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e-adlirez · 23 days

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Treasure Seekers 3 Review/Ramble

Welcome to the third and last entry of the Treasure Seekers trilogy :D

"Wait what?" I probably hear you ask. "What about the other four treasures they said the girls would find?"

And to that I say

yeah it do be a bit sad that they never made a book 4

But make no mistake, Legend of the Maze is a doozy of a third book, and I'd say it's almost on-par with book 1 if not surpassing it. Unfortunately there is no free digital copy of the book, so uh if you're down to spend a bit on a digital copy on the E-book site of your choosing or on a physical copy in a bookstore, I salute you for your determination.

As for the rest of you, you're just gonna have to trust me bro :] /j

Ready? Let's go :D (also this is being written by a sleep-deprived E running on hyperfixation juice so if you find any grammar issues feel free to let me know so I can fix them)

The story begins with the Thea Sisters touring the Capelletti House in Verona with their Italian friend/tour guide Sebastiano. Yes, this Verona.

So yeah Colette is fantasizing about Romeo and Juliet as a romantic ship, Vi is trying to kill her Santa by telling her that Romeo and Juliet are fictional characters (which Colette responds to with "oh hush I can dream"), and oop-- loose floorboard-- what's this package under the flo-- LE GAAASSSPPPP LANE LOOORRREEEEE

The girls fangirl about the ABL jumpscare a lil' too loudly and Sebastiano is a lil' confusion, soooooooo the squad goes out for some snacks outside the Capelletti house to explain stuff to Sebastiano

buckle up Sebastiano you're about to get two 300-page books worth of Lane Lore™

While listening to the story, it turns out that Sebastiano may or may not have heard a peep about a legend about a treasure called the Treasure of Eternal Love (adapted Scholastic name is "Treasure of True Love" which ew, snatches the original Italian name instead), which was said to have been owned by Juliet and tho a lotta people are trying to find it, they dunno where it is now. Sounds very Seven Treasures of the World to me :]

How does Sebastiano know a peep about this very obscure legend? Turns out he learned about it from a letter written by his great-grandpappy Jacopo, who was an archaeologist like Aurora :3

So Sebastiano invites the girls to dinner at his place so the girls can look for the letter. Vi don't get too comfy with the house library I know it looks very cool and antique but we got a goal and that is sifting through a lil' box of Jacopo's kept things and find some-- HOLY CRAP LANE LORE™

"Hi Jacopo, tysm for helping me with my research on the Treasure of Eternal Love, you're a real g my guy, regards from me and my sister Linda, also tysm for the tour of Verona."

-- ABL

The girls tell Sebastiano their findings over a dinner of bigoli al pomodoro, give some extra Lane Lore™ about Jan von Klawitz and Aurora's six sisters, and mention the possibility that Linda knows where the treasure is, which means that Luke is probably after it too, but also Linda might know where the treasure is, which means a lead >:3

First stop: Verona's city hall, where Sebastiano's friend Guido works and is able to help them with finding information about a Linda Lane who may or may not have lived in Verona approximately a century ago. They find a document that says yes, Linda did in fact live in Verona once, and also her address is listed there because legalities, y'know how it is.

So the girls head on over to the address, knock at the door, and are greeted by an old lady, and :0 turns out this old lady (her name is Mia) knew Linda personally.

Linda and Mia met when Linda was in her older years and Mia was a smol child. Mia would read for Linda since her eyesight deteriorated in her old age, and they hung out a lot together. When Linda left to return to England, she left the house to Mia, as well as a good chunk of the stuff she had in said house as mementos for Mia to remember her by.

Hey guys you wanna see a trick, it's called "the Lane Lore™ %", aka how fast can we get this old lady up to speed with the ABL drama-- /j

Unfortunately Mia doesn't really know anything about the treasures, but she does have this wack painting of a scenery in Japan that just won't align correctly no matter how much finagling you do to it-- oh there was an envelope inside-- LANE LORE™?

So the letter inside the envelope is a letter from Aurora to Linda basically Aurora telling Linda she found the Treasure of Eternal Love, but because Jan is on her tail, she left the treasure in the "House of the Sun" for now. Now, if you tried looking up "house of the sun", you'd get a hotel in Florida, a manga, a former Incan temple that's now a monastery-- you get the picture, it do be a weird detail and probably not it bro, besides Aurora's too much of a gremlin to be that obvious with her riddles.

At least if you're not a Shakespeare nerd like Colette is (the kind that never read past Romeo and Juliet's wedding), because if you were, you'd know that at one point Romeo equates Juliet to the sun rising in the east. Romeo is simping for Juliet, Juliet is the sun, ergo, the Capelletti house.

But uh, thing is we already went to the house and we already know that Aurora came back for the treasure and took it somewhere else. Sooooo might as well see what the last letter says--

"Hi so I'm on the run rn I can't chat for long because Jan is pissed and he wants to find me and force me to reveal the treasure, and I don't think I wanna know how not-kid-friendly this is gonna get if he does find me. Thanks for introducing me to your friend tho :D she's cool and thanks to her help, the treasure is safe and sound in the shade of the cherry trees! I'll come back for it one day, hopefully that day comes soon. Anyway, hugs and kisses, Linda." - ABL

Spoiler alert, despite having a beeg cherry tree on the painting, there was in fact nothing else hiding behind the painting.

LUKE TRANSITION

So Luke is doing Luke things, not touching grass as per usual. Cassidy comes by to give him a lil' souvenir from great-grandpappy Jan von Klawitz's house in London: Jan's old notes. Luke immediately dismisses Cassidy without even so much as a thank you -- Cassidy girlypop you're not scoring that man no matter what you do, he's the Adrien to your Marinette girlie we're only at book 3, you might as well accept your fate -- and Luke takes a lil' peek into Jan's notebook (he also calls his great-grandpappy "Jan", like just "Jan". I dunno maybe I'm just finding it weird because I'm Asian . .) for the goods.

And goods Luke does find, which he proceeds to consume like a goblin. Bit of Klawitz lore here:

"Grrr grrr stupid Aurora and her smartass tricks grrrrr who does she think she is grrrrr she beat me to the Treasure of Eternal Love in Verona grrrrrrrrrrrr well at least now I know how she works, I managed to find this friend of hers Jacopo, who definitely knows about the treasure even though he keeps playing stupid like I don't know that he knows Aurora. Something something cherry trees, I ransacked every single cherry tree in Verona and there was literally nothing, wth, Aurora why are you like this" - Jan von Klawitz

Luke responds to this seedy lore from his great-grandpappy with "hehehHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHH JAN YOU IDIOT, YOU COULDN'T SEE WHAT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU BECAUSE YOU UNDERESTIMATED THE LITTLE PILOT GIRL, I ALREADY KNOW WHERE TO LOOK"

Cut back to the girls, and they know where to look next, too

It's Japan, i-it's Japan, y'know Japan's relationship with their sakura/cherry blossoms

Turns out Linda has a friend named Kyoko Bianchi, a Japanese-Italian botanist who was raised in Japan. Since Aurora mentions in her letter that Linda's friend came in clutch, she was obviously referring to Kyoko and now the treasure is in Japan.

So Japan transition :D (based on my personal experience in Japan and also a bit of canon continuity consistency, I headcanon that despite being written in English, this segment of the story mostly had the girls speaking in Japanese, a language they would know how to speak a bit of at least (and apparently Vi is conversational in Japanese so c'mooonnnn).)

The girls land at Narita Airport and take a train to central Tokyo (damn Kumi from Cherry Blossom Adventure you came in clutch possibly teaching the girls how to Japanese subway offscreen because they actually didn't get lost using it on their own :D). Kyoko's hometown was Tokyo, so might as well start searching for her descendants/relatives there. First stop: Shibuya.

Colette is playfully ribbed a bit for having a big-ass bag while everyone else only brought smol backpacks around with them, the luck of the girls not getting lost using the Japanese subway must be balanced out so Paulina's GPS decides now is the right time to be a dick, Shibuya Crossing, and finally they make it to the hotel where Amrita Bianchi, their first Kyoko descendant candidate, is at.

And this is the first time the girls come across the concept of cosplaying, I genuinely don't know how they managed to sidestep it for so long especially since they've been to Japan before for a student exchange, all I can really justify it with is that university has been kicking their a-- RATSUNE MIKU??

Gahd even in 2018 Italy there was no escape from her /j

Anyway so Amrita didn't know Kyoko, so their second candidate is Shinobu Bianchi, a guy living in Shinjuku. They find him-- or more accurately run into him (literally) on his way to work, try to explain things to him but this man is running late, so he invites the girls to follow him to his workplace. They find themselves in a cafe on opening time, customers start filing in before the girls can even tell Shinobu what the whole deal is, soooooo karaoke break :D

Vi c'mon it's not like there's much else to do while waiting for Shinobu-- what're you gonna do, sit there and wait? A-actually y'know what that sounds like something Vi would happily do but c'mooonnn Vi where's your sense-a humor :D

Thirty minutes of singing later, they finally get five minutes to explain to Shinobu what they're looking for and Shinobu says "sorry I dunno Kyoko, I am half-Italian on my dad's side, but my mom has a different Japanese surname"

So the girls Peter William a bit emotionally, Pam goes to what Scholastic is telling me is a kiosk but might as well be a 7/11 based on the banger food Pam got from said kiosk, the girls take a taxi to a Capsule Hotel (judging from the illustration it looks like the Shinjuku Kuyakusho-mae Capsule Hotel), and after a bit of dinner, Peter William into their capsule rooms physically.

The next morning, Nicky goes out for a morning jog as usual (she prolly slept with her capsule open so she wouldn't get claustrophobic), and she finds a gardener tending to a Kyoko Bianchi flower :0 like no joke that's the name, it's a K. bianchi, named after a botanist who founded the Fairy Garden (Disclaimer: neither the K. bianchi nor the Fairy Garden Foundation in Japan exist, they're fictional bits for this fictional story and that's fine :3). Nicky gets the address for the Fairy Garden, runs back to the girls who are having breakfast, and they head on over to the venue.

At the Fairy Garden, the girls meet a gardener named Toshio who happily shows them around, and despite not knowing all the Lane Lore™ (yet), he knows enough to lead them to Kyoko's perfectly preserved office, where the late Bianchi has displayed some pictures from Verona, as well as her furniture and encyclopedia collection.

After a search, they find what was presumably a haiku alluding to Jomon Sugi and the writer's voice being hidden in there, and one jaunt to the record of Jomon Sugi in Kyoko's encyclopedia collection and uhp-- a hidden cassette tape inside the volume!

On one hand, victory, the girls have found a VHS tape that is implied to have a personal recording from Kyoko Bianchi herself, so they're super-close to the treasure now :D

But on the other hand, they found a VHS tape in the year of our lord 2018.

Good news, Toshio knows a buddy who's super tech-savvy, and that's including tech things. Bad news, he's in Kyoto, which is about 445 km/283 miles away from Tokyo.

So the girls quickly take a shinkansen and some bento boxes to Kyoto :D (their wallets are probably sobbing in an 86-USD ticket per person)

At Kyoto, meet Ren, are lowkey surprised that his house is a traditional Japanese house as opposed to a modern flat but hey it's a pleasant surprise, and Ren is able to play the tape for them.

In the tape, Kyoko explains the Treasure of Eternal Love, how it ended up in her hands at the ripe age of 20 through Linda and Aurora, and some Treasure of Eternal Love lore, or rather Ring of Eternal Love lore:

Yeah sure Romeo and Juliet were fictional characters, but reality, so it goes, isn't that much different. The Ring of Eternal Love was a courting gift from a suitor to a bachelorette of the Cappelletti household. The suitor and the girl's families had hate boners for each other for a while now, but instead of spiraling into a destructive mess of family feuding and death like in Shakespeare's play, they decided to call off the feud so the two lovers could be happy together. And now the ring, as Kyoko puts it, has been passed down from her to "one who shows love every day, in every way, towards everything that grows from the earth."

The girls are happy they got to see the tape and its contents, but they Peter William emotionally once more because well, they're back to square one now-- literally the only clue they have is the thing Kyoko said, and what is the thing Kyoko said? It's cryptic and weird and h a h ? Ren offers to accommodate them for the night, the girls get to sleep on futons for the first time since Secret of the Snow, and the next day they decide to have some downtime vacay-ing in Nijo Castle. A vacay that results in Vi having an epiphany about the riddle and thus who has the ring.

Meanwhile with Luke, he's planning something. Something that's got Cassidy in Japan and putting her master's degrees in Engineering, Chemistry and Computer Sciences to use by assembling a drone (I'm wondering how Cassidy has so little braincells out on the field despite having THREE MASTER'S DEGREES like holy crap--)

Cassidy tries complimenting Luke on the motherboard he sent in from Alaska and-- ew Omar why are you here I thought Luke fired you-- ooh what's that package thing-- oi don't diss on Japanese people being polite, once you see the ruder options you're gonna be pining for that shnit-- wait what how's this drone gonna find the Ring of Eternal Love--

Anyway the girls plus Toshio and Ren take the train back to Tokyo (istg if they took the shinkansen--) and back to the Fairy Garden Foundation, where they talk to the current head gardener: Mr. Murakami.

Mr. Murakami does in fact know Kyoko personally, and after a bit of persuading (it involves a bord like many good things in this world), he decides to bring them to his hometown Nara (which involves a train to Kyoto and then a train from Kyoto to Nara which on the Kodama plus the cheapest option from Kyoto to Nara is-- CHEESUS CRUST 91 USD PER PERSON AND THEY HAVE TO GO BACK TO TOKYO AFTER THIS???)

ANYWAY Mr. Murakami takes them to Nara Park, where he hid the treasure. He brings the girls to it, he checks the hiding place and

It's empty?

Wait, the hiding place is empty?

WAIT WHAT THE HIDING PLACE IS EM--

Off in Alaska, Luke is cackling in his fancy custom-made not-gamer chair.

Mr. Murakami is distraught, most of the girls stay to comfort him while Nicky and Ren scout out the area. In their search, Nicky and Ren find a big broken drone that seems to have crash-landed in the garden, and oop-- LVK logo. It was probably used to spy on Mr. Murakami to snatch the treasure. "DAAAMMMNNNN YOOOUUUU LUUUKKEEEE" Nicky probably would've shrieked at the top of her lungs if she weren't A. in Japan (it's very quiet generally), and B. within earshot of poor Mr. Murakami, who's still recovering from the horrible shock. The girls, Toshio and Ren take the drone to Kyoto while Mr. Murakami stays in Nara with the fam to recover because man, he deserves the break :(

In Ren's house in Kyoto, Paulina and Ren get to work hacking into the drone to snatch its data, and they find that the drone's memory goes as far back as to being in Alaska for some reason. Why would an LVK drone be in Alaska? Unless-- :OOOOO SECRET BASE??

With that lead, the girls depart for Anchorage, Alaska (if I plugged it into Google correctly the price for the flight totals out at a 567-USD one-way flight holy crap girlies have mercy on your wallets-- not including the mini shopping spree for winter clothes Colette was more than happy to drag the girls on). Ren gives Paulina a little flash drive with some written code that could come in clutch in whatever shenanigans they end up in in that secret base of Luke's. Yes Violet as much as I think you're the only person in the group who seems to be concerned for your wallet, ya'll are nawt surviving Alaska with those summer clothes ya'll are wearing.

Behold, a long rest/14-hour timeskip in the form of the last two letters the girls have yet to read from Aurora to Linda. (Well the girls besides Vi, God's sleepiest soldier over here is eeping in the back before the flight's even taken off--)

(These are the real letters this time around lmao, if you're confused, Aurora addresses Linda in these letters via her middle name Amaryllis.)

Dear Amaryllis,

I'm very sorry that, because of my job, you are taking on a responsibility that is perhaps too great, and that puts you at risk.

It's all because of the greed of my former professor, a mouse who is incapable of recognizing that beauty should be shared. My dear sister, I have thought about it for a long time, and I have come to the conclusion that the best solution is to take the Treasure of Eternal Love from Verona, where it is not safe... and put you at risk. I am sending you a copy of one of the photos I hold the most dear, in memory of the love that binds us. I hope it will help you make the best decision...

Yours, Aurora

Dear Amaryllis,

You wrote me that you are making a decision about the treasure. I agree that the mouse you're planning to entrust it to is worthy of that trust, and I will wait for more news. But you must be careful, even when you write to me, to not mention names or places. We need to watch out, because my former professor is more alert than ever.

It seems that he's building an underground shelter for his riches, designed as a kind of maze to test anyone who manages to enter it...

Professor Jan is clever, and he's always loved riddles, puzzles, and mysteries. I wouldn't wish for any mouse to find themselves in his maze!

Now I must say good-bye, my dear. Sending a big hug.

Yours, Aurora

Once the girls land in Anchorage, Alaska, they rent an SUV, pull out Google Maps, read some of the brochures Ren printed out for them just in case, fangirl over a moose (Nicky that's not something to fangirl about have you seen what they're capable of--), and accidental secret tunnel discovery?

Well, accidental secret garbage chute discovery, anyway, since the one thing that allows the girls to not break their ankles when landing is some garbage bags. Food waste garbage bags no less :D Ew :D

Some old aircraft bits are found too which is nice but it's never elaborated on whose old aircraft bits those were so we're moving on to the girls entering Luke's secret headquarters and Nicky trying not to die from claustrophobia :D

CCTVs pose an initial problem, but Ren's flash drive comes in clutch and allows Paulina to freeze the cameras so they can go in undetected (Ren how do you know how to program that is there something you wanna share to the class--). One lengthy labyrinth later, the girls manage to get out of the "we're walking in circles" loop-dee-loop they wound up in and find this little room with a little lit fire pit and an ominous riddle involving the "elements of nature". Pam has the idea of extinguishing the fire pit, and sure enough, inside the fire pit is a key that fits perfectly into the door across the room.

And right after Pam turns the lock on the door, a trapdoor opens up beneath her and she falls into the pit below. It's padded, it's kinda cozy, but it's way too deep for the girls to reach Pam from above without a rope or attempting to risk falling in and getting trapped as well. The girls are very reluctant to leave Pam, but Pam unfortunately only metaphorically slaps some sense into the girls and tells them to go on because they've gone too far to back out now so COMMIT TO THE BIT GODDAMMIT

(you guys like the rhyme-y bits? They're kinda fun to write I do like the rhyme-y bits a bit <:])

And thus the girls minus Pam go through the door to the next room, where there's this swimming pool with a key inside it, which Nicky swims down for, assuming that the trap in the room will only activate once they get the key into the door leading to the next room. Obviously she winds up being very incorrect, as the moment she takes the key from the bottom of the pool, the water starts to drain away until all you got left is a sopping wet Nicky in an empty pool and the key to the next room, which Nicky tosses over to Paulina while asking for her shoes and her dry clothes that they packed. Colette is devastated, devastated I tell you at the idea of leaving Nicky behind, on top of having to leave Pam behind, but Nicky's got faith that the girls will pull through and come back for her; so Colette, Paulina and Violet move on to the next room.

A LOT of walking down a twisting hallway later, the trio make it to the next room (which they use Nicky's key for), and we got four pots with something or other in them, lighting too dim to discern properly what's in the pots, a button sequence puzzle with no margin for error, and a wack riddle. Oh and Paulina's tablet's finally died after possibly uh, 18-ish hours of not charging it. RIP Paulina's tablet, that's gonna be set aside in the corner for the time being.

The pots turn out to have different types of sediment in them, and the wack riddle turns out to be the clue to the correct sequence to input, so the three figure that out fairly quickly and slide down the chute leading to the next room. Except for Paulina, who had to get her tablet from that corner she set it aside in, and wasn't able to make it to the trapdoor-chute in time before it closed on her face, leaving her trapped "forever", as the wack riddle states. The one time you're told to stop holding it, man, unbelievable. I'm never letting go of my tablet again /j

Now Vi and Colette find themselves in an empty room, and they only realize when they get down that Paulina wasn't able to make it out in time. Now this entire time, Colette has been going through it. Of the girls, Colette's been taking the whole leaving-my-friends-behind-for-the-greater-good thing not well at all, and it culminates in an emotional breakdown. Violet comforts her and reassures her that they'll get the ring, they'll pick up the other girls and they'll get outa here soon, but they gotta be brave now for the other girls. (Kinda hard to capture in short and sweet words what the emotion of the scene was but oh well). After a bit of calming down, Colette and Violet look around to find themselves in a... surprisingly simple room? There's a door on the other side of the room from them, and besides that there's literally nothing but thin air.

The two go to the door and move to open it. Yeah this one's surprisingly simple. Just walk on over, pull the door open, walk o-- a gust of wind slammed the door shut . .

Yeah that's right. You ever leave a window in your room open on a windy day and leave your door also open, and the wind going into the room slams the door shut? Yeah, it's that multiplied by uhhhh how much is a vent opposite the door opening up just to blow f%#ken WIMDY-level winds just to slam that metal door shut? However that much multiplies that. The two find themselves in a situation where had all five of them been there to do this puzzle, it would've been far easier; but it is doable with only two people. The plan is one of them wedges themself between the door and the frame and prop it open, while the other crawls under the first person's leg. Transitioning to the second person propping the door open for the first person is gonna be a bit dodgy, but it is doable kinda.

Now Colette has been going through the ringer emotionally, and if you've seen this trope before, you'd know that it'd be a real damn shame if they lost their emotional pillar and had to carry the entire plan on their own, riiiiggghhttt? She's been the handling this situation the worst (emotionally), and it would bring her a belly of the beast to trump all bellies of all beasts and force her to do a The Next Right Thing (hot take: Anna's arc in Frozen 2 was really good), presumably after a lot of sobbing in the corner! It's perfect for angst, and it's perfect for empowerment to see Colette pick herself up and be strong for the girls and save the day!

Which is why Colette doesn't end up being the last one standing :D

Colette was the one who propped the door open for Violet, who crawled through to the other side. The plan was to have Vi switch with Colette so Colette can get through, but one thing they didn't take into account was the fact that the vent would slowly create stronger and stronger winds the longer the door is held open for, so Colette winds up allowing herself to be trapped in the air room so Violet can do the thing. (Oh and the plan was Colette's idea too.)

Heeyyyy Viiiiiiii~ Do you have some cash left over in your wallet? Because I think it's time for you to put your money where your mouth is :DDD

So yeah Violet continues on alone.

Also if you're wondering where Luke is this entire time, he is in fact in his base, still not touching grass and none the wiser about the whole five lil' rat girls sneaking into his base because of the whole frozen cams situation. He does technically notice something's off, but he thinks that the clock in one of the cameras is broken and he ends up complaining about it to Cassidy, haha L. It is also at this point where we learn that the girls have been in Luke's base for a little over three hours at this point :D

Meanwhile, Violet goes down the narrow metal staircase in the hallway outside of the last room and finds herself reminding herself to stay calm but also inside Luke's treasure room, where treasures of all shapes and sizes reside. From whole dinosaur skeletons to ancient Egyptian statues to paintings to suits of armor and-- holy shnit Luke has the Ark of the Covenant in there too o o yeah this guy means business holy crap--

The Ring of Eternal Love is in there too, the lone treasure in the set of seven empty pedestals that Luke was prolly intending for the Seven Treasures of the World. So Vi, clearly not having watched Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark, attempts to lift the glass case protecting the ring, which sets off the alarms in the treasure rooms, and whoa holy crap there's a robot voice speaking through the alarms? WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN FIFTEEN MINUTES TO SELF-DESTRUCTION

Luke, having the shock of his life, comes down to the treasure room to see what's up, and of course it's one of the five brats who's been getting in the way of his endeavors. Hardly a surprise, really, those five have been a pain in the ass from minute one of Luke looking into the Seven Treasures-- from stopping him getting the Alabaster Garden (he didn't even get to see what it was smh), to duping him with the most audacious of gottems to exist only partially due to his goon's stupidity, and now sneaking into the heart of his base without him, his cameras, or his sensors noticing. Strange how there's only one of them, though.

Just like Aurora Beatrix Lane almost a hundred years prior, this young lady is naive, morally stubborn, and idealistic. She is preaching out about sharing these treasures to all, even when the worth of these treasures comes partly in the luxury of not everyone being able to enjoy them. There is value in that sense of rarity, and it's not like any of the uncaring, ignorant whelps working in the museums look at the pieces that sit before them and realize the true value that they have the privilege of looking at everyday. They wouldn't care about them-- they would do the bare minimum to these unique masterpieces and leave it at that. And this naive brat thinks that they are more loving, more caring to these pieces than Luke is?

But as naive and morally pretentious and... ignorant of time and place this woman is (did she really not hear the self-destruct alarm and is thus willing to babble to her grave?)... she is clearly very intelligent. She was able to affect the base's security system such that she could come in undetected. She was able to get past all four traps without getting trapped herself. It is strange how she is alone here, though. She is usually with four other girls-- ah, that's it. They got trapped, and she left them, so she could get to the treasures on her own. What a show of common sense, that is! She must've seen that the traps were designed such that risking oneself to rescue a trapped person is just not worth it, and that first point already makes her far more intelligent than Cassidy or her buffoons could ever be. It could even be on-par with Luke himself. What if... perhaps....

What if they worked together?

Luke, after a bit of back and forth with Violet, gives Violet an offer to ditch her friends and become his partner. If she accepts they can divide everything between each other in the vault, and together, they'll be able to uncover the treasures of the world and enjoy them all to themselves.

I mean of course Vi turns down the offer in favor of sticking with her friends but y'know what it was worth a shot, Luke, kudos to you for spotting a gemstone instead of covering it with mud and pretending it's not there.

Heavily disappointed by Vi turning him down for the sake of "the power of friendship" (I wish I was kidding)(Scholastic!Vi's (?) words not mine)(I would be incredibly disappointed too), he turns to leave her in the treasure room, and it's only then that Vi realizes she kinda effed up. Luke is the only guy here who knows the base inside-out, and thus would know a way to get the girls out so they can Not Die. And to add insult to injury, Luke made a bomb shelter out of his treasure room, so the entire base may explode and the girls might die, but the treasures are gonna be completely fine. Intact, even. Luke leaves, and the robot voice announces ten minutes before self-destruction.

As soon as she's able to, Vi calls the elevator, juggling anxiety and being able to think under pressure. She figures out that Luke oh so helpfully uses pictograms for his elevator buttons instead of numbers, and presses the button for the control room (the heliport floor is locked by a key). She arrives in the control room, eight minutes before self-destruction.

Just as Vi enters the control room, the cameras get kicked back into action, oh so conveniently showing to Violet a timer ticking down to the big kaboom in real time, and footage of Nicky waiting anxiously in the pool room (and Luke leaving), for extra stakes. One Perception check said "yeah, this is a LOT of buttons, TOO MANY BUTTONS", and the tablet sitting on the desk required a password, so oh god what do

Six minutes before self-destruction and one panic attack later, Vi manages to psyche herself up enough to roll for Investigation. She finds a button for disarming the traps, and that allows the girls to get outa the traps and meet up again in the treasure room. Happy reunions aside tho, four minutes to self-destruction

Turns out the girls (thankfully) didn't know about the self-destruct situation. No need to explain tho because Vi is deadlifting the group braincell like she's never done before. She drags them down to the base's... basement, where a train that was probably used to carry the treasures into the base sits unused and ready for the girls to figure out how to work. Three minutes before self-destruction, no pressure :D

Pam sits at the train's controls, Paulina tries to help but immediately brain crashes at the old-timey controls, thus deciding she'd rather help Nicky get the bars off the rails up ahead. Two minutes left, and Pam figures it out and is ready to-- wait they need electricity-- okay cool Nicky and Paulina are taking care of that, cool

Pam gets the train to start up, Nicky and Paulina manage to hop back into the train, and escape the base's explosion range with about ten seconds to spare :D

After stopping the train in a spot where their braincells could afford to deflate, the girls take a minute or two to breathe y'know, just take a minute to breathe, nibble on some wild raspberries growing in Denali National Park, before figuring out what the hell their next move is.

Vi suggests they tell the authorities about the whole secret-base-under-the-park situation and the treasure room and the stuff inside it (since Luke oh so foolishly gloated to Vi about the treasures being perfectly safe), on top of removing the train so it's not getting up in nature's business. They head back to the car talking about their adventure, get a bit sad that they weren't able to find the Ring of Eternal Love-- and oop just kidding, Vi pocketed it in the treasure room right after Luke dipped :D

So on top of the girls escaping with their lives, not only is Luke gonna lose the Ring of Eternal Love as quickly as he got it, he's also losing his entire treasure vault. Can I get a ripperooni

And that's Legend of the Maze :D

I would say that the hyperfixation-that-consumed-these-girls'-lives-for-a-whole-week energy is very strong in this one in the best way, and the girls' personalities are at their most showcased here. The banter is bantering, the girls' dynamics with each other is very believable here, Vi is carrying the group's braincell the entire time and she looks like she's a bit tired from carrying it but y'know wut she's still willing to carry it because it's honest work and she knows how important it is to have it :3 also her trying to kill Colette's "Romeo and Juliet are so romantic" Santa but failing miserably because Colette unashamedly likes believing in the power of love is hilarious

The main thing I wasn't sure about was.... all the infodumpy bits? The infodump goes a significant bit harder in this book than the previous ones (even more than Compass of the Stars, which is an achievement), and it's Scholastic-style infodumping, so you get the girls calling Luke an "evil mouse" or "selfish mouse" and I'm sitting here like "just call him sewer rat please ya'll had no problems calling him that before please for the love of god use that instead it sounds better--"

Don't even get me started with Amrita Bianchi explaining to the girls what cosplay is like she's the damn Merriam Webster dictionary--

Also the Japan segment with y'know Japanese culture and stuff had the terms localized for some reason??? Like haori became "dark jacket", kimono became "long, elegant Japanese dress", they didn't even mention Ren's hakama (he was wearing a very traditional Japanese look), they felt the need to explain bento boxes as "typical Japanese portable lunch boxes" even though "Japanese lunch box" probably would've gotten the point across just fine and also there was an illustration of the bento boxes, Japanese characters became "logograms" for some reason, and dango became "rice dumplings" which became infinitely more confusing for me because the illustration made it look like takoyaki--

I could go on and on but yeah, there are a lot of these and it felt very infodump-y to me. I'm hoping it's just a translation thing, because the story overall feels pretty solid. Scholastic, what happened to the asterisks? Were they just too much for one page? I feel like you would've been able to squeeze them in just fine to make the reading experience a little smoother,,, just like, so it's an optional thing for the reader to read the mini-infodump of the term if they dunno what it means,,,

Other than that tho I don't think I have much to complain ab--

COUGHS GAGS SCREAMS CRIES WRITHES ON THE FLOOR

(I have the magic-of-friendship-invocation tolerance of an angsty teen I'm sorry :'3)

Scholastic, buddy chum pal buddy chum buddy chum pal,,,,

You could've had Vi say "the only way I got here was thanks to my friends", and it would've been fine and infinitely better-sounding and probably more in-character,,, o<-<

Gahd I hate it when Vi's used as the power of friendship prophet -m-

There's a more minor one as the girls are going back to the car and Vi is telling the girls about the deal Luke offered her, and the girls ask her what she said, and she says "I told him I already had the greatest treasure in the world... true friendship!"

Meanwhile I'm sitting there like "MMMMMGGGGGGHHHHHH 'friends like you' or 'sisters like you' or 'my friendship with you' would've sounded better -m-"

(Also the girls call each other like "friends", so like "you were in fact right, friends", which is like, what happened to "sisters" or "girls" those work perfectly fine and get the girls' close relationship across significantly better than "just friends")

Most of what I'm saying here tho are just nitpicks and probably (hopefully) are just stuff with the English translation-- in all seriousness, the book is pretty good.

Aurora's trail here makes sense and is rather logical, and the interesting thing I find about it is that it feels different from the previous two books' worth of shenanigans. Aurora in this one had far less veers and nation hopping shenanigans, and I feel that it was perhaps intentional. Perhaps to give off finale vibes-- Aurora works far more closely with her sister in this one, and the main thing the girls had to work with was not Aurora's diaries, but the letter she wrote to Linda when they were discussing the Ring of Eternal Love. Something about it feels closer, more intimate, more tragic than the previous ones. I felt the need to put her last to letters in the book verbatim because they were emotional dammit -m- Damn you British Amelia Earhart you've done it again /lhj

Luke's character I think is the strongest here. He gives off in a way the most... normal? Vibes here? He's still not touching grass and muttering to himself ominously a whole lot, but his mindset is nice and easy to wrap your head around here. He literally doesn't care about his goons unless he needs something from them, he is more than happy to overanalyze the crap out of a piece of text if he feels Cassidy didn't look through it thoroughly enough, and he wants what he wants right away, and that includes the things he needs to get the thing he actually wants. He as a character literally observes everything happen from his base in Alaska and backseat gamers the crap out of his goons if he sees something they didn't, or if they fumbled the bag and it was perfectly avoidable had it not been for SM being SM--

Also his blatant disrespect for his great-grandpappy Jan is holy crap haha-- it might just be my cultural background, but when I saw Luke call his great-grandpa "Jan" and then say "you disappoint me, Jan", I was flabbergasted haha, not a criticism I just wanted to mention it because I thought it was funny

I really like the fact that Stan and Max (aka SM) didn't show up at all in this book. It would've been easy to have them show up for regularly scheduled hijinks, but in Luke's mind, none of SM's operations have ever been... up to Luke's standards. Especially with how much of a ruckus they tended to make with their presence, they were more of a liability to Luke than an asset; therefore Luke changing up his strategy to be as hands-off and clean and non-intrusive as possible feels like something he'd do, what with how laser-focused he is on min-maxing efficiency to get what he wants as soon as possible.

Omar still being there despite being "fired" might just be a Scholastic oopsie so I can forgive it, Cassidy is still simping for Luke and trying to impress this man and trying to prove she's at an equal level to him, but every time nah. Just nah. Girlie you think you're on the same level as him, which can't possibly be further than the truth. I haven't seen Miraculous Ladybug, but I'd bet Cassidy has even less of a chance of impressing Luke, than Marinette had a chance at getting Adrien to see her as more than "just a friend" before they finally got together.

Now here's something I've been wanting to ramble about for a while: Violet being left alone instead of Colette. It's actually pretty clever when you think about it: Colette is the closest the girls have to a heart (tho she plays hot potato with Paulina when it comes to that role imo), so she's been the most emotional and the most sentimental of the group this entire time. From daydreaming about Romeo, to wanting to believe in love, to happily picking up a microphone to sing karaoke with the girls, to her strong reactions to having to leave the girls behind one by one for the sake of their mission, Colette was being set up for a moment where she is the one who is left alone. You see it a lot in media: the main character is the most sentimental one and as their friend squad make their way to the Big Bad Evil Guy, the supporting characters are forced to get left behind one by one to either hold the evil minions back or because there's no way for the character to move forward with the MC; so the MC is forced to go through the five stages of grief knowing that their friends trust them to get the job they'd set out to do done. It literally happened in Geronimo's third Kingdom of Fantasy book Amazing Voyage, and in that one Geronimo was the one who desperately didn't want to be alone, but he wound up carrying on alone anyway. You see this kinda thing everywhere.

However, in this bit, it makes total sense that Violet is the one who ends up carrying the last leg of the journey alone instead of Colette. Compared to Colette (and honestly the rest of the girls), Violet is the most level-headed. She's the girls' braincell keeper (in this trilogy), the babysitter holding the leash tied to the four gremlins, the one keeping everyone on track and also making sure that the group's collective ADHD doesn't spiral down as badly as it could possibly be. Whenever the girls make a big move that could affect the whole group, Vi is the one asking if it's a good idea or if it's worth doing, and she's the one thinking ahead enough to say "if x happens instead of y, what then?" You get the idea-- Vi is the most capable of keeping herself level-headed even when she's under all this pressure, and she's good at analyzing and planning on account of her often taking the position of the quiet observer.

With this context, it sort've makes you wonder what was going through Colette's head when she offered to help Violet get out of the air room. Violet and Colette in particular get paired together fairly often, and it's probably because of how well they're able to understand each other-- so with the plan, was Colette volunteering herself to prop the door open out of "it was my idea" courtesy, or was she thinking that maybe Violet would be able to figure things out better and thus needed to get to the other side? She probably was expecting to get to the other side with Vi, but would she have thought far enough ahead to a what-if where that wasn't possible? :3c

And Scholastic and power-of-friendship funkiness aside, Violet did handle the situation well, all things considered. The one bit where she only realized Luke was hers and the girls' only ticket out of there was a bit weird, but it can be chalked up to her not being able to take that into account in the moment because of a mix of stress, sheer bafflement from Luke's deal, and the fact that when put on the spot, observers don't exactly handle taking the driver's seat that well :'D (speaking as an observer myself here)

It makes me wonder a bit if Violet and Luke were meant to be foils of each other, what with how similar they are to each other (both of them being observers and planners who delegate more often than they do the work themselves), yet different enough that the contrast between the two is striking. Said difference being

Violet touches grass. Luke does not :)

Anyway so yeah, that's Treasure Seekers 3, and while it is kinda sad that this is where Treasure Seekers ends, y'know what? It gave a solid show as the last installment in the trilogy. I liked it, I liked the canon compliant blorbo angst, I liked the characters character-ing when the dialogue was letting them breathe :]

And of course, we can't forget

God's sleepiest soldier <3

She deserves that nap after what she went through and you know it--

#geronimo stilton #thea stilton #thea sisters #violet conked out the moment she got into the suv and the girls drove off to plan stuff out. change my mind /j #there's a bit where nicky fangirls upon seeing a moose like she suddenly turned ten and like #she inched closer to the window to see it better but violet was like “hey you're squishing me”#and nicky was like “sorry vi.. i got a bit excited.... y'know how much i love nature”#and vi in this moment where she gave straight-up the most mom vibes #was like “here let's swap seats"#like UEUEUEUEUWAAAAA....#also like remember the bit where colette wound up lugging a big-ass bag around with her while the girls had smoller backpacks #well surprisingly it backfired but not in the way you'd think #the rest of the girls were basically stuck wearing the same clothes the entire time #meanwhile colette was happily not having to deal with wearing clothes that weren't accumulating sweat from having to walk around #if not y'know because of japan's heat #i wrote this while i was sleep deprived so maybe i missed more than a few things in this review that i wanted to say because forgor #maybe i'll end up editing stuff in here a bit after like #i'm more awake #but yeah <3 #if the infodumpy bits and dialogue quirks are the same in italian i will cry /hj #*psst hey angst lovers wait for my next post i got something for you*#wait for like #when i wake up and hopefully actually get to sleep tonight lmao #before i go consider #alternate scenarios where any of the other girls end up in that same situation with luke #i'll leave those ingredients on the counter. take them and use them however you wish :3 #book rambles #book rant #book review #rambles

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humunanunga · 7 months

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Say it came through science. Simple rituals to levitate objects. The first result was the most surprising. You tried to explain it using quantum mechanics and still couldn't place an explanation.

What would you call it, as gravity vanished?

I... think this is supposed to be some kinda gotcha, under the impression that I said not to believe in magic? But I have more than one answer to this, some in direct response to this and some not. So let me just go down the list and maybe I'll figure out how to abbreviate myself along the way.

I'll start by saying that what is science to us in the 21st century would very much be sorcery back in the Bronze Age. And that's before even touching upon alchemy, which played a major role in the development of the scientific method. In this way, the difference between science and real-world "magic" is the framing. Programming could be described as spellbinding. 3d-printing could be described as conjuration. Pharmaceuticals could be described as potions.

So realistically, if it were discovered in the Digital Age that a ritual could induce levitation, and parlor tricks were ruled out, it would most likely be called a new physics discovery until further studies were made. Is it telekinesis, or is something actually canceling out the force of gravity upon this object? Is this object also experiencing the negation of air pressure, and how is it not affecting anything else? (There's a lot of gases in the sky pressing down upon the ground, as even gases are matter and therefore mass, which becomes weight under the effect of gravity, which is how we get less air pressure at higher altitudes.)

If this phenomenon could be reproduced simply by a ritual, every capitalist corporation would want their employees to do it too and before OSHA regulations catch up with the discovery, so they'd call it a job position.

If this phenomenon could be reproduced by equipment, then buddy, it's gonna be called whatever the leading brand named their device, just like "bandaid" or "dumpster."

People didn't always understand why some rocks seemed to curse their bearers either, but then we developed equipment and studies that could perceive radioactivity. So even if this scenario really did happen, all it would mean is that we either haven't figured out which known force is acting upon the object or the device necessary to perceive the acting force hasn't been invented yet. And I mean, hey, we're still at least a few years short of mind-readers or Ghost in the Shell brand telepathy.

Now, here looks like a good place to interject with what @claire-starsword and @no-foxgiven said so well in the notes:

#to believe in the supernatural is to be open minded about the things we don't and possibly can't explain #not to throw away the explanations we do have

#this is why i love Clarke's Third Law (and its reversal) #''Any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic'' #Like yeah computers are magic #electricity? if you don't know enough it certainly is #but also the reverse #''Any sufficiently understood magic is indistinguishable from science'' #the mitochondria may be the powerhouse of the cell but also we just magically process magic #diseases transmit through curses (pathogens) #Life is magical and science is magic!

Even if we have no understanding of engineering, frankly, the reason we don't usually think of computers as magic is because they're mundane. Basically, most real-world magic like physics or sentience or morality isn't called magic because we reserve that word for mythologized interpretations.

There was one more point I was gonna tack on at the end, what was it... ah, right.

My post didn't say not to believe in magic. I was saying to be careful. Not to tell anyone to touch grass, but having a sense of wonder is important. Indulging in a little whimsy is fulfilling, but believing something that doesn't hold up against fact-checking just because you want to live out a fantasy where you're the heroic rebellion against demon overlords is how you get an angry mob bringing a noose to the White House.

#it's striking midnight by the time i finish typing so i'm just /hoping/ this is coherent with as much body text as i put into this #magic #mysticism #tldr #serious #inbox #anonymous

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drinkwithmoi · 2 years

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a week and a half ago i watched aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe.

i was able to rent the movie through tiff's digital screening and i have not been the same since. i thought i'd compile some of my thoughts into a disarray here in case anybody was wondering how devastatingly good it is:

first and foremost, i cried so hard i gave myself a headache. i mean i literally have never been more animated about a movie in my life

at one point i accidentally yelled and i live in a very paper thin suite w my landlord and his wife living above me... sorry guys

aitch alberto was THE only person who could have done this. i fully believe that. her direction seeps through, you can tell just how careful every decision was, the sacrifices and love she gave to this movie... it shows. she is brilliant and i am in love w her artistic vision.

it was created with so much fucking love and you can feel it

the way that it opens with smalltown boy by bronski beat... i knew it was over for me

the cinematography is fucking gorgeous. each shot is arranged like artwork.

max and reese UNDERSTOOD the assignment

reese's dante was so sweet. he was so charming and silly and thoughtful and real. his squeaky voice HAD me

you can see him falling in love with ari throughout the film, you can feel his fear, his yearning, his own loneliness, even if it's wrapped in giggly smiles and playfulness

max's ari was unbelievable

genuinely

im not being dramatic here. he was ari mendoza.

max is a beautiful actor. he knew exactly how to show ari's anger, his frustration at the world, at himself. he is a perfect teenager: his jokes fall exactly the way you want them to, the way he interacts with his parents is layered and meaningful and fun. he is such a complex character and it is beautiful to witness

the OUTFITS!!! dante's sunglasses, his cute pastel fits, his bare feet. it is all so perfect

the 80s vibe is there but not in a garish way, it's subtle and it feels authentic

ari's voice was soooooo beautiful. max has the best movie voice

they are so!!! awkward with each other in the most endearing way

the LOOKS. the way that they look at each other is Charged, they must have fucking aced the chemistry read

this movie is freeing, it's a breath of rainy summer air, it's that feeling when you hold someone's hand for the first time. it's butterflies and rainstorms and dancing to someone you're falling for. it's coming of age and coming to terms with yourself, sometimes in ferocious, unexpected ways.

the most shattering moment for me was when we hear dante talk about wanting to marry a boy. the first time that sexuality is broached is Very deliberate and shown in such a tender way. it brought me back to who i was when i first read about these characters: 15 years old, closeted, and living in my parents strict, religious home. i didn't know how to make sense of myself and where i fit in the world. when i read ari and dante, it was the first book id ever read centered on a queer love story. it destabilized me in the best way. now i'm 19, living on my own and i'm proudly out. seeing their love on the screen is such an important thing. to see queer love that is young, that is beautiful and innocent and soft, love that doesn't have borders or rules. jesus christ we need more of this

when i finished watching it, i took an advil for my headache, waited half an hour and then watched it all over again. when this comes out on some streaming service, it WILL be the most watched movie of my life. it will be the comfort movie i watch on rainy days, when i need something to fall asleep to, when i'm sad, when i'm happy, when i am avoiding my homework. it will be THAT movie

not to be dramatic but i haven't stopped thinking about this movie since i watched it. if anyone else on here has seen it, please message me so i can have someone to talk to about ~those~ scenes. and even if you haven't seen it but you'd like to talk abt the movie, pls message!!!!!

gonna go reread the book and cry :-))

#aristotle and dante movie #aristotle and dante discover the universe #aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe #aristotle and dante #i am not the same person i once was

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homemadetragedyy · 4 months

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Nothing New

The things that are the same colour are directly related :D

So it's a song both about being afraid of losing what you have and how society treats women as soon as the first digit of their age becomes 2. They tell you while you're young "Girls, go out and have your fun" Then they hunt and slay the ones who actually do it

Women in their early 20's are told it's "the prime of their lives", but as soon as they're enjoying it, they are shamed for it.

Criticize the way you fly When you're soaring through the sky

These lines kind of refer to the fact that women are hated for basically everything they do.

Shoot you down and then they sigh And say, "She looks like she's been through it"

Society will constantly criticize women, and when they get tired of playing along, everyone is surprised.

Lord, what will become of me Once I've lost my novelty?

This refers to the other side of the song- since everyone enforces the standards that have been set, women have the built in idea that they only matter when they're young

I've had too much to drink tonight

This is in reference to all the posts making fun of drunk Taylor

And I know it's sad, but this is what I think about And I wake up in the middle of the night

I *think* this is an opposing lyric to the one in Dress

I woke up just in time Now I wake up by your side My one and only, my lifeline

Except in Dress it was describing a loving feeling, whereas here it describes restlessness and regret.

It's like I can feel time moving How can a person know everythin' at eighteen But nothin' at twenty-two?

Young women are constantly having to prove themselves to (mostly) men and after a certain point they just stop trying.

And will you still want me When I'm nothing new?

How long will it be cute, all this cryin' in my room? When you can't blame it on my youth And roll your eyes with affection

If you are a teenage girl, or have been one, you know the feeling of having an actual issue and people chalking it up to "puberty" or "hormones", but at what point does that excuse stop working?

And my cheeks are growing tired From turning red and faking smiles

Self explanatory

Are we only biding time 'til I lose your attention?

This relates to the song Mirrorball

I’m still on that tightrope I’m still trying everything to get you laughing at me

And someone else lights up the room People love an ingénue

My favourite lyric of the entire song- "ingénue" is a french word for a young unsophisticated woman, meaning people love when a woman gives off a naive, childlike energy.

How did I go from growin' up to breaking down?

Throughout the song the theme of adolescence versus becoming an adult is explored. The writers believe that everyone is always excited to grow up but no-one fully comprehends how hard it can be. Swift and Bridgers believe this can often result in people becoming broken and lost – knowing nothing and breaking down.

I know someday I'm gonna meet her, it's a fever dream The kind of radiance you only have at seventeen She'll know the way and then she'll say she got the map from me I'll say I'm happy for her, then I'll cry myself to sleep

BEST BRIDGE EVER.

The aforementioned ingénue is learning a lesson from the narrators mistakes, and it leaves a bittersweet feeling on their tongue- sure it's great that she is having it easier but it does hurt knowing it was *that* easy.

But I wonder if they'll miss me once they drive me out

The big question- will they miss me when I'm gone?

#taylor swift #nothing new #phoebe bridgers #song analysis

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incarnateirony · 2 years

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The CW Boycott: Next Steps Now

So like, we did it. We kicked the CW into the dirt. Great work everyone.

For those that didn't understand the strategy of it at the time: TLDR, CW is barely a thing, it was more a content delivery vessel for the parent companies to profit by proxy. But, in cutting off all their content, including post-market like digitals or reruns on other stations, the entire reason it existed fell in, so WB and CBS had to sell off a sizeable portion, and that's how we hurt them, by making their investment into CW fall into a money hole that didn't pay back.

OK! Understand the basics and why they're selling? Great. But you'll notice it's not an entire sale. They're keeping minority ownership. This means their content can/will still show up on the CW.

So does that mean just keep it turned off??

NO.

Starvation phase has reached the peak of its value. Now, this new buyer is going to be protecting profit margins for themselves as the primary owners.

What does that mean?

It means now is the time to start preparing to express targeted demand, preferably starting in the Fall 2022 season.

What is targeted demand?

Notice how AA is finally getting attention, representation panels, a spinoff, etc? That's because it's demo (target age bracket) is shattering every other show on the network, holding the line while other aged properties or big DC properties struggle. Because it was a different demographic (african american teenagers, mostly) less impacted by the events on the white run shows that dominated the network.

Other shows, for example, have their renewals being held back while the new CW makes its decisions, heavily handled by Nexstar, who has major interest in maintaining the relevance of their live stations they own across the country.

The better their shows start performing in live, the More Stuff Like That Nexstar will want to put on air. Targeted support of AA = more stuff for black teenagers. Targeted support of queer content = -- you get me.

Abandoning it right now would be the epitome of shooting yourselves in the foot after all that hard work.

Doing so almost guarantees that CW does in fact warp into that theoretic "homey heartland" channel for seniors while everything else washes out from being starved, which is no longer actually teaching the WB or CBS any major lessons, because they won't be taking major losses on it. But Nexstar WILL push for where they have client, and if all they have left is a 70+ live audience on their classic TVs, they're gonna tip the channel that way.

So while you're free to continue to punish WB and CBS' aftermarket on products, such as streaming,

Now is the time for ALL US WATCHERS TO MAKE A LIST OF SHOWS TO GIVE TARGETED SUPPORT FOR FALL 2022. SPREAD THIS SHIT. REBLOG IT LIKE THE OP I MADE. START DISCUSSING WHAT YOU WANT TO ADD TO THE LIST.

I HIGHLY suggest starting with All American. Personally, I also suggest The Winchesters too, unless WB does throttle it past Jensen's power, then boom, cut it back off again. You can't cut off what you aren't giving them. You can't tell them what they're doing right or wrong if you just stay flounced. I don't have another member of this list that I'm deeply invested in, but I imagine Naomi and Kung Fu would be good diverse investments as well.

It's the attention economy. So now it's time to Pay Attention again. And then stop if they start screwing up.

#boycott

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jadeee · 3 years

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HC request for a MC who tells nicky about inventions that gonna happens in his lifetime?

Because roughly tatw is set in 1925-1926 (Nicky complicatedly told his age in the paid wedding rehersal scene), it's more lighthearted than events and I know for a fact that the 1st tv was made in 1927

aww this is such a cute idea. it's kinda short but i hope you like it anyway 💕

When you first met him, he had some sort of idea about how advanced technology would get in the future. I can imagine you looking at your phone with a frown in the speakeasy and he's like "What's that box in your hand?" and maybe jumps back a bit when the screen lights up.

After you tell him about things like TVs and stuff like that, his face kinda glazes over. He's wrapping his brain around it and the thought alone makes him excited!

"So it's like going to see a show but it's on the screen?" He scrunched his brows and pointed to your phone "Like that one?"

You nodded your head "It's a bigger screen usually, but yeah. You can watch YouTube on here though."

"What's YouTube? Is that like TV? Or the radio?"

"It's like both."

He ran a hand through his hair "Toots, you're killin' me."

He would be up to date with all the latest trends. Let's be honest, he's a trendsetter so it only makes sense that he's one of the first ppl to know about the latest tech and stuff that's coming out whether or not you've told him.

I think he'd do this too so he could recreate home for you. Bc we live in a digital age we're used to TVs, phones, and all that so he'd try to recreate that if possible.

I can see him trynna learn how to work certain things like the handheld cameras that came out during this time {they're called 'vest pockets'} even though he can hire someone to do it, I think he'd want to be hands-on, so the two of you can have a more personal experience.

Overall he would be v adorable with all the new inventions that come out. He'd gush about it in the cutest way possible and wave his hands around while talking about wtv it is. He would def show Rocky and Chris your new tech too.

I imagine trynna show Rocky tech would be like showing your grandparents how to work a laptop 💀 and they're all Italian so there's gonna be an argument soon if Nicky doesn't explain it differently or if the wheels don't click in Rocky's head fast enough.

⭐ Bonus: The trampoline was invented in the mid-1930s and the thought of Nicky bouncing up and down like a child makes me so happy. Imagine coming home to a quiet house. You can't find him anywhere but when you get closer to your backyard you hear laughing. So you step out and he's laying down on the trampoline catching his breath.

#jade has mail #madebyjade #fictif nicky valentino #fictif nicky headcanons #nicky fictif #nicky valentino x reader #nicky valentino x mc #fictif nicky #nicky tatw #nicky valentino #nicky valentino x gn reader #nicky valentino fictif

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pixie-cocaine · 4 years

Text

Sweet Like Candy

Flavor: Fluff

Brand: requested

Sweeteners: Baekhyun ｘ Reader

Hazards: may cause tooth decay

Amount: 2.5K words

Baekhyun was always an optimist. Always the singing that you’d wake up to in the mornings as he absent-mindedly cooked breakfast, and always the one that canceled plans at a moment’s notice to come cuddle with you when you were having a bad day. He was the best boyfriend you could’ve asked for, truly.

But one thing that he had the worst habit of, was dragging you out to loud, vibrant places when you had original plans of staying home and sleeping the day away. Sure, you absolutely loved spending time with Baekhyun, it was one of your favorite things to do, considering he was the most contagiously happy person you had the pleasure of knowing. But when you were exhausted from a day’s work and were a blink away from passing out, it was extremely inconvienient for him to wanna take you out for fun.

Like now, when he’s currently shaking you awake from a much-needed nap on your shared bed.

“Come on, wake up,” Baekhyun whined, practically trying to dislocate your shoulder with how harshly he was shoving your arm in attempts to rouse you from your sleep which, to his credit, worked.

"Hm..?" You moan as you crack an eye open, only to see Baekhyun nearly inches from your face, which in turn, makes you jump slightly before you letting out a sigh of relief, "what do you want this time?"

He couldn't help but grin at the leftover sleep in the timbre rasp of your voice. You were so cute when you woke up, he thought. The puffiness of your eyes, mattress marks lining one side of your face; it was all so endearing to him. Baekhyun reaches out to brush a thumb across your cheek.

"Wanna go somewhere fun?"

His dark eyes sparkled with life and amusement from the curtain of umber hair that fell over his eyes in soft, airy whisps. You felt your heart skip a beat at the beauty bestowed before you, almost forgetting that he had asked you a question when he cocked his head to the side. You soften suddenly. You never were good at saying no to that face. The face that you had a special weakness for.

"I don't know, Baek. I've been so...," You paused to yawn, your eyes tearing up, "So tired"

Glancing at the digital clock on your bedside table, it reads well into the afternoon, which means you have a right to be so adamant on falling back asleep. But this only makes him furrow his eyebrows as he unconsciously pokes his lip out, something he does out of habit when he’s turned down, and something he knew tugged at your heart strings like no other.

He dips his head to nuzzle his cheek against your covered legs, "Please? I'll leave you alone after...?"

Fuck.

"You're lucky you have such a cute pout"

That pout, and that’s all it took for you to be frowning, hunched like a ball of tension in the passenger seat of Baekhyun’s car as he grinned from ear to ear, the apples of his cheeks so soft and his face radiant with joy. Adorable, he was.

“You think my pouts are cute?” Baekhyun spares a glance over at you, smile becoming wider than you thought possible.

“You know they’re cute,” you raise an eyebrow at his blatant fish for compliments, as he was always the attention-loving type. He was loveable in that type of way. Always the one to do crazy stuff for people’s entertainment, especially yours, and you knew that.

“Of course I know they’re cute, but I wanna hear that you think they’re cute”

Snorting as you look away from the passing buildings, appearances etched with glowing neon signs and streets glowing over with burstings colors at the lighting decorations, your eyes focus back on Baekhyun, taking a moment to appreciate his outfit consisting of a white hoodie screened by a red tiger-print jacket and white sweatpants, which did well to compliment his hair, swept back away from his face, and the undercut causing loose strands to fall over his eyes in different places of his forehead.

"I think your pouts are adorable, Baek. It's obvious, or else I wouldn't have even came with you."

That seems to satisfy him, if the little noise of happiness he makes is anything to go by as he reaches over the console to grab your hand and intertwine his fingers with yours. You smile, giving it a fond squeeze looking back out the window, "So where are you taking me?"

Baekhyun merely chuckles at the question, "You'll see," he hums, "It's gonna be great, I promise."

You trust him. After all, he's never taken you somewhere that you've been bored at or not having fun, always the liveliest outings for the one he loves. He hated to see you not enjoying yourself. It was a fact he's stated countless times, after all.

“We’re here!” It doesn't take long before Baekhyun's pulling into a parking lot in front of a large, colorful arcade, and from were you can see through the glass doors, it’s crowded with groups of people, all different ages and appearances, but the one thing they all have in common is a large smile adorning their faces. They look like they’re having the time of their life, and when Baekhyun snaps a finger to pull you out of your daze, you can tell you’ll be having just as much of a blast with him by your side.

He helps you out of the car, a hand on the small of your back as he walks you up to the entrance and holds the door for you, gesturing for you to go ahead of him, and so you do. It’s even more spacious than you thought it was; rows of different gaming machines that range from the classic crane to virtual reality rollercoasters, and tables with cartoonish designs on them. What really stands out to you is the various neon signs that occupy different walls and bathe the lively setting in different shades of orange and pink, as well as the other side of the arcade that has a more cool palette, for example, the big light blue panel which hangs overhead of a snack bar, it bendt in the form of the word ‘Candy.’

“I haven’t been to an arcade in so long,” You smile in awe as you look over at Baekhyun, who reaches down to grab your hand and lead you over to a ticket counter, where he politely pays for both of your game cards, turning to you whilst the employee straps a yellow band around his wrist, “Right?” He smirks, “Bet I can still beat you in all the games.”

Scoffing and crossing your arms after they fasten the same colored band onto you, “Wanna bet?”

“Whoever has the least tickets has to do whatever the person with the most tickets tells them,” He proposes, already looking smug.

And that’s how it all went downhill. Your confidence, and your pride, all gone in a matter of two, short hours. You’d started out determined enough; your first game a fairly easy two-player shooter game, and when you lost at that, probably because of the wonky ass controls, you merely rolled your eyes at Baekhyun’s little celebration of victory. Then, making rounds through the first row of the arcade, your certainty slowly started to deteriorate with each win that your boyfriend tookーnoーstole from you. It got to a point when Baekhyun dragged you over to an old DDR game.

“Baek, you know I suck at fast-paced dance games,” You whined, ready to admit defeat when he gave another one of his complacent smiles, to which you immediately scowled at. Why did he have to be so good at everything?

“What? Giving up already?” He teased, “I mean, I don’t have a problem with winning but-”

“Yeah, yeah, I don’t mean that I’m gonna call quits!”

You groaned and stepped up on the dance pad beside Baek’s, and as you already figured, the first round was you just stumbling over your feet in order to hit the necessary notes. Baekhyun on the other hand, had only tripped a few times, but other than those couple instances, he got perfect scores without breaking a sweat. It came so easy to him, and you’d be lying if you said you didn’t envy his natural talents.

But, surprise, surprise, he’d won the three rounds that you both played, and you didn’t have to have to look at the difference in tickets to know that he’d won by a lot. You’d spent the last of your points on the DDR game, so naturally, Baekhyun giggled knowingly as he pulled you back to the front counter. “This is gonna be perfect,” He spoke to himself mostly, but absolutely didn’t mind if you heard him, either.

“What are you gonna make me do?” You almost didn’t wanna know, mostly because of the sinister grin Baekhyun gave in response.

He swung your hand in his as you both neared the counter, “Nothing too bad.”

“You have a total of five-hundred,” The worker announced to you once he came back from feeding the tickets into a counting machine, “You can buy a medium stuffie from the wall behind me.”

Scanning the metal board that the worker sat afront, you saw a couple stuffed animals, but one that definitely stood out was a cute pink hedgehog, so you’d pointed to said pillow and hummed when the woman handed it to you. She turned to Baekhyun, “You have a total of one-thousand two-hundred, sir. You can buy from any section you see.”

That’s when you began to get nervous. Would he get something really weird and make you carry it around? You didn’t have time to think it out before he was looking at you with a smirk and proceeding to tell the woman that he would like the fluffy lion-ear headband that cost a small fifty tickets. Once the worker handed over the headband, he immediately shoved the ears on your head.

“Wha-”

“Do a little roar.”

“Huh?” You looked at him incredulously, gaping at the man like he’d just cursed your ancestors.

He only gave you his signature stunning smile, “Roar like a lion!”

“I’m not roaring, Baek.”

“We made a deal, though,” with a pout, he pushed at your arm slightly, looking like a kicked puppy, and you groaned in defeat.

You could’ve thrown up when you opened your mouth to let out a half-assed growl, but Baekhyun was loving it in every sense of the word. He clapped his hands and squished your cheeks with a bruising strength, still pulling at them when you attempted to slap his fingers away. He was going to be the death of you, really.

“Hey babe?”

Baekhyun turns his head to look away from the wide view of the city lights to look at you, “Yeah?”

It was a couple minutes after he’d taken you away from the arcade in favor of picking up some milkshakes, that he’d spotted a lone picnic table which overlooked the city and suggested you both take a seat. He looked beautiful with the white and yellow lighting that came from below them, and you can’t help but place a hand against the skin of his jaw to caress his face. He leans into your touch with a small smile.

“What candy do you think I’d be?”

The question is random, but it suddenly pops into your head, and you’re curious as to what his answer will be.

He thinks for a moment, “Strawberry bubblegum,” He hums in approval at his own words before taking your hand and turning the palm upwards so he can press a kiss to it. The gesture makes your heard melt where it sits, beating, in your chest.

“What candy do you think I’d be?”

Without hesitation, you grin, leaning in to capture his lips quickly. When you pull away, there’s a twinkle in your eye that reminds him of everything he loves about you. You make him so happy. You’ll never even realize the love that he feels when he sees those gorgeous eyes of yours and that stunning smile. Always such a beauty.

“Pop rocks.”

#baekhyun fluff #exo fluff #requested #kpop fluff #kpop related #kpopidol #baekhyun fic #fanfic #fluff #kpop fiction #fluff request #happy birthday to the anon that requested this!#kpop #exol #exo

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punkscowardschampions · 4 years

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Liam & Edie

Liam: [okay so wrong number text which isn't actually we know, which is just the location of some illegal rave moment that she'll wanna go to] Edie: treasure? ❌🗺 Liam: wooden leg would be useful to hide all the treasure we're bringing in Edie: Gutted I don't know anyone who's ever had an abscess go full necrotic ☠ Edie: and who wants to cart around a treasure chest Liam: don't wanna do your share of the heavy lifting, big surprise Edie: is it? Liam: outgrow this pussy behaviour before tonight as a favour to me Liam: I don't wanna cart that much dead weight about Edie: As I remember it, you owe me though Liam: your memory's in the 🚽 Liam: I owe nobody nothing Edie: yours is selective Edie: can't even get 11 digits down Liam: a barcode's got 12 & I told you it's your business if you wanna walk round inked like you've only lived that many years that's your lookout Liam: not holding your hand Edie: even more gutted, no doubt Edie: 💔 Liam: if you won't be talked out of it, put it on your balls where no-one'll see it Edie: Will you think I'm tough then? Liam: what kind of gay shit is this? Edie: 😂 Edie: go easy on your mate Edie: you got the wrong number Liam: fucked the 11 digits Liam: that's what you were trying to say Edie: mhmm Edie: that's what I said Edie: but a barcode tattoo is a shit idea Edie: agreed Liam: sick of being the voice of reason around here Edie: I find it's more entertaining to let people make the bad decisions, personally Liam: would be jokes until I look a sad twat by association Liam: wants it on his head Edie: 🙄 what's it gonna say, product of the system? Edie: pretty sure a serial killer has already done that Edie: or some shit rapper Liam: he is a shit rapper Liam: [link] Edie: oh Edie: I know him Liam: serious? Edie: by association Edie: I'm a less shit musician in general, not that that's any brag Liam: can I get a listen or you're just here to promo to set me off on a ❌🗺 as payback? Edie: depends Edie: who's heading the rave you linked? Liam: [deets] Edie: alright Edie: you're not 12 like your pal Edie: [links him her music] Edie: [definitely pictures and videos along with, as if you don't know who she is but pretending you don't lol] Liam: come tonight instead of him Edie: talking to strangers is one thing, boy Liam: you leave the bad decisions to everyone else Liam: don't sound as entertaining as it could be Edie: I meant for your safety Edie: could be anyone Liam: be full of nobodys and anyones when we get there Liam: I'm still gonna go Edie: what makes you stand out? Edie: as you ❌ the barcode Liam: when I track you down, I'll listen to your opinion about me Liam: I'm bragging before then Edie: 🤞 we can't hear much of anything over the bass Edie: not that you're intriguing enough to show up for Edie: but the invite is sound Liam: you'll still know what I think, never had an issue with body language over bass Edie: I think I can guess already Liam: 👌 guess Edie: don't take a mind reader Edie: body language and 💭 are one in the same Liam: it don't take a mind reader when you know you're beautiful and talented Edie: ha leave it out Liam: 🧯 Edie: less of that as well Edie: not a wet blanket Liam: 🧨 Edie: that I like Liam: buying 🎇🎆 if you have any requests Edie: [all the party drugs not in code 'cos we're not bothered] Liam: 👾 Edie: NOW I look forward to 👀 you Liam: guessed it Edie: what gave it away? Liam: the vids you linked me to Edie: that's your review? Edie: at least give me some ⭐s Liam: 3.5 Edie: 👌 Liam: I'll give you another 1/2 when the anti barcode tat song drops Edie: what about the other whole? Liam: get him on the track Edie: 😂 Edie: you're on Liam: 👌 Edie: thank god for the edit Liam: & that only you're allowed to freestyle it rule we just invented Edie: good thing I'm more talented than even you are demanding Liam: I'd agree but you've heard it once & you weren't a fan Edie: you can agree when you see it in person Edie: I don't do this online fake shit Liam: I'll have my turn at looking forward to 👀 you Liam: more than down to Edie: good luck Edie: I can't find any cars with spare seats, so it's gonna be a crowd clearly Liam: yours is in if you want his Edie: how will I get my freestyle if he can't catch a ride? 🤔 Liam: shit like that is what earns you the rest of the ⭐s Liam: talent's not just Liam: 🎤🎧 Edie: yeah, I'm well kind and considerate Edie: known for it Liam: good thing I am Liam: [pic of all the drugs he has picked up] Edie: 🤪 Liam: got a 🐷 mask to fit in post raid, can stick it on early if 🥴 isn't doing anything for you Edie: 💡⭐ Edie: if you can't hang with your gurn we can't hang, like Liam: [a gorgeous gurning pic from a previous rave moment] Edie: fit Liam: ha ha ha Edie: don't act like you don't know Liam: I do 👌 out of my mugshots Edie: convince him to get that tatted instead Liam: too gay Edie: alright I'll do it Liam: before or after you take his seat Edie: if you tell me your name I'll save you a spot to earn mine Liam: Liam Edie: alright, Liam, thanks for not having a long and hard to spell name Edie: give me 🖐 Liam: you can have 3.5 again Edie: [purposely leaving it a full five before coming back with his name stick n poked and then a shoddy box for the mugshot portrait to go in] Edie: tada Liam: 👏 Liam: I didn't think you would Edie: if I say I'll do something, I will Edie: why not Edie: loads of Liam's in this town Liam: don't act like it's a standard trick to pull Liam: he's been oohing & ahhing for months over identifying as frozen peas when his face gets scanned Edie: it's a win-win for me, no need to think on it Edie: either you end up being sound, then it's a memory attached, or I get a cool story about getting a tattoo of a mugshot to get a lift to a rave to tell my grandkids Liam: I wanted you to sit next to me 5 mins ago, I can be impressed, can't I? Edie: I accept impressed Edie: and 👏 of course Liam: what did it feel like? Edie: it's somewhere between a scratch and a burning sensation Edie: but deeper Liam: you'll have to do me Liam: I like the sales pitch Edie: what do you want? Liam: what can you do? Edie: on you, a lot better than I can myself Edie: anything you want, I'll make it happen Liam: thanks for accepting impressive Edie: I intend to be so I can Edie: not here to disappoint Liam: I only was willing to be when I thought I was talking to that little bitch boy Edie: no gay shit Liam: unless you like one of the girls in the car Edie: ha Edie: we'll 👀 obviously Edie: where you starting out, anyway, and when Liam: [a time and place, I like to imagine it's a longish drive to give them time to #bond UGH] Edie: [and usually is to go to a middle of nowhere moment so agreed[ Edie: I'll be there Liam: would make me laugh if you don't show now Liam: longest chat I've had for ages Edie: even if I missed you 🚗 I've hitched before Edie: and it's been ages since I've been to a decent party so Liam: my pic could've fooled you but that last one was shit Liam: got a better feeling this time Edie: I feel you Edie: 💊🥤 just makes it tolerable Edie: down to 👀 yeah? Liam: Yeah Edie: better go find my glitter and gemstones out ✌ Liam: I feel you, will take me a while to paint my 💪 UV Liam: not got as steady a hand as you Edie: damn, that was almost impressive Liam: I'll work on it Edie: your steady hand or your bragging about your 💪? Liam: which one's letting me down the most? Edie: 🤔 Edie: you don't need to tattoo me yourself Edie: you are good looking enough you could get away with being cockier, go with that Liam: 👌 but now you've made me wanna tattoo you myself Edie: maybe Edie: if you think of a good idea, we'll overlook the shaky lines Liam: I'll try & think of an idea where wavy lines are part of it Edie: smart Edie: I like it Liam: 🌊 or something Liam: but less shit Liam: 📻 ones maybe Edie: you have any? Edie: professional ones, like Edie: you asked what stick n poke felt like so obviously not Liam: spend my money as fast as I have it Liam: what are you gonna charge me? Edie: what else are you gonna do with it though Edie: see how nice or poor I'm feeling Liam: I won't let the 💊🥤 run out, you'll feel a lot better than nice Edie: deal 🤩 Liam: be me blinded by your glitter & gems Edie: not actually my first rave Edie: but I can raid my little sister's shit if that's part of the deal Liam: see you in a 👑 will I? Edie: that's just standard day to day tbh 🤷 Liam: how many raves have you done? Edie: I've tried not to be in at the weekend since I was like 12 myself so Edie: enough that I know there's nothing fun or attractive about freezing your tits off in a neon bikini in a field Edie: what about you, you're [the year he'd be in which is either 2nd to last or last, either way], right? Liam: hasty to go with unattractive Liam: but yep, you're not wrong Edie: 😏 Edie: I get it, you wanna match 💪 Liam: no gay shit, your own words Liam: I didn't go to my first one until I was like 15, still not impressing anyone here Edie: me either Edie: middle child syndrome or whatever Liam: trade you oldest and only son if you want it Edie: Attention is grand and all but too much parental attention isn't what I'm aiming for Liam: can't offer you it Liam: my parents attention is elsewhere Edie: yours still together? Liam: nah Edie: oh good Edie: wouldn't know what to do with a dad Liam: not lots you can do with mine Edie: might be stuck being ourselves for the foreseeable anyway Edie: not a convincing freaky friday/parent trap situation you and me Liam: shame I won't get to 🎸 & lay down a track with your talent Edie: just buzzin' off all the things I could lift obviously 💪 Liam: this where I get cocky like you said? Liam: go on about how much I can Edie: you could Edie: but I'm clearly impressed before you need to use that tactic Liam: it's too desperate Liam: we both know I can pick you up if you get stuck in the mud later on Edie: we both know it's every man for himself when the 🐷 show Liam: I got you a mask Liam: yours has lipstick and more eyelashes, so we know Edie: thank god Edie: fragile femininity anyone? Liam: prefer toxic masculinity Edie: same Liam: 👍 Edie: if the daddy issues weren't glaring the 👑 will make 'em blinding Liam: we can pretend that since you're with me no-one'll be looking at you if you want Edie: the freedom Liam: I'll give you 🛢🧨 to play with Liam: 🔥 will take the attention Edie: really? Liam: 🎇🎆 wasn't only a code Liam: I do have some Edie: 🤩 no joke Edie: I wanna blow shit up Liam: that's all I ever wanna do Edie: yeah Edie: feel that too Liam: if you can capture 🔥 in a tat that'd be something worth considering Liam: not in a gay way like 🎲💀♠ Edie: that's overplayed, and doesn't mean anything Edie: I'll do some designs, providing I make it home alive Liam: supposed to see my dad tomorrow for the first time in months, don't think I'll rush back Edie: 🛢🧨🎇🎆 why would you Liam: don't feel you have to either, unless you're catfishing me Edie: I'd pick someone else if I was Edie: and you accidentally texted me Liam: I'm into the someone I accidentally texted, full fucking offense to whoever you wanna pick Edie: then I'll stick around too Edie: nothing I'm rushing back for Liam: it's in writing I'm not kidnapping you Liam: have to do a mugshot monday instead or something Edie: feel free Edie: I can't see that I'd mind Liam: being kidnapped or sharing a cell? Edie: hmm Edie: both Edie: though the involvement of bars to keep me about is unnecessary really Liam: does hitchiking only work if you're a girl with killer eyes? asking for myself before we torch the car Edie: as you're toxically masculine, most people'd be afraid to stop for you alone but as we're together, you should be safe and not an axe murderer Edie: unless I'm pulling a Hindley Liam: when we go for that we'll think it through more Liam: 🐶 or 👶 on board Edie: I can borrow one Edie: 👶 more likely Edie: people don't like cats enough Liam: I'll get over a fence to grab us a dog Edie: in one step, like Liam: depending on the fence Edie: sure, don't wanna oversell it Liam: you don't want no online fake shit Edie: just telling you so you know Edie: not the same Liam: thanks for telling me Edie: yeah alright Edie: didn't lecture you did I Liam: nah you didn't Edie: there we go then Liam: [quotes some of her own lyrics at her that he likes because genuinely listening to these tracks] Liam: you could sell that harder Edie: I'll work it out in my freestyle Liam: 🛢🧨 Edie: 🔥 Liam: 🎇🎆 Edie: 🤩 Liam: let's see your glitter Edie: checking it's not a catfish? Liam: can't show you mine first, too cocky behaviour Edie: [a rave lewk when we've clearly done the most to do the least you know the vibe] Liam: [I like to think he's written her name in body paint wherever she put her stick n poke so have a pic of that gal] Edie: 👍 Edie: approved Liam: what do you want your i dotted with? Liam: about as artistic as you'll get me to be Edie: ⭐ Edie: has to be Liam: [an adorable little star has been added so have another pic] Edie: perfect Liam: thanks for having a name that's short and easy to spell yourself Edie: oh yeah, snap Liam: except I haven't met another one of yours Edie: maybe an 👵 Liam: prefer a silent snatch & grab Edie: 😂 Edie: alright, then I can be the one and only Liam: do you wanna guess what I think about it? Edie: I have Edie: be too cocky to say Liam: I'll do it then, you said I can get away with more of it Liam: I think it'd be good if you were Edie: let's see if you're right Liam: feels like I am but yeah we'll 👀 Edie: it is weird Edie: how you randomly found my number instead Edie: how many # were you out by? Liam: you'll have his if you didn't before Liam: last number Edie: crazy Edie: another good story Liam: should've been a 6 but I did a 9 Edie: 🤪 love that Liam: I'll lose my phone again if you're what I find Edie: I'll save your number then Edie: or add it to the tat Liam: since you love how it feels Edie: and I'm no less liable to lose my phone, so Edie: the pain is just a bonus Liam: I can add it as fuel to the 🔥 any time you'd like an excuse to cross my number out & go again Edie: I won't run out of ideas either way Liam: what about space? Edie: not anytime soon Edie: I'll have to go back to biro and keep it less permanent after that Liam: leave it on the bodies of our victims like the shittiest calling card for the 🐷 Liam: call me Edie: ooh Edie: we could get really zodiac with that though Edie: only murder people on days ending in 9 Liam: I like it Edie: I'll go solo if you piss me off and do it on 6 days Liam: I'll start staging them like they've starred in your vids to get your forgiveness Liam: attention to detail for attention from you Edie: we can communicate through corpses Edie: that's new, no one's done that before Liam: when I keep the 👀 as a 🏆 you'll know I wanna see you Edie: romantic, aren't you Liam: toxic like my masculinity Edie: good Liam: ☢️ better than a barcode but not by a lot Edie: I could do you a Chernobyl victim tat Edie: get the toxic and the 🔥 in a really untasteful onner Liam: 👌 you're beautiful, talented & smart Liam: don't give me any flaws to pick at then Edie: I did say untasteful instead of distasteful, if you wanna be pedantic and take away smart so you can save some toxic masculinity points Edie: one-ner, also, doesn't translate to typing Liam: when it took you pointing it out, I don't think I can take anything away from you Edie: you can try Edie: again, like kidnapping, might not mind Liam: I can't help thinking it'd be better to give you things Edie: 🎇🎆🛢🧨? Liam: all that Liam: ⭐🐶👶 Liam: & anything else I've not remembered Edie: we can keep the puppy right Liam: what else would we do with it? Edie: just letting you know I draw the line at puppy killing Edie: get that out of the way now Liam: me too Liam: never microwaved any 🐹 or thrown them at the wall Edie: imagine how big you look to 🐹 Liam: 🏙🦖 Edie: definitely made that 📹 as a kid Liam: I'll be in the remake next time you're stuck for a vid idea Liam: if you still have it, we'll kick it frame for frame Edie: you'd be perfect for my next project Liam: sign me up Edie: [tat pic again like I already did] Liam: what else have you got? Edie: [just a comprehensive pic rundown of your tats that are all just silly ones you've done on the whole hope you've not got them anywhere too scandalous but realistically gonna need to be able to hide them when school so it's probably mostly legs at and like, upper arm and ribs/hip vibes] Liam: 😍 Edie: I'll tell you all the stories later when we're smashed Liam: no awkward silences in the car Liam: great idea Edie: not if the other girls are hot Liam: there's one I think you'd like Liam: you'll have to tell me if I'm wrong Edie: I'll flash a 6 or a 9 and you'll know Liam: she can be our first victim either way Edie: 😈 Liam: 🚗🔥 Liam: 🔐 Edie: 😍 Edie: you win Liam: how do you feel about playing games? Liam: 6 or 9 Edie: 9 Liam: same Edie: I know Liam: yeah, you're smart, I gave you that Edie: how smart is it that I wanna play with you? Liam: I'd call it a good decision, which maybe isn't smart if you only like bad ones Edie: I just like doing what I want Edie: good or bad is mostly irrelevant Liam: so do what you want Edie: you to be here now Liam: direct me 🗺❌ Edie: [at least you've had the good sense to be in town not at yours] Liam: [lord imagine] Edie: [like sure Rio ain't about but still don't need to be inviting you in quite yet lol] Liam: [her room is still there and no thank you hun] Edie: [not today huns, we can either skip to post rave now or post this as is?]

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popliar · 5 years

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BTS: Love Yourself in Hong Kong

23 and 24 March 2019 - I loved it and had many thoughts about it below the cut.

For the Saturday 23 March show, our seats were basically looking onto the podium at the end of the catwalk so they were great. But the venue is honestly so small that any seat would've been good - this was the 3rd of 4 shows in Hong Kong, and probably the smallest shows they played on the Love Yourself tour and the smallest they'll play in years (except for Muster, lol).

For the Sunday 24 March show, our seats were one section further away from the stage, but it was still a great view with a broader angle that gave me a better view of the staging and VCRs. Both nights, I had a better view than I did at the Sydney Wings show in 2016 - this was just a smaller, closer arena.

And I enjoyed both shows so much! The shows were almost 3 hours long each but they felt like they went by in a flash. And they played so many songs, but also there were SO many more I wish they could've played - their discography is really wild at this point, it's just PACKED with hits.

In many ways the live show is the ultimate piece of fan memorabilia - but it holds a kind of tension within itself too. On the one hand, it's a unique, irreplaceable experience that can't be duplicated or repeated. On the other, especially in kpop where we have so much access to fancams and concert footage, there's pressure for the experience to meet the expectations that we have, to live up to the hype of the previous shows.

(Those two things play off each other too. How else would we - or some of us, anyway - know to watch out for those micro deviations, those little moments when Jimin runs away from Namjoon in Anpanman, when Taehyung and Jin look like they're gonna make out in So What?)

But this idea of the experience as unique and non-replicable is not quite true or not quite as simple as that. We live in an age of digital media and - this is especially true in kpop - incredibly high quality fancams and photos. Sitting at a remove of many metres, and viewing only one side of the stage, there were definitely moments that I 'missed' and had to discover later through social media. And also there's a concert DVD and a concert movie which captures maybe not your show in particular, but the essentials of this tour.

One thing that can't truly be replicated - the atmosphere. It made me laugh, in a delighted way, when the crowd just screamed and sang along to every MV and BT21 CF shown before the show. I just love the comraderie of fandom, the build of excitement. Or how pretty it looked when all the Army bombs were lit up, or when we all took out our phones. It was a good feeling. (Though as @proteinscollide said some Korean-speakers in the row behind us pointed out - it was noticeable that the crowd was much quieter when it was the Korean rather than English! LOL.)

Some of the very brief ments early in the show were repeated the following night, but their ending ments were unique to each evening. A Cantonese translator from behind the scenes translated after each of them spoke, except when they spoke in English - this helped me a little, but my Cantonese is so poor and the crowd was so LOUD that again I had to check on twitter afterwards for full translations! A few of them tried to also say some phrases in Cantonese which was very endearing; out of them all, Hoseok had the best pronounciation (which I guess fits in well with his history of having pretty good Japanese and English pronounciation too).

ETA: oh and I loved Jin with the disco ball sunnies and the pirate mask for each of the end ments!!! He's so ridiculous....I love him....

Notably on the 23rd, it was the first time Namjoon referenced their upcoming Map of the Soul: Persona comeback. On the 24th, he mentioned again that comeback was coming and it felt like it was really soon - you're telling me LOL.

Okay brief notes on the setlist:

Idol - what a way to start the show with a bang. As far as live staging goes, it's so dynamite.

Save Me/I'm Fine - I always feel like Save Me is such a tease because it stops right before my favourite verse from Hoseok and Yoongi lol but I DO love I'm Fine!

Magic Shop - lots of walking around on stage rather than choreo, this is such a lovely song!

Junghope VCR - this VCR omg. I had seen blurry fancams of it before but can we just pause and reflect for a moment on how immensely shippy it is? THEY ARE IN LOVE! SO DOMESTIC! THE RED STRING OF FATE don't look at me.

Just Dance - wow, Hoseok just makes such amazing use of the stage. Even after having seen the LY concert movie and NUMEROUS fancams, it really is true that the full impact of this stage is best experienced live (this is a great thread). The way he uses the entire space, on the raised platform and then on the catwalk, how he interacts with the crowd - he's just DYNAMITE.

Euphoria - the aesthetic of this song is so Jungkook to me, the optimism and the brightness. Also I don't know how but on the first night I somehow did not notice the gold glitter in the air AT ALL? I guess I was too caught up in JK and the dancers!

I Need U/Run - I JUST LOVE THESE SO MUCH THANK U. I was rewatching the MVs today and I just… what a time, what an era. HYYH gave us so much.

Minjoon VCR - this just screams Lake House AU, doesn't it? Separated by time but not space… Speaking of AUs, it's fascinating to think about how this was originally Yoongi and Jimin (shown in the concert DVD behinds). So they originally paired up Serendipity and Seesaw? I think it makes more sense the way it is now. Would be super interesting to see the unshown VCRs though.

Serendipity - I looked for Jimin’s tattoo both nights! And did not see it, argh! Yet the fansite photos clearly show, it was there. Sometimes, you don't see it at all at the time. This is a great stage, Jimin is such a magnetic performer and it's a super impressive dance. Also, bubbles!

Love - the boldness of Namjoon to perform this completely solo, no dancers, no stage effects aside from lighting - I admire that so much. He has the charisma for it. (Also it is very great when Namjoon slips off his robe and Hobi helps him put on his jacket, in a neat reversal of what they did for Boy Meets Evil/BST at an awards show a couple of years ago, p.s. Namseok.)

DNA - The screams for this! Both during the show and before the show when the MV was showing - it really speaks to how many people became fans in the LY era, I think. I think I've come really full circle on DNA. I grew almost tired of it when it was at its peak, but now with a bit of time and distance, I can really enjoy it again. That choreo is still wonderful. (And it's hilarious seeing that Vhope moment in the beginning get more and more casual over the course of this tour. At both shows, they just held hands or just hugged.)

Medley - the first night was I think Boyz with Fun, Attack on Bangtan, Fire, Baepsae, Dope. Second night was Dope, Go Go, Blood Sweat and Tears, Boy in Luv, Fire. I enjoyed both immensely! Hobi did the splits for the Baepsae dance break! I will never be over BST! I LOVE!

Airplane Pt 2 - this is just such a superior song and superior choreo, it's SO GOOD, thank you.

Taehyung VCR - this is so stunning, I can't even. When it pulls back and he puts his hand on the glass… and it frosts over... At the end my friend leaned over and said 'house of psychics' and was she wrong? NO SHE WAS NOT.

Singularity - this stage was immensely beautiful and breathtaking and Taehyung is purely charisma. I found out after the show that he was kind of sick on the 23rd? I honestly could not tell.

Fake Love - I've seen this so many times but you know what, this choreo is still GREAT. And Bangtan in all black, all emo is such a look.

Yoonjin VCR - this was the most straight forward of the VCRs. Again, fascinating to think it was originally Namjoon and Seokjin, Love and Epiphany.

Seesaw - the staging for this is so fun, Yoongi doing his dances and sliding off the bench and running back up again - he's so good at this!

Epiphany - oh good crying time. I did actually get a tear in my eye when this played the first night. It's just a song that means a lot to me… MUSIC, EMOTIONS! A POTENT COMBINATION! And Jin is very handsome.

The Truth Untold - vocal line all in a row like four flowers, they're just so good! The way this stage used the raised platform and the four screens was also really effective. It's such a lovely song.

Tear - I've seen so many fancams for this and the concert movie but I was still? blown?? away????? Rapline are just absolutely monsters of charisma and stage presence, and the way they deliver this with complete commitment - I was slain right there. Hoseok's ending verse, FUCK.

Mic Drop - NO ONE DOES IT LIKE BTS thank u

This was the 'end' of the show but of course we all knew there would be more. Strangely, or perhaps this is cultural, this led to a subdued interlude. There were definitely attempts to get fanchants going - sometimes successful, sometimes not, I laughed a little at some of the awkward pauses - and especially on the 23rd, there was a touching crowd singalong to Spring Day. But overall it was more subdued than I expected given how loudly the crowd did scream when BTS were on stage.

So What - SUCH A CLUB ANTHEM, it was so delightful seeing them all having so much fun! I had fun too! Fun for everyone!

Anpanman - the cutest fucking choreo, and the cutest fucking group, that is all.

Answer: Love Myself - all the ending feels… emotionally wrung out… a little exhausted… but just seeing how happy they looked and how happy I felt - I love concert.

#bts #love yourself tour #hong kong #190323 #190324 #kpop #actually using tumblr as a blog how strange

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dalemeetsworld · 4 years

Text

Chef Anthony Bourdain once said, "If you're young, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel- as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them wherever you go." Those words inspire me and impacted my whole being. I'm 25 and fortunate to have traveled the world and absorb what it has done to me. Through it, I realized that traveling is a better investment than more material things. Why? It's because there are so many life lessons you can learn from it. I can tell you some of my favorites.

1. IT IS OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

There is nothing more like diving out of your comfort zone to make you realize that you are a newbie in life no matter what your age is.

When I was younger, middle eastern countries used to be terrifying and scary to me. Maybe because the way these countries are portrayed by media can sometimes be negatively biased. But that has all changed when I visited Abu Dhabi and experience it first hand.

It's exhilarating to forget what's familiar for a bit and expand your horizons. Once you do, there is no better feeling than taking on unfamiliar territory and making it familiar. All it takes is pulling the trigger, and you'll come home with endless stories.

2. IT DE-STRESSES YOU

It helps us break our behavioural patterns when we feel like too many days look the same. It's also a great way to add a new dimension to your life, which makes the hustle bearable.

As cliche as it sounds, sometimes we don't know how to handle issues and what we want to do, until we step away from our family, friends, workmates and tune in to our inner voice. Travel gives you the space to just be you and think alone in a way you could never do back home. It's so much easier to deal with issues and solve problems when you look at them from the outside. It gives you a lot of time to think without destructions and make healthy decisions.

3. YOU GET TO TASTE DIFFERENT TYPES OF FOOD

Life is too short to eat the same type of food every single day. Imagine there's a book with thousands of pages and you read over and over the same first page never turning it once, that's how most people live their lives. I never thought that pelmini, sushi and kimchi would become some of my favorite dishes in the world until i tried them country to country. Try a restaurant serving ethnic food and avoid the touristic ones with equivalent food from home.

As a cook, I cannot go to a restaurant in a foreign country without mentally reverse engineering the food that I am eating. Many times your waiter will tell you the recipe. Afterwards, I try them out in my kitchen. Not only it gives me the pleasure of eating the food, but also helps me become a better cook.

4. IT IS A MORE ADVANCED FORM OF EDUCATION

Traveling is like condensed education. So many scales and new forms of interconnected knowledge merged together in a travel experience. It gives you a detail of insights whether about Geography, History, International events or even Language which others only study in school books. It makes you realize how much you don't know, and it opens your mind and broads your perspective. These absorbed information will stick around a lot longer than what you learn from school. After all, experience is the best teacher of all.

5. YOU MEET NEW PEOPLE

The best part of traveling is the people you meet along the way. I've found out that it is extremely rare to come across another traveler who isn't eager to hear your stories, where you've been, or where did you come from. You listen to their stories, tell yours, share the same interests, hear various opinions and experience things together with people.

Some of my favorite friendships are the ones I found from traveling. To name a few: with a Mexican guy called Arnold and a Danish old man named Ben. During a carnival in Veracruz, a man named Arnold approached me and asked stuff about my camera, turns out he is a blogger from Tampico who came to celebrate the carnival. He gave me a liter of local beer and took me to his group of friends and partied all night. The other one is with Ben, who offered me a lift to Esbjerg downtown because he was worried that I'd be walking longer than i thought. And the list goes on. Who would have thought that simple situations like these help you build relationships that would last a lifetime.

It is a beautiful thing to say that you're friends with people around the planet.

6. YOU START TO UNDERSTAND OTHER CULTURES

Living somewhere completely different gives you a new perspective that's different from just hearing or reading about it. People fear what they don't know or don't understand. Just because someone lives in another geography than you do, their skin color is different, and they believe different religion than you, it doesn't mean they don't share the same emotions. When you travel, you'll find that most people are good and welcoming, and they'll share with you what they have in order to make you feel good.

The act of being somewhere new allows you to fully immerse yourself and appreciate that new place, from the people, the language, the clothing, and everything in between. Taking the time to interact with the local culture is the way to experience and appreciate it fully. Again, this can't be taught, only experienced.

7. YOU'RE EXPOSED TO NEW IDEAS

Whether you are staring at a menu realizing you have no idea what the items are, or jumping on a bus that you hope will get you somewhere familiar, traveling is exciting. It forces you to do new things, and it's gonna be easy after the first couple of times which eventually makes you learn the system. Being in new territory will probe new ideas and curiosities- what the local customs are, the local food, what language is spoken and religious practices. It gives you a better understanding, and therefore turning these curiosities into discoveries. This will then make you hungry to learn more, ask questions and completely immerse yourself into a new place.

8. IT MAKES YOU MORE INDEPENDENT

One goal in life is to be independent. Meaning, if it comes to it, you're own set of tools is enough to keep you going. Most parents are overprotective and do not allow their children to face the hardships in life until it's too late. You grow up in a bubble, and the reality hits you like a brick on the face. When you travel, you will learn one of life's most important skills, self reliance.

I remember the first time I visited Venice, I was alone by myself, only got 2 euros in my pocket (I had enough cash but in a different currency which isn't acceptable in the local area), without an internet connection and even got lost, since the city was pretty sketchy. It didn't bother me. Instead, you'll find it more valuable. Nothing like being lost in Venice where every corner has beautiful little bridges that serves you a very peaceful view. One's paddling the Gondola, while some walks slowly and taking their time, with their eyes mesmerized. You have to trust yourself and understand that life's circumstances aren't bad at all and sometimes it'll lead you to somewhere even more beautiful.

9. IT FORCES YOU TO BE MORE SOCIAL

People says we're always connected because of how technology develops. But a digital world is an invisible world. Sometimes, people lack of personality because they no longer go out to form one. Due to our indoor existence, we are forming our personalities based on almost the same type of pattern provided on the internet, until we become products of what companies wants us to be. When we travel, we get to have real life conversations, talking to people we don't know and learning from them. Our connection should be invested in real people, from our neighborhood to the world.

10. THERE WILL BE NO MORE WARS

It's only when you travel that you will realize how big and diverse our world really is, but also how similar we are as one people. What if world war III would happen. The people that will be harmed are the people you became friends with, the people you met in the cafe, or in carnival, people who gave you a lift, gave you recipes, people who smiled at you on the streets, or the receptionists who are very courteous, the children you saw on their way to school because they have dreams. You will realize it's never going to be okay to see them injured or get killed. I think, even world leaders would feel the same.

People are our most treasured gifts in this life. Go meet them. Let them see we are all one too. If we could do that, we can change the world. One traveling peace maker at a time.

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omglr · 4 years

Conversation

You're now chatting with a random stranger.

You both like feminism.

You: hi

Stranger: m

Stranger: hi

You: F

Stranger: age

You: 34

Stranger: what do you think of men

You: meh

Stranger: what do you think of women

You: yeah!

Stranger: is this what feminism is about?

You: no i'm just a lesbian

Stranger: hahaha you know our conversation up until now can be a great meme

Stranger: with 'lesbian' as the perfect punchline

You: well, we do like fisting

Stranger: why are lesbian lol, why dont u switch to me haha

Stranger: are u*

Stranger: men*

You: idk, thats how it worked out

You: women are attractive to me

Stranger: Is it you being a lesbian a display of resistance against patriarchy?

You: its a perk

You: but i'm not a "political lesbian"

Stranger: what kind are u

You: a lesbian,

You: also, fairly political,

You: but in the 70s there were a variety of 2nd wave feminists who swore off men even though they were straight and became "political lesbians" even though they weren't atttracted to women

Stranger: you mean turning lesbian as a resistance to patriarchy was really a thing?

You: yeah

Stranger: damn. Did it work?

You: eh... idk

You: its similar to MGTOW

You: but with gay lady sex

You: and forrest communes

You: it was a whole movement

Stranger: tell me this. when you talk to men. what emotion do you internally go through? Do you feel prejudice against him? Or Is it something like 'I gotta be on guard I dont know whether this person is rapist', or '

You: eh, yeah, i sometimes worry about violence or rape from dudes, but i can get along with a lot of guys fine,

Stranger: the ones you get along with, do you interactions with them any different than with other women? or do you have certain coldness towards because you know this is the gender that oppressed you all history?

Stranger: are interactions*

Stranger: towards them*

You: eh, not really, i can be friendly and affectionate with guys i like, i generally want to like people

You: but like, i don't hang out with rich dudes or loud jock dudes

You: and yeah, i'm way more upset at the rich for their oppression than men at this point

Stranger: how is the rich oppressing u more than men

You: capitalism man

You: i live in an oligarchy

You: rich people can do what ever they want and shape society to benefit them

You: we are probably all gonna suffer greatly due to climate change cause the people who are making money off of how the system works now, don't want to give up their power or change anything

You: so its butts

Stranger: you can't change this tho. better be mad about things that can be changed

You: nah, i'm gonna be mad about shit that is effecting me and my loved ones, its healthy to be aware of what the cause is

You: and direct my anger to the cause, other wise i'm gonna misdirect it towards my friends

You: plus, its not hopeless, we can stand up to rich

You: folks

You: we have numbers, and most their money is digital / artificial

You: anyway, that's basically what feminism is for me

You: its a useful tool for class analysis

You: and a guidance for justice

Stranger: feminism isnt related to class

Stranger: as far as i know

You: c'mon bud

You: have you heard of intersectionality?

Stranger: I stopped paying attention to terms now

You: well it came in big during 3rd wave feminism in the 90s

You: when feminism was trying to refocus to cover more understandings of oppression than like white lady feels

You: thinking about the intersections of sexism, racism and classism,

You: as well as ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and so on

Stranger: did that start in the 90s?

You: i'm sure convos were happening earlier too

You: roughly late 80s early 90s is where i would put 3rd wave

Stranger: I don't know, but I think current one now has refocused purely on lady issues again. atleast that's the kind that stays in the spotlight

You: well, i think that's mostly the click bait phenomenon

Stranger: look at twitter

You: like shit that is sorta outrageous sounding gets a lot more attention

You: like, "manspreading"

You: like, men taking up space in general is an issue, but the politics of crossing your legs on a bus gets clicks on both sides of the issue and is talked about way more than the complex economic trickery that rich people can do to avoid paying taxes

You: and one is kinda more important than the other

Stranger: how're the women around you? are they like the manspreading feminists or they're more like you?

You: eh, idk, a bit of both

You: like i get bored and can use shit i've learned about feminism to analyze situations and can come up with hot takes that are at least 50% stupid cause society is atleast 50% stupid and ridiculous,

You: so idk, if my shitposting tweets ever went viral or got shared on mra forums maybe i would be the postergirl for how ridiculous and pointless feminism is too

You: sorry, i am just ranting now

Stranger: it's alright. so you're part of the man hating culture of twitter too huh? :p

You: sure

Stranger: do you feel when u do that?

Stranger: feel good*

You: nah, i mean i try not to get into shit on twitter

You: i kinda use twitter to get out my energy that might be put towards flame wars

You: its not a good feeling to get involved in

Stranger: ok, do you atleast get the psychology of them that do these? Why do they do it? Is it the loneliness or something?

You: oh, yeah idon't know.

You: probably boredom, or for building social capital

You: for the lolz of ammusing their friends/followers

You: but some folks are crazy dedicated to twitter fights and ideological warfare

You: like terfs or gamergaters or fandoms

Stranger: I mean how do they have meaningful relationships in real life after all the flame wars. Aren't their relationships affected?

You: i am not sure

You: i mean, i stopped getting into fights on facebook over concerns for a larger community

You: but my personal relationships aren't really effected

You: cause i'm super smart and my loved ones agree with me

You: lol, that's a joke

Stranger: where are you from

You: canada

You: you?

Stranger: I see. Canada is a very pro-women

Stranger: uk

You: it tries

You: what time is it there?

Stranger: I see countless answers on quora of men complaining that men are becoming second citizens to women now. is it true?

Stranger: 6 am

You: its 1:17am where i am

You: i think that's some kinda weird bias

You: like, where if women talk 30% of the time, men come away with the impression that women were talking much more than 50% of the time

You: idk if that's true, but that was a study that was popular on social media a few years back

Stranger: it's not about talking, i see them mostly talking about rights, and in general specialised treatment of women.

You: anyhoo, i'm getting real sleepy

You: yeah, idk,

You: i am gonna head out, nice chatting with you

Stranger: sure, it was nice talking to you!

You: :) take care

You have disconnected.

0 notes

incarnateirony · 2 years

Note

Hey, pretty sure you saw the news about the pilot orders on the 'you-know-what' network. Just wanted to check in and ask a few questions since you're one of the most knowledgeable people in the fandom (especially when it comes to television - I've learned a lot from your posts 😁)

Anywaaayyy... I'm just gonna list 'em out below one by one to make it easiest. Feel free to respond in public or in private your call:

1) Seeing as how Nexstar is now the majority stockholder of the network (or on its way to being), when these new shows premiere is the boycott still in effect? Because it looks like there's actual thought being put into what's being renewed or ordered (at least in terms of audience... Winchesters will focus on teen John and Mary, Gotham Knights and Justice U are either teen or college age, Powerpuff Girls and Zorro are young adult age, rumored All-American spinoff; only show targeting a possible AD2554 audience and not 18-34 seems to be W: Independence). If the boycott is still in effect, would this affect chance of renewal for The Winchesters? Or would it be a "watch and see but don't do any socials for it?" Or does it get pushed off onto HBO Max even if the show is watched but the network still fails?

2) Just because there's a pilot order for it, do you still think the W:I spinoff has more legs than it did the last we heard about it? At least the plot summary seems long enough that it'd need 2 napkins to hold lol. And, despite it paining me to say it - the plot summary for it does intrigue me, as it seems like they listened to some of the criticism (a more interesting overarching mystery, not being based on stories of kids being locked up). Then again, it's only a summary and there are still ways it can go wrong, especially if they don't do their due diligence when depicting native american characters (which, given the network's history with diverse voices, seems... something to definitely to keep an eye on). Also is it too early to start fancasting? Gen for the widow and J*red as the rogue 🤣

3) Is this like most other C-space-W orders and renewals where it's just throwing stuff against the wall to see if stuff sticks (which is why the W:I prequel got pilot greenlit if it's barely that far along) or do you see this as something with deeper impact as all the stuff that got ordered was either related to its old cash cow or its new money makers?

4) How insufferable do you expect *that* splinter of the fandom to be now that there's a W:I announcement? Also, if this prequel does come to order, do you think they're gonna take the L on the original series after season 3 and maybe tie the two together for a syndication deal (even if the prequel is only 1 season, they can probably meet the syndication 100 episodes between the two, though I doubt that's a legitimate way of getting to syndication).

5) Your odds on whether the prequels are gonna air on the same night, with W:I getting the 8pm slot with the Winchesters getting 9pm (W:I being first on the call sheet, in a sense 😉).

Thank you!!

1) I was already considering how to reroute the boycott into targetted demand, to be honest. Forcing a crash-and-change was the entire point, and learning what to support once Nexstar was officially in charge is the way to drive decision making in the future. The AA spinoff is more than rumored, it got a full announcement and panel. Honestly, the drive would ofc include supporting the WInchesters, and other shows doing things right. We can't decide what all that is, but for example Nancy Drew needs some live support even if its digitals are great. Now is the phase to start telling the new decision makers how to do it RIGHT, and that's just as much by demand. Make Nexstar start getting views and making money. Whether HBO orders it if CW goes under is in the air, but they can probably make CW last until at least 2024, and if it stops fucking itself, as fa ras 2026 or 2028.

2) Not really. The napkin thing was proverbial, there's a reason I mentioned Kripke's five year plan in comparison. Notice it's a very similar level of treatment. Same thing. Now they're saying "show us what that looks like." -- still not gonna support it, sorry. Not about to make the CW lean back into that aged demographic when it has decisionmakers able to do better.

3) Well this isn't a CW order, that's an error in reporting. While I'm sure they're coordinating with the CW, CBS has put in to order Independence to pilot and WB has put in to order Winchesters to pilot. Their child company is not yet involved beyond the standing episode commitment for the Winchesters, but the episode commitment is contingent on WB's moving forward. However, with Winchesters making it to pilot, that means as long as WB likes it, they show it to CW, and then CW basically auto-orders it to series, and fulfills the commitment. The order will be somewhat different with Independence and the others, but Independence is at least Optioned, so similar. Not as deep as an episode commitment but kinda owning the rights to the rights, so there's interest, but they can sit on that and hold that longer.

4) They're insufferable every day. Who cares? But yeah, I went over things like the "Taking the L" over here (x)

5) Yeah, I doubt it. They'll want to try to pose it as a money property and spaced out. Frankly I consider the spinoff more likely to be a summer show for next year, but we'll see where that shakes out. But otherwise Jared's gonna be double working his same writers and crew in the same season. Meaning they either need to be different airing seasons, one cancelled, or a bunch of exhausted and distracted creatives all around.

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punkscowardschampions · 4 years

Text

Fearghal & Kaitlin

Fearghal: [So the setup is sending her a postcard pretending to be a mate visiting in England for whatever reason (could be fam you get the vibe, nothing suspect given the time this is) but giving enough info that she 1. Knows it is him 2. has the number of at least a phonebox nearby if not a phone in his care home 3. a time when he plans to first call the phonebox nearest their home in Ireland, assumedly this is some sneaky twin shit they've pulled similar enough before that she can catch on without any of the rest of the fam also doing so; only question is how long do we want it to be since he left?] Kaitlin: [3 months ish later then and they've turned 15 but only just for our ref how do we think the situation is with his dad etc like would he just be acting like he's dead cos is to him?] Fearghal: [basically my vibe was they wanted to weaponize Tabby killing herself for their gain, like make it something political even though literally not about that bar the fact her family and his family and co didn't want them together and she was a dramatic teenage girl in love (no offense but like) and so when he wouldn't go along with that there was a massive fight, actual, between him and his dad and then Fearghal left 'cos there's never any option but to do as your told with this fam and he can't lose face with all the other people etc etc and the story the dad is telling the fam etc is that Fearghal deserted them which not untrue but yeah, good enough for all the olders to disown him too so it'd be like we don't talk about him and if someone else bring him up you denounce him] Kaitlin: [let's say there's a crying baby in the background cos like in my OG post she can use her youngest sister needing fresh air as an excuse so casually left her outside the phonebox but might be able to hear her if she's going for it] Kaitlin: How ya Fearghal: K? Fuck's sake, you've not had a bastard, have ya? 's'not been that long, like Kaitlin: Catch yourself on! mind how ya ma was fit to drop, you eejit? well we're all lurred she had another girl who I'm hauling about as my cover, so I am Fearghal: [Laughs] Still easy to windup then [slight pause to take in that it's a girl and is here, like not the biggest shock but also literally no way of knowing at this time so] And go on, don't leave me in suspense, what name they burden the poor fucker with Kaitlin: [makes an unimpressed noise like fuck off] full of that good craic you are, bet the brits are buzzing to hear it. You ready? Niamh Roisin, it's a cracker, like [sighs] Fearghal: [laughs some more] Yeah, catch me on that most wanted list, obviously [makes a wincing noise like no] Christ, actually lost it fully then, has she? Made it longer than some but dunno if mentals get to heaven, haveta ask Father Quigley, like Kaitlin: [laughs herself] yeah yeah [makes like a idk noise] can you lose what you've never had? A good catholic'll find a way, to be sure, and she is that, our ma [makes a scornful noise at the mention of the priest as is standard for her] Fearghal: [makes a mm noise to agree] Suppose so, don't reckon much was said 'bout being good to 'em once you had 'em, so be alright [sighs] What have you been up to, then...How's it been Kaitlin: if it was she'd recite between the lines to keep us anyone's problem but hers, poor critter [sarcastic laugh because mum's getting no real sympathy] it could've been 3 days from when you went off for what's changed and not- [a long pause because everything's shit and we know it is] Fearghal: What's God if not top babysitter, eh? Cheaper than telly and who's giving money to the BBC [scoffs but cuts it short 'cos yep] And I'm fine too, you rude cow Kaitlin: and stand him next to our earthly da and he comes out lookin' class [chefs kiss noise] Hey now! [makes a fake noise of shock like she's appalled at the mention of the bbc] watch your profanity around me, dicko! [really long exaggerated sigh as a pisstake] a'course you are, land well anywhere, but hit me with your bars, it's no bother to hear how right I am Fearghal: If you can get him stand still long enough, like and you ain't a lad so no chance, babe [does pisstake wistful sigh] Forgot you needed protecting from the evils of this world, my apologies [coughs awkwardly then, stalling for time, fiddling with the phone in ways she can probably hear] Taking a bow as we speak, can't fit in here with me but the adoring fans are aplenty over this way, well more than there so fuck it, life's grand so it is Kaitlin: Wise up, boy, he only sways slightly of an evening on these ones lately so he does [but her voice is MAD because fuck being a girl in this fam] Did you now? Thank fuck my new lad has his uses then, like [takes a deep breath to try and calm down but exaggerates it for the pisstake because have to, god forbid they are serious rn] I went and saw your former biggest fan under that rock they've carved with protestant shite, no word on if life's grander for her now it's ended or if she's regretting she didn't send her prayers up saying she wanted another bite of the cherry, one that wasn't yours- [stops like I've probably gone a bit far here and shouldn't mention his dead ex anymore] Fearghal: Good for him [through gritted teeth like let's never talk about him thank you] Like you need a replacement protector, got how many ready and willing at home, just DYING to beat the shit out of some 15 year old kid for your honour and just for the craic of it [does it back, like and then is silent until the pips are going but he's still there 'cos they stop when he puts more money in] You'll be under some rock with Catholic shite if they catch you in their graveyard [says it much more quietly than he's said the rest] Kaitlin: [makes a noise of disgust that doesn't need to be exaggerated for the pisstake cos genuinely horrified at this fam thanks] what honour? Shame you brought down on us with what they caught you at [but her voice is softer too because didn't mean to go off and also doesn't mean any of that we know] supposed to scare me, is it? [said like I wouldn't be here to give them a chance to do it just like you weren't] Fearghal: Why you need to ask one of the others, ain't it; can't be the best looking of the bunch and the best behaved, got to leave something for 'em to do and impressing n pleasing him 's'never been high on my to-do so have at it, lads [does meh noise like this is all so casual] Called the fear of God for a reason, aye Kaitlin: [does the meh noise back and it's her turn to awkwardly fiddle with the phone/cough while she works up to saying what she does next, more quietly than she has anything else] how's it truly then? Away and everything. Free and clear Fearghal: It's, like- just shit because you realize that everything that happens in that fucking town, all the stuff that rules our lives and is all they give a shit about, no other cunt does, you know, Kait? Sure, its on the news when another bomb goes off or don't and that; but the English don't even have to think about it, their day to day ain't affected at all, no fucker but our lot cares and what's the point, honestly? Everything we were forced to at least think was important, if not fecking stupid, ain't and now I don't- [Stops to do some actual breathing to calm down] Not to mention I'm thick as shite, thanks for that and all- 'cos frees a bloody joke [laughs bitterly] I get by, now, got a place to stay so, don't haveta worry but don't be hopping the next ferry yourself, girl Kaitlin: [when you're just silent for ages because as much as you think it's bullshit you're basically in a cult rn with no chance of getting out so what can you say like] not that thick, warning me off coming to keep an eye on all these english girls with theirs on ya but no bother 'cause mind I get sea sick and class as boking on brits sounds I'd get fairly covered myself before I made any casualties of 'em Fearghal: Know enough about girls and enough about you to know the two don't need mixing, that's just school of life, that [moving away a bit and telling someone who's impatiently waiting to fuck off] Stay put [when you say it firmly like serious voice] That wain and the rest needs someone VAGUELY sane about to stand any chance, fuck me, Aislinn's already been corrupted and she's barely in double digits [kicks the box] Kaitlin: [laughs because yeah don't let her around any girls you like babe] you should know enough about me to know what giving me your orders'll do fer ya and what it'll make me do [but there's no actual real threat in it we all know she's staying for the bubs] Sane as you by that count, ain't I? [can't help genuinely sighing] Mammy's girl is Aislinn been like it since she was old enough to play house [grimaces at the thought cos never that bitch] got the rest under MY apron strings, grand they are and it goes for the stories I tell 'em every night after prayers, rest easy yourself knowing that, yeah? Fearghal: Alright, alright [hear the 🙄😏] But if you wanna be the next to bring shame on 'em, you can do better than a cheeky abortion, surely? [shakes his head] Yeah. [Pause] Yeah [Coughs again] I'm doing my bit, swear, it's gonna take a while 'til I can send you anything and I've got to work out how when I do- it ain't for them, just you lot but like I said, not cheap Kaitlin: [an outraged noise like who do you think you're talking to, of course I can do better than that etc] Yeah. [Pauses herself because again what to say, there's so much it's too much] I've got faith in the right shite, Gally [nickname ftw because feels] it'll work out. We'll work it out, like we did this Fearghal: 'Course we will, K. No other choice, is there [definitely not a question] Kaitlin: not a real question, is it? [she knows its not] Fearghal: you want me to ask you one? Kaitlin: do English girls fall for that? Fearghal: Enough of 'em, yeah Kaitlin: [makes a ugh noise] how you've got a bed, is it? Fearghal: Theirs top where mine is Kaitlin: I deeply feel that Fearghal: [makes the kinda sad 'ha' sound like 'I know'] Not all bad though, some class drugs about and you don't get kneecapped for taking a casual interest Kaitlin: [does a little hooray down the phone] Fearghal: Send you some but your phones probably tapped so I definitely won't Kaitlin: thanks or no thanks, depending who'll be listening Fearghal: Cover those bases and the baby's ears Kaitlin: nothing to be heard over her crying Fearghal: don't lie, you miss me that much [laughs] Kaitlin: fuck off [but laughs too] Fearghal: Will do Fearghal: so many English girls Kaitlin: [exaggerated being sick noise] nowhere close to a ferry and sick as a dog, don't start me any further Fearghal: You think I escaped to pray every day and fight the good fight, like Kaitlin: if you still pray you ain't escaped fuck all Fearghal: Not living on my knees for no cunt, sis Fearghal: am being haunted, for my sins, though Kaitlin: Be on track to commit more, you'll have enough ghosts for all manner of shite to get done Fearghal: No rest for the wicked on the one hand, but on the other, idle hands and idle minds [breathes out like so conflicted and confused] Kaitlin: [a change in tone because serious] She's gone, so are you. Leave it here. Leave it in this fucking town Fearghal: Not a choice Kaitlin: Can be Fearghal: Nah, s'not, boths already happened Kaitlin: Happened to you, gives you a say in how you deal with it Fearghal: Yeah Kaitlin: You've lived in one haunted house as things stand, ain't you? Miss home that much, is it? Fearghal: How could I not? Live for these lectures, like Kaitlin: [an unamused noise because you're basically calling her a nagging girl which ain't a mood] Fearghal: [the pips again] Oh shit, should robably let you go, yeah? Kaitlin: Yeah probably [but she obvs doesn't wanna that'd be clear] Fearghal: Tell the kids I miss 'em, won't ya Kaitlin: I'll even include her out there Fearghal: Try and send a picture some time, alright Kaitlin: 'Course Fearghal: You too, kid Kaitlin: [laughs but in a more genuine way] You're my twin brother, calling me kid is calling yourself a wain, you eejit Fearghal: That's alright by me, like Kaitlin: I'll not baby you, got enough noses and arses to wipe here while you're hand holding these brits Fearghal: No handholding, on me life, just good old-fashioned- [will cut him off before he can be gross] Kaitlin: [we can say she cuts him off with a very unamused noise as per like no thank you] Fearghal: G'wan then, piss off before that kid freezes to death Kaitlin: [doesn't wanna be the first one to hang up obvs] Watch yourself then Fearghal: You too Fearghal: When can we do this again then Kaitlin: When can you? It's no bother for me to slip out with this ginger whinger, needs fresh air so she does Fearghal: [laughs then is pondering like umm] Try next Sunday, after church, if I don't answer then I'll send another postcard or whatever, yeah Kaitlin: Tryin' to get a free sermon told to ya, respect that hustle if not the message Fearghal: Obviously, how am I getting to heaven from England? Kaitlin: [laughs] no angels in England is there not? You'll have been thinking on your feet for fresh pick up lines all these months, no wonder you ain't had time for me, like Fearghal: Something like that... [Trails off 'cos don't wanna tell her what's really been going on but also does 'cos not its like that and its been a lot to just deal with on his own] Kaitlin: But it's something else like what? [cos sees through you boyyy] Fearghal: It's alright now, like Fearghal: but it ain't as if the old man sent me on me way with anywhere to go, is it Kaitlin: He didn't put a bullet in your head as a send off, that's what gets me to sleep of a night, but- [trails off because she was gonna say she knows it hasn't been easy but she doesn't know how hard it's been and she's not trying to guess like let's compare struggles] Kaitlin: Yeah [another pause] Fearghal: Should've put one in his [so under his breath it's like did you mean that to be heard or] Kaitlin: You'd have to take ma out an' all, I don't reckon the broken heart myth is anything other than another story, and probably a few of us would make the cut for cute little orphans but you and me'd have to catch ourselves on quick and wise up Fearghal: Make Tara look after you all as well as Diarmaid's kids, see how committed to the family she really is [sniffs 'cos we been knew] Kaitlin: [makes an identical sound cos twinning] I'll take her out if she was bothered to try and get near 'em Fearghal: Least Owie is old enough to help out, young enough to give a clout, yeah? [genuine concern] Kaitlin: [scoffs because we know he's a bit of a knob but it's still affectionate because] Fearghal: He'll be alright [but doesn't sound as reassuring as that's meant to be 'cos like unlikely at this point] Kaitlin: He's got me, my will's stronger than god's so father Q likes to say [laughs] under his breath, a'course Fearghal: [laughs back but its less 'cos sad] He doesn't always chat shite Kaitlin: Reckon he's a soft spot for me Fearghal: [makes noise like 'hopefully not too soft' but is joking, doesn't need to be that kind of priest] Kaitlin: I don't wish you were here Fearghal: How could he not, with the charm [but just jk like] Is it better, in some ways Kaitlin: It's...[trails off cos we all know even if there's less hassle it's not better as far as she's concerned and the loneliness is a real mood] I'm buzzing you got out [genuine but her voice is sad] Fearghal: Your turn next, I mean it Kaitlin: After we get a few birthday's under Niamh's belt [pauses because it's sinking in how stuck she is for now] and the rest, give 'em a fighting chance Fearghal: Yeah Fearghal: I'll make it easier, any which way I can Kaitlin: Me too, for you, I mean Fearghal: I'm grand, honest but cheers [more pips] I am outta shrapnel though so- Kaitlin: Don't be putting honest on a lie [frustrated sigh because nobody wants this to end but she wouldn't have money] speak Sunday and like I said, watch yourself Fearghal: Love ya, K ['cos no time to take the piss for it or protest] Kaitlin: [let's say she gets cut off before she can say it back for the pain]

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