#I never know (I think because we don't know) exactly how data is read

[nebbys-personal-nebula]

the biggest, most copium agent 4 theory from this clown of an agent four enjoyer

apologies for the wait on this! i wanted to unlock all of the dev diaries to make sure i could squeeze out every last bit of lore...

anyways SIDE ORDER SPOILERS INCLUDING POSTGAME

so let's start with the common knowledge. most people know by this point that agent 4 has a palette. it's one of the first you get in the game, after pearl and marina's. to the surprise of nobody, it is a splattershot...

according to what marina says about the memverse, palettes are a portion of a person's soul dragged into the memverse. so agent 4's soul got dragged in here somehow. how did this happen, and why? there are a few possibilities...

marina mentions in her eighth dev diary that she needs someone to handle system security. she writes: "maybe i can ask that person cuttlefish introduced me to for help there." this is still pretty vague, but we know from smollusk's note on agent 4's palette that it is definitely agent 4. quote:

"THIS is who mawina wanted in charge of memverse security? this unfwappable, free-spirited so-and-so? i would never abide it!"

the question is: if agent 4 was intended to be security for the memverse, then where are they? this leads us to the parallel canon boss!

note that figure in the center. even though all descriptions for this boss describe it as "a lot like eight", it is clearly an inkling with its pointed ears and hair.

the hairstyle is significant, too. all art of this boss, including its icon, display it with the "haircut" style. why does this matter? because official art of agent 4 also uses this style:

on top of that, people have reported that if you have splatoon 2 save data on your switch, the boss will use whatever hairstyle your inkling uses in that game (with that inkling, of course, being agent 4). unfortunately, i forgot to take a screenshot of my save, but maybe someone could reblog this and confirm?

another thing to note about that agent 4-looking robot in the center is that they're wielding the order shot, which is the same weapon you get from agent 4's palette.

so what exactly am i getting at with all this? let's read a little more of smollusk's notes on agent 4...

"buut...no weason such stwength shouldn't be used to pwotect a world of order. an order defense force is MUCH cooler than a new squidbeak splatoon anyway!"

this phrasing is particularly interesting to me because it implies smollusk wants to, or already has utilized agent 4's strength in some way. additionally, smollusk regards fans of chaos in a very similar way. for almost all of them, he argues they must be "punished". examples:

"she must be PUNISHED!" - callie's palette

"her chaotic lies must be PUNISHED!" - shiver's palette

"for the sake of order, they all must be PUNISHED!" - frye's palette

"it annoys me, so he must be PUNISHED!" - big man's palette

"he must be PUNISHED!" - sheldon's palette

"i sentence him to PUNISHMENT!" - dj octavio's palette

almost all of these characters are on the side of "chaos". callie and dj octavio were on the chaos side of the final fest, while shiver, frye, and big man rep the splatlands, basically the land of chaos. no idea what smollusk's beef is with sheldon though that guy was neutral LOL

on the other hand, smollusk is notably softer with characters on the side of "order", like marie, murch, and marina (obviously). he still critiques them, but he doesn't sentence them to "punishment".

agent 4 was on the side of chaos in the final fest. so why didn't smollusk sentence them to "punishment"?

perhaps it's because smollusk is already making use of them...by using their soul to control the parallel canon boss!

think about it! the bosses of the tower are basically security, right? they keep you from reaching the top! since smollusk knows from marina that agent 4 was meant to be security, it could have pulled in their soul to fulfill that job. that's why agent 4's palette is there, and that's why we don't physically see them in the dlc! because they're grayscaled in the outside world!

…it is also definitely possible that the boss is just INSPIRED by agent 4, taken from marina's memories, or something like that. but i like this theory because it explains why agent 4's soul ended up in the memverse.

one other thing - i think the popular opinion is that the parallel canon boss are "robots", due to the way they move, their eyes glowing, the filter on their voice, etc...this is probably true, but have you ever wondered if the boss is actually a real inkling (a digital…real…inkling? you get the idea) if it was just a robot like the others, why would it specifically have ears and hair? not only that, but you can get the parallel mask from the priz shop:

which you wear on your face. what if this is the real agent four, wearing this parallel mask? their gray coloring could be because they're grayscaled! after all, we never actually see a representation of grayscaling in-game. the name implies that they'd actually turn gray in some way, maybe in the color of their tentacles. but this could be the most dramatic extent of it!

this is definitely a stretch, but you can consider it food for the die-hard agent 4 angsters out there. love you guys <3

feel free to reblog if you have thoughts, add-ons or even counterpoints! i find this all really interesting

[homunculus-argument]

Intelligence is a nebulous concept that can't be perfectly and exactly measured in numbers or other metrics, but there are things people generally agree as signs of at least some intellect. An ability to learn and employ new knowledge, adapting to new information, being able to notice patterns and correlations between seemingly unrelated things. Being able to adjust one's methods as needed, ability to make deductions and educated guesses based on incomplete data, being able to improvise if necessary.

And look. Don't get me wrong here. But I learned to read on my own when I was five, I literally have no memories of ever not knowing how to read. English is not my first language, I cannot officially call myself bilingual because neither of my parents was a native english speaker. I first picked it up by hearing it on TV. I could already read and speak english when I went into school, and for the rest of it I managed to get decent enough grades purely by improvising that nobody noticed that I literally never did my homework ever before I was 11. Nobody noticed that I have an attention deficit disorder before I was 27.

I learned to play the clarinet, the piano at some point, and though I lost my voice, I used to sing. If you gave me an instrument and played me a tune, I could repeat it playing by the ear. I could even write it down, note by note, if I heard it a few times and remembered it. If you gave me notes of a song I've never heard, I could whistle it from the notes.

I learned enough swedish in school to read the back of a shampoo bottle, but still enough to compare and contrast the nuance differences in the finnish, swedish and english translations of the same notifications at bus stops. I can summarise what is the unifying element between a long list of words with the same prefix or suffix, and name their mutual definition. I remember enough of the french I learned in school and spanish I learned on my own to roughly parse together portugese.

My parents met in university, but while I never made it to college, I've still made myself a career in something I never went to school for. I have no higher education in arts past high school art classes. I am a full-time professional in something I taught myself, working with a script I also wrote myself without any guidance past brief googling.

That being said, I can't read an analog clock. I've learned how to do a lot of things in my life, but that's the one thing I can't fucking do. You can show me a clock face and I won't know what it means. If I can't look at my phone and there's nothing with a digital clock available, I've learned tricks on how to get people to tell me the time without admitting that I can't read it. Like asking someone if they think the clock on the wall is on time, prompting them to look at their own clock and tell me what their clock says. Pointedly looking at the clock and remarking to people that We Have Plenty Of Time, and assessing from their reactions whether that is true or if I was sarcastic. I never learned to read a clock face, but I've learned plenty of ways to get people to read it to me.

And every single time I tell people I can't read a clock face, they start trying to explain it to me. Like look. I'm 29. You do not know any method to explain it that I would never have encountered in the past 20 years. None of them sunk. I've tried until I cried and I still can't do it. I could learn to translate poetry from french, how to put together a car engine, or how to skin a llama, but that is the one thing I cannot do. I do not know what the positions of the arrows pointing at numbers mean, and you can't make me.

[kaminocasey]

Shy Boys Go to Heaven

Summary: Fixer doesn't like how much Scorch cozied up to you. He intends to show you that you're his and only his.

Pairing: Delta Squad!Fixer x F Medic!Reader

Warnings: MINORS DNI 18+; SMUT, Possessive/Jealous!Fixer, P in V (unprotected; wrap it up friends), oral (f receiving), cum eating, Rough sex. (If I missed something, lemme know)

WC: 3.1K

A/N: Guys... I was like possessed while writing this. Lmao. I genuinely don't know where this sudden love for Fixer came from bc literally the man pissed me off yesterday while I was reading. But c'est la vie, right? Anyway... I think I'm gonna start writing more Rep Comm fics. I'm still working on the Ordo x Reader x Mereel one, don't worry!

Taglist Form

“Ma’am.” Scorch winks at you, as he and the other Deltas walk into the medbay. 

“Well, hello boys.” You smile. “Long time no see.”

“Only a few weeks.” Scorch teases.

Sev and Boss both nod in greeting toward you, taking off their helmets, but once you see Fixer’s familiar green armor, your whole body goes warm just as it does anytime you see him. It was still a secret to everyone, including his own brothers, that you and Fixer would hook up anytime they’d come planetside. You weren’t exactly official or anything, but you enjoyed each other’s company. He wasn’t exactly chatty or anything, as he was a man of few words, so you did most of the talking. 

Fixer nods, his helmet still on, but you know he’ll find you later, so you give him a flirtatious grin as you go to help Scorch and Sev stock up on their medical supplies.

“So, when are you gonna join the field?” Scorch teases, bumping you slightly. “We could always use a skilled medic.”

“Leave the poor woman alone, Scorch.” Boss rolls his eyes before walking over to Alai, your pretty coworker. 

Fixer told you once that Alai and Boss hooked up a couple times, but never became anything serious. But he wasn’t supposed to know that, and Alai never told you, so the two of you weren’t the only ones with secrets. 

“When are you gonna stop asking me?” You tease Scorch back.

“When you cave to my charm and good looks and say yes.” Scorch winks. 

With a roll of your eyes, you turn to look at Fixer, finding him more rigid than usual. Why hasn’t he taken his helmet off? 

You let Scorch and Sev do their thing as you walk over to Fixer, looking up into his visor. “You alright?” 

He nods once, which is code for “Not really, but we’ll talk about it later.” and you know it’s a promise. With a soft sigh, you pat his hand and go sit at your desk, pulling up your end of day data reports.

“How long are you boys planetside?” You ask them. 

“Til tomorrow. Why, you trying to join us for a night of fun?” Scorch flirts.

You shake your head with a laugh, but before you can say anything, Fixer tosses Scorch another crate, barely giving the other man time to catch it, and walks out.

“What’s his deal?” Scorch asks Sev, who just shrugs, taking the crate to stock it. 

You know you can’t go after him. If you do, it’ll raise suspicion, which you know is the last thing that Fixer wants. So, you just hope that you’ll see him later.

Later that night, back at your apartment, you can’t stop thinking about Fixer. What if he doesn’t come tonight? What if the real reason he was so stiff and rigid is because he wants to end it with you? You’ve been doing a lot of thinking the last few months, and you’ve come to the realization that you want this thing with Fixer to be more permanent… But if he doesn’t… then, you’ll have to accept it and move on. No matter how much it hurts. 

As you make a cup of tea, preparing for bed, you hear the front door open and you know immediately who it is. You don’t even have to look. 

But, he’s the one who left so swiftly and suddenly earlier, so he can be the one to initiate the conversation tonight, which you know is something he’s not particularly fond of doing. You aren’t going to sleep with him until he talks, though. A conversation has to be had, no matter what conversation it is.

You hear heavy footsteps make their way to your room as you make your bed down. 

“Hey.” You murmur, barely glancing at him in the doorway of your room.

He doesn’t say anything, though. He walks over to “his” side of the bed, but you put your hand up, stopping him. He’s not wearing his armor anymore, but he is in just his bodysuit. You try to avoid looking at his well-toned form, looking him in the face.

Fixer tilts his head.

“Nothing to say?” You ask, quietly, waiting for him to just say something, but he doesn’t. “Of course not…”

He looks down at your fluffy comforter he loves so much, which he’s mentioned a couple times before. 

“Fixer.” You sigh, making him look up at you with those deep warm brown eyes that you adore so much.

He sighs with a soft grunt running his hand through his curls, clearly frustrated. 

“You have to give me something.” You crawl on the bed, settling in the middle on your knees. 

He’s eyeing the soft skin of your thighs that’s showing in your short silk pajama set. It’s his favorite pair, and you know it. Maybe you’re using it to your advantage. He looks like he wants to touch you, but isn’t letting himself. 

“If you want to fuck me tonight… you have to let me in.” You do your best to look at him, firmly.

“I…” He starts, rolling his eyes as he struggles to say what he wants to say. “Ugh. Scorch… knows that I… feel things… for you.”

“And?” 

“And… he flirts with you… to get under my skin.” Fixer’s gripping the comforter, his fists tight. “And it works. I hate that it works, cyar’ika.” 

“Why?” 

“Why what?” 

“Why do you hate it?” 

“Because…” He struggles again. 

You crawl to him, running your hands up his chest, making his tight fists let go of the sheets. His calloused hands run around your soft body, pulling you against each other. His eyes are on your lips. 

Stay firm, you remind yourself. Who cares if he’s second in command in one of the most intimidating commando squads? Not you. You are not giving in first. 

“Please, Fixer.” You sigh. “I was under the impression you wanted to end things with me.”

“Oh… That’s not it at all.” He murmurs. “I promise.” 

Maker, he smells so fucking good. Too good. 

“So, what is it, then?” You pull away, sitting back on your butt in the middle of the bed, needing a little space before you cave.

He climbs up into the bed, pushing you on your back, pinning you down. 

“Fixer-” You start.

“Just listen, will you?” He asks, gently, but also strained. 

You nod, letting him continue. 

“You, cyar’ika… are mine. Only mine. You belong to me. The thought of any other man touching you, or even speaking to you…” You hear a low frustrated rumble in his throat. “If Scorch wasn’t my vod, I’d have ripped him apart.” 

You didn’t know that Fixer feels this way about you, but it does something to your insides and goes straight to your warmth. Does he know how you feel about him? Surely, he does.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?” Fixer asks, lowly, his lips so close to yours.

You nod, losing yourself in those brown orbs and breathlessly murmur, “Yes.” 

“Say it then.” Fixer whispers, even closer to lips. “I need to hear it.” 

You think this might be the most he’s ever said in an entire night. And fuck, if they’re not the hottest words any man has ever said to you… 

“I’m yours.” You bite your lip, trying to squeeze your legs together for some sort of release. “I belong to you, Fixer.”

“That’s right.” He smiles, softly. “Good girl.”

Unable to hold back any longer, you reach up, crushing your lips to his. He groans loudly against your mouth, pressing himself against you, making you feel just how hard he is. All from hearing you tell him you belong to him. 

“You like hearing that you belong to me?” He hums.

You nod, whimpering as he grinds his hardened cock against your clothed core. “Y-yes.”

“Good.” He whispers before, pulling away to pull your shorts down, dropping them to the floor behind him. 

“Clothes off-” You gasp as he grips your thighs.

Fixer chuckles, getting up off the bed quickly. “Yes, ma’am.” 

As you watch him drop his clothes with yours, you sit up to pull your silky tank top off, tossing it with the rest. He takes in your naked form and groans, gripping his cock, already dripping precum. 

You start back toward him, eager to get your mouth on him, but he pushes you back again and then, to your surprise, flips you over onto your stomach, pulling you up on your knees and then pressing your face down so that your ass is up. 

You think he’s gonna push his cock into you, unable to wait any longer, but he surprises you once again, by licking a long stripe up your drenched folds.

“Oh, Fuck… Fix…” You groan, reaching above you to grip the comforter, just as he was doing earlier. 

“Taste so good, sweetheart.” He murmurs against your cunt. “Like always.” 

You whimper softly, almost pathetically, when he continues licking into you, his strong fingers, pressing against your clit and rubbing expertly, as always. 

“So wet.” He teases.

“So talkative.” You tease back, just happy to hear him talking. 

He places a swift smack to your back cheek and you gasp sharply into the room. He rubs the spot where he spanked you and then kisses it before returning back to your soaked pussy.

Your moans fill the room as he continues to work your cunt, getting you nice and soaked for his cock, soon you hope. You want so desperately to be filled by him again. It feels like it’s been too long. 

Twenty-six days. But who’s counting?

When he reaches his fingers into you, you feel like you’re about to come right then. It’s been days since you even touched yourself, and you’re pretty sure Fixer can tell. 

He chuckles breathlessly. “So needy for me.”

“Mmhmm.” You groan, burying your whimpers into the covers. 

“So fucking tight… Can’t wait to sink my cock into you.” He rambles.

You’ve always been accepting that he was a man of few words, but tonight… something changed. Like some sort of switch inside of him, flipped the other way. He’s talking, quietly, and Maker, you love his voice. It’s so low, and so sensual, and goes straight to your warmth. 

“Why… wait?” You bounce yourself on his fingers.

“Patience, cyar’ika… Or I’ll make you fuck your own fingers.” He threatens you. 

You whine softly, looking back at him and he grins before burying his face in your cunt again, still thrusting his fingers into you, starting to tease that spongy part deep inside of you. The warm familiar feeling pools into you, spreading all the way to your toes, making them curl and before you know it, you’re cumming all over Fixer’s fingers and tongue, moaning into the mattress.

“Let me fucking hear you.” He reaches up to grab your hair, pulling so that your moans and wet sounds fill the entire room. 

His thrusting fingers gently slow, before pulling out of you. You pant slightly, as you fall to the bed, rolling over to look up at him, smiling blissfully. 

“Fuck me… please?” You whisper. 

“I will, I promise.” He murmurs, laying next to you. 

The look in his eyes is serious now, not playful like it was just moments ago. 

“What is it?” You trace your gentle fingers over his chest, anxiously making lazy patterns.

“I’m afraid that I sounded overbearing earlier…” He stops your hand and brings it to his lips.

This is the softest, most domestic that he’s ever been with you, and you’re almost afraid to move, not wanting it to end. 

“I didn’t think you did.” You assure him. 

“I don’t want to like… own you.” He chuckles. “But… I guess what I’m trying to say is… I want people to know you- we belong to each other.”

Your chest tightens at his confession and you can’t help but reach up and kiss him. It’s different somehow. Like, all of your kisses before were that of passion or lust… this is… sweet… kind. Fixer sighs against your lips, full of content. 

“Next time Scorch flirts with me, I’ll just punch him if you want?” You tease. 

“Actually, yes please.” He laughs and you cross your leg over his thigh. 

This is the first time you’ve ever heard him laugh fully and you try to commit the sound to memory, hoping that you get to hear it more.

“What made you come to this realization?” You ask.

“Oh, I always want to punch Scorch.” He smirks.

You playfully smack him in the chest, making him chuckle. 

“I was on a mission… and I thought for sure we were going to die…” Fixer murmurs, making your stomach churn. “All I could think of was you. Your smile. Your laugh. Your kindness. The way you curl up next to me at night. The way you-” You roll over on top of him, straddling him, grinding your wet folds over his still hard cock. “Keep going.” 

“Fuck…” He groans, gripping your hips tightly. “The way that you cry at holofilms…”

You lift your hips, reaching under you and grabbing his cock, making him gasp. 

“Th-the way y-you…” He struggles.

“Keep. Going.” You encourage him, smiling down at him as you line yourself up with his hardened length. 

“Th-the way you have to stop to say hi to every loth cat-” He groans incredibly loud as you sink down onto him. “Fuck!”

His eyes roll back in his head as he tilts his head back slightly, making you smile. Clenching around him in a teasing manner, he lets out another string of curses. He fills you so perfectly, just like always. But tonight… it just feels like it means so much more. He feels the same way about you, that you do him. 

“You’re gonna be the death of me, not a mission.” He grumbles. 

“Yeah, but what a way to go, right?” You grin down at him, brightly.

“I’ll fucking say.” He starts to buck up into you and you push him back down, keeping your hands against his chest. 

You start to lift up slightly, only to fall back down against him, making him actually whimper. It’s always music to your ears when you get that sound out of Fixer. 

“Maker, Fix… you’re so hard.” You tell him, seduction clear in your tone and his hands fly up to yours on his chest, gripping your hands, creating more support. 

He wants you to take over. And you’re happy to oblige. You start bouncing up and down on his cock, causing both of you to groan with need. 

The sounds leaving the man underneath you deserve to go into some sort of auditory museum, they’re so fucking beautiful. He’s so beautiful. 

“You like when I’m on top?” You ask him, breathlessly, squatting so you can glide up and down on his cock, easier. 

“Stars, yes…” He pants. “So… tight.”

You feel the burn in your thighs but you’re able to ignore it, purely driven by the craving for this man. He must sense it though, because he provides support under you, gripping your ass, helping lift you up and down and you can’t help but smile. He winks up at you and it goes straight to your core. You can tell he’s getting closer with each thrust, though.

“Permission to take over?” He whispers.

“Granted, trooper.” You laugh. 

He flips the two of you over, so that you’re on your back and starts driving into you. 

Oh, he’s definitely welcome to take over. 

“So fucking pretty… and perfect.” He groans in your ear, continuously slamming into you, getting the most perfect sounds out of you. “All mine.”

As he tells you that you’re his, his hips stutter only slightly, filling you up, painting your walls with himself. Normally, he’d start to pull away, but he just keeps fucking his cum into you, and honestly, it’s the hottest thing you’ve ever seen. And then when he pulls out, you expect him to stop, but he doesn’t. 

He travels down your body, latching his mouth to your cunt again and you nearly descend into another realm. 

“Fuck…” You moan, still overstimulated from earlier. 

He’s never done this before, cumming in you and then going down on you again. But you’re not complaining. His tongue feels way too good, but with the way that it's moving in you… it takes you a moment to realize he’s gathering up his cum as he rubs your clit. Before you can even say anything, another orgasm is ripped from your body, and he travels back up your body and taps your lips, clearly wanting you to open your mouth. Oh. You gladly open for him and he lets his cum slide into your mouth.

“Swallow for me, sweetheart.” He smirks.

Who are you to deny a dangerous commando? You do as you’re told, swallowing his cum, appreciating the taste of him like you normally do when you go down on him. 

“Good girl.” He tells you again for the second time tonight, and then kisses you, proudly. 

You both pant against each other, your chests heaving, as you try to come down. He pulls you up to the head of the bed, against the pillows, wrapping his arms around you.

You rest your head on his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. You’ve always found it calming. 

“Maybe I should join your squad…” You tease, only slightly. 

“Absolutely not.” Fixer shakes his head as he traces patterns over your bare back. 

“Why not?” You ask, looking up at him, confused.

“Because I wouldn’t be able to focus… I’d be too busy trying to make sure you were okay.” He smiles. “I like knowing you’re here… safe and sound.”

You suppose that makes sense… Even though, when he’s away, you don’t know if he’s safe.

“Can I tell you something?” You whisper, afraid to speak too loudly.

“Anything.” He kisses your forehead.

“Every time you go, you take a piece of me with you, Fix.” You admit. 

“Can I tell you something?” He murmurs.

“Of course.” You answer, nervously.

“Every time I go, I leave my heart here with you.” He admits. 

Warmth floods your veins. “Well, I promise to keep it safe.” 

“I know you will.” He leans down to kiss you again.

You eventually fall asleep like that, holding each other with sweet promises of him returning to you and you keeping his heart safe and sound. 

TAGS: @twistedstitcher27 @misogirl828 @rebel-finn @rexandechosandwich @madameminor @dumfanting @rain-on-kamino @corona-one @tecker @ladykatakuri @brynhildrmimi @the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond @zoeykallus @maulslittlemeowmeow @littlemousedroid @arctrooper69 @rexxdjarin @padawancat97 @hated-by-me @sleepingsun501 @quigonswife8 @idlenesses @redheadgirl @themcuwriter @ashotofspotchka @sunshinesdaydream @crosshairsimp73 @ariadnes-red-thread @rosmariner @heyitsaloy @starstofillmydream @high-ct5555 @echos-girlfriend @sleepywych @nekotaetae @justanothersadperson93 @brownstalebread @aconstructofamind @book-of-baba-fett @chopper-base @palliateclaw @501st-rexster @dead-poolz @nahoney22 @where-is-my-mind-tho @jediknightjana @erishimoon @witching3 @queen-of-many-fandoms @wizardofrozz

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super Manga ch.91-93

Last time, we covered the "prequel" story of Goten and Trunks adopting superhero identities and capturing Dr. Hedo. Now we get into the events of the DBS: Super Hero movie itself. I already liveblogged the movie extensively in September (here, here, here, here, and here), so for the manga adaptation I'll be focusing mainly on whatever changes Toyotaro made to the story.

First off, Chapter 91 opens with Piccolo picking up Pan from school, and when she talks about wanting to be a superhero like Goten and Trunks have been doing recently, Piccolo offers to train her just like he trained Gohan in Dragon Ball Z.

Unfortunately, this is the sort of thing we can expect from this adaptation. It's mostly a straight retelling of the movie, and the little extras that get added in don't really add much to the story. I mean, the movie established that Piccolo has picked up Pan from school in the past, but there was no need to show it. Also, the movie didn't really explain why Piccolo started training Pan, probably because it didn't need to. I think the manga pretty much proves my point, because it attempts to tackle the question, but only comes up with a fairly pat answer. She wanted to fly and shoot hand energy like Goten and Trunks, and so Piccolo offered to teach her and she said yes.

Then we get to this scene, where Krillin's boss in the West City P.D. holds a briefing on the Red Ribbon Army and their plans to recruit Dr. Hedo. This takes the place of the flashback montage that opened the movie, and it sucks.

That montage was awesome, and Toyotaro could have drawn his own version of it here, but instead he did this. We could be looking a Goku punching Tao Pai Pai, or 17 killing Dr. Gero, or Cell smirking like a boss, but instead we're in a boring conference room reading walls of text.

Look at this fucking page! It's awful! A lot of this one serves as a stand-in for Carmine's report to Magenta about Dr. Hedo. I get it, this is a lot of information to go through, and Toyotaro probably wanted to move on as quickly as possible, but part of what I loved about the movie was the way they showcased the characters and visuals during the infodumping. Carmine's report is pretty dry in the movie, but Magenta's office is interesting to look at, and Carmine and Magenta themselves are visually compelling characters. While they talk about Hedo, Carmine shows off his video editing skills and Magenta keeps screwing up his snacks

This police briefing, however, sucks all the fun out of it. This place looks like a hotel conference room with hardwood floors. All of the cops look exactly the same, and why the hell are they wearing helmets and sunglasses indoors, anyway? Krillin's boss, Sergeant Nutz, has some potential, but she has nothing to do with this story, so featuring her so prominently here is just a waste of time.

What really irks me is that the next scene shows Carmine and Magenta talking about Dr. Hedo, just like in the movie, except there's not much for them to say because Krillin and Nutz already covered it all! That's really dumb! We have two scenes designed to set up the plot of the movie, and one of them was in the movie, and actually features the main antagonists. But Toyotaro chose to emphasize the other scene instead.

So the idea here is that the police are already aware of Magenta's scheme to revive the Red Ribbon Army, and they know he plans to recruit Dr. Hedo once he gets out of prison. They also know that Hedo had that disc containing data on Dr. Gero's bioweapon, although I don't see how they could know that, since Trunks couldn't access the data on the disc and it was destroyed before anyone else could try. Hedo told Krillin in Chapter 90 that he memorized the contents of the disc, but he never said what it was that he memorized. This also goes against the storyline in the movie. In the film, Magenta had Gero's data on Cell, and the reason he wanted Hedo was because his own scientists couldn't do anything with it.

Anyway, the police seem to know everything about the Red Ribbon Army already. The only thing they don't know is where the Red Ribbon base is, so they send Krillin to follow Magenta's limo and spy on him. So we get the limo scene from the movie, except Krillin's clinging to the side of the car the whole trip, and then Hedo spots him and sends his cyborg bee, Hatchimaru, to attack him.

The gag here is that Magenta and Carmine don't even know Krillin is out there, and Hedo doesn't particularly care. The scene plays out almost exactly like it does in the movie, but with Krillin spliced in like Jabba the Hut in the Star Wars Special Edition.

Of course, Krillin gets shaken off so the base's location remains a secret, so this whole bit is completely pointless. It's just so dumb. I assume Toyotaro needed to pad out the story for one reason or another, or maybe he just wanted to add some new details so he wouldn't get bored retelling a movie like this. But if this is the best he can come up with, why bother? So far, this manga keeps "expanding" on the movie by answering questions nobody asked, like "Why did Piccolo start training Pan?" or "Why didn't the authorities stop the Red Ribbon Army?" or "Why is Gamma 1's cape red?"

From here, it's a pretty faithful retelling of the movie, which kind of makes the "filler" scenes even more conspicuous. It's refreshing to see the actual story move along without all these pointless diversions. On the other hand, it's kind of dull, because I already covered the movie and there's nothing else to talk about here.

There is some extra stuff in the Gamma 2 vs. Piccolo fight. Piccolo loses an arm, but then he grows a new one and makes it all long to catch Gamma 2 off guard. It doesn't slow him down much, but it's something we didn't get in the movie. I do find it a bit strange how Gamma 2 notes Piccolo's regeneration ability like it's this new data to add to his files. Shouldn't the Red Ribbon Army have all of this intel programmed into Gamma 2 by now?

Moving on, when Piccolo infiltrates the Red Ribbon base, he gets stopped by his superiors, who remind "94" that he isn't assigned to this area, but another soldier offers to switch assignments so "94" can gain some valuable experience watching Hedo eat cookies.

Again, what is the point of this? We're just derailing the story so Toyotaro can waste a page explaining how Piccolo managed to get this far into the base. In the movie, nobody notices or cares that "94" is in the command center instead of the hangar. That's because they're all faceless, interchangeable henchmen. They wear masks and refer to each other by numbers, for crying out loud! This is why Piccolo disguised himself in the first place! If Toyotaro wrote Star Wars, he'd do a whole scene where Luke Skywalker has to rewrite the Death Star's duty roster just so "TK-421" can get reassigned to prison detail. Nobody cares!

Okay now this is more like it. We get to the part where no one can reach Goku and Vegeta because they're training on Beerus' planet, and so Toyotaro gives us a little more of the sparring match Goku and Broly had in the movie. It's not a lot, but this is the sort of thing filler is good for. Toyo also does a whole montage recap of the DBS: Broly film, which is perfectly serviceable, but it annoys me because it demonstrates that he could have done the same thing with the Red Ribbon Army flashback in Chapter 91, but instead he did the briefing scene with Sgt. Nutz. Ugh.

We see the same scene where Vegeta explains the importance of mental training, although when he talks about all of their recent opponents, he adds manga-only characters like Moro, Gas, and Black Frieza. And that's fine, although it's strange when he talks about Jiren and Black Frieza in the same breath like this. In the manga, Vegeta has gotten pretty good at "Ultra Ego", his answer to Goku's Ultra Instinct. And Goku's learned to tap into UI at will. So I'm pretty sure Jiren and Moro aren't really an issue for either of them anymore. I mean, the only reason Goku couldn't defeat Jiren by himself at the Tournament of Power was because he lacked experience using UI, and now he's much better at it.

The point I'm getting at is that in the manga, Vegeta doesn't need to do "mental training" to defeat Jiren because he's already surpassed him. And he might need it to surpass Broly and Black Frieza, but he speaks as though that's their secret, and he needs to learn how to do it himself. I'm pretty sure Broly isn't "relaxed" between attacks when he's using his full power. He was kind of freaking the fuck out back then. Black Frieza might have been doing something like that, but he only hit Vegeta once, so I'm not sure how he could be certain.

So then we move on to the part where Piccolo wishes for a power-up from Shenron, and we just skip the part where Dende upgrades Shenron to do that. The implication here is that DBS-manga Shenron always had the ability to make Orange Piccolo, and no one bothered to ask before. Kind of annoying.

Anyway, while Piccolo and Bulma are getting their...ahem... enhancements, Trunks sees them and calls Goten. They make plans to sneak out and play superheroes again, even though Goten's grounded and he really doesn't need to run up a bigger bill with his mom. I guess this is the throughline for Goten and Trunks in Dragon Ball Super. No matter what happens, Dragon Team tries to keep the boys out of it. It's not just Chi-Chi wanting Goten to study. Back in Resurrection F, Bulma tells the others that she doesn't want them fucking around during the battle with Frieza. And Vegeta ices them out of the tournaments with the other universes because he doesn't want them turning into Gotenks and being dorks the whole time. The Saiyaman X-1 and X-2 caper probably didn't do much to convince anyone that Goten and Trunks have matured.

But they still crave the excitement of being in the thick of things. They know the adults are trying to keep them out of it, and that just makes it more exciting. I suppose this is the legacy of the Buu Saga, where they had to get involved because there was no other choice, and they've had the bug for DBZ mayhem ever since, but their parents said no.

And maybe that's why Goku and Vegeta were so determined to train the boys in the End of Z episodes. Sometime after Super Hero, they came back home, heard about the Saiyamen costumes and the battle with Cell Max, and decided that they needed to be toughened up. Like, okay, you want to go fight bad guys like we do? Stop doing the poses and quit relying on fusion and learn how to do it right. And if the sparring sessions are too hard for you, you can always go back to doing your homework like your mom wanted."

That's why Goten's so frustrated in DBZ 289. He just wants to go on dates or screw around, but his only options are a) homework and b) fight for-ev-er *clap clap clap-clap-clap*.

And now that I think about it, this is where GT dropped the ball with Goten, because he doesn't really seem to have gained anything from that. Hitting the books and getting hit by Goku should have made him a bit more serious about his life, but instead he's just constantly talking to girls on the phone, because that was the only thing GT's writers seemed to think of for him to do.

I mean, they kind of got it right with Trunks, who went into GT with a lot of responsibility and skills. He didn't enjoy his position, but you could tell he'd grown a lot as a person since the end of DBZ.

So yeah, maybe I'm beginning to appreciate Big Goten more than I did before, but this newfound perspective still doesn't do much for this part of the manga. There's just a lot of nothing happening here, and throwing more Krillin, Goten, and Trunks at it doesn't help matters.

[russellsppttemplates]

No more internet for you (Pierre Gasly)

Since Pierre seems to be a danger on the Internet, you have to cut the problem from the source

Note: english is not my first language. I'm sorry that I didn't think this had potential at first because the longer I thought about it, the more I wanted to write it as a funny and breezy thing

Thank you so much to everyone who likes and reblogs, your feedback is appreciated 🤍 and I'm taking requests so if you have any ideas or concepts you want to share, feel free to do so as I'll try to get to them the best I can!

Tw: references to smut

Switching your laptop off at the end of the work day, you tidied your desk and placed your belongings inside your backpack, checking if you had everything before closing the office and making your way out, ready to head home so you could see your boyfriend. You hadn't seen Pierre yet since you left the house early to go to your university office and he had arrived back from Monza around lunchtime if everything went according to the plan he had.

Unlocking your car, you placed your backpack on the back seat, unzipping it so you could retrieve your phone from the pocket it sat in since your afternoon break, bringing it wirh you when you sat on the driver's seat.

Turning your mobile data, you check your personal e-mail, only seeing a few newsletters from online shops you buy from before the notification bar showed that you had a few messages on your group chat with your friends. Making a mental note to try and schedule something with them and Pierre, since he was home for a bit after the triple header, you opened the app to see what they were talking about.

From Anna: I never took you for that type Y/N, you always looked like missionary to me, or maybe some ankle on his shoulder action but never that

From Marie: Nah, I mean, have you seen how Pierre looks at her butt? It's obvious that that's how they like it, even I would do her like that

From Louise: Don't you remember that time that she insisted that she wouldn't wear the tiny bikini bottoms from her favourite set when we visited them? I bet Pierre got handsy and she couldn't hide the marks

You read the messages and did not understand why, all of a sudden, your friends were mentioning your sex life. Did they want any advice? You weren't exactly unexperienced since Pierre liked to experiment a lot in the bedroom and you didn't mind it either, the trust you built on eachother over the years making it a lot easier. Wanting to know what they were on about, you typed a reply.

From Y/N: I love you guys, we've shared our youth together, the good and the bad, but why are we talking about my sex life all of a sudden?

Louise was quick to reply while you saw that Marie was typing.

From Louise: Y/N, dear, please go and see your boyfriend's photodump from Monza

From Marie: if this is the last time we ever have the chance to get a message through to Pierre, please tell him that at least he's going with a good bang in the bag

Opening the Instagram app, you flick through the pictures, seeing him the blue t-shirt you loved so much, specially against his tanned skin, the thermometer picture that you had nagged him about to send you everytime he took it and then a few more from the garage until you reached his Twitter inquiry for what grid position he would start on race day, given the amount of penalties the other drivers had, and pressing to see the comment section, you found the top comment replied by your boyfriend of four years, the damned dog emoji staring back at you as you looked at the screen.

Exhaling, you opened the app the communications service that had installed their service at your shared apartment had provided you with so you would be able to control who got on your WiFi (if there was something that living in student housing taught you was that sometimes people want the things without having to pay for them, and that remained an attention point for you) and blocked Pierre's devices from your shared house's WiFi, deciding that your boyfriend had had enough Internet for the time being.

Just as you were about to turn on the car, your phone pinged with two notifications, one from your group chat and the other from a text from Pierre

From Anna: I could think of worse ways to go honestly, Pierre is a lucky guy, still such a shame to see him go like this though

From Pierre: Mon coeur, I think there's a problem with our Internet connection

Opening your apartment's door, you heard what you assumed was Pierre's feet making their way to the entrance while you took your coat and shoes off, setting then aside as you placed your backpack in its usual place. Pierre stretched his arms to greet you, having not seen you in a few days and having missed you a lot, dropping them when he sees the crease between your eyebrows, "What's is wrong, mon coeur?", he asks genuinely worried. Looking up at him, you pushed your glasses to rhe top of your head, "Why did you go and tell everyone about what we do in the bedroom?", you out it simply, watching how his lips tilted as a smirk made its way into his handsome face that threatened to could your thoughts, "Now the whole world knows Pierre", you tried to reason. Chuckling, he tried to grab your arms, your reaction to step back almost like a reflex, "C'mon baby, it's funny, and at least people won't ask anymore", he smiled "and you and I both know how much you like it", and there was those blue eyes who had a way of persuading you, almost like magic.

"Oh my goodness, what if your family see it? Your mother has Instagram, oh no, no, no", you said mortified, you could deal with people from the internet you'd never see in your life but his mother? That was a no go.

"Mon ange, I doubt that she will get what it means, and even if she does, it's not like she thinks we don't do anything", he said, clearly not as bothered as you by the fact that he was talking about his mother acknowledging your sex life. You were all for "we all do it so we should all talk about it", but you thought it would hardly be a fun conversation to have with the in-laws, 'yeah, sure, I like it when your son has his hands on me like that'. Nope, that is not dinner conversation appropriate. "Besides, aren't you always saying people should be more open about their sex lives and speak about it with no taboo and all", and oh, how much did you want to squish that handsome face into oblivion and make him regret the smart remark. It's true, you had never been shy talking about with friends but the whole internet was a different level.

"Well, we'll see how you like it without Internet for some time", you said as you passed him, sitting on the living room sofa and turning on the TV, making him realise that he had been blocked from the network, as every other device was working perfectly.

Approaching you, he spoke up "it was you! C'mon ma belle, you know I didn't mean it to be a bad thing", he said sitting next to you, "and maybe it's probably not even that bad", he offered, "How would you know? You can't see it because you can't be trusted around the big world wide web", you remarked. Were you really that mad at him because of it? A little bit yes, but honestly it had phased you already. So what, were you going to feel guilty that you had a really good sex life? No. But were you going to have a little fun making your boyfriend work for it? You bet your very nice ass you were, remaining quiet and ignoring his lingering and tempting touches.

Getting up a while later, you headed for your usual evening routine, hopping in the shower since it was hair washing day and you took your sweet time, even taking the opportunity to try the new body oil you had gotten over the weekend before putting you pyjama set on, drying your hair quickly airh rhe blow dryer and applying your night skincare products before making your way back to Pierre.

"I made your favourite for dinner, and I put extra cheese on yours just like how you like it", Pierre said quietly once you crossed the corner to the living area, seeing the table set up simply and yet beautifully, the smell from the food invading your nostrils and hitting you straight in the feels.

"I'm sorry I posted it like that, If I had known it would make you this upset I would have never even thought of it", he said as he grabbed your shoulders, pushing you in for a side hug and kissing your forehead, making you decide to end the act, wanting nothing more than to feel his embrace tight around you. "I'm not upset or mad, I just got caught by surprise I guess. I never thought you'd be that forward about it.", you explained, "if you want to, I can take it down", he offered, "Pierre, once in the internet it will be in there forever. And I don't mind it that much really. At least people know you have someone at home who treats you well", you said, grabbing the collar of the linen shirt he was wearing, tracing the outline of his chest hair that you loved so much. Smiling at you, he finally placed his lips on yours, his hands going straight to your butt and grabbing it so you could be as close to his body as possible.

You were sitting on the sofa after dinner, the news broadcast playing in the TV as you and Pierre looked at your phone screen, "everyone is having a blast imagining our sex life, there are some wild things in here", you said as you pointed out a few tweets and comments around the many posts about your boyfriend's comment, "Well, this one is not too far off, I'd day, seems pretty accurate", he said and you immediately flicked his forehead, "what? We might even get some new ideas from them, we haven't tried something new in a while", he said as he pushed your body impossibly closer to his, kissing your cheek as you kept looking, laughing when someone had come up with a good joke and blushing when things got a little bit too accurate and graphic.

"Goodnight handsome, je t'aime aussi", you said as you snuggled into your pillow once you both went to bed, Pierre settling himself so your back was glued to his chest and resting his arm on your waist, "So you'll let me in our WiFi again?", he pouted, "I'm going to sleep on your case", you said as you grabbed your phone and checked if your alarm was on for the next morning. "That's it", you huffed, "what did they say this time?", Pierre asked as he kissed your shoulder, noticing you had read something on your phone that led you to that reaction "Yuki just sent me the link to buy book called 'Breeding dogs for advanced practitioners'. I don't care if he's small and cute and friendly, next time I see him, he's going down".

[asspull3x]

— @mlembug

For those too lazy to find the A3X GitHub repo and from there the archived forum thread that spawned it, here's some of my personal favorite moments.

Oh my god, I'm considered a noob in these parts and even I know you're an idiot.

Why do you keep referring to the Virtual Console? AFAIK, they work exactly like any other emulator internally.

I don't think you understand how intensive a "megahertz" is.

And now I sit down with a glass of fine wine in front of a fire to read this thread.

Congratulations, you just defined "program" Well, for programs without conditional branching.

Sora reminds me of physics lectures I went to that started off "Assume a horse running on a racetrack is a block of uniform density sliding along a frictionless surface…"

Presumably it's a Hebrew idiom that just doesn't translate into English very well.

What math operation does PUSH represent?

Guys, guys….I think we're getting off track here. Don't you all realise that it's all about TEH MATHZ?

I think his interesting idea is that bsnes should be implemented as a system of linear equations, rather than as an imperative sequence of instructions, and that will make it as fast as ZSNES. I'll give him credit, I've never heard that particular proposal before.

Excuse me, sir, I find this image HIGHLY OFFENSIVE! I think I speak for everybody present when I say that we use SQUARE pixels around these parts - maybe 8:7 at the very most - but none of this 1:2 rubbish!

This thread shall now be about pixel aspect ratio. Anyone else in the 16:10 camp? 😉

PEOPLE HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR DECADES PEOPLE HAVE BEATEN IT TO DEATH OVER THEIR ENTIRE CAREER

pages = (rage function(miscommunication) * (concepts covered + (number of trolls * peanut gallery + 1)^0.65))^trolling potential * scale constant

Ah, now we're getting on to artificial intelligence. Because that's what it would take to perfectly identify what is code and what is data with zero interaction whatsoever.

Very OT, but, I suddenly want to make a game for the asspull.

Mednafen needs a motherboard file. This discussion is moot.

Hard to believe that all happened almost ten years ago.

[fluffyhare]

Hey friend!

Maybe this has been asked before, but was Avery inspired by anyone? ( ·ิϖ·ิ)

I don't think anyone has ever asked me this on this blog! Honestly, I've tried many times to nail down exactly what inspired Avery, but... I never can, not completely.

This is going to get long, I'm sorry.

I turned 30 last year. It wasn't in a "midlife crisis" or depressive kind of way, but I started thinking a lot about how I wanted the rest of my life to go, and what I wanted out of life that I'd never had a chance to have. I decided that there were two things I really yearned to do -- make art, and make friends. I figured a good place to start dipping my toes in would be Tumblr, since I'd used it in the past and I knew there would be a lot of art here to inspire me. And I was inspired... massively. Especially after I started actually drawing, myself. I started getting more ideas at once than I'd ever had in my life, and it triggered a bout of insomnia I am still dealing with now, almost six months later.

The first time I can remember thinking about Avery was during one such sleepless night, desperately trying to coax myself to sleep. Laying in the dark, I'd close my eyes and imagine leaving my body, floating above my apartment complex. I'd wander around like a ghost, exploring places I'd seen, but which are normally inaccessible... private roads, fenced estates, etc. I'd imagine sitting on the edge of a skyscraper, watching the city move beneath me, imagining what people were doing, why they were up so late, etc.

I imagined this many nights... It became a pet fantasy. When I was a kid, I read a book called Billy the Bird by Dick King-Smith, maybe that's where I got the idea... I don't know. Along with the insomnia were vicious bouts of nostalgia, too, so... It's possible.

But, anyway... I'd get lonely.

I wanted someone to talk to, so I imagined someone sitting with me. Someone who could only come out at night, for fear of being seen. Someone for whom sitting on the edge of a skyscraper was no concern, and who could catch me if I fell. I imagined he was soft, gentle... a good listener, maybe even a bit shy. I imagined he was an intellectual, capable of being quite serious, but never dour. He was quick with a smile, and it was easy to make him laugh.

In some respects, I suppose, he was inspired by a friend of mine, who died many years ago. In most ways, he wasn't like Avery at all -- he was extremely blue-collar, the exact opposite of an intellectual, and very outgoing. He was not refined in any way, and could even be quite reckless, at times. But, he had a unique, gentle, innocent sort of kindness that I've found to be exceedingly rare. To know him was to love him, really; he was a hard worker and a fierce friend, someone who wanted nothing more than to love and be loved. My relationship with him and the way his passing affected me touches everything I make and everything I do, intentional or not.

When I was building Avery's character, I was very fascinated by object heads at the time (particularly Prince Robot from Saga), and I was also seeing a lot art for "doctor/scientist" type characters. Despite never playing the game, I liked TF2 fanart, especially of Medic. I thought about other characters I'd fixated on, too, and what exactly I liked about them... Milo Thatch from Atlantis, Data from Star Trek, John from Homestuck, Sans from Undertale, Stanley and the Narrator from The Stanley Parable, Pokemon professors both Oak and Elm, Nightcrawler from X-Men, Wilson from House, Dr. Bashir from DS9... The list goes on, really.

I know this is kind of a non-answer, and I'm sorry about that. It isn't really a clear answer for me, either. All I can really say for sure is this: Avery is the embodiment of everyone and everything I've ever loved, as well as the reflection of my own self-love. Relatively speaking, we just met, but I feel like he's been here the whole time. I've made so many wonderful friends because of him, too! Can't say what the exact moment was, only that now that he's here, I can't imagine life without him. 💙

[akookminsupporter]

Unrelated to anything just late night thoughts. I’ve been into bts for a while now, and it has always been about them for me. Obviously while watching their content I’ve gotten to know more about their culture and stuff, but I’ve never really delved further into the Korean culture nor the k-pop world, something that now I wish I had since I think it makes you look at things differently and more clearly. I mean, the k-pop world is as fucked up as any other music industry in any other country, even if it doesn’t seem like it at first glance, which makes me appreciate bts even more for whom they’ve come to be in an industry that’s very… constructed and harsh (to put it nicely). And not only that, but also for the fact that it’s thanks to them and other artists like them that the new generation of groups Can more easily navigate that world and be more open/honest, with themselves and with their fans (to some extent). These thoughts honestly came to me as a chain of events. I had just finished the Netflix show “Beef” (watch it if you haven’t is really good), and one of the main characters is a Korean male, and in one of the episodes there’s a suicide reference, and after finishing the series I don’t know why I wanted to check what was the suicide rate in Korea and oh boy… I wasn’t expecting it to be so bad but honestly I’m not that surprised either. But again, these are the things you don’t see when you just focus on the good stuff I guess. When looking at the suicide data I came across some idol suicides and I… it just really got to me. I mean, I was just watching a Jimin v-log from 2018 when he was reflecting about losing himself, the members having all their own issues and some feelings of the band loosing their focus — a v-log uploaded just a couple of months after Shinee member Jonghyun had committed suicide, an event that I know/feel that had some sort of effect on the band too. The stuff that happens around us, in our environment and in our social groups, even if these aren’t things directly linked to us, they can affect us, and the boys aren’t the exemption of that. I know the boys have said in the past that they try to show us their good parts, because they want to make us happy, and even though I appreciate that, I really wish and hope they aren’t suffering too much in silence. There is too much hate in this world, and there is too much hate online. Too much unnecessary shit honestly. All that mess and hate about fandoms is just ridiculous and harmful, specially if you don’t know what a person is going through behind their public image. And coming here to tumblr and seeing the back and forth between accounts is also so pointless. I know this post is all over the place but I guess that’s exactly how I was feeling rn and I just wanted to let it out. We need more love and understanding in this world. Wish you and your fam are doing fine Rosie 🫰🏼.

Although I usually answer the Asks I receive almost immediately, those that I want to post, of course, sometimes there are some that, although I know I want to post or answer, I don't do it immediately. Sometimes because I want to take some time to be able to answer correctly, other times I don't do it because, although I know what I want to say, I don't know how to organise it or translate it into English. I struggle a lot of times. This was one of those Asks.

When I read it for the first time I was answering or giving my opinion about each line written, but I was doing it in Spanish and I couldn't translate it correctly into English so I said, I'll post it later. The truth is that I really forgot what the ask said, but I knew I wanted to post it and I decided to do it now; when I reread it I stopped for a few seconds because the Ask is almost perfect for a day like today, after the news about Moonbin.

Korean society is particular, we could say, but it is too demanding, ruthless almost. The kpop industry is even more so. And I think as certain groups break barriers outside of Korea, the pressure on others increases as if the pressure isn't high enough already. One of the things I appreciate about bts and their agency is that they seem to have always had a certain freedom to express themselves in their music. Many of their songs are critical of the society they live in, about self-love, sadness and so on. Yoongi, for example, has always been a bit more open about those kinds of issues, but not everyone has that luxury.

The kpop community in general is toxic. They see these artists as machines, as puppets almost, who have to act the way they want to perform. And it's not easy. In a way, the human part of the Idol is lost or in some cases seems to be lost.

With the boom in the consumption of everything that has to do with Korea, the other side of that country has also come to light. Of that society. Of that industry. It's almost too easy to find Koreans on social media saying everything is not like kdramas and that living in Korea is hard. The standards of everything are very high. Many people who have decided to move there because they bought into the "illusion" have found it to be the worst.

And as far as I know, it's not just the entertainment industry. Normal life is difficult. The academic pressure on all young people in Korea is high. Depressing. Extremely demanding. The same goes for work and social pressure. That's why suicide rates are so high. And the fact that it's such a conservative society doesn't allow anything to be done to change a bit. Mental health is taboo in Korea, much more so than in other countries, I think. Or at least that's what I've read. And it's horrible.

Social media or the internet really is perhaps one of the worst double-edged weapons that humans have created. The anonymity that many sites or apps allow has given certain "internet warriors" the power to spread hate. With virtually no consequences. And it is sad and frightening. The smarter or more advanced our electronic devices become, the more dehumanised we become. Empathy and respect are rare traits these days.

I think the least we could do as human beings is to respect more but nowadays doing the simplest things has become the most difficult things ever.

[seths-wife]

Gallerian as Levia's father

I found incredibly wholesome how Levia*(look notes below) had a dance with Gallerian in "waltz of the deceased" for various reasons.

One of those is the most obvious: if you read the lyrics of the song, you will see that it's all about people setting grudges aside and forgetting about their evil deeds towards one another to live a time of reconciliation and harmony, even between past enemies.

The noble invites the tailor

The father takes the doll(his daughter) by the hand

Right now let’s forget all our sins

And waltz together ("waltz of the deceased").

We all know that Nemesis and Gallerian had a lot of strife with eachother; not much the latter because he was never aware of her existence as his daughter for his whole life, but she, on the other hand had been extremely bitter of the fact "he had turned his daughter into an assassin".

Maybe I had wanted him [Gallerian] to apologize to me.

For throwing away his own daughter. For making her unhappy.

("muzzle of nemesis", chapter 5, scene 2).

Eventually as we all know, the woman killed him by shooting for the sake of the people that hated him (and a lot for her own emotional will at revenge against him, as it's heavily implied in the chapter I have linked).

And now they're dancing together, trying to forget all that strife.

But for me...I don't find them wholesome just for that reason alone.

You see...Levia had no known father, originally, in the second period. Levia says so, when commenting Nemesis' own lack of a present father figure, in this scene of the "muzzle of nemesis" novel.

In her case, Levia had no father figure because Rahab had so many partners to the point she couldn't tell who the father of the child in her belly was.

That is a reason why Levia heavily criticizes her mother for her promiscuity (which also happens in this scene of the "tailor of enbizaka" novel too, also claiming that she loathes her, calling her a sex-obsessed slut and also implying she has no parental affection on her own).

That said, Gallerian is the first father figure Levia has ever had and that dance is also her first father-daughter moment.

All the more if you consider that, after death, Gallerian gets to know (by accessing the "graveyard" and stumbling upon a black box containing the "thoughts of the 'moon goddess'") the truth about what "Ma" did to Nemesis: in particular, how she shoved Levia's "spirit data" inside her child, when still in her belly.

“That’s exactly right, postman. The theory at play is the same for what 'ma' did to Nemesis. The children of the ‘doll director’ were caught up in the destruction of ‘punishment’ immediately after they were born. Because of that they became souls without a sense of self…By fusing different souls with theirs, they were able to obtain a will of their own.”

("master of the heavenly yard", chapter 7, scene 5)

Gallerian knows all the secrets of the world of the series, at that point in time (if you read this whole chapter of the "master of the heavenly yard" novel, this fact will be apparent to you). It wouldn't be a stretch to think Gallerian also knew that Nemesis was his daughter.

So, this means Gallerian not only has a daughter-father moment with Nemesis on her own, but with Levia too, as he's aware of her existance.

*if you are confused over the fact Nemesis!Levia Barisol is in the clockworker doll in "waltz of the deceased" pv, reading this may help you understand, even though reading the whole "master of the heavenly yard" novel can help more in the process.

[debunkingtherightwing]

Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson wage a very stupid war against "sexual boredom"

Projection intensifies (source: Ben Shapiro on YouTube)

This is one of those things that I wanted to talk about when it came out but it kind of fell by the wayside. However, I figured that since it's been kind of boring in the griftosphere and we need to laugh at something after that last episode, here is a 9 minute video of Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson talking about sexual boredom.

Now I know what you're thinking, a guy who thinks all that women are "chaos dragons" and another guy who accidentally admitted that he can't get his wife wet while reading the lyrics of a rap song are probably not the best sources for anything coming remotely close to sexual advice. And you're completely right. Lets get into it.

00:00, Ben Shapiro: "The amount of sexual boredom in this society is extraordinary. So you have more sexual choice and variety available than anytime in human history, given free license by the state because there are no intermediate social institutions in which informal mechanisms of disapproval could make themself felt, and one of the things that human beings psychologically are turned on by is taboo. So when you get rid of literally every taboo then people tend to get bored and then the question is-

Jordan Peterson: "Yeah, well there's no novelty."

And just what exactly is this based off of? Seriously, they never really give any data to back up the existence of this sexual boredom epidemic that they are talking about. I guess them feeling sexually bored is evidence enough.

Anyway, there are still a lot of taboos, we've just more or less moved on from some of the bigoted ones like "no gay marriage" that these guys like. These guys perceive a lack of taboos because society has moved on from the taboos that they think should be in place. Despite what these guys might have heard from their media diet that seemingly consists of nothing but LibsOfTikTok, the world isn't some giant sexual free for all.

What even is this argument by the way? Is Ben's argument that we should get the government step in and regulate and restrict the sexual affairs of private citizens so that those citizens....can break the rules?

Just to really put a final nail in Ben and Jordan's "no taboo's create sexual boredom" coffin, the states with the highest porn consumption are highly conservative states that tend to have more taboos than others. I think people who consume a lot of pornography are pretty sexually bored, don't you?

00:33, Ben Shapiro: "Particularly men are driven by sexual novelty, it's something that's very deeply engrained."

"And that's why we need to stop sleeping in separate beds honey."

00:53, Ben Shapiro: "I mean the -- the part of Freud that everybody ignores is the part where Freud actually is in favor of sublimation right."

So, sublimation is essentially the psychological concept of channeling unwanted thoughts into something positive. So for instance, if somebody is lonely they could join a club. Most psychologists seem to say that sublimation is a good thing so I don't get where he's even coming from with this.

00:58, Ben Shapiro: "It's only later psychologists and philosophers who suggest the sublimation needs to be destroyed and done away with to free all forms of human artistic and material expression."

Who Ben?! I googled "Is sublimation bad, psychology" and there were so many articles talking about how it's an overall good thing. I honestly am wondering if Ben is talking about gay people sublimating their urges and as a result becoming straight given his past track record on gay marriage. Because I honestly don't understand where any of this is coming from!

01:09, Ben Shapiro: "But Freud never said that, Freud says you actually have to sublimate a lot of those short term hedonic desires to something higher."

OK Ben, I don't think Freud meant that you need to sublimate your sexual urges to God.

I think I'm starting to understand why these two are sexually bored.

01:15, Ben Shapiro: "But again that gets back to kind of the fundamental premise that you were speaking to which is there is this narrative of accepted values that we used to live inside of and when you destroy that narrative by saying that for some reason it's not true because it's not coming out of your own head, well once that happens we don't hold a common narrative, there are no common narratives. And if there are no common narratives and everything is then acceptable then what exactly is the taboo? Where does the sublimation take place? There is no sublimation and there is no future orientation, because what sublimation really is is orientation of short term in favor of long term."

Again, this argument is built on a stupid premise that there aren't anymore taboos. Public sex is still pretty taboo and a lot of people find novelty in either having sex in public or staging a sexual encounter to look like that. And that's just one example off the top of my head.

Again, the subtext here is that these two are pissed off that things like LGBTQ+ acceptance are becoming less taboo and as a result they seem to have drawn the conclusion that there are no taboos anymore.

01:50, Jordan Peterson: "Well, and in favor of other people right? So it's long-term plus the social. Yeah well so --- you can think about this technically as well. If there's no uniting narrative, here's the necessary consequences. First of all there's no higher order super ordinate aim."

I can't figure out if these two are talking about God or marriage. Probably both to be honest.

02:15, Jordan Peterson: "We experience positive motivation and the impotence to move forward. So that would be; curiosity, hope, inspiration, enthusiasm, even aesthetic interest. We experience that only in relationship to an aim. And so if you destroy the ultimate aim you destroy the structure upon which reward is dependent."

"You are physically incapable of feeling happiness unless you live the life that I want you to live" is a take I wasn't expecting from a video allegedly about sexual boredom.

The ironic thing about this video is that so far following Jordan and Ben's advice will probably lead to more sexual boredom.

03:28, Jordan Peterson: "There's a relationship between scarcity and deprivation and value, right? And so if you are surfeited by a stimulus lets say, or a resource, so you are overfed, as soon as you're not hungry food is of no interest, if you're stuffed food is nauseating."

This is such a ridiculous analogy. The only way for it to make sense is if people had sex on a daily basis and essentially became screwing machines. Contrary to Jordan and Ben's belief, people aren't having sex multiple times every single day.

Plus, there's the issue of consent. The food can't tell you "No, I don't actually want to be eaten." and as a result, people can stuff themselves to their hearts content. Other people can say they don't want to have sex. There is a massive difference.

Jordan talks about the story of the Israelites and them getting too much quail from the Bible. I mean, I guess if the point is that if you have too much sex then maybe you should take a break fair enough. But again, this metaphor is missing so much stuff like the issue of consent. Then Ben does an ad.

05:44, Jordan Peterson: "We don't know how much depravation is necessary for proper sexual function to make itself manifest."

"And that's why I'm here telling you how much sex you should have."

07:01, Jordan Peterson: "And then you were talking about novelty. And so this is pretty interesting too, so you said men will chase novelty in a sexual relationship. Well, I think part of what is incumbent on married individuals is to figure out how to keep that novelty alive. Right, so that means that each of them have to be transforming and I think the best way to do that is in relationship to a spiritual pursuit."

Nothing spices things up in the bedroom quite like a frank discussion about scripture.

I'll give Jordan a tiny bit of leeway here due to the fact that some studies have shown that religious couples do report better sex than non-religious couples. But there are a lot of moving parts in said study such as the fact that couples showing heightened religiosity overall reported lower sexual satisfaction and the increased sexual satisfaction was more tied with the sanctification of sex. Essentially people who believe that the sex they have with their partner is sacred.

It was only conducted through two groups of people through their workplace as well meaning it's not particularly indicative of the greater population.

07:56, Ben Shapiro: "One of the things that's actually fascinating about this is, biblically speaking, I mean not to get into obstruse Jewish law but I mean, this is actually right in the Bible forget about the obstruse Jewish law, right in the Bible one of the mandates is that for a period of at least one week out of every month married couples are not supposed to have sex."

You know, there's a subtle hint in why that was when you said the word period!

That was clearly about menstruation. It wasn't just no sex either, it was in pretty much every aspect. It was because women were viewed as "unclean" after having their periods at that time. And just to prove it, here's Leviticus 15:19;

"Whenever a woman has her menstrual period, she will be ceremonially unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her during that time will be unclean until evening."

So essentially that week was more about the fact that women were viewed as "unclean" after having their period in biblical times.

Conclusion:

Well, on the one hand I'm glad that these two are finally talking about a topic that they would presumably know a lot about. On the other hand, this was dumber than I thought it would be. I kind of want to call Jordan and Ben the Sexual Boredom Squad from now on.

Cheers and I'll see you in the next one.

[thetwelfthcrow]

Random fun question: What would an unwilling Mawis roadtrip look like? Because I like forcing them into situations and have them realize that they can get along and I'm on a long car ride right now scrolling through tumblr :D

oh hello what a cute idea! i think you're long out of your car ride by now, sorry it took a while but i Do have Thoughts about this!

i believe i've caught @phantomwritr talk about a roadtrip fic before. i haven't read it yet, so here are my own thoughts!

i absolutely love love forced proximity and i think this would work really well. the first thing i'd think is in the entire history of us au of red bull!lewis and max being forced on a marketing trip. or maybe merc!max and lewis being forced together. that'd be... logical, i presume?

but for their current situations.

i think the hardest of everything is figuring out why they're in that car together. why they agreed to do a roadtrip together. 'it's good for PR' yes but why exactly?. the one thing i can think of that they have in common is the puma sponsorship? at least some years back.

putting that aside though. so, they're in the car together driving from a to b. i think max would start out bothered by default because of his intrinsic hatred to any marketing related shenanigans. lewis would overcompensate a bit to lift the mood and keep it fun. gradually, this will shift in them genuinely having fun together because max isn't a grumpy man at heart and they just have a similar sense of humour.

i'd assume whoever planned for them to have this roadtrip just installed some cameras inside the car. and not to have, like, this whole-ass camera crew following them. this gets important later on.

max is a bit of an oversharer, so he'll definitely be free n talk with lewis about his dad and everything. about the many many roadtrips to and from italy the two shared, the good and the bad. max puts on some old tunes and lewis is like ??? you know these lyrics?? you weren't even a Thought when this song came out. i was middle aged by then! and they joke and laugh about it.

lewis will, at certain pit stops, buy fruits and veggies and talk about roscoe or himself, about the struggles in the sport, but also about how he loves it. max will listen to when lewis talks about mission 44 and almave and max, as someone who loooves a drink, will vouch to try it.

i would love love it if this roadtrip required hotels and places to stay for the night. like them driving from florida to austin or nevada for the grand prix. maybe the same as lando/oscar did in that jack daniels video.

so, then, it's suuper easy to weave a 'there's only one bed' into it. i wouldn't start with it, since they still have to get used to spending so much time with each other like they've never done before. but gradually after having spent a few days together non-stop, they would for sure make only a small problem of the one bed. like oh nooo whatever shall we do. and lewis is too polite to ask for a different room and max interprets this as 'well, he has no problem with it, why should i?' which gets them to accept the double room. then, naturally, this can go one of two ways: they end up cuddling and make a bit of a joke about it and all is fine and wholesome, or one of them wakes up hard and the other takes care of it <3

so the cameras. max and lewis are getting closer together but they can't show all of this. the fast progression of their bond is nice, and esp after they've slept together/jerked each other off/kissed/whatever, they can't just... be touchy. so suddenly there'll be things like 'oh no the camera broke!' (cue editor seeing a shot of max literally turning the thing off) and they'll have sex/make out in the car.

maybe something Bad will happen too, like both of them being under pressure of making it to austin/nevada before a certain deadline and if they don't, they're fucked. the batteries in their phones aren't charged enough or they don't have data and something happens to the car. max's emotions will skyrocket with stress and frustrations and 'they should've let me get the plane for fuck's sake' and lewis will be a bit hurt like, i thought we had a fun time? but then all of it gets solved in time and max's emotions are normal again and lewis is like hm. you would've preferred the plane? and max is like, uh yeah way faster. and lewis is like, hm well i got to say i don't mind this as much as i thought i would. and max is like oh shit no no i mean i'm having fun with you! i'd have let you join me on the plane. and then all is well again.

overall i'd think they'd very early on have a relatively good time together bc they're both kindhearted people in my opinion. they just don't know each other all too well and have to get used to being so close so much for so long. yeah i think this would be a very fun fic to read, actually. nice nice. thank you for the question, love! <3

[wonder-stuck]

As much as joking about the fly list was fun for some of us it's time to be serious as many have said.

One of the things I want to talk about it how the US is a master of monitoring people.

The no fly list is a tip of an iceberg, an ugly head of a hydra. It should be acknowledged talked about spread around but the issue of what even allows the list in the first place has to be acknowledged too. Quite a few people end up on it for their name, background, and how they are profiled by the government. The problem is it doesn't stop there, it can start with it but it becomes an active search and they start guzzling data on these people.

So let's talk about the problem. You are a transaction while online or using any sort of WiFi or tech. They know where you are, what you buy, the content you love, the conversations you engage in. You should be scared because you may not be a person on interest that would ever be on the list in question but that doesn't matter! You shouldn't have to be in that situation to care your in danger now too, even if you don't think they're doing anything to you they are. You can blissfully ignore it because you think your safe that's exactly what they want.

The data they gather is bought and sold and even if you aren't a us citizen. Having a presence makes you a profit for websites and ads. This might not bother some people and that's exactly what they want, it won't bother you because you can't know what they know. They know what illegal activities you may get up too, they can know the type of red flags you give off to them such as having political beliefs they find wrong or a danger. They will withhold and store all sorts of data on who you are and you'll only know if they want you to. The fly list is the part of the ice above the surface, the people they are pushed around because of data collection and they're some of the people that get to know how the government sees them. It's not blissful to not know what they think of you, it's not good at all. Our acceptance of the situation is why immigrants and even children get to be treated this way by the Us. Not enough people care and that's why they win.

The no fly list is "Your a threat list" and many on it are not. There's criminals and awful people listed but they should be the only ones on it if it was actually for protection. They don't have perfect data collection and they don't care. There are a lot of gaps and data they can't get and they're okay jumping the gun on suspecting people of things, of assuming you'll take action when you won't. It's easier for them to make guess work of who you are then to actually care. They get things wrong because they don't really know who you are just your name, they can only assume who you are and share your actions around. One wrong read on the information you put out and it can change how they label you.

This is all why it's an information war, they can see rise in them monitoring topics online through the change in politics. They learn who you dislike politically and they know how much people feel about hot topics. They're using that info to counteract the spread of change within us on the internet and it's affecting the world. They are surveying as much as they can they are making efforts far in advance to attack back.

This is why there media war on protests regarding racism or climate change, it's how we have movements against trans woman harming feminism getting pushed by politicians as well as woman being painted as to selfish to make decisions about their body and becoming laws.

Surveillance is feeding propaganda and ignoring the evil of everyone online watching you even when you think your safe is why you'll never be safe if they suddenly decide to take action against you or use you to hurt people you love. If fact you've probably given data that has hurt people either in big things I mentioned above, or even little things like someone talking online about a bad thing happening that you've helped boost or interact with that's harmed a delicate situation by making it worse for being blasted.

One time I had a conversation with people in place you might think is private online and we were discussing the origin of modern conceptions of cannibalism. It was mostly historical and talking about how settlers in the US were hypocritical about it in order to hate on natives when they were doing it themselves and way more often. That discussion within an hour after gave me targeted ads about this, it recorded it and sold that information and it was paranoia inducing and messed with my delusions. I mean how often do you get ads or content online about cannibalism? Yeah it was targeted, that's what they do all of the time. After all that I changed how I use the internet because Google, your socials, they might make you happy but they are not your friend.

This is hideous evil accepted and known by everyone. It's an evil they have made you believe is okay and made you think you've come to that conclusion alone. You did not choose to be monitored, your forced to be, and there's little that can be done when you don't stand up with everyone else against it.

You don't have privacy because the police, companies, and government they don't know you, but the problem is that they think they do and that issue is ruining lives and has been for decades, it can ruin yours too.

This is the information age and they don't see you as a person they see you as the information in the war for information. Your a tool, ammunition and at the same time they can see you as an enemy at any time and for any opinion or action you might think is right.

The no fly list shouldn't exist, but stuff like it always will as long as the internet and tech is used to monitor you and know what you do. The US government does not need to know everything about people because it isn't stopping shootings, it isn't saving families. It's hurting people, families, it's seeing enemies in Muslim children, in Jewish activists, in people who don't have a reason you can spot for being put on the list and consider a danger. You can be that person without a good reason because all of the stuff I just said is a bad reason. You don't have to be a minority to find yourself deep in shit and you shouldn't have to be a minority to be scared or care about this. You should care because it's wrong that they know anything about you or love ones, at any moment they can ruin you.

In the coming years they'll want to monitor you more then they already can. The longer we sit by the less safe everyone is by the day.

A lot of people will say that you should try to block and hide yourself online, you can! I don't think it solves the problem. To solve this issue we have to make the data collection useless either by it making not sense or by everyone becoming red flags. I don't know exactly what to purpose but if anyone has suggestions feel free.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Your atheistic fedora-tipping rant is pathetic. Everyone's allowed to believe what they want - it's quite personal. It's not for some bigot with a blog to decide what's believable or what is not. Besides, all the data and knowledge suggests that there are higher forces of the universe and such. How are you different from those other bigots who preach religion, then?

LOL.

It’s notable that you didn’t bother to argue that I got anything wrong - you didn’t identify or even give any hints about which of my many posts you took issue with - just that you were bothered that I had the gall to say it out loud. This seems to be the latest tactic religionists have had to resort to. Arguing truth is a (very short) dead-end street - more like a driveway -  so instead it comes down to “shh, not so loud or the kids will hear.”

You can believe whatever nonsense you want in the privacy of your own head, but when you say it out loud, and that it's true, I get to evaluate it and show your errors. It's not my fault when it falls apart and there's no reason for me to believe you. Nobody's forcing you to read my blog, but if believers get to say what they think, so do I; to insist otherwise would make you an outright hypocrite.

What you claim is nonsensical. There is plenty we don't understand about the universe, such as the origin of how gravity and time formed, literally none of which indicates a higher being. Much less your own specific magical imaginary friend, whichever one that might be. You don't get to insert stupid fan fiction into the gaps of human knowledge just because you prefer a wrong answer now to a correct answer when we find it. Lightning, rain, disease, earthquakes... all have natural causes. Thus far, "god" as an "explanation" has a 100% losing track record. And explains nothing anyway. With all this consistent failure in mind, to bet on the same losing (dead) horse is kind of... brave. What’s the saying about insanity? Doing the same thing and expecting different results?

So, sure, I’m gonna put my bet on “natural cause: TBD” and feel no stress about doing so, and be intellectually justified in doing so.

Nice that you close with saying how bad religion is. I don't have one, though.

Notice how you don’t see “fedora-wearing” aBigfootists. Because nobody has to actually say “I don’t believe in Bigfoot” and nobody has to defend the existence and nature of the universe from lunatics who insist either that “all the data and knowledge suggests” Bigfoot is responsible (whether through ignorance or dishonesty), or that if no other explanation can be provided, Bigfoot wins by default. My vocality is directly a result of people doing exactly this with their imaginary friends, and then crying foul when challenged.

If religionists shut up about their imaginary gods, they won’t have to hear from me any more that I don’t believe them.

[ As an aside, I’ve never met a single fedora-wearing atheist, and yet so many superstitionists invoke this bizarre and completely meaningless meme. Hats? Really? The unavoidable conclusion seems to be that none of them know any more about atheism or atheists than they do about their own scripture. ]

[goldenpinof]

I love that you are compiling all the background information and everything! It is always very interesting to read ☺️ My order arrived exactly a week ago on the 28th! Honestly way faster then I anticipated 😅 (anon from a few minutes ago)

okay, thank you some much! now we know that the EU shop was in the works for at least a month. i doubt the shipment within the EU was ever a problem, especially for the EU company.

ooof, to have an answer about Kiswe's limitations. the way Dan brushed over it during the q&a and offered people to buy merch on Kiswe's website makes me think things.

thank you so so much. honestly, i love when people share information with each other. even if it seems unimportant and repetitive, i wanna tell y'all, it's important. the more data, the better. since we're not being told anything, it's the only way to try to understand how things could potentially work behind the scenes.

also, don't trust what Dan says, but listen closely and take notes. because one day something will make sense. the hustle we all went through before wad merch was finally dropped on 4 shops :)))) i hope we never experience this again.

[technovillain]

i love jameela to death so here’s some questions:

-after “fuck giving rich people dangerous technology” does she distance herself from technology entirely or does she keep making personal stuff and/or stuff that’s much harder to exploit? i think she could make some fucking awesome animal monitoring tech (like keeping track of individuals of endangered species, citizen volunteer data collection on bird populations and stuff)

-what’s her flavors of queer and/or neurodivergent

-does she ever end up doing missions or is she not super duper into the agent stuff

-is her dad a rich asshole or just oblivious and ignorant or a mix of the two

-how do you think she’d get along with some of the junior agents, especially norma, gisu, and sam

HI THIS ASK IS ANCIENT BUT I'VE BEEN HOLDING ONTO IT THINKING ABT IT MEANING TO ANSWER IT SO HERE WE GO. ALSO THANK U SOOO MUCH FOR ALL THE INSIGHTFUL QUESTIONS I LOVE THIS.

After that, she pretty much makes a vow to herself to never make a psychic invention again!!!! (....) and then time passes and she goes "Well just one little thing for myself." (....) "Okay just another for just myself." (.....) "Okay it's fine if I'm only making things for myself, even if it's a lot of things. I need technology." What you said there is Exactly the kind of stuff she'd be making too! While she takes a very loud approach to her activism, her approach to saving the world by trying to prevent the horrible future she saw is much more under the radar...mostly because she's still using the psychic technology that she built for herself but pretends that she didn't build at all because she said she swore it off! (She is constantly fighting herself in her own head about this lol.)

I haven't fully decided on this! But I would say that she is asexual and has OCD.

She really kind of functionally.... leaves the Psychonauts after a certain point. Like in a "You're always welcome to come back" kind of way. This is something that I still need to do more thinking on because I need to decide how I think the Psychonauts, being a government funded organization, would feel about psychic activism entering the public sphere.... But anyways yeah I see her leaving for an extended period but coming back when there is suddenly a mission that requires her assistance specifically (one involving Gusty and Veranda.)

I'd have to say he's definitely a mix of the two, leaning more towards the second one. I can't remember exactly how much detail I went into on her story and how it might have changed since I last posted about it (bc tumblr's tag search feature is functionally useless rip) BUT Dallas Delmarro is indeed a tech guru so while his concepts were birthed from those "childhood dreamer with a lot of big ideas" mindsets you always see in people like him, he ended up really focused on his company's bottom line. Business school changed this dude. He is still a pretty good dad considering everything. But considering he's a single father and his job pretty much consumes his life it is pretty easy to see why Jameela felt a strong need to get good at inventing things from a young age (cough cough so she would feel more important to him)

I like to picture these characters existing at the Motherlobe a few years after the events of Psychonauts 2, just so I don't have to think too hard about where they're at in regards to the plot of PN2. Just assuming that most of the big things regarding that plot have died down at this point. So all of the interns/junior agents from the game would be a few years older than Jameela when she gets there. I think she would probably like Norma okay from afar, but not really have any desire to become friends with her...because she can see how she gets. I think she would not know anything at all about Sam and be a little put off by her and not able to read her at all. She would totally be jealous of Gisu though. Because I see Gisu in a few years as working alongside Otto. And in Jameela's story, she came to the Motherlobe to work with Otto but something urgent came up regarding developing some sort of technology, and Sasha and him and Gisu were all working together to develop it. So Jameela doesn't really care for Gisu or Sasha just because they're interfering with her track to success.

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

the guz kahn thing was a response to someone being like, wow this guy is in ofmd and supports palestine too, that's so cool. and he was like, i'm not in that anymore actually, not sure why. i do support palestine though. those things aren't related. and then some people decided to be anti-semitic and went aha i knew taika was secretly a zionist. it's just twitter being weird and people putting screenshots together in a way that makes things seem more dramatic.

That's possible. Like I said in the tags to the post I think it probably has more to do with the budget cuts. We know OFMD's budget was cut for s2. Guz Khan is a fairly popular actor as I understand it and so paying him is somewhat expensive and his character is easier to write off than many of the others. That's my working theory.

That said I still don't think people were wrong for asking questions about it when he mentioned that he would never compromise for a job shortly after getting laid off. He said that he's not saying OFMD is that job and I'm personally choosing to take him at face value there but others are not wrong for reading into it. Additionally I've never seen anyone accuse Taika specifically of Zionism over this (or at all personally). I've seen people talk about Con O'Neill's Zionism, though I don't think that's relevant to this particular discussion it's a fair criticism of Con. Somehow I don't think Taika would be making that call. He got laid off at around the same time the show got renewed, which makes me think that David Jenkins and the creative team probably hadn't made any concrete creative decisions at the time the lay off happened. To my mind that means that he was more likely laid off by someone higher up on the chain. I don't know exactly how these things work but that would track with my money based theory and if he was laid off for ideological reasons I think anyone who knows anything would be squinting at HBO max as a company rather than at Taika who has taken a bit of a step back from his role as EP to play Blackbeard and might not even have the power to pull the trigger like that.

I'm willing to believe that there's nothing there and that things were said and data was compiled in a way that make it look a bit sus when it wasn't. I just don't think that raising that suspicion is wrong.

All that said don't be weird about Taika. That's a huge leap in logic and to my knowledge he has a) never said anything about Palestine and b) spoken out against colonialism repeatedly in other contexts so his politics while sometimes inconsistent do not seem to align with the biggest proponents of Zionism so there's literally no reason to think he has anything to do with anything. All the Jews I know personally are anti-zionist. I know that there are Zionist Jews but from the information I'm working with they're in the minority among Jews. Taika Waititi's Jewishness is unrelated to the Guz Khan lay off. I also gonna go out on a limb here and say Taika Waititi is unrelated to the Guz Khan lay off.

I'm gonna leave this tweet here because I think it's relevant