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e-adlirez · 2 months

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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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astrophysicist-guitar-god · 7 months

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Not My Job: Queen's Brian May Gets Quizzed About Dairy Queen

OCTOBER 28, 2017 (12:44 PM ET) || HEARD ON WAIT WAIT...DON'T TELL ME!

9-Minute Listen <- (as of 11/21/23, the audio link still works)

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Transcript

Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

Brian May left a promising career in science to try his hand at rock 'n' roll, and did OK enough, we guess, becoming a co-founder of the band Queen. (That makes him the only Ph.D. astrophysicist in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.) What's more, he's also deeply into 3D stereoscopic photography, and has just published a new book of pictures of his band.

Given his success with Queen, we made him answer three trivia questions about Dairy Queen, the ice cream and fast food franchise.

Queen's Brian May Rocks Out To Physics, Photography Secret Stereographs: Brian May Of Queen Reveals A Pastime

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

And now the game where we reward a lifetime of achievement with a few moments of trivia. It's called Not My Job. Brian May left a promising career in science to try his hand at rock 'n' roll. And he did OK. He founded the band Queen with Freddie Mercury, John Deacon and Roger Taylor, making him, as far as we know, the only Ph.D. astrophysicist in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But he had another enthusiasm, 3-D stereoscopic photography. He's published a new book of pictures of his band so realistic you can practically smell the groupies.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Brian May, welcome to WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME.

(APPLAUSE)

BRIAN MAY: Thank you very much.

SAGAL: I spent a good part of yesterday evening with your book of these amazing stereoscopic photos and the great little viewer that comes with them...

MAY: Right.

SAGAL: ...Enjoying these 3-D pictures of your band and its history and Freddie Mercury and your other friends and musicians. And I have one thing to ask you. How is it that in all the years that you've been in the public eye, your hair has never changed?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Did any - nobody ever came to you and said, Brian, you know, now it's the 1990s. We need to cut your hair? Has any...

MAY: Yeah, they do it all the time.

(LAUGHTER)

MAY: I have a good answer for that. But it's probably not repeatable on your program.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: So there are so many things that are interesting about you. You were, as I said - you were pursuing your doctorate in science when the band started, right?

MAY: I was, yeah. In astronomy. In what they now call astrophysics, yeah. And I gave it up. And I thought I was actually doing astrophysics a favor by choosing the other option.

SAGAL: Really?

MAY: Yeah. And I also thought, you know, there's a window opening here. And if I don't kind of walk through - or a door opening, I should say. And I thought, if I don't walk through right now, that door will never open again. So I went off and, against all the odds, became a rock star for some reason.

SAGAL: Yeah. That seemed to have worked out pretty well for you.

MAY: It's OK. It's been OK so far. Yeah.

SAGAL: It really has. But...

PAULA POUNDSTONE: So wait, you're suggesting that you were not a good astrophysicist?

MAY: You know, I didn't think I was.

POUNDSTONE: What would make a bad astrophysicist?

MAY: Well...

POUNDSTONE: Like, you weren't looking in the right...

(LAUGHTER)

MAY: Well, what would make a bad astrophysicist would be, like, not being able to complete your Ph.D., which is what happened.

POUNDSTONE: Oh.

MAY: And I couldn't please my supervisor. So 30 years later, I found myself with another supervisor. And he liked what I did. So I kind of updated my vision of myself. But I got it after 30 years.

POUNDSTONE: Oh, wow.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Wait a minute. What I love is that you going in to get your Ph.D. not as young Brian May but as Brian May the guitarist of Queen.

MAY: Yeah.

SAGAL: I mean, did you - like, your oral exams - did you come in and say, I could answer your questions, or I could just do the riff from "We Will Rock You."

MAY: Well, you know, they were tough on me. I think they had to be because they couldn't be seen to kind of make it easy for me, you know? And, you know, I got a whole sheaf of stuff that I had to do in order to finish it off.

SAGAL: I bet that...

LUKE BURBANK: Did they try to work in any Queen stuff during the defense of your dissertation? Like, you may think you're the champion, Mr. May...

(LAUGHTER)

BURBANK: ...But this panel thinks otherwise. Do they do anything corny like that?

SAGAL: Now, this is the amazing thing about this book because in addition to your interest in astrophysics and obviously shredding on the guitar, you are a huge photography nerd. And you were...

MAY: Totally.

SAGAL: You were always into 3-D photography.

MAY: Yeah.

SAGAL: I'm just trying to imagine though that - it must have been like the mid-70s in the absolute apogee of, like, the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. And there's the cocaine. And there are the groupies. And there's the liquor. And you're, like, trying to get everybody to hold still so you can take a 3-D photograph.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Guys, guys. Come on.

MAY: I'm not going to contradict you there.

(LAUGHTER)

MAY: Should we just move on?

SAGAL: All right. I will.

(LAUGHTER)

POUNDSTONE: Every high school student has the same story, I imagine, on the way to sports events.

SAGAL: Yeah.

POUNDSTONE: Like, when I played lacrosse in high school, we would bang our sticks on the roof of the bus.

MAY: Oh.

POUNDSTONE: How this driver tolerated it I'll never know. And we would scream at the top of our lungs the lyrics to, you know, "We Are The Champions."

MAY: Great.

POUNDSTONE: And it was so much fun.

SAGAL: Oh, yeah.

BURBANK: Did you guys ever win a match?

POUNDSTONE: No.

(LAUGHTER)

MAY: It did you no good whatsoever.

BURBANK: What would you sing on the drive back, "Another One Bites The Dust?"

(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)

BURBANK: Can I just ask what - like, in the creation of an amazing, iconic song like "Bohemian Rhapsody," did Freddie Mercury write those lyrics?

MAY: Absolutely.

BURBANK: And, like, what was it like when he says, OK, these are going to be the words to this song?

(LAUGHTER)

MAY: We had a kind of unwritten law. You know, generally, this song was kind of the province of the writer. And the writer would have the final say. So yeah, we didn't really discuss it. We didn't say, you know, why are you saying that, Freddie? It was just...

BURBANK: So no one looked at him when he started singing scaramouche?

POUNDSTONE: Right.

(LAUGHTER)

MAY: You know, we were enjoying ourselves.

SAGAL: Can you do the fandango?

MAY: I mean, this stuff is really fun to do in the studio.

POUNDSTONE: Oh, I bet.

MAY: And nobody had ever done it before, you know?

SAGAL: Oh, absolutely. I'd never heard anything like that in my life when that song came out.

MAY: Well, and you won't again.

SAGAL: I know. I know.

POUNDSTONE: So you guys just, you know, scaramouche, scarmouche, not even looking at one another?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: I can imagine.

POUNDSTONE: It does sound like fun.

SAGAL: Last question - as an astrophysicist, because this is interesting how you both - do both - can you scientific explain how it is that fat bottomed girls make the world go round?

(LAUGHTER)

MAY: Yeah. I think that's still true. I was just lucky to find out early, you know?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Well, Brian May, we can talk to you all day. But we have business to do. We've asked you here to play a game we're calling...

BILL KURTIS: Have a peanut buster parfait.

SAGAL: You, of course, as we have been discussing, are one of the founders of Queen, one of the iconic rock bands of all time. So we thought we'd ask you three questions about Dairy Queen.

(LAUGHTER)

MAY: About what?

SAGAL: Dairy Queen. You might have come across it in your travels across America. It's a popular ice cream and fast food franchise.

MAY: This is the bit I've been looking forward to so much.

SAGAL: Oh, you are.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Answer two questions about - by the way, I should say that absolute ignorance is always an advantage in this particular game.

MAY: Well, you've got it in this case.

(LAUGHTER)

ADAM BURKE: I'm just picturing the Queen tour bus pull up to a Dairy Queen.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: It'd be the greatest day of those people's lives.

BURKE: Freddie just marching in. Blizzards for the lot of us.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: All right (laughter).

MAY: Can I go home now?

SAGAL: This is already going very well.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: So the question, though, for Bill is who is legendary guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May playing for?

KURTIS: Ella Jones of Baltimore, Md.

SAGAL: All right.

POUNDSTONE: Here we go.

SAGAL: Just two right, and we win it all. None right - who cares? Here we go. Dairy Queen has given us so much by way of frozen treats, the Blizzard, the Dilly Bar, the Oreo Brownie Earthquake. But it's also responsible for what other wonderful thing? A, the defibrillator device; B - the band No Doubt, or C avocado toast?

(LAUGHTER)

MAY: I would say none of the above. But I have no idea. The defibrillator. I'm going for the defibrillator.

SAGAL: You could use a defibrillator at any Dairy Queen. But the answer is the band No Doubt...

POUNDSTONE: Really?

MAY: You're kidding me.

SAGAL: ...Because it turns out that Gwen Stefani and two of her band mates met and formed their band at a Dairy Queen in Anaheim, Calif., when they both - all worked there.

MAY: I'm on the edge of my seat.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: But we have other things. There's this Dairy Queen - one of them - in Morehead, Minn. And it's legendary because it still uses all the old recipes. And it was the place where their famous dilly bar treat was invented. Now, the owner there invented a number of other things that corporate never liked - so they didn't catch on nationally - including which of these? Which of these failed Dairy Queen treats? A, the flaming sundae; B, the meat shake...

POUNDSTONE: Ew.

SAGAL: ...Or C, the heck-of-a-job brownie?

(LAUGHTER)

MAY: I'm going to go for number one.

SAGAL: The flaming sundae. You're right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

POUNDSTONE: Wow.

SAGAL: He invented a flaming sundae, a sugar cube doused with liquor - set it on fire. Very attractive. So your last question. If you get this right you win, which I'm sure will go well with your CBE.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Last question. Dairy Queen has a deep, dark secret - something they would rather that you - none of us - would know. What is it? A, their original name was Dairy Fairy; B, their ice cream isn't actually ice cream or C, the chain is wholly owned by the government of Iran?

(LAUGHTER)

BURBANK: He's operating at a slight disadvantage having never been to a Dairy Queen.

SAGAL: That's true.

MAY: I think B.

SAGAL: Yes. You're right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: It's true that their product - their frozen soft serve cannot be legally called ice cream because it doesn't have enough real cream in it.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Bill, how did Brian May do on our quiz?

KURTIS: He is a champion.

POUNDSTONE: There we go.

(APPLAUSE)

KURTIS: Two out of three.

SAGAL: My friend, Brian May is an astrophysicist, guitar legend and one of the founders of the great rock bands of all time - that would be Queen. His new book, which is completely worth the hours you will spend staring at it - it's of stereoscopic photos he took. It's called "Queen In 3-D." It is out now. Brian May, what a joy to talk to you. Thank you so much for...

MAY: Thank you all.

SAGAL: Brian May.

(SOUNDBITE OF QUEEN SONG, "WE WILL ROCK YOU")

#Brian May #my guitar god love #aw this was cute #Dairy Queen .. the frozen can't-legally-be-called-ice-cream treat that no one outside the US has heard of #they do have a tasty chicken strip basket -- fried chicken tenders .. french fries .. Texas toast .. and a cup of white gravy #that's what the defibrillator is for #I love the way they kept calling him 'Brian May'#wait wait don't tell me #found this while googling something else and now I can't remember what I was originally looking for...???

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jasdiary · 1 year

Text

“Oh goodness! I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there! Here, let me help you up raindrop.”

Full Name : Watatsumi Mistee Kiyomizu

Nicknames : Tsumi(Everyone + Ambrosia at times), Mist, Sweet Water(Ivy @starry-night-rose ), Sugar(Ivy), Water Angel(Meryl @rosietrace )

Jp Va : Kawasumi Ayako

En Va : Judy Alice Lee

Age : ???(17 physically and in human years!)

Height : 171 cm (5’7)

Homeland : Kingdom of Marine

Birthday : June 23 5/23

Zodiac Sign : Cancer

Species : Water Fae

Hair Color : Navy Blue

Eye Color : Pacific Blue

Gender : Female (She/Her mostly but They/Them is also fine!)

Sexuality : Bisexual(preference for women)

Family : Nahla Kiyomizu(Caretaker), Harbor Kiyomizu(Adoptive sister)

Occupation : Student at Scepter Hall Institute

Twisted From : Silvermist from the Tinkerbell Movies

——————————————————————————

School Information

Dorm : Eauxclaires

School Year : Sophmore (Second)

Class : 2-A

Best Subject : Water Dancing

Worst Class : Geometry

Club : Water Dance Club

Dominant Hand : Left

Favorite Food : Watermelon salad

Least Favorite Food : Samyang Spicy Noodles

Likes : Water lilies, Rainy days, Collecting dewdrops, Spending time with everyone, Taking walks on the lakes, gossip

Dislikes : Loud noises, Humid days, Fighting, Being belittled, Being forever alone

Hobbies : Dancing, Singing(only to certain people), Teaching fish to swim, Adding dewdrops onto things, Playing with water, Designing her outfits

Personality : Watatsumi is truly liked and enjoyed by everyone! She’s sweet, soft-spoken, gentle and positive! Unfortunately, she’s a little…offbeat. She has her moments where her head is just completely in space, and she comes off as strange to many. Watatsumi’s always willing to help and believe in you. If you ever feel down and need a hug, Watatsumi’s your girl.

Unique Magic : Raindrop Dewdrop

“Why don’t I show you a little water fairy humor? Raindrop Dewdrop!”

Watatsumi can manipulate any kind of water into a dewdrop and it can mold into anything she thinks about. This includes living beings. Side effects of using this UM are severe dehydration and fatigue.

Backstory :

Watatsumi Kiyomizu, born from a child’s first laugh, landed on top of a lily pad in the center of the flower. Right then, it began to rain. The first droplet of water hit the gentle dandelion and officially born was Watatsumi. She was found by a now fellow water fae who took care of her. The water fae has told Watatsumi that she may call her anything she wanted, to which the water fae became known as Nahla. Nahla taught Watatsumi everything she knows and more, from dewdrop collecting to dancing on glimmering rivers. Watatsumi wanted nothing more than to repay Nahla for all she has done.

It wasn’t until the day Nahla took in a younger water fae named Harbor that Watatsumi was blessed with the idea of being Harbor’s caretaker. Nahla works every night and still manages to care for Watatsumi, making Watatsumi promise to take care of Harbor until she leaves to attend school. And that’s what she did. Watatsumi even became a legal guardian of Harbor once they adopted her. That’s how she became so good with kids, her gentle nature making them feel safe around her. Getting accepted into Scepter Hall Institute was hard due to her not wanting to leave Harbor and Nahla, they insisted and made it known how proud they were of Watatsumi. Watatsumi is grateful everyday for Scepter Hall Institute for bringing her there.

Random Trivia!

Watatsumi’s very close with Meryl, always willing to amuse her silly little endeavors!

As Watatsumi loves designing her own clothes, she makes a bunch of things for her friends! They’re usually made of flowers(that feel comfortable to the touch and don’t overstimulate one’s senses!).

Her favorite professor is Ambrosia! She’s not just saying that because that’s her Dorm Head, she genuinely looks up to her! Ambrosia reminds her of Nahla in some ways.

Watatsumi seems to be popular with Magnijardin students despite the playful rivalry between their dorms! Many residents of the dorm ask Watatsumi to let them style her.

Watatsumi can be very bold with her words if the scenario arises.

When Watatsumi uses her wings, they tend to leave a small trail of droplets behind her.

No one has ever seen Watatsumi as serious as she is when the Four Realm Festival rolls around. She’s very serious about it.

Watatsumi used to be close friends with Porter Pierce before he was expelled, even trying to fight for his stay. They were usual partners for projects and assignments.

Watatsumi is one of the very rare people that can’t be brought down or affected by Mercury. Even if he denies it, They’re besties and shes gonna hang out with him!

She LOVES making visits to NRC. Even though SHI doesn’t have the best relationship with NRC, seeing Tinsley every once in a while is so worth it! and now Porter too!! She’s especially happy to meet other fae’s like her outside of SHI.

Speaking of which, She’s close friends with Tinsley Labelle from Night Raven College!

She picked up on singing while dancing one time, wanting to put lyrics to the sound of the waves. Her voice is soft and lovely! She’ll only sing to certain people though.

Due to her spacey-ness

She’s one of the best Water Dancers in SHI! She gladly performs for anyone and everyone.

She rarely ever refuses to help someone or reject a favor. She needs to be helpful.

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst oc #twisted wonderland oc #twst ocs #twisted wonderland ocs #watatsumi 🫧#watatsumi kiyomizu #jas drew a thing.jpeg #art #SHI #scepter hall institute #i’m finally fucking done

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hollygl125 · 1 month

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On Sara Sidle + music appreciation (+ my pet peeve line from the later seasons of CSI: “Who’s Beyoncé?”):

*Please be warned: This post is not a place for lovers of the later seasons of CSI.*

@addictedtostorytelling has really excellent (no surprise there!) analysis of the failings of the later seasons of CSI generally (particularly with regard to the OG cast) as well as how they failed Sara specifically. (This post would be a good starting point because it links to some others. This recent one is also very good for a specific example.)

(Obviously there is also the clusterf*** that is season 13, but I am staying away from that nightmare for today.)

I don’t rewatch those seasons because of *waves hands generally at everything.* So my personal pet peeve comes from a line that I think a lot of people find funny (which is presumably how it found its way onto the show). (For anyone who is reading my current story, I have a note on this there, from which much of the rest of this post is almost a word-for-word copy.)

In “Girls Gone Wild” (14x10), the three women of that CSI era (Sara, Morgan, and Finn) are at a bar and Morgan says she put on a Beyoncé song for them to sing together. Sara asks, “Who’s Beyoncé?”

To which my response is:

I’m sorry, but you can’t tell me Sara Sidle didn’t know who Beyoncé was. The girl could serenade herself with Blondie, sing Meshell Ndegeocello lyrics along with Archie, correct Greg’s pronunciation of Tupac, call on her knowledge of satanists from her summer spent loving Black Sabbath, enjoy (and maybe—or maybe not—put on) Beck’s “The Information” shortly after it was released, and seemingly listen to Iron & Wine’s The Shepherd’s Dog not long after its release. (According to the DVD commentaries, the Tupac pronunciation correction was based on JF correcting ES’s pronunciation of Tupac in rehearsal, a piece of trivia I love.) Sara shows, by my estimation, possibly the most diverse musical awareness and appreciation of anyone in the series.

So, true, Sara may have been a bit preoccupied when “Single Ladies” was released back in October 2008 (seeing as she was just about, once again, to leave her lover). Sure, she may have been “too busy putting killers in jail to watch the VMAs.” (Of course, apparently she wasn’t too busy for the writers to shove in the next season some ridiculous plotline about her basically being someone’s surrogate mom for the preceding ten years.) But you can’t tell me she didn’t know “Crazy in Love.” You can’t tell me she didn’t know Destiny’s Child. Am I missing something here? I just can’t believe that, as of late 2013, she’d never heard of Beyoncé. And, for what it’s worth, I have absolutely no strong feelings about Beyoncé, but I (surprise, I know!) feel rather strongly about Sara Sidle. I know it’s a funny line, but I find it inconsistent with her characterization from her initial run on the show (pre-2007-2008 WGA strike).

To me, Sara’s “Who’s Beyoncé?” line is a (too) easy way for the (relatively speaking at least, new, and, non-relatively speaking, not all that great with the characterization of the original cast) writers to show Sara was still the “nerd” (a term I have obviously embraced!) contrasted with the fun blonde girls, Finn and Morgan. I don’t believe that, though; I know Sara was, yes, totally an awkward science nerd who’d never heard of a trophy condom, but I also think she was more with it than that. I think Sara was a cool nerd.

Plus, Sara had been living a pretty lonely life for years (watching too much TV and consequently overfamiliar with TV jingles because her husband was abroad, planning Tracy/Hepburn marathons, etc.), so she had plenty of spare time, in which I imagine she would have caught up on a lot of pop culture (basically just by osmosis).

But just pinning her as *the nerd* was all the effort those writers were willing to make (unless they happened to feel like pinning her as the inexplicably angry and even violent one, neither of which is Sara—even when angry, Sara definitely had a reason). They really didn’t care about Sara’s characterization or approaching it with any consistency, as opposed to whatever served them at the moment. They were writing for the joke (or the scene, or the episode, or the really, really, really monumentally shitty divorce plotline). Sara is quite divine, in my books, and they totally just went and flattened (and insulted) her character.

So I choose to believe that “Who’s Beyoncé?” was just a line Sara was using to get out of doing karaoke with Morgan. (I could totally see her doing that.) I will not deny the fact of the line having been sad, but I refuse the intended interpretation.

(Admittedly, though, I haven’t watched that full episode since it aired—or maybe at all—so please let me know if I missed or am misconstruing something.)

#sara sidle #14x10: girls gone wild #my thoughts and feelings on the two lovely science nerds

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luminousrider · 10 months

Text

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

tagging: you! come closer

---

Name: Erica

Pronouns: she/any/whatever

Birthday (no year): May 3

Where are you from? What is your time zone? Phildelphia ish, EST

Roleplay experience: oh jeeze oh gosh uh like idk 15+years off and on?

Got any pets? Winston the German Shepherd and Pipis the ragdoll pisscat

Favorite time of year: Winter

Some interests and things you like: taking naps

Some funfacts & trivia about you: - I'm the oldest in toa cringe, idk man I'm so tired rn

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? nothing like consistently right now? I like rpgs and games with a good story.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Ground and grass, Diglett and Dugtrio I've been their number one fan since the games came out

How did you get into Fire Emblem? I was at a Gamestop determined to buy a new game and Awakening looked interesting. 3H reignited my love of the series though.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? Uhh Radiant Dawn is the only one I don't have any experience with but I read the Jugdral games, the Archanea games, and Binding Blade.

First Fire Emblem game: Awakening

Favorite Fire Emblem game: Genealogy if it counts even if I never played it. Three Houses or Blazing Blade if we're talking about ones I like to actually play.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? Arvis baby call me back we could be clap in clap love clap

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? - Awakening: Frederick I took one look at that freak and knew I was in love- Fates: I think it was Hinata but I honestly don't really remember- Three Houses: Claude and then I immediately felt bad because I stole him from Hilda - Engage: Saphir she's old like me

Favorite Fire Emblem class: I like an armored knight honestly idk why

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? Some kind of cleric/healer

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Golden Deer

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with? Sigurd probably it's baby girl time

How did you find TOA? I saw it in the tags when I was looking for Hilda content and went hmm. Kept watching until their Hilda fell through and then jumped on that.

Current TOA muses: Deirdre, Ethlyn, and Altena

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? Hilda (the good one) but her time is done

Have you had any other TOA muses? Hilda, Charlotte, Elise, Serra, Silvia, Tina, Ninian, is that it?

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards? Tragic wives/moms, little sisters, pink. Love how Ethlyn combines all three of these.

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? I love familial relationships whether they are biological or found. I also really love cross game relationships whetehr they are platonic or romantic. It's fun having the relationship develop from ground zero rather than with an extra boost from them knowing each other in canon. Plus it's just neat to get to explore. I also like a little (a lot) of drama and angst. Messy relationships are very fun.

Favorite TOA-related memory: It's gotta be all the friendships we've found along the way. The writing and stuff is great and wonderful but the community and sense of belonging is something I will always remember and cherish.

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day in TOA that you’d like to share? Louise is a matter of when not if honestly.

#ooc #this is so cute thanks neffi!

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blushinggray · 1 year

Text

navigation 🧭

hello. for anyone new here:

i'm michelle (aka hokshi), she/her, 25+

lover of himbos

simp for tsunderes

appreciator of dilfs

addicted to slow burn

(and slave to kirishima natsuya)

here you'll find my anime-related interests, as well as my spontaneous, low pressure, unbeta'ed drabbles. i mainly write [male character] x fem!reader, and about half the time, it contains mature content. so pls be aware of that and manage your own boundaries. i am very casual about what/how i post here, so i'm putting a lot of trust into you to care take of yourself

most of my writing that i actually put my soul into is on AO3, so if you're looking for slow burning, emotional tension with a sexy ending, you'll likely find smth more fitting over there

but since i've accumulated enough writing on this blog now as well, i figured it was time for a directory, so here ya go:

🔞 — nsfw 💖 — personal fave/rec

— drabbles —

BNHA

bakugou katsuki:

choking 🔞 baby boy thirsting at the gym bakugou pole dancing 🔞 fantasizing 🔞 moon viewing tsundere dad!baku + art 💖 ph!baku x stand up comedian!reader basketball player!baku 💖 domestic thoughts "come see me"

kirishima eijirou:

pwp 🔞 reverse somno 🔞💖 at the beach with a himbo + song rec 💖 the last to know bunny boy bj 🔞 cum buckets 🔞ish

sero hanta:

pierced/tatted fuckboi!sero change of plans (a fuckboi!sero series) 💖🔞

general:

kink headcanons 🔞ish

JJK

itadori yuji:

pick your poison (yuji/sukuna twins!au) 🔞ish nothing but ass on the brain 🔞 glass slipper type beat

— fic trivia —

some extra headcanons, rough visuals, or fun facts from some of my fic universes, which can also be found in my #fic trivia tag

from "Love Unlimited" (hinata x atsumu x reader) - sequel/aftermath headcanons

BNHA

from "Good for Me" (a tattoo artist!bkg x tattoo artist!reader au) - sketch of bkg's tattoos - extra au headcanons

Free!

from "Within the Chaos" (a single dad!natsuya au) - fanart i commissioned of natsuya & yumeko - headcanons of having "the talk" with teenager!yumeko

— other info —

this is a side blog, so i follow/like from a different account

i mostly write for myself/my own enjoyment, so i don't take requests. but i do enjoy hearing suggestions if you want to share some inspo!

for non-anon asks, i usually answer privately (although sometimes i press a wrong button or tumblr goofs smth and it ends up getting published). but sometimes, if it's smth i wanna share/document on my blog, i will publish/tag it as #ask

i really enjoy meeting/talking to new people tho! so if you ever want to share your love of your faves, talk about writing, recommend me fics/artists, or even just send me memes (related to my fics or otherwise), you are so very welcome to visit my DMs/ask box!

— if you'd like to support me —

i have a ko-fi, where if you're feeling generous, you can leave me a tip! i always deeply appreciate it!

you can also purchase a special extra story from a bakugou fic i wrote a while ago, which i'm actually quite proud of

when i'm feeling up to it, i occasionally open up commissions! ranging from 2k~5k words, depending on the price. please message me first about what you'd like before purchasing though! depending on your request, i may or may not be the right person for the job, so i would really appreciate communicating and coming to an agreement beforehand!

if we come to an agreement, you can purchase the commission through the ko-fi link above (for those with paypal), or if you live in the US, you can also send it to me through venmo!

if you made it all the way down to the bottom, thank you so very much for visiting my blog and taking an interest in my writing 💖🌹 i hope you have a great time

divider images by @/firefly-graphics

#this was probably long overdue lmao #if you found me through tumblr instead of ao3 you're prob wondering why this blog is so disorganized #pls don't hold it against me #i promise u i have more pride in my writing than my ability to make aesthetic posts or an organized tag system 🥴#mine #uhhhh #info

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lookbluesoup · 1 year

Note

1. What culture were you raised in, and how connected to it do you feel? (I want to hear all of the moon cat things!)

Thanks so much for the ask! :3 Hopefully this is coherent xD

Nahte grew up deep in the Black Shroud, where the branches really are so thick and the trees so tall they blot out the sunlight. It's a place where sylphs and wildlings tread, and Wood Wailers hesitate to venture.

The Vhia clan is fairly traditional, living off the land as semi-nomadic hunters, mostly keeping to themselves. They typically do not venture near enough to Gridania to make themselves a target.

It's notable, though, that Nahte is only half Keeper of the Moon. His father was a Seeker of the Sun named C'ato Tia (later, Nunh) who found his way into the Shroud and caught the interest of Nahte's mother, Adleh Vhia.

C'ato settled in with the clan, which caused some stir given that Moonkeeper men do not live in the villages but travel mostly in solitude. For several years he and Adleh tried to make a cross-cultural relationship work, compromising where possible (such as with Nahte's name), and for a while it was pleasant enough. They had many children together. But as the years went on, conflict began to exacerbate and C'ato was chased out while Nahte was still a baby.

Despite his remaining family's affection, Nahte grew up with a lot of insecurity about "what" he was supposed to be and where he really belonged, that followed him well into his adult life. As an adult he struggled with the forced isolation and impersonal touch of a "breeding male," and could not fulfill the role of the latter. This made him feel inadequate and even more alone. (I write more about that and his feelings about being a male Keeper of the Moon here if you're curious!)

Some aspects of Moonkeeper life, Nahte feels very connected to. He's an ethical hunter, who disparages what he considers inhumane methods of killing like bear traps that cause pain until the creature is retrieved by the hunter and may catch unintended prey more often than not, or certain poisons which cause pain but may not kill a creature quickly outright, leaving it to suffer until the hunter catches up. Nature is rarely so considerate, but as someone with the skill to kill gently and the intelligence to sympathize with his prey, Nahte was taught he had a responsibility not to cause suffering where it could be avoided, and to take from the forest only what he needed to survive, giving the rest back to nature.

Certainly not all Moon Keepers are so careful, and poachers like the Coerlclaws and Pawah gang have exacerbated conflict with Gridania. The Vhia clan also finds such reckless hunting without care for the balance of nature an affront. They have had altercations with poachers at times themselves and are extremely protective of the Vhia territory. Nahte carries this with him well beyond their border, and when Ishgard becomes his home he takes a particular interest in protecting the wild places and advocating for good stewardship, so that ripe hunting can continue to be enjoyed by the city-state for generations to come.

(as a bit of side-trivia, I headcanon the Coerlclaw King is actually Nahte's older brother, who had a VERY different reaction than Nahte to feeling ostracized over his Sunseeker-half & Gridania's relative intolerance toward outsiders, and has been disowned by the clan for... obvious reasons)

Nahte starts out fairly reverent of Menphina, as well - though Dalamud's fall was a bit difficult to swallow, and Nahte is already starting to have doubts about the nature of the divine when ARR begins.

Nahte is a sylph-friend and knows the woods with an intimacy and refinement of instinct only growing up in them can bring. This shows even removed from the woods - in his perception, strength, balance, and wisdom regarding wild and magic things. He carries his culture always; it's very much a part of him.

Furthermore Nahte considers family very important, and has a nomad's heart. In these ways, he's very much a trueborn miqo'te from both bloodlines.

Overall, Nahte values where he came from. In the beginning, he struggles with his inability to conform to the expectations of male Moonkeepers, and travels beyond the Shroud in search of answers. Ultimately he grows to accept that he isn't meant for the life of a wandering hunter in the Black Shroud, that he wants to see more of the world, and stay by his lovers' sides, and have a home to settle into between adventures. Later, when he has a son, he wants to be a part of his child's life. In these ways, the Sunseeker in him shines through, and ultimately brings him into a balance between dark and light.

#new adventurer asks #nahte'to vhia #long post #ffxiv

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 10 months

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It’s been a few days of queer Australian stand-up comedy for me, because sometimes I just like to look up queer Australian stand-up. (…Okay, it’s because Daniel Kitson recommended both these people in his mailing list email – I mean, it’s not just because of that, they were both on my list of people to watch at some point, his recommendation email just hastened the process of actually getting to them, I don’t need a straight guy to tell me what queer comedians to like or anything…)

Laura Davis – Live at Easy Street Concert Hall (2016) and Cake in the Rain (2017)

I’m grouping these together because they’re pretty similar, there’s enough crossover in material so you probably don’t need to get both, though I did and enjoyed them both, it’s not like they’re all that long. And they’re not exactly the same – the Easy Street Concert one opens with a routine talking shit about pub trivia, which wasn’t in the other one and is worth getting for that alone, because I find it so weird that so many people just accept pub trivia as a normal, reasonable thing to want to do. For the exact reasons Laura states – why do you want to do homework while trying to socialize at a bar? (I mean, that’s the reason I give for why I hate trivia nights, it’s also the reason Laura Davis gives, my best friend once told me I hate trivia nights because all my knowledge is too niche to be useful in it, and to be fair he may have a point).

Anyway. The Easy Street Concert recording is available on NextUp on demand, so if you have an account you can watch it there for no additional money. You can also buy the audio on their website. The link is also supposed to let you buy the Cake in the Rain album, though I found the Cake in the Rain button didn’t work, so I bought it on Bandcamp instead (use Bandcamp, everyone, best way to support the artists, possibly aside from buying straight off their own websites, I guess).

I enjoyed both of these. A lot of observational stuff, some feminism stuff, a really memorable and funny routine about the mundane horror of high school girls’ sex ed delivered by a religious group. Immediately gives you an idea of who Laura Davis is, and I immediately like them. It’s a relatively short show, but it’s also available for a cheap price (and free if you’ve already paid for a NextUp membership), which is worth it.

Laura Davis – The Bus Show (show from 2019, recorded audio in 2020)

The previous ones were good, but I thought this one was a big step up, will really get someone attached to this comedian. It’s their 2019 comedy show, recorded during lockdown in 2020, with an intro and an outro and some other lockdown-era commentary added on. Also there’s some background music and sound effects (described in the blurb as a “soundscape”), making it a proper audio production.

My general taste in comedy is: I like good political material. I like good deep personal material (“deep” doesn’t even have to mean about a particularly harrowing or dramatic topic, though it certainly can mean that, I just like people who talk about any aspect of their personal life in a way that’s thoughtful and insightful). I’ll enjoy a show with one or the other of those things. I’ll really enjoy a show with both of them, if done well. And I’ll enjoy it even more if you tie them together.

Laura Davis did all that and more here (the “and more” was mostly, I guess, be funny – also a fairly crucial element to good comedy, and they did do that). Such a simple structure but it holds the show together so well, making the whole thing about a journey on the bus. It reminded me of Sandi Toksvig’s book, which also took through a bus ride across London, and used each stop as a way to discuss her next topic. Laura Davis uses the same premise (for the record, they both came out in the same year, so Laura Davis could not have read/copied that when writing this show), taking each little thing that occurs on the journey in some new direction, and then bringing it back to the bus. I thought it was very effective for making the whole thing feel polished.

And I liked all the digressions. They weave in small things and big things, whimsical things and very real things, Facebook group drama and climate protesters and fear and love. Personal and political, tied together by common themes and this one bus ride and by the fact that they affect each other. And I thought the audio commentary added to it too, Laura Davis coming back from a short time later but a different world to explain how her thoughts on the material have updated in that time.

The whole thing is so captivating, I sat back and closed my eyes and listened to it while not doing anything else, just got lost in it. Doing that made it feel like a good book, I felt like I was on that bus reading Facebook comments and looking around at other travelers, just like a book can do. They’re a wonderful performer. I really recommend this show.

Geraldine Hickey – Smithereens (2018) and What a Surprise (2022)

A comedian I’ve been meaning to get into for a while… and I’d love to say, “So see, she was already on my list, it’s not just because Daniel Kitson recommended her this month, I don’t need a straight guy to tell me where the funny queer women are.” But actually, she’s been on my list since a few months ago, when I heard an episode of an Australian radio show in which Daniel Kitson talked about how great Geraldine Hickey was. Anyway, it’s fine. Doesn’t matter how I found her, I’m glad I did. According to the two things I could dig up by her, both stand-up specials that she recorded for Australian TV.

I liked both of these. Fairly conventional stand-up, especially compared to Laura Davis, but that’s not a bad thing when it’s done well. Also, given that her 2018 show had material about how Australia was still debating same-sex marriage at the time, there’s an argument that a butch woman doing shows about her gay relationship can’t really be conventional. I mean, it wouldn’t be good if “I’m a butch lesbian” were all someone had, a good USP with no talent to back it up is just a wasted opportunity. But in this case, there was talent. And the perspective from which the talented stand-up was being delivered is still enough of a minority perspective so I have trouble calling it entirely “conventional”. Obviously there are a lot of queer people in stand-up. But not a huge amount of butch lesbians over forty who tell stories about their happy lesbian long-term relationship-turned-marriage to give people hope that sometimes that eventually works out (though if you’d like a second butch lesbian telling the love story of their gay wedding, check out Hannah Gadsby’s newest show, Something Special, it’s great).

These two shows are fairly similar to each other, in that they’re just a person telling funny stories from her own life, but some of the stories are really funny. Her writing and delivery are both consistently strong. The second of those shows – What a Surprise – is probably the stronger one overall just because it has a theme and a narrative that the first one doesn’t (theme: the way people surprise each other in relationships; narrative: story of her engagement to her girlfriend), and I love a good theme and narrative. But actually, there were some absolutely hilarious stories in the first show, it might be a total of stronger material. I loved the story at the end, about MCing a gig in American with no preparation.

It's objectively funny material, as much as comedy possibly can be objective, I realize is not much. But I did also really connect to her persona, and it’s not even just the gender non-conforming gay woman thing (though… it is partly that). There was nothing incredibly deep in any of it, I’m not saying, like, this resonated on some deep dramatic emotional level. I’m just saying, I really related to her descriptions of the way she just wants to spend a vacation reading a book and then falling asleep, instead of spending it gardening. And her description of immediately imagining every option when told there will be a surprise until she ruins the whole thing for herself. And her description of herself getting lost in the confusion at an American gig but trying to pretend to know what’s going on. You know, the thing that traditional stand-up is supposed to be, but of isn’t to me. Relatable.

This was time well spent. People should look these comedians up if you think Hannah Gadsby is good proof of concept for Australian queer comedians being a solid idea, but what else is out there?

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hoffmanhartvigsen80 · 2 months

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Apple Of God's Eye, A Love Letter From God

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