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actualbird · 4 months

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Hi Zak, would you recommend majoring in something you enjoy doing?

I enjoy writing (and beta reading), and plan to major in something like liberal arts or creative writing, but I'm not sure if I should.

I feel like I might get burnt out if I choose to major in one of that, but also, I'm worried about my future job prospects.

I've heard of people who majored in fine arts and end up having to do a job they dislike cuz no money for the work, and idk if it's worth it. :(

~ 📝 (is this taken?)

hey there notes!anon (will be tagging u as this!!), ty for the ask!!

i'd like to preface everything im going to say with like, this is my Own opinion based on my own experience, and your experiences may differ, so not everything i say may apply to you and your circumstances. im frankly always surprised when i get asks asking for advice on life stuff, because i myself definitely do not have my life together in any way. still, i hope something in my perspective can be useful somehow to you

i personally am not sure/am not knowledgeable about a liberal arts major (because my college didnt have a course like that) but i CAN talk about the effects/benefits/cons of a creative writing major because i myself am a creative writing graduate

and first off, job availability is not as big of a problem for CW graduates as many people think. lots of industries need creative writers. it may not be the industry you expected or originally wanted, but the prospects are definitely there. when i was job hunting, off the top of my head, here were the jobs i applied to (and thus felt somewhat qualified for, with my CW degree): advertising copywriter, SEO writer, english teacher/tutor, writing for print magazines, writing game guides for online websites, writing scripts for games, copyediting, corporate copywriting. and that is very much the tip of the iceberg, because there are a lot of jobs that i overlooked that i couldve qualified for but i wasnt personally interested in.

now on the topic of burnout......i'll be real with you: no matter what you major in in college, burnout will happen if you dont adequately manage yourself.

burnout is not exclusive to creative endeavors, it's an effect of too much work + lack of control (perceived or real) + a whole lot of other factors that are VERY common to experience in college. essentially, college is a CAUTION: BURNOUT PRONE AREA simply due to how it's designed/structured. so no matter what course you choose, it will be a danger. so it's less of picking a course and more of how you protect yourself against burnout that will help you more in the long run

that being said, i got burnt out a TON when i was in college because of my mental illness(TM) and also because i was generally bad at pacing myself and taking care of myself. but what got me through was my sheer dedication to writing.

one thing about college is that i think you should pick something that you like enough that even when you feel like you hate it to the high heavens (because you definitely might, what with how stressful college requirements are), there is still something stronger about your tie to that course that pulls you through

for me, it was personal passion and commitment to writing. writing has always been the one thing i knew i wanted to do since the beginning of time, so no matter how much i hated it on all nighters i was working on my thesis manuscript, i pulled through

essentially, to prevent/survive burnout: manage yourself + pick whatever course you want where the "but" in "oh my god i hate this course, BUT..." is a strong one. if you have no strong ones as of the moment, thats alright. you can build it up as you go along

now on the topic of "working a job they dislike" i will be real with you once more..............this is a more common reality of life than having a job you do like. i am a statistical anomaly in the sense that i generally enjoy my job, but a lot of the time (based on what my irl friends go through with their jobs) you end up with a job you didnt expect you'd get into and dont necessarily enjoy. but....it pays the bills. it pays for you to enjoy the stuff you do when youre not working. and thats a valid way to get through life as well.

life after college, contrary to what people want you to believe, is not 100% taken up by your job. or at least it shouldnt be. or at least you should work to make sure it isnt. this might be, again, because im coming from a privileged perspective of having the time to pursue other things like hobbies and interests in addition to having a job, but if you also have the resources to do so, then definitely do so.

all in all: "would you recommend majoring in something you enjoy doing?" it.....depends. i recommend majoring in something you feel strongly enough about that you will continue to do it even when it's not enjoyable 100% of the time. but dont worry about jobs, because a CW degree is definitely useful in the job market. and dont worry about burnout, because that exists in all courses anyway, not just CW.

that is!!......all i think i have to say about ur q, i think

i hope some part of this can be helpful, notes!anon. and im wishing you the best in your decision!!! :D

#notes!anon #asks #my job hunting era was a wild ride. remember when i got a job interview for writing romance games?#wild given what my current interest and fixation is HAHAHA

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the-head-ancho-chilli · 2 years

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General Gyomei Headcannons

I was talking with a friend about how Gyomei so I thought that’d I would share some headcannons (modern-ish au). Enjoy ^^

Word count: 800~

Starting this off, this man gives awkward dad energy

Normally has no idea what he’s doing

He can provide for physical needs no problem, but quality time isn’t normally his forte

He will gently knock on your door and ask if you want to go to grocery shopping with him

Will buy ANYTHING you mention to him

The ice cream sandwiches you said you had at a friend’s house? Has a whole year supply

Did you recently start a series that you can’t seem to tear yourself away from? He will purchase the first merchandise he sees

Gyomei will sometimes come home with a bunch of stuff that reminds him of you

Usually he gives them to you, but sometimes enjoys having a small memento of you ^^

Gyomei doesn’t show it but he loves watching you have fun with your hobbies, trying not to disturb you while you’re in your headspace

Conversations with him are kinda dry because of how quiet he is

Ironically he seems to know a lot of gossip, but usually minds his own business

Gyomei looks very intense but is actually a gentle giant

If he bumps into you he will gently lift you up, turn and place you down out of the way

“I’m so sorry about that, I hope I didn’t scare you” He says while patting your head in an attempt to comfort you

If he were to give you a lesson or teach you anything, he would try sharing different mindfulness

Gyomei doesn’t expect you to be incredibly open with your issues or personal stuff, but he would at least like to show you some resources that might help you

He’s a busy man so he doesn’t have many hobbies, but Gyomei enjoys pottery

Once made these little snails that you keep on a shelf in your room

This man 100% wears cargo shorts and Hawaiian shirts, look me in the eyes and tell me otherwise

I feel like Gyomei’s biggest insecurity is his issues with using and recognize body language and nonverbal communication

It’s not just that he’s blind and would most likely not be able to see the fists you make when your annoyed, it’s also how he portrays himself

If he’s slumped over too much, he can look exhausted and unwilling to participate in a conversation

But if his posture is too upright, he appears to be in deep focus when in reality he’s thinking about dinner plans

Gyomei’s Resting Bjtch Face TM isn’t the worst out of the Hashira, but it’s bad enough to let anyone believe that he’s not exactly the approachable type

In reality, he feels sometimes isolated because of how many people avoid him due to his intimidating appearance

He enjoys getting to know animals because they cure them whatever loneliness he’s feeling

HE LOVES CATS! Cats are his favourite animal by far, big or small

Speaking of cats, I can definitely imagine him keeping a Persian Cat as a pet

I spoke enough about good habits, but Gyomei definitely has some bad habits

Like I swear this man oversalts his food AND STILL keep a salt shaker at the dinner table

“It could use a bit more salt” dude your steak is already seasoned what are you doing

It would be funny if you got him a salt lamp

Going back to bad habits with body language, Gyomei sometimes just doesn’t answer your questions

You’ll ask him something like “Hey, should we go on a walk right now or maybe later on?” And you will just get nothing but silence

Again, he’s probably just thinking about something mundane

But he usually doesn’t give verbal or physical indicators because of how he struggles with body language

“Umm, are you ok?” “Yes of course, why do you ask? A walk sounds great right about now”

It’s manageable, but yet ever so slightly annoying

He certainly doesn’t mean to ignore you

Changing to more general stuff again, Gyomei would be the king of textures

He really values the physical feel of some things in his life like household objects and cleaning products, so nothing would feel even just a bit unbearable

He’s a microfibre cloth hater, can’t stand them

Loves getting his hands manicured

Gyomei’s hands may be calloused, but they’re still pleasant to hold and we’ll maintained

Gyomei’s favourite form of affection is pats of any kind

Head pats for comfort, shoulder pats for a accomplishments, you name it

Hugs from Gyomei are very dad-like too

He would crouch down a little and let you wrap your arms around him, as he slowly rubs your back

“Here, you can hold my hand. Take as long as you need”

Overall, as long as you tell him what you need, Gyomei has your back

꒷꒦˚︶︶꒦꒷︶꒷꒦˚ ꒷꒦˚︶︶꒦꒷︶꒷꒦˚ ꒷꒦˚︶︶꒦꒷︶꒷꒦˚

Hopefully all of you enjoyed this! I’m kinda new to posting so I’m not sure if I’ll keep this format, so let me know what you all think! Feel free to use these headcannons in a platonic or romantic sense, either is suitable. My suggestion box is open so feel free to submit any requests ^^

#demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #kny #kny blog #demon slayer blog #gyomei x reader #kny fanfic #kny hashira #kny headcanons #kny gyomei #gyomei himejima #demon slayer gyomei #demon slayer hashira #demon slayer headcanons #fluff #demon slayer fluff #kny fluff

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sk1fanfiction · 3 years

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the many faces of tom riddle, part 4

-attachment, orphanages, and yet more child psych: time to add yet another voice to the void-

FULL DISCLAIMER THAT THIS IS JUST MY OPINION OF A CHARACTER WHO DOESN’T HAVE THE STRONGEST CANON CHARACTERIZATION, AND THUS ALL THIS IS BASED ON MY CONCEPTUALIZATION.

I'm going to be super biased, because my favorite portrayal of Tom Riddle is actually Hero Fiennes-Tiffin as eleven-year-old Tom Riddle, in HBP and I get to chat about child psych in this one, sooo here we go.

First of all, I’m just so impressed that a kid could bring that much depth to such a complex character.

This is the portrayal, I feel, that brings us closest to Tom’s character. Yes, Coulson’s brought us pretty close, but by fifth year, the mask was on.

We don't really get to see Tom looking afraid very often, but it's fear that rules his life, so it's really poignant in our first (chronologically) introduction, he looks absolutely terrified.

The void being the fandom's loud opinions on a certain headmaster. I wouldn't call myself pro-Dumbledore, but I'm certainly not anti-Dumbledore, either. (Agnostic-Dumbledore??)

Since I'm not of the anti-Dumbledore persuasion, I decided to poke around in the tags and see what the arguments were, so I don't make comments out of ignorance.

Most of the tag seems to be more directed towards his treatment of Harry and Sirius, but a few people mentioned that Dumbledore should have treated Tom with ‘exceptional kindness’ and tried to ‘rehabilitate’ him.

As I said in Parts 2 and 3, I am 100% in favor of helping a traumatized kid learn to cope, and I don’t think Tom Riddle was solidly on the Path to Evil (TM) at birth, or even at eleven. Not even at fifteen.

Could unconditional love and kindness have helped Tom Riddle enough for the rise of Lord Voldemort to never happen? Possibly, but...

Yes, I'm about to drag up that Carl Jung quote, again.

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”

The problem with this is that if you’re going to blame Dumbledore for this, you also have to blame every other adult in Tom’s life: his headmaster, Dippet, his Head of House, Slughorn, his ‘caretakers’ at the orphanage, Mrs. Cole and Martha, and possibly more. In fact, if we're going to blame any adult, let's blame Merope for r*ping and abusing Tom Riddle Senior, and having a kid she wasn't intending to take care of.

Furthermore, you cannot possibly hold anyone but Tom accountable for the murders he committed. (I should not have to sit here and explain why cold-blooded murder is wrong.) And if you like Tom Riddle's character, insinuating that his actions are completely at the whim of others is just a bit condescending towards him. He's not an automaton or a marionette, he's a very intelligent human being with a functioning brain, and at sixteen is fully capable of moral reasoning and critical analysis.

I've heard the theories about Dumbledore setting the Potters up to die, and I'm not going to discuss their validity right now; but he didn't put a wand in Tom's hand and force him to kill anyone. Tom did it all of his own accord.

And while yes, I have enormous sympathy for what happened to Tom as a child, at some point, he decided to murder Myrtle Warren, and that is where I lose my sympathy. Experiencing trauma does not give you the right to inflict harm on others. Yes, Tom was failed, but then, he spectacularly failed himself.

We also have no idea how Dumbledore treated Tom as a student.

In the movies, it’s Dumbledore who tells Tom he has to go back to the orphanage, but in the books, it’s Dippet. We know that Slughorn spent a lot of time around Tom at Slug Club and such, yet I don’t really see people clamoring for his head.

I regard the sentiment that Dumbledore turned Tom Riddle into Lord Voldemort with a lot of skepticism.

But let's hear from the character himself -- his impression of eleven-year-old Tom Riddle.

“Did I know that I had just met the most dangerous Dark wizard of all time?” said Dumbledore. “No, I had no idea that he was to grow up to be what he is. However, I was certainly intrigued by him. I returned to Hogwarts intending to keep an eye upon him, something I should have done in any case, given that he was alone and friendless, but which, already, I felt I ought to do for others’ sake as much as his."

Now, assuming that Dumbledore's telling the truth, I'm not seeing something glaringly wrong with this. No, he hasn't pigeonholed Tom as evil, yes, I'd be intrigued, too, and it's a very good idea to keep an eye on Tom, for his own sake.

“At Hogwarts,” Dumbledore went on, “we teach you not only to use magic, but to control it. You have — inadvertently, I am sure — been using your powers in a way that is neither taught nor tolerated at our school."

Again, it seems like he's at least somewhat sympathetic towards Tom, and is willing to at least give him a chance.

More evidence (again, assuming Dumbledore is a reliable narrator):

Harry: “Didn’t you tell them [the other professors], sir, what he’d been like when you met him at the orphanage?” Dumbledore: “No, I did not. Though he had shown no hint of remorse, it was possible that he felt sorry for how he had behaved before and was resolved to turn over a fresh leaf. I chose to give him that chance.”

Now, I think Dumbledore is pretty awful with kids, but I don't think that's malicious. Yeah, it's a flaw, but perfect people don't exist, and perfect characters are dead boring. I am not saying that he definitely handled Tom's case well, I'm just saying that there's little evidence that Dumbledore, however shaken and scandalized, wrote him off as 'evil snake boy.'

It's also worth taking into account that it's 1938, and the attitudes towards mental health back then.

Why is Tom looking at Dumbledore like that, anyway? Why is he so scared? What has he possibly been threatened with or heard whispers of?

"'Professor'?" repeated Riddle. He looked wary. "Is that like 'doctor'? What are you here for? Did she get you in to have a look at me?"

"I don't believe you," said Riddle. "She wants me looked at, doesn't she? Tell the truth!"

"You can't kid me! The asylum, that's where you're from, isn't it? 'Professor,' yes, of course -- well, I'm not going, see? That old cat's the one who should be in the asylum. I never did anything to little Amy Benson or Dennis Bishop, and you can ask them, they'll tell you!

Tom keeps insisting he's not mad until Dumbledore finally manages to calm him down.

I'm really upset this wasn't in the movie, because it's important context. Instead we got these throwaway cutscenes of some knick-knacks relating to the Cave he's got lying around, but I just would have preferred to see him freaking out like he does in the book.

There was extreme stigma and prejudice towards mental illness.

'Lunatic asylums,' as they were called in Tom's time, were terrible places. In the 1930s and 40s, he could look forward to being 'treated' with induced convulsions, via metrazol, insulin, electroshock, and malaria injections. And if he stuck around long enough, he could even look forward to a lobotomy!

So, if you think Dumbledore was judgmental towards Tom, imagine how flat-out prejudiced whatever doctors or 'experts' Mrs. Cole might have gotten in to 'look at him' must have been!

Moving on to the next few shots, he is sitting down and hunched over as if expecting punishment or at least some kind of bad news, Dumbledore is mostly out of the frame. He’s trapped visually, by Dumbledore on one side, and a wall on the other, because he’s still very much afraid. uncomfortable, as he tells Dumbledore a secret that he fears could get him committed to an asylum (which were fucking horrible places, as I said).

It brings to the scene that miserable sense of isolation and loneliness to that has defined Tom’s entire life up to that point (and, partially due to his own bad choices, continues to define it).

And, when Dumbledore accepts it, his posture changes. he becomes more confident and more at ease, as he describes the... utilities of his magical abilities.

"All sorts," breathed Riddle. A flush of excitement was rising up his neck into his hollow cheeks; he looked fevered. "I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to."

Riddle lifted his head. His face was transfigured: There was a wild happiness upon it, yet for some reason it did not make him better looking; on the contrary, his finely carved features seemed somehow rougher, his expression almost bestial.

I do think Harry, our narrator, is being a tad bit judgmental here. Magic is probably the only thing that brings Tom happiness in his grey, lonely world, and when I was Tom's age and being bullied, if I had magic powers, you'd better believe that I'd (a) be bloody ecstatic about it (b) use them. And, like Tom, I can't honestly say that I can't imagine getting a bit carried-away with it. Unfortunately, we can't all be as inherently good and kindhearted as Harry.

Reading HBP again, as a 'mature' person, it almost seems like the reader is being prompted to see Tom as evil just because he's got 'weird' facial expressions.

So... uh...

Nope, let's judge Tom on his actions, not looks of 'wild happiness.'

To his great surprise, however, Dumbledore drew his wand from an inside pocket of his suit jacket, pointed it at the shabby wardrobe in the corner, and gave the wand a casual flick. The wardrobe burst into flames. Riddle jumped to his feet; Harry could hardly blame him for howling in shock and rage; all his worldly possessions must be in there. But even as Riddle rounded on Dumbledore, the flames vanished, leaving the wardrobe completely undamaged.

Okay, one thing I dislike is Tom's lack of emotional affect when Dumbledore burned the wardrobe, in the books, he jumped up and started screaming, instead of looking passively (in shock, perhaps?) at the fire. Incidentally, I can't really tell if he's impressed or in shock, to be honest. I think they really tried to make Tom 'creepier' in the movie.

This is one of the incidents where Dumbledore's inability to deal with children crops up.

I think he was trying to teach Tom that magic can be dangerous, and he wouldn't like it to be used against him, but burning the wardrobe that contains everything he owns was a terrible move on Dumbledore's part. Tom already has very limited trust in other people, and now, he's not going to trust Dumbledore at all -- now, he's put Tom on the defensive/offensive for the rest of their interaction, and perhaps for the rest of their teacher-student relationship.

Riddle stared from the wardrobe to Dumbledore; then, his expression greedy, he pointed at the wand. "Where can I get one of them?"

"Where do you buy spellbooks?" interrupted Riddle, who had taken the heavy money bag without thanking Dumbledore, and was now examining a fat gold Galleon.

But I'm not surprised Tom is 'greedy.' He's grown up in an environment where if he wants something, whether that's affection, food, money, toys, he's got to take it. There's no one looking after his needs specifically. I'm not surprised that he's a thief and a hoarder, and I don't think that counts as a moral failing necessarily, and more of a maladaptive way of seeking comfort. It would be bizarre if he came out of Wool's Orphanage a complete saint.

Additionally, I think given that the Gaunt family has a history of 'mental instability,' Tom is a sensitive child, and the trauma of growing up institutionalized and possibly being treated badly due to his magical abilities or personality disorder deeply affected him.

And there are points where it seems that Dumbledore is quick to judge Tom.

"He was already using magic against other people, to frighten, to punish, to control."

"Yes, indeed; a rare ability, and one supposedly connected with the Dark Arts, although as we know, there are Parselmouths among the great and the good too. In fact, his ability to speak to serpents did not make me nearly as uneasy as his obvious instincts for cruelty, secrecy, and domination."

"I trust that you also noticed that Tom Riddle was already highly self-sufficient, secretive, and, apparently, friendless?..."

And while this is all empirically true, these are (a) a product of Tom's harsh environment, and (b) do not necessarily make him evil. But the point remains that child psych didn't exist as a field of its own, and psychology as a proper science was in its infancy, so I'd be shocked if Dumbledore was insightful about Tom's situation.

But I've gone a ton of paragraphs without citing anything, so I've got to rectify that.

Let's talk about Harry Harlow's monkey experiments in the 1950-70s.

If you're not a fan of animal research, since I know some people are uncomfortable with it, feel free to scroll past.

Here's the TL;DR: Children need to be hugged and shown affection too, not just fed and clothed, please don't leave babies to 'cry out' and ignore their needs because it's backwards and fucking inhumane. HUG AND COMFORT AND CODDLE CHILDREN AND SPOIL THEM WITH AFFECTION!

I will put more red writing when the section is over.

This is still an interesting experiment to have in mind while we explore the whole 'no one taught Tom Riddle how to love' thing and whether or not it's actually a good argument.

Andddd let's go all the way back to the initial 1958 experiment, featured in Harlow's paper, the Nature of Love. (If you're familiar with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, him and Harlow actually collaborated for a time).

To give you an idea of our starting point, until Harlow's experiment, which happened twenty years after Dumbledore meets Tom for the first time, no one in science had really been interested in studying love and affection.

"Psychologists, at least psychologists who write textbooks, not only show no interest in the origin and development of love or affection, but they seem to be unaware of its very existence."

I'm going to link some videos of Harry Harlow showing the actual experiment, which animal rights activists would probably consider 'horrifying.' It's nothing gory or anything, but if you are particularly soft-hearted (and I do not mean that as an insult), be warned. It's mostly just baby monkeys being very upset and Harlow discussing it in a callous manner. Yes, today it would be considered unethical, but it's still incredibly important work and if you think you can handle it, I would recommend watching at least the first one to get an idea of how dramatic this effect is.

Dependency when frightened

The full experiment

The TL;DW:

This experiment was conducted with rhesus macaques; they're still used in psychology/neuroscience research when you want very human-like subjects, because they are very intelligent (unnervingly so, actually). I'd say that adult ones remind me of a three-year old child.

Harlow separated newborn monkeys from their mothers, and cared for their physical needs. They had ample nutrition, bedding, warmth, et cetera. However, the researchers noticed that the monkeys:

(a) were absolutely miserable. And not just that, but although all their physical needs were taken care of, they weren't surviving well past the first few days of life. (This has also been documented in human babies, and it's called failure to thrive and I'll talk about it a bit later).

(b) showed a strong attachment to the gauze pads used to cover the floor, and decided to investigate.

So, they decided to provide a surrogate 'mother.' Two, actually. Mother #1 was basically a heated fuzzy doll that was nice for the monkeys to cuddle with. Mother #2 was the same, but not fuzzy and made of wire. Both provided milk. The result? The monkeys spent all their time cuddling and feeding from the fuzzy 'mother.' Perhaps not surprising.

What Harlow decided next, is that one of the hallmarks being attached to your caregiver is seeking hugs and reassurance from them when frightened. So, when the monkeys were presented with something scary, they'd go straight to the cloth mother and ignore the wire one. Not only that, but when placed in an unfamiliar environment, if the cloth mother was present, the monkeys would be much calmer.

In a follow-up experiment, Harlow decided to see if there was some sort of sensitive period by introducing both 'mothers' to monkeys who had been raised in isolation for 250 days. Guess what?

The initial reaction of the monkeys to the alterations was one of extreme disturbance. All the infants screamed violently and made repeated attempts to escape the cage whenever the door was opened. They kept a maximum distance from the mother surrogates and exhibited a considerable amount of rocking and crouching behavior, indicative of emotionality.

Yikes. So, at first Harlow thought that they'd passed some kind of sensitive period for socialization. But after a day or two they calmed down and started chilling out with the cloth mother like the other monkeys did. But here's a weird thing:

That the control monkeys develop affection or love for the cloth mother when she is introduced into the cage at 250 days of age cannot be questioned. There is every reason to believe, however, that this interval of delay depresses the intensity of the affectional response below that of the infant monkeys that were surrogate-mothered from birth onward

All these things... attachment, affection, love, seeking comfort ... are mostly learned behaviours.

Over.

Orphanages, institutionalized childcare, and why affection is a need, not an extra.

His face is lit the exact same was as Coulson’s was in COS (half-light, half-dark), and I said I was going to talk about this in Part 3. I think perhaps it's intended to make Fiennes-Tiffin look more evil or menacing, but I'm going to quite deliberately misinterpret it.

Now, for some context, Dumbledore has just (kind of) burned his wardrobe, ratted out his stealing habit, and (in the books only, they really took a pair of scissors to this scene) told him he needs to go apologize and return everything and Dumbledore will know if he doesn't, and, well, Tom's not exactly a happy bugger about it.

But interestingly, in the books, this is when we start to see Tom's 'persona,' aka his mask, start to come into play. Whereas before, he was screaming, howling, and generally freaking out, here, he starts to hide his emotions -- in essence, obscure his true self under a shadow. So this scene is really the reverse of Coulson's in COS.

And perhaps I'm reading wayyy too much into this, but I can't help but notice that Coulson's hair is parted opposite to Fiennes-Tiffin's, and the opposite sides of their faces are shadowed, too.

Riddle threw Dumbledore a long, clear, calculating look. "Yes, I suppose so, sir," he said finally, in an expressionless voice.

Riddle did not look remotely abashed; he was still staring coldly and appraisingly at Dumbledore. At last he said in a colorless voice, "Yes, sir."

Here's an article from The Atlantic on Romanian orphanages in the 1980s, when the dictator, Ceausescu, basically forced people to have as many children as possible and funnel them into institutionalized 'childcare', and it's absolutely heartbreaking.

There's not a whole lot of information out there on British orphanages in the 30s' and 40s', but given that people back then thought you just had to keep children on a strict schedule and feed them, it wouldn't have a whole lot better.

The only thing I've found is this, and it's not super promising.

The most important study informing the criteria for contemporary nosologies, was a study by Barbara Tizard and her colleagues of young children being raised in residential nurseries in London (Tizard, 1977). These nurseries had lower child to caregiver ratios than many previous studies of institutionalized children. Also, the children were raised in mixed aged groups and had adequate books and toys available. Nevertheless, caregivers were explicitly discouraged from forming attachments to the children in their care.

Here's a fairly recent paper that I think gives a good summary: Link

Here, they describe the responses to the Strange Situation test (which tests a child's attachment to their caregiver).

We found that 100% of the community sample received a score of “5,” indicating fully formed attachments, whereas only 3% of the infants living in institutions demonstrated fully formed attachments. The remaining 97% showed absent, incomplete, or odd and abnormal attachment behaviors.

Bowlby and Ainsworth, who did the initial study, thought that children would always attach to their caregivers, regardless of neglect or abuse. But some infants don't attach (discussed along with RAD in Part 2).

Here's a really good review paper on attachment disorders in currently or formerly institutionalized children : Link

Core features of RAD in young children include the absence of focused attachment behaviors directed towards a preferred caregiver, failure to seek and respond to comforting when distressed, reduced social and emotional reciprocity, and disturbances of emotion regulation, including reduced positive affect and unexplained fearfulness or irritability.

Which all sounds a lot like Tom in this scene. The paper also discusses neurological effects, like atypical EEG power distribution (aka brain waves), which can correlate with 'indiscriminate' behavior and poor inhibitory control; which makes sense for a kid who, oh, I don't know, hung another kid's rabbit because they were angry.

Furthermore...

...those children with more prolonged institutional rearing showed reduced amygdala discrimination and more indiscriminate behavior.

This again, makes a ton of sense for Tom's psychological profile, because the amygdala (which is part of the limbic system, which regulates emotions) plays a major role in fear, anger, anxiety, and aggression, especially with respect to learning, motivation and memory.

So, I agree completely that Tom needed a lot of help, especially given the fact that he spent eleven years in an orphanage (longer than the Bucharest study I was referring to), and Dumbledore wasn't exactly understanding of his situation, and probably didn't realise what a dramatic effect the orphanage had on Tom, and given the way he talks to Tom, probably treated him as if he were a kid who grew up in a healthy environment.

In case you are still unconvinced that hugging is that important, there's a famous 1944 study conducted on 40 newborn human infants to see what would happen if their physical needs (fed, bathed, diapers changed) were provided for with no affection. The study had to be stopped because half the babies died after four months. Affection leads to the production of hormones and boosts the immune system, which increases survival, and that is why we hug children and babies should not be in orphanages. They are supposed to be hugged, all the time. I can't find the citation right now, I'll add it later if I find it.

But I think it's vastly unrealistic to say that Dumbledore, who grew up during the Victorian Era, would have any grasp of this and I don't think he was actively malicious towards Tom.

Was Tom Riddle failed by institutional childcare? Absolutely.

Were the adults in his life oblivious to his situation? Probably.

Do the shitty things that happened to Tom excuse the murders he committed, and are they anyone's fault but his own? No. At the end of the day, Tom made all the wrong choices.

And, for what it's worth, I think (film) Dumbledore (although he expresses the same sentiment in more words in the books) wishes he could go back in time and have helped Tom.

"Draco. Years ago, I knew a boy, who made all the wrong choices. Please, let me help you."

#tom riddle #the many faces of #tom marvolo riddle #character analysis #character study #albus dumbledore

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lovecolibri · 3 years

Note

Whenever I'm reminded of c*rina's inability to tell a story or even write accurate human responses I think of the the Alex's song. Just...why?? Why have it at all if it didn't do a damn thing to move Malex forward, it's the most wasted moment in S2 (which is ssying something). And who the hell walks out when they're love interest is singing a love song about them (the answer is no one, ever)? If Michael is so hopeful exactly what message is he sending by leaving? It's just such a waste.

Nonnie, I cannot even describe how disappointed that scene made me. We got the song released early in the day and the Malex fervor was HIGH. With lyrics like that?! How could it be anything but a big Malex moment?! C*rina even said it was the most romantic thing she'd ever written.

And then the scene happened, and the song itself? The song is amazing and a Moment(TM) for Alex. It's about him finding a way to express all those softer emotions he has locked away and for that, it was important and amazing. But you cannot make the argument that the song wasn't also majorly about Michael and his (current) love for Michael, especially given the way Alex looks when he sees Michael is there (because who HASN'T dreamt of pouring out all your feelings and the person you want to here them shows up and finally understands?), and the way his face falls when he looks again and Michael is gone, like yes, Alex was singing the song for himself, but he was also giving voice, giving life, and acknowledgment to his love for Michael. The way that scene was set up and the pull of the narrative, it should have absolutely been the springboard for Malex to start moving towards each other but as I've said before, C*rina never met an emotional beat she couldn't swerve around or immediately undercut.

Michael making the executive decision that he thinks he knows best what Alex needs right now without even bothering to check with Alex about it? Michael feeling hopeful that it's going to be their time in some nebulous future doesn't mean anything if Alex thinks Michael heard about his feelings and left which means he clearly doesn't feel the same (which after the way the writing didn't allow Michael to prioritize Alex over m*ria the way Max was allowed to always put Liz above everyone and everything, who could blame Alex for making that assumption?).

Alex kissing someone else after pouring his heart out about how much he loves Michael? After telling everyone Michael (and by extension, his love for Michael) IS (present tense) the best of him? The shift in energy from that song being cautiously hopeful for Malex, to Alex sticking his tongue in someone else's mouth (and don't get me started on THAT whole thing after Forrest's incredibly rude an insensitive comments), is jarring to say the least and ended the show on a sour note for a lot of people.

The potential this show has and that the Malex storyline specifically has, and the stunning chemistry Vlamburn has that was almost entirely wasted by the show puts me into a rage. Vlamis and Tyler at least did the absolute most with their faces and eyes with what they were given to work with, but sometimes that actually made it worse and made it make less sense with whatever the writing was doing because their faces and body language and eyes were saying one thing while the writing was saying something totally different.

I am so happy every single day that C*rina is no longer involved with the show and while I expect season 3 to disappoint me in some way because no show is perfect and C*rina wrote them into a corner a bit with no easy way to fix a lot of the damage she did, I AM hopeful for the Malex part of the storyline, and that is due in part to how excited Vlamis and The Real Vlamis (Jeanine) are about Malex this season. Here's to hoping season 3 lets us bury season 2 eight feet down so it can never be brought up again.

#my sweet nonnie friends #malex #alex manes #michael guerin #tagging as #anti forlex #just in case #but you're so right #what was even the point of that scene if it was used to push yet another rando side relationship #and more miscommunication for malex?#god i'm so happy she's gone #what's that night vale quote?#the past is gone and cannot harm you anymore #and while the future is fast coming for you #it always flinches first and settles in as the gentle present #let's hope season 3 gives us the closure we need to move forward

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sery-chan-13 · 3 years

Text

[Deja Vu]

Arisu Ryohei × Reader

Is it angst? Kind of, but not really. I heard this song, and this was the first thought that came to mind. So... yeah-

Warnings: swearing, needles, blood, does anger need one? Because there's a lot of that here, alcohol, implied sexual content, but it's not explicit? Like... it's implied what happened, but I didn't write it, you know?

It was a harsh breakup, you'd say. Of course you'd say that, you were the one who's heart got broken. Arisu had met Usagi, and you could feel him drifting away. So, when you broke up, you expected it, but it still hurt.

And now, you watched them across the pool while they sat eating strawberry ice cream together. You smiled sadly. You two used to do that. She was wearing his jacket, and it hurt you. You used to wear that exact same one. You felt someone sit besides you. "Watching them again, huh?" They said. "Yep. Is it weird?" You asked. You looked besides you seeing him look up with a questioning look. "Yes, but no? What do you want me to say?'' He joked. You shoved his shoulder. "You're so mean Niragi. I'll push you into the pool!" you pouted, ending in a laugh. He chuckled, "Yeah yeah. Let's go, that isn't good for you."

"So when's he gonna tell her?" You asked, laying on his bed. "Tell her what?" Niragi asked. "That we did that too... She thinks it's special, but it's all reused," you responded. You could hear him sigh. "Look, I want to be nice, because I- we're... acquaintances... or whatever you want to call us. So, here's how you're going to get over him."

You laughed, taking another sip of the beer bottle. There were bottles littered around the room, and the blasting music from the party could be heard in his room. The vibrations from the bass could be felt, making you sigh. "Ok, I'm ready!" You shouted eagerly. "I don't even know why the hell you grabbed these in our last supply run," he laughed, holding the small package. You shrugged, "Thought I'd get the courage to do it." You two were very much drunk, and you were about to do mental breakdown things(TM). "Just do it before I regret my decision!" You scolded, with a playful glare. He laughed, "Ok ok, stick out your tongue, I think you've had the ice in there long enough." You did as he told you. He held your tongue still with his fingers, and he grabbed a needle with his other hand, looking at you to make sure. You tried not to laugh, and nodded. He stuck the needle through quickly. The metallic taste of blood filled your mouth, but somehow no pain. Maybe it was because you numbed it with ice, or the fact that your broken heart hurt more. You waited for him to stick the piercing through, and take his hands away from your mouth. "And we are done!" He shouted with a laugh, wiping off the blood that had gotten on his hands. You stumbled off the bed, sticking out your tongue in the mirror. "Oh I'm fucking hot," you said. You could heat him laugh. Blood dripped from your mouth onto the drawers beneath. He didn't seem to care about the mess. "Am I supposed to bleed that much?" You asked. He shrugged. You turned with a mildly shocked expression, and hit him. You both started laughing. "I'm going to regret this aren't I?" You asked. "It's better than cutting your hair, trust me. Best impulse mental breakdown things I've ever done are tattoos and piercings," he responded. You laughed, rolling your eyes. "What else should we do?"

"Alright, now, just scream into the open," he instructed. "Won't anyone hear?" You asked. You two had somehow managed to stumbled up the stairs, and were now on the roof. A danger hazard, seeing as you two almost didn't make it up the stairs. But in that moment, neither of you cared. "Eh, they're to drunk to care," he said. You nodded, before adding, "But you're doing it with me." "No, I'm just going to let you have all the fun- duh, I'm going to do it," he said. You took a deep breath, getting your anger and pent up rage towards Arisu and Usagi.

"I HATE TO THINK THAT I WAS JUST HIS TYPE!"

"THE GIRL I LIKE IS STUCK ON A DUMBASS BOY WHO DOESN'T DESERVE HER!"

"HE DOES ALL THE THINGS WE USED TO DO WITH HER!"

"I WISH I DIDN'T HAVE CHISHIYA TO BOTHER ME EVERYDAY!"

This was therapeutic to both of you. He didn't want to reveal how he was really feeling, but alcohol does something to people. So, if he said something a bit personal, hopefully you wouldn't remember. Hopefully you were to drunk to remember. And although he knows he'll remember because he's not as drunk as you, he hopes he doesn't remember either. Just so he doesn't hate himself for saying something.

"SHE'S BASICALLY ME AND IT MAKES ME ANGRY BECAUSE ALL THAT SETS US APART IS HER LOOKS! SHE'S EVERYTHING I WISH I LOOKED LIKE AND ARISU FUCKING KNOWS THAT!"

"I HATE THAT NO ONE HATES ME MORE THAN I HATE MYSELF!"

"I HATE THAT HE TOLD ME I DIDN'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT HER! I WAS SO FUCKING RIGHT TO BE INSECURE WHEN SHE'S EVERYTHING I WISH I WERE!"

"I'M MAD AT THE FACT CHISHIYA SAW ME FALL INTO THE POOL AND NOW USES IT AS LEVERAGE!" (trying to make you laugh? Kinda. Trying to make myself laugh? Definitely.)

"THE SONGS WE USED TO LISTEN TO REMIND ME OF HIM AND IT HURTS TO NOT BE ABLE TO LISTEN TO MY FAVORITE FUCKING SONG!"

"I HATE BEING ALONE!"

"I HATE THAT I'M STILL IN LOVE WITH ARISU!! HE'S MOVED ON BUT I STILL FUCKING HAVEN'T!"

"I'M PRETTY PISSED OFF ABOUT THAT TOO, ACTUALLY!"

"I FUCKING HATE HIM! I FUCKING HATE HER! AND I FUCKING HATE THAT I'M JEALOUS OF WHAT THEY HAVE, BECAUSE IT'S ALL EXACTLY THE SAME AS WHEN ARISU AND I WERE TOGETHER!"

"THE FACT (Y/N) DOESN'T KNOW SHE DESERVES BETTER THAN THAT PIECE OF SHIT PISSES ME THE FUCK OFF!"

"THE FACT NIRAGI SAYS HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY GODDAMN FRIENDS ANNOYS ME BECAUSE I'M RIGHT FUCKING HERE!"

"THE FACT (Y/N) IS OBLIVIOUS TO EVERYONE'S FEELINGS FOR HER IS ANNOYING AS HELL!"

"THE FACT NIRAGI THINKS PLAYING THE TOUGH GUY SCARES ME MAKES ME WORRY ABOUT HIS MENTAL HEALTH!"

"I WISH SOMEONE WOULD HIT ME THE WAY THEY DID IN HIGHSCHOOL SO I COULD FORGET ABOUT MY FEELINGS FOR THIS GIRL!"

"I WISH NIRAGI DIDN'T KEEP ANY SECRETS FROM ME SEEING I'M HIS BEST FRIEND!"

"I WISH (Y/N) WOULD ACKNOWLEDGE OR AT LEAST NOTICE THE FACT THAT I'VE LIKED HER FOR- FUCKING- EVER!"

You panted from screaming so much, and looked at him shocked. "Shit, I didn't meant to-" he started. Maybe it was the alcohol, the sadness you felt, but you pulled him in for a kiss. It was sloppy and all over the place, but in your intoxicated state, it felt like heaven on earth. You could care less about it, because a part of you had always wanted to do this. With Niragi. The feelings for him were always there, you just felt stronger ones for Arisu. And over the past few days, your feelings had grown. Maybe it was the fact that he was the one helping you through the breakup. He was there, and he seemed to care. And moreover, Arisu wasn't a thought in your mind in this moment. The hurt had gone away in that minute. Would you regret this in the morning? Maybe, maybe not.

You woke up due to the throbbing headache you had. You grabbed your head, sitting up. The blankets fell of your body, and you looked down. "Oh fuck... what happened last night?" You questioned, seeing as your clothes were nowhere to be found. You looked besides you, seeing Niragi on the other side of the bed. Your jaw dropped. "I- ma'am, did I-? Oh no. Oh nonononono, what the fuck-" you panicked. Not because you didn't like him, but more because you were drunk, he was your friend, and you were trying to get over a breakup. Which, in drunk (Y/N)'s defense, you did seem pretty over it when you were with Niragi. You heard a groan, and looked besides you. "Good... morning?" He muttered sleepily. 'Hot-' 'Shut up you horny bitch' You ran your hands through your hair. "I- what did we do?" You asked, even though it was obvious, and the fact that you could remember certain events from last night made you blush. "Well, first you were watching those two being couple-y, then we got drunk, you more than me though, you pierced your tongue, we screamed off the roof, and things escalated from a kiss, and now we're here," he explained. How the hell did he remember so much? Wasn't he just as drunk as you? "And before you ask, I may get drunk, but my memory will not falter. I've tried. Doesn't work," he said. Could he read your mind? You sighed, falling back. He looked away, trying to sort out his own feelings. A part of him was happy, seeing the hickeys and marks over your body. He had wanted to do that forever. Another part felt regret because you two were drunk. It didn't matter what had happened, neither of you were in the right state of mind. He knew whatever had happened was merely the alcohol messing with your brains, and the hurt from your broken heart. It wasn't real feeling. And the last part was sad. Although, it was a small part of him, it was there. Sad because you would most likely want to not talk to him. Or, at least that was the worst case scenario in his mind.

"Do you... do you regret it? Be honest," you said. Your voice was so quiet, he could've missed it. He looked down at you, seeing you stare blankly up at the ceiling. He scoffed. "Hell no. And I don't care if you do, because I don't. I won't either. I've wanted to do that for so long, but you were with him," Niragi answer bitterly. You looked over, surprised. "You don't regret it?" You asked again. He shook his head. You sat up, crawling on the bed over to his side. "I don't... I don't know how to feel. I remember... its and bits of it... I just don't want you to think I did it to get over Arisu," you explained. "I wouldn't think that. See, the thing about alcohol is it can make people act how they want to act and see what they want to see. And the fact you were screaming my name and not his even as drunk as we were tells me something," he said, a teasing tone so very present. . You could hear the smirk in his voice. You blushed, and leaned your head on his shoulder. Had you really? "Then... what are we?" You asked. "Ah, the age old question. This is cliche, no?" He joked. You hit him softly muttering, "Take this seriously please." He sighed, shaking his head. "I don't know. Friends with benefits, fuck buddies. Whatever you want," he said. You pulled away with a smirk. "See, you left out 'a committed relationship'. That means you don't want that," you pointed out. He scoffed, fake hurt written on his face. "I just didn't know if that was too much for you. But I'd enjoy it."

You finally felt... complete. For the first time after the breakup, you didn't look to see where they were to avoid them. You didn't feel jealous or sad over the fact that they were talking about what used to be your song. Because now, it wasn't your guy's song. It was theirs. And that was OK now. Because you could see the hurt that his eyes held when Niragi's arm was around your waist. The shock on his face when you talked to them, and his eyes moved over the hickeys and marks littering your skin.

Slowly over the next few weeks, you heard Arisu accidently call Usagi your name, the same way he'd called you her name. It made you laugh. Because now, you were happy, and he was the one in pain. He was the one who would regret everything. Not you.

"(Y/N), can we talk?" Arisu asked. You pouted, but got off of Niragi's lap. He pecked your lips, glaring at Arisu. You could hear Arisu gulp, and you snickered. You two walked away.

"What did you want to talk about?" You asked. "I-... I'm sorry for how I ended things," he apologized. You nodded with a smile. "I accept your apology," you said. You could feel where this conversation was going, and it made you giddy with excitement. "I miss you, you know. I wish I hadn't done that, I was stupid," he said. You smirked. Exactly what you thought he'd say. "Look, I wish you and Usagi the best. I've moved on. I'm finally happy without you, and it's the best feeling in the world. You breaking up with me hurt so much at first, I thought I was going to die. But it ended up being the best gift you ever gave me. You do all the things you used to do with me with her. And I hope it gives you deja vu, so you can remember that I'm better. Sure, she's amazing, but she's basically me. I'm finally feeling confident, and not like I have to compete with another girl who's everything I want to be. Around him, I don't have to act like someone else because I want to make him happy. I act like me, and he actually likes the real me. I always told you to not worry about him because we were just best friends, but now that I'm here... you really were right to worry about him. I was always the better choice, and I'm glad you're realizing it when I don't need you to anymore. I'm with Niragi now, and I'm sure he's waiting, so... goodbye. Good luck with Usagi though, Arisu. Treat her well, and... as I said earlier, I hope you get deja vu when you see her and you're doing the things we used to do."

I still can't write angst for shit, oh my gods-

#alice in borderland #×reader #arisu #can i write angst?#no the answer is no #but do i try?#hell yeah-#Spotify

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black-streak · 4 years

Text

Waiting for the Worms- In the Flesh.

Part 16

No editing, we die like men: ill prepared and confused. Did I read this over even once before posting? Nope.

Warnings back fully into effect. Have triggers? Just go ahead and avoid this. Don't want to spoil anything, so I wont say which, but guys, you've seen my other chapters for this. You know better.

This was actually fun to write with my weird view point that's both in the moment and yet so disconnected.

CLOSED list of hooligans: @northernbluetongue @thethirdwheelfriend @shizukiryuu @theatreandcomicfreak @michellemagic @karategirl119 @moonlightstar64 @my-name-is-michell @mystery-5-5 @zalladane @queen-of-the-trash-planet-tm @miraculousdisapointment @dorkus-minimus @jardimazul @allthebooksandcrannies @g-arya @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @persephonescat @mycupisbroken @luciferge @18-fandoms-unite-08 @dawnwave16 @alwaysreblogneverpost @kris-pines04 @mysteriouslyswimmingfan-blo-blog @weird-pale-blonde-person @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @kokotaru @naclychilli @slytherinhquinn @clumsy-owl-4178 @ladybug-182 @darkthunder1589 @evil-elf16 @dast218 @lysslovsanime @emilytopaz @naoryllis @iloontjeboontje @thepeacetea @danielslilangel @finallyaniguana @i-like-fairytail-and-stuff @vixen-uchiha @yuulxd @bleeding-heart-romantic @magic-inthe-stars @st0rmy-w1th1n

~---~

Following Damian back into the living room, she saw the group all gathered around their phones, whispering amongst themselves. Approaching soundlessly, she peeked over Juleka's shoulder, catching sight of the screen at the same time Jason did.

The Joker. He had escaped Arkham once more and now held a broadcast, obviously attempting to get the attention of the Batman. Apparently he set up a new game for them to play. To make matters worse, the prize for winning? The return of Robin. A young looking boy in a different form of the Robin suit was shown for only a moment, glaring at the camera in his face. The timer was set and the broadcast cut.

That location, it was far closer to their own location than the Wayne manor. Bruce wouldn't make it. It was her and Jason all over again.

Jason.

Turning on her heel, she took a deep breath and swallowed hard to settle the anger rising in her throat and took command.

"Damian, see to Jason, keep him calm. The pit is about to take hold," she spoke calmly, Damian nodded and lead the taller man away as she turned towards the group watching her every move, "I'm setting out. Jason is likely to come with me. You'll watch over Damian in my absence. I do not expect any of the kwamis to wish to transform with me, but if you decide to, you'll need to be morally ambiguous unlike Tikki or Plagg. Neither of us will be held back or redirected. You'll have to accept whatever comes of this," looking away from the kwamis and to the bristling teens in front of her, she hardened her gaze, "Unless one of you has experience with the Lazarus Pits and their effects, you will stay away from either of us or that building. Judging by the gasps I hear from the kwamis, they will enforce this for me if you decide not to heed my words."

Stalking into her room once more, she started to drag out bags, open compartments in drawers, pull off seemingly decorative pieces from the walls. Longg approached her carefully from the side.

"I will transform with you. The others would feel more comfortable if one of you were superpowered and I'm morally gray unlike the main set."

Nodding, she took his piece carefully, "I need you to make my suit stealthy. I will not be caught due to bright colors."

"The suit will match your will," he reassured.

Transforming, she took in the multiple shades of grey and black lining her body in waves, selective holding pouches hidden within the fabric. Placing her knives about her body, she found a retractable bladed staff along her thigh. Perfect, one less large piece to carry.

Grabbing a mask, she slipped out to find Jason mostly calm. Taking his hand in hers, she led him to the bathroom and handed him his own clothes back from the league missions.

"He won't be transforming?" Marc inquired.

"His body is more riddled with madness. It's less than it would be had his soul been dipped as mine has, but I've had time to tame and curb the insanity. He hasn't. Add superpowers to the mix?"

"He'll level a city," Plagg spoke up.

"Exactly."

"And you're taking him with you?" Kagami growled out, obviously against the idea.

"Would you rather I leave him here so he can accidently kill one of you and hate himself for the rest of his life? Besides, he has no attachment towards Damian yet. I'm not risking it," her tone brokered no arguments and Jason emerged in that moment. He immediately went into her room and pulled out a gun from her side drawer, muscle memory letting him navigate the place as his own. He put it in the holster on his thigh and went towards her equipment, still out and waiting for him, sifting through until he found a larger set of machetes, grabbing them and a second mask before rejoining her at the window to the fire escape. With just a glance towards the other they knew their minds were in sync.

"Damian, stay and watch them," Jason ordered, the kid nodding at his given mission, turning towards the team with crossed arms.

With that, they climbed out and took off across the rooftops.

…

The run went by in a blur of motion neither could remember. Now they crouched on the edge of the building the Joker was supposedly in, scoping out the entrances. She could feel Jason practically vibrating at her side and traced spirals along his spine to keep him mentally in place.

"Shhh, focus on my instructions Jason. Those voices aren't as important as our own," she murmured, finding an unguarded door. The idiot never used obvious doors, so of course the clown wasn't focused on them as much as the windows, basement and roof access. The door she found looked like an old employee entrance, easily overlooked.

"Jay?" Before she could finish the inquiry, he moved forward and picked the lock, letting them in, keeping in front of her.

"Based on the lighting in that video, I'd guess they're keeping him further up. What do you think?"

"Likely midway up, seventh or eighth level."

They skirted their way up staircases, quietly knocking out anyone they found on their way up. Occasionally they stopped to practice deep breaths, as the further up they went, the more vivid the green in their eyes glowed. Both could sense the impending catalyst and tried to press the insanity back. They wanted this to be on their own terms.

At about the sixth level, Jason found himself having to hold Mari back, having almost torn out a guys throat for simply struggling too much in the takedown.

"Not worth it. Not yet."

Breathing heavily, the voices dropped back to reasonable levels, allowing their continued movement. Mari found herself meditating as they went, recentering herself. One of them had to stay fully self aware and she knew it had to be her. Jason needed someone to watch out for him in his first true rush, not to panic in the middle when no one could hold them back. She would be there the way Talia had been for her. As Damian normally was.

At the ninth floor, they found their target.

Marinette felt borderline insulted at the difference in treatment.

The current Robin was swinging upside down, bound in rope and gagged.

They had been chained to an operation table, beaten to a pulp with every moment too long the bat took. This boy didn't even have a guard on him. Sure, there were boobytraps set all over the damn place that they painstakingly dismantled one at a time, but even still. Not a scratch on the kid's face. Shaking the thought, Mari chided herself. Her anger was reserved for the people who put them in this situation, not some boy that was obviously dragged into the adults' personal issues. She knew when they escaped and the madness leveled out, relief for his unharmed state would course through her like a tidal wave. For now, she felt contempt and resignation. When the last trap finally fell apart, they heard his voice.

"Batsy! So you finally decide to show on time for one of your pretty birds?" It called, still not in view.

Jason bristled in her peripheral and she yanked him around quickly to focus in on her, aware of the hanging kid's eyes trained on them.

"Save Robin. He can't. He won't. We know this. Do what he didn't for us. Save. Him."

Jason's pupils blew under the mask and a growl tore from his throat as he turned towards the masked child, letting the anger direct itself into righting the injustice done unto him.

Marinette turned back towards the voice, creeping forward, bladed staff withdrawn and extended. She watched its shadow as it twisted along the walls. Finally, it turned the wrong corner and she slammed the side of the staff against him, letting the staff glide along their body as they were forced back, the tip catching their chest and opening a gash through his suit.

Joker jolted, gasping and confused, "You're not Batsy."

A feral grin grew upon her face, "No, but I'm so much more fun, wouldn't you say?" she activated wind dragon, blowing him further back across the room until he stumbled and fell onto his back. He quickly grabbed up a device and smiled maniacally, holding it up to view, starting a spiel about what it would do if he pressed this particular button, blah blah blah. She wasn't here for his rambling. Activating electric dragon, she launched herself into the device, shorting it out into a useless hunk of metal. Reappearing in front of him, she drew out her blades, only to hear quiet feet land in the room over.

"And what exactly did you have in mind, girly?" He asked, licking at the corner of his mouth in a weird tic sort of a way.

Placing a grin to rival his own across her face, she tilted her head, "It is not what I'll do that should concern you. Rather, what I'll allow him to do," she watched annoyed confusion flicker across the clownesque features as Jason appeared at her side, a second set seeming to approach her from behind. Reaching back, one hand grabbed a thin shoulder in a harsh grip to keep the kid in his place, the other went to her side to grip a broad shoulder in a more crushing grip to keep Jason from moving too soon. She turned and looked into masked, violently green eyes.

"Do you want to?" A nod. "Will you regret it?" A shake. "Will you take back your mind when it's over?" Another nod. "He's all yours, Bird. Get it out of your system, find me when you're done." A growl.

She let go and turned towards the kid, bodily backing him up into the other room, out of view.

"You don't want to see this."

"Who are you?"

"Does it matter?"

"No, I'll figure it out either way. Be nice if you made it easy though."

"Hmm, how does one become a Robin? Oh yeah, the previous one either leaves or dies."

"You don't mean," the kid's eyes widen.

"He shouldn't of allowed another one. Isn't one child dying for his cause enough?"

"It's not like that," he grew defensive.

"Isn't it though? Whether you wanted it or not, if anything happens to you, it's because he decided another child could fight actual murderers."

"That's beside the point, I need to stop them," he tried to push past her only for her to activate wind dragon and pick him straight up and out of the building to another rooftop, letting him go at the top, though grabbing his grapple as she reformed.

"Do you recognize this part of the city?"

"What are you doing? Let me back in there," he sounded panicked.

"Breath, little bird. Do you recognize where we are?"

"I- yes. I recognize it."

"Do you know how far it is from Wayne Manor?"

"What does that-" he attempted playing dumb.

"Do you?"

"Of course I do!"

"I know you do. You're a smart little bird. Very well learned. You know how long it takes to get here from the Manor as well don't you? And what time the broadcast went up?"

The kid's face darkened, and while he obviously didn't want to admit it, he could obviously make the calculations.

"He wouldn't have made it on time."

"It was on purpose. Joker wants to remind him of his greatest failure," the teen, she realized, rationalized.

"Batman isn't the only one Joker reminded. People don't take kindly to reminders of their dying day."

"So you two are?"

"Undead? In a funny way, yes. And absolutely riddled with destructive insanity."

"You don't seem it."

"I've had time to repress it. Learn control and stability. Him, not so much. This is his first relapse. There's no preventing it. Only directing it. I figure taking out an actual child murderer, who has tortured and ended the life of hundreds, including the sick and dying would be an alright outlet."

"It's immoral."

"We both know the only reason Bruce won't kill is that he wouldn't stop once he started. He'd lose control entirely. It's nothing to do with morality. Otherwise he wouldn't turn a blind eye to the select hits Alfred made in his time."

"How do you know so much?"

"How do you?"

"I figured it out on my own and decided for him."

"Very clever of you. But you didn't decide for him, he let you and took advantage of your determination. I'm sure in more ways than this one." She picked his arguments apart, remembering the way Talia detached Damian from herself. She didn't like the idea of manipulating a kid into disowning his own family, but a toxic situation was still toxic. She'd contact Alfred later to get back in touch as well as a better read on the situation.

As the teen became frustrated once more, he moves towards her to get back his gear only for Jason to drop next to them, breathing heavily with blood dripping down his arms and from the blades across his back, down onto his legs and the ground surrounding.

He seemed to slowly come back from the insanity, leaning into her, "I killed him. Fuck, I killed him," he gasped.

Marinette reached up and stroked his head in soothing motions.

"It's okay, Jay, it's okay. He deserved it. You hate taking another's life and feel the weight of it, but it wasn't a life that was regrettable to end," she whispered, remembering the words that assuaged her own guilt.

"The-the Joker is dead?" The teen before them whispered.

Jason peeked up at the little Robin before them, the green sparking for another moment, "He made another? Replaced us? The mantle should have died when you did. Dick should have stopped him," he groaned out, hatred and fear pulsing in waves.

"Oh shit, you're the last Robin. Jason," the teen's breath caught, half in awe, half dread.

"Yeah, the last. Why? You shouldn't be here," his voice quivered.

Mari handed the grappling gear back over, looking him directly in his hidden eyes, "I know you're going to tell him Jason's back. That he killed the Joker. I'm sure you'll even mention me. But I'm sure he'll notice our own message."

"And what would that be?"

"We were the ones to save you. Not him. Let me know if you ever need an escape from that nightmare."

With that, she lead Jason away, having heard his breathing even out and calm moments before.

"Let's go home," she whispered in his ear, getting a soft nod and taking off back across the roofs.

#jasonette #maribat #ml x dc #WFTW #part 16 #Robin response.exe has stopped responding #hes a little shocked #thats why he no fight harder #if anyone wants me to actually write a snippet of Jasons killing let me know #be warned it would be needlessly graphic

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neonbluewaves · 4 years

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10 facts about Neon!!!

so many people asking about Neon, I’m starting to believe “Everybody loves me” by OneRepublic should be her song (*ﾉ∀`*)

10 facts about Neon:

- Neon’s been practicing the spells and curses from the family spellbook since year 2. The main reason she joined Quidditch was to help her get in shape, because many of those spells require a strong physique. One of the first spells she tried to learn threw her 10 m back because she couldn’t handle the force well (and it was also her first time using it, so it went all flavours of wrong).

- She hardly ever gets sick, she’s got a strong health, but when she was little she was frequently at the hospital due to accidental magic injuries. Although she could make things float towards her on purpose and make dogs do whatever she wanted as if they understand her, her hands would hurt and she’d make things explode or burn, many times things she was holding, so burns on her arms and face were common.

-The Prieto manor is protected with many charms, and a magic forest that works like a labyrinth. It is impossible to find unless you know the way, and there’s no way to find your way by accident of luck. Every family member knows it but Neon knows the whole labyrinth like the palm of her hand.

-She doesn’t know how to tie her shoes, her mom and dad enchanted most of her shoes to do so for her. Her grandpa kept teaching her but he died before she finally learnt it, and with him gone she just gave up and threw away the shoelaces of any shoes not charmed.

- People keep forgetting she’s of high status because she is and talks like THATtm. But when the occasion requires it, she shows class and education, is very well spoken and has impeccable manners. Her handwriting is also really beautiful and clean, what you’d expect from a rich girl.

- Contrary to popular belief, she does not like fighting. She’s been told never to throw the first punch no matter what, and she’s kept her word, so the times she actually fights it’s in self defense, and even then she tries to avoid hitting and instead restrain the other. She usually gets caught in the middle of something she didn’t even start (and usually it’s drunk Nuria’s fault.)

- Her aunt made her and Nuria become apprentices on summers to learn humility mostly, being rich can and will get to your head fast. Just like her dad had done with her and her siblings. Nuria went on to work at a bakery, while Neon went to a blacksmith.

- She has made friends with other three pureblood kids with noble titles (spanish) like her and she writes to them frequently. Like her uncle, at least one of their relatives has joined in making their life hell and trying to take over Spain. They bonded over that real fast.

- Neon goes around pranking people because in her home good-natured, fun pranks were a usual thing and it helps make a place where most people seem to not want her feel more at home, and the more she gets in trouble for it, the less people see her as cursed and more as just a troublemaker, which is 10 times better in her opinion.

- Before year 6 she trained to become an occlumens. She’s incredibly good at it and sometimes she’ll make up the most disturbing memories to discourage and scare whoever’s trying to read her mind from going on.

#10 facts #hphm #neon welkin #my art

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loquaciousquark · 4 years

Text

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E83 (Nov. 5, 2019)

A day late and many dollars short, but we’re here! Tonight’s preroll: minifigs & what I assume are tonight’s guests of Liam & Matt:

which is followed by lazy susan rotating the D&D minis from eldritch-foundry.com for the rest of the cast. Cute! Anyway, Dani is back and ready to rumble! Brian is briefly lambasted for only getting through mumblemumble questions last week, but it’s all smoothed over soon enough and we move right along.

Tonight’s announcements: Undeadwood finale is delayed one week due to some post-production tech issues. Should premiere Friday, Nov. 15. Brian marvels over Matt’s speech about God being just as feral as what he creates. Matt is also surprised. Marisha is apparently the living dice Snitch of both campaign 2 and Undeadwood - everyone wonders if it’s the seat, the chair, the floor, or some innate karmic sense Marisha herself creates. CR is also partnering with Operation Supply Drop for the month of November to support veterans. Matt announces (re-announces?) that they are partnering with Amazon to create a full second animated season, as well as two more episodes to the original season one. All backers will be able to still watch the full season one for free. Everyone is so excited & I’m excited for them. Good job, tiny D&D friend group. More details on the CR Kickstarter Updates page.

And now! Episode 83: Dark Bargains

CR Stats: Liam poured wine for 49 seconds. Brief sidebar as Liam expresses genuine nervousness being on the couch beside Matt; he normally talks behind his back on TM, since he’s not sure if Matt ever watches it, but now he has to watch what he says. Caleb’s smell has been mentioned 60 times. Matt acknowledges that he is clean and washed. [doubt] Nott’s death was the 60th knockout and 8th player death of C2. Half of those deaths were Frumpkin. Liam calls Frumpkin a magic fart with a weak wifi signal.

Our first question (23 minutes in, NOT THAT ANYONE’S COUNTING), reveals that Matt did design the HFB with some “big red buttons” for the characters to press, or want to press. He expected more group approval before some of them were pressed, though (the dreadnought). Liam wanted to clear all the corners of the Baldur’s Gate map.

Caleb fears Halas because he’s one of the most powerful mages ever, he fears the lab setup/experimentation angle, he still fears the siren song, and is scared of the grains of similarity he sees between the two of them.

Liam knows they’ve continually seen fun stuff come from shitty situations, but Caleb sees the story of the HFB as “you’re not welcome here; this is going to suck for YOU! You thought you were going to have fun here? Fuck you!”

Matt loves those climactic moments though, because he loves it when the dice tell the story. Liam loves that there was a day where Matt rolled terribly in Undeadwood and played it as being embarrassed to be around all these amazing people.

Matt enjoyed getting to dig into the backstory of his world. He’s had references to pre-divergence stuff before, and it was a big joy to give more context to some of the things the M9 have been encountering.

Liam: “[Caleb] is gambling big when he thinks there’s something of worth to gain.“ He’d heard of a long-vanished mage who was messing with time stuff, and thought there might be a chance this was him. Then, once they found the gem, he started feeling this might be the real chance he needed to start messing with the crazy stuff he wants to do with time.

The bound devil was a general temptation, but in hindsight he can see why Jester was drawn to him. Matt often builds scenarios and has no idea how they will react to them (and acknowledges that the M9 did not fully read the poem that would have given them more info here), and sometimes he’s right and sometimes he’s very wrong.

Caleb is very distrustful of other arcanists and always assesses their level of threat to the group. Liam does think Caleb has come a long way since the start of the campaign. “A lot is changing for him. He’s very reactive in a lot of ways. Whatever is laid out for him in the moment that he can take advantage of, or that he cares about...I don’t know. The Betrayer Gods coming back is so much more important, and I don’t know if it’s going to make him let go of that stuff. He has to re-evaluate. He has to. He’s like an addict who has a weak day.”

Brian comments that Caleb seems to be a clinic in self-forgiveness. He wants him to do well, but at the end of the day he wants him to forgive himself. He also points out that it’s possible to get addicted to grief, and he sees that in Caleb; he’s choosing to stay in that space, and we are watching what that does to a person. Brian feels that he forms an attachment to the grief because it is the only emotional connection he has to the family he lost.

Liam nods and says these are things he’s been thinking about for months and months. He does not and did not have the answers when he created the character, and is looking forward to seeing where he ends up. He is not railroading his character; he’s letting the other players affect his character so that Caleb can remain malleable.

Matt loves how it reflects how real people inform the lives and actions of their friends in real life.

Cosplay of the Week: @suchamantis on twitter for a Caleb/spellbook cosplay. It’s gorgeous work!

Brief derailment into Liam pulling a Bane out of his mug and Matt hypersensually smelling the winner’s dice vault. I don’t even know what’s happening.

Revivify in this campaign is being used as a CPR/AED type thing. If they fail, the DC goes up and a longer-form raise dead spell must be used out of combat.

It did occur to Liam that this is the second time his bestie has been killed by a treasure box. Would Caleb make the same sacrifice? Liam says in a spooky voice that nothing is as strong as the twin bond...but when Caleb goes into full-on survival mode where all emotions are pushed to the side, he doesn’t know what would happen. He knew he was with two very magical people who could work miracles and was focused on just getting her up the steps to them. Matt was sure everyone would figure it out and was shocked when no one checked it for traps.

The effect of the diamond on Nott being different from the diamond on Cad was flavor related to the Power Word Kill trap that was on the chest. He built the revivify around that imagery in the moment. A lot of Matt’s flavor text around spells is built around the moment, the characters themselves, their gods, etc. as much as possible.

Caleb is glad to find the signs of magic that may be able to return Nott to a halfling, but was way too concerned about the gem to think about anything else at that time.

Fanart of the Week: @acemasters4 on twitter for a beautiful pastel stylized portrait of Caduceus and mushrooms.

Ashley is almost here! Brian allllmost tells us how many days but refrains. COME BACK ASHLEY.

The Angel of Irons thread has been planned since the very beginning: everything with chains and hunger was planned. He pulled it together with Yasha when he realized they would mesh well. She had created her backstory, and as the campaign proceeded he was able to marry some threads together to make story points. Liam compliments Matt’s ability to weave character & world backstory together; specifically, the crystals in Caleb’s arms were Matt’s idea after Liam sent the first draft of his backstory to Matt. Liam loved it and ran with it.

Everyone is so excited that she is coming back and Matt won’t have to plan for her to be suddenly absent again.

In a moment that shakes my world, Matt is discovered to be wrong about what class of magic Cure Wounds is in 5e. The question is about how Halas’s comment on healing being necromantic is a throwback to older editions of D&D where CW was a necromancy spell, and Dani reveals to us all that in 5e it is now Invocation. Matt chooses to accept this as a deliberate throwback to older editions to emphasize that “man out of time” feel.

Chris Perkins apparently once described BWF’s personality as “Power Word Kill for someone’s joy.” He also apparently did MMA & figure skating, because why not.

Caleb’s reference to Jester suffering in the ruby was purely coincidental regarding her mother. He didn’t realize until it popped out of his mouth.

BWF talks about how he likes where the campaign is at. He has a weird gut feeling that something exciting is about to happen. “I’m finally invested in this campaign after 83 episodes.”

Everyone pauses to talk about how beautiful Matt’s hair is blowing in the wind. BWF tells a story about how based on how they were sitting in Undeadwood filming, Matt’s hair would blow ever-so-slightly in the A/C and people thought they did it on purpose.

Matt had a good time at Blizzcon! He was glad to see people gathering for the Hong Kong protests; he understands it’s a very complicated situation where the initial punishment was way too harsh and caused a ripple effect, but he was glad to see the space where the activism was welcomed in response.

Matt enjoyed cosplaying again for the first time in a long time, both at Blizzcon and as McCree for the Halloween episode. When he was buying adhesive a shop worker upsold him on an inferior product, which is why his beard started falling off during the show. Sad times, Matt. :(

And that’s all! Is it Thursday yet?

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long post for ts

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murasaki-murasame · 4 years

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After doing way too many summons on this gala without getting Gala Elly I’m just gonna quit while I’m ahead and start hoarding for the New Years banner, lol. And in the mean-time I’ll probably be skipping the Christmas banner so that kinda sucks but oh well.

Either way, I still got a whole bunch of new stuff in my gala summons, and also I have a lot of thoughts about the new This Month in DL post, so I’ll just put the rest of my thoughts under the cut.

I swear to god this gala was the most summons I’ve done on a banner without getting a focus unit, lmao. This must be punishment for me getting like three copies of Gala Euden last time. I think I did like 250 summons total, which included over 10 5-stars, but no Gala Elly. I may or may not end up caving to my temptations and grinding adventurer stories and hard mode campaign levels to try and summon more, but I should just quit while I’m ahead.

Either way, my haul of 5-stars, new and dupes, is:

-Gala Ranzal

-Wedding Elly

-Xanfried

-Lea

-Jeanne

-Chthonius

-Dupes of B-Zardin, Victor, Sylas, Cassandra, Gala Sarisse, Shinobi, Vayu, and Long Long [x2]. I also got another dupe Shinobi from the 5-star dragon voucher thing they just gave us.

Let’s just say that I don’t know how to feel about wanting Gala Elly and then getting Gala Ranzal + Wedding Elly, lmao. At least they’re both new units for me. Though it feels doubly bad that I got Gala Ranzal, 45MC’d him, and then almost immediately afterward I got Wedding Elly. Welp. I’m a Noelle main in eHMC anyway so it’s not a huge deal. But it’s nice to get my wind roster fleshed out more.

I’m honestly really happy about getting Xanfried, and it more or less makes up for not getting Gala Elly. He was one of those 5-stars who I was vaguely tempted to dream summon because it was bugging me that I still didn’t have him. Now I think the only launch 5-star I don’t have is Hildegarde.

I’m also happy about getting Lea, even if she isn’t a great unit and I have like six other flame swords. I really like her whole design aesthetic.

I don’t really care much about the new 5-star dragons I got, but they’re nice to have. The Long Long dupes are nice, though, since now I have a nearly MUB one for my Lin You.

Oh and I got regular Aeleen as well, and she was the last non-limited 4-star I needed to get, so that’s cool.

We’ve known about the next banner for a while because of datamines, but either way, I feel a little bit salty that the new 5-star is literally just Thaniel But Better [tm], lol. If it weren’t for the fact that Chocolatiers is a limited print, I’d say that she wouldn’t even be worth it when Thaniel’s a more accessible option who works just fine in HBH because the whole fight is literally tuned around his kit since until now he’s been the only real healer for it. I hope this doesn’t lead to people acting like Thaniel’s not good enough for eHBH anymore once Jiang Ziya comes out. I’ve invested way too much into him to switch. I did recently craft the HDT water spear, and I can use my H-Maritimus on Elly if I want to use her in eHBH, but I still want to stick to Thaniel.

And on that note my H-Maritimus is at 2UB, and between the sunlight stone we’ll get soon from the Megaman event, and the dragons I have at nearly max bond level, he’ll probably be MUB soon, which should push my Thaniel above 7k might, which will be great. He’s currently at about 6,850 might, between him having +200 augments, Chocolatiers at +190 augments, a MUB HDT1 water staff, etc etc. And we’re gonna be getting the Christmas event facility again soon so that’ll boost him up even further.

Also I’m really not interested in the new dragon since he’s just water Hastur and I don’t care about that at all, lol. Durant seems cool but I already have a 50MC Natalie, and he’s a 4-star so he’d be easy enough to get off-banner anyway.

I’m gonna probably skip the Christmas banner since I went all in on this gala and I want to save for the New Years banner. And since it looks like the Christmas banner will be in just a week or so, I won’t exactly have many resources saved up by that point anyway. I’m not really interested in any of the existing Christmas alts, though, so it’d probably be an easy skip anyway, unless the new ones really interest me.

I hope that them doing the Christmas rerun stuff earlier in the month than I expected means we might get a Christmas-themed raid event afterward, but I won’t get my hopes up. I think we’re due for a new raid event anyway, but that’ll probably be what the New Years event is anyway, I guess.

I’m curious to see how they handle the New Years stuff, since it’d feel weird to rerun the Ieyasu event/banner, with how that was themed around the current zodiac year. I think we’ll just get a new event with new units, and probably a new welfare unit along with the event itself. With how good Ieyasu was [and how salty I still am about not having him], I think it’ll be worth saving for that.

Though considering that the next story chapter is gonna apparently be Luca-focused, I’m guessing the January gala unit will be Gala Luca, who I’d be extremely interested in, so that’s another thing to worry about saving for, lol.

And on that note we’re getting Chapter 11 in about two weeks, and even though we got more or less the same teaser description for it as last time, we at least have a better look at the two new android characters. Even though they’re gonna be antagonists I still kinda hope we can get them as playable units some day.

We also got more info on the new endgame boss mode, and even though I still want more specific details about it, my current guess is that it’s basically going to be High IO. It’ll probably be themed around there being new android military squads to fight against, with the new bosses being their leaders or whatever. It’d be fun to get some genuinely difficult wave-based content, but it’d also be great if it means we can get facility upgrade materials a lot faster.

The reveal of the new mode being called The Agito Uprising also more or less confirms that rumour that’s been going around for a while, which also talked about how the Christmas banner would include a new Christmas Phoenix alt, that the new endgame bosses would drop 6-star weapons, that we’ll get a Monster Hunter collab in February, and that Mikoto, Ezelith, Naveed, and Xanfried will be at least some of the first units to get their sixth mana circle upgrades.

I’m honestly kinda happy to hear about Christmas Phoenix since that makes it more likely that the Christmas banner will be an easy skip for me, lmao. But anyway, I really wouldn’t be surprised to see the Agito Uprising bosses dropping weapons that are roughly between 5t3s and HDT weapons in power. we really need something like that to ease the transition into the eHDT cycle. I’ve basically given up on getting into eHJP/eHZD until something along those lines happens to make them more accessible, lol.

I still have a lot of questions about how the whole sixth mana circle upgrade thing will work, and sadly this didn’t really tell us anything new, but they at least said that they’re aware of how limited the pool of units used in endgame content is, and that they’ll try and make changes to make more units viable for that, so that’ll probably be the main point of the sixth mana circles. I have a feeling that only 5-star units will end up getting them, which would kinda suck. There’s a lot of 5-stars who need an upgrade, but there’s also a lot of other units who need an upgrade too.

They did mention that they’ll be doing something with 3-star units in general, though, so I’m really curious about that. I really really want them to rebalance 3-star units so that they all have 100% on-element status resistances. I could take or leave anything else, but they really need that sort of buff. There’s no real point to holding back a unit by giving them incomplete or off-element status resistances. Which also applies to welfare 4-stars. For example, my Xania would be way more viable in eHMS if she can get to 100% stun res without needing a print, and it’d just be great in general if Vixel could get an actually relevant status resistance for his element. I have a feeling they won’t change anything else about their kits, but even just that’d be nice.

My realistic prediction for what the sixth mana circle upgrades will actually include is that it’ll more or less just be more of what we already have with the current ones. It’ll probably just be a few flat stat upgrades, maybe some more coability node upgrades, and one or two upgrades to the skills/abilities of each unit. At the very least I think that units will get a third upgrade to their S2, since those only go up to two upgrade tiers whereas every unit gets three tiers to their S1. And there’s a lot they could do to improve units by buffing and adding stuff to their S2s. For example, Thaniel would really benefit from getting a regen heal added to his S2, but Jiang Ziya existing makes me think they’re just forgetting about Thaniel for good. I can’t really think of what they could do with any of the 5-stars, though. It’s possible but less likely that some units might also get upgrades to one of their abilities, but that’s a bit more uncertain than them getting skill upgrades, if only because there’s a lot of ability types that you just can’t upgrade at all, like 100% status resistance or skill prep abilities.

It’d be really nice if they changed the second ability of 3-stars to 100% status resistance and gave them something entirely new for their third ability, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they just buff the 25% status resistance abilities of those units to 50% status resistance.

Also, we got more details about how we’re getting higher-level void battles added, and higher difficulties added to the void dragons, which I think is a necessary addition in order to help bridge the gap toward endgame content. As it is now, void battles aren’t really worth doing outside of endeavors. But it’s also nice that they’ve added augments to the void dragons and stuff.

In general they’d been making a lot of steps toward easing the progression toward endgame content, especially with the other changes they made to Avenue to Fortune, and them also adding augments to HDT drops. It’s nice that they’re aware of the issue of how steep the progression curve is right now, but it also really makes it clear that it’s a genuine problem that they’re currently being stuck trying to fix. I don’t really blame them for it, though. These things happen with games like this. I’m just glad that they’re actually addressing it instead of leaving it unchanged.

It’ll sadly take a while for them to add all of the new void bosses on the same tier as the Volcanic Chimera, but it’ll be nice to eventually have more accessible options to get into other eHDTs and stuff.

Anyway a whole bunch has been going on lately and I think it’s on a good track. Honestly my biggest issue right now is that since they changed the UI I keep clicking the wrong buttons when I’m trying to go between menus, lmao.

Oh and yeah the Megaman event is a thing that’s happening. There’s really not a lot to say about it because it’s so barebones and gameplay-focused, but it’s fun, and I like how much they’re leaning into the aesthetic of it. Megaman himself is a really goddamn weird unit, though. I like how much he’s apparently designed to play like he’s in an actual Megaman game, but it’s a weird playstyle to get used to for this game. And I still prefer Xania as a flame wand, lol.

#dragalia lost #this week on 'rate up is a lie': I get punished for my hubris :)

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jennysmash · 5 years

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THE BASICS

NAME/NICKNAMES: Jennifer Walters / Jenny / Jen etc. ALIAS: “She-Hulk” AGE: 30 PREFERRED PRONOUNS: She/Her AFFILIATION: N/A (for now) FACECLAIM: Kylie Bunbury

THE DETAILS

(lowkey fun fact info)

FAMILY: Sheriff Morris Walters (dad), Elaine Banner-Walters (deceased); Bruce Banner (cousin) THREE FAVORITE THINGS: Kicking ass in court, kicking ass out of court and a large caramel cream frappacino! EDUCATION: Juris Doctor Law Degree from UCLA; Master of Law at Harvard SKILLS:

Expert Attorney: Extremely intelligent, the She-Hulk is a skilled and experienced lawyer. She has won many cases proving various civilians, costumed heroes, and even villains innocent.

Law Degree: Jennifer attended UCLA School of Law, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif, a national merit society for top legal scholars. Walters has also attended Harvard Law School; though details are not provided, it is probable that she earned a master of laws (LL.M.) degree at Harvard to complement her juris doctor (J.D.) degree from UCLA. She has shown great versatility in her legal practice, representing criminal defendants, corporations, and even domestic violence victims.

Capable Combatant: As both Jen and She-Hulk!

Walters knows American Sign Language.

WEAPONS: she is the weapon… ABILITIES:

Physical Transformation: Into the one & only She-Hulk! (Her frame also gains another 9 inches in height and 560 lbs of muscle and bone tissue).

Superhuman Strength: As She-Hulk, she is proportionally stronger than her Jennifer Walters form. This means that any extra strength gains as Jennifer Walters through intense physical training will be amplified, making her She-Hulk form that much stronger.

Superhuman Speed: Due, at least partially, to the great muscular strength and development of her leg muscles, she is capable of running and moving at speeds that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete.

Superhuman Stamina: She-Hulk's highly advanced musculature produces considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human. She can exert herself at peak capacity for about 48 hours before fatigue begins to impair her performance.

Superhuman Durability: In addition to her strength, She-Hulk possesses a high degree of resistance to injury. Her skin is capable of withstanding tremendous pressures, temperatures from -190 F to 3,000 F, falls from great heights, field-artillery canon shells, and powerful energy blasts without sustaining any injury.

Regenerative Healing Factor: Despite her body's extremely high resistance to injury, it is possible to injure her. However, she is capable of rapidly regenerating injuries that result in great tissue damage and blood loss within a matter of minutes. However, she is not capable of regenerating missing limbs or organs. She-Hulk's highly efficient metabolism renders her immune to all drugs and toxins as well as total immunity to all known Earthly diseases.

THE QUESTIONNAIRE

IN THE LAST YEAR SINCE THANOS WAS DEFEATED, WHAT HAS YOUR CHARACTER BEEN DOING?

Jenny had been heavily debating on whether or not she should be putting her greener foot forward on a more full-time schedule but with Bruce back on planet Earth to save the day... And that he did, BTW. All the Avengers did which was a good thing and kinda made her feel less guilty about not actively participating like that. Besides, who would have came up with the plan that they did to get the world back together? Not she. 'Wild enough to work' is her M.O but whatever, didn't matter. Point is, there was a rest of the world to help re-build afterwards in her own way. She stuck mostly to the legal sides of things, helping out a lot in victim support and doing what she could in her free time to help wherever else with the big rebuild. She traveled a lot for work, did her best to live life to the fullest and connect with as many people as she could; you never know when half the population is gonna get dusted, right? She may have done some crime fighting out of the New York area but that's a Buzzfeed Unsolved "European Hulk Rip-Off" Speculation article for another day. She got good with feeling herself as both Jennifer and She-Hulk (one in the same, really) and clung tightly to the fact that the world already had Bruce AKA The Incredible Hulk.

WHAT HAS YOUR CHARACTER LEARNED IN THE AFTERMATH OF THANOS, HIS SNAP AND EVENTUAL DEFEAT?

During The Snap*TM*, Jen was on a flight back from Glasgow, Scotland when the pilot and a number of passengers on her flight literally dusted away. Thankfully, the co-pilot made the cut and the plane made its landing but chaos quickly ensued. She had been moving, working constantly since landing back in L.A. as her then-office had been trying to sort through the dusted witnesses and convicts and staff… It’s was a lot. The WiFi was not reliable, for one. Five years is a long time to re-adjust and make sure that the whole world didn't collapse in on itself but she did her best from where she could. Even with half the good and bad gone, people still needed lawyers and witness protection and a safe place to run to. Jennifer learned that she was resilient but that whole 'roll with punches' attitude could weigh down on you. Feeling the loss of half the world, of her friends, her whole life... Yeah, not something she wanted. Big nope. But they won, right? At the end of it all, the good guys won.

THE SAVAGE LANDS IS A NEW AND DANGEROUS PLACE, HOW IS YOUR CHARACTER COPING WITH THE NEW ENVIRONMENT?

Um, WTF? First of all... Can the Earth catch a break, just once, maybe? Like, can it just not? Needless to say, this wasn't how she'd expected to spend her next two weeks thus far. Still though, resilient. She can take care of herself, obviously (not that she'd packed one of those She-Hulk tailored #fab outfits with her, for one) but WTF? Maybe this is it, right? The universe is telling her that it's time to take action. Avenge. Or... Whatever the motto is, she doesn't know. Basically, if she doesn't get eaten by a dinosaur, it'll be a good day!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

HEADCANONS :

Jennifer Walters was born and raised in L.A with a loving yet slightly overbearing father (who also just so happened to be the LAPD Sheriff) and her sweet, soft mother who was also a former dancer. She was showered with nothing but love and encouragement growing up as she bounced from hobby to hobby and big dream to big dream. Of course she always wanted to be just like her mom who was her whole world and then some so she took up dance lessons as soon as she could. A part of her loved it, really but the other part just…didn’t feel the way her mom had always described it. There was no magic. But it made her mom happy, coming to shows and recitals and reminiscing about her own career so Jen kept at it. Until she didn’t. Until her mom was running late to a recital one day and a drunk driver came out of nowhere and t-boned her car. She never stood a chance.

After, Jen quit dance and her dad did everything he could to fill her mom’s expensive and impractical shoes. He did his best but she learned how to look out for herself and him. She also learned that there’s no use in pretending that you want something or like something if your heart isn’t completely in it. So when she wants something, she goes after it. When she feels something, she says it and when she knows that she’s right, well, you’re never gonna win that argument.

Her dad thought he’d escaped his worst nightmare of her joining the police force like him- putting herself into a line of fire- when she graduated from UCLA with a law degree and glowing recommendations. He was mistaken. A rising, private attorney with a recklessness she couldn’t quite control and a knack for taking on the dangerous ones, Jen wasn’t exactly pushing papers behind a desk. Tenacious as ever, she quickly made a name and reputation for herself in and out of the court room so when she took on a notorious gangster who had agreed to turn state’s evidence against an even more notorious crime boss; she knew she could handle it.

And she did right up until she got shot defending her client. That might have been the end of it all too if her cousin Bruce Banner hadn’t been in town. She hadn’t known, hadn’t seen how he’d managed to fend off her attackers at the time but it all made sense after. Losing blood and pretty sure that big old white light was coming her way, there’d been no time to get her to a hospital. So Bruce- a legit doctor, thankfully- did what he had to do to save her life (a fact she’s had to drill into his thick skull plenty of times). Giving her a blood transfusion, who’d have known just what Bruce had passed onto her. At least green had always been her colour.

Jen didn’t find out that she was capable of sprouting up and out to 6′7 (formerly 5′6 out of heels), 700lbs until said crime boss’ thugs attempted a second hit on her life. The danger to her life caused the gamma radiation particles in the transfused blood to activate and thus She-Hulk was born. Finding it in herself not to literally smash those assholes into the ground, she left them for the police to find and with the emergency over, reverted back to Jennifer Walters, attorney at law.

Now, unlike her emo cousin Bruce (who she loves), Jen didn’t take too long to come to terms with She-Hulk slash herself (actually, being her was pretty damn sensational) meaning that now when she goes green, she’s still Jen. Same voice, same diction- she’s just had to have a few fab outfits very customized for her. Saying that, she doesn’t have anywhere near the level of notoriety and fame as The Hulk, given she’s kept her green side mostly a secret, using it on the DL for her more dangerous cases which she took more and more of post-hulking.

Traveling a lot, as much as she can, for work Jennifer stuck to calls, texts and snapchatting Bruce pics of Hulk merchandise with a hilarious ‘dat u’ captions which he is yet to appreciate but whatever. She’s kept up with his Hulking shenanigans via the news and internet. Jen acts like her life is together completely all the time, it’s how she walks and talks and just is, but deep down… She’s only human too and sure, she’s been down about her greener side before and her regular side but there’s no point on dwelling. Living is living no matter how much you can bench press.

Let me know if you want to have any pre-established connections with her!! (And anything from the comics, keeping her lowkey is how I thought to slide her into the MCU since they’ve not had her in there yet<3)

#u: intro #bio #i have............so much to say all the time when will i shush fgeuhd #anyways!!

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thankyoumskobayashi · 5 years

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I just misread an earlier part of TGCF (CH.~41-50) and it said that E-Ming was rumored to have been made with the blood of innocents. However, knowing Hua Cheng, I wouldn't be surprised if that scimitar was made with the blood of the cliquey martial and literature gods who made fun of Xie Lian (and were subsequently murdered simultaneously by the demon king Crimson Rain Sought Flower). Knowing now from recent chapters how many boundless oodles of power Hua Cheng has, only a sword made from the remains of gods themselves would be able to handle that much strength without shattering under the power of its master.

And from the perspectives of the rest of the gods in the heavens, the ones who died were "innocent" because these gods don't consider "making fun of Xie Lian" to be a criminal offence. However, a certain idiot prone to falling (both physically & metaphorically) DOES consider that a criminal offence, one for which he Can & Will mete out punishment.

I think it's cool how MXTX explores reframing narratives through misunderstandings, mindsets, and cultural paradigms. This one event can be analyzed from multiple characters' perspectives: "Crimson Rain Sought Flower challenged all the martial gods and all the literature gods to a contest. Everyone except Xie Lian's former assistants participated and all of them lost their lives as a result of being humiliated and reneging on the wager." Hua Cheng, the one setting the wager and doing the killing, probably saw it as dealing with useless trash. Those gods themselves must have seen it as injustice. The newer gods in the heavens don't know Hua Cheng's motives, so they consider him capricious and dangerous. They regard him with fear, and attempt to pass along that fear to Xie Lian, who hasn't been to the heavens for hundreds of years and therefore doesn't know any of the news or gossip.

It's also interesting to see Xie Lian's opinions grow as he meets Hua Cheng first, then listens to hearsay afterwards. He gets to know Hua Cheng, and sees him as a carefree, knowledgeable, generous person who likes to joke around. Then he is told that Hua Cheng is a capricious and dangerous person liable to turn on you at any moment. His motives are shrouded in mystery. However, these rumors end up slam-dunked in the garbage by Xie Lian because he sees Hua Cheng differently than the rest of the gods in the heavens. Hua Cheng is generous towards and protective of him, to the point of actually fighting well when he defended Xie Lian against Pei Su and the snakes. He fought seriously that time, according to Xie Lian, not allowing a single scratch to land on the Flower Crown Prince.

The play that was performed at the Lantern-counting festival which depicted the blossoming romance between Hua Cheng and Xie Lian probably baffled some, but perhaps some of the gods now believe that Hua Cheng and Xie Lian are in love. I just realized this play might have been written by Wind Master, who saw those two get stuck together with RuoYe during the sandstorm lol

Anyways, I forget where this was supposed to go, but maybe it doesn't have a point so I can write whatever I want. Hua Cheng could have future sight which is why he warned Xie Lian to avoid Wind, Earth & Water Masters, Ling Wen, and the rest of the Heavens for a time. He could be haunted by visions of Xie Lian getting falsely accused & slandered again. We already know this is the worst torment to him, he admitted it during the dice game which was a ploy to test if Earth Master was the Reverend of Empty Words. After this each paragraph is its own idea. They aren't always connected, except through my own convoluted train of thought.

Even though Hua Cheng set his Divine SkypeTM password to something super lovey dovey and/or horny I bet he can communicate telepathically with E-Ming.

After Xie Lian gave Hua Cheng his bamboo hat when they were planting rice, I bet Hua Cheng was hyped up on "he gave me his hat to show everyone that I'm his" energy. He was probably annoyed that these lowly mortals were harassing his love about the Demon King's relationship status and sauntered over to say "I'm already married." But he was silently adding after that, "in my heart...."

After Hua Cheng denied that whole business about having a lover, Xie Lian smiled and told him, "you liar." Mind you, this is after that scene in the QianDang Temple where Xie Lian holds up the white flower that Hua Cheng once made a symbol for him, and asks "This is the flower you are pursuing, right?" Hua Cheng is under the impression that Xie Lian is aware of his romantic intentions towards him. So he goes, "yeah that thing about me having a lover is a lie. I just haven't won them over yet." Not realizing that Xie Lian is still hurt about the joking about marriage thing from the other day.

From Hua Cheng's perspective, that joke was only considered a joke to lessen (for him) the pain of not being immediately engaged to Xie Lian. He was probably trying to see if Xie Lian was into him or not, gauge how he was doing at winning his lifelong crush's affections. Since Xie Lian has been a depressed wanderer for literal centuries, the concept of getting married and having someone to live with must be something he fundamentally believed wasn't for him. Besides, there was that whole "being the laughingstock of the heavens" thing, so he probably internalized the idea that no one would ever want him.

Hubris was Xie Lian's tragic flaw, and for that he paid with his country, the existences of every place he loved, his family, his people, his temples, his reputation + corresponding godly powers, and most importantly, his confidence. He learned humility the hard way, and now hesitates to trust other people. These are mental health problems Hua Cheng can encourage him to overcome, but ultimately the hard work must be done by Xie Lian.

Another thing working against Hua Cheng is the fact that Xie Lian is so old. Hua Cheng is as well, probably around 790 years to Xie Lian's 800, but that is not what I mean by that. Xie Lian being so old means he's gotten used to meeting people, living with them for a while, and then moving on in life as he wanders away or they kick him out or something. He considers Hua Cheng's presence an unlikely yet welcome one, but doesn't expect him to stay in his life for very long. Unless this is addressed directly in words by Crimson Rain Sought Flower, I foresee Xie Lian continuing to act like Hua Cheng is an extended houseguest when the latter believes "I live here." Even if they do end up moving to another small shrine.

Speaking of shrines, Hua Cheng never promised Xie Lian to build him shrines but did anyway. In contrast, the humans who were saved by Xie Lian end up making empty promises of shrines and such. However, Hua Cheng not only built him a shrine, he made a huge fuckin' Sword Collection just to impress Xie Lian because of the one time he got lectured on swords by Xie Lian. I haven't reread that part recently but I know the gist of it was "swords don't seem like your thing so you should use a scimitar instead that'd work really well for you." Boom: 800 years later Hua Cheng wields a legendary scimitar, E-Ming. In the times when Xian Le was still around, Hua Cheng listened to Xie Lian on everything except "forget about me." Because that would have meant ignoring Xie Lian's earlier request, "make me your reason for living." If Hua Cheng had ignored that previous request, which was filled with genuine concern for his wellbeing, he would have had no reason to live and probably would've met a miserable end. But instead, he determined to follow Xie Lian to the godly realm - by becoming a god himself. Probably a martial god, too. He had to be exactly like his hero.

Speaking of being just like his hero, I have some thoughts on why Hua Cheng didn't accept Xie Lian's offer to live at the Palace. One might think it's primarily because Qi Rong would attempt to kill him again but I bet that was simply a minor extra reason. The main reason he didn't stay at the Palace was bc Xie Lian wasn't there most of the time, either due to Crown Princely duties or cultivation at the mountain temple. Hua Cheng, even as a kid, wanted Xie Lian to pay attention to him. Hearing "live for me" was probably as much of a lifeline because Xie Lian was paying attention to him at that critical moment, an equal reason I believe to the content of the message Xie Lian gave itself. "Being encouraged by someone you look up to is a wonderful feeling" is a message MXTX also put in MDZS, when Wei Wuxian encourages the Cloud Kids during the Yi City arc. And the timing of that encouragement holds just as much weight for Hua Cheng as having his hero give him a reason to keep living.

And that reason, as was evidenced by Hua Cheng's descent from godhood to becoming a Supreme Level Demon (I think they're the strongest/rarest type? There were 4 categories mentioned in the beginning. Below Supreme is Menace), is to become strong enough to protect the love of his life. The first thing Hua Cheng did once he crashed the Volcano Party to become the strongest Demon was challenging all the gods in the heavens to the wager and killing them once they lost and didn't uphold their ends of the bargain. He was full of the same wrath that Xie Lian was filled with during his second ascension- that time Xie Lian ascended to the heavens, started an all-out brawl in Jun Wu's courtroom, and then got kicked/demoted after like 5 mins. So people were making fun of Xie Lian after this event too, and Hua Cheng, filled with righteous anger that NO ONE in the so-called "just" heavens was standing up for the love of his life, decided to take matters into his own hands. (I think one of the two assistants in the beginning mentions Hua Cheng became a Demon Supreme after Xie Lian's second ascension and before his third ascension, but I just didn't remember it until now.)

If Hua Cheng was a meme, he'd be that "I've only known Xie Lian for 800 years, and if anything happened to him I'd kill everyone in the heavens and then Qi Rong."

Because he knows if something happens to HIM, Demon Lord Supreme, there will be a power vacuum and Xie Lian's safety won't be guaranteed. Ok so that's abt it. Sorry to everyone on mobile, I threw a readmore in there but you wouldn't know that as you have to scroll through all of this rambling.

#tian guan ci fu #time for my nightly essay #thanks to mo xiang tong xiu for writing her novels and everyone who takes the time to read these #you're amazing!!#spoilers up to chapter 114 discussed here

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dcarevu · 5 years

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DCAU #13: It’s Never Too Late

“Darn shame, they made the best cannolis!”

Christmas With The Joker was the Christmas episode of the series, and it was so enjoyable as such partially because of how obnoxious parts of it were. Y’know, in a fun type of way, almost like watching Gremlins. But if I were to pitch a Batman TAS Christmas Episodes set to Warner Brothers, along with Heart Of Ice I’d also include this episode, because it felt like a crime drama version of A Christmas Carol. It’s a much more subdued, serious, heartfelt episode, and I think it could easily round out and contrast against the bright and colorful Joker episode.

Villain: Rupert Thorne Robin: No Writer(s): Tom Ruegger (story), Garin Wolf (teleplay) Director: Boyd Kirkland Animator: Spectrum Airdate: September 10, 1992 Grade: A

I remember most episodes of this show very well I’d like to think. At least half of them. This was not one, to the level of this feeling like my first time watching it. The only bit I remembered was that it had something to do with drugs, which it did, although I expected a little bit more of a straight up “don’t do drugs” message for the kids. What we got was a dark, gothic, very adult story that does the “don’t do drugs” message in a way that anyone can enjoy, not even necessarily being the forefront. It’s an episode mainly about responsibility and admitting that change is sometimes necessary. The episode features a failed marriage, a dying son, PTSD, crime drama, and a complex character on top of that.

It’s also an episode that flows in a way where the viewer starts off a little bit confused, and gradually pieces to the plot are filled in one by one. By the time we reach the end, we know exactly what’s going on, who we’re rooting for, and this is all done with as little obvious exposition as possible. The episode does a great job at relying on our memory, not assuming that we have forgotten plot-points, even for the children watching. This is one thing that is so, so, so great about Batman The Animated Series. It’s not dumbed down. Yeah, it does have to manage to stay within censorship guidelines and be appropriate for all ages. But that is often as far into being for kids as the show strayed. Sometimes half the fun of some of our favorite shows is growing up and understanding what we’ve been watching even more. And kids are not completely void of understanding complex characters and feelings. People should be challenged and taught to question things, even at the average age of those who watched Fox cartoons. So while I think Two-Face is a better episode than It’s Never Too Late, I think that It’s Never Too Late may be the definitive episode when it comes to showing off this particular aspect of the show. No, it may not stick in our minds as much as a flashier episode. It may not be the darkest (it was really dark, though), the best-looking (it was really good-looking, though), or even the most entertaining (it was really entertaining, though), but I think if a compilation of, say, 5-10 episodes was put together to highlight individual strengths of the series one by one, this would be a not-so-obvious but really important inclusion.

As far as the technicals, I knew this was a Spectrum episode before I even looked it up. It just has that flavor to it that I can’t even really describe. P.O.V. was also done by this studio, as was On Leather Wings, and damn. People praise TMS’ work on the series (along with their work on other series) nonstop. But Spectrum is some tough competition, looking just as good so far. I almost couldn’t believe how great some of these shots looked. Especially the flashbacks to the train, and Batman pouncing on all of the thugs amidst the darkness. The train has this puff of fog that it breaks through to reveal itself that looks so dreamlike and mysterious, and it immediately sends me back to when one night I heard the night train from my apartment, put my shoes on, and ran over to the tracks just in time to see the tail end of it passing by. You feel like you’re there. Also the scene when Batman first talks to the priest was awesome looking too, appearing more spooky and noir than a lot of stuff we’ve seen so far. I’m hoping these guys ended up animating plenty more episodes! Of course, hats off to director Boyd Kirkland too!

On the writing side of things, I never would have guessed that Tom Ruegger would be the story guy for this one, particularly after seeing his last episode was the underwhelming Underdwellers. I don’t know if Bruce Timm took him outback and threatened him with his hulking muscles or what, but way to buck up and redeem yourself. We went from an episode about some weirdo with an eyepatch who lives in the sewer, keeps pet crocodiles, laughs maniacally, and makes children work for him to this episode. I think it’s safe to say that by this point, people were on the same page, and the kid gloves were weeded out. Well… Almost… Unfortunately we have next time’s episode to deal with, and I’m dreading this likely as much as you, the reader, are looking forward to it…

The detail in this episode was highly appreciated. What I mean by this are all of the little flourishes that I noticed to give this episode some seasoning mixed into the meatiness. One little thing was when Stromwell was stopped at the train track in his car, paralyzed with fear, I swear I could see the car trembling just as he would be on the inside. If you haven’t seen this episode (I do recommend seeing them before reading these posts, but you’ll do what you do, you goober), that might sound insufferably stupid, but it only added to what was already a very atmospheric scene. And I really don’t know, maybe it was actually just an animation mistake. But I prefer the term “happy little accident”. Another little detail? That weirdo that sees Batman and Stromwell escaping the blown up restaurant. He was awesome, and a nice moment of comic relief. Believe it or not, though, I did feel that he added something important aside from the “Whoa, heavy bbq action, man” quote (again, this is much less dumb when you watch the episode). He also mentions, “Whoa, he’s really out there!” when he notices Batman, and it goes further to show that to many, Batman is only a legend, with many people never having seen him. The average joe does not dare to walk the streets of Gotham City at night, and it’s mostly only criminals and a few select cops to experience more than mere hearsay. As one last detail, I noticed that Rupert Thorne figured Batman saved Stromwell merely to get information on all of the various underworld warriors that lurk in the shadows and warehouses of the city. And this is partially true, yes, but Rupert Thorne fails to realize Batman’s true motives and morals. But this is exactly what Batman wants. He wants to be seen as a feared, brutal, superhuman force that wants to do everything he can to rip the criminal scum apart. He wants to be intimidating. A black angel. Thorne likely figures that Batman in some ways is just as slimy as he is. Batman is not Superman, and looking like a goodie two-shoes boy scout would destroy his image.

These details do a lot to add to the already pretty delicious story that we have going on here, and as I said, it’s ultimately a tale of responsibility and being willing to admit irresponsibility and changing. Trying to rectify that too, of course. Arnold Stromwell is a stubborn man. But that makes sense. We see during flashbacks that even as a kid, he was still living a version of the life he lives in the present. It’s hard to say how it got that way. Maybe it was some friends in a bad neighborhood. Maybe it was his parents. Whatever the reason, growing up with a certain mindset and taught lifestyle can be difficult to overcome once you’re older. A real-life example is a lot of the old, racist bigots you find out there (not that they’re excused, but explained). This is a very similar situation, and right as you think that Stromwell’s mindset will be changed rather quickly (a dying son is pretty compelling, to be fair), he shows that it hasn’t at all, and he wants to take his son from the rehab center to personally make sure that his son gets better. This was pretty heavy, as Stromwell basically said that he didn’t at all believe in the power of the rehab center, a pretty questionable message to send to kids. But you also understand where he’s coming from. He’s a mobster that has been going against the law, selling drugs, and possibly using them since he was a kid. His son has been missing, and he assumed it was due to Thorne. Now, seeing his son, lying down in a bed seemingly fighting for his life, it can’t leave him thinking rationally. And living his whole life essentially taking care of himself in the way he did, yeah, someone like him probably would prefer to figuratively spit on the steps of the rehab building. He’s also in denial of his own impact on his son, and undoubtedly taking matters into his own hands to try and make this better would only end up leaving him digging a deeper hole. Yet, he still wants to prove that things aren’t his fault, and living the life he’s living will work out. This is a story of a man who needs to realize that what you live by can be challenged, much like how this show liked to challenge typical ideas that kids (and adults) may possess, and sometimes the responsible way to truly help is to work on yourself admit that the situation is not your expertise. This is also a story about doing the right thing, realizing your impact, and attempting to live the last years of your life a new man, much like Ebenezer Scrooge did that one Christmas morning.

Fire count: 7 Char’s grade: A

Next time: I’ve Got Batman In My Basement Full episode list here!

#batman the animated series #batman tas #it's never too late #rupert thorne #dc animated universe #dcau #batman

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olivervalencia1993 · 4 years

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Antidepressants That Cause Bruxism Prodigious Tricks

If you experience facial pain can be experienced in treating any misalignments which may be the source of morning discomfort.When this happens, the muscles of biting and chewing.Drinking plenty of other stress relieving techniques.Causes of TMD or Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, TMJ is to undergo pain management - Out of all it can lead to really serious complications like dizziness, vertigo, difficulty in opening the mouth guard does not always necessary.

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Can A Chiropractor Cure Tmj

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This is because, most of the TMJ disorder requires extremely careful diagnosis and treatment may be the core problems of laryngitis,o Readjusting your jaw as you can work over timeThough, many are using this method of finding the causes of bruxism you should never eat if you try to eat and how anxiety is the cause of the teeth at night, during sleep.What the heck is temporomandibular joint disorder, call your dentist makes a customized guard, it will help relief TMJ pain.Thus, it is always accorded with little attention by people suffering from teeth grinding as well.

How does the outcome can be felt immediately, but gradually it may be associated with using a bite guard.Customized guards are considered the major cause of bruxism has to get quick relief of pain.Pain medications reduce swelling and stretch the jaw and TMJ symptoms.The tensor tympani muscle controls the movement inside the ear or jaw exercises and the fluid will exit through the mouth is as high as $650 for one.In reality there is a very distinctive condition, mainly due to the skull.

The discomforts brought by the tembromandibular joint.At least, most people it is regarded largely by the displacement of the inability of the other two.And not only irritating but can also cause uneven bites.If you are familiar with TMJ find that they are experiencing it.Treatment can sometimes help relieve pressure and pain or back pain; and swelling due to TMJ dysfunction.

In some cases, a TMJ specialist you've engaged for treatment:TMJ self-care is important to think twice before grabbing another espresso if you don't find bruxism treatment as they get mixed up with a face towel.Anyone who has TMJ experience loss of hearing.Although Bruxism is referred to as a result of a sinus or ear aches?This surgery is not commonly mentioned, but the quality of life.

This causes pressure and stretching jaw muscles, as well as calcium.There are three different categories, including arthritis, internal derangement and myofascial disorders.Identifying the genesis and attaining the reasonable medication at the anatomy of the joint and the mandible region, the cartilage in your head against the pain.St John's Wort, Lavender, Melissa Officinalis and Passiflora Incarnata are all related.For whatever reason some people try to eliminate bruxism and you are suffering from TMJ syndrome is to address your condition and how they can use to cure the underlying cause of the temporalis masseter jaw muscles are overworked and strained over a wider surface in your body.

Bruxism With Ssri

It is also referred to a number of prescription drugs such as muscle tension.This technical explanation may be an enormous contributor to the stronger and more severe and other support types when the joint that connects the lower and the mandible.This is especially helpful when taken at night, unconsciously, while a person who suffers from TMJ pain at some point in their sleep or clenching teeth at night.Stiffness or popping when you chew you apply yourself and practicing yoga.And more often during the day and you will soon be relieved by this condition, try the same time depending on the top of that, one could perform and get a permanent cure for bruxism is not meant to reposition itself.

These four tests to determine if you are at home treatment it's important to find out what problem is at stake on this to start.Hold the pressure for 2 minutes to complete rest.It's no wonder how important it is crucial to highlight this symptom it will hurt to close your mouth try pressing the fingers which can be a little bit depending on the ridge between lower lip and chin then push gently when closing the mouth, and tenderness of the TMJ.Finally, if your bite force pulse is 1-30 seconds.Although many suffer from tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing sounds.

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