#by someone i have approved of beforehand etc etc

[likegoldintheair]

i'm like if someone who hated being touched was also deeply touchstarved

[swee7dream]

nct dream as partners to an age regressor nct dream x f! reader

author's note: hihi! first time blogging, kinda nervous... i've had this idea in my little marble head for quite some time and now here i am posting it !

dni: if you sexualize age regression and/or have an 18+ blog.

genres & content warnings: fluff fluff fluff. no warnings !

이민형 | mark lee

ur gonna be the death of him. poor boy is stressed 25/8

he's doing his best but he still doesn't quite understand at times

a quality time lover ! sometimes he gets so immersed in his own thing he doesn't notice you switch tasks until it's too late,,,,

"oh no! oh dude... i'm so sorry man, c'mere. no, don't apologize. it's my fault. it's ok. you can cry all you want. let's just get a bandaid on that gnarly cut, okay?"

when he's sorry, he means it ! after the pb&j knife switcheroo incident, he made sure to set alarms to make your meals just in case you've regressed that day and can't (safely) make your own food

a very good listener ! he loves listening to u talk for hours and hours and hours and hours and

listens intently to the explanation of your shows, the names of your plushies, and the storylines currently on going as you play pretend

loves playing pretend. at first, he was a bit shy, breaking character and laughing into his hands when embarrassment got the best of him, but now bro is confident! u could place him in a broadway show and no one would think he's out of place

could be said he was actually the one who made the first move to play pretend.

"...whatcha doing?" "playing" "...what are you playing?" after being burned under your x-ray vision gaze for no less than 5 seconds, you hand him a plushie and 'insist' on him playing with you

not one for titles or nicknames. mark is mark, you are you!

punishments are the last of his worries. hopefully, you don't make it rise the ranks

황런쥔 | huang renjun

manners freak

"ah!" he always has to hold whatever you asked for out of your reach. "what do we say? it starts with a t and ends with a 'you'."

does all sorts of crafts with you

one time, he drew your favorite character and you loved it so much you made him put it on your wall then and there. he was undermining it and complaining that he didn't want to get up and do all the work that involves framing it but the smile and blush on his face told a different story

lets you put stickers on him! only the pretty ones that he's approved beforehand. and NOT on his hair. he's chinese, not korean. he doesn't need the military service buzzcut

like mark, not big on titles. they make him uncomfortable tbh. nicknames for you, however, he does quite like (tiny, munchkin, etc.).

happy to let you be independent while regressed under STRICT supervision

goes so far as to make little songs and jingles to you can sing along to as you perform certain tasks so you both know you're doing things safely and correctly even when out of his eyesight

ur complete coloring pages go right next to his pieces of art on the fridge. u are both artists !

lullabies are a must. the man is a singer for a living ! good night! z Z z ....

punishments usually consist of renjun nagging on for over an hour. you don't really tend to listen. it's mostly for him to let out his frustration before the big stepper comes for you.

"and NO ice cream this weekend!" "NO!"

이제노 | lee jeno

first one to actually not mind titles ! he can live without them but they scratch an itch in his brain like nothing else can

two words: cute aggression. leans in to kiss your cheek only to bite it. he bites your nose. he bites your EARS ?! someone lock this man up !

hugs you in a way that presses the cheeks of the two of you until you look like twins conjoined at the head

the cuddliest man ever like i've never seen a more teddy bear-coded individual?!?!?!

"gotta pee." "hold it." "i can't!" grumbling jeno noises

started going back to the gym after seeing how much he you like being carried

he doesn't really talk a lot when in cg mode, but you've known him long enough that you can read his body language just fine

might actually be in cg space more than you are regressed !

just anything that you do, big or little. it's so precious to him. he feels the urge to just protect you from everything!!!

no !!! u can't go outside !!! what if bugs bite u?!!! oh u brought bug spray? ok... send him a message of when u get on the bus! and when u get off the bus! and to ur friend's house! actually, just let him drive u ok? give him five minutes to change !

the worst at dishing out punishments out of all of dream. a pout, a teary eye, a sniffle, he's unraveling at the seams.

he sits on a chair by the bed, arms crossed with a stern look. you could shatter it with a bat of your lashes, but you know you need this.

"i'll be sitting here until you fall asleep. we could've played chutes and ladders tonight like you wanted if you hadn't thrown away your veggies, angel."

이동혁 | lee donghyuck

he is the baby. wdym you are ?

poor boy is used to being the youngest and acting cute, what is he supposed to do now that the tables are turned?

at the beginning, it's lots of awkward head pats and hugs of comfort.

sits you on his lap while he's gaming, playing with you and your toys in between matches

kind of insecure to be ur cg :( give the boy praise and appreciation!

"you," he sighs, looking away from you. "you should really be in bed by now. it's past your bedtime." "but you're not asleep." another sigh. "i know..."

when his confidence and comfortability is up tho? big big BIG on the baby talk and praise to the point you have to remind him you guys are in public!!! it started out as a joke (yk how he is, being annoying on purpose with his main weapon being aegyo). he doesn't think it's a joke anymore guys,,,,,,,,,,,,,

titles are goofy to haechan. he calls you the same he always does.

"what about me? did i do a good job today?" he asks, striking a ridiculous pose. "yeah ! you're the best, chan ! :D" "... :( thank u baby :,("

punishments don't exist actually! he's right there next to you. silly string all over the room? it was his idea to play spiders. veggies thrown away? impossible. he never bought them to begin with. didn't do your assignment? was it that important to begin with? hyuck doesn't think so

might be a regressor too ! on the older side, perhaps (pre-teen - teenage)

나재민 | na jaemin

terrible for big space. just the absolute worst

baby talk and aegyo is not an action for him, it's a lifestyle. makes you do one or the other (or both if he's feeling particularly sadistic i mean playful) if you want something or as a punishment on the lighter side

probably made you slip multiple times before you even told him you regress

all the cheesy, cringy, cliche stuff? he does that. shamelessly too

loves titles and uses them on himself even if you don't. doesn't make you call him anything, but he loves how it 'rolls off the tongue so well!'

he's an addict to nicknames for you. finds them randomly

"oh man, look at that rabbit! it's so cute!" "just like y/n" "what" just randomly takes out his phone in the middle of walking to text you nana: hi bunny you: ? you: hi?

acts of service are his natural calling. you might as well be quadriplegic.

makes your favorite drink for you! ur too little to do it urself !!! let him do it for u (pls pls pls pls pls he's on his knees)

also makes lunches for you that are all pretty and shaped like some sort of animal when ur feeling small ! he stopped doing cats though since one time you felt like you were eating luna and cried.

you two literally fight to death about who loves who the most. jaemin has to be tied to a chair in the basement of an abandoned building to let you do literally anything for him

punishments are extremely rare. virtually non-existent. he prefers to talk things through and give rewards rather than take away

health is important! it's so so important to him he set up a meal plan where you eat the rainbow three times a day.

makes you exercise with him.........

"i'll be home in about half an hour, jellybean. do you think you could finish a bottle of water by then? i know you can. i'll see you soon, okay?"

종천러 | zhong chenle

you know those people that talk to babies like they're grown people that pay taxes and drink alcohol? that's chenle

he knows you've regressed and you're not in the mindset of an adult anymore, but he isn't a big baby talk person like jaemin is

the nicknames he uses for you are very classic so he can use them both in public and in private (doll, dollface, princess, etc.)

surprisingly into his role as cg? like, he has a chart set up for you and everything. if he's abroad/not around, he'll call you so you can place the gold stars yourself in his behalf

another manners enthusiast

uses titles for himself and expects you to use them too

"'can i have dessert please, what?', princess? what word is missing from that sentence?"

doesn't say much but always keeps an eye or hand on you in public.

bro is nonchalant (for the most part. just don't read his locked notes)

"a gift? i didn't buy you anything" LIAR. "what pink box? have you opened it? bring it over here. let me see"

he's very patient, just stern since he has strict boundaries and rules. constantly encouraging you to have firm boundaries as well.

"is this ok?" "do you not like this?" "how do you feel about that?"

go-to punishment is writing lines. always gives you a yogurt or some other snack when you finish. mostly does it for himself, he doesn't like staying on the subject of punishment/bad behavior. there's better things to do in his opinion

his favorite activity to do with you when small is your text message conversations. no words, no talking, just a photo message from you (!!!! look what i'm doing !!!!) and a photo from him in response (!!!! good job i'm so proud of you !!!! here's what i'm doing !!!!)

박지성 | park jisung

a lot like mark, not a fans of titles or nicknames

more of a listener. has lots of questions but doesn't want to interrupt the groove with which you're explaining the lore of equestria so he just nods his head in hopes that he'll understand with time and context

the one who would adjust the fastest to learning about your age regression out of all the dreamies. give him five minutes and he'll be like "...ok. wanna watch tv now?"

jisung is so !!! silly !!!

a goofy boy. he loves making exaggerated reactions and expressions to make you laugh

"gah-!" you've hit him with an invisible arrow! jisung holds his chest, stumbling back to slowly fall down onto the floor. very very slowly. "you've shot me... i can feel my life force leaving me... why... would you do this...? bleh."

kind of has a sixth sense for you. if something triggers you and makes you slip in public, he's like a cat that heard something no one else can.

pulsing your hand in his to get your attention only for you to avoid eye contact is a dead giveaway. he might not always be able to leave the event, but he makes sure to give you a break of just you two. breathing exercises, grounding techniques, he also lets you play with the plush toy keychain he bought for occasions just like these.

the first time you shutdown verbally when small, jisung panics! he's running around looking up on the internet how to 'talk without talking'. now he's a baby sign language expert. good job, you! /gen

can u tell this came from a jaemin delusion? he's just so cg coded my LORD ㅠㅠ

[missielynne]

Just venting to you because you're so nice despite knowing that you and 99% of our fandom disagrees lol, but I didn't actually like last night's episode of Ghosts very much? I far preferred the premiere. The thing is, I get that the Ghosts are VERY flawed and love that because it makes the show both compelling and hilarious, but I feel like they were more manipulative and kind of mean-spirited in last night's episode to a degree that they almost never are. (Again, they're always a bit manipulative - it's a matter of type and degree!) Like violating someone's headspace to make them think and do things they ordinarily wouldn't? I get that Sas is an instigator, but that's a WHOLE new level of wrong for him, and even though he was obviously contrite by the end, I really kind of cringed through most of the episode. And Hetty not even giving a thought to Trevor before desperately coming on to a vulnerable and mourning Thor purely in hopes of getting sucked up? Again, we all know Hetty is hilariously terrible in certain ways, but this felt like the Hetty at the VERY beginning of S1 who'd had literally no growth at all. Also, I LOVE Jay, but I hope they address how kind of pitifully dependent and suggestible he is?! Like he's SO easily influenced, constantly lonely to the point of desperation even though he has Sam and Mark and can still be in touch with his NYC friends when he wants to be, etc. It's not just last night's episode - this is the man who almost joined a cult last season after meeting people for like five minutes just because he was so desperate for companionship! I'm definitely an introverted homebody so maybe I can't relate as well to why Jay seems to need a lot of friends around and constant socializing but a 30-something man who can't handle ever being by himself and is THAT eager for acceptance?! I feel like if he and Sam broke up Jay would be one of these people who has a new "girlfriend" within three days - not because he doesn't love Sam, because obviously he does and is totally devoted to her, but because he has such a fear of being alone and needs constant company, approval etc. Like I said, I'm glad he has flaws, but I hope they address this! And suffice it to say this episode didn't paint Sam in a flattering light either lol. Manipulation aside, it really feels like she always has to have her own way. She's certainly a lot more accommodating to the ghosts than she is to her spouse! Anyway, I like my sitcom characters flawed, but last night's episode just felt a little 'ick, why am I rooting for these people' to me. I know most loved it and wish I did too!

I loved the concept of this episode, but I agree that the execution was a bit ick, once again highlighting Sam's tendency to resort to manipulation to get what she wants from Jay rather than just talking to him. Sass having dream manipulation powers is a very cool concept and maybe it was tough to figure out a way to do it in a way that wasn't weird (which I might be able to understand) but I would have felt less weird about it if the powers had been used as a way to have Jay meet the ghosts so that he didn't have to die or almost die in order to do so (with conversation beforehand of course.) I hope we have future episodes where they do this because the concept is a good one, at least to me, and Sass' power is cool. It just was introduced weirdly. I'll give you that one for sure.

I really felt so bad for Thor and this was not a shining moment for either Hetty or Alberta but I suppose I can't blame them for (in general) jumping on a chance to possibly get sucked off (although they could have waited, for crying out loud. Again, not the best move but I don't blame them for wanting to take the chance.)

And I felt so bad for Trevor too. I hope this makes it apparent that he and Hetty want different things where she's more intent on moving on and at least for the time being, he's comfortable where he is and that's fine. I think everyone except poor Thor had lessons to learn and I hope they did come away a little wiser (Although Thor's plan for Flower isn't the most selfless. Maybe it will be his turn to learn something later.)

As for Jay, as an introverted homebody myself, I don't really understand the depth of his loneliness either (Although I would love love love for him to build friendships with the ghosts, of course.) And honestly, they aren't doing with Mark what I thought they would. Can they at least use Sass' dream power (after making sure Jay is okay with it, of course) to help the man meet Pete? For crying out loud, it makes me nuts.

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

dear anon talking about media training. YOU understand me!!! let them say unhinged shit again! celebrities are filtering themselves so much no to conform to purity culture that's egged on by twitter and such. and it's no wonder that people latch on real hard to a celebrity and stan them (ngl, still don't really get "stan culture" so....). and then the extreme backlash when the celebrity does anything remotely Not Approved Beforehand. Even in regards to dating life (like i'm seeing something about how timothy chalamet fans are hella upset he's dating someone else and are like canceling him??? on tiktok or soemthing???? idk). like. if celebrities were allowed to just say shit it'd fix a lot i think. like yeah, ok saying "i hope he catches aids and dies" is obviously not great. but so is i'd say the almost uncanny valley feeling i get reading/watching any interviews nowadays. what they're saying isn't real!! everything is scripted ahead of time by a whole team of pr!! and even if it isn't, there's that underlying falsehood. i wish people were less afraid of the whole cancel culture and just media/tabloids/journalists in general. it'd give more realness and relatability. (part of the fear of journalists i think stems from just how mean and awful certain tabloids/papers were in the 00s - from what i remember one was literally like "wow! can't believe [x] isn't dead. what a shame" like ???????) but anyways, i wish there was more actual personality behind famous people today, rather than just brands/money/etc.

Stan culture is a whole can of worms and honestly it's really damaging for all the celebs involved, having their every word and action scrutinized by the public, and in turn forcing them to play this scripted, inoffensive character towards the media. Modern pop culture is somewhat unbearable in that the majority of it isn't real at all.

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

I have many times stated how interesting I find Sharon and Ámbar’s relationship. A lot of times in S1, Sharon is unbelievably cold and cruel to Ámbar. I remember thinking first time I watched how I wished she could be nicer for ONCE. And then S2 came and right away, she seemed a lot kinder to Ámbar. She smiled more around her, she showed a worry and it was like she just cared for her more. However, while she was nicer, she was also creepy as HECK while doing so… which made the scenes all more interesting cause there was so much layers. And I think what was different here was that we saw them alone in Ámbar’s room.

In the dining room, living room and hallway… it’s open spaces. Someone can walk in. Staff are around there at all times. Sharon has to keep it professional. It’s in these scenes where Sharon scolds Ámbar, does not want to hear what she says and they bicker and have fights. But these scenes in Ámbar’s room… here is where Sharon seems to have this calmer side to her. She brushes Ámbar’s hair, she acts more like sort of this mentor to her. Sharon being all in all kinder towards Ámbar in S2 may also be due to her plan with the Sol thing and also because Ámbar is gonna study in Paris, so this is the final year they’ll live together, or possibly because she sees Ámbar more as an adult now than what she did last season (?). And I think Ámbar kind of felt excited to move away. She feels a lot for Sharon - she is tired of all of her demands, she is hurt by her and she constantly craves her approval - but all in all, she is her mother and she loves her. But getting away is a chance for her to just explore the world on her own. With no lies, no demands, etc.

Then, rewatching S1, I realized there was not all of these times where Sharon was so cold and cruel as I remembered on my first watch. She is still very much cold and cruel, but I noticed these smaller moments. Like in the first episode where Ámbar is like ”omg foodger wheels? Like they have in New York?” and Sharon replies ”Maybe ☺️” in a voice you’d talk to with a child. Now, it’s possible she just acted like this due to it being a lot of people around. In the first episode, Ámbar is very much painted as a spoiled brat and Sharon at first seems like this ”oh my goddaughter is a little hard but her parents aren’t around so I let her be like this because I know she’s just acting out” (which we know is not true, but without knowing anything beforehand, that’s what I at least initially thought). And whenever Sharon scolds her, we are more expected to be on Sharon’s side, because Ámbar is portrayed as bratty and spoiled (although, with some of the things Ámbar does in S1, there are times where she is rightfully scolded. But far from every time). I even remember some very early episode too where Ámbar walks down the stairs and Sharon says ”Ámbar, darling. Why are you still up?” and gives her some advice. Then she gets a headache, but nonetheless… In the first like 20 episodes, you can just excuse it as Sharon being strict, or Ámbar just being ”bratty” and Sharon being tired of that… again, we are meant to believe that Ámbar’s parents are overseas and I personally believed she was acting out because she felt abandoned by them (since no one has told me about Sharon having adopted her and it lead me to ship Lumbar hardcore). But Sharon being really cruel and cold starts happening more and more the further in the season we go, to the point where Ámbar for a while did not even want to go home.

Without analysing, you could just say ”Sharon never cared about Ámbar”, but most people know that is not true. Sharon very obviously does care for her, but her controlling and serious nature gets in the way. She does bother to know about Ámbar’s life, but if Ámbar does not tell her anything she confronts her and asks what she hides from her. She does not care to know where Ámbar is going, but if she’s not home at a certain hour she immediately wants an explanation and her exact location. She is paranoid that someone wants to hurt Ámbar and asks Rey to keep an eye on her. All of this you could excuse as ”she just wants to control her” and that is partly true. But Sharon is also her legal guardian, and she does have this protectiveness over Ámbar with other people - even with her own father. She does not want to get him or anyone near Ámbar. If Rey and Ámbar are in disagreement, it’s Rey she scolds. And if he dares to say anything about Ámbar, Sharon defends her in a heartbeat. She wants her for herself, in this odd way. And when Sylvana came, it was like Sharon for whatever reason was afraid of her. As if Ámbar got to know her, she’d leave Sharon alone.

And that’s the thing: Sharon in S2 assures Ámbar that she is her only family. She is all that she has. She wants Ámbar to trust nobody except her. No one understood Sharon when she grew up, so she wanted to shape Ámbar to be like her, so that she’d have someone by her side.

Many people have different ideas about how Ámbar’s childhood might have been. Some people assume she was expected to act like an adult from the moment of adoption, some assume she never got any toys or any attention from Sharon ever.

I’ve written a lot about Ámbar’s childhood in fics, and this is my personal idea: We’ve seen that short clip of Sharon cooing at baby Sol. She can be like that, but only when no one sees. I doubt she’d adopt Ámbar and then like the day after expect this toddler to just know how to act like an adult. I more believe it’s possible she had some plan for how to raise her, like ”I’ll start doing this and then when she is ready we’ll do this, and then once she is mature enough we’ll do this…” I think Sharon kind of saw Ámbar as her doll. She pampered her, bought her a lot of pretty clothes, etc. At the same time, I think she was early with scolding her for things. Telling her how to behave at the table, ”be quiet”, ”don’t run”, all that stuff. Everything that wasn’t silent and well mannered was criticized. Sharon took a mentoring role and kind of saw an opportunity to shape Ámbar to be exactly like her. And Ámbar, of course, wanted to be like her caregiver. But, when it comes to Ámbar’s free time, Sharon just could not give a damn. She just found it uninteresting with all the stuff Ámbar was interested in, since, well, Ámbar as a child was interested in child-related things and Sharon could not relate to that. But if Ámbar had no toys, I think the opposite: I think she had more toys than she really needed. And many of them would be from Sharon just wanting her to shut up. ”I’ll buy you a doll if you don’t bother me for the whole day.” I can even imagine little Ámbar making up plans on how to get something she wanted - just like Sharon can guilt trip her, Ámbar does the same in return (she just does what she sees) and probably managed to get a lot of toys by simply using manipulation. Sharon tried to not fall for it but she probably did at times. I’m not saying she fell for this every time, but Ámbar is smart and probably chose her moments. At the same time, Sharon probably was similar to her choice of gifts as she was in S1. She bought things that Ámbar did not want, but that she thought would suit her, and told Ámbar to just be grateful. But, while Ámbar aspired to be like Sharon, it was also that she developed the same strong voice. She dared to say when she didn’t like things, like food, gifts and just things she found unfair. Cause her madrina could, and she wants to be like her madrina, and to get to be like her she’d develop the same bossy attitude. Yeah Sharon, making your little doll be like you will have its side effects ;)

I think Ámbar’s childhood was not as neglectful and sad as some people seem to think, but it was definitely not very fun either. I think Ámbar herself kind of thought of her childhood as good, but realized it was not so much upon reflection. And Sharon did love her, but due to her cold nature it could be hard for Ámbar to always know that, and she quickly developed a need to get her approval. But, she at the same time developed an independence that made her not afraid to confront anyone, not even her madrina.

In conclusion to this longass post, Sharon and Ámbar’s relationship is very complicated and there is so many layers. It’s not black and white, and you can’t just go ”Sharon never cared about her”, cause then you’re only seeing a shallow ground of their relationship. I do see that Sharon has a caring for her, but her need for control, her past trauma and her serious nature that probably got worse after the tragedy get in the way for her to show it properly. It does come out a few times, especially in the scenes in Ámbar’s room, but it’s often mixed with her own selfish actions and schemes to why she acts like it, which makes the vibe all the more creepy - we don’t know how genuine or how fake she is. And while Sharon has a control over Ámbar, the consequence of raising someone to be exactly like her is that Ámbar now has the same willpower and can much easier fight back, and is not afraid to do so.

I just find them so intriguing. There’s so much under the surface.

[cesium-sheep]

tattoo get, report for @ceylonsilvergirl below <3

I went to Rhiannon at Strange Magic Tattoo, they were very communicative and easy to talk to, very invested in my comfort etc. they used a cordless needle gun, which they say is much quieter. this was on my left thigh.

pain: it feels about the same as digging out an ingrown hair with sharp tweezers. better than getting a line set for a blood draw even accounting for the relative durations. I would say that it feels like it's about to punch through and hurt worse than it actually does which may psych people out into thinking it's more painful than it is, but it always stays on the near side of that little barrier. this took technically an hour but I would guess like 40 minutes of actual inking? and it was very easy. but bear in mind I have chronic pain and am a professional patient so I have to sit through worse for less all the time anyway. tbh my random ambient aches like the patch that reacted to my exfoliant last night are currently worse than the site, although it was sprayed with bactine which is a topical anesthetic.

appointment scheduling: this shop was appointment only, they had both a google form and a contact email that went to the main shop who then gave me the artist's email. I had to follow up once after the initial email as they had just come back from vacation and the forwarded email probably got lost. I sent them the image I had drawn and a description of what it was and where I wanted it as well as some relevant info like this is my first tattoo, I'd like to have someone with me for cripple reasons, etc. they gave me their hourly rate and a time estimate. this shop also requires a deposit to hold the appointment, which counts towards the total bill and which I was able to send to the artist directly.

the actual appointment: skipped the two closest doses of prescribed aspirin, filled out a consent form, got the area cleaned/shaved and the stencil applied for approval, let that dry down and then lay down with my leg supported. they spent time talking through what they used, what they were doing, and what they were going to do. the music was a little too loud but whatever. we chatted amiably while they worked and it was generally very easy. I wore my loose pajama pants so I could roll them up to expose the site without cutting off circulation. they use second skin, so I basically just don't touch it for 3 days then regularly clean and moisturize after that. showering etc is still fine from the getgo. there were minor modifications to the design that were not sketched out but were verbally agreed upon beforehand. the artist, matt, and me were the only ones there.

price: another shop gave me an estimate of $350 for the same design, but possibly due to more communication beforehand this was $180+tip for 1 hour of work. I tipped 20% since I have heard that's standard and also it was all the money I technically had spendable plus $2.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Can I get Ingo and Laventon for numbers 1 and 7? :D

YEAH MY GUYS (character dynamic ask game)

1. what were A’s first impressions of B? were they mostly correct or have they changed?

this is another scenario where like... i imagine laventon and ingo would have known of each other long before they met properly, but they also probably wouldn't know too much in the way of specifics. but i think their initial meeting should be VERY impactful from both sides. ingo probably knows beforehand that laventon is a professor of pokemon specifically, but he's probably still anticipating some of that reserved wariness that everyone in hisui kind of has. and like, yes laventon does have a healthy amount of fear of getting eaten alive by a butterfly, BUT. he is also legitimately very excited about his work!! i think there's an immediate click there bc the first thing ingo notes, before anything else, is that lav is genuinely passionate about his research, and pokemon in general, and the fact that someone cares enough to study and understand them, to put all this work into a 'dex, and also importantly go against the prevailing culture to try and encourage catching and partnering with them, that's huge in ingo's eyes.

conversely on laventon's side, before that point ingo would probably have just been A Warden. one of the ten figures in hisui who commands the most amount of respect just below the leaders. who also tend to be variably sort of wary of jubilife and the galaxy team, conceptually. like, to most of the ones lav has interacted with thus far, their leaders approved this whole thing, but that doesn't mean they have to be super excited about it. and much like ingo's own first impressions, lav is in no way prepared for how not just accepting but genuinely passionate he is about like... every single one of the Weird Things the survey/security corps does that everyone else is so uncertain about. pokeballs? great! fantastic! so useful! catching pokemon to research them? naturally! let him know if you need any help with the more difficult-to-wrangle ones! using pokemon for help with assorted other tasks? finally someone else sees the obvious benefits! battling? FUCK YEAAAAH (ingo does not say fuck yeah but he is clearly spiritually thinking it.) lav is overall like, very pleasantly surprised. to put it mildly. also he clearly knows his shit! lav could and will pick his brains about highlands pokemon for hours.

relatedly irida will just tell you to your face about ingo's showing up out of nowhere, but fsr i am so drawn to scenarios where most/all of the galaxy team is sort of unaware of that whole situation in the beginning. like, maybe the pearl clan intentionally doesn't mention it bc it would be awkward, or maybe it just accidentally never comes up. regardless, i think that does make for a really interesting interaction btwn ingo and the galaxy captains bc like... to them he's just a pearl clan warden. no miscellaneous qualifiers or w/e. it's not something he gets very often. it's... kind of nice? meanwhile lav would gradually pick up that ingo is somehow not exactly a Normal pearl warden but would hold off on asking bc that would be Rude. this is actually the subject of a whole oneshot i may or may not get around to finishing

7. are there any habits, mannerisms, practices etc. A does because of B? anything they do because they saw B doing it, or got advice from them about it, or something rubbed off on them? alternately, are there any little things B does that annoy them?

oh these guys are swapping advice and tips and stuff constantly i think. ingo tells lav about a strategy to calm and handle a gligar so he can get data on it easier. lav tells him abt some unique bio to roserade that makes dealing with them much more predictable. lav gets to hear about clefairy migration patterns. ingo gets to learn how to craft pokeballs. ingo tells lav about how you can safely use hypnosis as a sleep aid and lav goes "what in the actual fuck are you saying. wait. let me try"

in terms of specific habits though... idk! lav is not a super big battler but i could see him picking up some of ingo's specific gestural style if it ever does come up. ingo might also start taking more notes in general, now that he's aware of what material data on pokemon is actually useful. which i think would sort of naturally transition to him keeping a diary/journal, if he doesn't already do that, or a more detailed one if he does. every successive highlands warden adds something to the home they share across time and ingo's is stacks and stacks of books and loose paper dude why

[jiminluv]

My take on why Kinn is this quickly interested in Porsche beyond just empty sexual attraction:

(long ass post below)

Porsche is a mess. We know this. I don’t need to explain Episode 2 and even much of 3. He speaks disrespectfully to Kinn and walks around the place like it’s his own house where he can do whatever he wants, mostly ignoring the severity of what his job even is at its core (until he’s faced with a scene like what happened with Mes). Even with Tankhun, Porsche finds himself bored and irritated, even though you’d think he’d be jumping for joy being transferred to a boss who just watches dramas and plays games, meaning Porsche isn’t tasked with beating up debtors or attending intense meetings, parties, etc. where he has to actually *work*. My thought with Tankhun is just that Porsche has zero interest for the entire family and job, even for someone like Tankhun, and Porsche refuses to even comply like a good little body guard with him.

Porsche is a silly guy who’s very expressive, likes to have fun, has no problem with attention on him, and is very affectionate and loving towards those he cares about (e.g. his brother). He’s capable of doing well when he tries (like quickly getting better at the physicality of being a bodyguard during training when he bothers to put effort in), but the catch is that no matter what, he’s working a job doing things he hates. He says this much in Episode 3.

He’s a smiley goofball the entire episode, getting Tankhun out so they can all have fun and party, but only when Porsche is drunk does he reveal the truth of his current feelings of the situation. He never hid his annoyance and lack of desire for his job role, but when drunk is the only time he shared how it made him sad. He’s in a tough situation, powering through for the sake of his family. His coping mechanism is so obviously arrogance and being a mess.

Either way, this comes across as a breath of fresh air for Kinn. Kinn, whose entire staff before Porsche have all been severe soldiers doing what they’re told. Even if Porsche is disrespectful and doesn’t listen, he doesn’t have any actual evil intentions. He’s just ... a little dumb sometimes (maybe a lot). Like Kinn’s father mentioned in Episode 1, it’s easy to buy off body guards who’d do their job well, but Porsche isn’t doing this for the money. Porsche has an admirable reason for doing this job and staying, even if he doesn’t hide how much he doesn’t approve of it himself.

Until Episode 3, we can assume Kinn just found Porsche attractive but more so ridiculous. It’s not until Porsche, albeit being ridiculous, manages to get Tankhun, a man with PTSD, out of the house, something no one has ever really accomplished beforehand (to our knowledge), do I think Kinn realized, “Wow, maybe Porsche can actually do some good.” It’s just not in the way Kinn or anyone else thought. Then they party, and even Kinn is having fun with his body guards, especially even at seeing his PTSD-ridden brother out and having fun, too. Then he and Porsche talk on the dock, and that solidifies it in Kinn’s mind.

I think in that moment, Kinn understands that, yes, he’s definitely attracted to Porsche physically, but their kiss in that moment is not physical, at least in my opinion. It’s the moment, the open discussion, the mood, the drinks, etc. that just makes Kinn think, “I want to kiss him.” And that’s that. Sometimes, people just kiss. But then we learned in Episode 4 that Kinn doesn’t just kiss anyone, and other character dialogue alludes that Kinn only kisses those he genuinely feels something romantic towards. If he was able to kiss people he was attracted towards, he’d be kissing the guy he hooks up with (assuming Kinn is attracted to him, but come on).

This isn’t a high school or college story where it takes 12+ episodes to even get a lingering peck, where the kiss is some long-awaited reward for watching some drawn out relationship build up over the course of the entire show. For one, Porsche has been at this job for at least one month, as per Episode 3. We can assume plus a few more weeks now considering his arm wound is fully healed. Teens and young adults can move fast, though that’s not typically shown in shows. Adults definitely can move fast. I don’t believe in love at first sight, but I definitely believe in infatuation at first sight. Many relationships in the real world begin with basic attraction, both physically and/or mentally, and then love comes later (as well as respect, understanding, and all of these other positive things).

Kinn most definitely doesn’t feel love for Porsche (yet). It began with basic physical attraction, then once Kinn got to know him a bit more from his actions and drunken admittances, realizing that Porsche is really just a good guy with good intentions who’s had a shitty life—Kinn likely sees himself in Porsche, maybe as someone Kinn wishes he could be more of (like more innocent and affected by the darkness of the world he lives in. Kinn doesn’t have that luxury, like he says to Porsche in Ep. 3). I think that’s part of it, as well as that Porsche is just likable. He can get away with his antics, because like I said, nothing in him is evil. The other body guards like him (besides Big), Tankhun has fun with him, Kinn’s father accepted him in quite easily—Porsche just has an infectious personality (he’s adorable). Wrap all of these things together and you get Kinn falling for him, no matter in what way you’d call it. It’s deeper than just empty sexual attraction, and that’s been proven in many ways.

Beyond everything I just wrote, there’s the situation of Porsche being kidnapped by Vegas and Kinn yelling at his body guards to check the cameras, find Porsche ASAP, and then leave them be the moment they find Porsche. Think about how powerful Kinn is in his position and even the way he carries himself with such confident surety. His body guards stand when he enters the room. Yet he didn’t even flinch when Porsche threw up on him after being drugged. He stripped both himself and Porsche down and fully prepared to help Porsche shower and go to bed—Kinn would not do this to anyone else. Not at all. Kinn is very quickly developing deep feelings for him, though as of right now, I wouldn’t call them romantic. Not yet. It’s interest. It’s attraction. It’s desire to know and feel more. Obviously, this eventually turns into romantic feelings, which to me, is quite realistic.

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

Regarding your last post, I thought the same while watching the behind the scenes of the MV. This is not a shade because I myself am not fluent in English and still need to improve a lot but to me it seems quite obvious Jungkook’s English isn’t as good as some Army like to pretend (I’m going to get call names…). I would say he’s around a low intermediate level, which is perfectly fine, he has a busy life so it doesn’t let him a lot of time to study. I guess his understanding is better than his speaking skills, which is usually the case for most of language learners, but orally I don’t think he fully grasps all the meanings and nuances and the slang etc. I just want to say again this is not me trying to belittle his abilities, it’s only my opinion, but to me it doesn’t look like he fully understands what he sings… his face expressions in that video, it looks like sometimes he was a bit clueless. I’m not saying he has no idea of what he is singing, obviously he got a full translation before accepting the project but he doesn’t look like he truly "feels" the lyrics and immerge himself in it. Idk, for me it lacks something and that video made me a bit uncomfortable. I know I’m being a bit dramatic but I can’t shake the feeling that the industry is using him for cash and immediate success without paying much attention to who he his, his personality, his artistry. And another collab is on the way with Kid Laroi apparently… I’m losing interest. I want to hear Jungkook on his own, with a song made only for him and that reflects who he is as a person and an artist. I miss that feeling, seeing him perform so honestly, when you can see on his face and hear in his voice how much he feels the song, how deep he goes to find the emotions and bring them to the surface. I truly hope there will be songs on his album that makes me feel connected to him again because at the moment it feels like I am totally unable to enjoy what he’s doing.

I don't even know if he bothered translating Jack Harlow's parts tbh. I remember one Run BTS episode where they had to sing their songs without using English, so they had to translate some lyrics to Korean, and, apart from RM, the members didn't even know what the English lyrics meant. I remember J-Hope being shocked, like, "So this is what this part means?", which was a bit wild for me since it was his song. Tbh, I don't bother reading the translation to most kpop songs. I only know what the tts mean because most MVs have subtitles now. If not, then too bad... Most songs have boring lyrics so it's often best if I don't know them. It's different for the artist, but I still can't be certain that Jungkook bothered finding out the translation to Jack's parts although he's the type to. Maybe he was so busy he didn't bother? Maybe he recorded his parts and only gave his blessing to the final version which included Jack's verses, without approving the lyrics beforehand. He doesn't seem the type to control what other people write in their own verses. Maybe he was too busy to translate the lyrics and only did it later? All seem to be possible options. The fact that Jungkook had to be coached to do the right facial expressions and gestures for his TikTok with Jack made it seem like he wasn't sure at all what the lyrics meant - at least then. It also makes me confident that he doesn't know what "rain, rain, rain" or "champagne, confetti" really mean. I think Jungkook cares more about melody and the vibe than lyrics.

Anyway, I don't think the industry is using him. He's not a victim anymore than anyone else. He's making his own choices, as much as someone in the industry can. Of course Big Hit loves the choices he's making because he's doing so well commercially, but I think he's made it clear that he loves what he's been doing. And if he's letting other people make choices for him, the blame is on him too, because he's in a position where he can say no.

I also want to hear Jungkook on his own, but, unless he's truly being pressured into only doing collabs for whatever reason, these are the choices he's making.

Thanks for the ask!

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko EP5. Replay Part 4

I think this is the first console animation I really like, I think a lot of the other ones look kind of cheap and make the screen look busy. But her sword animation's pretty cool.

Ok yeah, Battler is going along with exposing her life but doesn't appreciate how everyone is trying to drag her through the mud, it seems. The fight beforehand had some cool music and moments I just didn't comment on it much bc a lot was defining of the mystery rules which, well, we already know the answer.

Haha.... Beatrice realizes Battler is going to fight for the illusion of the witch :).

....white horse haha. The white horse discussion being brought back again when Battler starts arguing for the witch side again is a neat detail, he's finally trying to understand Beatrice for real.

You could also argue that the fact Natsuhi has been noted to clean thoroughly to check for mistakes was foreshadowed all the way back on episode 2! Also the way people describe Dlanor as heartless, a doll, etc kind of makes me sad lol. They obviously don't have full context but she's anything but that.

Uh, I didn't save the draft properly so a bunch of screens got lost and so I will just summarize my thoughts on the following scenes rather quickly. The scene of Battler and Dlanor in the garden is really nice, it is obviously Battler kind of navigating through his more complex thoughts about magic he has gotten recently through learning Dlanor has her own conflicted view of magic, and I think the way he isn't hostile to Dlanor and instead assures her that what is in her heart matters is showing the growth Battler has done in understanding under. This scene generally sets the mood for how we should view magic for the rest of the answers arc. Dlanor then teases that Battler was let win, which brings me to the next subject, Erika. Erika was given some verbal abuse by LambdaBern because of losing (despite the fact she was made to lose, intentionally, by the people berating her) and so Erika goes on to abuse her subordinates in retaliation, which I think really does go on to show Erika is someone that can be empathized with. So much of the cast are people who throw their own abuse and frustrations into the others, and Erika also does this. It is kind of sad to me when the game remarks how she can't see love, how can she see love when it has never been afforded to her? I wasn't a particularly big fan of her at first reading, but it's hard to not read her as someone desperate for the approval of someone who was never gonna give it to her and so she lashes out to others. The game even directly points out Bernkastel is like a mother to her before she gets abused.

The letter mystery is discussed a lot, and Erika has some pretty good theories, I really like the hidden below the food tray one particularly, but obviously, since the event never happened it can get struck down. They end up concluding no one outside and no one inside could have made a knock, so if no one could have done that, it just did not happen. Lambdadelta fucks with Erika some more despite the fact she also doesn't really seem to have a clue. And Erika once again becomes desperate and decides to get revenge on Battler this time.

So she just kind of rants at everyone about how Batler didn't actually jump and just crawled, no one really cares bc they imagined it was a trick and it doesn't really matter and are just really confused at Erika zeroing at this. Bernkastel then LITERALLY tries to strike down Erika with thunder and Erika is so desperate for approval she assume this is a sign of approval from Bern.... someone save this girl.

Virgilia pops in at... inboard meta and confirms that the corpses were dragged somewhere they describe as "connected to the world but that no one can get to" which I think is a hint that Kuwadaorian, and Erika can't reasonably go there. Virgilia drops some truths about how no one would mistake their corpses from sight, which is true as they weren't corpses yet and once they became corpses no one can mistake them. They also make it really clear that Board-Beato and Meta-Beato are different people, and while this Board Beatrice is obviously not being played by Sayo bc Sayo does want to corner Natsuhi, I think this is also hammering in that Sayo in this board has different motivations than the other Sayos. Obviously that doesn't mean you can just dismiss them as another being entirely, though. Sayo's bitterness at Natsuhi can be seen in other fragments, it's just Sayo's motivations being written by someone with a different view of her.

Natsuhi did some good acting tbh she played the character of exasperated Natsuhi in order to run off the room perfectly. Battler going out of his way to point out she should close the door is weird, might be his way of sympathizing and trying to get Natsuhi to not fall into the trap. Also.... what the fuck Natsuhi? That's an awful punishment, obviously I think the goal in this episode is a bit more revenge than repentance, but Sayo in general seems to place accepting your sins as something important, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was part of the assignment, especially since it's perfectly possible Shannon got told this from Jessica at some point.

The "Did Shannon do this?" is kind of funny because the answer is like, yes but not because the reason you figured Natsuhi lol Sayo just placed 4 cards in your room, doubt she even remembers that. Also, her narrative about how she's ungrateful is sad when the only reason Natsuhi can hold on to her wealth is Sayo deciding to let her. Natsuhi points out that Hideyoshi going to the room is unpredictable therefore obvi not part of the plan.... obviously when it's obvious that him being there IS the plan you should suspect Hideyoshi of being in the plan. The scene is obviously very scripted in general, with Eva jumping in to hear Hideyoshi's last word and the murder being completed + Eva showing up so fast that Natsuhi didn't get to steel herself to leave the closet.

It's kind of funny how much they seem to be fucking with Erika as much as with Natsuhi.... they ask her to carry the corpse and she is like idc about corpses and then they take the corpse, letting Erika seal her own demise. Granted Erika would fuck everything up for them and they can't bribe her so, yknow, makes sense. Considering the public spat Jessica and Erika had I can imagine this is how they convinced her to do a fake murder plan, tell her it was to see Erika fuck it up. Erika tries to open the closet, but gets stopped by Battler because her seeing the fake Hideyoshi corpse was probably too big a risk. Erika is really earnest about Natsuhi being the culprit... girlfail....

This scene between Virgilia and Beatrice in the Golden Land is very interesting. Virgilia points out that Bern and Lambda were brought to end the deadlock of Battler being unable to understand Beatrice, and like I have said Lambdadelta has indeed been dropping a million hints! They broke the deadlock by forcing Battler to consider how important Beatrice is to him and how much she wanted to be understood by him.... after he nearly killed her. Beatrice being described as being in purgatory is calling back to the time time Battler forgot her too. She was obviously not in heaven, Battler never came with a white horse to save her. But she wasn't allowed to be in hell and accept that Battler just didn't give a shit because Battler never confirmed that himself. She was stuck in that painful feeling where you know keeping hope is lying to yourself but not lying to yourself feels like betraying someone you love.

Everyone introduces themselves - bringing attention to how the cast has increased so much since the original 18. Bernkastel points out that Natsuhi is the bullied kid in every fragment which is pretty much true, the manga has Beato point this out in EP8, too. The irony of Beatrice is tasked with defending Natsuhi when Sayo holds a particular bitterness towards Natsuhi has been going through my mind during this episode. Battler struggles a bit with how the truth is very fragile in Rokkenjima, and I think that he's beginning to understand Sayo *wanted* a catbox.

Bernkastel calling Beato sub-human..., ouch. There's a lot of talk about how Erika has to do this because a human, not a witch, has to solve this... but it's kind of funny to me. Erika is a fictional being with many powers not afforded to humans. She's not a witch but I wouldn't call her human either.

Erika first drops her seals, it's interesting to me they are hand-me-downs from Eva. Kinda makes me interested in seeing Eva and Erika interact more. The going-down-the-list effect is cool too.... if I remember correctly they 'deny' all of them despite the fact one of them is obviously the right answer, I think on replay you can see the "never stop thinking" philosophy a lot during the answer arcs.

"Is it not possible that they were actually just playing dead" was knocked off with the red truth "These give really are dead" but notoriously the time is not mentioned in this red truth despite the fact it is being discussed heavily otherwise. Only the fact that that they were alive at 24:00 was discussed. You can tell they are giving Beatrice a hard time and letting Erika off easy though - confirming alibis like that without real proof is huge. And the more red truth that gets confirmed the harder it is for the Witch Side to be able to move about. Erika gets kids gloves a lot which is something she will realize and try to rectify at the end of EP6 i think.

Battler understands that Beato was helping him a lot now! Aaa, that makes me very happy. He mentions "She responded to almost all of them (red truths), giving me quite a few hints" The description of Erika listening to the room the entire night is kind of interesting, yeah proves her point Battler didn't do shit but the fact she heard nothing in that entire time is a clue that a murder absolutely did not take place. Erika kinda jumps into "the murder must have occurred between 12-3" as a response to this. This is where her whole theory fails as she doesn't consider that the murder didn't even take place.

This being the first completely fake murder is pretty interesting. If any murder HAD occurred Erika would 100% have caught them on the act. Lambdadelta probably figured Bernkastel would play aggressive detective and built her game around that.

The description of Erika creating the plot line is interesting. It shows how she makes up a theory in her head she will absolutely refuse to move from it and will continue with it to the end. It works right now because LambdaBern are giving her a lot of help... but, her theory is based on many false assumptions, and on replay it's kind of fascinating how from step one you can tell how all of these re wrong when they felt so suffocating when you first read this part.

"Even if Erika has accused Aunt Natsuhi of being the culprit, ...and even if everyone else here believes that, ...that's exactly why I want to be the one person who trusts her..!" Battler is kind of sweet when he's being kind of delusional like this haha reminds me of when he was denying Kanon culprit theory on ep2. Of course, he's right here and he was only kind of right in ep2. But it's more based on his desire to defend the small dog than it is on any actual proof or anything. But still, it's not a purely negative trait. And he's going to realize that "Even if everyone else here believes that" will apply to Beatrice soon, too.

Do you want to create a catbox, Battler? Are you understanding what led Sayo to create one? Having no answer is better than a heartless one, isn't it.

Natsuhi is given the opportunity to accuse Krauss and she obviously doesn't take it. She talks about how no one can damage her honor with fiction. It's kind of sad she mostly uses her incredible resilience and power to hold to her position mostly to defend people who do not care about her, but I still can't help but find this trait of her impressive. If she was able to use it for other stuff.....

"Truth can only be found in the gap between those who doubt and those who believe...!!" are echoing Battler's thoughts 5 minutes ago, ofc, but they also serve to highlight what Beatrice has always wanted. She doesn't want you to deny the witch illusion but also doesn't want you to accept it uncritically. She wants you to see what is hidden behind her and accept the person behind the illusion.

Kinzo kidnapped a woman, called her useless for being infertile, and forced her to adopt a child she didn't want.... and in that entire time he never once deemed her worthy of his gaze. I fucking hate Kinzo.

They show everyone's faces when Eva is eating the shit out of Natsuhi and Kanon looks so like... kind of smug lmfao. Clearly enjoying that their plan to torture Natsuhi worked.

Lambdadelta knows the truth, of course. She also taunts Beato about how she isn't able to defend herself once she get fed to the goats.... Lambda might be doing a lot to make Lambda's dream possible but she isn't about to save her. She has no tolerance for people who don't do the work themselves. Dlanor stops the Beatrice execution and then plays the role of looking annoyed and condescending to Battler. Dlanor mentioned earlier how her heart doesn't matter because she does awful things anyway but in this case, her heart gave Battler another chance

Huh.... the TIP for Dlanor's Red Key mentions that "In this world, Senator Lamdadelta has placed restrictions on its use and power." The idea Dlanor can just say anything in red she pleases in any other world is kind of op! No wonder she's a death sentence. Battler is fighting Erika by trying to argue about the seals, this serves to feed the player a bunch of reds in order to have no delusions of breaking them. Battler's on the right track that he has to attack the fundamentals of Erika's theory, but he's not getting to the right thing to attack, yet. I'm going to kill you Battler you just made me cry again... her cackling sound so sad and frenzied..... god damn it Battler. She is so fucked up.... the voice acting here is so sad.

Battler realizing he's failing Beatrice, finally, starts to frantically throw out shitty theories. You uh, kind of killed Beatrice with that once already but I appreciate the effort at least. It is extremely funny, I say it's funny as I am crying, but: Dlanor has barely said a word to refute any of Battler's arguments besides pointing out the Knox Rules. He's just getting hit with "your theories are too stupid to be put in a mystery" over and over.

He's right here though! They weren't mistaken, they were correct and lying! Natsuhi didn't check the corpses so this is still true, she's the one person who isn't on the plan besides Erika.

My heart is broken into many pieces.

Beatrice talks about the fragility of truth a lot during this episode, this was first brought to the story by Ange, actually, but obviously it's a big part of Sayo's character. She understood this fragility when creating the catbox. It can sometimes be empowering for her when ie she's using Beatrice as a power fantasy but also can deeply hurt her when she starts thinking that dying with a 'happy lie' is better than living a harsh truth.

[coachsapience]

How to find a life coach easily — 3 effortless ways

Everyone is looking for a life coach. Well, nearly everyone.

“How to find a life coach” is a common Google search term, and this is not surprising. Not only because life coaches are in high demand (there are many benefits to hiring a life coach, after all), but also because people don’t know where to look for them. (Some people don’t even know what a life coach is, but I’ll cover that in another article.)

So what is the process?

Well, there are a few ways to find a life coach, but in this post, I’ll focus on three: through coaching directories, through word-of-mouth recommendations, and through search engines.,

Life coach directories

Using an online directory is one of the fastest and easiest ways to find a life coach. Several platforms allow you to search for coaches who specialise in the issue you’re having or find coaches nearby (if you’re not interested in virtual coaching, that is).

In addition, some of these platforms (but certainly not all) require coaches to submit credentials before they can be listed. Not to mention that it is common practice for their listings to include a brief description of each coach. Plus, I know of at least one such service that allows you to have a free session before you decide to hire a coach (however, this isn’t such a huge advantage since most coaches offer a free consultation anyway).

On the negative side, some coaches who might be a good match for you or specialise in what you need might not be listed in any of the coaching directories. For some people, this is a small price to pay; for others, variety is of paramount importance.

Word of mouth recommendations

Word of mouth is the most reliable way for most people to find a coach. After all, it makes sense to trust a friend who recommends a coach, right? You might say yes, but keep in mind that not every client gets the same benefit from the same coach.

For example, suppose the person who recommended the coach likes their coach to be low-profile and slow, and you are a hyperactive person who wants things to move quickly in your life. In that case, you may be disappointed by their recommendation.

So finding a coach based on your friends’ recommendations might be a good idea, especially if you don’t know your way around technology or want to avoid looking for one yourself. The downside here is that you don’t allow yourself the freedom to choose your own coach.

Search engines

Finally, there is the good old way of finding a coach online just by using a search engine. Here, the options are endless. For example, you can search for “life coaches near me” on Google and get Google’s location suggestions. Or search for “online life coach for people over 40”.

You can even search for a specific niche, such as a mindset coach, ADHD coach, relationship coach, book writing coach, or midlife coach.

The only caveat is that you’ll need to do your own research: visit the coach’s website, check out their qualifications, etc. But this method has some advantages: you can find any niche or coach you want near you, online or overseas.

On the downside, you don’t have a friend’s reference or a quality check from a directory. This is why it might be good to have a free consultation with the coach to make sure you feel comfortable with their coaching style and approach.

Overall, this method may be best for people who want complete freedom of choice and are willing to research various options beforehand.

The bottom line

In the end, all three methods have their pros and cons, and you have to decide what is most important to you when looking for a coach: convenience and speed, a listing with approved specialists, a referral from someone you trust, or complete freedom to make your own choice.

[arcanemoody]

It's 9pm.

I’m in Chicago.

I’m drinking lemon lime sports drink from my Felix D’Eon steel water bottle.

The Monday after the Pride Parade was full of serious mood whiplash: my assistant teacher called in so I was alone with the kids for 95 percent of my shift and had to call in floating assistants to do things like cover bathroom breaks, retrieve blankets and cot sheets for nap time, etc. We also had a new camper who had a meltdown when his mama left, right as I had to start breakfast for the kids alone. One of the admin came in and helped put him at ease, then promptly gave me notes on “how to emotionally engage with someone in a meltdown.” Guess she didn’t realize who she was talking to.

This is an irritating situation in no short part because 1) I am considered the “lead teacher” of the classroom and so get questions from others about lesson plans (not a thing for summer camp BTW), class activities, outings and play time. BUT, I also get excluded from lead teacher meetings when situations like today arise -- because presumably they couldn’t find a floating assistant to cover my room and, you know, it was probably just easier not to talk with me anyway? Meanwhile, the teacher assigned to relieve me at the end of my shift was 10 minutes late -- because they were at the meeting or were waiting on the lead teacher who was at the meeting. (These people have so much nerve lecturing other people on their punctuality). “You’re going on break, right?” No Sasha, my shift is over AND I have a medical appointment that you’re making me late for.

Anyway. I made it to my appointment (barely). Got my COVID booster. And if I were a son of a bitch, I might just call in myself tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Rocket has a new job. She starts next week, July 5. I’m so fucking relieved and excited for her. We had a big comfort food/celebratory dinner of Mexican food and slushes from the Boba place. Then I booked a hotel room for July 4th, so we can wait out the fireworks with our doggo. Preferably in a hot tub.

Things I feel positive about: I have a late shift tomorrow (11am to 6pm) which means I’ll be able to run errands beforehand. I got two refund cheques in the mail from a medical surcharge; which means I’ll have some more walk-around cash for the next however long. My federal tax refund has been approved and will be mailed out by the end of the week. I marched in the Pride Parade with Lambda Legal and managed to walk away without severe sunburn.

[rollinsmosegaard]

Bowers And Wilkins Mm-1 Computer Speakers Review

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[madillhethen]

Albert Kao was really funny at the panel. (He’s the localization director of FGO). Haha, he said at the start don’t ask him about Mahoyo because his response will be silence.

Did you know the localization team is only compromised of 5 people?! (Translating I mean), he said it used to be only 3 people. They added a lot more people over the years. That is really impressive honestly. For all they do for NA server, there is just so much content to be translated.

He made a joke about Saber’s name and how the fan base got a lot of questions of why they choose some names/terms but I think a lot of people at the panel didn’t understand the joke. (The cursed name Altria vs. Artoria/Arturia)

And I didn’t pay attention to this when it was announced but did you know Chaldea Breakroom was actually exclusive to NA? It was content not revealed in materials before. NA gets it 2-3 weeks before Japan. He said all the Japanese fans freaked out over missing information, and that when the localization team requested it he wasn’t sure why Type-Moon approved this.

That really made me happy because I remember when Emiya Gohan game was announced, I was worried TM wouldn’t give it to us, but they did. They gave us Chaldea Breakroom too (by the way, the next issue is our beloved Demon King. I’m not sure if that’s allowed to say 👀), and now the announcement for Mahoyo. Just TM acknowledging their fan base slowly is really great.

Haha Kao also said NA doesn’t get any materials, VNs etc and made a joke about how no one knows what Fate is or where to read Requiem since it’s not translated. They showcased what we already know of the events coming for May and how it’s a board game based event (it’s Fate Requiem if any of you have not heard.) if you clear the event you get to keep Erice at your party. Minimum requirement is Singularity F.

Also the Final Gudaguda event is having a rerun so you can get Kagetora if you missed last time when you clear the event! I believe minimum requirement is Singularity F too.

He kept making a joke about how everyone has Clairvoyance EX since most of us knew what events were happening. It was a really fun event. Even if I knew the events beforehand, it was nice to hear some inside information and how hard the localization team has strived for us. Also thanks to them because we get 10 free SQ for the Sakuracon event.

He also said that there has been a lot of questions over the past years of why they don’t just catch up to JP. He said that we actually are faster and busier than JP due to all the content we have from them but the localization team can’t rush the events because it would cause chaos such as multiple 5 star banners all at once, story requirements, events overlapping etc. which makes a lot of sense.

Also for the people not caught up to Lb5, there was a picture of Kirschtaria Wodime and Kao said that if you want answers to who this hot guy is, catch up 😂.

Someone was cosplaying Oberon and Kao said that there’s a walking spoiler in the room in the back. He said even though he gave a spoiler warning, the whole room turned to see what he was talking about 😂 (and we all really did).

[shihalyfie]

Some fun talking about and analyzing the tri. stage play, and its relationship to Kizuna

The tri. stage play (full title: "Super Evolution Stage! Digimon Adventure tri. August 1st Adventure") is honestly quite an unusual entry in this franchise, even within Adventure standards. Nearly everything about its production is unusual -- the entire genre it's in is unexpected, the choice of time period to release something like this is unusual, and moreover, now that Kizuna’s out, a lot of people have noticed a lot of suspiciously similar themes and even language, most notably the key “we’ll always be together” line (phrased even exactly the same way in Japanese). In fact, despite ostensibly being a tri.-branded product, other than a few vague token nods to the anime series in the play itself, said stage play has very little to do with the actual anime sharing its name, so the similarity to Kizuna is even more striking in retrospect.

Perhaps another interesting thing about this play is that it’s a very good example of a standout work in the Adventure universe that didn’t have any original creator involvement (other than some minor tips from Seki). I think there’s often a tendency for people to think that in order for a sequel or spinoff to be true to the original, it has to have some member of original staff on there, especially since the Adventure (and 02) characters tend to be a bit overly complex and it helps to have the reassurance that someone who knows them is behind the wheel -- Kizuna used the presence of Seki and Yamatoya as an outright advertising point -- but this stage play’s director and writer had no experience with the franchise beforehand, not even as a fan, yet still made a very respectful product that has generally been received well by Adventure (and 02) fans and even got the original director’s approval, too. If anything, that makes it all the more impressive!

(Note that the below text spoils the story content of the play, but not Kizuna’s to any substantial degree.)

Some production background

Anime and video game stage tie-ins are fairly common -- much like this one, they tend to have very short runs and are targeted at a limited audience -- but they’re usually stereotyped as being for the otome crowd (i.e. predominantly female otaku audience), so works like this are generally associated with it. As a result, when this play was announced and released between tri. Parts 4 and 5, quite a few people were surprised, because this franchise originally came from products associated with shounen anime. In practice, this was a period where it was becoming increasingly clear that there was, in fact, a huge female audience for Digimon (especially Adventure universe), on top of the fact that (as noted by the performers in the final show) the audience for this show ended up being unusually mixed-gender, because Digimon really is universal -- but it did lead to the announcement of the play being initially received with heavy skepticism, partially because of the usual misogyny (stigma around things associated with female audiences, etc.), and partially because this was during a time where...well, saying that a very huge percentage of the fanbase, especially the Japanese side, was really pissed off at anything tri.-branded at the time is kind of an understatement. Ultimately, the play ended up very well-received with a small but dedicated following, and it’s currently referred to as “dejisute” (short for “Digimon Stage”) in Japanese fan shorthand. Bringing it up generally elicits positive critical feedback, even among those who were initially skeptical.

Some interesting things also surround the circumstances of its production as well. As some might know already, the tri. anime series and Kizuna share only one key member of staff: Kinoshita Yousuke, who was involved in tri. Parts 5 and 6, and eventually went on to become the producer for Kizuna and the upcoming 02-based movie. tri. was a work that (for some reason) had a huge number of producers on it, of which Kinoshita was only one; he seemed to have been replacing Arai Shuuhei, who left the project after Part 4. However, while Arai was formerly one of the most visible of tri.’s producers (he was the only one regularly brought up in interviews), how much degree of influence Kinoshita had with tri. is unknown, other than the fact he had no involvement in its story. Given that the decision to make Kizuna also seemed to have been made around Part 5, it seems that Kinoshita may have been brought on specifically for the purpose of observing and prepping for Kizuna, because his role on tri. seems to have been so minimal that the moment he was put in charge of Kizuna, the production philosophy ended up becoming completely different under his management. (When you think about it, tri. and Kizuna have very little in common, other than the rough premises of involving the older Adventure cast.)

The thing is, though, Part 5 isn’t actually the first tri. work Kinoshita is credited for, but this stage play is -- which is interesting to consider when taking into account the heavy amount of thematic parallels between this and Kizuna three years later, and in general the very unusual creative decision to make a stage play that suddenly popped up at exactly this time, making heavier tributes to Adventure (and even 02) than the actual anime it was branded with. Making things even more interesting was that the stage play’s director and writer, Tani Kenichi, was allegedly recruited by an unnamed producer impressed with his work (by the way, did I mention Kinoshita used to work in live-action before joining Toei?). Given all that, perhaps this stage play coming off unnervingly like a sort of Kizuna prototype isn’t all that surprising...

Unfortunately, right now we’re still kind of in a time period where official will get barraged with violently angry comments for even so much as putting the series on streaming services, so it’ll probably be a few more years (if ever) before official will be willing to be more open about what went on behind tri. production, and it’s probably a bit much to get too speculative about things like this when real people are involved. Nevertheless, one thing is apparent: the director and writer, Tani, was a newcomer to Digimon -- not even someone who’d been a fan beforehand -- but watched all of Adventure and 02 in preparation for it and stated openly that he was very, very emotionally touched by it. The work itself is obviously made with a lot of love and respect for the series, and one really cool thing about it is that you can also tell that it came from the perspective of an adult with no preconceived notions about it, therefore meaning it comes from someone analyzing the series without necessarily caving to fanbase mantras, and making some very cogent observations about the characters. It’s also just a fabulous work production-wise in general -- the puppet work and making the Digimon look convincing on stage is very well-done, especially when you consider that this play had only ten showings -- and you really gotta appreciate the fact that, even before Seki gave him a few pointers, he was so passionate about the importance of Digimon partners that he pushed for all eight to be represented despite the expenses.

Taking a look at the play itself

Despite ostensibly tying into the tri. anime series it's branded with, the play only really seems to loosely refer to some of its key elements as taking place at approximately the same time, such as Koushirou’s server, infected Digimon, setpieces like KNIFE OF DAY, and an eventual “reveal” that this seems to take place ostensibly around the rough time period of tri.’s Part 4. Look closely, however, and you’ll notice that a lot of things in the characterization and plot arena actually don’t track much with tri. at all -- for instance, in a very non-comprehensive list of things:

It’s implied that Yamato himself is embarrassed about the KNIFE OF DAY band name and is desperately trying to get through it with passion, which doesn’t quite line up with his attitude about it in the anime.

The timeline just really doesn’t line up; Mochizuki Meiko, Meicoomon, and the infections obviously exist, but you can’t have a time period in Part 4 where the kids recognize Meicoomon as being related to the distortions or infections while also being separated from Meiko. Moreover, the “reboot” just doesn’t seem to have happened at all (and to be fair, if you’re planning on making a two-hour tribute to Adventure, not having the Digimon with memories of said adventure would seriously limit the scope of your plot, so this kind of “leeway” was probably downright necessary).

The tri. anime series portrayed Takeru as having a very sharp shift in language, presumably under the implication he’s putting up a front as a flirtatious, aggressive playboy, and so his first-person pronoun was turned into the aggressive ore and his way of referring to Yamato aniki. In Adventure and 02, Takeru had used the polite boku and childish/cutesy onii-chan, and the boku was prominently used as a plot point to hint at Takeru’s identity as the series narrator. (Yes, these kinds of things are actually kind of a big deal in fiction.) Since even longtime fans generally agree that at some point Takeru would be likely to stop using onii-chan once he became old enough, the stage play likewise also prefers aniki over onii-chan, but, notably, it doesn’t even bother with ore in the slightest nor any of the implications that surround it, and Takeru comfortably uses boku for the entirety of the play. Considering that the use of aniki is still a bit unusual (both Diablomon Strikes Back and Kizuna prominently favor the slightly more polite nii-san instead), it seems that the play was made with an awareness that both aspects of Takeru’s language had changed, but a conscious decision to hold over only one from the anime.

And so on and so forth.

In general, the way you could describe this play’s handling of Adventure universe lore and characterization elements is that it’s a bit selective about which tri.-related elements it makes use of, particularly in regards to ones that might be too difficult to reconcile with the original Adventure (and 02). (This is basically the same attitude Kizuna roughly takes in regards to handling of tri. elements, although it’s less noticeable there partially because of the five-year gap between tri. and Kizuna.) Obviously, being completely incongruous with the tri. anime would be a pretty crude thing to do for a play that’s actually branded with it (and especially when said anime was still ongoing at the time, regardless of public opinion), but, regardless, the end result is that its actual relationship with the tri. anime’s version of canon is a bit tenuous.

The main reason for this is probably that, on the flip side, the stage play's references to Adventure -- as in, the specific series that aired in 1999-2000 and took place in the in-universe August 1 and 3, 1999 -- are incredibly aggressive. In fact, it’s actually far more aggressive in this respect than Kizuna is. For all Kizuna is branded as an Adventure movie and puts the original Adventure cast first and foremost in all of the advertising, if you watch the actual movie, in practice, it’s more of something that lies in the gap between Adventure and 02 and the two series together as a whole. Adventure was a series that practically revolved around a "trapped in another world" story and the specific impact its events had on the kids involved, but Kizuna focuses more on the “larger world”, including real world society (very much 02 things), with a lot of themes with suspicious pertinence to 02 and references to its epilogue looming over the plot; the specific Adventure references and even the Digital World don’t come into play until the climax. (And that’s before we get into the fact that the 02 quartet gets more screentime than a good chunk of their seniors.) Really, you can see it just by the fact that a majority of the primary key visuals line the 02 quartet up with everyone else; it’s a movie about both, not just Adventure.

So in other words, Kizuna is really about mixing Adventure and 02 elements, serving as a sort of stopgap work, and recasting the Adventure group in a lot of 02′s context. (And that’s by no means a bad thing; since Adventure wasn’t about that, the differing juxtaposition is a fresh perspective in its own way.) But in terms of revisiting what the actual series called Digimon Adventure was and how those events might have an influence on its relevant cast years later, this play (which actually has longer runtime than Kizuna, being around two hours) is a good place to go to if that’s what you’re looking for. The entire premise of the play revolves around copiously referencing that specific adventure back in 1999, and, more importantly, what impact it’s still continuing to have in this particular group’s memories, to the point where they’re starting to romanticize it and wish they could return to it forever...

Ah, right, that’s what this play has in common with Kizuna: the overall theme of unhealthy fixation on rose-colored nostalgia, and the need to move forward from it. (And, driving it home, “unhealthy fixation on the events of Adventure” as a symbol of that rose-colored nostalgia, to boot.)

The premise of the play itself is that the kids decide to hold a camping trip as tribute to the adventure in 1999, as part of a desire to "go back to those times" (and, as is eventually revealed, it’s actually part of a pocket universe their subconscious wishes had dreamed up as a desire to recreate the past, thanks to the power of the Digital World). So all of the references to Adventure are concrete and fleshed out in specific detail, ranging from everyone referencing specific events and how they impacted them (Jou very explicitly refers to his experiences in Adventure episodes 46-47 in terms of why it fuels his current desire to become a doctor) to even the most minor of references (direct reference to bananas on File Island, from Adventure episode 3).

As a brief aside, a positive side effect of centering the plot on this specific adventure is that it justifies the reason for why these eight are working together (at least prior to the endgame reveal that they’re still involved in tri.’s events); the eight of them weren’t portrayed as liable to do so without good reason, and while certain aspects and events from 02 are alluded to when they’re relevant, the absence of the actual quartet passing without note is completely justifiable because they simply were not on that adventure anyway. (They weren’t initially planned to be at the event in 02 episode 17, and knowing them, it’s likely they wouldn’t want to be at this kind of outright commemorative camping event, because they’d feel like they’d be intrusive in something they had nothing to do with.) So within the scope of the play in two hours, the narrative can be very neatly condensed to be mostly about Adventure itself.

Although this play and Kizuna both share the common theme of the existential crisis that comes with getting older and the tendency to romanticize one’s childhood, the underlying reasons are a bit different; Kizuna’s is very close to 02 in that it’s largely to do with societal pressures and expectations, especially since the question of "what you want to do with your career" is a driving motivation in it. In other words, the existential crisis comes from living up to other people’s expectations, or trying to fit into an arbitrary societal mold of an “adult” without necessarily knowing if that’s what you really want. In the case of this stage play, being set in everyone’s high school years where everyone’s relationship to “the world at large” is a bit more tenuous, the reason for the existential crisis is somewhat closer to Adventure’s: everyone’s started to think they might have been better people back then. More confident, less hesitant, more honest with their feelings. Adventure was a series about self-improvement and one’s relationship with oneself, so it’s understandable that a work meant to look back on that specific adventure will ask the question “well, did they become better people after all?” as a result.

But there’s two problems with this line of thinking: one, this is a very rose-colored evaluation of their former selves, because just because they might have been “more confident” back then doesn’t mean they didn’t have other problems going on (Hikari calls her past self out for being arguably “more honest”, but also somewhat of a dependent child), and two, being more hesitant doesn’t make one a weaker person, just one who’s dealing with a lot more problems and awareness and things to worry about because of how much the scope of their lives has increased. As Agumon says at the end, the old Taichi and the current Taichi are still the same person; it’s just that he’s dealing with more, so he’ll naturally worry about more, and taking on those extra burdens is actually his own way of “evolving”.

Particularly interesting is the position of Jou, the not-so-unsung hero of this story, who is explicitly identified as the person most clearly aware of his future dreams and proceeding without hesitation towards them, to the point of being somewhat immune to the effects of the dream world. (Somewhat, mainly because the ending establishes that he wasn’t entirely.) It's consistent in line with the fact that we actually saw, directly, the train of thought that led to his decision to become a doctor back in Adventure, and he even states it directly in this play himself: he doesn’t consider himself someone who wants to solve things through fighting, but rather someone who can prevent casualties and heal the injured if he pursues this line of study, and thus is determined to make it happen. Even from the very early points of the play, there are several hints at him being able to see a metaphorical “future” that the others cannot, and while he remains unfailingly loyal to his friends (there’s a long sequence of him constantly claiming he’ll leave them as per Koushirou’s request but constantly coming back because he just can’t bring himself to abandon them), he also is the first one to depart the camping trip to attend to a test -- that is to say, he treasures his past, but he has a strong enough dream for his future that he’s willing to move on better than the others can.

Jou’s also the one to personally advise Yamato about the difference in nuance between doing things because you feel you must, versus doing it because you yourself truly want to, a difference in nuance that also becomes very pertinent in Kizuna. Also pertinent to both works in common is the discussion of nuances between “staying trapped in one’s memories” and “violently cutting them all away” (the consequences of the latter being more extensively discussed in Kizuna), versus the ideal situation of reflecting on those memories and experiences from the past in order to productively move forward.

And in the end, rose-colored nostalgia is, indeed, rose-colored nostalgia. Because, sure, that adventure back in the day was great, and they grew a lot, but they also grew a lot because they were overcoming some very harsh, difficult troubles; omitting those parts is losing the substance. The re-invocation of the fun “camping trip” also means re-invoking all of the other things that came along with it, including all of the dangerous threats they’d faced back then. It’s a package deal, and you can’t just filter those out, because it misses the point of what you gained out of it in the first place.

In general, the character writing for this play is also very good; there are some differences between the characters here and them back in 02, but they’re all within the believable scope of positive progression within three years and general adherence to core tenets of their character (Koushirou is certainly more assertive, but emphasis continues to be placed on his deference to others, penchant for spotting details, and capability for being an organizational leader in his own sense). Also notably, this play manages to verbalize a lot of the subtleties in Adventure and 02 that the mainstream tends to gloss over (and don’t tend to get put in official profiles) but are well-known to those deeply familiar with the series. This is the kind of attention to detail usually associated with those who have been studying the series for years, so it’s refreshing to see these come out in words -- for instance, Koushirou stating outright that he was one of the closest people to Taichi for a long time (very true!), Hikari and Takeru actually commenting on each other from back in Adventure (something we never really got in 02, despite “them having known each other for a while” being part of their character arcs), and Sora explicitly admitting that she goes out of her way for others because it’s easier to work for others than it is to even think about herself.

Actually, the attention to detail in general is fantastic; other than a minor slip-up (Sora refers to having met Koushirou during the summer camp at the beginning of the play when she’d actually known him prior from the soccer club, a detail that’s very easy to miss because it’s only mentioned once in Adventure episode 16 and clarified further in the novels), a lot of things from Adventure and 02 are made use of and framed in very clever context; the choice of Etemon as the enemy for this play is well-placed for both his entertainment value and the fact that, as an enemy personally defeated by MetalGreymon in Adventure episode 20, it makes perfect sense that he would have a grudge against Taichi in particular. (It’s also explicitly mentioned that Hikari and Tailmon never met Etemon in person even once, and that Taichi never actually got to see MetalEtemon, so there’s a lot of attention paid to logistics like that.)

Also, while 02 is not really brought up within the scope of the story (and really shouldn’t be, not when this story so heavily centers around Adventure and its themes), its place in canon and its contributions to the worldbuilding are fully respected; a lot of the offhand references to family situations and background are elements that were originally introduced in 02, and many aspects of its Digital World lore are used to assist the plot premise (in particular, the idea of the Digital World being connected to something that can conjure up unconscious dreams wasn’t explicitly invoked until 02). Rather amusingly, at one point, Hikari uses the events of 02 episode 13 to tell a “scary story” to troll Mimi, and it’s interesting and rather refreshing to see the implication that Hikari’s been able to move past the incident enough to use it to troll someone else. There are also some latent epilogue references as well, with Hikari directly bringing up her goal of becoming a kindergarten teacher, Takeru making some really subtle references to wanting to be a novelist and chronicle their adventures (in true Takeru fashion, he never states it outright, but anyone familiar with the epilogue can figure it out), and Taichi alluding to an ultimate goal of humans coexisting alongside Digimon.

Finally, attention should be called to the play’s relationship writing in general. As stated before, the play does call attention to relationships between characters that often don’t get brought up by the mainstream but are somewhat more well-known to fans -- Koushirou and Taichi, Sora and Mimi, Jou and Yamato -- but even the well-known ones are treated with nuance endemic to that from Adventure and especially 02, given that Taichi and Yamato don’t actually have the stereotypical “cold rivals” atmosphere that shounen anime would usually suggest, and the two of them have an extended heart-to-heart in which Yamato actively tries to figure out what’s wrong with Taichi and treat him kindly. (Like in Adventure, the only time they break out in a fight is when Yamato gets emotionally compromised and starts worrying that Taichi isn’t doing enough for others’ welfare.) It’s also very consistent with how the two treat each other in Kizuna as well (the izakaya scene comes to mind, and has a lot of similarities to the awkward-but-ultimately-close conversation they have at night in this play).

And, of course, the centerpiece of the narrative overall: the human-partner relationship. Of course, a lot of this was probably helped by Seki lecturing Tani to not mess this part up, but it really is impressive to consider in light of the fact we’re working with a lot of puppets that have handlers clearly in plain view, so you have to have some massive suspension of disbelief to make this work. But not only are the movements well-done to make it convincing that you really are seeing these actors physically interacting with their partners on stage, the narrative also puts huge spotlights on them, making the Digimon outright be the ones to snap their partners out of their worst patterns of thinking (especially with Agumon and Taichi), and dedicating a long period of silence where literal stage spotlights are dedicated to each kid having some alone time with their partner. The intimacy is very convincing, and, truly, Tani’s insistence on making sure every single one of the main Digimon was represented in spite of the prohibitive budget paid off very well. The point is made: a Digimon partner has to be someone who knows you well and intimately and can call you out at your worst moments, and Taichi even spells it out: Agumon’s capable of seeing right through him.

Putting it next to Kizuna -- a movie dedicated entirely to examining the meaning of a partner relationship, what happens when it deteriorates, what that means for oneself, and what it takes to recover it again -- it’s perhaps unsurprising that this play ends on the same line that was used in all of Kizuna’s advertising and was central to its own plot: “We’ll always be together.”

[pop-punklouis]

so im watching euphoria and im on ep 3,, i just watched /the/ scene with louis and harry. i remember it being a huge mess because louis got angry but i have to say, i never saw the scene before so i couldn't understand ... tho now i think it was way too much? dating or not, i wouldn't want people to draw me doing things like that with someone...? i don't know, ive always wondered why people were against louis for this rather than being on his side?

yeah like it was v weird and idk a lot of people were on louis side about it because it felt like bringing something outside of a fandom space into not only the general space but into an entertainment space of a steadily growing and popular television series. people can believe what they want and express that how they want, but i’ve always thought it a bit icky to use a real-life pairing for things like that when there are several ships of fictional characters that could’ve been used like destiel or drarry or stucky etc. as they’re characters and not real people. i’ve been quite solid in my belief that the fourth wall shouldn’t be kicked in on fandom spaces— especially as it comes to using it for teen television fodder. so, like you said, regardless of what the truth is, being uncomfortable about something like that is more than understandable when you weren’t given the heads up about it beforehand, it features a sensitive, personal topic about you, and you find out about it alongside everyone else— even though they don’t have to ask your permission at all to run it. don’t get me wrong, i think the scene in itself is not that bad and it could’ve been much worse, but it’s the principle of it you know? so, louis anger about it was more than valid and most fans and general people sided with him over how he felt.

also, i found it quite strange how some fans automatically jumped to pitting both H and L against one another in this circumstance due to H knowing one of the people who worked on Euphoria— linking that to the idea H must’ve known about it and approved of it while L didn’t which never made much sense to me. H has a steady stream of industry friends that he’s sometimes seen with publicly. the fandom has a way of creating connections and building relationships between those around the boys based solely off the small amount of their friend groups they see. so yes, H was friends with the person from Euphoria. We don’t know the level of that friendship, and being friends with someone does not mean you automatically approve of what they do that might involve you. it’s silly to make sweeping accusations and assumptions about situations like this based on that little info. in my opinion, regardless of their sexuality or relationship status— i see absolutely no one in either of their shoes approving of it and thinking it was fun and cute. so why should we believe H would act otherwise?