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godsrejectedmartyr · 1 year

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last night my cousin was talking to me about my friend for some reason. i’m not sure why she decided to mention her but she asked me if she was disfellowshipped from our (my family’s) particular denomination of christianity. i said no, but her family still won’t associate with her. i know my cousin is still a believer despite the fact she literally breaks every rule possible (if you ask me i think she just feels guilty for being a “dirty sinner” so she makes up for it by defending the religion but whatever) so yknow i try to give her the mild version of how i think it’s sad that my friends parents refuse to talk to her and pretty much let her whore herself just to be able to eat instead of doing what a parent is supposed to do. because if you ask me, you signed up for raising a human with thoughts and feelings when you decide to have a child, and if you’re not prepared for your kid to be anything but a mindless slave that follows your every teaching instead of being an individual, then maybe don’t have kids.

of course i didn’t say all that but i just told my cousin that i think it’s sad that they don’t talk to her, but that i understand why they do it because they want her to come back to the church. but it won’t happen cuz my friend can’t just stop being trans, nor will her beliefs just change because you can’t *choose* to believe in anything.

but my cousin got all defensive and started saying “yeah well you can’t change her parents either, once i knew a sister in my mom’s congregation who became a member of our church but her parents hated our church so they kicked her out, so it comes from both sides.” ok well first of all, why are you being so defensive?

i mean ofc i know the answer to that, and it’s because when you’re a part of a high control religious organization that drives you by guilt you can handle to hear that shitty people in the religion exist. i never said that people outside of the church are perfect people, actually i didn’t say anything about any group of people at all! all i said is that i think that it’s sad that a parent can be so cold to their child just because of a belief, even if the child doesn’t force you to do anything when it comes to what they believe. if anything i don’t see what her point is cuz that girls parents (if the story she told me was true) are just as shitty parents!! they’re both shitty!! why would you kick your child out and stop associating with them just because of a belief???? unless the belief is hurting people (which i’ve talked about plenty of times on my blog about how the denomination i was raised in HAS hurt and CONTINUES to hurt HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE EVERY DAY!!!) then i don’t see why you should have conditional love with a child YOU CHOSE to bring into this world KNOWING DAMN WELL IT WILL HAVE THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS.

i just ended up shutting up after my cousin got all defensive. i wish she would just open her eyes. she’s right, you can’t change what people believe, because you can’t choose what you believe in. but the truth is that the denomination we were raised in hurts people. it’s not about belief, who cares if you think there’s a god? it’s about the fact that this denomination is a literal cult that emotionally abused and manipulates people, an organization that protects abusers and child molesters, a sect that covers up all their wrong doings to the blind people associated within. my cousin could be so close to knowing the truth, but what a cult does is that it closes off your world and makes you live in a bubble. if my cousin left the church she wouldn’t have anyone left, cuz in reality she’s not a part of this organization for herself, she’s a part of it because it’s the only thing she knows in her life. she doesn’t know how to live any other way so she won’t look for it. because the whole point is that they don’t want you to leave, they want you to know that if you leave you lose it all, your family, your friends, everyone you know will continue to judge and ridicule you for the rest of your life.

and if god is who they say he is, if he even exists, he put me on this world and had me be born in this cult knowing i would be an apostate and would be driven to suicide out of fear of losing it all.

god is cruel. his organization is cruel. i hate him.

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edwardskhakipants · 3 years

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Forks, Washington. August 2004.

Esme and Carlisle stood in the middle of their grand living room, waiting for their five vampire children to arrive. Alice arrived first—prompt as usual. She settled herself gracefully onto the tufted sofa Esme had recently acquired, only to be immediately jostled by Emmett who heaved himself onto the cushions. A breath caught in Esme’s throat—she had lost many pieces from her beloved collection by that action—but it looked like this one was still in one piece. For the moment. Jasper took Edward’s normal spot in the only armchair, forcing Edward to wedge himself between Alice and Emmett.

“What?” Rosalie grumbled as she perched on the armrest of the couch beside Emmett, “Are we having another one of those How to Respect the Telepath in Your Life meetings again?”

“No,” Edward answered, fully aware of the intent of this meeting since it hatched in Carlisle's mind two days prior. “But there’s never a bad time to bring that up. Christ, Emmett, if you’re going to have a song stuck in your head for over seventy-two hours, the least you can do is learn the correct lyrics.”

Emmett’s eyebrows knit together, asking his brother a silent question.

“It’s ‘mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido,’” Edward answered.

Emmett’s brow furrowed doubtfully.

“No.” Edward shook his head, answering Emmett’s thoughts. “Why would he eat a beetle?”

Emmett grinned playfully and tilted his head towards Edward.

Edward wasn’t amused. “You know what it means.”

A silly grin plastered on his face, Emmett elbowed Edward in the ribs, silently egging him on.

Edward’s eyes darted to Carlisle, then Esme, and he shifted in his seat. “Sexual desire,” he muttered.

Emmett howled with laughter and clapped his hands once, “Wow, Eddie! You’re just going to say that in front of Esme!?” Edward scowled as Emmett’s bouts of laughter echoed through the room.

Esme ran a hand through her youngest’s ginger hair. “Boys,” she warned, and Emmett sucked in his laughter.

“Our meeting today has to do with all of you,” Carlisle began.

“We simply wanted to go over the rules of attending school with you kids before you start your second year at Forks High School,” Esme explained, unfolding and re-folding her hands in front of her. “There are already whispers, and we don’t want those whispers to turn into rumors.”

“I thought the only whispers about us at school were whether or not Edward liked girls,” Rosalie said, earning an eye-roll from Edward.

“No,” Alice chirped,” Some kids think we’re a cult.”

Jasper leaned back heavily in his chair. “We haven’t heard that one since the Seventies.”

“Kids are getting more creative these days.” Emmett nodded appreciatively.

Esme held up one, delicate finger. “Which is why it is best to take preventative action.”

Carlisle took the floor. “We thought a few reminders would be helpful before you started your first day of your second year,” Carlisle said. “We don’t want another incident like the one we had at the end of last year.”

Every head in the room turned towards Emmett.

“What?” Emmett threw up his hands in exasperation, “The water gun fight was the senior prank—I wasn’t the one who brought them to the school. Hell, I wasn’t even the only student who got suspended!”

“That’s true,” Carlisle agreed, “but you were the only student to shout, ‘Sit down, kids! Daddy’s gotta tinkle,’ and shoot the stream of the gun from your crotch.”

Jasper snickered—the sound was immediately silenced by a single raised eyebrow from Esme.

“I still don’t see the problem,” Emmett continued, “That’s not necessarily a vampire thing.”

Edward—who often mistook himself as the third vampire parent rather than the youngest son—sighed, “Yes, but it brings unnecessary attention to the family. Which is the first rule: do not bring attention to yourself.”

Esme ran her fingers through her son’s hair once more, “Yes, darling, you are especially good at keeping to yourself.” Edward’s eyes widened, despite Esme’s gentle touch, already aware of where her point was headed. “So much so, that I have been given the names of several child therapists to help my son through his depression. One was recommended for his exceptional work on spotting and treating the early signs of sociopathic behavior.”

Esme grabbed her son’s chin and forced him to look at her. “You have to talk to other people.”

Knocked off his high horse, Edward flinched back from Esme’s hand. “Friendship with humans never bodes well for us.”

“We’re not asking you to create lifelong friendships with humans,” Carlisle clarified, “We are simply asking you to be likable.”

“A nearly impossible feat for Edward.” Rosalie grinned. The comment went unnoticed, save Edward’s slight flinch. But the quick, little tick was satisfying enough for Rose.

“Look at your father,” Esme gestured towards Carlisle, “At every hospital he works at, he goes out of his way to ensure he is well-liked among his colleagues. He forces down countless lunches and coffees, solely to make sure they’re comfortable around him.”

Carlisle took over. “And your mother, a beloved member of her gardening club and a prized member of the PTA.”

“And neither of us have rumors started about us, and do you know why?”

All five teenagers grumbled the ingrained response. “Humans don’t want to spread rumors about people they like.”

“Exactly.” Esme nodded.

“I try!” Alice whined, “But Edward never lets me talk to any humans.”

“That’s because every, single thing that is about to come out of your mouth is incriminating. You might as well walk around with a neon sign that says, ‘I’m a psychic vampire’.”

Alice scoffed, “Is not!”

“You wanted to tell Nihal Howard not to audition for the musical.”

“And he broke his leg on opening night,” Alice challenged.

“You were going to tell Christiana Ward that pink was not her color.”

“And she lost prom queen to Ashley Kirby.”

Jasper put a comforting hand on his wife’s knee. “Maybe try not to meddle so much, darlin’. Natural relationships, first.”

“They would have been!” Alice wailed, “I would have played it cool and casual and made friends and you all would have seen it! But everyone’s hurt and I have no friends at all because Edward won’t let me try!”

Edward rolled his eyes.

Carlisle suppressed a heavy sigh. “You have to let your sister try, Edward.”

Edward’s mouth fell open. “You cannot seriously be siding with her on this!”

But Carlisle stood his ground. He and Edward stared at one another for a few seconds, engaged in a silent conversation. In the end, Carlisle tilted his chin and Edward slumped back. Victorious, Alice used both pointer fingers to jab Edward in the side several dozen times at vampire speed.

Rosalie flipped her golden locks over her shoulder. “I don’t know how you all struggle so much. I have no issues with becoming well-liked at school while remaining inconspicuous.”

“Oh yeah, you’re so inconspicuous,” Edward grumbled, now extra-petty that he had been called out two times in one meeting. “You dress like you're on your way to brunch at your second husband’s country club in Beverly Hills and you make out with your foster brother. The perfect picture of discretion in Forks High School.”

“At least I don’t dress like a sad, old man.” Rosalie grimaced, disappointed in her comeback. The light, humorous insults that were required in family situations were Emmett’s forte; Rosalie’s insults were meant to emotionally cripple a person.

Edward sat up in his seat on the couch and turned to face Rosalie. “I think you missed the main takeaway in that you make out with your foster brother.” Edward turned back. “I can read your minds, and I still don’t understand what made either of you think it was okay to bring your relationship to school?!”

Emmett smiled, unperturbed. “It’s hot.”

“It’s disturbing,” Edward disagreed.

Esme frowned, “You kids don’t really do that, do you?”

“Would it help if Jasper and I became an official couple too?” Alice suggested. Jasper perked up at the idea of being able to hold hands with Alice in public again.

“No!” Edward yelled at the same time Emmett and Rosalie muttered their acquiesce.

“It wouldn’t seem as weird if there were two couples,” Emmett agreed.

Edward dug his fingers through his hair. “Oh my god!”

“...maybe not, kids,” Esme intervened, but was ultimately ignored.

“So should we come out today like it happened over the summer, or make a little show out of it?” Alice asked Rosalie.

Rosalie waved a hand in the air. “Oh, it’s way more fun if you play up the theatrics.”

“A little more realistic, too,” Emmett agreed.

Alice looked to Jasper for his opinion. “It might be better if we were discreet about it,” she said. “Like we knew it was wrong, but we wouldn’t let anything stand in the way of our love.”

Jasper scooted forward to the edge of his seat. “Or we could let it be quiet and drawn out. Let others see our mutual pining, and root for us to be together.”

Gazing deep into the golden eyes of her soulmate, Alice sighed, “I love that.”

“If people wanted us to get together, it would normalize Emmett and Rosalie’s relationship.”

“Or Rosalie and Emmett could stop,” Edward suggested, bitterly. “That would be normal, too.”

“Oh, Edward,” Alice patted his shoulder, “You’ll find love someday, too.”

“That is not at all what bothers me about the situation.”

Carlisle made the decision for everyone. “Rosalie and Emmett, break up at school. Alice and Jasper, remain friends and siblings.”

Disappointment filtered into the room through Jasper.

“I heard that,” Edward grumbled at someone’s thoughts.

“You were supposed to,” Rosalie shot back.

“We are also initiating a new rule,” Esme brought the room back to the conversation at hand, “No more correcting your teachers.”

A chorus of complaints rang from the couch.

Esme clicked her tongue, “I’m tired of defending you all from entirely preventable issues. I have emails from curious teachers wondering why my foster daughter is taking French 101, when she already appears to be fluent.” Esme looked at Rosalie, who immediately tucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “Or why my son, at the tender age of sixteen, could not only deadlift three hundred pounds in his first weightlifting class, but also give his coach tips on improving his posture.”

Emmett glanced over at Edward before he realized Esme was, in fact, addressing him. “What!?”

Jasper snorted. The sound was a mistake, for it brought Esme’s wrath onto him. “And not to mention the emails from not one, not two, but three teachers warning me that my foster son has an intimate understanding of the mechanics of a point fifty-eight caliber rifle-musket.” Esme held out her hands, almost pleadingly, “How does that subject keep coming up, Jasper?”

A noncommittal grunt was the only answer Jasper had for that question.

“No more,” she commanded. “You can get good grades but keep your extra knowledge on any subject to yourself. Whatever your teacher teaches is all you know. Understand?”

“But what if we—” Edward started.

“Understand?” Esme repeated.

The five teenage vampires understood, even if they didn’t want to.

“I believe that all five of you will graduate from Forks High School!” Esme cheered.

The kids stared back, unable to muster the zeal Esme had over the prospect.

“Meeting adjourned!” Carlisle announced, and faster than fast vampire speed, the kids bolted from their seats.

Esme was able to get in a few more reminders as her children flitted around the house and filed out to the silver Volvo. “Remember to buy lunch with cash and not your credit cards. Emmett, please do not joke about being mauled by a bear. Do not address your teachers by their first names—I don’t care if you’re older than they are, Edward. Alice, please wear something a bit more causal, pet.”

When the house was finally empty, Carlisle pulled Esme backwards into his chest and began massaging her temples. The gesture wasn’t needed, but any touch from her husband was always welcome.

“Do you think they’ll listen?” she asked her husband.

“Not a chance.”

#this bad boy had been swimming around in my head for awhile #please enjoy #my other fics havent been cullen centric enough for me lately #so i had to do something #twilight fic #twilight fan fiction #and thank you to the editing queen edwardsmate4ever for beta'ing for me #youre a queen

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rose2jam · 3 years

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Why It Was Practically Inevitable That Severus Snape Would Join A Cult, an essay by Rose Jam

So, let’s talk about Cults. Disclaimer: This is just information I’ve gathered over the years from my personal fascination with religious cults. I’m in no way an expert or a psychologist or whatever. This is just my personal understanding from the research I’ve done.

A cult is started when a wildly charismatic Leader feels like they have a purpose, a higher calling, or a mission to be fulfilled (or they could also just be an egomaniac). Maybe they really do feel like what makes them special comes directly from a higher power, be that God, or the Heir of Slytherin, but either way, this person has a pathological need to be worshiped, and they need followers in order to do that.

So, how does one obtain Followers easily? By finding the misunderstood misfits of society, and promising them something. The people who feel like no one else understands them, or their ideologies. But this Leader? This Leader GETS IT, MAN! The Leader understands them perfectly, vindicates them, and makes them promises along the way. Like, if they stick with the Leader, then not only will they finally be understood, but they themselves will also be revered. That they will rise above all of the others who have put them down for so long, and will come out on top as a superior being.

Any of this sounding familiar?

Charles Manson preyed on young people in the middle of the hippie movement, mostly women, who were feeling lost, lonely, and in need of guidance, or in terms of the men he recruited, seeking power over others. Not all of these people were poor or helpless; some of them came from middle class, or even rich homes and families. Yes, some of them came from broken homes, but all of them felt “broken” themselves, in some way. So Manson used their desires to have a family to draw them in. He then used LSD and other drugs to keep them under his control, and he created a manipulative environment where the members of his “family” felt they could never leave him, and if they didn’t follow his commands, something horrible would happen to them. I’m not going to go into full detail on the Manson Family Murders, but if you’re personally interested, check out the Podcast “Cults” on Spotify.

So back to basics, this Leader draws in Followers with flowery promises of community, power, family, or whatever. But once the Leader has that following, the terror will begin. Cult Leaders are usually master manipulators, and have completely brainwashed their followers into believing the “us vs them” mentality, that the outside world is evil, that the outside world will only harm them, that the outside world would never understand what they’re doing on the inside. And that the Leader is the only one who knows the truth, so they better stick with him. Or maybe the Leader has gaslit his followers so completely, that they become dependent on him for everything, to the point where they don’t know how they would possibly function without the Leader. Or, the Leader has created an environment that’s so hostile, that Followers are too afraid of what might happen to them if they tried to leave, or didn’t do what the Leader commanded. Typically, it’s a combination of all of the above. Destructive cults will either hurt others outside of their circle (The Manson Family, Sect of Nacozari), harm themselves (Heaven’s Gate, The Ant Hill Kids), or both (The People’s Temple, Aum Sinrikyo).

Now that I’ve laid this foundation, I’m going to tell you why it was practically inevitable that Severus Snape would join a cult.

Snape’s childhood ultimately laid the foundation for the mental state he would be in when he decided to join the Death Eaters. He grew up in an abusive household, where his father, the muggle, had his magical wife so thoroughly whipped, that she couldn’t (or chose not to) use magic to defend herself, or her son (1). Eileen had obviously told Severus about magic, about Hogwarts, about what a wonderful place it was, and what a wonderful gift magic could be. Severus also watched as Tobias beat the magic out of her. (I know it’s debated whether Tobias actually physically abused his family, but he certainly verbally/mentally/emotionally abused them, so the term “beat” could be used figuratively as well). I don’t think it’s unreasonable to believe that Severus developed an extreme hatred of muggles with “burn the witch” mentalities from a very young age because of this.

Enter Lily, perhaps the only other magical person in his life besides his mother up to this point. He sees her using magic out in the open, perhaps recklessly, for fun, and he sees an opportunity to make a friend (and, admittedly, to be smarter than someone about something for a while). He was so eager to tell her all about magic, because getting to learn magic, and go to Hogwarts, has possibly been the only thing keeping him going in his young life. And now he’s made a friend, a real friend who doesn’t think he’s weird because he’s magical. Unlike Petunia, yet another muggle who makes fun of him for being weird (2). And Lily actually seems to like him back. For a kid who probably hasn’t received a lot of affection in his life, this is monumental. This friendship is everything. Why wouldn’t he love her?

So the time finally comes to go to Hogwarts. Severus gets to escape his abusive household, and finally has an opportunity to embrace magic for the first time in his life. But almost immediately, he’s met with a hic-up. Specifically, James Potter and Sirius Black. So Severus is no longer facing abuse exclusively from muggles who think he’s weird, but now he’s also getting it from other magical people who think he’s weird (3). And this started on the fucking TRAIN before he even GOT to Hogwarts. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t sour a kids dream right off the fucking bat. And then, when he finally gets there, he’s separated from his only friend, by being sorted into different houses (4). What a way for a life-long dream to be thoroughly dashed in less than 24 hours.

Let’s look at Snape’s Hogwarts experience. He’s a good student, and he pours himself into learning as much magic as possible, and at being the best he can possibly be, probably motivated by a desire to be better than what his Father thinks possible. During this time, he is regularly bullied and abused by the Marauders. Sometime before his 5th year, the Incident at the Shrieking Shack took place. It definitely sucks to have been so thoroughly fucking duped, and put into a life-threatening situation involving a goddamn werewolf (5). But perhaps even worse than that, the salt in the wound, was that no one fucking did anything about it (6). He saw Sirius and James and Remus get out of that situation without facing any sort of proper punishment (as in, they all still stayed at the school as opposed to being expelled like they DEFINITELY SHOULD HAVE BEEN (At least Sirius should have been)). Dumbledore was looking out for the Marauders, but no one was looking out for Severus. On top of that, Severus isn’t allowed to TELL anyone about it, not even Lily. So, he goes through what was possibly one of the most traumatic experiences of his life, and he can’t even tell anyone that it happened.

So, what sort of support system does Severus have during all this? He has Lily, sure (who literally told him he should be GRATEFUL to James, one of his abusers). But, what he really has, is Slytherin House (7). I’ll say it plainly: Severus was sorted into a house that was already full of existing cult members. McGonagall says in Sorcerer’s Stone that “Your house will be like your family” (she at least says it in the movies, I’m too lazy to get up and reference my books rn lol). So, Severus’ family, his support system, for 10 months out of every year, is a house that is already full to the brim with pureblood elitists with prejudiced ideals, who would absolutely vindicate Severus in his dislike for muggles. As a kid first getting sorted into the house, it’s obviously not unreasonable to become friends with the people you’re literally living with. His dorm mates became his family. So, when his dorm mates started to become Death Eaters… This is headcanon, I fully admit, but like, fuck, Severus didn’t have a lot of friends, and was probably already drifting apart from Lily. Do you really think he was going to tell the people he had to live with every single day, not to mention the only people that had been supporting him for years, to go fuck themselves for using Dark Magic? Especially when he was probably feeling like he was on the verge of thinking that their rhetoric made some sense?

On to Snape’s Worst Memory (8). At this point, he’s spent 5 years in Slytherin House, with fellow students who casually throw around the M word. He gets attacked by James and Sirius, he’s practically defenseless, and then the girl who he’d considered his closest friend for so long… has to force herself not to smile when he’s thrown upside down and exposed to everyone on the grounds. Sure, she was trying to defend him at first, but she also fucking nearly smiled at his humiliation, his pain, his abuse. So he hurls the one word that he knows is going to cut the deepest, that will hopefully hurt her as badly as she has hurt him. And it works.

Severus had been beaten down his entire life. By Muggles and Magic Folk alike. And finally, he’s betrayed by Lily, his last lifeline to the light. He betrayed her as well, of course. But he did try to show remorse. And she doesn’t forgive him (9), which was her prerogative, of course.

So. Who does he have left?

I’ve placed little (numbers) throughout my writing here. Each of those numbers denote the specific events that led Severus to becoming an angry young man, who hates muggles, hates (some) magic folk, and resulted in him feeling weak, helpless, and desperate. For what? For power, for a family, for a community. For a world where he is no longer the weird one. For a world where he’s respected, strong. For the world he thought he was going to be a part of, when he arrived at Hogwarts in his first year.

And it just so happens that this is the exact world that Voldemort is (allegedly) trying to create.

Severus Snape was angry, and vulnerable, and as such, he was practically the poster child for the type of person who would be susceptible to falling for a cult. Maybe he was recruited by his friends in Slytherin House. Maybe he was recruited directly. Either way, charismatic Tom Riddle came along, understood how he felt, where he was coming from, told him he deserved better, and offered him all of the things he never had in his life. And being at rock bottom, being the lowest of the low, to Severus it must have seemed like a miracle of an opportunity, or perhaps, like the only chance he had left.

Now, let me be extremely clear; everything I’ve written is not trying to EXCUSE Severus Snape for his actions. There is always a point where personal responsibility must come into play. Except for children born into cults or victims of kidnapping, nearly every person who has ever joined a cult has made the personal decision to join it. I’m just trying to express how unbelievably easy it is, for a Cult Leader to find people with damaged lives and low self-worth, to suck them in with promises of a fulfilling life and grandeur, and for those people to be easily swept up and brainwashed into believing that what they are doing is right. (Or that what they are doing is required, because the alternative is more horrifying.)

The type of people who joined the Death Eaters are the same type of people who joined Heaven’s Gate, or The People’s Temple, or yes, The Manson Family. Now, I’m just going to say, from my own personal point of view, I do not vilify anyone who’s ever joined a destructive cult. On the contrary, I feel sorry for them. Because most people who join a cult, don’t necessarily do it signing up for the… end result of what happened to them. Some of them totally do, like Heaven’s Gate. Most of them knew that the end result was going to be the “evacuation of their earthly vessel”. But the people who joined the Manson Family, for instance, did not initially join it KNOWING how it was going to end. They were part of the family long before Manson even came up with Helter Skelter, and by the time the Tate-LaBianca Murders took place, they were already too far gone to go against it.

I highly recommend anyone who’s interested in a humanizing view of former cult members, to read the essay “Leslie Van Houten: A Friendship” by John Waters. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leslie-van-houten-a-frien_b_246953

Or, at the very least, listen to this 7 minute NPR interview with John Waters about the essay https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111585116

It’s the story of how notorious film maker John Waters, became friends with former Manson Girl, Leslie Van Houten, and about how she broke away from the cult after her conviction, how she’s spent the last 51 years of her life recovering from the psychotic influence of a maniac who’d promised her the world, and how even though she was convicted to life WITH a possibility of parole, it’s never been granted to her, despite the fact that she has done literally everything possible to try and atone for her crimes.

Maybe I’m just a bleeding heart. I’m pretty much the only person I know who feels sorry for Leslie Van Houten and other cult members who were brainwashed, abused, and manipulated into doing a lot of the horrible things they’ve done. But there are people in the world, who have committed FAR more heinous crimes than the Manson Family murders, and who are far less repentant than Leslie, but because those crimes weren’t as notorious, they get to walk free.

Addendum: When I first posted this, I had a few people point out to me that they had always associated Voldemort and the Death Eaters with Hitler and Nazi Germany. This is a perfectly fair point, but one that I personally don’t jive with, and the reason is simply the numbers. There were literally millions of people in the Nazi party during WW2. Death Eaters don’t even reach triple digits, as far as I’m aware. As I hinted at in this essay, I consider Voldemort and the Death Eaters to be MUCH closer to Charles Manson and the Manson Family. The Manson Family 100% had Nazi ideology, of course. "Helter Skelter” was Charles Manson’s prediction that there was going to be a massive race war; one that the Whites were going to lose, and that he and his Pure White family would emerge from it in order to rule over the remaining Blacks. Kinda... sounds like a Death Eater thing, huh?

Sorry. Back to Snape. There is a lot we don’t know about Severus’ actual time as a Death Eater. I think it can be reasonably assumed he’s never actually killed anyone before Dumbledore (In Prince’s Tale, Severus questions if his soul would be safe from killing Dumbledore, and Dumbledore implies that his soul would not be damaged by helping an old man avoid pain and humiliation. This leads me to believe that Severus never committed any soul-damaging murders before this). Beyond being a sneaky spy and delivering the prophecy to Voldemort, his time as a Death Eater is all up for conjecture.

Severus does make one important deviation from the typical cult member mold, however. In the end, he manages to break away from the cult. The scales fall from his eyes. In a figurative sense, the LSD has worn off. What made him sober up, was the threat to his last lifeline to the light. The one good fucking thing he’d ever had in his miserable life. He was brought back by genuine love. Ya know, the ENTIRE MESSAGE OF THE HP SERIES. And not only did he leave the cult, but he then spent the rest of his life actively attempting to destroy it, and atone for the mistakes he’s made, in an effort to bring back the world he’d been excited for, as an 11-year-old kid, so full of hope.

#Snape Meta #Severus Snape #Pro Snape #Snapedom #Snape Community #This will be the TRUE test of the tags #Essay Jam #Why It Was Practically Inevitable That Severus Snape Would Join A Cult

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randomnameless · 3 years

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I write and write and make comparisons between a swimsuit and themes like tolerance and freedom,

But in this fandom, some people draw more dubious comparisons, especially ones regarding a certain game - and I warned (who?) at the beginning of the FE16 trend that while it wanted to have a Jugdral flair, it obviously failed. You have a sprinkle of Jugdral in FE16, but it’s only a surface image, or even a mirage.

“CrEsT SyStEM”? Holy Blood? No, those comparisons at least were made in good faith and had some merits.

One of the worst comparisons was noted by several friends, a certain someone, wanting to push a certain ship involving a certain character, managed to write :

“Every route makes one villain from Genealogy of the Holy War the hero, Edelgard being Arvis, Dimitri being Eldigan, Claude being Travant and Rhea being Manfroy”

This will not be a post about Manfroy’s hips, you are warned

Who is Eldigan (Eldie)?

A man who is the carrier of Hezul’s holy blood, Hezul being the founder of Augstria, a sovereign state. Everyone loves Eldie, he is good-looking, strong, kind, chivalrous and has the magic blood that makes him able to use his magic sword.

Is he the King of Agustria? No.

The King is a man named Chagall, who has an ugly sprite, doesn’t have Hezul’s magic blood and cannot use the magic sword. He also killed his father, and is really jealous of Eldie.

However, Eldie’s line (House Nodion) has sworn to support the royal line of Augustria (Chagall’s), so even if everyone wants Eldie to ascend to the throne, he will never accept it. Even if Chagall pisses on him, or imprisons him because he felt like it, Eldie will not rebel against his King. Eldie is seen as a Camus, because he will fight and die for Chagall, and his country, when Sigurd is... more or less attacking Chagall (because Sigurd’s forces are occupying Augstria and Sigurd’s orders are to bring peace to the land, Chagall doesn’t want peace and wants to fight to retake his throne). If everything ends well, Eldie will promise Sigurd he will try to talk one last time his king, try to convince him to accept a ceasefire and peace with Granvalle - but Chagall is an ass and beheads Eldie.

Dimitri... isn’t like Eldigan, at all. First of all, Dimitri is supposed to be the crown Prince, instead of being a mere knight sworn to serve the royal family. Secondly, Dimitri doesn’t die because his liege beheads him - Edelgard will never be his liege - he dies either by defending his borders against someone who is bringing war to his lands and wants his head, or he dies because he pursues Edelgard in a three way battle in Gronder.

We do not know what Rufus is like to his nephew, but I am pretty sure he is no Chagall.

The only common points Eldie and Dimitri have is their blond hair, and sometimes, their manner of death. there is also something about bonds with their sisters but we’re not here for that

Who is Travant?

Travant is the King of the Thracian Kingdom, a proto Nohr-like place, where farming is difficult, and the people living there are starving and often turn to banditry or become mercenaries to be able to earn some money.

Thracia’s neighbour, the Manster District (Manster) could export food to Thracia... but they do not, because, well, the people in charge of the Manster District do not like Thracians a lot (and use slurs to talk about them, but Quan is a special character). So Thracians raid the border, with hopes to reunite the peninsula, with the dream that, one day, they will seize the arable lands in the North.

Travant has an infamous line, which more or less went like “I will unite the peninsula for the sake of my people, and if that process dooms me to hell then so be it”.

And to hell he will go, because by Jugdral standards, ambushing Quan and his family in a desert (horses cannot move in sand, another example of gameplay and story integration!) with horseslayers, is despicable, especially since he leaves no one alive, even, apparently, killing Quan’s young daughter Altena.

(Travant ranks pretty high in the douchebag ladder).

With time, Altena grows, unaware that Travant, who adopted her, isn’t her real Father, Quan was. Things happen, Altena discovers the truth, and Travant finally achieves his dream by making a suicidal charge against Seliph’s forces (he doesn’t even bring his magic lance to the fight!), with him dead, finally, the peninsula can be united under one leader.

Claude? Also has a wyvern. And comes from another land than our hero (but which one?). And... that’s all.

If Almyra raids every sunday, it is not because they are starving, but because they are doing it, per Cyril, for funsies. Claude pretends to be a schemer and underhanded, but he never does something on the scale of the Yied Ambush (the moment where Travant pulled out the horseslayers against Quan). Claude never takes a child hostage, and never orders his daughter to punish civilians.

If Claude wants to unite the two countries, it is not because he wants his people to finally leave their life as mercenaries and bandits behind, but because he wants people to understand each other.

Edit because I’m sleeping : Travant will die for his dream. Claude... always survive. Always. I am not saying he doesn’t believe in it, but he is not as desperate as Travant is.

Comparing Claude to Travant is like comparing... Virion to Iago. They are both male with long hair, and pretend to scheme. Bar that? Well... they both have hands...? I guess?

Who is Manfroy?

Manfroy is... both a mastermind and a plothole.

Manfroy was the one in the shadows engineering a war in Jugdral, not because he likes wars, nope, but because he wanted political instability to recreate the Loptyr Empire.

He will help a douchebag to conquer the world, and use him to sire Julius, the only person in Jugdral who can become a host for the dark dragon Loptyr. The last time Loptyr was there... well, apparently it wasn’t roses and sunshines, slavery was rampant and citizens were pitted against each other to make sure the strongest ones would become citizens of the Empire.

Why Manfroy does this? It depends on the sources, but it is heavily implied Manfroy is part of a sect (sect as in group of people practicing a religion, here the Loptyr religion/cult) persecuted by a lot of people in Jugdral - to the point where Agustrians were having witches hunts to chase them. Manfroy and his followers escaped the the Yied desert, touted to be an inhospitable land. His people had no where and no one to turn to, so they prayed to their God Loptyr (who doesn’t give 3 figs about them).

Manfroy is thus the Archbishop of the Loptyr Church. He also killed his son in law, for some reason, and planned to turn his granddaughter in a zombie. Manfroy also supports (and conducts?) the child hunts, basically the plot in the second part of FE4 and FE5 where the Granvalle Empire and the members of the Loptyr Church round up children, take them from their families (sometimes by killing said families) to send them to Granvalle, with the highly suggested goal of sacrificing them one way or another to Loptyr.

On the not-so bright side, Manfroy doesn’t kill Julia - when Loptyr/Julius expressly asking him to do so, because Julia is the only person, story-wise, able to kill him.

What a guy!

Now, Rhea?

There are some comparisons to be made, unlike Claude and Dimitri, but again, it reinforces how they could be seen as foils.

Rhea? Yes, also engineers the birth of a vessel.

However, unlike Manfroy who “forced” Arvis and Deirdre to marry and have a baby, Byleth’s birth, born from the union of Jeralt and Sitri, was completely unexpected. There is no trace in canon of Rhea arranging Jeralt and Sitri’s meeting, and future wedding.

Rhea? Also wants her granddaughter to “die”?

Well, not this one, since Rhea thinks Billy is actually an amnesiac Sothis. Billy would just recover their memories.

Rhea? Doesn’t start a war to build her Sothis vessel. Hell, the DLC is about her previous experiment to resurrect her mother - it was a failure, but someone supposes she fails because she did not want to bleed dry the Four Apostles. Rhea wishes to resurrect a benevolent Goddess (when Manfroy knows Loptyr is... far from benevolent) but will not kill to do so.

Sitri? Asked her to save Billy, by offering her own life.

The most interesting foil though is... how Rhea and Manfroy both belong to a community that was persecuted by others, the people they are supposed to live with.

Manfroy? Went the “if the world hates me, then I will hate it and burn it down” route.

Rhea? Doesn’t want to kill humans, hell, she and her brother disagreed because she didn’t want to kill children of the people who wronged her! She opens a monastery and offers guidance to anyone who needs it, a shelter for the needy and tries her best to protect peace and the humans living under her care.

They could have followed the same path, but didn’t. Manfroy rounds children to kill them, Rhea offers a new home to children who lost theirs.

They can also be compared with their “welp” points, Rhea gave CF!Billy the means to destroy her, just like Manfroy “forgot” to kill Julia - and yet, again, it is different. Rhea trusted Billy and never wanted to use them as a tool, in the other routes, it is because she trusted Billy with “those means” that Billy is able to save the world. Manfroy? Berserks Julia, wishes to use her as a tool and suffers when she regains some agency and beats her brother. But even without Manfroy, Julia would have recovered the Book of Naga to end Loptyr.

Rhea and Manfroy are definitely not parallels, but foils.

And the best for the end...

Who is Arvis?

Well... to summarise Arvis in a few words...

it’s impossible.

So, Arvis is the descendant of one Jugdral’s God-Crusader, Fjalar. Arvis is very proud of his heritage, but he also bears Loptyr blood, through his Mother. And yet, since the Loptry blood exists thanks to Saint Maira - the brother of the Loptry Host of that time, Emperor Galle, who rebelled and helped the Crusaders - he is also very proud of this heritage and his two brands.

Arvis’s familial history is a mess, his father was a womanizer and his mother abandoned him (which might have fueled his Freudian complex?). When his Father died, he exiled all of his bastard siblings, bar Azelle (his bastard half-brother, sired to his mother’s favorite maid). Arvis apparently wasn’t interested in women before he met Deirdre and fell in love with her...

But he had time to sire a bastard (on his best friend and confidante).

Arvis wants to build a world free of prejudice and oppression, and wants to build it by... associating with Manfroy, who blackmails him about his Loptyr blood (if Arvis is proud of his Loptry blood, sadly the Agustrian witch hunts are still a thing, and it will not be well seen in Granvalle’s nobility); however, he made it clear, to Manfroy himself, that he will never allow another Loptry Empire to be reborn. Arvis thus uses hiw fellow Dukes Reptor and Langobalt to set up a coup against Prince Kurth (the Prince of Granvalle) to kill him. Arvis grows close to Kurth’s father, Azmur and more or lesses takes care of everything in Granvalle, since Kurth has no heir left.

And, by chance, Deirdre, Kurth’s bastard daughter, thus rightful Princess of Granvalle, appears at his door. She bears the mark of Naga (the special blood of the Crusader Heim), so they marry, and if they have a son, their son will rule over Granvalle, Arvis acts as a regent until then.

(women can’t rule shit in Jugdral)

Then what? His plan is set into motion, all Granvalle Dukes die, he and Sigurd (plus his pals) are the only ones left, Sigurd dies after being lured to a welcoming party, and Arvis becomes the last man standing able to rule Granvalle, who became, through his plans and treacheries through the 1st gen, an Empire.

(and then his son becomes a Loptyr host, vaporises his mom and makes his sister disappear, wrestles power from him and he is reduced to a sad state (oldvis). He makes a last stand against Seliph, after delivering him Sigurd’s magic sword, and dies.)

Okay.

So, now, Edel.

Arvis managed to become the ruling... person in Granvalle by eliminating all of his rivals, and securing a nice marriage. Edel becomes Emperor... because Ionius gave her his crown, as her father.

So they do not rise to power the same way.

Edel never talks about her brands, but Arvis is proud to bear them and proud of his ancestors. Judging by how Edel speaks of Wilhelm I as a traitor who sold humanity to creatures, I am not sure she is proud to bear his blood.

Also, while Edelgard is extremely prejudiced against Nabateans, Arvis wishes to create a world... free of prejudice (his actions though...). He does not mind Manfroy preaching his stuff, when Edelgard will not allow anyone to follow the Seiros faith (friends put it better, but in several routes, the people who were followers of the Church of Seiros are missing in Adrestia...).

While both Edel and Arvis think they are making “sacrifices” for the greater good, as pointed out earlier, this greater good is different. They both ally with a death cult, but Arvis is naive enough to think Manfroy will not backstab him - he even wishes for him to preach his nonsense freely. Edelgard has been hell bent since day 1 on getting rid of Thales and friends.

By the time Arvis learns of the child hunts and Julius’s nonsense... he wants to stop it. He is however powerless to do so (or so we think! Apparently he and Ishtar managed to hide every children captured in a castle!) but, at least, he tried to do something.

Crest Beasts... are still used, no matter the path, and even after Edelgard became Emperor.

Now, if Manfroy had to capture children and round them up for execution to make sure Arvis would become Emperor, would Arvis have supported him? I... don’t think so. If children were captured during Arvis’s conquest of the world and it was a “necessary evil”, would Arvis have accepted it? We don’t know. Prideful as he is, I don’t think he would have agreed.

(which is all kinds of wrong, the man can start wars and backstab friends, allies and turn his own brother to ashes, but hunting children is too much? Meh. And yet, Manfroy mentions something about his ways and his pride being an obstacle to the realisation of his dream).

Arvis is... a complicated character. A douchebag through and through, who tries to redeem himself at the end, but ultimately fails. He is rewarded for his actions in the 1st gen by the 2nd gen, where Julius becomes Loptyr and destroys his Empire. He had it coming? Yes. Is it painful to watch? Yes.

Edelgard... does not face any retribution for her actions.

Yes, she can also kill her (step) brother. But either she didn’t remember it, or only cries after it, and ultimately puts the blame on him - so it is not a sacrifice ?

People doubt her words? Well, it doesn’t matter, Linhardt, Yuri and Lysithea are still alive after their... interrogations. Reptor doubted Arvis’s words? Aida was sent as back-up (and... backstabbed him).

Ultimately, Arvis loses Deirdre (whose ghost chills with Sigurd’s), Julia and Julius, whom he loved dearly. Edel loses... Billy, and some randoms.

So, in a way, Edel feels like a discount Arvis, because she misses his ascension to power and his downfall. Arvis doesn’t mow down enemies on the front lines like she is doing, Arvis maneuvers to ensure victory.

Both fight for ideals, but Arvis seems to believe in them when I cannot believe a world for “humanity” involves continuous making of Crest Beasts.

Both betray the main character, but Edelgard is hit with the uwu hammer, thus cannot kill Billy - Thales does it in the non CF-routes.

So... short story, long story, Eldie is not Dimitri, Claude is not Travant, Rhea is a foil to Manfroy and Edelgard is a discount Arvis.

Also, I don’t know what kind of weed the person who wrote this take had, but labeling Eldie as one of FE4′s villain is as dumb as labeling FE7 Karla a villain because she appears as a red unit you have to fight.

where is edel’s bastard son

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akadreamie · 3 years

Text

A message to antis ;;

To all the antis who raided my DSMP proship server today, there’s something that I would like you all to know.

What you’ve done hasn’t changed anything. The server is still up. We’re still here. Nothing you have done matters. All it did was show how horrible antis are - further proving our point that antis want nothing more than to ruin the lives of those they disagree with / those that have different opinions and likes.

What I’ve seen today from antis is...horrendous to say the least. My servers ( yes, more than one ) were raided by around 100 people each. That’s approximately 200 raiders in total. My server link was posted on 4chan, and even on here people were promoting raiding of my server. I received around 50 different death threats - all from different people. I was sent irl gore, and even had my IP grabbed by someone. For those of you who don’t know and may be asking “why did this happen to you”, allow me to tell you! This all happened to me because of fictional content. That’s right.

To ever anti that may be reading this right now ( because I know you guys like to stalk the proship tag for some reason even though you hate us ), this is what your people do. This is why proshippers say the things they do about antis. This is why you will never make it far in life. This is why you aren’t ready for the real world. This is why you’re a danger to society and to innocent people. Because you go out of your ways to do things so horrible. Because you literally tell innocent people that you DON’T EVEN KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT that they should OFF THEMSELVES. That they are child predators, and that they deserve to ‘burn in a fire’ and ‘slit their wrists’.

Yes - both of those were things said to me today over fictional content.

You antis make me sick. And the worst part of it? Most antis ( that I’ve seen ) are minors. That’s absolutely awful - that minors should be involved in something so illegal and so disgusting. That they are tricked into thinking harassment, doxxing,and threats are alright.

To all the minor antis out there...I beg you to stop what you’re doing. To think about your actions. Is this really what you want in life? Is this really what you want to be known for? Is it worth it?

The answer should be no. If it’s not no...please seek help.

Get off the internet. Talk to your parents. Tell them what you’re doing. I’m certain they wouldn’t agree with what you’re doing. They would likely ground you from the internet.

What you’re doing is illegal. I know you all like to say “nobody cares - the authorities aren’t gonna do anything” - but does that instantly make it alright? No! And for you antis to say that it does just goes to show how messed up you are. Does that make you proud? It really shouldn’t.

Anti culture / purity culture is toxic. It’s cult-like. It’s awful and harmful to everyone targeted by it. There is no way to justify it. For people to go out of their way to do such awful things to innocent others over the internet is despicable. Antis are not allowed to say that they do the things they do in order to protect irl minors. That’s false. They’re hurting irl minors, and all they want is to defend and protect fictional minors ( who don’t exist ), while not caring whatsoever about the real people that they may be hurting in the process.

Just know that we proshippers are strong. I am strong. We are all strong. We will not allow antis to bring us down that easily, because we know that what we’re doing is not wrong. It’s the other way around. What ANTIS are doing is wrong.

And so, antis, we will never be brought down because of you. We are stronger than you. We don’t harass, attack, or threaten death on others like you. Consider your actions. Think before you act. Use common sense. At least try to act like a normal human being - like a functioning member of society. Being toxic, an abuser, an abuse apologist, someone who threatens harm on others...isn’t going to get you anywhere. I implore you to think about your actions. Consider the fact that what you say and do harms real life people. It harms minors and adults alike.

You aren’t the good guys. All you’re doing is causing stress, anxiety, depression, and pain for others.

This experience has taught me a lot. It has further proven my belief that antis are abusers / abuse apologists. It has proven that antis don’t care if they are partaking in illegal acts. It has proven that antis are the problem...not proshippers.

Do proshippers go out of their way to get 200+ people to raid servers? Not that I know of.

Do proshippers ban evade to send death threats over and over again? Nope.

Do proshippers send irl gore to antis because they don’t agree with them / don’t like them? Nah.

So why do antis do that?

This is a message to all anti-shippers out there that may read this. We are strong. We know that what we do isn’t wrong - YOU are in the wrong for partaking in an promoting such things. You are in the wrong for abusing, harassing, and sending threats to innocent people.

Proshippers are strong.

We will not fall to the pointless and illegal harassment given to us by antis. We will not stop with what we’re doing - not even if 200+ antis attack us at once. Not even if you all tell us to off ourselves or call us horrible things. Because in the end, it’s not us that’s in the wrong. It’s you. All you antis that decide to do those awful things - you’re all in the wrong. You’re promoting harassment, being an abuse apologist, committing crimes, lying, and dragging more innocent people into your cult by spreading misinformation. Honestly, I can’t see how anyone would want to be part of that. I can’t see how anyone would want to be an anti / would want to be part of anti ‘culture’. It disgusts and confuses me, but I know there’s nothing that I can do. Nothing that I say is going to change the minds of the antis that read this or anything else that I post.

Either way, I just wanted to say that we’re still standing strong! The DSMP Proship Discord server is still up and running! No matter how many antis come at it trying to raid or ruin, that won’t change a thing. We ban all people like that on the spot. And though it may be a bit stressful to deal with 200+ antis coming in and raiding...that doesn’t mean we’re going to give in and delete the server.

You can IP grab me and try to dox me all you want - I will stay strong.

You can tell me to off myself all you want - I won’t do it.

You can call me horrible things all you want - I know they’re not true, so therefore they don’t concern me.

I know that I repeated myself on some points...but that’s only to ( hopefully ) get the point across to any antis that may be reading this. Anyway, thank you to all my fellow proshippers for helping me get through this. I appreciate you all!

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0zzysaurus · 3 years

Note

I really loved your tags on that Alonzo GIFset, and I'd love to hear more of your headcanons about Macavity's hideout! :)

I'm actually in the midst of writing a massive outline for my fanfiction, so I'm going to give you what I have so far up to Part 4!!

Part 1:

Munkustrap and Macavity are currently involved in the first ever Jellicle Leader coalition. Macavity has been preaching and proselytising that Munkustrap isn't fit to lead and will destroy the tribe, and has convinced Old Deuteronomy to allow him to co-lead. He claims that the contorting of traditional Jellicle law will bring the wrath of the Everlasting Cat, though this is just fearmongering that he's using to try and persuade tribe members to put their faith in him as Leader. Munkustrap can see right through it, and knows Macavity is just bitter for not ever even being considered for Jellicle Leader, and is hungry for control and power. Coricopat advises him not to censor Macavity's preaching because it could convince more tribe members into thinking what Macavity is saying - that Munk has the potential to be tyranical if left to lead alone - could be true. Munk takes this advice, but does his best to assure those close to him that Macavity is talking out of his ass.

Meanwhile, Macavity has known since the beginning that the coalition is unstable and will most likely break down, so he's been establishing his own clan in Aldwych station. Any strays, or rehabilitated ferals are brought in and convinced to join through promises of shelter, food, leadership, and the protection of a tribe. Grizabella is Macavity's biological mother, but not Munkustrap or Tuggers. She personally believes Old D refused to consider him for leader because he is her son. She sympathises with Macavity and helps to establish and run the Aldwych Clan when he is away. As far as the other cats are aware, Grizabella simply abandoned the Jellicle Tribe.

The next Jellicle Ball will be Tugger's first, and he's due to perform his coming of age dance. While he is performing, Macavity begins to feel spiteful, and starts an argument with Munkustrap over how poorly Tugger has been trained. It escalates into a shouting match and eventually a physical fight - ultimately this is the final breakdown of the coalition. Tugger will blame himself for this split in the coming months. The coalition split causes a dramatic shift within the tribe itself. Sympathisers and followers of Macavity propose an exodus, and Mac encourages them - while Munkustrap maintains that no one should leave. Mac uses Munk's desperate feelings over this to further convince his followers that the Jellicle tribe is a cult, and they should go. Demeter and Rumpleteazer are both convinced to leave - Demeter being Mac's mate at the time, and Teazer being sympathetic to the idea of being an older sibling who has been neglected over the younger (Etcetera is her younger sister, and seems to get a lot more attention from Skimble than he gives to her. Clearly, Teazer is the most naive of the followers.)

Part 2:

Ultimately, Mac's followers leave and are surprised to find that they've been brought to a pre-established clan. They're brought to the main platform and sorted into toms and queens, that are then led to different sections of the station. Teazer and Demeter are brought to the harem, where both react with significant disgust and reject the proposal immediately. Bomba steps in to defend Demeter when Mac threatens her physically, and Macavity decides he'll leave them to talk - he expects Demeter and Rumpleteazer to comply by the time he gets back. Bomba reassures Demeter and says that she's safe - but Rumpleteazer refuses to stay, and leaves.

Unsure of where she should go, and being utterly lost in the tunnels, Teazer follows the sound of fighting and discovers a henchcat den where a gang of cats are harassing and bullying a smaller tom around her age. Still feeling heated from before, she doesn't stop to consider the danger and steps in to defend the tom. Her feisty nature and confidence actually works in intimidating the harassers, and they leave. She introduces herself, only to be completely rejected by the tom. She's surprised, calls him ungrateful - which she regrets later - and leaves. Teazer takes note of a map pinned on the wall that was once used by Underground workers to navigate maintenance tunnels. Now abandoned, the tunnels are now only home to the clan, and patrolling hench cats who are capturing and disposing of deserters. She takes note of where the den she just exited is before exploring. She ducks into a vent when she smells Macavity approaching down the hall.

Demeter explains to Bomba what happened at the tribe, and Bomba is equally as confused - not knowing that another tribe even existed in the area. She tells Demeter why the queens are here, and that Macavity has been trying to get kittens from them for months, only not to succeed. Either the queens simply are not getting pregnant, or those who do mysteriously disappear. Demeter is nervous, but is positive that her mate won't hurt her. The other queens give her unsure looks, but no one questions her.

Teazer hides in the vent until she is sure Macavity has left the hall, but as she's about to come out, she falls through a weak sheet of metal into another den. She lands right on a sleeping Alonzo - the Deputy of the henchcats, and almost has to fight for her life, until Alonzo realises that she's just a young moggie. He dismisses her, only to be met with fervent assurances that she can handle herself and could take him out if she really wanted to. Alonzo calls her reckless, and that her fighting skills are lacking. After some deliberation, he decides that he will train her as a henchcat. He lets her sleep the night in his den since it's late and curfew is already enacted.

Part 3:

The next morning, Demeter wakes up early to find Grizabella in the Queen's den - tidying an empty nest. Before she can say anything, the older cat slips away, and she falls back asleep - convinced it was a dream. Macavity makes an announcement on the intercom. He welcomes all new members, vaguely noting that those who have complied and remained have integrity and strength beyond their cowardly peers. Alonzo brings Rumpleteazer to the Morning role call, and when Macavity questions her presence, Alonzo simply assures him that she is his latest apprentice. Macavity scoffs at the idea, and tells Alonzo to return her to the harem when he finally gives up on her. The other henchcats laugh at this, but the tom from before stands nervously, watching her. She turns away from him and he leaves with a group of other cats. Teazer is about to follow them, but feels Alonzo's paw on her shoulder, and is reminded that she has training to do.

Demeter wakes up again and overhears Bomba and Cassandra talking with each other. Cassandra expresses concern for Demeter - that she has the "most potential" out of them all - presumably but not explicitly said to be the next to bear a litter. Demeter gets up and interjects with a morning greeting, and Cass slips away back to her nest. Bomba apologises on her behalf, explaining that she is a clairvoyant and can predict events, as well as read auras. Before she can explain more, Macavity enters the den and calls away one of the queens. She goes without objection, but looks back at Bomba with anxious eyes. Demeter asks what is going to happen to her, and Bomba reiterates that Macavity is trying to have as many kittens as he can - presumably to boost the clan's population as well as grow his bloodline. So far he hasn't been successful.

Meanwhile, at the Jellicle tribe, Munkustrap and Old Deuteronomy discuss the upheaval of their tribe. Munkustrap is concerned that the tribe will not be able to recover from this loss, and is quick to blame Coricopat for failing to advise him of this future. Old D firmly corrects him that it's not within Cori's powers to predict the future - and also reminds Munkustrap that the tribe - now more than ever - requires a strong, steadfast leader who can keep them together. Munk laments that he is not fit for this role, but Old Deuteronomy points out the cluster of cats in the clearing waiting for him to lead them. Old D also reminds him that he will not be around forever to lead the tribe, and that Munk must work with his advisers and community to restore order. Skimbleshanks is distraught at his daughter's absence, and begs Old Deuteronomy to bring her back. Old D explains that he can't force her to return, and she has to make her own way - but Skimble is adamant that she is in danger. Munkustrap assures him in confidence that he will do his best to bring her back for him.

Part 4:

Back at the Clan, Alonzo and Teazer have begun their training. Alonzo is quick to point out that Teazer is quick to enter fights that she may be unable to finish - and explains that not getting into fights at all should be a priority. Mediation bores her, and Teazer complains that there will surely be times that this decision is not within her hands - and that there will be times that she must fight. Alonzo agrees, and acknowledges her impatience, and they begin to practice defensive techniques. Teazer finds it difficult to defend against heavy blows, and is knocked on her ass a few times. Alonzo explains to her that she can't just stand there and take the hits when her body type isn't build for handling it. Instead he encourages her to use evasive tactics, noting that she was quick to slip out of his angry grip when they initially met. After practising this for a while, she becomes impatient again that she hasn't had the chance to deal any damage. Alonzo is about to lecture her on how wearing out an opponent with dodging could allow her to knock them down with weaker attacks - until the intercom blares, and Macavity calls all henchcats to his den. Alonzo postpones their training.

Macavity's den is like a large meeting room, with a side cupboard that contains his nest. In the meeting room, all the hench cats congregate. Beside him, the tom Teazer defended stands anxiously. The other hench cats he had left with prior also seem to be extremely nervous. Macavity is clearly holding back anger. Macavity begins lecturing the room that failure isn't something that can be brushed off as a simple mistake. It is an active threat upon the future of the clan and must be punished with significant force. Teazer is afraid, and whispers to Alonzo - asking what's going on. Alonzo explains that Macavity will often send cats out on missions for him - spying, reconnaissance, theft, etc. Anything that provides useful resources or information. Whenever a group fail to retrieve anything of worth - or worse, compromise his plans, Macavity becomes enraged, and often kills whoever is at fault. Teazer becomes terrified for the safety of the tom and asks Alonzo if he will be okay. He tells her that the cat is called Jerrie - and he usually takes the blame for anything that goes wrong in any expedition he goes out on. Teazer asks why, and Alonzo explains that Macavity - while seemingly not giving a single shit about the rest of their wellbeing, has allowed Jerrie to get away with allsorts - and hasn't killed him yet. Because of this, everyone pins their mistakes on him - knowing he won't be killed, and knowing it will save their own hides. He notes that the only downside is that public executions and beatings are, well... public, and they're all forced to witness it. He advises Teazer to think of a happy time in her life, close her eyes, and try her best not to listen too much.

Back in the Queen's den. Bomba and Demeter are talking about their childhood. Bomba tells her about life as a street cat, but explains that she hadn't always been alone. After the recession, her humans had abandoned her, and she ended up here - lured in with promises of somewhere safe to sleep. She'd been under Macavity's control ever since, and her scars are from fighting back against him. At this point, Mac has given up on her, but keeps her around as a bodyguard for the harem - acknowledging her strength. Bomba says she'd almost feel flattered if she didn't hate Mac's guts so much. Demeter tells her that she had always been part of the Jellicle tribe, and that her mother had passed away only recently. Macavity had been there for her after her mothers death, which led to them developing romantic feelings for each other. Bomba is surprised - claiming she'd never seen Mac express a genuine emotion in his life. At this point, the queen who had left before returns. Her fur is ruffled and she refuses to look any of the other queens in the eye. Cassandra approaches her at her nest, and holds her paws over her for a moment before shaking her head. Bomba dismisses herself from the conversation with Demeter and brings the queen water and food.

Once all the henchcats have finally filtered out from Macavity's den, Teazer waits at the doorway to try and catch Jerrie in a conversation, but the tom doesn't seem to be leaving. When she spies in through a crack in the door, she sees Macavity tending to the tom's wounds and fixing his fur. Jerrie doesn't recoil from the clan leader. Utterly confused - Teazer is about to enter again, but is distracted by Alonzo's voice calling to her from the hall. She quickly returns to his side and asks why Macavity is bothering with Jerrie at all. Alonzo expresses his own confusion. He tells her that Jerrie had been there the longest out of all of them, and has spent most of his life in the clan. He notes that the tom is good at what he does - exceedingly good. He's an excellent thief, and incredible escape artist, and one of the few cats in the clan who can actually read written English. Rumpleteazer suggests that this must be why Macavity doesn't kill him - but Alonzo rejects this, noting that Macavity has killed off much better spies and thieves than Jerrie for much smaller mistakes. Regardless, they head back to the henchcat den for food and a mental and physical rest.

After taking a short nap, Teazer wakes up to find the den mostly empty. She finds a catscratch note from Alonzo explaining that he'd gone out on an expedition and would be back after curfew. She sighs in frustration that they wouldn't be able to spend the afternoon training, and alerts the attention of Jerrie, who is quietly sifting through the pantry for something to eat. Teazer offers him the rest of her tin of tuna, and he shakes his head. Growing more frustrated, she yells at him that she isn't bad like the others, and that he needs to accept that she wants to be his friend. He expresses to her that he doesn't think she's a bad cat, but that he doesn't want her to be targeted for being an ally of his. She laughs, and assures him that she can take care of herself, explaining that Alonzo is training her. Jerrie laughs that Alonzo always picks the strangest cats to train, and the two of them share the remainder of the tin. Teazer apologises for her brash and rude behaviour when they first met, and Jerrie also apologises for being dismissive of her. Teazer also expresses guilt at abandoning Demeter in the harem and says she wants to visit her to ensure that she is safe. Jerrie agrees to escort her there once they have finished eating, as he is a regular visitor to the queens, and is one of the few toms that Macavity allows inside their den.

Part 5 and onwards of my outline will come at a later date!!

#0zzysaurus #fanfiction #cats musical #wip #outline

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omnicat · 3 years

Text

A Brief Summary of More Seasons of “Timeless” (Inevitably Leading Up to Gladiator!Flynn)

Hey @ununpredictableme, here’s that thing I promised to show you! :D (Again with a delay, but better late than never, right? /o\ )

The thing about time travel was, it was just too damn tempting for its own good. The whole “doubling back over your own lifetime will kill you” thing was an effective deterrent to whims like “that date was a disaster, let’s go give my past self some tips to improve the experience” and “we’re going to try this specific evil plan over and over until it succeeds, dammit!”, but as it turned out, that still left plenty of bigger ambitions.

First, of course, there was Rittenhouse and its covert world domination schemes: the very reason time travel managed to be invented in the first place. Briefly interrupted by Garcia Flynn’s roaring rampage of burning Rittenhouse to the ground and/or saving the wife and daughter they’d murdered. (Preferably both at the same time, but when push came to shove he would’ve settled for going down in a blaze of martyrdom, survivor’s guilt soothed by the knowledge that he’d at least tried.)

/S1; Flynn

Then back to Rittenhouse, their plans by that point out of the development phase and being implemented by a visionary with more flair and philosophy than common sense, but plenty of dangerous ideas either way. Though it didn’t take long for Rittenhouse’s deplorable recruitment practices to come back and bite them in the ass, resulting in a coup by one of its lowest-esteemed members.

/S2; Rittenhouse

Emma Whitmore, driven by nothing but a bitter desire to thrive over the backs of anyone who had ever harmed or held her back with even so much as their mere existence, but no longer knowing what thriving meant after the decades of pressure and manipulation and isolation Rittenhouse had subjected her to, turned the time machine into her personal pirate ship. She looted and pillaged her way through history, taking treasures and torching everything that pissed her off. And there wasn’t much that didn’t piss her off. If Flynn’s strategy had been to blow up especially fishy-smelling rocks and see what Rittenhouse filth came scurrying out from underneath, and Nicholas Keynes’ had been to repaint history in his own image in intricate and meticulously crafted brush strokes, Emma’s was to punish those in history who disadvantaged her and twist the arms of those who could elevate her in the cruelest ways she could think of. It was no wonder Jessica Logan had turned on her, in the end. It had only been a matter of time before Emma would have turned on her – and her baby.

/S3; Emma

For a short while, they thought Jessica’s change of heart was the end of it; Rittenhouse was in ruins, Emma dead, and Flynn mostly well-behaved as part of the Lifeboat crew. The antagonist bench was empty, the heroes no longer constantly preoccupied with defending themselves. The team finally had the time and opportunity to piece their timetravel-mangled lives and families back together. Lucy un-erased Amy, and their parents along with her; Flynn found a way to save Iris and Lorena without erasing all the victories their deaths had led to. Wyatt and Jessica took the Lifeboat to the 1400’s to raise their little family and clear their heads for a while. That while turned into forever. In the end, instead of disposing of the Lifeboat somewhere no modern villain would ever find it, as the initial plan had been, their grandson returned the ship to the 21st century, to a date mere weeks from the day they’d departed from. Sherwin was a bright, eager young man with Jessica’s eyes, Wyatt’s smile, an insatiable desire to see everything the past and future had to show him – and his best friend, Willard, in tow... who proved startlingly quick to be corrupted by the power of time travel.

Willard stole the ApocaLifeboat (thanks, Lucy Croft and Bearded Wyatt, that autopilot was just what they’d needed to make time travel even more of a crapshoot) and jumped from time period to time period, looking for a place and moment where he could install himself as the next best coming since Jesus, and revealing future technology and knowledge everywhere he went. He altered history with reckless abandon and relocated dozens upon dozens of bamboozled followers to eras they had no business being in.

While the team struggled to deal with Willard, Sherwin got attached to the 21th century, Lucy figured out how to deal with her restored family now that she’d uncovered the sordid truth of their ancestry, and Flynn wrestled with the self-hatred and guilt that threatened to tear his own newly-reunited family apart. And after the team returned from a jump with a damaged ship to a timeline where Connor was dead of a disease that didn’t exist before they left, taking his vital expertise and resources to the grave with him, Jiya and Rufus had to A: figure out how to undo his death, and B: develop a way to keep anybody else they cared about but who couldn’t come on a jump from being lost or critically changed by random divergences to their personal history, poofing out of existence because of family tree disruptions like Amy, or being hijacked by the enemy like Jessica. Objective A was accomplished with another jump, and objective B with what Rufus, who had the crucial eureka moment, got to dub the Wellsaday Cage (a portmanteau of Faraday Cage and H.G. Wells, the author of the first ever time machine story). The Cage ensured that everybody inside it shared in the temporal bubble that made it so the team didn’t get swept up by the effects of their actions while they were on a jump and always came back to the altered present as their old selves. BOOM. So many problems and four-dimensional puzzle induced-headaches solved.

/S4; Willard from the 14th Century

No sooner did the team stop Willard and start bickering among themselves about how – if at all – to fix the mess he’d made of history, than the remnants of Rittenhouse (their cult annoyingly unscathed by what Willard’s had wrought) reared its ugly head again. The remaining followers, a motley bunch who had rearranged the once unassailable hierarchy with blood and backstabbing in the wake of the purge of all Rittenhouse’s biggest and most actually influential figures, fought with a zeal only found in true believers who had seen their cult’s long-awaited judgement day pass by without so much as a lightning strike and doubled down on their faith regardless. Nothing the Time Team did could stop them – until finally, after an inexplicable delay of four seasons, they returned to David Rittenhouse and smothered the entire organization in the bud by killing him before he could start spreading his ideology in the first place.

/S5; Rittenhouse Redux

Preventing the birth of the Rittenhouse cult altered the history of the USA beyond recognition and, since it was Rittenhouse’s relentless urging and unlimited funds that made time travel possible, erased everything that had occurred because of it in the previous seasons. The team made a number of jumps to win some lotteries and make some jackpot investments to help themselves and the loved ones they’d saved with the Wellsaday Cage start over, and everybody set themselves to the task of adjusting to their new reality and dealing with the scars left by erased timelines only they now remembered.

Then time-travelers from centuries into the future started showed up. The team hadn’t had to wonder who the good guys and the bad guys were or what side they should be on since they cottoned on to the truth of what Flynn kept saying in S1. Now they were left questioning everything again. Who were these people from the future? What did they want, and could they be trusted to tell the truth about that? When they started contradicting each other and the cracks in their initially united front started to show, who could the team believe? And what would happen when the team fractured along long-dormant fault lines of trust (among themselves, and toward the future travelers) and philosophical disagreements over what time travel should or shouldn’t be used for and allowed to cause??

Much tension, very suspense. Wow. They figured it out eventually, though. And hey, guess what? Flynn’s inexplicable inability to come up with a sensible Plan B to kill David Rittenhouse all the way back in S1 wasn’t so inexplicable after all! Turns out it was a remote intervention by a distant-future scumbag – let’s call him Gabmucs – who read about the dude’s many different deaths in a history book about the Time War Era and the development of the tech that would come to shield The Future He Comes From from being affected by all that temporal chaos from the past. (Based on Jiya & Rufus’s Wellsaday Cage, but applied to the whole solar system past a certain point in time.)

Gabmucs thought all those ideas about oppression and suppression and world domination sounded right up his alley, and set up some kind of outcome enforcer tech (derivative from the Temporal Shield just like the Temporal Shield was a derivative of the Wellsaday Cage) around David R’s life to ensure only one specific fate from the many timelines centered around him would come to pass, and so his ideas would come to fruition no matter what. When the team first discovered David’s existence, Gabmucs’s technology had detected Flynn’s intentions and befuddled his senses until he just couldn’t think straight enough to kill the guy anymore. The eventual failure of this tech was what prompted Gabmucs to manipulate a team from his own time to go back and help him intervene in person. And while he was there, he might as well take some crucial steps toward disabling the Temporal Shield, so he could go home afterwards to a world steeped in glorious Rittenhouse-flavored evil tailor-made to his tastes.

He just wasn’t very honest to most of his team about the motives or objectives of their mission, and they didn’t take kindly to finding out the truth. Especially when one of them (let’s call her... uh... Niwrehs? /o\ I hate character names almost as much as fic titles) had fallen in love with Sherwin. (In the end, Niwhrehs stayed in the 21st century. And my wish of having both a distant past and a far future member on the team was fulfilled! Also, this season definitely has the modern team visiting the future AT LEAST once!!)

/S6; The Future

And just when they thought that was finally the end of it, Stanley Fisher arose from his ever-worsening stupor of visions and turned out to have become a temporal eldritch demi-god. A bored temporal eldritch demigod. Having seen literally everything there ever was to see, in every timeline that had ever been, he started changing things with the biggest impact possible, purely so he could experience something truly new again. And he didn’t need a time machine to transport himself to the past.

Which is what finally brings us to antiquity, and the massive, unimaginable changes he could cause by knocking history off course that far back... AND GLADIATOR FLYNN! :D The special effects budget goes through the roof! Old Rome! Ancient Egypt! The Aztecs! Atilla the Hun! Cavemen and Medieval knights and pirates and samurai and and and... WOOLY MAMMOTHS!! Good thing the far future guys left universal translator tech behind!

Wait, wait, back up, whaaaat?? WELL, you see, because of the accident that gave him his visions, Stanley was never affected by the timeline changing the way the rest of reality around him was. Even though it seemed like he was at first. But actually, every time the timeline changed, he instead absorbed the quantum imprint of the new version of himself and all the memories, visions, viability, and temporal capability that came with it. This slowly drove him crazier and crazier with every edit to the timeline, the human brain utterly unequipped to handle so many realities crammed into one mind – until the last jump of S6. That one tipped him over a critical mass of timelines into near-omniscience, and rearranged his physical and psychic being to finally accommodate it all.

(Look, no time-travel story can be called a real time-travel story unless everything goes batshit insane at some point, okay?)

Jiya had been experiencing the same thing, just on a much, much smaller scale, since she was shielded from most of the timeline changes by either being part of the jump team or being safely ensconced inside a Wellsaday Cage. But when it became clear that the team didn’t stand a chance against Stanley, she made a desperate gamble and told her past self what happened to Stanley... and how she could replicate it in herself. Jiya expected to die when she returned from this jump, but instead of being absorbed by the new timeline’s eldritch Jiya, that Jiya made sure they remained two separate entities. Girl Jiya rejoined her team, Eldritch Jiya transcended into Demi-Goddess Jiya, and between two time machines and a walking force of quantum nature, they kicked Stanley’s ass. Demi-Goddess Jiya absorbed his temporal whatever and became full-blown Time Goddess Jiya, who then merged with the timestream itself and ensured that all the time travel fuckery was finally, FINALLY, fucking over, and this season finale would be the definitive show finale. And everybody lived happily ever after.

EVERYBODY.

Yes, even if they were erased three hundred timelines ago. Yes, even if nobody was supposed to remember them anymore; she’s god now, she can fix that. That and so much more. And she does! Because she’s nice like that. Fuck ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’, the Goddess Jiya’s in charge now, and she makes sure time travel will not continue to or ever newly hurt her friends and family again.

/S7; Temporal Eldritch Demi-God Stanley Fisher

THE END

(Sorry Paulina, your scribbles will never come to anything. Or maybe they will, but your results will be relentlessly trolled by time!Jiya.)

#my creations #thoughts of mine #Timeless

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cryingcow · 3 years

Text

Rikiya, Kiryu, & Haruka - Rikiya’s Lonely Struggle [RGGO] - Ch. 2-3

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 .

Watch me post this in the morning cuz its a holiday lol.

Previously: Rikiya wants to show Kiryu the famous Okinawan hospitality, but the people think that Kiryu is an evil mainlander who will take over their market, which is false. They also think that Kiryu has a bone-sucking fetish, which is true, if only because I had to type the phrase “suck on my bones” too many fucking times. Apparently Rikiya is so starry-eyed when it comes to Kiryu that everyone thinks he’s either in a Kiryu-worshipping cult or an active member of the Yakuza fandom (or both amirite? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ).

CHAPTER 2

Haruka: “Waa~ the meat is melting~!”

Kiryu: “It’s stewed well enough that you can eat the delicious cartilage.”

Haruka: “Rikiya-san, thank you for buying us the cartilage soki!”

Rikiya: “No, it was really cheap anyway. Hehe . . .”

Haruka: “Besides this, what other kinds of delicious food are out there?”

Kiryu: “This time, I’ll have to take a walk around the market.”

Rikiya: (They’re going. These two are more and more eager to go to the market. I have to get rid of the rumors circulating in the market as soon as possible. To do that, I have to get inside the Youth Club of the market, since they seem to be the source of the rumor . . .)

Kiryu: “By the way, Rikiya. Patriarch Nakahara called and asked me to drop by tonight.”

Rikiya: “To my boss’s place?”

Kiryu: “Yeah. It seems he wants to drink Awamori with me. Will you be present there?”

Rikiya: “I want to, but I have other plans tonight . . .”

Kiryu: “Why are you so busy lately? Are you involved in some kind of trouble?”

Rikiya: “What are you talking about! There’s no trouble! Anyway, thank you for being Boss’s drinking buddy! Oh, but if Boss has too much to drink, he has a habit of going on a rampage, so keep it in moderation.”

Kiryu: “So he’s a violent drunk. That guy should be more careful . . .”

Rikiya: “Well, I’m heading out for a while! Please give my best regards to my boss!”

----

Rikiya: “If you think about it this time, it’s questionable whether it’s suitable for me to be doing this, being Aniki’s younger brother . . . To not bother Aniki, I have to solve this problem not as his younger brother. Alright! I’ll definitely erase the rumors! Hmm . . . from what I heard, the Youth Club’s office should be around here somewhere . . . Oh! Here it is!”

Youth Director: “Who are you? Coming at such a time . . .”

Rikiya: “Are you a member of the market’s Youth Club?”

Youth Director: “Yeah. I’m the director . . . hm? You, you’re Rikiya of the Ryudo Family! What are you doing after getting brainwashed by Kiryu? Are you here to take down the Youth Club?!”

Rikiya: “Stupid guy. I can’t be brainwashed. What are you guys? Why are you blowing around fake rumors in the market?”

Youth Director: “Kiryu taking over the market . . . sure, we were the ones who gave this information to everyone. But that isn’t a lie . . . look at this!”

{The Youth Director takes out a sheet of paper with a flourish.}

Rikiya: “Hm? What is this letter??”

Youth Director: “This letter was found in the market’s opinion box.”

Rikiya: “Opinion box?”

Youth Director: “Customers write in their requests and points for improvement for the market. This letter was found in it. Read it.”

Rikiya: “‘Be careful. Kiryu Kazuma intends to take over the market. The market’s enforcers from the Ryudo Family cannot counter Kiryu. Because . . . Kiryu has already brainwashed the young captain Rikiya. Furthermore, Kiryu intends to kill the family’s head Nakahara in the future.’ . . . What is this letter! Who put it in the opinion box?!”

Youth Director: “The sender’s name isn’t written. It’s an anonymous report.”

Rikiya: “Do you guys really believe such a crappy letter?!”

Youth Director: “Well we didn’t bother with it at first. You were always on the land of Morning Glory, in a position to evict Kiryu. You couldn’t have been brainwashed by him. But then one day the situation changed completely . . . suddenly you started calling Kiryu, who was supposed to be the enemy, your Aniki! That couldn’t have been anything other than brainwashing, right? So that means what’s in this letter is true!”

Rikiya: “No, you’re wrong! That’s . . . !”

Youth Director: “There’s more. A new report was posted today. Here. Read it.”

{The Youth Director hands over another letter.}

Rikiya: “’Kiryu intends to poison the Ryudo Family’s head . . .’ Huh? Poison? He won’t do anything like that!”

Youth Director: “Hm? Oi, look! The man walking over there . . . !”

Rikiya: “A-Aniki . . . ?!”

Haruka: “Hey, Ojiisan . . .”

Kiryu: “What is it?”

Haruka: “Is it okay to give this drink to Nakahara-san?”

Kiryu: “Yeah . . . If Nakahara refuses, I’ll just make him drink it.”

Haruka: “Well, Ojiisan is forceful. But will this be effective?”

Kiryu: “Don’t worry. It’s a method that’s been used for ages. Now, let’s hurry up. I’m late for my meeting with Nakahara.”

Youth Director: “Oi! You heard that conversation just now!”

Rikiya: “Wait a minute! This has to be a misunderstanding!”

Youth Director: “Everyone, come out!”

{A bunch of guys exit the office.}

Member: “Is something wrong, director?”

Youth Director: “Kiryu’s heading over to poison the Ryudo Family’s head Nakahara!”

Member: “What! He’s on Tarekomi Street right now!”

Youth Director: “Let’s chase Kiryu down and kill him!”

Member: “Yeah! We’ll never let him meet Boss Nakahara!”

Rikiya: “Wait! Calm down!”

Youth Director: “Get out of the way, Rikiya! If you don’t know which side you’re on, then we’ll kill you too!”

Rikiya: “Just try it if you can! I will never let you through!”

{Rikiya defeats all the youth members.}

Rikiya: “So, Aniki isn’t going to kill the boss . . . but then what exactly was that conversation between Aniki and Haruka-chan? I don’t know . . . I should chase after them and see what happens . . .”

----

Haruka: “You said that it’s a method that’s been in use for a long time, but is that really true?”

Kiryu: “Yeah, if you’re an adult, it’s a story you’ll hear at least once. If you drink milk before drinking alcohol, a film will form on your stomach and it would be difficult for you to get sick.”

Haruka: “Hmm. Nakahara-san, I hope you can drink this milk properly.”

Kiryu: “Oh, the office of the Ryudo Family is just around this corner.”

{Kiryu and Haruka enter the office. Rikiya peeks out from his cover.}

Rikiya: “Haa . . . so that’s what it was . . .”

----

Youth Director: “Huh? Milk? Don’t lie, Rikiya!”

Rikiya: “I think this is all because of Kiryu-no-aniki’s fierce appearance and manner of speaking. Even in ordinary everyday conversation, it sounds scary when Aniki speaks. Maybe the guy who got into the opinion box misunderstood Aniki’s regular speech?”

Youth Director: “That can’t be it. There are multiple stories. The timing of the posting and the handwriting is different. You’re saying an unspecified number of people misunderstood Kiryu’s words all at the same time. Isn’t that quite the coincidence?”

Rikiya: “Well . . .”

Youth Director: “The problem here is you, Rikiya. Defending him with such an arduous excuse! It looks like you received a stronger brainwashing than I expected. Maybe something is embedded in your head?”

Rikiya: “Ha?”

Youth Director: “I saw it on TV before! Surgery to implant a chip in your brain! Could Kiryu do such a thing?!”

Rikiya: “No, that’s-”

Youth Director: “Do-Don’t come any closer! We can’t handle either of you! You guys . . . you’re no longer humans!! You’re monsters!!”

{The Youth Director runs inside the youth club office and locks the doors.}

Rikiya: “Haa . . . the rumors are getting more and more exaggerated . . .”

-END-

CHAPTER 3

Kiryu: “Shit . . . this guy’s been hurt for two hours and yet he’s still clinging to me. What a stubborn bastard. Should I submerge him in hot water next? No, I have a hand at stake . . .”

Haruka: “How is it, Ojiisan? Has it fallen?”

Kiryu: “No, it hasn’t fallen at all. He’s like the oil stains on this frying pan.”

Rikiya: (What’s this about oil stains . . . I thought he was torturing someone there for a moment . . . Those who put those claims in the opinion box really might have just misunderstood Aniki’s regular speech . . .)

Rikiya: “Hey, Aniki. Why don’t you try keeping in mind to speak a little more gently?”

Kiryu: “Hm? Speaking more gently?”

Rikiya: “Because your voice is powerful, you might be mistaken for a scary person . . .”

Kiryu: “Is there someone out there who misinterpreted me?”

Rikiya: “No, nothing like that . . . but if bad rumors about Aniki spread around Ryukyu, wouldn’t that be hard? It would be impossible to visit every single inhabitant to set the record straight . . .”

Kiryu: “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

Rikiya: “Eh?”

Kiryu: “Where do you start when you untie a tangled string? Isn’t it at the ‘root’ of the string, not the tips? If it looks too intricately intertwined, the cause may be a slight twist at the root. If you fix it there, the rest will unravel. The same is true for rumors and misunderstandings.”

Rikiya: “That’s it . . . ! So if you correct the person who misunderstood first, the rest will be solved?!”

Kiryu: “Yeah. Everything is from the root. Both when it entangles and when it unravels.”

Rikiya: (In this case, the root of all this is the person who put the message in the opinion box! I have to find them and set the record straight! That said, I should go watch the opinion box immediately!)

Rikiya: “Thanks, Aniki!”

Kiryu: “. . . hm? Are bad rumors about me spreading after all?”

Rikiya: “Wh-What are you talking about! That’s not true! There are only kind-hearted people in Okinawa!”

Kiryu: “Speaking of kindness, what happened to interacting with the people of the market?”

Rikiya: “Sorry! I’m heading out now! See you next time!”

----

Greengrocer: “Have you heard? If you go to Kiryu, he can bury a chip inside your head . . .”

Meat Vendor: “And for the rest of your life, you’ll be brainwashed by Kiryu and live as his slave . . .”

Rikiya: (The rumors have gotten so exaggerated, it’s ridiculous . . . I have to find the person who posted the letter soon . . . Even though I’ve been watching the opinion box for hours, no one’s written a letter . . . Well, it’s not like people post letters everyday, maybe I should give up for today . . .)

Rikiya: (Hm? Those guys . . . ? I’ve seen them somewhere before . . . Ah, that’s right! They’re the bouncers hired by the Youth Club. Are they on patrol? They’re sneaky . . . Hm? Is the one on the right holding a letter . . . ?)

{The right bouncer posts the letter in the opinion box.}

Rikiya: (He put it in the opinion box! Why did the bouncer . . . ?! Are they the ones who posted the lie about Aniki?! Is their purpose to be hired as bouncers . . . ?! If you think about it, it makes sense!!)

Rikiya: “Wait a moment!”

Hooligan A: “Ri-Rikiya . . . ?! What for?!”

Rikiya: “The letter you put in the opinion box, I’m checking it.”

Hooligan A: “Wh-What the hell!! You don’t have that kind of authority!!”

Rikiya: ‘I’m pretty impatient. Did you put in a bad letter that you don’t want to be seen by me?”

Hooligan A: “It has nothing to do with you! Don’t you dare lay a single finger on the opinion box!”

Rikiya: “Heh. Does that mean I can’t see the contents of the letter without knocking you guys down first? Good! Come on! I’ll beat you guys down again and again!”

{Rikiya beats them down.}

Hooligan A: “Ugh . . . don’t touch that letter . . .”

Rikiya: “I can’t do that. The letter that you posted is . . . this. What-?”

Rikiya: “’Protest the youth in the market. The Youth Club has not paid a fair price for the bouncers they hired in preparation for Kiryu’s invasion. The Youth Club should pay the bouncers as promised.’ Wh-What is this?”

Hooligan A: “It’s because of what you did yesterday. The Youth Club said, ‘We can’t pay as promised to a bouncer who loses to Rikiya.’ They reduced the reward for us . . . this is a letter to protest against that!”

Rikiya: “In other words, you weren’t the ones making up lies about Aniki . . . is that right.”

Hooligan A: “What are you talking about?”

Rikiya: “That’s enough. You guys go home. Next time I see you in the market, this beating won’t be enough.”

Hooligan A: “Shit . . . !”

{The bouncers bump into a woman while they run away. The paper she’s holding is nearly knocked out of her hands.}

Rikiya: “Are you okay, Ma’am?”

Woman Passing By: “Yeah, sorry . . .”

Rikiya: “You . . . haven’t we met before? Weren’t you the one who told me rumors about Kiryu-no-aniki?”

Woman Passing By: “Oh~ that time . . .”

Rikiya: “You come to the market quite often to shop. Hm? That paper you’re holding . . . is that a letter?”

Woman Passing By: “Um, this, uh . . .”

Rikiya: “Can I take a little peek?”

Woman Passing By: “Y-You can’t!!”

Rikiya: “There is no delicacy in forcibly reading a woman’s letter, but because of the circumstances . . . I’ll borrow it!”

{Rikiya yanks the letter from her hands.}

Rikiya: “What, what . . . ‘Kiryu Kazuma’s market takeover plan’s follow up report: After taking over the market, Kiryu intends to demand expensive protection rackets from each store. . . . he’s willing to kill those shopkeepers who don’t pay the racket under the guise of an accident.’ Th-This is a lie!!”

Woman Passing By: “Um, that’s . . . !!”

Rikiya: “Why is there a follow up report before anything has even happened?! What the hell are you . . . ?! What is this letter for?!”

-END-

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Masterlist

#Apparently Kiryu speaks like Tatsu from Way of the Househusband #The curse of a yakuza going domestic #rgg online #rggo lore #rggo #rgg #Ryu ga Gotoku #yakuza #rikiya shimabukuro #kiryu kazuma #kazuma kiryu #haruka sawamura

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feste-the-jester · 3 years

Text

Do you know what’s fun?

Picking the blog of someone you don’t like, and seeing how far you can twist things to make it fit the BITE model -criteria to identify a cult. GREAT fun. All you need is a bit of creativity and a total disregard for accuracy. Don’t believe me? Let’s have a try and see how we do! The Bite model can be found here, with many thanks to the Fool for bringing it to my attention.

I. Behavior control:

6. Manipulation and deprivation of sleep.

The Fool lives in Australia and most of his readers are in a different time zone. This means that every time he starts publishing numerous posts about the latest drama, his followers are likely to get absorbed in it, depriving themselves of sleep and becoming more susceptible to his interpretation of things.

9. Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals and/or self indoctrination including the Internet.

Each time the Fool decides on a new “sin”/aberrant behavior that the “enemy” is guilty of, he will publish many posts repeating the same assertion. Frequent repetition of the core message is a well known indoctrination technique. Many of the Fool’s followers are likely spending an inordinate amount of time on his blog, judging by the speed and frequency that “likes” from the same people appear.

10. Permission required for major decisions.

The Fool often receives and publishes asks, asking him for permission to create a blog similar to his, asking if it’s ok to follow or interact with Simon Alkenmayer, whether they or their friends are safe etc.

11. Thoughts, feelings, and activities (of self and others) reported to superiors.

Readers inform the Fool of what is happening on Simon and Kristina’s blog, report (often mistakenly, rarely, if ever, corrected) what Simon has said or done, both on tumblr and on other social media, such as Twitter. They also contact the Fool to report on their own thoughts and reactions to Simon.

12. Rewards and punishments used to modify behaviors, both positive and negative.

Readers who agree with the Fool and mirror his opinions are rewarded with sympathy (for their negative experience) and by having their intellect and critical thinking skills praised. Anyone who disagrees is deemed to be naive, immature, indoctrinated by Simon, incapable of logic etc. Indeed, the whole continued existence of the Fool’s blog is arguably a form of punishment for Simon “threatening him” with legal action back when the blog was first created. This communicates to members what kind of retribution they may expect if they cross the leader’s boundaries.

13. Discourage individualism, encourage group-think.

Any reports confirming the Fool’s assertions about Simon are immediately welcomed, believed, and adopted into the canon. Dissenting voices are “sent by Simon”, “haven’t read or understood the Fool’s arguments” or have been “manipulated.” The Fool does not acknowledge that it is possible for an intelligent, reasonable and objective adult to read his arguments and disagree with him.

14. Impose rigid rules and regulations.

Such as not answering asks that are not formatted to his liking, and he “can’t be bothered to read”.

16. Threaten harm to family and friends.

The Fool will publicly assert that he has never threatened anyone. However he has gone out of his way to connect Kristina to Simon, who is portrayed as “the enemy”. Several people, including this Jester, have been warned by friends to be careful of attracting the Fool’s and followers’ ire.

18. Instill dependency and obedience.

Readers expect the Fool to tell them which of Simon’s behaviors are problematic. Anyone who disagrees is likely to be accused of the same. (“If you think this isn’t racist, then you are also racist” etc.)

II. Information control:

1. Deception:

a. Deliberately withhold information.

Such as selective quoting, neglecting to withdraw statements that have been proven wrong, and not acknowledging any outside posts that don’t fit with the narrative.

b. Distort information to make it more acceptable.

Such as selective quoting, ignoring context and applying his own interpretation to things said by the “outsiders”.

c. Systematically lie to the cult members.

For example repeating that Kristina accused him of physically setting a fire on her drive.

2. Minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information, including:

a. Internet, TV, radio, books, articles, newspapers, magazines, other media.

Frequent repetition of how “unreadable” Simon’s books are, or how “long and ranting” his posts are can be seen as discouraging his followers from accessing them and forming their own opinion.

b. Critical information.

Any posts sharing positive experiences involving Simon are either ignored or discounted.

d. Keep members busy so they don’t have time to think and investigate.

Every time one of the Fool’s theories on Simon’s misdeeds is disproven, the Fool quickly moves on to a new accusation, keeping his followers from going back and reconsidering his previous posts.

4. Encourage spying on other members

b. Report deviant thoughts, feelings and actions to leadership.

The Fool often receives and publishes third party reports on Simon’s posts and behavior, inside and outside of tumblr. These are not fact-checked, but are welcomed and encouraged.

c. Ensure that individual behavior is monitored by group.

The Fool often receives and publishes third party reports on Simon’s posts and behavior, inside and outside of tumblr. These are not fact-checked, but are welcomed and encouraged.

5. Extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda, including:

b. Misquoting statements or using them out of context from non-cult sources.

The Fool will often misquote Simon, and those misquotes will go on to be repeated with frequency by him and his followers.

III. Thought control:

1. Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth.

a. Adopting the group's ‘map of reality’ as reality

If you don’t believe the Fool to be right, you are illogical, brainwashed or “reaching.” Frequent use of phrases such as “Obviously,” “We all know” etc reinforces this.

Everyone the Fool interacts with must acknowledge that what he is doing is critique, despite all evidence to the contrary.

b. Instill black and white thinking

Simon is “a bad person.” Everything he does must be seen and interpreted through this lense, which is reinforced frequently. The Fool often writes or publishes that Simon is “a bad person,” “a garbage person”, “an asshole” and similar descriptors.

c. Decide between good vs. evil

The Fool gets to determine what is good and what is evil. Simon is evil, and must be called out at every opportunity. The Fool and his followers are good, so any slurs, lies or offensive statements they make are excused and covered up.

d. Organize people into us vs. them (insiders vs. outsiders)

The Fool’s followers are intelligent, “have brains” and would never endanger anyone. The Fool trusts them to handle things appropriately. Simon’s followers are simple, impressionable, a mob. The Fool does not trust them to report their own experience, and their judgement is compromised by definition.

2. Change person’s name and identity.

The Fool calls Simon “Si”, “Krimon” and “Kristina”. Anonymous visitors to his ask box are encouraged to choose a “code name” to protect them from the evil Simon.

3. Use of loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words.

Using loaded terms such as “misappropriation”, “grooming” to describe Simon’s actions and descriptions such as “critique” for his own writing help the Fool elicit the reaction he wants from his followers.

6. Memories are manipulated and false memories are created.

For example an influx of Anonymous asks that somehow suddenly realised years later that Simon behaved badly towards them, even if they didn’t think that way back then.

8. Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism.

The Fool has blocked people for disagreeing with him. He frequently shuts down polite questions and uses sarcasm to avoid answering. Despite not affording Simon the same luxury, the Fool expects his readers to “take his word about what he meant” with a post, even if the messenger is politely explaining how it came across.

9. Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed.

For example saying that he will “not publish any asks defending antisemitism. Even if that’s not what you think you are doing.” In effect, if you disagree with the Fool’s interpretation of Simon’s behavior as antisemitic, then you are defending antisemitism. No dissent allowed.

10. Labeling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful.

No one possibly believes Simon is an actual monster, and if they do, they are unable of critical thought.

11. Instill new “map of reality”.

Commenting on someone’s art, mocking them, calling them names, is “literary critique”. Attempts to answer to accusations are “rants”. Asking someone if the possibility of legal consequences bothers them is “threatening” and “becoming irrationally angry”. And so on...

IV. Emotional control:

1. Manipulate and narrow the range of feelings – some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish.

Simon’s feelings are not even real, according to the Fool. Simon could not possibly be affected by the Fool’s actions. He is not real and has no feelings. Instead, he is only capable of “ranting”, “manipulating” and “doing things for attention”. Any concerns brought to the Fool about how his actions are affecting Simon, are answered with “You need to remember he’s not a real person”.

3. Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault.

If Simon or his readers are upset, it’s their fault for looking at the blog. If anyone’s reputation is damaged as a result of claims the Fool makes about them, it’s on them. The Fool is free to make any comments he sees fit, with no consequences.

4. Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness, such as

b. You are not living up to your potential

Being part of Simon’s group means you are allowing yourself to be manipulated and brainwashed. You can not reach your full potential unless you renounce Simon.

c. Your family is deficient

Your “found family” of gentle readers is deficient.

d. Your past is suspect

Your past experiences are not proof of anything. Bad things may have been happening in Simon’s space, and you may have been part of them.

e. Your affiliations are unwise

You are choosing to affiliate yourself with someone bad. And you are unable to tell he is lying to you.

f. Your thoughts, feelings, actions are irrelevant or selfish

If you share your thoughts, feelings or actions to defend Simon, it doesn’t prove anything, and by defending him you are harming others.

5. Instill fear, such as fear of:

b. The outside world

c. Enemies

The Fool makes sure to repeat often enough that readers might be targeted by Simon and his followers. He curates that expectation and then reinforces it by publishing Anons who agree.

8. Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader’s authority.

Not so much fears of leaving the Fool’s group, as much as cultivating fears of leaving/going against Simon’s group. The Fool’s group is presented as a safe haven.

d. Never a legitimate reason to leave; those who leave are weak, undisciplined, unspiritual, worldly, brainwashed by family or counselor, or seduced by money, sex, or rock and roll.

Those who don’t embrace the Fool’s blog and choose to remain with Simon are weak-minded, brainwashed, unable to reason, or bad by association. There can be no legitimate reason to like Simon.

e. Threats of harm to ex-member and family.

No explicit threats are made, but seeing the treatment of Kristina Meister is implicitly threatening.

See? Of course all this is just an exercise -a thought experiment. But it’s about as well-argued as the Fool’s original analysis. (Which is to say, neither deserves to be taken seriously.)

#simon alkenmayer #simon alkenmayer is dead #feste the jester #cw cult #Feste BITEs back

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wrestlingisfake · 3 years

Text

Double or Nothing preview

Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara & Santana & Ortiz & Jake Hager vs. MJF & Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler & Shawn Spears & Wardlow - This is a "Stadium Stampede" match, so the contest will start in a wrestling ring set up on the 50-yard line of TIAA Bank Field. There are no disqualifications and falls count anywhere, so basically both teams can brawl all over the stadium until one guy scores a pin or submission on someone from the other team. If the Pinnacle (MJF's team) wins, then Jericho's Inner Circle will be forced to disband forever.

The Jericho/MJF rivalry has been brewing since the fall of 2019, when the subject of MJF joining the Inner Circle was broached. MJF (and Wardlow) finally joined up a year later, but it was all a plot to destroy the group from within to make way for the Pinnacle. The original five members of the Inner Circle stayed together and collectively turned babyface. The Pinnacle defeated the Inner Circle in a "blood & guts" cage match, where Jericho suffered a real dislocation in his elbow, but the Inner Circle demanded another chance to settle the score. So MJF challenged them to this match, knowing that Jericho's squad lost the first Stadium Stampede last year.

The first stadium match worked because they took full advantage of the format to do a lot of wacky comedy and absurd brawling spots. I don't think these teams can replicate that here, and really shouldn't try. They'll be better off focusing on the brutality of this blood feud and the dangers of an unfamiliar environment. Last year's match was all about finding new things to jump off of that nobody ever used in a wrestling match before. This one should be about finding new ways to hurt people.

I can't see the Inner Circle actually breaking up here, because there's a lot more left for them to do. In theory you could do it and just have Jericho keep targeting MJF all on his own. But they also still need to do Santana & Ortiz vs. Harwood & Wheeler, and Guevara vs. Spears, and I'd even be up for Hager vs. Wardlow. So it makes more sense to just give the Inner Circle the win here, although I can't deny that it's possible they could surprise me.

Kenny Omega vs. PAC vs. Orange Cassidy - This is a three-way match for Omega's AEW men's world championship, so the first man to score a fall on either opponent wins the match and the title. Omega's other championships--the Impact world title and AAA mega title--are not at stake.

As far as I can tell this match was always supposed to be a three-way. A Pac vs. Cassidy match on May 12 was set to decide Omega's next challenger and booked to go a time-limit draw. Omega would then argue that neither man won a title match, only to be overruled and have to face both of them, in a bit we've seen a million times. However, in the match Orange got legit knocked out. So instead of just declaring Pac the winner and sole challenger, which would make more sense anyway, they had to do some wacky hijinx to get back on the stupid track to their stupid draw to do the stupid trope for a stupid three-way.

So yeah, I'm not thrilled with this match, because nothing about it is more interesting to me than if the May 12 match had a winner and this match was one-on-one. Orange just beating Pac to earn the biggest match of his career would have been cool. Orange losing to Pac, so that it takes longer for him to prove he belongs in the main event, would have been cool. But a three-way just says to me "we don't think either of these challengers is a credible draw on their own, and you won't either after they both lose at the same time." Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if WWE hadn't run this sort of thing into the ground, but they did.

Anyway, Omega probably steals a pin from Orange, and the announcers all squabble with Don Callis for 25 minutes. I would really like to see this Omega heel run actually start going somewhere.

Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston - The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick) are defending the AEW tag team title. The Moxley-Kingston alliance came about when Eddie set aside their differences to rescue Mox from the exploding ring on March 7. But the ring didn't explode, so both of them wanted to beat up Kenny Omega for embarrassing them. But they couldn't get at Omega becaue his faction kept getting in the way, and then the Bucks turned on Moxley to join Omega's faction. So Moxley and Kingston started targeting the Bucks, and by the time they stole the Bucks' fancy designer sneakers we had a title match.

I think I actually find the Bucks less irritating as heels than as babyfaces. When they're bad guys, they spend half of their time being all insider-y, like "WOW THAT SURE WAS AN EVIL THING WE JUST DID, THAT SURE WILL GET SOME 'HEEL' 'HEAT' FROM THE 'MARKS' LOL." But when they're good guys, they devote that time to being all "WOW THIS SURE WOULD BE A GOOD OPPORTUNITY FOR A 'HEEL' 'TURN' BUT WE'RE NOT GOING TO DO IT YET YOU 'MARKS' LOL." At least now they're supposed to be annoying.

The biggest missing piece in the Bucks' current heel run has been a team that won't take their crap and just punches each of them in the mouth. So Moxley and Kingston are really the perfect opponents for them right now. Like, I really buy that the Bucks have bitten off more than they can chew here. But I also believe that Mox and Eddie's deathmathch powers won't save them if they get cold spray in their eyes. So it averages out to an even fight, which I like.

I wouldn't book the Bucks to drop the title at this particular time, but I can see where it'd be hot for Moxley and Kingston to cement their bond as a team and get a short title run to set up a rematch.

Hikaru Shida vs. Britt Baker - Baker is challenging for the AEW women's world title, which Shida has held for just over a year. It's been a tough run for Shida, being booked as a dominant champion in an empty building, while Baker got all the glory of getting built up as a cult favorite heel. The fandom is impatient for a title change, and specifically for Baker to get the belt. I knew all along that we'd get here eventually, and the long wait would build it up, but it still feels hotter than I expected.

I kind of want to consider the possibility of Shida surprising everyone by retaining. But I think fans would be genuinely pissed if that happened, after waiting so long to see Baker's "coronation." So this is definitely one match where the "predictable" outcome is the right one. Baker should win the title and feud with all the faces she clobbered to get here for the next year. Shida should have to climb her way up to a big rematch down the line.

Sting & Darby Allin vs. Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page - Sky and Page sort of got thrown together because they both have the same "bellyache about not getting opportunities" gimmick. To that end, they both targeted Darby Allin, but instead of challenging him for the TNT championship they caused him to lose it to Miro. So now they're going to get their asses beat by Darby and his buddy Sting, while Miro gets a big PPV title match. You guys might want to review your strategy.

When Sting joined AEW with the intent to work matches, I think everybody assumed he'd just do "cinematic" matches like the pre-taped brawl on the March 7 show. However, AEW went out of their way to say this will be a normal tag team match in the arena, live in front of the fans. It'll be his first "real" match since September 20, 2015, when a bad bump forced him to retire. I sure hope they know what they're doing.

It's conceivable that Page and Sky will get the win, but it makes more sense to me for Allin to get the momentum on his way to rematch with Miro. Also, I think they'll want to give the live crowd a feel-good moment with Sting getting his hand raised.

Miro vs. Lance Archer - Miro won the TNT championship from Darby Allin a couple of weeks ago, and now Allin's busy with Pafge and Sky so that clears the way for Archer to step up and demand a shot. I felt like neither of these guys got their full due in WWE/NJPW, so it's especially rewarding to see them both get pushed in AEW and then beat the crap out of each other in a MEAN GUY MATCH~!

The money is in building to a Miro vs. Allin rematch for the title, so I don't think Archer is winning the belt and I sure don't think Miro is losing it this early. So this isn't about who'll win so much as it's about BIG MEATY MEN...SLAPPING MEAT.

Cody Rhodes vs. Anthony Ogogo - Ogogo won the bronze medal for middleweight boxing in the 2012 Olympics, but of late he's been training at the wrestling school started by Cody Rhodes and QT Marshall. Then QT turned on Cody, taking several students with him to form a faction called "The Factory." Cody got revenge on Marshall, but Ogogo hit Cody with his deadly body blow. Cody can out-wrestle Ogogo, but it won't matter if Ogogo lands that one punch again.

That's what the story of the match actually is. For some reason, Cody thinks it has to do with whether the United States sucks or rules. Basically, this is the same time of year that the Great American Bash would be held, and Cody wants to take up his dad's "The American Dream" moniker for one night weekend only, so that's how he's justifying it. So yeah.

Cody's storylines seem to operate in a parallel universe from the rest of AEW, but if you go along with that and buy what he's selling, it works. I can't decide if it's more important to deliver the happy ending for the white-meat babyface or to put heat on the up-and-coming future star. It probably depends on whether Ogogo's ready for a sustained push, and we won't know that until we see how he performs in this match.

Hangman Page vs. Brian Cage - This match actually relates to the company's rankings, in that Page was the #1 contender until a loss to Cage knocked him down a peg. So the inevitable rise of Page to complete his story arc by challenging his ex-partner for the world title can't proceed becaue Brian Cage is in the way. That's enough to get me motivated.

Cage has been lowkey teasing a face turn since he and Ricky Starks lost to Sting and Darby Allin. That's mainly important because Page is playing into that, suggesting he expected more integrity from Cage than the rest of Team Taz and daring him not to bring his goons to the match. It feels natural for Cage to lose this match because he refuses to accept help from his heel allies, who then turn on him for doing the right thing. Then again, Cage could just win to send Page spiraling further into despair and drag that issue out a while longer. But I really hope we're done with that.

21-man Casino Battle Royale - This is a gauntlet battle royale with timed entry, sort of like WWE's Royal Rumble, but five wrestlers start the match and every three minutes another five enter, until the 21st man enters alone. Once a wrestler enters the match, he can be eliminated at any time by exiting the ring over the top rope and landing on the floor. The match can only end once everyone has entered, and all but one is eliminated; the last man in the ring wins the match and a future world title shot.

Twenty of the 21 participants have been announced: Anthony Bowens, The Blade, Brian Pillman Jr., Christian Cage, Colt Cabana, Dustin Rhodes, Evil Uno, Griff Garrison, Isiah Kassidy, Jungle Boy, Lee Johnson, Marq Quen, Matt Hardy, Matt Sydal, Max Caster, Nick Comoroto, Penta El 0M, Powerhouse Hobbs, Preston Vance, and QT Marshall. The final participant hasn't been named; I'm guessing he'll just happen to enter last as luck #21.

A lot of AEW's factions are represented in this match, but the Hardy Family Office stands out for getting four of their guys (Blade, Hardy, Quen, and Kassidy) in this thing. I'm interested to see if that plays into the story of the match. But the heavy favorites have to be Christian Cage (a big acquisition that is already on track for a title match later this year) and whoever the mystery man is. Of course, last year's surprise entrant was Matt Sydal, so don't assume this one is going to be a huge deal.

Serena Deeb vs. Riho - Deeb is defending the NWA women's world championship on the pre-show. We haven't seen a lot of either of these women lately, because Deeb was out with an injury and Riho's international travel has been severely limited by the pandemic. (The NWA itself has also been out of commission for months, but they're back and probably anxious to book the winner of this match on one of their shows.)

So this match feels like it came out of nowhere, but it still manages to feel important. I mean, Riho ought to be the favorite, but doing a title change with another group's belt is no small thing. I'm really not sure what's going to happen, which is more buzz than I usually get for a pre-show match.

#aew #double or nothing #the inner circle #the pinnacle #kenny omega #orange cassidy #pac

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sepublic · 4 years

Note

Now that I think of it, Belos has many things in common with Grace from Infinity Train. Both are cult leaders, Grace never had the love of her parents and maybe Belos never had the love of his peers. Grace controls the kids of the Apex just like Belos runs the Empire and his Coven. Both have a right hand man (Simon and the Coven member with the owl mask) and that makes me think that like Grace, part of why Belos controls others is because he's afraid of being alone again, to dissapoint others and to go back to being powerless people aka outcasts.

Well! I already liked Grace BEFORE, as a very messed-up yet meaningfully complex and twisted character who ultimately turns around and overcomes her mountain-sized flaws in one of the most compelling redemptions I’ve ever seen!

But this… Oh, this makes me love her even MORE, and I feel almost beholden to you for this beautiful comparison! Again, I’m mostly comparing Grace with my read/speculation on Belos and who I THINK his character will turn out to be… But to look over the wonderfully messed-up similarities;

There’s this shared idea of Grace and Belos being social outcasts as children and wanting companionship, wanting to be surrounded by friends… So they arrive in a ‘magical world’ and they get to work compiling countless allies around them, be it Grace’s Apex, or Belos’ Coven System of followers! But at the same time… There’s this desire to be at the top, to be better than everyone else!

With Grace this additionally came from her parents’ harsh expectations, but otherwise her and Belos have that issue of… Trying to cope with their previous status and ostracization as outsiders, and rationalize their mistreatment in a way that makes sense to them; In a way that’s flattering to themselves while maliciously downplaying those they see as having ‘wronged’ them! Grace decided to see the other girls as jealous of her for being better than them, and perhaps so did Belos… To Belos, he was actually a Chosen One this whole time, he was ALWAYS superior to those who didn’t recognize him! So of course he had to be separate from the rest as someone above them!

So Grace and Belos not only feel entitled to some sort of universal compensation for their suffering, but their desire to be at the top also comes from a position of fear; Because neither are good with feelings, neither are used to letting others in, both are conditioned for rejection and hurt! Being above others in the form of a power imbalance, it allows Grace and Belos both to maintain control and distance from those they get attached to…

Keeping their ‘followers’ at a proper distance thanks to the different positions in the hierarchy, to keep themselves from getting hurt! It’s a way of getting adulation without going through the uncomfortable pain of actually having to open up to others, because the work for unconditional love is too much and too scary for either of them! Not that they could differentiate between reverence from a distance and close, personal love of course… Not to mention, having power and control makes them feel safe and ‘in charge’ of their relationships, like Grace and Belos are always operating from a safe position where they can retaliate and defend if necessary!

By having control, you can keep others from hurting you, and get a handle on them, forcing others to listen to you for once, to open up so YOU can be safe while they can’t expect the same of you because you’re already better… Belos and Grace want others to become dependent upon them, so they can feel good and needed and loved, while at the same time reassured that they’re necessary to those they know and thus can’t be disposed of, even if hated! Grace and Belos see themselves as giving consolation to the desperate and dependent, when in reality THEY’re the epitome of those personality traits! Clinging onto others and hurting them in the process… Like Grace with Hazel, or Belos with –possibly- the Titan itself!

But while they want to be above their friends, Belos and Grace still see the people they surround themselves with as THEIR people, as others they personally understand and relate to, and want to take care of as a result! But they don’t want their beloved subordinates to be at the bottom, and if they want to uplift their subordinates with them (because the idea of hierarchy justifies and makes Grace and Belos feel special), there needs to be others BELOW those they call ‘friends’!

So for Grace, she seeks a scape-goat in Denizens, and the fact that she herself was treated more like a toy and an object by her own parents doesn’t help! She puts the Apex above the denizens, enabling her own friends to be uplifted above others, while still beneath her! And Belos, well… He artificially manufactures hierarchy through his Coven System, restricting the magic of others and deciding that the natural ability to access all forms of magic will now become a privilege that one must EARN if they intend to keep it into adulthood; And his ‘friends’ are his Emperor’s Coven, people he sees as hardworking and ingenuitive like him! Separate from the others because they’re better than that and focus their time onto more important things anyway!

Grace and Belos are both entitled deconstructions of the Isekai trope, dark reflections of your typical Isekai protagonist in that they project their fantasies and delusions onto the new world they enter, expecting it to cater towards their personal desires and needs… Instead of recognizing this new place as its own separate world with its own history and people who are living their own lives and are not beholden to these new arrivals! Instead of seeing the reality of these new worlds for what they are, they bring up what they’d like to see, and then treat it as objective fact!

There’s also –canonically for Grace and in speculation for Belos- a lieutenant that they’re closer to than all others… Someone who welcomed them from the very beginning, the first to give them open arms and provide companionship! But in some ways this person was also their first ‘victim’, the first to be deluded and adopted into this cult of personality of theirs… Grace brought in Simon, while Belos potentially had Kikimora! Obviously the parallels between THOSE relationships aren’t exactly the same, and my speculation on Kiki has her as starting out as the one in charge actually…

But there’s still the concept of someone they’re close to, but they also unfairly keep at a distance while expecting them to open up for them! And both relationships have both participants toxicly enabling one another to varying degrees (though I feel Kiki is more likely to ‘turn good’ than Simon, who never did while Grace at least changed), encouraging the other to bring out the worst and unironically supporting it!

Grace and Belos have that desire to be the center of attention by any and all means, because for so long they were overlooked, ignored, and outright forgotten! Neither like to confront negative emotions, because why let it bother them, feeling sad about it isn’t going to change things! They’re both crippled by an apprehensive fear of rejection… And they operate on a Messiah complex (to varying degrees), with Grace completely misinterpreting her one sighting of ‘The Conductor’, and then preaching a bunch of lies mixed in with her own projections to others! A part of her is doing what she’s convinced herself is truthful, but another part is also being a little flattering to what she wants her worldview to be…

And Belos… Well, I can’t say for sure, but he possibly operated on truthfully being the Titan’s messenger, before he became more invested in what HE had to say, and likewise, I think Belos is at least somewhat aware that what he’s saying isn’t really what the Titan says, but it doesn’t matter because more like Simon than Grace, he’s decided that HE knows better after all! I do believe that like Grace, he’s somewhat willingly lying to create a narrative that sets himself and his own worldview as real and objective, all for his own sake and those he sees as ‘companions’!

In the end, both Grace and Belos operate from a place of willful ignorance, although in Grace’s scenario, her mistakes were at least a lot more understandable in that she WAS a child and had no way of going back to verify what really happened… And then when fully confronted with the truth of Amelia, actually began to change! Not to mention a lot of her entitlement and the idea that she did no wrong likely came from her elitist parents! Whereas Belos, I think by this point Belos is fully aware, or at least mostly, that what he’s saying is nothing but propaganda, that he’s twisting what the Titan actually had to say and is doing so deliberately… Because he’s rejecting the Titan’s message as not fitting what HE wants to hear, again more like Simon than Grace!

I’ve already loved Grace, but now she’s extra-fascinating to me, because she’s like my read on Belos, except she’s actually the main protagonist in this narrative and was actually able to grow beyond her flaws and fix them! I can’t say for sure if Belos will or won’t have that opportunity though… I mean it IS worth nothing that while Grace did kill a LOT of people, I don’t think it’s nearly to the extent that Belos did, and as I’ve speculated before; I think Belos is WAY worse a person than Grace Monroe ever was! It’s like if early into his flaws and mistakes, a younger and healthier Belos was given the chance to change… That’s what Grace is like for me, in a sense, and that just makes her A-MAZING!

Obviously there is the danger of me projecting some delusions and fantasies onto a different reality, as I am describing of Grace and Belos… But even if it isn’t true for BELOS, I think it could be true for Grace! And so she’s that twisted narrative I mentioned earlier, but actually fully confirmed, and so I love this beautiful, messed-up lady and I want to see her get well, her mind is fascinating and she’s SUCH a good protagonist! Good for Grace, good for her that she managed to overcome her flaws in the end and turned out happier for it!

A lot of the times Grace only has herself to blame for her issues in life (and the Infinity Train, Amelia, and Simon too admittedly), but in the end she’s learned to confront herself and start making a change! She learned to see the truth, to set boundaries between what IS her fault and what isn’t, and similarly, not wallow in self-pity but instead make and effort to start turning things around! I’m so proud of her for it, she’s inspiring to me as a symbol of someone who can do SO MUCH wrong, but still make the effort to turn around!

#infinity train #infinity train grace #grace monroe #the owl house #owl house #the owl house belos #emperor belos #character comparison #speculation #ask

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hanasaku-shijin · 4 years

Text

Path

Series: BNA (Brand New Animal)

Characters: Michiru & Nazuna

Words: 1,267

A/N: Listen, I binged the first 6 episodes and I’m emotional about them. Don’t touch me. There’s no category for BNA on FFnet or AO3 yet so this a tumblr exclusive for the time being! Please reblog to share if you can!

My Ko-fi in case anyone is interested!

-------

Path

For Michiru, it was never a question of if she'd ever get to see Nazuna again. It had always been a question of when.

And she certainly hadn't expected it to happen in the slums of Animacity while trying to prevent one of her baseball teammates from being burnt at the stake. But considering everything that's happened to her within the past few weeks, she couldn't say that was the most unexpected occurrence.

It was hardly a difficult decision on her part to leave the Association and that grouch Shirou behind after he'd refused Nazuna for no good reason. Joining the cult may not have been the wisest decision either, but she's nothing if not tunnel-visioned and determined, especially when she senses something is off about this whole Silver Wolf Order or whatever it is.

So that night, while all the other members are asleep, she makes good use of her beastlike qualities and does some sneaking around until she's found Nazuna's tent. She's definitely a raccoon - no tanuki could ever be that stealthy.

But what's even stealthier and sneakier is, of course, a fox.

Nazuna is lying there casually on her side with a knowing smirk on her lips, and she nearly startles Michiru out of her skin.

After quieting herself down from the jolt, Michiru crawls up to join her on the bed. The pink glow of the cult crystals and lavender candles all around gives off an eerie, unnatural kind of light, dyeing Nazuna's skin a sickly pale color.

And as she looks up into her old friend's eyes, Michiru can't help but feel a rush of nostalgia and sadness. They'd had such big dreams together, and after that accident, whatever disease this was had ripped it all away from them. They've missed out on so much, lost so much.

But somehow, they haven't lost each other.

"Let's run away together."

The request falls from her lips before she can even give it a second thought. She doesn't need to think it over, though. It's what she truly wants in her heart of hearts. They can search for answers together without Shirou or that gross Boris guy. Even if no one else will help them, Michiru believes it would be better to just have each other again. Just like old times.

Nazuna's ears flick a tiny bit when Michiru takes her hands and squeezes them. It's small, but it doesn't slip past Michiru's expert nocturnal eyesight. Nazuna's missed her too. She knows she has.

But she should've known better than to mention that Boris guy again. Nazuna only defends him more, and it sends a prickly feeling up Michiru's spine. It's untrustworthy and defensive. She doesn't want Nazuna anywhere near him anymore if she can help it.

She just wants her to be safe, more than anything. She wants to be the light that leads Nazuna back to where she wants to be, to help her become a real idol with all the adoring fans she deserves, not some creepy old guy and a bunch of shady cult members.

Michiru wants to help show her the way, to guide her back, to be her path to a better future. It's in her name, after all. It's the least she can do for her one and only friend...

And for Nazuna, it was never supposed to be a matter of using Michiru to get what she wanted-

And yet somehow, that's exactly the type of beast she'd become.

After all, she was a fox. Deceit was in her genes, wasn't it? It was in her birth. Her name can be read the same way upside-down. She feels pretty upside-down too, and she has ever since she'd turned into a fox. Of all the animals to become, this one had been it. It just proved who she really was deep down. Her name could trick people just like her flip-flopped personality.

So what better way to use her skills of cunning than to exploit an innocent, helpful little tanuki who'd been wrapped around her finger from the start? Boris had taught her how to fool the citizens of both the cult and Animacity by taking on a wolf's form, so why not continue down her path of trickery? Why stop now? Even if it is Michiru…

It's all too easy to follow her nature, slowly planting the seed of her plan into Michiru's head.

"Animacity isn't willing to welcome a cult," she says. "It's possible we just might have to leave."

She'd seen the photo in Michiru's room, the one with the Mayor. She'd been plotting this ever since then. After all, Michiru is a dumb little tanuki who would do anything to help her without even thinking it through properly. All Nazuna has to do is say sad things like "we'll never have a place here" and "that guy said I couldn't stay, right?" It gives Michiru a sense of responsibility, makes her feel like she needs to do something to help.

And so she falls right into Nazuna's trap.

"The Mayor?" Michiru says hopefully. "You want to meet her? Leave it to me. I know she's always at a particular store in the morning."

And there it is, that determined little spark in her black-rimmed eyes that Nazuna remembers so well, that foolish heroism that can so easily be manipulated into doing anyone's bidding if they were smart enough to know how to use it against her.

But she feigns shock, as if this idea is Michiru's instead of her own, as if she's truly surprised and this had never crossed her mind.

Michiru more or less makes the decision herself as she burrows under the blankets and bundles herself up. She beams, grinning up at her with that same childish naivety she's always had. Ears perked and features lax, she closes her eyes happily, just like an unsuspecting animal lured into the hunter's cozy trap.

"I'm sure it'll be okay. This way, I can be with you…"

Nazuna gazes down at her hollowly, ignoring the sudden pang that shoots through her chest. She'd steeled herself long ago to live this kind of lifestyle. But leave it to Michiru to sway her hardened heart, just a little bit.

Slowly, Nazuna lies herself down beside her, and Michiru lifts up the blankets to let her underneath. She giggles and cuddles up to her chest, looping her arms around Nazuna and nestling into the crook of her neck. She sighs, her tail swishes once, and then she's snoring softly.

And for some reason, Nazuna doesn't pry her off, even after she's fallen asleep. She supposes this is the smallest mercy she can afford to show her.

Resting her chin on top of Michiru's head, Nazuna swipes her tail over her hip and drapes it across the both of them. With nowhere else to put her arms, she lays them over the tanuki. Exhaling slowly, she closes her eyes, and again ignores that painful throbbing in her chest.

She won't ask for forgiveness.

But at least for now, she just sleeps with Michiru huddled up against her chest, trying not to think about what she's going to do tomorrow.

[Fin]

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A/N: Listen, I just wanna keep believing that Nazuna still has all the good in her somewhere buried deep down. I need them to reconcile and be friends again or else I’m gonna implode.

I had a lot of fun analyzing and playing around with their names. “Michi” means path and I want her to be Nazuna’s, and the fact that Nazuna’s name can be read the same upside-down was a nice touch to show how her character would change for the worse. I just hope things get better between them soon.

#BNA #Brand New Animal #Michiru Kagemori #Nazuna Hiwatashi #Michina #that's what im calling it shhh #my writing #i really hope they end up ok and then i can write them being HAPPY

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lulu2992 · 4 years

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i really enjoy reading your opinions/takes on the story and the characters so i was wondering, if the bombs hadn't dropped, what would you think would have happened? with the deputy, with hope county, with the surviving members of edens gate... i've been thinking about it quite a bit and was wondering what you think! stay safe and have a good day/evening!

Thank you! :)

So, in my opinion, this is what could happen after the three different endings:

If the Deputy chooses to resist but the bombs don’t drop (which couldn’t happen in canon because the prophecy is real), I suppose Joseph gets arrested and charged. Civilians can finally get outside help, put Hope County back together, try to move on, and probably hunt down the remaining cultists. Hudson can roast a turkey to celebrate and the Junior Deputy either gets medals or gets fired, as she said. They have a lot of paperwork to do. People are grateful to the Deputy but a lot of lives were lost and everyone is traumatized.

If the Deputy chooses to walk away and not fight Joseph, they get in the car with the Sheriff and the other Deputies but end up killing all of them (and maybe dying as well) because “Only You” starts playing on the radio. Nine of the Deputy’s allies are now Joseph’s new “flock”. Eden’s Gate is not defeated so Hope County is probably still on lockdown and civilians don’t get outside help. Maybe some of them eventually decide to join the cult. Everyone is traumatized and people died for absolutely nothing.

If the Deputy doesn’t arrest Joseph in the church at the beginning of the game, the First Seal isn’t broken so the Reaping never begins and the cult never becomes violent. Everyone who died in the game (Boomer’s family, cultists, the Heralds, Eli, Virgil, Burke, etc.) is fine. There is still an arrest warrant so the Marshal (and maybe the Sheriff and his Deputies) come back with a bigger and better-prepared team to arrest Joseph. The Heralds probably get arrested too as well as some cultists. If I’m not mistaken, in the USA, lawyers can defend themselves and their family so John probably does this. I trust Faith’s ability to convince the jury she was innocent. Joseph most likely ends up in jail, though, but rallies many new followers. Eden’s Gate still exists and maybe the prophecy can still be fulfilled one day. But for now, Hope County remains free and the Deputy can live a normal life.

I also like to think about other possibilities. What if the bombs drop and the Deputy ends up in Dutch’s bunker with Joseph and at least one of the Heralds? What if they end up in Dutch’s bunker without Joseph? What if the Deputy actually listens to him and stops murdering everyone? What if they join Eden’s Gate and fulfill another version of the prophecy, the one in which they don’t kill the Heralds but the Collapse happens anyway and they build New Eden together (this possibility is alluded to in the game)?

Or this one that’s a little strange but that I think has great potential: What if everything that happens to the Deputy in the game, plus the seven years they spend with Joseph in the bunker, plus what happens after is actually a vision, a divine warning the Deputy and Joseph experience when they meet for the first time but that feels very real to the both of them?

Or the best one: What if the Seeds don’t grow up in a dysfunctional family, get to live a normal, happy, trauma-free life, and the Far Cry 5 God, arguably the real villain of the story, either doesn’t exist or just stops ruining everyone’s life?

#stay safe too anon!#far cry 5 #I usually hate the ‘everything was actually a dream!’ kind of stories but I think about the ‘shared vision scenario’ quite often #the feels guys #the feels #far cry 5 spoilers #now that I think about it joseph drugging our allies and making them his is weird #why didn’t eden’s gate do this to everyone if it was this simple?#anyway #it would have been so much better if they hadn’t decided to make a sequel #the open ending was perfect

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hyperewok1 · 3 years

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For Nyomi - Past 12, Present 11, Future 10. For Remi - Past 10, Present 14, Future 1. For Jillian - Past 3, Present 3, Future 8. For Jerrica - Past 11, Present 13, Future 7

Nyomi: What are some of their biggest regrets? Her affair with Orias, among other exs to varying lesser degrees. Not heeding her master's lessons during the war after he died, even if she'll still rationalize most of the actions taken on the battlefield as justified (she might regret the collateral damage of some those decisions, but rationalized as justified nonetheless). Running away after the war and killing Orias when that part of her past caught up to her. Killing a Republic marine commander who tried to betray her to Zakuul for the dubious promise of his troops' safety. A few incidents involving alcohol in between most of those other incidents.

What’s a typical night’s sleep like for them? Better than it used to be in years past, usually, though still occasionally aided by a whiskey nightcap. But most nights she meditates if she needs to relax beforehand, especially during a mission or protracted crisis (fortunately the war in general isn't enough to keep her up at night anymore, as long as that turn of events doesn't get worse). She still doesn't sleep too much and always get up early for morning drills and meditation, even if she's not dealing with the occasional lingering flashbacks during that prior night.

How do they want to be remembered after they die? As a resolute defender who made the best of hard choices in wartime, but also as the kind of Jedi who isn't needed anymore, in her ideal future galaxy where the last traces of the Sith have been eradicated.

Remi: What did they dream of doing when they grew up? How and why did it change, if it did? Remi wanted to go out and see the world in adventuring, which she was fortunately able to do, though she outgrew notions of Big Damn Heroism well before she became a mercenary, which then taught a further dose of the real world to give her some more responsibility and respect for the adventuring life. So, of course, she didn't expect to be chosen by a god like Big Damn Heroes often are in the songs. So things have changed pretty drastically now that she's partly responsible for trying to save the world.

What matters most to them right now? The quest, Alisaie, the rest of the group. In no specific order, given that said order would be very, very difficult to make a call on. Also a bit of vengeance is steadily rising in priority.

Briefly describe their life in the future, regardless of how far into the future this is. There's some theological talks to be had with an assortment of people and also divine beings at some point in the future. Remi very much views her oath to Tritherion through the specific quest she was given, and then more so once she ended up vowing 'everything else besides that' to Pelor and Ziriel. Remi is very open to continuing the wandering hero thing with Alisaie, if ideally with smaller stakes at hand. But she's not about to try and get out of whatever obligations Ziriel might put on her after the Quest has been fulfilled, though she's certainly hoping that continuing a general do gooding will keep various divinities happy. So she might be doing some more wandering hero-ing, she might be called to another uppercase-Q Quest, and either way she probably won't be putting down her sword any time soon.

Jillian: Describe their family. Who raised them, and who had the most impact on them? Did they have any siblings? Who were they closest to? What were the family dynamics like? Jillian had two perfectly decent parents trying their best to build a life on the rugged frontier after coming from somewhere back east some years prior, which meant she was obliged to help out as soon as she was old enough to walk and do chores, especially as an only child. Her father was probably a little bit more impactful in not obliging the period typical gender roles, since an additional hand to ride around with the herd and shoot at predators was most definitely needed. She was close to both of them, and hadn't been planning to leave anytime soon despite getting married. She and Isaac building a little cabin for themselves somewhere on her parents' land, but otherwise they were still working with each of their families to do communal cattle herding things. After all, her parents taught her to support the people around herself, and that no one should or likely could face the whole world by themselves. (Fortunately she eventually re-learned that lesson in a different context.)

Do they belong to any factions or groups? Why and how did they join, and how do they feel about it? Nope. Being from some frontier Protestant church, she doesn't have any sort of wider institution (and presumably not every Catholic priest is in the know just because they're in the same club) to rely on beyond the general notion of 'I sure hope the preacher in the next town is the good kind of Christian, and also knows about the spooky'. Which is a very interesting part of her dynamic compared to my other assorted paladin-y characters, who have had varying amounts of formal training and memberships in some sort of order to provide them with an education and support system.

Would they become a mentor figure for anyone? Maybe, pending on types of mentoring. Jillian originally felt like she needed to give Aloy a hand or two in learning how to survive in the Wild and also Weird West, though she also underestimated her, especially the bit with the thunder cannon. She and Isaac originally expected that children would come sooner or later, though that's debatable for multiple reasons now. She's certainly not expecting to take any kind of apprentice in terms of smiting, and would be very hesitant to even if she would have benefited greatly from a teacher herself. But she would think that's something between a theoretical Bearer and God, assuming that someone else can be granted the amount of power she has at the same time, or that it could be passed on with her input, etc. (I have yet another partly written thing where she talks to someone more knowledgeable and is told an implication that each blessed person is unique in their own circumstances.)

Jerrica: Were there any events in their childhood that led to phobias or other fears? A general childhood School of Hard Knocks gave her a careful respect for various the dangers of life, between gangsters and city guards and the sea (recent events gave her a definite phobia of the open sea), but nothing genuinely terrified her and she enjoyed the adrenaline of assorted dangers. Cultural superstitions taught her to fear the Outsider and the Void, but that only became genuine once all those ghost stories were proven true. Or at least some of them were, and thus the issue is she doesn't know which ones still aren't true. Part of the fun with her and also Jillian is how much they decidedly do not know about the supernatural things they're obliged to deal with, and thus are liable to jump to conclusions or assume their preconceptions must be true because one other supernatural thing has been proven true. Fortunately Jillian has at least has seen enough that she doesn't assume everything supernatural is witchcraft (and thus preconceived as dangerous) like Jerrica does.

What’s the worst (in their mind) way their current situation could end up? Other than the fact that she got Mina back and at least initially she seems okay, Jerrica doesn't want to think about how it could get any more worse. She's stuck in Dunwall with an Outsider's Mark and little more than the clothes on her back and the contents of her pockets, most of the whaler crew cult is still alive and actually has an assortment of rich and powerful patrons, and there's also the Abbey to worry about. Having a patron of her own and a couple of fellow 'witches' is certainly helping, but still.

Are their friends still a part of their life? Are there people they are no longer in touch with, or newly important people? Jerrica's certainly planning on killing every last member of that whaling crew regardless (or especially because) of how close she was to some of them. She's also pretty miffed at her parents for giving up Mina, though she'll probably ease off on that in time and find some way to send them money, but she isn't about to reveal herself in the short term, and the long term is still up for debate. She feels honor bound to stick around with Viola and Delphine until their respective vengeances have been satisfied (much less the help she could use with her own), which could all take awhile, and planning all that vengeance is hard enough, much less considering the farther future.

#star wars #swtor #deadlands #D&D #dishonored #writing #prompts #so much prompt #that was a good prompt list

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just-jammin · 3 years

Text

Pridedraft’s Journal: Hallar’s Entry

Word Count: 1126

Summary: Mardiane Pridedraft, a Half-Elf Sorcerer & owner of the Bamboo Observatory & Inn, is also part of the somewhat known group of the Nice Cloaks.

The problem is, she doesn’t feel like she belongs to this party of chaotic misfits.

(Or: The author is projecting their problems to their Dungeons & Dragons persona, as a hope to vent in this piece of writing.)

22 Hallar

Alrighty then.

As usual, The Nice Ship’s been out to sea for months now. Training with the Crew has been going pretty well. Valakhad, however, got shoved off from his position of Captain, with Tyfl himself usurping to the position. I’m not sure what Val does now, unfortunately.

(note to self: please pay attention to Crew meetings more; take note of important things & tasks in journal.)

Since the last time I wrote in here (‘cause let’s face it: writing everyday for a few months ain’t practical), a few crewmates have been killed as a result of an encounter with... a few vampires, for some reason. Most notably Damien, our former... who even cares. Anyway, he got his organs sucked out by one of them, which, well, sucked. But even then, he was the laughing stock of the Crew, so at least the Gods gave him mercy from his peers, I think.

Another event that has happened is that Nisha, our Tiefling Illusionist, left the Nice Cloaks. You see, we’re heading towards the Desert from the city of Elveros, which happens to be her hometown. There was some conflict happening over there, with a new guy ruling with a bunch of cult members at his side, & buildings getting burnt down. That included the library that Nisha co-owned with some friends, much to her dismay.

And the guy who has the whole city in his hand? Apparently it was Errian Winmert (the Dickhead), someone who she didn’t like, at all. Basically, he was a not-so-little shithead who wanted to bend reality with this stick he got from the cult members.

Thankfully, with the help of a rebellion just outside of town, we defeated all of them & destroyed the stick. It was after that when Nisha Mooncrown decided to stay in the city, helping with the repairs first.

She was replaced (I think) with another Tiefling, Levantra Greybolt. She was hired to train the crewmates to fight with swords, right after the enforcement of an Anti-Rapier Policy.

So yeah, that happened.

Now we’re going where we’re going because there’s a known portal to the Fire Plane, where Val was originally from. Not sure why we’re going there though. Stupid memory...

Ok, part of the reason why I didn’t write in this journal for months is because no one wants to see me gushing out my feelings about... this. I get it. It’s my fucking journal. I know I can write about it here, but what’s the point? The Nice Cloaks has basically made it known that I’m the crazy person of the group. I kill children, I burn shit down, and I’m at the brink of insanity.

But here’s the thing: no one cares about why this is said.

Nobody wants the full details to set their minds to a certain behavior. I’m trying to defend myself with no one to back me up with, which is useless compared to how many people who agrees with them.

Look, I did accidentally drop Tyfl, a teenager, off a building in an attempt to get down from it. And he died. His death, for some reason, traumatized me enough that I went bonkers at the slightest mention of it, due to an overwhelming guilt that pooled inside of me. And what do you know, that was the reason why I burnt the shit out of another teenager. Who was associated with the place where Tyfl died.

What a fucking idiot I am.

And when Tyfl was resurrected, I, being the dumbass that I am, tried to attack him, making him unconscious in the process. Val knocked me out after that. All of that was because I wanted to take research on a bunch of feral gnomes in the Feywild.

Now hear me out, I like adventuring. I loved the idea of it, hoping that I would go out in the world someday to see whatever sights that I might confront. For the past few years, the closest thing to that was whatever happened at my stay in Tumblerun Tavern. The Chaos Party was very welcoming, teaching me the ropes of self-defense & others like that. I stuck with them for a while until Mme. Inkstain took me in.

But even then, both the Chaos Party & Mme. seemed kinda... boring. A bit too boring, in fact. Even though we had really memorable moments in time, we didn’t get around more. We all just stayed in one place, compared to who I’m with now.

The Nice Cloaks, however, are quite the opposite, in a way that I didn’t even expect that was possible. I mean, Tyfl became a powerful god-like being while being an old fucking woman named Barbara. How can anything else top that?!?

What I mean is that we went to a bunch of places (including the Feywild), but I couldn’t seem to... fit in.

Val’s a very cool caster from the Fire Plane of all places.

Nisha was a great asset to our group, being brave enough to balance our chaos with her sensibility.

Heck, Tyfl’s the guy who’s carrying the group, taking the most kills & making up plans that are crazy enough to just work.

And Lev, she’s pretty badass, to be honest. Casting with instruments is a very interesting concept, and I just like being intrigued with it.

Then there’s me.

Mardiane fucking Pridedraft.

I know I’m not the only normal person in this group, but I’m certainly feeling like I am. And at the same time, I feel like I am the worst person possible to be in this group. I don’t use my knowledge that I have gathered throughout the years. I’m never sure when to jump in, either with my spells or in melee. And I don’t even focus on important things whenever I need to.

Is it because I’m, y’know, stupid? Am I going to blame it on some shit that happened to me?

I mean, I did get really scared at one point of my stay in the Tavern. I remember that I didn’t go out for days, and when I did, I always avoided any contact with people. Well, I... wanted to stay with my closest friends (which they agreed to, yeah).

Ah, fuck. I’m too dependent on my own friends, am I?

Gee, no wonder why I feel so alone.

...

I’m useless.

No, I feel useless.

Even though I know I have power, of a Phoenix nonetheless, but I don’t seem to do anything outside of combat.

I just... want to go back to the Chaos that I’m used to. Go back home. But at the same time, I still want to roam around & explore the world.

Oh Gods, how do I do this?

- mardi

#mardi is a mess of a sorcerer #she doesn’t take any chances in case of failure #(i think; i am not sure about how i would do :p)#just writing some bullshit #that was stupid #idk anymore #friend support and boredom #fsnb

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