#and i didn't write a script

[the-music-keeper]

Objective #7 from the last list did not get done last week, but I wanted to pop in and say that the lecture itself went decently well!

[gothamite-rambler]

Robin!Damian: Put your pew pew away! Wait—

Red Hood (confused chuckle): Put my what away?

Robin!Damian (embarrassed): I meant gun! I’ve been watching a lot of true crime videos, and that site sucks. They can’t say the word "gun," or the video gets taken down, and I won’t have anything to watch.

Red Robin: I bet you say "unalive" too

Red Robin and the others laughed, making Damian blush in embarrassment.

Robin!Damian: Damn that Ray William Johnson! He has to say those dumb words just to make those videos. I do still enjoy them though.

Red Hood: Ray William Johnson, the guy from the early 2000s?

Red Robin: He's making videos again; they're pretty good, actually.

Nightwing: The guy who did that weird online show back in the 2000s is making videos again… and he says "pew pew" for gun?

Red Robin: Yep and yep. Once you get past the words he has to say to keep YouTube videos up, it's enjoyable content. The website has gotten weirder and dumber over the years, but I like watching his videos.

Robin!Damian: Red Robin, it makes sense you are a fan, but why do you old people know about him? He’s ours!

Nightwing: What? Old?!

Red Hood: You can't claim a person as your own when we had him first! What the hell did he talk about on the show again!

Nightwing: You're not helping! We knew about him before you were even a thought!

Red Robin: You didn’t watch him, though! You knew about him and that doesn't count. You were already old, and he was dead… or working with the Al Ghuls.

Robin!Damian (siding with Red Robin, crossing his arms): Yeah... what he said.

Red Hood: I didn’t even say anything insulting!

Nightwing: And I’m not old!

Robin!Damian (pointing at Nightwing, mocking): OLD!

Nightwing (shouting angry): Stop it!

Nightwing stepped back angrily cusring.

Red Hood: We're not that old! We still had him first! And whatever he used to talk about on his show came before him saying stupid words like 'pew-pew' We had him first!

Red Robin: You did not watch him! You were busy shooting people and getting revenge!

Robin!Damian: Yeah, that's right! You were too busy being OLD!

Red Hood: You took my job!

Red Robin: We are not having this discussion again!

As the heroes and Robins argued, Batman and Oracle overheard the entire exchange. Oracle silently enjoyed the bickering while sipping her coffee. Batman's eyes widened for a few seconds as he watched the older men argue with the younger ones. He sighed, covering his eyes like the exhausted father he was.

Jim Gordon had already figured out that Batman was listening to the boys argue.

Jim: What’s it about this time?

Batman: Some guy named Ray William Johnson, and Robin called Nightwing and Red Hood old, so they’re arguing over who owns a human man!

Jim: Out of context, that’s a very weird statement. In context, this is hilarious. Who did you watch for news as a kid?

Batman: I watched the news, not a guy in his bedroom.

Jim: His content isn’t bad.

Batman: I need you to side with me right now.

Jim: It’s garbage content. There.

Jim laughed, taking a drink from his coffee. Batman was at least happy he wasn’t near his arguing sons.

[thekittyokat]

you ever just have a lot, a LOT of feelings all at once about a character and not even remotely enough words or brainpower to FORM the words to describe everything you're feeling. so it feels like you may explode. yeah

[tevanbuckley]

rewatching the lone star cross over with the knowledge/confirmation that buck's bi is sooooo funny, because look at him

if you saw these still out of context in what world would you assume they're from a scene where buck is consoling tk about his dad being presumed dead? like no wonder tk clocked his ass.

it's even more hilarious that this interaction apparently set off zero alarm bells in buck's head and so it took him a whole three more years to come out. he really just thought he allied too close to the sun.

all i'm saying is buck's lucky tommy was single because otherwise he would've carried on accidentally flirting with hot queer firemen and never putting the pieces together.

[seokminfilm]

"there's no one like you." you say, looking down at seokmin as his arms smoothly fit around your waist. seokmin's eyes are that pretty dark brown, lips glossy with the tears he had just shed as he smiles while sniffling. "really?"

"seokmin, of course. i married you for a reason." his head laid against your stomach, his breathing slowing as you leaned over him.

seokmin's graceful hands ghosting your exposed back made you inhale sharply, and the soft feeling in your chest bloomed as he looked back up at you.

"how do you think we'll meet in our next life?" he asks simply, and you laugh, throwing your head back as you smile. "seokmin, really?"

a pout comes onto his features as his eyebrows become downturned. "yes, really. how do you think we'll meet each other again? since we're soulmates and all," seokmin says the last part while leaning in and kissing your exposed stomach.

you giggle, and sigh as he looks up at you again, strong hands still in place on your waist. he's waiting for a reply, and you try to think hard, imagining how you'd remember seokmin from this wonderful life you and him were currently living.

"i'd just hope the universe does me another favor and bring me to you. that's all i'd really want, i think." smiling, you cup seokmin's cheek, thumb grazing over his smooth, clear skin and ghosting his pink, sweet lips.

seokmin stares up at you as if you hung the stars in the sky for him—his brown eyes have those familiar sparkles in them, and the small smile that graces his features touches your heart just as much as it does his. his hands gently press you down towards the floor, and you follow, finally on your knees as he presses and molds his soft lips to yours.

the sound of the air conditioning and small pecks the two of you share isn't loud or distracting, but so small and minute that you crave more of it.

you crave more of seokmin like this. you crave more of your seokmin stripped down to who he really is—not a charismatic guy who just laughs and smiles all the time, or the friend everyone comes to help for—but just a sweet boy who needs comfort and cheering up, just like the rest of the world does.

"i love you." those words—when seokmin whispered them to you, like he did just now—made you slow down and appreciate the world that was lee seokmin. his voice was soft and mild when he said it, but you knew without a shadow of a doubt that he meant it.

"and i love you, seokmin." you said back, lips tickling his before you planted another one on his lips again. he smiled at you, and you caught it in your pocket, saving it for a rainy day.

[stripedstarsblueflags]

i didn't win the wheel: episode 1

(if anyone knows how to make gifs 🥺 please help me out until then it's shitty screenshot summer)

Alex: "I'm gonna say... 400,000."

Logan: "I'm gonna say 430,000”

ok cool let's introduce the WHOLE DYNAMIC of this episode in one still, shall we? alex is looking directly into the camera pondering the shit out of this question, and *this is logan's face*. look at that. look at that fucking smirk. alex is like "you know what? i'm going to get this question right" and logan is like "you know what? i'm gonna use the oldest trick in the pick-a-number-1-through-10 book and i'm gonna WATCH you get annoyed with me and i'm gonna love every second of it." he knows what he's doing

Alex: "Oh, you're playing that game, are you? Just gonna go a bit above?"

Logan: *smoothest fucking wink i've ever seen* *the fucking TONGUE CLICK*

ok WHAT. how am i supposed to handle this i– let's start with the fact that even before logan gave his answer he's leaning back, head cocked, gazing at alex ✨like that✨ practically about to do the arm-around-the-shoulder-thing **before** because he knows exactly how alex is going to react. that fucking wink he had that planned from the beginning. even before alex phrased it like "oh, you're playing that game, are you?" which WOAH BRAT TAMER ALEX DID NOT SEE THAT COMING and jesus christ i feel like i'm intruding on something. this doesn't even feel like ao3 this feels like the beginning of a shit 2k word wattpad draft but no this actually happened

Alex (after guessing exactly 1 less than Logan's and getting it right): "Yes!"

Logan (sunshine smile): "You're a donut..."

okay so apparently alex’s reaction to being called a donut 🍩 is that smile and leaning into logan for the first time in the video and giggling and idk fucking blushing like what kind of degradation kink is this... like i'm sorry i love you landoscar but "you freaking muppet! you got all the hangers!" will need to step aside for whatever is going on here

need i remind you this is ALEX'S reaction to kph. logan brought the k in there first guys leave your what the fuck is a kilometer bit behind ok!!! (i'll find this eventually but logan answering that question on "wrong answers only" with "i'm gonna answer this correctly. it's 1.6 to a mile" is the hottest thing i've ever seen)

aaaaaand here we go end of the video. DO I NEED TO DO A SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON OR WHAT actually–

alright that's the best you're gonna get with preview. but LET'S BREAK IT DOWN. so we go from logan doing literally all of the talking, all of the video introduction and explaining the activity, and alex even with his whole "oooh ray of sunshine" image clearly thinks this is stupid, he even makes little sarcastic hand gestures when logan describes it. and even right in the beginning he's not looking at the camera he looks like an adhd kid sat next to the window (come on alex look alive). but THREE MINUTES of an admittedly stupid game he's done a total 180, smiling and laughing and literally that wasn't that funny but now i'm gonna laugh because you're the one who said it and leaning in to read the cards for the first time and- well logan is mostly unchanged. from the first question he decided his main task for this video was literally just to check out his teammate at point blank range with his emotions very very clear on his face (alex is OBLIVIOUS af but then again he did pull out the "oh you're playing that game are you?" and i was NOT ready for that so who knows)

ok so episode 1 is very much a warmup for the rest of the series i know that. obviously this isn't the "reaching stratospheric levels of homoeroticism that actually leave a wake of collateral damage to all compulsory heterosexuality in a 50 m radius" as charlos but holy shit it's a lot more obvious than i thought!!!

episode 2

[scumblies]

graduation

[old-skyguy]

Look.

Ace Attorney fandom.

I know why people don't like Turnabout Bigtop. I am among the people who dislike Turnabout Bigtop.

But I GET why people like the case. I'm not going to be one of those annoying people who just blindly dump on it because I hate those mfs too.

Thing about Bigtop isn't that it sucks. Thing isn't the weird grooming stuff (though that is a huge part of it). It's not that it could've been good.

It's that - in my personal OPINION - it could have been *great*.

I think it had the potential to be one of the best third cases in the trilogy. It had everything; a fun and goofy setting fit for a pretty dang goofy lawyer game - where the environment itself had jokes and quips and one-liners and mishaps and tomfoolery written all over it, it had the previous case introducing a very interesting and important plotline that gave background for one of the more well-loved characters while also introducing an equally fucked up and lovable new one who was a child forced into a shit childhood of naivete in a CIRCUS with another character who was very naive and childish - whose interactions could have been funny and cute and reflective of said shit from the previous case (seriously she becomes such an important character in the 4th case, WHY would they not include her in this one for some character development? How did they fuck up letting a CHILD explore a CIRCUS?? That would have made the interactions flow MUCH better).

They had a pretty good, sympathetic killer imo, a morally dubious victim, an asshole of a client (who was pretty flat admittedly in-game, but I like his weird, topsy-turvy reasoning for it in the anime. Also, I think Max being kinda a dick would have bode well for the themes of Farewell since most of his clients up to this point have been like...nice? Not nice, but sympathetic, but him having to defend someone who's innocent but a prick would have shown him that just because someone is an asshole, doesn't mean they deserve to suffer for it and that they have the potential to grow as people, which is almost a complete foil to what Matt was. Ultimately, I would have loved the contrast of them as clients and I think it would have also served as character development for Phoenix, especially with his low-empathy tendencies).

They just didn't think that far ahead. They just didn't execute it well enough. They just decided to make three of the adult characters fight for the hand in marriage of a teenage girl. (Bat's part of the story was actually kinda good if he was just YOUNGER, I think him doing that for Regina would have been a stupid thing someone in the circus would do to impress their crush. Damn you Ace Attorney and your weird treatment of underage girls!!)

It just flopped and that's ok.

Even though it kinda sucked, it can still mean something to me.

Also I'm a Moe Curls apologist. I liked him, shut up.

[vagueeyes]

INSIDE NO. 9 | Director Guillem Morales + horror (1/2)

From the BBC Sounds pod - S6E5 "How Do You Plead?"

Reece: Guillem, you've got a very strong sense of what's creepy, and I always, sort of, absolutely trust your judgement as far as, like, having–I think we're quite similar in what we think will be creepy visually (Steve laughs. Guillem: Well–) and we egg each other on. (laughs) Guillem: I think, basically–I think that we have that kind of secret deal about you sending me the scripts with some horrible scenes in them, and me trying, you know, just to come out with even more horrible things. (laughs) (Reece: To make them worse) To make it– (Guillem and Reece laugh)

Reece: Well, prime example was, cos we never thought of it but you did, in "Misdirection" where the guillotine–where Neville is trying to chop Willy's head off. And we just wrote that he pushes him in the guillotine, lets go of the string, and his head comes off. But you were like, "No, no, no, no, it's not–it's a prop so it wouldn't really work, so it would get stuck in his neck. And he has to run up and he has push the blade through to finish him off." And we were like, "Brilliant!"

Guillem: But that was–it made sense (Reece: It made sense, yeah), because it's INSIDE NO. 9, so you never know. So the message there to send to the audience was: He's dead. You killed him and you're using a prop, so it was just making sure that message was delivered properly. Reece: Yes, absolutely. It was very, very good. (Reece and Guillem laugh) Certainly delivered, yes. Guillem: And you enjoyed it. Reece: (laughs) I did! I loved it. Steve: Yeah! He likes killing me in different, inventive ways.

Guillem: You didn't enjoy so much, Steve, probably. Steve: (laughs) I did some of it. It's actually a very scary thing, putting your head in a guillotine. Even though you know you're completely safe and there's no–it's just mentally, it doesn't feel right. Reece: I remember being thinking, "How have we ended up in a situation where Steve has to put his head in the guillotine, and there is now the possibility that that blade (Steve and Guillem laugh) might come down on it–" Steve: "–Cuts his head off!" Reece: "Cuts his head off!" Yeah, it was quite frightening. Guillem: You…you write those things. Reece: I know! But we don't think about the execution.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

When I think about it, my main gripe with Thor Ragnarok is that it didn't allow the pretty men to cry. So many of my issues would be solved with more melodrama and crying. I'd be willing to overlook inconsistencies in world-building and mannerisms if you make them cry!

My biggest problem was that I wasn't convinced that Thor ever cared for Loki based on how he acted in that movie alone. I know Loki has hurt Thor in past movies, BUT HE WAS CRYING WHILE DOING SO! It was not an easy decision for him and was born out of fear for his life and the identity crisis!

When Thor is about to bash Loki's head with Mjolnir, he's smirking and seems to imply he's threatened him like that before. If he had been desperately crying, asking where the fuck the real Odin was and what has Loki done to him, I'd have less issues with it. But it just comes off as very cruel towards Loki.

[jjs-brainrot]

So I've finally read How Do We Relationship? by Tamifull

(spoilers for up to chapter 121 ahead)

What exactly is a relationship? Is it some natural part of the human experience where you pick a life partner? is it a social contract between individuals to ensure exclusive romantic and sexual feelings between each other? Is sex a requirement for a relationship? Is romance even?

I don't know to be honest. What I do know is this: How Do We Relationship? by Tamifull hit me like a truck and then backed up over the corpse.

It might be one of the most nuanced, unflinching and uncompromising works about understanding relationships I've read. I think, in general, a lot of romance fiction feels overly wishful. While I can certainly appreciate a good gushy and feel good romance, it kinda gets tiresome seeing the same "will they, won't they (they will eventually)" and "love at first sight (it works out even though they literally have no chemistry)" stories regurgitated over and over again.

So much of it just feels too fake for me. Like I'm not watching two characters come to understand and fall for each other, I'm watching two halves of a couple who only exist to be a couple. Chemistry? Completely optional! Hardships? Temporary and will only make them love each other more afterwards. Break ups? Reserved exclusively as a failure state or for purely abusive relationships…

What sets How Do We Relationship? apart from its peers is its commitment to understanding its characters as people rather than archetypes. People who each have their own wants, fears, feelings towards sex and romance and most importantly: their own personal definition of what a relationship should be. People who when confronted with each other think they understand how everything should go, only to find out that the other person has a completely different understanding that doesn't fully jive with theirs.

The only yuri series I can think of that does something similar is Yuri is My Job! by Miman. Yuri is My Job! focuses heavily on the idea of fake relationships in Class S stories with it frequently asking "what actually makes something a relationship?"

A lot of Yuri is My Job! is primarily a critique on Class S stories first (possibly also a direct refutation of Maria Watches Over Us… I still need to watch MariMite so I can't say for certain) with a lot of its characters being subversions of classic Class S archetypes. So a lot of its dissections of relationships are done in the context of Class S stories.

That being said, seeing a series directly refuting the idea of a relationship being static and instead coming to the conclusion that the only ones that can decide what a relationship is are the people involved? That stuck with me. How Do We Relationship? is far a more focused dissection of what it means to be in a relationship, or at least, what means for its particularly cast of characters.

Take, for instances, our two main characters: Miwa and Saeko

Miwa and Saeko start out as friends, but after coming out to each other and finding out they're both lesbians, they decide on a whim to date. At first glance, they seem like the perfect couple! After all, they bounce off of each other's personalities really well, enjoy each other's company (both out and about and in the bedroom) and in general seem to care for each other quite deeply. They were made for each other, right? Well, no.

They're both individuals with vastly different personalities, experiences and feelings from each other. Over time they begin to see things in their relationship that bother them. Mostly little things here and there. Nothing they want to start a fight over or strain their relationship over at first but… Small wounds still fester. It eventually finally comes to a head a little bit after Miwa visits her old crush in a high school reunion. It's very clear to both Saeko and Miwa that she hasn't actually gotten over her past feelings for her high school crush. What's more clear to Saeko is that Miwa doesn't feel the same level of love for her and she does for Miwa. Eventually they just… break up and go back to being friends.

In most romance stories, a break up is regularly seen as either the ultimate failure state for a relationship, a temporary set back for a relationship to overcome or purely as an escape valve from an abusive or just kind of shit relationship. The reality is that there many different reasons for a relationship to end.

Could Miwa and Saeko have worked it out? With the path they were heading down, no. Neither of them were willing to fully open up about their problems as both feared hurting the other. Which just ended up with them hurting each other even more. If they had continued the course, their break up might have been far more painful and resulted in them not being able to be friends any more.

And they do get to go back to being friends even after being exes!

I think back to my aunt who divorced her husband several decades ago. They ended their relationship but decided to remain close in part for their daughter's benefit. Over the years they've remained close friends and have gone back to living with each other as well. There's no hard rule that becoming exes means you have to fully cut each other off if that's not what you both want. Certainly there might still be mixed feelings between you both (Miwa and Saeko's relationship as friends certainly takes some huge bumps after they break up), but you shouldn't follow along with what society expects from you both in a relationship versus what you both want from YOUR relationship.

And that right there is Tamifull's thesis statement with How Do We Relationship?: don't determine how your life and relationships should be based on what society expects them to be.

Tamifull doesn't hold back anything when it comes to depicting how society treats relationships in general but also how it treats gay people in specific. While the physical danger of homophobia is always a constant that makes many queer people not want to be open with their queerness, being constantly other-ed in most social situations (whether intentionally or not) can frequently be reason enough to want to stay in the closet. Insensitive questions (that are more often born from ignorance rather than malice), being always seen as an outlier, frequently having to lie about who you like and a million other microaggressions that just build up as extra hardship in a queer relationships. Relationships are already not easy to keep together, but adding additional outside stressors can strain them even harder. Enter Shiho.

Shiho was Miwa's aforementioned high school crush whom she reconnected with during a high school reunion. After Miwa and Saeko's break up, Miwa started keeping up contact with her more and more and eventually has the opportunity to meet with her again. Miwa goes to meet with Shiho in order to confess her past feelings for her. Miwa is fully expecting to get turned down but when she meets Shiho, Shiho seems far more receptive and warm towards Miwa than she was expecting. Whatever mental protections Miwa had against the idea of actually having her feelings reciprocated crumbled as it seems like Shiho might have feelings for her as well? Could she actually get together with her old crush?

Unfortunately, while Shiho does have feelings for Miwa, she doesn't feel strong enough to deal with all the baggage that comes with being in a lesbian relationship with Miwa. She very clearly put a lot of thought into the subject, and while she does care for Miwa, she just can't put herself in a relationship with Miwa. Shiho isn't in the wrong about her own feelings and she doesn't invalidate Miwa's. But it still ends up breaking Miwa far more than if Shiho had out right rejected her.

External factors can have a major effect on relationships but internal factors have arguably far more impact on relationships. Namely: sex and romance. Or more specifically: how everyone has different levels of interest in sex and romance.

Figuring out that I was ace and aro took way longer than it probably should have. "I have no interest in having sex with someone but I still get off to porn so clearly I can't be ace!" was legitimately a thought that stopped me from fully embracing being ace for several years. Eventually I figured out that sex-repulsion isn't a requirement of being ace and that the ace spectrum covers a pretty wide variety of experiences under it and that my own is just as valid as the others.

Over the years I've had to engrave a pretty simple idea into my soul: there is no universal experience when it comes to sex and love. Regardless of whether you're allo, ace or aro, you'll have very different feelings towards sexual and romantic interest than everyone else. Let's take, for example, Rika.

Rika is one of the supporting straight characters of the cast. She's also arguably the most sexually active member of the main cast with easily the highest body count of them all. And yet she does not want a relationship past friends-with-benefits. I'm not sure if she's necessarily aro or just not currently interested in a romantic relationship, but the point is that the main thing she wants from her relationships is sex. And that is completely fine! It sucks that when she explains this to dudes she just fucked who want to start dating her that she only wanted a sexual relationship with them and they respond by thinking she must have some family issues that make her so sexually active (she doesn't) or they respond derogatorily that she's just a slut. That's just part of who she is, there is nothing wrong with her. If she was a guy, it wouldn't even raise an eyebrow.

And then on the flip side, you have Tamaki.

Some time after Miwa recovered from her heartbreak over Shiho (and after being sex friends with Saeko again for a bit), Miwa starts dating a year younger kouhai by the name of Tamaki. Tamaki is asexual/alloromantic, she very much has romantic feelings for Miwa and even enjoys kissing and looking at Miwa's body, but she has a very low sex drive. Miwa, on the other hand, has a pretty high sex drive. Tamaki and Miwa together might be one of the best depictions of an allosexual and asexual relationship I've ever seen.

I've know a number of aspecs who've gone through a similar situation as Miwa and Tamaki. Some are certainly able to come to an understanding with their allo partners about each other sexuality, personal boundaries and fulfilling each other's needs in a way that's healthy for both parties. But a lot end up in similar situations as Miwa and Tamaki.

Where in one or both partners feel like they're hurting each other. Some aces feel guilt over not being able to provide for their partner's sexual needs, even if their allo partner assures that them feeling comfortable is far more important to them. Some allos might feel like they're raping their ace partners when they have sex, even if their ace partner expressly gives consent because they want satisfy their partner's needs, even if they themselves don't get anything out of the experience. If you get both together, you end up with a feedback loop of self hatred where the ace person sees their own lack sexual interest as actively harming the person they love and the allo person sees themselves as a monster for wanting to have sex with the person they love.

It's a toxic situation to be in, but it's also one that's hard to leave as both parties feel they themselves are in the wrong and their solutions to correct their error (the allo refraining from asking for sex and the ace more freely offering up sex) just lead to the situation escalating to the point of serious damage to one or both parties.

And unfortunately, that seems to have happened to Miwa. As of writing this, we're at chapter 121 so we're still early on the current arc, but it's looking like Miwa breaking up with Tamaki has done a number on her sex drive. I'm no expert on fluctuations in sexual interest due to trauma, so I won't dive too deeply into this (especially since we're still so early in the new arc). However, associating your sex drive as something that's actively harming your partner to the point that you leave them even though you still love them? Yeah, that's going to cause some damage.

I could ramble on and on about other aspects and topics that How Do We Relationship? does so well (Yuria/Saeko insecurities and dependencies, Saeko/Miwa's brief stint as friends-with-benefits, etc), but I've already said far, far more then I was originally already planning to say. So I think I might have save them for some future posts if I remember them.

So to finally end this now very long essay, I return to my original question: "what exactly is a relationship?"

I don't know, I ain't a cop. Whatever you and your partner(s) say it is, is what it is. But watch out though!

[gothamite-rambler]

Nightwing dialed his father's number on his cellphone while lying on the floor of his apartment.

Batman (blunt, usual way he answers his phone): What is it, Nightwing?

Nightwing: Oh wow, thanks for the warm greeting. I’m so glad you’re maintaining that usual cold tone when you answer the phone.

Batman: I don’t have time for your attitude right now.

Nightwing (groggily): Well, it’s the one I have at the moment. I’ve got the stomach flu, and I’m pretty sure one of you gave it to me.

Batman (concerned batdad voice): You have the stomach flu? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?

Nightwing: I thought I could tough it out, but, um… criminals don’t really appreciate being vomited on. I did defeat him and the cops bought my excuse he fell on dog vomit.

Batman: Hm, first of all, good thinking on your feet. But second, who could've made you sick? I would definitely know if I had viral gastroenteritis and make sure you stay far from me. Robin, are you feeling unwell?

Robin: Nope.

Batman: It could be Red Hood or Red Robin… which one of them is clueless enough to— damn it, Red Robin! You made this mistake before, but I didn't expect you to do it twice!

Red Robin (confessing immediately): Okay, I can explain. I thought I was over it, and he wanted to share my water bottle. I was just being a good brother!

Nightwing: Good brother? My tummy hurts! I can’t even stand!

Robin (snickering): He folded so quickly! At least lie.

Batman: I'd be able to tell quickly. Red Robin, take the night off. Nightwing, you can also take the night off. How long do you think you’ll have this flu?

Nightwing: Ask your Robin.

Red Robin (sheepishly): My viral gastroenteritis lasted about three days.

Nightwing: Don’t use fancy terms! You made me sick!

Red Robin: I’m sorry! I still haven’t figured out how I caught it.

Batman: Stop going out on patrol with wet hair!

Red Robin: That doesn’t cause a stomach flu!

As the group argued back and forth, Red Hood and Orphan listened in on the conversation through the comms while munching on tacos and thankfully their comms were off to chat.

Orphan: You’re not going to tell them you caught the stomach bug first because of those spoiled steaks you had in Mexico?

Red Hood (between bites): Mm-hm. Red Robin shouldn’t have ‘borrowed’ my water bottle since he lost his. Robin isn’t sick, so my conscience is clear.

[whatislifebesidesrehearsal]

Heyyyy so is it normal for, if the stage manager calls a cue wrong, for the light/sound operator not to just do it correctly anyways? Isn’t that why they learn the show?

So professionally (and otherwise with good practices) when the SM calls the cue is when the op should play it, even if that's not the expected place from the script/tech. There's a couple reasons for this, the big one being that the SM is responsible for making sure that all the parts of the show go smoothly and anything that is off isn't noticed by the audience. For example, the SM might decide to call a sound cue late because the costume crew told them the actor that enters with the cue isn't ready in time. Or a light cue might be early because they need that side of the stage to go dark for deck crew to go out and grab something that's fallen.

Sometimes they do just call the cue at the wrong time (they're only human lol), in which case the op should still play the cue when they say, and ask them about it at the end of the night/during notes (politely and one-on-one if possible). The reason for this is that the timing of the show's cues is the SM's responsibility, and that includes getting them wrong, whereas if the Op plays a cue when it isn't called then the mistake is on them.

This is often an unintuitive practice for people new to tech and can be a hard reflex to pick up. (I should know, I learned to board op at a theater that had no SM calling at all and then spent several shows unlearning bad habits once I left lol*.) In general, disagreeing with the SM during a show is bad form and can distract both of you from the show.

Ops learn the show because, while it is the SM's job to know the entire show and all its moving pieces, the Ops know their area really well. So Ops can note that a cue happened at a different time than the day before and discuss it with the SM later on. It also helps so that Ops can anticipate when their SM is about to call a cue and up their attention.

TLDR: Nope! Familiarity with the show is useful, but an Op's job is to follow the cues as given by the SM. Changes to timing may be a mistake (but the SM's mistake) or they might be based off of information that the SM has and the Op does not. If Ops have concerns about timing, they should discuss it with the SM before/after the show. :)

[komsomolka]

propaganda i am not falling for:

sw prequels script haterism

[andromedaexists]

i'm trying to gather fonts for the recipes in D'Jeet? WIP and my cover artist made me question some things so now i need y'all to answer me a question:

[fiore-region-appreciation]

Kyogre Mission Rewrite

I recently started a rewrite of the R1 Groudon mission on a whim, one thing led to another and I got an idea on how to rewrite the Rayquaza mission as well...

So I rewrote the Kyogre mission too to make a proper trio but I just can't get the ending to join up nicely to the Groudon mission. So rather than waste a full blown fic, I'm just gonna post it here. May throw it onto AO3 too, who knows.

Words: 1,977

"Mornin'."

Admittedly he probably shouldn't have accepted this mission, or at the very least should have cleared his schedule prior to spending the night at the professor's. Professor Hastings, it seemed, aside from being one Hell of a talker, was one Hell of a drinker to boot, and the combination of several glasses of hard spirits and only a few hours of sleep had left Lunick feeling more foggy than he'd have liked as he entered Fall City base. At least Hastings had the decency to send him on his way armed with a cup of aggressively strong coffee. "Heard you have a mission for me?"

"Ah, good morning Lunick." Joel always seemed like a busybody on a normal day, but today he appeared particularly brisk. "Apologies for calling you in, I know you're probably sick of doing work for me, but this is rather important, as I'm sure you'll appreciate."

He took a swig of coffee. "All ears, sir."

Joel nodded curtly, calling Aria over. "I've already gone over this with Aria, but long story short; we've had numerous reports of wild Pokémon down by the docks behaving abnormally all morning. The lighthouse has also reported an infestation of Staryu in their basement, apparently they've not only damaged some of the electrics critical for keeping the light running, but they're also far too aggressive to be approached safely. I'd recommend checking that off first, as you can probably imagine they're quite anxious to get the light repaired as soon as possible."

He adjusted his glasses, shuffling through the armload of papers that Lunick assumed were this morning's report. "I've already sent a few Rangers down there this morning to try and resolve the situation, all of them have reported being overwhelmed by the sheer number of Pokémon on shore or dangerously close to the marina. I know it's not tremendously professional of me to ask a Ranger from another base to do this when I already have a full base here, but I could either send the entire base out and have nobody around to cover the rest of the day, or I could just send you two knowing either one of you is more than capable of handling this solo. I'm sure you both can see the pragmatism."

"And I'm sure you could have just sent one of us." Aria was not as quiet as she clearly thought she was, as Joel appeared to muse at that statement. 

"And I'm also sure you don't want me to go over why I prefer sending Rangers out in pairs again. Besides…"

He fought to hide what may have been a smirk, or possibly a grimace. It was hard to tell. "I don't want to admit it, but Lunick's better at captures than you are."

"Aw, cheers sir." He was sure to direct his beaming smirk straight at Aria, who huffed before returning to her usual composure. Lunick, thus, returned his attention back to Joel. "So, head down to the harbour, clear out the Staryu at the lighthouse, and then… tackle everything else?"

Joel nodded. "More or less. And try to figure out what's causing all of this, if you can. I'd like this resolved as quickly as possible."

*

"And you should probably get a gate or something, just to stop this from happening again, yanno?"

The mechanic gave a noncommittal grunt, before sliding down the ladder into the manhole that led to the basement. Lunick snorted once he was presumably out of earshot. That toolbox he'd brought wasn't gonna be of much use. Pft, good luck down there, mate.

He stooped to allow his Minun to hop back onto his shoulder, surveying the harbour and wondering where on Earth Aria had gotten to. It was bad enough she'd refused to enter the basement, something about an alleged "higher risk of electrocution if there were more than one of us" (as well as the awful fishy smell), but disappearing entirely was a new low, even for Fall City's base.

"Looks like we're on our own for now, eh Sparks?" He gave Minun a scratch behind his ears, feeling a staticky nuzzle against his cheek in response, and he wandered towards the dock. Though the weather was still and windless, the sea was choppy and frothy, with waves crashing up the sea wall and the boats in the marina rocking precariously around. Further out at sea he could see the ferries and cruises that frequented the area moored perpendicular to the harbour, apparently waiting for conditions to improve.

"Hm. Weird." The cause for the phenomena was definitely unnatural, that's for sure. Whether they would prove to be a job for the Rangers was yet to be seen, however.

A hiss from behind caught his attention, and he turned around to the sight of a massive hoard of Krabby emptying from the visitor centre, followed by a thoroughly soaked and utterly miserable looking Aria. Huh. That's where she'd been.

He couldn't help but snicker as she approached. "Fancied seeing what sights Fiore has to offer then, eh?"

Her pained expression didn't change. "There was a huge swarm of Krabby in there, the lady on the front desk couldn't escape and was basically trapped in her office. I had to…" She paused to slop the excess water off her sleeve with a pitiful whimper.

Lunick snickered. "Be her knight with the shining styler?"

"Very funny." She fixed one of her signature curls, which had fallen limp from water weight. "I was hoping to try and find some clues as to what's going on too, I've never seen something like this before."

"So you also don't know what's causing all this?"

She thought for a moment. "If I had to guess, I'd say maybe there's a large predator somewhere close to shore that's scared everything else out of the water, but that's just speculation really-"

"Works for me." He strode down onto the jetty, towards the area where the tamed Lapras were usually kept. After all, if Aria's assumption was correct, and there was indeed a large Pokémon lurking close to shore, it was certainly in his job description to capture it.

The guy who usually accompanied the harbour's tamed Lapras was unusually nowhere to be found, however the Lapras was still in its pen, circling and chirping frantically until it noticed Lunick approaching. "Hey buddy…" Lapras headbutted his outstretched palm, with enough force that he was pushed back slightly. "Where's your owner eh? Not like him to leave you on your own."

"Our leader ordered a full evacuation of the harbour just before you arrived at base this morning." He turned around to see Aria still standing on top of the sea wall, leaning over the railing. "If you were wondering where the handler is."

Lunick frowned. "You not coming down?"

He could see her scowl even at a distance. "Absolutely not, with waves like that. I'm shocked that you even went down."

"Suit yourself." He jumped onto Lapras' back, easing down onto its craggy shell, making sure to sail past her before heading out towards the churning open sea. "Just don't come crying to me when I get to do something cool and you don't." 

*

Well, he'd managed to do something cool alright. Not everyday you got to not only see but also capture a Kyogre, after all. Lunick hadn't even heard of them ever leaving Hoenn before, let alone travelling as far west as Fiore.

And judging by its condition, it had brought company.

"Yeah it was in pretty bad shape." Not that he or Minun were in any better shape, mind; his styler felt uncomfortably hot against his cheek, the droning beeps, blood still dripping from his nose and splitting headache reminding him just how close he'd come to it blowing up in his hand, and Minun was still passed out across his shoulders. "Unless there's somehow another Kyogre lurking out here, I'd say it probably encountered a Groudon. Only thing I can think of that'd be able to rough it up like that."

"That's a concerning thought." The sheer amount of water damage on top of his nearly depleted styler made Aria's voice almost unintelligible. "But you said it's fine now?"

"Hopefully. Managed to get some Kanto Potion on it at least." Like most rangers, he wasn't one to resort to trainer equipment so easily, but it certainly beat towing a several hundred pound behemoth back to shore for the base vets to handle, and that was assuming they'd even been trained to treat critically endangered exotic megafauna in the first place.

He heard Aria muse. "And yourself? You actually dropped off radar for a few minutes there. I was getting pretty worried."

"I did?" He wiped his nose on his hand, accidentally triggering a new bleed. Great. "Eh. Could be better, I guess."

"Understandable, given the circumstances. I've already forwarded a message back to base letting them know you might need to return to recharge your styler, but I will say the situation has quietened down here on shore."

"Oh really?" He probably shouldn't sound so surprised, Aria had theorised the anomalies were down to a large predator lurking just offshore, and if Kyogre didn't match that description then he didn't want to think about what else could. "So, think we can just head back to base then?"

"I'm gonna stay behind a bit longer, there's a few Carvanha still trapped in the marina and I'd like to make sure they get out safely."

"Think you'll need a hand with that?"

"What percentage is your styler on? I can hear it beeping from here."

"Eh…" He glanced at his screen and grimaced. "Touché. I'll see you back at base."

*

"Goodness, are you alright?"

He probably should have anticipated that reaction before stepping into Fall City base. That nosebleed still hadn't let up after all. "Better than I look, I guess. Could probably use a recharge too."

"I'll bet…" Joel fussed over him, effortlessly claiming his styler and tossing it to the operator, who caught it with equal trainedness. "Wait, where's Aria? Is she alright?"

"Stayed behind, just to clear up a few loose ends. Would've stayed and helped out, but-"

"No, no, you made the right decision coming back here." A handkerchief was thrust up against his nose, his hand guided to hold it in place. "Just pinch it at the bridge-"

Lunick laughed weakly, dutifully taking the handkerchief. "You seem to have done this before."

"Ten years of knowing Spenser will do things to you, trust me." A rare laugh, before his face settled back into the mild concern from earlier. "What on Earth happened out there? I saw you dropped off radar for a good few minutes."

"Oh, yeah, uh, we found a Kyogre just beyond the harbour-"

"A Kyogre?" Joel quickly regained his composure. "Apologies, go on."

"Well we- I mean I- managed to capture it and calm it down, got some Kanto Potion on it, that's really all there is to say-"

"So you captured it too?" For the first time since knowing him, Joel actually looked genuinely impressed. "Hm. Nice."

"Yeah, it was uh…" Playing it cool was pretty much impossible given his current state. "Hard. As you can probably tell."

"I'll bet…" He finally stopped fussing, stepping back with a look of exasperation that suggested his day had been equally stressful in its own way. "Well, hopefully that's everything cleared, at the very least I got a report from the lighthouse saying they're able to start repair work now, which was my main concern… I should probably wait for Aria to return before I officially let you go, but honestly if you want to return to Ringtown-"

"I can just go now?"

"Of course, and I'll forward a message to Spenser. I think you deserve a few days off."