#wow i talked a lot.

[bixels]

I watched Starship Troopers tonight.

[caramelmochacrow]

hi hello i just finished reading all the unit stories today and yesterday :)

i have 48 chapters (not counting CoA's) left of the second story to read yaaaaaaaaaaay

i read rondo's unit story first from beginning to end but realized how long it would take so i just read the first ten for the other units then i went back to the others and finished them

(im just gonna ramble abt rondo, merm4id and peaky here and it's long a shit especially for peaky so tis under the cut)

rondo's made me feel lots of things and them trusting and believing that nagisa will come back is sooo everything to me and that hurts even more knowing what flor seca is abt.

it sounds like aoi hiiro and tsubaki made that song to reach out to nagisa to tell her that they miss her and want her back.

and that kinda makes me tear up lol

rondo is nothing without all four of them so how should they move on now? do they quit and disband like garland or do they continue on without one of the pillars that make up rondo?

the thing with calendula's curse is really interesting, is it real or fake? and the person to decide is nagisa.

nagisa being the one to break the curse makes sense. koyomi is the opposite of nagisa, she believed that she wasnt an amazing guitarist and calendula changed how she saw herself, she become dependent on calendula to the point that she became obsessed with it.

but nagisa always knew that she was good, she knew that because of calendula, she makes calendula have a unique sound and unlike any other guitar. she knows that a guitarist is good by their skill, not their guitar and that made her not fall into the curse.

im not going to talk abt that anymore cause i might cry and only talk abt rondo so its time for merm4id!!!

them trying to become closer and become a better unit by going around japan is very merm4id!

saori probably being the only member that knows how to drive is such a funny thought

also when saori accidentally broke her stage costume and said that people might think that "this isn't MY merm4id!" and start disliking them over their new outfits was sad.

she cares a lot abt the fans in a good way and in a bad way. she cares abt how they see merm4id and their opinions abt them and she's afraid of changing that.

but like dalia said in the story (paraphrased) it doesn't matter if merm4id just changes their look, if this is how merm4id looks now then that's how merm4id looks now, the fans can't change or decide that. and that is just. wow.

also. like. i got to know more abt saki a little bit!

when they mentioned hokkaido i just knew something involving saki will happen and i was very glad to find out it was true!

it's so sweet that her mentor kept the cat plushie! like. ughhghghghgh gghhhhfkihg

idk how to word my other thoughts abt it but they got so close to the point that it was difficult for them to spend time alone without the others is something. something meaning it's gay. it sounds gay.

onto the peaky gals!

so peaky's was quite interesting to me bc i got to learn more abt michiru and they way shinobu thought of herself

shinobu was always confident in her mixes and songs. she never had second thoughts until she saw toka and mana perform together and outshone peaky

she started doubting herself and her music, wondering if it was good enough to be on par and be better than toka's.

then she didnt join (or lost) the remicon, ruining her record.

to michiru of all people.

michiru -- like what her uncle has been saying all this time -- is an amazing dj.

she has a lot of potential, but she has too much of an ego to work with other people and she doesn't have confidence in herself and her music like how shinobu does.

she gets shaken up easily, she runs away, and she changes things up to appeal to her audience to the point that her own style is barely present.

comparing her to shinobu, their differences are clear.

shinobu doesn't get shaken up, she doesn't run away, and she doesn't change things to appeal to an audience to the point that her style is barely apparent.

until she saw toka perform.

when she was working on their new song it sounded a lot like toka's style of track making with her style barely there (like when she first started out she just copied whatever her grandpa did bc she didn't know if it was good enough at the time) and whenever they performed shinobu had second thoughts and changed their set list last minute.

but unlike michiru, shinobu had peaky to back her up and help her out with her slumps and mistakes.

like how shinobu messed up her new last minute set list mid-performance because she thought it was terrible and yuka covered it up by showing off a video she made of their performance in d4fes(?)

when they were adjusting the said song, they managed to finish that thanks to esora and yuka's help w the lyrics.

but, even if michiru joins or makes a unit, she doesn't know how to lead or act w them, and that's clear with that yuki sakura girl's unit and the dj musketeers.

with the dj musketeers she had to learn how to lead by herself there, but couldn't. she's good by herself yes, that's true, but she needed to learn how hard it is to be a leader and her uncle and shinobu's grandpa made her learn that the hard way.

in the yuki sakura unit, michiru is treated as some dj, not as this great and amazing dj that she thought she was bc yuki thought that all of them were amazing and of equal skill so why should she get special treatment if they are all the same?

in there she had to learn how to work with people, and how she must understand that everything isn't about her, but that stings her and started performing sloppily.

adding that and how she thinks that shinobu is amazing and how she'll never amount to her skills, it breaks her.

michiru is a reflection of what shinobu would've been if she didn't turn down kyoko's request to form peaky.

[lunar-years]

I want to talk about Jamie's wholeass depressive episode and the fascinating way he (fails to) process and cope with stuff and things because like? That press conference??? His sudden refusal to accept he's an important teammate who contributes a heck of a lot, saying his goal shouldn't have even counted?? Not wanting to take pictures with fans??? Saying "I hadn't even thought about that" when Keeley says his Dad is going to be at the game, even though it was clearly all he'd been thinking about??? THE SAD SUITCASE THING? god it was SO much I need 100 fanfics that are going to tackle this in a way even angstier than the show. immediately.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Welcome to the Dungeons of Fear and Hunger.

[wayward-banana]

Idk how to cope with whatever just happened (DDD moment) so I reverted to system default and put them all in dresses. can you forgive me

[artsymeeshee]

Random idea I got this morning thinking about how small little things (mostly about missing important moments of the past) make the boys emotional and sorrowful.

[starmaker-astral]

Can we stop for 2 minutes and love how (one of) the first Good Omens fanfiction EVER on Ao3 is about Crowley and Aziraphale getting DRUNK and trash-talking about GOD 💀

I heard that a fanfiction from 1993 (1993!!!) exists somewhere in the dark areas of the internet.

(wdym the first person ever who wrote a aziracrow fanfiction is probably 60 now ??)

[oobbbear]

I know ur a fiddauthor fan but how do u feel about fiddlestan,,,

From what I’ve seen they’re either the cutest thing in this world or angst so much angst

Might be a hot take but I do not like people draw fidd pretending Stan is Ford or slowly turn Stan into ford, I know where it’s coming from and I can see why it’s delicious angst material but I just really don’t like it….Not my cup of tea not gonna touch it

I do really like them being two sad dogs who were hurt by another sad dog huddle together for warmth, they can make each other better they can heal each other’s wounds.Oh Stan would appreciate fidd so so much more than ford that bastard did, fidd’s gesture of love is gift giving and Stan would treasure those gifts. Also I think Stan would understand and listen to fidd more, oh so much love and respect and I’m here for it they’re so cute.

This is honestly a healthier relationship than fiddauthor jdhdjjdjndjdjsjsn but I like that ship for its complexity and toxicity i want to fix them (gesture towards alone together) also I’m just biased

[daily-yin]

Can u draw paper and yin being best buds

Day 16

[jasperthejester]

me: finally accepting theres a good chance im autistic and starting to work up the courage to ask my parents to see if i could get a diagnoses but being scared to

my mom: do you ever think you have adhd? if you want to do a screening for add next time your at the doctors you can

me:

[manichewitz]

i dont think yall understand how floored i was when i found out that the interview with the vampire books are actually incredibly erotically gay for real and not just light queercoding or fan's gay ships?? bc this changes everything. i had always assumed anne rice hated fanfic authors for making her male characters fuck, but no, she just wanted to be the only author making her male characters fuck

[surreal-duck]

live drama adaptations part 2 (prev)

cast reveal and girls movie night 🔥

[navree]

"rhaenys could have ended the war by dracarysing all the greens right there" yes because a distant relation to the throne deciding to barbecue an anointed and publicly positively hailed king and his entire family who is well loved within the city and in multiple other parts of the country for the sake of the succession of a far-away princess no one was ever on board with who hasn't been seen by the populace in literal years, her psycho husband, her three obvious bastards, and two toddlers from the psycho husband would go over super well with westeros and especially in king's landing where scores of the still-cheering population were killed for no reason by that same dragon who would do the barbecuing, because when targaryens act unilaterally without thinking of how the people would react there's never any problem, which is why the storming of the dragonpit and robert's rebellion were actually just collective delusions dreamed up by readers who hate rhaenyra and not key parts of the story and house targaryen's history that directly contributed to their demise and are intrinsic to the plot

truly team black stans are made up of only the most genius and media literate amongst us

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 41, part three

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)  (whole thing on AO3)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Brotherhood of Man

Somehow, after the multi-layered shit sandwich of betrayal that happened in Nightless City, Lan Xichen manages to convince his two besties to swear brotherhood with him and each other. Lan Xichen's Polyamory 101 class apparently didn't tell him that forcing a vee to become a three-for-all is a bad idea. Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao are bonded by only two things: 1. loving Lan Xichen 2. hating each other.

Nie Mingjue is great at letting bygones be bygones, as we can tell as he glares all the way through Jin Guangyao's skull.

Next we jump to Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao playing the song of clarity for Nie Mingjue, with Lan Xichen in a particularly sexy set of ultra-fancy robes.

NMJ keeps his eyes shut so he won't have to see the extreme eye fucking that's going on right in front of his salad.

Check out his cool candle holders, by the way.

I can't help but think...is this how Lan Xichen is spending his time while Lan Wangji is in forced seclusion? Lan Xichen didn't attack any elders, so there's no reason he shouldn't be enjoying himself, but he's gone all in on the fuckboy life while his brother is seriously struggling. The Lan brothers seem a lot less close after Wei Wuxian's death interlude and I wonder if this is part of the reason.

(More behind the cut!)

We take a tiny break from empathy during this section so that Lan Wangji can check Wei Wuxian's qi.

He does, and goes to play healing for him. He does not react like WWX is lacking a core, despite doing the magic wrist check that would tip him off if that were the case, so I add this to the pile of evidence that WWX 2.0 does have a (shitty) core in his new body.

I like this little scene because Lan Wangji is clearly worried, emotional, upset - he's doing his little sour-lemon frown and he's intensely focused on Wei Wuxian while he plays healing - but he's not trying to wake him, and he doesn't say anything about his own concerns once Wei Wuxian is awake.

Grown-up Lan Wangji is still not a fan of these unorthodox cultivation activities, but he respects WWX's choices and focuses on supporting him, not stopping him.

Play Misty For Me

Next, empathy shows us Jin Guangyao playing for Nie Mingjue in a 1-on-1 session in JinLintai. I guess this is like dialysis, where Nie Mingjue has to waste a shit ton of time going back and forth between home and JinLinTai to get cleansed.

It seems like Lan Xichen could have picked a better person to train in playing the song of clarity. I know Nie Huaisang's wussy core might make him a poor candidate, but surely there's someone in Qinghe who could do the job? Or send a series of Lan disciples in an exchange student arrangement? But Lan Xichen would rather force these guys to hang out together.

Lan Xichen may seem like he's being wilfully blind, or plain stupid, but I don't think that's what he's about. He's aware that both of these guys are, from a certain point of view, bad people. Nie Mingjue is driven by rage and a rigid sense of justice and social hierarchy; Jin Guangyao is consumed with self-interest and will use any means to achieve his ends.

Good guys Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji will also use any means to achieve their ends - attacking elders, raising the dead, and whatnot. What all four of these not-Lan Xichen people have in common is that they go to extremes, too high or too low, there ain't no in-betweens.

Out of the darkness, into the light Leaving the scene of the crime Either I'm wrong or I'm perfectly right Every time

Sorry, but Billy Joel is part of my cultural heritage as a Gen X person.

Lan Xichen embodies a combination of Confucian and Buddhist values, I think; he wants the people he cares about to chill the fuck out and find the middle way, and also to be truly brotherly toward each other. He tries to achieve this through gentle nagging and also by modeling the behavior he wants to see, creating opportunities for peace and balance. Unfortunately at the time Empathy is showing us, he's unware how extreme and unbalanced his own feelings for Jin Guangyao really are.

At some point, Jin Guangyao starts playing the altered version of the music, and we have a series of kind of weird cuts where 1. the Song of Fuck You is playing on the soundtrack while Lan Xichen is teaching Jin Guangyao 2. NMJ starts to hork up some blood in the 1-on-1 session but finishes horking in the trio session. I think this is meant to show that it was a progression.

Meet Me Outside

Empathy jumps ahead to Lan Xichen trying to warn Jin Guangyao about Nie Mingjue's declining temperament, saying that if it wasn't for JGY playing for him every day, it would be super bad, or words to that effect. He is interrupted by Nie Mingjue showing up to yell at Jin Guangyao. Was Nie Mingjue eavesdropping so that his head could recall this later in Empathy?

I'm inclined to see the dynamic among the three of them at this point through a lens of domestic violence. Lan Xichen stands by helplessly while Nie Mingjue makes it clear that he's in a rage and wants to take it out on Jin Guangyao; JGY calmly tells Lan Xichen to stay behind while he goes outside to take a beating. That's not just optics; Nie Mingjue attacks him the moment they're alone. The fact that NMJ is drunk on resentment is only partly the fault of Jin Guangyao's musical poison; a lot of it is his own choice to do saber cultivation.

Lan Xichen may remember similar interactions with his parents. He's certainly having a trauma reaction instead of stepping into this situation from a place of strength. He's protected Jin Guangyao from NMJ before without any difficulty, but the changes in NMJ's temperament and possibly the loss of Lan Wangji's companionship have put him in a weaker state of mind, it seems. And he himself may have been the target of Nie Mingjue's anger at times, too.

The Ragening

After dodging the first swing from Nie Mingjue, Jin Guangyao asks him why he's mad. The gist of NMJ's beef is this: Xue Yang escaped from the unclean realm. NMJ (correctly) blames JGY. Now Xue Yang is imprisoned by Jin Guangshan after a trial or something, in which Chang Ping retracted his earlier accusation. So they can't execute Xue Yang because there's no evidence against him. (Why can they imprison him for life with no evidence, then? Seems sketchy).

Nie Mingjue says that Xue Yang has a piece of Yin metal, and that's why Jin Guangshan is keeping him alive. JGY doesn't affirm or deny this, but he has to obey his dad, so he can't kill Xue Yang just to please Nie Mingjue.

Nie Mingjue tells him to stop doing that thing he does.

You Doing that thing you do Breakin' my heart into a million pieces Like you always do And you Don't mean to be cruel You never even knew about the heartache I've been going through

Jin Guangyao has to intuit what Nie Mingjue is talking about, which is apparently that JGY is being calculating and manipulative.

He proceeds to rip NMJ a new one for believing that everyone can be as rigteous as him when he has his noble birth and high cultivation to depend on. JGY points out that he himself doesn't have early cultivation training or a good family background to draw on. He also gives us a little bit of specific info about his position in the clan, saying that Jin Zixuan's death didn't give him a clear path; Jin Guangshan would rather bring back another bastard son than allow Jin Guangyao to succeed him.

Presumably he's talking about Mo Xuanyu. Before you feel sorry for JGY, remember that he caused Jin Zixuan's death specifically so he could claim his place in the line of succession.

Nie Mingjue says, dismissively, that he's only refusing to kill Xue Yang because he doesn't want to risk his position in the clan. Nie Mingjue says this like it's a bad thing: like Jin Guangyao, who he fired quite a while ago and totally doesn't work for him, should go against his father's express orders and kill a guy, without evidence, because Nie Mingjue thinks that would be more righteous. I gotta say, Nie Mingjue is a real piece of work.

Nie Mingjue acknowledges that he himself has killed a fuckton of people, but never for his own advancement. Jin Guangyao challenges him with words that have a little flavor of Wei Wuxian's way of thinking: did everyone you've killed deserve it? Are your standards fair?

Then he heads firmly back into villain territory by saying "sacrifices must be made for greatness" which has Nie Mingjue asking why he doesn't sacrifice himself, instead of killing other people? (Shades of WWX challenging Wen Zhuliu) Jin Guangyao replies with an emphatic nope, which inspires Nie Mingjue to kick him down the stairs and attribute his poor character to his mom's line of work, for not the first time. If I was in charge of Jinlintai, I would put a safety gate up there.

The bottom of these stairs is kind of an important place for Jin Guangyao; he's been kicked down them twice (that we know of) and each time he stood up 100% ready to kill the guy at the top of the stairs. Although he took a super long time to actually do it in the case of his dad, I'm pretty sure JGS's fate was sealed in that moment....just like Nie Mingjue's is sealed here.

Side note: In the show, JGY starts musically poisoning NMJ while they are still ostensibly getting along fine, whereas in the book he waits until NMJ has kicked him down the stairs and insulted his mom. CQL Jin Guangyao is just more forward-thinking, I guess.

After fixing his hat, Jin Guangyao walks up the stairs calmly explaining to Nie Mingjue how he fucked with the song of cleansing. This causes Nie Mingjue to qi deviate while the Department of Questionable Visual Effects messes around with extra copies of Jin Guangyao in AfterFX.

Not to be outdone, the Department of Questionable Practical Effects has loaded up the front of Nie Mingjue's torso with exploding blood squibs, because apparently that is how they interpret "all his meridians were broken." (We won't talk about the various non-cultivation-aware translations that say "all his veins were broken.")

Nie Huaisang shows up - running up all of the steps at Jinlintai. From where? Did he run from Qinghe? How did he know Nie Mingjue was in trouble? If Lan Xichen told him, why isn't he here too? Presumably he is still busy checking the guest list for the next conference, per JGY's request.

Jin Guangyao grabs Nie Huaisang and holds him out of harms way while vigorously pretending to be upset while Nie Mingjue points his saber at them. Nie Huaisang interprets this as NMJ not recognizing him (and if you've seen Fatal Journey, you know this is a fair interpretation) but it might be that he's pointing it at JGY to encourage him to let NHS go.

This Is The End

Next we see NMJ all tied up on a table in Jinlintai, with corpse poisoning marks on his neck. Someday I will learn exactly when these happen, what they mean, and how everyone who has them gets them, but today is not that day. (Remember when Wen Qing got them while WWX was playing angry flute at the rocks behind Qinghe, and then they went away when he stopped playing? And how this was never explained?) Xue Yang is walking around him with Baxia and half of the yin tiger seal. He can't control him without the whole seal so JGY says to kill him.

In case all of Xue Yang's behavior seems super random, it's actually not; his project is turning high-level cultivators into controllable fierce corpses. Where Wei Wuxian controlled his fierce corpse Wen Ning with kindness and turnips, Xue Yang uses fancy brain nails. With Nie Mingjue, he presumably hadn't developed the technique yet, which is why they can't subdue him to use him. And he failed to get the nails into Xiao Xingchen or Wei Wuxian's heads. So basically the entire project was a bust, given that he didn't deploy Wen Ning for anything, and Song Lan just followed him around an empty town. This is what happens when you get too attached to a particular creative vision.

Camera Operator: hey now!

Xue Yang uses Baxia to chop Nie Mingjue's head off, which has to piss Baxia off. Xue Yang says Nie Mingjue is finally obedient, which is only sort of true, since he'll be coming back for revenge in sword-spirit form in the live action, or in naked dismembered corpse form in every other version of the story.

Friendly Neighborhood Paperman

This murder causes Wei Wuxian to snap out of empathy back into his paperman body, and accidentally pull NMJ's head's eye covers off, revealing eyes that don't look a goddamn thing like actor Wang Yizhou's eyes, but this head has had a rough few years.

Jin Guangyao is right there in the storeroom with him; it's a good thing he didn't think to have one of his chats with NMJ's head during the 30 minutes WWX spent communing with it. He chases Paperman around slashing his sword through the furniture and knocking shit over.

Among JGY's many evil traits, perhaps the worst is the way he wastes storage space. Look at all these shelves with 2 or 3 books on them.

Paperman makes his way over to Suibian where it's displayed on a shelf, and hops onto its hilt while JGY watches. He smirks at WWX's failure to draw the sword, but eventually Paper WWX does draw it, surprising JGY. Suibian fights him remotely for a bit while WWX gets away and makes his way back to Lan Wangji.

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji trade arm clasps while Wei Wuxian gives him a sitrep, and then they run off to find Nie Mingjue's head.

Because there is no limit to Wei Wuxian's sex appeal, Lan Wangji instantly beats up everyone who gets in his sweetie's way. Lan Xichen shows up, a little alarmed at the attacks on the guards but still on board with their plan.

Lan Xichen deploys his most dramatic stair-climbing flourish to show that he means business.

Eventually Jin Guangyao shows up, and they ask to see his secret chamber. Jin Guangyao tries to explain that it's not, like, a secret chamber any more if you let people come in and look at it.

Apparently there IS a limit to Jin Guangyao's sex appeal, because Lan Xichen puts his foot down for the very first time and tells him, not asks him, to open the room.

...while Wei Wuxian smirks like a kid whose sibling is the one getting yelled at for a change.

Before Jin Guangyao can answer, Su She shows up, saying it's not cool to demand entry to a clan leader's bed chamber, as if Lan Xichen didn't have his own embroidered bathrobe alredy hanging on a hook in there.

Lan Wangji and Su She greet each other nastily, and Wei Wuxian calls him out for copying Lan Wangji, which ends the episode.

Soundtrack: I Go To Extremes by Billy Joel, That Thing You Do from the movie That Thing You Do

Bonus: Liu Haikuan's beautiful hand

[raconteur-wanpi]

Was.... was the ship Franky found after being hit by the sea train possibly the abandoned "Laboratory For Peace"??? Like, y'know, the MADS ship/headquarters?

Wait. That would... actually explain how Franky was able to run into such a strange ship. Completely devoid of people, yet full of technology and machinery that's almost never seen in the One Piece world. OK, damn. Incorporating that in my belief system.

Like, the design checks out, right? Look at the tall shape and the circular windows. Especially if you ignore the fact that this depiction of it seems to be intentionally "cutesy" and cartoony, since it's meant to evoke Lu Feld's propaganda about the true intentions of MADS.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Cannot Unsee. Cannot Unknow.

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