#closing statements

[teaboot]

Yeah no I didn’t “always know I was trans” but I WAS incredibly defensive of a girl’s ability and personal desire to do absolutely anything a boy could do, repeatedly throwing down against parents and teachers who insisted that girls and boys were just naturally predisposed to distinct binary interests and abilities, often telling them that short hair and masculine interests didn’t make me less of a girl because physical traits and hobbies don’t retroactively determine your gender or sexual identity. Yeah I’m actually still onboard with that belief by the way, not sure how some of yall lost the plot

[frivolous-pastel]

My standard closing phrase on any zoom or delivery interaction since 2020 is "Take care!"

Because I don't want to presume to tell them to have a good day but telling them to take care just seems like good advice in general

[spieluhrzeit]

y'know... i don't often like thinking back to that time, but i just had a thought.

what if schneider's statement wasn't just that? ofc he did address the things that were going on at the time, but part of me feels it's something more. he never explicitly said these words, but what if his statement was a quiet plea for till to come home?

come home... the sun shines over eichwalde. we're all enjoying the warm weather eating watermelon. olli is hosing you down like a dog as he eats. we are all young and happy.

come home... as i put on a purple bra i watch as you and paul wrap your dicks in duct tape. we're calling it "ficken2000." "am arsch hangt der hammer!" we all exclaim. jonathan davis is gonna be so confused, but we're doing it together and that's all that counts.

come home... you're laughing on set as my face starts to melt. we've been performing with these prosthetics and suits for a while, it's only natural they start to wear a bit. but we laugh and laugh as i try to fix it.

come home... i'm in your dressing room tapping my sticks on my lap. you sternly call out for me to stop, you can't concentrate. i devilishly and playfully ignore your request. later, you're waving the german flag around as loud as you can as i speak to the camera. i guess that's the law of equivalent exchange! 😅

come home... we miss you. you're our bandmates, our singer and our friend, but we don't know where this till has come from all of a sudden...

come home... the people you surround yourself with are not your friends. all they want to do is see you hurt, and then walk away when you need first aid. they don't look out for you.

come home... we're worried about you. where did those new cuts and bangs come from? why are you doing this to yourself? we hate every single moment of it. but not you.

come home... are you lonely till? we're right here. we're here for you. please... talk to us. we can help you. just stay with us please.

come home... richard made you doughnuts. he always said they were your favourite. and speaking of richard. if we were able to fix ourselves in mutter, we'll be able to fix things here. please come back to us, for all of us. please...

come home till. we miss you. this isn't who you are and we're worried.... please...

thumbs trembling as i type, i cut it all out. words the world will never see. but maybe, within this band, this family we've made, we can sort it out together...

---

perhaps he couldn't say those things. luckily, i don't mind being a conduit for things i feel like he would say. because i would say them too.

[scintillatingshortgirl19]

VERY interesting that this moment took place in the "woman in house and wilson's building thinks they're gay/dating" episode

also. hugh laurie's little smirk here really adds a certain . . . dimension to this moment that would not be there if he'd responded to the joke in a different way

[pseudophan]

i honestly can't fault the people who don't believe the news story about "a norwegian man named mads mikkelsen who got denied entry into the us because of a jd vance meme on his phone" is real, because it truly does sound a bit too much like an onion article. and in all fairness, the real story should be more something along the lines of "21 year old tourist gets randomly detained by ice and questioned until they can find any excuse to send him back to fulfil their daily quota or whatever the fuck"

that said my favourite part about the whole thing is how many times when i've seen someone say it's clearly just made up as a joke because of the name, someone's been in their replies going "ugh ignorant americans strike again 🙄 if you knew anything about the rest of the world you would know that's a very common name, because norway uses patronymic surnames so he's mads, son of mikkel" like yeah man, tell 'em. if this was 1825 that would have been an epic burn for sure

[polyamorousmood]

just a lil reminder that

You're never too good for old-fashioned miscommunication!

[matchalovertrait]

Alegría v Caruso: Day 3, Pt. 2

"Please state your name and occupation for the record," Antonio requested.

"Mia D'Angelo-Ramirez. Michelin-starred chef and head judge of Diced Junior," the woman spoke calmly.

"What was your impression of Ms. Alegría?"

Mia smiled. "At first? I saw a younger version of myself, though not nearly as shy. She's a star. A brilliant artist. She made a name for herself."

"So, in your professional opinion and experience, has Ms. Alegría ever shown signs of struggling with originality?"

"Not once. She's quick on her feet. That's one of the reasons why she was chosen to compete in Diced Junior."

Antonio nodded. "Would someone like Ms. Alegría—who has spent years refining her skills, proving her creativity, and training at Santoro—have any reason to steal recipes?"

"No. She wouldn't need to. Even when she and another contestant both prepared soups for the second round, their dishes were still distinct. If we suspected copying, she would have been eliminated for that alone."

Antonio turned to the jury. "There you have it. Straight from one of the most respected chefs in the industry. Ms. Alegría is not a thief. She is an innovator. There is no question about her talent or whether she deserved her spot. She didn't need to steal."

Then it was Isabela's turn. "Ms. D'Angelo-Ramirez, just to clarify, you attended Santoro yourself, correct?"

"Yes, I'm an alumna."

"How many Diced Junior contestants have been accepted into Santoro over the years?"

"Not many."

"So, it's quite rare for a former contestant to be accepted into such an acclaimed program?"

"It's rare because Santoro has high standards, even higher than needed to be accepted to compete in Diced Junior. Clearly, Dulce met them."

Isabela paused, trying not to smirk. "Or maybe... she is not that skilled and had a little help?"

The people in the courtroom grew curious.

Antonio knew exactly where she was headed. "Objection. Speculation."

"Sustained," the judge asserted. "Careful, Ms. Campos."

Isabela continued, "Let's talk about Mr. Caruso, then. Ms. D'Angelo-Ramirez, as part of the Diced Junior selection process, did Mr. Caruso ever make it into the show?"

Dulce had no idea where Isabela was going with this. That's a weird question.. doesn't that go against her own client?

"No," Mia responded with caution, also noting the odd question. "He auditioned multiple times but was never selected.

A few jurors exchanged glances, some of them gasped. Auditioned several times, and he never got in?

Isabela moved forward, "And Mr. Caruso didn't need a TV show to prove himself. He got into Santoro on his own merit, didn't he?"

"I suppose so? I'm not part of the Santoro admission committee, Ms. Campos."

"And yet, Ms. Alegría—someone you publicly vouched for—was accepted into the same program as you, despite the chances."

"Objection-" Antonio began to say.

"Overruled," the judge said. "Proceed."

Isabela looked at the judge. "Your Honor, I have evidence. May I present it to the court?"

"Go ahead. But it better be relevant."

"Ms. D'Angelo-Ramirez, during filming, you told Ms. Alegría, and I quote: "I'll be watching your career closely. Don't let me down, alright? Be smart with your choices."

Mia knew it was true before Isabela played the video. She had meant for the conversation after Dulce's elimination to happen off-camera, but the producers had kept rolling and aired the footage anyway.

"I truly saw potential in Dulce. Don't twist my words," Mia argued.

Isabela turned to the jury. "All I ask is that you consider the possibility that personal connections—not talent—played a role in Dulce's admission to Santoro. Perhaps Ms. Alegría isn't as skilled as she claims. Ms. D'Angelo-Ramirez took a liking to her, after all. And she said, 'Don't let me down.' Now that Ms. Alegría is facing serious allegations, isn't it possible that Ms. D'Angelo-Ramirez is simply trying to save face?"

Fine, Isabela. Want to bring out the clips? Let's do it then.

"Your Honor, if I may, I would like to present a compilation of clips from Ms. Alegría's episode of Diced Junior."

What was this? Movie time? The judge really wished it was allowed to eat popcorn on the job. "Proceed, Mr. Romero."

A lively preteen Dulce was shown on the screen. The courtroom watched the young chef talk about her dishes in detail, share her thought processes, and maneuver around the kitchen with ease. The professionalism and precision were apparent. Many adults now can't do what the child on the television was doing.

When the video ended, Antonio turned to the jurors. "That is the same Dulce Alegría that is sitting in front of you today. Imagine everything else she accomplished in nearly a decade after his was filmed."

He continued. "Dulce Alegría is not a thief. Maybe she didn't win Diced Junior, but she has proved herself in many ways. She had a promising career, which is now suffering because of damaging lies. She lost opportunities. Doors that were once open for her were promptly shut. I ask you to hold the defendants responsible. Words have power, and today, your verdict will ensure that truth prevails. Thank you."

It was time for the jurors to deliberate.

Start from the beginning (Gen 2)

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[everchased]

every time i get insecure about giving a trope or ability i like to one of my ttrpg characters i'm gonna think about how jake wysocki goes super saiyan every chance he gets

[nathanbellamy]

Giffing notable moments from the xmen scripts, pt 3

(*, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

[anghraine]

Speaking of the social context of P&P and Austen in general, and also just literature of that era, I'm always interested in how things like precisely formulated hierarchies of precedence and tables of ranked social classes interact with the more complex and nuanced details of class-based status and consequence on a pragmatic day-to-day level. I remembered reading a social historian discussing the pragmatics of class wrt eighteenth-century English life many years ago and finally tracked down the source:

"In spite of the number of people who got their living from manufacture or trade, fundamentally it was a society in which the ownership of land alone conveyed social prestige and full political rights. ... The apex of this society was the nobility. In the eyes of the Law only members of the House of Lords, the peerage in the strictest use of the word, were a class apart, enjoying special privileges and composing one of the estates of the realm. Their families were commoners: even the eldest sons of peers could sit in the House of Commons. It was therefore in the social rather than in the legal sense of the word that English society was a class society. Before the law all English people except the peers were in theory equal. Legal concept and social practice were, however, very different. When men spoke of the nobility, they meant the sons and daughters, the brothers and sisters, the uncles and aunts and cousins of the peers. They were an extremely influential and wealthy group.

"The peers and their near relations almost monopolized high political office. From these great families came the wealthiest Church dignitaries, the higher ranks in the army and navy. Many of them found a career in law; some even did not disdain the money to be made in trade. What gave this class its particular importance in the political life of the day was the way in which it was organized on a basis of family and connection ... in eighteenth-century politics men rarely acted as isolated individuals. A man came into Parliament supported by his friends and relations who expected, in return for this support, that he would further their interests to the extent of his parliamentary influence.

"Next in both political and social importance came the gentry. Again it is not easy to define exactly who were covered by this term. The Law knew nothing of gentle birth but Society recognized it. Like the nobility this group too was as a class closely connected with land. Indeed, the border line between the two classes is at times almost impossible to define ... Often these men are described as the squirearchy, this term being used to cover the major landowning families in every county who were not connected by birth with the aristocracy. Between them and the local nobility there was often considerable jealousy. The country gentleman considered himself well qualified to manage the affairs of his county without aristocratic interference.

"...The next great layer in society is perhaps best described the contemporary term 'the Middling Sort'. As with all eighteenth-century groups it is difficult to draw a clear line of demarcation between them and their social superiors and inferiors. No economic line is possible, for a man with no pretensions to gentility might well be more prosperous than many a small squire. There was even on the fringe between the two classes some overlapping of activities ... The ambitious upstart who bought an estate and spent his income as a gentleman, might be either cold-shouldered by his better-born neighbours or treated by them with a certain contemptuous politeness. If however his daughters were presentable and well dowered, and if his sons received the education considered suitable for gentlemen, the next generation would see the obliteration of whatever distinction still remained. The solid mass of the middling sort had however no such aspirations, or considered them beyond their reach.

"...This term [the poor] was widely used to designate the great mass of the manual workers. Within their ranks differences of income and of outlook were as varied as those that characterized the middle class. Once again the line of demarcation is hard to draw..."

—Dorothy Marshall, Eighteenth Century England (29-34)

(There's plenty more interesting information in the full chapter, especially regarding "the poor," and the chapter itself is contracted from a lengthier version published earlier.)

[housemdork]

house md rewatch: 2x08, "the mistake"

catholic chase isn't just a character feature anymore - it's its own major subplot.

2x08 is so solid all around. the format is unique, in the vein of "three stories," and it says even more about chase and house's relationship than we've seen so far, in my opinion. their respective portrayals of one another show the complexities, toxicity, and underlying love (yes, i think that's here) between them. i'm going to forgo a lot of plot-specific comments because i REALLY want to capitalize on a certain analogy that i think is the most compelling bit of the episode (grad school close-reading brain Activated).

first and foremost, chase is being catholic again. how saint jude, patron saint of lost causes of him. i'll be showing my hand as someone who was raised Catholic Lite (my family has never been super religious); i know a lot of the sacramental lingo, too, because i just got through teaching at a catholic university!

catholics have a sacrament called "reconciliation," or a kid's first confessional to a priest - i did mine when i was 8. returning to confession is typical practice in the religion because there are always things for which to ask forgiveness. it's a very private affair (whatever is said is supposed to be utterly confidential) and supposed to be organic, but stacy's practice reconciliation with chase is anything but.

much like a kid (maybe a catholic kid, around age 8?) would rehearse lies to their parents, stacy coaches chase in preparation for his disciplinary hearing. he's repeatedly reprimanded for adding sincerity and self-flagellation where it would weaken his case, and in the same breath chastised for being a shitty liar. the whole "first reconciliation" affair is highly ritualistic; you have to memorize the act of contrition, introduce yourself to the priest in a very precise way, and it's very intimdating as a kid.

even visually, this shot is organized like a confessional booth - which are intimidating in their own right. the doors divide priest (stacy) and sinner (chase) from one another, with the subtle space in between the go-between through which chase confesses. there's even a lectern-equivalent over chase's shoulder.

also interesting to note (not just in this analogy) is that stacy isn't wearing the crucifix that mark gave her.

as the tale that chase spins for stacy unravels, we see that chase became increasingly desperate and self-serving (in character of him from the vogler arc). at the near climax, he reveals to cameron and foreman that he plans on assisting the patient, kayla, and her brother, sam, in securing her a black market liver. this is, clearly, insane, despite chase's insistence that house would do something similar. foreman reiterates the underlying problem chase is experiencing: "this isn't gonna be your salvation."

this is becoming increasingly apparent to chase, especially as, in real time, the number of people ushering him along this sacramental journey is expanding - stacy, cuddy, and house are all involved in the interrogation now. he can't find a pragmatic way out of this predicament, just like he can't keep dancing around his fundamental (catholic) guilt over his error eventually killing kayla.

the next version of events he tells is the martyr's version. in chase's last-ditch fiction, he describes how he marched into kayla's hospital room to stop her from pursuing the black market organ, even as sam protests against it. he undoes an earlier mote of selfishness - telling a superfluous story about his tonsils to comfort patient hospital anxiety - by sharing about his deceased father (a new revelation to the audience!). it's this faux honesty, this nobility, that chase wants as his final testimony. noble, guilty, sacrificing, all in one.

yet the final version, the one nearest the truth, concealing everything but chase's reason for lying, is the most pitiful one yet: after kayla has died, chase confesses his error to same, who lashes out. chase bears the brunt of guilt; he feels he's been adequately punished...

so why does he keep looking at house at every turn?

chase wants to fall on his noble sword and get things over with - he says as much to stacy when he has the option of pushing the hearing date up. however, at every junction, he's downplayed the role house had in diagnosing and treating the patient. he's also afraid of house hearing all this self-sacrificing farce because he knows that he won't buy it. in this moment, stacy has lost her position as allegorical priest; house now embodies the role, sans the privacy of the confessional booth and the screen.

and, like clockwork, house clocks chase's real goal here: absolution. he wants to get through this pseudo-catholic-sacrament as intact as possible without showing any real vulnerability. when house takes chase aside, he says that, "you want him [sam] to sue you." oh, the catholic suffering of it all.

house does away with the ceremony and ritual of the confession. he confesses (!!!) to chase that he figured his father had passed away, and that rowan asked him to keep it to himself. this obviously pains chase, but, since it's house, and since no one can convince me that house isn't mean to be chase's Not Dad, he looks to him instead for a way forward. he's confessed; what should he do now?

nope - house only outlines his 2 options (tell the whole truth, or keep lying) and pledges that he won't say anything. the decision is entirely up to chase. this is a pretty non-deific (or not CATHOLIC, i should say) moment for house, refusing to intervene when a situation sorta calls for it. he's neither benevolent nor malicious, and we've seen him be both. maybe that's why he pays for his lack of a decision when the diagnostics department enters The Foreman Era.

so, in conclusion, this episode was an exercise in chase's catholicism, namely the sacrament called reconciliation/confession, that house subverts by not being the deific, unmerciful god who chase has come to expect in his life.

meanwhile, in wilson land:

hands not quite folded in prayer, divided by the walls of a non-confessional? discussing illicit sexual affairs? drawing admissions from house about his illicit affair? their dumb little game being vaguely penetrative? house's ball(s) being in wilson's metaphorical court? who's to say. i'm just a grad student.

[scribz-ag24]

i checked the italian blind run that apparently is very popular in the IT community. and. was anyone.

so was anyone. was anyone going to tell me in this version dusknoir asks if his existence had value.

his line about saying with full sincerity that life is marvelous.

why didnt i hear of this until now i crave to know every little difference between translations so i can cry again and again over the same guy.

[marvey-sideblog]

[enjoyvoidblack]

The thing about Gerry being goth is that it makes an incredible amount of sense - not just as a spooky aesthetic, either. I think it has to do with the fact that he spent his entire life seeing and knowing the understructure of a world that is deeply horrifying to live in, especially if you aren't willing (as Mary was) to gamify it or align yourself with it enough to stop caring about the value of human life.

Imagine going to school at age 12, and being given brightly coloured books and told off for staying out too long on recess and pelted with dodgeballs during gym, all the normal middle school stuff - all the while knowing that 1: Everything you see around you is a thin facade for predatory forces of fear that could consume any person at any time, and 2: If you try to tell them they will either not believe you, or have their security and impression of existence irreparably altered and still not be any safer for it. Imagine feeling that misaligned with the reality every other person seems to be experiencing...and then looking in the mirror and seeing the most normal brownish hair, and the same bright clothes as any classmate, and the unassuming face of just anybody you might find on a playground, in a grocery store, anywhere. The face of the unknowing civilian, the face of a kid you never could have been, the face of potential prey.

Wouldn't that be a little bit unbearable? Would the pressure not grow until it claws at the inside of your chest, begging for if not a way to fix it or to tell anyone, at least some way to express how little the world you know matches up with the one you see?

I think, in that case, the alternative to running through the streets gripping random strangers by the shoulders and trying to make them realize just how tenuous and teetering on the edge of senseless terror and agony their existence is, is to go buy a big black coat and some shitty hair dye. Vent enough of the pressure that you can keep the rest to yourself. Find an equilibrium between two worlds that does not feel like a lie or an unacceptable vulnerability. "Goth." That's a thing people know. That's a thing that already exists in the world everyone else still lives in, but it's also a thing that doesn't shy away from morbidity, that copes with the doomed nature of existence by looking it in the eyes and saying Nothing here needs to be permanent to matter. I suspect it was Gerry's way of still interfacing with the world, to not cut himself off completely from the rest of unknowing humanity but to not present as an unbearably normal lie, either.

It just...adds. It's a foundational hint to who Gerry is and how he sees the world, so much more than just a quick visual aesthetic. It's one of my favourite choices re: canon character appearance expressed in the show, right next to Martin being "not the smallest guy".

[feanorianethicsdepartment]

i mean, sure, maybe in tolkien’s moral conception of the universe deviating from the Divine Plan™ that dictates that you and your people are destined to wither away into the dark and be forgotten is an act of utmost hubris, but like, we don’t have to agree with him