Connecting dots tonight (didn't connect shit, I've connected them, etc) because of this post about item descriptions to do with Sampo I saw a few days ago and! I feel like there are so many interesting things that could be implied from this!! Because the recipe for the High-Tech Protective Gear is given to you by Bronya (before the IPC invaded Belobog!), who says this little interesting tidbit about it:
This is an item from before the Eternal Freeze, 700 years ago. Even to the rest of the universe, it would be SORELY outdated. It cannot be made in Belobog anymore due to the loss of entire eras. It is effectively useless; this recipe had to be somewhere gathering dust, kept around solely for archival purposes. There is no reason for Sampo to know about this item or have any idea how it works and yet. AND YET. He's just running around selling knock offs!!
He shouldn't even know how to make these, but the fact that he does means Sampo either
had the blueprints from off-world before he came to Belobog (most likely but also most boring answer)
broke into Qlipoth Fort and copied down the blueprints (completely plausible - he's possibly shown doing exactly that in his splash art)
found another copy out in the ruins of the old world (also completely plausible - Sampo is astoundingly resilient against both the Fragmentum and the cold, as noted by Lynx haha)
Meanwhile, the Inferior Protective Gear recipe comes from an NPC in the underground, and when she gives it to you, she talks about building robots and the robot fighting scene sorry about the quality I didn't have screenshots for her dialogue so I had to use wiki
Which makes me feel like it's safe to say that the inferior gear is mostly being used in the underground, especially by the vagrants and their robots for fights, because...well, who else would use it? Cocolia has made it illegal to explore too far into the Snow Plains, and besides, it's way too dangerous for most civilians even WITH gear. The Silvermane Guards are funded by official sources, they have no reason to rely on Sampo for armor. So it makes sense for an underground mechanic to know the recipe; there's probably not as much market for it up in the overworld.
And if you look at the descriptions, you can see why this probably wasn't something that could be made in Belobog anymore; it requires a charging system of some sort.
We know it's not a problem with the basic materials because all three ingredients can be found right in the administrative district. But the underground only has two of them; somehow, despite being in the planet's crust, and literally crawling with robots...there is no metal down there. It isn't found anywhere, sold by anyone, or dropped by anything. And metal just so happens to be the one ingredient Sampo replaces in his knock off version.
The Inferior Gear uses trash instead, something which, going by the words of that same mechanic, is MORE than abundant in the underground- any good quality parts are extremely difficult to come by down there.
Anyway, all his shadiness aside, I love the implication that Sampo is smart enough to be able to take this item that no one else on the planet probably knows anything about, and was able to figure out what he could replace, and how, and with what, in order to make it easily accessible to the people of the underground, even without access to overworld resources. Because his version DOES work! It literally gives you the exact same amount of defense boost as the IPC one!
Someone should absolutely still knock him around for it, though, world's most slappable face fr fjkdsjfdkjafk
Why is showing ‘disinterest’ such prevalent thing when it comes to building friendships and relationships?
I have talked about this here before in my rants lol, but it just always frustrates me. Like, you know those arbitrary ‘rules’ in dating that you shouldn’t show too much interest or get in touch too soon, or be too ‘intense’ or interested? Like, obviously don’t be a stalker and read the room etc, but I mean if you're just a regular and safe 'well-adjusted' person, why is you showing genuine effort and interest seen as a bad thing (I don't mean love bombing, that's a whole different thing)? If you genuinely like each other, why is the social rule saying that you shouldn’t show that? Same goes with friendships, why is showing interest in the person you want to get to know sometimes, somehow, a bad thing? To a point that some people can get put off by that effort someone is showing to get to know them? Not saying everyone is like this, because I know there are so many people who aren’t. And plenty people also disregard these social rules because they aren’t actually concrete rules.
This is just a social construct and I’m trying to figure out why it is, because it seems counter productive? By what logic does it work? How are you supposed to make friends/date, if them showing interest in you makes you exit the relationship/ghost/breadcrumb?
How long are we supposed to only talk in one line texts about surface level stuff, to avoid being too much/too intense, before it’s acceptable? How do you know you’re following the same social timelines with the people you’re trying to get close to, when there’s no actual set rules? Someone might think you have to wait three days after a date to get in touch, but someone else will get offended if you take longer than two. But the next day or the same day is too desperate to some folk? And I'm talking about this from the point of view of someone who doesn't have trouble reading social cues/expectations. Can't even imagine dealing with this mess if that wasn't the case. Like what's the point of having these 'rules' if it just makes things more difficult for everyone? :')
These rules, technically, don't need to exist at all. It's all made up, based on... Something? We can always dismiss them ourselves but I'd like to know why they came to be and why we keep upholding them. I want to know the social purpose y'know? Is it a safety thing? Protecting yourself and not wanting to be vulnerable? That'd be valid, of course. But it does seem self sabotaging as it blocks people from actually making the connections they say they want to have?
I’ve been trying to find any research on the social behaviour regarding this, but I’m not sure what to even look up lol. Especially because I think the way we interact and behave has changed so much just in the last five years even.
I just find it so curious that there’s so many headlines about loneliness epidemic, but people also recoil away from others when someone does show them genuine interest and wants to talk to them.
I’ve had this initial ‘disinterest’ stage happen in the friendship context more. Also sudden, out of nowhere, communication ending/ghosting disinterest when trying to make friends (like please hurt my heart some more I beg u lmao). I haven’t really dated in the last few years so I don’t personally know how that field is at the moment, but I know ghosting is really common and people actively try to hold back from showing interest at first, even if they are reallyreally interested.
Maybe I’ll try looking more into the effects on social media etc, there’s a lot about ghosting in that context. But I just feel like it’s not quite what I mean, because I feel this disinterest phenomenon thing is separate from ghosting.
Can't sleep. Scrolling Tumblr. Hit a Minsc gifset. Got through reading the first image caption and then the Tumblr app scrolled away incredibly rapidly for no obvious reason.
Tumblr really said "you've almost recruited him, you don't get to spoil yourself now". XD
i just realized something about the 1st errand event in year 3 when you're married to gustafa...
a funny detail about your kid with him is that they love tomatoes despite the crop being one of his dislikes. so when your kid thinks he's sick and wants to get him some fresh veggies to help, they probably thought "i'll get gustafa a fresh tomato because they're super tasty, i bet that'll make him feel a lot better!" and gustafa just gladly accepts it with a smile on his face. because, in that moment, it doesn't matter that he dislikes tomatoes, he's just so happy to know that his kid loves and cares for him.....
a lot of people seem to use Entry #60 as 'proof' for the crux of the "Brian didn't care about Tim, he was Taking Advantage of Tim's conditions and Forcing him to work as part of totheark" thing, but honestly when you think about it there's no possible way Brian could have possibly orchestrated that series of events, like you almost have to interpret that as a baffling group of coincidences
I know this is probably tmi again but when it comes to the big T trauma and little t trauma thing I'm always like "it wasn't real csa because it wasn't meant that way" and "it wasn't real sexual harassment because it was just empty threats and jokes" and "other people have it worse" but it doesn't change that I can't scroll past that those "do you sleep with your door open" polls without feeling weird because that was a component of the threat. Or that I occasionally have anxiety attacks because I think I see my father in a crowd.
Tangle has such good Cool Big Sis energy with Tails . . . like in a lot of ways she has similar drive and energy to Sonic (albeit maybe a little less responsible in some areas since she's new to adventuring and mostly just grew up living a normal life in a normal town), and so in that way it's easy to see how she and Tails could become really fast friends if they were ever given more time to work with each other. But even apart from that, we've already seen how she would look after him, too, because even if she lived in a normal life in a normal town and was never responsible for looking out for anyone else (she and Jewel are the same age I'm pretty sure), she still would if given the opportunity and we actually have that with Tails in canon.
Like I don't blame the characters for the bad writing in Forces because obviously they have no agency over how they were written, and Tails in particular was just butchered in that game, but . . . well, given that we see Tangle working with Tails and checking in on his emotional state right after the Metal Virus ended and Sonic went MIA, I feel pretty confident in saying that she wouldn't have just let him fuck off into the wilderness if he ever "lost it" during an apocalypse scenario. Like again, the fact that Amy and Knuckles did during Forces is just another example of bad writing in that game, but Amy isn't that much older than Tails and Knuckles is used to being a loner, so I could kind of give it a pass. But Tangle really stepped up here and checked in on Tails and didn't let him just brush her off, and she's just such a Cool Big Sis who, yes, will absolutely help him test fire new rocket launchers with no safety gear and 100% agrees that cookies are an acceptable breakfast, but also genuinely cares about his emotional well-being and will look out for that, too.
Also, they're cool tail buddies. What's not to love?
what i like about ada's report, & i'll get into it more eventually, is that despite it being ada explaining the plot (& her motivations) to you directly, it presents an interesting relationship between ada, a known liar & manipulator, & the audience. while she withholds information from other characters & skirts about on mystery throughout RE4 & separate ways, there is one person to whom she doesn't lie, to whom she does tell the truth, at least a part of it, & that is you, the player. it is a very neat narrative device that wouldn't work as well in a different medium
What a difference a year makes.
No, wait. No, it doesn't. There's no difference at all. The Killing Eve finale sucked. It sucked harder than anything that could suck ever sucked before.
I'm not sad or depressed about it though plenty still are. But angry?
Oh yeah. I'm still angry. That's not different either.
Fuck Sally Woodward Gentle and Fuck Laura Neal.
Because Sandra Oh updated her Instagram page today for like the first time in MONTHS. And to do what?
It looks to add her own salute on this unhappy anniversary.
Coincidence? Maybe so. Probably no.
If this is current, it does appear that Los Angeles-based Sandra is back on the streets in New York City. That's curious. Isn't there a one-woman play opening this week on Broadway starring someone Sandra used to work with?
Why...yes. Yes, there is. Coincidence?
I made that as an offhand joke but now I can't stop thinking about it. hidden because this is somehow both Arknights and Ruina spoilers
sometimes after a woman gets subjected to relentless psychological duress until she commits atrocities for her scumbag creator/father figure, she's just gotta put herself in fancy clothes, set herself on fire, and trudge around with a sword for a while. it's part of the healing process.
I'm honestly not quite sure how to feel about the new Doctor Who season.
It is waaaay too high budget. The stories are just as weird and unhinged as ever. It feels like it has something to say. The marketing is trying to sell it as this new era. It really is not. It feels like there was a major break somewhere. The exact same people are working on it as they did over a decade ago. It feels like they have something to say. The Doctor is Black now and the show is more outspoken queer / queer friendly. It feels like Chibnall's era had more people of color in it. It is using the same stupid tired tropes as it has for almost twenty years now. I just want to go back to exploring alien planets that all look like the British countryside. The Doctor keeps reminding us of how incredibly special he is even among Time Lords and Ruby is A Mystery To Solve. On one hand it has an outspoken pro-adoption and chosen family message, on the other Ruby's birth mother is going to be Important™. I just want them to have fun adventures in a quarry.
And none of this matters, because you could find this kind of joy and whimsy only in Doctor Who and Legends of Tomorrow, and Legends got cancelled for being too queer.