#isn't that incredible/???? the amount of things we don't know and how they're still down there anyways. god. what a planet what a life

[bugmistake]

thinking about marine life and getting so excited i have to remind myself to breathe

[pibsboots]

I've always had chronic fatigue. I remember being twelve, and an adult mentioned how I couldn't possibly know how tired they felt because adulthood brought levels of exhaustion I couldn't imagine. I thought about that for days in fear, because I couldn't remember the last time I didn't feel tired.

Eventually I came to terms with the fact that I was just tired, and I couldn't do as many things as everyone else. People called me lazy, and I knew that wasn't true, but there's only so many times you can say "I'm tired" before people think it's an excuse. I don't blame them. When a teenager does 20 hours of extracurriculars every week and only says "I'm too tired" when you ask them to do the dishes, it's natural to think it's an excuse. At some point, I started to think the same thing.

It didn't matter that I could barely sit up. It was probably all in my head, and if I really wanted to, I could do it.

When I learned the name for it, chronic fatigue, I thought wow, people that have that must be miserable, because I am always tired and I cannot imagine what it would feel like if it were worse.

Spoiler alert, if you've been tired for a decade, it's probably chronic fatigue.

Once I figured that out though, I thought of my energy as the same as everyone else's, just smaller in quantity. And that might be true for some people, but I've figured out recently that it absolutely isn't true for me.

I used to be like wow I have so much energy today I can do this whole list for sure! And then I'd do the dishes and have to lay down for 2 hours. Then I'd think I must gave misjudged that, I didn't have as much energy as I thought.

But the thing is - I did have enough energy for more tasks, I just didn't go about them properly.

With chronic fatigue, your maximum energy is obviously much smaller than the average person's. Doing the dishes for you might use up the same percentage of energy that it takes to do all the daily chores for someone else.

If someone without chronic fatigue was to do all the daily chores, they would take breaks. Because otherwise, they're sprinting a marathon for no reason and it would take way more energy than necessary. We have to do the same.

Put the cups in the dishwasher, take a break. Put the bowls in, take a break. So on and so forth. This may mean taking breaks every 2-5 minutes but afterwards, you get to not feel like you've run a marathon while carrying 4 people on your back.

Today, I had a moderate amount of energy. Under my old system of go till you drop, I probably could have done most of the dishes and wiped off the counter and then been dead to the world for the rest of the day.

Under the new system, I scooped litter boxes, cleaned out the fridge, took the trash out, cleaned the stove, and wiped off the counter and did all the dishes. And after all that, I still had it in me to make a simple dinner, unload the dishwasher, and tidy the kitchen.

It was complete and utter insanity. Just because I sat down whenever I felt myself getting more tired than I already was.

All this to say, take fucking breaks. It's time to unlearn the ceaseless productivity bullshit that capitalism has shoved down our throats. Its actively counterproductive. Just sit down. Drink some water. Rest your body when it needs to rest.

There will still be days where there is nothing to do but rest, and days where half a load of dishes is absolutely the most I can do. But this method has really helped me minimize those, which is so incredibly relieving.

[ladyazurith]

You mentioned in one post that you think one problem with the game is that it twists itself into pretzels to fit the various different narratives, even when it doesn't make sense for the characters. Can you talk more about that? (Because I totally agree.)

Very much so! It's really bothersome. The first thing is in the individual chapters they tend to act like the students don't know each other well outside their own dorms, almost like they're practical strangers who have never interacted before. When everything else points to the opposite. Take Chapter 5 for example. They try to act like Ace and Deuce have no idea who Epel is, yet in Ace's CR story, he clearly meets Epel during their sorting. Never mind how they behave during events. And in chapter 2 when Cater is with Yuu and the others scoping out possible targets, it's presented like he doesn't know most of them well, when he clearly knows *everyone*.

Then from there, it's how the characters act in their individual chapters. Chapter 1 is mostly okay in this regard. Events with Riddle happen quickly enough that him having a major change of heart and acting "normal" in material from then on isn't too jarring.

But moving on from there it's a trainwreck. The chapter's overblot victims/ antagonists can get a little bit of a pass, but even then it stretches things.

Like Ruggie for instance, he is very shrewd and isn't above taking advantage of a situation. But he's not evil, he very clearly cares a lot about his home, his grandmother, and the other kids who live in the area with him. The idea that the character we see in every other situation would cause serious harm to someone else over a game is kind of ludicrous. He could have very easily risked expulsion if things had gone too far, and then he wouldn't be in a position to help *anyone*. Leona is even kind of iffy to me. While Leona tends to go out of his way to appear uncaring/unmotivated/lazy, he's actually an incredibly good dorm leader who cares about his students. Most of his real issues are internal, and harming innocent people who aren't even part of his beef with Malleus just seems out of character to me. Never mind what he does to Ruggie. Some of it can be explained by the build up of blot but not all of it.

And then Chapter 3, Azul, Jade, and Floyd. For the most part, I can see the tweels going along with everything because they both thrive on chaos. But Azul's plan is just...stupid coming from someone who's a professional businessman. First off he has no shortage of workers for the lounge. Ruggie frequently takes shifts there, and Cater while not a waiter also does a lot of work with them. But the whole sea anemone thing was just gross. And apparently, there was nothing in the contract about not disparaging their employer. It might have caused a spike in business at first just because people want to see what's going on for themselves, but overall, he'd ultimately hurt his business and drive customers *away*. Never mind the whole bullying backstory comes out of NOWHERE. Like I do have sympathy for Azul and what he went through and he is one of my favorite characters, but Ch 3 suffered from poor writing in my opinion. Narratively the whole thing was a mess.

Chapter 4 is handled better in my opinion. For the most part, I have the least amount of complaints about what goes on here. My biggest one though is what I mentioned before, Characters tend to exist in a bubble during their chapter events. You can not tell me that Cater nor Lilia wouldn't have tried to figure out what the hell was going on with Kalim. Or Silver for that matter. Never mind how Kalim had the authority to keep his entire dorm at school over a holiday when it's shut down?!!? I get his family is rich and powerful but, that still seems like a stretch idk.

Jamil I think was a least handled well otherwise, his actions and motivations seemed consistent with his character. In the end, he didn't really want to harm anyone, he just wanted his freedom and was desperate. The only real question is what did he think was going to happen next? Even if Kalim got kicked out of NRC then he would have only had about a year and a half of 'freedom' it wouldn't have solved any of his problems. And if Kalim had turned up dead, there would have still been severe repercussions for him and his family. IDK for someone who is supposed to be good at planning and scheming there definitely were parts that weren't well thought-out.

Chapter 5 and Rook is where this conversation started I think but I'll touch on it again. His actions at the end of chapter 5 are COMPLETELY out of character for what we know about him otherwise. Hiding his obsession with Neige from Vil, and then revealing it IN FRONT OF him while he's still licking his wounds from his overblot is just...if this was the only context we had for Rook, no one would be calling them friends. He had no real reason to reveal he was the one that cost them the competition.

The reception to this was so bad that's why we have the start of chapter 6 where Vil gives his speech about professionalism and why he's okay with Rook and what he did. I don't believe the narrative that Vil wasn't hurt at all, not with how he's shown to be so insecure especially where Neige is concerned. Sure I might buy the part about Rook voting for NRC not hurting him, but not the rest of it.

Never mind otherwise Rook isn't cruel. Especially not to Vil, and his actions were just that.

This is also biased, but the fact that Cater was cut from the team, and the reasons why rub me the wrong way. I know that they just wanted Jamil and Kalim because they were the previous chapter's focal point and Ace and Deuce because they're tied to pretty much everything because of Yuu and the story. But Vil keeps talking about being a professional, admitted straight up that Cater's audition was *perfect* but brushed him off and passed him over anyway. (Also Ironic because Cater's VA actually is a musician/singer/ensemble group member and not a traditional VA) but that's off course of the question lol

Also, I will never not be salty that RSA won with their song/performance. All for the narrative. And THEN they gave us a shot at seeing some kind of revenge or at least a win over them after the VDC with Epel's hometown event and yet again WE STILL LOST. I don't understand that one either. It's just frustrating for the players to be put in that situation again needlessly. There was no real narrative/story reason we had to lose.

Chapter 6 we finally get away from the narrative that the characters can't know who each other are in the main story at least -_-;. overall I don't have too many issues with Chapter 6. (other than the mini games -_-) Idia's character is kept consistent. We get some fun moments from the cast, and for the most part its in line with what we know of them and their characters. Azul and Riddle are gold, Jamil needed to hear what Leona told them. (tho it was a little pot kettle but then again that meant that Leona knew what he was talking about). And over all things don't seem AS forced. Had hoped things were gonna get better.

Then Chapter 7 rolled around and they murdered Lilia's character. The character we knew would NEVER treat his family like that. He even gives Malleus a speech in Cater's Halloween SSR about how he'll always be there when he needs him. He's consistently been shown to value his family and connections. It was just such a drastic change I am still baffled. I understand why he would be leaving, but to not really talk to those around him or explain what's going on and make an effort to keep in touch and stay in their lives? It's absurd. Of course Silver and Malleus broke down, if in high school my dad basically told me he was dying and that he was going far away and I'd never see him again, I'd have lost it too, and I'm not nearly as close to my dad as they were to Lilia.

I know they needed something to trigger Malleus's overblot but again this just seems like poor writing to me. The idea of Lilia loosing his powers and possibly dying I think would have been enough if they'd framed it right to push Malleus over the edge. That's difficult /emotional enough and they wouldn't have had to completely destroy Lilia's characterization to make it work. They could have even had the scene with Silver and Malleus when SIlver breaks down crying in front of him after trying to stay strong in front of Lilia so as not to worry him.

I'm trying to reserve too much judgment until we see the entirety of chapter 7 but unless there is some unknown reason for Lilia to have chosen this method of leaving, I don't know how to really justify it.

I get sometimes characters have to make difficult choices it is what helps make a story interesting, but if those choices arise from conflict that's not framed well or meaningful, it loses its potency. It comes across like us as the players and the characters themselves being cheated.

[whileyoureinschoolidothisallday]

lrt the key thing to remember about covid is that it isn't magic. It has to get in you first before it can infect you, and you have to have a certain amount of viral load before it can take over (it doesn't take much anymore, but it still has to reach that threshold).

The key to being able to do fun, indoor things is to find an n95 or higher respirator, test to make sure it fits you without leakage, and then do not take off your mask. ever.

This is where it gets people. I hear tons of stories from people who caught Covid even though they masked, and it almost always turns out they took it off for one reason or another.

"Hungry or thirsty?" Eat and hydrate beforehand or plan to stay until you get hungry. If you have a medical condition where you have to eat or take meds while you're out, find a place outside and bring multiple masks so you can put on a fresh one when you're done. For thirst, they actually make something for this. Do not take off the mask.

"What if we wanna take a selfie?" Take them beforehand or keep the masks on. Do not take off the mask.

"What about air breaks?" No air breaks. If you can't tolerate being in a mask for long periods, you cannot safely go to long events. Do not take off the mask.

Respirators have a seal. When you break the seal by taking it off, they do not work as effectively. The seal can also break after a certain amount of use, which changes depending on how many other people are masking around you. I used to have a diagram showing how long each masks last in different situations, but I sadly cannot find it so I won't say a specific time since I can't confirm it, but this is essentially why if I'm going to attempt something riskier, I wear a p100 because those are good for 8hrs before you have to change the filter, and anything that I go to indoors won't be more than 3hrs (simply because I'm old and I ain't staying out longer than that lol)

I really appreciate that op made a psa, because the point of that post I think a lot of people are missing is that we need to be in full pandemic mode specifically because of the wave. But the problem with writing Covid things in a sensational kind of way is that it makes mitigation seem like an impossible task that requires monk like sacrifice, and that makes people immediately shut down. It's not, even in a huge wave like this. Will you have to change your routine and behaviors, and some of those changes might be inconvenient? Absolutely. But they will never be impossible. It's important to remember that adaptation isn't sacrifice. You're not "giving up" anything. You're still gonna be able to have your social needs met, you'll just be doing it in a different way for awhile.

If you want to hang out with a small group of friends at their/your house, and it's too cold to be outside or you just don't want to, the safest way to do it is universal masking, full vaccinations, testing multiple times beforehand, and using at least one air purifier that filters up to 0.1-0.5 µm in the room you'll be gathering in. This can be done diy with a Corsi-Rosenthal box if you need something cheaper! Air filters suck in viruses faster than people can breathe them in, so the risk of getting covid would be incredibly low in this situation (but never zero). If you want to share a meal, know that taking off the masks will increase the risk, but at least let the purifer run at the highest setting tolerable for an hour before doing so

If you can't afford to stop reusing your N95s, I recommend either locating a mask bloc near you and ask for some mask donations, or buy an elastomeric n95 like this one. There are many to choose from and while they are more expensive, they're reusable, with the filter only needing to be changed after 8 hours (or sooner if in a big crowd)

Some people are currently inventing portable air-purifiers you can pair with masks, and you can 3-D print them!

You're at work/the dentist/some other situation where you absolutely can't go outside in a non-crowded space, and you need to take down your mask? Nasal sprays like this one can be a good extra layer of protection for these situations. You can always, like with most viruses, rinse out your nose after being in public and rinse your mouth with CPC mouthwash for even more extra layers of protection.

One of the frustrations I have with the current Covid advocacy is that it's still largely focused on near-total abstinence, which has never been and never will be an effective education tool. I prefer taking a cue from AIDS advocacy and focus on education and providing resources. Of course, staying home is the only way to stay 100% safe, and you should choose contactless options whenever you can as long as the pandemic is still going. But isolation is becoming less and less realistic for most people and I want to still show them that you can stay safe even if you can't stay home.

Covid is not an impossible task. It's not magic. You do not need to catch that wave. These are imperative facts we as a collective have to internalize if we want out of this pandemic. You are not helpless. We've had airborne viruses for years and years, and we've known how to protect ourselves from them as well. We've known how to protect from Covid, specifically, for years. The only reason it's gotten this bad and is still a pandemic is because our governments benefit more from the masses being sick and needing resources, full stop. Like climate change, we have the tools to beat this virus back at any point. Because of this, even in this huge wave, there is no reason you have to only exist online. There are ways you can see your friends safely.

All people like OP are saying is that, at least until this wave improves, you should do that without going to the bars, clubs, restaurants, concert venues, etc. Because it's not only extremely unsafe for you, but it's putting other people in danger too.

[room-surprise]

Dungeon Meshi Anime Review, Season 2, Episode 17 review

OH GOD OKAY here we go...

Once again, I am a broken record: good episode!

My two major complaints: The bit where Laios and Kabru stand around talking next to an off-screen, roaring, screaming monster seemed kind of silly in animation. In a comic it works, but they really should have animated them walking or stumbling away while delivering those lines, having them just stand there until the monster attacks them again is really goofy.

ALSO, something Trigger keeps doing that I am NOT a fan of, is throwing animated speed-line backgrounds behind characters when they're reacting to something. Sometimes these were in the original manga, other times they are NOT... and they break the immersion of the anime completely IMO.

The coloring in DM is so moody and wonderful, the aesthetic is generally grounded, so when suddenly the background is bright blue or lime green or pink and strobing, it's VERY jarring... and the joke DOES NOT NEED these effects in order to be funny! In fact I think it leeches some of the humor out of the jokes. Imagine if every time someone had a strong emotion in a classic Disney movie you'd get this:

This type of sudden background color change, strobing and speed lines are artifacts of older, cheaper anime, tricks that used to be done to hide the lack of budget, as a way to make a quick joke. It's now used as a shorthand to tell people a joke is happening.

But Trigger doesn't NEED to use these tricks, they're using them because "that's how you make sure the audience knows a joke is happening", but the jokes in Dungeon Meshi are so well written, you don't need to cue us with a visual laugh-track, Trigger!!!! ESPECIALLY when Kui didn't do it in the manga!!!

They've done it in other episodes, but I felt like they were particularly noticeable and bad in this one. Makes me sad because I feel it's dragging the anime down from the genuine peak of artistry that it's otherwise achieving.

As always, animation is fantastic. The stuff with chimera falin is obviously top notch, brutal and fast and amazing... But I also have to say that the Toshiro and Laios argument was animated INCREDIBLY well, with a lot of loving detail given to what is, ostensibly, just talking, something Trigger normally hates to animate.... But they put movie-quality work into that argument and it really paid off.

Honestly can't think of much to complain about. It's a solid adaptation of this part of the story, one of the biggest, coolest action sequences that we've all been waiting for.

Vocal performances were all great in both English and Japanese. Kabru's English voice actor did a great job, despite my misgivings about him in previous episodes. I hope he continues to improve.

A dub script change had Kabru think "He's excited" about Laios instead of "his pupils are dilated"... This isn't a terrible change, but a bit baffling. Saying his pupils are dilated tells viewers HOW Kabru knows Laios is excited, and indicates that he is using some kind of scientific criteria to measure it, it makes him sound smarter and more detached from what he's doing. Just saying "he's excited" doesn't tell us how Kabru knows... and it's a thought, not dialog, so it's weird for them to change it in the script, since there's no need to match mouth-flaps.

The sequence where Kabru strips off all his armor and does a surprise attack on Falin is still fantastic in this, though I am a little bit sad that they didn't find any ways to add any extra emphasis for it - in the manga it's drawn out a bit, to the point where you might miss what was happening on your first read... I think the amount of shots we got in the anime was the same as in the manga, but somehow it felt less impactful to me. Maybe pacing?

At any rate, it was an incredibly solid episode.

I already liked Toshiro, but seeing this part of the manga animated really made me like him more, I hadn't realized in the past just how damn romantic the twin bells thing was, but damn. Toshiro really has forgiven Laios by the time they part ways here, it's easy to forget that since Toshiro very much takes a back seat after this.

[bonzos-number-1-fan]

TMAGP 13 Thoughts: Phone Bug

A big episodes for small reasons. Not much world-shaking happened but just enough was said about just the right things. A lot to get into in this one around the incident. We're starting to have the curtain pulled back. Just a crack right now, but that's just more reason to be cracked.

Spoilers for episode 13, and all of TMA, below the cut.

Not a huge amount to touch on in the date portion of the episode other than a couple of sentences. Yeah, Sam is a gifted burn out that's sad about not getting experimented on. Same old same old. But Celia has a baby. Jack being Celia's kid I wasn't expecting mostly because of how that figures into her timeline. She's very heavily implied to be TMA's Celia but based on what she said if she is then she's been in TMP's universe for at least 4 years. A "couple of wild years" and Jack's "just over a year old". Plus 9 months and it's a lot longer than it might've appeared. None of that stuff tripped Freddy's possible lie detector either that I heard.

If you work under the assumption that the voices are who most people think, and they started roughly when they arrived, then that's a fairly major time discrepancy. The voices are about a year old but Celia has been around for 4.

However, it doesn't strictly rule that out either. Firstly, we know that moving between universes isn't actually one-to-one time-wise. Anya Villette went backwards 2 weeks when she crossed over. So them arriving at different times could support the idea that she's TMA's Celia further. Her general explanation of events could also be explained by this too. If she's not there willingly, or is there willingly but it didn't quite go to plan, a couple of wild years while you get your footing in a world you don't belong to isn't far fetched. If she was there looking for the voices then her showing up so relatively late could be explained by her baby too. So it's certainly not a dead and buried theory yet.

While Jack isn't Jack Barnabas he and the voices are about the same age. If people want to go rabid over that.

Gwen and Lena's little chat has a similar amount to really dig into. It's nice to see Gwen dealing with it all, and it's annoying we still don't know who died, but Lena does have a lot to say in a few words.

The world is full of opposing forces, some benevolent, most not. In order for the wheels to keep on turning, all these forces need to be monitored and balanced. That is where we come in.

This probably the most information we've had on the OIAR to this point from the show itself. I think most of this was safely assumed before this point. They've been doing a lot of monitoring, categorisation, and the only responses we have seen have been tamping major spikes down. A world of opposing forces is also a given. We are being led to believe that these are analogous to the 14+1 but there being benevolent ones if that's true is a big mix up. If you take the above timeline idea a step further and say the 14+1 arrived much earlier (or it doesn't matter because of how they're temporally weird) the benevolent ones could be native to TMP. They could be all TMP had.

Her assertion that the OIAR is a balance on these forces is interesting. Beyond the obvious stuff it also leans into an idea I've been throwing about regarding Starkwall. In the perception of Starwall might not really be the whole picture. The San Pedro Square massacre could've been an easy scapegoat to pin on them for the OIAR to split with them. A split caused by a disagreement in ethics. Starkwall thus far hasn't been shown to have an incredible disregard for human life based on Ep 7. The OIAR definitely has been. It could just be a PR move because the massacre was too big to contain but that feels like the least interesting way to handle this. A faction that's all in on monster hit men splitting with a faction who is against it has more room for interesting drama and worldbuilding IMO.

Balance was also a very large aspect of TMA in the end. The OIAR working towards that balance isn't as noble a goal as it might sound. Or it at least has the potential to be an incredibly misguided goal.

Okay, with all that mostly out of the way onto the incident itself. I enjoy this one a fair bit. Very different to what's come before it but with another recurring theme. We're starting to see a couple of patterns emerge now although it's too early to start naming things. I don't think there is a lot to really get into but this one was written by Alex, had a new VA, and was a recurring idea. Which does all point to this being quite important as these things go. All the episodes will likely tie up quite nicely in the end but this one seems quite relevant currently. In any case this was a fun one and I'm kinda curious how some of the elements within it will tie together. Mainly the gambling and insects.

Also, super weird they went with Zorrotrade for this. Because that's a real thing. Or was a real thing? It might be dead now, but still.

Post-incident chat has nothing I really want to comment on. More Alice and Sam is always good, even if Alice is trying really hard to not seem very upset.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Incident/CAT#R#DPHW Master Sheet

DPHW Theory: 4622 doesn't seem particularly noteworthy. It's interesting from a thematic angle how this differs from Rolling With It. Both obviously very linked to gambling but this one lacks the compulsion elements. Which is a good indicator that H is linked to that sort of thing. Not that I need to convince myself of that further.

CAT# Theory: 3. Insert screams et cetera, et cetera. More seriously there still isn't a convincing pattern to this. Although I might be swinging back to my original tria prima and/or triple deity interpretation.

R# Theory: B is where I was thinking it'd end up while listening. So that's nice. Not much to add to this. Much like with DPHW the more information that lines up with the theory the less there is to talk about it because I've already done the hard bit.

Header talk: Gambling (Application) -/- Murder. Other than Application being a pretty weird Subsection I'm not sure there is much to dig into here. Although it does likely confirm he's dead. Which does make it a little strange that his statement wasn't read by one of the Freddy lot.

[inchidentally]

Why do I feel like Oscar is intentionally keeping Lando at a distance because he assumes it would never work out? And Lando kind of wishes Oscar would show an interest but he isn't so Lando pulls back too? Maybe I'm totally crazy but feels like they're doing a double fake out. If not then why not just be friendly the way they are with other guys?

@twinkodium helped talk me through this ask so a huge thank you to her <3

gonna put below a cut and include some other asks that aren't necessarily of interest to everyone and are kind of in the same vein (note the tag)

okay so "why not just be friendly like they are with other guys" is a pretty good thing to focus on bc when you actually break it down, Lando and Oscar define themselves as being pretty shy and they conceal a fair amount their lives and closest friends from the public. and truth is that it seems to take both of them at least a year of knowing someone before they open up - and even longer before they're as friendly as we see them with guys like Logan, Zhou, Carlos or Daniel. Lando lists the guys he's known since as far back as karting as his closest friends. so after just one season together, what we already have in terms of friendliness between Lando and Oscar is pretty damn good!

but honestly we can't say that either of them are really holding back at all when we've got Andrea and Zak constantly emphasizing how in sync they are and then of course how big they both show up for each other's wins/poles etc. whatever we don't get in terms of fun fandom content, we've got them showing each other mutual respect and support and sharing the same priorities. that's... really good imo.

it's what cracks me up abt everyone who went all 'planetf1 angry white dad in oakleys selfie in a truck comment section' over that recent Oscar quote. Lando's literally had everyone saying the same thing to him, directly and on social media ?? did they also decide that Martin Brundle, Natalie Pinkham, Lawrence Barretto and Jenson Button all despise Lando and want to take swipes at him by saying that his public flagellation feels of no use and worse, that it's probably a hindrance to his mindset? did Lando suddenly became loathed by all these people who SEEM to openly like or love him bc they said that ??

or did they expect Oscar to respond to that question with "oh no yeah it's cool that my teammate who I actually like shits all over himself and gives his haters ammo y'know to each their own whatever man" bc that WOULD actually be incredibly cold and hurtful asgajsgfljasf

I know fandom can go way off track and start expecting these men to talk like fan fic but the truth is that they view each other as professionals and fellow drivers first and friends (if they are) second. I won't repeat myself bc I've posted about it enough but none of the grid are a significant part of Lando or Oscar's life outside F1. Lando and Martin did a stopover in Perth (and apparently Martin even had work there?) for one day to ride dirt bikes at Daniel's ranch and Lando went to Carlos' sisters' gigantic state wedding lol. doesn't compare at all compared to Lando's time spent with Max F, the quadrant folks, his family, his Monaco friends and definitely not Martin Garrix. it also doesn't mean that they're not still friends with those guys on the grid - it's just not the same.

so the fact that Lando and Oscar aren't out here dishing out bromancey stuff where fans can see and hear definitely doesn't say that those bromances mean the drivers are actually any closer. Oscar relied on extroverts like Robert and Arthur to give him something to play off and Lando relied on Carlos and Daniel for the same. so when they're left without a gobby extrovert they do that cute thing of giggling and handing back and forth to each other. to me personally it's always kind of sweet ?? that Lando and Oscar do the thing of looking at each other for support to get through the cringey and awkward to camera stuff. sometimes when Lando is really feeling himself Oscar can just kick back and watch him. and as we saw w that helmet design video, even when Oscar isn't filming w Lando he hangs around offers support.

wow apparently I cannot stay on track today anon but idk I just personally think that it's the opposite of a mutual fakeout and they've bonded pretty well over both being shy, both being equally focused on their careers and also needing to switch off sometimes. finding out they spent the night after Lando's crash in Vegas together sharing "commiserations" is like, one in a long list of us hearing that they chose to hang out alone together and not publicize it.

all of us are on the outside of their friendship and as much as that suuuuucks for not getting as much content as we want, it's also really sweet and kind more likely to be genuine and lasting since they consider a lot of that relationship as private <3

askgfka no prob!! tbh a lot of the stress and anxiety in other Lando ships is down to ppl getting way too comfy w the idea that real life partners either aren't "real" or that they're the only thing standing in the way of their ship becoming real.

and bc for some reason landoscar makes me want to write all of these essays I feel like it's kind of my responsibility to be like yeah, there's even more than just assuming ppl's sexualities and their real life partners stand between two ppl we like to imagine together actually getting together. rpf is heavy on the f and mostly what we're all actually enjoying are friendships. and as someone who is lucky to have them, I personally wouldn't be one of those ppl who said romantic partners and friendships are on some sliding scale of importance. they're just different!

ever since landoscar became a thing, Lily's been in Oscar's life and Lando's been pursued by every man who sees him and burning through baddies on Raya on a literal global scale. it's important to come back from rpf to that fact so we don't end up attraction those legions of people calling real life girlfriends "PR beards" or that Lando's dating app horniness is some front for him meeting up with Carlos or Daniel or whoever lol.

oh I am so not the person to answer abt this since I can't relate to wanting couples to get married or thinking that it's all that significant! I'm a huge romantic and I theoretically enjoy the idea of weddings/marriage but all the ppl I know who've gotten married out of college are already regretting or cheating it so it's put a real damper on it for me.

but that's as much as I want to speculate abt them bc I don't want to put anything out in the universe for ppl I'll never even know !!

[mdhwrites]

Why Do Modern Isekai Like Slavery?

So the easy answer here is that it allows the MC to treat a girl like complete shit and she still has to suck his dick. That it's part of the power fantasy. However, that's the easy answer. That's treating these authors like they're just trying to find an easy answer for fetish bait and for getting to the tropes that their audience likes. I don't find that useful analytically. So, for now, we're going to hang that up and talk about shudders for a moment the narrative utility in a fantasy story of including slavery. God I hate some of the shit this will make me have to say.

I do want to be clear: Slavery is bad. Absolutely terrible. There are few worse things you could to a human being. I would personally argue that killing another human being is less inhumane than slavery. I feel like I should make this clear because I am going to talk about, from a storytelling perspective, how acknowledging slavery in your setting can be useful, especially for these sorts of stories.

With that out of the way:

Any fish out of water story, which ALL isekai inherently are, need a few things to make sure our protagonist doesn't just wander around for a couple days before dying of lack of food or pissing the wrong person off. Those things, though this list is not comprehensive:

A basic understanding of the world, or at least someway to be stopped from breaking common knowledge on accident.

Something that can help them survive in this new world.

Something to help them not go crazy

If we address MODERN isekai's tropes directly, we could also add "Must be a love interest" to this because these are harem anime trying to not have the stigma of harem anime. This actually does add an extra wrinkle of:

4. Isn't going to fuck off when they get the protagonist to safety or when they choose to do things like go fight the demon lord or whatever.

So you need adhesion. That moment in a romance title where the two people aren't just potentially interested in each other but stuck. Something that makes sure that no matter what happens, the starter town farm girl nuts up and shuts up.

A slave girl, genuinely, fits ALL OF THESE. They can be a constant companion who is always on their side who also has a familiarity with the world and has lived at least some amount of a harsh existence and so likely knows something about surviving in this world. The fact that they can't go anywhere or question you inherently adds to this adhesion. Even if it's an isekai protagonist who frees the slave girl in question, they'll just go with the angle of "I owe you my life and so I pledge it eternally to you."

Put a pin in that last part. We'll get back to it.

It also accomplishes a lot of things outside of just this narrative utility for our protagonist mechanically. It also allows for worldbuilding and character defining. Does he just buy the slave like in Shield Hero? Well, he's kind of a bastard then and he's a bit more anti-hero because he's willing to help the slave trade. Does he instead kick down the door, slaughter the slaver and free the girls? Well, you get an early moment of being a badass and unarguably the hero. In both cases, it also opens the door for both author and audience to claim that this is 'dark' fantasy because they're tackling real atrocities like slavery!

Rolls eyes out of the back of his head.

It's incredibly efficient storytelling... and it's also really fucking lazy. Slavery is the poor man's option here and requires you to just acknowledge slavery as the selling of people and not its wider contexts or even the wider traumas of anyone who has even been threatened to be enslaved. It is a very callous, very utilitarian way to use the trope which is kind of terrible for something that actually happened.

Remember that pin? Yeah, that's just a character deciding to enslave themselves rather than being officially enslaved which... What? Who the fuck chooses that? Now yes, an argument can be made of "If I don't stick with you, I'd die," but that's STILL the argument of the slaver as well. That they're too far from home, or that their home is gone, and so they HAVE to behave until they can have a master who will take care of them. It is just another prison. But that's NOT useful for the narrative purposes being exploited here and so we just go with some fantasy 'life debt' bullshit which immediately obliterates really any attempt to claim you're dark fantasy. REAL dark fantasy has the hero free the slaves, them look at him like "Okay, what now motherfucker?" and question how he's now going to keep them alive because at least the slaver was doing that much. Or when he tries to make them work for him, they will bring up the arguments I am because if he actually gave a shit about them, instead of posing virtuously, he would help them get home and back to their own live. They wouldn't force these people to just be an extension of themselves because 'dark' fantasy interrogates the tropes of fantasy and how they ACTUALLY might play out because fantasy worlds are always a place of grand cruelties and injustice due to their commonly very violent nature.

The point to all of this is that at the beginning of this, I discarded the meta or marketing reasons for the use of the trope. The problem is that modern is isekai is so poisoned in so many aspects that even if you discard one explanation of laziness and poor writing... You just run into another. That's why these shows have the reputation they do. Do they sometimes manage to be better? There's too many of them not to have exceptions. The rule though is that the writing is bound by genre law to be as abused and warped as the author needs it to be to just get the story done.

And that's bad for everyone, like always. See you next tale.

======+++++======

What's extra funny to me is that if you wanted to not have the real world baggage and actually make the life debt thing maybe work, there's a really easy answer: Highway rescue. Someone is accosted by bandits, the hero saves them but OH NO! The wagon that's destroyed already had all their stuff so they need their savior's help further and if they will help them live, they will do anything for them. There you go. Just as easy but you don't look like a creepy dick of an author who is exploiting real world tragedies without actually acknowledging what they do to people.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[lazodiac]

Once more we return to Outlaws of Thunder Junction. We've got some more critters to identify so lets get to doin' that! Last time we dealt with Black, with the other parts being here and here. For now though, it is time to tackle...

RED

As with the Black cards, Hellspurs like this have mutated themselves beyond all belief so they're now functionally native to Thunder Junction. Love those magmatic skeleton horses though.

Speaking of magmatic skeleton horses; look at this baby! Calamity is an incredible creature and is a (supremely fucked up) legendary of the plane.

Get caught up in it! This is once more the Hellspurs running rampant with their chaos mutations. Look at'em go!

I saw a weird amount of hate for this card, but I have no understanding as to why. Anyway, this little doggy is endemic to Thunder Junction.

I have no real justification for this but the vibe this lady gives me is Tarkir. Maybe it is the weaving through the lightning bolts?

Rakdos having a hell of a time here on the party plane. This is from Ravnica, and a good reminder of why one of the laws on that plane is "The Rakdos Cult can do what they want to keep their boss from getting uppity".

One of the funnest cards in terms of like, flavorfully showcasing the way Thunder Junction works as a plane. I kinda wish we had more of these to be honest.

I'm marking this one down as Amonkhet because that's the first thing she brought up, and it makes the most sense to me that a native of the plane would be best suited to selling that stuff. I likely shouldn't go shopping in a bazaar.

While this isn't a direct story spotlight (the bomb Breeches made explicitly DID NOT touch the train, as was the intent) I think it is safe to say this is still another one of his more deadly explosive endeavors, so this is from Ixalan.

Who trusts a monkey with explosives anyway?

I forget where I heard this, but this is the thunder of the plane mutating the creatures to become even stronger- this used to be a gopher! Now it's a getter instead. Endemic to Thunder Junction.

A courser is the term used for stronger, swifter horses typically used as war-horses. Sturdy bastards. This is a lizard that is a 4/2 so it really shouldn't be a courser I think? Either way, native to Thunder Junction.

Train heists can happen on like two other planes from Thunder Junction, but this particular style of train heist belongs to it and it alone. Also I love the tomahawk thunder-pistol in this art, that's some good shit right there.

Another Hellspur, another card that sources itself from Thunder Junction itself. I fucking love this art though, look at it!

The greatest tragedy of Thunder Junction being the plane it is is that we didn't get to se Angrath and his daughters. While you could prooobably place this minotaur to Dominaria, it's a Hellspur so it's a Hellspur. You know the drill.

Do you think it hurts replacing your eyes with a heated vent-grill?

I don't think I saw this card in my initial run-through of the set. I love that he has a gold fang tooth replacement, that's fun. One of the least mutated Hellspurs so probably from New Capenna, but my rules are my rules. Thunder Junction!

Technically not highway robbery as there is no highways on this plane. Native to Thunder Junction.

TWAS I WHAT SET THE BLAZE! Endemic life of Thunder Junction, and quite a lovely little critter at that.

This one took a bit of thinkinng, but after looking at the giants of various planes, I think this is from Dominaria. He's just got the vibe.

This his friend above, this minotaur is a trickier one to place... but I think he's from Ravnica. Ex Boros turned gunslinger, you know how it is.

Magda! This lovely lady is from Kaldheim! Ironically her previous card was "Brazen Outlaw" but in neither instance is she ACTUALLY an outlaw mechanically. Her tokens are the non-endemic Scorpion Dragons of Gastal, but I won't be counting tokens till the end so leave me be.

This toasty little critter is endemic to the plane- and probably used to have a diet of thunder before any wizards came about with some much easier prey to snatch up.

I like to believe the little jet of flame is its tongue.

This pair of soon to be very dead friends are Hellspurs- and I just wanna say, they look like they're having the times of their lives. Here for a good one, not a long one and all that.

More Hellspurs doing Hellspur stuff. God these mutations are freaky- I'm shocked none of the people who are horny for being a Phyrexian jumped at these.

Our first actual carded appearance of the Cacti Folk of the plane! A white card had one being picked up by a faerie but this is their first actual like, real card! They're endemic to Thunder Junction, and by rights are the actual honest to god native population of the plane.

The corn-cob guns are an inspired choice, tbh.

I personally call bullshit that the Thunder was created by the Omenpaths. Even if it was, none of the people coming here would fucking know that.

Really love the "animation" in this card. I'm gonna say she's from Innistrad because this weapon looks like it'd fit there.

This massive porcupine is, as you'd expect, native to Thunder Junction. So many of those in Red...

This master of Santoryu is categorically just explicitly a monkey-goblin from Ixalan. What a perfect little creature, look at him go.

The second half of that kaiyote up above. Put'em together and you get a fun little image. This is of course native to Thunder Junction.

Have enough people chased roadrunners for this saying to catch on in the yearish they've had to live here? That's one hell of a meme infection...

This art was a little hard to parse, but it's something huckin' a molten knife through some kind of storm of Thunder. I like it, but it's impossible to tell where it is from.

It's not got as much bondage as you'd expect for them, but I think these two are from the Rakdos Cult and are doing their best to branch out. Ravnica, then!

The dinosaur tokens and the dinosaurs in his art are all Ixalani, so this wonderful old man is from there as well. Like I said we'll counter the tokens later.

And that's it for now, tune in soon for Part 2 of the Red cards of OTJ!

[hacked-by-jake]

Is it just me , but doesn't it seem like they aren't taking accountability?

Well, partly they did. I mean, I wasn't expecting a statement that fast, definitely not. But I'm glad they sat down immediately and talked about it. And I also think they really read things we said. At least, it feels like that to me.

Of course, they statement isn't the best one and I don't agree with a couple of things. (I'm still not done with speaking about it.)

And I also understand why people are still disappointed and also not satisfied. And it's true, their words weren't what we were hoping for.

And I repeat, nothing of it makes me forget the problems about it. But I still want to point something out. Because I want the best for both sides.

So, here's the thing. Everbyte is still the small studio they were before. Three young people creating games. And one of those games blow up completely in a blink. All of sudden they had thousands of people looking at them. I mean, Duskwood has over 10 Million Downloads on Google play. It's impossible to imagine that.

So, and here's the thing. They're not any influencer with marketing team or social media team. They don't have a company that is specialised on this matter. It's them and only them.

And back then, Duskwood jumped from 0 to 100. And now, with Moonvale, sadly, they fell down from there again. I don't think they expected this to happen. In another blink they had an unbelievable amount of people criticising them, hating them, even others demanding to boycott them.

They don't have a management to write them the perfect statement for the world like any influencer or youtuber or celebrity has.

I mean, imagine you're suddenly in a position were many people demanding a statement. This alone is already a situation that's completely overwhelming. Because you know, no matter you're going to say, some people will still hate, and I don't mean criticising them, but hate them. And every word you say will be put on a gold scale. Fact is, no matter how your statement is, in most cases you still can only lose..

Three normal people facing a huge wall of criticism. And I don't think any of them knew how to handle this. And there's no real way to handle this. And we also should not forget, we don't see the behind the scenes. We don't see the problems they have to face.

And of course, we all see this critical. What happened. And we have the right to point that out. But I believe that we should have a little forbearance and tolerance for Everbyte.

They were probably in panic, scared to lose everything and they had not time to really figure things out. Of course their statement is very vague and I am not satisfied with most of it.

But we still should give them some time to figure things out and especially to think about everything that happened. The fandom was incredibly emotional, and Everbyte, they're humans as well. And also they were incredibly emotional. We can't imagine how they felt in that situation.

But until episode 2 they have a lot of time now. They can figure things out, they can find ways to change things. And I actually trust them so far. We saw they can do differently.

And especially, they just see everything completely different. They created this this game, for two years. They saw it every single days. They worked on it every single day.

I don’t know if you can relate. But if a writer reads their own text over and over again, at some point they won't see any mistakes anymore. Even if there are some. But for some thing you just become blind. That's a process you can't stop.

I want to repeat, it doesn't make the problems any better. Especially the AI thing. They right thing would have been to say "we will delete it completely"

But Everbyte can't be neutral on that because it's their game. We all have completely different view for it.

So I do think we should give them some time to figure things out. They deserve it. And no matter how disappointed we are, we should not forget that empathy cost nothing. And even if everything ended up in a little disaster, Everbyte still deserves our empathy.

We can keep firing against them but I fear at some point it might fire back and they won't listen at all.

Keep showing them constructive criticism. Leave reviews in your app stores etc. And then the time will show what is going to happen. But right now, it's still too emotional for everyone.

I'm still sorry you're feeling this way, Anon. I definitely know what you mean and I even agree with you. But everything I want is peace and I want to keep up the hope.

Thank you for sending your ask, sorry my answer isn't probably exactly what you expected but I really hope you understand my point of view and I hope even if my answer is differently, I hope you want be mad at me because of it.

I hope you will have a fantastic day/evening/night. Take care of yourself and stay healthy and safe. 💚

[kairithemang0]

Here's the really long post no one asked for.

So, I know like 3 of you are also Kingdom Hearts fans, this is for you guys.

A few weeks ago, I made a joke post with the caption of "no, Owen! Who else will I be gay spies with?" and someone replied to that with wondering how many people actually get the joke and we went on a whole thing about KH and SAF and it was a great time.

I've thought about that post a decent amount since then, and with my Treasured Memories edit from yesterday, it's got me thinking about the parallels between Rokushi (the ship between Roxas and Xion) and Curtwen.

Roxas and Xion are in a cult

Like that's just what organization 13 is. They take in stray Nobody's (which is what happens to the body of someone when they become a heartless) and tell them they if they work for them, they'll be helping create something what will get their hearts back.

So, how does this relate to SAF? While I wouldn't call their governments a cult, I would say they're trapped there after they join. You can't just retire from being a spy, even if you're not going on missions, you still have all those secrets.

The Organization won't just let Roxas and Xion go, especially since we know what they're using them for. Like how Curt and Owen are some of the greatest spies and are essential to their respective agencies, Roxas and Xion are the most important members of org. They're the only ones who can really help with the organizations goal because they can free hearts. Both of these duos are incredibly important, they're the ones doing all the heavy lifting. People like Barb and the Informant in SAF are important, of course, but they're not the ones out on the field.

Shifting focus, Curt and Owen's nights together are literally just the clocktower trips in Days. It's where Roxas and Xion's friendships really grow, even though they do go on missions together. They talk about their days, catch up, or just sit and eat ice cream together because that's literally what friendship is to them. Of course, Curt and Owen are doing a lot more than just sitting and talking, but it's still where they probably bond the most. They work together, yes, but this is their time off, when they get to let down their guard and be with someone they trust, which I doubt happens too much to spies who are also hiding their homosexuality.

As the game goes on, Roxas and Xion's time together eating ice cream gets less and less frequent, as their friendship becomes rockier and cracks in their trio start to form. I don't know whose Axel in this SAF au, which I guess is a problem with the au as a whole, but I think not having an Axel there is fine. The long and short of Axel's part in KH is that he knows the truth but can't tell Roxas and Xion because then he's at risk of danger and so are they.

So, things get worse and worse with Roxas and Xion over time, Roxas falls into a coma, and Xion begins to find out she's a replica (which is basically a vessel that memories were put into to give it life). This part will be important later. For Curtwen, this is their time together starting to show the cracks in their relationship, Curt will screw something up or he'll do something stupid, and they'll get into trouble and Owen will brush it off. Curt is an amazing spy, but sometimes he's in over his own head. They're also worried about getting caught.

I'd like to talk more about them getting caught, because I do think it relates to something in KH fairly well.

So, Roxas is something called a Nobody, and Xion is led to believe she is one as well. They're led to believe by the organization that nobody's do not have hearts, that they aren't meant to feel anything. In SAF, this relates to the way Curt and Owen's relationship is seen. It's a relationship that shouldn't happen, that'll get them kicked out of the agency and outcasted from society if anyone were to know. Hearts to Nobody's aren't supposed to happen, and yet Roxas and Xion still feel. This relationship isn't meant to happen between Curt and Owen, and yet they're still having it.

358/2 Days, the game Roxas and Xion star in, has been called a "playable tragedy". You watch these friends form these tight bonds, you watch Roxas and Xion grow heart and memories and become one with each other, and then Xion learns the truth. She was never meant to exist. The nobody's have been told that a lot, but she's not even a nobody. She's a robot that went against her programming, so to speak. The long and short of it is that Xion is another characters memories of this girl named Kairi. Everyone sees Xion differently, Roxas sees her with black hair, Axel sees her as a girl named Namine, a guy named Xigbar sees her as a kid named Ventus who at this point in release order has never even been mentioned by name. At first Xion was this hooded figure with no face, but as she grew with the people around her, she gained a heart of her own. To me, Owen was never one to stray away from the point of the job until he met Curt. Curt made him reckless, gave the job more fun because they were getting into danger together. Before Curt, Owen thought his job was boring because he was so good at it. He wasn't meant to be able to break away from this job, but Curt gave him reason to. Curt was fun and reckless and got them into more trouble than was probably worth, but he made the job interesting. Roxas and Xion work together as a team because they were practically made for each other (and in canon are very closely tied together through heart shenanigans it's a whole thing).

Ok so back to the finale of Days. Basically, Xion gets reprogrammed and needs to kill Roxas. The reason being is that she doesn't want to do the bidding of the organization anymore and has been giving a chance to get out of it by, get this, literally offing herself. So the organization captures her and remakes her the way she was intended to be. When Roxas sees Xion's face, she doesn't look like Xion anymore. She looks like the person whose memories she's stole.

This is very DMA coded to me, not the whole offing herself to go back to her previous half, but the being remade to do the bidding of someone else. Xion still remembers that if she dies, she'll be dying for the sake of someone else, but her programming is telling her she needs to kill Roxas because that's what the organization needs from her.

I'm rewatching their fight scene and the line "this puppet will have to play her part" is veryyyyyy Owen got brainwashed by Chimera coded. I don't personally believe Owen got brainwashed, but OUGH ow.

This version of Xion, and Owen's mindset after seeing Curt again after four years, just wants to end the lives of the people they once cared so deeply for. To Curt and Roxas, the people that they love are just gone, the real Owen and Xion they can't get back. Xion appears as this armored thing of darkness to fight Roxas, and Owen is shown as someone who only sees Curt for all of the flaws he pushed away. This whole seen is very One Step Ahead to me. They're even swinging swords at each other and everything!

After their battle where Roxas wins, Xion and Roxas fall from the clocktower, the place they spent so much time together, and Roxas doesn't remember her. She begins to die in his arms, and for a moment all the memories rush back to him, he holds her in his arms before she dies. He gives the iconic line of "no, xion who else will I have ice cream with?" and then she disappears into darkness.

GUYS- THIS IS SO CURT AFTER HE KILLED OWEN I SWEAR-

Curt has tried this entire show to get Owen out of his mind so that he can go back to being a spy and doing his job. And he keeps failing. Now Owen shows up, and not only that but he wants him dead. They fight, and Curt wins. Now he's holding Owen after all of this pain, and Owen is gone again. And all of it is his fault. Owen's gone now, there's no getting him back. We don't know what Curt does to Owen after he dies, probably holds his dead body in pure devastation that he killed not only his best friend but the person he cared about so much. And Owen simply drifts away, with no way of getting him back.

Days ends with Roxas in a data version of the town he spent so much of the game in, new friends, new problems. He ends up dying as well. In SAF, this is probably whatever happened post canon to lead to Curt's death, whatever that may be.

So Xion in the real organization 13 is floppy disk Owen and when Roxas comes back it's actually a clone of Curt guys trust me on this-

Sorry, this is long and probably doesn't make much sense. I love 358/2 days, story wise it's one of my favorite KH games. And I obviously love Spies Are Forever, shocking absolutely no one. This was honestly just fun to write, I know this'll probably get at max like 3 notes but yknow what whatever.

Also I'd like to briefly talk about the name I'm going for for this ig au? This comparison let's call it.

358/2 days is a reference to the time roxas and xion were in the organzation together. the /2 (over 2) means it's over 2 people. So missions is the 358 missions Curt has gone on, some with Owen, and some not. We don't have an exact amount of missions, but for this I'm going with 358 because idk it just works in my head

[unfortunate--moth]

Master Detectives: Milgram AU (part 3)

Here is part 1 and part 2 in case you missed it!

now to some more very strange abilities you probably wouldn't expect from a detective lmao and we're finally at the last three!!

Kazui | Forte: Compelled Truth With his ability, as the name implies, it makes other people compelled to tell the truth. He has to make and retain eye contact for this to be in effect. Subjects can keep silent, and can provide incorrect answers they believe to be true, but can't lie. Despite it being incredibly useful, Kazui always uses it as a last resort. Kazui is a lot more experienced as a Master Detective than the others, and often tries to help new members understand their fortes better and ways they could use them that aren't immediately obvious. Even without his ability, he's a great detective. But everyone who knows him is aware he hates his ability, although he never really explains why.

Mikoto | Forte: Major Arcana Another tricky forte to work with, and one that Mikoto cannot change the outcome of. With a tarot deck, if he draws a card, he'll be granted an ability. He can only draw three per day, and he can only use those cards once per day. For example, if he were to draw the Death card, he can see the last 5 seconds of a dead body's life. The Fool card is the only outlier, and allows him to borrow a forte that a different Master Detective has. As a detective, he's not the sharpest. He's good at investigation and finding things, but he has trouble piecing everything together. He also tends to take some things literally. He likes to consider himself more of an assistant than anything else, happy to help but feeling really stuck if he's by himself. With his ability, he's written down what every card does, but there are a few he hasn't drawn yet. It's something he's still not used to.

Kotoko | Forte: Intimidation (thanks to this anon for help!) Her ability is a scary one, quite literally. With it, she can manipulate how much fear one person of her choosing will feel. This can be anything between letting them feel no fear at all to primal amounts of fear. She doesn't feel the need to use it too often, usually saving it for suspects that don't feel intimidated by her. She is officially part of the WDO but she acts like she isn't. She plays by her own rules and works alone. She's a brilliant detective and is amazing at gathering info. Though the reason for that is because she hates working with other detectives, Master or otherwise. She believes it'll only slow her down. She is given official jobs, but most of her solved cases are actually from her running off and doing her own thing.

And that's it.... Except it isn't!!!

Es | Forte: Song of the Prisoners We all know where I'm going with this, right? With their forte, Es can extract songs and videos from a suspect's brain to help them figure out the details of a case. With Jackalope's added powers, they're also able to see the other detectives use their abilities, and is usually immune to their fortes. And of course, they also have access to the Mystery Labyrinth.

Now we're finished with everyone's Fortes! I had a blast coming up with these. But don't worry, it won't stop here. I'll probably be coming up with more scenarios and ways they can use their fortes, etc etc. I may also do a deep dive into Mikoto's forte since it's probably the most ridiculous one I can admit. It may even change in the future but for now I'll stick with it. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts as always! Is there anything you'd change? What sort of shenanigans can these guys get up to? It's just fun to imagine.

[sentientgopro]

Coming up on 3 months since cracking. It's still, like, a week away, but honestly, close enough and I wanna write this post now. Not much is gonna change in that time anyway.

The main thing I wanna note is like, the SIGNIFICANT mental changes. There is a name. I have never uttered that name out loud. Noone knows the name IRL. Noone has used that name for me online. Nothing.

...But If I, just quickly, imagine someone calling my name, or getting my attention, that's the name they're saying. If I quickly imagine someone referring to me in third person, I'm she.

And I think of these same things with my current name and it just doesn't quite feel right, or the same anymore.

People always talk about the infamous "I'm a girl" dreams. and I've started getting, like, 3 a week? Or atleast 3 where I'm, to some extent, trans. Like, even if I wasn't quite a girl yet, I had a dream that included picking up an estrogen prescription.

And all this, after 3 months, while deep closeted and unable to do anything about transitioning.

And, for my own sanity, I've had to find things to appreciate during this time. I can't spend the next year and a half avoiding acknowledging myself and what I look like. So I've atleast started to appreciate the little things. If I look closely at my eyes and ignore the rest of my face, I feel happy. idk, there's just something about my eyes in isolation that feel different to the rest of my face somehow, idk what it is but they feel more feminine, if that makes any sense.

And then there's my hair. Look, I have really short hair. Pretty average hair length for a guy. But my parents have been incredibly militant with keeping my hair very short for, well, as long as I can remember, until recently when my Dad abruptly asked if I wanted to grow it out (unbelievably convenient, he's transphobic and hss no idea about me. We take those I guess?)

But now, even the slightest bit longer hair feels great to me. Those little bits that grow down infront of your ears? Love it. Never had that be that long before. My hair ain't much, but its alot to me. And its only gonna get longer and longer, better and better.

And, look, this one sounds weird, but thighs. The way the fat squishes and flattens out when I sit down. I am a very skinny person, to the extent that my thighs are probably the fattest part of me relative to the body part. They aren't that thick, but relative to the rest of my body, it's enough to make me really happy. One time I was reading something about a lil deep-closet trick of wearing a long shirt and a shorter/ rolled up hoodie, and I kinda like it. Doing that, while sat down causing my thighs to squish slightly just looks so right.

(I was strongly debating whether to actually include this section. I doubt this would ever be the case, but just in case, don't be weird about it?)

I'm not gonna keep commenting on dysphoria increasing. I've kinda figured that's just par for the course. My general mood has decreased, I just don't feel good, but I'm not actually in that bad of a place mentally. I'm feeling optimistic, a solution to my problems is out there and I am gonna make it. It's already been a quarter of a year since cracking, that's no small amount of time relative to how long I have to wait. No matter how much I feel like shit about not being able to transition yet, it's better than when I didn't know what the problem was and thought I would just find myself ending it at some point. Now I know that isn't happening.

With each day, each little daydream, every time I imagine a scenario where I'm me, I get closer to actually being me. Physical is just a wait, but mental is a gradual process that is already well underway.

[cosmic--dandelion]

So what did I actually think of Helluva Boss Season 1, Episode 8: Queen Bee?

Things I liked:

⭐ Throughout the entire episode, the focus is entirely on Loona, and even though takes up a large chunk of the screen time in the latter half, it very much feels like Loona's story.

⭐ It's amazing how one episode can totally change your view on a character. Now, Loona is not and never has been on my top favorite character list. That said, it's pretty ironic that I feel like I learned so much more about her just by watching her struggling like hell to socialize at a party than I did in Seeing Stars, where we got to see her entire backstory.

Anyone who's ever been the new face at a giant, noisy blowout party where everyone else is part of a pre-established friend group knows what it's like when the guy who invited you leaves to get drinks and leaves you all alone in a sea of unfamiliar faces. It's easy to forget because of her in your face attitude, but Loona is actually pretty introverted. The episode handles the awkwardness just right, communicating Loona's shyness without turning her into a blushing, trembling mess.

⭐ Loona's humiliation and jealousy over Bee is written with a surprising amount of emotional realism for a quirky dark comedy like Helluva Boss. I love the fact that Bee's just a genuinely nice person rather than some stereotypical alpha bitch Loona has to "rescue" Tex from, but she's still gorgeous, rich, famous, popular, and has fucking MAGICAL POWERS. Poor girl just can't compete with that.

⭐️ Blitzø instantly out of his angst coma from the last episode and breaking every speed limit on the seven rings when Loona needs him. Helluva Boss is a bleak, cynical show about sweary, sex-obsessed demons who kill people for a living, including children, but Blitzø is far from a perfect man or a perfect father, but in every scene where they're together, you can tell how much he loves her. There's so much genuine human warmth and sincerity on display here that's completely missing from most animated adult comedies.

⭐️ This face.

⭐️ "Yeah, that's my dad!"

Seriously, I'm almost glad that this episode debuted after Seeing Stars because I would not have been able to handle watching all this character development and father-daughter bonding, then watch Loona knee the poor guy on the crotch from trying to hug her.

Also, Blitzø and Bee's drinking contest acting as an ice breaker for Loona to make some friends was a really clever touch.

⭐️ Bee's concern over Blitzø. I don't care what anyone says, making the sin of Gluttony an empathy/emotion eater who gets high of the energy of people overindulgence at parties is incredibly creative. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, gluttony isn't just about eating too much; it's about a deep, ardent longing for the pure sensory pleasure of sumptuous food and drink. Bee's motivations make sense here: Blitzø isn't drinking too much because the liquer tastes good or he enjoys being drunk, he's actively destroying himself and trying to kill every braincell that remembers what happened at Ozzy's. She can probably sense the pain he's trying to escape. Plus, he was in serious danger of drinking himself to death or getting molested, which would have put a damper on the party.

⭐️ Loona giving no fucks. Damn, girl, even Millie was scared to tangle with Asmodeus. She really comes across as if she has nothing to lose.

The fact that she backed down purely because she didn't want to make Vortex uncomfortable is cute. See, she is capable of being considerate sometimes.

⭐️ LOONA TAKING CARE OF HER DAD

This is seriously one of my favorite scenes in the entire series. I love how it takes time to build up the atmosphere. I love how the scene moves at a nature pace instead of Helluva Boss's usual permanent sugar high setting, allowing for quiet little moments like Loona putting a blanket over Blitzø.

This is the first time you really see Loona and Blitzø acting like equals instead of Blitzø coddling her and Loona shunning adult responsibilities. This is probably the most vulnerable and honest she's ever seen him, and instead of being angry or disgusted, she just gently reassures him that she'll never abandon him like so many others have.

⭐️ I loved the fun atmosphere and the bubbly, candy-coated aesthetic, especially after the 20 megaton angst nuke that was dropped on us in the last episode. The story is simple and compact with a clearly defined beginning; middle, and end; no loose plot threads; no unnecessary characters.it would have been a great way to end the season.

Things I didn't like:

💀Loona abruptly changing her mind about the party after this one dude flirts with her. Feels kind of contrived.

💀"Cotton Candy" is catchy enough and pretty on point for a Kesha song (unsurprisingly, considering that she wrote it herself, but it's very repetitive. This makes it all the more frustrating that an absolute banger like "Monster Ball" was languishing in the end credits.

Final score: 9/10

[sinsiriuslyemo]

When Insecurity Makes You Racist

Ya'll, I've got some stuff I wanna get off my chest.

So this morning there I was, drinking my tea, trying to decide which story I was going to continue working on, minding my own damn business for once when on twitter (I'm not calling it X. I said it, and I don't care) I saw a tweet from a mutual talking about some Chucklehead who had created a burner account on Goodreads (seriously, who the fuck does this?) and was mass one-starring books by other indie authors on there. Wait, because there's more.

As if this wasn't shitty enough, this person was also five-starring their own book, which will debut in 2024.

Did you fucking ever??

So, naturally, I did some digging as I do because I'm nosy af. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one wanting to know the tea, but unfortunately, it doesn't appear as though there's much more information out there except that this author, who I will remind you has not even published their book yet, is acting a damn fool and threatening their own career before it even kicks off.

I did manage to find this thread, which appears to be the original tweet that kicked all this off on twitter, but doesn't go into very much detail. It does, however, reveal another sickening aspect of this fuckery that l i t e r a l l y makes me want to riot, and that this...author was/is "using clearly POC names in the fake accounts to upvote every negative review on POC books so the top ones are all one and two star."

It got me to thinking about how precious and valuable reviews are. How much we crave them as indie authors because it's what will boost our books in the algorithm and get our book into the hands of the next reader. It's our lifeblood. A review and/or rating on Goodreads can absolutely make a difference, especially to indie authors since we only have ourselves and the generosity of our peers to market our books.

So, for an author to betray that is such a disheartening thing. I can't imagine taking the time to create a burner account for the sole purpose of trying to tear down my fellow indies. What's worst, and most likely the most egregious aspect of all of this is that they're weaponizing a POC identity (which I don't even know that they are actually POC) in order to tear down POC authors.

Being an indie author is hard. You're responsible for every aspect of writing, preparing, marketing and selling your book. There's an enormous amount of pressure that naturally comes with being an indie author. Not to mention the constant intrusive thoughts of "what if no one reads my book?" It's hard. But to go out of your way to sabotage other authors so that your book does well is not the way. As indies, we've GOT to have each other's backs, and yes, even call each other out when necessary. This person has not been identified as of yet, and I honestly don't know how I feel about that.

On one hand, there is zero attention on them as an individual and all the attention on their racism and blantant disrespect for the indie community, specifically the POC author community, and therefore their book, name is not receiving any attention apart from the five stars they're giving themselves. But on the other hand, does this mean they're going to be able to get away with their behavior?

It would be bad enough if this were a one-off thing, where they posted one bad review and upvoted themselves one time. I would still say expose their asses if I'm being honest. But this is m u l t i p l e instances of this and in a short period of time.

This is not okay.

And will them getting away with it encourage them to do it again or do something similar?

Personally, I want to know who they are so that I don't support them even by accident, but I know it isn't necessarily my place to demand this. We'll see what happens. As of right now, it appears the person who first posted about it is giving them a chance to knock it the fuck off, which is so incredibly generous, and in my opinion is more than they deserve.

I don't know if this person will heed their advice and stop the fuckery, but I know that I cant just sit idly by and wait for tea — though I most certainly will be watching this and waiting for any additional tea, because friends, I AM A NOSEY BITCH! That and I want to make sure this author never accidently ends up in my TBR because literally fuck them, and their racist burner accounts.

Still, this whole thing makes me want to do something. Not just talk about doing something or talk about how fucked this is — and it is, absolutely fucked. So I kept digging, hoping to at least find a list of those authors targeted so that I could use what platform I have to share their work.

The only post I've been able to find thus far is this one, calling for exactly the same thing, a list of all the authors who have been victimized by a person that should have been cheering them on, not plotting and mobilizing to sabotage them. Thus far, only one name has been identified, at least that I have found, but I will be keeping my eyes open for more, and I will update this post every time I find a new name. I implore you, if you're a reader and want to support indie authors, give their books a read. Leave them a review on Goodreads as well as on Amazon (just copy and paste the same one, I promise it's fine) so that their book gets pushed out and promoted to other readers.

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste follows Venus Stoneheart as she avenges the murder of her mother while navigating the corrupt political atmosphere of DC. I will be reading and reviewing this book on my blog as the synopsis sounds bad ass. The link above will take you directly to Bethany's website where you can get more details on this novel.

In the meantime, don't fucking do this if you're an indie author. Don't do this at all even if you're not an indie author. It's gross, it's racist, and it's going to take all of us together to combat this nonsense.

[the-real-maglev]

I'm still not done with my competitive Cassette Beasts hypothetical. I now present a list of moves that I think have an argument for banning, some much more than others.

Hypnotize & Snooze Spore: The way statuses work in CB makes Sleep incredibly OP, thus meaning I will be banning every move that can inflict it on the opponent. These two are the obvious ones, but that also includes...

Trick, Wonderful 7 & Vengeful Curse: All of these moves inflict a random status effect (three in Vengeful Curse's case), which has a chance to be sleep, banning all of them. No, this does not ban the Allseer like, they're just locked out of their signature move (not that it matters when Triphinx has 190 base RAtk STAB Gear Shear). Two of them can also inflict Petrified, which I deem to be insanely broken for the same reason.

Stony Look: Petrified is also a stun that's extremely frustrating to deal with. This move's extreme rarity does nothing to make it legal.

Avalanche: Completely nullifies melee attacks for a turn and is given to a bizarrely wide array of monsters (even Sparktan of all things can learn it). Close Encounter and Hot Potato combined with this move are outright cheeses and this move is frustrating at the best of times, so it's a very good ban candidate.

Glitter Bomb: Using this move even ONCE can instantly derail a battle due to how Glitter works. Bootlegs got their own format already for undermining typing and this move is in the same boat. The fact this move is extremely widely distributed and costs zero AP doesn't help its case.

Prismatic: Do I even need to explain why this is banned?

AP Refund: You know the risk-reward aspects that make the 10 AP moves super enticing yet ultimately balanced? What if we just through that all out the window with a single coin flip?

Critical AP: Enables your RNG addiction.

Random Starter: Definitely not quite as insane as it would be if multiples of the same sticker were allowed, but it's still uncompetitive and RNG reliant. At least Pre-Emptive strike is predictable after it's revealed and amounts to chip damage.

Custom Starter, Automate & Chemical Imbalance: RNG bad.

Dodge, Treat & Shear Luck: Evasion sucks. I don't think I need to elaborate any further. Creating and exploiting evasion boosts through element chemistry may also be grounds for disqualification.

Battering Ram, Blizzard & Peekaboo: Accuracy down is every bit as painful and evasion up. I thought I could trust you, Bansheep...

Damage Roll: Not only can it apply both of the above statuses, it's also just RNG incarnate as it is, with it giving you a 5% chance for having a move nearly as strong as Headshot for a measley 3 AP.

Stab in the Dark: Here for pretty much the same reason as Damage Roll, it's an uncompetitive dice roll of an attack that's a 10% chance of half a Last Rites for free.

Jagged Edge: You know what's worse than evasion strats? Evasion strats that punish you for factors out of your control!

Ecolocation: Multitarget is a really good status, being able to create it through chemistry (even exploiting Shrapnel to do so) is a big appeal of Lightning types and Broadcast is a viable move as well. This move allows you to get it for completely free just by switching in. It's not even like the monsters you have to switch in for this benefit are weak either, some incredibly dangerous ones like Triphinx and Robindam can learn this move. Definitely overtuned.

Two Heads: Same case as Ecolocation, however I'm slightly more willing to let this one slide since Multistrike has the weakness of also doubling AP consumption.

Fusion Power: Not only does it apply a random status, it also has a random attack type. Its niche is covered by Last Rites, Headshot, Gear Shear and Cosmic Kunai regardless, all of which are at least possible to read. The legality of fusion in general is dubious, but even if it's allowed, this definitely isn't. Fusions are still terrifying foes without this up their sleeve.

Moonshine & Djinntoxicate: Confusion is also pushing it because RNG.

Uncommon & Rare Stickers: Too many variables and most Rare stickers have unfair RNG effects.