#best nerds I know

[inktho]

🎯 critical hit

[kaiserouo]

Well someone has to give it its driver updates, Gabriel

[umboocowju]

Beast peak's disciple Shen Yuan? Yeah 😌

[bakudekublogblog]

kacchan there is actually a way you and izuku can be together forever i have this crazy inventive solution for you it's called a marriage license

[ssaseaprince]

Can we talk about how Derek obviously has a type because Spencer and Penelope are so similar.

[teddybeartoji]

here are some very random martial arts headcanons for some of the jjk characters bc why the fuck not. btw yes i am aware that most of them practice more than one style of fighting i just think that these are smth that they'd really like as well!!!!

toji likes brazilian jiu jitsu – he got into that a bit later in life, he did more hand-to-hand combat training when he was younger but ever since he discovered brazilian jiu jitsu, he's been obsessed with it. he can use his size and his strength, and his whole entire body and that makes him feel very confident. he's very good at those on the ground throws,, like when he's being pinned down, he always manages to literally toss the opponent off of him and then immediately put him in a hold. it looks incredibly easy when he does it lmao

satoru likes muay thai – HE LOVES DOING SHIN KICKS idk he's so into them. he looks like a maniac when he's fighting btw he's constantly smiling and it's a little scary (it's very hot). since in muay thai there's a lot of elbow and knee hits too you can get very up close to your opponents and i think this is also something he really likes!!!!! mmm during fights he also likes to rile his opponents up lmao

suguru likes wing chun – suguru is the only one i struggled with assigning just ONE style bc i feel like he's veeery very into different types. but wing chun is very fast and it involves punches and slaps and just redirecting the hits coming your way,, wing chun fighters always look so calm while doing it and idk i really think this could be his thing. honorable mention goes to aikido!!!!!!!! he likes it when he doesn't have to hustle around too much, he likes it when he can just put somebody in their place with a mean little grin on his face.

sukuna likes kickboxing – he's all abt that raw power. he loves throwing punches and he's very similar to satoru in the sense that he too, looks like a fucking freak when he's in the ring. they both love the adrenaline so fucking much. in contrary to muay thai, kickboxing has more leg kicks, sooo you can keep your distance a bit more but he's more than fine with that bc that way he can truly show how hard he can hit lmao he has an insane right hook aaand he also really loves doing high leg kicks:333333

megumi likes judo – takes after his dad:3333333 he trained a lot with toji when he was younger but since toji rarely let him win it was mostly just little gumi being a grumpy little sea urchin lmao the fighting styles are both mostly abt grappling and ground work buuut while jiu jitsu is more abt making the other submit by putting them in a hold, judo is more abt throwing ppl around and megumi really likes that. it makes him feel really strong. (he likes to stare down at his opponent after he's just gotten the point i think he can be very mmm cocky sometimes lmao)(he learned that from toji)

yuuji likes wrestling – HE'S THEE BOY EVERRR!!!!! ofc he works out a lot but he's got soo so much raw strength and he loves it when he can put that into use. he's won like SO many competitions lmao i think he's very lighthearted abt the fights though and he has literally no beef with anybody (kind of like hinata yk?)(others definitely have beef with him though bc he's so stupidly strong lmao) he's very concentrated during the match but the second he's won he's got a bashful big grin on his face!!!!!!!!!! he enjoys the sport a lot a lot a lot!!!!

nobara likes taekwondo – IT'S SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she loves it and she has been practicing it ever since she was little. she loves kicking and punching she's very energized all around!!!! SHE GOES TO COMPETITIONS ALL THE TIME TOO!!!!!!!!! oh and she and yuuji are constantly sparring despite the fact that their styles are so different lmao (yuuji will get his ass beat bc he's kind of.. afraid to throw nobara)(but then gets called a 'pussy' bc nobara says he should fight her with all his might)

[onlythestar]

they missed the chance to do the funniest thing in tsats and have Will call Nico “DEATH STAR” – LIKE CMON IT'S RIGHT THERE

[kurikorso]

the deer prince and the golden doe

from chapter 34 of Salt00's fic Chick Magnet

please click for HD tumblr is killing this one

[emby-m]

Highway Cavalier and Dulcinea

Fifth in the “Putting Alice into Nort’s Skin Lines” project

They would tell tales of thee, if they knew thee, my Dulcinea. Instead, I, thy humble vassal, thy cavalier of the highway, tell tales of thee. A lady of grace and poise, riding astride your piebald hackney, hair of gold plaited back, eyes like suns beneath your goggles, hands like ivory steering your noble steed – any beam of the sun of thy beauty that reached my eyes would have given light to my reason and strength to my heart, so that I could be unmatched and unequaled in wisdom and valor. Thou hast strayed away from El Toboso, and yet I cannot seek thee.

Design and backstory under the cut:

Setting/text notes:

Highway Cavalier obviously based on Don Quixote with ‘the Cavalier’ and ‘Rocinante’, so Alice was a natural fit for a Dulcinea, a remote and far off lover who the cavalier acts for.

I imagine Alice died prior to the events of the story but maybe she’s just far far away…

Part of the text is directly lifted from Chapter 8 of Volume 2, in the Ormsby translation.

Thee and thou for ~intimacy~

Imagine this as an old-timey black and white photograph Norton keeps in his glovebox…

Norton’s design:

Agh agh agh so much to change so little time agh agh agh

Ok so the typical motorcycle jacket we think of wasn’t in production until at least the 20s but I figured a short riding coat would make sense. We do have motorcycle riding in this period (motor corps in World War I!) plus riding gear is consistent between that and horses.

The pants with the knee-reinforcements are normal, so I kept them but they’re not… jeans. His undershirt is a regular stand-up collar shirt – protective, but not whatever he’s got for padding there.

Alice’s design:

So women also had a motorcycle corps in World War I which is pretty cool. Their coats tended to be longer and somewhat fuller, with most of the shaping coming from the belting and some very heavy pleats in the waist. These were, quite spiffily, worn with a shirtwaist and tie. Pants/ jodhpurs were common (split skirts were too, the point being you NEED to ride astride on a motorcycle.)

The motorcycle they’re leaning on is hers, which is a contemporary Phelon & Moore 500cc single cylinder motorcycle. 

This is the age of no helmets. So. No helmets.

[jupiterkenka]

I thought that it would be kinda fun to draw up alternate Buck-Tick Taeyang dolls from some of my personal favorite outfits. Starting off simple and sweet with one of my faves, the ringlet jacket. (Also the doll posing comes from the Kuromi Pullip doll.)

[lamponellatempesta]

A thought that I shared in the discord server a few nights ago but that I will also put here, just because if I have to suffer thinking about it, we will do it together.

Let’s imagine Darius, at a time during the trip where they are in trouble or the adrenaline is coming down after escaping from any dinosaur or danger, and the absence of Brooklynn hits him in full.

The guilt that drowns him, that unbearable weight on the stomach that he carries with him since the day of the tragedy and as if it were not enough even his mind plays a bad joke, a memory that for the time was sweet but now is bittersweet: the words that Brooklynn told him in the tunnels in season 5 "Your light shines bright Darius Bowman, and I will follow you anywhere." He hears the words with her voice. As if that moment in the past were now, as if her was really telling him at that moment, to fill him with courage again. Only this time, she’s not there, he couldn’t save her. So they give him the strength to go on but at the same time they make him feel even more guilty than he already feels.

Probably next to him is Ben who sees him totally detached from reality, elsewhere and not knowing well what to do, but knowing well the reason embraces him to give him comfort.

Darius returns to reality when he feels the tears that flow copious along the cheeks and arms of Ben that surround him and that point would begin to try to explain to Ben why he is crying and was detached without succeeding and Ben would just hug him stronger and would tell him "I know what are you feeling, it’s hard for me too, I miss her too, it’s not the same without her."

And they’d be hugging for a while, looking for some comfort in each other, or at least until Darius calmed down.

(@mangosaurus @withdenim , I know you want to gently hit me for this, ops)

[spiderwarden]

when I say 'her life in menzobarranzan ' I don't want you to JUST picture the graceful tactful politician and rebel hunter that she was.

i want you to imagine Minthara as the playboy she also was, the stereotypical child of mommy's riches who spends their days partying and having sex with men and women, and being up to her EARS in cunt and cock. Coming down to the family breakfast table, hungover, naked under a robe, and lighting a canon equivalent to a cigarette and she reaches for the toast. In some cases covered in blood if her lover from the previous night tried to kill her. Known every bit as the pleasure party lover, party animal she was. Eyes scrunching and rubbing her temples because mom is giving her hell again for not focusing on anything else BESIDES cock and cunt.

[iiitsnotbase]

Iyengar and the Portrayal of Class and Power in her Games.

Since its origin in 1974, Dungeons and Dragons has been used to tell multiple types of stories, all depending on the players at the table and the dungeon master at the head of it. Most of these games (and other Tabletop roleplaying games, of course) tend to have a central theme in common, which is the theme of power. Whether that be a power over the world, for example, a king or nobility or dragon terrorising the nation, or the gods having power, or anything in between those, power always comes into play. Especially when it is commonly argued that one person at those tables, the dungeon master, or the game master, has the majority of the power over the table (excluding dice rolls, obviously. Dice rolls are left to the whims of fate.). 

There is one Game Master who portrays power in not only her games, but her characters, and she portrays it well. Though at times the way she portrays this power is often subtle and un-noticed, it is there; As intrinsic to her characters as the fact that they are alive, as threaded into the worlds she builds as the people (or even stoats!) that live in them. The way is not too heavy-handed, but it is not so subtle that you cannot see it, it is a delicate balance that she always manages to strike. I am of course talking about the Game Master of (most recently, at the very least) Candela Obscura; Tide and Bone, Aabria Iyengar. Though Candela Obscura is her most recent project (as of writing, 30/2/24), she is also known for her work on Dimension 20’s A Court of Fey and Flowers, Burrows End, The Ravening War, Pirates of Leviathan, and Misfits and Magic, as well as her appearances on Critical Role and being a main cast member of World Beyond Number. She is also widely regarded in all of these fandom spaces as (jokingly) ‘One of our own’, due to her frequent appearance on fanblogs. This is also sometimes colloquially referred to as ‘getting Quiddied’. Although Iyengar’s portrayal of power is always there, it is never more obvious than in Dimension 20’s A Court of Fey and Flowers.

Whatever you are imagining for A Court Of Fey and Flowers, times it by 10, add much more court drama, secrets, espionage, and one single, drugged-up, horny Grandfather who is all the worst parts of birds, and you might have something somewhat close. The table for this season of Dimension 20 includes frequently famous fliers (bird pun fully intended) such as Emily Axford (Lady Chirp Featherfowl), Brennan Lee Mulligan (Captain K.P. Hob), and Lou Willson (Lord Squak Airavis), as well as newcomers such as Surena Marie (Gwyndolin Thistle-Hop/BINX Choppley), Oscar Montoya (Delloso de la Rue), and Omar Najam (Prince Andhera), with Aabria Iyengar at the head of it, controlling all of their fae fuckery (both literal and metaphorical).

A Court of Fey and Flowers is Bridgerton on steroids, with magic and dice and eating feathers, and it is exactly as insanely wonderful as you think it would be. Interwoven with the romance inherent to the regency genre (BINX/Prince Andhera and Delloso de la Rue/K.P. Hob), there are themes of class and social standing, not only among the general population of the courts, but among their peers. This is there right from the beginning, in fact, as across the series illegitimate marriages, secret engagements, and whole secret children are revealed. Being the Game Master of this season, Iyengar portrays these struggles with a gentle touch and an ice-cold grip, never letting you forget that they are there, waiting to be shown, in the background. 

In the very first scene we have with Axford and Wilson’s characters, we learn both must marry for power, which tips many off to the way this society works. Their Grandfather (portrayed by Iyengar), demands they marry for power. This move, on Iyengar’s part, is a masterful portal of class, and hints at the social standing the characters have in the show. Unlike every other character mentioned, these two do not belong to a court. The implications of needing to marry well so they are not tarnished and banished from future social events do not go unnoticed by the players or the audience. Axford and Wilson would both later go on to reveal their already secured, entirely inappropriate matches, and cause many issues for their Grandfather. 

Another, darker moment of power is the power that the parents have over their children in this world. ‘Parents’ is a strong word for what some of these relationships are, ‘maternal’ being an even stronger word, so we will, for the purposes of this essay, say they are the people who watched over these characters as they grew and now hold power over them. Starting with the positive parental relationships, Marie’s character is shown to have a very unique relationship with their parents and family.

Unique in the fact that they are dead, and still holding power over her (in a somewhat positive way). Marie’s character’s grief spurs her to action on multiple occasions, at one point almost causing the end of her life through a power more powerful than grief. This is also down to Marie’s performance as BINX, her grief is interwoven with her character, holding court on her seat with her. Iyengar, several times, uses the care Marie’s character shows to her old family against her; Particularly in Episode 10, when she brandished a weapon for the first time against Najam’s Characters sister. The scene is incredibly impactful, as Iyengar cuts across to use the moment BINX (Marie) removes Andhera’s (Najam’s) shard to show Suntar (Andhera’s sister, Iyengar) losing the little power she had over Najam’s Character. 

Though Suntar is not the only person who held power over Najam’s character, his Mother, the Queen of Air and Darkness (again, Iyengar) is shown to terrify them. In fact, the power The Queen holds over her son is so deeply rooted into his character, it is a part of his design, a shard shoved into his neck that rains on him when he gets upset, or any strong emotion. This allows Iyengar to offer reminders to the cast, even when Najam is portraying the emotions, that there is always someone more powerful than the main six out there, waiting. This impact is made even heavier by the fact Najam plays one of the most powerful characters at the table himself, a Prince of a court that is widely well known and highly regarded. There is a case to be made about how he might play the most powerful character at the table, because while Marie’s Character is the leader of their court, that court is diminished, and Montoya’s character still answers to other people. 

Speaking of Montoya’s character answering to other people, The Chorus are some of the most prominent threats despite never being explicitly stated as villains (like characters such as Prince Apollo (Iyengar) are). They run one of the most powerful courts, The Court of Wonder, and help put together the entire event the story takes place in, The Bloom. The power they have over Montoya’s Character (Delloso de la Rue) is never unnoticed. It is integral to the character, given that they wore a glamour (a magical illusion to make them look like a green-skinned elf) every single day, to hide the fact they really are an owlbear, which are typically considered monsters. The Chorus only really exert their power once in a threatening way, but just because something is not said does not mean it is not felt. For example, Wuvvy (Iyengar) is a member of the Court of Wonder, and although she is Delloso de la Rue’s assistant, she is still a member of the Court of Wonder, which means she also answers directly to The Chorus if she is asked. Though all the examples mentioned so far are subtle in their power, one court likes people to know they have power, perhaps because the people in it are so very tiny. 

Mulligan portrays Captain K.P Hob of The Goblin Court, which holds the most explicit power in the season. Before we have even learnt the name of Mulligan’s character, we learn he is a Captain, which might mean something in another, kinder universe. This ties back into the Goblin Court holding all the power, K.P is a captain of their court, and this is so important to him we don’t learn his first or second name until much later. Iyengar and Mulligan work together to portray the court gaining and losing power rapidly, and using its members with significant ranks to find and hold that power. This is shown when the Viscountess Grabalba marries the Head of the Trickster Court after her previous engagement is called off. It is shown, in a much more solemn light, when K.P Hob is promoted to Major and ordered to marry for the court, which he does. 

There is also power in the way the cast chose to do their romances in this world, which Iyengar facilitates with several events throughout the ten-episode season, such as a Masquerade Ball and a Hedge Maze. There is power in the way Axford’s character has her own, secret family, in the way Wilson’s has a lover in every court, in the way Marie and Najam’s characters find each other, and in the way both Montoya and Mulligan’s leave their old lives behind for love (in Montoya’s case, in an almost direct parallel to Wuvvy). You could write an essay on the romances in A Court of Fey and Flowers, but this is an essay about power, and while love does have power, I would next like to discuss another Dimension 20 season headed by Iyengar and featuring Mulligan that heavily plays on power. 

Dimension 20: Burrows End is Chernobyl (the TV show) meets Chicken Run (but replace the chickens with stoats) meets Peter Rabbit (but they are stoats) meets 1984 (but with stoats). There are a lot of stoats in this season. Almost every character is a stoat, with exception of the two named humans (one of whom is secretly a stoat). Again, this cast includes some frequent flyers, such as Brennan Lee Mulligan (Tula), Isabella Rolland (Lila), Siobhan Thompson (Jayshon), and Erika Ishii (Ava), as well as the transition of Rashawn Nadine Scott (Viola) from Play It By Ear to Dimension 20, and 3 Black Halflings’ Jasper William Cartwright (Thorn Vale). All in all, this cast is best described as a powerhouse. 

Iyengar portrays class and power in this season in a subtler, more intimidating way. It is not so obvious at the beginning, as all the power seems to be in the hands of Cartwright’s Thorn Vale, the leader of an exclusive cult that worships The Blue. There is an argument to be made here that The Blue is the one with the power, despite not being a technical character in the season, it holds its place by being constant, whether that be through Cartwright and Scott’s character’s cult, or whether that is through forcing the beating of Mulligan’s character’s (Tula) heart. In this, the force which holds all the power is not a character at all; It is similar to what holds all the power in our world, which is simply nature. 

When the main six reach a location known as Last Bast, or The Last Bastion of The Light, or Warren Peace Nuclear Power Plant (we’ll continue to refer to it as Last Bast), some of the first characters there that they meet have the least power. They meet the working-class of stoats first, before anyone else, and thus begin to see Last Bast from their perspective. They meet these working class stoats when they are dying, when it is implied they are expendable because they have no power. In reality, they have all the power, being the ones to provide the food for the rest of Last Bast, and being the ones to provide the food, which keeps the area going. In reality, as much as the ruling class don’t think the working class have any power here, they have all the power. 

One of these working class stoats (as a reminder, these are all stoats) is an outspoken adolescent named Sybil, who loses her brother in the first meeting with the main six. Though initially she is portrayed as weak and powerless (literally being dead in her first appearance), we learn that she is resourceful, and if she is not strong in the literal sense, she is strong in the mental sense. She is also used to show the power that the leader, The First Stoats, have over their people, when they kill her in front of the Main Six to prove a point. Her death is explicitly described as being “The price of treason,” (Iyengar). Though Sybil is often argued as just simply being ‘a narrative device’, could the same not be said for all the characters in this story?

Sybil is also used to portray the idea of love conquering all, an overused trope but a trope for a reason. One of the most popular phrases in Last Bast, and a phrase used to guide other stoats towards it is “Follow your instincts towards the light.” Sybil takes this extremely literally, following her brother and breaking rules for her family, such as saying Curtis’s name even after he died (an act forbidden by The First Stoats).

Which brings me nicely onto the next point, the way The First Stoats attempt to hold power over death. The first way this is shown is through the disallowance of names for the dead, for the people who don’t technically exist anymore. This furthur shows their dictatorship and need for power and control; The way they cannot control death so they outlaw the names, taking away the family’s process of mourning and grief. The second way they do this is through Sybil’s aforementioned execution by them. They capture and kill her, showing again how they have the level of power and control that other stoats in Last Bast do not have. 

Candela Obscura; Tide & Bone is not only a masterclass in relationships and trust between players at the table, but a masterclass in power. The cast includes Sam Riegel (Oscar Grimm), Noshir Dalal (Professor Rajan Savrimuthu), Gina Darling (Madam Cordelia Glask), Ashly Burch (Dr Elsie Roberts), and Liam O’Brian (Professor Cosmo Grimm). This cast includes Critical Role old and new friends, all voice acting powerhouses in their own right, and is headed, as all these tables are, by Aabria Iyengar. 

Tide & Bone does not only choose to focus on the power of human emotions, but on the power of nature, and the freakish things we cannot control even when trying our best. To understand the portrayal of power in this game, we first need to understand the characters and their relationships to each other, since one of the long-standing themes across the circle is what power, and how much power, do our emotions have over us?

This theme is most obviously portrayed through Burch’s performance as Dr Elsie Roberts, a young Doctor with Cullet and a panic disorder that materialises as a terrible monster when she gets too stressed (take it literally), and Dalal’s performance as Professor Rajan Savrimuthu, a professor with a hive in his chest. I highlight these two not because they are the only people to portray the theme of emotions holding more power than they are worth, but because they are the most obvious. It is well stated that the professor and the doctor were together (romantically), “For a time.” (Burch). 

The scene that highlights this the most is the opening scene to Episode 3, Candles in The Dark, where it is revealed to the audience that, for an unknown reason, Professor Rajan Savrimuthu spent the whole night outside Dr Elsie Robert’s bedroom door, after him leaving in the previous episode. This scene, or the opening to it, shows how people are easily manipulated by their emotions, especially people such as Professor Savrimuthu and Dr Roberts. 

This theme is further explored later in the scene with the line “(Oscar) is interesting. He has certainly earned your trust.” Said by Dalal as Professor Savrimuthu. Oscar Grimm is one of Dr Robert’s best friends, and the only person to have ever seen her transform into the beast outside of herself (“I would have seen it before, right? So I know.” (Reigel as Oscar Grimm, narrating his internal monologue.)). This is further questioned by Dr Roberts, when she wonders why exactly ‘Raj’ is choosing to bring up this moment now, when they are about to go on the run, saying Elsie’s internal monologue is asking “Is this an inopportune moment of jealousy? What’s going on here?”.

However, romantic emotions are not the only emotions shown to have power over people. When Dr Roberts transforms into The Beast for the first time on-screen in Episode 1, it is not Professor Savrimuthu who comforts her through it, it is (one of) her best (and only) friends, Oscar Grimm. ‘Comforts her through it’ is a generous term to say ‘he is the one who takes the fall, not only for Elsie but for the rest of their circle, as she kills him’. Oscar Grimm cannot die, but he can still be killed, and he is. As he is being killed, though knowing she cannot hear him, he whispers, “It’s ok. I’ll be fine.” and then promptly dies and comes back.

This is another way that Iyengar portray’s power in this story; The power of death, and those who defy it, through Oscar Grimm, Empress Iomene, and Cosmo Grimm. While many other themes are ran rampant throughout their story, the main one is death and mourning, and finding power over those things.

For Oscar, the man who never dies, death is not something to fear. He cannot comprehend or remember what happens when he dies, and though he is often not alone, he dies far more than any one person should. Both him and his son, Cosmo Grimm, have power over death in separate ways. Whilst Oscar does not actively seek death, it seeks him, and he keeps coming back, whereas Cosmo actually seeks death and does not find it. The constant death for the elder member and the constant undeath for the younger one make this duo interesting and give them some of the most power in this circle. 

The last character to explore power in a unique way in this circle is Gina Darling’s Madam Cordelia Glask. She shows us the power of the gods, who took her entire family from her. Darling also, during her portrayal of Glask, holds a necklace like a rosary, showing how she still has faith in the gods that raised her and ripped her family from her. This point also further proves the power that our childhoods hold over us, even when we are in a different location, as Glask is. 

There are then the themes of communal power that are portrayed in the story, most obviously the power of names and titles. In Newfaire, there is a literal divide between the Eaves and the rest of the city, the literal divide being the staircase into the Eaves. This is evidenced in the circle by the fact that only one of them is not titled in any way shape or form; That person also being the eldest in the circle, Oscar Grimm. Whilst all the other characters are titled somehow, with either Professor or Doctor, offering academic achievements, or Madam, offering social achievements. This creates a divide in the circle, which is particularly emphasised when you realise that Oscar works for Madam Glask.

In conclusion, although power has multiple meanings, somehow Iyengar is able to portray all of them across the games she leads. This essay only covers the elements of her games, it mentions nothing of her characters, the ones who destroy themselves for power (Suvi and Laerryn) and the ones who let power destroy them (Karna). Power, as most things are, is a storytelling device that can often be overused. Iyengar does not do that. Iyengar’s take on power is refreshing, and in so many words (3410 to be exact), oddly comforting.

[bakudekublogblog]

i feel so greedy and gluttonous for even suggesting this but haha what if bkdk crumbs in the leaks tomorrow hehehe

[itsdefinitely]

richie really wanted to be max's friend. he really wanted to be max's friend. he. he wanted to be max's friend. nobody talk to me i'm having a moment

[justheretolurk24]

AFTG Chicago (the musical) AU where Neil is Billy Flynn, dramatic spectacled liar extraordinaire, and Andrew is Roxie Hart, murderer hellbent on telling the truth on the stand (at least initially)