t reform with a star on her

ok, that was kinda cute. and having a technician that also likes gardening is cute too

episode rating: 3.5 dead sunflowers outta 5. it was an okay episode & i did like it. 

SADIE KILLER

heh, i get it. cause lady killer.

oh god, that looks bad

WHY IS THAT MOP SO BIG

instead of reading off a long-ass list to the overly worked employee, just hand Sadie the list so she won’t fuck up?

“and a coffee. hold the coffee.” same tbh

oh. he’s in a band with the Cool Kids. WE GET TO SEE THE COOL KIDS!

“...i hope he [Lars] is safe and all, but working all these shifts by myself has been a huge drag” GIRL, LARS DIED IN SPACE AND IS STILL THERE

Steven stealing all the napkins is something i’d do tbh

man, i love the Cool Kids

is my girl Jenny rockin’ the bass? aaaaaaaaaaay!

Sour Cream, what the HECK IS RAP-A-BILLY?

“Doo-doo. Butt. The government corrupts” Buck is the voice of this generation

welcome to EB Games

they... they admitted to following her home from work....

“doo-doo. i think i broke your bed” Buck wtf

also, i guess them watching all of Sadie’s horror movies gave them inspiration to do that weird donut-brain-eating song. weird.

“we are the working dead, and we lurch for minimum wage” same Sadie

......ok, she’s freaking everyone out. and they look uncomfortable. Sadie, seriously stop. they’re concerned.

...she. put lipstick on her eyes.

see, if she wasn’t freakin’ everyone out with this, i’d say this song is a bop. 

ok they’re fine now & thought it was lit ok cool cool cool. i ain’t a big fan of the lyrics tbh, but i do like the song.

 “aww, doo-doo”

ok so Steven’s askin’ for advice on how to write horror-themed songs from Sadie. how about LARS DIED ON HOMEWORLD

SADIE’S ADVICE IS:

LOSE YOUR LIFE TO A BORING JOB

LOSE THE ONE PERSON YOU WERE CLOSE TO

LOSE YOUR MIND WORKIN A TON OF SHIFTS

GIRL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Steven puttin’ Sadie on blast, good lord he just sang an accidental roast tryin’ to sing shit like she does

HE STOLE ALL THE NAPKINS AGAIN

“you can’t help being cute no more than i can help being cool” Buck, you’re a blessing

“yoooooo, what if this is all a dream?” Buck, wtf?

oh. Sadie’s goin’ with them. okay. 

OH. SHE QUIT HER JOB. UM. OKAY?

episode rating: 3 funky riffs out of 5. Buck Dewey is great.

KEVIN PARTY

I DO NOT WANT TO WATCH THIS EPISODE, BUT IMMA DO IT ANYWAY

DIDN’T EVEN START THE EPISODE AND I STILL FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE

let’s just get this over with...

why’d Steven wait this long to track down Lion?!

siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh, here he is......

gods, i still hate him

stop being gross to kids, leave Steven and Connie alone ya freak

at least he knows they use they/them pronouns. 

how did he find out where Connie is? doesn’t she live far away from Beach City? did he track down these two kids just to “invite” Stevonnie?!

“no one turns down an invitation to a Kevin party” i sure as fuck would

lmao Kevin has an old phone

“your name’s Steven? weird, i thought your name was Clarence” OI, DON’T INSULT CLARENCE LIKE THAT

rude, Steven brought snacks and ya just toss ‘em into the void?

ok. he’s creepily obsessed with Stevonnie cause apparently they make parties and shit like that hella fun. um. stop? being obsessed with kids??

WTF WHY IS LION AT THE PARTY

Connie actually showed up. and had Lion the entire time. that’s. super fucked up. Lion is the ONLY way to get to Lars directly!

and also, there’s TWO KIDS AT A PARTY WITH OLDER PEOPLE?! NO ONE BUT DERRICK QUESTIONS THIS?

Kevin’s gonna try to get them to talk to each other... so they can form Stevonnie... so his party won’t suck...

also, he keeps calling them 7-year-olds........ siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh, ok Kevin.

KEVIN YOU IDIOT LET THEM TALK TO EACH OTHER SO HE CAN SAY SORRY DON’T GIVE HIM YOUR “COOL GUY” BULLSHIT

“i need those old people to whisper my name when they die” tbh goals

“who’s Sabina?” Kevin got all red in the face and almost lost his cool

so Kevin’s gonna try to make Steven look like he’s moved on from Connie or some shit. this won’t end well.

NO, NOT DERRICK’S JACKET

now we get a montage of 2 kids being uncomfortable surrounded by older people at a party they should’t be at, ok.

at least Connie looks cute. and she got a haircut! so cute!

NOT CUTE NOT CUTE NOT CUTE

GOD, I HATE KEVIN

Steven, what are you doing?

STEVEN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

ok, quick recap cause i didn’t mention this: Kevin thought Steven & Connie were dating, so, Connie only went to the party to see if Steven’s okay and if they could talk. Steven decided to follow Kevin’s advice for some reason, and Connie thinks Steve’s new BFF is Kevin, and Kevin has no concept of what friends are.

so. Connie didn’t text Steven cause she preferred talking face to face about this, and that texting him wasn’t good enough to work out these issues. very fair point. still don’t get why you legit stole Lion from him, but the not texting back thing makes complete sense.

ok, she rode Lion to his house while Steven, Greg & the Gems were away (the episode Gemcation). and that’s when she bumped into Kevin and got the invite. ok. now Kevin is slightly less creepy, but still disgusting nonetheless.

oh, yay! they’re talking it out! and Steven isn’t disregarding Connie’s anger!

yay! they’re friends again!

don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie, don’t form Stevonnie.

LMAO GET FUCKED, KEVIN, THEY AIN’T FORMIN’ STEVONNIE

episode rating: 1 Lion out of 5. least fave episode, tbh. but hey, we got Connie back!