#this has lots of clips but most notably

[annabelle--cane]

it's fascinating to me the way that different social media platforms result in different types of fandom behavior. while s5 of tma was airing, I spent a good amount of time on tma tiktok (I log back in about once every two months now, going back to in-person school after a year a half of lockdown seem to re-blanace my brain and made me once again not really enjoy the format) while still using tumblr as my main socmed, and while there was a lot of overlap in the fan culture, some things were notably different.

tumblr tma fans had near-encyclopedic knowledge of the source material, but it was kind of an ongoing joke for tiktok tma fans that everyone binged the whole show in a week-long fugue state and lost memory of about 35% of it. tumblr has virtually no character limit and allows posts to be passed around by users indefinitely, which lends itself to fairly in-depth meta analysis being made and shared until most any fan could say "the time and space discrepancies at hill top road? psh yeah, I know all about them, I've read seven scrupulously cited posts that lay out all the details." for the entire time that s5 was airing, tiktok videos could still only be a minute long, and I know from a lot of personal effort that there's only so much you can fit into a one minute script that you also have to memorize and record (and cc manually with tiktok text stickers, as they didn't add the caption feature until april 2021) if you want the process to take less than four hours of your one mortal human life. and then you only see the video if your following or fyp algorithm shows it to you. there were a few tma meta-ish videos that got popular because other people would make their own videos referencing them and tag the account so their followers could see what they were talking about, but it's much harder to circulate content you like there. several times I saw people post videos saying "I got into cosplay to film some [agnes or annabelle or gerry or another secondary character] and I just realized I have no idea what their deal actually is 💀".

a thing that tiktok tma fandom was definitely better at than tumblr tma fandom was accurately remembering certain pieces of characterization and the flow of certain scenes. I've seen a bunch of posts on here where someone is trying to argue a point with excerpts from the text ("x character is nicer than you all give them credit for" "x character is so mean to y character in this scene" "z theory can't be true because y character said a line that disproves it") where the argument only holds up because the poster has gotten these excerpts from a transcript dive and hasn't listened to the episodes they're from recently, because while the text alone can be construed to mean one thing, the way it's delivered on-podcast clearly intends another. tiktok, being an audio and video based medium, allows audio clips to be shared around a lot, and cosplayers would often all make videos acting along to the same show clips of juicy interpersonal drama, and so tiktok fans, though they may have had less overall memory of what characters said, always had a better grasp on how they said it. an average tiktok tma fan might not have remembered melanie's subplot about war ghosts, but they would know the nuances of how the way she talks to jon changes between mag 28 and mag 155.

#prompted by Absolutely nothing #tma #marina marvels at life

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

On Kurapika's Self-Imposed Isolation

While I recognize that probably everything I'm about to say is going to be super obvious, I just wanted to briefly touch on Kurapika's self-isolation, and the reason behind his not picking up his phone or exchanging anything more than clipped words and business after Yorknew.

I think the obvious answer is that Kurapika doesn't want his friends in harms way, or to be used as a bargaining tool against him. This is an understandable and probably accurate conclusion. After all, Gon and Killua did get taken hostage, and Kurapika was forced to negotiate an exchange. Chrollo picked up on Kurapika's "weakness" right away - that he values his friends' safety before his revenge. Fortunately for Kurapika in this situation, Pakunoda was a whole lot more similar to him than he would've cared to admit, as she placed a value on Chrollo's life even though everyone in the Spider was intended to be replaceable. So, now that he's been through Gon and Killua having potentially gotten killed or seriously hurt, and Chrollo knows that he has a soft spot for them, it does make sense that he would try to push them away for their safety and for the sake of not having an exploitable "weakness" in future. He may also not want to burden them more when they have their own lives to live - he does slip off without telling Gon and Killua for the sake of not distracting them from Nen training, after all.

Except that he already tried all this earlier in Yorknew arc. He tried to tell them they shouldn't get involved, and they all agreed that the risks were massive - but his friends agreed to undergo the risks anyways to help him. Kurapika was even grateful for it - "I have been blessed with good friends."

So, for him to push them away solely for this reason after the fact, knowing that this was very much a likely situation to happen, is a little odd to me. Kurapika knows full well that Leorio would be frustrated, Killua would be offended and Gon would worry. So, I think there's a little more to it than that, and I actually would venture to say that "keeping his friends out of danger" is more a secondary reason for his actions - one that would come across as more of a reasonable excuse to others.

The primary reason is likely a lot more selfish than that. Kurapika has to ensure his mission comes first. And unfortunately, he is fully aware that his path and choice in abilities is deeply self-destructive.

Kurapika needs to make sure that he doesn't have exploitable weaknesses, sure, but he also just as much needs to purposefully worsen his headspace - and he can't do that with those three around.

Think back, what are the happiest moments we see from Kurapika in the series? The one that comes to mind first, and the one I'm sure most of us will think of immediately, is this:

[ID: A screenshot from the 2011 anime adaptation. Kurapika smiles - he looks at ease. End ID.]

It's one of the sweetest scenes of the series imo, right before the whole group is reunited for the first time since the Zoldyck Family arc, and it's even more notable because it comes immediately on the tail end of this...

[ID: Three panels from HxH Chapter 101. Kurapika removes his contacts over the sink. His expression is distant. End ID.]

...and this...

[ID: A panel from HxH Chapter 101. A close up of Kurapika's vacant and furious expression, his eyes wide and dangerous as he says "It might as well be you." Though the art is in black and white, it's apparent his eyes have gone scarlet. End ID.]

...and this.

[ID: A panel from HxH Chapter 101. A distant Kurapika speaks on the phone on a rooftop at night, the cityscape of Yorknew around him dark, but speckled with lights and stars. He says "The Spiders are dead." His face is not visible to the reader. End ID.]

This is, up to this point in the series, Kurapika at his lowest. In contrast to Gon, who is happy to hear that the Spiders are dead already because now Kurapika can focus solely on finding his peoples' eyes, Kurapika... is clearly not happy - and that's because killing the Spiders himself isn't just revenge. It's penance. It's survivor's guilt. Kurapika's powers, which Izunavi even comments sound much like he is chaining himself in the process of chaining his enemies, are oh-so-beautifully prophecied to destroy him - and Kurapika was aware of this from the moment he set off down this path of revenge.

(As a side note, this is why I'm really hoping we see Gon and Kurapika interact again after the Chimera Ant arc - while Gon has always been pretty attentive to Kurapika's emotional state, in Yorknew, he lacks a true understanding of why Kurapika would go so far... but as of now, he understands rage fueled by guilt and grief all too well. I know we're all rooting for Leorio to reach Kurapika, but barring that, I really think Gon could get through to him - after all, they are similar in several ways, and I find it fairly apparent that Gon reminds Kurapika of Pairo.)

But back to the main point here - I do suspect Kurapika expects (if not wants) his revenge mission to destroy him. I think a lot of times, we forget just how young Kurapika is, and how much his character is dictated by honour, and the abandonment of it.

Certainly, he can and will go against his principles for the sake of his mission... yet, almost paradoxically, he's bound to his promise to his fallen clan; a promise to avenge them made in anger.

But Kurapika... doesn't come across as a naturally angry person to me at all.

He seems like the stoic, vengeful type on his initial introduction... and then we get his panic at Gon's recklessness

[ID: A panel from HxH Chapter 2. Kurapika and Leorio wear matching expressions of panic in front of Gon, calling him out for his recklessness. End ID.]

...and his near-immediate forgiveness of Leorio after getting the first inkling of his character - of someone who cares just as fiercely as he does.

And after that point? Almost all through the Hunter Exam? Kurapika smiles so readily at them. He's sharp and funny. He mediates at times, but is stubbornly prideful in others. He's very amused by his friends' antics, and it really does seem like he starts to enjoy himself, with them. And, more than that, he counters Leorio's initial impression of him as an independent loner - on several occasions. He decides to follow Gon because Gon intrigues him. Asides from Gon, it is Kurapika who is the most unwilling to fight each other at the bottom of Trick Tower. Kurapika who makes the first move to team up with Leorio, even though that arrangement benefits Leorio much more than it does him. Kurapika who refuses to abandon Leorio to his fate in the cave, and who checks on Gon after noticing his bad mood. Who was furious enough watching him get beat down by Hanzo that his eyes went scarlet for the first and only instance outside of Spider mentions and Emperor Time. Who quite readily detoured to help rescue Killua.

[ID: Three screenshots from the 2011 adaptation Hunter Exam arc. In the first, Kurapika smiles at a sleeping Leorio. In the second, Kurapika stifles laughter as he pretends he's asleep. In the third, Kurapika has an open-mouthed smile as he acquires the airship tickets for them, Leorio and Gon standing behind him. End ID.]

Look at him! He's so bright! So happy!

...too happy. Too happy to do what he promised himself he would do. And that's his biggest fear, isn't it. Without his rage... what is he left with?

[ID: A panel from HxH chapter 2. A close up of Kurapika's eye as he says "I do not fear death. What I fear is that my rage will one day fade away." End ID.]

Kurapika is far, far less mired in anger when he's with his friends. I actually dare to say that at certain points, he was able to go for lengths of time without thinking much about it - alternating between almost forgetting in one instance and being hit like a sledgehammer on exposure to a reminder in the next. This violent swing is... actually the beginnings of the natural process of healing from loss and trauma. But to Kurapika, who's made a promise to his people's memories, this is not a relief. This is betrayal.

I think that actually scares him, that he can almost picture it. A life beyond his guilt. That he, too, could learn to be happy, even after unimaginable loss.

And so, as Kurapika continues his mission offscreen, finding more and more gruesome reminders of the cruelty inflicted on his people and losing more and more pieces of himself in the process (in his own words, no less), he prioritizes his responsibility to them, and pushes away his distractions. He cannot be a soul at peace until his work is done; he must be in turmoil. He pushes people away who he cares for, and binds himself, and keeps his people's eyes on him, quite literally, because respite, for him, is unacceptable. Perhaps that guilty part of him even hopes, by the end of this, that his soul will be so unrecognizable as to be fundamentally unsalvageable. But the truth of the matter is, or at least what comes across to me, is that Kurapika cares much more fiercely than he hates. He knows what matters most. And for as long as he does, he still hasn't truly lost himself.

[ID: A panel from HxH chapter 350. Kurapika looks down at baby Woble with a gentle, yet complicated expression. The inking is somewhat softer. End ID.]

Kurapika's soul is kind, really. And it wants to heal - but for the sake of his mission, he needs it damaged and bleeding. And so, he forces himself to exist in that pain. All alone.

[ID: A panel from HxH Chapter 344. Kurapika, dressed in a black suit, sits with his back to the reader, looking down at a photo in his hand. He is slumped a little before the church vigil he has prepared, all his clan's eyes lined up in their jars and honoured with flowers and candles. He thinks to himself "There is no home for me to return to... and nobody to welcome me back. I have nothing left." End ID.]

#thank you for coming to my ted talk on how kurapika is worsening his own mental health as well as physical health on purpose have a good day #oh my god this took me so long but it was worth it!!! #actual analysis!!! it's been so long!!! #anyways i'm far shakier on my hxh knowledge than other fandoms i've written meta for #so i hope this makes sense. i appreciate additions to it just please be polite! #i also believe that togashi's writing lends itself to multiple interpretations that are equally valid. so much of this #may be my own takeaway. but i do think there's enough evidence to support it #well. i hope you guys suffer... i mean enjoy. #storyrambles #hunter x hunter #hxh #hxh meta #kurapika #call me ace detective the way i am ace. and also a detective #<-analysis tag i missed you

[burr-ell]

Putting Terms on the High Shelf: Main Character Syndrome

As I'm watching C2, one thing I've noticed about Caleb's various sidebars to talk to different people is that he's still very much involving them—the conversations reveal various different priorities not just for Caleb, but for the people he's talking with. Liam's RP is often geared toward encouraging character work out of the other players at the table; it's something you see with Vax early on, and it's very present with Caleb.

So I find the accusations and warnings of Liam having Main Character Syndrome, which started during C1 but really ramped up in C2, to be rather shallow. Look at the contrast between the tables during this:

and this:

In C1x27, Orion adds pressure to the cast's already-frayed nerves with him, compounded from previous incidents of bad behavior, by taking up several minutes of time purely to himself—his only interaction with anyone else at the table is to ask Keyleth for help with alchemy mechanics (fun fact, early Keyleth was into alchemy!). This included:

An attempt to buy 1500 mirrors to build a light array;

A request to his father to send in his home country's army to Whitestone; and

An attempt to combine a fog spell and a sleep spell after being told point blank that it was mechanically impossible

This was all very obviously an attempt to make himself the hero in what is clearly set up to be a Percy-centric arc. (Worth noting, for the record, is that up to this point Percy had actually had very little focus and largely kept himself in the background, while Tiberius had been in focus for most of the show's run up to that point.) Laura snarks that he's like the giant eagles in Lord of the Rings and can just do everything, and if you actually watch the clip that I've giffed above, Travis's tone is genuinely aggravated. This, by the way, is all after Tiberius was notably not present for Percy revealing his backstory to the rest of the party in episode 24; while everyone else voiced concerns for him and went down to his workshop to check on him, Tiberius largely ignored this and went off to do his own business.

That is a selfish player. That is selfish behavior and a clear example of someone who thinks the story should revolve around them. There are several reasons Orion was asked to leave, not just because he fudged his dice rolls.

C2x62 is a completely different story. None of the conversations Caleb has within that episode are just a way for Caleb to gain information; he's engaging with what the other people are doing. When he asks Nott and Jester about the letter they wrote to Astrid, he reveals a little about himself—something he is particularly reluctant to do with Jester—and they are given an opportunity to respond. His conversation with Beau gives time for both of them to check in on each other and where they're at and lets Beau give her own perspective on the politics of the Empire, the Cobalt Soul, and Xhorhas. The discussion with Fjord lets them both level with each other a little and does more work for Fjord's character, letting him open up about his insecurities and issues, than it does for Caleb's. Caleb is still initiating these conversations and he still gets something out of them, but both the players and the audience still get the benefit of the other characters pushing and pulling against that in response.

Like many terms that get thrown around in this circle ("player agency", "manipulating", "metagaming", "going dark", to name a few), Main Character Syndrome has been so misconstrued and warped to fit a heavily biased perspective as to be almost meaningless. Main Character Syndrome is not when a character initiates a lot of conversations, even if you personally don't like the conversations for whatever reason. Main Character Syndrome is not when a character chooses to take a risk or push a big red button, even if you personally don't like the choice for whatever reason. Main Character Syndrome is not when a character has an arc or aspect of lore heavily focused on them, even if you personally don't like the character for whatever reason. (Particularly considering that arc focus is entirely out of the player's control; Taliesin, Liam, and Laura did not in fact force Matt to focus a significant portion of each campaign's lore on Percy, Caleb, or Imogen's backstories respectively.)

Main Character Syndrome is specifically about player selfishness—it's a player inserting their character into scenes or roles where they do not logically belong in order to make them the center of the story, as we see with the example of Tiberius. The camaraderie at the current table versus what was going on back in 2015 does not suggest that anyone currently sees anyone else like that; everyone is laughing at the jokes made at someone's expense, and everyone is getting something to do. Your favorite character may not always be flashy or in focus all the time, but then again, you wouldn't want them to have Main Character Syndrome, would you?

#also some of yall don't get background vs foreground character arcs and it shows #critical role #cr meta #long post

[phantomyre]

It is time... to obsessively hyper analyze Vincent. Come on. You knew it was coming.

So first off, while there isn't a lot to glean per se, there are a few interesting design choices that I'd like to go over. One thing that I was surprised about is the complete lack of round shapes/edges. Vincent looks overall a lot more 'sharp', 'edgy', whatever you want to term it. Take his buckles for example. The round edges have been replaced by sharp edges. Artistically speaking, these design choices are meant to depict the character's personality. For example, if you have a soft character, you use soft colors, soft edges, round shapes, etc. If you want a more harsh character, you give them dark or vivid colors, lots of squares, triangles, etc. In Vincent's case, they've virtually removed all of the round/soft edges he always used to have. We will delve further into this as we scan down his body *cough*. Edit: Forgot to point out that he has double the spokes on his buckles, so instead of 4 prominent spokes, he now has 8, which is the symbol of Chaos.

Anyways.... speaking of Chaos.

Continuing to analyze his upper body, the most obvious are his eyes (or single eye). It's hard to tell, but judging by the few clips we've seen along with the still images, it looks as though only his left eye is glowing. Nevertheless, he does have the Chaos inner-glow. While he's always had a touch of yellow/orange in his eyes, it looked more like natural eye reflection rather than an actual glow. This is likely the change the dev team hinted at during an earlier interview. His pupils are also notably very small compared to all of the other characters with the exception of Sephiroth's cat-eye slits. Overall, they've made it a point to give Vincent predatory eye(s) this time around, leaning more heavily into the fact that he is no longer fully human. The material that makes up Vincent's cape and headband seem to be of slightly different material, and the colors are even slightly different. His headband looks to be made of a very thin cloth of fine thread. His cloak, though also seemingly thin and light, is only slightly thicker. His cloak looks to be made of either felt or very fine linen which looks to be heavily worn out (of course). Also, Vincent seems to have snake-skin on his gun-wielding arm which I've only seen the Turks and Sephiroth wear. In general, this luxury material seems to only be worn by those connected to Shinra. Thus, it is likely this is meant to coincide with Vincent's past as a Turk. But in terms of his role as Turk, I will get to that a little later.

I think we can all agree that the weapon he is currently wielding is Quicksilver. It would make sense that he would start off with the same weapon he has in OG, though I and many others were surprised he wasn't wielding his most iconic weapon, Cerberus. While it isn't confirmed, and with the inclusion of many DoC elements, this makes me think that we could get an origins story for how Vincent obtained Cerberus in the first place. We are getting an origins story for Sephiroth's Masamune in Ever Crisis, and we already know the Bustersword's origins, so it's not out of the question. (And there are a lot of parallels to be drawn between Cloud, Sephiroth, and Vincent). Side note: I didn't write this in the graph but you can also see Vincent's left eye glowing through his bangs yet again even from such a distance. Natural white room bounce-light wouldn't have this affect on normal eyes. Rebirth Vincent seems to be sporting his OG button-top which is a design that we haven't seen since OG. It too has a little bit of snake-skin accents. A few other not so important changes are the alterations of his buckles, and the fact that it looks to be more obvious that he is wearing a two-piece set instead of a single piece jumper. Makes it much easier to remove, am I right?

Going down to those luscious DoC hips, some belts are shifted around or missing, but then we have the thigh guard which was responsible for giving Vincent that unusually thick hip appearance. However, he is still sporting that gorgeous slutty tiny waist we all love from DoC. Thank you, Squeenix. The armor on his side is an odd choice, though more than likely it is meant to protect those birthing hips from that extra dangerous looking set of claws--- which I would like to remind is also lacking in round edges. Yet again, all of the round shapes/edges have been replaced by sharp ones. Take the knuckles for example. I will miss his AC/DoC claw. It was less of a bitch to draw. The gauntlet looks to serve not only for offense but for defense as well. It is heavily armored for impact, and as we will see going down the rest of his body, heavy protection and sharp edges continue to be a theme for his new Rebirth look.

Once again, we can see how thin and light the material is on his cloak. It is in contrast to his very elaborate and possibly expensive gear/suit. His cloak and headband seem to be the only things that clashes with the rest of his gear in terms of quality and practicality. While there are signs of use on his armor, it pales in comparison to the possible age and wear of his cloak. As a matter of fact, it almost looks like it is about to fall apart... like it was hand-made years ago. Very different from the heavy material we see in AC and DoC. And then of course there are the sabatons/greaves. While I cannot pin-point it, his armor design seems reminiscent of the Ancients/Minerva for some reason. That aside, the heavily layered armor makes it seem like he will be doing a lot more damage with his claw and legs going forward, on top of being heavily protected. The design on his shin reminded me of an army symbol, but that's neither here nor there. ....And I'm so happy they kept his tiny ankles. In general, Vincent's Rebirth design seems to lean into a Vincent that is much more guarded, 'edgy', and ultimately a lot more reserved, albeit self-reliant. We've seen as much in his room where it doesn't appear that he has only been moping in a coffin all these years. What's more---

--He points a gun at Cloud and threatens the group. This did not happen in OG. Vincent appears to be even more distrusting and hostile this time around. This yet again is depicted in how he is dressed in the heavy armor and ample sharp edges.

And what's with a vending machine and protorelic(?) dispenser in his mancave? Vincent boss fight, maybe? Please? Sure seems like Vincent hasn't been lacking anything... But back to Vincent being a lot more distrusting this time.

Unless this is merely for the audience and new FF7 fans who know nothing of his character, this implies that Vincent doesn't divulge his connection to the Turks and instead calls himself "Security" guard. And not only that, it's spoken as if it's current tense. Not past tense. So yet again, if Vincent is indeed avoiding the term Turk and doesn't even tell Cloud and Co that he used to work for Shinra, this adds to the idea that his level of distrust is much higher than before. At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if joins the party much later, even after learning who Cloud's foe is. And since his connection to Sephiroth aka Lucrecia/Hojo is the mystery factor, he may not even divulge this to Cloud and Co when they first meet until much later. Either way, Vincent might actually prove to be a much tougher egg to crack this time around, along with more layers to uncover. (take that last phrase however you'd like)

#vincent valentine #final fantasy 7 #ff7 #final fantasy #ffvii #ff7 rebirth #final fantasy 7: rebirth #ffvii rebirth

[drmopp1966]

additional info for the tintin in tibet show because the last post got way more interaction than i expected and a lot of yall seem to not have heard of it before

info below the cut!!

so this show was started in 2005, and made it to the west end in the playhouse theatre in 2007 (this is the production i’ve found the most info on)

i don’t know if the entire show was filmed, but we do have quite a few clips from the trailer + the cast interview!!

there have been a few different tintin stage productions (notably kuifje de zonnetempel, which is available in full online), but i’m most interested in this one because tintin in tibet is my favourite album in the series (and also it just looks really cool)

if anyone has any additional info or video of the show please do tell!!

#tintin #the adventures of tintin #kuifje #captain haddock #snowy #milou #tintin et milou #tintin and snowy #chang chong chen

[nenilein]

Hello! Apologies for sending an ask out of the blue but considering your familiarity with localisation differences in persona 4/golden, I was wondering if anything comes to your mind regarding this aspect and how the game depicts queerness and queer themes? Thank you!

Heya! Don't worry, I was thinking people would probably ask stuff like this. After all, I already replied to somebody's tags asking this same thing previously, but I know not many people saw that, so let me use the chance to go into more detail:

Unfortunately, Persona 4's treatment of queer themes is not a result of the translation. The only things that were down to translation choices were small things, such as which pronouns are used in which situation (because Japanese does not at all have the same concept of third person pronouns as English, and the way first person classifiers that mean "I" work is very complex and a lot more vibes-based than actually tied to gender.)

But for the most part, everything is pretty much the same. Kanji's reaction to Chie mumbling about something being "off" about how he interacted with Naoto that first time, the tent scene, Yosuke's extreme insecurity in his own sexuality in addition to everyone else's... I think maybe the only thing that's a biiit better in Japanese is that Teddie is kiiinda genderfluid in Japanese, with the artbook outright stating that he doesn't necessarily consider himself "male" when he's in his bear form, unless it's necessary for a joke.

A lot of this can be traced to the really odd relationship the game's director, Katsura Hashino, has to queer themes. In interviews about Catherine Fullbody (a game which infamously has a rather weirdly handled gay romance route which, however, is notably also the only romance route in the game that cannot possibly result in a bad ending), he talks about how he's always admired queer people for being "strong" and wanted to write queer stories, but couldn't really do it until Fullbody because Atlus higher ups were afraid of backlash from the fans.

Traces of this are actually seen in Persona 4 Vanilla's data, where remnants of a surprisingly well done romance route for YOSUKE, of all people, are still present. That route made it far enough into development to have voiced lines in both, English and Japanese. However, it was dummied out in the final game and its script content was removed. Yosuke STILL has the "girlfriend flag" in the code that all the female romance options also have, but in the finished game it only checks whether you can hug him during his social link or not. Everything else was dummied out. You can still find the voice files on the cutting room floor if you want:

And yes, the "I like you" line is unambiguously romantic in Japanese. His wording is very hard to misinterpret.

However, in the finished game and the rest of the franchise Yosuke's bisexuality was reduced to an in-joke of the developers. It's most poignant in Persona Q (the first one), where if you get the "marriage" scene with Yosuke in the second dungeon, his reactions differ WILDLY depending on which Protagonist you are playing as, far more than other male characters. With Makoto Yuki he acts nonchallant and deadpan about it. With Yu Narukami he acts like a blushy Tsundere and panics constantly. So, yeah.

Okay, so, if the director had interest in writing queer stories since before Persona 4, why is Persona 4 the way it is then?

Well, because - and there's no way around it - he sucks at it.

Katsura Hashino has to be one of the clumsiest "gay activists" I've ever seen in my whole darn life. He finds queer people "cool", but seemingly never had any queer writers or sensitivity readers on his teams and it's caused enormous blunders in how these themes have been handled. For example, when after Persona 3 it was pointed out to him that the writing of the female characters in interaction with the male characters was bad, he immediately hired more female writers and gave them free reign for how to handle the female characters from then on out. But apparently the same thing never happened with his mishandling of queer themes. He wants Catherine's Erica and Rin to be empowering figures for trans women and gay men, but makes a lot of blunders in how he has other characters interact with them to the point it buries his good intentions. Erica's boyfriend having gay panic upon realizing she's trans is treated as "funny and cute", even by Erica herself. Rin technically being a monogender alien really undermines his story of becoming more secure in his sexuality. It goes on and on like that.

The intention with Naoto's story was to point out the extreme sexism in Japanese society and how it forces female nerds to find alternate modes of self-expression, but the clumsy choice of including surgery themes in Naoto's dungeon completely buried that for especially western queer audiences. Most people don't even remember Naoto's dungeon was outright modeled after a Kamen Rider villain hideout. They completely shot themselves in the foot with this one. Additionally, the way Naoto is handled AFTER the dungeon makes her (I'm using that pronoun because she calls herself a "woman" in Japanese in the game) seem more like someone who's on the verge of discovering they are X-gender (the japanese word for "nonbinary") than a repressed girl. Like, right down to how she has Rise help her experiment with clothes in the canonical drama CDs only to realize she really is uncomfortable with skirts and go for an androgynous but less restrictive look going forward. The way she dresses in the Golden epilogue and P4D is pretty X-gender core if you ask me. If they had leaned into that they could have genuinely have had something AMAZING, while also presenting the themes of sexism they wanted to explore, but the lack of queer sensitivity readers kind of ruined it.

Same for Kanji. The way they write him makes it seem like he's bisexual or pansexual, rather than straight, but they kinda shove that part of him aside after his dungeon is done, leaving his actual orientation up in the air and wasting a really good chance for representation. NOW, given what happened to Yosuke's social link, it's quite possible the original intent WAS to explore this more and it got cut, but as it stands, we'll never know. The huge problem of the internalized toxic stereotypes his Shadow presented never being reflected on and put into their right context in the rest of the game, when his social link could've given a great opportunity for that is also a huge shame.

All of this happened because of Atlus being unwilling to let their writers go all out with queer themes in fears of alienating a cishet audience AND because Hashino never sat his writing team down with any actual queer writers to sort this shit out and learn how to get across what the team was ACTUALLY trying to say. Now, given, Persona 4 was far from the only Japanese media property with that exact issue at the time, but it hurts especially much in its case because of the game's themes of exploring the truth to its logical conclusion, as well as psychology. These are issues that a remake REALLY would do well to address and correct. I feel like they actually will HAVE to do that, because sensitivity readers have become the NORM in handling these themes now in Japanese media, rather than the exception. You can thank trail blazing mainstream works like Zombie Land Saga for that.

All in all, Persona 4's handling of queer themes is an exercise in frustration that I hope is corrected soon.

#Persona 4 #Neni Replies #Naoto Shirogane #Kanji Tatsumi

[favcharacterpoll]

ROUND 5 MATCH 13: SCAR VS. SOUNDWAVE

Goodtimeswithscar from Third Life faces Soundwave from Transformers. Who do you like more?

Scar Propaganda:

"Swindling everyone is always great"

"The best time ever. Scitties. Jellie the cat. Mr Rizz himself. Ect."

"PLEASE THIRD LIFE SCAR IS JUST A LITTLE GUY JUST A LITTLE GUY WHO WANTS TO KEEP HIS SHIRT OFF AND CAUSE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION WITH HIS UNHINGED BESTIE AND HE LOVES WITH ALL HIS HEART HIS LLAMA NAMED PIZZA"

“scar is the server con man. he’s absolutely delightful. he’s got max charisma so he WILL sell you anything and everything. it will be useless but you will buy it anyway, sometime later this week he will also murder you. he tries to run a monopoly on sand whilst living in a giant desert. he sells “reputation points” to people under the promise that he won’t murder them if their scores are high enough (he’s lying), he will burn your precious tree down. he will turn and look to you with the sweetest voice and the most precious smile and declare that he’s going to murder everyone. and he will, you will too. and then he will let you beat him to death at the end of this brutal game. you won but at what cost? then you will jump to your death, because you cannot handle being the lone survivor.”

"VOTE SCAR OR ILL KILL YOU NOW in a chill and fun way tho"

"AWOOGA SCITTES"

"YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO THE GOOD TIMES"

"THAT FUCKING CACTUS CIRCLE"

"YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO THE GOOD TIMES"

"YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO THE GOOD TIMES"

"you are not immune to the good times"

"you are not immune to the good times"

Soundwave Propaganda:

"In like every show ever once he's not there/kidnapped/dead the entire Decepticon fucking faction goes to shambles. Ex: in transformers: Prime, (SPOILER!)

once he was "banished to the shadow realm" Megatron literally died and they lost the war 💀💀"

"Soundwave never loses in a poll"

"SOUNDWAVE MY BELOVED his back is so so sore from single-handedly holding up the Decepticon cause every vote for him is 1 more ibuprofen tablet given to him"

"Soundwave is the funniest fucking character in transformers because he's literally the straight man in every situation he's in with the decepticons, because all of them are absolutely incompetent at their job due to them being too focused on infighting. When Megatron died in FOC Soundwave was the one who literally put him back together and by extension, fucked everything over for everyone else because in this specific continuity Megatron just happened to be addicted to space meth.

However it can be so easy to see Soundwave as emotionless because of his straight-man role and his monotone speaking patterns, but Soundwave has plenty of emotions that he displays throughout the years, most notably being when he's dealing with the cassettes (aka his children), and can range from being soft-spoken with them, to full-out enabling their violent tendencies and letting them go ham at beating the shit out of teammates (shout out to that one g1 clip where Soundwave tries to hold back his kids for like a single second before saying "fuck it" and letting them go for the eyes).

Even outside of the cassettes though, he's very expressive in his own way. In fact, he's the KING of pettiness and sass when he wants to be. He literally plays his own supervillain music when walking the halls, he's not above insulting the other deceptions when their arguments are bullshit to him, even when faced with the destruction of the world he was like "nah" until he saw his boyfriend getting injured and went "REAL SHIT" (there's literally memes about this it's so funny). Speaking of friends, he actually has a lot of interesting dynamics with the people around him, especially when it comes to the decepticon high command. He's described as Megatron's most trusted advisor, he's somewhat amicable with Starscream (who's his own brand of frustration), and he and Shockwave even seem to get along pretty well (to the point they have a biologically fucked up tube son together?? It's been years since I've watched Siege but I swear that was what lead to Soundblaster), and did I mention he's gay? I'm pretty sure he and Cosmos are in a relationship together in the IDW comics or at least have a mutual attraction, it's cute.

Also speaking of IDW Soundwave: he likes elephants. They're his favourite animal and he loves them to the point where after he died in the comics, his kids specifically started targeting elephant poachers because they knew Soundwave would want that.

Have I mentioned he has a cat dad in the IDW comics. Like his dad is a literal robot cat that found him when he was having a sensory overload in the middle of the streets. Have these panels from when his dad died and he wasn't even there to see it! He just knew 💖

And have I mentioned he's met Fluttershy? Because he canonically met Fluttershy and let his cassettes play with her (while DELAYING HIS MISSION. THAT'S HUGE IN SOUNDWAVE LANGUAGE.)

There's also him being the reigning champion of best robot husband, but that's a whole other situation which is also really funny."

#polls #mr goodtimes #goodtimeswithscar #goodtimewithscar #third life gtws #third life smp #3lsmp #3rd life smp #3rd life #life series #transformers soundwave #soundwave #transformers

[shelaghdette]

headcanon with evidence: shelagh turner is autistic/neurodivergent!

intense interests: shelagh's special interest is obviously the science of midwifery. she's only 30 years old at the beginning of the series, but already her expertise is virtually on par with the older nuns. her deep knowledge is very well respected by her patients and colleagues. she also LOVES to talk about it, you can see her face light up every time she has a chance.

hyperfocus: when shelagh is completely absorbed in a task, she struggles to notice anything else around her. for example, in the very first episode, she doesn't even notice jenny is in the room when she comes to inform sister julienne about her latest delivery. when sister julienne introduces her to jenny, she only very briefly acknowledges her, and then goes back to talking about work, which ties into -

struggling with social cues: in scenes with lots of shelagh dialogue, notice how she struggles to make prolonged eye contact. a notable exception is sister julienne and, later, patrick, but this makes sense. a lot of autistic people struggle to make eye contact generally, but have a few "safe people" with whom it's a lot easier. shelagh also struggles with boundaries, indicated by her lack of ability to ask for help when she needs it or say no when she's asked to do something. she can also be very blunt and forthright about her opinions, such as when she tells jenny to "please stop wittering on about vegetables, i could not care less." she wasn't trying to be rude, she was just indicating her disinterest in the subject in a very to-the-point way. also, when she was infodumping about the bri-nylon nightie, and CLEARLY misunderstanding cues that patrick thought she was extremely sexy in that little get-up 😳😏

stimming: shelagh is CONSTANTLY stimming. most notable are her hand movements, she fidgets with her hands a lot, and when she sits at a table, she often keeps her hands below the surface. i believe this is so she can subtly stim without attracting attention. oh, and you know the autistic stereotype of velociraptor arms? well, i give you...

masking: she's a social chameleon. her speech mannerisms were much more formal and clipped while she was still in the religious life, because she was holding herself to a certain standard, even though it's not necessarily required (look at sister evangelina). i think she was trying to model her behaviour and mannerisms on sister julienne, which is SO COMMON for autistic women to copy the behaviour of someone they admire in order to blend. she also "mirrors" body language, seen here. (both have their hands in their pockets, their legs are the same width apart. also peep my babygirl not making eye contact AGAIN while he's directly looking at her face!)

exaggerated facial expressions and emotive tone of voice: it's a common misconception that autistic people always have monotonous voices and flat facial affect. some do, but just as many are the complete opposite and actually have really varied expressions and tones. ctm fans who don't like shelagh tend to point this fact out about her, but to me it just makes her relatable, because i'm a really emotive autistic person too!

also, this is just anecdotal, but all of my autistic friends who watch ctm agree with me that shelagh is most likely autistic. and we're really good at identifying autistic traits in others.

these are just my observations from watching the show, as an autistic person. if you don't share these views, that's fine! but please be mindful of what you say if you aren't neurodivergent ♡

#call the midwife #shelagh turner #ctm headcanon #autistic representation

[w1f1n1ghtm4r3]

so i like the april fools shuffle units a normal amount. i have done redesigns for almost all of them and i draw them A Lot.

rambling additional notes on all of the redesigns below

a couple notes if you ever want to draw any of these redesigns for yourself at any point: i'd appreciate being credited for these redesigns (obviously anyone not redesigned i don't need credit for lol) and you don't need to follow my specific skin tone + hair/eye color schemes i have laid out. those are how i personally like to draw the characters and i've included them for anyone who might want to stay completely accurate to my redesigns, but you're welcome to use your own preferred color schemes for the cast when drawing them with these outfits!

now onto the fun(?) stuff

aoharu is pretty straightforward with redesigns, its basically just leoni but with a sun theme instead of stars. adding the image for the color palettes for the unchanged designs just because it has the notes for ichisaki too (their changes were too minor to completely redraw them, in my opinion).

ichika remains entirely unchanged design-wise other than adding a sun pin to her suspenders. saki stays mostly the same too, other than changing the design on her armband and switching her pigtails for a ponytail (in an attempt to seem a little more mature/imitate airi's hairstyle/move on from her childhood self since she's started to believe that honami and shiho want nothing to do with her and ichika anymore).

not too much to say about airi and ena's outfits either, i wanted to go a little more cute with airi and cool with ena, but there's minor changes with both of their hairstyles, with airi switching her pigtails for a ponytail as well (moving on from her idol days but still maintaining her usual sort of style) and ena's hair being a bit longer/messier.

yyj is definitely the most drastic, they're the only unit where i changed every single character... i have a lot of trouble drawing the mmj outfits, but also the lighter color scheme and clover theme just didn't really make sense for yyj to me? so instead i went with a mainly black and character color combo for their color schemes, alongside gold and white to accent it and a more spacey/dreamlike theme. everyone's black and white are slightly tinted with their character colors too!

they're split into pairs for matching accessories, but it doesn't mean much otherwise. kanade and an both have the dangling star charms and a single larger wristband (with those being on opposite sides from each other) as well as no buttons on the front of their outfits, while both hinomoris have the large bows on the backs of their outfits, smaller wristbands on both arms, a legband, and star shaped clips (like the other pair, the clips and legbands are on opposite sides from each other) and they do have buttons. they're split differently for the same style outfits though, with kanade/shizuku and shiho/an being the matching pairs this way.

kanade has the most obvious design changes. i swapped her character color to a medium-light blue rather than red, because tbh she kind of stood out too much if she was still red. she's not meant to be the leader of the unit, she doesn't want to stand out. her hair is a lot shorter than canon and she usually keeps it braided for practice and performances (and leaves it loose otherwise) (both the haircut and style were initially suggestions from shizuku). shes the only member of the unit to wear tights and to lack any star shaped hair accessories.

shizuku i don't have that much to say about, i had designed kanade first and then shizuku to match. its pretty straight forward i think? she's got the tallest socks not counting kanade's tights though.

for both an and shiho i wanted to go a slightly cooler/less feminine direction, while still sticking to the general theme i had going. which lead to the shorts and vest combo! otherwise the only notable change with either of them is that an's changed her clips to two regular gold ones and she's got a ponytail now when they practice/perform, much like kanade's braid.

fts was both very fun and an absolute pain to redesign because on one hand, i can do whatever i want, on the other hand, it's like vbs there's really no consistent theme to carry through everything. except a lot of layers i guess. so my goal was to kind of merge their casual aesthetics with something more vbs-like.

tsukasa wearing his jacket incorrectly was inspired by my own tendency to do so whenever i get too warm. i think he just does it because he thinks it looks cool though (its a little silly and a pain to keep it on but he's committed to the look). also leaving his middle layer as his fish jacket from his casual sprite was a funny little thing i thought worked for him.

with rui my goal was just pockets. lots of pockets. they're probably hiding little robots and tools in those pockets. i should have put more pockets on their pants too but oh well. combine that with wanting some obnoxious bright greens and blues and at least one item that kind of clashed color-wise with the rest (their pants in this case) and this is the result. the sketch doesn't convey it well but their black jacket and pants are both kind of loose, while the green hoodie and tshirt underneath fit okay. also their hair is kind of long if they ever untied it, but no one ever sees that.

hapisen for the most part sticks to their canon sprites, just simplified slightly for my sanity. mafuyu's costume still drives me insane to draw though, that's so many layers to think about.

other than questioning my sanity every time i draw mafuyu, there's only one change from her sprite, which is making her hairtie one decorated with pompoms much like a lot of other parts of her costume. i just thought it tied things together a little more.

the upper half of haruka's outfit is more or less completely unchanged (other than making it fit in a way that looks slightly more masculine), but then i replaced his skirt with pants and gave him boots (wxs meiko, who is the sprite haruka's outfit is originally just a recolor of, wears heels). i figured if i was going for a more princely sort of design for haruka then changing those felt fitting. beyond that he's obviously got shorter hair (a choice he makes after seeing kohane decide to change herself, wanting to embrace the genuine person he wants to be beyond the idol people knew him as) and that's about it. hits this guy with the transgender beam.

kohane's outfit is really just a bit simplified from the original with sizing/proportions of elements adjusted to (in my opinion) suit her better. the ribbons in her hair felt like a cute addition (and i like to give kohane ribbons in general), while her hair length is an in between of her two standard canon ones, longer than the usual one we see but shorter than pre-canon/early mainstory. her glasses are optional, she changes between them and contacts with how she's feeling for the day and what kind of shows hapisen is planning. the more intense the show, the less likely she is to wear her glasses.

kyushumi was kind of intended as niigo but without one member in a mostly white outfit since they don't have someone like kanade who is intentionally trying to save people. although they're also a little happier off anyway, so they don't need someone like that. they're my most drawn shuffle unit, so also probably my most thought-through redesigns.

each design takes slight inspiration from a member of niigo (nene/kanade, minori/ena, honami/mafuyu), but that was just kind of as a personal guide for what kind of vibes to go with for the outfits. they've all got personal touches to them.

nene's hoodie is very loose on her body and arms, but a normal fit in the length, and her shorts are actually long enough to be seen. she just wants to be comfy, she's tired a lot, very low energy girl. glasses because i think nene should wear glasses anyway, so as opposed to canon nene who i like to believe just favors contacts, this nene does not.

minori is pretty obviously similar to ena's outfit, but there's a few nods to mmj in here. she's got clover shaped earrings, the pattern along the bottom of her dress is meant to resemble the tips of the clover leaves from mmj's symbol, and her shoes are just the mmj unit outfit shoes in different colors.

the goal with honami's outfit was simply "how little skin can she have exposed" because i imagine her being more worried about that than usual here. so long sleeves, long skirt, high collar, etc. her hair is longer (for no particular reason tbh, i simply liked how it looks) but still styled the same, and she's got a solid red scrunchie now. the four buttons on her outfit are all meant to look like the moon, two full moons and two opposite facing crescents. also i will never stop joking about the fact that she's naturally the second tallest girl in the cast (not counting vs, then she's third tallest) and i gave her tall heels on top of that. she is towering over all of her unitmates here.

while you're welcome to use these designs for any (non-incest) ships you'd like, i do have a personal list of ships that are canon to my own au with the shuffle units, which is what i originally designed these for. the "canon" ships are

ichika/saki

ena/airi

honami/kanade

akito/touya

mafuyu/rui (qpr)

haruka/kohane

mizuki/nene

however you are not by any means required to follow these specific ships! i have no desire to enforce the ships that go with these, so draw whatever ships you might prefer with these designs. i'm happy to see anything!

anyway if you made it this far congrats on surviving i know this is a lot of text o7 i hope you've enjoy my silly little character design insanities ^^;

#you guys have no idea how much these live rent free in my head #the chibis were a fun little project #and then it turned into the full sketch references for everyone once i realized i needed a better way to share my designs #project sekai #prsk art #project sekai fanart #prsk fa #w1f1 draws #saki tenma #ichika hoshino #airi momoi #ena shinonome #kanade yoisaki #shizuku hinomori #shiho hinomori #an shiraishi #akito shinonome #touya aoyagi #tsukasa tenma #rui kamishiro #emu ootori #mafuyu asahina #haruka kiritani #kohane azusawa #mizuki akiyama #nene kusanagi #minori hanasato #honami mochizuki #april fools shuffle units

[princeandreis]

one thing that i think sets wilbur soot apart from a lot of other mcyts is he’s extremely mature in the way he goes about content creation. not in terms of the content itself, but in the way he goes about his career and how he interacts with other creators. he’s not close with many of them, but have you ever heard of wilbur soot having earnest beef with somebody online? nope, you haven’t, because he’s bigger than that.

there are so many petty squabbles and controversies that crop up online, and wilbur is always notably silent. that speaks volumes about his priorities. he seems to understand that jumping into those arguments serves 0 purpose and only fuels things further. (he’s also probably aware that joining in on controversy of any kind tarnishes his brand, so it’s a smart move from a purely PR standpoint.)

still, when things get really ugly and involve his friends, he encourages his community to show kindness above all else. take, for example, dream’s sexuality controversy on twitter in april. wilbur didn’t address it explicitly, but he went live (for a regular stream) perhaps a day or two after everything exploded and spoke about how important it is to be kind to other CCs (clip here). maybe i’m showing my bias because i’m primarily a dream team fan at heart, but it meant so much to hear someone who ordinarily is silent during controversy speak up in defense of his friend.

that’s another thing: wilbur and dream don’t even seem to be close friends, and wil still spoke in strong defense of him, in the name of decency and kindness. this wasn’t one of wilbur’s closest pals who was being attacked, but someone who’s a fellow content creator and friend. wilbur and dream have worked together many times and seem to get along well, and clearly there is a high degree of mutual respect between them. wilbur didn’t have to address the controversy, but he saw his friend’s name being dragged through the mud; so he asked his own audience to treat dream (without using his name) with respect. just as wilbur does. and that’s something he does with every CC he interacts with.

it’s sadly uncommon to see a mcyt who is so well-liked across the board, and who gets along with everyone he meets. if you ask me, it comes from wilbur’s experience in the industry. he’s been doing youtube and streaming for many years at this point and in many different circles, like soothouse, smplive, smpearth, the dream smp, etc. he’s educated in his field, and he’s now also working in music— i can tell you from personal experience that musicians who expect to go anywhere with their career have to be able to work with anyone, even the most difficult and insufferable kinds of people. you truly can’t expect to succeed in any creative field if you can’t adapt to your environment and work well with others. (wil is also just a naturally charismatic and funny guy, so he sets others at ease right away. not everyone has that gift!)

anyway, i just think it’s so neat to see a creator who does exactly the kind of content he wants (be it the most batshit-insane thing you’ve ever seen), succeeds at it, and also is held and holds others in high regard. it’s a testament to his passion for his work, as well as his love for others. i’m sure there are mcyts wil has worked with that he might personally dislike, but you’d never know because he treats everyone around him with the same kindness, decency, and authenticity that he does his closest friends. i love wilbur soot the end

#wilbur soot #mcyt #more people should approach their careers the way he does (through a slight veil of mystery but also genuine love and kindness) #also theres this clip of him preventing tommy from shaking ass onstage at an event and u can just See his gears turning #like yes tommy is silly and excitable and sometimes crude and that’s his reputation but it didn’t fit the moment and wilbur saw that #it’s also one thing to be silly and excitable and crude online and it’s another to shake your ass onstage at a convention #like that’s a more personal display and a little undignified even for tommy so wil stepped in like a big brother should #hes so protective in a good way and it makes me :) #wilbur just has a lot of wisdom in everything he does and i truly admire that about him #analysis

[thewriterg]

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬, 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮. pt.2

pairing(s): simon ‘ghost’ riley x fem!reader, john ‘soap’ mactavish x fem!reader, simon ‘ghost’ riley x john ‘soap’ mactavish, force 141 x black!reader, r is referred to as ‘grim’

summary: Going undercover seem to bend a lot of your morals like going to a ball, dressing up, being right under the enemies nose, revealing more information about yourself than needed, having to be more stealthy than violent, and oh! Taking off your mask but Ghost and Soap had yet to complain…

word count: 2.8k+

warning(s): Red Room AU, slowburn-ish, past SA, past abuse, kidnapping, violence, weapons, childhood trauma, trauma in general, teen pregnancy, child loss, abduction, death, blood, destructive behavior, mentions of self harm, polyamory relationships, and language

A/n: —GIFs; @cheapcurry & @collinnmckinley— part 1 thank you guys for 500+ followers! <3

You looked over yourself in the mirror one more time today was the day you had to go undercover with Soap and Ghost and couldn’t help but reluctantly welcome the goosebumps that littered your skin

Some of your Your curls were pinned up in a claw clip the rest of them falling down your shoulder you smoothed your dress over with gloved hands that stoped three to four inches over your elbow that covered majority of your scars the only scar visible was a scar maybe three inches long that dragged from your collarbone to your shoulder

You didn't have many scars on your face but you still has some the most notable one was around six inches that reached from above your eyebrow to the tip of your cheekbone even with the concealer the scar still seeped through but you could only tell if you looked hard enough and it would simply have to do

You didn't have many scars on your face but you still has some the most notable one was around six inches that reached from above your eyebrow to the tip of your cheekbone even with the concealer the scar still seeped through but you could only tell if you looked hard enough and it would simply have to do

Your stomach got that uneasy feeling as you walked towards your door the type of feeling when you were about to get spotted or ambushed and began to call for evac it made your head spin, you felt exposed to your enemies it made you sick

‘You’ve been through worse stop being a fucking pussy and just get this shit over with’

You turned the knob of your door before swinging it open walking down the haul with the click of your heels echoing off the walls when you arrived to the common area you didn't expect the team to be waiting on you expectantly almost and you felt your stiff shoulders tense

Soap felt himself smiling wide at your appearance you were more beautiful than he imagined his white suit with black lining fit him well Ghost on the under hand held his breath he had a mask covering his nose and mouth sunglasses in the front pocket of his tux even though it was reaching dawn the sun had set around thirty minutes prior his blonde hair roughed just below his ears and you noted when he didn't have war paint littering over his eyes they turned out to be blue

Fucking blue.

Price couldn't help his own smirk etched on his face as he stared at the three of you and Gaz just looked somewhat content at the sight in front of him anyone in the damn base would be lying through gritted teeth if they said you all didn't clean up nice

You clean up well, you're a goddamn bonnie lass. Pure dead brilliant” The attention could make you blush but the feeling of heat rising to reach to your cheeks was a feeling that died within you a long time ago it however did not stop you from cracking a small smirk that if you blinked too slow you would miss it but Johnny was indeed staring at you never taking his eyes off you

“Thank you Sarge, you clean up nice as well… both of you.” Your eyes locked with Simon who hadn't gotten a good look at you until now finding the wall more interesting your skin tone with the red of your dress complimented you fully

“Alright now, Gaz got you three on the guest list your going to an auction house. While you are guest you are an unknown surprise guest. This is a strictly informational mission” Price looked at You pointedly and you couldn't help but roll your eyes while Gaz and Soap stifled a chuckle and Ghost held amusement in his clear water eyes

“We won’t be able to signal you. Since the Shadows would be able to pick up on our coms with the long distance range you’ll only have each other” Gaz spoke up now handing the three of you small black ear pieces that were invisible to the opposite, opposing, eye.

“I’ll might be able to hack into the cameras audio but it’s shadows so no promises” You put the piece in your ear along with Ghost and Soap and there was a short beep before it left as quickly as it came

“You lot need to get goin’ it’s gonna start raining soon” Price reminded you of a dad pushing his children out the house to spend time with his wife but you all exited the base getting into the SUV that was also insisted by Gaz to ‘blend in’

There was a driver already in the car and you noted it was one of rookie’s who recently joined and you could practically hear the voices of your team laughing at the fact you were calling another Soldier rookie when you’d only been on the base for going on three months

Three months?

It had been three months already?

Ghost had cleared his throat voiding your thoughts as you looked up into his eyes something you caught yourself doing a lot lately but coming back down from your mind of your own you realized he was holding the door open for you

You propped your foot up on the floor of the car that was much higher than the ground you stood on the heels on your feet did not help your case before you could attempt to jump Soap was already putting his hand under yours to steady yourself as you ducked from the hood now finally sitting in the middle of the car

Soap and Ghost were soon to follow in your footsteps sitting on either side of you as the car began to drive off base you were quick to spread your legs not giving neither of them a chance to ‘man spread’ you’d be damned if you were already sandwiched between the two but being trapped was totally different story

Soap couldn’t help but smirk at you while Ghost just rolled his eyes lips barely curling underneath the fabric of his mask You began to stare outside the window as you watched the scenery pass you by

💌💌💌💌

You all entered the auction house side by side shoulder to shoulder

well Simon and John shoulder to shoulder as your shoulders didn’t reach barely to there biceps

“Good day, name and reservation?” You all didn’t get far which was expected getting stopped by a man, a servant and a woman holding a sort of tablet, both dressed identical in a black button down, a bright red tie, and black slip shoes.

“Simon”

“John”

The women looked over the tablet scrolling with a manicured finger before stopping abruptly putting a hand on Ghosts bicep

“Im sorry babe I don’t see you can you spell it for me” You and Soap watched as his shoulders tensed never faltering

“We should all be under Y/n, Y/l/n if you needed that” You watched the women with a tight smile that she returned back to you and You could feel Ghost and Soaps eyes burning into your temples at each side

Simon had been in this field of work for a long time and he had no problem figuring out who was bull-shiting him but you weren’t you didn’t get those tense shoulders, start darting your eyes, or not keeping still you were telling the truth

“There You all Are, I See There Are three of you would someone else be joining you? We also would like to know the relations you all have with each other this is simply so we could adjust your seating arrangements comfortably” You didn’t need to be a genius to hear the bitterness in the women’s voice you could hear it from a m i l e a w a y

“No, just me and my husbands tonight and our seating arrangements are just fine. You know darling I was just telling you we should go down to fifth and this just proves my point” You turned to look at Soap who contained his smile but couldn’t help the wider smirk that spread across his face

“I know love, just thought we’d tried something new didn’t know everyone here would be mad bampots” Simon couldn’t help but roll his eyes under his sunglasses at you two and you could see his cheekbones that wasn’t covered by his face mask tainting hot pink

“Oh no, no, no! That won’t be necessary, please take a look around there’s a open bar, delicate food, whatever you could need to enjoy yourself enjoy your night” The man had thrown the women a stern look before turning to smile at the three of you

Neither one of you said another word as you began to walk off arms linked looking around the auction house for anything… out of the ordinary

“I see a employees only it’s could be surveillance-” Before you were able to unlink your arms there was a gentle tug on your hand as you looked behind your shoulder at the two men who ‘courted you’ as Price would say

“We’ve got your six… be careful grim” Ghosts gruff yet stern voice stopped you in your tracks for a half of a second a half second too long before you were off splitting from your team you walked up the long staircase the view of the two men becoming more disoriented as the distance grew more

The employees only sign on the door in front of you were written in big red bold letters that could stand out to anyone from across the room but you never were fond of following the rules any how

So with a light hand and quiet feet you stepped towards the door grabbing the handle and pulling open just enough to s l i p your body through the crack you created for yourself there was a man watching different screens of security cameras around the auction house before the man could even get a chance to shout at you or alert anyone of your presence you were putting a hand over his nose and mouth while your other arm locked his head in place with no room to move

‘I hope this fucker doesn’t bite me’

You weren’t surprised that was the only thing you could bring yourself to think about as the man struggled in your hood and you would be lying if you say he didn’t put up a fight as he went limp in your grasp tipping the rolling chair with his body weight before falling out of it completely

“Come on Gaz” You muttered to yourself as you inserted a USB to one of the open slots on the side of the computer as the screen began to buffer you were already backing away from the screen rolling the rolling chair under the door handle blocking anyone from coming in and by the time you had faced the screen it was already on it’s downloading… process

“Grim, do you copy?” Ghosts voice rang in your ears over your coms and it could’ve made you jump… could’ve

“I Copy… found the surveillance room, Gaz is working on it from the base” You stated into the open for your mic to pick up and carry throughout your cold into your teammates ears

“Atta Girl”

It made your head spin

spin.

spin?

SPIN!

“It’s pishin’ it doon out here” Soap grunted over the coms and you could clearly hear the sound of rain pattering against buildings as you slid the USB out of the slot back into your bra stepping over the man you’d let down easy towards the door

“Speak English” Ghosts voice rang shortly after as you slid the chair from underneath the doorknob sliding out of the room as you had once did your heals colliding the sounds of your steps with a ‘clack’

“It’s raining fucking hard” The brunette responded sassily the sound of him opening something distributing between Yours and Ghosts head piece

“Then say so”

“I did”

“Rains good. It’ll cover your tracks” You were now walking back down the stairs a chandelier hanging high above your head as you scanned through your area the conversation of your comrades became white noise

💌💌💌💌

You were all in the building you were done… just like that but of course issues seemed to follow you everywhere you went as chaos and commotion went on around you

Two rich men arguing about a piece they both auctioned for and one of there men were quick to track for a gun when things got too frisky and you couldn’t help but curse under your breath

These type of missions never went as planned

“Shit… Ghost, Grim. You both read me?” Soap shouted over the gunshots that bounced off the walls as citizens screamed duking and dodging bullets as some had already gotten caught in the crossfire lying on the cold ground taking their very last breaths

“Copy”

“Copy”

“I see an opening here at the back by the stage, but you have to get here quick.” You we’re already taking quick and swift footsteps to your supposed pin point hoping that Simon was being just as fast and cautious as you were

You could see Soap in the few meters of distance it didn’t take much to spot that Mohawk and unusual white suit and it only pushed you to run faster even in the damn heals you wore on your feet

“Where the hell do you think you’re going!?” The voice put a skate in your tracks as all of you stood in front of muscled man sunglasses on his face an AK raise at all three of you threatening to squeeze the trigger he was no shorter than Soap but no where near Ghost himself

“Get on your knees before I shoot you all dead!” Your hands were up in the air if you reached to the holster on your thigh covered by your dress you wouldn’t be quick enough and If you were to

Your eyes darted around you as you tried to think quickly on your feet before the back of Simons belt came into your view the holster connected to it he stood close to you close enough to reach for the pistol without seeming too obvious

Your hands slowly trailed towards the gun until your fingertips came into contact with the hard and cold steel and Ghost could feel his usually dead heartbeat in his ears as he felt the weight of your hand on his holster

“Did it fuckin’ stutter!? Get your ass dow-” Two shots rang through the air blending with the ones that already screamed against the walls bouncing in and o u t of your ears the man that once stood in front of your now bled out in front of you on the ground

“He was too cocky for his own good” You sighed heavily while pressing the gun against Soaps chest the barrel facing down before grabbing your own gun from the Hoster on your thigh which he brought to his lips pressing a kiss right on the tip of the barrel while you rolled your eyes at before grabbing the Assault Rifle from off the floor tossing to Ghost which he caught

There was a dead man less than five feet away which you thanked the universe that seemed to be on your side for the moment grabbing the firearm by its strap before slinging it over your shoulder taking the clip that held your hair back dropping it to the floor taking the hair tie that sat on your wrist up bringing your hair into both of your hands securing it in a bun out of your eyes some loose strands framing your face

“The only rule is, we leave here alive.” Ghost stated before kicking the door to an alleyway down as more bullets flew past your head Your body shook as shots fired from your guns the three of your back to back covering each others blind spots Soaps double pistol combination doing him more justice than he thought it would

The ground and walls were a bloody mess and there were occasional blood splatters on your face from when an enemy had gotten a little too close but you all made it out alive.

Didn’t you?

fuck

fuck?

fuck.

fuck!

FUCK!

💌💌💌💌

Let me know if you want to be added to this series or any other taglist

Taglist; @kdkj122920, @whore4dilfs, @piper570, @tomhardy41, @redwolfxx, @abbiesxox, @multitargaryen, @gumboisyum, @catied32, @tamzindouglas, @comedinwithmeyeh,

#simon riley #simon ghost riley #simon riley x reader #ghost x reader #john mactavish #john soap mactavish #john mactavish x reader #soap x reader #kyle garrick #kyle gaz garrick #kyle garrick x reader #gaz x reader #john price #john price x reader #price x reader #cod x reader #cod mw2 #romance #angst #fluff #fem!reader #black!reader #black!fem!reader #ghost x soap #ghost x soap x reader #task force 141 #141 x reader #i love you #thewriterg

[swifty-fox]

HI so for the mota hockey au:

any out of pocket viral moments of the boys? magazine photoshoots press tours etc what are they like? are clegan out and proud or are they more like go on keep guessing?

Bucky has a LOT of notable moments. He's just a teenage girl and puberty is so hard it makes him so hormonal.

He gets sent to the penalty box for BLATANT hooking one time which is a pretty iconic out of pocket moment you dont really get tendys serving penalties. usually another play subs in for their penalty but refs are prob like Fuck you Bucky you're such a menace you pay the price.

He drops the gloves with a rival teams goon that absolutely boards the fuck out of Gale a la Scheifele/Evans hit. Normally we love a good Goaltender fight but this hit was too scary. people still take notice bc they're like look at Bucky defending his BOY

John is a very Seguin type character. As I mentioned he has a similarly nude sports illustrated photoshoot. But also very messy party phase with Curt much like Segs and Marchy

theyre messy bitches who know how to have fun okay.

He's got a LOT of really famous soundbites, just the most out of pocket shit professional yapper w the cameras fr. it's mostly him hitting on Curt and Gale. There's a mic'd up clip of him singing "Baddie Friend" by kevo jefe perfectly word for word.

Gale's really bad with the cameras he clams up a ton and just kinda defaults to hockey mumbo-jumbo. he does get one Hockey social media clip where he gets to talk about space and that gets him a little excited. The clip of his one skate goal does some pretty big numbers just because Holy Fuck Dude.

he gets gif'd a lot for chewing on his mouthguard like Tkachuk. nasty boy. the fangirls go a little feral over those ones.

In terms of their relationships there is some plot stuff I'm cooking but John doesn't really care for the most part. he isn't ashamed but hes also like well im here to play hockey and im single nobody needs to be privy to my sexuality so he's kinda just closeted bc hes too lazy to do otherwise. you bet ur ass he wears pride tape every game and practice after Gary fucking shittman tried to institute the ban

(Shoutout to Travis "It had to be done" Dermott who called garys bluff like a PRO you my number 1 bbygirl i have a puck signed by him)

Gale is definitly closeted and it's a plot point in the au his journey with it. hes not closeted to himself but there are factors making him NOT want to be open with things.

I do think once theyre established in their team, they both have the C and a couple cups under their belt; when gale is ready - yeah they sit down with management and draw up a coming out plan. The team is so supportive of them they love their Bucks squared.

It's internet breaking

Please bear in mind hockey is REALLY homoerotic like these straight men kiss and hug and call eachother handsome and pet names constantly so theres a LOT that Clegan can actually just get away with and have plausible deniability

( a few seasons ago Marchand started licking other players and the NHL had to release a statement like 'its not against the rules but wtf bro stop')

#mota hockey au #buck x bucky

[rose-of-pollux]

My MFU episode recs

Since everyone else is doing this; as others have said, most episodes are worth seeing, but here are my absolute faves--

The Shark Affair -- probably my favorite episode of all time, Napoleon and Illya are on two separate missions that converge and pit them against a modern-day pirate.

The Project Strigas Affair -- you'll be playing the "Hey, it's that guy!" game all though this ep. Also Illya is in a ridiculous disguise and Napoleon still finds time to flirt with him.

The Fiddlesticks Affair -- SO. MUCH. DRAMA.

The Mad, Mad Tea Party Affair -- so much insanity, plus that lovely shot of Napoleon and Illya in the elevator shaft with their suitjackets off (one of my more notable "I may be ace, but dang" moments).

The Secret Sceptre Affair -- the clips that @justabigoldnerd has been posting should tell you all you need to know about this ep.

The Never-Never Affair -- what do you get when you take Napoleon and Illya and add in Agent 99, the Joker, and Mr. Slate from The Flintstones? This ep.

The Love Affair -- Eddie Albert plays a convincing villain and invokes Napoleon's wrath when it appears he's killed Illya. Also Madame Leota/Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) has a cameo

The Gazebo in the Maze Affair -- Napoleon embarks on a quest save his beloved Illya from a vengeful squire... with mixed results, but that's why we love this show.

Alexander the Greater Affair 1&2 -- there's a lot going on here, but that's what makes it great

The Foxes and Hounds Affair -- Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, AND Vincent Price all in the same room together--need I say more?

The Virtue Affair -- more mutual lifesaving with a ton of drama

The Bat Cave Affair -- ...there's a lot going on here, just watch it 😆

The Pop Art Affair -- modern art and killer foam

The Off-Broadway Affair -- yet another "Hey, it's that guy/gal!" episode, ft Lamb Chop, Scrappy-Doo, and General Burkhalter all in the same room with Napoleon and Illya. Also the closest MFU gets to a musical episode. ALSO more mutual lifesaving and, somehow, Napoleon and Illya still find time to have a date in a Turkish bath.

The Suburbia Affair -- very little I can add to what others have said about this ep, other than this: I am convinced that the overdubbed "Mother" at Illya that Robert Vaughn was forced to do was covering up a "Dear" that the censors refused to let air. In my heart, it was "Dear." Kudos to Robert for making it so obvious it was an overdub; it's like he knew what the fans wanted.

The Matterhorn Affair -- Yes, it's mostly ridiculous, but Napoleon and Illya's ice-cream date at the end makes it worth it

The Hot Number Affair -- we get this, enough said:

The Summit-Five Affair -- ANGST and a beautiful showcasing of Illya's undying loyalty to Napoleon.

The 'J' for Judas Affair -- this is an interesting one, a sort of look into what happens when the duo initially fails a mission and then have to pick up the pieces.

The Prince of Darkness Affair 1 & 2 -- ft. a new evil organization, Napoleon in disguise, and Illya finding Napoleon's disguise more attractive than he expected

The Deadly Quest Affair -- more undying loyalty!

The Gurnius Affair -- there's A LOT going on here

The Maze Affair -- More angst! More devotion!

The Deep Six Affair -- You gotta watch it for the ending. You gotta.

#the man from uncle #episode recs #Napoleon Solo #Illya Kuryakin

[seulgist]

saw spy x family: code white yesterday and i have a lot of (very positive) thoughts about loid forger and the forger family in general.

!!! spoilers beneath the cut !!!

OUHHH the trailer/clips posted before the movie was released worldwide did loid so dirty. that scene of him caressing that women’s leg and “”kissing”” fiona. like woah where was his PR team. he was getting dragged left and right.

just had to get that out of my system bc i will be loid forger’s lawyer in the rest of this post.

i think the most notable moment of the movie was when sylvia told loid that someone else would be taking over operation strix. instead of him being relieved, he was upset.

mind you, operation strix is a long-term mission and is extremely stressful for him. being tasked to appear as a perfect family man when he grew up without one? almost impossible. on top of that, he has a ton of side missions he has to take on during operation strix. so, you would think being told that operation strix has ended would relieve a lot of his stress, but it added more.

i think the best part (different from the most notable) of the movie is that the reason why twilight didn’t want operation strix to end is never directly answered.

sure, it could be that he was finally in a (somewhat) stable place with a semi-permanent home he could come back to everyday which made his job a lot more convenient, but the movie never shows that. in fact, it shows the opposite; that he wanted to continue operation strix to keep his pretend family for selfish reasons.

for once in probably decades, twilight did not worry about anyone but himself (and his family). he was more focused on prolonging operation strix because he hadn’t lived a happy & stable life in so long. twilight doing something for his own happiness is unheard of ,, so i love seeing the subtle growth he’s experienced since creating the forger family.

OH and don’t even get me STARTED on the ferris wheel scene with him and yor. you can tell when he goes into ‘agent twilight mode’ to smooth things over with yor, but that moment in the ferris wheel was genuine.

he was already afraid that sylvia would take him away from his “”pretend”” family, so hearing yor doubt her skills as a wife/mother then finding out that she thought he was seeing someone else was what broke him. i believe that entire scene was not twilight talking, but was loid forger. maybe he believed that if he could smooth things over with yor and go back to presenting as a normal & loving family, that operation strix could countinue. at the least, maybe him, yor, anya, and bond could stay together.

AND when anya ended up not even getting a stella and he had to rework his WHOLEEEE plan in order to appeal to the vice principal’s taste instead of the principal’s, he didn’t even feel upset.

he had spent so much time and energy to make sure they had all the ingredients for the perfect meremere and went through so much trouble to make sure she had even the slightest chance of receiving that stella. yet, when anya came home without a stella and the plans for who would judge the pastries changed, he didn’t even budge. he just looked forward to spending another day with his family. if the old loid forger was put in this same situation, he would’ve passed out or had a heart attack.

(i have so many other things i could talk about like the way in a few scene, an object divides loid from yor + anya but at the end of the movie that divide is broken but i’ll save that for another day)

so today, i proclaim that loid forger will no longer be referred to as loid “for the mission” forger, but shall henceforth be referred to as loid “the official family-man” forger.

#spy x family #sxf #spy x family: code white #this is just a think piece #and a character analysis #i love analyzing media i’m obsessed with #and i’m so obsessed with sxf #i’m normal about yor forger….. i swear….. #but the movie was 10/10 #twiyor #have to throw in the twiyor tag cause i love them

[planetary]

COMMONLY ENCOUNTERED CAT INDEX

impostor boy (m, she/her or he/him)

mostly light orange, white paws, very pointy white triangle between eyes, clipped ear, kind of droopy eyes. the one i see the most frequently. note her name is impostor boy, with an o, not an e. her middle name is jennifer. she is known to lift her paw in the air when waiting for food

the paw lift for your viewing pleasure.

saddle (m, he/him)

white with dark orange on head and back and tail. clipped ear. pattern on back makes it look like he has a saddle. pictured above with impostor boy. i added a second picture because he is very cute

scruffy old man (m, he/him or she/her)

tuxedo mostly. has a round black spot on hind leg. 3 legs are white, the other is fully black with just a white paw. he is the only one we have been able to pet. i named him after an old friend

fluffy ginger (m, he/him)

a younger cat that looks a LOT like impostor boy, but notably rounder and fluffier. he is lighter orange and smaller and has more white near his hind legs. pictured above with impostor boy so you know they’re different cats

dusty (m, she/her or he/him)

about the same size and age as fluffy ginger. they hang out together. white cat with dark gray spots.

basketball, (m, any)

basketball is a small brown tabby kitten. he is the littlest cat. his paws are white and one is white halfway up his leg. dusty and fluffy ginger are pretty much always with him

orange zest (m, he/him)

white with VERY vivid orange. orange spot on nose and one orange leg. pictured above with imposter boy

THE BROWN TABBY (?!?!?!)

APPEARS OUT OF NOWHERE DUE TO CAMOUFLAGING ABILITY AND SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF ME EVERY TIME I SEE HER. IF I SEE HER.

‼️ all cats are caught, brought to the shelter, fixed and vaxxed, and domesticated if they can be. if not, they are brought back here to us and we feed them in the mornings. they go inside a heated room or a covered enclosure across the street at night. i knowww outdoor cats are bad dont yell at me. these guys are feral!!!

when i say “we” i mean me and my dad btw he feeds them on the days i cant

#cat index #animal encounters

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (January 28-February 3, 2024)

Minecraft: Bedrock Edition's Godzilla DLC is now available. I joined Wikizilla's stream of it yesterday as a spectator and found it quite entertaining (especially when @squid-in-a-party-hat switched to Creative Mode and started summoning mini-kaiju). I'll post the highlight reel from that stream when it's finished. The main hub of this DLC is a combination movie theater/gallery; each of the four screens lets you access a different minigame. The first is based on the original film and has you rescuing civilians and just trying to survive as Godzilla trashes Tokyo. The second transforms you into Godzilla and pits you and your allies against various kaiju from the first three series. The third tasks you with defending Tokyo against Shin Godzilla, with each defensive phase featuring a different form. The fourth just has you taking photos of the battles in Godzilla vs. Kong (with the Tasmian Sea fight replaced by Godzilla barging into Kong's dome). I found the second and third to be the most interesting, but it's dismaying that only the third really takes advantage of these games being in Minecraft. You scrounge items, build barricades, lay down TNT, trade with NPCs, summon agents, fire blood coagulation potion into Godzilla's mouth from a crossbow... it's a lot more involved than the others.

In further Godzilla video game news, the Heisei MOGUERA and a crystal-hurling SpaceGodzilla variation have joined Godzilla Battle Line, the upcoming Godzilla x Kong: Titan Chasers mobile game is teasing its original monsters, and Dave the Diver of all things announced a free PlayStation-exclusive Godzilla DLC for May.

Here's a rare sequel to an IDW Godzilla miniseries. Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons II - Sons of Giants will boast the same writer (Frank Tieri) and artist (Inaki Miranda) as its predecessor. The logline:

The sequel to last summer’s smash miniseries! Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda reunite to explore the conspiracy that led to Sir Francis Drake hiding his treasure on Monster Island! Who are the Sons of Giants, and what is their mission? More importantly, what is their connection to Godzilla and the other monsters? This series shows us how it all came to be, how Godzilla was discovered by the leaders of the world, and how it changed history forever!

Despite the Roman numerals, sounds like a prequel. I still think there's something off about any Godzilla story set before the Atomic Age, but the Sons of Giants were the most interesting part of the original Here There Be Dragons, and historical figures encountering the King of the Monsters is always amusing.

Naturally, Funko is making a line of Pops for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The standout is the Amazon-exclusive figure of a sleeping Godzilla; I also love how Shimo looks like she's yakking. Monogram also revealed the lineup for its sixth wave of Toho Godzilla bag clips, as well as a GxK set. Highlights of the former are a curled-up Final Wars Anguirus, a Simeon, and Zilla; the latter is notable for including a previously-unrevealed monster called a Parrot Frog.

Tokyo's Hibiya neighborhood has long played host to Godzilla statues: first the Kawakita Godzilla, then Shin. Now they're getting a new three-meter statue of the original '54 Godzilla. It emits smoke at night, the mouth glows, and there seems to be some kind of AR app through which he fires atomic breath at you. Despite it being a 70th anniversary installation, however, it'll only be in Hibiya until March 10. I'm guessing that won't be the last we see of it.

#kaiju week in review #godzilla #toys #minecraft #godzilla here there be dragons ii sons of giants #godzilla x kong the new empire #kaiju