#ngl i probably have it on another issue already the only problem is my collection is 900+ issues and i don’t keep track of the ads

[un-pearable]

TOO BAD YOUR LAME-ASS REFLEXES ARE THE SAME SONIC ADVENTURE AD IN THE FLESH!!

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

Potentially loaded question but do you think Frida was forgiven a little too easily? Like considering how much she lashed out at Hilda and David then turned to the marra. I know she's a kid and it's understandable to make mistakes, but from a story structure point of view was it earned or rushed? This came up in a discord chat and

you're the most active Hilda blog I've seen (also you're super cool and I accidentally hit send too early 🤣)

Hey there, anon! Okay, so... I had actually never given this topic much thought before, so after I read you ask this stuck in my head. I even re watched The Black Hound so I could remember things and answer you properly. I’m not the best at media analysis, but this is a very interesting point that you brought up so I’ll do my best to break it down so I can try to explain my mixed feelings about this subject.

(Also please forgive me but this is not at all a straight forward answer, I’ve rambled a bit so there’s even a cut😅)

First off, I think we should consider Frida’s mistakes as two separate things: one would be lashing out at Hilda and David, and the second one would be joining the Marra. It’s clear that they’re both connected and that one led to the other, but their orders of magnitude are so different that I think it wouldn’t be appropriate to consider them the same mistake.

So let’s begin by her lashing out. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that the argument scene was right after they fought a ghost. Taking that into consideration, I can understand why she lashed out. She was feeling scared after a life threatening situation, and that plus the emotional stress that she was going through, with questioning everything she’d ever thought she was, made her burst. But even though it was understandable, it wasn’t justifiable, specially since she told Hilda some things that didn’t even have to do with the ghost situation.

And stopping to think about it, it did sort of bother me that this happened, and then Hilda and David after long seemed to have forgotten it. In the Nisse episode, they’re worried about Frida missing classes and sparrow scouts meetings, and so they simply go to her house and... act completely normal. It is normal for people to be worried when they know someone they care about is going through a rough patch in life and it stops them from leaving their house. I mean, it’s a symptom of a few mental illnesses, even. But the fact that they just went to her house, no questions asked, and acted as if nothing had happened just didn’t sit well with me. Especially because it would have been a simple matter to solve. People lash out with some frequency, it’s nothing out of this world. If Frida had just apologized and explained why she had said what she did, things would have been fine, somewhat. But she didn’t really, and things only got worse.

And that takes us to the Marra issue. Not only did Frida all but discard her old friendships without amuch of a reason, she also looked for friendship somewhere else. But let’s think about it, though. Frida isn’t going to school. Frida hasn’t been leaving her house, we know this. So how could she have met Kelly? This whole situation gives me the feeling that somehow the Marra know when someone is vulnerable, and that Frida was manipulated to become Kelly’s friend.

Sounds reasonable, right?

But the thing is that Kelly isn’t just some mean girl that Frida wants to impress (probably because when you’re young you think teenagers are cool for some reason). Kelly is a marra and Frida knew that.

In the end of The Nisse, we see Frida around the campfire, feeding off of nightmares herself, and in the beginning of The Black Hound, we see Kelly throwing Frida forward saying “last to join, first to get eaten”. These two occasions make it clear that Frida didn’t only befriend her, she joined the Marra, even though it seemed like she was at some sort of apprenticeship stage still. And that’s something I can’t wrap my mind around.

This isn’t lashing out in the heat of the moment. She had time to form a “bond” with Kelly, and I’m assuming that she didn’t only learn that she was a Marra after Kelly brought her to the forest. I mean, if she’d just dragged Frida to the campfire and said “surprise, I’m a nightmare spirit and I’m recruiting you!” she’d definitely try and get away, because she’d be scared! So there was some time for her to get used to that idea, not only that Kelly was a Marra, but also that they wanted her to be one as well.

I could argue that Kelly groomed Frida to accept, and it’s a factor that we definitely should keep in mind; grooming is not something to be taken lightly. But after what we see in The Nightmare Spirit? I’m sorry to say this, but Frida should have known better. She saw those spirits torturing her best friends. She had already seen what they were. And I can’t get it in my head that she simply ignored that! That could have been some sort of revenge against them, but it wasn’t, because there seems to be no more resentment from Frida’s side after her blow up in The Ghost. So something that could easily have been vengeance (even though Hilda and David did nothing wrong) was actually just what she chose? Probably manipulated but otherwise unprompted?

And now we get to her “redemption arc”. Let’s take a look, shall we?

This scene happened right after they ran away from the hound. Frida offers to help him, and this is what she says while doing it:

“You were right, you know? About my new, so called, friends.”

This quote actually made me realize something. I could be wrong, but has Frida, at any point in the series, said that David was right? Specially while saying that she was wrong? We see her look remorseful in The Sparrow Scouts, but I don’t think we’ve ever heard her saying that she was wrong before, and I think it was probably very hard for her to say it. Next, she says:

“I’m sorry, I’ve been acting like an idiot.”

And to her credit, she really does look sorry.

For the next few minutes of this episode, there are other instances where she tries to take back what she’s said and done. When Hilda is with her by her door, she says she trusts her and comes up with a plan to help her get a badge. When she is collecting Kelly’s garage sale stuff, she tells him to keep her plushie, because “it’s never a good idea to throw away your real friends”. And while I loved those scenes (and that last one was quite the shade she threw at Kelly, ngl), I’m not at all sure that this serves as a redemption arc (amen, after eleven paragraphs I finally answered the question!)

If all of that had been said before her joining the Marra, I would have thought it perfect. Like you said, anon, she’s a kid, it’s understandable that she doesn’t have a good enough grip over her emotions not to lash out in stressful situations. But this was all done after a more complex and problematic action on her part.

So what would have been a good redemption arc? Well... I don’t think she’ll be completely redempted before she does something to earn their friendship back, instead of just saying apologizing. It would be super cool to have her actually, idk, “resist temptation” for her friends. Maybe if the marra came back and a tried to manipulate her into joining them again, and she refused, that would be a nice way to tie her redemption arc.

Since what you asked was an opinion and not an AU, let’s get back to it. I think it was really easy to have Frida just deliver a few meaningful lines and try to help Hilda earn a badge (though I think she would have done that regardless of trying to apologize, and so would any good friend) and write her off as redempted. But that really didn’t work completely, because it’s easy to be kind and nice when the problem has already passed. How will Frida react when their friendship goes through another tough situation? Will she lash out again or has she learned from her mistakes? We don’t know, because at no point was it shown that she learned.

And now we get to how I feel about it from a storytelling point of view. This redemption is what had been building up since episode 9, and since the Vittra episode we were shown that Frida needed a cold reality shower. Don’t get me wrong, I love her, but if she didn’t realize that she couldn’t be perfect, and that putting her attempts at perfection above her friends was an awful choice, she would only have problems later in life.

What I mean is, with so much build up to this arc, and so much significance to it, it’s disappointing that we had what, half an episode for it? If only the time had been taken to put Frida in a situation where she proved that what she went through made her learn, but no, they didn’t take the time. Which is a shame, because seeing Frida’s character development is always delightful to me.

Summing it up: Frida’s lashing out made sense to me and it was a somewhat easy matter to solve. However if there’s no more said about this topic in season 2, her redemption arc will have been, in my eyes, rushed and incomplete, because nothing was done to show that Frida actually learned. It’s a shame that they didn’t dedicate more time to expanding on that arc, because it was a story that was due to being developed ever since the first episodes.

Thank you for this ask, anon! This was very fun to think about and write, and I’m happy to know I come across as cool :D

[seven-oomen]

I’m sorry you’re still feeling exhausted.  I hope work wasn’t too terrible today, and that the weekend lets you rest up a bit (if you get normal weekends.  working in retail I try not to assume.)  Also, this is likely to just be a short(-ish) collection of unconnected musings, but I felt like sharing them anyway, and really you should be used to that from me at this point.  XD  So, first off that tree painting is GORGEOUS.  I mean, I tend to be kinda partial to that whole tree silhouette type aesthetic, so I’m probably slightly biased.  But still.  (And the background shading… <3 )  Also, ngl, the backlit keyboard keeps making me think of that video of Henry Cavill assembling his new computer that’s making the rounds.  That is not meant as a complaint of any sort, mind you, merely an observation.

Speaking of hot scruffy dudes who are actually massive dorks, did you SEE Ian’s most recent Insta pic?!  (the non-cowboy hat one)  Omg, I don’t know why he keeps complaining about how it’s starting to look like TW Season One hair like it’s some sort of bad thing.  (The longer the hair, the better the grip you can get. […uh…wait, what?… ’>.> ])  That pic just screams OUAT sequel to me.  Out here looking all shaggy and windblown and peaceful and content.  Proud Alpha Dad Peter spending quality time with his family/pack.  How very dare he spring this on an unsuspecting public with no warning?  I was not prepared.  (Also, Sinqua and Holland commenting on it just ups the adorable factor that much more.)

Also, was looking at a few sites lately in consideration of ordering a few more masks for work, found this print on one of them and almost laughed myself absolutely stupid.  I don’t know why it was just so funny to me, but I hope it cheers you as much as it did me.  Btw, it’s available on an impressive variety of items, including two types of notebooks, t-shirts, mugs, blankets, pillows, beach towels, shower curtains, rugs, bath mats, several styles of bags, phone cases, and assorted types of wall art (sadly not on a mask, however.  I was deeply disappointed.)  I can see any number of items ending up in the Haleargentski household, bought by assorted non-wolf members for assorted wolf members, because they are a family of assholes.  (I feel like the first gift was a travel mug to Peter from his darling husbands, then a t-shirt [on black ofc] from Peter to Derek, and then it just all snowballed from there.)

Today’s literally-just-appeared-out-of-nowhere-wtf-brain thought is (much like the French maid thing) definitely of the nsfw variety, so consider yourself duly warned if you have a shift today.  Because I mean we talked about Chris and Noah using toys on each other, but why should Peter get left out of the fun?  There are plenty of ways for him to enjoy them, too.  Like, pretty much the initial spontaneous thought was “Peter getting pulled into someone’s lap and being pegged within an inch of his life until he comes screaming down the throat of whichever one is going down on him at the same time."  And I was just like "not sure what this has to do with this video of how to make a ukelele out of colored pencils, but continue."  But like, no really.  Peter being knotted in one of them while the other uses beads or a (vibrating) plug on him?  (Which one is the asshole who momentarily turns the vibration up high enough that they BOTH can feel it?)  Or using those, or some kind of prostate massager, while he’s tied up and watching them with each other?  Bonus points in that situation for anything remote controlled.  See just how good his control really is.  Equal opportunity toy usage is what I’m saying, basically.

Also had a thought inspired by a pregnant friend and her fiance raving about a local pizza place’s monthly special, which is a pickle pizza (no really).  I may or may not have asked her if she had it with ice cream (I totally did, but apparently she’s past that point.)  So I was wondering about any weird or specific cravings the boys have while pregnant.  I remember Chris having a thing about chocolate pudding in the flashbacks.  Was it only a certain type of pudding, or would any kind do?  Were there any others he had?  Did he have the same ones with Ben or different?  What about Noah?  What sort of cravings did he get, if any?  And did they vary between sets of twins?  Did anybody go the aforementioned pickles and ice cream route?  Anybody dipping fries in Nutella?  Onion straws in peanut butter?  Doritos in cottage cheese?  Anybody eat salsa straight out of the jar?  Did anybody get any sudden absolute need for a specific fast food at two in the morning?  Or suddenly want a type of snack food only carried at one truck stop halfway past the next town?  Anybody spend several days eating nothing but veggie trays, including ones they normally can’t stand?  Anybody develop a temporary aversion to certain things, like coffee (feels like it would be a terrible thing for either of them)?  Did Peter cater to their every whim in any and all of these situations?  (I already know that answer.)  Did either one ever get demanding about it, or did they go the more passively-wistful-won’t-stop-mentioning-it route?  Side note; did anyone (not family) ever catch the wrong end of hormones now backed by even more combat and/or magical ability?  (Debbie at the bake sale best step off or she gonna regret a number of her life choices.)

Uh…I think that was the last of the random swirling questions/musings/headcanons for now…  I hope you feel a bit better today, and that the time off (I think you mentioned some time off?) is helpful.  Enjoy your time with your friend (that was this weekend, right?).  If you’ve got ideas for writing stuff, but are having trouble getting them down, would making quick notes/reminders, or voice recordings, for later help?  Like, so you don’t worry about losing them, but aren’t forcing yourself to do something you don’t feel up for at the time?  Either way, congrats on keeping up with the journaling (and the pretty, pretty art), and I hope tracking everything proves helpful.  And remember, other people’s bullshit issues and hang-ups are in no way your fault (no matter what they try to tell you), and you deserve all the good things.  Take care!  *Hugs to both of you!* 

Yeah, honestly I think I hit that point in my life again where my battery is drained and I can’t restart it. Which is how I got my burn out at first and working towards another one. Heh but I also don’t want to give up now and just keep working for a little longer because my contract expires at the end of September and yeah.. 

Stress.

Aww gosh thank you, yeah I really like how that one turned out! It was better than expected.

Btw if you’re into Zombie apocalypse stories (I am) you should definitely check out The girl with all the gifts. It’s so brutal but also interesting, I definitely enjoyed that. (And it was research for my own book)

Lol I love this keyboard and this laptop, really, it was the most expensive thing I ever bought but it’s so worth it. Still runs super smooth after 2 years. I don’t think I’ve seen that video of Henry though. 

And omg yes I did and it’s the best thing. he looks so SOFT omg. I def got  OUAT S2 vibes from that. And OUAT vibes. Also that pic of him with Colton, omg. Those were the best!

THAT PRINT!!!! I nearly snorted coffee out of my nose this morning but managed to swallow it down just in time. My work computer would have suffered caffeine damage otherwise XD.

But yeah, that becomes a running gag for sure!

Because I mean we talked about Chris and Noah using toys on each other, but why should Peter get left out of the fun?  There are plenty of ways for him to enjoy them, too.  Like, pretty much the initial spontaneous thought was “Peter getting pulled into someone’s lap and being pegged within an inch of his life until he comes screaming down the throat of whichever one is going down on him at the same time."

*cheff’s kiss* 

Yes.

Oh the images are so good. Remind me to write them out in detail tomorrow after the zoo trip.

Also parking the pregnancy cravings to answer tomorrow since it’s past midnight and I should catch some sleep before I need to be up again. But I will definitely type that HC out.

Side note; did anyone (not family) ever catch the wrong end of hormones now backed by even more combat and/or magical ability?  (Debbie at the bake sale best step off or she gonna regret a number of her life choices.)

Ohhh Debbie’s toast. Because yes, Noah’s magic is that much stronger when it’s fueled by pregnancy hormones and Chris turns into a very protective hormonal fighting machine. Low center of gravity has advantages when you’re in a squabble with the Karens.

And yeah, I have four days off right now. Which means I don’t have to work until Thursday again. Which is awesome!

But yeah work wasn’t too bad, I had to do one bad news conversation which fucking sucked since there was nothing I could do and nobody I could get a hold off to fix the problem for that customer and it was just a waiting game. I hate those conversations. I honestly do.

Most of it was quiet though and I got to leave an hour earlier due to the quiet day. So that was good. And I watched a movie while being paid (The girl with all the gifts) so that was pretty fun too XD

I actually voice record a lot already. I find it really helps with clearing my mind and I write a lot of stuff down. But I appreciate the tip!

Lots of cuddles from me and Mo and I hope your day went by well. <3

[fuck-customers]

THE CUSTOMER. COMES. FIRST.

I work at a grocery store and was scheduled to attend self scan when I got this older middle aged maggot of a woman who lives in a perpetual state of wanting to feel wronged and offended. You know the type.

I was standing at my podium when a coworker walking by said something to me. I turned my head to reply and in the 5 seconds that took, this woman got all outraged that I didn't immediately notice she needed help. At least I assume that's what happened, because she did this super exaggerated wave coupled with a sarcastic "HelloooOOooOoo!!!!!" to get my attention. It was so over the top, you'd think she'd been having trouble getting my attention for 5 minutes. Also if you need help there's a button you can press that summons me over and it's harder for me to miss than you silently glaring at me or w/e it was she was originally doing to try to get my attention.

I went over and she was immediately like "How are you?" in this incredibly passive aggressive and almost accusatory tone. It was weird. I think she was angry at me for talking to my coworker for what was literally like 5 seconds? I could tell she wanted me to respond rudely so she'd have an excuse to flip out. I didn't take the bait and responded "I'm good! How are you?" Disappointed, she didn't bother to respond before jumping into the issue she was having. Basically, she just needed to scan a coupon, drop it in the slot, and then press the continue button. idk why she couldn't figure out how to do this herself, especially seeing as the machine was issuing directions, but I guess that's what I'm there for as far as she's concerned.

Problem solved, I went back to my podium. Then I had a different customer who needed help with something. As I was helping him one of the scan it gun alarms went off. At my store we have these scan it guns customers can use to scan their groceries as they shop, bagging as they go and then using the gun to pull their order up at a register or self scan machine. Customers get the guns from one of two charging racks on either end of the store but naturally they can't be bothered to actually return them to the rack despite the fact that they're located next to the doors that they exit through, BUT WHATEVER. So basically, self scan is located next to a charging rack and all the charging stations on that one are kept full by me but I can't run to the other end of the store every time a customer leaves one of the guns behind, so as I collect them off the machines I just put them in a hand basket. When someone comes round to do baskets they grab the basket of guns and put them in the other charging rack.

The guns are designed to go into an alarm mode if they're carried past the doors to prevent theft or being forgotten in carts. The only way to get the alarm to stop is to place the gun in a charging station. The alarm is LOUD and incredibly annoying by design. Whenever one goes off customers whip their heads around because they think someone's stealing or something. So needless to say, when a gun goes off dealing with it becomes a bit of a priority. It's disruptive, headache inducing, etc. For some unknown reason, a gun can randomly go off even if it's nowhere near the door. It happens maybe once a week.

That's what happened on this occasion. The customer I was currently helping was like "WOAH what IS that?" because it's so loud and annoying. I explained as I finished fixing his issue and then went to grab the gun to place it in the charging rack. The rack was full but fortunately there was a customer there about to get one and a spot would be freed up. So I was standing behind that gentleman, waiting on him, when I heard the woman from before trying to get my attention, her tone none improved. It was the same weirdly aggressive, overly exaggerated shouting, like "HELLLOOO I NEED HELP OVER HERRREEEE!!!"

I ignored her. I could have turned around and motioned that I'd be right with her or whatever, and for any other decent customer I would have, but not this woman. Like, anyone could see that I was clearly dealing with something and the alarm was loud enough to lend plausibility that I couldn't hear her. It was also only going to take like 10 seconds so I figured she could suffer the great injustice of having to wait. I was wrong. She came stomping over, furious, telling me that she needed help. I told her I'd be right with her once I put the ear splitting alarm emitting gun in the rack. She stomped back to the machine.

When I went over, she was PISSED. I can't even remember what the issue was this second time, but it was another simple fix. She demanded my name despite the fact that we wear very prominent name tags. I kept my tone light, acting like I was unaware of how angry she was. I think this made her angrier, lol. I told her my first name and she was like "[FIRST NAME] WHAT?" I wasn't about to give this woman my last name so I told her I was the only person with my name working at the store which seemed good enough for her, because then she moved on to being like "I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER. WHO'S YOUR MANAGER?" I gestured out over the front end and told her anyone wearing a certain color uniform shirt, which is half true. Our supervisors and the front end manager all wear the same color shirt but the managers above that don't wear uniforms, they wear business casual. But I wasn't going to be like "Oh, today it's Rick~ Let me go fetch him for you~" Like, if this blight of a woman wanted to go complain about me she could do the legwork herself. I wasn't about to do her any favors, lol.

She paid and then stomped off to the customer service desk, where she encountered Diana. Now, none of the supervisors really take customer complaints seriously but Diana gives ZERO FUCKS. She has a policy that customer complaints stay with her. Unless the customer asks to speak to a manager above her and complains to them personally, no one higher up than her ever hears the complaint. She knows customers are full of shit 99% of the time. So she probably nodded and was like "Oh no! She made you wait 10 seconds? I'll have a word with her right away!" without actually caring.

I don't think the woman was totally convinced because on her way out she stopped by self scan to scold me herself. I can't even accurately describe her tone, but it had me half laughing at how outraged she was. She was like "[FIRST NAME]! THE CUSTOMER. COMES. FIRST." I told her there was an alarm going off that I couldn't just ignore. I think she was kind of caught off guard that I defended myself because she had the lamest response ever, which was something like "I! DON'T! CARE! NO ONE COULD HEAR IT BUT YOU!!!" Which was obviously untrue, lol. Like, no one misses that alarm unless they're hard of hearing or deaf. I don't think she was either, she just didn't know how to respond to logic.

Clearly she's incapable of realizing that she's not the only customer in a store and that most customers don't appreciate loud obnoxious alarms when they're trying to shop and speak to their cashier. I was putting the well being of the ENTIRE store first, requiring her to wait what amounted to SECONDS. I don't think I've ever encountered a more impatient and entitled customer before. Reading back on this story I don't think I'm really accurately capturing just how angry she was. She was livid. If she had the ability to fire me, I'm sure she would have. The way she was behaving was absurd.

Also kind of funny to note is that the first time I went over to help her there was a man with her who I assume is her husband. He disappeared as soon as she started freaking out, probably too embarrassed to stick around. And I realize the absurdity of all of this makes it sound like a fake story. You might already have thought to yourself "Okay, OP totally changed minutes to seconds to make them sound more sympathetic. They were probably talking to their coworker for a long time and ignoring the customer that needed help or they're leaving out some other really important detail" but no, it was literally seconds and I'm not leaving anything out. This woman became enraged because she had to wait literal SECONDS for my help, which she wouldn't have even needed in the first place if not for her own incompetency and incapability to follow simple directions.

I was actually really angry about this for like 24 hours after it happened. She was so abusive and outrageous. The way she used knowing my name as part of her power trip kind of grosses me out. Like ngl, I've done some stupid ACTUAL complaint worthy shit while working and have legitimately screwed up before without anyone complaining about me. So the one time someone DOES complain about me, it's over something totally petty? It's ridiculous. But I'm starting to find the humor in it.

This woman needs to get a grip and/or therapy for her anger issues. I bet she does this type of shit everywhere she goes with her husband noping out immediately and disappearing to the car.