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[martiancake]

moving

Is there anything more tiring than packing up your entire life to move? I just don’t wanna... where did all this dust come from... why do I have three of those things? 

Am moving to a newly built apartment building with all sorts of modern amenities and I just... I kind of feel like I’m living in a J.G. Ballard novel. If I had an EV, I could park up on the nice parking deck with the beautiful people, instead I’m down in the fossil fuel dungeon. But also, super fast fiber internet and no gross rental carpet.  

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Wes Chatham as Amos Burton THE EXPANSE - “Why We Fight” (6.05)

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Discovery of grinding

My nephew, playing Bloodborne at my house: Oh. OH! I bet I could just go back to the Hunter's Dream and these easy guys would respawn and I could get more blood echos that way!

Me, a proud auntie: That sounds like a brilliant idea sweetie!

[martiancake]

Year end lookback

So 2021 was not a great year for me, and most of the media I consumed was entirely comfort/escapism. 

TV

I watched a lot of Murder, She Wrote. Angela Lansbury is a treat and I love how every silver fox in her radius keeps trying to put the moves on Jessica. Except for Seth Hazlitt... but come on, he’s over for food like all the time. Do he and Jess have a little old-fashioned FWB thing going on? 

Also watched all of Castle for the first time, and it was charming fluff. Finding out the leads didn’t get along IRL surprised me ‘cause they had chemistry for days. 

Castle led me to try The Rookie, but I stopped early on because I’m just not interested in stories about street level cops anymore. Especially fantasyland cops where there’s no thin blue line in the LAPD. Either make it a full-on fantasy set in a made up org, or show the real shit. Don’t try to ‘few bad apples’ a real world organization that has systemic problems baked in for generations.

I gave in and got Disney+, so I also watched all the Marvel shows, which were all very enjoyable. I also rewatched The Clone Wars (still so fucking good), finally saw Rebels (Jesus, way to punch me in the gut with emotions, Star Wars), and watched The Bad Batch (just in case I didn’t have enough feelings about clones) as it came out.

Games

Look, I’m not saying I played the Mass Effect Legendary edition 100% through with four different Shepards, but I’m also not not saying that... 

Books

I was terrible about updating my goodreads as I went this year, so this is more scattershot. I got a new Kindle so I took the free four months of KU. I have read so much trashy (and I say that with the deepest, most heartfelt levels of affection) fantasy/sci-fi romance. Ice Planet Barbarians? Read ‘em. Obvious Reylo fic with the serial numbers filed off and turned into incredibly popular romance novel? Read it. Obvious Jaime/Brienne fic with the serial numbers filed off and turned into a popular romance novel? Read it. Fireblood Dragons (dragon/human romances in a post-apocalyptic hellscape)? Read ‘em. Alien abduction romances where hapless earth ladies are abducted by sexy aliens who just want to eat pussy all night long? Read SO MANY of ‘em. 

Podcasts

Really enjoying That’s Messed Up, a podcast about Law & Order: SVU. Still chugging along with Hello From the Magic Tavern. I can’t believe it’s been going on for so long and still makes me laugh. Also enjoying The Evolution of Horror, a British show about horror movies separated into loose themes. Watch if you Dare, a horror movie podcast with two friends, one who is more easily scared than the other, is a lot of fun. I am utterly in love with the music podcast No Dogs in Space, hosted by a married couple who really really love music, y’all. The first season was about Punk, and I learned so much about the genre. They did a miniseries on the Beastie Boys (so good!), and are now into a series about Alternative. Great production values and the hosts have such a charming rapport. Highly recommend if you like music at all, even if the genres they’re currently covering aren’t your bag. 

Movies

Look, I’m not ready to go hang out for hours in an enclosed space with strangers yet. I saw no movies in a theater. I did watch Shang-Chi and Black Widow on D+ and really dug them both.  

Now I’m gonna curl up and watch Leverage: Redemption and catch up on The Expanse. 

[martiancake]

your last words before you die are the 3rd line of the last song you listened to. what are we saying ladies?

[martiancake]

post from a friend who works on film/tv sets about the IATSE strike, feel free to repost

[martiancake]

The Cerberus problem

I have played ME2 a BUUUUNCH of times. And now a couple more times with the LE. And every single goddamned time I shake my fist at the screen at how easily Shep just gives in and works for Cerberus. At how your old squaddies put up only slight resistance to working on a Cerberus vessel. Nearly everyone is like, well, Shep’s okay with it and I’m okay with Shep, so there you go. 

The only one who doesn’t get on board with it is the Virmire survivor. And I agree with all their concerns! But Shep can’t tell them that. Because the game wants you to just go along to get along. 

I believe the only--THE ONLY--person to bring up Akuze (if Shep has that background) is Tela fuckin’ Vasir in the Lair of the Shadow Broker. And since that was DLC, I have to wonder if they added that line because players were like, WTF at the main game completely ignoring it. 

And the thing is, they could have solved most of my issues with a simple conversation with Anderson or Hackett. Just have Shep voice their concerns about Cerberus and offer to turn over the SR2 to the Alliance and submit to examinations by Alliance doctors. And then have Anderson/Hackett say no, wait a minute, let’s see what we can learn about this super shady well-funded black ops group--you’re in a unique position to do so, Shepard. Here’s a secure comm channel where you can send us intel. Boom, Shep’s a double agent and still gets to kick Collector ass. 

Ugh, Cerberus.

[martiancake]

BLACK WIDOW + references

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They did destroy Tuchanka with nuclear fire prior to their discovery by the Salarians... So they had scientists clever enough to split the atom. I’m betting they figured out grain alcohol pretty early on in their civilization’s history. 

Or maybe they made it out of some local fruit. Leave fruit lying around long enough, it’ll ferment. I’ve had squirrels drunk off fallen apples in my yard.

I’ve always imagined it’d be cool if ryncol was something like fermented Thresher Maw spit. Or krogan mezcal, but with a larval Maw in the bottle. 

What’s with ryncol?

What’s actually in ryncol? The way everyone talks about its toxicity, I don’t think it’s just extra-strong ethanol.

Option 1: Aliens shouldn’t drink ryncol because of the high methanol levels. Methanol isn’t toxic to krogan - as far as their metabolism’s concerned, it’s just another neurodepressant - so when they distil ethanol, they don’t bother purifying the methanol out.

Option 2: Aliens shouldn’t drink ryncol because it contains non-ethanol recreational drugs. As well as the high ethanol content, it contains easy-to-grow Tuchanka herbs that have a neurodepressant/euphoric effect on krogan and are highly toxic to everyone else.

Option 3: Ryncol is just pure ethanol and some flavouring, nothing scarier. People are being wildly hyperbolic about its toxicity - krogan like to brag about their toughness, non-krogan are scared of krogan, and maybe there were a few high-profile methanol poisoning cases from careless distillation.

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Me: Why do I have a bunch of comment notifications on Reddit when I’ve only be away for a couple of hours?

Also me: Oh yeah, I commented on a post that Kaidan has value as a squad member...

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Mass Effect Twitter: “You’ve all made tons of choices in #MassEffect Legendary Edition. How do yours match up against other commanders?” [source]

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Playing an mShep for the very first time ever. 

Gettin’ my flirt on, deciding who to romance... And wow, Ashley is like, right out of Mean Girls about Liara. Straight up making fun of asari sexuality (then pouting and saying “No fun” if Shep tells her to cool it on the teasing), calling her a bug eyed alien, saying the only reason Shep likes her is because he can fuck her without breaking Alliance regs (or for political reasons)... She never says anything like that if you play fShep! 

Ashley, I liked you! Why you gotta be like that!

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Replaying Mass Effect (LE)

And getting all warm and fuzzy inside every time Garrus says “Impressive!” or “Nice shooting!” when I make a headshot.

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Bucky Barnes. Great at planning stuff.

[martiancake]

Reblog and put in the tags how many aunts/uncles/etc you have, and what you call them

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Yeah but like,

If Loki was a robot, he’d be the Big Three hat trick all in one. An alien android wizard.

[martiancake]

Just rereading Brubaker's Cap run and crying. NBD.