#[someone take the wheel

[geekedrat]

it's 1am, i can't sleep and i'm tempted to flatten my island

[foldback]

The Replacements - “Someone Take the Wheel”

"Someone take the wheel And I don't know where we're going Anybody say what you feel Everybody's sad, but nobody's showing..."

[moghedien]

i'm seeing people be like "Moiraine wouldn't be able to physically take down Lanfear!"

like...my guy.....are you sure about that? are you sure you know so much about these books that you supposedly hold so dear that you have to complain about every little change?

[comradekatara]

i've been thinking about the significance of toph's feet as the crux of her power against/alongside the practice of footbinding. considering her role situated within (an analog for) tang dynasty nobility, thinking through that cultural practice poses direct relevance regarding the overarching theme of how she transcends imposed boundaries, in terms of gender roles, class expectations, and of course along the axis of her disability. i can only gesture to these ideas because i lack the historical framework to construct a legitimate argument, but i'm wondering whether anyone more knowledgable regarding these historical contexts (@atlaculture comes to mind, but of course no pressure!) would like to extrapolate from these ideas.

[sage-lights]

smosh games video idea: lock amanda and angela in the games set alone and force them to play every single "the impossible quiz" and they can't leave until they solved them all

[revenantghost]

*places face in hands*

Wolfwood becomes himself when he stops following Knives's path

Wolfwood becomes Wolfwood when he instead follows Vash

[onaperduamedee]

"If she's not careful, she's going to win you over."

[markantonys]

THE WHEEL OF TIME | Rand, Mat, and Elayne in 2x08

[batsplat]

as our resident Casey expert i wonder what do you think would have happened if marc and casey competed against each other? since casey retiring is so important for marc coming into motogp im always thinking abt the what ifs...

my initial instinct with this hypothetical is always 'that sounds horrible', though I do have more thoughts and opinions about it than that! marc obviously would have loved the chance to race casey, and casey has even been one of his picks of 'guys he would've liked to be teammates with' before, so, you know, clearly something there - and he does very much respect casey as a rider. I think it's quite likely that by the time marc entered the premier class, casey had already developed... I don't know if wariness is going too far, but maybe a little bit of unease or caution where marc was concerned. marc already very much had a reputation based on his 125/moto2 track record, and some of these incidents were controversial enough that the motogp riders commented on them. so take the phillip island 2011 incident where marc rode into the back of another rider:

the valentino quote serves as a bit of a benchmark here, given he was generally pretty pro-marc. yes, casey's phrasing is perhaps a little harsher, but unsurprisingly none of the riders were big fans of marc's behaviour in that particular incident

on the other hand, it's not like casey never sided with marc. take catalunya 2012, where marc was slapped with a controversial post-race penalty:

yes, casey's main complaint was about inconsistent stewarding - but still, he believed marc had been unfairly treated here. feels like these incidents were some of the only things casey and valentino actually agreed on in those years, so that's nice

that being said, it's hard to see how casey wouldn't have his issues with marc and marc's whole approach to racing. I did include some thoughts on the teammate question here, but mainly I'm going to pilfer the relevant autobiography passage:

"if a rider doesn't care about his own safety then it stands to reason he doesn't care about anybody else's either"... there's nobody really who embodies the 'doesn't care about his own safety' maxim better than marc. he was the young rider desperate to win, and I can't imagine casey would have enjoyed actually racing him much. casey mostly didn't enjoy racing valentino, after all, who is a generally a lot more selective with his aggression than marc is (though casey did have to experience some of the worst valentino had to offer in that regard). casey talked in his autobiography about getting a sense when he just wasn't really able to trust another rider on the track, how much it bothered him - and that exact lack of respect is something that's been pretty closely associated with marc. that doesn't mean he would immediately declare marc his enemy... he'd just want marc to change, to learn, to grow up, to start treating his competitors with a little more respect. the way casey talks about young riders, there is a sense in which he has more time for them than he does for valentino - whose lack of respect casey views as more integral to who he is as a rider. valentino isn't a bully on track due to the exuberance of youth, he's a bully on track when he thinks he can use it as a tactic of intimidation. then again, marc by this measure is worse... and I think very quickly casey would have grown pretty disenchanted with how marc approaches all his wheel-to-wheel racing, especially when it becomes more and more clear marc does not feel particularly inclined to change

it's always important to remember how recent the trauma of losing simoncelli was for the whole sport, and it coloured both dani and jorge's wariness of marc... but also (in my opinion anyway) their restraint in how they dealt with him. how they tried to stop themselves from actually making an enemy out of him, in part because they'd just had an experience of harshly criticising a rider for a whole year and then having to process his death. both dani and jorge actually had more public and more serious disagreements with simoncelli than casey did, but I reckon there would have been an element of that restraint with casey too... on the other hand, his experiences with marc would have left him feeling even more alienated from the sport than he already was - at times frustrated (like jorge was) less with marc directly but more with the regulatory bodies for not holding marc back, for not giving him a race ban or whatever to teach him a lesson. that being said, marc's shamelessness vs casey's stubbornness means that if they had direct on-track encounters and casey didn't like marc's post-race response... well, I certainly think that'd end up being a pretty tense situation, even if it falls short of active hostilities

worth including irl!casey's take on marc in 2013:

which, you know. it's not just that marc's a hard racer - casey is accusing marc of deliberately wanting to make the defeats extra painful for his opponents, of wanting to not just beat but humiliate them. anyone else that reminds you of? someone who is as motivated in securing his psychological victories as his actual ones? perhaps someone who has a bit of a history himself with casey?

let's bring in valentino. it's not that casey would really have begrudged marc his friendship with valentino, and he generally kept his hatred of valentino quite 'clean' in that he wasn't conducting any proxy wars or anything (for instance, I don't get the sense the vale/sic friendship ever affected his view of simoncelli... though I have very little to go on here either way). also, if nothing else in this timeline changes, we're assuming valentino in 2013 is fairly clearly the... fifth? best rider? kinda depends where dani would have landed I suppose (casey's retirement announcement did save honda from a bit of a headache)... but anyway what this means is that valentino probably wouldn't initially have been much of a competitive threat to casey. mostly he would have been consigned to the sidelines

that being said, I doubt casey would have massively enjoyed the whole laguna seca saga. unfortunately, we don't even really know what real life casey's stance on the copycat move situation was... though if I had to guess, in this timeline I'd say his position would've been, a) marc could and should have carried out that overtake two corners later, there was no need in that race situation to take that risk, b) still, it was valentino's slight error as he attempted to reclaim the position (in what was a pretty aggressive manner, it has to be said) that led to them both ending up off-track and fuck that guy, and c) the problem with 2008 wasn't just or even primarily the corkscrew overtake and it's annoying that that's the only bit everyone talks about. of course, there's also the question of whether casey would have bought marc's explanation that it was totally by coincidence that the overtake happened there... and again, complete guesswork, but my sense of casey is that he would have assumed marc was being at least a little bit dishonest. (which, you know... laguna's not an easy track to overtake at, but marc did prove with the bradl move that he was perfectly capable of overtaking after turn 8 - might not have been planning on the off-track excursion, but he was still attempting to overtake just ahead of a blind crest that happened to feed into the corkscrew lol.) I think casey by his honda days had calmed down a bit (though he still certainly had some conspiratorial tendencies), but I also don't think it's a stretch to imagine that he would've felt like he was a victim of a joke between the pair of them... not ideal

overall though, I reckon casey's main frustrations would have been less with the move itself and more with how it was discussed. in the presser, while joking with marc, valentino does take the opportunity to get in a jibe at casey for old time's sake. there's this clip, where he directly addresses livio suppo (at ducati in 2008, by then at honda) - specifically about how both casey and suppo criticised him for that overtake. in response, suppo says something about how he's grateful to marc because they finally got payback. valentino is later asked directly about casey's complaints in 2008 in this clip, and replies with the following:

would valentino have said this stuff with casey still in the paddock? well, yes! honestly, given valentino did very quickly lay off needling casey once he had retired, there's a good chance he would have said something worse. and marc would have laughed along at the whole thing. I don't know, I just don't see casey taking particularly kindly to that... he can hold a grudge, that man can, and at a certain point he'd probably be increasingly less willing to give marc the benefit of the doubt. interesting situation though, laguna seca '13 + casey is a very juicy scenario that could play out in several different ways

but I'm guilty of burying the lede here - there's a far more obvious reason than anything I've described above for why the casey/marc relationship would have turned sour. it's the simple fact that they would have been teammates which would do the damage all on its lonesome; they have radically different conceptualisations of how that dynamic is supposed to work and would inevitably have clashed as a result. the one commonality they do have is they don't see their teammates as potential friends, which is... also not helpful! I think they'd probably initially be fine on the interpersonal level - and, actually, given how the casey/valentino relationship played out and marc's general approach to his rivalries, I can see marc/casey more or less being able to maintain a minimum standard of politeness towards each other even at their worst. like, I still think they'd be able to smile at each other and do some small talk when face-to-face, but I also think everything else would be a complete disaster. I talked a bit about how marc approaches his teammate relationships in this post - and I'm not going to rehash too much of what irl!marc got up to, but I'll include some bits relevant to casey

from marc:

related to casey:

and dani comparing the two:

we do obviously even have actual real life controversy wherein casey thinks marc felt threatened by him and forced him out of honda... and this in a timeline where they weren't even direct competitors! if this is the level of tension a test rider role can generate, then if they'd actually been teammates...? yeah, no. casey thinks that teammates should cooperate - and he thinks that riders enforcing divisions within the box are essentially doing so because they are "afraid". marc has openly admitted to lying about what parts he likes to make sure his teammate doesn't get any edge over him. this is the thing, right: marc might think casey is a cool rider, would've liked the chance to race him and even be teammates with him... but this is the stuff he did to dani, who was one of his literal idols! this is his understanding of competition - (like valentino) he might love the fight, but simultaneously he'll do pretty much whatever it takes to win, because he considers this stuff fundamentally part of the game. casey does not. to casey, this kind of victory is dishonest. any kind of gamesmanship is a sign of weakness... the victory is worth less if you're accomplishing it like that

now, hey, maybe marc would never have been able to go as far as he did with dani because he wouldn't have the kind of performance edge that allows you to definitively impose your will within the team. I think it's a popular interpretation that marc wouldn't have won the title in 2013 if casey had been there, which... I mean, I think it's true that it would have been less likely - in that in a season with that much volatility, the more plausible championship contenders you have the less likely it is that any single one of them takes the title (same goes for instance if you add in a valentino who had not gone to ducati for two years and would have presumably been more competitive in 2013). but it's not like casey would have been the defending champion and the clear class of the field... partly due to injury, he ended up finishing in third in 2012. jorge and dani didn't win the 2013 title in part as a result of their own injuries, and who knows how casey would have fared... like sometimes it's just luck of the draw really. you can be the better rider and still not win the title, shit happens. I think for as long as a more or less healthy-ish casey stays in the sport, it would have been unlikely that marc establishes quite the same performance edge as he did over dani... but, well, if anything that would have meant he would have fought even harder out of perceived necessity to win the internal honda wars

it's the kind of thing that can make a relationship quickly deteriorate, especially with a prickly character such as casey, and it's entirely plausible that dynamic would have become strained at best and horrendously toxic at worst... sooner rather than later. and the thing is, this environment would affect marc considerably less than it would casey. again, it's the fact that he relishes the fight... he's very good at shrugging off (most) criticism and thrives in that kind of tension. the emotional fatigue that this scenario generates would be painfully lopsided, where casey offers harsh criticisms and means them and is endlessly frustrated with marc's approach, while marc... doesn't really care. at least dani also had a questionable manager who was conducting behind the scenes warfare on his behalf - casey doesn't want to play these games at all. he just wants to ride a bike, and marc is never going to allow him to live in peace as long as he's an internal threat. if casey were exposed directly to all of that from marc, I doubt he'd walk away from the experience with a particularly positive impression of him

does he walk away? I think there's a decent chance that casey would have ended up so disillusioned with the whole thing that this would have been what pushed him into retirement. if he wants to get out of that mess, let's say after two years, his options would have been pretty limited. yamaha is closed off and I'd struggle to think of a scenario in which either jorge or valentino would have been particularly interested in a direct swap (also, if you're sick of being marc's teammate, you're probably not gonna be jumping at the chance to be valentino's instead). I suppose you could go back to ducati (which he did return to as a test rider so it's not like those bridges were permanently burnt), and maybe casey could do something special even with *gestures* that version of the bike. really though... I think enough would have been enough for him. regardless of the actual balance of success between the pair of them, my guess is marc wins that war because he's happier to get nasty and because he wants it more. casey has his two to four titles... he's done. let him go fishing

[mayasaura]

You see Gideon as wanting Paul-type synthesis with Harrow? I read her wanting Harrow to eat her as her desire to be useful and important to Harrow, not to totally merge with her.

She talks about blurring the edges between them, "like water spilt over ink outlines," and I read that as two people who are bound together inextricably but you can still make out the original outlines.

Nah, she just wants to be close as she can be to Harrow in any way she can be. She wants Harrow to eat her. She wants Harrow to fight her, to fight for her, to be near her. For Harrow not to be able to take a breath without her feeling it, and to know she can't breathe without Harrow feeling her. She wants Harrow to envelop her. She wants Harrow's attention, and she isn't particular how she gets it.

I wasn't distinguishing between Paul and other methods, because I don't know how much difference there's going to end up really being between them. All paths to speaking the Eightfold Word seem to lead to approximately the same place. Paul is a new person with Palamedes' eyes in Camilla's skin. Naberius Tern has left no body behind for Ianthe Naberius to find.

Gideon's craving for whatever Harrow will give her, Palamedes and Camilla's consummation, John's desperation for Alecto to take him and use him and make him her vessel, I kind of see it all as sort of. They want to go home. They all just want to go home.

[notcsk]

i have to ramble about this bc i've seen no one bring it up (Boonboomger)

I think it's so fucking sick to see Mira and Jou's very different reactions to Taiya's lies and reckless behavior in the newest episode. Jou's just a big puppy, we know from the toilet episode that he sincerely wants to save people and protect the innocent, so he's really upset because he joined the Boonboomgers expecting to be a superhero. Mira's not heartless at all, quite the opposite, but I genuinely don't think that's what mattered to her at all in this case.

Because of episode 1.

"Let me guess. You don't like someone else taking the wheel for you."

I'm still on my OT3 + accelbrake bullshit, dw, but I knew from that moment that Taiya and Mira's relationship would be the most special to me. I'd bet anything that this quote is going to repeatedly come back and be relevant for the two of them in particular, because it clearly deeply resonated with Mira, who had previously just kinda gone with the flow, as shown with her ex-boyfriend and her various part-time jobs, but also with Taiya, because the scene makes it clear that quote is coming from somewhere significant to him as well (and hopefully episode 9 will shed more light on this through revealing some of Taiya's backstory, fingers crossed).

Not only is that romantic as hell to my sappy ass brain (especially since not even Chasshiro and Genba questioned Taiya's ruse or motives in episode 8, only Mira did. You even see Chasshiro falter and hesitate once Mira calls them out in the cage.), but also it makes Mira being the one to yell at Taiya so much more significant. Mira is canonically the biggest driving prodigy among the Boonboomgers. It's not about the team not being started for the sake of defending the earth, they're doing the right thing anyway. It's the fact that Mira finally found a purpose to dedicate herself to, one she's truly one-of-a-kind good at, but it was all for the sake of an unspoken agenda. Someone else took the wheel. If Taiya had told her the truth from the start, I know she would have taken to the Big Bang Grand-Prix like a fish to water, and doing hero work on the side would just have been a happy bonus! But he didn't. He made the decision for her without involving her in the process.

And look i just think that's a really fucking juicy dynamic unique to the two of them, and I can't wait to find out what made Taiya, the person who told Mira that quote in the first place, willing to go behind her back after that. We're going to be digging into this further, I'm so sure of it, with how Mira was singled out in episode 8, and I cannot wait for the angst but also how good their particular dynamic is going to be once she makes Taiya see that the team is willing to stand by his dream if he's willing to stand by them.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Just rewatched Eddie’s therapy session with Frank from 5x13 and man o man does it hit even harder now with what Eddie is currently doing to himself!

Frank; I just wonder if you worry about your own well-being, you’re a man who spends all his time managing other peoples pain. Army medic firefighter but not a lot of time facing your own.

Eddie; and drill sergeant of mine used to say that pain is nothing but weakness leaving the body

Frank; you think pain is weakness?

Eddie; it can be. If you get into it.

Frank; Can’t put all your feelings in a box, Eddie. you might think that if you’re strong enough it’ll hold but at some point that box is going to blow open.

Eddie; and take me with it

Frank; you and anyone else around you.

[hoofpeet]

I love this guy 

[somuchbetterthanthat]

I was questioning everything that's going on with Alice right now, because once again this episode threw me off (I swear I want to study her under a microscope at this point) and then I realized that maybe instead of focusing on what she was saying, per say, I could think of what she isn't; or rather how she's behaving in this episode.

'Cause I think this is the second time now that we see Alice trying to go behind someone's back after we had the first part of a conversation that didn't betray her "real want".

That is: so far, from what we heard about Colin and Alice, Colin likes Alice. They have a good working relationship, or so it seems, until suddenly Alice is asking Sam to go to Central IT because she thinks Colin might be messing things up on purpose. And she doesn't want that -- but she also doesn't want Colin to know that it's a specific worry of hers, so he can keep seeing her as a friendly figure.

Similarly, last episode - and all the ones beforehand, to be honest - Alice has seemed adamant that Sam should stop thinking about the cases so much. She keeps telling him to stop prying into stuff. But of course that means she can't go around asking Sam "what are your specific theories here, what did you say, specifically". So she has to go behind his back -- and asks Celia, pretending like she isn't already aware that Sam and her have talked a lot about work during their date. She has to ask on the off chance that Celia will reveal more to her. But WHY does she want that? Why does she need to know what Sam is obsessing over, all the while shutting down Sam's attempts to discuss it himself with her, which he has tried beforehand?

If anything, this episode just kind of confirms to me that Alice is doing something for the OIAR; of course I might be biased, because in my head I've already been imagining her as a "Internal liaison agent". Reporting/redirecting/assessing/protecting(?) the people who work here when they begin to... think/ask too much about everything that goes on here. But maybe i'm off-track and she's just got her own non-official secret, like the others do.

........................ Also I literally cannot decide if her last remarks were jokes to distract Celia from her feelings for Sam, jokes that hold some truth about possible feelings for Celia, or jokes to close a conversation in a way that lets on she was only prying for "sentimental" reasons and not for other more specific work reasons.

[wetcatspellcaster]

the thing about Pieces is I desperately need one of these characters to get their rizz back, because otherwise literally no one is driving this plane

[toskarin]

I got a few questions about what was going on with SUGARBABYLOVE, so I started typing it out and then stopped and realised it'd be much funnier to do an extremely granular point-by-point explanation of nearly every single reference and influence in it

how serious am I being? either entirely shitposting or being completely transparent. intentionally left blank as an exercise in reader imagination. nightmare post below the break

all lovers make the same mistakes

BLUE SIDE

Sugar Baby Love, Les Blue Belles - the namesake of the piece, and also where I colourpicked the original background from

Komeiji Satori, Touhou Project - the Łucja on the left's personality is inspired by Satori

Fuura Kafuka, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - not actually referenced directly in Łucja's design, but a later reference makes this important to point out now

Litchi☆Hikari Club - I didn't realise it until after I finished, but I was 100% unconsciously focusing this image on hands because of L☆HC

Las dos Fridas - somewhat inherited imagery from the Komeijis, but I did have it in mind

Subarashiki Hibi ~Furenzoku Sonzai~ - the background, faintly visible at the top of the image, is based on a certain cool hideout. also note the Łucjas' eyes, for no particular reason

Thurible - the cross at the centre of the image rests on top of a thurible. because the top and bottom of the middle section are obscured, it rests mostly out of frame

Embryonic Rabbit and La Vierge au Lapin - the smoke enveloping the central cross is taking the shape of an embryonic rabbit, not quite fully developed, not quite corporeal

Fuura Kafuka, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - the X pins on Łucja's hat are actually hairpins that she moves up when wearing the hat. in this image, the second Łucja has swapped hers for straight pins

Komeiji Koishi, Touhou Project - the left Łucja's exhausted expression has been switched out for an empty smile. cute!

Altarpiece - the layout of the image is inspired by an altarpiece, albeit with certain sections obscured. accordingly, the piece centres on an (embryonic) rabbit wrapped around a cross

ORANGE SIDE

Berserk - it's kind of hard to include eclipse imagery without pulling from Berserk if you're poisoned. it goes without saying that I am poisoned.

Mushi, The Stalin - this album art was always really striking to me, so it was only natural to homage it. I'm actually a pretty big fan of The Stalin, so references to them show up in a (kind of embarrassing) amount of my creative output

Trash, The Stalin - the mass of gory hands is kind of self-explanatory here

De fornas likgaldrar, Bekëth Nexëhmü - this one requires extra explanation because I fucked up and got a story wrong. during the recording of an album, one member of this duo tried to strangle the other and they broke up the band for a while. the problem is that I misremembered, because it wasn't De fornas likgaldrar that got delayed, it was De dunkla herrarna. so this is an entirely aesthetic pull now.

Eastern Cross and Brazen Serpent - this one's kind of hard to explain if you don't know what Bartholomew's crosier looks like, but it's being gestured at with Ophian imagery as things get more chaotic towards the centre of the image

Gleb Sysoev - while the straps aren't visible in this image after colouring, the outfit both Łucjas are wearing is somewhere between a gakuran and the outfit Gleb often wears while performing with Ultar

Squigly - the snake wrapping around the right Łucja emerged after I got frustrated with how out-of-place her crab claw looked and opted not to include it. I still wanted one really confusing thing in the image, and I ended up landing on using Squigly's Parasite

That One Fucking Scene From Gokseong/The Wailing - another case of me misremembering something, except this time it was the context of the scene literally warping my memory of it. you know the one scene in the cave? I thought it included a much closer shot of the stranger's eyes. I might have mixed it up in my head with that one scene from Insidious, but oh well lol

Angel's curse whispered in the edge of despair, Envy - it got drawn over to the point where it's not entirely obvious, but the background behind Łucja was originally based on this album art

Melty Blood: Actress Again: Current Code Character Select - honestly kind of self-explanatory I hope

why'd you read all that