#posting this now because 1 :

[sonykatzen]

[insert clever caption that makes you think hard]

[himulrai]

with this the spike trilogy comes to a close

previous here!

I have really bad art block atm my posts are gonna be even MORE rushed and staggered than usual I'm so sorry😕

[inkedinserendipity]

just finished re-reading all systems red and the way martha wells' narration directly tracks murderbot's thoughts is, like, diabolical in retrospect.

because on my first read-through, i'll be honest. i did not remember the presaux crew at all. pin-lee and gurathin show up in exit strategy and i, remembering nothing about those two except ":D! presaux friends!" expected them to be like "omg hey murderbot!" because i figured the presaux crew would be excited to see their secunit again. i did not remember pin-lee's temper or gurathin's skepticism. because the presaux crew kinda blurred together for me in the first book. because that's how murderbot saw them too!

all systems red has the most en media res of all en media res beginnings. not just because it starts in the middle of an action sequence, but because it also starts in the middle of an emotional sequence. the survey has been happening, for, what - a couple of weeks? - by the time asr starts. murderbot has already met the crew. they have already formed impressions of it. but, crucially, it has formed almost no opinions of them*.

it's been watching media and half-assing its job. and at this point in murderbot's journey, and therefore its internal narration that forms the text, a human is a human is a human. it is not invested in their work, so we don't hear about the start of their survey. it literally starts paying attention to them when they are in danger and when they start to realize that it is a person, because that is when murderbot has to start paying attention.

and this is why i remembered almost nothing distinct about the presaux crew. there are a lot of crew members, but murderbot spends very little time thinking about them as individuals. so the narration tends to skim over their distinct personalities, because murderbot doesn't really consider them* at all!

and then of course we come to exit strategy and network effect, and the contrast could not be more clear. now it's got opinions about everyone, and because it has a better grasp on their personalities, the narrative does too. oh yes that's arada, wibbly bulwark, the human murderbot trusts to not be overconfident and ignore its advice. that's gurathin. it doesn't like gurathin. that's pin-lee, the combatunit of lawyers, well-dressed and sharp-tongued. and of course, that's ratthi (tag: bestie!!), who stays in the car because he will get himself killed by something.

and of course, there's dr mensah. but she was always an exception.

*dr mensah is, as she always is when it comes to murderbot, an exception to this generalization. that's tag: intrepid explorer like blorbo from my shows! that you're talking about. even when murderbot mostly tried to avoid humans at all costs, even murderbot paid attention to her. from asr to now, that has been and remains perfectly true.

[applesaucesupremacy]

shooting a low level embassy staffer and his partner who had been leaving a function aimed at providing aid for gaza no less for no other reason than they're israeli as opposed to say ben gvir for example who was in the us some time ago and also is significantly more involved in pushing for the aggressive campaign in gaza is exactly the issue i have with the us pro palestine movement. they don't know anything about what's actually happening, and care more about hurting jews israelis than actually helping gaza. the movement has consistently refused to address the antisemitism in their ranks and is confused why jews are uncomfortable associating with them! they just make living as a jew unsafe and make the lives of the people in palestine they claim to care about even more unsafe.

[lucabyte]

Different standards

[emerynn-art]

was feeling kinda down this morning so i drew max six times and that seemed to do the trick

[tf2heritageposts]

the idea that tumblr as a website is “cooked” or whatever because of photomatt’s allegations is extremely funny to me because it’s ignoring the fact this godforsaken website has been sold at least three times now to different people. it’s hot potato with this shithole

[rythyme]

[daftpatience]

i lov planning outfits the same way i love drawing diagrams for rearranging furniture. its plotting and scheming

[quadrantadvisor]

DPxDC Danny/Jason Soulmates AU WIP

-

Jason's timer read 044389:21:08, when the display suddenly went dark. 44,389 hours. Five years, 24 days, 13 hours, 21 minutes, and 8 seconds until he was fated to meet his soulmate.

Or not. Because the time stopped.

It wasn’t supposed to happen. He did his research, and with the resources at his disposal (namely, a batcomputer,) he knew for a fact that there should be no way to defy the fate of a timer. People had tried. Avoidance, isolation, putting a hit out on your own suspected soulmate. Nothing worked. Trying to delay the inevitable put you on the path to meet it. Sure, there were people who lamented the unfairness of their own situation, who were devastated they never got time with their soulmate, famous deaths on opposite sides of a battle, etc. But soulmates always, always met eachother, face to face.

Not him, though. His soulmate was dead. Five years early.

Bruce didn’t get it. Dick wouldn’t talk about it. Alfred only looked at him with pity in his eyes.

Jason wasn’t sad that he was the only person on the planet who’d never meet his soulmate. He was fucking angry, because it wasn’t fucking fair. It was another person in his life who was supposed to care about him that he’d never get to have.

So when he found out he had a mom, somewhere out there, who he’d never had the chance to meet… he had to go. How could he not?

-

It was Sam who noticed, when it happened. Danny had just finished a stupid fight with Boxy, and he, Sam, and Tucker were finally ready to call it a night. Danny de-transformed and grinned, shaking the thermos proudly. “Gonna get these guys back into the Ghost Zone,” he said, when suddenly-

“Danny!” Sam yelped, and snatched at his arm.

Danny stumbled, nearly dropping his precious cargo. “Whoa, Sam, what-?’ he stopped, looking as she turned over his arm, baring his wrist.

His timer was dark, like people who’s soulmates were dead. The numbers still showed, faintly, but they were stationary. The countdown had stopped.

Ice spread through Danny’s veins, like the cold that rushed through him when he went ghost, but worse, so much worse.

Danny’s ghost form didn’t have a timer, which honestly freaked him out, but as a human it had always behaved completely normally. When he turned back, it would be there, the time having elapsed just the way it was supposed to. It had been so reassuring. He was alive. He’d make it at least five more years, and be able to meet his soulmate, who would hopefully be able to accept him the way he was. He wanted that so badly. He wanted someone beyond his friends to talk to, to know him as a person and a ghost. He wanted to not be afraid anymore.

He’d just passed the five year mark, not that long ago. He’d been so excited to be that much closer to someone so important.

And now something was horribly wrong.

“Dude, that’s jacked up,” Tucker said, noticing the problem with wide eyes.

“Did anything happen today?” Sam asked, her expression hardened with determination. “Did you notice anything weird while you were transformed?”

Danny shook his head. “No, no it- it was running while we were at school, and we’ve been fighting ghosts since then. I don’t know when it would’ve…” Danny could barely make himself speak. “Is it my fault?” he said, almost to himself. “Did I spend too much time as a ghost and it just-”

Sam gripped at his hand. “No, Danny, it isn’t your fault. Whatever the problem is, we’re going to figure it out, okay?”

“Yeah man,” Tucker added, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, maybe your parents can actually help this time? Weird magic science is kinda their thing, right?”

Sam looked less sure, but nodded all the same. “You’re going to meet your soulmate. Okay?”

“Okay,” Danny said, quiet, looking down at the stopped numbers on his wrist.

-

Edit: Added a readmore

[eightsixtiism]

perhaps it's because i'm also a football fan, and i'm so used to brushing off vitriol that's ever thriving because that's just the sport, but most of lando's haters are so fucking soft, it hurts to see.

you claim you want 'cunty f1' back, yet you constantly berate lando for being 'whiny' when things don't go his way. charles does the same thing, but because it's charles and he's more 'champion material' or whatever the fuck you guys say, you'll deem it as him being determined and wanting to push himself to the top.

lando doesn't say a thing, you'll claim he's not 'worthy of winning the championship because he's not competitive enough' and 'doesn't care'.

you call lando racist, and granted, what he said in miami was not favourable in the slightest, and i'll 100% hold him accountable for that, but let's not forget the fact that he's mentioned he doesn't like trump before in one of his streams, and how he took part in the blm demonstration (whether just for pr or not, i'll still take my liberties and allow this one to count as it was a public display). or how he's never displayed some sort of alliance with trump's convictions before trump was (out of lando's control) invited to miami.

you absolutely cannot sit there and be a max fan, but beneath the table shoot lando in the foot when max is heavily involved with a notoriously racist's daughter. and let's not even forget max being completely flippant and dismissive when asked about piquet calling lewis a racial slur.

at the end of the day, lando is only human, i will admit he has said things that don't put him in the greatest of lights, but we're all acting as if people haven't said worse. i could compare him to seb and say that vettel literally roamed the grid being public enemy number one for a long time, but people will say that they're not on the same level to be compared. and i agree, however we have to give lando the chance to get there and not criticize his journey in doing so.

let lando make mistakes, let him fumble, let him be whiny and bratty on the track, but let's remember he is second in the championship standings. yes, he's most likely not winning it, but it's honourable enough for someone who just won his first race this year.

we're so used to seeing people have such a confident, upfront attitude with the championship that when someone who isn't as self assured is 'contending', they're deemed as unworthy, no matter how hard they try. you can't expect someone to be perfect without giving them the room to become perfect.

[saedyne]

nobody asked but my hot take is that i think kon's struggles with

being literally made to be superman

being given roles and expectations (as a hero/boyfriend/etc) based on that/how he looks and squeezing himself down into those expectations

being torn between duty/obligation (even and perhaps especially of the self-imposed variety) and his own sense of self

feeling like he outlived his purpose after coming back from the dead and not knowing what he's supposed to be now that he's done the superman thing (maybe even feeling like he needs the unbearable weight of expectation because without a job to do or a box to fit into he might dissolve into nothing because he's always avoided examining who he is when there's nobody he has to be i wonder why that is)

could. uh. y'know. all that could be read as quite...queer. in a pretty genderful way. but what do i know.

[2xchomp]

Have an Empires Shiny Duo.

Very messy sketch but it needed to come out so I could work on other things, so it’ll be a while before another thing comes out! Sorry!

[iamhereinthebg]

This is my propaganda

So glad to hear that aah ToT I love them a lot too

[sineala]

In case you are looking for canonical evidence that Tony Stark has migraines, this is Darkhold Alpha #1 (2021).

[doctorsiren]

I’ve been thinking about Miles as Serizawa quite a bit 😁