#i had to delete duplicates one by one because they were all over the place

[messrmoonyy]

Moonboys reacting to your baby’s first kick

Prompt- could you please write what the boys would react like to feeling your baby kick for the first time?

A/n- I had to delete the ask prompt as this uploaded funny before, and everytime I add in a ‘read more’ cut it starts duplicating my paragraphs so 😃🔫 So. Let’s repost and see how it goes now lmao. Baby’s and pregnancy are not my forte so I hope this okay. Enjoy these little drabbles.

Warnings- none. Fluff

Masterlist- requests open for hcs, drabbles and one shots

Reblogs and comments appreciated <3

Steven

It was late. Well. Early. The clock beside the bed showing 1:34am in a practically mocking way. He had thought that once Khonshu was no longer leering over him that sleep would come easier. But it had been years now and yet he still struggled from time to time.

You were next to him, curled up on your side, his arm draped over your belly as he read in some attempt to fall tired. But sleep still evaded him, even though the book wasn’t particularly exciting. He had read practically every baby book known to man he was certain, he wanted to be prepared after all. And the entire thing was just… exciting. He took great joy in telling you all about the interesting things currently cooking up inside your womb, informing you the size of the baby every week. It was carrot sized now. Or telling you the best baby bottles he thought you should get because tiredtwinmum95 online said they were just brilliant.

He couldn’t be more excited. Yes it was a terrifying thing, especially in your situation. Three dads, one body. But it was exciting none the less. You were 21 weeks gone, not that he was counting down the days or anything. You’d pushed past that stage of just kind of looking bloated all the time, to actually looking pregnant now. Your bump still small but rounded out, clearly pregnant when you weren’t wearing baggy shirts. It was all starting to feel a bit more real.

He looked down at you with a warm smile, fast asleep. He’d spent the hour before bed massaging your achy shoulders and back, and you’d been dead to the world ever since. You deserved the rest. He thought it was a miracle how you still were able to go to work and do day to day things, when you carrying such precious cargo. Doing such an incredible and important job of growing and protecting his daughter.

He turned back to his book but after only another paragraph he froze. His eyes darted over to you, wondering if what he had felt was real or his imagination.

But then… again.

A small movement under the hand that was resting on your belly, gentle but definitely there. His face lit up, tossing the book to the end of the bed and placing his other hand there too. It was a little more prominent when it happened again, almost as if his daughter could sense he was there. He almost wanted to cry.

“ Heyyyy little one “ he said softly, leaning his face closer and gently pulling you over onto your back. Not wanting to disturb you but overwhelmed by the excitement of some actual movement “ can you hear me yeah? “ You stirred at the movement and opened a bleary eye, looking at your husband with nothing but confusion “ that’s right you can can’t you? “

“ Steven? “ he did look a little mad, beaming smile and wild eyes, holding onto your bump gently.

“ she moved “ he said in amazement “ y/n she moved. There’s an actual baby in there “ he said with a stunned laugh, shaking his head. A smile made its way onto your own face as you watched him and the utter joy on his face.

“ Right a baby of course. I was beginning to wonder what it was “ he dropped his cheek to your stomach, the smile never leaving him for even a second.

“ can you hear me little one? Yeah? I’m your daddy. Well. I’m one of them “

“ babe I don’t think she can he- “ your baby moved again in response and Steven gave you a slight smug look at that.

“ see. She can hear me. I read about it, they can hear music and everything. Gods don’t let Jake play her any music she’ll come out speaking Spanish “ your daughter moved again and he raised an eyebrow “ I think she technically just kicked me in the face “

“ feisty one “

“ like her mum “ he shuffled back up to lay beside you and wrapped his arms around you, a gentle kiss falling on your cheek “ it’s just mad, innit? “ he sighed dreamily “ we made a baby love. Like. An actual real baby. Mental “ you laughed and pulled him in for a soft kiss before shifting back onto your side, Steven cradling your bump as you fell back into sleep

Marc

Marc wasn’t a morning person. At all. He always woke up with a grudge against the world no matter how much sleep he’d had. So his usual morning ritual was roll over, pull you into his arms, bury his face into your neck and grumble about how much he hated mornings. But how much he loved you. But when he rolled over the bed was empty. His face fell against a cold pillow instead of your hair, hands grabbing at cool sheets instead of your warm skin. It simply made his morning mood worse.

He sat up with a frown etched into his face, angry at the world and everyone on it. But his brow soon relaxed, his scowl easing from his features, when he saw you stood in the kitchen. He got out of bed as quietly as his still sleepy limbs would allow him, covering the distance between the bed and the kitchen in quick time. Anxious to get his hands on you and resume his regular way of easing himself into the world.

“ hi “ he grumbled as his arms wrapped around you from behind, not as easy as it once had been with your ever growing bump in the way.

“ hey sleepy head “ you said, leaning your head to accept the kiss he dropped onto your cheek, as you continued to wash the dishes that had been left in the sink from the night before.

“ why are you up so early washing damn dishes and not in bed? “ he closed his eyes, breathing you in as his senses finally started to come around and wake up.

“ for one, it’s not early. It’s 9:30. And two, I woke up at 7 to pee again and I just got this mad urge to clean. Steven says it’s nesting or something. Like wanting things to be perfect and ready. I don’t know I just really wanted to clean “ he smiled against your skin, unable to control his inner joy anytime the baby was mentioned.

He’d been absolutely terrified at first. He’d literally refused to deal with it, not fronting for an entire week no matter how much Steven and Jake tried to convince him too. A baby was far too much pressure. A tiny life in his and your hands when he barely knew how to take care of himself properly? It was terrifying. He’d come around though.

“ great. Already got your mom wrapped around your finger havent you? Got her running around like a mad woman when she should be cuddling with me? “ he said, patting your stomach gently which made you giggle.

“ sorry you and the boys are in second place now. This little princess is number one, isn’t that right? “ you cooed as your dried off your hands, placing a hand over Marcs. It was then that Marc felt it, the little prod under his hands.

“ what was- “

“ oh someones awake “ you cooed and gently moved Marc’s hand to the left slightly “ feel there “ he felt it again then, movement under your skin. It was ever so slightly weird but also incredible. He’d never felt the baby move. You’d called him from work the first time, crying in a mix of joy and fear. Then spent the entire evening trying to make her move again so he could feel it too.

Then any other time she’d moved Marc simply hadn’t been fronting. But now he finally was.

“ made me wait for that one didn’t you baby girl. Damn “ you laughed and held his hand in place as she continued to wiggle around. 

“ you feel it yeah? “ he nodded, awestruck at the feeling “ she’s getting more active. I think she knows eviction time is getting closer “ you still had a while to go but it truly couldn’t come quick enough “ now you’ve met all your daddy’s haven’t you? “ he smiled and turned you around in his arms, looking at you with every ounce of adoration he could muster.

“ I love you “ he said quietly and you beamed a smile, leaning forward to kiss him “ and you. Even if you did make me wait “ he said with a light pat to your bump.

“ you soppy sod “

Jake

“ Jake! Jake! “ Jake startled as you screeched for him from the bathroom, almost throwing the tv remote at the screen in his shock “ Jake! Get in here quick! “ he assumed it was probably a spider in the tub or another bee had snuck in through the window.

But then again. What if it was something worse… a person. An old enemy seeking revenge. Someone having somehow slipped past him and ready to tear away his family. He charged for the bathroom, skidding into the room ready to deck whoever dared to lay a hand on his wife and child.

“ No la toques. te mataré, puta madré! “ Jake yelled as he frantically looked around for whoever had you. But stopped in confusion to find you alone, stood half undressed as you got ready for your bath “ mi amor? “

“ come here! Quick “ you were beaming at him, beckoning him over to you “ quick jake! “ he made his way over and you grabbed his hands, placing them on to your baby bump

“ what are you- “

“ just wait. Hang on “ you held his hands in place “ come on love don’t be shy now it’s your daddy “ you said softly, looking down at your stomach. Jakes brows furrowed and he opened his mouth to say something else but then he felt it, as if something was poking him under his hands.

“ dios mío is that-“

“ yeah. Been wiggling around for the last few minutes “ he dropped to his knees in front of you and let you move his hands around to follow your daughters movements “ see. She knows it’s you “ the baby wiggled around again “ talk to her the doctors said she can hear us. Talk to her “ he did feel a little silly to even think about talking to your stomach. But you had become the only person alive he’d ever let him self be soft and silly with. So he indulged you.

“ hola Princessa “ he said quietly “ Steven tells me you’re a carrot now “ you snorted a laugh at that and shook your head.

“ wonderful first impression there, calling her a carrot “

“ ¿qué? Blame steven. He tells us every week the new vegetable “ you shook your head again with a smile and Jake pressed a gentle kiss to your bump before rising to his feet again. He looked at your glowing face, how happy you looked and he couldn’t help but look at you as if you were placed on the earth simply just for him.

Learning you were pregnant had been a tough pill to swallow at first. What was he supposed to do with a baby? His hands were made for taking life. Not cradling a tiny precious one. He took. He didn’t make. It felt wrong to even think of holding such a delicate little person in his hands that were so bloodstained.

“ you’re cute you know that? “ you said with a grin, squishing his cheeks between your fingers and making his lips pout. He looked like a rather unamused cat that was being forced to play.

“ sure “ he deadpanned and twisted his himself out of your grasp and placed a kiss to your lips.

Translations ( apologies if wrong. Google translate is all I have 😞)

No la toques - don’t touch her

te mataré, puta madré - I’ll kill you mother fucker

Mi amor - my love

Hola Princessa - hello princess

Dios mio - oh my god

¿qué? - what

#istg if it messes up again #marc spector x reader #jake lockely x reader #steven grant x reader #moonknight x reader #moonknight #mr knight #marvel #mcu #moonknight fanfiction #afab reader #fluff #Oscar issac #x reader #x you #established relationship #pregnancy #pregnant reader #khonshu #layla el faouly

[soulsdivinity]

Adults only! Choose a photo to find out what they tell their friends about you sexually ✨Remember that time is fluid✨Take a deep breath before choosing your pile, choose a photo with your intuition (the one you can’t look away from)✨

Disclaimer

Hi ✨ This is a general reading!! If something doesn’t resonate, that’s okay!! It’s a message for another viewer✨ Nothing resonated? Feel free to choose another reading ✨

✨ These readings are not to be seen as legal, professional or medical advice✨ You are responsible for your actions✨

Please do not plagiarize my work, or post it elsewhere ✨

There’s a tumblr glitch that will either duplicate or delete text. If somethings not adding up message me and let me know thank you and enjoy your reading. ✨

© soulsdivinity, 2022-, all rights reserved

Feedback is appreciated

Feedback is appreciated

Feedback is appreciated

One

They’re kind of bored. They think you’re stiff, maybe even a bit old fashioned. They want more excitement! They want passion and danger in general. It’s kinda normal for them to be a bit chaotic, living on the edge. They wanna take that leap with you. They want to show you a whole new world. They want to make you more like them. I sense that they’re very dominant as well, they like to be the lead in their life. No one can tell them what to do.

But I think they want something more, they want to experience that blast with someone. To be honest they can be really toxic at times. You could get into some trouble when hanging around this person, they always have a wild story. It could be fun for you as well, but I’m getting that you’re using caution, as you should.

They tell their friends that they’re so drained it’s killing them. The lack of passion makes them ache. They might be waiting you out so they can “fuck” you, that’s how they describe it to their friends. That’s probably why you’re seen as old or stiff. You could be older than them, you could be a virgin as well. They want your innocent charm, or your stability. This person is super selfish. They go wherever and do whatever they want with little consideration for others. I don’t think they’re a cheater tho.

There’s a lot of detective work going into this. You have them really confused. Literally they have to stop and think. I think you’re both figuring each other out. I get that they talk a lot about you but they limit their engagements with you. Okay, wow I’m seeing that you see right through them. You don’t find their angry ego sexy. They want to show you a different side. And I see they grow to love you over time. They want to protect you.

Because they were so shitty to you before, their friends might have loose lips and feel comfortable dragging you. This person will literally punch someone in the face for something like this. And their friends are starting to see that you’re not someone to be messed with. They tell their friends that you are fragile.

Oh okay, over time this person sacrifices something and it wins your heart. You guys end up having explosive sex. This is something they don’t tell their friends out of respect for you. I’m seeing that they don’t even talk to their friends so much anymore. Because you made them feel something. They want a “normal life” and great sex. They realize they love you. That’s when the dialog with their friends became less vulgar. You definitely haven’t had sex with this person yet. Just make sure you’re making the best decision for yourself.

-a

book a reading

Two

They’re telling their friends that you two are not in a good place right now. Their friends might laugh at this bc it looks like you have been withholding sex from this person. This stagnant energy could also be you two wanting to get to know each other better. You both could be waiting for the right time. I’m sorta confused.

Maybe you guys are both virgins. One of you doesn’t know what to expect from sex. I asked what they tell their friends about the sex and I heard “we haven’t had it yet.” You guys could be young as well. Bc I was going to use my Alice in Wonderland deck but it felt wrong as if I were overstepping a boundary. That deck has the essence of innocence and I often use it to heal my inner child. They may have told their friends that you’ve been abused in the past and it’s going to take some time for you to open up. I’m not getting manipulative energy tho. I’m getting that they’re quite in their head about you.

They told their friends what they knew but they laid the gossip to rest. Their friends are quite curious about you, they are proud of their friend for “bagging” you. Your person says they’re so close to opening your legs but they have to make sure you’re on the same page. They say that you’re still in an awkward stage. I’m also seeing that you may have had oral sex with this person but they’re hoping next time they can get all the way in if you know what I’m saying. They definitely told their friends how wet you were. They tell all about their fingering skills and how you quivered, the goosebumps, how hot your skin was. They told their friends that you were satisfied. It’s a secret kept from you. If it were obvious that they told their friends you would be angry at them. I think this person is careful so that you don’t know they’ve spilled the tea. I’m getting that it might turn you on low key? People knowing?

They’ve told their friends that you’re stretched out. That you can take two at once? Wtf? Now I’m seeing someone being a fucking douchebag. Which one is it? Hate to say it but this person could be an asshole after having sex with you. They brag to their friends saying they could have anything and anyone.

For some this a love thing where this person is careful with you. They want to protect and own you. I’m seeing someone give a tight, secure back hug. They may be someone who’s faking it though. It’s hard to tell. I’m seeing that if they betray you karma is going to kick them in the ass so fucking hard. The divine don’t play!

-a

book a reading

Three

They tell their friends A LOT. They’re saying that this is final. Someone here is grieving and overwhelmed. Maybe we’ll get to that mood a bit later.

They feel like the energy is off. They’re really fucking nervous. They tell their friends that you learned from your past mistakes, you’re growing into yourself. You’re so beautiful, gentle and intelligent. They tell their friends that that you take care of yourself. Wow this person really wants to give it to you! like, “I know just what you need” and then they fuck you sensually. I feel like you don’t want it to be vulgar or go off of primal urges. This person wants to take care of you but they have a side to them that’s hungry for you. They know you want them. You might masturbate and get really loud just thinking about them.

Ooohhh okay. I see, so they either tell their friends their fantasies about you or they kiss and tell. I’m getting that these are more fantasies maybe for the both of you. You guys may have astral sex. You feel strange as if you can still feel each other or remember vividly what the sex was like and it’s like you’re reliving the moment. You could be telepathically connected.

They tell their friends they want to you make you feel good. They could have thrown you off your game or set you back somehow and you shut them out. They want to be in your good graces again. It’s not just about sex. They want you to feel secure in their presence.

They want to make you feel safe. They want to be your definite and final choice, which is what I felt in the beginning. They want a do over. They’re being careful bc in their mind losing you is very possible.

They tell their friends that you end up together again. They’re going to talk about how beautiful you are, this may happen with you present. They love kissing your lips. They think your lips are plump, soft and flavorful? Lmao they think your mouth tastes good. They love touching your ✨ gently. They love your moans that sound like you’re crying a little. They are a GIVER. GIIIVERRRRR you hear me??? They see you and their emotions for you get them going! They love you so much. It’s almost unbearable.

They want to see you safe, calm and comfortable. They want you to be free, vulnerable and naked with them in a non sexual way. They think your body is beautiful, they think you’re a beautiful person, almost imagined. They think you’re beautiful just lying there. They love watching you breathe. They love seeing your breast/chest rising and falling in your sleep. You are a beautiful woman/person, take as it resonates. I’m getting that they’re in la la land when talking about you to their friends. They’re very mushy over you. Just the thought of you, the sound of your name gives them butterflies. They wanna kiss your feet and worship the ground you walk on. Wow pile 3! They are lucky to have you!

-a

book a reading

#adult reading #tarot reading #18+ tarot #+18 tarot #angelguides #soulsdivinity #future spouse tarot #next person tarot #friends #love tarot #relationship tarot #tarot #free tarot #fs reading #soulmate

[kitconnor]

hii i was wondering how you blend gifs such as this one? it’s something i wanna start doing but haven’t got the slightest clue how🥹

hi there !! blending is definitely one of the more fiddly aspects of gifmaking, but i'm happy to help !! before i start, here's some tutorials that really helped me out/look really helpful:

difficulty: low (by morningstr) difficulty: intermediate (more tailored to colourful gif blending) (by lamberts) difficulty: intermediate (by yenvengerberg) difficulty: low (by jackarthurdavenport) difficulty: intermediate (by nelsonnicks)

before you start, you should have a basic knowledge in how to colour your gifs, sharpen, etc etc. if you want any information on that, feel free to send me another ask for that.

i use photoshop 2022 for all my creations. and big disclaimer my process is VERY different to to others, but i don’t think it should change too much of your result.

1. create two gifs.

you’re going to start by creating two entirely separate gifs. when you’re blending, i find that it is typically easier if you can get two types of shots (mid, far, close up, that kind of thing) because it makes it easier to blend later on.

here we can see robin is kind of more of a mid shot on the right, but the left shot is zoomed in on her face to make it the focus.

from here, ensure your gifs have the same amount of frames and layers. you can delete the excess frames + layers to get them at the same amount. (eg. one gif had 42 frames, and the other 15, so i selected every layer + frame past 15 and deleted them.)

2. combining your gifs.

this is where it can all get a little hairy quick !! start by selecting all your layers, and putting them in a group. you can then rename that group so you can tell them apart when you duplicate them. then, select all your frames, change the frame delay to 0.05 and go from there.

now, pay attention to this bit. you’re going to take ONE gif over to the other. to do that, click on the four lines i highlighted up ^^ and go to copy frames. make sure all your frames are still selected. then, go to the gif we’re going to place the other gif on, and go to those same four lines but press ‘paste frames’ this time. this menu will come up:

click the exact same one i have highlighted, then press ‘okay’. now, your frames and layers have copied over. you should have two folders, and the gif you were copying will probably be the only one you see, but don’t worry ! your other gif is just underneath. 

3. blending your gifs.

this part differs for each creator, but here’s how i do it. select the top layer that you want to blend in, and open this dropdown menu:

you’ll want to select either ‘lighten’ or ‘screen’. choose whichever looks better. your gif will now look like this:

so now we’re going to blend ! 

because of the negative space behind robin in the gif underneath, i’m going to try and move the top gif into it. how you blend and where is kind of down to just a visual thing. so, i’ll move my layers into that space and then i’ll properly begin blending.

now that i moved both of my gifs it leaves these pesky lines behind:

to blend them out, do the following:

select the folder itself. go down to this bottom bar, and select the circled icon (it’s a layer mask):

now, you have a layer mask. to use it, go over to your brush colours on the side bar (pictured below)

and make sure it’s on black. if it isn’t, you won’t be able to blend. after this, go to the gradient tool (in between the rubber and the blur tool on that same sidebar) and make sure your gradient looks similar to this:

if you need to change it, click on that gradient, go to basics, go the one with the checkers and change the colours to black. now, go back to your layer mask, making sure that your gradient tool is selected and create little increments going across that line. make sure you work horizontally, otherwise it’ll blend your gif away.

then, just keep doing that until you’re getting results you’re happy with. i’ve done a layer mask on both layers, and i’ll show you a tip in case you need to do that as well. but for now, do a rough blend with the gradient tool. 

after that, go to the brush tool, and change your brush to a soft round brush, probably on 75-100. you can brush over spots you want to blend, as it allows you to be more particular.

this is what my gif looks like now:

from here, you colour each gif in their respective folders, convert to timeline -> convert to smart object, sharpen and save !! this is my final result:

#*tutorials #completeresources #gif tutorial #blending tutorial #useranne #tuserkay #usernorah #tuserrex #userrsun

[ludi-ling]

Reunion

Summary:

52 Pickup ficlet. Remy and Anna are finally reunited after 14 months apart. What happened between them finding each other in the gallery and their heartfelt pillow talk in the final chapter? Sex, of course. Lots of it. ;)

Notes:

I wrote this back in 2019, and I'd completely forgotten about it. I was going through my fics yesterday and rediscovered it. Damn, it's hot. Even if I do say so myself.

I wrote it before publishing 96 Hours, so there are some duplications and inconsistencies between the two. But hell. I thought at least some of you might get a kick out of reading this deleted scene. So here it is. Enjoy. x ;)

-------------------------------------------------------

Reunion

Ding.

The elevator swept open with an old-fashioned chime, a welcoming chocolate box of Art Deco grandeur – burnished oak lined with blacker-than-black lacquer, cushion-cut mirrors that seemed to reach impossibly high.

Somehow his hand was still in hers, and she led him inside, hit the button for her floor.

For some reason she felt self-conscious for still holding his hand, and so she dropped it, feeling awkward for having done so, and even more so for having taken it in the first place.

The doors slid shut and the elevator began to move.

She put her back to wall and faced him.

Neither said a thing.

He’s different, she thought – but she couldn’t say how. Why couldn’t she place it? He looked the same – tall and sinewy and graceful and impossibly beautiful – that hadn’t changed. He was standing there only a couple of feet away in his tailored suit and his tie, with his slightly unruly auburn hair and his five o’clock shadow, exactly as he’d been in the photos Kitty had taken of him, as he’d been in so many of the memories of him she’d horded.

But he was different.

And she couldn’t say how.

And it seemed so damn important, because there was so much she’d missed, so much she didn’t know, so much she couldn’t touch.

She knew, of course, where their future lay, at least for tonight. They both knew, without having to say a thing to one another, and in a way it was the only thing that mattered right now, because it was the only thing either of them could guarantee one another; it was the only thing that wasn’t complicated and, ironically, didn’t depend on anything except that they were both here, physically. What mattered, she tried to tell herself, was that somehow he’d known it was her, and he hadn’t run. He was still here.

She realised they were still holding one another’s gaze; and there was that smile on his lips, barely-there, dimpling the corner of his mouth. That, at least, hadn’t changed.

Her stomach lurched with this horrible, grinding need. Months of celibate denial had been honed by the anticipation of this moment, a moment she had begun to fear would never arrive. It had driven her lonely search for him, tormented her with memories of their time together, stoked up an irrational fear of rejection that, even now, still hadn’t completely gone.

She was a quivering, nervous ball of untapped frustration and lust, desire and apprehension. Could he see it? Did he know what he did to the woman they once used to call Weapon Zero, the Rogue?

Ding.

The elevator came to a smooth halt on the topmost floor, the doors sliding open with that same, soft chime. She could barely break eye contact with him, and neither could he… but somehow she did so first, turning aside with a tentative though meaningful smile in his direction as she stepped out into the corridor.

As always his footsteps were light enough so as to be almost imperceptible; but after a moment, she sensed him follow.

It was only a short walk to her room, and she stopped at the door, trembling – trembling! – as she took out the keycard and passed it over the control panel. The door unlatched softly, and she opened it up, stepped inside.

She felt him right behind her, and all she could think was that it still bothered her that she couldn’t place the change in him.

There had been moments, back down in the gallery, waiting for him to make his move, that she’d been flustered, embarrassed, about the way she’d done up this room – the soft dim setting of the light; the log fire; the sumptuous décor. Now the obviousness of her intentions grated on her, making her 100% certain he would see through it and laugh.

God, there were so many men she’d seduced in the past, in far more tawdry and blatant ways than this but…

…But never one like him, Anna... never one like him…

She heard him shut the door with a gentle click, felt him step in right behind her. For a few painful seconds there was nothing but the drumming of her own heartbeat, this irrational sense of her own inadequacy, and then… … And then his hand was at the nape of her neck, cupping the back of her head, warm and firm and tender, stripping away all her doubts…

She turned to him and…

...And they were kissing.

They were kissing with all the passion and hunger they’d been denied the past 14 months and more, kissing with a kind of desperation neither had felt before, as if to claw back all the time they’d lost. She’d worried so damn much about the life he’d led without her, that he might have resented her for being the one to walk away… but here, together, like this… all those questions, all those fears, quietly melted away.

Read the rest:

AO3 | FF.net

#Romy #Rogue and Gambit #Rogue #Gambit #52 Pickup #fanfic #deleted scenes

[simply-starryeyed]

we will never know who misses the other more

there's no way to measure it, I'd said, and then, because we were us, we got into a contest. of how many hugs we'd give each other. then she said infinity and i said that wasn't fair and she said most things aren't and i wished i could give her a hug

i don't know how long it's been since i've seen her face. heard her voice. i'm not sure i remember how it sounds now. back at the beginning i wrote a story and wrote what i wanted to do with her. i don’t know the last time i touched it. i have a box of her things, of things she gave me that i don’t know what to do with. it’s not like she likes me now.

but like the memories of her, they are things i cannot get rid of. they lay unused and almost forgotten a decent amount of the time but others i rifle through them. i hold them in my hands and i pretend that it is a time where i could talk to her. i pretend that it is a time where thinking about her makes me happy instead of the thought of her cutting me open. i pretend that i know what i am doing and i have not made mistakes i can’t take back.

she’s right to blame me, to hate me even but that doesn’t make me feel better. it makes me feel worse. i talked to someone and said i’d reach out to her if i could and they asked why? i didn’t really have an answer. maybe i just can’t come to terms with the fact that what we had is over. never again will we take pictures together or swap hoodies or write stories together or share food or pick each other up and never again will i be in her presence or know how she is or what she’s up to these days or how she feels about how the world is changing or how she feels about me now. it’s not my place anymore and maybe it never should have been but it was and i will never again have that.

she lit inside me a feeling that i have yet to be able to replicate, to duplicate, to find ever again and i don’t know that i will ever feel that way again and i don’t know that i want to if she’s not the one causing me to. what she gave me was irreplaceable and sacred and ethereal and i can’t say that i gave her anything. i don’t know what she saw in me but whatever it was it wasn’t what she deserved.

i look back on the last messages she sent me before everything went… well, how it is now. I don’t know what i’m expecting to find, maybe a friendly conversation or even an argument even though i can’t remember us ever arguing before or just something that wasn’t…

i told her that i’d been having a hard time with a few things and she told me that she’s sorry and that she should’ve been there for me. i didn’t know what to say to her then and i don’t know what to think now because i don’t know what to do now because she didn’t hate me then even though she probably had reason to but what if she doesn’t hate me now, what if this distance that’s here is just something i’ve imagined in my mind and then fabricated into something real, what if she’s blaming herself and feeling guilty for the same things i am, what if she wants to reach out too

but that’s something i don’t know if i can ever do and maybe that’s just something i am always going to have to live with, the regrets of what happened and the what-ifs of what could because even though it could it won’t because i cannot take the chance of putting her through more

even still i hover over her in my list of contacts and i type out what feels like a million messages and i delete all of them and then i shut my phone off and try to pretend that i never met her but somehow that’s worse

so i turn on my phone and i hover over her contact for only a moment before i hit call and once i hear the ringer i ask myself what the fuck i’m doing she probably doesn’t even have my number saved anymore and what am i even going to say i should hang up, but then

“hello?”

#creative writing #writing #this is so unlike anything i ever write #and i don’t know where it came from but it’s late so #poetry? #not sure how to tag #writing pieces #writers on tumblr #writrblr #writers #literally where did this come from #friends to enemies #kinda #lovers to enemies #somewhat #not really enemies but not really not enemies either #poetry

[lilladysims]

This time I'm serious!

*sighs* Well, good news and good-er news. I sure did take on the project of starting from the ground up and it took some time to find my mojo, I'm finally on a save file that isn't confusing me. Let me explain what I've so far

I planned my residential lots out. I went on a hunt to find lots that lacked very little to no custom content; store content was fine being that I'm already used to most of the items.

I planned my community lots out. I knew for the most part I still wanted my open rabbit holes, but some of them weren't necessary, like having the second gym and the nightclub. I also took out the honeymoon lot and the cafe that was across from it that served as a diner. I've now brought back the original diner lot but I've put a new diner on it instead.

Since I already had a wedding venue on the beach, the honeymoon lot was not really needed, but it sure was pretty.

I'm thinking of moving the city hall lot to where the school is and moving the school to the city hall lot. I found a cool school I wanted to use a long time ago before I got into making my own. The one I made is full of CC, and I want this file to be less stuffed with content, so I hope the new school will work out.

There are two big homes names "*** Lofts" that house the Roomies and Working Friends respectively, but finding the just right home for those lots were definitely a task to the point where I just renovated one that was close enough. To be honest I really love how I renewed the place, but the bulk of the work was done by the original creator. I just built off of what was there, but my tweaks are definitely top notch, I must say. So impressed I was with the first build that I duplicated, reversed the bottom floor rooms and then plopped it down on the adjacent lot so now it looks like a condo community. I'm sure that's what the game was going for and I like the idea so much, I want to make some townhomes on my own. I think the community could use more of those for storytelling.

To the lofts I added a pool and park lot in between them. Before it was 3 homes and a pool behind the middle home. But now it's 2 homes with a shared recreation are in between.

Those were the most significant tweaks I could remember. It would have been a good idea to post some photos. I'll be sure to get those when I jumped back in to edit again. So now with everything planned out, I created a new folder called "Custom Lots" where I have everything and any contents they have in there. In this sense, when I'm playing a new save file that I'm starting in Sunset Valley I could just pull from this folder to customize my town to my liking with what I want or don't want play with.

Next task is restyling my Sims (AGAIN). I have to do it only because I haven't moved all of the CC from my other save file which contains my CAS files - but they are merged! No way am I going through all of those to pick out hairs to use. So I'm only working with default CAS in this new save. I'm still going to add as many of the default hair replacements that I can.

I finally created my channel. I would've posted about it but I didn't have another video immediately edited and guess what? I somehow deleted the files I needed to make my third episode, which deems my second upload almost useless. I was a little hurt over losing those files, that I didn't even mention it to anyone and no one asked either. LOL So for now I'm just calling this a soft launch in the meantime and come Monday I'll be down to record again. I'm gonna just start over. It's not like I'm not used to it by now. Ha!

This feels good though. I've come a long way.

#sims 3 #sims 3 gameplay #sunset valley #the sims 3 #ts3 #ts3 simmer

[cfloki]

Software Pūmanawa Object Creation

In this post I will illustrate my process of creating an object in Adobe illustrator 2024 using the skills I have learnt over the past week. I've got to admit this was not a simple process, and I probably did not choose the best object- or animal. In whch i chose to create a cat.

First things first I set up my workspace, bringing out the swatches, gradient and layers tool. I also toggled the control bar at the top of the screen. For my file settings I had it set to pixels and RGB.

Then I begun laying down simple shapes, trying to get a rough understanding of where I wanted to place parts of the cat. I started by using the ellipse tool, creating a circular shape for the head. Next I used the rectangle tool and adjusted the shapes to my liking.

The next thing I did was place additional points on the circle using the + key. I used these points to drag out fur and a muzzle for the cat. I used rougly 3-4 different points around the head for this process.

My next stage was to begin shaping the body and tail of the cat, I rounded it out and created a tail that curves around the body. I did this by using the pen tool and creating some anchor points.

The next step was to try and make some sort of front legs, this, as you can see, did not go very well. it was incredibly difficult and it was very very fustrating. However, I still had to persavere. I created this first front leg using the pen tool.

The next thing I had to do, was create a second front leg. I did this by duplicating the first let and deleting the segments that werent visible from the perspective.

My next two steps were the creation of the Eyes and nose, and the hind leg. The hind leg was the difficult part, trying to get it to sit correctly. The easy part was the eye, I used the ellipse tool once more and then used the gradient tool selecting the second gradient option and then dragging the green up from the swatches. The nose I later changed but it was also fairly simple, just using the pen tool.

A quick short step was just adding the white shine to the eye, all that was nessacary was using the Ellipse tool again but having the stroke and fill set to white. This however is where it went down hill.

You might look at this and go 'hey! thats not the same cat!' its because it isnt, excluding the head. I ran into an issue where when i went to fill the body there was a giant invisible white square, I tried for ages to fix this but only ran into more issues. One of the ways I tried to fix the problem was entirely redoing the body, which is why the shape changed so drastically. After googling and searching for solutions and finding naught I decided on just making the cat white, which wasnt my plan but it was the only thing I could think of. As for the coloring I added an inner ear and redid the nose, setting the stroke and line to two diffrent pinks, one dark and one slightly lighter.

My last and final step was adding some sort of shadow, as the body is nearly fully incolorable I went for adding a shadow to the bottom of the cat and the front leg. You can actually see a bit of the problem square on the front leg shadow. It is incredibly fustrating. This above is the final version of my design. Though not entirely happy with the outcome ( because of the coloring issues ) Its cute enough and i think it demonstrates my learning. I also seperated what I could into layers.

Overall, the most difficult and slowest part was definitly the coloring process I chose the cat because I like cats and know their general anatomy, but I think id choose maybe a building or something next time. I definitly need more practice with the pen tool as its still a bit difficult to wrap my head around.

#adobe illustrator 2024

[shaemeful]

Week Six

This week in Fundies we learnt all about compositing which is the process of combining visual elements from separate sources into one image. Often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene.

We started with a man jumping and were asked to create a clipping mask using the different selection tools we've been recently exploring. I started with the Object Selection tool which did select a large bulk of the man, but as you can see in the images below; it did leave me with a lot to tidy up:

I made a layer mask with what did get selected and duplicated my starting image. In between these two layers I added a green layer and knocked the opacity right back. This is going to make it significantly easier to see what I'm doing moving forward as I carefully edit my layer mask.

As I go through and make selections of different parts, Control + Delete and Option/Alt + Delete will fill the selection with either 'black' or 'white' depending which colour is in the foreground (X toggles this back and forth).

After what felt like an eternity I had my clipping mask complete. To achieve this I used a mixture of the Pen, Elliptical Marquee, Lasso, and Brush tools.

Creating this clipping mask showed me the importance of branching out from my tried and true Pen tool and highlighted how effective all these tools are when used in conjunction.

We then saved this file out, loaded it up into Illustrator, locked our original layer, drew a snake like shape over top, then hid our original layer, and saved this file out. It is important that when you're doing things like this that you aim to keep everything in the same folder. Because you're linking things between the different Adobe programs, if you wanted to take it home or move it between computers you need to take all files related to it with you.

Going back into Photoshop now, we want to place this file so we're going to go File -> Place Linked and then choose Crop to Media Box.

This will place the snake exactly where we drew it in Illustrator. Because we are linking the files, any changes we save in the Illustrator file will automatically update in the Photoshop file.

Here is the shape I created loaded back onto my Photoshop file:

To have the pink weave in and out of the green I layered the pink between duplicates of the green and then erased sections of the top green layer where I wanted the pink to show. Holding Option/Alt while using the Eraser tool in Illustrator will allow you to erase a rectangle at a time.

To complete the image we then superimposed it onto a background of our choosing. I ended up selecting a jungle background because the weaving arrow made me think of vines, so I actually went back into Illustrator and changed the colour of the arrow to a darker green.

For final touches in Photoshop, I added a Curves layer to my clipping mask as well as a Hue/Saturation layer to the entire image:

Until I was left with my final image:

This was my first time ever linking Illustrator and Photoshop files and wow, what a world of possibilities it has opened up. While we covered layer masks in last weeks lesson, I feel like this was the exercise where it all really clicked for me. I am definitely going to have a lot of fun using these tools and skills in future.

#Photoshop #illustrator

[midnighthangintree]

Warning: Image heavy

By popular demand, aka 2 people, here is a gif tutorial. This will include how I do screenshots and actually make the gif. 

You will need: 

Photoshop. I use the Photoshop CC 2021 version but that’s only because I’m paying for it. There are sites you can download Photoshop on but I prefer the legal way. 

MPV player or any screencapping program that takes continuous screencaps. 

IMPORTANT: As I have learned, the video file you use must be 1080p or else they will look like absolute crap. Always try to get a 1080p copy no matter how long it takes. 

THE PROGRAM

As stated before, I use MVP player. That can be downloaded here. If you have a mac, I would move the app off of your desktop after downloading and to the applications folder. That way it is out of your iCloud and saves so much pain and frustration. 

Try to download the 0.29.0 version because later versions on macs have a glitch where there are duplicate screenshots (according to @/kylos). I had to download the 0.29.1 version because the other version won’t open at all for me after the last apple update (fuck bug sur). Anyway, I’ll probably mess up explaining this part so you can find out how to get it working here and here. 

To actually screencap, press option + s. The left and right arrow keys will help you move through the video. For more shortcuts, click here. 

Once that is all downloaded, now you can begin the giffing process.

THE PROCESS

Load the film you want to gif into the program, which is just a simple drag and drop. Then go through and find the scene you want to screencap. 

Once I find the scene, I pause and then press option + s as mentioned above and screencap the scene. Press  option + s again to stop capturing.

Now you go open photoshop and go to File --> script --> load files into stack

Then this will pop up. Hit browse... 

Then open your folder with the screenshots, select the screenshots by dragging down, and then click open.

This is what it should look like. Now go through and delete the extra images you don’t need. 

Now we need to crop the future gif. Click the cropping tool and at the top left there is a way to set the crop dimensions. 

The ones I have saved are Tumblr’s dimension sizes. The height doesn’t matter as much as the width does. For Tumblr; 540px is for one post across, 268px is 2 posts across, and 178px is 3 across. When doing 3 across make the last one 177px or else the last one will be blurry. Click here for more info on sizing. 

Today I’m going to make this 540:280. When you’re satisfied with the crop, click enter. 

Here is where the fun begins! I downloaded @kylos​ gif action here. To activate it double click on it. To view your actions go to window --> actions. A window should pop up with your action. 

There will be a folder in there called GIF ACTION. Open the folder and select the SELECT HERE!. With that selected click on the play button to activate the action. 

Just like magic, you now have a gif! Your layers panel should now look like this. Next we just need to resize the gif. 

Go to Image --> Image size and this box will pop up. 

Resize the image to your crop size and hit ok. Your image will now be a lot smaller. 

Next I go to Filter --> Blur --> Gaussian Blur. Set the blur to 1.0. 

Now this will take away the sharpness when I just want it to be a bit softer. To fix this double-click on the lines next to the smart filter. 

This will bring up another box to change the opacity of the blur. I change it to 20% or less. This one I’ll make 15%. Hit ok when done. 

One last thing is I fix the radius of the sharpening. Click on the bottom sharpening layer. A box should open.

Change the radius to 0.4 and hit ok. 

Before closing, open the timeline window by window --> timeline. If you want to cut down on the frames, grab either one of the grey bars on the beginning and end of the gif and drag to where you want it to start and end. 

It’s now time to save. Go to File --> Export --> Save for Web (Legacy)...

This will pop up. Here you can see how many frames you have and how big the file is. I usually start off as close to 10mb as I can get. There are multiple ways you can save it but here are my settings. 

Then save your gif to wherever you want it. But we aren’t done yet. 

Close the gif. You don’t have to save the psd but you can if you want to. Then reopen the gif in Photoshop. Everything you used before should still be open, aka the windows for actions and timeline. 

Your screen will look like this. As you may notice, the gif speed is all over the place. The best speed for gifs is 0.5. This guide is very helpful. 

To get the gif to that speed, I dowloaded another action here. Add it to your actions as instructed above. 

Open the Change to .05 folder and select the SELECT HERE!. With that selected click on the play button to activate the action, same as above. 

And viola it is now the correct speed! But our gif doesn't look too great. It’s time to fix that up with some coloring. 

COLORING

These are my coloring layers.  Make sure they are on top of all of the layers. 

Here is what it looks like now after the coloring. You may notice the effect has only been added to one layer of the X amount of frames you have.

To fix this select the coloring layers and then go to the 3 lines at the top right of the box. 

Click on this to open a dropdown box and click match layer across frames. 

Make sure all the checks are marked and hit ok. 

Now all the layers have the coloring layers applied. 

Remember when we were saving the gif and it was over 10mb. Well now it’s time to fix that. 

I like to go in and check the size after coloring because sometimes that can lower the gif size. 

It did in this case so that creates less work. Close out of that and go back to your timeline. It’s time to delete some frames. 

You can select multiple frames at once by holding down shift as you select. I typically click around 5 to 10 at a time and make sure you don’t miss a single frame. I’m going to select more towards to the end. 

Then click delete (the trashcan icon). 

Go back to export. If it is still too big delete some frames. In my case it was still too big so I have to delete more frames. 

I now have it to around where I want it. It is less than 10 mb and sometimes that is better. So save your gif. I usually save it as [filename]final. 

QUALITY

To check the quality of the gif I go to Tumblr and go to make a photo post. 

DO NOT post. Instead save it as a draft. Go to your drafts and see how it looks from your dash. If it looks pixelated then go back into photoshop and delete fames. Repeat the following steps until it is to your liking. 

And then you have your final product! 

I hope this was helpful to you and I can’t wait to see what you create with this. 

#tutorial #yeahps #completeresources #resources #gif tutorial #quirkyresources #hisources #my giffs #rey #star wars #swedit #starwarsedit #daylightresources #jessielynnposts #i struggled with this can't you tell lol

[fu-yao]

#showyourprocess

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Thank you so much for tagging me @lan-xichens​, I’ll try my best to explain how I made this set from start to finish hehe ♡ and also a big thank you to @suibianjie​ @highwarlockkareena​ @nyx4​ @aheartfullofjolllly​ and you as well Kris for putting this all together! Content creators get a lot less recognition than they deserve for all the time they put into their content, so getting everyone to see the (sometimes excessive) process we all go through to put our content in our blog, I hope it creates a positive change!! 💖

1. Planning

The set in question was actually requested by someone so they could celebrate their friend’s birthday! At first I wasn’t entirely sure if I was going to be able to finish it on time (college is very hectic right now) but I was able to finish it three days before the deadline which was may 1st! ^-^

The first thing I did was decide what characters I wanted to use in the set, I first reached out to the person who requested the set if there were certain characters they wanted me to use but they said they didn’t know enough to really give me any directives outside of the quote. I decided, since the quote is applicable to the entirety of the show, that I would try to put in as many characters as possible.

Thus, of course, came the hunting for scenes. Those of you in the net discord surely know I came into the content help channel a few times to ask for certain scenes here and there, and eventually I had to download an additional 10 episodes to the back then 20 or so episodes I had in my CQL episodes folder.

As you can see I have 30 random episodes of CQL downloaded (slowly but surely getting to the point where I have all 50 episodes downloaded) and I think I ended up using scenes out of at least 20 of those episodes.

I planned out beforehand what characters I would use per gif. I knew obviously I would start out with Wangxian, them being the main characters of the show, and then would work my way down the list. The second gif consists of Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue, Jin Zixuan, Jiang Yanli, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning. They’re all family pairings, two being siblings and one being a married couple. The next gifset consists of the Yi City characters, then the fourth gif consists of the juniors, and the final gif has Jin Guangyao, Mianmian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Xichen in it.

I have to admit though that when I had made the first four gifs I’d forgotten who I would put in the last gif and the when I thought about it the first time around I could only think of Lan Qiren and the very cursed Yaoyang ship 😭 it was only at dinner time that same day that I remembered I hadn’t put Jiang Cheng in my gifset yet and that’s when I thought of the other characters as well.

I had already made my first two gifs when I went to check Hanyi’s blog for layout inspo and eventually I decided I wanted to try a triangle-ish layout, which I doodled below. I eventually ended up changing the layout of the last gif in the final design. It was also the first time I would work with a triangle-ish layout so I was a bit nervous as I was scared it wasn’t going to work out...

2. Creating

I use Avisynth 2.5 and Adobe Photoshop 2021 (the paid version, unfortunately, I need it for school except I didn’t need it this year but I wanted it so I paid for it with my own money ouch) to make my gifsets! I always start out with trimming down all the scenes I’m going to use into three to five second videos and putting them through Avisynth. This time around I did it separately for each gif I made, simply because I needed so many scenes. I would include a screenshot of my “gif vids” and “temp” folders but I’ve already deleted all the videos, which is what I usually do immediately after a set is posted.

I’ll try my best explaining this gif by gif since each one had a different layout!

2.1 Wangxian

I think I had up to five different designs of this gif 😭 it started out with the gif on the left originally being more centered and the quote right smack in the center but somehow it felt a bit too... empty? I changed up the design and pulled the gif over to the right and put the two closeups on the left, the exact opposite of the gif I eventually ended up with. I switched things around one more time and saved the gif as you can see it right now, except I didn’t include the lines yet. It was only as I finished up my fourth gif that I decided this gif needed lines as well so I added them ^-^

2.2 Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue, Jin Zixuan, Jiang Yanli, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning

I got the inspiration for the font layout on this gif from this Wenzhou post! I hadn’t tried it before and when I did for this gif I was very happy with the way it turned out :D I wanted to portray that life is a pile of good and bad things, as the quote says, in CQL by mirroring these happy scenes side by side with the sad scenes

2.3 Yi CIty

My first time working with the triangle layout!! Putting in the lines and making sure they would line up with the second gif took me the longest of all actually  😭 I think once I got the line on the left in I just copy pasted it and flipped it horizontally so I didn’t have to fiddle around with angling it anymore :’) my original idea was to get a happy Song Lan scene and a sad A-Qing scene, but when I stumbled upon this A-Qing scene in ep38 I just had to put it in there because her smile is so precious 🥺 Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen in the center are also supposed to be mirrored, with Xue Yang embodying the “bad things” and Xiao Xingchen the “good things” ! I also think the Yi City characters fit this part of the quote very well!!

2.4 The Juniors

Ah yes, the junior quartet!! :D I had this planned out from the very beginning, that I would include happy versus sad juniors in the “vice versa” part of the quote, and I think it worked out quite well! My first idea was to put the “vice versa” completely in the special font and have it typed out over the gifs like I did with the “vice” but as I typed out the “versa” I realized it had one letter too much to be able to do that 😭😭 it took me a while to come up with how I would position the “but” and “versa” and after some moving around I decided to just place them the way I did in the final gif! For the font, I duplicated the “vice” and added a stroke to the duplicate, then I changed the fill setting to 0% so I could slightly drag the duplicate away from the original layer to create the effect that’s in the gif — also, finding a scene in which Jin Ling smiles is really difficult.... he barely even smiles in the scene I ended up using :(

2.5 Jin Guangyao, Mianmian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Xichen

The final gif!! I feel like this might come a little across as “I promise I didn’t forget these characters” because they’re a very odd quadruplet to put together, but they were the most important characters left to put in the set! I was thinking of putting Nie Mingjue in here together with Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen, but I did feel he fit more with his brother up in the second gif. Mei @mylastbraincql​ cheered me on making this gif for which I was very grateful :D <3 the layout came to be after I googled “how to evenly split a rectangle in four” because I didn’t want a repeat layout in the set  (*/∇＼*)

2.6 Coloring

For the coloring I pretty much did all of the tweaking on the first gif and then copy pasted all of it onto the second, third, fourth, and fifth gif. This is usually the way I go about my coloring, I will always edit certain gifs if necessary but I don’t think I had to change the coloring much on any of these gifs? Maybe I added in a curve layer here and there, but nothing major! This is really one of my preferred coloring styles, even though I try to step outside of my comfort zones with other sets ^-^

3. Posting

I will always upload sets into my drafts and edit the caption in there as well, clicking on “preview post” a couple times to check everything looks good on my blog as well, before I post a set. However, this time, since there was a deadline and I finished before the deadline, I put this set in the queue so it would automatically post on the 1st of may! Knowing myself, I would’ve forgotten to do so </3

Whew that was... a lot 😭 did it make any sense? Probably not, but it was fun to ramble （ ´∀｀）

I’ll tag

@blinkplnk​ with this set !

@wuxien​ with this set !

@wendashanren​ with this set !

@wanyinxichen​ with this set !

@yibobibo​ with this set !

@mylastbraincql​ with this set !

@sugarbabywenkexing​ with this set !

@yiling-recesses​ with this set !

@jiancheng​ with this set !

Please feel totally free to ignore this if you’ve already been tagged and don’t want to do it again!! <3

#showyourprocess #tag game #this got so long i'm sorry ;-; #very curious to see everyone else's processes!! #thank you for the tag kris <3

[doiedreams]

Order Up ◈ z.cl

brought to you by the Neo’clock Past and Future New Years event by @nct-writers

◈⇢ Synopsis: During a busy shift at the Neo Drive-In Diner, your crush from school, Zhong Chenle, and his popular group of friends pull up. They order food, as expected, but Chenle has another request for you.

◈⇢ Genre: Fluff, 1950s AU, high school AU, retro drive-in diner

◈⇢Pairing: High school crush!Chenle x Waitress!reader (fem)

◈⇢ Warnings: many mentions of food

PLEASE NOTE: Per usual with my fics, Tumblr duplicated a paragraph. Please don’t mind it :) thank you!

⇢ [EDIT: it deleted a paragraph too D: Tumblr, apologize >:(]

⇢ [EDIT: lmao nvm I fixed it ayee 😎]

◈⇢ WC: 1.6k words

“Order up!”

Sighing at the call of yet another order, you adjust your pink roller skates before gliding over to the counter to collect the finished order from one of the cooks who’s clearly had a long shift, as you could tell from the tone of his voice. Through the noises of the busy kitchen with burgers grilling, french fries sizzling, and fellow carhop waitresses skating back and forth from inside the kitchen to the vehicles parked outside, you could still make out the lyrics to Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock playing from the speakers.

“I sure would be delighted with your company,” you sing along, “Come on ‘n do the Jailhouse Rock with me.”

“Y/n! Hurry up already!” You jump at the sound of the head waitress’ voice, interrupting your mini sing-along. Straightening your posture, you say, “Yes ma’am.” 

Balancing two trays of food on your left arm, you read the written order in your right. Light blue Ford Thunderbird, 2 bacon cheeseburger meals, 2 strawberry milkshakes. You skate out the door, careful not to drop the trays of food, and pass by a row of cars until you see the light blue convertible the meals belonged to. Displaying your brightest smile and cheeriest voice, you stop at the side of the car and read, “Two bacon cheeseburger meals with a pair of strawberry milkshakes?”

The older couple in the vehicle nodded their heads. “That’s us,” the man in the driver’s seat stated. You pass over their meals and napkins, collect the money, and wish them a good meal before heading back into the kitchen.

It’s been a very busy shift, considering it’s a Saturday afternoon, and it’s definitely kept you on your toes. On days like this, you’re especially thankful for the swift and easy transportation you’re provided by the roller skates you and the other waitresses are ordered to wear with your uniform - a collared button-down top, a poodle skirt, and a half apron. And of course you can’t forget the perky little hat with your restaurant’s logo on it. The smell of the food, the laughter, the rock music playing on the radio, and the feel of the wind blowing by you on your skates as your skirt swayed in the wind - it all makes this job worthwhile.

Before you reach the doors to go back inside, a honking noise behind you stops you in your tracks. You turn toward the car pulling up in an empty spot and prepare to take their order. Hurriedly, you pat down your uniform trying to find your notepad tucked away somewhere in one of the pockets. Although distracted, you decide to waste no time and get right into your introduction while still searching for the notepad. “Hi there and thank you for stopping at Neo’s Drive-In Diner, the finest carhop service in-“

“Well if it isn't Y/N L/N.” You’re interrupted by the voice of one of the most popular boys at your high school.

Looking up, you meet the eyes of Lee Jeno, sitting in the passenger’s seat, and give him a polite smile. “That’s me. It’s good to see you, Jeno.”

“Hey.” Behind the wheel, and closest to you, sat Zhong Chenle, the boy you’ve been crushing on since you’ve met him. With his elbow propped up on the car door, he greets you with his charming smile.

“Hey,” you respond, smiling a little too hard. You turn towards the back of the car and wave at his other two friends, Jisung and Jaemin. The four of them, as well as a few other friends that complete their clique, are the most talked about kids in your high school. Although you don’t consider yourself popular at all, you have grown a bit of a friendship with Chenle, who you’ve just recently started growing comfortable speaking to on a regular basis. With your budding friendship with Chenle, you’ve also grown closer with his popular group of friends.

“Nice wheels,” Chenle complimented, pointing at your skates.

Flattered, you giggle and thank him. “And you too! What is that, a ‘57 Chevrolet Corvette?”

He raises his eyebrows. “Ah, so you know your cars, huh? Impressive.”

“I do see a whole lot of ‘em these days, ” you say, gesturing towards the several automobiles around you.

Flashing his incredibly attractive smile, Chenle beams at you, making you shyly look down at your skates while adjusting the collar of your uniform.

“Uh, yeah... enough of the flirting. This is my ride by the way. He’s just driving it ‘cause he begged me to let him,” Jeno laughs, ignoring Chenle’s hard glare. “He thinks he’s hip now since he got his license the other day.”

“Well, you look like you were made for the driver’s seat,” you wink at him, somehow hiding the shock you felt at the unexpected boost of confidence you just displayed. Raising the notepad you finally found in the waistband of your skirt, you ask, “What can I get you, boys?”

“What’re you doing talking to those dreamboats over there?” your friend and coworker Molly says, nudging your side with her elbow as you both stood in the kitchen waiting for your next deliveries.

“Just... talking,” you say, eyeing her.

“Isn’t that Chenle and his crew?”

You turn to look out the window and see Chenle running his hand through his hair, checking himself out in the side view mirror of the car. He and his friends were singing along to the radio while waiting for their food. Something about Chenle in his varsity cardigan and slacks, sitting in the front seat of a shiny, red convertible was so attractive to you.

“Yup, that’s them.”

“When’re you gonna ask Chenle out?” she says with a smirk.

You turn towards her, wide-eyed. “What?! What makes you think I wanna ask him out?”

She shrugs and raises her hands in defense. “I dunno. It couldn’t possibly be because of the countless times you’ve been caught staring at him in geography class.” You glare at the evident sarcasm in her tone. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to ask out someone as dreamy as him.”

“Exactly. I’m sure someone already has and he’s not available for me to ask out anyways. Hell, he may even have a date later tonight.”

Molly rolls her eyes. “Whatever, y/n. I find that real hard to believe. He seems into you.”

You gape at her, unconvinced, and look back out the window where you met Chenle’s gaze. You quickly hide your face, wondering if he was really staring at you or looking for someone with their orders to speed up.

“Order up! Red Chevrolet Corvette. Four burger and fries combos. Four Coca-Colas.”

Molly pats your back and you take that as a cue to pick up their orders and deliver them. At the counter, you grab all four meals and shuttle them out to the car with ease. As you approach the car, the boys cheer, hoot, and holler at the arrival of their food, turning the heads of the customers in the surrounding vehicles.

“Alright, alright,” you laugh, as you begin to quiet them down, passing out the trays. As soon as they receive their meals, they begin digging in like animals, except for Chenle who was taking out his wallet to pay you.

“Here. Keep the change,” he says, placing the money in your hand as you feel a much heavier amount than expected. Before you can object to the extra pay, he says, “Oh, and I have something to ask you”, leaning closer to you from his seat, separating himself from the noise his friends were making.

“What’s up?”

“So, we’re planning on watching A Night To Remember at the drive-in cinema later tonight. If you want, we can pick you up after your shift and drive over there together. We might even go bowling after the movie. I mean, you don’t have to, of course. I know these guys can be a bit wild but Jeno’s bringing a date anyways and you wouldn’t even have to talk to the others if you don’t wanna-” He stops himself, noting the shocked expression on your face. “I’m sorry…”

“No! No, no need to be sorry for anything, I just- I- You want me to come with you?” you question.

“If it’s alright with you,” he says, with a hopeful look on his face. “I know taking a girl out on a date typically doesn’t involve rowdy friends, but uh-”

“A date? Chenle, I’d be glad to be your date under any circumstances,” you say, smiling widely at the offer.

“Really? Sweet! I’ll pick you up in a couple of hours.”

“Sounds good!”

You could hardly hide your excitement. You skate twice as fast back to the kitchen and almost forget you’re still on the job. As soon as you find Molly, you share the news of your date with Chenle and the both of you nearly squeal with delight before Molly is called to take another order. Turning around, watching her skate out the door, you make eye contact with Chenle who must have seen you freak out with Molly just seconds earlier.

You stand there staring at him, frozen and slightly embarrassed, and he stares back with his burger up to his mouth. After a few seconds of unbroken eye contact, he starts laughing. His laughter immediately brings a smile to your face and soon enough, you’re laughing with him through the window. His friends begin to wonder what he’s laughing at and why, and you see the expression on Chenle’s face shift once the boys start teasing him and laughing. Now that it’s his turn to be embarrassed, you find the exchange quite hilarious. Watching him made the grin on our face stretch from ear to ear.

“You better not be flirting with customers on the job, young lady.” The head waitress said from behind you, reeling you back into the present.

“Order up!”

a/n: thank you for reading hehe :3

#neoclock #nct-writers #neowritingsnet #neothestars #cznnet #kpopscape #chenle #zhong chenle #chenle x reader #nct dream fluff #nct fluff #nct drabbles #nct imagines #nct dream imagines #chenle fluff #kay’s creations

[griimhilde-a]

if you know, you know.

———       a response to those who refuse to move on.

EDIT: after some encouragement and realizing that, while i tried to be respectful and private about this situation, i was not given the same treatment, i’ve decided to be upfront and filterless. here is a link to my page of receipts that i did not provide in this post. 

i would like to point out that when i made the DNI, it was buried and sandwiched in my super long rules purposely so that it wasn’t explicitly visible and drawing attention. it was specifically put there for mutuals to understand my boundaries for the new blog, and as soon as i moved blogs, my guidelines underwent heavy reconstruction and the DNI section was removed overall ( i don’t like DNIs for myself ), as well as on this blog. all statements made in the DNI were what i felt to be true and based off of not only my experiences, but others’ as well, backed up with evidence i have saved that i didn’t feel the need to provide because it wasn’t meant to be a big deal, but i also felt i needed to explain why this person was on a DNI and that it wasn’t done out of malicious intent. again, if something sounds bad it is because “bad” things were done and i can’t control that.

reading the call-out had me ( and others ) confused on where it was i had bullied her, when i had her blocked since november, where it was i had manipulated her, and so forth. i’m always wanting to be a better person, so i was extremely confused on where i had done anything wrong. i also didn’t appreciate my new blog url being attached to it as it had nothing to do with it and i was trying to move forward, and it read very much like an attempt to blacklist. despite everything, i never wanted it to be a spectacle. the pinned, public call-out by this person doesn’t read to me as someone wanting to move on, but wanting to drag things further. this is not a call-out post, this is me defending myself. i will not name drop. if you know who this is about, i ask you just read this to understand the full story. 

this is going to be a long boi ( i really tried to keep it short but alkfjdklfksldf nope ). i would also like to apologize for any dryness here, but i am aiming to just state facts as they are. it feels    ----    ridiculous writing this all out because it’s something that could and should have been handled privately. but, here we go !!

everything on the DNI is true. i will not post or reveal the sources because one, they are not my stories to tell, and two, i am not going to give her the excuse to bother them. they deserve to be safe, and i am walking proof of what happens when you speak out against someone like her. if i have to bear that burden, then so be it. 

it stopped being about “just a url” a long time ago. it became more about how i was treated in that interaction, and how i was continued to be treated afterwards. not to mention the increasing tension within the rpc and having to second-guess whether or not i was truly wanted. it was about how it was affecting those around me, my time in a hobby i love, and my mental health. the amount of times a mutual has tagged me by accident when they meant to tag her is insane. it most definitely did not feel good !!! if that kept happening, it was a problem. i also had to shut off the anon feature because of the amount of anons i was receiving. some had good intentions, but others had resorted to hate. 

regarding the messages on discord --- i stand by them. i thought if you were friends with someone on discord and have previously talked over time, it was okay to message, otherwise what was the point of discord? i didn't realize it would make her uncomfortable to do so, and i’m more careful about how i approach people now !!! 

regarding the messages: there was no change in tone other than that i grew exhausted and extremely anxious ( shaking !!! palms sweaty !!! knees weak !!!! mom’s spaghetti !!! ) and wasn’t in the proper mindset to sound happy while i was being invalidated to my face. i have even apologized there if i came off as mean. i don’t “present myself” in a way. that’s just how i talk, i prefer communicating one-on-one and i try to alleviate tension that arises no matter what because these types of conversations aren’t always a walk in the park. i wanted things to be good and not stressful for all parties involved. i’m sorry my tone came off as insincere. after being in desc rpc for a year, i was a little surprised seeing a near-identical url so i think it was fair for me to message her about it. she made the decision use it, and i was allowed to react. it was said misspellings in urls made her anxious so i wanted to help and i was shot down and vilified, essentially told i made her feel unsafe and shouldn’t have messaged. if it wasn’t okay to claim i felt “unsafe” and “paranoid”, why was it okay for her to claim the same based on a choice she made herself, but not me to feel anxious about those choices? 

i have never told a blog to block her. i have never initiated conversation about her, nor have i spoken negatively about her as a person. ever. i have, in fact, even stated that i didn’t want anyone blocking and that it would be okay to interact. here’s one example after i was approached about her. i cannot control what other people do.

hardblocking her on my end was to avoid seeing her on dash as much as possible. 

i am allowed to softblock / unfollow people who interact with her after months of trying to be okay with it. what kickstarted this process was someone i thought was a close friend had dropped me and suddenly i realized i didn’t need to sacrifice my comfort for the sake of keeping a mutual. if they could do it, so could i. while i adore the descendants rpc, the rpc is not a family, we’re not obligated to interact IC or be mutuals with every single person in the rpc. it’s not causing a rift when we don’t interact on dash. i have even emphasized that i would love to stay in contact via discord and write there if possible !! why am i being vilified for trying to make my blog a safe space for me?

regarding the “vagues”: they were all responses. a mutual wrote the post, i reblogged it, my tags were in response to the post ( said mutual’s url wasn’t even blocked out so ... ). if it felt like a vague, i can’t control that. the meaning behind the url post was circulating on dash, i didn’t see any vaguing in it other than me recounting my process of choosing this url, which was true ( was i not allowed to participate?? ). the shrek meme was in response to a public dash event ( which i originally thought was a joke ) that had received copious amounts of criticism for. it wasn’t a vague and it was explicit on what it was referring to, it was meant to be silly dash commentary, nothing deep. 

this is in my rules but i have explicitly stated that my headcanons about my characters are not a vague if they differ from yours. the talk about hair styles was actually initiated in a conversation with my friends in private. it had absolutely nothing to do with her. if it sounded like a drag, i encourage everyone to look at how i’ve “dragged” many other things including the original outfits for descendants, evie thinking mermaid dresses are ugly, evie not liking wine, and so forth. my portrayal of evie =/= other portrayals of evie. while she may never do so-and-so, it doesn’t make it wrong for another portrayal to do it. ( why was my blog being kept tabs on and compared with, in the first place? that’s not duplicate friendly ).

regarding sex week: i've stated it was an inappropriate event because the descendants rpc had been heavily criticized for smutting and felt it wasn't the best response, nor was it the best way to promote sex positivity. it was insanely uncomfortable to witness, as someone in this rpc. it doesn’t matter if the people or the muses involved were adults, i would still call it inappropriate had it happened in any other rpc. it wasn’t a “block and move on” situation. i’m also allowed to defend myself because i didn’t want to be associated with something she posted. i didn’t want it tied to my url. i would like to clarify that when i said "embarrassing" in the responses under that anon, it was directed at the anon for misreading the url, nobody else. ostracizing occurred when the descendants rpc was being added to DNIs because of sex week / smutting, which was posted by this person ( if you post it, you start it. simple ). i had been blocked simply because i am a descendants blog and that had never happened before. 

i was also notified that people uninvolved with this have been namedropping me on dash in an attempt to have me “written off” ( their words, not mine ) because my rules stated that i was open to exploring evie’s sexuality. below is a screenshot of my rule regarding smut. i deleted the rules page from this blog when i moved so i snatched it from my other canon descendants blog that i reuse on all blogs. the second is my elaboration on sexual content in my new evie rules. the third is what’s on my google doc, a condensed version of my rules. there is a major difference between smutting and posting a public dash event dedicated to sex versus being open to explore sexuality as a topic. they are not the same. also, me not choosing to smut does not dictate my opinion on smut, so do not make assumptions about that either. if you want to move on, why are you still talking about me on dash, especially when unprompted? if you just want to move on, why are you upset that i’m not “written off”?

this person has vagued me multiple times ( which they conveniently did not show in the call-out ), this person has been shown to talk badly of me in private ( and now, publicly as well )    ----    all of which i have not done. i have screenshots sent by others to show for it, but do not feel it’s relevant to share because this is not about her. this is just about defending myself. 

i have spent three months apologizing for feeling things, apologizing for reacting, apologizing for things i should not have been apologizing for. i have spent so long accepting blame because i felt it would help. i’m done doing that. i know what i did and what i didn’t do. people know what i did and didn’t do.

all in all, i am confused on why a call-out was made when the content provides nothing other than catty remarks meant to air out personal drama. the messages exchanged only show how i tried to remedy things. the screenshots of my “vagues” were just responses, and most of which had nothing to do with this person. my initial silly dash commentary and later discomfort over a sexual dash event posted by this person is not a vague. 

if you ( referring to maker of the call-out and others who partook ) are upset about people not talking about me in regards to the “rest of the call-out”, maybe consider the fact that there was nothing about me in it that warranted a call-out in the first place. people saw that i did nothing wrong. the only thing of substance in the call-out was something the maker themselves did : the public, sexual dash event. people are allowed to identify that as a more prominent issue as opposed to how my messages or public posts could be perceived through basic, biased narrative manipulation.

me deciding to unfollow / softblock blogs that interact with this person =/= involving the descendants rpc or making it public. i am allowed to softblock whoever i want to cultivate my dash experience. most people i know have it in their rules that they are okay with people softblocking for their comfort and that it won’t be taken personally. you know what IS making it public and involving the entire descendants rpc? this person messaging a descendants server and name dropping me in the server, reducing the situation to just being about a “url” and publicly announcing it in the server. here are the facts to consider: her message was sent jan. 21. my DNI went up feb 2. 

so, regarding the call-out: there was no bullying, no manipulation, no harassment, no gaslighting, nothing from my end, and the call-out shows precisely that the claims are just that: claims. whatever was felt is valid, but feelings =/= gravity of the actual action itself - the most common thing pointed out in therapy: feelings are valid, but are they justified? call-outs should be reserved for people who cause actual harm, not because someone wants an excuse to blacklist. if i am a “bully” for unfollowing blogs for my own comfort, then i think the rpc really needs to reevaluate what these terms mean because the misuse is harmful. 

here are the things i did do: treated everyone i talked to with respect. approached things civilly. communicated. tried to accommodate for others. attempted to make a safe space for myself. did not involve the entire rpc by announcing it in a server. did not make a call-out post nor pin it. did not continue to name drop afterwards despite claiming to want to move on.

this entire situation is absurd and should have never been public, much less made a call-out for !! while this was meant to defend myself and state facts, i understand it may not change minds. a friend has told me that people will hate me because they want to hate me, no matter what. and i can’t do anything about that !! all i have to say is that holding hate in your heart never ends well. i hope everyone can find peace at some point.

so please, let me move on. let me write with my friends. let me unfollow / softblock people to keep my dash comfortable. let me take a break from descendants while also having the choice to return at anytime. please stop talking about me when i’m not even giving this another thought and haven’t since i moved blogs. please stop name dropping. stop keeping tabs on me, stop stalking my new blog. please leave me alone. i hold absolutely nothing against anyone i may have softblocked / unfollowed or am not currently interacting with on my new blog. my IMS / discord is always available, you will not be violating my safety by messaging me, everyone is welcome, but i also understand if you feel the need to separate yourself !!! as for those of you who have interacted with the call-out post, i wish you the best but i hope you understand why i do not want to interact with you by any means in the future. 

i’m hoping this post lays everything to rest, seeing as my first one did not. honestly, what are you trying to prove if you still have to post about this? it helps nobody. this back-and-forth is exhausting and unneeded. no more. let’s be better people, yeah?

i hope everyone takes care of themselves, i hope you all have a great day / night !!! thank you for reading this long boi !!

#this is a long boi. #thank u to everyone who's offered their support these past few days! #i refuse to let people push me out with baseless claims !!! #so here are all the facts #i really don't want to talk about this anymore but if u need proof of the things this person has done u can msg me #otherwise. this ends here. #pls don't reblog!

[9worldstales]

MCU Loki Ep 2 “The Variant” intensive analysis

So, the 2nd “Loki” episode come out and, again, I couldn’t stop myself from talking about it.

Beware about spoilers!

After a brief summary that’s basically made by showing us the most relevant scenes of Episode 1 we’ve the Marvel opening, this time with its usual music… though the Marvel studios logo is still in green and gold.

We start this episode in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1985, the year of “Back of the future”, only there’s no Martin or Doc or the DeLorean, but just some sort of medieval fair.

Pity.

Anyway Minutemen get on the place and didn’t care at all about how they’re attracting the general attention with their look. We know why, because they think to reset the timeline before leaving so it’s not like their magical apparition might change something.

They believe they’ve detected the Variant so they enter in a tent thinking they can capture them… only to fall straight in a trap, as the Variant was waiting for them, starting a registration as soon as they are where the Variant wants them to be.

Yeah, the registration was meant to be for the show that should have taken place there but the Minutemen are smart enough to get it’s a trap.

After a recorded message that seem to imply in that tent there was meant to happen some sort of contest or show about saving a princess…

My lords, my ladies, welcome and thank you for joining us, here at the castle. Please, settle into your seats for a great battle is about to commence. The prize? Our princess. Will evil prevail, or are we holding out for a hero?

…the song by Bonnie Tyler “Holding Out For A Hero” starts and, as it does Hunter C-20 gets possessed by the Variant (we can see a hand touching her head, green magic on the tip of its finger, and then Hunter C-20’s eyes take an odd green colouring for a moment, a sign she’s possessed) and starts murdering out her own men in a joint effort with the Loki Variant. However while she fights she suddenly drops unconscious and a figure in a cape, clearly our Variant, stabs with her sword the last minuteman. Then, as usual, the Variant steals from the Minuteman what she needs and, this time, also kidnaps Hunter C-20 before disappearing.

Many have seen in the scene a reference to the Shrek 2 scene in which Shrek and his friends storm the castle in order to stop Fiona from kissing Charming, disguised as Shrek.

Me, I would just want to know if the princess is meant to be Hunter C-20 or this Loki Variant.

We’ll see.

Well, anyway we get the Loki title and them we find ourselves with Loki reading a jet ski magazine when Miss Minute would want him to review what he had learnt instead. She tries to quiz him but, although Loki seems to know the answers, he’s not interested in being quizzed, defining it boring.

His attention focuses on Miss Minute, asking her if she’s a recording or alive. She explains she’s both.

Loki looks around then tries to test it, rolling the magazine and attempting to use it to hit Miss Minute, who jumps around in an effort to avoid his blows. He seems to have fun. If this is idea of venting for the mistreatment he suffered at the hands of the TVA or he’s just being playful that’s up to speculation.

Miss Minute escapes inside the pc, complaining he’s being a jerk.

Mobius joins him and from his dialogue we discover the magazine is actually Mobius’ not Loki’s. The guy gives him a package, telling him they’ve to go and that he has to wear what’s inside it, which is actually a jacket, which Loki wears.

They join the others and Hunter B-15 explains how C-20 and her team disappeared in 1885 and they expect it to be an ambush by a Loki Variant, although they don’t know which kind of Loki Variant it can be. Loki suggests they’re the lesser kind, lesser than him, of course.

Hunter B-15 demands to see the back of his jacket on which we can see the writing Variant. She laughs seeing the writing, mockingly, the way one would when he has managed to put an insulting sign on someone’s back without them realizing.

Loki points out she was very subtle in it and she explains she doesn’t want anyone to forget who he is… which, I guess, means Hunter B-15 found yellow, star shaped badges too subtle or maybe not fitting to everyone they deemed a less human to prune away.

Still Loki asks her back if she means they shouldn’t forger he’s their only hope of capturing a murderer.

B-15, who never believed him to be capable of something, correct him saying they should never forget he’s ‘a cosmic mistake’. In short the writing is there to make him recognizable, to ostracize and to humiliate him. He’s not like them, he’s a Variant.

She’s not doing this because he’s dangerous and they should be wary of him, just because he shouldn’t exist.

Mobius states that this is enough… which hints he’s not enjoying this, but he allowed it to happen and didn’t even warn or prepare Loki about it.

Long story short he’s clearly different from B-15 who relishes in all this (and mind you, this is not a critic to Wunmi Mosaku, who’s awesome in the part, just to her character) but he still doesn’t really take a big stance against it as he stopped it only when it dragged on too long.

Mobius brings them back to business, telling everyone they’re looking for a Loki, a variation of the guy with them. He reminds them they should be familiar with Loki because they had pruned more Loki Variants than any other Variant and they’re all different, in appearances.

As Mobius speak we’re shown some Loki Variations with their numbers. Our Loki is the Variant L1130.

I wanted to check the numbers near the Lokis but it seems there had been a mistake in the handling of the numbers

Jotun Loki appears to have first the number L1247 but in the close up it switches to L6792

Cyclist Loki is L1247 and the hulking one is L6792 while the green dressed one is L8914 and the last one with the big helmet is L7803.

Long story short Jotun Loki has probably 2 wrong numbers pasted on himself as they belong to other variations but all the Lokis’ numbers has in common the letter L at the beginning which I guess, stands for Loki.

The visual makes something interesting, projecting the various variants on Loki, which makes us immediately aware of the differences but also reminds us they’re all still Loki.

What leaves me perplex is how those Variants became so different from the original Loki. I mean, our Loki was caught few minutes after he escaped. Unless those Loki managed to escape to the TVA for a while (which would risk the timeline to reach a red line so it seems unlikely it happened) how did they manage to deviate so much from how they were meant to be in the Sacred Timeline?

I mean cyclist Loki would have needed the time to take part to a race to in that cup!

It’s true that in this episode it will turn out the TVA worries only of deviations that impact the timeline, so maybe the TVA started worrying late in their case but it’s still weird.

Anyway Mobius starts digging into the powers they’ve in common which are shape-shifting, illusion-projection, duplication-casting and Mobius’ favourite, which we don’t get to hear as Loki interrupts Mobius saying he got one of the names of his power wrong, it’s Duplication-casting, not Illusion-projection and explains the differences between the two, finishing with:

“But you already knew that.”

… which they didn’t. In short it’s Loki’s turn to point out they act as if they know him when they don’t know him and his powers as well as they think and that he’s actually of some use.

On a sidenote there’s to wonder which one is Mobius’ Loki’s favourite power and if it’s meant to be relevant. This Variant showed it could posses people, and I wonder if what happened to Selvig at the end of “Thor” is a hint our Loki can as well. Our Loki could travel through the secret paths… in “Thor” he could spell his knives, which we know he can make appear out of nowhere. In deleted scenes we learn he could cause mist to appear. “Thor: Ragnarok” said Loki turned Thor into a frog. I wouldn’t mind if he were to start turn people of the TVA into frogs.

Anyway Mobius accepts his explanation and tells the others they’re gonna break in two teams, one of which will include himself and ‘professor Loki’.

B-15’s words about Loki being a cosmic failure clearly made an impression as one of the minutemen question the idea and Mobius is forced to admit since they can’t find this Loki Variant they need an ‘expert’.

Loki takes his chance to remind everyone that by expert Mobius means him. He’s there because he has a use, an importance, a role and they shouldn’t look down on him.

The scene switches.

Loki and Mobius are walking toward the door that will bring them in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1985.

Loki, repeating a pattern seen in “Thor: The Dark World” asks for a weapon…

Loki (Thor: The Dark World): “You could at least furnish me with a weapon. My dagger, something!”

Loki (Loki): “Do I get a weapon?”

…which Mobius refuses to give him. Loki though points out once out of the TVA he’ll have his magic back and asks Mobius if no one is worried he’ll betray them.

Loki: “Well, I'll have my magic back. Is no one concerned about that?”

Mobius: “Of what?”

Loki: “Me betraying you.”

This also is something we saw in “Thor: The Dark World”.

Loki: “You must be truly desperate to come to me for help. What makes you think you can trust me?”

Mobius can’t say Frigga did trust him or that he promises him vengeance in exchange of loyalty so he tries to go for something he knew Loki wanted, a meeting with the Time-Keepers. Considering Renslayer, who’s above Mobius, couldn’t grant Loki that, if I were in Loki I would genuinely doubt Mobius can. He just tries to dangle in front of his eyes something Loki might want to win him over.

Loki pauses as Mobius mentions he could meet the Time-Keepers and asks if that’s what’s on the table. Mobius doesn’t really give him a straight answer, just a ‘Keep that focus’.

I wonder if Loki really wants to meet the three space lizards or he just let Mobius believe so because, by acting that way, he made clear he’s interested.

Oh, now that I look at it behind the helmets of the minutemen there are codes which could be their identification codes or names, since they don’t seem to use names.

B-15 has obviously written B-15 while other minutemen had much longer codes.

The group arrives in 1985 and Loki makes a relevant question:

“Let me ask you this, why don't we just travel back to before the attack, when the Variant first arrives?”

It’s something many viewers have been wondering and it turns out that the answer is:

“Nexus events destabilize the time flow. This branch is still changing and growing, so you gotta show up in real time.”

In short the authors knew this could feel like a dumb plot hole so they made a rule to explain why this couldn’t be done. It’s still not perfert… I mean, what it means to show up in real time? They aren’t in the same time as 1985, when itìs real time for them? But whatever, it’s nice they tried to fix this problem.

Mobius asks Loki if he watched all the explicative videos he was supposed to watch and Loki replied only as many as he could stand because he find that their ‘TVA propaganda is exhausting’.

I’m glad Loki and I see things in the same way. Most of the TVA babbling is propaganda meant to brainwash people’s mind.

A Minuteman then asks Loki what ‘these’ (these being the Time Charges) do.

Loki knows perfectly and gives us the confirmation to the thing I, and many others, suspected in the past episode.

Time Charges…

“Reset charges prune the affected radius of a branched timeline, allowing time to heal all its wounds. Which sounds like a nice way of saying disintegrate everything in its vicinity.”

So yeah, it’s genocide or total destruction of that timeline and all the people in it.

But also yeah, Loki studied all he was supposed to study although he insists he watched only some of the videos. I’m not surprised though, a wizard had to be good at studying things and Loki clearly wanted to know how that world worked so of course he would have watched the video even if he’s downplaying it.

They reach the place in which the TVA fought Loki and discover the Loki Variant kidnapped C-20. It turns out that it’s the first time that Variant kidnapped someone. A minuteman suggests the Variant might have pruned (aka killed but the TVA doesn’t use that word) C-20.

B-15 acts defensively, saying a Loki couldn’t have beaten C-20. She clearly views the Lokis, the whole of them as this time she’s not even saying Variants, as inferior. She should probably remember she got collared by one Loki.

Loki tries to warn her saying she’s underestimating the Variant… which she’s doing as the Variant could have very well ‘pruned’ C-20 had the Variant wanted to.

B-15 isn’t interested in hearing him out as she interrupt him and tells the other to fan out and starts searching for C-20 fast as they’re approaching the red line.

Loki stops them, telling them if they’ll leave the tent they’ll end up killed. B-15 thinks it’s a waste of time but Mobius is willing to hear him out.

Loki launches himself in a long explanation, the gist of it being he thinks there’s a scheme behind the Variant’s actions, that they should be aware of their surrounding, listen more (like he does) and less prone to underestimate him or the ‘lesser Loki’.

Now… he’s not completely wrong, the TVA underestimates him, and they has underestimated the other Loki Variant, which we saw lead to some of their losses.

Loki claims the Variant wants him because they know he’s the stronger Loki and so wants to join forces with him to overthrown and rule the TVA. I’m not sure how the Variant would have known there’s a Loki working with the TVA but let’s assume they do and that Loki’s reasoning could make sense… or could be explained with him trying to paint himself as more important than he is.

But then he goes saying that this isn’t what he wants as he’s now a servant of the Sacred Timeline… which is patently untrue and hard to believe… who can hand them the Variant but what assurances he won’t be disintegrated once the job is done.

And okay, his own is a legitimate worry and a legitimate request.

It’s actually clever to ask for reassurances the TVA won’t dispose of him once the job is done… though it’s not like there’s an actual bargaining ground because, if Loki isn’t cooperative and therefore is useless, the TVA will dispose of him anyway.

It’s not so clever he would try to pass himself for a servant of the timeline when he clearly didn’t play the part well. Of course since he said Asgardians were fundamentally naïve, maybe that’s the kind of people he’s used to deal with… but he has experienced distrust in Asgard in “Thor”, proof his own people isn’t so naïve… and he should have figured out Mobius isn’t either.

And then he presses for urgently meeting the Time-Keepers saying they’re in grave danger… and this jump isn’t smooth.

Mobius knows Loki wants to meet the Time-Keepers, so of course if Loki pushes the issue in this way he’s going to be prone to assume it’s a trick. The speech doesn’t even keep a logical flow because Loki first presented himself as better than the Variant and capable to handle it but reluctant to do so for fear of being erased… but now he’s presenting the Variant as a grave threat that requires them to urgently talk with the Time-Keepers.

So from one side it’s pushing for too much when he hadn’t even shown himself to be useful yet and for another it makes for a weak argument if he’s really as superior as he claims to be.

So… hum… the speech seems to tumble down in an unsatisfactory manner, ‘seems’ being the operative word because, if there’s a goal behind its weak points, then they still have a reason to exist.

I’m actually not quite sure which game Loki is playing with the TVA.

He’s for sure trying to survive but then what else does he want to get? I don’t believe he aims to control the universe but I’m pretty sure he’s not swallowing the TVA propaganda and he doesn’t enjoy to be there.

His timeline was pruned so he can’t go back there. Does he want to save Frigga? Is that what he aims to do? Does he want to go into the timeline after… let’s call it ‘canon Loki’ died so as to replace him?

Prior to it?

I don’t know.

Is he saying all those things for the Loki Variant’s benefit? He hopes the Variant is out there hearing him and his speech would make the Variant interested in joining forces?

I don’t know. We’ll see.

Anyway as expected Mobius figures it’s a trick and, since there’s no more time to do anything else, they just reset the timeline and leave.

On another note I like how Loki uses an Asgardian way to say. Way too often in movies even aliens feel compelled to use English ways to say instead than way to say from the world they belong to.

We also see how a time charge works. Loki hurries to move away as soon as he sees them starting it.

They… do something with the top part of it, I’m not sure if they push a button or pulled some sort of safety pin. We see something yellowish being released in the fluid inside the time charge which then turns purplish. The purple colour expands to the whole glass of the time charge until from below it something like a coloured expanding pool comes out. Everything that gets touched by that pool ends up being disintegrated.

At the TVA the monitors show that the ‘reset’ (read ‘disintegration’) of the timeline is done and that C-20 ended up MIA.

A music that’s half sad half… disquieting, start being played and we move into Renslayer’s office.

Mobius is complimenting for her office, pointing out how there’s a new snow globe in it and how he doesn’t remember bringing it to her.

She replies he’s not the only analyst working for her, which seems to imply analysts working for her are meant to bring her souvenirs from their missions. Or better… not quite. Mobius asks her why she gets to keep all the trophies from his cases, which seems to imply they weren’t given willingly.

Still, he tries to get her to admit he’s her favourite analyst.

I’m not really sure what’s going on between these two. They don’t seem to be in a relationship and I’m not sure if Mobius’ attempts at flattering her are because he’d like to be in a relationship with her but doesn’t dare to push the issue or because he’s currying her favours.

We’ll see.

Renslayer moves the discussion to the mission Mobius just botched and I don’t know if I would define it as such. Okay, so they didn’t find C-20 nor the other Loki Variant but chances here are two:

- the Loki Variant was out there using C-20 as bait as Loki said, setting a trap for them, and they successfully avoided it

- the Loki Variant wasn’t out there and so wasn’t C-20 and therefore was nothing for them to find.

Either way the mission wasn’t botched as they came back and successfully disintegrated… pardon, the TVA doesn’t like that word, they prefer ‘purged’ the branched timeline and any living being inside it.

Renslayer, referring to Loki as just ‘this Variant’ complains he’s insubordinate, stubborn and unpredictable like Mobius.

Honestly I think the whole series is trying to draw parallels between Loki and Mobius, where Mobius is however the one who chose to submit to the system where Loki just can’t stand it and wants to break it down.

So, although Mobius should be ‘all lawful’ we can see there’s a bit of ‘chaotic’ inside him.

It’s probably worth to remember that ‘lawful’ and ‘chaotic’ are nothing else but the two opposite extreme on the Ethical axis used for RPG alignment where Lawful represents obedience to the law and Chaotic leans toward personal freedom, without regards to the law.

There’s another sign Mobius isn’t fully lawful, the fact he has the bad habit to leave the glass rest on Renslayer’s furniture, leaving rings, and then insisting he’s not who caused them as they were already there… when Renslayer points out they’re all there due to him.

I know a part of the fandom loves Mobius but I wonder if he’s in the story not only to interact with Loki but also to work in contraposition to him. There are two paths for him, either he chooses the same path as Loki or the opposite. We’ll see.

Mobius tries to blame the ring on Renslayer’s other favourite analyst. I wonder if such person exists and is meant to have a relevance in the story. It’ll be interesting if it’s the other Loki Variant in disguise.

I mean… the other Loki Variant knows plenty of things about the TVA which hints at how they should have a previous and prolonged contact with them because the TVA explains nearly nothing about how their things work to their captives but the other Loki Variant knows what Reset charges are and how they work or how to use a TemPad to open Timedoors.

Yet Mobius doesn’t seem to have info on when they captured that Variant, carried it to the TVA and then let them escape, so again, how did the Variant learnt so much about the TVA?

From another escaping Variant?

Hard to say?

Did they saw the TVA and tailed them till the TVA unnoticed?

I can’t really tell, we’ll see.

Anyway, back to their conversation, Renslayer points out the issue isn’t Mobius’ methods with Loki, but the fact he towed a dangerous Variant into the field… meaning they consider Loki dangerous.

Mobius claims that from that they had learnt ‘the Variant’ likes to stall for time, so the other Variant might end up doing the same, because, to Mobius, understanding one Loki leads to understand the other.

And I’m:

- actually you didn’t need to bring Loki to the field to learn this, didn’t you notice that’s what he did in other circumstances?

- if the two Lokis are different, no, understanding one doesn’t mean understand the other. I mean you had a Loki who was fine living as a Jotun while this one was traumatized by the idea he was a Jotun, Loki can be pretty different about them, enough to be complete opposite so no, nobody said they’ll surely share that particular trait.

Whatever, let’s go on.

Renslayer says Mobius has a soft spot for broken things (which Mobius denies because he’s a bit like Loki and doesn’t want to show weakness), which acknowledges this Loki is broken… but gains him no sympathy from Renslayer as she said that ‘Loki is an evil, lying scourge’. Because he attacked New York? Nope, just because this is the part he plays on the sacred timeline and he can change only if the Time-Keepers decree so, not because he wants to.

Renslayer is big on the predeterminism when it’s about Loki (who’s a Variant by the way and therefore already out of the Sacred Timeline) but why doesn’t she apply it to the TVA as well? They’ll take the Variant only if the Time-Keepers will so.

I think the TVA’s faith in the Time-Keepers has plenty of weak points and is hypocritical. I wonder if the show will explore this.

Mobius switches topic asking how the Time-Keepers are and it turns out he NEVER met them. So he basically can’t even be sure they exist or not, yet he’s pouring all his faith in those three space lizard.

Mobius seems kind of glad he hadn’t met them, which seems to hit they’re either dangerous to meet or he doesn’t have a good opinion of them.

Renslayer says:

“The Time-Keepers are monitoring every aspect of this case. I've never seen them so involved. They want that Variant caught.”

…which seems a way to put Mobius under pressure but really, if they decide the flow of time, shouldn’t the decide if Mobius will catch the Variant or not? They can decide if a Variant Loki can change or not but they can’t control the other?

Anyway Mobius signs the event report Renslayer already signed. We can see Renslayer signs R Slayer while Mobius signs M. M. M.

Mobius notices the pen he used for signing has the writing ‘Franklyn D. Roosvelt High School’ on it and complains that pen too should be from the other analyst Renslayer favoured. And I wonder again, who they are? They’re meant to be relevant? Or they’re only a plot device to make Mobius jealous?

Renslayer only tells him to stay focused. As he’s about to leave though, she stops him asking him if he believes in that Variant. Mobius doesn’t confirm this, saying Loki believes in himself enough for the both of them, complaining Loki is really arrogant and that he will delete him himself if this doesn’t work.

Of course these might be just words he tells to Renslayer but we saw him taking part to erasing timelines and even if he showed sympathy and kindness to the French boy he met in the cathedral in the very first episode, he let him be reset.

“Don't worry, that devil's afraid of us. We're gonna take care of him. And we're gonna put you back where you belong.”

This apparently kind sentence meant they disintegrate him and his timeline so the place the boy belong is basically oblivion.

But I’ll dig on Mobius and Loki in a moment.

For now let me pause a moment on the pen, another gift of Renslayer’s mysterious over analyst, with written on it ‘Franklyn D. Roosvelt High School’.

Franklyn D. Roosvelt, ex-president of the united state is also relevant for the MCU.

In 1940 Roosevelt ordered the formation of the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) to fight the Nazi Party, even though the United States was still at peace with Germany. To ensure that only the greatest scientists work for the SSR, Roosevelt ordered Chester Phillips to recruit Howard Stark into the agency. SSR works in the creation of the Super Soldier Sierum, which ‘gives birth’ to Captain America then it is the re-tasked to fight Hydra. Later it will become part of S.H.I.E.L.D.

So yeah, maybe it’s a coincidence but it’s interesting.

Back to the story.

Mobius leaves Renslayer and we discover Loki has been left outside Renslayer’s office to wait.

Mobius whistles and also motions to Loki to follow him.

Some has compared this with how one would act to a dog. It’s possible they’re not so off track.

The TVA is a world that discriminates Variants and find them worth only being erased. They shouldn’t exist, they’re cosmic jokes, no one should forget someone is a Variant.

Mobius too in his discussion with Renslayer referred to Loki as just “the Variant”. Yet Mobius also feels some sympathy for Loki. Renslayer says he has a soft spot for broken things, if can mean she acknowledges Loki was broken by his experience… but she might also refer to the mere fact he’s a Variant and Variants, in a way, can be seen as ‘broken’ as they didn’t function properly but followed their own path instead than the one the Time-Keepers traced for them.

So the idea Mobius sees Loki as some sort of pet can be fitting. Mobius is growing fond of Loki… but he’s still imbued in all the TVA’s beliefs and teachings about predeterminism and how Variants are bad.

He doesn’t want to be needlessly mean to Loki, but the latter isn’t equal to him, he’s a tool, as everyone reminds him and as he has to remind to everyone else.

Variants has no rights in the TVA, they just exist to be pruned, reset, or, in less pretty but more realistic words, disintegrated.

And Mobius is a guy in the middle.

While he doesn’t want to be a jerk to Variants… or to people in the Sacred Timeline who’re going to die, he’s not really willing to fully fight against the system because he has faith in the system and a side of him he thinks Loki should just accept his place.

We see it in their discussion.

Loki is somewhat nervous… which, I’ll be honest, feels a little weird to me because he’s being openly nervous when usually Loki can keep controlled and hide this sort of things.

He had played a high risk bet during the mission and lost, he had time to think at what to say to Mobius while Mobius was discussing with Renslayer yet what he comes up isn’t really worth of someone who’s supposed to have a silver-tongue.

Okay, so it’s not like we were shown him using his silver-tongue in the movies, as people tended to do the opposite of what Loki asked them or not listen him at all, with the exception of Malekith and the Grandmaster… but we don’t get to see how Loki won the Grandmaster over.

Whatever, maybe there’s a reason, maybe not, we’ll see.

When facing the Variant later, Loki will say he kept the TVA vulnerable at the Renaissance Fair for some time and also that he has been working on gaining their trust. Presenting himself as openly insecure to Mobius, instead than hiding it as he would usually do, might be part of winning him over. As I said in the past commentary for ep 1, sometimes there are more benefits in being honest than in lying, so it can be that it’s not that Loki isn’t nervous, it can be he sees more benefits in showing it to Mobius.

We’ll see.

Mobius is in a bad mood. Although it didn’t seem Renslayer had given him a earful for his failure, it can be his failure burns. He tells Loki to show up, reminding him in the elevator he said he didn’t like to talk… which is something else that makes me think Loki is trying to give Mobius EXACTLY what Mobius asked for, so as to fulfil his expectations and lower his guard.

The following conversation is relevant.

Mobius: Okay. Just shut up! Please. What happened to the guy I met on the elevator? Who didn't like to talk. Remember him? Now I'm stuck with this guy who won't stop yacking away about what makes a Loki tick!

Loki: What? Isn't that precisely why I'm here?

Mobius: No. I don't care what makes you tick. You're here to help me catch the superior version of yourself. That's it!

Only Mobius in the previous episode told him he wanted exactly this from him.

Mobius: I'm serious. All I seek is a deeper understanding of the fearsome God of Mischief. What makes Loki tick?

This is the problem of an unequal partnership like their own. Loki isn’t there because he’s Mobius’ partner and equal, Loki is there to serve a purpose, capturing the other Loki. Renslayer might be right and Mobius might have a soft spot with him, but in the end Mobius ends up reminding Loki his place in the TVA, he’s there to be useful.

Loki takes offence by Mobius calling the other Variant “superior”.

Mobius gives us a slice of his mind… and Loki calls him out on his attempt of manipulation.

Mobius: See? There it is. Right there. I believed, stupidly, that insecure need for validation would motivate you to find the killer. Not 'cause you care about the TVA mission or bein' a hero, but because you know this Variant is better than you and you can't take it.

Loki: Very nice. I mean, it is adorable that you think you could possibly manipulate me. I'm ten steps ahead of you. I've been playing a game of my own all along.

But there’s something else worth pointing out. Mobius clearly believes working for the TVA equates at being a hero… and also that Loki would be so prideful he would serve the TVA merely to show them he’s better than the other without caring of how the TVA then might dispose of him.

And again Loki shows his cards way too openly so Mobius calls him out.

Mobius: What, charm your way in front of the Time-Keepers, hustle them, and seize control of the TVA? Am I getting warm? A double cross by history's most reliable liar.

Is really this what Loki aims at? This is what he’s telling around but is really this? Maybe but it seems so obvious, even Mobius could guess it in 5 minutes so… I don’t know, it seems too predictable for someone who’s supposedly smart.

The discussion goes on. Loki has figured since Mobius didn’t have him erased after that failure he is sticking his neck out for him so he asks him why.

Mobius: I'll give you two options, and you can believe whichever one you want. A, because I see a scared little boy, shivering in the cold. And you kinda feel bad for that ice runt. Or B, I just wanna catch this guy, and I'll tell you whatever I need to tell you.

I think both options are true, although usually, when proposing two options, the implication is the speaker is telling us to chose the last one… and it makes sense because this is the main motive Mobius is helping Loki. He could do nothing for him if it wasn’t because Loki could be useful… but this doesn’t men Mobius has no sympathy for him.

On another note it’s the second time the scripts hints at Loki as being young

Loki: I was young (in 1971), and I lost a bet to Thor. Where was the TVA when I was meddling with these affairs of men?

I really wonder if the idea is that Loki is young for Asgard standards.

Anyway Loki points out he doesn’t need Mobius’ sympathy, at which Mobius replies that’s good because he’s running out of it.

And again in itself there’s a problem. Mobius probably sees himself as a good person, because the fact he’s using Loki also means he’s sparing Loki from being pruned but, of course, if he has no use for Loki, this wouldn’t save him any longer.

If sympathy is tied to personal convenience, it’s not really sympathy.

As soon as they caught this Loki Mobius ran there to get him for himself because he thought it would be useful. He could have grown fond and it’s fine because it happens… but the key is still Loki has to be useful to him in order to be kept. So he’s not a really selfless act.

That’s why Mobius is no hero, who selflessly sacrifice for Loki, because he hopes in personal gain and… and it’s absolutely human. Mobius might have studied Loki but he basically just met him. Mobius has his own life. Why should he sacrifice it for Loki?

He’s planning for their allegiance to offer mutual benefits, Loki helps Mobius to wipe another Loki out of existence and Loki gets to live a little longer even though, being a Variant, Loki should have been already disposed of.

Mobius probably feels very kind and the other at the TVA would probably agree with him, because he’s giving a chance to someone who is lesser and has no right to chances and this is how their world work.

But we, viewers should be capable to understand their world works in the wrong way.

Loki: What's this? Next step of your manipulation...

Mobius: This is the final step. Your last chance.

Loki: Oh, and what does my desperate last chance require?

At this point Loki has moved back into keeping distance. He calls what’s Mobius is doing as manipulation and sounds flippant as he talks of his ‘desperate last chance’.

Mobius might have sympathy for him but Loki has likely figured out Mobius wouldn’t save him from the TVA beyond a certain point. The very best Mobius can offer him is to remain there working for the TVA to catch other Lokis, all while wearing a jacket that points out he’s a Variant as well, a cosmic joke.

Maybe Mobius might manage to have him dismiss wearing that jacket. Still, all this is tied to how much useful he can be. Mobius though can’t offer him freedom or a way back home.

Anyway Loki’s last chance is to work, to go over each and every one of the Variant's case files, and then, give him his unique Loki perspective and find something. All this while Mobius goes to eat something and keeping in mind his life depends on him proving to be of some use.

Again we’re reminded that Loki isn’t free to drop this work, he’s forced to cooperate, his life depends on it.

Loki starts looking through the documents which basically cover the various cases in which the Variant ambushed the Minutemen and stole their reset charge, clearly not finding them interesting. A woman hush him and he hush her back.

Loki tries going to the one who seems a librarian… but who’s actually so mechanical she feels more like a robot who can’t stop typing to pay attention to those who call her if they don’t ring at her first.

Loki asks her for more files. No, not files on the case, files pertaining to the creation of the TVA… but they’re all classified. The same goes for files pertaining to the beginning of time and the end of the time.

Exasperated Loki asks which files he can have and he’s handed a handful of them which, merely cover his case as a Variant and the life of his alternate self in the sacred timeline.

Loki reads them anyway and discovers of the destruction of Asgard.

As he does he can’t help but shed a tear for his former planet, before noticing the TVA also noted that during the event there was zero variance energy detected.

This causes him to connect some important dots and so he rushes to join Mobius to the restaurant.

At first Mobius doesn’t want to listen him, claiming he told him not to bother him until he read all the files which Loki claims to have done.

Honestly he didn’t seem particularly interested in them but he might have done it as someone who practices magic should have been good at studying. Mobius insists and Loki points out  what they’re searching isn’t in the files but in the timeline as the Variant is hiding in the apocalypse.

Mobius asks which one and Loki mentions Ragnarok, asking him if he’s familiar to it. And I wonder if Loki wanted an answer to this one question, if he wanted to know if Mobius knew his homeland was wiped away, that this is something the TVA allowed.

Mobius confirms he knows about it and apologizes to him.

Loki pretends not to care and goes on discussing how a Nexus event is the result of someone doing something he’s not supposed to that causes a chain reaction of things that aren’t supposed to happen.

Mobius confirms.

At this point Loki steals the salad Mobius was eating for his example and decides in his metaphor that salad will represent Asgard.

And tell me whatever you want but, as far as I’m involved this is Loki paying back Mobius for letting him to work while he went to eat.

Mobius gets immediately that his lunch is going to meet an abrupt demise but Loki doesn’t let this deter him.

Loki suggests if he were to go on Asgard before Ragnarok he could do whatever he wants, even push Hulk off the Rainbow bridge, and to prove his point, he adds more salt to the salad. He then says he could also set fire to the place. I don’t know what he adds to Mobius’ salad as he says so, maybe pepper, but this is enough to make Mobius beg not to set fire to the place, which I find hilarious. Loki continues to put salt and… pepper? Into Mobius’ salad commenting that he can do whatever he wants without going against the dictates of the timeline.

He then picks up Mobius’ drink only to find it empty so he goes to get the drink from the nearby’s table, Casey’s table. He then pours it into Mobius’ salad, likely making it impossible to eat, explaining how the drink represents Surtur who will destroy Asgard no matter what Loki does so what he does doesn’t matter.

In short, in addition to making his point, Loki let Mobius too without lunch.

Fair since Loki didn’t have lunch at all.

Mobius still doesn’t get it so Loki goes further on explaining if they have an apocalypse of whatever kind it doesn’t matter what one would do in it because everything would get destroyed so the Variant has to be hiding in an apocalypse, doing whatever they want without them noticing.

Mobius is forced to admit it’s not a bad theory and Loki tells him to bring him to an apocalypse and he’ll show him.

Mobius accuses him of wanting to run back to his homeland and Loki says whatever apocalypse will do. Mobius makes clear he’s afraid to bring Loki around and Loki insists they’ve to test his theory. Mobius makes clear he’s afraid Loki would want to test how stabbable is his back.

Loki complains stabbing someone in the back is a boring form of betrayal. Mobius said he has done it 50 times… which is really not much for someone who lived as long as Loki especially since most of those stabbing if not all took place during battle, because Mobius is talking of literal stabbing here, not metaphorical one.

Loki is not really interested in arguing this one though and just says he won’t do it again because it got old which causes Mobius to laugh. Loki insists that he understands Mobius doesn’t trust him but he should trust something else, Loki loves to be right… and this seals the deal.

So the guys are at Pompeii, Italy – 78 AD, though it would be more correct to say they’re at Pompeii, ROMAN EMPIRE – AD 78 or 78 CE.

Eruption day.

While Mobius is absolutely scared they might mess up the timeline Loki is as overexcited like a kid on a sugar rush.

Loki cried reading of the destruction of Asgard but here he seems pretty giddy.

To Mobius scolding him because ‘it’s just not in good taste’ he replies ‘they’re gonna die anyway’.

And in itself is interesting. Mobius said he’s sorry for Asgard destruction, now he worries about ‘good taste’ but in the end he’s not going to do anything to spare those people’s lives.

The dead count will be of over 2.000 a good part of it dying a horrible albeit fast death as they’ll be literally vaporized by the heat of the pyroclastic flow.

In face of so many people about to die Mobius worrying Loki’s behaviour isn’t in good taste feels hypocritical, a mere care for the form, in fact he agrees with Loki it’s ‘cool’ the whole city will be wiped off the planet and his main worry is they shouldn’t create a huge branch.

Anyway, while Mobius insist they should start creating only a very small disturbance, Loki ends up freeing animals and announcing the eruption and the following death of everyone to the people.

Loki making all that chaos feels as if this is way to distance from the apocalypse that hit Asgard. Honestly I don’t think he wanted to go there during Ragnarok if there was nothing he could have done to save it.

However his speech is also an interesting way for Loki to try and pry info from Mobius about the TVA

Loki: ( Speaking latin ) You’re all about to die. That volcano is about to erupt! I would know, because I’m from the future. ( In english ) We are from the future, right? What is the TVA? I mean, it's from the future. It sounds from the future. It's pretty future-y.

Mobius won’t reply to him but the eruption will start right there, the Tempad continuing to sign zero variance energy, proving Loki was right. I wonder if this was also Loki’s way to try and see if an apocalypse could be prevented.

Oh, Loki talks Latin here but I’ve already talked about the language problem in the MCU and how the TVA seems to have a tv series version of Allspeak which, evidently passed to Loki too as he showed he previously couldn’t talk to Mongolian people.

On another note… the eruption, as depicted in the show, is not historically accurate.

Around 1:00 p.m., Mount Vesuvius violently erupted, spewing up a high-altitude column (the column supposedly as high as 30 km) from which ash and pumice began to fall, blanketing the area. Rescues and escapes occurred during this time.

It’s only much later, in the night or during the day after that the pyroclastic flows began and it Pompeei 4 minutes later, murdering everyone there.

The show instead seems to mix up the first eruption with the beginning of the pyroclastic flow (which is the one we see approaching from behind Loki), skipping the fall of ash and pumice.

Of course from a storytelling point of view it works a lot better, so it’s not a big deal and it’s just artistic freedom, it’s just my history lover’s heart which is bleeding.

If you want to enjoy how the eruption looked like there’s a nice video on Youtube “A Day in Pompeii - Full-length animation”.

The switch between Pompeii and back to the TVA feels a little abrupt, as if the Pompeii scene was meant to last more and they cut it.

Anyway they’re back on TVA and Mobius is summarizing Loki’s theory. Loki tells him he’s welcome, which, I take, is Loki’s clue he’d like to be thanked for his contribution. Mobius though is more focused on the mechanics of their new discovery.

He believes for Loki’s theory to hold the disasters have to be naturally-occurring, sudden, no warning, no survivors. So Ragnarok wouldn’t be okay because Loki and Thor triggered it and there were survivors. That is unless the TVA retconned “Thor: Ragnarok”.

Anyway, they decide they’ll have to find out how many of those natural disasters there are… but in the end Loki falls asleep on all the documents they’re checking.

I know there’s a debate if this proves he trusts Mobius or not… but the point is, he just proved himself he was of great help, so Mobius who has shown to have some measures of sympathy toward him despite his strict adherence to the TVA code and that make him capable to disintegrate him should need arise, has really no reason to harm him, quite the opposite.

Also he’s likely quite exhausted, both physically and emotionally otherwise he clearly wouldn’t fall asleep on an uncomfortable position over a stack of papers.

And differently from Mobius he supposedly didn’t even had lunch.

Mobius yawns which shows he’s clearly worn out as well, wakes him and tells him they’re going for a walk. So no bed, they’ll only take a small break.

I take they end up in the TVA version of a cafeteria where Loki asks Mobius about the jet ski magazine. Mobius ends up showing his total love for jet skis.

“Yeah. You know, some things... Actually, most things in history are kinda dumb, and everything gets ruined eventually. But in the early 1990s, for a brief, shining moment, there was a beautiful union of form and function, which we call the jet ski, and a reasonable man cannot differ.”

Actually he sounds like a fanboy, dismissive of everything he doesn’t like and imposing his own likes claiming no one could have a different opinion from him. It’s not a complain, it’s human. I like how the TVA members, despite their dystopian setting and their fanatic faith to the TVA religion have characteristics, both good and bad, that made them human.

However, at Loki’s question if he has ever tried a Jet Ski, Mobius admits he never been on one because if a TVA agent were to show up on a jet ski that would create a branch. It’s a poor excuse since they show up in timelines in their everyday clothes in time periods in which those clothes aren’t appropriate and anyway, who cares since they reset the branches so they could even show up naked and everything would get erased?

In this Mobius is the opposite of Loki, although he too has wishes that make him similar to Loki he doesn’t dare to fulfil them, he completely focuses on his work, he claims to read the magazines because they remind him what he’s fighting for… jet skis appearing in the Sacred Timeline in early 1990s apparently.

Okay, it’s more that he believes if the Sacred Timeline gets destroyed everything would but people who were believing to be heroes like he does would say they would fight for people, not for a beautiful vehicle that could be enjoyed only for a brief amount of time.

Mobius in a way is disconnected by the people on the sacred timeline, maybe because he never met them, he met the Variants, which are considered something to be pruned and nothing more and he actively help in pruning them.

So maybe he can’t work for people, because as soon as those people become variants, bang, they need to be wiped away. I think Mobius would like to be a decent person, I think he doesn’t want to harm people so he keeps distance and blindly swallows the TVA teaching and this discussion further proves it.

Loki asks if he really believes in all the TVA preaches and Mobius replies:

Mobius: I don't get hung up on, "Believe, not believe." I just accept what is.

It reminds me of a discussion he had with Loki in the past episode:

Loki: So that had the Time-Keepers' seal of approval, did it?

Mobius: Well, I wouldn't think of it in terms of approval and disapproval. That's sort of a... Let's get back to escapes...

Mobius just accepts things as they are presented. But why he accepts them?

Loki goes on summarizing how  the TVA’s beliefs are that three magic lizards created the TVA and everyone in it including Mobius, which for Loki is clearly something dumb to believe.

Loki: Every time I start to admire your intelligence, you say something like that.

Mobius tries to retort it by turning tables on Loki.

Mobius: Okay, who created you, Loki?

Loki: A Frost Giant of Jotunheim.

Mobius: And who raised you?

Loki: Odin of Asgard.

Mobius: Odin, God of the Heavens. Asgard, mystical realm, beyond the stars. Frost Giants. Listen to yourself...

Loki: It's not the same. It's completely different. No. It's not the same.

Mobius: It's exactly the same thing.

The HUGE problem in Mobius’ reasoning is that he’s mixing up what Loki has experienced, his skin turning blue, proving he’s a Jotun, living his whole life with Odin, believing him to be his father, with Mobius merely believes as Mobius has no knowledge of what the Time-Keepers are since he never met them and likely doesn’t even remember when he was created or things like that.

Loki believes in what he lived though because he touched and sampled it and, in fact, he had a breakdown when he discovered part of it, the part he had no memory about but embraced out of faith was a lie (Loki couldn’t remember his Jotun heritage or his birth so he accepted what he was told, that Odin and Frigga were his parents). This likely makes even harder for him to accept that Mobius would just blindly believe in something he hadn’t experienced in the slightest.

Mobius had said:

Mobius: I don't get hung up on, "Believe, not believe." I just accept what is.

But at the end of it what motivates him is blind belief.

Mobius: Because if you think too hard about where any of us came from, who we truly are, it sounds kinda ridiculous. Existence is chaos. Nothing makes any sense, so we try to make some sense of it. And I'm just lucky that the chaos I emerged into gave me all this... My own glorious purpose. Cause the TVA is my life. And it's real because I believe it's real.

The TVA is real because he believes so. It has to be or his own ‘glorious purpose’ would mean nothing. Loki got burned by the truth. Mobius doesn’t want to end up the same, he doesn’t want to think at the absurdity the TVA feds him, he doesn’t want to question if what he does is right or wrong because the truth might disappoint it, it might be ridiculous, in bad taste, like being excited as Pompeii is about to be buried by the volcano.

The TVA is Mobius’ religion, and, to paraphrase Karl Marx faith in the TVA ‘is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.’

But this kind of mindset is also the mindset of whose who represent the ‘banality of evil’ of those who indulge in the capital vice of Acedia, whose who do not care, who do nothing to stop evil empower it and support it.

“...morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” ― Abraham Heschel

And, after all, Mobius works to support it, to support the TVA as they prune/reset countless lives.

There’s something else that’s interesting.

Mobius is supposed to be a lawful character… yet he doesn’t believe existence is order. Existence is chaos. And, in the same way as he’s afraid to try out a jet ski and making excuses for why he doesn’t do so, I think Mobius deep down is scared by chaos. Fascinated by it but scared by it as well. In fact he’ll later says that he believes when it all will end and the Time-Keepers will have finished untangling the timeline all that will emerge will be order.

Loki: Ah, I see. So, when they're finished, what happens then?

Mobius: So are we. No more nexus events. Just order. And we meet in peace at the end of time. Nice, right?

Loki: Only order?

Mobius: Mmm-hmm.

Loki: No chaos? It sounds boring.

Mobius: I'm sure it does to you.

Order is reassuring, it gives people a sense, a purpose, order is explainable. Order follows laws so it’s lawful. But order, like Loki points out, is also boring, predictable.  No bad surprise would come out of it, true, but no good surprise either. No change. No possibility to get worse… but no possibility to get better either. Order is static where chaos is always changing. You need a mixture of both to make a worthy life.

Besides the idea they ‘meet in peace at the end of time’ to me feels more like an attempt to use a different wording to say ‘we’re all dead’ or ‘we’ll be all pruned/reset’. So not particularly encouraging.

But I’m running ahead a bit. When Mobius says Loki that the TVA is real because he believes so, Loki accepts it. For the moment.

Loki: Fair enough. You believe it's real.

And I wonder if, in a way, Loki can understand. Because the chaos, the unpredictable, is what made him discover he wasn’t an Odinson. If he hadn’t questioned Odin’s words, if he hadn’t gone and taken the Casket of Ancient Winters in his hands but just turned his eyes away when his skin turned blue, if, like Mobius said, he hadn’t thought to hard at it, or at how bad Thor could be as a kind, if he just had shrugged everything off and said ‘yeah, I’m sorry Thor will be a poor kind but that’s what meant to be, who cares?’ and ‘yeah, it’s weird my skin turned blue but Odin said I’m his son so who am I to question him?’ he would have spared himself many unpleasant things.

He would be at Asgard, thinking to be Odin’s son, trying to help Thor, who prior to his banning to Earth was completely unfit to rule, not ruin completely the planet. That would be his own glorious purpose. Nothing more.

And while it wouldn’t be a great purpose… well, it would have spared him of a lot of pain so I think Loki can see the charm of it… but at the same time he can see the danger of it. If we’ll blindly follow the rules we give up on our free will.

Loki: So everything is written. Past, present, future. There's no such thing as free will.

Mobius: Well, I mean, you know, it's an oversimplification...

Mobius thinks it’s an oversimplification but it’s not. He’s probably telling himself since he submits to the rules willingly, well, that’s his free will. But we’ve seen that the other option is being reset. The Variants are nothing else but people who didn’t follow the dictation of the Time-keepers, a dictation they didn’t even know existed, but merely followed their free will. And the TVA erases them.

It’s true, the ones that follow the Sacred Timeline, not knowing they’re following the dictation of the Time-keepers, are still, in a way, following their free will, but it’s actually a pretty tricky situation because their options get pruned by the TVA.

People don’t exist in a vacuum. We take decisions according to what happens around us.

Now think to a world in which Odin tells Loki the truth right from the start. This would lead Loki to get very different decisions… only that Odin, if it ever existed, got pruned.

Think to a Thor who’s ready to rule when he’s about to be crowned so that Loki doesn’t have to disrupt the coronation. Well, think twice because that Thor got pruned.

Think to a Frigga who hands the crown to Loki but also sits next to him instead than next to Odin to support him while he’s going through his worst crisis. Pruned again.

Think to the Warriors Three and Sif not attempting to go fetch Thor after he’s banned. Sorry, they got pruned.

Think to Heimdall not allowing Thor to go to Jotunheim. Never mind he got pruned.

Loki made his choices. It was his free will. But his choices were tied to all that happened around him, and since all that happened around him was decided he was channelled toward certain decisions, everything working to make him take such decision.

Actually, each time he tried to take a different decision he too got pruned.

The resulting Loki that inhabits the Sacred Timeline, more than the result of his own free will, is the result of manipulation of the events and TVA selection. Which is kind of creepy.

But okay, it’s interesting how, in a way, Loki tries to connect with Mobius.

Maybe it’s Stockholm syndrome as Loki was someone held captive and sentenced to death and then Mobius came in and made clear that Loki’s survival depended on him, maybe it’s just that Mobius showed him some measure of kindness and appreciation and it doesn’t matter if he was being manipulative or not, Loki was so starved for it he fell for it, or he caught up on some similarities between them.

Sure, it can be that by connecting with him he can better use him but I don’t think that’s just it.

Mobius is someone Loki can connect with on an intellectual level, where Thor was just ‘let’s hit things’ and the Warriors Three and Sif were just, let’s do what Thor says.

And after Thor and his friends there were Thanos and the Other and clearly Loki couldn’t connect with them. So it doesn’t matter how screwed up the situation is and how Mobius manipulated Loki in their first meeting and what he told him, fundamentally Mobius is the only one Loki, who’s forced to go around with a jacket saying ‘Variant’ because no one has to forget he’s a cosmic joke, has in that setting.

So yes, it’s VERY screwed up but it makes sense Loki would partially latch on him. It’s human.

On another note I’m not really fond of the idea of Mobius using the French ‘au contraire’ while talking with Loki. Maybe it’s an ad-lib but since there’s already enough mess on how the TVA can talk all the languages and Asgardian somehow don’t have Allspeak, I would have preferred if they hadn’t mixed English and French now. Whatever, maybe that’s just me.

Loki goes on.

Loki: You called me a scared little boy.

Mobius: I called you a lotta things.

I wonder what Mobius means here, if he’s just telling Loki he shouldn’t focus on that (as calling him as such was Mobius’ attempt at showing him sympathy), but Loki nails another relevant topic.

Loki: You did. You're wrong, though. You see, I know something children don't.

Mobius: What's that?

Loki: That no one bad is ever truly bad. And no one good is ever truly good.

It’s interesting it’s coming from Loki because it means, differently from how sometimes Marvel movies seems to depict a world in black and white, Loki could see the shades of grey.

In his family. In the Avengers. In Thanos and the Other. Maybe even in the TVA people. And this means in himself as well.

And we go back to what he said in Ep 1:

Loki: I can't go back, can I? Back to my timeline. I don't enjoy hurting people. I... ( Sighs ) I don't enjoy it. I do it because I have to, because I've had to.

Mobius: Okay, explain that to me.

Loki: Because it's part of the illusion. It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear.

Mobius: A desperate play for control. You do know yourself.

Loki: A villain. ( Sighs )

He painted himself as a villain, as someone all black, to show as if he was someone in control… in “Thor” when he was in an emotional storm, in “The Avengers” when he actually was working for Thanos.

But if we consider Loki’s words solely for their tie to the present discussion, he’s trying to tell Mobius that the black and white vision Mobius is trying to adopt doesn’t work. If there’s good in bad and bad in good, the perfect world Mobius thinks he can archive doesn’t exist and his glorious purpose is not so glorious.

Nothing is perfect and so no perfect order or perfect chaos can exist and trying to paint things or people black and white as the Time-Keepers are doing and the TVA as well, is a mistake.

Loki’s words though cause Mobius to remember the boy he met in the cathedral before going to Loki’s trial and how he had a candy box left by the Loki Variant. And I’ve always wondered WHY did the Loki Variant left that candy box behind? Is like she’s leaving breadcrumbs for the TVA or someone working with them to track her down.

Kablooie was only sold regionally on Earth from 2047 to 2051. While it wouldn’t be easy to track the Variant with just this, the Variant limits the place they’ve to search for them to only 4 years.

On an interesting note although Mobius claimed to know everything about Loki’s life he evidently had no idea if Asgardians had candies or not. So yeah, I think Mobius didn’t exactly knew EVERYTHING about Loki’s life, only what the TVA deemed relevant.

Anyway Mobius decides since they now know the Variant is hiding in an apocalyptic event in which Kablooie are involved they can cross-reference the two things.

Mobius has probably more clearance than Loki as he gets the files and then gives Loki a half, encouraging him to search fast through them by making it a competition… which actually is dumb, because the Variant can only be in one place so only the one who got that file among them can find it, no matter if he’s fast or slow… but whatever, Loki is motivated enough by this because he likes to win.

However, although Mobius asks him if he wants to bet on something, then he demands they’ll play for pride.

Anyway, as Mobius realizes it’s one apocalyptic event after another (all in 5 years) Loki finds what they’re searching for in an apocalyptic event in Alabama, 2050.

This gains him Mobius’ praise as he tells him he’ll take his job if he’s not careful.

I remember reading some interviews suggested Loki and Mobius had a mentor/student type of relation. Well, Mobius definitely feels like the mentor, one who takes care of Loki and teaches him how it works at the TVA, completely not focusing on how Loki was basically kidnapped by the place, doesn’t aim to stay there and people look down at him and is always ready to dispose of him because he’s a Variant… and what’s worse, the Variant of someone who, according to the Time-Keepers is meant to be ‘an evil, lying scourge’.

On the other side… working for the TVA is Loki’s only option to survive in that setting so Mobius likely sees it as Loki having to stop ‘thinking too hard’ and also make the TVA his life. In short he should just be like him and submit to the Time-Keepers.

So yeah, his point of view make sense but… it’s terrible, it’s actually telling people not to resist to wrong conditions but submit to them. It’s the typical mindsetting of a bureaucratic huge corporation or system, where no one matters and everyone obeys without worrying to much about what they’re obeying at.

But back to the story Mobius goes to Renslayer to asks her ‘to approve deployment of a fully-armed task force to the Variant's potential hiding spot’.

By the way said hising spot is in ‘Haven Hills, Alabama, corporate town owned by Roxxcart until it's wiped out by a hurricane’.

The name Roxxcart might remember to who read the comic or watched “Agent Carter” of the Roxxon Corporation, one of the world's largest conglomerates, founded in the 1940s. It also appeared in Marvel “Cloak & Dagger” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, with vague references at it in “Iron Man”, “Iron Man 2”, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer”, “Iron Man 3” and the MCU comic “The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week”. It’s hard to say if this will be another vague reference or there will be more.

Renslayer is prejudiced against our Loki as she continues to call him a Variant and tries dismissing the whole thing merely because HE suggested it and the other time he ‘blew up’ the previous mission. Which he didn’t but of this I’ve already talked.

Mobius is all happy Loki proved himself useful and his idea to use him was right but Renslayer instead insists on not trusting him, even though he just discovered a huge hole in their security system.

Now, okay, Loki isn’t to be trusted blindly, but Renslayer isn’t really giving a rational reason why this theory, which actually makes a lot of sense and is supported by some evidence Mobius collected, would be wrong. If they’re going to shot down any theory Loki comes up just because he’s Loki then she shouldn’t have even given him to Mobius.

In fact when Mobius point out how Loki HELPED discovering the hole in the security she’s only more worried.

Anyway Mobius is so excited he manages to get her to agree, although she warns him she won’t be able to help him if this doesn’t work out.

They kind of repeat something that was included in the video/commercial of the TVA Miss Minute showed Loki in the previous episode.

Mobius: For all time.

Ravonna Renslayer: Always.

I wonder if this is actually meant to be the TVA catchphrase.

Anyway Mobius leaves Renslayer and we see Loki is out of the room, nervous, waiting for him. He seems quite satisfied when Mobius says they’ve got permission.

Mobius is still all excited… and make a vague promise that amounts to… basically nothing, to Loki.

Mobius: I'm tellin' you. You actually help us catch this Variant, and who knows, my friend.

Loki: What, good enough for a face-to-face with the Time-Keepers?

Mobius: I didn't say that. One step at a time.

Loki: All right. One step at a time.

He actually promises nothing to him, because, as he said, he said nothing. ‘Who knows’ can mean anything, even that after they catch the Variant they’ll prune him, or they’ll merely allow him to live at the TVA, forcing him to work for them. Who knows what ‘who knows’ mean!

Loki tries to have some more solid confirmation and basically gets nothing, which is not very promising.

As far as I’m involved I think Mobius is doing this promise more because he’s trying to keep Loki loyal than because he has something solid to offer to him. In fact he hadn’t bargained with Renslayer for this. Loki is there to catch the Variant, catching the Variant would end their need to use Loki but, as soon as Mobius got permission for the mission he left without insuring if they were to succeed he could keep him.

Does Loki really want to meet the Time-Keepers? What he aims to get from them?

Anyway Mobius is so excited he tries to give knives to Loki.

Enters Hunter B-15, who strongly despise Loki who takes them away from him (I wonder if Loki managed to steal them back unknown to her. I would love if he did). She briefs her men for the mission, which also allows us viewers to get some info and orders them to prune Loki at sight. Clearly she doesn’t even believe in putting him to that mock trials the TVA offers to its captive Variants.

Loki makes present they should preferably prune the bad Loki, not him and then the scene moves to Haven Hills and I love how this time they had introduced it not by writing it on the screen but by showing us a sign saying we’re in Haven Hills, Alabama… before having it destroyed.

I really love this scene.

The TVA arrives at Roxxcart and they’ve the good sense to open their Timedoors outside of it.

It’s interesting how Loki looks up at the storming sky. I wonder if he’s searching for thunders (we saw one hitting the ground before the TVA appeared) as a way to check if Thor is around, even though it’s clear Thor wouldn’t cause such destruction.

To Hunter B-15’s surprise Loki uses his magic to dry up, which somehow seems to make her even more suspicious of him. Because yeah, drying yourself is such a sinister act.

Mobius would like to go with Loki at the Green House but Hunter B-15 forbids it, wanting to part them. Mobius has to go with Hunter D-90 while Loki has to stay with her.

And I’ve the personal suspicion that’s because she hopes in a not to obvious chance to prune him too away from Mobius’ eyes.

B-15 tells Mobius if he’s not fine with it, he can go argue with Renslayer about it.

It’s interesting how they’re arguing. I wonder if Hunters and Analysts actually form two different and opposite classes in TVA who argue against each other despite a poster depicting them as working together.

Anyway Loki gets in between and tells Mobius it’s fine, that he can trust him and that he’ll understand trust has to be gained so he’ll gain it.

Honestly the way Loki puts it makes him even more suspicious for me, but I wonder if the key is it has to work for B-15.

Mobius complains about how is always the people you can’t trust that tell you ‘trust me’. Well, the people you trust wouldn’t need to ask you your trust so they won’t tell it to you.

Mobius though at this surrender as well, he’s so excited to get the Variant he doesn’t consider he could ask to stay with B-15 as well, or that he could say B-15 is asking this because she wants to try to harm Loki. He just let the issue go after a jab about how the past time B-15 ended up wearing the Time Collar.

Meanwhile the Loki Variant has noticed they’re in thanks to all the cameras in the place, as if they were waiting for the TVA. Again I wonder if the Loki Variant has someone supporting them in the TVA because they seem to know too much, later they’ll even show knowing the other Loki was brought in by the TVA to capture them.

We see the Loki Variant leaving down a tempad on which there’s a countdown that’s at 20 minutes.

Back to Loki he’s in the greenhouse with B-15, trying to chat with her… which could be a genuine attempt at communication or an attempt at warning the Variant they’re there. I’m not sure on which side Loki is… but I wonder if his goal is to stall things.

He might suspect if they get the Variant he’ll be disposed off so his aim might be to show he’s useful but also to stall the capture of the Variant. This might be what he was trying to do in the previous mission as well. So it’s not exactly he’s trying to help the Variant, he’s trying to gain time for himself.

B-15 doesn’t feel like talking with him but then they find a guy who claims to be shopping for plants despite the hurricane.

B-15 asks Loki if the guy could be him and Loki points out he ‘probably would have worn a suit, but, yes, maybe’, hinting at how Loki cares about how he looks.

B-15 gets too close to the guy who manages to grab her. We see some green magic pass to B-15 and then the guy faints. Loki asks if he’s dead but ‘B-15’ tells him ‘they usually survive’, making clear she’s no more B-15 but the Variant possessing her, who also recognizes Loki for who he is:

“So, you're the fool the TVA brought in to hunt me down.”

As I said this sentence gives me the feeling the Variant knew the TVA brought him someone to hunt them, in short they’ve inside intel about the TVA and I would love to know how.

Now possessing B-15 is a good move as she’s a good fighter with a weapon in her hands and this also leaves Loki on her own.

Loki recognizes the speaker for what they are, the Loki Variant possessing B-15, in short himself.

The Variant points out:

“Please. If anyone's anyone, you're me.”

Implying the Variant saw themselves as the better/original Loki version.

Wunmi Mosaku does a good work at playing the Loki Variant here, really.

Back in the shelter people is clearly in deep distress and a guy thinks the TVA is there to help them.

I think Mobius is torn, a side of him would just search for the Variant, the other is being affected by the situation but he tries to suppress it.

D-90 instead doesn’t care and pushes the man away as if he didn’t even exist. Which he doesn’t for him.

Mobius: What are you doing? Hey! These people are scared.

Hunter D-90: They're about to die. They should be scared.

Mobius: Okay. Not of us.

Even though those people aren’t Variants as they’re going to die the TVA doesn’t acknowledge them right. Like the Loki Variant they don’t care what they do because everything will be erased, either by a reset charge or by the apocalypse.

Mobius doesn’t like this… but again it’s not like he’s trying to save those people, he’ll let them die because the Time-Keepers dictate so.

Hunters in the TVA are somehow all jerks. Again they would work well as stand in for police brutality but I don’t know if the series wants to go this way.

Mobius and D-90 are interrupted when a Minuteman informs them they had found a tied C-20 who’s in state of shock and repeating over and over ‘it’s real’.

So C-20’s role isn’t to be a bait, I think it’s possible the Variant wants to use her to deliver a message to the TVA.

Back to Loki he comments on the spell used.

“Enchantment is a clever trick. Cowardly, a bit amateur-ish, but clever.”

The fact enchantment was used seems to be a nod to how the Variant might be Sylvie Lushton, who also went under the alias of enchantress.

In the comics Sylvie is not the original enchantress, that one was Amora, sister of Lorelei who appeared in “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”. Sylvie was supposedly a human created by Loki who also gave her her magical powers.  Although she has no training she has amazing magical powers and moved from wanting to be an Avenger to trying to become a Villain.

We’ll see what this Variant will turn out to be.

Anyway the Variant blames Loki of being the coward one because he works for the TVA. She mocks this asking him if he really believes that, which he confirms so she dismisses him:

Hunter B-15 (possessed): ( The variant chuckles ) And here I was worried that they'd found a better version of me.

And this again seems to imply the Variant KNEW the TVA got themselves a Loki but who told them? They just discovered it at the fair?

A person, Randy, appear and B-15 touches him then faint. Loki almost hurries to help her before realizing what had happened.

Well, the Variant could have disintegrate Randy instead she preferred to transfer themselves into him. This is interesting because it seems although they’ve no hesitation in killing TVA people they’re against harming normal people.

Loki still go to check B-15… or can it be he placed something in one of her pockets? Like a message for Mobius? Loki touches his jacket before bending down on B-15 and this time we don’t see what he touches as she’s cut off the screen which is odd.

The Variant thinks he’s trying to search a transmitting device to call the others for help. Loki tails the Variant, challenging them to face him and then explaining how he had gained the TVA confidence.

The Variant is not that much impressed but they continue to give Loki their back. Not that it matter as that back isn’t really the Variant’s back.

Loki explains his plan… which I don’t know if it’s really his plan or a trick.

Loki: I'm going to overthrow the Time-Keepers. And, uh, cards on the table, I could use a qualified lieutenant.

It’s relevant how Loki, talking with the Variant, uses a more polite and Asgard like language.

The Variant is clearly not interested in working for Loki but what hits me is that they don’t want to be called ‘Loki’ which could be because they aren’t Loki after all.

Loki: What say you... Loki?

Randy (possessed): Ugh. Don't call me that. You can call me... Randy.

I love how this meeting helps Loki to realize why Thor found these techniques annoying.

Loki: God. Now I understand why Thor found this so annoying.

Loki claims he has helped the Variant at the fair so yes, apparently he has played that risky bet back then for a reason. I really would love to know which game Loki is playing.

Loki: Listen. Enough with your games. I've been trying to help you. I kept them vulnerable at the Renaissance Fair for some time.

The Variant still isn’t interested in joining him as they don’t care about ruling the TVA.

We see that there are Time charges placed all around, partially hidden from sight which don’t promise anything good and someone, likely the Variant, is tweaking with them while ‘Randy’ keeps Loki distracted. So yes, this Variant too is good at stalling.

C-20 is still babbling, while Mobius tries to get something out of her.

D-90 just waves her off saying she’s off the dial and showing a worrying lack of a care for a companion.

Although C-20 says she wants to go home when Mobius offers to send them back she says she can’t as she gave away the position of the Time-Keepers.

Oh, so C-20 knew it? Did she, differently from Mobius met them?

D-90 tries to contact B-15 causing her to wake up.

Loki tries to get what the Variant wants but the Variant refuses to explain themselves saying Loki is too late. Loki counters he’s ahead as he found the Variant’s hiding place, then notices the Time charges and thinks the Variant lead them there to blow the place up.

As he turns his gaze Randy has disappeared and the Variant has possessed a big guy who starts beating Loki. Loki is not really fighting back. Are possessed people really so powerful or Loki is trying to pass himself for weak?

Anyway, after pointing out:

Loki: I would never treat me like this.

Which might be our clue the Variant isn’t really a Loki but someone pretending to be one, Loki starts more actively to try to avoid blows and even use his magic to get something he can use as shield.

The Variant’s language is nowhere near as polite as Loki and the possessed guy manages to send Loki on the ground. The idea of a toy dachshund bumping against him is cute.

B-15 manages to find Mobius and she’s forced to confess she lost Loki. Likely she thinks it’s due to Loki but doesn’t know how to explain it while D-90 just says  Mobius’ favourite Loki betrayed him as they run to search for him.

The possessed guy is using another tempad connecting it to another mechanism. Although Loki couldn’t move he hadn’t tried to kill him and now Loki wakes up and demands to know what the Variants wants from him and what is this about. He’s clearly angry.

The possessed guy stands up and then tells him to brace himself before fainting, a sign the Variant isn’t possessing him anymore.

A recording keeps on repeating Loki’s last two sentences ‘What do you want from me? What is this about?’.

I’m not sure why the Variant would record those two sentences and play them over unless we’re to assume they’re actually only playing in Loki’s head.

The Variant appears, removes their hood to reveal it hid a blond woman face then in an unfriendly tone she states:

“This isn't about you.”

Loki’s surprise lasts only few seconds before he says ‘right’.

Meanwhile the countdown has reached 0, the light shot down, the time charges, tons of them, turn on but then below them timedoors appear, sending them away.

Mobius notices what’s going on and worries about where the Time charges are going.

Back at the TVA we assist to the sudden formation of LOTS of branches. The Analysts come to the conclusion someone ‘bombed’ the Sacred Timeline.

Renslayer, who has a hunter helmet that starts with A-25… which might mean she was one of the first hunters of the place, grabs her weapon as Minuteman spun to action.

Loki sees the Variant grabbing the Tempad again and using it to open a human size timedoor as she watches him. She waves at him the way he did at the Hulk when he went on the lift and goes through the Timedoor. Loki considers following but stalls for a moment. Mobius is running there, telling him to wait. Loki sees him but decides to go through the timedoor anyway and, as he does the timedoor disappears, leaving Mobius and the hunters outside.

The episode ends here.

People had been wondering what was Loki thinking when he went through the Timedoor and Tom Hiddleston explained it in an interview:

There's a very big moment at the end where Loki steps through that portal. From your perspective what is going through Loki's mind when he looks back at Mobius and then decides to go through the door anyway? Is he feeling any remorse there at all?

I think certainly there's conflict. I think he… you know, Mobius is someone who, perhaps for the first time in his life, he thinks he might be able to trust, and perhaps trusts him, and he doesn't want to betray that trust, but at the same time he has to go and see what that's what's going on, he has to do that. I think it was he can't help himself but follow… uh… because it's too strange and to, you know, provoke so much curiosity within him. So there is a huge conflict there, he thinks “I probably shouldn't do this, maybe there can be repercussions down the line, but I have to see what that's about”. ['Loki' - Tom Hiddleston & Owen Wilson Talk Ep 2 Twist! _ TVLine Interview]

Now this might be not the full truth because Tom might have been forced to withhold information in order not to give away the plot of future episodes but it’s worth considering it.

Undoubtedly following the other Loki is a risk. It’s clear the other is challenging him to follow… and he knows next to nothing about the other Loki so, if the TVA is bad for him, the other Loki could be worse and he might be trading a bad place for a pure hell. Who says the other Loki doesn’t work for Thanos for example?

In the TVA he has Mobius as some sort of interested ally, with the other Loki he has no one. You know, "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know". At the same time it makes sense he wants to try following the other Loki because he’s not the type to stagnate and remain there. He has to see, he has to try. Where Mobius wouldn’t risk, Loki does. I hope for him the bet will be worth it.

Last but not least it’s worth to mention in the ending theme they’ve replaced two photos of Loki with one of the Loki Variant and another with just a different image of Loki with the TVA jacket.

So anyway we’ve gotten to the end of it. I still wonder if the Loki Variant as an insider in the TVA passing her info and if she’s really a Loki or she just pretends to be. How she came to make all this big plan? Why she had looked like she wanted Loki to tail her?

We’ll see.

#loki #loki odinson #loki laufeyson #mobius m mobius #hunter b 15 #hunter c 20 #ravonna renslayer #casey #mcu loki #tom hiddleston #9 worlds study #9 worlds study mcu loki

[confessionsofa-roleplayer]

In the beginning, I never had a problem with duplicates since I always wanted to roleplay with one to create a twin AU thread or something cool involving duplicates. But that was until a duplicate of my muse decided to become exclusives with a longtime rp friend of mine who we have been roleplaying together for YEARS before they showed up and they only interacted for a few months before making that important decision. To save our friendship and keep our muse's relationship intact, I suggested that we can rp privately in another platform, but for some odd reason. My friend refused to roleplay with me in another platform because they could only answer with, "They can't." as if their new "Best friend" would get angry if they were caught talking or roleplaying to me.

I never met this duplicate before nor have I even spoken to them and I can't help but feel like they made my friend exclusives with them because they don't want them to roleplay with me or any other of the same muse anymore to keep them for themselves.

But I also feel like perhaps my roleplayer buddy never really liked me to begin despite all of the compliments and praises they would tell me, and only became exclusives with them since they found someone "better" since I never was a popular blog nor was my writing as equal to them. Worst is that they never seemed bothered by the fact that they threw away years of interactions and friendship over this new person. I felt so used and worthless for months to the point that I almost deleted my blog if it weren't for my other roleplayer friend being there for me. And I always think about what if this duplicate was entirely innocent and was not told about our rp relationship because my rp friend never valued it in the first place.

Now I have major duplicate anxiety because every time I see the same duplicate URL or even a different one around the blogs that I want to interact with or are interacting with my other rp partners, all I can remember is the agonizing pain of losing my friend and roleplay partner and I feel the need to steer clear of them and the blog that they're interacting with since I don't want to relieve that pain ever again. Especially when I fear of that specific duplicate taking my other friends like that.

And I can't tell anyone aside from my friend who knows about, what happened to me because the both of them are now popular blogs and I know for sure that no one will stick up or believe an average blog like myself if I told everyone about what they did. Especially my now former rp partner.

#duplicates #confessions

[landoftheway]

FFXIV Nier Raid Connections

Since it seems most folks have had time to play the raid by now, I’m gonna speculate on the connections between the raid series and the Drakengard/Nier franchise. Under a cut for both length and spoilers:

Before I get into the details, I wanna preface this with two things:

The themes of Yoko Taro’s works have always been more important than the plot details, and I’m confident saying that holds true here. There’s a bunch of speculation I could get into about what this raid series is thematically about and how that relates to Taro’s other works, but that’s a separate matter I may or may not talk about. All I’ll say for now is that the central theming of this raid series and its associated story has been “belonging” from what I can tell.

As of the time of writing this, the story of the raid is technically not finished as we still have an unknown number of weekly lore updates to go through. I’m writing this now mostly just because I have thoughts I wanna express based on what’s in the raids themselves, but the new info we get in the coming weeks may change some of the conclusions I’ve reached. In that event I’ll either update this post or just delete it and make a new one.

Alright, with that out of the way let’s get into the connections themselves. If you’re not already familiar with the raid series, please either play it for yourself if possible or go look up footage of their contents in the order of their release, as I’ll be jumping all over the place with my thoughts.

The Breach Coin we get for clearing the third raid has the following description: “This round bit of metal, discovered within the machines' mind-bending tower, is stamped with the words "The Arc."” This obviously has a connection to the Arc that was shot from the original tower in Automata in Ending D, but I don’t think it’s proof that the forces we encounter in the raid came from the Arc itself. Given that the tower is clearly a recreation of the one from Automata as well as the entire point of the Arc in Automata being non-hostile, I don’t think it would make a lot of sense for there to be a causal link between the Arc going off into space and the forces that arrive in FFXIV. My best guess here is that the coin has this message simply because that was the original tower’s purpose and thus the recreated tower has surface-level similarities.

2B’s final message to the WoL states “We discovered that our enemies- the white-clothed androids, the tower, that colossal girl- came from that white orb. As did 9S and I.” Given what we know about the orb producing duplicates, I think it’s safe to assume that the 2B and 9S we encounter in FFXIV are also duplicates of the originals; this would also track with how much of their behavior and attitude seems more in line with their personalities near the start of Automata as opposed to the very end. This begs the question of how and why they and the duplicate Anogg would oppose the other forces produced from the orb, particularly considering that it very definitely appears to be a Seed of Destruction with all that that entails. It also begs of the question of how 2B will “save the memory of [her and 9S’s] reunion- and of the time we spent in this world, with you.”, considering that if they are indeed duplicates then they should presumably cease existing once the Seed is gone. My best guess is that 2B, 9S, and Anogg will continue to exist in some form on the “other side” of the Seed, and that perhaps the upcoming weekly lore will give us some more info on that. Though I do think all of this makes perfect sense thematically, so even if we never get a conclusive answer I wouldn’t consider this a big deal.

With the additional info we now have on Seeds of Destruction, I think we can pretty definitively work out both what they are and how this raid got kickstarted story-wise. The Seeds are “planted” in different worlds by the God/Gods (depending on translation) of the Drakengard universe and are the means by which their forces, the Watchers, can invade and wipe out humanity/mortal life. In the case of FFXIV, a Seed got planted on the First presumably by pure chance and began manifesting duplicates of the machine lifeforms from Automata as an initial invasion force meant to fully activate the Seed. Duplicates of 2B and 9S likely were not intended and may simply have manifested as a result of their deep connection to the fate of the machines, or they may have been produced by the Seed in order to create the false YorHa as a more effective invasion force than the basic machine lifeforms. Either way, the Seed is fully activated when the Red Girl duplicate enters it at the end of the third raid, becoming first a semi-formed and then fully-formed Mother Watcher (AKA a Grotesquerie Queen or Mother Angel, again depending on translation). Why exactly it took this long and this much effort to “activate” the Seed is unknown; we just don’t know enough about their inner mechanics to say for sure, though given how it took the magical seals in Drakengard breaking to unleash them it may be that they need a sufficient infusion of magic in order to fully activate. It’s also possible that Konogg and Anogg being the first to make contact with the Seed influenced what it drew on as inspiration for its invasion force; them being technology-obsessed could have influenced the Seed mimicking technological forces it already had something of a connection to (given the connection between the formation of Automata-era tech and the magic that was introduced to the world of Nier via the ending of Drakengard). But this is entirely speculative on my part, and I’m hopeful the upcoming lore will at least give us a little more info on this front.

Given how the Red Girl duplicate appears to “become” the Mother Watcher rather than simply summon her, I think it’s relatively safe to assume at this point that Mother Watchers are themselves born from Seeds, and given the ending of Drakengard 3 and how exposure to the Flower also leads to a similar transformation, I think we can also speculate that the Seeds are either born from or at least directly connected to the Black Flower. Given the symbolism of the terminology involved, the Seeds may literally be the seeds of the Black Flower (as many have speculated for a while), the flower itself being the God/Gods’ primary tool for destroying humanity or even a direct manifestation of them.

#final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #nier

[shaemeful]

Week Three

When I meet new people I always tell them about my giant pet penguin... Why? Well, it's a good ice breaker!

This week in Fundies we took the skills we've been building over the last couple of weeks and put them into practice as we created ourselves a wee penguin friend. Continuing to broaden our Illustrator horizons we learnt new ways to manipulate shapes, we explored the gradient and colour palette tools, and we learnt new shortcuts that make navigating the platform significantly easier.

Starting off with a basic circle that we made using the ellipse tool we selected the bottom points using the Direct Selection tool (A) and cut (Ctrl + X) and pasted in place (Shift + Ctrl + V).

We then held shift and moved the lower half down until we had our desired size. We then selected both open points on one side and used the "Join" function (Option/Alt + J) and then repeated on the other side, leaving us with the base of our penguins body.

Our next step was to give our penguin a tail. To achieve this we added extra anchor points (+) and moved them to give us our desired shape.

When then did the same thing on top to give our penguin a little 'cow lick' for hair.

When then went ahead and drew a wing using the pen tool, and then made a beak. To make the beak we started with a rectangle, we adjusted the anchor points using the Direct Selection tool to where we wanted them, and then we used the curve gizmo to round certain points until we were happy with the results. We were then left with something that looks like this:

Moving on to creating some eyes, we used the swatches and gradient palettes (Found in the Window menu) and created a blue to black gradient and then added white circles to emulate shine.

Moving onto the feet, I forgot to screenshot as I went so for the sake of documentation I've gone through and repeated this step on a separate document so just pretend the feet you're about to see are the same as my final image.

We started off by drawing one half of the foot and then using the Reflect tool (O) to create the other half. We selected the outer anchor points that are now overlapping, and joined them together.

During this step it is important to keep our handles straight because it will make it easier to reflect and line up!

We then flattened the foot to the desired height and duplicated, holding shift to raise the duplicate up. We deleted selected lines and then joined certain anchor points together - this is going to give the illusion the foot is 3D eventually.

We then lowered the top down, selected the whole image, hit Shift + X and then chose our colours for the foot.

We now want to add an outline, but because we only want it on the outside we're going to duplicate our foot and then using Pathfinder we're going to use the "unite" button to merge the two shapes together. To check our work and to make sure there's no funny business going on we're going to go into wire mode (Command/Ctrl + Y) and then delete any random points that might be there.

Selecting our now merged shape we're going to go Shift + X to switch to outline, no fill and then we're going to open our stroke palette and adjust the width and colour as well as change a few settings to get our desired look. For today's project we want "round join" and "alight to outside". Then all we need to do is move the stroke on-top of our coloured foot and then voila - we have a completed flipper. To make our leg we used the same process we used to create the body.

Our final step was to colour our penguin, which I also admittedly forgot to screenshot as I went, but I will give the highlights!

First we wanted to make sure we were organised in our working, so we started by creating several layers of what would become the different coloured components and moved the face and arm into "front stuff" and the feet into "back stuff".

Using the pen tool we carved out different shapes that would become our chest colour and then used the pathfinder tool again to "minus front" to delete what we didn't want from the body outline copy we started with. Similar steps were taken to create our shadow and highlight, using Shift + X to switch from outline to fill and then choosing the desired colour. Once we picked all our colours and added a little highlight to the beak we had our final penguin, so without further adieu - meet Pascal!

This lesson was the first time I felt like I "understood" Illustrator. Prior to this I had always been a die-hard Photoshop user, but mainly because I didn't know how to effectively create using this platform.

#illustrator