#and then we had a little convo

[bookishjules]

had a dream last night where i was part of a family that was going through a bit of a rough patch. parents separating, teens dating and trying to step out on their own, the youngest ones adjusting to life in a new neighborhood, the mom just trying to keep everything together.. just life things. and i kept switching povs, paying attention to one kid or another or the dad, or just floating around. but i miss them, this little family i'm already forgetting. i miss their house and the toys on the floor and the hugs the kids gave me when i came back home. i miss their smiles. and it's made all the harder knowing they will never exist again--in the world or in anyone else's mind, or likely in my own mind either. because that's the nature of elusive dream stuff.. they were made to be forgotten

[thehalfbloodfreak]

On Jedha if Merrin watches Cal meditate she comments on it and it’s the cutest thing ever—

Merrin: You look peaceful when you do that.

Cal *probably blushing*: You were watching me?

Merrin: Yes.

[leqclerc]

Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc talking in the media pen post-Spanish Grand Prix 2019

[ragnarokhound]

puts this on your list of things to do

Skcnwksks *adds another stone atop the mountain, and the world sinks another inch closer to hell

But okay fr. I actually read Knight Terrors: Robin today, and with the enormous grain of salt that I am working mostly with fandom osmosis, esp re: their established relationship, I think they alllllmost wrote something that worked. Almost. Long rambling nitpicks under the cut:

I think if they had about three more pages they could have established Tim and Jason's relationship and their problems with working together a little better; and either cut Babs out as the middle man who introduced their individual issues to the audience, or used her more effectively as a mediator.

They very clearly wanted to showcase two problems: Tim is working himself to death trying to save everyone, and Jason is suffering by insisting on working alone. Good! I like this concept. It's annoying to me that Babs is the one who tries to reach out to both of them about these issues, gets rebuffed, and then is never heard from again. I'd much prefer it if they tried to talk to each other on their own and it went poorly at first, only to be forced to open up in the nightmare realm. It would tighten up their combined arc if they'd had one single conversation before the Inciting Incident occurs.

Like, don't get me wrong. I am waffling about this because Babs is a good entry voice to help introduce our primary actors. She is the person they have in common, and by having her be the voice in their ear, we see that other people in their support networks are worried about them.

But man, why not just have Tim monologue to himself about being ready to wrap up his third bust of the night and consider hitting up Jason to see if he needs help on the intergang drug bust he's in the middle of. It could be on Tim's way to the next place he's going, demonstrating that he's stretching himself thin and looking for even more to do; even with people like Jason who he isn't all that close with. And then Tim and Jason have their own snarky conversation (with some veiled flirting) about not needing each other's help or each other's nagging, and that's when the nightmare mist hits.

Because the story is only tangentially about people other than Jason and Tim. They're both too wrapped up in their own problems to notice other people reaching out to them about their fucked behavior. So Babs could have been used as a yardstick for each of them - Tim dismissed her fears at first, Jason hung up on her outright - but only if she comes back.

If Babs had also been there at the end to check in with them, yeah, it might have lessened the impact of Jason's plea for help and getting only Tim in response, but it would have been the indicator that they were now ready to hear the worries expressed by their loved ones. A very *clear* indicator of what has changed in the narrative that justifies Babs' involvement in the first place. You could have her come in right as Tim and Jason are catching up after the initial plea, having just escaped her own nightmare (*editors note: see Babs' knight terrors issue, lmao). She could groggily direct them to someone who needs help. All three of them are working together now, Tim and Jason are on their way to opening up to more people; huzzah

And hell. If you want to justify why Tim knows stuff about Jason he shouldn't - or why Jason might know something about Tim that he shouldn't for that matter - a little extra time spent together in the nightmare zone is great for that. Make them see each other's worst memories. Make them see each other's defining moments. Make it the twisted, terrible, self-directed-blame version of events that exists in their heads, and then they can separately call bullshit.

You literally put them into a shared mind palace!! Why did Tim know that about Sheila? Because he just saw it in Jason's head. How does Jason know Tim has a savior complex too big to shoulder? Same deal. IMO, this would have made their insistence that the other person is better than they think much more natural. It's not an empty sentiment because 'I've literally seen what you think of yourself and I am telling you that it isn't true'. (They're in a shared mindscape. Why not imply that they are seeing what the other is seeing too. That they're having a shared experience and are privy to each other's thoughts, emotions, and memories? Easy to do. "I feel like I'm walking to class in the 10th grade...but when I was that age, I was 6 feet under." "And I'm positive I'm picking up ammo for a gun I don't own. I think it's safe to say we're sharing a dream.")

I'm also ??? about why the nightmare zone let them talk at all?? Maybe that's something that we don't have time to explain/ it doesn't need explaining, but if I were a terrible nightmare creature and I was menacing two people at once, I simply wouldn't let them exist in the same space. Isolation is key to breaking someone's will. If you let them talk to each other they could help each other. Fool. Buffoon. Literally the only reason to let them talk to each other is if you think they'll make each other worse lmao.

There was a clever visual trick in which Jason hits the void barrier and Tim sees the ripples he makes - but iirc that is the closest we get to an explanation of how they might be breaking through to each other. And it happened after they were almost done with their second conversation. Too little, too late, IMO.

Arguments could be made that they were able to break through because they were approaching a hard limit. Jason hears Tim again when he yells at his double to shut up, when Jason himself is just about ready to throw in the towel. The moment of deepest despair, the realization for both of them that they're not cut out to solve the problem with their current method. Something something, breaking the pattern - but why let them, unless the nightmare can't do anything about it? I do like a monster with a secret weakness, so I'm willing to let it slide now that I've talked it out lol but still. It feels like an unearned conversation when the only convo they had before was mostly exposition.

Anyway. Tldr; if the writers had a few more pages and shown us Tim and Jason's conflict with each other rather than water it down via Babs (OR BROUGHT HER BACK TO TIE IT ALL UP WITH A BOW) it would have been a tighter & more interesting story.

[the-one-who-lambs]

putting you and payasita and bamsara in a room together to see what incredible narilamb thoughts you make together.. you're my favorite fic authors :]

We're already all mutuals askfjdkhgkljshd here is real footage of us discussing the best way for lamb to erode Narinder's loneliness and how deep his trauma runs

[bonnieisaway]

@lichrott I finally got around to making a side by side :3 at least of most moments i could find or remember

don't mind the music i didnt want it to be dead silent so i just grabbed the first thingi had. also one of the redtooth ones I wrote wrong i said season 3 ep 9 when i meant season 2 ep 9 we're not gonna talk about iitttt

This man really is only surviving through a fuck around and find out fight style huh. Also I think it's a bit telling most of the ones he DOES pick up from other people are almost always more offensive, aggressive fighting moves because Seven's naturally pretty defensive and doesn't have much issue dodging or avoiding things (or just fucking taking it like a champ) most often, but really often turns to others around him for how to attack people and that's how he's most often won fights or escaped the situation, and most of these aren't exact copies of them but he's able to adapt and adjust them for the situations he's in: holding down the Prince of Stan not to immobilize him but to stall him long enough for Thirteen to attack unlike Dachun trying to stop Seven entirely, using the drill move from Xiao Fei not entirely to attack Meowcai but also using it with his scissors to continue rushing forward and block his attacks, adapting Thirteen's fighting style to fight one on one with Meowcai when he had seen Thirteen defeat a solid majority of the other cats like this, etc etc

I think actually something that does interest me a little: different character's qi can have different colors and take a lot of different forms, but even though purple and red are more of Seven's signature colors (I'm being fairly generous with the red there given he's got a neutral color palette, but it compliments his purple well) the qi he uses with his scissors is the exact same color as Thirteen's and she's the person he tends to pick up certain moves or dual wielding in general from. I know it's pretty much always been that color but

especially here where he's physically holding them and that same color energy is still emitting from them. I might be reaching with the color thing a little but I think it is at least safe to say though Hua was the reason Seven was able to master his qi better he picked up quite a few things from Thirteen (and Green Phoenix in the past, I'd assume)

[heymrspatel]

@gallacrafts theme 13: throwback theme ⏪ - mashup of theme 1: fuck u-up & theme 9: deleted scenes

"i'm fine, red. no need for all this fuss." "we gotta clean and disinfect these, mick. look, c'mere! just let me." "whatever. never did any of this shit before and i've had way worse." "yea, well, i'm here to patch you up now. never need to worry about this anymore. i'll kiss 'em better too!" "fuck off, man..... hey uh... you missed a kiss on that finger. i need one on each one or else i'll die." "well i can't have you dyin' on me, can i? i’ll start over. kiss each letter... better kiss up here too... and here... just to make sure."

[theundeadmetalheadapolagia]

In a better timeline, we could've seen Jonathan take Argyle aside & just like. Address that what he bore witness to was fucked up. Like, the fucking tragedy of Argyle seeing a guy die in the back of his van, bury him in a shallow ditch in a fucking junkyard, & get discouraged (understandably, but still) from making him any sort of memorial. That he fucking existed. Like, Argyle is such a big-hearted guy, he clearly cares about people & gets hurt when they don't seem to reciprocate (à la, "oh you're having a party without me? Not cool, Jonny, not cool!"). And regardless, even if Argyle was somehow stone-cold, seeing someone die is fucked up. Do you think that Jonathan later just like, talked about it with him? Checked in? At least when El was safe & the journey takes a lull?

[curiosity-killed]

My sister has this thing where she like…loathes my childhood self ?? which. Feels a little unhinged. but leads to things like her being like “omg you STOLE so many baby dolls and because I was a Good and Rule Abiding Child, I was APPALLED and you were TOTALLY REMORSELESS” and I was like. 1 yr old when this happened.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

God. One of my little sisters is such a bitch. She's done me some genuine damage in exacerbating my already social bad anxiety. But when I have dreams where she's been hurt or killed, it's so horrible bc she's still my lil sister :-(

[florallychaotic]

Man there really isn't a lot of "convenient times" to quit your job as a nanny huh

[lyekisses]

joe❤️

[heirbane]

V ; MALVAZIA / ANCIENT.

⊙- Theoinus is not unknown to the Convocation. Most Ancients are seen to have a sort of role they play in Amaurotine society, whether with their own creation magicks or by tending to bureaucracy surrounding such abilities, and Theo is no different.

⊙- With their title of Dionysus, Theoinus was - for a whisper of time - almost considered as the next Azem, after Venat's retirement. Relatively young by Ancient standards, Theoinus scoured the edges of the world as Dionysus, bringing back information from the corners of existence regarding crops... most specifically, those that could be magicked into beverages.

⊙- The vast majority of the grape plants in Elpis were, in fact, brought forth by Theoinus - if not by their own magic, then by returning from their travels with seeds and starters in tow. While they cannot claim to have conceived of fermented fruits and their beverages, their tinkering with their composition was what lead to their prevalence in Amaurotine society. The drink, among Ancients, was believed to open the mind and relax the soul... to a detriment, if the user overindulged.

⊙- It was not until the End of the Ancient world, when the shards of existence came into play, that the concept of alcoholism and overindulgence came to be. Fermented beverages were of no long-term consequence to Ancients: it is their lesser, partial selves that suffer.

⊙- ... and some of the creations in Elpis, unfortunately. Not all are created equal, and Theoinus has caused the undoing of more than one of Hermes' beings. (Many of his grape vines had to be replanted to a specific, unpopulated island of Elpis, lest any more of Hermes' creatures eat them and become deathly ill.)

⊙- As mentioned above, Theo was... almost, kind of, not really considered for Azem. If the being's intoxicated adventures were harmless and did not impact the neighboring beings in their society, maybe Theoinus would have been in the running longer. Unfortunately, Theo is a menace and partakes in a lot of their own drink.

⊙- Theoinus is... quite popular. They are not often in Amaurot, due to their travels, but make their presence loud and clear when they are: always happy to share their newest brews and drink concepts, tales of their travels and the brash fights they get into while relaxed.

⊙- Theoinus is never at their own parties. If one is to come early, they may see them being a wallflower... but often times, Theoinus is not afoot - not unless they are in their cups. It is only after several drinks that they bloom, their boisterous attitude and fleet feet coming out loud and clear.

⊙- (Usually, however, Theoinus is holed away in a bedroom, dancing to dulled, muffled music on their own... or already on the road to make a name for themselves in another place.)

⊙- Theoinus is what Eorzeans would call a dancer. While not blessed with the strongest aethersight or creation magicks, Theoinus is easily able to turn any movement into a graceful, floral thing. They do technically subclass as bard, but only due to their ease of words and rhymes: they will never be caught with an instrument, as that is not their forte. They do, however, memorize beat and music quite easily, and struggle to forget a tune once heard.

⊙- Theo is a they/them at heart, but doesn't mind being dubbed he when referred to by his title, Dionysus, or from strangers in other parts of the world.

(and, for my own reference for art later - pine green hair, dark skin, burgundy eyes.)

[lesbianlenas]

the thing is that i HATE orientation stuff so much like i hate having to do little activities i hate having to talk to random ppl around me i hate having to pretend like i care abt the school as some sort of identity like i do not care i am just here bc i want an education……& like fr and honestly i hate heterosexual ppl so much like i really do and i’m always surrounded by heterosexuals at these types of things and they never want to talk to me & i never want to talk to them so i just feel incredibly uncomfortable the whole time. like this happened to me in both high school & college and it will inevitably happen again. i am not made for this world on god……….

[yohankang]

besties i gotta be real one of you has to visit me or i'll go insane

[lesbianboyfriend]

btw i made a new friend today bc we are both passionate about disability justice it was soo awesomee ^_^