Human, Alive, Not American

DNI: jazzband drummers, swedes and those who litter Age:19

[sincerelysamedt]

Kim Dokja: I have a power that puts a barrier between me and my emotions. It protects me from feeling things like pain or fear.

Me: Honey, that's called dissociation. You have a dissociative disorder.

Kim Dokja: Sometimes, I even leave my own body and see things from an outside perspective.

Me: Baby, no-

Kim Dokja: I understand a character so well that I stop being myself and become that character.

Me: No.

[momentaryl0ss]

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, badly explained in one sentence:

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ Keep reading

[unhinged-soapbox]

Me watching the first episode of City Council of Darkness

[only-cat-memes]

[forgwater]

[screw-this-rutabaga]

Okay, so, I've seen a lot of people complaining about how Suzanne Collins wrote The Covey, specifically that they seem to be based on outdated stereotypes of the Romani people, and I would just like to contribute my own thoughts to the conversation, specifically that they are not based on Romani, but rather Bluegrass artists. Let me explain; Bluegrass, as a genre, has an incredibly rich history, being working songs, mining songs, protest songs, ways to spread news, old European ballads carried over and changed to fit The New World, and a million other things, but one of the most important parts of Bluegrass is its connection to Appalachia, especially Kentucky. This would make more sense as something off of which to base your Appalachian characters in your Appalachian setting than a primarily Eurasian ethnic group. There is also a long history of Bluegrass singers traveling, especially in old, beat up trucks, just like the one Lucy Gray says they travelled in. There is so much history of them traveling, in fact, that there is an entire room dedicated to the trucks in which they travelled in the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum. I think this makes a lot more sense, especially because Bluegrass has it's earliest origins in the ballads after which Covey members are named. For a while I was confused about why nobody mentioned this, but then I remembered that most people didn't watch a three hour long documentary on Bluegrass seven times in four days, so this is pretty niche knowledge.

Edit: there are actually two documentaries. They are Big Family: The Story of Bluegrass Music and Country Music by Ken Burnes.

[medeaaa]

I think Trinity’s response to Langdon has to be framed through the fact that she lost a friend to an overdose, Trinity doesn’t think Langdon was at all punished because she doesn’t see rehab as a punishment, she sees it as the second chance that her friend didn’t get, and there’s probably a level of resentment that Langdon is getting all this all this support and grace, but someone that Trinity cared for didn’t.

[homunculus-argument]

Imagine that one day as you're walking on a hot sunny path, your hat jumps off your head and lands into a muddy ditch. And you look at your muddy hat and ask it: "What did you do that for?"

"I don't want to be a burden anymore", your hat answers. "You are always carrying me around, and I can't carry you. That's not fair."

"I don't mind carrying you, little idiot", you tell your hat, "you hardly weight anything at all, and you shelter me from the sun."

"But that's different", your hat protests. "I don't mind the sun scorching on me. That happens anyway. It's literally no trouble for me to shade you too."

"Just the same it's no trouble for me to carry you. But now, because you wanted to stop inconveniencing and bothering me, I am now hatless and you are in the dirt."

[jantesika]

hello Aesop; how's the underworld been?

[homunculus-argument]

Every day I wake up and Hades kicks me in the nuts.

[shelfperson]

ianthe naberius truly is the 89th wheel of all the botched lyctors like harrow gideon alecto and john’s souls are all mixed up and have all been in each other’s bodies and she wants in on it SO BAD

but no.

she’s just slowly turning into her cousin.

not even her “life is too short and love is too long” cousin that she wants to bang.

her lame cousin.

[emtropi]

the alien when it bursts out of someone‘s chest:

[hjartasalt]

[sometimes-petty]

Conversation carried out throughout the shift

[fishtrouts]

Ominous..

[json-derulo]

the past three weeks in a row, partner has gone to chipotle and been served by the same employee who, in bold defiance of the testimony of his own eyes and ears, ardently refuses to believe carnitas exist

[json-derulo]

partner: “Hi, could I please have a bowl with white rice, black beans, and carnitas?”

employee (completely blank expression): “No.”

partner (autistic) (socialscript.exe encountered an unhandled exception) : “…Uh. Um. Sorry?”

employee: “We don’t have that.”

partner (wondering if perhaps he put too much of the authentic accent on the word and that’s what’s throwing the guy): “You don’t have…(pronouncing it whiter) carnitas?”

employee (face still unreadable): “No.”

partner (looking at the near-full hotel pan of perfectly normal carnitas in its usual place on the other side of the glass) (noticing this employee looks unfamiliar) (maybe he’s a new guy that just started five minutes ago with no training?) : “The…pork?” (pointing at it)

employee: “We don’t have pork.”

partner (beginning to wonder if he’s the one that’s losing it) (desperately looks to the menu on the wall behind the employee) (the menu lists carnitas as a protein option) (the word “carnitas” is not crossed out or taped over or otherwise adulterated) (carnitas have been on the standard menu since at least 2016) : “Okay. Um. Are you…sure?”

other employee working the toppings part of the line (familiar) (have seen her before) (she has cool earrings): *gives the new guy a strange look, nudges him aside, and scoops the carnitas onto partner’s bowl before continuing with the other toppings*

Repeat conversation again the next week. And the next. Same guy. If it’s a bit, no one is laughing, including the employee.

[json-derulo]

theories I’ve considered:

- the employee keeps very strictly kosher/halal/vegan and refuses to handle pork (understandable, I respect that, but if you’re gonna work at a place that serves pork I do kinda feel like when someone orders it you’ve just gotta tap in a coworker to do it for you)

- someone did something gross to the carnitas and the employee is trying to warn people not to order it (??? throw it out then? also, three weeks in a row???)

- the employee is a space alien who views humans as so similar to pigs that for us to eat them is tantamount to cannibalism

[json-derulo]

- the employee is the lead in a kdrama romance about a pampered, clueless chaebol heir who is sent by his father to work in the company’s restaurants for a year in order to prove he’s ready to take over as CEO. he’s dumb as rocks but they can’t fire him or even correct him that harshly due to the power gradient. partner is just a minor reoccurring character, and the interaction is kept the same from week to week to highlight the development of the relationship between the employee and his love interest with the cool earrings (even if the restaurant is literally a fully-branded Chipotle, that’s somehow still not enough product placement for me to believe this is a real kdrama)

[json-derulo]

After reviewing again with partner, evidently I forgot a detail that set this week’s carnitas denial dance apart from the others.

partner (well aware of what he’s getting into with this guy now): “Hi. Could I please have a bowl with white rice, black beans, and pork?”

employee: “We don’t have pork.”

partner (demonstrating a level of patience only a public school teacher could have): *points at the pan of carnitas* “Could I please just have some of that?”

employee (after several slow, confused blinks): *points at the same pan* “That’s steak.”

partner (looking at the hotel pan they’re both pointing at) (it is filled with shredded meat of a pale beige color) (at the other end of the row of pans is another pan containing dark brown, lightly charred meat chopped into small pieces): “Okay.” *deciding he’s willing to play in this fantasy space if it gets the job done, he points at the first pan again* Then could I please have the steak?”

employee: *starts to reach for the pan at the other end containing the actual steak*

partner: "Oh—no, sorry, this one please?" *points at the first pan containing the carnitas*

employee: *blinks, then just walks away and starts helping the next customer in line, leaving partner's bowl unfinished*

other employee with cool earrings: *rolls her eyes at new employee, takes partner’s bowl, and fills it with carnitas herself*

new theories:

- the employee is a bridge troll who will only dole out his delectable carnitas to those who prove themselves worthy by correctly answering his riddles three

- the employee is stoned out of his mind at all times on a specific strain of weed that totally erases the concept of pork from his memory and awareness

[technoturian]

I love how much this finale rounded and softened Manousos as a character. When we first saw him interacting with the hive I wondered if he would just write off Carol when she wasn't what he expected, because he seems so intractable when it comes to his beliefs. Instead, he kept trying with her. He made a compromise with the phone. He stayed in her neighborhood even when she just drove off to wait for her to come back. He's still trying to learn English so he can communicate with her. He talked to the hive, who he despises, in order to understand her and the situation better, because of what she said! He's trying to make her see his position, but he's also shown willingness to understand hers.

[annabelle--cane]

I would be a lot more convinced by the hivemind's offer if they were actually acting like they were the combined souls of everyone on earth, but they're simply not. the first person to get infected would have just been in a hivemind of one, but her behavior changed immediately. if they were every person on earth and nothing much more, then they'd have teams seeing to every major religious ritual, they'd be speaking endangered languages, they'd be looking after pets, they'd be preserving works and sites of cultural importance, they'd be putting on plays, they'd be singing, they'd be doing things that mattered to people, they'd be doing literally anything for fun for themselves. zosia and the massage shows they still experience and appreciate pleasure, but it doesn't look like any of them do anything like that without the presence of an immune person. by the numbers the hivemind should be about a quarter muslim and a quarter christian, but I doubt any of them will be making pilgrimages to mecca or baptizing newborns. seven billion minds all brought together and somehow none of them want to pet a baby goat? not one? a widdle baby goat? no one in the plurb soup wants to pet a goat? fuck you, I know humans, we go crazy for baby animals.

[warningsine]

[pronouncingitwang]

[ID: Pluribus gifs mixed with excerpts from interviews.

Kusimayu tells Carol, "I want to be with my aunt. I want to be with my cousin." The caption adds, "[No mother figure mentioned]"

interview: "I realized it's kind of like the most patient mom in the world instructing their little infant toddler," Gilligan says. "They might say, 'I hate you, mommy.' But you don't take it seriously. It doesn't hurt your feelings. You know they're just acting out. They're a little kid. They kick you in the shins. It hurts a little, but at a certain point, for their own good, and for yours, maybe you give them a time out. So I think they're just giving Carol a time out. They do it in an over-the- top way: Half a million people leave town. They can't lay hands on her. They would never lock her up. They love her too much. They can't do any of that, and they wouldn't want to if they could. But they can leave, so they do."

interview: [Karolina about Carol] What I would love that, there was a lot of different things that we talked about, and one of them was being an indulgent mother with Carol. And also the way I would put it is someone that holds space for someone's feelings. And like you would with a kid when they're having a tantrum, you're like, okay, they're having their moments, but I know that once they join us, they're going to know the bliss and the power and the beauty of what we're experiencing.

Carol is talking to Zosia, who is in a hospital bed. Carol says, hands on her hips, "Freedom Falls. You know what that means, don't you? Of course you do. You know everything. Tell me about it. Tell me about Camp fucking Freedom Falls." Zosia replies, "You were sixteen. Beginning to understand yourself. And your mother, she sent..." Carol says, "Yeah, go on. What'd she do?" Zosia says, "She sent you to... a conversion therapy camp in Covington, Tennessee. Camp Freedom Falls. You never forgave her."

interview: [Samba about Koumba] they called him Mr. Koumba, and I was like "Mr. Koumba? In Mauritania, Koumba is a woman's name." But I did the audition, and once I got the part, I told Vince, "I actually loved that you called him Mr. Koumba, because in my culture, the only way a man takes on a woman's name is if his mother has passed away during childbirth. That informed me very much about who this guy is." If you notice, he does not have family members like the other Originals. He's surrounding himself with supermodels. So I think he came from a place of not having family around him, not having real people that he cares about. […] We kept the name, because I thought it really informed who this guy was: He didn't have a mother figure, he probably didn't have any close family growing up. So of course now that he has this candy store, his desire as a child, he's going to walk in and try to try everything, because finally he can. So that was a beautiful fluke that stuck in a beautiful way.

Koumba sits in a bathtub, looking dismayed as Joette buttons her dress up.

Laxmi shouts at Carol through the phone, "How dare you make my son cry. You do not ever make my son cry again."

Manousos picks up the phone. Carol shouts at him, "¡Chinga tu madre, cabrón!"

Manousos tells a Hive member with his mother's body, "Don't call me son. You're not my mother. My mother's a bitch."

Manousos's car ornament burns. It is a small booklet with an illustration of Mary holding Jesus.

/end ID]

[toomanyvocals]

VINCE GILLIGAN: I hate AI. (Variety; Deadline)

[the-muppet-joker]

I do have to say, though, I finally get the onceler self-cest craze (for context, I was fucking my Kermit the Frog plushie with passionate vigor, as always, when suddenly I received a vision from God (for context, I grew up Catholic and have since renounced my faith on account of God being kind of a dick, but he still sends me visions sometimes because he's like a needy ex lowkey and also I'm kiiiiind of a big deal and also a god of death myself (for context I'm a Light Yagami kin)) anyways in the vision Kermit turned into the Muppet Joker as I always envisioned him in human form (for context, the Muppet Joker was an OC I roleplayed as on tumblr because I am Le Epic Troll, but then I gave it up because my dedication to writing Tumblr Fake Stories was causing me to neglect my wife and my son) but ANYWAYS my self-insert tumblr OC had possessed my Kermit doll which had caused it to start going all TOXIC YAOI on me because of the Muppet Joker's bitterness at being retired as a character (for context any time you tell a Tumblr Fake Story it comes to life and tries to kill you) so for sure the kermit doll is now evil but on the PLUS SIDE the sex is amazing)