#now that i've come up with these designs for them I think I legally have to draw more of them.

[stack-of-all-trades]

If you aren't reading This Single Dad Coffeshop AU Fic by @awesome-cookies-and-cream ,what are you doing bc it's my favorite

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 4/2/2024

in which i try to clean two different boxes with varying success

new people: hello! the tuesdaypost is a weekly roundup of stuff i've been listening, reading, watching, playing, and making. it is NOT a recommendation series, although i sometimes dabble in critique. when im firing on all cylinders i ask "what is the core concept of this? does it succeed in what i think it's trying to do and what it says it's doing?is it well-made but i dislike it/beautiful but not for me? why? what parts Really Work?"

if you are into purity culture, yelling at other people about the problematic media they consume, or are under 18 i am going to have very little patience for you.

listening

now that i live in houston i am legally obliged to loop the new beyonce album 24/7. there is absolutely truly nobody fucking doing it like her. every song is a multimedia art piece. goddamn do i miss the album as a tool to convey a specific concept/listening order/flow. sometimes (chappell roan most recently comes to mind, although it does feel unfair to compare anyone to beyonce) every individual song is pretty good but the listening experience if you sit down and listen all the way through the album is unpleasant and choppy. not so here. NEVER here.

my favorite like Dance Number is YA YA (it samples nancy sinatra's boots! and the beach boys' good vibrations! wildly different tones despite coming out a year apart!)

the one that goes on four different character/tone playlists is BODYGUARD.

great early roundup of influences, samples, and collaborators. delighted to see five fingers for marseilles listed, a rocky but underrated south african neo-western free on tubi rn for americans

-

reading

also very texas-relevant with the recent pornhub lawsuits! pornhub and sex tech (among other things) have been samantha cole's beat for almost ten years. i trust her to report sensitively and not for like. shock clicks

this site has a free paywall (sign up with your email for a link to the full article) so bots have a harder time scraping articles: this is a journalist-founded site with only the four founders running it and writing articles. while annoying i do think this is a reasonable measure

The platform still has problems, but after years of critical reporting and a litany of legal and reputational consequences, Pornhub is now more heavily moderated than any other porn platform, and most major social media platforms, for that matter. A growing list of age verification laws has put Pornhub in a position where it is compelled to block access to its site in seven states and counting. In theory, these laws are designed to prevent children from being able to access pornography online. In reality, what is going to happen is that children are going to end up on pornographic sites that don’t care what the law says, and where some of the most harmful content that exists online is actively promoted to them.

she's also got a new limited series podcast with CBC about the rise and fall of pornhub, which was fascinating and kept me company during an extremely early morning drive

-

watching

i'm lukewarm about this one but i spend a lot of time getting there, much like this movie

ive been watching a lot of frankly dogshit thrillers, which has made me wonder: what's the deal with supervillans? where did they come from? and thence arrived at the prototypical film Dr Mabuse the Gambler (1922, dir. Lang). the four and a half hour cut on Kanopy is two normal-length movies superglued together, which makes sense as a streaming product but it is sort of a terrifying runtime and took me three days to get through.

sometimes, as we know, i get a real bee in my bonnet about visiting the early versions of things. dr mabuse is the blueprint for every james bond and mission impossible villain, or really any shadowy supervillain with power over [INDUSTRY] or [THE MARKET]. it is a four and a half hour long cat and mouse game through lavish, eccentric sets between mabuse and prosecutor wenk. it has some trouble sustaining itself bc it is four and a half hours long but does deliver on the cat and mouse aspects. this letterboxed review has interesting things to say about the political climate of 1922 germany and how lang subverts the formula of the pulp serial.

really the film opens with mabuse yelling at his cocaine-addicted assistant, but the film properly gets going with mabuse's henchmen stealing a trade agreement (nothing really carbon dates a movie more than a missing trade agreement. vanishingly few post-early-30s movies have missing trade agreements as plot points) and then he crashes the stock market. for fun and profit.

however. i think every time you see an evil man who is a banker or stockbroker or generally uses money as power you have to interrogate whether it's antisemitic. the answer here is "maybe" but i'm not sure if intent matters when contemporary nazi critics were eager to hold mabuse up as "this is the typical jewish criminal". (sorry about the link directly to wikipedia, it's been touch finding online sources for this section). mabuse is not specifically jewish, but there are certainly elements of stereotype. i am still not good at being presented with "this movie has a shadowy behind the scenes figure manipulating the government and all the money ever" and going "hey wait a minute".

after that tremendous glaring caveat, for which i read more contemporary reviews and reviews in general than i ever read for movies in these posts, is it good? eh. a contemporary VARIETY review remarked (and i largely agree)

The direction of Fritz Lang has moments – but Lang somewhat negates his good technical effects by twenty forty-word captions of a ludicrous unconciseness.

the night scenes are particularly well done, and imo are better than many modern night scenes--other contemporary reviews remarked

In this film the techniques of the film camera (Carl Hoffmann’s brilliant photography) are brought to perfection. The problem of how to film lit-up streets at night has been solved for the first time. It is unbelievably impressive to see the glaring lights of speeding cars flash through the night or the rapid passing of an elevated train of the initially blurred, then gradually focussed glimpse through a pair of opera glasses on to the variety stage, the nuances of light and shade—these things alone prove the value of film documentary.

look at this shit! filmed from within the cars! in 1922!!!

this film asks you to believe hypnotism is real and really effective, so i don't think it's that big of a leap when it asks you to believe in ghosts. i don't understand that quibble from contemporary viewers. there are several on screen suicides with like. specific methods. which is not currently regarded as good filmmaking practice. im curious to know what contemporary audiences thought but couldn't immediately turn anything up, and wading through masters’ theses on cinematic suicide is a little beyond my current mental health.

if i were a more content-minded woman this would turn into a clickbait video essay about the antisemitic origins of every supervillan. however i am unqualified and untalented at video editing and i'm sure there are forty theses on this already. this movie is a hard sell to anyone jewish or employed. it is also a stunning example of cutting-edge film technology and part of the genesis of the modern supervillan. Fritz Lang films tend to fall in the category of “movies i am happy to see once and feel no need to revisit”.

-

playing

playing what is effectively the same game three times back to back (breath of the wild, tears of the kingdom, genshin impact) has sort of burned me out on open world games with a focus on battle skill progression and stumbling across little puzzles in the overworld. i have to get itch.io up and running on this pc and find the most linear jankiest possible one-sitting indie thing. or several of them. i might try the solo ttrpg Gentleman Bandit i seem to have acquired in one of the giant charity bundles

brief breath of the wild update bc i don't want to pull screenshots off my switch: i have gotten to the boss fight for the gerudo and goron regions, have not completed them bc my focus in this game is NOT hearts, and am in the middle of the zora temple. despite the quality of life improvements and new regions in totk i think i prefer botw: progression is a bit easier, there are fewer mmo-style hub quests and repeatable quests. things like the stable photos are cute but very repetitive, so are the sign bracing puzzles, and the sky crystal quests for sky shrines feel VERY samey. also dislike how the CLEAR OUT: [REGION] quests with the monster suppression squads reset at the blood moon.

anyway! to genshin! there was an exceptionally fun little event with a surprisingly involved management sim tacked onto the game??? you make and sell potions fulfilling different requirements, and can eventually stock travelling merchants all over the continent. the actual act of making the potions was this block-filling 1010! style thing (screenshot from polygon)

the new region, a port town and tea-growing area called Chenyu Vale, is maybe the prettiest one in the game so far? it's the one that feels the most picturesque and Designed, like this is one huge mansion garden studded with follies. they also added background chatter and noise in the cities and towns, which really startled me and makes them feels much more lived in! this is a fun trick to avoid putting in a thousand NPCs and making everyone's framerate crash. the less stuff in your game, the less shit can go wrong.

also pulled for and got chiyori, a geo-aligned seamstress (and sometime spy???) swordswoman who has what i can only call domme voice

-

making

ok now we'll talk about boxes. i was rearranging my kitchen, as unemployed women are known to do, and noticed this recipe box i picked up back in mass was disgusting. the finish is starting to fail but it was genuinely grody and last summer i packed my kitchen in a blind panic inside an hour and did not have time to address it. i have never seen a recipe box at an estate sale before or since and it made me desperately sad.

it was full of a lot of stuff.

i went at it with a somewhat inadvisable combination of things: wood soap didn't budge it, so i dampened a paper towel in vinegar and wiped it down in the vain hope it would do something. the thing that worked, and would be inadvisable for anything veneered or less densely textured, was baking soda paste and the scrubby side of a sponge. it still smells Very musty even after 48h of loose baking soda inside with several changes, but that might be partly the recipe cards' fault. i would like to refinish this at some point but i don't have polyurethane on hand and the fun little project budget is empty until further notice/i get a job.

the hinge did rust a bit despite my best efforts but that has since been lightly steel wooled and oiled. a well loved object! it's possible the lady who died just fucking sucked and that's why literally her entire estate including many other things families usually keep was on sale, but i would like to think perhaps she simply had no other family? a well loved/used object even if all the recipes are for semi-horrifying fifties new england recipes.

the other box, pre-acids but post-washing: this topp trading card box with seven episode one packets of cards was intact with the original seal. i have verified it was not worth much more than the $5 i paid for it with the trading card obsessed man in my best friend's husband's friendgroup. i bought this three months ago but the man was unavailable to open it until uhhh last week. some sort of liquid got inside it at some point and it was super corroded. i was going to store embroidery floss in here but even with all my powers (barkeepers friend. brasso.) i cannot completely remove the corrosion. it's not corroded Through but it looks bad and feels rough. so it goes. it'll probably hold the tiedown straps in my car bc that plastic bucket is rapidly failing

[misstrashchan]

"This must be really hard on her too"

That line... has been forever stuck on a loop in my head ever since I first heard it. That it's the last thing they say, that they take away about Ruby as a person in that scene. Especially while watching V9, and just how much everything has been weighing down on Ruby, and her tendency to repress her negative emotions and refuse to take time to let herself feel them and reflect is now being unpacked and examined much closer as the Ever After functions in such a way that she will literally get nowhere unless she looks inside herself, this scene has again been swimming to the surface of my mind, and it's just something I feel like revisiting.

(also it's rg white day today so, I'm legally allowed to be insufferable about Them, though this is in part relevant to V9 in regards to Ruby)

Most other people who have met and know Ruby just kind of accept that she is who she is, or very quickly come to. She's The Hero. The Leader. The Spark Of Hope Everyone is Inspired By. We rarely see her talk about her personal feelings and motivations, and it's never really called into question besides being touched upon briefly in her first meeting with Ozpin and Blake in the first volume about why she wants to be a huntress:

Ozpin: And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?

Ruby: Well... I want to be a Huntress.

Ozpin: You want to slay monsters?

Ruby: Yeah! I only have two more years of training left at Signal! And then I'm going to apply to Beacon! You see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress, and I'm trying to become a Huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, Hey, I might as well make a career out of it!

(1x01)

Ruby: I love books. Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters... They're one of the reasons I want to be a Huntress!

Blake: And why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?

Ruby: Well, I'm hoping we all will. As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books... Someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves!

Blake: That's... very ambitious for a child. Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale.

Ruby: Well, that's why we're here! To make it better.

(1x03)

...With further insight from Yang at times:

Yang: I'm not like Ruby, she's always wanted to be a Huntress. It's like she said, ever since she was a kid, she'd dreamt about being the heroes in the books. Helping people and saving the day, and never asking for anything else in return.

(2x10)

But rarely do we see Ruby open up about herself as an individual and her struggles, and even rarer still is the occasion someone prompts her too.

And so it's always stuck out to me that in 5x05 she gets asked the questions that... no one else has really asked her before.

"How do you handle all of this?"

"How can you be so confident?"

"How are you okay with any of this?"

In the Dojo scene (5x05) when we see Oscar pick up on Ruby trying to hide how sad she is (after being reminded of Penny's death) while trying to encourage Oscar, we see her recompose herself, interrupt Oscar when he starts to ask a question after noticing her sullen expression, and then she tries to leave, excusing herself awkwardly.

"Well, see you upstairs"

(very subtle Ruby) but before she can do so, Oscar finds he has to ask:

"How do you handle all of this?"

A question she initially doesn't... actually answer. She very deliberately avoids talking about herself, her own feelings, and how she's been handling all this. Instead she focuses on reassuring Oscar at first, saying what she thinks will make him feel better after hearing him elaborate, confiding in her about how afraid and overwhelmed he is by his current situation.

"I'm... scared. I'm more scared than I've ever been in my life, than I ever thought was possible. I always knew that I wanted to be more than a farmhand, but this?"

"...Who would ask for this?"

Oscar didn't really have a choice in being pulled into the war with Salem and becoming a huntsman, he was reluctantly pulled into it by Ozpin. WBY and JNR decide to join the fight because they're inspired by Ruby and following her as a leader.

...So why does Ruby willingly ask and choose to be a huntress? Why did she freely leave home? Why would she choose to risk her life in this fight against Salem and to take on the responsibility of saving the world? (It certainly doesn't feel like a coincidence that these questions are being revisited in one way or another in V9)

Ruby gives him a very generalised answer in response to his question at first that talks about everyone as a group, and leaves out talking about herself as an individual specifically:

"We all went to Beacon because we wanted to help people"

"None of us chose this either"

"We just have to press on"

And you can see Oscar's expression growing more frustrated as he's facing away from Ruby, because that's not an answer to the question he actually asked. Because he asked about how Ruby as an individual is handling all of this. Ruby genuinely wants to reassure Oscar, but to him it comes across as insincere, like she's putting up a facade, especially since he saw only a moment ago that she was on the verge of tears and clearly upset about something, so he knows she's not being honest about how she's feeling when Oscar asks her how she's handling all of this.

And so he snaps and pushes back:

"How can you be so confident? People have tried to kill you, the world's about to go to war all over again, how are you okay with any of this?!"

(*glances at the v8 finale and v9* boi howdy those words sure do have a different weight to them now huh)

And while realising he may have been too harsh or blunt and later apologizes, it actually does succeed in getting Ruby to reflect a little and confide in him what she'd been through at the FoB and her losing Pyrrha and Penny, her own doubts and fears about the fight with Salem, and how it had shaped her resolve moving forward.

"When Beacon fell, I lost two of my friends: Penny Polendina and Pyrrha Nikos. I didn't know them for very long, but that doesn't change the fact that they were two of the most kind-hearted people I have ever met. But that didn't save them. Pyrrha thought that if there was even the smallest chance of helping someone, then it was a chance worth taking. And because of that, she died fighting a battle she knew she couldn't win. And Penny... was killed... just to make a statement."

"I am scared! But not just for me. What happened at Beacon shows that Salem doesn't care if you're standing against her or not. She'll kill anybody. And that, scares me most of all. Pyrrha... Penny... I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt. That I didn't think about them everyday since I lost them. That I didn't wish I had spent more time with them. If it had been me instead, I know they would have kept fighting too. No matter how dangerous it was. So that's what I choose to do. To keep moving forward."

And again, what stands out to me is that the last thing Oscar takes away from his conversation with Ruby in the Dojo isn't... how inspiring she is or his admiration and respect for her (though he very clearly has that too, "she must've been one of the best huntresses at beacon!"). The last thing he says in this scene, the last thing he takes away is instead this:

"This must be really hard on her too."

The more time that passes through the series and seeing Ruby slowly put under more and more pressure, and stretching herself thinner over time, (like her semblance evolves so she can break herself down to carry others in V8, and in V9 her friends have been shrunk down and she is the one responsible for carrying her team on her shoulders) to help others and save everyone and yet still fail and lose those close to her, and having to just keep trying, keep moving forward no matter what, never stopping or slowing down even if there is no clear end she can see is heartbreaking and exhausting.

And it just makes rewatching the Dojo scene hit even harder. Because yes Oscar! It really is hard on her too! And it was so damn satisfying to have someone see and acknowledge that as well as admiring her and being inspired by her. Being moved by both her strength of character AND her vulnerability. And so it's noteworthy that Oscar is the one who does this, and who pushed her to open up, even just a little, about her grief over the FoB and fears about the fight with Salem.

Especially considering the visual framing of Ruby opening up to Oscar about what she's been through while standing in an open door frame exposed to the outside cementing that as the purpose of the scene: (she is literally opening up to him)

And the fact that Oscar has a kind of a different response from when we've usually seen Ruby comfort, reassure and inspire someone before. Usually it causes them to reflect on themselves and their own struggles, (like with Blake, Jaune, Penny and Qrow) not also on hers as well.

Even with those she has a mutual sense of understanding and solidarity with, like Blake (because of their ideals) and Jaune (because of both of them sharing the responsibility of being leaders) the way they comfort and uplift her in turn when they see her doubting herself is often a double edged sword.

Jaune: You didn't drag us out here. You gave us the courage to follow you.

(4x10)

Blake: I know you don't always know what to do, but that's never stopped you from doing something. I've always looked up to you Ruby.

(8x08)

Yang and Qrow also do this, and it comes with the additional punch of comparing Ruby to Summer as an ideal she strives to be:

Yang: Mom took a risk the day she left, and I don’t think. I don’t think it went the way she wanted it to. But she’s still my hero.

(8x11)

(Summer was Yang's hero, and now Ruby is too, so she has to try to live up to that)

Ruby: This says I'm a Huntress now. But I don't feel like I know much more than I did at Beacon.

Qrow: That feeling never goes away. Your mom, Summer, would be proud of you.

Ruby: What do you think she would've done if she learned the truth about Salem? That she can't be destroyed.

Qrow: Pressed on, I think. Like you. She was always the best of us.

(7x04)

(if Summer would've pressed on, then Ruby has to keep doing that too. If she was the best, then Ruby has to be the best.)

Because, and I want to make this clear, I think Ruby appreciates and is greatful for how much they believe in her and look up to her, and it absolutely does inspire her to keep moving forward, to stand up and fight even when she's doubting herself. But it also... unintentionally places more pressure on her to try and live up to those expectations, and it deprives her of an equal, of someone to relate to and help share her burden instead of upholding her on a pedestal and having unwavering faith in her as the smaller soul everyone looks to. To bottle up her negative feelings because well, everyone believes in her as this optimistic leader who is this endless source of hope and inspiration to everyone around her, and everyone needs her to Keep Being That, and that's more important, right? She can't let them down, right?

"It's up to you to make things better, isn't it? Everything all depends on you! Your sister needs you, your friends need you. The whole world needs you to keep fighting forever and ever against an invincible monster that took your mother!"

(9x04)

Ironically, this (in part) comes back to the person who reinforced this flawed mentality in Ruby in the first place. Ozpin.

"But if you aren't always performing at your best, what reason do you give others to follow you?"

(1x10)

This was genuinely good advice for Ruby's situation at the time in V1 after her conflict with Weiss, to take her role as leader more seriously, and well intentioned I'm sure. But in the long run? Ruby has been basing her self worth on how much she can give or do for others. On being that perfect leader.

Ruby feels like she constantly needs to be a pillar of strength and support for everyone around her as a the ever-cheerful and inspiring leader, that she has to prioritize them over herself, and if she lets herself admit how much she's hurting or how scared she is, she'd be afraid of those around her losing faith. What reason would they have to follow her if she failed them like that? Thus as a result, she struggles allowing herself to open up about her own feelings and to rely on others for emotional support. And as we've starting seeing recently, bottles it up until she reaches breaking point.

Another element to consider, and there might be an earlier or more obvious indication of this, but I started to notice it in V2 when she's visibly the most depressed and worried about Blake's behaviour as she's spiralling and overworking herself, saying the party is pointless if they can't get Blake to go.

"Date or no date, none of this will matter if we can't get Blake to go."

(2x05)

Yang and Weiss are also both concerned for Blake's wellbeing, but they're also excited about the dance for themselves, (Yang talking about what dress she's going to wear, Weiss about her date, what decorations they should have, etc.) which we see when they're planning the party. For Ruby, the only point of the dance is to cheer Blake up, to get her to relax.

"What's the point? Who cares about the dance if Blake isn't going?"

(2x06)

But then Yang convinces Blake she needs to take time for herself and relax, and when Blake shows up at the party, afterwards Ruby is... then completely stumped when she no longer has someone to worry over, and ironically struggles to relax or enjoy herself at the party like everyone else.

Blake neglected her physical needs to push herself, while Ruby appears to neglect her own emotional needs. She focuses on other people's problems and struggles, concerns herself with their wellbeing and happiness, and we don't really see her think about her own. It's admirable how much she's dedicated to being a huntress, but unlike the rest of her team, she doesn't really have anything outside of that that she wants for herself. Her entire sense of self completely revolves around being a huntress.

Ozpin: Well, you can't spend your whole life on the battlefield, even if you may want to.

Ruby: (crossing her arms, looking annoyed) Yeah, that lesson's been floating around a lot lately.

Ozpin: (staring out at the dancing couples) If you think about it, fighting and dancing aren't so different. Two partners interlocked, although one wrong move on the ballroom merely leads to a swollen foot.

(2x07)

This is said while looking out on the dancing couples and comparing dancing to fighting, aka, romantic foreshadowing, which I've talked about in more detail here

(also hey thanks Oz for giving Ruby some good advice to follow the piece you gave her about being a leader in the previous volume)

It's also interesting how this is in the same volume Oobleck questions Weiss, Blake and Yang's motives for being huntresses, and later on during the campfire scene we see them each open up about their own doubts and affirming their resolve to one another, but Ruby is completely excluded from this. Instead we are given insight about Ruby from Yang's perspective, but not from Ruby herself. Because everyone assumes, even her sister, that she is the simple soul, the pure hearted hero, and therefore has no doubts or deeper reason for what she does. When in actual fact, both are true, as we start to see in the Dojo scene.

And when she allows herself to confide in Oscar about her own experiences and losses, to admit that she is scared, it actually helps in this situation. Opening up is what allows her to relate to Oscar's own fears and let her words reach him. To reflect on what she'd been through and reaffirm her own resolve. And a mutual sense of understanding in each other and their fears is established. And this makes sense, after all, allowing yourself to be vulnerable and being more honest about your more negative emotions (being sad/afraid/frustrated) leads to empathising with others and understanding them better. And Oscar goes on to do this in future volumes in trying to empathize and be vulnerable and honest with others, which for better (in Emerald, Hazel and Ozpin's case) or worse (in Ironwood's case) is always worth trying to do, because if you don't then no one can understand and reach out to each other, and nothing will truly change. Which I firmly believe is something Ruby needs to learn more in regards to her Silver Eyes and how she uses them.

Ruby has pushed Oscar to be braver and more confident in himself, (like Ruby) while Oscar has pushed Ruby to be more introspective and honest about her own feelings (like Oscar). Which is the part of both character's struggles, Oscar in overcoming his fears and Ruby in dealing with her own feelings.

There's even a callback to this scene in the V7 finale when the song "Until the End" which is a Ruby song, is playing. As Yang is asking JNR where Oscar is, the exact lyrics that play when Oscar is mentioned are:

"The tears that you've shed,

May find a tree to water,

But only when you're stronger"

Literally the words "tree" and "Oscar" overlap here.

During the Dojo scene when Ruby opens up about the hardships and losses she's endured, and the fears she still has, but also her resolve to keep moving forward, we see her wiping away her tears and reassuring Oscar, whose surname is Pine, a type of tree, like the one being referred to in Ruby's song, a tree that she's watered and helped "grow" metaphorically speaking, as a person, who is moved by her both her strength and her vulnerability. (yes yes I know it's Extremely Corny but the symbolism is Still There)

This could also mean in context of V9 and the Ever After tree that once Ruby is able to properly break down and cry, to grieve and embrace her pain, to be a rose that blooms in the rain that opens up to her team and herself, that she will be able to move forward to the tree and find her way back home.

It's also playing into her allusion as the Rose from the Little Prince as well, as she tries to face away from Oscar and quickly wipes away her tears:

“She did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower…”

And it doesn't just stop there either.

In V6, after telling JNR about Jinn, Oz and Salem, we see how angry and disheartened they all are:

Jaune: "Everything we did was for nothing!"

Blake: "That's not true..."

Nora: "Really? Cos' it sure does sound like it!"

Blake: "I... um..."

Ren: "If Salem can't be killed, then how are we supposed to win this?"

Jaune: "Wow... Great plan, everyone."

After Jaune's outburst, we see Oscar look up over to Ruby, as if he's expecting her to say something uplifting or encouraging, because that's usually what Ruby does at times like this, right? But then he sees her downcast expression, and all of a sudden you see Oscar look back down as he realises that Ruby isn't going to speak up, because she's taking Jaune's critiscism the hardest out of all of them. And it settles in for him how much this is weighing down on her, because she's the leader, because she's always the one expected to have a plan or to know what to say, because she feels like she has a responsibility to live up to that image for all of them.

That this must be really hard on her too.

And we know this to be true when we later hear her confide in Maria:

"What am I supposed to tell Jaune and his team when we don't even have a plan?"

"I feel like I'm letting everyone down"

Before, Oz was considered the "Leader" of their whole group. But Oscar's trust in Ruby outweighed Oz's fear, which was why he fought for control against Oz and told Ruby how to use Jinn, because he believed and trusted in her more as a leader. And by entrusting her with that knowledge, gave her the means to make her own choice of what was right, and ultimately challenge and remove Oz from a position of leadership. And in v6 as Ruby has that role instead, she feels more responsible for their group, for their mission, than ever before, and in turn, in this scene here, Oscar feels responsible for Ruby and the burden they share.

(it's almost like Ruby and Oscar both share Oz as a foil and they're supposed to be better than him and learn from his mistakes which in turn inspires him to be better.)

"There is a rose... and I believe she has tamed me..."

“But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose...”

(the Little Prince)

And that's the reason why Oscar chooses to try to speak up in this moment to try and direct the attention on to himself instead, trying to defuse the tension of the situation after seeing how Ruby is struggling. Interesting is how he isn't moved to action by seeking inspiration and strength from Ruby alone as others are, but also finds the courage in himself to overcome his own fear and hesitation in a need to support her, in an attempt to alleviate the burden he sees weighing down on her.

Because she shouldn't have to always be seen and believed as the one who bears it. Not alone. Because no one should.

Gosh, it's not like one of Oscar's allusions is the Little Prince who learnt that the Rose was his responsibility to go back and take care of right?

*gestures at how Oscar ran away after his confrontation with Jaune and just so happened to come back wearing combat gear that is a very obvious nod to the Little Prince, as well as taking inspiration from Ruby's Mistral outfit and incorporating her red as his secondary colour, focused on Ruby's reaction, and how Ruby is literally referred to as "the Rose" by Tyrian in v4 and has a semblance that has her burst into rose petals*

Or the boy from the Warrior in the Woods who felt that someone should take care of the Warrior for a change, the way she had for everyone else for so long?

“You’ve spent all these years looking after us. I thought maybe it would be nice if someone looked after you for a change. Because that’s what I can do. Because no one else will"

(The Warrior in the Wood, Fairytales of Remnant)

No no, of course not, that's totally crazy.

[flamerunn3r]

Sorry this is unfinished but I need to post these now just bc idfk when i'm gonna actually finish the rest realistically. Idk it will happen eventually. For now heres the great p5u ramblings post detailing my thoughts designs

This is my own personal interpretations but is also somewhat speculative in nature. I'm mostly trying to deal in already established characterizations and epilogue set ups but there might be stuff I've missed or forgotten (i also haven't played dancing yet sorry if there's something in there I hadn't accounted for). This is kind of like if I took the creative reigns on the story where I'd continue for it. Only the investigation team for now (and 2 boss characters I have an idea for) but maybe I'll do the shadow ops at some point. Only 4 characters for now but I'll reblog with additions when I finish the rest or if I edit any of these

Yu Narukami

He's currently attending school as a journalism student in the city or just starting out as one. Enthusiastic about his field but still tries to find the time to keep up with his friends and visit Inaba on his holidays. I felt journalism made alot of sense for him with the themes of persona 4. I liked the sport jacket and turtleneck but wanted soemthing different so the scarf was chosen to keep the same kind of silhouette. I made the collar on the winter coat large and I feel like Narukami's large uniform collar is a key part of his design. and I wanted to call back to that in his casual outfit. The summer outfit I mostly kept close to his summer outfit from p4. I'm kind of unsure on it though I might come back to it. I mostly wanted to keep his outfits smart and simple. For his meta verse outfit I really wanted to go all out with the bancho (kingpin) stuff and other delinquent tropes. I lengthened the uniform coat a little because I wanted it to look like a tokko-fuku. Alot of smaller detail inspiration was taken from Izanagi. The lenses in the mask are supposed to mimic glasses. I'd imagine he'd take off the mask the same way he throws off his glasses in myriad truths.

Teddie

I can't imagine him leaving Inaba and the TV world behind. Still staying in town and working largely the same job. He's got his own place now albeit small (still a step up from the closet though). At some point the IT asked Mitsuru to pull some strings so he actually has a legal personhood now. The animal hoodie is something that came to me spontaneously but I knew I needed to include it. I really that his normal outfit in 4 keeps the white and red of the bear costume in the outfit so I tried to keep the colour scheme here too. Most of his later outfits are less flashy and more casual so I tried to continue that trend. I didn't want to lose the rose from the corsage completely so I included a rose pattern in the second shirt. Alot of his outfits feature light blue so I wanted that in at least one outfit. I considered making the hoodie light blue initially. I don't think he'd have a metaverse outfit he'd just use the bear costume.

Naoto Shirogane

I'm under the assumption Naoto is still presenting masculinely to the general public as of p5 but I may be mistaken in this. If I'm wrong I'd still probably largely keep the outfits similar to this. Naoto's still working as a detective and I don't think that's ever really going to change. One thing that a hypothetical p5u would have to address is what Naoto and the shadow ops would have been doing during the events of persona 5 and I unfortunately do not have any ideas for what that would be at the moment.

I feel alot of the appeal of Naoto's design is the kind of boy detective fashion. I went at this design with the intention of kind of refining that into something a little more adult while still keeping in a similar vein. I did have to ditch the pageboy hat unfortunately as I felt it made them look too young. These outfits were kind of design as pseudo work clothes which is why I tried to make them a bit more formal then the other characters. Something I consider notable about Naoto's design but deliberately avoided here was the rolled up pant legs. It's very obvious in 4 it's done because Naoto is short but I feel like Naoto would start getting that either custom made or tailored to fit. I was initially going to forgo the blazer on the summer outfit but the design felt empty without it. Naoto having a noir detective themed metaverse outfit is an idea I'd had for years but I tried to incorporate design elements that were princely. I alot of the inspiration was from Sam Spade specifically. Deliberately made similarities to Akechi's white crow design. The band around the hat is supposed to invoke the similar one on the old page boy hat.

Yukiko Amagi

Still working at her families in but is taking online courses during the off seasons. She's mostly happy where she is but is keeping her options open. Occasionally makes visits to other ryokans out of town for ideas for her families own inn, as well as an opportunity to for her to sight see.

The headband was included in her design in p4 as a like retro design thing but I find it too important of a marker of her design to remove it. I understand the why they went with the hairstyle they did for her golden epilogue but I feel it just ends up making her look way older then she is. I thought her having her hair up would be a nice change since she does it so rarely and settled on a ponytail. Tried changing the bangs but the ones she already had just felt right. I wanted her clothes to carry this kind of air of sophistication so I tried to keep them relatively simple and sleek. She's wearing pants in the winter outfit but I chose the longer coat to keep a similar skirt silhouette. The choker was largely inspired by the scarf she has in her winter outfit. Despite being a different colour the cardigan was also chosen to tie back somewhat to the sweater she wears with her school uniform.

In some side material it's mentioned that Yukiko has an interest in western fashion and aesthetics (part of what made the castle manifest the way it did) and I wanted to lean on that in some way for her metaverse design. I ended up going with a masquerade ball theme. I tried to keep the dress to something simple and easy to move in. The gloves and boots take inspiration from her persona in terms of design and size. I wanted to incorporate elements from her work kimono as well hence the ribbon around the torso and flower patterning. Probably the most unsure of this one of the metaverse designs so far. Especially the colours (considered making the reds pinks initially). Might revisit this one.

Ok that's all I have for now I'll probably do Rise's next 👍👍👍

[pillarsalt]

if this seems like a weird question feel free to ignore it! but.. if youve felt it, how do you deal with the guilt of "waking up" from transition and the narratives around it right now? i know logically in my mind that the current state of gender as a concept is a rehash/rebranding of old regressive standards, i know its not logical to do surgeries on young mentally ill and neurodivergent people who are in distress, i know that something cant be a social construct and biologically innate at the same time, and i know that the idea of "passing" or "transitioning to a woman" is misogynistic as hell, but i still feel bad for voicing or even thinking of any of it as wrong.

the majority of my friends are socially drowning in these concepts, and i cant even find any real lesbian friends, let alone someone who i might wanna date someday. i love them, but almost all of the same sex attracted women in my life hate themselves to some degree for being born women and try to seperate themselves from what they think womanhood is. it makes me feel hopeless as a detransitioned lesbian. any advice is appreciated :/

this got long so here's a cut:

I'm not a detransitioner myself, but I know there are many women on here and detrans lesbians specifically who would understand what you're going through. Anyone who'd like to reach out to anon in the notes is welcome to do so.

I do totally get what you mean about feeling guilty, even though your views are logically reasonable and feminist. Unfortunately that's by design: emotional manipulation and groupthink is how trans activism keeps people entrenched. No debate, anything that isn't immediately and entirely validating is simply evil, it's all black or white to them. There's no room for grey when just a little bit of poking and prodding can make your entire movement collapse in on itself.

I think it's quite common, I've heard it from many women, and myself included, that even after realizing the harms of gender ideology, we tend to examine ourselves and our beliefs over and over again because what if we really are evil fascists like they say we are? But every time, it turns out that no, we just care about women's rights to legal recognition and protection and equal opportunity, and patients' (especially children's) rights to responsible and ethical healthcare. Remember that when you feel you must be wrong because your opinion is currently in the minority. What's right is right, no matter how many or how few people believe it.

The other thing is, I've been watching this issue evolve for years now. I genuinely believe the tide is turning and people are seeing the misogyny inherent to this ideology. Most

In my personal life, most of my friends buy into gender ideology. A couple of them identify as nonbinary, although I'm not as close with them. It is a hard tightrope to walk. Honestly I don't get too emotionally attached, as much as I can help it, because I'm ready to lose them as friends if it comes to that. If they directly asked me my opinions I would share them, and I've always been prepared to. They never ask. I have a feeling most of them know I disagree with their views on gender but don't want to "have to" cancel/ostracize me, so the subject never comes up. Funnily enough, the friends with whom I do talk about my views openly are men. I think women, generally being socialized to care deeply about others' feelings and wellbeing, are more likely to have these feelings of guilt when going against the societally ~nice, kind, polite~ thing to do, so are more likely to stay close to the groupthink mentality of "we're good, they're bad, continue doing what we say is good and you can keep being good too". And when you see what happens socially to women who speak out against genderism, yeah it's terrifying to face that yourself.

All that to say, I get what you're feeling. It's lonely and isolating to think differently from the people around you but not feel safe to express it. Especially so for lesbians and bi women who want to date women but find that dating women now comes with the extra exhausting step of avoiding believers of gender nonsense everywhere you turn. But you are far, FAR from the only one. There are a ton of other women in your situation, they're looking for women like you. Don't give up. It's hard but it's worth it. I don't have experience with it myself, but I know of quite a few women who met on tumblr and ended up in long term irl relationships. There are also quite a few rad-related discord groups, some specifically for lesbians as well. Seriously, tumblr has become a great resource for connecting with other feminists. And even offline, there are far more women around you who think like you but are also too afraid of the backlash to speak out. Keep looking, don't give up.

[bluef00t]

Finally collecting these in a post—Atomic Robo robotswap ideas. This was more of a character design challenge than a real AU, but the concept kind of got away from me.

Rambling design notes + a couple panel redraws + some ideas I had for Helsingard and ALAN 1.0 under the cut:

This idea spiraled out of an old sketch by Wegner of real-boy Robo as a genetics experiment. I'm interpreting that as basically Wolverine minus the animal motifs (and generally much more well-adjusted).

I tried to mimic more elements of his bot design; for example the hair silhouette and the thick blue-tinted glasses, swapped for goggles as his lifestyle got more active. I guess sensitive eyes are a side effect of his mutations. (The classic superhero forehead curl on babyrobo has no design justification, I just couldn't resist.) His appearance would make the public of the '20s a little uncomfortable with seeing him as Tesla's son. Which feels very thematically appropriate.

I'm still calling him "Robo" because it feels weird not to, though it would be a nickname. Appropriate for a guy who never sleeps; plausibly derived from Robert/Ratko. (The American name would be how he's introduced to the public; the Serbian one used casually by Tesla.*) Honestly, it seems in-character for him to put down Robo as his actual legal name when he finally got that chance.

*Things I found out after picking these names for their superficial resemblance to "Robo": Robert means "famous, shining" and Ratomir means "defender of peace"; literally "war for peace". Definitely an affectionately ironic moniker for a son so determined to be an action hero. Though dear monolingual Robo probably wouldn't catch on until decades after Tesla's death... Well, now I've gone and made myself sad.

The action scientists are mostly an excuse to still draw robots. Let's say they're Robo's big midlife crisis project after realizing he was going to outlive his entire first team and not think about it too hard.

Vik (inspired by Robby the Robot) is the oldest of the models. He's optimized for processing power, which is how you get a robot that will try to suggest purely hypothetical (but mathematically sound!) solutions to urgent real-world problems. And enjoys TTRPGs of Turing-complete levels of complexity.

Lang (inspired by Robo) came shortly after, more optimized for the "action" part of action science. Being made of metal does wonders for your recoil management. (I know she hasn't had the hair buns in 10+ years, but that's what I was trying to do with the "antennae".)

Foley (inspired by Alan) is the newest model, optimized for human-robot interaction. Getting wifi installed in her head early on had the unexpected side effect of making her really good at understanding networks of all kinds.

BRN-3 wasn't built to be sentient. He's just a lab geological survey bot that began showing signs of sapience one day and attributes his own "enlightenment" to the "crystals" he'd been studying. This is obviously bullshit but nobody can give a better explanation, so...

Jenkins is literally just the Terminator, except his evil future is vampires instead of AI. He was sent back to kill Robo, which clearly didn't work, so they talked it out and now he just hangs around Tesladyne on high alert for anything that might kick off the apocalypse.

(I have no idea where Ada, Ben, and Koa fit in here, but I might come back to them later. Using their Agents of CHANGE power suits as android designs felt like cheating.)

Not included in these drawings are Helsingard and ALAN, but I'm considering switching around parts of their premises, too.

Helsingard was a Nazi supercomputer meant to calculate the perfect world-conquering strategy. Instead, it realized that Germany's loss was imminent and hid copies of itself around the planet. Every once in a while, someone accidentally boots up a copy and it tries to take over. In the modern age it's a total dice roll as to whether this will be horrifying (what major infrastructure isn't computerized these days?) or just kind of pathetic (it's too old to understand the internet and can easily get itself trapped in an office printer spitting toner and stacks of paper that read BEHOLD HELSINGARD).

ALAN (potential rename pending; the Turing connection is rather lost in the version I'm going with for now) is the world's second successful "unkillable" genetic experiment, a govt project during the Cold War to ensure that the last man alive in a nuclear winter scenario would be British. But it turns out telling a guy he's the next stage in human evolution and sealing him in a bunker for decades to await a chance to inherit the earth which doesn't come isn't great for his sense of compassion or morality. Eventually, ALAN decides to hurry things along before we inferior humans end the world in a less convenient way, and Robo has to... well, you know this part.

It turns out there was a secret phase 2 to this plan, which would have been to populate the solar system with perfect immortal mind-networked clones of himself. The single under-baked clone that it does manage to spit out before being shut down is our Alan :] He needs someone to look after him while his crazy healing powers fill in the missing chunks of his body and brain, and he didn't get a full memory upload from ALAN, so it's free son boy!

No changes were made to Dr. Dinosaur. He's already perfect.

[practicecourts]

snippet monday...

The result of the poll was TDC... so I dug into what I once began to write... and this snippet seemed somewaht tidy and done enough to share... I've not decided where everyone is at in this fic idea. But I'm very interested to hear thoughts (if there are any haha - it might be too vague - lol) thanks for tagging me for a Monday snippet @jamesunderwater consider this a very late reply ;-)

tagging @abihastastybeans @charmsandtealeaves @thelighthousestale @tiffanytoms @athenasparrow (only if you feel like it of course;-)

“Mr Black, please sit down,” Lily said and waved her hand to the unoccupied chairs opposite her desk. She took a deep breath, her office had seemed rather spacious to her, up until now. Filled with both Sirius Black and James Potter it was suddenly too small and far too crowded for her liking.

“Mr Potter,” she acknowledged him at last, all the while trying her best to keep a neutral look on her face, he only nodded at her, not even a dr. Evans today.

Why did he have to be here? This was exactly why she should stay the hell away from him. If he could only take the bloody hint. Just stay professional, Lily, it’s not your fault the news is bad. You didn’t do that, you just have to tell them. Inform them. That’s what you do, that’s the job. It’s not personal.

Black spoke before she even got a chance to sit down, “May I enquire why you are here, dr Evans?” His question threw her off balance, the flush she was trying to keep off of her face crept back up again, heating her skin in a very uncomfortable way. In an attempt to ignore the feeling of her face going scarlet, she cleared her throat and answered, “Mr Black, since I am the one who did this pre-purchase check—,” had he not been aware of that? Had he requested someone else? She was sure her name had been on the appointment. Had they never bothered to read the clinic’s communcations where she was introduced as their designated pre-purchase veterinarian for racing horses,? “—for the horse you are interested in buying, I’m here to discuss the results with you.”

‘’I did see your name on the appointment, however I’ve also been informed that you’re not certified to work in the UK, so I admit I expected a replacement. Was I wrong about that?” “Come again?” Lily’s cheeks are positively burning now. The room has impossibly got even smaller in the past minute.

How did he know that? This was exactly what she was worried about would happen, why she’d almost refused her bosses, in case this would happen. And now it has. Lily breathed out as slow and calmly as she could, not feeling very in control at all. Only last week she had pointed out to the Legal Department that until her license was transferred she would not officially be allowed to work without supervision by a licensed veterinarian. They had waved it off like something minor, yet the whole process supposedly only needed five working days, so why she was still not in the clear six weeks into her new job was unclear to Lily.

Why did it have to be Black and Potter who had somehow found this out? “I’ve been told there’s a minor delay in the administration of my paperwork, Dr McGonagall supervises my work until that's cleared up,” she stated the legal answer her bosses had decided on for the time being. Like she expected, neither Black nor Potter looked impressed.

“Dr McGonagall wasn’t working yesterday. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that kind of lax supervision.” “Well, perhaps you had been present yourself you would have been more comfortable with this. I'll have you know I'm not inexperienced, and I think if you had been there you could have at least seen so for yourself, instead of implying I don't know what I'm doing. This horse is not the first I’ve ever examined.” she said, pissed off at the situation.

Why couldn’t other people do their bloody jobs, so she could very well do hers instead of having these two smug know-it-alls openly question her abilities. She was furious that somehow word had got out and now this arrogant man dared to sit in her own office and tell her she should not have checked his horse. And the most infuriating part was that legally, he was one hundred percent right.

[cornflowershade]

Get To Know Me Tag!

thanks for tagging me @distant-screaming ! <33 💕 and @airenyah ! <33 ☺️💗

do you make your bed? typically no. I mean, I'll pull the sheets up so that it looks kind of okay but that's about it.

what's your favourite number? i don't think i have one 🤔 but I've always preferred odd numbers.

what is your job? working with kids part-time at an after school! we get to play games and go outside and do art. on thursdays I dance with them. it's a good time :)

if you could go back to school, would you? mmm. maybe! (but it wouldn't be with the intention of going into a that new field—I just like to learn and also enjoy school lol.) I was just talking the other day about how there's so many things I would've loved to study that I didn't go for or only discovered later. Like film! I want to know how to film things and have them look super professional for my personal fan projects.

can you parallel park? nope. never learned how and haven't had a chance to continue practicing driving bc... life. i'm still on my learners permit 🙃

a job you had that would surprise people? not sure what would be surprising honesty! But uh, I used to do website design for people.

do you think aliens are real? like... no but also yes? I think it's safe to assume that somewhere in the universe there could be life of some kind.

can you drive a manual car? nope

what's your guilty pleasure? wracking my brain and i literally can't think of something right now, i'm sorry

tattoos? nope! I like to change up my aesthetics too often for something that permanent asdfg. I stick with the occasional eyeliner tattoos or henna xD

favorite color? red!!! also blue. but I love most colors <33

favorite type of music? i listen to (most) any kind of music! just depends on what I feel like :)

do you like puzzles? like physical puzzle-piece puzzles? not really, I get a little antsy and don't have the patience for them! Unless it's a kids puzzle but then they're often too easy lol. BUT if we're talking mental puzzles, I love that. Like trying to code something and crack how to get a thing working... that's fun.

any phobias? i'm a bit afraid of heights. (not being high up in all situations, but specifically if there's a way to fall down. like sure I'll climb on top of things sometimes, but if it's too high or feels like there's an easy way to fall off then i get scared. sometimes kids try to get me to climb on the jungle gym equipment at work but this is simply not going to happen).

favorite childhood sport? horseback riding :)

do you talk to yourself? yes, but not out loud, just in my head. though a lot of the time it's actually fake conversations with other people or made up people. My brain makes up situations lol.

what movies do you adore? 'the lego batman movie', 'legally blonde'... when it comes to movies i'll watch over again it's usually the more feel-good type stuff

coffee or tea? tea! (I actively dislike the taste of coffee.) But also, I find tea very calming and it makes me happy! like, it's just so cozy!! especially if you have a little time for it, to make it a peaceful moment. boil the water, pick out a cup, sit with it all warm in your hands. rushed tea is not the thing.

first thing you wanted to be growing up? either being an actress or a teacher! :)

tagging: @qt-qtoey @softneomiro @lamonnaie @celestial-sapphicss @moonkhao

[allmydokkuns]

if there's anyone Mandarin-speaking bilingual active on here and still has spoons for MDZS, I have a bit of a linguistic question but not enough knowledge to find an answer myself that I'd appreciate some help with!

I know the fanon fix it courtesy name for Meng Yao being accepted into Lanling Jin is "Ziyao," as in the correct generational character "Zi-" to match Zixuan and Zixun, plus his birth name. Is there any reason he can't still have his birth name and a courtesy name specific to his generation? Same thing goes for Mo Xuanyu.

I've been trying to think of good names for them in a scenario where this does in fact happen but all I've found so far is

偿 cháng for MY bc JGS doesn't deserve paternal rights, which only makes sense if you're privy to the poly fixit that lives rent free in my head...

Unfortunately I've come up with nothing for MXY for now, mainly because there's a particular kind of resonance between character birth names, courtesy names and personal titles that's hard to balance correctly for anyone who doesn't have a lot of working knowledge of the original language.

Anyway if there's anyone out there who has some ideas, reblog/comment/tag me on this post because my brain ain't spitting up much rn. Much thanks. I also remember reading something by someone else talking about how Lanling Jin goes by generations when it comes to deciding names for male descendants and that the radicals in Lan Xichen's and Wangj's birth names seem to be aligning by design, but I don't have enough spoons to find characters that contain the "xu" sound while also having some kind of relevant meaning for both MY and MXY. So instead I tried to think of word characters with good connotations that would be used to name sons as if the two of them had been accepted into the family with good intentions, dunno if I succeeded. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯qq

((now the rest of this is just gonna be some thoughtvomit because what even is coherent sentences anymore, abrupt topic change bc my joints are too messed up to make a separate post))

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding traditional family dynamics, but there is no real reason for Lanling Jin to not accept both Meng Yao and Mo Xuanyu into Lanling Jin except for 1) as established, Jin Guangshan is a philandering rapist piece of shit that has absolutely no intentions of taking responsibility for his offspring and sexual proclivities, or 2) they're attempting to save face for the clan and trying to do the thing where if they do not acknowledge the existence of these children then the problem does not exist?

I understand that some people spin it as being Madame Jin's intolerance for these illegitimate sons given her abuse of Meng Yao after Zixuan's and Yanli's deaths in canon timeline, but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me given how little presence she has in the plot and sect since she married into Lanling Jin. Not saying her taking out negative emotions on someone who for all intents and purposes she should be treating kind of like her son is right, because abuse is still abuse, but other than that it seems her only purpose in the plot is to give Zixuan a mother, Yu Ziyuan a sworn sister, Jiang Yanli a mother-in-law, and Jin Guangyao someone else to hate in Lanling. She's not distinct enough to have a canonical name other than her title as Jin Guangshan's wife, and besides which, being the wife she has no real power to make any decisions regarding the family's heirs. Moxiang Tongxiu straight up set up Lanling Jin as the wealthiest sect after Qishan Wen falls and they just so happen to be the only sect with only one (1) child born of the sect leader and his wife? Sus. Legally everything would have been all well and good if JGS was forced somehow into legitimizing both his illegitimate sons (the sons specifically, since having an illegitimate daughter does your family no real good in a Confucian society unless you're going to marry her out for political purposes) and they were raised as they should have been, especially since both MY and MXY seem like intelligent people. Zixuan gets some backers, Madame Jin gets some more kids and JGS gets some concubines, everyone wins! Even the sect's line of succession is more secure if he suddenly gets two sons. In short, there were so many ways JGS could have taken control of this situation as the father and sect leader and spun it to somehow come out smelling more like roses BUT HE ACTIVELY? CHOSE to give absolutely no shits and just let his wife, kids and sect suffer the consequences of this particular paternal dysfunction. And we all know what happened because he gave too many unnecessary fucks where they were not needed :^) or consensual :^)))) fuck that guy honestly tbh.

Now granted that was a whole sidebar, and maybe I'm thinking about this too hard but does nobody else think it's weird that of the Great Sects, only the male characters in Yunmeng Jiang and Gusu Lan have both canonical birth and courtesy names? It's almost like MXTX gave only the male characters most relevant to the story one of each honestly, since the only two exceptions that are coming to mind now are Su She (Minshan) and Xue Yang (Chengmei). Of course there is the argument that Wen Ning also has a courtesy name, but does it really count when no one uses it to refer to him? The naming stuff in this story are all over the place actually -- Jiang Cheng is the only sect leader of his generation that is referred to primarily by his birth name, but bc WWX is an unreliable narrator it's probably because he always called him that and somehow conveniently forgot he no longer had a right to call him that after he voluntarily left Yunmeng Jiang, therefore we as the audience also call him that... The fact that JC and WWX both seem to have courtesy names when they're kind of young for them, but that also goes for Lan Wangji. Neither the Nie brothers or Jin Zixuan have canonical alternate names, so either it wasn't very important to the plot (though it kind of is in Lanling after the Campaign when JGY gets legitimized but not really since it's the wrong generational character), but what's going on with Qinghe Nie's naming choices? This kind of inconsistency is fine if you handwave the whole thing about degrees of intimacy and formality and stuff but it gets funky if you stare at it long enough.

And that's not even scratching the surface of the weirdness surrounding the women in MDZS -- as few and shortlived as they are. Yu Ziyuan is the only wife of a sect leader in the named sects with a canonical name and title that isn't her married sect's clan + Madame, and the only one we see with any kind of sway both martially and in the everyday running of Yunmeng Jiang. Most importantly, she's the only woman in the series to have her own personal title! Also, again, sidebar, but Jiang Yanli choosing to go by Madame Jiang in fic instead of Young Madame Jin is a mood and a whole chef's kiss tbh. I think also in the kind of household I've been imagining her in after her marriage she could also be called "xiao-furen" (young Madame) where Madame Jin could also be properly called "lao-furen" (old Madame) to differentiate them according to subservient members of the household, in-house? That's a whole nother thing tho, in-group (household, sect, clan) versus outgroup (other sects or clans, and in some ways, your maiden clan if you married out).

Anyway. All of you writing Madame Yu as the root of all trouble in the Yunmeng Jiang family are being culturally insensitive and midkey misogynistic -- looping back to the discussion on JGS being a piece of shit father and sect leader, all his sect's family dysfunction is his inability to keep it in his pants and properly manage his paternal responsibility for the fruits thereof because in a Confucian setting, wives must obey husbands, sons must obey fathers, and both mother and son have therefore no power to override JGS's shitty parenting and leadership decisions re: powermongering and lack of legitimate heirs. Madame Yu's dissatisfaction with Jiang Fengmian's neglect of his only legitimate heir for some other person's son, even if that person's son is the current head disciple for the sect, is valid, because neglecting the next sect leader means neglecting the sect's future. Again, not saying her punishing WWX for stuff that he may or may not have done with Zidian was right. Wei Wuxian might be brilliant and talented and all that, but he doesn't have the right temperament to lead as a sect and clan must be led: with prudence, diplomacy and caution. Again, not WWX-bashing, but I think my favorite description of him goes something like "Wei Wuxian has never met a situation he didn't think couldn't be solved through escalation, and you all think Jiang Cheng is the emotional one?" Jiang Fengmian is an interesting contrast to both Jin Guangshan and Qingheng-jun in that he embodies the idea of physically there, but emotionally unavailable father, whereas JGS is maliciously neglectful and Qingheng-jun is practically non-existent. Granted we don't get a clear idea of how JFM is with JC outside of what that dynamic is like with WWX but I don't think very highly of a father who will scold the son that labored for who knows how many days to save his shixiong's life while praising said shixiong for something he didn't even accomplish alone in the same breath. It's the whole pattern of "ignore what Jiang Cheng accomplishes but lavish praise on Wei Wuxian who would have gotten into even bigger trouble if Jiang Cheng wasn't looking out for him too" that gets me with him. They're both children, you be the adult and sect leader they deserve and look past your biases against your wife (allegedly) and from your past (allegedly) to give them the tools they need to succeed together once you've kicked the bucket.

Is Madame Yu perfect? No, but I do think she loves her children and recognizes the responsibilities she has to Yunmeng Jiang, and she knows as a wife, mother, and fighter, that nothing she does or teaches or passes onto the children in her care means as much as the recognition and explicit support of her husband the sect leader. Jiang Fengmian's presence and legacy in the story is very faint. But Madame Yu? I see echoes of her in all three Yunmeng Jiang kids. But then I see her getting turned into the nagging wife stereotype and it makes me angry that the most developed female character in this story so often gets the short end of the stick in fanfic. Obviously I can't control what some of y'all write and there are some cultural/political nuances that exist in the story that a lot of the fan base may not be familiar with, so yeah I can understand why she gets watered down like that, like any other character in the story does and I'm not calling anybody out for it. But if some of y'all took one look at the so-called sect leaders in this story and immediately decided that it was their nagging, abusive hag of a wife that was the problem, I don't think we're reading/watching the same thing. Also, Wen Ruohan doesn't have a wife mentioned at all that I'm aware of and you could 100% argue that he's the root of most of the political BS that happens in the story, so do with that what you will.

Anyway I'm tired and my joints be protesting so I'm gonna call it a night. If you read this far, take a virtual cookie for making it all the way to here, thank you. If you're new to this hellsite and thought this was intriguing/interesting, reblog or comment and help a bitch out with some engagement, these posts take a lot out of me and if you'll remember, I did have some questions before the meta that I'd like to get out to the wider fan base. Likes don't do shit except make the OP feel like they're yelling into a vacuum. Y'all have a good one.

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

Thanks for answering! Your advice is actually really helpful and now I'm pretty sold on a Toyota.

I do wonder though, I was one phonecall away from buying a 2019 yellow fiat panda cross but a sudden and dramatic financial change meant that I had to stick with my corsa. What's your opinion on this lil guy? The safety rating is abysmal but it definitely looks and feels like a rollercoaster to drive which was super fun! I'm still sad I couldn't have this car months later!

I've also heard the Pandas are fantastic little workhorses. Is this true?

I guess it is time to talk about the Panda, isn't it.

Fantastic little workhorses they most definitely are! The original Panda (which prevailing opinion sees as the only one to refer to by the nickname "Pandino") was produced pretty much unchanged from 1980 to 2003, and you most definitely see them all the time around here even after all these years. And in their prime? Forget it! Everyone has a story that involves a Pandino. My father's is my grandpa was teaching him to drive in one and the shifter came clean off and grandpa covered his eyes. Mine involves my ex's family which has a 4x4 Panda they only ever use to navigate the road between their little mountain town and their house, best described as five "there is actually no way we're not there yet"s up its side. I drove it, once, and recorded my thoughts. Here's a loose retelling:

In the phrase "The cabin is spartan" the most unfair word is "cabin". Although you do get a free rocking chair, in the form of the driver's seat. It's not like driving an 80s car, I own an 80s car, it's like driving an excavator - the steering wheel is super far away and the pedals are super close. If you long for that sensation of feeling the underside of a desk and stumbling into old gum, the steering wheel and shift knob will definitely do something for ya. Wiggling the shifter feels like you're making it come apart and slotting it into gear feels like sheer luck - to find something that engages more reluctantly than this reverse you've gotta look into child marriages. When you push the brake pedal, while you definitely get the impression that you are doing something to decrease the speed of the car, it feels like you're using the pedal wrong, the brakes feel like they're asking if you're really sure. The wiper, being a single wiper for the whole windshield, at anything past a drizzle moves in an endearingly hilarious frenzy. Dear God is it a deathtrap. It feels about as stable as our government. I defined it 'dynamic in its stillness' because it sure ain't shifting and yet it's in a constant state of falling apart, like the ISS orbit. It exudes the optimism and hopefulness for the future that defined the 80s. The optimism of designing a car with such care and then handing that design to Fiat. The optimism of pulling that handbrake on a hill. It's like nature. Admirable and fascinating in its design, but clearly fragile and unwelcoming.

And if you're wondering if the ex that supplied the Panda for the review is at all cool with my slander, yes, they were riding with and seconded most of it. The only thing they seemed upset by was my thoughts on the horn.

Follows the exchange "It's like a wounded dog" "You're a wounded dog" "I mean, the Panda is a wounded dog. Let's admit that."

Now, was it good to drive? I think we established otherwise. Was it good at not fogging up? No, as I was driving they had to keep slapping a rug against the windshield to clean it up. Was its metal good at staying undissolved enough for their use of the car to have any semblance of legality? Well why do you think they only use it in a stretch of road cops don't visit. But it keeps moving to this day. Because that's what Pandas are good at - keeping on moving. And that's what people buy Pandas for. You want a Panda because, whether you need to head years into the future, up a volcano, or both, the Panda will Just Fucken Go there. That's why you still see so many. Because there's still that many people in this country that just need to keep going, and the Panda has never stopped delivering on that front. That's what they mean by "fantastic little workhorses", and that's what I mean when I second that.

And I know in my heart that goes for the latest Panda too (seen here atop a volcano because indeed I was not joking) which I also drove (you know how they say that when Germans say "3" they mean "3:00" and when Italians say "3" they mean "3-ish"? Yeah the Panda's shifter definitely has the latter attitude towards gears. It out-vagues my 42yo Golf on 42yo shifter bushings.). In fact, if you look up "Is the Fiat Panda reliable?" the common consensus is that despite Fiat's... less than stellar reputation reliability-wise the Panda's not bad, but hilariously rather than because the things that normally break in other cars don't break or break less it seems to be because they just aren't there in the first place.

But don't get me twisted: the Panda's a good car. In a way, it's too entrenched in my country's identity, and by proxy my own, not to be. Nothing sums it up more succinctly than a saying of ours, "Italians good people". Of course - could we ever bring ourselves to believe otherwise? And no, beyond the blindness of national pride, the Panda genuinely has great efficiency -it's the bread of cars: basic, unimpressive, but boy do you ever get a lot for the ingredients- and as noted above It Just Keeps Going.

And at the end of the day, you know, I can harp about how it's not a nice car, how it feels cheap and unsubstantial, but anyone interested in a Panda is bound to know that going in, right? And at the end of the day, while it's easy to say for someone whose car's been doing fine, it's about what you like. After all, I sure didn't get myself the most reliable car I could find for my money. I got myself something that I liked.

And that I could afford, of course. Because you can't exactly get yourself a McLaren F1, can you.

I mean, you can't, right? I've been assuming your budget is within seven digits, but it's not like I have your tax returns, so what do I know.

Well actually I do know one thing: how we can combine the three. Because when friend of our blog Gordon Murray, a man so obsessed with lightness that he literally has an entire car collection and still owns no car over 2500lbs (~1130kg), was designing the greatest driver's car there had ever been (and 'accidentally' fastest production car for the following decade) with such care for low weight he would task Kenwood with developing a lighter sound system for it, he saw his neighbor's car and decided "That is too fucking cool, I don't care if it weighs more I've gotta do something like that with the F1." Which results in what you see above, a less cool version of what he saw that day.

And what did he see that day?

A four seat Toyota.

And if you've not yet spotted the part where this is cooler than the McLaren F1, well, look back at the F1's doors. Notice how their roof is plebeian, opaque metal? Pfft. Get outta here with that working class stuff and look at how the big kids do it.

Do I need to add further comment? I don't think I do.

And yes, one of these is for sale in England for under 5k.

And it has the pretty important roof shades, the rare super funky sound system and the floormats. Now, normally, I'd make the mistake of wondering who gives a shit about the floormats, but in the case of the Sera...

So, what are you waiting for? These come and go, so act quickly and impulsively!

[battle-of-alberta]

Can you tell me more about the wildlife in alberta? there seems to be lots of it! I heard there used to be bison? Have the bison come back or are they extinct now?

Parks Pass: What are Bison?

I've been working on this for well over a month, although I've been thinking about it since I received this ask last fall. Bison are so central and important in prairie history, ecology, spirituality, etc. and I feel that they exemplify this more than perhaps any other living thing here... I don't think I will go this in depth into other wildlife for this series.

I am not a naturalist nor do I represent Parks Canada or related organizations, all of this information has been sourced through reports from Parks Canada, organizations like CPAWS, etc. There are a lot of questions surrounding ecology, legalities, and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples that I just am not equipped to answer by myself... but I wanted to give as clear an overview as I could of the challenges and successes around bison in Alberta.

More notes, close ups, etc. below. I will try to link to some sources in the notes as a reblog.

I tried my best to make each panel stand mostly on its own so that you could read them in any order, but I hope there is a bit of a flow to the information... The pieces were slightly bigger than my scanner, so I apologize for some blurry writing and cropped edges!

(yak left, bison centre, buffalo right) (You will find all three domestic in Alberta, at least at agricultural fairs if not commercially)

[ badum tishhhhhhh]

I tried to get the moose and our guides to scale physically, but it was tricky! Also: the summer ochre cape tends to appear on male plains bison.

There is debate as to whether wood and plains bison should be classified as separate species at all. The fact is, there remains a legal distinction in Alberta that will become relevant in a few panels.

This safety tip is if you're on foot- in a car, obviously stay in your vehicle! Don't attempt to drive through bison either, just let them pass!

The "Ecology" title got cut here, my apologies.

Some other ways bison improve the ecosystem is by literally rolling around and trampling on the landscape, the churning of the land and the fertilization from buffalo dung helps plants and insects thrive, which in turn benefits all creatures along the food chain. Cows do not nearly replace the magnitude to which bison benefit the prairie.

Often in school, the sole fact one might learn about the First Nations of the plains involves a diagram of all the uses of each part of a bison. These descriptions have almost always been in the past tense, in order to place Indigenous peoples and their ways of life purely in the past. This is not a reflection of reality- many Indigenous folks in Alberta are still maintaining their traditions and their relationships with bison today. The tee pee here is based off of a Blackfoot design featured at the Royal Alberta Museum. Also pictured is a drying rack of meat, and a bison stomach suspended as a cooking pot. Pemmican is often described these days as a "superfood" or the ultimate protein bar; it is a mixture of dried meat and berries that both preserves well and is extremely nourishing.

It is difficult to summarize the impacts of colonization in a short space, especially where bison are concerned. The creation of Treaty 7 in Alberta, particularly, was a result of an intentional and devastating eradication of the bison by settlers. This forced First Nations such as the Blackfoot Confederacy into impossible positions: follow the buffalo into the United States and risk attack from the Americans or the Sioux as the herds became smaller and smaller, or to agree to the Canadian government's terms to stay on a fraction of their traditional territories in order to keep from starving to death.

At the same time, anthropologists, collectors, and tourists tried to buy or take anything they could get their hands on from what they perceived as the end of an era: salvage anthropology of First Nations in the West painted an image of "pure" native culture that was about to be lost forever, while First Nations peoples were being forcibly assimilated, excluded, or eradicated by settlers.

There is still a lack of understanding in mainstream settler Canadian culture of the human labour that went into the creation of the "natural" "wilderness" of this land. This is something that the settlement, the industrialization, and the creation of national parks in Alberta and elsewhere ignores or erases, but there is a growing awareness and acknowledgement of the relationship between First Peoples and the land.

The prairie ecosystem remains extremely endangered and little understood, especially as environmental activism tends to focus on deforestation or pollution of the ocean rather than the destruction of native grasses and shrubs.

Cameo ft. Mac representing Wood Buffalo National Park, which spans the border of the Northwest Territories and Alberta. Obviously, the main cause of environmental destruction surrounding the park involves human industrial activity: logging, mining, and development of the oil patch. Disease can be easily transmitted between bison and cattle and can easily wipe out already struggling populations.

I was shocked to discover that all bison were considered livestock as recently as two years ago and could thus be harvested by anyone, anytime, and anywhere outside a protected area. Plains bison still do not have status as "wildlife".

The province did recently expand the "buffer zone" outside of Banff National Park, giving the Park a chance to recover bison that have wandered outside of the barriers before they become 'fair game', as it were.

Also worth noting: B.C. and Saskatchewan both protect bison under their provincial wildlife acts, but plains bison leaving those provinces and entering Alberta or Manitoba would be considered livestock as they are unprotected.

Elk Island stocks bison across the continent and around the world, which is incredible! Not all of those original 700 were sent to Elk Island, unfortunately those sent to what was once Buffalo National Park did not make it.

Likewise, a project to reintroduce bison to Jasper didn't bear fruit. An article via Jasper Local I had found earlier (that no longer seems to work) describes the discovery of a bison skull at Talbot Lake that most likely represents a bison from this recent reintroduction attempt.

The Banff bison reintroduction pilot (2017-2022) is the most recent attempt to reintroduce bison to areas of Alberta, and so far from the initial Spring 2023 report one of the more successful projects. Public sentiment both locally and internationally is very positive, with a lot of attention on social media, articles, and other outreach methods. The project is also partnering closely with all the First Nations in Treaty 7, as well as other community stakeholders such as visitors to the park, local residents, nearby ranchers, etc.

Phew, I just threw a ton of info at you! I hope this answers the question :)

[axolotlsauce]

You know what, let's talk about palworld. I dont have anything else going on until 9:40.

One of the biggest talking points I see brought up with this game is the unoriginality. And uh... yeah. I'm yet to see a pal that doesn't have a DIRECT analogue to one or two pokemon. That said that is without playing the game, but still.

Now, I don't actually give a fuck about the integrity of pokemon's copyright. And you know what, I don't think most people who are bringing this up do either. People aren't "white-knighting" for the billion-dollar company, I think they're mostly just pointing out that it's pretty lame for a pokemon clone to have such unoriginal designs. (I think. I haven't personally seen every individual tweet about palworld.)

I mean, even ROBOPON had original designs. (Even if that meant that one of them had to be a toilet.)

Same goes for heavy-hitting pokemon-likes like Yo-Kai Watch, and the ones that are borderline fan-games like Coromon. A lot of the fun comes from the original creature designs. Everything I see of Palworld looks like they wanted to have the real pokemon, but had to do some legally distinct homework-copying. It reminds me of Watchmen, where Alan Moore wanted to use DC comics characters, but had to use "analogues" of them instead.

There's also a lot of unoriginality from what I've seen of the gameplay. The world looks very "generic open world," and a lot of the Juice of this game seems to be a bunch of other popular games kinda... conflated. That said, it's a little ironic to be complaining about unoriginality when everyone else has already pointed out that it's unoriginal... or is it fitting? who knows.

Also one of them is yellow totoro. How Wacky.

A lot of people also seem to take issue with the, uh... edge, of this game. Now while "Pokemon with GUNS" absolutely sounds like something an insecure teenager would come up with after being told by their schoolfriends that pokemon is for babies, I welcome it honestly. First-Person-Shooter gameplay is a pretty cool addition to make to this genre. That said, some other elements kinda seem like they were implimented by someone trying to look cool in front of a 14-year-old. But uh, I can't really comment on that, since the internet can't be trusted, and I haven't played the game. Can you actually sell peoples' body parts in this game? I don't know if I trust that random article I saw.

Part 29: THE POKEMON KILLER??????

no.

Do you guys remember Yo-Kai Watch? remember when that was a big deal? How many of you even knew that the series had a 3rd and 4th game? Probably a statistically unlikely number of you, because this is a website full of cool nerds. That said, it's pretty clear to see that most people do NOT remember the LAST big pokemon killer.

Also, nintendo isn't gonna sue. The developers aren't formally marketing it as "pokemon with guns," no aspect of the gameplay was patented by gamefreak, and while derivative, the pals are juuuust barely distinct enough to not infringe any copyrights. I think. I'm no copyright lawyer, this is just how I see it. The pokemon company hasn't ever, to my knowledge, gone after anything that was derivative of pokemon unless it was something like a fangame that was directly using their IP. (Ironically, the type of game that impacts their profits the LEAST.... sigh...)

And you know what, while Palworld isn't gonna kill pokemon... I think nothing but good can come from letting the pokemon company think that it WILL. Because let's be real here, if ANY series needs some competition, it's pokemon. SOMEBODY has to force them to get their shit together.

And yeah, as dubious as I am about palworld... I can't lie. It looks SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER than pokemon violet. (Both graphically, and just, uh, in general.) And you know what, I would still say that even WITHOUT gen 9's crazy technical issues.

"Nintendo will NEVERRR ALLOW THIS ON SWITCH LOL!!!!"

Have you seen the shit they WILL allow on switch? Go on the eshop right now. Scroll past enough hentai games, and you'll probably also see at least one legally-distinct pokemon fangame like nexomon, coromon or temtem. Why would nintendo not allow such a hotly-selling game on their platform. If the game is going to make bank either way, why would they NOT choose the option that means THEY GET A CUT OF THE PROFITS? Something that, by this logic, they would think that they're owed to begin with? I get that nintendo and the pokemon company tend to be counter-intuitive and stubborn, but I think we can trust them to do the thing that makes them More Money.

Overall: Palworld is... interesting. A lot of aspects of it are VERY uninspired, but I can't see it doing anything but good. Even if you hate it on principle (the old "Digimon Sucks!" Syndrome), at the very least it can serve as a lesson to actual pokemon.

Okay so pokemon probably won't implement GUNS, but hopefully a wildly successful clone like this might give them the idea that they might actually have to TRY to make money in future. Or maybe they'll get it into their heads that they could make even MORE money if their pokemon games were also fresh, interesting, and... good.

Well all-in-all, while I probably won't be playing palworld anytime soon (and who knows if my curiosity will still be itching by the time it comes to a platform I actually own) I think its presence is more likely than not a net positive.

It's worth mentioning that I don't have, like, credibility... this is just my take on things. Why was it necessary to give my take? Because I'm so much cooler and more important than everyone else, obviously. But that doesn't mean that I know shit.

[t1meslayer]

Trying something a little different today.

Inspired by the incomparable @alchemicallymoon, I'm going to do a postmortem commentary on my latest fanfiction. If you haven't read "Stone-Cold Lovers" Chapter 3 on AO3, now's your chance!

I've done similar things in the past, with my Pre-Preparation of Shiver post for "Splatoon B-Mix," but I'm really testing the waters to make this a more regular occurrence — possibly even going back to older works. If you enjoy, let me know!

Tons of rambling beneath the cut. You've been warned <3

Alright. I can't think of any better place to begin talking about "Stone-Cold Lovers" than to mention it's a classic piece (in the era sense, though also in the literary sense). I started publishing fanfic in 2019, right around the time I was graduating from college. A bunch of pieces I wrote are still exclusively available on FanFiction.net, but I've slowly been transitioning them with a fresh coat of paint.

"Stone-Cold Lovers" was the sixth story I published on FanFiction. As I mentioned in Chapter 1 of the AO3 version, it came back to mind after Pokemon Masters EX introduced a Halloween alt for Roxanne.

Pokemon Crystal was my first "real" video game (not counting educational content like Sesame Street games), but Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire began my infatuation with the series. This was partially due to the fact that I could read the text on my own, which meant I could keep replaying to do little challenge runs.

===

Fun Fact: One of the most prominent challenge runs I can recall involved catching a full team of Wingull. I named the Pelipper of my team "Sergeant," and the rest had other army designations. I would later copy this idea using shiny Ambipom and Aipom in HeartGold and SoulSilver that I obtained through entirely legal means for a rare item Pickup group.

===

More Fun Fact: My favorite challenge run to this day is completing Pokemon FireRed with a single Clefable. I always really liked how many TMs a single Clefable could learn.

===

All of that is to say I seared Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald into my brain by playing it all the time on the schoolyard and at my grandparents' house in Florida. It remains my favorite region to this day. However, I didn't fall in love with Roxanne until the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire character designs came out.

Important note: I have shipping charts for basically every character-heavy... Anything. Something about pairing people up always makes my brain go brr. My body of creative writing speaks to many of the headcanons I've whipped up over the years. Similarly, I have headcanons about which Pokemon protag serves as the "main character" or "rival" in each title.

Yes, you can ask about my opinions. I will undoubtedly answer.

Brendan and Roxanne came into this framework because as much as I also love Brendan and May, I quickly fell into the rabbit hole of Brendan Champion/May Contest Idol, and therefore I'm legally obligated to ship May and Lisia. My original FanFiction Author Note says I'd been thinking about the idea for "a while," but frankly I don't remember where exactly it originated. All I know is that my goal was May scolding Brendan for being an oblivious dope.

This is not autobiographical.

As far as I know.

My truest sense-memory regarding this piece is writing the Rustboro opening in a Barnes & Noble parking lot at night, on the same night that I scored a new freelance gig (it didn't last all too long in the end). However, I helpfully noted that the Brendan and May banter was inspired by a FanFiction story called "Critical Hit" by Alphinia (it's still live!) and Carly Chaikin's Darlene from Mr. Robot. That was ending in 2019. Pokemon Sword and Shield were about to come out. The timeline lines up.

It's also very funny to imagine May as a raunchy, tomboyish smartass who also happens to love the fame that comes with princess-y Pokemon Contest shenanigans. Good headcanon.

The seeds of an idea for a date follow-up existed back then. My first inkling was to do a scene where, essentially, Brendan fucks the whole thing up by using Sandstorm in the middle of a food court because he's trying to impress Roxanne. Most of the set dressing around that, such as using ORAS' Street Thug trainer class (here portrayed by Shio — after ramen to reference the naming scheme of every trainer in Mauville Food Court), came later.

===

Fun Fact (again): This is the first piece I've written using a new program called StimuWrite by Eve Harms, which was suggested by my beta reader. I liked being able to put my brain somewhere other than a blank white page, though all of the extra bells and whistles aren't all that necessary for me. Plus, I wound up jumping back-and-forth between the page and my 20 tabs of research anyway, so...

We'll see where this tool lands.

===

A lot of my decisions regarding the style of "Stone-Cold Lovers" Chapter 3 were based on concurrent reading; I recently joined a book club, and we just finished Babel by R.F. Kuang. My experience with Zine editors such as @kiliofdurinsline (Shrapnel) on Homemade in Hyrule (still available to pre-order!!!) helped me focus on creative writing structure and clarity rather than the more "vibes" based approach I leaned on. But Babel's rich descriptions suggested that I perhaps moved too far in the direction of snippets. So, here I tried to more robust scene-setting.

The bit about Gardevoir reading Brendan's emotions is being back on my bullshit trying to capture "vibes," though. I'm often a proponent for Psychic-types having full telepathy, especially Gardevoir given its canon emotional connections, but I decided the silent implications were more fun to play. I'm also a big proponent of leaning into the medium by using all of AO3's formatting HTML for things like Gardevoir's text. Hence my abundance of italics, or even the House of Leaves-style page falling apart for Arven's nightmare in "Paradiso."

Another note from Shrapnel that I took to heart: Give each character a stable of description types to help them emphasize their personality. That's why Gardevoir's movements use ballet terms (many of which I had to look up, like "bras bas").

One bit that I thought about a lot was Roxanne's response to weather talk. I knew that she should flirt by saying any weather would be great alongside Brendan, and the verbiage "would that it were" stuck. A bit of Googling revealed that the phrase doesn't mean what my brain thought it does — it actually refers to wanting a better reality than you currently have. But it rolls off the tongue... So, I decided to play with that disparity by having know-it-all Roxanne correct her old professor, even when recounting a heartfelt memory.

Also, I'd be lying to you if I said goofy teenager who can't speak French wasn't an integral part of my planning.

The battle scene is pretty straightforward, it was mostly fun to incorporate the idea of Brendan being over-leveled by having him immediately wipe the floor with this tough guy, Shio. This especially goes well with the Mauville Food Court gimmick of finishing your battles within set time limits. Hopefully little descriptors like the space-warping Boomburst help make up for how short it is.

But with all of that said, there's only one place left to go:

Roxanne's outfit

That's right! Brendan wears his contest attire, but Roxanne wears an entirely unique creation. I did something very similar to my experiments with Shiver by digging around Tumblr tags for specific outfit pieces to cobble together as part of Roxanne's preppy and academic wardrobe.

I essentially wanted to put Roxanne in an "elevated" version of her typical uniform. For example, something with a nicer blouse. When I saw this post by stiefel-rock-bluse, I knew it was the one. That ruffled 'V' is perfectly suited for comparisons to a fossilized ribcage.

Had to tuck that blouse into a nice skirt, too. I did toy with the idea of going full suit-style with slacks, but Roxanne feels like a skirt girl to me. So I settled on this pleated skirt shared by zoesrepository, at least in-part because I wanted a brown-and-white motif to reflect... Rock stuff.

Having exposed legs also introduced the opportunity to describe a bit of Roxanne's obsession with fossils. If I get callouses on my hands from doing ceramics, she can have some scuffs on her legs from digging in the dirt.

My inspiration for her off-the-shoulder draped jacket is largely me doing silly cape shenanigans with my jackets, but for the style I went with this cover image from an article by The Girl From Panama:

In brown, of course. That really emphasizes the idea that it looks like strata.

Because rocks.

Unrelated to rocks, I was originally toying with a different idea for her jacket, one based on this image of Kendall Jenner uploaded by disarmluna:

Ultimately I liked the draped idea better, but I kept on the idea of it being corduroy. Also, I took Roxanne's "loafers" from here.

For accessories, I riffed on one of my favorite pieces of lore introduced by Pokemon Masters EX: the idea that Steven Stone is in a club with all of the Rock-type experts who love collecting shiny rocks. Steven knows how to give some specialized gifts, and in this case I gave Roxanne a single earring, as shared by gemville, because 1) red; 2) flowers; and 3) stalactite. I went with one rather than a pair because I think it's a cute asymmetrical thing.

Then, of course, I imagine her nails alternate blue and red ala Nosepass/Probopass. Finally, Roxanne's elevated school uniform look had to retain a tie. What better way to keep that tie in place than with a clip inspired by the one, the only, our boy: Anorith.

If the Yanma inhaler from "Peaks and Caverns" is anything to go by, y'all know I love to invent kitschy merchandise that will unfortunately never be acknowledged by Game Freak/The Pokemon Company.

===

That's about all I've got. I'm not sure whether I'll return to this story again — the five-year pipe dream is already a big accomplishment in my book. But I'm really glad I finally closed the book on a longstanding idea in celebration of Valentine's Day! And I'm sure one day, if I can get through the rest of my insane backlog, I'd be happy to write further shenanigans between these two Hoenn lovebirds.

[lostuntothisworld]

Anne-Jeanne Theoxanne du Bocquale is a time traveling adopted daughter of Lukadrien Adrienette

This is the first of my crack theories I've decided to tackle, is very much a major crack theory.

I have no actual proof of anything, except that:

According to this now deleted interview that can be read via Internet Archive, Wilfried Pain tells a fan that there would be a new character from the future.

The Fandom Wiki seems to think this interview is discussing season 5, but after some back and forth with a mutual, we've come to the conclusion that it's actually discussing season 4, which just so happens to be the season that Anne-Jeanne is introduced.

I've seen multiple posts of people noticing that she has quite a bit more detail than you'd expect for a small side character. She doesn't look out of place at all next to our main girl Maribug, which you can't say for a lot of the designs of minor characters.

She was slotted to be a teacher to the kids in season 5, but apparently that was scrapped. Perhaps she'll be a teacher in the new school for season 6?

As for being Lukadrien's Adrienette's daughter...

The fandom wiki claims that the vision of a T-Rex Ladybug sees in the Burrow during Chat Blanc is foreshadowing of Anne-Jeanne's existence. I'm a bit skeptical on this, but Anne-Jeanne would have needed to somehow get DNA in order to bring the T-Rexes back to life, and in Time Tagger adult Bunnyx has a pet T-Rex named Denver.

Anne-Jeane is officially introduced in season 4's Hack-San, an episode that irrevocably fractures the LadyNoir partnership.

She shows up again in Rocketear, another episode that kicks LadyNoir while it's down. (After wrangling her T-Rexes, she says she's not really sure what to do with them, and wonders if it was really a good idea to bring them back to life... Kind of an ominous statement for a show where the deuteragonist is a boy born of magic, and whose creation caused the events of literally everything in the show.)

She has a short mention in Jubilation, where her T-Rex pigeon hybrids escape and go on a rampage. Nadja Chamack asks if she has gone too far with her science creations? Another ominous statement.

It's important to note, that Ladybug accidentally wears her friend's Alliance ring while capturing the hybrid dinosaurs, and thus, gets her friend who has been pretending to be Ladybug in hot water for possibly actually being Ladybug. It's interesting that Monarque doesn't even know Socqueline was impersonating a hero, he just sees her name in the Alliance alerts and goes after her. Of course Maribug thinks it's because she's been cosplaying being a hero and Monarque found out!

Anyway, I want to make a point that the dream sequence in Jubilation is very odd. It doesn't read to me as anything other than a child's idea of what love and marriage is. For one, both French citizens and foreigners need an entire forest of identification documentation, and they need to be married at a town hall in order to be legally binding. Only then can a religious ceremony take place. Obviously Ladybug and Chat Noir cannot do that, so they are only symbolically married at a church. The babies the couple are, for lack of better words, in possession of are inanimate dolls. There's a strange haze around the entirety of the dream sequence, just like the strange haze of the season 5 finale.

One of these days I'll do a line by line rundown of the Jubilation dream sequence, but that isn't the point I'm trying to make here. The point is this: the juxtaposition of Anne-Jeanne, the actual future daughter being the catalyst for whatever the hell Jubilation was, would be *chefs kiss* excellent storytelling.

FINALLY we have the final episode of season 5: Re-Creation. Anne-Jeanne makes a cameo in an interview where she gives an ominous message:

"We all remember the worldwide nightmare epidemic followed by the victory of Ladybug over Monarch...and how the swarm of magic ladybugs swarmed the planet to repair everything and free us. This even raised global awareness. We humans have accomplished incredible things throughout history. But still, we often fall victim to our emotions, because no one teaches us how to understand or deal with them... If we don't listen to what our fears, sadness or anger are trying to tell us—

Alya turns off the monitor, and the audience doesn't hear the lesson Anne-Jeanne is trying to convey. Gabemoth had taken advantage of negative emotions in order to akumatize his victims. Presumably, future Lilamoth will do the same.

The Paris special made it very clear that our universe Adrien is just distracting himself from his grief. Bottling up and ignoring doesn't do any good. He can avoid his hurt all he wants, but it's not getting to the core issue. He needs to address his emotions in order to heal.

More propaganda!

Anne-Jeanne's dress has moonflowers on it! Guess who loves flowers and has a lot of baggage concerning the moon! Yes, that's right, our boy Adrichat! Once again, Adrien being represented by the moon is a post for another day, BUT I DIGRESS.

Plagg is the reason the dinosaurs are extinct, and has a very particular grudge against T-Rexes in particular. Well, AnneJeanne brought the T-Rexes back to life!

More of a "Lukadrien's daughter headcanon", but I think Anne-Jeanne would be using a fake name if she's actually time traveling. I like the name Aurora because Luka's hero name Viperion is based off of Hyperion, the father of the dawn who was named Eos. Eos' Roman name is Aurora. Funnily enough, I checked the Luka Couffaine tag tonight and someone else thought his daughter would be named Aurora. I promise it was just a coincidence we both came up with this name! It also sticks to the Couffaine naming tradition of ending in "A", so it's still a pun on the French acouphène :D

[ntls-24722]

ok so i feel like it's about time i've talked about the weird, convoluted headcanon lore i've made for DJMM. everything i leave in my head for too long gets distorted and unrecognizable from.the source

ok so i think a lot of DJMM enjoyers have seen this tweet and while it's fake, because there's like 5 sentences alluding to DJMM in the entire game i've accepted it as fact and I went so overboard with the detail that it says home language. Not like, "original language" or nothing like that, home language

So, alongside the fact that DJMM has a couple things implying that he wasn't originally from Fazbear Entertainment (why would fazbear entertainment issue a warranty... to themselves?...), and that there also just happens to be a wedding dj company called The Music Man IRL that I found by accident, I kind of just made this whole weird thing that before he was bought by Fazbear Entertainment he was a Wedding DJ in Japan.

Alongside being able to set up practically everything, clean up afterwards, and cater to guests in all sorts of ways, he was also made to be able to just... hit the town and stroll down to his destination instead of being directly shipped to or brought there. Imagine being some little kid watching this giant spider thing stroll down the street.

Hold on to that visual, actually, because that brings me to why he considers Japan his home rather than just his... place of origin.

So his bouncer mode. It actually wasn't experimental but rather a very often-used mode of his since I imagine he's attended many weddings were someone has had to be... forcibly escorted out. But what the problem is with it is that during that mode, he is essentially given no restrictions on what he can do and has just been activating it so he can go against orders.

He's big, but he's travelling on hand, hulking around a big bag of supplies on the way, it may take a while for him to get from headquarters to his destination, maybe even days. But what his creators don't know is that he's been taking detours and entire days off to bond with civilians that have been fascinated by him, originally just children marvelling him, but he grew closer to them and becoming much more like a weird uncle to them, growing a bond with a rural community to the point even their families know of him and see him as a friend, and it's this bond that starts to bring problems.

DJMM starts to demand things that robots don't really get to demand, like days off and privacy, which concerns the company as for why he'd even need that. He starts committing outright fraud to insert legally insert himself into society and starts taking tips or some of the profit to spend for himself. He starts tearing out/ sabotaging GPS systems, or disabling microphones so they can't figure out where he's been going or what he's saying. It gets to the point where he outright threatens employees' lives and keeps some hostage to force them into allowing him to do what he wants.

The arms race between DJMM and his creators comes to a close when his creators decide to sell him off to Fazbear entertainment, sieging him and choking him of his battery life before doing a factory reset and sending him off, finally getting rid of him (also voiding Fazbear's warranty on him if his bouncer mode is ever activated again)

While he was able to secretly save his memories, it's not much use now that he's in a whole new country. He's still figuring out how to reconnect with the kids he practically watched grow up but he's also still getting up to trouble in America. we stan a dude who commits... all of this

His design is, now that i realize it, very much inspired by Moguro from the Laughing Salesman. Also he's got the fun eye liquid swirlies from DJMM's Beta design

which, speaking of DJMM's weird design elements. ✨weird things i've noticed about DJMM's design✨

Weird long hole things in the sides of him??? I've seen NO-ONE talk about this

Those aren't speakers. I thought they were, too, for the longest time, but while staring at his ass for a particularly long time I realized that A. They don't have the texture of his other speakers and B. They go in?

Second, he has a gummy smile. It's not shown a lot since i guess his default position is just an agape mouth but in the rare occassion he clicks his teethplates together, or this one Particular render, he's got gums for days

also what the freak, anytime i try to look up a specific facial feature for reference im always finding procedures for removing it!! i'm sick of it!! it popped up when i was looking up cleft chins for Music Man and it popped up for gummy smiles! we can't have SHIT in his household!! goddamn!!!

[bonny-kookoo]

KTH/JJK: Dreamer 2

In which both Taehyung and Jungkook decide that there's enough love for three.

Tags/Warnings: poly, strangers to lovers au, hybrid reader, personal trainer kook, high end clothing label owner&designer tae, mild angst, mentions of (past) homelessness

Additional Chapter Warnings: just hybrid things, fluff, fainting

Chapter Length: mid

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"She looks exhausted." Jungkook mumbles to himself as he makes sure the blanket over you is tucked in just right; the original plan had been to let you have a bath and then to talk to you about registration- but you're dead asleep, not even waking up when the trainer had carried you out the car into their shared apartment.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she needs medical attention. Who knows how long she'd been out there." Taehyung says, sitting down close to you before he runs a hand over your head.

"maybe we can call a home visit? That way they can at least register her as in foster care so we've got that legal trouble under control." Jungkook offers, and Taehyung nods.

"that's probably best, that way she can decide if she wants to stay with us or not. But for now, let's let her rest. I'm sure she needs it." he says.

"hey, Tae?" The younger asks, walking behind him into the kitchen. "why.. You seem energized. Like your old self." he asks, and the older one nods, filling a glass with water. "did something happen?"

"no-" Taehyung shakes his head, eyes unfocused. "I don't know. Something with her.. It flipped a switch, in a way. I'm not sure how or why." he tries to explain, though it seems sufficient for his partner, who presses a quick peck against his lips.

"doesn't matter." he says happily. "I'm glad either way. I've been worried about you." he admits, and taehyung nods a bit.

"I know."

Later when you wake up, it scares you a bit because you've forgotten what had happened- but they're both very understanding and patient with you, offering you to go wash up, something you agree to instantly. What you don't think about however is that you might not want to take a bath that's too hot- but after having not had one for so long, you didn't think of it. It lead to the situation you're in now; dressed in underwear and an oversized shirt Taehyung had given you, on the bathroom floor, dizzy and unable to quite hear very well. Your ears are oddly stuffed, like there's cotton inside them preventing sound from getting in properly, your gaze unable to focus as a ringing noise drowns out even the last bit of sound around you.

"are you okay?" Jungkook asks again, knocking on the door. What if you fell asleep in the tub and drowned? What if you'd fallen and hit your head? And why is he so protective of you already?

"we're coming in." Taehyung decides, opening the door to find you barely holding yourself up by your hands on the ground. "what's wrong? Hey-?" he carefully tries, as Jungkook instead seems to instantly connect the dots, eagerly opening a window before he kneels down on one knee, putting your legs over his other thigh to elevate them.

"can you hear me?" Jungkook asks, already familiar with the signs of someone fainting. As a personal trainer, he regularly dealt with things like this. "you don't need to talk, just squeeze my hand." he tries, but you don't react.

"I'm calling an ambulance-" Taehyung gets up, though Jungkook shakes his head.

"give her a bit. She's here, look." he points to your eyes still being open, before you close them momentarily, trying to control your breathing. "take it slow kitty, you're doing great." he encourages, while his partner watches anxiously. It's only when your gaze becomes more focused now, and you try to sit up, that he let's go of the breath he didn't even realize he was holding. "no no no let's stay like this for a moment okay?" Jungkook gently says, pushing yoy to lay back down. "gave us quite the scare there." he chuckles, making your cheeks blush as you turn away from them, embarrassment setting in.

"sorry.." you apologize, though neither of them seem mad.

"It's understandable you wanted a hot bath." Taehyung says, now relieved you're feeling better already. "but please don't overdo it again next time, or someone will have to check the water temperature for you." he threatens with no bite, making you look at him for a moment longer than needed.

Was he implying that you're supposed to stay long term?

"come on, let's get some food into that belly. No wonder you're so faint and tired." Jungkook breaks the moment, helping you sit up before he picks you up to carry you.

"I- I can walk-" you stutter, holding onto his neck, as he laughs.

"I know. And I can carry you." he replies cheekily, making Taehyung laugh.

"he loves to show off." he comments, making the younger one blush a little bit.

"do not." he mumbles, sitting you down at the kitchen table, before he goes to fetch some food he'd prepared, as you stifle a yawn. "yah, you can take another cat-nap later, but right now you gotta eat something." he playfully scolds. "just a small portion, don't worry. We can buy stuff you like once you've settled in a bit if you'd like." he offers, and you nod, though still confused.

"Am I.. Gonna live with you now?" you ask, and Taehyung nods across from you.

"If you'd like. Where did you expect to live when we offered you a place to stay?" he asks, as you shrug.

"you offered me a job, and then said I can sleep in the car." you say, making Jungkooks eyes widen.

"not forever in the car, no no no!" he corrects your thoughts, before the older one chimes in.

"we're offering a home here. With us. Permanently." he explains calmly. "not just a job. We've been thinking of getting a hybrid anyways." he tells you, and you nod, yawning again.

"alright alright now come on, eat, before you fall asleep in the bowl you sleepy cat." Jungkook jokes, making Taehyung laugh when you become a bit pouty at your embarrassment.

You're just too cute.