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mimzalot · 1 year

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started streaming Golden Wildfire! gonna reflect on the route as it unfolds, courtesy of your resident Claude enthusiast.

CURRENTLY PLAYING: Chapter 4

[document version]

if Three Houses glossed over the sort of wild situation that Claude has to survive every day in Garreg Mach then this route has started with a bang by opening with conflict at the Fodlan-Almyran border. bold move! and I certainly am endlessly curious about this impending intrigue - in fact I have spent the last four years (four years!) since Three Houses musing about Claude’s relationship to his home nations, and the nations’ relationships to one another, and what that conflict means for Claude and everybody else.

do I trust the writers with it? not really. am I gonna try and play it in good faith anyway? evidently. so let’s get into it~ 🏹

right off the bat I can tell there’s stuff in this route that’s gonna make me uncomfortable, sometimes in the fascinating and deliberate way, and sometimes in the “oh I feel like an accomplice to/victim of a hate-crime” way. this is not really a surprise when it comes to Fire Emblem but it deserves a mention regardless, as I think Golden Wildfire’s going to be a rollercoaster that will frustrate me as much as it intrigues me. I’ll have the additional challenge of having to articulate how I feel about it off the dome, as a biracial POC playing to a mixed-bag stream audience. so, in short: occasional yikes are inevitable.

but such is the price I pay for Claude. ahh Claude, my beloved. when first I played Three Houses I was drawn to the game by him, not expecting him to be everything I enjoyed in a character. other than just being generally *chefs kiss* impeccable, he also conveyed some nuanced mixed-race experiences rarely expressed in a lot of media I’ve engaged with. that he sprouted from a game that frequently overshoots its own political intrigue and bungles character resolutions like FE3H surprised me, but I was happy to pluck the fluff and dirt off my darlings and make the best of what had been provided -- a bizarrely relatable, endlessly complex nice young man having a terrible, no good, very bad time.

I already got a whiff of this from playing Scarlet Blaze first, and it’s vindicating to see Three Hopes elaborate on something I’ve been clawing at walls trying to convey since the first game: Claude is light-hearted, but his situation is not. it always blew my mind to hear people say that Claude was the “good vibes house leader” in 3H only to play the game and find a character that would flippantly laugh about threats on his life, occasionally mention that he exists at the hostile junction of two warring nations, and ultimately find himself in the impossible position of an anti-war leader operating during a war. across two nations. both warring. yes, yes, he’s quite a funny guy, but his circumstances are abysmal, and a big part of that agony comes from the role he occupies -- that which he is saddled with, and that which he takes upon himself.

this was not a position easily occupied, and I was delighted to find that Claude was intelligently portrayed as a character whose ideals had to bend to the demands of leadership, resulting in morally-grey decisiveness, diplomatic juggling, and one of my favourite things to explore in fiction: the pragmatic, sometimes paradoxical pursuit of “non-violence” during war, and as a solution to war.

already in Three Hopes (I played SB first) I sense they’re leaning a little harder on showing Claude’s struggle with this, including some hints at the unbearably high bar he sets for himself. he doesn’t wear accountability like Dimitri or Edelgard in 3H - it’s always a little more cavalier, something you have to read between the lines to spot and understand. but this game is a tad more forthright with it, pulling back the disguise of “Master Tactician” to plainly show Claude in a perpetual state of, well... this:

and nothing exacerbates this like the situation they’ve started the game with. it’s dramatic irony that makes the first three chapters really sting: we know by now that Claude is Almyran, and are placed in an uncomfortable position of puttering around the camp listening to the people Claude calls his friends talking at length about the brutish Almyrans invading at Fodlan’s Throat.

this is technically good set-up. Claude is here to fix a problem, and this is our first experience of the problem -- lacking communication and education means that neither side knows who they’re fighting, or why, just that they have to. with the Church of Seiros already positioned as a questionable but overbearing presence in ch. 2 (“Why are we being sent here to fight? Church school said so.”) it begs to reason that showing the consequences of Fodlan’s intensely insulated culture starts with these uncomfortable scenes. they are, after all, born from the fear of not knowing. Claude as an antithesis to ignorance-based conflict makes a habit of overcoming fear by knowing everything.

so there are some pretty ick conversations happening around camp, and that’d honestly be something I’d be fine to reckon with as a narrative choice -- if not for the visceral discomfort and sharp drop in faith that came in the form of Shahid’s introductory scene.

let’s get this out the way: I did not spend four years mopping my tears about all these Lords and Royals to see Shahid and not immediately think “bratty king? I can fix him, and/or make him worse.” especially as a foil to Claude, it’s interesting to see a foolish heir working towards the throne in a way that Khalid, and perhaps even the King of Almyra, would oppose. I’m bracing myself for his justifications, for his humanity, because he occupies an interesting political position and he’s the first family of Claude’s that we’ve seen on screen. and yes, he could just be shallowly evil, but that wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun as it being complicated and ugly, the way all the other Lords and Leaders are afforded.

alas, it is difficult to have faith that GW is gearing up to say something interesting when they introduce such a caricature of the ‘evil desert guy’ that I feel like I’m watching a Disney movie. especially when a scene shows a narrow-eyed, ashy-but-darker-skinned ‘evil’ sibling in contrast with our bright-eyed, lighter-skinned mixed-Fodlanian Claude. it’s these sort of artistic choices that threaten to undercut the same cross-cultural intrigue that this route is constructing.

the Three Hopes sprites are a bit awkward, proportionally (shout out to Margrave Gautier’s bizarrely wide mouth) but it’s a long and yucky history with depicting MENA people that makes this particularly egregious. I’m Samoan so not personally affected by this, but it is nevertheless going to take an active effort to just try to look past the way his character is drawn. I spare a wince of sympathy for my viewers that are more personally affected: it sucks, and it’s such a simple fix that it becomes even more frustrating.

he does look slightly less like a hate crime in the animated cut scenes though. “the only one who can beat me is me!” type rizz.

I actually like that his features might deviate from the typical proportions of most of our main cast, the way Hubert’ or Lorenz’s do. it is a shame to have it pushed just into the realm of caricature when there is something workable there.

nevertheless, 3H optics have betrayed themselves before (shout out, woman-enjoyers). so again, I’m going to try and brute-force past this icky design choice and try and find my bliss, which is thus: sibling drama, please, I beg. I love the garbage mish-mash of family dysfunction and political drama that happens in royal families, and it was high time that we saw a glimpse at what Claude’s other side is going through. I swear the British monarchy convinced people that wild dysfunction is reserved only for the English, but where there is power there is corruption, and where there is hereditary power struggle, by jove do you get problems -- it’s just a matter of flavour.

all that to say: I am hoping that we will be compensated for that abysmal talk-sprite with enough royal family intrigue to write home about. I would like to see Almyran politics that are just as complex as everywhere else, but culturally diverse and interesting without leaning lazily on the same fear-mongering racist rhetoric that Claude’s entire character exists to debunk. that’s my hope. my three hope. ha ha. look I’m not holding out hope for a diamond, I just kinda want a gem-shaped rock that I can polish up myself.

anyway, new spite-induced meow meow aside, let’s get back to Claude. my god! his life fucking sucks!

thinkin about this scene just before the timeskip where Claude expresses his thanks to House Goneril, and apologises for not being of more assistance. it makes my skin crawl knowing that Claude is not just thanking Holst but saying sorry to him after all the micro-and-macro aggressions he’s been weathering, but it makes a lot of sense; Claude is representing House Riegan and his grandfather, not Khalid of Almyra, and not even Claude himself. and what that shows is an important feature of diplomacy: the ability to make connections, and say what needs to be said in order to maintain good relations with his new allies.

better than that, it shows how damn good Claude is at it, despite having every reason in the world not to be. he is, in this moment, House Riegan. and with foresight, this is an interview, and this humble apology operates twofold as a promise, setting the tone for his eventual leadership and securing House Goneril as an ally.

if Claude were more selfish, more proud, more emotional or less wise, he wouldn’t be able to say things like that. it is the humility that makes people underestimate him, but it’s also what makes him so pivotal in creating and maintaining peaceful circumstances. sometimes, peace-keeping means pacifying the people in power. and especially for Claude operating in the alliance, managing expectations is key for a leader. he’s clever, this is strategic, and I’m excited to see Claude juggle the egos and roles of all the nobles around him.

but it’s tough, right? this is a situation that rewards Claude for not behaving like a human ought to. I like to imagine the way his smile falters when the Almyrans are spoken of like barbarians, agitation ticking along in the back of his mind while he forces himself to speak the niceties that will benefit everyone in the long-run. he’s only seventeen. we hear a lot about noble obligation, but there is no greater pragmatic noble obligation in Leicester than managing the other nobles, and Claude has that skill in spades -- hard won, but effective, with an eventual payoff to make all that juggling worthwhile. sometimes. maybe.

speaking of noble obligations, good lord that bit where Lorenz snaps that they must execute Tomas and Claude has to remind him that dead men don’t talk... I’ll inevitably end up talking plenty about Lorenz as the game goes on because he is a fascinating foil, so remind me later to talk about the things that make Lorenz a good noble, bad leader, and eventual good ally later.

and on the topic of fascinating foils...

man. I was not expecting Shez.

for those unaware, my read of Claude in 3H was that he mostly saw Byleth as a curiosity pre-timeskip, then brought them on as a means to an end post-timeskip. room for interpretation about how they develop after that, but generally most of my Byleth and Claude interactions boiled down to this thinly-veiled hostility and how it evolved into apologetic manipulation and mutual care.

Shez is different, right off the bat. I can see Claude working them over, but there’s something very new about the vibes of Claude approaching a peer he finds suspect. it has the same echo of how he treated Byleth, and even Marianne, but there’s a difference that I can’t quite put my finger on, and I suspect it comes from Shez just being a much more talkative character, plus the dramatic irony of vaguely knowing where Shez’s story might be heading. they’re not harbouring the goddess, nor a cursed beast, but a secret third thing :’l (and god I’m so excited to see what’s up with Shez, they’ve been impressing me as a protag since I started this game, I don’t think I’ve liked a FE avatar this much since Robin)

the way I characterised Shez has him coming off a little arrogant and brash, compared to my previous Shez, who seemed mostly daft and down-to-earth and is currently committing girlboss crimes in Adrestia in an alt timeline. I’m so used to overlooking the avatar character that I hardly realised just how much potential Shez holds in this route, as a sellsword brought onto the squad of the guy that wants to avoid bloodshed. honestly I’m pretty astounded by the raw fire of intrigue it’s set alight in my brain. Shez thrived under Edelgard because they always had work. and now they’re struggling under Claude, and we’re seeing just how vile the war machine is that it will make peace an inconvenience to the merc economy.

just before I finished the stream, I played the opening scene of the timeskip: where Shez is struggling to make ends meet by being a mercenary in a peaceful alliance. therein lies the intrigue of this pair-up. Claude wants peace. Shez needs to fight to live. so how do we reconcile this?

already it seems that Claude mmmiiight have just deliberately forced scarcity on Shez in order to easily manipulate them into a) not moving into a different nation when Claude still doesn’t know what’s up with him and b) taking up his first offer of becoming a commander, which is exactly the morally dubious pragmatism that I love to see in my Alliance leader - but who’s to say? it’s not as if it’s the same method he used to flush out Bergliez’s army in the SB route, forcing their hand by starving their troops with hopes they’d choose surrender...

guess we’ll find out next time, eh? but oh, is my spotlight shining on these funny little guys.

and quickfire round: Nader��s still lookin’ handsome, love that Claude’s opinion of Shez rises every time I side-eye the church, and Arval continues to enthrall my entire brain.

and. yeah. that’s a majority of my first impressions of the GW route. not even all of them but this is like an entire essay and I’m only just past the prologue. tl;dr more of the same Claude goodness, something new and tense in Almyra lore, and then something new and unexpected in Shez. and we’ll see where the rest takes us.

thanks for reading, all the best!

my streams | my twitter | ask to join the discord server

#golden wildfire #three hopes #fire emblem warriors: three hopes #claude von riegan #mimzameta #mimzamine

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breelandwalker · 2 years

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Hi! I’m very new to witchcraft (as in i’ve only been seriously looking into it in the last week or so new) and my family are strong christians. they are very against magick and related stuff bc they believe that its part of the devils realm and that people can get possessed and other things if they get involved in witchcraft. I’m not religious myself but growing up around that mindset has made me a bit paranoid about starting witchcraft. I’m not planning on working too much with spirits or the dead at all so I’m not at risk of being ’possessed’ or anything bad am i?

thank you! :D

Good news! Practicing witchcraft does not guarantee, invite, or increase your risk of possession of any kind. Also, if you don't wish to do spirit work, there's no rule that says you have to. And witchcraft, contrary to what some might tell you, is not in opposition to Christian belief, as evidenced by the numerous folk magic traditions that blend Christian prayer and Bible verses with spells and charms.

Furthermore, spells are not horrendously dangerous and explosive things likely to singe off your eyebrows and ruin your life if not performed EXACTLY right, with all the precise trappings of timing and components and procedure pertaining thereto. In reality, spells don't often work in an immediately noticeable fashion, and spells that fail tend to fizzle into nothing rather than blowing up in your face. Yes, even the baneful ones.

One lesson that I like to teach to newer witches is that the spirit world, and indeed the universe at large, is not waiting to pounce on our mistakes and enact horrific consequences. There is no army of malicious imps waiting for you to say or do just the wrong thing so that they can rush in to steal the baby and put a glam rock Goblin King in your window to do some spooky-ooky contact juggling.

Learning magical protection methods is a first step that many witches recommend, but it's not because witchcraft is inherently dangerous. It's more because the techniques used in protection magic (i.e. visualization, grounding & centering, learning to harness your own energy, attaching spells to objects, etc) make excellent building blocks for a basic understanding of magical mechanics. Not to mention that the first thing you should learn with any new hobby or activity is how to do it safely.

This idea of looming danger is a product of leftover guilt and "sin" complexes from the faith systems that many of us were raised with, as well as plenty of scare tactics employed by conservative media over the years that have filtered into popular culture. This last should come as little surprise, considering the number of tv shows and movies where anything related to witchcraft immediately defaults to the demonic and results in problems that only Christian belief and ritual can cure.

The world of witchcraft is peopled with...well, people. Most of us spend our time dealing with everyday life, trying to find time for research and hobbies (and sleep), and swearing luridly when we discover we've missed the full moon AGAIN and just when we had a lovely jar of water to put out for charging. Witches are a colorful and widely varied lot and there are as many ways to be a witch as there are witches in the world.

And to the best of my knowledge, the only practice that is likely to get you haunted or possessed is quite literally calling spirits and demons to haunt or possess you. And even then, it's not a guarantee.

So forge on bravely and fear not! And may I suggest checking out Episodes 4 and 12 of my podcast Hex Positive. These deal with advice for beginner witches and tips for practicing in stealth mode.

Hope this helps!

#indigo-enbyx #witchcraft #witchblr #pagan #baby witch #beginner witch #Advice for Beginner Witches #Bree answers your inquiries

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pokemongoloresociety · 1 year

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This Reeks Of...

I read the Hoenn quest leaks, and had some thoughts! Feel free to share you own with me by tagging this tumblr or quoting. Spoilers ahead!

I'm going to try my best to keep my perspectives and speculations surface-level. Yes, there is a lot here; but having a year between story updates gives you too much time to think.

GO Rocket Leaders In General:

I genuinely feel sorry for them. I've always felt sorry for them, and I've always thought the three of them were in a boiling frog situation given the brand of Giovanni they're working under. These lines cement those feelings. If anything, they're worse off than I thought and are extremely vulnerable but talented people brimming with potential under the right form of guidance.

All of them are riding on a facade of confidence in various flavors. It's an interesting take on its own. They're acting like how they think they should act while how they genuinely feel still comes through. This might be one of those 'fake it til you make it' tales, which would be cool, if not a little meta.

The theme of the three of them running away from themselves becomes more obvious. We saw the GO Leaders overcome their weaknesses; we're witnessing little fragments of the GO Rocket leaders being consumed by them.

Cliff cites Arlo and gives him proper credit for where his knowledge comes from. Sierra doesn't care much, but she does take credit for telling you the info. Arlo uses it as a moment to dunk on Candela AND Willow. (I might have to make an entire post just unpacking Arlo's details alone.)

Arlo and Cliff start out aggressive, with Cliff becoming more personable and Arlo going a bit more resistant. Not entirely tsundere, as he's still very resistant and insistent on keeping a status quo. Despite being appointed leaders (or at least execs/admins), you see parts that would turn potential followers away.

I'm appreciating the level of psychology and nuance they're introducing in such a simple format, and exploring the aspects of what being a leader can take. Self-care, self-forgiveness, and facing your shortcomings are pillars. If I had to say: Cliff lacks self-care (all his care is on Giovanni); Sierra lacks self-forgiveness, and Arlo lacks the courage to face his fears.

I'm also appreciating the fact that all six of them are embodiments of certain core traits, mirroring the positive and negative sides of them. The GO Rocket leaders show a new potential: that their negative sides aren't something they need to overcome, but to utilize in a better light. Pokemon has always shown us that the world is more complicated than good vs bad; that "good" fairy types can be some of the most dangerous; and that scarier types like dark (called "evil" in Japan) and ghost can be misunderstood saviors.

Based on these details, I will write another post later on exploring how each Rocket Leader could potentially contribute to the GO Leaders, and vice-versa.

Cliff:

Cliff's backstory as a rancher fills my prior suspicions about him relying on calculation. Running farms and ranches takes a lot of work and cannot be done alone; not only do you have books to balance and resources to juggle, but you have to develop extra senses for your animals (or, in this case, Pokemon) and the seasons. I wonder what made him lose it?

Combined with the prior themes of abandonment, I'd suspect that some parts of Cliff's demeanor is what pushed people away. You can't run a ranch by yourself, and we see it decaying in his intro video. You can see how he'd be a great and encouraging leader, and he presents his wisdom in a way that's easy to follow. But, there are cracks in his line of thought and personality.

What stood out to me was how he thought Willow was your leader, and was surprised to hear otherwise. Even with all the time that's passed, Cliff has holed himself into a line of thought. Even Arlo presents himself as being observant enough to refer to Willow properly.

I'm now under the impression that Cliff may not be as well-liked as I thought in GOR. I've known people like Cliff. Very loyal, but this loyalty is steeped in sadness, fear, and insecurity. He's happy to be around the grunts and play with them, like when they invaded the 2020 festival and he was eager to get back to hanging out with them after beating you up. But, you also see in his intro where he's losing his absolute shit at the grunts sitting around; presumably without even asking what they were doing (for all we know, they could have been on a break or avoiding overexerting themselves). While most of the grunts love Giovanni, Cliff has made Giovanni into his religion.

Sierra:

Sierra gave me whiplash. When you beat her normally, she assures you that it's not going to happen again. In this text, she's more obviously self-deprecating. I would not be surprised if she blamed herself for all of her loss and situations; like her own Absol (And misappropriated to misery, just like an Absol).

For context to #1, I'm still not sure if she was just an orphan; or if she was an orphan who ALSO lost her own husband and child when she got the chance to start her own family, which would add another layer to her reclusive nature and lone lioness motif. The intro shows two sets of images and it's easy to interpret it as two different bad outcomes. Her being in charge of the Rocket eggs says a lot about her hidden nature as it is. She definitely wants a family or a place to belong to, but she keeps telling herself otherwise.

She acknowledges loss as a lesson, but she also still treats it like something that could warrant punishment. I get the impression that her fear of failure isn't an ego thing, but acknowledging the price of her security. If she fucks up too much, she may lose the last sanctuary that she's known under Giovanni. It needed to be noted that this Giovanni comes off as less forgiving and on par with the Rainbow Rocket version than the one defeated by Red.

This brings me back to her same-differences with Spark. Both are willing to take their chances, but Spark is ready to gamble. His lapel pins are a pair of die that, together, make "88", a good luck symbol. If one could assume that both she and Spark had the exact same experiences up to a point, Spark took his losses as lessons, and learned to trust his instincts in order to take those gambles. It's as if he says: "I've been through worse, I can take it because the prize at the end might be worth it!" Sierra took them as punishments, and she's afraid of losing her safety net.

I think it hits me harder because she's witty. It's rare you see a female character who's both hot AND funny, and is clearly in on the joke if she isn't the one who's leading it. It makes me want to see her have a happy ending. Definitely Bayonetta and Fujiko Mine energy.

Arlo (Holy shit, this guy is baggage incarnate despite having the least revealed backstory how is that even possib):

Starts out aggressive like Cliff. He does become more tsundere, but it needs to be noted that his level of resistance towards receiving any affability is beyond the moe trope. I found it unsettling and well-written.

He's more focused on resisting his feelings, unless they involve his play for power.

He has absolutely no love for Giovanni. I can't recall a Pokemon character like this who's worked for Rocket. I've seen admins show greed and cynicism to some things, but they've largely been respectful to Giovanni (or at least pretended to be). Arlo does nothing of the such, and even corrects himself to imply that the glory will be his, and not Team Rocket's.

I'll admit; it is interesting to see Rocket being used as a tool from within. If Arlo had his shit together, he could be one of the few named Poke G-Men (Could he still be?) Candela said Arlo didn't even like Team Rocket, and he still doesn't, even after all of this. I had a headcanon that Arlo is a double agent. And he's... still kind of is. At least for himself.

He's reminding me more and more of Lear from Pokemon Masters before his character evolution. I'm pretty sure Lear was inspired by Arlo, likely a mashup of both Candela and Arlo. Lear and Arlo are both nobles, and it's safe to assume, considering the things Arlo has said, that they were expected to play into a harsh game of life, and that any kind of softness/sweetness was seen as weakness. Both of them go pants-on-head crazy when they get a blow to their ego and do something big. Though, I'd say Pasio is a somewhat more positive thing (the ethics of making an artificial island aside) than, uh, what's involved in making Shadow Pokemon and being a dimensional/space terrorist.

Arlo cannot proverbially get off of Candela. The fact that he's actually an engaging orator and capable of having some clarity on a situation makes his obsession with her more jarring. Even though it's just some quest text, I could tell he could be a good teacher. He has the underpinnings of some of the most well-loved rivals in the franchise. He's also very much a mad scientist.

Even with Arlo's insanity, it's hard NOT to feel bad for him. His shit goes way deeper than just BAWW CANDELA MEEN uWu; We need to remember that he's still an adult carrying on like this with a lot of power, battle skill, and authority (rather the facade of it) in his hands. There's a lot to unpack here. I'll dig more into that in the future.

Because of this, Candela is Arlo's strawman. Flowing with the theme of the GOR leaders running away from themselves, it's easier for him to blame her than it is for him to look deeper within and fix himself or question his presumed upbringing or personal beliefs. If I had to guess, this is likely a factor as to why Candela was crying when she gave Willow her part of the Mysterious Scraps to Willow one week later. There is no sane reason to go as far as Arlo did to get revenge against one person for merely 'beating' him. It's bad enough that he was, presumably, gunning to become Valor leader. But I think it goes beyond that. People who act like Arlo have a hard-set narrative in their heads, and lose it when people don't play to their fantasy. This actually reminds me of some of Giovanni and how he seems to surround himself with the competent, but insecure, so that he can control his little world. He's just blunt about it.

With the new dialogue, the fact that his uniform resembles a fireman's outfit and his intro quote: "Remember, fire is a fickle thing. When controlled, it provides warmth, but in the wrong hands, it burns." enforces that Arlo is afraid of enduring pain in order to become stronger, as well as unable to comprehend that some elements must be embraced as they are, and not tamed. It also (and likely mostly) shows that Arlo goes into unknown situations with the expectation that trust won't be granted, so he has to shield himself. This makes more sense when we understand that many Pokemon, especially fire types, will work hard to avoid hurting the humans they come to love in trust. He's trying to compete against someone who's been shown to hug the soul-eating Litwick. I'm beginning to assume Arlo didn't become a leader because he wasn't ready to endure and only wanted to aggressively dominate. The catch is that Candela's or (presumably) Moltres' fires weren't his fear, but his own inner flame that's dying to thrive.

Pretty crazy for Giovanni to run an entire campaign presumably spearheaded by the grudge of your newest member and admin who is only loyal to his own reflection and his personal vendetta; isn't it? Gio really is a devil-figure. He knows what he's doing and he doesn't care. I am under the impression that Gio's plan is to take everything once Arlo has failed.

So, what DOES this reek of?

A redemption plot! No idea if I'm right. I guess we'll see! But, I've heard this story too many times from too many different angles not to see the potential makings of one. I expect at least one of them to pull a 180, if not all three.

What would it take for these three to leave Rocket?

Cliff and Sierra would have to get the boot from Giovanni to leave Team GO Rocket. This would be a devastating blow to both of them, as they've found refuge within Team Rocket.

I imagine Cliff would be the only one who really begs to come back, while Sierra would blame herself, try to move on, and likely become more isolated.

Of the three, Arlo might be the one in the most danger and may not simply be sacked; he may even use the chance to usurp Giovanni. He's sly and manipulative; so is Giovanni. I came to suspect that the target of Arlo's manipulations might be Giovanni, and it looks as if that's the possibility. I do think Giovanni may be one step ahead of Arlo; well-aware that they're both using one another, and milking Arlo of his knowledge and insight until it becomes too inconvenient to play into his shenanigans.

I'll add that it seems as if I may have bias towards Arlo and Candela, but they've had the most loaded story in GO that shows a lot and still has its own mysteries behind it. Arlo also feels more like the game's antagonist than Giovanni does, at times.

I'll follow up in the future with my thoughts regarding how each pair of foils balance off of one another.

#pokemon go #spoilers #giovanni pokemon #leader arlo #leader cliff #leader sierra #team go rocket #hoenn tour

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stormblessed95 · 2 years

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As I keep reading people's thoughts here on tumblr, twitter and YT there is a sentence that keeps popping up and that's; how can people not see? I wanna answer this question. When I first started getting into BTS, after their songs, I went and watched all their reality shows (sans burn the stage) and most summer packages. This also includes many of their interviews. That's alot of content to consume and yet I didn't notice anything. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Not yoonmin, not Jikook. (I include Yoonmin because if you're Jimin biased that's the ship YT recommends to you first. So I bought into them especially after that hotel moaning clip with now 1.8M views)

So I wanna speak for non-shippers and why they don't see. Yes, homophobia plays a big part. But not all non-shippers are homophobic. International fans have to juggle btwn reading subtitles and then looking at the face of the person who is talking. so you miss anything happening in the bg unless its Jimin falling off a chair. That's one. 2) and the biggest reason is you won't see anything unless you're actively looking for it. Now, that I know Jikook are an item when I rewatch run bts I can see things now. I can see satellite Jeon I can see subtle Jikook smiles, I can see protective Jikook but that's only because I have new information now. New insight. If you watch these people who reacted to GCFT you will see this clear as day. None paid attention to the song or lyrics. Even Cameron Phillips who stans Jikook just kept asking the whole time when JK would appear. There’s this dude who even criticised JK for forgetting to film himself and Tokyo. 🤣😂🤭 So what I'm saying is, be it homophobia, be it the norm embedded by society to assume someone is str8 unless they say O'wise or be it because you believe in a different ship, you will not see Jikook for what they are unless you start paying attention. (Its not all bad imo coz it helps Jikook get away with as much as they want to thou) Yeah. That's all. Just wanted to try and explain why it's very possible for people to miss what's right infront of them 🧐

Interesting thoughts. Thanks for sharing. Idk if it's the queer vibes, but I feel like more often than not, other queer people tend to see and notice it faster. Not as much "you really need to think about it and pay attention" moments. Not always but I do think perhaps there is a difference there. Thank you again. Lol. But the more you see, the clearer it is

#jikook #kookmin

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autumn-sweet-fae · 2 years

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if you're talking about my big bro piers ask ask then rip lmao. anyway so Piers, the most older brother ever, reacting to all this. i have a feeling if he met Akari he would 100% want to help her and Ingo. maybe Piers was on tour and his last stop was sinnoh, and instead of going back to galar right away, he decided to investigate the situation himself. he's not a gym leader anymore he can do what he wants

plus i think he'd like to meet a hisuian zoroark/zorua, even if its not a dark type

Thank you for sending it again!! I felt so bad!

If I were to include Piers, it would not be at the end of a concert tour but in the middle of it. This way he can be involved but not be a continuous player on the board for me to have to keep track of as well. He’d make an appearance in Sinnoh at a few cities for a week or two and then be off to Kalos or something.

I could see Ingo and Akari watching the concert from a distance if it an outside performance. Sneasler could have recognized the music playing as the same songs that are played on the lil pink radio they picked up early on. So she followed the sound until they found the concert.

This would be at the later mid point of the story, when more people are supporting them but they are getting more flighty. Piers is all about going against corrupt systems so he’d be ready to help them however he can.

If team Flora were to swoop in and try to capture them then and there, they could run down into the crowd of concert goers to escape. Which could lead to them eventually running into Piers who would smuggle them out using his crowd of fans to delay Team Flora.

But that’s all a very loose idea for if I choose to include him. It’s certainly a fun idea and him being on tour would make sense for it, but he would not be a permanent player as I already have so many characters to juggle.

And yes! Piers and a hisuian Zoroark is just aesthetic ✨

Perhaps much later, once the sanctuary is up and running, he adopts a bonded pair of dark and ghost type Zorua.

#submas wanted au #piers #Ingo #Akari #Sneasler #pokemon

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numbuh · 11 months

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Vibe I'm getting is that Numbuh 52 Pickup fears decommissioning because the KND is the only place he feels he belongs. It's where all his friends are. What is he supposed to do if he doesn't have the KND? I imagine this is also what drives Teen Benny too, obviously. Am I right about this interpretation?

ohhhh ;_; yeah this is part of it!!

even if his reputation is divided, he still feels at home in the knd. he has a best friend in his sector (numbuh 909) and his other teammates aren't as close to him. they care about him, but they get irritated with him often. benny LOVES the fundamentals of being an operative. he loves putting pranks to good use and working with their 2x4 tech officer (numbuh 38), helping other kids and eating sweets whenever he wants. is he the best operative? no. is he the worst? also no. that's why him being in the tnd is a no-go, even pre-fugitive.

is he one of those kids that shouldn't have joined the knd to begin with? debatable. i like the idea of the knd accomodating more for certain kids, such as those with mental health issues or similar struggles, but there are sooo many operatives it's hard to say Every kid will be helped or be open to getting help. on the other hand, yes, benny knew what he was getting into, he just made the mistake of overthinking it as he aged. the knd isn't perfect and neither is benny— both aren't "bad," it's just complicated.

i'd say 12-ish is when anxiety / paranoia fully takes over. he used to hide it better. there's also a bitterness based on: 1. missing out on certain things (in a very BG Character fashion) and 2. the bad situations that being an operative puts him in— getting stupified in op. chad and animalized in graduates, his lingering trauma from his experience in op. zero (who doesn't have trauma from zero?). things feel very unfair to him and he's super hypervigilant and overtired if he wasn't before. he wishes he had more time and fears the gap between 12 and 13 could be cut even shorter.

equally so, he's afraid of "dying"— losing his sense of self. in benny's eyes, this is literal. to him, becoming a boring basic teen is just like dying. is he being overdramatic? maybe. in all fairness, i believe the chances of decom "going wrong" or too well depend on the person and if the chamber is in perfect working order.

ie. fans headcanon the steve as a decom'd numbuh 100. it's viewed as a case where the wiped memories were just a liiiittle too intertwined with his personality / identity due to his devotion to the knd. (similarly, 86 went boy crazy after getting decom'd by accident in a comic.) of course, benny doesn't know steve is 100, but he is aware of rumors about what damage decom could do. he's also observed the trend of ex-operatives becoming villains.

benny's sector noticed his decline and it reared its ugly head on missions. falling asleep, being very irritable, panicking, etc. ultimately, they had 909 talk to him right before his 13th and he lied to her. his betrayal caught everyone but her by surprise— they thought he was too chicken to try anything! as a fugitive, he thinks his sector would understand if they were in his shoes. he misses them, he misses sector v / others and he misses all the fun parts. his main goals are to preserve those memories of friends / good times and keep his knd-era self "alive," live the way he is, avoid becoming a Guy Who Hurts People, while also juggling his negative feelings. it's A Lot and it's no wonder he's tired

the irony of it all is that: 1. as a fugitive, he acts close to a very decom'd teen. how can he pull pranks or indulge in his interests without putting himself in danger? it's similar to what the tnd has to do, but more reckless. 2. "spoiler alert" his post-decom self does not, in fact, hurt anyone. he's much happier and has more similarities to his preteen self. something "accepting growing up even if it's scary and hard" & other possible metaphors something

#asks #queue #transmission.txt #benny #i personally think of decom very neutrally. like there can be good or bad about it.#i get the discussion of ethics and it not being the best practice due to The Cycle #that's interesting to me #but getting knd memories wiped COULD be beneficial for some operatives.#those with a lot of trauma and things they want to forget most certainly exist. by the end that's kind of benny's situation #does he want to remember being a traitor? noooooooooo #again tysm for letting me get this out LOLL #LONG POST #i appreciate it a lot i love questions #numbuh 52 pickup #mod fave #decom talk #numbuh 909

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tinyshe · 7 months

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I have a dilemma. So, I just read an article on “The Marylike Standards for Modesty in Dress (as set down by the Vatican).” Does that mean we are also to apply this strictly at home? Like, for women, should we wear bras at home and if possible avoid shorts? Idk, this has gotten me confused many times. What do you think?

Have you read this? https://www.scribd.com/document/144559971/Marylike-Modesty

Other articles I have read were choppy in my mind and cherry picked depending on their version/definition of modesty. The mind is a good place to start as to why we dress the way we do but also what's up with the heart? Do we have a Christian heart or are we just faking it until we make it in our minds? It can be overwhelming with all the 'rules' that other's place on us but some are boundaries of Love. We are all sinners but there is an expectation that we need to strive for holiness as we are representatives of Christ therefore should try to do our best in being the best representative we can be (like dress codes at church). We want to give God our best.

When you are in the privacy of your own home, I think the rules are relaxed. If you have guest, then maybe you shouldn't be streaking around in your birthday suit or wearing bootie shorts ;) I'm a fan of what you practice at home makes for an easy transition for public, meaning how you act and talk and dress makes a smooth transition from home to school/work to public events/church because it is less stressful and is 'normal' so you don't have to think and remember how to act. I know women that will only wear dresses to fancy occasions and then they don't know how to walk, sit and behave in a dress, are then overwhelmed in public, stressed and not enjoying themselves. Flip side, you will not find me wearing a dress as I'm working outdoors or wrestling animals because common sense dictates that as unsafe for my situation. The home rule should also incorporate common sense / practical matters as well as relaxation and good health.

I was going to avoid the bra-thing because its a rabbit hole (but briefly ... ha!) I think women are not fitted properly, wear too long (time) and too tight. The off gassing of materials, the binding of breast tissue and lymph system is not healthy and I believe a leading problem in breast health. Yes, I am very much aware that some women are larger and need to wear bras for support to bed even but a proper night bra should be used. And some women are smaller and can get away with just a cami (or not). And don't get me started on binders! Bad! No! Full Stop! No more said. BUT the thing is modesty in public vs relaxing healthy (without bra) in the privacy of your home are two different things. I think that they (bras) should be taken off whenever practical. Of course this changes if you have male children maturing then you do want to practice modesty (but you can figure out how to do this and still be bra-less through the seasons) and as your girls grow, you teach by example as well.

But in my mind, do not strive/make it your focus to go to extremes in either direction. Modesty, chastity, and all those other 'Mary qualities' that Christian women want to emulate needs to start in the hearts and grow outwards, to encompass the mind, body and soul then, lastly to the outwards appearance ... which brings us back to us sinners just faking it until we make it. None of us juggling can keep all these balls (rules and regulations) in the air ... remember why Jesus came? keep your eyes on Him ... Just love the Lord with all you mind, heart and soul. Its too easy to get caught up in rules and regulations and then loose sight of what is truly important -- GOD. Just do your best as you grow and mature spiritually in the Love of the Lord. His Mercies are new daily! God's not going to love you less if you mismatch your socks, wear over sized sweats bra-less around the house or if your collar is more than 2 inches below the collar bone or don't have a dress to wear to church. He wants your heart, your love and devotion first and foremost. The rest can come later if at all (its not the most important thing).

#questions #answers #modesty #mary-like modesty #christian living #christian #christian men #christian women #dress code #conservative attire #home vs public clothing #i really am sorry this is so long #i don't know how to do short answers #probably over-thinking

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drowsystarlight · 2 years

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ok so i'm not sure if you've ever made a post about your oc's. BUT if you have i would love to see some lore because i am SO curious about them bc they look awesome

oh my god an anon for my KIDS??? i am so flattered. oh my god give me a moment

i removed the public link for all my oc lores bc im putting it in a webcomic THATS GONNA B OUT AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE FOR MY DEAD ART STUDENT BRAIN but yes anyway i can introduce who they are real quick

long post tho,,,, whoopsi

this pink hair babie is Polaris, she's a star god and Essentially the queen of the universe bc she can manipulate this thing called Stardust,,, which is in literally every existing and living thing in the universe to exist,,,, Yeah anyway for a personality: she is a small thing with massive attitude, has an ever-present resting bitch face and take-no-shit attitude . also she has a knack of going for violence immediately as a solution . "what do you mean i can just talk them down?? nope . they need to die . their whole species needs to die actually". she has the power to smite planets and shut off stars if she wanted to. she also fucks around the asteroid belts sometimes for fun lol

her lore is very simple she's basically just a descendant of the last star god so now she's just doing her job while going around outer space >:3

tldr: very strong humanoid star god . eats batteries and cars and metal bc her core is a star and thrives on energy basically . big furnace as throat . probably overgrown kirby . always sparkles and is a glitter goblin (she likes anything gold and sparkly)

Next up is this trashbag and its just Saeth Asterhold a.k.a my misery business mascot bc his life just sucks so bad and he's unluckily lucky (imagine he gets a random dollar bill on the street as a lucky find and then he gets hit by a car like 5 seconds after that . that's what i mean with unluckily lucky . i hope it makes sense)

he is a tiny little human living his tiny little life . also he's definitely an eboy . also emo . he has a pet cat named Morgan and it's actually a magic shadow cat w 3 eyes (the kitty polaris is patting in the image above this hehe)

his lore is VERY CRAPTASTIC basically he sees the magic things normal humans shouldnt ever since he survived an accident at 13 yrs old (ghosts, gods, magic creatures, you name it) so he freaked out and got diagnosed with Schizophrenia for seeing things that arent there (its obviously a wrong diagnosis lol he is literally seeing the worl in its bare magic gears) so he just deals w that AND insomnia and college day to day,,,, yep he is a 22 yr old college student heeho he is just miserable

polaris and saeth both meet bc saeth fucked up, made a wish on a shooting star, and polaris has to grant it bc its also part of her job BUT the wish was so vague and fucky that it just got them stuck together. its the synopsis of their whole story lol basically saeth has to babysit a humanoid star god with ZERO human experience . on earth . and the said star god find humans dumb . its all fun and games

also they're a throuple !!!! this is the last member !!!! this is Enver !!! I changed his first name recently and i used to call him Irving a lot so me and my friends got used to it aha

anyway he is your local default protag, also 22 yrs old and in college, is an older brother to his sibling (nyx!!!! i will talk about them sometime else hehe), a part time worker in the same cafe Saeth works in, AND a sun champion !! he juggles college and work and sibling duty and champion duty everyday . very busy hyperactive but nice person . i love him . he is a great man !! also he is trans and its a big part of his whole story and lore stuff hehee

he's half human and half god bc of his champion occupancy, and the job he does is that he protects earth from these creatures called Void Creatures (wow im very creative at naming things) bc those things prey on negative human things !! he has sun and fire powers !!!! also a notorious fuckboy but in this story its more or less a misunderstanding !! also his lore is craptastic as well . all my ocs have craptastic lores i love writing suffering

anyway he is also Polaris's subordinate (since the sun is a star,,,,, and he + his god pulls power from that aha) and he hates her for being a genocidal asshat so they fight a lot but this trio is very solid and they work well together (,,,when they have to)

OKAY THIS ENDED UP VERY LONG i tried to keep it as small and short as possible but ALAS i talk a lot bc i love my kids,,,,, i have more ocs but they're kinda In The Backseat bc i have favoritism and these 3 are my favorite so i draw them almost all the time,,,, my poor other ocs LMAO

thats all THANK U ANON IM GLAD U LOVE MY CHAOS COSMIC KIDS !!!! this might be a long shot but im writing them in a Soul Eater au (so far only polaris and saeth have showed up bc they're in the main group, Ethan is in the side characters unfortunately) so if you're curious abt how they act (bc obv their lores in their original world is different), you can read it here on ao3 !!

#neeks does a talking #asks answered #neeks inbox #cosmic chaos (ocs)#universal rejects #ily anon this ask made my day i love my little blorbos so much #IM VERY HAPPY U FIND THEM COOL!!!!!#<3 <3 <3

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psycholojosh · 2 years

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The Unwritten Part of Clinical Psych Training

Almost over two months ago, I went out spontaneously with my two good friends in MA - Mikka (she/her) and Magsi (he/him). We drove up to Antipolo one night and ate dinner with booze at Padi's Point while enjoying the lovely view overlooking Metro Manila under a clear night sky. It was spectacular! The last time we all got together in-person was before the pandemic. Since then, we just had online Zoom calls and our Telegram group chat. But, there we were in the flesh, happy to be in each other's company once again.

A significant part of one of our conversations was -- of course -- how we were all doing in our master's journey. Magsi, since the pandemic, had finally switched full-time in studying, whereas Mikka and I still had to work for a living. But all the same, we all felt like we were in the climax of our clinical training: Learning several tough pills to swallow.

The biggest 'pill' we talked about was about us. Part of the journey to become a psychologist is to do a lot of introspection and deep diving to get to know who you are as a person, before anything else. We have to know our strengths and weaknesses, and how we can improve ourselves in managing them. Paraphrasing Lori Gottlieb (a US-based psychotherapist and author), the essence of being a therapist is to lead clients in embracing vulnerability and accountability. And the amazing and scary part here is that there is no class for that -- at least, not in technicality. In fact, all classes integrate some form of reflective practice that makes us ask the difficult questions about ourselves. One of mine thus far, for example, was a question of my worth and intellect. While I did pride myself to be a nerd at best, I've had professors who taught me how to criticize that part of me and see when it serves its purpose and when it doesn't. I had many difficult conversations with myself, my loved ones, and even my professors about this. And ever since these discussions, I've noticed changes in the way I think, speak, act, or even feel.

But it goes without saying: Scrutinizing yourself is very painful. Sometimes, it can be emotionally excruciating because, well... we are our own worst therapists. We could be so harsh on ourselves that we forget that the real challenge is to not to devalue our dignity but to understand it in a realistic point of view. It's like you're breaking yourself into a million pieces to find the gems and coals underneath only to put everything back together. The good, bad, or neutral pieces of ourselves are what makes us humans after all. And to tell you the truth, I sincerely think I have only scratched the surface a couple centimeters.

There is courage in knowing things that you realize you dislike about yourself. In the past months being a working student, while juggling many responsibilities in my personal life and relationships, I found that I had so many emotional dysregulation, a lot of anxiety, and a lot of perfectionism. It wasn't healthy, to say the least. The sad part about all this, for me, is that I haven't had the time to seek professional help or guidance to sort things out. While I do think I can still manage, it would've been ideal for me to resume (yes, I've had cycles already before) my therapy.

But that takes a lot of courage too. When you subject yourself to the vulnerability that one feels when one wishes to change, it can get very uncomfortable. I can't remember how many times I've shed tears in my therapy sessions since 2016. But what I've discovered in those heartfelt moments is that I was opportunities for emotional growth and understanding. I can't really say I've perfectly mastered such a "skill", but I think I'm getting there albeit slowly.

When we hashed out these points, Magsi, Mikka, and I had this very satisfied look on our faces -- maybe because of the booze. It wasn't until Mikka's remark that everything sunk in. She said, "Ang hirap, ano? Nasa punto na tayo na tayo na yung nagbabago."

She was right. Kami na yung nagbabago.

But in our comforting smiles and sighs, we knew that we had our personal journeys at that point.

If there's any advice I could give to anyone out there -- regardless if you're in my field or not -- is that to embrace change and growth means to get uncomfortable. To transform is to bravely face the truth that you may leave behind some things that you found to be valuable to you, to discover what else must be carried in your personal journey towards growth. I know these sound so profound, but that's nonetheless true.

I think the magic about that conversation was that we were all sharing that sense of humanity. The three of us (and our friends and classmates) are figuring things out -- especially as "adults", whatever that means. The unspoken part about our road towards becoming clinical psychologists is that we are, after all, our first client. We are our first therapy. We are our first difficulty. But we can also be our first continuing success.

And I think that's something worth pushing forward for.

#rpmentries #filipino psychometrician #psychometrician #mental health #grad school #self care #studyblr #clinical psychology #grad student #gradblr

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secret-diary-of-an-fa · 2 years

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A Night at the Movies

So, I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately. I’ve even been going to the cinema to do, like a proper Appreciator Of The Visual Arts. And, naturally, I’ve acquired a review-itch that needs scratching. Rather than doing each flick individually, however, I thought I’d quick-fire this shit and do a series of capsule reviews contained within a single blog. Think of it like bullet chess, but it’s a blog instead of a boardgame that I usually lose.

The Northman A film that dares to ask ‘what if Beowulf and Hamlet were the same person?’ might sound like an art-house wank-fest of the highest order, but the Northman actually kicks arse. Actually, it kicks every arse in northern Europe and Scandinavia so hard that launches entire flotillas of buttocks into fucking orbit. Intense, brutal and epic from start to finish, its best trick is probably the magical realism with which it approaches its subject matter. It shows the world as the protagonist experiences it without making any definitive statements about whether what he’s experiencing is real or a figment of his imagination. Sanity is culturally and historically contextual, so a dude could have longwinded conversations with seers who are actually in his head or fall into a tomb and fight a non-existent zombie without being judged crazy by his peers. In some ways, the era of the Vikings was a better time- certainly a better time to be an absolute fucking crackpot. But I digress. The Northman explores its world and characters without judgement and lets us get invested in our own time and in our own way. It’s really refreshing to see a film that doesn’t insist on dumping modern modes of thought and ethics into its historic setting. Meanwhile, the protagonist’s character arc manages to feel more satisfying than anything in a more conventional movie as he gradually moves through blind dedication, disillusionment and pain and finally arrives at a place where he ends his revenge-quest (yes, it’s a revenge movie) not out of anger but out of love for his kin. It’s surprisingly beautiful in unexpected ways and, if it sounds like your sort of thing, it’s well worth seeing at the cinema where the tremendous scope can hit you right in the eyeballs unfettered by your tiny, shitty telly screen. I give it an unreserved ten out of ten decapitated Willem Dafoes.

The Lost City At the risk of stirring unnecessary controversy, rom-coms are usually very, very bad. They have to be sincerely heart-warming, genuinely funny and have a premise that allows them to transcend the limitations of their genre. If they drop any one of those three juggling balls, the whole thing dies on its arse. The Lost City, therefore, deserves extra helpings of praise for not just being really good but being really good despite having to work twice as hard as any other movie to get to that point. The jokes all land, the characters are all likeable, and the Indiana Jones-ish treasure hunt that ties it all together keeps things interesting even when the story beats are as well-trodden as its possible to get. It also scores highly for subverting expectations. There’s a love triangle that it nips in the bud with a grisly head-shot early on before it can grow and consume the whole film, the villain (played by Daniel Radcliffe having the time of his fucking life) has a surprisingly well thought-out motive and he ends up being more of a catalyst for the action than the only thing driving the plot (as often happens in movies of this type). Obviously lead actress Sandra Bullock turns in a fine performance, because she always fucking does, but who’d have had love interest Channing bloody Tatum pegged as a master of physical comedy? And yes, I will admit that the film won me over slightly by putting Far From Any Road and Red Right Hand on the soundtrack (and actually giving the plus-size best friend character something meaningful to do didn’t hurt either). That said, personally biases aside, I still feel confident in rewarding this film ninety-nine spooning skeletons out of a possible one hundred.

The Batman Crikey, this is a good Batman movie! I don’t know what else to fucking tell you: it perfectly evokes the noir, downbeat films on which Gotham city has always been modelled while also feeling fresh and original; the Riddler feels genuinely menacing and Bats himself feels like the genius he’s supposed to be in the comics. It’s also pretty hard to give Batman an arc, but this flick manages it, largely by setting the film early on his career (which means you could easily insert it mentally into the DCEU as a prequel, even though its pretending to be the stand-alone wallflower of DC movies). I only have one really, really minor complaint: the Riddler’s costume fucking sucks. I love The Riddler (from the version in the Tim Burton films, to the version in Gotham, to the version in the Arkham games and every version in the comics) and feel very strongly should be flamboyant and a tiny bit queer-coded where appropriate. He shouldn’t dress like some Q-Anon prepper twat who thinks that army surplus is a type of chic. But that’s a very minor gripe, and it doesn’t stop this movie taking home nine Alfred Pennyworths out of ten.

Moonshot I have a real fucking problem with films that set up a false dichotomy between saving the Earth through environmental programs and space exploration. In real life, any semi-competent government should be able to balance the two, ensuring both the future of our planet and the future of our species among the stars. I was therefore primed to dislike Moonshot the moment it started making noises about how Martian colonists didn’t give a shit about Earth and just used it to dump their rubbish (which would also be wildly impractical for a near-future space-faring civilisation, incidentally). It’s also a semi-romantic movie in which the main love interest is a slappable, entitled rich berk who really needs to get her stupid faux-nerd haircut caught in an airlock while a robot punches her repeatedly in the kidneys. Astonishingly, however, the film isn’t a complete carcrash. It succeeds, in spite of itself, because it’s very easy to get invested in the character of Walt, who’s a quick-witted, entertaining car-crash of the human being. We want him to succeed, but it’s hard to fathom why the thing he’s trying to succeed at involves seducing someone who hates him. Walt’s dialogue more or less redeems the film and, in spite of everything, there were a couple of moments that made me go ‘awww’. Evidently, being engaged to the hottest woman in our real universe has made me go soft. I give this this film a very grudging six out of ten stowaway space-cats.

Morbius I enjoyed Morbius, but I don’t necessarily think that means it was a good film. A large portion of the plot revolves around the idea that if you insert bat DNA into a human, you somehow come out with a vampire, which is just silly enough to be noticeable, even in a Marvel-associated project. Then there’s Morbius himself, who’s kind of a grumpy hypocrite. And yet… and yet I really fucking enjoyed this movie. Some of that enjoyment undoubtedly stems from the script, which is pretty heavy on dark humour (though not quite as heavy as I would like). Equally, part of it must come from the visualisation of vampiric powers, which are among the best I’ve ever seen and make the movie a visual delight to watch. Most of my enjoyment, however, comes from Matt Smith as the main villain, Milo, who enjoys being a vampire way, way more than Mr. Grumpy-Bollocks. He goes around murdering arseholes with his teeth, dancing at tonally inappropriate points in the plot and laughing his fucking head off whenever he gets into a fight with Morbius, as though having his teeth knocked out a by Hot Topic model reject is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to him. You know what, I’m giving this movie a solid eight out of ten dancing murderers on that alone.

Horns Or Horny Daniel Radcliff’s Horny Hornventures, to give it its full title. So, I’ll freely admit that I didn’t see this at the cinema- it was on the interwebs. And it’s pretty darn good. Ig (played by Daniel Radcliffe, who’s all over the fucking schedule in this blog) wakes up to find that he’s been accused of murdering his girlfriend. Shortly thereafter, he starts growing never-properly-explained horns that give him weird occult powers, including revealing people’s darkest desires and truths and (insanely) commanding the loyalty of snakes. Without spoiling anything, it doesn’t go where you think it’s going to go, and it’s endlessly entertaining while it’s not going there. It even gives us the immortal image of Daniel Radcliffe just casually wearing a snake like it’s no big deal. I choose to believe that for formal occasions, he wears it tied in a Windsor knot and has two tiny snakes for cuff-links, but that’s by the by. It’s a broadly well-acted film with lots of entertaining supernatural elements but, if it has a fault, it’s that it overreaches slightly with the size of its cast. There are so many people in this film, all of them harbouring dark secrets, that it’s easy to lose track of their names and some of them only have, like, two personality traits. Consequently, I kept thinking of them by their monolithic defining traits instead of whatever the script called them. There’s Hopeless Dad, Terrible Mom, Druggy Trombonist, Donut Slut (which I mean as praise, not slur), Repressed Gay Cops (two of them, no less! A matching set!), Boring Ginger (whose death drives the plot but has zero actual character, even in flashbacks) Lying Waitress and Arsehole. Of course, I can remember the name of Daniel Radcliff’s character (Ig) because it’s mentioned every five minutes, but just so he didn’t feel left out, I dubbed him Snake Necklace. But I’m being facetious for comic effect. I stayed invested right up to the end and was really rooting for the plot-designated good guys throughout, which isn’t always the case with me, so Horns was obviously doing something right. I therefore award it a solid seven slithery friends out of ten. Of course, if I’d written it, it would have ended with Snake Necklace and Donut Slut riding off into the sunset to the tune of Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard, which would have bumped it up to a nine.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Good fucking grief this is a good film. Like, a ridiculously good film. Without spoiling anything, I will say that it’s a film whose title mentions a multiverse and implies generalised chaotic mayhem and it delivers on both in great abundance. It’s amazing how many ideas are crammed into this flick, with the film-makers using Doctor Strange’s magic and the mechanics of an infinitely divergent multiverse to just explore every scrap of whimsy or odd little concept that they couldn’t squeeze into a more grounded movie. Yet, despite this, absolutely nothing is lost in terms of characterisation and meaningful interaction between protagonists. Our villain du jour is Scarlet Witch, AKA Wanda, but she feels less like a true ‘villain’ and more like somebody made dangerous by grief and a fragile mind, which means that the end of her character arc (which I’m not going to spoil) feels truly earned and even, dare I say it, redemptive. Strange himself remains the same arrogant yet charming rogue he’s always been, but still manages to learn an important lesson: that he doesn’t always have to be the one ‘holding the knife’ and can depend on other people to avert disaster. Even newcomer America Chavez (stupid name, great character) gets a good arc, where she goes from a mere desperate struggle for survival to a willingness to sacrifice herself that the film actually rewards rather than punishes. Then there’s the elements of body horror, the wholly appropriate cameos from much-loved actors from other franchises, the gorgeous visualisations of alternate Earths and Wong (who’s always a delight). I seem to remember thinking, while watching it, ‘Crikey, this feels a lot like one of those really good Sam Raimi Spiderman movies’. And then Sam Raimi’s name popped up in the credits as the director and I thought ‘ooooh! THAT explains it!’ I always have to mention that it’s a shame Disney ultimately owns Marvel Studios, because Marvel make some good stuff and Disney are just irredeemably evil (everyone talks about their slightly worrying cultural monopoly, but my beef is with their use of near-literal slaves to make their merchandise. I don’t know if that’s still ongoing, since it’s hard to find up-to-date data on it, but they haven’t made a song and dance about stopping, so I have to assume that yes, they’re still into some shady shit). Despite horrible reality casting a pall over the film, though, I still have to give it a hypothetically infinite number out of a hypothetically infinite number of dead Earths.

Sonic The Hedgehog (1 and 2) So, before I was even old enough to pick up a game controller, I used to watch my older sister playing the original Sonic the Hedgehog on the old Sega Master System, where I was entranced by the stylised, brightly coloured visuals, delightful music and the fact that the whole thing seemed to be about a speeding blue blur smashing through robots at ridiculous speed. So yes, obviously, when a Sonic the Hedgehog movie franchise happened, I had to scratch the nostalgia itch and see the bloody things. And how are they? Not bad. I mean, not great, but I had fun, and fun is really their only purpose, so on their own terms, they definitely succeed. The adaptation of Sonic’s personality from the games to the big screen is kind of weirdly handled, insofar as the game character basically knows what the fuck he’s doing and is generally characterised as being fairly relaxed despite his superspeed, whereas film Sonic is a hyperactive ball of manic energy who never shuts the fuck up and has literally no idea what he’s doing (ever) which can get a little grating after awhile. Luckily, Jim Carey’s on hand as the evil Doctor Robotnik to balance him out and, in both movies, he’s kind of the best thing- clearly insane but too smart to be ignored; genuinely menacing while still being funny. There’s a lot more I could say- there’s a surprising amount to dig into with these films. However, I’ll restrain myself because, ultimately, they’re kids’ films with just enough nostalgia-bait in them to pull in the ageing nerd crowd too. Their job is to make you laugh, throw a good visual spectacle onto the screen and send you home feeling happy inside. They’re not the best films in the universe, but they’re good enough and that’s all you need to know. I rate them four out of seven poorly-explained magic emeralds.

And with that, we’ve taken a tour from an incredibly artful and mature film that reimagines the plot of a Shakespeare play through the lens of Norse culture to a dual-movie sequence about a blue hedgehog jumping repeatedly on Jim Carey’s shiny bald head. I’ve been pretty lucky in that nothing I’ve watched lately has been actively terrible, but I do apologise that y’all didn’t get to see me rip into some cinematic garbage with my teeth bared. Them’s the brakes I’m afraid. Maybe next time. But now that you’ve taken this voyage with me and we’ve emerged older, wiser, perhaps a little sadder but still gloriously, undeniably alive… I am going to have ask you respectfully to piss off.

#Secret Diary of a Fat Admirer #movies #films #cinema #Doctor Strange #Sonic the Hedgehog #Sonic the Hedgehog 2 #The Northman #The North Man #The Batman #Batman #Morbius #Horns

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a-tad-bit-obsessed · 5 months

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And finally (after the 6-60 here), there is my top 5 episodes (sorry, they are very effected by nostalgia and my love of Rose Tyler, as I have said, its companions more than the Doctor to me and she is my Companion)

These also show even further how I am skewed by a good Companion Episode as all 5 of these received 10 under that metric

5 - The Impossible Planet - to be honest, I am unsure what to say about this apart from see below, it sets up the characters I end up caring for so much in The Satan Pit, without this episode, I would not care for them as much. It also contains Rose's reactions to the Ood, questioning about what they are doing these, whether they choose to be there (a lot more than the Doctor even). Also, she may only be in half an episode, but Scooti's death gets me every time, how its because she care, and how she just floats there above the station and all the others can do is look in horror.

4 - School Reunion - the episode that introduced me, and a whole new generation to Sarah Jane Smith. Like the brilliance of the episode could be summarised by 'so good it made children care about, and watch a spin-off of, a character who was mainly in Doctor Who 1973-1976'. However, I can say even more, we have a pre-Uther, post Giles, Anthony Head chewing the scenery as our big bad of the episode, offering the Doctor immortality (which the Doctor seems to at least consider), and then Rose in this episode, yes she's jealous, yes she is a bit bitchy, but you see her start to understand the realties of travelling with the Doctor, though ultimately it doesn't lead anywhere, her conversation with Sarah Jane is so important, understanding how the Doctor needs them and how they help him and how all the companions, they aren't replacements for each other, but bring something different (something the fandom I feel like has needed to know at times)

3 - Journey's End - Journey's End wasn't just a wonderful conclusion to Series 4, but to all of New Who up to that point (even allowing some look into the spin-offs), but despite all that, despite having to juggle so many companions allow them all to have their moments (and stay actually in character), it still manages to focus on Donna, yes, I don't like Donna having her mind wiped, but you can't deny it is a brilliant Donna episode and my reaction to it each and every time is high

2 - Tooth and Claw - oh Tooth and Claw, my beloved episode. About 4-5 years ago, this ranking / rewatch was started by me wondering whether my instinct to the question 'what is your favourite episode of Doctor Who / anything?' was correct, turns out, I was 1 place and 2 marks off. I know out of all the episodes on this list, this is probably the most rose-tinted for me but it really feels like it is just an everyday adventure for Rose and the Doctor we stumble into, and I like that, yes there's danger, but it's not (immediately anyway) world ending. I end up caring so much for the side characters, for Robert's death, for Flora when Rose meets her, and then the conversation between Rose and the wolf. And I know for some people, this is the two of them at their worse, but to me, I love Rose and her Doctor in this episode, how at ease they are with each other, the bickering but how relieved they are to see each other, the jolliness that they have seeming to be used as a shield, to allow them to cope with all they see

1 - The Satan Pit - and then The Satan Pit, bloody hell do I love this episode (it even scores 4 perfect 10s), it perfectly uses the characters and the atmosphere from part 1, the Ood chasing the team on base are genuinely creepy, you worry about the side characters, aware any or all could die and that keeps me constantly on edge. And then the ending, how the only reason the devil does not win is because the Doctor and Rose trust each other so much so, the Devil thinks he will win because he underestimates Rose but the Doctor does not, he believes in her and he is right to, because she refuses to let the Devil escape, even if that might damn them, she always trusts the Doctor will come but doesn't sit around waiting for him doing nothing. And their reunion hug

#can you all see a theme with these episodes?#of #rose and her doctor #doctor who #doctor who spoilers #i realise i am putting this #on tumblr for my own benefit #so i can go back and see

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fedorahead · 6 months

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random thoughts

maybe the hypermobile audhd depresso fibro fatigue body wrong brain broken group of people is all one evolutionary branch. we get a lot of shit done that people without these weird clustering disorders can do, and most of us are still out here existing in some way, affecting the world around us even if it isn't always societally valued. i don't want to be lumped into some tribe of these people because, like all people, the majority are cunts. but also, it is interesting to see how often all of these things are comorbid and the real defining difference between all of us is whether we believe each others' tales of their experiences.

i hate people in general, why wouldn't i hate people who have similarities to me that have rendered them some degree of also alienated and outcast? like, maybe it's all one systemic difference from people whondon't have all these issues, and that's why they're popping up more and more. in a society built for people with all these things, very few of us would be rendered disabled. every human is protected from the sun by clothing, and can burn without any. why wouldn't the next step be people supported by orthotics? it's inconvenient but if shit were readily available to accomodate our needs, we largely wouldn't be as miserable or unproductive. if all of society had all the issues this group of people have, we would be accomodated for and maybe thrive. because once you address the nerfs, there are biological advantages to, say, hypermobility and reaching weird angles, autism and the way thoughts are less restrained by social expectation and traditions, the clarity and focus depression can grant, the safety hypervigilance *can* bring, the firsthand empathy feeling pain regularly (again, if it were accomodated) can extend to others, the hyperfocus and creativity adhd brings to the table.......... if we built a world where this shit were expected and made that world more comfortable for everyone struggling with it, we could do some crazy cool shit.

so maybe it's not about whether this person actually has xyz diagnosis or struggle, it's about whether or not they're an asshole and deserve to be in pain all their life. (the answer would sometimes be yes except that people weaponize that struggle and use it to get ahead while stepping on others, too, but also. those people would probably not change and would do the same shit even if it weren't chronic pain they were weaponizing)

anyway, maybe lots of people really do have all these struggles and we're in a turning point in society where they are accomodated and accoladed in some people (often shitty ones) nd punished in other people, and that's just a facet of society rather than a sign anyone actually has anything wrong with them.

the problem is the lack of empathy people weaponizing these traits show to others who are struggling, often more than them. because it's easy to be beloved and pitied when you're cute and your whole mask is some chibi waving and cheering "ganbattemasu" and making a fist in determination, but maybe you don't really have any room to speak on the person whose mask is brash and slips during total meltdowns and gets a bad reputation for both sides. maybe it's the divide in the tribe between the autists and the non-autists who are all struggling with something? but people genuinely find autists offputting even when we're not doing anything wrong, and if you haven't got that experience your entire life, you're not gonna estimate the capacities of those who have. so you can't say "x is easy" or "anyone can do y" because the barrier, the social and traumatic barrier of being an actual alien, is nonexistent for you and you can't perceive where all its tendrils reach. but maybe it's not autistic vs allistic. maybe it's empathy vs very little or no empathy.

i dunno. i just wish people would stop being cunts, and also stop acting like their capacities set some standard for others. i can juggle. it's easy for me to juggle very poorly. i can teach kids to juggle, the very basics, in a day or two. is it fair for me to exclaim "i lost the use of my hands in 2015, and worked my way back and can juggle now, so joint issues aren't a real barrier and anyone can juggle if they try"? or is that wilfully (or otherwise) ignoring the obstacles that others have to it that i lack (like the fact that i was taught in childhood and have practiced on and off for 20+ years)?

it is annoying to watch people have less obstacles, do better, and get told how strong/hardworking/determined they are though. like the beaten down of us are there for a reason, not just through some personality flaw. you never see the battles others are fighting in private or whatever.

i'll also add, in terms of social treatment, being perceived as a cute girl and wearing a mask of determination even while you spiral is absolutely the easiest combo to get support. people who don't have that combo are fucked. i can say that pretty solidly having experienced both sides lol

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igosploosh · 4 years

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39? (a random fact about yourself)

#now you can all see why i like remus so much #also #yes i can juggle its just very bad #and yes ‘other Clown Things’ includes the professional extermination of mimes #ask

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geraltrogerericduhautebellegarde · 3 years

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Waffle House AU

It’s never mentioned but for clarification, Jaskier has a beard in this. Anyway, @officerjennie, @all-hail-the-witcher, and myself shouldn’t be left alone together because then things like this happen. I love you both.

Geraskier, rated t, modern au and Geralt's still a witcher

The first time the man showed up, it was nearing three in the morning. The Waffle House Jaskier worked overnights in was as packed as ever, that’s to say there were two regulars sitting at the bar and a hoard of bugs flying around the place.

The man in question was dressed head to toe in some sort of armor that looked like it belonged in a steampunk cosplay and covered in an odd black substance that looked sticky. Even from across the restaurant, Jaskier could already smell the foul odor rolling off the man in waves. It was so strong Jaskier was surprised that he couldn’t see it.

Walking to the other end of the bar, closest to the corner table the man had seated himself it, Jaskier shouted at him, unwilling to get any closer than necessary, “What do you want to drink?”

“Coffee,” the man’s voice was deep, more a growl than anything else.

Wrinkling his nose in displeasure, Jaskier grabbed the coffee pot and a mug and made his way over to the table, singing loudly to himself as he did so. Jaskier’s voice bounced off the shitty interior of the Waffle House, making it echo in a most unpleasant way. Jaskier switched to humming an upbeat tune as he approached the man at the table and began pouring the coffee.

“So, what do you think of my singing?” It was a question Jaskier asked all of his late-night customers. Their answers would determine whether he would keep them as regulars or do his best to run them off. And his best never failed.

“Hmm.”

Jaskier frowned at the non-answer, “Come now, three words or less.”

“Filling-less pie.”

Spluttering, Jaskier pointed at the man angrily, “You know nothing about music. What do you want to order?”

“Hashbrowns. Smothered and covered.”

Spinning on his heal, Jaskier stalked away from the man without responding, instead muttering angrily under his breath, “I’ll show you filling-less, you bastard.”

Dropping the plate in front of the man, Jaskier watched as the rubbery meal bounced uncomfortably off the plate before landing back on it, somehow looking even worse than it already had.

“What is this?” The man’s voice held no inflection and Jaskier had no way of knowing the man’s feelings as he looked at the pathetic plate in front of him.

“Your food.”

“I ordered hashbrowns.”

Jaskier had to hold in his gasp as the man’s eyes, the most unusual golden shade, met his.

“Well, this is what I’ve brought you.”

The man looked back at the plate, flipping open the joke of an omelet, revealing that it was just eggs cooked in a pan and folded over, “There’s nothing inside. What kind of omelet doesn’t have anything in it?”

“Oh? Do you not like filling-less omelets? What a shame.”

Jaskier stalked back to the bar and took a seat by the regsiter, pulling his book back out and pretending to read it while he watched the man from the corner of his eye. He didn’t even look back to Jaskier’s direction, instead staring grumpily at the eggs in front of him before beginning to eat them.

The man ate quickly and before long he was walking over to the register where Jaskier sat, throwing a wad of bills down on the counter, “Keep the change.”

“I will.”

“You’re a shitty waiter.”

“You smell bad.”

And that, Jaskier assumed, would be that and he would never have to see the weird, smelly, strangely attractive man ever again.

The next night when the man arrived again, this time covered in a weird flaky green substance, Jaskier couldn’t help but eye him suspiciously. People didn’t typically return after Jaskier provided intentionally bad service, at least not if they were sober and of a sound mind. Jaskier couldn’t confidently say this man’s mind was sound, although he did seem sober.

Jaskier grabbed the coffee pot and a mug and stalked over to the corner table. He filled the cup halfway.

“More hashbrowns?”

The man wrinkled his brow, a frown on his face “Yes.”

Wandering back to the kitchen, in no rush, Jaskier stuck his head back in to look at the cook, “More eggs like last night. And can you add something weird to them this time?”

The line cook saluted him before reaching up to grab something off the shelf above his head. Jaskier winced, he wasn’t sure what exactly was in the mixtures of spices that were kept up there, but he had never had a good experience with them, that was for certain. This would for sure run off the weird tone-deaf man for good. The cook was done in no time and Jaskier walked the plate over to the man in the corner, throwing it down on the table like he had the night before.

He did no more than blink in surprise when the table collapsed. Jaskier wasn’t sure exactly why the table collapsed, the plate and shitty eggs didn’t weigh very much, and he hadn’t thrown the plate down particularly hard. But, it wasn’t the weirdest thing he has ever seen in the Waffle House, so he simply caught the man’s eye and shrugged, turning and walking back to his seat.

He watched amusedly as the man juggled his plate off the table before propping it up awkwardly and moving seats. That hadn’t been part of Jaskier’s plan, but it would certainly work in his favor.

Jaskier was shocked when the man walked in for a third night in a row. The normally difficult to fluster waiter was very aware that his face was the very picture of surprise. Luckily, the man didn’t even look at him as he walked over to the table in the corner. He shook it a bit before sitting down, presumably making sure it wouldn’t collapse today. To be honest, Jaskier wasn’t overly confident it was any sturdier now, but it did appear that someone on day shift had at least made it look as though it was fixed.

Grabbing the coffee pot and a mug, Jaskier couldn’t help but hope this wouldn’t truly become a ritual. He didn’t want a man in his Waffle House if said man couldn’t tell that Jaskier’s singing was nothing short of marvelous.

“Hashbrowns again?”

The man nodded, staring out of the window rather than looking at Jaskier. He wasn’t in the weird steampunk armor anymore, this time wearing a soft black tee shirt and worn in jeans. It also seemed he had managed to find a bath and was able to get all of the weird grimy things off of him.

He really was quite attractive all cleaned up, Jaskier couldn’t help but notice.

“What’s your name?”

The man turned to look at him, “Geralt.”

Walking over to the kitchen, Jaskier put in the order and sat back down by the register to wait. It wasn’t long before One-Eyed Larry grunted at him from his usual seat at the bar, “Napkin holders on fire, kid.”

Looking over at the table in front of Geralt’s, Jaskier saw that the napkin holder was, indeed, on fire. Sighing and getting a glass of water, Jaskier walked over to the table and poured the glass on it, drenching it thoroughly. Waving away the smoke, Jaskier turned the napkin holder around, making sure the fire was completely out, before putting it back in its place and taking his seat again.

Geralt’s golden eyes followed him curiously the whole time.

If the man was going to be spending his nights here, then he would need to get used to these kinds of things. It was three in the morning in a Waffle House, weirder would happen.

A few minutes more passed before there was a bell ding from the kitchen, signaling that Geralt’s food was ready. Jaskier tossed the plate on the table as was tradition, smirking when he saw the surprise flit across the man’s face. No doubt he hadn’t been expecting to receive hashbrowns, smother and covered as he had first asked for two nights prior.

What could Jaskier say, he was rather weak for a pretty face. Even if was a rude one.

“If you agree that my singing is spectacular, I’ll let you take me out for coffee sometime.”

“Good coffee or this shit?” Geralt gestured to the mug in front of him.

Jaskier scoffed, “You think I would ever eat or drink anything from here?”

“That’s comforting.”

“It wasn’t meant to be.” Jaskier sat a notepad and pen on the table, “Leave your number and I’ll call you tomorrow to cash in.”

Later when Jaskier cleared the table, he couldn’t help but smile at the neat handwriting on the notepad.

Looking forward to hearing from you. You should get your napkin holder checked out.

Check out my masterlist!

Tag list: @jaskierswolf @fontegagrilledcheese @dani-dandelino @feraljaskier @bastardofmothman @moonysrz @its-onions @dapandapod @negativenuggetz @feral-jaskier @kueble @llamasdumpsterfire @selectivegeekwithstandards @holymotherwolf @officerjennie

#the witcher #the witcher fandom #the witcher fanfiction #fanfiction #geraskier #geralt of rivia #jaskier

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