Kept trying to type something up and LJ's new format kept eating it. Same as it ever was! This is an announcement that I won't be crossposting Dreamwidth entries here anymore due to laziness and lack of engagement on this end.
That said, if you're still around, let me know, or hit me up on Dreamwidth, Twitter, Tumblr--I can be found virtually everywhere under the same handle. I'm always reminiscing about old LJ friends and I'd be delighted to pick up where we left off.
Summary: He wakes up in Aeryn Sun's arms. Takes place after 2x15 ("Won't Get Fooled Again"). Pairing: John/Aeryn Content warnings: Canon-typical violence and references to torture. Notes: Special thanks to someidiot for the beta read.
John Crichton has two hands and an ever-expanding brain.
I don't usually post my art here, but this one was a bit of a passion project for me. I imagine it's something I’ll go back and redraw as I level up in the drawing field, but as of now? It gives me a lot of happy brain chemicals.
I finished The Peacekeeper Wars last night and have been lying in a puddle of my own feelings ever since. I knew my goodbye to Farscape would be a bittersweet one, but I didn't expect the gaping hole of "no more episodes" it would leave in my chest to be such a tender one.
Non-spoiler impressions: This was a good ending. It wasn't a perfect one, it didn't rank among my favorites of Farscape's climactic finishes (that honor would belong to "Liars, Guns and Money", flanked very, very closely by "Into the Lion's Den") but on the whole I was satisfied with how it wrapped up the series. I know there's a comics continuation but even with the creator on board I don't trust the comics (source: my intuition).
Holy shit this season was stressful to watch; I was overcome with emotional and physical stress a number of times. I wasn't sure how to feel about it for the first 15 or so episodes (which...is a lot, that's most of the season!), but once "Bringing Home the Beacon" hit it won me over, and those episodes I was unsure of I appreciated more in retrospect. The finale was so good; I'm continually impressed at the spectacular, emotionally involving finishes this show continues to pull off.
Quick and dirty spoiler-free impression: wow. I heard this season was regarded as the best, and like the first two seasons there's a bit of a lull before it really gets interesting but once it does man. Man. Still collecting my jaw from the floor.
I'd been meaning to check out Farscape for well over a decade now. Technically I did, once, when a friend showed me an out of order episode and possibly the pilot episode as well, but that was so long ago and I really can't remember anything about them aside from my takeaway from them being "Weird."
But everything I'd heard about the show since then sounded like it was absolutely my brand (my brand being "out of his element protagonist thrown into a dangerously unpredictable environment that subjects him to all sorts of horrible things including torture and mindrape. and it has muppets") and last week I finally took the plunge and finished the first season yesterday. And I really liked it! The "brainrot" stage of affection hasn't set in yet, but it shows a lot of promise ("promise" being "man, how about that torture chair").
"Rhapsody in Blue" was the episode that signaled I was going from casually enjoying it to getting invested; it supplied me with a much-needed nutrient of experiencing character backstory first-handedly. Then Chiana showed up and the quality of the episodes kept steadily rising, with "Through the Looking Glass" being the standout of the season. It's weird, it's imaginative, it lets the whole cast shine, and it stands well enough on its own that I'd recommend it as a show sampler.
Crichton as a character was the most important part in sealing the deal of this as a show for me, and he's very, very likely my favorite. On paper, he sounds like he’d be insufferable for his nonstop pop culture references, but it ends up working here because it alludes to his mental state of constant homesickness and need to stay grounded. There's never that sense of “Now clap” as an intent of his remarks, or even a sense of smugness that he finally knows something these aliens around him don't, either--just desperation to keep it together. As I've likely indicated, I love my protagonists to be desperate and struggling.
• Berserk resumes serialization on June 25th, under the supervision of Miura's assistant, Kouji Mori. My friend put it best when she said that regardless of the end product's quality, what's most important is it may lend those who loved and worked closely with Miura a chance to work through their grief and attain a sense of closure.
Kouji Mori also did a one-shot manga encapsulating his friendship with Miura, and if you want a good cry, even if you've never read Berserk, a Twitter user kindly provided a few heartwrenching pages from it. Here's where you can read the rest.
• Death Stranding... 2...? The original interview prompt was "Okay, so you got the book going on, you’ve got the final season coming out, then the spinoff, and you’re filming Death Stranding, the video game." to which Reedus responded with "We just started the second one." No word from Kojima, besides being Kojima.
I don't think Death Stranding needs a sequel at all, but I'm interested. Partly because I loved the first game so much, partly because I trust Kojima to make a sequel that doesn't tread familiar ground and goes somewhere insane instead.
• Mob Psycho III trailer launch. Old news by now, but this entry would be incomplete if I didn't mention Mob. I watched this trailer drop the best way aka cozied up next to my partner on the couch when she visited last month.
• Resident Evil 4 Remake trailer launch. I'm of the majority that believes 4 doesn't need a remake, but I'm excited for this. Leon in the 2 remake has been my favorite iteration of the character, and I'd love to see them continue in that vein of consistency. This means probably definitely scrubbing the original 4 of its over the top camp presentation, which I'd normally be vehemently opposed to, but in this case? I want to see it do its own thing. The best kind of remake is the kind that lets the original stand distinctly on its own. Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 vs the 1978 remake, or Suspiria 1977 vs the 2018 remake--both great movies, both wholly different flavors of horror.
But I'm easy. I just want them continue what they did in 2make by injecting 1000% more pegging energy into the Ada/Leon scenes.
• POSSIBLE THIRD WARRIOR'S GUILD BOOK?!!?! I know I said in my thoughts on His Sacred Incantations that I was satisfied with Lucian and Glory's story ending but also MORE MORE GIVE ME MORE.
So, back in late-January through February, The Legend of Vox Machina, an animated adaptation of the D&D show Critical Role’s first campaign, aired its first season on Amazon Prime. My partner and I watched it more or less as the new episodes dropped. I wasn’t sold on it at first, the first episode in particular felt a little too derivatively Guardians of the Galaxy-y with its “the catch is that we’re supposed to be the heroes–but we’re actually assholes, but we actually have hearts of gold” character dynamics and humor that were feeling pretty commonplace to me at this point. But the third episode was when the show hit its stride and gradually began winning me over. Nothing mind-blowing, just a good, fun time with straightforward yet interesting characters and cool animation. I was casually invested and moved on as soon as the first season ended.
Fast forward to late-March, a YouTuber I’m subscribed to drops a video essay* on one of the show’s characters, Percy, and I remember, “Oh, yeah, I liked this guy." And how could I not? He has a self-serious yet ultimately sentimental personality, PTSD, a past of being horribly tortured, a psychological symbiotic relationship with a demon, fucked up powers tied to negative emotions he can’t fully control, a dapper sense of appearance, and a really cool mask. He was, by all means, a character tailor-made for me.
And then I don’t know what happened. Before I knew it, I was replaying the events of the season in my head, remembering the insanely hot moment when the villain voiced by Grey Griffin said “Would you look at that, dear? It’s the pup that survived.” and. and I think that’s the moment my lizard brain snapped and decided why not rewatch it and that’s what happened.
Now I have a copy of both runs of the comics, a copy of the book about Vex and Vax, and it’s only a matter of time before I actually sit down and watch the original show. It’s pretty exciting to be invested in something that I’ll have 300+ hours (!) of content to get through, plus the comics and book, plus the upcoming second season of the animated series, plus the upcoming third installment of the comics.
It’s also a little intimidating, on a creative productivity level, because I’m in the middle of writing one of many fics I want to write for it, and the only reason I haven’t dove right into the aforementioned canons is because I’m worried new info will sway the direction my current fic is headed in, or it’ll contradict canon, or I’ll just be overwhelmed by the amount of new information and events I’ll be taking in. On the other hand, I’m basing it entirely off of what’s been shown in the cartoon canon so far, and I’ve heard there’s already been alterations made in it, so maybe I’ll be good to go?
* Here’s the video in question, if you’re curious. And don’t be misled by the title, it’s not a negative one by any means. Just a thoughtful essay breaking down and examining revenge narratives, how and why they play out the way they do, how this relates to Percy as a character and his own revenge narrative, and the gendered ratio that comes with some of them.
Note: I had this rewatch done back in February, but put off posting my notes partly because I got caught up in writing fic, but mostly because I knew I had more to say about what happens in this season than the initial notes I took. I'd planned to comb through each and every one of the episode scripts, but I think that was more daunting a task to take on than I'd planned, and only led me to put it off further. I made a promise to myself both not to rewatch Hannibal (in case I had new thoughts on that rewatch) until these notes had been posted, and to also post them before the year was over, so here I am, fulfilling that promise to myself. These notes may be rough and incomplete, but they're just notes (I say, as though I don't intend on going back to obsessively edit them).
Once again, haven't looked up or listened to any staff commentary, so some things may have been disproven or I may be stating the obvious.
I finished His Secret Illuminations, the first of The Warrior's Guild duology, about two nights ago and had to make a post about it because uh. Wow. Copying and pasting my thoughts from Twitter here:
This is my new favorite book. This is the book I’ve always wanted to read but didn’t think existed. It made me remember why I love reading. It hit all of my buttons so hard I’m stunned and speechless and will try my best to be coherent about it.
I’d been on the hunt for books in print about a guy being swept off his feet by a woman, courted in ways a woman usually would be by a man, and turned up short—until I found this book. And holy fuck, does it deliver on all of that and more.
There’s a tall buff woman love interest with so much detailed emphasis on her muscles and strength and how hot that is and the protagonist is this smaller shy man who’s enamored by her strength and dominance, and she’s equally enamored with his sweetness and vulnerability. She’s experienced and affectionate, he’s sheltered and touch-starved. She’s older than him. She picks him up and holds him in her arms many many many times and he loves it.
The author goes a step ahead of “there was only one bed” and goes “there was only one HORSE” (don’t worry "there was only one bed" comes later on). There’s hurt/comfort, there’s sickfic, there’s angst, there’s pining, there's PTSD, there's tending to wounds, there’s slow burn, there’s adorable side adventures, THERE IS SO MUCH FEMDOM AND D/S ON NEARLY EVERY PAGE and it all culminates in one smoking hot conclusion.
Also: protagonist is a character of color (repeatedly described with brown skin), love interest is openly bi, even more queer characters and characters of color with a variety of body types are introduced, there's a non-binary character, there's trans-inclusive language, there's a really fucking good approach to religion that’s a big part of the protagonist’s character arc, there's a cool approach to worldbuilding too, not dwelling too hard on the details and giving just enough interesting info (I love how it does dragons in particular, and the most endearing take on unicorns I've ever seen).
AND IT DOESN’T JUST END THERE! THERE’S A SEQUEL! IT’S ALSO OUT and I have it sitting here next to me ready to be devoured I just. Had to get all my feelings out on the first one and I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. It’s the kind of book I know I’m going to go back and read my favorite parts while tucked in bed under the dim glow of a lamplight when I’m not re-reading the whole thing, like I used to with books as a kid. It’s the “Anton Ego taking a bite of ratatouille” feeling but for books.
I think I’ve covered the essentials? I THINK? I was hoping I'd have more thoughts to share here off Twitter but I think I'm just anxious to dive into the sequel. I'm hoping it'll deliver even more of what I loved from the first book.
Last entry: I'm hoping to get a system in place that lets me get my necessary rest in while also giving a little time for myself to engage in my hobbies.
...and so, a finger of the monkey's paw curled.
Some context: I'm on disability, and Social Security requires that I work no more than 17 hours a week (which I'd been working way over) or I get my benefits revoked. It's something I considered when I got the job, and there's a trial period allowed for us to work over the required hours, but I nearly forgot that in addition to getting the monthly income revoked, I'd also be getting my healthcare revoked.
So I had to put in a request that my hours be reduced because Social Security was holding a gun to my healthcare, essentially.
My manager was understanding, but I still feel tremendously guilty for doing this during a time where we're understaffed and scrambling for any help we can get.
Eh. I know I it's out of my hands and I can't beat myself up too badly over it.
Exciting news--after a year of being unemployed due to the pandemic, I have a job again! I enjoyed my unemployed time but ached to be working with dogs again (still on the lookout to adopt a dog of my own) as well as, well, getting paid regularly. After emailing the boss of my old job a number of times to check if she had work for me (she didn't, and none of the coworkers had returned either, for that matter), I knew I was unlikely to return to my old job anytime soon and was overdue to look for work elsewhere.
This one's another dog daycare, and I'm currently assigned to look after our smallest dogs. I actually started my training for it back in late-August (four 10-hour days appropriately called "boot camp" by our employers), followed by a two-week soft opening, and just finished the week of our grand opening yesterday. I wanted to wait to post about it to see how things would go down, and whether I'd even want to stick with it in the end, but I think after working alone with 21 dogs in a room for 6-8 hours, I can confidently say with my whole chest, yes, I am here to stay.
It's an exhausting job. I've worked a variety of dog daycare jobs over the years--most would have the dogs all in one setting, my old job was an exception, having me take the dogs out one at a time to play with for 20-30 minutes. The former usually produced disastrous results (dogs, like people, are highly varied in personality and are not always going to get along with one another) with my bosses having little in the way of advice for how to keep things spiraling out of control ("just spray them with a water bottle" doesn't work if the dog loves water), and it's the one my current job uses. There has been chaos, there has been at least one fight broken out between the dogs, but what sets this apart from the other dog daycare jobs I've had is:
1. We're actually trained for it. Outside of boot camp, we also take online classes about dog behavior and what to do, requiring note-taking as there's always a quiz about it at the end. 2. We have a system and tools in place to prepare for potential scuffles and what to do when a fight does break out. 3. We have walkie-talkies and regularly communicate with one another, whether it be for help, informing the front desk about the behavior of a dog to make note of (we also have a series of codes to call for peculiarly concerning behavior), or letting us know ahead of time if another dog is arriving to the daycare.
In short, it's all very organized. It's not perfect and it's still going through its own growing pains on top of being understaffed (doubling the jobs of each and every one of us), but the team is very responsive to our feedback on what can be improved or what we're struggling with. That's another thing, team is something it stresses the importance of, and as someone who's generally not a team player (rather be doing my own thing), I actually feel like I'm a part of a team.
It's also the first dog daycare I've worked at where I feel like I'm really working at a daycare for dogs. Not just petting them, not just playing with them, but also monitoring behavior and finding ways to encourage good behavior in the dogs while also finding ways to get them to learn not to engage in inappropriate behavior and I see results and it makes me feel so, so good. Dogs are a lot like little kids in their limited understanding of human vocabulary and needing a different kind of learning system that's broken down to be more in tune with engaging their senses. It can be a joy, it can be a pain, it can leave you wanting nothing more than a long nap when you return home, but dammit, you still love those little guys and would do it all over again for them. I'm not a kid person (they're fine, they're just outside of my emotional energy level), but I imagine this feeling isn't unlike what proud teachers and daycare workers experience.
I'm getting lots of good, encouraging feedback from both my boss and coworkers alike. I scored a 100% on a written test. I'm feeling so good about this job and what it'll offer for me in the future.
The current major downside is I do not have a lot of time for my other hobbies throughout the week, even with my shift being the morning shift. It makes the weekends more rewarding, but also has me in a state of oh god I have to finish this game/book/movie/story I'm writing etc in two days. I'm hoping to get a system in place that lets me get my necessary rest in while also giving a little time for myself to engage in my hobbies.
This morning I finally finished Mother 3! I actually started up a game back when the English patch was released in 2008 and got up...to chapter 5, I think? And decided this would finally be the year I finish it. I started a new game--I remembered most of what happened but not all of it.
I was on the phone with my partner when I got the news. I've been hit hard by the deaths of many creators and big names in the past, but this one had me saying "It might be a joke...it might be a joke" repeatedly over the phone as though it were an incantation that would turn everything right again. I couldn't register it; my mind refused to acknowledge it as something that happened.
I was introduced to Berserk through a good friend of mine back in 2006. Very nearly 15 years later, having finished a number of other, well-regarded titles since then, I can still say with utmost confidence that it's my favorite manga of all time.
It's one of those stories that changed me, as a storyteller and as a person. It gave me moving experiences, courage, and inspiration that I’ll never forget.
It breaks my heart to know I'll never see the story to its completion. But I'm also grateful for what he could give us in his short life.
Thank you for sharing your world and your characters with us, Miura. Rest In Peace.
I am going to see my beloved partner Tat in person for the first time tonight! She is going to be staying with me for the next eight days. I am jittery with excitement, and may be away from all social media for a while.
I was planning on having my next entry cover the second half of the game and all the endings--maybe making a separate exception for the new ending E--but I started up route B and it threw a massive fucking curveball at me (it's new content that wasn't in Gestalt, and that's all I will say). So! Saving that for another entry.
