#improvisational secondaries

[lulu-spooks]

Hate the feeling when the song I’m writing starts to sound a little too good and I have to figure out if I’m having a sudden stroke of genius or if I’m just rewriting something I heard an hour ago.

[mysticalenthusiastvoid]

Interviewer: What’s your five year plan?

Me thinking: I don’t have one because I tried when I was younger to have plans, but they got thrown out because I put my life on hold to be there for family and felt guilty because I wanted more. At this point, I’m burned out and would like to take time off to rest and focus on hobbies, but humans were dumb enough to create money and make it the most important thing ever. Therefore, I have to look for a job. I’m good at landing on my feet and rolling with things, but it hasn’t translated into career aspirations other than fiction writing. As of yet, fiction writing does not pay my bills.

Responding verbally: To focus on professional and personal growth.

[alix-in-july]

my sister (Lion secondary) finds Great British Bake-Off incredibly stressful while I (some combo of Badger and Bird secondary) find watching people improvise baked goods frustrating and stressful. But secretly I'm so envious of the people that can pull that off. Y'all are magical.

once a dorm-mate invited me to make a pie with her and she just made it up as she went along and I almost had to leave the room. and no it did not taste good.

[relenafanel]

The wangxian business proposal (kdrama) au idea I was discussing the other week:

wwx goes on blinds date on NHS’s behalf. NHS is going on blind dates on NMJ’s behalf. It’s trickle down economics of rich heirs not wanting to go on blind dates

They have this whole system where WWX goes pretending to be NHS, and is so off putting in various ways that the other rich families stop trying to set up their sons and daughters with the Nie.

NHS and NMJ are very grateful (NMJ for not having to alienate the other families by bluntly turning down their sons and daughters, NHS for not having to do anything at all)

WWX enjoys the scheme. It’s fun to act outrageous and get paid for it, and he gets a free meal at a nice restaurant + new designer clothes as a perk. Win/Win! (plus, he was raised as a rich young master even if he only gets to use those etiquette stills in knowing exactly how to break them to greatest effect) 

LWJ is newly returned from working at the New York branch; his return is heralded by LQR finally stepping down as deputy CEO and handing the position to LWJ. His first order of business is firing their chief financial officer in his inaugural speech for misappropriation of company funds. There’s a slideshow of how egregious the fraud is. It’s marvelous.

WWX has worked for Lan Industries for 5 yrs and has never seen anything as glorious or petty in his life. 

The Lan Industries board of directors is less pleased. This is the kind of situation that should have been handled quietly, but since this was the third time it was supposed to be handled LWJ doesn’t give a shit what they want 

Except he’s made life hard for his brother; LQR is told to find LXC a life partner. LWJ agrees to go instead, only to realize within moments that LXC played him into being social. Well, the joke would be on LXC because LWJ would just marry whoever his brother had been set up with and be done with it.

It goes like this: LQR reaches out to NMJ, NHS filters the request to himself, accepts it and sends WWX. WWX says yes, he has his next restaurant and outfit request already picked out. LXC also accepts with the intent of doing it on behalf of LWJ. 

LXC and NMJ end up being end-game as the secondary couple so this is huge irony.

At no point is WWX told his date is a Lan. Author personally likes to think NHS does it on purpose. NHS would vehemently deny involvement.

This is leading up to: WWX is sitting in the restaurant sipping on a lovely glass of wine, wearing a delightfully slutty outfit and nothing on his mind but what he'll order and that since he has no info on who his date will be he'll have to improvise. He hopes they're the type of person to be insulted by his outfit and not enjoy it. He does have some very boring outfits in his closet designed for people who would find a slutty outfit compelling.

That's all to say that when LWJ walks into the restaurant and is led to his table, WWX recognizes him as his very attractive and very petty boss.

Fuck.

Bonus:

WWX is still in his heterosexual era, which makes it a very big issue that LWJ tries to arrange marriage immediately. It makes it a bigger issue that he'd tried to get rid of LWJ by aggressively getting in his personal space and now they're escalating quickly past third base.

(LWJ is a secret third option as someone who looks and behaves as though the slutty outfit would be off putting but is deeply into it. WWX wouldn't have seen that coming even if he knew who his date was)

WWX is still LWJ's employee, and he thinks if LWJ gets a good look at work!wwx's face he'll know immediately. It's too bad WWX is excellent at his job and LWJ wishes to discuss his ideas. work!WWX starts wearing glasses, a known effective disguise. 

WWX doesn't know LWJ has seen work!wwx's face, has figured out the ploy, and keeps arranging office meetings for the rapidly escalating disguises (amusing) and excuses wwx makes (petty) and also because he enjoys being near him both romantically and intellectually

(basically things start moving very fast, wwx doesn't know what's going on but he's not having a good time)

(he's having a very good time)

Bonus bonus:

LXC and NMJ meet to discuss their younger siblings getting married. NMJ knows it's not actually NHS. LXC knows NMJ was who LQR originally tries to set him up with. The most awkward part of the evening is when LXC leaves the next the morning and meets the real NHS, and then has to decide how to tell LWJ.

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

There's a really lovely subtle detail in Under the Red Hood that I've never seen anyone point out before and it's about this guy:

That's not Jason, obviously, lol

That is someone that Jason convinced to fight for him, and to pretend to BE him for an extended period, and for a long while I kept wondering... Who the fuck was this guy?? How did Jason get someone to be that loyal to him??

And then it hit me.

His helmet is an explosive!

He didn't find a guy that loyal because there's no reason for anyone to be that loyal to him! Instead Jason strapped a bomb to some poor fucker's head and forced them to fight Black Mask to the death as his puppet or else he'd detonate!

Are ALL of Jason's helmets capable of being locked onto someone else's head like that?!How pre-meditated was this move, like- is this why his helmets explode?! Did he design the bomb-helmet in the first place specifically to do this? Did he ever use it on anyone else?? Or was it more an improvisation thing, where he just found a secondary use for this odd backup weapon?

Frankly, I'm not sure explosive helmets make all that much sense without this being their primary purpose and use - Unless Jason also thought for some reason he'd need to blow himself up???

And also just... What the fuck did this guy do to make Jason okay with doing that to him?

[tempestuous-tempest]

Romancing Reginald "Wrench" Blechman

I've gotten an informal request for more Wrench headcanons this time, Romance ones. I have done romance in the past with one that was for more than just Wrench as well as one for an astronaut s/o. Here are my other Wrench headcannon lists; 1, 2, 3, 4.

Dates:

Improvised more often than not. He doesn't think to plan them out most of the time and so they are often spontaneous.

Going shopping at a Walmart just to get kicked out from riding shopping carts around the store or playing basketball in the toy isle or sword fighting with wrapping paper or sticks from the arts and crafts section.

Spray painting curse words and middle fingers all over bloom buildings and Haum. Hacking Albion drones and using em and cause some havoc.

Watching new action movies like Deadpool and Wolverine.

Scaling the Golden Gate or the London Bridge and harrassing locals by hacking their radios and changing their music.

Racing. Obviously. Especially if it ends up in a high speed chase.

Love Language(s):

Physical Touch is his most primary form of showing affection. He's clingly as all hell. Hand holding, hand around your shoulders, little sweet mask kisses that kind of hurt. Of course when you're in private the mask comes off a bit.

Quality Time is his secondary form. Spending time with you is something he enjoys. It can be as much as taking you on a date or as little as just standing near each other at his workshop.

Acts of Service falls in the middle. He likes pretending he can be a gentleman. Opening doors for you with a little "My lady/dude", fixing something you broke and put on the waiting list of things you need to fix later, and/or buying donuts and coffee for you in the mornings for breakfast. Be careful though, if you sleep to late, he'll sit there and eat em all himself.

Gift Giving. He'll probably tinker with some things and make a gift for you every once and a while. Gives him something to do. With his hands when you're not around and he cant just hold you. Sometimes he'll buy you things or if you

Words of Affirmation dont exactly stick with him. Anyone can say they love another and the words can be as hollow as bird bones. He doesnt like how empty the words can seem even if spoken with real love.

Bonus:

Expect pranks. Nothing harsh like "Oh I'm breaking up with you". Just something actually funny. Prank wars between you two are inevitable.

Absolutely throws a fit when he can't have your attention like a two year old in Walmart being told he can't get something he wants. He pouts when ignored.

[wisteria-lodge]

Have you sorted Alastor Moody by any chance ? I've been thinking about him more lately and am disappointed to see how little we know about him so I'd be very curious to read your analysis 👀

I think he's probably a Badger Lion.

For someone who seems to kinda get a kick out of being brusque and off-putting, he's extremely defined by his groups: the ministry, and the Order, and the primary relationship he seems to have is with his ex-apprentice, Tonks.

(he is also the only person who is willing to give Albus Dumbledore a hard time to his face. But that probably says more about Moody, than it does about any potential relationship between the two of them.)

So I think he's probably a misanthropic Badger. There aren't that many individuals he likes, but he'll do anything to protect the group as a whole.

The Lion comes through with how direct he is, how little he cares about looking pretty wild, and if you find him "mad"... that sounds like a you problem. He'll pop out his eye in front of people, and especially seems to enjoy flashing it at Vernon Dursley. He never lies or sugarcoats, and is blunt in a way that can wrong-foot Harry. Like the time that he just gives Harry a photo of the original Order of the Phoenix, and starts matter-of-factly going through everyone's tragic deaths.

"Constant Vigilance" is also kind of an interesting catchphrase, because it's not about planning. Moody's not a planner. Moody's eye and his dark detectors are all measures he's put in place to make sure he has 100% of the environmental, here-and-now info, and that's an improvisational secondary thing. Moody isn't prepared for every eventuality like Batman. He just wants to be literally impossible to sneak up on. I think you could argue that he's a Snake secondary who just can't be bothered to move out of Neutral most of the time... but the easiest, most direct sorting that fits all the evidence is Badger Lion.

[writingoddess1125]

I’m now imagining Bee and Dee are the exploding distraction from Ali and Ari who steal everything in sight 🤭

Circus of Trouble

Support on Ko-Fi

Check out Old Men Series <<<

• Buggy felt truly blessed- A famed pirate, a loyal crew,He had a beautiful partner, two healthy boys and now two healthy girls. What more can a man ask for!?

• The famed clown pirate was overjoyed to have his daughters, he'd always had wanted daughters and he finally got them.

• He had painted the nursery on the ship, decorated it fully in pastel circus themed and had custom cribs for each girl. {He also got the twins their own room and decorated it with them, He let's them share a room since they prefer it anyway but have custom separate beds}

• Spoils them rotten- Absolutely rotten from the very beginning

• You can already tell from a early age that the girls have more of Buggys personality then most would expect-

• Ari was the embodiment of Buggy's egotistical ways- She was loud, bossy and had his temper. While most of the time she was a sweet girl who loved to make those around her happy if you told her no-

Better prepared-

• Ali was his more Quiet side- A manipulative petty backbone that was quiet but prepared to strike. She was a adorable girl, shy beyond all belief and clung to her brothers and dad- However piss her off she knew how to use other people.

• However both twins had two things in common-

• One was a infinity for shiny things and stealing...

• And second was stealing..

• The discovery of this was then the twins were just 5 months old- their eyes focusing in anything that was shiny and immediately bolt for it- taking whatever it was and either chewing on it or stashing it away.

• In short anything was a fair game for the Twins.

• "I'm missing my medallion-" Buggy huffed as he searched His cabin room he shared with you. You also looking around "I can't find my earring-"

• You two look at each other blankly before going to the nursery on the ship- already knowing only two people could have stolen from you.

• Quickly you both find Ali chewing the medallion and Ari clenching several shiny things in an iron grip-

• "Sorry Cherry's but you can't have these" Buggy starts, Kneeling down to take them. Immediately being met with resistance by both girls-

• You look at Buggy amused as he kept an eye closed at to try and tune out Ari screaming bloody murder on his left side while Ali pouted and tears silently ran down her cheeks in his right.

• "Can't wait for those teenager years huh?" You mused and Buggy gave you a glare at daring to mention that-

• He wants them to stay his baby forever..

Bonus Story!-

• Buggy had done his best to keep his family away from his work- Especially when he joined the Cross Guild and accidently became their leaders.

• No one besides his crew who were all quiet about his family knew- not wanting to put you or the kids in danger.

• However it seemed some thing just didn't work out for Buggy-

• Both girls had gotten a cold when a important meeting with Crocodile and Mihaek was taking place-

• You had a cold as well worse then the girls so you were at the hospital and couldn't watch the girls- The twins who were 14 did try their best but 14 year Olds watching 2 year Olds didn't exactly mix.

• He couldn't have Cabaji watch the girls since he was watching the Twins and Alvida wasn't exactly a baby person- Mohji was out on a mission with Galbido

• Aka. He was fucked-

• So he had to improvise! With both girls in a stroller he snuck into his own building and quickly went up to the conference rooms

• So he got to the meeting room early and found a side room that connected to a secondary conference room-

Perfect.

• He set up the stroller so it was more comfortable for the girls and gave them their sappy cups of water and a timer for their medicine which they couldn't have yet. Changing their diapers he put them to bed. Rushing out of the side room to the Main conference room right ad Mihawk appeared-

• It didn't take long for the meeting aka bullying to start- Buggy of course doing his normal yelling antics, However every 10 minutes or so would stop whatever he was doing and drifting to the side room.

• At first it was ignored till the third time- "Buggy what are you doing?" Mihawk questioned. Buggy glaring at him- "NOTHING!"

• Annoyed at this point Crocodile stood and marched to the side room to see- Buggy screaming in surprise.

• "WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING STAY AWAY FROM-" Crocodile cut off Buggys head and tossed it across the room before slamming open the door and seeing.. a stroller

• Both former Warlords looking surprised at the sight. Two toddlers bundled up well clearly with some form of sickness and a cool rag on their foreheads- The red noses cluing them both immediately.

• "Their mother has a too so I'm watching them.." He hissed angrily as he floated his head back to his body, clearly defensive of his children being found out.

• "I'm just surprised you have children at all- or that someone would sleep with you" Crocodile jest and Buggy glared at him as he picks up Ari who was starting to fuss and checks her forehead. Feeling her fever had indeed gone down.

• "I actually have 4 kids with the same women" He grumbled setting her back down with a sigh.

• For the first time the two other men actually felt some level of respect for Buggy- With all his flaws he seemed like a good dad.

• This ends with Mihawk holding Ali and Crocodile holding Ari while Buggy portioned out the children's cold medicine and talking over paperwork.

[ballet-symphonie]

I need to rant somewhere: Catherine Pollack wrote this on her instagram: LIKE WHAT THE FFFFFF. The irony is that she posted videos of Khiteeva dancing BEAUTIFULLY alongside this.

A memorable matinee performance of “Raymonda” took place on March 15. First, there were more than twenty debuts in roles ranging from principal to secondary and character parts. Second, and unfortunately, A. Ermakov was injured during his variation. Another factor, in my opinion, was the accumulated stress caused by his many years of being (and there’s no other word for it) exploited as the company’s tallest and strongest male dancer, tasked with lifting larger female soloists. Instead of getting into shape themselves, these dancers relied on his exceptional partnering abilities. He repeatedly risked his health by lifting performers of weight categories that, by definition, should not exist in classical ballet (though this doesn’t entirely apply to the debuting ballerina). Before long, the tall prima ballerinas of the Mariinsky will have no partner to dance with, because these female soloists simply cannot lose weight.

By the way, Andrei “jumped into” the production, replacing T. Askerov, with whom A. Khiteeva had been preparing her debut (Timur withdrew a couple of days prior). I must commend Alexandra’s resilience and resourcefulness: having lost her partner on stage, she instantly adapted and filled the sudden gap in Jean de Brienne’s coda with an improvised repeat of her own coda using passé relevé—at an incredible tempo and with aplomb. Bravo! In the current climate, stress tolerance is in high demand; the company needs ballerinas it can depend on.

All the same, A. Khiteeva’s inclusion in “Raymonda” is contentious for reasons I’ve already discussed in my notes. Her artistic type is more ingénue than Grand Dame, and her access to the lead roles in “Swan Lake,” “La Bayadère,” and “Raymonda” was justifiably restricted, primarily due to her ballet and physical attributes—her stocky figure and proportions.

“The role of Kitri can be assigned to a highly agile ballerina… But to dance Odette and Odile or Raymonda, a ballerina must have a slender figure, ‘singing’ arms, and long legs. Dancers with a squat figure are not suitable for these roles…,” writes choreographer R.V. Zakharov, and I share his opinion. To be continued…

I thought on the whole, Khiteeva danced very well, especially given the last-minute partner switch. Khiteeva has a lovely presence, vintage port de bras and elegant, restrained classical lines and I've read numerous comments saying her persona isn't done justice on the video. I know Khiteeva is not the most traditional adagio dancer but I was blown away. The dream adagio variation is stunning, smooth, and calm and the details of her port de bras are unmissable. Not to mention, her reprisal of the coda, when Ermakov had gotten injured literally just minutes before, takes nerves of steel (and iron calves).

My main criticisms with her lie in the wedding variation, her legs just look a little shot and you can tell. I thought she looked a bit tired and this affected her upper body and epaulement as well, which was gorgeous for most of the ballet. There was wobbly pointework and some clunky and imprecise pas de bouree. This variation is deceptively difficult because it's so simple and your mistakes are so easily visible, and you have to dance it at the end of a very long ballet. Khiteeva has some progress to make in terms of her stamina for a full-length ballet, especially one as intense as Raymonda but I thought this was a very solid debut.

Regarding Pollack's complaints about on 'overweight' ballerinas. Khiteeva's body type, while not as slender as some of the other Mariinsky dancers, resembles a lot of dancers in major European and American companies. I'm not going to name names but look at some of the top principals at the Royal, Dutch National, and even Paris Opera for instance. Of course, all of the women are in ridiculous shape, but few are as rail thin as many of the Russians, this doesn't affect their ability to dance or portray particular characters in ballet. This is separate from talking about typecasting or technical abilities.

And while I don't disagree that Ermakov is overworked, telling the women that they need to diet to extremes is just not the solution. Google says Ermakov is 195 cm, at that height, he's going to be responsible for dancing with the tallest women in the company. Mariinsky knows what dancers they have employed- and they have a lot of tall, long-legged women. They're not suddenly going to weigh (nor should they) the same as shorter dancers. There is also not an actual 'definition' of a magic weight that a professional dancer has to weigh. I'm sure Pollack is referring to the VBA regulations but those are incredibly stringent, (girls over 50kg are often not allowed to be lifted) and have been consistently tied to eating disorders and also are structured for students going through puberty, not fully grown women. I know for a fact that these are certainly not followed in the professional world. Certainly, there is pressure to be in shape and to be thin, but different bodies carry weight differently and there is a growing acceptance of dancers looking like women and not like toothpicks, especially in the West. Case in point, I weigh more than 50kg, I'm dancing pas de deux, classical and contemporary on stage with a prominent theater, as do many of my colleagues. So much about safe, effective lifts is about technique, coordination and trust, not just about a number on the scale.

The bigger issue, which Pollack makes no mention of is that Ermakov does not have enough help. Among the principal men, Kimin and Stepin haven't been cast with the tallest women, only Askerov can really chip in. Considering the first soloists, Belyakov is useful but Capitane is not tall enough, Korneyev and Konovalov are not the most stable partners, Sergeev is aging out of big classical roles and Zverev's stage presence is frequently lackluster. The second soloists have a lot of young guys, who are slowly developing but have limited repertoires at the moment. I think Malyshev and Baibordin have a lot of potential, but I'm not sure either of them has danced a principal role in a full-length ballet. They can't be go to, pinch replacements with their lack of experience. This is one consequence of MT being so slow to develop their younger men, it means that people like Ermakov and Askerov have more intense workloads and are more vulnerable to injury. Now I wish the MT management did more to combat that, if they want to continue to hire so many tall, lanky women, I wish they would be more proactive about hiring men and continuing to look outside VBA for talent.

[tikitania]

I need to rant somewhere: Catherine Pollack wrote this on her instagram: LIKE WHAT THE FFFFFF. The irony is that she posted videos of Khiteeva dancing BEAUTIFULLY alongside this.

A memorable matinee performance of “Raymonda” took place on March 15. First, there were more than twenty debuts in roles ranging from principal to secondary and character parts. Second, and unfortunately, A. Ermakov was injured during his variation. Another factor, in my opinion, was the accumulated stress caused by his many years of being (and there’s no other word for it) exploited as the company’s tallest and strongest male dancer, tasked with lifting larger female soloists. Instead of getting into shape themselves, these dancers relied on his exceptional partnering abilities. He repeatedly risked his health by lifting performers of weight categories that, by definition, should not exist in classical ballet (though this doesn’t entirely apply to the debuting ballerina). Before long, the tall prima ballerinas of the Mariinsky will have no partner to dance with, because these female soloists simply cannot lose weight.

By the way, Andrei “jumped into” the production, replacing T. Askerov, with whom A. Khiteeva had been preparing her debut (Timur withdrew a couple of days prior). I must commend Alexandra’s resilience and resourcefulness: having lost her partner on stage, she instantly adapted and filled the sudden gap in Jean de Brienne’s coda with an improvised repeat of her own coda using passé relevé—at an incredible tempo and with aplomb. Bravo! In the current climate, stress tolerance is in high demand; the company needs ballerinas it can depend on.

All the same, A. Khiteeva’s inclusion in “Raymonda” is contentious for reasons I’ve already discussed in my notes. Her artistic type is more ingénue than Grand Dame, and her access to the lead roles in “Swan Lake,” “La Bayadère,” and “Raymonda” was justifiably restricted, primarily due to her ballet and physical attributes—her stocky figure and proportions.

“The role of Kitri can be assigned to a highly agile ballerina… But to dance Odette and Odile or Raymonda, a ballerina must have a slender figure, ‘singing’ arms, and long legs. Dancers with a squat figure are not suitable for these roles…,” writes choreographer R.V. Zakharov, and I share his opinion. To be continued…

I JUST read this as well. Catherine Pollack is one of the most hardcore adherents to emploi in the strictest sense, but she’s not unique in the Russian ballet world. She has written scathing reviews of Shakirova (bad proportions, bad technique) and Bulanova (too heavy, bad taste) due to their physiques.

I find her writing to be annoyingly filled with double negatives that make her come across as ambiguous . She compliments certain aspects of Khiteeva’s debut, commends the coach for optimizing the Khireeva’s skills, but ultimately says she’ll never be a prima because of her physique. She’s not the first to critique Khiteeva based on that….but what’s really annoying is that she didn’t actually provide much of a review….she just rambled about “amplitude.”

I’m with you on the ranting.

[firfirov]

You know, I'm currently trying to collect a large number of Peppermen. As far as I understand, you still have them. Can you show me or even add some information?

Okay, then I'll show you those you haven't seen (give me the strength to finish drawing the Sky Tower, please). And I allow you to comment later, no matter who.

1. Exe AU (I don't know--)

I think you can guess what I based it on, and most likely it will appear on a secondary account(???). I can't say anything about him yet, unfortunately'''

2. Sky Tower

Politics is in trouble, but yes... Ahem, well I can say something about him, hmm... He has been doing skywriting (creating pictures in the sky using an airplane) in fairly good shape and for quite a long time. Friendly. Phasmophobia (fear of ghosts or spirits) is present, I think with such a fear his meeting with someone else will not go well. I have nothing more to add for now.

3. My AU (Or my variation...uh...I'm not sure''')

Apparently I've taken a liking to adding eyelashes to some character, like what happened with Mr. Bruno - AKHEM, I'm getting distracted. Here he is, our magnificent artist Pepper, only slightly modified. Mostly cute. There is autophobia (fear of loneliness), the most noticeable, but fear... He simply does not like to be alone and does not want it. ... I want to steal his shoes-

That's all for now. I think you've found the rest

...

I allow you to display meetings if you want, or improvise

[iorekbyrinson]

shc drabbles: asriel belacqua, or, the Double Lion that ISN'T a Double Lion

ok so asriel has literally. haunted me since he got typed as a double lion. and this isn't to say that interpretation isn't correct.

however HOWEVER - do I think that's his sorting? no. I think he's a Lion secondary (that sometimes tries and pulls a Marisa Coulter-esque Snake sec), but his primary? Hufflepuff, baby. this is one of fiction's TRUE evil Badger Lions, and, to be honest, it's not even that hard to see how.

compare and contrast with Erik Lehnsherr, his nearest counterpart. Magneto has a kind of Badger-y shell on his Primary that dovetails with the dehumanizing aspects of his cause, rallies people behind him (it implies a kind of group care without him ever kind of NEEDING the group if that makes sense), and may well be something borrowed from his old mirror Charles Xavier, who Badgers so hard it sometimes hard to see his own Snake-yness. Anyhow, I digress. What I'm saying is - Magneto is the true Double Lion. He has his Cause, and when we see him in First Class, it's a typical low-health revenge fantasy Cause. then Charles intervenes and tries to guide him to a kind of belonging, a reckoning within his sense of unity amongst mutants (and humans, because Charles doesn't discriminate), but once that philosophy goes against Erik's newest Cause (born bloodstained and dripping the SECOND after the coin goes through Shaw's skull), he abandons Charles. and that's Erik's journey throughout these prequel movies especially - he finds a Cause, something disrupts it, he Improvises, then discovers a new one, hidden like an ember deep within. it's all internal and driven and NATURAL AND NORMAL to Erik to do this. he's a Lion.

now take Asriel - Asriel Belacqua, who EVERYONE knows to be a bit of a tight-arse and basically has never related to anyone, ever. his daemon is a snow leopard because the dude basically has the Arctic wastes swirling around inside of him. now that coldness; where is born it from? does it come from a particularly frozen Cause, a sense of isolation on a journey no one understands? when we see Erik on an equivalent journey, he's never ALONE like that - not really. Erik is either brooding or dangerously damaged or ticking over until his Lion comes roaring through. Asriel? even when he's getting what he wants, his glee is - dangerous. he's described as having eyes that glitter with savage amusement or rage. what I'm trying to get it as Asriel has an EXTERNAL primary - and what is his External Primary geared towards? hating humankind.

Now, without getting into the weeds of analysis too much, Asriel is supposed to be a cipher for Satan, the one who wants to destroy Heaven etcetera etcetera. And what we can take from this is Asriel feels fundamentally APART. Excluded. And he HATES it. he hates how the Authority and the Magisterium have curried the world into their little factions of power and belonging, he hates how he perceives himself as the ONLY one to see all this, he hates how Lyra, who is a real Lion primary, can survive on her own rage and power and instead he is burdened by it, because if there was ever someone who didn't have a LIFE outside of his raison d'etre, it's Asriel. It's hard to see, but once you see, you can't unsee it. And boy oh boy, does Asriel dehumanize HARD. He sees it fundamentally in tune to a greater plan (the plan being that he will free the world from oppression, but he shows precious little actual FERVOUR for the people he's supposedly freeing, because as we say, he hates them), and literally anyone who comes in his path he doesn't see as valuable/sees as expendable becomes Not Important. Roger Parslow, the child, who he sacrifices to open the new world. Lyra, time and time again. Even Marisa.

SPEAKING of; Marisa Coulter, Double Snake, is the only one who has ever gotten past all of this destructive Badger armour. Because she's a Loyalist - and Asriel UNDERSTANDS that. His one misstep outside of his mission was in his personal life when he threw caution to the wind to have an affair with Marisa, have their baby, and then grant that baby to Jordan College. Who knows, maybe this was the seed of him starting to dehumanize EVERYONE. But she's the only one he bows to, ever, even slightly. When she's injured in the last book, he lifts her and carries her to his aircraft with a gentleness NO ONE ELSE sees in the books. When she wakes in the other room and despairs of what comes next, whens he asks why he didn't just tell her he was trying in actuality to save Lyra/save the fate of humanity, he says wearily "I lied because I thought you'd believe a lie." At his weakest, at his most vulnerable, he turns to Marisa, because she's the only connection he has left to whatever human being was inside him. And his ending - falling into the abyss with her to save their child? That's the most these toxic, twisted Loyalists could ever give their unparented child. A fitting ending.

@wisteria-lodge I'd love to get your thoughts on this. What say you, Badger Lion, or Double Lion Asriel?

[saphic-with-t]

I saw people talking about Jawbone being a bad school counselor for how he treated the situation with Kipperlilly, and while I agree that from what we heard, it was definitely not good, I’d like to use this to point something out.

This single situation highlights two major things I think we forget or overlook when looking at the more serious, intense stuff within the storytelling genre of dnd/actual-play. Both boil down to things not being perfect.

First, this feels like the situation where we should remember that Brennan isn’t a school counselor, and never has been, or gotten training. He doesn’t know the proper procedures for stuff.

Second, this is improvised. It’s off the cuff and can’t be changed. If it was a traditional style of writing like a book or script, maybe an editor would have picked up on the inaccuracies or problems of the character and brought it up to Brennan for revisions in the next draft. But that can’t happen, and it’s pretty much set in stone as soon as it’s put out.

There is also the possibility (though I don’t personally believe this) that Brennan was intentional with Jawbone handling the situation poorly.

Jawbone’s mistake adds to and reinforces his character. I have met with school counselors before and they are usually far from perfect. In fact, Jawbone is still definitely one of the better examples of a school counselor in fiction and irl. We know that a lot of students (and staff) do really enjoy him. He was able to diagnose Adaine’s problem and has helped a few of the bad kids quite a lot and gives good advice. But he’s still new. He doesn’t have official education on child psychology and is pretty much completely self taught. It makes sense that at the very least he would let some kids slip through the cracks or make some bad calls. Especially since Kipperlilly’s situation and Jawbone’s secondary relationship to them is a unique thing that he would definitely not be prepared for.

Also, you can just add your head cannons into the mix. I saw one saying they believed Jawbone recommended to KlCk’s parents that they find her a therapist outside of the school and they declined it, but since it wouldn’t be part of her file, Riz and the rest wouldn’t see or know about it. Things like that are the whole point of head-cannons, to help explain stuff that goes unexplained.

Anyways, if you read this far thank you, I just needed to rant about it because people were getting really nasty about it (especially on Twitter) and I wanted to drop my two cents into the void.

[alix-in-july]

even my loved ones intuitively know I'm a bird sec apparently. my sister gave me a fancy portable tea infuser as a birthday gift and I genuinely almost cried.

[s10127470]

So recently I've been seeing some discourse online about voice actors.

Particularly ones that can only really do one voice.

We're talking about the likes of Kristen Schaal, Dana Snyder, Patrick Warburton, Kevin McDonald, Keith David, Brad Garrett, H. Jon Benjamin, David Kaufman, Brian Stepanek and Eddie Deezen.

However, it's not in the way you may be thinking.

In fact, the discourse is about praising these guys and showcasing just how good of VAs they are despite only being able to do one voice.

Thought it did get me thinking about another notable VA that can also only do one voice.

However, in contrast to the VAs I just mentioned, they're looked down on for that.

If you haven't guessed who it is already, I'm talking about the infamous Justin Roiland.

It got me wondering why are the aforementioned VAs so beloved and praised as being good, while Justin isn't.

Well putting aside the obvious fact that they're not abusive creeps or talentless hacks, there are a few reasons I can think of.

Characters and Inflictions:

Despite using the same voice for their characters, what truly makes those aforementioned VAs such great VAs are....well, the characters they play.

Just about all the characters those VAs are different from each other, and the VAs use different inflictions in order to perfectly capture their personalities.

Justin unfortunately lacks this skill.

A common complaint towards his characters is that a lot of them tend of feel similar to one another.

Which is not helped by his lack of a vocal range.

The worst examples of this are in the case of Rick & Korvo and Morty & Oscar.

The latter duo have this the worst.

Not only being similar to each other character-wise, but also having the EXACT same voice.

Rick and Korvo are a little better (though not by much) since the latter does sound a little different (though once again, not by again), but they still suffer the problem of being too similar to each other from a characterization standpoint.

Acting:

Although most people consider them two separate mediums, acting and voice acting are essentially similar to one another, as it involves performing as a character.

And although they can only do one voice, you can tell those aforementioned VAs can actually act!

They can actually sell on the emotion their character may be feeling.

H. Jon Benjamin is one of my favorites when it comes to this.

Because of how he always talks in a monotone voice, I always get taken aback whenever he screams or yells.

They just sound so genuine.

Now compare this to Justin.

Justin seems incapable of doing emotional moments.

Whenever he does, it feels rather stilled and somewhat forced.

Like, compare his last official voice performance on Rick and Morty....

To some scenes featuring some of the aforementioned VAs.....

You can hear the emotion in their performances!

Back to that Mr. Poopy Butthole scene.

Apart from the fact that at the point of this episode's premiere, Justin's trademark of doing an annoying goofy voice has ran its course and became, well, annoying.

Listen to when PB is in pain.

He doesn't really sound like it.

Like dude, his legs were crushed.

He should be screaming bloody murder!

But instead he just sounds like he's having a sugar rush.

Justin is also famous for heavily relying on ad-libbing and improvising when it comes to voice acting.

Hence his trademark stuttering

And while that isn't a bad thing in itself, it gives off the impression that he really just can't voice act.

And given how much of a talentless hack he was proven to be, I honestly believe that is the case.

There's also the fact that he famously drinks before voice acting.

And I don't think I need to explain to anyone here how alcohol can negatively affect....well, anything.

Quantity:

I think the biggest reason why so many people don't like Justin's voice acting is just how of him there is.

Justin famously has a lot of voice roles in Rick and Morty.

Not just voicing the titular duo, but also a decent chunk of secondary characters and a WHOLE LOT of extras.

Contrast that to the aforementioned VAs, who only really voice one character in whatever show they're in.

Bar a few exceptions like Bob's Burgers.

Since after hearing so many characters voiced by Justin in the same show, you can't help but start to get tired of it.

And I know there's gonna be some people who are gonna bring up Seth MacFarlane and Alex Hirsch, two creator who also voiced a lot of characters in their shows.

Both in the main and secondary cast.

And as extras.

But both of them use different voices for just about every character they voice.

And although this is a slightly smaller example, but the MTV animated series Undergrads had the series creator, Pete Williams, voice all FOUR of the main protagonists.

And to this day, I'm still shocked by his performance as all four of them.

Like, they all sound so different from each other. So much so that you wouldn't be able to tell that they're all voiced by the same dude.

To wrap this all up, I wanna bring up one last thing that makes this especially bad.

And it doesn't have to do with Justin's quality.

Apparently, the reason why Justin voiced so many characters in this show was so he could use it as an excuse to not get fired.

Anyway, that's all I have for today.

A short post, but something I wanted to talk about.

And also, Justin, if you're reading this......

Go fuck yourself.

[eye-may]

Your top 3 favorite ships! And headcanons! Pleaaaseee !💖💝💖💗💖💝

Also

You draw so cool! And your headcanons are so interesting

not sure if you mean like fav hc per respective ship but I'm gonna go with that XD I'm not big on romance so most of these are going to be platonic/familial 🥴

Tuggoffelees - on cold nights at the junkyard, it's commonplace for the cats to sleep in cuddle piles. Mistoffelees will almost automatically gravitate to Tugger in search of warmth. When Mistoffelees worms his way into Tugger's side, the latter habitually drapes his big fluffy tail over the former like a blanket <3

Munkustrap and Alonzo - Alonzo is a young adult cat who more or less idolizes Munkustrap and seeks to emulate him. Munkustrap regards Alonzo as his "right-hand cat," the secondary protector of the tribe, and an unofficial protegee. Although Alonzo maintains a stoic and serious veneer, he's not as confident deep down as he may seem, and is prone to lapsing into episodes of self-flagellation at any perceived failures---which usually results in maladaptive coping mechanisms, like overworking. Munkustrap sees a lot of himself in Alonzo, and so he attempts to emulate the same gentle and level-headed guidance that he himself received from Deutoronomy. Often enough he'll coordinate one-on-one "sit-downs" with Alonzo where they'll just pleasantly talk. Not necessarily about work, or patrols, or pollicles, or Macavity, or any such unpleasantries---but about quaint, casual things. How are things going with so-and-so? Did you see that meteor shower last night? Remember that funny thing that happened at rehearsal two days ago? Munk hopes that this gesture is at least somewhat cathartic for his uptight mentee.

Demeter and Bombalurina - I actually could see these two developing a romantic relationship, but I know that's a Hot Take lmao. Obviously, as it follows, I don't see them as sisters. Platonic or romantic, whichever way, I just think the pair of them emblematize female solidarity and rage and the harrowing quest for independence and freedom. I like to imagine that there are times (usually at the behest of Bombalurina) that the two of them go off on their own specifically to unleash their pent up turmoil in the company of only each other---free from judgment of their emotions, their appearances, their utility, propriety, etc. They'll just leave as a pair to throw things, sing, scream, improvise dances with one another, take long walks on which good, deep conversations are had. I think they dually believe that the other is the only person in the world who can really understand and relate to each other, and not smother each other in platitudes of sympathy or patronizations or macho heroic promises. I also think that they "balance each other out," e.g., Demeter surfaces Bombalurina's gentler, nurturing instincts, while Bombalurina makes Demeter feel empowered to explore and unleash her more turbulent thoughts and feelings without fear of retaliation.

bonus! Bustopher and Mistoffelees - Bustopher is, to all and sundry in the junkyard, the eccentric and endearing uncle. I don't see him as biologically related to Mistoffelees, but I do think the two of them have a special familial bond; although Bustopher keeps up his militant, pompous veil, he would be woe to admit that doesn't find Mistoffelees particularly winsome. When he visits the junkyard, if he isn't instantly greeted by the young tuxedo, he'll say something like "and where is that diminutive illusionist?!" if anything untoward ever befalls Mistoffelees, and Bustopher hears about it, he'll thunder onto the scene lol. Likewise, if vice versa, Mistoffelees will go to any length to help Bustopher, even if that entails reckless disobedience.

Also, thank you for the kind words anon! <3