#I'M IN SHOCK. SHOCK AND AWE

[writesology]

something happened here today.

first off FINALLY C6 KAEYA and soon you'll be triple crowned too king it won't be long

but second. HELLO BACK TO BACK SCARABIA SSRS?? I DIDN'T EVEN GET A SINGLE CHEF CARD WTF

[softichill]

JtKCU (Jeff the Killer Cinematic Universe)

[chonideno]

literally where can the zelda franchise go after totk. this is it. we've reached it. the pinnacle of video game entertainment. the whole dev team should just pack their stuff and enjoy a long and comfortable retirement. whoever decides their team has to follow-up on that with the next zelda game should answer for their crimes at the hague. what the fuck. I haven't even beat the game yet but what the fuck.

and how are AAA video game devs everywhere not losing their minds. how the hell did nintendo do any of that? and on that console?? you mean to tell me I can stack 15 differently shaped objects on top of each other and they don't vibrate violently into the skybox?? you mean to tell me the physics engine gladly accepts whatever I throw at it and holds it all together without dropping a frame while running on a machine that was outclassed two generations ago??? this is not witchcraft it's a grandiose demonstration of mastery over every aspect of game development that casts an immense shadow over every other AAA studio. fuck. fuck!!!!

everything about this game is crazy to me. the visuals are crazy. the soudtrack is crazy. the complexity of all systems and how they interact is crazy. the sheer amount of non-repeating content, NPCs, quests, dialogue, puzzles, environment variety - all crazy to me. every time I boot up this game I am humbled by the monumental effort and obvious love that went into every facet of the resulting experience. no cut corners anywhere. mirror-perfect chrome polish.

it's so rare we get something like that, in any field. I'd understand if nintendo never made a zelda game ever again because how do you follow that. god I hope everyone who worked on this game got the fattest check and the sloppiest head. I'm so happy I get to live in shigeru miyamoto's world

[uncanny-tranny]

Every time you think, "Oh, I don't have [x condition], I'm basically cured!" that is the devil talking. You aren't cured, you are likely going through periods of your symptoms waning. Don't cease whatever you're doing to help yourself, like medication, for instance, because it's likely you still have the conditions or symptoms, even if you aren't noticing them as frequently or severely.

[nero-neptune]

we really need to crack down on the use of the r-slur again bc i'm seeing it online more now than i did almost 10 yrs ago. like what are you? 12? can you get it the fuck together bc you sound like either a south park character or a middle schooler from 2010 and both options are fucking embarrassing for you

[casyawn]

okay prepare yourselves this will be embarrassingly sincere but i'm actually not finished talking about the reunion scene and everything i love about it. i love that it's the first real and honest conversation louis and lestat have ever had on screen. i love that it's raw and painful and unjudging. i love that louis allows himself to express the pain he feels around his suicide attempt for the first time. i love that it's about many things but above all it's about how they both failed claudia. about how they both carry her with them and are the only ones who can understand. i love siri pause. i love that louis thanks lestat for the gift, that it's more meaningful to both of them than a love confession could have ever been. i love that there's no love confession. i love that louis is the one who closes the gap between them and i love that it's in response to lestat expressing shame and regret over how he failed to be a good father to claudia. i love that that's what louis needed to hear from him more than anything, more than the apology for dropping him from the sky or for how he treated him. i love that louis owns up to the way he behaved during the relationship not because i think lestat necessarily deserves that from him but because it's an important healing moment for louis himself. i love that louis is soft with lestat and that he's the one talking to him and comforting him at the end when we can't hear them, a true role reversal from the turning scene in the pilot. i love that they don't get back together. i love that the world is being destroyed outside the house and that it starts to fall apart around them because that is what their love is, destructive and painful but true. i love that this is how we leave them, not knowing what the future will look like for them. i love that louis gets to choose to reunite with lestat on his own terms. and most of all. most of all. i love that lestat looks like a wet miserable pathetic rat with an unwashed greasy bob. and that his honkers are out

[conspiracy-crows]

Me: grows up reading fairy tales(kindness is always the answer) and Terry Pratchett(Well is anyone gonna fix this? No? Fine, guess I'll do it then) and Diane Duane(Entropy is the Enemy, you can stall Entropy, be kind, be understanding, treat all things with respect), Gail Carson Levine(you are never alone, you can break the curse, you are more powerful and brave than you could ever dream)

Me: grows up watching Star Trek(Explore, never lose your Wonder, do the best thing you can even in awful circumstances, never give up on what you believe in) Doctor Who(Hope is a helping hand, Hope is the man who lost everything making sure you don't, everything is a miracle, nobody is unimportant) Leverage(we're all different, that's what makes the world work, there are always people you can lean on, even if you're weird you belong somewhere, always fight for the underdog, sometimes the right thing ignores the rules)

Me: grows up listening to my Christian family and church constantly talking about being christ-like(feed the poor, yes even him, do not be afraid of the ones in pain, do not judge others for their work, do not blame a man when his life falls apart, help him, always reach out your hand, we are all connected)

Me:*internalizes all of that, working very hard to follow the examples that have been set for me, struggle for a bit with letting people walk all over me but eventually find balance that lets me care for myself too*

Guy I've been talking to: you're far more kind and sweet than most people I've met

Me: I don't see how I do anything special, I just followed the guidebook???

[bcbdrums]

they're married, your honor

[dazais-guardian-angel]

kinda wild to me that one of the most compelling aspects of both Chuuya and Kunikida's characters to me, that I never really see talked about, is how they're heavily set on a doomed crash course towards complete and utter destruction, and how I am so, so worried for them both.....

[lupins-hehim-pussy]

I wanna know ur Fontaine msq criticisms 👁️👁️👂I’m all ears

I'm not sure if you wanted me to talk about this secretly or publicly but! Here I go!

The TLDR: Fontaine MSQ aestheticised prison, poverty, child abuse, the justice system/court and didn't properly address any of it.

More:

Focalors/Furina has way too much of a sympathetic angle for a dictator who's lets people drown with her inaction.

Neuvillette feels Bad for sentencing some people to death/prison, but that's it. He's one of the most powerful people in Fontaine. If he felt like there are systemic injustices, I.E sending an abused Child to prison, he should be the first person to DO something about it, not just cry and be sad so the audience can be like aw, that's complex character writing isn't it? No it's not! And guilt doesn't absolve you!!!!!!! (These are stuff we deal with in OTCOJ read my fic now /j)

Meropide has children in it, both Sentenced there (Wriothesley) and BORN THERE (Lanoire), and this is just a quirk of the place. Not only that, Meropide accepts prisoners of all genders and crimes. There are abusers and abuse victims in one place. Do you know how bad that is? How much potential for crimes to happen in a place like that— oh wait, Meropide isn't under Fontaine's jurisdiction. If you are assaulted as an inmate it literally means nothing to the court.

Wriothesley had no qualifications when he took over. Depending on how long he lived on the streets, how old he was when he killed his parents, how old he was when he was first taken in by the orphanage, etc, the man might never have more than 4–5 years of formal education. Sigewinne probably had to teach him how to write reports. And do Meropide's spreadsheets. Edit because I forgot to elaborate on this one: This isn't a point brought up anywhere, which is bad, because when poverty and incarceration robs you of a proper education (and the rights to vote in many places too, too, by the way), it reduces your prospects for jobs, reduces many people's ability to get a home etc etc. Wriothesley was just, narratively, Given his position.

Meropide is an industrialized prison, and they portray this as a good thing. Prisoners are paid in coupons for their labour, and this is also portrayed as a good thing.

The One-Meal-A-Day reform was something Paimon gushed about being so great of a perk, that people might want to go to jail for food (could be interesting and reflective of systemic poverty if MHY had brains, but they don't, so I was just Pissed because essentially all Paimon wanted to say was "Prison isn't so bad, but still don't go to prison guys! Prison labour is really hard!"). By the way, in most real-world prisons they are obligated to feed you three meals a day. Because that's how much food a human needs. MHY went with one meal just so they can say "if you want to eat more, you have to work." And then the welfare meal is a goddamn gacha. So imagine you're a starving child who's too weak to work in the fucking robot assembly line, and you wander up for your first meal in 24 hours, only to luck in with a shit one. I'd kill myself.

They wrote Wriothesley, who's a victim of the system, into a guy who's say shit like "I'm the Duke I can do whatever I want" for a cool moment where he choke-slams an inmate (I know he was a bad guy. But also, in copaganda when cops are violent/disregarding protocols, they are always only portrayed to do that against bad guys, so what does our critical thinking tells us about this one?) They wrote Wriothesley, who was an inmate of a prison so bad, so notorious that it is the literal boogeyman of Fontaine, that has a legal (???) fighting pit, with an administrator who abuses his position to be unreasonable, to willingly stay in the place and become an Administrator who would choke-slam an inmate while saying a cool line about how he has the power to do whatever he wants. They wrote him, the guy who had to be fed on the streets by melusines, to think one-meal-a-day was a good enough reform (while he spends god-knows how much on his boat). This wasn't a victim-turns-into-abuser narrative either, they want all this to be seen as positive character growth.

And then, the final kicker is, they gloss over his entire abuse. You can only read about these shit in his profile, which most people don't because they don't Have Him or doesn't care to unlock it/read it online, and they jammed his entire backstory into a flaccid info-dump at the end of his character story quest. This man isn't Allowed to feel abused and neglected and show any reaction to it within the narrative of Fontaine itself, because if they actually Gave Weight to what happened to him, they'd have to confront THE FUCKING JUSTICE SYSTEM they had NO PLANS on criticising. I don't think they ever explicitly said the fucking Crime-Theatre nonsense was Bad either.

I could go on, but this is already so long. But yeah, I hope this gave you an idea.

[anastacialy]

i do not know how to explain to people that "transmisogyny" is the specific transphobia that trans women + transfems face (often but not exclusively at the hands of cis people), and "transandrophobia" is the specific transphobia that trans men + mascs face (often but not exclusively at the hands of cis people), and that they all come together under the umbrella of "transphobia." these are not opposing concepts nor are they mutually exclusive, to believe in one does not mean non-belief in the other. is there a simpler way of phrasing this. can i be clearer.

[butterflypositive]

some people are really acting like marius is gonna be treated as the uncritical protag he was in the books when so far the show has said he 'donated' armand to his friends and louis (accurately) characterises him as grooming armand.... like sure he's not going to be a 1d villain because this show is not doing that kind of work but you'd simply have to have blinkers on to miss how they're going to work with him as a character lol.

[stormwaterwitch]

[grenade-maid]

My roommate got me to start watching Jujutsu Kaisen and unfortunately the toxic boymilf with dead anime mom hair has bewitched me

[fayeandknight]

Buying a car is bullshit

I am very seriously trying to buy a new (to me) car.

I need a bigger car to fit crates in since that will allow me to transport more dogs for boarding. I have opted to go the used route for a number of reasons.

After much research, input from some super helpful dogblr folks as well as coworkers, and some dragging my feet - I'm ready. I'm looking to buy a 2018 Toyota RAV4 XLE.

I found one being sold at a fair price given the low mileage and went to see it last Saturday. It was a trade in at a BMW dealership. When they brought it out I was a little taken back because it's pretty dinged up. Not to the point of hindering functionally but there are dents and scrapes on every panel and fixing it would $1000 in body work easily, if not more.

Honestly, I don't give a shit about cosmetics. This car is for hauling dogs around. But it would be silly to pretend it doesn't change the value of the car.

I noticed that the front tires were different from the rear tires and asked about it. Sales dude tells me they replaced the front ones because the originals were dry rotted. I asked if the mechanic measured the new vs the old because AWD can be sensitive and different widths can fuck it up. Sales dude tells yes, it's all on paper. Cool.

I take it for a test drive and notice the brakes are a little rough. I ask if the brake pads were inspected to see how worn they are. Sales dude assures me yes, the car passed inspection and they're fine. Am told, again, it's all on paper.

Once we're back at the dealership I ask him to please get me the info on the tires and brakes cause I'm ready to make a deal and buy the car. Sales dude asks for my price and I tell him my offer is contingent on the information so please get it. Guy comes back with a manager and oops, they don't actually have that info.

Which honestly really pissed me off. You lied to my face and what? Didn't think you'd get caught not having the very specific information I'm asking for? I don't know why I expected slightly less car sales bullshit from a higher end dealership but the jokes on me.

I leave with the agreement that on Monday (today) they'll have the mechanic get the info and call me promptly at X time. An hour and a half later, I ended up leaving them a voicemail.

Finally got on the phone with them, tires are fine but the brake pads are just this side of passing and I'll need to change them fairly quickly. Fine. Given the body work and brakes, not to mention all the fluid changes I'll need to do, I put in my offer - a little less than $1000 off listed price. This puts the car at just my side of a good deal rather than fair, but honestly not by much.

They eventually accept my offer. Awesome. I am ready to pay over the phone. No. They won't take the payment over the phone or even a deposit. I have to come buy it in person.

In an ideal world, I'd go Thursday morning and get it done before work since that's my late day. But I'm concerned about the time wasting tactics dealerships use to try to get people to "upgrade" packages. I am trialing Friday and Saturday.

That leaves my only actual day with time to spare next Monday. During the in between they will not hold the car for me or pull it from their listings.

It so fucking frustrating that a high end, fancy ass BMW dealership is giving me the run around for a busted up six year old Toyota that I am willing to pay for right now!

So, fingers crossed it's still there next week and I'm able to buy it. If not, oh well I guess. There's really not anything else I can do at this point. It's just annoying because if they had the information they said they did I'd have bought the car right then.

Anyway, let this be your reminder to not take car sales folks word for anything and make them show you on paper. They will lie right to your face and blame you for holding up the sale.

[getvalentined]

My sister has just discovered that like nobody in her friendgroup knows what a goathead is and I'm flabbergasted.

People can just walk around outside and not get these fuckers all themselves? I understand folks are who in less arid climates or more industrialized areas, but we're talking friends from neighboring states with no concept of the existence of horrible evil spiky seeds of death.

Absolutely fucking wild. Tell me more about this wonderland where you live.