#they're that one XKCD comic

[irregularjohnnywiggins]

Reading through my old Woman of Truth stuff, and by far the funniest joke is that for most of Steve's sections of the first episode, there's a lot of fuss being made about this top-of-the-line stealth jet, fresh from Ferris Aircraft, cost the US millions, potentially billions of dollars, full of advanced technology...

...And after Steve crashes it on Themyscira, in the High Council chambers, Io calls it 'horrifically primitive'. 'I mean, it still uses combustion engines, for Hestia's sake! Do they still not have anti-grav?'

[anistarrose]

[ID: an edited XKCD comic. One stick figure tells another: "Online accessibility is second nature to us disabled bloggers, so it's easy to forget that the average person probably only knows closed captioning and one or two trigger tags."

The second figure replies: "And IDs, of course." The first figure concurs: "Of course."

The caption reads: "Even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field." End ID.]

Why to write Image Descriptions / Compilation post for ID guides and resources / Guide to tagging for flashing and eyestrain (titles are clickable links)

note: were it not the meme format, I wouldn't actually use the phrase "second nature" here, because learning about accessibility (and unlearning ableist frameworks that don't prioritize accessibility) are still processes, not intuition, even for other disabled folks!

I'm disabled myself, yet I didn't join social media or fandom just automatically knowing these things — which means that no matter where you're starting from, you can learn something that makes a difference too!

[nekropsii]

Atomic Ask Bomb 3!!

We got a shorter one this time around! I hope everyone's evening is going well!

Content Warning: Long-ish, Discussions of Ableism + Queerphobia, Weird Cronus Moment™.

Same. I'd read a fanventure about that, I think.

Like, I don't personally believe WV would be allergic to being a mentor or something of a father figure, but I do have to wonder the level to which he was wigged out by the way that Dave and Karkat treat him, because Dave in particular imprints on him in a way that is... Kind of strange.

The later portions of Homestuck really baby WV. It's upsetting.

------

Easy. The actual things wrong with them.

A lot of the discourse surrounding them is fabricated, or has such poor priorities it might as well be fabricated. Most critical conversations about them surrounds things people just made up over the course of years of mythologizing their #Problematicness.

For Example: Most of the discourse surrounding why Horuss had problematic writing had to do with how he was "Bad Otherkin Representation", when the real issue was the fact that Hussie was conflating Being Otherkin with having a Dissociative Disorder, and in turn saying both of them are the exact same level of Fake And Gay for the exact same reason, because to Hussie they were the same thing. To this day, people get startled every time I point out that Horuss is canonically a System despite him bringing it up just as regularly as he does being Therian. Those are totally wack priorities.

------

...That's scary... I don't even have words...

------

LOL. The Lost Weeaboos was a Grade A bit. Thank you Aranea, very cool.

Honestly, I don't even count Cronus as a "facade character", because it's not like he's making any efforts to hide jack shit. It's been... Interesting, watching several people refer to "his facade" lately, when, like... What are they talking about, honestly? He's pretty bold-faced about his whole deal. This isn't really a Dave situation where you could be capable of falling for it when you're younger, because Cronus couldn't be doing a worse job at "hiding" how awful he is. He's not even trying, because he knows he can get away with it. What are the other Alphas gonna do? Leave?

Hope you're having a good time!! The Alpha Trolls may be a Trash Heap, but they are my Trash Heap.

------

There comes a point where it's almost comedic how unaware people are of it... Like, what do you mean you know he's a Horse Therian but not that he's a System? He literally calls himself the Host of a System and talks about Switching. IN THOSE TERMS. He's not even obfuscating it by using some esoteric Troll terminology, he is LITERALLY using the words "Host", "System", and "Switching".

It's painful. I know this is a moment befitting of an XKCD comic, but... Jeez. You'd think these things would both be on the same level of common knowledge, considering how they're traits that are directly related to each other and given equal amounts of screen time, but nope!

Unfortunately, it is a situation where this is relevant. Sad!

------

All characters will become AroSpec and/or ASpec with the help of my Beam Attack.

... Except for Cronus. It's just not funny when it's him. Due to The Themes. It's not fun to headcanon a character as any minority when a huge part of their character is that they pretend to be minorities for Pity Points to eventually cash in for Sex. Ew. Making him literally anything other than Just Cronus plays directly into so many vile Queer stereotypes it's insane. Those are stereotypes that have gotten people actually genuinely killed. Just... Ew. Gross.

------

[gauloiseblue]

Gauloiseblue's Bookmarks

A/N: Since there's no bookmark system like they had in AO3, I decide to make one on this site. Will update the list from time to time.

COD

Price

[The True Me] by @i-am-hungry-24-7 Useless by @syoddeye Lazy Saturday Mornings by @clementine-thedestroyer Price and Beauty Mark by @ohmygraves Growing older with john price. by @obsessivelullabies Growing older with john price; smut. by @obsessivelullabies Ex-husband price, but the “ex” lays on significantly blurred lines now. by @captainfern Ex Husband!Price by @moongreenlight (A/N: you have NO idea what this fic had done to me) The boys all collectively realize that you are the captain’s favourite by @dante-mightdie weird HC by @theycalledhimastar

Gaz

lavender skies by @yeyinde (A/N: Gaz girlie, please read this I'm begging-) I may love Kyle, but I can totally admit when he acts like a total weirdo (he doesn’t, he’s perfect). by @theycalledhimastar

König

Ex-Lover Konig with runaway reader by @diejager Dog Hybrid König by @comfortless Hades!Konig and Persephone!reader by @comfortless Aroura Borealis by @clementine-thedestroyer Underground Fighter!König X Rich!Reader by @melancholic-thing

Soap

Rugby player soap fucks you after a win by @vanderilnde Pushy ass cbf!johnny and benefit pay by @shotmrmiller Valentine Days with Soap by @killerpancakeburger cbf!johnny as the dog he is by @ghouljams

Ghost

soulmate au with ghost but it's the fucking opposite of rainbows and sunshine by @bi-writes

Poly/HC

Fancy (Vampire! Poly! 141 x Plus size! Fem! Reader) by @swordsandholly 141 80’s Arcade AU by @clementine-thedestroyer TF141 and "can I try your drink?" By @syoddeye (A/N: don't @ me) 141 when they need attention by @void-my-warranty TF141 when you gave him hickey when you're drunk by @gloomwitchwrites

The Arcana

Asra's Love by @bahrtofane Teen Asra and puppy love headcanons by @smoke-and-silver Trip adventures with Asra by @smoke-and-silver Arcana and Weddings (fanarts) by @bastart13

Random/Miscellaneous

A/N: I put all of the Ghost Band stuff here bc I'm not officially into the fandom, but they're so irresistible to read hnggg

THEN // if (then) FINAL PART (Ghoap Comic) Roach's puppy eyes Korangi pt. 1 Korangi pt .2 Korangi (sus) pt. 3 Korangi (even more sus) pt. 4 Ghoap food pt. 1 👍👍 Self-care (Ghoap short comic) Capt Price having a cheeky wank (audio) Barry Sloane thirst trap (maybe) Bare chested Barry- Barry ugly ass poems (i'm horny) Barry Sloane seducing clip ASMR Barry talking ASMR Barry (Price) pt. 2 The band Ghost wildin' Ghost band shenanigan: part 1 The Ghouls + Rut Season (HC) Swiss meets red velvet ‘you’ve got to press it on you.’ (Ghost Band HC) Nameless Ghoul NSFW headcanons Swiss relationship and NSFW headcanons .... yeah I'm normal I swear St. Vincent *heart eyes* Miyazaki's Retirement Declarations (chronologically) Hayao Miyazaki's "Inspirational" Quotes The Hand

Web Weave | Poetry

not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe] - Lyudmilla Ignatenko, the wife of deceased firefighter Vasily Ignatenko, Voices from Chernobyl, by Svetlana Alexeivich (transl. Keith Gessen) Robin Wood, “Psychoanalysis of Psycho” | Stoker (2013) dir. Park Chan-wook Stoker (2013) dir. Park Chan-wook and "The Lady of the House of Love" by Angela Carter This Is Me (Stoker 2013) Rice Paddies Home (What Is Home?) Whenever I see you, I remember AM I MAKING YOU FEEL SICK? // DEVOTION THAT EATS YOU ALIVE

[loriache]

Notes on the World Map: Melini

I'm kind of annoyed the complete World Bible doesn't have a version of the World Map with Melini filled in... unless it does and I missed it, but I literally bought it and looked at the relevant pages for this post! Anyway, I think this is the closest we have. I'm looking at this and -- Kahka Brud literally doesn't have a coast anymore. No wonder they're pissed!! Any industry involving the sea, trade, fishing, etc. is basically impossible now - you'd have to get to the coastline on the west side of the continent. That's probably miles!

Speaking of miles... how big is Melini?

This is where I got... really unwell. So first off, let's assume the official Dunmeshi World Map is a Mercator projection. I think the stage cartography in the Dunmeshi universe is at, it's going to be most important that maps are useful for marine navigation. So we can't just drop an approximate scale onto the grid and leave it at that; we have to work out where the equator is.

The way I've done that is via two places that seem like they have a close(ish) real world equivalent - in terms of climate and culture - Utaya and the Island of Wa (Toshiro's home). The Island of Wa is obviously Japan, and I've seen plausible arguments that Utaya is probably a climate/location similar to Nepal.

So, here's the (approximate) location and latitude of those places on a Mercator map of Earth:

If we arbitarily superimpose the two maps, asssuming they're the same size, we can draw a theoretical equator line that puts the two places at the same latitude, though on a different side of the equator. Putting them on the same side as Earth made the equator really low. I feel like that's ... unlikely, so we're going with this.

That puts Melini at a rough latitude of .. ~55? which would, using the same scale as the previous map, make two squares (at that latitude) about 600 miles. Very roughly calculating the size as given on the map based on that, that gives a width of (approximately) 250 miles and a length of 400, coming in at a bit less than 100,000 miles² due to the shape. Probably it's between the sizes of the UK and Aotearoa.

That really helps me visualise what Laios is working with here when I think about post-canon. Though I reckon what I've done here is "Just enough research to really annoy an expert". Sorry if you're that expert. I really don't know much about cartography <3 It's like that xkcd comic:

On distances, as someone who lives in the UK; with a car, you can get almost anywhere in a day if you're prepared to drive until late. But they don't have cars, so getting from one end to the other would take multiple days of travel. It'd take about 7 days to walk the approx "length", 400~ miles (from the top of Scotland to Liverpool) (according to Google Maps) and 2 days cycling, so probably 3-5 days with horses, depending on how you pushed them. That'd vary a bit depending on terrain, of course.

[lingthusiasm]

Lingthusiasm Episode 87: If I were an irrealis episode

Language lets us talk about things that aren't, strictly speaking, entirely real. Sometimes that's an imaginative object (is a toy sword a real sword? how about Excalibur?). Other times, it's a hypothetical situation (such as "if it rains, we'll cancel the picnic" - but neither the picnic nor the rain have happened yet. And they might never happen. But also they might!). Languages have lots of different ways of talking about different kinds of speculative events, and together they're called the irrealis.

In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about some of our favourite examples under the irrealis umbrella. We talk about various things that we can mean by "reality", such as how existing fictional concepts, like goblins playing Macbeth, differ from newly-constructed fictions, like our new creature the Frenumblinger. We also talk about hypothetical statements using "if" (including the delightfully-named "biscuit conditionals), and using the "if I were a rich man" (Fiddler on the Roof) to "if I was a rich girl" (Gwen Stefani) continuum to track the evolution of the English subjunctive. Finally, a few of our favourite additional types of irrealis categories: the hortative, used to urge or exhort (let's go!), the optative, to express wishes and hopes (if only...), the dubitative, for when you doubt something, and the desiderative (I wish...).

Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice or read the transcript here.

Announcements:

Thank you to everyone who shared Lingthusiasm with a friend or on social media for our seventh anniversary! It was great to see what you love about Lingthusiasm and which episodes you chose to share. We hope you enjoyed the warm fuzzies!

In this month’s bonus episode, Gretchen gets enthusiastic about swearing (including rude gestures) in fiction with science fiction and fantasy authors Jo Walton and Ada Palmer, authors of the Thessaly books and Terra Ignota series, both super interesting series we've ling-nerded out about before on the show. We talk about invented swear words like "frak" and "frell", sweary lexical gaps (why don't we swear with "toe jam!"), and interpreting the nuances of regional swear words like "bloody" in fiction.

Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 80+ other bonus episodes! You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds.

Here are the links mentioned in the episode:

'Irrealis' entry on Wikipedia

'How do you get someone to care about Shakespeare? Two words: Goblin Macbeth' on CBC

xkcd comic 'Conditionals'

'Pedantic about biscuit conditionals' post on Language Log

'The pragmatics of biscuit conditionals' by Michael Franke

Lingthusiasm episode 'This time it gets tense - The grammar of time'

'Realis and Irrealis: Forms and concepts of the grammaticalisation of reality' by Jennifer R. Elliott

'If all the raindrops' on YouTube

'If I Were a Rich Man (song)' entry on Wikipedia

'Rich Girl (Gwen Stefani song)' entry on Wikipedia

'Louchie Lou & Michie One' entry on Wikipedia

'Louchie Lou & Michie One - Rich Girl' on YouTube

'Semi-Toned - Rich Girl (acapella)' on YouTube

'Subjunctive mood' entry on Wikipedia

'Céline Dion - Pour que tu m'aimes encore' on YouTube

WALS entry for 'Feature 73A: The Optative'

Lingthusiasm bonus episode 'How we make Lingthusiasm transcripts - Interview with Sarah Dopierala'

Lingthusiasm episode 'Listen to the imperatives episode'

'Dubitative' entry on Wikipedia

'A grammatical overview of Yolmo (Tibeto-Burman)' entry on WikiJournal of Humanities

You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening.

To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.

You can help keep Lingthusiasm ad-free, get access to bonus content, and more perks by supporting us on Patreon.

Lingthusiasm is on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, and Tumblr. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com

Gretchen is on Bluesky as @GretchenMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic.

Lauren is on Bluesky as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins, and our editorial assistant is Jon Kruk. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.

This episode of Lingthusiasm is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license (CC 4.0 BY-NC-SA).

[docholligay]

OKAY! You asked for it ahah.

So this is, as always, a combo of what I think they actually smell like, and then I go looking for those notes, and go by vibes. I have these in mind for all my Blorbot Prime, and most second tier characters as well. I've smelled every one of the perfumes I've put on these ladies, with the exception of one, which will be pretty obvious why when I talk about it.

Minako. So I always think of her as smelling like peaches, which is rough in the perfume world, because, most perfume is made of of what's called absolutes, think of these as like, the building blocks of a perfume, and there is no such thing as a peach absolute. So, I love rose, and there is more than one rose absolute, so this is pretty easy. Peach, you mostly have to go off something that suggests peach to your nose. For a long time I had her in Bitter Peach by Tom Ford, but a couple months ago I smelled:

Oh Ma Biche by Lolita Lempicka and this is the one. It invokes the scent of a bellini, which is perfect because it pulls in that peachiness without being oversweet, because it doesn't have vanilla in the structure of it. It has that vaguely intoxicating, light quality, so it smells more of like what I think of when I think of Mina, that juicy sweetness but it's edged with something you can't quite pin down (and she likes it that way)

Michiru. I will never smell Michiru's perfume because we all know she has a house in paris mix it for her custom. This is a thing that absolutely exists, if you have a great deal of money. I put her in rose and white florals (like jasmine) with a classic and old school musk and vetiver base, maybe with a light dosing of wine lees. I think it would smell very classic or old, depending on your point of view. Don't get me wrong, I do want this perfume. There's two or three I've layered to get an IDEA of it, but I've never found one perfume I think made it up.

Rei as we all know, is in actuality too fucking cheap to buy perfume, and if she wears any at all, it's a dupe, but in my world that's not any fun, so let's pick out what she likes enough to have someone buy her. I see deep, commanding notes for her, I actually think she would wear ~Men's perfume~* some of the time especially when she was convinced she needed to be a Boardroom Broad and I don't think Rei is immune to some fucked up ideas about power and gender ANYWAY. For most times:

Ebene Fume by Tom Ford. I think this choice is a little boring (full disclosure: I own a decant of this perfume and really do love it) in that it's Tom fucking Ford and everyone has heard of it, but I think I'm going a bit xkcd comic on that one, if you know what I mean. But it's smoky and deep and powerful, it's like a men's perfume with softer edge to it. It's also a great night perfume, which is when I think she would mostly wear it, and it doesn't have any sweetness to it, really.

Haruka. Going outside the idea of Michiru having a perfume made for her, which I believe she would, let's talk about what I think she would buy for herself (and also a defense of the perfume I'm about to mention)

Dior Sauvage. This one is so common that even non-perfume people have heard of it. Do you know why? It smells good on almost fucking everyone. There's so much snooty ass disdain for this perfume in the weird world of perfume lovers, but honestly? This and Versace Eros are the two I recommend for folks wanting a masc-leaning perfume. (I also like to wear it, especially when I'm hyperfemme) It just smells good on people. It is so well crafted that it is mass appealing. Whenever we have men going, "What perfume can I buy that women love" they're so annoyed when I say "Dior Sauvage" but whenever I crack out the suit and wear this with it, a woman always asks me what my cologne** is. Haruka would smell amazing in it, and she would get compliments from women, and that would reineforce the behavior.

OKAY WELL SORRY ABOUT ALL THAT

*all perfume is gender neutral if you're not a little bitch about it. Women wearing men's perfume is not super duper uncommon, but men should really throw on a floral sometimes, but of course going toward masculinity is understandable, going toward femininity is weak blah blah blah you're all so fucking boring.

**Cologne is not just "men's perfume" it's a whole other category this post is long enough and I've spent too much time on it already and you are tired of reading it but please know this

[formerheroeswhoquittoolate]

yeah hey damian canonically draws and I'm willing to bet money that has-read-every-book-in-the-manor jason writes, at least for himself/for fun.

so I've entered into my personal canon that occasionally they write little comic strips together.

they're just strips, four panels of a joke (jason is introducing damian to things like calvin and hobbes and foxtrot and tim has joined in with some xkcd and strange planet) but they have fun with it. sometimes they're lightly poking fun at one of their siblings or bruce or the justice league, sometimes they're inside jokes between the two of them.

they kept it quiet, but by now, each of their siblings has one of their strips, carefully tucked away in a drawer or pinned to a bulletin board or, in bruce's case, in a small frame on his desk at wayne enterprises.

[dysaniadisorder]

[ID: An edit of the xkcd expert comic, showing two stick figures talking to each other. Person one says; "Adventure Time lore is second nature to us fans, so it's easy to forget that the average person probably only knows Abraham Lincoln rules Mars, and Finn's patricidal revenge phantom limb syndrome." Person two says; "And Jake birth alien Mpreg, of course." Person one replies; "Of course." The caption says; "Even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts always overestimate the average persons familiarity with their field." end ID]

i love venture time

[whining-ylthin]

"Thousand Sons are so arrogant"

I mean

They're just academics-but-fascist-supersoldiers. Academic culture is 100% decent people next to educated fools and the biggest assholes you've met, and even those nice people can be a little stuck up their own ass and obsessed with titles because they operate in a strongly hierarchic structure that is theoretically based on knowledge and merit but can often be gamed through exploitation and favoritism or warped by broader political influence, and they're simultaneously expected to do research, fight snake oil salesmen and educate people on a shoestring budget. Cross it over with the esoteric nature of psykery and Warp study, the high-risk nature of 40K's majicks, the besieged fortress mentality (where constant backlash and hostility towards psykers causes TSons to dig in and double down, ignoring potentially valid concerns out of overblown pride, but also fear that they'll be weaponized against them) and Imperium's fascist obsession with rule of power, and you get an entire army of arrogant scholars flexing their physical and psychic biceps at each other while also desperately trying not to shit themselves from fear of failure and what it entails.

Also, expertise in a field fucks up your perception of non-experts, see also: that one XKCD comic about geologists.

Not defending TSons over this BTW, they can be absolutely obnoxious or stupid, but... yeah, I get them. I get where it comes from. I got that MSc and called it quits. I've seen some petty drama and toxic behavior at my uni. I've seen the PhD course pay. I was the gifted child and uni student with scholarship.

I'm still picking up the pieces.

[satanfemme]

me I guess

[ID: the xkcd comic "average familiarity" meme. in it, two stick figures are talking to each other. the first says, "goth culture is second nature to us goths, so it's easy to forget that the average person probably only knows bloodletting (the vampire song) and one or two bauhaus songs." the second figure says, "and that goth is a music-based subculture of course." the first says, "of course." the comic's caption reads, "even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field." End ID]

[vimbry]

that one xkcd comic about experts overestimating people's knowledge really rings true here. I was compiling that list like, nah, some of these won't get votes. they're too specific, or on the nose, or something. people Know a tmbg song when they see it.

[skysometric]

What Your Favorite Cheese Says About You

with apologies to the classic xkcd comic, What Your Favorite Map Projection Says About You

mild cheddar: you're not really into cheese.

american: all cheeses are good, how could you pick just one? you settled on american because it reminds you of the comfy grilled cheese sandwiches of your childhood. you still sleep with stuffed animals. cringe is dead, live free.

shredded mozzarella: you know just enough about cheese to know that you like white cheeses better than yellow cheeses. you've always wanted to try more, but you've never really had the opportunity. maybe because all the other cheeses are so expensive. maybe because your parents don't get the other cheeses. (because they're all so expensive.)

swiss: swiss cheese from the store is just okay, but you're still chasing the high of that one time you had authentic swiss gruyere. you frequently remind all your high school buddies of that one time you scored the winning kick. these are surely unrelated.

sharp cheddar: you like pairing things, which is why you get deep into shipping and fanfictions (not a hard read, considering you're reading this on tumblr dot com). you make charcuterie boards for every holiday and birthday that you possibly can.

pepper jack: variety is the spice of life, which is why you always get pepper jack for that extra kick. you add more seasoning to all of your takeout because it tastes better that way. one time you stole a candy bar just to feel something.

gouda: you are SO sick of all the puns.

muenster: fuck that guy who likes american, you know how to make a REAL grilled cheese. you tell other drivers on the road how they should be driving. you got into king gizz before they were cool.

provolone: you have a mountain of sandwich ingredients at home that you use to make mile-high sandwiches for lunch. you are rarely hungry for dinner, but you are very excited about tomorrow's sandwich.

fresh mozzarella: your favorite pizza is margherita style, and you only get pizza from places that are authentic enough to serve it. you got very mad at the other mozzarella listing because clearly the author hasn't tried REAL mozzarella. don't worry, you can quit clutching your mozzarella pearls now.

brie: you treat cheese like others treat chocolate – savoring the richness of every bite as it melts in your mouth. you have a collection of antique china that you don't ever use because that would make it lose its value.

parmesan: you hate that everyone thinks of those canisters of grated cheese when they think of parmesan. you wish you could show everyone what real parmesan tastes like, but you can barely afford it yourself. you should go start that restaraunt of yours already.

velveeta: is something wrong with you?

[river-taxbird]

I've seen a lot of people are shocked about current events and are becoming aware of the extent of modern conflicts and the human rights abuses that go along with them.

I've also seen other people making snide comments like "How are you only finding out about this now?" And I'm reminded of this XKCD comic.

This is one of the most prominent and high profile examples of western imperialism since the popularization of social media. For everyone to know something by the time they're 30, tens of thousands of people need to find out about it for the first time every day. Cut people some slack even though they found out later than you did, okay?

[spiderh0rse]

stark's mind notes part 5, e21-25

e21

reads a bunch of papers on psychology

feels like his constant stream of detours has a groundhog day vibe to it

may. may think he is actually in a time loop

thinks MAYBE the soldiers will have a map. They don't.

so excited at some backpacks. Might have food or maps! They do not.

makes a complicated quantum mechanics reference and acts like it's everyday knowledge. Where's that one xkcd comic

recognizes that the analogy was a little much

kind of forgot the soldiers were trained to kill because of how bad they are at it

doesn't know where he's going with his trains of thought or Anything but thinks it'll keep him sane to talk about random things

calls an elevator a lift....

"the thing for the thing that uses the thing"

familiar with the fantastic four

proclaims that he's very ditzy right now.

shoots someone without being entirely sure if they're a marine or not.

compares himself to greedo star wars. Complains that this makes him the villain, then walks over his part in the rescas, and decides it's fitting aside from his attempt at redeeming himself

GUNK on his SUIT (misc. fluid) (hates it)

thinks he'd throw up if he had to float in the air again

baffled at his first instinct with building is to use alien corpses and not barrels, with how he hates the gunk. Concludes he's unhinged at the moment.

"powerful... power!"

his HEV suit is not a faraday cage

jokes around about roleplaying as maintenance/pest control

makes a cowboy movie cliche reference

whispers to himself when sneaking around some marines. Diagetic? Is he actually talking? The eternal question.

e22

pretty sure the military has a nuclear bomb on hand and that Would be a worse outcome

decides he can attack from a blind spot and that'll make killing however many HECU there are will be easier

gets louder once he's below them

plotting so hard about peak murder efficiency

delighted at his murder efficiency

not sure why Black Mesa leaves barrels lying around

sending the marines explosives in the elevator

reasons that the aliens are confined to Black Mesa as otherwise the military would be in higher priority targets

elevator plot failed :(

"hey it's me gordon freeman" he says to the marines he's about to kill

still SO rude to the marines

OH I FORGOT HE SAID THIS. admits outright if it weren't for the regular distractions and looming threat the military provided, it's very likely he would've killed himself a while ago

now equates his reason for living with saving other lives

finds the "free man" title tacky

yells at the guard insisting Stark leave him behind. Wants to save his life so badly

not happy to give in to that request.

too stubborn to stop fighting

being close to the flamethrower output is painful

a bit dizzy after killing the gargantuan. Collapses for a moment

does outright say "yeah" when asked if he's Freeman

actually his Freeman impression here is decent other than referring some guard to the dying one

clutching onto the rocket desperately as a source of hope

e23

thinks string theory is impossible to rationalize

has only been to sectors A, C and D.

Mumbles discourteous things about Black Mesa under his breath

claims he can deal with his ambitions being crushed

thinks the military probably knows Black Mesa's layout better than he does right now

familiar with game theory

seems to believe in Zero Sum, which posits that all benefit creates an equal loss somewhere else. In essence, there is a finite amount of good fortune to go around that can never be added to, only redistributed

the railcart runs at 20kph

faux-flippant about a button doing jack shit to help his situation

does not want to know what it's like to be a battery

knows where circuit breakers are meant to go

would rather not swim through corpses. Given reason: it's unhygienic

"black mesa, where the automatic functions are fine, but the malfunctions are finer"

starting to enjoy shooting things. Compares it to taking a nice drive.

used to be GREAT at track and field. Adequate at shot put.

reclaims a sense of dignity by killing a vortigaunt

only now questioning why the aliens are here

wishes he had someone who knew their way around

hopes Dr. Vance is doing alright. Thinks Dr. Kleiner can handle himself. Says this in a kind of hesitant way.

puzzles out what killed some marine and then berates himself for doing that

NOT a chess player

e24

thinks chess as a metaphor for military strategy is a bit stupid

considers himself stupidly lucky

upside to having an alien infected area: none! but amends that. They aren't actively trying to stop him from firing the rocket and attack the military

could leave some marine behind but reasons that he needs to kill the guy before said guy can kill him, even when he's got a safe distance and multiple corners

decides he'll kill every marine he sees from now on.

would accept the marines if one of them tried to help him now, but he'd resent them anyways.

cannot push a crate suspended in midair by a chain. It doesn't Budge.

worried about an ambush in a seemingly safe location

compliments some headcrabs for killing a marine in an ambush. "Super sneaky" makes a return

says there's no use crying over spilled blood

familiar with Alien

"score one for mindless lever-pulling"

paranoid now! He says. He has blatantly been paranoid for ages

type zero? Not sure what he means with this classification system.

blows up some soldiers thinking they were something else. Doesn't mind.

rapidly growing fond of his railcart

plans briefly to let infighting thin the horde, then decides that nah he'll do it himself

immediately takes a sonic blast to the ears

alien kids these days...

sees some corpses, apologizes to them, tells them he's going to sit with them for a minute. Presumably keeps looking at them while he's down there

e25

Desc: he's having issues keeping up with things around him

doesn't know why he's talking to a dead body

considers himself in debt to the entire world. Anything less than fixing literally everything is treason in his mind

in so much pain. May be internally bleeding

appreciates the suit. It's still good as new, or lightly used.

lamarkian evolution,, ah i guess it's evolution to resist existing threats to survival? Stark talks like it's evolving immunity to bullets

jokes about a corpse and then immediately rolls it back, saying that history would not look kindly upon his doing that. babygirl no one is watching you

the military is playing music over the VOX.

Stark questions if it's real or not. "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" btw. He suspects they're trying something

his arms are shaky and a tad weak

surprised at the music over the VOX right now. It doesn't sound like something the military would like

wishes he could smoke right now

bothered by the idea of bugs on his suit. INCREDIBLY bothered

"and I'm a pacifist" uh bud "or at least a passive aggressive domestic terrorist who knows he has to protect himself with lethal force" these are DIFFERENT THINGS pal and you've never struck me as a pacifist

doesn't want to eat from the rail line food stop. Knows he SHOULD but just. Doesn't.

tonal whiplash of triumphant swell of music at the time he finds a body confuses him badly

familiar with the twilight zone

hesitates to enter the woman's washroom

can barely yell right now

doesn't want companions right now

willy wonka song,, imagination or w/e it was called

checks a locker for CDs of music he likes

he doesn't remember names of his coworkers anymore unless they were close to him or assholes

not able to deal with shotgun recoil right now

hates how roundabout navigating Black Mesa is

needs to rest, but refuses to. He has to launch the rocket. Hes running entirely on adrenaline

knows once he reaches the point where his body gives out on him, all the ceaseless violence won't stop

questions his sanity

he's clearly making some kind of reference here but i don't get it

[classicslesbianopinions]

actually this might also be a good time for this really good xkcd comic

[image description: a two-panel xkcd comic.

the first panel contains two text boxes. the first reads, "I try not to make fun of people for admitting they don't know things." the second reads, "Because for each thing 'everyone knows' by the time they're adults, every day there are, on average, 10,000 people in the US hearing about it for the first time." below this is the following text:

Fraction who have heard of it at birth = 0%.

Fraction who have heard of it by 30 [wiggly equal sign, to indicate estimation] 100%.

US birth rate [wiggly equal sign] 4,000,000/year.

Number hearing about it for the first time [wiggly equal sign] 10,000/day.

the second panel contains one text box. it reads, "If I make fun of people, I train them not to tell me when they have these moments. And I miss out on the fun."

below this are two stick figures. they are having the following conversation:

Person 1: "Diet Coke and Mentos thing"? What's that?

Person 2: Oh, man! Come on, we're going to the grocery store.

Person 1: Why?

Person 2: You're one of today's lucky 10,000.

end image description.]