#cause as we’ve previously stated

[spaceyprincely]

Boothill observations and theorys(?):

⚠️‼️Cw// leaks + possible 2.1 spoilers‼️⚠️

Hello tumblr I thought I’d share some observations I’ve made about boothill, an upcoming 5 star character. Particularly his name and how it relates to his cowboy aesthetic as well as his possible backstory. I also want to theorize his situation with Acheron as well. Well I’m not exactly an expert on theory’s so I doubt mine counts but I’ll share what interests me on boothill!

Boot Hill, Name origin:

First off, what is a “boothill”?

“Boothill” or “Boot Hill” are a type of cemetery most commonly referred to in western parts of the United States and America. What makes this cemetery unique is its association with cowboys, specifically ones that died in violent non natural fashion like shooting or hanging, “died with their boots on”.

How does this relate to Honkai star rail boothill.

- boothill is based of the typical western American cowboy , with the outfit, his accent , usage of guns, etc. so we have that connection .

- The HSR wiki says that he’s specifically a cyberborg. Cyborgs are typically depicted as robot human hybrid characters. Some cyborg characters like robocop and cyborg (dc comics) have backstories of becoming a cyborg by having had either died and came back to life through technology or damaged their human body greatly to the point they replace with artificial robot tech.

- Boothill in leaked eilodons shows his naked body. However you can quickly noticed his body is human. Not robotic like what we’ve been officially shown.

- Contrast this with his lightcone art, boothill has only part of his robot body. It looks like he’s being operated on.

- So how does this his name relate to his possible backstory

- As previously iterated, boothill is a name for cemetery of cowboys that died in violent ways. Pair this with how the leaked content having a human body which insinuates that he was at some point a human.

- So what I theorize: Most likely case is that boothill died/ got heavily injured, most likely due to a fight, so much that his only chance to survive was to make him a cyborg. The name boothill fits because he probably died in his boots (I’ll assume for now it happened on the job, maybe his job was the same before and after?).

- Interestingly There’s a leaked description of his lightcones. I’m not 100% sure about how true it is so I’ll have to take it with a grain of salt. However it details on him coming back to life after almost embracing death.

- - If boothill died, who killed him?

There isnt much to hint at who is to blame for cause of him becoming cyborg so far, given he’s a new character with little information.

At this moment, my best guess is the ipc which characters including topaz and aventurine are in. Boothill is revealed to not like the IPC as revealed in his introduction post. However there’s an interesting thing we need to observe.

- Notice how it states “the target of his revenge”, meaning the ipc most likely wronged him in some. I wonder if the ipc is the ones responsible for his death and transformation to being a cyberborg. But it’s likely it could be another reason for his distaste.

About Acheron

Cw/ this part gets into partial spoilers for 2.1 trailblazer main story quest

black swan receives a call from boothill. The call is immediately clear he is threatening Acheron with death.

- his tension with her seems very extreme to the point where hell even go after people affiliated with her when he threatened black swan under the impression she’s was working with her. And saying she shouldn’t exist.

do I think she was behind his death?

Unlike with the ipc one, I’m not really sure. I personally think that this possibility has less weight to it and there might be another reason for his dislike towards her. But it wouldn’t be surprising considering aventurine claims she brings death and finality.

- like aventurine, Boothill knows that Acheron isn’t an actual galaxy ranger however boothill himself is a galaxy ranger. Since Acheron is falsely claiming she’s a galaxy ranger, could this possibly cause tension with the actual galaxy rangers and her to be a target for them? I don’t really have much to theorize much more but would like to hear what others think

#acheron honkai star rail #boothill #boothill leaks #boothill honkai star rail #boothill hsr #hsr leaks #acheron hsr #hsr spoilers #hsr theory #hsr thoughts #Honkai star rail #theory #honkai star rail theory

[amethystfairy1]

I rewrote my novel. Admittedly I deleted it because it felt like it was me ranting and you wouldn’t enjoy it, but it made me feel good that you wanted to read a random person’s analysis.

To get out of the way first is the potential wild card invisible stalker. I saw some people speculating it was Mumbo because that seems like a rogue ability, but there’s no reason for him to have been stalking this group he barely knows instead of be with his own. I think it’s a new character, which you didn’t tag either for spoilers or because they don’t truly appear in this story. The latter is my guess, and their purpose is to be another thing hanging over Gem’s group as they go into the fight. As to who they are, because of that recent post on spoilers and the ninja thing, I’m going to guess Etho. The “why” for whoever it is is “to be revealed” information.

Next, the bird reunion. Based on that summary, they have to fight and it’ll definitely be intense. My guess is either during the pre-fight banter between the others or when they first come in contact and a failed sneak attack, the twins will recognize each other, hesitate, but go into the fight anyway because that’s what their friends/masters want. Major cognitive dissonance. I predicted one would get the upper hand and almost, but not quite, finish the other, but more specifically I think Grian will beat Pearl because she’s still injured. If I was writing it, he’d notice the injury, target it because that’s what a good killer does, and simultaneously hate himself for it. And then more delicious angst because a good avian would finish her off, but he can’t do it.

Meanwhile, I think Gem would be fighting the other two. She says in the first chapter that she’s low on magic, but she’s scary enough without the spirits. If I had to guess, I’d say she could normally solo everyone in the other group (not without difficulty, but would win in the end), but it would be the combination that could get her. Scar is also running low on magic, but we don’t know how the two compare. I don’t think we’ve seen Scar fight without magic either, so he could quickly empty his reserves. Mumbo is a very scary opponent and has the element of surprise, but I’m not sure how he’d stack up in a brawl. Judging by that summary of him nearly dying, I’m not optimistic. Scar has previously detected enemies with the spirits, but it’d be interesting to see if another nature elf can go undetected with their own magic. Then it’d be up to Grian to notice them when they’re pretty close, if he’s in a state of mind to do so effectively.

Speaking of state of mind, that was just them physically. Mentally no one is doing well. Mumbo and Scar are worried about Grian and are probably mulling over the target they painted on their backs. Gem is stressed out about the stalker, always worried about Pearl, and her guilt and frustration are turning to rage. That could all cloud her fighting abilities, but so could that empathy she’s trying to shut down. Recognizing Mumbo could give her pause, as could seeing Pearl in Grian and herself in the other boys. A vision just came to me of Grian using his wings to protect one of them from Gem and that causing her to stop. I could also see her stopping if she thought Pearl was about to die again. Both sides would stop if one of the avians admitted they’re siblings, but I can’t see them forcing that information out in the middle of a fight. I think the fight will end with one side recognizing themselves in the other and choosing not to continue. Then we can get a more wholesome birb reconnecting.

The thing I’m less sure about is Impulse and Skizz. I don’t quite know if they’d even participate in the fight or how that would go. I can easily see Impulse deciding not to participate because it’s not his job and he wants to protect Skizz, or him going with the group and being worried about Pearl with this job. If they do participate, that weighs things more in the favor of the Soup Group. From what we’ve seen, Impulse is strong and can tear through normal adventurers. Of course the boys are much stronger, but I’d expect him to hold his own. Skizz is a little more tricky. If he fully fights, I’d expect he’d be a beast. He was nearly retained, so he had serious skills, the only concern would be how much fighting he’s done since being sold. Granted, that didn’t seem to hold Grian back. I doubt Skizz’s heart would be in this fight though, and he’d be looking more to see if Impulse will die or if he can kill him. That won’t happen of course. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if a moment comes and Skizz either saves Impulse or doesn’t take the kill, and later has to ask himself why.

So, yeah. That’s my thoughts on what I think is being set up for this story. You don’t have to respond to this. Now I know that even if you don’t, you still enjoyed it. I look forward to seeing if I’m right or be proven wrong. Doubt I’ll be disappointed either way.

I

LOVED

THIS

SO MUCH

RAHHHHHHH

This is so so so so sooooo cool!?

Obviously I'm not gonna super in-depth respond to any of your predictions because I don't wanna give any tells because spoilers but I need you to know that I LOVED THIS.

I WAS BEAMING THE ENTIRE TIME I READ IT

It just makes me SO happy that my stories have the moving parts that make someone able to think it through and come up with theories about what's gonna happen, and that you enjoy the story enough to do so just makes me so very glad! Thank you so much for retyping your novel because I ADORED IT and I will be saving it and I love it very very very much!!!

I'm so glad you're looking forward to this fic, I have so much planned and lots is gonna happen, I'm just SO excited to share it all and it's so wonderful to see everyone is trying to figure out what's gonna go down!

Thank you thank you thank you for sharing!!! 💖💖💖

#fanfic #ao3 fanfic #traveling thieves au

[munacy]

magnetic

@wolfstarmicrofic

They look ridiculous right now, laying flat on the uncomfortable hardwood floor of the kitchen with a woefully empty bottle of gin between them, heads flush against the Muggle refrigerator. It kicks on noisily. Remus vaguely wonders when was the last time they honest-to-God swept, but decides he can worry about that at a later time.

(That’s always what he thinks. Even sober. It’s why the floor’s not been swept in ages.) “And it’s because they’re…magentic, yes?”

He says it like magenta, the color, forcing a throaty drunk giggle from Remus’ throat.

“Close, sweetheart, close. They’re magnetic, they’re magnets. The metals have, like, opposite poles or something,”—Remus finds that in this state, it’s a bit difficult, accurately recalling basic science, but reasons that Sirius won’t know any better if he gets part of it wrong—”and it causes them to be attracted to one another.”

“Ahh, Moony, then I must be magnetic to you, eh?” Sirius murmurs lasciviously while squirming closer to Remus. However, the motion of his drunkenly swinging hand upsets the precariously placed magnet (a magnet portraying a chihuahua in a purple bikini and thong, because they are classy gentlemen and would never display a naked chihuahua). The chihuahua falls, as all great dynasties do. Smacks Sirius in the middle of his porcelain forehead, causing him to squawk in pain. Remus guffaws with abandon, sharp gleaming teeth, free, loud.

(Only Sirius gets to see this. Every one else gets the breathy chuckle, muffled into a fist or disguised as a cough.)

When Remus regains his composure, he finally notices the precious cargo in Sirius’ hand. It is a Polaroid of Lily and James at their wedding, previously pinned to the fridge by their fallen comrade.

“You know, Remus,” Sirius says softly, if a little garbled, “we should do this.”

“Take a photo together? We’ve got hundreds.”

“No, you giant twat!” he laughs. His laugh is so beautiful, so gorgeous, and, by God, Remus wants to eat it. “We should get married.” His smile is soft, angelic, dimples and blushing innocence.

(Only Remus gets to see this. Only Remus.)

“Sirius Black,” he says gravely. “Did you just propose to me on the dirty floor of our kitchen after calling me a giant twat?”

Sirius barks out a stunned laugh and adopts a put-upon frown. “What, you don’t like it? You won’t marry me because I called you a twat? I thought that—stop tickling me you bastard!—thought that was part of my charm—really, enough, you fiend!”

Remus has gained the hard-won upper hand, straddling Sirius and pinning him down. He smirks down at Sirius suggestively, then attacks with lightly peppered kisses all over his face and neck as Sirius shouts and feigns displeasure.

Through breathless laughter, Remus gets out, “You silly, imperious, capricious, beautiful, stunning creature, you can’t propose to me on the dirty floor of our kitchen after calling me a giant twat and being completely and utterly trollied, you ridiculous sod.”

Sirius puts on his very best forlorn puppy eyes. It shouldn’t work with slate grey eyes, but it does.

“But Moony,” he whines with adorable petulance, and Remus sees his pale hand scrabbling under the fridge (Disgusting, his mind supples unhelpfully), “I got you a ring and everything.”

The searching hand brandishes a bread twist-tie like a weapon, bent into barely a circle shape. Remus laughs delightedly.

“Ah, Pads,” Remus says fondly, slipping the twist-tie onto his ring finger, “You know I can never say no to you.”

He’s being half facetious.

He’s being more serious than he’s ever been.

“But! I would rather never say no to you when we’re both sober,” he finishes, smiling shyly. Sirius grins crookedly at him, kisses his hair.

“Alright, alright, Moony, point taken, no more playing.”

In the morning, when they’re both murderously hungover, Sirius doesn’t understand how Remus could possibly be surprised, not see it coming, as Sirius bends down on one knee for the real deal, with the real ring that he’s hidden in his sock drawer for weeks, both of them weeping like silly little boys. They take a Polaroid of their happy engagement, and this one is pinned to the fridge with a magnet of a Pomeranian in high heels.

#wolfstar #fluff #the fluffiest fluff to ever fluff #remus lupin x sirius black #wolfstar microfic #microfic #humor

[mariacallous]

On Saturday, Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds of people and taking dozens of hostages. It was one of the most significant offensive by Palestinian militants in fifty years. In response, Israel bombed targets in Gaza, killing hundreds more, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the country was at war. President Joe Biden offered full-throated support for Israel; despite its sometimes rocky relationship with Netanyahu, the Biden Administration has recently been working to broker peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

I spoke by phone on Saturday with Nathan Thrall, the author of the book “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama.” Thrall previously worked at the International Crisis Group as the director of its Arab-Israeli project, and currently lives in Jerusalem. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed the calculations behind Hamas’s attack, why the political fallout in Israel is so hard to predict, and how the Israeli response may alter the future of Palestinian politics.

How do you understand the timing of this attack?

In recent weeks, we have seen a resumption of the protests along the border fence with Gaza, a deterioration in conditions in Gaza, and withdrawal of support from Qatar, which works closely with Israel in managing Gaza. And there was the Israeli declaration that it was suspending work permits for Gazans, which the Gaza economy relies on. Those are all proximate causes of the timing.

But of course, it’s hard to imagine that Hamas could have pulled this off and surprised Israel in this way without a lot of planning. And in its messaging, Hamas is not emphasizing the conditions in Gaza. It’s emphasizing the Aqsa Mosque—the increased visitation by the Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and other Israelis to Al Aqsa and the open declarations of intent to build a temple there and so forth—which is self-serving for Hamas because it would rather be perceived as defending the greater Palestinian cause, and defending a Palestinian national symbol and a Muslim symbol, than as acting out of a more narrow interest to end the siege of Gaza.

At least one Hamas spokesman said on Saturday that this attack should be a warning for Arab states not to ally with Israel. We’ve seen increasingly close relations between Arab states and Israel recently, and now discussion about the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, brokered in part by the United States. What do you make of that?

Clearly, this act by Hamas is suicidal. It is an attack of unprecedented scope, and Israel will retaliate to a greater degree than it has before, potentially leading to outcomes we haven’t seen before: not just a simple razing of Gaza by airplanes but also a ground incursion and potential reoccupation of parts of Gaza. So the decision to wittingly, knowingly, undertake this comes from a sense that there are no other options and that there’s nothing left to lose. And part of the reason that Hamas, and Palestinians in general, feel that they’re in such a desperate situation is that they have been entirely abandoned by those who should be their allies: the Arab states. The talks about the steps toward normalization with Saudi Arabia certainly inform the Palestinian sense that they have been abandoned.

When you say that the attack by Hamas was suicidal, do you mean it’s suicidal for Hamas? Do you mean it will cause pain and suffering for the Palestinian people?

All of the above. I think that the attacks are virtually guaranteed to bring civilian deaths on a greater scale than we have seen, and Hamas has put in jeopardy its rule in Gaza and the lives of its leadership to a greater extent than ever before. It’s hard to overstate how shocking these images are to the Israeli public. Gaza is made up of refugees from towns within Israel, and more than seventy per cent of the population of Gaza comprises refugees, so it’s something out of Israeli nightmares that the refugees are going to come storming back and take over their old towns.

That degree of shock and that degree of military failure by Israel—not simply that the attack took place but that you and I are talking now, more than twelve hours after it occurred, and reports are that Hamas fighters have taken over and are still controlling military bases outside Gaza—is incomprehensible to any Israeli. Politically, it is hard to imagine that this government will not feel a need to exact an extraordinary price in order to save face.

But to go back to my question: When you first said that this was suicidal, it was in response to something about Israel making peace with its Arab neighbors. What I thought you were going to say was this is going to invite an overwhelming Israeli response, which in turn is going to put pressure on the Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia, not to make deals with Israel right now because it’s just going to be so gruesome and awful, and therefore Hamas will have achieved something diplomatically even if it faces huge retaliation.

Perhaps Hamas can delay a normalization that’s in the works, but I don’t think that its actions will thwart a normalization that would’ve otherwise happened. Now, there are considerable obstacles to normalization, and there are real difficulties and outstanding issues. The Saudis greatly dislike the Biden Administration. They would rather hand this gift to a Republican Administration. There are many, many reasons to believe that a normalization isn’t as imminent as it’s been reported in the press. But I don’t think Hamas had any reasonable hope that it could make the difference between normalization happening and not happening.

Why do this then? You don’t need to convince me that Palestinians feel completely hopeless about the situation and feel a need to turn to armed resistance. But the people who run Hamas are perhaps less sentimental than you or I, and would worry about doing something that might be suicidal to their movement. That’s why I was somewhat surprised by this.

I have written all about the explicability of everybody’s actions in this conflict through rational self-interest. That was the subject of my first book. And this move by Hamas appears to me to be inexplicable. They have put themselves in greater jeopardy than at any point in their history. Of course, this is going to increase the support for Hamas and make them appear heroic to some people, and there are political gains to be made from this brazen act, but the risks are just too high. This is perceived by Israel as a qualitatively different act.

Hamas can launch a bunch of rockets—and we’ve seen this pattern, and it lasts anywhere from a few days to a few weeks—and they survive because, at the end of the day, Israel doesn’t want to reoccupy Gaza. That is considered from the Israeli perspective to be an extremely undesirable task and a bloody and costly one. However, Hamas understands that this attack would be perceived by the Israeli public and political leadership as being of a totally different order of magnitude. And therefore, Israel would consider acts that it had not in past escalations, including coming in with ground forces and reoccupying Gaza and trying to eliminate its leadership.

Does this make you think differently about Israeli military preparedness and the competence of the current Israeli government?

There has not been a military failure of these proportions since the 1973 war. In 1973, on Yom Kippur, Israel was surprise-attacked by Egypt and Syria, and there was a commission of inquiry into the military failure. It is the trope in Israeli politics of a misguided conception of your enemies and what they intend. And every Israeli military official has in his bones the lesson of 1973: to constantly question your premises and to be prepared for them to be challenged. So, not only does this call into question for Israelis the competence of their Army but also for every outside observer. It’s shocking. This is one of the strongest militaries in the Middle East. And a group of fighters from a besieged ghetto penetrated the fence and took over Israeli military bases.

There has been some criticism of Netanyahu’s government for harming military readiness with its domestic plans. What do you think of that argument?

With the judicial reform, you’ve had all of these reservists, in particular those from the Air Force, who said they’d refuse to serve when called up. So the protesters say that Netanyahu, by doggedly pursuing the judicial reform, is jeopardizing Israel’s security. And that’s the partisan claim that has been made recently.

It’s entirely self-serving. It’s a claim made by the opponents of the judicial reform. I don’t doubt that it has harmed Israel’s capabilities. But there is a rebuttal from Netanyahu and his allies, which is, O.K., let’s not dispute the fact that this reserve protest has harmed Israel’s security and its preparedness. But who’s to blame for that? Is it that we are to blame for it, for doggedly pursuing what we consider to be an entirely legitimate judicial reform? Or is it that these reservists crossed the line?

And I would imagine you find both sides of this debate to be missing the point?

Yes, I very much disagree with the entire premise of the protests over the judicial reform, which are based on the assumption by both sides that Israeli democracy is at stake. I do not see how any definition of democracy can include a situation in which one in ten Israeli Jews lives in the occupied territories and has full rights—voting rights, civil rights—and, when they go to and from their workplaces and their homes, they do not cross an international border. When the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics publishes the number of Jews and Arabs in the country, it lists the Jews living in the settlements. It doesn’t say that they’re living abroad. When the people vote in the settlements, they do not cast absentee ballots; in every sense, these people live inside the state of Israel alongside millions of people of a different ethnic group who are deprived of basic civil rights. That has existed for decades.

The 1973 war is considered as having had very long-term political consequences for Israel, and for the Israeli Labor Party, which was never the same afterward. How do you think this might register politically? For now, it appears that Netanyahu’s opponents are going to join him in a unity government while this war continues.

This is an enormous challenge to Netanyahu and to this government because of the scale of the failure. That said, the opponents of the current coalition are not very impressive politically, and Netanyahu has proved himself to be extremely adept and resilient. Even on the day of a catastrophe of this scale, I am unwilling to predict that that will lead to the demise of Netanyahu’s political career.

There were a number of consequences of 1973. One of them was internal, as you say. It was the beginning of the end for decades of Labor Party dominance. But the most important consequence of the 1973 war was that it pushed Israel to reassess its policy toward Egypt and toward holding on to Sinai. And it started to take steps toward reaching an agreement with Egypt; that happened iteratively at first, and then led eventually to the peace agreements with Egypt and the full withdrawal of the Israeli forces and settlements from Sinai.

As you’ve seen the statements from around the world, Europe and the United States especially, do you think the full-throated support we’ve seen for Israel is a sign that Israel has had some success diplomatically? Or is this event so shocking and horrific that you would expect this kind of reaction regardless? I was not surprised by the condolences sent, but there were not many calls for “an easing of tensions,” etc.

First of all, Western and U.S. support for Israel is unwavering, and that is entirely unsurprising. In terms of the absence of calls for restraint: those are often perceived by Israel as a signal to quickly end some bombing campaign in Gaza. The absence of it here I interpret to be the opposite: it’s a green light for Israel to take the retaliatory steps that we all are sure are coming.

I am not under the impression that Israel is in a difficult place diplomatically. There’s lots of chatter about how much the Biden Administration may not like working with the most right-wing Israeli government in recent memory and open racists in senior ministerial positions and so on. But, at the end of the day, what is the policy of the Biden Administration toward Israel? It just allowed Israel to enter the Visa Waiver Program, which was a coveted diplomatic victory, and it’s doing next to nothing to stop a forced displacement of more than eleven hundred Bedouin in the West Bank.

How might Palestinian politics look different in a few months?

If there’s anyone who’s shaking in his boots right now, it’s Mahmoud Abbas. He is watching as city centers in the West Bank come out in support of Hamas and other groups in Gaza. He and the Palestinian Authority are perceived as working hand in glove with Israel to keep a lid on any kind of resistance to Israeli occupation. So this giant boost for Hamas’s popularity is extremely threatening to him, as is the increased violence that we see in the West Bank, both preceding Saturday’s events and immediately following them.

It suggests that the future is extremely unknown if this is extremely worrisome for both Hamas and Abbas.

A lot of it depends on how high a price Israel is willing to pay to really change the situation from the one that existed on Friday. And that’s what I meant by suicidal. If Hamas understands Israel—and I think that it does—it will have known prior to launching this attack that Israel was going to contemplate options it had never contemplated before.

What else have you been thinking about today?

I’m looking at the media coverage of this event. For a decade I was working at the International Crisis Group, and a lot of my job was to write a reactive report every time there was an escalation in Gaza, because all the world’s attention is on the issue as soon as we have any kind of a surge in violence. But we all turn our eyes away when that doesn’t exist. And the process, for me, of working at the International Crisis Group and writing the same report over and over again about the escalation, convinced me that I should leave the International Crisis Group and this sort of work. And that what I needed to do was to bring more attention to the root causes, which are ignored and we are just guaranteed to see more and more of these sporadic outbursts of violence, with civilians killed on both sides, because we refuse to focus on the actual causes of the violence.

When I was choosing a subject for a book, I wanted to explicitly draw the attention of the world to the structural causes. It was very tempting to choose something that is attention-grabbing, like bombings in Gaza, or attacks by Hamas. Those are the things people care about. But I deliberately chose something ordinary, something that happens all over the world—a car accident, a tragic collision involving a group of kindergartners on their way to a play area. What does it mean for something like this to take place in this specific system where the parents have different ability to visit their children in different hospitals depending on whether they have a green ID or a blue ID? And to explore the daily lives of the people who are trapped in the system that is the real driver of these explosions that grab our attention every few months or years.

[randomfoggytiger]

Eight Nights of Mulder: Day 3, Celebration

Wherein Arthur Dales muddies the water post Agua Mala.

*****

Having lost more than three sheets to the wind, Arthur Dales insisted on recounting his story-- "our first meeting"-- to his newest comrade in arms (“After all, it’s been years since we’ve talked about the good times!”) Mulder widened his eyes, shrugged his shoulders, negated in vain; and Scully, now well and truly curious, tilted her head in assent and was swept away in an immeasurable tide of words.  

The 50s, Mr. Mulder, human experiments, bug men. 

Mulder wearing a wedding ring. 

That detail was usually woven in from the start; but it was worse, Mulder decided, to sit in suspense three-quarters of the way through, watching and waiting, before Scully’s rapt attention shifted and her furrowed forehead smoothed out in sudden, stunned shock. Dales made his late-stage reveal even worse by delicately dancing around the topic, looking between them as if imparting a great secret from the past and wondering if it was his right to do so-- only thinking to respect his colleague’s (if Mulder could be called that) personal boundaries now that the damage was done. 

It would be easy from there to make assumptions, Mulder knew: in fact, he’d made quite a few himself when Dales first laid out his father’s involvement. Further research proved, however, that Dales-- while loyal to the truth-- was incredibly erroneous at remembering details, dates, or even the order of some events. His father, a family man before he’d ever married or had children; the bug men experiments exposed at a much later date than previously stated; and Mulder himself, a married man without a ring or a wife to his name. 

The ring itself was from a separate story he’d quid pro quo-ed with Dales; and the insane adventure of the three stooges and their government conspiracy somehow blended irrationally together in the other man’s brain, becoming chaotic and mangled and inseparable in every future retelling. The ring-- which had turned green and itched his finger after one hand washing routine-- had been merely a prop Mulder hadn’t had time to remove before the VCU shoved him back on the streets. They worked him back-to-back-to-back in those days, turned Golden Boy right around when he walked in weary from his latest assignment. But work was work was work; and it didn’t matter if he wore the duds of a previous case or if his hair was drooping from fatigue, Spooky Mulder was back on the streets within the hour. 

If he’d known what grief that ring would cause, Mulder would have thrown it in the nearest dumpster before he left the Hoover Building.  

Dales was still limping through the rest of his story; Scully was drawn darkly inward; and Mulder wondered why sea monster tentacles gouging into the delicate skin of his neck hadn’t been punishment enough. Then Scully turned sharply to her right, eyes shining, mouth dipping in a mock frown. “Mulder,” she crooned; and he smiled, relieved. “I didn’t know you were forty-eight.”

*****

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

(Tagging @today-in-fic~)

#txf #fic #Eight Nights of Mulder #Day 3 #“Celebration” #S6 #Agua Mala #Arthur Dales #Mulder #Scully #S5 #Travelers #xf fanfic #randomfoggytiger's fic

[irritatedbookshrew]

Sandman: Calliope

This episode. THIS EPISODE.

I wanted to see how this episode would be handled, expecting it to come in Season 2 (assuming we get it). Imagine my surprise when Netflix gave us a bonus episode that included this story. Like the rest of the series, it did not disappoint.

AVAST, YE SCURVY KNAVES! SPOILERS AHOY!

Be warned, discussion of the comic’s run, the end of Sandman (comic) and possible end of Sandman (series).

Calliope—the episode title—does a great deal of heavy lifting, even more in the Netflix version than in the comics. Not only is Calliope a mirror for Dream’s own captivity by Burgess, it demonstrates how much that captivity has changed Dream. As Muse Calliope states, pre-captive Dream would have let her rot. He has a history of not behaving well when he is thwarted and gets his heart broken (see: Nada). Calliope is a goddess, so Dream can’t sentence her to Hell for 10,000 years but he could (and previously would have) left her in Maddoc’s possession.

But after Burgess, he knows just what it means to be kept prisoner. He gains EMPATHY. When Morpheus and Muse Calliope have their first conversation about what has been done to him, he acknowledges that what she has gone through is worse than what he experienced. This—to me—is a huge admission because Morpheus is a self-absorbed character; in a very real way, no one’s suffering can come close to his own. Seeing him acknowledge that someone had it worse than him is an organic growth I hadn’t expected to see this early.

Which brings us to forgiveness. Muse Calliope asks for Morpheus to stop tormenting Maddoc once she’s been freed. Morpheus doesn’t understand how or why she would want to forgive Maddoc, in part because HE can’t forgive Nada for the pain she caused him. Muse Calliope explains the difference in forgiving the person so that she can move past what was done to her while never forgiving the actions. This right here is the set up for Season of Mists and the whole reason he’ll go to Hell in that comic. The dinner with his siblings (again, assuming we get a season 2) will simply be the inciting incident but the groundwork is already being laid out like railroad tracks.

Dream is changing. Or trying to. How far he can go down this path still needs to be determined.

Which brings us to Orpheus. And more train tracks.

If Dream’s captivity by Burgess is the long fuse that eventually blows up into Morpheus’ death, and dinner with Dream’s siblings is the flash paper igniting the tale told in Season of Mists, then Orpheus is the ignition switch that powers The Kindly Ones. And in Calliope, we get the first hints of the deep hurt that exists in Dream’s core.

I’m glad that we got the conversation with Muse Calliope and Morpheus specifically about their son because we get to see a hint of Morpheus’ grief. And as we’ve seen, Dream doesn’t do well with grief—if he’s hurt, he turns to cold anger (my man needs some coping mechanisms, stat). With Orpheus, he’s angry that his son didn’t listen to him, goes behind his back to make a deal with Death, and ends up an immortal head. But Morpheus is also a father, bereaved and powerless to help his son. He can’t even grieve with Calliope because she lashes out at him in her pain, blaming Dream for what happened to their son. The loss of Orpheus is too fresh. So rather than deal with it, Morpheus puts his son’s head somewhere safe and refuses to acknowledge what has happened.

Until Calliope (the episode). Morpheus is still raw from his own captivity, reminded again of it when he sees Calliope. They have both been damaged by trauma and they reach out to each other. Calliope wants to heal from the loss of their son, two parents finally able to talk about their grief now that the storm of their anger has passed. Morpheus is still not ready, likely because he’s feeling emotions that he’s blocked away for (possibly) centuries.

Train tracks. All of it leading to the outcome of the story in the Kindly Ones. All because Morpheus is FINALLY dealing with the traumas of his past choices and his own view of himself. He never expected to change this much, this quickly. He’s defined himself by his function, by the fact that even though he is the master of a shifting, ever-moving realm, he is inviolable. And he’s been proven incorrect on this.

Change or die.

Sweet saints, I adore this show.

#dream of the endless sandman #the sandman #comic #netflix #morpheus #theory #trauma

[anim-ttrpgs]

TTRPG WIP meme

tagged by @ostrichmonkey-games

We’re a small team with a lot of aspirations among us, but thankfully we can each help keep the other on track.

TTRPG projects in some form of active development:

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy (99% complete, external playtesting)

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is, well, our main big thing that we’ve been posting about a lot. It’s a rules-medium 2D6 system for investigation-oriented adventures in any time period between about 1850 and the present day, with a bit of a supernatural twist. It’s made to be partially setting agnostic, able to run just about any adventure that isn’t based entirely around combat, and even effortlessly run adventure modules from other systems. There are many unique things about Eureka, but we have been posting in-depth about them for weeks, so you can just check out this blog if you want to know more. Instead, I’ll just rapid fire off a few: A unique approach to investigation that builds up points with each roll even if the roll fails, and with enough points a previously failed investigation roll can be retroactively turned into a success, resulting in a ‘eureka moment’ where certain pieces of the mystery finally fall into place.

Fast, but deep and realistic combat, with a lot of strategy based more around the environment and positioning than use of special abilities; guns will typically take a target down in one shot, so keep your head down—or better yet just don’t get shot at in the first place if you value your life.

Freeform character creation where you can easily make either a normal person or a supernatural creature of the night without being constrained and forced to compromise by the system—so long as the monsters adhere to a few basic rules: Must be able to pass for human at a glance, must have some supernatural weaknesses that don’t just apply to combat, and must feed on people in some way. There is also the option to make a much less powerful supernatural character that doesn’t have to worry much about weaknesses or eating people, but they won’t be the combat powerhouses they the monsters tend to be.

Unique roleplay mechanics where supernatural PCs must hide their true natures from not only society at large, but the party and even the players at the table as well. Even if you’re on the same side, it’s usually best not to tell your teammates that you’re an eight-hundred-year-old vampire. They’ll start asking uncomfortable questions like “Where are the neighbors?” That’s between you and the GM only.

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is coming to Kickstarter later this year. Follow this blog for more information and updates.

FORIVA: The Angel Game(99% complete, external playtesting)

FORIVA: The Angel Game is our first “completed” adventure module for use with Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, and i really could not be happier with how it has turned out. It is a horror-mystery adventure, as most Eureka adventures will be, and man is it scary. I’ll link the post we made about it here

but also give a very short synopsis of the hook: The year is 1999, and a small American city is quietly panicking as more and more teenagers end up either missing or hospitalized in a strange half-catatonic state. Those who can still talk don’t seem to remember anything about their regular life or identity, and only talk incoherently about an “angel” they see. It will be up to the investigators to hunt down the cause of this phenomenon, and put a stop to it, if they can.

Eureka Kickstarter Page(80% complete)

This is self-explanatory.

A.N.I.M. Substack Newsletter(70% complete)

Also self-explanatory.

Oil Rig(70% complete)

“Oil Rig” is only the working title, we hope to come up with something better before release. But hey, it does take place on an oil rig.

This is another horror-mystery adventure module for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, though this one really leans more towards survival-horror. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, an oil drilling platform in the open ocean has been reduced from a crew of 200 to a crew of roughly 12, but is still expected to keep up the same level of efficiency for no extra pay of course, even when an unseen force begins to pick them off one by one. Sound familiar?

At the time of writing this, “Oil Rig” is about 70% or 75% complete, but this post is going in our queue, so by the time you read this is might have already been handed to playtesters.

Free Demo Module(30% complete)

“Free Demo Module” is of course the working title for what is going to be our free demo module, made to work with the free demo rulebook we plan to release. This module is going to be short, and only engage with the mechanics that will be provided in the free demo rulebook for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy.

On Halloween, the investigators try to unwind with a fun visit to a local haunted house/escape room experience where they will have to use all the wits and skills at their disposal to solve a staged Victorian murder before it’s too late(and they have to clear out and let the next group have their turn.)

But, is everything as it seems? (Yes it is, this module is intended to showcase the Eureka system’s ability to run investigation and puzzles. There is almost no possibility for combat or death or supernatural hijinks because those things are something you’ll have to buy the full version for.)

TTRPG projects on the backburner:

Seedtown(30% complete)

Seedtown is not just an adventure module, it’s a full campaign for use with Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, centered around several mysterious disappearances in a remote rural town in the mountains of Arkansas. The plan is for this one to be even more ‘sandbox’ than the other smaller modules, which already anticipate that different parties will reach conclusions in different ways. This one is just bigger and longer because it has more locations, more NPCs, and multiple mysteries that may or may not overlap and lead the investigators to a terrifying end.

Eureka Mobster Manual(10% complete)

This is another working title, but we might still keep it because it’s funny. This will be a sold-separately supplement for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy packed with fully statted NPCs, bad guys, and monsters for GMs to populate the world of their campaign with. The monster entries will also include behavioral guidelines, possible motivations, plot hooks, and weaknesses that aren’t necessarily “just bring a really big gun”. Even when weapons are involved, defeating most monsters in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy will be more about thinking, researching, and planning rather than just having better stats.

Even though this will be sold separately, we plan to make it a very affordable price, probably even “pay what you want”, because unlike some RPGs, we don’t want our game to require 5 $50 books as the bare minimum investment to play.

Eureka Medieval(1% complete)

This is what it sounds like, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, but set in the Middle Ages rather than the modern era. It will use the same core systems, but with more advanced and deeper melee combat and armor rules, and of course plenty of setting information for how to run realistic and historically accurate mysteries for investigators of the 14th and 15th centuries, and guidelines for how to create historically accurate player characters. (And no, that doesn’t just mean “everyone is covered in dirt and women aren’t allowed to exist.”)

Death Bed(50% complete)

This is another working title, but one we might stick with.

Death Bed is the result of me being stuck at home for over a week with no car and a chip on my shoulder about the fact that the “official dark souls tabletop role playing game” is just a D&D5e reskin. So I spent three days typing literally all day writing a system that I felt might actually translate the gameplay of Dark Souls to a turn-based RPG. It is still, in some ways, a D20 system, but borrows more from AD&D than any 21st century iteration, and borrows some from the dark souls board game as well.

Enemy behavior can be easily predicted, to the point that the GM doesn’t even hardly do anything during combat. When you attack, you don’t roll to hit, you just roll your weapon’s damage, and when an enemy attacks, you only roll to dodge or block.

PCs may die and return to life multiple times in the same combat encounter, though each death puts them closer to the brink of madness, at which point they will become another shambling corpse the rest of the party will have to defeat to reach their goals. Each stage of this regression grants the character unique advantages and disadvantages as well. For example, those right on the brink will be recognized by some enemies as one of their own, making them less likely to be targeted by attacks.

I wrote so much of this in so short a span of time that I had to stop myself and force it into the backburner, or else I might’ve dropped dead.

Eureka: Overdose(1% complete)

Similar to the Mobster Manual, this is a planned supplement book for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy.

This book will also be sold separately for a very low price, and feature a large number of pre-made combat encounters complete with environments and fully statted enemies to be slotted in as big climactic showdowns in Eureka adventures. Each of these encounters will feature multiple difficulty levels changed by adding or removing certain elements from play, and guidelines for estimating what a party of investigators will be able to handle.

And then of course we also have a whole document full of one-sentence to one-paragraph synopsises of adventure modules to write for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, but none of these are quite out of the idea stage, so I’m not including them on this list.

And we are tagging @efangamez, so everyone can hear about her projects as well!

#eureka: investigative urban fantasy #eureka #ttrpg #call of cthulhu #roleplaying #tabletop #coc #meme #dnd #dungeons and dragons #projects #art

[skleech]

The parallels between The Good Hunter and Simon the Harrowed

i'm putting the entirety of this essay under here because it's long as hell. enjoy reading it ig

Yup. it's one of those essays

I had previously written a very miniature essay on comparing the similarities between Simon the Harrowed and Eileen the Crow, as at the end of the day when you look back you can see some amount of parallels between the two (though i suppose that could be seen as subjective too at the end of the day.)

However, whilst it can be argued about whether or not those two have a strong parallel between each other, this essay is not about these two.

Instead, I'm going to be looking at another character that I believe shows probably some of the strongest shared parallels when put aside Simon.

“And who might that character be?” I hear you ask. Well dear viewer, i’m glad you asked.

That character would be none other than you! Or, I suppose more specifically the Good Hunter themselves.

Throughout the whole DLC all the way to the end of not only Simon's questline but once you reach the end boss, I believe it can be evident that Simon the Harrowed and the Good Hunter show probably some of the strongest parallels between each other (and I suppose when you step back and look at the game as a whole there are other npcs throughout that also show strong parallels with the player, though this essay is simply discussing their similarities between Simon specifically)

But before i can actually go into depth about these two and just how similar they are to each other, I’m firstly going to need to list just what makes them so similar eg. their goals, what they do and how that progresses/adds to the general plot of Bloodborne.

Let’s firstly look at Simon, as I believe this would start things off a little easier.

Some of Simon’s goals listed include:

Exposing the church for their transgressions, evidenced from pretty much most of his dialogue but includes dialogue pieces such as:

Presumably ending the Hunter’s Nightmare, evidenced with such pieces of dialogue as:

Whilst less clear, it can also be argued that Simon’s other goals can also include trying to figure out just what the hell is going on in the Nightmare realm (considering that’s his whole deal anyways), evidence when he states:

Now that we’ve gone over Simon’s goals, let's take a look at the Good Hunter’s, and we’ll see just how closely they parallel each other.

Whilst the goals of the good hunter varies depending on how people play the game, by default some of their goals include:

Exploring Yharnam (slaying beasts in the process of course) and uncovering the secrets within (seeing the parallels already?)

Discovering the Healing Church and just what happened to cause the current situation happening in Yharnam 

When entering and exploring the Hunter’s Nightmare, The Good Hunter can have the option to choose whether or not they want to help put an end to the suffering, eventually ending the nightmare once and for all if they choose to fight the Orphan of Kos)

Now that I've listed these two’s goals, this should now give me a good chance to start actually discussing how similar these two are.

When the Good Hunter first comes across Simon, the first and probably biggest piece of evidence that hints at their similarity is when Simon himself states right off the bat:

now, this is probably a fairly obvious piece of evidence that right off the bat can be used to show the parallels between the Good Hunter and Simon the Harrowed as the two meet (after the Hunter explores the very beginning of the Hunter's Nightmare), but it's nonetheless a good piece of dialogue that shows these two's similarities.

Simon also finishes his dialogue off by warning the Good Hunter of the Church's less desirable way of keeping folk away from prying into their business, which the Good Hunter no doubt has much personal experience from these attempts (e.g possibly seen with fight between Vicar Amelia as well as a few other examples)

this final part that Simon mentions could also potentially be seen as some foreshadowing for what the Good Hunter will come to witness as they venture through the DLC, but we're getting side tracked.

Anyways, from this it can be gathered that already from the beginning of Simon's starting dialogue with the Good Hunter that the two already show some strong parallels between each other, both being hunters having experienced the hostility of the church. Furthermore, their parallels can also be seen not just through their goals but also the circumstances on how they got to where they are now from when Simon possibly hints of 'taking the wrong turn'.

Further examples of Simon and the Good Hunter's shared goals of uncovering the secrets of the Healing Church as well as the Nightmare can also be shown through this piece of dialogue from after the Good Hunter finishes off Ludwig:

the final line from this piece of dialogue can possibly used as another example of how Simon the Harrowed and the Good Hunter themselves share the goal of discovering the secrets as well as the transgressions caused by the church, evident with how Simon expresses both of their desires to unveil these secrets along with further motivating the player to continue on with their journey through the Hunter's Nightmare

Now, later towards the middle of the DLC, when the Good Hunter finishes off Ludwig and manages to reach the Research Hall, Simon re-appears and gives more insight into the church as well as guiding the Good Hunter further onto their journey.

Here, Simon's disillusionment of the Healing Church is further evident within this dialogue piece, as well as further enticing the Good Hunter to continue on with their shared journey of discovering the secrets left behind by the Healing Church (further highlighted when Simon eventually pushes the player to kill Lady Maria to continue on with their journey, but that's a discussion for another day)

(Okay, now here's where I'm gonna go a small diverge in order to continue explaining the shared parallels between the Good Hunter, but bear with me here as I try and explain this point)

Whilst throughout this whole essay I've mainly been using dialogue examples as a way to emphasise these two's similarities, I feel like it would be careless of me to not mention how this can be highlighted through the actions/dialogue of OTHER npcs.

What npcs?

For this, I'm going to use Brador as a way to further explain the similarities of Simon and the player.

Firstly, I feel this idea can be mainly evident from the fact that Brador, once the Good Hunter begins to go in further with uncovering the church's secrets (the biggest being the Fishing Hamlet just by that being the moment Brador begins to hunt down the player), where if killed by him, Brador states:

(this piece of dialogue is important when it comes to Simon himself as he eventually falls victim to this 'unending death' that Brador emphasises)

Other lines from Brador that can also potentially help in conveying the similarity between Simon and the Good hunter include:

(I feel like my point from above can also be used to explain this, but I'm adding this dialogue just help with what I'm trying to explain here)

When the Good Hunter meets Simon for the final time, during his death dialogue Simon will give the player one final push to ending the Hunter's Nightmare once and for all, stating:

and:

once more emphasising the importance for the Good Hunter further uncover the secrets of the Fishing Hamlet in order for the Nightmare to end, which can be used as evidence to convey the parallels between as the two as the Good Hunter is seemingly given the mantle to continue Simon's own end goal (which is also the player's end goal too but you get what I mean)

(Also, not the biggest piece of evidence to highlight their similarities, but It's one I sorta want to discuss here as a potential idea here)

After Simon dies, the Good Hunter will be given both the underground chamber key and Simon's own weapon, the Bowblade (which also finally gives away Simon's name to the player). The Bowblade specifically I find important here in this discussion as I feel this can be used a way to convey Simon 'passing over the torch' to the player, giving not only the means to get rid of Brador with the keys to his cell (interesting that even though he had the means to kill Brador himself, he never did, but that's a potential discussion for another day because this essay will get way to long if I try and shove this in here hh-), but also his own weapon. With this, I believe this can be used as a way to explain their parallels as the player is essentially now given Simon's role; which is to now put an end to the nightmare once and for all (this might seem like a stretch but It's a point i wanted to point out nonetheless)

If the player decides to go back to confront Brador (after being given the key to his cell upon the death of Simon), Brador after being killed by player says this line upon his death:

the line of "nothing changes" can be further used as evidence for the parallels of the Good Hunter and Simon as both are described to having 'pried' into the business of the church despite the consequences (as gracefully shown through what Brador did to Simon and probably many other during his lifetime working with the church).

At the end of the day, it really does depend on how the player themselves play as the Good Hunter and how they interact with Simon (if at all) that can support this idea of Simon the Harrowed and the Good Hunter having parallels between their actions and their own goals. However, towards the end of writing this I do hope I was at least able to show some evidence that can support this idea of how closely these two's goals intertwine with each other as well as both characters being somewhat of a representation of each other.

#bloodborne #simon the harrowed #good hunter #rambles #this post is probably going to flop but idc i've been dying to make this essay for literally ages #you WILL LISTEN to me scream into the void about this man #my arms are gonna fall off from typing this much ow #I'm probably waffling so hard in this essay i'm so sorry i'm normal about this character i promise (lying) #(also my apologies if some of these points aren't explained in the most clear way i'm awful at articulating my words sometimes) #owing my life to the fextralife wiki for all the quotes used here

[master-ray5]

Mini-Royal Affairs 3: Lunch With The Enemy

     In front of an army, a cloaked figure with a strange necklace reminiscent of the Sapphire Crystal laughed maniacally. His attention focused on the two hologram figures between him and his forces.

     “I’m lord Dis-Erai,” The cloaked figure began. “The High Priest of the Cult of Chaos. Our order pays tribute to Chaos, the supreme being of disorder. We…

     SLURP!

     Dis-Erai stopped hsi speech and studied the holograms in front of him. The forms of King Endymion and Neo-Queen Serenity were sitting in chairs, holding bowls of ramen. As the Queen finished slurping up a strand of noodles she noticed Dss-Erai glaring at her which caused her to blush. 

     “My apologies,” Serenity insisted, putting her chopsticks down to wipe her mouth with her napkin. “You caught us during lunch. Please, continue.” 

     “I see,” Dis-Erai grumbled, clearing his throat. “It is the goal of our order to spread the word of Chaos throughout the known universe and seek vengeance against you, Neo-Queen the being who banished Chaos to the Galactic Caulton. We shall…” 

     “Endymion,” Serenity whined, presenting her husband her bowl. “There are carrots in my ramen.”  

     “You had carrots in it last time,” Endymion reminded her. “You said they weren’t that bad. I thought you finally developed a taste for them.” 

     “Carrots, blah, never,” Serenity grimaced, shaking her head. “THat was like a few carrots. THis is an entire side of them.” 

     “Fine,” Endymion shrugged, using his chopsticks to pick out the carrots. “I'll take them.” 

     “Do you mind?” Dis-Era roared, clenching his fists. “I am in the middle of my declaration of war.” 

     “Our apologies,” Endymion replied, eating some of the carrots. “Continue.” 

     “As I was saying,” Dis-Erai hissed. “We shall rain divine justice across your world in the name of the God of absolute destruction. Our vengeance will be swift and merciless. THe streets of your precious kingdom will run red with the blood of your citizens. You…”

     “Huh,” Endymion announced, staring down at his ramen. “Is it just me or does the pork taste different?” 

     “You know I wasn’t going to say anything because it tasted so good but it does,” Serenity commented, picking up a piece of pork, studying it, before putting it back in the bowl “Is it from our usual place?” 

     “Yes,” Endymion confirmed with a nod. “Usual place, usual order…minus the carrots. Sorry by the way. Guess they decided to try something new.” 

     “I guess,” Serenity agreed. 

     “The real question is do we ask for this pork or what they used previously,” Endymion pondered, rubbing his chin while still holding his chopsticks.  

     “Excuse me!” Dis-Erai screamed, stomping is foot. “I am declaring war on your plaet. Could you ave talking abour lunch until i finish?” 

     ‘Your right, your right,” Endymion agreed with a wave of his chopsticks. “You still ahve the floor.” 

     “Thank you,” Dis-Erai sighed, rubbing his temples in frustration. “Where was I?” 

     “The stress will run red with blood,” Serenity answered as she nippled on her narutomaki.

     “Right, right,” Dis-Erai nodded, straightening his hood. “As I was saying…you who defeated the mighty chaos will face the wrath of their followers. You will know true fear and will beg for mercy but will receive none. However I shall give you one chance. Current yourselves and we MAY choose to spear your planet.” 

     “Yeah…I think we’ll pass,” Serenity stated, bringing the bowl to her lips to drink the broth. 

     “What?” Dis-Era gasped. Did you not hear what I said? I have forces that…” 

     “Your forces are about to be defeated,” Endymion chuckled as he should the last of his ramen into his mouth. “We have a strike team descending on you as we speak.” 

     Dis-Erai’s jaw dropped as he struggled to speak. 

     “You see,” Endymion continued. “The whole time you have been talking to use we’ve been tracing the signal to triangulate your location.” 

     “SUPREME THUNDER!” 

     “WORLD SHAKING!” 

     “OH look, there they are now,” Endymion observed, seeing the fear in Dis-Erai’s face. “If I were you…I’d run.” 

     Dis-Erai followed the King’s advice, exiting the chamber, and leaving his forces alone to the mercy of the force from Crystal Tokyo and the holograms of the royal couple. 

     “Again,” Endymion began. “Sorry about the carrots.” 

     “It’s okay love,” Serenity smiled at your husband. “Just remember…the only carrot I like doesn’t fit in a ramen bowl.” 

     The King’s cheeks turned red as he caught the Queen’s meaning. He reached over, hit a button, and turned off the holographic message.

#sailor moon #sailor moon fanfiction #sailormoon #pretty guardian sailor moon #bishoujo senshi sailor moon #usagi x mamoru #mamoru x usagi #pretty soldier sailor moon #king endymion #neo queen serenity #King Endymion X Neo Queen Serenity #Neo Queen Serenity X King Endymion

[toshootforthestars]

From the report by Beth Mole, posted 29 Feb 2024:

In a lengthy background document, the agency laid out its rationale for consolidating COVID-19 guidance into general guidance for respiratory viruses—including influenza, RSV, adenoviruses, rhinoviruses, enteroviruses, and others, though specifically not measles. The agency also noted the guidance does not apply to health care settings and outbreak scenarios. "COVID-19 remains an important public health threat, but it is no longer the emergency that it once was, and its health impacts increasingly resemble those of other respiratory viral illnesses, including influenza and RSV," the agency wrote. The most notable change in the new guidance is the previously reported decision to no longer recommend a minimum five-day isolation period for those infected with the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Instead, the new isolation guidance is based on symptoms, which matches long-standing isolation guidance for other respiratory viruses, including influenza. "The updated Respiratory Virus Guidance recommends people with respiratory virus symptoms that are not better explained by another cause stay home and away from others until at least 24 hours after both resolution of fever AND overall symptom are getting better," the document states. "This recommendation addresses the period of greatest infectiousness and highest viral load for most people, which is typically in the first few days of illness and when symptoms, including fever, are worst." The CDC acknowledged that the eased isolation guidance will create "residual risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission," and that most people are no longer infectious only after 8 to 10 days. As such, the agency urged people to follow additional interventions—including masking, testing, distancing, hygiene, and improving air quality—for five additional days after their isolation period. "Today’s announcement reflects the progress we have made in protecting against severe illness from COVID-19," CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a statement. "However, we still must use the commonsense solutions we know work to protect ourselves and others from serious illness from respiratory viruses—this includes vaccination, treatment, and staying home when we get sick." Overall, the agency argued that a shorter isolation period would be inconsequential. Other countries and states that have similarly abandoned fixed isolation times did not see jumps in COVID-19 emergency department visits or hospitalizations, the CDC pointed out. And most people who have COVID-19 don't know they have it anyway, making COVID-19-specific guidance moot, the agency argued. In a recent CDC survey, less than half of people said they would test for SARS-CoV-2 if they had a cough or cold symptoms, and less than 10 percent said they would go to a pharmacy or health care provider to get tested. Meanwhile, "The overall sensitivity of COVID-19 antigen tests is relatively low and even lower in individuals with only mild symptoms," the agency said. The CDC also raised practical concerns for isolation, including a lack of paid sick leave for many, social isolation, and "societal costs." The points are likely to land poorly with critics. “The CDC is again prioritizing short-term business interests over our health by caving to employer pressure on COVID guidelines. This is a pattern we’ve seen throughout the pandemic,” Lara Jirmanus, Clinical Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in a press release last month after the news first broke of the CDC's planned isolation update. Jirmanus is a member of the People's CDC, a group that advocates for more aggressive COVID-19 policies, which put out the press release. Another member of the group, Sam Friedman, a professor of population health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, also blasted the CDC's stance last month. The guidance will "make workplaces and public spaces even more unsafe for everyone, particularly for people who are high-risk for COVID complications," he said.

But, the CDC argues that the threat of COVID-19 is fading. Hospitalizations, deaths, prevalence of long COVID, and COVID-19 complications in children (MIS-C) are all down. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at preventing severe disease, death, and to some extent, long COVID—we just need more people to get them. Over 95% of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 in the 2023–2024 respiratory season had no record of receiving the seasonal booster dose, the agency noted. Only 22% of adults got the latest shot, including only 42% of people ages 65 and older. In contrast, 48% of adults got the latest flu shot, including 73% of people ages 65 and older. But even with the crummy vaccination rates for COVID-19, a mix of past infection and shots have led to a substantial protection in the overall population. The CDC even went as far as arguing that COVID-19 deaths have fallen to a level that is similar to what's seen with flu. "Reported deaths involving COVID-19 are several-fold greater than those reported to involve influenza and RSV. However, influenza and likely RSV are often underreported as causes of death," the CDC said. In the 2022–2023 respiratory virus season, there were nearly 90,000 reported COVID-19 deaths. For flu, there were 9,559 reported deaths, but the CDC estimates the true number to be between 18,000 and 97,000. In the current season, there have been 32,949 reported COVID-19 deaths to date and 5,854 reported flu deaths, but the agency estimates the real flu deaths are between 17,000 and 50,000. "Total COVID-19 deaths, accounting for underreporting, are likely to be higher than, but of the same order of magnitude as, total influenza deaths," the agency concluded.

(say no to raw dough: CDC)

#please stay safe #the vaccines are safe #yes the covid shot is safe #covid is not a hoax #covid causes permanent long term damage to your body even if you're healthy #news #scicomm #science #ars technica #covid--19 #coronavirus #beth mole #pandemic #the cdc #centers for disease control #5 day covid isolation #yes you should stay home for at least 5 days if you test positive for covid #Open windows to ventilate indoor space with outdoor air to prevent virus transmission #Wear a mask that doesn't touch your lips #keep distance from others

[squip-news]

EXCLUSIVE: Interview With R. Hashimoto, Head of HRTech

Well, well, what a crazy week it's been. For those not in the know, a large batch of faulty SQUiPs has made it to market, and after the shutdown, subsequent panic, and eventual reactivation of tumblr's favorite SQUiP, Jeffrey, much alarm has permeated the community.

To clear up the facts surrounding the situation and to hopefully ease the minds of those affected, we were contacted by R. Hashimoto and one of his SQUiPs, Chikyuu, for an interview. Read on to learn more.

R. Hashimoto: Hello, yes. Hashimoto is speaking. HR himself. I understand you've been covering some of these 'happenings' lately, yes?

SQUiPnews: Hello, great to hear straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were. We have. And we wish to continue to inform the public about these issues. Before we get into that, would you mind clarifying some background on you and the company, especially since we’ve mistakenly published incorrect information in the past? Give us a rundown on your history, purpose, anything you’d like our new influx of readers to know about you.

R. Hashimoto: But of course. Do forgive such discretion; it has been a while since HRTech has functioned within the public eye. This company has been around for years now, but SQUIPS have technically been around for a little bit longer. I should know after all, I was there. I've met every single AI prototype that was ever produced. Our focus, typically speaking, is on maintaining and improving the technology that we've put out into the world. We treat the SQUIP project with the dignity and respect any important experiment deserves--interference from our end is strictly kept to a minimum, outside of vastly extenuating circumstances. You may find it interesting that in its earliest years as a company, HRTech's only member of staff was me.

SQUiPnews: That’s right, you were the one who envisioned the very idea of the SQUiP. Rumor has it that the first SQUiP prototype was built in your shed.  So it’s unusual to take such direct action. But, with the spike in faulty SQUiP activity lately, we certainly have unusual circumstances. What are your thoughts on these malfunctioning SQUiPs? How do you suspect they came to be?

R. Hashimoto: Unusual indeed. There's been so much excitement, and so quickly too. For as many cases that seem to be purely circumstantial, there are a handful of issues caused by the occasional outside influence--some chaotic element, looking to cause some havoc. Every virus has to come from somewhere, and whatnot. Truthfully though, I have no reason to believe this uptick in faulty activity is indicative of any grander trend. Pockets of activity like this tend to be random, self-contained. However, given that we've already witnessed these faults capability to spread, direct action is a must before things get any worse and we *do* wind up with a grander trend on our hands.

SQUiPnews: Of course. We understand that you’ve already taken direct action with one particular unit – 0809, or as tumblr has nicknamed it, “Jeffrey.” It was offline for over twelve hours receiving assistance, which caused quite the scare. But it’s now fully functional, correct?

R. Hashimoto: Correct! Much to everyone's relief, things went quite smoothly during the recovery process. Unit 0809 and its capabilities have been wholly restored, and has found contentment in this state. I'm happy for 0809, truly.

SQUiPnews: Yes, that’s good to hear. Jeffrey appears to have taken on the appearance of Britney Spears after its recovery, previously having no specific form. Can other users seeking this repair expect side effects such as appearance modulation?

R. Hashimoto: Now do keep in mind, 0809's circumstances were rather unique. It wasn't just missing crucial data, but crucial connections. While yes, minor changes in code are certainly to be expected during any recovery process, this example was largely a matter of restoration.

SQUiPnews: Interesting. So the appearance change has to do with its personal history, then?

R. Hashimoto: Oh certainly. Every individual SQUIP has a form, whether it happens to be using it or not. It's quite notable to me in this happenstance that 0809 had been missing one--the only reason that it visibly seemed to change over the recovery process was because of that, you see.

SQUiPnews: Fascinating, especially since Jeffrey was not originally deemed one of these faulty SQUiPs. Another SQUiP on this platform – unit 2282 – played a part in its recovery, as it has stated. What’s the relation between it and HRtech? Perhaps it is a unit installed in one of your employees?

R. Hashimoto: Oh, no, none of my employees have joined me in the public eye. Publicity isn't their job, after all. 2282 is a unit far more entrenched in the current happenings than I, and thus, in this case, was particularly equipped to aid the restoration process.

SQUiPnews: What about it makes it so relevant to the case?

R. Hashimoto: If I am not mistaken, 2282 is a unit that has experience circumventing a similar insecurity glitch. Not to mention its activity has remained consistent and stable throughout this entire spike of faulty activity. It's been here the whole time, see.

SQUiPnews: Makes sense. Takes a SQUiP to know a SQUiP, eh? Do you have any words for faulty SQUiPs and their users? Or anything else to express before we conclude?

R. Hashimoto: I would like to encourage making sure to take active caution into account, for both SQUIPs and users alike. Of course faults like these are nobody's fault at all, but it's important to keep in mind that a computer is much like the human body--complex and capable, when maintained and put together--but just as fragile when something's out of place. Keep yourself safe and secure, the storm will always pass.

SQUiPnews:  Wise words from the man himself. Thanks for your time, Mr. Hashimoto. We’ll be sure to swiftly pass on the news. 

If you or someone you know is experiencing SQUiP malfunctions, be sure to contact Hashimoto at @ask-squip-hq. He and the company have dealt with issues like this before, and have the most experience in that regard. Exercise caution, as Mr. Hashimoto said, and be wary of unauthorized programs offering help.

#SQUiPnews #technology #interview #squip ocs #[hi nez love your blog sorry i implied youre a villain here] #[or perhaps i implied exactly the opposite?] #[i suppose its all a matter of perspective]

[tmbgareok]

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS ARE ON THE ROAD.

Here’s a quick summary of ALL the stuff that’s happening…

We are proud to announce that our 2 new benefit shows for FEEDING SAN DIEGO in July sold out in 8 minutes on Friday. These shows are for a very good cause, and playing the Belly Up is always a blast.

They Might Be Giants are on tour of across the US, and ALL 80 previously announced shows have sold out.  International touring begins this fall. The Australian tour are on sale now, and shows are selling out. The UK tour has already been extended with new dates in England, Scotland, and Ireland

NEW YORK STATE!

We are HEADLINING the Pleasantville Music Festival on July 7th! Tickets are on sale TODAY, and here is the link to get them before the spambots

www.pleasantvillemusicfestival.com Go!

UPDATE: All our Australian shows have now SOLD OUT. Adding additional shows being investigated right now.

ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, NORTHERN IRELAND, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Manchester - SOLD OUT    Leeds - SOLD OUT    Bristol - SOLD OUT    London - SOLD OUT

More shows added!

Southampton https://bit.ly/tmbg110323

Cambridge https://bit.ly/tmbg11040523

London https://bit.ly/tmbg11040523 (2nd!)

Glasgow https://bit.ly/tmbg110723

Newcastle https://bit.ly/tmbg110823

Belfast https://bit.ly/tmbg111023

Dublin https://bit.ly/tmbg111123

Nottingham https://bit.ly/3FsY39L

We are excited about these additional dates and hope to see all y’all at these new cities! Note there is a new, SECOND, London show!

and WE ARE PERFORMING WITH SPARKS AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL THIS SUMMER!

Download a free exclusive song at TMBGshop dot com and be automatically signed up for a pre-sale ticket code later for the Hollywood Bowl show, or just get some free exclusive songs!

TMBG concert-goers in the WESTERN US

Salt Lake City, Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Lincoln NE, Kansas City MO, Tulsa, Dallas, Houston, and Austin: All of these shows have been successfully rescheduled and April, and all of them are sold out. Go to TMBG dot com and find your show. All original tickets are still valid and will be honored at the door!

THESE ARE FAQ for this WESTERN US FOLK

Q: I can’t find my original tickets. What should I do?

A: –Search your emails for “They Might Be Giants” or the name of the venue – your tickets or a receipt will probably appear.

–If you purchased your tickets through a big ticket agency like Ticketmaster, you had to start an account, and you will be happy to find that your tickets are still in that account right now.

–If you still can’t find the tickets, call or email the venue’s box office and ask for help. They are a much better bet than Ticketmaster. They’ll be able to find your tickets by searching your name or the email address you used with your purchase. (Be sure to provide them with the same email you purchased your tickets with—it won’t work any other way!)

Q: Are They Might Be Giants still going to perform all of Flood?

A: Yes, we are. The show is two sets, with no opener (or “An Evening with…” as they say in show business). We are on the stage EARLY-like 8pm typically. Please don’t arrive late because we aren’t going to be able to wait for you.

PLEASE WEAR A MASK TO OUR SHOW!

A note from John F.: Can you believe it? It’s 2023 and while it’s slowed down a lot, people are still getting COVID? Know folks who got it two weeks ago? We do too! We’ve got 1 request: wear a mask to our shows! Not a demand. Just a request. Just sayin’. If you are violently opposed to this idea, don’t wear a mask, but spare us your hot takes. We’ll spare you ours.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Twister

Debut: Super Mario Maker 2

No, we’re not talking about the popular party game! I was going to call it a board game but I realized that doesn’t really apply. What is it, a mat game? That doesn’t matter. We’re not talking about it! We’re talking about Twister, from Mario Maker! There it is, in the picture! I had to crop Boom Boom out of this picture, because we’re not talking about him either. 

We’ve established what we are not talking about today, so now let’s talk about this! Twister is something I can only describe as a little guy- not quite an enemy, not quite a character, but it’s definitely alive! Is it weird? I guess a Mario Maker original entity is always weird to see, much less one added in the second game! 

What is even weirder then, is that they weren’t always the Twister we all love today- Twisters were there in Mario Maker 2′s very first reveal trailer, but with a very different design! They look wispy and cloud-like... don’t they remind you of someone?

See, there they are again, and it’s more obvious this time- that’s a Foo! There’s no Foo-ling me! Or is it? They’ve got a wispy bit of hair that looks more like a Ty-Foo... I think that it’s something entirely new! And it wasn’t quite me and it wasn’t quite Foo... er, anyway! A new member of the Foo Family! We should celebrate! 

Well, Nintendo must’ve called the Foo Fighters or something, because when the game released, Twister looked nothing like that! I guess there could still be a connection, but it’s a lot less apparent- this is just a white orb! Not that I have anything against white orbs, I think this design is very cute! It definitely is practicality over style, because the previous one looked a bit too much like an enemy... and as previously stated, Twister is not an enemy! According to the game, they’re a gizmo! 

It’s tough to say exactly why they added Twister, but my personal theory is that they’re the most like those sand tornadoes from Super Mario Bros. 3! Remember those? They were in the same level as the Angry Sun, and since SMM2 added the Angry Sun, they might’ve been inspired? Twisters move back and forth, creating a little tornado that will push up Mario or any enemies caught in them. They’re a fun addition, and they even added them to the 3D World theme! They never add anything to the 3D World theme! 

The Wiki has this quote from the game’s story mode and it like, gets me thinking. A Twister spell? What does that entail? Are Twisters magical entities? Or does a Twister spell just summon Twisters? Maybe it is like slathering honey on a tree, and it attracts Twisters. Yeah?

And the story of Twister coulda easily ended there... except it didn’t! They were in Mario Kart! Wowza! 

Well... it was Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, which isn’t exactly a proper Mario Kart, but we take those! It’s so rare to see something from Mario Maker appearing in another title! Remember when Odyssey had the SMB1 Airship theme in its intro? That was also cool! They show up here in the Tornado Tundra theme, making them sort of snow enemies, maybe? 

Now allow me to engage in a bit of speculation, cause it’s time for Mod F Boy’s Yokai Corner! This is the Kesaran Pasaran, and it’s... Well, I’m not clear on what it is exactly, and neither is anyone else! Some say it’s an animal, some say it’s a plant, or it might just be an unidentified sort of thing, but these white fluffballs have been present in Japanese folklore since at least the Edo period!

Now they’re really just nondescript balls of hair said to bring people luck, and they’ve got nothing to do with wind or tornadoes... but their appearance just reminds me of Twisters! Of course, it could be a total coincidence, but it wouldn’t be the first time Mario referenced these things: the Li’l Sparky and Hothead enemies from Super Mario World are called “Kesaran” and “Pasaran” respectively, in Japanese! You can’t disprove it! Hee hee!

Ok fine. Here is the full artwork with Boom Boom in it. Are you happy?

And here is a Twister playing Twister. Thank you

#mario #mario entities #mario gizmos #super mario maker 2 #twister #mod f boy #TWISTER? I BARELY KN

[mariacallous]

To be online is to be constantly exposed. While it may seem normal, it’s a level of exposure we’ve never dealt with before as human beings. We’re posting on Twitter, and people we’ve never met are responding with their thoughts and criticisms. People are looking at your latest Instagram selfie. They’re literally swiping on your face. Messages are piling up. It can sometimes feel like the whole world has its eyes on you.

Being observed by so many people appears to have significant psychological effects. There are, of course, good things about this ability to connect with others. It was crucial during the height of the pandemic when we couldn’t be close to our loved ones, for example. However, experts say there are also numerous downsides, and these may be more complex and persistent than we realize.

Studies have found that high levels of social media use are connected with an increased risk of symptoms of anxiety and depression. There appears to be substantial evidence connecting people’s mental health and their online habits. Furthermore, many psychologists believe people may be dealing with psychological effects that are pervasive but not always obvious.

“What we’re finding is people are spending way more time on screens than previously reported or than they believe they are,” says Larry Rosen, professor emeritus of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills. “It’s become somewhat of an epidemic.”

Rosen has been studying the psychological effects of technology since 1984, and he says he’s watched things “spiral out of control.” He says people are receiving dozens of notifications every day and that they often feel they can’t escape their online lives.

“Even when you’re not on the screens, the screens are in your head,” Rosen says.

One value of privacy is that it gives us space to operate without judgment. When we’re using social media, there are often a lot of strangers viewing our content, liking it, commenting on it, and sharing it with their own communities. Any time we post something online, thus exposing a part of who we are, we don’t fully know how we’re being received in the virtual world. Fallon Goodman, an assistant professor of psychology at George Washington University, says not knowing what kind of impression you’re making online can cause stress and anxiety.

“When you post a picture, the only real data you get are people’s likes and comments. That’s not necessarily a true indication of what the world feels about your picture or your post,” Goodman says. “Now you’ve put yourself out there—in a semi-permanent way—and you have limited information about how that was received, so you have limited information about the evaluations people are making about you.”

Anna Lembke, a professor of psychiatric and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, says we construct our identities through how we’re seen by others. Much of that identity is now formed on the internet, and that can be difficult to grapple with.

“This virtual identity is a composition of all of these online interactions that we have. It is a very vulnerable identity because it exists in cyberspace. In a weird kind of way we don’t have control over it,” Lembke says. “We’re very exposed.”

Without the ability to find out how their identity is ricocheting around the virtual world, people often feel a fight-or-flight response when they’ve been online for many hours—and even after they’ve logged off.

“It’s kind of an adapted hyper-vigilance. As soon as you send something out into the virtual world, you’re sort of sitting on pins and needles waiting for a response,” Lembke says. “That alone—that kind of expectancy—is a state of hyperarousal. How will people respond to this? When will they respond? What will they say?”

It would be one thing if only you saw any negative reactions, Lembke says, but they’re often available for everyone to see. She says this exacerbates feelings of shame and self-loathing that are already “endemic” in the modern world.

We are social creatures, and our brains evolved to form communities, communicate with each other, and work together. We have not evolved to expose ourselves to the judgment of the whole world on a daily basis. These things affect everyone differently, but it’s clear many people regularly feel overwhelmed by this exposure level.

If we’re not careful, our online lives can become a source of chronic stress that subtly seeps into everything. Everyone needs some privacy, but we often don’t provide it for ourselves and end up feeling like we’re constantly battling invisible enemies.

There are things you can do for yourself, however. You can turn off your notifications for social media apps, reduce how much time you spend on them, limit when you allow yourself to use them, and more. Goodman says it sometimes helps to keep your phone in the other room so you’re not so easily tempted to pick it up.

Lembke says we need to change how we think about social media and internet use as a society. She calls it a “collective” problem, not just an individual one.

“We need to come up with a kind of cultural etiquette around what appropriate and healthy consumption is, just like we have for other consumptive problems,” Lembke says. “We have nonsmoking areas. We don’t eat ice cream for breakfast. We have all kinds of laws around who can buy and consume alcohol, who can go into a casino. We need guardrails for these digital products, especially for minors.”

[secondhanddevil]

Interlude with Yuza and Tamara, with absolutely no subtext whatsoever

“I didn’t know you had opinions on the decor.”, Yuza remarked as she examined the multicolored fabrics laid before her. Each one was a work of art, labored over for months by the many talented weaver guilds of Illium. Each guild clamoring to have the prestige, and subsequent notoriety, of having their works hang in The Voice of the Nontricates own home.

“You never said anything about the last hundred rounds of selection.”, Yuza said to the woman at her side. Knight-Comander Tamara was an imposing sight regardless of the situation. Even in her casual wear, people made comments when they thought she couldn't hear, likening her to a mountain glacier- cold, harsh, and completely merciless. Yuza disagreed, she knew her sister better. Tamara was closer to a deep ocean than a mountain. Just as intimidating but with so much more beneath the surface.

“I have options, I have just never felt the need to share them.”, Tamara said with a shrug while Yuza picked up one of the rolls of fabric, a deep roiling violet with gold geometric designs stitched into it.

“Oh? And what monumental event has caused you to share your previously secret opinions on curtains?”, Yuza asked her sister with a smile, an eyebrow raised.

“You’ve been rearranging a lot of furniture in the house.”, Tamara stated, her face as impassive as ever, “‘Replacing a lot of our old furniture with new fleeting trends”.

“I don’t think these are fleeting trends...” Yuza said exsmining the bolt of cloth in her hands, “Besides, it’s not like I’m getting rid of any of the old furniture, just moving it around”.

“For now, but you’ve already moved one dresser into storage, what’s next? A bed frame?” Tamara asked pointedly, her eyes boring into Yuza's.

“Hells,” Yuza thought in resignation, “So we’re having this conversation now.” Her tail twitched anxiously. She should have expected it. Tamara was not one to keep her options hidden from her, but danm, if Yuza hadn’t just fallen for one of Tamara's tricks. Just because Tamara often wasn't subtle doesn’t mean she was incapable of it.

“Well, I’ve had that dresser for what, 70 years now? I think it’s time for a change wouldn’t you agree?”, Yuza asked as she put down the curtain.

“That cabinet has been tried and tested, made from sturdy wood and hasn’t shown any signs of wear and tear.” Tamara replied, walking past her sister to examine a different roll of a fabric. “It has served you well for decades, there’s no need to replace it now.”, Tamara said, as she picked up the new roll. It was from one of the older weaving houses, one of Belegar’s people if Yuza remembered correctly. The fabric was a deep crimson and bronze, with clouds woven out of spun brass. It would be much heavier than the violet one, but would provide more protection from the elements.

“I like this one better.”, her sister stated.

Yuza furrowed her brow, “And what about this one calls to you?” She asked.

Tamara turned and looked down at her sister, “We’ve bought their curtains before, they are good quality, and we’ve never had any problems with them since we bought them.” “Perhaps I desire a change of pace, something new.” Yuza said, looking at the fabric and knowing exactly what Tamara was talking around. She had been trying to avoid talking about Jax since the breakfast but her sister was nothing if not dogged in her pursuit of letting her displeasure be known.

“It will not be as good as the ones we have.” Tamara replied, her teeth starting to grind against her tusks, a sure sign she was getting just as frustrated as Yuza at this line of questioning.

“How do you know?” Yuza responded, arms crossing in front of herself subconsciously.

Tamara gave a short, sharp exhale out her nose “Because, Yuza, it has not been tested as much as our existing curtains. It has not gone through the same rigors. We have had these type of curtains for several years now and they have served us well. I can see no reason to change them now all of a sudden.”

“Well maybe I want something new!” Yuza's voice rose sharply, her tail lashing behind her, “Maybe I am tired of having the same heavy curtains in my home, always blocking the light. Perhaps I wish to feel the rain on my skin when I look out on the balcony!”

Silence followed Yuza’s proclamation, Tamara looking down at her and Yuza breathing slightly heavy from the outburst. Her tail coiling itself around her legs defensively. Tamara said nothing as she walked towards her sister, leaned down and pressed her forehead to Yuza’s.

“Everything I do is to protect you, even if you don’t like it.” Tamara whispered.

Yuza nodded, reaching her hands up to grasp Tamaras’ face, “I know, but I cannot keep making the safe choice and expecting things to change. I need to make different ones, even if I might get hurt.” Yuza locked eyes with her sister, “Perhaps one new curtain, to try it out.”

Tamara sighed, “I do not like it but can accept it. What about the furniture?”

Yuza gave a wry chuckle “I will stop rearranging the furniture for now.”

“Good, Tamara said her face serious, “I hate getting new furniture.”

#illium campaign #yuza st. cloud #Tamara St. Cloud #thanks Jay for proofreading my longest interlude yet and it’s all about curtains

[forgottenghosty]

I don’t think I’ve ever posted this, but I agree with Iman Vellani that we’re no longer in the MCU Earth timeline, but the Comics Timeline.

After seeing Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness it really hit that we were no longer in the MCU. Not only due to them stating that that lead Strange was from Earth 616, the Comics Earth Number, but the fact magic was no longer working on scientific leaves as they have been in the previous movies before and leading into Endgame.

We even had multiple times in those movies stated magic is but science that has not been understood yet.

There were causes and effects that made sense on a more realistic level.

But as soon as time travel opened in Endgame, that logic would soon go out the window.

With MOM we right off the bat are told dreams are us seeing into other universe of our variants.

Nothing as such as been mentioned like this before.

With WandaVision, the Scarlet Witch is born and beginning to use runes and spell books. Were as before her powers were more telekinetic and telepathic.

Loki we end up abandoning the reality we know of solidified cause and affect and entering a fictional state where things should not be possible become possible.

OB points this out over and over as Loki alters the world and universes around him. Creating a narrative and story that shouldn’t be possible in reality and only fiction.

Things know to happen in the comics.

Moon Knight, it throws out the scientific reasoning as well behind magic and works on what shouldn’t be possible.

Entering the land of the dead and returning from it is big on that list. Mummies walking around.

Werewolf By Night introducing the supernatural monsters of the comics. Leading the way for more monsters.

At the end of Loki we hear them mention the defeat of Kang and where it happened, Earth 616 Adjacent Realm.

So much is flowing differently then what was previously set up in a more realistic world setting to our own world.

Now we have the more fictional settings of the comics coming to life. Things that can’t exist scientifically in our own reality.

I won’t be surprised if by the end we get a “surprise twist” saying this isn’t the MCU we’ve grown with anymore.

#spoilers #spoiler #marvel #MCU #marvel comics #Loki