#ALSO also...her whole thing is 'No More Suffering' which is kind of at odds with a group of people who DEFINE WOMENHOOD BY SUFFERING

[musical-chick-13]

LMAO, not a t/er/f using a MAKIMA MEME template to scream about tHoSe eViL tRaNs pEOpLe

Oh. Oh, honey (derogatory). That is not the social commentary slam dunk you think it is.

[greenerteacups]

The great hormonal storms in book 5 lead me to this ask: let's talk about sex. Or at least sex ed. Does Hogwarts have it (at least in LH'verse)? Is that a nurse duty or a Head of House one? Did Narcissa sit her baby boy down for The Talk, at least to impart how Miss Granger would return to her parents in the same state she left them or at least unimpregnated? Did she outsource that task to Uncle Severus? Did Ron share what his older brothers passed down? What does our favorite victorian-in-spirit know abt sex beyond "lie back and think of the bloodline" and his hormonal daydreams?

I'm l o s i n g it at the idea of Narcissa instructing Draco to leave Hermione "unimpregnated," which, I just — I think the minute she uses those things in the same sentence, Draco hits the road at the speed of Mach Christ. He's gone. He's not here. He's not in the building. Can't have the Sex Talk if you can't fucking catch me, Mom. (For the record, I can fully see Narcissa trying. She's much less prudish than Draco is — gossips about adultery with her 11-y/o son on Christmas morning, references Ye Olde Wilde Times with Lucius, cracks the occasional bawdy joke, etc. — she just doesn't often see the need to discuss it, being aware that Draco, as far as she knows, remains an un-Awakened little Victorian. The Great Granger Debacle of 1995 is likely raising her suspicions there.) That said, Draco knows what sex is; for some reason my mind gravitates to the slightly handwavey answer of "boy's dormitory." I'm picturing him in his four-poster, curtains drawn, pretending to be asleep, while Ron and Harry have a free-ranging, horrifically creative conversation about what Ron thinks sex is (courtesy of the twins). Optimistically, Neville hops in with corrections from Augusta Longbottom's sexual etiquette seminars. Either way, Draco never, ever reveals that he has heard this conversation.

Or, alternatively, he and Theo have a really intense heart-to-heart during that summer before third year, which would do a lot to explain why the two of them are so weird about each other basically for the rest of time. (Raising the question of where Theo/Pansy/Daphne learned it. At age 12, Pansy got an excruciatingly detailed Talk from her mother, who was scared to death of a teen pregnancy pitching their family into ruin; Pansy, deciding it was unfair she had to suffer this and Theo did not, inflicted said Talk on Theo, who was just relieved that he didn't have to ask Sibelius. And Daphne grew up around so many healers that she just badgered them until someone gave in and told her. She's also a stated connoisseur of trashy romance novels, so. Make of that what you will.)

I think that Hogwarts, being modeled in mores and general Vibe from old English boarding schools, probably is not the most forward-thinking with sex ed. I also do believe Severus Snape would sooner jump off a bridge, and I kind of need him for the plot, so I've got to spare him that grave and important duty. Poppy Pomfrey probably gets the question the most of any staff member, and over the years, I think she's honed her answer down to a tight 3 minute-monologue that covers all major topics.

Odds and ends in the same vein:

Hermione gets a sit-down with the Drs. Granger the summer before her thirteenth birthday, so sometime in August, 1992. It is meticulously explained and flawlessly presented, with color-coded diagrams, an index, and a syllabus. It includes a diagnostic chart for common STIs and a spreadsheet on birth control options. Dr. Granger gets excited after a tangent about ovarian cysts and runs to pull out her old copy of Grey's. Hermione spends the whole time fully miserable, wondering why parents couldn't be like, greengrocers or something. (That doesn't stop her from asking questions, obviously.)

Ron, like all Weasley men of his generation, gets a knock on his door sometime around his 14th birthday, and Arthur invites him to "go fishing." This is code for "stand by the river and try to keep a will to live while your dad explains the mechanics of sex, its importance, and the value of waiting until you feel comfortable and safe sharing that level of intimacy with a trusted partner" (sic).

Fred and George got separate talks, because Arthur wanted to emphasize that he sees them as individuals; however, Fred ran back and immediately recounted it all to George, who proceeded to feign extraordinary expertise in it the next morning, to his father's horror.

Ginny's "go fishing" equivalent is Molly taking her out for tea and delivering a well-meant but incoherent combination of abstinence-only sex ed, aggressive body positivity, and highly technical discussions of how to insert a diaphragm. Ginny, who bullied the real story out of Bill years ago, is baffled, and to this day can't say for sure what she was supposed to take away from it.

Harry spends his 14th birthday at the Burrow. Ron and his brothers make a blood pact in advance not to tell him about it, though, so when Arthur invites him out for the day on August 1st, his sole thought is: oh, nice! Can't wait for some fun fishing :)

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

Is it okay if i request how yan!twisted wonderland characters act on how to handle f! Yuu when she got her period and practically in pain, i woild be happy too if you can do the teachers and staff but platonic yandere but if you don't want to it's fine

(This idea just comes to mind while i was in pain in my period right now, also sorry if my english not good)

Period Pain | Yandere Twisted Wonderland

Heartslabyul

Riddle Rosehearts

“What could constitute that you have to lay around all day!?”

*Whimper* “Becasue the pain is actually unbearable…”

“Oh…I didn’t realize you were suffering. Ace, Deuce, why didn’t you offer to help them before!?”

“But we just found out!” 

“Quick, it is on the Queen’s orders that we care for our lov–I mean friends! Get them soup immediately!” 

His various studies done in his childhood will probably include the female anatomy at one point

But he’s never witnessed it until now

And learning what your like during this time not only is this an awesome learning opportunity 

(Which he’s telling if anyone asks)

But this is the perfect time to take care of you

And flex his husband bone a bit

Directing your friends and the students of Heartslabyul to help with various tasks you need to get done

He’s worried for you 

More than usual 

Treating it like a sickness if your debating if you should go to class

“I suggest that you take the day off! While I know more than anything that you don’t want to miss assignments but your health is of utmost importance.”

And if you do decide to stay

He’s checking on you after and in the middle of class 

Often asking for your ratings of pain

When it comes to more comfort he’s hesitant

Mostly because he’ll burn up in a blush the moment he makes contact with you

Don’t even think about if you show your slightly upset with someone

It's not even in your control but Sam just so happens to run out of your preferred pain medication

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THERE'S NO MORE!!! WHAT KIND OF ESTABLISHMENT–!!!!” 

Face redder than your blood

you can usually count on the dormleader’s anger scaring who ever bought the last pack into offering it for free as long as he doesn’t burn the building down

At the end of the day he’s pleased that he can provide for you…

“In the future…Let it be known that you can call me at any time. It’d be concerning if I couldn’t do this..”

Trey Clover

Probably informed by Ace complaining about your odd behavior he’s hurriedly rushing into action

Even though his sister is still young Trey is the type of guy to just know that this happens 

Showing up with your favorite treats specially baked by him

“Figured you were feeling a little under the weather–so I brought some of your favorites.”

He’s not going to invite everyone to help him out like Riddle

Taking into account your integrity and privacy 

He’ll keep it between the two of you

Heating pad, pain relief, tampons, pads he’s got it if he suspects you need it

Observing your behavior puts him ahead of everyone else

“It's alright (Y/n), you can rest on my shoulder. I’m sure its rough going through that by yourself.”  

He offers himself as someone you can confide in especially more than usual

Willing to be a bit bolder the more you rely on him

He’s willing to give you a massage or to rub your tummy while you doze off

It gives him so much more leeway than his typical…drugging scheme plans 

“There’s no need to worry (Y/n), I’ll be here for you the whole time.”

Cater Diamond

“Whoa this is like the worst thing ever, for you I mean!” 

He gives you a hard time at first but ultimately he’s there to help

But don’t expect him not to document the whole thing

You can’t tell me Cater isn’t going to heavily allude on his socials that your dating

‘Going to buy painkillers for Pumpkin-bae’

If you at some point bring it up, he’ll just say that's a nickname he uses for you it doesn’t mean anything it does

He’s more than willing to rub your back and tummy 

But beware should you find yourself sleeping off the pain he’s taking so many pictures

With no regard to the fact that you just feel your worst 

he’s archiving and posting like this is Crewlchella

“Ah, isn't my babycakes the cutest!?”

Despite his willingness to share online all about you he’s hesitant to let the curious but helpful students in to help. 

When he does he’s secretly mulling with a smile on his face

But believe him when he finds a way to casually dismiss everyone

Being sure to be your sole confidant at one point or another

“Well well aren’t you miss popular? No worries you’ve got me all to yourself and I’m definitely made of boyfriend-material!” 

Deuce Spade

“Oh? Oh. OHhhh!” 

Either you or one of his seniors is going to have to spell it out for him

And even when he gets it he still doesn’t understand

Acts like your bleeding out 

Trying desperately to stop the internal bleeding that isn’t happening

“I-I got you ice! I hope this will help. Its what my mom would give me when I was in pain.”

He doesn’t understand your mood swings but he’s going to back you up nonetheless

Yelling at someone randomly he’s either hopping on your rage train or just standing out of your way

He’s really confused but he wants to help 

And he’s willing to throw punches if it comes down to it

If you need something from him you’ll have to ask 

He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed

“I’m here to help (Y/n), just tell me what you need!” 

Ace Trappola

“Uhhh that's gross!” 

“Ace!” 

“Sorry sorry, fine we’ll help you.” 

He’s willing to help if only to avoid your wrath  

He starts acting fussy when Deuce or anyone else gets asked to help

Or when you flash a thankful look at anyone but him

That's when he starts really putting in the work

And that is truly what gets him motivated to help

Bragging rights and something to hold over you head

But when its boiled down to it and you two were all alone

He’d sigh before offering to rub anywhere in particular

His hands may wander but for the most part he’s there for that insatiably warm feeling that burns his insides when you genuinely thank him

“H-hey y-you know you owe me right? Okay, okay fine, you don’t but at least let me do this…it’d be a pain if you came out of this and thought I was a jerk right?”

SavannaClaw

Leona Kingscholar

“Don’t bleed all over my bed, herbivore!” 

He probably knows it's here before you do 

Groaning as he starts making preparations for you to keep laying in bed

Just because nature decided to beat you up doesn’t mean cuddling is going to stop

No no in fact it's going to increase because on the worse days your bed-ridden anyway

He’s hardly leaving your side but he’s not taking actual care of your needs

That's Ruggie’s job

But he’d be darned if he let your scent spur any of his students into insubordination

“She’s mine. If you really want to test that out I’m more than happy to leave you incapacitated for the rest of your life. Grr!”

He’s comforting in that he is a literal heater pack,

That holds you tight while wrapping his arms possessively around you

He makes a bigger deal of ‘hating’ it when your on your period

He doesn’t really care, blood isn’t going to stop him from having a good time~

He’s more annoyed with the fact that he has to relentlessly drown you in his scent so you don’t get unwanted trouble

He’s no doubt willing to personally bully whoever to get you your comfort foods 

“C’mon herbivore be grateful I thought of you on the way over.”

Ruggie Bucci

“Eek! Already!?”

He does keep track though 

He includes you in his monthly budget

Prepared to satiate whatever you may need during this time

Especially some painkillers that will help you cart through the day without him

He’s a busy hyena

He typically won’t be able to drop everything for you

But no doubt when the moment arises he’s got groceries and anything you need

“Take it easy (Y/n), you’ll be more able to score more deals if you're actually not fighting cramps. So just rest.”

He’s really respectful 

And he may not have the luxury of staying over the whole time

But if not the night than the early morning

After all he has to take care of Leona 

“Geez you’d think I should pay for my services with how often I’m doing this.”

“But you already do…”

“Then where's my paycheck?”

“Uh you get yours in hugs and kisses?”

“...okay with interest, right?”

Jack Howl

“I am prepared for this! Steel yourself (Y/n)! Hold out just a little bit longer.”

Once again may have picked up on it much sooner than you

Will be especially vigilant, fully taking the environment into account

He’s not going to scent you directly unless he outright asks

Otherwise major guard-dog energy

Such a cheerleader

He realizes there isn’t much he can do other than offer his body heat and general comfort

“So this is the true power of being a woman? Truly admirable!” 

He’s getting whatever you need by any and all means necessary

That's his job as your mate

He must be your protector, your provider

“Leave it to me (Y/n)! I’m here for you. As I’ll always be.” 

Octavinelle

Azul Ashengrotto

“I-i see uhm I’ll uh-help you with that. Contrary to belief I am prepared for this.”

He’s really not lying

Upping his own research about women and how to impress them 

Left him with a quite a lot of knowledge about the female anatomy

He’s fretting all throughout the day as he prepares a little care package

His anxiety is on an all time high as he debates if he should give this to Jade to deliver

But true to nature he’ll laugh and come up with some arbitrary excuse

Forcing Azul to do it himself 

Red in the face as he's stumbling over his words he’s truly not used to seeing you so vulnerable

But once he pushes down his initial embarrassment 

He’s more than happy to do whatever you wish because he likes being useful to you

“Hey Azul can you pass me–”

“The heating pad? Already have it.”

“Oh thanks!”

“/////”

He does get a little concerned when others help more than him 

So he might just buy or threaten for whatever someone is bringing you so that he can officially hand it to you himself

“Just know I’m more than capable of doing this and so much more. S-so be at ease around me okay?”

Jade Leech

”Oh my! Well I guess it is that time after all.”

Pretends this is a surprise when he finds you hunched over somewhere

He totally keeps track 

But he thinks it's amusing to see you struggle with handling your mood and dealing with the cramps

He’s helping all the while 

With front row seats to your most vulnerable moments

He’s enjoying it until he’s pulled away or you begin relying on everyone else

Working in the Monstro Lounge during your week of pain has him stinking up the place with his terrible mood

Bordering Floyd levels of strangulation encounters 

he’s relentlessly trying to burn off his explosive anger from being away from you during this time

Call him instinctually motivated but the moment he gets the chance he slinking back to your side

“Don’t stop me from going to them…otherwise I will stay…and see exactly how fragile your ribcage is.”

Floyd Leech

“And you’ll just be laying around because of cramps? That sounds boring!”

He’s not much help in the realm of comfort 

Unless your yelling at him during a particularly intense pain cycle 

He’s not going to do anything

But he is in a bad mood

“My shrimpy won’t talk to me…They’re in such a bad mood…it puts me in a bad mood!”

Watch out without you there to maintain some semblance of balance he’s practically on a rampage

No one is safe

And in that mentality everyone is catering to you so you can entertain him for a short awhile

He won’t completely abandon you if you very seriously explain or your crying from the pain/frustration

“Shrimpy…you're really hurting aren’t you?”

Only for you

Only for you will he settle himself down to cuddle you 

Holding you tight against him 

No one will bear witness

And if they do they will wish they hadn’t

“It's not so boring laying with my shrimpy…and it certainly won’t be boring when you’re not breathing.”

Scarabia

Jamil Viper

“I have just the recipe for this.”

He’s a caretaker 

Has been all his life so this is no hard feat

Although he’s not used to caring for a girl on her cycle 

he's still one of the best

He’s cooking for you, giving you a heating pad, massaging you if you’ll allow it

He’s more than willing after all you’ve done so much for him

Yes, he’ll have to juggle Kalim but he can handle that just fine

This is you and he actually doesn’t mind caring for you

Afterall it further proves how capable of a man he can be for you

“I’m here for you, (Y/n). Obviously It’d be most convenient if you just married me.”

Kalim Al Asim

“Oh my gosh are you bleeding!? We have to call the teachers!”

Jamil has to sit him down and explain it to him

And even then he still has a hard time grasping it

But he’s more than willing to drop everything to provide whatever help he can

Which is mostly just Jamil actually relieving your discomfort

His way of helping is just buying the highest products 

And then trying to somehow “Party up” your period

“Hey (Y/n)! Let’s try playing a game to distract from the pain!”

“Ugghhhhh.”

“Great!”

He’s really trying 

And even when you or Jamil kick him out for awhile 

He feels the pressure of how many others are successfully helping you 

And decides he needs to get better

Or at least have a better understanding

So he will ask you about your ailment

Lending a listening ear whenever you want to ramble, rant, or complain

“Tell me all of it (Y/n). I can’t ever get tired of you.”

Pomfieore

Vil Schoenheit

“Oh dear…well I guess it can’t be helped.”

He was aware that this time would come 

And while he’s not usually one to indulge in endless cuddling he will do it if only to satisfy you and him too

Already there with the best products 

Heating pads, painkillers, and whatever high quality products that will come on short notice

He is definitely verbally bullying who ever came to help

He might insist on putting make up on you if your not a fan of it

What are you going to do, when you’re busy curled up in pain

If you try to get him to go away or not see you because he is a supermodel celebrity

He’s shutting that down real quick

“Don’t think I’d let you rely on some potato when I’m the one who cares.”

Rook Hunt

“Right on schedule madamoiselle!”

Totally kept track and if you didn’t come open the door he let himself in

He’s actually really amicable with anyone who wants to help 

Saying ‘it's a beautiful display of friendship and love for Madamesoile Trickster'

Comfort food? he’ll get it

Massage? He’ll do it

Pain Relief….the natural way? PLEASE LET HIM

“Blood is not deterrent for me, muya lyubov.”

You’ll have to get him to leave with how…unafraid he is with your blood

Need to insert a menstrual cup? He avidly volunteers

Have to change a pad? He’ll help you change into a new one

No? Fine. He’ll throw out the other one for you

It never even made it to the trash

He fully is able to get whatever size you prefer

You never told him

You really didn’t have to though

“Rest easy Madamemoiselle Trickster! I will happily take care of you with great pleasure for it is an honor to see your beauty uncontained!” 

Epel Felmier

“I’m on it! Leave it to me!”

Doesn’t really understand but he’s here to help

While I’m not confident he’s going to really know what he’s doing

He’s trying with that determined look on his face

This actually makes him quite happy 

He can provide for you without having insane muscle mass

At least your mood can be a bit better when Epel concocting an apple tea that fills the space with such awesome smells

He’ll now start trying to keep track of it 

Showing up at your house hair pulled bag and care package filled to the brim

Hiding behind his determination to grow he’s absolutely ecstatic on the fact that you have to rely on him

“I..want to be really good at this, (Y/n)! So please let me help!” 

Ignihyde

Ortho Shroud

“I’ve scanned my archives and have deduced that this will be the most effective during your menstrual cycle.”

The moment you groan in pain he is on it

What kind of little brother would he be if he couldn’t do this at the very least

Portable heating pad, Massager, personal pharmacist

You name it he’s got it

After all as your future little brother it's only natural he help you with that stuff

“No worries (Y/n)-san, I’ll take care of you during this major happiness debuff!”

Idia Shroud

“This is…the prophesied otome nightmare! The period!” 

He’s not coming near you for awhile 

This is uncharted territory for him and he’s debating if he wants to challenge that

He no doubt sent Ortho to help if you 

Now the question is does he end up making an appearance

On one hand he’s sure to build up on relationship points if he goes

But if he doesn’t go his rivals will no doubt up their statuses with his absence

He’d still be watching on all the cameras, so he’d know if they really were making any progress

But what about you? 

For the possibility that you look at him or thank him for helping

Even going so far as maybe leaning on him!?!?! 

Your touch alone could boost his morale significantly 

Not to mention sending him in an absolute frenzy

In the end he’ll stick it out…if only Ortho enters with him

“From my research, something that's helpful for dealing with pain is a distraction…so would you want to watch me play?”

Diasomnia

Malleus Draconia

“Child of man? Are you…dying?!”

He’s very confused and incredibly scared

Whether you're clutching your midsection in pain or having bled through your pants

He’s in hysterics

Weren’t you supposed to live longer!? 

He’s in a panic teleporting you to a teacher or the Diasomnia dorm 

Where he’s urgently informing Lilia and staff about your situation

If your not already crying from embarrassment he’s eventually told the reason why this is happening

“You’re not dying but you’re still in pain? How…peculiar of the human body to plague you in such a way.”

If your period was a person he would have brutally murdered them a long time ago

Sneering at the mention of it while your groaning about it

Don’t let him know about how to make it stop

Otherwise your going to have a hard time convincing him this isn’t worth getting you pregnant for

A good way to is to give him another way to help

Maybe removing the pain with pleasure?

“If this spares you the pain of that wretched cycle then I will give you everything you desire.”

Lilia Vanrouge

“Ah, that time is here. Well then guess I should be making you my special recipe!”

“No, please! Anything but that!” 

He’s one who may not keep track but he’s able to notice the signs

You’re so vulnerable he can get away with so much!

Like every situation that involves you he is amusing himself

He’ll help you with remedies he’s experienced through his many travels

Providing exotic painkillers that magically transform all your pain into something alse

Uh oh! Now you have something else bothering you, oh what will you do?

“Oya you seem to be struggling. No worries! I’m more than prepared to help you with this pleasurable side effect. No worries, I'm no stranger to blood!”

Silver Vanrouge

“Bleeding!?!?! Stand back! I need to put pressure on the wound!”

As soon as you get him to stop trying to put pressure on your…yeah

You’ll have to specifically explain the science behind your cycle 

Alas his support is immediately garnered

“Alright! Fath–Lilia said I could aid you in this endeavor. Saying it’d be a good experience for my future as a guard to Master Malleus.”

He’ll do all that he can with due diligence

And he’s more than happy to curl up to take your naps with you

But when all's said and done you’ll try and send him away

Keyword: “Try”

“Okay thanks for all your help Silver. Have a good night.”

“Are you heading to bed?”

“..no.”

“Alright then.”

“...”

“...”

“So you're not going to leave?”

“Of course not. My job is to guard you after all, I can’t possibly let you go through this on your own as your suitor”

“Oh oka–wait suitor?”

Sebek Zigvolt

“WHAT IS THIS?! Y-YOU’RE DYING!? DYING!”

He’s alarmed 

He knows humans are fragile but to be bleeding so much with no prior warning

Your akin to glass

He’s ultimately going to ignore your reservations until your loudly explaining the science of your cycle to this man

Eventually he will so gracefully take it upon himself to provide his help to you

Doesn’t matter if you never asked he’s helping

You’re so much weaker than him it's natural that he expertly help

With no surprise to you he’s quite bad at this

Misusing your pads/tampons/other 

Throwing away your pain killers because they were ‘weak person’s crutch’

And overall just not making this a good time

So you’ll have to explain everything to him 

Every tool, every step has a meaning so if he wants to help he’s following your lead

And for you to be so stern and serious…

SHOWS HOW DEDICATED AND POWERFUL YOU ARE!!

“I no doubt misjudged your expertise!! Show me your ways so that I may aid you in our future together!”

Staff

Dire Crowley 

“Oh…uhm, right…what does that mean again?”

He’s trying…kinda

You need to ask him for permissions to deal with it anyway 

And it would be especially gracious of him to supply everything that you need

…so that you’re not bleeding everywhere

It’d be concerning if that were that the case 

So he’s totally following your lead with this one

Even though he’s not a fan of the fact so many of the students are swarming around you during this time

For all he knows you may need many people to help you deal with it

He really doesn’t like seeing you in pain so if you do at some point complain about it 

He’s frantically sending you home

“Whatever you need (Y/n). I’m so gracious I shall help you with your condition.”

“It's not a condition, it's a natural bodily function for me that just so happens to come every month.”

“E-every month?”

“Yes…don’t look at me like that! It is entirely normal and healthy!”

Crewel Divus

“Do you have everything you need? I wouldn’t be surprised if Sam didn’t have that.” 

He’s on top of it like Donkey Kong 

Making sure you have everything you need 

The only problem is the various boys that are ‘willing to help’

“I should have had Jack install those removable boards on Ramshackle’s windows…now the unruly curs will slink in.”

He’s wordlessly setting some magical traps for those who want to reach Ramshackle

His puppy is vulnerable and they’re surrounded by a bunch of other pups that are much bigger and rougher

If anyone asks about you he’s misleading them so hard

“Stay away from (Y/n) pups especially this week!”

“Y-YES SIR!” 

“Good boys. Now let’s continue working.”

Mozus Trein 

“I see. How’s your pain tolerance? Will you still be able to attend class?”

Seasoned veteran right here

He’s not freaking out because he knows you probably know best

But if you couldn’t get something on campus or in the town he’s willing to do what he can

He’s mostly being the reasonable voice when everyone just doesn’t understand

Depending on your own situation he’ll give you a written list of remedies he’s followed

While silently sending Lucius to watch after you

And I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually joined Crewel in putting protections on Ramshackle 

“For once we’re in agreement. I doubt the students will be able to comprehend, let alone actually be of service to her.”

Ashton Vargas

“What, why would that stop you from exercising? Don’t you know pushing through the pain is how you look like me!?”

“No no you don’t understand this pain is much different.”

“I fail to see why you should stop even still!”

“If you don’t get me off this field I’ll bleed all over it.”

“O-okay. To the nurse you go!” 

“Thank you.”

He’s not sympathetic because he doesn’t understand

And unless you phrase it as some type of training or exercise he will cheer you on

“Ace that period, (Y/n)!! You’ve got this!”

Sam

“Well that’s why I just stocked up on it, just for you!”

Really the MVP when it comes to comfort

He likes to pretend he doesn’t need to but he definitely did research about it

He wasn’t about to turn his favorite baby sis-student away unsatisfied

He also knows your harem will probably come soon and he can’t wait to play matchmaker

“And here’s that (f/f) you ordered in advance and for you some (h/f). Happy eating or rather gifting.” 

[pennyserenade]

God Sejanus is so damn special to me. He’s such a unique character and I love him with my whole heart. He carries this belief that he’s somehow abandoned his people, abandoned himself, when he’s doing all he can to put an end to the games but he’s just a teenage boy with the weight of the world on his shoulders and he still feels like he isn’t doing enough despite doing more than anyone ever has before him and all he wants is a better life not for himself but for everyone suffering and oppressed by the capital and he’s just so important to me, like such a pure good hearted person in a world full of hatred and violence and he still thinks he’s not doing enough when staying as kind as he is and keeping his connection to his home was an act of resistance in and of itself

I could talk about him for hours tbh

i'm very happy to be receiving this ask because he's truly been on my mind for WEEKS. i feel oddly protective of sejanus because i think a lot of people have come to view him as weak and annoying---which, i think, is mostly a reflection of the way coriolanus views him. i do think there are conversations to be had about the fact that the decisions sejanus made weren't always sound, but he was meant to serve a foil to coriolanus. every move coriolanus made was calculated, thought out to even the most minute detail at times, and sejanus' were quick, instinctual, done not to impress because they he they had to be done. when arcahne crane was murdered by her tribute, coriolanus hesitated, had to be told by lucy gray to help, and did so because of the cameras. sejanus knelt down and spread bread crumbs over her body, without a single thought about the cameras. he did not care that no one understood this gesture, or that arachne was someone who never treated him with an inkling of respect. coriolanus thought about that-- he thought how she was evil and deserved to get her throat slit, and he thought about how he wasn't her friend, not really, and he even thought it was ironic that he was painted that way later. sejanus was angry at these people but forgiving, good, and he spoke out vehemently against their games and as often as he did because he hoped against hope; he wanted to reach them because he felt that he could. in all of his anger, sejanus never robbed these people of their humanity the way that they did the district people, because he knew how erroneous it was. the fight would not be worth fighting if he felt, even for a second, that there was no one to listen.

i also love that his identity is shaky; that, even though he has fierce, unapologetic ties to district two, he knows that they don't view him as one of their own. this is one of the parts that i find myself relating to the most when it comes to sejanus. i think many first gen latines can and do feel the same way. it is an odd experienced to be othered by your own and simultaneously hated by what you're 'meant' to be. sejanus could not readily fit in to the capital no matter how hard he might've tried, and he couldn't fit in to the districts because he was too 'capital' in their mind, just for the mere fact that he'd been sent there and taught there. and you do feel endlessly guilt about it -- at least in my experience -- and it is hard to contend with. you can carry on their traditions and love what you are and defend it until you are blue in the face, but what happens when they are in the cage and you stand on the other side, privileged? and like -- this is a real life thing that happened! they put children in cages. i wish with EVERYTHING in me that people would start talking about the parallels between the events in the ballad of songbirds and snakes and trump presidency because that's what it's talking abt!!! it is no coincidence they casted who they casted

[superconductivebean]

#934: natty > seb ; not a slander

Your post, @crowtitx, reminded me of a post I did… quite a long time ago tbh, it was on Aug 17!! D: Damn time flies fast.

Anyway, I was comparing Natty and Sebastian in that quest and here is what I was able to pin down:

Natty is friendly and has no other intent than to genuinely help MC to acclimatise and become their friend because Natty remembers what it felt like to start a new school in not just another part of the world, but a completely new one;

Sebastian, at the other hand, doesn't hide his curiosity. I'd say, it doesn't feel comfortable; he always nudges in a question or a some kind of remark that goes unexplained because he always has something else to add, to say, to comment on, to make it all about his deep interest in MC's ability to duel.

From the standpoint of the game's narrative and getting into the plot, Sebastian's companionship might look like a good deal for getting into the thick of it. His questions, despite being super… what's the other for 'intrusive', meddlesome? and me-me-my-about-me, keeps the grinds going; he breathes in the sense of people knowing MC is an odd one out and that they have secrets to themselves.

From the same standpoint, Natty has more of a laid-back approach and tackles things as they come. She doesn't push MC to answer any questions, nor she asks any of the same curious nature. She's just here and offers nothing more than a walk to a completely new area to a person who just characterised the castle as 'positively enormous'; there are already a ton to take notice of and think about, having Natty by the side might feel tad boring but it's relaxing, imbuing in a sense of time not moving as rapidly as it was on a previous in-game day.

The option for a someone like me, lmao, I was literally stuck at DADA Tower's Hermitage for a good hour my first time playing the game (subsequently, Natty was my choice then).

Walking down the road with Natty has one of my favourite conversations in the game!

Natty asks:

How are you settling in? I remember the weeks that followed my arrival feeling quite strange. Everything was so new and unfamiliar.

and MC answers with:

I’m getting used to things. What about you? Do you finally feel settled?

MC, few mere hours into this new world, doesn't care to elaborate on their struggles, instead they're eager to know more about Natty! Slice of life I'm on this planet for ftw ngl tbh.

It doesn't happen with Sebastian en route bar the question about Anne -- which is prompted by the natural course of the conversation, it's not MC's own deep interest, I sensed. How do I word it properly: there is a difference between being genuine and polite. Otherwise they wouldn't ask Natty back quite energetically, if you recall the tone of their voice; it's different with Sebastian, MC sounds rather timid and might I add, the whole conversation with Sebastian is gloomy.

But it sets the tone for the further Sebastian quests quite well, and here's the catch for the narrative bit I mentioned earlier:

he doesn't get nor MC, neither the player into the thick of it, lest we assume the game must be about him for this point to have sense plot-wise.

Getting back to Natty, her approach certainly was a preparation for the introduction for the companion system. I'm convinced we were ought to have her as our very first companion to travel with and to do side-quests with thus spending time with her and learning all about the castle, the valley, the society, everything MC could have interest in. That would've also solved the pacing issues I mentioned; Sebastian doesn't suffer from them half as much simply because he has a plethora of quests where you just… talk or meet somewhere to also have a chat, and then to have a chat here, then there, etcetcetc.

In conclusion, I prefer Natty over Sebastian.

Also, I want to mention, as a bonus, what Professor Sharp has to say about each of them:

And Professor Weasley:

[stillcarmine]

While I still think that Esperanza would laugh at the thought of dating a guy like Tristan... there are many ways to take a mortal step siblings Leo & Piper au....

so:

Tia Callida??

How would the addition of another seemingly unimportant demigod impact her dynamic with Leo?

She probably would have wormed her way into their new place, being like, 'damn, now I gotta gaslight TWICE as many mortals?'

Depending on where in his career Tristan was at any given point, they could hire actual babysitters and nannies, in which case, Hera would either need to lay the magic trickery on heavier or get a new disguise.

I think Piper says that his King of Sparta role was like his break out hit, even though he had success before that, and she helped him study up on Greek mythos, so she must not have been super young at that point. 

Then again, it'd been long enough that the McLean’s had fallen into a bad cycle of Piper getting into trouble for attention and Tristan not giving it to her and having Jane deal with her, not to mention the whole 'any three questions' thing.

So let's just assume that Tristan was mildly successful from when Piper was relatively young, like 6 or 7.

Anyway, yeah, so like, Piper would have a LOT of complicated feelings about her dad remarrying and having someone else take his time and attention, even though Esperanza would absolutely be loving and supportive to Piper. 

So like, part of her wants to lean into having a maternal figure, but she's GOT a mom, one that she's desperate to know more about, one that her father will never tell her about. And it feels like Tristan is just replacing this mom Piper's been yearning for, and no matter how great and kind this lady may be, she ISN'T Piper's mom. 

And then there's Leo. I don't think they'd get along at first.  Piper likely thinks he's odd and isn't interested in what he likes. At this point though, Leo doesn't go out of his way to be loud and make people laugh or hide his feelings, because he doesn't yet have anything to run or hide from. 

Leo's got a more healthy view of his birth father, because his mother has always told him that they'll meet one day and that he'll understand more when that happens. Leo sees his father less as part of his mother and he's less curious about him than Piper is about her mom. 

Leo would be pretty uninterested in Tristan as a person at first, but he'd be glad that his mom has more help and more time for herself and that she doesn't have to struggle as much. 

While Esperanza wouldn't let Tristan use his fame to get her a job, he DOES know a lot of rich and influential people who know people and basically, he creates opportunities for the right people to see how intelligent and valuable Esperanza is as an engineer, and gives her some breathing room to develop that screw design she was working on and trying to get patented when she died in canon. 

She eventually DOES get her design patented and sets Leo up for the future.

Both parents seem like they'd be generous with each other and their kids, but both have known struggle and idk, it'd probably be something they have to talk about, I'm not sure what outcome it'd be. 

Either way, they of course DO consider their step children as family and WOULD take care of them if something happened to their spouse.

Which leads us to the Gaea of it all. 

So she sets up Esperanza's death because her employee Madea got a premonition while in the Fields of Punishment that Leo was fated to cause Gaea issues. Gaea couldn't outright kill Leo, but she does say that she can make him suffer. 

Piper being in the picture could go a few ways:

Either, Madea also sees that Piper is a threat, which would be interesting since she and Piper have that whole charmspeak/ magic struggle in TLH and in TBM. 

It could be more personal for Madea that way, she might highlight Piper's role over Leo's which, if it's only one parent to die, might make it Tristan.

But considering that in canon Piper still existed at the time that Leo did, and Gaea decided to set him up to suffer and not Piper? But then that might have been because of Hera paying attention to him and training him to be a hero.

But if Hera was still around when Piper came into the picture...

Idk what Hera and Aphrodite's relationship is like. I'd like to believe that it's one of the more positive ones, since love and marriage go together (ideally) and I don't think Aphrodite ever had an affair with Zeus, so there's a point in her favor to Hera. 

It WOULD be something to have the whole lost trio be coached/ favored by Juno/Hera...

If that's the case, then yes, Piper might have been on both Madea and Gaea's radar, in which case, Gaea might have targeted both Tristan and Esperanza.

Which just leads to a whole other mess:

Things could go a lot of different ways depending on whether or not Leo and Piper considered each other siblings, or if they got along or were friends. 

As much as I like the idea of their friendship, I don't think it was really as strong in canon as it's made out to be by readers. Piper has a selfish streak, and I'm not saying that to be hateful. It's an important and interesting element of her character, and it could be really integral in this situation. 

Piper was like, the first person to have positive feelings about Leo's fire and to praise him for it in canon. 

Can you imagine the reverse of that, if Gaea manipulates him into killing both his mother and Piper's father? 

Piper MIGHT hold on to Leo because he's the only family she has left, and she's terrified to be alone. Or she might lash out and hurt him more deeply than he's ever been hurt.

That also depends on whether Hera trained Piper as well, and if Piper was jealous of the preference that the 'babysitter' showed to Leo over her. 

Also, Piper would have become attached to Esperanza eventually, even if she didn't want to admit it. And that, the loss of another mother, of never getting to show her that she did consider her a mom, that she's gone, and Piper made her think that she didn't want her, that she pushed her away and now doesn't get the chance to fix that?

And that, I think, could get Leo to fight back, because he spent the whole time watching Piper outwardly reject his mother, who he loved so much and now Piper wants to act like her death is about Piper's loss?

They could very well implode. 

And they go their separate ways, Piper to whatever guardian her father had appointed for her, and Leo running from that same guardian, because of course their parents wanted them to stay together. 

So Piper's just trying to live her life but she's always haunted by the knowledge that her brother is somewhere out there, alone and probably in danger and she has no idea what happened to him or where he is or if he's thinking about her. 

Oh, and when they meet up again for the Prophecy of Seven bullshit?? Woooooooo!!

Or maybe she runs off too, but in the opposite direction of Leo, and they go through they're own shit, learning and getting stronger and getting knocked down and getting back up again, but always seem to run into each other over and over again, and it's like, 'ugh, you again' but also 'oh thank god you're okay' but also 'get out of my face i never want to see you again' but 'if you touch my sister/ my brother again you'll be on your way to the Underworld WAY early'.

And maybe one of them gets into a scrape they can't get out of and the other HAS to help, they HAVE to, and that leads to some kind of reconciliation even though there are all these bitter feelings of grief and blame and abandonment, but beneath that, they just miss each other, god, they miss each other. 

Or, Piper might not blame Leo, whether because Hera did train her too and she knew about Leo's abilities already and knew that he wouldn't have hurt their parents and saw that Gaea was manipulating him. 

In that case, then, yay, a little runaway team of two. 

Doubtful that Gaea would let the two of them end up anywhere good, even though Tristan would have had better options for a guardian than Esperanza would have with her judgmental family. 

Or maybe they might have ended up someone fine, but they're both traumatized and terrified and grieving and can't trust anyone but themselves and run from any decent situation to make it on their own. 

And you know, maybe they end up in the Labyrinth, or the Lotus Casino, or get found by the Titan army. Maybe they stumble into the Waystation, maybe a random god takes them under wing and guides them along to camp, lots of stuff could happen. 

Because the world is terrible, they would need to develop their abilities much sooner to keep themselves safe.

They've probably killed some people.

 Like, Piper would scream in blind terror at some man following her to leave her alone and he'd walk out into traffic and calmly get hit by a truck, that kind of thing. 

Well, Piper probably kills people, accidentally and then intentionally when needed, but Leo might not be able to bring himself to repeat what he did to their parents. It's okay, though, Piper understands and takes care of that part.  

Oh, and by the time they get to the giant war, they are just so done.

[dialovers-translations]

Diabolik Lovers CHAOS LINEAGE ー Laito [13]

ー The scene starts in the forest

Laito: Haah, haah...

It doesn’t seem likeーー the others are following us. I guess we should be fine all the way out here.

Can I put you down?

Yui: S-Sure.

*Thud*

Yui: Uhm...Laito-kun? What exactly is going on? Wanting to escape the manor all of a sudden...

Laito: Don’t worry, I promise to explain everything. Both the things I did...as well as how we’ll move forward from here, okay?

Yui: Okay...

( He’ll actually tell me even though he’s been dead silent about it this whole time...? )

( He’ll finally tell me how he actually feelsーー )

Laito: I suppose I should apologize before that? ...I’m sorry for making you cry. It must have been inconvenient to be chained to the bed?

Yui: Ah, well, yeah...

Laito: Also, I must have hurt you pretty badly by saying that I didn’t care who you got together with.

Yui: ...Yup.

Laito: I’m sorry. But I don’t even want to think about giving you away to someone else.

Yui: Eh...?

( What did he...say just now...? )

Laito: Everything I did was in preparation of our escape.

Well, coming up with plans or strategies has never been my strong suit, you see. 

So when I tried to come up with something on my own, the only method I could think of was to stir up commotion.

Yui: Eh...? Escape...?

But I thought you didn’t mind living there...?

Laito: Right. I do think it’s not a bad option, but...

...Do you remember the time when I got my memories back?

Yui: Y-Yeah. When I got kidnapped by Ayato-kun and Kanato-kun, right?

ー A flashback ensues

Laito: You two...You’re trying to burn the wrong girl...

In the past...We ended that woman’s life...

Don’t you dareーー make that same mistake again with her.

ー The flashback ends

Yui: ( Kanato-kun threatened me with fire, which is when Laito-kun... )

Laito: Honestly, it was the worst possible way to remember. It gives me the shivers. 

If possible, I would have preferred for a sweet, heartfelt moment between the two of us to have been the trigger instead. 

Yui: It was a bad memory...from when you were young which ended up triggering it, right...?

( He’s speaking in a cheerful tone now, but back then, he seemed to be genuinely suffering... )

Laito: Still, due to that intense memory from the past, I was able to recall both you, as well as everything else...

I also realized that we had gotten caught up in some kind of odd situation. 

Back then, I did find myself thinking for a split second that perhaps this kind of life wasn’t too bad...

Yui: To live here at this place in this situation forever, you mean...?

Laito: Yup, exactly. Like I mentioned before, in the city we lived in before, we constantly kept running into problems, didn’t we?

Yet here I am not being tied down by anything, isn’t that great?

Yui: ( I understand. Why Laito-kun would prefer this lifestyle which is free from any constraints... )

Laito: ...But then I reconsidered and realized I couldn’t do that.

Yui: Eh...?

Laito: I mean, in this World, you’re the key to becoming the Supreme Overlord, no? Everyone will fight over you.

To me, the scariest thing imaginable...would be to lose you.

To be separated from you would be unbearable, more so than anything else.

Yui: ...!

Laito: I just want to have fun. That isn’t a lie. Howeverーー

Without you, my World is empty and gray.

I won’t...let anyone have you.

Yui: ( This is...Laito-kun speaking the truth. His true feelings he kept hidden inside this whole time... )

...I thought...

Laito: Eh?

Yui: I thought you had actually given up...

I thought about it the whole time while I was in your room...

That you actually didn’t care as long as you got to enjoy life...

and that you probably wouldn’t mind even if we were to become separated when Carla-san becomes the Supreme Overlordーー

This whole time...I was so scared.

Laito: ...You silly girl.

Yui: ( ...Ah... )

ー Laito embraces her

*Rustle*

On certain CGs, little black roses will appear on the screen. If you click on them, you get an extra line of dialogue.

“Mmh. You can touch me even more. Confirm that I’m right here until you understand that I will never, ever give you up, okay?”

“There, there...I’m so sorry for scaring you?”

Laito: ...You really are a fool.

Yui: That’s easy for you to say. I swear I was actually really anxious...

Laito: Right. I guess I’m quite the fool as well for making my girlfriend worry like that.

But I couldn’t tell you any of this inside that manor, because who knows who could have been listening in on us.

Yui: Still, you didn’t have to go as far as to lock me away and attach a chain to me...

Laito: I guess that was a little much. But if I hadn’t done that, who knows when Kou or one of the others could have targeted you for your blood?

You always leave yourself wide open after all.

Yui: ( I can’t deny that... )

Laito: ...I’m sorry.

Rest assured now. There’s no way I’d risk losing you.

Yui: Okay...

Laito: Ahーah. You’re tearing up. You really are such a crybaby. 

Your eyes will become red and swollen again. ...Nn...

*Smooch*

Yui: S-Sorry...I didn’t mean to cry...

*Rustle*

Laito: ...Don’t worry. You can cry all you want.

I’ll do this until you calm down.

Yui: ( His hand stroking my head feels so very nice... )

...Thank you.

Laito: ...You’re welcome.

Yui: ( I feel really at ease in his arms... )

( For the first time in a long while, I feel like I can let loose a little... )

*TIMESKIP*

*Rustle*

Laito: I guess you’ll be fine now?

Yui: Yeah. I’ve calmed down quite a bit thanks to you.

Laito: I’m glad that’s the case. Don’t hesitate to tell me when you want me to dote on you again, okay?

I’ll keep my arms wide open for you at all times, okay?

Yui: Fufu, gotcha.

( I can’t believe he still manages to act like his usual self despite the circumstances...Actually, I guess that’s normal. )

( I thought it was strange while I was chained inside the room as well. )

( How he could stay so calm while everyone could potentially be in a lot of danger. )

( I’m sure that was also...his way of showing kindness, as he didn’t want to burden me with it... )

Laito: Well then, the real challenge starts now. Carla completely messed up my plan after all.

Yui: Your plan? Right, you said you’ve been planning our escape this whole time. 

Laito: Exactly. At this rate, you’d have to become Carla’s. I wanted to prevent that, you see...

I volunteered to do the interrogations so it’d give me a chance to talk to everyone but none of them showed any signs of regaining their memories.

Yui: ...! That’s why you interrogated them?

Laito: Pretty much. But not even Ayato-kun or Kanato-kun got any closer to remembering.

For me, I would get those dizzy spells every time I sucked your blood, so it could be that it’s triggered that way...

Yui: In which case, they might remember if I have everyone drink my blood!?

Laito: Listen, do you really think I - as your boyfriend - would allow that?

Besides, with how violent they are in their current state, you might just get killed if you’re not careful.

Yui: Uu...

( That...sounds a little too familiar. )

Laito: In which case, there’s only one way to get out of this situation. We have to get out of the country.

Yui: Can we do that?

Laito: Who knows? I don’t know since I’ve never tried it. I have no idea where this country even is, or how big it is.

But, I’m sure you also realize that once we get out, the Supreme Overlord of some tiny, enclosed garden will mean nothing to us, right?

As long as we can get out, we’ll be able to release the others in no time as well.

Yui: We better hurry then. I’m sure that over at the manor, things are currentlyーー

Laito: Right. I wouldn’t want it to turn into a bloodbath. I strategically positioned Carla and had everyone gather together in the dungeon to prevent that from happening. 

It might have been the only thing I could think of to get us out of there...It’s still a sticky situation.

I guess brainwork is more Reiji’s field of expertise after all. I’m just not cut out for it.

Yui: No, that’s not true. You’ve been trying your hardest all by yourself this whole time.

Thank you...

Laito: I’m the one who should say that. You’re the one who continued to fight alone this whole time, no?

But from here on out, it’ll be us two against the World. 

Let’s escape this place together, Yui-chan.

Yui: ...Yeah!

Uhm...Laito-kun?

Selection

→ Sorry for doubting you (🖤)

Yui: I’m sorry for doubting you...I didn’t pick up on your plans at all.

Laito: Of course you didn’t. I deliberately chose my moves so not even you would realize.

Still, I had a hard time. Seems like I’m not cut out to come up with plans or strategies.

I guess each of us brothers has their own skills we should stick to.

Yui: Yeah...You’re right. That’s one more reason whyーー

Laito: We need the others to snap back to their senses and quick, right?

→ Thanks (♡)

Yui: Thanks. I felt happy when you said that you wouldn’t let anyone else have me.

Laito: Why of course. I’m the one who can’t survive without your love, honestly.

I promise that no matter what lies ahead of us, I won’t let go of your hand.

Yui: Laito-kun...

Laito: Just kidding~ But I pulled off those lines aplomb, didn’t I?

Yui: Fufu. Yeah! You did a great job!

Laito: Well then, let’s hit the road. I have no idea how long it’ll take us to get there though.

Yui: Where exactly are we headed? I know you said we’d leave these lands, but...

Laito: We are headed to what lies at the very border of these lands ーー To the end of the World.

Yui: The end of the World...? Is there a place like that?

Laito: Most likely. While I was gathering information from everyone under the guise of an interrogation, something similar came up.

This country is isolated. Nobody can come in from the outside, and we’re the only ones living in this confined space.

Yui: Now that you mention it, if this was the Demon or the human world, we could have very well run into someone by now...

It is strange how we haven’t met anyone for days, isn’t it?

Laito: Exactly. That’s why I believe we are trapped in here.

There are various manors on these lands, which surround the Church.

However, nobody has ever set foot inside the forest which lies beyond there.

Yui: In other words, if we make it to the other side of the forestーー

Laito: We might be able to get out.

Yui: Then, once we’re out...as long as we can find a way back home.

Then your siblings...as well as the others won’t have to fight, right?

Laito: There you have it.

I’m pretty sure chaos has broken loose inside the manor right now.

They’re tough cookies, so I doubt anyone will die, but you never know. 

Let’s find the way back home before things go south.

Yui: Yeah!

( Just you wait, everyone. I promise that we’ll find a way out of this mess...! )

Subaru: Hold it!

Yui: Eh?

Laito: ...Uh-oh. This is bad.

Subaru: ...So this is where you’ve been...

Yui: Subaru-kun!?

( They caught up to us already!? )

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

[trainingdummyrabbit]

Mmm you every have scenario's regarding near-human Angela swimming in your head? Like how Angela could eventually potentially feel the cold and be affected by it.

The first time she actually gets sick she's absolutely suffering from the experience. The patron librarians noticing and freaking the fuck out until someone like Hokma or Roland strolls in being like "everyone calm your tits it's just a damn cold". meanwhile Angela gets to be miserably dramatic as she tries to power through the illness.

Alternatively, Angela initially not getting why Roland wasn't feeling great after the Snow Queen abnormality fight being that she couldn't feel the cold yet.

Then Angela goes on to the final realization, gets to the Frost Splinter phase and being able to feel and be affected by the cold, is immediately like "...I suddenly realize why they didn't like that fight. (=n=);" and just- *it's clear the brain worm thoughts are winning tonight*

Sorry for the ramble just your headcanons for Angela gives me a lot of joy and inspiration, I'd love to hear your thoughts on your personal near-human Angela headcanons if you have any!

ouhghg man iam Always thinking abt stuff like this yea. yeag? yea. ijust always wonder about how. weird. it must be, suddenly dealing with a whole slew of mess youve never had to. like, by all means, very trivial things, but odd nonetheless.

like, you ever think about how weird it is to stop perceiving time so slow? just, eventually, slowly but surely, there's this... quiet. this silence. and its silence, it creeps up on you-- it doesnt announce its arrival. how relieving must that have been? to stop or slow down and realize: its quiet. nothing is firing off in the back of your head-- after all, youve spent your entire life juggling anything and everything at all times-- how must it suddenly feel to truly and finally just... sit. and wait. and have nothing happen?

...and then theres The Issues. again, it must be really strange, suddenly seeing everything at full speed. processing and storing information at a much much slower rate than youre used to. and then there's the whole New Senses and New Processes thing-- which presents a state i like to refer to as the Reverse Time Dilation. congrats! everything is simultaneously so much more and so much less engaging than youre used to, which somehow conjoins into being both Very Understimulating and Very Overstimulating. at the same time. all of the sudden. so yknow, fun things.

like yeah you could explain away a lot of this but at the same time i cant help but imagine moments off-screen where angela simply has to take a moment and just turn off a while face down on the desk because Everything All The Time and also fuck she can hear herself breathing just. all the time now. that's just all the time? you can just feel your clothes on you all the time? and lying down, her breath is warm and thats nice, but also its warm and that is so, so annoying with everything else going on too.

or like, how quickly she mustve been able to come to conclusions and process information, and now she has to slow down considerably because well. the fallible human mind misremembers, makes mistakes, forgets. which is the point, but also ugh. uuuuuughhhhh.

all in all, Angela's Kind Of Annoying But Ultimately Not That Bad ... whatever that can be called.

[theneighborhoodwatch]

i have been trying to make this into a coherent post for days and have gotten Nowhere so you will have to put up with this borderline incoherent trail of thoughts instead. okay here we go:

dorelaine sounds like it was meant to be a mondegreen of darling (or vice-versa depending on what perspective you're seeing it from) which lends some credence to the WHRP's insistence that ronald dorelaine Must be the creator of welcome home (again - "must be," not "is," which is odd.)

wally as a self-insert for dorelaine? this information sponge who kind of exists to learn from his friends/loved ones on our behalf, the audience surrogate, a slate so blank he didn't know what a clown was until someone asked him to draw one. what about a character like that would cause someone to draw on their own traits to write him?

in that same vein, wally being not only a self-insert but an Ideal Self? if so, what about the above traits would have been Desirable to dorelaine? wally being representative of a desire for some kind of "fresh start"? or perhaps of flawlessness by way of (initially) not knowing there are flaws to be had? ignorance is bliss and all.

y'know. i was talking about this in a metaphorical sense and was gonna go on about how like i wonder what it will look like the further things progress and wally deviates more from this aspect of himself (assuming he hasn't already. dorelaine probably was not quite so attached to his house, for one thing) but i think this might be one of the only contexts in which a literal(ish) possession story could work - i.e. how far do you think someone would go to discard their original identity and become their ideal self?

i was gonna elaborate on that but then i realized i was just describing the season one plot twist from surviving romance.

[spoilers for surviving romance, obviously] by which i mean: yknow how it turns out that the protagonist, who is now the MC of the novel the entire story takes place in, actually used to be the author of the novel? and the whole thing was written in an attempt to justify her own suffering (without actually unpacking any of her trauma or the defeatism that was beaten into her by her circumstances) by giving her idealized self-insert (the original MC) a happy ending after a series of borderline comedic acts of cruelty - something she felt she would never be able to achieve herself? and how she only remembers this after repressing it long enough to form relationships with the other characters in the novel after being thrown into a life or death situation and realizing that they all have a lot more depth and interiority than the original novel's narration afforded them? yeah? Yeah.

that's not the Whole plot twist but it is the part of it that's the most relevant to this post.

but hey, maybe there's no literal possession/reincarnation/transmutation/Whatever stuff going on. in fact, for now i'm confident in that not being the case, at least not literally. but i still think if wally being some kind of self-insert or at least being based on ronald dorelaine in some capacity is canon, then it is worth noting bc like. wally As We Understand Him so far exists to absorb and reflect the world around him and the people in it in order to guide us, the audience. if he turns out to be a self-insert on top of that, then he also exists to reflect his creator in some form. for as much as everything seems to revolve around him (even when we Know for a fact that whatever happened had an effect on the other neighbors as well) it's kind of hard to imagine wally existing as his own guy; he always exists in relation to something or someone else.

one has to wonder how he feels about that. he seems confident that it will all work out in the end (whatever "it" is) but, well. this Is a horror story.

something about what i said a while ago, about the puppets being more affected by unconscious decisions - "things left unsaid," in particular.

still think about Metaphorical hauntings in welcome home though. that one guillermo del toro quote - "What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? A moment of pain, perhaps. [...] An emotion suspended in time. Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in amber."

"ah but doesn't home also lend themself to a good possession story?" so close! i think whatever's going on with home is closer to necromancy/a state of Undeath than anything else. i will not be elaborating at this point in time <3

..... possible future holy trinity imagery with dorelaine, wally, and home? father/son/holy spirit? unlikely but Could you imagine.

ah. i think here is when the thoughts run out. thanks 4 reading.

[arceespinkgun]

I think, from my opinion at least, what differentiates Earthspark from other Transformers shows (more specifically recent installations is) that it took risks and even though its messages may not have been conveyed across to its fullest potential, the intention and direction are still fairly evident and less harmful in comparison to other Transformers media

Earthspark manages to balance darker themes fairly well, whilst not forgetting its primary audience are children. There are both subtle and blatant dark themes throughout the show, there is a lot of exploration regarding one's identity which is more notable (but not exclusive) to the Terran Nightshade

It makes an honest attempt to be inclusive and while it may feel a bit stunted and awkward at times, it achieved its purpose despite what may be awkward handling— I find it odd how beloved Knockout is, despite the fact that he is an offensive gay stereotype (and not really handled well as a character in general) but the scene of Nightshade, an explicit non-binary character, saving Sam in ‘Home’ is apparently too awkward and regarded viewed as good but not enough in terms of representation?

EarthSpark has Black Filipino protagonists! There is casual representation with Mo's hair bonnet and the Filipino cuisine they eat; Alex speaks tagalog at times (although I think I do recall someone on here pointing out that the dialect he used isn't accurate to his geographic hometown in the Philippines?) and there is a whole episode where he teaches Bumblebee his culture as they hunt for the WakWak! I love when Transformers and humans teach each other about their culture, it both humanizes the Transformers reiterating that they are not emotionless robots AND it gives minorities a platform to be represented in a popular franchise

Despite the fact that the Malto children seem to be almost forcibly matured by the narrative and struggling to cope with the fear and anxiety of having their family torn apart, something that BIPOC people are at a higher likelihood of experience in the real world, it doesn't forget that at the end of the day they're all children. I quite enjoy Mo as a character and her emotional maturity, she offers her older brother wisdom and emotional comfort constantly; and when her safety is at risk her younger Terran siblings ensure that they take on a protector role due to the ultimate difference that poses threat to that of a human child and a Transformer child— because the Terrans are CHILDREN!

PTSD and trauma are touched on in EarthSpark, Hashtag's autonomy is violated by Dr Meridian and uses her body to cause harm towards her siblings and damage her environment; he used her body to prove his point that Transformers are dangerous and cannot integrate with society and Hashtag suffers from flashbacks of the experience. Despite the fact that the situation between the two is not expanded on, it is clear that Megatron has hurt Starscream in the past— Hashtag (even though she has no reason to believe Starscream because Megatron IS her mom's friend and kind towards her, "therefore he can't possible have done that") immediately believes Starscream when she confronts the latter's poor treatment towards others. She opens up about her own traumatic experience with Dr Meridian and while the situation may not be the same, she was trying to establish a common ground in the fact that they're both victims

Grimlock from his time at the bot brawls and also from having been mind-controlled by Dr Meridian blatantly suffers PTSD and is triggered several times throughout the respective episode and ineffectively copes by pushing it down. It is a dangerous thing for a Transformer to be mind-controlled, let alone a fire-breathing dinobot; fortunately Jawbreaker realising that he pushed Grimlock too far steps in and manages to calm the panicked dinobot down, assuring him that he is more than just a rampaging dinobot and there is more to Grimlock than meets the eye

EarthSpark gives us a lot in terms of themes and season one was incredibly ambitious, frankly I don't think many of the other previous Transformers shows could've handled it better than EarthSpark. I don't think that EarthSpark is without fault, on the contrary I have a few grievances with it but my issue is that people (perhaps without even realising it) are showing clear bias when they critique EarthSpark. Honestly, I do think that if the protagonists were a white family that people wouldn't mind that they're so central to the story— to be honest, that aggravates me a lot because the point of EarthSpark is that the humans have a central part in the story, it's literally about Earth born Transformers who are created a pair of siblings and adopted into their family. Criticising it centering around family and the respective human family members goes against the entire point of the show...

One of the more common critiques I have seen and I do agree to an extent, is EarthSpark's pacing. However, I absolutely think that its pacing though rushed still manages to deliver a great story that went out of its way to include difficult topics to portray— as opposed to Transformers: Prime and Transformers: Cyberverse. There is no amount of analysis and meta posts that I could read that would convince me that the pacing of those two shows were better than EarthSpark thus far, OR effectively and satisfactorily wrapped up the themes, character arcs and plotlines

It just seems that EarthSpark is taking a lot more criticism at a way earlier stage compared to other previous Transformers shows and that makes me sad because people are treating it as though its shortcomings are genuinely harmful but dismiss the previous harmful depictions in the Transformers franchise... I admire the risks and narrative choices that EarthSpark has undertaken so far and I hope it only improves from here on out, to give it that opportunity the show must continue and be given a chance to fulfil its vision

Woah, woah, woah, I agree with many of the things you bring up here, but if you're going to send me a ginormous essay, could you post it on your own blog, please? Plenty of your points are well thought-out and could stand to be their own posts, and I know I've answered long asks before, but this is way too long for me to respond to everything easily. Two or three of these points would be enough for one ask, so that's all I'm going to comment on:

-The criticism about Alex Malto defining a word wrong is definitely something that should be brought up, and I'm glad people have. I think the issue isn't necessarily the language he speaks, but that he defines "lolo" as a Tagalog word when he'd probably say it's a Bisaya word since he grew up in Bohol? I do wonder if there could be something more to his history that may explain this, especially since given his background he's probably had to switch to Tagalog and English a lot, or if there's something about his family we don't know yet. I don't have the knowledge or background to speak on this though. Also, part of me is a little glad discussing the language politics is even on the table at all for this franchise after like... how TFA handled South Asian representation, which it sounds like you were thinking as well lol

-I'm not sure if you're quoting somebody, but Hashtag (and the rest of the Maltos) ABSOLUTELY had reason to believe Megatron was abusive! Did they not go to that war memorial and hear him talking about how he's done horrible things? Don't the Malto parents often mention how he's been trying to change—the kids all know he's done harm! And Starscream even pointed out how hypocritical it is to think Megatron wouldn't leave people behind when he's locking up his former followers—even kids could get that point! Plus, the show is almost certainly trying to make the point that people who say they've been hurt should be believed and the first impulse shouldn't be to try to convince them it's not true. That's a good message for kids!

[prof-peach]

What would be the most stubborn grass type Pokémon peach has ever had to work with

One particularly difficult Carnivine comes to mind. Handled them about three years ago now. A ranger base out in Unova called us up asking for a specialist to come in and handle an infestation, so I packed a bag and jetted off to investigate. The only details I had was a vine covered expanse of marshland that was actively hostile, no one could go into the area, which must have been about two acres in size. Normally not an issue but plenty of pokemon had gone in and not come back out. People were wondering if it was luring things from near by towns.

So I turn up, usual brief from the Rangers, they drive us over to the area and straight away you can smell this sweet heady scent in the area. The trees and shrubs were so dense it was difficult to find a way in, but we managed, trekking forward.

About a minute or two in, it becomes very apparent that the vines in the area are all the same species, rooted in numerous places, all flowering, and in many cases, choking out the local flora, depriving things of light and nutrients. The size of the area had apparently expanded too, so it was actively growing larger.

I will admit, I may have put a foot in the wrong place, stepped on a vine half submerged under the waters after managing to avoid them for a long while, and like a snare trap got yanked off my feet, into the marsh, dragged about 10ft before Val caught up, she wanted to sever the vine holding onto me, but I told her not to. This was an easy, if not messy way of finding the core of this thing, whatever it was. Damn thing must have dragged me along for a couple minutes before stopping. I looked like a swamp thing by this point.

The open jaws of something familiar, despite its gargantuan size, dropped down from the tree ahead of us, as one head appeared, several more, and then another set, a sea of teeth and eyes, all various sizes, but clearly the same species. A Carnivine, it's ropey tendrils extended in all directions, emerged to investigate me. On each of its flowering vines, multiple heads, a hive mind that seemed to communicate throughout the whole area.

We had to outlast it stamina wise. If you physically fight Carnivine and win, you do not gain its respect like some other species, they often becomes nervous of you, and skitter away given the chance. We didn't want to burn it or scare it, and only redirected its own attacks back at it, or blocked. It was an enduring, exhausting encounter, based on reaction speed and defence, thankfully I had Booker and Val with me and they did great. The Carnivine ran out of steam eventually, we didn't hurt it with our own moves, and came out relatively unscathed save for the odd cut or bruise.

It did not uproot, but did accept our presence in the area. We were able to talk to it. It was suffering with nutrient burns, aggravated by the itching and constant aches. Burn heals don't work on this kind of damage, and a pokemon centre can't fix this issue over night. This was clearly an environmental issue at work. We promised to return with a fix, and were allowed to come and go from the area.

I had a good idea of what could cause the issue, and followed up my hunch with the local agricultural businesses. Turns out Farmers in the area had switched fertilizer brands recently, the trickle down of this new chemical had seeped into the Carnivine's original territory, causing it to gain monstrous strength and stamina, but also go through a lot of harm. This species needs live prey, and prefers low nutrition soil, so suddenly it was being pumped full of nutrition its body couldn't handle, hence the burns.

Of course I tested the soil of its previous location, and its new one, plus several areas around it. The Carnivine had found the last patch of perfect soil for its species in the area, and used its new found power to defend it from all others who may threaten its biome. The flowers it produced lured in flying and bug types for food, and sent the 'leave me alone' message to all of its own kind who dared to try and encroach on its territory.

I had to do a bunch of paperwork to handle the farmers, they mostly agreed to switch out the chemicals used on their crops, and handled the run off water better, those that didn't were taken to court, and while it took a while, they were served with an appropriate set of demands to lessen their impact on the environment.

I called back to the island and got sent our clean up crew, a pod of 32 Grimer, all specially hand trained to target specific chemicals and only gather those up into their bodies, instead of releasing their own toxins. I cannot stress how much i love those little dudes, they do incredible work in some many locations, we've worked really hard with them to learn this skill. They helped the clean up process and returned some of the marsh to its original state. With the fertiliser out of the soil, and the water slowly returning to normal, the Carnivine started to shrink back. Its roots let go of other plants with time, and its many heads withered back and dropped. It must have been 3 months worth of work, but the pokemon calmed down, uprooted, and was willing to return to its home. (I was very homesick by this point, lots of calls home)

I left 15 of the Grimer with the rangers to continue the clean up process, and returned home with samples, and several stacks of papers to file and sort through. The issue was resolved and because of a little insight, the Rangers no longer have this issue when it occurs again, and can handle it themselves. They returned the Grimer after another 4 months of work, job done.

I feel like it was less a case of a stubborn pokemon, and more a situation that was long winded and complicated to the average onlooker. None the less, every time I entered the Carnivine's range, it did drag me half way across the swamps, which entertained the rangers greatly once they realised I wasn't being abducted. It got use to me I suppose.

From what i'm told it never shrunk down fully, somewhere out there, a huge Carnivine roams the wilds, living a good life now. Its burns healed, its rage subsided, and it could go about its days in peace. I should visit it again one day, see how it's doing.

[lia-land]

Kingdom of Ash

4/5 stars

*Spoilers for Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas.

My heart!!!

I will discuss everything in chronological order because this was a longggg book at nearly 1000 pages.

First, it could have been shorter. I loved it, but I feel this way about every SJM book.

The first two chapters were written so well. Or pre-chapters, I guess? ‘The Princess’ and ‘The Prince’ set the scene for the rest of the book so beautifully. Reminded me of Chapter One of Queen of Shadows when Dorian was trapped with the Valg. A very strong start to this book.

I really love Dorian in this which seems to be an unpopular opinion. I’ve liked him throughout the series but especially in this book. I truly never knew what his next move would be. He’s managed to surprise me the most out of all the other characters and has suffered so much, but I feel like it’s never really acknowledged. Him seducing Manon while he'd shape shifted into a witch was odd. I was kind of hoping he would actually turn evil when he started showing an interest in Manon, but then she became ‘good,’ so then I thought he might actually marry Maeve and that didn’t happen either. I did want him and Aelin to end up together in the first two books and I am so happy that they did not because I love him and Manon together so much and I think Aelin would have overshadowed Dorian instead of complementing his character like Manon does. I’d happily read a whole series about Dorian. He is the character that I will miss the most. I would have liked his ending to be more clear, but I also like how it feels knowing we just might not ever know how his story ended. Although, I feel like SJM will one day explore this in a future book.

I’ve said this in past reviews, but the whole thing with Aelin coming up with a secret plan to save the day every single time was getting old and I thought it was an interesting change that Maeve outsmarted her for as long as she did. It was satisfying for me as a reader to have something actually happen to Aelin without me reading the chapter thinking ‘I’m not actually that invested because I know Aelin will have the upper hand and pull out some secret plan as always’. The chapters about her time in the iron box were very well-written and her pain came across those pages really well. It was a beautiful moment when she offered the blood oath to Fenrys.

Moonbeam is so unserious. I love it.

Elide continued to annoy me. Just… everything she says and does. I can't specifically recall when or why I disliked her, but I didn’t care for her character whatsoever. Lorcan was also just kind of there, existing. No strong feelings about him either way. I need clarification on what Lorcan did back in Empire of Storms, though, because I thought that was their first time actually having sex? But apparently it was in this book. If I had a penny for everytime a chapter ended with a variation of “so Lorcan did,” I would have two pennies and not know where to spend them. What did Lorcan do the first time?!

The first line in this entire series that truly caught me off guard was when Aedion said “because I am not in love with our other allies.” I don’t particularly like Aedion and obviously we knew he was in love with Lysandra, but the tension in that scene and the directness of it was so unexpected amongst the chaos. This is one of two lines that I have highlighted in my copy.

The second line… “Live, Manon.” I think this the saddest character death scene I have ever read in any book. 11 characters dying on one page should be some sort of record. The way each of the Thirteen’s deaths were described followed by everyone placing flowers on the field broke my heart. I have often loved the witches storyline more than Aelin’s and didn’t expect them all to die, let alone to sacrifice themselves. I think it was necessary for the story, though, because SJM has a tendency of not killing off characters and that has always felt inauthentic and takes me out of an immersive reading experience because I know that conveniently, no one will die. It wasn’t surprising, per se, that they sacrificed themselves, because that was how the Thirteen’s characters were portrayed, but the way it was written was devastating. Manon’s pain came across so strongly through those pages. I think this mainly upset me because my guard for characters dying is down when I read SJM books. She loves a happy ending and I know not to expect certain things to actually happen. This was like the thing I mentioned earlier about Aelin getting outsmarted by Maeve; it was refreshing.

Manon has been my favourite character throughout this series. Just a tiny bit more than Dorian. SJM has a tendency of turning evil characters 'good' and making them boring in the process, which I have discussed in reviews of her other books. However, I think Manon is the only character that she actually made more interesting by making her less 'evil.' Her story has been one of my favourite character developments ever.

Murtaugh’s death felt very rushed over and oddly written. With the word choices, I didn’t even realise he was dead until a few paragraphs in when it was mentioned that a sheet was over him. This was either intentional and not executed well, or just bad word choices. It kind of felt like SJM was just trying to get rid of him because we didn’t get anything between him going to tell Aedion he’s fighting and then him being dead. 

I want to see more of Ansel of Briarcliff. We saw very little of her throughout the series, but it was all so entertaining. I’m not sure why we weren’t given more of an explanation as to how she became queen after leaving the Silent Assassin’s, but I’’m hoping this was set up for us to get a book about her later. I loved when she offered to share the Wastes with Manon while simultaneously taking her bread. That was just so her.

I'm not giving it 5 stars mainly because no one actually died. All these main characters, and not one of them died in this massive war.

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 7 of Nona the Ninth

I just noticed we started having Nine Houses skulls at the beginnings of the chapters again. The first two chapters that were just about Nona have what looks like the locked tomb at the front, the third where the kids and the school were introduced as a tree with an apple, maybe that's biblical, I don't know, chapter four has a Seventh skull, which is weird because nothing about the Seventh House or anyone in it was mentioned there (unless one of these characters is secretly a House refugee or something), chapter five is a Ninth skull, which, sure, chapter six is a Sixth skull, which also makes sense, and now this one is a Second skull

So maybe she's like some combination of Gideon and Harrow, or Gideon and Harrow's memories of the pool scene got merged in Harrow's body due to Gideon being in there for a while?

Well that's a new addition to the pool scene, unless this is just Nona being hungry for breakfast and conflating it with the dream

Actually, you know, I have to wonder what Camilla makes of these dreams at all, because I don't think anyone ever actually told Camilla about the pool scene at any point

I know she has like, a child's disdain for immature things, but she also went from being completely helpless to being like a ten year old in six months, so I wonder if she's also going to do more lightning-fast maturation throughout this book, although it looks like the whole book takes place over the span of five days

That's an odd opinion for a human to have

So earlier the book mentioned a "cooling cupboard" which I thought was meant to be the refrigerator, but now we have an actual refrigerator, too. I looked up "cooling cupboard" to see if it meant something in New Zealand English or something, and found something completely unexpected:

There's no mention of it being used widely anywhere outside of the US, and apparently they went out of use after freon started being produced. Searching for "cooling cupboard new zealand" mostly turns up hits for online stores located in New Zealand that are selling computer cooling hardware, so I'm stumped

Apparently sultanas are grapes, like not even a particularly exotic kind of grape, either, but there's considerable variation on how the term is used. Wiktionary thinks it can be a synonym for golden raisin? Only, why would you say "dried raisins", raisins are already dried grapes, that's the whole point of raisins

Prithibi appears to be the name of a Bengali rock band and a consulting firm. The consulting firm's webpage claims it's the Sanskrit word for "world" but I don't trust consulting firms to be subject-matter experts on Indian linguistics so I checked wiktionary and apparently it's actually a Bengali word that's a learned borrowing from a similar-but-not-identical Sanskrit word for "world". I wonder if this here is meant to be a reference to the Sanskrit word, the Bengali rock band, or the consulting firm. Antioch is well-known, of course

I wonder if Honesty was being sarcastic? But he does respect Hot Sauce, so I don't know. Anyway, I am also curious about why her name is Hot Sauce

Why do Camilla and Palamedes need a bigger bowl? Does having two souls in the same body burn more calories, or something?

Does she mean, she reminds We Suffer that Wake could fuck up and get killed, or that Wake could fuck up and start sleeping with someone sent to kill her? The last part makes me think the latter, but I don't know how much We Suffer actually would know known about that relationship

I mean, she's essentially been cut off from G1deon for 10,000 years, since he never knew she was there and never tried to communicate with her at all, and that didn't stop her from getting together with Wake. Honestly, now that I think about it, why didn't Pyrrha ever try to communicate with him? Why didn't she write "yo, it's me, Pyrrha, I aten't dead" on a piece of paper somewhere in his room for him to find when he came back to awareness, not once in 10,000 years? Or did he know? I guess we don't actually know. He told Harrow "I forget" but maybe he was just hiding Pyrrha's existence from her?

And I guess from the last bit Pyrrha didn't have quite the same relationship with G1deon as Camilla and Palamedes do

Malewife Palamedes?

So they are sometimes both active at once? I guess by the trial, Pyrrha is referring to the imaging/response challenge that Gideon and Harrow did. Except, if the body that's dually occupied is the one that needs to have cerebral fluid drained, why was she doing it to G1deon, since he was the necromancer it would have been her body, wouldn't it? Also, why did they create this trial that Pyrrha and G1deon thought required this precaution with absolutely no indication that that was the case and just left it there for the next Lyctor aspirants to find and play with? Also, how is both of them being active at once helping them with whatever is going on with Site B and C?

I wonder how many conversations like this happen in this apartment

Honestly, I appreciate that the next part of the story starts out with "wow, Honesty got busted up!" and then when the actual story comes out, the part where he got hurt actually turns out to be the least interesting and least worrying part

So you swap irises with your cavalier when you achieve Lyctorhood, so irises must be somehow some indicator of your soul, or a part of your soul, so no iris = no soul, maybe? Only, Protesilaus in Gideon the Ninth was essentially a body being animated without a soul, and his eyes were normal, and so were Harrow's parents, etc. So maybe it's just another kind of special eye that means something special about their souls, like John's eyes. John's eyes came from the soul of a planet, but there should only be three more of those left and I don't think they're hanging out in human bodies like Alecto is? What other kinds of strange souls exist in this universe?

And I guess the Convoy is an actual convoy and not a metaphor for something else? A convoy that's very hot and operated by people with white eyes, and the militia are trying to cover it up. I wonder if this is some kind of anti-House initiative that BOE are doing

[seraphtrevs]

my monkey brain saw fargo so i have to ask, how would you rank the seasons?

I hope you're still around anon because I love this ask. I just wanted to wait until I was finished with s5 to see if it effected my rankings, and turns out it did! Two caveats - I have only seen each season once so I don't have 100% recall on them lol and 2) I have not seen season 3 yet! which is completely insane because I love Ewan MacGregor. That's next on my to-watch list, but for now, here's my ranking of the seasons of fargo, from best to worst (I'm also going to grade them on a scale out of 10 because I think it's important to note that when I have criticisms, I still think this show is consistently excellent):

Season 2 - one of the best seasons of television in television history. An incredible work of art. This is the season that really exemplifies the kind of profound absurdity that defines the series. The comic and the tragic are perfectly blended, and the characters are all depicted with an unsentimental empathy that I found very moving and enlightening. All of the moving pieces of the plot slot together so perfectly and there is zero handholding. Like I love a show that respects me enough to not spell things out so I can have a little think for myself, as a treat. Perfect season, no notes. rating - 12/10

Season 4 - I guess there are people who don't like season 4?? I don't get it. Maybe I'm just predisposed to like it because I love the historical setting, feuding crime families, plucky girl detectives, and female serial killers. It doesn't get on the profound level of season 2 but it's very entertaining. rating - 9/10

Season 1 - there was a lot to love but i feel like they were kind of finding their footing. It's not as polished as the later seasons, and I actually find this one unpleasant because I hate Martin Freeman's character so much - like, he's meant to be hated and they did a super good job of making him hateable, so I can't knock them for it exactly. But seriously there was nothing to like about this guy and watching him was often very unpleasant. Obviously I love Malvo, because I can't resist satan-coded characters. But sometime I felt like they went a little too far with him - like sometimes his only motive is that he's just so cccrraaaazzzzzy! Like there were a couple of moments that were moriarty from sherlock kind of lameness. But those are very minor complaints. Rating - 8.5/10

Season 5 - I still really enjoyed the first half of this season, but the back half really rubbed me the wrong way. I loved Dot and I especially loved that when you discover she's a secret badass, it's not because she's really good at martial arts. Instead, her strength is in her quick thinking and ability to construct elaborate home alone traps, which is so much fun. I also love the actress - this is a great performance. John Hamm is also really good. But the whole season had this maudlin tone that was very at odds with the other seasons. Lorraine's character didn't work for me at all - like her "no daughter of mine will be held captive!" moment was supposed to make us feel good, i guess? except it felt so forced and unearned. And I really have no idea why the narrative decided that she was a cool girlboss for using her power to control people via their debt for....good, I guess, by giving the cop lady a nice job and using her influence to punish john hamm via prison violence. That last part I particularly hated - not that i have sympathy for asshole rancher john hamm but the idea that prison violence is a righteous part of the justice system is very fucking gross and they really wanted me cheering for that. the battle of the sexes aspect in general was very on the nose, and it read like a fantasy of domestic violence by a man who feels very upset and guilty over the fact that women suffer from domestic violence than a more serious look at the issue. I also HATED both of the deaths in this season - I'm not against character deaths but they both felt completely pointless and just there to add to the body count. rating - 7/10

[that-rackin-frackin-varmint]

#4— 07/24/2022 12:17 AM

Back in Action review sort of

Back in Action is so funny to me. Cuz under my typical critical lens, I wouldn’t actually enjoy it as a whole, cuz the human characters aren’t that engaging, the villain is kinda forgettable (if not weirdly toon-like in demeanour), and the story I feel suffered some cutbacks (seeing from the sheer amount of deleted content).

I think what really saves it from being unbearable to me is the fact that the emotional backbone of it is Daffy and Bugs’ relationship, and especially Daffy.

He was portrayed so well with his character displaying the capacity to be so obnoxious and untouchable when he was toying with the security guard/human protagonist — which would mirror Bugs’ effortless ability to torment the ceo of comedy. So it puts them on equal standing in the sense that both are very good at tormenting people as individuals. And what’s more, the movie really goes out of its way to hold value to Daffy’s feelings, like not making his insecurities a joke (until the very last minute but I’ll get to that). The movie is very much driven by Daffy but it’s not made that apparent:

Why is this movie happening?

Because Daffy wanted to make a movie that focused on him without needing Bugs. Which ended with him getting fired.

What is the driving force of the story?

Daffy’s desire to take control of his life and be a hero of the story. But also the emotional desire to be treated like an equal.

Why doesn’t he want to come back to Warner Bros Studio?

Externally, it’s because he would rather go and find the monkey treasure with the human guy (which is just as true since Daffy’s very materialistic). Internally, it’s because he feels underappreciated and undervalued by the studio (and by association, Bugs).

The movie feels like it recognizes the anguish of Daffy’s odd status, and it doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the potent angst he could feel from being seen as replaceable. Course they didn’t get into anything obscure, like making Daffy mention his past as being beloved in the 30s-40s ish, cuz that’d be a lot of context for an average movie goer. So can’t say if that era was a thing for Daffy in this movie, but it feels like a natural development that after years of being second fiddle to Bugs, and not getting any of the acknowledgement for it, the guy would try to suggest a movie that centred around him. You can tell he’s done something like this a bunch of times before, but this time the new ceo of comedy straight up told him he has no leverage since his audience is pretty trashy, and he isn’t all that. So he got canned. Which also didn’t seem like a first time, since Bugs mentions he can make sure the pay won’t be docked as bad. Which brings me to my next topic: Bugs.

Bugs in this movie is not as dialled down like he is in the Space Jam movies, or TLTS. He is very manipulative and subtle when he wants to be, but also very teasing and attached to Daffy. Tbh, he isn’t as well-rounded of a lead as Daffy, but he is basically just following Daffy because he 1) cares about him, and 2) wants Daffy to get hired back into Warner Bros. When I say he ‘cares about him’, it’s not under any guise or gimmick, Bugs will go through the entire film because Daffy wants to. He personally isn’t invested in whatever monkey treasure Daffy and the security guard are up to, but he is kind of “obligated” since the ceo wants to find Daffy and get him back (since he isn’t as replaceable as she thought, as in, Bugs probably had a hand in screwing over her rep — quick tangent but I want to believe the only reason they were doing a Duck season-Rabbit season short without Daffy was because Bugs somehow led the conversation to that conclusion). Really, Bugs is capable of a lot of things, so if he didn’t want to be here, he probably wouldn’t. His emotional investment in the movie is Daffy. And that’s enough for him. Which is where I get into the ending of the movie…

God, when Bugs pulled a “Duck season! Rabbit season!” card on Daffy as his way of disguising a compliment, and Daffy caught onto the validation but not the point that Bugs was complimenting him, it felt right, like this was how it was going to end, and his arc was getting resolved.

And then we get a shot of the room but in a set, and my heart sank.

Bugs ends up coming out on top, as Daffy did technically end up starring in his movie. And this is the movie we’re watching at this moment. And Daffy’s resolution measures up to an empty promise from Bugs that he’ll be treated as an equal or something (I can’t remember what the exact promise was, I just know Bugs wouldn’t keep it). And so nothing changed, and maybe it meant something that this movie — which in-world was somewhat controlled by Bugs — was very much Daffy-focused as Daffy had wanted. But it’s conclusion is as ultimately ineffectual as Bugs’ efforts to somewhat give Daffy recognition. This movie can be deconstructed by the way Bugs described how he reconciles with Daffy:

“I tell him I need him. We hug, we cry, I drop something heavy on him, I laugh.”

If you were watching and emotionally invested in Daffy’s feelings like me, you got the second-hand equivalent of Bugs “dropping something heavy on him”. That even after Daffy got all that screentime, there’s no promise that things will change for him or his status. And Bugs basically leaves amused. And yes this only sounds as bleak cuz I’m viewing this so critically. That’s how I have fun, very tragic.

Basically, what this whole essay amounts to is that watching the movie on surface level is a drag.

But watching it under the perception that you’re watching Daffy and Bugs’ complicated relationship unfold on screen, makes it a lot more entertaining.

Present day thoughts:

Yeah, I feel like most of my thoughts are still intact for how I feel about this movie as both a pseudo-outsider back then, and a slightly wiser looney tunes fan now.

I have continuously analysed this film to varying degrees of seriousness, so all that's changed is that I feel like I let the impact of the ending offset the gravity of the journey's events.

Cause, as cluttered as the final product was, this film's unorthodox approach to character arcs and pacing gives it this distinct looney tunes-esque quality to it that I've yet to see be replicated in any other looney tunes modern film. The ending doesn't undermine the journey our characters took to get there.

Similar sentiments to the well-renowned Duck Amuck short directed by Chuck Jones -- the ending plot twist shouldn't reduce the story's quality. It isn't known as the "Bugs Bunny tortures Daffy Duck for 7 mins" the short. It's the critically-acclaimed short held in high regard for Jones' ability to convey personality in the face of ego death using Daffy Duck as his muse. Bugs being the artist is just a punchline.

So to this movie's ending, let me pose you a rhetorical question. What would a looney tunes film be without a punchline?

[gritsandbrits]

Last week we published a letter sent to us by the former magnus of Cybertron, Sentinel Prime. Today we're here with another piece written by him. TW for mention of addiction&health problems

Wow! I had no idea so many people loved reading my dumb letter! Well I guess one more won't hurt. I have so much to talk about, but it's been a rough winter here so unfortunately my time is limited. This isn't as long as I want it to be but eh! I had enough of getting what I wanted anyways.

First things first: why did I call it a memoir if it's not a full book? Well, calling it a letter sounds too boring. You know me I love a little bit of grandiose! Heh, I'm thinking maybe after this I might write a whole book. Or Two or three?

Another thing I want to clear up is my health. I don't feel comfortable talking about it but I feel like mentioning it here. Chief Burns told me I was suffering from an addiction. My inability to limit myself & personal pains drove me to gouge bottle after bottle. He helped me through my withdrawal. It was hell, but I'm alive. My T-shift is fragged up so I have trouble switching between modes. Ratchet said I might have to go to physical therapy or even surgery to have it fixed. At least I still have my chin in tact thank the Allspark. Also so please stop lying about me having died in Chicago. It's fragging annoying.

Living on that rock gave me a lot of time to reflect. I didn't know just how much baggage I was carrying until it was too late. Even now I wonder if it had been better if I was the one left on Archa-7 instead of Elita. At least I knew she would've gotten the help she needed. I don't know her whereabouts but wherever she is I hope she's safe. I still think about her often, how I played a part in how horrible her life turned out. I've blamed Optimus for it because I was afraid to face my own guilt. As a result I straight up became a monster.

I have to admit getting kicked off Cybertron was one of the best things to ever happen to me. I got so tired following every rule and protocol. Of being scared of breaking the rules and ending up in jail. Though I admit I hated every second of living on that deserted island. At first, I wanted to run away so bad but doing so would've gotten me into even more trouble. So I had to do what I could to survive even if it meant getting risk of infection. But also the Burns family were really nice, which was odd given how I almost destroyed their planet. We didn't get off on a good start either, though I realize that was just them enforcing personal boundaries. They weren't letting me walk all over them!

Me and Optimus still talk on occasion but we're not friends anymore. We're simply too different now, plus I've been a huge prick to him for years. It was only a matter of time before he got sick of my shit. That's one of the hardest lessons I had to learn. No one wants to put up with you if you treat them any kind of way even if you are friends.

We grew up together. Practically came from the same factory! We lived in the same district had the same classes. We all thought we were going to be part of the same team in the Elite Guard. But after that horrible day, everything went downhill between us. Optimus was kicked out and I was left all alone. I was so lonely, but I didn't want to be pitied. I hated the pitying stares from classmates, the questions kept getting thrown my way. So I put all my focus on gaining rank. You can't think about grief when you're too busy.

Eventually I got to be an instructor in boot camp. Funny I didn't even like doing boot camp but I too the job anyways. With Optimus gone I needed something to vent my anger out on. Even if it meant taking it out on the cadets. No one really questioned it because to them, I was merely doing my job toughing them up for future conflicts. Of course that doesn't excuse they way I treated them either. If I wasn't so blind, I would have found out Longarm was a traitor. I only took up Bumblebee's word because I knew catching a spy would put me on the map as a loyal Autobot. And it worked.

After learning the truth, and seeing the monster Wasp(inator) became due to my selfish actions, I feel like fragging garbage! I have that to answer for as well. I have plenty to answer for and a lot to apologize to. I'm not owed forgiveness the least I can do is stay out of everyone's business. I just hope Wasp(inator) doesn't come after me!

Back to Optimus. At some point I stopped seeing his as a friend and more as a threat to my power. I didn't want to listen to him because I felt he was just going to repeat the same mistakes like last time. But he was looking out for me still. Even as I hurt him and his team, he still saw something in our relationship worth salvaging. But my plans in trying to ruin two planets in the name of safety broke our friendship. He deserves a better friend than me anyways. We may have been old pals at the Academy, but that's all in the past now. The distance helped me look at him in a different light he wasn't his mistakes. He was just...himself. Being apart also helped me focus on bettering myself as well. Our relationship is on the mend but we both been focusing in ourselves and our other friends. That's another lesson: you can still focus on yourself without being a selfish prick. Thank the allspark I got that latter part out of my systems.

I know you must despise me for confessing to all these crimes but, like I said before I'm not sugarcoating anything. The last thing I want is to go back to being the world's little victim. What I hope readers can take away from my story is life has a funny way of changing so don't get used to comfort! Also, grief is not a magic get-out-of-exile free card. It's just something we all have to live with. The world doesn't stop for you but also, you have the power to change how to live in it.

I hate to end it here but they're calling me right now. They need someone to unblock road leading to the state park. Looks likes job for the best snowplow in the galaxy 😉

- signing out, Sentinel.