#and also chapter 0 (which these r from) is actually kinda good

[ruiyuki]

"Vanitas": The Name and Legacy

Vanitas declares early on that his motive for using the Book of Vanitas to save vampires of the Red Moon is to take "revenge against the Vampire of the Blue Moon". But some of his actions, reactions and expressions seem to contradict a conventional interpretation of "revenge". Seeing how MochiJun is a master of conveying things through facial expressions, nondescript panels, and double meanings, here's my stab at trying to figure out a bit of Vanitas' complexity and his (??hidden??) motives.

⚠️⚠️⚠️ MANGA SPOILERS, obv ⚠️⚠️⚠️

Also this analysis is really long. ‼Continuation in reblogs.‼

For the sake of minimizing confusion I'm going to refer to our!Vanitas as "Vani", Vampire of the Blue Moon (VotBM) as "Luna", and the name "Vanitas"/"Vanitas of the Blue Moon" as a title in this analysis.

0. "Revenge" against the VotBM

Now, what kicked me into this train of thought initially was watching the scene where Vani announces his revenge plot to all during the Bal Masque. Ofc Bones is doing quite a good job with the anime (I can honestly forgive them for leaving out some scenes knowing budget constraints and that this was probably produced during COVID; it's just more reason to get viewers to read the manga) but there are still some subtle nuances that MochiJun puts in her work that don't get translated into the adaptation. So I revisited Memoire 7 and something just didn't sit right upon looking at that scene retrospectively – which I'll get to that in a bit – but first let me recap what is my interpretation of Vani's proclamation:

The origin story we were told at the start of the series illustrates that vampires are typically born under the Red Moon, except for the one born under the Blue Moon. VotBM, given the moniker "Vanitas of the Blue Moon" by others at the time, is said to have created the Book of Vanitas capable of manipulating the World Formulas in order to curse all the RM vampires that casted them out of vampire society. Cursing the RM vampires = turning them into curse-bearers inflicted with malnomen.

Vani's "revenge" against the VotBM is to use their name "Vanitas" and the Book to cure all RM vampires of their curses and malnomen. In that sense, Vani saving the vampires is directly opposing the vow to curse all RM vampires as told in the VotBM origin story.

Vani's revenge claim seems pretty straight forward. There is nothing of the sort as to claiming he will turn the vampires into humans, or rewrite their existence into something they are not, etc. It is literally just "I will heal you from your sickness out of spite towards the thing that wants you to suffer". His feral revenge proclamation on top of the chandelier lines up with his feral "I will save you no matter what, using whatever method I choose" at the end of Memoire 1 as Noé points out:

So here's the thing that felt a little out of place upon my rereading of Memoire 7:

This panel. Idk about you but as a long time reader of Pandora Hearts, imo one thing that makes MochiJun such a talented artist and great storyteller of plot twists and angst is how she depicts emotions in facial expressions – it is very subtle with a certain finesse. With the above panel, Vani's expression doesn't necessarily look like "anger" or "vengeance" to me. Rather (and it took me a while to place it actually, flipping back and forth between newer and older chapters) his expression looks... melancholic? Melancholy with sense of conviction.

It's noteworthy that MochiJun has made an intentional choice to emphasize Vani gripping his closed fist and his distant stare here, so it has to be important. So, what could Vani be thinking of in this moment? And why?

I. Vani's hidden expressions and feelings towards Luna

To (attempt to) figure out what might be going through Vani's mind in this moment, let's take a look at some moments we've seen Vani making different expressions and when he's thinking back to the VotBM – or really, his time with Luna. Vani claims he hates vampires, but there are obvious exceptions (Jeanne, Noé). What's interesting though is that, despite claiming to hate the VotBM, I don't think he hates Luna. He may hate the being that Luna is but I don't think he hates Luna as a person.

We can see the difference between his hatred and active desire to kill Moreau, as well as his completely blank, no-remorse kinda expression toward the Chasseur's cross in the Catacombes arc vs the above panel after his revenge proclamation:

Also contrast the above chandelier expression to Vani's empty look of distain in Dante's flashback when they first meet:

I would say none of these Vani expressions look very similar to the chandelier one — the empty or blank stares are missing a sense of resolve and the teeth-gritting smirk lacks any bit of sadness felt in the scene. Now, when do we ever see Vani make another expression of what I would call melancholy?

Ughghgh these panels break my heart every time bc there is such a sense of sadness, it's distant but palpable and it is t r a g i c... but I digress.

We have no way of knowing what Vani is thinking in these panels but I have a few ideas:

Vani thinks back to something Luna said about how one should use the Book of Vanitas when Noé says using the Book's power to cure curse-bearers is "overwhelmingly right". What Luna said? Who knows, but it may be along the same lines of "despite its power" and "doing the right thing".

Vani realizes the reason Misha wants Noé to drink his blood is bc Misha doesn't remember what happened That Day. He repeats "... I see." twice as if he's reaffirming to himself that he's the only one left that remembers what happened. If Misha did remember, there would be another person to share the memory but Misha doesn't and Vani is alone in the world in that sense.

If we are to assume that this is what's going through Vani's mind in these moments, then we have to ask why? Vani thinking back to his time with Misha and Luna elicits this sadness (possibly likely?) bc Vani did truly enjoy his time with them and didn't actually hate Luna. In his own flashbacks of Luna teaching he and Misha about malnomen (first being Malnomen Prèdateur in the Catacombes arc, second of Chloé's Malnomen Millie) and the flashback of "love" during the Gevaudan Arc, we see that Vani may be grumpy or indifferent while being with Luna, but he is still attentively listening and comfortable enough around them for them to hug him:

Ofc, we can't forget that Vani, in his fever and poison-induced delirium, even mumbles to himself ".. didn't actually hate... I didn't... Lou..—" while recovering in the cabin with Jeanne. Given that just before this he asks "Is that what you really want? Truly?" in response to Jeanne saying "This time for sure, I'll kill the beast", perhaps we can even posit that Vani didn't actually hate Luna and didn't actually want to kill them? (I have another theory on what could have happened on That Day but let's get through this one first *wheeze*).

So let's summarize:

Vani claims he will cure RM vampires of their malnomen as revenge toward the VotBM, who is said to have created the Book of Vanitas to curse RM vampires that made them an outcast.

Curing RM vampires of malnomen = revenge since it is directly opposing using the Book to inflict curses

But Vani shows a look of sadness mixed with conviction that contradicts what would be thought of when claiming "revenge", which could possibly be him thinking back to his time with Luna, whom he did not actually hate and possibly did not want to kill but had to anyway.

So here's my theory: the reason why Vani has assumed the name "Vanitas" and is on a quest to cure RM vampires of their malnomen with the Book of Vanitas is to "rewrite" the reputation behind the name Vanitas of the Blue Moon.

... And I will continue explaining this in the reblogs ⤵️⤵️⤵️ bc holy fuck this meta is so long I have reached the image limit per post asjfklgs

#vanitas no carte #the case study of vanitas #vnc meta #vnc theory #vnc manga #vnc spoilers #vanitas of the blue moon #pls read the continuation before rb #long post #like i mean REALLY long post #w h e e z e

[nightshadowhawk]

rating ninjago seasons with explanations because i was bored (spoilers obvs)

way of the ninja: 6/10 - i remember watching this ages and ages ago, to me they were just filler episodes to me as i’d watched all the way to rebooted at that point, not super interesting but it started everything so extra points for that

rise of the snakes: 5/10 - YES its old i know but the… the GD attack should have caused more chaos… destroyed more stuff… it only moved a couple cars in this season (which entirely changes in SoG with harumi’s flashbacks) which i thought was … weird, even when i was younger lol… but theres development of characters n all i think a lot of it is rad !

legacy of the green ninja: 6/10 - pretty good, i haven’t watched this in a while so i dont remember much but the end battle is Legendary so there’s extra points for that and also extra points for dareth being introduced hee hee

rebooted: 6/10 - the whole overlord and nindroids thing is … pretty cool ?? pixal and cyrus exist now so !!!! that adds points !!! when i was younger i remember watching zanes sacrifice a lot cuz i couldnt get over it, and now i can recite all the words off by heart … lol anyway i think this seasons ok 👍

tournament of elements: 8/10 - very good, i loved seeing the other elemental masters !!!! and chen is actually a very cool villain, especially when i was younger, i loved him then lol … the ending is kinda 😟 bc garmy technically dies but yea its a gud season C:

possession: 10/10 - this season is EVERYTHING???? the intro SLAPS, the whole aesthetic is incredible and not to mention theres a whole bunch of favourite characters content in this season so that adds extra points !!!! the story all flows smoothly and its just Mmmm so gud. i love it dearly, defo a comfort season i’ve watched it so many times

skybound: 7/10 - i can see why some people hate this season as the whole nadakhan marrying nya thing is VERY weird (even my cousin who was 6 at the time when we first watched it could tell that) … but theres extra points for 1. the whole misfortunes keep crew, i love them, and 2. the ninja replacements team, i also care them all so dearly … the lighting in this season is super good, and also the storyline threads together well, i just find it very Appealing how it goes back to how it started

hands of time: 4/10 - idk man its just … boring, i can’t really be interested enough to watch to the end of the season? extra points for acronix being pretty and the scruff moments tho lol…. also whats with more snake people …. cant be ninjago without snakes ig LMAO

day of the departed: 5/10 - i also just see this as a filler… i mean yes it tells how cole turned back from a ghost but otherwise it’s just kinda random but i still liked it

sons of garmadon: 7/10 - pretty good ! harumi is a very cool character tho i do think shes kinda selfish … like a lot of others probably lost family in the GD attack??? kind of confused … but the SoG group as a whole is VERY epic i love the designs for UV and mr E (killows design just throws me off tho… why Real Hands..)

hunted: 10/10 - SO damn good the storyline is EVERYTHING and i love how it switches POVs every so often to keep things on edge. its also pretty dark for a kids show and that makes it better, and the cinematics for this are all just AMAZING…. i care the dragon designs so much, mmmmmmmmmm beloveds :^)

march of the oni: 6/10 - wasted!!!!! potential!!!!! the oni were such a good show of fantastic character design and they were just….. taken out in like 5 seconds despite them literally being the embodiment of destruction? there was literally two seasons before this of the ninja dealing with one (1) embodiment of destruction and then when theres LOADS that make tentacle death clouds and are super OP they just … are defeated????? ok…… also what was the point in coles fall fr it just made me sad for no reason🙁

secrets of forbidden spinjitzu: 6/10 - the fire chapter was … cool ? i guess, wasn’t the most interesting, aspheera is hot tho lol😝(LITERALLY !!!!! Funny joke pls laugh.)also clutch being introduced adds points, love the stupid explorer man. the ice chapter is super dark, i loved seeing the never-realm and how everything worked there, and ?? evil zane ?!??!? sheeeeeesh that was a bold move that was super epic … i liked this part of the season :^0

prime empire: 10/10 - another comfort season YEAHHHHH !!!! the aesthetic !! so good !!! the characters r RAD like scott and okino and seven I LOVE THEM SO DEARLY ….. the soundtrack is RAD as well i listen to it plentifully …… the ending is happysad and i always go a bit cry when unagami and milton walk away together :’^)

master of the mountain: 8/10 - the whole slavery thing is … questionable but the skull sorcerer’s design is super awesome ! and the upply … i care them … :^)))) AND A COLE SEASON !!!! i loved the development for him !!! and the way that vania and cole stayed a friendship the whole time cuz it never implied they were gonna date or whatever which made me happy honestly … i rated it 8/10 as the extra points are from the upply

the island: shit/10 - what the fuck was that. the islanders were cool i liked their designs but seriously i hated the ending so bad like there was no reason for ronin to be the antagonist again … just let clutch steal the amulet and there you have it all set up for the next season whoooo

seabound: 9/10 - again i love the aesthetic, the glowy-ness of everything is so pretty in this, and the design for wojira is amazing … tho this season is super sad, im sure theres reasoning for the ending of it :)))))) the storyline is also very good in this ! it does actually make sense which sometimes doesnt happen ……...

#ninjago #ns15 spoilers

[mychemicalimagines]

You’re My Forever-Jasper Hale-Chapter 9

Summary: After the Battle of the Newborns, Bella reveals she’s getting married to Edward. After the wedding, Alexia’s life has been nothing but up. She gets to be with the love of her life forever. One little thing chances that. Will she actually get her forever…or will it end before it begins?

Warnings: Cussing, Angst, Supernatural, Paranormal, Love, Bella-Bashing, Smut, Blood

Words: 3556

Tag List:  @jayrart @elskinner45 @nocturnalherb16 @buckysforeverprincess @diyunho @negans-womam @deepobservationcherryblossom @fangirl1029 @thelostallycat @dreamslove92 @scarletmeii @thecaptainsgingersnap @jai-lynne-unknown @0-r-1-0-n @stephbass28 @magnificentzombiebasement @arseofrivia @vampiregirl1797 @millie-753 @fandom-imagines1 @aylamlc @celyndavies @geekysimmerthings @krazykatkay456 @marvelofwitch @frozenhuntress67 @sooophie19 @xcharlottemikaelsonx @azure23x @luna-thedarkwolf @treestarrrrrrrr @hi-my-name-is-riley @salsameter @jasperschillvibe @mikariell95 @whattheheckisevengoingon @starcatcher-kay @awesomebooklover17 @strangerthanfanfiction713 @nj01 @vxidnik @oi-itsemily @i-love-you-green @bubblyanis @emma-is-a-nerd @amethyst-atf @thegirlwhowishedeveryonelived @whyisgmora @kawaiikpoplover268 @booksalwaysandforever @fandomsstolemylife00 @rororo06 @jgtfvhsg @unadulteredscreams @justfangirliing @bitchy-witchy-post-mortem @kyky9103 @it-is-rebel-owl-ma-dudes @hiisay @aknerdchick @sana-li​

A/N: i have some news! Chapter 10 is probably gonna be the ending to this series! Oh my god, I never thought it would get this far! I love you guys!! (no it’s not a puppy XD!!!!) Comment some things you wanna see in the last chapter!!

Ask box is always open to ask Jasper and Ally some things about their relationship that you have ALWAYS wondered! 

That night, I’m laying on Charlotte’s bed, reading her a bedtime story. Well it’s not really a bedtime story, but rather it’s a book that’s filled with poems. Edward bought her the book so that she can get into poetry. It’ll give them something in common. He bought it before she got into piano but Charlotte loves it when we read this book to her anyway. This specific poem is called The Lotos-eaters  which is by Alfred-Lord Tennyson.

“There is sweet music that softer falls, than petals from blown roses on the grass.” I read aloud. “Or night-dews on still waters between walls, of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass. Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies.”

I glance down at Charlotte who’s laying in my arms. Her eyes are closed and I smile. I gently move her and put the book on the side table after marking the spot we managed to get to tonight.

“Mommy?” Her sweet, precious and oh-so-innocent voice whispers.

“Yes, baby?” I look back down at her.

“Did Aunt Alice and Uncle Kevin run away because we’re gonna die?” She opens her eyes. “Because of me?”

“No, sweetie. I think they left to keep us safer.” I admit. “That’s what all these other people are here for too. I’ll never let anybody hurt you.” 

I kiss her head and cover her up more. She snuggles to her stuffed bunny that Emmett bought for her.

“Go to sleep baby.” I whisper before standing up.

I turn off her lights before walking into the living room. I sigh and pick up the note that Alice left with Sam. Why would they just leave? I sit down on the couch while reading the note over and over. I glance up after a few minutes when I hear quiet footsteps. 

“It’s strange. Physically, I feel like I could demolish a tank...Mentally? I just feel drained.” I look away from Jasper as he sits down next to me.

“How about a bath?” He asks, leaning over to me. 

He starts kissing on my shoulder making me bite my lip softly. He reaches over and unbuttons my shirt...technically his shirt because I stole it from his part of the closet. I giggle slightly.

“I do remember how to undress myself, you know?” I smirk at him.

“Yeah, I just do it so much better.” He kisses my shoulder again. “For you, it’s just another mundane task. For me? It’s fun!”

I giggle slightly before looking back at Alice’s note and sigh. 

“Ally, I’ve had a bad habit of underestimating you.” Jasper admits, looking at the note, keeping his chin on my shoulder. “Every obstacle you’ve faced, I’d think you couldn’t overcome it...and you did. You’re the reason I have something to fight for...My family.”

I look up at him and smile before kissing his lips, softly and yet still passionate enough to express all my love for him that I could never express in words alone. He smiles into the kiss before slowly leaning back, breaking the brief skin to skin contact.

“I’m gonna get the water running.” He stands up and kisses my forehead.

He walks into another part of the house and I stare down at the note. I flip it over to read the name of the book she ripped it from for the fifth time. Raising an eyebrow, I glance over to the bookcase that Jasper made sure to put in the house. The book is in the middle of the second row. I quickly stand up and speed over to it. Taking the book into my hands before taking a deep unneeded breath.

I open it before flipping, page by page until I see a familiar handwriting. Right before the first chapter, there’s another note from Alice. 

‘J. Jenks, Seattle - destroy this.’

I raise an eyebrow once again. Alice made sure only I would get the message. She must have had a vision that I was a shield just like Bella and that my mind would be safe from Aro. I glance up when I hear Jasper’s footsteps again and I quickly throw the book into the fireplace. 

The fire welcomes the book and starts burning it quickly. 

***

The next day, I call and make an appointment with this J. Jenks. I decide to take Charlotte to my dad’s house to decorate the Christmas tree since Christmas is just around the corner. Seth wants to come with since his mom would be there as well as his imprint.

“You said your dad knows about you?” Seth asks, glancing at me from the passenger seat.

I nod. “Yep. He just doesn’t know about you guys. All he does know is that you and your mom know about me and the Cullens. I also don’t want him to come around the house with the 27 vampires. All of them around one human? That wouldn’t be so great. I don’t think that any of them have as good self control as I do.”

He chuckles before nodding. “I’m glad to get away from them. Their eyes kinda scare me. And their smell makes my wolf super mad.” 

I glance over at him with a raised eyebrow.

“I know they’re the good guys but my wolf wants to attack. You’re different. You’re the mother of my imprint. My wolf likes you.” He chuckles again.

I nod in understanding before parking in front of my dad’s house. My dad and Sue walk out of the house just as Charlotte unbuckles her seat and jumps out. 

“There she is!”

I get out at the same time as Seth. My dad catches Charlotte in his arms and swings her around for a second.

“Wow! Look at you! You’ve grown half a foot!” Dad says, wrapping an arm around her. “Seriously! Like six inches!”

She laughs and hugs him. 

“Come on inside. Lunch is on the table.” Sue smiles and waves us toward the door.

“We got a tree to decorate, huh?” Dad smiles widely at Charlotte who nods fast.

“I’ve actually got a few errands to run. I’ll be back soon, okay?” I call out.

My dad looks at me and nods. “Is it a...Family thing?”

I get what he means. Is it a Vampire thing?

“Yep. Don’t worry. I’ll be back in time for the star on the top.” I smile widely.

“You see, Charlie, mommy over there ALWAYS puts the star on top.” Dad tells Charlotte.

“Really?” She giggles. 

“Yep! It’s been her job since she was your age!” Dad kisses her head before waving at me. “Maybe even younger!”

I giggle and wave.

“Love you, guys!” I call out before getting into my car.

I hear them yell it back before I pull away from the house. I drive all the way to Seattle with one thing on my mind. ‘Alice’s note gave me a sense of hope. Maybe she had a plan for us after all and maybe J. Jenks was the key.’  I pull into the restaurant that we agreed to meet at this morning and I park my car. I walk inside at a human speed before being directed to his table.

I see an African American man sitting down with a briefcase in his lap. I stop by the table causing him to look up.

“Miss Swan.” He stands up and puts his hand out.

“Hi.” I smile and shake his hand.

“I am so happy you called.” He admits before we both sit down. “I always meet my private clients here, it’s more….comfortable than the office.”

“And it’s more public.” I nod.

He smiles before nodding. “Yes.”

“So what type of work do you do, J?” I ask, putting my hands in my lap.

“You know, this and that. It’s always different which keeps it interesting.” He reveals.

“Have you known Alice and Kevin long?” I ask.

“I’ve been working with them for more than 20 years. And my late partner knew Kevin 15 years before that. He’s...uh...unusually well preserved.” He whispers.

“Yes, he is.” I nod.

“I trust that Mr. Kevin is enjoying his vacation?” J raises an eyebrow.

“He didn’t tell you where he was going, did he?”

“No, no, no. He just mentioned that he was leaving when he came by to place his order.” J moves his briefcase.

“I assume his order is ready?” I bite my lip.

“Of course. I’ve never been late with a delivery.”

He opens his briefcase and hands me an envelope. I open it up to find forged passports and documentation for Charlotte and Seth. I bite my lip. Only they will be getting away if something happens. Jasper and I might lose our lives in this battle, but at least our child will be safe. That’s what matters to him and I at this point.

“Is there a problem?” J speaks up.

“No, my fiance and I thought we’d all be traveling together.” I lie easily.

“Kevin said only two were traveling. His instructions were very clear.” J says.

“It’s my mistake. Apparently that’s not going to happen.” I sigh.

J and I quickly end our meeting and I drive back to my dad's house. Alice’s vision was clear. Charlotte would have a future but...Jasper and I wouldn’t be a part of it. That night, I watch as Jasper quickly picks up Charlotte who squeals in delight before hugging him close. I smile and bite my lip, trying to get all the memories in now. If something happens...I want to know that we’ve done everything we could for her.

I walk into her room and quickly pack a bag. Packing in some clothes she’d need and money that I'd stashed away for a while, I make sure to get whatever I think might make her happy for her new life...one without her parents in it, if it comes to it. I grab one of her notebooks and write her a note.

‘My beautiful and wonderful Charlotte, I thought we would have forever together. But Forever isn’t as long as I’d hoped. I know now why Alice left me clues...It’s to keep you safe. Everything you and Seth will need is in this bag. Seth will protect you and he’ll help you learn about the Quileute Legends. Know that your father and I love you more than anything in this world. You are the best thing to ever happen to me. Hopefully one day you will be able to have your own children and know exactly what I feel everytime I look at you. 

Love Always and Forever,

Mommy <3’

I jump when I hear a small knock on the door. Alistair is smirking down at me. 

“It’s a romantic notion, isn’t it? That a righteous few can defy a great evil. But I must admit you...uh..even had me believing for a moment. Well, good luck.” He says before walking away. “You’re gonna need it. Cheers.”

I jump out of my seat and grab onto his arm. His head snaps toward me.

“Alistair, it’s a precaution. Alice…” I sigh. “Alice thinks that Charlotte and Seth will be able to get away if the fight does start. I want my child safe. You have to understand that.”

“I do…” He starts.

“Please. Don’t leave.” I whisper. “We need you.”

He sighs and nods. “If a fight starts...I’m out just like your family.”

“I understand that.” I nod. “But please...witness with them as well...”

He nods before I gently remove his arm.

“Thank you.” I whisper again. “I owe you. Anything you need.”

“I’ll hold you to that...forever.” He smirks.

I giggle and nod. “Forever.” 

He quickly speeds out of the room. 

***

Dad has been asking about Bella. I finally had to reveal the truth...like I have done for everything. I told him that Bella was mad that I had gotten pregnant so she left. She wanted Edward to be angry as well but he was excited. He wanted to get to know his niece so Bella left him. 

Dad was upset. Said, ‘How could she do this? It’s not like it’s the end of the world that you got pregnant.’ I told him how she wanted to be a vampire and because I got pregnant it ruined her plans. He just rolled his eyes and shook his head before I put the star on the tree yesterday. But today is Christmas and we’re, of course, spending it with my dad, Sue, and Leah. 

I sit on the arm of the couch watching Charlotte and Seth play a game on the floor. I giggle as Charlotte wins for the 2nd time in a row.

“How are you doing that?” Seth asks, staring at the board.

She giggles. “Uncle Emmett loves this game!”

“Again!” Seth resets the board.

I shake my head and look up when I feel a hand on my back. Jasper smiles down at me.

“Hi, sweetie.” I whisper softly.

He winks before kissing the top of my head.

“The snow is sticking.” I sigh.

“We still have today, baby.” He rubs my back.

I nod just as my dad walks out of the kitchen.

“Alright! Present time! Leah, stop eating. Seth, you start. Get it going.” Dad sits down in his favorite chair.

Seth hands a small package to Charlotte when I stand up.

“Here, dad. We didn’t have time to wrap yours.” I hold out an envelope.

He raises an eyebrow before taking it. He opens it and his eyes widen.

“A five day fishing trip to Fraser River?” He looks at us.

“It's for you and Sue.” I smile widely.

Jasper wraps an arm around my waist. “You leave tomorrow.”

“Wow, that’s really nice. Thank you!” He starts to read the tickets before his head snaps up. “Tomorrow? I can’t...I can’t leave tomorrow.”

“I made arrangements for you at work.” Sue walks in with two cups. 

He nods. “Sneaky and extravagant.”

“And non-refundable, I’m afraid.” Jasper speaks up with a smile. 

“You two trying to get rid of me?” Dad asks, watching us. Jasper and I glance at each other before looking at him again. “‘Cause it’s working.”

Dad laughs and looks back at the tickets. I relax and smile. He doesn’t know about this meeting we’re going to have. He just knows that the Cullens, Jasper, Seth, Leah, Charlotte and I are going on a small vacation so we won’t be home. 

“Fraser River...that means we’ll be chasing cutthroat.” Dad looks up to Sue who sits on the arm of his chair.

“We might even hook a rainbow or some bulls.” She smiles.

“Woman knows her trout.” Dad smiles at me.

I’m happy he found Sue. Someone he’s known his whole life and knows about my… condition and isn’t gonna ask why his granddaughter was looking 6 years old yesterday and now she’s looking like she’s going to be 12 next week. Charlotte stands up and holds up her present from Seth. I kneel down to her level.

“Hey, sweetie. That’s beautiful. Let me see.” I take the bracelet from her hand.

My eyes light up when I realize what it is. It’s a Quileute Promise Bracelet. It’s their version of a promise ring. I glance at Seth with a smile.

“Seth made this for you?” I ask, causing her to nod fast. “Wanna put it on?”

I put it on her wrist before kissing her head. She giggles.

“It’s so pretty.” She looks up at me.

“It is pretty. Just like you.” I poke her nose which makes her giggle. “Don’t forget to thank Seth.”

She turns to him and hugs him around his neck. I look up at Jasper who is smiling down at me. Best Christmas ever. 

***

I finish putting up Charlotte’s tent. We only left my dad’s house a few hours ago and now we’re having a small bonfire before we have the…meeting tomorrow. I make sure she’s covered up before I read her a little more of her poem book. Right before she falls asleep, I give her a locket that Jasper got me for our first Christmas together a long time ago. 

She opens it to reveal the photo of Jasper and I from our first date. The one where we’re dating and I’m laughing at him making fun of the instructor. Next to it the words ‘Plus Que Ma Propre Vie’ are engraved.

I kiss her head before whispering. “This means ‘more than my own life’, and that’s how much your father and I love you. Tomorrow I’m going to need you to stay with Seth, no matter what. Even if I tell him that…” I sigh. “That he has to take you somewhere.”

Charlotte looks up at me with a few tears running down her cheeks. 

“I love you, mommy.” 

“I love you, sweetie. Never ever forget that, okay?” I kiss her head again.

She nods against me. It doesn’t take long for her to fall asleep. I quietly slip out from under her when Seth crawls in. I pat his back and crawl out before standing beside Paul who’s hanging out at our bonfire tonight. He smiles and looks back at his small pile of wood. Benjamin walks over with a smile. He holds up one finger and fire appears. 

I shake my head with a giggle. He holds up three more fingers, fire at all the tips. He then throws the fire at the logs creating our bonfire.

“That’s what I’m talking about. A little pre-battle bonfire, telling war stories.” Paul cheers a little before grabbing my arm, gently.

He pulls me down to the log where he’s now sitting causing me to sit on the edge. I bump my hips into his and he scoots over. Benjamin sits down next to him with a smile. Paul looks up at the rest of our witnesses with a raised eyebrow.

“What are you doing, standing there like a fucking statue?” He scuffs.

I playfully, and gently, smack his leg before pointing toward Charlotte’s tent.

“She’s asleep.” He rolls his eyes before smiling at me.

Garrett speeds over and sits down on a log next to ours. 

“Name any American Battle, I was there.” He smirks.

“Little Big Horn.” Paul immediately says.

“I came this close…” He holds up two fingers. “...to biting Custer but the Indians caught him first.”

Kate speeds over and sits to Garrett.

“Try Oleg’s assault on Constantinople, he didn’t win that one on his own.” She smirks at him.

“If you’re talking about battles, you’re talking about the Eleven Years War. No one does rebellion like the Irish.” Liam speaks up from where his family’s sitting.

“You lost the Eleven Years War.” Garrett points out.

“Aye.” Liam nods. “But it was one hell of a rebellion.”

Everyone laughs and agrees with him. I try to listen to the rest of the battles and war stories but my ears pick up Jasper, Edward and Carlisle’s conversation.

“I can’t help thinking, all these people are putting themselves in danger because we fell in love with humans.” Edward mumbles.

“You guys found your mates. You deserve to be happy.” Carlisle pats his shoulder.

“But at what cost?” Jasper glances at his adoptive, vampire father.

“Everyone here has something to fight for. I certainly do. I have a granddaughter that I never thought I would have. I have a wife...my children. I would fight every day for them if I had too.” Carlisle reveals. 

I feel eyes on the back of my head before someone else speaks.

“I never thanked you for bringing Alice, Kevin and I in. If you never did, I wouldn’t have the life I do now.” Jasper whispers but not low enough.

“Don’t thank me.” Carlisle chuckles. “Thank that wonderful woman you’ve got.”

A few seconds later I feel Jasper speed over to me. I look up just as he kneels and wraps his arms around my neck from behind.

“I love you.” He whispers in my ear.

I put my hands on his forearms and smile widely. “I love you, Mr. Whitlock-Hale.”

He kisses the back of my head before letting me go. I watch him bump into Paul’s back. Paul looks up, briefly, before asking Benjamin to scoot down. He does and Paul scoots down, following him. I scoot down the log as well. Jasper takes his place next to me, gently taking my hand, and weaving our fingers together as looks at everyone. Paul smirks and leans down. 

“Finally found some people older than you, Mr. Steak Sauce.” 

Jasper laughs and nods. “You’re right about that, kid.”

“I’m not a kid!” Paul playfully glares at him.

“Besides Charlotte and Seth, you are literally the youngest!” Jasper laughs.

“Least I’m not hard as a rock.” Paul crosses his arms. 

I snort softly, hiding my face against Jasper’s neck, whispering. “I like it when you’re hard as a rock.”

“At least I’m not hairy.” Jasper retorts, gently squeezing my hand, before whispering, low enough for just me to hear. “I know you do, baby.”

Everyone laughs and Paul grumbles to himself. Garrett smirks before bringing up another battle he was in...but Kate reveals he needed help there as well.

#jasper hale #Twilight Jasper #jasper hale twilight #jasper hale fanfiction #jasper hale imagines #jasper hale imagine #jasper hale x oc #jasper hale x reader #jasper hale x you #jasper hale x y/n #jasper hale x swan!reader #jasper hale love story #twilight #twilight fanfiction #twilight love story

[oh-great-authoress]

Tag Game!!!!!

Thank you, @the-coruscanti-blogger, for tagging me!

Okay, here we go!!

Name: Nadia of oh-great-authoress!

Gender: Female.

Star Sign: Like @the-coruscanti-blogger said, this is technically against my religion, but I do know that I am a Virgo.

Height: Over 5 feet, I can’t remember the exact number.

Sexuality: Straight.

Favorite Book: Uhh, difficult question. How about top three?

“The Lord of the Rings” by J. R. R. Tolkien (In my opinion it counts as one book. Yes, I know I’m technically cheating.)

“Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring” by Alexander Rose (They even made a tv series based on the events in this book called Turn: Washington’s Spies!) [Yes, I am a history nerd. :)]

“Niamh and the Hermit” by Emily C. A. Snyder (This book is a hidden treasure. It’s an adventure/epic quest/love story that is just… *chef’s kiss* perfection. It’s along the lines of LotR, so if you like that, you’ll probably love this.)

Current Time: Uhh, unholily late, or unholily early, depending on your outlook.

Average Amount of Sleep: Outside of quarantine, it varies from 8+ to 0, depending on the day.

Dogs or Cats: Both. Both is good.

# of Blankets You Sleep With: One thick one in colder weather, and two thin ones in warmer weather. I know it’s weird I use more when it’s warm, but it works for me.

Dream Job: World Domination. Hahaha, I’m joking. Or am I?…

Favorite Animal: Foxes. Look at the YouTube channel SaveAFox. You’ll thank me later. Go.

Blog Established: January of 2020!

# of Followers: As of when I post this, 31!

Reason for URL: I hang around music nerds, and I am a bit… okay, I’m a music nerd. It’s a sort of oblique reference to a Gilbert and Sullivan song called “Minerva! Oh, Hear Me!” It’s a warping of one of the lyrics, which says, “Oh, goddess wise” I couldn’t remember the actual lyric, (I forgot google existed) and in my memory, I changed it to “Oh, great goddess”, which sounded right. Again, I forgot google existed. And I have a dramatic streak a mile wide. (Or a couple of miles wide, depends on who you ask) In addition, I like to write, a lot, (I also hate it a lot sometimes) so that turned into @oh-great-authoress!

Something I’m Grateful For: My faith, my amazing and wonderful parents, my grandparents, my and my family’s health and life, my friends irl and on tumblr, sunrises, music, my interests and fandoms, tumblr, and all the amazing people I’ve met here.

Followers I’m Tagging: @megsann13, @batmantaking-hobbits2gallifrey, @ruinofsilver, @fromsolowithlove, @rainmakesyouwhole, @demichrising, @cptdorkery, @lynntheninja, @loveandmusic67, @magic-and-the-macabre, and @lenacs!

Questions I’m Adding (Feel free to ignore my added questions)

Favorite Pairings

Favorite Season

Favorite Color(s)

Favorite Actresses and Actors

My Answers to My Own Questions

Question 1.

Favorite Pairings

Reylo — Ben Solo/Rey — Star Wars (I don’t need to say any more about this.)

Gingerflower — Armitage Hux/Rose Tico — Star Wars (Okay, guys, guys, guys, hear me out, okay? Please don’t come @ me. I got sucked into this via Reylo Modern AU fanfics, and I went down a rabbit hole. From there, I read some canon-divergent fic, and it got me thinking. I mean TRoS didn’t even obliquely mention Finn/Rose, so, I thought, why the kriff not. Why shouldn’t Rose “Save What We Love” Tico get a romance/definitively happy ending via fanfic. We already had one Enemies-to Lovers pairing in the Sequel Trilogy, what’s one more? And when you add in Hux’s “I’m the Spy!”? This kinda writes itself. Resistance Spy-Master Rose Tico? Why not. Plus, that deleted scene from TLJ did kind of open this whole thing up.)

Farawyn — Faramir/Eowyn — LotR (If you haven’t read the books or watched the Extended Editions of the films, Faramir and Eowyn end up together, which is why they’re standing next to each other in the Theatrical Edition of RotK, at the end. In the books, they have practically an entire chapter dedicated to them and their romance. And boy, does Faramir have game.)

Fitzwilliam Darcy/Elizabeth Bennet — Pride & Prejudice (I also don’t need to say any more about this.)

Col. Brandon/Marianne Dashwood — Sense & Sensibility (Watch the 1995 adaptation and tell me this is not pairing gold.)

Mary/Matthew — Downton Abbey (Yes, the Season 3 finale broke my heart, thank you.)

Dramione — Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger — Harry Potter (Again, please don’t come @ me, this pairing is basically Reylo in a Harry Potter AU.)

Bathena — Bobby Nash/Athena Grant — 911 (Yes, I do watch this. I actually didn’t see this coming. My Mom saw it coming before I did. But once it happened, I was like, oh yeah, this is my jam.)

Ventrobi — Obi-Wan Kenobi/Asajj Ventress — Star Wars (Okay, yes, I am a sucker for Enemies-to Lovers, okay? And this is Enemies-to-Lovers gold, alright?

Christopher Pike/Number One (Una) — Star Trek (Got into this ship via fanfic, but Discovery/Short Treks well and truly cemented this for me.)

Question 2.

Favorite Season

Fall. Without question. The weather becomes temperate, and in early fall you still get the pretty flowers of summer, but with cooler weather, and in full-out-fall, you get to wear pretty sweaters and boots and scarves, and you get the trees changing color.

Question 3.

Favorite Color(s)

Pink

Teal

Green

Blue

Purple

Question 4.

Favorite Actresses and Actors

Adam Driver (Guys. Come on.)

Daisy Ridley (Guys. Come on.)

Domnhall Gleeson (I liked him even before he was General Hux, guys, he was great in a movie called “About Time” and “Goodbye Christopher Robin”.)

Kelly Marie Tran (She was amazing as Rose, I still feel bad she didn’t get more screen time, especially after what happened to her after TLJ.)

Ewan McGregor (Um, he’s Obi-Flipping-Wan Kenobi.)

Letitia Wright (She was great as Shuri in “Black Panther”.)

Danai Gurira (She was Awesome as General Okoye in “Black Panther. Note the capital A.)

Colin Firth (P&P ‘95 and The King’s Speech. That’s all I have to say.)

Alan Rickman (S&S ‘95 + Harry Potter + Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Amazing performances. I mean, truly amazing. Nuanced, and just plain hilarious in the case of Robin Hood. His performance as Col. Brandon just pulls at the heartstrings with every single expression in his eyes, and no matter how you feel about Severus Snape, you cannot deny that Alan, God rest his soul, played him brilliantly.)

Hayden Christensen (He was The Chosen One.)

Bruce Greenwood (His portrayal of Captain Pike in Star Trek: 2009 was the reason I wrote and actually finished a fic.)

Anson Mount (His portrayal of Captain Pike in Star Trek: Discovery was the reason I wrote and actually finished more fic.)

And that’s it! I hope I have not ticked off anyone. If I have, I apologize for the ticking off, but not my opinions. I hope you can respect them, or at least ignore them.

Stay Well, People!

#hope i still have followers after this #bracing myself #asks #tag game

[mazojo]

Let’s Play

Sooo if you saw some of my previous posts, you know I've kinda gotten into webtoons and I binge-read another one called Let’s Play and I Looveeee. I will do a spoiler-ish review as of the chapters that have come out so far and and all the images and stuff included are from Mongie, the author of this baby.

Plot

So the plot basically revolves around Sam, who works for her fathers company coding and working on programming but her true passion is creating video games, more specially indie games. She creates this game called Ruminate and its all fine and dandy until super famous youtube Marshall Law plays it and jokingly says it kinda sucks so people and trolls go leave hate on her account so her developer score in this indie publishing website is almost 0.

Sam is disappointed nay this turn of events and tries contacting the company to help her score as its flawed but unfortunately nothing happens. Then we find out super Marshall Law is moving next door to Sam and she flops. He then later realizes how he messed up and as they start becoming friends (slowly but surely!) he is fixed on making it up to her becouse he is a cinnamon roll. There are also other characters involved, from Sam’s gaming crew which is hilarious, to her super hot and sexual tension boss, Charles who is trying to help her grow as a person and as a worker and we also have Lincoln which kinda has a crush in Sam and they’ve been friends for quite a while as Sam helped him overcome his dads death. 

The story is funny and filled with great moments, treating also mental health topics and the struggles of Sam discovering she may or may not have feelings for the hotties mentioned above ^^.

Characters

As I did with my Kiznaivers and I Love Yoo reviews, ill list the characters from my favourite to my least (I love them all so it sounds so bad to say the least!) including a song that reminds me of them. I won't list them all as their are many as you can see in the picture above but definitely the main ones <33

Sam

Angels - Owl City

Sam. is. such. a. mood. Like honestly, if you ever wish to know me and who I am as a person and how I work, read this and I am the literal reincarnation of Sam loll. She is very nerdy and suffers from anxiety, sometimes leading her to have asthma attacks. She really cares about those close to her and although she is quite shy and introverted, doesn't doubt the chance to jump in when someone she cares about is in danger. I have no words to describe her but I think I’ve found my long lost drawing form character.

Marshall

Lucky - Britney Spears

Yes, I choose a Britney Spears song for him, is it amazing? Y e s, do I regret it? N o p e. Marshall is just adorableeee. Like he is the literal reincarnation of a puppy and he is much more complex than what it seems? Yeah he’s got this bubbly exterior to himself but deep down he is dealing with depression and anxiety but hides it from anyone, to the point of literally breaking down. He is trying his best at making everyone happy and likes video games and ahhhh ??? I Stan Marshall.

Lincoln

Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi

Lincoln the embodiment of the dad friend, there I said it. He has such a pure soul and heart and protective aura around those he loves and he is so soft??? He struggled with his dads death and takes care of his brother (which makes a part of the guild Sam is with). He is a little oblivious but other than that Link must be protected at all cost and hopefully finds happiness at the end of the comic becouse if he doesn't I will riot.

Charles

Rude - MAGIC!

Charles is your typical cold but sexy filled with sexual tension moments boss character. He is Sam’s boss and what I love most about Charles is how he wants others to succeed, pushing them their limits to reach their full potential, something I think its quite admirable. Honestly in comparison to the other two boys I haven't connected much with Charles but I still really like his character and hopefully we are able to see more of him in the future!

Monika

Power - Little Mix

The image pretty much describes Monika lol. I decided to include her becouse although she is kindaaaa the antagonist, I feel like she isn't really that bad and honestly, her character is quite compelling. She is Marshall’s girlfriend and a beauty guru, so half of the time she talks about makeup-is things I quite honestly dont understand lolll. However she really cares about those near her and (cues alpha female aura) does her best to protect Marshall becouse she really does likes him, but due to the fame and their worlds they both manage, it makes things complicated at times. I hope she doesn't turn evil or something like that becouse I truly think she is good (or at least up till now) and hopefully she gets a happy ending too ~.

Ships

Sam x Marshall 

This was actually so hard to choose! Because I honestly ship Sam with Lincoln just as much but there’s just something about this couple that I just gahhh! They have this chemistry working over them and they complement each other so well too! Like Sam is very perceptive and a good listener while Marshall just fakes a smile every time and I believe she will be the one to notice something is wrong first <33 

Sam x Lincoln

AHhHHH I love Link so much?? And how he protects Sam and cares about her is so freaking adorable? I think their mutual support and understanding is what makes it one of the best and Sam clearly has some mixed feelings about him that she repressed for a while in order not to tarnish their friendship but now she knows that he likes her so ??? I hope Link and Sam end happy because they both have to be p r o t e c t e d.

Sam x Charles

As I mentioned before, I don't think I can compare Marshall and Link’s relationship to the one with Charles considering they have had more time together, I believe in the next chapters we will get to see their relationship increase. He is very protective and does whats best for Sam and they have this tension around them which gets Sam all flustered and its really cute. Its not my main ship but I’ll wait and see how things progress in the future.

Monika x Marshall

Okay so this is not one of the main ships and people often don't like this couple but I thought it was important to mention! As I said before, I think Monika is quite a complex character and they are both dealing with their own worlds and problems which may make it hard for the relationship to work and not seem toxic. Still, they both care deeply about the other and I know in the end, they would want to see the other happy soooo we’ll see how it ends ^^

Final Thoughts

I absolutely adoree this Webtoon! I’ll try to review the chapters as they go out like I love yoo giving my impressions and what nots. Here are some theories that I think may happen in future chapters too;

- I don't think I mentioned it but Marshall is really good at drawing and its kinda his passion but he hides it from everyone due to fearing failure. I think Sam in one way or another will encourage him to pursue his dream eventually drawing them closer, and as she needs an artist to help her with her next game, I am guessing Marshall will be perfect for that spot :333

- Charles will definitely appear more I think, most of the “romantic” moments have been with Link followed by Marshall leaving the Charles Stans in need of their baby <33

- I think Angela (one of Sam’s guild member and friend) likes Link?? I didn't talk about her much but in one of the latest chapters she gets flustered by him and I am not really sure? I'll definitely be on the look for that.

#webtoon #let's play #lets play #marshall #marshall law #link #lincoln #sam #charles #monika #marshall x monika #marshall x sam #link x sam #charles x sam #review #spoiler #spoilers #plot #ships #ship #character #characters #angela #ruminate

[fyrapartnersearch]

Yo, wassup, I figured for the first of December I’d send out another ad to look for some partners; It’s been a while and my tastes have changed and narrowed and now I’ll be shootin’ for a smaller (sort of) group of people, this time around.

For starters, the name’s Sparky, or Shark, or whatever you wanna call me, I’m nineteen years of age and I’ve posted here a few times before, I’m pretty sure. I’ve become less formal and uptight with these ads as time goes on because I’ve learned that the more chill a gal is, the more people feel welcomed to send honest and colorful replies, but don’t be turned off by my lack of intellectualism; when it comes to my actual writing, I take it more seriously. For the most part. My sarcasm is sort of a package deal, but I swear my work is good.

I’ve been roleplaying for about eight years, now, and am willing to roleplay with anyone of legal age in their state, if only because I enjoy incorporating smut into my roleplays. If you’re somebody who likes to fade to black every time characters get freaky with each other at points in our story, I’m unfortunately not the gal for you. I enjoy long-term plot heavy stories for the most part, but am totally down for PWP as well, so feel free to message me for either.

At the moment, I’m mostly looking for a buddy who wants an Insert roleplay (Canon/OC), or maybe a Fandom roleplay (Canon/Canon), so feel free to contact me if you’re interested and match pretty damn well with the rest of these guidelines:

Care about your writing. I’m not asking you for a whole fuckin’ novel every response, you can write however much you’re comfortable with as long as It’s more than one sentence, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t have a spelling error or a typo every other word. Everyone makes mistakes, I’ve been there on many, many… many, occasions (it’s no joke, man), but like– just try, y’know? To me, lazy writing shows a disinterest in the roleplay, which is a huge turn off for me.

On the same wavelength as above, please don’t feel stressed over how much you’re writing or if it matches enough to mine. Again, all I’m asking is for my partner to be interested and care a little about what they’re typing; I tend to write a LOT for roleplays I’m excited about but I’m not expecting you to respond with the same amount at all. If your limit is three paragraphs max, stick to three paragraphs max. If you love writing novels every response, I will fuckin’ read… ALL of that novel.

For Insert roleplays, I will ONLY write Double-up [unless you for some reason are just looking to play a canon character, because let’s be honest I can be a selfish shithead when you let me be], I am making this very clear because not only do I fuckin’ love seeing all the different characters people create, but also because the more the merrier. I like it when these things are played fairly– I play a character for your OC in return for you playing a character for mine.

Most of my pairings will likely be M/F or F/F (seeing as right now I only have one M/M pairing when it comes to canon/OC, and you’ll only be seeing them if you’re looking for Homestuck), but your side is totally free game. Do what you want. I’m also chill with Polyamorous ships and/or love triangles as long as you’re cool with the possibility of me going that route, as well.

It would be appreciated if you care about your side of the roleplay about just as much as you care for mine. I’ll totally do the same; I WILL get overly attached to everyone in our roleplay. You’ve been warned.

Please be okay with our OCs being eventual buddies sometime in the roleplay; I have a guilty pleasure for connections between all characters, even if it takes like, a story-year for them to meet. Obviously, if we end up planning something wherein that’s not possible, that’s chill, too.

OOC chat is 100% welcome– throw me all your jokes and ideas and stupid scenarios and possible future Ideas for the roleplay, tell me how much you love that one subject, talk to me about your day. I’m here for it.

Some extra info for those people who REALLY wanna know what they’re getting into:

I have 0 limits, on like, everything. The smut we write out can be weird kinks galore for all I care, there can be suicide and torture and pedophilia and major deaths and mental illnesses in our plot; and I have a bad habit of assuming my roleplay partner can handle anything I dish out in writing so just, if you have hard limits make sure to tell me about them before they can come up in an awkward situation.

I’m totally down to share kinks before a roleplay; ESPECIALLY if we’re jumping into PWP or a smut-centric plot

I’m very carelessly blunt and a smartass, so If I say anything that makes you uncomfortable just tell me and I’ll chill out a bit.

I’m in Mountain Time

I mentioned this before but my responses can range from like chapter-in-a-novel to a few paragraphs, and I’m not expecting you to match me in the slightest. Do what you do and we’ll be fine.

I very much love talking about character and relationship headcanons and shit, so like, hit me with all of your ideas, I could talk about this shit for hours.

I draw. A lot. Like, a lot a lot. There’s a large chance I’ll end up drawing characters from OUR roleplay, so just let me know beforehand if that’s not something you’re okay with.

I’m pretty flexible with response times, but it would be appreciated if you tell me beforehand if there’s something going on in your life that’ll make your replies more scarce than usual.

And, finally, the part of this ad that some of you have probably just skipped past everything else to get to, the FANDOMS: Bolded ships and/or names are preferred

[ POKEMON ]

COMPATIBLE WITH: CANON/OC, OC/OC (POKEPHILIA)

WANTED: Anything Pokephilia, Cheren, N

WILL PLAY: Any character you can name from the Video Game franchise; I haven’t watched much of the show, sorry bruh

  [ INVADER ZIM ]

COMPATIBLE WITH: CANON/OC

WANTED: Dib Membrane

WILL PLAY: Zim, Tak, Gaz, Prof. Membrane, Tallest Red, Tallest Purple, Sizz-Lor, Skoodge, Keef, fuckin’ Miss Bitters for all I care I will play them all you name whoever you want, my dude

[ JOHNNY THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC ]

COMPATIBLE WITH: CANON/OC, CANON/CANON

WANTED: Jimmy, Johnny C., Edgar Vargas

WILL PLAY: Jimmy, Johnny C., Edgar Vargas, Devi D., Tenna, Tess R., Anne Gwish, Satan, I don’t know who else is there, that fat psychic lady from I Feel Sick sure I’ll play her if you really want I guess, or the doughboys if you’re into that kinda thing, or Sickness, you kinky lil freak

SHIPS: Johnny C./Devi D. [Playing Devi], Jimmy/Edgar Vargas [Playing Either]

  [ HOMESTUCK ]

COMPATIBLE WITH: CANON/OC, CANON/CANON

WANTED: John Egbert, Gamzee Makara, Dave Strider, Terezi Pyrope, Sollux Captor, Cronus Ampora, Karkat Vantas

WILL PLAY: Literally anyone from this webcomic. You name it. One of the trolls? Done. Humans? Done. Calliope and Caliborn? Sure, man. Midnight Crew? You bet. Snowman? I mean good luck dude but go right ahead. Ms. Paint? All yours. Wayward Vagabond/Mr. Mayor? You do you. Just don���t ask for anybody from Hiveswap, I can’t catch up with all that just yet there’s only one chapter and a few character summaries out, slow your roll.

SHIPS: John Egbert/Terezi Pyrope [Playing Terezi], Dave Strider/Terezi Pyrope, Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas [Playing Either], Kanaya Maryam/Rose Lalonde [Playing Either], I’m gonna be honest these are the only four I’m cool with playing from the top of my head but hey, if you want something, ask, you never know, I coulda just forgotten.

  [ UNDERTALE ]

COMPATIBLE: CANON/OC

WANTED: Grillby, Mettaton

WILL PLAY: Sans {under certain specific rules, NO JELLY DICKS}, Papyrus {under certain specific rules, SERIOUSLY, NO JELLY DICKS}, Asriel, Asgore, Toriel, Gaster {under certain specific rules, I’M SERIOUS, N O J E L L Y D I C K S, HE’S NOT EVEN A FUCKIN SKELETON GODDAMN-}, Mettaton, Grillby, Undyne, Alphys, Burgerpants, Ice Cream Bunny, etc. just nobody from Deltarune because I’m trying to keep that place pure and innocent and unruined because they’re just some good ass kids trying to play some good ass DnD and STOP TRYING TO FUCK THE JESTER-

  [ TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2014, MICHAEL BAY, 2018, OWN PERSONAL MIX OF DESIGNS/PLOT/ETC. ]

COMPATIBLE: CANON/OC WANTED: Donatello

WILL PLAY: Raphael, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Splinter, Shredder, April O’Neil, Karai, etc.

CONTACT ME

Email [Preferred]: [email protected]

Discord: Sparky#4225

#multiple paragraph #para #semipara #short term #long term #email #messenger #pokemon rp #smut rp #submission

[83gigsof90semocore-blog]

Post 2: The letter A

A

I've made it through the letter A now. It's my first major letter and I must say that the experience has been interesting. Normally I spend most of my time listening to music listening to bands that I already know, however these past two or so weeks I've had a steady flow of fresh music which I think is something that I like. The music has been at bit more varied than expected which I'm very happy for. The letter 'A' has had 2 days and 24 minutes worth of music which means that I've averaged a day of music per week or ~3.42 hours a day which I'm incredibly happy with (I actually finished in exactly two weeks, just took a while to get the post up). What I've done is mostly that I've made sure that I can listen to music at work, which gives me lots of time to listen. Despite the good listening pace, I haven't had as much time to write this post as I've wanted which has held me back a bit. Since the last post, a third of my time has been spent not even listening to music just waiting to find the time and energy to type all this up.

My favorite band

Audience Of One

Not to be confused with the Rise Against song or the christian folk band sharing the same spotify page.

Audience Of One was Anthony Greens first band, formed when he was still in high school. Anthony Green being the part-time vocalist of most notably Saosin and Circa Survive, both emo/post-hardcore bands that I'm sorta vaguely familiar with.

The vocals are a mix of the kinda whiny slightly off-key vocals that people typically associate emo with and screamed parts closer to the hardcore side of emo, although they are more often closer to the hard core side. Similarly, the guitar ranges from fuller chords full of colourings that are probably played in some funky tuning in classic Midwest style to more dissonant scramzy intervals. Despite this, the album in this collection, I Remember When This All Meant Something, feels coherent as a whole and the relatively large variance is a welcome break from many of the same-ier bands that I've listened to during this project. The overall mood of the album is one which really captures angst of being a teenager who might start an emo band in high school while dealing with their first heartbreak. The songs are energetic rather than melancholic while at the same time conveying this sense of discomfort. The lyrics are often a few lines repeated multiple times, mostly alluding to the narrator processing a breakup. Just reading the lyrics to a song might make you cringe a bit, but it completely works while listening to the song, the band really sells you on the whole concept. Actually, maybe just listening to the song might make you cringe as well but I personally find it endearing sooner than embarrassing

Unfortunately commenter GREENASANTHONY doesn't agree with my assessment that this is emo

Honorable mention

Antioch Arrow

Antioch Arrow is, according to wikipedia, "considered to be one of the most influential bands of the early 1990s that shaped emo and post-hardcore music of the late 1990s and early 2000s". They are energetic, messy and chaotic and much closer to the mid-80's school of emo than Audience Of One for example, even naming Rites Of Spring as one of their influences. While the lyrical style is more hardcore punk, they have a lot in common with many big name screamo bands from the 90's like Heroin or Orchid.

While Antioch Arrow is more interesting and more historically important than Audience Of One, at the end of the day Audience Of One was the band I enjoyed listening to the most. Antioch Arrow is (to me at least) not very enjoyable to listen to. And maybe music doesn't have to be limited to being enjoyable but in that case you might miss out on having the prestigious honour of being my favorite band of whichever letter.

My favorite band name

Agna Moriane's Autobiography

Agna Moriane's Autobiography is actually one of the better sounding bands as well. The name is pretty dramatic but so is their music so that is only appropriate. I think that the reason why I like the band name is that it paints a picture while also sparking my imagination. Like, who is Agna Moriane? Google doesn't seem to have any answers to this. One of their albums is also named "Chapter Two: The Recalcitrant Memory Of..." which helps build the concept.

They made me think a lot about Old Gray's An Autobiography (also, in the interest of not supporting abusers, it's worth mentioning that this is a thing) and while it was the name that drew my mind that way I don't think that the comparison is useless. Both bands are screamo bands with spoken word bits mixed in and a lot of gang vocals. Instrumentally, Agna Moriane is much more hardcore punk than Old Grays cleaner more indie sound. They also have a similar lyrical style, with Old Gray being a bit more literal perhaps. They are both very moody and make references to self harm and struggling to stay alive, which is then framed differently by their different sounds.

My favorite picture

The cover to Amber Inn's Serenity In Hand. Atsy, tasteful and understated. I like the mood that the colours help create. Nothing too dramatic, it's just a cover that I like.

#emo #emocore

[rigelmejo]

April Study Plan Updates

noticing myself falling into that rabbit hole of ‘studying too many languages, gonna neglect progress in all!’ 

or the similar ‘using too many resources, gonna neglect making progress in any!’

ToT

suddenly felt like refreshing my french (which future me, that study plan would be: french comprhensible input youtube videos and shadowing, reading Le Francais Par Le Method Nature and finishing it, then optionally finishing some french books). but realistically i do NOT have time right now. improving that would be a “do i need it” and then do all that for a few months straight.

---

Chinese is mostly on track but I’m really whittling down what I’m doing because it’s become sort of chaotic:

Chinese study plan:

1. Read anything (priority is ONLY hanshe on Pleco app, or Guardian print novel - I do not have time for anything else. My goal right now is to be at hanshe chapter 80 by the end of the month, and to get to the end of the Sundial arc in guardian because that’s how much I’ve read of the english translation so far) 2. Listen to Chinese Spoonfed Audio, shadowing when I can (I am over 1/3 through I CAN finish it, I’m putting Listening Reading off until later because that is so time intensive I need to finish at LEAST one thing I’m reading before I can carve out time. This is ultimately lower priority, but I do NOT want to see myself start from scratch again on this, and do not want to L-R method or listen to other audio until I’ve went through this).

Anything else is OPTIONAL rn I do not have time. The 2 optional activities I’m prioritizing: 

a. Watching Two Souls in One, shadowing when desired (although any show would be fine but it would be nice to Not abandon a show lol) b. go through my hanzi characters book, SPECIFICALLY practice writing and make mnemonics to remember the TONES. saying the hanzi pronunciation out loud when i write. (While this is optional I would like to do it for several hundred freaking common hanzi because like... firstly, I’m studying japanese again and Definitively knowing the hanzi pronunciation and tone and comparing it would allow me to review/test that better as i see the japanese readings - and help me keep them firmly separate as HANZI WITH SOLIDLY AUDIBLE TONE versus japanese readings. Because right now a LOT of hanzi i ‘partly’ know i know the initial-final-meaning of and can recognize in reading and tend to just sub-vocalize when i read with no-tone or a tentative guess, and all those ‘partly known’ i really do not want to get mixed up with japanese. Thankfully it is pretty hard to confuse shou3 and te 手, or zu2 and ashi  足, because the japanese words sound pretty firmly japanese pronunciations and those hanzi are pretty hard imprinted in my head with their pronunciation in chinese already. But that may not always be the case! And my writing in chinese is like 0% skills and I think writing would help them them stick in my head when it comes to a lot of the ‘partly’ learned once I have more vague recognition of. Also again just... I know mnemonics have worked for me to remember tones but then I just stopped doing it when I went reading heavy. And knowing hanzi but not their tone is a huge weak spot, so sitting down and forcing myself to write it out will help it stick. I imagine this will be a longer term project of a few months, but it only takes like 5-10 free minutes in a day to do several so I should try when I feel like it. 

---

Japanese goals:

1. continue through nukemarine’s memrise courses. No excuses mejo if you feel you need to ‘prepare’ then just continue the vocab courses instead of the grammar. 2. continue reading Tae Kim’s grammar guide (when you can focus - I would ideally like to see myself finish the first 2 sections since I’m almost done with section 1).

Optional:

a. listen to some lets plays (I just looked up a bunch of persona lps -3-)/

*I really do not need to do optional anything rn. I want to read - I need more freaking vocabulary! (Parasite Eve, the Galaxy Train, those are down the road when reading is something less intensive). I already KNOW at the end of the month when Nier Replicant comes my ass will be playing that game in english and japanese. I already know right after that my psp’s coming and my ass will be playing crisis core. I will get some ‘immersion’/practice in soon. But I’d really like to just... grind through the nukemarine courses as MUCH as possible while I still have the very rare ability to do flashcards fast. (I go through periods where I can do 100-300 flashcards a day, and then suddenly it takes me 1 hour to do 5-10 cards and i give up again). Last time I studied japanese (for 2.5 years ;-;) I did NOT make it this far through the nukemarine courses. Poor past mejo really dove in fucking blind into japanese games with like 500 words maybe from genki and maybe 200 from nukemarine’s courses and just TRIED. Wild. I’m not doing anything that hard again lol. Present mejo would like to get at MINIMUM 1000 words in before I try that again this time around. I’m about 300 through the 1000 first words (and 300 through the grammar deck which has some extra words, and through 500 kanji but tbh kanji meanings are much less horrific now that i know some chinese to help me remember and associate). So I’ve got like... until the end of April to study 700 more! If I keep doing 40-200 a day that should be doable. 

I just know myself and the instant this ability to flashcard focus leaves I will not go back to it for months, and also the instant I get back into playing video games a Lot in japanese I will abandon any other structured study... at least for a while. Last time I did it for like 4 months, it was pretty hard, and then I just kinda just stopped studying. Phenomenal. I’m hoping if i know a BIT more words I’ll be less likely to just abandon things. We’ll see. 

LATER (end of month?)

b. play some games ovo)/

**Longer term, I’ve been desperately getting the urge to read through my Japanese Sentence Patterns book, my Japanese in 30 Hours book. Also to go through the Japanese Audio Lessons. HOWEVER. I think a few things need to happen first. First, I need to finish at least maybe 7-8 of nukemarine’s courses - I do not want to be doing them AND a textbook/another course, I would like to do them one at a time. Second, I need to finish reading Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide - that is why I want to get done all the nukemarine courses that coincide with it, and read through it that far, at least. I cannot read 2 textbooks at once, I WILL abandon one and probably finish neither. Third, I need to finish Chinese Spoonfed Audio - I know myself and I absolutely can’t focus on multiple audio prioritized activities in a study plan. I can’t listen to the DeFrancis audio and get Through it, I can’t do the Japanese Audio Lessons. In fact Japanese Audio Lessons I might ‘only’ do because it would slip in as a nice replacement activity when I finish Chinese Spoonfed Audio. An audio I can listen to while walking/working out/chilling. 

---

KEY overall goals:

Chinese: I want to finish a novel (Guardian hi baby), which has been the goal since day 1. 

After that: I want to work on audio comprehension (so Listening-Reading), shadowing (can do it in l-r or with any audio), and SOLIDLY knowing the hanzi I partially know (so probably continue through my hanzi books - I should consider using my Alan Hoenig book again tbh).

Japanese: I want to finish 7-8 nukemarine courses, and try playing video games again. 

After that: playing video games, looking up words, having fun! (And MUCH later, when there’s time - read the textbooks I have. Then even Later... try diving into reading whenever I feel ready to do that...or whenever the mood randomly strikes).

**The bolded goals I plan to actually do this April-May (guardian I may only finish section 1 but hey its a solid portion). “After that” goals are my next concrete things I want to do. 

just personal goal notes below

---

Personal goals:

1. Workout everyday (actually 5-6 days a week cause I think breaks can be good, but I’m aiming for every so when I inevitably skip one that’s the break day lol). 50 crunches, 70 pushups, at least 15 minutes cardio. I’ve been sticking to it pretty well! Hardest part is just... I hate being sweaty a lot -.- Also I’m fairly sure eventually I am going to need to add more specific time for bodyweight workouts (probably 20 minutes minimum) if I want to get any results similar at all to back when I went to the gym (which was like 12 minutes HIIT then 8 minutes cool down cardio like walking, 10 minutes warm up with pushups/crunches and stretches, 30ish minutes just weight machines, some cooldown stretches and/or walking). I want to do a few specific muscle workouts but like god baby steps, i need to consistently just work out at the MINIMUM before i add stuff because i will absolutely quit if it gets complicated or time consuming. ‘any cardio’ is very flexible so i will actually do it. (also hopefully that means when i switch To a specific thing like ‘do this for a week or 2′ because i’m consistent with working out so i can move into consistent in ONE specific workout, i will be able to stick to it). 

2. Eat low carb, low sodium (apparently -.- ). Try to get my bloating to stop getting so bad constantly, try to make my stomach stop hurting for a consistent amount of time. I would like to get it feeling good for a week or 2 straight before I eat something that hurts it again (and next time I hurt it I have got to do a one-off thing then be nice to it again :c ). I got too cocky last time. I know I hate how boring it all tastes i know but i need to just do it long enough for it to help. 

#april #april progress #april study plan #study plan #basically while i WANT to use a lot of my resources. i really need to limit myself and keep to a strict plan #as usual i need to PROGRESS THROUGH AND FINISH A MATERIAL #BEFORE GOING TO THE NEXT #i can only jump around with shows/reading! #and tbh even my reading i specifically want to FINISH the books so no more skipping around ;-; #and even tho my french got !!! again #realistically i have no reason to work on it rn #a friend informed me... my ass should apply for CERN and UN when covid is over #and god it reminded me how ive DREAMED of that for years and YES i sure would need french for that #but even IF thats true im not gonna need to fix the issues w my french until like fall/winter #until at LEAST july.

[dailytechnologynews]

Numa Numa Yeah: How to Manage Huge-Core Counts in HEDT Builds

Most computer builds here, in /r/buildapc, and around the net are focused on "client" computers. That is, either the Intel i7-8700k or Ryzen 2700x based builds. But as we go towards the high-end space: AMD Threadripper 1950x or Intel i9-7900x (and beyond to Xeons and EPYC), the amount of information available online drops off dramatically, especially how it relates to Windows.

If anyone out there is actually willing to spend $500+ to $1000 on the CPU alone, I hope this information will be useful.

Introduction with Ryzen 2700x or Intel i7-8700k: Client systems and their limitations.

I think most people understand client-systems. But I'll type it out to catch people up to speed. Feel free to skip this section if you know stuff already.

Sad note: While Windows has an elegant job / process / thread model, its difficult to learn. In fact, "Task Manager" (Ctrl-Alt-Esc) doesn't really show you thread or process information very well. Use Process Explorer if you want to know the truth of your system.

Windows has "jobs" at the highest level. I'm going to ignore jobs: this post is too long already.

Windows has "processes", which are basically the programs you run (ex: Chrome). Every process is composed of multiple "threads", each thread potentially executing on its own core simultaneously. For example: in Chrome, one thread would be talking to the network, while a 2nd thread might be talking to your GPU to display the actual webpage, while a 3rd thread might be running the Javascript that makes a website interactive.

Every thread in Windows runs until it is forced to wait. For example, your Web Browser like Chrome will be forced to wait for the network before it can display a webpage. Or the Javascript thread will be waiting for you to push the left-mouse button. Every thread runs until it is forced to wait. Windows keeps track of which threads are waiting for what, and efficiently switches between them.

Threads which are "ready" to run are scheduled to run on a core. A Ryzen 2700x has 16-logical cores, or Intel i7-8700k has 12-logical cores. This means that the CPU can execute up to 16 (2700x) or 12 (8700k) things "simultaneously", for a peculiar definition of simultaneous.

The CPU itself "lies" to the OS to some degree. There are really only 8-cores on Ryzen 2700x or 6-cores on Intel. This is called Hyperthreading (Intel) or SMT (AMD). In effect, Hyperthreading / SMT allows the CPU to perform these tasks switches instead of Windows. Think of it as hardware-assisted task switching. The CPU will physically only execute 8-things at a time, but it can very efficiently switch between the 16-tasks that Windows gives it. Due to the hardware-assited nature and incredible speed of these tasks switches, the CPU Core can schedule the "hyperthread-brother" to execute while its sibling is waiting the ~10-nanoseconds for L3 Cache to respond. In contrast: a Windows Task Switch can take on the order of 10s of microseconds or 10,000x longer. (Sorta-kinda not really. There are more details such as super-scalar, multiple execution ports, register stalls and the like. But consider this paragraph to be a basic "conceptual" outline of what is going on.)

Scalability concerns on client systems

This is all good and all: but we start to hit scalability issues as we push for more cores:

The GHz barrier means Cores rarely get faster anymore. Historically, Intel / AMD offered faster cores to make faster computers. But physical limitations are being reached, and its becoming less-and-less possible to make faster cores. Instead, Intel / AMD want to offer more cores (at roughly the same speed) to the users.

Cores need to communicate. For example: when Chrome's "Network" thread reads from the internet, it needs to pass the data to the renderer to display the webpage. When the "Javascript" thread notices you clicked on the mouse, it needs to talk to the renderer (to display "button down"). This communication requires synchronization and time, and is built from a concept called "Cache Coherency". As such, more and more cores require a more complicated cache-coherency model.

As your cores do more and more work, the CPU starts to wait on memory more and more. You can't do work unless you can access data more quickly. To actually go faster, you'll need to talk to more memory faster somehow. As you'll soon see, solving this problem makes things complicated.

These problems give rise to the high-end build. AMD Threadripper and Intel i9-extreme / Intel Scalable platform. In short: HEDT builds give the user more memory-units and MANY more cores to play with. But this 2nd memory unit grossly complicates the architecture.

NUMA: Scaling above and beyond SMT

NUMA stands for "Non-uniform memory access", and it is what happens when multiple memory units begin to interact with the CPU. Internal to the CPU are the memory-controllers, which talk to your DDR4 RAM. Its easy to forget, but everything in a CPU is physically located somewhere, and physically, some cores will be closer to one memory unit. Its most obvious to see in the Intel i9-7980x die-shot. You can see that some cores can talk to one of the memory controllers faster than the other memory controller. Yes, these cores need to be laid out on the chip, and at the microscopic level, these differences can have an impact on performance.

All a "NUMA Node" is, are the group of processors that are "close" to one memory controller. In both Ryzen 1950x and Intel i9-7900x, there are two memory units / NUMA Nodes. Sure, Ryzen 1950x has "CCX" grouped by "infinity fabric", while Intel i9-7900x has a "mesh network" broken into "Sub-NUMA Clustering". But these details are abstracted away into simply "NUMA Node #0", and "Numa Node #1".

Furthermore, Core #0 and Core #2 (both on NUMA Node #0) can communicate extremely efficiently, while Core #0 vs Core #18 (one on NUMA #0 and the other on NUMA #1) will talk more slowly. By exposing the "truth" of this matter to programmers and system-administrators, NUMA allows the users and OS to more efficiently schedule your programs. Of course, Core #0 can talk to either NUMA Node #0 or #1, but the fact remains that Core #0 can talk to Node #0 faster than Numa-node #1.Keeping programs efficient is the job of the Operating System. And the OS has sane defaults as you can see, but understanding how the computer works can lead to smarter use of your computer.

The most important thing to keep in mind: NUMA is an abstraction. Threadripper 1950x has 4 CCX and 16-cores, but associates these with two NUMA nodes. Perhaps AMD could have made it four-NUMA nodes (one per CCX), but for whatever reason, 2x NUMA nodes is how AMD decided to lay out the 1950x. A big portion of the AMD Community focuses on inter-CCX latencies. With NUMA-controls in Windows, you, the administrator, can control CCX-latencies directly (although not on a per-CCX level. But at least on a per-memory unit level).

Intel i9-7900x also have latency issues, but to a smaller degree than Threadripper. And thus, NUMA controls apply to the HEDT Intel builds as well.

Window's Job: Scaling across NUMA

Windows is a NUMA-ready operating system, but how so is rarely discussed. Details are included in the EXCELLENT Windows Internals books (two parts divided into two books) if you're interested in learning all of these details. The NUMA-relevant portion is divided into two parts: Memory (chapter 10 from the 2nd book), and Scheduling (Chapter 5 from the 1st book). Memory is pretty obvious: NUMA allocations occur on one memory controller or the other. Software can control this, but otherwise, memory and NUMA is obvious (although tedious to do at the programming level).

The Windows scheduler however, is the "interesting" portion and is rarely discussed. The scheduler works as follows

Processes are assigned an "Ideal NUMA Node", and it alternates between your NUMA Nodes. For example, if you open up MS Word, MS Word will be assigned to "Ideal NUMA Node #0". When you open up Chrome, then it goes to "Ideal Numa Node #1". Open up Paint, and it goes back to NUMA Node #0. (Or if you are insane and bought a $6000+ computer: it goes to NUMA Node #2). Processes alternate between NUMA nodes. Whenever Processes ask for memory, Windows will default to memory located on the "Ideal" NUMA node.

Threads are assigned an "Ideal Core" that exists on a NUMA Node. In Threadripper, there are 16-logical per NUMA node (8-physical, x2 from SMT). Windows is smart enough to assign threads to physical cores first. So Chrome in this example would be allocated to NUMA Node #1 (Because MS Word was on Node 0 already). Then, Chrome's threads would be set to an ideal core #0, #2, #4, #6 of Numa#1... in that order. (Skipping over the "Hyperthread" siblings). After all, half the cores are "fake", and Windows optimizes as appropriate. Continuing this example, NUMA #0 has MS Word and Paint running on it. Paint would be assigned Core #1, Core #3, Core #5, etc. etc. while MS Word would be assigned Core #0, Core #2, Core #4.

"Ideal NUMA" and "Ideal Core" are hints to Windows. If Windows notices that a physical core is idle, it will often migrate the task to the non-ideal core. Sure, the thread will run slower, but that's better than not running at all. This step is incredibly complicated: Windows is juggling power-efficiency (for laptops), frequency, Turbo-boosts, NUMA, multiple threads and more. So if a core is "parked" for power-efficiency, Windows may decide to keep the core sleeping to save power. But in the typical case, Windows will try to keep as many cores active as possible.

These are the default settings of Windows. Programmers are able to customize their programs to change arbitrarily. Administrators can set "Thread Affinity", which allows you to LOCK a thread to a particular core. But as you can see, the default settings generally lead to good utilization of all NUMA Nodes and all cores, physical and logical.

Note: Any user can play with affinity masks by simply hitting ctrl-alt-exc, opening up task manager, and right-clicking on threads (in Win10) or "Processes" in Win7 (Spoiler alert: these are really threads even though Win7 calls them processes... confusing, isn't it??) to set their affinity. If you use "start /numa" or "start /affinity" through the command-line, you can set the program's affinity as a particular program starts up. I suggest learning some .bat scripting to make "start /numa" more convenient for yourself.

While Windows has very sane default settings. Windows optimizes these programs for low-latency. There is a slight issue: some major programs require tons of memory but are NOT NUMA-aware but benefit from bandwidth instead of latency. These programs would prefer to allocate memory from both NUMA nodes. Sure, accessing some memory will be slower, but at least both memory units can work together on the same problem, almost like RAID0 for disks.

UMA by default: "Creative" mode Memory-interleaving

The solution to the problem described in the previous section is to turn-off NUMA. In fact, the default setting of many BIOS is to be UMA by default, called "Creative Mode" by AMD. When in UMA mode or "Memory-Interleaving" mode, every thread will try its best to take advantage of both of the memory nodes, alternating between them as if they were in RAID0. But, half of the memory requests will be done quickly, while the other half will have a cross-NUMA delay. In many "creative" applications, the latency increase is not a big deal.

Unfortunately: this causes a problem in video games, as video game latency (CAS-latency) can have a real effect on performance.

Choosing UMA-mode vs NUMA-mode is therefore an interesting exercise in computer configuration. Some programs may run faster in NUMA-mode (if they care more about latency, which Windows optimizes for). While other programs, may run faster in UMA-mode.

Intel systems have "Sub-NUMA Clustering" instead. Turn it on for the NUMA-like behavior, turn it off to have memory-interleaving.

HEDT is about the 2nd Memory Unit: offering more scalability by talking to more RAM independently.

So now we've come full circle to the most important question. Do you need a HEDT build? What does HEDT get you?

Video Games are often designed for client systems -- It seems like NUMA / HEDT systems can play video games just fine, but video games are unlikely to take advantage of these high-end features of HEDT processors. As such, HEDT systems at best performs equally in video games, and in many cases can perform worse (!!) due to lower clocks and increased latencies. "Creative Mode" or "UMA mode" definitely slows down video games in the typical case.

Multi-tasking -- While Video Games themselves may not perform any better, having a 2nd NUMA Node for multi-threading purposes can lead to benefits. Streamers can run their video game on NUMA Node #0, while they can run x264 + OpenBroadcaster Studio on Numa Node #1. You can "force" applications to a NUMA node by thread-affinity (Ctrl-Alt-Esc), or the "start /numa" command through the Windows commandline. The two programs will independently run, with independent memory controllers on alternative cores, for maximum multi-tasking efficiency. This takes a bit of effort (or luck with the Windows Scheduler), but leads to increadibly efficient results.

NUMA-aware apps -- It seems like some applications are NUMA-aware directly, such as Matlab or SAS. In these cases, Matlab code will efficiently run across NUMA-nodes in as efficient manner as possible.

UMA / Memory-interleaving Creative apps -- Older applications may not be NUMA aware, but they can benefit from the default "UMA Mode" (or "Creative Mode") that these systems ship as. The increased bandwidth in this case is a bigger benefit than the latency slowdown.

In short: the high-end Desktop space adds a 2nd set of memory controllers (increasing your memory-bandwidth), which leads to a major complication of how your computer works. In many cases, a HEDT will perform better. But in many other cases, this 2nd memory controller may not be able to help you play video games any faster. Only buy an HEDT system if you know you can use that 2nd set of memory controllers.

HEDT isn't strictly superior. Its certainly more expensive, and even has a bandwidth / latency tradeoff due to these settings. Windows will do its best to automatically manage the system, but HEDTs will really shine if you put forth the effort to learn their niche and how to control them properly. I hope this post is a good stepping stone to understanding your HEDT system (or at least, whether or not you want to get one).

Misc Links

Cool Intel Forum Post on NUMA -- https://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/software-tuning-performance-optimization-platform-monitoring/topic/392519

Official NUMA Docs from Microsoft -- https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363804(v=vs.85).aspx

Official NUMA Docs for Red Hat Linux -- https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/6/html/virtualization_tuning_and_optimization_guide/chap-virtualization_tuning_optimization_guide-numa

#hardware #Computer #Technology #Tech #News

[deadmanzp]

aftg asks; questions by triquetrine

these are so interesting so i did all of them.. i want to come back after a year and see if id still answer the same! 

op is the post before this or also tagged “misc” 

neil josten: favorite/most iconic line?

first one that comes to mind I’m not sure is a favorite or iconic line? but it’s a line i think about a lot and it always hurts to read. it’s when they're at the cabin in TKM. 

“He didn’t care how much it hurt so long as he could pull Andrew closer, and he let Andrew take him apart until he couldn’t think anymore.”

that comes at the very end of Chapter 14 and gosh just the paragraph that line comes from and the paragraph before…. the fact neil thinks andrew doesnt care about him the way he cares/feels about andrew is like….. CMON MAN but also i just love the pining angst of it. i like this line especially because the line right before it mentions neil working his “bandaged fingers into Andrew’s hair”. so the “he didnt care how much it hurt” to me always carried a double meaning of 1. the physical pain he felt bc of his injuries but also 2. the pain of unfamiliarity abt his feelings towards andrew and thinking it was unreciprocal AND THAT HED HAVE TO “WARN” ANDREW like the implication.. of neil thinking abt their “relationship” possibly ending bc andrew doesnt feel the same and maybe wouldnt want to be entangled in whatever neil was feeling …… IM LIKE neil knows andrew so well and him being so sure abt this but hes like …. WRONG …. e

nathaniel wesninski: one thing you would change about the books? (plot, characters, etc)

there is very little id change about the books if at all. mainly bc while i know there are upsetting things that happen/the charas do, i think all of those things make the series really interesting to analyze and talk about. i will say a moment i hated was when neil touches andrews scars when andrew makes it clear he doesn't want neil to pry about them. i know neil offers his scars in turn when he's trying to convince andrew to let neil look over kevin but that was controlled. he let andrew touch them and find out about them of his own volition. neil touches something directly related to the trauma andrew had just experienced again when he had 0 permission to do so. while i always get mad at neil for this when i read it i still dont think id change it or get rid of it. im not really sure how id change it anyways and i think andrews relationship with his scars (and himself in general) is probably what allows him to brush it off(?)/never bring this up (plus maybe neil offering his scars was enough for andrew) but i havent thought too hard about this. but ya i remember i got rlly angry w neil the first time i read this scene and i still get mad abt it when i reread.

andrew minyard: if you could be friends with one of the characters, who would you pick?

i mean realistically i wouldnt be friends w jocks ILL BE REAL LOL and i think as much as i love the monsters, theres no way id be friends w them haha uhm but prob dan would be most realistic! maybe even katelyn tbh.. 

kevin day: if you played exy, what would your position be?

oh i think dealer! in sports i liked being able to do both defense and offense bc it made me feel i had more control over the field, like i could always do something if there were any holes

dan wilds: favorite moment/scene?

definitely the hotel reunion scene. theres so much to it; it drives me nuts!!!!! but honestly there are probably a lot of really good moments im forgetting. to me the whole series is really enjoyable and every scene has something i could say about it haha

matt boyd: song you would love to see in a live-action adaptation?

Oggghh this is so hard… esp since it takes place in 2007???? Idk.. iconic artists then i suppose ghfgkjhf BUT i think general vibes i think itd be so cool if paramore (time relevant), ptv (also time relevant), and mitski were on the soundtrack……. Ya…….. 

nicky hemmick: which made you more emotional, neil at evermore or neil in baltimore?

neil in baltimore for sure… neil at evermore i can't remember what i felt the first time i read it (maybe pain LOL bc he was doing it for andrew and i felt like riko wouldnt keep his promise) but in my latest reread i was unimpressed by it (mostly bc i think riko is boring and unimpressive). i think i mightve said evermore in the past though….. maybe... neil in baltimore is like … GOD neils emotions are so strong during all of that its really juicy haha. i think like him being angry bc he was on the cusp of having everything he couldve ever dreamed of; the desperation of wanting to fight back and get away; even just the fear of being in the same room as his father for the first time in so long... all really juicy 

aaron minyard: a character you will defend to your death?

defend…. im not sure is the word i would use and i dont think i really believe in defending any of these charas “to death” bc of how flawed and complex they are; id like to acknowledge when they did wrong. i think id “defend” any of the characters if i saw anyone misinterpreting or misunderstanding them.. theyre all really interesting even if they didnt get too much spotlight. except maybe riko. hes incredibly boring to me. and also nathan ig and any of his crew just bc there is Nothing abt them rlly...

katelyn: which minor character do you wish you could see more of?

uhhhmmmmmmmm hmmmmmm….. idk maybe… jeremy…. gjfjgkdngmdghs just bc him and kevin r so funny.. i was thinking maybe jean too but…… idk a diff kind of kevin relationship lol (yikes) (pain) but really im satisfied w jeans screen time. i think ichirou is interesting but again i think he didn't rlly need more. maybe erik actually. im interested to know what nicky is like with him :0

allison reynolds: favorite headcanon about the foxes?

actually something i recently thought abt was neil and photography. iirc? andrew gives neil a camera in the ec and i also imagine kevin eventually gets another camera too (i loved that detail when we saw his room at the nest) so i thought abt neil and kevin sharing/trading pics they take of (mainly) scenery. i imagine neil takes pics of anything he wants to remember/keep while kevin is more prone to taking pics of subjects related to some nerd history stuff (lol) so thats why they trade scenery pics mainly. but i like this small connection bc i want more to their relationship than their exy obsession and i imagine they have room for more now that riko is gone and i just like this other commonality btwn them. i think maybe they mail the developed pics to each other maybe w small descripts/notes but thats it. and i also imagine it kind of just is something that started happening.. neil and andrew r on a roadtrip and some building reminds neil of kevin so he snaps a pic and eventually sends it to kevin w some note. kevin replies 1. either a text being like that is nothing. > neil: shrugs brushes it off but figures he is welcome to send more when kevin sends his own picture back or 2. kevin simply replies back similarly w his own photo. i dont know.. maybe this goes beyond what their actual relationship would be like but i do like the idea of them just bein like… dude friends u know so i want them to have more than just exy and a traumatizing experience between them. 

as for common headcanons within the fanbase…. i do like the allison + neil haircuts thing.. although im not sure if i imagine it the same as most haha i feel neil would know how to cut his own hair from his life on the run (though theyre not Good or bad just like ok u know like passable generic w/e) i think hed definitely be tense the first couple times but he has experience w allison being close from needing to be covered up w make up after winter break so i think she would be allowed. 

renee walker: favorite non-canonical ship? (renison, jerejean, etc)

uhmm to be honest none really… im way too attached to canon to be able to dismiss any established relationships. i think kevemy (??? is that the name) is rlly amusing but i dont want them together necessarily haha i used to rlly like renison mainly bc im a lesbian and i want “main” chara wlw relationships lol but i recently read something abt how bi allison doesnt rlly sit well w some bc she outs andrew and neil during the hotel scene.. i also agree this is kinda :/ if she was bi Mainly bc i feel a lot of ppl (or at least this is what i gather from renison stuff ive seen) portray allison already being established bi? if this makes sense. i think if renison/allison realizing shes bi is a later development id feel better abt it but usually renison is already established so ya her outing them does bother me…. BUT aside from this, thinking about them as characters and what their partners (would) look like… im not sure if theyd rlly choose each other.. but i still enjoy seeing them together in art and in fic bc in the end…. im a sucker for women lol….

seth gordon: most underrated dynamic? (matt & neil, wymack & andrew, etc)

my first thought was wymack and andrew bc i rlllllyy like their dynamic especially after reading their ec stuff. i loved their first meeting (andrews terrible sandwich??!?fhdhfjd) and when andrew breaks into wymacks apartment BUT i think ppl mention them enough its not underrated. i Actually think renee and andrews dynamic/friendship is rlly underrated/overlooked!!! especially after reading the son nefes ec i love their dynamic a lot… 

some son nefes moments of them i liked:  tw // rape

renee convincing andrew to go with her to see matt after his trip to edens

how many knives do u carry / one more than u IS SO FUNNY and just andrews persistence abt fighting renee is also rlly funny to me

tw // rape : the moment when andrew asks renee if she killed her rapist/abuser that whole convo was good… 

their convo in the rain w their tea

i cant remember when this happens or rlly exaclty what was said but renee offers andrew something (some help??) and he says i dont need (w/e it was) and she says something along the lines of  i know but it wouldnt do any harm or SOMETHING like that.. i like this bc she acknowledges their abilities while showing shed still like to offer some help. im p sure she does this another time too (w neil???? or someone i cant remember maybe it was andrew again) and i remember liking it too. she has a way w words and talking (also seen in her convincing andrew to see matt)

BUT regardless of ec stuff i think their relationship/dynamic seen in the books is rlly good too. theres def enough to be intrigued by them and i always have been? so i'm reeeaallly happy son nefes exists i loved reading it..

david wymack: which ncaa team would you play for?

oh to be honest i dont rlly remember many of them but of the Three (ravens, foxes, trojans) prob trojans. i remember i even got them in a uquiz once… 

abby winfield: which character was the most realistically written?

first that came to mind was aaron actually.. i remember before when i didnt rlly like him or care abt him it was actually bc he was too “boring” to me. i always thought he had the most realistic reactions to things which is what made him boring to me amidst the ridiculousness of, well, everything in aftg lol… i still think he is really realistically written but now i dont think hes boring haha

besty dobson: how many times have you read the series?

fully i think…. only 3 times… i wish this were a higher count but i actually feel guilty everytime i try to reread it.

riko moriyama: coolest exy moment? (kevin’s last-minute point against the ravens, andrew shutting down the goal, etc)

uhhmm uhmm i def think kevin during the final game against the ravens…. hes so cool haha but i KNOW there were a lot of game moments that i thought were really cool so i cant rlly say…. oh also i love neil being defense in that game too rlly juicy wish i could pull up obscure moments bc i know i rlly enjoyed reading the games but terrible memory...

jeremy knox: which do you like reading more, domestic!foxes or chaotic!foxes?

uh i guess chaotic? not rlly sure exactly what that could entail but i do like… their chaos.. when they have fights and squabbles and stuff… this includes the high tension moments. ALTHOUGH i do like the tiny lines in the books when we see the monsters just doing like random basic everyday life stuff like playing video games or whatever. i like…. imagining them... fhdjfjshfjs… as for fic def chaos. i feel domestic is usually too softened….. 

jean moreau: favorite friendship?

oh i think this goes back to andrew and renee. but other than them… i do like neil and matts friendship.. though probably not the same as its typically portrayed 

#my own #misc

[konekochiii]

O—->>Naruto Tag Game <<—-O Tagged by @sausage-fist F A V O R I T E Female Character - Eh....eh.........Tsunade Male Character -SASUKE Team - Team 7 Sensei - Kakashi Hokage - 6th KAKASHI YAYAYAYAYA Kage - Gaara; best Kate of the year Village - Konoha has the best yield to date. Akatsuki Member - Ugh, Deidara. Jutsu - Electric Giraffe Episode/Chapter - Episode "The one where SASUKE fucking does during the Haku fight" cuz it literally changed my life. Fight Scene - The Valley of The End BOTH TIMES. Also any time when the animation was 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽 Fanfiction - I can't remember any now. Except this one that Aerielle insists that I told her all about. Something having to do with Naruto and Sasuke having to spit water to each other. ...yeah. Story Arc - The one that was all about SASUKE and shitty Team Hebi. Filler - Any episodes that mildly focused on SASUKE. PARTICULARLY the one where naruto and SASUKE got their hands stuck together and they had to piss next to each other. Yeah. That's the quality filler you need. What is your… OTP (explain why) - Naruto and Sasuke. You can call me a fucking whatever it is but when I hear the words "You guys perfectly compliment each other. Despite your differences, you're still fighting to get to the other" in a million different ways for this and that reason, I want them to be together because I believe when you find someone like that, that's it. I've never really considered gender to stop relationship pairings in my entire shipping career. It's probably why I stopped caring about shipping in newer shows. Because it's soul crushing to know that if either one of Naruto or Sasuke was a girl, they would have been together in the end NO FUCKING QUESTION. NoTP (without being a dick, explain why) -Sakura and Sasuke. Uh, also I can be a fucking dick. It's the internet. You asked, I'll fucking tell you. If anyone read the actual ATMOSPHERE of ANYTHING between Sasuke and Sakura's interactions, you'd get a lukewarm amount of chemistry between them AT BEST. Yes, Sasuke considered Sakura his friend as a part of TEAM 7. Yes, they did share a couple of moments with the whole Orochimaru thing. Yes, I recognize Sakura has FUCJING pined over Sasuke's fine ass for YEARS. WE ALL DID. But there isn't any sense in saying things like "YAS QUEEN SAKURA FINALLY GOT HER MAN" for what. For vague reasons that overall dishonor her character and any little development she made? Her forgiving Sasuke after he made a legitimate attempt on her life DESTROYED her as a character. Kishi made her to be that little 12 year old girl again, crying her eyes out over a boy who won't look at her. Yeaaaaaah. I love it when characters are put to get her by default. It's always a good feeling. Crackship/s - meh. I don't like ships that don't feel right. I will support any ship that someone had explained though. BroTP - Guy/Kakashi lmao Living together like old men aaaaa OT3 - Team 7 all the way. Give me all the fan art with them interacting. Their story is a sweet one (if you don't get too specific. Which is impossible) Crossover ship - If you wanna crossover Sasuke and me (the main protagonist of my life) then I guess that's the most accurate answer to this question. M I S C E L L A N E O U S Do you have any headcanons? - Sasuke has unintentionally made friends with plenty of people but is too emotionally distant to care but still polite enough to nod in their general direction. Lakshmi and guy live together, babysitting children until they're old enough to take care of themselves. Sakura cries knowing Sasuke doesn't really love her. Sarada is the product of a drink night on the town. Though Sasuke very much appreciates Sakura raising Sarada and couldn't think of anyone who would do a better job rearing a child so.... #sorrynotsorry Are you happy with the ending? 👿👿👿👿 How do you feel about the Next Generation? - I actually love those children. If I ignore the fact that their parents' characters and personalities were stomped on for the sake of producing them and prolonging my agony, then I enjoy them very much. Say something about your favorite character. - I think of him when my mind goes through a lull. Which is constantly. It's strange to consider some character that was created by someone else as important as I do. It's truly something...to say the least but I still don't know if it is a good or a bad thing. It's probably better he doesn't exist where I can get to him. You know. For his sake. What would a child between your OTP look like? - Hmm. I guess he'd look like that parallel universe naruto. Menma? With the black hair and the whiskers. I think people like making an AU where Naruto and SASUKE have Menma as a kid. Say something genuinely nice about your NoTP. - :0 Damn, they made one amazing little girl who's going to be the future Hokage. I can't deny my love for her. And I guess. Maybe. I'm glad Sasuke has a wife who adores him. He needs that. And Sakura. Is a good Mom. (Fucking pulling my teeth out here.) Say something negative about your OTP. - ...........................................................I guess beating the shit out of each other sometimes wouldn't be too fun. Is there any way you could be convinced to ship your NoTP? Nah. drake.jpg oh wait. Yes. If a PIG COULD FLY THEN- What makes you mad about the series? - It went on too long and then had a very rushed ending. It probably would have been better if it didn't get as popular as it did. ALSO WHY DID YOU TAKE NEJI AWAY FROM US YOU GOD DAMN If you could see anything happen in the series, what would it be? Please let Sasuke rest. Look at him, he's fucking tired and he's got the tired eye bags and please let him cut his hair or grow it out more it's like it's in the awkward length stage oh and can someone fashionable please dress Sasuke better he's kind of clueless when it comes to that and also I could go on and it all has to do with Sasuke. In your opinion… Most attractive male? Oooooo Madara. He's SO FINE (I'm sorry Sasuke but you've inherited those good looks from the best!) Most attractive female? They all kinda look the same tho....in his style.... No one but Tsunade sticks out to me..... Most overestimated? Hmmm Kabuto. Not appreciated enough? Iruka. What is the greatest thing about Naruto? The friends I made along the way. The worst? The friends I lost along the way. LMAO The saddest moment? NEJI The most DEFINING MOMENT? Hmm. Hmm.... maybe when Naruto says "Because I'm your friend." I think about it a lot. Not that I have or want a lot of friends. But because I want to be kind to people. I can't be an undying believer like Naruto. He's one in a trillion. But I can be a good person and a friend to people who need me. So I try. Rant about anything… I've ranted plenty. But I will say that Naruto is the best thing that could have happened to me when I was 11/12. I ended up being friends with a lot of good people. I guess it sounds silly to say that it taught me really important life lessons. I sort of met my wife thanks to it by extension. I got a cool Konoha symbol tattoo. And it gave me a haunted relationship with a grumpy dude. So thanks for the memories. I tag my fellow Naruto follower fans. :0 It was a blast from the past. Stirring up memories I didn't want to have stirred up tonight. LMAO.

#me #naruto #naruto ask meme

[thejpfdude-blog]

The Week in Anime (Christmas Edition!)

Salutations and welcome to a special edition of The Week in Anime! With my winter break starting, I’ve been able to catch up on all of the anime and now I have stuff to say about them, both good and bad (fortunately this time, it’s mostly good). Because there’s around 3-4 weeks of stuff to write about, I’m gonna revert back to my old style of TWiA for this week. That is, I’m gonna write a blurb for every show, and not give out any awards. And since most of the shows ended this week, it’s also kinda nice since I can talk about the show as a whole. Thus, there will be spoilers. That’s kinda self-explanatory, plus I usually use spoilers in my posts... but no matter, still nice to have a warning. So let’s start off this show with the usual...

The News Corner

Since it’s been a while since I had one of these posts, there’s bound to be a lot of anime news that I can talk about. Maybe important stuff like Shokugeki no Soma getting a “fourth season” in Spring, Boku no Hero Academia’s third season airing during the Spring, etc. But here’s what I think is the most important anime news of the past few weeks:

http://moetron.news/post/168065646960/back-street-girls-tv-anime-has-been-announced

Yes friends, Back Street Girls. Read the synopsis for yourself, since I don’t think I can do it justice by describing in my own words. Truly, a pinnacle in anime.

Ok seriously, this is... something. Something weird AF. But I’m not gonna lie, it got my attention. Obviously since I’m writing about it, but it did. So much so that I ended up reading the translated chapters of the manga. And I have to say... it’s not that bad. There definitely is the merit to the complaint that the three dudes have the same personality and thus would probably be better as one person, but they’re different enough that it wasn’t too much of a concern in the manga.

In its core this whole thing is a gag comedy. I don’t expect it to be deep with its topic, and neither should you whenever this show airs. Definitely gonna be an interesting show to watch when it does come out.

All righty, with that, let’s start the rankings/blurbs starting with my AOTS:

Rankings:

1 (0). Shokugeki no Soma S3 (8/10) COMPLETE

So when I heard that this show was gonna be one cour instead a standard two cour, I shared the same opinions as the thread commenters of /r/anime: “no”. But after watching the last episode, I have to say the season ended on a really good note. Soma sharing the info that Joichiro was his dad to Azami and Erina was a nice cliffhanger to the future events I don’t know much about, but heard meh things about.

Disregarding the future though, this season was miles better than the second season. It brought back the nice balance of intense cooking battles and relaxed slice-of-life moments that made the first season so fun to watch, something the second season lacked until the last few episodes with the Stagiaire Arc. The biggest issue has to be the animation, something I didn’t notice until I saw it being mentioned on discussion threads. At first I dismissed those claims, saying that all anime was like that and that people were being their circle-jerky selves. But I went back to the first season and yeah, I admit it got worse. There was a lack of action-y moments in the third season which were replaced with panning shots. Now I don’t think this is a huge issue, because let’s be honest the animation isn’t a big draw in Shokugeki: it’s the nice-looking food and the explanations about the nice-looking food. And this season delivered on those fronts, making it a super fun watch as long as I had something to eat/wasn’t hungry. Because otherwise I suffer from watching good food being made/explained while wanting said food, and that’s not fun.

Anyway, overall Shokugeki S3 gets a 8/10 from me. I would say I’m excited for the next season, but based on comments from manga readers I’m not expecting too much from the next season... though I would recommend the show if you haven’t watched it, since the first season is in my top 10 favorite anime and this season’s looking like my AOTY.

2 (+1). Just Because! (8/10) [11/12]

Mmm that’s good stuff. Most anime nowadays just are stuff that I watch and move on from. But with this show, it’s been both a really nice slice-of-life/drama/romance/kinda comedy(?) that’s brought out a lot of nostalgic and comfy moments. It’s rare for a show to get me so emotionally invested, but when it does you know something’s going right.

Since the last episode is airing next week, I don’t want to go too much into detail about the show in general yet. So I’ll just talk about this week’s episode. It reminded me a lot of the time I was applying for colleges. A painful experience, yet for some reason I felt a warm nostalgia through the whole time watching this. Plus it was a really nice set-up episode for the finale: we get Natsume passing, Komiya winning an award, and Eita maybe passing (it was kinda ambiguous). Who will win in this love triangle? Who will end up with who? Will anybody win? Why did I ask the same question three times? Find out next week in the next episode of Dragon Ball Z!

I have to give credit to Pine Jam (the studio making this): all of this is amazing when you think about how much delays the show’s been going through. It seems like every other week the episode is delayed on Amazon Strike even when it aired on time in Japan (a sign that they just finished the episode). Yet the animation hasn’t taken a nosedive in quality and it’s kept a steady consistency in all aspects. Hopefully the finale ends the show on a high note because so far it’s been a fun ride.

3 (+2). Net-juu no Susume (6/10) COMPLETE

If there’s one word to sum up this show, it’s AWKWARD. But you know what, that’s totally fine. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s that the last few episodes focused on the real life relationship of our two main characters, Moriko and Sakurai, who were some pretty awkward kids.

Before I go deeper into that, let me talk about the show as a whole. The first half of it was a nice “romance” with minimal interruptions. Towards the middle, the show faltered a bit for me with Koiwai become more of a presence and that weird gray area when Moriko and Sakurai were finding out the truth about each other and their online characters. Then we get that end with the awkward. The last episode especially, though I enjoyed how cute the whole thing was... minus the washing machine cucking (and the kids in the end to a degree).

I know that’s probably what most people were disappointed in: nothing definite happened between Moriko and Sakurai. I was a bit bothered by it too, until I realized it was probably the best ending for the two. After all, they’re two people who don’t have experience with love or people in general. Why would you expect them to suddenly confess their feelings or even straight up kiss? It’s a bit unreasonable to think that, and so the hand-holding thing at the end was a good enough confirmation that yes, they are in a relationship.

Disclaimer: I haven’t watched the 11th episode/special yet. I wanted to finish the show and write my blurb before doing so. So maybe something more might happen... though based on the MAL rating, doesn’t look like it.

If there’s one thing that did bother me, it was the number of sheer coincidences that had to happen for everything to fall into place. I mean I know it’s anime but still... it’s a bit too much. I can’t get over the fact that they met not only once, but twice in sepearte MMOs. That’s about as good a chance as me getting 5 UR cards in a single 10+1 pull in School Idol Festival. Which never happens. I think.

Anyway, overall the show was pretty nice, albeit a bit forgettable (since I’ve already forgotten a lot about it already and it hasn’t even been a week since I finshed it). 6/10, would recommend if you like a good romance.

4 (-2). Juuni Taisen (6/10) COMPLETE

“I mean it ended the way I thought it did.”

That’s if we’re talking about the battle royale aspect of the show itself. Because the actual anime didn’t end with just that, but rather spent its last episode with Nezumi’s wish, which turned out to be a pretty lackluster end to a show that in hindsight, wasn’t as great as I thought it was. Now that sounds harsh, but I had this show rated pretty highly for most of the season. Overall the show wasn’t bad, but there were some questionable decisions such as spending two episodes on the twins (whose backstories weren’t particularly interesting) and not having Rabbit’s backstory. Though I guess not having Rabbit’s backstory works with his personality. But I was curious to see why he’s like that, which is something we’ll never find out.

There were a lot of good moments in the show, though. Most of the backstories of the characters were pretty interesting, and made what sounded like a cliche battle royale into a more interesting study of characters with differing personalities and techniques battling each other. I love competitions as much as the next guy, so seeing how each warrior matched up against each other really triggered the inner sports fan in me. So much so that if I wasn’t into the competition, I probably wouldn’t have liked this show as much. Overall a solid 6/10, would recommend for those into battle royales and interesting character stories.

5 (+1). Love Live! Sunshine!! 2nd Season (6/10) [12/13]

You know at this point, I accepted that idol shows aren’t for me. Their whole focus of “the power of friendship and miracles” really isn’t my thing, and honestly it’s my fault for not realizing that sooner. Now don’t get me wrong -- I’m still very much in idol hell. Just... in different ways via the music and mobile game (which I should really stop spending money on...).

Now to the actual show critique part. Taking the above statement into account, this was probably the better Love Live Sunshine season. But as of right now, I’m putting this as the lowest ranked show in the Love Live series. Something about the number of cheesy episodes just really got to me, culminating in the penultimate episode with the most cheese so far in Love Live.

Okay, I’m gonna stop talking about cheese and actually use real words. There were some really great episodes, which happened to be the character-focused episodes. My favorite definitely is the YohaRiko episode with the dog, with a close second being the Dia episode. Episodes like those still have good cheesiness to them, but the cheese is character-based and more relatable instead of “let’s shine” and other buzzwords. Plus it adds good depth to the characters: Dia went from my second-worst girl to right in the middle of the pack. Riko went to the top 3, and Yoshiko/Yohane, well she was already #1.

Speaking of characters, there were definitely a few that got shafted hard in terms of screentime and character development. You is definitely an example: even though the later episodes have focused on her relationship with Chika, I still wouldn’t know much about her if I didn’t read her profile-stuff on the wiki (I was bored okay). Like the fact she’s a Olympic-level high diver. Did you know that? I did. Maru’s another example of this, though that’s more getting reduced to memes which honestly a lot of characters in LL have been prone to. I do have to give props for developing the third-years though, because I can now see Mari as more than just “Shiny” and “It’s Joke”. We can all agree though: Chika least best girl. Everything the girl says is cheesy AF.

Having said all of this, if a third season were to happen (or a movie, given this season might be the last one), I’d still watch it no problem. Truly this is the power of idol hell.

We’ll see how the last episode goes, because it might just be the end of Aqours... :(

6 (+3). Osake wa Fuufu ni Natte kara (6/10) [12/13]

I think this is the first time a show I rated a 3 or lower rose back up to a good grade. But that’s what happens when you focus on not having your alcoholic main character be drunk, but rather have nice moments where they aren’t drunk. Because it feels cheap to me when they’re acting cutesy while drunk. Almost like it’s fake in a way. The last two episodes in particular were really nice because they were the backstory in how Chisato and Sora met, which was actually pretty cute. More episodes like that please.

7 (+1). Blend S (5/10) COMPLETE

Sigh... this was an interesting one. Let me just say this right now: the “relationship” between Dino and Maika was the one factor in ruining the show for me. Yeah, the fanservice was pretty iffy, but if the romance wasn’t a thing I would’ve enjoyed the show a lot more.

I loved the idea of different personas in a maid cafe type of thing. It reminds me a lot of my favorite channel on Youtube, Cow Chop. They play up their bits in a “role” for most videos, but in their podcasts and other miscellaneous stuff, they’re their real selves which is refreshing to see. Because their bits and roles, while funny in doses, would be horrible if it was their real personality. Which is how I feel about Blend S. If the characters’ personalities were actually their roles, the show would be annoying as heck. But because it’s just a role, it’s fun to see how different they are compared to their actual selves. How Maika unintentionally becomes sadistic. How Kaho is actually the nicest character in the show. How Mafuyu is actually the most savage character in the show. How Miu is... kinda the same actually. And how Hideri is... exactly the same.

...Oh. Never mind.

All that would’ve made this one of my favorites, but that romance though. It just really bothers me. Now I know it doesn’t bother a lot of people, and that’s fine. But I’m just not about the weird age gap. I’m not saying I hate age gaps in general, just that when the gap starts with a high school girl, it’s a bit questionable. This may sound shallow, but if Dino was a bit younger or Maika a bit older, I would be totally fine with it.

Speaking of that, having Maika be older (say 19 or 20) would make a lot of sense in the context of the show. A girl struggling to look for a job so she can study abroad: still makes sense if she’s college-aged, and relationship is ok-hands for me.

Disregarding the relationship, the characters were fun. Yes, even Hideri, though I think it really helps that the VA for the character is the same VA for Nico of Love Live fame. Really got the obnoxious idol character down pat, plus her deeper male voice was really well done. Sasuga Nico.

One last thing: the OP is pretty bomb. Yes, I know how meme’d the first few seconds of it got, but watch the rest of the opening. It’s very fun, reminiscent of the Working OPs (which this show shares some similarities with in other areas).

So with all this said, 5/10 would maybe recommend if you like moe shows. Also if you can disregard the Dino/Maika thing, which I see a lot of people are anyways... SMILE

SWEET

SISTER

SADISTIC

SURPRISE

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WE ARE STILE

(expected the meme? Pls)

8 (-1). Animegataris (4/10) COMPLETE

So... what the actual baloney did I watch? Seriously, that went off the rails after a certain point, that point being the festival arc. I have so many questions that were left unanswered and just brushed under the rug with the explanation that “the anime world and real world are being combined”. Like... really?

Confusion aside, the show’s only nice aspect was the meta with its sick anime references, both with the industry and the fandom. A modern version of Genshiken in a way. The “namedrops” were pretty fun and the explanations for some of the industry norms were the best parts of the show for me. Unfortunately, that all went downhill after the first half of the season as the show went full meta and went towards the “combining worlds” plotline that just ended up confusing me. Though I do admit the finale of the show was nice, albeit a bit lackluster compared to the WTF-levels of the few episodes before it.

But just because a show is meta doesn’t mean it’s good. At the end of the day, this show just crammed references and meta without much consideration for the characters or the story, which were both somewhat underdeveloped.

Off topic: one thing that really bothered me was the whole thing with Yui fanservice right before the OP for the first nine episodes (which continued even towards the last scene of the show. So I was right that something would happen with that. It’s just that the thing was just an OP with only Yui (Just Yui). Now that would be fine if she had something to do with the events of that episode, but she didn’t. So... WHY. WHY DID THEY DO THAT. SERIOUSLY. I’M SO CONFUSED AND I’M SCREAMING NOW SEND HELP.

That’s basically how Animegataris made me feel during its latter half. The “wao how META” doesn’t work for me in this case, and so I leave it with an unsavory rating and a “don’t watch this unless you like sick anime references and meta AF plot.” 4/10.

So before we end, I know I said no awards, but there is a little one I wanted to mention:

The “Red Flags” On Hold Show of the Week: Pingu in the City

It’s not that the show itself is bad. But... I don’t know, I don’t really have the motivation to watch the show. That’s usually how these shows end up on hold: I lose motivation. Maybe I’ll watch it again sometime in the future. Maybe not. Maybe I get to the 100 other shows on my PTW list.

And that’s all for this week! Thanks for reading this extra-long post! Hopefully I’ll get my “What I’m Watching” post out soon: I’m around 40% done with it so far. Anyway, thanks again, and I’ll see you in the next post!