#literally any connection

[caeruleums]

@cigvrettedvet liked this post for a starter !

running into the room excitedly, she felt like today was the day to express her feelings. but just as she opened the door, she was kissing some guy she swore up and down she didn't like. the dejected look on davie's face was apparent enough, because someone took pity enough to inquire about it. turning to the person in question, she gulped down her upset and faked a smile. "what? no, i mean, i... totally knew she was into brad. sorry, i'm just... not huge on PDA?" she wasn't sure if she was trying to convince herself or them.

[inkskinned]

there are a lot of posts out there that are positive and healthy coping mechanisms for handling the holidays. this is not one of them :)

i think there's like. going to be times in your life you will be stuck in a social situation that you cannot escape from gracefully. i do not know why the internet doesn't believe these times exist. it's not always just that your physical safety is at risk - sometimes it's legit like "i just don't currently have the energy or time to put in the effort of responding to this." sometimes it's a coworker you hate so much. sometimes it's just like, fine, you know? like you know you can handle your aunt when she's cheerily horrible, but if you actually set a boundary around her, it's going to be weeks of fallout with your father.

i don't know why people think the answer is always just "cut them out!" or "don't let them get away with that!" because ... the real world is tricky and complicated. i think kind of a lot of us have an internal "radiation poisoning" meter for certain people. like - i'm talking about the ones who are absolutely giving you gradual ick damage. like, you can handle them, but you'll be exhausted.

and yes. you absolutely should listen to your therapist and the good posts about handling others and set good boundaries and take care of yourself. prioritize peace.

HOWEVER :) ...... since im often in a situation with a Gradual Sense of Ick person i cannot just "cut out" of my life (without losing someone else precious to me) - i have sort of developed the most. maladaptive form of mischief possible. because like, if i'm going to have to listen to this shit again, i like to have a little bit of private fun with it.

now! again, i am physically safe, just mentally drained by this man. you should only do this with people you are not in danger with. which leads me to my suggestions for when your Unfortunate Acquaintance shows up and says oh everyone pay attention to me.

my favorite word is "maybe!" said as brightly and happily as possible. whenever the Horrible Person starts in on a topic you do not want to go further with, particularly if they make a claim that you know to be inaccurate, do not respond to it. you and i have both tried to actually argue with this person, and it hasn't gone well, because this person just wants the drama of an argument. however, "maybe!" gives them literally nothing to go on. it is incredibly disarming. they are used to people having some response. they know they can't prove what they're saying, and maybe! treats them like the child they are. it dismisses them in the politest way possible.

i like to say maybe! and then, in their stunned silence, immediately change the subject. this is because i have adhd and i will have something unrelated to talk about, but if you can't think of topics fast enough, i recommend just pointing to something and saying, "isn't that lovely?" because fuck you let's bring in some positivity.

by the way. that second trick - of pointing to something and stating an opinion about it? - that just works on its own, like, 70% of the time. i picked it up from teaching preschoolers. it's an intentional "redirect". it stops children crying and it also stops grown adults from finishing their explanation on why women belong in kitchens. dual wielding!

keep it silly for yourself. i absolutely do not care if people think i'm fucking stupid (it's more fun if they do) and as a result i will purposefully misunderstand things just to see how long it takes them to realize i've completely removed them from the subject at hand. when they say "women aren't funny" i get to be like. "which women." "all women." "all women in america?" "no in the world." "like the mole people? the people in the world?" "what? no. like, alive." "oh are we not counting the mole people?" "what the fuck are you talking about." "you don't believe in the mole people?"

similarly, i play a personal game called "one up me." my Evil Acquaintance literally knows this game exists (my family & friends caught onto it and now also play it) and it always fucking gets him. i don't know why. you have to be willing to be a little free-spirited on this one, though. the trick is that when they make one of those horrible little bigoted or annoying comments they are always making, you need to go one unit weirder. not more intense, mind you - just more weird. "you don't look good in that dress." "yeah, actually, my other dress was covered in squid ink due to a mishap at the soup store." "you shouldn't wear such revealing clothes." "wait, what? oh shit. sorry, your son tears off strips when no one is looking and eats them. i swear it was longer before we left the building."

the point of "one up me" is to completely upend this person's narrative. we both know this person likes setting up situations where you cannot "win" and then they really like telling other people how badly you handled it. in a usual situation, if you respond "please don't say something that rude", you're a bitch. but if you let it happen, you're letting yourself be debased. they are not usually expecting door number three: unflappably odd. because what are they going to say when they're telling everyone how badly you behaved? "she said my son eats her dresses" ".... okay?"

if you can, form an allyship with someone whomst you can tagteam with. where they can pick up on your weird "soup store" story and run with it.

the following phrase is amazing and can be deployed for any situation: "oh, be nice :) it's the holidays!" i do not know why this works as often as it does. i'll say it for the most random shit. i think this is bc most of the time these people know they're being impolite, they just like to fight.

godbless. when in doubt, remember that you could always start stealing their pens.

the whole point of this is - if you can't escape. maybe see how long you can just be. like. a horrible little menace.

[pankiepoo]

So, what's up with you?

[raytorosaurus]

the way ray took some time away from guitar following the breakup to explore other instruments and techniques and different sides of production/mixing, and then 'rediscovered' guitar and clearly focussed on fingerstyle playing and bluesy techniques for a while, and now he's honing in on precision picking jazz-style and has been working away at learning cliffs of dover for months and is considering taking lessons...and just a few months ago he was on stage four nights a week playing all the solos he wrote in his twenties bigger and better (and better again!) than ever before just for the joy of it, all the while chatting to other career musicians backstage about how mastery of your instrument matters so much less than playing it with feeling and making other people feel something...this guy is completely offline, any work he's put out has been self-released and the definition of a passion project, he's constantly writing music and learning more and more about what he can do with guitar with no intention of getting money or public praise from it - no intention of anything besides doing it. we're so lucky when we get to experience his playing but there's something so admirable and comforting about the knowledge that even if we don't see it for ourselves, he's still doing that shit! he's writing music with his kids and mixing songs and experimenting with new sounds and techniques and instruments just because! like...ray is one of the most incredible rock musicians out there but the most inspiring thing about him is how much he just genuinely truly loves his craft!! fuck!

[ganondoodle]

so guess what they released more interviews and i think given what a writing shitshow totk was and what they have been saying in all these interviews is actually painting a really bad picture; i dont have the time, nor the energy to go over every detail

but they were commenting on people wanting the more linear format back and aonuma himself basically said that he thinks people who feel like that do so only bc of nostalgia and "Why do you want to go back to a type of game where you're more limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?"

what .. the fuck, more freedom DOESNT automatically mean better??? like ... restriction can be a GOOD thing just as tooo much freedom can be BAD?? like in totk??? are you fukcing shitting me- what the hell are games even for then, has he had an awakening to the fact that he actually just loves sandbox games without realizing it???? im not playing fucking zelda for a sandbox, especially not when its advertised as a somethign else

its pretty clear that they want to keep this format going with everything they say there, ... maybe it really is over huh

also i hate how they kept talking around answering anything about story/lore; they go asked how ganondorf even connects to ganon since theres nothign about it in game, and all they got out was welllll we dont wanna say anything bc its up to the player; about every question you got the answer of "make somethign up yourself" which is just ... its really clear they dont actually care but dont want to say everything is meaningless actually, so they try to be vague about it and with doing that really just confirm they didnt think about it and they dont care- so no lore actually matters, nothing thats been said or established has any meaning bc they will get rid of it the second it crosses paths with their new -more freedom equals better- philosophy, they say its bc they want you to be "free" to think up anything but apparently dont realize that when there are no rules, no consistent lore or anything that it ROBS it, it stops having meaning, its fun to connect dots only when there are rules you need to work with and dots to connect in the first place, when you have an established world with its restrictions it drives you to think more creatively about things- but when there are no rules?? its fucking boring!! thats what it is!!

when you discard all rules i wont care to get invested into anything bc i know it will not be considered again, be done away with without any reason and wont have influence on coming or previous games ... bc there are no rules, anything is possible and everything can be changed any second, so nothing matters

(they also talked about the many viral videos of those very few dedicated people that make godzilla mechs in totk and how happy they are about that- i get that to some extent, but the way they kept talkign about it really just felt like it confirmed my suspicion that that whole mechanic was mainly implemented to let people do that since that gets shared around en masse making it seem like that is why people enjoy it while neither the game nor the narrative are build around it in any way ..)

it just makes all the time i spend thinking, feeling and theorizing about zelda like a true waste of time, bc nothing matters and there are no rules-

i am someone who greatly enjoys working with and around established lore/rules, its fun to me to recontextulize things by being smart or creative with it all without breaking anything or as little as possible of the established things!

if i wanted to do just do anything i want I COULD HAVE ALREADY DONE THAT bc theres nothing actually stopping anyone to just make up what they want! i DONT need canon to lose all rules for that??!!

maybe ill have to make myself believe the franchise ended with botw on a good note ... ono

[pippuns]

the only thing that could have improved SVSSS is if shen jiu was in the background providing scathing hateful commentary the entire time. i want to see him and shen yuan eat each other alive <3

[apollos-boyfriend]

welcome to the extended sparklez family tree, aka for the love of god someone stop the mcyts from creating more family dynamics before this becomes a circle

[iratusmus]

WOE !!! OLD IRATUSMUS ART BE UPON YE

[novirp13]

No, I kid you not. It took me exactly TWO MINUTES to realized "Oh. They have the same face o.O"

This was supposed to be a cool moment, yet my stupidity ruined it!! :'D

BONUS:

[obihoe]

i think it is also rlly interesting the way madara always projects his rage only onto hashirama ... like when izuna dies. and the clans meet on the battlefield again. madara goes apeshit but NOT at tobirama. his rage is very pointedly directed at hashirama .. even tho tobirama before asks him abt what has happened to izuna. madara says that he died from his injuries and then fires up his susanoo and attacks hashirama .. while screaming his name. like ... something something violence is an outlet for him and a way for him to make his feelings be heard and understood by the other party. and he wants hashirama to understand him. whether tobirama understands him or gets what is coming to him or whatever for killing his brother doesnt matter at all. all he wants is for hashirama to see his rage and his grief .. and understand what he feels

[my-mistake-lets-do-this-again]

fact: the only times jeeves mentions himself being engaged is when bertie expresses interest in marrying someone as well

conclusion: he’s jealous and trying to make bertie jealous

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

it does something incomprehensible to my little writer’s soul whenever alex articulates a phenomenon of the writing process i’ve always picked up on and then goes on to describe it in exactly the same way

[cleromancy]

"tim needs to get a new mantle he didnt steal from his siblings" wrong. Say hello to the new huntress

[mettywiththenotes]

I know people talk about Shirakumo/Kurogiri being Aizawa’s villain and stuff, but I keep thinking; why exactly is it always Mic waking Shirakumo/Kurogiri up?

I mean, he’s the last one to yell his name before the mist reveals the body underneath in Tartarus, and just this last chapter, Mic is the only one of the two (between himself and Aizawa) who yet again woke Shirakumo/Kurogiri up

( ^ wakes up directly after Mic says his name)

( ^ wakes up as Spinner AND Mic speak to him)

Not only that, but we also have Aizawa saying IN CANON that he was unable to wake Shirakumo/Kurogiri up (right after he asked Monoma to copy the warp quirk)

I’m thinking - what is the connection? Why was it Mic both times?

Is there something we’re missing here? Who exactly was Mic to Shirakumo? Also, who was Shirakumo to Mic?

It occurs to me that we’ve only got the side of the trio’s story from Aizawa’s perspective. That’s not to say it ALL focuses on Aizawa specifically (we do see Mic’s reactions after all), but just that, Aizawa has been shown to be the most torn up about Shirakumo, and he’s the one who has such a bold reaction to Shirakumo/Kurogiri in Tartarus (showing him the goggles, declaring they’ll be Heroes again, etc)

So what about Mic’s feelings? What about Shirakumo himself?

I wonder if there’s going to be more to it all, or if we’ll get more on Mic and Shirakumo’s relationship specifically at some point, their connection and such

It’s just a little suspicious

[soup-of-the-daisies]

[opens fic] “moony has always been the smartest out of all of us” [closes fic]