#i figured I'd add it to the main post in case people see it in the Big Tags | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mikerickson · 8 months

Text

Lifting my self-imposed embargo because I'm weird and don't like posting on social media when I'm on vacation.

I'm at a point in my life where I can financially justify at least one international vacation a year and figured I'd finally cross off the Great White North from the bucket list. I'd never been and Andrew hadn't been back in a very long time despite having dual citizenship. Anyways, just got back, and a bullet-point breakdown of the highlights is after the cut:

I wish every international flight was under two hours; EWR to YQB was almost comically fast.

Had my first French conversation with the very nice lady at the car rental counter for about ten minutes. She complemented my pronunciation and grammar, and wished me luck on the trip. Every French interaction after this point was a linguistic battle for my life that I lost (Toutes les Québecois parlent trop vite pour moi).

We had some time to kill before the hotel check-in so we went to a mall in the suburbs just so we'd have a food court with some options. Turns out shopping malls are not only alive and well but fucking thriving in Canada. I haven't seen a mall that packed with people outside of December since the nineties.

Quebec City was very dense with old architecture which made it feel very European. It was also apparently built on a fucking cliff with streets at 60 degree inclines, which also felt very European.

Took a tour of the Quebec Parliament building (beautiful structure), and apparently they used to be bicameral, but voted to abolish their Senate in the 60's and they were the last Canadian province to do so. What a concept.

It's one thing to know on paper that Canada has about 1/8th of the population of the US, but I was not prepared for just how empty the countryside felt. For someone like me, living in the northeast my whole life, the idea that cities in close proximity to each other not having continuous stretches of suburbs and other smaller cities connecting them was completely foreign.

On the highways I kept thinking I was speeding because I'd look down at the dashboard and see the number "100", but 100 km/h is only like 62 mph, which is nothing.

Similarly, I kept getting sticker shock every time I spent money, and kept having to remind myself that $1 CAD was like $0.73 USD while we were there.

It was really cool to see that the complex for the 1976 Montreal Olympics is still maintained and actively used (we stumbled upon a skateboarding competition and I did not feel cool enough to be in that crowd). Sometimes you hear horror stories about Olympic villages bankrupting cities and falling into disuse afterwards, but that's definitely not the case here.

Montreal is apparently known for their local bagel culture, but their bagels have enormous holes in the middle of them, so you have less cross-sectional area for spreads and they don't really work for sandwiches. My faith in NJ/NY bagel superiority remains intact.

Every city we went to had dedicated bike lane infrastructure and young families with kids, but Montreal definitely had the most of both. Tons of parks, too. Simultaneously felt like a larger and smaller city than I was expecting.

Poutine is okay, but I wasn't prepared for the cheese to squeak when you bite into it. Very odd sensation.

The main Parliament building for the federal government in Ottawa (Centre Block) is stunning, but closed; apparently it's been under renovation since 2019 and isn't expected to be reopened until 2032! In the meantime, we took a tour of where the lower House of Commons is currently meeting. We learned that their electoral districts are routinely re-drafted by a non-partisan committee and that they occasionally add new seats to the legislature to account for changes in population. I had to seethe jealously in silence for the rest of the tour.

Also toured their Supreme Court building (way more Art Deco than I was expecting). We learned that there's currently a vacancy because a Justice recently retired because they're required to step down when they turn 75. I had to seethe jealously in silence for the rest of the tour.

Every single city had automatic/self-serve parking garages where you didn't have to interact with a human (which I was very thankful for), but in Ottawa they have this little jingle that the machine sings at you when you take your ticket, which I found very amusing.

On the drive to Toronto we took a quick detour into the Thousand Islands (yes, like the salad dressing) and visited Boldt Castle, which is technically in New York state. After seeing it in practice, the idea of living on your own private island is more appealing than ever.

Toronto feels like an exercise in what happens when a nation's largest city is allowed to grow without being hemmed in by ridiculous geography. As someone who grew up in NYC, this is another concept foreign to me. The GPS did get very tripped up navigating a particularly gnarly interchange however.

Toured the Ontario Legislative Assembly (yet another beautiful building). At this point we were really good at asking tour guides stuff like, "so if happens, do you guys have a plan?" To which they would reply, "well, no, but let's just hope that never happens!"

I now understand why the Great Lakes are effectively freshwater inland seas; you really cannot see the other shore, and Lake Ontario isn't even the biggest one!

YYC to EWR was under an hour. That's definitely going to spoil me for future trips going forward.

#life #travel #Canada

93 notes · View notes

thebeastofblackmoor · 1 year

Text

MEGANGATE: A Complete History

Given the way the lore of Megangate keeps cropping up in the Clue Crew and because some people have expressed confusion as to what it was, I thought I'd compile a COMPLETE history of Megangate so that even if you weren't there, you can feel like you were! This is compiled entirely through my own point of view; although I was very involved and kept regular tabs on #Megangate drama, I may well be missing information or funny posts that were a part of it. I encourage you to add anything I missed!

Long post, so TL;DR: During the pandemic, a bunch of us went insane trying to figure out who was behind the sideblog @picture-of-megan that literally just posted pictures of Megan Vargas from Warnings at Waverly Academy as that was a meme at the time. Full story under the cut.

The Setup

Even before Megangate, Picture of Megan was a meme in the Clue Crew. It all began with a post by @shawnandthecenturion-blog from 2014, six full years before Megangate would be upon us.

(For those who haven't played or watched Warnings at Waverly Academy, there is a part where you need to get a picture of someone named Megan by beating another character at air hockey, which can be difficult.)

From then on, we joked that a picture of Megan would be rewarded whenever we truly botched puzzles or needed a pity win:

This meme floated harmlessly around the Clue Crew for six years or so until April of 2020, when a sideblog called @picture-of-megan (or POM, as it was later known) appeared, and rewarded Clue Crewers expressing frustration with puzzles with pictures of Megan:

The blog revealed no personal details or links to their mains or other sideblogs, but knowing the in-joke, they were obviously a member of the community. Being mystery fans who were stuck inside, it didn't take long for people to start asking who was behind POM...

The Controversy

The first accusations of Megangate, to my knowledge, occurred on April 27th of 2020. After some discussions about who POM could be, which even included analyzing typing patterns and emojis, @henrikvanderswoon accused @knockoutqueenoftheunderworld in this historic post. In short, she believed that @knockoutqueenoftheunderworld was in a Tumblr chat with herself because the URL of POM was listed first, which wasn't the case when she messaged other people, leading her to believe that the culprit had slipped up and the chat had actually been screenshotted from POM's perspective.

Of course, this was debunked quickly as general Tumblr bugginess in this subsequent post. But the first accusation had been made, and it had been made with memes and Ace Attorney-esque argumentation. It was undeniably fun, and soon accusation after accusation was flying right and left as people were trying anything to reveal who was behind the blog. (The linked accusations are only a small sampling of the accusations flying around at the time; everyone had their own theories and they weren't afraid to share them!) At one point, I sent anons to almost every Nancy Drew blog I followed and to POM to see who would respond closest to when POM responded... It was a dark and desperate time.

Because of this, I was dubbed the head investigator of Megangate, a title I took proudly (I made the sideblog @megangate to save important Megangate-related posts), and I was even invited to the @clue-crew-podcast episode that week, covering Megangate... WHERE POM HERSELF WAS ALSO INVITED TO SPEAK:

youtube

This, of course, largely eliminated myself and the three others who hosted the podcast (@naancypants, @professorhotchkissesta, and @hurricanesonny). POM's speaking voice also made it unlikely that the culprit was a male, so the few male members of the Clue Crew were largely dismissed as suspects as well.

But far more importantly, POM herself had teased a reveal! The end was in sight...

The Copycats

Now, Megangate was getting a lot of attention. From the beginning, reply-heavy posts and accusations dominated peoples' dashes, and the memes were booming. (The memes linked are, of course, only a small sampling.) This was, understandably, annoying to some people, but others wanted in on the action!

As mentioned in the podcast, as Megangate gained more attention, copycat blogs and anons falsely claiming to be POM herself started taking off. @picture-of-picture-of-megan, @painting-of-megan, and @picture-of-painting-of-megan all sprung up in one day. Anon messages like this one appeared in many inboxes, spurring more controversy with their choices of emojis. Before POM herself denied ever sending anons, it was difficult to discern the fakers from the real POM, and some were made with the intent of framing others.

Additional copycats, like @horse-shirt, @bucket-himself, and a Dwayne Powers persona blog sprung up, taking on the identities of people or objects from the games.

You'll notice that a lot of these blogs aren't around anymore... That's because the copycat blogs came and went remarkably fast, as they didn't gain nearly as much attention as the original POM.

The Reveal

As promised, the original POM blog launched an online puzzle series event that would culminate in her reveal. This was excellent timing, as many of us had gone as far as we could with our investigations and were getting nowhere fast.

In a rather cryptic reply, POM set a date for her reveal. Graciously, she specifically made it after my university classes let out so that I could devote myself more to her reveal puzzles.

On May 9th, 2020, after quite the hype, POM dropped this link. A webpage with a puzzle for every Nancy Drew game, truly a treasure for us, like a love letter to the games and the community. Nancy Drew-themed playlists made by members of the Clue Crew were promoted on the site for people to listen to while they worked, and POM happily gave out hints. People worked individually or in groups to finish all of the puzzles and put together POM's true identity. I would highly recommend visiting the site and playing through the puzzles yourself, as they're all still functional and it's much more satisfying to see the reveal video after working for it.

But if you really want to know, click here to watch the reveal... Or here if you'd prefer to forgo the video.

Overall, Megangate was just such a weird and wonderful thing that was made a billion times better by the culprit's willingness to not only go along with the whole thing, but design such a wonderful series of puzzles. I really think it helped bring us together as a community, and it was very rewarding for those who chose to get involved. I would like to say that the only reason I went so far in for Megangate was because the pandemic made me a little looney but... well, I just spent an hour typing up this retelling of it. I would love to see more weirdness like Megangate in the future, and I hope that if that happens, people don't hesitate to get involved, make your own posts and accusations, and have fun with it!

I really can't thank the mastermind behind POM enough; it was definitely the highlight of my experience in the Clue Crew on Tumblr, and I've been here for ten years this year!!

#megangate #Youtube

71 notes · View notes

bewitched-bullet · 2 months

Note

Hi bewitched-bullet,

I'm the anon who talked about their "irreconcilable differences" when it comes to how to portray the characters the other day. I only mentioned it in passing because my main point was their lack of communication. Now I'd like to elaborate on the character portrayals. Like I said I've followed them for a year. And for the last 5-6 months I've observed their interactions on an almost daily basis.

(I'm a peaceful and gentle person and I hope my writing has reflected those qualities)

TL;DR: John has been trying to establish the relationship as a middle-aged couple; Sherlock's characterization is more in Series 1.

During this short six months, I've seen John's love declarations at least 4 times, which was either doubted, ignored, or "forgotten" the next day by Sherlock. Not big declarations, but those that came naturally as a result of the scene. John was apparently discouraged (since probably 3 months ago? It's so hard to search the posts with the Archive turned off) and even stopped acting jealous when there was Sheriarty. Oh, there was one time, I think your other followers may also remember, that John and Sherlock talked about John playing clarinet. It was a huge reblogged post and in the end John posted a photo of him playing clarinet with a ring on his finger. When followers pointed it out,John asked Sherlock something like "what could you deduce from me wearing your family heritage ring?" The question never got a reply. I'll send you links of love declarations when I get some free time to search through the blog.

Sherlock, on the other hand, is portrayed mostly as in series 1: reckless, brilliant, petulant, etc. and cranks up those qualities even more than Series 1. From time to time he forgets Rosie's existence. He also adds a characteristic that was not in BBC canon: Sherlock's lack of understanding of common daily expressions, like heart=feelings. I've seen him given anatomy lessons to followers when it came to "heart" and such. When followers questioned how he was able to go around his work if he didn't understand very common expressions or having edibles at home when Rosie lived there, John explained something like, "oh, he's toying you guys. That's not the case". The thing is that Sherlock behaves the same with John, so "toying with followers" doesn't explain it. The real reason is that they see characters at different timelines/ life stages.

I haven't followed them long, but I could already see for a while now that they couldn't meet in the middle ground, so the problem went back even further. I saw posts that saying the group doesn't talk as mods. Let's say that I wouldn't be surprised considering the lack of communication I've observed. This mess could have handled so much better if they had real communication along the way. They should have parted their ways a long time ago if they successfully communicated that the differences were irreconcilable. Personally I don't think it'll ever work out with zero behind the scenes, especially among characters with a long complicated canon history.

Best Regards

These are extremely good points for the role play community.

If their interpretation of a character they are playing doesn't vibe well, be cordial and try different characters, make adjustments, or separate ways.

The John mod mentioned that they have a 3 year history of rping together. The blogs are only.....2 years old? So they were rping together for a year before coming to tumblr.

If the John mod was dissatisfied with their character chemistry and rp style(s), a year is more than enough time to figure that out.

Of course people can change their minds. But as we have seen from Mycroft/John and Harriett mods, they refuse to speak out of character to deal with the more serious issues.

It's a mess

Search tag "a scandal in tumblr" for more info.

#answering anons #anon ask #anonymous #a scandal in tumblr

2 notes · View notes

localvoidcat · 7 months

Note

to add to the mischaracterization post (all just my opinion) 1. this has been spoken about enough but there is something to be said about this fandom and its push to fill in the blanks of characters who we dont know much about (jonah and cesar). it's frankly tiring to see people (for the lack of a better phrase) jump to conclusions about characters then get upset or suprised when that turns out to not be the canon case. 2. tying into the 1st point, i know most people joke about this so maybe i'm taking it too deep, but it's almost weird to me how some people will grieve characters who have little character detail. obviously people can do what they want, i don't care. but it's bizzare to watch jonah fans still grieve and plead for this character who isn't coming back and we barely know anything about. idk. loved what u had to say!

NO YEAH!!

i think with a lot of characters, it's important to remember that there's a very big chance that we just. will never learn as much about them as we want to. i've got a lot of friends that are very big fans of said characters and i respect that so much because trying to figure out a character interpretation with the limited knowledge we have in canon + filtering out the common fanon interpretations has got to be so difficult i can't even imagine.

i absolutely think that theres an issue with people getting upset at canon proving fanon incorrect, which never makes sense ESPECIALLY when it's fleshing out something that was never really explored all too much. i'd say that adam and jonah or mark and cesar being revealed to not be healthy friends was one of these things (although i think adam and jonah were the main focus of this. at least in the circles i hang out in, mark and cesar's relationship and how it might have been a bad thing has been an interesting topic for everyone to discuss)

totally agree with the last part, it's very hard to grieve characters when we know nothing about them. for the longest time there was a very strong resistance to things like jonah's death which. never made sense to me, even as someone that was a jonah fan last year or so. it's understandable to miss a character but straight up denying their death never made sense to me. and that's coming from the guy who's had a dead favorite character for about 10 months now LMAO

overall i agree with you 100%, im glad some of my rantings weren't just me getting heated over nothing IJUHY

#AGAIN!!! NONE OF THIS IS AN ATTACK TOWARDS ANYONE #this is just me speculating on things

5 notes · View notes

mewtonian-physics · 2 years

Note

*cocks gun* give us the essay on the bad ships. Or talk abt his good relationships if you prefer (ppl really do refuse to take the shipping goggles off fr)

i will do BOTH

however i will talk about his positive relationships in a second post so people who don't want to see the entire salt mines i contain about this can still get the good content. because i am about to be an unrepentant hater.

so. from the information i've gathered, there are four 'main' raiden ships that people seem to split up between. (there are more minor ones but they all suck too and i don't want to talk about them because many of them venture into the downright horrifying.) those four ships are with the following individuals: rosemary, solid snake, vamp, and jetstream sam. now, when it comes to ships, i go in for the ones that are healthy and don't completely butcher the involved characters, so if anyone's reading this who doesn't give a shit about that then i guess this post won't mean anything to you. this still applies if it's a solely physical relationship--'friends with benefits' still involves them actually being, y'know, able to stand each other, and 'hate sex' as a concept is just... no thanks. plus even in those cases a lot of this kind of thing would still require completely ignoring the characters' actual personalities. not for me, thank you!

bonus points in this particular case because raiden already has so many awful, toxic relationships in his life and i simply do not see why anyone would feel the need to add more. anyway, time to actually get into my complaints. i'm not going to be super tactful about this. or tactful at all, really. you've been warned.

i have talked about the rose thing many times already so i'm just going to skip her because i'm not sure what else there is to say.

i've also touched on the problems with vamp. i like vamp just fine as his own character, but that doesn't mean i don't still disapprove of this idea. they're incompatible by virtue of one of them doesn't really give that much of a shit and just wants to die and the other one is perfectly fine making that happen. yes, yes, vamp is freud's best friend, but that doesn't mean shit on an emotional level and i doubt it really means much if anything on a physical level either. this one would either be vastly unhealthy or ridiculously inaccurate. moving on!

next up i want to talk about solid snake. i'll be honest here, i just do not like the guy, but that isn't the reason why i don't like this ship. again, this one would be incredibly unhealthy. raiden clearly looks up to snake, i'd go so far as to call it hero worship--he seems to think of snake almost as a mentor figure, which, considering the fact that the man who he grew up with and who 'taught him everything' was another of big boss's clones, isn't that much of a surprise. meanwhile, during mgs2, snake... does not treat him like an equal in the slightest. quite the opposite, in fact. even beyond consistently belittling him for his (perceived) lack of experience, rarely giving him any actual positive acknowledgement, insulting him behind his back, and generally just being an asshole... well, this is my hot take: snake doesn't treat raiden that much better than any of the other major players do. he isn't actively trying to kill raiden (but then again, neither are the patriots, for most of it), but other than that, let's run over the list: manipulating raiden, check, lying to him, check, betraying him and throwing him to the wolves when it suits his purposes, check! (also, he basically ignores raiden actively having a mental breakdown and just says a bunch of cryptic and unhelpful shit. how caring of him, i say sarcastically.)

and to say nothing of mgs4! holy shit, mgs4 is bad on the raiden-and-snake front. raiden literally throws himself into danger constantly and almost dies three separate times while trying to protect snake. he WOULD HAVE died at the end there if snake hadn't finally gotten him to stop with the suicide missions. 'my body is a machine, i can take it' you can't put metal in the microwave for a goddamn reason. aaaaand aside from having a couple decent moments, snake is... still an asshole. he tried to take raiden to shadow moses island when he was dying and by the time he finally changed his mind (because a CHILD had to convince him not to) he was telling raiden he had a family when he had already been very clearly told that no, no he doesn't. of course raiden has a breakdown. and snake ignores him. again. raiden pours his heart out and begs snake not to leave him alone and snake just says 'this is my fight' and leaves. that's it. like i said, he has a few moments, but by and large i think it's pretty obvious that raiden cares a lot more about snake than snake does about him.

the inherent emotional and power imbalance that would be and is present in any relationship (platonic (which is what we actually see), romantic, sexual, anything) between the two of them downright horrifies me. raiden would be putting almost all of the work into it for very little in return, and i just... i can't accept that. he deserves better than that.

aaaaaaand jetstream sam. christ. this one is so popular, and for what? for what? their first meeting is sam helping murder a man raiden truly respects and considers a friend. and then maiming him. including destroying one of the only organic parts he has left. all the while mocking him and then almost killing him, too.

and their second meeting doesn't go any better. sam immediately and cheerfully starts messing with raiden's mind, employing brutal psychological warfare to the point that raiden almost lets himself get killed because he's too damn nice for his own good and can barely bring himself to fight back against the people trying to kill him.

this is, of course, all while sam is working for desperado, a company that is kidnapping children off the streets and turning them into brainwashed cyborg soldiers, aka some of the most horrifying things raiden's been put through in his life at the same time. and then he has the nerve to try and take the moral high ground.

and then there's the third meeting! in which they once again try to kill each other. the fact that sam is calling raiden a pretty boy and saying to 'show [him] a good time' during this fight does not mean anything. he's not flirting with him, he's mocking him. his tendency to do that is literally one of his most blatant character traits. it's creepy. and even if he was flirting, that's not nearly enough to build anything off of.

the fact that he decides to help raiden at the end also doesn't mean anything. unless you want to look at his dlc and decide that since he decided to help armstrong that means you ship THEM.

that's actually another of the reasons it would never work. raiden is an idealist. he has very strong beliefs about right and wrong. and sam... doesn't. his little 'we've heard enough speeches about ideals' is just something he says to disguise the fact that he doesn't have any. he flip-flops over committing atrocities like he's trying to decide what to have for breakfast. meanwhile raiden would have sooner let armstrong kill him than help with his plans. they're completely incompatible. raiden might have had some respect for sam's fighting skills, but he'd never respect him as a person. because sam goes against everything he is.

i could say so much more on that, but this post is long enough as is, and i've already made you wait almost four hours... sorry about that... i have a lot of thoughts. a lot of them.

#ask #anon #i wonder how many followers i'll lose for this

8 notes · View notes

strawberryflatline · 2 days

Text

♡DONT REPORT JUST BLOCK♡

♡this is a sideblog!! My main is Mortuary-Maggots. If you're a jirai kei page or something of the sort, and you see that account follow you, feel free to follow me here or there! My inbox is always open to new friends. Just don't expect to have my constant attention, I'm still an adult with unfortunate adult responsibilities. However, I love chatting, especially about shared interests♡

♡about me♡

♡Name: I'll go by Doll/Dolly/Doll Face or Bunny to protect my privacy

♡Pronouns: It/It's, I am simply a little creature masquerading as a totally normal human girl

♡Sexuality: honestly hard to say at this point. Men make me want to remove all of my skin; women are wonderful. I am polyamorous, that much I know

♡Age: 23 (I'd prefer for minors not to interact with this page, but inappropriate content if any will be tagged accordingly)

♡Zodiac: Capricorn Sun, Virgo Moon, Libra Rising

Mental Illnesses: unknown. Surprisingly, I made it this far undiagnosed (send help).

Likes: making friends (despite my initial mistrust and dislike of people), gaming, writing/reading, horror movies, smoking, drinking, making people unsettled, dolls, masks, art, clowns/jesters, angels, catholic imagery, naps, bunnies, cosplay, fashion, makeup, alternative subcultures, music, video game lore, puppets

Dislikes: men usually, 90% of the world's population (that's not to say I'm not approachable, feel free to message me, I just can't guarantee frequent responses for a myriad of reasons), ignorance, those who take out their issues on those they care about (if you have the self awareness to apologize/acknowledge your actions that's obviously a different story), girls who throw other girls under the bus in front of men to appear cooler, pants

♡what you'll find here♡

This is a place for me to dump my stream of consciousness. Apologies if I come across wordy or pretentious by the way I write. I am undiagnosed, so I can't say for sure what causes these thoughts, but regardless, I hope these posts find their homes on pages of like-minded individuals. There's comfort in knowing you're not navigating this fog alone. Oh yeah, also jirai kei and menhera. (Maybe some Astarion posting here and there because there's something so insanely relatable about that silly little vampire twink)

♡Potential Trigger Warnings♡

♡talks of sh (mostly in mental forms)

♡alcohol, substances (weed, cigarettes, psychedelics, molly) I'm over 21. Please do not report; just block.

♡negative thoughts, suicidal ideation, vent posts, trauma talk

♡nsfw content (rare if at all. Just wanted to add it here just in case)

♡unsettling imagery/horror content

♡talk of ED

(Will continue to add to this if need be)

♡DNI♡

♡I'd prefer no minors

♡proana content

♡homophobic/transphobic/racist/etc. Don't be a dick basically

♡people who use their mental illnesses as an excuse to be shitty to those around them. Your traumas are valid, but they are never an excuse to hurt others.

♡If you figure out who I am irl, no, you didn't. I highly value privacy as a highly paranoid individual.

#about myself #jirai blogging #jiraiblr #landmine girl #jirai kei #jirai

1 note · View note

a-bonafide-genshin-fan · 8 months

Text

fide's fontaine experiences + opinions!

right so fontaine recently released and i figured i'd make a little compilation of all the stuff i've done!

This is a very long post, so i'll be adding a keep reading just so this isn't a massive block of text!

firstly, the actual region itself (not story related so no spoilers)

i immediately got hydro before i even started the quest bc i'm a little adventurer who doesn't do what the game tells me

i'm very excited and impressed with the region thus far, all of the areas look super pretty and i adore the underwater sections, though the combat did take me some time to get used to

i very much enjoy the fact that most of the underwater enemies require you to attack them first, really makes it fun to traverse underwater without being chased by some random hillichurl every five seconds

additionally, once again, the enemy desgin of this game is top tier, like i cannot stress this enough, genshin design is wonderful

from the land enemies, my favourite by far are the doggos, i love them so much. i was in vc with a few friends when i was exploring and we all starting gushing about the dogs. they are so cute

as someone who adores transformers, seeing such lovingly designed robots in my second favourite piece of media was such a treat, bit of a shame that i have to fight them though

i also love the environmental worldbuilding. the fact that the court of fontaine has several buildings and structures crumbling into the water really sells the idea that the water levels are rising and it is actively having an impact of the structural integrity of the city and its surrounding regions

i very much like the fact that the two robots bosses (i forgor their names), require you to ask an npc to fight them. and the fact that their fight is a dance just makes me so, apoirjapoghdpsfaog, like i love bosses like that, that have a story behind their fights, that aren't just throwing punches but fighting with such elegance. add that their robots and mwha! chefs kiss

i also find it interesting that part of the region has a massive dragon skeleton, similar to inazuma, i'm very excited to find out what happened to it

right so onto the actually story itself, i will be spoiling some majour parts of fontaine's main story quest so readers beware!

first furina. i'm iffy on her. on the one hand, the idea of an archon who is less of a god and more of a mascot for their respective ideal (in this case justice) is very interesting to me. on the other hand, god is she a little bitch. but that doesn't mean i hate her! i think her annoying personality and general lack of ability to read a room work towards establishing her as the face of fontaine, a country that defines itself by showy clothing and the performance of both the opera and the trial. i think it's very neat that hoyoverse is willing to make a character like this, particularly a female one considering many of the women in this game, as much as a i love them, have very similar personalities in terms of how they interact with both the traveller and other npcs in the game.

also i think that compared the other archons, furina seems... i don't know a bit absent. she's very showy and her people, while adoring her performances don't really hold that much respect for her. she's a performer, fitting in perfectly with the themes of her land and i find that fascinating but at the same time it makes me wish that there was more interactions between characters (and regions as a whole) between each other. none of the game's areas feel like they exist as an interconnected world. like, is fontaine's rising water levels affecting liyue and sumeru. i know that the sea is technically an inland lake so the surrounding cliffs would likely protect those regions but still, that would affect trade and business and a bunch of other stuff. just a thought

like i said earlier, i was in vc with a few friends while playing through the story quest and we were all so confused through the first act of the game. i definitely think that it's one of genshin's weaker opening story quests. i found it rather odd that we, the traveller, were selected to be lyney's lawyer. like??? the traveller does not have any qualifications to be doing this. just because they have saved several nations (mostly via combat) does not mean they have any qualifications to be defending someone in 1. a court of law, and 2. a court of law in a country we just arrived in. that was weird

i do not have much of an emotional attachment to lyney and lynette. i think they are very interesting characters but i do not care about them in the same way that i do, someone like, yanfei or venti, characters. i do find their story rather interesting though, being raised in the house of the hearth and thus being part of the fatui. i also think that the traveller has every right to be upset with them over that reveal though, especially since they are defending lyney in a court of law. that is key information that should have been provided at the beginning.

regarding childe though. i find it strange that people are saying that the traveller was being too harsh with lyney and lynette while being to peaceful with childe. from what i can recall, the traveller has somewhat reconciled with childe and has known him for quite some time in comparison to the twins, whom they met only a few days prior. personally childe is one of those characters that i think is overhyped by the fandom (like hutao) but i enjoy him quite a bit. he's a headstrong individual with a strong personality and a very loose set of morals. so i'm interested to see where his story will go in the following updates since he got put in jail lmao

also the fontainian legal system is a clown show. no not a clown show, it's an entire circus. it's so silly. the fact that so many people were clapping or shouting during the trials of lyney and marcel made my blood boil. like these are murder trials, show some goddamn respect for the victims you pricks, people have died. the blatant lack of respect from furina for both the victims and the accused, along with the fact that lyney had literally no reason to commit those murders, is one of the reasons why i tend towards disliking her more.

neuvillette. god neuvillette where do i start with you my dear. firstly, one of my friend's wants his coat so bad, she threatened to seduce him and then steal it from him so that was a joy to listen to whenever he showed up on screen. i also like his personality. he's so autistic, you can rip that headcanon out of my cold dead hands before i give it up. i actually really enjoy him, he serves as a nice character foil for furina, providing a calm to her otherwise bratty personality. very good narrative foil! i also like him just by himself. his lack of understanding towards humans and their emotions is something that i, an autistic with a trouble towards understanding their own emotions relates to heavily. also he just looks visually neat. even though he and furina are both very blue, he has a lot less stuff going on in his design. furina is very loud, lots of accessories and so much noise, but neuvillette is very quiet and sleek.

i didn't really find navia to be all that interesting to be honest. i like her story and that's nice and all but she feels forced. i do not enjoy the fact that she simply barged into the traveller's case. i would have enjoyed her simply offering to help and then have the traveller turn her down. then upon being shown the box by lyney, have navia tag along and offer some advice when paimon expressing being stuck. then let her become their partner. act II feels weird because this continues the trend of the traveller helping other people with their problems when they really shouldn't have to. i do like the idea of the traveller helping simply because they want to help, it's my personal interpretation of the game and why they help so damn much, but i do not like the fact that game basically gives you no options to say no.

if it were up to me, i would have the traveller and navia have their little lunch date and then they would go near the fountain. upon having the little hallucination the traveller would wake up and paimon and be really worried. then i think we should see navia emerge from the opera house and then the robots would have attacked. upon being caught up in the cross fire, only then would the traveller feel motivated enough to help, because now their life has been threatened and so has paimon's.

other than navia i really enjoyed all of the characters! even navia herself has a really unique design, though i do wish her upper body wasn't so cluttered design wise, her exposed shoulder's + collarbones would have worked better with a full lace shirt covering her skin rather than just bare skin. it breaks up her palette too much in my opinion.

i was a little surprised at how little a role arlecchino has played so far. like from the trailers it seemed as though she'd be front and center but i do enjoy the idea of her bailing childe out of prison and i do like the fact that she does not seem actively malevolent.

oh do i hate the legal system. like citizens of fontaine, please get a better system than an a.i. who gets to make all the decisions. you're archon is a fucking ipad baby with a god complex and should not be allowed within 20 yards of the building if her accusations thrown towards lyney having anything to say. part of me (the yanfei main part) really wants a dialogue line from by babygirl talking about how much a clown show fontaine's legal system is compared to liyue's.

the idea of the primordial sea is really neat, however, i do hope and beg and pray that we'll get an actual explanation as to why its effects only work on those born from fontaine.

i'm so happy marcel got dunked on. my friends and i were all rooting for his demise the entire time he was in the fountain

anyways i'm rambling so much rn! but i really do like fontaine so far despite my gripes with the legal system being absolute dogwater. i'm very excited for the rest of the region to be released and the continuation of the story. thank you for coming to my ted-talk!

#genshin impact #fide's thoughts #fontaine

1 note · View note

technopine · 3 years

Text

the only dsmp lore discourse i care for is the theology of the dsmpcu

Image ID below cut, provided by @coveredinsun (thank u!)

[image ID: a youtube comment from Notourz that reads: “if we’re being fair Dream was totally out of line. Since Twitch and YouTube are canonically religions and self promoting is a type of worship - Dream really shouldn’t have blown up at Techno - even if he was performing a ritual in order to waste Dream’s time. Imagine how inappropriate, if not outright bigoted, of Dream to disrupt Techno’s worship in his OWN home after Dream said it was fine to do in front of him.” end ID.]

#dsmp #dsmp lore #dteamblr #og post #dreamwastaken #technoblade #let's have a discussion #i figured I'd add it to the main post in case people see it in the Big Tags #kisses forehead #hall of fame

2K notes · View notes

vivalavi-daa · 2 years

Text

Favorite 2021 K-Dramas

1. Beyond Evil

About: Two detectives who try to figure out who’s responsible for a series of murders in a quiet town.

I've had my days where I experienced k-drama slump last year, and Beyond Evil was the one that brought me back. As I've said before in another post, it is filled with solid performances, brilliant writing, and unique atmosphere–the kind that makes me feel caught up in a small town called Manyang and the people in it. What made the stories even more complex and interesting is how all the character stand out with their own secrets that leads to the story's twist and turn. The two main characters (detectives) have enigmatic and contrast personalities which Shin Ha Kyun & Yeo Jin Goo succeed in conveying their range of emotions impressively. Both characters make an intriguing scenes when they eventually work on a case together and these are why Beyond Evil is in my top tier psychological thriller k-dramas <3

2. Happiness

About: The spread of a new deadly virus in a city, particularly in an apartment in which the residents are treated based on their social classes.

Told in a proper fast pace, Happiness describes a situation during a spread of a new virus in a city. As if the chaotic situation during a zombie-like virus spread isn't enough, this drama also adds crime case in it. No, I didn't think I'd be fond of this k-drama when I've had enough of the pandemic situation irl. However, I was immediately drawn to the relatable scenes wherein people behave differently during critical times. Throughout watching, it felt like I was being dragged in a stressful, crazy ride due to frustrating neighbors' behaviors and the continuous spread of virus, yet there wasn't a single moment that makes me want to quit watching. Totally, I was gripped by the faintest hope that the title "happiness" really means something for them after all.

To add, I found it so easy to fall in love with both the refreshing strong lead woman and the righteous lead guy. They're like a combination of bad cop-good cop couple (where the woman insists on taking the role of the bad one ♡). Together they steal every scene with their performances, making them the perfect powerful couple I never knew I needed.

3. Hospital Playlist 2

About: the daily lives of people in Yulje Hospital

Here it is, my one highly anticipated k-drama, Hospital Playlist. The wait for the season 2 was really worth the wait, although not all of my expectations are met. Like the previous season, Hospital Playlist 2 didn't need a big, complicated plot or conflicts to be most enjoyable or entertaining. The fact that it only portrayed daily lives of people in a regular hospital was already its charms. I love the season 2 the way I loved the season 1: how it continues to stressed on human compassion, heartwarming friendships, and families. It inspires us to be a better person every day by displaying the professors and their admirable traits. If the first season introduces viewers to the characters, their relations, and the 99ers' friendship in depth, the second season expand the focus on changes in relationships & even the positions in the hospital. Since the casts often hang out together irl (band practices, variety shows, etc.), I can see that it increases their chemistry in the drama and I was all for it.

4. Law School

About: a murder case of a prestigious law school's professor that involve other professors & the students as the suspects

I came for the casts' friendship irl, but I stayed for the plot. Nothing like the ambience of the photo above, Law School is rather dark & intense. The flow of the story is confusing at first, due to continuous timeline switch with nothing to help us differentiate between each timeline. But it gets better eventually, and I gradually become so invested in the story. Every character is not without a flaw & most have their own concealed sides/history, which makes them all the more interesting. For instance, it's hard to forget the character "Yangcrates", the blunt and righteous professor who's hard on his students but always ready to help them when they're in need.

Although the nature of the genre is to suspect each character's motives, I can't help but like when the students are collaborating in studying or solving cases. Their friendship with each other & with their reliable professors are majorly what carried the show. Their spirits and the energy they give off were so encouraging & makes me miss them so every now and then. Not to mention the platonic relationship between Sol A & Joon Hwi as a sweet addition. It makes me hoping we would get spin off drama that displays just the characters' regular lives lol 🤡

5. Move to Heaven

About: A young man with Asperger syndrome and his uncle work as trauma cleaners, clearing out the possessions of dead people, uncovering the stories they left behind and telling them to loved ones.

It shouldn't be a surprise that Move to Heaven is considered one of the highest rated k-dramas out there, along with Hospital Playlist and more. Move to Heaven presents stories that are rich of social commentary, served with great performances. It makes us reflect a lot about the presented issues, life, and death. I value this k-drama for subtlety saying we should respect both the living and the dead. Through hardships, the characters experience self growth that's really satisfying and heartening to watch. You could judge from the warm ambience in the poster, Move to Heaven is indeed one tear jerking k-drama that feels like a warm hug at the same time.

6. Yumi's Cells

About: Stories told from the perspective of the brain cells of Yumi, a 30 year old woman who experiences growth in herself, love life, and her career.

If there's one thing I highly appreciate about this k-drama is how it portrays an ordinary woman's daily life with her regular job. Nothing is more refreshing than seeing a realistic story that is easy to relate to. The story is like a fresh of breath air, presented with some chilling soundtracks. I love how this k-drama shows that things don't always happen as we expected and we have to learn to accept and keep on going. Through these situations, Yumi shows her growth throughout the drama until she eventually realize that "there's no main lead in her life but her" and I cherish that so much. Not only refreshing to watch, it was also fun to see the cute & lively animations of her cells! More or less, the cells give us insight about how our minds work, and how we are the one who are in control of our thoughts and behaviors.

7. Youth of May

About: a love story in the midst of a whirlpool of the history in May 1980

Two people from different background (the impoverished & the rich), both find each other in the worst timing and situation. Despite their unsupportive surrounding, they continue to display adorable interaction & profess their devotion to each other, making it hard not to root for them. The mellow atmosphere and the characters were what enthralled me. Displaying a glimpse of a possible sad ending right from the very first eps had only drawn my interest even more. Knowing that the context is based on the tragic history in South Korea, it magnifies the level of sympathy I have for the characters & the real life people in history.

8. The Silent Sea

About: A group of people on a mission to retrieve samples from an abandoned research building in the moon.

Just like in Happiness, water is an important element of this show's story. It depicted the dystopian world that, as Bae Doona once said, makes us reflect about the future. Despite the sci-fi genre, the story isn't hard to follow. The mystery was captivating and the cinematography was really stunning. It took years to prepare for the show & it showed. Although I won't say it's the best sci-fi show out there, but it was indeed one compelling show to watch. In an interview, Gong Yoo said so himself that it wasn't a flawless k-drama. Still, it opened the door for potential development for Korean space sci-fi k-drama, thus this show itself already made a meaningful step. What's even more fascinating is that The Silent Sea is a star-studded show. Needless to say, all the reputable actors & actresses deliver amazing performances. While I'm at it, I also want to properly highlight that Bae Doona really is a stunner <3.

9. Squid Game

About: a strange invitation to play children's games with tempting prize, but with deadly stakes.

Despite some of its disturbing scenes that led to the death of all my fav characters, I was happy to find a new gem in k-drama that is Jung Ho Yeon <3. I don't think I have to say much about this show since I assume most people already know or watched the show. Gaining insane popularity, I just hope that people won't make this show a benchmark for comparison, making it look like other k-dramas are trying to be the next squid game (because unfortunately I've seen a few articles did so).

K-drama recs: 6/?

#kdrama recommendations #kdrama #beyond evil #tvn happiness #happiness tvn #hospital Playlist #hospital Playlist 2 #law school #yumi's cells #the silent sea #move to heaven #kdramas #k drama recs #squid game

107 notes · View notes

morgan1413 · 2 years

Text

Autosexual Alcina Dimitrescu

so I've been thinking a lot about Alcina Dimitrescu lately (duh) and the many different interpretations of her character and sexuality, when I came across the idea that she could be autosexual. In case you didn't know, autosexuality is when you experience a sexual attraction towards yourself and your own body image, and is a perfectly valid sexuality. For the sake of argument, I think it's reasonable to suggest that she is autoromantic as well (having a romantic attraction towards oneself). This may seem a little silly at first, but I do believe there's enough evidence to suggest this from what we see and infer from in the game.

For starters, she's incredibly vain and narcissistic. Whilst this isn't a defining characteristic of autosexuality and can often be seen as a negative stereotype, there's definitely this notion that she holds herself in very high regard. She also has an obsession with her own figure and beauty, and whilst the act of being attractive is for a woman's own confidence and sake, it is interesting to consider that she is never seen by anyone but herself, her daughters and the other three lords, leading me to believe that she is aiming to look attractive to appeal to herself. Another point worth noting is the fact that she has statues and paintings of herself dotted around the castle, as well as a gold replica of herself hidden in the castle's basement. I think this just adds more evidence to the argument that she's in love with her looks and her beauty and so has decided to decorate the place with ornaments that reflect her attraction. As for things that occur in game, I think the mirror scene could be interpreted in an autosexual sense. Mirrors are a large aspect of autosexual attraction, and the way she expresses emotion whilst staring into the mirror can almost be seen as a lover scorning their partner. Especially when she flings the mirror across the room, it's as a result of her personal failures which leads towards an anger and resentment for the person she loves the most, herself.

Those are the main things I've been thinking about at least. I'd love to hear other people's takes on this and whether you agree or disagree. I do admit to this being a bit strange and pretty left field, but often I find those types of headcanons the most interesting to think about so that's most likely how I ended up here. I think there's a lot you could possibly do with this headcanon, especially when you throw the mold into the mix (mold clones could be interesting), but I don't really have much confidence in my writing skills to build on any of my ideas. If I feel up to it I may do an outline for a potential fic, and if I do I'll most definitely post it here. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day 💖

28 notes · View notes

kagayakuseiza · 3 years

Note

(About autistic character) there wasn't any confirmation but I'd like to hear your theory 🤔

Thank you for sending this, and I’m so sorry for taking several months to answer this! I’ve finally decided to scrap the draft I’ve had saved on my computer and finally answer it!

Being as it has been months since I last posted on this topic and I doubt most people who see this post will have seen the previous post this is referring to, so basically, at one point Astruc hinted that there was an autistic character in ML but didn’t say who it was. Someone asked him if he would ever consider creating a character with Asperger’s Syndrome, and his response was something like “if you look closely, you may find that there already is one.”

So, my theory is that it’s actually Marinette.

Now I ask that people please hear me out on this before jumping on me for having such a theory about the main character, and also keep in mind that a lot of this comes from my own experience, as I am #ActuallyAutistic myself.

So one of the first things people think of when they think of autism is the social awkwardness aspect. The degree of social awkwardness that Marinette displays may not be the degree of awkwardness that fits common conceptions of what an autistic person would look like, but that’s not uncommon for autistic females, as we are more likely to assimilate “normal” social behaviors through “masking” than our male counterparts. (This also would add an extra dash of irony, for Marinette to still have a figurative “mask” when she’s not in the Ladybug costume…) We do see however, that Marinette becomes flustered very easily (often with Adrien, but in enough other cases that we can safely say it’s a typical thing with her), and in these cases she struggles to find words, seeming almost as if she’s trying to find what she should say instead of what she actually wants to say. This could possibly be a case where an autistic person is able to mask enough to mostly seem “normal,” but still has awkward times when they struggle to do so. Rather than being recognized as autistic, such individuals are often just viewed as “quirky,” which Marinette has canonically been called.

Another thing about Marinette that I didn’t think a whole lot about until I started wondering about the autistic character, is the degree of dread she has for the first day of school in Origins 1, outright stating at one point “I hate first days.” Perhaps one of the reasons for this is because it’s an entirely new routine to get used to. She may not have the type of rigid daily routine that many autistic people do (neither do I, actually), but there does seem to be some need for sameness, so big overall changes like a new class schedule can be distressing. Other signs that she may like some degree of sameness can be seen in how she has always sat in the same spot in her homeroom class, and briefly noted routine activities such as how it is mentioned in Animaestro that she bakes a single passionfruit macaron every Sunday.

So now there’s stimming, which of course most autistic people do. We often see her waving her arms when she’s either excited or flustered, which other characters do in fact notice, as noted by Alya in the New York special. There are also times when we see her nervously tapping, a particularly visible instance of which can be seen near the beginning of Prime Queen. On more than one occasion when she’s intently thinking about something, we see her pacing back and forth (which also happens to be one of my stims). Also worth noting is that some people stim by doing repetitive crafts such as sewing and knitting, both of which Marinette canonically does.

Autism can affect motor function, resulting in many autistic people being extremely clumsy. I feel no need to further elaborate on this point.

Next I want to talk about special interests. This is another area where females on the spectrum can often differ from males. The special interests of some autistic girls are often overlooked as such because they can often be things that are considered normal and appropriate for girls their age, such as, for instance, fashion, which is shown to be important to Marinette. However, I want to point out that a special interest can be literally anything, including... a person. (I am so going to get hate for this...) If someone’s special interest were a person, then they might know things like that person’s schedule, likes and dislikes, multiple middle names and the days associated with each of said names, work habits... you get the picture. (Side note: I don’t think that Adrien possibly being a special interest would make her feelings for him any less valid, especially given that she often tries to use her knowledge about him in attempts to make him happy.)

And there are other little things like how she doesn’t always notice right away when called on, or occasional failure to control the volume of her voice.

Anyway, in all of the time I’ve spent thinking about this before finally managing to type it out, I’ve gone from thinking this might be it, to having fully convinced myself, so now, although I’m sure some people may not agree with this theory, you’ll have to pry my autistic!Marinette headcanon from my cold dead hands!

#Miraculous Ladybug #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Autism #ML theory #ML meta #asks #goldensmilingbird

136 notes · View notes

hearteyes-for-killmonger · 4 years

Text

One Night Only 2, Part 7

But what DMs? Who's talking shit about me," you hiss mid-stair. He's halfway down the hall.

"Bring ya ass on," he whisper-yells and you jog over to grab his wrist demanding his focus.

"Tell me."

"I hear you," he says a little forcefully, unzipping the fly to his black Levi's and walking sock-footed into the main bathroom on the way to the toilet.

"Okay so? Why have you never brought any of this up to me? And how many of these messages you been getting?"

"Hella. Bae, get out I gotta piss."

"I need to see these messages."

"You finna see more than that."

"I don't care, I've seen your dick before.. Erik!.."

"Out," he points to the door.

Closing it behind you, you wait in the hall while he does his business. When he opens the door he double-blinks shocked to see you standing so close, glaring up at him.

"You never mentioned it... Don't you think that's something important to tell me?"

"For what," he deadpans. "What would you do with that information?"

"Tell you I'm not cheating!"

"I know you not cheating." He says it so matter-of-factly that it catches you off guard.

"It's just odd. Someone sends you pictures and you aren't the least bit curious?"

"Should I suspect you?"

"Hell nah! I'm very loyal," you scoff. "But with all these seeds being planted in your mind, you never had any doubts about me?"

"Once or twice," he admits, his forearm now resting on the wall over your head.

"WHEN?" Your eyes are wide.

"You remember when I hit you up and you said you was at the studio, but my producer ain't see you?"

Of course I remember that.

"I couldn't figure out why you'd lie to me about something that small."

"Erik, that was the night I wanted to surprise you by having your favorite cheesecake from Sugar's because I was excited you were coming home!"

"I know that now," he smirks sarcastically. It was also the first night we played with food and sex. The cake was a mess, we had to buy new sheets. "Only reason I was trippin then was cuz three niggas DM'd me the same video saying you was in the clubs with 6lack and that I'm a simp cuz the nigga was kissing all down your neck." He rubs down his own thick neck in distaste for the mental image. "I zoomed," he pinched the air, "She looked like you, her skin and her hair. Side profile. The fucked up part was I knew through the business 6lack was tryna collab and you were on to collab with a rapper. Plus I was away for a lil bit. But I looked at that picture real close and I saw she had green polish. Last I'd seen, you were wearing white."

"I've never even- ...what? Erik! You should've told me!"

"No need. Even if the rumors were true, I wouldn't leave you.. Not immediately."

"Not immediately, but you'd dip on my ass and I wouldn't know why." That actually kind of hurts. "I mean, I do get it. Cheating is definitely my dealbreaker."

"Oh for sure. Disloyalty is mine and I hate liars."

"Wow," I mouth just staring at him. "You really never hit me with the questions.."

"I checked up on you to make sure you were straight," he straightens defensively.

"No, I know. I mean clocking my moves. You never did that."

"I'm not your last nigga," his brow raises indignantly. "You know where home is just like I know what I deserve."

"You're right, you deserve the best. You deserve me," you smile, the smile drooping seconds later. "Erik, those messages.. all these lies about me. They really bother me and I know they shouldn't and that I should get used to it but I don't like having my integrity on trial like this. I don't get why people would say so much about someone they've never met, like I'm not a person with emotions."

He unlocks his phone and taps a few times and when he shows you the screen it's his Twitter account. His DM's are packed full of people, just like yours. It suddenly hits you how you never check each others' phones. You never felt a need to check his. He puts his phone in your hand and you scroll opening a random message. It's a nude of a blonde white woman sent with no other information. She's showing pale pink nipples and barbie proportions but he hadn't responded. The next message is one from one of his fan accounts sending him a bunch of hearteyes. He takes over the phone exiting out of that and scrolling. The next message he shows, they'd forwarded a post about you fucking 6lack with a sad face emoji. You open it and have to admit there's a strong resemblance, but you've never, ever cheated on him.

"What the hell? That's not even me, I swear!"

"I know."

"This is raising my blood pressure."

"It goes with the fame. They always talk shit about me being a fuckboy even though I been with you all this time. It just means you're relevant."

"There's gotta be other ways to stay relevant- Shh. Wait... You hear that?"

You listen to the air. It's silent, you just noticed. You decide to peep in on the baby. He's still knocked out. Though it's quiet now, he'd slept through another World War and it makes you wonder how bad Nay and Corey have been cuttin up in that apartment for this kid to be that used to the noise. Nay probably underplayed the severity of the situation.

Erik cracks the door again concealing the baby from your sight to direct you to the stairs with a nod. Leading the way, you head down silently

in search of Anaya. She's not in the living room where you'd left her with Corey and they're not in the kitchen, his favorite place.

"Where did she go," you mouth watching Erik peep through a window and cross the room. You look through the same window, see nothing, and follow Erik as he heads to the hot tub. As you approach, you can hear noises. Splashing, plopping, moaning, and..

"Shit, y'all getting it in ain't you," Erik grins. Anaya's body melts into the water as she grips the edge of the hot tub to hide. Corey hits one more pump and she hits him, not wanting to moan.

"GET OUT," Corey yells sending a splash out of the tub in Erik's direction. It sprinkles you both, but most of the water falls back down as you hop back.

"This my house," Eriks grins.

"And I like to watch," you add, humored by the fact that they can't find it within themselves to stop fuckin.

"Y/N get out!" Anaya splashes, water bouncing from her arch as Corey's hips clap against her ass underwater. You laugh holding your knees so not to fall.

"Get it Nay! That's how you get baby number 2!"

"GET OUT," they both yell in unison.

Back in the house, Erik's eyes are crinkled and he's trying to contain himself like you but you're both actually children and can't stop giggling. In any case, the two seem to be alright now.

"Baby. I wanna finish this conversation." You wait beside the sink looking at his eyes. "As you know, Anaya and I made a fake page and found some of the people who be spreading shit about me. Hate pages and they're mostly mad because I'm with you."

"I saw that shit. Sent them to Quentin and he said he traced the IP addresses of the two Twitter accounts we sent him, but something ain't sit right with me." He pours himself a bowl of Cap'n Crunch and leans against the counter to eat it, smacking loudly. "Who been watching us to know my schedule.. They said some bout me leaving the house and us barely being together. My tour schedule is public but other than that don't nobody but you and my team really know where I be."

"You think it's somebody on your team doing this?"

"Nah, everybody on my team love you and glad you're here to make me more manageable. They feel like they can snitch to you to keep me in line."

That one makes you giggle.

"I think it could be someone on your team. Someone you hired." He stares through you as he chews and you wait for him to finish his theory, on edge. It's all got you paranoid especially when he sits the bowl down unfinished. "Gimme your phone." He looks serious and confused, you hand it over.

"I'll be back," he says zipping up the stairs. Within minutes he's back with shoes on fully dressed grabbing his keys. He kisses you on the cheek and you jog after him to the door.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

"TELL COREY DON'T NUT IN MY TUB," he yells back as you watch him leave.

---

With nothing to do and no one to do it with you decide working on your music is the best use of your time and return to the home studio to work on track six of your album. Last you were there, you couldn't get quite right. Erik could hear it and so could you.

Pursing your lips you slide back up to the computer, put your Drop headphones back on, and play it back. Then you add the rap from earlier and play it back wishing the team was still in the house to give some advise. Hell at this point you'd listen to Courtney, the new and improved nanny.

Nanny...

NANNY.

Before another thought can cross your mind, you're tossing your headphones back on the table and running down the stairs out to the hot tub where Anaya and Corey are in their underwear slow dancing to Marvin Gaye. Rushing in, you immediately start looking for their phones in their pile of clothes.

"Sis. Whatcha doin," Corey asks still looking at Anaya but he can hear me ruffling through their things.

"Looking for a phone, Erik has mine."

"Under y'all coffee table," he says finally making eye contact to see your face twisted in mock disgust. "What.. don't act like y'all niggas don't fuck everywhere in this house."

"It's our house! That's okay though y'all just roll in where we nutted at, it's fine," you wave dismissively.

"Y'all can soak in where we nutted at! Have fun cuh' I skeeted all in this bih-"

"BYE COREY. Stupid ass," I mumble so he hears. I don't have time to play with him I need to call Erik.

"What bitch," he answers and you almost fire off, feathers ruffled and taken aback until you remember you're calling from Corey's number.

"Babe.."

"Y/N," his tone changes. "Sup baby, you okay?"

"Yeah I thought about what you said and the NANNY.. what if it was her? Not Courtney but the one I caught in my stuff.. Raven. She freaked me out."

"I think you might be right, I got her info from your phone. I'm headed to her now."

"You're going to her apartment?"

"Yeah, trust me okay?"

"Okay but I've got a bone to pick with her, I would've went just so I could beat her ass one time."

He snorts. "You're staying out of it. As far as anyone knows, you aren't the one who deals with this shit. You have an image to protect.. unless you wanna be painted as aggressive and reckless like me."

"I don't care."

"Yes. You do."

"And anyway you're not as reckless as they paint it and when you are I like it," you shrug resting your hand on your hip. "You've got character.. and so do I."

"Okay well keep your character over there, you got enough drama on your name."

Hanging up with him, you realize you can't call the bitch either because her contact was in your phone, but that can't be the end of it. It's not that you don't trust Erik, you just want your one hit in. Heading to the hot tub again, you catch Anaya and Corey as they're coming back toward the kitchen.

"ANAYA."

"YES? WHAT," she asks wide-eyed like I'm blowing her high.

"You won't believe this. I think that old nanny, the one who neglected my godson to play dressup in my closet, might be the one who leaked my number."

Immediately she freezes in place. "You know you did contact her before it happened," she points at me connecting dots in her head. "She was probably the type. No, definitely. It was her ass," she nods swinging hands like she's ready to fight.

"Godson?... My son?" Corey looks interested now, chin angled down like it better be a lie.

"Anthony, nigga. I hired her to give Anaya a mental break and the trifling hoe did nothing all day but walk around my house and go through my stuff."

"She ain't even feed or change my son," Anaya adds tapping Corey on his chest. He's pissed all over again, his lip curled in disgust.

"Hell nah where she at," he frowns.

"Erik went to find her and took my phone since he figured it out first. I don't have her information."

"Hell, I do." Anaya jogged up the stairs and returned holding the sleeping Anthony and a slip of paper. "I wrote it down after what she did cause I was ready to find her ass myself but didn't wanna do it here and drag you in it, you got enough problems. Sorry for unlocking your phone, but hmm," she hums as Corey takes the slip scanning it.

"I'm glad you did it," you assure glad to have the information now. Corey's already gone and when he returns he's got your car keys in hand, storming out the front door and you jog after him with your hand out. "Uh uh! Bring my keys back!" He looks at you like you've got to be kidding but when he comes back, you snatch the house key to lock up and toss them back to him. "Now we can go!" This time you don't stop him as he jogs off. You, Anthony, and Anaya are right behind him. It's the fastest Anaya has ever put Anthony in that carseat with him waking up only to look around and out the car windows, touch his shoes, and go back to sleep.

-----

Pulling up to the address you see Erik's car and hop out the passenger side of your car as Corey leaves the car running for sake of the A/C. "Stay here with my son," he orders to Anaya, slamming the door.

"Easy. On. My. Car," you fuss rolling your eyes. The both of you jog ahead to the apartment building and there's no elevator in sight. Without a second thought, he jogs up the stairs and you follow, walking up.

By the time you get there, your legs hurt but you make it to the apartment not sure of whose ass you can beat until your legs recover. You try the door and it's unlocked so you walk in, stopping short before you turn the corner. When you peep around... There standing with his arms folded is Erik in front of Corey who's threatening to kill someone. Never have you ever seen Corey this angry to threaten to kill someone but he's serious. Briefly you wonder why Erik's standing there in front of him like that and not brawling then you peep a little further. There's a gun pointed at them but you can't see who's holding it without exposing that you're there and coming in further. It looks like it's Raven's arm.

"You better pray you don't miss," Corey laughs behind Erik as he moves to block Corey's vital points.

"Say that to my face.. step around," the girl's voice taunts. "Scared?"

Corey is losing control and it finally hits you that Erik's using himself as a shield because the girl won't shoot him.

"COME ON," she challenges. "I don't want you here, I just want HIM," she chuckles.

"Fuck that," Erik retorts. "Never again."

Again?? You almost walk in there but stop yourself. It had to be before you. Yeah, that has to be the case.

"If you strip for me... right... now," she giggles, "I'll let your friend go. Simple. Whaddya say Erik? I promise. Baby, I promise."

Oh hell nah.

"He ain't doing shit bitch, shoot me. I dare you," Corey jumps causing Erik to shift again.

You can't leave and you don't have a phone to tell Anaya to call 911. Besides, neither of you would respect calling 911 anyway it was already out of the question.

But you also know if the bitch is this crazy and Corey is this mad, she will shoot him dead and Erik can't move because he knows she'll shoot Corey. They're stuck and she's taking advantage. There's only one thing left to do.

"BOO BITCH," you yell running around the corner praying you don't die tonight. You anticipate her firing her gun at you and slide as she shoots.. like a boss until she fires down. You try to dodge and get hit in the shoulder before Erik tackles her to the ground almost breaking her hand to seize the gun, snatching it.

"Corey, take Y/N and go," he orders.

"Hell nah! I ain't get shot to leave I'm in this," you fuss.

"She said she ain't leaving till this bitch dead," Corey points to the woman who's pinned to the ground.

"If it's by your hand, I'll accept it," the woman on the ground laughs like a psycho.

"Harpo who this woman?" You stare at Erik's head and he looks back at you briefly, sighing in irritation.

"You wanna talk about this now??"

"Did you put your dick in that bitch? When?"

"When we separated. It was one time."

You gasp. "You was fuckin groupies while we were apart?!"

"Baby.. yes, okay. Damn."

"So what was the difference between me and them? You were really fucking random bitches!!"

"You're not special," the woman he's sitting on teases and you finally get a good look at her to realize it's not Raven at all...

"Who is this bitch," you squint looking down at her.

"SOME BITCH," he yells.

"Psycho bitch," Corey adds. "Slice her fuckin titties off yo."

"Corey... Who's this bitch," you ask.

"Superfan. Stalker ass.."

"What?" Now you're really confused.

"This was never about you. She was tryna get to me," Erik reveals.

"Cuz you fucked her," you blurt.

"YEAH. I FUCKED HER. ONE TIME."

"What you expect," Corey interjects. "I told your ass to go get him, how long you expect him to hold out. Two years? Cut him some slack. Man was going through it."

"Don't worry, I took care of him then, he'll be okay if you walk out again," the girl under Erik giggles pissing you off for the last time.

"Uh uh, Erik get up," you command and initially he ignores you, but you tap his shoulder and gesture for him to stand up.

Groaning, he gestures to your injured shoulder but steps back and the woman chuckles standing up from the floor.

"I'm a beat your ass myself. Woman to woman," you nod feeling her out to see how she'll move. You haven't been in many fights in your life, but win or lose this is one you feel like you need.

"You can try, " she shrugs and you both move trying to find that in. She raises her hands like she's finding a time to swing and you wait doing the same.

"Hit me bitch," she laughs.

"I will," you chuckle ready to boo her.

She jabs and you dodge but her follow-up hits you in the nose knocking you back and you can see Corey in the background balling his lips like a mother saying you better not lose.

She hits you again and you miss her when you swing giving her the chance to grab your injured shoulder. Yelling out in pain, you grab her and scuffle knocking her backward where gravity does the work. She hits her head on the floor and straddle her to return the hits she gave you to her face with interest until Erik pulls you off by your waist holding you back.

"Put me down, I'm a drown her in her own blood!"

"Chill bae, I called my bodyguards. They'll handle her and her funky ass cousin. We need to leave though. Let's just go home.."

You still, calming yourself and smoothing out your hair before scooting to kick her one time in the ribs, "For Anaya," and once more "for Anthony. Now I'm done."

Spinning on your heels and walking out, you head down the stairs where Corey and Erik come down right behind you.

@ljstraightnochaser

#one night only #erik killmonger x black reader #erik killmonger x reader

84 notes · View notes

janblog · 3 years

Text

Premium Rush: "doing this solo again" edition

THIS WILL HAVE SPOILERS. GO WATCH THE MOVIE. IT'S GOOD.

summary shamelessly stolen from wikipedia:

Premium Rush is a 2012 American action thriller film directed by David Koepp and written by Koepp and John Kamps. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Shannon, Dania Ramirez, and Jamie Chung. It follows a bicycle messenger chased around New York City by a corrupt police officer who wants an envelope the messenger has. It was released on August 24, 2012 by Columbia Pictures.

Premium Rush shows some examples of Social and Political Stratification and Global Inequalities. (precisely why I chose it for this project, totally not because I wanted to watch this movie again)

lets look into that.

article 1: Social Stratification

short summary: social stratification is essentially putting things into groups or classes, socially

A while ago, some dude named Max Weber theorized that class, status, and power are the three components of stratification. This theory is called (surprise!) the Three-Component Theory. In Premium Rush, we can see that the antagonist, Robert Monday (Michael Shannon) uses his power as a police officer to be corrupt. Being that he willingly runs around in a suit (those things are expensive and you willingly choose to SWEAT IN THOSE?), it's safe to say that he would be in the middle class. People usually do what he says because he flaunts his police officer badge as a status symbol. He also uses his being a policeman to employ goons to do his bidding, showing his power in the NYPD.

article 1.5: Social Desirables

I wasn't really sure whether to make this its own article or not, so it's just 1.5 now

Social Desirables, or Social Desirability Bias, is where people do things in order to be desired by people. like when you say you liked a certain boyband just to be friends with a girl. Well, in the movie, there are very little instances of this, so I had to scour the movie for a modicum of social desirability bias. (not that I'm complaining, it's a good movie.)

article 2: social mobility

social mobility is when one person's social status shifts, for better or for worse, or for no positive or negative outcome at all. (it really depends)

In the beginnings of the movie, the protagonist, Wilee (Levitt) is at a relatively low point in his career. His jobs get stolen (he's a bike messenger, delivering stuff from people to other people.) by Manny (Wolé Parks), who has also stolen his girlfriend, Vanessa. He then gets a job to deliver an envelope to somewhere in chinatown. This starts the main storyline of the movie, and in true movie fashion, it only takes a day. He then gets chased around by Monday (Shannon), who needs that ticket to repay his debt to a gambling place. (did I mention the envelope has a ticket that ensures the passage of the son of Vanessa's Roommate, played by Jamie Chung? I'm sure I did.)

On the other side of the field, we have Robert Monday, who figuratively is pretty high on the social mobility ladder. He's a police officer, which sets him high on that ladder as someone who should be respected (or in this case, feared). At the end of the movie, Monday shifts from being figuratively up to literally down. dead. I mean he dies in the end. he gets shot. with a gun. in the ba-

article 2.5/1.5.2: class system

this should have been back in article 1, but this ties in to article 2, trust me.

a Class System is a kind of social stratification wherein a person either is born into a certain class, or gains that class due to circumstance. Now, since the movie is set in real life, the class system is based on Wealth, Power, and Prestige. We've already established that Monday is middle class, with all his suit-running antics and wasting of a perfectly good burrito.

Now, social mobility states that Wilee moves from being in a bad spot, to being essentially the hero of Nima (Chung)'s life, granting her son passage (albeit illegal, but it's in good spirit) to the US. This moves him from the working class, to....

... the working class. He doesn't really move into a different class, but why should he? He likes that job, and biking. He can't stop, nor does he want to.

As for the antagonist, Monday, he moves from middle class to...

...six feet under. he's dead.

article 3: globalization

this is where we actually discuss the plot of the movie

Globalization is the growing interdependence of the world's economies, cultures, and populations, brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of investment, people, and information.

TL;DR: one world one people

This wasn't caused by the events of the movie, but globalization has brought literally everyone to the USA, mainly Chinese people. This is why Chinatown exists.

New York City is home to the largest and most prominent ethnic group of Chinese people outside of Asia. There are 628 thousand Chinese people in NYC alone. Even across the US, there are multiple Chinatowns, like the more known San Francisco Chinatown. Seeing the current state of China, (*cough cough social credit system cough cough*) I'd wager global interactions between countries like the US and China lack the globalization aspect of global interactions, but hopefully soon it'll get better.

article 3.5: global inequalities

The world is an unequal place. It means that not everybody has the same access to the same rights, opportunities, or quality of life.

The entire plot of the movie is driven by the fact that Nima (Chung) is being denied the ability to have her son sent over to the US on her student visa. In order to counter this act of inequality, Nima has to resort to illegal methods, case in point, having her son shipped via shuttle. The ticket that Wilee delivers ensures the passage of her son onto that shuttle. This ticket costs a great deal of money, which is why Monday needs it to settle his debt with multiple Chinese gambling areas. (they're not casinos, but I haven't the slightest on what to call them.)

At the end of the film, Wilee successfully delivers the ticket to Sister Cheng (played by Wai Ching Ho), and her son (and grandmother, presumably) is allowed onto the boat.

This plot brings into light the fact that America (and some other countries as well) are just outright denying and deporting immigrants back from whence they came, even if that place does not exist anymore (like homes, and stuff). Even if someone has the legal right to bring someone along, they might also just deny their rights. Due to this, people have to resort to illegal methods to bring the ones they love to them.

I cannot add anymore images, so I'm going to conclude this review.

Premium Rush is a lovely movie about dangerous biking at fast speeds, migrating to America, and wastefully throwing burritos on the ground. It's got a solid story, well-shot scenes, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (that dude is cool.) The social cues present in the film also brings light onto how some parts of the government are corrupt and will deny people of their rights, leading those people to pursue illegal methods. For a project made in less than a day, at may 15 2021, by a kid listening to drum & bass frantically trying to do all his group projects by himself because no one wants to choose him as a groupmate, its a good movie to talk about. This blog, this post, really shows to the world the fact that no matter what the subject matter is, people can find things that talk about a certain topic, even if the writers and directors did not mean it to be so.

Thanks for reading.

- Jan Anthony Genson.

#premium rush

2 notes · View notes

counting-decades · 3 years

Text

first made June 17, 2021:

This whole post is about the concept of a visual novel type of game with the counting decades characters and how I see it working. The game would be a horror Mystery, though that I need to figure out and in any case if it was one there would be lesson characters in it due to how long it would take.

Another thing I want to mention is fake screenshot drawings of the game, that'd probably be something I'd try if I'm not busy.

MAIN WARNINGS: Death mentioned, Torture mentioned

Also heads up for the rest of the captain as its long. if a warning needs to be added about anything do tell me. half of it is copy-pasted here from a doc so I didn't lose the text and as such each text might change a bit depending on what is described. Another thing, I'm mostly not sure what to describe a novel game but I used ddlc as a example if no one got what I was saying.

I'd also like to add some other text to so it may have a few doubles in the text so I apologise for that. I have one I made for Instagram and I wrote one I'm planing to post on tumblr so there is a heads up.

text written for image from tumblr: This is a look for a novel game design. The player meets Henry in a dull lit basement in which their covered in bruises and blood, the basement is hard and cold. The pressure of a stick against the player's neck makes it hard to move without jabbing it into their skin, then they see Henry starts waking up. Henry for the novel would be hurt or not hurt depending on stuff... don't think I'd make it a actually game but doing drawings for it seems interesting. may do what endings could look like to.

instagram test: Not sure what it is called but did it with Henry. I feel like it'd be a simulator or something, like ddlc or those dating sim games but you remove the dating part entirely. For Counting Decades it'd be a mystery type horror one where you can choose to be either the count characters or the player (like the character that will come across the characters you meet in game normally.) For the player if you choose a certain path like to a college for an example you'll meet the group that is researching criminals. if you meet them after certain characters you can tell them everything you know, that is if the character didn't kill your player yet. If a character gets mad at you they will hurt you, certain groups would only get annoyed usually. The choice to either play as Henry or meet them after something happens to your player is also something I'd feel would happen. Being able to meet them in their house would aloud the player to talk with him, which gets more stuff he'd know about some people. Calling it creepy would probably shut them up immediately and they'll end up hiding it from the player, so the player would have to search for more information themselves instead.

Choosing to help Henry would give their trust to the player. The choice to choose what to do with that trust would depend on what they'd want to do. The ignore option would be three whch would be to ignore the first person, the other person (henry, another character/ect. same for the first option), or ignore both. the ignore both would mean the player gets hurt more or gets something depending on where they are.

Tumblr text: uh not sure how many simulators (or uh I think its dating novel/novel games in general) their are. especially of the non dating version.

A mystery/horror or something of counting decades would work in a way. Like I feel that the player can have a choice to see whoever, but depending on a characters personally or their danger level they'd have to be careful otherwise they'd die.

plus if they choose a dangerous character first and can escape (with or without info. mostly with in this case) and they meet a different character that might need it/wants to use it they could give it to them.

Aden isn't a safe person himself and he presents himself as more calm and collected when out but won't hesitate if pissed off to hurt someone. Surviving him with the needed information would be a benefit for the player if they decide to use it. Either making it public for everyone, giving it to this group that is studying killers, or anyone else. Tho with escaping Aden with info your character is likely to be stalked, usually to be killed because getting away with any information is a threat to him.

Helping Aden with stuff would make it seem like he trusts you. he doesn't but he feels like you'd be helpful. With his path the likely of seeing Henry is increased and getting away or helping them would be a option. With Aden it all depends on the story.

If the uncle is ever in the background and the player character doesn't know of him yet they would be safe, same with if they knew. Clicking the option to meet him would be a option the player has regardless of the route they choose but being safe with Robert is not gonna be easy. Unless the player got some electrical rope or something strong to hold him down otherwise it'll fail easily.

Giving up to him is just death, and it'd be slow or fast. that'll change depending on the route probably.

Getting Henry would be getting stuff he needs to getting stuff from their current crush and doing certain things would make him like you more. I think him getting a crush on the player could be something that'd happen to. idk

though if it was a real game it'd probably be limited on the amount of characters actually in it. As that would take a while to do, but drawing fake game images is nice.

A flutterbeast option would be if a character took the player to catch one. main option that'd happen with is hell creatures or demons, Dex or Ash being a option.

Also not sure if my college group characters I'll keep them like that or not but their the group searching for information on criminals and serial killers.

Also with certain characters the player may end up getting tortured as well

I made two versions of the novel part, one includes anger with the sanity and health. I think they anger one can work for your player character rather you play as player or another character. I think it can be a mood box aswell for a better option to.

Due to some characters personally and a few other things a lot are more violence then other characters the player would meet and as a result of that, the player may get tortured if they are not killed or they will be killed quickly. It won't be as surprising if the player ended up getting tortured due to a character not liking them or just wanting them to suffer as much and long as possible.

Aden is closed off, cold, and aggressive to those he doesn't give a shit about. Insulting his uncles work/his uncle in general, him, or touching something the player is not supposed to results in getting them attacked, which in itself is very bad to happen. When waking up the player may be attached to the floor or something in the room, their skin would be stabbed with something that is attached to the floor to make it harder for them to move. And one wrong move with cause pain to them fast. If they end up in this situation they may end up meeting Henry and having a option to help him, hurt him, or just not pay attention to him. Helping Aden would give the play more respect even if they end up hurt still, though leaving is hard it would be possible.

There are characters I am not sure what I want to be yet but I called them college students studing criminals and Serial Killers. When the player meets them they would help in any way that they can, if the player seems dangerous to them, then they'll call someone to catch the player as they don't want to be in the way of harm or getting themselves killed. Having their help has a few benifits for the player which would include records of criminals, killers you are able to interact with, and other stuff the know about. If the player gets them information on wilson or anyone else they'd learn from the information and use it to either catch them themselves or to give it to someone who can before going on to the next thing. The player can also befriend them during this, which would be nice in general to.

There is also the option of after being friends and having information, the player can go back to any killer they meet and give it to them. Doing that has them trust/like the player more and gives them the option to lure the characters they befriend to the killer and help them. Though doing that and if they get away from you puts the player on the run and trying to befriend them after will be hard, but if they don't get away the player can kill or torture/hurt them if they want to. or they can like the killer they got them for do it and leave them there and go somewhere else.

unless you redo the game or saved before the choice it'll be hard to do stuff. saving would help if some choices would cause damage to the player, death, of it being hard to go back otherwise.

Meeting a hell creature either walking in a earth forset that connects to hell or dying by something would result in seeing them. The layer that is connected to earth is similar to the first layer but it doesn't have as may demons in it. there are more monster creatures then demons though.

#torture mentioned cw #death mentioned cw #harper yells #counting decades: visual novel #counting decades (series)#cd characters #cd aden wilson #cd henry wood

1 note · View note