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#you can't control everything

kiss-evans · 2 years

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all i'm gonna say is that the season was so good, i'm not mad at all, disappointed maybe but not really, and i don't think there was bad lazy writing, plot holes are a thing and it is what it is. it's not like real life has happy endings or that it's fair. things never go as you'd have wanted them to go. that's just life y'all.

#there's no purpose in being mad like as if they would redo the season #it's pointless #just accept it and move on #you can't control everything #and if you can't do anything about it then find something you can do something about #the stranger things #the stranger things spoilers

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glassygate · 1 year

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The thing I kinda love about dp x dc crossover fics are all the ways people explain why Justice League never attempted to help Amity Park with their ghost problem.

This point, the ones I have seen are (in no particular order)

1. People tried to contact JL, but they thought it to be a prank call

For some reason this variation almost always blames Green Lanter (Hal or Guy) for this. I have also seen couple where Flash took the blame or some “non-hero” workers Watchtower has.

2. People tried to contact JL, but GIW-Vlad-Tucker are blocking the info to keep heroes from finding out.

Once saw a version where Justice League Dark was hiding Amity from non magical heroes.

3.No-one tried to inform League and since no one believes in ghosts, Amity Park’s weirdness was just an urban legend and/or it was thought to be some kind of gimmick to attract tourists.

4.Danny’s accident happend before Justice League was even a thing and he become active around the same time as Batman and Superman started their careers.

5. The League has made Amity “DO-NOT-ENTER!!” zone and never informed Amity Park about this.

You would think they would let at least let the Mayor (Vlad or the one before) know, but I have never seen people to hint they were contacted.

6.League knows about the situation but they don’t want to step on Phantom’s toes. Usually this includes them thinking Phantom is an ancient being and not a teenager.

7. Justice League knows and they did send someone to check if Phantom wanted help.

#dpxdc #dcxdp #please add more I missed #my personal favourite is probably Danny is same hero gen as Bat/Superman #but for obvious reasons those are in minority #can't have mentor hero if they are just as new as you are #from the other ones...#maybe 'JL knows but thinks Phantom has everything under control as he has been hero for centuries'#tumblr seems to be messing up the list so sorry about the wall of text...#let's see if edit helped...

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rotzaprachim · 6 months

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one of the biggest issues with the current misinformation and/or propaganda discourses is that a lot of people on some level hold the idea that there's a linear separation between "media that is Propaganda" and "True Media, which is Correct and Pure," and that is fundamentally not how the news works, or how history works, or how historiography works. Some news and history is certainly working to push particular points more than others, and not all aspects of the political equation bear equal validity, but a lot of people are refusing to engage with the fact that all news and all media needs to be engaged with critically, and that "read from a variety of sources" isn't a conservative psyop but an attempt to try to counter the fact that every journalist ever - every person every, and certainly every twenty something tiktoker ever - has certain biases. there is no linear, singular, pure "truth." in fact, the acceptance of the idea that there can be some media that is wholly pure versus others that is nothing but pure propaganda is exactly how people buy into propaganda to begin with - because it presents a clean, straightforward, and seemingly just explanation for the world

#people wanting One Book to read about the situation and suddenly learning how historiography works [eyes emoji]#You can't just comprehend things as True Facts #Which are Factually Correct #Versus Bias. which is evil people controling everything #context & sources and methods are actually massively important ehre #there is no one true response you're going to get for anything

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kingthunder · 3 months

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When I say The Amazing Devil is my favorite band I don't mean it's my top band among many I mean it's the only band I listen to at all. They ruined me for other music. I want everything I listen to to be just as dramatic and vocally emotive and narratively focused and lyrically intricate, but I can't find anything else that scratches the itch and believe me I've tried. 😩Want to know what comes the closest for me, weirdly enough? Tenacious D.

#joey batey how did you manage to create your own genre of music #explain yourself #look i don't like listening to only one band but i can't control what gives me dopamine #what i wouldn't give for another TAD album #or another band following in their footsteps #they call themselves folk but is it really?#no other folk bands sound like that #i don't even know how to describe it #it's like if a musical wasn't a musical #it's like if poetry was being acted out on stage #it's characters and stories and rhymes and harmonies and it's heartwrenching and beautiful and angsty and sweet #it's everything my melodrama-loving ass ever wanted #i want more :(#the amazing devil #TAD #joey batey #madeleine hyland

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screambirdscreaming · 8 days

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At the bus stop one time there was a gaggle of preschoolers waiting to catch the bus for a field trip day, and someone walked past with a couple of friendly little dogs, to great general delight.

But after a little bit, the dogs were getting overwhelmed, and the preschoolers were gently coaxed to back off so the person with the dogs could continue on. Specifically, one of the preschool teachers said, "Sometimes, when you're small, being surrounded by big people can be a bit scary and overwhelming. Even if they are friendly."

This was recieved as great wisdom: after all, the preschoolers were also small, and understood how scary and overwhelming big people could be! And the dogs were indeed even smaller than the preschoolers, so it made sense.

What was funny and charming was that, upon absorbing and reflecting on this wisdom, they all felt the need to tell it to one another. In tones of great insight, they turned to one another and said, "Did you know? Sometimes when you are small, being surrounded by big people can be scary and overwhelming! Even if they are friendly!" Back and forth, without any particular concern that they were all saying the same thing. Have reached comprehension of an insight, it must be shared!

I must say that this behavior is less charming in tumblr users than in preschoolers. Not least because tumblr users, having gained a little analytical skill to misuse, insist on Summarizing and Generalizing and Unifying the insights they repeat, quickly turning any interesting new information into formulaic dogmatic mush.

#i made the mistake of looking in the notes of the beach sand post i reblogged to see if anyone else had interesting comments #And the rate at which it went from like #1) person states with moderate confidence an opinion based on their personal observations #2) multiple people reply with “wow thats so insightful!” (aka it aligns with my preconceived notions of how things work)#3) someone else adds additional personal observations which are not really relevant but which can be absorbed into the narrative #4) people start outright stating the underlying belief on which this bias is constructed as if it were a fresh insight #5) general derisive attitude towards people who haven't seen the Obviously Correct solution to this complex real world problem yet #It's very.......#It's not like it's a high stakes post but it's such a microcosm of the whole dogmatic phenomenon #Also this js a more specific gripe to My Field or w/e #But the degree to which people react to the problems caused by the whole “Control of Nature” era of engineering #with this equally reductive “Nature will Fix Everything” type of attitude #Is sooooo frustrating.#Yes a great many of our current problems could have been avoided if we had not made massive changes to ecosystem processes on the assumptio #That they were simple and we understood them. And that they would respond in predictable ways.#the simplicity in retrospect of “wow we Should Not have done that” does not mean that they are simple to undo!#You can't go back in time. You can't turn back the clock on chaotic processes #Which is. Almost every process ever.#Restoration is hard! Returning to previous regimes of sediment or flooding or fire is tricky and full of foibles!#Moving towards a future which doesn't suck as much even if the past cant be recreated is also uncertain and difficult!#It's frustrating to see people act all high and mighty about how they Respect Nature unlike whoever is making all these decisions #When their understanding of the natural processes in question is AS simplistic as the people who caused the whole mess back in 1910 or w/e #Like I'm not saying there's not bad interests standing in the way of functional restoration on all levels #That's very much a fight to be fought.#But looking at that fight-in-process and saying “wow none of you Respect Nature like me uwu let nature fix it”#Is.#Ugh.

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e-adlirez · 22 days

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Treasure Seekers 2 go brrrrr

So this sequel... exists :D

Welcome to the second entry in the Treasure Seekers trilogy that I'm gonna ramble about for the next six hours (in me time, in you time it's probably gonna be like thirty minutes or less), if you wanna read it yourself before reading this ramble, here's an Archive copy. Otherwise, enjoy the ride :D

So our story begins with the Thea Sisters locked in a basement in the dark, with Russia's penchant for matches (and the basement's lack of a smoke alarm) coming in clutch. Seems like another vacation's gone awry for them :3 How could it have possibly turned out this way?

Flashback: so the girls are vibing in Moscow, visiting all the cool sights and all that, Pam is wanting to try some Russian cuisine, when they spot this girl that's wearing what appears to be a barrette that used to belong to Aurora's sister Hannah Lane. They follow her a bit, find a THUG JUMPSCARE, follow the girl, Cassidy and co into the building they're heading into, and oh dear door with passcode is in the way. They find this dood Sergei, explain to him the situation, deal with him being like "who is u, and wth are you on about mate" until they hear a scream and oh dear turns out that girl with the barrette is Sergei's sister Irina and she's in trouble.

Sergei opens the door, they go in, walk in on Cassidy, Stan and Max (who I will from now call SM for simplicity) doing their whole thug jumpscare thing and kidnapping Irina in 4K. SM somehow rolls a high enough strength roll (or the girls roll a low enough initiative) that two roughly intimidating guys successfully trap six people into a basement without breaking a sweat get yourself some self-defense classes girls oml, and that's the end of that.

Luke's up to his shenanigans again, and it seems that he's targeted Irina Lenenko for the same reason the girls double-taked at the sight of her barrette: Irina (and Sergei in conjunction) is a descendant of Hannah Lane, and Hannah Lane may or may not have known a thing or two about one of the seven treasures. It's such a shame tho that Irina doesn't wanna spill any of the tea. What's this about a "queen's jewel"?

Oh also Luke has Aurora's third diary. I would like you to pay attention to this detail in particular. Oh and he's keeping Irina ratgrabbed until she tells them what he wants to know from her. Oh naur

Meanwhile the girls infodump all of the TS 1 LANE LOORRREEEE to Sergei in one whole sitting and finally manage to get around to "what the hell does this have to do with my sister". Sergei thinks it's not really possible for Irina to know anything about great-grandma Hannah's involvement with Aurora, but Irina's still in trouble soooo time to solve this nerdy-ass science trivia keypad puzzle to get outa the basement. Irina's nowhere to be found in the lab itself, so they regroup at Sergei's place to use his phone tracker app on his computer.

Bad news, SM dumped Irina's phone somewhere in the lab so the tracker app is useless; good news, while looking for some Lane Lore™ to get some context about the situation, the girls find some Lane Lore™ :D

Turns out Aurora was looking for one of the seven treasures again, y'know just updating her sister on that, who'd moved to Saint Petersburg with her husband Ivan.

Seems like Aurora's quest at the time involved "the queen's jewel", which Aurora said she was 1000% down to ramble about to Hannah, maybe when she's done finding all seven treasures and hiding them from Jan.

I would like to take this moment to remind you that Aurora is a British Amelia Earhart, and if you dunno what that means, look up what Earhart was famous for and then look at this with that given context :']

With that lead, the girls plus Sergei take a ride on presumably the Krasnaya Strela night train to Saint Petersburg, read some Lane Lore on the way, Peter-Griffin upon realizing that they spent the whole night reading AO3 fanfics Aurora's diaries and it's like 2AM now, land in Saint Petersburg, stop by Nevsky Prospekt Street to have some breakfast (I think they went to Venezia?), and discussion.

(For the rest of this review, please assume when I say "the girls", I'm including Sergei because Sergei tags along with them and helps them out in their entire journey. It's okay, Sergei may be biologically male but he is an honorary female in our hearts /j)

Aurora mentioned the queen's jewel in her diary, and when you're in Russia, the first queen that comes to mind is Catherine II, so maybe something relating to her? Some Lane Lore of Aurora taking interest in Catherine II's Amber Room in her palace specifically confirms their theories, sooooooooo it's time to go to the Amber Room to see if Aurora left any clu--

The girls are about to walk out of the Catherine Palace to Peter Griffin in private when SM JUMPSCARE--

So SM is stalkin' around the Catherine Palace looking for something, so the girls stalk them back and follow them out of the palace, into a car (the girls called a separate taxi to follow them), and to a little gray building in the outskirts of the city. They don't follow SM into the building because it might be dangerous, but Irina's scarf lying around near the premises confirms that Irina was in fact there and possibly being held hostage in the building.

The girls do a little tactic I like to call "the Ding Dong Ditch": Pam and Nicky knock on the door, SM answers it, do a little Metal Gear exclamation point "HOW DID YOU GET HERE", Nicky and Pam book it so SM chases them, and that's literally how the other girls plus Sergei sneak into the building to get Irina out. (You dunno how badly I wanted to make a videogame reference for this but I couldn't find anything so here we are--)

With that, the girls plus the Lenenko siblings book it outa there without SM being none the wiser (seriously it doesn't even cross their mind that there are more than two Thea Sisters, that's how dum they are). Irina books a hotel room at a friend's place and gives them some extra Lane Lore that she never told Klawitz despite the interrogations:

Hannah Lane was once visited by Aurora unexpectedly, a little after Hannah and her husband moved to a house near the Ob River, in Siberia. Possible lead :3c? The girls think maybe, so they decide to head on over to the exact address in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

In Siberia, the girls cross the frozen Ob River in Novosibirsk to this abandoned little house, where they find this little note with a riddle that talks about Cleopatra and an emerald she had at one point, and CASSIDY JUMPSCARE--

Cassidy busts in, snatches the note and books it away on her snowmobile before the girls can even react. You may be wondering, how the hell did Cassidy get there and know where they were? The answer is the same as the reason behind the SM jumpscares in Russia and in book 1, and that is Luke.

Luke Von Klawitz is doing a little segment that I like to call: Luke Touch Grass, where it becomes increasingly clear that Luke's spent way too much time on 4Chan (/j but you'll see what I mean). Luke hears about SM's failure and facepalms. Then he calls his friend Petrovski, who has access to the database of all of Russia's airports, for help tracking down "six mice leaving Saint Petersburg". Petrovski gives him results in minutes: the girls and Sergei are leaving Saint Petersburg and heading for Novosibirsk, Siberia (most likely Tolmachevo Airport). With that intel, Klawitz looks into his own database of Aurora Beatrix Lane, finds a picture of Hannah and Aurora together, and uses his own version of Google Lens to figure out the exact coordinates where the picture was taken, which happens to be in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

No this man does not in fact canonically touch grass on the regular, who's asking

Anyway so he sent Cassidy the coords, instructions and Aurora's diary to go, and that's how Cassidy walked in on the girls in that little abandoned hut next to Ob River. Only thing is uh, she dropped her purse on the way out. A purse that just so happened to contain Aurora's diary that Luke gave her.

So the girls scoop that puppy up and assume that the treasure is Cleopatra's emerald, thus they think it's in Egypt.

So the girls go to Egypt :D (29 and a half hour flight there good god no wonder they conked out in the plane--)

The girls read some Lane Lore, something about Aurora finding the treasure and hiding it somewhere in a desert, in an "expanse pure and white" that a star compass will lead to. First thing the girls think of at the desert bit is the White Desert (Sahara el Beyda), specifically a spot near Cleopatra's pool, so they leave the airport (not realizing Cassidy is following them now) and head over to a market to buy some supplies because might I remind you, they initially went to Moscow, Russia for vacation.

While in the market, Pam meets a guy named Omar. Pam tells him a little bit about them going to Cleopatra's pool in Sahara el Beyda, and she finds out that Omar just so happens to be an Archaeology major in Oxford University who's here on his summer vacation and works as a guide for Sahara el Beyda, and is more than down to give the girls a tour. Talk about lucky :D

The next day the girls take the scenic route and after a while make it to Siwa, where Omar books a room in a hotel for them, and the girls find this interesting myth there about Cleopatra that I will summarize here:

Cleopatra was once given a jewel that maxes out the owner's rizz and the effect is supposedly indefinite. Cleopatra liked the jewel so much that she wore it on her crown at all times... until she grew a bit self-conscious about the gem's maxxed rizz effect and how everyone kept eyeing the emerald a second too long for comfort, so she decided to hide away said rizz in a spot where none of her rivals could get to it. Oh and uh Cleopatra wrote up a dedication to Ra that's hella cryptic too.

One long rest later, the girls go to Cleopatra's pool on a donkey cart. Yes, a donkey cart. It was Omar's idea. Speaking of Omar, prepare yourself buddy because the girls have dubiously decided to give you some Lane Lore to chew on. O-oh you like it a lot. A lot a lot. Well okay cool, maybe you can help out, cool.

The girls manage to figure out the riddle in Cleopatra's dedication, find a little stone coffer that has the queen's treasure and-- SM JUMPSCARE

With a donkey as the girls' only escape method and Omar having suddenly disappeared, a scuffle ensues where the girls play hot potato with the box until SM gets their hands on it and opens it, and here we get a very accurate depiction of what SM and the girls found in the box once it was actually opened.

Description: a hand made of salt shaped in an upside-down "ok" symbol, circa 1920s-30s.

The sheer whiplash of this leaves both sides of the conflict losing enough HP that they're all on red-- SM is blaming the girls for this (how dare >:[) and dip. Omar is gone, and all the girls get as compensation is the empty box and a letter from Aurora telling them that they'll know to read the hidden clues. The girls head back feeling very hollow and dead inside, and this is the one time one of the girls questions how the hell did SM know they were at Siwa. I mean they never get any answer to this (kinda), but it is a milestone! They're aware of it now!

Once they get back to Cairo, they ask around and find that Omar's completely up and vanished, and they decide they'll just head back to Moscow since their investigation has come to a dead end. On the way, Pam comments about the falafel she bought being hella salty, which leads Violet to an epiphany that hey, the Sahara isn't the only desert that exists, let alone the only desert known for how white it is (like how Boracay Beach is known for how white and fine its sand is, but it's not the only white sand beach that exists). A quick Google search (and a long flight (35 HOURS CAIRO TO SUCRE???)) leads them to the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.

Nicky reserves a room for them at Hotel Luna Salada (a real place you can book a stay at actually :D), and they make a friend by the name of Adriana, a local waitress in the hotel restaurant. Adriana helps them pick out a dessert, fills them in on some stuff about the Salar since the girls came here 100% out of impulse, and talks about possible itinerary locations to go to, like the Isla de Pescado, Tiwanaku (the "Gate of the Sun"), Lake Titiaca, and Laguna Colorada. Y'know, typical tourist stuff, and Adriana was so kind to show them pictures she took when she visited said places herself! :D

Anyway so while the girls long rest, Luke is mulling about in his base waiting for updates. Someone calls him about the whole Egypt thing, and Luke calls the girls incompetent? Rude, oh and something about the caller being Luke's "secret weapon". Cassidy calls him on a theory she has about the gemstone being in Cleopatra's palace, and since the girls are currently long-resting (which means they aren't doing anything), Luke figures that a little diving trip in Alexandria to search for the gem with Cassidy won't hurt. Besides, he still has his secret weapon.

Oh yeah and he knows the girls are long resting because he has a drone in Bolivia spying on them and showing him their every move. Touch grass, Luke. No, going on a diving trip in Alexandria doesn't count, there's barely any grass there /j

Morning comes in Bolivia, and the girls head out early to search the Salar as much as they can. They look around the flat white desert, eat some late breakfast, toy around with forced perspective camera shenanigans for a bit, and read up on some LANE LOOORREEEEE

So Aurora's been to Pumapunku and Tiwanaku which is cool, she paid a visit to the archaeological site probably and that's really cool. She says something about hiding the queen's treasure in a fish's stomach covered in very fine thorns. Sergei ends up having an epiphany, and that leads the girls to Isla de Pescado, which just so happens to be "Fish Island" in Spanish, and has cacti on it, it's all coming together :D

Oh and the fish drawing Aurora made is coords to the treasure seemingly so that's cool-- OMAR JUMPSCARE

The girls are very surprised to find Omar joining them, and Omar explains that he booked it when SM came over and lost his cellphone as a result. However, he managed to figure out that Aurora's riddle was about salt and not sand, and decided to head on over to Bolivia since he assumed that's where the girls are going. How did he find them? It was just out of pure coincidence, and also the fact that the girls are extremely recognizable. Hm.

Anyway, Paulina plugs the coordinates into her GPS and leads the girls plus Omar to a little cave at the bottom of a little embankment. The girls find that, lo and behold, there's an old tin box containing a bright green emerald!

Meanwhile Luke is not finding anything in Alexandria haha L, LVK L get dunked on Luke, Cassidy girlie that's not a man to simp for find someone else gurl-- oh dear Luke is alerted that the treasure has been found and now he's planning on heading over to Bolivia? Now how could he possibly know that?

In the meantime, I dunno what's up in the air or if it's the Archaeology major speaking in him but Omar's really invested in this treasure, even more so than the girls to the degree that the girls are a little freaked out by it-- RHEA JUMPSCARE-- Paulina calms the big bord down and gets it to not trample Omar please, he's still a friend of theirs. Colette picks up this blue notebook Omar seems to have dropped.

The girls plus Omar head back to the SUVs, and Omar is really trying to persuade the girls that he should bring it back to Cairo. The girls are not jazzed at the idea because Omar bringing it back alone will be too unsafe, y'know with Luke and Cassidy and SM and all. They gotta think about this rationally-- WHOA OKAY OMAR calm your man tits buddy why are you demanding they trust you like you automatically deserve your trust-- ohh that's how Klawitz has known about the girls' whereabouts, Omar was working as a double agent.

So yeah Omar snatches the box from Colette and drives off in his SUV, leaving the girls in the dust. The girls freak out and are feeling that EMOTIONAL DAMAGE, but Colette for some reason is very calm about Omar booking it with the emerald. And that's because SHE HAS IT :D she did a lil' switcheroo so now the emerald's with her while the box is with Omar.

For context about how Colette knew about this, remember the blue notebook Omar dropped? Yeah that notebook was a company LVK notebook, straight from Luke himself. Then after Colette saw it, everything about Omar became incredibly sus, so she performed this precautionary measure.

So now the girls talk to the local authorities about how the whole thing with the emerald is gonna go down, and soon the girls are waiting for a plane back to Moscow.

As for Omar, well, he goes over to Luke's super-fancy hotel in La Paz, Bolivia, and he hands the box to Luke, explicitly stating that he decided he'd let Luke open it before he himself can appreciate it.

Luke opens the box, and here we see an accurate depiction of what Luke sees.

Description: an upside-down "ok" symbol drawn in strawberry pink lip balm, signed Colette [insert last name], circa 2018.

Luke punts the box (prolly with the lip balm still inside it) into the swimming pool, tells Omar to get out, and that's the end of that. Haha Omar L Luke L

The girls head back to Moscow to drop Sergei off when SURPRISE PARTY BY IRINA'S SQUAD :DDD

Then the girls are about to return to Whale Island to presumably Peter Griffin in their dorms, when Colette suggests they make a journal a la Aurora Beatrix Lane, and they do. In a pink notebook because it was Colette's idea so we might as well give her that

And they take a black-and-white group picture of them wearing adventurer clothes like Aurora would've done. The brainrot is real, these girls are mentally ill /j

And that's the book :D

... Honestly it's the most meh out of the trilogy besides the big-brain bits in the middle and the end imo

The writing was so much more stilted in this one, even for Scholastic standards, and everything feels pretty..... kid's book. Even more so than the usual in the book's English translations. I do readings for the books in some of my Discords, and this book did not read well at aaallll. And I haven't even mentioned the typos in the book (they're not a lot, but they exist, and they're kinda egregious :D) and some grammar errors if I'm remembering things correctly. It might just be a translation thing-- I worry a bit for the translator who had to put this together.

Luke's character here is also kinda wonk? For one we see him directly contradict his anti-friendship spiel in TS 1 since he literally greets Petrovski like a friend (maybe it's a "friendship doesn't exist except in 4Chan" thing, I dunno). Then in the middle of the book, he gets... very Disney villain-y. The most egregious example here is the chapter "Lurking in the Shadows", where as you can see

I am confusion?? Luke has been described as a to-the-point brat who hardly cares for the means to his end (unless it will impact his ability to achieve the end) and is so fixated on his goal that he doesn't touch grass. Is this not-touching-grass behavior? Yeah, definitely, but this??? This is too Disney villain???? Why does the man break into an evil cackle in front of Cassidy???? I understood it in book 1 because man thinks he's doing a "You may think you have outsmarted me but I have OUTSMARTED YOUR OUTSMARTING", but this one?? Maybe it's my personal taste, but it's too cartoonish and too... deviated from what we know of him up to this point.

ALSO TWIRLING HIS MUSTACHE? WHAT MUSTACHE IS HE TWIRLING THAT THING IS NOT TWIRL-ABLE

Also time to address the one big plot hole in this book: Aurora's diary.

So in this book there's only one diary, which is infinitely simpler than the two we got in the first book. This diary supposedly contains Aurora's records of her mission in hiding Cleopatra's Rizzmerald, and the details are supposedly vague enough that Luke felt the need to kidnap and interrogate Irina, a Hannah Lane descendant, to fill in the blanks. However, when you look at the contents of the diary itself (which lord knows how many times Luke himself has looked through it), there's hardly any blanks that need to be filled, at least if you're Luke.

The diary itself is mostly in the background-- like I said, not as much Lane Lore here as the previous book, the girls mostly rely on Aurora's letters to Hannah here-- but there's one specific entry the girls read in the latter half of the book that explicitly mentions Pumapunku and Tiwanaku, and how Aurora is there for her mission to hide the emerald. Complete with coordinates hidden in a little drawing! My one question I have for Luke is, why didn't he go straight to Bolivia and started searching there? Why did he go through all the effort of kidnapping Irina, tailing the girls around Sahara el Beyda, letting SM fall for the salt replica gambit, left his base to touch grass and go on a dive with Cassidy in Egypt; all if he could've just gone straight to Bolivia to look for the treasure there? Sure, Aurora did a good job hiding the coordinates in the fish doodle, but someone as observant and as obsessed about the outcome instead of the journey like Luke would rather have sidestepped all the Aurora shenanigans and beelined straight to the goal if he was able to.

Luke hardly has an excuse here because he owned the diary at the start of the book, and most definitely read through it many times (and we know he's the type to do this, see TS 1). The plot hole is plot hole-ing, it seems :/

Maybe it was just an excuse for the girls to get a giant glowing arrow pointing in the direction of the treasure? It certainly feels like it.

Anyway, the things that carry this book and made it memorable when I first read it (and allowed me to ignore the iffy bits) are the gottems and Omar as a character. Aurora setting up a salt replica of the Rizzmerald as a gottem in a time capsule, only to be opened almost a hundred years later to still be as potent as intended when it was made so long ago? That is amazing, like c'mon, pure comedy material.

Even funnier is Colette doing the exact same thing, only with her lip balm. Luke is quaking in his bougie-ass leather boots.

Now for Omar. This may be a hot take of mine here, but Omar's sus-ness is actually at a decent level compared to the girls and what they usually deal with. On one hand, Omar is incredibly suspicious with how incredibly lucky the girls are to find an Archaeology Oxford major working as a Sahara el Beyda tour guide; but on the other hand, the girls had almost the exact same situation with Diego in Mexico (I didn't mention him in the first review, but he came in clutch in TS 1).

The girls met Diego in Merida, Mexico, and he helped them with their research into "the invisible place", which happened to be Uxmal, along the Puuc Route. Diego also just so happened to be a tour-guide-in-training for the Puuc Route, which was the place the girls just so happened to need to go to find Aurora's second journal.

In comparison, the girls meet Omar in Khan El-Khalili while they were looking for supplies for their trip to the Siwa Oasis. It comes up in conversation that the girls are headed to Siwa, and Omar just so happened to be a tour guide for Sahara el Beyda, which was where the Siwa Oasis is, and it just so happened to be where the girls needed to go. When you stack them up together, it made perfect sense that the girls thought they could trust him-- Diego didn't know much about their trip and helped them the best he could (which was a lot), so why wouldn't Omar do the same? He's an Oxford Archaeology major, too, for crying out loud, the girls struck gold in the end!

Gold that was too shiny and too good to be true. Gold that was, in the end, nothing more than pyrite, fool's gold.

Omar is a good case for why you should be careful with who you trust, and when you should start thinking a little bit when you're getting a little too lucky with the people you meet. When the girls got to know him a little more and decided to trust him and tell him the deal with their trip, he got way invested in the gem-- too invested to not be a little bit suspicious. Maybe the girls mistook it for his passion for his archaeology major, maybe they mistook it for something else-- but whatever the case, Omar pulled the cheesecloth over the girls' eyes and really only fell apart near the end, when his alibis and behavior started becoming more and more suspicious; and by then, Omar didn't need to be as inconspicuous, and the girls had gotten to know him too much to readily say to him "okay buddy can you kindly f%ck off, your vibes are not vibing here".

The girls probably should've been suspicious when Omar reappeared in Bolivia out of nowhere, but I guess his alibi was just good enough (and the girls at this point were probably running on adrenaline, caffeine and a brain on 70% capacity at most) to pass the Deception check.

Fr tho there were some bits where the girls should've found him sus but they didn't (him accidentally saying "I did it" when they uncovered the emerald, and also him handling the emerald the way he did), so shrugs. It could be a translation thing, but it could also be something else.

Anyway, kinda meh for a sequel, but it does have its standouts that allow it to somewhat stand on the same level as the first and third books. Kinda.

Hey, at least it's not as bad as Crystal Fairies-- that's the bar of bad-ness I'm setting. It's not as bad as Crystal Fairies and that's what matters--

Also special thanks to @ishmeowwow (it won't let me ping you for some reason bestie <:[) for making the lil' artworks haha

#geronimo stilton #thea sisters #thea stilton #book review #book rambles #book rant #thank you ishmeow for making the gottems for me :D #you came in clutch while my ipad is still dieded thank you bestie <3 #in the book it's just the lip balm but ishmeow decided to go all-out with the gottem gag and i can't be more grateful lmao #same goes with the gemstone in aurora's gottem (it's just the fake tiara plus fake gem) but hey the more salt the merrier :D #book 2 luke is so jarringly different from his other depictions but at the same time #he does not in fact touch grass and he does crack an evil cackle at least once a book so #i dunno how i feel about it . .#on one hand it adds to him not touching grass #but on the other hand it doesn't connect with his “this villain is supposed to make you shnit your pants at how intimidating he is”#he's intimidating because of his connections his ability to basically spy on the entire world and control everything from his base #and y'know he can tell his goons to do whatever and they'll literally wreak havoc to fulfill said requests #he was so intimidating in concept that they had to nerf him with incompetent goons lmao #after doing last minute research i am deeply concerned for the girls' wallets and their mental and physical health :D #like good god i thought a ten hour flight was unbearable and made your body stiff but holy damn #i'm not complaining too much about the timeline tho because this is hilarious and makes the girls look so neurodivergent #“what do you mean we flew a total of 64 hours by plane feels like it's only been a day to m--”#*dies*

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shallowseeker · 1 year

Text

Eileen: "Sam. I can't...do this. I'm not...built for this."

Look, I don't care what ANYONE says. Sam’s son Dean (Spencer Borgeson) looks a STUPID LOT like Eileen Leahy (Shosannah Stern), and no writers or actors are ever going to change my mind that it wasn't cast that way on purpose.

Like, seriously, did they use magic copy-pasta to remake her scrunchy smile and uberdark doe-eyes?!

///

So, what happened? I'll tell ya what happened. Sam kept hunting for a little while, but he and Eileen had an unplanned pregnancy and she and Sam got out...for a little while. Until Eileen had a lone-wolf-hunter freakout and left. Sam's the one who stayed. And it was easier to let Dean think she was dead.

Dean drives the little red muscle car (THE red 1971 Plymouth Valiant) she left behind, "to feel closer to her."

So, you see... Sam becomes Ellen, Dean Jr. becomes Jo.

Except Bill (Eileen) is fucking alive, and Dean Jr. swears he'll never speak to Sam again when he finds out.

"Because you hid all this from me, dad! You didn't give me my own choice!"

There's all these people that know Dean's name and know so many details about his life (a Jody Mills, a Donna Hanscum, etc etc.), but he doesn't know them, and he feels lied to.

His grandparents were killed in a plane crash, or so he thought, and Dad said uncle Dean died in a construction accident (something about rebar).

They all look so normal in their family photos that Dean soon learns Sam has carefully doctored to "sell" the lie even more convincingly.

Dean Jr. doesn't know hunting or angels or about Castiel or Jack.

Sam doesn't want him to throw it all away, because what about college?! Sam would have killed to finish college! He's trying to protect him. It's not manipulation. It's love.

But Dean starts hunting with Eileen.

He starts using “Leahy” and his middle name (Mason?) instead.

And Sam's dying inside over it.

He is. He goes out to the garage, slips into the impala's front seat, and he sobs.

(Actually, I totally dig this. I'd watch it.)

#eileen is the alley cat of a father who slinks in and out of normal life #sam can't get her to quit hunting #when she reappears in dean's adolescance #it threatens to tear everything apart because sam does not want dean to hunt #dean & eileen hunter duo #they're going to save the world because there's an apocalypse brewing #i know this is THE truth and so do you #dean jr is a bit like alt john missing the absent parent and so so rebellious and foolish like sam #if dean got in a deal sam would BEG rowena to break it BEG HER #but bc hell got out of control she had to save face and #dean goes to hell #rowena goes to cad to jack but they’re MIA #so then rowena goes to our dean #trying to extricate younger dean while retaining hell power

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greypetrel · 1 month

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Hiiii, this is for the dragon age questions and for your darling Aisling

ESSENTIALS

04. What is their moral alignment?

LIFE

06. Which aspects of the culture they were born into holds the most significance for them?

12. How efficient are they with things like crafting potions or repairing their own armor?

DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION

06. How did they behave at the Winter Palace? Who did they support in the political scheming?

12. Did they respect the rituals in Mythal’s Temple? Who drank from the Well of Sorrows, Morrigan or your Inquisitor?

13. What do they think of Flemeth? If they drank from the Well, how do they feel about being now beholden to her as Mythal?

Hello! Thank you so much for asking Kat! :D

There's a cut because you made me speak about my two favourite missions (with all its flaws, but I write fanfictions to fill gaps in a story, and the Arbor Wilds is the perfect match of a map I love, lore, fun banter -Solas and Morrigan should co-host a talk show where the guest inevitably tries to stop them from turn the other into a toad... and my brain is on fire.)

Tis the Prompt List

ESSENTIALS

04. What is their moral alignment?

Neutral Good.

LIFE

06. Which aspects of the culture they were born into holds the most significance for them?

The sense of community. Acting like you're part of a group, your actions aren't really just yours, but can influence everyone else. The sense that you can survive only together, and everyone has a part to play, no matter how small.

12. How efficient are they with things like crafting potions or repairing their own armor?

Potions: she's pretty good. Her Keeper was a very skilled herbalist and she learnt well from her. She's not exceptional or a talent, and it doesn't come naturally to her, but she studied enough to be highly proficient. Repairing armour: She can keep her armour in good conditions from fighting. As a Storm Witch, she doesn't wear much metal in her gear (too conductive, and she uses armours in enemies enough to know exactly what happens if she makes a mistake). She knows how to to maintenance, but for bigger repairs she definitely needs help.

DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION

06. How did they behave at the Winter Palace? Who did they support in the political scheming?

Contrary to most people's belief, seeing her wearing her heart on her sleeve, she behaved very well. After long, LONG weeks of Josephine training her for the task. With the super-power of the people-pleaser, she won Belle of the Ball. On the support... With the Well of Sorrow, it's the one choice that keeps haunting her in the future. She couldn't bring herself to trust Gaspard to stay put and let Briala tell him what to do without any retortion. In her opinion, if the man launched his country in a civil war out of ambition, he isn't one to be trusted with a throne, and he isn't one to be trusted not to try and gain some more power for himself. She hated it to guts, but she supported Celene, believing that out of love, she'd be a little less prone to assassinate Briala than De Chalons. Kept every single scrap of paper she found in her studio as a safeguard and is ready to take everything out and blackmail the Empress should the need occur. Yes even after she disbanded the Inquisition, Leliana is instructed to call her immediately if Celene looks at another Alienage for more than 10 seconds.

She is still not sure it was the right decision, even if she really despises Gaspard too.

12. Did they respect the rituals in Mythal’s Temple? Who drank from the Well of Sorrows, Morrigan or your Inquisitor?

Respected every single ritual, defined the floor puzzles as "quirky but fun", quarreled with Cassandra and almost broke her friendship with her over it.

Another decision that haunts her even after: she let Morrigan drink, thinking she was readier than her to face the consequences (after being assured thrice that Kieran would have been taken care of by a trusted person should something bad happen). For her, it would have been a jump in the dark with risks she hadn't considered before, and respected Morrigan enough to trust her with it. Add the fact that Solas was a little too much involved in that choice... Which never happened before. She took it as an alarm bell and trusted him thinking that at least Morrigan was prepared to face risks, knew some of them... She didn't. If hurt and it felt bitter that she didn't, but she stepped back. Kept her sister back too. Continues with motivations in the next question.

13. What do they think of Flemeth? If they drank from the Well, how do they feel about being now beholden to her as Mythal?

Terrible mother, struggles to connect Flemeth to the Mythal she's been taught about. It was the first crack in her faith. It kept up for 2 years thinking that she did it for the greater good and was thinking on the long run... And then well, Trespasser happened, and it's part of the reason why she took it so bad. If she had actually drank from the Well, she'd hate being beholden by her. But like, hate to the point of asking Solas to fix that and leave the Anchor, leave her to die instead. She feels horribly guilty about having left the Well to Morrigan. If she could turn back time again, this is the one choice she'd change in a heartbeat. If she knew from the start, she would have pushed Morrigan away from the Well and jumped in herself, Pocahontas-style to spare her being beholden by her.

But I played that mission without knowing so go Aisling you can have one horror more.

#Beloved Quizzy I know you're Dalish and this should be yours but in the case everything goes shit-#- we can't allow to an ill-meaning entity to control the Anchor don't you think?#dragon age character questions #aisling lavellan #I am sorry for the long rambling #except I'm not #I love/hate the Arbor Wilds #that choice is done in the worst possible way they could have done it #they COULD HAVE given better reasons to Morrigan - building her relationship with the Inquisitor more for once #or like...#It would have played on the personality erasure thing too. “You can't be a Dalish first - YOU'RE THE INQUISITOR FIRST”.#I love/hate Inquisition for this #they have GOOD ideas but don't conclude one if not half-way.#good for fan-fiction (at least for me - I write to fill gaps that drive me mad) bad for playing.#look at me keeping rambling in the tags some more :"D SORRY

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