#i also thought about adding in books because it has to be boring doing fuck all all day and maybe that could be enjoyable?

[cuntwrap--supreme]

I keep loads of basic supplies in my car because there are so many homeless people in my city. I'm leaving the gym, and this dude stops and asks for a light. While I'm handing him my lighter, he asks if I have any water. I say I only have Gatorade right now, and move to my trunk and tell him he's welcome to anything he needs back there. He picks up some soap, sniffs it, and says, "This is all garbage. Nobody wants this," and left. And, like, I'm not sure if I need to rethink what I'm stocking my car with or if he was just an asshole.

#for the record i have shampoo. conditioner. body soap. deodorant. toothbrushes and toothpaste. hothands. dental floss. tampons. blankets. #and a bunch of snacks that have a long shelf life (granola bars. bagged nuts. stuff high in fat or protein) and Gatorade #oh and little backpack things in case someone needs something to carry shit in #like. i know the hothands and blankets are seasonal. but it's still cold. #and the rest is stuff that makes life a little less shit. #i also have travel ibuprofen packs. i forgot about that one. #but like. none of it seems usless. #it's not like I'm out here handing out 'money' that's actually a pamphlet on why jesus is cool #so I'm thinking he was just having a particularly shit day #if i could afford it I'd just give people $50 or whatever and it's not my business where that's used #but i can barely pay my rent right now so i gotta be cheaper so I don't also end up homeless #i do want to get sunscreen and rain jackets now that we're moving into spring. but money is tight... #i also thought about adding in books because it has to be boring doing fuck all all day and maybe that could be enjoyable? #i really don't know #but I'm apparently not doing it right so i need to improve somehow #not even being sarcastic about that. if I'm not doing good i need to know where I'm fucking up

[hypogryffin]

ok but like so you know how portable had that one yukiko cameo. so like OBVI the remake is going to have p5 characters appear also <-straight copium. anyway here are my pitches

Image ID:

Three pages of rough sketches with colour blocks. Image 1 has Maruki (coloured blue) standing awkwardly with a seemingly nervous smile on his face, looking younger and wearing Gekkoukan High School's uniform. A smaller drawing next to him shows himself and Rumi (red) smiling and laughing together. The text next to them reads "If Maruki was school-age at the time of P3's story he'd be about 22-25 years old [during P5 canon]". The number 22 has an arrow pointing to it that reads "1st year HS", and 25 has another that says "3rd year HS". The text continues, "Since he's supposed to be older (I think), it wouldn't make sense for him to show up". A wailing emoji with its hands up in the air is added next to the block of text. From there, an arrow with the caption "But!" points to another sketch of Ichinose (green) in Gekkoukan's summer uniform. The message continues next to another drawing of Ichinose, this time in the regular/winter uniform, "I do think Ichinose is probably the right age for it! Definitely not because I've been wanting to draw her recently nope no siree". Further notes continue down, reading "One or two [ear] piercings, none on the face" with a drawing of an earlobe, "Shorter hair" with a dotted line and a sketch of scissors depicting that her hair is about shoulder-length, and finally, "She'd still be in her stoic era so no smiles here, LOL." Additionally, back near the drawings of Maruki, there is another sketch of Rumi in Gekkoukan's uniform, with a note that says, "Were Maruki and Rumi canonically high school sweethearts? Or did I just hallucinate that information"

Image 2: A drawing of Zenkichi (dark blue) in an unbuttoned suit. He has his hair in a ponytail, and his arms folded behind his back. The text next to him reads, "Zenkichi, approximately mid-to-late 30s. / He can't be aware of the Dark Hour for [the sake of] continuity in Strikers, obviously, but he could still be reasonably(?) involved? I.E. assisting Kurosawa with something? Maybe related to a request from Elizabeth, a social link story(???), or main story things like [A block that reads "Spoilers" in all capital letters]'s death or Fuuka's "disappearance". I don't know, man." There are a few asides written next to it, reading "Maybe [he and Kurosawa are] friends" and "Investigating Apathy Syndrome?" respectively. Then the text continues, "Could be [Public Security], or maybe a career police officer (as in pre-promotion or something, I don't know I'm not a pig, myself". An additional doodle has the information "Akane would be about 7 years old" alongside a drawing of Zenkichi blabbering senselessly about his daughter, showing off a set of pictures, to the Persona 3 Protagonist (light blue), who looks awkward and has "Go away" written behind him as his internal thoughts several times.

Also, there is a sketch of Mitsuru (red) in plainclothes, smiling as she holds up two tickets, saying "I have received tickets to a gallery by Madarame Ichiryuusai, I was wondering if you wanted to accompany me there." The next drawing is of Yukari (pink) smiling and looking up from the book she's reading, though visibly apprehensive. She says, "Uh, yeah, sure, that sounds fun!" While her inner monologue yells "That sounds so fucking boring holy shit". It then cuts to her gripping the protagonist's shoulders, saying, "I need you to come with me to this stupid ass art museum I can't say no to Mitsuru-senpai." The protagonist says, "I, like, could not want to do anything less-" but is interrupted by Yukari adding, "I'll buy you dinner after and you can bring Aegis." The protagonist says, "Deal."

Image 3: A drawing of the lobby of the dorms. The protagonist (blue) sits on one of the couches with Koromaru (grey) sleeping with his head in his lap. The TV is on, showing a picture of someone standing at a podium with microphones pointed at them, and blares "Diet member Shido Masayoshi makes bold new proposal on foreign policy..." The protagonist watches, seeming disinterested. The next drawing is of the Big Bang Burger logo, with someone saying, "'Big Bang Burger'?", getting the reply, "Yeah, they just opened a shop last week. Wild Duck's got competition now, I guess." The next panel is of Ryoji Mochizuki (teal) and the protagonist standing together, revealing Ryoji to have been the first one to speak, now continuing, "Eeh, wow, that name is so lame!" as he smiles genially. He then turns to the protagonist, pointing to himself as he says, "Hey, you wanna try it? I'll pay!" The protagonist shrugs and says, "Sure."

End ID.

#persona 3 #p3 #persona 3 reload #p3re #persona 5 #p5 #minato arisato #makoto yuki #takuto maruki #persona rumi #kuon ichinose #ichinose kuon #zenkichi hasegawa #hasegawa zenkichi #sakuya shiomi #wont tag anyone else lol #i will fill the p5s tag my fucking self if i have to #described

[badasgirlfriend]

paper rings ₊ ⊹ - bada lee social media au

the nasty bitches - golden squad - extras

masterlist

"What about them?" I nodded towards a group of students who were laughing loudly.

Sieun's gaze followed the direction of my pointed finger, seemingly transfixed. "Oh, they're the Golden Squad" she responded, her voice dripping with admiration.

I couldn't help but snicker, my eyebrows raising as I looked at Sieun, amused. "Golden Squad? What is this, kindergarten?"

Sieun's piercing stare was like a spear through my soul, weirdo

"It fits them" was her simple response, as though there was nothing more to say.

"They're the good popular students" she continued, in awe "Everyone wants to be friends with them."

"The baby looking one, that's Eunchae Lee"

"She's only popular because of her sister" Sieun explained to me "She can be very hyper around everyone, so don't be surprised if she gives you a hug"

She continued, her tone turning sarcastic as she tried to conceal her distaste for Eunchae. "She's the youngest in that group so everyone looks out for her. She can be annoying...to me."

"Seems like you have problems" I mumbled and I don't know if she didn't hear me or she just chose to ignore what I said but she continued with her explanation

"The one next to Eunchae is Debby Tuo"

"If you can see by her smile, you will realize that she is the embodiment of positivity and sunshine. She's smiling and laughing 24/7"

"I don't think she has ever had a bad day," Sieun continued, her tone more gentle and thoughtful than before. "If you hang out with Debby, she will never bore you, she also plays basketball" she added

"The boy, his name is Min Yoongi"

"If he bumps into you, it's your fault. He's really grumpy and never apologizes" Sieun said "You'll always see him with his friends. Yoongi one of the most popular boys in the school, girls go crazy over him but he ignores them, he has his eyes on Debby but she's too oblivious"

"That's Minah Lee"

"Opposite of Debby, she's always having a bad day" Sieun sighs gripping her book tighter "Sometimes I feel thag her and Yoongi are twins but they don't know"

Sieun thinks about it a little before speaking "She only shows her true self, her "happy" side as they say only to their friends. She's also co captain to the basketball team"

Sieun looked around, trying to spot someone in the crowd before she was bumped into from behind.

She turned around to angrily yell at the one who had run into her but stopped abruptly when she recognized the tall girl who had done so.

The girl gave her an apologetic smile as she spoke. "I'm sorry, Sieun, I didn't see you there."

The girl gave her a warm smile and swiftly exited the scene, I was confused and Sieun was in awe. She touched her shoulder where the tall girl's hand and smiled to herself

"Girl snap out of it" I said to Sieun, returning her back to the present.

"That's Bada Lee"

"She is the most popular... hottest girl in school right now. Being the captain of the basketball team only intensifies her attractiveness. Sieun said, her voice tinged with awe and admiration, she was completely star struck, her gaze glued to the beautiful girl

"You will never meet a nicer or more fun girl than her, she is friends with almost everyone" she continued, gushing about the girl. "Her sister is Eunchae she's very protective of her. Despite being nice she can turn 180�� quickly, when needed she doesn't take bullshit for an answer and she also doesn't let anyone tell her what to do."

So much for not being too obvious about liking her..

Sieun looked at the time in her phone and gasped "Shit-fuck Im late for the meeting" she looked at me and gave me a big fake smile "It was nice meeting you Y/N, be careful with who you hang out"

And with that she turned around and left, leaving me all alone with everyone staring at me.

Well fuck

#talking with eli #bada lee #bada lee edit #bada lee imagine #bada lee fanfic #paper rings smau #bada lee x reader #bada lee x oc #gxg #swf #bada lee x y/n #bada lee au #bada lee fanfiction #bada lee imagines #bada lee bebe #lee bada #swf bada lee

[teecupangel]

Imagine Desmond in Crusades Era, but like with Alamut - he tries to keep aside from all that is happening. An attempt to keep the timeline as canon as possible. But... Talking to no one is hard, with what Desmond lived through. So he resorts to writing oblique stories, taking part in discussions with veiled knowledge of the Isu era and future. Somehow, this result in him becoming a well nown scholar. He and Altaїr meet when Al Mualim orders Desmond's assassination

This would work so well because Desmond would have vague ideas of the books Altaïr had read and he would be so bored doing nothing that reading all those books would seem like a good idea. Some of them only made Desmond even more bored than he already is and this snowballed to him talking shit about the book he read. This, in turn, made other scholars argue with him about how that book or another book is great or whatever and Desmond would now use the knowledge he got from the other books he got to roast this book.

From there, Desmond became known as someone who reads anything you give him but will fucking roast the book if he doesn’t like it and freaking burn you alive if you even try to defend your bad taste.

This makes him a very fun person to talk to, a very entertaining person to watch, and a very hard opponent to debate with.

Desmond is just passing his time, not understanding how fucking important the scholars are.

Like, he knows the Levantine Brotherhood uses them to blend in and there was one incident involving scholars but Desmond’s memories of that are very foggy. He also doesn’t consider himself a scholar, just someone who reads and questions the shit he reads.

Unfortunately, to the eyes of the scholars, they believe Desmond is being contradictory because that’s how he believed he and his peerage (aka them) could grow collectively. Like their very own Socrates.

The scholars love Desmond for it.

Desmond just likes talking to people and he honestly believes they’re just… talking. Nothing deeper than that.

In his free time, he writes. He writes of what he had seen but he tells people it is fiction, simply things he thought of. He had to get creative though because, well, he can’t write Assassins and not get everyone to realize that he’s talking about the Assassins in Masyaf.

So he adds more Isu bullshit to it in the vein closer to fantasy than sci-fi. Maybe he even adds some steamy romance to it that makes most people blush because it's considered filthy by their standard while Desmond is just like "??? That's tame. You want filth? I'll write you actually kinky shit." and this entire thing gets him writing erotica that is controversial but really... like... they kinda dig it because it's something new and daring.

It becomes a kind of past time of his between ‘talking’ to the other scholars.

Sometimes, the scholars would ask for his help in books they are writing and Desmond helps out in exchange for food and lounging.

Before long, he’s living in Damascus with the other scholars, just minding his own business, not realizing that all the help he’s been doing has gotten the attention of a certain someone.

A powerful man by the name Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn.

And that’s when Altaïr receives his mission to assassinate him.

For this idea, let’s say Altaïr is sent to assassinate Desmond before he became a Master Assassin.

Why?

Because Desmond inadvertently stands in the way of a certain Templar from getting to a key position in Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn’s inner circle.

A Templar by the name of Jubair al Hakim who is supposed to lead the scholars and keep their knowledge ‘contained’.

But because of Desmond, that’s becoming harder and harder as more and more scholars are being converted to Desmond’s ‘philosophy’ (“What philosophy? I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.”) of listening and understanding but questioning everything.

Hard to contain knowledge when the knowledge itself is being scrutinized by many scholars which gives way for more derivations of that knowledge to appear questioning it, supporting it, or flat-out rejecting it.

The Templars wish for order and Desmond’s idea that everything must be questioned is a definite fucking no to their cause.

On the other hand, Jubair himself cannot act, not when it’s clear that he is in total opposition of Desmond. He has to leave Damascus a month before Desmond is assassinated just to make sure he has a clear alibi (even if the rumors would persist anyway).

So Altaïr infiltrates the academy that Desmond is staying in, blending in as one of the many scholars and… he just… can’t. Catch. Desmond.

What. The. Fuck.

Desmond, on the other, immediately sees Altaïr as he’s coming close to the academy because Altaïr glows the brightest gold Desmond has ever seen. He knows it’s because of his connection with Altaïr so he leaves the academy just as Altaïr is approaching and tries to hide because he believes Altaïr is here for someone else.

Altaïr, on the other hand, sees him as the brightest gold in his Eagle Vision as well which was curious thing because he could see the wisps of blue around the gold but his curiosity soon turns to annoyance because. He. Can’t. Catch. Up.

Desmond always seems to be on the move and always seem to move in a way that keeps Altaïr from catching up to him while he’s trying to maintain his cover.

By the end of it, Altaïr just goes “fuck it” and just chases Desmond full speed, without a care if it breaks his cover. When he sees Desmond run, he realized…

Desmond had been running away from him from the very beginning.

Desmond, on the other hand, finally realizes that Altaïr was after him from the very beginning and he has no fucking idea why but he’s not going to stay still to find out, damn it!

This ends with them running all over Damascus’ rooftops and Altaïr recognized Desmond’s moves as more efficient in freerunning. Not only that, some of his moves are moves Altaïr used himself. Moves that belonged to the Brotherhood.

When Altaïr finally caught up to him because Desmond had just been spending a lot of his time just chilling and being a bit lazy, Altaïr doesn’t kill him immediately. Instead, he asks why Al Mualim would want him dead.

Because, as far as Altaïr can see, Desmond is an Assassin.

He checked his left hand and sees the five fingers and conclude that perhaps Desmond was a deserter from perhaps Alamut but Desmond says no and come on, it would be dumb for a deserter to freaking stay in Damascus where the Assassins had a huge presence in, right???

And that only made Altaïr more curious.

He lets Desmond go and Desmond is confused by this.

The following day, Altaïr sits next to Desmond who had been contemplating if he should just pack up and leave after breakfast. Desmond is confused and Altaïr just says…

“I’m here to observe you.”

“Why?”

“Al Mualim wants you dead. I want to know why.”

“Why would you want to know why the old man wants me dead? Actually, why don’t you just kill me and finish your mission anyway?”

“Do you want to die?”

“No. But I know your mission is to kill me. By not killing me, you’re going against Al Mualim’s orders.”

“I’m not. I’m doing what you have been preaching all these times.”

“What’s that? Also, I don’t preach.”

“Questioning the information the novices has gathered and listening to your side.”

“… That’s tantamount to treason, Altaïr.”

“Perhaps but… there’s something about you, Desmond, that makes me think…

… You are worth betraying everything that I know to be true.”

#does this mean that altaïr is younger in this one? #i’m game with that #i don’t mind #this verse makes desmond altaïr’s ultimate crush tbh #a person with a passion for knowledge (as far as altaïr knows) and makes altaïr chase after them? #my god #it’s love at first chase XD #not doing the usual tags because #altdes

[vinff7]

This update got me looking at and editing some of my Head canons, so posting those here. HC for how Gortash started worshiping Bane. And other ‘young Gortash’ HC

The game gives us very little hints about how and when Gortash started worshiping Bane. (Except for that one draft of a biography that seemed to place it in his adulthood, but doesn’t mention Hell? I think that might have just been when his Bane worship got more pronounced and noticed by that author not when it really started)

So I’ve made my own headcanon as I’ve seen multiple different versions around.

For me I think he started worshiping Bane in the House of Hope. Not right off the bat. I HC that Gortash likely was enslaved down there around the age of 10. Obviously a very difficult transition for a child to start living in Hell. But I think he eventually got to a point where he was aloud to wander somewhat and read in the library to educate himself. But was also taught by the Walock that brought him there to start (In-between him getting tortured and abused because I love whump to much to not imagine that there were horendious things done to him)

During this time around age 11 I like to think that he caught the attention of an awful demon/devil that would take torturing him really far, citing how amusing it was to get Enver to cry.

I also like to HC that young Enver had really bad anxiety and fear around crying. Like when he was in baulders gate his parents would get furious and yell at him to shut up. So if he noticed he was getting close to crying he would panic, which would pretty much ensure he would cry. And it would be a fun awful spiral of self hate thoughts at himself to be quiet and stop crying making his crying worse.

Anyway, awful torture keeps happening to the kid in between him needing to work and learn. And then Enver’s warlock teacher misses his lesson, and the next one. So Enver is hiding out trying to avoid the houses inhabitants when he finally spots his Walrock teacher and approaches them. Tries to figure out when his next lesson would be. Only to get dismissed with a wave. His mentor tells him The devil that had taken an interest in him has a habit of killing and breaking prisoners and he out ranks the Warlock, so the Warlock is giving up teaching Enver since trying to argue that he should be left alone would be more trouble then it’s worth.

Outright tells an 11 year old “Yeah, maybe not today, but I bet by the time 6 months has passed he’ll have tortured you to death. So there’s not really a point in teaching you anything anymore. No matter what you or I do you’ll end up the like mindless tormented souls soon.“ seeing how terrified Enver looked he says “Best you can do is try convince a god to fish your soul out of here after that devil gets bored or reckless enough to torture you to death.”

Which uh, def fucks with Enver’s head. So he does start deep diving into the Gods and trying to figure out if he can find any he aligns with enough that they would take him. And during this search he finds books about Bane and I fee like Bane’s philosophies is something he would immediatly relate and cling too.

Bane started as a slave and became a God. Bane teaches that the world is truely an Evil place by default, and pretending it isn’t is a lie. Someone who has only seen the worst the worlds have to offer must feel so validated reading that. To me Bane teaches so much about Self Disciple and self Control that some of his books written by worshipers must go into methods of self control. I can see young Enver finding a book of Worship with mantras to repeat when feeling weak or when needing to focus and clinging to those like a life raft.

Repeating phrases like mantras over and over in real life can have mind altering properties. Add a religious one to a word with magic and maybe there is an added Boost that actually works for getting in the zone via worship.

I don’t think Bane answered or noticed Enver at first, at all. I don’t think this discouraged Enver at all, the mantras helped and he figured he needed to do more to earn his gods favor so he worked at it. The focus on his self control helped. He could endure toruture quietly more and some of his tormentors lost interest in the now more stoic boy. Learning to master himself became a thing he could control to keep himself sane in Hell through the torment.

Obviously things didn’t ever get kind in Hell. But I also imagine after a few years of contactless worship Bane does notice Enver since getting prayer pings from Hell is not the most common. I doubt he would often interveen. Enduring torture is good training for a Banite.

I do think the first time they speak is an intervension though. Gods are able to see the future when it comes to things under their portfolio and so I imagine he could see that Enver has a LOT of potential. But he notices that the potential vanishes if all is left with nothing changing which gets him to interveen.

In my head the violent devil that started all of this does decide he want’s to break Enver during a point where Raphael might have been out of the house. Bane notices looking into the future that the torture they have planned for Enver would shatter him, and while Bane approved of discipline, he knows the difference between being weak and being put through so much agony that it’s unreasonable to expect discipline to cary someone through.

So I imagine Enver getting dragged from his cell, trying to fight down panic and start praying as a devil taunts him about his up coming torutre then, vision starts getting very dark and far away as Bane reaches in and just puuuulls his soul away. Bane is able to posses his followers so in my mind he does that for Gortash and pulls him away for a private chat.

I imagine being possesed by Bane is a bit like The Sunken Place from Get out. There is a viewing window you can look out to see what you body is doing, and otherwise Bane sponsored darkness. I feel like they had a short chat, nothing huge for Bane but life altering for a kid, someone actually caring for him enough to help. I feel like Bane would make an agreement with Enver that he will make sure Enver will never have to go through anything so bad that he would not be able to overcome it, which is a huge boost of self confidence for Enver. Now anytime he’s getting tortured in the future he has the promise of ‘My God knows this won’t break me’ going off in the back of his mind.

Bane also tells Enver that he won’t step in to free Enver, Enver needs to free himself, but he will grant him power if needed so that Enver can rise up as long as Enver loyaly serves him.

And so that is how they meet and Enver becomes even more loyally tied to Bane in my HC! I also have a couple ideas I’ll toss here at the end about him escaping since I’m already rambling.

I like to think that once he was older Enver was able to escape by using the Helldusk boots since he has those in game. My though was somehow the boots magic was used almost like a magic key? So he stole those, wards noticed the boots and figured whoever had them must be aloud to be there else why would they have them, so they helped him get past some magic locks and escape.

I did see in a fic about Enver leaping through those portals that could cause insanity and just giving a ‘hey help me out’ prayer to Bane to help him survive which worked and I always liked that idea.

Last Gortash ~ Bane idea that I like is that once Gortash escaped from the House of Hope Bane gave him his approval and told him like “You’re a Watchful Brother in Bane’s church, now you’ll never be called a Slave again.” And got to skip that ‘rank’ in normal Baneite hierarchy.

#gortash #enver gortash #bg3 #bg3 gortash #headcanon #d&d bane #house of hope #rambles

[undreaming-fanfiction]

Adding to the pile of role reversal/weird AU stuff:

Season 3 setting. Dustin and Eddie are friends (Jonathan knows Eddie and recommends the party to the Hellfire leader in their last year of middle school). Eddie works at Scoops Ahoy, the only shop that was willing to hire him to supplement his income after Rick ended up - once again - in jail. It's not that bad, he has Chrissy to keep him company and they develop a surprisingly snarky banter together.

Dustin comes around and does the usual "Steve Harrington is so cool" spiel and Eddie has just had enough of that, the asshole can't be good looking, cool, popular and nice, not happening in the Munson world. He ends up asking Dustin why he isn't hanging out with Steve then and Dustin admits Steve has been kind of distant lately, he has a new job and he doesn't talk about it, like at all.

So of course, uncovering Harrington's secret becomes Eddie's sole mission in life. He's bored anyway and Chrissy spends way more time at Scoops than necessary to avoid her ex-boyfriend Jason. So Eddie disguises himself (ties his hair back, that's it, the uniform stays), grabs Dustin's binoculars and they decide to follow Steve. How the former king doesn't notice them is a mystery - Eddie's van is not inconspicuous at all and the combination of the Scoops uniform and Dustin's bright green t-shirt has many heads turning. Not Steve's though, he's lost in thought, too covered for the hot weather and heading...right into the mall?!

Eddie and Steve sneak behind him, following from a barely reasonable distance and they see Steve enter...the local fitness club.

Okay. So it might make sense. Perfect sense. Steve has his way with ladies and as he sheds the loose sweatpants and hoodie, he presents his long legs in...very short shorts. Also damn, Eddie has never seen Steve in a sleeveless top before and he doesn't know how to handle this knowledge. He feels a bit annoyed that yep, Steve putting on his Harrington charm and circling his hips as the first stretching exercise to ABBA is definitely not cool, but it doesn't matter because those stupid legs-!

"Would you like to make an appointment with the dingus, Eddie?"

The lazy drawl from the reception snaps him out of the Harrington-induced hypnosis and he turns to Robin Buckley, a girl from his class, giving him a knowing look. Too knowing. "I'm. Uh. Looking for..." he stammers out, much to Robin's amusement and Dustin's confusion.

"For?" she grins and leans on the counter. "I'd swear you were just looking. Not for."

Eddie wants to evaporate. He wants to escape into the vents and live there as a hermit, avoiding all of this - Dustin's innocent eyes, Robin's growing smirk, the exercising ladies starting to turn and...

Steve. Steve fucking Harrington who freezes, mid-hip thrust, and stares at Eddie, Eddie with his hair tied into an unruly bun, the stupid hat still on, some of his tattoos peeking from the equally stupid uniform...and Steve doesn't laugh, he just swallows, very visibly, and then he fixes his hair. HE FIXES HIS HAIR. That's like a wink or a blown kiss in the Harrington world. Eddie knows this, he's seen it happen way too many times with about half of the female student population.

Steve clears his throat and instructs the ladies to return their attention back to him, thank you very much. His eyes stay focused on them, but he gestures towards Robin.

She snorts in laughter and takes out the book of appointments, scribbles Eddie's name in. "Well then, Mr. Munson, you are signed up for an individual lesson with our best trainer at 8 today, that's the earliest he can squeeze you in. Don't be late and please, do wear the uniform," she winks at him and her cackling accompanies Eddie all the way back to Scoops Ahoy.

When he collapses against the counter and whispers to Chrissy to please interrogate him only after Dustin's gone, he turns to his younger friend and begs: "If I offer you free ice cream for life, will you promise to never mention this again?"

Dustin graciously accepts, but Eddie still spots a poorly hidden curly head in the mall decorative bushes once his shift ends and he is heading towards the fitness center to meet his fate.

#I'm way too sleepy and busy to write anything proper but this just popped into my head and wouldn't leave #so have fun kids #steddie #steddie ficlet #steddie au #stranger things #strangerthings #stranger things au #stranger things ficlet #strangerthingsau #no proofread we die like Eddie's sanity #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #chrissy cunningham #dustin henderson #starcourt mall

[thesungod]

Hello I would like your opinion and all possible spoilers for will nico book pls I don’t want to read it but I wanna catch up 🙏

hello anon! prepare yourself for my unadulterated, raw opinion and be warned: it’s not pretty.

BIG SPOILERS AND HARSH HARSH NEGATIVITY UNDER THE CUT please don’t read if you don’t enjoy hating and being mean let yourself have fun if you liked the book <33

So.

Let’s start with this: I had the BEST INTENTIONS about this book. Yeah, I bullied the preview like anyone else, but I had really been intrigued by Nico’s dream sequence and I do love, despite everything I say, Solangelo. Nico has been one of my favourite characters for my entire life and I have wanted a book about him ever since I was 12.

You see how much was at stake for me to enjoy this book?

And I didn’t.

I didn’t, because this book SUCKS.

First of all 1) This shit was boring. Like, I’m sorry. Believe me, it breaks my heart to say something like that because Nico?? BORING??

But yeah. I dare anyone to tell me something actually meaningful that happens in the first half of the book. Will getting coffee on his shirt? The Percabeth pep talk? (And I’m quoting). The infinite, repetitive dream sequences that did nothing for me because they were, you know, infinite and repetitive?

There was also constant reiteration of things that had already happened in previous books, both in the form of dreams and flashbacks, both because the authors never let anything be implied or understood by the reader on their own. Every single thought and feeling and past experience of Nico is shouted at us ad nauseam because god forbid we forget loneliness is part of him and he could never be loved and his sister died and and and.

It’s almost like Mark and Rick browsed the online pjo fandom, took a look at all the things we like about Nico and said “hey, what if we constantly make him think and say exactly those things with an off-putting self awareness and a dramatic tone? I’m sure people will love that!”

I finally thought we were going somewhere with them getting caught stealing by Persephone (yeah that happens) but it transformed into yet another tirade about love and friendship and how important they are. Which brings me to the second point.

2) Someone put tape in the mouth of every single character in this book. I’m so serious.

How many endless, therapy-talk, this-is-an-adult-speaking-not-a-weird-teenager conversations did we get? I don’t know. A million?

I’m reading a fantasy book. Do I need to be reminded about the importance of healthy boundaries and communication every time I turn the page?

I know, I know. The book is for kids and kids need to learn that friendship is magic and whatever.

But, yk, PJO and HoO and ToA are for kids too and while they have their flaws, I never felt like they were giving me a lecture.

This book was downright insufferable. I didn’t have pure, unadulterated fun for a single moment and it wasn’t because I had outgrown the target, which would have been a much more understandable reason, but because it was so slow and didactic and moralistic and lacked any humor except a couple of forced meta jokes. It was fucking sad.

And that serves me point 3 right on a silver platter.

3) Will and Nico have 0 chemistry and I wanted to beat the shit out of them

Seriously when did these two start hating each other. When did they start giving “why are we together” energy. I don’t get it. What happened.

They were so great in the Tower of Nero. They were fun, and colourful, and dynamic, and different, and teenagers, but also you could see that they were two people going through a lot. It didn’t feel as if Nico’s trauma was cheapened just because he occasionally enjoyed spending time with his boyfriend.

In this book… I mean, we get told they are in love. We get told approximately a million of times.

But what we are shown is two people constantly on the brink of beating each other with sticks. We didn’t get one big explosive stress fight, or the resurfacing of a couple of buried issues, as I expected. What we got was an exhausting death by a thousand cuts where Nico was angry at Will for breathing (seriously, count how many times the words annoyed or irritated are said about Nico in regards to his boyfriend) and Will apparently doesn’t understand Nico at all after a year of dating.

Basically, Nico is constantly mad at Will because Will doesn’t like the Underworld and never fails to make it known, while the Underworld is Nico’s home, and that could have been a kind of potentially interesting point of conflict if it hadn’t become draining at page 20. Was it realistic? I mean, I guess!! But that doesn’t mean I wanted to see that shit the entire time.

This was an urban fantasy book for middle schoolers!!! I wanted to have fun!! I didn’t have fun!!!

How could anyone ever have fun with a 400 page long account of two idiot teenagers getting on each other’s nerve with the occasional therapy communication-kiss-therapy communication-kiss interlude? NOT ME.

If that’s you, good for you, truly. But how is this Percy Jackson? Percy Jackson built an empire on being funny and cheeky in an effortless way and ToA followed suit, no matter what personal gripe one may have against the series. HoO is a bit of a wild card, but it was never close to being this flat and depressing. Not. Even. Close.

And as if two protagonists who I used to love being a giant pain in my ass wasn’t enough, the meager plot one can occasionally find between a dream sequence and a flashback and a stupid argument and a conversation about how humanity is love or whatever isn’t even compelling or engaging.

4) And are the interesting new characters in the room with us, Rick?

The only bad guy of the book is Nyx. Nyx is bad because she’s Darkness. She was born Bad and will die Bad and she’s Baddy McBad.

But don’t worry if the villain underwhelms you, because we will meet new interesting characters too!

… yeah, no.

We won’t.

Again. This is a kids’ book.

But. Have we forgotten Percy Jackson is for middle to high schoolers? Like, I know of people enjoying it well into their 20s because it’s nice fun. When did it become for 2 year olds?

Let’s leave aside the fact that Nyx’s motive makes little sense (no worries anon, we will be talking about this later) because there’s no way she cares this much about Nico Di Angelo. Not even I care this much about Nico Di Angelo and he’s been my entire personality ever since I was eleven. Be fucking for real. You’re not that guy, pal.

Any other character who’s not Nyx that is shown is sweet and kind and is changing and is in love and has been to therapy and loves other people. I could have vaguely accepted this (honestly, ToA often worked on a very similar premise), if it hadn’t meant making every single person or monster or whatever Will and Nico meet painfully boring. Literally fucking blank states.

I spent the whole book begging for Apollo to show up just so that someone could admit to drowning his ex in a bathtub and make a sex joke immediately after, because no one else was doing anything remotely cool whatsoever.

Even Persephone and Hades became Disney characters and wistfully raved about the power of love. What. The. Fuck.

It’s so wrong because ToA did the whole “love is everywhere, humans (and creatures) are cool” thing so much better while its characters still managed to have a personality, or were at the very least funny, and some were even villains.

This was all so blah.

Okay, now. Prepare yourself anon. Get a seat. Get a drink.

5) The finale.

Super short summary: Nyx wants Nico Di Angelo to live in Tartarus with her because Nico is special and unique and no one is like him. She makes babies out of his worst nightmares and traumas (because she can… do that, I guess?) and tries to guilt him into staying.

Yeah I know that this is weird as fuck but stay with me.

Nico Di Angelo is special and unique and has the power of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic on his side, so he tells her to fuck off AND keeps the trauma babies, without any sacrifice required at all. If you’re asking yourself what role Will has in this, it’s zero. Zilch. He was literally useless for the actual plot, but we’ll get to that later.

After escaping Tartarus with Bob, Small Bob, Will and trauma babies, Nico finds out this entire thing has been plotted by Hades, who faked a whole prophecy to send his own son back to Tartarus and save Bob, because he knew Nico could do it and he loves Bob or whatever. Hades also hugs Nico and tells him he’s proud of him because he’s special and unique, and for some incomprehensible reason that I’m still attempting to concoct Nico doesn’t kick his ass for it.

He re-traumatised Nico just to get Bob out of Tartarus (because his voice was bothering him or whatever) but… I guess that’s okayyy?

I’m not going to comment any further on Nyx and trauma babies because frankly it’s just plain weird. Like I don’t even know what to say, except that it seems kind of far-fetched for a primordial goddess to do all that for Some Guy. I do have something to say against the Some Guy, though.

6) Someone sucker punch Nico, please.

Never have I ever seen a character act like such a dumb asshole for the entire run of a book while somehow being worshipped for being the Best Person Ever.

You know what was great about Nico? The fact that the books weren’t constantly yelling at you that HE IS GOOD HE IS GOOD HE IS GOOD HE IS GOOD LOOK AT HIM BEING GOOD DOING A THANKLESS JOB BECAUSE HE’S GOOD. You just kinda had to put 2 and 2 together. He acted like he wanted nobody and cared for nobody but we, the readers, called bullshit because everything he did went against that narrative. And when he was outed in HoH, we all said “oooooh”. Him loving Percy made so much more sense than him hating Percy, because his actions spoke louder than his words.

He was a kid, and he was going through it, but he was never completely won over by the bad side because he cared too much about people, even when they didn’t care about him. To quote myself, Nico has never won the idgaf war.

Well, in this book he won the idgaf war. He treated Will like shit, which we’ll attribute to nerves. His thoughts about dead people desperately looking for redemption or release were disturbingly unsympathetic, and he just did things without ever thinking of the consequences for others.

To be fair, this wasn’t a total 180 for him: Nico was previously shown to be touchy and defensive (hence the being mean to Will, who occasionally makes the grave mistake of expressing a thought that isn’t overwhelmingly positive on the literal worst place on the planet), cold (him killing Bryce and Octavian etc) and impulsive. Character flaws, we love them!!

Except that the final moral of the book is that Nico is The Best Person Ever Who Never Asked For Anything In Return For His Whole Complete Goodness And Now Gets An Army Of Little Trauma Babies Who Worship Him.

Ummm… Nico canonically commited murder? Hello?

Sure, he was never Bad, and Love Was In His Heart and all, but the entire point of his character arc was deciding that love was enough. Nico has, again and again, flirted with the bad guys, and been sketchy. He’s not PJO’s Jesus, and this last minute treatment of him was so weird.

We all wanted Nico to have a Win™️ , but it could have been anything less on the nose (NICO IS SO GREAT GUYS OMG) and it still would have been fine.

Also just… idk there’s something that rubs me the wrong way about pretending that pre-tsats Nico was trauma trauma trauma pain pain pain. Life is complex. Nico was a character that happened to go through things, not a character that things happened to with nothing else going for him.

What about Will, though? Well…

7) Will, get behind me.

Is he dumb? Yes.

Does he understand Nico perfectly? No.

Do I like him? The jury is out.

But he did not deserve this slander. Like, omg. He spent the book getting bullied and being useless in battles because he’s not a fighter and Tartarus makes Apollo’s kids weak (wow who would have thought!).

Nico made him cry, for fucks’ sake. A full on sob cry. Admittedly he had acted foolishly but damn.

He’s just a silly little guy, your honor😭

He also, inexplicably, didn’t expeditiously call his father or his mother or the firefighters or someone to kidnap Hades and flog him, despite the fact that Hades tortured his boyfriend for months and sent them both to Tartarus on a fake prophecy.

On a bright note, his pov was actually pretty okay.

So yeah, anon. This book is a pile of genuinely weird, kinda mean spirited and annoyingly moralistic garbage that created PJO Jesus, gave said PJO Jesus babies (?) shoved a couple of gay jokes in the middle of it as if I wouldn’t notice the rest, unwatered my crops, uncleared my skin, single-handedly managed to kill my PJO fixation that has been going on since middle school in six hours and kicked my dog on top of it.

Thanks for reading.

#tsats spoilers #ask #this is really long

[burningvelvet]

to cope with my post-binge blues from watching black sails, i just finished the treasure island audiobook. it's my first time with any treasure island media - now i have to watch the muppets movie. any way here are my thoughts:

- i knew the character of trelawney had to be based on the romantic era edward john trelawny of byron/shelley fame and I WAS RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sources: WONG, AMY R. “The Poetics of Talk in Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island.’" A Sandison Robert Louis Stevenson and the Appearance of Modernism

- i know that black sails isn't fully intended to be a perfect prequel or meant to be taken as filling in all of the gaps to treasure island but i'm still going to compare & contrast the two lol

- billy spending his whole life obsessed with flint and having alcohol withdrawal induced hallucinations about him. OMG. and i'm shocked that they just casually dropped that he visited flint in georgia to get the map like did flint request to see him before he died, was it just about the map, or did he want closure about the whole thing, did billy seek flint out, why didn't they kill each other, how the fuck did that whole thing go? i need more information dammit

- saw another post on here talking about how in black sails flint has that speech about the drunk guy named flint asking his grandpa for rum before disappearing into the sea and then in treasure island we find out flints last words were asking a "darby mcgraw" for rum before he died SO IN THE BLACK SAILS UNIVERSE DARBY IS HIS GRANDPA and so im wondering DID FLINT 1.0 EVER EXIST AT ALL OR WAS IT SIMPLY FORESHADOWING ALL ALONG but at the same time it doesnt matter because the black sails creators said the ending is intentionally canonically up to interpretation and black sails canon and treasure island canon dont match up any way but still it gives us so much to think about bc we never canonically find out who the fuck darby is

- the doctor is the funniest character ever and him giving zero shits about billy or silver is hilarious LMAO

- rly enjoy the descriptions of the contents of billy's pockets and chest. i love old shit and that whole nautical aesthetic ugh. im currently wondering about the significance of the five sea shells billy had (jim wonders abt them too) if they were souvenirs from the island or what... but we never find out!!

- and what the fuck was up with those black spots I NEED ANSWERS! It worked on Billy but not Silver?

- having grown up on PotC i'm very enthused at the references (the song, the rum, "dead mens chest," etc)

- wish we saw more of jims mom, she was lowkey a badass for a moment there telling everyone off and willing to face the wrath of the pirates with her son lol

- love how the men just take jim on for his valour and then decide to make him a cabinboy and the mom just gets a replacement son to help her around the house lmaoooo i wonder if that was a common thing for single women to do though?

- long john silver has a sort of jekyll/hyde personality (btw the author stevenson also wrote jekyll/hyde for those of you who dont know!) - also why the fuck did they leave him to his own devices toward the end and not have a gun on him 24/7 like? i was also shocked that he didnt run off with all the gold only some of it. most chaotic character ever

- my biggest questions are why did black sails take out the alcoholism and the sea shanties? but importantly the alcholism - if they were going for gritty, as they were? flint and billy's alcoholism is integral to their characters (defines their characters actually) in the book as contrasted by silvers moderation & thats rly interesting. and the lack of singing is just boring - pirates rly did have sea shanties - however i can understand for time constraints per episode and whatnot them taking out the singing for practicality - but the alcoholism again is integral to those characters as well as being historically accurate and realistic & would have added a lot imo

EDIT: immediately after posting this i realized that since there are a few years between the treasure burial and flint's supposed death in georgia, he could have become a drunk in that time if we're creating a black sails to treasure island timeline, and billy wouldn't have become a drunk til later on since black sails is set roughly 20 yrs before treasure island.

HOWEVER - by the talks of it in treasure island, and all the pirates referring to flint as a drunk etc., it would still seem that flint was always that way when they knew him, prone to drinking... but at the same time i guess you could say all the characters are jollier than in black sails as indicated by their singing and their more stereotypical piratey ways.

however i still think the alcoholism & addiction theme would have added an extra layer to everything especially after flints sad drunk scene with eleanor. also in toby stephens deep fathoms interview he said flint is essentially like an addict when it comes to his delusion & desires. anyway i digress

transcript here, audio is on youtube: https://www.justsaypodcast.com/blog/2018/12/18/transcript-interview-with-toby-stephens-of-black-sails

#queue #black sails #treasure island #currently reading #book review #book thoughts #age of sail #pirates #piracy #book opinions #robert louis stevenson #starz #billy bones #long john silver #captain flint #analysis #thoughts #my writing #my thoughts #my analysis

[queenlua]

one of the funniest documents released so far in the google antitrust trial is this set of emails between a Google Ads bigwig and a Google Chrome bigwig, in which the Ads bigwig begs Chrome to roll back some-feature-or-another because buh-buh-buh my ads revenue ;_;

and it's interesting in that it's a pretty clear illustration of both (1) google has so much data, they absolutely have to know that search quality is getting worse, presumably in more intimate quantitative detail than us non-data-havers are ever going to have, but (2) that doesn't matter because merely having that information doesn't mean they'll make wise or good decisions with it

which is not an especially novel observation, but—among e.g. older folks, or less-internet-cynicism-poisoned folks, i still sometimes run into people who kind of take it as a weird article of faith that surely The People In Charge of these companies know what they're doing, and if a decision seems kinda dumb or nearsighted, well, clearly they wouldn't just be doing stuff based on vibes or short-termism, they're too smart for that

i hear this among even people who should know way better? like i know this guy whose late career went through some serious Death-of-a-Salesman type shit due to fuckwits in the hospital administration, and... dude's still like "well surely company is doing [x] for a good reason." like. they're doing it for some reason, sure. but i wouldn't jump to assume a good one!

and i mean for some people i think that kind of thing is a desperate article of faith, because the alternative is just sort of depressing—had a chat with an older couple a while ago, where one of them was like, hey, we're getting older and there's not enough doctors, is this AI stuff going to solve that? and i kinda gave my most diplomatic off-the-cuff thoughts of "uhhh i mean it might be a useful diagnostic tool for certain things but i think healthcare's problems are kinda... deeper... than that?", and the other member of the couple was like, that's right, did you know 70% of healthcare spending is for chronic conditions, AI's only going to help for the remaining 30%, and certainly isn't going to help us much. and the other person was like "i know you're right," but looked a lil deflated—clearly she's worried about getting old, and the only damn thing the press is hyping up is AI, and she's world-wise enough to know the alternative is, uh, kinda bad, so. i get it

(i have a friend whose pet theory is that the Greatest Generation was just disproportionately stuffed with competent people in various governmental/regulatory/business-y posts, because the Great Depression fucked up so many careers that you had overqualified people in a lot of roles that were usually more drudgery-y making sure those jobs got done really well... and ergo the children of that generation have a weirdly high opinion of How Well People Are Running Things... which seems like a kinda dodgy theory to me, but i also saw Joe Coulombe tout this theory in his book about Trader Joe's, so, clearly this theory has some kind of memetic force behind it? idk)

anyway that's a lot of off-the-cuff rambling to say: i'm always glad when a trial leaks a bunch of documents to the public so everyone can see The Boring And Kinda Dumb Ways That Rooms Full O' Bigwigs Decide Things haha

[ivomartins]

(HS anon here turning into the SoCN anon for a bit.)

Usually I would go for someone like Livius he's a short king a refuse to accept he's taller than Evthys. Dude is the sweetest in the friendship route like omg they are besties and they have Friendship. Necklaces. 🥺💕

And usually I don't go for the... "Toxic" LI; most of the time they annoy me, not because they are eViL, but because they act like spoiled babies and I can't take them seriously.

But Amen... Ah, Amen. I'm obsessed with this Giant Motherfucker™. He's creepy; he's pathetic; he's awful, him big; he's an asshole; he looks fashionable great in purple, but black/red is not his colour. And absolutely no one in the story likes him except Evthys. And yet he acts like a gentle giant with my girl, and he has the cutest smile like, what the fuck that's illegal. Everything about their relationship is so disturbing and sensual at the same time, I can't help but be intrigued. Like, big boy was holding Evthys' hand and wanted to kiss her fingers and nails, and then next scene he's torturing someone by pulling their nails/fingers. That's just so fucked up and I. Love. It.

And it bothers me that the author, instead of accepting that yeah, dude is a monster. She goes, nooooo but he's bored by torture, he's not that baaaaad. Really? Why does he have a favourite tool then? Make it make sense! He's literally like, oh I gotta get the old and reliable Betty to torture this person hehe.

Also, I'm obsessed with the fact that Amen saw Evthys and he was like "I can fix her". Same, dude, same.

KJFDGKDFHG supreme epistates who? i only know him as Giant Motherfucker™ now

random fangirling i just want to throw out there before i'm forced to revert back to coherent thought: his supreme epistates outfit has rotted my brain and i genuinely consider him the hottest character in the book (after evthys) bc of that outfit alone + his smile is lovely but can we please talk about his SAD FROWN??? and his doubtful expression when he's looking to the side??? or how hot he is when he has his hood pulled up??? PLEASE

but ok see, my thing is... i love all these qualities about amen too and love him as a character but overall i'm just turned off by how sterile his scenes are in their passion like. i get that the attraction between him and evthys is so wild it completely consumes them but ?? where is the intimacy, where is the genuine connection, where is the emotional core that makes their scenes more than just boner-riddled smut lol like... i would really love to know what he loves about evthys aside from her feistiness and bomb ass body. i would love to see them have moments that boil down to something other than wanting to rip the clothes off each other

i mean amen only won me over when things got really candid and intimate between them when he was supporting evthys through her grief (their hurt/comfort deadass made me go insane) and i was really looking forward to seeing them build on that and develop more trust and just get closer beyond a physical sense but everything just keeps boiling down to physical attraction :\ and that's the only reason why livius is a tick above amen for me rn because that bitch was out here literally "bringing the colors back into her life"??? being her rock through everything that's happening??? seeing through evthys' bullshit and truly knowing her as if they've always been close???

like when we do get that shit w amen, we get it good like when he held evthys on the riverbank or when he kept fussing over her health and her skill as a scribe out of genuine concern for her future or when he added that flirty ass comment on her godawful drawing 😭 so i'm desperately manifesting that remy will get her shit together and start giving us more of that instead of boiling everything down to horniness because. i would love to go insane over amen again ngl

#romance club #song of the crimson nile #shut up jen #conversations

[dross-the-fish]

what do you think of the 1994 Frankenstein movie?

I'll be honest, I hate on that one more for its wasted potential than anything else. I feel like it tried to adapt the book but then it kept adding stupid shit and missing the mark.

Let's start with it's biggest crime. Kenneth Branagh, our director.

Oh Kenny Branagh my beloathed. We meet again. I've had it out for you ever since I had to stomach your ridiculous Shakespeare movies in high school drama class. I've watched as you brought your overwrought hammy sensibilities to Agatha Christie's Poirot and now here you are, injecting all of your overblown histrionics into Frankenstein.

I didn't think it was possible to be too dramatic for Frankenstein. But by god you've done it. There is so much scenery chewing, screeching, writhing and sweating in this that I actually started to feel fatigued and clocked out mentally about half way through the film.

Kenneth cast himself as the lead and I hate this version of Victor so much.

Wtf is this? Why does he have abs? Why is he in his mid 30's? Where is my sickly waif who gets feverish at the drop of a hat? Why have you done this?

Also I know they're canonically engaged but I really dislike for Victor and Elizabeth to be horny for each other especially in this movie because they keep bringing up their relationship as siblings and it's just eugh, please don't talk about her like that and then remind us that she's your sister you fucking weirdo. Their relationship in the book comes off as super uncomfortable to me and I swear Victor is way more into Robert and Henry than he is Elizabeth. Naturally this movie decided it should have next to no homoeroticism.

"How do brothers and sisters say good bye?" - start aggressively making out. No I'm not joking this movie goes out of its way to remind you that they are siblings.

.... And then it goes there with it.

Victor actually proposes to her and then asks her to come to Ingolstadt with him or offers to stay in Geneva with her and it's at that point where I'm like: did you read this book? Victor dodged their semi-arranged engagement like the woman had cooties and didn't write to her for two years because he's an obsessive, neurotic wreck.

Oh yeah and Henry Clerval is in it.

Oh were you hoping for more of him? That's a shame because so was I.

I've mentioned that this movie is over dramatic. But that really can't be understated. It's like a mac truck crashing through an English garden. No subtlety at all. If a character has to feel something they're usually screaming at the top of their lungs. Victor screaming at the creature to live, the creature literally ripping Elizabeth's still beating heart from her chest and showing it to Victor. They decided the bride should be Elizabeth and that there should be weird tension between her and the creature. Then after she's brought back to life she sets herself on fire and starts running down the halls of the manor.

I should probably have found that more tragic than I did but I just found the whole thing silly.

Justine's death in particular should have been more heavy and somber. She gets dragged off by a mob and hung. The scene is violent and cruel but it lacks the tragedy of the book. We have none of Justine quietly giving up and Elizabeth vehemently refusing to believe she's guilty. It's one of the few character building moments Elizabeth gets and this movie takes what should be a touching, somber and heartbreaking scene and turns it into a spectacle.

Everyone's reaction to everything is to do the most extreme thing possible but they never actually earn it because moments were the film SHOULD have emotional weight are kind of glanced over. The book has a lot of themes of grief and isolation but the film doesn't really explore those aspects effectively. It never stops to have a quiet or thoughtful moment. Almost like it's afraid the audience will get bored if someone isn't shrieking at the top of their lungs and some action heavy drama is going down.

The pacing in this film is jarring. Kenneth Branagh has a love for lavish sets, beautiful scenery and his films, if nothing else, are opulent spectacles, there are moments in this film where the cinematography is actually quite beautiful but I always feel that it's wasted by clumsy execution.

There are also scenes that come so painfully close to working, like early on in the movie Elizabeth and Justine drag Victor away from his work to go on a picnic and he only goes because he's hoping for a storm. He puts down a lightning rod and has everyone get down so they can observe the strike. I thought that could have been really neat and a good way to set up Victor's obsession but the execution was so clunky and the moment the lightning strikes and the four of them feel the static isn't allowed to sit and breathe. It jolts to the very next scene with no transition.

There are things I like about Robert De Nero's creature.

I like his design, even if it's not book accurate. I don't inherently like the idea of him being a resurrected cadaver of a specific criminal but I do, at times, almost like what they do with it, like having him wonder who all of his various parts came from. De Niro is a strong actor and I feel like there were the makings of a good performance here and it was stifled under bad writing and directing. I actually like most of the scenes where the creature speaks to Victor and the line "What of my soul? Do I have one? Or was that a part you left out? Who were these people of which I am comprised? Good people? Bad people?" is spoken with such poignant suffering that you really see how lost the creature is and it drives home the tragedy of the creature's condition. The creature is begging Victor to see him as human and Victor cannot or will not.

But these rare moments of something good peeking out are few and far between and the movie devolves again into it's predilection for overblown bombast. Even the final scene where the creature finds Victor dead on Robert Walton's ship isn't allowed to have the gravitas it deserves because Victor's funeral ends with the ice breaking in yet another tedious action sequence and the creature floats out to sea on a chunk of the broken ice setting himself and Victor's corpse on fire.

This was a moment in the movie that should have been handled with dignity and regret and I got this:

There's really not much else to say about this film. I went into it hoping for a good Frankenstein adaptation and I tried to find salvageable scraps but there just wasn't enough good to make the movie worthwhile for me.

Anyway, sorry this turned into a whole review but I was bitterly disappointed in this film and ended up having a lot to say.

#1994 frankenstein #Frankenstein #Dross reviews

[sohmariku]

Riku's Random Life: Wedding Rant!?

Have I ever told you I absolutely hate weddings? I absolutely cannot fathom what people like about them. Why do we throw lavish parties just to promise someone that we plan to spend the rest of our life with them! There is absolutely no added value there. They are just an absolute waste of money! Nothing enjoyable about them at all. Long and boring ceremonies, ridiculous speeches that expose every stupid thing you ever did, annoying dress codes, mediocre food... Do I need to go on? I personally don't see the point.

Getting married is one thing, but a wedding...

Do you know what's worse than attending a wedding as a guest?

It's planning a wedding!

And there isn't even anything to plan! Or, rather... There wasn't supposed to be anything to plan! Other than contacting the city hall and getting the legalities of the ceremony sorted.

Ah yes, I'm getting married...

Thankfully my fiancée has always agreed with me that weddings are a waste of money. So it was never going to be a lavish party. Just a small group of guests, a short ceremony, and then dinner in some restaurant. Anything more and I'd probably not survive the day without some kind of meltdown.

To increase my survival rate, the restaurant has turned into "homemade cake and drinks in our living room after the ceremony".

It was all supposed to be simple, but then the questions started coming in. And it started driving me insane! As I feared, people have expectations of what a wedding is supposed to be... and I'm not having it!

What are you going to wear? I'll probably order some dress online. One I might also wear in daily life. I'm not buying some expensive wedding dress for a 15-minute ceremony and a "reception" in my own living room! (Fiancée is aware of this.) What's the dress code? I don't fucking care. Just wear clothes. (Fiancée insisted on at least telling our guests to dress neatly.) When will you send the (official) Wedding invitation cards? I'm not sending any! Fuck off! It's a waste of money. You get an email or a text. Deal with it! (Thought we agreed on this, but then Fiancée said he wanted to send a physical card to his parents, because they love cards... After initially refusing to make an exception for such a ridiculous reason, I begrudgingly agreed to let him send invitation cards to our parents. I reminded myself it is his wedding too. I don't get to decide everything by myself. I still think the cards are unnecessary.) Where are going for your honeymoon? We're not going on a honeymoon. We're still planning to visit Japan later this year, but that's got nothing to do with the wedding! (Fiancée has been calling our planned trip to Japan a honeymoon since before he even proposed though. It's not! We would still go, even if we weren't getting married.)

By now, every mention of my wedding is sending my anxiety levels through the roof, leaving me instantly exhausted!

This is why I didn't want a wedding ceremony! Just let me sign the paperwork and let's call it a day!

Yes, I get people who have questions. And yes, some of them make sense, but... when an Aunt, who isn't even invited, asked to be sent a wedding invitation card anyway... that blew my fuse! How does that make sense! I'm most definitely not sending invitations to people who aren't invited!

What also doesn't help is the fact that I wasn't given enough time to adjust to the idea of having a wedding. Yes, we originally planned to get married in September, but since my brother (who lives in Japan) was supposed to visit around that time. But when he still hadn't booked his tickets in begin July, I pretty much started assuming we would be delaying the wedding till next year, because time was running short and the city hall likely wouldn't be able to accommodate us on such short notice.

Lo and behold, my brother suddenly booked his plane tickets and somehow the city hall still has two dates available in September. So, a week before I'm to leave on a two-week camping trip my fiancée starts arranging the paperwork to get married in September after all. This is mid-July! We're getting married in the first week of September! I had to fill out the legal paperwork on my phone while camping!

The moment I returned home it was time to start considering what I would be wearing that day. After telling myself over and over again I'd buy something from within the country, I ended up ordering from Yesstyle after all. (Because it's so pretty and not too expensive!) I seem to do this every time a wedding comes up, be it my own or someone else's. I tell myself to get something from within the country, or at least within Europe, but then I end up ordering from Yesstyle after all, because they just always seem to have what I'm looking for. And each time I'll be eating myself up, because the delivery time is gonna cut it really close. So, if the dress doesn't fit, I'm screwed. And the tracking code isn't much use either, as I clearly won't be showing any updates until the package is basically on my doorstep already. (It's been stuck on "prenotification received" for nearly a week now.)

Ugh... best day of your life. Who came up with that! My own wedding is more likely to be the worst day ever, and I'll be glad when it's over.

I'll try to enjoy it, I will. But I fear the worst...

#Riku's Random Life #Getting sick of me already? #I really needed to get this off my chest #I absolutely hate weddings #My older brother's wedding was all right #But only because it gave me an excuse to visit Japan #Kind sucks that one did end with a trip to the hospital though #Youngest brother suddenly got incredibly ill #And I got to be the interpreter #I had been super ill in the days leading up to the wedding too #Was still recovering #Fun times #I want my wedding to be over already!

[stardustmade009]

12/29/23 Hasan Piker said to please defend him more, finally I have been given the permission I need to sephiroth post. Late Christmas Early New Year Miracle!!!! Drama frog rejoice

(cross posting from reddit)

Hi long time lurker. And look, this is a page about HASAN PIKER. This is the place for what I'm about to do, I'm a girl with a bunch of interests and sometimes those interests intersect in ways I just sit on for years cause quite honestly I'm using "girl" v loosely and I'm 31 woman and I know what "cringe" is because I wrote the book, so I just kinda shit post in comments on twitter to release the stress of being a fan of Hasan, and I don't have a twitter anymore, so I thought I was just going to have to die on this.

But finally, on this day I was watching a clip from the 12-29-23 at 4 in the morning cause I got off work early (https://youtu.be/kMwQQmVMcAw?si=XhjWf6R_O5UgH9MX&t=294) and I got all I need to let out about 4 years of built up Hasan drama. So mods, Daddy said I could so please please please don't delete this. This is perfect fodder on who to block personally and as I will elaborate, I done my time in this community, just let me have my soap box.

Who am I and what give me this authority? (a disclaimer) As stated above I'm up at 4 am, and this is "off early", I work nightshift factory job in middle america who's worked there for 10 years with a long side story I will not bore you with. I found Hasan when he did the breakdown on fb and just liked the way he broke down the news. Is he a perfect person? No. There are many things I wish he didn't do. (Hoobastank) But on the whole, solid person who's world view is refreshing to listen to and I don't lose sleep in supporting my like in him because he tries to be ethical with his spending and its like $5, come on, I can spend $5 to enjoy myself ad free at that top of the hour if I want. I work 12 hour shifts.

But as I said, I work 12 hours, and where Hasan sometimes makes 10 hours of content, I also have other interests and sometimes I'm doing that, sometimes I'm a drama girlie (and it's super sexist if you judge me), sometimes I'm a goblin. And boy howdy how I wish the drama girlies would rally around Hasan because he's chill with QT and Rae, cause then I wouldn't have to do this myself. But alas, we must all sometimes be the change we want to see in the world, and the drama girlies don't know about this filth, so here I am. Youtube channel-less and angry. So I'm gonna vent about the latest drama here for a moment cause I've been sitting on this need since Hasan's biggest mistake, befriend the worlds more admired online deadbead father since Onision, Steven Kenneth Bonnell II (wiki).

The Meat and Potatoes (If you don't want my auto-bio but wanna be a drama goblin with me) I find it ABSOLUTELY INSANE that ANYONE in the dgg orbit thinks they get to get their fucking panties in a twist over "edgy jokes" like mocking Claira "Harassed a woman over a tweet about a cookbook for two years" Sorrenti doing cocaine with a Road Runner gif when she went on a very public bender and harassed every fucking person she could and hides behind being a fucking addict instead of showing even a drop of remorse for her action past the "I want to keep my job and keep calling myself the one true leftist so I'm sorry uwu" video/clip from a stream she didn't even have the time to do on its own, I don't remember but I watched it and she was full of shit cause I don't believe the cocaine bender was 2 years, aka the amount of time she harassed Roslyn Talusan, unless those "tasty noodles" has the flour subbed out with cocaine.

"Oh but but but Hasan said the r slur that one time" harks the orbitor. oh, wow. The community where if I even could edit there is no program around that could make a montauge of the amoung of time even one of your favs has said it, and Hasan has, say it with me, changed and tries not to be a fucking asshole, something you orbitor fucks could never understand.And the most insane of it all is the worse thing you could list of things Hasan REALLY did and has shown zero remorse for, beside the cracker thing, they cheered gleefully because they liked his more dirtbag shit. Hasan having the most unhinged reaction to being asked to not do a fundraiser with Hogwarts Legacy for the trans community, I've never seen them gargle balls harder. WHY?? Cause they wanted to bully Jessie Gender, a truly respectable person.

That was the only real thing. (a bit tongue in cheek I'm too high and this is much longer than I planned on he has done some other things. but they were mouth to sack there too)

"Oh but he was wrong about RUSSIA!!!!!" Do you fire the weather person for being wrong? Shut up.

So to all of them, either get a real job other than being the most annoying online cult or hurry up and drink the coolaid or whatever your own cults endgame is. I've blocked you and you're still leaking through. Idk. Idc. Just leave Hasan Piker Alone.

#hasan piker #hasanabi #drama #twitter drama #jessie gender

[stxleslyds]

LET'S TALK: THE LAZARUS PIT

(2022 VERSION)

It has been a long while since I have put some of my thoughts on this piece of DC lore out there. If you have ever come across some of my Lazarus Pit posts you would know that I am very disappointed with how DC and Fandom have transformed the “green soup” that restored any injury (not death) successfully with little to no side effects into something along the lines of the Lazarus Pit the mighty green juice that will bring you back from the dead no matter how long you have been dead for and also Lazarus Pit Madness (that can be used to take autonomy away from your fav character to make him bland.)

So, yeah, as you can see, I have some problems with the progression of the Lazarus Pit lore in fanon but mostly in canon (or wannabe canon). We took something that was used by a selected few to recover from injuries in an almost ritualistic way and others when they got the chance if they did things right, into what is basically a free for all that also brings you fully back from the dead.

I mean, aside from the adventure and magic or mystic thing that is lost, we also loose the big impact of death in comics (which is already in shambles), someone dies now and if editorial doesn’t want to look away profusely, the Lazarus Pit might be a page a way to resurrect anyone.

It is not that it happens a lot, but the prospect of it is boring and kinda lazy.

But to the Lazarus Pit we are now adding the Lazarus Pit Resin, that super chemical green juice that cannot be given to living things but can bring back ANYONE from the dead (fully or not depending on how much of it is provided). And, if you give it to living things you might drive them insane and make them high as fuck.

The thing is… right now both things kinda do the same, they both, in canon, bring people back from the dead, so I wonder, what’s the point? You are just giving us more options on how to use the green juice? Seems lame to me!

I was thinking that maybe it is due time that the Lazarus Pit gets a soft reboot, or much like DC does, just rewrite the lore and tell no one about it.

What if the Lazarus Pit goes back to its “green soup” self, the one that can ONLY restore injuries of any kind, with an added difficulty of there being very few Pits and in the possession of people who do not want to share it unless they get something pretty big in return.

But to add some dept, you could have some very shady people, who got access to a Lazarus Pit (in shady ways) and have developed a serum or whatever called Lazarus Pit Resin that through various attempts (that can be explored) it is now able to bring back people from the dead if a full dose is given.

Which, I KNOW, is the plot of Task Force Z (or at least up until the point in which I read it) but the major difference that I am offering is that the Lazarus Pit just doesn’t bring you back from the dead and we just rid ourselves of the “Pit Madness” or whatever, that didn’t exist and shouldn’t have been brought into existence.

It is so weird for comics, that already have many ways to bring characters back from the dead, to have more things, like the Lazarus Pit, turn into an endless source of “bring back to life juice”. It is just boring and a bit lacking in creativity, because it was never the Lazarus Pit’s purpose.

Jason Todd, the character that I care for and the only reason why I am writing this post, was brought back to life because of COSMIC JUJU. Superboy literally punched reality and Jason woke up dead in his coffin.

Jason Todd was NOT BROUGH BACK TO LIFE VIA LAZARUS PIT. Jason Todd is an interesting character with a whole book that dives deep into how he came back to life and how the Lazarus Pit was used to HEAL HIS MIND while his body was starting to work correctly.

Whatever came after is pure nonsense. I dare anyone to try and keep up with Lobdell and Tomasi’s bullshit regarding Jason Todd and Talia and whomever else’s use of Lazarus Pit to bring back Jason from the dead, give him some sort of mental strength to see power within himself or whatever else…. If you keep up with that, you actually have superpowers, congratulations!

Now, I didn’t finish Task Force Z, but when I was still reading it Jason died again and was given the Lazarus Pit Resin, so there is that PLUS a theory that I had (that I don’t know if it was real) that Jason had been given small doses of Lazarus Pit Resin while he still was alive…If that was true, it would have implied that people who had previously took a dip in the sauce were more Lazarus Pit Resin friendly in life, but THAT is just a former theory of mine that I never got to see if it was real or not.

Anyway, this is my Lazarus Pit rant of 2022. I couldn’t really let this year pass by without me talking some nonsense about this nonsense.

#jason todd #red hood #dc comics #fanon vs canon #lazarus pit #tati vs dc canon

[somestorythoughts]

Evil Perry again

Saw a “none shot” post earlier and felt called out so decided I would post this. I’ve seen 3 or 4 fics that involve or are entirely about Perry ending up at Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated after getting injured and Heinz helping him out, and how that’d work with this role swap has been floating around my head so. Voila:

Perry is literally five steps away from his bed before he hears the crash and glares at his clock. It is nearly 2 in the goddamn morning who is crashing outside his house? Then again, that hadn’t sounded like in front of the house. He looks out the window into the backyard and wonders why Agent O’s hovercar is crashed maybe a foot from his magnolia tree.  Wait. Fuck. He runs outside. The hovercar isn’t in good shape but it isn’t on fire so things can’t be too bad. The door opens with only a little trouble. Agent O is slumped against the steering wheel and Perry pulls him back to see how careful he needs to be moving him. He’s wearing a bulletproof vest that seems to have done it’s job, but his thigh is covered in blood. There are pieces of shrapnel sticking out of his leg and a bullet hole not far from it. So it’s not good, and he’s lost a lot of blood, but it doesn’t look like something Perry needs help to handle. He drags the agent out of the car and into the spare bedroom. He almost never uses it, if the place hadn’t come with three bedrooms he would have just converted it into a workspace, but there have been times when it helps to have an extra bed.  ‘I thought you were a mechanic’ Perry signs at the unconscious Heinz. He grabs the first aid kit and hopes the idiot hasn’t bled out too much, because he has precisely no blood lying around and he’d prefer not to rob a blood bank if he doesn’t have to. Besides, he doesn’t know the agent’s type. Once the stitching is finished he locks the bedroom door, cleans up the blood on his floors, sets an alarm so he remembers to text his family that he thinks he caught a bug and doesn’t want them to come over (the kids usually let him know if they’re visiting but surprises do happen), and goes to see if the wreck can tell him why his nemesis crashed in his backyard.

Heinz wakes up slowly. The ceiling above his head is light green, which is not the color of his bedroom or O.W.C.A’s medical center. He turns his head and sees Perry sitting in a chair across from him, book in hand, glaring. That wakes him up pretty fast. “Perry the Platypus!” He’s never been certain how the guy feels about that nickname but he has platypuses all over his house so can’t be too annoyed. There’s a cartoonishly drawn one on his shirt right now actually. “What the hell am I doing here?” Perry’s frown deepens and he flicks his hand towards the bedside table. Heinz sits up carefully, his leg feels like someone has been stabbing it repeatedly, and grabs the painkillers and water from the table. “Well?” ‘Your autopilot judges the route to safety by the destination it arrives at most.’ Perry signs, still glaring. ‘Very sloppy, very stupid. What the hell were you thinking?’ “I didn’t design that, though apparently I’m going to have to fix it.” He grumbles. He doesn’t usually take the hovercar to get to headquarters, it’s conspicuous. If he doesn’t need to bring something in he usually takes the bus, which means that his nemesis’ house is the only place he uses it to get to regularly. He side-eyes Perry, who looks no less annoyed. “Thank you, but also why?” Perry’s expression shift, less annoyed and more displeased. ‘I don’t like sloppy work. You’re my nemesis, you don’t get to die because some idiot didn’t think a bit of code through.’ He paused, then added ‘Besides I’m not about to let you bleed out in my yard.’ He stands then, ignoring the wide grin on Heinz’s face. “Good to know you care.” Perry flips him off. ‘I’m getting you food, and then we’re getting you and that wreck out of my yard. I have plans to work on and I can’t do that if I need to worry about you wandering my lair because you got bored and picked the lock.’

#evil perry the platypus #agent heinz doofenshmirtz #heinz is agent ocelot #human perry the platypus #perryshmirtz #the nemeses of our childhoods #injury fic i guess #i have no clue if magnolias grow in Danville but I like them so fuck it #the bit about the autopilot is from Blurred Lines #a fic on AO3 my WineryWeiss #its good check it out

[yvtro]

op I am going fucking feral over "he can take on a tragedy, what about a tuesday?" thank you that is now being added to my charlie day conspiracy board meme jason todd edition

speaking as someone who is 19 and has been (figuratively in my case) dead inside for the past like five years I think jase should get to relearn how to be alive because I am doing that right now and shit slaps this fucker deserves to be happy! goddamn!

also in related news something I read once (in an analysis of superhero media in general lol): "it's about being /part/ of the world that you keep saving" and I thought you would find that interesting wrt jay meta

i've been thinking about this ask since yesterday. it's such an open-hearted message, so i will reply in kind, and tell you that the reason for which civilian jay and the general trope of him relearning how to live is very dear to me for basically the same one as yours.

interrupting my regular jayposting to go on a personal tangent (or a literature survey. or both.) but, around a year ago i came across this review of solnit's "orwell's roses," which contained this fragment (apologies if you have already seen it and to everyone else who did; i quote it all the time):

It strikes me, in this context, that one measure of maturity might be attaining an awareness that there can be no genuine devotion to fighting the forces that unworld the world without genuine devotion to the littlest manifestations of beauty that make this planet a world and this existence a life.

i'm not a part of any bigger effort to change the world, but then also didion's speech comes to mind:

I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave’s a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that’s what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it.

and then i also got to rereading some authors i used to be obsessed in high school with (lots of existentialist; a very typical adolescent phase i believe, so revisiting it felt a bit regressive), and i got into a space of mind very similar to what you describe. i think you really need to learn how to appreciate small things, or just even see small things, else there's nothing you can do.

and i like to project this quest onto jay, because it fits. it's about being /part/ of the world that you keep saving. you are so right. i'm just telling you to live in it.

thank you so much for sharing <3 i wish i had such a mature outlook on it when i was 19, you're also beating jay to the ground with it. i apparently needed years reading and rereading the same books to learn it. nevertheless, let's do our best.

#look at you making me talk about my feelings on my silly media analysis blog #*starts talking about my emotional state with 2 degrees of abstraction instead of 7* #but i'm very happy that what i say resonates with people sometimes #also i have a whole tag ab this on my main (@jutrzenko btw) called living for beginners.. #answered