#edit: forgot to put this under a readmore

[drawnaghht]

Hi! I already answered a bit in the comments, but I thought I'd reblog this to try and summarize and maybe increase the sample size? :] Although I can't say I'm activr as a shipper, this is just what I've gathered from years of seeing fanworkds as both a TMNT and Usagi fan.

"What's appealing about the rabbit" is interesting bc when we talk about the ship alone, it actually has a history in the previous shows and the comics.

Everyone in the comments saying "you should look at the og comics or the 03 show" is right. cuz that's where the ship started and what appeals to fans, the interactions in the comic and what the 03 show added to the dynamic.

(putting this under a readmore cuz I ended up talking a lot anyway)

The newer ship should probably be called leoichi or yuinardo or something else, from the names that have popped up. The 2022 show is NOT where you go if you want the same flavor as in some of the fanworks. It's not very dramatic or funny, but goes for a kind of "legacies can change drastically" story at first. It plays around with the idea of Miyamoto Usagi (like in the comics) as a ronin highly admired by his descendant but hated by the city he saved. and that was really interesting about it. But for the modern ship a lot of ppl borrow some characteristics and design elements from Yuichi Usagi and/or Miyamoto Usagi for one reason or another. They just find it more interesting, since if you're gonna write fanfic, why not write something good? Or just fun? Or they take the show and change it wholesale. Or just misunderstand it. That's imo what happens in fandoms with ships when one show is more popular and liked than the other, so that's not always an indicator of what the character is actually like 🤷

Salt aside, this has resulted in some interesting versions of both Usagis, or interesting OC Usagis and stories that can be fun to read. Although Usagi is very different per artist/writer, that's because everyone is literally writing their own version, borrowing from many other canon and non-canon iterations, the personality and features they like. Some change the interpretation so much it become a new character, but still name them Miyamoto Usagi or Yuichi Usagi, which might make tags confusing to go through.

Yuichi Usagi to me and many others is a fun character when we were willing to watch the show. I've talked with friends or have been messaged over "how boring this show is" which while I disagree with, is like a thorougline in the experience of first watching this show. I also thought it was extremely slow at first, but when I actually paid attention, it was very endearing to me with what it attempted as a linear story with an ensemble cast.

Usagi is an orphan raised by his elderly aunt/granny who seemingly his whole life has hyperfocused on being a cool samurai like his ancestor, but doesn't know that no one else besides his family really thinks so. He's lived an isolated country-life, he's bored and at 16 he wants to go out and make a name for himself. and thats one contrast leoichi fans like to emphasize too - city-boy vs country-boy. This creates tension and and some comedic moments between Usagi and others he meets. These sudden friendships created a greater interest in me towards the show. There are interesting contrasts between Usagi and the rest of his cast bc of him being from the country + an isolated kind of samurai-fanboy.

As a character, he seems like a straightforward "brash and impatien teen boy" at first. He seems to have ADHD and is almost extremely impulsive, which imo endeared him to a lot of 18!Leo fans, bc those are traits they share. He makes a lot of mistakes, but also fixes them when he realises he is in the wrong or when it's pointed out for him. He's a bit stubborn but not that much, as he's shown to forgive quickly and sympathize with reason when he starts to pay attention. The more he progresses, the more we see him try to be a bit less brash and impulsive, to do right by the people he meets. He even befriends those who were enemies at first bc he can see compromises where needed for a peaceful solution (although part of this is probably also the show writers seeing the enemies in different lights for vsriety). He's also a good fighter, but gets into bigger fights than he can handle because of his naive impulsiveness and misplaced confidence in himself. 18!Leo is also a bit headstrong and very self-centered for various reasons, but is more of a strategic thinker and if I remember right, makes an exit in a tough situations bc he's rightfully scared. Usagi in contrast feels almost no fear, which almost gets him in bigger trouble, but is also a surprisingly quick thinker because he doesn't lose face. I once wrote longer abt this, but found that seemingly, his distractedness makes him notice things others don't in tense situations. He's also willing to protect those unarmed in an unfair fight, even figuring out how to unlock himself from cuffs he'd never seen before. So all those are just a few traits that make him interesting to watch. In an ideal situation, I would just put the two characters into a situation together and see them they struggle out.

If you already don't like the character, you will probably find better luck seeing what the og ship was about (03 leosagi) or just reading the crossover comics (for the dynamic).

Now, Miyamoto Usagi is very appealing because he is a very multi-faceted character. He feels very real because of how well the comic is written. The character has the range to be both serious, comedic and inbetween. He is honorable, but contradicts this with the sheer violence he takes down his enemies with. He's also a protector and a bit of a scamp at times. So he has these interesting contradictions that make him so compelling to read, even if readers might disagree with his actions at times.

This all filters down to the fanwork a bit, from fans who'vealso read the comic. Because most of the Leosagi ship comes from the additions and changes of the 03 show, I'll try to summarize what Usagi is like there instead of trying to summarize and interpret all of the comic. Usagi is shown to us as relatively young (maybe around 16, based on how other characters treat him), but already very accomplished an honorable as a samurai. The show seems to move around his lore to save runtime on explaining anything about his past, so he's introduced to us as a student who saves Splinter when the latter is attacked when the turtles travel to another dimension for the Battle Nexus.

He's often shown in fanfic to be a contestant in this Battle Nexuz, cuz this show is where that idea originated. Which is fun cuz hey, that's an easy way to create tension. Here we also see the mutual respect the characters are shown to have. The 03 writers might have wanted to hammer in "these two clue in on each other right away". Then Leo is poisoned, Usagi refuses to continue the fight and even guards Leo together with Donnie, to make sure no one actually finishes the job. This is likely where a lot of the care they have for each other comes from in fanfic. This was basicay the show writers own "Usagi takes care of a sick Leo" fanfic in some way.

Then at some point later, Usagi gives Leo advice in a hard time during the show's story. And if I remember right after this they also gift each other swords! Which is cute bc who else will gift you a lovingly made sword but your closest friend and confidant?

So there's mainly stuff like that from the 03 show, which has filtered into the feelings ppl have about the ship. And then that has filtered down to any new interpretations of the ship, whether it's 12!Leo or 18!Leo with an OC!Usagi or fan versions of Yuichi Usagi or Miyamoto Usagi.

Lol I kinda wish I could put the moments that the 03 show had into a graph and then compare that to how it filtered into the fanworks but I think other people could honestly explain the 03 ship better and I know I've seen posts around but this is like the summary. Someone on youtube made a really good overview I think arou d 2023 about why the ship is appeing throughout the ages, so u can find that (OP posted it here on tumblr too).

Now, why so many fan interpretations? I think other fans will have to answer that, but mainly it seems bc of the lack of any crossovers in the '18 show, ppl really wanted something there. something felt missing without an Usagi there.

So to summarize, people find the rabbit appealing mainly because the 03 show was so popular, fans who like crossovers a s crossover ships felt that it was a natural progression, whether he's like 03 Usagi, comics Usagi, or someone else.

I think what annoys me with how the ship is popular these days (specifically YuichixLeo), is that ppl don't really tag properly anymore, so the "leoichi" tag is not used as much and the older ship art gets buried a bit. Others tag this ship also as Katanashipping so u might have better luck there, but I haven't looked anymore.

maybe take what I said about other fan interp with a grain of salt. as much as I liked the ship before, after watching the Usagi show, after seeing all the weird hate it got and how much ppl ignored characterization for both Usagi and Leo, I just sorta took a backseat. Not that fanfic always has to adhere to canon (I love seeing creative fan-works that can go really out there), but there's something appealing and fun abt both shows and seeing an honest to god crossover is also fun. But just lol, seeing a crossover ship stuff can be exhausting if it's always the same. But again, that's just the vibe I feel from the tags + I've been busy so maybe my understanding of the ship is a bit stale itself ^^;

Anyway yea. Go watch clips of the 03 show to understand why tmnt fans like Usagi! And if you didn't like that, read the comics. Don't watch the show if it really tests your patience, but the Miyamoto Usagi scenes there might be interesting later on, especially if you are familiar with the actor from the 12!TMNT show, from its own Usagi crossover saga.

I am conducting cross-cultural research.

Leosagi shippers, can you guys enlighten me about whats so good about the rabbit? I cant make it through the show, its just not working for me.

And all the shipping, and fanart, and writing of Usagi is really...vague? Or inconsistent.

Please give me some break downs of his personality, whats he like, whats his chemistry with Leo, whats his appeal to you specifically?

I must learn your ways

[eshithepetty]

Was just wondering how ENA would paint her nails exactly... considering, y'know, the whole hand situation lol

[ID: colored doodles of Coral Glasses painting ENA's nails. ENA is in her usual outfit, just without the hat, but Coral is seen with a gray tank top and black pants, red bra visible underneath, her hair tied up in a bun. On the first doodle, they are lying on the ground as Coral holds ENA's clawed hand and paints it, tongue sticking out and ENA watching with slightly wide eyes and a small blush. Next, there are three shots of that hand painted with bright pink nail polish: 1) only small spots where the nails 'would' be, 2) painted tips of the claws, and 3) the whole last segment of her claws painted. Beneath them, it says, "which one is best?". Then, the last doodles are of them kneeling, Coral holding ENA's mitten hand and asking, "how do you want to paint this one?", and then a doodle of ENA holding up her hands as she blushes and looks to the side, embarrassed, her white hand being painted as was shown in the 3rd variant, and her red mitten having a pale yellow heart painted on it, along with the thumb's 'nail' being painted. End ID.]

Bonus: said hand situation also makes it kinda hard for either the slippery mechanical claws Or soft clumsy mitten to do the job.... but she's got the spirit ;^^

[ID: In the first drawing, ENA is kneeling and meticulously trying to paint Coral's nails using her clawed hand, it shaking, her hair a bit disheveled and her expression frustrated, while Coral smiles sheepishly. In the second drawing, Coral has her arm around ENA's shoulders, who is hiding her face in her hands, blushing, as Coral smiles, eye squinted closed, as she says "I like them!". Her nails, which are painted cyan, are noticeably messy and smudged, a little of the polish also having ended up on ENA's mitten hand. End ID.]

[mrfartpowered]

Do you have any Heidi headcanons ...

HIIII SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT!! as an apology I have written approximately two hundred headcanons for her :3 I’ve never given her much thought before this, so thanks for the excuse to finally do that hehe !!

I don’t think Heidi has any desire to be a mom, regardless of what timeline. She’s too busy girlbossing (and also she’s way better at being an aunt than a mother, it’s more fun for her that way). This is my first headcanon bc it’s a defining characteristic of her in my post-canon timeline LOL

She is a certified gamer girl. Just an absolute beast. She still speaks, yknow, Like Heidi, and this does earn her some nasty comments in games w voice chat (like COD). But then she slaughters everyone in 10 seconds flat so it’s okay <3 if u haven’t seen @cunningweiner’s markiplier!heidi art WHAT are u even doing

Sushi lover. I have zero evidence for this it just feels right

I’m a junior!Heidi truther but everybody is shocked when they find out. They can’t believe she isn’t a senior yet

SO eager to get her driver’s license but objectively a bad driver. She’s honestly too eager. It’s terrifying to be in the passenger seat while she’s at the wheel (stolen from @maslosstuff hehe)

A decent C- or B-grade student. I wouldn’t call her stupid but academia isn’t exactly her Thing. People skills OFF THE CHARTS, but when it comes to book smarts i might go so far as to call her ditzy

Hot take (maybe??) but I don’t think she has a ton of friends. Popular, yes! But in the sense the student body knows Heidi Weinerman by face and name. Like a small-time celebrity… Honestly there’s a possibility that she throws herself so deep into the work of her show/her fame that she forgets to make time for relationships (platonic & romantic). She’s only a teen! :(

She IS a lesbian I will not be considering other options at this time

Vocal stimmer 5ever 🫶 mostly singing under her breath, I think :) but also narrating to herself. It’s the vlogger effect :/

Has a secret Reddit account that she uses to blow off steam. She’ll just go and argue w people on subjects she is extremely well-versed in. What I’m getting at here is that, though her temper is not quite as bad as Howard’s, it’s worse than Mort’s for SURE. She’s the middle ground

(stolen from The Trans Bro Code, one of my fave fics in this fandom) Regardless of how u perceive Howardgender, he and Heidi had sleepovers when they were younger. They’d do each other’s hair and nails and makeup, and maybe even dress up, and gossip back and forth. They still do it as teens, but less as a tradition and more as a major form of sibling support. Some douche broke Heidi’s heart? Howard’s doing her nails w cute little designs on each finger. Howard got into a bad fight w their mom? Heidi is giving him a full glam face of makeup.

On the subject of her relationship w Howard (oh, you thought u could go a whole post of mine with just one Howard mention?) — they’re not friends, not by a long shot, BUT on some level they respect one another. I like to think Heidi admires Howard’s ability to not care what ppl think of him. She will never admit this, of course, and she shudders at the thought of being associated w him in public. But, yk, fair is fair because Howard thinks she’s kind of a freak. He does, however, respect her commitment and crowd skills

Their gossip goes CRAZYYY like ofc they had fun conversations as kids, but as teens? They trade dirt abt Norrisvillians back and forth trying to see who has the craziest insider knowledge. It’s awesome and terrifying to witness

In any timeline where she is not the in-universe equivalent of Markiplier, she has a Master’s in Public Relations and probably owns her own PR firm

[tapir-boy]

hi! first time making an original post in like years. anyways

this is my canon timeline for dragon age, written out in prep for veilguard's release :> larger versions of the busts, plus assorted rambling, below the cut.

eventually, i am probably going to cave and post some stuff about these bastards on ao3 - if you are interested, this is where to look: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tapir_boy/works

SARRELAN TABRIS: as im writing this post my partner looked over, saw sarrelan, and went "thats my fuckign WIFE". so shes highly reviewed

Sarrelan is the Warden-Commander and Hero of Ferelden, the woman who killed the Archdemon, ended the Fifth Blight, Arlessa of Amaranthine, and winner of Vigil's Keep's Biggest Bitch award twenty-two years and counting. she is full to the brim with autism, which is part of the reason she looks so. mad. all of the time. she doesn't mean to, she just does not Emote well and so comes off as being more aggressive than she actually is. now don't get her wrong, she is also full of rage and kind of jumps to violence as a first resort, but she is capable of listening to people and generally does like people, like she thinks good people deserve things and wants to give them good things. she just never looks like she does.

she's got kind of an immediate bond with Alistair, something to be said about him being basically the first human man who's ever treated her with respect and actually listened to her when she takes control of a situation. ive seen interesting commentary out there about how alistair immediately turns control of the situation over to the HoF and how that can be really disorienting/frustrating/upsetting for some characters, but its kind of the opposite for sarrelan. shes had almost two decades of experience getting into shit with her cousins, shes used to taking charge and she likes having that control, and its a relief that alistair doesn't try to fight her on it.

zevran is a little more rough-going to start as they're both very different people - zevran is used to reading more into people's body language, and sarrelan's body language is very disassociated from her actual emotions, so he does spend a good while thinking he's in like Imminent Danger while sarrelan's in the corner trying to figure out if she actually Likes this guy flirting with her. (she does).

zevran semi-accidentially insinuates himself in alistair and sarrelan's relationship right after it starts, half-jokingly offering to have a threesome to help them both get over their nerves of losing their virginity, and then oops oh no they all caught feelings and no one knows how to deal with it. they only figure their shit out a few days before the battle of denerim and it's as sarrelan is On Top of the archdemon, getting ready to kill it, still unsure if Morrigan's ritual will work and if she'll even survive this, that she's able to tell them she loves them.

zevran's earring is the only piercing she has, and she treasures it greatly. she's a two handed warrior and has a sword bigger than herself. shes also gone 1v1 with an orge alpha and survived. canonically. id say i have video proof but i dont. just trust me bro

(TW FOR SA, NOT GRAPHICALLY DESCRIBED)

CONNOR HAWKE: local man made of 20 different types of trauma in a cool chestplate

connor is actually adopted into the hawke family! long story short, he was born in kirkwall and was taken to the circle there, and only left because his enchanters conspired to smuggle him out after one of the templars assaulted him. he fled to ferelden where he came across the hawke family, who took him and his daughter in and helped him fake a new identity with them. he's not happy to be back in kirkwall, but the city is a part of him whether he likes it or not - it's eating him alive but without it, he doesn't feel like himself. he's a very dedicated and loyal person, usually to his detriment, but he feels like he can't keep running from the threat of the templars anymore, he has to do something to fix this makerdamned city now.

(TW IS OVER)

he's got Something going on with the whole kirkwall crew, it just never really expands into anything for years because he's basically married to the job. but his life has been intertwined with these people's since he met them, and at a certain point all of those feelings mesh together and he's sitting there at wicked grace night and realizes he might be In Love with all of them, and then he has to make a hasty exit before he has a complete and total breakdown over it. during the timespan of DA2, anders is really the only person he has a romantic relationship with, because justice is getting tired of anders holding himself back from maybe the one other man in kirkwall who would support him no matter what, and kisses connor like the day before he has to leave on a longer quest to the sundermount. connor makes them discuss their feelings afterwards and they end up figuring it out, although the rest of the kirkcule are like. still fucking each other and are by no means exclusive at this point. the rest of them just never talk about it, because things go downhill in act 2 FAST. like, within a month he loses his mother, almost gets dragged back to the circle, has to fake his daughter's death, completely destroys his relationship with carver, and almost dies fighting the arishok.

the connor hawke of reality and the Champion of Kirkwall that gets immortalized by varric are two very different people - basically by the time that connor gets the name of Champion, he's already been working on maintaining a public persona that he just calls Hawke, and after everything with his daughter being sent away, he never lets that mask down again. he really considers Hawke to be a completely different person to Connor, and varric tries to help cement that difference in the Tale of the Champion. Hawke's story is that he was always Ferelden, his daughter was adopted and really did die, and he had no idea anders was getting so radical until the moment the chantry exploded - connor's story is that from the moment he sent Lila away, he was planning to find some way to take down Meredith.

he and anders spend a lot of time inbetween acts 2-3 trying to figure out more peaceful ways to address the chantry and bring some - any - oversight to the circles, but when all of that fails, they finally resort to plan dynamite. when all is said and done, they go to amaranthine to be reunited with lila, and then go on the run trying to help the mages break out of the circles and evade the templars. when he hears that varric was kidnapped by cassandra and that she's looking for him to speak at the conclave, he sees it as an opportunity to make a case for the rebel mages, and goes despite all the warnings not to. he survives in the fade up until the questline where the Herald goes into the fade, finds him alive, and drags him back home to see his daughter again. then he stays in skyhold to basically act as an advisor to her, and when the rest of the kirkcule get their hands on him, it kind of spurs him on to finally address his relationship to the rest of them.

connor is a force mage by default, but given how long he spent in Ferelden living on the run from the templars, he mastered both casting without a staff and fighting without magic. he's both tall and strong, but he manages to avoid scaring people off through sheer Dad energy.

LILA HAWKE: hey look theres that daughter we've been talking about

Lila is very much her father's daughter, but she doesn't have his same talent for acting calm or friendly, if she doesn't like you she Will tell you to your face and she will not work with you. (cullen.) after hawke's "death" at the conclave, she kind of becomes the defacto leader of the rebel mages, which is definitely a normal amount of responsibility for a twenty-one year old struggling with ongoing mental health issues and overwhelming grief to handle. shes doing great

(slight detour: to address some of the weirdness with DAI's timelines im having there be basically 3 factions of mages in the rebellion: the Circle mages, who want to remain under the circles with the exact same setup as before; the College mages, who like the idea of having their own spaces and want some oversight, but also some oversight of the oversight to address the rampant abuses of powers; and the Hawkes, the rebel mages who want no circles and no templars and the ability to live their lives in the same communities as non-mages. the Circle mages mostly look to Vivienne for leadership, the College mages are rallied behind Fiona, and the Hawkes were roaming the continent with Connor, now working loosely with the Inquisition with Lila.)

she's got some health issues - she's shorter than varric by a few inches despite being a human, she has moderate asthma, and semi-regular psychotic episodes, mostly auditory/visual hallucinations and paranoid episodes. bubba, the family mabari, acts as a service dog for her when he isn't doing the same for connor, and i imagine at some point between inquisition and veilguard, she has her own mabari who works full-time as her service dog.

she is one of the co-inquisitors for DAI, but she is not the herald of Andraste; she wasn't actually at the conclave when it exploded, she was down in haven with varric and anders, but she kind of gets roped into everything because cassandra says "youre a hawke, you're going to get involved anyways" and lila... can't really argue with that, she's just mad that cassandra was right. arisas is the diplomatic one, she's the more experienced one, and they honestly balance each other out really well. it frustrates her to no end that arisas is almost literally twice her height.

lila kind of regards her time in amaranthine as the best of a really, really shitty situation - she hates that she lost so much time with her father, that her teenage years were so tumultuous and that she had so many milestones of her life and she couldn't talk to her father about them, she never got to introduce her first girlfriend to him, she had to come out to him over letters, and while she has a lot of respect for the wardens in amaranthine and appreciates them for taking her in with no questions asked, she hates that she lives in a world where that had to happen in the first place. sarrelan is the person who made her realize she might be kind of butch, and zevran taught her how to actually fight instead of just using her magic for experimentation. connor never kept a grimoire after fleeing kirkwall (too obvious and too much evidence, especially if it got lost or stolen), but she does, and it's filled to the brim with notes and homebrewed spells.

ARISAS ADAAR: please help him he is too young for this

arisas is by far the youngest person to get involved in a major political conflict in my canon - he turns 16 during the events of DAI - and he is trying so hard to keep people from learning that information. he grew up in tevinter, taken there from par vollen as a very young child, and doesn't have the greatest grasp of southern mage/templar politics and is very confused by everything happening at the start of the game. he joined with a mercenary company as his first job, and was only with them for a few weeks before they got hired for the conclave, and he was Not getting paid enough to get a crash course in the differences between southern mages and tevinter mages.

ari is a lot more hesitant / cautious than lila is, partially because he has an anxiety disorder, and partially because he just knows a lot less about the south than she does. if it were up to him, he would not be in charge of this mess, but he's the one with the Anchor so he kind of has to be. he takes to the diplomacy pretty well, and he at least always finishes the paperwork that josephine sets in front of him (unlike liia, who will get distracted and go do something else halfway through). it does mean that he is constantly sleep deprived

inquisition is probably his first big exposure to a lot of queer people in very close proximity to him - between lila, leliana, dorian, and bull, it's the first time that he's really considered that people could be queer, much less trans, and it starts to make him question some things that he really doesn't have time to question. and, as the game continues, it doesnt really seem like questioning it will do him any good, as the inquisition continues to erase him and fill in the blanks with the Herald of Andraste, so he basically goes "even if i am queer, looking into it now will do me no good, because no one here is going to listen or respect that" and continues on like normal. (post canon he does figure some shit out, although he still uses he/him pronouns).

ari looks up to bull a lot, at first because he's a qunari who actually follows the qun, and ari is very curious and kind of wants bull to take him under his wing and become a father figure to him; but when bull becomes tal-vashoth and leaves the qun, ari tries to reassure him that he's the same man regardless of the identity he ties himself to, and that there's no shame in acting outside of the qun if it means protecting the people he cares about. bull in turn tries to help ari come out of his shell and maintain his sense of self in the midst of everything that comes with being the herald.

he struggles a LOT with having his identity erased by the inquisition, being both revered and reviled and rewritten with every step he takes. it makes him feel just thorougly inhuman and alone, and causes a mental breakdown after trespasser. he tries to stay in politics for a few years post canon, tries to help dorian with reforming tevinter with all this newfound influence he has, but being in the spotlight so much is detrimental to his heath, and he ends up having an early retirement in his mid-20s. he moves to kirkwall and raises nugs. this is the greatest his life has ever been.

[gordonfreemanreal]

okay so im gonna ramble a bit but probably not that much but tldr all the homestuck timetravel is bullshit and giving me a headache but thats ok because i love the characters a lot

(edit i just realized how long this is so im putting it under a readmore ur welcome)

okay so like i said the timetravel stuff is SO CONFUSING!!! why do all the trolls do the time trolling bullshit in different ways i Cannot keep up. whagever. i really like karkat and tavros and terezi and kanaya (my partner told me their names because i cant be assed to remember their handles)

i really love the beta kids so much they're so cutesit and i love their friendship they make me smile. i got a little emo when john was remembering dave's letter to him for his bday and decided to listen 2 him. snifflessss theyre FRIENDSSSS THEYRE FRIENDS!! they tust eachother

also even though the time bs is confusing i do like davesprite a lot. but also i like dave a lot so. unsurprising.

also i can feel this thing taking root in my brain. like. i know i have befriended a lot of ex-homestuck or current homestuck fans that probably affected the way i type but WOW IT IS ON FULLY FUCKIN DISPLAY HERE HUH.

also my ex totally used to kinda kintype as tavros and that affected the way i type so. go figure. but i dont really type like that anymore so. thats good

im getting wholly off track but thats ok. voiceacting with my partner is so fun and it makes the experience ten BILLION times better i prommy do this with your loved ones. or dont because this shit takes months to get thru apparantly. unfortunately you all Will be hearing more from me abt homestuck because its brainworms are taking root in my skull. or brain whatever

even the intermission was kinda fun even if it was a little boring...but it was important apparantly so. it ok. i liked doing a fucking shitty trans atlantic accent the whole time for narration.

also im probably not going to class today because i stayed up reading homestuck LOLLLL thats ok tho i can still get work done from home

WAIT I FORGOT TO MENTION terezi trying to kill (and also kinda of succeeding at) killing john was nuts. but also i think she felt bad abt it so its ok ?? its hard to get a read on some of the characters cause im terrible at reading sarcasm and knowing when someones insincere...

its ok thats why i have my partner the homestuck master to tell me whats going on

sorry this liveblog is kind of a mess im just rambling what im thinkin and im not going back and editing stuff because it is 7:30 am at the time of writing this section

also homestuck is super gay i like that. i didnt expect it to come to early on but i must give it props. for 2010 its surprisingly progressive even if the characters are saying the r slur like every 5 pages. product of its time i suppose..

also its cool seeing earlier toby fox works i love thatguy hes cool deltarune tomorrow or whatever. anyways uhh we stopped at like where dave just got to his medium and john is farting around on his cool jet pack so. if this wall of text was not sufficient and u want 2 ask me my thoughts on the stuff thats come up thus far send me a message or an ask or whatever ok i love you all.

peas

[luizastarry]

expect me to be Not Normal about Rain World in 25 hours.

i'll tag all RW Watcher spoilers with "rw spoilers", "rain world spoilers", "rw watcher spoilers" and "rain world watcher spoilers"!

EDIT forgot to mention but im also putting everything under a readmore for the first 2 weeks

[mwagneto]

i saw u on my timeldinr and rmemebededd you psoted smthn abt your horse toys normal (?) minds cannot comtpehend can you pelazeee post them. i wamt to see them soo bad i lie in bed at nighf anf do my mental walkthrougj of all the horses i have seen amd met and want amd i come to an empylty stable and yhink of youse

OMG HI!!!! i'm really sorry i hate posting pics to the internet it feels like im doxxing myself but i found pics on google of all the horse toys i was thinking abt when i made that post:-)

edit HOLY mother this took over an hour to write and became insanely long so a lot of it is under the cut but i hope you enjoy<3

so for context my parents used to pay for a monthly subscription to "póni klub" (pony club) which basically mailed you a box of horse things every month and a big box every year (if i remember correctly! im not sure, i only got like 3 or 4 of them in total coz they said it was too expensive 😔) which means i have like an extreme assortment of random things just from that and then there's all the stuff i got as presents or as a vásárfia (means like, "son of the market" it's basically when someone gets you a little thing from the market you're at just coz you're there, for me it also meant like, the grocery store we went to on a roadtrip)

the póni klub stuff is extremely diverse, i have two calendar-journal things (explained a bit better later), several episodes of heartland on dvd (which i dont think i ever watched), a scary as hell audiobook about a cursed tree ?? (there's a horse there also), a bunch of fantasy or y/a books about horses, stickers, keychains, erasers, anything you can imagine basically, and also a lot of little figurines

the one i was specifically thinking of when i made the post is a toyline called picipacik (c is pronounced like ts so it's like, cute to say, it means like, "tiny horsies") which came with a little personality card for each horse and also a disc to a pc game which i spent an hour trying to find before answering this ask LMAO but i got it, it was one of those collectible things but all the figurines have fur (the cards have fur too i almost forgot!!!) and they all have names and exist in the game too

i got i think one of them from póniklub and bought the rest independently but i couldn't tell you, the póni klub calendar/journal/activity book thingies (they're really good btw they have like puzzles and jokes and informative articles in them too) are dated 2008 and 2012 so yknow. it's been. an insane amount of time. im shocked i even remember anything at all tbh but horse memories are forever i suppose

im gonna put a readmore coz this is getting way too long but ya finding my picipacik was what inspired the post but there's way more

idk if you know about the german horse figurine company schleich but every time we went to austria/germany (pretty often, long story) I'd see them on the shelf and I'd want one SOOO so fucking bad sooo bad but my parents were like no way they're way too expensive 😠 only for me to realise a few months ago they're literally 3-10 euros but WHATEVER i had a few of those coz I'd beg to get one every time i saw them, chief among them these 2 beasts. the pegasus has been on my shelf for as long as i've had the shelf and it's looking at me typing this and the skewbald horse is in the attic in my horse box but ok so looking these up they're selling for like hundreds of dollars on ebay which is insane coz they were DEFINITELY not even remotely that expensive or I wouldn't have gotten them. anyway they were absolute treasures coz of how much begging it took to get them and how much i liked them, i took them with me everywhere

i also have these gorgeous little guys or well i only have the palomino but i have two of it but i played with them a crazy amount as a baby so they're really beat up, one of them lost his tail years before i developed the ability to retain memories but i cannot even begin to tell you just how soft and fluffy their manes are

my BIGGEST obsession and the one i actually got to indulge in was filly ponies, they were really cheap and came in blind bags so that was the vásárfia i usually got on the aforementioned germany/austria trips, im not sure exactly how many i have but it has to be like at least 20 or 30? i dont have any full series coz they kept updating the generations really quickly so like every few months there'd be a whole new batch of them. I'd spend ages trying to look at the available horses on the back and trying to feel the blind bag and guess which one was inside and i was correct surprisingly often, I'd say like 70-80% of the time. and since they were really small well. i never shoplifted any unprompted but one time i found a bag someone had torn open and then left there, horse and all, and i didnt have the heart to leave it so i put it in my pocket. they also came w personality cards but i lost some of them and I wasn't brave enough to also pocket the personality card of the open one but given my tendency to lose things i own a surprising amount. they also came with big maps and catalogues so I'd cross out the ones i had and circle the ones i wanted, i still have the unicorn catalogue glued on my wall, that's the one i got the most of but im sure i have at least one of each kind, this is what the blind bags looked like but i also have one of the metal boxes

there were loads in each series and uh, hm, huh, well, lmfao ?? always encouraging when something's wikipedia page has a lawsuits section. im a fillyhead forever i think crimes are ok. ALSO APPARENTLY THERE'S A TV SHOW??? DAMN. to me they'll always be fun little toys i collected when i was 5. love these guys so much if i had shelf space I'd display them. i used to have them displayed but alas i have too many items and things now also everything is always dusty. like i said the unicorns are the ones i have the most of and i only ever got a single blind bag from the crowned series but i spent ages feeling the bag to make sure i got jewel the big one in the middle and I DID!!!! getting a good grade in uh, feeling blind bags???

anyway i hit the image limit but thank you so much for asking, i loove my little horse toys :-)) there's many more but they either dont have fun lore attached or they're just gen 2/gen 3/gen 4 my little pony toys or legos or lps or the horses that came with those wooden train sets so slightly less specific than the examples above but yeah i have a veritable museum of horse toys and plushies and so-on. i dont think I've gotten anything horse related either for myself or as a gift in MANY years (other than, yknow, horse riding stuff and then the actual living horse i had for a few beautiful years) which is honestly surprising given the sheer amount of horse stuff i got from age 0 to like, mid teens but i guess my inventory filled up or something

[helmetjellyfish]

first person pronouns & honorifics for magmell main cast and then some

edit log:

10/27 - updated Okijirou's section under Shinya and vice versa. these lean more towards "what they call each other" than honorifics/titles, but one of them does have some fun trivia attached to it.

11/2 - updated Ryou’s personal pronouns. forgot to include that he uses “watashi” when he’s closeted.

4/9 - updated Minato's personal pronouns. his usage of "ore" when he was younger (42.9) appears to have been retconned.

—

so kuragebunch (the website the manga is hosted on) is celebrating its 11th anniversary, and as part of the festivities all chapters of the japanese raws (except for ch. 51) are currently free to read until 10/28 11:59AM JST. i figured i'd take advantage of that and put together a chart of the first person pronouns and honorifics that the characters use in japanese. here it is as an image.

the characters have been divided into four categories: magmell (koutarou, minato, nagisa, shizuka, asahi, ran, haruno, ryou, natsuhiko/deputy director); the fishermen (shinya, okijirou/oki); the parents (kouyou, asumi, nagiko); and other (mahiro, naru, mikako, seira). a blank space means they have never directly referred to that character in conversation before, at least not by their name/title. multiple names/titles listed for a character means that all are used interchangeably unless otherwise indicated.

criteria for selecting characters was 1) having a full name, 2) having made at least two appearances*, and 3) having interacted with a major character at least twice. ex: seira and naru count, but yume and namikazu do not count.

*"one" appearance can be defined as either a) showing up once in a single-chapter story or b) showing up in both chapters of a double-chapter story.

i'll also be formatting it as a list under the readmore, in case that's easier to view! formatting will be as such:

Category

Character A

Self: "(Personal Pronoun)"

Character B: (What Character A calls Character B)

fair warning that this will be very, very long. here we go!

Magmell

Tenjou Koutarou

Self: "Boku"

Minato: Director ("Kanchou"), Minato-kanchou, Minato-san (Starts using in ch. 14)

Nagisa: Nagisa-chan

Shizuka: Shizuka-san

Asahi: Asahi-san

Ran: Ran-kun

Haruno: Doctor ("Sensei"), Haruno-sensei

Ryou: Ryou-kun

Natsuhiko: Deputy Director ("Fuku-kanchou")

Shinya: Shinya-san

Okijirou: Okijirou-san

Kouyou: Dad ("Tou-san", "Otou-san" [Young])

Asumi: Mom ("Kaa-san", "Okaa-san" [Young])

Mahiro: Mahiro-kun

Mikako: Mikako-san

Osezaki Minato

Self: "Ore", "Boku" (Young)

Koutarou: Koutarou

Nagisa: Nagisa

Shizuka: Shizuka

Asahi: Asahi

Ran: Ran-kun

Haruno: Haru

Ryou: Chibata-kun

Natsuhiko: Natsuhiko-san

Kouyou: Kouyou

Asumi: Asumi-san

Nagiko: Nagiko

Osezaki Nagisa

Self: "Nagisa" (Third person. Common in small children)

Koutarou: Koutarou-kun (Written only in hiragana. Likely also to reflect her young age)

Minato: Daddy ("Papa")

Ran: Ran-chan (Written only in hiragana.)

Haruno: Ghost Man ("Obake no Oji-san")

Nagiko: Mommy ("Mama")

Nagaizumi Shizuka

Self: "Watashi"

Koutarou: Koutarou-kun

Minato: Director, Minato-kanchou, Minato-san

Nagisa: Nagisa-chan

Asahi: Asahi-san

Ran: Ran-chan

Haruno: Haru-san

Natsuhiko: Deputy Director

Mahiro: Mahiro

Yui Asahi

Self: "Boku" (Written only in katakana. I do not know the significance of this)

Koutarou: Tenjou-kun

Minato: Director, Minato-kanchou, Minato-san

Shizuka: Shizuka

Haruno: Haru-san

Dougashima Ran

Self: "Ore"

Koutarou: Koutarou, Mister (“Onii-san”) [Initial]

Minato: Minato-san

Nagisa: Nagisa

Shinya: Shinya-san

Haruno Izuho

Self: "Watashi"

Koutarou: Tenjou-kun

Minato: Minato-san

Nagisa: Nagisa-san

Ryou: Ryou-kun, Chibata-san (Initial)

Natsuhiko: Deputy Director

Chibata Ryou

Self: "Ore", "Watashi" (Around his mother), "Suzu" (Young, third person)

Koutarou: Koutarou-san, Senpai (Initial)

Minato: Director

Shizuka: Shizuka-san

Haruno: Doctor, Haruno-sensei

Seira: Seira

Mito Natsuhiko

Self: "Watashi", "Boku" (Young)

Koutarou: Koutarou-kun

Minato: Minato-kun

Nagisa: Nagisa-chan

Shizuka: Shizuka-san

Shinya: Shinya-kun

Okijirou: Oki-kun

Kouyou: Kouyou-kun

Fishermen

Shirahama Shinya

Self: "Ore"

Koutarou: Koutarou

Minato: Minato

Ran: Ran

Natsuhiko: Natsuhiko-san

Okijirou: Oki-san, Master ("Shishou"), Old man ("Jijii") [Derogatory, like "old geezer"], Mister ("Oji-san") [Initial]

Naru: Naru

Sagara Okijirou

Self: "Ore"

Minato: Minato

Natsuhiko: Natsuhiko

Shinya: Shinya, Kid ("Bouzu") [Initial; Familiar/derogatory language, like "sonny". May be wordplay, since it's the same kanji as the fishing term "bonzes" from ch. 36]

Parents

Tenjou Kouyou

Self: "Boku"

Koutarou: Koutarou

Minato: Minato

Asumi: Asumi-san

Nagiko: Nagiko

Tenjou Asumi

Self: "Watashi"

Koutarou: Koutarou

Minato: Minato-san, Osezaki-san (Initial)

Kouyou: Kouyou-kun

Mikako: Mikako-chan

Osezaki Nagiko

Self: "Watashi"

Minato: Minato-kun

Other

Uchiura Mahiro

Self: "Boku"

Koutarou: Koutarou-kun, Mister ("Onii-san") [Initial]

Shizuka: Shizuka-san

Kitagawa Naru

Self: "Ore"

Shinya: Shinya

Okijirou: Oki-san

Suzuki Mikako

Self: "Watashi"

Koutarou: Tenjou-kun

Oomori Seira

Self: "Atashi"

Ryou: Suzu (Until end of vol. 8 presumably), Chibata-san (Initial)

feel free to let me know if i've missed anything or if there's any mistakes! i hope this was useful (or at least interesting) information to learn ^_^

[aluckiicoin]

budget mobile rules/about

Aventurine belongs to the Honkai Star Rail universe. More specifically:

A senior manager in the IPC Strategic Investment Department and one of the Ten Stonehearts.

[ about | guideline (also under readmore) | verses ( also under readmore ) ]

As far as personality goes:

He is not a nice person. While he seems rather laid back and as if nothing could ever bother him, he will talk down on you, use you for his own advantage, sell you out if he thinks the offer is good enough. He will manipulate and use you to his whims. His constant smile and ability to wrap words around makes it almost impossible to discern his true feeling. Truthfully, he might not be able to ID them himself. He can be nice and he will be if he thinks it will help him win you over.

But if you want more about how he is, you will have to look up the Information tag (and the one on the old blog).

A very short breakdown on rules:

he won't know who you are unless you are (for now) Topaz. If you want him to, you can mention it before (that does exclude OCs that are a integral part of the IPC, obviously he should've heard of those before). He might have heard of you if you're known to the IPC however.

I can decide what he does by myself, thank you

I'm not big on ships, mostly because I don't wanna hurt myself or others; and he's likely never gonna be what you want him to become

I'm terrified of people and therefore hate dms with a passion, mostly because I can only get myself to concentrate on talking to two people at a time

there might be some nsfw-related things, nothing explicit that would be over there

if you have a problem with trans folks you can fucking leave and get hit by a car for all I care

general tumblr rp lingo:

I am not mutuals exclusive

I will have favourites, it's a human thing to do

I'm a fan of OCs, so come at me

you can always bother him via askbox

If you wanna follow up on an ask, please put it into a separate thread and link to the ask (cannot believe I forgot to mention my biggest pet peeve on here)

it would be awesome if you could cut your posts. You don't have to but if you don't it's unlikely I will follow back because I only have so much space on my dashboard and if I come back from work I'd rather not scroll through 98 posts on the same thread.

I don't mind duplicates - really I wanna see him mess with other versions of himself

in the spirit of favourites I'll probably find mains, those will be the people meant if any muse is ever mentioned in a thread. That's not first come, first served.

I'm very low activity. I will likely reblog one or two memes every day but answers will likely have to wait until the weekend.

The writer:

I'm not a good person even though people that know me will disagree

I agonize over everything I say and then it still comes out wrong

for someone usually rping muses with people skills I am AWFUL at it

I'm overthinking everything, I get anxious about anything and I wish any of my muses would just share a tiny bit of their fucking ego bc I sure could use it

You can call my Skully (Skullbert)

I'm 30+ years, from europe and a guy.

and verses!

encased in amber light ( main verse I; pre Penacony ) which is everything pre-penacony (as in everything up until 2.0 and actually checking into the hotel)

wip (mainverse II, actual Penacony)

the higher I get; the lower I sink. I can't drown my demons; they know how to swim ( post Penacony main verse ) which is everything everything after the stoneheart's oath video

swarm disaster; muse edition (star rail but the characters keep multiplying) ; anything from 'the characters found tumblr and use it' to general meeting multiple versions of the same character goes here

the emergency plan; depending on how the penacony storyline goes on, Ven fakes his death and hides out in Belobog from then on (though with Boothill's description I might have hopes that my suspicions are wrong)

everything else

[a-zira-fell]

This post is a Work in Progress and will be edited.

The Second Coming

Jesus comes back in a Judgement Day kinda situation - some Good Omens thoughts

(Footnotes under readmore) (1)

1. Who is Jesus?

At the time of the setting of Season 3 (2026?), he should be in his mid thirties (2)

A carpenter? It seems in keeping with the humour and charme of GO that he may well be a carpenter

I don't care about Jesus's gender at all. Might be a guy, might be a girl, might be neither or both, but what i know for sure is that Jesus has to be queer (3)

2. His Parents

Son of a Carpenter and the 'Virgin Mary'

maybe their names are Joseph and Mary maybe not

Young couple just got pregnant (Jane the Virgin type situation?), decide to keep it, one time there was a weird posh guy who told her she would bear the Second Coming of the Son of God and she replied "I don't even want an abortion, man" and forgot about it (4)

Punk adjacent working class parents in the 90s

Atheist-raised Christ?

3. Jesus had a hell of a weird childhood

Sparks of divine energy at random times, often emotionally triggered

Brought objects to life and revived dead pets for friends

4. Good Omens tie-in

The events of GO 1 may have triggered something in him (5) and since then miracles happen more and more frequently and he's learning to control them

He finds himself speaking truths he can't quite wrap his own head around

There are still bursts that are linked to emotions, so sometimes it's not as easy to hide. With social media and all

It has attracted people to him, some of whon may see in him the Second Coming of Christ. It's true, he knows, but it feels like a dark secret because there is so much he doesn't understand

It's like a cult that he's barely a part of, yet he is the leader

5. His Environment

He's got this close circle of friends but twelve is a lot by those standards and it's mostly just hanging out with some of them at one time

There are few occasions with all of them present but it's always a good time.

Jesus doesn't have a favourite. He has some friends that are closer but everyone contributes to the group.

He still feels set apart from them all except:

6. Judas

is the boyfriend

Absolutely devoted to Jesus but also a natural born helper who puts the cause first and manages the budget of the group as organisers of protests or booths at pride

Crowley finds he is easy to tempt to do many things, but his resolve to protect Jesus is unwavering, temptations that involve Jesus in any way don't catch on Judas (6)

Jesus relies on Judas a lot. He's torn between his fate, this whole unknown side to the world, and Judas, his foot in the real world. His rock in the stormy sea.

7. Miscellaneous

Jesus has for sure taken apart a queerphobic booth next to a church once, at the far side of a Pride Event

He was drunk one summer night and came by a plum tree in someone's yard, plums not ripe just yet. He cussed it out half jokingly, forgetting about magic bursts. Then next day the tree is completely shrivelled up

Got thoughts about Jesus? 💌 (69)

(1) yeah, it's that kind of post

(4) is there one christ per generation? That never goes off bc it's never the time. Like a switch needs to be switched to activate the sleeper agent Christ within. (All humans are made the same. Anyone could be christ.

(2) to my knowledge (adequate) Christ's birth is placed ca 4-7 BC, making him 34-37 in 30 or even 37-40 in 33 ad where his main work that we usually know him from (not the carpentry) took place.

(3) I'll refer to Jesus as he in this post bc that's easier

- is there one woodworker's kid per generation, across the globe that is just Soooooooooo fucking weird?

- does Gabriel visit one mother per generation and activate a Jesus Gene or ...

(5) or was the book of life used to activate that?

(6) I am a firm believer in 'Judas tried to deescalate the situation in Jerusalem before Jesus could come to any harm by choosing the lesser of all evils, which to him seemed to be having Jesus arrested and locked up for the duration of Pesach.' This plan however, spectacularly backfired. He unknowingly sent humanity's God-approved sacrificial lamb exactly where it could be most effectively used. Poor sod. He was just in love and unaware of the power of a mimetic crisis.

---

(69) This is the last footnote. Please step into my inbox 💌 with opinions and ideas. As I update this post, I will tag to credit ideas that weren't mine.

[scarfacemarston]

So, I really need advice. Nothing triggering at all, but I’m so crushed right now. I would appreciate anyone’s help or opinions, but people who have dealt with difficult graduate experiences or workplace issues might understand this situation more, but I’m desperate for anyone willing to help. Putting it under read more so I can give context. Hopefully the readmore will show up for mobile, too.

I have been stuck on my thesis for an entire year due in part because my advisor would only send a few emails throughout the year.

My advisor would also agree on one thing and completely change direction and claim that is not what we spoke about. Unfortunately much of this was on zoom so I lack concrete proof.

They were also not listening to the direction I wanted to go into my thesis. My specialty is historic preservation, theirs is general public history. I went to my historic preservation professor and asked if they would take over since my concentration of study and I had taken so many classes with them. My advisor’s plan leaves me with 0 pages and his plan allowed me to have 60 pages finished because of the directions they want.

After finishing some work with my proposal, the historic preservationist responds that they are not the director and that the advisor is. We had two conversations and emails about it.

Now he says it never happened. I’m crushed. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I could have graduated last year if my advisor had actually worked with me at all, but they didn’t.

Now I have to start from scratch instead of being so close to being finished.

What do I do? This thesis has been affecting my mental health for a year to the point I was getting sick and this was finally my ray of hope.

I understand that some might say go talk to a therapist but there aren’t any available that are accepting patients and I can’t afford it. I’m very intimidated by this professor despite them being so helpful most of the time so that makes it hard to talk to them.

Edit: I forgot to say, this advisor essentially pushed me into my topic which is something I’m not that interested in to begin with, but they made me feel as though I couldn’t say no

[fleetgay-super-sonic]

hi, you mentioned something about having problems with su in that stronger than you post. what would you say were your issues about the show?

putting this under a readmore and not putting it into the tags but I simply have a special interest in rocks and minerals and got really mad when I noticed this and keep getting mad about it repeatedly

mostly character design consistency, as stated in the tags of that post. and I'm. not getting into writing and plot stuff on tumblr bc I'm Not Risking inviting anything else in.

quartzes are all very similar body types apart from defects. ok! cool!

forgot to include an agate in the image but pretend one of them is there. also included jasper post corruption for a point later on.

the diamonds having different heights is fine. they all still have the same bodytype even if different faces. I can see the reasoning behind that.

not. doing an image for them rn. we know what the diamonds look like and if you don't remember, looking it up is free.

rubies and sapphires are both corrundum gems and are different.

but I don't have nearly as much of an issue with them, as they're similar Enough for me to not be bothered by as I do with the FUCKING BERYLS.

EVERY. SINGLE. BERYL. SEEN. FROM CONCEPT ART TO SHOW. IS FUCKING DIFFERENT. EVEN UNCORRUPTING A QUARTZ SHOWS THEY HAVE VERY SIMILAR BODY TYPES. BUT NOOOO BERYLS ARE ALL FFFUCKING DIFFERENT.

Aquamarine, Emerald, Bixbite, and Morganite are all beryls. And they all have almost completely different bodytypes and heights and shapes and roles. No other fucking class of gem is like this as far as I know. None.

and I'm not getting into how pretty much bixbite's only red is on her clothing when bixbite is red beryl bc that also pisses me off but it's a much more minor grievance.

EDIT: I understand the need to make characters stand out but like. that doesn't excuse the sheer RANGE beryls have

[shitty-check-please-aus]

2020 Books Read So Far

Note: Most of these are audiobooks (listening to books counts as reading books and if you disagree I’d ask you to consider why you believe that), books I started and didn’t finish will be listed but not reviewed, and all my opinions are extremely subjective. I’m putting this on this blog because I want to and I think it’ll help me keep track of what I’ve read if I write it down in a couple places. 

Some notes:

I’m surprised that most of these are nonfiction! I don’t usually think of myself as a nonfiction reader. 

Having audiobooks has made me way more productive as a reader, since I can read while I’m doing repetitive tasks at work, when I have to stand on the bus, when I’m running, etc. 

Naked, by David Sedaris

3/5, the audiobook was “unabridged selections” which means “we didn’t edit the individual essays but you’re only getting half the book”– it would probably have been a 4/5 if it was a whole book. I liked that Amy Sedaris was reading parts of it, but that’s because I like her more than I like her brother. This is sort of an example of the difference between “comedic” and “humorous,” because it’s definitely the latter. 

Read it if: you want to read something pretty fucking weird. 

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, by Sarah Vowell

4/5, I saw this recommended a lot when Hamilton first came out so it’s been in the back of my mind for a good while. The book had a great cast, and having different people reading the historical quotes was an excellent touch! 

However, I think Vowell’s conversational style is a little jarring here sometimes. It’s like “wait, why are you talking about Bruce Springsteen, I’m not that familiar with his work but he definitely isn’t from Revolutionary War times.” I got her book Assassination Vacation at a used bookshop recently as well, and both books suffer from post-2016 hindsight, where she’ll say something about how incompetent and foolish the politicians of her time are, and I just have to snort to myself and say “Sarah, you’re going to lose your goddamn mind soon.” That’s a bit of an unfair reaction, but it’s hard to avoid having it.

I was also, maybe unfairly, expecting to learn more than I did. The problem is that I know a Lot about the Revolutionary War, and from the introduction I thought we’d hear more about Lafayette’s later life (my knowledge drops sharply after about 1810). The book basically ends after the Battle of Yorktown, though.

Read it if: you have not seen/listened to both Hamilton and 1776, or if you want to read a summary of the Revolutionary War with a focus on one French captain. 

Assassination Vacation, by Sarah Vowell

3/5, honestly maybe a 2.5/5. Okay, so. Either I know a lot more about American History than I felt like I did or this is again a very surface level thing. Part of it is because she spends 123 pages on Abe Lincoln. There are 255 pages total. 2/3 of the states I’ve lived in are Indiana and Illinois, two states that fight about claiming Lincoln as their own, and I’ve been to D.C. 4 or 5 times, so I feel like I know enough about Lincoln. I know about John Wilkes Booth, and his brother Edwin who saved Lincoln’s son’s life, and the death train that took Lincoln’s body around the country. I did enjoy learning about the doctor who was probably conspiring with Booth and how he ended up saving tons of lives in prison when there was a yellow fever outbreak (also to be briefly unbearably nitpicky: I think she might have mixed up dengue and yellow fever? She calls yellow fever “breakbone” but I can only find instances online of people calling dengue fever that. Maybe they called them all breakbone in the late 1800s. If anyone reading this is an epidemiologist, let me know).

It was interesting to hear that Charles Guiteau, killer of President Garfield, was part of the Oneida cult. I’m trying to think of anything notable she said about Leon Czolgosz, killer of President McKinley. I guess she talks about how people assumed he was a foreigner because of his name, but I already listened to “The Ballad of Czolgosz” in Assassins, so I knew “Czolgosz, angry man, born in the middle of Michigan.”

This one is from 2005 so the politics stuff is a little more interesting, since at the time I was busy learning multiplication and spending one entire baseball season learning about baseball and following my team (they won the world series, I have excellent timing). I will say that in 2005 we did have Google, so I am again annoyed with some of her asides and personal anecdotes. Look, if you go to the Hemingway house and you don’t know there will be cats there, that’s on you if you don’t bring your Claritin. Hemingway is associated with only two good things, six-toed cats and Daiquiris. 

She also does not acknowledge that the parties basically switched platforms? Lincoln’s Republican party is not today’s Republican party, in fact kind of the opposite, so it’s weird that she starts the book with a dedication that’s like “to my lifelong Democrat grandpa, he’d be pissed I dedicated a book about 3 Republicans to him.” I guess she does sometimes say stuff like “how did Lincoln’s party become Reagan’s” (paraphrase), but she doesn’t actually get into it. 

Speaking of Democrats, she literally spends more time talking about Pablo Picasso than she spends talking about JFK. She doesn’t explain why she didn’t talk about JFK, but it seems bizarre to me to write a book about American assassinations and to leave out John Fucking Kennedy. Literally I’ve talked more about JFK in this section than she did in her assassin book. It’s not until page 253 that JFK gets a full paragraph. There are 255 pages total. Truly, if she’d taken a paragraph to be like “I’m focusing on the presidents who were elected before 1900″ or “the presidents whose immediate families aren’t still alive” or even “I didn’t want to travel to Dallas for research” or SOMETHING to explain why she left out JFK, I would have understood it more instead of flipping through the pages wondering what was going on. 

Read it if: You do not listen to too many history podcasts and you didn’t read the Wikipedia page for the musical Assassins. And I guess if you don’t want to acknowledge that JFK did also get assassinated and that was kind of a big deal. Actually just listen to Assassins instead. 

And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie

5/5 as a mystery, 0/5 for its original title (not gonna say it here but if you’ve ever googled the name of HP Lovecraft’s cat, it’s along those lines). Less than 6 hours, narrated by Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey, fairly ideal as an audiobook. I am 95% sure I’ve already read this, because I spent the summer before I started high school reading every Agatha Christie book in the library (I do not have a list of all the Agatha Christie books in my library the summer of 2010, so there is some question). 

Read if: you want to hear the guy from Downton Abbey deliver the line “I’m not a complete fool!” in a tone that makes it sound like “I’m not a fucking moron!” Sidenote: Can anyone tell me if Brits say “solder” by pronouncing the L that I’ve always heard as a silent L? Or if Dan Stevens just fucked up that one word?

Over The Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love, by Jonathan Van Ness

4.5/5

This was a super enjoyable audiobook! It’s a testament to JVN’s considerable charisma that this book is full of him giving people in his past who would rather be anonymous Russian names, and it doesn’t get grating (as a Marina, however, I was shocked to not hear my name at any point; most of the other Marina’s I’ve met in my life are Russian). JVN has had a wild ride in life, and it’s a really raw, honest story of how he became who he is. I will say that if you are interested in reading this, please look up the trigger warnings; there are a lot of things that could be triggering to people. 

I feel a little bad at how much more I liked this one compared to Tan France’s memoir, but I also feel like whoever was ghostwriting that one did a bad job at making Tan seem... not extremely defensive, cocky, and prickly (it seems that JVN did not use a ghostwriter; Tan’s on the other hand, let the phrase “I’m proud to be a petty bitch” make it into the final proof several times). Also JVN advocates going to therapy in his book, while Tan kind of says that you should only go to therapy if you have no friends or family or life partner to talk to, which I fundamentally disagree with. I don’t know. I also feel like, if I were to get a makeover from the Fab 5, Jonathan would love my hair (I have great hair) while Tan would say that I’m dressing too old for a 24 year old and then take me to fucking Lane Bryant or Torrid (I wear a size 16 US so IRL options are limited). 

Read if: You like Queer Eye or Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Medallion Status, by John Hodgman

4.5/5

I really like John Hodgman’s podcast, and I got to ask him a question at an event he did at the Field Museum and he was very nice, so I went into this inclined to enjoy it. 

And I did! I had a good time reading it. I read it the first week of January and now it’s the second week of February so I have already erased much of the book’s content from my mind, but he somehow made the perspective of being a formerly kinda famous person really interesting. I would also recommend Vacationland, particularly if anyone wants to write an au where Nursey, as a New Yorker, has a vacation home in Dex’s town in Maine. That’s right, I brought it back around to the topic of this blog. And that would be a fucking fantastic au. 

Read it if: you like memoirs! it’s a good one. 

Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie

Gonna give this one a 3/5 for performance, because Dan Stevens (again, because I liked his narration in the other one) does a really annoying American accent for a few characters, and an extremely bad Italian accent for another. I’m starting this review only a few hours in, so if it turns out that the Italian man is not Italian, I’ll revoke my criticism. Still a 5/5 mystery, though. I did have to stop many times when they were talking about Istanbul to go over to Spotify and play “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” by They Might Be Giants. 

Books abandoned in 2020 (so far) (no real spoilers, I didn’t get more than a few chapters into any of them):

The Unhoneymooners, Christina Lauren

I got to a point where the main character was telling a lie that would put her newly accepted job into jeopardy, and it stressed me out so much as a relatively new hire that I stopped listening for the day and started another one, and then the week had passed and then the library took it back. I think I’d enjoy it more if I was reading it physically and I could control how fast I got through awkward parts (I am practically allergic to secondhand embarrassment). The performance was good and I did get a hankering for cheese curds. 

Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris

I had like three audiobooks checked out at the same time, and even though this was again an abridged version, I just didn’t have time for all of them. My mom has a physical copy, I’ll borrow that at some point. 

The Witch Elm, Tana French

This is one I may revisit someday. The main character is kind of an asshole, which is the point of his character I think, but it made it hard to get into the story. It’s also a 22 hour audiobook, which is kind of insanely long. Additionally, the narrator has a very slow way of talking, but if I tried to speed up the rate of playback I had trouble understanding his accent (I think I just have trouble processing really fast speech in general as well, but I would’ve had an easier time understanding someone with the same accent as me). Anyways, someone put a hold on it at the library and then I didn’t check it out again. 

[formearlydreamingweweresnow]

A Trip to a Museum Pt. 2

An expansion upon this post

Edit: I forgot the obligitory bl*nkshippers DNI

There’s been such a renewed interest in the research of Hisui that more expeditions to find more artifacts are going on than ever before, all because everyone’s trying to disprove Ingo and repeatedly failing. But imagine the glory of being the first.

One of the great new discoveries of this new wave was a journal of Lady Iridia of the Pearl Clan, who documented all of her wardens, and even had pictures of them! As Thomas was transcribing the journal for all to read, he came across something... odd.

“Warden Ingo, the protector of Lady Sneasler and the Cornet Highlands”

That had to be a coincidence. Until his eyes landed on the photo of someone who looked exactly like Ingo, and even posed like him...

Now there’s two ways I can see this going and I can’t tell which is funnier, plus the secret wholesome one.

I gotta put this under a readmore this turned into a monster

A. That couldn’t be Ingo. He looked too... sad. This... had to be an ancestor of Ingo’s! Thomas sent over this picture to Ingo asking if Ingo thought he could be related to this person, and he said yes! That would explain how Ingo knew so much, he was looking into his family tree!

B. That couldn’t be Ingo. It had to be an ancestor, but... why is he known for saying such train related sayings? In a time period where trains didn’t even exist??? It had to be a coincidence. But that coat... It’s obviously the coat of a Subway Boss. But it could just be.. a fashion choice, that’s it!!! To assure himself further, he asked a colleague of his to look over his evidence and laugh along with him about how it couldn’t be Ingo aaaand now she’s believing it’s Ingo too. Colleague after colleague, the answer was the same. It was obvious this couldn’t be anyone but Ingo.

There was no denying it was there? He went to the Battle Subway to talk to Ingo, but the subway was running now, soo... He waited till it closed to talk to him. He found Ingo, and started asking some questions, only for Emmet to immediately cut in telling him that the Subway was closed for the day, so he would have to wait till it was open again to ask his questions. “But the only time the public can talk to you during operations of the Subway is by battling all the way to one of you!” “That’s verrrry unfortunate. Those are the rules.”

A horrible realization came over Thomas. The only way to talk to Ingo about this was to reach him in the Battle Subway. He’s terrible at battling. He needed to call in backup. He issued a call for help among all researchers of Hisui. If they wanted more information they needed to beat him. They first tried hiring a top battler to ask the questions, but the rules were amended that it had to be an actual Hisuisian researcher.

They haven’t gotten to Ingo once. That doesn’t mean that they’re giving up anytime soon, and they’re collaborating with everyone possible. They have charts with every reported pokemon of Ingo’s, every line of the subway he takes care of with pros and cons of every one.

They’ll beat him someday.

Totally.

Secret Wholesome One: That was Ingo wasn’t it. He read further. “Ingo came to the Pearl Clan in a horrible storm, and was found by Lady Sneasler. If she did not rescue him, it is certain that he wouldn’t have survived. He was horribly wounded, his head being the worst area. It was as though he fell from the sky. When he awoke, Palina had asked him if he knew where he was and who was he. He revealed that he remembered nothing except for his own name.”

Thomas read on. Ingo showed unusual proficiency with pokemon, which led to him being accepted as the Warden of Lady Sneasler. He watched over the Cornet Highlands until he vanished one day, never to be seen again.

That would explain everything. How he knew so much, and why he was so... quiet about it. Everyone had been hounding him for information when they thought he knew something, but living through it? There would be no better primary source. No one would ever leave him alone. 

Thomas made a choice. He sent the transcription of the journal to Ingo, and told him that it was up to him if he wanted to reveal it, and that Thomas would send all info related to Ingo his way if he wanted him to.

If Thomas trolled other researchers by vehemently reinforcing how impossible it was for the Warden Ingo to be the Subway Boss Ingo, that was between him and Arceus.

[thechekhov]

Hey there! Would it be possible for you to tag your CR reacts with "long post" or put them under a readmore? that would be dope <3

Ah yes, I'm sorry. I meant to do that, and then forgot the tag and unfortunately tumblr hates me for not switching to their new post editor and they refuse to let me edit posts now.... I'll try my best to do it next time.

[ingenio-academy-if]

Gotta be horny on main for Nova again with #29 please?

It's been a long time coming, but here.

Very spicy!!

Edit: I forgot to put it under a readmore the first time, sorry!!

29- Come one more time for me, I know you've got it in you

Your feet tense and your toes curl, your hips buck up but get stopped mid-way by Nova's strong grip. They force your hips back down and you whine, your lower body shakes and you gasp out Nova's name.

"I-I can't!" You breathe out a sigh of relief as Nova pulls their face from between your legs. Their soft wet lips press against your thighs while you catch your breath. What time is it? What day is it? Your eyes move across the room, settling on the window that led outside, the sky was shifting into a dim orange color...

Nova's languid kisses come to a stop and you feel their breath touch your sensitive spot, making your whole body shiver in delight. "You can come one more time for me, I know you've got it in you," Nova's voice was so confident and sexy. Their teeth grazed against your inner thigh and you let out a shaky breath, Nova was waiting for any sign from you that it was okay to keep going...

You nod your head, and immediately they dive in. You grab onto the sheets above you as your lover worked you closer to edge for the fifth time.