Just A Blog

She/they just existing <3 💚Aroace💜

[th4tweirdr0mantic]

‘Grew up swift and strange in clouds of texas rain, both feet in the dirt, and laughing soft in church’

‘Youre born city slick with both sharp shoulders chipped, always more to prove to boys in private school’

EXCEPT ITS LITERALLY WESPER???

[that-1-nocturnal-creature]

EVERYWHERE I GO I CANNOT ESCAPE CONAN GRAY

[vibing-with-a-stray-dog]

"Wylan feeds every stray cat that comes to our door, and we've named them all Inej. It keeps things simple."

I wanna cry I missed them all so much 😭

[statements-end]

Listen I understand why many people find Jon's paranoia thoughtless or even stupid. And I also get the people defending and justifying it (me included I'm a full time Jon defender). But in all the discussions about Jon's behaviour everyone seems to forget that no matter how irrational his actions may have seemed at the time, in the end he was literally right. One of his coworkers WAS an imposter. Someone in his close environment DID kill Gertrude. The world WAS out to get him specifically. Calm and rational reasoning be damned my man was spot on

[aro-ace-culture-is]

Aroace culture is being scared to say that you’re aroace to people outside of the queer community (excluding people who know other aros/aces) so you just simplify it by saying “I just don’t swing”.

.

[starsworth]

jeremy: he was sixteen.

kevin: it's the age of consent in west virginia. without a complaint, there was no crime, and there will never be a complaint.

neil, who got the complaint:

[dementeddaddydexter]

Redoing this post because I find this endlessly funny

[amiya-shirou]

Correct me if I'm wrong or missing something that's just subtler but I feel Arknights doesn't really treat misogyny as a prevalent social force that exists within its setting the same way it does racism and ableism - you rarely see characters, even the most bigoted ones, take problem with women for being women and even the worst bastards easily choose their daughters as direct heirs as if their gender is irrelevant; women can casually occupy positions of power and be treated as equals or superior to men of the same social standing like it's natural; we've seen at least two societies that actually favor women more and so on. But that doesn't stop it from writing stories about misogyny even if it's more allegorical/as a theme rather than confronting a concrete system in-universe like it does with Oripathy and the Sarkaz. Like Shining's story with her family is clearly one that's about misogyny and the patriarchy even if that's not something that's discussed in-setting for example.

I feel like that's a pretty interesting distinction because it allows them to make a game with plenty of cool and powerful women as something that's natural and not worth remarking upon as if it was weird rather than having to go through the typical endless onslaught of Bigoted NPCs always dismissing them as "mere women" and them having to deal with that every time they do something (which like, fair, that's how it is in real life, but AK already does plenty of that with race & Oripathy and I think it would get a lot more tiring very quickly as a story where women make up most of the cast - I can see others being more negative about it because they'd rather they didn't ignore a very important social issue in a game about confronting social issues but it does feel refreshing to be able to log into Arknights and get a look into a better world in this sense) while still allowing them to confront these things with individual characters & specific stories when they feel like they want to treat these themes.

[edgebug]

happy 20 year anniversary of Neil banging out the tunes!

though every rat is special, it's a wonderful and unusual thing for their accomplishments to be remembered and cherished by so many people so many years later. we're all so fortunate to know about the rat who banged out the tunes!

thank you to all the people who sent me reference photos of their beloved rats for this piece!!! credits under the cut!

@joe-spookyy Ben and Socrates

@gooseontheinternet Chamomile and Beefy

@runawayy-rat Bartholomäus and Emo

@theunholystromboli Macrogryphosaurus, Xenoceratops, and Graciliraptor

@techlecticwtch Solas and Dorian

@merlyn-bane Roslyn and Rizzoli

@logictoinsanity Luna and Buttercup

@hagsthehag Orphie, Psyche, Calypso, Ariadne, and Eury

my sweet ladies Bonnie, Mira, An, and Tula

and of course, the irreplaceable

Neil,

who banged out the tunes

[shit-people-probably-didnt-say]

Matthias: *Describing Kaz* He did what he needed to do to survive… he then did a bunch of other stuff he just felt like doing to terrorise the nation

[billielhindle]

Today was a rather long day with LOTS of Magnussing. I’m happy to confirm that, despite not having played Alice for a while up until this week, she has slipped back on like a smooth, bitchy glove. Let’s do this. 👊

[redlobter]

Episode eighty one, A Guest for Mister Spider. I, like Jon, was a deeply annoying child. While I never came across a Lietner, I did spend most of my childhood reading, namely the audiobook version of The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. As I type this I am realizing that my love for The Magnus Archives probably directly stems from that book.

[that-1-nocturnal-creature]

Wait I loved that book—

[tvmusiclife]

I fear that we witnessed the most iconic Olympic figure skating gala EVER

[nature-travel-photography]

Hummingbird found shelter in the rain - Author: riley_wave

[whimzzzyarts]

I've seen a lot of people critique the way Matthias died in Crooked Kingdom, and I feel like putting forth some personal input about it.

First of all, I know I have posted many times about being utterly heartbroken and in denial about Matthias's death, but that doesn't mean I don't see the significance of it or that I would go back and change it. It's fine in fanfiction, but in canon, it needs to be done. As much as it hurts. Because, look. Matthias began his journey in SOC as a boy whose mind was wired and twisted by older Druskelle to believe the prejudices Fjerdans have believed for generations. But throughout the duology, we see Matthias have a change of heart and realize the errors of his ways, but without losing his core beliefs, like his religion or his desire to change the ways of every other Fjerdan too. And by the time we reach the end of CK, to the readers, it feels like Matthias's arc is resolved and he and Nina can live happily together, and additionally, the story with the Fjerdans feels resolved too. That is why he needed to die, to help the readers realize why the story with the Fjerdans has to continue. Just because Matthias changed, doesn't mean the country did. Furthermore, the cycle of violence continues and still has a long way to go. Nina finds a way to change it on her own, without Matthias.

And now onwards to the way that Matthias died. Once again, I've seen people complain about how anticlimactic his death feels, but if I'm honest, the sudden and small scale of his death is exactly what makes it hit so hard, and it fits the kind of character Matthias eventually grew to be. In most other books, the main character dies in a grand, huge way. But here, he was killed by a boy who represents the person Matthias used to be, again, referring back to the cycle of violence, discrimination, and brainwashing of the Fjerdans. The small scale reflects the reality of the Crows as a group. Reminders, they are not royalty, they are not powerful rare Grisha or amplifiers, sure they find their strengths, but at their core, they are all ordinary people who are trying to survive. But they are not immune to falling, to getting hurt and killed. And for them, the kill isn't required to be big and super planned out, it could happen in the blink of an eye, in the space of a breath. That is the way things are in Ketterdam, that is what the unforgiving city promises and it is not consistent with its options.

I hope this makes sense.

[neiljostensmediatrainer]

Imagining in the future when Kevin is on a pro team (with a bunch of players who obviously aren’t up to his standards, because who is) and he is absolutely laying into them all the time and is always bringing up

“Neil Josten would come to the court every single night and practice these drills and you can’t even do them for fifteen minutes”

“Neil Josten once fired shots with Andrew Minyard in goal for a whole night and blew out his arms just because he was stubborn and you can’t even handle shooting on (insert goalie’s name)?”

“Neil Josten played better than you while he was actively running from the Mafia. You think you have other things on your mind?”

Bonus if after a year or two of dealing with this Kevin’s team finally meets Neil at an exy banquet and tattle on him. And Neil is just “??? You literally texted me two weeks ago just to tell me my passes are dogshit? My team hadn’t even played a game or anything, you had just remembered and felt like bringing it up?”

[devi-lishly]

Renee Character Study Pt. 1

Canon reminds us repeatedly that Renee Walker can be violent, and she can be very good at it.

Her restraint isn’t weakness. It’s discipline. Every peaceful response is an active choice against her instincts and past conditioning.

Renee is one of the few characters in AFTG who has already crossed the line everyone else is still circling. Before the Foxes, before Exy, before religion, Renee was violence. Not theoretical, not defensive: experienced, practiced, and intentional. The narrative is clear that she didn’t stumble into harm; she learned it, survived by it, and excelled at it.

That matters, because it reframes everything about who she is now.

Renee’s calm isn’t innocence. It’s restraint.

When the Foxes talk about her past, gangs, knives, the emphasis is never on shock, but on competence. She knows how to hurt people. She knows how fast it can happen. And because she knows, she chooses not to. That choice is constant. Ongoing. Exhausting.

Where Andrew externalizes control through violence, Renee internalizes it.

Andrew escalates physically because violence is the only language people consistently listened to when he was young. Renee de-escalates because she knows exactly how easily violence becomes a default: and how hard it is to stop once it does. They are opposites born of the same knowledge: that harm works.

Renee’s faith is often misread as pacifism. It isn’t. It’s a framework that gives her the pause she didn’t used to have. Faith provides structure where instinct once ruled. Rules where chaos lived. It’s not about forgiveness being easy, it’s about forgiveness being deliberate.

This is why her gentleness carries weight.

Renee doesn’t preach because she doesn’t need to. The Foxes know what she’s capable of. They’ve heard the stories. They understand that if Renee wanted to be feared, she would be. Instead, she chooses to be trusted. That choice draws a moral boundary through the team that no speech ever could.

She sits beside Jean without demanding confession.

She supports Allison without flinching at her anger.

She stands near Neil without asking him to justify his survival.

Not because she’s harmless, but because she knows harm intimately and refuses to recreate it.

Her restraint is not passive. It’s active resistance against herself.

Every time Renee responds calmly to provocation, she is overriding muscle memory. Every time she chooses mercy, she is choosing against a version of herself that once kept her alive. That makes her discipline deeper than fear-based control and more difficult than violence-as-communication.

Renee Walker is not proof that violence is unnecessary.

She is proof that violence is easy: and that choosing not to use it is harder, braver, and far more powerful.

[that-1-nocturnal-creature]

The girls are so underrated in the aftg series

[tankuare]

A small little detail is that at the beginning of the ice court heist Wylan seemed surprised whenever his bombs worked they really were just letting him freestyle it up in the most important job of their lives