#he's just a dude who flies a ship!

[swan2swan]

I just remembered the time I bought a Bodhi Rook action figure from the Disney store and it rang up as "Rebel Extremist".

It was...certainly a way to phrase that.

[curator-on-ao3]

I never came back from Among the Lotus Eaters

I see now, in hindsight of SNW season two, that Among the Lotus Eaters was a breaking point for me.

First, that episode needed to transition Batel and Pike from … whatever they were … to a deeper relationship. And what did the episode do?

It hung their issues on not enough time for each other. (How many dinner parties has this man thrown?)

It made Pike a commitment-phobe. (Really? Pike? Y’all sure you meant second season Pike not second season Picard?)

It undercut Pike as a captain as well as his pain dating back to The Cage. (Say, fellas, is it okay to leave your yeoman behind if someone at some point said he looked kinda dead?)

Here’s the thing. I would have bought the episode starting with Batel and Pike having an adult discussion about how they could have hated each other after Una’s arrest and trial but they don’t. They’re still drawn to each other. Then I would have bought Pike’s relationship hesitancy being due to his concerns about his fate — and Una later calling him out on his potential fears for longer-term intimacy when he believes his days are numbered. (And if the show backtracks to make this Pike’s motivation, I’m gonna call bullshit because it should have been there from the start. I’ve seen a thousand stories about commitment-phobes. But a story about a person frightened to hurt someone they might be falling for because of a known timeline to the end? That’s actually interesting.)

Then, I would have bought Pike on the planet holding the necklace and feeling that he had unfinished business — the adult discussion with Batel (as opposed to love that, due to his own fears, hadn’t yet been grounded in the reality of the episode).

Second, the episode has the hero moment of Erica figuring out that she flies the ship. Okay, putting aside that other people can and do fly the ship (ahem, Una), this was an incredible opportunity for Erica to have a totem to remind her of why she cares about flying, not just that she does it. Give us a goddamn model airplane or a book about birds or an action figure of Erika Hernandez — something. Anything. Let us get to know Erica better. This missed opportunity stings.

Third, the trauma repetition was painful. The guy on the planet lost his whole family? Dude, he’s the three-way pointing Spider-Man meme with two members of the away team — M’Benga and La’an. What are the odds of all three of them having the same trauma (and not discussing it)? I don’t know, but it was lazy as shit. (Note: Uhura has the same trauma. Una might, per her service record. Enough already.) Make that guy the former king and he’s somehow responsible for the memory loss rock landing and plaguing the planet. Make him a doctor who saved Zac’s life and therefore plunged the planet into tyrannical rule. Again — something. Anything. Just make it unique instead of repetitive. (And if he had saved Zac’s life by some extreme means, that could even possibly excuse Pike for breaking the essential promise of Starfleet by leaving a crewmember behind.)

There’s more. There’s so much more. There should have been a line, at least, about Una being affected by the radiation when her body could clear radiation before. There should have been recognition that Pike was going down to the planet underprepared — again — by cutting the number of people on the away team. There should have been console warnings flashing that, I don’t know, the warp core was in danger since no one in engineering knew who they were or how to do their jobs.

This episode began the season’s beats of Pike being a crummy captain and a crummy boyfriend. It continued the trend of underutilizing Erica, even when she’s there. It forgot the show’s own internal realities. And I am big mad about that because this clutch point of an episode could have been different. It could have been better.

[castieldelamancha]

"C'mon Cas! I've told you a million times,"

"Dean" he tries to interrupt Dean's speech, to not avail.

"I really don't like the whole zapping thing and-" finally it seems to register where they are because Dean stops talking and lets out a, very manly if you asked him, screech instead, "what the fuck, Cas?!" He closes his eyes tightly, and Castiel sighs, reaching out to put a hand over Dean's knee, he marvells at the way the simple touch makes the tension in Dean's muscle start to slowly ebb away from them. It takes Castiel's breath away, even if he doesn't need to breathe, this intimacy and trust.

He still keeps his eyes closed, which makes Castiel shake his head fondly at him, "Dean, I won't ever let anything happen to you, you know that."

Dean takes a deep breath, then comes a muttered "yeah." He puts his own hand over the one Castiel has on his knee.

Dean opens his eyes and looks around, gasping loudly, Castiel looks down at the long line of dots formed by the distant car lights as people make their way back home for the day, the air is cold up here where they are sitting side by side looking down at the bridge from one of its colossal towers, so he takes off his trench coat and passes it to Dean who doesn't say anything but takes it with a light blush on his cheeks, probably due to the cold.

Dean puts the coat on, wrapping it close around himself and, when Castiel isn't looking, he presses his face to the lapel, breathing in deeply. 

"I thought we both needed a break." 

"Huh," Dean looks up at the night sky, "I usually go to some bar for a beer when I need a break, but this is so much better." He looks down once more, tensing slightly at the impressive distance between the road below them and their seat, "it all looks so tiny from here." The people and their vehicles, and even them compared to the structure they are on and the vastness of the sky above. Their troubles and worries.

"It does, humanity will never cease to amaze me, you keep coming up with such clever solutions to all your problems, your collective work has gotten you so far." 

Dean hums along his agreement, still looking around them, Castiel doesn't think Dean, or many other humans nor angels for the matter, have seen what they are seeing now, so he lets him be, soak it all in, sharing a comfortable silence that wraps around then with a safety and warmth quite similar to the ones Castiel's coat is offering Dean right now.

Time flies by as they sit there, pressed together as they unconsciously move closer as the hours pass by, both of them pointing at things so the other can see them.

"There is a ship, right there, it's headed this way."

"Dude, Cas, not all of us have a grace powered laser focus vision, I can't see that shit from here."

Too soon for their liking it's time to go back, to their motel room in the other side of the country, to their research, to their end of the world.

"Thanks, Cas." Dean says, with a gentle tone, he reaches out and wraps his arm around Cas' shoulders pulling him closer in a one-armed hug that has the heart of Castiel's vessel doing strange somersaults inside his chest, "for everything, really, for the break and for, well," he stammers,"for being here."

Castiel nods once, slowly, solemnly, "I am glad you enjoyed it." 

"Yeah, man, totally worth the week 'm gonna spend without going to the bathroom." Dean laughs.

Castiel rolls his eyes at him, and, feeling bold, instead of pressing two fingers to Dean's forehead, as usual, he turns to fully face Dean and cradles the side of his face.

In just a blink they are back at the motel room, Sam snoring lightly the other bed on the room, Dean and Cas sitting on Dean's bed, Cas' hand still cupping his cheek.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s2 ep13: Prototype

A B'Elanna episode, finally! And this one is a good one. B'Elanna gets to show off her softer, nerdier side in this one, when she geeks out over finding a cool robot in space and tries to figure out how to fix it.

The teaser, starting out with a black and white fish eye lens, seeing Voyager from the unseen robot's point of view, is very cool and different. And we start right out with a delightful scene of B'Elanna and Harry being science buddies!! They tease each other!! She calls him Starfleet!! I love!!!

I feel like they presented the robot a little too ominously in some scenes for us to not see a twist coming somewhere, and it does make B'Elanna come off a little more naive than I think she would be. I would also have liked to have had some sort of explanation for why B'Elanna is invested in this robot so much, like just throw in a line where she explains she used to build robots in school or something. But I love how we get to see B'Elanna become this idealistic, excited kid in a candy store when she's in her safe happy place of figuring out an engineering problem just for fun. She's a kind person at heart, and when she doesn't have evidence one way or another, she chooses the optimistic view that the robot is good and deserving of help, which is a lovely side to her character that often gets overlooked. She's just luminous when she's happy, and I love that for her here.

I also love how even though she disagrees with the Captain's decision to bar her from helping the robot create more robots, she accepts it completely, and doesn't even think of disobeying her orders. She really took the lesson from what happened when she last disobeyed an order to heart, and she respects the Captain too much to hurt her by doing it again. That's character growth, baby!

Things take a turn when the robot ends up kidnapping her to force her to make a protoype for more robots. She does it to protect Voyager from being destroyed by the robot ship, but she can't help being swept up in the excitement of figuring it out, which we as the audience do too, until she finally creates one that works, and then the Frankenstein parallels are horrifyingly obvious. The moment when she finds out what she's actually done is a great horror reveal moment, and her turning point in the story; she learns the lesson all scientists need to learn one way or another: that just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should, and that the real-world consequences of scientific discoveries outweigh whatever good intentions their creator might have had. B'Elanna is unequivically on the side of protecting others from harm, and chooses to destroy her creation rather than let it be used to kill. It's a great character moment for her, because it illustrates that she isn't angry and combative sometimes because she's Klingon, she's angry because at heart she's a good person who believes that all people are valuable and important, and she can't stand it when anyone disregards that.

Neelix also gets a nice little scene here, and Tom gets a hero moment when he flies a shuttle through a robot space battle to rescue B'Elanna. (Though what was up with Chakotay being so bitchy to him about it? Tom is volunteering to fly thru enemy fire to rescue your friend, dude! And you're insulting his flying ability by implying that they'll lose the shuttle if he does, and implying that losing a shuttle would be worse than losing him? Wtf Chakotay? Maybe it's meant to illustrate that Chakotay's still upset by the whole Seska thing, but it just felt weird and random.) Janeway and B'Elanna have a lovely talk when she gets back home, and it's a nice little moment of commiseration between two scientists who want to explore and believe in all the possibilities science can offer, while still having to acknowledge that sometimes it can lead down disastrous paths if that curiosity is left unchecked and untempered by caution.

Tl;dr: A great character piece for B'Elanna. Well done, with lots of good bits.

[shipposttt]

Ship Of The Day: Steddie

Characters Names: Steve Harrington and Eddie Munson

Ship Name: Steddie

Original Content: Stranger Things (season 4 specifically)

Info about the ship:

Stranger things are happening.

Steddie came about after the 4th season of Stranger Things after the introduction of Eddie "The Freak" Munson who was the leader of the Hellfire Club (a DnD group at the school). This was a completely different vibe to Steve Harrington who was quite popular, played basketball and was loved by the ladies for his iconic hairstyle.

The two’s first encounter with each other was when Vencna’s curse first hit Hawkins and Eddie was wanted for the murder of Chrissy Van Dien (one of Vencna's victims). After Steve and few of the gang get to Rick’s place where Eddie is supposedly hiding, they call out for him. He suddenly jumps up from under a boat cover and tackles Steve while holding a broken bottle to his throat (angst). After Dustin explains they’re not here to hurt him and do not believe what the media and police are saying, he lets Steve go.  

After this, the pair start to hang out a little more, giving little waves when they meet up (in the episode dubbed The Monster and The Superhero) which some fans viewed as the pair just being shy around each other and this being them flirting.  

After the massacre at Hawkings Lab the two have a deeper conversation, and probably the longest they have in the series. Steve goes up to thank Eddie after he saved him from a few bats that started attacking him. After he said thanks, Eddie replied that it was him that saved himself by pulling a ‘real Ozzy’ and having to explain what this meant after Steve looked confused. After realizing he just wasn't getting it he refrases it to him being ‘pretty mental’. He goes to explain how Dustin always insisted Steve was pretty cool and badass and that he worshiped him, and how it was a little bit annoying to which he confesses how: 

“couldn't accept the fact that Steve Harrington was actually a good dude. Rich parents, popular, chicks love him. Not a douche? No way, man. No way. That, like, flies in the face of all the laws in the universe and my own personal Munson doctrine.” 

After this he gets fairly close to Steve and admits (jokingly) that he was jealous. He then goes on to say all this was why he would not jump into the lake to save him and that it took the girls jumping for him to go in as well. He then says how Nancy (his ex-girlfriend) did not even hesitate to jump in and how Steve should get him back. Eddie then throws Steve his vest ‘For modesty’.  

The two’s main connection is Dustin (who is a younger student who the two both look after during season 4 of stranger things) which leads to fans viewing them as ‘co-parents’. And after Dustin accuses Steve of being jealous of the fact that Eddie is a new ‘older figure’ in his life that the two constantly fight over who the favorite parent is. This then lead to people shipping them just because the two share the same sort of parental protection over the boy. 

Many fans also argue that Eddie tries to get Steve back together with Nancy in order to protect his own feelings due to Eddie beliving the other male still harbours feelings for the female. And that his love was unrequited, so he pushes Steve away and makes it so that no matter what he can’t have him. Same fans also belive that Nancy jumping into the lake was due to the constant guilt she feels for letting her former best friend Bard die in season 1, who also died in a pool after she was transported into the upsdie down. Some more perspective fans also noticed Steve looking at Eddies lips during this scene, meaning that the male might have actually wanted to kiss Eddie before he uttered the words about Nancy, which them caused him to belive Eddie did not like him if he was trying to push him towards the female.  

When Eddie threw his vest at Steve, many saw it as him being protective, not wanting anyone else to see Steve any longer than they had to with no shirt on. They also view it as very boyfriend behavior, exchanging clothes ect.  

In another scene we see Eddie hotwire a car, Steve questioning how he did this. After a brief mention of his dad he then ends the conversation about the topic quickly as he says he will never end up like him. When Eddie begins to start the car and Robin questions if they should be letting him, Eddie reassures the female and says ‘Harringtons got her’ finishing with a ‘Don’t ya big boy’ which many fans went wild for. Even the Netflix tiktok for South Africa page said how this quote was ‘burned into their soul’, which could be a hint of the possible couple.  

One of their final scenes together involves when they all go into the upside down when both of them enter parental mode and tell Dustin that if things go South, he needs to leave immediately. When Steve walks away, Eddie suddenly stops him and tells him to make Vecna pay. To many, this was his way of saying ‘come back safe’, suggesting he has feelings of some sort for him.

Type of Ship: Queer read and possible Queer baiting if you squint

The two sadly (for some fans) do not end together and there does not seem to be any sort of possibility for them getting together due to Eddie’s sudden death at the end of the season. Many people were upset over this and turned to AO3 and created alternative realities where he survived, ended up as a member of the official gang (the older group more) and many of the fanfics explored a possible relationship with Steve. Many people did headcanons of the two with Eddie being Gay and Steve being Bi, but none of this is confirmed in the show and is just showed through these fanfictions.Meaning it is just a Queer read in many instances 

But if you squint you might see a tad bit of Queer Baiting if we reference the tiktok account with interviews with Joeseph Quinn such as this one: 

Interviewer – “You’ve said in a previous interview that you think community is the most rewarding part of being an actor. For Stranger Things, a lot of your scenes were done in an ensemble especially toward the end of Volume One. Is there a scene that you think reflected your friendship with the cast the best, or one that was most enjoyable to film?” 

Joeseph Quinn – “There was a sequence we shot in an enormous water tank, which was brilliant. It was massive, with blue screens everywhere to make it look like Lovers Lake. I got to see Joe Keery with his kit off for a week – perks of the job.” 

Interviewer – “There was also a lot of love for Eddie and Steve's bromance. Some even wanted it to be a romance. I don't know if you saw any of that online. Did you?” 

Joseph Quinn – “Yeah, well, all I can say is... how did they know?” 

Interviewer – “It’s all subtext.” 

Joseph Quinn – “Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, just… people can dream, I guess. I dunno! I don't really know what to say to that.” 

Interviewer – “I guess in another world, maybe that would have played out in Stranger Things 5.” 

Joseph Quinn – “Maybe! Maybe, maybe, maybe? Yeah.” 

For those who had not seen season 4 yet, interviews like this might have made them believe in a possible romance between the two resulting in Queer baiting.  

Admin, 🦒

[sol-consort]

btw have you noticed when javik talks about how much better prothean cuisine is, he lists out multiple races used as food EXCEPT human https://youtu.be/UCzcFDK9ls8?si=WaaQjQ0ZDQG751ln&t=4532 1:15:32 timestamp bee tee double u

I HAVE NOTICED IT. like damn not using us as food despite our bodies having more meat and fat than the other races? That's literally the sweetest thing protheons have done when you compare it to their normal actions. Like they used to eat that hanar who eventually worshipped them but us? The adorable humans? Nah we got a pass and protheons kept obsevering us from Mars instead, occasionally borrowing a human to read them with a single touch, pet their hair then return them to earth.

Not only that, but he doesn't insult us at all! While saying this, I realised how much to outisder it would sound like we are in an abusive relationship with Javik, but nah dw dw he is just like that. Anyway so his only insult for humans is when he calls us primitives while including us with the other species, or when Brooks betrays us and he says typical human behaviour, BUT THAT'S SUBJECTIVELY NOT AN INSULT.

Meanwhile, he keeps digging at the asari for not figuring out writing sooner for having their advancements and biotics handed to them by the protheons. He keeps saying how the salarians used to lick their own eyeballs and eat flies, but he never mentions our embarrassing moments in the caves, not how embarrassingly long it took us to discover farming or tame horses. He spares us the scolding.

Like even the fact we can influence him as Shepard. A whole protheon only allows the human to change his opinion because he likes our species? We can encourage him to view the memory shard or tell him not to, we can nudge him to be softer with Liara, and he actually listens.

In the citadel DLC party, he only ever asks the humans if he can touch them while he is drunk. In the next morning hangover, he only ever talks bad about the asari. That dude is desperately pspspsing at us in his own protheon way, hoping we'd spare him a glance. Somehow, it's like only the humans remain the same comfortingly familiar race while all the other species changed beyond recognition for him.

That's why he sticks by our side. That's why he is so open to Shepard's questions and addresses you as commander the second he boards your ship. So many things changed in the universe he used to know, but somehow, the humans managed to protect the sparkling light in their eyes amidst the storms. He is relieved that we still cuddle and play hard to get with emotions as if he can't just read us with a single finger, he is glad we haven't lost our curiosity or adorable stubborn ego and pride that makes him feel proud to see us use.

If the humans weren't there, he would've been much more hostile and less willing to cooperate. Seeing how each race is looking out for their own and repeating the mistakes of the past. Without the infectious human hope, then Javik would've fallen to despair and faced the reapers alone as a last attempt of a dignified death.

[nobodysdaydreams]

ALL ABOARD TO TRUTH TOWN🚂 , WHERE FICTIONAL STORIES ABOUT SHINY BUTTONS, DONUTS, AND ROBOT UPRISINGS ARE MORE FUN THAN CUTTER'S STUPID SLOW CLAPS, HERA ALMOST DYING (she BETTER not), AND DOUG'S JAIL TIME AND ALCOHOLISM THAT I TOTALLY PREDICTED (good for me 🥰) (or my reaction to episodes 38-40 of Wolf359)

Also: Whiskey boy needs to chill, seriously. Are we sure Doug is the one with the problem?

Welcome back dear readers. Thanks again for your patience. Excited to continue with my season 3 reactions!

Tagging the mutuals who got me invested in this, and if you want to be tagged or untagged from these posts, lmk, or you can follow my blog or simply follow the tag "#bods wolf359 reactions". Anyone who has followed me for a while knows my updates are inconsistent, so I apologize in advance for that and for any spelling/grammar mistakes in my posts.

@sophieswundergarten @oflightningandstars @acollectionofcuriousreblogs @herawell @commsroom

Episode 38: Happy Endings

I'm gonna be doing chores while I listen to these three episodes, so sorry if the notes get a bit brief.

This Hilbert and Doug morality debate is funny because it's literally one actor debating with himself.

I'm sad Hera can't be a part of the group.

"2am"? How is it 2am? You're...you're not on earth. I understand keeping up with a schedule, but it's still a little weird, what time zone are they following?

The way Hilbert talks about Sam... it's like he has this shred of humanity left inside him that he's just gotten used to ignoring.

And Hilbert, I have a clear answer to your little "trolley problem": the decima virus is CUTTER'S property. He put that in your contract, or have you forgotten? Do you seriously think that man will be using it for the good of humanity? Because I don't.

I also feel like the "No one gets a happy ending/ there are no happy endings" think is foreshadowing. But I hope I am wrong.

"This wasn't here last time"

IS THIS THAT WEIRD DOOR???? FINALLY! Bah-ha just shove him in! At least it’s not the airlock which is what I was expecting.

Hm. Do not like the dark. Uh what. Also. Isn’t he supposed to be alone? Totally alone? And shouldn’t it be an emergency?

Dentist chair from hell? Nope. Don’t like it.

Recorded message? Oh gosh not the slow claps…Cutter no doubt. Of course he does a dramatic dark room, and the lights go up on an evil chair...he was one of those kids in school who at recess would find insects and torture them for fun, wasn't he?

Easter egg? Cutter, this is the worst easter themed scavenger hunt I've ever heard of. Where are the chocolate bunnies? The jellybeans? The message of hope, love, and rebirth? But I suppose I should expect nothing else from the man who ordered the killing of three people on Christmas. Makes you wonder what Cutter has against holidays. Did mommy and daddy not give someone enough presents?

“The other crew has... gone away like last time” Cutter you suck. Seriously his villain mode does not have an off switch.

What does Cutter want with his brain? An old friend made this for him?? Is it the dude he killed or is it the Pryce person he wrote the book with? Makes me wonder where his mysterious friend is hiding. In the shadows at Cutter's right hand or six feet underground with a knife in the back? Not sure which is worse. I guess we'll see.

THEY CAN SCAN HIS BRAIN AND GET THAT KIND OF INFO? That...but...I...as someone who knows slightly more than average about how the brain works, Cutter needs to learn how to make better use of his tech. I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how much better his evil plans would go, if he focused on THAT instead of...oh I don't know...investing his money into elaborate dark rooms with evil dentist chairs and slow clap videos?

Also "Hera can't detect these secret rooms" HOW. HOW CAN SHE NOT THAT'S AN AWFUL IDEA: She flies the ship, she has to calculate for its size. It's science fiction, so let me be 100% clear, I'm not dumping on the creators or writers, I'm dumping on Cutter the character. You idiot.

Oh he’s just leaving him in space. Oh...Hilbert will come around in the hopes that he’ll use decima to help people. That's cruel. “Thanks for all the memories” Cutter. DUDE. Too much.

Do not give him your memories. Do not Hilbert.

Haha… hee hee… why is he laughing?

Brilliant? Chance for work to continue? NO. HILBERT YOU DUM-DUM. THEY ARE NOT GOING TO USE IT FOR GOOD. CUTTER WILL NOT USE IT FOR GOOD. BECAUSE HE IS NOT A GOOD MAN. The reason you shouldn't do this has nothing to do with sacrifices for the great good...it's that the greater good IS NOT GUARANTEED AND LIKELY DOESN'T EXIST BASED ON CUTTER'S BEHAVIOR!

Don’t call her Isabel. You are in the wrong here Hilbert. And there is a very clear difference between what she is doing and what you are doing. She knows better than to count on a killer for benevolence.

Good. Smart. Don’t get in the chair. It would probably slice off your head or something.

Something about Eiffel? Minkowski… Doug is your friend. Just because he served time doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy.

Well Lovelace and Hilbert...it's an unusual alliance. Hope it works out.

Episode 39: All Things Considered

"It's a bottle…"

👎🙅‍♂️🤬❌ WRONG!

Oh it's the Whiskey isn't it.

Wrong! Cancelled! 🤬👎🙅‍♂️❌

Oh my gosh Kepler shut up.

Of course duck boy knows the boss’s drinks. Teacher's pet.

“YOU VILLAGE IDIOTS!…🤬... but points to you Jacobi 😏🥰👍" okay… clearly discount Cutter has his own discount Kepler.

oh I love these stories. Why do I feel like Minkowski's is gonna be the most realistic. Like, I can see Doug making lightsaber noises, and I can see Jacobi being a little arrogant. Just...maybe a little exaggerated.

Oh my gosh Jacobi's story. 😂😂😂 The way he's portraying Doug is way too much.

“But the button is so shiny! 🥺” PFFT- the way Jacobi portrays Doug... I'm sorry for laughing but it's too funny😂

He’s doing Minkowski dirty. Why is he making her talk like a valley girl?

“I’m sorry Jacobi you were right!” / “I’m just gonna lean against this big red button!”

Duck boy who do you think you’re fooling with this one 😂

I cannot wait for Doug's story.

Yes, Doug I am ready for the truth. I am so ready. I AM READY!

I love Hera’s announcement: "Uh...yeah some stuff is happening today for sure"

“The innocent victim stepped in to help” why is Doug me telling a story.

“We’ve never high-fived!” “We’re headed to truth town!”

Heck yeah we are! All aboard to truth town Doug, this is the best story yet!

Why are they like fighting elementary school children? I love this. Dang Doug is roasting them!

“Oh thank goodness Doug you saved us 🥰”

"Minkowski decked him!" "I did not!" "Duck boy passed out" "I did not!" "But then Hilbert came. Russian's are drawn to loud noises and he wanted to experiment on Jacobi's brain."

Doug, if you made a fictional podcast about your time in space I would listen to it. It sounds amazing.

Why is Minkowski doing a different accent now? WHY IS HERA THE VILLAIN SUDDENLY DOING A ROBOT UPRISING? 😂

"Is there any truth to your story?" Um...yeah? I'm pretty sure there were donuts in multiple stories Kelper 🙄

"But... but truth town! 🥺"

I agree. Doug was taking them straight to truth town and Whiskey boy shut down the railways. All because discount Cutter can't handle the truth. Big surprise.

“As I've mentioned...I like the feel of it IN MY HAND 😡”

Geez man okay.

And Doug's story was not a time waste. It was delightful. Just because discount Cutter is evil doesn't mean he has to be the fun police.

“Until your idiocy stretches all the way around back to half-way competent” dang I really am like Doug. 😔

Episode 40: Limbo

"Lob of meat" well you don't have to say it like that Hera.

"I can't think of a single way to prank everyone else" Doug. Jacobi is afraid of ducks. You are sitting on a gold mine.

Ugh this is awful because I can't tell if Hera's compliance with Maxwell is programmed or not! It's so scary that her free will can just be...programmed out.

Maxwell. Why are you interrogating her? Hera. Do not turn on your friends. Maxwell. You BETTER be trying to help.

I'm very worried about Hera. Is Kepler going to shut her down?

Good on you Hera. She deserves to know the truth.

...oh no.

Maybe I'm misremembering this, but was it Maxwell or Lovelace who said "if only Hera knew the truth" a few episodes back? I'm really suspicious about how Cutter and co. treat the AIs and what they want with them.

Hera. Talk to Doug about it. Just let him know you're scared. He'll be there for you.

Hera please let your friends help you. Please let them help you. AND LEAVE HERA ALONE STOP OVERWHELMING HER! She clearly has...whatever the AI equivalent of anxiety is.

I feel so bad for Hera. I swear. Whatever Cutter has planned for her...he will pay for this.

Hera offline? NOOOOOO...

Maxwell you kinda got in her head.

But everyone has problems. And Hera is more than a robot computer. She's a friend. You can't just shut her down!

I KNEW IT. A panic attack. She has anxiety 🥺. Poor Hera.

What's dummy program? Would they destroy Hera's freewill? Neanderthal version of AI? No. Maxwell no. You don't get it. Hera is a friend. Oh they don't get it. They think it's a companion to her, not a replacement for her.

DO NOT DO IT. THANK YOU DOUG! YES! THANK YOU DOUG!

I need Whiskey Boy to drown in his own whiskey. And I need Hera to be okay. You can't do this to me. You already took Blessie you monsters. YOU ALREADY TOOK BLESSIE!

Maxwell stand up to discount Cutter! "Don't forget what she is Maxwell. She went rogue and tried to escape. There's a reasons she's up here. She's expendable. Make sure that doesn't become you." YOU better make sure it's not YOU whiskey boy. Hera just wanted freedom! She didn't ask to be born!

Minkowski just tell him. Please tell him.

Yikes.

Minkowski don't make him go through this. Please stop.

Kidnapping isn't the worst part? That's...this doesn't sound like a fun story. This doesn't sound like a trip to truth town.

Right. His daughter. Baby Ann 🥺

Doug would make a good dad. Oh no. I predict that he had drug and alcohol issues!!! Oh he gets clean. Good for him. Oh no... Doug...relapse is bad.

Oh he loses Ann. HE KIDNAPS HER? Doug bad idea. People get put away for stuff like that.

NO HE CRASHED INTO SOME TEENS. ...Model UN president in a wheelchair?

The way he says "I was fine...the driver's always fine..." yikes. He made her deaf? He hasn't seen her since? How old was she?

Hera needs to be okay. And I'm sorry if they have the tech for sentient AI, decima viruses, space travel, and who knows what else, that weird brain transmitting machine, then deafness should be totally curable by now, Cutter's just hogging the tech to himself like a psychopath. I hate him. I hate him so much. Cutter is the worst. I hope HE loses his senses. Almost all his senses. Except for pain. That's the only one he deserves to keep.

I hope Maxwell can save Hera. She has to! Hera can't die now. We already went through that, and she deserves to be happy.

But I do get the feeling that might not happen. For anyone.

You know, as I go back and edit this, I gotta say, in some ways Kepler is like an evil version of Doug. They both clearly like alcohol and substances (Kepler's "I like the feel of it in my hand" and Doug's "I just want to hold the cigarette"), but Doug wants to get better while Kepler clearly doesn't. "You're like this Whiskey see? I'd be sad without it but I'd be okay." And then he risks the life of his crew for it. You sure you don't have a bit of problem Whiskey boy? 👀

And that's all folks! Thanks dear readers for coming along on my journey. Sorry for the delays in reactions. Life gets busy, but I try to do at least once a week for you guys.

[acourtofthought]

I am 95% certain that Elucien and Gwynriel will eventually be endgame. But that OTHER ship. Man, do they twist canon around so painfully. It’s just blatantly incorrect. They pointed out the scene where Madja said that if something’s amiss then a mate would know and paired it with Azriel realizing that she’s a Seer. Realizing someone’s powers does not equal realizing something is wrong with the person. Lucien and everyone else knew that Elain was not doing great and that something was going on. Lucien cared more for Elain’s well being and knew that she needed some air, needed to get out. All his actions pointed to putting Elain’s needs first. Meanwhile the other dude just said she doesn’t need anything, giving a name to her powers does not mean he’s the one who realizes something was “amiss” that’s like suggesting that her being a Seer is the problem. Meanwhile, Lucien knew that the amiss part was not whatever power she got, it was more about how she was feeling. So it’s clear on who really got insight into what Elain truly needs and was truly feeling. The former is an over protective borderline repressive dynamic there but with Lucien it’s addressing the problem and allowing room and opportunity for Elain to heal.

Also, they cannot go around claiming and theorizing that Az and Elain are the true mates or could be mates and use it as a reason for shipping them and then hate on Eluciens for using the same reason except it’s actual canon. Make it make sense.

Please restore my faith in this fandom.

This is a debate I will continue to stand my ground on.

If I said to you, "what's wrong with Feyre?" at the start of ACOMAF, the answer would be "she's suffering from trauma and depression after what happened UTM and when she had to kill the two Fae". The answer would not be, "well she is super strong and left marks in the table, that's what's wrong with her". When someone demonstrates powers, it's not a "what's wrong with them?" situation. It's a "well what do we have here? This is interesting" type of thing.

Yes, Elain's powers were manifesting in a way that was confusing everyone but they were still a gift. There's nothing wrong with her in terms of her having a power which is why Lucien couldn't sense anything amiss beyond her lack of eating, depression, etc.

The fact that Az identifying the title of her powers ends up being romantically coded by some is so odd to me.

Let's break down everything that happened before then:

Elain has been in the HOW for at least a month, maybe more since she was Made.

When Feyre arrives, we find out Elain isn't sleeping, eating or drinking. She hasn't left her room.

Rhys tells Lucien that "“Elain has been cared for. Her participation in life here has been entirely her choice. No one but us and a few trusted servants have entered the House of Wind.” That means that he, Cassian, and Az were all permitted near Elain during those weeks / months. Regardless of Az's allowed proximity, Elain still has not slept, eaten, drank, or left her room.

Lucien arrives at the HOW, is devestated to see the condition Elain is in (can anyone provide me evidence of Az being upset over Elains condition?) and within a day or two, Elain leaves her room for the first time.

For the first time, Elain's eyes begin to focus when looking at Lucien.

Lucien tells Feyre that what Elain needs is to get outside. That she needs fresh air, to be taken to the sea, a garden.

Half an hour later, at Feyre's request, Az flies Elain down to the townhouse and "smiles faintly" when he asks if she'd like to see the garden. Sorry but I will never be convinced that this was Az's idea. He asked her half an hour after Lucien suggested it and after Feyre spoke to Rhys about everything. He "smiled faintly" which indicates he's not totally excited about it and sounds more like it someone else told him to do it.

Elain starts sleeping again. After Lucien's arrival and suggestion of getting her outside.

She has a vision and FEYRE ASKS AZ "WHAT DOES THAT MEAN"

Lucien suggests a Healer look over her. I just want to point out that nothing Az has done thus far was his own idea. Everything he has done for Elain was at the request of others.

The healer says she can find nothing wrong with Elain, that she is just changed but suggests Lucien see if anything is amiss.

Lucien doesn't have a ton of time to reach out to Elain through the bond because the second he tugs on it, Nesta all but threatens him which causes Elain to go stand by Nesta's side, ending what he was attempting. However during that time he also does not note anything being wrong with Elain (again, a power is not something that is wrong). But we do see Elain drinking which again, puts her in a better place than she was before Luciens arrival (when Az was near those first weeks, she wasn't eating, drinking, or sleeping - only with Lucien's presence did she start doing them again).

FEYRE OFFERS TO TAKE ELAIN TO THE GARDEN TO SEE THE HERBS SHE PLANTED but Az offers to help her instead.

Then Az finally realizes a few days later that Elain is a Seer.

Someone honestly wants to argue that Az demonstrated Mate like behaviors toward Elain? Nothing he did when Elain was at her lowest was instinctual. Everything he did for Elain was at the prompt of someone else and he just followed through with their request or piggy backed off their idea. Sorry but Feyre showed more Mate like behavior towards Elain than Az did.

It honestly reads to me that Az was a bit indifferent towards Elain until Feyre basically put Elain in his path (when Lucien was the one who came up with the actual ideas in the first place). Then suddenly Az took note of this poor helpless damsel who he got to feel important with because she was in a time of need.

Yes he figured out that she was a Seer but so what? Seriously, it's a power. Not something that makes Elain who she is, who she was. It's a gift that Az, with his many resources (and after Feyre all but requested he look into) was able to name.

Sorry but if you put two men in front of me and one was able to guess my job title based on clues while the other was able to sense my needs and desires (Lucien blushing at what he found through the bond), which one seems more romantic and soul mate like?

Hopefully that helped to restore your faith just a little! ❤️

P. S. I love your borderline repressive dynamic comment because that is so accurate with how Az and Elain are, especially in SF.

[doodles-with-noodles]

*I show up at your doorstep in the middle of the night, wearing a suit absolutely covered in bees.*

I am here to reach out about a recent interview.

Would fight someone over a minor inconvenience?

Who would you like to hug?

Do you have any other ship names besides Jeanemies to jovers (My beloved)?

How do they feel about death?

Which of the stories did you first come up with?

Who has the healthiest diet?

So what's everyone's actual space jobs now'

Character that likes swimming the most.

Someone who has been on a hike and sworn to never do it again.

Did Cecil learn for going on the space station or did he just get rich kid privilege?

*As you look up from the paper, you realize that the bees aren't only outside but also inside of the jacket. I am made completely of bees. Bzzzzz bzzz bzzzzzzz.

*Flies away*

The hell dude I was sleeping (lying)

Umm I’m not sure? I think Morris.

2. That question already came up once but I’d like to hug Jules specifically and a group hug with the Icarus crew.

3. I don’t have shipnames, but I do have some ships! Jules and Malik have something going (they’re absolutely adorable), we have Mathildis and Treeve the disasters, Norna who I think has a girlfriend (not really mentioned), Lachlan who is probably a divorced simp (does that count), and Cian and Vera, who are the ultimate „we call eachother out on our bullshit“ power couple.

4. Most characters are terrified of it. Jules is angry about it. So angry she tries to defy it. Mathildis sees it as a necessity and doesn’t care that much at times (and survives and has to learn to live again). Treeve is fascinated by it. The crew are afraid but if the others were to survive, they would sacrifice themselves. Morris and Lachlan have the usual fear stance on it, Cian on the other hand sometimes thinks about dying but keeps on going like a desperate animal, unable to escape its instincts.

5. The Museum Archives- they have survived the longest in their original form.

6. The Icarus crew. They mostly all eat the same stuff and have a good schedule.

7. Maura= commander, part-time botanist (they’d all get scurvy wouldn’t they be growing plants), Roscoe= second in command and flight surgeon, also checks on the crew’s mental health, Anthony= pilot and flight engineer, Ed= computer scientist, Cecil= physicist, Norna= engineer.

Norna and Cecil were also trained pretty extensively for the EVAs to be the ones to inspect Icarus 1. (The two other probes send signals which are received by the Icarus 8-B so there’s no real spacewalk needed)

8. I’d say Anthony. He probably misses it in space.

9. Mathildis. He just sometimes forgets that he has to do stuff like sleep, eat or hydrate (basically survive) so a hike would probably make him feel pretty bad.

10. Correction: it’s a ship. Also it’s an official mission- there is no rich kid privilege there, luckily. He worked pretty hard for this because u need a degree to go to space, probably because he was passionate about it and didn’t want to continue whatever family bullshit there is.

The only thing that would have prevented him from going was the psych exam that somebody botched. Like, he’s perfectly capable of going to space but mental-health-wise he shouldn’t be there. At all. The mission is also pretty important- going so close to the sun, retrieving years worth of data and giving closure to the family of the Icarus 1 crew.

[tickle-page]

“How long can ya last?”

A/N: Ok… but tickling should’ve been a challenge. Yes I ship Noah and Cody. (I am not proof reading allat).

⚠️: Some footer tickles

Summary: Chris thought of something that’ll make people drop like flies. One that’ll cure his ler mood, and pretty sure people are growing suspicious of it.

********

“We’re gonna have each team see how some of their players will last getting tickled…” Chris announced, cutting to the chase.

“Pfft, tickling? What does he have, some type of fetish?” Duncan scoffed, making his team laugh.

“Nope, thought it be a challenge nobody could pass. Anyways, we have… ‘Screaming Gophers’, and on that team is… Beth, Cody, Gwen, Heather, Justin, Leshawna, Noah, Lindsay, Owen, Trent, and Izzy, against ‘Killer Bass’, and on that team is… Bridgette, Courtney, DJ, Duncan, Eva, Ezekiel, Geoff, Harold, Sadie, Katie, and Tyler.” Chris was about to explain how it works before the writer thought they’re was too much typing in one dialogue, so here’s the other one, “Here’s how it works, You’re gonna choose two people on your team to get strapped up to this very convenient ‘x’ shape thing. One person get’s strapped up for an hour, while somebody from the opposing team tries to get the opposite contestant out then we’ll switch and they will have to stand an hour as well. And if the person getting tickled manages to last an hour w/o saying the safe word, which will be ‘Chris’, they win the challenge and get a reward, which is they’re very own spa treatment deluxe, but if you don’t… then you’ll meet me at the bonfire, and I’m sure you’ll know what will happen next.”

“Uh huh, uh.. Question?” Duncan raised his hand as if he was in school.

“Shoot.”

“Why is the safe word you’re name? Why can’t it be something cool like, Duncan, or murder, or vandalism.”

“A. They’re too hard to remember and B. I’m hot.”

“Ok… I have another question.”

“What…” Chris sighed.

“Why did you choose this challenge? Is there something you want to tell us?” Duncan tried to get under his skin and it didn’t work.

“Because… I just fricking explained it! You people are too good with these challenges, so I chose something that nobody in they’re right mind would pass.” Not because he had a tickle fetish, Ofc not. What kinda judge would put their contestants in a situation like this just to help their lee mood? If anyone thought Chris had a fetish, they’re wrong.

“Whatever you say….” Duncan was not buying it.

“Ok, ready? Talk over your team and see who will be their guinea pigs.” Chris stepped off his platform that was coincidentally placed on the dock.

(Meanwhile, with Screaming Gophers)

“So which two will get tickled?” Beth asked.

“I think it should be lazy dude over there.” Heather pointed to the latter before her.

“Who, Owen? Dude, I know your not very likable, but to call Owen lazy just because he doesn’t cut back on the snacks, is off the charts-“ Noah stocked up for his bestfriend, only to be shut down by Heather.

“Not him, you.”

“ME?! Why me?!” Noah was puzzled and scared, trying to change their minds, but it seems to go down stream for him.

“Well duh, isn’t it obvi? You don’t join in on any challenges, you just stick your face in that musty book. It’s about time you show team work.” Heather continued.

“What?! Come on guys, change her mind, please!”

“Sorry man, she’s right.” Owen agreed.

“Owen?! Your suppose to be my bsf!”

“I’m sorry, Noah.”

“Well… You are a big time slacker…” Beth joined in.

“YEAH! You’re always reading the book like, ‘ooohohoho~ I can read~’ and then I’m all like, ‘Dude, sub me in,’ and you’re all like, ‘Whahahat? Can’t hear you, dudette, too busy reading, yah…’ That’s basically how it goes.” Izzy chimed in.

“That’s not at all how it went! Guys please! Don’t make me do this.”

“Don’t worry, Noah, if you go, I’ll join you so you won’t be as scared anymore!” Noah’s secrete crush, Cody, replied.

As thankful as Noah is right now that Cody is trying to cheer him up, this doesn’t stop him from getting tickled.

“Awww, ain’t that cute? Your boyfriend is checking up on you!” Izzy cooed. Making the other’s but Heather coo as well.

“He’s not my boyfriend!!!”

“Alright, guess it’s settled. Noah and Cody will get tickled, and trust me Noah, if you flake out before it hit 20 minute mark, I’ll make sure the others will vote you off for being a bad team player.” Heather got close up to his face to make her more intimidating, and it worked.

“WHAT?!… omg!!” Noah gave up because it was useless fighting anymore, at least he’ll have his crush beside him, but it won’t make him less ticklish.

(Meanwhile, with Killer Bass)

“So… Who’s gonna volunteer?” Courtney asked.

“Not me!” Bridgette backed down.

“Yh… I’ll sit this one out.” DJ.

“THAT’S SO CHILDISH, COUNT ME OUT!” Eva.

“Nah, this will ruin my record.” Geoff.

“Well, it’s not gonna be-“ Duncan got interrupted by Sadie.

“I’m not doing this!” Sadie.

“If Sadie’s not doing it then I’m not doing it!” Katie.

“Uhhh…. Yh, I’m not doing this challenge.” Tyler.

No one likes Ezekiel.

“Guess it’s just Duncan and Harold.” Courtney said.

“Why?! No cool guy should get tied down and tickled for a challenge in front of an audience.” Duncan crosses his arms.

“So you rather get tied down and tickled if it wasn’t for a challenge?” Courtney smirked.

Duncan loves his girlfriend with all his heart, but sometimes she can drive him to sanity. “Wha- Absolutely not! I’ve been to juvy, my street cred would plum it if I even began to like tickling.”

“Uh-huhu.” Courtney giggled.

“So why do I have to do this? I don’t want to get tickled either.” Harold said.

“Yeah, you’re probably gonna have to clean the skid marks on your underwear after the challenge, haha.” Duncan made DJ, Geoff, and Trent laugh at his joke.

“So it’s settled then, each team members who were picked, come up so Chef can strap you guys in.” Now that Chris was saying those words, he just now realized how weird this challenge is.

The four of them complied, with Harold and Cody going first, and with Duncan tickling Cody and Noah tickling Harold.

“Your time starts when I start the timer.” Chris set an hour on his clock, and pushed start. “Go!”

And they began.

“Aww, crap, I don’t even want to do this…” Noah complained.

“DON’T THINK ABOUT IT NOAH!!! YOUR TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!” Gwen screamed from the sidelines, trying to reassure him, but it didn’t work.

Noah heard cute, bubbly laughter. It sounded as if an angle had dropped down from the sky… it was so majestic, and Noah wanted to hear it more after the challenge. He wanted to be the one to tickle his crush, but his priority isn’t the one on his team, it’s the one in front of him.

Noah decided to rip the bandaid off, and slowly skittered his blunt nails on Harold’s sides. It was so gross, but he didn’t want to be eliminated.

“Gahahahah, Thihihihis is so sthuhuhupid!!!” Cody laughed from Duncan’s skilled fingers on his knees.

“Wow, Duncan, you are skilled with this!” Courtney was astonish.

“Yeah, I would tickle my older brothers all the time.” Duncan replied, he then got flashbacks of them teaming up on him, and he shivered. Duncan will die twice before he ever tell them that he was always tickle punished as a kid by his older brothers.

Noah was flabbergasted by Cody’s laugh, that he stopped tickling Harold and looked over to his crush. Cody’s face was so cute right now, Noah wanted to die right then and there, until a familiar voice stopped him and his thoughts, “Hey, Romeo!!! Quit staring at Juliet and get to tickling, we want to win!” Leshawna called out from the sidelines.

“Stop calling me that!! I don’t even like Cody!!” Noah’s face says it all though.

“Ha! Your face is so red already, and you aren’t the one getting tickled.” Harold should’ve shut up.

“You know what? I’ll give you something to laugh about!” Noah skittered his fingers up and down Harold’s sides, stopping just barely under his armpits.

“GAHAHAHAH!!! I’M SOHOHOHORRY!!!!” Harold screamed out.

“It’s kinda too late for that one.” Noah teased and cooed the bonded lee, tickling his ribs and stomach, dipping his finger in the hollow and swirling it inside.

“Oh? U think u can out tickle me? I’ll show you who’s the real tickle monster.” If Duncan was the one in Cody’s place, his teases would’ve flustered him, but what can he say? He has experience. The Mohawk dude got dangerously close to the latter’s armpits, making Cody scream, which alerts the ler. “Oh?~ is someone ticklish hereeee?”

“No!!! NO PLEASE!!! NOT THERE!!! DUNCAN STOP, STOP, STOP-AHAHAHAHAHHA!!! PLEASE!!!” Cody went baserk, he totally lost it. His head was getting all foggy, he was getting breathy and panting, and to top it all of he was crying and his laughter grew silent. He had to gasp in between depths of chortles, trying so very hard to remember the safe word, let alone blurt it out, but he can’t manage to figure it out.

“What was that?~ I didn’t hear a safe word~. Maybe I should do this till you pass out… or… until you pee yourself, like glasses just did.” Duncan was insane, and yes Harold did piss himself due to the tickling, and Cody was on the verge of doing the same thing.

Noah didn’t notice the wet stain on Harold’s pants, he was way too focus on staring at his crush with widen eyes. Noah swear that if looks could kill, Cody would’ve been dead before the tickling killed him. He didn’t care how obvious he was being right now, he just thought that when will he ever get a chance to see Cody in this state again? All helpless and breathy, trying to say the safe word, but he couldn’t because of all the laughter he was doing. Noah swore to everything that he doesn’t like tickling…Cody is the only exception, tho. His trance was broken when Cody finally managed to say the safeword, “CHRIS!!! CHRIHIHIHIS!! STAHP NOW, PLEASE!!!”

Duncan stopped, and Chef went over to the two to unlock their tied up limbs, making them slump over to the ground in heaps of laughter. “Ok, Duncan and Noah, it’s your guys turn.” Chris said.

The both boys signed and was terrified of what’s in store for them, but they wouldn’t want to let their team down, so they got on the chair letting Chef tie them up. “Wait… can Harold change first? I don’t want him being that close to me when he smells like cats.” Noah looked down at his pants, Harold looked down as well and looked back up with a redden face, covering himself up when everyone started laughing.

He got back from changing, and got beside Noah waiting to tickle the shit out of him. Noah would’ve had so many more sarcastic things to say, but right now, he was so scared, like he doesn’t like being tickled at all, Duncan’s the same way, but he can hide it more. “You good, Noah? You’re sweating.” Harold mentioned.

“Y-yeah… I’m *gulp* fine… I just don’t like being tied down… or… t-tickled.”

Duncan noticed how nervous he was, “awwww, is someone scared of tickling?”

“Shut up!” Cody tweaked his side, making him twitch and have a startled laugh, “Listen Noah, don’t force yourself to continue if you don’t want to, ok? I know how it feels, being trapped and claustrophobic, so don’t be obligated to push yourself fowards, ok? Our team will still love how you were brave enough to do this.”

“Like heck we will, GO BIG OR GO HOME NOAH!!!” Heather yelled, getting slapped over the head by Leshawna.

“And… if our team does lose and u go home, I won’t forget you, bestie!!”

That’s right, Noah and Cody were just friends… nothing more, nothing less. It’s stupid of him to get so attached to a straight boy, so why can’t he get him out of his head?? It’s like a broken record, getting scratched over and over again. He was about to cry, but had to hold it in, so if he did cry, he could just blame it on how much it tickled. He can’t get so worked up anyways, once one of them goes home they’ll forget about the other, wether it be by elimination or by wining, no one will remember any one, they’re only there to make money, not friends. And that’s what he needs to focus more on, winning the dough. “Can we start already?”

Chris started the timer, and the boys went to work.

Cody didn’t hesitate on scribbling the life out of Duncan’s socked soles, teasing him about how ticklish they were.

Harold, on the other hand, started off lightly scratching Noah’s stomach, saying things like, “Come on Noah, u know u wanna laugh~” and it embarrasses the hell out of the other.

If it’s one thing Duncan hates, it’s getting tickled. He had older brothers he would tickle, but then they would get their revenge before he could blink. It didn’t help the fact that Duncan was so much more petite than the others. So this, this right here, would be hella embarrassing if he gave up due to a little tickling, but he was so damn ticklish, he doesn’t know how much longer he can go.

Now, Noah hates getting tickled and tickling as well, but if it’s one thing he absolutely hates, is getting tickled in front of the person he likes. His laugh is so annoying and obnoxious… and cute… but Cody don’t want to speak about that. They we’re just friends, it’s not like they loved each other… hahahe. So Noah will take it to his grave that he won’t laugh, that was… until Harold did the unthinkable.

“Come on. LAUGH FOR ME!!” He squeezed both sides of Noah, leaving a few red thumbprints on him.

“NO!!! GAHAHAHAHA!! St-Stahhahahap!!!” Noah had limited room left to squirm, so he tried to do anything that was mentally possible right there to stop the tickling, but nothing seemed to work, considering he was strapped down.

It was Cody’s turn to be fixated on his crush’s friend’s laugh. They way Noah would get all squeaky and loud, it was the best sound ever. Cody himself would think it would be weird to have a liking for someone’s laugh, but he just couldn’t help it, bro’s majestic. He was imagining him with his fingers tormenting Noah, zoning out while his fingers slowly drifted off his target’s feet, giving Duncan enough time to breathe. Until Leshawna broke his trance, “HEY!! JULIET!!! GET TO WORK!!”

He was finally brought back to reality, bringing his attention to the matter at hand. Cody wanted to get this over with, so he tickled the only most ticklish spot he knew, thanks to Courtney. Why did Courtney help him, u ask? She didn’t. Cody was just walking past his cabin, when he heard faint laughter, it was Duncan’s. “COHOHOHOURTNEY!! STAHAHAHAP!!!”

“Hahaha, it’s so funny, because your neck is so sensitive, it’s cute. Not to mention you’re extremely ticklish.”

Yes. They we’re having a tickle fight, and Duncan lost, he always does. Cody made sure to lock this core memory in his brain incase he ever needed this information. And now he does.

He shot his fingers in the crook of his neck, wriggling all ten fingers inside. “NOHOHOH!! STAHAHAP!! CHRIHIHIHIS!! PLEASE”

The timer stopped along with the two lers. Noah was having a hard time breathing, and Duncan was audibly gasping. Chef untied them both, while they slumped to the ground. Cody helped Noah up, while they locked eyes for a solid second, until they turned their heads out of embarrassment.

“I would give u guys another challenge bc it was a tie, but considering Duncan lost way too soon, I’ll give this one to the Screaming Gophers.”

Every one on their team cheered and celebrated, while everyone on the other team looked like they had sticks up their asses. “Oh, We know who we’re gonna vote off,” Courtney scowled.

“It wasn’t my fault, princess, how did he even know to tickle me there?” Courtney’s and Duncan’s arguing grew quieter the father they got from the cameras. Cody gave Noah subtle squeezes to his sides, earning him a few squeaks, Noah pledged that he would only tickle Cody back when they either get together or he gets more comfortable around him. Either way, they are a cute couple.

*

YES!! I’M FINALLY DONE😭

“Hahaha,

Now Noah also hates tickling, but he especially hates getting tickled infront of

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #302: EARTH ROCKS!

April, 1989

-- It's QUASAR -- and the West Coast Avengers to EARTH'S RESCUE!

Cool!

Who the fuck is Quasar?

(I mean, I know who he is because I've been reading his book on Unlimited. But to ye back in the day Avengers reader, who the fuck is Quasar?)

But I guess this is what happens when the entire East Coast team explodes. We get Quasar and the West Coast Avengers stepping up.

Gilgamesh, I'm glad you're dead. You continue to let the team down with your Prince Valiant haircut in the roster box.

Anyway, let's get into it.

Last times on Avengers: after various nonsense, the Avengers fell apart as a team. Captain America convinced Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman to join the Avengers, alongside Thor and Gilgamesh. The team had its probably first mission, to go investigate Super-Nova, the last survivor of the Xandarian Novas. The guy is coming to Earth to smash shit up because he's mad at Nebula for destroying Xandar and he somehow heard that Nebula is an Avenger so he's VERY MAD that the Avengers are hiding her instead of turning her over to face justice. Or in other words, Avengers tell giant alien that they don't actually have the fugitive he's looking for and he gets so mad he blows up his entire ship, with the Avengers inside.

Someone get this man some vengeance.

Super-Nova human rockets to Earth determined to smash things up until someone produces Nebula.

Usually aliens coming and going is pretty casual but Super-Nova detonated an enormous spaceship fairly close to Earth, astronomically speaking.

So the big explosion is noticed by a lot of people. Especially Cold War people who are nervous that it could mean escalation when we're all trying to enjoy some Glasnost around here.

In New York, Wendell Vaughn is enjoying his new security consultancy business, located at scenic Four Freedoms Plaza.

His solo series hasn't started yet but a caption helpfully suggests everyone read it whenever it comes out.

Wendell was a SHIELD operative who touched some bracelets he shouldn't have touched but in this case it was a good thing. He became one of SHIELD's super-agents! Then he became the head of security at Project Pegasus! Then he got depressed and decided to fly to Uranus to see if he could find the secrets of the Quantum Bands. Where he met cosmic bigwig Eon who told him his job was to safeguard the universe, mostly by hanging around on Earth and waiting for a cosmic assassin to cosmically assassinate Eon.

So Wendell figured a good way to safeguard the universe by which we mean Earth would be to start a security company. And to keep Eon in a closet in his office.

So he's doing pretty well for himself.

His cosmically cool bracelets alert him that there's weird space shit happening on Earth so Quasar flies off to investigate.

Super-Nova lands in Chicago. Apparently he chose it because it contained the world's tallest building at the time (the Sears' Trade Tower) and he wants to fuck it up to prove he means business.

So he blasts a chunk out of the building with a SKREESH and summons the words SURRENDER NEBULA OR PERISH to float around so people will know what he's about.

Quasar shows up and demands the dude identify himself and not make any more hostile gestures.

Super-Nova: "I am Super-Nova, only survivor of the planet Xandar! Do you know of the woman Nebula?" Quasar: "Nebula? Why, no." Super-Nova: "A pity."

And then he blasts (at) Quasar.

So, before, when he went to Earth to smash shit up it was under the assumption that the Avengers were hiding Nebula from him. A dick move but you can see where he's coming from, kinda. Even if it makes no sense that he knows what he knows and still is so misinformed.

But some dude just came up to him that has no idea what's going on and Super-Nova tried to kill him.

You're a dick, Super-Nova.

With hostilities started, Quasar decides he gotta subdue this guy. He's powerful enough to wreck the entire city if he sets his mind to it.

Since the Quantum Bands are basically a Green Lantern ring, Quasar uses them to form manacles around Super-Nova's wrists.

Which the giant guy finds hilarious.

He starts building pink energy in his hands and as we all know by now, too much pink energy is dangerous.

Quasar attempts to hold the manacles against the build-up but Super-Nova pushes past Quasar's limits and explodes the manacles.

The explosion hurls Quasar away and he thinks how he totally would have died just then if the Quantum Bands didn't have an energy shield around him.

That yellow aura around him, basically. Protects him from dying. Very handy.

The energy blast also broke the rotors on a news copter so Quasar disengages to catch the crashing copter and settle it gently on a roof.

For which he is rewarded with the journalists mistaking him for Thor.

I mean. Blond and a cape. Seems cut and dry.

Meanwhile, Super-Nova is even more pissed off than before. The energy blast also disrupted that surrender Nebula message. So for the minor inconvenience of making Super-Nova have to put up a new message, Super-Nova tries to blast Quasar out of existence.

Quasar manages to strengthen his shield but gets blasted right out of the plot. I just don't see him in the rest of the issue.

Over at the West Coast Avengers Compound, the West Coast Avengers are playing cards because I guess things are just really slow over on the West Coast.

Also, this is set sometime between issues 41 and 42. Probably.

Tigra and Hank Pym have rejoined the team. But Scarlet Witch and Vision aren't around. And neither is the Wasp. But for reasons, this has to happen before the VisionQuest story concludes.

Anyway, West Coast Avengers support staff guy Juan Mercado interrupts the poker game to advise Hawkeye that there's a big dude smashing up Chicago and they should probably do something about it.

Hawkeye goes okay lets see if the East Coast team already called dibs.

The jurisdiction agreement between the West Coast and East Coast Avengers gets kinda weird in the middle of the country. Since Chicago is in the Midwest (although on the East side of the Midwest), Hawkeye contacts Avengers Island to see if they have dibs.

East Coast Avengers Communications Officer Peggy Carter answers the call.

Wow. Cap gave his old girlfriend a job. You hates to see cronyism from Captain America.

Anyway, she confirms that the East Coast Avengers haven't responded to the Chicago thing because they're off doing space stuff.

In that case, Hawkeye calls dibs.

The team looks anemic with half of the members missing.

But they are guest starring in the East Coast Avengers' book and we already have Quasar guest starring as well. So maybe its for the best that Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Wasp are using PTO.

Meanwhile, SPACE.

Where the Avengers didn't actually blow up.

Obviously, Invisible Woman saved them by putting an invisible bubble around them.

That's her thing. Saving people from explosions with last minute bubbles and also putting bubbles in people's brains. She contains multitudes, bubble-wise.

Reed tries explaining to her what she just did but she's like dude I was there, I did it.

Holding the bubble as its flung from the explosion is doing Sue a strain so Thor asks that she make an invisible airlock so he can go outside and redirect their trajectory to Earth.

He gives Sue a thumbs up to let her know hes ready for the airlock to be disappeared. And I adore Thor doing a thumbs up. He has learned well of our Midgardian ways.

Thor first needs to slow the bubble down, since it was hurled by the explosion. So he throws Mjolnir and catches it over and over, shifting his position to steer towards Earth.

Simple physics, probably.

Gilgamesh comments that Thor is smarter than he expected from such a strong guy. Which is a rude compliment.

Anyway.

Over in Chicago, the West Coast Avengers arrive in QUINJET and spot Super-Nova.

Hawkeye recognizes the costume as being similar to some Nova dude who operated a few years back. That's right, the one and only Richard Rider in his original series that last 25 issues.

For some reason, I always think of Richard Rider Nova being a later character. Because I more associate him with New Warriors.

Anyway, that's what Super-Nova reminds Hawkeye of. Non-Super-Nova. (Although, Nova Richard Rider would become like Super-Nova in having all of the Nova Force in his one singular body but instead of becoming a giant, he did not. Got a cooler uniform though.)

The West Coast Avengers assume Super-Nova is up to no good, despite other Nova being a hero, because a police barricade is shooting at him.

Not a safe assumption.

Wonder Man volunteers to take the first crack at Super-Nova and teamwork is dumb so he wants to take the first crack alone.

The Quinjet swoops by to drop off Wonder Man and Super-Nova contemplates grabbing and squishing it right before Wonder Man punches him right in his giant face.

And then gets grabbed.

Wonder Man: "You could have at least *aach* fallen on a few buildings to make it *uugh* look good!"

... Do you WANT collateral damage, Wonder Man??

Super-Nova asks Wonder Man where is Nebula and instead of just saying he doesn't know (which probably wouldn't help anyway) Wonder Man says he doesn't snitch.

So Super-Nova craters him into the pavement.

Former Giant Guys Hank Pym and Hawkeye are agog because when they were giant guys, they couldn't have hit Wonder Man that hard!

They're kinda making it about them.

Wonder what their next move is going to be because none of the three remaining West Coast Avengers have nearly the oomph that Wonder Man does.

Of course, Hank could maybe shrink Super-Nova. I wonder if he'll even try.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere.

The Invisible Woman's Invisible Bubble is re-entering it.

Which presents a new problem.

One: Sue is starting to get faint from overexerting her powers and the fact that the oxygen in the bubble is getting thin. It was finite after all.

Two: re-entry is going to heat up the air around the bubble. Sue can keep the heat from transferring inside, apparently. But the more the bubble heats up, the more pressure will be on the bubble. If Sue falters even for a split second, the heat will burn them all up.

Well, except for Firelord. He's a fire guy.

Also, he just woke up and has offered his fire-based help.

He has Sue make another airlock so he can climb outside with his fire stick and use his cosmic fire powers to redirect heat away from the bubble so that if Sue's concentration drops, they don't all fry.

Well, except Gilgamesh, Thor, and Firelord who could probably all walk it off.

When Invisible Woman's concentration finally slips, Mr Fantastic grabs her and stretches his body into a parachute.

Thor grabs Captain America and the two have a moment, of some kind.

Thor: "I have thee, Captain. The true heart of the Avengers shall suffer no injury while Thor lives to prevent it!" Captain America: "You get my vote, partner."

(Its a nice moment, of some kind. But c'mon with the character shilling, Thor! The true heart?? The true heart of the Avengers is the nebulous concept of heroes banding together to face larger threats on Tony Stark's dime. Cap is important but there have been real, legitimate Avengerses without him.)

Firelord offers to carry Gilgamesh but Gilgamesh goes no thanks, I can fly by myself.

So given that you have two fliers with their hands free, they should probably carry Reed and Sue. It'd probably be faster than the two moving at parachute speed.

No? We're just going to stick with that? Okay.

Anyway, matching pace with Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman going at parachute speed, the Avengers and guests angle their descent to try to land near the West Coast Avengers Compound.

Speaking of that team, back at the fight, they land the Quinjet to the bemusement of a cop police who compares the Quinjet to the Millennium Falcon.

Get your eyes checked, guy.

Quinjets are cool but they don't look a star war.

They've landed near Wonder Man's crater and see that he's okay. Even recovered enough that he's started climbing out by himself.

A random General Akord on site exposits to Hawkeye about Super-Nova arriving and fighting Quasar.

Tigra catches a radio communication from the East Coast Avengers that they're going to borrow a Quinjet from the West Coast Avengers Compound and join them in Chicago.

You think this would be good news except Hawkeye is an idiot who engages in dick waving contests almost as often as he shoots arrows.

Hawkeye: "Just great. That means Cap and the boys'll be here to grab all the glory and we'll come off looking like blasted also-rans."

Here's a suggestion for if you wanted to wrap this up before another team had to come and bail you out.

Bring the full team next time, idiot. Scarlet Witch is your win button for this kinda nonsense.

Since Hawkeye is now itching to try to resolve this before Cap and crew show up, he decides to do something reckless.

Reckless like not suggesting Hank Pym shrink the guy, which he is probably capable of doing.

He tells Tigra and Hank to cover him while he shoots a flare arrow to get Super-Nova's attention... and then he definitely has a plan for what happens next! Definitely!

Hawkeye shoots a flare arrow (flarrow?) at Super-Nova right when he's building a new "bring me Nebula" message out of train tracks.

I honestly kind of admire the pointless resourcefulness of this Super-Nova dude.

I also love Hank and Tigra sighing about having to bail Hawkeye out of this impending error in judgement.

Anyway, Super-Nova picks up Hawkeye and goes hey why are you saying you're the Avengers leader when I already met them in space and you weren't there?

Hawkeye offers to explain the whole two teams thing but Super-Nova really could not care less.

Super-Nova: "Human -- my patience is exhausted! Do not blather! Where is the woman called Nebula? Where is she who destroyed my world Xandar and then fled here to hide among the Avengers?"

All helpful exposition for Hawkeye, who apparently did not pay any attention to the "bring me Nebula" train track sign from earlier.

Hawkeye finds himself explaining the two teams thing anyway. Because this guy says that Nebula was hiding among the Avengers? Well, okay. But which team though? We need to narrow it down.

So Hawkeye asks what Nebula is like so Hawkeye can figure out which team she's hiding with.

And now Super-Nova is so agitated with Hawkeye that he's contemplating clenching his hand.

The hand that Hawkeye is in.

Hawkeye: His upper lip's quivering, his eyes are narrowing, and his grip's tightening. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea if Cap showed up about now. Since I haven't the faintest idea where that Nebula babe is, I may have just bought the farm!

Good job, Hawkeye!

Follow @essential-avengers because I cover not only Avengers and West Coast Avengers but West Coast Avengers in Avengers. Like, reblog, and comment. I appreciate it!

[idol-roxy-lalonde]

eyyyy wassup yall, hope ur all doin goo

*good

as for me, im back with a track thats a blast from the past- and i think yall know who exactly this ones about *wonk*

This one is for the boy that’s so blue and windy

Big smile, big doof, flies higher than Lindy

When he came up to my cell, he was fine as hell

No I really fucking mean he was finer than hell

And he ill, he real, he my kinda deal

Cute glasses and he got the right kinda build

So sweet, he dope, he charmin for sure

He always in the air, but he never fly coach

He a motherfuckin’ trip, trip, pilot of the ship, ship

Got my heart all flip, flip, kiss him on the lip, lip

That's the kind of dude I was lookin' for

And yes, I don’t care, I’m such a ho

I said, excuse me, you're a hell of a guy

I mean my, my, my, my you're like a seagull fly

I mean, you're so shy and I'm loving your eyes

You're like slicker than the guy with the thing on his eye, oh

Yes I did, yes I did, somebody please tell him who the F I is

I am Roxy Lalonde, I mack them dudes up, back coupes up, and chuck the deuce up

Boy, you got my heartbeat runnin' away

Beating like a drum and it's coming your way

Can't you hear that boom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bass?

You got that super bass

Boom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bass

Yeah, that's the super bass

Boom [8x]

(You got that super bass)

Boom [8x]

(You got that super bass)

Boom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bass

He got that super bass

Boom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bass

He got that super bass

This one is for boy in the pjs

Yeah he cuts such a figure in that tee- ay

He could ball with the crew, he could solo

But I think I like him better when he dolo

And I think I like him better with that flowy hood on

He ain't even gotta try to put the mack on

He just gotta give me that look, when he give me that look

Then them panties comin' off, off, uh

Excuse me, you're a hell of a guy you know

I really got a thing for Washington guys

I mean, sigh, sickenin' eyes

I can tell that you're in touch with your feminine side, uh

Yes I did, yes I did, somebody please tell him who the F I is

I am Roxy Lalonde, I mack them dudes up, back coupes up, and chuck the deuce up

Boy, you got my heartbeat runnin' away

Beating like a drum and it's coming your way

Can't you hear that boom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bass?

You got that super bass

Boom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bass

Yeah, that's the super bass

Boom [8x](You got that super bass)Boom [8x](You got that super bass)Boom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bassHe got that super bassBoom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bassHe got that super bassSee, I need you in my life for me to stayNo, no, no, no, no, I know you'll stayNo, no, no, no, no, don't go away, heyBoy, you got my heartbeat runnin' awayDon't you hear that heartbeat comin' your way?Oh, it be likeBoom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bassCan't you hear that boomBoom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bass?Boy, you got my heartbeat runnin' awayBeating like a drum and it's coming your wayCan't you hear thatBoom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bass?He got that super bassBoom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bassYeah that's that super bassBoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom (bass, bass)Boom, boom, boom (bass, yeah)Boom, boom, boom, badoom, boom (bass, bass)Boom, boom, boom (bass)Boom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bassHe got that super bassBoom, boom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bassYeah, that's that super bass

[meme-space-nine]

SNW: The Broken Circle

I'm gonna say it. This one was enjoyable. It certainly wasn't peak star trek, but it wasn't bad either. It was just fun. Space is three dimensional again as the Enterprise flies vertically up from Starbase One to get to the Cajitar System, which always looks cool. My parents watched this one with me, and dad gushed at how much money they put into this stuff.

The episode opens with some cool shots of a little shuttle flying around Starbase One, and Pike leaves to go spew legalese for episode 2. 0.03 seconds after Pike says that Spock won't have to leave spacedock, he immediately steals the Enterprise to go to the Klingon Border to follow up on a message sent by La'an. They find Oriana, who does precisely nothing for the plot of the episode, but they also find some war profiteers who act like Ferengi but can't be because first contact with them was a century later. These war profiteers thought that the conditions in the Federation-Klingon War of Discovery S1 made them more money, and they want to restart it by sticking some nacelles on Discovery's saucer and launching it into space.

So M'Benga and Chapel get captured and take some ground up kale to make themselves beefy and beat up klingons to modify the transponder to transmit morse code or something. Then they jump out and almost die as the ship is blown up by the Enterprise in front of a really cool lookin klingon battlecruiser.

They get beamed onto the Enterprise, and Spock makes a big show of saying "YOU WILL NOT DIE!" to Chapel. Yeah. We know. And the episode ends with Spock getting drunk with a Klingon dude as a peace treaty.

In sum, the only problem with this episode that I can really see at a fundamental level is the weird unnatural dialogue between Spock and Ortegas regarding his "thing" he says when the ship jumps to warp. I theorize that this need to have a "thing" was a short-lived fad in the 2250s, that the Discovery crew happened to bring into the future. Dad also complained about the use of the terminology "false flag" that supposedly "legitimizes ridiculous right-wing conspiracy theories", but come on its a good story.

Rating: 4/5 (watch)

[this-is-krikkit]

Oi Krikkit 💜

For the new ask game you reblogged, what do you want to tell us about Levi & also Jean ?

😘

hey Val, thanks for the ask, sorry it took a while things got busy. also this got long so i'm putting a read more link lol

Levi

favorite thing about him: his height. i'm not kidding, having such a badass strong male main character be just a Smol Boi is amazing to me, and it's the first time i see it in such a complicated character. not to mention it goes really well with my hc that he's trans, so FUCK YES SHORTY BABY.

least favorite thing about him: his clean freak habits if i absolutely have to pick something?

favorite line: "right here," when he calls hange an abnormal, because i'm a dumb shipper (also bc my mind lives in the gutter so i love these two words in his mouth)

brOTP: eruri

OTP: levihan and erurihan, which may sound contradictory with my brotp. the thing is i can't picture levi and erwin in a relationship with each other without hange being there too. i just.. it's kinda boring to me 😬 i hope that doesn't offend anyone (esp you since i know you ship them hon), and it can change from fic to fic, but mostly i ship erurihan too much to ship eruri on its own whereas it's not a problem at all for levihan (or eruhan. i think im just too in love with hange oops)

nOTP: ereri 🤮

random headcanon: his kink is to be called yours in bed. like he wants to feel owned, not in a sub/sex slave kind of way (although at times that too) but just in a general wanting to be wanted way, yk? dude was born in secret and hidden in a brothel until his mom died, then harshly trained and given up by kenny when he was deemed strong enough, then everyone he loved died like flies around him. i think he longs to belong to someone who wants him bad enough to never want to let go, and ofc i think that someone is hange (+/- erwin).

unpopular opinion: he's a huge bottom. idk if it's really unpopular, but i see sooooo many fics with him being a top and i could see it happening in a certain setting, but that's not my main idea of him, esp not in the beginning of a relationship. i think it would take months for hange (+/- erwin) to make him feel confident enough in his feelings and skin to try it, and i absolutely love to imagine him being so flustered about it first because he's so out of his comfort zone taking the reigns during sex.

song i associate with him: castle of glass by linkin park. i already told you how levihan that song is, but i initially thought of post-caon levi when i first heard it. he's got nothing left and he's nothing but a broken shell (in his mind, anyway) in a broken world, which is very close to the lyrics and general tone of that song imo

favorite picture of him: when he realized hange didn't die in the colossal titan explosion and just saved his ass 🥰

Jean is not a character i care much about, i'm kinda neutral about him. can i do Armin instead? (that's what she said)

Armin

favorite thing about him: he's a dreamer, which makes him smart not only in the traditional sense and his strategic abilities, but also in the sense that he's driven by hope and curiosity. he's inquisitive but cautious, he's thirsty for knowledge and driven by it even when he's shaking with fear and that's something i understand, love and admire in any character/person.

least favorite thing about him: he was a bit too whiney in early episodes, which is why it took me a while to like him.

favorite line: "we’re going to explore the outside world someday, right?" my lil dreamer 🥹

brOTP: mikasa

OTP: i don't think i romantically ship him with anyone? at one point it was mikasa, now i just don't really care

nOTP: annie 🫣

random headcanon: he has a crush on hange! erwin was a mentor and he admired him as a strong and smart leader, but hange is a different kind of smart and i can easily imagine armin falling for their giant brain. i hc that armin spent a lot of time with them in their lab exchanging theories about the world outside, once he overcame his initial fear of how intense they can get. when hange appoints him next commander before their sacrifice, it betrays a deep connection the two of them must have had during the time gap (one more reason to hate it in my love/hate relationship to it btw!), when hange must have been preparing him for the position for years (and i absolutely love to imagine a flustered armin trying to follow hange's train of thoughts and lessons while trying to hide his hearteyes for them hehe)

unpopular opinion: i don't think him and annie fit well together at all. i agree that they had feelings for each other bc it's canon so i can't really argue with it, but i don't see them making it in a healthy relationship in post canon. feel free to send me armin x annie fics to change my mind?

song i associate with him: as it was - harry styles, i feel it fits his general vibe

favorite picture of him: sorry to be a normie but yeah Ocean Armin it is

[stupid-sloot-headcanons]

I'm not sure if you ever gave a review and no pressure at all but how did you like Infinite Wealth? I am almost done with it and I am curious what you think of it after so so much hype. I have largely enjoyed it though there are some things I have not loved

SPOILERS for those reading this

Bryce was such a lame villain even if I usually like cult villains but with so many villains it felt really crowded. I want to like Ebina and I like him more than Bryce but his twist felt lame especially given what we knew about Arakawa. I LOVE Yamai but it all felt so crowded.

But overall I love the game play and the characters and I have cried multiple times. But yeah, I miss really good villains like Aoki. Also I developed a really strong soft spot toward Sawashiro in the game

Yeah, the villains were easily the weakest part of the game. Tbh it was kind of a mixed bag for me overall lol. Especially since Gaiden was so fucking good and Y8 manages to cock up a lot of the best story parts of Gaiden. Hanawa getting killed off so unceremoniously after all the buildup and characterization he had was unsatisfying as fuck.

I also think Bryce would have worked better in the Japanese version by having his English lines be spoken by the dub voice actor because holy fuck, any characterization and actual intimidation flies out the window when you hear this white American fella speaking lines by a seiyuu who is NOT pulling off the English voice lines.

Joon-gi was basically stapled onto the story at the very end and it sucks since I really liked his character (the real Joon-gi in 6 and the agent in 7). He also got nerfed in terms of skills but considering how busted Kiryu is it kinda evens out.

Also regarding the Memories of Kamurocho, RGG TEAM IS RYUJI ALIVE OR NOT, HOW ARE YOU STILL TEASING THIS MOTHERFUCKER BEING ALIVE AND NOT DOING ANYTHING WITH IT

The gameplay is easily the biggest improvement and my favorite class was Kunoichi! It was also awesome to have Seonghee as a party member and getting to know more about her. Also I still think Saeko/Seonghee is a better ship than Ichiban/Saeko but I don't take shipping bullshit that seriously lol

The final boss was just a damage sponge, but the soundtrack was fucking great. Though I don't know why Saejima, Majima, and Daigo even show up when all they do is help in one mob of basic enemies and do nothing in the final fight. Ebina already sucks as a character but having the three of them come in during stages of the fight as strikers or assists would have been better so they actually like. Contributed as opposed to just standing there

Yamai is the best new character and the fact they end the story with him back in Japan makes me hopeful that he'll come back in future games. Though I'm a little worried he'll suffer from the same problem as Ichiban who...Look, Ichiban is a great character, but after LAD and his personal arc, IW would up with him being very static and I'm a little worried about his staying power as a protagonist. If each game just has him trusting everyone, staying optimistic af and never straying from that it'll get a bit old yk? Also I personally feel like end of 7!Ichiban would forgive Eiji as quickly and easily as he does in 8, he should have struggled with it at least a little. The dude threw a child down a flight of stairs, tied to a wheelchair for fuck's sake. He almost felt like a parody of himself in some spots, and that vibe carried through a lot of 8 for me in a way that I really didn't like.

As for the story, I feel like Yokoyama needs someone on staff to wrangle him the way Hideo Kojima does. 5 and 8 both have plots that kinda go off the rails and are messes regarding pacing.

Kiryu has a great sendoff and as someone who's had family members pass away from cancer, seeing him at the end in the wheelchair looking so frail was heartbreaking. But the fact he finally has his family back and is with Haruka again makes me so happy. He deserves to rest. Like in Gaiden, you see just how much it hurt him to be separated from them--I was bawling when he broke down seeing the kids at his grave and saw Haruto's drawing. And 8 kiiiinda lessens the impact of that plot point since he gets to see some of the kids in the end, but I am happy and satisfied with him reuniting with Haruka. The fact it was at the last second of the game and the actual reunion happened offscreen was kind of a letdown but still. Good end for Kiryu.

So if I had to TL:DR, Infinite Wealth is a delicious brownie in the parts where it's actually baked properly. A lot of spots are undercooked as fuck though, but it's still quite good.

[mrmallard]

FF13 has six main characters in the party, and in my heart I think my favourite is Sazh. And a part of it is that Sazh seems to be the guy who gets left behind by the narrative the most.

I like all the cast - I'm defensive about Lightning and Hope because of the hate they got, and I thought that both of them had perfectly fine character arcs which got them to where they needed to go. Vanille is okay, probably damaged the most by the vocal director asking her English VA to emulate the Japanese VA's vocal intonation exactly, and while I don't remember Fang a whole lot, I remember the parts of the game where she's hanging out with Lightning and I honestly ship it pretty hard. Snow is a cool guy and he doesn't afraid of anything etc. - jokes aside, replaying the game, I really like Snow and I like how it's setting up his whole "hero" bluster to fail so he can develop and grow into the hero he naively shouts about being at the start of the game.

Sazh is cool because he's probably the oldest guy in the group, and his motivation is tied to his son and wanting to save him - the web of motivations across the board tends to get a bit tangled, but his whole deal is about his son. They make him a bit overly wacky, but I thought that he had some pretty cool interactions with Lightning and Vanille, and I like that compared to characters like Lightning and Snow - a talented but jaded military grunt and an overly optimistic hotheaded rebel leader, respectively - he's just a regular, down to earth, blue collar dude with a straightforward, personal goal that gets him tied up in the ensuing mess.

And like - while Lightning is a soldier and Snow is this like peacekeeper guy, Sazh is a pilot. He's a guy who loves his son and flies planes. I like down-to-earth characters like that. So yeah, while the more anime-adjacent characters get all strong and important and stuff, Sazh just kinda hangs out. He's definitely around, but in 13-2 he's basically just in a DLC and I read that he's doing his own thing in Lightning Returns.

The thing about Sazh - being a bit more sidelined than the rest of the crowd - is that he fits a mold that I tend to fall into pretty hard. Like when series 11 of Doctor Who aired, I found myself really rooting for Yasmin Khan; the other two companions were having their own played-out personal character arc, and she got the short end of the stick regarding characterisation. But also, because the other two companions were having their character arc with each other, Yaz was the primary companion who went off with The Doctor, and that kind of blossomed into its own thing.

And then when Ryan got shafted for series 12, I felt bad because his step-grandad was written as missing his nan more than he was, one of the episodes where he gets to shine and just be himself was arguably my least favourite episode of the revival series (not because of him, he was a bright spot - because the episode was predictable and bland exactly like how a low-effort Syfy original movie is) and his individual character arc - overcoming his dyspraxia - is ignored for most of the run, then suddenly reintroduced at the end of his run so it could culminate with him throwing something like a basketball. I have a lot of sympathy for Tosin Cole, who I thought was underutilized as an actor, and for the character of Ryan Sinclair for being an underutilized character. I love an underdog; Yaz got to rise above and Ryan got shafted.

And while I haven't played LR yet, Sazh gives me the same vibe. I'm pretty sure he only appears once in the main portion of 13-2 and then in a casino DLC, and I could be wrong but I think he's fairly well removed from the main conflict of Lightning Returns, at least compared to the main players in Lightning and Snow and stuff.

So yeah, as much as I already like him, I kinda have no choice but to stan considering the circumstances. Sazh Katzroy is great.