#sputnik speaks

[robintherobiner]

i've only ever downloaded AO3 fics 3 times.

The first time was cuz i knew ao3 was gonna be down and i was in the middle of a banger fic

and the second time is right now, because i have no wifi and i just realised that if i download fics, i wont waste my mobile data

[awesomegirl2001]

txt fight or escape ^_^

1. 0x1 lovesong

2. Frost

3. Loser lover

4. No rules

5. Moa diary/balance game(YEONJUNS PART!!!!)

[puppyvenom]

big day for guy who obsessed over space and space travel as a kid

my plushie laika and her coin!!! (because i had such an insane obsession and love with her as a kid i once dressed up as sputnik 2. yes the space shuttle. no not the dog. i was the shuttle)

[safehven]

DEAR SPUTNIK. my beloved. my anthem. my cry in the dark. my reaching hand that, bandaid-covered, bruised and all, grasps yours tight and, with the love as strong as space as vast, graps yours.

oh my dear sputnik.

[apas-95]

People who act like Laika's sacrifice was some unique soviet cruelty are being silly and need to re-evaluate how history's been presented to them. Animal testing of flight exploration has always been the norm, and the reason has always been that it is dangerous and could easily lead to death. Two-thirds of the monkeys the US launched on its repurposed Nazi V-2s died. The dogs the USSR launched into space before Laika were recovered, and were in fact the first higher animals to be recovered from a spaceflight, as all the US's monkeys so far had died - not a single monkey would survive US spaceflight until two years after Laika's flight. These animals were all sent into space, but only briefly, in a ballistic trajectory. Laika was sent into orbit. Laika's ship was the second ever to reach orbit, after Sputnik 1. It was not possible at the time to recover anything from orbit. The next Sputnik flight with animal passengers, Korabl-Sputnik 2, successfully recovered the first ever animals from orbit. Laika was the one lone point at which recovery was not planned - the pivotal one, where we had finally been able to reach orbit, to be able to stay in space, not just pass through it; but could not yet bring anything back. If survival were impossible up there, it may not have been worth it to continue. Yes, they knew Laika would die - but, empirically speaking, so did the US for each and every monkey it had launched. Survival was not the norm, and was a feat achieved so far only a few times, by the USSR. It is sad, yes, and perhaps unethical - but it was in no way unique.

[mostlymanymonsters]

Just before the pandemic  started, I found myself working on a drawing inspired by a song that has frequently gotten stuck in my head, Camper Van Beethoven's Humid Press of Days.  The lyrics to me convey the fascination, exhilaration and closely linked terror of space travel.  It speaks about the periods beyond just ignition and taking off -- the silence and still dull emptiness -- and what that means for a living feeling body.

I could not help but project that onto the story of Laika, the street dog in the Soviet Union selected for the Sputnik program and the thoughts ended up a pen and ink:

Which I later added in a hand written frame of the lyrics and gave to a friend who loves space and science fiction for Christmas.

I liked the design from my drawing enough, I wanted to do some sort of edition of it and landed on making it an enamel pin.  

Most of the photos I found of Laika's flight gear were in black and white, so I tried to select colors that reminded me of NASA suits I had seen. For the backing card, I included the constellations Orion, Lepus the rabbit, and of course Canis Major and Minor. Laika sits in the center on top of the unicorn constellation, Monoceros.

And that's the background on my tribute to the little dog that went to space.

[a-very-tired-jew]

Another Colleague Conversation

I recently had a conversation with a friend and colleague about stuff they shared regarding the rescue operation of the four hostages. They had posted the tweet from the Deeja account that said in all capital letters that Israel used an aid truck. I reached out because 1) I know this person to be reasonable and evidence based, and 2) I knew they were coming from a place of genuine concern that was being manipulated. For context, this friend is a brilliant geneticist that I have know for nearly 2 decades as we did our undergrad together and have stayed in touch ever since. They're a kindhearted person and their work has led to some breakthroughs that highlight this trait as they've worked on certain types of genes that can have detrimental mutations when expressed. As I've said before, a lot of people are empathetic and sympathetic individuals to the plight of others, and those behaviors are being manipulated for nefarious reasons.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Me: Hey G, that thing you shared about the aid truck? Yeah, that's not the complete story or accurate.

G: What?! What do you mean?

Me: It wasn't an aid truck that they used. In fact, only that tweet and Al Jazeera were reporting that initially. All the other sites, including pro-Israel and anti-Israel, were reporting a civilian truck of some sort. Most said a moving/furniture truck.

G: Wait. Hold on. So it was a moving truck then?

Me: Well...we now know it was a soap truck.

G: Why the fuck are people saying it was an aid truck then?

Me: You know the reason.

G: Yeah...okay, admittedly I am not well informed on all this. Thank you for reaching out and correcting me. Do you have any suggestions on how to stay informed? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (Now this is where it gets interesting because at this point they say something that I knew was a thing on some level, but hadn't really put the pieces together.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me: Well, I wouldn't share anything from Al Jazeera. All they do is spout Hamas propaganda. I'd also avoid accounts that share from them as well, unless you're really interested in what the propaganda is itself. I'd avoid JVP since they're the Autism Speaks of Jewish groups. And also avoid SJP groups, many of them openly support terrorist groups and have been recently endorsing domestic terrorism. G: Wait, wait, wait. AJ is bad? I've been following them since we were in undergrad.

Me: Since undergrad?

G: Yeah, they were the only ones covering news in a Lefty manner. Like, remember when Occupy Wallstreet broke out during grad school? They were the one of the few news sites that covered it in a left leaning manner.

Me: Ah fuck...that makes sense. Okay. So. AJ is the state media of Qatar, think of it like RT or Sputnik. Qatar has literally hosted the leaders of Hamas for years and they live there in multi-million dollar homes. AJ pretty much acts as the propaganda mouthpiece for Hamas through Qatar.

G: But what does that have to do with how they covered stuff when we were younger?

Me: Well, there was a meeting in 1993 in Philly of Hamas members that was wiretapped. Those wiretaps were submitted as evidence during some trials in the 00s and they revealed that Hamas had planned at that meeting to use the language of progressive Westerners to garner support for their cause and manipulate them.

G: oh

G: Oh, fuck!

G: So you're saying they purposefully set themselves up to be more sympathetic to Leftists and manipulate them through using their jargon and it's on tape?!

Me: Yep. Here's the link (https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/2023-10/the-hamas-network-in-america.pdf)

Me: Now there's a lot more to that doc. It goes over how they planned to set up research groups to influence academia, political groups for politics, and charity groups to raise money. The latter of which is what the 00s trials were about.

G: Fuck...that's well planned out. I can't believe it's on tape.

Me: Mhm, it's right there. I'm surprised it's been allowed to go on this long though. I think after all the dust settles we might see some Bush Era Patriot Act shenanigans go on.

G: I wouldn't be surprised.

G: Thank you for reaching out and letting me know. I can't believe I fell for that.

Me: It's totally okay, and understandable. If you have questions about anything please feel free to reach out.

G: Again, thank you so much. I will.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What G said about Al Jazeera though and how they'd been following it for years stood out to me. I remember when Occupy Wallstreet happened and AJ was reporting on it. I remember so many American news sites denigrating the movement and AJ was one of the few that was actually covering those protests in an objective manner. We didn't have a lot of the Left news sites that currently exist today. It was a wasteland of center and right wing sources as far as the eye could see. But that makes sense for the time period and why AJ is still so prevalent in Left spaces.

As I told G, the 93 meeting documents Hamas members talking about using the language of Westerners against them and infiltrating their spaces to garner support. With AJ being the mouth piece of Hamas and having been one of the few "Left" leaning news source since Occupy...well, they've been grandfathered in to Leftist spaces as "trusted". That's why so many of these Western activists will accept an AJ article with no question or critical analysis, it's one of the go to sources and has been for a long time.

I'm a little mad at myself that I didn't remember the coverage of Occupy and other events in the USA by AJ and how they were framed until G brought it up. I'm second guessing all the times I read articles back then and my reactions. G admitted they're now doing the same. To think that many of us older Lefties have been manipulated for years because we had some friendly coverage of our opinions is disheartening. But then again, how many of us actually knew what AJ was, who was running it, and what the agenda is/was? I mean, hell, I'm a forensic consultant and consider myself well versed on big cases, but I didn't know about the HLF stuff until Vidino's report came out (the doc mentioned and linked above).

The internet has come such a long way since then. I'm hoping that when this is over that many of these news sites, Leftist and otherwise, will reconsider how they interact with AJ and other such groups. It's quite clear that we've been in a long con, and something has to change.

[vasito-de-leche]

I have some thoughts in my mind lately in the Self aware au R1999 (I'm invested so badly), I was wondering are there any arcanist that resented the player maybe at first or still having resentment on them? Because if the player wasn't there they would be " free " (which I would doubt since there are many players and it would still happen nonetheless but just speaking from there perspective) did they just helplessly or casually got over it after some time and accepted the fact it was a game I mean they were levelled up by the player,the player was the reason why they were getting stronger and winning every battle but I have a feeling some arcanist would have some doubt in them since everything was just a script in the first place all the things that happened to them were meant to happen for the plot, I don't about how to reach when they find out that the player was a human though.. But just like earlier if the player never was here then they would be " free ",they wouldn't know it was just some game (they gonna go bree since they wouldn't exist)(RAHHH I might have wronged what I said in this😭 I just have a thought in my mind about them doubting, feeling frustrated and all...Btw I am badly down bad for your writing 💜💜💜 I admire it so well.. 🥹🫶🫶 can I get a hello Please.. ?💜🥹💜 I'd go crazy being noticed on a writer I admire)

hiiii helloooo hola bonjour and many other greetings o7 really glad you like my writing!

your question is very broad, so I can only make a quick list to categorize all the characters and how I think they'd feel overall towards the Player within this AU! since you only mentioned arcanist, I assume you mean the playable characters only, so that's also the group I'll be tackling

I don't have a good grasp on every single character, so some of these are subject to change as I learn more about them too o7

It's very, very complicated.

Vertin. Door. Mesmer Jr. Bkornblume. I consider these characters to be "outliers" in terms of how they perceive the Player--in the sense that their opinion fluctuates and varies a lot, so they cannot be easily labeled in any of the other categories. They're contradicting or find themselves at odds with themselves, seeing the figure of the Player and everything the Player represents as positive and negative influences simultaneously. To them, you're a close friend and a distant stranger, a saviour and a harbinger of ruin, a source of knowledge and the end of everything--you're all of these, all at once.

as for the rest, I only described the opposite ends of the spectrum and the neutral category!

Extremely resentful and hateful

Desert Flannel. Erick. Mondlicht. Oliver Fog. Pavia. Sonetto. Sweetheart. This one is pretty straightforward--these are the characters who are defensive, who feel like your mere existence is mocking them, who have gone through so much and feel humiliated to know you're casually looking at them from above, so out of reach and superior and unbothered by their pain. But also characters who are combative or quick to identify you as a threat, such as Pavia and Sonetto, because you go against everything they believe in.

Stressed, requires a lot of time to get over it

AliEn T. Bette. Bunny Bunny. Charlie. Ezra. Kanjira. Matilda. Pickles. Ulu.

Mostly troubled, but open to change

6. Mr. APPLe. Darley Clatter. Diggers. Druvis III. La Source. Lilya. Melania. Ms. Moissan. Poltergeist. Zima

Neutral, indifferent and/or unaffected

Baby Blue. Click. Dikke. Jessica. John Titor. Rabies. Sputnik. Tennant. Tooth Fairy. Twins Sleep. These characters remain neutral, but do not confuse their indifference or lack of reaction for ignorance. Some of them aren't quite lucid, conscious or old enough to fully understand their surrounding, such as Rabies and Twins Sleep, but I would say the rest are grounded enough as to not let a figure such as the Player affect them in any intense or extreme way. Some of them simply don't care because this entire reveal doesn't exactly change their routine nor perception of the world. Some are choosing to remain neutral until they gather more information to form a solid opinion.

Mostly curious, but open to change

A Knight. Cristallo. Kaalaa Baunaa. Ms. NewBabel. Necrologist. Satsuki. Spathodea. Voyager.

Eager to learn, requires a lot of stress to be affected

37. An-an Lee. Centurion. Eagle. Horropedia. Leilani. Nick Bottom. Shamane. Sotheby. X.

Extremely intrigued

Eternity. Medicine Pocket. Ms. Radio. ONiON. Regulus. TTT. The Fool. Regardless of how your existence affects these characters, their curiosity and the new opportunities and possibilities you bring along are much more important to them. These are characters who seek to profit from you in some way, who see you as a fascinating subject to study, who may even relate in a way to the role you play as the Player, who may pity you.

[weeeeeekly]

quarter life crisis – ot5 tomorrow x together x afab!reader

˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ *˚˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ *˚˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ ˚ ‧₊

blurb !!! Reincarnation can bring soulmates together despite their time apart. Being a huge fan of TOMORROW X TOGETHER helped you get through the struggles of entering early adulthood. You would thank them personally if you ever could but when you possibly get the chance it’s more than what you could ever hope for.

info !!! txt are still idols, reincarnation au, soulmates au, polyamory, throuple²… they’ll all eventually date each other, mc has mental health struggles, universe assigned lactose intolerance, team no kids, glasses wearer, lives in the middle of fuck nowhere but still a city (just go with it), pet names used are “our love” and princess, & not edited.

wc: 1.1k

WARNINGS !!! NSFW, MDNI, 18+, extremely self-indulgent, soft yandere!txt, mentions of mental health & self-harm (nothing graphic) for entire series

author’s note !!! This is fiction!!! this is made up!!! I do not condone breaking in, stalking, and other ulterior motives to get close to someone you are romantically interested in.

why are there not more ot5!txt x fem/afab or gender-neutral reader… mandatory note that i do not think txt act like this in real life. I also cannot come up with a blurb for the life of me, so please peep the info tags.

˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ *˚˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ *˚˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ ˚ ‧₊

CHAPTER FOUR

You really were having trouble falling asleep.

Every time you closed your eyes, your mind would either pick the memory of Beomgyu holding your face or their expressions when you asked about hiatus. TXT already took up most of your waking thoughts but now they’ve invaded your sleeping thoughts.

It wasn’t your fault, worrying about pulling an all-nighter again, unfortunately. The lack of sleep would catch up on you but right now you could waste a Saturday doing mundane chores. Like laundry.

Having to haul a giant ass laundry bag down the hallway, into the elevator, and down another hallway to the laundry room. One of the few cons of living in your apartment is that you didn’t have individual washer and dryer units, but no other complex was affordable yet close enough to the hospital your roomie worked at.

The laundry room was empty at 1 AM, not shocking but welcoming. The rows of empty washing and dryer machines brought you some comfort as you counted out quarters from your favorite coin purse. It was never a bother to come downstairs to do laundry, offering every time to do your roommate’s too, as it reminds you of your favorite movie.

Humming to yourself one of your favorite songs, when two pairs of hands grab you causing you to shriek and drop to the floor.

“Are you okay?” Kai’s voice above you calls out as he helps you.

“Sorry. We wanted to be funny.” Soobin apologizes as the washing machine’s timer ends.

“It’s fine.” You mumble as you go to transfer the clothes to a dryer.

Kai stands next to you, a little too closely, “Dear Sputnik?”

“It’s my favorite song.”

Out of the corner of your eye you can see Kai grinning.

Soobin asks, “Can we help?”

“That would be great once it’s done drying.”

˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ *˚˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ *˚˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ ˚ ‧₊

Gumz stick to you just like their name intends as you carry the laundry back to your apartment. They even stay to help you fold the clothes and put away yours in your dresser.

Small talk was fine between them, just some awkward pauses when they couldn’t think of certain words. You understand though because the English language is difficult.

You walk them to the front door, “Thanks for helping me out, guys.”

Kai opens the door and stands on the welcome mat as Soobin leans against the door frame and stares into your eyes with a softness in them.

“Come over?”

It feels like you forget how to speak in that moment with the way Soobin’s looking at you – with fluffy brown hair, slightly pushed back showing his forehead and dimples on full display. You know Kai is also looking directly at you with a hopeful smile on his beautiful face that makes you want to run your hands through his dyed blond hair. You nod, afraid that your voice will crack if you open your mouth.

Kai extends his hand out as you hold his hand. Soobin gently pushes you forward, keeping his large hand on the center of your back and never straying further. It takes all the will within you to not think inappropriate thoughts and before you know it, you’re inside their apartment with the other boys smiling at you with a certain fondness that you can’t describe.

“Back from doing laundry so soon?”

Yeonjun pats the seat next him – coincidentally the empty, middle spot – surrounded by the others as he puts on a movie. You get comfortable in the seat as Taehyun hands you a bowl of your favorite snacks. You pop a piece of candy as you wonder how they knew your taste in snacks, but ignore it, tributing it to a coincidence.

As you start getting into the movie’s plot, Yeonjun scoots closer as he throws a hand over the pillow behind you.

He’s probably just trying to get comfortable. Nothing weird.

But when you put a few more pieces of candy in your mouth, Yeonjun leans onto your shoulder to whisper in your ear, “Did Soobinie and Huening help you?”

Nodding as you try to scooch away before you answer your personal delusional question of what it would be like to kiss THE Choi Yeonjun. Beomgyu turns to you and tilts his head, so you offer some candy that he happily takes.

“As a thank you, make a group chat for us?”

“Okay.”

Discreetly taking your phone out as to not interrupt movie night, you hand your phone to Yeonjun to make the chat.

gc with 6 cuties

            you hi

            soobin hiii

            taehyun hey

            huening (⋆ˆ ³ ˆ)♥

            beomgyu hello

            hottest it boy heyyyyy

            you oh my god

Yeonjun snickers as you let out a sigh, locking your phone. You turn your attention back to the movie as it’s almost over now. You sit back against the pillow and let your eyes close – just to rest them for a minute.

Once the credits roll, TXT start to clean up until Yeonjun tells them to be quiet as you fell asleep. Taehyun hovers over you as he gently takes your glasses off and places them on the table as Beomgyu brings a blanket from his bed.

“I wish she would stay forever with us.”

“Don’t wake her.”

“I call the couch with our love tonight!”

“No fair!”

“We’ll get her to sleepover again tomorrow before Monday and stay in the apartment while she’s at work.”

Yeonjun pushes Beomgyu out of the way to sleep next to you. He wants to snuggle, but he’s afraid you’ll freak out if you wake up right now, so he’ll wait until later.

˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ *˚˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ *˚˚₊ ˚ ‧₊ .:･˚₊ ˚ ‧₊

You don’t remember when you fell asleep, but you wake up a little later when you feel a head on your shoulder. Turning, you find Yeonjun sleeping peacefully. The MOA inside you is screaming right now as this is a dream come true. You close your eyes again and hope you fall back into dreamless sleep as no dream could be better than your life recently. You just hope that Yeonjun continues to sleep on your shoulder and when you wake up again you’ll feign innocence to keep your friendship.

masterlist | previous | next

author's note sorry for the late post!! hopefully i'll get the next chapter finished earlier in the day :)

[robintherobiner]

told my dad that superboy has a boyfriend and his response was that he doesn't agree with it because "thats too based on reality and comics were always about things that dont exist, like powers."

and when i brought up Lois Lane and Superman, or Batman and Catwomen, he just said "i dont want to argue, lets change the topic."

and he calls himself an ally?? why cant superboy have a boyfriend?? it would be one thing if you wanted supervillains instead of like, defeating homophobes, but thats not what i was talking about. i just said he has a boyfriend. the same way almost every other male superhero has a girlfriend.

[akitasimblr]

olaf cricketwind harper is applying to far from home bachelorette chalennge by @dawnvy !! wish him luck! he brings his loyal companion, oreo harper, because they are inseperable.

olaf harper grew up in a house full of pixels, with his siblings, his mom and her many - many - boyfriends. olaf is the older of four siblings. his parents divorced when he was still a toddler and he was co-parented, and lived between tartosa and del sol valley.

speaking of family, olaf has an alien great-aunt named wanda harper, with whom he shares the love for painting!

olaf was a very independent baby who really loved to learn things by himself. he was an easy kid with good temperament. he has always been very creative and very inventive! he liked to craft mini robot toys for his siblings.

olaf dreamed of becoming an architect when he grew up. he ended up following a physics degree and he is now an eco-tech scientist.

olaf is very social, he likes to be involved in all kinds of things... so don't be surprised if he knocks on your door trying to persuade you to join his neighborhood action plans!

olaf has never shown any romantic tendency, but once his watcher read sputnik's announcement, the watcher thought "wait, maybe this is olaf's pixelmate!". and here we are...! 🥰

TRAITS: geek | loves outdoors | childish LIKES: pink, deep thoughts, gardening, painting, fitness, family-motivated sims DISLIKES: cooking, dancing, video gaming SKILLS (4+): robotics, fitness, handiness, cooking, charisma, rocket science, parenting

[keysorsomething]

HIIIIIII!!!!! I saw your request page and was like !!!!!!! I haven’t been following you on tumblr for a long time but i have been reading your fanfics and following your tiktok for awhile! (Hope that didn’t sound creepy 😭)

I was wondering what life would be like with Nikto and his pet dog sputnik-(totally not a hyena, totally.) like- what if you were a big animal fan no matter how scary the creature was? What if you were scared of sputnik? What if you created a space for sputnik in yours and Niktos house/apartment/space (if you shared a space)???? What if you had your own pets????????

Hiii! Omg I never really thought anyone would follow this blog from the tiktok Im so sorry I like never post there lol

Request Page !!

If you really like any animal, Sputnik is going to love you back

He LOVES pets, I fully believe that

Nikto tries to keep him off the furniture, but Sputnik will see if you'll let that slide

Will definitely try to cuddle you

Does not smell that good if it's been a while since his last bath, so I wouldn't suggest burying your nose in any fur

Speaking of bathtime, Sputnik loves baths

And hoses, that damn hyena will chase the spray of a hose for literal hours

Now I would not suggest keeping a hyena with any other pets, especially not smaller animals, considering their hunting behaviors

but this is fictional so that doesn't matter - Because Hyenas are pack animals, I think Sputnik would like dogs that were around the same size

However, Sputnik might be a bit too playful for an older/grouchier dog

Sputnik is a puppy after all

If you don't have a dog the same size/bigger, a separate room for Sputnik is probably the best idea for everyone

Rodion, of course, insists on helping you and Nikto

He is a VERY involved uncle okay

This is what you're in for if you and Nikto have kids, Rodion will be helping you and that is a THREAT

If you listen to Rodion, the room looks more like a savannah/grassland-themed kid's bedroom

A twin-sized bed, yellow-orange and tree-painted walls, plushes and dog toys that look like lions and giraffes and everything else

If you're afraid of Sputnik, Nikto tries his best to be respectful of that

It probably takes a while to meet Sputnik, no matter what your reaction would be

Sputnik is important to him, and does a lot to help him when he's having a rough time with his mental health

So, he doesn't want to put the two best things to happen to him at odds

He, and Rodion, speak about Sputnik in a way that makes you think about him as a dog, maybe even a smaller one

So, when you're face to face with a nearly human-sized, probably man-eating, trained-to-kill animal known for its ruthlessness in the wild, it makes perfect sense that you'd be a little scared

If you really, really react, Nikto takes a couple of days with out talking to you

He's doing his best to find a compromise, one way that will work out for everyone

Nikto doesn't like to rock the boat in situations like this, where it risks parts of his stability he needs, so he is perfectly okay finding a way to keep you two separate

It's a little hard, though, Sputnik is excitable and used to getting attention when he demands it

That usually means that, even before you move in a Sputnik gets a separate room, Sputnik gets banished to another room for the night

He gets super nervous if you ask to try to work on it, so you have to take it extra, extra slow

[hummus-birb]

My Reverse: 1999 Rarepairs/crackships!

Exactly what it says in the title! I’ve seen a couple other people talk about their favorite rarepairs for r1999, so I thought I’d do it for mine!!

(Technically some of these are just characters I think would interact well, not all of them have to be romantic) (and also not all of them are super duper rare)

An-An Lee x Poltergeist

- I just really like the ghost enthusiast x ghost dynamic in general, this counts for horropedia and An-An Lee with any of the ghost characters tbf

- But An-An Lee and Poltergeist specifically would be cool because of their personalities!!

- Poltergeist is obviously more shy, while An-An Lee seems a bit more outspoken, and I can really see An-An Lee helping Poltergeist help gain confidence!

- Either way, very cute dynamic and I like it a lot!

Tennant x Sweetheart

- Originally, Sweetheart was my main theory for who the other character in Tennants I2 Portrait, along with maybe Mesmer Jr.

- While I definitely don’t think it is anymore, I still like the concept of them having a relationship!

- Tennant would definitely be in it to scam Sweetheart, but I think Sweetheart would at least know some of it due to her being familiar with Hollywood secrets and the drama that goes down there

- If they did become “partners in crime” I think they would legitimately be the best power-couple ever. I just don’t know if there would ever be a scenario where they both show their cards, so I don’t know if they’d ever reach that point sadly.

- Their rich girlboss energy knows no bounds, and together they will be unstoppable

Sweetheart x Bette

- Actor x Stunt double, just another fun concept!! (I saw a similar idea with Blonney and Bette as well, which would also be cool!)

- Sweetheart is sassy and assertive but befriends her innocent stunt double and takes her to Hollywood parties

- Bette is so confused but Sweetheart is her idol so it’s not like she’s going to say no

- It would basically be like the sassy popular girl falls in love with nerd/shy girl trope, Hollywood edition

- I think they would be very cute though!

ONiON x TTT

- The only news station TTT isn’t sick of

- She was actually covered by one of ONiON’s stories, and she’s been a big fan ever since!

- When ONiON meets her, they hit it off immediately!

- Both of them have different brands of eccentric show host vibes and I’m here for it

AliEn T x Sputnik

- The space besties

- Sputnik literally references AliEn T’s lines, what can I say

- Mostly just them lying to each other about exactly what/who they are to hilarious results

Bkornblume x Click

- Sitting as silence as we speak (consider each other their best friends and know each other really well despite this)

- There’s really no other special reason, I just think they’d get along!!

Constantine x Vertin’s Mom

- Not super rare technically

- There is no info on it but it’s both a super interesting and very funny concept

- I saw a post a while ago about the parallels between Madame Z, Constantine, and Vertin’s Mom to Matilda, Sonetto, and Vertin, and it was really cool!

Regulus x X

- Technically this one I like more as a friendship, but I still want to talk about it

- Regulus hung out with X for longer than she did Vertin, there’s no way they aren’t at least somewhat friends

- They’re both sneakily coming up with ideas of pranking people with machines (They were both definitely giggling at the idea of pouring tea on Forget-me-not)

- Silly little goobers, mostly

[dizzythegreat]

cannot stop thinking about the final shot of merrily we roll along where all of a sudden the music quiets and the lights drop and frank's face falls and his two best friends in the world cross the stage and leave his side and he takes his jacket off and grabs his papers and suddenly he's not frank on the roof watching the flight of sputnik with mary and charley he's frank at the start of the play who hasn't spoken to charley in years and will probably never speak to mary again and he looks up with tired eyes as they all looked up at that satellite years ago and closes his eyes.........

[mariacallous]

One of Russia’s most famous 20th-century novels has returned to the Silver Screen. Infamously difficult to capture as a motion picture (more mystical observers even speak of a curse), Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” is back, reinterpreted by American-Russian filmmaker Michael Lockshin. The new movie stars Evgeny Tsyganov and Yulia Snigir in the titular roles and features German actor August Diehl (Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”) as the story’s demonic character Woland. Meduza reviews the controversy surrounding the film’s director and funding, the book’s cinematic history, and Lockshin’s adaptation.

The political controversy

Michael Lockshin’s “The Master and Margarita” averages an impressive 7.9/10 rating with more than 43,000 reviews at KinoPoisk and leads Russia’s box office in its opening week after earning 57.3 million rubles ($640,000) on its first day in theaters, but the director was making enemies before his film ever sold a single ticket. Self-described patriots denounce Lockshin as a Russophobe, a traitor, and a neoliberal besmircher of the intrepid Soviet secret police. They call him a hypocrite, too, in light of the fact that this new adaptation of Bulgakov’s classic was made (in 2021, before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine) with 800 million rubles ($8.9 million) from Russia’s Cinema Foundation, the state’s key funding agency for the domestic film industry. 

Lockshin, who now resides in the United States, declined to answer Meduza’s questions about the backlash in Russia, saying he’s not yet ready to comment on the situation. On Telegram, pro-war channels have circulated screenshots of Facebook posts that are now hidden from non-friends where Lockshin shared independent reporting about the war in Ukraine, wrote that he’s donated to Ukrainian organizations, warned that future generations of Russians will be paying reparations for the “tragedy they brought to Ukraine,” and compared the Putin regime to Nazism in Germany.

State propagandist Tigran Keosayan has advocated criminal charges against Lockshin, while Trofim Tatarenkov, a host on Russia’s state-run Sputnik radio (who admits that he hasn’t even seen Lockshin’s movie), called the filmmaker “scum” and fondly remembered how such “enemies of the people” were shot during the Stalinist era.

Previous adaptations

In May 2016, poet and literary critic Lev Oborin wrote an essay for Meduza answering several “questions you’re too embarrassed to ask” about Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita,” including the most shameful of all: Can I just skip the book and watch a movie version instead? The short answer is, yes, you can always skip the book. In fact, unless you’re a student or some other kind of hostage, you can skip the movies, too. But since you asked, there are at least two previous screen adaptations of “The Master and Margarita” worth knowing about.

The better-liked version, at least until now, has been Yuri Kara’s 207-minute film, made in the mid-1990s but not released until August 2011. Meanwhile, in 2005, Vladimir Bortko created a miniseries for Russian television that was criticized for uneven casting and even worse special effects. Unfortunately for Bortko, the 10 episodes drew deeply unfavorable comparisons to his beloved 1988 adaptation of Bulgakov’s “Heart of a Dog.” 

It’s also tempting to contrast Bortko’s miniseries with Kara’s adaptation — particularly how the two portrayed one of the novel’s most visually scandalous scenes: Satan’s Grand Ball. Filmed almost a decade later and made for TV, the sequence in Bortko’s series “looks almost puritanical” compared to Kara’s film, noted Lev Oborin. In raw terms of nudity and violence, this assessment is hard to contest:

So, is Lockshin’s adaptation any good?

Anton Dolin (a prominent Russian film critic who might be best known to casual Internet users as the interviewer who provoked Ridley Scott into saying, “Sir, fuck you. Fuck you. Thank you very much. Fuck you, go fuck yourself.”) liked Lockshin’s adaptation quite a bit. In a review published by Meduza, Dolin writes that the film “manages to retain the sharpness of the original source, which mocks Soviet power, and at the same time offers the viewer an innovative perspective on a classic text.”

Dolin praises Lockshin’s “Hollywood flourishes” and his capacity to juggle the book’s “genre and intonation incompatibility,” which has plagued past interpretations. The new adaptation brings a “circus element” to the story without sacrificing the script’s “rigidity,” says Dolin, while also “condensing the vastness of Bulgakov's novel into a coherent and clear narrative.” (You’ve been warned, formalists.)

Lockshin’s film takes some liberties with Bulgakov’s classic. For example, in the novel, the Master character doesn’t emerge until the middle of the book, leaving the reader to wonder about the title. In the new film, however, the main plotline belongs to the love story between Margarita Nikolaevna (the unhappily married wife of a Soviet functionary) and a writer she calls the Master. According to Lockshin’s script (which he co-wrote with Roman Kantor), the secondary narrative involving Pontius Pilate’s trial of Yeshua Ha-Notsri (Jesus of Nazareth) is a play within the story written by the Master and pulled from production by Soviet censors after its opening performance. (In a feat of authenticity unprecedented in modern Russian cinema, the Jerusalem scenes, which comprise roughly 10 minutes of the film, are performed in Aramaic and Latin.) Meanwhile, all the adventures across Moscow involving Woland and his entourage are presented as figments of the Master’s imagination as he slowly loses his mind under state persecution.

As Lockshin has argued in comments promoting the movie, Dolin says Bulgakov’s novel enjoys heightened relevance in contemporary Russia, and the new film makes menacing villains of NKVD executioners while presenting even more revolting characters in the Soviet elites whose conformity and hypocrisy enabled the Stalinist regime.

Dolin praises the decision to cast August Diehl as Woland, the mysterious foreigner whose visit to Moscow sets the plot rolling in the novel. Diehl’s Woland “is a real find,” Dolin writes. The German actor plays the character as “an infernally sarcastic gentleman in black” who resembles Satan “more than the thoughtful, sad wisemen from various Russian interpretations of the same character.”

A cartoonishly scary foreigner, complete with a spooky German accent, Woland turns out to be the creation of the writer’s wounded mind, his alter ego, writes Dolin. The censorship and persecution the character faces in the film are a “chilling reproduction” of mechanisms that resonate more in Putinist than Stalinist Russia, Dolin argues, highlighting some lines that wink boldly at modern-day realities, including nods to Crimea, oil production, and military parades.

Lockshin’s adaptation also features a fantastical version of Moscow that recalls the visionary designs of artists in the Higher Art and Technical Studios, which flourished in the 1920s before crumbling under Stalinism. In this universe, Moscow completed the Palace of the Soviets, altering the skyline in a delirious finale that depicts the city ablaze. This scene, in particular, has upset several state propagandists.

Dolin notes that Margarita is absent from the story for much of the film, but she reappears in the final act as a heroine on her own narrative arc. In the character’s scenes as a witch and then a queen, Lockshin’s intentions and the meaning of the novel’s title finally become clear, says Dolin: 

It’s not the imagination of the writer that transforms the grim reality but exclusively the emotion that is capable of elevating you to the heavens, of burning cities, and punishing or pardoning with the mere force of thought. In the end, Lockshin’s film is not about Satan, not about Moscow, not about Pilate, and not about totalitarianism, censorship, or creativity, but about love. It alone makes a person invisible and free.

[pierog]

after a bath, a play with her trainer’s child, and a kiss on the nose, laika was sent up to orbit in sputnik 2.

"Laika was quiet and charming ... I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live." -Vladimir Yazdovsky, medical scientist

her satellite transmitted for 7 days on the frequencies 20.005 MHz and 40.010 MHz. enclosed is the recording of Laika’s heartbeat before passing away from overheating. 

did she die for her country, for the progress of humanity and space exploration? some say she did. it made no difference to little Laika, floating in the great expanse of space above, peering down through the satellite’s single window, built just for her; the shaggiest, lonesomest, goodest girl in the world.

“Work with animals is a source of suffering to all of us. We treat them like babies who cannot speak. The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We shouldn't have done it ... We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.”  -Oleg Gazenko, leading scientist, and Laika’s trainer