#was certainly a... decision

[mintjeru]

olympics 2024 men's volleyball japan vs. argentina match you will always be famous

open for better quality | no reposts

[chandralia]

I think them calling ochako deku’s “deserved reward for saving the world” and saying “yayy japan’s birthrate is saved!” is probably the worst fucking thing to come out of this.

[newttxt]

i was talking extensively with a friend about reiju’s delicate balance of caring/emotionless and her relationship with sanji

[ignitesthestxrs]

there's something about the way people talk about john gaius (incl the way the author writes him) that is like. so absent of any connection to te ao māori that it's really discomforting. like even in posts that acknowledge him as not being white, they still talk about him like a white, american leftist guy in a way that makes it clear people just AREN'T perceiving him as a māori man from aotearoa.

and it's just really serves to hammer home how powerful and pervasive whiteness and american hegemony is. because TLT is probably the single most Kiwi series in years to explode on the global stage, and all the things i find fraught about it as a pākehā woman reading a series by a pākehā author are illegible to a greater fandom of americans discoursing about whether or not memes are a valid way of portraying queer love.

idk the part of my brain that lights up every time i see a capital Z printed somewhere because of the New Zealand Mentioned??? instinct will always be proud of these books and muir. but i find myself caught in this midpoint of excitement and validation over my culture finding a place on the global stage, frustration at how kiwi humour and means of conveying emotion is misinterpreted or declared facile by an international audience, frustrated also by how that international audience runs the characters in this book through a filter of american whiteness before it bothers to interpret them, and ESPECIALLY frustrated by how muir has done a pretty middling job of portraying te ao māori and the māoriness of her characters, but tht conversation doesn't circulate in the same way* because a big part of the audience doesn't even realise the conversation is there to be had.

which is not to say that muir has done a huge glaring racism that non-kiwis haven't noticed or anything, but rather that there are very definitely things that she has done well, things that she has done poorly, things that she didn't think about in the first book that she has tacked on or expanded upon in the later books, that are all worthy of discussion and critique that can't happen when the popular posts that float past my dash are about how this indigenous man is 'guy who won't shut up about having gone to oxford'

*to be clear here, i'm not saying these conversations have never happened, just that in terms of like, ambient posts that float round my very dykey dash, the discussions and meta that circulate on this the lesbian social media, are overwhelmingly stripped of any connection to aotearoa in general, let alone te ao māori in specific. and because of the nature of american internet hegemony this just,,,isn't noticed, because how does a fish know it's in the ocean u know? i have seen discussions along these lines come up, and it's there if i specifically go looking for it, but it's not present in the bulk of tlt content that has its own circulatory life and i jut find that grim and a part of why the fandom is difficult to engage with.

[maggie44paint]

wanted to add joly as the nurse but I got lazy

[nix-writes-mcyt]

I really hope the hermits and victims are okay right now, I'm glad they have each other at least though all this

Thankfully they're all adults with support. I trust their judgement as a group and will continue to do so.

If anyone on here needs support or to vent my ask box and dms are open. If you do not wish me to publish an ask (if you're just venting for example) please put that at the top.

P.s please do not send hate to anyone. Hate is never necessary.

[kikker-oma]

[friedri-ce]

I FW your ULTRAKILL gijinkas HEAVILY

In fact I think your Gabriel Gijinka alone has inspired so much of my ocs LOL

yuri... ♥️♥️♥️

aghhh the white boy!!!! aghhhhh!!!!!! i hate him

[24601orwhatever]

Imagine ur dad dying And ur husband is serving like This Right next to you

[arthursfuckinghat]

I know a lot of people wanted John to have shot and killed Micah first, but there's something so awfully poetic about Dutch being the one who had shot him.

How Micah, in those mere moments, felt the same betrayal that Arthur had felt when Dutch left him on that mountain, despite being the one who was supposed to betray Dutch.

Micah thought he was untouchable after manipulating and driving a wedge into the gang, but he was blindsided by the very man he tried to align himself with. Dutch’s betrayal of Micah feels like a really distorted reflection of what Arthur wanted - for Dutch to see what damage Micah had done. But it's just a reminder of the sick cycle of loyalty and betrayal that defined Dutch as a character.

John pulling the trigger first would have been satisfying, but Dutch's choice gives it a haunting depth that sticks with you.

"You shot me.. you shot me pretty good."

[novelconcepts]

There's something really fascinating about the duality of Van and Lottie. Two kids who opted into stories to keep going, to keep everyone else going. Two kids who told themselves what they needed to make sure they could arrange an inherently nightmare situation into a home they could all stomach. Van with fiction; Lottie with faith. Neither any truer than the other, neither any greater as a lie. There is no such thing as false hope, just hope. Tell it to them all to make sure the despair does not win.

And then the loss of that faith, of that fiction. How it shapes them both in shades of depression, distances them from the others. Lottie speaking less and less; Van joking less and less. Lottie no longer having the trust of any of the others; Van no longer even trusting herself. Both of them striving to rework the narrative and not quite, not quite being able to grasp hold of the threadwork anymore.

Van with scars on her face she wears for the rest of her life. Lottie with a scar on her forehead that is totally invisible in adulthood. Van going off-grid, distancing herself from everyone until given no other choice. Lottie going off-grid, returning with as many people surrounding her as she could manage. Both knowing in their bones the Wilderness, It, is not real. Both falling back into the Hunt anyway. Both staring it in the face, getting dragged back to who they were at seventeen. Lottie embracing. Van rejecting. It makes no difference either way. They follow the same path, the same road, the same endless trail to the same heartless end.

Lottie dying meaninglessly. A murder. Lottie, going back to the vision of fire she's had since she was a teenager. Lottie, who wanted so badly to be useful, to have a purpose, to mean something, and who dies alone.

Van dying meaninglessly. A murder. Van, going back into a house filled with smoke, just as she's feared since she was a teenager. Van, who wanted so badly to have a purpose, to find a reason, and who dies alone.

The story doesn't save either of them. The story only keeps unspooling. More tragedy. More meaninglessness. More stupid death, as all death is stupid--as Travis and the button, Natalie and the needle, Jackie and the snow, Ben and a fabricated trial were all stupid. Meaningless. Unnecessary. But always, always coming for them. You don't actually cheat death. You can't. You can't make meaning out of nothing, but it won't stop you trying. You have to try. That's all we have, all we are. We are all stories in the end, and we are trying so desperately to make that matter.

[thesimquarter]

The Urbz in The Sims 4: Businesses and Hobbies: i totally didn't forget that the pack released oops

(final part unless i get real inspired or an ask or something)

Ok so, the pack with the Urbz Characters dropped over a month ago at this point, on March 6th. And, as I expected, the new pack had new "secrets"/gossip dialogues for the characters to build out the 'lore' of the characters a bit more (this is to-be-expected given its presence in the recent packs). and i, in my autistic, Sims handheld-obsessed ways, did immediately CTRL + F through the pack's string table to find what secrets it was holding (within the hour that my very legal source dropped the pack). I started this post, and... I didn't finish it until whatever timestamp is listed on this post.

Anyhow, the feature in this pack is called "Nordhaven Noise," where you interact with a resident of the neighborhood and learn a little about the world or the pre-mades. There's quite a bit of "noise" about the returning Urbz characters that are very... referential. So, I thought I'd point out what the references are and some of my thoughts about them.

Under the cut because long post!!

Sims 4 Text will be indented, other text will not be.

I heard Gramma Hattie went to jail once, everyone wonders what she did!

Reference to Mission 4, Goal 4, Running from The Law, where Hattie lands in jail alongside the player because of Daddy Bigbucks' new running law. I thought there was an implication that she's landed herself in jail multiple times though. I'd have to go and check.

I heard that Gramma Hattie's go-to drink at the Koffieboon was a quadruple grande decaf soy mochaccino with extra whip. She's the only one they allowed to order that thing.

Reference to Gramma Hattie's dialogue when asked about coffee shops: When I'm not thirsty I order a quadruple grande decaf soy mochachino with extra whip.

I hadn't picked up on the connection between having her comical coffee order and her marrying into a Coffee House Family, and honestly? That's a really sweet backstory for her and her late husband to have met through haha.

... Honestly, it's kinda making me want to headcanon the Urbz Coffee Barista as her daughter.

I heard Gramma Hattie helped save her home city from some oily corporate men. Shady business people better watch out around her.

Reference to Hattie's overall role in The Urbz, although the wording is weird. Corporate men? Plural? There was more than one?

Also, I don't feel like they actually acknowledged that Gramma Hattie is a career political activist. I mean, yes, she did that. But her character was established to have been doing stuff like this for decades. I'm also curious about the timeline here, because she met her husband in Nordhaven and yet...

I heard that someone once wrote a biography about Cannonball…I wonder what kind of life that man must have lived.

A reference to the following dialogue that Coleman says while talking about books: I don't want to brag, but I had a book written about me last year. It was a biography called "Cannon Fire!"

I heard Cannonball also goes by King Cool, cool.

King Cool is Cannonball Coleman's name in the French translation of The Urbz. I'm actually super glad they referenced that haha. It's one of my favorite translated names from the handheld Sims games.

Cannonball apparently used to play at a place called Club Zydeco, I wonder if that venue is still around?

Very factual. This is both prominent from Coleman's schedule (where he's usually at Club Zydeco at night) and the goal Get On The "List". The second part is probably referencing the fact that its said to be closed by the time The Sims 2 for Nintendo DS is released. The text that references this is as follows: "Cannonball" Coleman's Sax Lounge has become the spot for new music since the Zydeco Club closed in '04. Eat, drink, dance or record your own music!

Cannonball said his hat used to be his grandfather's, how sweet is that? And also, how durable must that hat be?

Reference to the dialogue that Coleman says when you tease him: That's low, man. My grandfather gave me this hat. And I think his grandmother gave it to him.

I have the same question too, random Sims 4 Sim.

I've seen Crispin hang out near that dark alley in Iverstad. I wonder what's up with that.

To my knowledge, this isn't a reference towards anything in The Urbz. It is a reference to a pack feature though. In the new pack, there's a new NPC named Trashley Reelpearson, AKA 3 raccoons in a trenchcoat. This NPC sells um... a new art collection themed around raccoons. Crispin runs an art museum, so the implication is probably that he's buying Trashley's art.

I heard that Crispin used to run an art gallery in another city…then he set his eyes on buying the Konst Modern when he moved here.

Reference to Crispin Black running the Foundry in The Urbz.

Cannonball used to be an amazing saxophone player, but he hasn't touched any since his last one broke.

This is just an In-Universe explanation for why Coleman doesn't have his saxophone anymore.

As a note, there's an object named "King Cool's Framed Sax" whose description reads:

This framed, broken sax reminds you of those failed dreams and passions that you lost, with the silver lining of adding some sultry, jazzy vibes to your decor.

Tragic, I guess.

And some other stuff I don't have the brain power to organize properly into this post:

Crispin Black has a special interaction with every single Sim. He can judge a Sim's outfit, and Sims will get an embarrassed moodlet if he dislikes it and a confident moodlet if he likes it. That's a fun detail, although I do not trust the fashion opinions of anyone who willingly goes to bed in only underwear and dress shoes (seriously, what is UP with that?).

There's also another object that mentions Gramma Hattie, that being "Gramma Hattie's Bakery," whose description reads:

Ever since Gramma Hattie appeared on the Great Nordhaven Cake Off, her bakery stall has been the talk of the town. Just don't try to ask her about her secret ingredient (it's cardamom).

No comment.

Now onto the secrets...

From other NPCs, but there's also 3 from Coleman, 3 from Crispin, and 3 from Ollie themself.

From other Nordhaven residents, you can hear:

Apparently Ollie's birth parents keep in contact with Crispin. Everyone wonders who they are.

From Cannonball Coleman, you can hear:

Yeah I met Ollie's birth parents once. They got good vibes, but those cats seriously couldn't get along. Mad that Skid Mark would have such a sharp kid.

Oh kid, you didn't know about Ollie's birth dad? It's Father Winter. I'm joking cat.

Yeah Crispin adopted Ollie many years before they moved to Nordhaven. The kid's got good vibes.

From Crispin Black, you can hear:

Jayde didn't think their fling would lead to anything, just some fun…few years later Skid shows up at my door asking if I could look after his child. Never saw myself as the fatherly type before, but that's my kid now.

… Yeah I know the birth parents. I still talk with the mother from time to time, I keep her updated on how Ollie is doing and what not.

Why of course, I found baby Ollie in a silver conch I fished up from the deep seas. It's mad what can come from the water. Take care of your oceans or they'll give you kids.

From Ollie Mark, you can hear:

It's funny. People say I look like them. I've never properly met them, but I don't really mind. Crispin is the only parent I need.

Only thing I know for sure is that they both skidded out of my life without much hesitation.

A stork brought me to Crispin on a rainbow cloud made of jellybeans. Wait you actually believed that?

I find it interesting that they went with Jayde and Skid instead of, like, Mazuiko and Skid. I could probably say more about this if provoked, but my opinion at the moment is just: meh.

I think it's funny that they canonized Skid's name into First Name: Skid, Last Name: Mark. Imagine being born, your parents looking at you, and deciding you shall forever be known as: Shit Stain. (I know Skid Mark also refers to the mark that wheels leave behind in some instances. Because skateboarder. But it's pretty clear to me that both meanings of the phrase were probably intended.)

The Loden family (which contains Gramma Hattie) also has their own unique secret-thing. A notable part of their household is that they all share one thing in common: they hate two Sims, Felix and Bruno Hoffman. Obviously, there’s a family feud. However, it’s kind of a boring one?

The incident is supposed to be a stolen recipe for Jellybean Cookies. Boring but ok. Both the person who supposedly stole the recipe and the person who accused them of stealing the recipe are both dead and don't even have graves... :/

As a side note, I was disappointed to discover that, despite implementing a new 'Family Recipe' feature, they didn't give the Lodens a family recipe! [Pointing] Missed potential! [Pointing] Missed Potential!

Anyways, for brevity’s sake, here’s all the dialogue referring to the feud. I don’t know who says what, and I don't care to know either.

I tried talking to Bruno after his wife died, but he just ignored me! I don't know why it all spiraled so badly between the Hoffmans and my late husband. Was it truly over who came up with the Jellybean Cookie?! How juvenile.

They upset Gramma and Nora. I couldn't forgive them for that…and selling our family recipe! Truly no respect.…

I trusted them once, then I learned my lesson. Never trust a cookie swindler.

I've never gotten the full story from Gramma Hattie. Maybe if she swallowed her pride and talked to Bruno they could be friends again.

They were quite rude. I tried to be nice, but it was just pointless! I even heard they used to call us the Great Cookie Fraudsters.

My dad once gave my son Erik a secret recipe for the Jellybean Cookie. Then I saw the same cookie sold by the Hoffmans. I wonder if it's got something to do with how the feud started?

I'm not sure how it all started, but they upset my dad and then had the gall to not show up to his funeral!

My mom said they used to be tight, like family. Then one day they were like sworn enemies. I was very young at the time, I only vaguely remember some shouting about a cookie.

We used to be good friends, we even looked after Nora when she was young. Then Hattie's late husband called my wife a thief and cut all ties. I still can't believe he'd do that.

I miss them a lot. But Hattie's late husband called my wife a liar. I felt bad not going to the funeral but…I was pretty sure they hated me anyway, and all over that stupid cookie.

Calling us thieves, they're the real thieves. I can't believe the gall of them! We came up with the Jellybean Cookie, not them. It's OUR cookie.

It was difficult to trust them. They were nothing but catty with us after our families stopped hanging out. Why should we have been nice to them?

I used to play at theirs all the time. I don't know how they started arguing, I just remember one day I was minding my business, eating my cookie, and they looked at me in absolute disgust.

We were good friends once. I don't know how it spiralled so badly…but they were so spiteful to steal our recipe!

I don't know the whole story, but they hurt my grandparents. They called my grandma a thief. I don't know if my grandpa Bruno has it in him to reconcile with them.

[prophetofthemuse]

Hello! My name is Elijah Vsevolod Vasiliovich Volkov, and I have wavy golden-blond hair like a crown (that’s how I got my name) with leaves and twigs tangled in it that reaches my sharp jawline, and dark brown eyes like deep pools of honey; some people have told me I look like Jamie Campbell Bower (Author’s note: If you do not know who he is, please go find a photo online, and report back to me with your opinion).

I am not yet forever united in death with my darling muse, but I wish I was, because he’s incredibly divine and beautiful. I am definitely not a human, but my teeth are straight and white. I have scarred ivory skin.

I am also a prophet, and I stalk the camp ground of a local summer camp close to Cleveland, Ohio called Camp Here and There, where in truth, I do not work (I’m 29).

I was a nurse, in case you couldn’t tell, and all I wear are scrubs. For example, today I was wearing a set of short-sleeved teal scrubs splattered in blood, a too-small purple wizard cape with stars on it, mismatched socks, and brown Doc Martins. I am not versed in applying makeup, however I do have blood staining my mouth like red lipstick, not that anyone would be able to tell, due to my plastic pink cartoon elephant mask.

I was wandering along the edge of the woods, watching the nurses’ cabin. It was quite sunny and warm, bathing the trees and ground in a heavenly glow, which I was very happy about.

An exceedingly-average young man in a labcoat and glasses stared at me. I smiled widely, and put my middle finger up at him.

[skruttet]

What are your thoughts on s4? Personally I was actually kind of disappointed, a lot of the characters felt... off?? Not like themselves. Snufkin really didn't appear much and the Comet Episode was confusing and wasn't really all that Book-Accurate... And Snufkin got the 90s Movie treatment :(

Like there were definitely scenes and a few episodes I liked, but overall I feel weird about the season. And I'm curious what your thoughts are.

I will say that overall, I was disappointed.

To be fair to the series though, it arguably largely stems from my personal expectations and hopes? The two biggest disappointments for me were Joxter and Snufkin not meeting, and snufmin's relationship.

The Joxter stuff on the whole I adored, and really could never have dreamed of happening. Just seeing him - or any of the Oshun Oxtra crew, really! - interacting with the characters in "modern day" is great. And then he reunited with Mymble and it was so exciting, and then Little My started wondering about him and Snufkin, and then-! ...They didn't meet. Honestly baffles me why they'd give us so much fanservice but not include probably the main thing most fans would want to see with Joxter. Also interesting that they're afraid to even touch Snufkin's issues with family but they KEEP bringing up Little My's.

The snufmin thing surprised me because my expectations were LOW; during the wait I kept telling people not to get their hopes up, that snufmin would never be explicitly "canon", etc. And I still say they would never do anything explicit with them, however, I was expecting at least for the relationship to be on the same level as it was in season 3, but it seemed to take a step down unfortunately. I wanted more romantic subtext, more hints that something was up between them, and for about the first 4 episodes I thought Moomintroll and Snorkmaiden were finally just interacting as friends and I was hopeful, but unfortunately it was soon clear that they were still supposed to be romantically linked. To their credit, Moomintroll and Snufkin's relationship does maintain some of the development it grew throughout the series, and it funnily ends up presenting it almost as one-sided on Snufkin's side; he's now so much more openly affectionate and patient with Moomintroll, and their communication is a whole lot better, but the latter continues to pursue Snorkmaiden instead. I think Snufkin himself feels so mellowed out in this season, like he's no longer fighting against his own feelings or pulling away from others as much, which is nice to see (though I can see others complaining he's too out-of-character compared to his original counterpart, which is understandable, but I'm personally fine with the characters being "different versions" of themselves in adaptations).

Another disappointment for me was, like you mentioned, the Comet finale... it just wasn't as epic as I thought it'd be, and the stakes weren't high from the start, and after the journey was over the rest of the episode taking place in the valley was a bit dull and directionless. And inaccuracies from the book I expect by this point, but I'm personally not a fan of the ending change with them all just waiting outside to die but the Groke sacrificing herself but actually this is a family show so she's actually alive yaay 😂 Just a bit strange and not the send-off I was quite hoping for.

On the positive side, I LOVED Mamma and Pappa this season. Moominpappa kinda stole the show, and whilst the creators clearly favoured him in past seasons, in this one he finally lost that meanness he sometimes had in s1-3, so he was just a delight to watch.

The guest stars and characters were fabulous, which is a bittersweet thing as it makes it all the more sad that this is the final season and it's all we'll see of them.

The animation and music and sound and acting were all as wonderful as they always are. The crew did such a great job and it's a shame the story decisions dampened the experience for me.

[astronomodome]

kind of cool of hermitcraft to free association it up anarchist style

[tentaclecats]

absolutely crazy to me how through the books, leo's pov is always talking about how he feels left out of the 7, and he doesn't have any friends or family that isnt the 7 so. hes literally sad about the fact that hes never truly had anyone love him, since his mom died. he juggled foster homes and ran away from things and even now that he HAS friends and a prophecized future and everything? "to storm or fire the world must fall", he STILL feels like the least important member of the group. the 7th wheel. the one nobody is actually friends with. hes so incredibly used to feeling unloved. AND THEN RICK GIVES HIM A GIRLFRIEND. theres so much wrong with calypso but first of all it was also just shitty to give him a romantic interest before letting him heal his friendships and mental health. AND. CALYPSO ONLY LOVES HIM BECAUSE SHES CURSED TO FALL IN LOVE WITH EVERYONE WHO LANDS ON HER ISLAND. SHE ONLY LOVES LEO BECAUSE SHE IS PHYSICALLY BEING FORCED TO AND SHE ISNT EVEN NICE TO HIM. AND HE IS OKAY WITH THIS????