#acquire them please

[mayapapaya33]

A Game of You/ Brief Lives

I'm seeing some people complain about Thessaly in such a way where it implies that they think the narrative likes her? Guys, she sucks on purpose lol. I am begging all of you to pay attention in English/Lit class more often. Wanda is clearly the hero of the story, everyone treating her badly are dicks, it could not be more clear. I love Wanda so much. Thessaly should die in a fire lmfao. (the parallels between her and Esther from Dead Boy Detectives are fascinating, I wonder if they ever met?) All the people giving Wanda shit are wrong; Thessaly, The Animated Severed Face on the Wall, the Moon Goddess, her family, etc.

Death, the most level headed, kind, compassionate character in all of Sandman is on Wanda's side. It's generally bad form to read the author's personal stance from one particular character, but Death is as close to a stand in for Neil Gaiman's personal opinion as we are ever going to see in a story as far as I can tell. She is always who he gives the final say to in terms of morality over every other character, very much including Dream. (We also got Barbie being a ride or die, and the disaster lesbian neighbors Hazel and Foxglove being confused but supportive, and the homeless lady Wanda helped talking about her grandson being like Wanda and how dumb it was that people were so cruel and just because some people are different it doesn't make them bad.) Go read it again.

Neil Gaiman literally talked to his Trans friends about their lives and the stuff that was happening to them and then put it in his comic in 1989! I repeat, 1989! (through to 1996). No, the terms and language aren't all going to match up to 2024, Think, please, I beg of you. He wrote Desire as non binary before that was really a thing "Well why didn't he just use They/Them" IT WAS 1989 PEOPLE!!!!!! (the concept obviously has existed for longer, I'm talking specifically about language trends).

(Characters in stories doing or saying bad things to other Characters does not make the Story Itself racist/ sexist/ homophobic/ transphobic/ etc).

I've also seen people talking about Thessaly and Dream dating, again Dream is making poor life choices, as per usual! I think he was initially attracted by her audacity and strength, and her longevity. Him sulking Byronically and inconveniently in the rain he himself creates to be more moody and Goth about being dumped is meant to contrast sharply with the scene after You Know What happens at the end of Brief Lives. He returns home to the Castle and quietly walks through the corridors, being polite and kind to everyone (freaking them out a bit in the process), he slowly washes the blood off his hands, and collapses into a chair to mourn deeply in solitude and silence. No more drama, no more rain, no more epic windswept shots of him staring pensively into the distance, just true sadness. It's almost like his earlier performance about being upset by Thessaly's absence doesn't actually matter that much in the face of true tragedy.

The first is shallow and dramatic, He's the Prince of Stories, he falls in love at the drop of a hat, but he's bad at maintaining relationships. The Drama is inherent to his being. He IS stories. But in the second situation it's more real, he's more real. The Grief is too much to bear turning it into a story. Dream is being forced to face harsh Reality. After all, like Dream said, stories are how we keep ourselves alive, "If you rob them of their Dreams, if you take away their hope, then yes, this is the truth of Mankind." Perhaps it's also the Truth of the Collective Unconsciousness of Mankind? His path forward was set from that moment on.

[doomspaniels]

Please to give Guinevere ALL of your attention. Thank you.

Oooh, you can really tell that Guinevere likes to maintain her own coat. There are bits of sticky or dry or tangled hairs that usually she would groom herself. A couple of mats forming under the cone and I can't reach them with it on. The inside of the cone smells like a vacuum cleaner bag despite my best efforts to keep her ears clean.

She gets her stitches out today! Then we can finally get that lampshade off. I will take care of the urgent stuff right away, and she's getting thorough grooming on Monday.

[lemonofthevalley]

🦇🩸

a thank-you gift for @hermanunworthy gifting the sequel to acquired taste to me!

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

The "MACV-SOG" Watch

This arrived while I was away, a Seiko SNK381K1. I took off its metal bracelet and attached it to this Waltham wrist compass that I had in the LRRP collection.

I'm reasonably satisfied with it as an approximation of one of the models of Seiko 5 that SF guys reputedly wore in Vietnam, but it is not perfect. This image (which I lifted from this video) compares the SNK381K1 with two Seiko 5 models used in Vietnam

So you can see the numerals' font isn't quite right, the hands are the wrong shape, the case is a bit off, and the day shows white on black instead of black on white. Furthermore, the days on the model I got show in English and Arabic; English and Japanese would be better.

Apparently there is another Seiko out there with a case and hands that match the '60s watches more closely (the SNXS79), and enterprising individuals will combine the face and mechanism of the SNK381 with the case and hands from the SNXS79. One can also swap out the day wheel. They make all this sound easy, but I'm not sure I have all that in me.

[promiscuousasexual]

pierre...and carlos...a more harmonious teammate pairing...

oh god i think this would cement the downfall of alpine, they’re gonna kill everyone around them and then each other

let alpine think it’s harmonious so that way it actually happens

[theonyxranger]

Somebody come pick me up and take me to get ice cream :(

[loveletterworm]

i have some tendency to want to partake in literally every activity and/or topic of discussion that is theoretically possible for me to do (maybe this is normal and i am only strange for describing it like it's strange) but sadly this is not really practical to do in reality for various reasons so mostly i just have reached an olympic level in the act of lurking

[holygroundgone]

I must not buy pins. Pins are the wallet-killer. Pins are the wallet-death that bring total bankruptcy. I will face my desire. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone bought I will click the refresh button to see its path. Where the pins have gone there will be no money. Only my merchbux will remain.

[the-wereraven]

I'm trying to get a very, VERY old adopt design that I love back everyone please pray for me 😭

[enchantrum]

brooo it's SOOOO CHEAP that any effects on Ethel just get cast away at the beginning of her next turn when you fight her in the teahouse. this is why I hate the Ethel plot. it goes nowhere and she's just magically awarded immunity towards everything to force a scripted event. Larian fucking suck at game design sorry

all the combat encounters are cheap bullshit

[elytrafemme]

i can't get a normal screenshot of them because i'm actively watching the video but firstly observe how dan turned this the fuck out with the weird futuristic wetsuit and the earring (the wetsuit was mentioned in the "Dan is leaving me" video but the fact that he WORE IT legend and he looks so fucking good)

secondly please note Phil and please empathize with the fact that i am HAVING THE THOUGHTS. like he has had so many good fits lately but this one... the return of the QUIFF... it's over for me. How can two men be so pretty.

[musicalsiphonophore]

I'm really not sure what to do with this one- there's no search button or any other features it's just a big aggressive CHOOSE YOUR GENDER button. please shut up, website, i know this no more than you do

[neversatisfiedwithlife]

I do think they should have leaned into Maya and Carina getting their own place. A new place; via Maya suggesting it. Because I think that combined with not stepping up for captain would've made more sense.

[simleez]

this thing of hybe acquiring the remaining shares of belift is so funny bc an article i saw hybe were praising enhypen and it's HILARIOUS that only now they acknowledge them BECAUSE THEY GOT THE FUCKING SHARES..... i hate this company

[llatimeria]

i wish earning money was as easy in real life as it is in video games. like "bank account's kinda low. guess i'll sell the kitchen table"

[stars-inthe-sky]

What item have you unpacked at the new house that made you go, "I can't believe we keep schlepping this thing around?"

Boyfriend has a box of random clothes—t-shirts from high school, Indian attire from his friend's Hindu wedding (in 2015), etc.—that moved with us from Cambridge in 2019, sat in a closet for four years in Illinois, and remains untouched in our storage room now.

Not sure that counts as having "unpacked," mind you, but it's definitely the thing that comes to mind.

Admittedly, there's also the bike I was gifted for my bat mitzvah (in 2000) that's now in the basement—and hasn't actually be used since we left Cambridge, either—so I probably can't talk. Although in that case I was ready to sell it to the local bike shop for pennies before the move, but he thought I might want it if I get back into biking around.

Which, to be fair, I'd like to, but he wore out the brakes on my "good" bike, and the decades-old Trek should probably just be thanked for its service at this point. (Yes, the brakes are an easy fix, he just hasn't gotten it to the shop yet.)

We actually did a decent job of purging otherwise before both moves, and most of what we accumulated in Illinois was furniture (as we'd gone from our beloved two-bedroom apartment in Cambridge to a house and are now in a slightly bigger house) and maternity/baby stuff (as Bébé was born in 2021), so for the most part we actually unpacked and use most of our things.

So the bulk of what's currently in storage are maternity/baby gear, some yard/gardening things (as our landlords currently handle that, but we anticipate someday owning our property again), and assorted other items we use but only once in a while, like the hiking backpack for Bébé or Boyfriend's ancient video game stuff.