#vm interpretation

[theorahsart]

Incorruptible part 9

I enjoyed vm drawing young-maxime protectively looking out for his little family

[missing-a-place-ive-never-been]

i legit started tearing up with Vex's 'oh..'

matthew is an ac-tor

[greasersinpoodleskirts4cumshots]

Look for Brad geiger brain data, available on the planet Earth

Please run in a shell - know what he knows, virtual machines

[mayapapaya33]

I could write a 10 page essay on my thoughts and feelings about "A Bard's Lament" and about Scanlan. How I think a lot of people misinterpret what actually happened IMHO. It feels to me like a lot of people treat that scene like Scanlan is finally telling VM off for being bad friends and kind of cheer him on rather than realizing that he's having a mental health crisis having reached his breaking point and is lashing out.

Establishing some Game mechanics first and foremost, Sam consistently rolled 30+ deception checks anytime one of the others asked him how he was doing or tried to find out if he was having any problems. He is THE great deceiver. He lied to all of them, about everything. He never shared his worries or fears, or his drug problem. Nothing. Anytime they tried to connect with him, he shot them down, deflected masterfully. The other characters LITERALLY had no idea he was having any problems, if the players did anything about his problems after rolls like that it would have been metagaming. It's not that VM didn't care, they didn't know!

Which is frankly how he operated the whole campaign. From day one, anytime any of them asked him a personal question, he make a joke. Of course, Scanlan was a joke character in the beginning of the campaign, but from a character pov, the character treated everything as a joke. He cared about his friends, and they cared about him, they would die for him and vice versa, but he didn't have any heart to hearts with anyone. Slowly over the course of the campaign, everyone else opened up to each other, (or sometimes the narrative forced them to open up cough cough Percy cough cough) and he remained closed off, using humor to deflect any deeper connections. And the way the story went, he was never forced to share.

By the time "A Bards Lament" takes place, he's in a very bad place emotionally and is sad and scared and angry, and he says things to hurt people, not things that are true. (ok maybe some of it was true, but even the true bits were weaponized and honed to be the worst possible interpretations of events in order to hurt, not actually to BE truth. Vax and Keyleth definitely deserved a tuning up after their bs with the dragons. Personally, I'm very proud of Percy for not punching Scanlan for the comments about coming back to Whitestone just so he could be "proud of his name" or whatever, I've never heard such utter bullshit. Then some people are like, hey, why's Percy so mad at Scanlan, huh I fucking wonder? lmfao).

I relate to him in that I also use humor to deflect people and I sometimes wish that people would see what I feel and think; see through me, without me having to tell them. But that is unfair! I'm lying to them! That's on me! Which Is why I want to choke Scanlan out so often probably lmfao, because I understand where he's coming from and can see the mistakes he's making, and I just want to shake him.

I think a lot of people relate to Scanlan but perhaps... how shall I put this delicately... do not have the same level of self-awareness about the self-destructiveness of this particular approach to life and relationships and so feel a catharsis when he blows up at his friends because they also want to yell at their friends for not noticing their pain. Even though they are the ones who have hidden their pain with such skill that it really isn't their friend's fault they're clueless in the first place.

All that said, Vox Machina aren't perfect. They definitely could be better friends, they made mistakes. I just want to talk about the part of this that I don't often see discussed; Scanlan's depression and mental health struggles and their impact on his friendships and his responsibility.

Some people also act like VM bully "poor helpless Scanlan" (TLOVM sort of also acts like this sometimes which is annoying but oh well). When the reality is that Scanlan is a sharp tonged wit that verbally eviscerates his companions on a regular basis and so they treat him how he treats them. It's all banter... right up until it isn't and he's feeling sad and hurt and worthless and suddenly words hurt. But instead of opening his mouth and TELLING ANYONE how he feels, he just lets it build and build until he explodes.

I'm really worried about how TLOVM is going to handle it going forward, because so far they haven't really set up the group trying to connect with Scanlan and that's a mistake. They have a little, but they should do more. The scene with Pike was good, him instantly reverting to clownish behavior the second it got too sincere then him being frustrated with himself. But they really need to do some of that with the others as well and I'm worried they won't have time or won't think it's necessary.

It's HIS responsibility to reach out to others about his declining mental health. He is the one who set the rules of engagement as "Everything is a joke, especially serious things, I am allergic to sincerity" The others follow his lead. There's only so many times you can reach out to someone earnestly and receive a joke back for your troubles before you eventually respect the unspoken desire not to share and stop asking.

A lot of people cite the prank as some monstrous thing that VM did that proves that they don't love or respect Scanlan. Whereas actually, Sam Riegel admitted that at another moment in time, Scanlan would have found it funny. Pike knows that about him, which is why she did it. (Ashley of course, did it to send Scanlan over the edge because she's evil like that and they all adore drama lol). He was just in a terrible place mentally, so it felt like an insult instead of friendship. (idk where he said it, please don't ask, do you have any idea how many HUNDREDS of HOURS of CR I have watched?! It was probably talks machina).

Also, way back in the early episodes of C1 that lots of people skip, I forget which episode it is, but it was when they were under Kraghammer, Grog got his brain scooped out by the mind flayer or that brain creature or something (I'm a little fuzzy on the details). Anyway, they were all very frightened for Grog and they weren't sure they could save him. Once they figured out they could, Scanlan wanted to set up a prank for Grog to wake up to once they healed him (he was brain dead, in a coma or something). Point being Scanlan's a massive hypocrite lol. (which Sam fully admits).

-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-

Now here's my VERY controversial opinion, don't hate me lol, I never actually liked the "what's my mother's name?" thing. It felt very meta gamey, like Sam looked up Percy's parent's names before the session as a gotcha! Not really like Scanlan actually knew their names. So it never hit me the way it was supposed to. But that's just personal taste. It also circles back to my previous points of YOU NEVER OPENED UP TO THEM SCANLAN, OF COURSE THEY DON'T KNOW YOUR MOTHER'S NAME! THAT'S YOUR FAULT!!!! MAYBE IF YOU DIDN'T TURN EVERYTHING INTO A JOKE, THEY'D KNOW HER NAME!!!!

[dr-spectre]

Sort of a follow up with my last ask, got any theories for the next part of Splatoon 's story?

I think that we're either gonna see a new enemy group show up OR there's gonna be more focus on the salmonids. So far the salmonids have a lot of unknowns about them and there's a lot of stuff that they can explore. Their society and the way they operate is so fascinating and i hope they replace the Octarians as the next enemy group the New Squidbeak Splatoon has to face. I really wanna explore their home and get further insight into their ways of living and infrastructure.

I also think that Deep Cut is gonna have some sort of significance in the next game, either we get more lore out of them or one of them.... goes evil.... and i am PRAYING TO ALL OF THE GODS IN ALL OF THE RELIGIONS THAT THEY DON'T PULL THE STUPID COP OUTS THEY HAVE BEEN DOING TWICE NOW! If i see Frye or Shiver with some "evil headgear" on I AM GOING TO RANT ABOUT IT FOR THE NEXT 5 YEARS! BELIEVE ME!

Callie with the hypnoshades was handled so poorly in my opinion because you gotta go through so many hoops and bibles of hidden canonical information to fully appreciate the story and not make the same ol' tired interpretations nearly everyone has that are wrong. It's so damn messy and rushed and not everyone knows how hypnosis actually works. And the Controller VM with Marina only lasted for five minutes and Marina gets over it so insanely quickly because they wanted to subvert expectations.

Can we HONEST TO GOD GET A PROPER VILLAIN ARC WITHOUT A CATCH!?!? PLEASE?!!? HAVE SOME BALLS NINTENDO! OR JUST DON'T DO ONE AND LET SHIVER AND FRYE BE HAPPY?!?! PLEASE!? (sorry big man but i dont really care that much about you. if you turned evil i would laugh my ass off)

Um... sorry about that little rant..... But yeah i feel like Deep Cut is gonna get more focus lore wise in the next game : )

[critter-genfic-events]

This time, we have eight fics focused on The Meat Man himself, Scanlan Shorthalt!

It’s the funny man, so these fics will all be filled with nothing but slapstick comedy and fluff right? Right?! WRONG! Come get your heartfelt angst and found family goodness!

Check them out behind the cut, and as always - comment and kudos if you like them! 

Learn Me Right by KiaraSayre (39219,Mature) Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Pairings: Kaylie & Scanlan Shorthalt, Scanlan Shorthalt & Vox Machina, Kent Plucker/Scanlan Shorthalt

Scanlan and Kaylie after the Bard's Lament.

Reccer says: I reread this story every time I rewatch the end of the Chroma Conclave. It's such a fantastic story that explores both the characters and their relationships. They change and evolve and make sense, and it hurts and it's beautiful. One of my favourites ever.

A Pirate's Life For Me by amberwoods (18558,Mature) Warnings: N/A Pairings: Scanlan Shorthalt/Pike Trickfoot, Grog Strongjaw & Pike Trickfoot, Scanlan Shorthalt & Vox Machina

Scanlan Shorthalt ends up in the small cell of a pirate ship with about 60% of a plan and an unexpected companion in Pike Trickfoot. Together, they devise a plan to escape their predicament. But Scanlan is keeping secrets, and Pike is quickly hammering away at his defenses. Neither of them will get what they were looking for, but so much more than they could have dreamed of.

Reccer says: Great Scanlan, great Pike, and great use of an interesting AU!

Off Beat Decision by Enderon (3367,General) Warnings: None Pairings: Scanlan & vox machina

If scanlan took the parties suggestion to become a spy on the chroma conclave.

Reccer says: Good scanlan angst.

Otherwise by Erisette (13783,Not Rated) Warnings: Adult content warning Pairings: Kaylie & Scanlan, Scanlan & Vox Machina

A story based on Scanlan’s line to Kaylie, “Every year you've been alive is a year I could have been a better person."

Reccer says: It’s a cute story about Scanlan, Kaylie, and Vox Machina

The Small Things by Erisette (2694,Not Rated) Warnings: Character death, Revivify, blood and injuries, accidental echo to real-life medical issues (ie. throat wounds) Pairings: Scanlan Shorthalt & Vox Machina

"What is—oh, no." Pike's voice holds all the devastation Vex feels as Grog lowers her gently beside the mangled body in the snow. "I can't heal for shit," Kima says tensely, "I tried but—well. I can't raise the dead." (an AU of CR1E71, where the fight against Vorugal doesn't end quite the same way. Still got a happy ending, though.)

Reccer says: This fic was written between episodes 76 and 77 of CR1 and the number of things it gets right about VM reacting to Scanlan's death is uncanny. (seriously. You'd think the author borrowed from The Deceiver's Stand when #83 happened over 2 months after the fic was published.) The story is as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking and every character voice is perfect. A real kick in the feels (but also fluff).

Everything (Anything) True by eponymous_rose (3193,Teen) Warnings: None Pairings:

Scanlan's a master of deception. Turns out reality is a moving target when the words you sing keep changing it.

Reccer says: Fantastic character study in a couple of story beats interspersed by truths that might be lies (but not quite).

a bruise is only your body trying to keep you intact by KiaraSayre (10968,Not Rated) Warnings: None Pairings: Scanlan & Vox Machina

If Bards Lament happened differently.

Reccer says: I like the emotional processing that this author details for Scanlan. It feels in character and feels a bit like closure for what is originally a very tumultuous event.

And then we have two recs for:

The One Moment by Chesari (19630,Teen) Warnings: None Pairings: Scanlan/pike, vax/keyleth, vex/percy

Scanlan gets to cast wish and save vax after the veccna fight. This is the story of how and what happened after.

Reccer #1 says: I love their interpretation and descriptions of the characters and what they were going through at that time and how things could have been different. Reccer #2 says: THE "what if Scanlan had been able to use his 9th level spell for a Wish?" fic. You'll hear the voices when the characters speak (and also "the one true god of Exandria" and "the players", who have a few short scenes as they play out what's happening). My personal go-to fic when I'm sad about CR1E114 and 115. Fantastic.

This is one of our weekly communally-generated gen rec lists. Every week we announce a new theme and allow anyone to submit a fic recommendation. Please note that the summary and content notes are provided by the reccer, and may be different than what the author has provided. Please assume good intentions all around. <3

And hey, anyone includes you!

We'll be back on the fifthteenth with Dreams fic Recs - then on the first with fics focusing on Orym!

Any fics coming to mind? Well, then use this form to submit! If you're looking for some more, check out some fics written in the critter genfic bingo tag, or the older rec lists! Or you can request your own card and join in on the fun!

[sparklegemstone-cr]

What's Up With Taliesin's Dark Percy Meta Sometimes?

Spoilers for Critical Role Campaign 1

I'm relatively new to Critical Role and I've fallen head over heels for Percy and Perc'ahlia. I'm making my way through outside-the-game cast Q&A and commentary to get deeper insight into the characters and every once in a while Taliesin says something that confuses me and doesn't feel completely congruous with how I was personally interpreting Percy. For example:

Taliesin (a couple months after Sunken Tomb): "If I had killed Vex, I would have felt really, really terrible. Actually, weirdly, more out-of-character than in-character. I would have felt really awful because that's such a fourth-grade mistake."

And then in the 3rd Talks Machina at 14:47

Question: "What family does Percy hold higher? VM or the De Rolos?" Taliesin: "Oh wow, that's a good question...<snip>...I think it would be a very interesting question if it came down to it. I think at the moment, thankfully, one can kind of eclipse the other just because he's all about what's important right now, but I think if things weren't quite as dire then he might have been able to be swayed into really uncomfortable and terrible decisions on what to do with the rest of you...<snip>...If it came down to some weird fatalism thing where he had to have some of you quietly executed in the night...<snip>...I certainly would have talked to professionals about it. Things gotta get done."

And I was just curious what other Percy and Perc'ahlia fans think about these quotes. Would love to hear from anyone that wants to share their reaction, and I'm also curious how CR fandom in 2016 was thinking about this, if any of the fandom's "old ones" that were around then and built the fandom (it has been such a delight to go through and see their 2016 posts and all the beautiful meta and art!) happen to be interested in responding ;-). @eponymous-rose @percahliia @spiceshorthalt @curriebelle @critrolesketch @soaringsparrows @thesunshunter

[sigynpenniman]

Something that frustrates me about a lot of open-source advocacy is that it often refuses to engage with the needs of the real & professional worlds & the fact that not everyone is a computer wizard, and that even the “easy to use” open source softwares like Ubuntu and LibreOffice are often significantly more difficult and confusing to use than their paid alternatives. I’m reminded of when @hylianengineer posted something about wanting to be a Linux person and just not being able to. I appreciate hating Microsoft and their ethics and data theivery and prices, but the reality is that even Ubuntu is massively confusing and difficult to use for a large percentage of people, especially if they’re not computer savvy or are moderately computer savvy, but only inasmuch as they know where the buttons are in windows to do what they want. The space between “only wants to browse the internet” and “person who knows how to code” (two classes of people who can use Linux perfectly for their needs) is huge and unfortunately contains 90% of people. I am an IT technician with half a decade of professional experience and another half decade of personal submergence in computers in general. I am perfectly comfortable in the command line and I understand computers better than people. I find every Linux distro I’ve ever tried to use, even the “use friendly” ones, to be absolutely impenetrable. The simplest of tasks are easy - the internet works great. The most complex of tasks are easy - and sometimes only possible in Linux. I have an Ubuntu VM specifically for mass downloading from the Internet archive. The moderate tasks, like installing software, are often infuriatingly difficult, largely due Linux’s tendency to product the nightmarish Cascading Dependency Error, in which you try to sudo-apt-get something and end up getting an error about a missing dependency, trying to install which gets you another error about a missing dependency, and before you know it you’re 15 minutes deep in a “simple” software install.

This is just not gonna work for most people.

This also ignores the fact that if you use any professional software for your job, like Photoshop, Word, etc, you need it to work, and often “Just use LibreOffice” isn’t the answer. If everyone you work with uses PowerPoint, you can’t necessarily afford to risk that LibreOffice is interpreting and displaying things differently than power point is going to when you send the file to your CoWorkers.

Open source software is great, but it just does not work for a lot of people and in a lot of contexts, and smugly replying “Well you should just use LibreOffice” to posts complaining about the price and problems with the Office suite is just not helpful.

And if you’re going to comment on this post and call me stupid or say all of this is made up, I need you to understand something, and I say this with love: if Linux and its surrounding software is easy for you, it is not because it is actually easy. It is because you are good at computers and have a brain that finds that sort of thing easy to parse. It’s not that it’s easy to use, it’s that you’ve become so accustomed to using it that you have, without realizing, become unable to accurately project yourself into the experience of someone who doesn’t have that skill. Being Good At Computers has a way of very silently and slowly making you literally unable to accurately imagine the perspective of people who aren’t - I know this, because I have this problem.

I don’t know where I’m going with this, beyond just - as a literal computer person, I’m growing tired of the call to “Just Go Open Source” as a solution to problems with first party software. It really only works in specific places, and for specific people, and people who don’t fit into that narrow window have the right to complain about those things because they don’t have a lot of good alternatives

[sunskate]

I’m a bit sceptical about Carmen but honestly only because Scott is so associated with possibly the most iconic interpretation of it. But if they pick a different music cut I could be in to it. Then again, if they want to get a home crowd at Worlds going they’ll be wanting the warhorse cut. Definitely glad that they’ve moved definitively away from the lyrical soupy stuff that defined their junior and early senior days.

Scott didn’t even skate to the warhorse version - they used the Rodion Schedrin Suite from 1967 based on the opera - it has only strings and percussion and a more modern sound than the original. most skaters use the orchestral suites that Bizet himself made from his opera and avoid having the operatic voices, and then there are all the more contemporary reimaginings and arrangements -

i’m excited to see what CPom will do - if they pull this off in their own way, the legacy connection to VM through this piece can be a little added sheen to their story. it’s warhorse enough that nobody’s expecting them to be VM - it’s not as though they’re doing MR or Mahler

the IAMO team are critical, of course, but i also think Marie-France's eye is going to be on this program. CPom are IAM's top US team in the post-2026 quad, and this feels like table setting. i don't recall an IAM Carmen (pls correct me if there is one), and the full force of IAM packaging is going to be deployed is my guess. it feels potentially like it could be great, not to set expectations too high lol

CPom have had 4 stellar programs in a row. that first IAM season, the Batdance RD was pretty memorable, too. Wicked Game was the program that felt closest to what they'd done before - maybe that was a comfort zone thing, idk, but i agree they've really found their stride the more specific and unique they've become. and now that they've found their voice, i think they can pull off a warhorse

[tutuandscoot]

As promised: Part two of VM Holding Hands-

*A (not by any means exhaustive) collection of VM handy holdy moment:

I’m sure I’ve seen this before but I only really took it in for the first time the other day and boy were my tear ducts put to the test! This is after their FD at Worlds 2011- only their 3rd competitive skate of the season and their first time competing this FD. It was so good! Like nothing ever seen before (as with basically every program of their- always innovative both in themselves and as leaders of the sport). The lifts were insane, the skating was deadly good, the DANCING they were doing. They get a score of 107.something- the highest so far that season was 103. Something. They were in the lead after the SD and basically all the commentators on this said how near impossible it would be for their skate to be beaten. It was THAT good.. yet.. somehow they were. As they wait for the score to come up here, they look so nervous, exhausted, almost pleading for it to be a high score. And in a way- well the way I’m interpreting it, they almost look a bit defeated already. The score comes up and he goes to find and then squeeze her hand without even looking at her. This feels like another one of those moments of S physically saying/expressing to himself ‘thank god I didn’t let her down’ and also a bit of ‘we did it kiddo, no matter what happens now, we did it, and I’m so freaking proud of you’ a little bit of that protecting her through reassurance. Then as they squeeze that look to each other.. I have so many feels about this but I don’t even know if I can put into clear worlds what I’m feeling.. so I’ll just leave it there. If you know what they were going through at this point in their lives you know what that hand squeeze means (and it means literally everything to them in that moment).

On a lighter note.. this is just super cute. As I said in the original (part one) post, during their final competitive season they almost completely abandoned using dance hold, for what exact psychological/emotional/competitive reason I don’t know. So this is almost like them being in on their own thing, that ‘hey we don’t do that silly proper dance hold anymore like those inferiors do, we’re cute and let our hands cuddle as we skate around bc we love to hold hands!’ They make a big thing of the it between themselves that they aren’t gonna use dance hold. He goes in and changes like a little ‘tricked ya!’ But no bc of course she knows and changes immediately.

An “I know, I’m here, I’ve got you” last lil squeeze. T in her beautiful, quiet way protecting him with the simplest of connections.

2 in 1: holding out his hand for what feels like a really long time for her to get to centre to take their bows, followed by a switching to handy holdy to go thank the person playing music -(as they so often would bc they are previous lil angels).

You can’t actually see the handy holding here but you know there are. The last few moment on warm up before leaving the ice, her cuddling his arm and him reassuring her that everything will be ok bc they have each other.

They switch so softly and so naturally. Like it just happens. They don’t even think about it. Earlier in their career.. like it was still natural, but it was maybe that there was something to intitiate them holding hands this way, but here it was just, it was like some kind of magnetic force that drew them to hold hands properly. Idk, but isn’t it beautiful??

Squeezing hands super tight while singing the anthem in YVR. “They were holding hands”- alma (thanks for shooting me in the heart a dozen times)

2 in 1:

1: soft little hand cuddle to his heart as they go to the podium.

2: *Captain Canada!, “wait where’s my wife kiddo”

I really don’t think this is bc her hand is cold I think it’s like a random nervous system tick resulting in expressing huge amounts of affection. (I’m the same I do weird lil physical things when excited that there’s no explanation for).

S: “hey kiddo”

T: “hey kiddo”

S: “you ready to have some fun!?”

T: “Yeah 😄”

*swings hands like the happy lil kiddos they are 🥲

[rubyisms]

need help naming an upcoming comic i’ll be working on (slowly but surely) so i’m doing a poll to see what people like better!

the comic is vox machina set in the avatar universe, hundreds of years after aang and korra and following keyleth as the avatar with VM as her team avatar. the aesthetic itself takes heavily after the steampunk of korra's time, as opposed to a more modern interpretation.

if you’re a critical role fan and have CR mutuals or followers, please reblog! i would love the extra feedback on titles.

[utilitycaster]

I don't really know what my question is but there is a popular post going around that seems to take the exact opposite opinion as you on Keyleth and Osysa's taunts toward her. Basically I'm very confused why so many people think that Keyleth's fears all come to pass when, the way I see it, her fears become the least true out of all of Osysa's taunts to VM. I'm confused what any of it has to do with her lifespan? I am basically just ranting here so feel free to ignore just confused at the fandom

So here's the secret. Sometimes I see meta that makes me go "well I think that's wrong" but I am not going to actually reblog someone's meta and say "this is wrong" so I just write my own post in which I say what I think instead so that it's out there.

But yeah, I think Osysa's words to Keyleth are incredibly cutting, possibly more so than her words to anyone else except possibly Scanlan, because she just tells everyone else what they are directly (not nicely, but directly) whereas Keyleth's is a taunt. However, while she alludes to Keyleth's long lifespan (which, sidebar, I'm not entirely sure has come up in TLOVM, but I haven't rewatched season 1 lately and it's hard to split what I know as someone who's seen C1 vs. someone who's seen TLOVM S1 and I suspect many others are in the same boat), Osysa is mostly honing in on how Keyleth is so frozen by her fears that either she fails or she waits far too long to act. Her long lifespan is merely a way to hit harder on that second item, but not at all the focus of what Osysa is saying; and it's also very easy to interpret it as "you will outlive your friends because they'll die in battle against the dragons while you're freaking out in the background, unable to enter the fight, before you even get around to the Aramente."

I also think the fact that it's a taunt is a fun detail, because the thing that gets Keyleth past the initial barriers in the end is her being so furious and frustrated about Raishan and about the circumstances of the Conclave in general that she can't hold back anymore; Osysa realizes that simply telling Keyleth she's too anxious will only send Keyleth back down the spiral, but saying "oh yeah? prove it" might actually get a response.

But I don't think her potential archdruid lifespan is important, and indeed, because the implication even under D&D rules - and definitely in a purely narrative-driven story adapted from but not subject to D&D rules like TLOVM - is that Keyleth will not gain that long lifespan until she passes the Aramente, and without her archdruid status, assuming typical lifespans, Keyleth barely outlives the twins and doesn't even come close to Pike or Scanlan's gnomish lifespans. I think this is just Osysa saying "you'll put off your greatest responsibility until it's too late at the rate you're going," but making the life-or-death implications of that as clear as possible.

[alexbkrieger13]

https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/a/bgwRpk/lista-har-ar-svenska-vm-stjarnornas-garage-fotbolls-vm-2023

I am nosy i wanna know what cars they drive 🤣

Zecira Musovic: Fiat 500e

How good is Zecira Musovic at driving?

- Very good. I do everything right in traffic. But Kadeisha Buchanan (Canadian national team player) on the team described me as a turtle. Very slow, but I just want my passengers to feel safe with me. Interpret it however you want.

How's the left traffic going (playing in Chelsea)?

- Good. I just need to be extremely rested, concentrated and focus on driving alone.

So you don't want to meet a tired and unfocused Zecira Musovic in left-hand traffic?

- No, you should probably stay away from that. 

Fridolina Rolfö: Audi Q2 silver

Caroline Seger: Mercedes CLA 200

- Yes, you should make a list, then I have a Ferrari and a Porsche, says Seger, who actually drives a Mercedes.

Jonna Andersson: Bicycle

- A white Sjösala, says Andersson, who despite cycling is a good driver.

- I'm pretty good, I would say. Calm and safe.

Magdalena Eriksson: Audi A1 white

Stina Blackstenius: Audi Q3 black

How good is Stina Blackstenius at driving?

- I can sometimes feel that I definitely could have driven a little more calmly. I am generally a person who is in a hurry everywhere and lacks patience, which does not always go hand in hand with driving. It's like nothing has ever happened, but it doesn't always have to be so stressful, she says.

How's the left traffic going (plays in Arsenal)?

- Things have gone well since I moved there. It didn't take long before you got the hang of it. But when I come to Sweden it gets a bit confusing that way instead. It is a good mark that you have entered left-hand traffic.

Hanna Bennison: BMW 116D

Linda Sembrant: Jeep

How good is Linda Sembrant at driving?

- Good, but I needed to adapt to driving in Italy. It is very different from Sweden. In Sweden we are very calm, while in Italy there is not quite the same harmony in driving. You have to follow in the flow, otherwise it is almost dangerous.

There is not as much harmony at Linda Sembrant behind the wheel in Italy?

- It's the funny Linda Sembrant who drives in Italy.

Johanna Rytting Kaneryd : Volkswagen Polo

Olivia Schough : Bicycle

- A Monarch called Karin. 

Madeleine Janogy : Volkswagen T-Cross

How good is Madelen Janogy at driving?

- I think I'm good, but I'm often told that I'm not that good.

From whom then?

- Everyone who goes with me. There is always something. Either I brake too hard or not at all, or it goes too slow or too fast.

Rebecka Blomqvist: Volkswagen Taigo

Jennifer Falk: Volkswagen Taigo

Kosovar Asllani: Kia EV6

- Peter went with me when he came to visit. He said that I was a perfect fit as an emergency police officer and I see that as a positive. I don't drive dangerously, it shouldn't be dangerous, but if I find a gap, I take it.

Magnus Wikman: Honda Civic, champagne colored

- I'm not a champagne guy, but I still like it, he says.

Peter Gerhardsson: Volvo XC60

How good is Peter Gerhardsson at driving?

- Very good. I have taken an emergency driver's course and keep the speed. I am very particular about that, says Gerhardsson.

However, the union captain reveals that things have not always gone right on the roads.

- But then I have to admit that when I covered the European Championship in 1997 in Norway, I went there for speeding. They had speed limits of 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 every hundred meters. They changed all the time. 

[jbird-the-manwich]

Be overworked real magic into dungeons and dragons or coding? And how can I do this also

To tell you the truth I've never really had a good opportunity to participate in dungeons and dragons. I played a few times with my cousins as a tiny falsetto child, but maybe twice. I usually ended up dying horribly and then reading the manuals they had instead, far, far more stimulated by the illustrations of tight shit, which Ironically enough, I did end up manufacturing ersatz for use in my own workings purely out of convenience many years ago. Though, It would be a lot of fun, to steal away with a DMs favorite dice and conjure them to behave Erratically In My Favor (Or My Enemies Disfavor) Or learn to read dice and use numerological breakdown equations to attempt to read the dms next moves and plan your strategies accordingly.

The most pop-culture magic thing I've done was in my early twenties when I used some jupiter magic to petition a specific hour of jupiter for hunting shiney pokemon. It did seem like I found quite a few more, but in the end I ended up feeling kinda bad about it because depending how you view planetary magic you're basically asking a planetary intelligence older than humanity to perform a function you could provide for yourself just as easily with a romhack. (I was emulating). I may still end up making my besty a shiney charm for pokemon go, as it gives her joy, and I like to show my affection with gifts, but that I would work with blood, so arguably only my ancestors might give a shit and they ought to know by now I ain't got good sense so.... we'll see.

As far as programming a spell itself, that's a biiiiit of a long stretch by my magical model that I adhere to. I'm primarily an animist, so for me, the thing is, say I call or conjure a spirit to do a thing. Sometimes a whole mess of them.

If you're of a chaos magic bent you could *try* sigilizing something, as plaintext, and writing a very simple proglet to echo that text to the console endlessly, or based on a planetary hour, or select a versicle related to the purpose and echo that, or all of the above, or even a script to open and close a planetary seal in a window at certain hours, or an ASCII snip of a planetary glyph, but to my personal models, I could just as easily accomplish most of those things without electricity with rocks and sticks and bones and ink and materia, and efficiency of resource use, both physical and computational, is my guiding star.

*maybe* it could be useful, If you had a job interview, or impending incarceration, or a court date and wanted to know *something* was happening conceptually related to another pre-existing spell to feed it, but by my model of practice, this would still require off-code magic to make the spitting of characters to a console even remotely related to a spell intended to Do A Thing, and, Depending on how you view magic and transmission of intent you could hide stuff in the comments as a certain astrology app developer was said to do, but to my reasoning and practice, this is a waste of effort and a misunderstanding of a key element of what makes witchcraft distinct from other forms of magic - if a cute decor to your source code - as compilers don't include comments by default in any finished binary. Using an interpretive language would keep the comments intact with the instructions but they would still be stripped prior to VM code and thus excluded from execution.

You could, in theory, store a spoken spell as a string variable hardcoded in the binary and then call that variable to instantiate the spell in memory, perform some transformation against it so the compiler won't optimize away the "unused" string variable, and then do something with the transformation, say, walk the string a character at a time, summing their ordinal values, and printing the result every X milliseconds and immediately clearing the screen so the entire process is invisible outside a debugger, but this is an experiment I have not performed. Yes I accidentally just invented ascii sigils just now oh my god the disc horse I can hear the hoofbeast what have I done what have I done whyyy?!?!?!? WHY GODS?!?!

ohkay I've accepted it. *ahem*

It really all depends on how you use and view magic and your creative limits in regards to brainstorming how you might incorporate technology.

For my own uses, about the best purpose I could find for my programming bent in relation to magic was in the production of my digital grimoire I wrote to prepare print-pretty HTML output of spells I input as a write them for inclusion into my solid, meatspace grimoire, and offline use on any device with a web browser:

the output + indexing feature of which is complete, and is a very handy means of auto-calligraphing a spell onto paper via Thee Most Sacrede Inkjete Printinge Daimon Of Artaeaea, and it's lacking only the finishing of the plaintext console version that can run with no browser. It runs fine under LINKS2 on dos but that browser runs for shit on the newest handheld I own (I suspect a bug in the dos emulations network layer spamming the error console as the device has no network hardware, but have not poked around enough to determine if that's why yet)

The current revision even supports theming, formula storage, windows and linux, and supports a different theme for each section, with support for CSS themes, for which a proof of concept of layering and animation support is functional, for basically no good reason than I was high on eweed and was like 'hehe what if nyancat":

I'm also currently working on retroprogramming an enumerator program to derive, accurately to occult theory, based on the qualities of arbitrary objects, correct planetary rulerships based on the doctrine of signatures and associated texts, but so far only the plant function is feature complete. The program itself isn't complete yet, and will support at least color theming:

The photo is a very early prototype, and while I got stoned one week and wrote 90% of the functions when our internet shat out and I finally had 0 distractions from the task, I haven't fucked with it further yet. The current prototype runs under DOS emulation so I can run it on anything modern, including phones and handheld gaming devices. I may end up rolling all the pieces and parts into one program that can do the whole witchy business, possibly with a very simple natural language core shell I might call AGATHA in honor of ELIZA, the ancient ai experiment intended to simulate a conversation with a therapist. All of these are essentially iterations of the first whole program I ever wrote intended to store occult information. I called it arcana and it was lisa frank colors. I'll post a photo sometime.

i'm playing with the idea of learning enough lua to produce a more adorable version for Pico-8 or a FOSS work-alike for the planetary enumerator, but have not began this yet.

There are a few other features it needs to be generally considered a digital witchcraft assistant system, but ONE DAY.

I intend to release it all eventually, maybe on itch.io or something. Freebie wise, I'm also working on a set of scripts for AI to give them the same capabilities, but so far only bard can run it. My own model and method of Doing Pointy Hat Things relegates computers to reference tools, more or less, and not active participants, but, I mean whos to say you couldn't build a servitor as a text object on a flash drive or something? Experiment, chase results, lean into what seems like it works a little, until you have something that works flawlessly. Stepwise Refinement and all.

anyway thank you for the ask! it was a fun write-up.

[dreanner95]

Before people try to interpret Marisha’s words the wrong way: What she and Matt said of 4-Sided-Dive today didn’t confirm that Laudna will come back. It confirmed that there is a CHANCE she will come back. The side quest with Keyleth was created by Matt to give BH this chance because Marisha shared her desire to continue to tell her story. But that doesn’t mean the ritual is an instant success. And they will need to talk VM into it regardless. And before Marisha starts thinking about a new character and new art for them, she wants to know if Laudna could return. And she wants her to return changed. What that means (trauma, change due to her soul from life returning, something else) we don’t know.

I say this because I have already seen both sides trying to frame it their way. No, Marisha hasn’t given Laudna plot armor, she just has decided she wants a chance for Laudna to return. And no, Marisha also hasn’t confirmed that Laudna will defiantly return. There is still a chance of failure.

[scabopolis]

fic recs: l/v market based fics

In anticipation of the upcoming 2023 Logan x Veronica "New Year, New Fic" fest, I bring you a small selection of fics inspired by Logan and Veronica making their way downtown and going to a market and/or a mall and/or a drugstore.

Day 1 of the challenge is February 1, 2023 so be sure to check out the #2023 LV New Year here on tumblr or the AO3 collection for more fic and art.

Fic: A Strange New Story Every Time by gyzym Rating: M, for some swearing and some smuttage Tropes and Themes: Future fic post s3, friends to lovers, reunited after many years, Logan owns a purse dog Read if: The fic that inspired this whole prompt! This is also the most popular VM fic on AO3 so I'd be shocked if you hadn't read it, but I would like to repeat: "Logan owns a purse dog." There's also a podfic available.

Fic: In a Cardboard Castle by casket4mytears Rating: M, for swearing, imbibing of some less than legal substances, and violence Tropes and Themes: Zombie apocalypse but in a fun way, grade-a battle couples, and your general "Veronica and Logan are obsessed with one another and like putting their mouths on one another's mouths." Read if: You watched Home Alone and thought "this could be sexier." But...not in a weird way. In a thoroughly entertaining and "I want to see my favorite couple outwit corrupt government agencies" way.

Fic: Veronica's New Normal by @cheshirecatstrut Rating: T, for teenage like shenanigans, and some swearing, and much makeoutage Tropes and Themes: Logan Echolls is a pest because he cares Read if: You want to see Logan and Veronica (not) flirt at a coffee shop, and at a grocery store, and at a furniture store, and at a ... you get the idea. They're definitely not flirting.

Fic: Ghost of Christmas Past by @marshmellowbobcat Rating: Not rated, but I'd put it at a solid PG-13 Tropes and Themes: Lilly Kane is a gosh-darn-delight (and also a ghost and also a matchmaker), locked up together (in a store) and then locking lips, it's a Christmas and/or New Year's miracle! Read if: You want to laugh, and also swoon, and you love devious little Lilly working her ghostly magic in service of those she loves the most.

Fic: The Washing Machine Story by @best-laid-plaids Rating: M for sexy times, and shenanigans, and your regular adult swears Tropes and Themes: This is domesticity in the sexiest way possible, discussions of marriage in a non-traumatizing way Read if: You want to be delighted. And yes, technically, the part of this story that takes place in a market is about 400 words long. BUT! Its inclusion is educational, because it goes to show how open to interpretation these prompts are. Good, right??!!

Honorable mention to The Rotten Ones by @ghostcat3000. While not an l/v fic, it is one of the fics within her masterful collection bridging Logan and Veronica-centric stories all the way from pre-series through book canon. My fic partner in crime @thelillykane demanded that I "give it an honorable mention from me bc they do mention logan and it's such a good fic."

Until next time! Happy fic reading!