It's 2am so I get to be a hater:

I hate crossovers and I ✨hate✨ musical episodes!!

Akihiko becoming a cop is something that simply doesn’t happen in the coma route cuz Shinji would see that shit and be like Aki what the actual hell is wrong with you

been thinking about the rabies condition in writing lately, which is a GREAT post about stakes and characterization. basically exploring how if there's a 100% chance a character is doomed, then they can and will do extremely dangerous/damaging/contraindicated things for the slimmest hope of survival. which is one of my Favorite narrative devices

but while we're using health metaphors, i've been thinking about another somewhat complicated means of introducing character stakes, which i'm tentatively calling 'the autoimmune condition' for reasons that are. obvious

the premise itself is simple: the character has Something that they need to survive. they either can't live without this thing or they will lose something vital about themselves if they lose this thing. there is no replacement or alternative for the thing. what's most important are that the consequences for losing it are Extreme, rabies-condition-style

in the real life allegory, this is the immune system. which is great for being alive!

then the problem is introduced when this thing starts killing the character.

the character still needs it to live.

so: there is a 100% chance that you will die if you destroy the thing killing you. if you impair it through other means, there is a 100% chance of consequences, though the severity of those consequences is up to the author. (these are medication side effects in the real life allegory.)

if you do everything you're supposed to then you'll PROBABLY survive, but you're gonna have to play lifelong tug-of-war to balance everything, and you are often going to have to choose between two shitty options. bc there is no alternative.

this is a counterpart to the rabies condition in terms of stakes; with this condition, your character has to make complicated and difficult decisions about what they're sacrificing for their future. it's not the immediate life-and-death stakes of rabies, it's a slow decay instead.

what side effect consequences are they willing to take on?? and what are they NOT willing to take on?? where do their priorities lie in terms of symptom management?? what other solutions are they looking for?? what are they willing to sacrifice??

and perhaps most importantly: what exactly do they need to lose before they'll Accept the side effects / sacrifices that used to terrify them?? how high do the stakes need to be??

at what point is this character going to look back at the choices they've made up to this point, and realize that they no longer recognize themselves??

americans learn what the middle ages are challenge

When it comes to stuff like imagine dragons Weezer radiohead etc etc white guy music basically, I cannot tell if all the "this band sucks I hate their music" stuff about them online is a giant in-joke or if people really hate them

I'm genuinely so mad about MK1 (2023) removing Johnny Cage's Green Aura but I don't think yall know how fucking insane that is.

Since the original MK1 he's had these powers. They're a base part of his game abilities. He's got the iconic power ball in MK1, the kick, everything! It's literally a massive part of who he is as a playable character and they've decided to just. Take it out. For no reason. To be quirky. 30 years of shadow kicks and force balls just gone because they wanted to be unique. They weren't even this ballsey when they rebooted into MK9. He's got the same stuff in MK9-11.

I genuinely don't know what the fuck Netherrealm are thinking with this game, the more I find out about it the more I greatly regret my preorder. Another massive gripe I have is not having Sonya Blade confirmed for main roster yet. She was the first ever female Mortal Kombat character. She's been main roster in pretty much almost every single Mortal Kombat thing that exists. Every movie (minus Snow Blind), almost or even every game, even the comics she's in, and the animated series!! Only keeping her as a Kameo Fighter would be extremely disrespectful to her legacy and history within the series.

And honestly I'm barely even going to touch the Scorpion is Lin Kuei shit, I'm not even qualified in trying to explain why lumping in a Japanese character in with a Chinese clan feels a little icky, let alone retconning that heritage completely if God forbid that's the direction they're going in. It just feels like a rushed mess where they've taken multiple shots in the dark to try and be different and unique.

Truth is they've just pissed off a good portion of the fanbase, given us a new system which is just a ripoff of Tag Team Assist in MK11 but worse and somehow bastardised beloved characters worse than Sindel in Aftermath. And considering how bad Sindel is? It's absolutely INSANE.

tbh there's a good chance if i go with the winning choice and i dont settle, i'll wind up changing the blog again BUT at least this will help me decide on sOMETHING

for mutuals who dont know these characters:

Why can people get away with horrendously overcharging older games

I don’t care how popular a game was, there is no reason a game that came out over a decade ago should cost more than twice as much now, and it especially shouldn’t be more than games coming out right now.

I am neither a coffee theory hater nor supporter. The number of times that specific coffee was shown in the intro does tell me that its not nothing. BUT!! I think it can have some truth and still be a moment of true disconnect between them!! I don't think that coffee theory even holds any weight if they weren't both already flawed!! Because if they had spent any damn time communicating instead of hiding shit from each other then Crowley would have known something was wrong, would have gone with him, or believed that Aziraphale genuinely wanted to make Heaven worthy of him.

If Aziraphale hadn't spent centuries hurting Crowley and making him feel like he was lesser then Crowley wouldn't have been so hurt by it.

I'm not saying that this makes coffee theory true, in fact I don't personally believe in coffee theory as an overt "Aziraphale was drugged and had no control" thing - I suspect if it is true that its far more subtle than that, something that drove a wedge between them rather than something that just mind controlled him (I mean, if that were true, wouldn't Aziraphale leaving have been overtly crueler? Perhaps even just leaving without a word? No, its far more painful if the persuasion is subtle, if Aziraphale isn't controlled, but nudged in the "right" direction).

I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this, but as someone firmly in neither camp, I just want to say that coffee theory doesn't negate Aziraphale and Crowleys autonomy or choice in that finale. It isn't a magic "no one did anything wrong" plotline that makes the characters 2D. If anything it draws intentionally on their flaws to pull them slowly apart.

Because what is better for Heaven and Hell than to separate the love that saved the world last time?

This isn't just about drawing Aziraphale in, its about tearing Aziraphale and Crowley apart at the seams, and coffee or not, Heaven knew exactly how to do it without making either of them suspect a thing.

my actual rime take is that rather than being the responsible one shes more so overcompensating for her lack of self confidence & the two can kind of look similar but theyre fundamentally different to me. like yes she tries her best & will step up in situations that she needs to but at the same time, bc of her reactions, it doesnt read (to me) that shes taking a leader role. like. shes flustered over coko applying her words to her, when she does step up for something that matters she shocks herself & turns to her friends like 'wow! that was cool wasnt it!' (questioning hypnos on kaf), when her agreements with the others dont work out she ends up at haru, the voicepeak one where shes straight up just trying to prove herself the whole time, other things as well but especially the fact it took forever to get her to sing in front of the others & when she does shes so nervous & worried shes not good enough. so yes theres absolutely something to be said about her actually trying to take responsibility but its more like trying to prove she's capable than just being naturally responsible.

Persistently using they/them for someone who has indicated otherwise is. just misgendering. Like not even with extra steps, it's just misgendering.

and yes, we do actually notice when you only do it to GNC people rather than it being a broad life philosophy !

^^^ Some of y’all straight-up did not understand Barbie but are somehow convinced that your lack of understanding makes you smarter than the movie

so i think i am gathering that tumblrs response to everyone getting porn bots on their dashboards bc they follow tags and the bots have started liking the other bots posts leading tumblrs algorithm to think that they are popular and putting them on dashes they have made it so that instead of recent posts from the tags you follow showing up its just ones with lots of notes . for me personally this makes me want to just stop using the followed tags feature bc everything is posts ive already seen. i dont know why tumblr is seemingly consistently unable to do anything meaningful to reduce the amount of bots. im just a random guy and after seeing like three of those spam posts show up on my dash i was able to figure out what was happening.

He likes coming into my room and having me move a chair next to it so he can look out the window

Second update as promised, finals are over for sure this semester, did well on all of them :D classes picked for next semester too. I've got two studios again next semester (yippie) and one of those is a figure drawing class with the same professor I had this semester (extra yippie, I'm extremely excited for that). Am also advancing from elementary japanese to intermediate, so that'll be fun. I might be posting more in japanese in the future because I really need to keep practicing it outside of class, but don't worry, I'll always post translations as well :D

...I've also gotta retake a class I failed last spring, so umm, wish me luck with that. If I go insane next semester, that class will be why.

Anyway, bonus bc I love my dog and he's cute and he found a bird on a power line (he needs a trip to the groomer though):

...

btw when autistic and adhd people talk about getting mocked for their interests they’re not saying “i was oppressed for liking nintendo and this is the biggest problem autistic people have” we are saying that people made it a point to call us slurs and mock us and would often use our interests (usually ones considered “childish” or “weird” whether its sonic or taxidermy) as evidence we were “weird” and deserved to be ostracized and mocked, usually to get a rise out of us too because of rejection sensitivity disorder and how we’re known to be bad at regulating our emotions.