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pluckyredhead · 4 years

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Daredevil 101: Cruel & Unusual

Hello, friends! I am back to fill up 10 minutes of your pandemic self-isolation downtime. Today we’re covering the storyline “Cruel & Unusual,” which ran through Daredevil v2 #107-110. Greg Rucka joins our usual team of Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark as a co-writer, which means a hardboiled dame investigating corruption, because Rucka has a #brand.

Content Warning: Severe violence against children is described but not shown; attempted suicide.

In the aftermath of what happened to Milla, Matt has sunk into depression. His friends are understandably concerned:

While Foggy pleads with him, Luke has a more assertive approach: yelling. Matt doesn’t take it well:

Yes, Matt breaks his hand. Yes, I laughed.

Anyway, Luke wants Matt to help him on a case, but Matt’s not hearing it, so Luke goes to the rest of Nelson, Blake, and Murdock:

MCU viewers will remember Big Ben Donovan from Luke Cage and Daredevil. They didn’t change much for the show, except that in the comics he sometimes beats people up in addition to being a super sketchy lawyer.

Anyway, he is currently on death row for decapitating three children - siblings, specifically. Not only that, he confessed to it. But Luke doesn’t think it fits his MO, and is hoping Matt - or barring that, Foggy, Becky, and Dakota - can do something to save Ben’s life. As they all agree, Ben sucks, but he doesn’t deserve to die for a crime he didn’t commit.

They try to get Matt on the case but he’s not interested. Dakota talks to a cop friend of hers, Detective Kurtz, and finds a few weird loose ends:

She then goes to see Ben in prison:

With Ben’s permission, she records his confession. On her way home from (I’m assuming) Sing Sing, she stops at a diner - and is attacked in the parking lot by a stranger, who beats her up and tells her to stay away from the Donovan case.

Furious, she goes straight to Matt and tells him to get his head out of his ass:

She wants Matt to listen to Ben’s confession and see if he hears anything off - that is, if he’s not too busy sitting around feeling sorry for himself. I know she’s coming off really aggressive here but the implication in the comic is that Matt has basically shut out the world for a worryingly long time by this point.

Anyway, Dakota storms out and Matt decides to listen to the recording - and realizes that Ben is definitely lying about killing those kids. So he finally pus on outside pants and heads out to do something about it:

Ben tells Matt the same thing he told Dakota - he did it, he has accepted his punishment, leave him alone. But Matt knows he’s lying, so he sees if the other Ben has any information for him:

That missing dad is still the loose end. Is he alive and thus probably the killer? Or if he’s dead, why won’t Ben (Donovan) confess to killing him too? Matt asks if Ben knows anything else about the dad, and Ben says he worked on the docks.

Meanwhile, Dakota continues to poke around and get in trouble, because that’s who she is as a person (I love Dakota so much). The same dude who beat her up before attacks her again, but this time she’s ready:

Also, surprise! He’s with the FBI. Which a) means there’s a cover-up happening, and b) freaks everyone out a bit because Matt and the FBI don’t have the greatest history with each other.

Matt, meanwhile, keeps digging and discovers that the missing dad didn’t just work “on the docks.” He worked specifically for this dude:

Eric Slaughter, one of Fisk’s early rivals! We haven’t seen him in a while but he was a regular foe in the early Miller years - here he is in the Guts Nelson issue. Anything, this can’t be good.

Meanwhile in prison, Ben attempts to kill himself and is stopped just in time:

(Please note if you read the comic that the attempt and method are shown on the page.)

This man is on death row, so why would he try to kill himself? He’s clearly terrified of the consequences of Matt and Dakota digging into this case, but why?

Meanwhile, Dakota’s father, a CIA agent, also shows up to warn Dakota off:

Dakota’s like, uh, how did covering up the decapitation of three children become about national security, and also why are the CIA and the FBI working on the same case? This is extremely stinky.

Meanwhile, Matt and Foggy go to see Ben, who is even more insistent that Matt drop the case, this time practically to the point of hysteria. It does a number on Matt:

Foggy is such a good friend! Matt is so sad! That is a very specific photo reference!

Back at the office, Becky gives Dakota some very good advice:

As I said, I love Dakota, but she is a liar liar pants on fire. LISTEN TO BECKY!!! She had a crush on Matt and got over it! She has survived for three decades (now four)! She knows whereof she speaks!

Dakota and her flaming pants head out on the trail of another lead Becky has dug up, this time up at Columbia:

Yeah. Big Ben Donovan has a son, and if he doesn’t take the rap for the triple homicide, whoever is actually behind it will kill his son.

As Dakota leaves the building, she is shot by a sniper. Meanwhile, Matt attempts to confront Slaughter and finds himself in a trap:

In an extremely Murdocky move, Matt escapes by leaping out the window and through the sniper helicopter outside.

Meanwhile, Dakota is taken to the hospital. Matt blames himself. Becky, who has witnessed five fridgings by this point, is officially Done With His Shit:

You tell ‘im, Becks! No but seriously, she’s completely right, because this is a Greg Rucka storyline: Dakota got shot because she’s a hard-nosed investigator whose personal demons won’t let her leave a case alone even when it puts her in danger. It actually has nothing to do with Matt except that he’s also working on the same case, and blaming himself won’t help her.

Instead, Matt tracks down the FBI agent who attacked Dakota, leans on him, and learns the truth: the children and their father were actually killed by Eric Slaughter’s right-hand man. Slaughter had ordered the father killed for stealing from him, and his killer went rogue and murdered the kids as well. But the feds are in bed with Slaughter, because they’re using his smuggling operations on the docks to track terrorist activity:

If Slaughter’s man got arrested for the quadruple homicide, Slaughter would stop cooperating with the feds. So they gave him a fall guy, figuring Ben was a shitty person anyway and an acceptable loss in the ~War Against Terror~. It’s pretty disgusting all around and depressingly plausible.

Matt’s like “Well, arrest the real killer and let Ben go or this ends up on the news.” And he brings Ben a visitor:

Little Ben is, unsurprisingly, rather touched to hear what his father was willing to sacrifice for his safety!

Agent North tells Slaughter that his free pass has expired:

With all the loose ends wrapped up, Matt goes to see Dakota:

Aw that’s nice. And hoo BOY that last panel is a Charlie Coxish expression if I’ve ever seen one. Can Michael Lark see the future???

Next Up: Greg Rucka leaves and the book gets lackluster again. But, um, there’s a lot of ninjas and more Milla-related ableism? Yay? Hold on to your butts, kids, it’s almost Shadowland time!

#daredevil #daredevil 101

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jq37 · 5 years

Note

[obligatory recap ask]

**spoilers for subway skirmish and borough of dreams**

@kickmuncher3 and @galfast: ty for your asks, I’ll use them for the next two recaps. this is probably the least efficient way for me to handle this but I want to keep all of these visually consistent dammit.

One of the funniest things about this season of D20 is most if not all of the cast has lived in NYC which manifests as very specific references and in character complaints that you just know come from a place of truth and experience. Which is to say we got a lot of that in these episodes.

Also, this has nothing to do with anything but living in NY update: On Sunday, I saw a man hanging upside-down from a tree--by his feet--and playing the flute. And barely anyone registered it at all. So I really cannot stress enough how much New York is Like That.

Pete opening the fight by blasting a fireball and then telepathically calling out Kingston is--como se dice--a Power Move.

Brennan *immediately* channels the opposite of whatever energy Emily's on and goes right for Ricky's dog to the horror of everyone at the table and his absolute delight. Like, it's a spectral dog but still. Bro. Dog.

Kingston taking the heat metal damage to get Epona to drop him is so raw. But then, for the rest of the fight, he doesn't say a single thing except for his Command spells which is a very different kind of raw.

Question: Is Riz's mom the only good cop that exists in D20?

I know this was an RP ep and I know they knew it was gonna be an RP ep but I wonder what would have happened if they had pretended to cooperate with Epona to get more info. Probably just an extended RP ep that would have segued into this same fight eventually. But I'm curious about what information they let get eaten by a swarm of rats.

Misty's Irresistible Dance spell is very clutch.

The gators from the last fight are back in the form of Kug's summons and one of them still has a grudge against Misty. Misty is all, "send me your resume!" because she appreciates the spunk. I was starting a sentence about what the hell play this sentient gator is going to be in but as soon as I hypothetically asked it my brain was like, "Peter Pan. Next question."

Y'all, this really was Kug's fight. Between calling the roaches, crocs, and gators, channeling Moonshine to call lightning, and killing Epona within 40 mins of the ep, he truly was on fire. Good for him. He also turns into a bear but specifically a bear that would have escaped from the zoo. It's the little details that make this show great.

Brennan putting his foot down on tying rats together not being acrobatics is the eternal DM mood.

Back to Epona for a second, do we think she was working for Robert directly? Someone connected to him? Something else? When her shadow split after Ricky's attack was that meaningful or just flavor? Where did that badge come from? Has it always existed? What does destroying it mean? It didn't seem to help. The bad cop ghosts were still around, just no one could control them at that point. If they had yoinked that badge, could they have had a summoning item that hey could use? Or is it bad karma to use something like that? Is it still bad if you're forcing the bad cops to do good stuff? Did Brennan anticipate this or is the Coach Daybreak 2: Electric Boogaloo? Lots of questions.

Misty's cutting words to the cop (saving Ricky) making the Law and Order "DUN DUN" noise is great.

Emily ends up not needing to roll to make rat nunchucks because her health goes low enough that her magic ring activates but I feel like she low key wanted rat nunchucks.

Wild that Kingston went down for just long enough for it to be cinematic before being revived by Misty ("Get up, old man,")

Also wild that this whole fight only took about 45 seconds of in game time. It makes sense if you think about it the way you would a movie and that's how most D&D fights are but that's so much play time for so little game time and it hit me this ep because I was actually keeping track of rounds.

Anyway, I have not mentioned up until this point that the whole crux of this fight is to last long enough for Alejandro to roll high enough to summon the train to Nod but, long story short, Pizza Rat shows up to save the day. Does that make more sense in context? Marginally.

I like that the train to Nod shows up on the wrong side of the tracks. Like I said, man. Details.

Oh and to my above point about the cast making comments about NY as people who have lived in NY, I loved Brennan looking directly at the camera when he was going off on people who just stand at the door like idiots while you're trying to get in and then Siobhan pokes like half her head into frame so she can also stare directly into the camera. Mood.

When Ally said Pete shoots Kingston I half believed it for a good couple of seconds. I was right there with Lou.

OK, so I don't know how many of you have watched Sharkboy and Lavagirl (and, if you haven't feel free to skip this bullet) but no movie has brought me more enjoyment overall than SB&LG. Not because it's good because it's not. But it's so insane that it's amazing. It's right in the sweet spot. I always say, if it was any better, it would be Spy Kids 3 and, therefore, unwatchable (SK 1 + 2 are dope as hell though, for the record). I bring it up because the way Brennan describes Nod reminds me a lot of Drool in SB&LG. Like, the rollercoaster subway car def could be in the same universe as the Train of Thought. This is all to say that I think Brennan could have written a version of SB&LG that was better without being worse. Idk if that comes across as complimentary, but it is, and to both parties actually.

From the way Nod (the kid) is being framed (in this ep and the next) I know we're not supposed to mistrust him but, put in that situation, there is no way I would trust the gray faced, black eyed, creepily gliding dream child.

Post fight, Kingston wants to offer an apology for what he said about Pete and Nod wants to apologize for putting Pete in his current situation. Also, the group decides to be more open in general. Kug, as most of us guessed, got beauty and the beasted for white collar crime by his business partner (Gabby) who is Esther's mom and a witch (also, Ricky thinks his crush on Esther is a secret which is just adorable and completely incorrect).

Brennan cuts sharing time off because this is the combat episode dammit! Save it for next session. But, because I'm behind, next session is now! Let's get into The Borough of Dreams.

Misty, as a faerie, is instinctively mistrustful of vising other magical worlds and eating the food or taking things at face value. I love that she's playing a character where she can ask these questions and not be meta-gaming because I had some of the same concerns.

Wildly, WALLY walks out of the train as he just happened to be on it (as conductor) at the time. Kug bursts out with the fact that he's his dad and Wally takes this to mean that Rat Jesus is his bio dad but, even after being left alone for so many years, he claims Bruce as his real dad. He's wrong but he's sweet.

"I thought you were mad at me." Brennan, you didn't have to do that.

Murph clearly trying to not accidentally call Wally a piece of shit because that's his go to Kug way to describe things is so funny.

"We could turn me into a rat." WALLY

Kingston and Misty looking at each other like, "These absolute children," while Pete and Soph are making Brittney Spears references.

So we find out what all of the magic stuff they picked up does. Misty's mirror can see invisibility. Pete's grill helps with persuasion. The thousand hour energy makes you immune to sleep for 42 days(!) The bagel can be used for divination or to essentially kill a person but spread their essence throughout the universe (which low key sounds like a sacrifice someone might make to help cancel the spread of say an undead presence or a money virus).

I want Ricky and Wally to be friends forever.

Kingston's lack of connection to the dream world is so sad. Like, he's no nonsense but he's like NO NONSENSE. Like no nonsense possible. So he's just walking around like Eddie Valiant in Toontown.

And, at the same time, the rest of the party is doing the MOST nonsense. Mary Poppins-ing into the sky. Misty is making out with the moon. Wild.

SOBER SALAD

Ally drops the ketamine on the tomatoes line and Brennan fully breaks

Very sweet for Pete to bring Kingston a salad, even though that's such a random food to just have in your pocket(???). Why does salad keep coming up on this show? One more time and it's officially a motif.

So the dream world basically works on Sharkboy and Lavagirl/Xanth/Phantom Tollbooth/Wonderland/Toontown logic. If you've seen/read any of those, you basically have it down.

"Only people with Sprint have service."/"Oh, amazing!" Brennan threw that softball out for anyone who wanted it and Emily, as usual, hit it out of the park.

Brennan very clearly knows his NY history. The mob boss (lucky Luciano, no not that one) that he mentioned during the sleeping with the fishes bit is a real dude and basically the dude who brought organized crime to the US (in the form we know it now).

Ricky and the mints. Lord.

Anyway, the one item I didn't mention earlier is the holy grail detergent which can literally clean souls. Which sounds mighty interesting considering some of the other stuff that's come up this campaign.

(Also, I wonder if you could use the bagel as spell components since it contains everything in the universe in microcosm).

I can't believe Pete was the one saying, "At least eat before you shotgun that 1000 hour energy." By the by, the 42 hour span of the energy drink makes me suspicious. Is that just for humor (and accurate math) or it this a Chekov's Gun kind of an item indicating some kind of time jump at some point? Ricky drinks it later in this ep so, if there's a clock attached to that, it's ticking. I'm prob reading into this but I assume if you're still reading these, this is what you're here for.

Ally making sawing motions before being told an egg creme has nothing to do with eggs and is in fact a drink.

Pete! OK, so Pete has made some good steps in this ep, starting with promising to start reining in the drug usage. Later he works on his magic and also gets over Priya. This is the most endeared I've been to him all season. Especially his, "I try to do a good job," line. I felt that.

"It's still open to you." Aw.

Brennan clearly saw the chance for a lore drop this ep and boy did it drop. Let's run through the highlights.

Nod dumped all this on Pete the way they did because it's super super hard to contact a Vox Phantasmus beforehand due the the natural, waking world inclination to brush off dreams. You have to have the job before you can talk to the boss. Cruddy system but that's how it goes.

When Sophie said the thing about Robert Moses creating spaces that can't be accessed she meant by magic but it's an interesting way to phrase it because the irl Robert Moses is known for (allegedly, but like, it tracks) trying to keep black people out of certain spaces.

Robert Moses sold his soul to Hell and Faerie which is why he's still alive it seems. No one wants to collect on his soul and anger the other party.

Whoever predicted that the golden door for Emma Laz's poem was the rectangle from episode one, collect your prize because it's confirmed in this ep.

We learn about the ephemeral axiom which basically says, a dream can be all things but once it manifests, it's a single thing. (you might even say, "it is what it is".)

So another big thing we learn is that if a dream gets so big that manifesting them in the real world would break the game, it's called a Paragon. There are four total: Heaven, Hell, Faerie, and The American Dream. (Wild that The American Dream is the only country specific one that exists. Like, I rep my home team of course but the U.S. is a pretty latecomer to the country party. You'd think someone else might have gotten Paragon status at some point.)

"Was one of them the Grand Canyon?"

Anyway, dragging the American Dream into the waking world would fix the American Dream to mean one thing--I assume making tons of money if Robert Moses has his way. I'll admit, I was a little fuzzy on the mechanics of this on my first watch-through because pulling the American Dream into the real world sounds like it should be a good thing. But I think, at the most basic level, it's a matter of you shouldn't put magic that shouldn't be in a box in a box. I'm still wondering about the exact implications for the waking world if he succeeds though. Like, how would that manifest? Would everyone suddenly become money hungry (lol, how would you tell)? Would people still want what they want but the American Dream would just be understood to mean making stacks and none of the good Superman-y stuff?

"It's not Protestant work ethic is it?"

Robert Moses is undead and can't get into Nod, so those are good things to note.

I was so ready for Wally is get dispelled and for him to be a figment of Kug’s imagination or a dream or something. I braced myself so much. I was ready to set up a firing squad for Brennan for doing that to Kug.

Who tipped the bugsters off to where Pete was gonna be? As far as I can tell, the only people that knew were the gang plus Alejandro and Esther. Maybe someone was scrying on them and that’s what the roll Zac failed during the wedding ep was.

As soon as Brennan mentions locking the door, Ally immediately makes the connection and goes, "Key to the city." Nod "locks" the American Dream and gets rid of the lock which seems to mean the American Dream is temporarily unavailable. Which seems not good and like it's gonna have collateral damage for sure but I guess you bad is a matter of degrees and Robert getting in would be worse. But still, imagine your immigration papers get declined because some random kid decided to close down the American Dream for a couple of days.

So, we get some backstory of Misty. She apparently just was straight up not having a good time in Faerie so she stole Titania's shoes (allowing her to be in iron-filled NYC without triggering her fairy vulnerability) and peaced out.

"She's gonna kill you."/"Only if she can get here and I have her Goddamn shoes." (**A million airhorns in the distance**)

I love that Emily is still on the souls thing. Emily doesn't believe in Occam's Razor. In fact, I'd like to propose a corollary called the Axford Axiom: The coolest path between two points probably isn't the correct one, but it should be! I want her to run a campaign so bad so I can see her be in a game where her crazy endgame is what's going on because she's the one who wrote it.

Misty: Let's go to hell!

So much like a videogame, the map has opened up and we have three places to check out. The former locations in the dream world of Faerie (Carnagie Hall), Heaven (JFK airport), and Hell (where do you think? Hell's Kitchen). The gang splits up to look for clues (and drinks, in Misty's case). Actually, make that four places: Pete goes to the Met Museum of Memories to basically Avatar mind meld with the other Voxes and get a handle on his magic to a degree (thank God--Nod?). We'll take these in order of appearance, which means we're off to Hell with Kug and Ricky (plus Ox and Wally).

(Focus on the Pizza, baby!)

At first I wanted Ricky, the good boy, to go to Heaven, but the idea of a firefighter in Hell also has appeal.

Re The rat holding his guts: Gross.

Ricky holding his axe like a cell phone.

So we and Kug learn that the rat-spell that was cast on him wasn't actually a rat-spell. It was a spell that would make his outsides reflect his insides and his insides happened to suck. I'm wondering if that means that it's a static spell that reflects his outsides at the time it was cast and it would need to be recast to reflect any moral progress made or if it will just revert him once he's made enough progress.

I'm also wondering (partially bc one of my players asked to do this last session) can a Druid wildshape into a person? I feel like no, but like, did any of you ever read Animorphs? You know how in book 1 Tobias gets stuck as a red-tailed-hawk but then later her gets his morphing ability back and then he can turn back into his human form for 2 hours at a time? What if Kug just started doing that? Just being a rat who is sometimes a dude.

They also go to the statue of liberty (which has a French accent, natch) who shows them that there's, like, a money/greed virus infecting the Dreaming and the American Dream. Ricky smells undeath again. They think vampires. That's plausible but I'm not sure.

OK, Heaven.

WHOOOO, strap in y'all

(Sidenote: I wonder what would have happened if Soph hadn't chose to go to heaven. I feel like she could have easily run into you know who in hell had she chose to go there, but I'm getting ahead of myself).

Brennan actually tries to lead Emily into the thinking about Dale mindset but Emily, having reached a note of closure in Soph's character arc, pushes back on that.

honeyougotastormcoming.gif

Brennan,about to wreck her entire life: Cool.

I and the cast keep saying heaven a lot but it's like an all roads lead to Rome situation. It's heaven, Valhalla, Elysium, nirvana. Like, whatever Good Place you believe in. It's the Good Place.

Sophie, upon being told that if she jumps into the fight at the Pearly Gates she knows nothing about, she might literally die: And what about it?

Emily's face when Brennan says, "And you see Dale," is so much. You can see the entire range of human emotion in her eyes in that moment.

Sidenote: I wonder how much of her backstory Emily planned and how much Brennan dropped on her. Like, she knew Isabella was part of her backstory obv. Did Brennan come up with all of this whole-cloth or did she say she wanted there to be something supernatural and and let him fill in the details. Very curious about the collaborative process.

When Dale's character art comes up, it says "Sophie's Angel" for Dale's descriptor so where I thought we were going was that Dale was Sophie's Guardian Angel who wasn't supposed to be romantically involved with her and the reason he was gone is that he was forcibly brought back to heaven. But that may be because I recently watched this.

Dale, is upsettingly sweet with Sophie, calls her "sweetie" the entire time they're together, fights a ton of angels to get to her, and says he got her text message. Emily is about to cry. *I'm* about to cry. I'm sure the only reason Brennan isn't fistpumping is because he needs to stay in character.

Dale gives this cryptic piece of advice before he is dragged off by angel guards: When you get to the top, I know what it'll seem like, but there is someone there.

Emily, of course: I fight the angels.

The angels, hilariously, don't take it personally that she's fighting them--and very well, but not well enough to beat a nat 20. Sometimes the dice are spooky in tune with the story.

"He's got a job to do here. Who's gonna watch the deer?"

Dale also tells Soph to tell Jackson he said hi which is interesting to say the least.

Emily gets two very dope lines in a row:

"Let me hold your hand through this Alejandro."

"I'm gonna kill her. And I don't think she's going to the great big airport in Brooklyn."

That's it for her for now, but let's put a pin in that for now and come back to it after we check in with the others.

Siobhan and Kingston are at the former spot of Faerie, the Glamour Bar.

Zac jokingly (I think) guessing Dr. Doolittle as the thing Siobhan can't remember when she says Eliza Doolittle is so funny.

Also, her terrible cockney British accent on top of her actual British accent is great.

I love that the two actual Real Adults are the ones who go and get wasted mid-mission.

Brennan introduces "Bobby Goodfellow" and it takes Siobhan exactly four seconds after Brennan finishes the word "Goodfellow" to be like, "It's Puck." She knew and she knew her character would know it and she hardcore pounced.

I meant to mention this before but it's super funny that Kingston has been around the magical block but there's still so much he doesn't know. He was surprised by a bunch of stuff in this ep that I'd think he would know about (like the Midsummer's faeries being real) but nah. He's like, "This is my specific brand of magic nonsense. That's what I know about. I don't mess around with any of *that* stuff. I stay in my lane. I stay in my city."

Ty Brennan for teaching me how to pronounce sláinte. This is the first time I'm hearing it out loud.

I love his Puck voice. Like, the little British street urchin voice.

No big surprise, Puck sent the mirror on the order of Oberon and Titania (who are not back together but are knocking boots according to him).

Puck warns Misty, "The world of mortals is not long for this world," and follows it up with a seemingly sincere, "Come home. We miss you," which is an interesting thing to say after announcing that Titania is gunning for her. Who is this we, Puck? Your boss wants to bodyslam her!

Also, what do the faeries know that they're not saying? All of them in the bar seemed to know something was off but none of them said anything and Puck didn't elaborate.

I've always liked the trope of the person from the otherworldly, magical or super advanced being like, "Idk what you're talking about. Humans are great!" because it's the opposite of the snooty elf/vulcan/whatever trope that I really can't stand. Misty showed shades of that in this conversation but I feel like there's still so much that we're missing in her backstory and I wanna know what it is.

(Also, this is prob just me being a little pepe silvia but I would be very unsurprised if Misty got an opportunity to betray the party at some point. Don't @ me. It's just something I could see myself offering to a player for the drama of it all).

Anyway, Kingston is extremely uncomfortable in the bar and makes a hasty exit so let's go to the museum with Pete and Nod.

Ally jumps onto the, "Suggested donations are for suckers" train w/ Siobhan.

Turns out, Pete f'd up Robert up so much that he has kind of a brain link with him. I wonder how long that's gonna last.

Pete gets proficiency in arcana and a choice between lesseing wild magic surges or gaining some control over them (2 wild magic rolls on a fail and ally gets to choose which effect takes place). Obv the second one is more fun rp-wise so that's what Ally picks.

It's a memory museum so OF COURSE he gets a chance to look at the memories of the rest of the party. But it's getting late so he only has a chance to check on one person's memories. He, naturally, picks Kingston. Makes perfect sense from an RP perspective but out of character I feel like Misty is the most closed book of the party.

Pete sees Kingston's life from his childhood to the present (Brennan puts Lou on the spot to do some improv...I mean beyond the improv they're already doing) and it's about what you would expect based on what we know about Kingston but it's very beautifully described (sidenote: did any of y'all ever watch the life and times of juniper lee? where she can't leave the city bc she's like the buffy of that world? I really felt shades of that, except more self imposed).

During that montage, a character is like, "You could make hundreds of millions of dollars--I mean, I'm exaggerating," (s/t like that) and I'm not gonna go back and check but I feel like Brennan (or maybe Lou) made almost exactly the same comment in the first ep of this season in a very similar context.

Oh, also, Kingston gets dubbed Vox Populi by a dragon on Bleecker Street in case you were wondering about logistics.

Again, Nod says that inviting Liz into his life was basically dooming Liz to be stuck dealing with the Unsleeping City but I feel like unless you have a Vox position or something similar you should be able to, like, opt out. So what you need to ignore some weird stuff day to day? May I direct you to my earlier anecdote about the flute dude in the tree. New Yorkers are good at that. And if she moved away, would it even be an issue?

Actually, that raises another question. Is NY the only place where magic is happening? It can't be because Santa is doing his thing at the North Pole. And NY has the Umbral Arcana which shields magic from muggles. Does that mean that elsewhere, magic just isn't hidden? I'm guessing that works because the bulk of magical happenings are happening in NY. Which, again, if so, couldn't Liz just move if she really wanted to? Or is she actually being *kept* there?

Ahhhhh, that argument scene with Kingston and Liz. Ow.

Robert's subconscious is heckling Kingston's memories the entire time.

The party gets back together, Pete immediately lets Kingston know he was memory spying on him and hugs him (while Misty is drunk a singing over him). Their rift literally caused a kind of rift in NYC which is now healed (which causes Sophie to see the Unsleeping City/Dreaming Yin-Yang sign over their heads).

Ricky drinks the 1000 hr energy so start the clock I guess.

Misty, upon hearing that Dale is dead basically does that John Mulaney bit: Hey, do you want me to kill that guy for you? Because it sounds like [s]he sucks and I will totally kill that guy for you.

It's the day of Priya's art show which I totally forgot was happening. Before that, Sophie finally goes to see her brother and we can return back to that pin I mentioned earlier.

(Also, it’s the 20th which means we’re getting really close to Christmas)

He says that their family got mixed up with the Confettis and they've been helping to launder magical items that Confetti is paying some rep from Hell (an associate of Robert's).

And by, "Some rep from hell," I mean Isabella Infierno specifically.

Emily, hilariously riffs for a while about how small it was of her to call Isabella a succubus even though she clearly knows at this point that Isabella is some kind of demon. I mean...Infierno. Come on.

Sidenote: Which demon actually trying to be subtle would pick the last name Infierno? You wanna blow your cover for the aesthetic that bad?

Emily goes, "Oh my (beat) Nod," which I think is the exact way she dropped the first, "Oh Melora," in one of the first eps of Naddpod.

Anyway, it turns out that Soph's family knew that Isabella was gunning for Dale (he was getting close to realizing something shady was going on) and, while they didn't call the shot, they let it happen.

Oh! He also says Dale was a chosen one from "some monastery" which, of course, fits in with Dale's comment about saying hi to Jackson. Now I'm wondering if his other comment--about there seeming like there's nothing at the top--is about whatever chosen one test he had to take to get the position to begin with. And maybe he was giving a clue to Sophie so that when she takes it, she'll for sure pass and get whatever dope powers or weapons or privileges come with the position.

"The only reason I'm not going to go after you right now is because I'm not organized enough to give you the fucking revenge you deserve." Soph is cold as ice after hearing about what her family did.

"Maybe you should have said that to Isabella before she went after me." Another mic drop line from Emily. This really was her episode. You can really see Emily channeling hr genuine emotional reactions into her character.

La Gran Gata shows up to let Soph know she has her back to hunt down Isabella. The only other warlocks really seen played are Fjord on CritRole and Leiland on Bloodkeep so it's wild to see a character with such a chill relationship with their patron.

So, Priya's art show. They show up (to a distressingly unsafe building from Ricky's perspective) and it turns out, not only is it performance art (the worst kind) Pete *is* the art.

"I present to all of you: cruelty, a exploration of a relationship. Peter, take my hand."

major barf.

Pete goes OFF

Kingston: Picasso is art, this is bullshit!

Siobhan: Her last name is Danger? I hate this bitch.

Pete gets over Priya instantly which totally tracks because, like I said, barf.

Sophie stealing Ricky's thing and rooftop jumping. Zac narrows his eyes when she says that.

I love Isabella's title card. It says, "Literal Succubus". It reminds me of the funniest scene in Bedazzled when the Devil (Liz Hurley) gives Brendan Frasier her business card and it just says, "The Devil".

But she's here and she's here to fight! I'm so excited for this one y'all! Unsafe building. Lots of civilians. Sophie (and Emily) going totally feral. I haven’t looked forward to a fight this much since Adaine went for Aelwen. Let's gooooo!

#asks #dimension 20 #the unsleeping city #d20 #riz-gukgak #this is 5k words #aren't I good at utilizing my free time

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cbk1000 · 7 years

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I promise this blog will stop being a testament to how shitty humanity is in a bit, but this Netflix series totally opened the floodgates and I’m angry all over again, and writing is the best way I know to get it off my chest. Scroll past this if you don’t want to remember how truly shitty humans can sometimes be.

Believe it or not, I actually have another child rapist apologist story unconnected to the dojo, although it took place around the same time.

Some backstory: I had been friends with this girl since the 6th grade. We were not attached at the hip throughout the years, it was a friendship where we’d go for some time without talking/seeing each other, and then just pick up where we left off. When we were all a bit older and she had moved out of the house to attend college in a nearby town (she was living in an apartment with her boyfriend at the time), she and I started seeing each other a lot more and became pretty close. I’d go up to their apartment and stay pretty much every weekend. This is actually how I met Mr. Jenn; he was a good friend of theirs at the time (we’re still close with her boyfriend; he was actually the best man at our wedding). A year or so of this passes; Mr. Jenn and I are now dating. She and the boyfriend are on/of again because she has this little habit of constantly fucking cheating on him.

It got to a point where I just had no respect for her anymore and wasn’t at all interested in being her friend. I didn’t bother to formally end the friendship because Mr. Jenn was still friends with her and I didn’t want to put him in a position where he felt he had to choose between a best friend and his girlfriend, so I just avoided her and didn’t really hang out with her anymore. Eventually, the straw broke the camel’s back and I definitively ended it. With screaming.

So, at this point, she and her boyfriend have broken up permanently; she is already dating another guy. Mr. Jenn is house sitting for his parents one weekend, and she brings this new boyfriend briefly by to meet us. He didn’t do anything particularly notable, was fairly personable, etc. I was fairly neutral about him, because we’d had only a few minutes of interaction. However, when they leave, Mr. Jenn, who has an A+ creep radar, tells me, “I don’t like that guy. Maybe it’s just because he’s not Brad (our friend and her previous boyfriend; also, I’ve changed his name), but I don’t like him in a way I can’t put my finger on.”

A little while later, this girl lets it slip to Mr. Jenn that her new boyfriend is a convicted felon. Naturally, Mr. Jenn is like, uh...what? What the fuck did he do?

We find out that he is, in fact, a convicted rapist. After Mr. Jenn tells me this, I check the local sex registry for him to discover that he is not only a rapist, but a child rapist. What the unholy fuck.

I tell Mr. Jenn that he can do whatever he likes, but that I’ve not particularly cared for this girl for a while and this is the fucking end, and that I never want to see her again and I am going to explicitly, in no uncertain terms, end our friendship. I said he can still hang out with her if he likes, but I don’t want anything to do with her. He agrees with me; he hardly wants to hang out with a child rapist either.

I call her and ask her to come by my apartment when she has the chance because Mr. Jenn and I need to talk to her. She comes by after work, and asks us what we need to talk about. I tell her that it’s about her boyfriend.

She actually says, “What about him?” all innocent-like, and it’s at this point I blow my stack while Mr. Jenn calmly stands there because one of us has to be chill. I start yelling at her, because what the fuck do you mean, ‘what about him?’ How can you fucking stand there and look at me like, oh, what could he possibly have done?? when you know he is a CONVICTED CHILD RAPIST?? What the fuck else could I be referring to?

It’s a very short conversation because she quickly storms out. The gist of it is that I tell her it’s fucked up that she is bringing this dude around her young siblings (she had twin siblings who were ten years old at the time) and ask her if her parents know about him; she claims they do. She also tells me ‘he’s great with the kids’. Yeah, I bet he fucking is.

I e-mail her after this because I can’t let it go; I can’t believe she is exposing her very young brothers to this guy. My sister was like 17 or 18 at the time and I wouldn’t have fucking wanted her around this creep. She tells me that she feels very hurt that I attacked her like that, but that she’s willing to give our friendship another shot, but I have to trust her judgement. She tells me that what he did was terrible, but it’s forgivable because he was 13 (his records tell another story, but I’ll get to that later), and he was only ‘doing it to get back at someone’, as if revenge rape is somehow better?? I tell her our friendship is finished, and the only reason I am contacting her is to attempt to appeal to whatever scrap of conscience is left in her to not. Expose. Children. To. A. Fucking. Child. Fucking. Rapist. This conversation changed nothing, except her Myspace status, which afterward said ‘feeling betrayed’ or some bullshit like that. I probably don’t have to tell you that I’m ready to punch babies at this point.

So, it’s me. I can’t let this go. How can her parents let this man hang around their children? Does he babysit them? Is he ever left alone with them? I could not fucking let this go; I told Mr. Jenn they’re endangering those kids, isn’t there possibly something in his probation about not being allowed around children, couldn’t we report this to someone?

I start researching the situation some more. I call the sheriff’s office to explain the situation and find out if it’s against his probation; they tell me it sort of depends upon how long it’s been since he committed the crime and what exactly his crimes were. The sheriff’s office has a binder full of information on local convicted sex offenders; they tell me I can look at that, and that it contains more information than the website. (All I know, at this point, from the website is that he’s a level 3 offender--highly likely to re-offend; this is the highest level of conviction--and had a very young victim.)

At this point, I have to go in to testify at the pre-trial of the karate instructor. Afterward, I swing into the sheriff’s office to look at the aforementioned binder. I find out he was actually 16 when he committed his crimes, he had multiple victims, and they were all quite young (I think like 5, but I don’t remember for sure). I then contact the local juvenile detention center to see if I can get more information on the specificity of his crimes (the binder listed the charges, which were all child rape, if I remember correctly, but there are no actual criminal reports) since he was still a juvenile when he committed them (he was in his early 20s at this point). They tell me I can, but because it involves a juvenile (or at least someone who was a juvenile at the time of the crime), they can’t give the information over the phone, and that I have to come down to the center and sign in before I can view the records. No problem; I can do that. (Except when Mr. Jenn and I get down there, they tell me a completely different story, that I can’t view the records, and they can’t give me any information, so thanks for wasting my time on that, guys.) I also tell Mr. Jenn that I think we should call and doublecheck with this girl’s mom that she does, in fact, know that the new boyfriend who’s playing with her kids is a convicted child rapist, because I don’t trust this asshole to have told me the whole truth. I tell him I think it’s better if he makes the call because he actually knows her mom and I don’t; he wants me to do it, because, well, hey, who wants to make the so-your-daughter’s-boyfriend-is-a-child-rapist call? I tell him that I can, but I still think it’s better coming from someone she knows. I tell him to make sure she knows to check the website, check the sheriff’s office if she needs further proof; she ought not to take her daughter’s sanitized version at face value.

He makes the call, and leaves a message saying that he needs to speak with her about something important. She calls him back a while later, and he explains everything that we found: turns out, she and her husband had no clue this girl was dating a child rapist, she had never once mentioned it. She thanked him for telling her, and later called back to update us. She had told her daughter that she was still welcome in the house, but that her boyfriend was not. This girl immediately tried to launch into an assault on me and Mr. Jenn, but apparently her mom shut that down and said, no, this is your fault, you’re the one who brought someone like this into the house without even telling us. The girl then moved out, and shortly afterward married this guy and had a kid with him. Because people are fucking terrible.

I don’t know what’s happened to her since then; I haven’t talked since those few e-mails. I hope her children (I think she has a couple now, or so I heard through some mutual acquaintances) are all safe. Other than that, fuck her.

#personal #mr. jenn was the only good thing i got out of that friendship

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looselucy · 7 years

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Vitae & Mortem

Dystopian AU - Read the intro here

Part One

1:42PM I sat there almost lifeless until a soft, pink petal from the blossom tree hanging over our heads fluttered downwards, drifting peacefully over my vision, and landing on the tip of my knife.

I closed my eyes, taking a few steady breaths, in, and back out, my hand reaching to the side so I could clasp my fingers around the handle of my weapon, attempting to calm myself down. I gently opened my eyes and glanced to my right, seeing the young girl look up to me with nothing but faith in me. She’d latched onto my side the second I’d asked her if she was hungry, if she needed help. The infection in her left eye looked shockingly painful, swollen and bright red, electric shocks of blood bolting through her sclera. I’d seen it before, kids who’d gone blind due to simple eye infections. I wouldn’t let it happen to her. “You stay here.” I told her calmly. “You stay here, and you stay quiet.” I wasn’t sure she could talk, to be honest, but if there was one thing I knew about the kids who’d grown up with no education, and without the ability to speak, they could still cry, and they could still scream. She just looked back at me, probably completely unaware of what I was saying. I stood up. She stood up too. “No!” I cried, placing my free hand on her shoulder and forcing her back down. “You. Stay.” She half nodded, remaining on the spot even when I began to distance from her, backing away and keeping my eyes on her for as long as I could before I was forced to turn around, my heart in my throat and my hands sweating, hoping I wouldn’t lose grip of the knife as I marched in the right direction, the bright green flashing sign being the only proof I needed. It didn’t matter how many times I performed stunts like that, I hated it. I did everything I could to survive, and to help people who I could see were even more vulnerable than I was, but it didn’t mean I took any pleasure in the actions I had to perform. But they were the ones that had kept me alive. Even if that also meant they had set the Krows after me. Biting back tears, I pushed through the front door, glad that the man behind the counter hadn’t noticed me as I charged his way, and I could hear my heart beating faster and faster and harder and harder and louder and louder and then I was behind the counter, pushing the knife up to his throat and backing him against the shelf, pills and liquids falling around us. I pushed a little harder. “I need eyedrops.” I flustered, trying to hold the strength to my voice. “Buy them.” The man seethed, but I could tell he was terrified. Fear laced through his eyes as I forced the knife even further against his neck, hoping not to draw blood but not afraid to push that bit harder if he refused my request. “Find them for me, now.” I spat through gritted teeth. “Find them yourself.” “FIND THEM!” I hadn’t really read anything since I’d been in school, which is something I knew stopped at the age of thirteen. I wasn’t entirely sure how old I was, but all I knew was that it felt like a lifetime since the days where I had a roof over my head and access to some kind of education. I couldn’t admit to him that I couldn’t read well enough to know what I was picking off the shelf. Reluctantly, he reached down to his side, dropping his eyes to aid his search but he knew where he needed to grasp, pulling the packet to his eyes to check it was the right thing before holding it to me, his nostrils flaring as I snatched it from his hands and then I finally pulled away, running out of there as swiftly as I could. I picked up the pace a little more as soon as I was outdoors, because I knew there was a price on my head, and I needed to stay as under cover as possible, to stay quiet and unseen just in case. I knew who I could trust, and who I couldn’t. But I also knew it wasn’t wise to trust anyone whose throat you’d just brandished with a knife, because it would always be likely they’d want to return the favour. So I grabbed the little girls hand, dragging her to her feet, and pulling her far away from the crime scene I’d created. 6:43 PM She’d barely touched her food, whereas I was shovelling down the meal we’d been given, glaring at her across the table as I scoffed away the most food I’d had in weeks. “I don’t know if you’re choosing not to speak or if you can’t.” I spoke with my mouth full. “You go to school?” Still nothing, just a blank stare, a small blink, her food losing its steam. I rolled my eyes. “You got a name?” Silence. “Most people end up picking their own, anyway. So if you don’t have one, we can pick one for you now.” She still had fear in her eyes, and the more I glanced at their glistening, I figured her lack of speech to be something she was choosing, rather than the only option she had. I leaned across the table, pushing the bowl of food a little closer to her. We were in the centre of London, inside one of the buildings that had almost been burned to the ground during the rebellion and uproar over Mortemosis, which a charity had eventually purchased and made into a form of sanctuary for the Lost Children seeking help and support. It was a mix of things. Somewhere with access to food, books, a safe-house for those they had room for, and even people you could talk to. I had always felt safe there. “We could go look through some books.” I suggested to her. “Books have loads of name in ‘em.” She must have been new to life on the street, she only looked around five years old. It wasn’t uncommon that the charities that homed children were shut down due to lack of funds. Suddenly, abundances of children were left without homes, without education or any sense of direction. They were thrown out onto the street to join the rest of us. “If you don’t tell me your name soon, I’m gunna go pick one for ya.” “Marby.” She finally breathed. “She speaks!” I chirped. “But does she eat?” Reluctantly, she reached for her spoon, shaking as she picked it up and delved it into the liquid broth, spilling most of it as she moved it to her mouth. I looked around us, watching everyone shovelling food down as quickly as they could, desperate for the energy boost before we went out onto the streets for another evening. We needed it. They sent the Krows out at night. They’d pick children up under the cover of the black sky and take them, disguised as helpers, people who would ease us back into a society that had shunned us throughout our lives. I wasn’t sure how much truth there was behind that ploy. It was an unwritten rule. If you see the Krows, you run. “Is this your first night on the street?” I asked her. She shook her head, stirring her food and avoiding consuming more after only one mouthful of the substance. “I think… a few days.” She mumbled. “They’re full here. Once you have a room here, you can stay, so they never really have any space. But I know a place. First come first serve, and they’ll give you a bed for the night. I’ll take you.” “Okay.” “They’ll look after you. I promise.” “JAX!” I whipped my head away, seeing a woman stood in the doorway, ushering me out of there. She was one of the people who worked for the charity, who I’d spoken to a few times. They liked to inject faith in us, make us think that everything would be okay, that we could get through this and come out of it all with some kind of future. I appreciated their intentions, and found them laughable at the same time. “Don’t move.” I instructed Marby. “I’ll be back soon.” She nodded, falling back to her comfortable quietude again as I lifted to my feet and approached the woman who had shouted me, confidently striding into the room with her as she closed the door behind me. This was the small room they used to chat with children and find out as much as they could, and try to help them, teach them. It had been a nice thing, previously. But automatically, the atmosphere in there was completely different to how it had been previously. There were two other adults there, all sat in big chairs, staring at me in silence. “How are you?” The woman who had called me asked, moving to occupy a spare seat, and gesturing for me to occupy another. “Fine.” I grumbled. “We just wanted a quick talk. Ask you a few things about your history. Is that okay?” I was scowling as I sat myself down. I knew it was a government funded organisation, and it was only in that moment that I thought about how uncomfortable that truly made me. I should have thought of that before, but being there had always felt like the only kind of home I’d had since leaving school. In that moment, it clicked. These people ahead of me worked for the government. I wasn’t too sure I could trust them. “Did you get an education?” The only man asked, tilting his head from one side to the other. “I was in the official government scheme.” I answered. “So, I was in school and had a home until I was thirteen.” “How old are you now?” “I don’t know.” “We believe you’re around nineteen years old.” The second woman spoke. “Which makes you one of the oldest Lost Children on record.” “I’ve never seen anyone who looks as old as I do.” I scowled even more. “Krows have usually snatched ‘em by then.” “They’ve usually come to help people by the time they’re sixteen.” The man put too much emphasis on the word help. “Which makes you special. It makes you a point of interest.” “The Krows are specifically looking for you. They want to help you.” The first woman smiled. People who were lucky enough to avoid Mortemosis were unaware of their naivety. The three adults ahead of me had bought into the idea that they were sent out to support us. I think it was easier for them that way; like they could feel less guilty for everything they had, and everything we didn’t. “Have you told them I come here?” I tried to mask the quake of my voice. “No. But we think you should go with them. You’re clearly a very clever girl, Jax… Given your circumstances. They could help you find work, and a home.” “They want me dead.” “They’re sent to help you!” “Show me proof.” I demanded, leaning closer. “Show me proof that they’re not killing those kids, and maybe I’ll believe you. Until then, I’ll keep running, and I’ll keep fighting.” “You can’t run forever.” I think I knew that was true, but it wasn’t something I’d ever admit. Especially not to someone who had no idea what it was like to be a Lost Child. “Guess I’ll have to keep fighting then.” “You’ve done very well, to reach the age you have without dying.” The man tried to speak in a comforting tone. “But you don’t have to keep fighting.” I stood myself up again, filling my eyes with scorn and projecting it down to the three of them. Suddenly, a place I had once considered a sanctuary was now filled with people who wanted to hand me over to people I was sure wanted my blood on their hands. One less place I could find relief. “Thank you for your time.” I ended our brief discussion. “But if you tell them where I am, I will finish what was started and burn this place down.” I gave them the brightest smile I could conjure before leaving the room they’d summoned me to, walking back into the food hall and grabbing Marby’s hand, dragging her out of there and hoping she’d never go back. 8:11PM The sun was beginning to set, making the city look even greyer than it usually did. Smoke sulked upwards towards the sky, the debris of Big Ben left barely standing, with little pride. The world around me had fallen apart long before my life began. I’d once seen images of how the city used to look, bright and beaming and structured, like something from a dream. Years of torment and fighting had left the streets black and battered with hatred and fear, and it was all just falling apart around us. Marby stumbled as she tried to keep up with me, but we were already running late, and I’d promised I would get her a room for the evening, and I wanted to see that through. I pushed through the front door, the bright lights of the place a harsh contrast to the early night we’d been traveling through. I slowly approached the desk, the cold outside air still clinging to my skin as I neared the woman on the other side of the glass, anxious for her to lift her eyes and see me. The second she did, they were rolling into the back of her head, clearly sick of the sight of me. I was just waiting for her to yell at me, force me out of the building like she had done a million times before. “I need a room.” I spoke, stopping ahead of her and bending so my mouth was closer to the mic that made me audible. “Jax, I tell you this almost every night.” She huffed, attempting to hold back her fumes. “We are full! By eight o’clock every night, we are full! It’s like you think you’re the only kid out there living on the streets. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s thousands of you. We do not have a room for you! You need to get here early if you even want a look in. Jax, you’ve done really well to get to your age without the Krows taking you, so I’m sure you can survive another night. Come back tomorrow, earlier, and I will try to get you a room. But I won’t tell you this again! You’re too late!” “It’s not for me!” I shot back at her. I dipped my head to the side, signalling her to look down. She raised from her seat so she could look over the desk, almost pressing her forehead against the glass so she could get a good look at the five-year-old girl whose hand was gripped within mine, streams of tears clearing the dirt from her face. The place I’d taken her to was independent, and also suspicious to the work of the Krows; how it seemed more like they were kidnapping children rather than helping them. They wanted to take in as many people as they could, to keep them safe and warm, even if it was just for the night. “Oh.” She baffled. “She’s new to all this. I think the charity that homed her shut recently. She’s scared and she’s young. I promised I’d get her a bed. Please help me.” “We-we’re full.” She tried again. “Then put her in with someone else! I’m sure she’d rather be on the floor somewhere in here than on the floor outside. Please.” “And it’s just her? Not you?” “I’ll be fine. Just help her. Please.” She seemed reluctant, pushing out a few exasperated pants, rolling her eyes again, but I knew that her humanity would shine through eventually. Besides, I wouldn’t leave until it did. “Leave her with me.” She succumbed. “I’ll figure it out.” I whispered my thanks before I twisted, dropping down so I was on one knee, wiping a tear from under her infected eye, softening my usual tough exterior. “I have to go now.” I hushed. “But the people here will look after you.” “No.” She shook her head rapidly, more tears forming. “You remember how we got here, right? Past the blossom trees, and you can see the big clock. You remember?” “I’m scared.” This was the most vocal she’d been all day, and it pained me, seeing how broken she was, how terrified she was. She’d become attached to me quickly, no matter how quiet she’d been, but it was hard enough finding the means to look after myself. I couldn’t keep her with me. “Don’t be scared. Every day, before the sun goes down, you come here, and you stay safe. Promise me you’ll do that?” I could see her fear as she nodded, her tiny fingers reaching out and clasping at my long, tattered hair, her whole body shaking. The woman I’d spoken to stepped out of the booth, waiting for our goodbye to end so she could take her in for the night. “Stay strong.” I nodded. I left in a rush, wondering how I’d managed to become so attached to her in such a short space of time. But it always tended to be that way. I stayed on my own, and it had been that way for years. Sometimes kids would gather together, but most stayed on their own. It was easy for us to become attached to people. We’d never known that kind of bond. I felt sick leaving her, but after years of not knowing what it was to have friends, or even acquaintances, I wouldn’t have known how to deal with keeping her company. I had to be left alone. The thought of feeling attached to someone made me feel hollow and terrified because nothing good could ever come from it. Being alone saved me from the pain of losing someone, which was something I couldn’t even imagine. So I headed into the night, alone once more. 11:49PM My fingers scraped softly over the brick wall, using it for guidance as I travelled down the pitch-black street, hoping to find somewhere safe to spend the night. My touch guided me through the darkness, leaving the lights of the city flickering behind me, knowing the gloom would help to keep me isolated and safe for another evening. I’d been trying to think of the safe-houses that I could trust, and each one I still held faith in would have stopped taking people in hours ago. A night on the street wasn’t uncommon for me, but even after years, I don’t think I’d fully gotten used to it. I wasn’t used to the bitter freeze that sunk through my skin and shattered my bones every night, or the way I could almost feel my heart breaking as tears filled my eyes. It wasn’t something I could ever become familiar with. I wished so much more for myself. Once I felt I was sheltered enough, I pressed my back to the wall and slid downwards, keeping my knees tucked to my chest, lolling my head back and closing my eyes, ready to settle there until the sun rose and created another day where I’d have to fight to get by. The days had been gradually getting warmer, and even though the nights were still freezing, they weren’t as bad as they had been, and I could become accustom to it quite quickly. I was seconds away from slumber when my eyes bolted open, a noise shunning my near sleep. Someone screaming. Breathlessly, I waited in silence, looking through the darkness in the hope of spotting some movement. It was silent. It was still. And then it sounded again, piercing through my atmosphere and lifting prickles of fear upon my skin. I got to my feet, charging to where I thought the noise had come from, heading towards the light and putting myself at risk but it sounded like someone was desperate for help, and I was willing to try. I picked up the speed, seeing everything around me begin to look clearer and my footsteps quicken, the boots I’d been given by one the charities close to falling apart as they pounded against the floor. They screamed again. I was just about to start running, eager to reach where the cries were coming from, when my feet caught against something, and I flew forward, crashing against the floor, my skin scraping against the stone. “What the fuck?” I heard. I lifted my head from the floor, pulling my vision together to look at what I’d just fallen over, and seeing a thick black cover lift, revealing a boy to me. I forgot how to breathe for a few seconds, just staring at him. He had short brown hair, his sharp features covered in dirt, and although the lighting was low, I could see how green his eyes were. But it wasn’t those factors that were making it difficult for me to breathe. It was how old he looked. He looked like he was around my age. He was scowling at me, and I was scowling at him, wanting to question who he was and how he’d lasted so long, because I’d even been told I was a point of interest because of my age. I had thought I was alone. His eyes flicked upwards, looking over my head and his face dropped. “Stay quiet.” He whispered. “Stay low.” As slowly as I could, I twisted my head, needing to see what he had spotted. The silhouette of four figures stood still at the end of the street. The Krows. I lowered myself even more, finally breathing again. The figures began to move towards us. My heart began to race. “We have to move.” I gasped, gradually lifting to my feet. “Run!”

#sharing this fic always scares me so much #if you're reading #feedback is greatly appreciated #thank youuuuu #me #mine #1dff #Harry Styles #dystopian AU #v&m #Vitae & Mortem #V&M1

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authenticparanoidghosts · 7 years

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okay, bc @dr-doc-phd asked, Diamond is Unbreakable but it’s BnHA, also titled “will I ever learn how to chill out”

(this is a LONG GODDAMN POST I’m sorry everyone)

first order of business: quirks vs stands

stands are essentially gonna be converted into quirks bc I Do Not want to take the time to come up with all new powers for everyone, they’re going to be called quirks, there are no punching ghosts (possible exception of Star Platinum, I haven’t decided on him yet)

Josuke: same as usual, he can fix anything he’s touching. he developed his quirk at a really early age and and it seems to be directly derived from Tomoko’s power (she can temporarily stick items together) but it’s way more powerful

bc quirks have a genetic component, the fact that his is so similar to his mom’s offers him no insight on who his father might be

Josuke is not really bothered by this

Koichi: essentially has the same power as Echoes ACT1-2, by writing manga sound effects on objects/people and activating them through touch, he causes either the sound to be heard or an effect related to the sound to take place (these effects get stronger as he trains more and more with his quirk). due to Keicho’s actions, he develops a second quirk (this is, for the record, totally unheard of) which allows him to increase gravity on an object within close range

his range on all things is v short and his gravity power is fairly weak but he’s actually v scary

Yukako: her ability is exactly the same, except she’s not able to plant her hair into anyone else’s scalp until she trains more

she’s one of the super special recommended students because I love her and she’s terrifying

Okuyasu: his quirk is exactly what The Hand does except he uses his own right hand for it. he’s even still got the little circle markings for it.

he develops his quirk at ~14 through unnatural means, previously he was quirkless

since he developed it artificially and at such a late age, his control over it isn’t fantastic and he has to be careful

Mikitaka: can change the shape and composition of his extremities but cannot detach them, seriously manipulate his own size, or alter his entire body at once

he’s also a recommended student at UA and he’s staying with the hero who sponsored him, his actual origins are shrouded in mystery (which he encourages)

(Mikitaka’s goal is essentially to become a cryptid and I love that about him)

Keicho: very specific version of telekinesis where he can only pick up objects under a certain weight (it’s literally, like, a gram or two), but if he can pick something up, he can move it at an incredibly high speed. he basically carries sand or bb pellets with him at all times and shoots them at people like very small bullets that cannot miss. he’s clever enough to use this to devastating effect.

like Okuyasu, he was also quirkless until he was roughly 14

Rohan: can control someone’s thoughts or actions by writing on their skin, but it only lasts as long as the ink does. so. essentially still Heaven’s Door, but he can’t read your mind.

Rohan and Koichi have to carry markers with them to use their quirks which is kind of silly but I secretly love

anyways, Rohan….might still be a manga artist?

he’s not a hero or a villain

villains probably try to recruit him bc, you know, his power is super useful

YOU KNOW WHAT he could just be pimping out his own quirk to anyone willing to pay for it as like a side job until he meets the squad (Koichi) and changes his ways (is charmed into acting like a decent person)

Jotaro: I was thinking Jotaro’s quirk could be just stopping time for five seconds? but also it could be “self preservation” where it’s automatically activated when he’s in danger and a ghostly shape (coughs Star Platinum) appears to shield him or catch bullets or whatever it is that he needs. either one is good. it’s not really relevant yet and could work either way.

other quirks described as they come up

IMPORTANT NOTE: being quirkless isn’t quite as uncommon in this AU as it is in BnHA canon, but a definite majority of people still have quirks

okay time for some AU bg

1988 - Joseph Joestar (a popular American hero) and his teenaged grandson Jotaro Kujo (just some kid) are credited with uncovering and stopping the crimes of international supervillain Dio Brando.

it’s totally fucking sick

Dio cannot be detained and questioned in further detail about his misdeeds due to his unfortunate but unavoidable death. although it is suspected that he has many more allies than they could actually find proof for, it’s impossible to figure out.

every associate of Dio’s who is captured is unable to give more information due to the use of some kind of memory-altering quirk, believed to be held by another ally of Dio’s and employed without prejudice on those who are in a position to betray him

Dio seems to have been amassing a global organization of villains, but they scatter after his defeat (death) and hide or destroy all evidence of their activities

the investigation is ongoing

1999 - Josuke Higashikata, secret illegitimate child of Joseph Joestar, signs up to take the UA entrance exam

during the test, he meets Koichi and they instantly hit it off

they collaborate to help each other score points during the practical exam

teamwork makes the dream work

when the list of students accepted to UA for that year gets posted, Joseph (who, as a pro hero, has to keep up with the industry which means paying attention to any up-and-coming heroes) notices Josuke’s name and does some investigating to find out if this is MAYBE just some kid who is coincidentally 16 years old and coincidentally has the same last name as a woman he romanced about 16 years ago

surprise! it’s totally not

so Joseph asks Jotaro (who has grown up to become a detective or whatever and is now one of the people still investigating Dio’s people and has recently been following a lead in Japan) if he’ll maybe keep an ear out for news at UA bc he has an uncle who goes to school there now

surprise! Joseph says. please don’t tell my wife! he says

yare yare, says Jotaro, and proceeds to cut through this miscommunication bullshit by announcing this new relative to the entire family and then leaving Joseph to deal with his own mess from across the pacific ocean while he gets to go hang out with his baby uncle and talk shit abt their relatives

so Josuke meets Jotaro just before the school year at UA starts

I’m sure it goes well

(actually, it goes really well right up until Josuke’s policeman grandfather is killed by a villain at work and Jotaro, as an international attaché for quirk and supervillain-related crime, is asked if he will maybe please take some time off of his 11-year long, seemingly dead-end case to investigate this)

((kind of puts a damper on the “meet the family” thing, but they solve the case and Josuke becomes even more resolved to become a hero))

the school year begins and Josuke and Koichi are delighted to find out that they’re in the same class

they’ve made it into the hero track bc they absolutely crushed it on the practical exam. they also tested well in other areas, but they did a nice job against the robots

boy howdy they sure are excited to learn how to be superheroes

class 1-A: Josuke, Koichi, Mikitaka

class 1-B: Okuyasu, Yukako

I have no idea how old Hazamada and Yuya are but they could potentially also be students

Hazamada is for sure a student so I’ll say he’s a year older and in the general education track

Yuya??? could be there????? but also maybe he’s busy doing his own thing. he seems like a busy man. he’s got things to do, nutrients to steal.

anyways, now we have to backtrack a bit again

1988 - Mr. Nijimura has a deceased wife, a failing company, and two quirkless sons

he himself has a minor physical quirk that gives him a decorative pattern of scales on his face, but that’s it. his wife was quirkless and by the time she passed away it was fairly apparent that their kids took after her

Mr. Nijimura has always resented the fact that he does not possess a useful quirk and is angry that his sons are also powerless in a world that increasingly seems to value those with quirks over those without

Mr. Nijimura is also someone who values power

he’s a total asshole about everything, but in 1988 he’s contacted by one of Dio’s allies. they know he has quirkless children and they want to know if he’s interested in potentially helping them develop powers of their own

spoiler: he is

one of the things that Dio’s group has been doing is research into artificial quirk enhancement and development

this is because Dio A) wants to make his own powers stronger, and B) has discovered that it’s really easy to attract followers when you promise to give them superpowers, or make their powers even cooler than they were before

Mr. Nijimura is given one dosage of a compound that Dio’s allies claim will awake the latent potential in someone who has failed to manifest a quirk

in order to get his hands on the drug, Mr. Nijimura has to agree to officially be in Dio’s debt, should the trial compound succeed in awakening a power in the son he uses it on

the organization needs quirkless test subjects, but they can be hard to find

if something goes wrong with the kid, the organization will admit no culpability bc Mr. Nijimura does this at his own risk, but also they will take the kid to figure out what exactly went wrong

HOWEVER, because he’s viciously jealous of powerful quirks, Mr. Nijimura does not administer the compound to either of his sons, instead he injects himself and causes his own quirk to go haywire, over-evolving until he becomes a weird, mutant lizard creature

Dio dies in the days just after his transformation, so the organization is too busy falling apart and destroying anything that could link them back to Dio to keep track of the Nijimura family

(if Dio hadn’t died, they likely would have taken the boys into their custody after their father’s mutation and raised them as Dio’s followers/soldiers)

(also used them as test subjects, albeit more valuable ones since they can also function as workers for this group of Dio’s allies)

(but he did die so that doesn’t happen and that’s an AU of an AU for a different day)

SOMEHOW they manage to live on their own with their mutated dad

I think the Nijimura family was not really as hard up for money as they are sometimes portrayed

(however it might make sense to put one of Dio’s grunts into the situation, like someone who pretends to be Mr. Nijimura for a little while to cover their own trail in the aftermath and ends up taking care of the kids for a while)

(but like, only for a little while, until they can ensure Mr. Nijimura can’t give anything away and the coast is clear for them to duck out and get a new identity)

((I just CAN’T accept that a 7 year-old keeps house for himself and an even younger child and his mutated father without any kind of help))

the point is that eventually they’re left mostly to fend for themselves

and it continues on like that, just the Nijimura’s by themselves, until Keicho, who was raised to believe that those who are powerful are better than those who are not, discovers some secret record of his father’s connections and what he did to himself and decides that he and Okuyasu need quirks to survive

I’m not going to say he’s right, but I’m also not going to claim that life wouldn’t be easier for the two of them if they had powers

1995 - Keicho falls in with a straggling faction of Dio’s group (technically now reformed independently to carry on the development of methods to artificially enhance quirks) by offering himself up for experimentation.

this splinter group doesn’t have the same resources Dio did for this sort of thing, so they’re kind of hard up for volunteers

at least initially

[ominous music]

this new group manages to successfully give Keichi a quirk (he’s about 14 at the time) and he works his ass off until he can get into UA

1996 - Keicho gets into UA

this is how he repays his debt to them

by being a spy

bc they’re still criminals, you see, so they would greatly benefit by having a guy on the inside to tell them shit abt heroes that they can later exploit

Okuyasu is allowed to know none of this (nothing about the organization and also about Keicho’s new double life) because Keicho doesn’t trust him to keep a secret and likes to cover all his bases

he does understand that their father is the way he is bc he took a drug to increase the power of his own quirk, but he hasn’t been told where/who he got it from. Keicho will not tell him where he acquired his own quirk.

later, Keicho gets his hands on more of the successful compound (through theft) in order to get his brother a quirk, so Okuyasu gets his powers when he’s ~13~14 and Keicho is already a UA student

he does it through theft bc Keicho does not want Okuyasu to be indebted to Dio’s (ex)people, which turns out to be really handy later

haha, ‘handy’

anyways

1999 - Keicho has an ambiguous birthday so I’m gonna say he’s just graduated when the squad is in their first year

he’s interning at a hero agency and acting as a mole for Dio’s slowly reviving criminal organization

since Dio is super dead, it’s really more of a new criminal organization full of people who have had their quirks enhanced or awakened through the improved versions of the tech developed by Dio’s original people

it’s led by a totally new person who wants to continue the research and expand their own criminal network for their own ends

SO Okuyasu takes (and passes!) the UA entrance exam

Keicho always planned for him to go to UA as well so he does it more out of a sense of duty than a desire to become a hero

the ongoing mantra of Okuyasu (and Keicho’s) life is that power is the most important thing a person could have

having a quirk equals power. learning to fight equals power. being a hero - a public figure who garners attention and respect - equals power.

people who are strong are worthwhile, people who are weak are worthless

AT THIS POINT Okuyasu is a little less in the dark, he knows his brother is getting paid to spy on UA and hero organizations, he also knows that this arrangement has something to do with how they ended up with the compound that gave them quirks, but he doesn’t know who Keicho’s contacts are and what he’s telling them

Keicho has paid back his “debt” at this point and is getting actual money from the organization to continue his spying

I don’t think I mentioned that there was a financial component to this deal earlier, just wanted to make that clear

ALSO AT THIS POINT the villains (initially) don’t know that Okuyasu has developed his own quirk because of their technology

I mean, they have their suspicions, but they can’t prove anything

Keicho let them believe Okuyasu was still quirkless up until the day he took the entrance exam for UA, and by then it’s too late for them to wipe down their lab for fingerprints

so there’s like, school stuff going on?

Josuke and Koichi meet their classmates and then class 1-A meets class 1-B and everyone is like “fuck, these guys are assholes”

surprise, losers, later on you’re all great friends

but to hurry this along a little

sometime early in the semester, Keicho gets caught doing Bad Stuff by Josuke and Koichi who are classic meddling kids

he panics bc these guys have some solid evidence of his misdeeds, so clearly he has to get rid of them somehow

he decides to attempt this by letting them tail him (very badly) back to his and Okuyasu’s home so he can fight them with backup

there’s a scuffle and Koichi gets hit/injected/whatever with a variant on the special quirk compound (Keicho has also stolen this), later causing him to develop a secondary quirk but initially causing him to lose major motor control and Josuke to believe he’s been fatally poisoned

Josuke does some shouting, Koichi flops around a bit, Josuke does some more shouting about the duties of a hero, Okuyasu as a minor moral crisis and taps out of the fight, Keicho does some impulsive shouting of his backstory and gets in major trouble

Keicho is being monitored by the organization by the time Josuke and Koichi stumble onto the scene like amateur detectives bc they think he’s double crossing them (evidence: they’re pretty sure he’s stolen from them before and his allegiance can clearly be bought), so when they catch him spilling info on them to two UA recruits they freak and need to eliminate him before he reveals anything else

Keicho’s cover is totally blown so Otoishi is immediately dispatched to kill him and also Josuke and Koichi if he can

the new head of the organization values privacy. like. a lot.

Otoishi can’t manage all of them bc he doesn’t have time and can’t outclass the pro heroes starting to show up on the scene, so he grabs (kills) Keicho and skedaddles

Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu are detained for questioning

well, Koichi is taken to the hospital, but Josuke and Okuyasu get detained

Jotaro shows up bc the stuff Keicho and then Okuyasu spilled about artificially gaining a quirk reeks of Dio’s people and it’s kind of his job to find Dio’s people

some stuff happens I guess and Okuyasu can’t be charged with anything bc Keicho was careful not to let him know or be involved in anything

like, he could be charged with property damaged, but it was his property

he complies with everything they ask him to do and tells them all that he can and they get someone in to look at his thoughts to see if he’s lying (he’s not)

they keep an eye on him for about a week to make sure he’s not REALLY a spy but once it becomes apparent that he really had nothing to do with it besides defending his brother and generally having a fucked-up life they don’t really have a reason to kick him out of UA so he just. goes back to school.

Koichi also goes back to school after about a week. people were spreading rumors that he died. he’s fine, but now he has two quirks, which you can imagine starts even MORE rumors

ofc UA still wants to keep an eye on Okuyasu - his brother spied on them for three years and he has ties to a villain organization, they can’t just let that go - so they ‘suggest’ that since he has no legal guardians or adults in his life he should move into the UA dorms

guess who also lives in the dorms

Josuke and Koichi and the squad, they all live in these AU optional dorms

except Mikitaka, who is being fostered by the hero who recommended his entry to UA

dorms foster bonding time and VOILA any and all grudges between him and Josuke and Koichi are easily settled

so Okuyasu joins up w/ Koichi and Josuke bc his classmates won’t really talk to him

they’ll warm up to him eventually, but by then he’s got his squad and he’s good with that

and like? other stuff happens? Kira is busy being Kira? but here’s the beginning and all that

this really is the post that wouldn’t end

I’m gonna stop here and put you all out of your misery

I’m p sure I know how Kira gets worked into everything but I’ll leave that for another day

#long post #I love this au but it's #so long #and I've never shut up once in my life so #my writing #KINDA #my headcanon #Jojo #BnHA #I realized exactly how Kira fit in halfway through editing this and I literally groaned ou loud #if I'd decided to add it this would have become a novel #Doc #for you buddy

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throwingideasatthewall · 3 years

Text

Clone wars Eminence

Okay. .

Hey emotion ?

? ? Vsla

(What is a Vizsla?)

Enabler Vs Aggressive Non- Compliant Un-accou n-t able- - Enabler-

Souls

[Ok I’m trying to keep track here;

(Because I do try to follow the stories in case they become some thing even when they are in the -0 cate -gory-

- Yoda’s generation

-Qui- Gon’s generation Dooku’s

-Obi-wan

-Anakin’s generation

- Ahsoka

[I am not counting the feckin young-lings”]

Okay dude seems around Obi-Wan but below Both him and Saltine

- Higher than Anakin though So,

-Yoda’s generation

-Qui- Gon’s generation Dooku’s

-Obi-wan

- This dude (Pre Visla)

-Anakin’s generation

- Ahsoka

Now Maul;

He seemed younger than Obi-Wan but older than Anakin

So;

-Yoda’s generation

-Qui- Gon’s generation Dooku’s

-Obi-wan

- This dude (Pre Visla)

-Maul

-Anakin’s generation

- Ahsoka

So just for the record, Ahsoka’s generation which is now an adult over 22, Is dealing with Anakin‘s generation ....

[Ok going to guesstimate regarding behavior,]

Is directly Obi-Wan‘s

[But they were two generations under Obi-Wan

Pre-Visla; acting as some kind a Brother generation

- Maul; Youngest Brother

-Savage; ?

So, [ -Yoda’s generation ] [ -Qui- Gon’s generation Dooku’s ]

[ - Obi-wan - This dude } (Enablers) (Pre Visla) -Maul

-Anakin’s generation ] - Ahsoka (Present)

(Ok you know what I’m breaking out the colored markers for this shit)

-Yoda’s generation [Enabler] (Progenitor to Qui-Gon’s / Dooku)

| -Qui- Gon’s generation Dooku’s (Progenitor To Obi-wan) |

| -Maul | (You | nger | Gen)

| [As in born before not that they are the same species | though if | someone fecks up the galaxy- everyone has to deal with it]

| - Savage | [You | nger | Gen]

-Anakin’s generation

Ahsoka (How)

note I am ignoring that bit about Plagueis Because no

And going on the direct apprentice line-

[which note I am aware may ignore several possi- bilities-

Including Qui-gon and Obi-wan’s Gen poss -ib ly, are bro. Because of convenience,

[Which is why I am ignoring the Plaguies thing-

Because if serious is that old it’s really implying that someone that is old enough to be Anakin’s Great great grandfather, did that, The nonsense applied in the whole midclorians to create life thing (Consent??) And my general disregard for anything that illuminates the opportunity of choice or feckin’ realism;

Now if you’ll look at the chart;

[I NOW UNDERSTAND WHY THEY HAVE A NO CHILDREN POLICY- no attach-ments-]

Note that means there have been (at least) four [distinct] generations in play

*are

[ ANd NONE of these fuckers die of natural causes [Aka old age]

Unless you count getting run through by a light sword!

[HoW]

[”oh yeah the galaxy’s un-balanced,”

Cause you have so many fecking kids-]

Apologies just had to get that out of my system [After making the damn chart]

We struggle at three,

Like if I have to bring out the colored markers I think that’s too many

I mean you can try but it’s going to be a hell of a time [For the writers] justifying how the core-

Point being it’s a mess-

[ And I’m doing this just to figure out a conversation -The generational beef - The morality - because yeah while they’re both enablers, The tox instigator, clearly has lower ground to their victim,

Who was tox first,

Who has the advantage

[One of the things that make a Narc conflicts, a bit of risk, The only thing I can with our Narcs so poorly established, Including their excessives And weak nesses]

And whether I should boo or cheer,

Or some thing as a good line or. poor

[because I honestly think the line they’re doing here can work and maybe I didn’t need the chart but it makes it a bit easier and gives an understanding of how I’m comparing,

Because. .]

“ if they are weak why do you wait,”

Because from a victim or younger generation that’s a pretty potent/poignant line

From an abuser its tone deaf and needs more malician - Personally I think they did a good job with Pre-viz -here

He’s the right kind of tone of someone stuck in their glory days trying to get the younger generation to enable him a bit more regardless of the cost,]

[Power-ful allies

Haha,

What allies [That didn’t- Betray Her,]

[Kenobi]

[HaHa]

[i’m sorry but regardless when the writers, pull it out of the randomness hat, he’s a punk ass bitch

[Excuse me for overuse of that term I strictly mean it in the derogatory non- identification Way Meaning, Un accountable in terms of fighting and self-defense of his pro -fessed expertise]

[and occasionally in self-determination against peer pressure and threats far above or below his skill level]

Specifically, the Jedi Council

[continu ing on,” ]

[Ventress]

Exile

[you’ve been allegedly exiled so many times it’s a bingo card, ]

(Also instead of locking them up]

(Like I might’ve missed a few points due to tox But, She didn’t just send them back to exhile where they started fecking with the shit

Did she?

I got as far as the juice thing then

Fast-pasted through the Academy

(No skim)

So sorry if anything was missed

(But tox)

[that was a suddenly softer tone,]

But fair,

A-ll

Count Dooku-

Dude, he just didn’t [rabidly] support your small little fan club that couldn’t do much

And [last I checked], Just told you not to do a thing,

Like yeah might’ve been relatively poor advice but what were you expecting-

[Tone’s a bit weird]

But she has a point,

Despite the uneven- ?

[that’s a strangely powerful way to keep him intact]

Though not- -

To vote,

Also,

Who,

Why?

? [In all truth, while the expressions were a bit off, (I assume benefit of the doubt - illustrators version-). That that could’ve been a relatively poignant scene, a (we totally got him To Enable Our War- between Two Enablers.]

How is Savage taking less time than Maul?

[is it cause made out of metal?

Is it because Savage is bigger?]

[Also you know what would’ve been interesting?]

[Note, interesting not better; it’s perfectly serviceable as is;

[Completely aesthetic]

If Maul had been “threatened” into the death watch,

With Savage as the chip,

And feigned

[Possibly having to be t-alked back into it - cause I mean he died]

Just interesting,

Oh yeah that has been pretty fucked up for him considering the last time he was on anything resembling an operating table,

[also I kind of like the idea of Maul as (for now) a nicer Sith Lord than his master, )

? ? [Despisi ng the enabler, But other than my assum. What is actually their in- tention?

Because they don’t seem to really have a plan other than destroy things,

And even that is inconsistent

Too late. .

(I understand murder. .

But that wasn’t really set up)

)

Oh yeah approaching the clearly ag-gressive per- sion - With an entourage - In the hospital - With his injured brother/ mor-alty pet)

Good job smart guy this would in no way put him on edge,

E-r [Not sure about that, ] ? - [that was kind of funny] ,

“Name -s,”

[They going to make something up ?]

“Brothers” - that was a very specific word choice,

Duc-hess

(Oh -yeah he brought that up in the conversation-

“Army,”

[Please no more pirates,]

(Also yeah trying to force peoples opinions to change (for (Corr that always works out upt) well,)

(Are we going to get dr -oids)

“Black sun,”

Aight- Gang,

“But there a crime syndicate,” Whin- ed the guy, Leading a (death) cult,

(Like I’m pretty sure they have done worse in this originated as some kind of crime syndicate/ Espionage within the government- -] ?

Dude they’re cannon get it together, - Oh so just black dealing]

- ?

[Is prisoner ]

? Attack,

- Or Assemble/ En-tourage - ? - - -? [Ok so just a show of strength,] - ? - “ what a stupid crime syndicate,’ . Like; “I want to talk to your boss about possibly becoming business partner(s) lucrative opportunity for both of us, doing business but sketchy,”

[Willing to participate in your black market op]

“ he’s gonna kill you,”

? ??

[Like you do realize that’s like going to a - bank, [for a loan] and the door guy Threate-ning you with death - Like how do you stay in business?

[Like, don’t care much for either practice,

Just don’t see why they don’t go to the non-threateny guy over there-

[Like I’m sorry but that was just a laughable way of establishing t hrea -t - Bad-assery - And I think [it got let off- way too light- -” - ? - Okay - seriously- [’ The One- species evil,’ is really starting to grind my gears One whole generation of a species decided to go into purely only crime syndicate,

Al-one-

: The background

Kind -a Hot- - Now - - - This is some nice sc ene r y- - I like the Gold-

- The the outfits-

What? - [

] [Note; I can understand not wanting to fall into the tropes of your Genre, But it has to make sense-

[How does this-]

[excuse me while I go into depth on this]

This guy works, crime syndicate

AKa organized illegal dealings,

Behind the government(s) back-

There are multiple ways you can do this (clothing wise) 1. Bure-aucrat;

Aka the dude’s in the Italian suits,

Which not only denotes they are dealings of off brand goods (Typically not in the country of origin]

[Place]

But also as their role; As a bureau cratic brush over-

Typical- ly Find - ing this guy cover-ing up,

2. Ragg -ed

Dude in brown over -coat Torn- - His whole thing is looking like an unimpressive citizen allowing him to move with ease-

With the disadvantage of being underestimated-

Possibly works- -cargo- - (That’s also just basic civilian that is generally associated with extremely chaotic and unpredictable allowing you to go more ways story wise)

Point being, some function,

Mean,

This dude is gold and gaudy and speaks more of a barbarian then a black- dealer

Crime Syn- dicate,

[and it’s not even gold as in the “I’m better than all you smugglers/crime lords come at me bro!”

It simply does not have the slickness for that,

No the scheme,

[and fine if you want to do alien fashion you do alien fashion but you how to establish that, (And it’s still really comes back to that pre-established logic ,). Excluding the horn which I’m assuming is part of his head,

Again this is speaking more War lord than crime lord, He really DOES give off that Aura,” - [Ok yeah this is really the most out of tune scene, Giving me a headache from just the plain inconsistency,” - ? - Yeah...

no idea what just happened ... Pre Viz-la; Was staring, Then Savage was laughing,

Just feckin holding the guy-

And now there was someone on the floor. . . [??] - - Whelp, guess the other g-uards just stood around and did nothing- - “Black sun,” - Despite there being no black in your outfits and

we haven’t even seen an in- signia,

And I’m starting to think n-e-ither in their operation

Seeing as they’ re, guardy obvious,

[ pretty damn blatant, Too

Aigh h-t- - [Again that’s behavior more befitting of a [War ] lord, - ? - Oh, yeah

that bodyguard was just straight up chilling

No ser- ious. -ly;

Like, I know my boss has ordered me to dispose of you, I’m real sorry about that, I can take you outside if you want Don’t be- Oh. hey, hold. up-

Well, shit

[Frank is having a shit day, ]

(That is. A. [Wait murder’s illegal!, Exp ression,

[What the hec -k,

. . .

Well, Shit,

No hesitation

(Bob is having a shit ,day

[He’s a greeter, ] . - ?

Really, because we only saw four guys that you killed and that greeting party,

(That’s still guerilla warfare at best;)

[like seriously unless the Mandalorian(s) only have like five guards you’re still going to be over-powered- - - <

Saltine

..weak

So much so that we haven’t even really seen the army- Just some guys carrying cargo

And cargo crat e(s? )

F-o

Y-eah, One Vis -i on- - C-l

[H-e’s righ t - dude has no actual commitment to killing Sal- tine,

This is just some game, he’s playing, While Maul actually seems interested in kicking his abusers , - Dep-th - I mean - do either of you?

[like up to this point I thought this was some Gen beef, But dude Talks to Pre- Visla- Like- - In that line, Like he’s same Gen,

Which doe sn’t match the tone they’ve been projecting up to this point,

Of Pre-Vizla, robbed of something,

“Cri-minals,”

Seriously when did these guys have any qualms about mingling with other petty demeanors?

For that matter

and I don’t usu -ally sin compet ency-

But this was right after the episode where Darth Maul got his ass kicked,

And continues the major theme of inconsistency,

There is no scale of escalation- (Which is fine if you want to do non-sequential if you want to do un-attached short stories,)

[Though you should probably have some reference in order to keep the emotional tone con- sist- -ent-

And approp -riate,)

There’s no scale of power,

As in I have no idea who can beat who,

(Not in, ‘they’re equally matched so it’s up to fate,” tension,

No, It’s the writers haven’t established anything

And whoever wins just wins because author favoritism,

Seriously

The only two consistent things;

Obi-Wan constantly gets his ass kicked, Unless the writers play favorites

And author’s hand is almost always very clearly shown,

Which you don’t �� want me to see; As the audience;

Note; I’m not saying there can’t be luck; Or that something existential can’t unbalance The circumstance,

Say one dude is trained in anti-gravity situations, One is not, And the gravity is flipped off, Having them flop around is a decent enough representation, Setting it up beforehand is even better,

But that’s not what’s done here;

(Not only is there no explanation to the sudden rise in competency,

But there’s no set up)

And there are several scenes where it again relies on the concept of (over) negative assumption, Believing the tropes will carry it, Enough to sustain

[Particularly with the Maul scenes. .]

Where it’s like they’re saying “And...

And what?

You didn’t establish anything,

There’s nothing there for you to fall back on

And, your menacing moment falls flat

[When no you have to actually set that up,]

You didn’t earn that scene otherwise,

[Empty tropes make for e-mpty s-tories- ]

Why..?

[also didn’t he just tell you to fuck off with your plan.. ?

Well...

The characters are no longer drywall the set up and the consistency on the other hand...

[still damn shaky,]

Plot wise,

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trendingnewsb · 6 years

Text

The Struggle to Predictand PreventToxic Masculinity

Terrie Moffitt has been trying to figure out why men are terrible for more than 25 years. Or, to calibrate: Why some men are really terrible—violent, criminal, dangerous—but most men are not. And, while she’s at it, how to tell which man is going to become which.

A small number of people are responsible for the vast majority of crimes. Many of those people display textbook “antisocial behavior”—technically, a serious disregard for other people’s rights—as adolescents. The shape of the problem is called the age-crime curve, arrests plotted against the age of the offender. It looks like a shark’s dorsal fin, spiking in the teenage years and then long-tailing off to the left.

In 1992, Moffitt, now a psychologist at Duke University, pitched an explanation for that shape: The curve covers two separate groups. Most people don’t do bad things. Some people only do them as teenagers. And a very small number start doing them as toddlers and keep doing them until they go to prison or die. Her paper became a key hypothesis in psychology, criminology, and sociology, cited thousands of times.

In a review article in Nature Human Behaviour this week, Moffitt takes a ride through two decades of attempts to validate the taxonomy. Not for girls, Moffitt writes, because even though she studies both sexes, “findings have not reached consensus.” But for boys and men? Oh yeah.

To be clear, Moffitt isn’t trying to develop a toxicology of toxic masculinity here. As a researcher she’s interested in the interactions of genes and environment, and the reasons some delinquent children—but not all—turn into crime-committing adults. That’s a big enough project. But at this exact cultural moment, with women of the #MeToo movement calling sexual harassers and abusers to account just as mass shootings feel as if they’ve become a permanent recurring event—and when almost every mass shooter, up to and including the recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida, has been a man—I’m inclined to try to find explanations anywhere that seems plausible. US women are more likely to be killed by partners than anyone else. Men commit the vast majority of crimes in the US. So it’s worth querying Moffitt’s taxonomy to see if it offers any order to that chaos, even if it wasn’t built for it.

“Grown-ups who use aggression, intimidation, and force to get what they want have invariably been pushing other people around since their very early childhood,” Moffitt says via email from a rural vacation in New Zealand. “Their mothers report they were difficult babies, nursery day-care workers say they are difficult to control, and when all the other kids give up hitting and settle in as primary school pupils, teachers say they don’t. Their record of violating the rights of others begins surprisingly early, and goes forward from there.”

So if you could identify those kids then, maybe you could make things better later? Of course, things are way more complicated than that.

Since that 1993 paper, hundreds of studies have tested pieces of Moffitt’s idea. Moffitt herself has worked on a few prospective studies, following kids through life to see if they fall into her categories, and then trying to figure out why.

For example, she worked with the Dunedin Study, which followed health outcomes for more than 1,000 boys and girls in New Zealand starting in the early 1970s. Papers published from the data have included looks at marijuana use, physical and mental health, and psychological outcomes. Moffitt and her colleagues found that about a quarter of the males in the study fit the criteria she’d laid out for “adolescence limited” antisociability; they’re fine until they hit their teens, then they do all sorts of bad stuff, and then they stop. And 10 percent were “life-course persistent”—they have trouble as children, and it doesn’t stop. As adolescents, all had about the same rates of bad conduct.

But as children, the LCP boys scored much higher on a set of specific risks. Their mothers were younger. They tended to have been disciplined more harshly, and have experienced more family strife as kids. They scored lower on reading, vocabulary, and memory tests, and had a lower resting heart rate—some researchers think that people feel lower heart rates as discomfort and undertake riskier behaviors in pursuit of the adrenaline highs that’ll even them out. “LCP boys were impulsive, hostile, alienated, suspicious, cynical, and callous and cold toward others,” Moffitt writes of the Dunedin subjects in her Nature Human Behaviour article. As adults, “they self-reported excess violence toward partners and children.” They had worse physical and mental health in their 30s, were more likely to be incarcerated, and were more likely to attempt suicide.

Other studies have found much the same thing. A small number of identifiable boys turn into rotten, violent, unhappy men.

Could Moffitt’s taxonomy account for sexual harassers and abusers? In one sense, it seems unlikely: Her distinction explicitly says by adulthood there should only be a small number of bad actors, yet one of the lessons of #MeToo has been that every woman, it seems, has experienced some form of harassment.

Meta-analyses of the incidence of workplace sexual harassment vary in their outcomes, but a large-scale one from 2003 that covered 86,000 women reported that 56 percent experienced “potentially harassing” behaviors and 24 percent had definitely been harassed. Other studies get similar results.

But as pollsters say, check the cross-tabs. Harassment has sub-categories. Many—maybe most—women experience the gamut of harassing behaviors, but sub-categories like sexual coercion (being forced to have sex as a quid pro quo or to avoid negative consequences) or outright assault are rarer than basic institutional sexism and jerky, inappropriate comments. “What women are more likely to experience is everyday sexist behavior and hostility, the things we would describe as gender harassment,” says John Pryor, a psychologist at Illinois State University who studies harassment.

Obviously, any number greater than zero here is too high. And studies of prevalence can’t tell you if so many women are affected because all men harass at some low, constant ebb or few men do it, like, all the time. Judging by reports of accusations, the same super-creepy men who plan out sexual coercion may also impulsively grope and assault women. Those kind of behaviors, combined with the cases where many more accusers come forward after the first one, seem to me to jibe with the life-course persistent idea. “Sometimes people get caught for the first time as an adult, but if we delve into their history, the behavior has been there all along,” Moffitt says. “Violating the rights of others is virtually always a life-long lifestyle and an integral part of a person’s personality development.”

That means it’s worth digging into people’s histories. Whisper networks have been the de facto means of protecting women in the workplace; the taxonomy provides an intellectual framework for giving them a louder voice, because it suggests that men with a history of harassment and abuse probably also have a future of it.

Now, some writers have used the idea of toxic masculinity to draw a line between harassment, abuse, and mass shootings. They’re violent, and the perpetrators tend to be men. But here, Moffitt’s taxonomy may be less applicable.

Despite what the past few years have felt like, mass shootings are infrequent. And many mass shooters end up committing suicide or being killed themselves, so science on them is scant. “Mass shootings are such astonishingly rare, idiosyncratic, and multicausal events that it is impossible to explain why one individual decides to shoot his or her classmates, coworkers, or strangers and another does not,” write Benjamin Winegard and Christopher Ferguson in their chapter of The Wiley Handbook of the Psychology of Mass Shootings.

That said, researchers have found a few commonalities. The shooters are often suicidal, or more precisely have stopped caring whether they live or die, says Adam Lankford, a criminologist at the University of Alabama. Sometimes they’re seeking fame and attention. And they share a sense that they themselves are victims. “That’s how they justify attacking others,” Lankford says. “Sometimes the perceptions are based in reality—I was bullied, or whatever—but sometimes they can be exacerbated by mental health problems or personality characteristics.”

Though reports on mass shooters often say that more than half of them are also domestic abusers, that number needs some unpacking. People have lumped together mass shootings of families—domestic by definition—with public mass shootings like the one in Las Vegas, or school shootings. Disaggregate the public active shooters from the familicides and the number of shooters with histories of domestic abuse goes down. (Of course, that doesn’t change preposterously high number of abused women murdered by their partners outside of mass shooting events.)

What may really tip the mass shooter profile away from Moffitt’s taxonomy, though, is that people in the life-course persistent cohort do uncontrolled, crazy stuff all the time. Yes, some mass shooters have a history of encounters with law enforcement, let’s say. But some don’t. Mass shootings are, characteristically, highly planned events. “I’m not saying it’s impossible to be a mass shooter and have poor impulse control, but if you have poor impulse control you won’t be able to go for 12 months of planning an attack without ending up in jail first,” Lankford says.

Moffitt isn’t trying to build a unified field theory of the deadly patriarchy. When I suggest that the societal structures that keep men in power relative to women, generally, might explain the behavior of her LCP cohort, she disagrees. “If sexual harassment and mass shootings were the result of cultural patriarchy and societal expectations for male behavior, all men would be doing it all the time,” Moffitt says. “Even though media attention creates the impression that these forms of aggression are highly prevalent and all around us, they are nevertheless still extremely rare. Most men are trustworthy, good, and sensible.”

She and her colleagues continue to look for hard markers for violence or lack of impulse control, genes or neurobiological anomalies. (A form of the gene that codes for a neurotransmitter called monoamine oxidase inhibitor A might give some kids protection against lifelong effects of maltreatment, she and her team have found. By implication not having that polymorphism, then, could predispose a child raised under adverse circumstances to psychopathology as an adult.) Similarly, nobody yet knows what digital-native kids in either cohort will do when they move their bad behavior online. One might speculate that it looks a lot like GamerGate and 4chan, though that sociological and psychological work is still in early days.

But for now, Moffitt and her co-workers have identified risk factors and childhood conditions that seem to create these bad behaviors, or allow them to flourish. That’s the good news. “We know a lifestyle of aggression and intimidation toward others starts so young,” Moffitt says. “It could be preventable.”

Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/the-struggle-to-predictand-preventtoxic-masculinity/

from Viral News HQ https://ift.tt/2qVBXpg via Viral News HQ

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trendingnewsb · 6 years

Text

The Struggle to Predictand PreventToxic Masculinity

So if you could identify those kids then, maybe you could make things better later? Of course, things are way more complicated than that.

Other studies have found much the same thing. A small number of identifiable boys turn into rotten, violent, unhappy men.

Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/the-struggle-to-predictand-preventtoxic-masculinity/

from Viral News HQ https://ift.tt/2qVBXpg via Viral News HQ

#IFTTT #Viral News HQ

0 notes