#but the ones that exist are SO character that i can't really find it in my heart to complain'

[cosmerelists]

Would Cosmere Characters Drive the Speed Limit?

You know, if cars and speed limits existed for them. (Potentially necessary context: I am a USAmerican)

For a different but hilarious take on Stormlight Characters driving, please check out this @saffronique post, which I spent forever looking for because I vaguely remembered someone else doing a driving post and wanted to make sure I hadn't copied them! Anyway it's funny; go read it: https://www.tumblr.com/saffronique/719947907049127936/was-just-struck-by-the-overwhelming-urge-to-rate?source=share

But now for a much more limited question: just, do they go the speed limit?

1. Nale: Yes but also no

As Mr. Beholden-to-All-Laws-of-the-Realm, Nale would of course drive exactly the speed limit! Except that he would also go immediately to the local jurisdiction, get deputized or whatever, and then obtain permission to speed all the time so as to Apprehend Criminals. So he'd actually be almost exclusively speeding but, like, legally.

2. Vivenna: Only at first

Vivenna does drive the speed limit when she first gets her license, because she wants to Follow the Law and be a Good Example for Siri. But, like, everyone is always so mad, and eventually she starts going just like 5 miles over the speed limit, which isn't even breaking the law, really. It's going with traffic! And then maybe 10 miles over, just occasionally 15 but only on a highway when it's safe! 

3. Siri: No

Like, going a bit faster is not a big deal, especially if all the other cars are doing the same thing. It's actually safer to go with the flow of traffic! 

4. Elend: Depends on who's in the car

Elend drives moderately above the speed limit like most people except if his dad is in the car and then he drives under the speed limit just to piss him off.

5. Vin: No

Vroom, vroom to be honest. Vin doesn't do things slow.

6. Dalinar: Yes

As a young man, Dalinar's speed demon ways led to the deaths of many people. So now he does drive the speed limit and insists that his sons do as well, whether they're in company cars or not.

7. Kelsier: No

Kelsier? Follow a law? I don't think so. He taught Vin to drive, you know.

8. Adolin: Not anymore

When his dad was really into Car Laws, Adolin did drive the speed limit per his dad's instructions. But he's since loosened up a bit. He figures he needs to find his own way to drive!

9. Shallan: No

Shallan drives the speed she needs to drive. Veil definitely drives the fastest, and Radiant is most likely to follow the speed limit. But on average...not so much.

10. Navani: No

Adolin can still remember being in the car with his aunt for the first time and being SHOCKED that she speeds. (In my head this is related to Adolin being shocked when he sees Navani wearing a glove rather than a full sleeve. This may not make sense to anyone else but it feels right to me).

11. Moash: No

Moash always wants to get to his destination as fast as possible. Also I just can't imagine him trying to follow the speed limit. 

12. Wax: Depends on the geographic location

Wax drives the speed limit in the Roughs but not in Polite Society (except in dense urban areas where he wishes to avoid, like, killing children).

13. Wayne: Does not have his driver's license

I feel this in my soul. 

14. Lirin: Yes

I think Lirin would argue that "getting to your destination thirty seconds faster is no reason to speed and put everyone else on the road in danger! Drive safe - arrive safe! That's what matters!" And then he would go exactly one mile under the speed limit at all times while everyone behind him honks. 

15. Kaladin: No

Kaladin spends three months driving very slowly after his dad shows him videos of horrific car crashes but eventually he just can't do it. He NEEDS to get there faster! People are DEPENDING on him! And he likes to feel the WIND in his HAIR as he cruises down the open highway! 

(Kaladin and his dad cannot drive together.)

[douglasanondr]

Y'know Lemres probably doesn't know why Schezo is the Dark Mage, he just know that he is one. I feel like if he did, he'd probably have a panic attack, knowing his past compared to Schezo's. He's to much of an empath to not be concerned.

Anyway, on the topic of the comic at hand. This whole comic hinges on an idea I've had for a while now, less an idea and more a question

[Does Schezo still consider himself Human?]

Not in a, Schezo thinks himself as to high and mighty to be lumped with plain humans, more of a with everything Schezo is, his abilities, his goals, his very existence, can he still consider himself human?

Schezo as a person cannot be considered normal by any means. he is a recluse, extremely socially awkward, the closest thing this series has to a cannibal, probably has enough power to destroy everything if it wasn't for a.) his moral compass and b.) how easy it is to stop him at any point, the guy's a mess.

But if there's one thing I've noticed about him, he never really antagonizes any of the monster characters in the series (please correct me if I'm wrong), unlike every other person he meets. He still gets mad at some of them, but he never actively engages against them unless they make the first move. Hell, his closes friend is literally a Siren. Honestly, disregarding his neutral stance on monsters, he seems to have a much easier time befriending anything that isn't a human than the other way around. (ie: Dongurigaeru, Tenori Zoh, Lynx, Onion Pixie)

It's not like he has a choice, for one he's was extremely antisocial even as a kid, with the exception of his family he never really made an attempt to connect to people. Secondly, because of his abilities his prime targets are always going to be mages, who will most likely be human. It's not like he can change either, he's already to used to the fact that he has to drain magic out of people, he can't just decide to stop, it takes time. Not to mention the people he is close to aren't exactly okay with change. Arle and Satan have both gone on record stating they like the status quo the way it is now. Schezo just deciding to reject being the Dark Mage is such a massive change that they might be uncomfortable with, even if it greatly benefits Schezo.

So until the day he dies, which will be when another Dark Mage is chosen. He will always be the Dark Mage he is now. A magic eating, cannibalistic mage recluse, who isolates himself from humanity and finds comfort more in the creatures surrounding him. Maybe this is just what he's meant to be.

Maybe he's just meant to be a monster.

[bumble-punch]

OK GUYS LISTEN IM GOING FULLY MASK OFF ABOUT CHIP X JASMINE DRAKE I LOVE THIS SHIP AND HOW IT INFLUENCES THE DEVELOPMENT OF FISH AND CHIPS

LISTEN TO MY UNHINGED RANTINGS ABOUT WHY ITS GOOD AND MAKES SENSE

(THIS IS MOSTLY ANOTHER CHIP INTERNALISED HOMOPHOBIA CHARACTER ANALYSIS I'LL BE HONEST)

(ALSO I HAVENT FINISHED RIPTIDE YET SO IF JASMINE TURNS OUT TO BE EVIL WHOOPS I TAKE BACK EVERYTHING I JUST SAID)

OK LISTEN so Chip has internalised homophobia, as I have previously established. I also, like many, ascribe to the popular interpretation that he has not-straight feelings towards Gillion. And it's really interesting how we can track how these feelings develop as the series progesses.

Chip starts off by freaking out the merest implication of something gay, but he gradually starts getting more comfortable around Gillion, and these reactions decrease. There starts to be more descriptions from Bizly of Chip being physically affectionate towards Gillion, putting his arm around him, leaning on him ect.

Which leads to their encounter with Jasmine... (from here on out we enter the realm of intense headcannoning and nebulous connection to canoncial events, just warning you)

What's SO AWESOME AND INTERESTING AND EXCITING about Chip's interactions with Jazz is that HE DOESNT FREAK OUT when Jazz flirts with him in an extremely forward way, and Chip almost seems surprised by how unbothered his own reactions are. It's like he's had all this time to gradually become accustomed to the potentiality of something gay possibly existing between him and Gillion. In a way, his relationship with Gillion was a safe avenue through which to explore his feelings, since Gillion never made any moves on him, and therefore, never made Chip feel threatened or under pressure to make a decision about how he felt. Chip had all that time to basically think "ok, OBVIOUSLY IM NOT GAY FOR GILLION THATS RIDICULOUS HAHA. what if I was though. What would happen. Would everyone hate me and i would die" and gradually explore the possibilty at his own pace.

Which leads to meeting Jazz, and suddenly being confronted with something extremely gay and explicitly directed at him, and.... he finds it's actually not that bad. It's ok. It’s not scary. He doesn’t feel threatened. What would have elicited a violent reaction from him before he met Gillion is no longer scary, because he's had time to think about it and come to terms with it before that point.

So I like to imagine that Chip ends up having a fling with Jazz, because he decides he's got to figure out how he really feels once and for all, one way or another. And unlike with Gillion, who he deeply cares about and loves as a friend and is terrified of misstepping with, Jazz is just some guy who thinks he's hot and is dtf, so Chip isn't as scared of experimenting with Jazz, since the worst outcome if things go catastrophically wrong is Chip has to jump out the nearest window and run away and just make sure to avoid the Jazz Pirates for the rest of his life.

After this fling, he pretty much is able to come to the decision that "ok. maybe i do like men. in which case oh my god these feelings for Gillion are actually a real thing that I have to deal with and can't just ignore" and he starts gradually, very slowly, expressing his feelings for Gillion more honestly, which leads to the iconic "babygirl/babyboy" moment in Zero, which was Chip extremely awkwardly trying to establish new ground in their relationship (though it's uncertain how effective it was considering Gillion's lack of understanding of Overseas culture. Oh well. Our boy tried.)

[scribefindegil]

i feel like mp100 is one of the few anime (and shows in general tbh) that lets weird girls be weird and i appreciate that

YESSSSSS!! I love how weird the girls get to be! They're not cute or quirky in that smoothed-over, palatable way a lot of supposed-to-be-weird characters end up being; they know what they want and they're going to be absolutely deranged about it. And it's that very specific brand of middle school weirdness, too, where they're leaning into it extra hard because they can see all these important responsibilities looming on the horizon and soon they won't have time to look for aliens or bully their friend into being the figurehead of their pet cult!

I love how when Mezato gets introduced you get like five minutes of going "okay, she's the Plucky Girl Reporter, I know this archetype" but NO! Actually she is so much weirder than that! She wants to start a cult for fun! And she wants it to be a good cult, so she's swanning around ineffectually trying to teach Mob leadership skills while leading the entire Psycho Helmet Religion on talking about how she'll produce their founder really soon, okay, she promises!

And Tome! She's loud and brash and kind of abrasive and pretends to cry to get her way and doesn't take no for an answer--and her friends love her, and the narrative takes her emotions seriously, and she GETS TO MEET ALIENS, and everything about her is just SO good!

I just read the Reigen manga and I'm obsessed with how Tome starts high school and is like "I'm an adult now. I can only like boring things and I must befriend these boring people" and is MISERABLE, obviously, and then the second she gets these "boring" girls to let their guard down they turn out to be absolutely as weird and intense and obsessive as she is! She's been going around thinking they're normal and dull because they're better at masking than she is and then it turns out that one of them has a special interest in eating bugs! Amazing, fantastic, no notes.

ONE really said Weird Girl Rights with MP100 and I will be forever grateful.

[lgbtlunaverse]

I have been thinking on the nature of mdzs as a deliberately vague text that leaves many things up to interpretation, and how i've slowly come to understand "up for interpretation" less as "there is One True version of this story i must find" and not even as " Everyone has a different One True Version of this story inside their head be based on their interpretations and the differences don't make one wrong and the other right" but as "There is no One True Version. Even in my own subjective interpretation of the text multiple things can be true at once" specifically, in regard to Jin Guangyao and the many things which are left up in the air as to whether he did them or not, most notably killing his son.

There's evidence for this, but it's non conclusuve (jgy saying he killed him while also saying he killed Qin Su, who very much killed herself. The speculations on how he'd have killed him being sect leader yao just saying shit. ) it is, esentially, just up in the air enough that if you decisively fall on one side of the debate is probably says more about you and your general opinion of jgy than it does about the "true" events of canon.

I have, as a proud apologist, always fallen on the "he didn't kill him but felt in some way responsible for his death." Side but recently have become more okay with the interpretation that maybe he DID kill him, and that at the very least, that when he tells Qin Su their son "needed to die" he is being genuine. Which, once you look at it beyond. "Is jgy a poor lil meow meow who it is Okay to Like or an irredeemable baby murderer" becomes both INCREDIBLY tragic and deeply interesting. Because here is a man condemned for who his parents were and who wants nothing more than to live, saying that it is possible to be so cursed by your heritage that you need to die. There is no existence for you. The exact same thing that has been said to him.

Of course being born out of wedlock to a sex worker and being a product of incest are different things, but that begs the question: where is the line? What crimes of the father can mean death for the son? How cursed can you be until your existence is so incompatible with society it is you who needs to give? And if there is... where is it? Qin su clearly thought she was past it. Was his son really past it? Is he?

[teaandinanity]

Sometimes I'm like 'oh, right, the inside of my head is Not The Standard Model' about the DUMBEST possible shit.

[solarisgod]

Like it's just always interesting for me to see that we have more introject alters who came from sources that I hyperfixated on than any other kind of alters. Since November last year, I've been through so much stress physically, mentally, and emotionally with the depression and dissociation that we have some more fictive introject alters around and they're all from the shows that I've been (re)watching and hyperfixating on. Stress or traumas doesn't necessarily always have to be the causes of an alter split ( but no alters can appear without a reason, there has to be a reason why they exist for them to form so the system / individual can feel safe, comforted, happier, etcetera and / or a task can be done easily, etcetera ), as, for a recent example, there was a chance of splitting increased or a fragment alter came by and took after this source when my brain has been latched onto a specific character for an alter to be created related to that character solely, as far as I can see, for that joy and comfort.

[nebulaleaf]

heehee hoo hoo procrastinating things so i rant here

[senadimell]

uuuuugggggggh, I really want this fic to be ALREADY finished at the same level of quality that I produced for the opening bit

(which i guess expecting it to be done and easy discredits how much work went into the opening bit but still....it’s so so far from being done and i wish it was already done because i want to find someone who is also in love with this idea and analysis and talk to them about it)

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

rotates legends zone dymanics in my mind

[mntcoronet]

declaring myself the only person who is normal about this one anime (closely followed by the two irl friends who made me watch it, and my mum who watches it with me, but they are not subjected to nearly as much Online stuff as I am so they are inherently more normal about things anyway)

[tearlessrain]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

[keeps-ache]

standing here in my star-patterned bathrobe holding a stylus while inscribing something onto my computer. it's wizard time baby

[shopcat]

i think w avatar in my own base... world that i draw/think. in. of. you know what i mean like the main reality to ME that i've developed the pairings would be well zuko sokka and then i can't decide if i prefer mai ty lee and azula having something weird going on where ty lee and azula have been dating for years and mai orbits them orrr suki and/or azula meeting through ty lee being in the kyoshi warriors (and then the classic mai lee) which i think would be a really fun dynamic to be honest i wonder why i haven't seen it much. anyway. yue and jet are also nebulously alive just cuz idc. i like yue katara i think that's cute even if it's still funny to steal ur brothers ex but i justify it by well as much as they were cute they truly went on like one ? date and just liked each other it just so happened to end very dramatically. it would be the same if sokka dated idk... jet ... anyway. though her and aang are still cute. mostly not like i am centring pairings and Shipping and such it's just easier to have things established just thinking things in my mind U_U i also am pondering an au to do with zuko and yue where they're friends and i'll leave it at that bc i think it's a fun idea i haven't seen around. rubs my hands together.

[galvatronsthighs]

That sure was a FNAF movie.