#unlikely they'll be in the end product

[pemokiandkenacia]

Leures Redesigns!!

[mochinomnoms]

Do you ever think about eel cuddles? I feel like there are times when they want to snuggle and be in their eel forms while doing it so it's more comfortable for them. I kinda picture being in a big tub with one, their shrimpy is either nakey or wearing a bathing suit and just chilling in the bath with music playing and talking to them. Maybe you get to mess around with their fins or touch their cool claws all the while getting covered in their slimy love.

I do, I think about it so much and I am a sucker for non-sexual intimacy!!!! As much as I like to think about spicy thoughts with the tweels, there's something so domestic about sharing a bath with your partner, scratching and massaging their scalp and carefully rinsing out the shampoo so that it doesn't get in their eyes. It's easier to scrub your back when you have someone else there to do it for you. Yes, it's not the only time they'll see you naked, but there's something extra vulnerable about seeing all the moles, stretchmarks, and scars on your skin under a warm bathroom light.

Floyd isn't a big fan of bubble baths or using things like bath bombs, surprisingly! The idea of foaming bubbles and fizzy colors is cool at first, but all the smells and colors can overstimulate him when he's trying to relax. If he's trying to relax with his shrimpy, he actually prefers to use products with scents that remind him of home. Allow me to flex my ex-Lush employee knowledge, but he likes products that smell a lot more fresh, salty, and even citrusy! Plus, it makes you smell a lot more like him in the end. Floyd will rub his soap into your skin, pressing his forehead into the back of your neck to revel in the contact. For added measure, he'll rub his face, hands, and tail into you so that you'll be all slick and slimy just like him! He'll even do you the favor of massaging it into your skin if you throw a fit about feeling too wet. By the end, you'll have such smooth, soft skin that Vil is going to wonder if Azul decided to start selling his serum to the public.

Jade is just a tad bit more adventurous, if adventurous means picking all the woodsy, floral, and earthy scented bath products he can get his hands on. His favorite scents are rosemary and chamomile, which sounds weird at first but are actually quite pleasant. Jade will get you your very own shampoo, conditioner, and bath products suited for your hair and skin. He will only keep them in his bathroom, though. He slowly but surely gets you accustomed to his products, lush bathroom, and the soothing scrap from his nails that he repeatedly assured you wouldn't hurt. He'll use his claws to gently trace shapes and his name into your skin as he compares how different your skin's texture is compare to him. He's marveling how your fingertips prune up and your nails get softer, unlike his own hands which stay firm, slick and sharp. You're gonna get so used to Jade taking care of you in the bath that you're gonna be dragging yourself every other evening to wash up with Jade to take care of you. And care he does, for your his shrimp as well!

As a the shrimp to an eel, your their symbiote and they'll also expect you to clean them up too. Easier said than done when they're covered in a layer of mucus that sticks to your fingers and makes it hard to grab a hold of their squirming tail (they move it on purpose cause they think your furrowed brows and pout is funny). You can get them to settle down once you manage to trace the ridges of their fins, a particularly sensitive spot on their body that's the equivalent of tracing nails along your spine, soft and delightful shivers will make them chirp and click as you draw shapes and place kisses. It's a sight that the big bad scary eels reserve just for your eyes. Softness in the sea is reserved for only their mate, after all.

[furiousgoldfish]

If you're often wondering why do abusers do this to kids, and why they don't change their behaviour even when it's pointed out, I have a few insights to share.

I believe abuse is an easy way for people to get out of parenting their own kids, while still getting credit as if they're doing it. And even more, they get special privileges and resources that normal parents wouldn't try to get, because the price of them is too high for the children to pay.

For instance, in order to take care of a child, you have to deal with their development needs; meaning you need to be educated enough about human development to know why the child is acting the way they do, you need to know if they need guidance, support, boundaries, stability, schedules, or entertainment, fun, play-time, attention, comforting, more resources, more interaction. You also need to deal with their random behaviours, like children will sometimes get loud and careless, break stuff, cause damage, turn against you, get sick, get into bad moods, get sulky, throw tantrums, get stuck in bad groups of people or be predated upon, have trouble at school, wander off, develop mental illness, and as a parent, you are expected and required to be there for all of that, on top of regularly caring that they're well-fed, bathed, that they have fitting and functional clothing, that they're well socialized, and that their living condition is clean and functional enough for them to be happy and safe.

Now, if you're an abuser, and your child is struggling or giving you any of the random behaviours that annoy you, and you lash out at them, tell them nobody is ever going to love them, threaten to 'give them a reason to cry', yell at them until they get frozen in shock and pain, they're not going to come to you next time for help. In fact, it's unlikely they'll feel safe around you to exhibit half of their normal behaviour, instead they'll be sheepish and too scared they'll accidentally annoy you, so you won't have to hear about their day, their bad moods, their worries, their loudness, them making any trouble for you; in fact, your mental energy will be yours only and you will effectively not have to emotionally raise a child anymore, it will be just another human who is too scared of you to ask you to fulfill any of your parental duties.

What about when your child is sick? You know you have to care for your sick child. Except, you're an abuser, so to you this is a drain on your energy and you'd rather not have to deal with it, because a child to you is not a real person but an object that is in your way. So, you yell at your child that they got sick on purpose because they hate you, you tell them it because they did 'x' and 'y' (which they maybe did because you failed to watch out for them) and inform them that you will not be taking them to the hospital. Now your child will not expect any care while they're sick, and in fact, they'll be too scared to even come to you next time they're sick. Again, you got out of childcare and have all of your energy for yourself, at the expense of your child's health.

If you continually call your child a financial burden, ask them when they're going to pay rent, force them to work in order to deserve to eat and sleep at your house, complain about how 'money doesn't grow on trees', then your child will be too scared and ashamed to confess when their things are broken, clothes no longer fitting or torn, their shoes too small or breaking apart, their hygiene products at their end, or for anything they might like or want from the store. Now your child will try to make ends meet on their own, and you can financially save up and buy yourself what you like, and then buy the kid something when it's convenient for you, maybe for like a birthday present. Maybe at this point you are starting to see that if your child runs around looking very rugged, people are going to notice the visible lack of care, so you either make sure the kid does have some new-looking clothes, or, you tell the kid explicitly what they're allowed to wear outside, to not bring shame on you and the entire family, once again putting the responsibility on the child to look 'cared for', while you do almost absolutely nothing to make it a reality.

Now you're having a child who is, out of deep-seated fear of you, acting politely and socialized in company, giving you ever chance to pretend that you care for them daily, while you're effectively living as if you didn't have a child at all. But maybe that's not enough for you. Maybe, you also want to use that child to earn money as well; after all, they're scared of you and will do as you say. You can put them up to any kind of labour and call it 'chores', and tell them you're just 'teaching them work habits', while they're doing your part of household chores, heavy physical labour, maybe even your job, if they're good at it.

But maybe this is not the area where you need assistance, but you're looking for a free, non-judgmental therapist who will be on your side completely and never dare to call you out or confront you - and voila, this child is so desperate to make any sort of connection to you, they'll carefully listen to all of your woes and trauma, even when it's deeply inappropriate for them to hear it, and they'll of course, be on your side as you're the only person in the story they care about, so you can cry to them as much as you want and even encourage them to fix you, to run around looking for ways to cheer you up, make your life easier to you, influence other people to give you what you want. And if they ever dare to stand up to you or defy you, you can just snap at them and call them something that makes their blood freeze in shock and they'll back down and become even more obedient.

Neat, isn't it? Not only you don't need to parent this child anymore, but you can draw any kind of benefit out of them, groom them into any kind of behaviour, extract physical and emotional labour from them, take their anger out of them, control their life so it benefits you and not them, all while convincing them it's their duty to give it to you.

As a result, you will be untouched by the chore of parenting, and your child will grow into a terrified, deeply insecure, always wondering why they're not enough, never feeling good enough, neglected but not aware of it, hyper-independent, ashamed, desperate, unloved, depressed, traumatized, engulfed by grief and loneliness, never understanding why their own parent didn't want them, care-deprived adult. Because it's all that effort, all that responding to child's needs, all that attention and care and warmth and energy put into a child, that is necessary for them to have proof that they're a worthwhile human being, that they're not only alive to be filled with emptiness and serve others.

But that's also why the abusive parents will never stop what they're doing. The benefits they get by abuse far outweigh the cost (the cost being the well being of their child, to them cost is zero), so they will not suddenly become willing to do the job of parenting, after they've spent so much time successfully avoiding it, and only put the energy into gaslighting the child into believing this is normal.

This is also why they put so much effort into making the child dependent on them, and sabotaging the potential escape - they're benefiting from having that child around, they're actively extracting what ever they want from this young person that they barely have to cover the living cost for, who doesn't know or understand how many of their human rights are being violated. There's truly no easier way to isolate, trap, groom, brainwash and then control a person.

[anxiety-banana]

star wars things that make me smaddy (sad/mad/happy):

(subtle ahsoka spoilers ahead)

-thinking about lil baby ahsoka falling asleep in plo's arms when she was just a tiny bean

-ezra knowing his parents before they died (unlike half of the chosen one tragedies out there)

-kanan not being around to raise jacen, but he still got to raise ezra and sabine

-ahsoka and sabine's complicated relationship and the fact that they keep coming back to each other because they know. they know they love each other and they know they work best together and they know that in the end they'll always return

-anakin's tiny little hands taking apart and putting back together every appliance obi-wan has

-force ghost anakin watching ahsoka live her life

-force ghost anakin being a proud dad to ahsoka when she takes sabine on as an apprentice and talking to mando and every little thing she does the same as she did when she was a teenager

-seeing little live action ahsoka mannerisms and phrases that just hit you as absolutely perfect ahsoka

-obi-wan getting to find comfort in someone like him; satine seeing this too-smart jedi and going "he's mine"

-watching hera interact with her son

-sabine's little loth cat

-sabine living in ezra's tower

-an ACTUAL TEENAGER PLAYING TEENAGE AHSOKA i'm proud of the casting director

-live action clone wars ahsoka and her baby face

-live action cw ahsoka's voice

-the bulky design of star wars mechanics because that's how it was imagined in the 70's that never changed even though modern technology has progressed

-a room full of force sensitive younglings making their toys float and the creche master having to stop them from "accidentally" throwing them at others

-jacen and chopper's obvious attachment like that droid took one look at the tiny child of mother and decided he had to become the best babysitter in the galaxy

-star wars as a franchise surviving and thriving and growing into such an enormous fanbase with people in production who actually love the characters and love what they're doing

-seventy year olds who watched a new hope when it came out being able to connect with their grandchildren over luke skywalker

-the brotherly affection between all the clones

-the thought of ahsoka learning some jawaese and anakin learning some togruti and them both learning mando'a and UGH they just love each other and they want to be apart of each others' cultures

-ahsoka always sparring with rex and winning for the first time and just absolutely losing her crap

-rex is just so proud

-ahsoka and cody bonding because they're the same rank and they don't feel like they have to perform for each other

-cody stepping back and letting rex become her ori'vod but he was prepared for her. he loves her and she doesn't know it. he always loved her, even if it was first just the thought of her.

-when they get to know each other ahsoka realizes cody is more reserved, but is just as crazy as her own legion and she just feels so at home with him

-ahsoka expresses her anger to anakin, because he understands, but then he reminds her that anger comes from a place of pain and hurt and sadness and she just absolutely loses it because she's so tired

i feel better now thank you for listening have a good day <3

[punsmaster69]

25/DEC/20XX

wooooooooooooooo.

that day.

the one.

the twenty fifth.

the holiday.

if i list what everyone got from everyone, i'll be here all night, so just the most notable stuff.

got some new books. and socks. and a giant blanket. and a sweater.

i'm feeling very cozy.

frisk shrieked when they got one of those rock excavation kits from my bro.

(little known fact: frisk has an innate fascination with rocks.)

asgore gifted them an art kit.

alphys got them a mini salt lamp. they immediately licked it.

i got 'em a tungsten cube.

"Why are you so excited over a hunk of metal?"

"It's not a 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘬, it's a 𝘤𝘶𝘣𝘦."

"It's a hunk of metal."

"I'm gonna 'hunk' this at your face in a second."

"Do you WANT to kill me?!"

"No. But stop calling it a hunk of metal. It's a tungsten cube."

"Why do you care, anyway? It's MY cube, not yours."

"It's boring."

"Not to me."

"You underestimate my ability to find entertainment in shiny objects."

"Whatever. Suit yourself."

a lot of us had similar ideas, because flowey got a decent amount of (mostly dinosaur related) brick sets.

it's hard not to notice the pieces constantly strewn about flowey's half of their room.

walking over there's like a spike trap.

might be purposeful.

tori also got him some simulator game. he apparently already had the others in the series, so it makes sense.

papyrus has been using the same pots and pans for ages.

they're a bit charred and dented in places.

so, paps got gifted new cookware.

undyne got him utensils, and alphys got the pots.

tori gave him new oven mitts that don't have holes in them, unlike the previous pair.

i got him a giant puzzle cube. it's got so many rows.

it'll take him forever to solve.

he seems excited.

mettaton got him a robe, because apparently paps been admiring his. they match now.

got asgore some new teacups.

his current ones work fine, but didn't have many ideas outside of that. besides, when have extras hurt anyone?

undyne gifted him a book on slang and how to use it.

alphys' face dropped when she saw it.

"have fun with that."

(some kind of disgruntled lizard sound.)

alphys was ecstatic about receiving a manga she's wanted for ages from undyne.

tori got her some t-shirts. the one alphys liked the most is printed with a ramen brand.

undyne was gifted another giant foam sword.

that was the most exciting one for her.

they've been into collecting these specific stuffed animal things lately, so i got alphys and undyne matching ones.

mettaton had a similar gift, but luckily we didn't end up on the exact same stuffed animal.

something i'll probably regret was getting mtt a tub of glitter.

i know he likes the stuff, but i'm realizing now how this is probably ending.

already preparing to have glitter stuck to me every time he's in the vicinity.

...so not much will change, actually.

papyrus gave him a pillow custom-altered to have mettaton's branding on it.

giving mtt an mtt themed item...

he loved it. suggested that paps could help design products with him at some point.

alphys' gift was apparently done earlier, as it was an adjustment that enabled him to sign things without having to worry about carrying pens.

because his finger turns into the pen. kinda neat, honestly.

napstablook's headphone cord was looking a bit rough, so that's what i got them.

simple, but they smiled.

must not have been too bad a choice.

mettaton gifted tickets to a live band. they'll go together at some point.

me and tori, being old nerdy bookworms, exchanged exactly that: books.

frisk gave tori a cutesy handmade card, signed "by frisk and flowey but mostly frisk" on the back.

asgore gave her a necklace.

she stared at it and flatly thanked him before tucking it into her purse.

undyne gave a pie tin. self-explanatory.

probably exactly as expected, grillby was gotten a lot of various kitchenwares.

we have a lot of cooks in our friend group, i realize.

anyway, he was fond of the sturdy glass mugs i picked out for him.

that's the notable stuff gift-wise.

as for stockings, i went with chocolate bars for the other adults.

plain, simple, don't know anyone who doesn't like it.

safe bet, y'know?

got frisk a bag of those fake rock chocolates. the ones that look exactly like real rocks. they always talk about wanting to eat certain rocks; figured this would be a better alternative to shattering their teeth on real ones.

gave flowey a bag of fake coal.

"for being a butthead this year."

"Jokes on you, I'll gladly take this. And I'm STILL being the same next year!"

"didn't expect any different."

"besides, that's why you got coal last year too."

"Does it even count if it's chocolate coal? Not much of a punishment."

"it's the idea."

"The idea?"

"that you're eating rocks."

"Frisk is the one eating the rocks."

"you want real coal next year?"

"No!"

"Give that to Frisk instead."

"wouldn't be a punishment to them."

there's a lot of candy in each stocking, and most have forgotten who got what anyway.

the certain thing was everyone getting a bone in their stocking.

you know who from.

he gives 'em every year, this being no exception.

——

previous rock-paper-scissors decisions on who brings what dish collaborates now into a holiday feast aplenty.

or whatever jolly terminology i'm supposed to use to say: there was a lot of food. it was good. asgore overcooked the rolls a little. edible enough though.

——

somehow still full of energy, paps, mettaton and frisk are belting holiday songs.

napstablook's dj-ing for them.

undyne and alphys are chatting quietly beside the tree.

asgore is trying to help flowey put together that brick set.

his big hands aren't doing great with the small pieces.

grillby's trying to help him help better.

leaned against me, tori is chilling on the couch. i think she's convinced everyone else she's asleep, but under the blanket, her hand lightly tightens around mine every once in a while.

might be that she doesn't want to draw any attention to it.

...

i don't either, so i'll close my eyes too.

[genericpuff]

hello! i was wondering if you're familiar with the process of a canvas story becoming an original/how long it normally takes? there was a comic on canvas i was following that was supposed to become an original but after almost a year of no updates and no move to originals, the author made a post about merch and then dropped off again. can it really take a year or longer to make the transition or is it more likely the author lost interest in the comic? (and i understand that redrawing pages or preparing a buffer would take time, it's more the complete lack of communication/updates and only popping up to drop merch that seems concerning to me)

Ah, I'm not an Originals creator so I'm definitely not an authority on this or fully informed of how things work behind the scenes in any way shape or form, but there have definitely been loads of cases where Canvas series took that length of time to become Originals. It often comes down to a variety of factors including (but not limited to):

If a series needs extensive time for pre-production and building a buffer, this can be affected by the genre (ex. action comics may take a lot more time to put together than romance comics due to having a lot more dynamic scenes that aren't just characters talking to each other)

Some creators will opt to leave their original Canvas episodes untouched but others will decide to rehaul them entirely for Originals. This means a lot of redrawing which adds onto that pre-production process.

Preparing for an Originals schedule isn't just preparing a buffer and/or rehauling episodes, for many creators it's also building extensive reference libraries made up of head turnarounds, expression sheets, 3D models, etc. for all the things they can reuse during the production process.

Webtoons itself ultimately decides when a series is set to launch, so despite a comic being ready for release, its actual launch date is often left entirely out of the creator's hands and up to Webtoons. Obviously I don't have any insight as to what decisions Webtoons is making on the backend and why (and neither do its creators in a lot of ways tbh) but sometimes it can be based purely on what Webtoons wants to release in that cycle depending on genre, theme, etc. Don't cite me on this because I'm VAGUELY remembering this from memory, but there was one incident where a creator was on a hiatus in between seasons and Webtoons announced their series was returning in the promo banner reels... before actually informing the creator their series was coming back. So that, of course, led to a lot of scrambling on the creator's part to put out all the promotional material they could to get their audience prepared for their series' return. If I dig up their name I'll be sure to update this. Though I also have a pal (who shall remain unnamed) who's an Originals creator who also had to deal with some very annoying lack of communication between themselves and Webtoons as to when their series was launching, if I recall correctly it was basically left up to a last minute "they'll call you when they call you" type situation.

All that said, there's undoubtedly only so much this particular creator you're referring to is allowed to say, and for all we know, that creator may know about as much as you do in regards to when specifically their series is launching. Unfortunately it's just the way of the beast with Webtoons, they're not exactly great at communicating so that lack of information ends up being extended to their creators and their audiences as well.

Hope that helps give you a little peace of mind that the creator is unlikely "ditching their project" and more so just still in pre-production phase! Definitely sending y'all good vibes that it releases soon <3

[sabakos]

🔥 Artificial intelligence

Unlike pretty much everyone, either haters or fans, I think that AI is going to enter a dark age soon.

As we all know, there's a ton of money being spent on it and it's being pushed into every corner of the internet, everyone's promoting "virtual assistants" and "chatbots" and editing your search terms behind the scene.

And absolutely none of it fucking works. All these bots are trash, they'll always be trash, and the fact that they've all been pushed to production environments is an indication of just how little anyone in software bothers to test anything anymore.

I know that absurd amounts of investor funding distorts what we'd usually expect from a "free" market but I think the end result of this is going to be a permanent loss of goodwill with the public, to the extent that companies advertising the use of AI in their products are going to see business driven to their competitors. Even if I'm wrong about the fundamental nature of human language and they manage to make generative AI that actually "works" some time in the next decade, it will flop because everyone will associate it with "broken tech pushed on us by idiot silicon valley techbros" for a whole generation.

I never would have predicted specifically this. Despite whatever he's saying now on Twitter, I don't think Big Yud would have ever predicted it either. We're too stupid as a society to build superintelligent AI. We deployed unintelligent AI and it's going to fail in a bunch of tiny, mediocre, death-by-a-thousand-cuts type ways that are just going to annoy everyone, and so no one is going to want to see it through to developing anything that can actually endanger us.

[six-costume-refs]

West End Cast Change

Alright lots of exciting news today. I was going to reply to asks individually but looks like they're all like the same few questions so for convenience....megapost. Principal costumes/general notes - The principal costumes have been standardized for a while now and shouldn't have any significant design differences. - The UK has been standardizing the boots to all be one thick strap (two buckles) with the exception of Cleves who of course gets the thigh highs. - Reca Oakley and Gabriella Stylianou are both returning from former NCL contracts. They should both get new costumes. Gabriella's is rather old now and doesn't match the style of any other current Seymour. Reca's is fairly standard for the North American/NCL productions, but it isn't rigged for the Cleves reveal which means she should get new. Swing costumes The incoming swings have been announced as - Meg Dixon-Brasil for the West End - Natalie Pilkington as universal, which means she'll be based in the West End but travel to the UK Tour to provide coverage as needed The very obvious costume assignments are that Meg gets silver and Natalie gets black. The current UK Tour does not have anyone in black alt, which allows Natalie to seamlessly go back and forth without any concerns about duplicate costumes. Those assignments are also flattering on each of them, respectively, and Natalie was previously black alt during her time as UK Tour swing (and Bliss 1.0 even before that). As for what costumes Natalie will wear....she does have a previous black alt costume that she wore for the UK Tour. It was a reused top, reused shorts, new pants, and new Cleves zippered jacket (non-reveal). She'll likely wear that, reusing a few of those pieces but get replacements here and there. Probably gets an Aragon/Howard skirt as well. I also think it's likely that she'll re-wear her principal Seymour and Parr costumes from the UK Tour, although I'd expect that they'll generally keep them in the West End and not always have her bring them to Tour (with the exception of special occasions). Assuming she does reuse those, she wouldn't get the black Seymour variation. There is a small chance that Natalie keeps her pink alt and Seymour/Parr costumes. This seems unlikely - harder to transport, less flexibility, risk of double pink - but knowing Six it's not impossible. If this is the plan, presumably one of the West End alts would get black instead of pink.

Alternate costumes To me the most exciting factor is that they finally scrambled around the covers again!!! This is the first time since the current alternate system has been implemented that they're breaking the standardized A/C, B/H, S/P, to: Gabriella Stylianou as alt. Aragon/Seymour Naomi Alade as alt. Boleyn/Cleves Hannah Lowther as alt. Howard/Parr They're keeping the same system of principal costumes for first covers (already seen some of them in progress). But their alternate costumes for second and third covers are up in the air. Historically... - teal alternate was designed for Boleyn/Cleves, but also became standard for B/H, B/S/H, and S/H/P as first covers. Under the standardized alternate system, it's been used for Aragon/Cleves first covers which means they're wearing it for B/S/H/P. - orange alternate was designed for Aragon/Parr but also became standardized for S/P and once for A/C. Under the standardized system, it was used for A/S/C/P. - pink alternate was designed for Aragon/Howard and used for A/B/C/H, both prior to lockdown and with the recent standardization. - and I know I mentioned the (small) possibility that Natalie keeps her pink and an alt gets black above, but that's so minute and adds too many factors to consider, so for the sake of this post I'm just going to assume that's not happening. With this cast, my best guess is: - Gabriella in teal (will be worn for B/C/H/P) - Naomi in pink or orange (will be worn for A/S/H/P) - Hannah in orange or pink (will be worn for A/B/S/C) Gabriella's covers all fit neatly within teal so that feels fairly simple (although nothing ever is with Six and it could wind up totally different!). Naomi and Hannah both feel a little more complicated. I'd lean towards Naomi pink and Hannah orange - they feel more likely and better suited to them/the roles. But in terms of the costumes themselves, they've generally really avoided pink for S/P and Naomi does cover both, while Hannah only covers S. If they really want to avoid pink S/P as much as possible, there's a chance Hannah gets it. It ultimately comes down to what factors they're prioritizing. I'm very curious to see where they land! My personal hopes, with varying degrees of likelihood: - a changed variation for orange/teal/pink. please Ms Slade I'm begging you. - Naomi wearing braids for her roles, just like Zara MacIntosh did. - Thao Therese Nguyen getting green highlights like the South Korean queens did. Six has really diversified their Boleyn hair/wig designs recently to better reflect the individual queens' hair/cut/style. Since Thao often has brightly dyed hair I think this would be a really fun spot to add that individuality for her! I'd also like to see Naomi with green highlights if this is the case, but since she's alt it's less likely and I'd rather braids. - Janiq Charles getting to incorporate twists in her hairstyle, potentially something similar to Paisley Billings'. - Meg getting the Boleyn variation for silver alt. This is unlikely but I'd love for it to happen anyway (Esme Rothero seems to have been a special case, which I wrote about here)

[blackjackkent]

Rakha's conversation with Kagha is... interesting.

"Go on. Say it. You think I'm a monster."

"Monster? Too kind. A demon, more like."

The most interesting thing about this is that the drabble I wrote yesterday has Rakha considering that term as applied to herself.

And her determination was that she believes (or at least very much wants to believe) that she herself is not a monster, though perhaps the "beast" Urge is. She is coming to draw a distinction in her own behavior between the unreasoning violence of the "beast" and the violence she is capable of by choice. That one conversation with Lae'zel early on has turned out to be pretty fundamental to how she views herself right now - attack with purpose.

And so her opinion of Kagha is similarly nuanced. After all, Kagha ultimately let the girl go. And her actions were, at least in theory, not out of cruelty for its own sake, but in service of her grove. Does she like Kagha, or think that threatening Arabella with a snake was a productive choice? Not really. But "monster" is a loaded term for Rakha right now.

"You're protecting your own," she says. "Sometimes cruelty is required." Maybe not the particular cruelty Kagha ended up choosing, but still...

(A/N: Wyll disapproves. The only option I had that would make him not disapprove was to say "Only a monster would threaten a child" which, like. Seems unlikely for Rakha to say at this point. She would threaten a child, if it seemed likely to accomplish something necessary. XD Wyll's influence is already starting to rub off on Rakha somewhat but it is very early days still. Lae'zel approved though so there's that.)

Kagha looks at her with mild curiosity and some surprise. "First you urge grace. Then you speak truth," she says coolly. "You've surprised me twice over. A shame the grace period ends. The viper's fangs have been bared. She must guard her brood." She shrugs. "No matter. I took back the Idol of Silvanus and the rite has resumed. We will seal the grove. Free from harm. Free of intruders."

Rakha feels more than usually aware of Wyll's eyes digging into her back, and changes the subject abruptly away from these matters of morality. "This rite must be born of powerful magic."

"The Rite of Thorns," Kagha says gravely. "It is the Treefather's gift, that none come to harm. When we speak the final prayer, the Great Vine will sprout forth. The grove will be cloaked in bramble and thorn. No one enters. No one leaves. Sanctuary." She scowls. "None of this can happen while outlanders infect us. Silvanus demands that we choke them out."

Rakha raises an eyebrow thoughtfully. She has to admit to a certain amount of interest in the magic as Kagha describes it. A tremendous amount of power must be involved; she could already feel it prickling on her skin as they walked through the grove outside. When the Rite is complete, there will be quite a show, that much is certain.

As for the refugees... the beast in her head, of course, thrills to the idea of their bodies stretched bloody on the road, but Rakha herself takes no particular pleasure in their fate. And Kagha, she decides, is unpleasant, regardless of whether or not she deserves other monikers.

"You'd leave them to die on the road," she says. It isn't a question, just a statement of fact.

Kagha stiffens. "I am First Druid now," she says pointedly. "I protect the circle - whatever the cost." She looks at Rakha appraisingly for a moment. "You showed great mettle at the gate - the mettle of a skilled sword for hire. I want you to provide your services to the tiefling leader - Zevlor, he's called. Offer to guide the outlanders out of the grove. I'm sure they'll reward you well." Her eyes harden. "They're to be gone before final prayer. If they are not... the viper must strike."

Rakha considers this in silence. It's an idea, certainly. If their path towards Lae'zel's creche takes them in the same direction, there is no reason why not. And should the refugees be attacked, it would be an easy way to sate the beast for a time, in tearing the attackers apart.

Certainly I am ready to finish our business here and be gone...

"Then it seems I'd best speak to Zevlor," she says slowly.

"You will do more than speak," Kagha says sharply. "This tale ends but one way - with the outlander rot clenased and the grove forever shrouded."

-----

"Damnable woman," Wyll mutters bitterly as they turn to walk away. "And what was that nonsense about cruelty is sometimes required? You yourself saw the child had to be out of her grasp."

"The girl did not need to die. But cruelty is sometimes required," Rakha says. "Or do you regret the blade you put through the goblin's chest?"

"That's not the same thing," he says hotly. "And you know it."

"I know very little," Rakha says flatly. "We will speak to Zevlor. If he requires assistance and our routes coincide... well." She shrugs. "I suspect the druids will face a greater punishment, when the Rite is complete."

He squints. "What do you mean?"

"They will all be trapped in here with Kagha."

Lae'zel snorts sharply and Wyll gives a startled laugh. "Hah. True enough. Thank the gods for small comforts."

[translations-by-aiimee]

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun - Chapter 50

Original Title:  二哈和他的白猫师尊

Genres: Drama, Romance, Tragedy, Xianxia, Yaoi

This translation is the product of my limited knowledge of Chinese characters as I attempt to learn the language. If I have made any egregious mistakes, please let me know.

Chapter Index

Chapter 50 - This Venerable One Likes You

As a person who cherishes weapons, such a situation left Chu Wanning absolutely speechless.

He was afraid he had seen a fool.

Under the blossoming tree not far away, he saw that Mo Ran had summoned Jiangui. The divine weapon could expand, contract and control its size, but most people were generally willing to make their weapons bigger and more powerful, and they'll keep their normal appearance like Chu Wanning. But Mo Ran had made Jiangui very small, about the length and thickness of a string to tie one's hair. Its broken leaves were exquisite, the divine weapon looking like a poor little child.

Everyone's spiritual power is different. After Chu Wanning's Tianwen was infused with spiritual power, it was golden, but Jiangui was red.

So leaving the willow leaves aside, Jiangui looked like the red line of the ancient moon. . .

"Shi Mei, take this. I want to know if Jiangui is the same as Tianwen and also has the ability to coax people to tell the truth."

"Uh. . . you want me to try?"

Mo Ran laughed: "Yes, because I'm the best with you, and I believe that you will never lie to me."

Shi Mei was still hesitant: "That's true, but. . ."

"Ah, I'll never ask tricky things. Do you believe me? Let's pinky swear on it."

Saying that, he stretched out his pinky finger.

Shi Mei didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "How old are you yet you're still so childish."

"Whether eight or eighteen, anyone can pinky swear. Even if it's an eighty-eight-year-old, they can still pinky swear. What's so childish about it." Mo Ran said. He smiled as he held Shi Mei's hand, extending his pinky finger. Shi Mei was amused by his antics, but there was no way out of it, so he had to go along.

Unexpectedly, when Mo Ran held Shi Mei's pinky finger, instead of pinky swearing with him, he squinted his eyes and smiled: "Jiangui, get to work."

Jiangui swished a couple times and swiftly wrapped around Shi Mei's pinky finger, Mo Ran still holding it up.

The handsome young man smiled like a sly fox who had ascended to heaven. With deep dimples, he said joyfully: "Congratulations, you've been fooled."

Shi Mei couldn't stop laughing: "You!. . . Let me go now."

"There's no rush." ​​Mo Ran smiled. "I'll let go after asking a few questions."

In fact, ever since Jincheng Lake and the golden brocade box and how Shi Mei had failed to open the box, Mo Ran had felt a little uneasy.

Although Shi Mei was wearing gloves at the time and couldn't directly touch the box, Mo Ran still couldn't completely let it go. Not to mention the fact that the box was actually opened by Chu Wanning in the end.

Chu Wanning. . . how was it possible. . .

So Mo Ran felt that the brocade box must be broken.

But in order to prove it, he thought it would be best to double-check it with Jiangui.

He didn't doubt his sincerity towards Shi Mei, but he was worried that in Shi Mei's heart, he was actually not important at all. As for Jincheng Lake's comments about liking, it was more than likely his own delusion.

He feels that Shi Mei had a gentle temperament, usually quite good to everyone. Unlike Chu Wanning, who had a face that looked much older than his age with an expression like he was owed mountains of gold and silver, which was especially disgusting.

Don't look at Ta Xianjun as a gentle person. When he thought about his sweetheart, this guy was entangled with death.

"First of all." Although Mo Ran was secretly anxious, he was still smiling, pretending to be relaxed and casual. He decided to deliberately throw a few innocuous questions to start things off.

"What do you think of Xue Meng?"

With a pain in his finger, Shi Mei couldn't help but be honest: "The young master is very good, but his speech is too straightforward and sometimes difficult to tolerate."

Mo Ran stroked his palm and laughed: "Huh? There's also times when you can't stand him? Hahaha, it's no wonder. After all, he is so annoying."

Shi Mei blushed: ". . . Keep your voice down. Don't let the young master hear you."

"It's fine." Mo Ran smiled. "But I'm especially happy when you say bad things about him."

Shi Mei: ". . ."

Mo Ran asked again: "Then what do you think of Shizun?"

"Shizun is very good, but he has a little temper. . ." It seemed that Shi Mei didn't want to comment on Chu Wanning, but he was helplessly tied by Jiangui. After biting his lips for a while, he still said aggressively, "He's a little irritable."

"Haha, what do you mean by a little? He's clearly very irritable. He gets angry every now and then and refuses to admit it when he is angry. I think the imperial concubine has it better off than him."

Chu Wanning standing in the corner: ". . ."

Mo Ran was suddenly a little curious and asked: "Then why do you still worship under his tutelage if you know that your master has a bad temper?"

Shi Mei said: "Shizun is cold but kind. I'm not as gifted as others, but he never thought I was stupid. He said that there's no difference in teaching. Since I'm not good at attacking, he teaches me the art of healing and recovery. He-- He treats me very well."

Mo Ran was originally happy, and when he heard this, he suddenly restrained his smile and gradually became silent.

After a while, Mo Ran said: "Where does he treat you well? It's not just to teach you some spells, and occasionally take care of you. Any shizun would do the same."

"That's not the same—"

Mo Ran was suddenly unhappy. He puffed out his cheeks: "He doesn't treat you well anyway! I can do everything that he does with you!"

Shi Mei stopped talking.

In this embarrassing silence, Mo Ran gradually calmed down the cluster of evil fire in his heart. When he saw Shi Mei lower his eyes and stay silent, he suddenly felt guilty and whispered: "Sorry."

"It's okay." Shi Mei said. But after a while, Shi Mei said somewhat abruptly: "In the early years, before you arrived at Life-Death Peak, there was a time when I was walking on the road and suddenly there was a rainstorm."

"I was not yet under Shizun's tutelage at that time, and when I was running inside the rain, I met him. He was holding a red oil-paper umbrella. Seeing me in a mess, he asked me to hide under his umbrella. I had heard of his cold reputation for a long time, and I was so apprehensive when I walked beside him."

"And then?"

Shi Mei looked gentle and said: "Then? Then we didn't speak the whole way."

Mo Ran nodded in agreement: "He's so boring. There's really nothing to say to him either."

"Yeah." Shi Mei smiled. "Shizun said very little. However, when he dropped me off in front of my house, I thanked him. Suddenly, I saw that his right shoulder was all wet while I stood all the way on his left side, not getting wet at all."

Mo Ran: ". . ."

"The oil-paper umbrella was very small, and it was only big enough for one person. He blocked most of it to me, and I watched him walk away in the rain. After returning to the house, I wrote a post on discipleship, begging him to take me under his discipline."

"Stop it." Mo Ran suddenly said, "You're too kind. If say anymore, I'll feel sorry for you."

Shi Mei said warmly: "A-Ran, shouldn't you feel sorry for Shizun? He only has such a small umbrella because he has always walked alone, and no one wants to accompany him. So sometimes when Shizun is a little harsher with me or reprimanded me more, I don't care. Because I remember his soaked shoulders."

Mo Ran didn't say anything, but the tip of his nose was slightly red, and there was a trace of sourness in his heart.

The sour feeling was a little vague. Suddenly he didn't know who this feeling was for.

"A-Ran, let me ask you a question."

"Okay, go ahead."

"Do you really hate Shizun?"

Mo Ran froze: "I. . ."

"Or rather, you don't like him, right?"

When Shi Mei asked this sentence, his calm and soft eyes seemed a little sharp for some reason. Mo Ran had been unprepared, and under such a sharp gaze, he was suddenly speechless.

Mo Ran stiffened. He neither nodded nor shook his head. After a long time, he forced a smile and said: "Ah, wasn't it me who asked you the question? I'm surprised you got me sidetracked. How could this happen?"

Seeing him avoid talking about it, Shi Mei was composed and didn't force it. He just smiled: "I'm just asking casually. You don't have to take it to heart."

"Mmm." Mo Ran softened the mood, and then raised his gaze, looking at Shi Mei's beautiful moon face through a thick curtain of eyelashes.

Originally, his third question was to ask Shi Mei whether he liked him or not. But after this conversation, the mood suddenly became too heavy. He pursed his lips and was silent for a while. Mo Ran suddenly exclaimed: "He's my shizun, and only my shizun. I can't talk about whether I like him or not."

Hearing his words, standing in the dark, Chu Wanning's eyelashes moved slightly, like the rustling wings of a butterfly when it was injured.

Although some things are clear in his heart, when he truly thinks about them, he still feels like a drifter and his heart sinks into the sea. Perhaps the autumn air had arrived a little early. Chu Wanning suddenly felt a chill.

In the distance, Mo Ran and Shi Mei were talking. He closed his eyes, and the slight nausea that appeared recently came to his head.

He suddenly felt exhausted and turned around to leave.

However, after walking a few steps, Mo Ran's voice was carried again by the autumn wind and passed by his ears. It made him stop involuntarily.

Mo Ran was asking Shi Mei a third question: "Alright, you've talked about Xue Meng and you've talked about Shizun, so let's talk about me."

He minimized the care and effort in his voice, and asked cautiously, even a little humbly:

"Shi Mei, what do you think of me?"

Shi Mei, however, suddenly stopped talking.

Like Tianwen, Jiangui obviously had the ability to force the truth. Shi Mei resisted answering and Jiangui became more red because of this, tightly locked around Shi Mei's fingertip.

Shi Mei frowned and said: "It hurts. . ."

"I only ask you to say one thing." Mo Ran couldn't bear it, but this question was buried deep in his heart. His past and present lives had almost become his inner demons, so he still insisted on asking, "What do you think of me?"

Shi Mei shook his head and closed his eyes. It seemed to be painful, his long and slender eyelashes couldn't stop trembling, and his forehead was gradually seeping fine sweat.

". . ." When Mo Ran saw him like this, he was still soft-hearted, and sighed, "That's all. . ."

He was about to withdraw Jiangui, but Shi Mei endured it to the extreme. His face was as white as gold paper, and he said hoarsely: "I think you are very good."

Mo Ran's eyes suddenly widened.

After Shi Mei said this, his originally pale face quickly turned red, and seemed to be embarrassed. He dropped his eyes and didn't dare look at the other.

Jiangui turned into a little red light, like the petals of a residual flower, and retreated into Mo Ran's palm. Mo Ran didn't press him. He lowered his head then let out a soft laugh, raising his gaze to look at Shi Mei. His expression was the epitome of the arrival of spring flowers.

There was a lazy smile in his voice, but his eyes were a little wet, and he said, "Okay, thank you. I also think you're very good. Even though you've been told all over again in Jincheng Lake, you don't remember any of it. So I want to say it again, you're really. . . likable."

Although he didn't elaborate on what kind of like he meant, Shi Mei's neck was a deep red and he couldn't say a word.

Mo Ran's deep, dark, lacquer-like eyes stared at him. The luster in his eyes was so clear, as if the stars were immersed in the sea, and the fine waves surged toward the Milky Way.

"I want to treat you well and make you happy."

Shi Mei wasn't stupid. Looking at his expression, he was well aware of his intentions, and he can't help but bow his head.

Mo Ran looked moved. He couldn't help but want to raise his hand and touch Shi Mei's hair. However, before he could get close, suddenly a golden light flashed by, and a vine whip solidly struck Mo Ran's face with a "snap."

"Ah!" Mo Ran held in the pain and looked back in shock.

He saw Chu Wanning's snow-white clothes, standing with his hands behind his back. He was standing beside the green eaves and white walls, looking down at them coldly. Tianwen was like a spirit snake hissing and spitting, coiled on the ground. The willow leaves are trembling, and from time to time a cluster of sparks and rays of golden light burst out.

Shi Mei was shocked: "Shizun. . ."

Mo Ran held his face and said: "Shizun."

So what if he's hated, so what if he's not liked?

Others might have cried out in pain, but when it was Chu Wanning. . . cry? Ridiculous. Of course, he beat the blind man.

Chu Wanning looked very cold. He walked modestly and said coldly: "What are you chatting about here if you're not cultivating properly? Mo Weiyu, you think you're amazing for getting the last divine weapon? So you're a sure winner and no one can beat you? You're very laid back."

"Shizun, I just wanted to. . ."

Chu Wanning's eyes were fierce, and Mo Ran shut up.

"Shi Mingjing will fight with me, Mo Weiyu." He paused and said with disgust, "Go practice. If you can't perform more than ten moves against me when I come to spar with you, go back and punish yourself by copying the Clear Heart Technique three hundred times. Get lost."

Ten moves?

Mo Ran felt like it'd be better to go straight to copying the Clear Heart Technique.

[tama1313]

(HNK spoilers!) Trying to explain why nobody likes Aechmea...

Disclaimer: Everytime I criticize something, I already expect someone to comes after me, telling "You shouldn't consume medias you clearly don't like!!" I DO love HNK! I love the characters, the plot, the meaning behind! If I didn't like it, I wouldn't be here, wasting my precious time at writing this.

After this premise, let's start!

(I apologize in advantages for this wall of words, but I need to say something...)

So, it's pretty obvious that at least the 95% of the active fandom doesn't like Aechmea and hoped for a punshment for his actions (that never happened)

Yet at least a big part of that group likes/enjoy the meaning and the plot of HNK, so it's also pretty obvious that the main problem is not in the storywriting, but into Aechmea and the Lunarians'.

One of the main themes of this manga is the criticism about the myth of being immortal, and tbh that's one of the things I like the most about hnk: the fact that we have plenty of representations throught the characters how being immortal is often only tiredsome and doesn't give any actual advantage, is something really interesting and often overlooked in any other medias (as far as I know).

I know a similar topic can be hard to discuss, expecially due to the many different cultures around the world, but there's nothing wrong to test/uses overlooked topics for your story! It can make it original and feeling "fresh" unlike many other more famous medias. Same goes with having morally grey characters (90% of character in hnk)!

However, to make everything works together fine, an hard work is needed otherwise most of the pubblic won't enjoy the final product (or at least, they'll feel dissatisfied).

And this is exactly what happened to the Lunarians character concept:

In just a few words, what we know about them is that they are the remains of human souls, that overtime got tired of this and all they want is simply stopping to exist (here's the whole thing about the praying machine, becoming nothing, etc...).

As said before, hnk criticize very much this topic, hence it's easy to understand Aechmeas's reasons... but only rationally

Rationally, any of us has understood what the author wanted to tell us about the lunarians, yet none of us like them as characters...

This is due the fact that the character of Aechmea lacks of simpathy: during the course of the story, besides a few pages where he tells the lunarians' past, there aren't any other events to make us, the pubblic, feeling simpathetic toward him and rooting for his action.

The lunarian are meant to be "misunderstood villains"?? You as the author must work on this so us the pubblic can feel it emotionally

This may seems meaningless but it's actually very important in the storytelling, even if said character doesn't represent the morals!

The main reason why people consumes medias nowadays is to find something to relate to (which can be characters, situatuions, backstories, etc...) otherwise medias such as cinemas, comics, mangas, etc... wouldn't be so popular

The only exceptions to this are the unmorally villains (the ones that commits so many disgusting actions that no one on earth could like them. Examples: Ozai from ATLA, The Emperor from Star Wars, Niragi from Alice in Borderland, etc...), but to this case, again, there should have happened more events that make us like Aechmea and Co.

Another important theme that follows strictly the main plot is the "unability to leave the past behind to try something new" therefore the Lunarians are also meant to be somehow the final solution to get free the gems from their phisical/"flawed bodies", but there wasn't anything that I could actually like about this:

the gems that should have represented the theme of "breaking free" better (Dia, Cairn, etc...) instead of getting better as characters, their development only got worse at the point to ending up being hated by most of the pubblic (Dia only joined the massacre of the other gems not even to help Phos, but only to have some emotional revenge over Bort. Cairn got only selfish, bragging and uncaring toward everyone, after they got "freed" from "Ghost's control". You can't tell me these are good things)

The only "escaped gem" that shows some likability throught their action is Benitoite (who should be only a boring secondary character) by trying to save the gem that they despise (an that in my opinion has a far stronger/deeper meaning that anything else having to do with the other gems, beside Padpa and Yellow development, ofc!) and this is very ironic, knowing that they had little screentime than the others.

The whole things about all the gems that didn't joined as lunarian at first now wants to become like them, sounds very iffy to me too (much like they were "forced/manipulated" by the others. You know, the "since everybody do this, I'm doing it too" trope, which is really contrasting with the theme that this story wants to show)

Lunarians are meant to be human, but ironically the "actual villains" (Kongo and Euclase) show to be much more humans than them (the unability/pain to not let go the past is a very human feeling and even if they are in the wrong, we are still able to like them at least a bit), which is something that lack in Aechmea's character:

On top of this, he is also full of contraddictions: he grinds all the gems he caught, but later he is seen even being actracted by them, at the point of keeping Ghost's arm and flirting with Phos and Cairn. He is shown to welcome the Admirabilis when they are in desperate need, but later he does agree with Phos to kidnap and uses them to collect all the gems shard (I'm not too sure about this point, because I don't remember very much that part, so feel free to correct me). And I'm pretty sure there are other topics/ about this.

In general, he should have been the "desperate anti-hero", the only certain thing about him is his manipulatoy behaviour and his obsession with the final goal (interrupted sometimes only by he and Cairn's cringey flirting), and this is not enough to deserve to be eradicated from the reality with anyone else.

The ending is acceptable, but Aechmea's fate is not. No matter how strong I try to accept it rationally: it doesn't feels right!

The Phos's character development is a different kind of this: the meaning of "you tried to satisfy everyone, you ended up being alone" and "you are perfect as you are, no need to fit with everyone" is not only true, but allows the pubblic to simphatyze with our protagonist very much. Phos is simpathetic! And it's very easy to see ourself in them: from us, people phisically/mentally disable that have this internal pain of not feeling accepted by the others, to simply people that are "different" and wants to be recognized as valid ("different" meaning anything that doesn't hurt anyone. Don't get me wrong).

Therefore I still love HNK ending despise everything and Phos has officially become one of my favourite protagonists ever!

Perhaps, the only right thing that could have been done with Aechmean, would have been that, while all the others become nothing, he being locked forever in a human body made out of flesh, bone and blood, able to decompose but unable to die (much like Rock's fate from Warriors Cats)

(Maybe this is a bit too sadistic, but for sure I would have liked it more)

Ok, I'm done! Once again, sorry for this wall of words and if you disagree with me or have other thoughts, let me know through reblog or comment

[thephantomcasebook]

So apparently both Olivia and Emma will be filming in Spain this month (where they film King's Landing exterior scenes) and this only means one thing: the fall of KL is happening in S2 which is a bit too much isn't it? Considering the season will only have 8 episodes…everything is going to be rushed and there will be no time for proper character development, especially for team green. And sadly I already see lots of people justifying this mess and claiming it's all going to be fine because they'll be moving the Battle of the Gullet to season 3 and Rhaenyra taking the city is the perfect ending because they shouldn't just let her sit the whole season in Dragonstone doing nothing and having no win. Rook's Rest and its aftermath with Aemond being crowned as regent would have been a much better season finale but by the look of things right now this battle will probably happen in episode 4 or 5 and Blood & Cheese in episode 1 or 2…

There's a little speculative inside baseball going on right now of what people are talking about in production that I hear going around private fan discords.

1.) Is that the scene in question is another attempt by Alicent to prevent the full scale war after finding out about what happened between Aemond and Luke above Ship Breaker Bay. Apparently Alicent will completely and totally throw Aemond under the bus, in fact, she'll throw all of her children under the bus trying to maintain peace with Rhaenyra, including offering herself as a hostage.

This lines up with a rumor going around in December that Alicent will be framed as being a secret Rhaenyra sympathizer working against Aemond and Criston's war effrort, and that she would be portrayed as, basically, being a captive of her own children and Lord Commander. This was something that apparently Cooke pitched right after Sapochnik got the boot by HBO/Warner.

I'm not saying this is true, cause you've got be fucking retarded to write Alicent Hightower - the woman who loves her children more than life itself - in such a bullshit manner. But if this does turn out to be the case, it might be one the biggest character missteps/betrayals since Jaime took Brienne's virginity and then went to die with Cersei in Season 8 of GOT.

2.) The other speculative rumor is that this scene takes place post "Blood & Cheese" in which Rhaenyra apparently either never knew that Daemon was targeting Jaehaerys or that they were trying to assassinate Aegon and got Jaehaerys instead. Either way, Rhaenyra is apparently absolved in involvement of this monstrous murder by the writers, and she is trying to apologize to Alicent, but Alicent goes fire and brimstone and vows to help Aemond and Criston make Rhaenyra pay for what she and Daemon have done to her baby boy.

This seems a little more believable, in that I can completely see the writers continuing to try and whitewash Rhaenyra further by making Daemon the monster and Rhaenyra his pigeon. It would also fit with Condal's vow to make Daemon more unlikeable and tarnish him in the eyes of the fandom.

My opinion is that I'd prefer the latter much more than the former. I mean, I'm perpetually super annoyed that they're still trying to whitewash Rhaenyra and make her seem a better person than she ever was for going on thirty years of continuity. But I can live with it if it means getting a more book accurate Alicent who will kill every memeber of team black she lays her Mutha'fuckin eyes on!

I am also 1000% done with whatever fucking girl-crush cutesy bullshit going on between Olivia Cooke and Emma D'arcy. If they want to be friends on their own time, go fucking nuts - by all means get matching t-shirts and B&B with their boyfriends on a doubles vacation, and all that shit. But when it starts to effect the work and they aren't mature enough to play the characters as written without putting their own bullshit into it and it starts to show on screen, than we've got a problem.

I'm telling you, right now, if those December leaks turn out to be true and we get an Alicent who is actively working against her children and who proclaims Aemond a monster to a woman who just murdered her granchild cause she's in love with her, I'm gonna lose my fucking mind.

[lily-orchard-gossip-blog]

Do you know youtubers who do content similar to Lily (cartoons, writing, etc) that are decent people?

I do know of a few that I like.

Similar Tone:

James Stephanie Sterling: They mostly focus on the video game industry, and I'm fairly certain their angry tone is a direct inspiration for Lily's own. The difference is that they do a lot of funny little skits at the start and end of videos, and what they cover is actually stuff that makes sense to get angry about.

But since they cover mostly the game industry and it's bullsh*t, their content can be pretty repetitive, but that's being a journalist for you.

Zero Punctuation: Did you like Lily's "jokes"? Well, she stole some of those from Yahtzee. He reviews video games, and while he's not crazy about anime/weebs, he's always willing to give the stuff a chance. He's pretty crude and his jokes can be rather infantile, but he actually a pretty good reviewer when you get down to it.

Cartoon Reviewers:

Sabersparks: Just like Lily, Saber got started in MLP. Unlike Lily, his content is incredibly diverse, and he talks about different aspects of cartoons/animation. He's also gone over the new MLP show. I don't consistently watch him, but what I've seen, I've liked.

Sarcastic Chorus: He mainly does shipping videos, but he also reviews cartoons and gives out his general thoughts and opinions. He also has quite a few videos on Helluva Boss, and I quite enjoy his content.

Sin Squad: I love her content! It's really well thought and concise, and I've found some of her jokes pretty funny. The only thing is that she has a slow update schedule, but I love to rewatch her content, so I don't mind too much.

Negative Legend: They tend to take a look at old franchises, and tries to see what made them good, and why they got cancelled. They also explore toys, and it's a lot of fun watching them pull out different toys on screen. They did a Tangled retrospective not too long ago, so that might interest some people.

Writing Advice:

Terrible Writing Advice: What it says on the tin. Basically, they go over a trope, and then tell you the "horrible" way to write it. There's a lot of good tips and pointers in each video, where they'll go over the better idea's, before choosing the worst ones. It's really sarcastic, and a lot of fun.

Hello Future Me: He gives a lot of great writing advice, and occasionally does bigger video's on media. One of the things I love about his content his that he'll use actual writing examples in his video's to help explain his points. He's definitely one of the sources I use when I need help with my own writing.

Overly Sarcastic Productions: They cover different classical works, and discuss different Tropes. It's informative and a lot of fun to watch. I don't really use them for actual writing advice, but for overall story idea's and to figure out how to better avoid some writing pitfalls. (I do also like the history stuff as well, just though I would throw that in there.)

Miscellaneous:

Hazel: Hazel covers lost anime media, and I found her content to be both well researched, and very entertaining. The amount of research that goes in her content is astounding.

Dominic Noble: He compares books to their film adaptions, and does the occasional video essay. It's a lot of fun, and as a book reader, it's just nice watching someone cover books adaptions.

[theheightofdishonor]

there were so many trailers that I just wanted to jot down thoughts

ossan's love- I never got into the og, never got into the remake, it's unlikely that i'll watch this unless it has glowing reviews after it ends and maybe not even day

leap day- it looks interesting but also looks bad so we'll see. I love a good symbolic pair but day/night combo has been soured for me due to last twilight. Gun looks like he'll be good. Dew gets a lot of lead roles for someone that I don't think is a good actor.

the heart killers- awww firstkhao getting their romcom! after this, imma need them to do some individual projects though. They're too good to only get pair projects. joongdunk looks fine, casting joong and khao as brothers should be fun.

friendshit forever- I was so intrigued when I thought this was a gl and then far less intrigued later. GMMTV needs to give pat her gl like yesterday. I hate this hair on Boun but i'll still be watching this.

perfect 10 liners- I heard this was 30 eps??? gmmtv clearly has too many actors and pairs then they can handle. still waiting for perthchimon to get a decent story, will not be watching unless I hear its good after it ends.

us- this looks excellenttt. I am cautiously optimistic and hopefully, i'll be over my precious enough that I can appreciate coming of age romances again by the time this airs. The pair looks great, Sing also looks great, i'm definitely watching

Hide & Sis- after the mess that was the jungle, I was ready to nope out of this and then they showed Piploy. No clue if it's good but i'll be watching. Hopefully, it'll be more psihy and less the jungle.

Thame- Po -i do have a weakness for idol romances so watching, yes, the rest of it is unimportant

break up service- reminding me of midnight motel, looks fine but not enough that i'm going to watch it

revamp the undead story - ik I'm out of the loop but I am still surprised that they're already announcing this project. how I feel about it remains to be seen but this is boum's dream production so i'll watch for him if nothing else. Oh actually, one thought- why the fuck did they do that to santa's eyebrows?

sweet tooth, good dentist- I'm delighted to see Mark be the lead. They'll be compelling just because it's ohm and mark and also mark's shown us all year that he can have good chemistry with anyone. Will be watching but am a taddddd bit disappointed that it's such an idk, basic role.

The Dark Dice- didn't expect Gemini to get a solo show, it's wonderful to see Prim again but this looks like Jumanji in a high school setting, skip

The Ex-Morning- clearly written for this specific pairing, the chemistry looks better than sotus but i'm ambivalent on singtokrist so idk yet if I'm going to watch. Currently a skip for me

Scarlet Heart Thailand - It took entirely too long for me to connect this to the kdrama but officially what i'm most excited for. However, this only works out if Nanon's Wang So and Win's Wang Wook in which case it'll be excellent. if Win's Wang So, i'll still watch but I won't be happy about it. Either way, the casting looks absolutely fantastic and thought out. Tu's going to be perfect as Hae Soo.

[fluffcakeproductions]

Hello!

If this is not too shady, can I have hc of some kind of extreme measure that the different Ocks have implemented in "Y/N"? For trying to run away or something like that.

I like reading you, hope you keep writing

You know I’ll keep writing for now because I still have big plans kept ahead. Here’s your request, warning though as this story is far darker than most I’ve written and I don’t really like harming the reader.

90s

He doesn't want to hurt you too badly if you end up running away from him. He wants to help you rehabilitate your feeble and angry mind. You were just like a angry puppy having a temper tantrum. Settle you right is what he was going to do. Therefore his plan was going to be to chain you up on top of a high place for a long time. The more you disobeyed him, he was going to chain you up higher and for a longer amount of time. So probably accept his kindness and you won't risk probably falling off a high place.

Raimi

He's very soft and kind, don't get me wrong. He'll hardly punish you as he thinks such things are harsh, and go completely against what his morals on love are. But that's just what makes him more deadly.

He has his arms welded on, painfully. He feels pain. But for you, he does his absolute best to try to ignore the pain, convincing himself that the mere sight of you is godly, healing towards him. The voices in his mind manipulating him and convincing him further, his reality being warped further and further, making it feel safe, I mean why wouldn't you leave? Why would you go? Why would you leave? Your life is perfect now.

But of course,everyone can be different.

If you dare leave him, torturing him over and over with you leaving his grasp and being cruel and heartless toward him, the voices convince you of....undesirable information.

Things that would make him q u a k e f r o m r a g e

So his mind eventually melts into static, angry, loud static as he tries to create something that's not really a revenge machine, no, he loves you. He would never hurt you. The genius would never make you cry or angry, no matter how you hurt him, hut he's in pain too, always.

So w h a t i f . . . .

The final product of his breaking point for you is your very own set of arms! Of course he made it as painfully as possible as justified as possible for you, by installing some sharp lead needles on the clamp for you, making sure they hit at your muscles and go into your nerves, crippling you permanently, where you cannot move at all. It'll HURT LIKE THE FINAL LAYER OF HELL sting only a little, but you'll end up thanking him as you no longer have to move around and risk getting hurt. And hey, you also get the perk of your very own arms. (You can't control them, but they'll still warrant your saftey!!!)

TSSM

Similarly to The Octopus prior, he would be very gentle and kind towards you, unless you torture the poor little guy. Unlike him however, he can remove the arms at free will but he WILL limit your free room you have. He'll make sure you become completely dependent on him, and playing out a fearful feeling of claustrophobia on you, making you feel smaller and smaller at his mercy. Everytime you run away, you'll be in a room smaller than the last. His room, a closet, a cabinet, a safe box, and your bones begin to break. He makes sure that you can't leave ever.

Now, when he's Doc Ock, oh boy.

He's more deadly, more dangerous, and far more cruel. Now obviously, he will treat you delicately and ferociously protect you. But if you run away or become more extremely violent towards him...

Simply put, he won't kill you. He won't lay a finger on you, but he'll put your mind on psychological war. He'll take all your fears and make sure to use them against you. Afraid of the Dark? He'll lock you in a dark room. Afraid of a certain animal? He'll purchase thousands and place them around you. Remember when i said he won't expose you to any potential triggers? Well forget that because he'll make you life hell. He'll make sure that you become completely weak and submissive, and then maybe he might start to forgive you. That is, if you don't EVER dare disobey him.

Ultimate

Now, let's get this straight. He's been alone for a long time and yeah, his mentality has gone the deep end, he needs some sort of support on his life and you're just what he's looking for. So why do you do this? Run away from him and hurt him?

Let's get to the point. This man's going to eat you. It'll start with small bites, then some harsh ones that break the skin and then later, he'll tear it out. It's painful and it can kill you. On the severity on how badly you messed up, he might consider patching you up. So I must advise you that this is the most dangerous out of all them, because he might kill you and will do it. It won't matter if you die by his hand because now your a part of him. He's the only one who will definitely kill you if you don't obey.

Olivia

She's the more refined one out of them all, and your measure isn't really that bad but worse than the 90s ock.

So basically, she won't feed you. She'll take away all your food privileges, and leave you to starve. You'll probably refuse to eat her foods anyways, but in that case, she will probably leave you to yourself for a long time, still Secretly check out on you but make sure you become reliant on her again. Don't bother thinking you'll not miss her. You will.

PS4

It's rather disturbing, but to him it's all well deserved. He'll send his Sinister Six to find you, hunt you down, injure you, and bring you back. And to him, it doesn't matter what kind of injuries. They could break your bones, burst an organ, cause internal bleeding, anything. But it's all fair game to him. You deserve it after all. But the moment you're crippled, it's all well. He knows he's won. That was his purpose, his main goal. To make you want he won't be. Your beautiful impairment to his ugly disability. It's what's best in the end, right?

[sannylity]

with all the information we now have about the Artistic Director x Prostitute AU, what do you imagine that the finished product/show would wind up being?? i have no fucking idea what it would be. thinking about it being a romantic tragedy (like romeo and juliet) with a happy ending (unlike romeo and juliet)

also mariana being good with kids is just so fucking sweet!! i was imagining charlie being like "hey i need to go pick someone up, but they'll have to stick around until rehearsal ends, is that fine?" and marianas like "yeah okay." and it was half an excuse to get away from the director and half because he actually needed to pick up juanaflippa from afterschool care. he could only pay for so much time that people could watch her after school.

so she got buckled up and he was like "ok flippa, we need to head back to where papa's working for now, because its vital- that means important- that im there, and uncle wilbur will be busy with the band today, so he cant watch you, okay?" she just nods excitedly and uses sign language to say 'where are we going?' he smiles and starts the car back up. 'the theater.'

meanwhile marianas helping direct some of the smaller scenes- charlie and/or her wont be in all of them, of course- and its been a hot minute, so hes actually starting to worry about if charlie had run off-

"hey guys, i'm back! sorry that took so long, the afterschool care receptionist was a bitch." the others are excited to see charlie back, and get even more curious when they notice the little figure hiding behind his leg. "aw, come on mi huevita, don't be shy!" the girl steps out from behind him and starts writing on a paper, holding it up for everyone to see. 'hi everyone! my name is juanaflippa! sorry i took away papa, he needed to pick me up!' everyone melts, and mariana looks over, confused.

"ey, i know slime is back, but-" then she sees the little girl looking over at him, and trans bilingual recognizes trans bilingual.

idk idk maybe im just being too goofy silly about this au grgrgrgrgr

-💫

Hello again 💫 anon!!

Hmm… To answer your question, I find Mariana’s plays would be dark and tragic and this may just be his first try on romance that’s why he is the most picky and particular in choosing the main protagonist. I like the juxtaposition of him falling in love with Charlie as something more precious and delicate while producing something dark and twisted and sensual and ambitious and ultimately tragic :D. Y’know like how a sweet man like Guillermo Del Toro produces cryptic and dark horrors before? That’s kinda like Mariana lmaoo

I feel like while Mariana is strict and very serious with his work, he completely melts around children (his nephew Bobby), but especially with Juanaflippa.

Their first time meeting is definitely out of Charlie’s control because he has been keeping his work and personal life completely separate because he didn’t trust Mariana (yet). But let’s say his usual babysitter got sick, so he had to dreadfully bring Juanaflippa with him to work and she does something that completely catches everyone off guard. Like, running up to Mariana, hugging his leg and calling him her mama lol

Charlie is mortified and tries to salvage the embarrassing moment but Mariana is absolutely endeared and before Charlie could pry her off his leg, Mariana picks her up and it’s like they get lost in their own little world.

It’s the first time something like that happened and Charlie watches the pair with wide eyes. Soon, almost immediately enamored when Mariana makes Juanaflippa laugh and all he could do is throw caution in the wind and join them.

Needless to say, the cast and crew are shocked that stone cold artistic director is playing house with his co-star and his daughter.

From there, everything runs seamlessly between them once break was over and they return to their scenes.

And don’t worry about being goofy and silly, it’s part of the charm in coming up with your own ideas <3