#one more tl;dr for the tags:

[crehador]

brother crab's winter 2024 parting thoughts: dog signal

alright well yysy it's not much to look at, the animation/art style isn't exactly "modern" or exceptional (though personally i was quite charmed by it)

that aside, this was overall a really pleasant surprise to me!

tl;dr: fun cast with some surprisingly compelling and deep(ish) backstories, would recommend but with the disclaimers that a) it's episodic and b) there's quite a lot of animal mistreatment since each episode is about helping a dog whose person isn't treating it right (most if not all the cases have hopeful endings, but some parts may be hard to watch)

also niwa and samura have the most HILARIOUSLY classic toxic yaoi situationship without any of the fun parts (the actual yaoi), more on that later lmao

full review:

the series is for the most part episodic, with each episode dealing with a dog owner who comes to a certain dog trainer for help. i'm a fan of a good episodic series, even when the episodes can be hit or miss, so the structure was very enjoyable for me

the stories of the main cast were surprisingly compelling, too. it seemed like it would be just a very silly show—what with it starting with a guy (cv knb murasakibara) walking another guy (cv knb kuroko) around on a leash in public for two hours—but the character backstories that were revealed throughout the series did actually feel delightfully nuanced to me

(for example "yeah that old man did hit a dog and that's not great but the dog in question was biting the shit out of the kid he sees as a son so it's not... not understandable that he would react that way and while i'm not saying he should be proud of hitting a dog i guess i am saying it does suck for him that son guy hated him and went no contact for years for it")

one of my favorite episodes, ironically, barely involved the main cast at all. most of the episodes deal with this dog training business training dogs (shock!) but in this one episode, fairly late in the series, the owner was a struggling mangaka suffering from immense social anxiety, whose only friend was his dog who one day suddenly loses his hearing

that's such a tough thing that you really wouldn't explain anyone to know how to handle on their own without training. the mangaka even runs into the mc (trainee dog trainer) early in the episode and receives a business card for the dog training shop, but instead of taking his dog in, he does his best on his own to develop ways to communicate with his newly deaf dog

and it works! not only does he find a way to keep his dog comfortable with him, his efforts make him less concerned with what other people think of him as well. he managed to go to the dog training shop in the end, to see if there's anything he could be doing better for his dog, only to be told that they can't do anything for him—because he's already done everything right

(in establishing a way to communicate with his deaf dog, that is. there are other issues he gets chewed out for, which i really liked and found realistic)

i feel like it was just such a well-timed episode as a narrative device, because it shows that while the main dog trainer is great (the trainee dog trainer mc practically worships him) it's not that everyone in the world is helpless without him

but anyway

REGARDING THE SITUATIONSHIP WHAT THE FUCK LMAO first of all i love it

samura has just been dumped by an extremely shitty girlfriend when he meets niwa, while out walking the dog (or attempting to walk the dog) said shitty girlfriend dumped on him

he's doing a terrifically bad job, to the point where niwa (pro dog trainer) can't bear to watch. so what does he do well of course he has to reeducate samura by... putting him on a leash and walking him around the park, in public, for two hours. to show him just how wrong he's treating his dog

samura somehow gets a job out of this and they start working together. at one point he reveals he is GOING TO THE SALON and GETTING HIS HAIR PERMED so that it is curly because niwa has a poodle and seems to like curly hair (???)

jump cut to the final episode and we're finding out samura's tragic lore—parentified by a narcissistic mom, down with too much filial piety disease. when samura finally decides he's no longer sending money back home, his mom comes to the dog training shop to be like "sir uwu you have to give my son a raise so he can keep sending money home uwu he's such a good hard-working boy please pay him what he's worth"

and niwa is straight up like "actually he sucks and you suck get the fuck out of my shop" AND THEN LATER IN THE EPISODE samura's mom calls him (has been calling him repeatedly since meeting his freak of a boss) and NIWA ANSWERS THE PHONE and while she's complaining about the money situation and the freak boss (niwa) he basically tells her "you still suck and your son still sucks but i'm keeping him, fuck off"

like my god?? that woman is going to go away thinking her son has gotten into an extremely abusive relationship with his boss. i mean fuck her entirely, she does suck, but that is very much Not the situation (even though it does Very Much appear to be the situation)

anyway. ultimately this one lands in the :) category for me, originally picked it up for the cast (kuroko and mukkun and also KENN) and didn't have very high expectations but am thrilled to be pleasantly surprised

[todayisafridaynight]

journalists underestimate the magnitude of my addiction and how far i'll go for the bit

[sage-nebula]

Not every positive platonic relationship is siblings. Sometimes people are just friends. Best friends, even! But just friends.

[lauronk]

can i make a fic about jellyfish just as long as a fic about plants?

well i'm sure as shit gonna try

[knighteclipsed]

when children go to war.

a drabble: following round 1 of boel this year. word count: 353 words

Valter didn’t stick around after his victory.

There was no point—to waste time on waiting, on watching when he could be out there in the brawl. Already, this year’s bout was turning out better for him than the last: he’d even had the chance to avenge himself, in part, about his prior loss to the Golden Deer. (He would not be satisfied, of course, until he brought the Lions to victory as well.) The task was a simple one, really, and he would continue this road until the end.

Lance shatters the grass, crunching dirt; an odd angle. (It’s mostly the result of the suddenness with which he sent it flying.) Iron stood not too far away, easily within hand’s reach if he dashed, but for now–

‘You know, I still treasure that flower crown.’ (A self-absorbed scoff.)

For what was the purpose of such an asinine comment? To remark to a stranger that you ‘cherished’ something from them—really, it only spoke of her more than anything. (To value it to begin with was a foolish thing, but to bring it up as they were opponents, combatants, enemies–)

A crunch from a near distance. Head jerks around, spotting pink—flames conjured to descend; the Moonstone steps back, using the magic as cover. The crackle becomes footsteps, the light casting shadows—he always had thoughts on forests, but for now, it was the sight of an attempted ambush. Hand draws the new weapon acquired from the Golden Deer.

Click.

And the student falls—not dead though, importantly. (It didn’t take much analysis though for Valter to recognize the ease with which it could happen.) Instead, they are only disarmed; rendered incapable of fighting but not of committing the long trek back to camp. It is not the priestess, of course, for he had already defeated her. (The thought isn’t even worth having, to be frank—that somehow, he had not succeeded.) Eyes widen in the shadows, locking for but a moment before Valter smiles, stepping back.

Because in the end, the fight is all that matters. (Sentimentality could find a place in the heart of a weaker man.)

Imitation Dakka acquired!

[sylkhi]

Recovery’s going great, my wound’s drying super well, gonna have my staples taken out at some point next week, should be able to bend my knee and start putting weight on my leg soon after that, which means I can get back to strength training and rugby and other stuff I like. I’m so excited y’all.

[simulation-machine]

In my waitin'-for-horsies-bugs-to-be-fixed-by-the-fan-community save, I gave the Pancakes a better marriage, downloaded Iggy from the gallery, and gave them a daughter named Aurelia. She hasn't quite figured out how to manage her hair (white mom, no aunts or cousins), but at least her super materialistic mother keeps her dressed well. BTW she has braces and tries not to show her teeth whenever possible. She is a Perfectionist and Gloomy.

[stinkysdiner]

thoughts on the narrator? you got a theory/opinion on him and Sam? i’ve seen quite a few differing takes.

i like him a lot! i thought he was a great twist villain—the series is so wacky as it is that when i went through the devil’s playhouse for the first time a million years ago, it didn’t seem out of place for the season to have a narrator. especially with the more overt midcentury TV/film themes and staging of season 3, it felt totally in-line for there to be an omniscient narrator. and what better night gallery/twilight zone-esque twist than for him to be the one behind it all along? it’s great!

his presence does bring up a lot of questions around max, and i’d always hoped a later installment would actually maybe bring some of those up. perhaps it isn’t like max (or sam) to really dwell on those issues, but i do think some of the narrator’s lines kinda create this big elephant in the room.

the superego is said to be the part of your psyche that is self-critical and moralizing, so it implies max really is so much more self-aware of his actions than we, or anyone, give him credit for. the superego is your conscience that makes you feel guilty for doing something bad; what does that mean for max? the superego works opposed to id, and with max being a creature of pure id, he’s actively working against him………but he’s powerful enough to get max to this point, to get him to the point of ending it all? just how much does max have weighing on his mind?

similarly this potentially brings up some things to think about in regards to max and sam’s dynamic. does max feel any sort of that aforementioned guilt for any reason towards sam? have either of them ever really talked about more personal things like this, and could they ever? did the max from the other timeline have the same or similar superego? did the sam that died have it? did he feel the same as max? soooo many possibilities! just a never-ending loop.

[serenedash]

so I wasn't expecting my khux gameplay post to blow up this much because normally I just shout my khux thoughts into the void and that's that, but it's been really amazing and heartwarming seeing everyone's personal experiences with khux, like I can't say enough how much I LOVE looking at everyone's additions and tags :)

I had tried writing a long post about some khux feelings but it just wasn't coming out right. this post isn't about the game this is about me sorry tl;dr I'm a very anxious person and I love to see other people just as excited about khux as I am because I feel better about how much I like it. which is A Lot

[todayisafridaynight]

Hi, you’ve got like a bachelor in arakawa family with a minor in masato/ryo so I was hoping you could help me with a question that’s been floating around in my head for a few days…did Masato ever find out that Sawashiro was actually his father and that Masumi was Ichiban’s? Did he like figure it out or was told or…? Thanks!!!

as far as we know, masato never knew the truth about the arakawa family (especially not from sawashiro, who is the only one we could definitely say knew the truth before telling ichiban)

some people speculate that he could have known, but for knowing For Sure, it's safer to say masato didn't have any idea (esp if we want to consider nanba saying as much at the end of the game 'masato arakawa... he died without knowing sawashiro was his real father', but i guess you could also argue nanba didn't know the arakawas that personally)

[dykeaegir]

i dunno all this talk about not liking men is making me self conches so like. i just want y’all to know. there is a difference between not being attracted to men in a romantic or sexual way and feeling alienated in a society that caters to them and not liking men just bc they’re icky gwoss and women are soooo much better >_<

so like. when a lesbian talks about being in the first category don’t jump to conclusions and start to believe they actually belong in the second category. you can be someone who isn’t attracted to men and also doesn’t hate men for no good reason

[netscapenavigaytor]

hmmph... people in jet set radio tag talking abot leak stuff and wiki vandalism. when every body should be talking about. ME AND MY FRIENDS MAEKING EDGY BRAINWEIRD BULLSHIT . (joke) (nobody would even know about this properly outside of discord) (just wanted to make a post because my brain is full of many thoughts) (jet set radio fans dm me if you want my bad yoyo opinions) (there is a lot of that. and other dubious opinions too)

[the-breloominati]

What is arknights

I've seen enough tumblr blorboposts to decide I want in

TL;DR: tower defense with furries (to varying degrees of furry); also a mobile gatcha (I think you can get it on desktop too though)

ok so. god where do I start.. how do I start…..

The player character is called Doctor, and they’re one of the heads (kinda) of this group/company Rhodes Island. Rhodes works to provide medical care for people with Oripathy, called Infected, and are also working to find a cure for Oripathy. Oripathy is a terminal disease (it can be stabilized though depending on how far someone’s infection has progressed) caused by exposure to Originium, which is a kind of rock. (It’s sorta like uranium I guess? In the sense of it can be used for a lot of things, but long-term exposure can lead to illness.) There are also events called Catastrophes, which are natural events that can expose large groups of people to large quantities of originium (which can kill a lot of people and infect many others). In order to avoid catastrophes, people made nomadic cities (don’t ask me how they work).

There’s also a bunch of different races; most of them are animal people (to varying degrees), but some of them, like the Sarkaz, are.. other things? The Sarkaz are based around demons and stuff I think. Vaguely. There’s also at least two guys that are just birds? Idk about all the lore but the wiki (the Wikia or whatever not the Gamepress one) has more info about all of em.

Anyways the main story (and some of the side/event stories) are pretty political? Cause that’s kind of the nature of Rhodes Island; in order to provide care and treatment for more people they have to work together with different governments. It’s not super heavy-handed or anything I don’t think, but you can like.. apply stuff from the real world to it to get a better idea of things? Kinda? Idk gkfbjabhbkdhah

Anyway anyway, it’s a gatcha game with furries (mostly kemonomimi-style characters, pretty sure you can count all the kemono operators (playable characters basically) on two hands). The gameplay is tower defense, which is cool. The story is written quite well, but sometimes each segment can be VERY long (especially with event stages), so feel free to skip it if you want — you can always go back to it later to read it.

[we-all-horny-here]

Anygay I think It's Just An Experiment and Starved for Sunlight duology were the prime example of Remus characterization imo to this day because how well they merged Remus's abandonment issues with his violent impulses, both internal and external, his struggle with intrusive thoughts and how the others perceive him because of them, as well as the complex relationship he has with Deceit as both his best friend, his caretaker, and, in a way, his jailer, in this essay I will

[embarressment-erradicated]

seeing the far right in the usa actively plan to end democracy completely and people saying vote blue to that is just sickening.

like no, this isn't a situation where that's an appropriate response. they aren't going to just stop all plans because they didn't have the one they claim as their god king president.

they are going to double down no matter what.

this is not a time for petty politics, this is not the time for elections, this is the time to actually get the revolution up and running, and kill a few people who if left alive will only make the world worse.

I am largely one who thinks pacifism is a neat concept, however, when it's murdering a few people or risking having everything this country stands for get defiled even further somehow, leading it to becoming a christo-fascist authoritarian regime, I'm going to pick the one which doesn't end with everyone I know and love being murdered on a cross or rotting in a jail cell.

this isn't a vote blue no matter who situation, this is a vanquish a cult from our masses and watch the crimson blood spill from the graves which we build a new society on, hoping to not fuck it up this time

I'm not saying that everyone who bought into the lies of maga should die, I am saying that the people who actively wish to make the world a worse place should not be tolerated.

some people won't fight when it comes to the choice to lay down their arms or die, most even. some people need to die, or atleast be dead in a way that matters however, such as the people rallying up the masses to upend democracy.

a cult can not last, a cult can not persist forever, and whether we let it die off naturally and bring many down with it, or make sure it ends before it can make things any worse will decide whether or not we live to see the end.

oh and one more thing, remember how every democratic president has squandered the years they've had, and how essentially nothing changes until the republicans are in office, and it gets drastically worse? yeah that's a whole thing.

maybe we should use almost any other system of governance other than that. but as it is, voting blue will only maybe postpone the horrific nonsense at play.

we don't need votes, we need to revolt, no one should take away a person's right to exist. no one should think they can get away with that. no one should get away with that.

war is a complicated term, however civil wars have happened before, and we can do it again.

but I'm not a strategist, I'm just someone who happens to be an anarchist, communist, and non-binary. and as such is at high risk of being effected in one way or another by what they do.

but like, I don't know what to do about this at this current second, again, I'm just someone who's staring at the happenings of this country, and seeing hell both on the other side, and around me.

oh and if you don't know what the fuck I'm talking about, first do some research (if your interested, I mean I'm from the usa, I understand not knowing stuff from other places, that's like, the whole us education system), second wikipedia article go!

[melviships]

Okay, but like... Anders is a different breed of F/O for me. I legitimately struggle to find ways to portray ways in which someone could be attracted to me and my facsimiles. I try to think of how anyone could be attached to me and want to pull out my hair because it's Me.

I'm my own worst critic and I've thoroughly convinced myself I'm a freak of nature that no one wants to be around. In rare moments I hold myself in high regard, yet I manage to pick myself part shortly after.

I'm always prepared for when I'm inevitably left behind. I take great notice in the things people take away from me, but never include me in. People don't want me, they want what I offer. If I'm not useful or enticing, I'm nothing.

When I sit down to write about our feelings for one another, I have to distance myself and picturing them as someone else or I will hit a wall.

Anders is so obsessed with his object of affection that it's no brainer why he would be attracted to them.

And making H/awke look like me has made it hard to write as I am unused to the feeling of being truly sought after.

It makes me uncomfortable, honestly.

And I guess it's a good thing he's flawed- it makes me feel more deserving of this new, necessary discomfort of knowing there is someone that would care for me without question.