#(take all of this with a grain of salt as always)

[thinkblotted]

Building a Better Star (aka, the Star Essay)

I like Star. I’m getting that shit out of the way right here at the beginning, just in case. I like Star, I like what she is, I think she deserves better writing. 

Also - these are my takes. These takes may not be your takes. We can have different takes.

Okay? Okay. Let’s go. 

For the purposes of this analysis and suggestion, I’m only going to be going off of movie canon Star, rather than book canon Star, because while they’re basically the same, there are a few background elements in the book that expand  on Star’s internal thoughts and relationships with the boys that you could only get from exposition in the book, and that’s not as available a source as the movie, so. 

Since I’m either posting this on tumblr for the four people who will read it, or filming myself talking about this like a normal person with normal hobbies, I won’t explain who canonically she is because that’s unnecessary for this audience of me and a discord server, but rather who she is as a character as presented.

The thing about The Lost Boys is that it exists as a double edged sword of characterization for all its characters. They’re all incredibly simple, and in that white space that’s left behind where deeper characterization would be put in other movies, here there’s just a void, leaving the audience to fill in the gaps however they see fit with whatever they can glean from the surrounding world. 

The vampires are the prime example of this - of all the characters, they get the least amount of dialogue and have the most void to fill in who they are as characters. Star is the runner up, having more character, but the same amount of void in her backstory. 

So who is Star? 

Star is The Girl of the group, a trope wherein you have a group of characters who make up the core of your main cast and usually they’re all male, with one or occasionally two exceptions being girls - if it’s two, one will be the ‘nerdy’ or otherwise ‘not strictly desirable by main male cast’ role, and the other will be The Girl, who is almost always the love interest of the main male, who, even though she’s more of a main character then the secondary girl, typically does less than them. As presented, Star fits this trope easily, as well as filling out the subtropes that it consists of. 

She’s soft-spoken, pretty, demure, stays out of most of the fights in the story, offers the protagonist advice but never tells him directly how to face the conflict of the story, offers support but never directly physically supports the protagonist. She’s an inciting incident all to herself, but never actually drives the plot forward except to be a shining prize on the mountaintop of the narrative that the protagonist must climb in order to claim. 

After being in the Lost Boys fandom for about two and a half-ish years now, there are some take-aways specific to Star that the fandom tends to play on the most. 

And I want to add in here, I do not have a problem with these traits being assigned to her. Star, like the rest of the cast, is a very malleable character. The void around her is just as vast as the other vampires, and this is fandom - we play with blorbos from our media like dolls. This entire thing is purely based on what I personally would like to see Star become, and since I’m a freak, I don’t just write fanfic, I also do this. Apparently. So take everything I’m saying with a giant grain of salt.

The traits that I most see attributed to Star are:

-She’s a shrinking violet, either unwilling or unable to interact directly with the conflict of the story

-She’s being held against her will to the point that leaving in any capacity is not only not an option, but would lead to physical harm/possibly death if she tried (ie, she’s an abused captive) 

-She cannot be held responsible for any bad decisions she’s made in the past or makes in the current story, or any bad turns the plot takes 

The first assertion is held up pretty well by the canon of the movie, and most of the fandom also agrees that it would have been nice if the movie actually did make Star a little less soft. There have been several outcries for Star to ‘vamp out’ like the Boys did, to at the very least give her a scary vampire face! Her tiny confrontation with Max at the end of the movie would have been a perfect space for that, but unfortunately, the movie has 80s-itis and being the female love interest and a victim in the plot, Star isn’t allowed to be aggressive in such a blatant manner. 

Star also hangs back whenever the Boys have presence on the screen. She’s never in the forefront, sharing the space, she’s in the background, watching them, only observing. The one time she directly contradicts them, ‘Leave him alone’ she’s told straight up to ‘chill out, girl’, and she doesn’t continue the conflict. When she does decide to try and be more forward with Michael, directly affecting things, she waits until there is no other persons of consequence around in order to do so. 

The second assertion of her being held against her will is a little trickier to pin down as a trait, but evidence of this is implied with how she contributes to the narrative - mainly, in asking Michael directly to save Laddie and her from the Boys, or at the very least, the situation she’s in. Though, it should be noted, that Star never makes a direct statement of what that situation is. She hedges that it’s being being driven to kill to sate the vampiric nature, but when taking scenes like David simply saying her name to get her to come to him, being told indirectly to back off when the Boys are hazing Michael, and backing away in a fearful manner when Michael is drinking the blood wine into consideration, there’s the darker notion that she’s being abused in other ways. 

Because the movie is meant to be a lighter flick, full of scary-yet-alluring vampire punk boys and over the top monster-hunting gore, billing it as a ‘horror-comedy’ excludes any deeper exploration or more explicit on-screen showing of verbal, emotional, or physical harm that Star may be experiencing. Doing so would take away from the fantastical and darkly whimsical nature of the story, grounding it too much, and making the Boys, though they be villains, into villains we wouldn’t love to hate.

Thus, the darker implications of what Star might be facing behind the scenes, when Michael isn’t around and before he came along, is left to the audience’s interpretation, as well as any ability Star has to struggle against them. The fandom frequently interprets as none, thanks to the plot of the movie being what it is. 

The third major assertion that the fandom tends to adopt is that Star is largely if not completely irresponsible for the missteps of other characters and for her own predicament. 

This given trait is the most difficult to back up with evidence directly from the canon as it relies heavily on filling in the blank spaces of Star and the other character’s backstories. Star is not responsible for Michael spotting her in the crowd at the concert or deciding to follow after her. Star technically didn’t tell Michael to accept David’s goading to race. Star told Michael she both didn’t know how to help him, and couldn’t explain it. Star is not responsible for Michael’s induction into the Boy’s gang because, well, she told him what he was drinking was blood. Star never directly acts to drive the plot forward until the beginning of the third act when she does admit to Michael that she needs his help, thus, cannot be held responsible even in part to Michael’s involvement. 

Lack or acceptance of Star’s responsibility for her own inability to leave the Boys is even harder to pin down, as we have no movie canon for what her life was like before meeting the Boys. The implication from the world around them is that Star is a runaway kid like many of the people seen in the opening sweep of Santa Carla, likely from a crappy home and was taken in by the Boys but soon got in over her head, but this is never directly confirmed. 

The idea that Star made a bad choice, and was not just manipulated and coerced after the ‘honeymoon’ period with the Boys is somewhat controversial as it paints Star in a less favorable light. She isn’t an innocent victim, but rather someone who made a bad call and refuses to acknowledge her own agency in that decision, instead placing any and all blame on the Boys. 

‘But what if she’s tried that already?’ Unfortunately, that lies entirely in the realm of off-screen possibilities that are not support by any canon. Star in the movie is never shown or implied to have tried escaping before, and in the book she merely has internal monologues about wanting to leave, not that she’s ever attempted it. 

Giving Star any one of these traits on their own isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Star is very much helpless in this situation - she’s in a den of immortal man-eating monsters while only being barely half of one herself, and refusing to take the option that would grant her more physical power to assert control in the situation, because the act required would be a shattering of her moral compass. Regardless of her involvement in how she got here, she deserves to be able to leave and make better choices. 

But giving Star all of these traits at once with nothing else to her flattens her completely. It does her, in my opinion, an incredible amount of injustice to absolve her of any kind of responsibility in her own problems and then rob her of any bravery to take a risk and change it herself.

And that’s not a good character. 

In order to build a better Star, we need to first accept a truth that might be a slightly hard pill to swallow: 

A good Star is not necessarily a protagonist. 

At least, not in the same way that Michael or Sam can be. Michael and Sam are protagonists in that they’re the heroes of the story. They face the main conflict head on and drive the plot forward with their actions, and are who we’re rooting for to win. We see them and their actions as ‘good’. They are absolved by the framing of blame in what is done to them. (Michael in getting in over his head with the Boys by ignoring the reservations and loose warnings of others, and Sam of murder with the fact that the Boys are man-eating monsters bent on getting back at them when one of their own is killed.)

If you make Star a protagonist in the same way, with her needing to be framed as ‘good’ in the story, but only keeping the character traits previously listed, then she’s a boring character. She becomes only nebulously ‘good’ just by virtue of not technically having done anything that could be considered ‘bad.’ Being counted as a heroine only by default. 

And that sucks. That puts her simultaneously on a pedestal where she can do no wrong, but is an empty shell that’s there to smile or cry and do nothing else. 

Often, when talking about female protagonists, antagonists, anti-heros and characters with grey morality or amorality, the added layer of them being women forces ten times the scrutiny on not just how they’re built as a character, but on their creators and why they’re choosing to build the character in the way they are. Any mistakes plot-pushing decisions made by the character aren’t as likely to be accepted as just the character acting in the story, but get traced back to the author. The audience constantly asks the question, ‘if it was a male character, would there be consequences for this act, or are you treating this character special because they’re a woman?’ 

In this case, it’s ‘Michael also fucks up, and yet is treated as a victim, deserving of sympathy and being saved by his brother rather than having to fight all on his own. Their situations are the same. Why not Star? The only difference between them is gender.’ 

This essay is not about whether or not Star is deserving of being saved, nor is it saying that she deserves being trapped in the situation that she’s in. But much like how Star reminds Michael that she did indeed tell him that it was blood in the bottle and he scoffed at her, Star deserves not to be a lifeless doll being acted upon, and a good female character deserves to not be a pretty, perfect Barbie doll that does no wrong and always looks pretty. 

So with the knowledge that a better Star cannot be purely a protagonist, how do we lower her from the boring pedestal? 

My suggestion: by inverting her three main traits

The first: If she’s billed as meek and demure and soft, then make her more aggressive and vulgar 

The second: If she seems to be kept at silent gunpoint, then give her more freedom to act

The third: Make her at least partly responsible for her own situation, regardless of whether or not she thinks she is 

The first revised trait is the most important in my opinion to building a better Star, as it will help direct and reinforce the second two. 

A large part of Star’s lack of presence in the movie is quite literally, a lack of physical presence. Star seems to hate even being near the vampires, and depending on what kind of story you wish to show her in, it could make sense. But chances are, if she’s given the shrinking violet trait, she’s been given the other two as well, and that makes a bad Star. She must be allowed to speak, and more than that - she must be allowed to show emotion. 

Let Star be angry. Let her be hurt in a way that’s not beautiful and languorous, a wilting agony of suffering in silence. And I’ll say it: Let Star say the Fuck word. As silly and simple as it may seem, such a small detail can transform a character. Star deserves to be as rough-edged and imperfect in her words and attitude as any of the rest of the Boys, possibly more if she’s in a situation that she hates! If she had the bravery to run away from home, then she should be afforded the bravery to be more than a pretty, silent, pure woman who doesn’t know what a cigarette is. 

The second revised trait is going to be the most fluid in interpretation because it relies the most on the author or artist or fan’s personal interpretation of what the relationship between Star and the Boys is really like. 

In the movie, Star seems to move with the Boys. She’s usually near them enough that they can keep an eye on her, as we see with David watching Star talking to Michael before the beach race. The only times we see Star distance herself physically is right after the bonfire, where she comes to the Emerson cabin to convince Michael to save her, or when she and Michael have sex. The first time, she seems desperate, like she may not have much time, and the second, she’s been left there on her own while the Boys go out and cavort, likely with the implication that she should stay where they can find her when they get back. 

Again, this is the trait that can be toyed with the most, but a good way to combat the feeling that she’s being held against her will is to give the notion that there are parts of being around the vampires that she likes. There are tiny hints of this in the movie, and the book expands on this. In the movie, there’s a moment during the race where Star seems to be enjoying herself while riding with David - at the very least, she’s enjoying the speed and thrill, if not the person she’s with. In the book, Star and Paul have the best relationship of any of the boys, with Paul trying to cheer her up and promising a ‘happily ever after’. To keep it from feeling like a full captive situation, give Star a reason to feel a bit conflicted over the pack. She’s there in the first place, after all. 

The third revised trait is going to be the most controversial, as it’s a hard thing to admit when people in real life do it. 

Admitting that sometimes, the problems we find ourselves dealing with, are our own fault. We make a bad call, we make a poorly informed decision or decide in the heat of the moment. Sometimes, we are lied to, but the lie is flimsy and we chose to swallow it because it’s what we wanted to hear at the time. I like to ask authors writing villains this - what’s worse and more compelling; a villain who lies, or a villain who tells the protagonist a truth they don’t want to hear? 

And, as backwards as it sounds, making Star partially responsible for her situation is giving her more agency in her story. It gives her a reasonable character flaw that she has to confront and defeat. 

Here is where I’m going to throw in an interesting observation about a specific scene that I think helps lend itself to this particular revised trait: the scene where she asks Michael for help directly. In canon, the scene goes about like this - Star comes to the cabin, Michael tells her that he knows about the vampires, and when he expresses that he thinks it’s basically done for him, Star tells him that it’s not, he’s not fully gone, and that she needs his help to save all three of them. Now, there’s something really, really interesting to me about this scene: Star is NOT a reliable narrator during it. At all. 

To say that she’s lying outright about everything would be untrue, but when you examine it, you realize that she’s being untruthful all the same. When Michael gets upset, accusing her of not caring about him because in his eyes she let this happen, she says that she DOES care about him, using physical touch to reinforce this. When she’s soundly rejected, by Michel slapping her hand away and demanding to know why she REALLY came, she very reluctantly tells him that she was hoping he’d help them. It’s her last answer, the last thing she wanted to say. Obviously hoping that the emotions would be enough to persuade him, rather than just saying that she needed help outright, which would be easier to say no to. 

Secondly, the WHY. Star states that Michael was ‘supposed to be her first, because it’s what David wanted’. When watching the scene, the delivery, the body language, and given the full context of the plot and how we’ve seen Star behave? We can only come to the conclusion that Star. Doesn’t. Know. That. 

Max’s ultimate goal is to get Lucy, and to get Lucy, he needs Michael and Sam to be on board, or at least BE vampires. Killing one of her children would hardly serve that goal. Given the ending fight, Max doesn’t give a dead rat’s ass about Star. And Star? She doesn’t even know Max exists. David telling Star to kill Michael to turn her into a vampire is not only pointless, but going expressly against Max’s wishes. We don’t know how much of Max’s plan David and the Boys know about, or given their personalities and implied relationship with him, even care about, but defying him in this instance doesn’t seem like the smartest thing to do. 

Not to mention - Star does like Michael. She hugs him at the end, she does give him a warning about the blood, albeit a weak one. She does attempt to fight Max in the end, even if she fails. As for her thoughts on David, those are more complicated. Whether the relationship is real, coerced, that she’s simply a pawn being used to tug Michael around or whether she and David did like each other at one time, is unknown, but it is clear that Star knows that David is interested in Michael, and doesn’t like it. So it would then be logical to assume, given this, that Star would assume, based on what she knows and has been able to observe, that she’d pain David in a worse light. Insinuating that it’s HIM who’s pulling the string, assuming what he wants and what his intentions are, even if she DOESN’T. KNOW. 

All this to conclude: Star is an unreliable narrator taking actions based on her own flawed assumptions. Which means she’s going to make mistakes, and miscalculate her position. She’s going to cast herself in a certain light, and like anyone, maybe not want to admit when that light is suddenly not a reflection of her best. 

So, how do I conclude this. 

Star is an interesting character, and I do enjoy her. If you managed to sit through this to get to here, and if there’s anything to take away from this, it’s that I enjoy Star and I want her to be a better…her. She deserves to cuss and spit, she deserves to be angry and sad at her predicament, she deserves to be loved as a whole person and not some untouchable angel. Let her fight. Let her bite. Let her bleed for her freedom and personhood.

Most importantly, if you allow the Boys room to be more than they are presented as on screen, then you can afford to give that to Star. 

Thank you for reading, if you did. 

@misslavenderlady (I almost forgot!)

[fraddit]

This is the fourth post in a series of four. It covers the spaces that we've never seen on the show and other miscellany.

The other posts in this series: Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

My other floor plans: Diaz House | Buck's Loft | Madney House

They're also on my Ao3

The Bunk Room

I’ve had more than one person ask me where I think the bunk room is, and 84 years later, I’m finally answering. First off, since we’ve never seen it, I clearly don’t have an objective answer. So feel free to take everything I’m about to say with a grain of salt. You can imagine the bunk room and everything else I’m about to discuss however you want. But I’ll tell you what I imagine and why I picture it like that, and you can feel free to do with that as you wish.

The practical reality answer is that the bunk room doesn’t exist and there’s not really anywhere in the existing building that it could exist or that I think would make sense for it to exist. The only area large enough to hold such a space is the section we’ve never seen inside of, in the bottom left corner of all the floor plans. That doesn’t work for me because it’s so far from the kitchen, living, dining etc areas and because of all the doors that go into that space which indicates that area is carved up into several smaller spaces somehow and because of the giant glass wall which feels like a weird design choice for a place where people need to sleep at potentially all hours of the day.

So, I imagine something different. The magical firehouse in my mind occupies part of the building next door. I’ve highlighted the nebulous section I’m discussing below. There’s nothing exact about any of this, hence the gradient. Imagine it taking up as much space as you wish.

When I picture the bunk room, I picture it upstairs in this adjacent section, accessed through a doorway in the big blank wall over by the stairs and fire poles. I tried to create a visual example that was still vague and ended up with The Void. Sorry it’s horrifying. It made me laugh though, so it’s what you’re all getting.

To me, this location makes the most sense, since it’s close to the LDK, and I always thought it was weird how much egress is in that corner with both the wide stairs and the poles and it’s not really a highly occupied space. But if the bunk room is also right there, that would make sense for them to have so many ways down right there.

Additionally, fire code in the US requires two modes of egress for sleeping quarters. This is usually a door and a window. And, it makes sense for there to be windows on that exterior wall toward the bottom of the image above. And therefore, that makes sense to me as a location for sleeping quarters.

This solution also solves a few other issues for me, namely the roof stuff. The roofs of the adjacent buildings are flat. Although, this is all imaginary, so even if they weren’t flat, I could picture them that way. But this allows me to reconcile the not at all flat roof of the firehouse and all the hanging out on the flat roof scenes. In my mind, that all happens on the this other roof section. Boom. Solved.

And, since we’ve never seen the roof access from downstairs, because it doesn’t exist, I also picture the stairs up to the roof in this wonderful pretend place.

I also picture some more bathroom facilities here. If I’m picturing the imaginary bunk room over here, well, they deserve at least one imaginary bathroom upstairs too.

Downstairs, I picture part of the same section of building also being annexed into the firehouse off the locker room as the showers, accessed through a doorway in the little nook that’s over by the stairs and poles.

I picture it this way because I feel like there’s not really enough room for full shower/bathroom facilities in that top right section that connects to the locker room through the red door, since there’s three doors off there, that again, imply several smaller spaces. Where’s the water heater live? Where’s the bathroom? So for me, it’s just easier to picture another area where the showers live. Perhaps there even exists, in this imaginary shower room, private changing areas that make the glass walled locker room make at least a little more sense.

The Firehouse Location

This is a map of approximate locations of various places in the show.

Over on the left, there are three tiny, colored rectangles. Pink is Chimney and Maddie’s apartment neighborhood (not their new house). Purple is Eddie and Chris’s neighborhood. Red is Athena and Bobby’s neighborhood.

The large swaths of green are where most of the craftsman style homes are located, so Hen and Karen live somewhere in there. Alternatively, I've been told that Hen's LAFD separation paperwork in s6e06 puts their address in Altadena, near JPL. Which also makes sense.

The blue rectangle over on the right is where Buck’s apartment is. The orange marker in the blue rectangle is Michael’s apartment.

The yellow marker in Koreatown is Bobby’s church.

So, given all of that. If we’re assuming that Bobby went to that church because it was near his apartment. Which, I do, because I don’t think s1 Bobby was driving out of his way to go to the prettiest church he could find. And if we assume that Bobby rented an apartment reasonably close to the station he would soon be captain of. And if we assume that when Buck got his apartment in s2, he chose a place that was reasonably close to the station as well, and that everyone else also lives kind of close to the station, then the station is probably kind of in the middle of all those places.

So my guess is that the station is somewhere near that red house icon in the middle. I just put it at that major road and highway crossroad because why not?

And that's everything! Thank you so much for coming on this journey with me. I hope it's helpful or useful in some way. Happy weewooing!

The other posts in this series: Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

My other floor plans: Diaz House | Buck's Loft | Madney House

They're also on my Ao3

[meleemuffin]

Ok so I’m not done with Voltron yet, but I’m on season 6 and have heard that !SPOILERS! Allura dies, Lance and allura get together, and apparently Lance ends up on a farm at the end? On season 6 I can definitely already tell that Lance and Allura have a sorta romance forming since Lottor is dead and Lance is getting more serious about his crush on Allura. And I feel like I really don’t like the way this is going. It just feels sorta out of place and while Lance has flirted with Allura in the past, it didn’t really matter because he flirted with EVERYBODY. Also I just don’t get it? Allura has never expressed interest in Lance and it sorta feels like the writers are using her. I think Lance getting serious about his crush on Allura isn’t too bad, and I wouldn’t really have a problem with it if it weren’t for the fact that they really DO get together in the end. It just feels kinda out of place and I kinda wished that Allura let him down. I’m not gonna say anything like “Lance should have ended up with Keith!!” Because even though I do ship klance A LOT, I don’t really mind that they don’t end up together bc there has been so many queer ships that haven’t gotten together and yk that’s just the ways things go sometimes (which kinda sucks but what can you do 😭) PLUS WE HAVE FANFICTION TO FEED US LMAO Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, I don’t care that Lance didn’t end up with Keith, I just wish he didn’t end up with Allura. LIKE DUDE. I honestly wish Voltron just didn’t have romance 😭 I personally just never saw Allura expressing ANY romantic interest in Lance and it’s kinda sad to know that they get together in the end, only for her to die. ALSO APPARENTLY HE GOT ALTEAN MARKINGS ON HIS FACE AFTER SHE DIED LIKE THATS SO SAD HES ALWAYS GONNA BE REMINDED OF HER like it feels like they did Lance dirty with this but idk hopefully they get better as I watch on (END NOTE: please don’t attack me for this. Again, I haven’t finished Voltron all the way but I felt like I just wanted to say something since I’m about to see this unfold in front of me. IM GONNA FINISH IT BTW!! I’ll probably make a follow up post about this once I do finish Voltron legendary defenders, so I can see how or if my opinion changed on this. TAKE THIS POST WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. READ OTHER POSTS THAT HAVE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY FINISHED THE SHOW LMAO THIS POST IS LOWKEY FOR ME TO SPILL THOUGHTS 😭 but yeah uhh ill make another post later to recalibrate my thoughts on the Allura x Lance stuff, and talk about the farm situation too because I don’t know much about it and I don’t want more spoiler lmao)

[hp-lonesome-actual-art]

I’m very normal about Puzzles guys please believe me. I did not stay up to 2am one night making a self-insert queerplatonic ship story in a sketchbook, your eyes deceive you 😭

I’ll try to translate the dialogue here in a more readable/cohesive way for anyone who wants to pry….

The premise is that they’re either visiting an aquarium or some local pet shop together. Either way, my doodlesona encounters a fish tank and wants Puzzles to look closer at the fishies

Doodlesona: Oh Puzzles! Take a look at this one!

Mr. Puzzles (amused/slightly condescending tone): Hm? You mean these simple fish somehow managed to catch your eye—*a fish sprays him with water and Puzzles screams out in shock*

*Jumpcut to another location. My doodlesona is trying to clean the water off of Puzzles screen using towels in the shops restroom stall. Puzzles is begrudgingly sitting on the closed toilet seat, very upset. His anger makes doodlesona nervous*

Doodelsona: Rrrrright…electronics and water don’t mix well together ahaha….we can avoid it next time…

Mr. Puzzles: Never. Again. Alright?

Doodlesona: Yes yes I know, that was a close call! B-but still a little bit funny, no…?

Mr. Puzzles: No.

Doodlesona:….okay, no more fish. Sorry. Got it, lesson learned—I promise it won’t get repeated. Just let me help clean you off. Then we can leave, okay?

Mr. Puzzles: Fine, finish up. Don’t take too much longer

*Puzzles remains grumpy, closing his eyes in further annoyance. But after a while, he begins to settle into a state of calm. It isn’t often that he allows people to touch his screen/T.V head, so the feeling of someone tending to him is foreign. He doesn’t mind it as much as he thought he would, and even leans into the touch for a moment*

Doodlesona: In all honestly, I’m pretty relieved none of it leaked into your circuitry. I don’t think there’s much I could’ve done if any real damage happened, probably would have need repairs

Mr. Puzzles (somewhat sheepish, as he’s trying to hide the fact he enjoys physical contact): Yes, that would be a rather unpleasant outcome, but not overly dire—

Doodlesona: On a brighter note, the water has all been soaked up! Don’t worry, I won’t touch anything mor—

*Puzzles quickly grabs doodlesona’s hand before it is completely pulled away*

Mr. Puzzles: H-HANG ON a moment!

*A comedically awkward pause as Puzzles registers how loud and frantic he was behaving (whilst still clinging to the hand) *

Doodlesona:…uh….yea? Why?

Mr. Puzzles (formulating excuse): AH well I was just thinking…it’s better to be cautious and ensure a thorough cleaning then risk any minor water damage!

*he points to his vents*

Mr. Puzzles: You uh, you had forgotten the vents….

*Doodlesona stares at him dumbfounded, slowly trying to mentally figure out what’s going on*

Doodlesona: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh *finally processing* oooooOOOOOOHHH! Huh, I thought the water only splashed the front of your screen instead of reaching the sides—that’s my bad, sorry. Should’ve asked to make sure

*Puzzles in the background, lying through his digital teeth, gives out a squeamish ‘mhm!’ as confirmation. Doodlesona positions her hands back on Puzzles head to balance it again*

Doodlesona: Okay stay put, gotta focus on cleaning again

Mr. Puzzles: Yesyes of course, take your time!!! As long as you need to be thorough! I’ll wait!

*Doodlesona resumes cleaning and Puzzles is in a state of bliss. He never knew how much he longed for human contact till now*

Doodlesona: That any better?

Mr. Puzzles: Hm? Oh, yes it’s going great. A while longer with suffice

*Puzzles remains peacefully happy and gives out a content sigh, until doodlesona begins trying to clean the antennas too. The contact unexpectedly shocks him so he stands up immediately, covering his antennas with his hands*

Mr. Puzzles (semi-flustered and talking a bit rapidly): AH THAT’S QUITE ENOUGH! You were only supposed to clean the vents, antenna are OFF. LIMITS. G-great cleaning you uh, did ease my concerns. Now we should leave! Can’t expect to spend all day in the stall anyways. Glad this conundrum could be cleared up *anxious laugh*

……..

That is the end of the cringe :33

[faunandfloraas]

The Nobleman or 양반 (yangban): The smiling face represents the bluff and composure that an aristocrat is often known to have. The chin is a separate piece from the top of the mask, and the actors can lean forward and back to make the mask smile or frown as needed.

This monk who abandons his doctrines, or 취발이 (chwibari): Chwibari was originally a monk, but he had no intention of joining the monastic order, so he came down to the world and wanders. Represented with a forehead full of wrinkles and spots.

The widow or, 부네 (Punae/bune): represented to be a widow, or a kisaeng ( a woman who sang, danced, or played an instrument to provide entertainment for company at a drinking party), or a mistress of the Yangban. She has a very small mouth, round cheeks and forehead- giving a general look of happiness good-humor.

[helloarchivist]

I don't have a problem persay with the portrayal of Jonah/Elias having problems with empathy or emotions or human connections (beyond my generalized issue that any time anyone behaves meanly they're immediately stamped as low/no empathy which. is annoying, but that's a conversation for another day), but I don't think I agree with it entirely, either.

He doesn't behave the way he does with the Archives crew or with Jon because he's incapable of understanding or perceiving their feelings, or of identifying with them. On the contrary, he's really very emotionally perceptive with the people around him, and engages fairly openly (for his personal given value) with them right up until like. mid-season 4? He's playing mind games left right and center, of course, but again that isn't because he doesn't understand that it might upset people to do that. I don't even really think it's because he doesn't care, at least not exactly.

We are following this unraveling existential fear nightmare with a group of people to whom it is new. And upon first listen, it was also new to us! Do you know who it 100% was not new to in any capacity? Elias. And in fact, it has not been new to Elias in like. 200 years.

The Archives crew and all of us listening in are babies in a scary new world, knocking into things and fumbling around on wobbly legs trying to identify what's safe and what isn't. It's not that Elias is incapable of understanding or identifying or even empathizing with how upset everyone is, it's that by comparison these are children who have skinned their knees at the playground, and he is an ostensibly 200+ year old adult who knows that, if they just get up and keep playing and learn more about the world, they're going to be fine (for his personal given value. 'you're going to like it here, in the world we've made' etc etc).

In fact, the few times that Jon directly goes to Elias for explanation or comfort or to confide his concerns, Elias actually does give him those things. He's literally, very VERY literally, been exactly in Jon's position, except when he was there it was totally without the benefit of guidance or context. I don't think his conversation about "even when you had the entire archive at your disposal you only made it through a couple a week, why do you think that is?" was insincere or unhelpful. Wanting all the answers and for everything to make sense immediately is understandable but not possible. Not for the version of Jon demanding those answers. Not for Jonah, when he was careening through all of this on his own.

This is a man who started off passionate and curious and brilliant, who poured himself into understanding and prevention of the damage done by the Fears, and it's also a man who watched everyone else in his little cohort die, who outlived them all, who watched the world changed and gained the understanding he sought and found that desperate death grip on fighting the good fight to be futile.

It isn't that he doesn't have emotions or feel empathy. It's that he has a completely different world view, different conclusions, different ends, and has had time enough to let go of the reflex to wring his hands about it all. Has that made him very nice, particularly? No lmfao. But I feel like it flattens some of the nuance of his character to be like "oh he just doesn't get people or feel human emotions and that's why he acts that way."

[night-market-if]

insulting bella like shes real and gonna take offense 😭😭 i literally can’t with some anons

If Bella were real, she wouldn't even take offense to that. :)

Nah, in all honesty, it's the internet. It's really easy for people to spout stuff off and get uppity when they are sitting behind a screen. I don't really mind it. I used to but now I'm kind of at that state of people are never going to be pleased as a whole. And you know what? Good! Because if we all agreed on how people should act, then we'd be pretty boring. Pod town is not what I want to live in.

Plus, it's really easy to just not read something you don't like. I set down three books this last month alone because it was something that I couldn't get behind.

[l3irdl3rain]

Duncan has a functional bowel obstruction, which is a common in humans with storage diseases. For some reason his body decided to stop this stool from passing through his body and his intestines closed it off. In humans (or even a normal cat) we would be talking surgeries. But this is not a normal cat we’re talking about.

Duncan will go in for a recheck tomorrow. Hopefully he’ll be able to move things along with the help of extra fluids and some medications. If he is not able to pass things on his own I will have to opt for euthanasia. If I do end up having to euthanize it will likely only be a few days from now, as he will eventually become extremely painful in his abdomen

[platoapproved]

Two things from continuing to read TVA, bitterness and Marius hating ahead, if you don't wanna see that honestly why are you even on my blog:

Honestly I don't care at all about authorial intent but the way this is written, how Armand narrates his early days as a fledgling, is fucking haunting to me. It's so utterly casual and passive, with just that one little interjection of "this was put to the test". Oh? Who was doing the putting? What was the test? Was the test perhaps Marius starving you to see how many days it would take for you to be too weak to get up, Armand? Was that maybe it? Oh but Marius did it to help him, of course. To teach him his exact limits, for the future! How benevolent. Someone get him a World's Best Maker mug.

____

Idc maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see but the "What I mean is, I didn't have contempt for him" reads as protesting too much. Like... it's giving "it's not that I found Marius tedious, just ancient Roman law and his obsession with it and also literally all the things he said and believed".

MORE IMPORTANTLY, though, the ideas in question here are Marius droning on about how the world is getting more just and how wonderful the contemporary world is. Love him telling all that to an enslaved child - WHO HE OWNS - and bought legally from a brothel! Wow, I wonder why Armand might not have a lot of faith in the law or in government institutions! It's almost like those institutions failed him in a profound way!

But no, Armand probably feels that contempt because he was 'born in a dark and savage land'. Y I K E S. Listen... to anyone reading this overlong post who isn't reading the books I can't emphasize to you how much this is Marius's whole thing. He talks about the ~civilization of the West so often. It's honestly nonstop. He's RADIOACTIVELY Eurocentric and if they stay true to the character it's going to be 100x worse in the show because of Armand's changed background.

[shikai-the-storyteller]

It's taking me ages to write this chapter because every time I look through old VODs / notes to check something, I come across moments like this that make me want to lie down face-first on the floor:

[Context: Pac commits to the idea of taking the Happy Pills so he can create a cure. He's about to write a note to Cellbit to explain his plan.]

Pac: If Cellbit puts himself in this position, it's worse for everyone, because Cellbit is smarter when it comes to coming up with strategic plans, so he is the thinking mind of the Favela Five group, so if he no longer has the mind, he’s not capable of solving this whole problem, you know? But if I put myself in this position to help Cellbit so he can get the cure... You understand? It's better if I'm the bait. Right? I can't- I can't carry things alone guys, I've already lost Mike [...] if I lose Cellbit and I alone had to carry things, I won't be able to. But I think Cellbit can manage better. He is more independent, and he has Roier. He has a husband. I'm trying to– to be lucid here, understand? That's all.

Date: September 11, 2023 || Timestamp: 03:10:10

[saecookie]

A friend of mine, all credits to Ben*, finally decided to theorise** and said that to him the whole schting is going back to The Giggle, the way that it was when they all slipped into the land of fiction. Of course he gave a few examples but then he added 'the way bigeneration is a legend, a story told amongst time lord'.

And I shouted a silent No.

any way this is how the time robber can still win-

[starry-sophrosyne]

... @toadettely @sopping-wet-cat-wizard y'know, april fools is over, BUT...

"No, what am I saying- That's too mean, I can't do that-" "Fufufu~ But I can~"  (｀▽ ´) // "YOU-" (/｀ᗣ ´ )/

(also for reference bc GUESS WHO CAN PEN- XD /hj /lh /silly):

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(TW: blood/gore, death, car crash incident, graphic imagery)

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S&S: There is a world where Brent never meets Eevee. There is a world where he wakes up one morning, yawning as he rubs his eyes. He'd been somewhat exhausted by his gaming session with "Sofist" last night, not that it was unenjoyable. He gets ready for the day as per usual, nothing out of the ordinary. It's all regular, for now, that is. Walking out of his apartment, he raises an eyebrow at the suspicious amount of cars stuck on the local road. Oh well, a crash of some kind? He shrugs and continues walking down the road. Ducking under some construction, he carefully avoids all the prying eyes and workers, taking his shortcut to the cafe. What he sees when he turns the corner, however? Well..

It's graphical, distraught to say the least. He can see the limb of somebody, splayed across the road in a pool of blood. He winces. Damn? They'd been sloppy setting up the perimeter apparently, blocking it from normal eye-witness view, but not from here. Either way, he couldn't make out too much between the ambulance and the police cars stationed in the intersection.

As for the authorities, he can make out them questioning certain people and speaking into their walkie talkies. Their faces are far away but filled with concern as they discuss with each other. Meanwhile, the paramedics tending to the body on the ground, and.. For some reason, he pauses. It's not in any of his good interests to watch this, to get involved with some random traffic incident of an unfortunate civilian, and yet? Something tugs at him, opposing his normal desire to stay out of conflict and general indifference/apathy. He doesn't know why, why this moment specifically?, but it doesn't.. feel.. weird. It's weirdly urging, instead bringing him to stop in his tracks. As he choicely watches the paramedics ready the body bag, he catches a glimpse of the poor man who had faced the consequences.

His hair was curly, coifs of coffee brown tinged with blood. His facial hair was the same color, and his gaze relaxed. His eyes were partially closed in a stereotypical thought of sleeping, with a glint from the sun revealing his hazed over green eyes, devoid of any brightness. What catches Brent's eye immediately, however, is his bright purple coat. Most of it is soaked with crimson gore, now a dark maroon, but even still. It's such a stand out, he can't help but wonder how the man even got hit in the first place.

After a few more seconds, the guided feeling seems to go away, and he turns his head away from the scene. (Unbeknownst to him, he'd been watching for, comparatively, far longer than a few seconds.) Best to move on, for whatever reason he felt compelled to watch EMTs deal with the body, almost as if he was making sure they would properly take care of him. It was weird, but whatever. He didn't have enough time to stay around and see him get sent off, realizing he was late for his shift. Despite his sudden spike of empathy, it was just another day, just with an unfortunate incident. He prayed for the man though, as he finally set foot onto regular sidewalk. May his soul, and whoever he is, rest in peace, for meeting such an untimely end.

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Walking into the cafe, the door closed behind him with the bell's signature jingle. Vern's head shot up, his face twisted with a hint of concern as he rushed over to Brent, who'd barely placed his bag on the desk before Vern grabbed his shoulders, gripping them firmly and causing Brent to jolt a bit out of surprise.

"Brent! Oh my god, you scared me-" "?" "-I saw the crash nearby, and you- came in a few minutes later than you normally do, and- oh god I'd just thought the worst!" Vern could hardly control himself from his ramble, spilling out his emotions, but he paused when he noticed the rather amused look on Brent's face. Brent only chuckled at him, despite the severity of the situation/his anxiety. Vern gave him a dirty look, but let out a sigh of both relief and annoyance relief, glad to know his friend was okay.

As Vern let go of his shoulders, Brent starting unpacking stuff from his bag. Placing his log sheet and charger down in the little table within the break room, Vern asked:

"Why were you late anyways? You normally show up before I even get here. Did something.. actually happen while you were getting here?" He added tentatively.

"..." He paused, his hands tightening around his laptop, contemplating if it was worth it to tell Vern. About the man he'd seen, eyes hazed over in death, body dull and cold, hair stiff with dried blood. It was something in it of its own right, something that he wished he hadn't seen. But at the same time, the death of this random civilian weighed heavier than it should've in his heart. He didn't know why, but still, maybe it was the sight of his eyes; ones that pierced his soul, staring at him even after passing. They were so.. cold. Almost as if they were blaming, in hatred. His blood chilled, thinking about it all, and a heaviness set in the room. Oh. Man, he'd never felt this way before. He'd just witnessed death, hadn't he? How was he acting like this was all okay?

He held in a sigh, settling for a tight exhale as he shook his head, not looking up from his stuff. No, it was best not to trouble his more emotionally affected friend with his.. issues. Were he to tell Vern, he'd likely become more aggrieved than him. Even still, looking up and noticing Vern's still apprehensive gaze, he feigned a small smile; keeping it up even as he looked back down in the black expanses of his duffel bag, now empty. He couldn't bring himself to meet his eyes. "I'm serious dude, nothing happened. Don't worry about it."

"... Alright, if you say so." The air was thick with tension, the silence being left unbroken. Vern's footsteps were soft as they padded against the tiled floor, the door slowly creaking closed behind him. One last glance behind his shoulder, before he fully shut the door, putting on a smile to greet the guests that had entered the cafe. Meanwhile, the room had become dimmed sightly with the waning sunlight as the light from the cafe dissipated. Brent stared down once more, as if questioning the true morality behind what he'd seen. With a sigh, his shoulder slumped. Sitting down onto the rickety foldable chair, he put his head in his arms, on top of the table. He wasn't ready to go out. Not just yet. Not while the green eyes of someone haunted him. He couldn't just go and pretend everything was okay, even he had no damn idea why the death of some random stranger had messed him up so badly.

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Vern found him struggling to think of positive messages to write atop his orders for the rest of the afternoon. Brent did not come out of the break room for a long time, and even once he did, he was silent as he worked. Nick didn't come in for coffee that day.

[setholopod]

BIG SPOILERS FOR YOUR TURN TO DIE (MOST OF THE CHAPTERS!!!!)

//

kai satou!!!! 

so like i don’t think he’s dead and here’s whyyyyyy!!!!!!

we know that in chapter two part two, sara and keiji both find a room connected to the pink room that’s assumed to be miley’s room

from what we learn about miley in chapter three, we can tell she was a scientific researcher (but of what science isn’t known, but we can assume it’s a physical science) so this room can be interpreted as her personal lab of sorts 

now in that lab there’s another room that we can guess is reached by the locked door to the left of the computer. in this room there’s a window that we can see from and inside there’s a bed, a person, and an iv

a very interesting thing sara says which is something along the lines of “i doubt there can be any new survivors…” which implies that this person is someone we have already met, someone who has been injured enough to need an iv

now, it can’t be mishima, since his head fell off in front of everyone. and since his head hasn’t been found after nao took it, there’s no way that it could be him since there would also be no way to reattach the head (at this point in time, tia, rio, and miley, have all confirmed it being missing. as well as the meister supporting this in chapter three part one b)

mishima also isn’t a likely option due to the fact that his ai is a prominent character in both chapters two and three, this can imply that asunaro was already planning on him dying and didn’t see a point in attempting to save him

 because if they already had the ai to manipulate nao why would they need the real deal? (nao even said it herself that speaking with the ai was just like speaking with the professor so it couldn't be because of personality changes like the fake reko) 

it also can’t be joe because his execution was public and everyone saw it. we see his body go limp in the button minigame and with the amount of blood drained from him he must’ve died fairly quickly

…

(the tubes seems to be 0.65 the width of his arm which we can estimate to 13.8in all the way around because of the average for a guy his age we get around 8.97in wide for the tubes which is fairly wide and if you consider the length of the tubes by using the width of joe’s arm you get that it’s around 96.6in long or a bit over 8ft)

…

so by checking the amount of blood drained from his body, there’d be no way he’d survive, especially after the fact we can guess it takes up to a hour for the floor masters to retrieve a body from the location of death that he would’ve died of blood loss from his wounds before he could be taken by miley to her room 

it also can’t be alice or reko for separate reasons. alice for one could not have survived that big of a blow and is seen dying directly in his cutscene. he also has no real use for being saved by asunaro. also it can’t be him because his body hasn’t been collected from the room of lies by the time that sara and keiji discover it 

reko for the other hand dies from a knife wound to the chest (around the liver and heart area) and this implies the knife has some sharpness to it since it states when sara checks the body that “lots of blood has gushed out” this is important since this knife is also said to be the one kai commits suicide with. it also can’t be her for the same reason as alice, her body hasn’t been collected when sara and keiji find the room 

the only other option is kai, this makes sense for many different reasons. for one, kai is the son of gashu, who works for asunaro and therefore he would get the bias of the employees (now it is stated a few moments later by miley that gashu is going to betray asunaro and to keep eyes out for him but this doesn’t mean that asunaro wouldn’t see kai as valuable due to his skills as an assassin)

another thing is the iv. ivs can be used for transferring blood into the bloodstream, this is a way to transfuse blood for those who’ve had severe blood loss. and that is how kai “dies”. from slitting his wrists and bleeding out. 

though, we don’t see a scene of his death, unlike the other victims. also, although the knife used by him is sharper than it is in chapter two (this can be inferred because once you use a knife the blade dulls so we can guess the knife was new or barely used and lost its edge after the chapter’s end)

now, we also don’t know how many slices he made into his arm (but we do know that it was strictly on his arm since his neck and body are exposed and only his sleeves have blood on them) a possibility could that he only made one deep incision on his wrists since that is what’s most commonly done when one commits by slitting their wrists

there was no way he died in the short span between joe’s execution starting and joe dying because we can guess the amount of time passing from the start to finish is amount two and a half minutes and after from the time kai starts talking about three minutes pass

so the cuts would’ve had to have been extremely deep for him to die in five and a half minutes 

it’s also very likely that the blood dried soon after he fainted which made him not lose as much blood as he would’ve if he had multiple cuts that were as deep as the first ones were. 

there would be no real way for him to die in the short span he did, as the wounds would dry up almost immediately after he were to pass out (this couldn’t be possible with joe or reko since their wounds were much bigger and were in vital areas)

so that’s why i think the person in the iv room is kai 

[robiberon]

i saw this post and i tried to paint it. it was hard. also my paint markers kept exploding and leaking. but it was fun! i wanna do more of these :)

[crustyfloor]

Do you think luka will have a full on break down at r7..

I really like the idea,,, I went over my thoughts on that scenario more here, I think Luka is a man with many fears, and another side to him that we don't know about just ready to come to the surface.

Like I said in my other post regarding this, Luka is the "Ruler of the stage" but I think there is a possibility that in this instance, he would no longer be able to stand remaining as composed once the pressure sets in, because there are a lot of truths to this life he's living, one of which is he is utterly disposable, no matter how valuable he is. And Luka knows that.

As it seems, Luka likes the power (like dominance) he gets from manipulating the stage because he feels self-assured from the control, control is something he doesn't have in any other part of his life, after all--on the stage he is the king. He has every skill to his benefit, adoring fans, and who has ever been stronger than him to make him doubt himself? Mizi might've been the first with that outburst, changing that air of invincibility. And I think Till's intensity on stage could throw Luka off in a more drastic way this time, and make him act on it this time? They are two sides of the same coin, Till is Luka's ultimate equal and could give him a challenge he hasn't seen before from other Alien stage participants but this theory is...iffy, because we don't know Luka that well, and this theory almost completely contradicts the character we know him as, but that's the thing. Is the Luka we know really Luka? (Similar to Ivan who also has a persona that differs from his authentic self, is Luka just better at hiding it?)

All in all, I hope we can see Luka's facade slip in round 7, who knows, maybe it's full-on stitched to his face and he'll die like the glass-cased doll he always was from the day he was made, but it'd be interesting if we saw him feel again, and see him do something we wouldn't expect like fighting back for once. (was his fight with hyunwoo the only time he ever did that?)

[saltedcoffeee]

pxg vs bm has been going on for too long i want charles to get so bored he assists like zantetsu or tokimitsu and makes them score outta nowhere