#we are all stem majors none of us have time

[mysicklove]

whoever thought that “reverse style” classrooms are a good idea in a college environment deserve to be in jail

[pallases]

okay guys i have calculated it all out and even if i get a big fat zero on this race i will still earn a b in the class assuming i get 100% on the other remaining three assignments two of which are a given for 100% and the last of which is like. even if we get a 75% on it (which i do not really see happening) i can still scrape by w a b-

[sweetbans29]

Playbook - CC

Pairing: Caitlin Clark x Reader

Summary: You never thought your dad would be your wingman (based on THIS request)

Warnings: vague descriptions to keep this as open as possible

Word Count: 3k

Sweetbans Masterlist

AN: Again, doesn't follow everything to a T but the overall theme is there!

The Hawkeyes were in for a treat when Coach told them they would have a special guest in practice. It was never disclosed who would be the special guest but the team was buzzing with ideas of who it could be in the two weeks leading up to their arrival. They were naming everyone under the sun, from WNBA players to NBA players - even highly regarded coaches. Sky was the limit when it came to who the special guest could be.

This wasn't the first time the coaching staff at Iowa had used their connections to bring in some big-name athlete or coach to rain them for a day or a week. It was something they had started Caitlin's sophomore year and had happened a few times since. It became a season tradition even if her coaches wouldn't say it was. She has been coached by Candace Parker and Lisa Leslie. They even got Steven Kerr of the Golden State Warriors to Iowa for a week during which the guys team joined them for practices. It was a crazy week but one of Caitlin's most memorable (there was something about outshooting some of the guys that Caitlin would never forget).

So when the day rolled around for the appearance, the team knew it was another big name when the guy's team pulled up for the second time in a row. Coach Bluder walked up and greeted their coach as the men's team came over.

"Any ideas of who it is this year?" One of the guys asks Kate and she just shrugs.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Kate responds.

Caitlin has a love-hate relationship with the men's team, and by love-hate it is more of a major indifference towards them. It had all stemmed from her dating the coach's son, who also happened to be on the team at the time. The relationship consumed her whole junior year, only coming to an end when he graduated. It wasn't mutual at the time and it took Caitlin a while to get over it but nevertheless, she did. The guys that are still currently on the team naturally had to choose their former teammates' side but if you were to pull them aside one by one and ask their opinion, each of them would say Cait didn't deserve what had happened. Kate would know because that is exactly what she did.

All of the athletes are told to sit down in the first few rows of the bleachers. Once everyone is seated, the doors open to the gym and none other than last year's NBA MVP walks in. Every single head turns and the murmurs begin. Most of the teams sit there with their jaws dropped.

Caitlin leans over and begins to shake Kate's arm.

The coaches introduce the guest and before they all know it, they are on the floor running drills. Typically there is a divide between the men's team and the women's team but that went out the window when the guest took the liberty to group everyone to his liking.

They are only a half hour in and both teams are dying.

You are at the hotel, reading when you get a call from your dad. It wasn't one you were expecting considering you knew his schedule was packed.

"Hey dad," you say refusing to put your book down.

"Hey baby girl, do you see my playbook anywhere?" He asks.

Your head tears away from your book as you look around the room. You get to the desk where your dad was working last night and see the book sitting on the desk.

"It's right where you left it," you say getting up from the bed and grabbing it. "Do you need me to bring it by?"

"That would be great, I'll send Jeff to swing by and grab you. If you don't mind hanging out, we can go out to dinner when I am done here," he says knowing the only thing on your agenda for the day was reading.

"Sure, sounds good," you say and begin packing your bag. "I'll see you in a few."

You hang up and grab your book alongside your dad's. Jeff is there in no time. He has the front desk call up to your room and you are on your way. Jeff has been your dad's driver for about 10 years now. He was more than a driver in your eyes and would often go out of his way to make sure you were taken care of. Whenever your family would travel, Jeff would join. Neither you nor your dad would have it any other way.

"Jeffery," you say and give him a nod. He says your full name back to you, eliciting a smile.

The school your dad was coaching at was only a 15-minute drive. When you arrive you make your way into the gym and begin the search for your dad. Once you find the court, you walk into a group of sweaty athletes all looking like they just played a full game but you know it was just your dad's footwork clinic.

You make your way up to him as he is watching the next group go through his course. Standing a few feet back, you watch as a group struggles to get every step. Your dad tells them to break and you make your way to him as the athletes grab water.

"Here you are, one playbook," you say and tap his shoulder with it.

"Ahhh, thank you, baby," he says and takes it.

"I am starting to think you leave this on purpose, what is this like the third time you have had me come to a practice?" You say tasing your old man.

He shrugs. "Isn't it better getting out of the hotel room?"

"And into a gym?" You counter.

"Hey, I just want to spend more time with you," he says and you roll your eyes. You know he is missing with you but grab your book and take a seat.

What you didn't know was the amount of eyes that followed you. Since you walked through the door there had been at least 4 sets of eyes that followed your every movement, one of them being Caitlin's.

"If you stare any harder, you'll burn holes through the girl," Kate says.

Caitlin doesn't care. She knew that your dad had a daughter but all the pictures that she had seen were from when you were a kid. She had no idea you had grown up.

"Caitlin," Kate says, waving her hand in front of Caitlin's face. "Earth to Caitlin."

"She's beautiful," Caitlin says as she watches you take a seat and pull out a book.

"Well get in line," Kate says and nods her head over to about 3 other groups of guys all looking your direction. Caitlin feels her heart deflate at the sight and throws herself back into the drills.

The teams are now going through shooting drills and you can't help but look over and watch. Your eyes are drawn to one of your favorite college players.

You don't know why it didn't occur to you that you would see her considering you were at her school. You just didn't put two and two together but glad you glanced up. Your book falls to your lap as your eyes are now glued to the shooting drill. You have been watching Caitlin for the last year now and have been mesmerized by her game..

Practice comes to an end, sooner than you would like to admit, but are thankful considering your stomach decided to become vocal about its emptiness. You walked down to where your dad was on the floor and waited a few feet away but close enough to make your presence known.

"Ya, we will be at your upcoming game this weekend," your dad says and nods over to you. He parts ways with the players and makes his way to you.

"Ready?" He asks and you nod.

The two of you head to dinner. The following few days, your dad continues to head to the team's practices and you hear all about them. You were really looking forward to going to the women's game and even got yourself a jersey to wear.

You head to Hawkeye-Carver with your dad and take your seats court-side. Cameras find your dad immediately and you ignore their presence. The teams head out and are warming up for the last time before starters are announced and the game begins.

You watch intently and cheer for the starters, the jersey you're wearing supporting the starting guard.

As the teams go to greet each other right before tip-off, Kate pulls Caitlin.

"Looks like somebody is a fan," Kate whispers to Caitlin. Caitlin's eyes follow where Kate is looking and sees you sitting courtside. It takes her a second to get a closer look but when she does she notices the number 22 on the front of the jersey you are wearing.

A stupid smile finds its way to Caitlin's face and Kate elbows the girl.

"Don't mess this up," Kate jokes and Caitlin pushes her.

The game tips off and Caitlin is on fire. She is flirting with a triple-double by half-time. It has made for a very fun game to watch. The second half continues the same way as Caitlin gets her triple-double in the third quarter. By the end of the fourth, there was no question that the win was going to the Hawkeyes.

A handful of the team makes their way to talk to your dad while you look for the star of the game. You see her walk over and make your way towards her.

"Hi," you say with a sweet smile, which is returned.

"Hi," Caitlin says, doing everything in her power to not expose her nervousness.

"You played great," you say and you swear you see a little blush creep its way to Caitlin's cheeks. "Would you sign my jersey?"

Caitlin nods and you pass her a Sharpie.

She begins signing the back of the jersey you are wearing when you speak again.

"You have very pretty eyes," you say as you feel her writing on the back of you.

"Ya?" Caitlin asks and begins to feel pretty good about herself.

"Ya, couldn't help but notice them with how much you have been staring at me," you say causing Caitlin to mess up her signature.

Her whole face turns red as you make it known that you have caught her not-so-subtle glances and at the fact that she has now messed up the jersey you are wearing.

Caitlin stutters and doesn't know what to do. The panic in her wants her to flee but that would just add to her embarrassment. Cait doesn't get embarrassed easily but here you are making her feel like a fool.

You turn back around to face her and when she looks into your eyes she begins to feel grounded again.

"I owe you a jersey," she says with a shy smile. You give her a questioning look. Caitlin has two options, come up with some elaborate lie and try to convince you that you moved causing her to mess up or she could tell you the truth. She chose the latter not wanting the foundation of your meeting to build on a lie.

"Your comment about my staring took me off guard and I may have messed up my signature," she says quietly but her eyes don't leave yours. If you thought she had pretty eyes, yours were stunning. She could look into them forever.

You give her a smile and are pleased with the effect you have on the superstar.

"It's now one of a kind," you say turning an embarrassing moment for Caitlin into one that she will never forget. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I feel bad," Caitlin says. "Let me make it up to you."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" You ask, taking a little step closer to her. It was getting hard to hear with everyone else around you.

"Well, how long are you in town for?" She asks.

"We leave on Sunday," you say, today currently being Friday.

"I can show you around the city tomorrow, how does that sound?" Caitlin asks, hoping you don't already have plans.

"Hmmm, I'll have to think about it," you say in a teasing tone. Caitlin's smile drops a little. You give her shoulder a little nudge. "I'm just messing with your C, I would love to see the city with you."

Her smile returns but falls shortly after when she hears your next remark.

"You'll just have to ask my dad," you say and you can see all the color drain from her face. You know you were just messing with the girl but knew her intentions were pure when Caitlin walked straight up to your dad and started a conversation. You could tell when Cait finally worked up the courage to ask him, he looked over at you, making quick eye contact and you gave him a little nod. He looks at you a little longer, longer than he had with anyone previously. There is a glint in his eye that you haven't seen before and you give him a confused look. He leans over to Caitlin and says something only she can hear, prompting her to respond. They both smile at one another and you release the breath you didn't realize you were holding. Caitlin walks back up to you with a smile you would look at forever.

"I'll pick you up at 10," she says, bringing her arm around you for a hug. She holds you longer than either of you expect but neither of you is complaining. When she finally lets you go, you lean up and give her a little peck on the cheek and head towards your dad.

Weeks passed and the team noticed a shift in their teammate's mood. Kate was the first to notice and noticed it almost immediately when it happened. It took Caitlin a whole 5 minutes after she got back from spending the day with you before telling Kate everything. So it comes as no surprise when the team brings up Caitlin's shift.

"Someone has been chipper these last few weeks," Jada says to Caitlin.

Caitlin tries to hide the shy smile and shrugs.

"Ya, it's almost as if there is something...or someone who has impacted your mood," Kate says, in no way being discrete.

Caitlin stares hard at her best friend.

"Ya CC, you have been on your phone more than usual," Gabby says wiggling her eyebrows.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, I am just looking forward to the week we have off," Caitlin says dismissively and continues on with practice. She liked having you all to herself considering neither of you have officially labeled what you are. The two of you coined it as getting to know each other.

After Caitlin showed you around her college town, you were headed back home with your dad. Ever since you had left, you had been messaging or Facetiming Cait nonstop, not that she would have it any other way.

It got to the point where you invited her to your family's trip to Cancun for spring break which she gladly said yes to. She was only able to go a few days but it was better than nothing.

The two of you spent every second of the trip together as she got to know your family. They all loved her, especially your dad.

The trip comes to an end faster than either of you want it to and before you know it you are back at the airport dropping her off to head back to Iowa.

The second Caitlin lands, her phone is blowing up - more so than usual. She looks through the notifications to see about a hundred or so are from the team's group chat. Opening the messages, she realizes that the cat is out of the bag and they know she was with you and your family on vacation. They all go off on her, in the sweetest way.

Caitlin opened the photo she was tagged in on your story only to realize it was a photo your dad posted. She swipes through them, landing on the group photo that was taken at dinner one night. She can't help but smile at the photo. Caitlin was sitting with you on her lap, her arms wrapped around your waist while you held a plate of food. Little does the world know that the plate of food was hers and you were tasked with feeding her since you didn't want to leave her lap.

Never in a million years would Cait have imagined herself vacationing on the beautiful beaches of Cancun with her favorite NBA player, let alone falling in love with his daughter. But there she was, smiling like a fool while looking at the photos from her time with you and her heart settled. It rested in knowing that you held it. Unlike her past relationships that seemed to always spark anxiety, yours was one that brought her peace.

She opens her messages, bypassing the team chat, and taps on your name. She types out a quick message about landing safe and sends it your way. As she makes her way back to her apartment, she doesn't feel the ache in her chest that she felt when she had to let you go in the airport or when her plane took off knowing she was leaving you behind. She is filled with the peace of her settled heart, knowing that wherever the two of you are - you belong to one another.

AN: Ugh, the thought of a tropical vacation with our favorite girl is mind-consuming right now. Let me know what you think and if I am alone in that thought. And as always, thank you for the love and support 🤍

[gingerjunhan]

boyfriend headcannons - kwak jiseok

☆彡 sorry for the delay on this one! I gotta wait for the delusions to hit juuust right before I write them LMAOOO hope you enjoy! 🫶🏻

word count: 812 | pronouns used: none | genre: fluff, established relationship | cws: all caps used, he’s a stem major (I don’t make the rules), teasing, not proofread, lmk if I missed anything!

← previous member | next member →

IT’S JISEOK TIIIIIMMMEEE

Jiseok doesn’t strike me with the same hardcore “boyfriend agenda” and Jungsu or Seungmin do, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be a great boyfriend!!

there would literally never be a dull moment between the two of you

he’s such a good listener

much like Gunil, Jiseok looks at you like you hung the stars when you talk, and he never forgets a single detail

all of your favorite hobbies? your niche interests? he knows everything about all of them

you are both giant nerds but it’s okay!

while you might geek out over tv shows and bands, Jiseok geeks out over science

he’s such a loser (/pos) (and I love him for it)

he will never escape my stem major headcannon NEVER

but this also means that he would be a great help with homework if you’re also a science oriented person!

chemistry? he’s got you

biology? piece of cake

you know what he can’t do?

PDA

again, I’ve talked about this, but I need to elaborate more

Jiseok blushes and practically folds in on himself like a chair at the slightest mention on girls

it’s one of the things I find the most endearing about him

so imagine how he feels walking around with you

he is absolutely baffled that you chose to date him so he gets so giddy and excited when you show PDA

he literally can’t handle it because he just loves you so much and he gets so excited

he’s like a little kid in a candy store- he just can’t get enough

SPEAKING OF LITTLE KIDS

Jiseok, much like Jungsu, would be great with your siblings or cousins!

he would talk video games with the older kids

good around with the younger kids

gang up on you with your family, always taking their side instead of yours

playful feasting is definitely a love language of his!

I think Jiseok would score some mega points with the adults in your family and also with your friends!

they would all see that he’s both incredibly musically talented and book smart, plus he makes you happy so he’s literally the ideal man

the jack of all trades of boyfriends

the… boyfriend of all trades? okay moving on

your friends are JEALOUS

“Where did you find him? I need a boyfriend like that!”

TOO BAD go get your own this one is mine hee hee 🤭

such a polite man

his manners 📈📈 through the roof

his middle name is chivalry

he would be the sweetest, most loving boyfie around 🥹

if something is not to your liking he’s fixing it for you right away!

your wish is his command

okay we need to get back to the feasting real quick

he is so goofy

downright odd

but we love him

I can fully imagine him hiding behind a corner or doorway just to pop out and scare you 💀

harmless pranks all the time

prank wars are very common between the two of you

you have a lot of very strange inside jokes that other people would literally need code to decipher because they wouldn’t make any sense to anyone else

Jiseok is always down for an adventure!

the most basic tasks feel fun with him because he knows exactly how to keep a good energy flowing!

but he can be serious too, don’t get me wrong

long, serious phone calls after a bad day at work or while he’s away are very common

he’s not afraid to get emotional with you!

Jiseok gubes me the vibe that if you cry, he’s gonna cry too (same tbh)

he just cares about you so deeply and he’s never felt that way about anyone else

he shows his love and appreciation for you in any way he can, no matter how odd

he buys you things that make him think of you

he probably has your work/school schedule memorized so he knows when he needs to make dinner or pitch in around the house because you might be busy

if you use a purse I can imagine him holding it for you and calling it his “murse” LMAOO

I feel like he would give you an assigned animal too? idk just a thought

“Well if I’m a duck then you have to be a goose because of duck duck goose.”

his logic? flawless

if you don’t know how to play already, be prepared for guitar lessons

if you don’t want the lessons, at least be ready for concerts

he will make up songs (sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re not) or learn your favorite songs and perform them for you

and you will always be there in the front row :)

god I love Jiseok

at the end of the day, your relationship is lighthearted, fun, and Jiseok feels very lucky to have you in his life 🩷

taglist: @dazzlingligth , @mini-mews , @mxlly143 , @somethingaboutcheese , comment to be added!⁎⁺˳✧༚

[muffin-man-marq-lynch]

Annoying Straight Wrestling Fan on Twitter: Oh My God why the fuck should we care about the lesbian three-way kiss ending a barely non-existent 'story' on Forbidden Door?

Me, A Queer History Nerd Already Fighting The Urge to Create an 'Intro to Professional Wrestling 101' in the Face of a New Hyperfixation, Excellent Specialized Resources, and the Absence of a Comprehensive Overview: Seriously? Hmm...

Me: Well if we take your question in good faith and not just as the whining of a homophobic bigot, I suppose one great reason would stem from the 1996 turn in the Raven & Dreamer ECW feud that caused the first three-way kiss in Wrestling & its fallout:

Beulah (non-Kayfabe was married to Dreamer) left her position as Raven's Valet by telling him she was pregnant by Dreamer (whom she had been enamored of as a teenager but scorned, making her a bit obsessed).

Dreamer took Beulah on as his girlfriend and protected her from seemingly vicious attacks, only for Shane Douglas to reveal to him that Beulah was not only not pregnant, just fake baby-trapping him for his affections, but she was also now cheating on him as well.

Furious, Dreamer demanded to know who, assuming the culprit to be Douglas himself, but Douglas pointed across the ring at Raven's new valet, Kimona Wanalaya (Amazing Bond Girl Name).

Kimona confirmed her guilt and kissed Beulah to the mat to raucous applause. When asked what he wanted to do, Dreamer responded "I'll take 'em both, I'm hardcore!" Before kissing both of them, then pulling them in for a three-way kiss.

Unfortunately this event was heavily censored in most ECW TV releases, with the show cutting right before the first kiss in most markets, and being pulled off the air entirely in the states of Florida and New York, two of ECW's largest markets, right as they were about to launch a major set of new plotlines. By the time the shows were restored weeks had passed. Remember this was all late night cable television already, Extreme Champion Wrestling already had some of its reputation well in hand and the Attitude Era was about to begin for WWF, sex and violence was somewhat part and parcel, but a consensual lesbian kiss and a continued M/F/F three-way relationship was a bridge too far.

Forbidden Door might have been a PPV and it might have been more PG than ECW by modern standards, but never forget they'll come for the sickos, the queers, the deviants, and the pervs first, be it in wrestling or anywhere else and it's all of us or none of us.

Happy Last Day of Stonewall Week.

[comradeboyhalo]

I had wrote a post a month ago about q!Bad's role in the narrative, and I want to revisit it. (Full disclaimer, this is just Not Real. I'm analyzing mcrp like a conventional narrative for fun. There are no actual "roles": every character is a main character.)

The analysis had come after months of Bad being a large part of lore, but not a major player. The mysteries and missions he went on were never his own. He was known as a strong fighter, until the codes directed their attention at Etoiles. He was second place in the election. Characters would get kidnapped or given enigmas, and q!Bad always played support. At the time, we were all impatient that he had no special Federation plotline after months of arriving on the island (no shade to the admins here - we're not talking meta).

But that brings us to present day, and suddenly Bad has become a very proactive character. His kids are gone, he has a motive, and suddenly he's the one changing the story. In literature, there is the trope of a "passive character": one that is affected by the story, one who is led by the plot. q!Bad is certainly not this character anymore. Instead of letting the Federation set the scene, he takes a page out of their book. He kidnaps one of theirs. Instead of theorizing about a spy like he did months ago, he's now actively feeding information to others to find a puppet. His skin is deteriorating due to his self-inflicted punishment. There has been a spike in posts and tweets about how Bad did [x] to [y] character. And that's what I'm talking about: Bad is moving his own plot. He is now what others react to.

And still. This is not Federation-designed. This is all on his hands. It's very rare that QSMP characters are so untouched by the Federation. Many characters are punished by the Federation. Many characters discover a storyline tied to the Federation. Many characters are experiments of the Federation. Bad has none of this. And I'm not at all saying this is unique to Bad, or that Bad is the only one who's actively moving his own plot, I just think that this provides a really interesting insight to Bad's character. (Again: this is a NON-META analysis! Every creator writes/helps writes their own storylines).

He is an extremely insular character. The Federation only investigated him when he made himself too hard to ignore. Aside from that? They do nothing. Secret shulker boxes? They were tied to Cellbit's lore. The tickets? Everyone ended up getting one. Imprisonment? Okay, but only for 15 minutes. He remembers his backstory, he remembers his life before the island. While the Federation could have interfered anytime in his lifetime, he's over 11,000 years old. His core trauma stems from (presumably) Atlantis. None of that is connected at all to the Federation. Drop q!Bad in another server, and nothing about his backstory changes. The more I think about it, the more odd it strikes me that Bad is an original islander, and he is so untouched by the Federation.

So this brings us to Bad's biggest Federation tie, which are the emails from before the server started. And even then, it implies that Bad is not a worker or an experiment, but a guest. And a special one, at that. It's very hard to take the emails as any definitive evidence, but what stands out to me is this quote:

"We are seeking quotes for the purchase of 1393 muffins to satisfy the extra demand of our special guest."

Each word here is the Federation catering to the special guest. The Federation has been given a demand, and they are fulfilling it. They are the reactionary party here. They are not the ones pulling the strings. They are not penning this story. It is the guest who is doing so, and, in theory, q!Bad.

So we come back to the same conclusion. Perhaps this has always been Bad's "role" - the special guest of Quesadilla Island. Invited to sit at the table, but not to give a speech. Perhaps he just never is going to get that Federation-tailored storyline because he is not meant to. His story started in Atlantis and he will always be pushing forward his own already-established plot. The Federation is just another antagonist in an already long, long tale. Everything he does is self-inflicted. Doesn't it make sense if this applies to the narrative as well?

[cringecompanionapologist]

I Found a Doctor Who RPG Sourcebook and I'm Making It Your Problem

Actually, I found several. It seems that there is a sort of Doctor Who tabletop RPG with sourcebooks for each Doctor that include ready-made character sheets for the Doctors, companions, and major players in each televised story.

I could look into all of them, if I really wanted to, but the thing is, my computer is nearly a decade old, slowly dying on me, and hates screenshots, so taking and storing a fuckton of screenshots of absolutely everything isn't something I can do. So, I'm just pulling a few interesting bits from the Second and Fifth Doctor Sourcebooks. There's no structure to this beyond me thinking "I wonder what their character sheet looks like".

So, the Second Doctor stuff is not much at all. I got the Doctor himself.

I should probably note that I don't have much experience with tabletop RPGs, and none with this one in particular, so I only half know how to read these. This screenshot isn't even very good. I'm working off a free site with a terrible zoom function and I couldn't get the whole thing. The basics are that characters have a set of six Stats, a bunch of Skills, some traits that give them special strengths and weaknesses, and some basic character information. The Second Doctor's got a lot of stuff, some of which even gets explained.

I've deduced that there's probably a separate manual for the basics of how the game works, what the Stats mean, what the Skills do, etc. So a lot of Why These Numbers Are What They Are questions go unanswered.

Any way, this screenshot sucks so much that I can't bare the sight of it any longer, so we're moving on to the next one. Here's Jamie:

Wow! You can actually see things this time.

Most of the stat numbers don't go above 5, from what I can tell. So we can assume that Jamie's strongest stats are Coordination, Presence, and Strength, without any stat being too weak.

The skills are more mixed.

Athletics most likely refers to physical skills, Convince is persuasion, Craft is making stuff, I think, Fighting needs no explanation, Knowledge is...well...knowing stuff, Marksman is shooting/throwing accuracy, Medicine is obviously medical knowledge, Science is...look a lot of these seem like special subcategories of knowledge that are self-explainatory, Subterfuge I think covers "rogue skills" like spying and lock-picking, Survival is the sort of things Boy Scouts learn probably, Technology is computers and technobabble, Transport is driving and the like.

So, when it comes to strengths, Jamie is physically fit, but can't swim. He is very good at fighting because he's a male companion in the 60s that that was like at least 75% of their job. Marksman is apparently based in knife-throwing ability. Subterfuge...well, if you've seen The Enemy of the World, Jamie is actually a pretty good spy.

As for weaknesses, Jamie knows nothing about any STEM field.

There's also a little number for Technology Level. I've seen this number go as high as 7, but the 18th and 19th century characters seem to be placed at a 4. I didn't get a screenshot but Victoria is the same, despite the whole Industrial Revolution thing.

Then we've got some personality traits and such that effect things. Jamie apparently gets points for being attractive and brave, as well as for being accepted anywhere in time and space no matter what he's wearing. There's really not a whole lot to analyze here.

Now, the entire reason I did Second Doctor stuff was because the villains get character sheets and I wanted to see Salamander's. I added the Doctor and Jamie to pretend I had any other reason to be there.

I took this screenshot without using the zoom and it looks pretty good actually.

It turns out that those skill numbers can go above 5 as Salamander scores a 6 in Ingenuity and Presence, as well as a 5 in Resolve. Almost all of his stats are pretty high. As an RPG villain, he's a boss fight.

Instead of a full chart of skills, which only Doctors and Companions get, Salamander just gets a list. His higher points here are Convince at 5, Knowledge at 4, Subterfuge at 5, and Technology at 5. Convince and Subterfuge are his more manipulative skills as a politician, while Knowledge and Technology are because he did, in fact, invent the technology he got popular for inventing. His Tech Level, at a 5, is somewhere between Jamie and Victoria, and some of the more futuristic aliens. That does make sense for the early 21st century, even a slightly more high-tech 21st century than the one that actually happened.

As for Traits, a lot of them give him bonus skills that are actually explained, such as the ability to invent gadgets, resist mind control, menace people into doing what he wants and get even bigger bonuses in Technology and Convince situations, being a tech genius for his time period and a respected authority figure.

So, cool stuff.

The Fifth Doctor stuff I got is a bit more extensive. We'll start with the Doctor himself.

The good news is that it's a full screenshot. The bad news is that it's very hard to read. We can see a very high Ingenuity stat, because he's the Doctor. There's a Tech Level 10, because I'm guessing that's Level Time Lord.

I do have enough info to compare his Skill number to the Second Doctors.

Athletics has risen from 1 to 4 because of all the cricket. Convince drops from a 5 to a 3, because nobody listens to Five while Two was fairly good at getting people to listen to him. Fighting has risen from absolute 0 to 2, which isn't much but it's literally something. You can see a lot of numbers improve slightly as the Doctor has learned more things over time, like Medicine going from 1 to 3.

I actually looked over four different companions this time. We'll go in order of introduction. Here's Adric.

His Tech Level is confusing in the blurry screenshot. But, as for other stuff, his fast healing and ability to control the TARDIS a little are noted, though the reality warping of Block Transfer Computation isn't because it's too damn complicated and has it's own system.

Adric's skills in general are pretty low, but they don't seem to be too unfair. These sourcebooks started coming out around 2013, when the fandom's aggressive Adric hatred had started to wind down, possibly as people realized that all the season 19 companions had writing problems and the confused performances you often get with confused writing, but Tegan and Nyssa stuck around longer so improvements could be made, and Big Finish started doing damage control with them earlier on, especially in Nyssa's case.

I'm actually surprised Adric's Athletics score is as high as it is. His Science score being only a 3 and Knowledge 2 confused me at first, but when I thought about it, it a makes sense. Adric knew a lot about mathematics but basically nothing anything else, even other STEM fields. Nyssa had to tell him what photosynthesis is, which I learned in elementary school science classes. Between this extreme focus on a single subject, lack of socials skills, and somewhat stilted speech and movement, I think I like Adric as much as I do because all this stuff feels like autism and I was an autistic teenager when I first saw him.

He also gets good Subterfuge skills because he can pick locks, do sleight of hand tricks, and overall has a good skill set that was rarely put to use.

And now, Nyssa:

Tech Level 7 explains where Traken is. We'll get to compare several different planets I guess.

Nyssa gets a higher science stat, with an emphasis on biochemistry. She has a more diverse STEM skill set than Adric. Other than that, I don't have much to report here. The fact that she's upper class seems to affect her ability to interact with people who aren't. As you will see, Turlough somehow isn't given this problem despite it being more obvious with him than with Nyssa.

But before that, there's Tegan.

Technology level 5 for the 1980s. These tech levels seem to cover a lot of historical ground. 1746 and 1866 are both in 4 and 1980 and 2018(futuristic version) are both in 5. I wonder what separates these levels from one another.

Tegan is considered fairly ordinary, not a fighter like Jamie nor a scientist like Nyssa, so her stats are kinda bad. Looking at her traits, her skills seem to include running and screaming, with points off for being impulsive, argumentative, and loud. I don't think the people who wrote this liked Tegan very much.

Anyway, of course there's Turlough.

Trion is apparently Tech Level 7, the same as Traken. So that turned out to not be very interesting.

His main strengths are in Convince and Technology. He can half-understand the TARDIS at times and appears to be good at lying to people. The fact that he doesn't get running and screaming in his traits and Tegan does is sexism. He also gets to be charming, though not attractive like Nyssa or Tegan. Men can get this trait, since Jamie did. I think he's commonly seen as average-looking.

Also the fact that he's seen as lucky with all the shit he went through is hilarious.

Finally, as a bit of a bonus, Captain Wrack from Enlightenment has a character sheet. How do you even make stats for an Eternal?

Many of her stats are surprisingly low for basically a low-level god. Though she's got a high Knowledge score and a Tech Level of 12, since Eternals go beyond Time Lords, though it's more power than technology with them, isn't it? Do we just not know how to factor this in?

So when it comes to these tech levels:

18th-19th century Earth = 4

20th-21st century Earth = 5

Traken and Trion = 7

Time Lords = 10

Eternals = 12

That's all I got for now. I hope you enjoyed this bit of fussing over meaningless numbers.

[unclassedguy]

I don't think I really enjoyed the latest chapter, and honestly from the way things are looking I'm probably not going to enjoy Jujutsu Kaisen's ending either....

I obviously like the characters, I like Yuji, I like Nobara, Megumi is alright.....I get wanting them to be happy. A lot of the stuff I draw in fact involves putting characters I like into silly situations as though they aren't in constant suffering in the source material (I'm immune to being serious 💔).

However, I feel like I'm not really vibing with this 'the trio is alright and they'll all be happy together' ending it seems Gege is setting up. I think part of it stems from the way Nobara and Megumi have been handled these past chapters. There was so much hype for Nobara's comeback.....I get it, she's a badass and fun character who's time in the story was cut awfully short.....I really do understand why so many people would want her back, but I just don't really like how close to the ending her return was and also the fact that up until that point it seemed pretty heavily implied that she had died. Not only that but her 'death' was such an important moment for Yuji and part of what made Shibuya and Yuji's story so tragic and Mahito so reprehensible as a villain. Nobara coming back so suddenly without even proper time dedicated to her (as in actual hints that she was alive and more chapters to explore the dynamics of her return and her contributions to the battle beyond one move) to make it feel even a smidgen satisfying just didn't sit right with me. The first thing I thought of upon seeing the chapter of her return was that it felt like fanservice. It felt like the type of thing a fan of the story would write for the 'hype' and not a choice that made sense. It was the same thing as Yuta returning in Gojo's body. People like Gojo, and having a chapter make it seem like he was coming back of course got the fans' attention. But in the end the story could've still worked well, maybe even better, without Yuta-jo's addition to the fight. It was unessecary.

Then we have Megumi who's been through so much for a good chunk of the story now. His body was taken over and used to hurt people he cares about, most of all his sister who is pretty much the center of his world, the person he loves the most. He'd given up, he'd sunk to the lowest depths submerged in Sukuna's evil. I feel like he sprung back pretty quickly......I don't think I'm as iffy about Megumi's return as I am with Nobara's considering Megumi actually at least got some pretty good and decent scenes with Yuji getting through to him and now also a talk with Sukuna.....but I dunno, I still don't know if I enjoyed how it was handled, particularly the fact that he just kind of comes back with no consequences after all the shit Sukuna's put his body through. I mean, he has a couple of scars sure but is that really all you'd expect after the world class beating he just got?????

Then we have Sukuna, reduced to glob of flesh. I don't mind Sukuna getting a pathetic death. After all he's done I think he deserved getting flung off his high horse and trampled on the ground. It still felt really abrupt though and like it didn't get enough time considering he's been such a big pain for months now and is one of the major antagonists. He's just suddenly gone and it felt anticlimactic and unsatisfying. I would've also liked to see at least a bit of what he was like in the Heain era.....

Hakari and Uraume too 😭. We really got none of their fight and when Sukuna is gone Uraume just....evaporates???? It honestly felt like Gege was just trying to get them out of the way so the series can end already and not an actual conclusion to their character. I wish they could've gotten more depth beyond being just Sukuna's loyal servant.

Them there's of course all the things Gege still hasn't touched such as Jin being Sukuna's twin, Kenjaku being Yuji's mom, the merger etc. Those things I guess I'm not as sad about because I'd already come to terms with the fact that Gege isn't going to get into them, at least not to the extent I would've wanted. It still sucks though.

Maybe I'm just a hater, maybe I don't understand what Gege was trying to do, maybe it's just a matter of preference. I think Gege probably tried his best with jjk using what he had and I don't think it'd be right to hate on him. And even if I am kind of dissapointed in where this story is going I don't blame anyone for liking it.

I may just not like 'happily ever after' endings or something. Not to say Jujutsu Kaisen is some super uplifting story even if the main trio has survived. There's still characters who have died and stayed dead, but it's still definitely a happier ending than what I expected.

At the end of the day, I like stories that put their characters through the wringer. I like stories that destroy everything their protagonist has ever had and turn their world upside down and accept no half-assed reparations to the damage they've caused. I like stories that fuck up everyone involved but still let at least one of them be smiling by the end, even if they're alone, because life is still worth living. Honestly, I would've preferred Yuji move on by himself than for a happy ending to be squeezed out of jjk's remains in a way that didn't feel satisfying. Though maybe I wouldn't be so sour about an ending where the trio gets to live together if we had just had more time to make it feel right. To make it feel emotionally impactful and like it wasn't just hype. I'd take a bittersweet but well-done ending over a half-assed good ending and a well-done good ending over a bittersweet ending....y'know?

Well, that's just my opinion.

[eyesoforpheus]

i think the whole “uni professors let shit slide” thing really depends on your major because I’ve heard some nightmare stories about professors in STEM who required students to sit in specific ways and banned all electronics and were super tough graders. however, in my time as an acting student, my experiences included but were not limited to

- having a method acting class where all of us (there were only 6 of us) met up for coffee before the class and had an arrangement with the professor where if we brought him coffee on days none of us were feeling like acting we could all just sit in a circles and ask him about the industry

- having a devised theatre project where the professor gave us all finger lights and told us to go ham

- a “write a 20+ page stream of consciousness document about your life and whoever’s trauma dump is the most self aware wins” project

- teaching a class of 20 people how to do dnd combat for a grade because I didn’t feel like doing an actual project

- being forced to audition for a musical with a bad chest cold (while masked) and having a professor give me a toy dog that shits out jellybeans as a consolation prize

- a 15 minute long class discussion on suspension of disbelief in relation to using silly string to represent horse cum

[npdclaraoswald]

I do find it interesting that Agent Green gets a whole redemption but Damien doesn't*. Like Damien, as much as he is a fucking asshole who does horrible shit to people, a lot of what he does clearly stems from a genuine inability to understand other people. Meanwhile, Owen is over here low-key doing Nazi shit. Like I know The Bright Sessions doesn't lean as hard on the "people with powers are a minority group" thing as say, the X-Men, but it is a present theme, and Owen actively assists and participates in the kidnapping and unethical experimentation upon said minority group. And his motives for that are... career advancement? Impressing Joan? Like I know he likes to focus on the good the AM does for people like Rose, but he focuses on that by ignoring the fact that they're torturing people in a basement until it threatens his job security.

I know Owen does stop what he's doing and comes to Joan and Sam asking them to help him be better, but Damien asks multiple characters what he should be doing to actually connect with people and they all just kinds roll their eyes and go "Well, if you don't know, I can't explain it to you." Explaining it to him should be part of his therapy- which admittedly it's unclear the extent to which none of his therapy actually being helpful is his own fault by forcing Joan to spend the sessions talking about abilities instead of actual therapy, but it still could've been part of her little "you always wonder about the patients you can't help" speech. Is the fact that Owen gets the help he asks for and Damien doesn't just because Owen helps oust the bigger threat of Wadsworth- which doesn't even work? If Wadsworth hadn't made herself immune to abilities and Damien had made her fuck off, would he have been welcomed afterwards?

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Damien necessarily needs a redemption, and I definitely don't think he should be spending more time around the main characters, Mark especially. But Owen's redemtion has always rung a bit false for me and like the reason he died is that killing him was the only way to make him ultimately sympathetic, and I think this is part of why.

If you asked me to rank the villians of Tbe Bright Sessions, Damien would be at the bottom of the list because unlike Wadsworth, Owen, and to an extent Blackwell, he doesn't weild any institutional power over a group of people, and unlike Helen, the only person he's ever killed was in self defense. And while what he did to Neon to enact that self defense was despicable, forcing atypicals to use their abilities in ways they hate is what the AM did to every major character who went there other than Rose. And we know Owen actively participated in that because Mark and Helen know him. And it doesn't feel earned by the narrative to redeem to some extent both Owen and the institution that gives him that power over people, especially when held up in comparison to another villian.

*I do need to reread Some Faraway Place, but to my memory, the "well maybe one day, if he keeps working really hard, he'll be worthy of forming a genuine human connection" story that Damien gets there is still a far cry from Owen becoming a protagonist in The AM Archives

[kustas]

For the silver eve arc in wha , what did you envision or think it would be like in comparison to other anime arcs , episodes or anime movies & manga? Or in other words could u share more on what energy/pacing/direction/visuals you wanted to see? Hope this makes sense !

Hi anon! Thank you for asking! Earlier arcs in WHA were super short, only a few chapters long, around an arc or two per volume when the transition was mid volume. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about arc structures in the first place because of stories like early WHA - "arcs" only feel like distinct, strong parts for specific long and often shonen type series. It seems like with the evolution of the story and stakes in WHA it's transforming into this. Because arcs are convenient I'll keep using them to answer though!

Purely in matters of what I like, raising the stakes is a problem. It's entirely subjective but I personally care less and less about stories the higher the stakes are. I like narratives centered around a small group of individuals and if it involves worldbuilding I like the worldbuilding to be expressed through everyday interactions. This is something early WHA excelled at and who continues to be a strong point in the series. The author has crafted a believable, engaging fantasy world who's intricacies are shown through personal problems first, before reattaching them to societal problems second. Instead of showing you it's witch society through grand info dumps of historical moments, you learn about it alongsides a little girl who's fascinated by the world the same way the reader can be.

What I thought the Silver Eve would be was a step back from the currently established factions (the atelier, the knights, iguin's brimmed caps) to consider the greater picture of how witches interact with outsiders. The arc was introduced by Tartah's proposal for a stand and the arrival of the Three Wise at the King's castle. I was expecting those two POVs to cover the duration of the festival: on one side, the atelier girls selling their wares and on the other the politicians organizing it all. Both were to answer the question raised with the phantasmal flame chapter: how do you regulate how to use magic? Outsiders want magic which and it is up to the witches, who's faction chose to control it exclusively, to decide how to distribute it. And from this stems the questions of corruption (Engendil), control (king vs Wise), poverty (Custas), yadda yadda.

This hyped me up a lot because it's an amazing opportunity for more worldbuilding including a major city we hadn't seen yet, politicians we hadn't seen yet and their POVs and outsiders! Asides of the first chapter with Coco, Custas&Dagda were pretty much the only outsider characters and their life conditions were pretty extreme. This arc promised to me to show way more "normal" magicless people and their associated takes on the witches. Think the chapter where Oru and Hiehart go to work and help both the nobleman and the poor kid. It also immediately started with teasing the king had other bigger plans, as well as introducing a potential new faction or brimhats with Ininia and her master. This was around chapter 40-45.

A few chapters later none of this was resolved at all. We still don't know what the king wants, or Restys. The subplot with Custas is without a resolution. To this kept being added more backstory material fleshing out more characters (don't like that either but it's a whole other can of worms) which usually prepares you for their big time of relevance but uh. That did not happen. Instead we have: the leech.

That leech was, imo, entirely unnecessary. It dropped at a moment where the stakes were already at an all time high with all old and new factions involved in a single event, at the same time, something the story had thus far entirely avoided with smaller more separate arcs. And it ballooned all stakes to city ending mass massacre stuff without resolving any of the established issues. I...don't thing WHA needs giant monsters. It's a story about a little girl learning things in a society she's uniquely placed to see the unfairness of. I like how human it is and I don't think kaiju battling will contribute to that. The human scale is literally and figuratively gone with something like that.

Pacing wise, I'd have liked for all those little individual groups of characters to continue being individual and indirectly influence each other via their role in society. I'd have wanted for subplots to be closed off one by one or allowed to bait for next story beats like was done before. I'd have kept the blood eating monster a small one off incident way further that'd have to be solved by a crew of characters. While not all subplots need final closure the earlier arcs did a great job of addressing a situation and moving on from it in 3-10 chapters. The silver eve isn't over and it's length is approaching to be longer than the rest of the arcs combined.

Visually, while the outfit and world designs continue to go hard, I dislike how the character art has simplified away from a semi realistic take to smoother, more ... "moe" characters. It's more conventional and I don't like it. I like my characters to look distinct and this includes the little everyday traits that are dismissed by many authors for not being conventionally attractive. While WHA makes a visible effort to be inclusive it's the unfortunate reality that while the author can draw old people, fat people, people with all skin tones and all sorts of scars and stubble she...does not. I want to see it more. I would have liked to see it from day 1 actually, instead of having extras like the adult woman helping the leech victims sporting those one off designs, I'd have wanted Qifrey or Olruggio to have her look. It's too late for this and I hope it gets slowly changed with how the series continues and grows.

I don't really read a lot of long manga and nearly don't watch anime so I can't compare much to other media, I hope otherwise I've answered your question and don't hesitate to ask me again if I haven't or if you want further details!

[showtoonzfan]

The whole "Stolas gets a boyfriend but ends up breaking up with them for Blitzo" reminds me of one of Viv's tidbits that she said I think at her Momocon panel a few years back, where she said that Angel will get a boyfriend at some point in the show.

Oh yeah, can’t wait for that lol. Unpopular opinion but I don’t think Viv is good at writing relationships. Like…period. I feel like she has no idea how real people talk, communicate, struggle ect, because none of her characters feel realistic and are just mostly bland cardboard copies of one another. Her relationships overall are either toxic painted out to be cute, boring, or having barley any chemistry or time dedicated to it to be believable and satisfying. Stolas having a boyfriend is clearly just going to be used for more drama since Viv is writing this shit up as she goes even though a blind person would be able to tell from a mile away that Stolitz will be canon eventually, but of course the show ain’t over so we need to drag this shit out until the very end. A good writer would have Stolas’s character maybe learn something from this experience since a breakup will obviously happen (since it won’t be his uwu Blitzy,) but PFFT….this is Stolas we’re talking about. He never fucking changes or learns from his experiences.

As for Angel, when I heard this information I…wasn’t surprised. He’s a gay character who’s a hot porn star and prostitute and talks about sex 24/7, of course he’d get a boyfriend eventually, him being attached to men is the majority of his character. Now I will say, one trope I am a sucker for is the prostitute or sex worker character actually finding a decent person who loves them for them and not just their body, and the character learns what real love is like and gets to experience it for the first time. I have the feeling Angel will get that maybe, but I honestly have no idea what Viv is planning regarding this. Then again I don’t care. We also can’t forget that we shouldn’t take everything Viv says in livestreams to heart and rather with a grain of salt, especially since this particular one was years ago. For all we know she could have changed it, and lord knows it probably won’t play out the way some are hoping or expecting. Maybe it’ll be a relationship with nuance, but knowing Viv and thinking to how she’s written Blitz and Stolas and Chaz and Moxxie, aka all her gay male characters, I feel like it’ll just stem from sex. Man…Fizz and Ozzie better be the exception.

[captainnait]

Go ahead, infodump about Bob from Headrush. No one is stopping you

3:11 pm, 5/20/2024

You will not believe how big of a smile I got when I first saw this ask 😭😭 Like I'm genuinely so happy to talk about him, thank you,,,

Anyway, you don't need to ask me twice 💥

(Yeah, a lot of rambling under the cut, hehe)

— One of my favorite canon facts about Bob is that he REALLY hates emoticons. He mentions it two times: one time in a question, where he refuses to read out loud the category name, that is just an emoticon, and instead just calls it "that. . . thing" or smth, and the other time is in the "Don't be afraid to express your emoticons" Headrush category, where he just straight up tells players to be cautious of people who use emoticons 😭

Either he had a terrible experience with someone who used emoticons. . . Or his old man brain just doesn't understand them. Or both idk.

— I don't know if it's just an Andy Poland thing or not (it's probably is, but still—), but I just really like the way he can change up his voices so quickly. My man can literally go from "uwu im so silly" type of voice to LITERALLY the most brutal and manliest voice imaginable in just a span of a few seconds, and I think that's INCREDIBLE.

If we talk about Bob specifically though, I really like how silly his voice sounds at the end of the round, when he says "bye-bye" or other similar to that lines. It just makes me giggle, okay,,

— I don't remember the full context behind this image and the question it is from, but. Yeah. Huh.

[For some reason Tumblr just doesn't let me put this image in, but it just a screenshot of the game with red words written on the screen, saying "Bob has a "thing" for Barney"]

It's also pretty funny, since a few rounds later I got another Barney question ("Even Purple Dinosaurs Have to Die... Someday"), and Bob didn't sound really amused by it lol

— There are a lot of lines in the game, where Bob jokes/admits that he feels pretty lonely and/or isolated, which is very interesting, considering that he doesn't seem as a very introverted person or someone who doesn't go outside much.

I don't have any specific speculations on why he is like that, but I think (headcanon, I guess) that it's something that he grow up feeling like and, perhaps, still haven't grown out of it.

— In "None of the Smoke & All of the Cancer", Bob says that he finds smoking to be "sexy". It isn't very clear whether if he meant it as a joke or not, so. Eh.

— A lot of people said it way before me, but. . . This man has major dog vibes. Like, I can't pin down specific things that make me think like that. It's— It's just the overall vibe I get from him lol

— I'm pretty sure I've seen someone already make a post about it (I'm not sure though), buuuut it's pretty fascinating to me how little sexual interest Bob shows in women (compare to other hosts in the series, at least) and how little he cares for "mushy" stuff in general, valuing friendship/platonic bonds a lot more.

This probably could stem from what type of game Headrush is, since it's aimed for a younger audience - teens, who probably don't really care about love in that young age. But yeah, just an interesting thing to thinking about while in a shower.

— His relationship with Old Man is pretty weird, because he both shows extreme violence and, yet, somehow, some type of respect towards him? Like, there are moments were he shouts, yells and doesn't mind kicking Old Man for his annoying shenanigans, maybe even having a way easier time with it than other hosts. But then there are a few rare moments, where he actually doesn't mind Old Man at all and would even listen to his stories with a genuine interest.

Of course it's not something completely new to the series, but it is also makes me fairly curious, since I feel like this is the game where we get to see a lot of Old Man's personality and how he influences those around him (in the case of this game (99% of it) - Bob lol)

. . . That's it, ig. For now, i feel satisfied)

I also would really like ranting about Milan and his weirdly homoerotic relationship with Bob, buuut I need to get all the TTwM clips first, so. Yeah. That'll have to wait 💥

[tenebriskukris]

Oshi No Ko Chapter 150 - My Thoughts/Analysis

Well, this chapter was certainly a trip. I have plenty of thoughts about it, but I’ll dig into all of that in a moment. As always, spoilers for Oshi No Ko Ch150 below.

We start of this chapter with an interesting sequence. Aqua in that bloodied hallway again and an apparition of Goro alongside him. This is different from how we’ve seen this happen during Tokyo Blade—which was a flashback to that scene when Aqua was conscious, and spoilers for later in the chapter, when he’s dreaming. 

There might not be much distinction, but the fact that Aqua has gone into this state without anything re-igniting his trauma is also a good sign. Every time he’s been haunted by his past and that bloody hallway he’s always had some trigger to bring him there, but it’s made very clear within this dream sequence itself that now that he knows that Sarina’s alive and smiling happily that that is the reason why he was able to have this amiable conversation with the embodiment of his own trauma, more or less.

I think it would be prudent for me to note here before we go forward that this dream sequence absolutely does not mean that Hoshino Aqua is fundamentally a different entity from Amamiya Goro. We see it quite well throughout the narration during the earlier chapters that the person who is Hoshino Aqua is a continuation of the life and experiences that Amamiya Goro had lived before his soul moved to Aqua’s body. Goro is dead, yes, but to say that they’re separate and completely unrelated entities is a bit of a stretch and goes against what we fundamentally see both here and in all the previous chapters. 

What Aqua is currently experiencing—this disconnect between his past and current self—is quite obviously a trauma response stemming from this dissociation due to the effects of Ai’s death. Aqua hasn’t been dealing with his emotions in a healthy way since Ai’s death, and while on the surface he appears to be relatively stable, the reader knows that that’s further from the truth with his behaviors and actions. Healing hasn’t been on his list of priorities even during that time where he thought Hikaru was already dead. 

But back to the chapter. The apparition Goro says that it won’t be long until he disappears—which is a good sign. With Aqua’s revenge plot via the movie starting to wrap up it seems possible for him to heal from his trauma in a healthy way—I say that as if Hikaru isn’t still walking around. We don’t actually Know how the specifics on how this movie is going to take revenge against Hikaru, especially since as I’ve already stated previously, the majority of the public is fickle and will move to the next interesting topic as soon as it rears its ugly head. If Aqua is counting on the public to unmask Hikaru on its own, he’s going to be in for a rough awakening.

I also find it curious that the apparition says that it’s Aqua’s choice whether or not to kill Hikaru or “enjoy your youth with the girl you like”. The way that this entire conversation is portrayed in the succeeding panels is quite suspicious. That dissociation that Aqua experiences when he says that Ruby only likes Goro instead of Aqua is a really bad case of it. He’s delegating all of the happiness that Ruby’s accrued by being close to him to his past self and accepting none of it for his present identity. Get some therapy! 

It’s also interesting that the apparition pushes Aqua toward Kana when Aqua himself “denies” that the person that Ruby likes is Goro and not Aqua himself. That’s a whole lot of baggage implied in just a few panels. If this Goro-projection wants Aqua to become happy, then pushing him towards Kana makes some degree of sense here—but it isn’t the whole story, not by a long shot, not when we’re already see how much Ruby meant to Aqua.

The entire conversation ends with the Goro projection giving Aqua a choice is one that I plainly dislike for a majority of reasons. How is Aqua going to use this knife? Personally I really dislike this knife metaphor they’re using because it’s so ham-fisted. It’s thematic, yes, but they really couldn’t have done it with more subtlety? We’ve already known that Aqua was hesitating with his whole revenge scheme for 20 chapters or so but just letting us end with that question in mind for this scene after this entire spiral and not going deeper into Aqua’s psyche is frustrating. His narration and thought process has been sorely missing for almost an entire arc now with little substance to justify Why that is.

And now we’re back with Kana. Her reaction to all of this is quite funny because she’s basically being played like a fiddle by Akane as a proxy for “fixing” Aqua. And now we’re finally getting Kana’s thoughts on Aqua throughout the series. It took 3/4ths of the entire series for her to make a move and the only reason she did so is because of Akane’s machinations! She’s had these feelings this whole time and literally only acted on them because of the narrative literally pushing on her to do so! Come the fuck on, girl. You didn’t even have the decency to stand up and fight for him for a good chunk of the manga. This entire bit where she’s being manipulated to be pushed towards Aqua doesn’t make me think more of Kana as a character, personally. It’s actually kind of sad, but Kana isn’t a character that makes me feel anything but pointed annoyance and disdain for awhile now. She’s a romcom character insulated from the majority of the genre and only lifted up to relevance by the narrative itself.

There really isn’t anything more to say about Kana’s part of the chapter, really. Kana asking Aqua if he’s free on a Saturday is—well. During the movie arc we apparently didn’t have time for these small, character-defining moments in exchange for plot—which it did horribly in many aspects, really, and the second it ends we’re back to things being more character focused??? The plot has been stewing in a stagnant lake for literal months out of universe by now. A digression like this is already a slog.

What a completely ass chapter. Ironically enough it’s not for the reasons that a lot of people have been screaming about online. While I dislike the content of may parts of the chapter on an individual level, I have to grudgingly admit that, IF we’re going back to the love triangle plotline then focusing back on Kana’s feelings for Aqua is a necessary move.

The issue is that going back to this love triangle plotline when a) the movie arc’s pacing was complete ass, b) we didn’t get enough insight into Ai and Hikaru in said movie arc, c) Kana’s feelings were already resolved because she said to Aqua that, and I quote, “I don’t see you as a love interest and I never will.” thereby capping out her aspirations for Aqua directly to his face with an extreme amount of difficulty walking it back, d) the fact that both the progression of the story and the revenge plot itself has been stuck in stasis since the movie arc and going back to this love triangle stuff is only going to delay it further.

In any case, while I don’t particularly want to go in depth about the shipping side of things, since we are unfortunately now back to this love triangle bullshit, there's no longer any choice since the revenge plot has now been intertwined with the romance plot. Don’t blame the player, blame the manga. If Oshi No Ko could just get a better handle on its genres, then I wouldn’t have to rub too many braincells together on why romance is supposed to be just as relevant if not moreso to this “revenge” manga. 

This is not going to end well for Kana. While this chapter may be pointing in the opposite direction, it ignores all the chapters that came before it for a simple short term victory for Kana’s sake. It ignores all the context that was given in the past chapters, ignores Kana’s character and the actual main characters around her, and ignores the fact that we already know that they likely don’t actually get together. 

How do we know that? Because of the flashforwards that were handed to us in the first ten or so chapters. I have my own qualms with those interviews that I won’t reiterate here, but the relevant one is the interview that Aqua gave during Chapter 9. We see in said chapter that Aqua gives an interview on how he acts and that, in his words, he doesn’t love anyone. I was wondering about this interview for so long because it essentially takes a sledgehammer to Akane’s chances at the Aquabowl since he’d have little reason to lie to the reporter if he was hitched up with Akane during the time of the interviews.

The main thing to be gleaned here—and what this interview is trying to hammer in—is the fact that, if we take Aqua’s words at face value(and I’ll get to the idea that he’s lying out of his teeth here later), he’s pretty much Done with romance as of this interview. Now, why would the writers decide to add in this interview so early in the Oshi No Ko’s serialization? What are they trying to convey beyond adding things to look forward to during the manga’s runtime? If we believe Aqua here, then he’s still single at the time of the interviews, and any attempts to get in his pants in the meantime are already doomed with failure. Not exactly the best look for Kana’s chances with getting together with Aqua when we’re presented with these interviews.

Of course, if Aqua and Kana do get together, there’s an interpretation to be made that he’s just saying all this as a lie because it’s a public interview and whatnot, but that doesn’t make sense when we know that Kana’s going to graduate from being an idol in-universe. Where the interviews take place in the timeline is still up in the air, but there’ll certainly be some sort of timeskip if we’re to believe Aqua’s longer hair and piercings. Either way, Kana’s going to go back to being an actor, so any hint of romance between her and Aqua would’ve been more accepted by now. There’s little reason to lie in this case. But even if the interviews take place before Kana graduates from being an idol, Aqua’s final words within that page almost seem to seal the deal against Kana. 

To me, acting is revenge. It was a strange thing for Aqua to say openly and a strange thing to hear now that the manga is 150 chapters in. Whether or not it’s also a lie is also up in the air because we see him here with a singular white star eye. Whether or not he’s lying in this instance is irrelevant because in both cases they don’t spell anything good for Kana’s chances to get together with him. Aqua has been consistently keeping Kana in ignorance regarding his revenge plan and the sheer mention of revenge here during the interviews goes against the idea of them getting together. If they did get together by the time of the interviews, it’d be difficult for Aqua to explain to Kana just exactly what he means by his statement when he’s already insulated Kana from his revenge plot in the first place. Aqua’s not stupid enough to self-sabotage like this, especially when he has a singular white star eye.

That’s all my reasoning on a textual level. Subtextually, there’s even more evidence that this isn’t going to go Kana’s way. For one, the events of the most recent three chapters all happened in quick succession. Aqua’s last conversation with Akane was basically Akane showing her hand that she still wants to keep Aqua from achieving his revenge. Soon after that Kana starts doing out of character proactive things in order to win Aqua for herself, and with an insight that she didn’t have previously because of Akane’s help. Do people really think Aqua isn’t going to detect this strange behavior or press Kana on her reasons eventually?

The moment Aqua ferrets out that Akane has been pushing Kana towards Aqua is the moment that the other shoe’s going to drop. It’s kind of a deal breaker in a relationship when your ex tries to pair you up with someone in an attempt to fix you. I think that’ll put Aqua off Kana right quick if and when he figures that out, assuming he doesn’t press Kana about her reasons outright. It’s a dumpster fire waiting to happen, and I’m intrigued to see how bad the fallout’s going to be. Give this girl some lasting goddamn consequences for her actions! It’s almost embarrassing to see her get off scot free for being such an absolute bitch and hypocrite.

There’s also the fact that any sort of relationship with Kana as an idol is teetering towards scandal. Aqua himself noted down the fact that it was dangerous for him to be around Kana when he was under the impression that Hikaru was dead, and while his reasoning may have been motivated by trauma, his analysis there wasn’t wrong. Just another thing people have forgotten with this chapter, but even though an embodiment of your trauma tells you to go for a person in a dream doesn’t immediately mean you’ll get together with them. Please. 

All of this to say that we haven’t even talked about the elephant in the room. Ruby. There is absolutely no universe that she is going to just let Kana take Aqua. Sitting on your hands is a more Kana thing, really. If Akane hadn’t pushed kana in Aqua’s direction, she likely wouldn’t have done anything. In twenty chapters we’ve seen Ruby race forward beyond where Akane and even Kana have been running towards Aqua despite having more than half the manga to fester. She’s not going to take Kana as a romantic rival lying down. 

[timdrake-yumm]

Give me a Bruce who got Dick and his autism brain went: “I need to know everything I can about raising a child” and enrolled in a college child and adolescent development class.

Look. I’m in one right now— not because I’m going to have a kid any time soon, but because I’m a psych major, it fulfills a core requirement, and FHD is just psych-adjacent enough that I don’t care that it’s not technically for my major. Anywhomst, in this class we learn all sorts of stuff, and as we’re learning it, we can apply it to how we interact with the virtual child we’re raising .

(it’s a program called MyVirtualChild™️ that pairs with the textbook we’re reading and it allows us to raise a fake child to 18yrs old on our computers. Usually also gives the child a sibling, but you can’t raise that one to 18. It’s pretty cool— before we started it asked all these questions about if the child was biological, adopted, whether or not we had a partner, and all sorts of stuff about our mental history in order to incorporate enough of it in if we chose for the kid to be biological. Mine was and I had a fake partner. My kid’s name was Simon, he has dyslexia, and I’m very proud of him for being so mathematically/scientifically smart and getting into a good STEM college. His brother is named Timothy and he has ADHD and I love him just as much even though I didn’t get to interact with him as much. Also, the simulation had my partner and I divorce and we both ended up getting new partners, which I had no control over since it technically didn’t have any direct relation to me parenting my children. Anyways I’m still the favorite parents so sucks to be my ex I guess)

Sorry for that rant. The POINT is, I think it would be funny if Bruce were in this class when he first got dick because it would be such a learning experience and also he would get so frustrated over the lack of control he had for the options they give in certain scenarios. Imagine him getting to one of these where he thinks none of the things are the right answer, so he turns to dick and is like “which one do you think we should do, Chum?” And dick chooses the option that no sane person would pick but he’s a kid so he thinks it sounds fun and Bruce is just like “alright, might as well make all the mistakes on the fake kid instead of the real one” and goes for it. Alfred is shaking his head in the background. When Jason comes around Dick claims he’s actually the 4th kid because he has 2 virtual siblings he whole heartedly claims as real ones

[texasthoughtsaboutnothing]

Weird Question.

What does a good Limbus Company Tier List look like?

[Warning: Long]

Gacha games are, at least in part, games about optimizing limited resources. There is a daily stamina limit, and weeklies and dailies that you need to feed that stamina into. In turn, you receive an amount of rewards that need to be spent to acquire and upgrade units. Limited rewards. And you need so many just to upgrade one unit. Decisions need to made, resources allocated. You only have so much, you want to get and use the right stuff without wasting anything on someone you find out is trash 90 levels in. Right?

This is an aspect of Gacha that is often missed in discourse about pngs of anime waifus: the emotional and intellectual labor of investing into a unit, the constant worrying about if you are making the most optimal choices, and the satisfaction of planning well. How a lot of attachment to a character can stem not from their design or personality but just because they're all you had that countered this boss node and lord almighty they clutched out the win with 0.1% HP after you dumped all you had into raising them. I could talk about it all day, it' super interesting to me. But to refocus, the major consequence of this kind of game design are tier lists.

Tier lists will tell you, at a glance, what units are worth investing in and what's worth avoiding. Good tier lists will provide comprehensive explanations and guides for each unit to contextualize their placement. Bad tier lists won't. They can be the combined knowledge of an entire community for a game, they can also be an edict laid down without compassion or transparency. Again, absolutely interesting. And again, to refocus, Limbus doesn't really have one.

Ok, there are Limbus tier lists. Esgoo has great tier lists on which IDs and EGO you should prioritize when considering Uptie 4. Obviously those are his opinion, all Tier Lists are at the end of the day, but he has a whole hour of discussion covering the why's and hows of each category. There is a Prydwen tier list for units, but its rarely shown to new players in any of the PM communities I'm in and is instead largely chastised to my knowledge. I've seen Sinner tier lists, meme tier lists, so on and so forth. None of these are the Tier List.

Maybe its just a sign of the times, but I remember when Gachas had the Tier List. Community vetted, moderator approved, above any all all others. Offered freely to newcomers and watched feverishly by veterans after a new unit is released. Nowadays I feel like I rarely see them.

Limbus doesn't have the tier list. You may wonder if it even needs one and I think you'd have a point. Boiling an entire ID's value to a letter grade might seem unnecessary, especially as Limbus is a bit different as a Gacha. IDs are easy to get, and though the level cap continues to raise (in a way many others find alarming and I'm inclined to agree) it's still less than a week's effort to max one out. I've played games where it took a month of currency to get a single Unit useable. THere just isn't as much drive to worry about leveling the wrong things, investing incorrectly because basically anything works.

However.

There still are obvious differences in the strengths of each character ID. True, most if not all are "useable", but you're probably better off leveling Pequod Yi Sang than Seven Yi Sang. You are definitely better off leveling Pequod Ishmael than Sloshing Ishmael. Its fair to want a quick cheat sheet to communicate those ideas at a glance, with explanations for those who want to delve a little deeper.

But I ask again, what would it even look like?

By what categories and traits do we subdivide these IDs? How can you convey that W Ryoshu is a self sufficient DPS monster tahat requires no synergy to be good while Maid Ryoshu has AoE built into her kit as well as strong poise gen that also does good damage at a glance? Put one in an AoE group and the other in DPS? Is that truly accurate when part of attack weight is that it's great against Abnormalities, the most common type of one-on-one encounter?

I ask the question "what would it look like" because I truly don't know. Limbus is a complicated, evolving game. I don't think that makes it special or standout in any particular way, but for an example it could be that Seven IDs are top tier next event because of temporary buffs and that throws a whole tier list on its head. I don't know of many Gacha that do stuff like that.

That's kinda the end of the thought. The best I can come up with is a list consisting of three tiers: "great, good with the right team comp, and don't. Further explanation available upon request." That's not very helpful, is it?