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clansayeed · 4 years

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Bound by Circumstance ― Chapter 9: A Puzzle with No Edges

PAIRING: Nik Ryder x trans*M!MC (Taylor Hunter) RATING: Mature

⥼ MASTERLIST ⥽

⥼ Bound by Circumstance ⥽

Taylor Hunter (MC) has made it good for himself in New Orleans; turns out moving to a new city fresh out of college to reinvent yourself isn’t as hard as people make it out to be. Things only start to get confusing when he finds himself the target of a malevolent wraith. Good thing someone’s looking out for him though — because without Nighthunter Nik Ryder as his bodyguard he definitely won’t survive long in the twisting darkness of the supernatural underworld he’s tripped into.

Bound by Circumstance and the rest of the Oblivion Bound series is an ongoing dramatic retelling project of the book Nightbound and the rest of the Bloodbound series. Find out more [HERE].

Note: Circumstance only loosely follows the events and plotline of Nightbound, and features a separate antagonist, different character motivations, and further worldbuilding.

*Let me know if you would like to be added to the Circumstance/series tag list!

⥼ Chapter Summary ⥽

The protection spell is cast, which means the time has come to identify their enemy. Easier said than done. Things get a little complicated when henchmen arrive with their eyes set on Cadence.

[READ IT ON AO3]

He’s ready to flinch away when Ryder presses the still-smoking charred end to the back of his hand — but doesn’t need to. The tightly-wound bundle of herbs is warm but doesn’t burn. Just leaves smeared black ash in its wake.

“Not to break your concentration or anything…”

“Then don’t.”

“Too late. This stuff isn’t permanent, is it? Like, it’ll come off?” All he can think is how so not happy the company director will be if he shows up to rehearsal with occult symbols twirling up his arms. Especially when the Oberon costume is pretty much sans shirt.

Ryder doesn’t stop as he carefully traces the symbols from Ivy’s borrowed tome. “And here I was thinkin’ you wanted to be protected.”

He does. “I do! I just —”

“Stop being an asshole, Ryder. Once the spell is complete it’ll basically act like a magical cloak. The smudge ash is just a conduit. You’ll be fine.”

Katherine leans over Taylor’s shoulder; watches with the curiosity of someone who doesn’t have anything better to do. And since she explained how, once she and Cadence were sure they were off the tail of Persephone’s — and Lady Smoke’s — henchmen, she was back on standby until the vampire had use of her again? She really doesn’t.

“Good to know.” Taylor sighs in relief; lets Ryder keep drawing.

He stops just below the crook of Taylor’s elbow and switches to the next arm. Taylor’s trying his best not to squirm but he can’t help it — this shit tickles! Makes him yank his arm to the side involuntarily.

Ryder just grunts, yanks, and wipes away the mistake with a bit of spit on the pad of his thumb.

“Ew.”

“Get over it.”

There’s a quick rap of knuckles on the open front door. Of the four apartments only two are in use so there’s not much worry about who it is.

Ryder pulls back and takes Taylor’s wrists in his. Inspects his work with gentle turns and doubled-back looks at the instructions in the book. Cal appears with a brief crinkle of his sensitive nose but smiles and waves nevertheless. Only when Taylor tries to wave back Nik grunts and holds his arm tighter.

“How goes it?” Cal takes up the empty armchair opposite them. Looks to Taylor like he knows what’s going on and isn’t that a laugh.

“Good, I think?” He leaves his words hanging in the hopes that Nik might take up the lead but… not exactly. “Sure, we’ll go with good.”

The Nighthunter tosses the half-burnt bundle into a silver dish. “That Hunter’s Sage was good shit, Lowell.”

“Does that mean it’s helping?”

He picks up the book and settles it in his lap; twirls a stone pendant in his fingers as he reads. “Time to find out.”

The fact that Katherine steps back doesn’t settle well in Taylor’s stomach. Even the smile she offers is only halfway reassuring. So instead he looks to the werewolf for comfort — and Cal holds his gaze like he’s holding Taylor’s hand to help him through it.

The air is thick with the lingering smell of charred herbs. Even with the windows open the muggy Southern evening makes the sweat on the back of his neck cling to him. Coats him tacky and unsure.

The fact that Ryder and Katherine can still wear their leather gear without complaint is either a serious power move or just plain supernatural. Both are viable options at this point.

Ryder wraps the pendant’s leather cord in his fist and holds it aloft; dips the chipped yellow stone into a glass bowl still foaming at the mouth with all the ingredients they’d procured from Luc’s back rooms. It comes out dripping with the pearly brew — not even a drop wasted as it swings wide and stops over Taylor’s marked arms.

Despite the fact that Taylor himself had taken the ingredients off of the dutch oven on the nearby stove each drop is cold as ice as it falls onto the runes — seeps into his skin, his bones and chills him all the way down to the marrow.

“Nos rejecto nostro quod mortale est a servis suis ut altius virtute. Ubi autem non est datum quaerere Sanctuarii. Itaque accepimus ipsis facti ignara cladis virtutes invocare. Postulamus illorum tutela…”†

No one dares interrupt the Latin curling on Ryder’s tongue. Not just for the sake of the spell — there’s a beauty to his careful incantation that holds them captive listeners. Willing, but captive.

No way the small surface of the stone should hold as much of the potion as it seems to. Even when it hangs closer to his eyes Taylor can’t see a porous surface or hole to drip from. But now probably isn’t the time to question the mechanics of magic.

Careful not to miss a word Ryder’s finger traces underneath the hand-written invocation. “Postulamus ab oculis eorum. Hoc tu arcebis auferat sua mala, et a dolore suo. Praesidio cute quod tactus de turpi, ex quo sanguis malus est animus a nequitia sua.”

The thought I’m going to get through my first spell without freaking out isn’t even fully formed when it becomes a lie.

When a strange tingling besets across the surface of the runes. Pinpricks of tiny needles like his arms have fallen asleep but only where the ash is drawn.

It’s probably just the spell. It’s definitely just the spell. It’s just the spell, right?

Only he’s a tingled breath away from asking when Ryder — like he’s sensed Taylor’s interruption — holds up a finger.

“Et hoc usque dum facinus patratur malum exitum.”

It stops in sync with Ryder’s chant. With the droplets from the stone which Ryder tosses aside; no longer of use.

Only he keeps reading — doesn’t give indication good or bad whether the spell worked or not.

Thankfully Taylor isn’t the only impatient one. Not when Cal not-so-subtly coughs into his fist.

“So is that it? Did it work?”

Please, please say it worked.

Katherine shrugs — but steps forward back into potential harms’ way. “No one blew up so that’s a good sign.”

“I didn’t know — seriously?” If Taylor looks between the hunters any quicker he’s going to get whiplash. “That was on the table? Why didn’t you tell me that was on the table?”

“Because it wasn’t,” explains Nik curtly, “not when I’m the one casting. Kathy on the other hand — she’s got a reputation for that kind of thing.” He finally pries himself away from Ivy’s book to give his rival a sardonic raise of his eyebrows.

“Touché.”

But Cal hasn’t gotten his answer and makes a point in telling them. “Just ‘cause no one blew up doesn’t mean it worked. Did. it. work? Is he protected?”

Maybe the way Ryder lets his hand linger on Taylor’s knee is a bit awkward — but not uncomfortable. Like his touch is an extension of the spell. He even gives what may be the first look of hope Taylor’s ever seen.

“We can’t be certain until we’re outta the Shift’s wards but yeah; yeah I think so.”

It’s good news. Arbitrarily good, but good — and boy does he need a dose of good right about now.

“We should go tell the others.” Taylor stands and tucks Ivy’s book at his side.

“We should start workin’ on tracking down what’s after you.”

“Why not both?” It doesn’t take supernatural senses to know there’s another round of bickering on the horizon — so Cal takes it upon himself to pluck the book in hand; gestures to Taylor’s smudge-tattooed forearms. “We’ll start team strategy downstairs and, Taylor, if you wanna get rid of all that?”

Yes, yes he wants to very badly.

Ryder frowns, starts to argue; “This ain’t a team sport — hey! Kujo, get back here with that book!” And is caught between standing his ground and doing his job when Cal darts out towards the hallway staircase.

Katherine gives a shake of her head but doesn’t do much to hide her bemusement at their antics. “Go on,” she tells Taylor on her way out, “I’ll make sure they don’t throttle each other. At least not until you can bet on the winner.”

“Gee, thanks.”

He closes the door behind her — closes it, but doesn’t turn the lock just in case — and heads to shower off the spellwork.

“I asked nicely, Smith. Now I’m telling; calm down before I have to rethink lifting your ban!”

“Come on Garrus, but him some slack. He’s excited.”

“Well an excited vampire does not a friendly and relaxed environment make! At least move all this to a table — I don’t have any room to serve drinks!”

The rest of the Shift comes into view when Taylor finishes rubbing his hair dry and tosses the towel over his shoulder.

Sure enough Cadence — still imposingly tall with Krom sitting at a booth — hovers over a spread of papers, folders, and what look like newspaper clippings scattered across the bartop.

Garrus huffs with two large wooden steins filled to frothing in his hands. Practically shoves them at Cal on the other side of the bar with a flippant and frustrated gesture to the customers waiting while engrossed in their billiards at the front.

Katherine continues defending Cade — though at this point it seems a little more involved than simple loyalty to her employer. It’s the same concern she had for him in the cage fight.

Only he hopes this won’t end similarly.

“I can’t believe you’re not interested, Garrus,” Cadence laughs with borderline hilarity; opens a manila folder and pulls out thick embossed paper that oozes age and historical importance. “Or was I only interesting when I was shiny and fresh from the war?”

“Oi!” barks Ivy from her booth; looking up from the page Ryder has her tome open to, “that’s not fair and you know it.”

Katherine knocks the tip of her boot into the vampire’s leg — draws a long sigh from him.

“Very well… you’re right. Apologies, Garrus.”

“As long as he’s throwing insults and not his fists like he did in that cage I couldn’ give less of a shit.” As Cal passes Taylor he ruffles the damp blond hair out of place with a silly grin.

“What’s going on…?”

Taylor wanders over; looks over the piles with passing curiosity before he makes his way to scooch in beside Ryder at the back.

“Another one of our dear mystery man’s wild wyvern chases.” comments Garrus with no less salt on his tongue.

“Goose chases.” corrects Krom absently.

“Hm? Oh, well, those too. Equally nasty creatures either way.”

Like always it’s Ivy who takes pity on Taylor’s lack of experience and knowledge. “Taylor, this is Cadence Smith; don’t let the lack of glamour fool you, though, he’s —”

“A vampire,” he nods and gives a small wave; isn’t surprised when it’s ignored in favor of Cadence’s thumbing through the papers for something specific, “I know. We met last night.”

Ivy gives an “ah” in understanding; “Then you got the life story then? Or — well — lack thereof.” And when he shakes his head she claps and giggles with glee. This is obviously a story she adores sharing. “Oh goody. And, pah, he’s too busy to tell it himself. So here’s how it goes. It’s a cloudy night in the summer of 1918…”

“Shouldn’t I be telling it, petal?” Garrus calls, “after all that was decades before your time. I was there.”

“Hush, momma’s regaling.” And it’s all the argument he has since the fae falls silent — returns to slicing lemons with a hum. “Now where was I? Ah — yes — it’s a cloudy night in the summer of 1918.

“Before you ask: yes that 1918. Half the world dead and the other half dying, and a half somewhere in the middle that can’t be bothered to care. This particular scene is set at the temporary wartime hospital Saint Marcellus. †† Pause for laughter —” — she does pause, though no laughter comes — “— well that��s disappointing.

“The beds are full, the bugs are a-buzzin’, and this summer was one of the worst. All those brave soldiers shipped back from the trenches only to deal with an all-too-familiar brand of torture from New Orleans herself. And in the Marcellus you’ve got wings for everything; for lost limbs, for limbs that needed losing, for bullet holes and for internal bleeding and for those who they didn’t really know what was wrong with ‘em, but they had to be shoved somewhere until someone figured it out.

“How did that middle-class education on world history do for you, Taylor,” Ivy dances the tips of her nails on the wooden tabletop, “like, what do you know about shell shock?”

He tries not to glance Cadence’s way — glad that he has a chance to avert his gaze before he gets caught staring.

“It’s what they used to call PTSD, right?”

Nik nods; a curt jerk of the chin. He’s definitely heard this story before but there’s a strange and uncharacteristic reverence in his silence.

Especially given how eager he’d been upstairs to get on with the hunt.

“They had a wing for that, too. That was the one the doctors at the Marcellus tried their best to keep empty — bad for morale, you know. And they did a bang-up job with everyone except for Cadence here. First they couldn’t get him to talk; not a sound or a written word to help him out. Then he started talking and they couldn’t get him to shut up.”

A deeper voice cuts her off. “I didn’t have a name nor tags to identify me. I’d been shipped all the way across the Atlantic in civvies for lack of a uniform. The moment the chief medical officer heard my accent he swore up and down every corridor for an hour — trying to find the incompetent fool who mistook a British soldier for an American one.”

Judging by the satisfied look on Ivy’s face she has no problem with Cadence jumping in to give a first-person account. Maybe she even expected it seeing as she goes right back to reading her book like she never said a word. Like she didn’t start it.

Cadence continues without looking up from a fragile folded newspaper. Cradles the old edition of The New York Times with sentimental longing. At his awkward angle Taylor has to stretch his neck in order to barely make out the headline.

ARMISTICE SIGNED, END OF THE WAR!

“I had been admitted as a mute with a severe case of trench foot and an undiagnosable allergy to direct sunlight. The infection they were content to amputate; the rest… attributed quickly to shell shock.

“They kept the curtains drawn and drilled me without end. Anything to get me to remember my name, my regiment, how I’d landed on the wrong side of the pond. Professionals, experts in their fields couldn’t crack me open. I was one angry Corporal away from being sent back to Europe when a London-born nurse lied and said I was her cousin. As far as anyone knew I very well could have been. I certainly didn’t argue.

“In truth she knew what would happen to me back on English soil. They didn’t call it shell shock there, they called it cowardice. She lied her way through missing documents and got me released to her care. She was a kind woman, Meredith LaPointe. Took me in while her own husband was looking at a future without his arms. Had two little ones — barely more than toddlers if I recall.

“Killing her is still my fiercest regret.”

The needle scratches on the proverbial record. Leaves Taylor gaping in shocked silence — aware with a bitter slap of reality to the face that no one will meet his eyes.

But it’s Cal’s first time hearing the story, too. And he’s not so quiet in the face of injustice.

“She saved your skin and you — you killed her? What the fuck?”

Only Cadence doesn’t answer; palms spread flat and wide on the bartop. Taylor swears he can see a small tremble in his broad shoulders.

Katherine speaks in his stead. “He didn’t know what he was.”

“Bullshit.”

“Believe what you will,” Cadence finds his voice back from some dark abyss, “but it’s the truth. A fortnight shut up in that ward and no amount of food they gave me did the trick. I didn’t even realize what I’d done until she was slumped on the floor at my feet.”

The wolf still snarls. “If you say you hurt those kids I swear to Christ…”

“No. I ran.”

“And put the rest of the city in danger.”

“No more than it already was. If I recall correctly your Pack took advantage of the poverty of the time. Something about the hunger of the wolf allowing them to extort rations.”

Cal lets out a primal growl. The wooden bar under his fingers groans — tries desperately not to yield.

It’s the twist and whip of a hand towel that snaps him out of it. Garrus practically flush with anger and glowering between the werewolf and vampire heatedly.

“The past is the past — let it go; both of you — before you,” — to Cade — “deal with another ban and you,” — to Cal — “find yourself out on the curb. Got it?”

They break eye contact but that doesn’t seem to be enough. Not when Garrus slams his palms down with an expectant look.

“I asked you boys a question; I expect an answer.”

“Got it.”

“Understood.”

“Good,” and the most terrifying thing about it is when Garrus resumes cleaning new glasses as though it never happened, “now, continue. You’re gettin’ to the best part.”

There’s a rueful twist to the vampire’s mouth but he continues anyway. “There isn’t much to tell after that. I found my way to the same place many lost souls did at the time; to the Graveyard Shift. Garrus was kind enough to put me up for a short while — gave me better forgeries for an identity and helped organize a meeting and arrangement with de la Rosa and his clan to get me blood when I needed it.

“And I’ve spent every year since working to recover my lost identity.”

There’s definitely a wow in there somewhere but Taylor’s having a hard time finding it. Instead awkwardly points between Cadence and Katherine — who answers his unasked question like she’s used to picking up at the end of story-time.

“He started hiring Nighthunters to help his crusade a few decades ago. The guy before me put up his standby job on the table in a high-stakes card game and I lost.”

“You make it sound like I treat you terribly.” Cadence scoffs. Gets a grin from his mortal companion.

“I just hate being at your beck and call.”

“Well I’ve gotten farther with you than I did the others. So you’re doing something right.”

“No shit. I’m me.”

“Indeed you are.” The looks they share are fond but there’s no mistaking the pain hidden behind the vampire’s useless spectacles.

As someone who has been there — suffered the struggle of self and identity — whether he’s a murderer or not Taylor only feels sympathy for him.

“So what’s this new information then? Something from the what’s-her-name you met with at Persephone?”

Cadence nods. “Isadora, yes. Among other things that turned up following her father’s death she discovered he had some digging done on my identity in secret. On their own they don’t go very far, but coupled with the favor Kathy here called in last month I think I may finally have some names to dig through.”

“That’s great!”

“Yeah, and also not our concern.” The look Nik gives him is full of reproach. “We can play private identity investigator all we like when we I.D. and gut your would-have-been killer.”

Taylor’s definitely more than a little amused by the ‘we’ aspect of that argument but prior banter tells him to let it go for the moment. It’s not like Ryder’s trying to divert them away from the real reason they’re all there.

Well, all except for Katherine and Cadence. They just seem to need a place to do… whatever it is they’re doing.

Ryder actually pushes back Taylor for a direct look to Ivy. “Did you bring those bestiaries from your collection?”

“I did.” But the revenant turns up her nose at him. Flexes her cheek muscles while her heavy leather platforms thud with her bouncing foot.

“So… can we look at ‘em?”

“You know you’re asking for an awful lot of favors without payment. The protection spell, the invocation tome, and now you want access to my carefully crafted and collected bestiaries — meanwhile I haven’t seen even a hint of a vial of payment from you.”

There’s Ivy’s playful banter and then there’s whatever she’s up to now — her eyes burning with hot pink embers and looking paler than usual; like the milky, glassy eyes of a corpse.

Maybe it’s because of the clothes she wears but sometimes Taylor forgets she’s somewhere between the living and the dead.

No way he’s forgetting now, though.

And he’s very, very content to not get involved in their shady (well, he suspects) dealings. Until Ryder is grabbing him by the shoulders and turning him head-on in Ivy’s direction.

“You’re tellin’ me you’re ready to turn a blind eye to this poor, cute face?” Oh, he’s despicable.

Makes Taylor try to worm his way out from between them; “Don’t get me involved in this!”

“That’s not fair!” Ivy pouts.

“Neither is the death sentence he’s been given.” He tries to grab Taylor’s jaw — dear god he will not be mimed like a puppet — but accepts the hand that bats his away as nope too far. “Is there no room in that heart of yours for his well-being?”

“You know as well as I do that my heart is withered and all shriveled up like a—like a raisin!”

Still her resolve is crumbling every time she’s unable to stop herself from looking Taylor in the eyes. He wants her to fight it solely on principle. But apparently Nik is just as well-versed in the art of weaseling his way out of payments as he is doing the things that get him paid.

She wails — an echoing thing befitting of her undead status — and covers her face with skeletal fingers. “I can’t run a business like this, Ryder! He’s just — just too damn cute!”

If it wasn’t helping him stay alive he’d resent that.

“Gah!” The sweet noise of Nik’s victory. “Get up — move it you fleshballs before I change my mind!”

Ryder tugs Taylor out of the booth with him. Gives Ivy a wide berth as she hauls her own butt out toting a large carpet-bag behind her.

She hauls the tremendous weight of the bag onto the tabletop and undoes several ornate-looking silver clasps. All in a careful order judging by the way she seals one or two back up and comes back to them later.

When she opens the bag there’s nothing Taylor can immediately see — even when he stands on the tips of his toes to look the only thing visible is a gaping, empty blackness.

The only way he can describe it? — He feels like he’s looking six feet under; like her body should be way down at the bottom even though Ivy herself said it burned to sinner’s ash long ago.

Ivy pushes up her sleeves; rubs her hands together like she’s itching for a fight. And like an eldritch hellspawn of Mary Shelley and Mary Poppins she reaches down — way down, like impossibly far down — into the bag to scavenge through contents unknown.

“Impressive, right?” asks Krom from his view still in the booth.

Taylor most certainly agrees. “Very Hogwarts.”

“Ha! Bitch, ask who did it first.” Were Ivy’s hands not otherwise occupied she wound definitely be pointing two thumbs at herself. “I know I packed them in here. I regretted not having them as reference on Carlo’s autopsy.”

The distant shatter of glass draws everyone’s attention — even the unwitting Garrus who steps back and looks for the mishap. Only when he realizes it’s not his fault, instead something fallen in her bag of horrors, the fae huffs in frustration and refuses to give Ivy any more of his attention.

Even though his ears twitch to every echoing sound.

“Fu—finally!” Taylor doesn’t get the time to debate the biological physics of Ivy’s breathlessness when he finds three aged tomes suddenly stacked in unprepared arms; each bigger and in worse shape than the last.

But of course she beams at him with teeth bleached white as bone and all struggles are forgiven. At least until the leather-bound edges reveal their bruises.

One by one Ryder takes the bestiary trilogy and goes about making his own Cadence-adjacent spread on the table. Nudges Krom and his poetry book out of the way to take up whatever space isn’t displaced by the carpet-bag of the void.

“These are great, Iv’. Thanks.”

“I didn’t do it for you.” Makes her point by flicking the round of his ear. They both reach for Taylor at the same time but Ivy gets there first — loops her arm with his and sticks out her tongue (or the closest thing she has; truthfully he’s afraid to ask what exactly it’s supposed to be — because it certainly doesn’t look like a tongue) in childish victory.

“I don’t know where you think you’re goin’ but I need him to identify the big-and-ugly.” Ryder drolls.

“My payment will be in the form of mortal gold,” she pats Taylor’s arm reassuringly, “otherwise known as caffeine. You get to page-flipping and we’ll go on a coffee run for the lot.”

“Actually,” Garrus interrupts, giddy with glee, “I think I may have concocted —”

“Another time sugarplum!” As it is she’s already halfway to the front door.

The look on Ryder’s face is enough for Taylor to know if he really doesn’t want to go he doesn’t have to. That his body guard will, well, guard his body and keep him at the Shift.

But his legs are restless and sunset has always been his favorite time of day. So he’s grateful, but no thanks.

Plus… coffee.

Garrus volunteers an old drink specials chalkboard from the back when it gets obvious they’re going to need more than jotting down theories, ideas, and recollections on napkins. Mostly because he has to keep restocking the napkins.

If Ivy would just let them use little sticky notes on her bestiaries there wouldn’t be a napkin issue. But things snowball as they do and one thing leads to another. Which leads to the right-handed Katherine wrenching the chalk away from the left-handed Ryder to give them a less-smudged list of possible suspects.

THE GRAVEYARD SPECIALS HAPPY HOUR: Possessed Corpse(?) TO not likely—no relatives(friend?) buried in state

THIRSTY THURSDAY COMBO: BUY pursuit began before STL — can’t recall if other being/s present GET 5 6 7(?) holy light arrows = barely a scratch HALF OFF!! AMAZING DEAL!!

Among various scribbled (and crossed out) suggestions both sleuthed and thrown out by the resident experts.

Thankfully Cal and Krom are about as versed in the finer details of the supernatural kingdom as Taylor is; makes him feel better about not really being able to contribute other than rehashing the events of that night for the umpteenth time.

But is it all in vain?

The list keeps going on — Katherine’s resorted to adding her words to the embellished paint border around the board. A fact or prediction will cause them to double-back and cross one theory out but one takes its place not a minute later.

When Cadence’s curiosity was piqued enough for him to offer help, Katherine had mentioned the vampire’s penchant for, how did she put it: “long, boring research projects.”

The fact that he and Ivy seem to be the only ones getting a real hoot out of the never-ending cycle they’ve trapped themselves in probably says it all.

Taylor uncrosses his legs; hops down from his latest attempt at unconventional comfort on the pool table and makes for the door.

“Whoa there — where are you headin’?”

He’s relieved Ryder doesn’t announce it to the whole bar. Up front Cadence tries yet again to explain the difference between a vengeful spirit and a poltergeist to Cal. But the wolf keeps insisting all “spectral ghoulies” are the same.

Hopefully the smile he gives his bodyguard doesn’t make him seem ungrateful.

“I was just gonna get some air.”

He would have the same look of ‘seriously’ that Nik has if their positions were reversed. If he didn’t know what it felt like to feel so damn useless like he does right now.

“You realize all this —” with a wave backwards, “— is for you, right? Everyone puttin’ in their time and knockin’ their heads together; it’s all so you can be safe.”

Way to make him feel like the biggest piece of shit to ever live.

Only this time his thoughts bleed through — his tongue edged like a razor. “Wow, really? I had no fucking clue. Thanks for the update!”

And despite the guilt knotting in his stomach and all the rules on self-sacrifice he’s been unlearning for too damn long Taylor turns on his heel and practically marches out of the Shift.

Of course he immediately feels terrible the moment the air hits his face. Wants to turn around and practically march back in; push himself into the conversation to help as best he can. Even if all he can do is repeat every. single. detail of the attack.

But he’s trying to prove a point. So he doesn’t. He tells that nagging voice in the corner of his thoughts to stop trying to make it out like he’s seeking attention and makes himself comfortable on the curbside.

Or at least… he tries. Are there points for trying when he doesn’t want to be disturbed but can’t seem to shake the weirdest and most flippant bodyguard in the whole city? Well since it’s his point system he decides that yes, yes there are points; a good dozen of them — two if Nik starts lecturing him on the risks everyone inside the Shift is taking on his behalf.

What this point system will lead up to exactly Taylor isn’t sure. But it’ll be something good — like a giant platter of beignets when this is all over.

“Y’know what occurs to me, Rook?” They have to look like street comedians, the pair of them. Nik’s coat is so spread out it might as well look into buying real estate on the sidewalk.

When he doesn’t get an answer Nik tries again — this time nudges his shoulder with more gentle caution than he thought the man was capable of.

“I said, ‘y’know what occurs to me, Rook?’”

“Dunno who you’re talking to — can’t be me. That isn’t my name.”

“All right, listen here wise-ass —”

“No you listen.” Theatrically it was a very bold choice to interrupt but definitely added drama to the scene. Except now he has to follow through on account of Nik actually listening.

So he steels himself — accepts internal defeat at not getting those two dozen points — and gives the hunter something to listen to.

“I get it, okay? I get how important this is and I get how much I need to appreciate a bunch of randoms I’ve known for less than the time it takes for me to finish a pint of ice cream in my freezer all coming together and helping me find out what’s trying to get me. And I do appreciate it; all of it.

“Garrus for putting me up, Krom and Ivy for trying to help me make sense of everything. Cal for sticking by my side and, hell, even Kathy and Cadence for pitching in what they know. And you—Nik—you’re running around this city on empty but that’s not stopped you from doing your job once.

“I see it; everything you guys are doing, and it blows my literal freakin’ mind because I’ve never really been the kind to just let myself be helped. But I don’t know what else to do except sit there and take it because I can’t… I mean I’m…”

He struggles to find the right way to say it; is definitely a little more than irritated because no doubt Nik is enjoying all his bravado suddenly wilting. That is until he catches the strange (but no less obvious) look of open understanding he’s being given.

Yeah that definitely doesn’t help him get his words out any easier.

But Nik doesn’t look ready to interrupt him without hearing what should have been a strong conclusion to his vented frustrations. So…

“I don’t know what to do because I’m useless. At least for this kind of crazy. So I’m not going to apologize for needing some space when I’m not really contributing much to the conversation anyway.”

The street is mostly empty — all signs point to the parties a couple blocks up and over. But Nik actually waits until a small group of couples are well out of earshot before he speaks.

“Get it all out?”

“What?”

“I asked if you got everythin’ out of your system. I’ll shut up if not.”

Taylor rolls his eyes. “I’m surprised you were quiet for that long.”

“It was a struggle, I’ll admit,” Nik’s mouth twists into a rueful half-smile, “but I know sometimes you just gotta say your piece. So keep goin’ if you need to.”

After a moment; “No — I think I got it all out. All I can think about, anyway.”

“Good, ‘cause you’re wrong.”

“Great — here we go —”

Nik gives a light backhand to Taylor’s arm. “I let you go, now can I get a turn?”

“Not if you’re just going to lecture me.”

“How would you know what I’m gonna say? Y’ain’t lettin’ me say it.”

And he only frowns because Nik makes a fair point. Begrudgingly settles himself in and avoids eye contact for what little dignity he has left to be spared a verbal lashing.

“I won’t sit here and argue every little point, ‘kay? Frankly we just don’t got that kinda time. Hell — I won’t even try and tell ya all the thoughts I have on that ‘useless’ comment. And trust me; I’ve got a fair few.

“‘Cause that’s how you feel, Rook. No amount a’nothin’ will change that. Not until somethin’ happens that changes your mind for yourself. But if you sit out here kickin’ pebbles and feelin’ bad for yourself what’re the chances of that one thing happenin’ anyway? Slim to none, if you ask me.”

“I don’t think I did ask you.”

“Roo—Taylor,” he turns them face to face this time; no longer content with avoidance, “I’m trying to help here. To give you space, tell you that yeah — all this shit is crazy and it’s easy for people like us to feel like we don’t got a seat at the table. But if you won’t even listen to what I’ve gotta say then I ain’t gonna waste my breath.”

Okay, bad idea. Because he feels bad enough but seeing the exhaustion wrinkled in the hunter’s forehead, the developing dark circles under his eyes? Nik’s not kidding — he’s one petulant quip away from straight up leaving Taylor alone.

Isn’t that what he wanted, though? At least when he came out here it had been. Now he’s not so sure.

But something Nik said isn’t sitting right. “‘People like us?’” he repeats, “that’s not… we’re not…” Nik knows so many things. Knows the spells and the weapons and who to avoid and who to cross. They may both be human but that’s like saying Krom and Ivy are first cousins.

Nik though, like the damn mind reader he is, shakes his head.

“Every Nighthunter was innocent once. Me, Kathy — there’s about as many ways to get into the life as there are ways to stay outta it but don’t think just ‘cause I know what I’m talkin’ about now that I always did.”

There’s a tug on Nik’s coat; makes him whip around and give the sleek black shoe and the suited man wearing it the bird and a snarl. “Watch it buddy.”

The man says nothing and enters the Shift. But Nik seems content to pick a fight another time and lets him go.

Looks back to Taylor in that same uncomfortably honest way that makes the butterflies in his stomach start to twist themselves into knots.

“Y’know what occurs to me, Rook?” he repeats his question again, now and after all this. Taylor isn’t even remotely surprised. This time he’s a little more receptive to it. Maybe Nik was onto something about speaking his piece.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t groan to show his reluctance before answering; “What occurs to you, Nik?”

This victory smile is small and short-lived but no less important.

“It occurs to me that I don’t know much about you.”

“Seriously?”

His protest goes ignored. “So how ‘bout after we narrow down the usual suspects we change that? Get Gar’ to fry up some onion rings or summin’ and take the rest of the night to make sure that protection charm holds good and tight?”

Well that was unexpected.

“Are you…?”

“What?”

“I mean, I just — it sounded like…”

“Words, Taylor; they’re for more’n just startin’ sentences.”

Are you asking me on a date, Nik Ryder? He wants to ask; he’s even ready to play it off as a joke. But given how things have gone the last few minutes, nay hours, he just brushes it off with a laugh and; “Are you trying to permanently distract me with the promise of onion rings?”

Together they stand — already Taylor’s trying to think of ways to explain or lie his way through whatever questions everyone inside will ask about his blustery exit. Then Nik is grabbing him by the arms and coaxing him off the curb. Keeping him from being trampled by three more suited men heading inside the bar.

“Is Garrus throwing a special we didn’t know about?” he laughs; means it as a joke.

But the way the Nighthunter’s brow furrows isn’t joking. Not at all.

“What,” it takes Taylor a second to realize Nik’s glower is over his shoulder at the door, “what’s up?”

“Here’s a lesson for you —” —Nik’s gravelly voice is suddenly so low he has to lean in just to hear him— “— somethin’ to remember about this world we’re in. ‘Cause there’s weird, and there’s weird-weird. Shit that don’t even make sense in a bar full’a creatures.

“And four suits comin’ to Garrus’ at this time’a day — ‘specially when every coven, clan, and pack is celebratin’ Mardi Gras — is weird-weird.”

But they aren’t going to not go back inside. Even as ‘useless’ and mortal as he is Taylor knows that. And doesn’t resist when Nik gives him a light pull back and behind him.

“You stay behind me, got it?”

“No arguments here.”

“For once.” It’s a reply on some sort of instinct — doesn’t develop into their usual bickering half for the situation and half for the fact that Nik doesn’t waste any time yanking open the Shift door as a man on a mission.

They pass through the threshold and into an invisible fog of tension.

Nik’s right; though they arrived separately the suits are together and — a little more than that — two of them have handguns aimed forward. It doesn’t take supernatural senses to know they have every intent to use them.

“Maybe I wasn’t speaking loudly enough,” says Garrus — who looks more flustered and angry than Taylor thought the fae had in him, “but you. are. not. welcome. here. So leave before this gets ugly. The next time I have to say it, it won’t be a suggestion.”

“Everything all right here, Garrus?” Nik calls. Makes one of the armed men turn for a fraction of a second before he focuses back on the group ahead.

Only it occurs to Taylor how weird-weird it is that they don’t bother turning around — or didn’t bother locking the door behind them for that matter — when confronted with new arrivals.

Means, perhaps, that whatever they’re facing at the front is too dangerous to even consider looking away.

Judging by the way Cadence stands — one arm thrown out as a barrier to Katherine, upper lip twitching in a flicker of a snarl, eyes the same burning red as they had been while fighting the Minotaur — yeah; that’s the case for certain.

Garrus scoffs his answer. “Besides the fact that these imbeciles apparently need a refresher on the definition of a sanctuary, just peachy!”

“We’ll be happy to leave once we’ve got who we came for.” barks one of the suited men. “And not a moment before.”

“You idiots,” Ivy sneers, “you won’t even be able to fire those things in here without the wards handing you your asses on a platter.”

“It’s not the act, but the threat behind it.”

Cadence steps forward. Like a dance one of the men goes to step back on instinct until his partner holds him fast. The vampire sweeps his ruby gaze across the line they form. “Am I wrong? Your boss wouldn’t send you in here without warning you about the wards first.”

“Enough yakkin’. You either come with us willingly or as a body in a bag. Your choice, Smith.”

“If you’re going to act like you don’t have ears…” Even Taylor can’t suppress a shudder at the warped, demonic lilt to Ivy’s threat. The hunger in her fiery eyes.

But Krom holds her back — the only one who looks like bullets would bounce right off of him but also the most fearful of the lot. “Ivy don’t, please…” he whispers.

“Care to catch a guy up?” Nik tries again. Katherine leers at him over the black-suited shoulders.

“They’re here for Cade, dumbass. Three guesses who they work for.”

Nik nods, something unspoken passing in the undercurrent of her response. He gives a few jaunty steps and even tempts fate so far as to pat one of the armed man on the shoulder. Brings Taylor around with a hand on his wrist only to push him out of harms way to the corner of the bar.

“Well you gotta admire their work ethic.”

“Do we, though?”

“Yeah!” He sizes up the goons — steps back with a challenge in his arms spread wide. “More so when you think a’those wards Garrus mentioned. D’you know what happens to firearms, Gar’? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.”

Garrus practically growls. “It’s not pretty.”

A ripple of unease starts to break the would-be kidnappers’ bravado. Fingers flex on triggers. A bead of sweat trickles down and stings in one’s eyes.

“If Lady Smoke wants to speak to me she can come herself,” snarls the vampire, “since she obviously knows how to find me.”

“Not just you.”

It’s an empty threat in the safety of the Shift’s wards but the damage is done; makes Cadence rush forward with an open fist ready to catch the speaker at his throat.

“Cade — no —!” Garrus calls too late.

A bright flash of light momentarily blinds them — but even as Taylor goes to shield his eyes he watches an invisible force of incredible strength send Cadence flying backwards and into the bar. The wood is solid, refuses to yield, and he sinks down onto the floor just as Katherine rushes to help him stand.

Apparently the wards aren’t just against goons — but anyone ready to cause harm.

The henchman rubs his throat, probably near wetting himself at the knowledge of how close he came to the same end as the Minotaur, and has the gall to manage a half-grin. “Well that’s handy.”

“What the fuck does Smoke want?” Kathy shouts through gritted teeth.

“What she’s owed.”

“She isn’t owed shit!”

Cadence rubs the back of his head with a groan. “I gave up what she owed me.”

“You don’t offer up a nickel and take the whole damn safe. Not in this town. Not when it comes to Lady Smoke.”

Katherine looks ready to test the boundaries of the wards; at the very least with her words. But Cadence’s hand on her arm as she helps him stand holds her back.

“Fine, I’ll go —”

“Like hell you wi —”

“If only to right this fucking business of favors and what’s owed.” The look Cade gives her isn’t one to be argued with. Not that it’s stopped her before. But even from across the room Taylor feels the same unease that he had back watching the vampire in the cage.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Rather than outright refusing Nik plays his cards a little closer to his chest. Gives Cade a stern look that promises help if he needs it — which might be very soon judging how things have escalated so far.

“No, but that doesn’t mean I won’t do it anyway.”

“Smart choice.” With a gesture from the same shiny-shoe asshole who stepped on Nik’s coat the guns get tucked away. Whether they can be seen or not it doesn’t change the fear they bring. “Get a move on. Lady Smoke doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

Cadence scoffs. “She may have power over many things but not even Tonya Reimonenq can control the sun and moon. She can wait until it’s safe for me to leave.”

Compelled by the lurch in his stomach Taylor flies forward; bolts around the table as if fucking compelled and pushes Ryder aside to grasp for the vampire’s arm.

“What did you say?”

Cadence looks like he’d forgotten Taylor even existed. “What? Let go.”

“That name — say it again.”

“Rook?” He feels Ryder’s concerned touch but couldn’t give less of a fuck.

“Say it again.”

But confusion aside, Cadence does; “Tonya Reimonenq — Lady Smoke.”

What are the damn odds?

†incantation full translation (taken from google translate): "We cast aside our place as mortal servants to a higher power. Where we seek sanctuary none has been given. Thus we take it upon ourselves to invoke powers who have gone blind to our plight. We demand their protection. We demand their sight. You will ward away this evil and its sorrows. Protect this skin from foul touch, this blood from ill intent, this mind from wicked ways. Do so until the deed is done and evil has met an end."

††Saint Marcellus: Marcellus is a name derived from Mars, the Roman god of war. Ivy finds it funny that a hospital was named after violence. (Saint Marcellus is/was not a real hospital.)

#nightbound #playchoices #choices fanfiction #nik ryder #nik ryder x mc #cal lowell #katherine nightbound #oc: cadence smith #ivy #krom #garrus #nightbound mc #mc: taylor hunter #oblv: bound by circumstance #oblv: new chapter #; my fics

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themagiciansreccenter · 5 years

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Author Spotlight: @thursdayeuclid

Every week we interview a writer from The Magicians fandom. If you would like to be interviewed or you want to nominate a writer, get in touch via our ask box.

First things first, tell us a little about yourself.

I'm a thirty-something disabled bipolar queer trans guy who publishes original m/m romance novels when I can tear myself away from fandom long enough to do so. I'm pretty blind without my glasses. I usually have blue hair, a nose ring, and a man bun. As Thursday Euclid, I write lots of happily ever afters, and as prettyclever, I do pretty much the same thing, except with other people's characters that I'm just borrowing from a surfeit of affection.

How long have you been writing for?

My first stories were written when I was a very young child, but I didn't try a novel until I was nine. It didn't quite work out--I couldn't sustain the work to complete a work of that length, and I was writing long-hand---but I tried again at twelve and managed to finish about 50k words. I had a tumultuous adolescence but eventually found myself in Harry Potter fandom in the early aughts, and then I took a long break trying to be a professional. Turns out, I couldn't stay away from tragic magical boys.

What inspired you to start writing for The Magicians?

I was irritated with how season four was playing out. I overly identify with Eliot Waugh--he's who I want to be when I grow up; I'm 37 so I'm running way behind schedule--and his relationship with Quentin was *so* important to me. When Quentin got back together with Alice, I was like, "This is it. I've gotta write fic."

That was the beginning. A few thousand words came of it. Ever since the season four finale, though, I've done nothing but write oodles of Queliot fic with my cowriter and best friend clancynacht/charlotteschaos in my every free moment. I was already reading Magicians fic, but there just wasn't enough novel-length Queliot to suit me, so me and Char are remedying that in our own weird way.

Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write? What it is about them that makes them your favourite?

Eliot, because he is me in so many ways, and in all the ways he is not me, he is pure fabulosity and sex appeal. Kady, because she is just the baddest bitch. She delights me to no end. Penny 40, because his sass is killer, as is his tsundere ish, and I just really miss him. Char always writes Quentin and Margo when we collaborate because she's fantastic at channeling them, so I stick to my own faves.

Do you have a preference for a particular season/point in time to write about?

I didn't really start writing fic until s4, but (extrapolated) S5 has been my favorite thing to write. I've also loved the Mosaic fic we're writing based on 3x5 and 4x5. Most of what I read is totally AU, though.

Are you working on anything right now? Care to give us an idea about it?

We've now posted like 225,000 words of Queliot fic, still working on Sound & Color, and we're also working on another novel-length fic for Magicians Hallmark Holiday Exchange as I type this. Since it's all anon, I can't tell you much about our story except that we've already written 65,000 words of it, and the mutual pining is real, y'all. It's very festive, and Quentin is an adorable sad boi and Eliot is very soft and spook and also protective.

How long is your “to do list”?

Char literally made a Basecamp list of everything I should be doing outside of fic, but when it comes to fandom, it's really just MHHE and Sound & Color. We write together really rapidly. For example, when we wrote It's Never Over, we were done with over 100k in a month.

What is your favourite fic that you’ve written for The Magicians? Why?

Definitely It's Never Over. It's crackalicious and full of book canon references, and it's the Magicians Season 5 Queliot fans deserve. I'm so proud of how that one turned out. I've never written a story in fandom that people were so passionate about, either. It was published immediately after that heartbreaking finale, and people really responded to how we resurrected Quentin. Also all the smut, because there's so much smut in that story. Sex magic left and right.

Many writers have a fic that they are passionate about that doesn’t get the reception from the fandom that they hoped for. Do you have a fic you would like more people to read and appreciate?

I hoped Sound & Color would get more attention than it did. It's a long, weird (not quite complete yet) trip through 3x5 A Life in the Day. There's already a lot of Mosaic fic out there, and it's a crowded field, although I think Sound & Color stands apart for being so complete and slice-of-lifey. It's not just focused on the most dramatic moments, but on their entire lives together from beginning to end because I couldn't get enough of imagining it. It's a long, thorough exploration.

What is your writing process like? Do you have any traditions or superstitions that you like to stick to when you’re writing?

I like to listen to Radiohead when I write. It's inspiring and relaxing and keeps the words flowing. Also, Char often creates Spotify playlists for our stories, and I'll listen to those to set the mood as we write. Sometimes I listen to Kpop while writing too, because I only understand one word in fifty and it provides excellent background rhythm.

Because I collaborate with Char on just about everything, we used to write together in Google Docs before migrating our process over to OneDrive through Microsoft Word, which also lets us see each other's work in real time and edit each other's additions to the story. In a lot of ways, it's similar to roleplaying, which is why we can write 100k in a month without getting burned out. We've been working together like this for more than ten years now, so we've got it down.

Do you write while the seasons are airing or do you prefer to wait for hiatus? How does the ongoing development of the canon influence and inspire your writing process?

I prefer writing canon-compliant stories during hiatus and writing AUs while the seasons are airing. Historically, I tend to only read in a fandom until hiatus, and then I start writing. Coming from a book-based fandom (Harry Potter), Magicians feels very different dynamically and has different demands.

What has been the most challenging fic for you to write?

Definitely The Fake Dating One Where El's Parents Come to Visit, because it was different from what I'm used to writing. For one, it was short(ish) and two, Eliot's parents were drawn from my parents, who are also extremely religious, conservative, small town bigots. It cut closer to the bone in a lot of ways, but it was also different because Quentin ended up taking a more dominant, protective role, really exhibiting his innate bravery, and it was a little uncomfortable letting Eliot be rescued by Quentin just because I identify so much with El.

Are there any themes or tropes that you like particularly like to explore in your writing?

Idiots in love, mutual pining, fake dating, dicks & daddy issues, biphobia and bi erasure in queer culture, mental illness, family of choice, friends-to-lovers

Are there any writers that inspire your work? Fanfiction or otherwise?

Lev Grossman, JK Rowling, JRR Tolkien, George RR Martin, Stephen King, NK Jemisin, Owlet (her Infinite Coffee series is incredible if you like Stucky), and Olen Steinhauer.

What are you currently reading? Fanfiction or otherwise?

I just finished reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, which I admit I read just because Chris Evans recommended it, and wow am I glad I did. Changed the way I look at the world.

Now I'm working my way through the Inheritance Trilogy by NK Jemisin, the Raven Tower by Ann Leckie, the Fever King by Victoria Lee, and All the Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer.

What is the most valuable piece of writing advice you’ve ever been given?

Practice makes perfect. If you don't give it your best every day and work on it even when you don't feel as inspired, you'll never develop the muscles it requires to perfect your craft.

Are there any words or phrases you worry about over using in your work?

My characters murmur way too much. Also honestly, just, like.

What was the first fanfic that you wrote? Do you still have access to it?

It was called "Isildur's Bane" and it was a really insanely nerdy LOTR fic about Isildur and the One Ring. It was gen, and it had none of the characters/pairings people actually wanted to read about, but I was damn proud of it. I have no idea what happened to it. It's been almost twenty years.

Rapidfire Round!

Self-edit or Beta?

For fic, Char and I edit each other as we go. I'd love to have an actual beta, but I do not have one.

Comments or Kudos/Reblogs or Likes?

Comments feed my soul. They used to give me anxiety, but now they are my everything.

Smut, Fluff or Angst?

angst with a happy ending

Quick & Dirty or Slow Burn?

slow burn, to read and to write

Favourite Season?

Season Three

Favourite Episode?

All That Hard, Glossy Armor

Favourite Book?

The Magician’s Land

Three favourite words?

herculean, susurrus, callipygian

Want to be interviewed for our author spotlight? Get in touch here.

#the magicians rec center #author spotlight #author spotlight: thursdayeuclid

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galina · 6 years

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hi galina! i was wondering if you could share us some of your favourite quotes?

In no real order, just ones that I have collected and think of often:

‘If you are called to change your life by any example, and your self responds–––you must change your life. and once you change, change again.

Your next self, too, will be challenged by examples, to find a self still waiting beyond. Thus there is no perfection in perfectionism; the process of experience and correspondence never stops. If there could be any end in view, it would be only this: that the circle of things corresponding to you grow not wider, but infinitely wide, touching everything that exists.’

Mark Greif, ‘The Concept of Experience’, Against Everything

‘Emancipatory politics must always destroy the appearance of a ‘natural order’, must reveal what is presented as necessary and inevitable to be a mere contingency, just as it must make what was previously deemed to be impossible seem attainable.’Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism

‘A good deal of the hostility to theory no doubt comes from the fact that to admit the importance of theory is to make an open-ended commitment, to leave yourself in a position where there are always important things you don’t know – but this is the condition of life itself.’

Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory (A Very Short Introduction)

‘When they fall in love with a city, it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn’t love it. The minute they arrive […] they know they are born for it. There, in a city, they are not so much new as themselves: their stronger, riskier selves.’Toni Morrison, Jazz

‘I think what I’m confessing to is that, however I choose to write about over-there, I am forced to reflect that world in fragments of broken mirrors […] I must reconcile myself to the inevitability of missing bits.’

Salman Rushdie, Shame

‘What tethers me to my parents is the unspoken dialogue we share about how much of my character is built on the connection I feel to the world they were raised in but that I’ve only experienced through photos, visits, food. It’s not mine and yet, I get it. First-generation kids, I’ve always thought, are the personification of déjà vu.’

Durga Chew-Bose, Too Much and Not the Mood

‘If you are not from a particular place the history of that particular place will dwell inside you differently to how it dwells within those people who are from that particular place, Your connection to certain events that define the history of a particular place is not straightforward because none of your ancestors were in any way affected by these events. You have no stories to relate and compare, you have no narrative to inherit and run with, and all the names are strange ones that mean nothing to you at all. And it’s as if the history of a particular place knows all about this blankness you contain. Consequently if you are not from a particular place you will always be vulnerable for the reason that it doesn’t matter how many years you have lived there you will never have a side of the story; nothing with which you can hold the full force of the history of a particular place at bay.’

Claire Louise Bennett, Pond

‘The past conditions us, harries us, black-mails us. The historic avant-garde […] defaces the past […] destroys the figure, cancels it, arrives at the abstract, the informal, the white canvas, the slashed canvas, the charred canvas.’

Umberto Eco, ‘Postmodernism, Irony, the Enjoyable’,Reflections on The Name of the Rose

‘The past cannot be entirely recuperated from so much power arrayed against it on the other side: it can only be restated in the form of an object without a conclusion, or a final place, transformed by choice and conscious effort into something simultaneously different, ordinary, and irreducibly other and the same, taking place together: an object that offers neither rest nor respite.’

Edward Said, ‘The Art of Displacement: Mona Hatoum’s Logic of Irreconcilables’Mona Hatoum: The Entire World as a Foreign Land

‘[What] if history has nothing more to teach us than that all the shapes of the spiritual world, all the conditions of life, ideals, norms upon which man relies, form and dissolve themselves like fleeting waves, that it always was and ever will be so, that again and again reason must turn into nonsense, and well-being into misery? Can we console ourselves with that? Can we live in this world, where historical occurrence is nothing but an unending concatenation of illusory progress and bitter disappointment?’

Edmund Husserl trans. David Carr, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology

‘To me, of course, the river paid no attention, caring only for itself, those changing, roving waters into which – as I later learned – you can never step twice.’

Olga Tokarczuk, trans. Jennifer Croft, Flights

‘Imagine having no discarded personalities, no vestigial selves, no visible ruptures with yourself, no gulf of self-forgetfulness, nothing that requires explanation, no alien version of yourself that requires humor and accommodation. What kind of life is that?’

Michael Warner, ‘Tongues Untied’, Curiouser: On the Queerness of Children

Do you see that creamy, lemon-yellow moon?There are some people, unlike me and you,

who do not yearn after fame or love or quantities of money as unattainable as that moon;thus, they do not later have to waste more timedefaming the object of their former ardor.

Or consequently run and crucify themselvesin some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha.

I have news for you—there are people who get up in the morning and cross a room

and open a window to let the sweet breeze inand let it touch them all over their faces and bodies.

Terry Hoagland, ‘I Have News For You’, Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty

O God, I am not like youIn your vacuous black,Stars stuck all over, bright stupid confetti.Eternity bores me,I never wanted it.

Sylvia Plath, ‘Years’, Collected Poems

At that timeanxiety was in you like a scribble.

An oblivion-scribblelike a big piece of Abstract Expressionism where your thinking brain was supposed to be.That was like nothing. It was a big waste.

Emily Bludworth de Barrios, ‘“he beheld the plumage on the miraculous casque shaken in concert with the sounding of the brazen trumpet”’, Splendor

I doubt if 30 years of bleak Leeds weatherand 30 falls of apple and of maywill erode the UNITED binding us together.And now it’s your decision: does it stay?

Tony Harrison, ‘v.’, v.

She lives on a moor in the north.She lives alone.Spring opens like a blade there.I travel all day on trains and bring a lot of books—some for my mother, some for meincluding The Collected Works Of Emily Brontë.This is my favourite author.Also my main fear, which I mean to confront.Whenever I visit my motherI feel I am turning into Emily Brontë,my lonely life around me like a moor,my ungainly body stumping over the mud flats with a look of transformationthat dies when I come in the kitchen door.

Anne Carson, ‘The Glass Essay’, Glass, Irony, and God

Spring is here! We are going to die!

Louise Glück, ‘For Jane Meyers’, Poems 1962-2012

Persephone had it right.If you must go, might as welltake all of spring with you—

Cathy Linh Che, ‘Letters to Doc’, Split

I’ve exhausted my cruelty. I’ve arrived at myself again.The sun builds a slow house inside my house,touching the stilled curtains, the bottoms of cupsleft out on the table.

Jenny George, ‘Reprieve’, The Dream of Reason

#ask #anonymous #studyblr #me #literature #lit #litblr #bookblr #books #reading #quotes #inspiration #recommendations

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aliandalexblogs · 3 years

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The Greeting Committee's Dandelion is Truthful, Moving, and Inspires Reflection

Featured Photo Credit: Elizabeth Miranda

At their core, The Greeting Committee is a band of storytellers.

Their latest release, Dandelion, is ultimately a collection of deeply touching stories communicated through transformative music that maintains an indie-rock feel. This band-on-the rise is home-grown in Kansas City. Now, they are a self-made band tracing back to a history of open mic nights before finding their music soundtracked in Netflix’s To All the Boys: Always and Forever. It wasn’t a journey that was easy to navigate for the band, nor is it one that is over. However, the release of Dandelion promises a future for the band far beyond what they had imagined at their school’s little talent show.

Addie Sartino, the band's lead singer, discusses the band’s position in the industry. She says, “When you’re 23 it’s like you’re on your own in the music industry all of a sudden…”. She trails off before adding “it’s very bizarre”. What Addie is referring to is that initial success they found as being the new promising band in the scene.

Pierce Turcotte reflected on their biggest challenge in creating Dandelion and says, “I think our standards became much higher which makes it hard to try to beat yourself or whatever version of yourself you have in your head.” With Dandelion being the band’s sophomore album, the pressure was on. Navigating this industry can be hard enough without that weight.

Luckily, their hard work seems to have paid off.

The sounds of The Greeting Committee are the perfect and balanced fusion of candid indie with a polish of professionalism. This blend allows for each individual member's strengths to magnify and compliment each other.

While the whole album truly rises to the occasion, there are two absolute stand out songs: “Float Away” and “Ada”.

“Float Away” has some of the strongest expressions of struggling with mental health and depression that we’ve seen from songwriters in a very long time. Full of metaphoric prose and vivid narration, the tune allows listeners to get lost in the numb, yet chilling feelings of being of “sinking fast”.

Addie describes the experience of writing the song as cathartic. “When I was done,” she says. “It let me into a piece of myself that I wasn’t fully aware of.” She explains that parts of the song reference feelings and moments from high school. “Float Away” has been a work in progress for awhile and now that she’s shared it with us, you can see the craft behind it and feel her truth.

“Ada” takes a bit of a different storytelling stance. This time, The Greeting Committee tells a story that isn’t inherently their own. “Ada” is a story of uplifting the trans experience through the lens of their friend. “I’m not a part of the trans community and so I wanted to use a friend to use a friend of mine and listen to their story and amplify their story,” explains Addie. Not only does “Ada” empower the LGBTQ+ experience, but it shows the way that The Greeting Committee humanizes their community, friends, and fans.

Brandon Yangmi says, “It is cool, though, to like write a song that has to be bigger than just your experience and emotions.”

Truthfully, that seems to be a running theme through Dandelion. Even in songs clearly, from the band’s own experiences, they always seem to have this relatability factor that goes beyond them. The album draws listeners in.

Even when you’re alone in your room breathing in the lyrics, you’re not truly alone. Listening to Dandelion is like sitting around a campfire under the stars, trading stories of trouble, loss, and growth. It’s an album of reflection. You breathe in the charring fire scent and get lost in the emotions of the night as you close your eyes. When the album ends, you open them again and are back alone in your room, but somehow you’re different now.

It’s a transcendent experience. Dandelion is one of those albums that makes you a better person just by listening to it. Addie says, “Overall, I don’t know if there’s necessarily a message and if there is, I haven’t uncovered it yet.” But that’s sort of the beauty in it; we each get to choose our own message to find.

Dandelion is a promising growth from where the band was to now. As they continue to create and share with us these stories, it's almost certain we’ll continue to connect with them and each other through them. In the end, that sense of community and uplifting each other no matter our struggles or pasts is evident through both their music and who they are as people.

Pierce says, “There is a lot of joy in having that connection.”

I’d add that there’s a sense of peace, too.

Listen to Dandelion here:

#reviews #album reviews #The Greeting Committee #Spotify

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calorieworkouts · 4 years

Text

20 Secrets to Staying Slim

1. Portion sizes

Portion dimension is the main factor to getting weight so it makes good sense that it is additionally the major variable in assisting you to stay slim. What you consume is necessary but exactly how much you eat plays substantial element. Restaurants are significantly providing customers bigger parts than necessary as well as this can likewise cause misjudging a section size when cooking in your home. Learn more about section sizes and stick to them when you cook your own food and if you do eat out don't clear your plate, eat what you need for that dish. Your section sizes will vary depending on the amount of meals you have each day, some individuals have 3 others 5 or 6.

2. Drink from a small glass

Have you seen the sizes of glasses lately they have actually come to be bigger and also larger, I am certain you can fit half a container of a glass of wine into some of them these days. If you utilize smaller glasses you will certainly eat much less according to studies. This is likewise the same for plates, if you utilize big plates you are more likely to dish out a bigger part of food as a genuine part doesn't look much when on a large plate.

3. Walk, take the staircases or park more away

Being active does not need to simply entail mosting likely to the fitness center, people stay slim by being active throughout the day whenever they can. Take the staircases rather the lift or escalator. Park additionally away in the vehicle park and also stroll that extra range, it isn't also much if you consider it, plus your are more probable to discover a car park area better away from the door. Get of the bus one quit earlier than normal. Take a walk during your lunch or a fast walk around the block throughout a break. Go see a coworker rather than emailing or using the phone. Doing any one of these points or even all of them will build up throughout the day, daily as well as it wont seem like a massive quantity of effort either. Every little counts.

4. Don't miss a meal, fill up on fruits as well as vegetables

Skipping meals can make you put on weight as your body's metabolic process can reduce as a response to not obtaining enough food. It can likewise lead you to snacking on foods that have higher calories or even worse hydrogenated fats. If you are attempting to lower your calories to drop weight don't avoid a dish fill up rather on even more vegetables or fruit as they are lower in calories.

5. Have healthy protein breakfast keep you energised all day

Protein maintains you really feeling fuller for longer, it will certainly permit you to survive your early morning without feeling the requirement to grab a sugary snack to give you some energy. A good breakfast will certainly set you up for the day as well as maintain you energised.

6. Drink green tea

Drinking 2-3 Mugs each day can aid accelerate the price that your body burns mobile power by 40% according to a research reported in the American Journal of Medical Nutrition. Extra wellness benefits include: assists detox your body, enhances your resting metabolic rate, as well as aids deal with cancer and also heart disease.

7. Exercise

We all know that workout is one of the aspects that is necessary for you to shed weight, the other being diet, once you have lost the weight you will certainly need to preserve your weight by continuing to work out. It might not require to be as intensive or as usually yet you will certainly require to proceed to exercise in order to stay slim. If you simply quit you would certainly wind up putting the weight back on.

8. Drink liquids

Keep on your own hydrated and also you wont error your bodies signals, sometimes when we feel starving it is in reality because we are dried out. Also by drinking water during a dish you are most likely to consume less.

9. Enjoy and chew your food

Take time when eating to enjoy your dish, if you are hungry there is a threat of you gulping your food down without considering just how much you are eating and you wont allow your body enough time to register it is complete. Ever before had that sensation after a meal that you have overeaten and could rupture? This is due to the fact that you have not offered your body enough time for it to give you the indications of ending up being complete. If you consume slowly and chew your food you are much less likely to over eat.

10. Get enough sleep

A study published in Sleep Journal which took a look at the weight and sleeping practices of doubles has actually reported that those who were sleeping longer had much more control over their weight and also were additionally lighter than their double that had less quantity of rest. To help you stay slim purpose for 9 hours per evening. Another study reported that those who rested less than 5 1/2 hrs per day charred less calories per day as a result of a 12% decrease in their metabolic rate.

11. Swap milk delicious chocolate or sweets for dark chocolate

Dark delicious chocolate contains better anti-oxidant buildings. You would certainly require to take in two times as much milk chocolate as dark delicious chocolate to acquire the very same quantity of anti-oxidants. Remember it is all regarding small amounts so if you do intend to opt for something wonderful miss the milk delicious chocolate or high calorie sugary foods with sweeteners as well as other unhealthy additives and have some dark chocolate.

12. Avoid processed food

Processed foods are most likely to create you to gain weight than remain slim. They are high in calories, saturated or trans fats as well as salt, by keeping away from these kinds of foods you will certainly be able to maintain your weight as well as if you consider calories it would certainly indicate you can eat even more of the healthy sort of foods as, if you are calorie checking, a refined dish can occupy a massive amount of your calories and also daily allowances for salt etc and also not leave you much for your various other meals.

13. Listen to your body

Your body gives signals for cravings, thirst and additionally for foods you need. If you are food craving chocolate your body wants something pleasant so have a piece of fruit as the natural sugars are better for your waist than something packed with male made components, sweeteners and also preservatives. Listen to your body consume when you are starving and quit when you are complete. Listen to how your body feels when you eat certain foods, consuming high quality foods will leave your body sensation much better after eating than those of a lower quality. Foods that leave you bloated, really feeling uneasy, gassy, gurgling stomach - these are indicators your body does not digest these foods really well so steer clear of from them in future.

14. Don't deny yourself

The much more you claim no the a lot more you will desire it and this might bring about over delighting so do not deny yourself the excellent things in life. If you desire some delicious chocolate or a dessert then have it, simply keep in mind that the secret is to have it in moderation. Have a biscuit or 2 however do not sit as well as eat the entire package in one go. Allow a cheat day in your diet.

15. Balance your blood sugar

By balancing your blood glucose you will have the ability to keep your weight stable and also decrease sugar yearnings. Blood sugar levels that go up as well as down advertise fat storage space. Pick low GI foods, that launch sugar right into the blood gradually, to assist stay slim so swap the white bread, rice, pasta etc for wholegrain and also consume even more vegetables, likewise beware of particular fruits and also fruit juices that are high in sugar.

16. Be consistent

You require to be able to stay with your exercise regular and also diet, don't select something that is so strict you wont have the ability to remain on it greater than a couple of weeks. The same with switching a diet plan every single time a brand-new craze appears, in order to remain slim you need to proceed the good habits also after you have actually shed the weight.

17. Take a jump rope with you on holiday

Holidays are for unwinding I understand, however don't end up being non-active, take a day-to-day swim or if you are more probable to just swim to cool down off then take a dive rope It does not take much space in your baggage and also you can add in a 10 min miss in the morning and night to aid you maintain slim and also acquire way too many extra pounds from consuming at buffets or dining establishments every day.

18. Ask for sauces on the side

Some dining establishments like to sink food in dressings and also sauces, request for yours on the side so you can manage just how much is included in your meal.

19. Go for steamed vegetables

The method foods are cooked modifications their dietary worth, so vapor vegetables as opposed to boiling to keep the dietary value high and get one of the most out of our veggies.

20. Balanced and Healthy Diet

Staying slim is about keeping the weight you are satisfied at. If you have actually altered your diet regimen to a healthy and balanced and also balanced diet regimen to assist drop weight after that it is simpler for you to maintain the excellent eating behaviors. If you have slimmed down by various other means after that it is very important that your diet plan comes to be well balanced as well as healthy and balanced to make sure that your body gets the necessary nutrients it requires. This is why it is necessary to begin off your weight reduction with a well balanced diet regimen to enable you to keep to it as well as proceed it as a lifestyle adjustment in order to maintain the weight off. Fad diet may show results initially however as quickly as your body realises it isn't getting enough of what it needs it will decrease and there is also the truth that as soon as you start consuming typically once more the weight will come right back in no time.

#exercise #fitness #fitness center #the fitness center #weight #wellness #work out #workout

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natural--blues · 7 years

Text

Before I start this post, I’m going to clarify that is is a problem in general. This is targeting nobody, but if you think this post is aimed at you, you might want to think about your behavior.

I always find it amazing when someone trips over themselves to excuse their homo/bi/trans/acephobia with “concern”.

It’s not that they have problems with a queer character, oh no, they just would rather not have one and are so put out by the thought because they’re concerned, on our behalf, that the writers might not create a compelling, accurate representation of us. So, to them, it’s clearly better to go the cishet route. They don’t hate us, in fact they super support us and are just protecting us, is all!

PHEW! Saved those queer people a lot of heartache through incorrect representation by making sure they have none. Not all superheroes wear capes, etc.

My question is two pronged, to those people. Let’s start with the first one: Do you think we’re naive enough to believe that there isn’t a high chance of problematic storylines and misrepresentation? Do you think we don’t understand?

We do.

We crave three dimensional, complex, realistic representation but we also know that we have to deal with times when the representation is going to be problematic, and we’ll need to critique, and bring out our concerns, and try our best to push writers into a more realistic direction -- that some need to be educated away from stereotypical characterization and lean toward creating complex characters who are people, people who are also queer. Who go through drama that isn’t always and only about their sexuality or gender identity, who are treated as a serious character, a lead character, whose storyline, thoughts, and feelings matter, more than just being there to garner viewership from a thirsty community followed by death, suffering, and sidelining due to queer identity. Especially if it’s out of shock value, or to benefit the cishet chars for an emotional journey. Miss us with that, seriously.

Similarly, miss us with our only existence being to prop up and prepare the cishet for their straight relationship, or for feel-good moments where we do all of the emotional labor for a cishet person that their romantic partner should be doing, due to heteronormative gender roles making active communication impossible in the straight relationship. There’s a difference between being a best friend with whom you share everything and come to for your problems, and being the poodle in a purse gay that only comes out when you need sassy advice.

We crave good representation.

Of the 895 series regular characters expected to appear on broadcast scripted primetime programming in the coming year, 43 (4.8%) were identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer. This is the highest percentage of LGBTQ series regulars GLAAD has ever found. There were an additional 28 recurring LGBTQ characters.

The number of regular LGBTQ characters counted on scripted primetime cable series increased from 84 to 92, while recurring characters decreased from 58 to 50. This is a total of 142 LGBTQ characters, regular and recurring.

GLAAD also counted LGBTQ characters on original series that premiered on Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix. GLAAD found 45 series regulars and 20 recurring LGBTQ characters for a total of 65 characters. This is up from last year's inaugural streaming count of 59 LGBTQ characters (43 regular and 16 recurring).

The number of regular and recurring transgender characters across all three platforms tracked has more than doubled, from seven characters last year to 16. There are three trans characters counted on broadcast, six on cable, and seven on streaming original series. Of the 16 characters, four are transgender men.

Lesbian representation dropped dramatically on broadcast television, down 16 percentage points to 17% of all LGBTQ characters. Lesbian representation is also down on cable, to 20% from 22% reported last year.

Bisexual representations on broadcast rose to 30%, up by ten percentage points from last year. Bisexual representations also rose on streaming series, from 20% to 26%. However, cable series have dropped in bisexual representations from 35% to 32%. Bisexual women far outnumber bisexual men on every platform. Many of these characters still fall into dangerous stereotypes about bisexual people.

Each platform tracked (broadcast, cable, streaming) counts one character who is HIV-positive, though only broadcast television counts the character as a series regular (Oliver on ABC's How to Get Away with Murder).

Cable and streaming platforms still need to include more racially diverse LGBTQ characters as a majority of LGBTQ regular and recurring characters on each platform (72% and 71% respectively) are counted as white. Overall racial diversity is up again with 36% (325) of 895 series regular characters on broadcast counted as people of color, which is a three-point increase from last year's report.

While this year's report marks a record-high percentage of black series regulars on broadcast (20%), black women remain underrepresented at only 38% of all black series regular characters.

GLAAD found a record-high percentage of series regular characters with disability on broadcast television at 1.7% of all series regulars, this is up from the 0.9% reported last year.

This year, 44% of regular characters on primetime broadcast programming are women, which is an increase of one percentage point from last year but still greatly underrepresents women who make up 51% of the population.

Do you get that? These percentages, for the LGBT people, are percents of the 4.8%.

We’ve put up with subtext, side characters, and zero screentime since the invention of television. Since plays. Since reading by the fireplace or by candlelight.

We crave representation, and a place of improvement is a better place to start than just never trying.

A queer character comes into a series as an actual character and it brings the gaggles of gays like nobody’s business. We have so little to pull from in widespread, mainstream media. When is the last time you saw a movie in theaters that was a same sex romance, where the story was literally all about that, with straight side characters, and it got as high billing and viewership as whatever romcom with big star names Hollywood craps out this year?

It’s like Field of Dreams. If you build it, we will come. We will squeal. We will watch it, hoping against hope for the character to at least end the series alive, hopefully with a happy ending.

Why would you want to rob us of the happiness of a large-billed character, or series, or movie, or anything where we’re represented? How do you call yourself an ally and legitimately want this?

Secondly, do you think we’re stupid?

Let me back this up with real talk here. You may have seen lots of jokes on tumblr about how gay people travel in packs and herds and the like... it’s fucking true. When you’re trying your best to grandstand in public about how concerned you are for our well-being, but in private you try to silence and malign queer people and think those queer people don’t tell each other that you have to be naive. Similarly, reading big grandstand posts about how concerned a cishet is on our behalf and why they just would rather a queer character not exist literally tells us what a phobe you are. You’re just worried? You just want to protect us, by removing our representation before these shows, films, or seasons even come out? You know, to be a good ally and defend us?

There’s a difference between legitimate concern based on problematic writing of queer characters in the past and new shows and movies coming out now with new writers, or shows and movies coming with writers who have no problematic pasts with queer characters that have you and your concerntrolling lot clutching your pearls on our behalf.

When you turn all of the attention onto yourself and your feelings, as a cishet, you are not being an ally.

Don’t worry, your concerntrolling wasn’t allyship either. So that’s 0/2 already. But then we hit strike three when you see queer voices bringing up excitement for these shows and making posts about how thrilled they are, and that if you aren’t into it to straight up miss them -- and you take personal offense and turn it around to be all about you and your “ally” feelings.

In the end, I suppose, this fit serves its purpose. The queers are cast in a nasty light for not being grateful that their all-star ally was so worried for them, and the “ally” gets backpats and reassurance. Cue also, the comments about how if queer people want to get anywhere, they need their cishet allies and should be nicer and more understanding. Tone policing and shunning happens too.

Part of why we get so upset, and angry, and hurt by that is because you called yourself an ally. Maybe you were a friend of queer people. It’s a betrayal. It’s a reminder of the fact that cishets have that privilege, when they start acting like they’re the victim when they hurt us and we tell them. How we’re expected to coddle, handhold, and beg in our sweetest customer service voices for support. How we have to bend into yoga expert positions to try to act in a way that won’t upset them so much they no longer want to give any support at all. How we can’t vent to them, on the off chance they get offended, or hear ‘ugh straight people’ and start defending themselves.

It’s a great big fucking reminder of how little our relatioships, thoughts, stories, and even lives matter to cishets when the thought of one character, or series, or movie being queer or mostly about a queer character and story turns them off. No matter what excuses are made, if you think queer people haven’t heard it all before and can’t read between the lines, you’re completely wrong.

“But I was just being a good ally!”

#lgbt+ representation

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throwingideasatthewall · 3 years

Text

Clone Wars The Deserter

(Season 2 Episode 10)

Inter Sting-

Ha Ha-

No-

The Quote;

It is the quest for honor that makes one honorable

-No

-It’s

-you can dedicate yourself to a purpose

- but you have to do it well

-accountably

- For it to mean anything

“Quest”

Wanting

for

Account- able

Means

Nothing-

With-out

Action

Any-way

Oh, We’re abandoning the grievous arc?

Aw.

What.

Oh.

Jedi Council-

One idiot

Who let him board

And tried to take him on his own

In the outer Rim. .

Natural selection’s a bitch (Don’t eugenics)

Any.way A Trap

Of like a few guys

And Anakin just sitting around until he got shocked to almost death. .

“Fierce confrontation,”

Obi-Wan got his ass beat - unconditionally- - That person - Did some thing. - - -

Then they had to re treat

. .

Saluka Mi

‘Yes general Kenobi is doing some very serious thinking . . .

Clone troopers -

Yeah- again why is Rex getting dragged along?

Des-per -ate Target

Desperate?

He seemed fine?

And Obi-Wan got his ass kicked last episode

[Who’s trapped in a room with who?]

It’s not General Kenobi.. ..

Whelp-

Okay-

W-help- -

Okay, Right-

Planet-

Well there are plenty of resources around you-

Before they find us

Obi-Wan will insist I play a game of tag with him-

He- always runs- - Also, nice cloak?

It suits him..

Very noble..

Kenobi

Again that could be literally anyone..

Also time to hijack a ship - What is that not the plot we’re going with? - We

Need To

Hurry

“Escape pod,”

It’s-

A planet-?

There are no escape pods. [Besides the ones you arrived in-]. ]

Or just hijack one of their ships,

Tran-s- ports-

Wreckage-

Again-

Why is Rex-

Plot Im Por-t anc e-

Nice Sight-

Contact the Fleet

Good plan

Comms broke?

“Transmitter is destroyed..”

Fair...

Well time to find parts and make a new one. .

Escape Pod- Make it there. . .

Good plan

(Also, He looks like a vampire)

Just say’in

Find Trans- Por- Tat- Ion-

Fair - Okay,

Hot Things

Very well rounded environ- ment-

Cute

Less So

[And an adequate metaphor for the war coming home..] .

Right.

Int -imidating - Okay- Neat-

Okay,

That’s a Thing

(Or A Giant Skate Board Ramp:)

That’s Some-thing

Or- bit

Any-

Grievous

[A giant skateboard ramp but no]

Ship...

What?

...

Okay!

Er-

Power Low-

Well they haven’t re- charged since last morning,

Dude-

“Can’t go On,”

That one droid that just had to be more dramatic than everyone else

Good for Him,

Re-charged

Well you clearly aren’t solar powered and there’s no port to do that.

Again?

De-pleted

Dude he’s using that to carry your equipment,

Close Down for A Few Mom -ents

Dude

[yeah the way he put it was kind of as- inine; “You,” Instead Of A Logi cal- We only have ____hours of energy sir

But he must be doing pretty badly too,

Having some sentience, Bi- ologi cal -Com Pon- Ents-, And Robotic-

Also, so it’s a sleep cycle,

Neat, (Did not know that about the droid’s recharging process,”)

We saw the guards charge electrically. .

No-

Does that- just magically charge them?

Is it an emergency back up at a light saber?

(Because if so that’s kind of cool.”

No-

Thought-

- Pod-

Aight

“Yikes,”

Dooku’s going To Be Pissed.

Okay...

Right..

Team- Work... - ...

Okay...

A’ight

Aight.

Aight

And.. .

A’ight-

“Rex,”

“Contact Us,”. -

“En Gage,”

Dude- they’re supposed to engage a robot with several flame swords?

Have you seen - how useless their blasters are-

(Yoda at least said it don’t shoot at the obvious Jedi/ Sith- Force User-

Aigh- t

Surprisingly calm ... And.. Obedient?

Whelp-

“Rex is a smart man,”

Have we seen anything to indicate that?

Creative, destructive, impulsive, asinine

Explosive

All things that describe Rex

Wouldn’t exactly go with “smart,” . Does he just become a different person with Kenobi?

Also is that the only format they have for complementing people, ____, Is A Smart (adj ective) Man,?”

Used the same for Cody.

His Feet . . .

Now it’s a com- pliment- - (We’ve also seen nothing in this episode to indicate or provoke That Arc.. .)

(Like he just follow- ed orders?)

Not a wrong time for compliments (Al-most)

Just Weird.

There They Go

Voom

Gull- Ible?

Gone

Off

“ “

Ri-

Ok-ay

Here’s One - Un- conscious- - A-ight

I-n- spect

Aight-

O-k

R-i g-ht

Voom, r

Nice land-scape- R-ight-

Okay- -

Whelp, Feck!

Aight Crud-

-shot.

Whelp-

You- heard a gun shot and didn’t get down?

Whelp-

Ouch-

Tumble and Roll! (Tuck and roll!)

Shit

Protect The Cap-tain

Anakin’s captain (Like seriously who is Obi-Wan‘s captain? Cody is his commander?

What is the order here?)

Good for Him?

Shit

Comm an do- Droids-

Get Shit, Jobs -

Behind everyone else?

Hey shouldn’t someone be Comming in? —

Shit- Whelp - Got Him- - Co- mm- an- do

Droids-

Oh, yeah this unit does have a pen-chant against those guys

I guess Rex

(The droids finally did him in..). R.I.P. Heavy.

Whelp, No facial damage that we can see-

Might have a con -cussion-

Wait...

How does he have a hole in his suit?

Dude clearly aimed for the head..

Hold up...

Re-wind...

Oh no, it did somehow get him in the chest.

How?

Did that...

Any Way-

[Plot convenient bullets aside]

Shit..

That’s Not.. Good..

“Jesse,” Name (s)-

Aight, Whelp-

Could’ve used some tanks,

Whelp

Nice sunset though,

Hopefully not on Rex’s life, Though-

Ai-ght Tech, Have,

Righ. t-

Okay-

Guidance System-

The guard... has an odd haircut

Doesn’t look very military...

Unless we’re counting that one dude On the Centurion Guard, who ended up being a villain?

That looks like a normal haircut.. . .

Me-mory Logs-

Emerg-ency sen-sors

Escape pod

Mid air collision-

- A- Ight-

O- kay-

How-

“With What?”

Wait is there another plot line that I’m unaware of

...

Okay.

What?

Crash -ed?

Ironically, Cody’s being more inventive than ,Rex?

And Rex spent the time taking orders?

[Wtf Is this characterization,” ]

aight

I can put us within . .

Two or three clicks

Good.. ..

Alert the men

He said to the random the blonde guy-

Wait is that his captain?

That would make sense

[but eugenic]

,Okay,

Name,

Wait they have a medic? Or...

Armor...

Fair

Okay...

[Odd sound effect there]

Fair

Pick-

Hey, is no one going to call for help?

Like you were told to Com in?

[I know this isn’t as important as General grievous but I think it counts,]

You know the lead possibly dying,

Could get a medic some possible back up

Not to mention those droid had to come from somewhere.

“Cover,”

Oh it’s the animals’ making it

That make sense.

Wait a minute.

Do-mesticated

Or herbivores and friendly but we’ll go with this logic

(It also makes sense for Obi-Wan’s unit to jump this high for a conclusion, it’s in his char -acter

And see-

Oof

Sir,

Literally everyone is more inventive than Rex in this episode

[I think someone-

And I mean it’s pos-sible

Mixed up the chara cterization..

This is supposed to be the rule and order unit correct?

Farmer

[so we’re going to bug that fucker]

Like seriously, the leaps in logic here are astronomical?

Do you see rows of domesticated crop?

Do you see any sign of human co- habitation?

Where - is this coming from?

Really is Obi-wan’s unit]

Any way.. .

Let’s find his homestead

Not even “let’s see ‘if we can borrow some supplies’ “ Let’s feck up this guy’s house

Damn

Storm-

Trooper Don’t Fuck Ar -ound-

Aight-

How- Okay- Practic al

-what are -

Out Cold

Oh now there’s things. .

Would’ve been nice to see that.

. .

Whelp. .

Heck-

You Have-

A shotgun

You should run-

S’up

Okay

Pretty Di- rect-

Move Along-

Old clone man-

Easy-

Yeah they have blasters.

Still

She said you weren’t wanted..

Take off a helmet doesn’t change that

Move along

[Also yeah friends that come with several armed shotguns, a possible army following them, unwanted and uninvited

*Friend Ship

Bu- llets-

Don’t be friendly

Say the pitch

“Get out of your hair real quick,”

Yes, no, leave,

State Bus- I- ness-

Ain’t falling for any of your “friendly.” bullshit,

Captain

Doctor

We have a medic-

Good-

How?

Over night-

Dude that is a big fucking risk you’re asking her to take

[Narc Log]

Like you guys are open shots,

That dude can’t protect them selves

And, they clearly don’t want to be accountable

(Out here)

As the world burns...

I’m sorry Sir But the signs are pretty clear.

Mommy

Oh god,

She’s a Generation breaker, too?

Directly?

Whelp...

Also not how kids act..

They don’t have initiative ...

Can’t have emotion...

Hm,

Be-nches

Good-

Fine, Thanks,

Enab ling war,

What ever

Aight

Future healing tech,.

What,

What Happ- en -ed?

Seriously, shouldn’t be Shouldn’t there be someone on guard?

Left-

Seriously, is there armor out of plastic?

Like, how?

How?

Arm-

Shit-

Seriously,

do the other guys have to be here they’re kinda making it un- comfortable.

Nerve Damage-

Oh, yeah just left the whole

person up to examine an arm.

Under- Stood -

Who said that?

On with it-

How-

The bullet went through his chest -

We see a wound, On his lower back?

That’s not bruising from the fall?

A rock wouldn’t create that kind of Mark.

No Con- dition

-Heal

Time

Ok- ay-

Well, call up, Obi-Wan,

Get Rex to the medical ship that they keep talking about...

We’re Get -ting Un der- Way Kix

Damn It Self De- Str Uct Ive - Ba stard - If buddy wants to throw them -self over the cliff there’s nothing anyone - can do about it

(Except- Hope-)

...

That’s An Order

Wonder What- Kinda Order - Team Medic “Don’t”. “I can’t bring you back on that much death,”

Then again most civilizations would not be found it on a precipice

So How..

“ I am outrank everyone,”

Medic, pulling a fucking rank.

And he actually can do that

Considering dude he decided to fuck around and find out with Mother Life Dude is technically a kin To immediate accountability at any point

T-ypically to the medic who treated him-

So, Yeah, He can totally do that,

Okay,

Damn, It,

Also look at these idiots standing around

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