#I improved exponentially that year

[a-bready-music-blog]

Probably not supposed to share this anywhere but shhhhhhhhh

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16mI7XdKIO68d78PijeVQqchpB-KZ51z7/view?usp=drivesdk

Hopefully that link works lol

That^ is my highschool band from my freshman year. It was supposed to be our assessment performance, buuuutttt we found out pretty much on that day that we recorded it- the day before assessment- that it was ‘postponed indefinitely’ due to Covid.

So my (old)band director, being the amazing man he is, saw that as ‘okay so let’s hope it is only postponed- but just in case- let’s record it.’ So that day, during our usual class time, we went through our music like a performance.

I think this was maybe the second take of this piece, but I don’t think we did more than three takes on any one piece.

I should probably mention; the piece was Homage- Three Tapestries

We did all three, the big pauses between parts being each movement/‘tapestry’

It’s just something I’m proud of and think sounds fucking AWESOME

[the-holy-ghosted]

If forever gets lonely, take my hand . . .

[leqclerc]

someone needs to check on him fr 😭 (Charles speaking about Seb joining Aston Martin)

[magentagalaxies]

mouth congress is literally like so important you guys i have become 200% cooler since i started listening to them im literally thriving

[qsycomplainsalot]

Something very sad and dumb is happening. During the slow collapse of the Roman empire we lost many "luxury" trades and techniques due to them not being sustainable in a post-roman less connected world. People didn't get dumber, and they kept using and inventing new things to improve their quality of life, but, to take an exemple out of many, the recipe of the seawater concrete that was so closely tied to Rome's monumental architectural projects was forgotten for over a thousand years simply because for quite some time there just weren't cities vast enough to attract the kind of patrons to fund them, which stopped the process known as euergetism to take place. Somehow we have been going through the same process again over the past hundred and so years, not because there's no upper class to chase civic recognition by sponsoring the arts, but because the upper class has lost interest in sponsoring the arts at all. It seems like rich people have become more and more into the idea alone of accumulating money, and just can't think of ways to spend it that wouldn't also be thought off by the most basic dudebros around. Not to glorify rich people at any point in time but it used to be that when you had an insane amount of money you'd use it to foster a court of artist, build gigantic public baths or commission a rank in the navy to discover new continents. Nowadays it all goes towards a dick measuring contest of yachts, mansions and what just seems like the least satisfying way one could ever spend their money. This wouldn't be so much of a problem considering the lower class has had more spending money than ever before in history, but aside from that and in lock step with exponential capitalism, rich people seem to take personal exception to the arts existing at all, opting instead to commodify everything, copy it and sell it for cheap. We're staring down the barrel of losing thousands of crafts honed over dozens of generations simply because the mercantile hellscape we live in does not, for whatever reason, value having the best possible teapot ever produced, or the best knife, or the best brush, etc... instead these products are undermined by cheap imitations sponsored by rich assholes wanting the appearance of quality over the real thing for revenues' sake, possibly because the idea that an ultra-skilled artisan class getting paid insane amounts of money completely proportional to their labor feels alien to this bunch of parasites. And I don't think that trickle down economics has ever been a thing, but it sure as hell feels like we went from being the paid monkeys of the elite, to them not being willing to spend the piss it would take to save us from a fire.

[unpretty]

da shillzone

just gonna make a fucking. megapost of affiliate and referral links for anyone who wants to support me and also get deals or whatever. i'm gonna try to be pretty clear about what i get for things also.

you get a thing, i get a thing:

Everand, formerly Scribd: read 'unlimited' (ish) books, use my link to get two free months and I also get a free month.

Mubi: it's not movies, it's cinema (it's movies). Use my link and we both get a free month.

Reel Paper: it's bamboo toilet paper with no plastic packaging and so far it's been the only one I like. It's a subscription and also spendy compared to regular toilet paper but I'm spoiled now. Use my link and we both get $15 off.

MeUndies: it's the fucking podcast underwear. I know. I know. They had a Halloween collection and I'm weak. It's so comfy I'm mad about it. Use my link and you get 20% off your first order, I get a $20 credit, enough to buy One Whole Underwear.

Unique Vintage: it's clothes, I like the collabs and am still mad about missing out on the Pusheen skirt. Don't buy anything full price imho, quality can vary WILDLY. My link will get you $10 off a $75 order and I get a $10 credit. Not the best deal but whatever.

YNAB: I was spending too much money on podcast underwear so I signed up for You Need A Budget to trick me into thinking money is real. So far it is the first thing to have ever successfully tricked me into treating money as real, and my debt situation has improved exponentially. It's $15 a month or $99 a year and my link gets you a free month, if you sign up after the trial I also get a free month.

ProtonMail: privacy-focused alternative to gmail, switching is easy peasy and it's free. Use my link to get a free month of the fancy paid version, and if you decide to sign up I get $10 off my renewal (because I pay for the fancy version).

i get straight cash:

Humble Bundle and the Humble Store: use my link to buy some video games or book bundles and I get a cut. Signing up for Humble Choice after clicking my link also gets me paid. This is literally the only referral program that pays me worth a damn.

the amazon quarantine:

amazon sucks and doesn't pay for shit except 'bounties' so ignoring all of this is fine actually. i get pennies for most things. it's bad.

Here's the fucking. 'influencer page' that Amazon gave me. I don't really know how it works. Anyway the rest of this is bounties.

You can use SNAP EBT on Amazon, apparently if you register a card using my link I get five bucks.

Audible Plus, if you use my link and sign up for a free trial I get $5 and if you actually pay I get another $10.

Audible Premium Plus is the same deal.

Amazon Prime Video, I get $3 if you sign up for a free trial.

Audible Gift Subscription, buy one for someone and I get either $8 or $10 depending on whether it's 12 months or not.

non-referral gifts:

maybe you would rather just send me a dollar or some cookies or whatever so i'll put all that here

I've got tipping enabled on this post lmao

Here's my ko-fi

Here's my Amazon wishlist, I have the occasional expensive thing on there because I also use it for things I plan to buy myself eventually

Here's my Throne, I have surprise gifts enabled so in theory you can send me random weird shit as a prank if that's something that appeals to you

[m0onjellies]

wow i drew something kinda okay

[reasonsforhope]

One of the scariest things people say is “this very hot summer is going to be the coolest one for the rest of our lives.” How true is that? It really freaks me out when I hear that. How do we deal with this??

Honestly, I think at a certain point, with stuff like this, you just have to go "Hmm. Sure hope not!!" and go back to doing what you can to improve things in your little corner of the world.

As for how true it is...honestly, no one can really say, because we still understand laughably little about weather modeling, especially in the long term. Oh, sure, we understand miles more than we did a couple decades ago, but honestly, no one truly knows what the next few decades are going to look like - and ANY absolutes should be taken with a grain of salt

Will things in general get hotter? Yeah, obviously, and that sucks. But it's also worth remembering:

Renewable energy and decarbonization are progressing exponentially, and a lot of scientists have said that if you'd told them five years ago where we'd end up by now, they would never have believed you

Carbon capture - both natural and chemical - has a lot of really interesting potential that will almost certainly allow us to someday start to cool the planet back down

Nothing is universal. You know how everyone's having a ridiculously hot summer? I'm not. I'm in Southern California and we had one of the most mild and overcast Junes I've ever seen. I don't think it's gotten above 105 at all where I live this year, which is ridic at the end of July, and I live in one of the hotter area of SoCal. (Honestly this has been a really nice break after spending the past 8 years being the ones on fire)

We're gonna get a lot better at adapting to the heat, and a lot of the solutions are really low tech. Traditional technology and architecture is a big one, but also literally things as simple as "tear up a bunch of asphalt" and "put ultrawhite paint on rooftops and roads and playgrounds" will each cool things down by 10 degrees or more

[seresinhangmanjake]

Nothing Better than What We’ve Got

Dad!Jake “Hangman” Seresin x female reader

Summary: You once said you wouldn’t marry anyone unless you were with them for at least a year, but maybe with Jake, your mind has changed.

Warnings: Allusion to smut(ish). That’s probably it. A MASSIVE BALL OF FLUFF!!!

Notes: Part of the Oh, Baby Universe. 

Words: 2600

---

He slept well these days. As deeply and thoroughly as the little girl nestled in her crib down the hall. All traces of nightmares were long gone and he woke perfectly rested with a smile across his face before he dropped a kiss to your forehead, then your lips. Every morning the same confirmation of his happiness. 

You were thankful for that; that he had fought his way through the pain you had caused, the added stress of dealing with your mother, and the unease and fear of facing his own parents to get to a place of peace. But that was Jake. Put a wall in front of him and he would fight his way over it. That is, with the exception of the time when you were gone. I wasn't getting over you, he'd said. There's no way. In that area, you had stunted him. 

Pinpricks of guilt lingered, occasionally making themselves a tad sharper; impossible to ignore. But despite what you had done, Jake remained a fighter, tackling all battles that quite literally kicked down his front door. Just as he was a protector; fierce and unrelenting when it came to keeping you and your shared daughter safe. And yet, those prominent qualities made him no less of a lover. Your lover, your man—the only one you ever cared to have. 

You loved him so terribly much. He made up a piece of your world that if taken away from you would leave an unfillable void. Jake Seresin was it. He was everything. Of that, you'd been so sure of for so long, and you were tired of not letting him know it in every way possible. 

"Jake," you whispered.

His eyes were closed, mouth ever so slightly parted so his gentle breaths could warm your face. You really hated to wake him, but not so much that you paused to consider stopping your light shaking of his shoulder. 

"Jake!"

He began to stir, brows furrowing, consciousness tugging at him. "Mmm, Honey," he muttered. Lazily shifting onto his side, his hand found your bare hip, a weight holding you down. 

"Baby, wake up. I need you."

He mumbled your name, but when your words sunk in, his torso shot up in bed. Eyes wide. Chest heaving. "What? What's wrong?" he rushed out as his head turned in all directions to scan the room. "Are you ok? Where's Eve?"

"No, baby," you soothed. "We're fine." With your hand pressed into his chest—feeling the intensity of his rapid, thudding heartbeat—you helped settle him back onto the mattress. Head again cushioned by a pillow, Jake blew out a breath and gave you a look that barely concealed the merest bit of irritation for nearly causing his heart attack.

His hand layered yours for a moment before he grasped it tightly and brought your palm to his lips for a kiss. He kissed it once more, the second time longer.

"You can't do that to me, Honey. You know how I am." A mild scolding; maybe a fair one. You did know how he was. His sleep might have improved exponentially, but he was still a military man, still a man who had suffered enough and worried enough and feared enough for the sake of his family that he could be pulled from that deep sleep for next to nothing. Just a whiff of danger or threat was all it took, and your words were not so carefully chosen as to protect him from questioning your safety in the dead of night.

"Sorry."

"It's ok," he smiled, flipping back onto his side. He kissed your forehead, pulled your body into the cocoon of his frame, and closed his eyes again. You cupped his cheek and ran your thumb over the scruff of dark blond whiskers. 

"Tell me what's wrong," he said, but his voice was already fading as exhaustion draped over him. 

"Nothing."

"No?" You could hardly make out the weak syllable. 

"Wrong? No," you confirmed. Those lips were parting once more. Light puffs traveled in and out of his lungs. You considered letting him be, but then you said, "I want to marry you."

You'd stared into his eyes countless times, but this was different. When eyelids shot open to reveal green orbs, they held an array of emotions, each one of them struggling to claim the forefront. His eyes flicked back and forth between yours in search of the meaning within your gaze, but he wouldn't be searching long. You knew your emotion was solidly present. The love you felt for him splayed across the surface of you, an abundance pouring out through your eyes and smile and touch.

"You—" His inhale was sharp; exhale heavy. He blinked and shook his head like he was trying to understand if he heard you right. "You what?"

Your thumb reached lower to graze over his bottom lip. "I want to be married to you."

"I thought…" From his continuous disbelief you chuckled. "You said not for a year."

"Jake, we have a child together. And I love you so much," you said softly. His hand on your waist squeezed your flesh. "I don't want to wait anymore to be your wife."

He stopped blinking altogether, but then a smile cracked his face and he threw the comforter off his bare body to hop out of the bed. 

"What are you doing?" 

He crossed the room in record time and, opening one of the dresser drawers, began to rifle through his neatly folded underwear. When he pulled his hand back, a little black box was clutched in his shaky fingers.

Any amusement on your face dissipated and you sat up quickly, the sheets falling away to expose your chest, but you didn't care. He took his spot across from you and recovered his lower half. Both sets of eyes were glued to the box as he placed it atop the bed between you. 

You almost didn’t want to touch it. Well, truly, you knew it wasn’t yours to touch quite yet. But still, it felt like that box had some sort of magic inside it—the culmination of all you’d been through with the man you loved somehow stuffed into one tiny hollow cube—and that opening it would overwhelmingly drench you in every feeling you’d ever had for Jake, every emotion that ever passed through you. And that was so, so, much.

You never needed a ring to prove anything to one another. It wasn’t the physical symbol of love that would forever hold you and Jake together. If anything, you had Eve for that. Nevertheless, you wanted it. You wanted to be his wife. You wanted him as your husband. 

"You had this already?" You asked, vision beginning to haze from a damp coating.

Jake swallowed, finally looking up at you. You met the sweetness in his eyes. "I'd been thinking about all of it for a while. I got the ring made a couple months ago."

"How long is a while?"

Some of that sweetness fell away to nerves. His smile faltered so he could clear his throat. "You don't want to know." 

You nodded encouragingly, weaving your fingers with his.

For a minute, you weren’t sure he was going to answer you, but then he sighed. "Honey," he said. He paused again, his mouth opening and closing. He shook his head to himself and looked back at you. "I used to imagine you being my wife well before you ever kissed me."

Your eyes went wide as saucers. 

That day was permanently vivid in your mind. The day you took that leap. The day you finally grasped that Jake—the potential of finally being with him after a year of back and forth—was worth the risk of any humiliation had you misunderstood what he felt for you. That one day changed your entire world. You’d kissed him, you’d slept with him, you’d conceived your daughter without knowing it. It felt so long ago and yet if you closed your eyes and reached out your hand, you were sure your fingertips would brush along the memory. 

"A while,” you whispered. 

He nodded. "A while."

Each breath was loud in your ears, each heartbeat adding to the echo-like rhythm. 

“So, Honey…” Jake took the box in one hand, and with the other, pulled back the hinged lid. The diamond sparkled despite the lack of light in the room. “Will you–"

"You don't have to ask," you said as you scrambled into his lap, your legs on either side of his thighs. His arm held you tightly to help steady the sudden collision of your bodies as your hands framed his face. Leaning down, you kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed him—every inch of his face you could claim. "You already know the answer."

Feathery touch traveled up and down your spine, then he pressed his lips to yours; softer; delicate and thorough compared to the frenzy of yours. "Let me hear it,” he pleaded. “I want to hear it so bad.” 

The corners of your lips quirked up just slightly at the desperation in his voice. You could see how much it meant to him, so you didn’t make him wait. 

"Yes, Jake,” you said, nudging your nose against his, “I will marry you."

He let out a deep groan and his hand dropped the box so it could weave into your hair as mouths melded again. Your lips tingled in the aftermath of your words, the sensation making its way throughout your entire system the longer you stayed intertwined with the man you were going to call your husband.

You were so close to losing yourself, as you always did when you were with him. But then it hit you. 

You released a muffled squeak and pushed against his chest. "Wait, wait, wait," you stopped him.

"What?” His voice was husky. His eyelids heavy over the love and lust swirling in emerald irises, and he licked his lips, the hand at the base of your neck already starting to draw you back into his kiss.

"You forgot to put it on me,” you said quickly. 

"Oh!" A genuine expression of surprise took over his face. He looked around the mattress until he found the box with its ring still snuggled inside. Plucking out the silver band, he said, "Sorry, Honey. Got distracted.” 

You giggled at his renewed eagerness. 

Few things in your life had been more beautiful than Jake sliding that ring on your finger. When the nurse placed a swaddled Eve against your breast so you could get your first good look at your daughter’s perfect little face. When you saw Jake after nearly a year of being apart and realized that not only did you want to be with him, you belonged with him. And when you tucked your daughter into his awaiting arms and heard his declaration of love for her only minutes after his learning of the circumstances of her existence. 

Those moments gave you life. Hidden away, but always accessible. Never did you spend a day in darkness with the light of them behind you. They helped you to remember that nothing mattered but Jake and your baby. His father, your mother, the difficulties of past choices, and anything the future may throw at you were weak under the weight of each beautiful building block that made up the life you and Jake shared. 

And now you had another moment. Another memory. Another block to squash your troubles. 

“I love you,” he said, letting his lips brush over the diamond. “Don’t ever take this off.”

“I’ll never want to,” you replied. 

—-

He’d worn you out. 

It wasn’t exactly intentional, but he couldn’t stop wanting you. He couldn’t tamp down how badly he needed to be inside of you again and again. And he thought he would pass out alongside you, he really did, but there was no resting his eyes after all of that. You were going to be his wife. 

His Wife. 

A part of him was too stunned to believe it, but every time he glanced down at your hand, the ring was still there and his heart burst in his chest all over again. So, no, he didn’t rest. There were too many emotions bouncing around within the confines of his body. 

Instead, he watched you sleep, occasionally tucking back strands of your hair when your shifting caused them to fall into your face so he could press his lips to your skin. Every few minutes he found somewhere else to kiss. Your fingers, shoulder, cheek, temple, neck. As long as he didn’t wake you, his careful kisses continued to find new places until the first rays of sunlight broke through the curtains. 

Jake sighed. He didn’t wish to leave you, but Eve’s cries would begin soon. Slept peacefully, she did, but like clockwork, his baby girl woke so early it was as if the dawn itself whispered in her ear each morning. 

With a final kiss, Jake stood from the bed and grabbed his sweatpants off the floor so he could pull them up his legs. He made his way down the hall into the nursery and took the stirring girl in his arms before she had a chance to question his absence. 

Jake had learned his daughter’s needs rather soon into their budding relationship; something he took great pride in. And he knew she favored touch. Had to be greeted with cuddles and kisses before anything else could be considered important. Their routine was not one she cared to have interrupted, so, as always, Jake quickly changed Eve’s diaper before taking a seat in the rocking chair his Gram had gifted, keeping her snug against his chest while they swayed with the back-and-forth motion. 

His eyes welcomed hers. 

“Well, good morning, baby girl,” he said. 

She granted him the most delicate of smiles. As incredible and heart-stopping as yours. 

Jake knew she’d destroy someone when the day came—would absolutely wreck them from the inside out because of that smile, exactly how you had done to him. He just hoped that if he had to watch his daughter with anyone, despite the anxiety that zig-zagged up and down his spine at the thought, that person would be worth Eve putting her love and time into. And if they were worth it, he’d wish them luck. Because as much as Eve’s face matched his, her personality was clearly going to develop into a carbon copy of yours. In his daughter was your wit and love, but he didn’t kid himself into thinking she didn’t also have your stubbornness and grit. But thankfully, it would be a while before he’d be forced to worry over anything like that. For now, other matters were to be shared.

“I’ve got news for you,” he continued, extending his hand so Eve could wrap her five little fingers around his larger one. “Mama and Daddy are getting married.”

She blinked, then giggled. 

“I know. I’m sure it seems awfully fast to you,” he said with a chuckle of his own, “but I’ve loved your Mama longer than you know. Longer than she knew, too.

“And she’s going to be so beautiful in her dress, and you’re going to be so beautiful in whatever doesn’t make you grumpy that day. You can be our flower girl and we’ll have Uncle Rooster carry you and help you toss petals down the aisle, doesn’t that sound good?”

At her look of awe, Jake gave a peck to her forehead.

“I’d say things will be perfect, baby girl,” he grinned, running his thumb over the back of her hand, “But they already are.”

---

tag list: @wkndwlff​ @genius2050​ @sagittarius-flowerchild​ @dempy​ @oliviah-25​ @rosiahills22​ 

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[katebishopshands]

But I’m a Cheerleader ! !

(Cheerleader!Kate Bishop/ Reader)

Pt. 1

»»-------------¤-------------««

Your team is good, you know it is. Yet, every year your team is a mere few points from winning the spirit stick at the end of your annual cheer camp.

You’re sure this is your teams year at camp. You and Yelena are captains this year and after a year full of successful competitions under your careful guidance, you’re sure anything is possible. That is until Kate Bishop walks through the gym doors.

Perfect as can be and cocky as hell, and the winner of the spirit stick for the last two years, the rival captain is the bane of your existence. Nothing, not even Kate Bishop will get in your way of that stick….unless?

(Not 18+…..YET)

»»-------------¤-------------««

Your ponytail was too tight, certain parts of your hair tugging on random places of your head. You took your hair down for what was probably the millionth time that morning and redid it. Eventually you ended up in the same spot you started with, a too tight ponytail pulling on your hair. Sighing, you gave up, instead choosing to focus on the spanx that seemed to be riding up your thighs as you stood in the too hot gym.

“Snap out of it!”, a slap to your bare shoulder made you jump, snapping the spandex on your thigh. Yelena smiled and laughed a bit at the look of concern on your face.

“Gotcha! But seriously cut it out”, the blonde dropped her smile into her regular resting face, which was scary enough. She could see the anxiety that you held in your shoulders. The way you fidgeted with your shorts, the way you bit your lip.

“I’m just worried we won’t get it this year” you crossed your arms frowning. For the last five years you had been on the team, not once had you been awarded the ever so coveted Spirit Stick. The stick was to go to the team that showed the morals of what cheer camp was supposed to be. The most spirited, dedicated,creative, and most improved over the course of the week. Initially, you weren’t upset. It was just some tradition that the camp did. That is until you noticed the same team got it year after year.

The Archers were your biggest competition. Coming from the same district you competed at all of the same competition, always coming in neck and neck with placements. You had been running circles around each other for years. And they never failed to get the Spirit Stick, ever.

“Natasha said we’re the best captains she’s seen in years, we’ve got this in the bag” Yelena was oozing with confidence. Blonde braid strewn over her shoulder, arms crossed showing off her biceps. She LOOKED Like a cheer captain.

“I don’t know if that counts Lena, she’s your sister. She HAS to be nice to you”

“That is not true! She said it as my coach…not as my sister” Yelena scoffs at you. You roll your eyes at her before turning around to converse with other team members.

Yelena getting the co captain spot with you was a topic of conversation in what you liked to call the “cheer verse”. Some teams were saying she only got the spot because Natasha is the coach and Yelena is her sister. But they couldn’t be more wrong. You had never met someone with a better work ethic than Yelena. She gave it her all, putting in overtime in the gym to perfect her tumbling, she was one of the strongest bases on the team. You had seen her throw herself on the ground to prevent her flyer from hitting the mat on multiple occasions. She deserved the role.

The conversations flowed freely as you bounced from group to group. More teams started filling in the room, each claiming a spot on the mat before the camp officially started. Some giant speaker blared music in the corner, effectively hyping up the crowd of cheerleaders. The noise level growing exponentially in the gym you stood in. A quick glance over the sea of athletes showed you one thing, The Archers had yet to arrive, and opening ceremony started at 12:30.

You double checked your phone for the time. The clock read 12:15. The team had 15 minutes to show. A surge of excitement coursed through your veins. The team not being in attendance this year meant you actually stood a chance at the spirit stick this year.

After monopolizing the spirit stick for so many years, The Archers had lived in your head rent free for way too long. Rumor had it they had a new captain this year, and part of you wished they sucked. It’d be so nice to watch the once great team crumble to nothing as yours did nothing but rise to the top.

A roar of clapping drags your from your revenge filled thoughts. You turn to face the entry way to the gym, struggling to see anything behind the sea of bows and ponytails that lie infront of you. You weave your way up to the front of the map where you’d have a clear view at the chaos. You manage to snag Yelena in the process, linking arms.

“What the hell is happening?” She looks at you before leaning forward to get a better look.

“Beats me, maybe we’re starting early??” You had five minutes to go, but it wasn’t completely out of the question.

Yelena makes a gagging sound followed by a disgusted “oh my god”.

“What! What’s happening!?” You ask frantically, wondering if maybe someone has already hurled and camp hadn’t even started yet. Yelena yanks your arm down, making you lean forward like her.

It doesn’t take you long to see why Yelena gagged. In the entry way of the gym, stood The Archers. The crowed cheered, the spirit stick being held confidently in the new captains hand. The stick had been decked out in their team colors, purple and black. Your eyes follow down the black nail polished hand and arm that held onto the spirit stick, eventually making eye contact with the holder.

Kate. Bishop.

She was your least favorite person on this planet.

She had joined The Archers at the same time you had joined your team. And ever since then it had been a constant competition between you two. You got your tuck? Kate got her round off tuck. Kate was point for jumps? Oh yours were now hyperextended and you were also center point. Wherever you went, you were both in the others orbit. She was perfect, even if you didn’t want to admit it. If only she wasn’t a cocky son of a bitch, you might admire her a bit.

So Kate Bishop was the new captain, of course she was. Of course she was captain the year you got to be captain.

“Kate Bishop…” Yelena sneers as Kate gives you both a smirk. You could’ve swore Yelena growled at her

Kates blue eyes linger on you a little longer than you would’ve expected. She lets her smirk drop a little into a facial expression you can’t quite put your finger on. You watch as her gaze is pulled from your form. America Chavez, another rival of yours, who you’ve collected from observing the team is the co captain with Kate, jumps the other girl, grabbing the spirit stick and eliciting another roar of cheers from the crowd.

Kate flashes America a dazzling smile and puts her arm around the other girl in a side hug. Their coach, and Coach Nats biggest rival, Clint Barton, shoves his captains aside as he gears the team towards a new spot on the mat. Kate turns her head back in your direction as she follows Barton’s lead, her black ponytail swinging in tandem. She catches your eye again, resulting in you crossing her arms and raising and eyebrow at her. She smiles and bites her lip a little before sending a wink your way.

You stomach drops. Feeling as if you drank TV static. What the fuck. You swallow the spit in your mouth nervously as Kate continues to follow her team. Suddenly your tongue felt too heavy in your mouth and your palms were clammier than you remembered.

“Fuck them, seriously, fuck them” Yelena mutters as she walks back towards Coach Nat at the back of the mat.

“I hate them so much” you join in on the menagerie of negativity in an attempt to push down your weird feelings about Kates wink.

“I swear I want to crush their little skulls into this mat..” Yelena cracks her knuckles to punctuate her feelings. You put your hand on her shoulder, making her look at you face to face.

“I promise. This year is our year. Nothing..and I mean nothing, not even Kate Bishop’s perfect ass can keep us from wining that spirit stick”

»»-------------¤-------------««

“On the doors are your names, please move your junk into your dorms. We’ve got dinner in 30 so make it quick” Natasha stands at the end of the hallway, arms crossed. You groan, and begin dragging your luggage down the dimly lit hallway, searching for your name.

Eventually you found it at the halfway point of the hall. Your name was written on a little megaphone ins sparkly letters, cute.

Taking your key off your neck you unlock your door. The dorm smelled musty, a fine layer of dust piling on the windowsill. Clearly the room had not been cleaned since the sad freshman moved out at the end of the spring semester. It felt like cheer camp.

The doorknob on the left side of the room jiggles, eventually busting open. Yelena falls through it, a big smile plastered on her face.

“Look! We’re neighbors!”

Part of you was sad that you guys weren’t sharing a room, but the other part of you was incredibly grateful. Yelena lived in a constant state of tornado. All of her belongings strewn across the room. Being captain had some perks, such as a single room. Sharing a bathroom for a week with Yelena was doable, but a room might kill you.

You give a smile back to her before gonna to poke your head out of the door that you had left propped open. Another team on the other side of you had begun to move their things in. So you were the bookend of your own team, great. This was a perfect way to make sure everyone was in bed during lights out and doing what they were supposed to be doing. Being well rested and punctual was crucial to your teams success at camp this year.

As you observed the excited girls giggling as they moved in to their new homes for the week, your vision was blocked. Blue eyes and full dark brows crowed your eyesight.

“Oh..hi” you knew the voice. You knew it too well. Kate Bishop was standing a mere few inches away from your face.

“Hello..” you clenched to your jaw. Staring at her stupid perfect face. Beauty marks scattered across it, full lips and lashes. You could’ve gone the entire week without hearing her voice, but of course you literally almost bump heads with her in the first hour.

“Looks like we’re neighbors…” Kate’s arms are crossed. She stands defensively opposite of you.

“I guess so”

She glances you up and down again. And once again that static fuzz feeling fills your gut. Goosebumps prick up on your exposed arms and you feel your cheeks flush a bit.

“Just…try not to be too loud at night..I want to get good sleep this week. Be on top of my game” you break the silence with an awkward blurt. She chuckles a little bit and leans toward you a little. You had never been this close to her. She smelled nice. Like lavender and chai with a hint of her deodorant. Probably some expensive perfume she has.

“I’ll try my best. But honestly..” her eyes make contact with your lips before she looks back up at you,

“I even think at the top of your game, you and your team still won’t win the spirit stick this year..” she chuckles a little bit. The snarky remark you wanted to make dies in your throat. Your fingers making contact with your lips, where Kate was just looking.

America calls for Kate down the hall.

“Coming!!” Kate stands up to her full height and genuinely smiles at you before turning on her heels and making her way towards America. But not before she sent another wink in your direction.

She left you standing in the hallway, blood boiling, hands clenched into fists at your sides and that tv static in your gut. If this was a cartoon, steam would be shooting out of your ears.

You were going to pummel Kate Bishops perky ponytail into the ground and rip the spirit stick out of her cold dead hands….or at-least, you hoped you could..

»»-------------¤-------------««

Omg hi guys!! I thought I’d try something new for this piece?? It’s for sure gonna be multiple parts and I promise you it’s gonna get HOT real soon. So stay tuned, this was just an introduction to the cheerverse

-ET🏹

[riacte]

🥁 Welcome to the first ever "Choose an unhinged Renchanting moment" ✨ALL STARS EDITION✨!!! 🥁

In which winners of the previous nine (!!) polls and the Last Life burning tower scene will battle it out for ULTIMATE UNHINGED RENCHANTING MOMENT!! Deliberately made to cross over from 2023 to 2024 to wish for a new year full of Renchanting <3

If you don't want to read my lengthy and dramatic sports guy commentary you can skip to the poll right at the end.

Now, let's introduce our beloved competitors! With some clips sponsored by @ani-craft, thank you as always <3

Starting from Round 1, the OG, the beginning of this series in Feb 2023— congrats to "Ren calling Maidtyn "very very sexy" completely unprovoked"!. Now, fellow Tumblr users, this is a historical moment because the Maidtyn trend was the Tumblr response to Martyn being active on Tumblr, and it snowballed into the Mint Mistletoes of MCC19 wearing skins of maid dresses (and a butler suit). This is the tangible impact of the Tumblr fan community on MCC. And of course it's about maid dresses.

Round 1 was quickly followed up by Round 2, and narrowly winning by FOUR votes is... [drumroll] "r/place (2022) when Martyn helped place a pixel of blush on RK Ren"!. Truly a chaotic moment that somehow became a highlight even in the overall chaos of those few days.

But the numbers really peaked in Round 3, aka. the Limited Life edition when Martyn's lore stream repeatedly dropped bombs on us. 100% of these moments are from Martyn, by the way. But which unhinged moment was the most unhinged? Which moment will win like Martyn? Unsurprisingly, the most popular option are those two words that basically sum it up— "UNGUIDED HAND". An unhinged moment that won with a whopping 404 out of 1913 votes.

Things did not calm down after Limited Life. Some might say the moments only became more unhinged. 2.5 months after LimLife ended, Round 4 began. Most of these moments are also from Martyn. Most unhinged of all: "Martyn declaring in a low voice: 'Third Life never ended for me'." Yeah it sure didn't, buddy.

Fast forward to September 2023. Treebark Week 2023! Surely the perfect moment for a poll! Also, I need to add that I was so excited about Round 5 that I posted it before TBW ended and... let's say it immediately got worse the day after I posted the poll. My hubris for assuming it was the end... Anyways, Martyn's Tumblr shenanigans kick in once again. Congrats to "Martyn saying nothing about an ask that claims his character is in love with Ren", which also ended up being a significant post to Scurvyblr. For reasons.

Two months after TBW, the pining gets exponentially worse. And I do mean exponentially. Enter Round 6, which has a lot of insane moments, but there was one clear winner, a moment that swept with 32% of the votes— everybody clap and cheer for "Martyn's 50 word 3L AU drabble - "Luck be with ye.... Hand"!! At the time of writing, that post has 4.1k notes. Martyn's just like us. He's writing fanfiction and that's so real of him.

Merely ten days later, fires are crackling, demons are giggling— it's the Decked Out open day! And we got a Renchanting feast! Round 7 emerged from That Iconic Burning Stone Box and was dedicated to moments the stream day. With 39% of the votes, the unhinged moment that swept was "Ren to Martyn: You have very fine lips there and a wonderful neck for kissing". Honorable mentions go to Martyn's Twitch chat (for surviving), Martyn's viewers (for clipping it with varying degrees of "what did he just say??"), and of course, False (for locking them in and kickstarting whatever the improv demon roleplay was).

A few weeks later, the flames have died down— or have they? Round 8 enters with a steel chair and Ren has more unhinged moments now. Martyn's Tumblr takes home another win with "Martyn reblogging a post that calls Ren his “Minecraft boyfriend”!! This is the third win that's from Martyn's Tumblr blog. You love to see it.

Last but not the least, Round 9 from last week! It's finally Ren's turn to dominate. Our winner is.... "Ren mentions going to sleep and dreaming of Martyn’s 'beautiful, beautiful eyes'"!! Appropriately clipped with the caption "Insane".

But that's not all! In Round 1 + 2, I purposefully excluded the altar scene and the burning tower scene because I felt those two would sweep. Now, I think the altar scene is still untouchable but the burning tower seems almost normal now. (As normal as an unhinged moment could be.)

A new unhinged moment has appeared! Challenger approaching! Last Life Ren purposefully sets his tower on fire after knowing Martyn is watching him and Martyn runs to save him while screaming "Ren, what are you doing to yourself! Stop burning yourself!".

Okay, okay, my dramatic commentary is done. Hey, I'm not a Renchanting fan for nothing. Here's the poll. Have fun :D

Much love to all of you <3 here's to another year of unhinged Renchanting moments!

(Also sorry the r/place should be in 2022 not 2021)

[kradeelav]

sneak peek of the site redesign i've been working on, among other site updates :)

i've been doing a major cleanup/delete spree/reset button on artwork posted publicly. (everything will still be available to download through zip files like this, and i plan on making one that has everything made in 2020-2025 at the end of the year.)

but part of it is... kinda feeling trapped and held back, lately? like a snake needing to shed its skin.

there's so much old work and retired projects associated with this handle .... and my new art i haven't posted yet is exponentially better. seriously excited for this shit; but it's a quantum improvement to the point my brain just itches because it clashes with the legacy stuff.

so i've been consistently asking myself 'what are the pieces that make you want to draw' - those are the pieces i'll keep up.

it's not what's most aesthetically pleasing or got the most clicks. sometimes the answer is kinda surprising! at the end of the day, i'm not really interested in anything that doesn't stoke that fire for more... more feeling, more visually grabbing eyeballs like a live wire. there is a definite 'grab your id by the shorthairs' feeling i've been chasing since day one, and i think i'm tangibly getting better at chasing it.

[savelockwoodandco]

Hi Admin, hope everything is fine with you, because I truly need your insight.

Whilst I understand that we must approach a battle with high spirits, the way the world goes and with it the media industry really saddens me.

Are we really gonna get the show back?

Do we think CF or the Strouds will really tell us to stop if they think all is over?

I might be far too cynical, but for the Strouds any publicity brings more people to the books.

As for CF, it's still free publicity.

I know that of course none of them will ever be straightforward with us - if anything is happening behind the scenes - because they can't, I guess, but where does the Clowning stop and become simply Delusion?

I keep looking at CF reply for their 5000 followers, and I get it, it looks sus. But are we building a castle made of thin sand out of it?

I'm sorry, Admin, I don't want to upset you. :(

I will still support the show campaign, but I'm so, so, so sad about everything...

Hi Anon! Thanks for the question, and no worries, you didn't upset us! We've got decades of experience in this media game (and in cancellations specifically), and we understand that it can be challenging and frustrating at the best of times.

We totally get being discouraged due to the state of the media industry. It's never been a particularly kind nor relaxed space, and everything about it seems to have been heightened within the last decade or so. What's good -- acknowledging the impact that actors have, the ability to tell stories that would have gone unseen in years past, feeding fan interaction through behind-the-scenes looks while filming and the newfound safety of transformative works (i.e., fanfic) -- has become really, really good. On the flip side, the bad parts of media -- encouraging division and in-fighting, poor treatment of non-administrative professionals, the blind-eye to any profit beyond exponential growth -- have gotten worse.

This isn't a doom-and-gloom statement, though -- these things come in cycles. The Hayes Code Mentality is coming back into full swing, but at least we're past the point of forcing actors to get married in order to promote their films. Some things improve, some things fall back, lather, rinse, repeat. We get being discouraged due to the media landscape -- but remember, all problems are temporary, and bad things will come and go just as often as good things. The good things, the progress, the encouraging changes are no less good simply because they're accompanied by uncertainty.

And if we had to pick a mission statement for answering this ask, I suppose that would be it. There are so many good and encouraging things that have happened -- watch this space, as I (tumblr mod) am going to have Twitter Mod, in all her beneficence, grab me some screenshots from Twitter to show off good/hopeful/encouraging things that have happened recently, since not everyone (including me!) is on Twitter -- that, while we may encounter doubts, disappointments, and uncertainty, it would be as foolish to throw everything out as it would be to assume that we're completely in the clear.

Recency bias, negativity bias, and plain ol' uncertainty have a way of reminding us that there's still doubt and uncertainty surrounding us in this campaign; at times, to borrow a quote, we can feel like we're braving a storm in a skiff made of paper. When a day, a week, two weeks, or more pass without Absolute Confirmation of being picked up, it's easy to lose confidence, to become discouraged, and to believe that nothing we do matters.

And yes, to just simply get sad. And that's okay, that's normal and understandable.

To answer the question posed at the beginning of this ask: yes, we still firmly believe that we're going to get our show back. So many good things -- Nice Things -- have happened and continue to happen (once again, watch this space for a screenshot-heavy post about those things!), that I think it would be wrongheaded to ignore them.

Yes, CF would tell us if there wasn't a chance. It's not really 'free publicity' to encourage people to support a campaign to save a show that they don't have a stake in.

And yes, they make Lockwood and Co; but without a second season, there's no opportunity to make more profit off of it -- sales off DVDs only apply when the show will be put on DVD, after all, which is increasingly uncommon for streaming-premiered shows. Positive word of mouth of "oh they made that really good show that netflix unfairly cancelled" -- a true statement -- only goes so far when negative word of mouth -- "they led fans on when they knew there wasn't a chance" -- is the trade-off.

CF isn't a huge company, they need that positive word of mouth to draw in viewers for current and future projects. On top of all of that, they're human. It's tempting to see every business, no matter the size, as a soul-sucking machine that wrings fans dry for profit, but that simply isn't true, especially of smaller outfits.

The same goes for the Strouds -- there was so much of a rush for the books when the show first came out; people had to wait weeks and weeks for more copies to be printed and sent out through Amazon/Barnes & Noble/other booksellers, and libraries had hold lines for months. That fervor only holds out so long, though, without something concrete -- another season -- to keep it up. In this age of 'receipts', Stroud isn't going to risk his reputation (and provide a lot of clean-up work for his agent) by stringing us alone without any hope.

Everyone involved in this, from the production studio to the author to us, the fans, has a vested interest in not just creating buzz but in actually making a S2 happen. Simply from a business standpoint, it's better business to supply an in-demand product than to not. Attention spans -- and business experts' opinions of attention spans, which is almost more important -- are famously short nowadays. Businesses cannot and do not plan on a small injection to produce long-lasting loyalty and results -- and when they do, like Netflix has been, it bites them in the rear repeatedly.

The sad, sorry fact is that they can't be open and transparent with us about renewal efforts, you're completely right about that. The legalities of contracts and deals within the media industry demand absolute silence until the ink is dry, and sometimes for a bit after that. To use a recent example, the showrunner for Warrior Nun tweeted in March that the show being saved would be because of fan efforts to make it happen. A full 3 months later, he was allowed to announce that the show had officially been picked up. The wheels of media move slowly, but they move.

When does clowning become delusion? The only situation where it would would be if CF came out and told us to stop and that there was no chance. Barring that, it doesn't become delusion. We like to toss around the term 'clowning' -- and it's a fun term that we, the mods, use regularly -- but all we're referring to is the process of distilling what we see into tangible data.

I don't mean to make it sound like some scientific process, but...isn't it? Isn't this all some grand experiment in the name of a grand hobby?

We plot, we plan, we infer, we record, and at the end of the day we turn all of that effort into tangible results. Those results -- trending every single day since cancellation, usually with multiple hashtags/phrases, numerous articles written about the show, its cancellation, and the efforts to save it, a petition with nearly 25k signatures, award nominations, you name it -- are very real, and very helpful.

While ultimately we can't sign the contracts or enact the business deals that will cement our pick-up -- trust us, if we could, they'd be signed by now -- we can provide strong reasons through our engagement for business to want us. The higher we raise demand, the more of a no-brainer providing supply -- a second season -- is.

To all of LockNation, we thank you for your continued efforts. Your tweets, posts, fanart, fanfic, hashtags, signatures, articles, and most importantly, your relentless cheerful dedication, mean the world. We heartily thank you and we heartily encourage you to take breaks, to take care of yourselves. We're confident that, in the future, we will be able to look down at our little skiff made of paper and find that it was made of sterner stuff than we thought.

We're confident in the continued future of Lockwood and Co. We can do this. Look to other successful campaigns; we may have months to go, but we can get through them and come out the victors on the other end.

[inkovert]

haven't been on here in any capacity in months and can't guarantee I won't disappear again but just wanted to hop on to dump some feelings that have cropped up lately into a post.

First, let me say that I love my story. it means the world to me. Additionally, I am fairly confident in my abilities as a writer (not saying that I don't occasionally get insecure like everyone else, but I'm past the early stages of my writing journey where I look at everything I put into words and think it's a flaming pile of garbage. I am confident that I am a competent writer and am generally good at what I do). But I'm starting to realize those two ingredients aren't enough to keep me going.

We're always bombarded with posts that say "write for yourself!" and "don't seek validation from others!" and "write what you want to write!". And, trust me, I am doing all those things. But that doesn't mean it's enough or that it solves everything. As much as I love my story/characters, and as passionate as I am about one day turning this WIP into a novel, it's SO easy to just...stop writing, despite all that. Because without some form of a reminder as to why I'm doing this or who I'm doing it for (outside of myself), it makes me question like...why bother putting words on paper for no one to see them? If I'm truly just creating for myself and myself alone, why not just leave my ideas and characters and plots in my head and day dream about them indefinitely to my hearts content? Some may immediately read that and think: it's to improve your writing skills, that's why! But after writing for years and years on end, it's pretty hard to expect to continue to linearly or exponentially improve in isolation. At the end of the day, some form of feedback is necessary for you to continue to improve - which brings us right back to square 1.

Anyway, all that is to say, I'm finding it hard to find a reason to keep writing lately. And even if I dangle the nebulous goal of publication in front of me....I'm a student living off of a stipend, and it's going to take several years for me to have the financial means to achieve that goal. So once again I find myself wondering...what's the point?

[ankhmeanswombman]

Reproduction and Character Masking: An Endless Chain of Sorrow

I’m a lover of authenticity and sovereignty, and in my experience most people are not. I have mentioned before how most individuals are automated organic androids, except they are becoming more and more inorganic, genetically-modified. There may be some silver linings to humanity’s increasing convergence with technology though. They need to build up what they have lost and redevelop intelligence and peace which they have thrown down the gutter after aeons of self abuse. Maybe the Prometheus Project isn’t such a bad idea. If the average person lacks both EQ and IQ, is addicted to conflict, and is a remedial junkie so as to ignore the piling karma, maybe it is best for the elites to retrain this person into the image of a more advanced being. Prometheus after all was the light bearer, guiding the beast out of the darkness of ignorance and into divine wisdom of good and evil, the discernment of which is lost to many in these trying times. The average persons lack of understanding of free will and karma has decayed their minds exponentially, because they cannot visualize the bigger picture, recognise pattern, or understand that there are consequences for every thought and action. They live as though they are completely detached from both body and spirit, such is the result of glorifying patriarch-consciousness and phallic philosophy. The lack of respect shown to the body is magnified every day through the collective consciousness, and if the vessel, a manifestation of spirit in 3D, is damaged, spirit itself may vacate the dense formation known as body to the point where spirit no longer rules it, but rather a set of primal, devolved automated instructions designed simply to perpetuate the Godless vessel sans conscious spirit. The evolved being must understand that the devolved being has been spiritually absent for a long time, which is why character-masking is rampant, they do not even know who they are which is why they adopt a new identity every year or simply stare at a screen to figure out who to copy-paste into next. The more old school approach would be simply termed keeping up appearances, and as we know, what appears to be a certain way, is not always true in reality, as maskers improve their techniques with each passing epoch so as to survive, fearing the natural death that awaits the ego. Ego is not meant to survive for long but it is a smart parasite which ensures that the soul stays dead so as to keep itself going. Reproduction as it exists today is simply a mechanism for competing with God, which is why ego is so fervently obsessed with it. Ego is at constant war with spirit, so copulation must always try to thwart parthenogenesis or anything higher up the Great chain of Being than itself. Because most people have banished their own souls to the underworld while welcoming hell-demons to possess their vessel, they naturally do not care about why higher concepts are hidden from public view, the real truth is that everything is hidden in plain sight, which ultimately means there is no hiding to begin with and all things are visible to those who actually wish to see… and if you don’t, well good luck decaying and rotting in a hell of ignorance, lest you be reborn through the fire. Those who are obsessed with masking/keeping up appearances are also obsessed with physical reproduction via coitus through the Hermetic principle of gender, and usually their reasons for engaging with both are the same; continuity of an automated reality, why you may ask, who knows, not even them, as there is no end goal. Just keep going. They view both the self and the other as a machine to extract token niceties or bodies to keep the beast-system going. The world is predator-prey because the vast majority is soulless, thus ruled by duality. Creativity for the average person begins and ends at physical reproduction which is why they emphasise it, and because they have no creativity derived from mentalism, they reproduce ideas derived from others and recirculate these ideas and mannerism in a continuous cycle under the guise of politeness.

[takerfoxx]

Okay, about halfway through my Evangelion rewatch, and I swear to God this show has taken over my life. Like, even though I've seen it before and recently watched the Rebuild films, it's just clicked with me in a way that hasn't happened in a very long time, and I am loving it.

Anyway.

One thing that I noticed is that while the show gets off on a very depressing note that shines a spotlight on Shinji's problems, from the agony he experiences while piloting the Eva to his crippling depression and everything, once he makes the decision to stay, the tone shifts. Like, all those issues don't really go away fully, but for a little bit, the show gets a lot more lighthearted, becoming almost a traditional giant robots fighting aliens-type show. Shinji's mental health improves exponentially, he forms several healthy relationships, he actually does rather well as a pilot, and things seem to be on the upswing for him.

And then Asuka shows up and...actually, things sort of get better?

Okay, let me explain. The first time I watched this show like fifteen years ago, I couldn't stand Asuka. I thought that she was an entitled, insecure brat, and her treatment of Shinji and Rei was totally uncalled for. However, now that I've experienced this story in both of its entireties, processed all the characters and the complexities of their portrayals, and experienced various interpretations of them through various fanfics, doujins, spin-offs, etc., revisiting the original Asuka that spawned all of these reactions is...honestly, it's not nearly as bad as I remember. Yeah, she's still an insecure brat, but I get it now. And her beef with Shinji and Rei comes from her literally being groomed to be the best Eva pilot imaginable while being traumatized by her mother's suicide, leading her to see the other two pilots as both a threat to her position as well as disappointments for not living up to her standards, hence her hostile treatment of them. Even still, we see that facade crack and she does display moments of genuine kindness and comradery with them.

Also, later events have caused people to view Shinji as something of the most extreme of doormats, but for now, he actually isn't? Like, okay, he's still kind of a pushover, but he does get frustrated, he does push back against Asuka, he does snap and start arguing. At the same time, you can also seem them trying to connect in their highly damaged, kind of awkward ways. It's not working, but you see the attempt, and overall, their dynamic does get played more for laughs and slapstick, at least in the early stages.

Of course, all of that goes out the window later on when everyone gets SOOOO much worse, but for now, it's nice to see these kids' relationship in it's healthiest stage. That scene where they all sit on the hill watching the stars together was honestly adorable, as well as Asuka deliberately eschewing a fancy steak dinner in favor of a trip to a ramen shack so Rei could participate.

As for me being ride or die for a poly ending for this trio, was it at all changed by revisiting the source material? Haha, NOPE! If anything, it was strengthened, given that all three have their unique dynamics with each other instead of the tired cliche of two people fighting over a third and it's all like, "Oh, who will they choose?" Y'ALL HAVE TWO HANDS APIECE!

Though on a more deeply personal side, I think that's why I've had Evangelion infest my mind like it has as of late. I just sort of relate to Shinji, Rei, and Asuka a whole bunch and see aspects of myself in all three, and I just kind of want them to be happy together, but, in this timeline at least, I know that that's not meant to be.

Speaking of complicated characters, Touji and Kensuke certainly are that, because on the one hand, they are kind of best boys in how ride or die they are for Shinji, basically becoming the close friends that he definitely needed and going out of their way to check in on him and support him and stick up for him.

On the other hand, they are also selling creep shots of Asuka and their other female classmates. Like, okay, 90's Japan culture and how that gets played for laughs back then, I get it. Still, not cool, guys. But I guess it just goes with the theme of how these are all messy individuals kind of stumbling their way through their messy lives, and everyone has their good and bad qualities.

Another observations. The virus takeover episode was one of the series' finest, as the whole bottle episode thing where the adults have to solve a unique problem while the pilots were otherwise out of the picture made for a great change of pace and was tense as hell. The dancing episode is a fan favorite for a reason and must've made the AsuShin ship explode early on.

Also, I know that we're supposed to hate the JSSDF because their rep was kind of a jerk to Misato and put down NERV and all (plus the later massacre in the movie), but to be honest, now knowing what we know about NERV and the Evangelions, he was kind of right in everything he was criticizing them about? And the fact that Jet Alone was deliberately sabotaged by NERV in a sort of petty dick-waving contest only puts them in a worse light. Honestly, if the two organizations had actually behaved like adults and cooperated, things might've gone so much better.

But then again, Gendo's got to Gendo, what with SEELE and their whole agenda and everything.

And on a more critical side!

Okay, I've said my piece about all of the weird creep shots in the Rebuild movies and how distracting and, well, uncomfortable they were. Like, okay, I know this whole series is low-key horny, and using Misato for some cheesecake shots, that's fine. But, like I said about Toji and Kensuke's creepy photo business...yeah. It's not as bad as it was in the Rebuild movies, which really took things way over the top, but it's still there.

And honestly, some of it you can get away with. Like, I don't have an issue with the scene between Shinji and Rei in the apartment, or Shinji ogling the girls in their swimsuits, or overhearing Asuka and Misato in the hotspring and having a reaction, because he's a repressed kid full of hormones in a very stressful situation. It makes sense that he would be like that. Same with Asuka's flirty side and how she hangs off of Kaji in a very inappropriate manner. Or Rei's lack of inhibitions. All of these make sense for their characters. I don't even have a problem with how Misato teases Shinji, because she's portrayed as somewhat of an emotionally stunted womanchild.

But when it's not from his or anyone else's point of view and you're just showing fanservice shots of your explicitly underaged characters, it gets kind of, well...

Okay, the point I'm making is...was there like a specific reason for the nude sync test? At all? Did it serve the plot in any way? Yeah, you need them in the plugs to get them out of the way so that the grown-ups could have an episode, but c'mon. Was it really necessary other than to get shots of them naked in their cockpits? Even from a character standpoint, I think Asuka at the very least would have protested more!

I dunno, I know it's a rampant problem in anime and always has been and you kind of need some level of tolerance, but that scene in particular did stand out as a great big, "Why is this happening?" Maybe if it had actually led to something it'd be better, but it didn't.

But Evangelion has always been messy and complicated, and that little bug aside, it's easy to see why it captured so many people's attention when it first came out and still does to this day. Hell, it's definitely consumed my every waking moment as of late.

However, Rei's little existential crisis is any indication, I'm approaching the part where things get really weird, so, that'll be...interesting.