#did he kill a bunch of people especially on his own side? yes

[frobby]

thinking about how xanxus's mom named him xanxus cuz it has X for vongola 10th...... girl idk how to tell you this but XX is 20

#it actually wasnt eugenics xanxus just had to wait to be 20th boss #they shoulda froze him again smh #i was radicalized man i feel bad for xanxus #did he kill a bunch of people especially on his own side? yes #its still fucked up that vongola 9th froze him and acted like he was evil tho #'ugh i couldnt stop him' bro his your SON send him to timeout geez nono #this is why you tell your kids theyre adopted so they dont stage coup #nono's only defense against his upset son is to freeze him in ice for 8 years maybe he should have just sat down and talked to him #also i dont like that the rings rejected him just cuz he wasnt a pure vongola like....what if there was no vongola blood left #do they just not get to use the rings???? #he shoulda just lost or like tsuna had better intentions idk i dont think it should be that tsuna is genetically better thats just fucked u #anyway love u xanxus xoxo just like ur name #xanxus #khr #hitman reborn #katekyo hitman reborn

[sleepyconfusedpotato]

MWIII Campaign Thoughts and Reviews

(Played in the recruit difficulty because I suck at FPS games, and I want to explore and spent time in the campaign without dying too much). Leave some thoughts!

⚠️SPOILER ALERT⚠️

So… that was devastating. 

(+) To start things off, Makarov - Boy, holy shit. Yes. YESSS. They didn’t hold back with the new Makarov. He’s a mastermind, he’s a charming fella, he’s a psychopath lol. And the fact that he smiles a lot in this campaign just adds to the creepiness. I might get some side-eye here, but this Mak can go head-to-head with the OG!Mak. He’s always onto something, he’s proven destructive, had the 141 hauling ASS to chase him.

Makarov had stolen American missiles from ULF, caused false flag missile attacks on Russian Military base, and successfully orchestrated a false airplane hijacking, all under ULF's name - everything in the span of 48 hours since he got out of prison. I saw people saying that this Makarov ain't got nothing on the OG one has to be inhaling some shit copium because this is only in one single game and he's destroying shit.

I know just one game with rushed development won’t be enough for an iconic character like him, so I’m glad they didn’t kill him.

(-) I absolutely ABHOR, DETEST, LOATH the Open Combat Missions (OCM). It is so very not Call of Duty campaignesque. it doesn’t help anything with the narrative, and if anything, it even took away the narrative for us. The former missions in former games are iconic in their own way because the mission designer put a lot of thought into how the game will be played, the situations we found ourselves in.

But OCM's, we're like... Left to our own devices without any story-driven dialogues.

I think one of the reasons why MWII was so close to everyone's heart was because of the banters between the characters, especially in Alone. Here, because it's literally our choice and our time, it left us with no actual given time to know and love the characters more than we already did. Yes we love the characters, MW19 and MWII did that for us. But in this one? They said "character development is done, mate. Now go to war.”

Then again, is OCM a product and evidence of MWIII’s rushed development? 100% yes. I don’t give a shit if they cover it with “oowh we make OCM so you can play the missions differently each time without repeating the same mission over and over again!”. Let me ask you this, Activision - Have ‘repeating the mission over and over again’ been a problem with us campaign-enjoyers? No! I played the MWII campaign like 5 times, in all difficulty (except realism I still love my life), and I enjoyed it, because the mission designers took a lot of time and thought to it instead of just creating a map, putting a bunch of loadouts scattered around the area and throw us in it. So yes, it’s clear that OCM is a product of rushed development. It sucks the life out of the campaign missions.

Some people may enjoy it, but I play the campaign exactly for the linear style missions, not DMZ style.

(+) Look, I said it before that I will go to the campaign with the lowest expectation possible. I expected Mak to be sub-par, I expected them to play safe with the characters, and BOY WAS I WRONG. Setting aside the point above where the character feels stuck on the character development (which is a huge minus btw), all the characters have time to shine in their own missions, especially Price because I feel like we play him the most. However, I do also love the fact that the girls get shit done here. Farah and Laswell did their work so beautifully and apparently it was revealed that Laswell will be a MP operator, so that’s cool. 

(+) Ghost being a menacing presence, can stood his ground. Price being level-headed though at the same time unhinged as usual. Gaz being the voice of reason throughout the entire fucking game LMAO. Soap being the brave man he is, the passion and fury is evident throughout the campaign. Farah being badass and dependable as usual. Alex being the main supportive guy to Farah (Faralex is canon at this point argue with a wall). Nikolai being our most reliable get-away guy.

And of course, Graves and Shepherd being the fucking goofy ahh duo I actually find interesting. The trial cutscene was such a goofy scene LMAO the fact that they backstabbed each other in the ass is real funny. I side with Graves though. However wrong and unhinged he may be, Graves is just a guy doing his job and did what he’s told to do.

(+) I love the fact that Mak tried to frame Urzikstan to pin the blame on them. It's exactly what the OG!Makarov did but in HD. The Passenger mission is phenomenal and more damn traumatizing if only it was a bit longer and more stretched. There are many more reference to the OG games and I absolutely love it.

Now…

Soap’s Death

Remembering all the MWII missions with Soap... It hits differently now, man. 

(-) I've read a lot of people's arguments about it that the fact that it happened is just for shock value and kind of disappointing. Because let’s be real here, Soap is an SAS who got the name Soap because of how much of a slippery bastard he is. Granted, Mak is an ex-Spetsnaz and can fight with Soap. But how he went down in a goddamn takedown without any chance of fighting is just… it’s not it.

To add to that, the reaction from the boys is just... Underwhelming? Like I get it they're battle-hardened SAS soldiers, but let them show some damn emotions for fuck’s sake. One of the main reason why the OG!Soap’s death is really painful is because of Price’s reaction to it. How he said “NO. NO NO NO SOAP!!” While he shook Soap’s lifeless body in the table. At least let Price kneel to him, straighten his body, touch his vest. Close his eyes, gather Soap’s hand and PUT HIS GUN ON his chest all the while Ghost and Gaz knelt beside them. I do love the fact that they literally went to Scotland to let go of his ashes with Ghost holding the urn though. I cried in this scene. 

And the fact that it happened with the shortest campaign out of all the reboot MW games, it just felt rushed. Yes. It’s completely rushed, there’s no doubt about it. Again, the result of rushed developments.

(+) Now, with that said, I kind of want to shed light on how Soap is literally the youngest guy in the group. He had so much to live for. He's a sunshine in the middle of this gruff emotionally hardened man. He's such a joy to be around. He's brave. He's fresh. The fact that he's got so much to live for adds to the sadness and bitterness, which I actually like.

Sometimes I do kind of like those kinds of deaths, where the character is too soon to die,  because it hit so much harder and in a different way than the OG! one. We got to see the OG!Soap went from when he was an FNG, turn to a captain, to a man of fortitude that  earned Price's honor and sacrificed himself to protect Price. We saw how he developed and changed. We saw his entire career with us throughout all the OG!MW trilogy.

Reboot!Soap's story barely even started, and the fact that he's still so young, imagining how he'd be one hell of an officer, how he'd lead his team in the future. 

OG!Soap’s death is sad because all the times and memories we’ve been through with him, but Reboot!Soap’s death is equally sad for the times we could’ve gone through with him.

I want to say this though, some people said that Soap's death is sudden, but I wouldn't agree with that. I think the telltales are all there.

In the helicopter scene after Price and Soap caught him in Verdansk, Mak literally SAID HIS FULL NAME. That is a literal pinpoint death sentence from Makarov. And how emotional Soap’s reaction is compared to the other boys when the airport blew up. The signs are literally all there! I saw it coming actually. 

So is Soap’s death rushed? Yes. Could it have been executed better? Yes. Is it for shock value? Yes. But is it as sad? Yes. Honestly, I blame the rushed development and due dates for this. Activision is a cash grabber who wanted a yearly release so they can catch more money. I fucking bet my ass that initially they didn’t want to kill Soap, but it’s like a last-minute decision to make this game actually look like it’s worth 70 dollars. 

Like by the end of the game, nothing has been accomplished. Big Bad Guy is on the loose, and we lost Soap. Yea we did stop some of Makarov's attacks, but we ended with a loss. It's a completely sad ending. I just wish we get to continue with more missions after Soap's death like in OG!MW3 though :(

WHAT'S NEXT?

Now. Shepherd is positively fucken dead. Price is now an actual criminal and a fugitive. He just killed a 4-star US Marines general in his own office. Price is entering his insane and unhinged era. I do wonder if he'll go even more unhinged than this.

The story will undoubtedly continue in the MP seasons (although probably only 2 seasons that mattered because it'll also undoubtedly be filled with skins and collabs and shit). I think it will also focus more on transitioning to the next CoD games, which will be Black Ops (It is confirmed that for the 2024 and 2025 CoD, it will be Black Ops games).

We're talking future here, so if there's going to be a CoD MWIV, It might be possible that this is the game where we'll finally defeat Makarov while the 141 copes with losing Soap. I do wonder if Price will become too unhinged and will get rid of everything on his way to kill Mak. Price's reckless acts will become too much for Gaz that it's starting to hurt other people and himself, and Gaz will do something against Price's command or wish - and Ghost will have to choose a side. Now that's the kind of drama I want to see.

What do I score this campaign, what do I score this campaign... The story is actually good, but because the development is evidently rushed, the packaging feels a bit hollow. It's a 7/10 for me!

---

Wait you know what

We get to pet a dog named Riley. 10/10, Game of The Fucking Year.

Reboot!Logan/Hesh (?) 👀

---

So there it goes! If you've read this far I love you and Activision will pay for my therapy (ʘ ͜ʖ ʘ)

#call of duty modern warfare iii spoilers #call of duty modern warfare 3 spoilers #mwiii spoilers #mw3 spoilers #call of duty #call of duty modern warfare #cod mw #cod #call of duty modern warfare III #call of duty modern warfare 3 #call of duty modern warfare 2023 #task forc 141 #tf141

[cloudkemi]

Two sides of the same coin

Purgatory 1 established Tubbo as someone who refused to give into the situation. Yes they were in purgatory but these people were still his friends! He had morals he wasn't going to give them up.

Bad on the other hand was entirely ready to throw aside any morals or friendships at the chance of winning and cause he likes causing problems. Whatever means necessary.

They butt heads because of this and it was never really resolved but they grew more focused on living so it was put aside.

Then we get to purgatory 2

Bad decides hes going to play with strategy and focus on building up and hiding away. He was trying to play it straight and avoid being so aggressive like he was last time(it also helped that he learned pretty quickly that everyone was better than him this time)

Whereas Tubbo plays aggressive at the start, I mean when they attacked blue during that one event it was ruthless!! He was especially aggressive against bads team because he (thought) he knew how bad was going to play and wanted to beat him at his own game. Unknowingly falling into the role bad left behind.

AND IT ALL COMES TO A HEAD ON THE FOURTH DAY

When Tubbo realizes this is it for himself, and he properly realizes his position. He searches mercilessly for peoples bases and kills and breaks everything he can get his hands on. Much like how Bad did.

But I want to point out how both times tubbo goes on his own to play the aggressive strat(yes his teammates are behind him but hes playing his own game) he loses. It happened in the final one v one with philza, and it happened when he did base hunting. His strategies crumbled and he was left a killer with no prize.

They fill each others spots so well and they don't realize it. theres a bunch of smaller things that happened as well that fit this but just know theyre literally the same

#prime example is the bad going behind tubbos back and tubbo #tubbo saying they should attack bad cause its bad despite their history #qpurgatory 2 #tubbo #badboyhalo #bbh

[jainasolo1233]

My number one defense for Anakin Skywalker: he was a slave! He never got thearpy for it, and was taught by unfeeling monks how to kill after leaving his mother to die. Plus the unfeeling monks willing left him be groomed by someone they had doubts about. And they were surprised he turned to the dark side? The jedi's practically gift wrapped him for Palpatine.

My number one defense for Padme and why I support her marriage to Anakin Skywalker: Padme has done the proper thing all her life. The one time she meets a hot guy who listens to her, is willing to follow her lead, who is willing to kill for her and her children, who thinks the world of her. Honestly yeah I buy it. Let her be reckless in this one thing. Honestly Padme I'm her own right is a little crazy and I'm all for it. It's everyone else that screws it up.

The jedi knew something dark was inside Anakin when they met him, but believed in the prophecy of him destroying the sith since they had returned after thousands of years.

They jedi are usually recruited when they are infants and have no memory of their life before. Anakin was 9 and had hopes and dreams and fears and everything. I don't think the jedi had ever taken anyone so old before and didn't know what he was feeling regarding that.

Maybe they saw Anakin's dark side as recklessness and rebellion of a young person and didn't think much of it.

Have you ever seen the Clone Wars animated series?

There was an episode when Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka tried to rescue a bunch of slaves. Anakin, of course, is bothered the entire time because he used to be a salve himself. I don't really remember the episode that well, but I wanna say that's the only time his slave past is addressed.

Anakin and Padme were truly fine. Fingers can be pointed at anyone, but I blame Palpatine. Of course, the blame goes to him. He's the villain of the entire series.

I think Anakin should have confided in Obi-Wan. I truly believe he would have been able to help him, but Anakin had lost so many people from his mom and fellow jedi, especially Ahsoka. I don't think he could bear losing the love of his life.

I'm rambling now...lol

Of course, jedi aren't even allowed to form attachments, but that rule was made (by the writers) until after the EU stuff was written because Luke, Leia, and her kids were all married and they made work and none of them fell to the darkside (I mean one did, but that was for a totally different reason).

Anyway!

Anakin and Padme, yes perfect couple. Tragic ending as most Star Wars couples.

#star wars #anidala #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #asks #ask #darkcrowprincess

[ahmedmootaz]

To my fellow anon who just finished reading the same chapters I did, take my handshake in congratulations and sympathy.

To AhmedMootaz, take my tears and kudos as thanks for all the chapters and some questions in followup for the last ask on what if Ayin died .

If Ayin really DID die because of the Sweepers and they had to haul his corpse home somehow after X and Roland inevitably wope out the Sweeper nest, how would they store his corpse on the car that Roland fixes to bring it home?

Shove it in the trunk like a kidnapping?

Tie it to the back like a spare wheel?

Tie it to the front like a hunter's deer kill?

Tie it down on the roof of the car like luggage?

Strap it in using a seatbelt like a passenger?

Drag it behind them using a sled made of metal like an even more messed up Rudolta?

Drop the body in the passenger seat eother on top of someone's lap or just the seat itself?

Drop it on the floor in front of the passenger seat and below everyone's leg and behind the driver's and navigator's seat?

Something else entirely

Either way, the road trip on the way back is going to very quiet aside from maybe a bunch of crying especially from Ayin's kids and maybe Roland and X quietly talking about what they were gonna do now that Ayin was dead.

Hopefully they at least use Ayin's labcoat to cover him up in a makeshift funeral shroud. Although maybe they should just use Roland's suit jacket or X's labcoat instead if there's a large hole with bloodstains spreading out from it on Ayin's labcoat. Red really stains white. It's a good thing Ayin or his corpse at least is wearing black underneath the white coat. That hides most of the gore and blood.

But that's not the only question I have, I have more questions I'll send in the next ask since this one is already way to long.

(Ask Part 1)

Dear Anonymous,

Well, that was quick. So many people get inspired and send asks whenever I ask something that includes Ayin's death...I guess us Ayin fans are true sado-masochists, kehehe. And I will be taking those tears, thank you very much! Now I can fuel my future plans for writing! And thank you very much for the kudos as well. It makes me happy to know you enjoyed AiP.

First of all, are you feeling particularly evil today, Anon? I mean, all those violent manners of harming Ayin's lifeless body...I like it. A true Ayin fan; loving Ayin while wanting to harm him immensely, hehe. If you ask me, I'd think that Ayin's body would be treated very respectfully; he would be laid on the back seat on his back, his hands neatly tucked by his sides, while X's labcoat covers Ayin, just as Ayin had given X his own labcoat back in Chapter 8 when X had gotten drenched while bathing his girls. A poetic, painful parallel~

X would probably sit in the car's trunk while the older children sit in front of the back seat in the small space where you'd usually put your legs; I'd assume the older kids would at least fight the urge to look back at Ayin lifeless body, while the younger ones wouldn't be able to do so, which would...well, it would result in a lot more crying than needed.

I think X sitting in the trunk and letting the seat next to the driver for the kids would enhance the pain when Roland and X need to talk about what comes next; it would leave X blindsided and a little shielded from the reality that, yes, Ayin is dead, and his body is right there. There's nothing to do. Nothing that can save the one man who looked after him, and who left shoes so, so massive that almost nobody can ever hope to fill, and who left behind a grieving Distortion wrecking havoc on the City.

What a mess.

Seems like you have more pain to inflict on our Yinnie, so I'll be seeing you in the next ask! See ya'!

#lobotomy corporation #library of ruina #my writing #ask #ayin #manager x #roland

[clickerflight]

Esial: Part 9 - Glass Shatters

Masterlist

Part 8

I accidentally put this on the wrong account at first. I am so mad. Something something glass houses Me standing at the whump counter: Yeah I'd like uhhhhh extra crispy Esial?

Content: Vampire whumpee, descriptions of burns, blood lust and blood lust guilt, accidental self injury to the lips

.................................

Anastasia let Esial eat in silence as she drank her own cup of blood. Esial had been a bit worried that the blood wouldn't satisfy him. He felt like something changed in him when he nearly drained Joanna. 

He'd never had human blood before, but it was so much richer and it filled up parts of him he didn't even know he had. He'd felt stronger, almost. Warm and thrilling. 

As he lifted the cup to his mouth, he realized the blood was a mixture of animal blood and human blood. He drank it down quickly, licking at the blood that dripped down until he felt satisfied enough to leave the small remainder be. 

He put the cup down, licking his lips. The animal blood didn't taste familiar, but it had certainly been good. 

"How many days have you been here, Esial?" Anastasia asked, finishing her own cup. 

Esial frowned. "One, I think."

"Mm, I will give you tour."

Esial nodded and she stood up. He followed, putting his cup on the counter where she put hers. She picked up his cup and slotted it inside of her own cup. "The cooks like them stacked."

Esial nodded, mouthing the word 'stacked' to himself. 

Anastasia turned, waiting. Esial realized she was waiting for him to catch up so they could walk side by side, rather than following her, and he did so, a little distracted in doing so, especially when they got into the halls where there were other people.

Walking alongside someone when you hadn't done so since you were a child was more of a task than one would expect. It was difficult matching her pace and keeping from bumping into others.  

Anastasia seemed to notice and reached out, hooking his arm with hers to make it easier. Esial relaxed a little. 

"Who was the Anastasia that you are not?" he asked, tucking his crocodile farther up his side. 

"Mm, she was a princess born in the same year as me," she said, waving her hand dismissively. 

"Princess?"

"Yes. Like daughter of Pharaoh, though we called them Tsars, in my country."

"This is not your country?"

She gave him a faintly amused look. "It is now, droog, though it has not always been."

Esial nodded as they entered one of the glass hallways. He jumped when he felt warmth on his skin, but he was not burned by the sun. He relaxed and looked out at the people walking along pathways. 

"What is this place?"

"Dalton Rehab Center," Anastasia replied. "Before stasis, I never thought there should be such place. Or that vampires would not have to hide. Time washes away mountains eventually, it seems."

And that was a lot to unpack. Esial didn't even know which question to ask next, but Anastasia was already speaking again. 

"From the story I was told, there was vampire who had been in stasis for good long while. When he was found he was sold through the black market until he escaped, only to find there was nowhere for him to go. Apparently, he went mad and killed a bunch of people and they built this place to house vampires just out of stasis to get them on their feet again and keep them from murderous rampages."

Esial nodded along, though there were a lot of words he didn’t understand. Still, he got the gist of them and he was content with that. 

Silence fell between them again as they passed into a new building, this one full of doors marked with strange symbols like the ones on the door of the room he had slept in, though this wasn’t the same building. 

A phrase Anastasia had used came back to him. ‘Time washes away mountains.’ Did it? She’d said it with such certainty, like it was common knowledge. Was 5000 years really enough time to wash away a mountain? But where would the bits of mountain go? Would it just flatten, the land around it rising to meet it until it was a plain? 

And if time could do that to mountains, what would it do to forests? To rivers and lakes and buildings? Well, he already knew that just a decade was enough to bury a village.

He was so deep in thought, he didn’t notice the rambunctious vampires and humans playing together just outside the glass hallway he and Anastasia were passing through. He didn’t notice as they threw a ball back and forth between them, the humans using bats while the vampire used their bare hands. He didn’t notice the ball go flying, though he very much did notice when the glass above shattered, raining down on him, and making him look up before he was burning. 

He screamed, dropping his crocodile as his flesh burned and melted. He could feel the phantom sensation of chains digging into his flesh, creatures with sharp teeth biting into his legs. He screamed, searching his person for the amulet that his father had made him. The one his father enchanted to protect him from the sun when he was bitten and fed and turned, but it wasn’t there. All there was to find was burning, and melting, and pain so violent it tore at his soul and gouged at his eyes and his sanity. 

Then he wasn’t burning. Esial gasped, laying on the floor, shuddering and trying to flinch from the sun he could feel on his burned arms, though it wasn’t burning him anymore. Someone was on top of him, yelling in another language, rage clear in her voice. 

Esial twisted on badly burned and bubbled flesh, trying to see through the haze that had taken his vision. Anastasia wasn’t as badly burned as he was, but her skin was red and blistered. She was shouting at the people through the glass, who all looked horrified. 

Someone in the same clothing as Callum and Laura, one of the scrubs, came running, kneeling beside Esial. They were human and, through the lingering pain in his burns, Esial could feel the hunger just as powerfully when he smelled her blood, the itching in his mouth to sink his fangs into her arm and heal himself through her blood. 

He tried to open his mouth to bite as she put a hand on his shoulder, but they had been sealed together, melted and burned. He whimpered at the pain that lanced through his lips, down to his chin and up through his cheeks.“It’s okay. Try not to move,” she said, bending to look at his eyes. 

“It’s going to be alright,” she said seriously. “Anastasia. Could you help me carry him?”

Anasasia looked like she very much would rather go out and murder the people who broke the glass, but she nodded anyway. “Bring the crocodile. It is his.”

The woman nodded and went to pick Keta up from the patch of unfiltered sunlight as Anastasia picked Esial up. 

“You burned very badly, droog,” she said. “You really are old vampire.”

Esial closed his eyes against the haze, tears picking ways down his face as his burns were jostled. He wailed through closed lips as he was put down a little too roughly on a plush table.

“Prostite, Esial. I did not mean to hurt you,” Anastasia said quickly, cupping the top of his head gently with her hand. 

The human woman was back and she had something small and shiny in her hand. She quickly sank it into his arm and he flinched, though he couldn’t feel it through the pain of his burns. Anastasia put the crocodile toy against his side and he tried to grab at it with fingers that had sealed together when he put his arms up to protect his eyes. 

The pain started to fade, the effect radiating from where the woman had stabbed him with the small tool. 

“He’s just going to need to heal,” she said. “When did he last eat?”

“We were coming from the cafeteria,” Anastasia replied. 

“Okay. When his mouth is formed back up a bit, there’s some blood in the cupboard over there. Can you sit with him? I’m not technically supposed to be in the same room as an injured vampire for safety reasons.”

Anastasia nodded and stroked a hand through Esial’s hair as the human left. Esial twitched, unsure if he liked the sensation or not. 

There was a dark look in Anastasia’s eyes as she got a chair to sit down next to him, like she was still planning out the ways she was going to murder those people who broke the glass. 

Esial was honestly touched. She didn’t seem mad at all about her burns and they were mostly healed already, but her anger seemed to burn brighter in her eyes when she looked at him. 

Esial closed his eyes again, feeling relaxed and a little sleepy as the pain faded to a dull ache. 

He had wanted to bite the woman who had come to help him. If his lips hadn’t been melted shut he would have bitten her and he would have tried to drink her dry. He knew what it was like to bite a human now, to drink their blood, and it was a powerful urge now. The exhilaration of feeling someone’s life force ebb out onto his teeth was forefront in his mind, remembering how Joanna had struggled, how she screamed, how she shook and grew pale and collapsed. 

But on top of it was a feeling of revulsion. He would have bitten that woman and she was there to help him. It made him sick to his stomach. He’d never felt like that before. Before he’d had human blood. Was he cursed now? How was he supposed to control himself in the future?

Anastasia’s hand ran through his hair again and he leaned into it this time, letting it comfort him. Esial would figure this out. This was his body and he would learn to control himself. He had to. 

Esial startled as the door slammed open, lifting his head to see a shaggy haired man standing in the doorway. He was tall, and his shoulders were probably twice the width of Esial’s. 

“Anastasia!” the man said in an accent of his own, though it wasn’t as thick as Anastasia’s and it wasn’t the same. He was wearing a shirt, but instead of pants he was wearing something that looked like the child of a pair of pants and a robe with intricate lined patterns crossing each other. “There yeh are, lass! I heard yeh were burned.”

Anastasia shrugged him off. “I am fine, Ciaran. Esial took it much worse.”

Ciaran looked Esial over, wincing. “Ach, that’s not good. You alright there, lad?”

Esial shrugged and Anastasia chuckled. “Not lad. He is older than both of us combined.”

“Is he now?”

“Da. He was around for the first Pharohs.”

Ciaran whistled, impressed as Esial worked his lips loose, the corners pulling free first as he got his elbows under him to slide up. 

“It’s good to meet yeh,” Ciaran said, giving Esial a firm nod. 

Esial felt skin tear as he pulled his lips free, though it didn’t hurt. “And you,” he replied as Ciaran winced at the sight. 

Anastasia reached out and caught the drips of blood dribbling off his chin in her hand before they could land in his clothes. “Careful!”

Ciaran turned and pulled a white sheet of something off of a roll and handed it over to Esial. It felt like a mixture of forms and fabric, but didn’t seem to be either of them. He pressed it to his face, wiping up the blood. 

“What is this?” he asked, muffled a little as he pressed it to his lips. 

“Paper towel,” Anastasia replied. 

“I thought towels were made of cloth?”

“Hence the modifier ‘paper.’” Ciaran said, amused. 

Esial was getting annoyed with how people just used more new words to describe things he didn’t know. 

“What is modifier? And Paper?”

“Ah, modifier is somethin’ that changes the meanin’ or state of somethin’ else. In this case changin’ the meanin’ of ‘towel,’” Ciaran said rather slowly, as though making sure he was explaining it right. “And this is paper.”

He picked up a form from the counter and Esial frowned.

“No. That is a form.”

“Well, forms can be on paper, but this material is paper.”

Esial groaned, leaning his head back into the wall behind him. 

“It is okay, droog,” Anastasia said, standing up and putting a hand on his shoulder. “Learning new language is hard.”

She stepped over to a counter where she turned a knob and water gushed out to clean his blood from her hand. There were a lot of water summoners around. He wondered where all the water was coming from. 

“So, I suppose we’re keepin’ him then?” Ciaran asked. 

Anastasia nodded. “Da. He is friend now.”

“Right… what’s up with the alligator?”

“Alligator?” Esial asked.

“Your Crocodile.”

“Oh. I used to have crocodiles I looked after. I told Joseph and he got me this one and Jesep as a gift.”

“Yeh looked after crocodiles? In Pharoh times? What else did yeh do?” Ciaran asked, intrigued.

“Killed hippos.”

Ciaran looked over at Anastasia, excited and she nodded. “Impressive.”

Esial just shrugged. 

Anastasia finished with the water and opened the blood cabinet, pulling out a bag and poking some sort of long hollow thing in. It looked a bit like the hollow reeds Esial sometimes cut down around his edge of the river to help make crocodile nests. 

“There. Suck the blood through that.”

Esial frowned and wrapped his lips around it, but figured it out and drank the whole bag very quickly when he tasted it was human blood, even if it was a bit stale. 

“I plan to stay here till he is ready to leave,” Anastasia told Ciaran. 

Ciaran nodded. “Alright. I have te get back te class. I left in the middle when I heard somethin’ happened.”

“Then don’t waste time. Go!”

Ciaran laughed and turned, leaving just as quickly as he came to appease Anastasia.

Part 10

Esial: @whumpsday @honeycollectswhump @writereleaserepeat @tragedyinblue @hyrules-sleepiest-knight @why-not-ask-me-a-better-question

From Dust to Ashes: @whumpsday @writereleaserepeat @currentlyinthespiral @pigeonwhumps

#whump #esial #vampire whumpee #vampire burns #burn whump #blood #blood lust #blood guilt #accidental self injury #frustrated esial #is one of my favorite versions of Esial #I love him

[wufflesvetinari]

ok FINE, some things about my half-orc cleric tav whom i love so very much

Lash grew up with her trying-his-best dad in Baldur's Gate (mom stayed with her orc clan). she had no lucrative skills and no exceptional cunning--between this and the default perspective of her as barbaric, she internalized a bunch of stuff, joined up somewhere, Saw Some Action, got good at killing people. like, really good. "her services were instrumental in leveling several towns including civilians and she got a commendation for it" good.

this did not feel good, and mid-personal-crisis about murdering strangers on someone else's orders, she deserts and saves one goddamn monk and ilmater calls her to his service. she regards this as a baffling mistake on his part.

illmater is a god of compassion, gentleness, self-sacrifice. his clerics are basically non-combatants, known to only use violence as last resort. goblins etc. see a cleric of illmater on the battlefield and avoid hurting them, because they know they are willing to heal both sides if they can.

lash is not like this. lash starts as a blunt instrument who is only good at violence. but she wants to do good in the world, finally, and if ilmater wants to throw away his famed gentleness to compromise on someone like her, who is she to argue?

she spends her first years training in a temple, but she doesn't have the head for scripture. neither does she have the conviction or creativity for complete non-violence, instead developing a world-weary acceptance of it as a tool to reduce suffering.

she's sent on dangerous pilgrimages repeatedly instead of being assigned to minister to ilmater’s followers, confirming to herself that her calling is a compromise on ilmater’s part: he needs a blunt instrument so that others can carry on the work of being gentle.

what she doesn't realize in this time period is that she is slowly becoming gentle. moreover, becoming wise. clergy and laypersons approach her for advice on a world they are sheltered from. she has a way of speaking that cuts to the heart of things, and she's a comfort in quiet moments. she is rarely misled by self-serving justifications and moralizing. her kind of wisdom is drawn from her knowledge of the world and its flaws instead of from scripture.

she still kills. she's still blunt, and quietly sarcastic, and not entirely at ease with her god. but gods, she wants to be kind.

i think that astarion seriously considered seducing someone else for his plan in act 1 (wyll or something lmao) because, based on a "clerics with wooden stakes" comment he makes at camp at some point, he thought letting a good-aligned cleric guess his nature would be extremely dangerous for him. he especially has a bunch of anger towards the god of compassion, because he "prayed to every god" and nobody saved him.

but it's hard for him to see lash as a cleric? i mean, yes, she has a way of staring at you that makes you squirm and feel Too Known, and she's stupidly self-sacrificing, and she's hilariously incapable of trickery.

but she's funny, in her own reserved way. she's a world-weary soldier, good with a story, disgustingly rustic, a good cook, with the habit of cussing out her own god without getting in trouble for it somehow. and she mostly says the right type of kind thing, not the type of kind thing that make him want to curl up somewhere and grow spikes. and...maybe it's not terrible, feeling like someone Gets your deal instinctively? someone quiet but self-assured, who doesn't push for more?

(and, like, she's hot? she's strong and a little distant. devious plan aside, he finds that hot)

i am only in act one. i think, in her "worst" (but also kind of sexiest) moments, she thinks of herself as a mechanism, and even frames it as such out loud: if someone has committed unspeakable cruelty, she's here to end them for it. action and reaction. no hesitation, no mercy, because her being brutal allows everyone else to be kind. a necessary evil.

but she's in the midst of a years-long process of learning to see herself in a...kinder light. and as their relationship develops i think astarion will prod her a lot about how she makes more complicated ("and fun!") choices than that all the time, you idiot. why else would she be traveling with such a bunch of assholes?? why else would she be good to him?

#CLERICS!!! #i ADORE the potential for cleric-specific dynamics in the Astarion romance (especially a cleric who surprises him personality-wise) #and i have nowhere else to put these thoughts #bg3 #astarion #I know very little about dnd deep lore keep mind. I got my info on ilmater from a wiki #lash the half-orc cleric

[shipaholic]

Episode 2: “The Clue” / “A Companion To Owls”

Good Omens 2 Episode 2 liveblog! Beware spoilers!!

- Crowley is such a troll in this opening scene. I've come around on the beard/glasses combo. He looks like a wisecracking talking Disney goat.

---

- Jon Hamm’s impression of Buddy Holly is amazing. “Ah-hey, ah-hey-hey” yes give me those weird, grandpa-like hiccups.

---

- I can hear a fly during the zoom in on sleeping Crowley in the Bentley... does Beez have one spy in the bookshop and one on Crowley at all times?

- Hmmm, Shax tells Crowley right away about Heaven detecting the miracle. That could be evidence for my Beelzebub theory, I guess...? Beez wants Crowley kept informed about the danger, so that he’ll continue to keep Gabriel safe, but they get to keep up plausible deniability with Shax and the other demons that they’re only threatening Crowley.

- Poor Shax. Crowley’s bullying her.

- LOL are all the other demons afraid of driving at high speeds? (See: Hastur.) All he had to do to get rid of Shax was rev the engine.

---

- I like Maggie, but she’s a little clingy with Aziraphale. You’d think the euphoria of having 8 months of overdue rent forgiven would have lasted longer than 24 hours. On the other hand, her encyclopaedic knowledge of music history is really cool.

- Aziraphale conducting every time he sings Everyday is the cutest thing ever.

---

- Crowley orders Talisker! I assume John Finnemore insisted.

- OMG, Mr. Brown is holding a newspaper with THEE headline in it about the Nebraska woman who taught her duck to play the accordion.

- “Get humans wet, and staring into each others’ eyes. Vavoom.” I. I don’t think Crowley knows where babies come from either.

- THAT JANE AUSTEN LORE. AND CROWLEY DISAPPROVES?? SHE SOUNDS AWESOME

---

- Aziraphale is so hesitant when he says he doesn’t think God wants to kill Job’s children, and so utterly certain when he says he knows Crowley doesn’t want to. He already has more faith in Crowley’s mercy than God’s. 😭

- THE UNBELIEVABLE LEVELS OF SASS

- OK Ty Tennant is very funny

- Both the older kids treating Aziraphale like a waiter is hilarious actually, as is Jemima wanting to be a blue lizard and Crowley obliging

- I’ve been jossed a bunch already this season, but the biggest shock to my system by far is Crowley tempting Aziraphale into enjoying human food. I genuinely assumed Aziraphale has been nibbling on whatever was around to nibble on since he was first deployed on Earth. It took him a millennia and a half to try barbeque?? Poor deprived bb

- Whoever wrote that post about Aziraphale discovering honey and tearing into a beehive like an especially feral Winnie The Pooh, I hope they’re patting themself on the back right now.

- I am more into the sight of Michael Sheen falling onto an entire ox corpse like a starving werewolf than I am comfortable with, but fine, I guess this is who I am now.

- ALL I’M SAYING IS, Crowley and Aziraphale’s first kiss had better go EXACTLY like this.

---

- I’m here for hungover Crowley wobbling across the sand.

- I suspect this minisode is difficult to follow for any viewers who didn’t swot up on the Book of Job a fortnight or so ago, like I assume we all did.

- Michael is the only angel in this scene who possesses more than a single braincell, but they’re all clearly thick as can be. The only people thicker than them are Job and Ennon, who are somehow even worse at lying than Aziraphale and Crowley.

- Crowley has such immense fucking panache this entire episode. I do love him and his terrible beard.

---

- That little tongue in cheek thing Aziraphale does on “investigation” - he cannot get any cuter now. it’s literally impossible. please.

- Crowley slapped his hand omg

---

- Oh god, the conversation on the bench... Aziraphale is in actual tears, and Crowley is so wry and gentle and reassuring, even while delivering words that are, taken on their own, a stark form of comfort. He’s just a calm presence while Aziraphale experiences shrimp emotions on the other side of the bench. I can’t even speak about Aziraphale, honestly, but I’ll give it a shot... he is so brave and scared 😭😭😭 Hell?? He really thought he belonged in Hell? Crowley was absolutely right to gently laugh at a notion that ridiculous (and awful) (and then again, Crowley also used to be a sweet little curly-headed bunny of an angel, and look at the unspeakable thing that happened to him). There’s that little moment where Crowley says he’s not going to tell anyone, and asks Aziraphale if he’s going to tell anyone, and Aziraphale gives this little ashamed headshake, like he’s realising for the first time that he’s not, he’s willing to lie (by omission) about this too. And then he glances at the sky, as if verifying that God isn’t going to send down a thunderbolt, and realises that he’s actually safe. There aren’t going to be any consequences; he’s going to get away with it. And that’s almost worse, the idea that he doesn’t live in a world with clearly defined rules, and he truly can’t predict what God thinks, or what she is going to do. She spoke directly to Job, but she’s a closed book to Aziraphale.

---

- The ending credits are on fire so far this season.

---

Right, um, next up, an episode I haven’t already seen. asdhkagsd.

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens 2 spoilers #good omens 2 liveblog #good omens s2e2 #The Clue #A Companion To Owls

[sixstepsaway]

Im having a lot of fun thinking about how Izzy is open with his thoughts to Ed, but Ed doesn't reciprocate, and then Ed is open with his thoughts to Stede who ALSO doesn't reciprocate and how this is what fucks up both their relationships. If either of these relationships was more secure they'd have avoided so much trouble we wouldn't have the story, which is why they aren't secure. They're all a mess!

Very fun to ship steddyhands and think about closing this circle. Stede being open with Izzy while on the outs with Ed and Izzy not sharing absolutely anything bc after the finale he doesn't trust anyone anymore much less Stede.

Fuuuuuuuuck yes.

I know that logically the show is not going down a Steddyhands or Blackhands route. I know that. We're not going to get that. I doubt we'll even be indulged in getting some Blackhands love triangle content or, like, flashbacks or a chunk of time where it is canon before we get endgame Blackbonnet (and, honestly, after what Ed did to Izzy in 1x10, any post-s1 canon Blackhands would need a lot of work to make go without it being deeply concerning).

But the more I analyze what the show gives us and how the characters act right now (and I acknowledge that growth could easily nullify a lot of this? Characters developing is important, and that's how we'll get our Blackbonnet endgame and it'll be good, but) I can't see a lot of ways for Blackbonnet to end up together in a good place without the inclusion of Izzy.

Ed and Stede have, up until this point, seen each other through rose-tinted glasses, to the point Ed didn't give a fuck Stede had left his family, and Stede didn't give a fuck Ed had killed a bunch of people including his own father.

Now Stede is going to have to see Ed as someone who tried to kill seven of the nine people Stede cares about most (seven of eleven, if we say Stede also cares for Ivan and Fang now, which I like to think he does) and willingly maimed his most loyal companion.

Ed is going to have to see Stede as someone who ran away and abandoned him and clearly has a habit of doing this, and Ed being Special and someone Stede Actually Loves did not change that he did the same to Ed as he did to Mary. Mary having his children didn't change he did it to Mary, either. Nor did the fact he loves his kids stop him doing it to them. Loving them does not stop Stede running away from that person like his ass is on fire. Nor does any semblance of commitment (marriage and children).

This relationship will, because of this, need a lot of work, and most of that work is going to require communication. Ed will need to talk about why he did what he did (Izzy's words, how he was feeling etc) and Stede will have to talk about why he did what he did (ruined Blackbeard, the guilt over leaving Mary and the kids that he's been carrying this whole time, probably a splattering of maybe not gay panic (he didn't seem to be panicking he was kissing a man) but definitely a bit of kissing someone I am not married to while I still technically have a wife panic, especially considering he was not super thrilled Mary was sleeping with Doug, even after he fucked off on her).

Closing that loop with Steddyhands is galaxy brain because Stede is open to hearing whatever people want to say about and to him, unlike Edward "You know we speak our minds on this ship until you say something I don't like and then I call you a dog and chokeslam you" Teach, and Stede is also a lot less reserved around Izzy in so far as he's willing to seem like a complete cunt when talking to Izzy ("oh it's you" "iGGy" "tell your boss he can suck eggs in hell!"), whereas he seems to rein his more abrasive sides in around Ed, and the most bitchy he really gets is that sideways comment of, "In hindsight I kinda shoulda known," about Jack being mutinied on and his, "Ed, do you know this guy, he's a real dick!", but that could be assumed by Ed to be Stede pretending to be Blackbeard (which, I do not think he was. Ed embodied Stede, but Stede just chilled in his clothes and remained being Stede).

(Relatedly: I find it very funny that the thing Ed was most fascinated by and attracted to in regards to Stede early on is that Stede told him to go suck eggs in hell, but really Stede was saying that to Izzy, it's Izzy's face he snarled those words into, about some boss he had never met and had no desire to meet, and it was Izzy he was calling Iggy and telling to fuck off. I imagine if Stede had told Ed to go suck eggs in hell to his face, Ed would've come in his pants on the spot, and I also imagine that if Ed found out/realized Stede was actually mostly saying that to Izzy, he'd be utterly baffled that Izzy hated Stede rather than wanting him for himself, idk.)

It's especially fascinating to imagine closing the loop with Stede actually letting himself be bitchy and a bit abrasive around Ed, because judging by the fact Ed readily lets Izzy be abrasive as fuck and rude as hell to him and all he does is pull these faces:

the first of which is downright fond

the second is "you called him a ponce, do you really think he's gay? i'm hoping he's gay"

and this one which is my personal favorite because it's just "idk where those fingers have been, iz" and his eyes sweep back and forth between each finger like "are you going to jam these up my nose next" it's so funny, i love this scene so much it lives rent free in my brain it really does

and after izzy storms off to grab stede he just does this

and it just reads like "hm, we were overdue a shitfit weren't we mate but the fingers were surprising"

(also, related to the conversation about timelines in another meta, though idk if i'd call this post a meta per se, i noticed that stede's bruise from the hanging goes right up under his chin, so the cravat definitely isn't covering it up in 1x05, it's just gone, and presumably completely healed

six weeks my ass)

anyway, Ed's expression when Izzy does his lil tizzy at him tells me that this is something that Izzy does. he broods and eventually blows up and tells Ed how he's feeling and he's mean and grumpy and Ed often finds him being a lil bitch to the crew or to hostages or whatever and it's just. normal.

and that also implies, since Ed kept him around, that Ed likes that about him.

in fact i think the fact that when izzy starts his tirade Ed is just like "*points* that's blackbeard" kind of proves it's something he finds more down the realm of playful than offensive, and actually izzy even smiles a little when he says that, like he's finding it amusing and he'd be playing if the situation wasn't so god damn dire and they werent all probably about to die and if they hadnt lost a bunch of their guys to this

(and i mean, this could be that con struggled to keep a straight face after either something taika did between takes or just the way taika delivered the line "I'm Stede, remember?" but I prefer Watsonian analysis of scenes that make it into the show for my metas)

So, conclusions: Ed finds Izzy's temper and abrasive attitude and temper very endearing and downright amusing. Izzy enjoys the way Ed plays with him (because he's Ed's to play with) and this scene might have gone differently if Ed wasn't actively not-really-leading them into their deaths.

We don't have any canon confirmation of whether Izzy and Ed were ever in any kind of relationship before, if they've ever been sexually intimate etc. All we know is David Jenkins says Izzy is in love with Ed, and that when Ed slammed Izzy into the wall, Izzy reached out to cup his cheek and say, "There you are."

I don't, for the record, think they've ever fucked or even kissed in the past. I do, however, think they've been surprisingly intimate, judging by the way Izzy felt comfortable cupping his cheek, and we already know that Edward's fucked Jack--

(and I know some people think maybe Jack was lying to rile Stede up, but I don't think he was. Ed and Jack are very handsy with one another, they sit very close together, they have excellent chemistry when they're fucking around together. Jack's an ass, but Ed talks at length about how he saved Ed's life in the past and how Jack is his old friend, and they talk about serving together under Hornigold in a way that makes me think they spent a lot of time in close quarters. However, I do think Jack probably fucked Ed because there was no one else around to fuck and they wouldn't make berth somewhere with prostitutes any time soon so he might as well pretend Ed's a girl, whereas Ed fucked Jack because he was hot and he'd saved his life and he wanted to because he's into men. Which is two very different vibes, and if Ed's used to that kind of treatment (him liking a guy sexually or romantically or intimately, and the guy being his bud but either not being gay/bi/etc or simply refusing to admit he might be so putting it down to "it doesn't count at sea"), then it makes sense he wouldn't really feel comfortable leaning into any relationships with anyone, even Izzy and Stede (who he didn't admit to feelings for until 1x09 because it was the first time he thought maybe, if he was lucky, Stede might be feeling the same?) and so for him it's just sex and maybe he wouldn't want to go there with Izzy because being cast off like that by Izzy would just be far, far too much?)

--and the way he flirts with Stede is a guy who knows how to get other guys into bed when he wants to (when they're not oblivious blondes and sporting fine fabrics), so he clearly has experience etc, and I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that he's attracted to Izzy, and that Izzy's attitude and personality is, actually, something Ed is and has always been into (which would also make the intimacy of the toe scene even more chilling but let's not go too deep about that here).

To dig into the idea of that further, it wouldn't surprise me if the "Izzy, I want you to handle this yourself," "Oh, Edward, can't I just send the boys? 🥺" and the "you are an insane shell of a man posing as blackbeard!" "😏 i'm not blackbeard, he is. I'm stede, remember~?" could actually be their idea of flirting, something they've always done. Except, as I've said up there already, Izzy was genuinely riled up because Ed had sacrificed multiple of their crew to this insanity and was highly likely about to get everyone killed by the Spanish, so although the flirting was familiar and slightly pleasant, it couldn't continue.

Which brings us back to the actual topic at hand, which is that if Ed is into the guy who told Blackbeard to go suck eggs in hell, and Ed is into Izzy's attitude, it stands to reason that if Stede actually let his bitchy side out around Ed and where Ed can see it, and actually allowed the guy to see him be "go suck eggs in hell"!Stede, Ed would be fucking losing his shit over how into Stede he is.

(There's a lot of chemistry between Ed and Stede, but in season 1 it's very sweet and gentle? I love Blackbonnet, but there's not a lot of crackle between them. I don't feel like they'll be ripping each other's clothes off in desperation, which is something I'd really like to see lmao. It's sweet, it's a cute first love that feels like it's between thirteen year olds, which makes sense because they're both experiencing love for the first time! Again, this isn't a bad thing, and I like it as an establishing moment for them, but they are grown men, and Ed has been flirting his ass off with Stede since the moment he met him trying to get that man to fuck him, and I hope that in season 2 the tension between them from Ed going Kraken and trying to kill Stede's crew, and Stede having bailed off on him, will allow in a sort of almost-lovers-to-adversaries-to-lovers pipeline that'll let them be crackly and show a physical and sexual side of their excellent chemistry.)

But Stede doesn't want to let Ed see that side of him because I imagine it never went down very well with Mary or the rest of the society he was meant to be a part of. Stede literally had two modes at the party, one was "tries to fit in, fails horribly" and the other was "goes full bitch and everything burns because of it", so I don't think his full bitch mode went well in the years before he met Ed, and also Ed was completely enamored with Stede just from knowing he 'passive aggression'-d the party guests into self-immolation.

So, I just imagine Izzy getting in a tizzy and he's yelling at Stede and Stede just lets rip and bitches right back, and Ed is looking between the two of them like "what." and afterwards, when Stede has established Ed was very turned on by him being an abrasive shit, he's just like, "You like it when I... act like Izzy?"

and the bottom falls out of Ed's entire world

Because I mean, yeah? You're telling me that Izzy wouldn't tell some pompous pirate who thinks he owns the place to tell his boss to go suck eggs in hell if some dude came along to demand Izzy go to his boss's ship? He absolutely would!

So then you have Stede realizing it's actually okay to not spend his entire life trying to be Sweet and Kind and Caring and Placid and Even-Tempered and Nice, that there's more to him than being nice.

And I would argue that a big downfall of Stede on that beach with Ed is that he thinks he has to be nice all the god damn time. You rewatch that scene as Ed is gushing about running away to China and how he'll go get a dinghy and they'll go and they'll be together. Stede's holding himself really tiny, almost childlike actually, and he's quiet and distracted and the best he can offer Ed in return to the idea of China is, "I think so?"

and to me that reads as someone who is not comfortable being honest about what he wants, needs and feels. Which ties right back in to your message in this ask about how Stede isn't honest with Ed, because it's true. I don't think it's Ed's fault Stede doesn't feel comfortable being honest about how he's feeling, mind, I think Stede is just... very used to being carried away by the currents? The biggest thing he ever did that wasn't that is something that hurt his family and nearly got him and half his crew killed (running away). In the flashbacks when he offers his hope of running away to sea up to Mary and she gets upset with him, his instinct is, "I'll get it stopped," and he may not have actually done that, but he said what he thought she wanted to hear, which was that he'd give that idea up.

Stede said he'd run away to China with Ed because he didn't feel comfortable admitting he didn't want that. Stede wants to be a pirate! He doesn't want to give the life up, he only just got the life he's been dreaming of and how he feels about Ed doesn't change that. More than that, he was already feeling fucked up over hurting so many people, including his family, and he already was thinking he should probably go home and try and fix the damage he caused. He loves Ed, I truly believe that, but he didn't want to run away to China. He wanted to sit on that beach with Ed for a while longer, then escape Privateering Academy and go back to the Revenge, or maybe go back to Barbados and fix his mistakes. He didn't want to go to China but he said he would anyway.

He's not dishonest, he doesn't seem to lie to Ed (or anyone, I've talked about this before), but he does put on a placid smile and stay nice and try not to hurt people with his words, probably because he's been hurt by words so much in his life, he doesn't want to perpetuate that further, and because he was raised to be placid and nice. His "I think so?" is probably him trying so fucking hard to be honest, but instead of his doubts coming out, all he manages is, "I think so?"

So Stede should be able to learn to not always be nice all the time, and then you have Ed realizing that ah, shit, he is into abrasiveness which, ah, is Izzy's calling card, and Izzy still just blinking because Stede met his fire and anger with his own (which must be quite something considering how rough Izzy can get, you tell me he wasn't getting a bit of something sizzly out of his encounters with Stede in 1x02 and 1x03. The way he growls out, "It's Izzy," is just. Mwah.) and that was kinda hot too.

and then there's just; communication time. Because Stede might not feel comfortable telling Ed what he's feeling, but he might just yell it at Izzy, who will happily also yell back, and yell his feelings at Ed, who often tells Stede his feelings.

So yes, that's quite a closed loop and I am into it anon. And also the way you framed it as Stede being on the outs with Ed and letting Izzy in because of it.

But also:

Izzy not sharing absolutely anything bc after the finale he doesn't trust anyone anymore much less Stede.

mm, yes, good soup. Someone in the tags of one of my posts said if they were Izzy they'd never speak again and that really stuck with me.

This response turned a bit rambly, I apologize for that, I just got talking I guess 😂

#ofmd #ofmd meta #izzy hands meta #edward teach meta #blackhands meta #steddyhands meta #blackbonnet meta #edward teach #steddyhands #blackhands #blackbonnet #izzy hands #stede bonnet #our flag means death #anonymous #ask

[waldensblog]

Alright now that they’ve been living rent free in my mind for a few days now, I think I’ve figured out my feelings on different characters, etc. in the show. I haven’t read the books, so I don’t know what to expect for s2 or how different they are from book counterparts, I’m only going based on the show.

TL;DR: Darkling Fan; Darklina shipper; I love the Crows esp Inej; curious af what’s happening next season but gonna wait til s2 comes out before reading so I can be surprised. 

I definitely am a Darkling Fan. I was 100% shipping Darklina before I knew he was the villain, and then had hope he wasn’t really the villain (also because he’s hot). By the end, I fell into this interesting spot. I see his point of view, I understand it, though I disagree with his methods. I can see he did actually fall for her, and it made me keep hoping lol. I basically want a redemption arc for him and for Darklina to be a thing - not immediately, after the redemption thing. Probably not going to happen, but I can hope lmfao. So yes, I am a Darkling Fan and Darklina shipper, I guess! 

I like Alina, she’s an interesting character, and I liked seeing her grow, especially at the little palace where she started to fit in, make friends, etc. I really hope to see her Tidemaker friend again, because I was loving that bit, and how sincerely, truly happy and comfortable with herself she was becoming. While she was at the palace, I found her a bit... co-dependent with regards to Mal - like it makes sense she was missing him, but she kept saying things like “it will be fine when he’s here”, etc. and she wasn’t initially able to just... bond with her fellow Grisha who were very excited to have her there, and were trying to befriend her. It wasn’t until she “let him go” that she was able to really harness anything and start being herself. I loved how in the end, she was able to stand up and do things herself, and I am excited to see where she goes from here, and hopefully, she’ll make more friends along the way! I didn’t ship Malina - I see that they’re supposed to be a thing, but I personally prefer them as... siblings, I guess, given they grew up together. Idk, just not for me, I guess. 

The Crows: Inej is precious, and must be protected at all costs, though honestly I think she can do much of that herself. Jesper is hilarious, and I love his chaotic energy - constantly pulling shit off despite being completely sidetracked half the time, and his love for Milo the goat. Milo is also precious. Kaz is interesting, and honestly, has some big dick energy, wtf. Dude was 100% prepared to break into the palace and kidnap Alina despite all the security, straight up saw the Darkling face to face and was like “I’m going to poke this bear” by saying that “she fled on her own, she didn’t want to be a captive” thing, and then jumped on the ship with a bunch of people ready to kill them. The Crows are disasters and I love them. 

Other Grisha: I am curious where Zoya will go from here, since she turned on the Darkling - will she go back to the other Grisha, will there be a faction divide? Ivan was clearly a Darkling Stan, while David seemed to be questioning his life choices near the end. Genya was evidently on the Darkling side because of everything she’d been through (another not-agreeing-with-methods-but-I-do-like-this-girl character), and she felt this was the best chance for her, but I’m curious what side she’ll fall on if there’s a divide. Nina seems to not want to be involved with the Grisha at all anymore, and I think she’ll end up falling in with the Crows next season. 

Baghra: So at first I thought, she’s just trying to help Alina, then... I started to think... I’m not sure she’s trying to help Alina, so much as... just thwart her son’s plans. She told Alina she was helping her, right? And then when Aleks and Baghra are talking outside, she says she killed Mal and taunts that he’d need a good tracker to find Alina, now anyway. She didn’t kill Mal, after all - but not for lack of trying. From the backstory, we see that the Darkling isn’t the only one who tells half-truths to manipulate people. She framed the story a specific way when telling Alina, and she waited literally months to warn Alina at all about anything. She’s very mean to all her students (bee hive?!?!), so she’s clearly not a 100% benevolant character. Curious if her role is “done”, or if she’ll be back next season... very intriguing character. 

#shadow and bone #the darkling #darklina #alina starkov #anti malina #i guess but not really but for the tagging purposes #six of crows #inej ghafa #jesper fahey #kaz brekker #milo the goat #grishaverse #anti baghra #i guess but again not really

[therainningtown]

Shared Lost:

AAAAAAAAH, Writers Block SUCKS ASS.

But I Did It, Sorry For The High Angst And Self Indulgent.

I Just Always Wanted A Platform To Just Write Out My Own Reality And Share It With Others.

Hope You Don’t Mind!

Lyrics Are From Atlantis-seafret

——————

“She said, in my heart and in my head

Tell me why this has to end

Oh, no, oh, no

I can't save us, my Atlantis, we fall

We built this town on shaky ground

I can't save us, my Atlantis, oh, no

We built it up to pull it down”

——————

Context About What Happened:

Losing Someone In A War Is A Horrible Feeling, Feeling Like If Things Were Different. They Would’ve Lived Another Day, Or If You Took Their Place. Maybe Things Would Be Better.

But What’s Worse Than Hearing, Is Seeing Them Die Infront Of You. Saving You From Arrows And To Give You A Chance Too Win Against The Rebellion.

But Sometimes Rage Gets To Your Head, Causing A Catastrophe For Different Angels. Friend Or Foe; It Didn’t Matter To You, You Needed To Get Back At Those Who Took Them From You. From Everyone And Everything.

Lucifer & Mammon:

“Mc? What Are They Doing?” Mammon Looked Up At The Sky As You Killed Another Angel, Letting Them Drop To Crack; Either Their Neck Or Skull.

“Mammon! We Must Not Get Distracted Right Now!” Lucifer Yelled To His Brother While Slitting The Throat Of A Lower Rank. “But Mc Is In A Danger Zone You Know?!” Mammon Pointed To The Flying Figure.

“Shit…” Lucifer Cursed, He Knew That Something Happened To Cause This. Then Again, You Didn’t Join His Side Out Of Fear. But Instead, You Said That You’ll Look After The Young Ones, Never Joining The Fight For Denying His Proposal.

Lucifer Looked Back, Seeing You Hold A Golden Heart Necklace. The One Your Lover Gave Before The Revolution And Before They Passed.

“MC!!” Mammon Yelled At Your Direction, Not Really Expecting A Response. But Surprisingly You Looked Down And Over At The Two, Before Your Face Twisted Into Anger.

“Oh, Um…Maybe I Shouldn’t Have Done That…” Mammon Stepped Back, As Lucifer Put A Protective Arm Infront Of Him. Rushing Down To The Two, “Quick Move!” Lucifer Quickly Grabbed His Arm And Tossed Him Before You Immediately Hit.

Which The Subject You Hit, Was An Angel Ready To Strike One Of The Two. “Heh..Thanks Mc.” Mammon Huffed, Realizing That He Could’ve Been Injured. “Move.” You Stared Coldly, Which Caused A Whimper From Mammon.

“Mc?” Mammon Tried Getting Up But Lucifer Stopped Him. “Not Now Mammon, They Don’t Seem In The Right Head Space…”

Leviathan:

It Definitely Was Hard Fighting Multiple Angels All At Once, But Being An Admiral Has It’s Benefits. Leading A Group Of Angels, He Noticed The Number Dial Down And Saw The Other Retreat.

“Great Job Men And Women, We Head North For Now. I’ll Meet Up With Asmodeus To See If Any Troupes Are Coming In.” The People Gave Their Yes And Left Towards The North Wing.

“Are The Children Okay?” Leviathan Pulled Out His Sword, Almost Slitting Your Throat. Which He Immediately Apologized For The Threat. “Huff, Don’t Scare Me Like That, Especially In A Situation Like This.” “Sorry About That.”

“But, Gran Already Checked On The Young, Their Fine. Just Stressed. But…Mc.” Leviathan Grabbed Your Hand Gently. “Are You Okay? Your Shoulder Is Pretty Injured, The Bone Is Showing…”

“No, But I Can Continue Fighting.” Leviathan’s Frown Deepen At Your Bloody Face. “Didn’t You Want To Stay Behind? To Protect The Young?” You Sighed At The Memory Of The Recent Events.

“Me And [Name] Went To Go Kill Some Angels Who Came To Close Too The Children. But…” You Held Out The Necklace, Which Leviathan Already Gasped. “I’m Sorry Mc…But If You Need—” “I’ll Now Fight For Them. I Have To, No Matter What.”

“Let Me Get You Patched Up Before You Go Out Again, It’s The Least I Can Do.” Leviathan Opened A Bag With Medical Equipment. “Alright.”

Asmodeus:

(Earlier In Time)

He Watched The Trees, And Killed Any Enemy Angel Passing By The Way. He Already Used His Power A Bunch In The Few Hours, Making It Painful To Blink And See. Not Ideal For A Front Line, So He Still Wanted To Help In The Back.

He Soon Heard Racing Footsteps, But Before Attacking He Made Sure It Was An Enemy. All He Saw Was A Familiar Hair Color And Clothing. “Don’t You Dare Die On Me [Name]!” You Seemed To Be Rushing From Something. But In The Denser Part, He Couldn’t Spot Anyone In The Sky.

Asmo Started Quietly Yet Quickly Jumping From Tree To Tree. Following You Too Make Sure Everything Was Alright And That [Name] Was Okay.

Soon He Landed On The Grass Before Hiding Behind A Bush. “[Name]…” You Stared At Your Bloody, Deceased, Lover. He Wanted To Help. But Asmodeus Didn’t Know How To Comfort You, Especially In A Situation Like This.

You Grabbed Your Lover’s Matching Necklace And Shoved It In Your Pocket Before Softly Closing Their Eyes. After You Left In A Raged Set, Asmodeus Came Forth And Saw Them Laying Unmoving.

Arrows That Stuck To Their Neck And Abdomen. Along With A Torn Off Arm And Other Smaller Injuries. He Felt Disgusted At What Happen To A Person, So Sweet, Caring, And Understanding. They Didn’t Deserve Such A Fate Like This.

He Knew This, Cause Of The Stories You Told About Them, How Much You Fell For Such A Good Person. He Always Wanted To Meet, Just Not Like This.

Before He Went Somewhere New, He Moved Them Into A Sleeping Position And Used The Flowers As A Bed For Them. Laying With Flowers Was Always Bitter Sweet, But It Was The Action Of Bravery And Self-Sacrifice. That Made It All The Better.

Beelzebub & Belphegor

She’s Gone…Lilith Is Now Gone Along With Lucifer. How Could It Happen So Quickly? “Beel?! Do You Hear Me! Let Me Go!”

“Belphie No, They’re Still There!” “I DONT CARE!” Belphegor Tried And Tried Again To Get Out Of Beelzebub’s Tight Grip. “*Cough* Lilith…Why Wasn’t It Me Instead Of Her?” “Please Let Me Go Beel-”

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!”

The Screams Knocked Belphegor Out Of His Panic Induced State, Which Made Beelzebub Also Loosen His Grip On Him.

Belphegor Took The Chance, Crawling To The Fuzzy Bushes And Looked Too The Field. Bodies Of The Angels Who Shot Lilith Were Dead With Broken Heads. “What I Was Meant To Do Muri…” You Held Your Sword High, Aiming For The Neck. “Avenge And Protect The People I Love.”

Blood Spatter Across The Grass, Which Made The Twins Whine And Almost Made Beel Puke.

…

“I Know You Two Are There.” You Glared At The Bushes.

Belphegor Ran Out Of The Bushes And Held You Tight. “M-Mc…” “You Lost Them Too…?” You Silently Cried Into His Elbow.

Beelzebub Followed Along, “Belphie, We Have To Go…” “Alright.*Cough* Just…Please Stay Safe Mc.” “You Do The Same To, I Can’t Having More People Die Today.”

“We’ll Try…” Belphegor Sniffed, Beelzebub Placed A Hand On His Shoulder Before He Nodded. The Two Ran Off, Possibly To Find The Other Brothers And Where Lilith Fell.

“I’ll Try Too…”

——————

#obey me mc #obey me x reader #obey me headcanons #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me asmodeus #obey me belphegor #obey me leviathan #obey me beelzebub #obey me angst #obey me shall we date #obey me fluff #obey me lilith #obey me au #tw death #tw dead things

[ninthhousesteel]

literally questioning the duffer’s writing ability so much more than i already did.

they’ve got great plots, but handle characters horribly.

vol 2 was the most grossly out of character things i have ever seen in my life. i just cant. vol 1 was amazing with the plot, especially in hawkins. it moved well it made sense, even the russia arc, which is admittedly my least favorite plot line of the season. s1, s2, s3 might have struggled, but all of them had great coherent plots that all wrapped up together in a very satisfying way.

if vol 2 are the only episodes 100% written by the duffers, then they should leave the scripts to other people, hell even the actors, and stick with creating the overall plot and side plots. because those were some of the most inorganic, uncomfortable to watch, and wholly unrealistic scenes i have ever watched. the writing was so patchy and uneven, it made no sense, and completely ruined so many character arcs

look, they killed eddie, they wiped out max, and made vickie a robin doppelgänger. plot wise, it makes sense. with the stakes that high, someone did have to die, and robin should get a love interest by now. shes not just a token lesbian coined just for the rep.

but the lack of mourning was so ridiculous, if you kill someone off you show how it impacted everyone. and the duffers even said that if they killed someone off the main cast they would have needed more time for the characters to mourn, so apparently they either dont take their own advice, or dont consider eddie as a part of the main group.

vickie is a casualty of the shitty writing, of the shitty development. (more like the lack of)

el and mike’s relationship made no sense. like none at all. will’s speech in the van was so wrong, because he is the heart. everyone loves him, mike even took his words and his encouragement to save el. and mikes speech was so fucked up, in a whole bunch of other ways. narratively, i appreciate the rousing monologue that helps save the day, but that was so shitty to watch. it regressed mike and el back to codependency and using will as a tool for them was a pathetic move.

and now, in your own words, s5 is getting marvel-ified. the immediate rush of action?? the mid season time skip?? they better have something good waiting for us so they dont fuck up because that season set up is insanely risky. but honestly-

it doesn’t matter what the plot even is, if the characters suck then everything else will. characters draw people into the world. establishing good dynamics, relationships, and depth in a character is what matters the most.

why else would people love steve if it wasnt for his growth??? or max for her depth??? ronance for their dynamic???

no one would be watching Stranger Things if we didnt care about the characters.

the duffer brothers are very close to capsizing all of it if they don’t get it right.

i genuinely couldn't have said it better myself

personally i love stranger things because of the characters. yes i love the central plot of the show but only because of how it impacts the characters and their relationships. stranger things has has some of the best potential for characters that i've ever seen and seeing that be neglected in vol2 is really disappointing. (i honestly think vol1 did excellent in keeping the characterizations even though it could've had just a bit less russia plot)

in the end, however, it is just a piece of media handed to writers who have dug themselves a hole. very nervous to see the results of s5 as a long-time fan

#st4 spoilers

[mechanicalinertia]

Finished Edgerunners last night. Some thoughts:

1. It was… okay, overall. Like, a 7.5/10. It embraced modern genre cliches with aplomb for better and for worse, but the plot was… better than I expected from a Trigger anime. Clearly, having a bunch of Polish guys do that end of the work improved the anime over, say, Promare, or Franxx. Thank fucking christ.

2. On that note, I’ve begun browsing through the AO3 for tag for Edgerunners and it is nothing but fix-fics, I mean it’s incredible how many people want David and Rebecca to live. There are various ways people go about this. Among them: Peggy Sue time travel stories, Lucy telling David to not put on Maine’s arms before the timeskip, a ninja saving Lucy from Faraday. The one I like the most, though, is the one where Smasher spares David and Yorinobu Arasaka - that’s right, the only Arasaka with dignity - gives him a new cyberbody, while Rebecca is rescued by Rogue. So the characters are apart but could come together soon.

3. Am I jealous that these fics all are racking up thousands of views in a little more than a month compared to even Divine Patronage? Hell yes. But I don’t know how to get in on this game for two reasons. One, Edgerunners never really gave me too much emotional attachment — I knew everyone was gonna die based on the trailer where they cite the “it’s not how you live, it’s how you die” line (Classic cyberpunk neoliberal nihilism, see my previous post for why I hate that shit), so watching Rebecca die was just kinda eh, whatever. I think most people like Rebecca just ‘cause they’re horny. If they want more of that, hey, Gunsmith Cats has a horny murder-loli as well, they can go watch the OVA for that or read the manga or whatever. Two, I don’t like Edgerunners’ basic universe enough to not cross it over with my own bullshit Bubblegum Crisis 206X universe, and that inevitably leads to thousands of lost views who have no idea what BGC is and don’t want to find out.

4. What’s funny about the first episode is that its ‘call to adventure’, if you want to get all Campbellian, is a side to cyberpunk universes that I don’t think has really been done too much in anime or visual media I’ve seen. (It probably has been done better I just haven’t seen a whole lot of media.) The whole idea of everything having a price, it being impossible for someone like David or his mom to move up in the world — especially since his bullies can just beat the shit out of him whenever they please — feels at once goofy and plausible, and in those last few minutes you can feel the tension rise as David makes his choice. But then after that it’s off to the races, all cyber-murder and heists and the kind of stuff you expect from what cyberpunk means to people nowadays, a glitzy future aesthetic where life is meaningless so you might as well kill as many corporate / themed-gang goons as possible before going out with a bang. (I guess I need to watch Blade Runner Black Lotus to see if Production IG did anything different for a far more somber franchise, but they sure as hell didn’t for SAC_2045, the bastards.) It might have actually been more interesting for Gloria to not be the Anime Dead Mom, and be in critical care, constantly chastising David for what he’s doing but unable to formulate an alternative. My point is there was potential, and the potential was — squandered isn’t the right word, that implies it wasn’t deliberate. Ignored! Yes. Ignored, that’s the right word.

5. In spite of all my inability to get emotionally attached to pretty much anyone except David and Lucy… well, I like David and Lucy. They’re characters that are developed well enough, and David isn’t really your usual shonen-jump protag but more a depressed wreck only able to actualize himself through ultimately meaningless violence. It’s not as though he really accomplishes his goal of getting Lucy to the moon anyway, ‘cause what good is that if he can’t be with her? So now that I think about it, I understand the sentiment of wanting these characters to live, and that’s what fanfiction is for, and there’s no shame in that. (I’m Rebecca neutral, to be honest. There’s not enough character development there to figure out who she is as a person besides horny for Timeskip David Of Considerable Size.)

6. Well, I guess I’m a hypocrite, because I’m writing a new crossover fanfic that will hopefully follow on from Anatomy of a Lovedoll. It’s called The Witch of Tranquility, and so far it’s only a prologue proposing an alternate timeline where Hanako offs her dad and sells its assets to GENOM, thereby crossing over the two universes. I’ve got a timeline written, too, but I’m holding off on posting it for now. It’s not as though explaining the crossover will make more people read it.

Well, we’ll see how things go, there. Edgerunners could not dethrone Bubblegum Crisis in my heart, but then again I didn’t expect it to. I could compare the two, but there’s no point. Let people enjoy things. I enjoyed Edgerunners. It was good. But it wasn’t great.

#cyberpunk edgerunners

[wubwubnparmaham]

what is it exactly that they suffer from and what triggered hadrian's last episode since it'd been a while since the previous one?

also harlock really is harry's best best friend, that last chapter had me in tears man://

This is gonna be a long ass response so I'll cut it here. I haven't been in Auron's head much in actual WRITING and chapters and stuff except for tiny snippets here and there that don't show this sort of thing, so I'm happy to explain, see below

Okay so basically the twins don't have all the same things, but there is some overlap for sure, especially within depression and dissociation.

In short, I could summarize Auron as paranoid personality disorder + delusional psychosis and severe bipolar disorder. I have a lot of experience with bipolar disorder in my life, and a lot of Auron's impulsive-to-unreachable and inconsilable pipeline behaviors are based around shit in my memories, but that's noooot all he is, not by a long shot. The level of PPD paranoia that he has easily rivals that seen in some schizophrenias, but he doesn't have hallucinations, per se, and he's not schizophrenic, he just has intensely DETAILED delusions and ever-present fears that people are out to get him and do him harm that leads to a "strike first" mentality (there's so much he did in his life Hadrian doesn't even know about), and it got permanently unmanageable once his parents actually did try to kill him. Try telling someone something is just in their head when the wildest conspiracy they ever had about their own flesh and blood caregivers turned out to be true. Let's just say there's a definite reason he wanted to be the most powerful person in the entire world, and he was certainly of the mind that it would "cure" his paranoia if he was untouchable like that, like a god. A shitload of Auron's struggles comes down to nature and nurture working in tandem. Things that might have been more manageable became uncontrollable due to early traumas and not enough support, causing him to lash out and then further the cycle of revenge and murder and regret and depression and yaddyadda. Both twins are obscenely traumatized, to be sure, so it goes without saying that for both of them, their dark pits of behavior wouldn't be nearly as bad as they are if they'd had better lives, or were born into the times of modern medicine and psychological therapy. But alas...

Anywho, the dissociative aspects in both of them are different forms of catatonia, just in two sides of the same coin; with Auron, hyperkinetic catatonia, so, prone to aggressive and violent, impulsive outbursts while already being out of his mind and not fully present WITH everything else mentioned before bouncing around in his mind; and with Hadrian, hypokinetic catatonia, which causes him to lose his grip on the present reality and shut inward, jumping between being completely unresponsive or being a bit so, but difficult to understand, disjointed and not "all there". Both forms are inherently dissociative and will won't be perfectly remembered once the episode is over with.

The "genes" that I routinely refer to is usually Auron's 'mania' from bipolar disorder, the manic depressive disorder they both exhibit and the bouts of catatonia, all of which are neurological yes but also trauma-based at the same time, as well as genetic; it's natural for their brains to do certain things due to factors outside their control, so whenever something really goes wrong, it tends to trigger it like a lightswitch, and Auron is coincidentally able to act on a bunch of impulsive thoughts because he is "conscious" while also being delirious and all around angry and revenge-seeking and emotionally hurt, and Hadrian just sits / lies there for days because he coincidentally does not possess the version of catatonia required to still be active and engaged.

One could make the argument that some of Hadrian's outbursts (especially the murderous kind) could be indicative of bigger mental / psychotic issues, but it gets murky. There's just so many factors at play. There's how they were raised, as emotionally-stunted Roman royal warrior-types with humongous things expected of them, there's the early childhood trauma on top of that, there's the fucking VAMPIRISM, and a bunch of grief and insanity in their lives that the lines get blurred. How much is just due to never learning how to control their impulses and emotions and how much is the consequence of truly inescapable reactions?

The world may never know ahaha.

In conclusion, their genes and their traumas clash constantly and create inverted combos that can be really difficult to experience and to live with for those around them. Because Auron exhibited more obvious signs and drew more attention, Hadrian slipped under the radar pretty easily in comparison. Auron was the "crazy one", not him. And while it's true that Auron has a few more things he's dealing with, it was always a mistake of Hadrian's for thinking there was nothing at all amiss in his own head, and ofc an objective oversight not to recognize that a lot of their issues were and continue to be the same condition / different coin sides of the same conditions, but nobody had that kind of knowledge back then. It simply wasn't understood. And then suddenly they're centuries upon centuries old and patterns of behavior are locked in like cement.

In complete conclusion, the Aelius twins remain two genetically unlucky, deeply troubled and traumatized human beings that never should have been granted everlasting life and instinctively murderous / genocidal impulses on top of it.

[the-firebird69]

There's a bunch of things happening around here but firstly there are a few people who are gone

-they were neighbors and they're from a street over behind Woody harrelson and they were fairly ugly to her son especially recently and would not let him go places for the most part they died trying to attack the backside with troops from here and they were from westborough they were desecerie. And they were in the house that was next to Melissa Paris and people called them cessory. And it was a house that Jason lived in yes and he cut his own foot off that was him and it was his family and his household that left. But he is still alive and Lily is.

-one house from there towards the ocean was a house occupied by people who were also not very nice to our son and the name sounds like Lincoln but it's not and they we're also from westborough and doing that greenhouse that was next to Doug hanchett. And it was Mr Hood and remember the name and he used to bring Coca-Cola for kids and his dog is the one who got stuffed and still alive it was just the outer shell and the skull and yes somebody did that to it. And that is actually one of Stan's regions and someone did it to say that about stan. We know where the border Collie is and who's doing it and after a while if nothing happens we're going to get rid of him and repair the doggy and the dog goes back in the service for us. The whole household is gone everyone in that whole area that killed of stans

-and there's three more houses from westborough their households and they're empty now and near our son and in contention one is pretty close it's down the street towards the ocean and it's about five houses from him on the right and it's something kind of a mound it's where this neighborhood you used to live kiddie corner from him and that would be rivane, but one or two more houses down and two more would be chomo so yeah the chomos most of their house is gone and from the street including Jason and Lily no but we are taking about thier household. Tons say it. It wasn't their house and they didn't live there but it's where they're clan and that's not true. They were mother and father and in the chomo house it had the son and daughter and there's really another daughter there that Paris replaced once only once okay. And they're massively embarrassed. And about two of the siblings two of the parents died and it was Mr chomo Mrs chomo and two of the other siblings so we leave only Jason and Lily the rest are dead and the house is going to be empty and it's up for contention and Jason is saying all that cuz you're resisted going to prison to our son and it's saying it now after seeing all those people die because it was stupid comments and as soon as I rate and wants a hit on him now and her son says something to kill you I'm not going to your stupid prison you f**** and we're saying that too we're going to kill you Jason he's not going anywhere with you dumb retard for you a stupid retard no wonder whole place is a mess

-there's one more house and it's one of the three is on the very end of the street on the left side of the road as you go towards town and there's nobody in it. And it was the property of Jason who built it stupid house and it is stupid it's one house and two lots with a fence on the back it's just nasty. They were people who are some new a little and did not like they came to westboro as New Yorkers and died came back and were pissed off they said for years and we don't need them here and it's a two idiots who messed up by dying and telling everybody that he did it

They're more and are less than 45 houses and bja does not control them all there are probably 39 houses left and there are still 10 that left to the back side battle not included in that number in any way and we anticipate those 10 not coming back they're not going to come back there going to run into battle they said. And that number they don't have a very strong presence in this area of town and other households are leaving fast or being pulled out but a lot of them are evacuating.

We're going to publish this is important

Thor Freya

Wow I didn't think I'd see the day and I didn't think that now but later in the day I noticed that there's a lot less stupid things happening to me and these guys are getting weeded out all over the place and people don't like them they shouldn't they're ridiculous gross slobs. Well they are is parasites but they're going fast now

Zues Hera

Olympus

[jonathankatwhatever]

I was casting about looking for a way to get into what I need to say when I began to think about Spielberg. I don’t remember why his films came up. I was able to focus on two examples of what I don’t like in his films. One is in Close Encounters when the out-of-shape, middle-aged people are escaping the military base and there’s a shot of a soldier almost directly behind, pointing like in a comic book illustration, ‘There they are!’, then a a cut to the out-of-shape, middle-aged people running up the side of a mountain at altitude with a pile of soldiers about a quarter mile behind. That’s absurd. It’s not physically possible.

Another is in Pvt Ryan when, in the midst of battle, we see a group of American soldiers climbing on and banging on a German armored car. They are then killed. We’ve never seen these soldiers before and we’ve seen everyone in the unit as they’ve gone on their odyssey across Normandy. And what group of soldiers, who have been in combat, would ever climb on an armored car like that? They are trying not to get killed, but the movie treats them as objects who are shifted into place because what ….?

And that’s when I realized that is exactly what most people want, not consistency at the tObject level, but consistency at the Thing level. So what happens here is we bypass the physical rules and simply insert material that would not otherwise reduce to tObjects, meaning not actual things and thus not what would appear on screen. We’ve gone over this a million times over the years, haven’t we? The way I knew you really got it was not the kitchen but the car approaching: that angle really the entire capture creates a Triangular between your character and the character entering the space where you tell your tales.

And, yes, I see a lot in Fellini, but you know the scene that sticks in my brain is Nosferatu rising at the camera, rigid, arm out-stretched, from his coffin, embodying the propulsion, the energy of that which never dies because it feeds off the lives of others, cutting yours, adding that to its own, a version of the ancient God which not only requires sacrifice but sacrifice of what you hold dear, which renders in the Torah as the first-born or choice of animals, but which also then renders to humans as animals and thus the God that demands blood.

Anyway, way off track but I love thinking through melodies. Thoughts and melodies are the same. You don’t write a melody: you think it.

So, people love these glitches. Did I get that correct? They truly love the glitches because it’s exciting to have a chase, and part of the enjoyment of watching a show comes as you surrender to the experience. Like you know Pat Sajak is going to be the gentlest, most convivial host on Wheel of Fortune. He’s extremely skilled at it, the best I’ve ever seen, along with Alex Trebek. That was the real genius of Merv Griffin: he could cast. I remember him saying Vanna walked in the first day of auditions and he knew instantly. It’s been 40 years. Those casting decisions are possibly the two best in entertainment financial history: look at how much those shows have generated and how much they’re worth, especially now that they’ve shown you can replace these guys when you must. It can be done.

BTW, it’s 31 Jan 2023.

I had a rough morning. Had a cloud over my head. Thought about you, and got into the space but the thoughts wouldn’t settle. I’d catch glimpses, like reading technical questions and seeing that the answers not only made sense, but in some cases I was thinking past them. I’ve isolated the math learning issue to the concept of glyph, which is a glitch, as you know. That is, there is a bunch of learning in a symbolic expression, and thus you can either take the expression apart and translate it or you can look it, and process the meaning you’ve learned that associates with that expression. It’s the same idea I saw in Chinese education as Jordan described it to me: that doing will teach understanding, so repetition of the glyph tells you what it does, which is exactly how Chinese characters work. I don’t know many Westerners who understand that embedded in Chinese language and thus Chinese thinking is that characters are constructed ideas, that a character thus carries with it a context, and that a context has within it certain states but also the processes which link those states. So inside the language itself is a commitment to the process which, for example, makes a home. To compare, look at the word home. It doesn’t look anything like a shelter which you literally draw in your mind and with your hand when you write home.

I noticed a connection deep back in childhood relating to internal compression and contraction of the bladder assemblage. The link is that I noticed that as I master contraction while peeing, the process of putting on socks, etc., while standing suddenly felt like it did when I was 8. I don’t mean the feeling ended after 8, but that I can hold an image of that experience from around that age. I can date it to Roeper, and before 4th grade. My 3rd grade memories are mixed up because we had 3 teachers and I didn’t enjoy that. Seriously, having Susie’s mom as teacher made social interactions weird, and I didn’t like the last one. So all year long I was reminded of Miss Fleet, who I only knew for 3 days before she died. She was my ideal teacher, so warm and encouraging and interested in our learning.

Then I noticed while in the shower that my left groin has no pain. For the last few weeks, I’ve been pushing extensions and stresses into that area, though it scares me because that was the bad hernia side and that is where I pinched that nerve, and that was perhaps the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced, which means it hurt a heck of a lot. I relaxed myself through the fears, concentrated on getting into left-handed positions. There were a number of scary moments, but I trust the process. And now, more functionality, less pain.

So there are these glitches in Spielberg movies. They tend to drive me nuts, but they’re the way in which he constructs an artificial space in which he can make people feel exciting chase, drama where you know when you see those soldiers that something will happen to them, story that includes predictable clichés. In Close Encounters, if they’d had the chase unfold more logically, like they’re spotted from below after they get away, then you’d expect a less syrupy ending than all the missing people from UFO’s walking out.

My perspective on Martin McDonagh, btw, is that his plays reached near-Greek levels throught the specificity of their self-destructive urges. His movies don’t and the play about hangmen was like a movie. Is it the medium? I bring this up because he’s able to render a concrete mess. He’s in some ways like a violent version of Harold Pinter, who could make remoteness feel concrete. The rendering of those characters is the line of iObjects becoming tObjects as you see them, as they enact on stage or on film. So concrete can be like Italian realism or it can be lines between characters spoken in an artificial Mamet world. Movies want endings that don’t end. Does that makes sense? When you see or imagine characters on stage, the play ends and the actors typically come out and take a bow. When a movie ends, you don’t have that closure in which the characters switch off and the people switch on. Much of the rise of celebrity culture seems to rest on that notion, that these are characters which ‘switch on’. I like to think of Jesus coming on a talk show with the actor who plays Jesus in a movie, and all the questions are for the actor because we can identify more easily with one who plays Jesus than with actual Jesus.

Need a break. Need to do some math here.