#which they have quite frequently

[radiance1]

Vlad (Pheonix): Just giving you a heads up, when it becomes known that you are dating me. You will have to fight through my 6 abominable exes, as well as Gary.

Constantine: Why is the 7th one called Gary.

Vlad: Because that is his name...?

Constantine: No, I mean why is he differentiated from the others?

Vlad: Ah. Because Gary is not my ex, he's just Gary.

Constantine: Then why is he-

Vlad: He likes card games, the others are most likely to try and kill you.

Constantine: Noted.

[canisalbus]

For how much Machete is described by others as off-putting, he really is a beautiful dog. Does Vasco ever tell him so? That his eyes make him look earnest, his fur the most comforting shade of white like cream, the way his ears catch light like stained glass? If someone doesn't tell him so, he'd forever think he was ugliest duckling

I think Vasco definitely tries, sincerely and often, but Machete is very reluctant to accept compliments and positive feedback. Especially if it's about something as personal and innate as his looks.

[lemon-natalia]

Nona the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 22

oh no something about Nona’s braids being cut off makes me incredibly sad

also them teaching Nona how to be Harrow basically amounting to ‘wearing black and being rude’ is comedic gold

awwww Palamedes misses Harrow :( me too buddy she has been remarkably absent from this book

ngl there’s absolutely no way that Ianthe is buying this. i feel like they could maybe fool someone else but Harrow and Ianthe spent an awful lot of time together on the Mithraeum 

hmmm as always the conversations between We Suffer and Pash are quite obtuse but it sounds to me like they’re planning to kill Ianthe. i’m not convinced its going to go the way they hope if that is the case, Ianthe has been remarkably persistent

of course they have to bring Noodle along to the high stakes espionage mission

there’s an interesting dynamic between Pash and Camilla here. there’s clearly not any trust between them, and a lot of tension, but also just a little bit of mutual respect 

and they’re heading into the barracks, which have been repeatedly mentioned as being the centre of House-BoE conflict. i foresee absolutely no way this could go wrong at all 💀

oh jesus Ianthe’s gone all out on the ‘throngs of dead soldiers’ thing. yikes, i’d nearly forgotten how disturbing her specific brand of fucked up necromancy could be 

given Pyrrha knows Nona can read body language i wonder if she deliberately broke her act by crossing her arms to make sure Nona knew it was her. if so thats very sweet

and they couldn’t prep Nona for being called Harry, which isn’t great. hopefully that doesn’t throw her off too much

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

having sensory problems is tough because how to i tell my stepdad that i want to throw a brick at him for having a snack in the same room as me-

[k-yujin]

read the tags !! // officially quit

[12freddofrogs]

So as a general question to the Girl Genius fandom: has there ever been any confirmation on what happens if a slaver wasp infests a child Spark before their breakthrough?

(Most) wasps don't affect Sparks, but at the same time you are not really a Spark at birth. Although the kids do seem to be unusually brilliant, so clearly there is some indication from early on. Maybe you are immune from birth.

For that matter, do we know how old you have to be to get wasped? Could an infant be caught when they were born, or would we say they need to have an understanding of language? An infant won't be able to understand any orders, but if they're already inclined to obey it might be easier than doing it on their fifth birthday or something.

(Mostly I'm wondering how Sturmhalten handled new Sparks. They're rare enough there might not have been any born into the town at large... but it's equally possible there was a teenage boy working in a tavern who one day built a robot to collect and clean dirty plates. What happened to him? Did he throw up the remains of a wasp embedded in him for over a decade and assume that's a usual part of breakthrough? Did that wasp never manage to enter at all? Did the town perhaps notice when a small child was immune to the wasping, or were his parents - ordered to present him for it but no one thought to be more specific - just not questioning it, because they were too glad their son would be free.)

[mothbeasts]

i miss posting and making and engaging with ieytd content but I will be honest sometimes it feels alienating. as a lesbian.

[chidoroki]

August 1, 2023 - TPN’s 7th year anniversary - ft: Emma & Ray at the Seven Walls

[journey-to-the-attic]

Oh please do elaborate what crimes Mesphisto got up to in the Royal court.

so glad you asked! now first, as always when establishing mephisto's crimes in other universes, i must first establish sonno's crimes

okay so a while back sam (@/whensam, pioneer of the dragon au) proposed that diavolo is half dragon on sonno's side, so i was thinking about that. here's my idea: sonno is an enlightened dragon - his words - i.e. one who has taken human form. now, this is going to start sounding a little catholic, BUT

sonno believes that dragonkind is inherently sinful and that humankind is inherently weak, and thus the ideal society must be place them in the protection of the enlightened - so the unenligthened, who are threats to life, must be hunted down. which is why there's a precedent for the hunting of dragons; in a way, it's out of a very twisted love for humanity

barbatos and mephisto are also enlightened dragons, BUT while barbatos did that on his own - being the dragon ouroboros, hence him being the only one aware of the world's time loop - mephisto was enlightened by sonno, and thus initially follows his beliefs devoutly

mephisto was sonno's preferred instrument of punishment; being imperfect, since he was unable to achieve this humanhood on his own, he still has access to certain aspects of draconic power. hence, his job is to identify and 'eat' those who rebel

sometimes this involves pursuit, sometimes espionage, and sometimes he just poisons em in the middle of a banquet. he's an executioner in all but name, though the unwary in the court mostly think of him as some kind of jester

when he does defect, at first he does it very badly and gets the absolute stuffing beat out of him - he manages to escape and drag himself a good few miles, and then promptly gets mugged, hence why the gang finds him half-dead in a ditch somewhere

i don't think he'd tell any of them what he really is until near the very end of his journey, and yknow it feels like the natural end to his story here would be to die for the greater good (i.e. diavolo's cause) but. let's not think too hard about that for now. i need to define diavolo's cause properly first

[batsplat]

your top 5 philip island races 🙏

okay all five of these are very close together. to be clear

2004: putting this first fundamentally comes down to whether you're a duel or dogfight girl, and I'm the former. like, I love a great dogfight, I love chaos, I know phillip island specifically is all about multi-rider scraps, but as a person I'm just really about the psychological tension and drama of a one-on-one fight. especially between two people who despise each other. this is the penultimate race of the season, valentino's matchpoint race and also his first fight with sete post-qatar. the whole race is excellent but the first lap and last lap... transcendental

2017: practically a comfort watch by this point. it's so... ferocious, unrestrained, it also has a great post-divorce battle between valentino and marc buried within the dogfight that instantly elevates it for the viciousness. another one with big championship implications, which adds some fun stakes to just how hard they're going at it. also, I fondly remember watching this live early in the morning and going 'oh god they're gonna crash oh god they're gonna crash WHAT IF VALENTINO RUINS MARC'S CHAMPIONSHIP WHAT THEN' which quite frankly was such a special time

2015: another thrilling one in the category of proper dogfight. honestly these three middle ones are quite tricky to rank because, well, they're all great fun. I don't like,, enjoy watching the actual fighting quite as much as I do with 2017, though obviously the fantastic last lap does elevate this one. and the first few laps are really fun!! that poor seagull. plus the whole sword of damocles feel, the narrative implications of the whole thing are again. very pleasing. I think I kinda needed jorge/valentino to actually Fight Each Other a bit more, but I suppose the whole point of that season is that they didn't

2001: it says something about the quality of phillip island races that I'm ranking this absolute banger fourth. this is valentino's first matchpoint race, first premier class title, and it's super pleasing in how you're frequently readjusting your expectations of how this race is going to go? excellent momentum shifts. it's got the most pleasing narrative conclusion too, with the dogfight becoming a duel between the title contenders right at the end. valentino doesn't need to overtake biaggi for the win to take the championship, but can he resist... (no.) I think the main reason this is no higher than fourth is that by this point the title is basically wrapped up, but there is also something fun in how badly valentino wanted to win the race anyways. always got to be so dramatic about everything

2003: I was about to say 2023, but then I had the 'wait what the fuck I can't leave out 2003' moment. the issue is that this is... well it's a different flavour of pleasure than these other races, right. but also it'd be fundamentally dishonest of me to leave this out, because I DO get one hell of a kick from watching it and have done so an unhealthy number of times. you've got the early vicious dogfight, then you've got that lull out front while the dogfight for the remaining podium places rages and then you've got the penalty announcement. you've got the dogfight for the final podium position to keep you entertained on the action front, you've got the slow burn pleasure of watching valentino pull out increasingly silly laps, and then you've got the ghost bike extra-dimensional warfare commentators to pull the whole thing together into a unique race watch experience

honorary mentions!! 2023 (this was such a blast to watch live, like the way the story of the race gradually changed and you had this brutal fight and this building tension because you just knew that Those Tyres Were Being Shredded and then it all comes together... last lap is so so good); 2022 (just pure pure chaos, you kinda felt like half the grid was involved in the dogfight for the lead at one point or another, just never knew what was going to happen next, plus the last lap is a lot of fun and with a very deserved winner); 2009 (dude I felt so bad not including one of the many casey wins but genuinely which of these races would I kick out. this one is his most 'exciting' win and obviously massive championship implications, but also it's very much the being edged of watching a motogp duel in that a fight constantly threatens but doesn't actually ever get going); 2008 (objectively one of the better phillip island races in casey's tenure but like. unfortunately he's just too good at these, and the most exciting thing going on here is valentino working his way up from 12th. sorry casey if you just went slower then you'd be featured more on this list); 2006 (first flag to flag race!! ever!! absolute chaos all the way through, constant chopping and changing of the championship picture. last lap duel between Old Enemies I'm fond of for sentimental reasons); 2013 (marc's race still makes me mad if I think about it for more than two seconds, but the whole experience is also inarguably chaotic enough and dumb enough to be a lot of fun to watch); 2011 (at least Making It Wet was one somewhat interesting way to mix up casey's domination and spook him a little bit, but ultimately obviously he did the thing again - sentimental value because he sealed the title on his home race at his birthday)

[lurking-latinist]

having another Aubreyad phase apparently, I am very fond of the books but unfortunately can never watch the movie because ever since I art-baited @heimeldat into drawing Jack as hypothetically played by Colin Baker, I cannot see him as played by anyone else

[neofelis----nebulosa]

saw a living oriole irl for the first time today!

[jaratedeguadalupe]

Janus is the embodiment of manipulate, mansplain, manwhore good day 

[likeabxrdinflight]

very strange getting a message from the mom of a current student of my middle-school-teacher-turned-friend who is organizing a little retirement gift for her. like. yes I do know she's retiring. we spent the better part of two hours on thursday talking about it over margaritas and mexican food. of course I'd be happy to write a short message to put in a little book of messages from former students but also please know that it's going to be filled with references you won't understand and I will be addressing her by her first name.

[lesbiansanemi]

I have started to accept I am a bit more (re a lot more) psychologically unstable than I thought for a long time and man…. I’m tired of it

[13eyond13]

.