#sleuth 101

[newsatsix1986]

During my teenage years, the Australian and New Zealand comedy scene pretty much helped raise me. I especially adored Good News Week with all my teenage heart. It was already off air by the time I came to it but I fell in love with all of these colourful personalities who showed me who I could be. This Tumblr of mine used to be dedicated to Good News Week many years ago.

Cal Wilson was one of those extraordinary creative souls who inspired me. Her colour, her sweetness, her cheekiness and her energy took my heart and I have been eagerly checking her career out since 2014. I reckon I am now the eclectic soul I am today because of her influence (and Claire Hooper's too). I remember being enamoured with both ladies' wardrobes and their sparkly joy and fun insights and I wished that I could be more like them. They were so super duper cool to me.

It was my birthday on Wednesday 11th October this year (2023), and I opened my Facebook to respond to a birthday message, only to be greeted with the announcement of her death. My heart sunk in a way it has never for any celebrity death, and every time I see her face I feel both so much warmth and simultaneously want to scream that this is entirely unfair. She was only 53, my parents' exact age right now. How can such a vibrant beautiful soul be gone?

This should demonstrate how this lady's vibrance has touched so many lives, even ones that never got to physically meet her like myself. I know I am how I am today because of having had her art in my life. It is so hard to believe she is gone, and my heart goes out to her little boy and husband and all her friends and extended family. To quote her affirmative argument at the end of a Melbourne International Comedy Festival Great Debate, she had to go, there's a kangaroo doing a drum solo waiting.

Rest In Peace to the beautiful Queen of Caicos 💖🌟💐

5th October 1970 - 11th October 2023

[wentworthlindamilesfanpage]

Sleuth 101

[hardcore-gaming-101]

The Sinking City

So, if you play a lot of PC games and ever gotten an interest in playing The Sinking City, you may be extremely confused. This is understandable. The story goes that Frogwares, after leaving a deal with Focus Home Interactive to make a Call of Cthulhu game, decided to work on something original with the Lovecraft lore, and got a new distributor for the job. Bigben Interactive, now known as Nacon, helped with funding the game and distributing it, but had no control over the IP itself.

Read more...

[littletonpace]

Charmed | Episodes + Faceless | 3.08 Sleuthing With The Enemy

Colouring: “101” by arrowcoloring

Taglist: @holyhalliwells, @phoebehalliwell, @vanquishedmelon, @dailycharmedgifs, @wearethecharmedones, @charmedxfanforum, @raith-way, @this-is-my-bisexuality

Faceless Charmed Episode Masterlist

Want to be added to my Charmed taglist? Just ask :) Have an idea for a Charmed gifset? Also, just ask! :)

[doomsdaydicecascader]

my problem with postcanon jade was that it said she was a cis girl before fusing with bec. i took it as the same "true in a transmisogynist way" troll as transmasc roxy

like, truly, i miss transfeminine roxy every day, and my house is fairly glass when it comes to things here considering i'm writing The Butch Lesbian Jane Comic, but like. the way homestuck fans exert ownership over the text of homestuck is fundamentally what the homestuck epilogues and post-canon are about. act 7 is about the dead calliope saying "fuck canon" and making her own, and she does not know how to care for the characters in question. i genuinely believe reconciling these facts, that what homestuck wants to be and what fans want homestuck to be are tangibly, ideologically opposed, is what post-canon is about

"fans read this character as X identity" is fine and good but that's paratext at best, and making demands of a text that has no obligation to respect them at worst. the epilogues are cashing in that desire to not respect them. homestuck has always been shaking off its readers who exert too much ownership, feel too comfortable with it. this goes way back as far as act 5 act 2 - the author commentary describes switching between walkaround sprites and hussnasty mode in such close proximity as a means of saying "if you always get what you expect, you will become complacent and that's no way for a reader to be", the "come in, go away" routine of homestuck is so repetitive now that i'm surprised basically nobody's caught on - homestuck is always doing insane flips to try and shake people off of it.

and now homestuck is doing that with your headcanons. like, this is a thing i see genuinely, all the fucking time in fandom over the past 15 years or so, people hype themselves up on paratexts and pretend the paratext is the source. the worst i ever saw of it was people having full blown self-harm threatening panic attacks because klance was not endgame in voltron legendary defenders. genuinely, i remember this so well - i think there were still two more seasons of the show after that event too, but i didn't watch it.

i only looked on from afar because what i saw of season 1 wasn't especially novel. castiel was never gay, no matter how many times he was caught leaking omegamusk in walmart or whatever, i'm stealing valor with this joke i was never a superwholock omegaverse girlie. there's so many fandoms i'm not a part of, it's unreal.

anyway, my point is people get really invested in their reads on characters and pretend it's real for the same reason a normie's sports team is gonna go the distance this season. and when they don't, they riot. this is literally just sports fandom 101. we may as well be talking about fucking inflategate here. i also don't go to sports. it's basically just homestuck for me these days.

i imagine this is what it's like to run my little pony before bronies came along: the show was negligible in relevance beyond its capacity to show off the new toys to play with. but the difference is that my little pony is about the toys, it's about encouraging that kind of play, it's fundamentally a set of toys they made a show about, as opposed to homestuck, which was always niche art for webcomics weirdos that caught on, quite literally, with the brony audience. i remember the first time i ever saw dave strider was on fucking ponychan, chronologically it would have been mid-act 5 act 2. it was an image of dave ransacking the lohac stock exchange, which is an a5a2 thing, it was before season 2 started, etc etc.

this is one hell of a tangent to say as far as the text of mspaintadventures is concerned, problem sleuth characters have gender signifiers that are more similar in nature to drag and performance of gender roles than any actual sexual dimorphism. homestuck characters are built atop the gender expression of problem sleuth. jade was a 13/16-year old girl, and that's the only information there was. over time, this changed.

this was an explicit change, too - it's in the change to act 6, passing through the fourth wall, that these characters, who fundamentally are game pieces, that homestuck starts to contend with the fact that people are emotionally invested in them as people. people don't like dave or vriska in the same way that people care about problem sleuth or nervous broad, and this comes out in the text. we get a lot of the best stuff in homestuck out of that change, too, like. the retcon only works because of that emotional investment, and i go so hard for the retcon. the retcon is the coolest thing ever.

and with that change, now, in 2024, she is explicitly a 39 (? i think she's 39.) year old woman with a penis. she didn't go from "cis woman" to "trans woman", she went from game piece to human person. there is no "cis jade" to be overwritten. you're assuming a "cis is default" worldview of a team of transgender and/or nonbinary people and thats just like. its not ideal, really

[sortofshea]

On the 16th day of @hprecfest this fandom gave to me...

Day 16: a podfic

Title: Sparkles, Moonlight, and Tuna Sandwiches by ebbet

Pairing: Ginny x Luna

Teen | 5k words | 42 minutes

Summary: Ginny Weasley loves soccer. Ginny Weasley does not love Anthro 101. Luckily, she's found a study buddy.

Why I recommend it:

This podfic was truly a labour of love, and it shows! First of all, massive credit has to go out to all 14 listed contributors to the podfic and the original author. I'll list their Ao3 pseuds at the end of this post.

This is a beautiful muggle AU fic where Ginny, a university football player, meets Luna in her Anthro 101 class. She manages to piss off the TA on the first day and fears for her future in the class, so she jumps at the chance to pair up with Luna for studying. Luna is so delightfully odd in this one, as she should be. She eats only the strangest combinations of foods, and Ginny is endeared to it despite her disgust.

It's one of those "everyone around them sees that they are in a relationship but they don't" sort of stories and I gobbled it right up. To be more accurate, Ginny, the useless bisexual that she is, explains away all of Luna's overly affectionate and flirtatious behaviour. It takes Luna confessing to doing a spell to find a girlfriend just before they first met for Ginny to realize. Ginny's teammates are relentless and hilarious in their sleuthing about Ginny's not-girlfriend.

The podfic itself is narrated by 14 different people because some of the story is told through text message conversations between the girls on the football team. It was truly a production, and each and every contributor should be proud to have been a part of it.

Podfic contributors: blackglass, Cailynwrites, SequesteredAudio, kitsunerei88, kittona, mangotart_reads, horchatapods, Silvernightwalker, dittanyanddreams, wilfriede0815, reveriepi, Tipsy_Kitty, patientanxiety, kisahawklin

[vwiolets]

★intro post (v.2.0)★

Angie/Auggie She/he/they ENG/DEU view the old version of this post HERE

Interests ★ General - Cars, old TVs, DVDs, CDs, cans, thrifting/a.ntiquing, shopping, Roblox w/ the homies, working minimum wage, walking in the rain, watching movies, plushies, aliens!!!, listening to music, drawing, etc. ★ Fandoms - Hazbin Hotel, Fear & Hunger (1 & Termina), Omori, Jet Set Radio & Homestuck.

★ Music Genres - Hyperpop, incelcore, new wave, classical alternative, punk, rock, nu metal, electropunk, rap, hip-hop, etc. ★ Music Artists - Mindless Self Indulgence, Los Campesinos!, Meth Wax!!!!, Insane Clown Posse, The Cure, Millionaires, The Ramones, The Offspring, Of Montreal, 100 Gecs, Toxic Lipstick, Joost, INXS, She Wants Revenge, MCR, Big Baller B, Froggy Fresh, Korn, & other local bands. (Did I mention I like MSI!?!?)

★ Movies/TV shows - Monty Python, Paul Blart Mall Cop (1 & 2), Big Momma's House (1 & 2), Gravity Falls, Craig of the Creek, Edward Scissorhands, Pet Semetary, & Suburbia.

★ Books/Series - WarriorCats, A Season in Hell, Carmilla, but mostly fanfiction.

Socials Discord Spacehey Pinterest If you wanna do some sleuthing, you can find my other accounts.◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜

★DNI - ED/SH/Vent accounts, ppl who don't match my freak. ★DO interact - Ppl w/ similar interests, ppl who like 2 yap, ppl actually like 2 hear abt my day.

My favorite freaks <3333 @sagefinite @farizalovessparky

[rosesradio]

im sorry but Annabeth being the unwilling but sorta flattered muse of the titan army while Athena keeps getting pissed off about it and does anything to thwarts all wooing attempts despite olympus being closed and wondering why her daughter keeps charming people she doesn't approve off. Thalia finding it creepy and Percy crashing out is so funny to me. I know camp gossip is going crazy. People being like hum why are there so many owls flying away with envolopes and shit ?

pov you’re a millennia-old centaur who has seen some shit and your life mission is to train heroes. you take in some heroes, a fourteen year old boy and seven year old girl, after their twelve year old friend sacrificed herself at the borders of your camp (she’s a tree now).

fast forward to nine years later—the tree is back but fucks off to the hunters pretty quick. the boy fucked off to join kronos of all things (literally against demigod training 101: don’t trust the titan that ate his own kids). the girl is now prepping for war against her older brother/father figure/crush(?), all the while this other kid (the prophecy kid, by the way) is down bad for her but is too much of a wuss to make a move.

now you see a bunch of owls in your skies, swooping down to snatch letters out of the air before they end up at the athena cabin. after a little sleuthing (it doesn’t take much—you’re a millennia-old centaur who’s seen some shit, nothing gets past you), you find it’s love letters from kronos’s head honcho and some unclaimed kid that’s like his second in command? and said letters are for the girl he raised and abandoned, along with some from the kid who hardly spoke to her?

the prophecy kid is in shambles (he still won’t make a move), the tree is pissed, the rumor mill is churning like there’s no tomorrow.

dionysus might not be allowed to have wine, though you are surely popping open a bottle.

[sonicasura]

If one of the Sleuths were to be sent to keep watch in the Transformers: Prime universe, then the Nemesis would be a larger target for Eaters. A giant spaceship of primarily autonomous aliens which has the largest collection of them on Planet Earth? Yeah. Any Eater who catches a whiff of the cybertronians would probably gorge on the Vehicons left and right.

…How tragic none of the Decepticons are aware of the looming risk to their personnel. Though, the in stasis Titan who’s the true ship will feel effects first as someone new enters the fray.

——————————

Data was data.

No matter what type of system processed it, the information was similar across all sorts of processors. One Cyber Sleuth would find the alien ship’s system much more expansive than initially thought. The space around her transforming from mere lines of code to an actual space she could walk around in.

.

.

.

Internet safety generally encouraged strong passwords and no personal information in usernames. That was Basic 101 in protecting your identity—which the Sleuths reluctantly do.

—————————

“Penumbra” (or Pen) did not expect a name she thought on a whim to be what she was known as for the foreseeable further. Black gears, the crackle of electricity, and the snapping of an almost hinge made her briefly look up. Her first partner Kuramon gave an ‘all clear’ chime from its post watching around the corner.

“Ha, ha, ha! Fell the imposters, minion, fell them!”

Came Bluff’s echoey voice, most likely within his shell. The cyber sleuth rolled her eyes at the Syakomon’s antics—he really played into the villain angle since taking on that form.

Whirling machinery and increased flashing lights were the only answer of her other rookie. No doubt, the Hagurumon was having to play physical shield given the other mechanical digimon infesting here. “Minion” was a nickname she didn’t approve of due to the gear-like Digimon’s lacking sense of self. (Bluff was such a freaking troll, she swore!) Pen had since resolved to address the Hagurumon as Ion. They had merely weathered the nicknames.

All that left was Kuramon, who by comparison, was rather plain compared to its teammates.

The in-training digimon had been overall silent from the moment it hatched out of its digi-egg. No baby giggles, no breaths, no tantrum huffing, not even communicating in the Digi-Chat. Several health scans had shown her first partner digimon was healthy yet remained rather mute. The “all clear” chime alongside a few other alert noises had been a recent development Kuramon copied from Ion.

(Kuramon would get a nickname when it finally could communicate, she had had promised.)

Back to the matter at hand, Pen let out the closest thing to a sigh of relief as she could emulate as a few security walls popped up. Judging by Bluff’s groan—the cyber sleuth managed to quarantine a safe space just in time before he made other Digimon truly mad.

—Pen’s very intelligence and lying coded when it comes to her partner digimon. You have Kuramon who are said to have spawned from humanity’s destructive instincts on the internet. Hagurumon (Ion) who are mechanical digimon, shoot black gears that can control others, and don’t realize when they’re being used by other digimon. Finally, there’s Syakomon who purposely plays up being weaker to lure in other Digimon. Only to snap its shell to bite downs at them.

Both Rookies are viruses.

The Nemesis is practically an enormous buffet to Eaters. Any Cybertronian ship or relic would have a shit ton of data for the mutated nautilus to feed on. Thus universes like that are high risk for Eater Mutations.

Especially since Cybertronians ability to adapt make potential mutants even more deadly.

[levy120]

Guild Wars 2 Fanfic Masterpost

Title | tumblr / ao3 Prominent Characters: (expect lots of Gorrik) Words: Rating: Warnings: Timeline/Spoilers: One Line Summary:

Will be updated regularly under the Read More

Please Remember: likes and reblogs on tumblr are nice and appreciated, but so is interacting with the individual pieces. 💝

Last Update: "Beginner's Guide to Defying Death" (April 16th)

Beginner's Guide to Defying Death | Tumblr / ao3 Prominent Characters: Gorrik, Ankka, Blish Words: ~ 1,500 Rating: PG Timeline/Spoilers: Pre-Thaumanova/Pre-Golem Blish One Line Summary: Gorrik looks into Necromancy 101.

Homesick | Tumblr / ao3 Prominent Characters: The Commander, Peitha, Skyscale, "Gorrik" Words: ~ 500 Rating: PG Timeline/Spoilers: Secrets of the Obscure One Line Summary: Stranded in Amnytas you're reminded again of how much you miss the Dragon's Watch.

Did You Say CHACK?! | Tumblr / ao3 Prominent Characters: The Commander, Gorrik, Taimi Words: ~ 3,000 Rating: PG Warnings: Bugs & Insects Timeline/Spoilers: Post End of Dragons, References to Soto and Janthir Wilds One Line Summary: Gorrik invites you to visit him and Taimi in Kaineng. When you finally can make the time, you have a new pet to introduce and the two of them have something prepared for you.

Remember your Face | Tumblr / ao3 Prominent Characters: Blish, Gorrik Words: ~ 1,300 Rating: PG Warnings: none Timeline/Spoilers: Prequel (Pre Meeting Them, Pre Fahranur) One Line Summary: Blish and Gorrik try to (and struggle with) getting used to his new Golem Body.

Radio Silence | Tumblr / ao3 Prominent Characters: Gorrik, Taimi Words: ~ 1,100 Rating: PG Warnings: Grief/Mourning Timeline/Spoilers: Living World Season 4 (Post Ending) One Line Summary: "Gorrik had known, deep in his heart, that killing Kralkatorik would not bring his brother back. But for as long as the tracker had still been churning out data it had felt like Blish was still with them somehow, sending intel from far away."

Something to Lose | Tumblr / ao3 Prominent Characters: Gorrik, the Commander Words: ~ 5,500 (2 chapters) Rating: PG Warnings: Angst in 2nd chapter Timeline/Spoilers: Janthir Wilds, Post: Tyrian Alliance One Line Summary: Gorrik calls you in the middle of the night to seek counsel regarding a nightmare. (2nd Person; the Commander’s Race/Class/Gender is not specified)

Little Chats | Tumblr / ao3 Prominent Characters: Gorrik, the Commander Words: ~ 1,000 Rating: G Warnings: none Timeline/Spoilers: End of Dragons, Chapter 1; Gorrik's Prison Journal One Line Summary: Gorrik spirals in captivity but talking to an unconscious Commander helps. (The Commander’s Race/Class/Gender is not specified)

Gorrik used to be fun | Tumblr / ao3 Prominent Characters: Gorrik, Ankka Words: ~ 1,000 Rating: T Warnings: Canon Compliant Violence, Threads of Violence Timeline/Spoilers: End of Dragons, Chapter 1 One Line Summary: Ankka interrogates Gorrik on the Airship before the Commander shows up.

Phantoms | Tumblr / ao3 Prominent Characters: Gorrik, Taimi Words: ~ 1,000 Rating: PG Warnings: Angst Timeline/Spoilers: End of Dragons, “Sleuthing a Solution” (Gorrik’s Research Journal) One Line Summary: Gorrik visits Taimi after his haze-induced nightmare.

Applied Science | Tumblr / ao3 Prominent Characters: Gorrik, Blish Words: ~ 5,400 (across 3 chapters) Rating: T Warnings: Angst, Horror Critical Tags: Terminal Illness, Blood, Implied Animal Death, Mention of Euthanasia, Hurt No Comfort, Meltdown Timeline/Spoilers: Prequel (Pre Meeting the Characters In-Game), Pre LWS4 Chapter 2 One Line Summary: Blish goes through his consciousness transferal. Gorrik has many nightmares yet to come.

Bugs and brothers (Thaumanova) | Tumblr / ao3 Prominent Characters: Gorrik, Blish, Taimi, Ankka Words: ~ 2,200 (across 2 chapters) Rating: T Warnings: Angst, Horror (Chp2) Critical Tags: Bugs & Insects, Terminal Illness, Nuclear Disaster Timeline/Spoilers: Prequel, Before meeting the Characters, Mentions of LWS4 One Line Summary: Gorrik tells Blish about his plans of joining the Inquest.

[wentworthlindamilesfanpage]

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Geordi La Forge

By Ames

Our tour through the Enterprise-D wouldn’t be complete without a dive under the door to engineering, so join A Star to Steer Her By for this week’s character spotlight as we take a look through Geordi La Forge’s schematics. There’s a lot to love about The Next Generation’s chief engineer, probably the greatest being the portrayal by film and television legend LeVar Burton. In any other actor’s hands, Geordi just wouldn’t be Geordi.

But sometimes, Geordi can really just be way too Geordi, as you’ll see as you read on below for our best and worst La Forge moments! Let’s just say, he’s a character who makes remarkable friendships throughout the show, and he really should leave all his relationships at that. You can also adjust your VISOR frequency to our corresponding banter over on this week’s podcast episode (discussion at 1:17:39). Now get ready to tuck and roll!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Prepare to initiate separation sequence When La Forge is left briefly in charge of the ship in “The Arsenal of Freedom,” he is almost immediately put to the test by the planet’s defense system, and he keeps his cool even while receiving constant backtalk from Logan. It’s one of few instances we see the saucer separate as well, allowing Geordi to make use of the battle bridge to save the day!

Elementary, my dear La Forge One of the highlights of all of Next Gen is watching the friendship between Data and Geordi take shape and grow, and early on we get some great moments of them playing Holmes and Watson together on the holodeck in “Elementary, Dear Data,” which is undoubtedly sweet. Extra kudos to La Forge for putting up with Data’s shenanigans when he’s got all the stories memorized too.

Have you tried turning it off and on again? It’s always a joy getting to watch the engineers do their whiz kid stuff, and we get a good taste of that in “Contagion” when Geordi is inspired by Data randomly restarting himself and uses that as a launching point for wiping the Yamato’s records out of the Enterprise as well. It’s Information Technology 101, and he does it so well!

The best piece of engineering we’ll ever need Speaking of great engineering feats, La Forge does it again in “Booby Trap” when he concocts the purely manual solution to get out of the literal booby trap. Because the issue is with the computer, he opts to turn the whole thing off and have Picard pilot through the debris field himself. All you gotta do is ignore some of the weird holo-Leah stuff and it’s quite brilliant!

I will be your eyes Somehow, all of La Forge’s platonic relationships hit some really high marks, and he forms enough of a trust with Bochra in “The Enemy” that the two are able to survive on Galorndon Core. You’d never think humans and Romulans could find common ground before, but when these two find that they need each other, you think there might be hope yet.

Computer, identify the source of this shadow Geordi has another very nice friendship with his old crewmate Susanna Leijton in “Identity Crisis,” but the most impressive part of this episode is the great sleuthing that he does with some video tapes and the holodeck to determine that there was more on planet Tarchannen III than met the eye. In fact, there were otherwise invisible transfigured rave apes!

A blind man who never would have existed in your society Appropriately, we saw Hannah Bates’s actress in our podcast coverage this week in “Two Days and Two Nights,” and that makes it a good time to bring up that Geordi totally schools her biologically engineered ass in “The Masterpiece Society.” He uses his VISOR to save the day, something no one in their colony would ever have because of their ableist views.

BBFF: Best Borg Friends Forever As with his bromance with Bochra, Geordi connects with another unexpected being in “I, Borg.” Indeed, it’s the engineer’s ability to humanize even the least human, most frightening enemies that proves to be one of his best qualities throughout the show. Watching Geordi remind Hugh of his individuality, give him his name, and save him from Picard is the best of La Forge.

Are you saying I'm some blind ghost with clothes? Speaking of forging friendships, La Forge shared a very clever plot with Ro Laren in “The Next Phase,” and it turns out the two of them work together splendidly! Not only do they confront what could easily be interpreted as their deaths, AND find an ingenious way back to the correct phase, but they also foil a nefarious Romulan plot. Oh dear, what would Bochra think?

The Titan’s Turn Boys We picked on Riker the other week for how he acted when Jellico had command of the Enterprise in “Chain of Command.” But you know who took it like a champ and did his damn job? Freakin’ Geordi! He helped Jellico with the solution to their Cardassian problem and even used his friendliness and good nature to get him to involve that whiny Riker to pilot the shuttle.

They see me rollin’, they hatin’ Whenever a chief engineer gets to roll under a slowly closing garage door, you know you’re in for a good time. It happened in “The Best of Both Worlds,” critically one of the best episodes of all of Trek. But an even better roll is in Generations in which Geordi gets a perfect score for the pirouettes and for sticking the landing in a great pose, all while saving his whole engineering crew!

I’ve never seen a sunrise Finally, let’s close out the Best Moments with just a small detail from Insurrection. While we must admit that the rejuvenation storyline on Ba’ku wasn’t terribly well fleshed out, the character who really gets something out of it is Geordi. When his optic nerves have regenerated, he gets to enjoy a sunrise the natural way for the first time, and it’s tragic because he knows it won’t last.

—

Worst moments

This is why you wear PPE Who’s keeping count of how many times “The Naked Now” or “The Naked Time” has come up in these character spotlights? Well, in the case of the TNG spinoff, you can thank La Forge for catching the Psi 2000 virus in the first place by handling a corpse with no protective equipment. And am I the only one it rubs wrong that he spent the episode complaining about being blind?

An adversary capable of defeating Data Here’s another shipwide problem that was basically Geordi’s fault. With his imprecise wording, he effectively made the computer create Moriarty in the holodeck in “Elementary, Dear Data” and we see the repercussions of his mistake throughout both that episode and “Ship in a Bottle,” which I’ve already given Picard some guff about.

Their rubber band broke, right? La Forge starts the abysmal “Samaritan Snare” off on the wrong foot from the word go. He makes fun of the Pakleds pretty much to their faces, which is uncomfortable on its own. But he simultaneously underestimates them, assuming them to just be dopey but affable instead of dopey and malicious. Getting kidnapped by caricatures makes for a pretty rough day.

That’s a Coco No-No! It begins. Why the show decided Geordi had to be weird with women is beyond us, but it starts with his weird date with Christy in “Booby Trap.” He takes it way too personally that she’s not that into him on their date and gripes about it to Guinan afterwards. And that’s not even mentioning the rest of this squicky episode that sets Geordi up as the incel of the franchise.

Hold the Broccoli Despite La Forge generally being a friendly guy and a good boss, the way he treats Barclay when we first meet him in “Hollow Pursuits” is downright shameful. Throwing around the disparaging nickname. Complaining to Picard whenever he has to be in the same room with him. Overall treating him like a leper. Not great boss behavior.

I’m guilty of a terrible crime, Doctor. I offered you friendship. There’s good reason for “Galaxy’s Child” making our Worst Episodes of TNG list, and that’s that it entirely besmirches the character of Geordi La Forge. It’s one thing to get a little action with holo-Leah, but it’s another to expect the real Leah to treat you the same way. And then to turn it around so it’s all her fault? Nothing on our Best Moments list makes up for this railroading of an otherwise good character.

Even in a La Forge post, O’Brien must suffer Geordi just plain wasn’t having a good day in “The Mind’s Eye” and it’s full of bad behavior that can easily be blamed on the brainwashing, but blame we will! Manchurian Candidate’d or not, Geordi La Forge was capable of killing the simulation O’Brien at the command of some Romulans, and later dumping his drink on him in real life… but that’s nothing new to the chief.

A century out of date Okay, so it’s plain and true that Montgomery Scott was entirely underfoot and a bit of a hindrance for the engineering crew in “Relics.” But it’s also so sad to watch our resident miracle worker from The Original Series get treated like an obsolete dunsel. Geordi is prepared to ignore the old engineer until the captain takes him aside with another of his patented Picard pep talks.

I'm starting to feel like I know her If falling for a holodeck version of Leah Brahms wasn’t creepy enough for you, don’t worry, Geordi can go lower. In “Aquiel” he falls for the eponymous character by watching her personal logs, ostensibly for an investigation, but then when he hooks up with the murder suspect when she turns out to still be alive, no one can doubt that he’s taken it too far. Like freakin’ always.

How do you feel? We already saw in our spotlight on Lt. Commander Data that installing the emotion chip in Generations was a bad move. Geordi does promise to his android friend that he’ll remove the thing at the first sign of trouble… which happens at the most inopportune time right as Geordi is busy getting kidnapped by Klingons. This guy. Always getting kidnapped and reprogrammed, he is.

This is the exact spot where your statue’s gonna be One more from the movies, and that’s that Geordi gets to meet one of his heroes in First Contact… and immediately creeps Zefram Cochrane out by fanboying all over him. Word of advice, Gordo: if you’re already messing with the Temporal Prime Directive, maybe don’t start talking about going to Zephram Cochrane High School to the guy.

The Butterfly-in-the-sky Effect We get even more temporal shenanigans when Geordi gets a brief cameo in Voyager’s “Timeless.” Sure, LeVar was also busy directing this one so it’s a no-brainer to pop up on a viewscreen while he’s on set, but it also just feels weird for one of our past heroes to be the one browbeating our current heroes to stop their super cool time adventure. What a Herbert.

—

Well, our beach violinist has absconded and our Coco-no-nos have run dry, so we’ll wrap things up here. We’re wrapping season one of Enterprise over on the watchthrough on SoundCloud next week, so get ready for us to tear our hair out trying to think of highlights from that before we’re back on course with more TNG character profiles. So keep your VISOR pointed here, stay in the friendzone with us over on Facebook and Twitter, and watch the sunset with us over the bay.

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Stepfather (2009)

2009’s The Stepfather is the dead-beat, absentee dad’s equivalent of horror thrillers: it does the bare minimum. Even if that were enough, its utter lack of thrills and creativity means it scores low. If you’re young and you’ve seen no other films of this kind, it might entertain you. Anyone else will be calling out every single development a half hour before it occurs.

Michael Harding (Penn Badgley) is suspicious of his soon-to-be stepfather. His mom (Sela Ward) just met him six months ago and certain things just don’t seem to add up. The teen is right to be suspicious. David Harris (Dylan Walsh) is actually a serial killer named Grady Edwards.

You know every one of this movie’s tricks from the title. Michael is a formerly troubled teen who thinks his mother is moving too fast. To his mom, Grady seems like the nicest man on Earth - the total antithesis to her ex-husband, Jay (Jon Tenney). Michael's girlfriend, Kelly (Amber Heard) also thinks he's over-reacting. Cue the mysterious incident in the neighborhood. Maybe it’s a dead cat or a nosy neighbor that turns up dead. Either way, isn’t it convenient for Grady that the one thing he was complaining about not so long ago has suddenly been solved through violence? Cue the failed attempts to gather clues as Grady leaves the house but suddenly has to turn around because he forgot something. Do I need to say more?

Once you begin watching The Stepfather, you will develop precognitive abilities and foresee everything long before it happens. Even if you don't, this still isn’t an effective thriller. There’s no subtlety, sense of humor, ironic twist or any commentary in its 101 minutes. All you can think of is how much smarter you are than Susan Harding. I don’t know if it’s a US thing, but her house has a lock on the door in the basement. Is it to prevent someone from sneaking ice cream? One must assume it was there before the stepfather moved in because otherwise, what kind of irresponsible woman would let someone install latches willy-nilly in her home? Anyone with half a brain should be able to tell the man’s as dodgy as a locked cellphone sold without its charging cable. The Stepfather can’t even keep his own lies straight and his attempts to cover up his fake identity are as weak as a kitten. In his defense, this film is set in the late 2000s, when it should obviously take place in the 80s, like the original. You’ll be yelling at the screen in frustration as characters’ phones constantly fall on the ground, are left unattended or run out of battery to prevent the story from ending prematurely.

If there's one good thing to say about this picture by Nelson McCormick, it's that the performances are fine. Dylan Walsh is quite good at flipping the switch between charming and menacing. Penn Badgley and Amber Heard are believable as a couple of teenage sleuths and while Sela Ward is too beautiful to completely sell her role as a single woman desperate for love, she does a fine job with the material.

The Stepfather does not fall into the usual pitfalls of bad slasher films. Its killer may be unusually quiet when sneaking around but he’s not invincible or capable of teleporting. It’s well made enough to be described as “basic”, which I suppose is better than “terrible” but far less memorable and by no means an acceptable substitute for “good”. This remake is destined to be forgotten and no one will care. (On DVD, October 24, 2021)

[gacmediadaily]

True, we haven’t bought our Halloween candy yet, but as loyal fans of the holiday romance genre, we are prepared to start the most wonderful time of the year today. With Hallmark Channel’s annual Countdown to Christmas and Great American Family’s Great American Christmas now in full swing, and Lifetime and other networks loading their sleighs, we’re here to help you choose between the season’s many offerings. Each Thursday, we’ll spotlight the movie that should be at the top of your weekend list and preview why other debuts will make you merry.

THE ONE TO WATCH

Bringing Christmas Home (Premieres Saturday, Oct. 28 at 8 pm on Great American Family)

The holiday movie genre has made a tradition of honoring veterans for their service, and this film is another worthy salute — with mystery and romance to boot. Jill Wagner stars as army intelligence officer-turned-military history professor Caroline, whom antique shop owner Russell (Paul Greene) enlists to help return a recently-acquired WWII dress uniform jacket to the hero’s family in time for Christmas. A love letter and photo found in a pocket sweeten their mission to uncover who this man was, what happened to him after he was listed MIA, and whether he ever reunited with the gal who wrote him endlessly (juicy twist alert!).

Fans of the Mystery 101 franchise will enjoy seeing Wagner play another smart sleuth. But beyond that, she’s riveting in the scenes where Caroline, who’s trying to adjust to civilian life with help from her army buddy Alton (Simon Arblaster), recounts a Christmas Eve they spent in the desert. As always, Greene’s vibe is as warm and soothing as a cup of cocoa. You believe that Russell would be chill enough to leave his plucky sister Jules (Jess Brown) alone at their store during the holiday rush, and that he’d be patient with Caroline, who’s afraid her past will scare off future happiness. As Caroline points out, not every story has a happy ending; you’ll root for hers to.

Runner-Up: Ms. Christmas Comes to Town

Keep those tissues handy! In our runner-up pick, Ms. Christmas Comes to Town (premiering Thursday, Oct. 26 at 8 pm, repeating Saturday, Oct. 28 at 10 pm on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries), Barbara Niven plays Gale, a beloved host of the Holiday Shopping Channel, who receives a terminal diagnosis and decides to retire — but not before taking her “Ms. Christmas” act on the road for a farewell tour. She wants to train Amanda (Erica Durance), the daughter she never had, to be her on-air successor, Ms. Holiday. And since Gale is hiding her illness, she makes Travis (Brennan Elliott), the nurse traveling with them, pull a double shift as Mr. Winters. It’s great to see Niven, a scene-stealer in the network’s Hannah Swensen movies, take center stage. She and Durance have co-starred before, so their affection for each other feels real, as do their eventual tears. Just know the movie brings tidings of comfort and joy, not sorrow.

The Best of the Rest…

Mystic Christmas (premieres Saturday, Oct. 28 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel) When globe-trotting marine veterinarian Juniper (Jessy Schram) spends the holidays in Mystic, Connecticut helping her college roommate Candace (Patti Murin) rehab Peppermint the harbor seal, it’s also a chance for Juniper to reignite her spark with Candace’s brother, George Bailey-esque pizza restauranteur Sawyer (Chandler Massey). Schram and Massey have the weekend’s winningest chemistry, and you’ll definitely want to add a boat parade to your yuletide itinerary after this.

Christmas By Design (premieres Friday, Oct. 27 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel) In need of inspiration for a Christmas Eve fashion show/contest, luxury designer Charlotte (Rebecca Dalton) reluctantly heads home and agrees to attend the town’s “Elfcapades” events with mechanic/mannequin Spencer (Jonathan Keltz). In exchange, the thoughtful, handsome widower gets a buffer between him and the local single ladies whose engines he rightfully revs.

Joyeux Noel (premieres Sunday, Oct. 29 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel) Two newspaper colleagues, green idealist Lea (Jaicy Elliot) and seasoned Grinch Mark (Brant Daugherty), are sent to France to unearth the untold love story behind a popular painting of a holiday market where, legend says, people meet their soulmates. As they retrace the enigmatic artist’s steps…well, you can guess!

Journey to Christmas (premieres Sunday, Oct. 29 at 8 pm on Great American Family) Kindhearted model Cali (Ash Tsai, charming even when delivering the weekend’s most stilted dialogue) embarks on a cross-country road trip with hired driver Jack (Joey Heyworth), who took the gig to avoid spending the holidays with his family and ex-fiancée. Unfortunately, a storm strands them in Illinois with his relatives. Unsurprisingly, it’s the diversion they both needed.

[aae-demon-zone333]

Experimental/Healing Tank 101

Experimental/Healing Tank 101:

The person changes into spandex shorts (M/F/NB), a strapless spandex top (F/NBBF*), and spandex cuffs for their ankles & wrists. (*-Non-Binary born female)

The person straps an oxygen tank to their back, and puts a breathing mask on their face. (The mask's appearance is usually a full face mask, sometimes with an attached regulator.) Sometimes, ear communicators are put inside their ears in order to communicate with anyone outside of the tank.

They get onto a special platform that raises them higher until they're above the tank, and then they're submerged into the tank.

After the submerging, the platform goes back to its default area below the tank & back to its main position. Then, the tank is closed, and oxygen is delivered to the person.

Long tube-like cords emerge from the bottom area of the tank, and then via way of micro-needles (not seen in my perspective due to my IRL fear of them), they attach themselves to the person's body.

The person moves around for a bit in the tank for the first couple of minutes as recovery chemicals are inserted into their body via the cords.

At some point, the person is sedated via an anesthesia-like chemical so the recovery chemicals can do more work, though the person is still able to breathe. An hour or so later, the person wakes up and breathes normally while moving around in the tank again.

When the process is over, the cords disconnect themselves from the person and go back in the tank, and also, the platform goes back to where the person is.

The tank opens, and they are taken out of the tank emerging from it while on the platform.

After the platform lands on its default area outside the tank, the person then dries off (either via a drying station or is given towels), and is fully recovered.

Experimental/healing tanks play a major role in my SXT (Scenario X-Type) stories, mainly my Tokyo Ghoul and Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth/Survive ones. This info also proves useful for anyone into this kinda "tank stuff" like me. 😉👍🏻❤️

[madmonkeysandrum-blog]

101 Murder Mysteries

I have roughly read 101 murder mysteries so far this year and I'm picking up on things.

Hide your killer, the way you write them can be a dead give away. There's been plenty of books when the author has put a lot of focus on someone at the start and then sort of neglected them. Yeah, they are the killer, impactful presentation and then nothing... killer, every time.

Clues, give me physical clues! See it as a puzzle and give me a few pieces. Been a few books when they have found a body but no clues. No buttons or cigarette butts. No one who shows up with a tear in their coat. There's nothing. The MC just starts talking to people and sometimes the suspects aren't even acting suspicious. Everyone should be lying but only the killer lies about the murder, everyone else is lying about having affairs, being broke or whatever. Lies and clues!

A little less conversation, a little more action, please? Watching someone go from one person to the next doing nothing other than talking (and having tea) is pretty dull. Then the person talks to friends about the conversation they have just had with a suspect. Talk talk talk... and tea. Have the MC returning to the scene of the crime. Running from the cop that told them not to get involved, or have guard dogs that makes the sleuthing harder. Maybe they have to climb over a wall and through a window. Some action, please!

Danger! Been too many books when there's no danger for the MC, no one is telling them to stop, not even the cops, not even the killer. Put the MC in danger. Danger if they are getting involved and also, give the MC a good reason to get involved and plenty to lose if they don't solve the case.

A book I read recently there were no danger and no one tried to stop them, and there were no real reason for the MC to get involved. The only time someone threatened her was when she confronted the killer, at a police station with a ex FBI agent present, at the end of the book... oh and he threatened to get her fired. Oh no...