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ultraviolet-cello · 4 months

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Yo what's up it's me, ya boi, [horrendous infection that knocked me down for a couple days]

Anyway I'll be catching up episodes 3 4 and 5 tomorrow/day after, but for now I just wanna do my thing with ep 6. 6&7 are possibly some of my favourite episodes in Tristamp, so I'm hyped to show off my theories/details about them.

Once again spoilers for Trimax [HEAVY spoilers in this case, we're talking about Legato and Razlo]

TL;DR there's something fucked up with Tristamp Livio and by extension Razlo, and I need more of them all the time.

@tristampparty I'm back in the game!

So a lot of these theories and details will link to episode 7 :]

So of note in this scene is (obviously) Wolfwood's weird red eyes which. Pretty cool ngl. But I do think there's something to be said about the way he pauses and carries the Punisher in this scene; there's a pretty popular theory that Wolfwood gets extremely overstimulated when he takes a vial and the way he pauses and wobbles with the Punisher here is, for me, more evidence for the list.

Also that they won't give this man a CAR. Give him a Thomas or something??? I think it speaks to the dehumanization of Wolfwood by EOM that he doesn't seem to get to use transport like a normal person - always set to wander the desert, because he can survive that! Not like a normal person, of course. Only the Punisher is inhuman enough to do that.

I'll have what he's having [I love that Nightow's wanted poster gets in the magazine despite being. Yknow, 30 $$]

I'll talk about this more when I actually get round to analyzing episode 5, but Roberto calling out Vash's not-being-human and then immediately going "well I'm not risking my life for that" is interesting because he's, well, a reporter. It speaks to his experience that he's not willing initially to chase down something that could be a big scoop. But also,,,, Vash looks like. 20. Roberto is probably about in his 30s-40s, which means he's probably heard of Vash since childhood [Since Tristamp Vash has a much longer reputation history than Trimax/98]. I really wonder what Roberto thinks of that; did the picture not come as a shock to him, or did he already know? Does part of the reason he keeps letting himself be talked into following Vash stem from a lifelong curiosity? Much to think about.

This plant HAUNTS me. Why does she have such a different tank? Used to power the Ion Cannon, maybe, but there's the possibility people adjusted it so she can better power the sandsteamer and that's,,,, There's a complicated relationship between humans and plants (obviously), but little implications like those adjustments make me go !!!! [My friend @millions-dykes has a Plant Engineer oc, Enigma, who focuses on that concept. She's very cool]

LIVIO SIGHTED. Let me get this out of the way quickly, but y'know that panel that is often cited as inspiration for Tristamp Livio's design? Yeah that's. That's Razlo.

Which is really fucking funny to me because it's foundational to Tristamp Livio - love that for him, but trimax Livio specifically does not wield Punishers, and the page that this appears on is when Razlo is getting Livio to tell him he's the strongest (Which then goes into this training flashback montage page which is Razlo-centric). Which again, extremely funny to me.

Not necessarily analysis, but something all iterations of Trigun do great at is a sense of Scale. The sandsteamer is massive, yes, but so is the desert. There's some great shots with the moons later on, which I love as well.

Wolfwood really doesn't try and keep it secret, huh? I mean, in every iteration Vash Knows[TM], but tristamp Wolfwood in particular just,,, doesn't keep the secret. I wonder what other conversations they've had, when Wolfwood realized Vash knew.

Being always able to see Wolfwood's eyes gives him a layer of emotion that I really like - Trimax Wolfwood is a little more reserved, because he's more developed, further layered into those coping mechanisms and repressions that make up his character. Tristamp Wolfwood hasn't quite had that yet, and it's reflected in his design. It's sick as hell

Time for me to be so normal about Livio and Razlo ^_^ so I've built up a bit of a study case on the differences in when Livio or Razlo are fronting [Trimax], and once you start looking into paneling and shit it's Very apparent! Which is cool! And I'm starting to build up one for Tristamp Livio, which,,, well, you'll see. Anyway take note of his movements here - slow, even footsteps and steady guns.

The mask here is. Also a red flag for something being Off. The eye moving independently suggests that either they have some Weirder Than Usual Body Stuff going on, that Trimax Livio and Razlo can do that and nobody comments on it because they're being polite or - My theory - the mask having those electrical components are embedded somewhat in Livio's face. I will explain in just a second.

Livio as a kid being so upset about his parents interests me - In Trimax, Razlo kills Livio's parents because Razlo was formed as a protective alter due to heavy childhood abuse, and Livio doesn't seem too upset by that specifically, more just being,,, alone. I wonder what happened with their parents in this specific timeline, or if Razlo just hasn't presented yet.

Now I've uh. Kinda semi-intentionally blocked out some stuff I've read in the Bible, but I do remember someone being crucified upside down. St Peter that was it! I don't remember anything else but I'm sure people more well-versed in the Bible will have some imagery to point out lol

Legato's outfit seems a touch inspired by that one July flashback in Trimax. Which, given that Tristamp is a leadup to July, is a nice touch!

Legato might be a bit protective of his hair. Can't imagine why.

On a more serious note, it makes sense for Legato to have such a protectiveness around his body and physical appearance, especially if Knives had an influence in it.

sands undertal

I really do wonder what Legato's ability is in this. Like unless they retrieved Vash's arm from the. Wherever it got sucked into when it was amuptated they can't go the 98 route. But the wire explanation of Trimax also doesn't quite seem to fit. Something new, maybe. Could be related to Plants!

I wonder if Vash here is thinking about Rollo. That Wolfwood was willing to kill Rollo out of mercy, and he's going to do it again to Livio. Except this time, Wolfwood knows Livio. Vash doesn't know Livio, but Wolfwood does and it's going to hurt Wolfwood if Vash lets him carry on with this. So he goes to save Livio, and save Wolfwood as well. Similar to Trimax, where Vash kills Legato to save Livio as a remnant of Wolfwood's memory, Vash here could be protecting Livio to protect Wolfwood.

Okay here's where my crack theories come in. So I do think that Razlo is elbowing his way into front about here, not even necessarily because Livio is getting his ass handed to him, but because of the mask. He's probably not fully There, because the progressing fighting style continues in Livio's movements, but the eye changes are. Well, it's Livio and Razlo you can never be too careful.

So Livio hits the mask here and is down for the count for. A Bit. What's important here to me is that the mask does of course have an electrical component. Now, what would that be for? Well, gathering that Livio seemingly has a bit of trouble after this (early episode 7, this is a two parter theory), that the mask is used by EOM to force a switch remotely. After the mask seemingly malfunctions, we get a lot more Razlo-esque movements and traits in episode 7 before Livio seems to come back in and have his little meltdown.

It links in with both dehumanization of neurodivergent people (In this case, a system) and the usage of Razlo and Livio by EOM. Razlo's very often portrayed as Big Scary Murder Alter by EOM for scare factor, whereas when we get a bit more into Razlo's head in the Elendira fight we see a bit more what he's actually like - protective alter groomed into assassinhood by Chapel - and lends more understanding to the character. EOM being able to force trigger a switch would be viscerally horrifying for that loss of autonomy theme in a way that speaks to many neurodivergent people. Thanks for coming to my ted talk????

#cli speaks #trigun #tristampparty #trigun stampede #cli analysis

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jasmine-tea-latte · 2 months

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JTL's long but not as long as it could've been review of Netflix's ATLA

So.

I’ve finished watching the Netflix adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender and I have a lot of thoughts. Because despite some of the more questionable changes, I overall enjoyed this as an adaptation.

I wish I could say that I was surprised by the criticisms I'm seen so far, but unfortunately, I’m not. As much as I adore the OG series for being one of the greatest animated shows (or television shows, period), it’s been placed on a pedestal over the years and any adaptation of it will always be held to an impossibly high standard. And for better or for worse, a lot of fans have their nostalgia glasses on when it comes to the show, so any deviation from the source material is going to receive some form of backlash. I say this as someone who clearly still loves the show 19 years later, otherwise I wouldn't be here writing about it, ya know?

Anyways, if I had to give it a grade compared to the OG series, I’d give it a B- or a C+. If I’m grading it as its own thing, I’d bump that up to a B+ or A-. There are some elements (pun not intended) that definitely should have been kept in, and some changes that I thought were done well.

TL;DR – I had fun watching it even during the parts that made me cry, and the parts that made me say “… well that was a decision.” I’d love to see the last two books be adapted as well, if for no other reason than to meet Toph Mothereffing Bei Fong and see all of Team Avatar together.

(Also because I’d LOVE to see The Ember Island Players, especially if they managed to work in a few fun cameos. Can't you picture Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Play!Toph and thee Dante Basco as Play!Zuko, hamming it up for all it’s worth? Shut up and take my money!)

(And of course, the Last Agni Kai for obvious reasons)

So I’d recommend at least checking it out if you’re interested. I’d also like to recommend that if you do, watch it from a pragmatic standpoint that it’s a condensed adaptation, not a shot-for-shot remake.

Some things that I liked, and some that I didn’t are below the cut:

(SPOILERS, obvs)

Aang – I really liked this version of him, and though his actor’s still young, I thought he embodied the upbeat, playful side well. I also liked that they removed his one-sided crush on Katara, and – don’t shoot me for this – if they went with Kat@ang later based on how they did their characters in this first season, I wouldn’t be entirely opposed if it’s built on actual friendship and not an unrequited crush. (Still Team Zutara for life, but I don’t think that I’d *hate* it if the show went in this direction.)

Katara – I thought her actress did great when it came to portraying the nurturing, sensitive side. What I didn’t like was them removing nearly all of her feminine rage. Let her be angry! Let her lose her temper and be hot-headed! This post sums it up nicely. That being said, I do think she did well enough with the direction she was given. Here’s hoping we’ll see our girl eff some stuff up if we get Seasons 2 and 3.

Sokka – Fantastic and sarcastic. I really liked his actor’s interpretation of him, and it definitely felt more in line with the character we all fell in love with during the OG show.

Zuko – out of the main cast, I think his performance was the best. He had to step into a major role, taking over from a beloved performance that is still hailed as one of the greatest redemption arcs in modern media with a lot of expectations riding on his shoulders, and I think that his actor knocked it out of the park. It’s different from Dante Basco’s interpretation, obviously. But as I watched each episode, I kept thinking, “there’s our grumpy fire boy.” The scene where he’s throwing the temper tantrum over losing his journal, while Iroh’s standing back and watching? I thought to myself, “this boy is the worst, he’s perfect.” Plus the flashbacks to his life before scarring were done well, and even though I knew what was coming re: the Agni Kai against his father and subsequent banishment, I still got emotional.

Also, regarding the Agni Kai – on one hand, I feel like his absolute refusal to fight back was such an integral part of that scene and understanding who he is as a character. That being said, I didn’t *hate* that in this version he was pushed into defending himself, albeit by holding back. That one shot where he hesitates to attack Ozai, only for his father to use that same move against him moments later… oof.

My ONLY complaint with this version of Zuko is that he didn't say "honor" once.

Other thoughts I had:

🟣 I really liked that we got to see more of the Air Nomads and life at the Southern Air Temple prior to Sozin’s attack. I also liked the explanation the show gave of having all the Air Nomads gathered together for a festival celebrating the comet, which makes more sense if they’re all (allegedly) under one roof.

Additionally, witnessing the genocide itself… I was crying. Especially during the final showdown between Gyatso and Sozin, and the realization that we were witnessing Roku’s (former) best friend slaughter one of his other closest friends.

But why wouldn't they send the children out on the flying bison to escape instead of having them all cornered?!

🟣 I really enjoyed getting to see interactions between Ozai and Iroh, which was one of the biggest missed opportunities in the OG show.

🟣 MY GIRL JUNE. That is all.

The part where she flirts with Iroh was also a nice flip on what happened in the OG show, with his covert pervert crush and all. Plus Zuko’s face when she calls his “dad” cute? Peak Zuzu. Also, poor Iroh hahaha.

🟣 Suki! I really liked the Kyoshi Island episode, plus her awkward flirting with Sokka by kicking his ass.

🟣 I really wish the whole subplot of Kya’s necklace hadn’t been cut, tbh. The flashbacks involving her were good, and as devastating as it was actually seeing her death, it does hammer home the point what a horrifying experience that was (side-eyeing you, everyone making the jokes about Katara always bringing up her dead mother.)

🟣 THE SCARF SCENE. Nice try, Netflix, but I know better than to get my hopes up again from 5 seconds of slow-mo. Did I still screech when it happened, though? Ofc I did!

🟣 The twist with the 41st Division was bittersweet and I may have (okay, definitely) cried.

🟣 Combining Jet’s subplots with the Mechanist’s and putting them in Omashu wasn’t too bad. I do wish the message of “not everyone in the FN is evil” from Jet’s episode had made it into this version, tbh.

🟣 Overall, I liked Jet + the Freedom Fighters. Also, props to his actor for capturing the pretty boy / f*ckboi attitude well.

🟣 Loved Chong and the hippies, of course (SECRET, SECRET, SECRET TUNNEL, YEAH!) and I don’t mind that they were included this early.

🟣 I loved the change to the Cave of Two Lovers and having Oma and Shu be lesbians.

🟣 I feel like if the show’s renewed for a second season and we come back to Omashu, there’s a chance they could revisit the COTL with Katara and Aang this time around.

🟣 The random lady smacking Zuzu with a broom – “how dare you hit that child?!” – was hilarious, and Dallas Liu’s facial expressions of “wtf” and “fml” were a thing of beauty (starts at 1:40 in the video below)

youtube

🟣 CABBAGE MAN! I just love that they got the original voice actor, hamming it up and screaming at the sky.

🟣 I LOVED the Blue Spirit episode, and all of the flashbacks, plus the voiceover about masks and seeing past!Zuko contrasted to present!Zuko, as presented in this gifset? RIP my heart.

🟣 The flashback to Lu Ten’s funeral and showing Zuko being the only person to join his uncle, sharing a sweet memory of his cousin while Leaves from the Vine plays? Beautiful. Ditto to the flashbacks of Iroh standing up for his nephew prior to the Agni Kai and the scenes of them getting ready to set sail to search for the Avatar. “I don’t need a babysitter.” “How about a friend?” how about excuse you I did not ask for these emotions how dare you.

🟣 I actually liked the inclusion of Ozai and Azula + Mai and Ty Lee. I also loved the opening of Ep. 3, showing how she was able to infiltrate the team of rebels. RIP to Kevin Tran (in advanced placement), though.

🟣 I loved that Katara rallied the women waterbenders and they were able to help during the Siege of the North. I also liked her reaction when she's talking with Yugoda in the healing huts and realizes why she's been sent there. It gave us a glimpse of the fiestier / headstrong Katara we all know and love, and if the show gets renewed I hope we'll get to see more.

🟣 I really enjoyed them giving Aang and Zuko a few minutes to talk / form a connection after he was unmasked as the Blue Spirit. That was nicely done.

and finally...

Nothing else to add, just chef's kiss.

(gif source)

Anyways! I might make a more extensive list of my personal pros and cons, but for now, I’d still recommend giving it a shot.

#long post #avatar the last airbender #netflix atla

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ebonysplendor · 4 months

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Where Winter Crows Go Review ❄️🐦‍⬛

TL;DR: Chaga mushrooms ain't the only thing that Crowe be foraging, but this time he doesn't want to share the spoils with the squad for research purposes.

Game Link: https://prikarin.itch.io/where-winter-crows-go

Notable Features: Gender Neutral MC, Optional Reader-Insert with choice of pronouns, Yandere LI, 17+ Spiciness: 1/5 -- It gets a little flirty, but it's sweet and innocent LI Red Flags: 3/5 -- Manipulative, little hands on, has a temper

Want to know more? Well, let's get into it!

Okay, so, the full release finally came, and ya girl was SO excited! The demo was very promising, but I needed a little more convincing. That being said, this wasn't by any means one of the one's that I was the most ecstatic about, but I was still excited enough about it to check back occasionally for the full release. I just so happened to get lucky recently and saw that it had actually dropped back in November. So, I was late, but not embarrassingly so. Now, this review on the other hand... But listen! I just recently decided to take the plunge and start making reviews, so mind ya business lol.

Anyways, this isn't about me and my tardiness, this is about this pleasant little game that really went for it in the full version, and boi, did they go for it!

I'd classify this as one of those "slow burn" visual novels, simply because it's not obvious that our LI is a lil' psycho off the rip, and there's nothing too unsettling from the jump aside from getting caught in a blizzard. Actually, since we're on the topic, the LI -- his name is Crowe Lynn, by the way -- is actually pretty damn hospitable, and he's a full blown scientist. The most shocking part is, he isn't even doing anything sketchy! for the most part. He is deadass living in the middle of nowhere for research purposes and is writing books to know why nature is...well, naturing, for lack of better wording.

That being said, I think the intro is long enough, and I'm really excited to tell you more about this game, because you guys have got to play this whenever you get the chance! As always, I'm going to tell you as much as possible about the game without ruining the game itself.

So, boom. We're -- or Aspen, should you decide to play through their eyes, but I prefer self-insert -- going on a trip in our favorite run down car to get to some town where there is supposed to be this really nice place to let off some steam via skiing. Trust me, we did research on this; we know what we're talking about. Anyways, while driving, we start noticing how we've been on this same road for a long time, and yet, we haven't seen anybody for an equally long time.

Run down car? Long road? No one for miles? You already know what's about to happen.

Yep, you guessed it, we get a flat, and as you've also probably guessed, we have no spare tire, but bear with me! The game isn't this predictable, I swear! You've gotta understand that it can just be a little hard to get away from certain tropes, and let's be real, they kind've have to happen for plot purposes. I mean, think about if we actually had a tire in the trunk. We would've been outtie, we would've had a great trip, and there would've been no game lol. Sometimes, you just gotta cut the devs some slack.

Anywho, so yeah, flat tire and no spare. Naturally, we hike it to try to find some help, but the weather kind've picks up, and the clothes that we have, while appropriate for the cold, aren't adequate enough for a full blown blizzard. No worries though, because guess who comes to the rescue? This guy!

Everybody, this is Crowe. Crowe, this is everybody.

As you'd expect (I know I keep saying that, but lmao it's not a overly predictable game, I swear!), Crowe is this really chill dude. Actually, more than a chill dude, he's a massive nature nerd. That's actually why he's out in the middle of the woods anyways! Like I mentioned before, he's researching why nature be naturing, specifically -- at least, his current topic from the way it was worded is -- partial migration. If you've never heard of that, don't even worry about it, in the game he explains it to us. Like, I'm telling you. This man is super into this stuff, and we love a smart man.

Getting away from that though, he basically ends up telling us that the town that we're in is pretty much deserted with the exception of like 13 other people, and because of the blizzard, the time it'd take to clean the roads, the likelihood of there being another blizzard right behind the one that just happened, and cleaning up after that blizzard, getting to our planned destination just wasn't going to happen. ...Well, shit.

What are we going to do then? Our car has a flat, we can't travel, and there's not any resorts nearby. No worries though, because the bae came through! He said "Oh, you can just stay with me!" Oh wooooooord???

So guess what we do? Make ourselves cozy in this bomb ass cabin. I'm not even exaggerating about that. Like, this cabin is REALLY nice! Take a peek!

That's just our room and the hallway. You can only imagine how bomb the rest of the place looks. Like, I'm telling y'all, it's super cozy up in here. But we must stay focused! And by we, I mean me, because I could go on and on about how nice this cabin looks.

Back to the topic at hand though, we've agreed to stay with Crowe, even though, we honestly don't have much of a choice, but it was just dope that Crowe was cool with everything. That being said, during our stay, we do all kinds of pretty cool stuff! We go foraging with him for chaga mushrooms and winterberries, we create some powders to add to other stuff, and we make some medicines. Everything was going super smoothly ... until it wasn't.

Crowe kind've has...a weird temper. Like, we had accidentally gotten hurt, and he had gotten super pissed about it. We love a man that cares about his guest, but he was a bit overdramatic about it. You'd think we would've lost a limb or something. The main thing that got him really pissed, though, was when we had mentioned our car and implied leaving. He did not like that, and when I say we got into it bad? Oh, the insults were flying. Like, look at this!

So, yeah, we fought, and what about it? It's whatever. Forget him...

...Actually, we felt really bad about the whole thing, and so did he. We talked it out, and everything was all good again; however, now he's acting really weird, we're getting really suspicious, and we still have to get home. That being said, we call it an early night, borrow one of his books, and pretty much make a gameplan so we can figure out how to get home as well as what the hell is going on that is not only making Crowe act weird, but what is going on in general.

And we do! We sneak out the next morning and ... we actually make things worse because now, we're REALLY confused. I'm not going to get into the details, but just know that there are more questions than answers at this point. So, yeah, while the investigating helped, it only helped a little, and I genuinely mean only a little.

One thing that we know for sure though...

This man is definitely crazy in love with us.

And that's all I'm going to tell you! Lol I'm sorry! But if I tell you the rest, it'll literally be the ending, and it'll ruin it! You know how much I want you guys to play it, so no way am I going to spill the details, but like most visual novels, how it ends is completely up to the choices that you make.

Guys...the full game delivered.

I prefer choice heavy visual novels like Darling Duality and Forcefully Yours, but this still wasn't bad by any means. I actually thought it was quite good! Like I said, the most shocking thing to me about all of this is that this man is deadass a scientist! Like, he really isn't doing anything entirely sketchy out there! That was the biggest plot twist of the century to me! But, anyways, letting go of that. Let me tell you more of my thoughts on the game, and why I feel like you should play it whenever you get the chance.

The visuals are absolutely stunning, first and foremost. So far, my favorite VN visual wise has been Mushroom Oasis, but this is definitely a solid number 2 spot. I absolutely adore the art style. I also appreciate the revamp that they did with Crowe. There is nothing wrong with femboys by any means, but to me, Crowe was a little girly looking, and he very much so looked like a small child lol. Like look at the difference in this.

This is the old Crowe Lynn

And this is the new Crowe Lynn

Lol you see what I mean? He looked like a child that wanted to be a scientist when he grew up versus the actual adult him that chose science as a profession. The redesign was definitely a good choice, and I love how he looks now, especially with the longer hair and worn out lab coat. What do you think, though? Which did you prefer?

Aside from that though, you know what one of my favorite things about the game was? The fact that -- and listen close, because this is about to be a tip! -- the endings that you get are based more on how the character feels about Crowe versus how Crowe feels about us. How curious is that?

In a majority of visual novels, the endings are literally dependent on how far we push the LI or their affinity for us, but it's not like that in this one. We get a different ending based on if we trust him or not, if we flirt back with him or ignore his remarks, and some other factors that I don't want to include and possible spoil the story. I just thought that was a really interesting take, and that was super creative of the developer. It was definitely refreshing to play as more of myself and base the gameplay on my -- or rather my character's -- feelings versus playing for the LI and his feelings.

With all that in mind, I definitely say give this game a go! It has a nice mystery/suspense to it, and not to mention, there is a really bomb song during the credits. I was so sad to see that it was not on Spotify! Well, let me clarify, it IS, but it's not available to me which sucks ass. It's not even on YouTube, and it hurts me so bad! Ugh!

Anyways, in case my feelings and opinions weren't clear -- play this game, play this game, play this game, play this game! As always, be sure to leave your comments on the dev's page if you feel like they've done a good job, and you want to give them that extra reassurance to keep making games. Of course, donations are always helpful to them as well! Like mentioned at the very top, here is a link to the game so that you can play it for yourself, and I really want you to play it for yourself!

That's all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

Where Winter Crows Go

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joemuggs · 4 months

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Albums of 2023 part 2

And so, on from part 1, we continue. This is more dreamy synth-dub that sits perfectly next to the Harrow album: Richard Norris is another artist with an extraordinarily long and illustrious career but who also has never lost the exploratory urge and total delight in sonic finesse.

Honestly Uruguayan-in-Ireland Lila Tirando a Violeta is right up there with the very best of the "deconstructed club" generation - dark, gothic, complex, VERY WEIRD - and this collab with Berliner Sin Maldita is up there with her best. It's really, REALLY intense!

Just impossibly beautiful elegies from ambient harpist Mary Lattimore which builds towards the final track collaboration with Slowdive's Rachel Goswell that is so lovely it will single handedly bring back swooning as a popular pastime.

Officially an EP but there's enough here to cement Nia Archives's place as a heavyweight - add "Off Wiv Ya Headz" and that Jorja Smith remix, and she's had a humdinger of a 2023....

Saw some discourse suggesting that Burna Boy is resting on his laurels here, but I don't hear it. Maybe it's the fact that the cover looks dashed-off? But musically, this bangs: it expertly joins so many dots but keeps his voice and personality right at the heart of it.

I mean come on there was no way a collab between Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist was going to be anything but good, right? Just purest essence of deep and dreamy stoner hip hop. Yet another small (27min) but beautifully formed album - definitely a trend there.

Feels kind of (literally) sacrilegious to say I prefer Cleo Sol's more personal, less scriptural records (e.g. Rose in the Dark) - and this is, top to bottom, a gospel album - but the conviction to her performance and the whole realisation of it here is still really magical.

From Coventry via Skopje, man like NOT_MDK's first album in 23 years, and he's zooming into the deep flows that join grime and dubstep into the longer, deeper electronic funk continuum... These tracks are so crisp and crunchy!

She's from Turkey but Ahu's been plugged into the London Plastic People / NTS / etc scene for years - file this with Yazmin Lacey and similar LDN soul-jazz, also it's very Boho and vibesy and incensey, definitely one to light your best candles for.

Can't remember who put me on to this, possibly Radio 3? Anyway if cold wet misty Scottish hillsides are your jam Claire M Singer has you covered - these slower-than-slowly unfolding organ-led pieces practically smell of wet moss, and are extremely beautiful.

He's lent vocals to a who's who of electronic music, but it turns out Paul St Hilaire's own studio craft is the equal of just about any of them - this is just a stunning, ocean-deep album of dub abstraction and subtly potent lyricism.

Icelander Eva Jóhannsdóttir aka EVA808 has already made a name in the dubstep/grime world but this is her really spreading her creative wings. Mad psychedelia, elemental abstraction, movie-theme composition - there's not much she can't do. Big things beckon!

There's still SO much to say about amapiano, and so much incredible UK, SA and wider world stuff last year (this isn't even the only great DJ Maphorisa album - he had THREE out in 2023, including a mini album with Shino Kikai and a 25-track one with fellow originator Kabza De Small!!). Suffice to say this has gorgeous songs, primal grooves, endlessly sophisticated mixdowns and bass that'll take your breath away.

Just gonna link to my review for this one (it's got the music embedded) - but TL;DR Darren J Cunningham aka Actress is the holy prophet of the era of enshittification, yet for all that his music is constantly "off" and made for a world that is "off", he alchemises it into real gold.

Yeah I'm going to be THAT space-jazz hipster and say this is the record I wish Andre3000 (who is on it, and Carlos Niño co-produced his album) had made. It's just a more lavish, free, FUN way to cavort with the five-dimensional fractal machine elves.

Zoning in on the platonic breakbeat mathematics that underly Jersey / B'more club Chicago hip house, UK rave, trip hop etc, Bored Lord could seem arch or retro if her beats weren't so gloriously functional and bumping.

Fed up of generic records? You will never EVER find another one that sounds like IFS MA. Polish abstract slightly Autechre-y footwork / drum'n'bass with Japanese rapper MA sounding like a cyborg beat poet Taliban Trim and I.... 🤯

Every man jack and their dog are doing high bpm retro rave lately but you can trust Meemo Comma to put a fresh and uneasy twist on it. These tracks will get you proper buzzing up loud! I got to DJ for her live performance of this at Spiritland earlier in the year, hearing them on that system was a real treat.

You get a twofer with this one. Phil Kieran's ode to Belfast is gorgeous in studio form here, but he also recorded and released a version with the Ulster Orchestra that single handedly revivifies the idea of electronic music done classical style!

Two true underground troupers teaming up here - Jordan GCZ from Juju & Jordash and David "Move D" Moufang with some otherworldly good-dream ambient, deep house and space-soul jams heavy on the Fender Rhodes, fuzzy reverberation and sensually sweeping portamento.

My musical safe place for so much of this year. Brooklyn "electronic jam band" Purelink somehow burrowed into electronic music history and found the softest, happiest, warmest fur lined chamber and then invited us in. I cannot emphasise enough how LOVELY this record is.

More modular synth grooves from E Ruscha aka Secret Circuits, but no over-indulgence here and the grooves REALLY DO GROOVE. Trippy as a weasel circus and twice as funky.

Talking of trippy, here's Optimo Music's second acid-drenched entry, from the man formerly known as TB Arthur and the mighty Magda trading as Blotter Trax, it's a kind of parallel universe early 80s alt disco where everything gurgles and melts.

More from South Africa - King Mzaiza Sound via the reliably tough Parisian PSSNGR label - not 100% sure what you'd call this though it definitely has some gqom sonics, some trap drums, and some strident rap vocals... It's HARD AS NAILS is what it is.

EVEN HARDER - Nyege Nyege brought us a sampler of this (and I don't use mental health language lightly) FUCKING MENTAL shrieking, raging, solvent-huffing sound from São Paulo stewarded by the young DJ K, and it's extremely funky and scarily thrilling.

OK there we go, part three is here.....

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clownfire · 2 years

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Spoilers ig for the just rolled for pd s2 ep17 (also cw for use of the term qu**r, in reclaimed and academic usage, I self-identify as such and feel comfortable using the term, but I understand why others don’t).

Honestly I’m okay with GhostKnife not being reciprocated. I’ll feel bad in the moment for Will sure, but I know it’ll serve the story the crew want to tell and trust it will be played well.

Now I’m not saying that I dislike GhostKnife, it’s a compelling pairing with a strong basis in canon, and I reckon the guys could pull it off really well if they decide that’s how they wanna take this subplot. And Will’s crush is canon! William is a canonically bisexual character who gets to progress the plot and have interesting dynamics with other characters, all whilst being queer and all that having nothing to do with his queerness and without it being ignored (I can’t say the same for another William...Duffers). We know that the relationship going to become more story relevant, and will be addressed. The crew aren’t ignoring it for the sake of baiting a potential queer audience like larger studios do, this show is independently run, and funded and consumed by a predominately queer audience

Similarly, jrwi isn’t your regular show that’s written by a team, who hand scripts off to voice actors who are hired to read a character’s lines; If Condi and/or Slime don’t feel comfortable role-playing that or don’t know where to take the pairing, they don’t have to. I’d rather it not become canon than it be done poorly, ya know? That’s what fanfiction’s for anyways (that just might be my cynicism from being in the IT fandom leaking through tho).

And honestly I’d be refreshing to see a queer teen pairing not eventuate into a romantic relationship - not because one of them dies or a big dramatic coming out scene that gets rejected - but simply because they’re young adults who still need to figure themselves out, and have the literal weight of the world on their shoulders. Media with lgbtq+ characters are honestly swamped by copious amounts of teen-mlm-slow-burn-pining. The jrwi boys can break the mold if they want to.

This post isn’t meat to disway people from liking the ship, making content for it, or wanting them to get together (I’d be a bloody hypocrite on all three counts if I was), but - even though we’re not as bad as twitter can be - I think the fandom might need a friendly reminder in case GhostKnife doesn’t become canon and a vocal few flip their lid.

TL;DR - GhostKnife is a great pairing but I wouldn’t be disappointed if it does not become endgame, ultimately it’s up to the crew and what they want for their characters, and if you don’t like that then write your own ig.

read the tags btw for more thoughts but ramble-y

#im writing with the assumption the ccs won't see this lol #it's nothing bad #i just don't wanna tell people how to write their show ya know?#this isn't a 'they gave us so much stop being demanding' or 'liking a thing for its ships is shallow' bs self-aggrandising post btw #i want and definitely believe it could turn out great and be fun to watch unfold #and maybe im being parasocial who knows #but fandom can be like that even in good ones #ghostknife #jrwi prime defenders #jrwi ghostknife #jrwi pd #just rolled with it

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prismatic-cannon · 1 year

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wrt the p5 vball au (!!!!!) i'm pretty sure yusuke is canonically Very Bad at the sports (see beach episode, his absolute terrible performance in beach vball) but he is so tall and lanky... so stronk... but i cannot see him being particularly "athletic" and coordinated in that way (part of that is just me projecting my lack of coordination on him lmao.) granted he does have high agility plus the "scoundrel eyes," in royal, but i just don't see him actually... having that sort of hand-eye to hit ball and not whiff. of the kosei boys though... knowing its artsy reputation, i don't know if anyone has that lmao... though also with him being that tall, maybe he gets saddled with middle? but also. 180cm is still, like, libero height for a lot of teams lol

they do make the joke that mako too stronk for the boys a lot (again, see beach episode) but i think she'd probably follow her combat abilities and be really well rounded in both offence and defence. haru is really nimble and bendy, and probably has a great swing (axe) but idk if she has the height/hops for the net. akechi and joker being the setters... makes so much sense oh dear it's almost upsetting. though imagine them on the same team.... akechi would probably also make a great opposite (lefty, good power) as would joker (literally perfect) and we know they're both fairly athletic, which makes me think... 6-2? maybe they hit... and set....? i think you made mishmash a libero which makes a lot of sense?. i hc him as being faster and better than ppl give him credit for, despite him being the lamest canonically. (ilu mishima) and ryuji thinks this vball bullshit is lame af dude

this is a wall and tl;dr i think vb au is so good !!! i want to chew on it thank you sorry for too many words ;-;

damn anon you had some thoughts 😂 (gonna put this under a cut so i don't flood anyone's dash)

Tbh I totally forgot that there was a beach volleyball scene in Hawaii until you reminded me omg. The way Makoto spikes it hard into the sand ... a murderer 😂 But yes she's easily captain-material for sure, especially since she's already student council president and everything

I think people would underestimate Haru at first, but you could definitely give her an edge up on something e.g. one of those scary killer serves. Bottom line is that Haru should have her sweet murderous moment where she's bouncing delicately on her heels all \o/ \o/ \o/ oh my I hope you're ready — because I won't hold back!! 💕 while the opposing team cowers in fear or something lol. I love my wife can you tell

Middle blocker is totally viable for Yusuke too I think!! He's a tall guy, so he could definitely do stuff if he puts the work in. If this was based on canonverse then yeah I could see him whiffing the ball from time to time. I’m sure the hand/body coordination for handling a sword vs doing da sports ball is different lol. My reason for making him ace was so that he could be a temperamental but formidable ace, and place him as one of the key players for Kosei so that the Shujin team could have rivals to go up against ya know? I just think the idea of seeing Yusuke's murder eyes as he blasts a spike through a block is just. (chef's kiss) sublime shit. It would be an honour to die by his hand (also is 180cm really normal libero height?? All my volleyball knowledge is gleaned from HQ so I’m probably missing something lmao)

Also I see your point about making Akechi and Joker on the same team, but considering that it’s these two dudes we’re talking about I feel like we have to double down on their whole rival dynamic, it would be a crime not to imo (and this is coming from someone who hates shu/ake and Akechi lol). The setter mind games they could have with each other is too good — like if you have Akechi be his superficially genial and amiable self while Joker actively goes out of his way to antagonise him just to peel back that fake veneer of charm and throw him off his game??? Delish

😭 Mishima my beloved ... I think I mentioned this already but I really like the idea of him being a libero since it's a near 1:1 parallel to his role in canon (no spike, only support!!!!) I HC that his low-to-zero presence lowkey serves him well on court, in the sense that he's a solid defense player that quietly keeps chugging along and making sure the ball stays up while everyone else focuses on offense. He's a silly little NPC that keeps his head down and stays in his lane ... 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Ofc sometimes the opposing team is going to target him to try and break through their defense, but once he gets into his zone it's hard to shake him off his groove imo. If you're telling me Mishima can hyperfixate this hard on his dumb little website then at least some of that focus is going to bleed into his vball game headspace (wow I didn’t go off on a shu/yuu tangent. it’s a miracle, let’s keep it that way)

Anyway thank you for your volleyball thoughts!! It’s always fun to think about it even though it’s too much effort to actualise it lmao

#more ramblings about the non-existent sports au #this is a meal too big to cook for me #i say as i continue to ferment smelly natto for the mishima fuckers #i have stuff saved up but idk when i'll post it #please wait for me .... sobs

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dmonfoxfire · 11 months

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FOXOOOOOOOOOOO ya reblogged!!! Ok ok so I need... 6, 16, and 17 for Lath please and thank you!!! Hope you have a fantastic day my excellent friend!!! :D :D :D

Lath my baby boy okaaaaay let's go!

6. How do they make up/apologize after an argument?

Lath and Dorian don't argue all that much? They love academic debate don't get me wrong and those can get heated but they can be red faced hollering at each other one moment and then laughing the next. I think they only ever argue when they get scared for each other, if one of them does something reckless. The biggest argument they've ever had was Post Trespasser when Lath followed Dorian back to Tevinter. They're so so tender with each other because they both keep up a mask for others, usually the one who did something reckless will apologize for scaring the other and they hug for a really long time.

16. Would they ever get matching tattoos? If so what would they look like?

Oh maaaaaan I've never thought about it. Fenlath has of course his Mythal vallaslin, and I think he would be lovely with a king cobra tattoo on his back to represent Dorian and Dorian would have a wolf in white ink on his back to represent Lath yessssss this is canon now. Lath is Fucked Up after Trespasser with lots of scaring all over his torso and I could see him getting flowers tattooed along the scars to hide them/make them look pretty, with the snake among the flowers.

17. How well do they communicate? Are they open with their feelings/thoughts or more reserved? Why?

Tbh when they first met Fenlath was super tongue tied because Dorian was so pretty? And flirting with him? 404 smoothness not found. So Dorian thought Lath was giving him the cold shoulder but it was just that Lath was way too shy to talk to him lol Wandering around all of kingdom come and seeing each other after a week in the bush kind of broke the ice. Lath was kind of just starting to dish the flirting back when Dorian's father appeared, and things went way deeper for both of them after that. They really talked after the ball in Orlais about what kind of future they hoped for and having very clear lines of communication is one of the things they agree they need. They struggle with it at first but they both work hard at it, when they both recoil from those around them as a first instinct. Tl;dr they have great communication but that's because they work hard at it

#haha fuckin text wall #sorry #fenlath lavellan #da posts

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thievinggentleman · 1 year

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ooc // so, a little context as to why i disappeared for awhile.

around march 2021, my ex-girlfriend and i had a fight...

she may not realize it, but she’d been trying to inadvertently control me by consistently guilt-tripping me over my choices in life. that said, i made the executive decision to prioritize *myself* for once and nixed our relationship.

then, as time went on and i mourned the death of our relationship, i also lost interest in lupin for awhile. even part 6 wasn’t enough to keep me interested. i needed time away from him and the memories of my ex. she really burned me despite how hard i tried for us. it was my first relationship and instead of nurturing it, she expected more of me than her ex-husband gave her, and i tried so hard to give that to her.

even AFTER we had initially broken up for what was, essentially, her own damn fault. she didn’t have to emotionally cheat on me with my ex-friend. she didn’t have to be terrible and go behind my back and become cozy with my ex-friend. she didn’t have to be awful and buy plane tickets to japan to see them. she was intending to cheat on me. she was intending to do so. and she would have had my ex-friend not caught wind of the whole fact that my ex-girlfriend was still sleeping with me.

but i digress. i needed time to heal after we broke up. at the time, we had stopped dating and were just friends and she had still tried to control me by guilt-tripping me. she made me feel bad for hanging out with my friends. i know part of it was the fact that she was looking out for me. but she went about it the wrong way and it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

while i’m back, i have to admit... i’m still keeping lupin somewhat at arm’s length. i need to take this somewhat slowly so that i don’t... overwhelm myself.

that said, i have great news too. i started T back in july. ya boy’s officially making the transition from boy to man. and starting tomorrow, i’ll once again be medicated for ADHD, as well as going to a new job interview that will hopefully start my life off in the right direction. i also came out to my parents to surprisingly good results and i’m really making great strides in my life.

life’s looking up despite the absolute shit show that 2022 has been. not only did my step mom pass away, my brother has been in and out of the hospital for DKA, and my pug passed away as well as two cats. just last year, i lost my paternal grandmother, and the year before was my maternal grandmother. needless to say, life’s been pretty dreary and depression was high. but things are starting to look up and i’m finally excited for the future. hopefully new love will also be on the horizon, but i’m not holding my breath.

maybe one day i’ll face my ex again. i do still believe she’s a good person deep down, she just needs to realize that her actions have as much consequence as everyone else’s.

tl;dr: i was burned by an ex and i lost interest in lupin, but i’m slowly making my way back to him!

#ooc // out of continuity

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ceriseisland · 2 years

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Preciousmetalshipping for the ship ask? :3

Oh boy I got multiple asks for preciousmetal and uh. This is probably going to be a bit harsh

Rating: 1

Do I ship it: No

Why don't I ship it: I think preciousmetal is the source of a lot of the fanon characterizations of Gold and Silver. People like to push it into the sunshine hero/grumpy rival trope, when it doesn't fit at all, and I'll explain here

Silver is a lot less of a dick than Gold is and has a much stronger moral compass. While he seems unapproachable especially in GSC, it's because of his main flaw, how he only makes room in his life for the mission he's assigned himself and ignores everything else, including his friends and personal wellbeing, something he's started to work on in HGSS. Silver isn't grumpy or a dick, he's just too focused for his own good.

We also see Silver save civilians every time out of a sense of duty, while half the time Gold saves people explicitly because he wants the recognition and throws a fit when Silver gets there first. Silver is not the grumpy rival; he is composed of waters that run much deeper than that.

As for Gold, I feel like people try to explain his actions by giving him an inferiority complex or a sad backstory, but I don't think think that's how he's best read. Gold's life is perfect and he gets by by being luckier than god in every situation. The universe bends to make sure Gold doesn't experience the consequences of his actions. He's the opposite of Silver in that regard, who has had to struggle all his life. Silver wanted to beat Pryce and get revenge, but Gold was the one who followed him into the rift and beat him. Silver canonically dreamed of going home to a perfect sunlit house just like Gold's, and instead he got a mafia king dad and a new endless mission to destroy his father's organization. They're opposites, but not in the way people like to make them out to be.

I think Gold and Silver would get on each other's nerves if they spent time together, and that's great! I love fics that make them roommates, and they have probably the most interesting platonic relationship in the series with how they push each other's buttons in just the right way. But for it to work romantically, Gold especially would have to mature a lot to make it a healthy relationship, when that's not going tp happen. There's no tragic backstory for Gold, and that's the point: he's just like that, which is what makes him such a good foil to Silver. And I doubt Silver would put in the effort when in all likelihood he finds Gold annoying. But when Gold, Silver, and Crystal are together, they balance each other out. That's why queerplatonic gsc is king

tl;dr Shipping Gold and Silver romantically ignores one of the most interesting platonic relationships in the series and fanonizes the fan perception of the characters

What would get me to ship it (romantically): If they were entirely different characters, or maybe if their platonic relationship was less interesting

How I would want them to get together: I'm a huge fan of the idea that Gold gets a bachelor pad and Silver moves in with him at Green's urging, since she thinks staying in one place and being around people would be good for his mission complex, and Silver gets bugged by Gold at first who is delighted at having someone to bug, but from now having people in his life constantly Silver eventually gains the worldview that destroying team rocket isn't all that matters and chooses to be with his friends

Song that reminds me of it: Nice to Meet Ya by Niall Horan, Cooler than Me by Mike Posner, The Last of the Real Ones by Fall Out Boy, The Black and White by The Band Camino, Love Don't Die by The Fray, and Lethal Combination by The Wombats

Any other unpopular opinions: I also want to point out the stark difference between original and preciousmetal. With Red and Blue, we watch their relationship evolve from dislike to healthy respect to friends to best friends to whatever Blue implies in XY. But Gold and Silver's relationship never moves past utility, so they only interact when they need something from each other, like to save the world. And considering who they are as people (Gold especially,) it would take a lot for it to evolve past that into genuine closeness when there's an antagonistic element to their relationship with how their personalities mash. Idk, I just don't get why people like it

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tm-trx · 10 months

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currents.25/2023

selections from my week in media [18-24 june 2023]

Click through for kpop ramblings, underwhelming dramas, entertaining dramas, and way too many parenthetical thoughts.

[anticipating]

SHINee - It’s finally comeback week! Maybe we’ll get a performance in the suits? And I’m excited that Minho & Taemin will be on Amazing Saturday.

[listening]

Bouncy / ATEEZ - It’s an earworm at this point, but I’m not mad about it.

Pentagon - Based on this post, I made up a bunch of playlists and have been working my way through them [standouts so far: Like This, Daisy, Shine, Do or Not, and Critical Beauty]. I like them, although I will say they sound “stereotypically kpop” to my ears right now. I don’t consider this to be a bad thing, it’s just that it’s what I would have expected kpop to sound like before I actually started listening to it. For reference: the first kpop I heard was SHINee thanks to Boys Over Flowers, but BTS is who got me started listening to it. Then I figured out who SHINee were and have mostly stayed there. I tend to like groups with clear-cut ‘leader’ voices* so SHINee is exactly what I love.

But it is still early days, and I have not watched any of Pentagon’s promo content so I have very little idea who the members are or what their voices sound like (that said, there is one guy that is starting to stand out - Kino I think?). In that vein, if you are their fan please feel free to send me links (or tag me). I’ll be looking for guides to watch too, but I’m sure some are better than others.

*What I’m calling groups with one or two people whose voices are distinct enough to stand out without knowing the members (whether that person is the official ‘leader’ or not). SHINee is of course my prime example, with both Jonghyun’s and Onew’s voices clearly standing out. This isn’t a quality or value judgement, my ears are just very good at voice recognition so that’s the thing I focus in on most of the time.

TL;DR: Pentagon is great and I want to keep listening/learning until I know them better. (I wasn’t kidding about the playlists. I think I’m up to six. LOL)

[reading]

An Elegant Solution by giraffeter - MDZS fix-it - reread

[watching]

The First Responders - If I had known it ended on a cliffhanger I would have waited until season two was out (MDL says it’s coming August 2023). It was mostly okay. There was a corruption subplot that wasn’t integrated well at all and felt shoe-horned in. On the flip side, I really liked Dojin, the firefighter of the lead triad. Said triad is a great candidate for ot3-ness (which I loved), even though the show went with the tired old love triangle trope. The cases of the week were all interesting and heart-breaking by turns.

King the Land - This show is still firmly in romcom territory and honestly I’m loving it. I haven’t watched a chaebol kdrama in awhile, so the tropes aren’t old or annoying, but instead cheesy and funny.

Love Tractor - It’s still just okay. It’s a critique cliche, but the two leads feel like they are in different dramas. One is in a light and cute country mouse/city mouse romcom, the other is in a moody finding yourself YA romance. (It will surprise no one who has read anything in my #tmtrx watches drama tag which one I prefer.) The appearance of the boyfriend this week was the highlight of the episode. That final conversation was so so good. I hurt for both of them. It’s a painful truth that high school-to-college relationships rarely work out.

Shigatsu no Tokyo wa (Tokyo in April is) - I think I should have waited on this one. We’re two episodes into an eight episode show of 30-minute episodes and I’m getting the slow drip feeling. The problem is that I love it so I’ll probably keep torturing myself by watching week to week.

SHINee World IV concert - Wow. SHINee is back! It was an incredible concert. They really are live vocal kings.

Step By Step - Fits neatly into my ‘delicious angst’ file. What a great episode.

W Two Worlds - Rewatched the whole series this week. I love it so much. I wish they’d made a tie-in manhwa (or at least printed a collection of the manhwa art), because I love the art style they used for it in the show. I also wish the boxed set wasn’t so ding-dang expensive because apparently it includes a director’s cut?!

previous Currents posts

#pentagon #king the land #step by step #love tractor #shigatsu no tokyo wa #w two worlds #kdrama #thai drama #jdrama #tmtrx currents #tmtrx watches dramas #fic rec

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transmascnaotoshirogane · 3 years

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you’re okay

hey, it’s me, ya boy uh so, no self harm in this one! it’s briefly mentioned, but it’s called a ‘habit’ and it’s never really talked about again. the tl;dr for this since it’s long; Legend gets his period and Sky helps him out. enjoy!

Legend is not vibing with his own body right now.

It’s that time of the month every afab person dreads; he’s on his period. He’s just laying on the grass, curled up in a tight ball and hoping the cramps will leave him alone. Though...he will have another situation to deal with when the cramps are over, because he just sorta collapsed while walking and he is not having a fun time. Legend tried to even out his breathing, hoping he could relax enough to feel better. His plan flew out the window when he felt someone gently turn him onto his back, and when he looked up he saw Sky, a concerned expression on his face. “Legend? Are you alright?”Sky tried to sit him up, jumping slightly when Legend just curled up tighter. “Hurts.” “What hurts?”Since the night Legend told Sky about his...habit, Sky always wants him to elaborate when he mentions being in pain. Legend doesn’t blame him. “Mh. Got cramps, they’ll go away. Usually do.” Something seemed to click in Sky’s mind, and he looked to Wild. “We’re in your hyrule. Where’s the nearest inn? Or stable?” Wild paused, looking at his sheikah slate before placing it back on his hip and signing, ‘There's a stable nearby. Not too far away.’ “Great. Think you can make it?”Sky looked at Legend, who was still curled up on the floor. “Maybe.”Legend mumbled, shutting his eyes for a brief moment, before quietly getting up with Sky’s help. Sky didn’t say a thing, helping Legend walk along with the others as Wild led them to the stable.

They got a bed for Legend as soon as they got there. He was pretty pale, and they’re all wondering about what’s wrong. Sky, however, seems to know. He just isn’t telling them. Infact, Sky hasn’t left Legend’s side, shushing him when the pain got too much. “Sky, we need to make a stop at Hateno to get some stuff. You wanna come with?”Wars looked at the other man, who simply shook his head. “I’ll stay with Legend.” With a soft shrug, Wars and the rest of the chain headed out. “Legend...when were you gonna tell me?” “Wha..?” “Legend. Look at me.”Sky frowned, gently making Legend look at him. “I know what you’re going through. I went through the same thing.” “I...don’t think you really know-” Sky lowered his voice to a whisper. “You’re on your period, aren’t you?”Watching as his son’s Legend’s face paled, he continued. “It’s okay, Legend. I’ve been through it. All the way up til I could legally stop it. I know how to help, alright?” “...okay. Fuck. You were…?” “Born in the wrong body, yeah..”Sky hummed, then smiled. “But look. I managed to get the surgery and stuff like that. You’ll get through this, I promise. Do you trust me?” There was a short pause, then Legend nodded. “Yeah..” “Then trust me when I say you’ll be okay. How long do yours usually last?” “Um. They usually only last a couple days. Five. at most. It only hurts this bad on the first day, then it’s...bearable.”Legend mumbled, still watching Sky. “I’ll make sure they let you rest. I won’t tell ‘em a thing, alright Apple?” Apple? Did...Sky just call me Apple???Legend questioned silently, yet...he doesn’t mind the nickname, not at all. He likes it, actually, it’s fitting. “Alright. Thanks, Sky..” “No problem. Try and get some rest, I’ll wake you up when dinner’s made.”Sky smiled, once again removing his sailcloth. This time, he handed it to Legend, and smiled as he watched him slowly drift to sleep. Legend had a little bit more difficulty falling asleep, but he got there eventually..

When dinner came around, Sky hesitated to wake Legend. He looked so peaceful...but Legend needs to eat, so Sky shook him awake. “Apple, wake up.” “Mh. Huh?”Legend mumbled, blinking a couple times. “Dinner’s ready, you gotta eat.” “Do I have to..?” “Yes, Apple, you have to.” Sighing, Legend rolled off the bed, still gripping the sailcloth as he shakily stood up. “Ow..”He mumbled quietly. Sky walked out with Legend, letting Legend just kneel on the grass. “Hey vet. Are you feeling any better?”Twilight glanced at Legend. “Little bit. Not a lot, I still feel like death.”He sighed, thanking Sky quietly when Sky handed him a bowl of soup. It’s pumpkin soup, again, but luckily Legend doesn’t mind. “Wild wants to know if you ate somethin bad before you felt sick.”Hyrule hummed softly. “Cause...it was sudden, yeah? We don’t know what happened.” “It’s not because of that. It’s just…”He paused, then snorted quietly. “An ongoing health issue.” “Basically, he’ll survive.”Sky smiled faintly. “I’ll make sure of it!” “You two are pretty close lately.”Four noted quietly, his eyes having a tint of purple in them. “Any reason for that?” “He’s sick, Four. I get like this with all of you!”Sky smiled reassuringly. Legend seemed to tune out the rest of their conversation, staring at his soup quietly. He has little to no appetite right now..but Wild would be upset if he didn’t at least try to eat it. Even the thought of eating is making him feel sick. I’m gonna throw up if I try, I know it.

“-end? Legend, what's wrong?” Legend snapped back to reality, looking at Sky, who had a worried expression painted over his face. “You look like you’re gonna throw up, vet. Wild’s cooking that bad?”Wars snorted. Legend quickly shook his head, yet gently placed the bowl aside. “I don’t feel well. The smell of food makes me feel sick..” “Can you try?”Sky frowned, rubbing his back. “You don’t have to.” “I can’t. ‘M sorry, nothing against you Wild.” Wild shook his head, shooting him a smile with a sign of ‘it's okay, you're sick’, which...made Legend feel a little better. That night was pretty standard, apart from the fact Sky had refused to leave Legend. Sky let out a soft sigh as he watched Legend, watching as his expression shifted every few minutes. Sky remembers being just like this whenever he had his periods, they were always awful. He just...hopes Legend won’t actually throw up, because Sky can handle everything else, but he can’t stand the smell of vomit. Sky felt his eyes start drooping, and shot a glance outside. It’s really dark, and they’re in a stable so they shouldn’t get attacked...he can take a nap, right? Taking another look at Legend, Sky shifted in his chair til he was in a more comfortable position.

He’ll help Legend with whatever he needs, cause dammit, Legend needs someone in his life that can help him with this.

#lu legend #lu sky #linked universe #linked universe fic #dad sky!!#sky calls leggy Apple..#bc i said so.#afab legend #afab sky #tell me if i missed a tag #vio writes

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deus-ex-mona · 3 years

Text

a weirdly long event “summary” of the honeypre harumiou event!

this got weirdly long, so here’s a tl;dr: dumb himbo serizawa haruki tries to cook for his cute not-gf aida miou

Chapter 1:

Our protagonist for the first 5 chapters is Serizawa Haruki.

The season is Spring.

During lunch, Haruki and Miou talk about the season of spring, and about how nice it would be to go flower viewing.

Miou asks Haruki to go flower viewing with her.

Haruki: How about next Sunday?

Miou: Sounds great!

Haruki: Nice! I'll invite everyone else too! See ya!! [runs off]

Miou: ... :/

In the classroom, Haruki tells everyone else (Natsuki, Yuu, Mochita) about the flower viewing plans.

Natsuki: :/

Haruki: What’s wrong?

Mochita: ...you haven’t realised it? Aida was asking you to go flower viewing alone with her.

Haruki: ... eeh!?

Yuu: ...from that reaction, you clearly didn’t realise it.

Haruki defends himself, saying that Miou didn’t explicitly mention going alone with him.

Natsuki all but calls him dense and wonders what Miou sees in him.

Natsuki muses that all they talk about is movies.

Haruki says that Miou always looks interested when he talks about movies... then he comes to the realisation that he has yet to listen to Miou talk about her interests.

Natsuki, Mochita and Yuu all look at him like :/ and all but internally pity Miou for her horrible taste in men.

Natsuki: If this carries on, what if Miou gets taken by another boy?

Haruki: Another boy!? What do you mean by that?

Chapter 2:

Natsuki explains her point, saying that Haruki’s insensitivity to Miou’s feelings may result in her falling for another guy instead.

Natsuki returns to the topic of the flower viewing, asking Haruki if he had even considered Miou’s feelings on the matter.

Judging by his resulting expression, the answer is “no”.

He admits as much after thinking it over for a moment.

Haruki: You’re right. I should have considered Miou’s feelings.

[Cue timeskip]

The school day has ended and Haruki is walking home with Miou.

As they walk together, Natsuki’s words (regarding the consideration of Miou’s feelings) keep revolving around in his mind.

Haruki ponders so hard about Natsuki’s words to the point that Miou gets concerned about the troubled expression on his face.

Haruki: It’s nothing!

Miou: If it’s really nothing, it’s fine but...

Miou: I’ll be willing to listen to anything that’s troubling you!

Haruki: Miou...

Cue Haruki’s internal monologue, where he praises Miou’s kindness and consideration for his feelings.

Inner Haruki: Miou is always looking out for my feelings, and she is always willing to say kind words to me...

Inner Haruki: On the other hand, I've never really considered Miou’s feelings nor spoken kind words to her.

Inner Haruki: Natsuki was right. If this carries on, Miou will fall for someone else.

Having made up his mind to consider Miou’s feelings, Haruki makes a suggestion to Miou.

Haruki: Hey Miou, for next Sunday’s flower viewing... why don’t we go, just the two of us?

Miou: Eh? Just the two of us?

Haruki: Yup. Just us two.

Miou: ...yes. I’ll go!

Haruki breathes a sigh of relief.

Haruki then asks if Miou wants him to do anything special for the “event”.

Miou can’t come up with anything, so Haruki asks what she wants the most as of that moment.

Miou: Hmm... I want to eat delicious food.

Cue Haruki deciding to cook food for her for their “date”.

Haruki then apologises to Miou before running off to make preparations for his upcoming cooking exploits, leaving a confused Miou behind in his wake.

Chapter 3:

The next day, Haruki calls Yuu and Mochita out.

Haruki: I need your help to make this mission a success!

Mochita: What is this mission, anyway?

Haruki: Take a look around the room we’re in for a clue.

Mochita: We’re in the Home Ec. room..

Yuu: I haven’t got a clue as to what’s going on.

Yuu: Stop talking in circles and just explain your plan already.

Haruki: As I was saying... I want to make a reeeealllyyyy delicious bento for Miou when we go flower viewing together!

Mochita: ...oh. As I suspected.

Yuu: Have you even cooked before?

Haruki: Nope! But if I try my best, it’ll all work out somehow!

Mochita and Yuu: [visible doubt and confusion]

Mochita: I’m worried about this... extremely worried, in fact!

Yuu: Same here.

Haruki: Hey... everyone has to start trying from somewhere, right?

Mochita: That’s true... but it’s difficult to start off with a bento.

Haruki: Really? Well, I brought some ingredients with me!

Haruki places the ingredients he got at the supermarket onto the table.

Mochita considers the ingredients before him and guesses that Haruki intends on making karaage.

Haruki affirms Mochita’s guess, saying “It’s a staple component of bentos, right?”

Haruki: Well, let’s get cooking! [starts cooking]

...only to be immediately stopped by Yuu for trying to put the (unseasoned) chicken into the oil as-is.

Mochita begs Haruki not to rush through the cooking process.

Haruki: I’m making karaage, right? So what's wrong with putting the chicken into the oil? Why are you guys stopping me?

Mochita: ...he’s hopeless.

Yuu: Okay, Haruki. What's on the karaage you always eat? Think carefully.

Haruki: Eh? Um... lemon?

Yuu: ...let’s leave, Mochita.

Mochita: Yeah.

Haruki: Oi! Guys, wait! Just what’s on the karaage?

Yuu: [sighs] It’s coating. In other words, you have to coat the chicken in batter.

Haruki: Oh! If you say so, it must be true!

Yuu: Saying something like that... you’re really...

Mochita suggests giving up on making Miou a handmade bento (and bringing her a ready-made one instead)

Haruki refuses the suggestion, vocalising the fact that (as Natsuki had said earlier) he had not taken Miou’s feelings as seriously as he should have, and that he was basically being spoiled by Miou.

He finally says that he wants to do his best to make the bento for Miou as a way of doing something for her, despite him being bad at cooking.

This wins Yuu and Mochita over and they agree to help him with his cooking shenanigans.

Chapter 4:

Aided by Yuu and Mochita, Haruki begins his cooking shenanigans.

“Thanks guys! I’ll do my best!” - Serizawa Haruki, moments before disaster.

[a few moments later]

Haruki: What is this…

Yuu: Isn’t it supposed to be karaage? :/

Mochita: Isn’t this too burnt?

The result of Haruki’s first attempt at cooking karaage: basically charcoal.

Haruki: I suck at cooking :(

Yuu and Mochita: You just realised it?

Yuu encourages Haruki anyway, saying “Don’t be too depressed, Haruki. You’ve been so focused on filmmaking, so it’s only natural that you’re bad at something (like cooking).”

Mochita jumps on the encouragement bandwagon, saying “That’s right, Haruki. We’ve only just begun, so keep at it!”

Haruki brightens up at his friends’ words of encouragement and strives to do his best.

[mini transition here]

Yuu: [instructs Haruki on his cooking]

Mochita: It’s rare to see Haruki so focused on something other than his filmmaking.

Haruki: Everyone calls me a “movie idiot” because I’m always thinking about movies… But when I think of Miou, I forget all about movies because my head is filled with thoughts of her.

Yuu and Mochita are mildly stunned/amused by Haruki’s honesty.

Haruki is embarrassed.

Mochita laughs and tells Haruki to carry on with the tamagoyaki.

And so, Yuu and Mochita helped Haruki out until he was finally able to make a decent bento.

[cut to Sunday]

Haruki brings the bento he made to meet Miou at the park.

Haruki: (thinking) The sakura have started to bloom, huh…

Haruki thinks about how he immediately contacted Miou when he saw some info about the blooming sakura on the news the previous day, and about how he woke up extra early to make the bento for the two of them.

Haruki: (thinking) I want Miou to eat the bento soon…

Haruki walks towards the park, holding the bento carefully so that the contents don’t spill.

Suddenly, Natsuki appears.

Natsuki: Where are you going with such a big grin on your face? Wait… is that a bento?

Haruki: T-this is…

Natsuki: That’s right! Your date with Miou is today!

Haruki: I-it’s not a date…!!

Natsuki: Did you make that bento yourself? It can’t be… Making a bento for a girl is so unlike you, Haruki…!

Haruki: Is that a bad thing?

Natsuki: Not at all! This is definitely a good change! Haruki, you’ve always been focused on movies, so it’s definitely alright to focus on something else every once in a while!

And with that, Natsuki leaves with a “Do your best, Haruki! :)”.

Haruki thinks about the “focus on something else every once in a while” part of Natsuki’s words for a bit… and is late for his meeting with Miou.

Chapter 5:

Haruki reaches the park that he arranged to meet Miou at.

Haruki thinks about how amazing the bloomed sakura look.

Haruki spots Miou standing under a tree near the entrance of the park.

Haruki: (thinking) Miou looks beautiful…

While Haruki was thinking, Miou approached him with a wave.

Miou: Haruki, you’re here! Is anything the matter?

Haruki chickens out of calling Miou beautiful, saying “N-no…” in response to her question instead.

Miou notices the large bag that Haruki is carrying and inquires about its contents.

Haruki takes out the bento, saying “I made this for us to eat together.”.

Miou is shocked that Haruki made a bento for them.

Haruki shrugs off Miou’s surprise and urges her to “Hurry and eat the bento!”.

And so, they sit on a bench under the sakura and uncover the bento.

Miou compliments the bento (“Wow…! It looks delicious…!”)

Haruki agrees with her (“Right? I added karaage and tamagoyaki to this!”)

Miou is amazed by Haruki’s karaage.

Haruki responds with an “It was easy!”.

Miou laughs. Haruki asks her what she was laughing at.

Miou says that she saw the small burn marks on Haruki’s fingers. Haruki is displeased that she had noticed it.

Miou laughs and says “Haruki, you’ve really done your best, yeah?”.

Haruki is highkey embarrassed because “It isn’t cool to have difficulty with making a bento…!”.

Miou asks if Haruki made the bento for them because she said that she “wanted to eat delicious food” a few days ago.

Haruki affirms this, saying that he just wanted to make Miou happy because she was always kind to him.

Haruki: But, I can’t ever do anything for you, Miou.

Miou: Haruki…

Haruki: I always talk about movies… Sorry for always being so uncool during times like those.

Miou: No, I'm happy. Thank you.

Haruki: Miou…

Haruki: (thinking) I see… I’ve wanted to see this expression on Miou’s face.

Inner Haruki: This feeling is different from the sense of accomplishment I get when filming goes well in the Movie Research Club… This feeling warms me from the bottom of my heart. I wonder what this feeling is… It only comes up when I’m with Miou…

Miou: Hey, let’s hurry and eat this bento.

Haruki: Y-yeah…!

And so, the two of them began to eat the bento.

Miou: Haruki, that looks delicious.

Haruki: Wanna eat this? [raises food to Miou’s mouth]

Haruki: (thinking) Feeding Miou like this… Just what am I doing?!

Miou: [softly and shyly] Yeah… I wanna eat it.

Haruki: [embarrassed] A-ah, please eat up! There’s plenty of food to go around!

Miou: Okay. So, thank you for the food. [opens mouth]

Haruki feeds Miou a piece of tamagoyaki. Miou smiles.

Miou: This is delicious…! Haruki, this is really delicious…!

Haruki: (thinking) Whoa… This is kinda amazing.

Haruki is surprised by the fact that Miou is eating his handmade bento with such a happy expression.

Inner Haruki: Maybe Natsuki was right. If I can see this expression on Miou’s face, it’s not so bad to turn away (from my movies) every once in a while.

Epilogue:

It’s now in Miou’s pov.

The two of them are still at the flower viewing.

Inner Miou: The bento that Haruki made was a little ugly, but it was delicious.

Miou: Which part of the bento are you most confident about, Haruki?

Haruki: Of course it’s the karaage! There were many failures… not because I didn’t put in the effort or anything!

Miou: I see. :)

Inner Miou: (laughs) Haruki seems to suck at cooking fried foods…

Miou: [eats the karaage]

Food critic Miou: The karaage looks ugly, but its taste is decent.

Miou: Yup! It’s delicious!

Haruki: Really!? [blushing]

Miou: Yup, it’s really delicious.

Haruki: I’m glad…!

Inner Miou: Haruki really did his best, huh…

Miou: You should eat as well, Haruki. It’s delicious.

Haruki: Okay! [enthusiastically eats the karaage]

Inner Miou: He must have skipped his breakfast in order to make this bento.

Miou: [imagines Haruki panicking in the kitchen]

Miou: [laughs]

Haruki: What’s wrong, Miou?

Miou: Nothing!

Miou: Ah. Geez, Haruki, a grain of rice has fallen onto your lap.

Haruki: Ah…! M-my bad!

Miou picks the rice off Haruki’s lap. Haruki is flustered.

Inner Miou: Haruki seems different from usual today… He’s kinda cute like this. :)

Inner Miou: But I can’t say this to him in-person… [getting depressed]

Miou: … anyways, I didn’t know that you were doing things like this in secret. Let’s do it together next time! (probably referring to cooking/bento construction)

Haruki: Yeah! Hey… Miou.

Miou: Yeah?

Haruki: It’s nice to make plans like this, huh.

Miou: … Yeah. [blushing]

Inner Miou: We’d have graduated by this time next year. Will we still be able to spend time together then?

Inner Miou: [mentally shaking off her previous line of thought] For now, I should just enjoy the time I have with Haruki.

Haruki: Miou, want another piece of tamagoyaki?

Miou: Yes! Thank you for the food. [gets fed by Haruki]

The tamagoyaki: CRUNCH

Miou: …

Haruki: What’s wrong?

Miou: There was an egg shell.

Haruki: A-are you okay!?

Miou: Yeah. I’ve already swallowed it.

Haruki: I’m sorry, Miou…!! This happened even though I practised cracking eggs like crazy!

Miou: [laughs] Is that so.

Haruki: [is embarrassed]

Miou: [laughs at the flustered look on Haruki’s face]

#this was supposed to be a crack summary but it got out of hand real quick.#honeyworks #honeyworks premium live #harumiou #serizawa haruki #aida miou #just honeypre things #this was supposed to be a quick summary but then i ended up getting too invested in the film club trio’s interactions...#instant ramen instructions comprehensions #also ya i rebranded myself out of boredom lmaooo

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sid471 · 3 years

Text

An OBJECTIVE look at James Ironwood

A much needed TL;DR: Ironwood’s story is sad. But it doesn’t excuse his actions just cause we’ve known him longer.

So I’ve made it.... abundantly clear on many many posts that ever since the end of volume 7 and into volume 8, I’ve hated General James Ironwood. I’ve made SOME posts “throwing him a bone” but I usually end up still emphasizing his flaws. So... Here’s a post where I DON’T focus solely on his flaws. Here’s a look at Ironwood’s actions from his introduction in volume 2, to now. And I’ll try to be as, well, objective as possible.

So James’ first appearance is in episode 2 of Volume 2 where he talks to Ozpin and, briefly, Glynda. He clearly has some history with Glynda, maybe a romantic relationship that I personally support 😗... Well I mean not NOW but I did. So Ironwood seems to be a bit of a 3rd wheel to Oz and Glynda, Glynda dismissing him and his compliment and Oz not being PARTICULARLY happy with him and his army’s presence in Vale and after a bit of arguing, James says the infamous line, that’s even quoted in his theme track, “Do you honestly believe your children can win a war?” James bringing his army to Vale, and then later going behind Oz’s back to the Vale counsel to get permission to protect the kingdom, and also get Ozpin in the Counsel’s bad graces? He... meant well. But it was still a betrayal of Ozpin’s trust. Which is ironic considering trust is Ironwood’s whole... thing.

And it also tells us something interesting. He UNDERESTIMATES the capabilities and potential of humans. I know that may sound a bit like I’m reaching but think about it, Atlas mostly sends soldier bots to take care of Grimm attacks instead of humans. And even when he DOES send human soldiers, they rely on surprise attacks to get the job done, like the Ace Ops arresting RWBY and friends at the beginning of Volume 7. And when they DON’T have surprise attacks, Atlas’ huntsman lose. The Ace Ops lost to RWBY, they basically lost to Penny in a 1v4 fight, which Harriet admits in saying “Good work would’ve been capturing Penny.” So yeah they lost, Clover lost to Tyrian and Qrow, which I know is a different scenario but still if he were among the best of the best he would’ve either recognized the bigger threat in Tyrian, or would’ve been able to hold them both off, or, 3rd option, would’ve retreated and let Qrow and Tyrian have it out then come back to arrest them both, or the remaining one considering Qrow vs Tyrian, when we get it again, is GONNA end in a death. Fair Game bias aside, everyone blames Qrow but Clover also could’ve been smarter in his final moments.

In fact EVERY major Atlesian we’ve seen has lost a fight at least once. Winter lost to Qrow in Volume 3, if you count that AS a fight, and Cinder in Volume 7, Ace Ops lost to RWBY and Penny, Clover, as mentioned, lost to Tyrian and Qrow, Watts lost to Ironwood, and Weiss has, notoriously, lost a lot of fights but among the first was against Banesaw, the White fang lieutenant in Volume 2, and most recently, Rhodes lost to Cinder, if you count him. Whyyyy? I’m personally of the belief that it’s because of Atlas’ over reliance on its tech, and I know I’m not the only who thinks this 😗. Atlas has the best Tech on remnant and can easily create robosoldiers or mechs to protect the pilot while also allowing the pilot to still fight. What use is training humans to fight when they have mechs and robots to do it for them?

Phew. That was a little off topic. I’m sorry, anyway, so in volume 3, James brings Penny to Vale to participate in the Vytal festival which, speaking of trust, he didn’t tell anyone about. I understand not making it public knowledge. Soldier bots are one thing but a robot that looks like a little girl? I don’t think that woulda sat right with people. So, yeah not making it general knowledge, makes sense. But not trusting your 3 closest allies, and FRIENDS, in Oz, Glynda, and Qrow? Like Glynda said, it’s time to stop talking about trust and start showing it. That aside, things go decently well. No DIRECT signs of any conflict *looks at Cinder* and the festival goes well until the one on one finals. Yang attacking a “defenseless” student, in James’ mind, is horrible yes, but people’ll move past it, especially cause he disqualified her. But then shortly after that, Pyrrha, Ozpin’s chosen one for the Fall Maiden’s power, dismembers Penny on national TV. That is a huge blow for both the festival and him personally.

Continuing with Volume 3, while he’s calling for reinforcements, the robosoldiers that’re in his plane with him are hacked and cause him to crash land. Also a hit to him personally, HE ordered these be created and the fact that they were so easily turned against him and the people he swore to protect? Yeah... Kinda get it. Although, something else interesting in Volume 3, when he DOES rendezvous with Qrow and Glynda, Qrow immediately turns his sword into Scythe form for the first time in the show. And James’ immediate reaction? “Qrow! This wasn’t my doing!” and preparing his gun for a fight, before turning around and realizing that Qrow actually just saved him from a Griffon. This is........ interesting. Why would he assume a colleague he’s worked with for so long would suddenly be turning on him? I dunno. Just seems a little... paranoid wouldn’t ya say?

Volume 4, we see a new side of James. We see that he cares for Weiss, at least somewhat. More than Jacques, but granted a squirrel cares more about the Schneeblings than Jacques. But yeah, James has some pretty sweet moments with Weiss in volume 4, standing up for her at Jacques’ party, offering her a place at Atlas academy, he’s a pretty stand up guy to Weiss. But, big picture? This volume shows the signs of his paranoia being something serious. He completely shuts down Atlas. In his own words, “No one in. No one out. Not without the Counsel’s permission.” now, he knows about Salem. But he doesn’t know what she’s CAPABLE of, as implied by Qrow last volume. So, from James’ perspective, this DOES seem like the safest course of action. But this is exactly what Salem wants. Separation. Anxiety. Paranoia. FUEL for the Grimm. And this is the first sign of a common theme of James inadvertently playing into Salem’s hands.

Jumping to Volume 7, we don’t see him in 5 or 6 😗, James is still hella, HELLA paranoid, but he’s still happy to see Qrow and happy to have new allies. Now this is where we get a little dicey because volume 7 is a.......... divisive volume 😓. I’m gonna talk about JAMES’ perspective of events. Not necessarily my thoughts because... well... I’ve done that already lol. Many times 😓. So JAMES’ perspective on Volume 7. James sent the Ace Ops to investigate a stolen air ship and arrest the ones responsible for... ya know... stealing the air ship. So the Ace Ops do. And then they go back and take them to James’ office, and it’s the general’s old friend Qrow and his niece’s team and her friends, and a mysterious young man. We can see that James is happy to see Qrow, especially cause of the hug :3, and he’s especially happy to see Oscar, the new Ozpin. He trains Ruby and her friends with his Ace Ops, and allows Winter to help Weiss. And he DOES start to relax more. He starts to, dare I say it, let loose. He allows some lenience, he lets RWBY have the night off. Ruby going to Robyn’s celebration, Yang and Blake going on a double date with Flynt and Neon, and let’s the boys and Weiss have a movie night. He even gives RWBY and their friends their huntsman licenses. These are really great things to do :3

But where things start to crumble is after he announces that Amity is ready, which is a whole speech full of half truths, that he didn’t tell any of his allies about once again, to lure out Watts. It works, they fight, he wins, and we see THIS face.

This is a man who is completely CONTENT. He is happy in this moment. He’s arrested a man who’s always, by his own admission, been a pain in the ass, he has Clover, Qrow, and Robyn on the way back with Tyrian Callows, everything is great right now. He KNOWS that Ruby and her friends lied to him because Oscar told him, but he can sort that out with an honest conversation right? In my opinion, THIS screenshot is Ironwood’s last GOOD moment in the series. That thought process of everything is great goes to shit when he sees the Black Queen piece that Cinder left expressly to fuck with his head. And THEN he gets irrational and, once again, plays into Salem’s hands. He directly ORDERS the divide of the people. He plans to abandon Mantle, leaving them to die in the process, and he plans to completely sever Atlas from all of Remnant basically by launching it into the atmosphere to keep the Vault safe. That only ACTUALLY accomplishes one thing, being keeping the vault, which IS important. But it isn’t more important than keeping the people, ALL of the people, calm and prepared to face this threat, like he did at Beacon. He should have remained calm, like an experienced military official should, and made an announcement to all of Atlas and Mantle saying kind of what he did in Volume 3. “Grimm are all over the kingdom. You can either stay and protect your kingdom, or save yourself. No one will fault you if you leave.”

Ironwood has a thing with fear. He doesn’t want to admit he’s afraid of Salem. As evidenced both times he’s shot someone....... interesting 😓. In the last episode of Volume 7, The Enemy of Trust, this exchange happens. Ironwood: You still think I'm afraid? Oscar: We all are. It's what we do in our fear that reveals--Ironwood: That's easy for you to say!

And then later, in the first episode of Volume 8 Divide, he shoots and kills Sleet once he says... Well... His last words “And what’s this about martial law? Have you lost your damn mind?! Are you that scared of what-- “ And notice, Ironwood shoots after Sleet goes to say “Are you that scared of what might happen?” And he IS right about one thing. It IS easy for Oscar to say “It’s what we do in our fear.” Because Oscar is child who can AFFORD to be afraid. James doesn’t have the luxury. He’s denying his fear because he’s the general. He’s James Ironwood. He can’t AFFORD to be afraid. If he’s afraid, everyone is going to be afraid. And, well, he can’t have that. That would attract the Grimm. He thinks he HAS to have a level head at all times for the sake of the kingdom. But James even generals in the military have feelings.... and sometimes need therapy to talk through some shit 😶. But... well... Maybe too late for that 😶😓.

In conclusion: James Ironwood is indeed a tragic character. A character who has taken A LOT of blows. A character who has always been paranoid. ALWAYS been ready for an attack. But even though he’s always been ready, he still wasn’t PREPARED. He wasn’t prepared for the sheer strength and AMOUNT of Salem’s forces. If he was more calm and more rational, he could have prepared better. He could have had Mantle and Atlas united against Salem, and that’s what can beat Salem, like Ruby said. James Ironwood is a tragic character, he has had it rough. But that doesn’t mean we should overlook his OBJECTIVELY horrible actions through out these last 2 volumes. Like ya know... Murder.

Phew .-. This is DEFINITELY my longest post. This better get attention I didn’t do all this for nothing >_>

#RWBY #RWBY2 #RWBY3 #RWBY4 #RWBY7 #RWBY8 #RWBY analysis #James Ironwood #General Ironwood #Siddy Rambles #Side note: this whole time I thought Sleet's name was Slate .-.#Turns out Slate is an entirely different character from After the Fall 😶#I have to go back and edit some posts even though it's kinda...#Too little too late .-.

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pocketreads · 3 years

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To Keep It Short: This will probably be a story that a lot of readers love... unfortunately, I am not that reader (A TL;DR can be found at the bottom of this review!)

Summary: Jake Livingston is one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep. It’s hard enough fitting in but to make matters worse and definitely more complicated, Jake can see the dead. In fact, he sees the dead around him all the time. Most are harmless. Stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again, they don’t interact often with people.

But then Jake meets Sawyer. A troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school last year before taking his own life. Now a powerful, vengeful ghost, he has plans for his afterlife–plans that include Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about ghosts and the rules to life itself go out the window as Sawyer begins haunting him and bodies turn up in his neighborhood.

High school soon becomes a survival game–one Jake is not sure he’s going to win.

THE BOOK:

CWs: graphic imagery; death/murder; suicidal ideation and attempts; mass shootings/gun violence; child abuse, mental and physical; attempted sexual assault; racism, bullying, and homophobia Release date: 7/13/2021 Publisher: Putnam (Penguin Teen) Page Count: 308 Genre: YA Paranormal horror Is It Queer: Yep! Main MLM romance

THE REVIEW:

I had really high hopes for this one. I love a classic paranormal slice-of-life novel, and all the better when it's starring a queer Black boy. Unfortunately, this book just... wasn't great. The Taking of Jake Livingston follows Jake as he navigates being not only gay and one of the only Black kids at his private school, but also being a medium. The ability to see the souls in the After isn't new for him, but he's always tried to ignore it up until now. Suddenly, Jake's already stressful life is made worse when he finds himself haunted by the ghost of Sawyer Doon--the boy who shot up his high school before taking his own life. Now, it's not just Jake's life on the line, but his friends, his families, his crush--and even the ghosts of the kids whose lives Sawyer took in the shooting. Some positives! The main plot was pretty fast-paced and therefore did a pretty good job of keeping you engaged. The ghost-world was unique and intriguing, and I enjoyed the concept of using "ecto-mist" as a weapon. There were some fantastically gory and creepy imagery, some undeniably spooky, hair-raising scenes, and the author certainly succeeds at unsettling the reader, especially within Sawyer's (the shooter) scenes. Like, objectively, this is a fun book. Unfortunately, these things couldn't really compete with the fact that this book reads much like low-budget teen superhero movie. There are so many strange lines, metaphors, and similes thrown into intense life-or-death scenes that gave me straight up whiplash (I will never forget "my neck cracked like a crisp lobster"). The dialogue typically felt distant and unnatural, and the pace at which relationships developed was much the same. Perhaps the biggest issue to be raised is that this plot and its characters are just seriously lacking in foundation. The characters, although they definitely stand apart from one another, are notably underdeveloped and flat, including Jake. Each character felt like they were made of one (1) character trait. For Jake's friend group, for example: the anxious one, the confident one, and the adventurous one. You never really learn anything about any of their hopes, their dreams, how they feel about... anything. The scenes felt slapped on top of one another with flimsy bridges to connect them. Often, emotional repercussions didn't seem to carry over--Jake has his life threatened by a ghost, he runs downstairs to witness a school fight, and he isn't even shaken by the former. The plot twists were unpredictable not because they were clever, but because they were almost completely baseless and a little unhinged. Most plot points occurred because they could, not because they made sense. Like, suddenly, Jake can merge with another ghost to become more powerful (similarly to Sawyer), I guess? And to be fair, this is a super cool idea--it just needed more of an explanatory build-up to it. Why can he do this? Can all mediums do this? How did he do it without even knowing it was possible? There are a lot of other questions I have for this world pertaining to just about everything--some of which aren't necessarily questions that need to be answered, but I felt should have at least been offered. The romance was pretty cute, and although a little cringe-worthy at times (as high school romances oft tend to be), it definitely made me smile. It's also just nice to see a queer romance between Black boys in YA for once. In the end, this just wasn't my cup of tea, but it does have its moments. I can easily see this appealing more to a different audience, so if it sounds like something you might enjoy, or if you're just looking for a fun, fast-paced read without any life-changing revelations, consider checking it out!

★★✭✰✰/5 STARS (2.5)

TOO LONG; DIDN’T READ:

Pros: A cute romance, fast-paced, unique and intriguing, gory, and all around just an objectively fun time

Cons: Flat, one dimensional characters, baseless plot twists ("I can so I will"), reads like a low-budget superhero film, etc, etc.

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samwrights · 4 years

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Aoba Johsai 3rd Years as dads [hc]

Lmao, as if I was gonna stop at Karasuno. I’m a Seijoh hoe through and through 😂😂😂 this ones a little off the rails but it’s my blog and I write what I want. I’ll get to the rest of Seijoh later, maybe, but these turned out way longer than I anticipated.

Slight TW; mentions of miscarriage.

Iwaizumi;

I love this supportive man so much 🥺

I don’t even want kids and I’d let him turn me into a baby factory, idgaf.

Ahem, n e ways.

Low key, he would be freaking out over your guys’ first kid. Didn’t matter that you were in live-in S/O’s, or that you’d been together for y e a r s.

Homie wanted to marry you first, finally get you guys out of your shoddy apartment, maybe spend a few years traveling the world.

He wanted to live the life of a dink, at least for a little while before eventually starting a family with you. Apparently someone’s pullout game weak af.

Despite not being prepared for parenthood, your pregnancy actually goes pretty swimmingly. Iwa would def be the man to come with to all doctors appointments, parenting classes, and would literally call his mom every three seconds freaking out because he has no idea what color to paint the nursery.

“Mom, I can’t just paint it whatever, what if the baby doesn’t like it?” Don’t ask me why, I just know it would be a fact.

Throughout your relationship as teenagers, Iwa was always your hype-man cause he loves flaunting his woman at whatever she chooses to succeed at. Which made Oikawa hella jealous but irrelevant. Now that you guys were going to be a family, it was like falling in love with you all over again and he literally hyped you up everyday with how great of a mom you were going to be.

Endless comments on how beautiful you looked while pregnant, regarding your glow or how he gets so overwhelmed with love knowing that you are having his child. Fucking simp.

If you feel he’s laying it on too thick, you tell him it’s actually Mattsun’s and Iwa is just a cover so you can run off with him and Makki. 0/10, does not appreciate.

The closer you get to your due date, however, all jokes are completely off, and Hajime is in full on protective husband/dad mode. Did I mention y’all still ain’t married or

He does literally everything for you just to make sure you aren’t in too much pain or discomfort. Mfer won’t even let you pick up a laundry basket 💀

“Honey, I’m fine! Please, I can’t sit on the couch all day, there’s going to be a permanent imprint from my ass on it.”

“Baby, why is the couch wet?”

“Huh. Guess my water broke.”

Annnnnnd cue Hajime screaming his head off while proceeding to grab your hospital bag packed with clothes, a spare aux cable, and your toiletries, before rushing out to the car, starting it, and driving to the hospital.

Without you.

With that being his only major faux pas, Iwaizumi welcomes fatherhood with open arms. Sure, y’all didn’t have your house yet and a wedding was going to be difficult to plan (though if you’re down for the courthouse, he was in), and he didn’t have enough saved to buy you a ring that screamed “Mrs. Iwaizumi” to him.

But in the mean time, he could not get enough of his girls. Even little things like feeding your daughter or watching tv with her in his arms with you snuggling up to his side made him the absolute softest boy.

It may not have been his ideal situation in the past, but now all he looked forward to was watching your family continue to grow with a few more hopeful additions.

Oikawa;

Well this is awkward. You and Tooru I mean Oikawa broke up a few months ago. Not that it was a particularly bad break up; definitely more on the mutual side.

You wanted to continue pursuing your dreams and he wanted to carry on being a Pro. (Personally, I picture Oikawa being with a musician of some sort that posts covers of YouTube).

So even though you guys aren’t together anymore, you still keep up with how he’s doing in the pro VB world and he low key still watches your covers on the internet.

Your posting becomes less and less frequent, he notices over the span of a few months until you stop uploading all together. He thinks nothing of it until he gets a notification that you’ve finally uploaded a video. Two. Years. Later.

“Where we’ve been.” He doesn’t miss the collective pronoun before clicking on the video, seeing you standing with your guitarist, the former Nekoma VBC captain, Tetsurou Kuroo, as well as a cute, pudgy baby.

A baby that looked nothing like Kuroo and a whole lot like Oikawa did when he was a baby.

The video talks about your hiatus, as well as how you and your now boyfriend/guitarist were enjoying your life as parents and making music was hard with your little boy, and that the two of you needed to prioritize your son first. you introduce your baby, but the first thing Oikawa discovers is that the age of your baby and the duration of yours and Kuroo’s relationship didn’t add up. Don’t ask me why Oikawa knows how long you’ve been together, he has his resources.

Considering the toddler was two, and you and Kuroo had been together for a year. And the baby didn’t look anything like you OR him

Oikawa is flipping out now, and tries everything in his power to get a hold of you. Which oddly enough, wasn’t that hard considering your number is still the same.

“Did you finally figure it out?” Was all you said to him. He’s so upset that you didn’t tell him—that could have been him. Standing with you. Holding his baby—not bed headed fuck holding HIS son.

After FTing him, you, Oikawa, and Kuroo agreed to set up a meeting with all of you so Oikawa could finally meet his flesh and blood. He’s excited, but man oh man is he salty.

He missed his son’s first steps, first meal, holding him, teaching him how to walk, his first words; he missed ALL of it.

But the bitterness he feels completely goes away when he sees baby Oik’s in person for the first time. He had never, in his entire twenty three years of living, been in love until now. Despite your hesitation, you allow Tooru to hold his child for the entirety of your little meeting, allowing him to make up for lost years.

The three of you agreed on a form of joint custody that allowed Oikawa to have his son while you toured or were busy working, and you would have him while he was out doing his thing.

TL;DR, Oikawa takes the opportunity to make up his lost years spoiling the fuck out of his baby when he can and, oddly enough, the arrangement works out to benefit the both of you.

Ngl, parenthood is hard for him. Not because he doesn’t know how to parent, but rather because he never pictured his first child to come about this way. He would never admit it to anybody, not even Iwa, that knowing he had a child that he was barely a father to left him feeling lonely. That loneliness, however, motivates him to truly be the best dad that can be so that maybe when his son his old enough, he would rather live with him instead of his mom

Ofc, he teaches his offspring how to play volleyball as soon as he’s old enough to learn. But outside of that, Oikawa’s favorite thing to do with his son is little quiet nature walks away from the bustling city to have quality time with him.

Hanamaki;

This chill mfer 💀💀💀 for some reason, I feel like his love language is touch.

Your relationship with him was so simple, even after moving in together in your second year of college, years ago.

Well, it was simple.

As simple as life could be with four demons overrunning your house.

Due to the number of children the two of you had, with all of them being no more than two years apart in age, you became a stay-at-home mom, leaving Makki to provide for the six of you.

Because of your hellions wreaking havoc on you all day, Takahiro always wound down from work with the kids by putting on a movie and even reciting the script in his own voice to keep them entertained. Allowing you to go wind down with a glass of wine while you took a bubble bath.

Your oldest was Makki’s right hand man at the ripe age of 7. He always made sure that, as the big brother, he was looking out for his siblings and being the man of the house to help mommy while he worked.

Makki never raises his voice at the kids. Ever. Period.

If he’s upset with them or they did something they weren’t supposed to, he resolves the issue by picking them up, sitting down on the couch with them in his lap and staring at them. “Why did you draw on the walls with crayon, little man?” He would ask the offending five year old boy in the most calm voice.

“I wanted to paint a pretty picture for you and mommy!”

“And we love it. But next time, dude, if you put it on paper, I can bring those pictures to work so I can show everyone else.” Yeah, he calls his sons dude.

If his youngest and only daughter began crying over anything—Makki was on it like flies on shit. Little princess is not allowed to cry in daddy’s presence. He’s always quick to figure out why she’s crying too and, he learned, it’s mostly just because she wanted attention.

“When did you get so good at this?” You’d tease him.

“We’ve had lots of practice, honey.” 💀💀💀

A lot of the time, he felt really bad because he felt that he just kinda left you with the kids while he worked, and he’d be a little insecure. He thinks you’re tired of him and that you want to leave sometimes.

He thinks you don’t notice when he’s upset but he kinda dumb dumb cause you’ve been together for almost half of your lives, ofc you know when he’s upset.

While he’s laying in bed, nonchalantly scrolling through his phone before falling asleep for the night, you sit at his bedside, giving him the look. “C’mon, Takahiro. I can tell when something’s bothering you.” His lips would purse a little bit before locking his phone and putting it on his night stand, then holding whatever hand of yours that was closest to him with both of his.

“Ya ever just...get tired of our life?” Aksfnrjfl WOW THAT CAME OUT WRONG. This is why he prefers touch, he’s shit with words. “Wait no, that’s not what I meant. D-do, uh...a-are you happy?” Wow he really shit with words. Even if this would be conversation y’all would have at least once a year.

But no matter how many times you told him you loved him, he needed to feel it. Why do you think you ended up pregnant nearly every year? “I’m getting my fucking tubes tied after this, Makki.”

Matsukawa;

This goof would be your partner in crime second to Makki of course.

Half the time people kinda forgot you were dating let alone married because the two of you had always been playful and full of laughter; the only change was PDA was sprinkled in.

Sitting in his lap, little pecks during conversations, burying yourself in his neck or him burying himself in your hair, a hand always on your back or your shoulder.

Homies super subtle touchy.

The biggest reminder was when you’d announced your pregnancy to your friends. While Makki was super excited to be an uncle, Oikawa and Iwa were kinda like “y’all actually have sex??” Like you weren’t fucking married??

But whatever, y’all goofy and in love or w/e and it almost seems that the two of you aren’t taking pregnancy seriously. You totally are, but your friends don’t think so.

Coming up with baby names was Issei’s favorite pastime. But he went super left field with a lot of them, so you unfortunately had to veto them.

Painting and preparing the nursery was also an absolute blast. Because you both wanted the gender to be a surprise, y’all painted the room white on top with a full rainbow on the bottom, complete with gender neutral wall decals.

Honestly, he was so so so excited to be a dad. But mostly, he was just so smitten with you. It wasn’t hard for him to, considering the two of you were best friends long before dating.

He definitely turned your ultrasound pictures into memes that he hung in the babies room. “The last time I got pussy” captioned under the first ultrasound was his favorite.

You woke up one day in excruciating amounts of pain—like someone was carving out the muscles in your stomach and separating them from the skin from the inside and you knew something was wrong. “Issei, we gotta go to the hospital now!”

“N-now?” All jokes are gone, all laughter void and absent. “Honey, you’re only at the end of the first trime—“

“I know, idiot! We gotta go now!” You’re sobbing while hunching over your stomach, trying to walk but not succeeding in getting very far. Instead, your husband opts to carry you out to the car before zipping on over.

The sudden appointment had taken hours and the both of you felt drained. Well, you actually were. All of the pain you had experienced earlier in the day did not compare to the devastating blow of hearing that you had a miscarriage.

Silence fills every space that the two of you were in but, knowing you as well as he did, Mattsun refused to leave your side. Even if you had to pee.

“Babe, I have to pee.”

“Cool, which bathroom do we wanna use?” He wasn’t making jokes for the sake of being funny, which was the reason you allowed him to sit on the edge of the tub while you handled your business, holding your fingers in loose threads. It’s weird, but this was not a time for either of you to be alone to indulge your demons.

“We’re gonna get through this.” His arms would wrap around you from behind, carefully folding over your once filled womb, with his head resting on top of your own. “Just you and me, babe, against the world.”

“And Makki.”

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