#double fun fact: this may or may not be related to a different thing i may or may not be planning on doing

[thereareeyesinsidethetrees]

this is about all ive gotten done today

[xavieryaa]

The Reddit Blackout, #196, And Being New to Tumblr

okay i've seen a lot of people in the past ~24 hours or so confused by everything going on with Reddit & Tumblr from both sides - people new to tumblr who don't know how to use it, and tumblr users who don't know what's going on with reddit and why many of its users have joined up here i know this isn't really related to my blog but fun fact about me: i was up until recently a very active reddit user and even mod a subreddit, but I've also been on tumblr for about 3 years now on different accounts, so I think I can see pretty well from both sides of this and explain what's going on this post will be split in 2 sections: what happened with reddit (and what #196 means), and a guide for new users

1. What The Hell Is Going On With Reddit?

The thing that's caused all this ruckus is a major change to Reddit's API, which is what Reddit provides to people so they can pull directly from Reddit to make third-party apps or tools.

The change is that Reddit is changing its previously free API to be paid. Which on its own kinda sucks for developers, but it's not unexpected. They need to make money somehow, right?

The problem is that the API pricing is WAY TOO FUCKING EXPENSIVE. The developer of the most popular 3rd party Reddit app, Apollo, says it will cost him $20 million a year to continue running the app as normal.

Essentially, this pricing forces almost everything third-party to shut down, which causes 3 major problems:

Third-party apps cannot keep running, which sucks for normal users because Reddit's official app is awful. It's slow, its video player is a thing of nightmares, it doesn't have many useful features third-party developers have made.

It sucks even more for visually impaired users because they can't use the official Reddit app at all. Reddit's official app does not work with iOS's native text-to-speech function. Third party apps, on the other hand, often do. So Reddit is forcing blind users away.

Third-party moderator tools cannot keep running, which sucks for moderators because many rely on these tools to properly moderate their subreddits. And moderators are often necessary, because without them subreddits get banned and hate speech and even CSA can often run rampant.

So you see why this change is bad.

Reddit users were PISSED.

So over the past week and a half or so, they have been working on organizing a site-wide blackout. The majority of the most active subreddits have now gone private. Some are only doing it for 48 hours, others (such as r/196) are doing it indefinitely.

That's why you can't access most of Reddit right now, and that's why many users have come here.

You're probably still wondering, though - what is this #196?

Well, as you may guess, it's connected to that subreddit r/196 I just mentioned. r/196 is a subreddit which only has one rule: every time you visit, you must post before you leave.

That's it, that's the subreddit.

The thing about r/196 that set it apart from most other subreddits - and what lends the subreddit's users perfectly to Tumblr - is that it was dominated by queer and leftist users.

So now they've come here and set up shop in #196 and r/196 so they can continue their merry little shitposting.

There's a ton of lore related to r/196, actually, but this is already a long tumblr post and quite frankly I cannot be bothered to write about it at the moment.

2. I'm Here From Reddit, What Now?

Hello there, random new user. As a double-citizen of Reddit and Tumblr, let me show you around this place.

First off, there are some other people who are better at explaining that I am who have made some really helpful things. Watch this Strange Aeons video as a guide to Tumblr culture and functionality and read this post which directly compares Reddit and Tumblr.

Assuming you've done that, here's some additional advice of my own:

Do you miss sorting subreddits by top of all time/the year/the month? Well, you can do something very similar with tags! If you go to a tag at the top of the screen you can select top, and then at the dropdown that says "all time" you can select different time periods! Even 6 months, which Reddit hasn't ever had.

Tumblr has a lot of cool customization features! Even outside your icon/banner/bio, you can change you blog colors and on desktop you can have an html theme (which has its own thriving community here). That customization is part of what sets Tumblr apart from everywhere else - I think you'll enjoy playing with it.

Notes will probably confuse you at first. Unlike the different numbers for upvotes and comments, notes combines the total number of likes, reblogs, and replies into the same number.

Outside of organizing your own blog, when making your own posts tags are what help other people find your post. Use them! But don't abuse them, because then people will just block you.

There are three ways of people finding your post: if someone follows you, if someone follows the tag(s) assigned to your post, and if someone is just scrolling through the tag(s) assigned to your post (and also the secret 4th way no one uses, which is finding it on the trending page, but even if people did use it no one will find your post initially that way)

tumblr is no longer The Discourse Website. And unlike what Reddit wants you to believe for some reason, it is very much alive still. Most of the people seeking fights have moved to Twitter (though some have also moved back here again). You will not get any brownie points for being a dipshit like you do on some subreddits.

So there, welcome to the hellsite (affectionate), you'll pick up on all the in-jokes eventually, for now just try not to be a nuisance and soon enough this'll be your new internet home.

[ploppythespaceship]

Please Watch My Adventures with Superman

This show is just so delightful and manages to capture the essence of Superman in a way a lot of adaptations just don't quite get. If you've ever been curious about Superman, if you've ever felt Superman is too boring for you, or you just enjoy a fun superhero story, I highly recommend checking this series out.

The first season has ten episodes, and the second season has just aired its third episode. In the US, it's available on Adult Swim and Max.

What It's About

If you aren't familiar with Superman, he's an alien -- the last survivor of planet Krypton, sent to Earth as an infant where he was found and raised as Clark Kent. Being an alien, he has extraordinary powers which he uses to lead a double life as a hero. This show focuses on a core trio of Clark, his girlfriend Lois, and their friend Jimmy, all of whom work at the Daily Planet newspaper.

Clark Kent / Superman

One of the main reasons this show works is it understands that Clark is Clark, first and foremost, and Superman is his disguise. Clark is a big friendly nerd. He's a huge sweetheart who cares so deeply about the people around him and the planet that adopted him.

This version of Clark is starting out very young (early 20s), so a lot of this story is about him just figuring things out. He's gradually learning the truth about his origins, the extent of his powers, and how best to be a hero -- all while grappling with the fact that he isn't human and his people of origin may in fact be a massive threat to Earth.

Clark is voiced by Jack Quaid, which you might not expect to work well, but he honestly nails it.

Lois Lane

Lois is loud. She's ambitious. She's intelligent and quick-witted. She doesn't take no for an answer. She has jumped off a building to prove her point -- twice. She is an unstoppable force of nature, and this show refuses to dumb any of those traits down.

But above all, she's kind. She wants to use everything she can do to help people. Her relationship with Clark is also everything you could ever want from a Clois dynamic.

This version of Lois is Korean-American, and voiced by Alice Lee, who does a phenomenal job.

Jimmy Olsen

Jimmy is Clark's best friend and roommate. This version portrays him as a supernatural/paranormal vlogger, running a web series called Flamebird. He's easily excitable, very passionate, as well as one of the most dedicated friends you could ask for.

Following in the footsteps of several previous iterations of the character, this version of Jimmy is African-America. He's voiced by Ishmael Sahid, who's just perfect in the part.

Why It's Great

The characters are all fun and interesting in their own right, while also having a great dynamic with each other -- as duos and as a full trio. And because the characters are shown as being very young and just starting out, they're very relatable. Additionally, every character feels very true to the spirit of their comics counterpart, despite taking a lot of liberties with the specifics.

There's a great cast of villains so far -- Livewire, Task Force X, Mxyzptlk, Parasite, Silver Banshee, and plenty of others that I don't want to spoil. They've also been teasing some really interesting stuff for the Kryptonians, which is noticeably different from any previous adaptations I'm familiar with.

The show is very anime-inspired, giving it a distinct flavor from other Superman adaptations. The creators are clearly having a ton of fun with it. Classic Superman villain Mxyzptlk, who's typically shown as an imp, now looks like he just walked out of a Dragon Ball episode, in an episode called "Kiss Kiss Fall In Portal."

It's also the same animation studio as The Legend of Korra and Voltron: Legendary Defender, who do excellent work. The character designs are unique while still fitting the characters perfectly. I particular love Clark and Superman's designs -- they've struck a balance between making sure he's big and muscular while also retaining a certain softness to his appearance. The fight scenes are fluid and dynamic. It all just works.

[sw2-serials]

Kailee and Me

Kailee Robinson was a ‘Video Vixen’ in the Naughties (2000-09) who you may have seen in Firm Hand and Real Spanking videos – and someone I sort of relate to.  So, for fun and for background on some future stories, I thought I’d compile a comparison of the two of us.

(okay, disclaimer: I’ve never met Kailee and don’t know if that’s her real name, probably not.  I’m comparing myself, mostly in late high school and early college, to pictures I’ve seen of her in spanking videos.)

(also, no, no pics of me)

If you’ve never seen Kailee in action, I've provided the gif (above).

Right off you notice her ‘dark’ look – black shirt, blackened hair, black necklace (mine would be a choker)… in stark contrast to the ‘sweet’ girl she’s spanking!

As far as some details:

Black eyeliner, top and bottom – sometimes smudged.  Red streaks in my hair (not shown, but she has them sometimes).  I think I have that exact belt and a top very like the red one.  My wardrobe was black red, and black-and-white check, sort of ‘Hot Topic before it went mainstream’.  Big clunky shoes and boots.  In contrast, I don’t have any tattoos and, in high school anyway, never had a sore bottom!

Also, I favored Goth/ punk/ rocker accessories (which the actress may have in real life):

Not all at once, though!  Choke chains, handcuff jewelry – and lots of collars…

The ONE thing, though, that Kailee has in every video and makes her most like me is the surly teenaged pout that I wore constantly throughout my last two years of high school:

Even when it was NOT smart to be wearing it!  (love the choker in the bottom pics!)

One in a great while I might get rid of it and pretend to be listening politely, but inside my head, believe me, the scowl was firmly in place:

Like Kailee, I kept this attitude even when it was very clear that I should not!

In her defense, she ‘stuck to her guns’ and kept it right up to the last minute!

I might not have been able to keep it that long if things had ever gotten this serious:

In fact, my whole high school career might have turned out differently if this had happened once in a while!

In fact, things got really serious for Kailee on a pretty regular basis!

I have to imagine (and can only imagine) that if this…

had a tendency to turn into that…

Leaving me smudging my make up from time to time…

And here’s something I know would have worked, because we ‘tried’ it quite  few times in college and I did much, much better!

Maybe I should count myself lucky, though – I was never spanked on my hands (ouch!)

Also, I never wore a school uniform – my ‘schoolgirl skirt’ had skulls down the sides!

And I was never spanked with my feet up (blush!) or in front of a friend (double blush!)

And I never got to spank someone else, either!

(I like to think that I would have done a good job!)

(Of course, as time went on a lot of those things changed, eventually.)

So, it probably took me longer to get rid of my surly expression (and accompanying bad attitude) than it took Kailee…

Another difference is that I’ve never appeared in a video and never will…

And there are NO nude photos of me on-line (and, God willing, never will be…)

While of course there are plenty of Kailee.  No, I’m not going to post them here!!!  Use Google!

[dalooneylass]

The Chains Pokémon partner parings explained.

Hi this is that post where I try to explain my reasoning for pairing each Link with their Pokémon partner + a little fun fact about each Pokémon.

Sky with Dragonite

Sky and Dragonite have quite a few things in common. Their both big, loveable, caring beings who are always ready and willing to help those in need, their both also A LOT stronger than they initially seem. Sky being a literal demon god slayer, and Dragonite being a Pseudo Legendary Pokémon that can control the weather at will.

I imagine that Sky met his Dragonite before his adventure when it was still a little Dratini, they love to take naps together, and go on long flights around Skyloft.

Fun Fact: Pseudo Legendary Pokémon get their title from the fact they have a base stat total of 600, which is the same as most Legendary Pokémon, and are extremely difficult to evolve, Dratini taking 55 levels, or 207,968 experience points earned to evolve into its final form, Dragonite.

Four and his Eeveelutions

To be honest there really wasn’t any other Pokémon besides the Eevee line that had enough evolutions or unique forms/variants to give Four. But even then it’s still a good pick, Eevee can evolve into one of 8 different Pokémon. Jolteon, Vaporeon, Flareon, and Espeon being the most obvious picks for Four/The Colours, Jolteon being the next best thing for Green since there’s no Flying type Eeveelution, and Espeon for Vio due to his book smarts and relation to Shadow, with Vaporeon and Flareon being perfectly fitting for Blue and Red respectively.

I picture Four meeting his Pokémon between his adventures in Minish Cap and Four Swords Adventures, as Eevee, and then taking them with him through the latter adventure. And while Green, Blue, and Red found the evolution stones to evolve their Eevee at some point or another throughout the adventure, Vio and Shadow’s Eevee evolved during their time together when Vio was pretending to be a traitor (Eevee evolves into Espeon and Umbreon through high Friendship during the Day and Night respectively). And that while the Colours were struggling to work together during FSA, their Pokémon were working with each other just fine. After Shadow sacrificed himself, Four cared for his Umbreon.

Fun Fact: Shadow’s Umbreon likely knows Shadow isn’t really gone, but has no solid way of communicating this to Four.

Time with Celebi

Pretty simple really. Time is a time travelling fairy boy from the forest who’s possessed by a deity, Celebi is a time travelling forest guardian fairy who IS a deity.

I believe that Time would meet his Celebi some time after Majora’s Mask, but before the War of Ages.

Fun Fact: Time’s Celebi is nicknamed Navi.

Double Fun Fact: Time’s Celebi Navi may or may not actually be several different Celebi (Cuz there’s actually like a bajilion of these lil onions babies all zipping throughout time and space) and Time has yet to figure this out.

Note: Still a’nt actually settled on whether Navi IS multiple different Celebi or just one single Celebi. Tell me which one you guys think it is in the comments. I genuinely love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

Or I might make a poll or something.

Legend and Lopunny

With the fact that Lopunny is a rabbit Pokémon with a pink shiny, the connection seems pretty surface level, and that I paired the two just cuz I genuinely like Lopunny (Which I admittedly do) but when you look a little deeper into Lopunny’s character, they actually do have more in common with Legend other then aesthetics.

For one, Lopunny evolves via Friendship (Like Espeon and Umbreon) HOWEVER Buneary, Lopunny’s pre evolution, is actually hard to befriend at first, as Wild Buneary always start out with a friendship level of 0, (something usually reserved for Legendary Pokémon) Legend too is a bit rough around the edges and a little hard to get to open up at first, but a loyal companion and friend once he lets people in. As well Lopunny, while not one to go out of it’s way to pick fights, IS a strong and capable fighter, who could hold its own alongside Legend in combat, and much like how Legend has a wide variety of tools in his arsenal, Lopunny is able to learn a wide variety of Moves. Plus both Legend and Lopunny could totally put on one heck of a show if they wanted to.

I would think Legend meets his Lopunny as a Buneary after all his adventures where set and done (But before LU of course) and while they didn’t get along all too well at first, they actually warmed up to each other rather quickly and have become the best of pals since.

Fun Fact: Due to how Pokémon breeding and Egg Groups work, Legend’s Lopunny is able to be siblings with Fable’s partner Pokémon, a Delcatty.

Twilight with Herdier

I wanted to pare Twilight with a Pokémon that would not only work well with his profession as a Rancher, but also not overshadow or replace Epona’s relationship with Twilight, nor the Chains relationship with Wolfie. So I went with Herdier, A loyal and sturdy hard working dog Pokémon that just like real dogs has been working with humans both on and off the farm since ancient times.

Just like Legend and his Pokémon, Twilight meet his Herdier back when it was still just a little Lillipup some time after Twilight Princess, and they do everything together! Work, play, fight, and just overall in joying the simple things in life, Herdier loves to play with the village children, and is happy with its life with Twilight overall.

Fun Fact: Twilight’s Herdier is actually already passed the level when it should have evolved, but hasn’t due to it holding an Everstone, a item that, when held, prevents a Pokémon from evolving even when the conditions for evolution have been met. Herdier has the Everstone because it’s happy as a it is right now, and is in no real rush to evolve, and Twilight respects his Pokémon’s wishes to say a Herdier.

Wind and Clauncher

Again a pretty simple reasoning behind this pairing. Wind loves the Great Sea, the colour blue, and lobsters. Clauncher is a Water type Pokémon that lives in the sea, that is blue, and is a lobster.

Again just like Legend and Twilight, Wind meets his Clauncher after his adventures in Phantom Hourglass, but before LU. Wind loves his Clauncher, and Clauncher does love Wind back, tho that doesn’t mean they don’t get in fights, as Wind and his Clauncher are both hotheads. (Wind taking weeks to get Clauncher to stop attacking Arill’s Wingull, or any Wingull in general for that matter, and being VARY upset with Clauncher during that time. And Clauncher being upset when Wind thinks that he isn’t good enough as a hero or a big brother, despite it being completely untrue, casting Clauncher to become moody with Wind) But they can still both be sincere when it really counts. And will comfort the other when the other is feeling down.

Fun Fact: Wind’s actually had his Clauncher for the same amount of time that Legend and Twilight have had their Pokémon for, but Clauncher has yet to evolve due to Wind lacking the Time to properly train it.

Hyrule with Ribombee

I paired Hyrule with Ribombee due to their similarities. Hyrule is half Fairy, and Ribombee is a duel Fairy type Pokémon. Hyrule is a capable Magic user, and Ribombee is a strong Special Attacker. Hyrule has the ability heal his allies, as so too does Ribombee. Not to mention their both small and cute.

I imagine that Hyrule actually meet his Ribombee as a Cutiefly during his first adventure in Zelda 1, and that while Hyrule was apprehensive about bringing a tiny little Bug Pokémon like Cutiefly on a dangerous quest, Cutiefly did a surprisingly good job holding it’s own against the monsters in the dungeons. And after that, the two have been best buddies ever since.

Fun Fact: Hyrule’s Ribombee has the Ability Honey Gather. Meaning after a battle, Ribombee has a chance of just finding some random honey. Ribombee happily shares this questionable sourced with Hyrule afterwards.

Warriors and Aegislash

Picking out a Pokémon partner for Warriors was the trickiest, I initially thought about giving him a Kingambit, but felt that it didn’t really suit him, as while Warriors does lead an army and is a tactician, I felt that Kingambit’s style of fighting didn’t really suit Warriors. Aegislash however are known to work with people and leaders such as kings, and are known to be good judges of character, which I feel was more fitting. Also I thought it’d be cool to have Warriors use his Aegislash like a sword. (The Pokédex says you shouldn’t do this, but it’s been established that the Pokédex is being written by edgy 12 year olds, and a character did it in one of the mangas, so it should be fine)

Warriors met his Aegislash during the War of Eras, not sure if was already an Aegislash or not tho. Despite the communication barrier between them, the two often do battle planning together, and fight really well together. Aegislash and Warriors a’nt afraid to tell the other off if they were bing stupid, or pushing themselves too far, but also are happy to compliment each other if the other for doing well.

Fun Fact: Warriors Aegislash has a Sassy Nature, meaning it loves bitter foods and hates sweets. Don’t ask me how a sentient ghost sword can eat, it just does.

Wild and his Hisuian Zoroark

And finally we come to Wild and his Zoroark. When I was looking through the Pokédex to see what Mons would fit well with Wild and saw Zoroark, I knew that it would make the perfect partner Pokémon for Wild. A loyal, wild fox Pokémon and master of trickery that will protect its pack no matter what.

Much like the others in the Chain, Wild did not meet his partner as a fully evolved Pokémon, but as a Zorua. But he didn’t meet it as a Hisuian Zorua. They meet each other when they were kids, before Wild had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and back when Zoroark was still a regular Zorua, they became close friends, and where together through thick and thin. Zorua was there when Wild became a knight, Zorua was there Wild when he became Flora’s appointed knight, Zorua was there during the memories, Zorua stood by Wild’s side when Calamity Ganon attacked, Zorua died by Wild’s side during the Battle of Fort Hateno.

And while Link was placed into the Shrine of Resurrection so that he may revive and defeat the Calamity 100 years later, Zorua was not. But Zorua did not need the Shrine of Resurrection. Through the power of they’re hatred for Calamity Ganon, and they’re love for their trainer Wild, Zorua rose from the dead, reborn into the world anew in the form of a Hisuian Zorua. They wanted on the Great Plateau for over a hundred years for Wild to revive, likely evolving during that time. And when Wild finally awoke, it was the happiest day of they’re life. But it was also they’re life, as Wild remembered nothing of his life before the calamity. But even then Zoroark stuck by Wild’s side throughout his adventures in BotW, through thick and thin, and they defeated Calamity Ganon together, along with the Champions, and Zelda. And while the spirits of the Champions and the King passed on afterwards, Zoroark did not, as always Zoroark continued to stand by Wild’s side, through TotK, and Beyond.

The Fun Fact about Wild’s Hisuian Zoroark, is that it uses its power of illusions to help Wild recall his lost memories.

OK! This was a long post but I did it, I hope you all find my progress interesting, and that I did a good enough job of explaining it. If you want to look into this sorta stuff yourself go for it. Sorry for the Wild bias, I hope you have a lovely day/night and goodbye.

[aszles]

csm chapter 120 but in toki pona (first 10 pages)

alright hellooo!!!! this is my first published translation in 2024 i guess!

of course i'm marketing this towards english speakers since i'm not sure if there actually is a part of the csm fandom that speaks toki pona... i hope you'll stick around to see something a little fun and different!

so if you don't know what toki pona is, allow me to explain! ☝️🤓 toki pona is a conlang created by Sonja Lang where the main draw of it is that it has less than 200 words! it sounds like it may be tricky to speak with so few words, but it's surprisingly easy and very fun! i always recommend it to anyone who has a bit of time on their hands and wants to try something new.

here i was mostly trying out gimp for comic translations, and so i translated the first 10 pages of chapter 120! i chose this because... it's silly! also fun fact, the start of this chapter was one of the things that pushed me to read chainsaw man!

ok that's enough preface rambling, let's get on with it!

i think typically the first page should be full sized if it has to, but nayuta peace sign is just so cute..!

alright, if you wanna feel like you're on a date with asa then keep reading to find an english translation and translator's notes! if not... feel free to leave, i hope you eat something nice today! (omekapo!)

semi-literal translation:

yoru: woof! woof! woof!!

nayuta: HAHAHAHAHAHA!! yoru: woof woof! wooof!! denji: Nayuta! what did you do?! nayuta: i turned her into an animal. denji: why?!?! nayuta: because she [kissed] my thing! (here she basically says that yoru interacted with nayuta's thing using her mouth. it's a very vague statement)

denji: i'm not your thing! turn her into a human now!! nayuta: want food! can't! (technically she says "food desire! no ability!") nuh uh! denji: ah?! i'll make food. when you eat turn her into a human!! nayuta: 'kay!

denji: eat and turn her into a human. i'm not joking. nayuta: hey! this is my food! bad! bad!! nayuta: hey... do you really want her humanity? (sounds very weird in english but i'm not sure a better way to put it) denji: what?

nayuta: Denji. every woman tries to kill you, right? why is this animal different? denji: why...? i have a feeling. nayuta: hmmmm.... good. (this is being used as an affirmation similar to "alright" or "very well then") you won't die. okay. i'll turn her into a human.

nayuta: but, two things. if they're not good to you, then she'll be an animal forever. denji: what are they?! nayuta: number one. i can eat ice cream (cold sweet) all the time. denji: i want (it) too. nayuta: number two.

nayuta: don't be nice to her. denji: are you joking?! nayuta: uh, i'm (being) real. this is the best. she's bad to my nose. denji: your nose?

denji: is she like a wet animal? nayuta: weirdo, wet animals are good! anyways, don't be nice to her! i'll change her knowledge... so that to her you didn't come (today)! denji: you'll what?! then she'll hate me!

nayuta: not important. you won't talk to her. denji: ahhh...

denji: you're number one, nayuta...

tadaaaa! there we have it! now time for some translator notes, of which there are actually not a ton.

toki pona is surprisingly difficult to adapt for different kinds of characters. due to having no register, it's hard to make characters seem more punky or polite than normal, and to distinguish between adult and child characters. here particularly we have the issue that, while Nayuta is a child, she's also super smart! so making grammatical mistakes doesn't really seem in line for her character. the main action i took was doubling up "la" with her. this isn't incorrect, but there are more optimal ways to say things to avoid ambiguity. i thought that perhaps a kid wouldn't think ahead with their words as much as an adult would, and may end up with this quirk in their speech.

related to the last note, one possible way of making a character seem younger or less proper is having them use nimisin ("unofficial" community made words). it's a fun idea, but it's kinda inaccessible and also... i don't really know nimisin! guess i'm not hip enough >_<

the name Nayuta luckily fits with toki pona phonetics (with the y changed to a j)! Denji doesn't quite, so i opted for Tensi. this is the most direct tokiponisation of his name. it sounds a bit like tenshi! (angel in japanese)

just a little something. i went with humans being "jan" and devils "monsuta" (hybrids and fiends may be jan monsuta and monsuta jan respectively, or they could have nimisin) so.. why are these two using jan? well for Denji that's an easier question, as he is basically human-first and also had the name before he became a hybrid. (also there's no need to be so descriptive with a headnoun) as for Nayuta, she uses jan because she's sort of undercover. depending on the circumstances, or when referring to her with her real name (like saying Control Devil in english) she would be monsuta. some devils who gave themself a name use jan, while others such as Power use monsuta (because why would she call herself a human when devils are clearly superior?!)

suwi lete or lete suwi? that is the question. here i decided to go with suwi lete because i think the most appealing aspect to Nayuta is likely the sweetness!

i hope this was at least somewhat enjoyable! i wonder what i'll find to translate next >w> thank you so much for reading if you did! sina lukin la mi pilin pona a!

[luluwquidprocrow]

sometimes a family is three orphans, their adopted daughter, one not-so-sad writer, and two triplets

frank, beatrice the second, the baudelaires, lemony, ernest, implied ernest/lemony

gen

3,598 words

In the grand tradition of all parents, the extended baudelaire family find themselves trying to pull a fast one. 

for @asouefanworkevent's woevember day 4, the hotel denouement! some rambling headcanon nonsense half-fic about post-canon family that i had great fun doing. my favorite thing in the whole world is post-canon babybea interacting with her absurd enormous family. i love them all so much.

okay. so bear with me here 

so i think most parents/guardians are at one point or another faced with Pulling The Ultimate Fast One on their children. this is related to Your Beloved Pet Died But We’re Telling You We Sent Them To Live On The Farm, but this version, in particular, is infinitely easier and harder. this one is The Switch. The Replacement. The Double. when the intrepid parent or guardian, under the cover of night, goes to the pet store to purchase The Exact Same Animal because the first animal had an untimely death. i will admit, this is the easiest with like, a goldfish, or something else small where you can usually get one that looks very similar. 

now, for babybea, it’s a pumpkin. 

so babybea (who is twelve at the time this story takes place), at the very end of september, carves a pumpkin, and she goes in with a VISION. she spends a couple hours on this pumpkin, carving an owl. It’s not, yknow, a realistic owl, but she adds a lot of tiny details, lots of lines for the feathers, and she carves a little mouse on the side too, and even gets the side of a tree in there, and the pumpkin carving kit the baudelaires purchased that year came with these little stick lights, to put in the owl eyes after carving, so it has orange eyes!! this is!!!! The neatest thing babybea has ever seen, and she is so thrilled with the results and very proud of this pumpkin. (for the record – violet carves a few pumpkins into a starry night with a moon, klaus carves monstera leaves, and. let’s be real. sunny bites a series of turnips into jack-o-lanterns.) (and then she stabs a couple white pumpkins into bigger jack-o-lanterns, for variety. all of them get different expressions!

sunny, arranging her carved vegetation on the baudelaire porch in order of emotion: perfect.) (no, i don’t know what order of emotion means. But sunny does.)

Then they all pile into violet’s car – pumpkin included!! – and drive almost an hour out of the city to the bildungsroman bed and breakfast. (frank and ernest decided, at this point in their lives, if they were going to commit to anything, it may as well be The Bit.) (it has a local reputation as a place with solid wifi, stellar bread, and great mattresses. The owners are considered minorly eccentric, mostly for the portrait they have in the lobby, of, just one of them. 

some impassioned yelp review: okay so the stay was great big recommend PLEASE try the bread but i cannot figure out the story behind the portrait in the lobby????? it's just one one of the owners?????? but I don't understand why bc they're twins and it's just ONE of them?????? and he's wearing this frog-patterned tie in the painting and when you see them like in person. neither of them wear the tie. what's the deal here 

the locals are sure it's not an ego thing, bc the owners don't seem to be self-centered or anything like that. In fact, if asked about the painting, both of them will say, “oh, that's a painting of my brother.” 

an additional yelp comment: I think. there's THREE of them  a third yelp comment: don't be silly, they're definitely twins.) 

frank and ernest have a very elaborate series of outdoor autumn decorations, with lots of pumpkins and mini gourds and hay bales over the front steps and corn stalks on all the porch posts, and babybea wants to not only show her uncles her hard work, but also put the pumpkin on their steps where everyone can see it!! 

(her uncles also include lemony, of course – I think he did live with the baudelaires for some time after reuniting babybea with them, but has recently moved into ernest's side of the private apartment at the back of the hotel. this was mildly distressing to babybea, who likes everyone she loves under the same roof, but she can't deny that lemony is very happy. and so is ernest. and now she can see all her uncles in the same place whenever she wants!! so the baudelaires tend to spend weekends at the bed and breakfast, because they also miss lemony. and they get to know frank and ernest better, which is very important to them, as people who are important to babybea, and to lemony, and, to the baudelaire's past.) (not to like, detract from the sentiment here, but i do need everyone to know that i imagine ernest spends like, 80% of his working hours just making out with lemony.) (okay maybe not 80%. ernest does legitimately get work done, it’s his hotel too. ………but like, a lot of time.) 

AND SO. the baudelaires arrive at the bed and breakfast, and frank and ernest and lemony are very proud of their niece's pumpkin. they take a lot of pictures. (re: my previous post-canon thoughts, frank has actually acquired a phone now, and does text. it is a flip phone.) babybea places it, very gently, on the third front step, and is so pleased. sunny steals two mini gourds while looking ernest dead in the eye. ernest approves. 

But october turns out to be unseasonably warm, and babybea’s pumpkin, while lovingly carved but now lacking the support an uncarved pumpkin has to keep itself A Pumpkin, does not take kindly to the weather, and babybea actually becomes very distressed at the smallest signs of rot beginning to form in her pumpkin, when it is only the second week of october. She doesn’t TELL anybody, because there’s not really much you can do about a pumpkin doing what a pumpkin does in warm weather, but she’s very upset. (almost uncharacteristically so. usually she’d say, oh, well that’s how it happens, and rather pleasantly move on, but lately, she’s been kind of. quieter than usual.) And frank, who spends a great deal of time at the front desk, closest to the pumpkins, becomes Concerned. 

now, in general, babybea’s family is like, pretty good at being realistic with her. She is of course an optimist, but still Aware of a great deal of the ways of the world, given her family, her upbringing, lemony’s books, her own adventures, everything. You can’t really shield this twelve year old from the ways of the world, even if that way of the world is, a rotting vegetable. All things have their time, and it cannot be stopped. Including seasons, and in-season foods. 

However. She put SO MUCH WORK into that pumpkin, and as the week goes by and the pumpkin starts to shrink in on itself, turning all of babybea’s work black from the inside out, those charming little glowstick eyes CAVING IN, and the baudelaire’s weekly weekend visit grows closer and closer, frank has been imagining her devastated reaction when she sees the pumpkin, and decides, He Must Pull The Fast One. he will re-carve the pumpkin, exactly as babybea carved it, replace the pumpkin, and no one will be the wiser. They get a little more time with the pumpkin, presumably at least until halloween, and his niece gets to see her beautiful handiwork as much as she likes. Maybe, you know, there is a little magic in the world after all, to make a pumpkin look so nice. 

(also, i think frank has. A shaky relationship with babybea, from his end. She loves him, as much as she loves everyone else in her family, and babybea herself would NEVER rank her uncles in order of how well she knows or admires them, but i, lulu vandelay, putting this together, have no qualms in saying she knows lemony the best, bc she has spent the most time with him, between trying to find him and both of them trying to find the baudelaires and all of them having lived together, and she’s rather deeply attached to him – ernest is very personable, and funny, so he’s easy to get along with – and she and frank both like tiny detail work, so they have things in common, but frank always seems very awkward around her. And he is. It’s bc he’s very nervous around her. Frank doesn’t think he’s good with kids. And he is usually acutely aware that in an ideal world, he isn’t the one she’d be spending her time with, that dewey would be so much better at all of this than he is. A better parent, a better brother, a better everything. Because dewey always was, to frank. but, dewey would probably want frank to do as much as he could for her, and would believe him absolutely capable of doing it, without a doubt. So he wants to be a proper uncle to her and THIS is his opportunity, he thinks. He so desperately wants to do something kind and considerate and important for her, like family is supposed to do for each other.) 

the thing about pumpkins, though, is that, for some reason, mid-october, THEY ALL DISAPPEAR. I’m serious, you ever try and find a good pumpkin even like a little over halfway through october? It can be hard. 

frank: i need your assistance. ernest: i’ve killed my quota for the month. frank: i – ernest, please.  ernest: alright, my apologies. What do you need?  frank: a pumpkin. lemony, from the kitchen: jarrahdale or red warty?  frank: no, i mean a carving pumpkin. 

The three of them take a good, long look at babybea’s pumpkin. Uncle Instincts Have Activated. They, very solemnly, bury the pumpkin in the back garden (lemony is the one who takes one for the team and removes the glowstick eyes from the depths of sad, sad pumpkin). And then embark on a mission. Please imagine the three of them packed into a mint green 1960 chevy corvette. Sunglasses optional. Who’s driving? That is up to you, my friend. Oh, google informs me it is cascade green. Imagine accordingly. (yes, no corvette has ever been made with more than two seats, but isn’t that just funnier? They really are packed in there. Lemony sits in the middle.) 

The hunt for the right pumpkin is long. Grueling! Kinda chilly! This is october!! Much comparison is made between potential pumpkins and the pictures they took of babybea’s pumpkin. Snacks are purchased. (lemony, who has recently been introduced to instagram, posts a picture of his pretzel. [ernest is out of focus in the corner, eating a chocolate ice cream cone.] [#pretzel.] 

sunbad: what is that lemonysnicket: I have purchased a pretzel sunbad: without me sunbad: you’re dead to me.) 

(it was actually not sunny who introduced lemony to instagram, although she was his first follower. It was klaus.) (klaus uses instagram mainly to never post anything ever, just to follow his favorite authors, so he wanted lemony to have an instagram, especially since he just moved out.) (klaus……..my heart………..) (oh, frank bought chex mix. he likes those gross rye bread pieces.) 

(don’t get me started on lemony with an instagram……….I think this is a hilarious but also heartwarming thought – this man who has avoided being photographed for years and years and years and YEARS (yes that much repetition was in fact necessary) is at a point in his life here he is not only comfortable of taking pictures of his life, but he is capable of doing it, he’s allowed!! It’s still probably mostly food and it’s so good!!!!!!!! and think of the amount of pictures he keeps just in his phone gallery, too!!! violet’s inventions and klaus’ library displays and sunny’s baking and babybea’s school projects and ernest’s record collection and frank’s breakfast spreads, and nature shots with lemony’s thumb in the corner, AAAAAAAAAAAA) (uh, anyway, these men are on a mission. back to the mission.) 

Eventually, they do find a comparable replacement pumpkin! Does it fit in the car? Lemony, by virtue of sitting in the middle, holds the pumpkin. 

They return to the bed and breakfast. Between the three of them, many different knives, and all of their photos, frank and ernest and lemony painstakingly recreate babybea’s pumpkin, down to the last, smallest detail. Including the little mouse and the side of the tree and the feathers and everything. (frank does do most of the work, because ernest and lemony very much see that this is important to him, but he doesn’t mind them helping, because, yknow. This is about family, and babybea is their family too.) (frank feels like he owes lemony a lot. for trying to set the record straight about their past. or as straight as one could try and set it, with what all of them did. for their niece. for making ernest happy.) (ernest deserves to be happy, with everything they put each other through. ernest thinks the same for frank, too.) 

(ugggggg if you told the three of them when they were so much younger that one day they’d stay up late recreating their niece’s perfect pumpkin masterpiece so she’s not upset about the passage of time………..) 

(who’s in charge of the bed and breakfast while all of this is happening?? 

ernest: mallory, you’re in charge. mallory, a twenty-two year old with a major in hotel management who runs the front desk when ernest and frank can’t: sounds like a plan. 

mallory has a deep respect for the denouements. meanwhile – 

mallory: so you’re lemony snicket. lemony: i am, yes. mallory: you don’t look like your photo. lemony: that’s my legal representative. he has a stamp.) 

meanwhile meanwhile – it is not necessarily about the pumpkin. 

For babybea’s part, she already firmly believes that there is some sort of magic in the world. Even at twelve. Especially at twelve!! Look, she knows it wasn’t magic that reunited her with her family, that it was her and lemony’s hard work, but she wound up with SO much more family than she expected, when she first contacted lemony. And like, that is what there’s magic in. this whole group of people who care about her and love her and want to spend time with her. Babybea thinks she has the best family in the whole entire world. (AND SHE’S RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!) 

But that is also babybea’s problem right now. She loves her family so much, and she loves having them, and it’s been a couple months but she is still not entirely comfortable with people she loves being so far away from her. Not now! Not when they’re all supposed to be in the same space, like they’re supposed to be!! And some kids at school have teased her, not so much about her puzzle-piece family but that she talks about her uncles so much. She’s just proud of her family and she loves them!! But middle schoolers are like, rude as fuck sometimes, okay. And they don’t even think they’re saying anything wrong, just offhand comments about how much she talks about them. They don’t even know anything about her parents, not really, but babybea starts to feel like, it’s the unspoken throughline in what they’re saying, why doesn’t she ever talk about them? Why only her uncles, her guardians? They’re her family, but – 

she feels almost guilty, that she goes through periods where she doesn’t even think of her parents at all, and periods where she can’t stop thinking about what they would look like and what they would be like, and that makes her feel like she doesn’t value the family she DOES have. So it’s not necessarily about the pumpkin starting to rot, what’s making her upset. It’s that, the pumpkin is another thing in a line of things babybea is Thinking about, things that aren’t Going the way she thought they were supposed to go. Her uncle moving out, missing somebody who was supposed to be there, her pumpkin not staying like it’s supposed to, she’s SUPPOSED to love her family but is she loving them right? Is she loving the right people right? Can you miss people you didn’t even know? And babybea has it very set in her head, the things she knows and is supposed to do – this is something she hasn’t quite worked on, but she’ll get to it eventually, she is still twelve – and they keep not happening like that. And now. Something else she worked really, really, really hard on, that isn’t going right either. 

So she spends the week a little gloomy about her pumpkin, and worrying the whole ride friday afternoon after school to the bildungsroman bed and breakfast. Violet and klaus and sunny are very aware of babybea’s mood, and try to cheer her up by asking her about what she’ll be for halloween, but babybea’s heart is not super into this conversation. (she has ideas about a big group costume where they’re all different local birds, but now she’s not even sure about that.) 

And then! She sees her pumpkin!! Glowy eyes and all!!!!! And, mysteriously, those little spots of rot she’d noticed the week before are gone, and, in fact, it looks a little sharper than it had before? And she didn’t think she’d cut the lid quite like that, but! That’s her pumpkin, exactly where it’s supposed to be!!! And it makes her feel just a little better. That’s good. That’s right. But she still can’t, entirely shake off all her previous feelings, about family. But. right now. Her pumpkin still looks very special. 

Later, babybea can’t sleep. So she sneaks out of bed and goes down to the lobby, and sits down on the floor in front of the front desk, and looks at the big painting on the wall, that ernest did of her father. 

This, of course, is where frank finds her. (because frank has never been very good at sleeping consistently, even when there’s nothing to worry about now, and he likes to walk through the hotel to make sure it’s secure.) 

(ernest would say something very clever, like, aha, with a raised eyebrow, but all frank says is – )

frank: hello, beatrice.  beatrice: oh!  beatrice: hello, uncle frank.  frank: may i sit down?  beatrice: yes, please. 

They spend a little while looking at the portrait.

beatrice: um –  beatrice: does it – 

What she wants to ask is, does it look very much like my father, which she then realizes is such a STUPID question if her father was a TRIPLET and she has a mirror image of him right in front of her, who acts like she thinks a father is supposed to act, so, but, it’s not like that doesn’t mean dewey didn’t look like dewey. Just because dewey looked like frank doesn’t mean he only looked like frank. And beatrice forgets, sometimes, that he would’ve just looked just like her uncles. But still! 

beatrice: i mean – the painting, is it – 

But she thinks it’s such a terrible thing to ask!! But frank knows EXACTLY what she means. 

(some time ago, when the hotel had just opened and ernest had just painted the portrait of dewey – 

ernest: i wanted it to look like him. And, it’s not like i, don’t know what he looks like. Looked like. I mean – that could just be me or you up there, couldn’t it. It doesn’t look like it’s him.  frank: no, it does.  frank, knowing exactly what he means and feeling like, he needs to make ernest Not look so abjectly miserable: you don’t look nearly as happy.  ernest, in tears, very amused and touched and still terribly upset: wow! 

The point being, god of course it looks like dewey. It couldn’t be anybody but dewey, even if dewey looks like other people. Dewey looks like himself, he looks like his family, he looks like beatrice, around the eyes. And family means lots of things. It means your guardians raising you, and your uncles raising you, and your father’s portrait on the wall and never knowing him at all, and loving so many people and being loved back by them, whether or not it’s Supposed to be a specific way, and sometimes it means missing somebody, sometimes it means missing different people, sometimes it means being sad for something you’re not sure if you should or could miss, sometimes it means not missing anyone at all, sometimes it means your uncle going to live with his definitely boyfriend even if they won’t say the words out loud who’s also your uncle just on the other side of your family and that doesn’t mean anyone’s going anywhere. Sometimes it means your pumpkin rotting, because things change. uh, does this make sense.) (admittedly, i put a lot of things in this.)

frank: yes, it looks very much like him.  frank: i think about him a lot.  beatrice: ......would he like my pumpkin? frank, without hesitation: absolutely. beatrice: do you like it? frank: i do.

of course babybea already knew that, but it's nice to hear. it's just. nice. it's not, like, everything? just like before. but beatrice is loved by a lot of people, and she loves them, too, and. she feels loved, right here, like she's supposed to, and that's what's Supposed to happen.

beatrice hugs him, and it's not the first time she's hugged frank, but it means more? frank hugs her back.

beatrice: thanks for fixing my pumpkin.  frank: i’m sure i don’t know what you mean, beatrice. 

beatrice hugs him again, and then goes back upstairs. frank looks a little longer at the portrait, and then goes to bed himself, and doesn't get back up until his alarm goes off.

[this-is-a-dystopian-parable]

Reacting to the new Three Houses photos!

My Three Houses brainrot is setting in and I have to keep myself from going insane and/or spoiling myself before I see it. So lets go through the new photos released by Playbill yesterday (May 3rd)! My predictions below, but I don't know any more than you do so there won't be any spoilers!

Right off the bat. The set? STUNNING. Giving Octet/Comet/Ghost Quartet if it had a proper set. The concept of the show is an open mic night so the bar setting is a given, I love the little tables with menus, makes it very Great Comet. I love how many of Dave's shows are set in a specific place that the performance factors into. You are at an academic lecture, a jazz club, a church basement. Wonderful job by dots.

Love that the Grandmother and Grandfather double as the bartenders/waiters here. A note about the cigarette from the playbill, these are herbal cigarettes that are actually smoked for real, they just don't have any effect. Just a fun fact for realism.

ONSTAGE BAND lets gooooooo. You can see the other two characters sitting at the two little tables downstage.

No thoughts. Pretty :)

DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON

I'm SO curious why he's here. I had assumed, naturally, that the puppet in this case would be the Wolf. But no, there's a dragon here??? My prediction is that this is either connected to the video game references in the show (we'll come to that), it's a puppet a character made, or it's some hallucination/dream sequence.

Dragon is sitting at the bar??? He's havin a drink??? Oh my god???

Band onstage!!!

You can see how close the audience is in this one!!!

More that are close-ups. My only note here is that the background behind the bar is different! So I assume it changes between characters.

HERE WE ARE. THE SIMS PLUMBOBS. THATS SO SILLY. I'm also really curious about the way Dave would use the context of the Sims in this show. Like I'm predicting it's going to be more than "people playing video games stuck at home" but will also have some comment about socialization and human connection. Since Mia Pak doesn't have one here, I feel like we're likely to see an Octet style form where during each person's individual story, the others act as a side characters.

Oh my gooood he is so unhinged and silly. What is he up to. The intense glare. The plumbob again. My prediction is that he will sort of hang around and antagonize from within each person's story, taking on different roles and acting as an omnipotent force.

ALSO. ELECTRIC GUITAR. Giving Beowulf but also The DJ. I guess that's what I'm leaning towards with his style of antagonism, he's just there to poke fun at them and be mean and have fun. I love him, he looks like he's having so much fun.

I love the boxes but it's also really surreal, because I JUST did a show in October that was also about quarantine and featured tons of cardboard boxes. Seriously. The playwright had decided to clean up the house during quarantine, and put things into boxes to keep them organized. But he fell into depression and for months just lived out of the cardboard boxes he didn't have the energy to unpack. This show was about a depressed woman who couldn't sleep, and was haunted by a Pierrot clown and a puppet. Anyway. I'm getting similar vibes here.

Those are all my thoughts on the photos! But I have a couple more from the updates to the program, which you can access here.

The characters have new names added to them! It's now Susan/Shelob, Sadie/Pookie, and Beckett/Zippy. I wonder what these are about, if they're just other characters they play within the stories. My prediction is though that they're either online names or related to the Sims bit mentioned earlier.

According to the program, there are only THREE musical numbers. Not acts, "musical numbers" that's the exact wording.

First House: Susan

Second House: Sadie

Third House: Beckett

Coda

Dave Dave Dave. Maybe this is a previews thing, and the different names just haven't been solidified? Either way, I support doing whatever he wants from a show standpoint but I'm curious how it would translate to an album. Of course, that's a problem for another day!

Woof. Long one. Thank you for sticking with me here and stay tuned because I am going to be sharing a LOT more about this show as it develops!

[quibbs126]

So I didn’t actually mean to do the whole page, just River so I could ask about his name, but then I just decided to continue with who I remember was supposed to be there, and so here we are

I don’t really remember how I formatted these posts, so I’m just gonna go one at a time

So River I already told you about. Protector of important tree or whatever. I should probably expand more on his island and people this time around, and also give him a role other than just “guardian”

I should probably explain the tree, since it does have significance. It’s part of the whole Ralia creation story, but to sum up, the tree was originally the creator of Ralia who got turned into a tree by one of his creations, aka the betrayer and evil, and also would later become the actual big bad of the story when he returns. You know, that standard stuff. I think the tree is also supposed to be sealing the evil guy away? (His name was Adamik by the way) Not sure, but I do also know that the seven elemental gods, aka the people who give Ralians their elemental power, were also sealed away in seven spires across the world. The tree is technically also one, but more important and doesn’t have an element limitation

I don’t know, I just know I was definitely ripping off Zielo from The Murder of Me, a Sonic fancomic I was reading at the time, when it comes to Adamik. And probably also Giratina, because there’s also creation, time and space guys too

Although actually, I went and found my old Ralia creation story, since I knew it was on my phone and I wanted to double check, and apparently Adamik was defeated by a demigod who became the leader of the island of tree guardians. So there’s something interesting I could maybe work with

But yeah anyways, back to River, he’s pretty generic. From an ancient tribe protecting something of big importance to save the world, angry and stubborn guardian, all that jazz. If I’m to spice him up, I think I need to spice up his people and island too. And probably change the mythology

They’re also Ralians like everyone else (nondescript anthropomorphic mammal), they just have specifically black fur with white stripes and hair that matches an element. Not sure if I’m keeping them having elemental powers though. Also fun fact, River was originally a honey badger

There actually is another special people in Ralia, and they were based off of deer, so maybe they’ll get horns or something. I don’t really know their place in the lore other than being able to teleport around the world at will

Maybe they should just be a separate race from Ralians entirely, but I don’t know what entirely to make different about them. Eh, I guess I’ll figure it out

Anyways, I’ve talked too long about River, let’s get to the others

Next we have Marina

Full disclosure, I also didn’t know what to name her, or what her original name was. Probably Diamond or Jewel or something (she was the Rouge adjacent). I gave her the name Marina because I was thinking while drawing her that she looked kind of similar to Marilyn and maybe they could be related, and also because I was listening to Marina and the Diamonds during the latter half of drawing. So her name may be subject to change, but for now it’s Marina

So as Marina is our Rouge adjacent, she was some sort of treasure hunter, and her purpose was to show up on River’s island and have their storyline happen. I don’t really remember much else, just imagine Rouge the Bat in her place, because that’s about as far as I got with her

I’m not sure if I’m keeping her being a treasure hunter, but she does need a reason to go to River’s island

I have worked out some things about her personality, namely that she is far more bark than bite. She makes herself appear all suave, confident and competent, but when she encounters actual danger, her actual, far more cowardly personality starts showing, and you realize she doesn’t actually know what she’s doing at all. She’s the type to lie about her credentials, and then desperately try to keep up the lie so no one suspects her, until someone has her pretty much confronted with it all and she starts begging to just sweep it all under the rug. If any of that made sense

So yeah, she’s gonna be competent for a total of probably 5 minutes on River’s island, and then her actual self is gonna start showing

But despite all that, she isn’t entirely self-serving. She does have an amount of goodness in her, she just finds it easier to lie and pretend she knows what’s going on, or just defer to someone who actually does know what they’re doing

I’d say she has the most wiggle room as a character, but she also has nothing to do with any character other than River, so I don’t really know

Anyways, so she was the character that made me make that post about needing my Prismacolors, because she had brown fur and I didn’t want too many characters with that specific color. But I ended up with this dark brown, and I kind of like it. Her hair was always purple though

I also added on the markings because she was originally a raccoon, and I thought she should have some. I ended up with that gold color for her other fur since I didn’t want to use white again, and I eventually put them under her eyes, and I think it looks good there

She also originally had longer hair, but I think the shorter hair works better with her front swirl

Anyways, now I’m done with Marina, let’s talk about Autumn

I remember saying constantly that I planned on drawing her, but never did, so now you get to finally see her

Now Autumn here is part of Mercury’s story, and the other main character of it. In her original story, she was the lost princess of their kingdom, after it was overthrown by a group of evil people when she was a child. Her parents died, but she managed to survive, and later strove to get rid of those usurpers, and did so by dressing up as a vigilante called Firebrand. Mercury being a soldier would meet her, find out her identity, and eventually help her overthrow the government, and she took back the throne as the new leader, and then she got together with Mercury

This is another thing I mostly stole from a Sonic fanfic/AU, this being similar to Athena’s backstory in LiyuConberma’s Cosium world. So I feel like changing some stuff

One thing I think I mainly want to change is whether or not she’s correct in her goal. In the original, she absolutely was, and I think the story was more generic for it

Also, if this happened when she was a child, that means plenty of the characters, or at least their parents, were around when this originally happened, and apparently none of them have done anything about it and have been going about their lives perfectly fine, which doesn’t make much sense to me. But also, the way I have everything, I feel like a violent overthrow of the monarchy doesn’t really fit in with what I’ve made with everyone else, so I don’t really know if I should keep it. But also at the same time, it’s incredibly vital to Autumn’s backstory, so I can’t just take it out, and I like her too much to delete her entirely

But if I want to keep the overthrow of power, then basically she is incorrect in wanting to overthrow the new one, since things actually are better under the new system and there was a reason for the original overthrow. She just doesn’t really realize it because she’s been away from society since then and also because the old rulers were her parents, so she has a biased view of it all. She isn’t bad, but she’s uninformed and in the wrong, and probably letting her trauma inform her decisions instead of rational thought

Also another way I can keep this going, Firebrand technically is a separate entity from her. The persona comes from a living mask who was sealed away inside said mask, and it temporarily takes over the body of whoever puts it on. I think they and Autumn were supposed to have some conflict originally, but now I can ramp it up by saying Firebrand is playing off her feelings and basically manipulating her so that they can have a body and cause mayhem, while she thinks it’s all for the best

But yeah, basically what I want to do for Autumn and Mercury’s story now is that it’s basically about Mercury helping Autumn realize her quest for revenge is ultimately wrong, even if it was terrible what happened to her, and then saving her from Firebrand and helping her be free. It’s just the details I need to work on

And also with this new story, I’m really wondering if I should keep the romance between her and Mercury. I kind of want them to end up together, especially since they always were supposed to, but with how I have the story now, Mercury’s more trying to get her out of a bad situation and likely into therapy, which probably realistically shouldn’t intermingle with romance. I’ve also been debating aging Autumn down to a teenager, since she’d be more impressionable due to being younger, but if I do that then they’re definitely not getting together, because I’m making Mercury an adult, among other reasons

But yeah I have some ideas on what to do with Autumn, but also I don’t have ideas in other places. I’ll have to work on that

What I do know is that she has pink flames, and she always has. And I don’t care if I’m changing the magic system, she’s keeping it because I think it looks cool

Anyways, that was longer than I was expecting, especially considering only one of these characters has real substance to me, but yeah, here’s this

[oiblackestsheep]

Thoughts on INFP 4 INFP relationship? Cause that’s what’s happening in my life right now 🌟

Hopefully this isn't TOO late of a response. Work was crazy and I crashed last night.

First off, CONGRATS. Hope the relationship is going well!! Ultimately, ANY two types can be in a relationship and have it work out, but all the different type combinations (and individual people, of course lmao) can have their own unique experiences that can be inferred by their types.

INFP & INFP is pretty interesting. Double the day-dreaming, double the moral debates. This kind of pairing has advantages and disadvantages that you would see with a lot of same-type pairings, but they will be specific to the INFP strengths and weaknesses.

The advantages would be that you guys understand each other through and through. You perceive things and make decisions the same way, so there is a massive potential for deep connection and feeling validated and seen by each other when it comes to the choices you make and values you hold.

You can spend endless nights brainstorming new ideas (Ne) about how you would personally like reality to be (Fi) (Just a simple example, all judging functions can apply to any topic, really). Not to mention that if you are similar in age/upbringing, you may even be nostalgic for the same things (tertiary/comfort Si), which can be a lot of fun!

You can also provide very meaningful support to each other in areas in life that you struggle with because you can 100% relate when the other is struggling. Where some types might grow frustrated with your weaknesses, you two have the potential to give each other the grace and patience when it comes handling the strict, objective, cold, hard facts of life that demand you use that inferior Te and set aside that trademark INFP idealism (which I'm sure can be uncomfortable!)

Now, the downsides of this pairing (and many other same type pairings) I think should be pretty obvious to the people in the relationship when they pop up.

The thing is that if you both use Fi to come to your conclusions about something, but you happen to disagree on the actual verdict, then that can cause some tension. It can be hard to accept someone else's explanation as to why they think something when they somehow think the same way as you. There can be very little variation between how you each reach your conclusions, and therefore, not really all that much to talk about other than the fact that you simply just disagree and cannot find a way to be compatible on the matter. This is the benefit of different types being together is that different opinions can often be explained by using different functions (or combinations of the same functions) to reach different conclusions. But the INFP x INFP couple doesn't have that luxury, sadly.

Alternatively, double Ne can make it difficult for the couple to focus. If you are both thinking about different hypothetical possibilities, it is unlikely that either of you will reign each other (or yourselves) in to decide what components of the subject are the most important to consider and choose to act on.

Similarly, tertiary Si can potentially cause both of you ruminate on your pasts (in general, or in your relationship), and increases the likelihood of the two of you isolating at home to spend time living in the past. You might benefit from getting out of the house to shake off this tendency to overthink.

And lastly, inferior Te can be difficult if both of you are uncomfortable making hard and direct decisions based on data. Both of you will be more inclined to search your internal/personal feelings and values to make decisions rather than facing the facts in front of you that might lead to difficult/not ideal choices that are not as comfortable for you, and that can make for a slow and arduous process.

All in all, it really boils down to how healthy you two are and how willing you are to work together to have a safe and constructive relationship and develop yourselves/confront your weaknesses. If both people are healthy, you two can be a super empathetic, imaginative and moralistic power-couple!

Hope this was helpful and/or resonates with you. Let me know if you'd like to add anything else!

[redlerred7]

Something you find appealling in an unconventional or atypical way?

I'm not abreast of all the different ways one may find appeal in a thing. It's very hard for me to gauge whether or not the way I like or enjoy something is conventional or typical.

Anyway, Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai is probably my favorite anime. The characters are entertaining, the romance is cute, and it has a pretty poignant message about normative behaviors, the joys and follies of youth, and people's relationship with their hobbies, interests, and escapism in general.

But for the purposes of this ask, that's not the important part. No, the important part is that I consider the significantly less popular second season to be better than both season 1 and the sequel movie.

Let me explain:

Season 1 had the task of introducing characters, setting up the plot, and making you care that these characters actually go through all of said plot. To that end, I think season 1 did an good job of hitting all the story beats in moments where it resonated.

Unfortunately, I am a weirdo and the story beat that is considered by most people to be one of the most impactful parts of the story instead completely failed to resonate with me at all. Intellectually, I understand what makes it so powerful to others, but being unable to feel it myself made half of the whole point of season 1 fall a little flat for me.

Season 2 goes in a different direction, one where I can actually relate to the plot being depicted, on top of doubling down on the parts of season 1 I already liked.

That is to say, majority of the season is the characters acting like dumbass cringy teenagers who are part of a LARP group. AND there isn't some air of normative moral judgment over the fact that they're LARPing. They're allowed to actually enjoy themselves.

And as we find out as the seasons goes, the main cast's LARP group isn't the only group of weirdos in the school they go to.

Their school isn't even the only one! At some point they encounter a rival club that's tangentially related to their own that has their own unique brand of weirdness.

Normality is an illusion. Everyone is at least a little bit weird. I think this season communicates that theme much better than season 1 did.

Any issues that arise regarding their fun is a wholly internal problem within the characters themselves rather than a product of their environment.

Also I liked the love-triangle, though it's not really a love-triangle in the way most people think of them. It still has the jealousy, possessiveness, and two characters in love with the same person, but it was refreshing how blatant season 2 was about the fact that the other character has no chance.

Often I see shows try to at least be a little coy about it. They'd be like "sure, they do not and will not have a chance, but we're gonna try and make you believe that they do anyway."

None of that. Just a good, straight forward story about a new character who's about to have her heart broken.

And then learn how to move forward from that.

That last thing I mentioned is probably the best part of the love triangle subplot, to be honest. Possibly even the best part of the season if I'm being particularly generous to it.

To be clear, I like traditional love-triangles too—I like love-triangles in general. It just so happens that this particular love-triangle hits my buttons in such a specific way that I can't help but love it.

As for the sequel movie...

The reason I think season 2 is better than the movie is because the movie performs a little bit of character development backsliding (similar to how the K-on Movie reset the characters' relationships from the end of K-on Season 2 back to what they were like at the beginning of K-on Season 2). And after that backsliding, the main leads end up having same character development they had in season 2, except in a shorter amount of time and in a manner less open to interpretation.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a good movie. I loved that the movie is about the cast having a wild road trip all across Japan. The art and animation was amazing, too. But the things I loved the most about the series—the characters' adventures in LARP and how it affects their daily lives—just isn't as present. That automatically puts it at the bottom of my tierlist of animated Chu2 works.

[coquelicoq]

this post is brought to you by: la lettre A

i finished all 58 pages of the letter A in this french dictionary! and it only took me 18 days!!

knowing myself and how i work, if i want to actually keep this up long enough to finish the entire dictionary, i should celebrate this milestone with a look back at what i have learned and accomplished. (not that i actually need an excuse to ramble about words, but i'm not gonna turn one down lol.)

keep reading to learn exciting things such as: which french nouns for abstract concepts can be masculine OR feminine! which french playing card is idiomatically considered to have bad fashion sense! which prefixes are actually TWO prefixes meaning totally different things, the little fuckers! and more!!

first, some stats

percentage of dictionary taken up by A words: 7.6% (58/763)

percentage of dictionary read so far: 8.4% (counting the preface and abbreviations)

rate and duration: 3 pages/day for 18 days (approximately 1-2 hours per day)

total entries: 2304. note: this is not the same as the number of words defined (an entry will often contain derivations of the main word, such as adjectives and adverbs formed from a noun) or number of definitions (an entry will often define multiple senses of the same word)

rows added to my vocabulary spreadsheet: 214. these are not all of the words i didn't know, just the ones i want to prioritize learning. baby steps.

times i learned a word from the dictionary and then later that day encountered the same word in the wild: probably like ten times!

times i learned a word from the dictionary and then later that day encountered the same word in the wild and still knew what it meant: maybe four times lol

fun facts about A words!

you may have noticed that there are a lot of pages in the A section (relative to the mean, which would be about 29 pages/letter). this is primarily because some very productive prefixes start with this letter!

prefixes of note

a- (toward, to). eventually i managed to internalize that if there's a word i don't recognize that starts with an a, if i chop off the a (+ the following letter, if it's a doubled consonant) it will often leave me with another word i do recognize, and the a- word indicates some kind of movement toward the state or action indicated by the shorter word. the entry for a- (the second entry in the entire dictionary) told me this explicitly, but it didn't really sink in until like...yesterday lol. you'd think i would know better, from 1) taking latin (this prefix is from the latin word ad, meaning to), 2) having a form of this prefix in english as well, 3) knowing how prefixes work, etc., etc. but alas. i stay humble 😔

a(n)- (not, no, without). very fun when you have a letter which at the beginning of words can mean either "not [root]" or "becoming [root]". big shoutout to greek and latin for that.

it's interesting that this dico didn't have an entry for the ab- prefix (also from latin, the opposite of a-). ab rights!! (one of my favorite latin verbs is abesse, meaning "to be away". present participle: absens, absentis. look familiar???)

anté/anti- (before), from the latin ante, vs. anti- (against), from the greek anti. greek vs. latin strikes again!!!

apo- (away from, off). obviously english also has this prefix because french forced their lexicon upon us, but i hadn't actually put together before now that it was a prefix because i've never studied greek. so now i am doing the next best thing, learning about english by reading about greek in a dictionary about french.

archéo- (ancient) vs. archi- (chief, ruler). mostly notable because i used to be very distressed by the fact that the ch sound is pronounced differently in these two environments. but now i know (it's a k sound in archéo and an sh sound in archi)!

auto- (self) vs. auto- (related to road vehicles). i just love that the second one came from the first via back formation (from automobile), aka the popular girl of the morphological processes.

i wouldn't really call them prefixes, but avant (before), après (after), and arrière (behind, back) also all begin with A, and they are stuck in front of other words to make new hyphenated words, thus padding out the A section further.

page hogs

(entries taking up 1/6 of a page or more)

à

affaire

air

aller

appel

appuyer

art

attendre

avant

avoir

like you guys don't get enough attention already !

🤯 momence

accourir takes être as auxiliary in the compound tenses! are you seeing this shit!!! dr. & mrs. vandertramp is a LIE!!

guess what the verb alphabétiser means. did you guess "to alphabetize"? WRONG! it means to teach someone to read and write!!

in other "learning things about english by reading a french dictionary out loud" news: did u know that reMUNeration is a word? not just reNUMeration (which is also an accepted spelling), but reMUNeration. the m and then the n! what! how have i never noticed this in the past 34 years of my existence! some people may say it's strange to read the dictionary, but i think this proves i need to read MORE dictionaries actually. life is beautiful. consciousness is a miracle!!

the noun l'après-midi (afternoon) can be feminine or masculine! how do you pick? idk! gender anarchy! this just in: every afternoon is genderfluid hours selon les francophones!!

okay, here's a headscratcher. l'auriculaire (noun) means "pinky finger", but auriculaire (adjective) refers to the ear/hearing. the only explanation i can find for this is on french wikipedia, which is very [citation needed] and seems apocryphal at best. (and if that wasn't enough totally unrelated body parts for one word to be about for you, auriculaire can also refer to the chambers of the heart 😇)

mes bien-aimés

favorite words to pronounce

antipathie [ɑ̃tipati]

antiquité [ɑ̃tikite]

antithétique [ɑ̃titetik]

architecture [aʀʃitɛktyʀ]

association [asɔsjasjɔ̃]

au-delà [od(ə)la], especially with the article (l'au-delà [lod(ə)la])

authenticité [otɑ̃tisite]

autochtone [otoktɔn]

tous azimuts [tuzazimyt]

please listen to my one true love (voice reading french words on wordreference dot com) pronounce "association". crops watered etc.

least favorite words to pronounce are any that start with aéro-. consecutive vowel sounds and an r sound? sans façon, je m'abstiens 👍

FAVE WORDS PERIOD

une accolade: an embrace/a hug, or one of these guys: { }. is that not the cutest shit.

une agrafe: a staple. i've become very attached to this word for some reason. (haha, attached, get it)

un aimant: a magnet. i am SURE i knew this at some point but fortuitously i forgot all about it, allowing me to see it with fresh eyes and be delighted all over again. (aimant is the present participle of the verb aimer, meaning to love. therefore magnet = one who is loving 😫💘)

tu ne manques pas d'air ! : you've got some nerve! ooh, i just know this is going to come in handy.

[nom] par alliance: [noun]-in-law. i like this because une alliance is a wedding ring (and also, more directly, an alliance. but that's boring!).

une amphibologie: sentence or phrase that's grammatically ambiguous. obviously i'm all over this. cela va de soi.

ahaner: to puff and pant. i love this one because it's onomatopoeic (the h is silent, so you make two "ah" sounds in a row, like you're breathing out twice)!

french has a word meaning "person who goes on vacation in august" (it's aoûtien(ne), from août, meaning august). how fucking rad is that?

i love et alors ? (big deal), et après ? (so?, so what?), and j'en ai vu d'autres (I've seen worse). also à d'autres ! (yeah, right! or likely story! or (for the brits out there) pull the other one! or (this is not in any dictionaries but i am extrapolating) nice try but i wasn't born yesterday!)

avoir une araignée au plafond: to be a little cuckoo, to have bats in the belfry. literal translation: to have a spider on the ceiling. just reminds me of that classic tumblr post about nicolas ii the last czar of russia hanging from the ceiling fan. i know that post is about bad vision, but the vibes are there and that's what matters.

archi- is a prefix in words like architecture, but it can also be added to adjectives as a slangy intensifier meaning very, extremely, super.

mentir comme un arracheur des dents: lie through one's teeth, though the literal translation would be more like "lie like a tooth-puller". is this because dentists are always like "this will barely hurt at all"? (omg i just looked it up and found a source (reputability: unknown) that says exactly that)

arrondir [qqch]: round [sth] up/down. aw look, it's got "rond" right in there. and i like that you can use the same construction regardless of whether you're rounding up or down, because it's not actually necessary to specify.

habillé(e)/ficelé(e)/fichu(e) comme l'as de pique: dressed like a scarecrow, looking like something the cat dragged in. literal translation: dressed like the ace of spades. is the ace of spades known for looking bedraggled in french card decks?? dying to know.

un ascenseur is an elevator, but it can also mean scroll bar. that makes so much sense! they do look like little elevators!

accrocher means a lot of things but primarily to hang, hook, snag, grip, etc. (it's related to crochet, hook.) one of its figurative senses is to get along, click, hit it off. les atomes crochus is chemistry (between people)...literally "hooked atoms". avoir des atomes crochus avec [qqn] means to have a lot in common with [sb].

autant pour moi: my bad, silly me. apparently was originally "au temps pour moi". au the temps, they are a-changin...

l'auto-stop: hitchhiking! as far as i can tell, stop came from english, but it happened centuries ago, and this dictionary isn't marking it as an anglicism. i mostly think it's funny that french definitely couldn't adopt the word "hitchhike" (french has, like, two of those sounds in its phoneme inventory lol) but they still ended up with something that came from english but which their lexicographers are not acknowledging as having come from english. (canadians say faire du pouce which is also great)

faire avec: make do, get by. i love a preposition that doesn't take a complement! feels illicit. like we're being naughty. even though it's actually so accepted as to be included in an abridged dictionary for a language that has literal laws about which words not to use. i know, okay? just let me have this!

next up: 34 pages of la lettre B 👀👀

[fanfic-inator795]

So, I only watched the first episode and then a couple random eps of “The Ghost and Molly McGee” s1. I didn’t dislike it, it just didn’t hook me, so I didn’t really keep up with it. But recently my brother showed me the s2 premiere and, since the first five eps of the new season are on Disney+ already, I went ahead and watched those too.

Honestly, I may just end up keeping up with the rest of the new season. There’s a couple of (what will likely be) season-long hooks involving Molly and Scratch that seem interesting without overshadowing everything else, all while the episodic stuff has managed to be cute, enjoyable and even relatable in some cases. The characters are pretty fun, and while I don’t like it as much as “Big City Greens” or “Craig of the Creek”, it gives me enough of those vibes that I immediately find it more appealing than stuff like Amphibia or Owl House.

Someone compared it to those classic ‘animated sitcoms with a gimmick’ shows like Fairly Oddparents and Jimmy Neutron, and yeah that’s a good way to sum it up. So yeah, looking forward to watching more of this show while I wait for more BCGs. 

The only weird thing about TGaMM to me is whenever they say “Andrea” (my name, though I pronounce it a totally different way) or “Davenport” (the city I’m currently living in. Fun fact, the co-creator of the show apparently lived in the area around here, so that’s cool) I sorta do a double-take, haha.

Also: this show apparently takes place somewhere in the Midwest, yet there was an episode where the characters repeatedly called it “soda” and not “pop”. Unacceptable. *cue the CinemaSins ding*

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Thoughts I had while watching the 1.5 seasons of Fist of Fun (all I have left to watch is the second half of season 2):

- First up, let's talk physical appearances! Because I know what Lee and Herring look like now, I know what they looked like ten years ago, I'd seen a few brief images of them from the 90s, but couldn't quite remember how they looked in those images. And it is always fun to play "what did some people whose current appearance is familiar to you look like when they were younger?"

This guy looks almost nothing like Stewart Lee as I know him, but there's just enough for him to be recognizable:

You could show me that picture out of context and I'd say "Oh look, a much younger version of Stewart Lee" (actually I think I'd say "Wow, Stewart Lee's let himself go", because I'm very funny like that).

On the other hand, you could show me this picture completely out of context:

and if you were showing it to me last week, before I'd seen Fist of Fun, I'd have said, "Who the hell is that?" You could have told me it's a younger version of a British comedian, and I'd have guessed at least twenty names before I thought of Richard Herring. It looks nothing at all like him. It may be relevant context here to know that I do have autism-related difficulty recognizing faces, I regularly fail to recognize my own friends after they get a haircut, and it's possible that Richard Herring could cut all his hair off and then film something tomorrow and I'd fail to recognize him because I pretty much recognize Richard Herring by his long hair. But seriously, he looked very different.

I'm now on the tenth episode of this show, and I've only just started getting used to their very different appearances so it doesn't feel so jarring every time I see them. For at least the first four episodes, every single time Stewart Lee appeared on screen, I thought of this one Daniel Kitson quote, addressing the way Kitson and Lee are both considered "comedian's comedians" who eschew mainstream showbiz fame. "Have you seen pictures of [Stewart Lee] when he was my age?" Kitson asked in 2011. "He was fucking beautiful. And he has the temerity to play low status with his own TV show?" Every time Stewart Lee appeared on screen, at least until I started to get used to his appearance, I remembered that Kitson quote and briefly thought, "He's got a point." I mean, I may not be usually that way inclined, gender-wise, but I can recongize that objectively, you could get so lost in those eyes that a search party would never find your body.

- On the subject of their appearances, there are a lot of jokes about how fat Ricahrd Herring is, considering the fact that he wasn't fat. I don't mean that defensively or anything, I just mean if we take "fat" as the value-neutral adjective it is, Richard Herring wasn't. He was maybe only very slightly visibly overweight, but did not weigh nearly enough to make the fat jokes make sense (this being an issue in addition to, you know, the questionable ethics of constant fat jokes on TV).

Maybe it's a win for feminism? Women on TV who aren't dangerously medically underweight are constant subject to jokes about how fat they are. Fist of Fun, doing some solid satire on gender-based double standards by doing the same thing to a man. (I'm joking. It isn't a win for anyone. Sorry Stewart, not everyone can look like a movie star like you do.)

- I’ve been told that Lee and Herring didn’t much like the look of season 2, and I agree with them. I really liked the set on season 1, and didn’t realize how much until they came back with something much more polished, and less good, in season 2. However, the set’s not the main source of the humour, and I thought the jokes were at least as good as season 1, the sketches probably better overall.

- The striking differences in physical appearances aside, I think I was even more struck by how few differences there are in the way they talk and act. I can speak more to Stewart Lee than Richard Herring here, just because I’ve seen a lot more of 21st-Century Stewart Lee than 21st Century Richard Herring, so I have more basis for comparison.

I thought I wouldn’t recognize him at all. Not just physically, but as a comedian. He re-invented himself, right? He spent the 90s doing a double act on TV and radio, then quit comedy for a few years, then came back as a lone wolf who operates outside the showbiz world (despite, as Kitson pointed out, putting out DVDs and occasionally getting his own TV shows), who lampoons the comedy community too much to fit into it and blazes his own unique trail too much to imagine him in a double act, or whatever. I thought it would be a novelty, to see Stewart Lee as the kind of guy he was in the 90s, a totally different person.

If anything, it’s been distracting how much that isn’t true. So often, he’ll do something that will pull me out of immersion in the show, because I’m so struck by how much it reminds me of Stewart Lee The 21st-Century Stand-Up Comedian. Stewart Lee has so many distinctive mannerisms – the way he constructs sentences (That is a distinguishing feature, isn’t it? You can recognize Stewart Lee by the way he ends at least half his sentences with a request that you affirm what he’s just said, doesn’t he?), the speed and cadence of his speech (not a lot of complexity to that one, you can describe it with just the word “slow”), the tone of his voice (sardonic, vaguely passive-aggressive), the way he’ll tilt his head and move his face and whole body back and forth a bit while he’s listening or pausing but will stop and change direction before talking, the smirk that he could almost trademark. All of them are exactly the same no matter what century he’s in. All of them are so strikingly present in Fist of Fun that it distracts me while I watch.

I thought it would be so weird to see him in a double-act dynamic, since his stand-up is so reliant on him being raised above everyone else, but it turns out his double-act dynamic is entirely familiar because it is also reliant on Stewart Lee being raised above everyone else. He bullies Richard Herring in the exact same voice he uses to bully the audience in stand-up. Turns out it’s just as funny to watch Stewart Lee be condescending to Richard Herring in a sketch as it is to watch him be condescending to his viewers in a stand-up routine. I guess he just figured out sometime in the 90s that he does condescending very, very well, and then ran with it for several decades.

I don't know enough about Richard Herring's 21st-Centruy stand-up to compare it to his Fist of Fun character, but I do know that "fairly dim, excitable, gullible, unsuccessful, and the lower status one" doesn't exactly seem off-brand for him.

- It’s mildly adorable that Stewart Lee’s whole thing is being sort of “above it all” in which “it” could be basically anything, but Kevin Eldon can fairly consistently get him to break a little bit, or at least visibly stifle laughter.

- Personally, I don’t find Kevin Eldon’s “Rod Hull” character nearly as funny as Stewart Lee finds it, though to be fair to the comedians involved, I barely know who the real Rod Hull is. The parody is probably funnier if you’re familiar with the source.

- Personally, I find Kevin Eldon’s hobby-obsessed Simon Quinlank character a strong candidate for the funniest fucking thing on the entire show. It reminds me of when I used to read xkcd all the time and the “My Hobby” comics were often my favourite – apparently, coming up with strange things to do and labeling them as “hobbies” taps into a weirdly specific bit of my sense of humour. And Kevin Eldon plays him incredibly well. Played every second of it 100% straight, 100% committed to the bit, it’s perfect. I’d watch a whole spinoff with that guy.

- The self-referential stuff goes through cycles of being too much and not funny, but then the fact that they’ve done so much of it becomes part of the joke and it becomes funny again, and overall across an episode, it always averages out to being funny.

- I can’t go father without mentioning Peter Baynham, also a candidate for funniest thing on the show. And really consistent, I don’t think he had a single weak episode. I mean, he had a lot of horrifying episodes. All of them, in fact. But not weak. I don’t know who’s idea it was to have a gremlin play the third in their double act, but it was a great idea (though he definitely fit better into the set of season 1 than season 2) and he was funny every time he was on screen.

- Another thing they sometimes had in this TV show: women. Those women were sometimes played by Rebecca Front, who’s always fun to see. One time (that I noticed) played by Sue Perkins. Sometimes Ronni Ancona, who once stole the show from everyone else on screen playing a vampire. I thought I spotted Doon Mackichen from Smack the Pony at least a couple of times, but Googling doesn’t confirm that she was in it.

However, on the subject of Smack the Pony, their go-to person for when they needed a female character was Sally Phillips. She was in the show a fair bit in season 1, and even more in season 2. And was always funny. The “type” that she’s good at playing (the she often played on Smack the Pony, anyway) – sort of deceptively demure – fits in really well on this show and always makes me laugh. There's something she does with her eyes when she's playing that type of character, no matter what different situation, where she looks up at people like she's confused, that is really funny and really works with pretty well any sketch they've written.

I was caught off guard the first time she showed up, thinking I didn't know she had anything to do with these people. And then I realized... wait, yes I did know that. Because I've watched the not-very-good (wild waste of the talents of Lou Sanders and Mel Giedroyc) panel show Unforgiveable.

So not to end this post on tawdry gossip or anything, but that clip is fun context for something like:

I’ve just rewatched that Unforgiveable clip, before posting this, and I’m reminded of how Alan Davies got in a rather uncharacteristically cruel dig at Richard Herring with his “using comedian loosely” comment. It mainly seemed cruel, I thought, because Sally Phillips hadn’t yet said Richard Herring’s name, and it was safe to assume she wasn’t going to. Meaning it wouldn’t make much sense if he was going for “lighthearted panel show banter”, since there was no way for the audience to get his joke, if they never heard the guy’s name. He only said it to entertain himself and the other comedians.

...Not to end this post on even tawdrier gossip or anything, but watching season 1 of Fist of Fun, I was struck by how weird it was that there was a whole plotline dedicated to the idea of Richard Herring desperately wanting to date Julia Sawalha, Saffy from Absolutely Fabulous, and the joke was that he’d never be able to do that. Which is weird because Richard Herring did in fact go on to date Julia Sawalha. As, it occurred to me just now as I watched him be a dick for no reason on a panel show, has Alan Davies. Why do I know that piece of tawdry gossip? I don’t know. I promise I did not seek out that information. You read someone’s Wikipedia page, things come up. I'm genuinely sorry.

- I can’t end this post on that. So instead I will say, as evidence that most of the useless information I collect in my brain is not on the subject of what celebrities slept with what other celebrities in or soon after the 90s, the running joke of Stewart Lee constantly talking shit about Somerset made me picture where Somerset is on a map, to have an idea of how far away from London the place they’re mocking is. Which is, by the way, not far. Nothing is ever far away if you see English people on a television show making fun of people from a different bit of England, it’s tiny. They talk like they’re exploiting these big regional differences, but everything is right next to each other. Google says the biggest city in Somerset is Bath and you can get there from London in an hour and a half.

Anyway, I became briefly concerned when it took me a few moments to remember where Somerset is on the map, and then I realized I’ve not tested this in a while, and I worried that I may have forgotten all that geographical stuff I memorized for no reason during lockdowns. So I took the test again, I’m pleased to say, I’ve still got it.

Correctly labelled all counties in England on an unmarked map, under 1:15. Then I checked the others for good measure, and it's okay, I can still do them too:

So that's good. Would be a problem if I'd forgotten any of the useless information. Anyway, I'm going to go watch the last half-season of Fist of Fun.

[radiantlyrey]

Thoughts on Uprising Ep8 “The Reward”

- (pre-viewing note: is this the episode where a program nearly gets drawn and quartered?? I remember this vividly from 10 years ago but it hasn’t popped up yet…..) (note from later: APPARENTLY IT IS!!! OKAY THEN.)

- I haven’t mentioned this yet, but the recaps before each episode are a fucking delight. it’s like a full-on course in double meaning and irony and the delivery is just *chef’s kiss* I know there’s a button to skip the recaps but they’re so fun I usually watch them anyway…….

- cold open: it’s pretty obvious from early on that this is a dream, and I did not realize/remember that programs dreamed! this is useful information for fic-writing, thank you show. the content of the dream itself is a little disturbing, mostly from the way the Renegade is just ragdolling around while Tesler ineffectively tries to fight him. it’s honestly a great way to display Tesler’s insecurities, and very effective at that.

- Tesler has got a good point—they’re wasting too many resources on tracking down the Renegade; they might as well outsource the bulk of the work. his speech in the arena is very effective; Henriksen is a great VA for him, and honestly Tesler is pretty effectively terrifying as the main villain of the series. (nitpick: the “RENEGADE FREE ARGON” sign during Tesler’s speech needs a fricking hyphen after “Renegade.” Though in a delicious twist of irony, the Renegade is trying to free Argon, so without the hyphen there’s a delightful double meaning in there.)

- related to the speech, Tesler wishes the programs of Argon “Happy Hunting” which made me think of Janelle Monae’s song “Violet Stars Happy Hunting!!!” from her first Metropolis album. It is a banger of a song, and it also got me to thinking about whether there are bounty hunters on the Grid at all?? Like, given the Renegade issue in Argon alone, there must be other enemies of the state that Clu wants eliminated, right? (but then that digs into the whole issue of currency on the Grid, which there is no mention of AT ALL and argh) but that’s just my brain running away from me……

- semi B plot with Paige and Pavel (tho I’ll be honest, this ep is all A plot): Paige is doing her job, Pavel is being paranoid, though his paranoia may be slightly justified. also we got Bartik and Hopper hanging around again, and these guys still baffle the fuck out of me, especially Bartik??? But I’ve gone over that like three times now, so I’ll let it lie for now. and it’s absolutely no surprise that Pavel’s being sneaky about things… ugh.

- also the whole neighbor turning on neighbor thing that we see here is… a little disturbing, for a Y7 show??? maybe not, I don’t have a good gauge for these things. it just seems a little reminiscent of some parts of history, to me? I don’t know. (mind you, with the Scars episodes up next, I’ll have plenty to talk about in re: appropriateness for 7 year olds……) (don’t remember much about Scars, but I do remember the fucking TORTURE SCENES)

- meanwhile, it’s nice to see Beck actually hanging out with his friends for once (and also nice that Zed calls him on the fact that he has not been hanging with them very much recently) (ya gotta get a better work-work-life balance there, kiddo) it is nice that Tron deferred to his judgement on what they needed to do about the hunt for the Renegade (and I loved Beck’s “finally he listens to me” reaction….) tho it kind of sucks that their favorite club has turned into an army hangout….

- and then we have a one-scene, one-minute character in Gorn! who fascinates me to no end. apparently memory modifications are possible, but it’s a specialized task that takes a steady hand and a good deal of patience. which Pavel of course lacks. anyway, what a fascinating one-off character; kind of hoping she pops up again at some point…..

- I love that Beck and Paige are approaching this whole “Hopper’s the Renegade!” thing from two completely different angles, both arriving at the same truth (albeit for very different reasons…) Beck’s smooth moves getting in with Link are hilarious, for one, and Paige actually like…. listening to people is cool of her, and another indicator of her complex character.

- and then MARA FUCKS UP REAL BAD HOLY SHIT GIRLLLLLL. Mind you, Tesler’s already in a prickly mood, so it’s no surprise (also considering what he did to Paige’s friends way back when) that he decides to execute Zed and Mara as sympathizers… tho I find it hilarious because literally the previous episode Zed was complaining about how the Renegade is a menace to society, etc. I also like that Mara and Zed are trying to do the right thing even though neither of them like Hopper very much. good on them.

- further notes on the public execution: okay, so it’s more drawing and thirding than drawing and quartering, but nonetheless. (also file under things I’m surprised they got away with putting in a Y7 show…..) love that Beck has a growing history of grand theft auto, what with stealing the roadster from Link to save his friends (and Hopper). the sequence where Beck swoops in to save everyone is really neat, too. that missile gun of Pavel’s was kind of terrifying tho….

- also it is kinda tragic that Beck got to spend time with his friends… but also not. poor kid.

- and re: Zed/Mara - this crush thing between the two of them is going to KILL ME, I swear!!!!!!!! USE YOUR WORDS, KIDS. IT AIN’T THAT HARD!!!!

- all in all: pretty fun episode, though not necessarily a lighter one…..

I may or may not get to Scars (both parts) tonight, we’ll just have to see………….

[charlotteswebbbbb]

What's the vibe? #63

Cannes wrapped up > next interesting festivals in August are Locarno and Venice (where I think we're getting a new Luca Guadanino film).

The Euros start next week. First England game is on the 17th June and they're up against Serbia.

French Open still going strong til the 9th - a women quarter final to check out is Coco Gauff v Ons Jabeur today, right now.

Isamaya x FaceGym collab and cosmetic surgery tourism:

Isamaya Ffrench has releases a gua shua metal accessory in collaboration with FaceGym. This non invasive cosmetic "procedure" if you can call it that, is an example of 1, the rise in this traditional, culture based way of approaching health and 2, related to the want for non invasive techniques.

The former - relating to maybe "decolonial" ways of living - "how did my grandma do this and is it related to today? does it work first of all?" You could also see this strand of thought going into storytelling, unfamiliar territory for some but I think that if Hollywood is obsessed with IP that already exists, that newness is risky for them. Independent wise, the base is built, the curiosity set up in adventurous watchers who love Letterboxd, so could work in that context. (Maybe this is West specific, the rest of the world is obviously going to delve into national myths.)

One of the biggest reasons in the big Korean soft power exploding alongside the fact that the music, food and general culture is big is beauty tourism. Korean skincare exploding has people looking at their "cutting edge" treatments to improve themselves on holiday. A little botox at 1, colour matching at 2.30, great dinner at 5.

Curating and individualism:

This is a funny read - as with many things about culture I never find people go deep enough about anything. I find that when people discuss trend cycles or something they've been in it for a while but now it's just...culture. It's the pouring of 300 bottles of liquor to create the glorious cocktail. They lack - I find it uninteresting

"are we killing culture?" isn't even a real idea or question. Culture will shift, mutate, regroup. I even think because of almost a year of activism, some tactics will be borrowed - it might be of the same speed/faster/underground or aggressively IRL because that's where you find

At the end of the piece, there's this link which was attached to the phrase "find our way back to reality".

IDK - even this doesn't move me - it's very stiff in terms of what to do. Like what do you enjoy? What's your perspective on things? There's consumption but people like enjoyment....which is why they consume? The most interesting writings or stuff is like maybe visiting Cafe Oto. You can observe from outside, hear the muffled sounds, enjoy a chat with a friend, go inside, experience something weird, different, go back out, write down observations, go back in and maybe read a little on stage to the audience and see how they feel about it.

I think now we've gotten near to peak curation, a lot of hidden gems are found and easily accessed - which is great for people, sometimes not great for creators, or businesses that are suddenly overwhelmed unnecessarily.

from above: "Structurally, the Internet is not getting better anytime soon; I have not hidden my pessimism about its future. But human creativity persists, even in hostile conditions. Figures like Gee, Reilly, and Shuherk make me hopeful that fun, interesting niches of activity can still survive online. There’s another word that we might apply to such people: “connoisseurs,” in the art-historical sense of passionate observers who shape a discipline through their judgments. We’ve always had connoisseurs, from the radio d.j. to the bookstore clerk, subtly but vitally informing the culture that the rest of us choose to consume. As Shuherk put it, “The person in the nineties working at Blockbuster—we’re the same person.”

I do think that the backlash to a lot of this in the next few years (or months) is just extreme gatekeeping especially for spaces for more marginalised people. Everyone wants to go to the cool thing but tourism decreases the legitimacy.

We're also in extreme tough economic times - see Black Keys, J-Lo cancelling US tour dates, Melt Festival in Germany stopping after 27 years due to changing festival landscape, (Maybe even Jamie XX doing a 10 night residency at Venue MOT). These examples to say anything smaller than the super established runs at a risk. It's hard to create culture when you can't pay rent but also hard to keep going if your audience extract the uniqueness from your creation.

from above: "An exasperated Dominic Cook, a former director at the Royal Court theatre, last month went so far as to call for renationalising the arts. His point, provocatively framed, was that the current system is broken. The model that worked when he started out in the late 1980s — when generous state funding and box office receipts combined to more or less cover costs — now requires hefty supplemental doses of private funding. "

We deeply need funding bodies to keep culture flowing - whether some new Medicis want to step in or "ethical" funding bodies or the government, we'll be happy nonetheless.

I mean this also doesn't mean that cool things aren't happening in industries such as film. For example something like not/nowhere or other cinemas are giving people the chance to learn new skills and showcase work.

4 the dating data heads:

androgyny dressing: