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prince-liest · 10 months

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I’m reading Witch King by Martha Wells, and now that I have read more than one (1) series by this author, I have been suddenly brained with a two-by-four sharpied over with “realizing that I really enjoy novels by Martha Wells because they live in the specific niche created by the intersection of casually and thoroughly queer casts and non-romance storylines”

I am as ever a sucker for non-human main characters struggling with their very human feelings, which is why I jumped on Witch King the moment I saw “the author of Murderbot wrote another book with a main character that’s non-human,” but I live in this dichotomy where I can really enjoy reading queer romances but I don’t really identify with non-ace characters (which is not actually something I figured out how to differentiate until I was Last Week Years Old). so there are lots of books out there that I enjoy reading but it’s comparatively rare for me to read something that feels like it was written For Me and Martha Wells does that very well

anyway, give me more ace it-pronouns human-spliced robot main characters and people-eating demons who consider rank over gender when finding new bodies to inhabit

#text posts #martha wells #witch king #personal #her castes and universes are also very culturally and ethnically diverse but I've had ace-ness on the mind lately #so it was relevant to my ongoing thoughts #I never really read books that are advertised as specific types of diversity representation #especially with queer books what I like to read is books that are very queer but aren't ABOUT being queer #so I tend to steer clear when people are like read this the mc is a nonbinary lesbian witch without even really saying what the plot is #but martha wells writes books that are queer and brown and INFLUENCED by being queer and brown but #the characters still get to have their stories be ABOUT whatever fun sci fi fantasy shenanigans are ongoing #((inb4: this is my preference not an overal value judgment))#((I just want to read the same books I read when I was a little kid and have them just ALSO be lovingly diverse))#((and I only really read SFF))#in other news I was trying to figure out how to name my flavor of ace #and then I looked up the difference between demi and gray #and I realized gray is what I am looking for #very very dark gray

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is-the-owl-video-cute · 1 day

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Is North Korea actually bad

It is not what you have been told it is. There are many bad things about the government of North Korea, there are many bad things about those running it, but it is not what you have been told it is.

#Before passing judgment on eastern countries #keep in mind that it is in the best interest of western powers for you to fear and despise them #you are not immune to propaganda #I am not fully qualified to give you a detailed overview on an entire country I don’t live in though #All I can say is that you see what the west says about the Middle East and south east Asia and Latin America and much of Africa #when they are dishonest about so many countries already #why expect honesty from them about a political enemy

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masterpieceofunderstatement · 8 months

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Season 2, I just want to talk…

#siuan sanche #I’m trying to withhold judgment for the remainder of the season (….I said I’m trying. I didn’t say I’m succeeding)#season 2 if you don’t bring her back to me on the count of 10 you are SO grounded #I AM ENJOYING S2 SO DON’T COME FOR ME #I am a complex individual who can love the other plots (verin) while staying salty as heck

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dmclemblems · 1 year

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“Claude in Hopes is exactly the same way he is in Houses! He’s always been like that and has the same feelings/morals!”

Claude in GW/Hopes:

Claude, literally, in Houses:

Let that speak for the fact that Claude was written with a 180 characterization in Hopes.

Claude wants peace and to bring everyone together; not to tear them further apart. That is his character.

#I’m still in the middle of answering this ask I got but yeah #even Edelgard noticed Claude really loves bringing ppl together in WC #when she says ''you really value that sort of thing don't you'' after the Eagle/Lion (+Deer >.> ) battle #like if Claude's goal was to destroy Fodlan and just leave a mess of it A+++ you did an astounding show stopping brilliantly done job #if your goal was peace well you fucked that up pretty good buddy #in Hopes too like he's literally arguing with Lorenz about it while Lorenz is like ??? bruh wtf ???#literally who cares what some politicians did 300 years ago certainly not Houses Claude #in fact Claude said fuck our history sideways with a cactus let's make peace and be friends #AND he got the approval from the whole roundtable and that's all we know on the topic bc it's all we needed to know #versus in GW where it's explicitly stated that it took some doing for them to allow Claude to be king #meaning the roundtable was not up for what he was suggesting and needed to be convinced #they needed it enough that Lorenz pointed it out to everyone and from a narrative standpoint #AM Claude doesn't need to say how the meeting went and all we need to know is that it worked out #but in GW it's told to us that the meeting was very long and it took some doing for them to trust Claude's judgment #the meeting is presented in a more uncertain light with how the lords felt abt it whereas in AM #it's not told to us how things went bc it's not important. a negative aspect (i.e. the roundtable not being able to come to an agreement)#is an important thing to note and if there was any negative aspect of it in AM they would've put it in there #meaning the roundtable trusts AM Claude's judgment enough when he tells them he wants to put their two nations together again #idk how else to explain that so I hope you get what I mean lol #I just find it completely baffling that people actually say both Claudes are the same person and that he was always like how he is in Hopes #like you can like his character in Hopes and enjoy that portrayal of him but at least admit he's written differently you know?#I hate when I see people say that Claude fans didn't understand his character in Houses at all bc they don't like him in Hopes #when you have literal staunch polar opposite sentences coming out of his mouth in these two scenes #the Claude we get in AM is the same Claude - the same person at his core - as he is in VW and all the routes #Houses Claude does not blame whatever the fuck Leicester and Faerghus did 300 years ago on the people living in their present #he also doesn't blame Dimitri or anyone else presently in power for Daphnel #GW Claude there is just grasping at unimportant and insignificant straws to justify his invasion #pretty sure AM Claude would be like ''hey dimi lemme borrow failnaught back real quick'' and smack GW Claude with it #then kindly hand it back to Dimi and smile and wave

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daisiesonafield-blog · 1 year

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Louis Tomlinson is sequestered in the executive boardroom of a swanky hotel in suburban London, and is treating it the way a pupil might a classroom when the teacher’s popped out. He’s leaning back on his chair, feet up on a radiator, hands clasped behind his head and a cigarette on the go. “All right?” he says, grinning impishly.

Despite huge global success with One Direction (70 million albums sold), which prompted a fanaticism that made Beatlemania look tame, he seems remarkably unaffected and far more normal than one might expect from someone with 35.8 million Twitter followers. He’s a 31-year-old so unassumingly bloke-next-door that the bloke next door wouldn’t look twice.

“I’ve always had a problem with ‘ego’,” he says, “and I’ve always been worried about being one of those people in the public eye who just loses all sense of reality, and becomes an arsehole.” As if by way of explanation, he adds: “I’m from Doncaster.”

And so while his former 1D bandmate Harry Styles, a superstar, floats through life like the fashion world’s favourite clothes horse, Tomlinson kits himself out in JD Sports: Kappa T-shirt, black sweatpants, Adidas socks, scuffed trainers. When he tells you he often frequents his local pub unmolested, you believe him.

“If someone does come up after an hour to ask for a selfie, I won’t say no and I won’t run away,” he says, “’specially if I’m three pints deep!”

Of the five members of 1D, Tomlinson has had the slowest start to a solo career. There are compelling reasons for this — family tragedy for one — but he’s also had to figure out who he is without the band around him. “With this job,” he says, “there’s so much room for overthinking, you know? Someone from the record label will tell you they like your stuff, but you find yourself thinking: yeah, but do they? It’s the fans that help you really believe in yourself.”

In the band, Zayn Malik had the best voice and Styles had the best everything else. While the other three — Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Niall Horan — were hardly driftwood, each has nevertheless had to dig deep to carve out a solo persona that would compel beyond the bubble.

“I do miss the boys,” he says, “and I do definitely miss being one of the five, but I like doing my own thing too. It was time.”

It’s a bright winter’s day, and the man in sports casual is enjoying special dispensation here in the hotel: permission to light up. Had this been denied, there might well have been a problem, for Tomlinson chain-smokes with the wild abandon of Mad Men’s Don Draper.

After the release of his second solo album, Faith in the Future, in November, he adds another necessary notch in the belt of any self-respecting pop star next month: the documentary. All of Those Voices is a routine behind-the-scenes look at 21st-century celebrity but stands out for the multiple crises of confidence Tomlinson feels any time he’s not on stage.

“This is a confidence game for anyone,” he says earnestly, “and there’s been plenty of moments of vulnerability throughout the entire process.” An overriding concern of the documentary is not just whether people would be interested in him, but whether they’d take him, someone discovered on a TV talent show, seriously.

When Styles won his Grammy awards this month — he collected two and won four Brits — he used his acceptance speech to say that “this doesn’t happen to people like me very often”. This was swiftly ridiculed across social media because of course white men tend to win quite a lot. But what he likely meant was that it doesn’t happen to the product of manufactured boy bands, many of whom have the use-by date of a pint of milk.

“Only Harry knows what he means there, it’s hard to speculate,” Tomlinson says, “but we all came from relatively humble beginnings, and now we are where we are.”

But while Styles is a once-in-a-generation talent and knows it, his erstwhile bandmates — and this one in particular — need convincing.

Louis Tomlinson comes from a big family — his mother, Johannah Deakin, married twice and had seven children — and was a hopeful child actor before in 2010 auditioning for The X Factor. This is where 1D were created, “masterminded” by Louis Walsh. Deakin, who had Tomlinson when she was 19, was his biggest fan and they’d always been close. When, for example, Tomlinson lost his virginity, it was she he told first, not his friends.

In 2016, a year after One Direction split, she died from leukaemia, aged 42. Two years later, his 18-year-old sister, Félicité, who’d been struggling to get over her mother’s death, accidentally overdosed on cocaine, painkillers and an anxiety drug. The combined loss hit him hard. Aside from the single he wrote about his mother’s passing, 2020’s Two of Us, his mourning has been largely private.

He squints through a veil of cigarette smoke. “Some of the things that have happened recently have been quite drastic, yeah, but then so much in my life seems to have been pretty extreme, one way or the other.” In 2016, at the age of 25, a brief relationship with a Californian stylist, Briana Jungwirth, resulted in a son. “There’ve been challenging times, definitely. It’s funny, but I couldn’t even tell you how many years ago my mum passed, I just blank it out. But for the first 18 months, I’d take any form of bad luck personally. I’d feel every tiny thing. But now I genuinely feel I’ve come out the other side. I feel more empathy for everything and everyone these days.”

After his 2020 debut album, Walls, failed to set the world alight, Tomlinson called time on his relationship with Simon Cowell. “It was mostly amicable,” he says, nodding. “Simon always had my best interests at heart, and I liked him. He had his faults of course, like all of us, but it was always inevitable I’d have to go off and do my own thing.”

His new record, then, was a leap into the unknown and he elected to write not with professional songwriters but rather fellow creative artists: Theo Hutchcraft from the band Hurts, Joe Cross from the Courteeners and the singer-songwriter James Vincent McMorrow. “And that was a big difference, huge. These are people who live and breathe music. It’s the first time I felt really comfortable doing my own stuff, you know?”

Previously he’d been encouraged to sing like a nice young pop star should, without regional inflection. “When I was in the band,” he says, “working with professional songwriters whose entire aim was to write the hit single, they’d tell me that singing in my natural accent wasn’t commercial. Sorry, but what a shit idea! Who wants to sound like everybody else? I dumbed down a little bit in the band, because you do, but I’ve learnt who I am now.”

The album, which has its inspiration firmly in early Noughties indie, sounds more Kaiser Chiefs than One Direction. A risk, then. But when it came out, it debuted at No 1. While this did wonders for his confidence, it’s clear from the documentary that he still needs people — a support group — around him. He actively courts the friendship of his touring band, not necessarily a given among solo pop stars, and he seems almost always sociable. It’s when he’s not up for group activity that people worry. There’s a revealing moment in the documentary of him having just appeared on James Corden’s US talk show. Backstage Corden, an old friend, pleads with him not to go quiet on him afterwards. “You vanish, you change your number, no one knows [where you are],” he says.

Until recently Tomlinson lived in London with his long-term girlfriend, the model Eleanor Calder, but recent reports suggest they’ve split up and he’s dating another model, Sofie Nyvang. Life, clearly, is complicated. Perhaps that’s why he smokes so much. He says, though, that he feels finally relieved of the myriad pressures that once clung to being a pop star whose fanbase was predominantly teenage. Such as?

“Well, being a role model for one. I never wanted that. I always had to worry whether it was OK if, say, I was seen here or if I could get away with smoking a joint there, before concluding: hmm, probably not. But I never wanted to be the perfect pop star, especially in the climate of Instagram. I don’t want to put an artificial world out there. I think it’s important that people see your scars, your flaws.”

It’s never easy growing up in public and Tomlinson had no choice. “When One Direction split up,” he says, “I was mortified, I was absolutely gutted. I was a bit bitter, I suppose because it just felt like another loss to me. But I’ve a better understanding of things now, and there’s not as much anger. It is what it is.

“Getting back together at some point is hard to imagine right now,” he continues, “but I’d be surprised if we lived out our lives and didn’t have a moment where we had a reunion, or whatever you want to call it. I’d be up for that.”

When I ask what it’s like watching Styles’s ascendance into the biggest star of his generation — something that might delay such a reunion — he blows out a long plume of smoke.

“Well, it’s not a surprise is it? We were always aware that Harry fit that mould, and it’s been an amazing thing to watch. Envy? At the start maybe, when I was trying to find my feet, but it’s never healthy to cross-reference your own success with others is it? These days I’m learning to elevate myself in those moments when I have to. I didn’t know how to do that before, but now? Now I know I f***ing can.” All of Those Voices is in cinemas from March 22, allofthosevoices.com

-Full article. Feb 23 2023. Link here. Free link here.

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prolibytherium · 3 months

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Okay while I'm at it: personal fave metal bands/artists plus a song from each (mostly doom, power, and symphonic metal + misc)

Witchcraft

Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard

Chelsea Wolfe

Mother Witch & Dead Water Ghosts

Holy Serpent

SubRosa

Green Lung

Ningen Isu

Turisas

The Hu

Blind Guardian

Powerwolf

Zeal and Ardor

Tiamat

Maraton

Serj Tankian

Also a couple honorable mentions that are pretty squarely psychedelic rock but occasionally characterized as metal anyway?

Blood Ceremony

Jess And The Ancient Ones

#Nucleus by Witchcraft and The Gereg by The Hu are two of my all time favorite albums #This opens me up to the bitter world of judgment by other metal fans but I can take it. Probably #also honorable mentions to like... idk Danzig. Dio. Nightwish. System Of A Down #OH and Buckethead he's got some metal stuff #Which I am embarassed to say I found via his song Liquid Mantis because I was searching the metal gear slash pairing of that name on youtub #in 2016. It's still my favorite song of his it's been a mainstay of my writing playlists

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seariii · 7 months

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My take on Kotoko as a morally gray person, about a morally gray character who thinks in black and white

first of all, i absolutely love this woman, so all of this comes from a kotoko enjoyer, but when talking about canon i can not turn the blind eye to the wrongs she has done. i will talk about my perception of her murder, of her as a character and about her beating up the guilty prisoners (i will put this emoji 🐺 when i jump subjects just to keep it organized)

this next phrase is my personal take, i know some will disagree with me and thats okay, which also works as a tl;dr:

Kotoko didnt do anything wrong outside the prison, but she did wrong inside of it

i know beating up people isnt actually good, but she did research upon research to get to the bottom of the cases she was investigating and found the culprits this way. "but she could've brought them upon justice" and you arent wrong about that, but the victim she actually murdered, even when his identity was revealed to the public, the law didnt bring justice upon him.

screenshots & translations from @/maristelina (i didnt put everything in here, if you wanna check all the articles, please go check on their post!)

her victim was a child murderer, he had already killed 10 girls in 2 years, but even then, he was still free because of his father’s position of power.

then we have her other victim, the man she beat up and sent to the hospital

there are a couple articles dedicated to this one. but a quick run down: the man, Mikio Oshii, was wanted for theft and assault, having tricked at least 2 or 3 elderly people, pretending to be a bank employee, and convincing them to hand over cash, he pushed one of his victims, fracturing her ankle.

then we have the article about Kotoko’s assault. again a quick run down: someone heard screaming and found a man lying on the ground, who had lost consciousness after being beaten up, and was taken to the hospital. the police suspects a man (kotoko was wearing men’s sneakers and covering herself up). the victim was wanted for theft and assault charges and was Mikio Oshii.

further proving that she was aiming at people who prayed on the weak, she had good intentions (at least at first), and we also have the facts that she was trying to go through the lawful(?) path at first

she was studying law, showing us that she genuinely believed her cause, bringing justice to the world and protecting the innocent, or “weaklings” as she calls them, more on that later. that she was gonna try and go for the morally correct route, but what changed? what is that thing she “wants to do”? i hope we get to see her reasoning on the next trial. for now i agree with the theory that says that her or her family was victim of someone like the guy that was above law for having money and a father with a position of power. showing her the flaws of the law/justice system and thus taking matters into her own hands.

🐺 i personally believe that there are some people who dont deserve second chances, like pedos and rapists, and like the man kotoko murdered, between others. so this is why i forgive her from her crimes. she did proper research, she is passionate about it, she wants to protect the weak, or thats what she tries to convince herself of, because this brings me to my next point

she does have those violent tendencies, and she enjoys them

“this feels so good”

this is from the t1 trailer, people suspect this were phrases they said after their murders. so i think there is a possibility that while she was trying to convince herself that her actions were for justice, to try and protect the weak, and i dont doubt that that was where it came from at first, she ended up doing it out of personal enjoyment.

i once read that “if you do a good deed because you want to do it, it means that you arent a good person. to be a good person you need to do good deeds without wanting something in return” meaning that you should be uninterested on even the satisfaccion of said deed. this is a phrase that i absolutely hate and dont agree with, but i think it applies in here. kotoko was trying to do something “good” (morality is on the bearer’s eyes) by bringing to justice people who kept escaping it, by taking revenge for those weaklings she so desperately wants to protect, and while thats her main motivation, she also does it because she wants to.

i believe my girl has a thirst for power. she is self righteous, the way she refers to the people she wants to protect as “weaklings” its like shes putting them down in some way, the way on her VD she just wants to keep rambling about her theories, the way she inserted herself on Mikoto’s interrogation, the way she just assumes Es’ intentions and doesnt seem to accept when they call her out on it. she doesnt listen to others at all and once her mind is set on something, there is nothing that can move her from there. she isnt a good person…. but also, she isnt a bad person, and i feel that the fandom forgets those two statements can coexist. even if she sees herself as a saint, and firmly believes that she did nothing wrong, thats because

🐺 her world view is black and white. and this is why while i condone her actions on her murder, i do not condone her actions of beating up the guilty prisoners.

a lot of the prisoners have a black and white morality, heck, milgram itself as a system IS black and white. and from what i’ve read, a lot of the fandom also thinks in black and white. all of which i find extremely… interesting…. tbf its the nd majority vote game about nd murderers on the nd website, so makes sense (im half joking, sorry)

kotoko attacked the guilty prisoners because thats what she had been doing, and thats what she got voted innocent for on t1 (i wasnt around). but no one told her to do that, she acted on her own, she misinterpreted her judgment and forced her opinions and methods on others, claiming it were Es’, without their knowledge and without ours.

as a side note, when i first got into the fandom, i found surprising to see that kotoko was inno and fuuta was guilty on t1, since from my perspective their crimes are basically the same, they both exposed and harrowed “bad” people.

i make a lot of emphasis on black and white thinking, since its something im familiarized with, for example lets talk Amane since its her trial is still going

she is the type of girl who will correct other’s mistakes, who will call them out and try to fix them so that the others can be right, like her. her truth is absolute and even when it flails, she stands her ground and proceeds to believe in herself and her views of the world. in what i said, you could re read that and it would also apply to kotoko, and just like her, Amane also convinced herself of doing something she wanted to do by telling herself it was the right thing to do. kotoko’s “protecting the weaklings” directly translates to amane’s “punishing her mother for her sins (hurting the cat)”. so while in both cases there were hidden feelings, something tells me neither of the girls knew about their own ulterior motives, thats how well they convinced themselves.

people who think in black and white just see it as it is, right or wrong, left or right, green or blue, there is no other choice but those two. and from my personal experiences with myself and with others, its something you end up applying in almost every aspect of your life and its really difficult to change up this way of thinking. beginning to see the grays of the world and its other options its not an easy task without some proper help

overall, i dont believe she was right for hurting the guilty prisoners, and fuuta losing his eye because of her gives me a horrible gut feeling. overall, it also ties on her need for power, since she firmly believes shes Es’ “fang”, thus reducing herself a weapon for justice, not implementing her own judgment anymore, but someone else’s, ours, which my problem with her actions in this scenario. i firmly believe that if outside the prison she had came across mahiru or fuuta, she wouldn’t have attacked them, but after her t1 inno, and getting her ideals supported, her beliefs became radical, and now shes going based on our ideals, our judgments, our right or wrong, our black and white morality, MILGRAM’s black and white morality.

🐺 im still a kotoko inno truther, and i love her, shes my favorite character. but i dont expect her to get innocent this trial, as she did wrong. i dont want to say it was our fault that she harmed the other prisoners, since we had no way of knowing this would happen. in retrospect we can say whatever we want, but none of us can read the future.

i dont even have a real argument on why you should vote her innocent “shes pretty” is not good enough lmao… but who knows, maybe we will see something that makes her worthy of an inno vote on her second trial a few months from now (not counting on it, probably wont be enough)

in the end i wrote this because im really passionate about this character and her black and white views on the world (shes so intense). and because this beautiful person @archivalofsins told me to "keep talking about kotoko" and i have zero self control regarding this fictional woman.

🐺 i believe with the help of a third party, someone who could act as a moral compass to her and could teach her that the world has more colors, more choices, and if she actually learns about this, she would end up being an amazing thing.

also, if the theory about her being an accomplice of the serial killer turns out to be true, i will puke and cry :)

#please forgive me for i am not good at character analysis and i was just rambling about my fictional wife #also never give me an open floor to talk about my hyperfixations someone needs to put limits and its not gonna be myself #im sorry if this isnt comprehensible its almost 4am as im typing this and i always talk so much i get distracted and forget what i was #saying but i tried my very best to try to organize my ideas in a way that others could maybe understand!!#im also sorry if there is something wrong with the spelling or the way i said something english isnt my first language #milgram #kotoko yuzuriha #milgram analysis #long post #also not her parallels with amane making me a little more fond of the little girl #about the moral compass its me ill be her moral compass i dont trust other people to give proper judgment #or maybe it could be a small group project but just a small one because i dont work well in large groups #wife <3 #seari writes

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itspileofgoodthings · 5 months

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my life is a very slow process of everyone around me telling me not to be anxious and me fighting them all tooth and nail while inching towards more stable mental health.

#I know it’s not true but sometimes I feel like if I didn’t have anxiety I would not suffer at all #which. again. is false #but there’s a lot of things I don’t want in this life and a lot of things I am not scared of and a lot of things I just accept #and like. It’s FINE #but all my suffering from anxiety stays in one fixed flame of sheer agony #and it’s hard because I don’t shake like a chihuahua in the corner of my bedroom #unable to move or function #I’m always doing things and functioning and joking at parties and (generally) saying the right thing #but it’s all located in one corner in the middle of my mind attacking my ability to make judgments and live with my decisions peacefully #like an unseen wound #and the distance i feel it puts between me and other people #is one of the most painful things #just several sheets of frosted glass between me and them #and sometimes the worst it gets is when I can bear it without breaking down and so I just do and I just keep functioning #and the cold just creeps in and everything goes kind of numb!#tbh now that I think about it this might be why I often think of myself as a person with no desires or ambitions or dreams #or impetus or forward motion or anything #because I DO want things and have opinions and the exist in flashes. But also they’re buried deep under several layers of protective apathy #so they’re not stable. I drop them many times. forget them ignore them imagine that they aren’t there. I’m sorry I’m rambling I’m FINE #actually when I talk about it that’s how you know I’m doing okay with it #when I can’t talk about it and am half-heartedly going through the motions #that’s the problem #anyway whew. thanks for listening sorry for all the self-reflection etc. etc. etc.

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sbrn10 · 5 months

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Apropos of this post, rotating Imogen like a rotisserie chicken in my head re: leaning into the power to have knowledge vs. faith.

Faith, by definition, is an antonym of knowledge, as in it is only possible to have faith when you don't know for sure. If you know, then you just know; there is no place for faith in the absence of uncertainty.

Imogen was born with the power/curse of always being forced to know other people's thoughts. She never even had the opportunity to choose faith, because she simply couldn't. The circlet of course represents an escape from pain, but it is also a risk she has to take in not knowing -- a leap of faith. And she made that leap! But recent events have shaken her -- she's leaning back in towards knowledge and away from faith, both in her friends (as in, they lied and then almost died) and herself (as Allura said, "with knowledge comes the ability to make a difference" -- she doesn't trust herself to be able to make the difference that is needed without knowing, or at least thinks she will have a much better chance knowing). She knows that this will hurt her (literally) and her friends (figuratively -- she knows it's an invasion), but she now thinks it's on balance necessary to the fight.

(Side note, the past couple episodes have been heavy enough -- can you imagine how fucking dark it would have gotten if Ashton actually didn't have the ring or failed one more roll and just vaporized himself? Like how fucking much it would have fucked up Fearne and Imogen specifically?)

All of the above stands out sharper when juxtaposed against Orym, our resident Batman, who expresses that he has faith in all of them AND contingency plans for each of them. This is not, in my mind, a contradiction. He knows that he can't be sure, so of course he has plans, but I think at this point he does believe that his friends will (try to) choose to be the best versions of themselves that they can be, and he has faith in himself that he will do the best he can if they don't.

And god, I just think Imogen would envy that peace of mind so much.

#musings: cr #c3e79 #imogen temult #obviously Orym doesn't have the option of knowing via mind-reading in the first place but I'm just saying #I connected two dots goddammit #please note I am not assigning moral judgment to Imogen's choices here -- I just find her interesting as fuck and also want to hug her #anyway Imogen's power has always been something I myself would never fucking want because it's pure fuck up your psyche in a bottle #but wheeeew at how it's making a comeback after the circlet seemed to offer some respite #also tangentially: remember how much ink was spilled over the circlet being crucial to Imogen being able to ask The Question? yeeeaaahhh...#critical role #cr3

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triptych-of-voids · 1 hour

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hello to the two users that have been spam liking and reblogging my posts these past few days. you know who you are. smiles

#say nice things in my tags more i love it #i am looking at you two over my glasses judgmentally but smugly also #there might actually be more than two of you. four?#grins #the doc is in

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dangerous-advantage · 6 months

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(Image description below 'read more' line.)

[Image ID: A four-by-four alignment chart on a white background with text descriptions to the left and to the top of the squares.

The top left description reads, "seems like they'd be good at parenting." The top right description reads, "seems like they'd be bad at parenting."

Then, from the top down, to the left of the squares, the other set of descriptions reads: "excellent child rearing instincts," and "never trust them with a child in your life."

Each of the four squares contains an image of a different character. At the top left is an image of Lan Wangji of the Mo Dao Zu Shi donghua. He sits between the descriptors "seems like they'd be good at parenting," and "excellent child rearing instincts."

In the top right square sits an image of Wei Wuxian, also of the Mo Dao Zu Shi donghua. He sits between the junction of "seems like they'd be bad at parenting" and "excellent child rearing instincts."

In the bottom left square is an image of Xie Lian from the Tian Guan Ci Fu manhua. He occupies the square with the captions, "seems like they'd be good at parenting" and "never trust them with a child in your life."

Finally, in the bottom left square, sits an image of Hua Cheng from the Tian Guan Ci Fu manhua. He occupies the junction between "seems like they'd be bad at parenting" and "never trust them with a child in your life". /End ID]

#look ok #i see all the cute little fics with xl and hc talking about becoming parents and etc etc #and that's cute! that's adorable!! let them be happy!!!#but. you have to admit ok. hualian need to work through their own problems #like c'mon. xl picks up like AT LEAST three kids in the book and then proceeds to forget about one on his shelf for a while #just kinda. stands judgmentally with his hands on his hips about guzi and qi rong (it's really funny though don't get me wrong)#and after finally re-capturing lang ying he's like 'i'm gonna guardian you!' and then a whole bunch of shit happens and uh well #ly turns out to be the ghost of some kid xl traumatized 800 years ago come back for vengeance (L)#which means xl traumatized him multiple times lmao #we aren't even touching qi rong and lang qianqiu which YES i know the latter wasn't xl's fault and i am fully aware that the situation with #qi rong is and was complicated. BUT. come ON man can these poor kids never catch a break? the one kid he DIDN'T accidentally traumatize #turned out to be obsessively in love with him so like maybe this is for the best?#anyway i also just don't think they'd be... genuinely interested in a commitment like that? like hc would go along with anything xl wants #but he doesn't seem the type to be interested in kids (he's mostly just interested in xl)#xl isn't off the hook either ok #people bring up hc's treatment of e'ming but xl isn't exactly a saint to ruoye. i dont blame the guy he's got a lot on his mind #but he's also very.... absent #plus with the responsibilities of their respective positions all their extra time is like. spent on eachother jk?#this isn't to say xl doesn't *like* kids or anything i just don't think he would want to be a full-time parent lmao #also they DEFINITELY have their own issues with themselves as kids and i'm afraid that might translate into like. parenting #meme #tgcf #mxtx meme #tgcf meme #xie lian #hua cheng #lan wangji #wei wuxian #wei ying #lan zhan

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thejudgmentdays · 8 months

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…if i speak……..

#wwe #the judgment day #finn balor #this is from sunday but BARK. BARK #i am not at liberty to say anything else on the matter

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dirtbra1n · 1 year

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it’s always when I have things to be doing that this happens but it’s like. I don’t know I’ve gone so far into weird love territory and I’ve been here so long that when I go back and really look at canon it’s like it’s new to me. because like do you ever think about how hanzawa masato just sort of DECIDED that tashiro would be the next captain of the ping pong club. like it wasn’t a recommendation or anything that decision was made. and absolutely if tashiro genuinely GENUINELY didn’t want to do it nothing bad would have really happened, someone else could have done it, sure. you know? but at the end of the day tashiro, in the midst of his running away, had that thought, like. not in a thought bubble but in a b Hold on

in the narration box. like it’s not a fleeting in-the-moment thought like the whole poor shmuck thing. I’m not explaining this well. it’s just you get the impression that tashiro thinks about things a lot and also tangentially kind of thinks about his hanzawa senpai a lot and that realization of burden is so significant to tashiro that he takes on the position of captain

and he doesn’t look him in the face when he does it, and I love it. I love when things are indirect and subtle and sort of reluctant because it’s human and speaks to sincerity and tashiro’s grounded…ness that he isn’t unflinchingly happy to do it. he still doesn’t really want to do it. but he will. and he’ll do it WELL. because and this so matters hanzawa masato just sort of DECIDED that tashiro would be the next captain of the ping pong club because he knows tashiro and has been watching tashiro as a fun kouhai who he likes a lot and who makes him laugh like literally no one else in the world, and he knows that he would be a good president because he is, amongst other relevant things, a good person. the right kind of good person! he wouldn’t have forced tashiro to do it because frankly he couldn’t REALLY force tashiro to do it, tashiro has a way of getting around things (pudding head….) but he decided tashiro would be captain, because he knows tashiro, and tashiro decided to take that on, because he sees hanzawa. he decided that tashiro would be captain, and tashiro decided to accept that decision because hanzawa decided correctly.

and tashiro cares, and encourages his senpai to rest, and we get the FUCKING.

that just speaks VOLUMES. hanzawa masato who notoriously stays busy for at least one of two known reasons that sound a little contradictory but aren’t actually is resting right now. hanzawa masato who is so weird and so unknowable to his juniors is wearing a small smile that, unlike so many of his other ones (ominous as they are, usually), shows for only contentment. he’s resting right now. like the tashiro gonzaburou hanzawa masato dynamic IS so weird I’m not delusional for that. but my favorite thing that I think I do a really bad job of showing is that their exchanges go back and forth and are so much fun for the both of them, and it’s exactly like PING PONG. well matched and silly and hanzawa masato knows tashiro gonzaburou and if tashiro gonzaburou doesn’t know hanzawa masato he sure as hell sees him, and wants to know him, just a little at least, and it’s all so much. I’m resting right now. fuck. anyway

#bangs fist on the floor. is on the floor.#hanzawa to tashiro #hanzashiro #and really the fact that tashiro is hiding around the corner to hear the milk tea exchange with miyano. and then brings him some #ASSUMING HE DIDN’T ALREADY KNOW. it’s just like. i wish i was more comfortable writing tashiro he’s so much to me #silly little guy for sure. but intentionally taking on a burden for someone else when it’s explicitly something he doesn’t want to do #(or maybe just something he felt he wasn’t qualified to do. depends. probably both)#and doing well at it. the person hanzawa masato is trusting in the most.#just. someone who doesn’t want to be responsible but will be and someone who old people LOVE and someone who accepts things without judgment #and someone who will hide in a box on the floor to hide from his senpai and just as well walk right up to him and hide his face #and accept the trust masato was putting in him.#like this of all things isn’t really a burden to masato because he’s. he’s RESTING right now. of all the pies he has fingers in #this might actually be his favorite. for a number of reasons that are mostly speculative #but it’s SYMBOLIC of a burden. am i making any sense at all. i might not be #masato is giving this one away because it’s not really a burden to him exactly. but tashiro is taking it because he feels it’s a burden but.#how do i say this. it’s not a burden to masato but it IS a weight on his shoulders whether he realizes it or not #and tashiro takes it from him—not unreluctantly—because he cares. because he wants masato to rest.#i think talking this long is manifesting a tin cap on my head. i should go #dirtbrain digression #tldr it IS weird love. but just not AS weird or the KIND of weird that i’d have it be. haaaah i’m sick

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majimassqueaktoy · 10 months

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Really not understanding the people being mean to Yong Yea and saying he'll never be Kuroda like. Yeah that's literally why Kuroda is also still voicing Kiryu?? They haven't gotten rid of Kuroda, they've just found a new English va for Kiryu since the games are having English dubs now??? They haven't even officially recorded anything leave the guy alone.

#Like I will still be sticking to JP #just becuase I am too deep into the series to change to english at this point #I genuinely prefer the og voice actors and in the case of judgment/LJ i genuinely disliked those dubs terribly lmao #But this guy hasnt even officially recorded anything yet so being mean when hes been so fuckin sweet and happy is just ????#like god at least wait for the game to be out #AND MY MAIN POINT?? KURODA IS STILL KIRYU SO JUST PLAY IN JP LIKE #im not understanding #his enthusiasm has won me over im happy such an excited person is voicing kiryu #but imma still stick with the jp like you dont have to pick between kuroda and him 😂#anyway yes one of my moots ? i put a question mark bc they are on probation now #quote tweeted him and was weird and rude as hell and it just irked me #same with people shit talking the new series like babe we havent even seen a still of the show yet #you cant say its dogshit when we have seen and heard almost nothing #maybe im just chilling out in my old age but relentless negativity based on nothing just seems so tired #tldr if you dont like the dub thats understandable and chill but dont be mean to a guy who has barely even started his time yet

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existingonanotherplane · 1 year

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Happy Stranger Things day :D!!! Byler tag is winnin rn c:

Here’s Part 2 of the ‘i love you’ series, sorry it took so long c:

Uh oh, Michael! That look you’re giving is a little tender 😟

Mike is bored as hell.

Who knew that the government slowly taking over the remnants of his home town while some dude, who he guesses is obsessed with Will, is trying to end life as they know it would be so slow.

Not that he wants any life ending things to happen. He just never thought he'd find himself bored, of all things, while the world was trying to end.

It was the day after the talk with Will about the painting, which if hes being honest, he still feels really good about. Maybe he'd been a little sappy saying that he loved him but it was true! And he didn't regret it.

It's been a few months since everythings started and other than the very obvious changes that have happened like the weather or the gates, Mike has been feeling like he's been getting hit with surprise after surpise every other week.

Dealing with the aftermath of the injured friends, the town ripping into four, Max was in a god damned coma, and Eddie-

Mike didnt like thinking about that moment. Even if things were marginally better now. So he doesn't. The feeling lingers anyway.

Point is lots of things changed and they haven't stopped.

It wasn't long after that that Will and El had decided he'd let the rest of the party (and extended party as well) that they'd discovered some kind of hidden power in Will. They'd explained how they weren't sure why it did'nt manifest in Hawkins before they moved, other than the True Sight and Now Visions, that there was more that he could do.

Mike is pretty sure they're still keeping an ability of his hidden but from what they can understand, his powers are similar to El in the since of like, moving things with his mind and going into the Void. The differ though, because Will's makes things react like how the upside down or its creatures does.

Like flickering lights or sometimes, when he's feeling strongly, particles will appear around him. There's a few theories going around with this, the craziest one, thanks to Dustin, is that maybe Will is a walking gate.

Mike isn't sure about that but he knows Will has always been tied to the UD since things have started. Will feels like he can't escape the upside down but maybe its the other way around?

He thinks that's maybe why Will was able to sense that Eddie was still barely alive down there. He and El had been able to locate him, and although it had caused a lot of heartache they got him out. So now he sits in the hospital with Max.

Mike wonders how many more times he's going to lose something to that hellhole only for it to come right back.

He shakes his head, not really sure how he ended up thinking about all that in the first place.

Head knocking back on the couch, Mike releases an honestly extreemly dramtic and long sigh. The meeting they had schedueled for today could not get here any faster.

'knock knock knock'

Was that the door? The meeting isn't for another three hours so honestly Mike isn't really expecting it when he opens the door to find none other than Will standing outside.

"Will!" a smile flys over his face before he could think otherwise. Not that he'd want to anyways.

"Hey!" Will greets back in a tone similar to his own. His own pretty smile gracing his face.

Mike takes a moment to give Will a once over. Not for any particular reason but he thinks it only makes sense to look when Will is constanly looking as nice as he does. Even in an apocolypse, Will still manages.

Today he's wearing a turtle neck, something they've all started doing since the weather took a turn for the colder, some baggy pants and the same boots hes been wearing since he found them a couple weeks ago at the shelter. It's a simple outfit but Will looks good anyways.

"Uh, Mike?"

Mike's eyes snap back up to Will's face. He looks a little red and Mike wonders if he's cold. He backs away from the door frame so Will doesn't freeze, recognizing that the weather, while still super cold, is actually good in the whole "not raining poision" kind of way.

Will shuffles past him, giving him a strange look on the way in. Mike realizes that he has yet to respond.

"Sorry! Zoned out there for a second." He says in a rush, glancing back over at his friend. Will nods, looking a little confused or maybe concerned, but Mike is too focused on how cozy he looks and that same tingling feeling he had gotten yesterday returns.

Maybe he needs to the doctor? He walks over and wraps Will in a hug instead.

"What's going on? You're here so early." Mike says, leaning his cheek on the top of his head.

He feels Will adjust a bit, moving a little closer.

"Yeah, they were trying to rope me into more cabin repairs."

Mike lets out a breath of air, laughing. They'd been staying there for a while and there's still repairs that they've had to do. At least that giant hole in the roof is gone.

"Oh yeah," he says instead, "we wouldn't want that. Can't have you working too hard." Mike finishes, squeezing Will a little more into the hug.

Will lets out a laugh, knocking his hand against Mike's side and making him jump back to avoid the impromptu tickle attack he would've gotten.

"Says the guy who breaks down the moment someone even thinks of excersize." Will says through a laugh.

Mike rolls his eyes. He's not that opposed to working out, no need for dramatics.

"I don't think you're any better, Will."

And that might be a lie actually, because Will has defintly filled out compared to Mike's own lankiness. The height is nice though and he's managed to keep his title as the tallest in the group, althogh Lucas had almost taken that from him.

Mike reaches for Will's hand, correcting a little instead for his wrist. It might be a little weird if he just grabbed his hand. Before pulling him out of the walkway and towards the basement.

"Remind me. Why do I talk to you again?" Will says behind him and Mike bites down a smile, knowing he's about to say something stupid.

"Can't resist the Wheeler-" he lets out, stretching the second half of his name.

Will goes dead silent but Mike knows that if he looks back Will would be struggling to hold in a laugh.

He giggles to himself when he hears a "Dude. No." instead.

Time passes pretty quickly after that. He and Will hung out for a while. Mostly talking or playing games or even just sitting there and enjoying each other's company.

Everyone eventually showed up and the meeting started. With things being a waiting game there wasn't much to say. It became an overview of the plan they'd come up with some adjustments here and there, scheduling training for various people, talking about supply runs and then just general updates.

All in all it went smoothly but now everyone was packing things up. It was getting late and there's a curfew now. Not to mention, being out after dark was overall dangerous. Mike didn't enjoy everyone leaving the way they did but he knew they had to.

They had just finished their goodbyes and were loading into their respective cars. Will had ridden his bike over to his house and was now getting on it to ride it over to his family's car before Mike stopped him again, placing his hand over the bike's handlebar. And subsequently, Will's hand.

Mike didn't want anyone to leave really but it felt especially strong with Will in that second. Maybe he should ask him to stay over? Wait, no he can't do that either because of the early morning training he had.

Mike sighs, hunching slightly and looking back down at their joined hands, smiling at the sight. Palm tingling where it sits on top of Will's.

Wait-

He glances back up at Will, who looks a little flushed, probably from the cold, but is looking at him curiously. He and El had started doing this thing where they tilt their head in confusion. He's not sure who started it but it was insanely adorable and maybe Mike should say something instead of just staring at his best friend actually.

"Um, there's a meeting tomorrow too, right?"

That might've been the dumbest thing he's said. They'd just got out of the meeting. The next one's date was written on a board downstairs. Mike had been the one to write it. He wants to slap himself.

If Will thought it was weird he didn't say anything.

He smiles a little as he replies, very easily and not at all strange like Mike had just been, "Yeah. It's at the cabin."

And Mike knew that because when they had said it Will had bumped his shoulder with his own and shot him a smile so of course Mike committed it to memory. Which is a normal thing to do. Will hasn't been smiling as often and not to mention it's a great smile so why wouldn't he?

Plus it's like his duty to commit it to memory as his best friend.

Mike nods a few times, probably too many, hunching down a little more to look at Will's face in full.

"Cool… Welp, uh, goodnight William."

He's an idiot.

He hears Will mumble an almost inaudible "Ew, what the hell." A small smile playing on his lips, which Mike isn't looking at. Or well he is looking at them but it's a totally normal amount.

He pulls his eyes back up to Will's just in time to see him roll his own and Mike thinks he loves him.

"Goodnight, Michael-" Will starts, exasperated and fond.

"Love you. Get home safe." Mike finishes. Voice sounding sweeter than even he was expecting.

Will's face looks much like the last time. A little shocked but there's a smile starting to form. Mike watches some color flood into his cheeks and a full body tingle settles itself over him.

"Will! C'mon!" Jonathan yells over from inside of the car. Successfully snapping Mike out of whatever trance he had been in. He was definitely staring at his mouth for too long that time.

"I'm comin'!" Will shouts back, placing his feet onto the bike pedals.

He looks back at Mike briefly, a little sheepish when he says

"Sorry. I'll be safe." He pushes off beginning to pedal towards the waiting car but mike doesn't miss his words,

"Love you too, Mike." He can hear the smile in his voice.

Maybe Mike's heart melts a little but he wouldn't tell you that.

_________

Notes: (might post this on AO3 if i finish it haha)

And that's that. part 2 c: Would y'all believe that Mike is still not aware of his feelings :D. He'll figure it out c: Now it's time to start part 3. Happy stranger things day!

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