#Wrenn Management

[lichensings]

every late february to early april i get obsessed with the same ocs. i could just feel the switch happen in my brain 🙄happy early birthday to some gay bitches i guess

#they have like 10k of notes and rough prose and literally zero art i cant draw either of them #the story needs major structural overhauls. like MAJOR ones #unfortunately. #eh maybe i'll manage to fix it this time.... #oc stuff #rambles #oc: wrenne #oc: mockingbird #feel free to ask me abt them also. also maybe i'll try to draw something for their birthday (march 12th) they're gonna be two yrs old

[sleepyiswhumping]

Wrenne Ran

Content: Accidental Whumper, Blood, Character Death, Vampire Whumper, Violence

Heyo! Worked on this piece for a little bit. It's about a familiar vampire friend who wasn't careful enough while fighting, many centuries ago. If you've read some of my other stuff, you may be able to figure out who Wrenne is now. Hope y'all enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~

Reginald propped himself against a tree, breath coming in ragged, gulping pants. God damn. He had underestimated the damn vampire. That terrible, beautiful bastard. Its hair whipping in the wind, the vampire stood, staring at him, face grimacing. Stooped, the monster’s arms hung limp at its sides as if exhaustion had begun to set in. That made no sense. Vampires didn’t feel exhausted. That’s what he’d been taught, at least. They didn’t feel anything, but hunger and hatred. 

Then why…Why had it hesitated, when he’d slipped, on the cold, wet ground? Why did the vampire let him dart out of reach?

It didn’t matter, he thought, wiping the blood off his face. Steadying himself, he stepped forward, readying his dagger again. 

“Come, beast. Surrender yourself or face your demise.” Putting on a brave face, Reginald warily approached the monster.

The vampire called out to him. “Wrenne.”

Reginald frowned, slowing his advance. He didn’t know what it was playing at, calling for birds.

“If you’re going to kill me…call me by name, mysterious hunter.”

Barking a mirthless laugh, Reginald shook his head.

“Why should a monster as foul as you deserve a name?”

Pulling itself to its full height, the vampire (Wrenne?) slowly advanced toward Reginald. As it cautiously paced toward him, it spoke.

“You don’t believe that. I can see it. Your eyes betray you.”

Reginald scoffed, shaking his head, as they encircled each other. Of course, he believed that, didn’t he? He’d slain many vampires, and they were all the same. Vicious, bloodthirsty, violent creatures that spat and snarled as they fought, then begged for their lives as he plunged the dagger into their hearts. It was all he’d seen.

Until now.

He stumbled and righted himself swiftly. But fast for a human is slow for a vampire. It lunged at him, dashing across the clearing with blinding speed, claws swinging wildly. Reginald swung back, dagger flashing forward. Hissing, the creature leapt back, cradling its left arm at its chest. Reginald grinned, pleasantly surprised he’d managed to avoid injury. Then his arm exploded in pain. It was all he could do to keep himself from screaming, from collapsing. He knew a single lapse in vigilance, a mere second with his guard down, and he’d be dead. He glanced at his arm, at the torn, bleeding flesh.

Continuing their brief conversation, in an attempt to keep the vampire’s, or maybe his own, attention away from his wound, Reginald chuckled, then spoke.

“Why wouldn’t I believe it, after what you just did? All you’re doing is proving that you vampires, you monsters, only want to kill, and deserve nothing but death.”

The creature’s nostrils flared angrily, despite it not needing to breathe.

“You think I…want you dead? If I had wanted to kill you I wouldn’t be talking to you. I’d just kill you. You hunters tend toward the same beliefs. Always with the accusations and the attacks.”

It twitched forward, then stopped.

“Do you know how long I’ve lived? Your religion is…young, compared to me. I have seen hunters come and go.”

Tch. Probably killed them, Reginald thought to himself.

“Those with passion. Those with hate. You are…neither. You–”

Reginald cut it off, snarling.

“I’ve killed my share of vampires, Wrenne. You’ll just be another notch on my blade.”

The vampire stood barely an arm’s breadth away. Wrenne stared at him, its eyes containing no hate, no fear, no malice. Reginald stared back, for the first time. Looking into the creature's eyes, he saw… nothing. No sign of any emotion. No indication the creature could even see. Its eyes were a thick, dull gray. No pupils, no iris. Just a film of cloudy, tired gray. And yet its gaze bored into Reginald’s skull.

“You have spirit. You lack the passion for killing. You lack the hate for vampires. But you have spirit. Furious, impassioned, brightly burning, dangerous spirit. Careful, hunter, that you don’t blind yourself. Now. Leave me.”

Wrenne turned and began to walk away. Mistake.

Reginald surged forward, ignoring the blood running down his cheek and the pain roaring in his right arm, screaming at him, begging him to rest.

Wrenne spun with blazing speed and raked its claws across his chest whilst deftly slipping out of the path of his blade. As Reginald fell forward, past it, Wrenne caught him, holding him up.

“Have we learned our lesson, hunter?”

All Reginald could do was groan. He could barely feel anything, except the searing pain spread across his chest, and the blood pouring down his body.

“Hunter?”

Slumping forward, Reginald collapsed into Wrenne’s arms. He only heard one word, before everything became a blur:

“No.”

-----

Wrenne swiftly pulled the hunter’s tunic up, then cursed softly. He hadn’t been careful. His claws had ripped deep, shredded divots into the hunter’s chest. He tore off his shirt and wrapped it tightly around the hunter’s chest, then, holding him close, Wrenne ran.

The sun would rise soon, but he didn’t care. Wrenne couldn’t let this man die. He raced across the countryside at preternatural speeds, not caring if the farmers who rose early saw him. It was unlikely, but you were never sure. With blazing speed he dashed into the village, cradling the hunter in his arms. He practically flew to the healer’s hut and slammed his fist against the door. He didn’t care who he disturbed, the hunter couldn’t die. He couldn’t. He couldn’t.

The hunter moaned softly, eyelids fluttering. After maybe thirty seconds, but what felt like an eternity, Wrenne growled and ripped the door out of its frame. The village's healer, the old woman froze in fear, staring at the towering, haggard figure coated in blood in her doorway.

“W-what–” Wrenne surged into her hut, placing the man on her mat, and turned to the healer.

“Help him.”

He despised using his vampiric abilities, but time was of the essence. He stared into her eyes, deeply, and, as a deep, bloody red swirled in his murky, gray eyes, he flooded her mind with a deep, desperate desire to help the hunter. Now.

-----

That night, Wrenne buried the man. The only hunter he’d ever met that wasn’t blind, that was fueled by love, compassion and spirit. He gave him a deep grave, safe from prowling animals and crooked thieves. And then, Wrenne ran.

#whump #whumpblr #whump scenario #whump writing #emotional whump #vampire whumper #accidental whumper #angst #character death #oc: wrenne #oc: talbot

[fatestouch]

@soraeia replied to your post:

Charidynn: *looks at Wrenn*....

"I see you haven't changed tactics." His eyes narrow, and his shadows writhe. "Why don't you tell me how you managed to claw your way back to the material plane so I can make sure you never come back again."

#soraeia #Joker IC;; #and now hes openly challenging him! this can only go well

[soraeia]

Summary.3

After taking the papers that Allisae had left in the library, Jai and Enoch(@soulsxng) give the Tengmen Emperor(@arcxnumvitae) and his companion temporary wings. They all begin toward the East Castle.

Wrenn, Qai(@soulsxng), Chercia, and Jinx(@fatestouch) make it to the East Castle. Jinx, along with the other imperials guards, are given a magical communication from Charidynn to hunt down Tahariel and to find/closely guard Allisae and her children.

Charidynn and Rylenn are drawn to the South Castle, where they it is believed that Tahariel was shot down, though in actuality it was Hatius and Lazuli(@desiderium-eden)

Unplanned fireworks begin going off around the Aegis.

Kyrie stirs.

Edmund and Souji(@akumanoken) head to a lower corridor that leads to the lower tiers of the Aegis, toward the airship ports. While Edmund is looking for his hidden teleportation rune, Tristan finds thems and stabs Edmund. Tristan attempts to torture and kill Souji, but he is ultimately saved by Zahine and Melchior(@soulsxng). Edmund, terrified by his brother, finds the teleportation rune and leave Souji behind.

Simni(@soulsxng), with Lily, rejoins Tahariel and the group, who are beginning to move. It was eventually decided that, for the time being, they would be taking Minglian(@arcxnumvitae) with them.

Wrenn, Qai, Chercia, and Jinx finally join up with Tahariel and Allisae again. Chercia, with her attention focused on Tahariel, attempts to question him about their relation, however she is interrupted by the a tower on the North Castle behind her exploding.

Mikhail(@desiderium-eden) manages to find Lazuli, and he convinced her to fly her back to the main palace of the Aegis to find Kyrie.

Yukaine tries to convince Xiaodan(@arcxnumvitae) to join up with him so they could "get to the bottom of what was going on together", until they notice the explosion at the North Castle.

Zhifeng(@arcxnumvitae) manages to find Meihui( @arcxnumvitae ) after witnessing the explosion.

After making his way to his airship and tending to his wound, Edmund sets off to flee the Aegis.

#{ gilded cages } imperial au #(( let me know if I missed anything or got it wrong!) #(( though I can't find the post/thread where it says Enoch and Jai gave Huaxiu temp wings )) #(( I'm pretty positive I saw it sdafasdf )) #(( or am I remembering wrong?? ))

[soulsxng]

“So…what do you say…?” Allisae tips her head down, looking up at Tahariel nervously as he read the invitation. “They’re good friends of mine. They offered their home to me as a safehaven. And I’m not saying we should stay there…” Although she hoped he thought it was a good idea to consider. “But I would like to see them. Lily, too. It’ll do well for her to see some familiar faces. And a festival would be good to lift our spirits…”

@soraeia

"Putting aside that they were able to send a bird for you after we've just moved entire continents, Allisae, I don't trust this in the slightest. Ahnia has been allied with Meriburn for ages-- there's no doubt that they will be there, if they haven't outright worked with Meriburn to find some way to take you."

"If Vanystea is still trying to hunt you down, which-- I would be surprised if that weren't the case, they could go simply because there's a chance of catching you."

Though he was glad that she brought up the letter, (and so quickly) the entire situation had seen him pacing back and forth in the room ever since. Mind running through both how Meriburn had even managed to find Allisae so easily, and the slowly growing frustration as Allisae persisted in her pleading even after he'd said no.

"Even if they didn't catch you, what about Wrenn? Or Lily? What if they were caught? What if one of you were injured?"

"Why is Meriburn contacting you now, when you're already safely away from Vanystea? It seems to me like it's the same situation that occurred with Ahnia...they may have made you promises, but did they ever act on it? No. None of them were willing to act against Charidynn before, so why would they be now, if he were to try retrieving you?"

To go would be inviting another catastrophe, after they'd already had their more than their fill. In no way, shape, or form would this be worth whatever risk would come with it.

"We all agreed that we need to use discretion until things die down again, Allisae. We can't throw that aside just because of an invitation to a party."

#soraeia #[Tahariel -threads-] #[royalty verse] #orz #this is gonna go really great as you can tell

[ever-winter]

Plotted Starter for @starlitwishes / @primowishes

As usual, he found that he had very little to do. There was only so many times that you could wander around these hallways, before you begun to accept that you were simply useless. If he wasn't needed here, then why was he even being kept in this darn place? Let him go off and do some other work - instead of rotting away inside these darn walls that he hated so much. Sighing, he kicked lazily at a ball of crumpled up paper as he walked down yet another hallway, the flickering lights irritating his eyes slightly, though everything was irritating him lately. Ever since that fake had arrived, everything had just been feeling off, and it felt as though the answer as to why was there, just outside his reach, just floating beyond his grasp, that if he were to ever manage to grab hold, it'd make everything clearer - but that the truth was also something he feared...which was just stupid. What did he have to fear? He wasn't the one being torn into...Wasn't that the darn issue?

Heeh, what a foolish thought, the ball kicked with much more force, bouncing down the empty corridor, and into a room that had it's door slightly open, Seiko rolling his eyes as he watched it vanish into the darkness. Even paper was abandoning him now? Just the thought made him scoff, walking quickly over to the room, the intention being to just grab his 'ball' and be on his way - after all, why should anything of interest be inside such a place as cut off from the main area as this?

Least that had been his thought. Nothing could have prepared him for the sight that he was currently greeted with. Slowly, as though he was walking through some type of thick haze, Seiko made his way deeper within the dimly lit room, the flickering lights once again irritating his eyes, but his focus was entirely on the figure that floated in some type of tank near the end of the room, a figure that looked a lot like himself...and yet he just knew this wasn't Wrenn, this wasn't the fake...

What did this even mean? He thought that Wrenn was the only copy...he'd been told that was the case...but if that was the truth, then how did he explain what he could see right now? There was no denying what was before him, his attention so fixated on this other double, that he didn't even take in if there was anyone else within the room or not, a hand rising to rest against the thick glass.

"...who the heck are you...what are you...what's going on...?".

#starlitwishes #primowishes #Muse: Seiko #Verse: Lab Rats #tw: human experimentation #tw: trauma #tw: torture #//ask to tag

[daughter-of-melpomene]

🦙 + my queen Ro

Of course, Grace my beloved, thank you so much!! (Also gonna tag @dancingsunflowers-ocs since I know she loves Ro too! <3)

Their go-to song to cry to: "fragile" by gnash and WRENN.

Their love language: Quality time for giving, words of affirmation for receiving.

Their favorite holiday movie: She hasn't seen a lot of holiday movies, but she and Ginny have watched all of the Home Alone movies and she really loves the second one.

Their pettiest moment: After Ravenclaw beat out Slytherin in an important Quidditch match, Rosaline and Pansy managed to break into their common room and paint the couches and armchairs green and silver.

Their favorite 60s song: "The End of the World" by Skeeter Davis.

Their nicknames: Rose, Ro, Princess, Slytherin Princess, Flower (although that one comes from her parents and she doesn't really like to be called that).

Their go-to karaoke song: "Girls Like Girls" by Hayley Kiyoko.

A color you associate with them: Pink - it's the color she wears the most, as well as her favorite color.

An event from their Prom night: Hogwarts doesn't really do prom, obviously, but during the Yule Ball, she and Pansy got drunk off of a flask of Firewhiskey Pansy had smuggled in from Hogsmeade and wound up dancing unsteadily in the empty corridors for most of the night before Rosaline fell asleep on her friend's shoulder murmuring about how pretty Ginny had looked that night.

Their favorite wild animal: Squirrels - she thinks they're terribly amusing little beasts.

send me 🦙 + an oc!!

#asks about my ocs #oc: rosaline craven

[starlitwishes]

@primowishes

Being cooped up was driving Evan a little stir crazy.

More now than ever, Evan hated the feeling of being trapped. Though no one was keeping him in the Sanctuary of Surasthana, he still felt trapped there. The trauma they had all gone through made the air too thick, too dense with unease and suffering.

He needed air--and Evan thought, maybe someone else could use it.

Wrenn was too distant, Collei was with her mentor, Nahida was out for the count... Seiko was too unstable, Kazuha had his own troubles, Talking to Niwa would be a whole other can of worms, and Venti and Nene... Evan just couldn't look them in the eyes anymore, ugly feelings stirring that he wanted to avoid, not bring forward.

Asahi, the clone he had very few encounters with, was the best choice to invite out. Sure he was withdrawn and angry, but...

... Evan didn't have any good excuses to avoid everyone else, he realized deep down. He just didn't want to think about that horrid place, and Asahi happened to be the only one that didn't fully remind him of that place. Even though he and Wrenn looked similar...

Smacking his own face to snap himself out of it, Evan forced out a smile as he approached Asahi--even managing to force out a grin that looked just a little crazed.

"Hey there," he started, leaning on the wall next to Asahi. "I'm going out for some fresh air. Wanna come with me? Just us two. I heard you haven't been getting out much. What do you say?"

There was a slight desperation in his voice, almost a plea for Asahi to agree.

#V; TBD #Muse: Evan #Primowishes #rp #Time To Ourselves #Here u go L #>:3

[litcityblues]

For All Mankind Seasons 3 & 4: Some Men Would Rather Steal An Asteroid Than Go To Therapy

It's been a minute since I saw this show, but to recap: at the end of Season 2, Cold War tensions between the Soviets and Americans boil over. There's a firefight on the moon. Tracy and Gordo manage to keep Jamestown's reactor from melting down but die in the process. Danielle docks with Soyuz and astronauts and cosmonauts finally greeting each other does a lot to defuse tensions. In the final shot of the season, we see a human walking on Mars.

When Season 3 starts, it's 1992. Ed (Joel Kinnaman) and Karen (Shantel VanSanten) are divorced and Karen is in the Space Hotel business after a disaster at Danny Stevens' (Casey W. Johnson) wedding nearly takes out the hotel and takes out her new husband Sam (Jeff Hephner), Karen decides to sell to Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi), found of Helios Aerospace who wants to use it for his own commercial mission to Mars.

Ed and Danielle (Krys Marshall) are in the running to be commander of NASA's Mars Mission with Molly Cobb (Sonya Wagner) (now blind, because of her solar storm adventure in Season 2) clashing with Margo (Wrenn Schmidt) over who to choose. Molly picks Ed, but Margo fires her and picks Danielle instead. Ed switches teams, leaving NASA to join Helios as the commander for their Mars mission, which sets up a three-way race to Mars.

(Margo is under increasing pressure-- as her 'gentle back channel' to the Soviets in the form of her friend Sergei is rapidly becoming the KGB insisting that she sell secrets to them.)

With everyone on the way to Mars, Danny's new wife and baby are hanging out with his brother Jimmy (David Chandler) who- like Danny- is struggling with the legacy of his parents, Tracy and Gordo. Unlike Danny, who seems to have doubled down to follow in their footsteps, Jimmy wants nothing to do with NASA and is increasingly friendly with anti-NASA radicals.

On the way to Mars, NASA deploys solar sails to race ahead of the Helios crew, but an accident on the Soviet ship, which sees Ed attempt to go to their rescue, as Helios is closer, gets overruled by Dev and ultimately, it's NASA who has to go rescue the cosmonauts. They do so and while Helios arrives at Mars first, Ed's landing attempt is aborted due to bad weather and ultimately, it's NASA and Russia who land first, with Danielle and the Soviet commander wrestling their way onto Mars... together.

The Soviets and Americans are sharing Happy Valley, while Helios has its own base. Danny is spiralling hard and after he gets injured, develops a Vicodin addiction. Kelly (Cynthy Wu) has a romantic liaison with one of the cosmonauts. One of the astronauts, Will Tyler (Robert Bailey Jr), reveals that he's gay- which gives former Astronaut and Current President Ellen Wilson (Jodi Balfour) an opening to take down 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'

(Ellen's plotline is probably the more underrated of Season 3: still married to Larry (Nate Corddry), they're both still gay, they have one kid and she runs for President as a Republican, defeating Bill Clinton in 1992 to win election. The twist is that it's Larry who gets caught in a lie about an extramarital affair to Congress, which you think is going to be the start of Ellen's 'Lewinsky Scandal' that takes her down but instead, after going to see Pam, Ellen makes the one move that I think no one expects her to make: she comes out of the closet.

IRL, I honestly think that scenario would play out exactly the way Ellen intended. It would have changed the story in a massive, massive way- especially in the mid-90s media landscape, IMO)

Danny's spiral leads to a drilling accident that results in an accident that leads to more deaths and Ed and Danny being trapped in Hab 1, buried and running out of air.

The noose is tightening around Margo, as the Soviets continue to pressure her and Aleida realizes that it was she who gave NASA's engine design to the Soviets and Jimmy's radical friends help him steal the statue of his parents. Things in Season 3 come to a head with Kelly- who is pregnant and suffering from pre-eclampsia, having to be evacuated back to Earth. The North Korean rocket that damaged the space hotel way at the start of the season? Turns out it was a Mars mission and the Americans/Russians find the sole survivor and the *actual* first man on Mars: a North Korean. Back on Earth, Jimmy's friends blow up the Johnson Space Center killing Karen and Molly Cobb in the process and Margo is presumed to be amongst the dead, but is in fact, alive, well, and living in the Soviet Union.

Season 4 opens with the Mars base having grown considerably. Ed is commanding a mission to bring an asteroid into Mars orbit so they can mine it and unemployed oil rig worker Miles (Toby Kebbell) (because they've discovered something called helium-3 that's become the main fuel source, devastating the oil and gas industries) was headed to the moon, but chooses instead to go to Mars for more pay and a long stint. After the accident with Ed's mission, NASA sends out Danielle to replace him for the remainder of America's term commanding the base while Ed, as it turns out is experiencing hand tremors.

Margo is finding that the Soviet Union isn't all it cracked up to be. She's out of the space game, but after a coup removes Gorbachev and brings in new management she finds herself working for the Soviet space program again (after a fairly brutal interrogation.)

On Mars, Miles finds that Helios doesn't pay that well but gets into the black market game to supplement his income and does so quite successfully.

Aleida is suffering from panic attacks after the bombing, Kelly is getting screwed by NASA so they take her robotic explorer program (whose goal is to search for life) on the road, looking for private funding and eventually, they get some from Dev.

Political tensions are rising on Mars with the Soviet crew forming factions over their power struggle, the North Koreans are keeping to themselves, and the Americans are kind of caught in the middle if we just fast forward through to the end of this, eventually, Ed, Dev, and company hijack a shiny new asteroid and park it in Mars orbit where it will be mined. (Margo is also revealed to be alive, comes back to America for awkward moments at NASA, and has the brief, tiniest possibility of running away to Brazil with Sergei dangled in front of her before someone- presumably the KGB shoots him dead.)

All right, so let's unpack this a bit.

From what I'm reading on the interwebs, this show is still waiting for an official renewal for Season 5. I don't know what kind of metrics Apple uses to make those decisions for its streaming platform, but at this point, if the creators/writers, etc, want 7 seasons, I think Apple should just do it at this point- but, that being said, having gotten through all of Season 4, I could also see why they wouldn't do that as well. I think Season 4 feels like the show was either laying the groundwork for a heavy 'reboot' season in Season 5 (because how old can Ed get, really?) or was designed in such a way that it could serve as a series finale without too much trouble either.

And I go back and forth about that. I think the show is at a weird transition point in its story because we're moving out of the alternate history aspect of all of this and more into the science fiction aspect of all of this and I think that might be a trickier balancing act to pull off than we realize. There were aspects of Season 4 that I liked. The introduction of Miles was a brilliant choice because it created kind of this Upstairs/Downstairs aspect to the show where you get to see the people who are doing the grunt work to keep Happy Valley going as a pose to our HEROES who are upstairs doing astronaut things. The black market/secret bar aspect all worked for me- you'd expect to find that in a situation like that as well as the labor tension that eventually leads to a strike amongst the workers. No problem with any of that.

The problem I did have was Ed and Danielle. I think the show should have just gone there. They kind of do, but it's more implicit than explicit and they've danced around this before in prior seasons-- but I think Ed could have seen some interesting character growth had Danielle explicitly called him on his sexist/racist bullshit-- especially given Kelly is a woman of color. There was an opportunity here for self-analysis and reflection for a character who badly needs it and you could have more of an arc between Danielle and Ed trying to repair their relationship throughout the season. They kind of do that, but I think had they doubled down on it a bit, it would have given both characters a better arc throughout the 4th season.

(Also, Ed, man... go home and deal with your fucking feelings, already! "Men would rather stay on Mars and figure out how to hijack an asteroid than go to therapy." Though, to be fair to Ed, when Kelly finally pins him down on why he is the way he is, his explanation seems genuine enough. I just don't understand why it didn't come earlier in the season and why a guy who has had two children of his own is so gosh darned awkward around his Grandson- though admittedly, that too gets better by the end of Season 4.)

We also have to go to talk about Danny Stevens: why the fuck didn't they just send his ass home? I can understand exiling him at the end of Season 3 when they were still trying to get fuel made to get everyone back home, I get that. But now workers are being shipped into the base, surely there's a shuttle he can go home on? Instead, he just sort of sits in the North Korean capsule until he cracks and is found dead and that's just sort of the end of it. (Personally, I think a better ending for Danny would have been them finding the capsule straight up empty. With no tracks or nothing.)

Margo not getting a happy ending seems inevitable, though I would have liked it far better had she gone to Brazil, even without Sergei-- but I do appreciate the fact that she takes accountability for her plan, if not her actions by season's end which I think is a good first step for her character who has been avoiding accountability for her choices for quite some time.

Eli Hobson as the new NASA administrator had me checking IMDB constantly because I was so convinced it was Bruce Boxleitner I got very excited at first, but it was Daniel Stern who was equally as awesome.

Overall: I do love this show. Season 3 was top notch and Season 4 felt like it lost a step or two but was still good. (I'm hoping Season 4 is setting up stuff for Season 5 we have yet to discover!) For All Mankind is a great show that everyone should be watching. Apple is really impressing me with the quality of the shows they've got on there and this one is a 'must watch' that should be getting way more hype than it seems to be out in the world. My Grade: Season 3 **** out of ****, Season 4 *** out of ****

#for all mankind #season 3 #season 4 #streaming review #appletv

[magic-the-girlbossing]

Magic: The Girlbossing Quarterfinals!

As of my posting this, round 4 has already started. Sorry about that I simply do not know how to properly manage my time. Anyway.

A few tough battles (and some very lopsided ones) later, we have the results of round 3! Going into these quarterfinals we see some of our toughest battles yet. The cream of the girlboss crop is slowly rising and from this point on there are very few easy choices.

Bracket as of the beginning of round 4:

Link to round 3 master post

We have some fitting matches ahead. Teysa vs. Kaya and Emrakul vs. Avacyn both pit together two characters who have significant history. Will we follow the lore or forge our own path?

All matches this round, and going forward will last a week. Be ready to witness a week long battle of the bosses.

List of upcoming matches is below the cut.

Alesha vs. Marit Lage - Alesha wins!

Marchesa d'Amati vs. Gisa Cecani - Marchesa wins!

Liliana Vess vs. Thalia - Liliana wins!

Nahiri vs. Xantcha - Nahiri wins!

Teysa Karlov vs. Kaya Cassir - Teysa wins!

Wrenn vs. Ashnod - Ashnod wins!

Emrakul vs. Avacyn - Emrakul wins!

Vraska vs. Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar - Vraska wins!

[halsinthebear]

Pls share nope theories? 🥺

I'm on mobile so formatting is going to suck BUT

also most of these have been shared/plotted/discussed with @murraybaeman so credit goes there too but I've got three major theories.

1] Amber Park

let it be known that I find Wrenn Schmidt unbelievably beautiful so jot that down. HOWEVER Amber is absolutely a foil for Em-- Em is the businesswoman while OJ does the actual work and Amber is more like Jupe's manager than his business partner. the Gordy's Home flashback implies Jupe may not have been the best actor so Amber literally dresses Jupe (well depending on how you look at it) and runs lines with him to make sure Jupe is putting on his best show.

she's even still commanding from the sidelines of the Star Lasso experience. given how Jupe says their sons are going to perform for the crowd, you wonder how much Amber (or Jupe) were trying to get their kids into Hollywood as well. also like. her husband's been feeding horses to an unknown entity and her introduction shot is her trying to sell someone on coming to the Star Lasso show.

I also loved the fantastic ginger wig they put on her just for the quick shot of the Jupiter's Orbit poster you saw in her office.

2] Angel and the tarp

this has, like, no official confirmation but it's my dumbass theory and I'm sticking to it.

while Angel tying a tarp around him with barbed wire is just clever thinking, when I saw the movie it immediately made me think of a cilice. seeing as JJ has been compared to biblical angels (also Angel...angel...get it...haha...), I thought it was interesting that Angel uses a tarp (uncomfortable material close to the body) with barbed wire securing it, because cilices were common with devout Catholics to continually moritfy their flesh in the name of holiness.

also Google tells me most modern cilices are now mostly BDSM accessories so. that was fun.

3] the Wizard of Oz

this is my most conspiracy theory theory so grain of salt here.

I am still partially convinced this movie was Jordan Peele's Wizard of Oz. but also still. grain of salt.

a) the shot of Mary Jo's during the attack is pretty similar to the framing of the Wicked Witch once Dorothy's house fell on her

b) a deleted scene has Em schmoozing on the Walk of Fame with a prominent Dorothy mannequin in frame

c) Em's name can either reference the Emerald City or Aunty Em...or both???

d) when Em falls asleep in her RV, she's watching an Oprah clip where the woman interviewed makes a joke about not being in Kansas anymore

e) Mary Jo, at the Star Lasso show, has two pins on her sweater-- a hot air balloon and an old traveling wagon. like the wagon Dorothy meets the fortune teller in and the hot air balloon that she leaves Oz in.

f) Em is the Wizard to OJ's Dorothy to Lucky's Toto to Jupe's Ms. Gulch

AAAAAAND we're done.

#nope #long post is long

[isolationsandhatred]

OK ok listen.

I love landstill. It's such a cool archetype and so dear and close to my heart but for the most part it is Not Great. It has some glaring issues as an archetype other control lists like Oath or grixis midrange or jeskai tempo or delver or esper control just don't struggle with for the main part, cause we chose standstill as a card draw engine and kind of like Gush it has some Deckbuilding Requirements that make it tick. Part of this is being able to land a threat under a standstill, part of this is managing your standstills vs your absolute tempo and the strange pattern of mana investment that goes along with that, part of that is managing your opponent's tempo while keeping pressure up. I have tried a fair few landstill decks that attempt to balance this: temur landstill with wrenn and oko is a blast but has some card investment/mana spent for the effect issues. UW landstill with Timeless Dragon and Shark Typhoon is great too cause it has a super simplified mana base and can really lean on being able to play wastelands and urza's saga in the same shell as well as having access to stony silence which is just... pretty good. It, however lacks the explosiveness of a t1 oko, t2 standstill kinda start, which is fine, it's just far more control oriented and less midrange which I thought was an interesting dilemma and wanted to play around with.

Enter stiflenaught, a deck that's been around for ages and (a) has a simple manabase, (b) has some explosive clocks (c) has a low manacurve and (d) can toolbox exceptionally well with urza's saga.

I took a stiflenaught shell and modified it to be standstill-compatible and to use lurrus because balance is cracked and we kind of wanted white anyways. This produced a pile of jank so monstrous that it took me a hot second to parse the play patterns associated with it and pare it down to a somewhat-workable pile. We're on a 61 card special because... uh, I like memes? Anyways, here's the list and I've had a lot of fun jamming it. Remember folks, vintage is cool and proxies are based af.

#mtg #landstill #vintage #brew #listen i just wanted to talk about this dumb thing i brewed #phyrexian dreadnaught #stifle #standstill

[finishinglinepress]

FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: Malaya Bronnaya by Marsha Blitzer

ADVANCE ORDER: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/malaya-bronnaya-by-marsha-blitzer/

Marsha Blitzer’s poems have appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, Atlanta Review, The Banyan Review, Cleaver Magazine, The Moth, 166 Palms, and elsewhere. An alumna of Sarah Lawrence College, she completed the coursework for a Ph.D. in Russian Literature and Linguistics from Georgetown University and received a degree in law from Suffolk University and an M.S. in Education from The George Washington University. She has practiced law in Washington, DC, #Moscow, and London, and now lives with her husband in Tucson, Arizona. This is her first chapbook of poetry.

PRAISE FOR Malaya Bronnaya by Marsha Blitzer

“Marsha Blitzer’s fascinating, sensory, ironic and incisive poems about her time in Moscow in the 90’s is a read not to be missed. Her poetry is replete with amazing imagery: plummeting, huge icicles, poisonous mushrooms, assassinations. Its tone is both comic and ironic in just the right places, and this series of poems manages to dramatize her time living in Moscow as utterly compelling.”

–Tina Barr

“Marsha Blitzer writes unsentimental and curious poems about an earlier, hopeful Russia during the 1990s. She was there, as open to its people as to its stands of pine and silver birch. Which Russian author was it who demanded that artists not avert their eyes? This poet sees both the machine guns and the ice cream. Her perfect-pitch poems march in ranks, the passing parade of Russia in transition in contrast to the warlike dead-end Kremlin of today.”

–Wayne Soini, Author of ED and JO

“Sentimentality and easy answers wither when they meet Marsha Blitzer’s exacting, sophisticated lyricism. She apprenticed herself to Russia’s harsh beauty while a practicing lawyer in Moscow in the 1990s–and to the timeless joys of marriage and motherhood–to create a poetic voice all her own. “They say a musical ear,” she writes, “will hear / the cat’s purr of prized / fish eggs rubbing against / each other.” Her craft is exceptional, her ear is attuned, and I am thrilled by the achievements of Malaya Bronnaya, her first chapbook.

—Greg Wrenn, author of Centaur

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems #moscow #russia

[fatestouch]

'So the dog didn't end up biting... what a shame.'

Jupiter couldn't help but feel disappointed, seeing Princess Chercia's knight manage to restrain himself in the wake of Prince Wrenn knocking her out. A shame indeed... Juno wanted to see just how far Jinx would go, for his sworn princess.

Another time, perhaps.

The bat watches keenly, though he woefully keeps enough distance that he can't hear much. He does catch a few... interesting details, though.

Royals willingly leaving the empire, Princess Chercia actually being the daughter of Princess Allisae and Tahariel Elohim... so the Emperor doesn't run the tight ship he acts like he does.

So many rumors are starting to make more and more sense...

'Shall I follow, or return to my King's side...' He ponders, and he watched the small group take off.

Well. It wasn't like he had anything better to do.

#v; royal au #Devil IC;; #nosy ass bat

[soraeia]

Before I continue the Damian thing from yesterday, an alternative image to that fight ending that I had was Damian managing to tie Wrenn up by his own magic whip and dangling him like a spider, and Allisae showing up right at that exact moment. To which Dame just...drops Wrenn and goes “now, love, this isn’t what it looks like---”

#{ Yours Truly } Mun Rosa #(( Damian has faced many horrors but goodness there's nothing he fears more than an angry mom ))

[soulsxng]

Tahariel's eyes narrow at Lierik, and though it's obvious that he doesn't like being ordered about, he finds himself...oddly unable to argue. Perhaps it was the attention they'd garnered by now. Or the fact that he knew it would be best to get Allisae out of there sooner, rather than later.

Really, he couldn't say exactly why his mind chose rational sense now, when it was typically so quick to send flames of fury through his veins in an uncontrollable surge. Why his mind seemed to have slowed down--

His train of thought was quickly derailed before he could finish the line his thinking had taken. He felt as though he'd been on the verge of realizing...something.

But he couldn't focus on that, right now. Instead, his priority should be Allisae. Should be Wrenn and Lily. Yori, and Ophan, and Sophie...

"...Let's go find the others, and retire for the night. Allisae, you've used a lot of magic, so you're going to be tired when it catches up to you. Yori's been on guard all night, so I'm sure he needs some rest, too."

Tahariel turns away from the crowd, speaking quietly to Allisae and Yori. He catches sight of Princess Cassandra as he starts to usher them away, and gives her a soft apology-- an actual verbal apology, not some fancily worded bit that sounded like one. Alongside it, was a request that she not hold this incident against Allisae, who had only been defending herself.

Lierik watches quietly as they leave. His gaze momentarily flicking to look through the crowd until he found Cilatyve, who was now holding his head with one hand. A pained grimace on his normally brightly smiling face...though when he realized that Lierik was looking at him, he managed a small, reassuring smile.

As much as he wished that Cil hadn't used his telepathy to influence Tahariel like that (after all, if Tahariel found out, he could very well choose to target the advisor because of it), it was likely for the best. Having the other ahniri lashing out right now would have ended badly for everyone involved...and now Lierik could instead focus on Cecil and Avelan.

'Which...' He thought to himself with a low sigh, 'is going to be easier said, than done.'

#[Tahariel -drabbles-] #[Jaspern -drabbles-] #[royalty verse] #Taha would absolutely have put up more of a fight if Cil hadn't been there #and I wanted to give Cassie some Mercy???? So there we go #plus we have an impending divorce to circumvent orz