#I need to watch it... the rest of the soundtrack is... wow...

[moongazeonastarfillednight]

I've seen a lot of Gute Nacht meltdown (rightfully) and yet...

Prophecies by Philip Glass?! I'm going insane?!!!?!

what the heck man what the heck

[shollow]

Thoughts on Yellowjackets

I just watched all three seasons of Yellowjackets and I'm like wow. While I did partially enjoy season 3, I still preferred season 1 and 2, season 2 being my favorite because cult leader Lottie, Adult Van, Jackie haunting Shauna, Adult Lottienat scenes and Misty evolution.

That's why I have mixed feelings about season 3. The acting is still great, the soundtrack and the photography are always a delight but the writing is meh.

First, Lottie. I know I'm biased because she is one of my favorite characters with Nat and Jackie but her death felt so off. We didn't see Laura Lee, the mystery of her death wasn't really important. Plus, we didn't get to tackle any of the things, season 2 seemed to be putting in place for her. In season 2x09, Tai said that they were the reason she was how she is and I do believe it's partially true. Laura Lee was the first to tell her to use her gift and when she died, Lottie did go full prophetess to make sense of Laura Lee's death and the others leaned on it. They never stopped her or tried to stop her, except Nat, because they needed something to not go completely insane out there. And not only did season 3 not explore that more, they acted as if Lottie was a side-character in the teen timeline. It felt weird. My other main problem with her storyline, this season, is her relationship with Lisa (played by Nicole Maines) they seemed to have a genuine connection, a strong bound, maybe Lottie saw a little of herself in Lisa and they acted as if it was just Lisa delusion and mistake, when the main reason Nat is dead is because Lisa tried to protect Lottie. Again, it felt weird for her character to just go "Well it was a mistake and Charlotte ruined my life". Also, I wished we could have seen more of how Nat's death affected Lottie. During season 2 they were depicted as closed in both timeline. This season, they barely interact in the teen timeline.

Which brings me to my other point, Nat's relationship this season. She barely interacts with the two people she was the closest to : Travis and Lottie. While seeing Lottie and Travis together explains why, he reached out to her in adult timeline, he was so distant from Nat. Nat casually tell him to fuck off, she also said that to Lottie and it's weird considering their last interaction in season 2. Like Lottie designated Nat as the antler queen, she bowed to her. Did it mean nothing ?Travis seemed to understand that Nat was trying to save Javi and they were on speaking terms again. And then pouf, nothing. But it was pretty cool seeing Nat being the antler queen, continuing exploring her relationship with Coach Ben. And in the end, seeing that she was the one who got them rescued made a lot of sense.

I also feel like we didn't have enough adult Van. Her storyline with Tai seemed to be in complete disconnection with the rest of the story this season. Wish we had seen more of her and Tai and see how she dealt with what happened in the Wilderness.

I hope season 4 does more justice to their main characters and doesn't casually forget the relationship between them. More Travisnat, Lottienat, Mistynat and Taishauna interactions, like Tai trying to actually get Shauna back from where the hell her sanity is going. And more Misty standing for herself in the adult timeline, yes she did bad in the Wilderness but she always tried her best in the adult timeline. Also ghost Jackie is always good to see.

[aspiringtrashpanda]

The love of my life, reason to live. I humbly ask you, once again, to indulge me with attentive bf Beel who knows Mc's appetite like the back of his hand. He knows exactly how long to wait before eating off their plate. Thank you in advance, i love you so much❤️

anything for my love, my everything, my personal banner maker.

also wow beel nation, are you okay? first three requests are beel-centric like WHAT?

Characters: Beel x MC, brothers make an appearance Attentive bf Beel, pure fluff with the teensiest bit of spice No warnings apply

It was a normal evening. Satan and Beel had been on dinner duty, Lucifer had been at RAD late, and Levi had been holed up in his room for three whole days. Something about the release of a new horror roguelike. Mammon had tried to sell Asmo on his latest get rich quick scheme, promising that all he would need as an investment was a lock of Asmo’s hair, and well, that wasn’t going to fly. Only one glass of demonus had been spilled across the table - Mammon having lunged towards Asmo to get it himself - and Belphie had fallen asleep mid-sentence a record low of twice. 

A completely normal evening. 

The brothers, however, worried a storm was on the horizon.

“Did ya see that?” Mammon hissed to Levi, the latter grumbling under his breath. Apparently the distraction had sent him back to level 1. 

Lucifer sighed, humming over the lip of his glass. “He’s going to hear about that later.”

“Really, his table manners are going to be the death of him one day,” Asmo lamented, flicking his fork with a flourish. A piece of sautéed hemlock freed itself from the prongs and smacked against Satan’s cheek. He brushed it away with a scoff. 

You paid them no mind, choosing instead to focus on Levi’s handheld console, Beel's chewing a comforting soundtrack to your right.

The screen visible from where you sat, you leaned into Levi's personal bubble, watching his little avatar slash through blob-like monsters. He jolted at your proximity, scowling when a walking skeleton stabbed his character through the heart.

“Not cool!” Levi shimmied his chair away from you. “Everyone needs to stop distracting me!” 

With a shrug, you turned back to your plate, finding it empty. Beel’s jaw moved continuously as he smiled down at you. His indigo eyes glimmered with affection, and you had the impression that he cared not about his brother’s whispers. Only about you. Your heart swelled, the familiar heat spilling through your veins and flooding the tips of your fingers.

You excused yourself from the table. Beel followed you exactly 5 seconds later. 

“You’re not having dessert?” The question slipped out as you looped your arms around his sturdy middle, as you rested your head against his body’s warmth. It was strange for him to leave the dining room so quickly. Usually, he joined you in your room after obliterating whatever sweets Luke had made for him to try. 

“I will be.” His answer vibrated through his frame, buzzing through your skull. 

Your mind went to the gutter, the muscles of his abdomen contracting as he leaned down, as he pressed a kiss to the crown of your head. His exhale rustled your hair, his hands so strong, so large as they covered your hips. 

A violent blush burning your skin, you managed a flustered squeak, “Oh! I didn’t realize it was that kind of night.”

He paused. Straightened up. Blinked twice. The confusion in his gaze was but a brief flash before it was overtaken by sheer enthusiasm. If he was a dog, you were certain his tail would be wagging. As he pulled you flush against him once more, he laughed, “I meant that I’d have dessert when you’re hungry again in an hour, but I could go for that kind of sweet, if you’re offering.”

As you led him to your bed, the last thing on your mind was whether you’d be peckish within the hour. 

However, at breakfast the next morning, you found yourself realizing that you had ended up munching on one of Luke’s cookies after a healthy dose of debauchery. Beel had raced from your bed to return with a plate of goodies in exactly 96 seconds (you timed him on your stopwatch app - a new record!), and you had curled up in front of your television to watch the latest episode of Barbeque Life before Lucifer came by to ensure that Beel slept in his own bed. 

You smiled. Beelzebub was always so attentive and receptive to your needs. It didn’t surprise you that he understood your stomach’s schedule. 

“Tell me, hon,” Asmo sang the moment Beel left the table to retrieve more hell coffee from the kitchen, “Is everything alright with you and Beel?”

Multiple utensils clattered to their plates, wide eyes swiveling from brother to brother. Mammon looked particularly spooked, while Lucifer simply pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Uh, yeah?” You swallowed your devilbee honey pudding, the sweet treat turning bitter on your tongue. “Why? Did he say something?”

Shoulders relaxed instantly, sighs of relief bouncing back and forth like ping pong balls. The table was an appropriate length for table tennis, you supposed. However, while the brothers laughed off the strange question, your uncertainty only grew. 

Levi pretended to wipe sweat from his brow, an exaggerated gesture you were sure he learned from an anime. “Oh? Okay, phew. We were worried he was in trouble lol.”

Your chest felt warm, your heart pounding. “Why would he be in trouble?”

“Well because he-” Levi started, just to squawk as Mammon swatted his face, “Er, n-no reason!”

A beat of silence. Beel’s heavy footsteps as he returned to the dining room, coffee pot in hand. You were keenly aware of the tightness of your throat, your swallow lodging halfway down your esophagus. As Beel refilled Lucifer’s coffee, you couldn’t help but wonder if he felt the tension hanging in the air.

It was never fun walking into a silent room, acutely aware that everyone had been talking about you. 

“What’s going on?” Beel asked, settling back into his seat. He accented his words by snagging a muffin from your plate, picking at the hell berries crusting the top. 

Before you could ask him the same question, Asmo shrieked, “He just did it again!”

Satan shook his head slowly, Mammon gawking at the giant demon next to you. Lucifer continued to read the morning paper, refusing to participate in such shenanigans. 

“RIP Beel,” Levi muttered, “It was nice knowing you.”

The confusion escalated tenfold, frustration pricking at the soles of your feet. You threw up your hands, huffing, “Okay, is someone going to tell us what you’re all going on about?”

Beel peered curiously at his brothers as they averted their eyes, as they pretended that their meal hadn’t been interrupted. His fingers brought a piece of your toast to his mouth, his brow creasing as he chewed thoughtfully. 

Belphie raised his head with a yawn. “Beel keeps eating your food.”

“From your plate,” Mammon added.

Satan nodded curtly, “Without permission.”

Your stomach dropped. You weren’t sure if you were disappointed or relieved.

“Oh,” You glanced around the table, noticing at that moment that Beel had moved your plate in front of him. “That’s it?”

Asmo pointed in accusation, protesting, “Doesn’t it bother you?”

“No?” This was so absurd. You were used to bonkers conversations at every meal, but their sheer concern was truly comical. “Actually…”

It was Belphie who cut in, propping his chin in his palm. Rubbing sleep from his eyes, he drawled, “They’re always done eating. Beel knows when they’re full.”

The looks of disbelief on Mammon and Levi’s faces were so similar, you wondered if they were twins. They spluttered in surprise, the latter exclaiming, “But they hardly ate their breakfast! How could they be full?!”

And Beel - sweet, calm, confident Beel - shrugged. As if it was the most obvious answer in the world, he explained. “They’re sleepy in the morning, and not very hungry. They only eat a little bit. They’ll be hungry in about 2 hours. That’s why I pack the leftovers before we leave for RAD.” 

This time, the brothers weren’t the only ones shocked. Lifting your jaw from the carpeted floor, you gasped, “The leftovers aren’t for yourself?”

A bright vein of pride shone in his eyes, fuschia within the indigo depths. “I mean, I partake, but only after you’ve had your fill.”

“Huh,” was all you managed to respond, your brain too busy flipping through the memories of all the snacks and meals Beel had brought you regardless of request. His fingers curled around your shoulder, amusement brightening his face. 

The gentle squeeze brought you back to reality, just in time to hear Mammon say, “Hey Beel, do ya think you have telepathic abilities outside of you and Belphie?”

“What a stupid question,” Satan scoffed, though you knew he was waiting for Beel’s answer himself. 

Your fingers curled around his, anchored on your shoulder, grounding you in the moment. And what a moment it was, for Beel simply snorted, “Nah, I just pay attention to my partner.”

Why Mammon considered that a declaration of war, you weren’t entirely sure. But two hours later, when Beel passed you a container of carefully wrapped leftovers, you knew that you were the luckiest person in the world. 

*・゜・*:.。.*.。.:*・☆・゜・*:.。.*.。.:*・☆・゜

My requests are open! Find out more HERE. Banner made by @4laurus - have you seen her Beel?

[jezebelgoldstone]

RRR (2022, dir S. S. Rajamouli)

things i am not now and likely never will get over from RRR

DRIFT COMPATIBLE BATTLE COUPLE DETECTED

queer? platonic? queerplatonic? who gives a shit no matter what it was it was AWESOME

Colonialism Is Bad Actually: The Musical

the symbolism. holy shit. every BIT of it was absolutely amazing.

wow all the mains in this movie are just, really hot? my poor lil pan heart had a rough time with this one ngl

the fact that someone (likely many someones) watched this movie about Colonialism Is Bad Actually and said 'you know what let's dub this whole thing into Hindi and English and then not give an option to watch it with the original Telugu dialogue' sure was,,,,,,,,, A Choice

THE MUSIC

by which i mean the actual song-and-dance numbers as well as the like story soundtrack all of it is going on my playlist asap

listen the spirk-behind-glass scene is awful. spock and kirk can't even touch. they can hear. they can see. but they cannot touch. and i in my sweet ignorant bliss thought that was as bad as it could get.

tonight i learned that holding someone in your arms through the bars of their cell is so much worse

I watched it on Netflix but i looked it up on a few other ahem websites and on EVERY SINGLE ONE Telugu audio wasn't even an option.

there was not one single chance to tie things together or make a connection or do a setup/payoff or callback that was not taken. not a single one.

everything about this movie is 100% Extra

in short: this movie is a masterclass

aaaaaand the rest below a cut because WOW i have a lot to say actually

which brings me to the dancing oh my gods. not sure i've ever seen such enthusiastic dancing in anything in my entire life. seriously by the final number i was exhausted just watching them

in general, this movie is: stunning

"RAM." "BHEEM." "SEETHA." IT'S ABOUT THE SYMBOLISM.

also this was kinda hilarious because i watched it in hindi [the least disorienting option] and they kept SAYING "ram" but in the subs it was always fuckin RAJU so like. again with the Choices. like seriously what was the thought process there. WAS there a thought process.

FIRE. WATER. STORY. I JUST. I. HELP ME.

i ADORED jenny. with my whole entire heart. she is one of the very BEST examples of Ignorance Is A Privilege and also At What Point Does Ignorance Become Malicious that i have ever ever seen. i loooooooooved it. i mean i hated it a whole lot while it was happening but also i am SO GLAD that now rather than trying to explain all of this to people i can just tell them to watch this movie and then sit them down and be like, so what are your thoughts on jenny's culpability in literally everything?

oh and how you can be a kind person and still do atrocities! like jenny is so sweet and so kind and you just like her so much and yet. and yet.

t h e s y m b o l i s m

i cannot remember the last time i saw a movie so visually stunning. the cinematography is breathtaking. pause on just about any random frame and it could be a movie poster or hanging in an art gallery or what have you.

they also dubbed all the lines that were actually in english? i mean i get it for the characters who spent most of the movie speaking Telugu because you'd need their voices to stay the same through the whole movie yeah fine whatever. but like. they dubbed all the ENGLISH characters, too? like literally dubbed them from english into english??? the dialogue matched their mouths except the timing was veeeery sliiiiiiiightly off but it SOUNDED really obviously dubbed??? Y THO???

HOLY SHIT THE FIGHT SCENES OH MY GODS

Malli. Malli honey i love you. i'm just realizing i don't know if that's your actual name gods damn it. but whatever your name is child i love you.

and did i mention that everyone in this movie is beautiful? like. seriously. Ram and Bheem especially holy SHIT.

Physics Does Not Work Like That And I Do Not Care Because That Was AWESOME: The Musical

oooohhhhh they re-recorded and dubbed the fucking SONGS too. i am so pissed about this y'all i can't even tell you.

oh i want to do a whole entire post that's even longer than this one about the symbolism. hell i could probably do a whole entire post just on the fire/water symbolism even without everything else. It was AMAZING.

okay ram is fire and bheem is water and ram's people go to a valley on the shores of a river and the river is in literally every shot of the village and just ram BEING fire but water being a place of HOME and SAFETY for ram

i'm not crying shut up

MALLI AND HER MOTHER TRY TO REACH EACH OTHER BUT THEY CANNOT TOUCH THROUGH THE GLASS

BHEEM AND MALLI HOLD EACH OTHER THROUGH THE BARS OF HER CONFINEMENT AND HE HAS TO LET GO AND LEAVE HER

BHEEM AND RAM HOLD EACH OTHER THROUGH THE BARS OF HIS CONFINEMENT AND BHEEM RIPS THE DOOR RIGHT OFF

ooooooohhhhhhh and people holding hands right before they part. oh that hurts. all of those hurt so bad.

how every single time people held hands when they parted they always held on till the last possible second EXCEPT FOR RAM'S MOM.

she lifts her hand away from him and then pulls back and it was devastating

Predators Do Not Work Like That But I Do Not Care Because That Was Awesome And Also They Ate A Bunch Of Colonizing Cops: Queercoded Edition (ACAB)

bheem with his arms spread and rope or chains around his wrists or in his hands. i just. the way it flipped back and forth from 'he has the power' to 'he is helpless' to 'he should be helpless and isn't' was just. breathtaking.

AND THEN. AND THEN RAM. CHAINED UP THE SAME WAY. DOING THE SAME GODDAMN THING AND USING THE FACT THAT HE'S CHAINED UP FOR HIS OWN FUCKING PURPOSES BECAUSE HE SAW BHEEM DO IT FIRST DON'T TOUCH ME

okay listen this movie would've been good no matter what but like. they really are just SO beautiful. and. when ram. with like the long hair. and. beard. and like. you know? like. his. his hair. his general. everything. um.

literally at the most emotionally inappropriate moment i literally thought about that whole 'i saw a man so beautiful i started crying' thing and like that almost literally happened literally

Why There Can't Be Any Such Thing As Good Cops: The Romance (ACAB)

and like here's the thing i'm not sure i would've even NOTICED this had it not been for the linguistic chauvinism with the audio and everything but like both of them were hindu and a lot of the symbolism though awesome was also really strongly hindu and i just i don't know nearly enough about hindutva to have any kind of opinion BUT i also feel like maaaaaaaybe there was something a little uncomfy about some of this

oh no wait the suspenders dance. that might've actually been the best part. yeah.

oh all the british actors did SUCH a good job being so eminently punchable

throw cheetahs at each other! and snakes! somehow have upper body strength greater than the force exerted by a 800+ lb tiger lunging! throw those motorcycles! punch through those walls without breaking your fingers! use herbal paste to heal broken bones in a matter of a minutes! break solid stone with nothing but the strength of your shoulders and gay love! i am so here for all of this!!!

Throw Rocks Marble Pillars Live Tigers Cops At Cops: The Movie (ACAB)

i love that jenny felt bad for the poor little girl who got kidnapped enslaved and imprisoned so she. bought her a dress and a toy.

you know, to make her feel better about the whole 'being kidnapped enslaved and imprisoned' thing.

instead of doing, i don't know know, literally anything else. like even just saying to her aunt 'hey this makes me sad' or something. #solidarity.

the violence was violent and the romance was sweet

okay so during the fight at the midpoint like i know that by the end of it ram and bheem are literal fire and water BUT ALSO. Ram enters the scene in a flaming carriage and from that point forward the fountain is in pretty much every shot of bheem. just sayin.

love that lachu (or whatever his name really is) told ram that there was no cure. like yes! you go man! ram may be so beautiful that in forty minutes i'm going to be in tears but that's no reason to tell a cop the truth about anything! you lie to that cop man!

A BRITISH SOLDIER HIT LOKI IN THE HEAD WITH A BRANCH AND THEN STOLE MALLI AWAY

BHEEM HIT RAM IN THE HEAD WITH A BRANCH AND THEN STOLE MALLI AWAY

i know other people got hit in the head with tree branches too but STILL

honestly i really like that ram and bheem were, well, ram and bheem. but i mean im glad they weren't like ram and lakshman or bheem and arjun or something. not even just because that would've been brotherly like i'm glad they weren't arjun and krishna or something either. i liked that their names weren't from the same story. i liked it better this way and i can't even articulate why.

i am never ever ever going to get over the progression of part of bheem's introduction being something going wrong and him holding two ropes (he has all the power) with his arms spread and that being used to show us how incredibly strong he is -> something going wrong and bheem with ropes around his wrists (he shouldn't have any power at all) holding his arms spread and that being used to show how incredibly strong he is in a completely different way

like every time there were ropes or chains in bheem's hands or around his wrists it meant something, and it was a beat in the rhythm of a discernable arc, but now i can't remember all of them gdi

oooohhhhh there was SO much more symbolism i wanted to talk about but it's so late that i have a headache and this post is so long my computer's lagging like two sentences behind so i should stop and go to bed. sigh.

just go watch this movie, okay? pleae? I cannot IMAGINE who would've read this whole thing,m but if you did, just watch it, all rigth? (and if you happen to know of any site - ANY site - where i can watch it in FUKIN TELUGU kindly drop a link please and thank)

[burnoutgxrl]

My gf bought me Void Stranger after I got invested on watching her playing the game and yapping about it and after we spend a night watching Connor's video about this marvelous experience of a game. Don't mind my hour count, I probably have 3/4 of it because the rest is me spending the time off screen and forgetting the game was open because I needed some time on a puzzle. After all of these hours, most of the puzzles become solvable, although hard mode (the second or third playthrough you'll experience) have some pretty nerve-racking puzzles.

I never played a sokoban game before, and I must say that Void Stranger not only does its job perfectly, but it also mixes the puzzles with another instances of games when it comes to boss fights (those exists, and the game basically asks you to look deeper on it to find them, and the rewards are everything). Not only that, but Void Stranger also mixes a charismatic set of characters and an amazing soundtrack that accompanies every moment this game gives you.

I insist, please, give Void Stranger a chance if you're unsure if you should play it or not. Also, after the playthrough in hard mode (when you're playing with another character (I'm trying to keep this spoiler-free)), you enter another playthrough with another character and it's not the puzzles the trickier part, but the story is the thing that pulls you to it.

Also, I happened to get to an specific point where the game basically tells you the only thing you can do is start over again and I kid you not, I thought it was figurative, but nope. It was literal and I was struck by many feelings and then I had to start over again, losing the progress (the game, even if you reset the game, saves the little milestones you get), but what else could I do? Forfeit it all to the void and stop playing? Nah, I'll keep playing, I now entered post-game territory and, this game's lore keep expanding, I definitely love it.

Definitely one of my favourite games. Please, give Void Stranger a chance. Play it blindly or don't, although, when you start connecting dots from here and there, you just get wow in your head time and time and time again. Best game I've experienced this year.

[punk-sharkz-zero]

oh. my. god. @gingerpeachtea finished the pilot and hooooly shit. what a pilot. what. a. pilot.

thoughts under the cut

that opening scene with the speech & Donnie getting shot was suchhh a good opening to the episode, wow

this show is so pretty, like all the scenic shots are just amazing

the soundtrack is also phenomenal

Briggs is SO ME in the morning. Mr grumpy pants that guy

i love Johnny so much

mike is such a cutie omg. I also love all his first interactions with the crew at Graceland and how they all eventually learn to accept him into the group

ALSO welcome home son playing in the end as they finally accept Mike???? MY HEARRRTTTT OUGH

seeing Daniel Sunjata as Briggs as opposed to Karadec is so funny, that contrast is hilarious XD

i. love. Charlie!!!! she's so sweet with Mike and I'm really excited to see more of her tbh

the "movie" & the toilet story. need I say more

i TOTALLY called it when they sent Mike to go kill Donnie, what a twist!

what I DIDNT see coming was that MIKE WAS SENT TO INVESTIGATE BRIGGS????? WHAAAA- I need to know what happens next AAAAA

overall i am loving this show so far and I'm Soo excited to watch the rest of ittt :D

[pardonmydelays]

so it's been a few days since you saw waitress, what are your initial thoughts?

thank you so much for reminding me and sorry for being quiet about it for so long, i've been meaning to write this mini essay but i really needed to take a deep breath & collect my thoughts first. so...

sugar, butter, flour... (it's been ringing in my head for days)

i honestly didn't really know what to expect when i started watching it. i knew a little bit about the plot, not that much tho, & i knew who wrote the music for it, the rest was a mystery to me.

i always say the best musicals are the ones that make you cry & this was definitely one of those. it made me feel... so many things at once. so first of all, i think the proshot was absolutely beautiful & i wish we could see more musicals this way. second of all: the characters! all of them so incredibly written & so real!

ok, i am really trying not to be chaotic here, but it's not easy (i've cried multiple times while watching it, ok???). jenna's story completely broke my heart. also, as a person who ended a very toxic relationship not that long ago, i must say i could feel her pain & struggle even more (earl reminded me of my ex so much it hurts, but we are not going there). but she wasn't the only relatable character here, this may be surprising for you, but i literally had a mental breakdown on "when he sees me" cause i found a little bit of myself there (wow, i've got issues)... another song worth mentioning is definitely "she used to be mine" (that was the moment i had to stop watching for a second cause my eyes were so full of tears i couldn't see anything lol). and don't even get me started on "you matter to me"... especially when you think about the ending...

the ending was really surprising for me, but not in a bad way i guess? as much as i wanted a happy ending for jenna, i didn't want it to be all perfect cause that's the thing about life, right? it's never perfect. but she did found herself & her happiness eventually & to be completely honest with you anon, i love a good story that shows us we can be happy without men (even tho it broke my heart a little bit). also, she wasn't left alone. she had amazing friends (another thing that always makes me cry because friendships are so important to me & they are always my favourite part of the plot) & her little daughter! & her own place! & omg i think i'm gonna start crying again...

so, like, you know. i will probably rewatch it pretty soon, i'm also gonna listen to the soundtrack more cause my thoughts are really chaotic at the moment, but overall i think this is such a great musical, definitely one of the best i've seen so far and i am dying to see it live! the choreography was absolutely incredible, the whole cast was amazing, the music was really, really good and the plot made me cry like a baby. this is all you need to know. i loved it so much!!!

[disastrouscanasta]

Would it surprise absolutely ANYONE to hear that I read @blood-mocha-latte’s Luztoye 1960s AU and immediately went feral? No. It would not. This is on-brand. Ever since she mentioned it I have been thinking “wow, I’ve gotta make a playlist for this” and let me tell you.

Reading that fic was like watching a FILM. I’m a film fan. I saw every masterful moment in it like a scene in a motion picture, and I needed to share this imagery with a playlist, which really, at its core, is the soundtrack in my mind. Here’s the CD cover to go with it

So thank you Rie for writing such a lovely fic! The fandom thanks you!! And of course for organising luztoye week and all of your other contributions, can’t wait for the rest of the days :)

[carmendeiact2whenplz]

My reaction to the 5.6 livestream (i’ve seen some of it + seen several 5.6 leaks, so most of this isn’t my immediate reaction)

Long post under the cut

Venti!!!!!! :D

Escoffier! I don’t plan on pulling her but her gameplay looks cool and I love the fact that she uses the Golden Ratio in her burst

IFA HAS A SKELETON AS HIS NIGHTSOUL MARKS??? WHAT??? I need him. He will come home.

Kinich in fontaine was not on my 2025 bingo card but here we are. I wasn’t expecting him to show up but we are so back. I love Kinich and more kinich is always a good thing

AND REMURIA LORE?? AND MORE DRAGON LORE??? WE ARE SOOOOOO BACK

Is it just me or does the mond cathedral look different from usual?? New building?? (or is it just the lighting)??

Dahlia!! I think his design got reworked or changed from the leaks (unless if he was officially revealed earlier, in this case i forgot :( ) but I really like it!! He looks cool!!

Hexenzirkel!!! I wonder what the chess pieces represent??

NEW ALBEDO POWERS??? Hmmmm

The section about Neuvi being stabbed and Albedo’s powers constantly changing between eachother?? Very cool, are those two events secretly related?

I don’t know how to explain but the red thingy looks like a butterfly of sorts and a hint of the Fatui motif (or Signora’s theme to be specific) appeared….

SIGNORA REVIVAL?????? HMMMMMMMMM

Varka’s voice seems somewhat low quality, as if he’s on a call… hmm (I may have watched ahead of the stream)

Onto the rest of the livestream, which I’ll probably have to gloss over (it’s nearly 40 minutes)

That is actually really cool!!

That it also pretty cool!! Her gameplay seems pretty neat :)

Ifa on the first half,,, Kinich on the second half,,, augh

THE SILLIES

I NEED IFA. PLEASE. PLEASEEEEEE

…..I have to investigate this. HMMMMMMMMM

Kinich and Wrio friendship,,,, more Ajaw,,,, we are so incredibly back

Ifa in first half. Kinich in second half. may the pity gods bless me

Inazuma chronicled wish wasn’t on my 5.6 bingo card but hey that’s pretty cool :)

Mond archon quest!!!!! Interesting!!! Very cool!!! More Dahlia!! Hexenzirkel!!!

Dodocommunication device mentioned!!!!! Yippee!!

Chess just got ten thousand new updates. Are these legal chess moves.

Context: Natlan and Liyue both had let line crises.

wow.

ELABORATE. (thank you for acknowledging us theorists :D )

More Imaginarium Theatre rewards!!

WOOOHOOO!! (does spiral abyss have this? If not, add this into abyss please and thanks)

WE ARE SO BACK (Tollan has some of my favorite music in the game, the soundtrack there is SO good)

And that’s all for now. Tldr: WE ARE SO INCREDIBLY BACK

[moistvonlipwig]

top 5 most formative ships?

oh INTERESTING.....most formative. hm.....how to define most formative!

Elphaba/Glinda was, to my memory, one of the first ships I actually got invested in and read fanfiction for (if you've never read the fics of Frances aka Ridiculous Mavis then you are missing out!!!). I actually never saw the musical but I did listen to the soundtrack (I first got intrigued actually at summer theater camp when two girls sang "What Is This Feeling" for a talent show and I was like. Ummm. Anyone else get a bit of a gay vibe???) and I read the first two parts of the book and kind of skimmed the rest because the rest is a mess LOL sorry Greg. Nice to know that Ariana Grande & Kristin Chenoweth are Gelphie truthers as well, that wasn't on my bingo card for the movie's rollout.

Gen/Attolia aka maybe my favorite enemies-to-lovers ship ever??? I have a lot of nostalgia for the Queen's Thief books because I read them with my mom who was a huge QT fan and was active in the Sounis LJ community for the books and loved Gen/Attolia (she was a big shipper lol, she loved Spuffy too). So I've always felt very fond of them. I re-read the books recently since the sixth book came out and they just won my heart all over again. INVENTED enemies-to-lovers actually!!! No other YA fantasy romance is doing it like them. (Sidenote, I was going through the Sounis archives sometime last year looking for discussion on The Queen of Attolia and I found this fascinating take on one of the key Gen/Attolia scenes by a guest poster and then someone was like 'Wow, your takes are so cool, who are you?' and they were like 'Yeah haha I should make an account! But you can call me [my mom's LJ handle].' Like I was sitting there thinking wow, what a great Gen/Attolia take, and it was my mom's take!!!!! Truly, I was reaching across time and space to hear her thoughts on Queen's Thief shipping, and that is, I feel, what she would want.)

Utena/Anthy because Revolutionary Girl Utena was and is such a formative show for me and they're at the very center of it. Like. Aughhh. I don't even think I can talk about it I just need everyone who hasn't seen Utena to go watch Utena right now and then You Will See.

Angel/Cordelia because getting into Cordelia/Cangel fandom really did change my fannish life and, if I'm being honest, my intellectual life in general. I mean, I joined Tumblr specifically to follow a bunch of Cordelia fans and Cangel shippers, lol. And honestly, even though many (though not all!) of those people have left Tumblr, I owe a lot of the way I think about and analyze media to several of those people and their analyses of Buffy and Angel. (Fun fact about Cangel, I actually started shipping them after "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date" -- I did not enjoy Bangel and I thought Cangel would be more entertaining -- so you can imagine the feeling of delight and vindication I got when I looked up the Angel spin-off a while later and saw that he and Cordelia were going to end up falling in love.)

I think for this last one I'll say Seven of Nine and the Doctor from Star Trek Voyager -- I have no idea what I'd think of that ship now, since I haven't rewatched the show in so long, but I really liked them a lot as a kid (like Gelphie, it was one of the first ships I regularly read fanfic for). Their friendship-that-could've-been-a-romance was one of the elements that kept me emotionally engaged in thinking both about Voyager as it was and Voyager as it could've been. Voyager was one of the first shows that really made me think about how much I wanted to Fix It, and while D/7 wasn't the biggest part of that, it was one of the reasons that I cared enough to think about it, if that makes sense? And that impulse led me to thinking more deeply about Star Trek, and television, and what goes into telling a story in general.

[groovesnjams]

2 / 50

"Not Strong Enough" by boygenius

MG:

Writing about boygenius, at this point, feels impossible. I have an urge to defend them, to shout down some anonymous but not entirely imagined comment section* (it felt like everywhere I turned on the internet just fucking hated this group and it always always always boiled down to some projected misogyny) and a world that just couldn’t…quite…admit this was the greatest song of the year. Even in the places where boygenius unequivocally ruled there was this little whiff of embarrassment like they’re great but, ok, not that great. Well, they are that great! They don’t have to do something wholly original or reflect everyone’s personal identity back to them to be great! 

But we don’t need more of that, it’s a stupid feedback loop, I have to be the change I want to see in the world and that change is to write about this song without defending it! To do that, however, would not be entirely honest because, to be entirely honest, I was very much that person I outlined above for most of the year. I put “A&W” at the top of my dopey playlist and felt very vibey about it and even had a period where I got into Father John Misty a little bit because that made sense. And then when it got closer to calling it, as I was listening through that playlist a whole bunch to make cuts and remember things I’d forgotten, I listened to “Not Strong Enough” for the first time on headphones and it fucking ripped. It ripped my brain right open! This song is gorgeously produced, full of rich instrumentation that colors neatly in-between the wavy lines of the storytelling. It’s the kind of thing I want to choreograph a dance to, I want it to soundtrack a movie about an aimless, broken person who surrenders to life’s enduring beauty and awakens to their own possibility, I want to watch a music video where boygenius play in a barn with vaulted ceilings. Every detail of this song feels so specific and fully realized that I can’t help but play along. It speaks to some half-remembered, half-imagined past but it’s also coming to, in the front seat, still happening, still going somewhere. 

I get it, what I said about Chappell Roan, about being unlikable and thus lovable, applies here, too. I can’t make you like this song, it is unlikable and it got better every time I heard it (a lot, it was blessed and highly favored by Sirius XMU, who chose to make Mitski’s TikTok hit “My Love, Mine All Mine” their song of the year) and I love “Not Strong Enough.” It is my favorite song of the year.

*(To my complete and total amusement, shortly after I finished my first draft of this post, the comment section I was thinking of voted "Not Strong Enough" their song of the year. I'm not sure if there's a significant disconnect between commenting members and voting members or if I'm a woman of the people, charting the course of lukewarm acceptance to full on wholehearted embrace of this song. But, either way, good for all of us!)

DV:

Wow it's really tough to talk about "Not Strong Enough" without talking about boygenius and parasociality and fandom in 2023, huh? This may also be true of a lot of this year's list, but with the rest of the lot it's relatively easy to find other angles into the song. With boygenius the angles all lead back to the band, their dynamic, their process, their relationships. It's a little gauche isn't it? I don't feel like boygenius meant for the story of their 2023 to be about themselves but here they are at the end of the year where they went viral for Halloween costumes and they're winning gendered awards like Ron Swanson from Parks & Recreation, and we just have to hope things age better in reality than in fiction. But also, boygenius made "Not Strong Enough", which some days felt like it might actually be my favorite song of the year (a distinction shared by many others on this list, but one this song got more than most.) It's a song built out of climaxes, rolling and building, with hooks to spare and a secret weapon in the drummer, whose name is weirdly difficult to find but whose fills do more to make the song than even the jangliest guitar. So on one hand, I know more about this band's lore than I do about any other artist who I can't name a second song by. But on the other: "Not Strong Enough" is straightforwardly a gorgeous, propulsive power pop banger, delivered beautifully. When you have a Lucy Dacus and can hold her in reserve for a climax like this one, taking fully a minute and a half but never losing momentum, you're simply operating at a level that few other artists are capable of.

[nonsenuser]

black mirror - season 7

this is probably one of THE shows that established my "taste" in media and whatever long-term, since i started watching the show in high school. i never thought i would see a good season again after season 4, but to my surprise this was a good season! this is also the first season in a while where all the episodes are good, and none of them are like totally shit (black mirrors greatest flaw is the variance in quality)

i am very tired and i need to sleep soon tbh but i wanted to get all my thoughts out on all the episodes since i binged it today

spoilers ahead...

common people - watched this one while doing RNA extraction in the lab so i couldn't hear everything (esp soundtrack) but i thought this was a solid start to the season. it's extremely on the nose and you could see plot points unfolding from miles away (like the livestream stuff was soooo obvious omg) but honestly it was hilarious to me. i see people saying it was super bleak online but it did not come off to me that way? like the tone wasn't all the way there, all of the bleak scenes have a lick of humor in it and thats why it works. maybe it was cuz i watched this episode with the centrifuge running in the background so i wasnt 100% immersed. now, if the ending did not result them in taking their own life, i think that wouldve been even more bleak. i mean the idea of rivermind using ur brain to update their servers for the rest of your life is more bleak imo...

ps. i super duper appreciated the drone bee easter egg!! bc i loved hated in the nation (sequel to that in season 8 please????)

bête noire - ah this one was very silly and fun, and im glad they leaned into it. sometimes black mirror will takes itself too seriously and it doesn't work at all. this also fortunately, was not mazey day levels of ridiculous.. i thought this was going to be a very shit anti-bullying psa but verity doesn't win in the end. and the ending is hilarious. its still my least favourite episode of the series but one day.. black mirror will get the silly stupid episodes right too

hotel reverie - this episode was incredibly sweet! the only thing that held me back from enjoying it to its fullest was how much screentime awkwafina got. like i dont even think she cant act or anything but theres like 1 million jokes abt her on twitter i cant. also i wished they delved into dorothys life more... that montage wasn't enough for me. i also cried... what a bittersweet ending

plaything - now THIS episode is like. quintessential black mirror. i don't think i could have predicted what would happen next at any part of the episode. the story taking place in the same universe as bandersnatched was also great, i really liked that black mirror episode so this was a great like, tag along to that story. the ending and its scale, also reminded me a lot of hated in the nation. the whole concept of the thronglets, them being living things that can evolve, their autonomy relative to ours, cameron coming to the conclusion that it would be best to kind of 'let them take the reigns' with the rest of humanity, i could write about this for ages but its such a horrifying and interesting group of themes to think about. i really loved this episode. also peter capaldi (and the actor who plays young him) were GREAT wow.

eulogy - now the last episode is quintessential black mirror, but some of black mirrors BEST is when it pulls at your heartstrings, and this one does it so well. i would probably recommend this to anyone who doesn't watch black mirror as a standalone. its exceptionally done. i am SO HAPPY they acknowledge the phillip was not a good person in the relationship at multiple points, and had things gone differently it could've worked out. they also do this in a way that doesn't take away from the overall warmth and sweetness of the episode. the concept itself also feels sooo relatable to me. i almost wish i could look at old photos of myself and literally transport myself there to that moment. this is easily the best episode of the season!

uss callister - into infinity - btw, this did not even need a sequel, the og uss callister was amazing as is but i am sooo glad they made this! severance before severance (sorta) all the characters are memorable and fun and the overall goal of this one was just as high stakes as the original. the best, best part of this was how they showed daleys very sinister ugly side at the core of infinity. although he was very nice you could see him become agitated whenever nannette wasnt into his interests, and then he really showed his colours when he insisted a copy of her stay there with him in isolation. one could argue this is a result of just being away from everyone but i think its moreso an indication of who daley really is, no matter what variation it is. but also, im not sure if thats the message, would love to hear what other ppl think of the daley character work in this sequel ep. overall, its such a fun episode, i loved it

these are the episodes ranked (just my opinion):

eulogy

plaything

uss callister - into infinity

hotel reverie

common people

bête noire

[entropiceye1342]

Spoiler free review for Netflix's live action One Piece!

WOW.

A lot of stuff to love! I absolutely ADORE this take on the adventure of the Straw Hat Pirates!

The Straw Hats are all cast perfectly, the supporting cast is spot on. Everyone NAILS their characters!

Give the man a crown!

Iñaki Godoy as Luffy is goofy and oblivious in all the right ways. He sticks the perfect landing of the emotional intelligence that was crucial to bring the deeper side of Luffy to life, and doesn't neglect the hyperactive child side either! Seeing him gleefully bounce around - both in and out of fights- was special. The CGI was pretty good! Better than I expected, really. I appreciate making Luffy a little more level-headed, it's a good choice to tone down the chaos goblin for live action 🤣

It was magnificent to see Luffy grow into a "real" pirate in this arc, and he will be the KING!

Mackenyu as Zoro is a bit "too cool" but honestly I expected it to happen, people tend to overlook the fact that 90% of the time he's just as dumb as Luffy 🤷 but MAN is he cool. He really surpassed my expectations for the fight scenes, and did not skip on the brutality! 3 Sword Style was stunningly realized and incredible fun to watch- even without drawing a single blade!

His one liners and sarcasm are on point, ESPECIALLY regarding Sanji 🤣

Emily Rudd as Nami is INCREDIBLE. Smart as a whip and wily as ever, this cat burglar lands on her feet! In and out of combat, Nami is quick on her feet and with her wit. One Piece passes the Bechdel test once again, and her story is every bit the emotional powerhouse as its manga and anime counterparts- better in some moments! 'Nuff said.

Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp is delightful, though unfortunately he doesn't get as much time to shine as the others. When he does though, it's fantastic!

He really got the little things down about the character without needing to be as over the top as his counterparts- a bullseye from the sniper!

Sanji is perfect as well, you can SEE the training Taz Skylar went through for the part, from the mouth watering food to the killer martial arts. Every bit as fun to watch as the rest of the Monster Trio! My expectations for him were already high, and he kicked them into the stratosphere.

I'm glad they toned down the flirting, they found the right balance and played it well. Sanji matches Zoro in the bickering spectacularly, an absolute must that exceeded my hopes in both of their performances.

I'm not gonna list everyone but because I love this stupid fucking clown:

Jeff Ward as Buggy is an absolute TREAT, I am a huge fan of this take on the character. The perfect storm of bumbling dipshit who wants to be taken seriously, but still pretty intimidating at times. LOVE it. His jokes are GOLD.

Speaking of! Gold Roger, the man who started it all! *mwah!* Dazzling performances from him AND the Marines.

The few nitpicks I have are minor, the childhood acting ranges from ok to abysmal, Lily Fisher as young Nami is a notable standout. Some of the "minor" characters suffer from wooden acting, but honestly that's about the worst of it.

The Fishmen look a little low budget in their early appearances, but are absolutely PERFECT when they are the ones in the spotlight. Absolutely phenomenal work from McKinley Belcher III, my biggest fear from this was Arlong being done wrong and he CRUSHED IT!

The soundtrack was rousing, it truly felt like a call to adventure! And above all the SET DESIGN 😭

They TRULY brought the world that Oda Senseii has been drawing for us all these years, to life.

And now, anime One Piece is trending on Netflix.

THE GREAT PIRATE ERA IS HERE!

Here's to hoping Netflix doesn't Netflix it 🍻

What did you think?

Especially if this is your introduction to One Piece, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!

[hidelias]

A bend in space-time Season 1 - [Chapter 15: The horseman of the apocalypse]

Chronological markers: this scene fits like a deleted scene from season 1 episode 5, around 33:53 (a little while before Luther goes upstairs to speak with Five, who is working on his equations).

Suggested soundtrack : The Doors - Gimme Shelter

---

March 28, 2019 - 12:28 pm

This morning was useless. Absolutely useless. I don't even know how I could have imagined for a single second that I'd manage to get any work done. I tried to put on a brave face, I tried to work on the re-labeling of the screws, but Rodrigo saw that I was mixing up all the references, with those red eyes that wouldn't go away. He's had enough of me this week. He yelled at me. He threatened to fire me, and said he was giving me a very last chance. I can understand that, frankly. I don't even see the point of being here anymore, if the apocalypse is going to sweep everything away.

I have with me a sandwich hastily made with Five's peanut butter, but I won't even touch it. I glance at my watch. 12:28. My whole being is wanting to get back to Hargreeves Mansion by lunchtime. Just in case. I won't leave before the the end of my shift, but I won't give this damn hardware any extra second. 12:29. I'm stupid for not having told Klaus that I'll be back. He might not even be home. 12:30.

Crack!

In a blaze of blue light, I disappear from the storeroom, leaving screws, bolts, labels and regrets behind.

A sidewalk, a bus. I make myself invisible so I don't even have to worry about paying. Its damn engine drags, and my impatience resonates with its nuts and bolts as it finally accelerates.

Crack!

A crosswalk, the pedestrian light on red. Long, too long, and I stare at it as if to force it to change color. Green, finally, only to fall on the next crossing. This time, I walk anyway. Sometimes intangibility is a good thing.

I walk along Hargreeves Mansion's facade, now so familiar, and its stained-glass windows adorned with the umbrella. A few steps, old shop windows covered with out-of-date posters. I pass through the door, without even needing the keys.

Crack!

With a breathlessness I hadn't felt in a long time, I appear in the 'Kids' Lounge', where Luther is seated in front of an impressive pile of toast. I say nothing, and neither does he; he just chews. I scan the room with my tired eyes, and he's not even surprised.

Crack!

I appear in Klaus's room, where the walls covered in writing are once again the only ones speaking into the void. He's not in the bathroom, nor in the toilet, whose pale bulb lights up when I open the door. The bedroom corridor is silent, except for a few footsteps heard upstairs… I'm beginning to reach the end of what I can do, in terms of jumps in a row across space, esepcially since some of them have been quite long. But one last time…

Crack!

In yet another slash of blue light, I appear on the last landing, at the top of the green staircase.

The footsteps were Five's, whose uniform I could immediately make out, in his room near the attic. I try to catch my breath and keep the exhaustion at bay, my hands resting on my knees. I swallow. Damn. The last time I did this is lost in the distant past. And I'm craving coffee.

"He's not here". I lift my head, squinting as my breath gradually settles. "Huh?" Five continues what he's doing on his wall, not even looking at me. "If you're looking for Klaus, he's gone for a walk with Diego".

I nod. Suddenly, it's much easier for me to calm down. This is good. That's really good. If he's with Diego, it's absolutely perfect.

I stand up and look at what Five is doing. I freeze when I see what's around him: everywhere, on every wallpaper in his room, equations are drawn in white. A calculating obsession that keeps me on the spot, because I don't understand a word of it.

"Wow".

This interjection comes to me spontaneously, and my amazement quickly replaces the tension built up this morning. Five looks tired, and smells a bit like Klaus after a booze-fuelled day. His expression is focused, in a way that also contrasts, to say the least, with his youthful appearance. What strikes me most is that he seems to master what he's doing, with a virtuosity similar to Viktor's with his violin.

"What are you… writing…?" "Equations". "Yes, I can see that…"

I don't know whether to take this as scorn, or just attribute it to him being very focused and barely paying attention to me. However, he gazes at me and asks:

"What's your name again?" I stand bewildered. "Rin, I know, but your real name. Your full name".

It's not a question I was expecting, and I momentarily hesitate to share with him that part of me that I've so long kept to myself, and which is popping up a little too much this week for my liking, at a time I least expected it. But at this moment, I choose to let it go.

"Marine Hoang".

A name transmitted from mother to daughter, in our family's case. Stories of lonely women, tragic or astonishing, just as the universe can produce. Five puts his thumb on his lips, deep in thought, his eyes roving over the numbers and symbols, as if trying to find me in a phone book.

"Hoang, uh".

He's still searching. But he doesn't seem to see me anywhere, and shakes his head with both disappointment and relief, as I try another approach:

"Does it have anything to do… with Meritech's glass eye?" "The glass eye is a dead end. What do you know about it?"

Finally, he deigns to turn his eyes to me, even though his question is cutting. At least I've managed to capture that.

"Klaus told me you found it in the future. That someone was going to lose it within seven days, and that it would trigger…" "An apocalypse. Four days to go now. And you know what the most interesting part of this is?" I shake my head. "That Klaus listened to what I told him".

He chuckles vaguely and plunges his eyes back into his sybilline tracings while saying to me:

"Was that before, or after he complicated his life and mine by smashing that briefcase?"

I sigh as I sit down on his desk chair. I can see that Five knows about Klaus's return, although he might not know everything. And honesstly: is this the main problem to him? That Klaus destroyed the briefcase?

"Before", I say with the thought that there's no point in fueling the fire. "I don't know if he still has in mind what's going to happen".

The truth is, I don't think he cares much anymore. But since a breach has been opened, I venture to ask:

"That briefcase… he stole it from some mercenaries looking for you". Fives chuckles with a hint of sarcasm. "'Mercenaries'… how nice. They're mandated assassins: I was one of them not so long ago". "Now mandated to kill you?" "Orders are always subject to change".

I squint, trying to understand. Five's brain is as twisted as his equations: a labyrinth of logic. Different from the philosophical-depressive tumult of Klaus's mind, but the result is the same, on both their walls. So I decide to ask my questions straight out.

"Why are they after you now?" "Because I'm trying to prevent the apocalypse, and it has to happen."

Five starts writing again, increasingly small, as he has less and less free space left, on the wall.

"Their employer was mine. The Temps Commission". I tilt my head, calling for further clarification. "It's an organization that supervises the space-time continuum and makes sure that what must happen happens. The apocalypse is one of those 'must-haves', according to the Commission".

I ponder his words. I too have a little logic at times. And I recall the Shakespearean quote that Reginald Hargreeves was so fond of.

"It's not coherent," I say. "If this apocalypse were indeed ineluctable, the Commission wouldn't care about you trying to prevent it. If they're after you… then it means it can be avoided".

On hearing this, Five turns his head towards me and lets me see the first real smile I've seen on his face.

" You just figured out why I'm not resigning myself".

Suddenly, I see him more eager to scribble his symbols than ever. He traces what I identify as a large integral, but that's all I can tell. Yet there's another obvious statement:

"If they want it so badly, they must have a reason. Someone on this… Commission or beyond needs this apocalypse to happen. Do you know who?" "No".

He writes one more thing under his integral, then comes back to correct some upstream elements, which seem to change everything.

"We need to address the most urgent issue, and that's to stop the apocalypse. The eye was a dead end, I've moved on. I may have an option this afternoon, but for now…" He rests his hand against the wall as if questioning it. "I'm trying to find the causal nodes that would definitely prevent the end of the world, if blown up". "Nodes?"

Five turns pointedly towards me again, while I stare around his room again, unable to make much sense out of it.

"Imagine getting trampled by a horse." "No." "Just suppose. You get trampled by that horse, confused because it got a midge in the eye. What would you eliminate if you could?" I hesitate, more from surprise than because I don't know the answer. And as I take too long, he carries on on his own: "It's pretty big, a horse. But killing the midge… would easily prevent your doom. Do you understand?" "I see." I nod, because his popularization attempt isn't actually that bad. "Of course, these systems are much more complex, they're not simple causal chains, but networks, and since space-time is supposed to have a Minkowski metric and not a Euclidean one, we-" "The horse is the apocalypse, and you're trying to pinpoint the midges". He shuts up and nods. "I'd like to narrow down the list I have to four names maximum, yes". I get it. I mean. Almost all of it. "Poor midges."

Five's analogy has this flaw: it overlooks that the midges are actually people. Innocent people, under the machine guns of mercenaries like those of the Commission, not even knowing why. But Five was once one of these assassins, and his efficient pragmatism doesn't bother with the frailty of a few lives, especially if it is to save many others. I feel it's pointless to argue and I sigh, because something's been bothering my stomach for a while now. I think it's time to ask.

"Why did you ask my name earlier? Did you want to check if I'm a potential midge?"

The same way he'd strangely studied my eyes upon our first meeting. By now, I'm sure he was trying to figure out if either was made of glass. He shrugs.

"This is a routine verification. So far, there's no indication that you're involved. I prefer to check, since you recently stepped into… our immediate landscape".

This statement doesn't make me feel any better, and it probably shows. Yet Five isn't done yet, and mutters while correcting a mistake in his equation:

"I haven't discarded the possibility of the horse… having a horseman".

My throat tightens and I gaze at my fingers. Since my conversation with Pogo, and even before this awful day, my nights have been short, and I keep spinning over in my head a detail that hadn't initially troubled me. A simple letter that has burdened my conscience ever since I heard it spoken.

"Five, is… is the name Omega in your equation?" He raises an eyebrow and points to a symbol on the wall. "Here in probabilities, it refers to the set of all possibilities". I stop him once more. "I meant… Omega as a personal name. Not as a mathematical symbol". He pauses, seized by a sudden suspicion. "Who are you talking about?"

I sigh and let my fingers rest helplessly on my knees. They're a little clammy now, and I can only look at Five sideways.

"That's the name your father used to address me in his notes, when he… was remotely monitoring me. Pogo told me".

For the first time, Five's hands drop to his sides, in a posture that indicates he's completely ceased scribbling. Tilting his head back, he lets out a breath of pained understanding, with an unexpected hint of empathy.

"'I can think of some insults,' he says, 'and they're all in ancient Greek.'

I run my hand over my eyes.

"This letter, Omega. I'm no good at symbolism, but it makes me think of 'the end'. If he was never doing anything randomly, then why did your father pick that?"

Five shakes his head, skeptical.

"On the contrary, I'd say Omega symbolizes ~what remains beyond~ the end. And I'd be wary of the names old Reginald chose, as he was particularly keen on playing with them."

My fists clench a little and I gasp for air. If it were that name alone…

"Matter, energy…", I say, "especially energy. You told me the other day that we might not be out of the woods yet about our powers, but it freaks me out, right now, about what I might be able to do with them. I shudder a little, hesitating to go on. "What if I'm the 'horseman'?".

Upon my words, the three lamps light flickers off, and I'm very sorry for that. Five looks at them too, then quietly gets down from his bed on which he was standing.

"Turn them back on", he says. "What?" "The lamps: switch them back on".

I gaze at him, then blink before closing my eyes. Slowly, faintly, like one learning to whistle, I make the bulb lights twinkle again. As they sizzle, they turn back on, growing brighter as I re-open my eyes, and eventually they turn back on completely. Five steps to me and looks down to me from his height, while I'm still seated.

"If you can control it, I'm not worried."

I'm not used to Five talking to me without doing anything else at the same time, and he carries on.

"Space? You do it just like me. Time? No worse, no better. The intangibility and invisibility of your matter, that's your daily stuff. And energy, look." He points to the relighted wall lamps. "We all have reflexes, but you can see that you mostly use your abilities on purpose. The real issue has never been what powers we do have, but to which extent we control them."

I swallow with difficulty. I know he's right. But I'm not one to risk anything.

"I'd rather not be able to do anything," I say, "at least for the four days ahead. Until this apocalypse, whether you stop it or not".

He shakes his head, then climbs back onto his bed before contemplating everything again and writing on a piece of paper the name KC Chávez, following that of Alexandre Cameron.

"I'm working on it," he tells me. And tracing one more thicker 'omega' character on the wall, he adds: "And I'm going to get an appointment that could change everything".

---

Notes :

What a pleasure to write Five. His afternoon appointment is with The Handler, and it will indeed change everything.

I think he's nailed Rin's state of anxiety, but he's not that worried. Having seen the series, we know that Rin has nothing to do with this apocalypse. But what will she decide to do now?

Just as Viktor will soon be manipulating energy through sound waves, we see Rin on her way to controlling energy through mechanics and electricity. Have you noticed - in the series - that the three lamps in Five's room are still on when Luther comes to talk with him?

Any comment will make my day! ♡

---

A bend in space-time, the masterlist :

- Season 1 (complete): Table of contents - Season 2 (complete): Table of contents - Season 3 (complete): Table of contents - Season 4 (in progress) : Table of contents

[seerofmike]

Mike's Media Medley--Jan 2025

this one should be quick and easy...because february will NOT be quick and easy for me, as i plan to watch all the oscar nominees (except emilia perez lmfao) this month + some other new movies that have come out like Companion and Love Hurts. i've got a free ticket as part of my movie rewards so im gonna take one for the team and see Heart Eyes or Brave New World when it comes, whichever one looks worse, because i like to torture myself

but enough about february--what did i watch/play for the very first time this january 2025?

Movies-- The Substance (2024), One of them Days (2025)

Games-- Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (2022), Ballionaire (2024)

One of them Days (2025)

I LOVE YOU KEKE PALMER

just. some good straight up fun. some of the humor wasn't for me (particularly a scene involving lots of blood i hate anything to do with IVs) but for every joke that did not work for me there were 2 more that did. its honestly kind of hard to review it because its just straight up a lot of fun and i dont wanna spoil the gags

that being said....

I FEEL LIKE THE MOVIE COULDVE GONE HARDER !!! i LOVE absurdist comedies and this movie HAS absurdist comedy like the villain is named smth like. Big Booty Bully Bitch Berneice. there is a loaning agency that hunts people who default on their loans for sport. theres some wacky stuff that happens in here but as a lover of movies like bottoms and scott pilgrim i wish it had gone a teensy bit harder on the absurdism because sometimes it almost felt out of place whenever it did happen becuz the rest of the movie isnt as absurdist

also sza did good but her character was soooo in the wrong and it annoyed me a bit but otherwise. solid good time.

75/100

The Substance (2024)

so i have this weird thing where i fucking loved the substance but also i had to cover my eyes for 25% of the movie lmfao

ignoring what i said abt the IVs earlier (idk veins just bother me) im usually prettyyyyy good at handling gore . or so i thought. i made the mistake of eating while watching this movie and i thought i was gonna be sick and honestly the stuff that did me worse wasnt even the hardcore gore the fucking stabilizer stuff got me the most 🤮

GROSSNESS aside. this movie had shit to say and it did so without any pussyfooting about it and honestly i appreciate that. and even more than that i appreciate the way this movie was MADE. it had style, so many shots / scenes in this movie were clearly inspired by other movies like the Shining and the soundtrack was going hard and the COLOR GRADING rahhhhhhhhhhh i kind of wish i saved watching this for next month because i was gonna rank all my best picture noms but i cant do that with the substance rn since i have seen none of the others (except wicked) but man. i already kind of hopes it wins. we need more of this kind of angry almost borderline unappealing to mainstream audiences film making.

i have NOT been unable to stop thinking abt it. monstro elisa sue deserved everything.

90/100

games

Ballionaire (2024)

this is like a. pachinko roguelite? and i see the vision. and i want to like the vision. however like. theres a billion items and as far as i know the game never explains what it does. like. im making some shit up but it'll, give you, lets say, a single pair of tits. and the pair of tits' item description will be "Dispenses Milk. Can be sucked unless Drained or Carcinogized. 2x multiplier if there is a Piggy Bank nearby but not if the Piggy Bank is stoned. Ride to the maternity ward when triggered after cooldown." you only understand what 25% of that means. and you have to choose between THREE things like that so it gets kind of reptitive if ur trying to optimize and ur trying to pick stuff that u dont understand the function of.

i could be stupid and theres a guide in the game that tells u all the status effects but for now. eh

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered

i am only 4 hours in so i dont think i can say much except for WOW I FUCKING LOVE BEING SPIDER-MAN

[iguessitsjustme]

Hi Rae!!!

I hope you're doing very well! My question is, what do you think about music in Unknown?? Because honestly every time the stripped down piano version of the opening song pops up I am FEELING THINGS. So I wondered what's your take on that.

Helloooooo

I've been...okay I guess. Work is currently using up all of my brain power which is why I have made multiple bad decisions this week (don't ask) and also why I haven't posted much about Unknown. I come home from work every day, sit on my couch, and stare at my wall while thinking "wow what a day" for the past...month? So most of my thoughts about shows have been "what a cute little show I'm watching." And Unknown needs more thought than what I've been able to give. At least for me. Plus everyone else was already writing such fantastic meta that I was just eating it up like I've been starving.

So while I definitely noticed the music in Unknown, my thoughts have been "hnnnnng good music." Buuuut since you asked I did actually turn my brain on for a bit and try to sort out my thoughts on the music. At least a little bit. This is going to be very bare bones (for now) mostly because I do not currently have the time to go back and rewatch some scenes to do any sort of proper analysis on anything. I'm also going to try to avoid spoilers.

I would be remiss if I didn't at least say how much I love the theme song. Something about me that might surprise some people is that I normally listen to the opening song once and then skip it the rest of the time because I'm eager to get into the show (and tbh most of the time I don't like the theme songs that much) but I never once skipped Unknown's opening. It perfectly encapsulates the whole show. I feel every emotion from the show in the opening itself. I cannot explain further I just love it.

This show's soundtrack is one of my absolute favorites. I always say that the goal of a soundtrack is to help set the tone for the show and this soundtrack blends seamlessly with the other show elements for the biggest emotional payoffs. Not only are all of the songs extremely good, but they are used extremely well.

I think the most brilliant part of the auditory choices in Unknown is actually the use of silence. It is used very well and makes the music choices have that much more punch when watching. Part of the reason the music makes you feel so many things when watching is because it is such a stark contrast to the silence that proceeds it. The silence sets up your emotions for the music to swoop in and basically gut punch you (sometimes. sometimes it's a loving caress. but most of the time in this show it's a gut punch but in the best way).

Soooo I don't really have a take specifically on the piano version of the opening, but those are my general Unknown music thoughts. I will consider doing a whole music analysis if anyone wants one and also work stops stealing my brain.