Dubious

a ragtag conglomeration of sundry musings, emotions, ramblings, rants, flailings, images, etc 

[t00thpasteface]

me before i get my paycheck: i'm so excited to spend this on essentials and save the rest wisely

me as soon as that direct deposit hits: you know i've always wanted to learn the theremin

[miggylol]

Spin the wheel. That's who's trying to kill you.

Spin the wheel again. That’s who’s trying to protect you.

(If you have zero idea about a name you got, spin until you see someone you recognize.)

Are you safe?

Absolutely not. I'm dead. 100% dead.

I might stay alive, but it'll be a really close thing.

I'll take some hits, for certain, but I should be okay in the end.

A few attacks might get through, but nothing concerning.

The attacker might be able to get in one lucky hit. If that.

I am the opposite of worried. I'm 100% safe.

…Look. I've tried picturing this. But I honestly don't know how to answer.

Remaining time: 5 days 20 hours

(I've run this poll twice before, expanding it significantly for the second run. With about a year passed since that second run, I thought it was time to add another couple hundred names to the list and have another go.)

[impossibletruths]

#wait sentinel aus are based on an actual show???#I thought they were just one of those inexplicable Fandom Things - im WHEEZING, i love this so much

never Once have I ever seen a reference to an actual extant intellectual property, it’s always “what if we had this super complicated codependent pseudo-magic sci-fi thing going on” and then just running with it OTL

[theroseandthebeast]

i do not have the spoons to FULLY get into it, as it demands, but the one with the military haircut (he’s a cop, a “protector”, c’est la vie) is Jim Ellison, former Army Ranger, repressed fool. curly haired bb is Blair Sandburg, an anthropology grad student who realizes Jim is a Sentinel of legend, latches onto him like a remora, and Jim basically leans on Blair like a crutch all the while pretending he doesn’t care for him in a very “I made you a friendship bracelet” “ugh gross” “well you don’t have to---” “shut up I’m gonna wear it” way

they were handsy 

HANDSY I SAY

they STARTED handsy 

they moved in together in like. ep one. 

they become partners in the cop sense, they do a lot of gift of the magi shit for each other, every time I start to think of the stupid shit they do for another I remember More Weird Shit, codependent fucking weirdos 

[drunktuesdays]

Okay, I absolutely MUST chime in For The Sentinel which NEVER gets the respect of its peers just because "the plots were a little convoluted" and the "central premise wore a little thin as the seasons went on." those men were in love. THOSE MEN WERE LOVERS!!!!!

What you need to know about The Sentinel is that the very first episode is about Jim Ellison acquiring mystical powers. YES I want to be clear, the way he acquires these powers is "problematical" and "not great, respecting indigenous cultures wise" but okay, so he's got these powers that make all of his senses amped up to dangeous levels. he can hear things no one else can hear, he can see things like he's fucking legolas, you get the deal.

so he goes to the doctor to be like "i feel weird" because of course, and Blair Sandberg, twink anthropologist to the stars, BREAKS SEVERAL LAWS to get in Jim's exam room and say—i know how to help you. i know what's wrong with you. i know how to make life better. and jim ellison looked at the little twink man and said yes....YES to love YES to life YES to living in a 1 bedroom LOFT apartment together. YES to being soulmates and life partners! YES I'LL MARRY YOU!!!!!!

This is the ORIGINAL big gruff german sheppard/lil yapping chihuahua pairing. And fandom looked at this show and said "this is good. i will build a kingdom upon this land. from now on, these are the two genders: big, angry, powerful, forced to their knees by circumstances beyond their control AND small, jokester, has skills INVALUABLE to Big, bad self worth. And then so the sentinel/guide aus RULED the pervert community, and everyone rejoiced.

And then SPN looked at this, and said "but what if the guides also had wet butts" and u kno what? innovation is CRUCIAL.

[crimsonclad]

my friend had Sentinel VHS tapes acquired from someone on the internet and basically every episode featured tough military man Jim being driven to his knees in agony verging on madness bc of his mystical senses being overwhelmed and tiny commie academic Blair soothing him and healing his agonies by touching him (and communicating with him via psychic leopards????) so they could save lives and the show wasn’t GOOD but my god it was something

[meret118]

It's also the little black dress of AUs for other fandoms - Mulder/Scully, Clark/Lex, Derek/Stiles. It goes with everything! :)

[fritokal]

So today I learned that The Sentinel was a show, and so what is the term for when you get un-Goncharoved?

I THOUGHT IT WAS A FANDOM TROPE LIKE OMEGAVERSE

[cesperanza]

God this was such an important fandom to me. My Sentinel friends are my family now, more than a quarter of a century later. Merryish, who first offered my fanfic a home* in —1997? 1998?—taught my kid to snorkel 20 years later. Flummery are my kid’s fairy godmothers. I basically married astolat 25 years ago. And every time I see one of you Sentinel people online (waves to a bunch of you who reblogged this) I feel like I’ve run into someone from the old country! That fandom literally changed my life.

But also, fannishly, so inventive! Some of the first vids I ever saw back before there were computers –VHS vids, wonderful ones. (Shout out to GloRo!) Great great fanfic and art. I still have gorgeous zines from this period. And the loft tape! Go to fanlore and look up the loft tape you guys!!

*before the AO3! When you needed someone to host your fic! This is part of why we built the AO3! So many (so many!!!) Sentinel people involved in building the AO3! Astolat built the Sentinel archive, 852 Prospect, a decade before the AO3, that was our first practice archive software. That software was adapted and used in other fandoms like due South. Seah and I were both DS archivists. This is all part of the story of how the AO3 came about. The sentinel/guide trope is the least of it. The Sentinel’s impact on fandom is totally outsized considering what a minor show it was. But it had a great concept that it did not fully exploit, which I think is in fact, what an amazing fandom needs.

[fanlore-wiki]

Yes, The Sentinel was a real show in the 1990s, and gave us one of the classic fandom tropes, please check out The Sentinel, Jim/Blair, and Sentinel AU pages on Fanlore!

[auressea]

BEST fandom gateway ever! Juicy Juicy- LEMONS and also sometimes very crunchy.

and ALSO- @fritokal If I may.. The Sentinel was a part of the foundation of the Omega-verse concept.. a sort of precursor. There was a WILD AU departure which became a Shared World to play in, and it's all about the exploitation and en-servitude of 'Guides' for the purpose of grounding/controlling/saving/calming the "Sentinels". it revolves around this type of AU: https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_GDP_Series and spawned an entire genre of fiction placed in other properties.

<< and then.. Dark Angel with the Heat/forced mating .. and then Jensen Ackles.. and THEN omegaverse >>

[justme--48]

27

[birdplushie]

"it's not that deep" START DIGGING!!

[magn-animously]

DIG

[14-opossums-in-a-trenchcoat]

DIG

[buriedunderyourmum]

DIG

[hannisconfused]

DIG

[kitsunesakii]

DIG

[yourlocalfandomfriendo]

DIG

[apple-notplural]

DIG

[vivitur-moritur]

DIG

[spacecat24-7]

DIG

[chub-froggy]

DIG

[thatghostthateatspeople]

DIG

[krowbreaker]

DIG

[spid-the-spider]

DIG

[annabelle--cane]

DIG

[yellow-faerie]

DIG

[vampiraptor]

[philosopherking1887]

OOPS TOO DEEP

[breaks-hetheon]

CLIMB

[artist-of-obsessions]

CLIMB

[fablegate]

CLIMB

[marzibird]

CLIMB

[the-luckyrabbit]

CLIMB

[staarbles]

CLIMB

[modmad]

[sebwritesstories]

[whyenn-reader]

ADHD advice from non-ADHD people: start blocking out your day and put things in your google calendar

ADHD advice from ADHD people: any time you're waiting for your food to microwave YOU HAVE TO WASH DISHES WASH AS MANY AS YOU CAN THIS IS A RACE AGAINST TIME THIS IS THE ONLY TIME THIS COULD HAPPEN

[inthetags]

Reblog and put in the tags what you would have been blogging about on tumblr in 2004.

[auressea]

2004 was a HUGE year.

[sandersstudies]

Hey you can’t really like. Do anything about somebody perceiving your behavior as rude. Like they’re not telling you you’re doing something illegal they’re just saying hey you’re kinda being a shithead. It’s not discrimination or oppression for somebody to tell you you’re acting like a shithead rn.

[sandersstudies]

“Wahhh why can’t I blare my TikToks in a shared public space!”

You CAN dude. In fact you ARE. You’re just going to be perceived as kinda shitty for it.

[trumpetsbyjasonderulo]

it’s been ten years and i can confirm that everything still happens so much. happy anniversary king

[argillaforma]

hollanov at their kid’s autism assesment and the doctor says that autism can be genetic and asks if anyone in the family has autism and shane says no at the same time as ilya says yes

[gimmiekiss1221]

ilya when shane answers no:

[dubiousculturalartifact]

Shane: and then Ilya said he thought it might be genetic, can you believe that? Yuna: What? Why would he think that? David, father of Shane, husband of Yuna, suddenly having a lot of little things over the past several decades make more sense: Well...

[forked-tongue-blasphemer]

Smiling Bats

Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 304; 13th century; England, St. Albans; f.47v

[dubiousculturalartifact]

For the record I will die on the hill of defending the nosebleed moment in Emma. (2020) because it's EXACTLY why I love period dramas! It's not just a comedic beat, it's a metaphor for her ENTIRE GODDAMN ARC. Emma spends the entire film in the most perfect outfits imaginable, not a detail amiss, hair in the most perfect ringlets imaginable... UNTIL she is forced to confront her own feelings, and her own mistakes, she's undone by it. In that one key look when Mr Knightley proposes, her hair is styled into subtly more naturalistic curls, it's the one time we see her out of doors sans bonnet, sans gloves... Her dress is still perfect, one of the most detailed and elaborate of the entire film, because it's the final way she's clinging to control and perfectionism... Except then she gets a nose-bleed, and we watch it drip down, towards her absolutely spotless white dress... and Mr Knightley catches the drop for her, the way he's always been there for her.

In that one moment, the film truly understands better than most period dramas how the appeal is the CONTRAST between how carefully constrained the characters are by the rules of the era, how many layers they are wearing both literally and metaphorically... Versus the times when emotion inevitably overwhelms them and you are reminded they are not statues or idealized forms, but human beings. BUT YOU HAVE TO START WITH THEM CONSTRAINED LIKE THAT, FOR IT TO WORK. THEY HAVE TO HAVE THE LAYERS TO BEGIN WITH, FOR YOU TO STRIP THEM AWAY

[lullabyes22-blog]

I'm sorry but you absolutely cannot strip Jane Austen's work of Regency politics and social etiquette without the entire narrative collapsing into nonsense.

Modern writers need to stop treating Austen’s world like a generic, pretty fairy tale, and start remembering that her books were actually razor-sharp critiques of a brutal socioeconomic landscape with examinations of class, gender, power and money that are still culturally relevant today.

[dubiousculturalartifact]

Seen a lot of (well earned) condemnation of the hairstyles on the female characters in the upcoming Sense and Sensibility adaptation, but I haven't seen nearly enough scorn for the fact that Colonel Brandon has a beard.

A BEARD. In the Regency era?!? No gentleman would ever!

[mr--spock]

Why, Mr. Spock, you almost make me believe in miracles. (insta | timelapse here! | commissions/prints)

[pochayun]

spin the wheel and assign an animal to prev

[elisaholies]

12 HR fic recs

Wins Above Replacement | 9.5K | Ilya tries to take on Shane's tendency to deprive himself by using ancient Chinese military strategy.| No one writes sex-as-character-work as well as mcshrug. What a banger of a story.

the top 1% (of lovers) | 3.5K | “You’ve slept with eight hundred women,” Shane says. He’s a bit pink in the cheeks, but that might just be the arousal. “I did the math."| Hot, funny and in character. Shane!!! Lol.

Tin Roof Rusted by @lavenderprose | 5K| Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander are twenty, on top of the world, and a little irresponsible about it. This is the crash.| I normally don't go for omegaverse fic, but I really like this author and I'm so glad I have this a chance. It has fantastic world-building and it's not afraid to delve into the discrimination and society implications of omegaverse. Interesting OCs too.

if you're scared of wolves by @anotherwordfortrouble |92K | **| My note for this fic is a laconic but hopefully enticing enough 'Best time loop fic ever'. I should probably re-read it. I do I trust my self from 3 weeks ago, when I bookmarked it, though. :D

i looked over it and i ached by @isvsworld | 7.8K | “I don’t really think about stuff like that,” Shane replies in interviews, his lips wooden at the words. OR Shane and being haafu, 2nd gen, and Asian.| Those of you who have enjoyed my themed rec post on Shane's Japanese heritage should run, don't walk, to read this story! Because this explores Shane's heritage and racial identity and without shying away from the complexity of it all, including how it intersects with Ilya's (white, European) immigrant experience.

a pigsty built for two | 9.8K | Shane and Ilya get rid of their housekeepers as part of their plan to keep their relationship secret. Ilya discovers that keeping a house clean is easier said than done.| Funny and in character. I especially love Shane's backstory here. Shows the massive privilege these guys have in a fun way. If I were Ilya I probably wouldn't find this all as funny, tbh, but the characterisation for both of them makes it work for me here.

Performance enhancing strategies by @dubiousculturalartifact | 5.1K | The Shane Hollander Is Fucking Ilya Rozanov and Will Accept No Further Questions, Team Powerpoint Presentation| Shane comes out to the Voyageurs and it all goes well. It involves a PowerPoint, an adorable rookie and a locker-roomful of dumb hockey bros. Sweet and funny. It should have gone this way, damn, Shane totally deserved it.

Small Hours by @lavenderprose | 4.6K | Thoughts on a marriage; or, things that might have happened.| Err, normally I make a note when I bookmark a story, precisely because then it's easier to make a proper rec even weeks after bookmarking ..I didn't this time. And my memory is crap. And now I have no time to re-read but Lavenderprose is a great writer and that shall be enough, as recs go.

A Healthy Dose of Fear | 5.4K | Five times Shane scares the Centaurs, and one time he (accidentally) terrifies them.| A great take on a harder/meaner Shane than usual (especially when Ilya is involved).

symptoms may include pain and difficulty breathing | 2.1K | Ilya is injured but tries not to show it. Shane notices anyway.| Ilya deserves to be taken care of. This was so sweet and hot and in character.

Expert in a Dying Field by @bluegrasshole | 10.3K | Today is Tuesday, but it might as well be Wednesday or Thursday for all it matters. It’s a real Groundhog Day situation, Shane thinks, only Ilya isn’t aware and Shane doesn’t care about breaking the time loop, too content with their life to make any changes.| Future fic. Shane and Ilya are old. They've got...health issues. Amazing Shane POV. This is so heartbreaking and beautifully written. Made me actually cry and I'm not someone easily moved.

beware: walked dog may bite by @ilyaelizabeth | 13.8K | Five times Ilya gets in a fight for Shane, and the one time Shane gets in a fight for Ilya.|Well-written 5+1 story. Great characterisation.