#and then Temperance showed up

[victorluvsalice]

-->Victor finished up in the greenhouse around this time, so I had him head to the barn to make an eco upgrade part (the fabricator STILL refuses to attack him and paint him funny colors for our amusement), then Transportalate up to the second floor to use the toilet and mop some mysterious symbols in the seance room before heading to bed. He climbed in just as a refreshed Alice climbed out, which, figures. XD As Alice was feeling the Fury again, I decided it would be better to just indulge in the werewolf stuff for a bit and see if I could knock her over the edge into a little rampage. Because sometimes it really is just easier to let them fall to the Fury and see if they can bring themselves out of it quick. So she transformed into her beast mode, scavenged up a time capsule in the back yard, then went out for a very successful hunt (bringing back THREE spare pieces of meat!) before coming back and saying hi to Smiler (who, after getting a bunch of robot salvage parts and checking the latest SimsTube trends, was busy making computer chips and mechanisms on the robotics bench) and heading upstairs to play some video games. And that is where I would have left things --

-->If I hadn’t seen Rory Oaklow hanging out on the front porch, having just been sprinkled by a specter! I figured "oh, okay, Alice can chat with her and get some more werewolf experience" -- and indeed, a quick conversation with Rory about her time as a werewolf unlocked the "Werewolf Mentorship" ability for Alice! Making her a more effective mentor toward new werewolves! :D I'm – not sure when she’s ever going to use that, but still. XD I then decided they might as well play tug-of-war while they were hanging out together, since that too would be good for the old XP bar --

-->But then, who should show up in the kitchen but bad old Temperance, ready to cause mischief! Fortunately, Victor had already woken up and started making himself breakfast, so it was the work of a moment to slap down his bizarre idol and render her pretty much immediately helpless. (Getting slapped in the face with a spatula as he prepared his eggs couldn't have helped either. XD) However, Temperance's appearance was accompanied by the house making a bunch of creepy noises, and, well, despite being a big bad werewolf, Rory didn't take them well and ended up running off in fear before any tugging of warring could happen. So Alice instead just scavenged up some turquoise from the yard. XD Victor had his breakfast as Temperance finally floated out, and eventually Rory came back from her terror run, allowing me to get Alice to send HER home too.

And THEN, with all the actual residents of the house safely gathered in the kitchen where I could keep an eye on them, I was finally able to save and close out of the game! Whew! These sessions always take longer than I think they're gonna...but hey, it was nice to play again, see the trio in action, and actually make some real progress at selling stuff in the store! :) Next time, though, we're taking a break from store shenanigans for HOLIDAY shenanigans -- as next episode, it'll be Winter Saturday, aka New Year's Eve! Which involves the completion of a few errands, and a very special date...see you then!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

He is at his limit.

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[leonardcohenofficial]

the more i rewatch twin peaks i am reminded more and more that albert rosenfield (and to a lesser extent bobby briggs, though he doesn’t quite articulate it as clearly as albert with the exception of him breaking down at laura’s funeral) is THE only character to recognize laura’s death for what it was—completely avoidable, unromantic, and caused by human evil that nobody recognized the signs of or did anything to stop

[eggsploded]

cant keep their quadrants straight

[ask-the-colony-tree-siblings]

Hey, Survivor!

You mentioned that Artificer hurt Hunter during one of their arguments. What happened?

Survivor: I don’t know exactly what actually happened. One day I noticed that Hunter’s wrist was in a bandage, and when I asked him what happened he rambled something about Artificer doing it when one of their arguments got a little heated. 

Survivor: He wouldn’t explain it at all, but there was definitely a lot of… tension after that incident. My dad seemed upset with Artificer, Artificer was grumpier than unusual and Hunter was acting a little nervous around her.

[cactus-cass]

Why yes jooper is my favourite crackship how could you tell

[bonescaps]

[satorisoup]

people will think im ordinary until they say one (1) thing about tmnt and all of a sudden im explaining the entire lore starting from the 1990’s movie & why donatello is the best turtle i fear… T^T

tag limit fights me… i must yap… please listen… SOB </3

[lord-squiggletits]

Y'know the thing about writing feral/unhinged versions of Orion/Optimus, is that you can't go too far into the feral/unhinged direction to a point where OP's core character traits are lost or become too diminished. After all, in a multiple-continuity franchise like TF, part of what makes the stories make sense is that even if details change (sometimes major details), the characters are still recognizably themselves to one degree or another. (Although this isn't always the case due to executive meddling or some characters being such blank slates from their initial G1 appearances that there's basically nothing to model them off of, but I digress.)

It's pretty much another reason why I love IDW1 Optimus, bc he literally is a canonical feral/unhinged Optimus who's unhinged as a direct consequence of who he is as a person and what he's been through. Like, he still has those fundamental character traits of trying his best to be moral and make good choices, trying to be a role model, etc, except after 4 million years of war and untreated depression he's basically holding onto his sense of self by his fingertips. So when he "goes feral" e.g. losing his temper and beating up/killing people or saying hurtful things, he's feral in a way that's directly tied to his normal personality and not just as a random quirk he has.

IDW OP's feral moments arise from the gaps between "Optimus' attempts to be who he thinks he needs to be" and "the reality of the world that he can't fix/seems to only make worse" that cause him to lose hope, or become cynical, or lose his temper. But in this case, the unhinged-ness makes perfect sense because it arises out of Optimus trying and failing to be the best person or to make the most morally good choices he's trying to make. Basically, the "feral/unhinged" label is just another way of me trying to say that he's not just unhinged because he's weird or because he's a bad person, but because it's an emotional reaction (more like an emotional explosion due to pent-up emotions) to the context he exists in.

I'd also say that IDW OP's personality being generally reserved/stoic and (trying to be) noble works in tandem with those moments he has of going feral because it makes him more realistic. His psyche is treated in a way where the writers are like, "Hey what if the pressure of having to be everyone's idol and be the best person in the galaxy at all times actually broke Optimus down mentally and emotionally?" It makes IDW OP far more relatable. Instead of naturally being a perfect Christ-like figure who never wavers in his morals or convictions and is just naturally a nice person who always has the wisest and best answer, being a good person is something that IDW OP has to consciously strive to be. Even when he feels like it's useless, or the cycle of violence will never stop, or any attempts he makes to help only ends up with things becoming worse.

And I feel like this does a service not only to IDW Optimus as a character, but also as a sort of moral/philosophical perspective for the reader to ponder upon? I feel like culture at large (or at least my experience of it) tends to believe that "goodness" in a person is simply an innate feature that people are born/not born with, and that being "good" means that you must be good at all times, both in your actions as well as the way you feel emotionally about yourself and the world. Like, there's a tendency for our vision of "a good person" to be good in every aspect at all times without having to try to be a good person. So I think IDW Optimus' character stands as a good example of how someone can be good at heart but still struggle to maintain those feelings of optimism and hope and justice. It's a good idea to have such a paragon of a character (in-universe and out-of-universe) be so conflicted and to even be mistaken, misguided, or make things worse because it shows that goodness is as much about "trying to behave/act in a way that is good" and not just "existing as an innately good person."

It's way more realistic for a person to want to be good, try to be good, and sometimes/often fail than it is for them to just be a good person. I enjoy the fact that IDW Optimus is both a good person at heart, but also has to strive to be a good person and live up to other people's expectations of what they see in him. I like how he wants to be a good person and change society for the better, but he also spends a good amount of time either feeling hopeless and alone or being angry at/detached from other people because of how frustrated they make him. He's realistically portrayed as someone who wants to be good and hopeful and change things for the better, but is also mentally and emotionally broken by that burden because of how impossible it is for him to Fix Everything and be the Perfect Prime/Leader/Autobot that people see him as. It's this fascinating mixture of "yes, this is who he is as a person" but also "there are things he desires to be that he could never possibly become or live up to."

This got really far off based from feral/unhinged Optimus sdklfjaslkdlfkas. The TLDR is that if people want unhinged OP, I feel like they should give IDW OP a chance because he IS unhinged but he's unhinged in a way that's a realistic/thematic representation of how being an Absolute Good is impossible. And how being a good person isn't just about Existing And You Are A Good Person, but rather goodness is a constant state of flux in which you adjust, you make mistakes, you lose your temper and feel hopeless, but then you pick yourself up and try again.

Also IDW OP really likes climbing in dangerous wilderness and jumping out of flying vehicles which I think is very feral and sexy of him to do.

[the-ocean-is-trans]

wowee bones really took two of the most trauma riddled people on tv and made them kiss huh. booth is violently physically abused growing up, goes to war young as hell and gets blown up/watches his friend die/ gets tortured, becomes a trained sniper and remembers every person he's killed, and then later on while he's at the fbi gets a hit put out on him and his home is invaded by his colleagues who try to kill him in a shoot out, that results in booth going to jail, where he is subjected to more violence.

and brennan grew up a foster kid after her mother died and father and brother abandoned her, was abused by foster families, later reunites with her brother who abandons her again, has had her life threatened numerous times on the job including once (that we know of ) being shot, and once being literally buried alive. her former graduate student turns into a serial killer's apprentice. a different serial killer takes a special interest in her and in trying to take him down inadvertently lengthens his life, making more time for him to kill again. her father kills, guts, and burns two people to keep her safe and she hates him for it.

wild thing about this is that bones is a drama but it's also not a tragedy and it's not melodramatic and these traumas are just kind of baked into the story but they aren't the focus and they aren't even the main ingredient that goes into the making of brennan and booth as characters

[morrigan-sims]

broken vows, broken horns

"Leave, and never come back. If you ever set foot in this city again, you're dead, you hear me?" He spits in Val's direction before turning away, muttering under his breath, "Traitorous little devil."

This is a little glimpse into Val's past, back when they were 17.

When I made Val's tattoos, one of the other players said that the snake motif reminded them of gang tattoos where the symbol of the gang is repeated across the body. That planted the seed for Val's backstory in my head. And even more perfectly, I had already decided weeks ago that the reason Val is never seen without their captain's hat is that their horns had been broken many years ago.

But why would breaking of horns matter? Oh, of course. It's an all-tiefling gang! And broken horns is a sign to anyone who knows the gang/criminal underworld that "this person is not to be trusted, do not let them join your crew".

So I ended up with a tiefling gang called the Horned Serpents, and decided to place them in the port city of Xen, where Val will be taking the party after rescuing Rook. This would explain why Val hadn't been there in years (15 to be precise), and thus allow the DM to surprise me with whatever is going on there.

Unbeknownst to me, Xen and the surrounding area has a... complicated history with the Hells, and already is wary of tieflings. So it makes perfect sense that the tieflings there would band together, especially if they were already ostracized. (Yay for accidental mind-reading!)

Val was basically raised by the Serpents, but they are too kind, too good a person to be complicit in gang violence for long. So when they were offered the chance, they became an informer, leading to the gang's dismantling and downfall. But some of the surviving/escaped members discovered Val's treachery and came after them, beating them and breaking off their horns. And, of course, delivering the warning to never return to Xen.

Val fled and never looked back. For 15 years they've sailed all around the continent, but never docked in Xen. But if returning there is what it takes to save the life of one of their passengers, they'll do it.

[tavina-writes]

Do we really gotta do the psa where we tell people that assigning English names to Chinese characters is racist again :/ like is that really a PSA that I am typing with my own goddamn fingers in 2023.

Like, this is actually a thing that East Asians go through in the west where our own names are deemed too difficult or different to say or use properly so we get assigned or be forced to pick an English one for other people's convenience. Being made fun of for having a different sounding name was a MAJOR part of my classmates bullying tactics through pre-k to 12th grade. Like that's a pretty standard thing to have been bullied for in a racially targeted manner for pretty much every Asian friend I know??? Names and food are the big ones????

I thought that as a fandom given the amount of time mdzs has been this would no longer be a thing???? Also lmao the literal irony of having to block people in the notes of that post with "end otw racism" as their profile photos like hello congrats YOU are the problem here.

I KNOW it's meant to be "funny" or whatever but that thing is in such poor fucking taste. It's not remotely funny.

[nixariel]

[anotherdescentintomadness]

Xiao Zhan x Cutting Away 3000 Strands of Worry

[torybrennan]

show tempe gang crossover with the morris islanders would actually have been the best episode of bones ever. btw

[pain-is-too-tired]

Sweet Dreams Sweetheart,Sleep Tight.

You snored and it was the most beautiful thing that I'd ever heard

And I'm sure if we ever got old and married it would get on my nerves

But right now - for the first time

I think it's so cute you can't breathe right

So sweet dreams sweetheart, sleep tight

Smitten / Vulnerable by Leanna Firestone

Clarisse and Chris 🥰

I just think their sweet hdgdf Chris being one the only ones Clarisse softens up around. Him being only truly comfortable enough to sleep when with her and 🥺😭

I love them ♥️

Also unshaded