#morse code fuckery

[tempered-grace]

So. Saw the thing about rosylipsy being an anagram for pyrolysis. pyrolysis separates organic materials into gases, pure carbon/ashes, and bio-oil, and happens when hydrocarbons are heated in the absence of oxygen. In commercial applications, they are usually heated to around 500° C.

According to Britannica, it’s often used to separate plastic and rubber waste into useful components, as well as to purify substances by removing organic compounds (hydrocarbons).

Symbolically, we could see this as a trial by fire type thing, a purification, a burning away of all that must be left behind in order to move on and become something more. To emerge, after all, one must shed the cocoon.

[deancasforcutie]

this is what Elongated Muskrat has taken from us (only force of nature that could bring his ill-gained site to its knees) personally:

[tonguetyd]

So to recap:

House Veridian and Feathered Host put up posts of morse code, which led to both actual useful information both IRL and about online stuff related to it and the past "72" hints we got, but also of course, fuckery and shitposts because thats what we do here lmao

Which people then took the useful information and went to those locations and apparently found QR codes that lead you to these which are STUNNING btw

And these are all confirmed ARG stuff from HV and FH.

SEPARATELY FROM THESE are leaks of album stuffs, which you will not find on THIS blog and will almost certainly not find on other corners of STumblr bc we dont do that shit here. What we are talking about are NOT leaks, they are just part of the game we are sharing.

And I think that's all we've got working so far. That's what you missed on Glee!

[ivebeencursedbygays]

Kai: But when all hope seemed lost, I had an epiphany! 

Kai, earlier: I'm going to throw myself into the sea.

Zane: Kai, you can do anything! 

Kai: Anything? 

Zane: Anything! 

Kai, holding a torch: ANYTHING?!?! 

Zane: Wait, not that!

Cole: Guess who just found out the difference between wax paper and parchment paper the hard way? 

Nya: Wait, what’s the difference? 

Cole: One you can use in the oven safely, and the other you can also use in the oven... if the thing you are trying to make happens to be fire.

Kai: Time sensitive question how flirt boy. 

Pixal: Throw rocks at he. 

Cole: Hot Dogs. 

Morro: Kill him. 

Kai: Thanks guys.

Nya: Clownery. Tomfoolery. Absolute fuckery, I am going to revoke your life privileges.

Pixal: You use emojis like a straight person. 

Kai: That’s literally the worst thing anyone has ever said about me.

Kai: Hey, random question, what are your favorite flowers? 

Jay: Peonies, why? 

Kai: 

Jay: Were you going to get me flowers? 

Kai: 

Jay: 

Kai: ᶦᵗ’ˢ ᵃ ᵖᵒˢˢᶦᵇᶦˡᶦᵗʸ

Jay: Wow, that was quick thinking on that phony sacrifice stuff. 

Nya: Oh, that was all real. 

Jay: Wait, you were trying to help them kill us?! 

Nya: If I’m gonna be sacrificed, I’m gonna do it right.

*The gang is about to do something dangerous* 

Cole: Shouldn’t someone give a pep talk? 

Kai: Go ahead. 

Cole: Be careful. 

Cole: Don’t die. 

Pixal: *Holds back a laugh* 

Kai: Great. We’re all bloody inspired.

Jay: FIGHT ME, YOU NERD ASS SLUT! 

Cole: At least try to sound slightly more sophisticated when you threaten someone. 

Jay: Oh, I'm sorry. I should ask; dost thou want to engage in a duel, my good bitch? 

Cole: Somehow that's worse.

Kai: I can’t believe my birth certificate says F... 

Kai: ...How did I fail being born?

Cole: Look at me straight in the eyes and tell me the truth, Zane! 

Zane: You can’t expect me to look into your eyes and be straight.

Pixal: You were wise to seek help from the world's most deadly weapon. 

Pixal: It's me.

Cole, in a room with Jay, Kai, and Nya: It’s calm in here. 

Cole: It scares me…

Nya: Fight me! 

Kai, standing behind them and holding a knife: *mouths* Do not.

Zane: Nya got into a fight. 

Kai: That’s bad. 

Kai: 

Kai: Did she win?

Cole: Jay, I don’t think I can handle any more of your tomfuckery. 

Jay: Oh yeah? Well I can keep going until you’re all tomfuckered out!

Kai: Is that a gun?! 

Jay: It's not what it looks like! 

Kai: It looks like a gun! 

Jay: Okay, maybe it is what it looks like, but in my defense, it doesn't have anymore bullets, so I technically can't shoot it anymore. 

Kai: ...ANYMORE?!

Kai, to the Squad: I’d die for you. 

Jay: Then perish. 

Pixal: You will. 

Nya: Please don’t. 

Cole: Cool. 

Zane: I’d die for you first.

Nya: If you got arrested what would be the charges? 

Jay: Theft. 

Zane: Disturbing the peace. 

Cole: Aggravated assault. 

Kai: Arson. 

Pixal: All of the above. In that order, probably.

Nya: You know what I asked Santa for Christmas this year? 

Jay: If you say me, I swear I’ll— 

Nya: You? What? No, I asked him for that cool Ninjago Lego set we saw in Target!

Cole, texting Zane: Zane there’s a moth on the outside of the bathroom door can you get rid of it? 

Cole: Pls hurry because I’m going to cry 

Cole: Zane 

Cole: Zane 

Zane: Zane is dead. You’re next. Love, Moth.

Pixal: A sprite is anything not static. 

Jay: A sprite is a variable object, be it 2d or 3d. 

Cole: A sprite is a fucking soda. 

Cole: You god damn geekass bastards.

Kai: *sighs* I have no friends... 

Jay: 

Jay: *coughs* Bitch, what am I? A roach?!

Zane: *tapping fingers on table* 

Cole: *taps fingers back furiously* 

Jay: …What’s going on? 

Pixal: Morse code. They’re talking. 

Zane: -.-- ..- .-. / - …. . / -.-. ..- - . … - 

Cole: *slams hands on table* YOU TAKE THAT BACK!

Jay: *finds half a watermelon at Whole Foods* 

Jay, holding it up for everyone to see: LIES!

Kai: Don't break someone's heart, they only have one. 

Nya: Break one of their bones instead, they have 206 of them.

Kai, singing: I don’t want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need— 

Zane: A family. 

Cole: A better love life. 

Nya: Mental stability. 

Pixal: *clueless* Bagels?

Zane: Don't joke about murder. I was murdered once and it offends me.

Jay: I'm sorry. Please talk to me. 

Kai: 

Jay: Hello? World's most amazing person?? Sweet pea? Precious cinnamon roll that's too good for this world, too pure? 

Kai: 'Sorry' doesn't bring back my fucking M&Ms.

Nya: You think that’s cringe? Moms around the world wait 9 months just to end up naming their kid Jay. 

Jay: Hey, fuck you.

Jay: Of course I have a lot of pent-up rage, you fool! I've been the same height since I was twelve!

Pixal: Why is Kai crying? 

Zane: They saw a leaf on the sidewalk and- 

Kai: IT LOOKED SO CRUNCHY! 

Pixal: Please don’t say what I think you’re gonna say- 

Kai: AND WHEN I STEPPED ON IT THERE WAS NO CRUNCH! 

Pixal: NO, NOT THAT!

Zane: Hey, what have you two been up to? 

Nya: We were helping Kai write his vows, but he kicked us out because Cole was making inappropriate suggestions. 

Cole: How is “Jay, I love your sweet ass” inappropriate?

[reikunrei]

sorry i'm going to ramble about the lights again

i need to make a new, more thorough post about the light fuckiness in st, and specifically st1, but i just. keep thinking about how weird it is that we're told all of it is bc of will, that all of the light fuckery (outside of interference from the gates/demogorgon/etc.) is because will was talking through the lights

but then. some of the scenes where we're told it was will are almost exactly the same as scenes where it couldn't and shouldn't have been will

specifically thinking of holly following the trail of lights to will's room, where each bulb blinks on one at a time in a trail before all going out, then blinking on one at a time again in the same pattern until she follows. and then she comes (nearly) face to face with the demogorgon

and then later we get the scene where joyce gets her own trail of one-at-a-time lights that she follows to the little cubby with the yes/no white bundle. they blink on one at a time in the exact same way that holly's did, and the pattern repeats several times until she actually gets into the cubby

and now i do firmly believe that she spoke to will with those white lights. she's convinced she did, and they behave the same way we see the lights behave at the end of st1 when jim and joyce pass under the lights in the ud + they behave the same way we're shown they do in st4 w the older teens when they touch the ud particles

however, i don't think that the trail of lights was will's doing. because if it was his doing, then why did the same thing happen with holly? will wouldn't have tried to kill his best friend's little sister. it would be absurd if he was trying to lay some "trap" to get holly snatched by the demogorgon, and it would even be weird if he was just trying to get their attention when he knew the demogorgon was around and might attack them. so why do the lights behave the same way?

i wouldn't be surprised if someone else was trying to key joyce in to where will was hiding so that they could talk to one another

now, sure, it could be because will has powers and he was the one doing it, it was just with his powers and not with physical touch, and therefore the lights might behave differently

but like... idk man. if he, at this point, had figured out he had powers, why would he have still gone the physical touch route? why wouldn't he have, say, started blinking a light in morse code like he uses in st2? joyce would have figured it out and found a way to translate. she's smart!

it also makes me think that will likely would not have figured out his powers that quickly, or we would have seen them "messing up" a bit more first. i'd have to watch through again and see if any of the prior light shenanigans could be interpreted as "will figuring this shit out" but... i doubt there's much of that

hell, i've pointed out before how when holly goes into will's room, the ring of lamps joyce has set up starts blinking in a circle, much like how we see in st4 when the lab kids are doing that "ring of lights" exercise. and what do we also see in that scene? el struggling to make the light turn on and move. even 002 works up a sweat doing it, and he's the top dog at the time

will was chucked into the ud, running around fighting for his life the whole time, and he somehow... also had time to figure out his powers well enough to make very clean, clear, repetitive trails of lights with seemingly extreme ease? and then he also is able to very swiftly write out words with joyce's alphabet without any faltering at all? it just doesn't seem feasible to me. he's a smart kid, very smart! and very adaptable! but... it just feels weird, especially if by tfs logic (even tho the powers are probably not specifically related to the ud), he would have had the powers activated for, what, a day or two? maybe less depending on time weirdness? i don't buy it

just based on how the lights behave throughout the show, and even within the single first season, it doesn't make sense for all of the "talking" through the lights to belong to will. the blinking lights are too clean, and the scenes they're used in are so contradictory to one another in their intent that it can't all be little will in there pulling all the strings. it has to be someone (or several someones) who have more experience and are a bit more aware than will likely was

and just bc god i'm having Thots about this. i do firmly believe that it has something to do with the weird brennergorgon/combined brenner-edward-demogorgon thing that @aemiron-main has spoken a lot about, and that, by using edward's powers, the lights could have been used for malicious intent (holly's scene), while also seeing it used positively (the trail to will in the cubby, joyce's alphabet) possibly through henry (or vice versa)

if there's one of them being forced to use it for ill (ie. edward through brenner and/or the shadow/mf and/or vecna) and one is using it for good (ie. henry), but they're both just alternate versions of the same guy... it wouldn't be surprising that we'd get the same light behavior with entirely different intentions

i'm also thinking about the "run" stuff again. specifically, i made a post yesterday that was just me spitballing and thinking about how henry tells alice to "run" when she says he's not henry, and @henrysglock clarified the scene further in this post

and it didn't click in my head until reading it again just now that we get almost the same exact lines in tfs that happen with the alphabet. joyce is told will is "right here," henry tells alice "he's right here." when joyce asks what she should do, she's told "run," when alice further posits that this isn't henry, she's told to "run"

and thinking about what james said, how it could be interpreted as a warning and a threat all wrapped up into one... i'd say that the st1 "run" could be considered much the same. a warning and a threat, because the demogorgon shows up right after joyce is told to run. warning her to be safe, but also sort of mocking, as the demogorgon is already right on top of her

and just. the fact that that scene has the same lines, and the lines come from "henry"/henry possessed by the shadow... who's to say that he isn't also the one saying the exact same lines through the lights? james even also says in that rb of my post that henry seems to really respect joyce, and that joyce wasn't ever mean to him in tfs, so it wouldn't surprise me if henry tried to help her get her son back, and decided to act as someone he wished he had when he was a kid

and because i'm also still Insane about the 2023 st day posts about "firsts" and the first message from the ud was shown to be the "run" (which i have a post sitting in my drafts about but ggrghgr who knows if i'll ever post it) it makes me think that it could be very likely that the "right here" and the "run" in the alphabet are from two different people. after all, the "right here" came first, so even ignoring all the other times the lights "talked" prior to that, if we're just counting the alphabet as being "messages from the ud," then why isn't "right here" the first?

anyway. i don't know what i'm thinking. i just think that there's so many other people involved with the talking lights in st1, and will is so few of them. and i think that there was not only someone more sentient than a plain demogorgon hunting will, but i think there was someone else there trying to help him. whether it be through space or time or however they managed to contact each other, i think that someone (henward) was trying to help reunite will with joyce and save him, much like henward wished someone had been able to save him

[banamine-bananime]

i think about this post too often but in my brain tucker's there too. i don't know if this isn't his first time at the extremely uncomfortable rodeo, or if he's more familiar with the overall family fuckery than he'd like but has not previously been subjected to formal dinner imprisonment and church just had some weird panic when carolina said she was bringing her boyfriend and made tucker come.

when york realizes blinking at carolina in morse code isn't going to work because she's suddenly very interested in her mashed potatoes every time he tries, he's left with no other recourse but staring across the table and hoping this conveys "save me carolina's weird brother's weird boyfriend... carolina's weird brother's weird boyfriend (shit what was even his name)... carolina's weird brother's weird boyfriend save me..."

York goes over to the Church house for dinner for the first time because Carolina finally got her dad to agree to let him over, and he just sits there at the dinner table while he watches the director, Carolina and Church have the most Wack ass insane argument he's EVER seen someone have. Like imagine being on your best behavior to get good boy points, and you're a GUEST, and you watch your girl's brother call his father a 'fucking cunt' and also you know for a fact that their father has a conceal carry license

[echodrops]

Home and a Half Pidge Headcanons

An ask I got yesterday reminded me that I never posted the HaaH headcanons for Pidge like I promised, so here they are! (I’ll answer the actual ask as soon as I can with some new material instead of headcanons I already had written... oops...)

Anyway, without further ado, some headcanons for Pidge related to my fic Home and a Half!

Pidge:

- Grew up in the picture of the nuclear family: mom, dad, two kids, dog, nice upper-middle-class house in a quiet neighborhood, dinner on the table at 7:30pm on the dot… Of all the paladins, Pidge had the most stable and “average” childhood… at least on paper.

 - In reality, there is not a single person in the Holt family who isn’t eccentric as fuck. Grandma Holt? May or may not still be an active intelligence agent for MI6. The dog? Woofs in Morse code. Auntie Ariana? Has actually seen the Jersey Devil. Colleen Holt? Has killed a man. If you ask Pidge, she’ll say that her upbringing was perfectly normal and she’ll genuinely mean it, but this is a consequence Pidge having no idea what “normal” even means.

 Rest under the read more to save your dash:

- Not actually a girly-girl when she was young. Although they’re eight years apart and thus unlikely to be mistaken for one another, very early on Pidge got frustrated by how similar she and Matt look, and she definitely did not want to wear his tacky hand-me-down clothes, so she pitched a royal fit and insisted on wearing dresses and hairbands so that her family would have to buy Pidge all her own things. (They probably would have bought them anyway if she’d just asked calmly, but Pidge was three at the time, and they were all very impressed by her grasp of cause and effect.)

 - Of course, when Matt disappeared on the ill-fated Kerberos trip, those tacky hand-me-downs ended up being some of the most important items in Pidge’s life. Even outside of infiltrating Garrison, wearing Matt’s old clothes was one of the few comforts Pidge would allow herself—when she cut her hair and put on his baggy shirts, for a second, looking in a mirror, she could almost convince herself he was still there—

 - Pidge has no intention of changing the way she dresses or styles her appearance until she’s reunited with Matt and her father. After that? Well, they may not be the coolest looking things ever, but Matt does have a point that baggy t-shirts are very comfy…

 - And okay, because I’m sure everyone expected this headcanon first: Pidge and gender is a surprisingly uncomplicated subject. Side note before I go further: I’m sure everyone has their own headcanons for this and none of what I say here should be taken as rejecting or invalidating any other fan’s views on Pidge. The only thing invalid in the Voltron fandom is canon. Anyway, I personally like to imagine that Pidge is very ambivalent on gender. There is so much else going on—the war, Sam and Matt being missing, freaking giant robot space cats—that sitting down and sorting out the question of “Do I identify as male, female, nonbinary, or anything else?” is just really, really low on Pidge’s to do list. Pidge thinks of Pidge as “Pidge” and even that’s rare because Pidge doesn’t sit around thinking about herself or what other people think of her.

 - In fact, what strangers think is, in general, extremely low on Pidge’s radar. Although she used to be more self-conscious due to bullying from both classmates and her teachers, the combination of her parents’ consistent support and Matt’s… extreme tactics (“I’m telling you Pigeon, nanobots in their lunches will solve all your problems.” “That’s illegal, Matt.” “Nothing is illegal until you get caught.”) Pidge (mostly) overcame the phase of being affected by other people’s opinions. Who cares what strangers think? Absolutely none of them will ever be even close to as smart and talented as her family anyway. (My IQ is three times yours, your argument about my gender is literally invalid.)

 - By the way, I’m using “her” simply because that’s what I’m used to seeing in the fandom and to keep the fic and headcanons consistent, but in the functional world of HaaH, Pidge answers to any pronouns and doesn’t have a preference for any set in particular over others. In fact, Pidge is used to going by different sets of pronouns coming from different people, and might be “he” to one person, “she” to another, and “they” to yet someone else. Pidge is just… Pidge.

 - Again, with the war and Voltron and missing family and literally everything else going on--and the fact Pidge is far more practical than all of the rest of her fellow Team Voltron members combined--she isn’t wasting time and energy doing something as troublesome as falling in love with an alien. (“Keith, can’t your melodrama wait until after we win the war?” “My drama waits for no man.” “Then please explain how you and Lance manage to engage in synchronized dumb-fuckery at least three times a week.”) Eventually, after life has settled down and Pidge has had some time to think about it, she’ll realize that the reason she somehow managed to avoid any romantic entanglements in space isn’t because she’s just much more mature than her teammates (although this might be true)—it’s that she’s just not really interested in romantic engagements with anybody, period. 

 - Pidge’s one true love is discovery; she feels far more passionate about knowledge and learning new things, encountering new puzzles, and grasping new concepts than she does about anything else. In between all her creations and codes and experiments and observations, it just doesn’t feel like there’s room—or that there needs to be room—for a romantic relationship with a real person.

 - Pidge will make room for friends though, if and when they insist on worming their ways into her life. She tends to be a fairly private person who has never really had a large friend group (back on Earth, before Garrison, there wasn’t anyone but Matt and her parents who really understood her, and she didn’t have much in common to discuss with children her own age), but once someone earns Pidge’s trust, she does open up and form close bonds and she will give her all to help and be there for her few, but close, friends.

 - Meeting Hunk at Garrison was a huge revelation. Up to that point in Pidge’s life she had never really met any young person outside her own family with a soaring genius-level IQ that was a match for her own. Although she and Hunk bicker frequently because their approaches to science are extremely different, she’s still over-the-moon to have someone who doesn’t stare at her like she’s talking gibberish whenever she goes off on one of her tangents.

 - If you ask Pidge, she will violently swear up and down that Lance never and in. no. way. reminds her of Matt, fills in for Matt in the lame-older-brother role, or helps her miss her brother just a little bit less. That did not happen, never had a chance of happening, what are you even talking about—

 - But if you ask about Shiro, she will be flat-out honest and admit she totally thinks of him as Space Dad. It’s not her fault. Shiro literally hero worships Sam Holt (still to this day!!) and may or may not have taken on more of his mentor’s mannerisms in order to fill the leadership role for Team Voltron. Sometimes Shiro will say or do something and Pidge will be absolutely dumb-struck because he got that from my dad is an actual thing she has to deal with.

- “Pidge” is actually a derivative of “Pigeon.” Everyone in the Holt family has a bird-based code name. Mr. Holt is Eagle Two.

 - People often get the impression that Pidge is scatterbrained because she can talk about ten different things at once and pounces on leaps in her own logic that other people just can’t follow, but her thoughts and speech are very organized. It’s not her fault you couldn’t understand her system of organization if you tried.

 - Put Pidge on the spot on a subject she doesn’t know, though, and watch the awkward jump right out. (“Oh, you meant the pop band Galileo, not the person. You know, that’s really an easy mistake to make. You can hardly blame me when you stop to consider all the similarities between modern chord progression and the trajectory of supermassive objects like—”)

 - And if it’s not awkward, it’s defensive. Pidge may be hyper-intelligent, but she’s still very, very young, and it’s hard not to get snappish when challenged by people whose opinions she really does care about. She has a far quicker temper than Matt (who is a “revenge is a dish best served cold” champion), a trait she shares with their mother. Colleen, in turn, blames it on her having been born in New Jersey. Pidge has flipped so many tables on the Castleship that Coran and Lance eventually went around and bolted them all down.

 - Do not even so much as hint that Sam and Matt Holt might be dead instead of just missing in space. Keith is still scared after his last attempt at reasoning with Pidge about her family’s fate.

 - Has a bad hoarding habit. Back on Earth she had her parents there to insist she clean her room at least once a week, but in space, things are getting a bit crazy. The Castleship closets and cabinets can hyper-condense their contents and she’s STILL running out of room for all the neat doodads and parts and scientific wonders she finds on their adventures across the galaxy. Is definitely in the “Look, there’s still a mostly clear path to the door; it’s fineee” category. It’s not like she finds it hard to let things go once she’s gotten attached to them or anything. Nope. Definitely not.

 - Pidge’s mess is absolutely of the “everything has a proper place” type though. Move anything with her name on it and you will feel her wrath.

- As the only one of the Earth paladins to have technology on her when they were unexpectedly swept off to war, everyone on the ship relies on Pidge’s laptop for their monthly dose of Earth nostalgia. Good thing for them Pidge and Matt’s pirating skills put Pirate Bay to shame, and she’s got basically every Earth movie from 1980 to the present. She even has every episode of the timeless classic F.R.I.E.N.D.S. (Keith hates that show with a burning passion that even he cannot explain.)

 - Speaking of technology Pidge had on Earth—every single person in the Holt family is (and has been for decades) aware of the existence of aliens. Pidge’s family tree has been involved in communications, radio wave technology, and interpreting space observations since those fields were first invented. When Earth first identified patterns of waves that obviously corresponded to alien communications going on outside Earth’s galaxy, Pidge’s great- great- grandfather was there. When world governments covered up the discovery, he was the loudest voice of dissent. Since then, the Holt family has been deeply involved in military and space operations across several countries, operating from within an oppressive system they fundamentally disagree with, using their positions of authority to monitor the Milky Way and beyond, keeping tabs on what the aliens might be saying—and what messages Earth might be inadvertently sending back.

 - Of course this is top secret work—secret even from the Garrison and government where the Holts were employed. Other kids learn how to play piano and soccer; Pidge and Matt learned how to hack virtually impenetrable military databases and hide their data behind uncrackable ciphers instead.

 - But the Kerberos Mission was supposed to be safe. They’d all monitored the chatter so closely—there hadn’t been anything hostile anywhere even near Earth’s galaxy, no sign at all of any technologically advanced race like the Galra in years and nothing about one little Earth mission that would disturb any other intergalactic travelers anyway… Why would they...

 - Pidge is surprisingly athletic for a self-professed nerd. With youthful energy to burn and a family to save, Pidge took to Allura and Coran’s intense Altean training like a duck to water, and while she’s not quite Shiro or Keith when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, she can definitely holds up better than Hunk or Lance.

 - Favorite color is actually yellow, and if Green wasn’t totally The Coolest™ lion, she’d be sort of salty about Hunk getting the Yellow Lion instead.

 - Absolutely capable of cursing up a blue storm, and hasn’t been friends with Hunk quite long enough yet to remember to censor herself around him all the time like Lance does with his “Holy crow!”s. She’s trying, dammit!

 - Big on pets. Gets attached to pet-shaped creatures (whether living or robotic) very easily. 110% kept the space caterpillars, who live happily free-roaming the piles of space junk in her bedroom. The space caterpillars and the space mice do not get along, however, as the space mice do not take well to having their status as the favored fuzzy team mascot squad threatened. In their micro-Cold War, which is occurring without any of the ship’s humanoid occupants being aware, the space caterpillars are currently winning.

 - The caterpillars’ names are Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton.

 - Remember that one post about Lance drawing angry brows on the space caterpillar and siccing it on Keith? I very much accept that as canon. Pidge was Not Happy™ when she found out what Lance had done and she is NOT letting anyone else near her caterpillars again any time soon. Is very, very careful not to let Niresh see the space caterpillars so that they don’t end up stolen right from under her nose.

 - Speaking of the kids, Pidge is super awkward with them and skedaddles at the first sign of tears. Next to Allura, there is probably not any member of the team worse suited to babysitting duty. That said, as someone who has lost members of her family in the war, Pidge is probably the member of the team who most directly understands Dulsara’s anger and the children’s loss. That doesn’t mean she’s really ready to let herself sympathize with the Galra though, at least not until she finds her own family first.

- Pulls all the most bullshit moves in Monsters and Mana. Whenever the team reminiscences on the truly legendary moments from their campaigns, somehow Pidge is the star in all of them.

And that’s all I’ve got for now!

[naamahdarling]

I know Primal Bog Monday is almost over, but I'm losing my mind. People have been setting off BIG HONKING fireworks every. single. night. Since the 20th of June. They'll probably go until mid July. They're right behind my house and I have been an anxious crying wreck for WEEKS. Fireworks are a really, really big trigger for me and no amount of begging has stopped them.

Ohhhh, friend, I think you need THE BRAT.

Here is more or less what her victims see before they die.

The curious little head-tilt is the devil coming into her 8-pound body and then being consumed whole. Then she strikes SO FAST. Like, she would be a birder if she were allowed outside, and a snaker. Nothing gets away from her enormous, murderous paws.

You need her fierce energy to defend your spirit, and you need this boy to polish up your spiritual armor with his gross little paws:

And this boy to make you laugh:

And this boy, Raleigh, to give you love and bonks and comfort and let you snorgle his risk-free tummy:

Did you know that his tail is a big old pull-cord doorbell? Or that his widdle paws go BING-bong when you press them? And his nose, as we recently discovered, is a morse code button! When you boop it, it really boops!

You need the whole damn crew, pal.

Listen, that shit is no joke, and I am angry on your behalf that you are having to deal with that. My GF has gun trauma. She doesn't suffer to the extent that you do, but even the amount she endures is too much, and it breaks my heart, and it makes me MAAAAAD.

You shouldn't have to deal with that like AT all. I don't understand people sometimes, I really do not. I hope you are able to find some solutions that help you deal with this horseshit, and that they let up on their fuckery very soon. ❤❤❤ Much love to you, from all the kids, and from us. Your woes have been sent to the Bog! As have the souls of the offending assholes! May they either pickle or be cleansed!

[ibrahimfarrukh-blog]

Why would you make out of words a cage for your own bird? When it sings so sweet. The screaming, heaving, fuckery of the world?

► GENERAL INFORMATION

FULL NAME: Ibrahim Farrukh

NICKNAME(S): N/A

AGE: Thirty-Six

GENDER: Cis Male

PRONOUNS: He/Him

OCCUPATION: Zoologist

SEXUALITY: Pansexual

LANGUAGES: English, Urdu

► APPEARANCE

FACE CLAIM: Riz Ahmed

HEIGHT: 5′8″

BUILD: Athletic

DOMINANT HAND: Right

HAIR COLOR: Black

EYE COLOR: Brown

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: n/a

► BACKGROUND

HOMETOWN: Reno, Nevada

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Perfection Valley, Nevada

PARENTS: Bashir Farrukh & Zarine Farrukh

SIBLINGS: Laila Farrukh (younger sister) & Aisha Farrukh (younger sister)

PETS: Sania (cat) 

► ABOUT 

He was born in Reno, Nevada, and lived there his entire life until he went to university. He studied zoology in school, and proceeded to get his masters in the subject. 

He began working for the state government, finding himself spending most of his time in small towns and going wherever the government had him go. Still, for the most part, he spent his time in Reno with his family who all still lived in the city. 

One month ago, the state government was being told by the people of a small town Perfection Valley that there were strange creatures on their land. They didn’t believe them, but they still needed to send someone to investigate and figure out what exactly these people were talking about. They sent Ibrahim to Perfection, telling him he was probably going to only find a bunch of wacky and bored locals trying to waste state funding. 

After arriving in Perfection, he expected to see absolutely nothing happening in the town - and that was exactly what he found. He didn’t see any sign of the giant worms locals were talking about. All he found was a dead beat town of a small population of less than 100. Ibrahim wanted to leave and go anywhere else, but he was expected to stay for a few months to see if there was any possibility of any strange animals. 

He spends most of his time in the Rosenbloom Research Facility, and as he was conducting research on the area, he realized there was a salt water lake in the middle of the desert, something extremely strange. Although he knows he’s there to investigate “giant worms,” his focus is now on this lake and figuring out what type of creatures are in it. 

Currently, he lives in the Desert Inn. If he’s not at Rosenbloom or Lake Placid, he’s almost always hiding away in his hotel room. 

Ibrahim is very independent and enjoys working alone, which is why he often travels around the state by himself. He likes going to new places and studying these different places. He doesn’t often get attached to people as he moves around so much, and he’s given up on relationships years ago. For right now, it’s just him and his cat that he brings with him everywhere he goes. Sometimes his family jokes that he’s a lone wolf who doesn’t need anyone else. 

► THINGS DONE:

Broken a bone | Gotten stitches | Had a near-death experience | Invented something | Been hungover | Kissed someone | Slow danced | Been in a long-term relationship | Had sex | Had sex and regretted it | Had a one-night stand | Had a threesome | Experimented with their sexuality | Had a kid | Gotten married | Self-harmed | Been in a play | Received an inheritance | Been in a ship wreck | Lost a loved one | Been dumped | Dumped someone | Smoked | Gotten high | Been slipped something in their food/drink | Won a contest | Won an election | Joined a sports team | Gone skydiving | Gone hunting | Been in a band | Had a job | Been fired | Been in a wedding party | Owned a pet | Seen a ghost | Skipped class/work | Learned an instrument | Gotten a noticeable scar | Sued someone | Been robbed | Been mugged | Been kidnapped | Been sexually assaulted | Been brainwashed/hypnotized | Gone more than one day without eating | Had a recurring nightmare | Been bullied | Bullied someone | Seen someone die | Attempted suicide | Been tied/chained up | Shot someone | Stabbed someone | Saved someone’s life | Cheated on someone | Been cheated on | Been betrayed | Been in a fight | Been arrested | Been to a funeral | Had surgery | Broken someone’s trust | Gotten a tattoo | Used a fake name | Been tortured | Been abused | Been blackmailed | Had an attempt on their life | Gotten away with a crime | Gone on a road trip | Been in love

► HABITS:

nail biting | throat clearing | lying | interrupting | chewing the ends of pens | smoking|swearing | knuckle cracking | thumb sucking | muttering under their breath | talking to themselves | nose picking | binge drinking | oversleeping | snacking between meals | skipping meals | picking at skin | impulse buying | talking with their mouth full | humming/singing to themselves | chewing gum | leg jiggling | foot tapping | hair twirling | whistling | eye rolling | licking lips | sniffing | squinting | rubbing hands together | jaw clenching | gesturing while talking | putting feet up on tables | tucking hair behind ears | chewing lips | crossing arms over chest | putting hands on hips | rubbing the back or their neck | being late | procrastinating | doodling | shredding paper | peeling off bottle labels | forgetfulness | running hands through hair | overreacting | teeth grinding | nostril flaring | slouching | pacing | drumming fingers | fist clenching | pinching bridge of nose | rubbing temples | rolling shoulders

► KNOWS HOW TO:

bake a cake from scratch | ride a horse | pilot | speak a second language | dance | catch a fish | play an instrument | throw a punch | build a deck | ice skate | unclog a drain | program a computer | change a flat tire | fire a gun | sew | juggle | play poker | paint | fly a kite | draw | write poetry | change a diaper | sing | shoot a bow and arrow | ride a bike | swim | sail a boat | do a back flip | play chess | give CPR | pitch a tent | flirt | stitch a wound | write in cursive | use an electric drill | braid hair | make a campfire | make a mixed drink | wrap a gift | jump-start a car | roll their tongue | do yoga | tie a tie | skip a rock | shuffle a deck of cards | read Morse code | pick a lock

[atthebell]

another update, now on the site they found previously!

oth3r.site/alea-iacta-est <- adding together the link from above with the latin phrase found from the flashlight morse code gets you this site, which is a mega link.

unlocking the file with the password "mauvaispresage" (from the lupi morse code) showed two images, the first labeled "sem_sinal," which looks to be a screenshot from the game, and the second "visao," which looks like a wolf/dog's face made up of static-y pixels.

doing some image fuckery with the wolf image gets these symbols, from the ordem alphabet, which translate to AQUELE SENTIMENTO.

then, if you run the sem_sinal image through a blue filter, you get a new image, which, if you look closely, there's some text on the book the flashlight is lying on. making the image a little clearer makes the text easier to read: parad0xo5

going back to that site link, we get https://oth3r.site/parad0xo5, which leads to another mega link. the password for this file is aquelesentimento, the symbols from the wolf image.

the two images this time are this eye with a spiral and ordem symbols, titled "exspecta_at," and the image of a path with lupi's pawprints going along it and various items, named "loop."

right now people in the discord are working on figuring out if the items are relevant to the puzzle-- they've labeled each that seems easily identifiable.

translating the symbols on the exspecta_at image gets the phrase "vis unita fortior," the same latin phrase from before that translates to "united we are stronger"/"a united force is stronger" (a more direct translation).

also they're trying to figure out some binary with the pawprints from the loop image but i don't have a full update on that, just that there's a code that's probably "see.ootab.mind" and the binary is based off how many toes are missing in each of lupi's pawprints.

also massive shout-out to stralo in the discord who's been posting all the updates in a separate channel & has himself been helping figure stuff out!

Enigma do Medo ARG

okay so! so far cellbit's discord has found a few things aside from what was tweeted (^^), as they knew to look elsewhere to find more clues.

this led them to find two images, one from the nuuvem page and one from the steam page. you can see a dog (lupi) and a girl (mia) in them respectively.

which then led to a christmas image ordem tweeted at one point-- and it's very glaring that the two images that led here included mia and lupi but not veríssimo. adds to the whole element of him being missing.

they're also working on a few things with numbers hidden in the cracks of the images, but right now these are the biggest updates and most solid leads! ill keep updating periodically 🩵🩵

[lemonandhugs]

Sam & Cait: my take on things.🤔

Okay so I’m sure lots of people have probably already had this theory, and have spoken about it multiple times. But, I just wanted to voice it, myself. Plus I just love talking about them.🤷🏼‍♀️

So, chemistry test. Blind Freddy would be able to tell how smitten Sam was with Cait. He even admits to thinking that she was good looking, when first meeting her. Duh, she’s stunning.

All their early tweets to each other, and photos, well they speak for themselves. One of my favourites is Sam wishing Cait a happy birthday, posting the photo where she was asleep on the dummy, calling her beautiful. Another is Cait’s tweets to Sam, calling him “bubs”, and “babe”.😍

So what would most people make of this? I would assume they would have an inkling that there’s more there than just a work-friendship. Especially when there’s cheek-nuzzling, and arse-admiration shenanigans. I’d be here for about 15 hours if I went through every single early receipt, so I’m going to skip straight to my interpretations.👍🏼

Every interaction between them just screamed “together”. That’s exactly what I believed. Further interactions between them just continued to reinforce that, IMO.

So, they get together early on, things are wonderful, they have that glow about them; a happiness that pours out of their face and can’t be disguised. Not sure about marriage and bubba, but just a relationship seems definite. Then boom, season 2 airs and antis start complaining about the chemistry “slipping” between the two. Starz have a coronary and immediately blame it on Sam and Cait’s off-screen relationship. Ratings/viewers decrease. Season 2 wasn’t as good as the rest IMO (due to the storyline), but their chemistry had nothing to do with it! As far as I’m concerned, their chemistry didn’t budge an inch. 🔥

Thus, the fuckery begins. Introducing: T and MM. An ultimatum perhaps? Agree to these fake relationships, or the series won’t continue. Alas, the Interview from Hell is born! And only a little bit obvious that it was completely forced bullshit.

PR spins a web of relationships that apparently began before OL (in Cait’s case). The purpose is to focus peoples’ attention on the fact that there are existing relationships, so the on-screen chemistry could not possibly have changed.

Things between S&C on SM chill a little, but certainly don’t go away. I think that’s because, by nature, S&C rebel against what they don’t believe in. I would say Sam moreso than Cait. I think Starz knew that too, hence why they set Cait up with the long-term relationship and forthcoming engagement; because she would stick to the story more and make it somewhat believable. Perhaps taking advantage of the fact that she’s a newcomer to the acting world, and would have more concerns about getting work and keeping her head above water. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I certainly don’t judge her.

I believe Sam never really gave a full fuck, and has purposely let things slip more and more, over the years. Breadcrumbs!

Fuckery continues, antis get on their high horse over their “SOs” appearing in a grand total of, what, 5 photos, with S&C?🙄 Over how many years? Mate.🤦🏻‍♀️ Meanwhile, blatantly ignoring the increasingly sexual emoji-banter between S&C. #denial #decreasedamountoffucksgiven

The longer the series continues, the more pressure is put on the two to keep it hidden. Sam being Sam, and still leaving the trail of crumbs, and Cait still treading lightly, but not too lightly, she loves the guy remember. #blackballs

I believe they both like to push the boundaries every so often and see how far they can get. Moreso Sam, obviously. But he has a knack of starting something with Cait that she can’t back down from. Instead, come back with something equally dirty.😏Then when they get a scolding, they back off. Then a few weeks later, they push again.🙊 Cheeky buggers. “Oh no, people are just misinterpreting black pepper and olive oil.” Their excuse? Perhaps.🤔

Now let’s sort of skip to the event in which, I guess, began the ritual of, now, separate interviews. ‘Still being obvious on SM, and bound to continue to be even more obvious in interviews together’, the bosses are probably thinking. I’m referring to the event in which our two shared a fist bump. The event where Sam said 🖕🏼 and placed his hand on his woman’s arse. The same event where Sam gave us shippers the biggest gift of all. #weAREtogetherANDwedoworktogether #gamesetandmatchbitches

I believe at this event, Cait was feeling the strain more. She was being very reserved and distant; making a conscious effort to back right off. Perhaps she got into a lot of trouble? :( however if she did, I don’t think that’s why she was agitated. I think it was because she had had enough of the fake, fuckery bullshit.

Sam admitting it was telling Cait that, no matter what, he isn’t afraid to tell the world he loves her. He wasn’t going to have another IFH (an interview in which he was evidently unhappy, for the first time). Coincidence? I think not!

I also think the purpose of him saying that was to try and urge her to get on the #fuckit bandwagon, too. After all he can “just tell when she’s not happy”.💕

After that, perhaps Starz, PR, and all the rest are like “well....fuck. No coming back from that.” But to continue their efforts, and try to conceal what they can from their end, interviews remain separate. But I don’t believe for a second that their off-screen bodies engage in any such separation.😏

Sexual tweets continue, and thus receipts continue to pile up. Receipts that are a little more difficult to dissect, but just adds to the fun. It’s like a treasure hunt now. We have to work for it.😏

Now here we are, certainly missing the 2013-2015, careless, free S&C. However these days, I think it’s more exciting that their lives aren’t as easy to solve. It isn’t just put in front of us. We pick up on the clues, and solve the mystery, that has the same conclusion every time, just in different circumstances.

I know, I know, it’s all so damn confusing. It took me so long to write this. I even confuse myself with this theory/fantasy of mine.😂 But, it brings me comfort. Whether I’m completely wrong, or completely right (in regards to my timeline), one thing is for sure: I know they love each other. The sort of love that needs no words, to be understood by the world:

Woah. You know, when you really sit down and try to figure these two humans out, it feels like so much weight has been lifted, and some shit has been sorted out! 😂

Oh gosh, I need help. 😂😂

They make me so damn happy. All of it. Fuckery or not. Those two. Sam and Cait, Cait and Sam. It’s all good, and I’m so excited to continue to watch their love story, and work with the rest of you dedicated shippers, to figure out their Morse code of love. 💖

I hope at least some of this made sense!😂🤦🏻‍♀️

More than that, I hope you enjoyed.

Our destination has not been reached yet! 🚢

With you, all the way. MWAH! 😘

[maniicrhapsody]

Why would you make out of words a cage for your own bird? When it sings so sweet. The screaming, heaving, fuckery of the world?

► GENERAL INFORMATION

FULL NAME: Yasir Sadat

NICKNAME(S): Yas (family & close friends only)

AGE: Thirty-Six

GENDER: Cis Male

PRONOUNS: He/Him

OCCUPATION: Mechanic & Photographer

SEXUALITY: Pansexual

LANGUAGES: English, Urdu

► APPEARANCE

FACE CLAIM: Riz Ahmed

HEIGHT: 5′8″

DOMINANT HAND: Right

HAIR COLOR: Brunet

EYE COLOR: Brown

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: n/a

► BACKGROUND

PARENTS: Aisha Sadat (mother) & Zahir Sadat (father)

SIBLINGS: Kamal Sadat (younger sister), Saira Sadat-Gonzalez (younger sister), & Nadim Sadat (younger brother)

PETS: Layla (cat)

► THINGS DONE:

Broken a bone | Gotten stitches | Had a near-death experience | Invented something | Been hungover | Kissed someone | Slow danced | Been in a long-term relationship | Had sex | Had sex and regretted it | Had a one-night stand | Had a threesome | Experimented with their sexuality | Had a kid | Gotten married | Self-harmed | Been in a play | Received an inheritance | Been in a ship wreck | Lost a loved one | Been dumped | Dumped someone | Smoked | Gotten high | Been slipped something in their food/drink | Won a contest | Won an election | Joined a sports team | Gone skydiving | Gone hunting | Been in a band | Had a job | Been fired | Been in a wedding party | Owned a pet | Seen a ghost | Skipped class/work | Learned an instrument | Gotten a noticeable scar | Sued someone | Been robbed | Been mugged | Been kidnapped | Been sexually assaulted | Been brainwashed/hypnotized | Gone more than one day without eating | Had a recurring nightmare | Been bullied | Bullied someone | Seen someone die | Attempted suicide | Been tied/chained up | Shot someone | Stabbed someone | Saved someone’s life | Cheated on someone | Been cheated on | Been betrayed | Been in a fight | Been arrested | Been to a funeral | Had surgery | Broken someone’s trust | Gotten a tattoo | Used a fake name | Been tortured | Been abused | Been blackmailed | Had an attempt on their life | Gotten away with a crime | Gone on a road trip | Been in love

► HABITS:

nail biting | throat clearing | lying | interrupting | chewing the ends of pens | smoking | swearing | knuckle cracking | thumb sucking | muttering under their breath | talking to themselves | nose picking | binge drinking | oversleeping | snacking between meals | skipping meals | picking at skin | impulse buying | talking with their mouth full | humming/singing to themselves | chewing gum | leg jiggling | foot tapping | hair twirling | whistling | eye rolling | licking lips | sniffing | squinting | rubbing hands together | jaw clenching | gesturing while talking | putting feet up on tables | tucking hair behind ears | chewing lips | crossing arms over chest | putting hands on hips | rubbing the back or their neck | being late | procrastinating | doodling | shredding paper | peeling off bottle labels | forgetfulness | running hands through hair | overreacting | teeth grinding | nostril flaring | slouching | pacing | drumming fingers | fist clenching | pinching bridge of nose | rubbing temples | rolling shoulders

► KNOWS HOW TO:

bake a cake from scratch | ride a horse | pilot | speak a second language | dance | catch a fish | play an instrument | throw a punch | build a deck | ice skate | unclog a drain | program a computer | change a flat tire | fire a gun | sew | juggle | play poker | paint | fly a kite | draw | write poetry | change a diaper | sing | shoot a bow and arrow | ride a bike | swim | sail a boat | do a back flip | play chess | give CPR | pitch a tent | flirt | stitch a wound | write in cursive | use an electric drill | braid hair | make a campfire | make a mixed drink | wrap a gift | jump-start a car | roll their tongue | do yoga | tie a tie | skip a rock | shuffle a deck of cards | read Morse code | pick a lock

[p101recaps]

Broduce 101: Episode 8 First Half (Quick Livestream Recap)

Since I missed the first half of the livestream, here’s a quick recap off the raw. I’ll link this to the second half recap too.

Before elimination heartbreaks, they’d served some fanservice to numb the pain with a bit from when BoA came to visit before position evals.

She brought them pizza! The boys had a collective breakdown of food appreciation, and we see a brilliantly photoshopped press picture of BoA holding up pizzas like an angel, like Kim Youjin clearly imagines.

Jung Jung, at the brink of tears: WHY IS IT SO DELICIOUS

They’re just happy to be around her, which is fully understandable. She does a little happy dance as they chant for her, and mingles with the trainees (there’s a nice shot of the Amazing Kiss group talking to her) before leaving them to their food.

Sidenote: the cameras always catch Noh Taehyun in the background, and he’s always unintentionally pulling the ugliest faces possible, unaware he’s in the shot.

Cube Chick Yoo Seonho is by far the happiest, putting away as much pizza as he could to compensate for only getting three meals a day at dorms. He’s obviously at that age where you eat everything in sight, it reminds me of my brother.

Cut to eliminations day and shots of tears. Okay, the warm and fuzzies have disappeared.

The trainees all do their entrance into the Ceremony Hall of Crowned Chairs.

Kim Donghan did a move from Shape of You, then a heart and wink combo.

Starship boys did something weird, ofc

Brand New trainees did the point choreo from Twice’s comeback song, Signal. Cute. 

My man Ong-ssi transitioned from a very stiff and formal bow to his high note meme face from Get Ugly

FNC Yoo Hwiseung did his lip-swipe

Cube chicks, whose backstage hwaiting needed to be redone three times for them to be in sync, did the Shugo Chara frame.

Pledis’ Nu’est boys did hearts and more Twice references.

Hashtag that Twice relevancy

Bae Jinyoung did the ear flapping move too

So did Maroo Park Jihoon. I suddenly miss Kwon Hyeob, seeing him up there alone.

ONO Moonbok, who looked ridiculously pretty btw - I hope they stick to styling him like this, did something that looked like Red Velvet’s Rookie or Lovelyz’s WoW, and held up his lovely hair in two pigtails. Adorable. The trainees were KO’d

Star Empire Takada Kenta looks more like a puppy than ever.

The Yuehua kids shot hearts and Ahn Hyungseob acted like he got hit by one

S.How trainees used their minimal screentime references - Namhyung did his finger to the lip with elevated pinky detail that had impressed Lee Seokhoon, while Dongsu did the plucking from the air bit from the Amazing Kiss stage.

MMO trainees, extra as always, integrated Auntie Jisung’s clapping move with Twice’s Signal. 

Baby maknae Lee Woojin did his meme face and finger heart from the Be Mine stage. A worldwide cutie.

C2K Kim Seonglee did finger hearts with the Very Very Very head bobbing

YGK+ Kwon Hyunbin tried a headstand before just rolling over like a cat in a blanket

Real Performers Ardor and Able Noh Taehyun and Ha Sungwoon did a finger point choreo before moonwalking off the stage in sync

RBW puppies referenced fallen trainee Dongmyung by doing his warm up flapping dance and hearts. 

Protect Them.

Tension building and then cut to concept evaluation song distributions.

They keep playing up the fact that Jihoon dropped ranks...are they egging the fangirls to have a flatout fight?

This way of arranging missions, with distributing trainees into teams and then shuffling after half of them leave is stupid and could be avoided if they split up the mission footage better. The show could fully have filler episodes between missions at this level of popularity so the vote timing and mission preparation could be allocated efficiently. 

Imagine working at a song and then having to start over a few days later. It’s ridiculous.

Songs are introduced by their producers. The viewers have been voting to match the songs to their favourite trainees for this mission. 

I’d said earlier that the idea was just going to incite some kind of fuckery, with fans not used to this amount of legitimate power. Sure enough, there was cheating involved so Kang Daniel, Lee Kiwon and Kim Dongbin were banned from their leaked song preferences.

Honestly, the cat emoji morse code was great. It’s one of my top controversies this season. 

First up is my personal favourite of the song concepts, I Know You Know, produced by heavyweight producer Joombas (who is famously responsible for Exo’s Growl, SHINee’s Dream Girl and also apparently worked with HOTSHOT). I’m all about the funky R&Bish vibe: not the kind of song that tops charts, but probably stays there a while. Watch this song be ignored though lol

Second is Oh Little Girl, a name even the producer draws quote marks around. This is the song for the hip-hop concept, and has a jazzy easy listening feel.

Next is Showtime, coming from a trio of newer or less popular producers. This seems catchy, but it sounds very familiar - not a song I’d remember. The choreo looks fun though, and they reference Dongmyung’s warm up! The trainees love it, cracking up as they mimic the move.

Fourth are another famous producer group, Devine Channel, who I believe do a lot of SM’s songs. They’ve also done a lot of very trendy title songs, including BTS’ Fire and VIXX’s The Closer. I think the English title for this song is Open? Correct me if I’m wrong. It sounds great, oddly like something I might have heard from Nu’est. I’m looking forward to this too, the choreo looks great.

Fifth song is from the producers that get the most hype, Hyuna’s new charity project from Cube, Triple H’s Never. Auntie Jisung decides he wants the song because Hyuna is involved, which, honestly, same. The EDM structure also feels overdone but I have a sneaking suspicion this is going to be the song that gets maximum hype since there’s no ballad.

Trainees get allocated their songs in envelopes and have to go to wait in separate practice spaces for the rest of their team.

Jaehwan doesn’t want to be in same team as Hyunbin, which I understand, considering that he’s had to carry him twice already. Like the other trainees, he wants to work with GodJonghyun. 

Pretty boys Bae Jinyoung, Park Jihoon and Ahn Hyungseob get sorted together. Maybe their fans have been working in sync. They also get excited puppy Gunhee, which means their vocals will be taken care of. 

Once the trainees all gather, their songs are revealed. Byun Hyunmin decides to rip the sticker for his room and accidentally pulls off the whole thing. 

Byun Hyunmin: :O

Noh Taehyun: Everyone, we’re not singing.

Hyunmin retries.

All the trainees: cAREFULLY 

The group gets Showtime, which was Samuel’s pick. He’s ecstatic.

Minhyun’s room has their sticker peel by Emperor Hwang to reveal Never, which pleases most of them. 

Park Jihoon’s room has a breakdown before Dongbin peels the sticker to show Oh Little Girl, a song I can see Sewoon do well in. The Yuehua trainees are all in this team too.

Moonbok has a braid in his lovely hair this segment, it looks fire emoji.

Hyunbin’s room has I Know You Know. Taedong, who has a lower range than the song needs, is nervous.

Baekho’s group gets Open, which most of the trainees are excited about. Seunglee in particular is relieved, since it was one of his picks. 

We go into centre struggles for the killing part.

Oh Little Girl has Jihoon battling Euiwoong and Minki. They all demonstrate, and vote Jihoon and Minki as their preferred centres. 

Euiwoong is getting worried. He’s one of the only initial popular trainees that seems to be dropping down ranks every week. Kahi gives him a much needed confidence boost at dance check in, and Don Mills praises him at vocal check in too.

Product placement break.

Open team wants a dance focus trainee as leader because of the high level choreo and elect Daniel, who now probably understands what he needs to do to lead his group after faltering last mission. 

But the team has so many people that they split into two halves while leaning choreo and one team falls behind since Daniel doesn’t split his attention between the two initially

Kahi calls them out on the distinction, with one group lagging while the first one does great. The second half, which has Park Sungwoo, who we know needs a lot of focused help, starts to catch up after the whole team gets scolded.

There are so many trainees in this team that won’t survive eliminations, oh god. 

Kim Seunglee, you deserve better.

Showtime group has a lot of strong singers. Woodam wants to be main vocal, and Yoo Hwiseung needs that vocal hype boost since his rank is risky too. 

Auntie Jisung: I want to try to do it too.

They start talking about the need for facial expressions and singing, Samuel wants to lowkey be centre. They need to have impact to bring the concept across, they decide.

Auntie Jisung: I still want to try though!

They ask the trainees to sing and do some face expression to pick centre and main vocal. Jisung and Samuel share centre while Woodam and Hwiseung share main vocal.

Coach Shin Yumi likes Hwiseung’s control over the notes better. He’s a lot more stable than Woodam, maybe because his natural tone is stronger?

Yoo Hwiseung gets some screentime for the first time.

Far out, Mnet. You really annoy me.

Never team has Ha Sungwoon being worried about being in a team with high ranking trainees, most of who want to be centre. 

They all battle with facial expressions but the trainees vote for Guanlin and Minhyun as centre.

At dance check in with Dabbing Ajusshi Kwon Jaesung, however, Sungwoon is the first one to volunteer to dance. 

He gets some well deserved praise for it, which honestly, the kid needs. Being in a group of trainees that are all popular is awful enough, but he’s a true all rounder. Without enough screentime or helpful editing, he’s been fading despite being good looking and a consistent performer. 

More product placement.

I Know You Know team has the underdog feel straight up, with the lower ranking trainees. I called the song as not being the kind to be popular.

Appealing time for the centre spot. RBW Hwanwoong stands out. Ah, my heart. Donghan and Hwanwoong get centre.

Dance check in with Kahi has her appreciating their hard work. Hyunbin’s dancing seems to have improved, I guess being cyber bullied has that effect on you. She also thinks Hwanwoong is a good centre choice, which is some well deserved praise. 

Tears and mournful instrumentals are abound as the low ranking trainees recount their experience before for upcoming eliminations. We get flashbacks for some of them, which should prepare you for what’s coming.

We all know where this is heading. The rest of the recap can be found here.

[adickaboutspoons]

What better time for the Theater of Fear than Halloween? Picspam ahoy under the cut:

My wife and I plan elaborate Halloween parties. As an example of a Fuckery we have pulled off in the past, allow me to walk you through our Hannibal-themed party.

Setting the table: We mainly drew inspiration and recipes from Janice Poon's Feeding Hannibal blog and cookbook where we could, but here's the pinboard where we went "off book" as it were:

It took weeks of shopping, prep and cooking, and we were still cooking down to the wire. we served: anchovi tapenade, herb and chevre stuffed mini peppers, melon cubes with prosciutto rosettes, garlic-and-herb stuffed chicken hearts on little sword-shaped coctail skewers, beet tangine

(Incidentally, I hand-decorated each of those square plates with unique blood-spatter patterns)

Pork belly in red wine caramel glaze, sweetbread, sausage, pepper and olive skewers with a balsamic reduction, punch romaine (and various wines provided by our guests)

Cream puffs with red pepper jelly, mincemeat tartlets and a fruitboard for dessert grazing

Sanguinoccio (an orange-chocolate-blood pudding) for dessert proper

and various jelly shots (the cocktails on the pinboard were made into jelly form). Black was The Ravenstag, brown The Chesapeake Ripper, red for the Great Red Dragon. I can't for the life of me remember what green and yellow were. Sorry!

Setting the scene:

Little hard to see, I know, but I made individual Rorschach inkblot charms for the wine glasses, and my wife printed out Hannibal coloring books for our guest to take home with them

along with individual hand-crafted gift boxes with a sample of fan-created tea blends from Adagio teas and home-brewed "not-people" beer from my brother-in-law.

We encouraged our guests to come as their favorite character or murder tableau from the show (faces redacted because I don't post people's faces to the internets without consent). From left to right top row we have: Abigail (slit throat version), Will Graham, a meat angel (there's a better pic of her costume later) , Will Graham #2, Jack Crawford, The Great Red Dragon, Fredrick Chilton, Buffalo Bill, Margot Verger, Alana Bloom, the Cave Bear, Bedelia du Maurier & in the front row: Miriam Lass (one-armed well-dweller edition - Me!), the mushroom corpse, and the Ravenstag.

Escape the Murder Basement: We made an escape room from our basement. It's a little difficult to describe without making it sound incredibly linear, so just keep in mind the following elements were scattered about for interaction in any order.

The desk in the corner of the room had two glass-fronted cabinets (one locked with a rolodex inside, and one with a perserved head in a jar), one locked drawer with no discernable lock or keyhole, two empy drawers, and an unlocked drawer containing a black light and a heating pad.

The blacklight could be used to read a message written on the desktop in "blood" (actually laundry detergent, which, fun tip, luminesces under blacklight) that read "Heat your seat". The heating pad could be used on the seat of the chair to reveal a 6-digit number that had been painted in thermal paint (looks black when cool, turns bright red when heated).

The 6-digit code opened a briefcase, which was atop a cabinet in the room that was stading in as Hannibal's secret refrigerator ( which was locked with a 4-character letter padlock).

Inside the briefcase was a tablet with a musical code lockscreen and a letter from Hannibal to the Great Red Dragon.

This was a simple book code, which pointed to an anatomy textbook on the bookshelf next to the desk. "259 prayers" referred to the page number, the chapters were the line, and the verse the letter. I don't remember exactly what it said, but it spelled out that the wine rack held the code to unlocking the locked desk drawer.

The bottles were arranged to spell out a message in Morse code (bottoms for dashes, tops for dots). If I recall correctly, it was "Knock twice, then once, then three times." Are our guests just supposed to know Morse code? No - the tablet, when unlocked, revealed a Morse Code key.

My wife had used Raspberry Pi to program a special lock that would only unlock when the drawer was knocked with the correct pattern. Inside the drawer was a puzzle box I made, inside of which was the key to unlock the lock on the desk cabinet with the Rolodex. But the sides needed to be opened in a particular order (more on that in a moment).

On a small table under the stairs was a set-up chess board with a shattered tea cup in the middle. If you re-assembled the teacup, you could read a 3-digit number code that would unlock a padlock that held closed the cabinet door of a butcher's block mid-floor (butcher's block kind of pictured in the fore-ground below; a better angle of our meat angel in the back):

In the butcher block cabinet was a page of sheet music (the code to unlock the tablet from the briefcase), and a bottle marked "luminol" (it was just water), which, if you sprayed it on the wall over that globe in the background, revealed a message painted in water-resistant driveway sealant:

Which would help you open the puzzle-box . The sides of the puzzle-box were inlaid with herbs (sage, rosemary, basil, thyme - one on each side. There was also an encyclopedia of herbs on the bookshelf with the anatomy book in case they couldn't identify what the herbs were by sight). There were glass bottles on the desk filled with water to which we had added essential oils scented like various herbs. There were numbers on the corks; the numbers on the corks were the order in which the sides needed to be opened, and the scent in the bottle corresponded to the herbs inlaid on the box.

The Rolodex had various business cards from future ingredients. Written on the inside of the glass of the cabinet (revealed only if you breathed on it and fogged the glass) was the message, "What's missing?" The Rolodex was missing the tabs for the letters R, U, D, & E, which were the letters to unlock the padlock on the "fridge".

Inside the "fridge" were vaccum-packed eyeballs, brains, a heart, and a femur. Each was marked with a name: Alexander Knightly, Sarah McQueen, James Bishop, and Elizabeth King.

On the underside of the corresponding chess pieces were numbers. So you had a number matched to a name. On the wall was this arrangement of pictures:

which indicate in which order the numbers associated with the name on each body part needed to be entered to open the 4-digit padlock to open the "door" to the murder basement and escape (in reality, just a chain across the bottom of the stairs in case of fire or freak-out).

Our guests had 1 hour to solve the room, or the lights would go out, and a red light would illuminate a cut-out of Hannibal behind the plastic sheeting we'd put up to block off the non-play area of the basement.

This year's theme is Scooby Doo. I can't reveal too much because some of the people coming follow me, but we already have 4 pages of notes and a dedicated pinterest board (okay - I'll reveal one thing - there will be a coctail for each of the human members of the scooby gang: Gin-based for Daphne, Tequilla-based for Velma, Vodka-based for Fred, and Rum-based for Shaggy, which, when combined, will create a Scooby Gang Long-Island-esque concoction). Here's the brief: Welcome to McSpooky Manor! The new owners have invited you and the Scooby Gang to their party. Ever since they moved in a couple months ago, something goes horribly wrong every time they try to have a get-together. A hair-raising phantom descends upon the festivities and scares everyone away! When asked, the new owners can think of 5 people who might wish them ill: Liv Touserv- the creepy caretaker that came with the house

Earnest Pesterson - the cranky co-worker

Lamia McSpooky - the erstwhile heiress of the McSpooky Estate

P. Sandkwiat - the not-so-neighborly neighbor

Seline Arhouse - the pushy real-estate agent that keeps cold-calling about selling the house

Can you and the Scooby Gang can get to the bottom of this mystery and find out what’s going on?

But, as I said before, it takes AGES to develop a good fuckery, so it's going to be a few months before this one is ready to roll.

Plan and Execute a Fuckery.