#it’s just tends bar & the gun image . that’s The Main

[raleighcarreras]

The Love Clause

Part 1: sometimes all i think about is you

Rating: M

Pairing: yelena belova x black!fem!reader

Warnings: implied sex, cheating (not yelena or reader), eventual canon typical violence

Wrd Cnt: 2.4+

Summary: After you find yourself in a bind, your best friend's estranged sister, Yelena, makes a deal with you. She'll let you live with her free of charge if you agree to pose as her girlfriend for reasons she doesn't seem too keen to reveal. Unfortunately for you, falling in love is nowhere in the contract you sign.

Notes: This is cross-posted on a03, song is heat waves slowed by glass animals

Late nights in the middle of June

You were never one to be late for anything. Not when you were a child relying on the seemingly foreign idea of transportation at the hands of an adult.

Not when you were sick last week after your best friend, Natasha, tricked you into thinking that the concoction (read: abomination) with the main ingredient being whatever SpaceX uses to propel rockets into space, wasn't nearly as potent as it actually was.

And, you sure as the devil in Hell weren't going to be late to your Biology Capstone now, even when your life seemed to be crumbling to pieces around you.

Earlier

You hadn't been thinking when you rushed out of the house and told her to keep it. The only thing on your mind was that image.

Your girlfriend-oh, well you supposed your ex-girlfriend now, making the woman, that pointedly wasn't you, writhe underneath her. In your shared bed. In your shared home. During your shared relationship.

You don't remember much. Just that. Some profuse apologizing, you had the wherewithal to throw your engagement ring back at her. She winced as it hit her in the corner of her eye.

Then you scrambled to get away, in some fucked up way, you felt guilty about hurting her, and then you felt guilty about feeling guilty.

You said something along the lines of 'keep the house'. Dropping the keys in the trash on your way out. Maybe her new chick could help her with the mortgage payment or something.

There was no way you'd be okay sleeping there ever again. It was contaminated.

You drove your car to the bar and grill Natasha owned even though you knew she wouldn't be there yet.

The both of you were seniors in college and you always secretly wondered how she managed to open the restaurant. You just assumed maybe it ran in the family. Even though, the two of you had known each other since you were in diapers and her parents had never mentioned anything about it. Then again, Alexei and Melina rarely mentioned anything about anything when you were kids.

You eventually lost track of time. Just sitting in your car. Staring at the unlit sign on the front of the building that read "The Red Room Bar & Grill" in big blocky red lettering. Natasha didn't take particular liking to your comments that "The Red Room" title would be better suited for a BDSM dungeon or strip club.

You don't think you would have broken out of your stupor anytime soon if there hadn't been a rhythmic tapping at your passenger side window.

You jumped in surprise, then instantly relaxed when you realized who it was trying to get your attention.

You huffed then unlocked the door so the woman could happily slide in next to you.

"Wanda, how many times do I have to tell you, you can't run up on me like that? What if I had a glock!?"

Wanda only laughed that easy laugh that she always did, "You hate guns. Why would you shoot me?"

You didn't bother to answer her question. Besides, she was staring the side of your face down like she often did. Wanda Maximoff tended to stare deep into you like she could read minds or something.

"You're upset."

And who knew, maybe she could.

You laughed with little humor, "What gave it away?"

She blinked as if she was surprised by your question, then pointed to the drying tear tracks on your cheeks.

"You don't cry."

And like Wanda could tell that you were upset, you could tell that Wanda did not like that you were upset. Her Sokovian accent slipped into her voice when she was upset.

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be at home resting for tonight?"

Wanda raised an eyebrow, she knew exactly what you were trying to do, "Nat forgot her lunch at the house. I figured she might be here before she had to get to campus for your class."

Your frown deepened at the word 'class'. Then you turned to the dashboard of your car and almost screamed in panic.

The corner of Wanda's lip quirked up, "Yeah. You should probably head to campus. Don't mind me. I'll just stay with you and ask invasive and embarrassing questions until your resolve cracks?"

At times, Wanda seemed to be more of a conniving little shit than her girlfriend. And there was nothing you could do about it.

You pulled out of the parking lot and headed in the direction of the Stanford University main campus, "Fine. Ask away."

Wanda nodded as if to say thank you for the permission even though no matter what you said, she was going to do it anyway.

"Why were you staring at a brick wall and crying?"

You bit the inside of your cheek, the urge to lie so strong it took every ounce of willpower you had to resist it.

"I-fuck Wands-Alexus was cheating on me. I got back to the house this morning after a last minute study session in the library and there she was. Knuckle deep in some broad I had never seen before."

All the color seemed to drain from Wanda's face, she spoke softly, "Shit, Y/N. I'm so sorry. Does Nat know yet?"

"Nope, you're the first person I told." You're not sure if your speeding down the freeway should be attributed to you trying not to be late, or if it was just your resolute anger.

"Uh oh...You know I love you, so excuse me when I say this. I'm more concerned about how Nat is going to take this than you are."

"What do you mean?"

"Nat hates Alexus. She's been looking for an excuse to skin her alive since you guys met."

Wanda had a point. And if there was anyone who could get away with it, it was Natasha Romanoff.

"I'll make her promise not to do anything that'll get her thrown in jail."

Wanda sighed, "It's not her getting thrown in jail I'm worried about."

You had no idea what that meant, and were too chicken shit to ask.

You pulled onto your exit ramp with a jerky motion, your eyes started to well up with fresh warm tears again, "Maxxy, I have no where to stay. I just couldn't be there anymore and you know I can't ask my parents, they have home visits for Nikita's fostering and me being there will mess up their paperwork and their dynamic and-"

"Honey, you know you can always stay with Nat and I."

You shook your head profusely, "No I can't. You're supposed to be proposing tonight at the bar. When Nat says yes she's going to try to rip your clothes off right then and there and I'll be damned if I'm in your guest room while you're fucking in the next room."

"Y/N. We can post-"

"I'll drink bleach if you finish that sentence."

Wanda promptly stopped that train of thought, "...Okay, what about Carol and Maria? A hotel?"

"Another happy couple I refuse to burden with my broken heart. And I don't have the money. Spent my savings on that house and this car. Both of which I thought would be an investment. Well, 1 out of 2 ain't bad."

Wanda sighed, watching helplessly as you drove into a campus parking lot and came to a stop in your usual parking space.

"Yelena?"

You couldn't have stopped your blush if you tried, "I know her and Nat are on good terms again, but I haven't spoken to her in years. I'll figure it out, Maxxy. You don't have to worry about me."

"Yes I do. But whatever, make sure Nat actually eats her lunch. You know how she gets. And if you see a murderous glint in her eye after you tell her about She Who Shall Not Be Named, make sure to tell her you'll kill her if she does something stupid. And when that inevitably doesn't work, tell her I'll kill her. And when that doesn't work either because she'll be that mad, tell her Melina will kill her and that should scare her enough to sit down."

You laughed at the image of the rough and tumble Natasha Romanoff being terrified of her mother. Then the antics of your day hit you in a wave. Wanda could only watch it happen.

"Yes, ma'am. Take my car back to the bar. I'll ride with Nat. I'll see you at the bar tonight. Okay?"

Wanda nodded with a less than pleased expression covering your face, you tossed her the keys to your Range Rover, "Okay."

~•~

"I'll kill her."

You rolled your eyes at your best friend, "No, you won't."

Natasha smirked and tossed her car keys into the air, "Want a bet?"

"Sure as hell don't. If you end up in jail, I'll kill you."

Natasha shrugged, "Ahh. I'm shaking in my boots. How should I do it? Get her the old fashioned way?"

What did that even mean?!

"Wanda will kill you."

Natasha paused for an entire thirty seconds, then continued her planning of your exes demise.

"Your mom will kill you."

Natasha's entire demeanor changed, "Suddenly, I no longer have the desire to assassinate your ex."

You chuckled, "I bet."

"You can stay with us until you find a place."

"No I can't."

"Why not?"

Well, you weren't ruining the surprise, "Um. I'm allergic to Wanda?"

Natasha sighed, "Fine. Then don't tell me. Oh! I know! Yelena can help. She just got a two bedroom apartment. Near your place actually. She's been complaining about needing a roommate."

You crossed your arms over your chest to cover your resulting state of uncomfort.

"You know Yelena and I haven't talked since..."

Natasha frowned, because of course she knew that, but that had been a good four years in the past, "You're both over it. So it shouldn't be a problem. She'll be at the restaurant tonight so you can talk to her then. In fact, I'll give her the heads up now."

Your shoulders deflated more than they did when you realized you'd be homeless for the foreseeable future, "Yippee."

~•~

The bar was packed, filled with your collective group of friends and your friend's families. Natasha was so busy fussing at her staff that she hadn't realized that Wanda had been staring at her wide-eyed all night. Nor had she realized she was serving her family. Even your parents were tucked in the corner with their foster daughter and Natasha's parents.

You smoothed down your red dress, (yes Wanda had made everyone wear red. Another thing Natasha had been oblivious to) and fought off the chill resulting from the slit in the fabric that ran almost all the way to your hip.

You had to send Natasha to your house to get your clothing. Luckily, your ex wasn't there so Natasha couldn't have tried to murder her even if she wanted to.

You wrapped your black leather jacket around yourself tighter and attempted a sip at the drink Natasha had sat in front of you. The caveats of drinking for free at your best friend's bar meant that you were her experimental Guinea Pig.

"For someone studying to be a doctor, she's not very smart, is she?" You being a native Californian, Bucky Barnes' New York accent stood out to you like a sore thumb. But it was always refreshing to hear.

You hugged the large man with a bright smile, you gestured to his prosthetic arm with a question in your eyes, "How's the arm, Buckaroo? And don't call my bestie dumb, she's just blinded by her drive to own the best bar in town. Besides, most people don't expect to be proposed to."

Your ex had done a great job of keeping the secret from you. She had done a great job of keeping a lot of secrets from you.

"Still with that nickname? I haven't seen you in a year and that's how you greet me?" He pressed his hand to his chest in faux hurt.

"It's not my fault you decided to be older than me and graduate with Wanda last year."

He smiled happily. The smile reminded you of when you met your freshman year in your dorm. You stayed in the same hallway and naturally flocked to each other after learning you were both in the biology major with Pre-med tracks. You often study together and he frequently allowed you to poke and prod at his prosthetic for your own research.

You still hadn't told him that he was the reason you wanted to become a Prosthetist.

"I'm moving back here actually. Got reassigned. And I have a fitting for a new robotic arm prototype in a few weeks."

You jumped up and down in excitement, your stilettos groaning at the movement, maybe Natasha did know what she was doing with those drinks.

"Bucky! That's great. We'll have weekly coffee dates. If you're late, I'll get Nat to kill you."

He eyed you funny in response, "You have no idea how capable she is of doing that, huh?"

"No. I know she's plenty capable."

"I-um-well- anyway, I figured sense I'm moving back and Sam is still here, he and I could maybe try again. If he'll even talk to me anymore."

You patted the muscular man on the shoulder, "He'll say 'yes'. Just like Nat will."

"Just like Nat will what?"

You're sure Bucky can see the turmoil that washed over your face as the familiar voice spoke up behind you and ordered a drink.

You had no real choice but to turn and greet them, lest Bucky continue to stare at you oddly.

"Just like Nat will say 'yes'."

The owner of the voice nodded and took a sip of her drink without looking at you. She didn't even look at you when she asked you what you were drinking so she could order you another one.

"I'll talk to you later, Y/N. Number's still the same." You waved to Bucky as he stalked deeper into the crowd. You wouldn't have wanted to stay witness to whatever this was either.

"Speaking of Nat, she said you needed some help."

"Well. She lied."

It was then that the interloper finally looked at you. And when she looked, she stared. Deep into your soul, deeper than Wanda ever could. With more emotion than she ever cared to share.

"No, she didn't."

"Why do you even care, Yelena?! You left!"

Yelena's frown deepened, "I told you I didn't have a choice. Do you need a place to stay or not?"

In a twisted way, she looked conflicted. Like she couldn't deal with you saying 'No' again. But, little did she know, you could never say 'No' to her.

"I do."

"Then let's make a deal."

#yelena belova x female reader #yelena belova x black reader #natasha and yelena #black reader #jessicas fanfic #marvel fanfic series #marvel fanfic #yelena belova #the love clause #marvel female reader insert #natasha x wanda

[badnew2005]

this is what the inside of my brain looks like

#it’s just tends bar & the gun image . that’s The Main #but also just . macden intimacy in love w ur best friend codependency or whateva #and iasip x fob my beloved <33333 #i love saying btdubs i hav decided xoxoxox #i removed btdubs . i wasn’t sure without the xoxox how clear it was ironic i got scared #rip btdubs

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Divide”

Hello, everyone, and welcome back! It feels good to be doing some normal RWBY-ing in this strange world of ours. First, some supplementary materials.

Number One: In response to any (valid) questions along the lines of, “Hey Clyde, it’s now been a full year since Volume 7 was airing and you still haven’t answered my ask about it. Or the ones about Volume 6… what’s up with that?” I’ve created what I hope is an informative video detailing the problem:

(I assure you, the Earth, Wind & Fire was a happy accident during the screen recording.)

Needless to say, there’s a lot and I’ve known for some time now that I will LITERALLY never get through all my asks. Which doesn’t mean I don’t want you to send future thoughts in! Just know that as we head into Volume 8 territory I’ll most likely prioritize those, as well as any Volume 7 asks that aren’t woefully out of date. But I do want everyone to know that I read all the asks I receive, appreciate them immensely, and think too much about hypothetical answers, even if I don’t have time to actually write them out 💜

Number Two: There’s a bingo board this year!

Jury’s out on whether I’ll remember to update it, but at the very least this serves as a decent glimpse into my — and others’ — expectations going into this volume.

Number Three: I’ve collected a list of things I’ve heard about Volume 8 from what seem to be reputable sources. I did this because RT is developing a tendency to talk up certain points and then fail to deliver, either because something was taken out of a volume/moved to another, or because RT apparently has radically different ideas about what including something means. So this might be handy to keep on file and ask ourselves two months from now, “Did RT actually deliver on what they promised?”

Emphasis on Ruby’s leadership and how Summer’s death has impacted her

Insight into Ren and Nora’s flaws

May Merigold will supposedly have a larger part

More information about The Long Memory (Ozpin’s cane)

Theme of the volume is that you can respect someone but that doesn’t necessarily mean you agree with them

Very short timeline (supposedly just two days)

Yang in particular is very suspicious and distrustful

I was also going to include a list of all the threads that need to be continued/wrapped up, but honestly that would have taken too large a chunk off my life. Let’s just throw out the highlights:

Are we really going to have Qrow gunning for Ironwood?

Clover is dead regardless. Press ‘F’ to pay respects

Oscar bb you got shot please acknowledge this

Ozpin bb you got done dirty please acknowledge this

Penny is a Maiden now. I feel like the fandom has been sleeping on this (myself included)

Queer baiting, queer baiting… you’re on thin ice at this point, RWBY. Just skate on over to the queer snack bar before you fall straight into the lake.  

Ren spill your deep dark secret already and it had better be something more than just ‘Oh no Nora might someday die :( ’

Salem is here so how the actual fuck is the cast surviving this?

Will Ironwood likewise survive his descent into antagonism? Yes or please yes no?

I think that’s all the biggies. I strive to keep lists like this in mind while analyzing, but honestly RWBY has a hundred moving parts that are abandoned or changed or simply retconned at the drop of a hat. So an attempt will be made.

Number Four (last one I promise!): Normal disclaimers and reminders for Recaps apply:

Please don’t fill up the already full inbox with flames. It’s still 2020. No one has time for that nonsense.

There will absolutely be typos and wonky parts because I try to get these out the same day an episode premieres. I have now been working on this for ten hours, nearly straight, and have no more energy for edits. Apologies in advance and RIP to my Saturdays.

I reserve the right to use stupid GIFs and memes at my discretion.

I strive to keep my focus on recapping/analyzing but salt tends to worm its way in… If you’re a die-hard RWBY fan with little patience for criticism, let alone (at times) snarky criticism, please proceed with caution.

No wait I lied, this is the last thing:

Okay, got that out of my system LET’S DO THIS!

We start not with the episode itself but rather Rooster Teeth’s (RT’s) strange non-promotion of it. If you follow my blog you may have caught the post where I pointed out that there was nothing on RT’s website to suggest that one of their most popular shows—if not the most popular show—was premiering today. Nothing on the main page. Nothing on the RWBY page either, not unless you count the Volume 8 poster background (easily mistaken for the Volume 7 poster) and the trailer buried all the way down past Episodes, past Merch, in the Bonus Features section along with videos like Live From Remnant and the volume intros. RT… the promotion of your feature show is not a bonus. This should be front and center! Honest to god, five minutes before the episode dropped I was checking the website for a Volume 8 section, a countdown, anything that would tell me the episode was imminent without relying on fans on tumblr to keep me in the loop. We got nada, zilch. I’m not sure whether that speaks more to RT’s iffy management of the series or simply the website’s horrible design—RIP losing RWBY on Youtube—but I was surprised when I saw the episode a few minutes after 11:00am. At that point I honestly expected to hear about a dely.

So that’s the mood I entered the premiere in, but truly? We start off strong. Things take a pretty severe nosedive later on, we’ll get to that, but I was impressed with our beginning and that probably has a lot to do with the fact that we start with our villains.

We open on a Cinderella character, Cinder, and thus I’m immediately pleased that we’re getting something about her backstory after all this time. Seven years! She appeared in episode one, folks! To say we’re overdue is an understatement. There isn’t a whole lot to go on, just a younger Cinder sadly scrubbing the floor, poised under a spotlight. What we learn, or potentially learn, is based far more in cultural knowledge than this scene. We know Cinderella’s story, which includes the abusive family, the longing for more, the eventual escape, and thus we’re able to read all of that in this image, despite the image itself not telling us any of this overtly. That means we could be wrong in our interpretation, but if we’re not it’s an easy shorthand in an already packed story.

What I’m really impressed with is the sound bridge between the scrubbing and her nails on the back of Neo’s chair. Fantastic way to confirm that this is Cinder as well as showcasing just how far she’s come. The sound of her labor has been replaced with the sound of her power and given that Cinder’s power is stolen, tied to a grimm arm, the property of a genocidal maniac… that’s messed up. It’s a Cinderella story gone wrong.

So yeah, Cinder tells Neo to head straight into the creepy, grimm infested blood cloud to see Salem and Neo is like, ‘Uh… no thank you?’ lol.

RT does a good job this episode with her expressions, ensuring we know exactly what she’s thinking despite an unwillingness/inability to speak.

Poor Neo might be in too deep, but I quite like the overall atmosphere of this opening. Say what we will about Salem’s awful characterization, at least she has style. This woman knows how to make an entrance and, piggybacking off of the Apathy, RT knows how to infuse horror elements into their fantasy. The red and purple coloring of the clouds, spiked whale teeth peeking through, bright orange in the background looking like explosions… that’s all 👌 Including the intro card.

The only thing I want to gripe about is this:

I’m sorry, why does the whale grimm have landing pads? Or something like it?? The whale otherwise works because it’s poised between the natural and the fantasy synthetic. It looks like a real grimm whale on the outside, but is sporting a throne room, a control panel, and other unnatural elements on the inside. It’s a visual indicator of Salem’s ability to control and change grimm. Now though, the additions are wrong, infringing on the line between organic and tech, the line between what helps the grimm individually (giving monkeys wings) and what just helps Salem. Every other aspect of the whale straddles that line wonderfully, adding to the creep factor, like a grimm version of the Uncanny Valley: it’s not quite a whale anymore… but landing pads? That looks ridiculous. Why does Salem even have that? How many ships are her people feasibly using? Why are there five?

Take it away, please.

Cinder waltzes in like this is a normal home visit, but Neo has an appropriate ‘What the actual fuck?’ face going on.

They approach Salem on her throne where Cinder immediately kneels, greeting her with, “My queen.” I mentioned during my trailer breakdown that I think Cinder is lying her ass off here, and I still think that based on a line we’ll get in a minute, but now at least we have a sense of how she can pull this off. A woman who started out as a (presumed) servant is going to know how to mimic subservience, even if her heart isn’t in it. Salem is very good at playing the girl who will still kneel and scrub the floor for you. She will scrub the floor, she’ll do everything you want, she’ll just be plotting her own rise to power while she does it.

There’s quite a bit of interesting cinematography in this episode, not all of it good, and I think one of the mistakes is here when we get a closeup on Salem’s mouth as she greets Cinder. A closeup like that should be reserved for more significant dialogue—“Rosebud”—and yet we get this shot again when Cinder tells Emerald to be quiet. It’s awkward and coupled with the numerous eye closeups we got in the trailer, I think RT is playing a little fast and loose with the camera. Each shot should add something to the scene, not distract from it. If you don’t have a reason for including a technique like that then leave it be.

Back to the actual dialogue though. We knew that Salem knew Cinder was alive and now it seems that she just expected her to come back? I’m slightly lost. It feels like we’re missing something here. Cinder goes off to secure the lamp, fails, nearly dies, wanders on her own for months, and then randomly shows back up on Salem’s whale doorstep, yet Salem isn’t angry at all? Did she have faith that Cinder would return when she has something to offer? Did she just not care about Cinder, considering her return an unnecessary but otherwise welcome surprise? That would make the least sense given that she holds the key to accessing Beacon’s relic… but that circles right back around to why Salem is seemingly indifferent to Cinder’s comings and goings. Surely she can’t actually believe that Cinder is loyal?

“So I trust you wouldn’t return to me empty handed,” she says. Yeah, trust means nothing in this show, Salem, didn’t you watch Volumes 6 and 7? Again, I simply don’t know. I suppose I’ll just chalk it up to confidence, that if Cinder did bail Salem knew she could track her down again. Deciphering her motivations and beliefs is a lost cause when the show continually gives us so little.

The important thing now is that Cinder does indeed have an offering and you can see that Salem is somewhat surprised at being handed the relic.

Cinder, of course, takes credit for the victory and we’re given another wonderful shot of Neo. ‘YOU took it?’

Oh, Neo. Best get out while you still can.

Tyrian appears having obviously made his way to Salem’s ship sometime between her arrival and now. The exchange is pretty standard for this group. He insults Cinder for failing and needing this victory to make amends, talks about how any win against Ironwood says more about his lack of intelligence than her skill, and Cinder… doesn’t have a whole lot of comebacks, actually. I’d say Tyrian won that verbal spar, enhanced by a better use of the camera when we get his tail looming menacingly towards Cinder and Neo.

He goes on to say that Watts was a “necessary sacrifice” so, uh… I’m just going to toss out the ask I answered yesterday. Based on our intro I’d say Watts is still significant to the volume—hacking Penny is my guess—but by the end? He could be in trouble.

(As a side note: I plan to analyze the intro next week. It’s just easier when it comes first.)

Tyrian also calls Neo “little one” which I just found absolutely hilarious. In an on brand creepy manner, that is. Not that Neo couldn’t kick his ass, but there’s something wonderfully chilling about having the serial killer use an endearment towards a potential victim, one that comments on her size while he’s looming.

In contrast, Cinder refers to Neo as a “valuable asset” and we get our third mood of the episode.

Who’s going to start a Neo reaction image collection?

It’s true enough on the surface—who wouldn’t want an ally who can turn into anyone else?—but we’re still bumping up against question of why Salem needs this. She’s immortal! She has an endless army! Magic! This scene works well with a villain who needs a skillset like Neo’s to succeed, but Salem doesn’t. RT is doing a great job writing a story thus far, just not the story we’ve previously been given. This isn’t the story they set up.

This will come back up when we reach the RWBYJNOR group. Just wait.

Before that though, the gang’s all here as Emerald, Mercury, and Hazel show up, all in new outfits.

I think I like everything except for the weird Xs on Emerald’s jacket—it’s way too distracting and frankly makes an otherwise good look ugly—and the fact that she’s showing her midriff in Atlas. Hazel doesn’t have any sleeves! Oh my god, why doesn’t anyone dress for the weather in this show?

Frankly, I found their reunion to be kind of lackluster. I mean, there was nothing wrong with it. Emerald does sound briefly excited, she does run, and it’s in character for Cinder to cut her off… it just didn’t resonate with me emotionally. I thought after two volumes of thinking she’s dead, then working through the knowledge that she’s alive, that I would feel Emerald’s shock and relief more, but I didn’t. And I’m not entirely sure why. I don’t want to level any accusations at the voice acting because frankly I know next to nothing about that skill (and from what I’ve seen it’s usually praised in the fandom), but I will say that throughout the premiere I was noticing it more than I ever have before. The lack of emotion here and some awkward deliveries later, like when Yang goes, “Ruby, there is no way Ironwood will cooperate with us” and I immediately thought, “Wow, that came out stilted.” These observations stick with me because, as said, voice acting usually isn’t on my radar. It’s not something I’ve studied or had practice analyzing. If you’d never told me that Ren or Qrow’s VA changed then after a year hiatus I literally wouldn’t notice… but there’s something about this episode that didn’t sit right. Anyone else get that sense, or was it just me?

Regardless, the arrival of our other three villains really doesn’t amount to much, though I’m happy for all the Emerald and Mercury fans who get to see them in new outfits. The focus is still on Cinder as she delivers a line indicative of her true motivations: “That power will be mine.” Yeah, she’s not loyal to Salem, she’s just power hungry. Of course, Salem immediately takes note of this and raises her hand, in another nice use of the foreground, reminding her that she hasn’t given that order.

Cinder is shocked, angry even, but quickly covers it up with her “Without you I am nothing” line. If I caught it right I think she also calls Salem “Ma’am”? Hilarious. Again, skilled at playing the servant.

Also, before I forget, it’s worth noting that almost everything from our trailer appeared in this episode. Yeah, there are a few details like Nora attacking some tech and the group on their bikes, but on the whole we’ve already seen the majority of our promo material and will likely get most of the rest next week. It makes me both interested and nervous for what another twelve episodes are going to hold.

Salem opens her whale, or opens a portal type view in it, something that gives us a long-distance look at Atlas. I don’t know what exactly is going on here, but it’s pretty so I’ll take it.

She also delivers the frankly badass line, “Just because you’re more valuable to me than a pawn does not make you a player.”

She waves them all away with perfect ‘You mean nothing to me’ attitude and we sadly leave our villains.

Sad not because I don’t love my farm boy, but because things are about to get a whole lot messier.

Oscar has made his way to a camp of civilian survivors… all of whom are just hanging out in the supposedly deadly cold. Yeah, there’s a single fire, but at least four of them aren’t anywhere near it. Three of them also aren’t wearing gloves. What was that survival rate again?

A nice if gruff dude gives Oscar soup—water?—while showing off his… badger claws? I don’t know what kind of faunus he’s supposed to be, but he feels like the sort of two second, minor character who could easily become a meme lol.

Oscar thanks him (my polite son!) and hands the bowl back after a single sip. Which is impressive because I would have assumed the guy was giving me the whole bowl and just taken it. Hell, I’ve done that even when I didn’t assume it’s all for me. A Starbucks barista once approached me with a tray and a plate of samples, I knew I was supposed to take just one, yet for some reason my hand went to take the whole goddamn plate. He had to tell me off, then I was trying to explain that I didn’t actually want or think I should have eight shots of cappuccino all to myself, I don’t even like coffee, he clearly didn’t believe me… it was awkward. So good job, Oscar. You’re less awkward than me (though that’s not saying much).

Now a question, Oscar. Darling. Brilliant boy who has been through too much: why the fuck aren’t you talking to Ozpin? This will be A Thing later when he presents a lack of time to talk as justification for keeping more secrets (we’ll get to that too…) yet here is time! You’re just sitting there for who knows how long, with plenty of privacy to hide a supposedly one-sided conversation so the Mantle citizens don’t get weirded out or suspicious. Talk to Ozpin. Our headmaster gets two lines in this episode, utterly inconsequential lines like his airship scene, lines that feel like they exist to say, “See? He’s still included in the story!” even though he absolutely is not. Two volumes of mostly silence, a perfect setup to start the reconciliation process, but we’re going to put it off again?

Instead Ruby randomly and conveniently appears. I want to know how she found him. Oscar isn’t wearing a tracker. He clearly didn’t call them because he’s surprised when Ruby shows up. He fell alllllllll the way back down to Mantle and then wandered to a random part of the slums. You’re telling me they flew over the entire city—after beginning this search thinking he was in Atlas—and somehow managed to spot him from up in the air? C’mon. I would have rather had a beginning where Oscar makes his way back to the group himself, giving him and Ozpin time to hash things out.

“Need a lift?” Ruby says, eliminating that potential. Sigh.

Oscar immediately starts beating himself up when he gets onboard, saying that he “was stupid to think the General would listen.” Nah, you were stupid to buy into Ruby’s nonsensical confidence and for telling Ironwood he’s as bad as Salem. Sorry, Oscar, but everyone is written badly these days. I will, however, say that I am THRILLED at the group’s reaction to his return. Ruby says that she’s “just glad you’re alright.” Nora has a wonderfully tender moment where she hugs him gently rather than her usual glomp.

That? That added a year to my life. Everyone else seems relieved that he’s okay too, so kudos there. After four years of Oscar being an outsider in the group, this is one of the few moments that feel like he’s 100% accepted. Really glad to see it.

Now let’s see if it sticks after they learn Ozpin is back...

They fly to the Happy Huntresses’ base and I again feel like I’ve missed something crucial. When did they team up? I mean, RWBYJNOR was working directly under Ironwood up until the last hour and Robyn ran off to fight Tyrian/Clover in the last couple episodes. When did she have time to explain her (briefly) changed allegiance and why would the Happy Huntresses trust the group without that? Did Robyn share that Blake and Yang went behind Ironwood’s back for her? Do the Huntresses instinctively trust them because they’re now wanted by the military? How did they even run into each other?

Again, I think we would have been better served to have an episode before all this. Let Oscar make his way back and let the group struggle with the magnitude of their situation on the airship, before they find new allies. Transferring directly to, “They have help and a secret base and a plan in the works!” makes me feel like I missed the real premiere last week. You know, the one where Salem unexpectedly arrived and we left the group like this.

This is where we’ve ended up though. The group is cozy in this hideout, getting info from Joanna, and my only other thought is, “Why is she giving all this exposition?”  

Shouldn’t it be May? I mean, we were told that she was going to play more of a role this volume, a promise that’s pretty important imo given her status as a (so far off screen) trans character, so why not put her in the role of mediator between the Happy Huntresses and RWBYJNR? Giving her that setup as a leader among her people as well as lots of lines would be meaningful. A trans character just existing and being a part of this fight! May could obviously still fill that role—I’m well aware that we’re only one episode in—but it just seems like a missed opportunity to me. Out of all the undeveloped Happy Huntresses, our premiere focuses on the one who has the least importance to the fandom.

As said, Joanna talks a fair bit but what it basically boils down to is trying to get everyone to the crater below Atlas. It’s apparently not safe, but it’s warm, which is what matters right now.

So… let me get this straight. You want to gather everyone into a not safe crater, by leading them through an army of grimm, so that they can wait there in case someone moves the Staff, thus dropping an entire city on top of their heads? That’s the plan? Which admittedly isn’t Joanna’s fault. This is another instance of RWBYJNOR having information that a leader does not and they should really consider speaking up about it. But of course they don’t.

Also, how long does everyone have in regards to the cold? Shouldn’t there be dead civilians by now? The time it would take to find the Happy Huntresses, team up with them, get settled in the base, and find Oscar says that things should be pretty grim right now (pardon the pun), yet every non-aura user in this city seems content to just hang out in the snow. Either the cold is deadly enough to justify moving everyone to the crater, or it’s mild enough to let everyone survive this long, not both.

After hugs are given everyone obviously wants to know what happened to Oscar. His response?

“It’s a… long story. I get the feeling there’s been a few of those tonight.”

That’s a check for the bingo card! We’re halfway through the first episode and we’ve already got another secret. Yes, this is a secret. Oscar actively chooses not to tell anyone that Ozpin is back—something Ozpin himself comments on—and then skillfully draws attention away from himself with “I get the feeling there’s been a few of those tonight.” Indeed, all eyes go to Penny. Oscar’s plight is forgotten, which is what he wanted. His justification?

Ozpin: “You’re not going to tell them?”

Oscar: “You and I aren’t done talking yet.”

Along with this look.

Oscar no. There’s so much wrong with this I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s create a list.

As said, you had plenty of time to talk to Ozpin and chose not to. Miss me with this excuse.

You are now doing to your friends exactly what you and your friends did to Ironwood, which in turn is what Ozpin did to you! I can’t believe we’ve got Oscar critically side-eyeing him when they are still—still—repeating the behavior they drove Ozpin away for.

What is there to even talk about now? Oscar didn’t punch himself/Ozpin (lol) but he did steal Jinn’s name from Ozpin in the first place. You got what you wanted, drove him away, and have been lying and keeping secrets ever since. The only thing they should be talking about involves apologizing. Any further criticism—which is what Oscar’s expression and curt reply suggests—is beyond hypocritical.

Seriously, what needs to be discussed? There’s no reason not to tell the group unless Oscar wants to talk about whether they should tell them. There’s no good ending here...

Don’t you think it would be nice to know that Ozpin is back and you’ve got super magic powers while making plans to save the entire world?

This is all especially stupid given Oscar’s “Salem wants to divide us” reminder to Ruby in a moment. Oscar, you are doing the most to divide the group right now. By not forgiving Ozpin. By refusing to work with him. By keeping him secret from everyone else.

This is bad, friends, I worry for what the rest of the volume will bring…

The story is done with Ozpin for now so I guess I will be too. The group continues filling Oscar in and we get some shots of the base, including a rather prominent poster of what I assume are two Happy Huntresses. Did they die in battle perhaps?

It’s a little strange.

Oscar: “Where’s Qrow?”

Me: “Likely still making bad decisions.”

No one knows so they just drop it. Which I kind of get, only so much you can do to find him if he’s not out on the streets like Oscar, but it still reads as kind of iffy that two nieces look down at the ground for a hot second and then move on with their plans, content to leave Qrow to whatever fate befell him. In a minute we’ll see Yang firmly take Ren’s side regarding helping the people they can in Mantle, which frankly comes out of nowhere for her. I think an easy motivation would have been Qrow. Ruby wants to save the world, Yang wants to find and save their uncle, and that just happens to align with Ren’s desire to save the civilians who need immediate grimm and cold help. Don’t get me wrong, I like that there’s finally some division between the sisters, I just wish it hadn’t come about so abruptly. Ren had setup for standing up to Ruby. Yang did not.

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Joanna lists the grimm horde and no heat as the major threats to everyone. The group agrees.

Me: What about Salem?

Joanna says that this is all doubly dangerous because there’s “no more military protection.”

Me: Oh, so now you want the military?

This is all so disjointed. Even more-so when Joanna mentions that Ironwood has stopped all evacuations to Atlas, likely due to the “hard light shields” that are the only thing standing between Salem and the city. Thing is, the show never makes this connection, I just did it myself based on this scene and the one that comes later. The show presents Joanna’s line as a pure condemnation. Ironwood won’t let more evacuees in because… he’s just evil, I guess. Yet there is a justification here, namely that continuing the evacuations even while he’s stuck without Penny leaves him wide open to a Salem attack, the death of everyone currently safe, but that argument is never presented to the viewer. I don’t need people to agree with Ironwood’s perspective, I just wish that perspective was offered as an option. The show is very good about acting like RWBYJNOR’s opinion is the only justified opinion, or simply the only opinion at all.

After everything is laid out Weiss goes, “We’re never going to sleep again, I just know it.”

I could make a crack about the lack of continuity and how the group should be collapsing right now… but that was a funny line. It can stay.

What is far more of a problem is the fact that no one is talking about Salem. Okay, that’s a lie. They do talk about her, but in a roundabout way like her presence isn’t impacting every decision they make. That’s the real issue. They’re acting as if Salem isn’t here right now, like she’s off far away, maybe approaching slowly, and they’re arguing over how best to prep the world for her eventual attack. There’s no emotion here—let alone action—to reflect that the series’ Big Bad has arrived and is poised to murder them all. Literally what is this? Ruby is yelling about warning the world and, ignoring the continued question of why that’s a good thing when the world can do nothing to stop Salem and knowledge of her continually drives people to horrible acts, she has yet to acknowledge that… she’s the world? Ruby is the world in this conflict. She, Mantle, and Atlas. Salem is here for you all. Right now. You are, this instant, in the situation you want to warn others about, so why don’t you try to do something about it? Or at least acknowledge it. Ruby wants to warn the neighborhood about a potential fire while her house is actively ablaze, and the fire could have totally killed her by now but decided not to for… reasons.

“Ruby’s right,” Nora says. They have to tell the world so “they can prepare.” How? How are they supposed to prepare for this? The story cannot continue ignoring Salem’s immortality.

“Ruby’s right,” is all Blake says and I’m starting to thinks that’s why her character exists now, to agree with Ruby. It’s great that she’s getting a little distance from Yang, but man.

As Ruby asks whether Pietro can get Amity up and running despite it not being finished (called it) we start an incredibly odd sequence of flashforwards to their individual missions. I’ve seen a lot of praise for this already and though I agree that, in theory, it’s a good way to save time, I found the actual execution to be jarring. Upon thinking back through our timeline, it became clear they were flashforwards, but while watching I thought they might be flashbacks (especially since that’s more common).

Some of the shots, like Nora’s, just look awkward when you’ve got the exact expression and pose transplanted from one scene to another, like she’s a cardboard cutout behind a green screen. To say nothing of how the flashforwards ruin any suspense (I use that word loosely) in the conversation itself. If the question is, “Will they decide to go to the military compound?” then that question is answered when we see Ruby scoping out the compound, not when the group actually decides on the course of action.

It just made an already muddled scene worse for me, so I hope this trend doesn’t continue.

And of course, Amity can be used despite all the info last volume claiming that it wasn’t finished. Pietro suddenly acts like it is finished and the only thing standing in their way is Ironwood providing access. If that were the case, he would have used Amity weeks or days ago like he wanted to! When was it finished? Not after Watts commented on how incomplete it was. When did they get back the resources they needed from Robyn? It’s as ridiculous and retcon-y as I thought it would be.

Yang points out that Ironwood will never listen to them and Ruby counters that “he doesn’t have to.” They’ll just take the access from him. Because why wouldn’t they in a series where they’ve already stolen two airships? Stealing from the super evil military that Joanna wishes were helping them right now is just the group’s go-to plan nowadays.

Pietro isn’t sold on this plan though. He lists at least three obstacles they’d need to get through “and then… oh boy, I might need to think about this some more.” “And just to clarify,” Oscar says, “This is the easy option?” Um...no it’s not? We also know there’s an access point in Ironwood’s office so… why not go there instead? They really think the Academy is less guarded than the military base? There’s a potential justification here along the lines of, “After Neo and Cinder broke into his office Ironwood will have the place on high alert,” but unless I missed it the group doesn’t assume anything like that. They just listen to Pietro point out all the ways they can’t get into the military base and jump straight to that being the best option. It feels like a transparent way to create conflict for the group. We’ll just have them taking the most dangerous route despite an easy route being offered alongside it. Why bother mentioning his office at all? Just have the access in the military base. Boom, done.

It’s that conflict and the fact that Ruby tends to hear “You can’t” and digs in her heels. You can’t go to Atlas. I’ll just steal a ship then. You can’t defeat Salem. Watch me. You can’t break into this base. Guess what I’m doing! She’s dangerous in her fairy tale, meta-driven insistence that everything will turn out her way because she wants it to.

Speaking of, we finally—FINALLY—get someone challenging Ruby. Sort of. Not actually but it’s the closest we’ve ever gotten:

Yang: “Ruby, when we came here we said we’d follow your lead… but things haven’t exactly worked out.”

Now, there are two things to take away from this moment. The first is how utterly shocked Ruby and the others are. I mean, take a look at these expressions.

Ruby straight up can’t believe what she’s hearing. Weiss put her hand to her mouth like this is the most dramatic thing to ever happen to her. Oscar looks down in a ‘Yeah, I agree but please don’t look at me and make me admit that’ way. And Nora looks indifferent in the screenshot but animated she goes sort of stern, likely pissed that Yang would dare say that given her own agreement with Ruby. This not only reiterates that Yang’s challenge came out of nowhere—seriously, how did we move from following Ruby no matter what to this? Last volume she asked a single question along the lines of, ‘You sure?’ and when Ruby said ‘Yes’ Yang was entirely on board—but also demonstrates that no one has EVER said no to her before. Ruby is amazed that someone would challenge her. The act of challenging Ruby is, in and of itself, shocking. This group has gotten so used to following Ruby blindly that the teensiest little pushback is greeted with this.

Because it is teensy. This is the second takeaway: Yang barely challenges her and that challenge leads nowhere. She doesn’t accuse Ruby of anything, she doesn’t question her continued authority, she just broadly implies that things could be better. We followed you, now things are bad, take from that what you will. It’s incredibly mild as far as criticism goes, making the shock all the more, well, shocking, but it also amounts to—wait for it—nothing! Because Yang didn’t truly challenge Ruby’s leadership. She’s still in charge, she’s still calling the shots, and they’re still listening to her. We might have gotten some change if this division had been allowed to play out, but instead Jaune comes in with a, “Let’s go for both!” solution. It let’s both groups get what they want which, in turn, releases them from the need to grapple with whether they’ll listen to Ruby when she’s advocating for something they don’t agree with. We have now lost the chance to see whether, when push comes to shove, Ren and Yang will cave to Ruby’s will or stick by their own beliefs.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s more conflict than we’ve gotten in years, but that doesn’t mean it’s particularly compelling conflict. It’s good by RWBY’s standards, which doesn’t necessarily make it good. The actual issues at hand—Ruby’s dangerous arrogance, the group’s loyalty, her choices up until now—are just swept under the rug. For all the visuals we get insisting that there’s this great divide in the group… there’s really not. Not in any way that matters.

Also, Ruby is an idiot. Okay, that was mean, but she really is in this scene. She’s actually not an idiot overall because she was written as wonderfully intelligent in the early volumes, but now? Lately? She makes me want to bang my head against a wall.

“But that’s how Salem got this far,” she cries. “By dividing us!”

Ruby… oh my god, Ruby. No one should have to explain to you that dividing people means turning them against each other, not literally dividing your team to complete separate tasks. This girl honestly thought that because there was this teensy disagreement and that half the team would complete Plan A while she and the other half completed Plan B, both of which notably work towards the goal of, “Protect people from Salem,” that this was somehow what Salem wanted. That is was dangerous. Honestly, it’s a scary look at her view of leadership too: If everyone doesn’t 100% agree with me and do what I say, that’s an objectively bad thing that the grimm queen wants, right? Does Ruby think that unification means following a single person (her) without question or variation? That would explain a lot...

The fact that Oscar needs to explain the difference to her is not good. It really doesn’t say great things about this version of Ruby. Though he was comparing Ironwood to Salem last volume, so really they should all be wearing dunce hats.

Penny offers to take the relic directly to Salem in exchange for her leaving the kingdom alone. I honestly didn’t expect that. If anyone took that risk I would have put my money on Ozpin (but of course, during all this talk of the women he knows best, he’s kept quiet). Oscar is again the voice of wisdom, pointing out that they have no reassurance that Salem will keep her word. At least Penny is thinking about Salem as a threat though, so kudos for that. When this plan is shot down she volunteers to get Ruby past the military security instead and, uh, she’s a little intense about it.

I’m not entirely sure what is going on with Penny. She disagreed with Winter but then seemed to come around to her point of view, enough to help anyway. They had another (stupid) disagreement about the value of individual lives, so that helps to explain why she’s teaming up with RWBYJNOR (if you ignore that Ironwood is also trying to save individual lives...). Did watching Fria die shake her up? Is it being the Winter Maiden that’s not sitting right? Does Penny have lingering feelings about the framing that haven’t shown up until now? Her status as a ‘real girl’? We’ve got a lot of reasons that could definitely explain this sudden need to fight, but we’re not told which—if any of these—is the driving force.  

We’re then given a lot of little details. Someone points out that if Salem gets the staff and “create[s] anything else” then Atlas will fall (so yeah, let’s move the people underneath it). We still don’t know what exactly the Staff does because “creation” is kind of broad and “powering a city to float” doesn’t seem to sit within that category at all. Pietro gives Yang the keys to his lab so they can get the bikes. We see the group dividing in the flashforwards, something I do like, especially since the show has gone out of its way to break up most of the usual duos. Nora in particular is pissed at Ren for his choice.

“Oh, I’m saving Mantle because I actually believe we can do this.”

#yikes. Well, I did say I wanted a conflict other than ‘Oh no, one of us might die’ and it looks like I got it. But Nora, the only reason you can do this is because the plot is in your corner: none of you are collapsing from two major fights, you didn’t lose your aura so the cold isn’t a danger, the military is barely a threat all of a sudden, Salem is helpfully hanging out in her whale instead of killing you, and the story decided that Amity can function so long as you all are the ones who get to use it. That’s why you can do this. Ren, who follows in-world logic and doesn’t want to risk a whole kingdom’s worth of lives on a pipe dream, thinks differently, oddly enough.

As they leave though Penny gets a call from Ironwood. I know precisely what the fandom is going to say here: “This evil man is just trying to use Penny to open the vault!” Of course he is. He needs it open to save everyone he can, Penny included. Plus the concept of “using” her is a double-edged sword. What do we think the group is doing right now? Using her to get past the security. Penny’s power is a tool any way you slice it. Granted, Penny volunteers to help the group, but notably here Ruby speaks for her. Penny seems torn and Ruby takes the scroll away with, “She’s not going anywhere until you change your mind about Mantle.”

Sorry, Ruby, but coming from you that sounds less like a reassurance for Penny and more like just an order for Ironwood. Remember Harriet? We’ll stop attacking you provided you do what we want. Ruby has yet to learn about compromises, let alone acknowledge that she might be wrong. How about you let Penny decide where she goes, especially since by all logic she should have a lot of loyalty to Ironwood. She knew him before she ever met you. She’s worked with him since she was rebuild post-Volume 3. Despite what Penny has said, if the story would just let her think about his actions for a hot second—making her the protector of Mantle, sticking up for her after the framing, sending her to the party, teaming her up with Ruby, etc.—she might realize that the ‘He doesn’t want me to have friends’ and ‘He just treats me like a tool’ assumptions are just that, unfounded assumptions. But no, Ruby speaks for them both because Ironwood is evil now.

“If she makes it through our defenses,” Ironwood says, “everything that follows will be on your hands.”

That’s true! Kind of like how it’s own Qrow’s hands that Clover died. When you insist on making a bad situation worse you hold responsibility when the shit hits the fan. You know though that Salem won’t get through their defenses now, somehow, so that there’s no chance RWBYJNOR will be blamed for it. Or, by that point Ironwood will be so crazed that anything coming out of his mouth is dismissed, no matter how accurate it might be.

We then transfer to the Ace Ops who are, despite what the fandom theorized for many months, clearly upset about Clover. Also pissed. Which they have every right to be. Their friend and leader was killed. Imagine for a moment that Ruby had been murdered by Tyrian with an allies’ help. Exactly what do you think the group would do? Swallow it quietly and get over it? Ha.

I’ve already seen some speculation that Clover survived due to details like showing us the bandage and his room being listed as for a “Patient,” but he looks pretty dead to me.

He got gutted through the chest and left out in the snow for who knows how long. We saw him slip away. Qrow screamed over his dead body. He’s not breathing now. If RWBY suddenly claims he survived this, I’m calling BS.

Most of the other visuals we get here were already dropped in the trailer. Winter is pretty injured from her encounter with Cinder, likely permanently based on her new outfit. Ironwood had to replace his arm—and I am calling BS on that “Losing his arm is reflective of him losing his humanity” commentary from RT. Please go read up on a couple decades worth of ableism in media and then get back to me.

We get Ironwood’s line about the light shields and, notably, a whole lot of empathy. Regardless of what he might want Penny for, he still called her with compassion. He’s watching the Ace Ops mourn their friend. He’s talking about protecting his kingdom. The first thing he says to Winter is, “Thank you, Winter. I don’t know what I would do without you.” Ironwood has a heart! It’s always on display, which makes this scene utterly ridiculous.

I literally don’t know how to respond to this. The gunshot made me jump, both because it’s a gunshot and because, again, what the fuck? I know I said that next volume RT might just have Ironwood descend into full villainy, shooting whoever he pleases now that he’s shot Oscar, but I didn’t actually expect them to do it. Because he never should have shot Oscar in the first place! I wanted the story to let Oscar grapple with it a bit and then quietly backtrack, acknowledging it as the mistake it was. The concept that Ironwood, empathetic Ironwood, rational Ironwood, always thinks before he acts Ironwood, let’s kids yell at him Ironwood, tried to team up with Robyn Ironwood, did everything Ruby wanted Ironwood, won’t kill Watts after he destroyed his arm Ironwood would shoot this guy just to shut him up is absurd. It was absurd then, it’s absurd now.

That being said, there’s a possibility he didn’t actually shoot the council member, but rather just (“just”) gave a warning shot down the hallway. I say this because the reactions to this are pretty tame. Everyone looks startled, yeah, but after the initial shot there’s nothing that I would expect if there was now a guy bleeding out on the floor. The council woman doesn’t scream. Winter doesn’t seem overly shocked. No one is running to try and help him. Basically, if Ironwood had just killed a political figure in front of six witnesses, entirely unprovoked, I would expect a bit more of a reaction than this. This feels far more like a, “Damn he’s not joking around, letting off warning shots to get people to leave him alone” not “WOW, our general just killed someone in cold blood!”

What I really hate though—beyond just assassinating his character—is how many fans think my friends and I are delusional for calling it character assassination at all. I hopped onto the RWBY tag for five minutes this morning and was bombarded with posts about how Ironwood needs to be murdered horrifically, anyone who likes him is sick, the Ironwood stans are as bad as Adam stans, you’re an idiot if you want him redeemed… because apparently the concept of a story writing a character badly doesn’t compute. I’m not here to argue that Ironwood didn’t do these awful things (regardless of whether he actually killed the guy or not). I’m not here to argue that they’re not awful. I’m just here to say that we never should have gotten these scenes in the first place, or if we were going to get them, we deserved an actual descent into murder at the drop of a hat territory. I’ve already explained extensively on this blog how early Ironwood was not accurate foreshadowing for this, and Volume 7 certainly wasn’t setup, but it looks like the majority of fans aren’t interested in examining whether any of this adds up. Which makes my job, as someone trying to examine this series somewhat objectively—in as much as that’s possible for any single viewer—as well as simply enjoy it as a show, really hard. It’s bad enough when a story keeps taking the characters you love and villainizing them, and doing that badly, but then when you turn to the community and see them rallying around the idea that you’re awful for being dissatisfied—you’re the bootlicker, you’re the blind stan, you can’t see what’s ‘really’ going on here… that sucks. For those of you happy and satisfied with Ironwood’s arc, that’s great! I’ve also seen a lot of posts hyping up the complexity of his character now. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying what we’ve been given and I’d never want to imply that just because it’s not what I wanted it’s somehow wrong. I’m honestly thrilled that after a year of worry so many people have adored our premiere, including this scene. I just wish that I could say RWBY had given me something I didn’t want in a persuasive manner and that the fandom as a whole was a bit more welcoming of differing criticisms.

Not that I didn’t already know the RWBY fandom had its flaws, but still lol.

That’s basically it for our premiere. Nice note to end on, huh? Our final scene is of Salem using the lamp to set her bloodhound grimm on the city. Why doesn’t she just go herself? What was she planning to do here in Atlas in the first place, considering that getting the relic was a surprise? Who knows. Little about this holds together. But we do end with another awesome shot, so small favors.

It’s always strange concluding a recap, but even more-so when it’s a premiere, during a historical moment in the U.S., amidst all the nonsense that is 2020. So for now I’ll just conclude with three quick things:

The updated bingo board will be listed at the end of each recap, provided I don’t forget about it lol. Today I’m checking off tone (not nearly enough freaking out about Salem), the team keeping secrets (Oscar), and major plot point dropped (Amity is suddenly finished). I could also probably check off the cold not killing civilians and getting Amity up and running, but we’ll see if any changes with those.

I’m including my Ko-Fi link at the end of recaps now. Not with any expectations. Not with anything resembling pressure. I thought long and hard over whether to include it at all—let alone mention it here—because I love doing these and never want anyone to feel like it comes with strings attached. But life is a little harder and weirder than it was last year, so I figure it can’t hurt. Feel free to pass on by and I won’t be bringing it up past this note.

Far more importantly: thank you for reading! :D

(Bonus 4. Editing this was an absolute nightmare — damn you, tumblr!  — so I apologize if anything is super wonky when I finally post.)

See you next week! 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #mymetas #rwby recaps

[walkerwords]

“The Savior Sessions” Part 3 of 33 - Negan x GN!Reader

IMAGE CREDIT: Gene Page/AMC

SERIES MASTERLIST

Summary: Part three of the savior sessions. Both the reader and Negan open up about their fears on a rainy day.

Word Count: 3130

Warning: Mention of The Governor being a rapist (briefly)

Song I Wrote To: “Rain” by Ben Platt

Note: I am trying to make these as gender-neutral as possible. If you have seen me use specific pronouns or anything that counters that, let me know! Thanks! I am working on my Daryl story, but I wanted to throw this out there as I do.

--------

It was raining when you woke up.

Droplets raced down your windows and thunder rolled in the distance. You knew it would be a day that was spent mostly inside. However, you also knew you had to pay Negan a visit. 

It was odd. He had surprised you. You could still see the layers of the man he was years before, but there was something...new that wasn’t there when he stepped out of that RV and introduced himself to your people.

Since you were young, you always believed in second chances. You never really thought anyone was truly evil until the world ended. Then, you had met people like the Governor and Gareth, two men who killed who for fun, who took pleasure in the torture and destruction of others.

While Negan had done evil things, you didn’t think he was evil. If horrific acts categorize someone as unsavable, then those closest to you, and even yourself, would be considered just as bad. Nobody was innocent in the new world, but perhaps some of them could still find redemption. 

Rolling onto your back, you stared up at the ceiling as the rain pelted the roof. The drumming of it drowned out the world for just a moment and you allowed yourself just a few more seconds of peace before throwing the blanket off and getting up for the day. 

You quickly dressed and then made way your way to the window. Few people milled around in the soaked streets. A few kids splashed in puddles as their parents smiled from the cover of their porches. You watched as Gracie ran around as Aaron tried to catch her, both of them laughing the whole time. 

Your house was one of the only ones that were left unscathed from the Savior’s attack. You lived next to Rosita who would sometimes use your spare bedroom when she needed a break from her boys. However, you tended to be alone for the most part unless one of the parents asked you to watch the kids. Being a teacher before the turn, you were really the only one who was able to get the little ones to calm down and listen.

Many people figured you would be the one to take over as the full-time teacher in Alexandria, but you couldn’t do it. You loved teaching back then, but now after everything, you were so different. And while you still cared about the kids, you were now more comfortable with a gun on your hip, watching the walls, or now, chatting with a killer. 

You grabbed your coat and then headed out of your house, walking towards the infirmary. Siddiq had been experimenting with a new tea that would help improve the immune systems of the Alexandria residents as the weather turned for the worse. Laura had been his last guinea pig for a taste test and the blonde had nearly choked it down while she tried to put on a brave face. However, the doctor had seen right through her and tried again. 

You were more than willing to help him out this morning as he had stitched you up enough over the past few years. The rain soaked your hair as you walked down the road, trying to keep your jacket tucked around your neck to keep the bandage that was placed there somewhat dry. Siddiq had patched you up the day before, but you had no desire to get an infection from a ruined bandage. 

As you approached the infirmary, Siddiq was already waiting for you on the porch. “I saw you coming,” he said with a warm smile. 

“I would have been here sooner, but I slept in,” you said with an apologetic shrug. 

“It’s the weather,” Siddiq said as he picked up two mugs from the table by the door. When he handed both of them to you, you rose a brow in question. “It gets cold in that cell,” he said with a shrug of his own. You smiled slightly, oddly touched that Siddiq had thought of Negan. Then again, he was the one who had looked after the man after Rick had opened his throat. 

You took a hesitant sip of the sweet-smelling tea and then relaxed as it actually tasted pretty good. “I think you managed to get this one right, Doctor,” you said raising your cup to him. 

“Mind telling other people that?” he asked.

“I’ll spread the word, Siddiq,” you said, walking back down his steps.

“Have fun,” he teased. 

“If both of my hands weren’t occupied, I would be sending you a very rude gesture right now,” you called over your shoulder as you continued toward the main road that led to Negan’s cell.

The guard waved to you as he left his post. You figured he hadn’t been there long. You were also trying to convince Michonne to drop the guard altogether. Negan knew he would most likely be executed if he broke out and from your conversations with him, you didn’t think he would try anyway. 

Balancing the mugs in one hand, you entered the stone building, shoving the door close with your foot. “Someone has their hands full this mornin’,” Negan said as he stood by the bars. 

“Courtesy of the good doctor,” you said, approaching him and handing him a steaming mug. “Trust me, I already checked for poison.” You hadn’t but it amused him. Negan took the mug through the bars and enclosed his hands around it.

Not bothering with the chair this time, you sat on the ground by the bars, pulling your knees up. Negan joined you, leaning against the cold wall. “How was your morning?” he asked, pleasantly. You chuckled under your breath. “What?”

“Nothing,” you said shaking your head. “It’s been...wet.” Negan looked at you and you rolled your eyes. “Don’t be gross,” you warned and he raised a hand in surrender. 

“I didn’t say anything,” he said. 

“No, but you were thinking it,” you said with narrowed eyes. 

“Ah, see, would you look at that! We’re so close we can already read each other’s minds.”

“Oh, great,” you said, turning up your nose. Negan mirrored your earlier expression and rolled his own eyes. 

“So, you don’t like the rain, then?” he asked.

“I don’t care for the thunderstorms, but I like a little rain. It makes the Walkers slower and freshens up the rotten air,” you explained, sipping on your tea. 

“Yeah,” Negan agreed, “I’m not too big on the thunderstorms either. Way back when the world was still somewhat functioning, we had a massive storm that cut the power right in the middle of the school day. Kids are rambunctious enough and then you give the little assholes a power outage and well…”

“Shit hits the fan,” you concluded. 

“You sound like you have personal experience,” Negan noticed. 

“I used to teach middle and high school English,” you revealed and Negan looked at you in surprise. 

“Did you like it?”

“It was better than this,” you said with a snort. 

“Fair enough,” Negan said. You let your head fall back and that’s when he noticed the bandage on your neck. “What happened there?” Your hand came up to touch the dressing. 

“Oh, I got cut when I was helping Scott with one of the walls. Walkers snuck up on us and I tripped on a piece of metal, scratch it on my way down. No big deal, I’ve had worse.” 

“Haven’t we all,” Negan muttered and you saw a flash of something behind his eyes, but it was gone in a second. “Well, you need to be more careful (Y/N), I can’t have my BFF gettin’ munched on by a corpse.” 

“BFF?” you asked with raised brows. Negan just winked back. “Alright, Mister, today, I want to hear a story from you.”

“I thought you said you were going to tell me what your vote would be,” Negan said, turning his head to look at you, waiting. You sighed as you remembered promising him that at the end of your last conversation, but you had been doing most of the talking in these sessions and it was his turn. 

“Story first,” you told him. “Then I’ll tell you.” He looked at you annoyed for a moment before shrugging. 

“As you wish, your majesty,” he said, but then he began his story. “Alright, how about the first time I ran into a herd?” 

“Oh? Do tell,” you said, resting your elbow on your knee and watching him. 

“Right, so, it wasn’t long after the Turn. Corpses were everywhere and you couldn’t walk out the door without having to bash in some skulls. I was trying to find someplace to hold up for a few days. I was with two other people, both are dead now, but they were decent people to travel with. My wife had just died and I needed to just leave, you know?” you nodded, understanding. “I made it to Richmond and god the number of Walkers was fucking terrifying. At this point, nobody knew what the fuck was going on. Not like we do now, but it was different back then as you remember.

“We moved into the city and then when I headed into the main district, lookin’ for the old FEMA centers, that’s when we saw it. Must have been over five hundred, maybe more. It was like they were all rotating in one big circle and then the bastards saw us and...well shit, I had never run so damn fast in my life. It was like we were magnets for the things and no matter where we turned, there were more and more…” Negan let out a breath as his memories haunted him. 

“What did you do to get away?” you asked.

“Managed to get an old tow truck workin’,” he said. “Plowed that sucker right through them until we could find high ground. Wasn’t pretty, but dealing with Walkers never is.”

“I think we all learned not to go to cities again after the first time,” you said, finishing your tea. 

“You did it too?”

“Atlanta,” you said with a nod. “Though, I did it multiple times for supplies so I guess I’m the idiot here.” 

“These were the runs you went on with Glenn?” he asked and you were surprised to hear him say Glenn’s name, but you nodded nonetheless. 

“Right,” you confirmed. “Though, I wasn’t with him the day he found Rick.”

Negan was quiet then and you knew he was thinking about Glenn. A few days before, Gabriel had come to you and told you that he sometimes overheard Negan saying his victims’ names in his sleep. Negan probably didn’t even know he was doing it, but it only added to your theory that Negan felt guilt for what happened at the line-up and everything afterward. 

“The fear I felt when all those Walkers were coming for us…” Negan continued. “It was the most primal thing I had ever felt. You know how they talk about fight or flight?” 

“Yeah.”

“I never once thought to fight at that moment. All I wanted to do was run and not look back. It wasn’t until weeks later that I got sick of running and I finally made Lucille.”

“‘Lucille, give me strength’,” you quoted and his head whipped towards you. “I told you, I was good at surveillance. I guess she did more for you than we all first thought. Not just a bat after all.”

“Never was that simple,” he said and you could hear the sadness in his voice as he spoke the words.

You were wondering if you could find her out in that field. It had been years, but if by some miracle it was there, you may be able to get it. Not that you were going to give it to Negan, but maybe someday if he was let out and went looking for her, you could give that piece back to him. The thing that was hated by your people but created the resilient man before you. You figured that was something. 

“You asked me before who the first person I killed was,” you began. Negan waited patiently. “I never knew his name or if he had a family, but I remember his face and how I felt at that moment. I was terrified. We were under attack by this man who called himself The Governor. This man ran a community, a town, and he was horrible. He was a rapist, a killer, and an overall tyrant. Not somebody that would have been welcomed here or the Sanctuary.” 

“Damn right,” Negan sneered. 

“We had liberated the town and Michonne had tried to kill him so he was pissed and eventually rolled up to the gates of the prison we were living in. He blasted our towers to rubble and his men and women began killing us. We were lucky enough to be pretty strong then and we killed most of them. Daryl got his hands on some grenades and took the tank out.”

“Tank?” Negan asked. 

“I told you, son of a bitch was crazy. His people attacked and we had to defend ourselves. I was trying to wrangle all the kids with a man by the name of Tyreese. He was Sasha’s brother. He and I were almost out when this man came up and tried to kill Tyreese as he held a very young Judith in his arms.”

Taking a breath, you tried to stay calm as you recounted the events. “He was gonna kill the baby and I had one of Daryl’s knife so I just rammed it into the man’s neck. I didn’t think it would be that hard, you know? Walkers are much easier, so when the blade made contact, it almost didn’t go through. Blood flowed all over me from the artery I had severed and Tyreese ran with Judith. I watched the man die at my feet as I collected myself, but it didn’t last long. A second later and an explosion racked the courtyard and I went down. I didn’t see Tyreese or the baby until we were all reunited.”

“You did it to protect your people, to protect a child,” Negan reminded you. 

“I wasn’t upset I killed him, Negan,” you said. “I was upset at how easy it was to do it.”

“I get that,” he said and you could tell he was being honest. That was something you admired about him, he never lied if he could help it. “What happened after that?” 

“Michonne killed the Governor and I woke up just as a Walker was about to kill me. Then, Glenn came out of nowhere and killed it and I ended up staying with him and Tara as we went to find the others. On the road is where we met Rosita, Abraham, and Eugene. I didn’t know it then, but I would be killing a lot more in the next few weeks.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not and you wouldn’t be either if you knew who tried to kill us...who tried to fucking slaughter us like cows…” your fists curled in as the visuals of Terminus flashed behind your eyes.

You hadn’t realized you were shaking until you felt a hand on yours as Negan reached through the bars to calm your hands. You realized then that this was the first time he had touched you and you felt oddly comforted. You patted his hand in thanks and he withdrew it, placing it back in his lap. “So, just know you’re not the only one who has felt fear like you did in that city.”

“But you fought,” he said. 

“I did, but all I wanted to do was run. It took me a long time to run towards danger than from it. Rick, Daryl, Carol, Abe, they all taught me to fight.”

“They did a good job,” he complimented. “You are one certified badass (Y/L/N).” 

“Who told you my last name?” you asked, narrowing your eyes. 

“Judith,” he said with a grin. 

“Should have known,” you said with a small smile. 

“There it is,” Negan said, pointing at your mouth. “I like seeing you smile.” You went to roll your eyes again, but a loud crash of thunder interrupted you. You jumped. 

“Jesus,” you swore under your breath. “That is why I hate storms.” 

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you,” he joked and you pushed his shoulder through the bars, making him laugh. The two of you sat in silence then, listening to the rain. This was only your third time speaking to him, but you were starting to feel a kind of camaraderie between the two of you. It was strange, but it began to feel natural. You wondered if this is how Judith felt when she spoke to him, this kind of calmness. Then again, Judith could make friends with everyone.

Negan’s eyes fell closed as he breathed in deep. In the low light of the cell, you could see the shiny line of the scar that permanently marked his throat and you finally answered his question. 

“I would have voted no,” you whispered. His eyes opened slowly and his head rolled to the right to look at you. 

“Why?” he simply asked. You kept eye contact as you spoke, making sure he understood every word. 

“None of us are saints, Negan,” you began. “All of us, Hilltop, Alexandria, Kingdom, Oceanside, we’ve all killed without a second thought to protect what’s ours. I’m not saying what you did was right, but sometimes I think back to the line-up or when you set the Walkers loose on Hilltop and I can’t help but think that I would’ve done the same if the situation was reversed. Maybe not with a baseball bat, but we’ve tortured and we’ve executed.”

“So, you’re saying that you wouldn’t have killed me because you’ve done shitty things, too?” he asked. 

“There is enough death in the world already,” you said with a shrug.

“Unbeing dead isn't being alive,” Negan quotes and you tilted your head slightly. 

“E.E. Cummings was a wise man.” 

“Indeed he was,” Negan agreed with a smile. “Thanks for saying that.” 

“I told you I didn’t hate you and I meant it. To an outsider, we’re both monsters,” you explained. “I imagine that if I had been with the Saviors, I would have seen this side as the villains. All about perception, my friend.” 

“Ah, so you agree,” he said with a grin, “we are friends.”

“Oh, shut up.”

TAGS:  @thanossexual​ @yes-sir-hotchner​ @boom-bunny​ @delusionalteenagewhispers​ @sophia-gwendolyn​ @ritajammer21

#walkerwords #savior sessions #twd #twd imagines #negan imagine #negan x reader #reader insert #The Walking Dead #the walking dead imagines #the walking dead fanfiction #TWD season 9 #Prison Negan

[snowdice]

The Onslaught (A Labeled Universe Fic) [Part 2/4]

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Logan/Patton, Logan & Lia (OC)

Characters:

Main: Lia, Wade Brigs, Rhea Silvia, Remy

Appear: Logan, Patton, Janus

Summary: In a world of superpowers, some people don’t have them. This doesn’t make them unimportant.

Four mini stories about the world wide supervillain attack that would come to be known as The Onslaught.

This is an event that takes place about 10 years before Sometimes Labels Fail.

Notes: Major character death (of an OC), electrocution, mind control, killing committed by a main character, torture inflicted by a main character, (Janus is a vigilante… not a hero…), needles, serious injury, being impaled, non-consensual drug use, falling from a building, fire, surgery.

Part 1

Wade Brigs was a relatively simple man all things considered. He had a daughter who was in her junior year of college and a son about to graduate from high school. He’d started out working for the city as a teenager filling potholes and had ended up on the police force after a couple of years of college. He’d never cared much about going up the ranks like some of his coworkers and while he’d been moved from graveyard shift to day shift, he’d never made sergeant or even bothered to try. He was content with where he was and didn’t see much need for a change.

On that day, he’d happened to be close by when the call came in that there was a man on the Newback Bridge acting erratically who seemed to be planning to jump. So, he’d responded and driven over to the bridge. He’d gotten out of his car just as two other officers arrived. Maybe they should have found it odd that no one that had been in their cars on the bridge was trying to drive anywhere, but they’d assumed most people were stopped because of the man on the edge. They had been too focused on deescalating the obvious problem to notice that the other citizens weren’t trying to get out of their cars and gawk or turn around and drive away agitated at the disruption to their days.

Wade had been the one to try to approach, calling out to the man and trying to talk him down or at least figure out what was going on, but the man hadn’t responded. He also hadn’t threatened to do anything or make any move to jump, so Wade had ended up getting nearer to him.

“Sir?” he asked when he was a couple feet away. The man turned to him.

Wade would never forget the look in the man’s eyes in that moment. Wade had expected to see anger or despair or even confusion, but that’s not what he saw at all. No, what he saw was fear and pain and please run.

Something was wrong. Wade took a stumbling step back, fully intending in that moment to obey the man’s silent plea and run away, but his legs locked in place. Confused, he tried to jerk away from whatever was holding him, but his body would not respond. For the next half hour, his body would be a puppet, his mind intact but his actions not his own as he was forced to help draw more and more people into the web of the supervillain, a man walker by the name of Puppeteer.

Finally, when the villain decided he had enough people under his control, he revealed himself to the city cameras with all the pomp and dramatics of any supervillain. Over 100 people stood frozen on the edge of the bridge under his control. He’d already had a dozen or so toss themselves off of it, just to show that he was serious.

Wade was only a few feet from the villain when someone else stepped onto the bridge. It drew Wade’s attention because he was the only person withing Puppeteer’s field of influence that was moving. He footsteps were startlingly loud on the metal bridge when everything else was silent bar the distant sounds of what Wade assumed to be some other sort of attack on the other side of the city.

It was Deceit. Wade knew Deceit, of course. Everyone did. He’d been a vigilante that had plagued or helped the city for decades depending on who you asked. He had a mental power, the ability to create hallucinations to be specific, but he tended to much more favor the use of his fist or a gun. Wade had never even heard of him using his mental powers to do more than distract someone briefly.

Puppeteer turned to him as Deceit approached and stopped a few feet from Wade.

“I think it would be in your best interest to release those people and leave now,” Deceit said simply.

“You’re not a hero,” Puppeteer reasoned. “This isn’t your fight. Stand down.”

“Oh, you’re right,” said Deceit. “I’m not a hero.” He stepped forward another step. “So, this is you last chance not to die a painful death.”

The villain scoffed. “What do you even think you could do to me?”

Deceit did not respond. Except then he did. A second foreign presence was suddenly filling Wade’s head, even more overwhelming than the first. It was the most powerful mental power Wade had ever or would ever come into contact with. It could have ripped them all to shreds in a moment, Wade knew instinctually. It could have twisted them all up and down and around with vivid images of their worst fears and insecurities at its leisure, and Wade didn’t know if anyone would have been able to stop it. Instead of doing that, however, it wrapped itself around the first presence and squeezed tight making it rear back in surprise. Wade somehow knew, much like one would know that losing a limb would hurt, that if he hadn’t taken that step, if Deceit had just ripped out Puppeteer’s presence, it would have done damage to all of them. As it was, Wade could feel the Puppeteer release just enough that when Deceit yanked him out all Wade felt was a brief pop of discomfort.

Wade stumbled back, barely catching himself as he was suddenly given control over his body again. Many other’s fell back or ended up on their knees. On instinct, Wade grabbed the gun still in his holster though he didn’t know what he planned to do with it.

“What?” Puppeteer asked, more confused than terrified as he likely should have been.

Deceit tilted his head, eyes on the villain. “Suffer,” he said simply, and Puppeteer shrieked, falling to the ground on hands and knees. Deceit turned to Wade calmly as the villain continued to scream in agony. Deceit held out his hand. “You can tell them I made you give it to me.”

Wade blinked at him and then at the gun in his hand.

He handed it over.

Want to read more? Click below!

Part 3 Part 4

#sanders sides #janus sanders #adriana writes #labeled universe #tsss #logan sanders #patton sanders #logicality #major character death #electrocution #mind manipulation #killing committed by a main character #torture inflicted by a main character

[teiahlu]

The Construction of Violence in Banana Fish

By: Teiah Lu Palhetas

If you speak to anyone who’s read Banana Fish, one of the first things they’d likely mention is the violence. As a crime thriller that follows an 18-year-old gang leader named Ash Lynx in New York City, based in the year 1985, both the comic and the animated adaption are violent from the beginning. The story never goes an episode or volume without threats with guns and knives, kidnapping, sexual assault or murder.

Codes and Conventions and how the influence messages about violence:

Episode 1 opens with what appears to be an eagle flying overhead. Traditionally, birds are seen as a symbol of freedom. This is an interesting contrast to the life Ash Lynx has lived. Freedom is something he longs for, that doesn't exist in his world. Ash was taken and sexually abused from a very young age by wealthy, powerful politicians. When he was only 12, he killed one of his tormenters just to have the chance at escaping this life. Despite the title America has as a “free country, ” Ash’s childhood shows that even though there are laws against violent acts, you can never abolish it for good. That he can never be free from the trauma he experienced in his youth.

At the end of the first episode, A Japanese boy named Eiji asks to hold Ash’s gun in a bar. Given what we now know about Ash’s past, this gun is something he used to take other peoples lives, a violent weapon, the only thing he has to protect himself. Eiji asking Ash’s permission becomes symbolic of trust as well as consent. It's an honest, innocent request without any ulterior motives. This moment is what draws Ash to Eiji. But even more than this, it is the fact that Eiji has enough respect for Ash’s boundaries to ask first. When Eiji returns the gun, he says to Ash “Thank you for trusting me with it.”

Image of Ash and Eiji for Banana Fish exhibition in 2018

In the end theme of each episode, we are shown the lyrics “Get away from me, get away from dark nightmare.” I believe that this is Ash speaking to Eiji. Telling Eiji to get away from him, because all he brings is sadness and chaos and he himself is a dark nightmare. This would be in line with the way Ash tends to view himself, since the audience is shown a lot of self loathing on his part. Especially when it comes to Eiji being involved in this violent world Ash lives in.

Lastly, I'll be discussing a vision Ash has under anesthesia. In episode 9, Ash is forced to kill his best friend, Shorter. In terms of him hallucinating Eiji, I view this as Ash believing that he has murdered Eiji’s innocence and his fear of what's to come. If Eiji were to die as a result of his involvement with Ash, however indirect. Ash would feel direct responsibility. To top off this horrific hallucination, we see Ash drop to his knees as he screams that he is a murderer. Further emphasizing the extent of his guilt. This is again symbolic of how he is trapped in this cycle of violence and self loathing.

Short scene below:

Ideologies put forth by the mediaconcerning violence/ What external forces influence these ideologies?

The racial realities of Banana Fish’s America:

The original comic is a painful read because it’s able to capture how pervasive white supremacy is throughout all areas of society. The series depicts how that ideology is perpetuated through interpersonal relationships and how it has an influence on real-world policy decisions. The creator or the story Akimi Yoshida clearly did extensive research on the subject. However, she ended up perpetuating racist caricatures reminiscent of the long history of Anti-Black portrayals in media.

The comics highly tense environment draws from real-world events such as the Civil Rights movements, the Vietnam War and the Cold War, which created impactful societal changes in the United States. During Richard Nixon’s presidency, the “War on Drugs” became a priority. This initiative both criminalized drugs and associated them with communities of color, which allowed law enforcement to raid their neighborhoods. As a result, the mass incarceration of people of color, particularity Black people, rose dramatically during this period. The street gangs featured in Banana Fish formed as a direct result of communities of color feeling disenfranchised by a country that continuously proved it didn’t care about them.

This is the brutal reality that our racially diverse gang leaders Ash, who is white, Shorter and Sing, who are Chinese, and Cain, who is Black find themselves in as they try their best to survive a world hostile towards them. However, their interactions and later involvement in larger political schemes show how unequally the story treats their leadership qualities.

With the exception of Eiji, there is also the issue of the few openly LGBTQ+ men of color in Banana Fish being depicted as pedophiles or rapists. So, while representation can be empowering, it can also be problematic.

Target Audiences:

Victims of sexual assault and gang violence likely relate to this story the most. One Reddit user says “I definitely related to Ash. We’ve been through a lot of similar things. Maybe that's why I took the ending so hard and felt devastated. Despite its depressing end, I understand that I deserve love too, Just as much as anyone else. I haven't been able to resonate with a character this well ever. Or felt this touched by a work of fiction in a while.”

This story seems to have had a great impact on many people who have read/watched the series. Especially those who grew up around violence. Leading the original comic to reach legendary status is Japan.

Breaking conventional norms:

Everyone loves a happy ending. For all the sadness and violence to just, disappear. Many people read stories for wish fulfillment. They want to see a world where the heroes succeed and the unjust are punished. Stories centered around tragedy often end this way. Bird box, for example. In the movie the main characters witness death and violence around every corner. In the end, they reach a safe haven away from danger, It's predictable.

Banana Fish is a story I’ll l never forget. From the beginning, the audience was sure Ash would find happiness with Eiji at the end. Ash would begin to heal from his trauma and all would be right in the world. Up until the last 5 minutes of the final episode, all was going as planned. Ash’s lifelong abuser was dead and his ring of abusers were exposed to the world.

Ash, recognizing the danger he exposes Eiji to, ceases contact with him. He is to return to Japan, though just before his departure, Eiji entrusts a letter for Ash to Sing. In the letter, Eiji says, "You are not alone Ash, my soul is always with you." Ash changes his mind, and wants to see Eiji one last time. For the first time in his life, Ash lets his guard down is stabbed by an enemy gang member. Ash shoots him, as one last violent act to end the story.

He takes this as a sign from God that he doesn't deserve to be happy. He walks to the New York Public Library where he bleeds to death, smiling and clutching Eiji's letter in his hand.

Eijis final letter to Ash:

[drkfought]

   ─         the  mirrors  surrounding  you  did  as  they  were  meant  to ,  reflecting  back  a  spitting  image  of  jensen  ackles    -    but  it’s  clear  something  is  wrong  from  the  moment  that  a  vision  of   𝘫𝘢𝘤𝘬  𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨  𝘨𝘰𝘥   strikes  you .    perhaps  it  was  a  passing  daydream  in  the  frenzy  of  the  funhouse .    you  reassure  yourself    -    you’re  𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐍  𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 ,   a   𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘺  𝘰𝘯𝘦   year  old   𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗘  𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗘𝗙   whose  virtue  lies  in  your   + loyalty   &   + selflessness ,  although  you’ve  been  told  that  you  tend  to  be  quite   - short  tempered   &  - self  loathing ,  and you’re associated with  𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒌𝒍𝒆𝒔  𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅  𝒃𝒚  𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒔  𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔  𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏,  𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈  𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔  𝒃𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉  𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒚  𝒌𝒏𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒍𝒆𝒔,  𝒕𝒉𝒆  𝒓𝒐𝒂𝒓  𝒕𝒐  𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒆  𝒕𝒐  𝒑𝒖𝒓𝒓  𝒐𝒇  𝒂𝒏  𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒆,  𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅  𝒃𝒍𝒖𝒆  𝒋𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒔  𝒂𝒏𝒅  𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒍  𝒕𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅  𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔  𝒂  𝒃𝒆𝒅 ,  by  those  around  you .    suddenly,  however,  you’ve found   𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍'𝐒  𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋   on  your  person    -    was  that  always  there ?     from  the  moment  you  leave  the  funhouse ,  memories  from  your  life  in   𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙡   have  begun  to  return   -   leaving  whoever  you  had  been  before  in  the  mirror’s  reflection  behind  you .    you  can  almost  hear   𝚁𝙰𝙼𝙱𝙻𝙴  𝙾𝙽   by  𝙻𝙴𝙳  𝚉𝙴𝙿𝙿𝙻𝙴𝙸𝙽  following  in  your  wake .

hi  i  love  dean  winchester  so  stinkin’  much   ...   i  am  ....  so  excited .    he  deserves  a  life  where  he  wasn’t  hunting  monsters  all  the  time !    one  where  he  got  a  job   &   had  kids   &   is  just  living  life !    let  dean  have  a  life !

full name :     dean  henry  winchester . alises :   the  righteous  man .   the  sword  of  michael .   squirrel . age :   forty  one . gender & pronouns :   cis male ,  he / him . sexual & romantic orientation :    bisexual / biromantic . species :   human . identifying  marks :    multiple  scars  across  his  body .   some  looking  like  they  came  from  knives ,  others  from  guns .    his  memory  on  how  he  got  most  of  them  is  fuzzy

    ─        𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍  𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 .

i  will  try  to  make  this  short .    dean  was  born  to  mary   &   john  winchester   &   for  four  years  he  had  the  most  simple  apple  pie  life  a  four  year  old  could  ask  for .    in  1983 ,  a  demon  went  into  the  winchester  house  to  visit  their  newborn  son :  dean’s  younger  brother  sam .    when  mary  interrupted  the  demon’s  visitation ,  he  killed  her .   slashed  open  her  stomach   &   burned  her  on  the  ceiling .    dean’s  father ,  john ,  witnessed  the  terrible  end  of  his  wife’s  life   &   though  he  made  it  out  alive  with  both  sam   &   dean ,  the  event  would  irreversibly  change  him .

john  became  obsessed  with  discovering  what  it  was  that  killed  mary .   he  learned  to  hunt  the  supernatural   &  ruthlessly  trained  his  sons  to  do  the  same .    dean’s  toddler  life  of  toys  turned  into  tinkering  with  guns ,  his  warm  bed  into  dirty  motels ,   &   his  carefree  existence  into  only  worrying  over  his  younger  brother .    he  became  the  perfect  killer  but  it  took  a  toll  on  him .    his  father ,  far  from  perfect  even  before  this ,  became  harsh  on  dean .   molding  him  until  he  was  more  dutiful  soldier  than  he  was  boy .   dean  did  everything  his  father  asked  &  followed  his  every  order  with  blind  faith   &   even  then  he  would  never  be  the  perfect  son  to  john .    sam ,  on  the  other  hand ,  rebelled  against  the  life  john  gave  them .   though  dean  tried  constantly  to  settle  their  explosive  arguments  as  best  he  could  no  matter  his  thoughts  on  the  matter  at  hand ,  desperate  for  peace  between  the  two ,  he  still  couldn’t  stop  sam  from  running  away  in  the  end .    he  wanted  to  hate  sam  for  it  at  first ,  but  he  never  could .

years  later  when  john  went  missing  on  a  hunt ,  dean  reached  out  to  his  estranged  brother  for  help .   the  job  was  supposed  to  be  a  simple  one  but  after  coming  back  unsuccessful  to  the  tragic  death  of  sam’s  girlfriend  ( same  as  their  mothers ,  in  fact )   sam  entered  back  into  his  life  for  good .   

though  the  plots  of  both  heaven   &   hell ,  sam  &  dean  became  pawns  in  the  story  of  the  world’s  end .    the  apocalypse  slowly  set  into  motion  &  started  with  the  winchesters  at  the  center  of  it  all .    even  though  they  managed  stop  the  world’s  end ,  though ,  it  was  hardly  the  last  threat  to  humanity .    as  years  passed ,  the  brothers  found  themselves  thrust  into  apocalypse  after  apocalypse .     an  endless  cycle  that  they ,  eventually ,  discovered  was  god’s  doing  all  along .   they  were  simply  the  main  characters  of  a  never  ending  tragic  story  that  god  was  writing .    furious ,  the  two  brothers ,  with  help  from  their  rebel  angel  best  friend  &  the  half  angel  son  on  lucifer  himself ,  devised  a  way  to  defeat  god  for  good .    in  the  end  they  succeeded .   jack ,  the  mentioned  son  of  lucifer ,  took  god’s  place  after  his  defeat .    the  world  is  their’s  in  the  end .   they ,  for  the  first  time ,  get  to  choose  their  own  paths .

   ─        𝐀𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐃  𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 .

there  was  still  a  fire  at  the  winchester  house  when  dean  was  four  years  old .    an  accident  this  time .    an  electrical  fire .     a  normal  tragedy .     their  mom  was  still  lost  but  dean ,  holding  onto  the  bundle  that  was  his  little  brother ,  watched  as  the  fire  fighters  pulled  his  dad  from  the  flames .     sitting  with  them ,  brother  in  his  arms ,  while  they  consoled  him   &    let  him  wear  their  helmets  would  always  be  a  far  more  comforting  memory  to  dean  than  the  ones  his  father  gave  him  in  the  years  to  come .    john  winchester  became  distant .   negligent .    borderline  abusive .    dean  did  his  best  to  take  the  bulk  of  what  their  grief  drowned  father  put  on  them ,  trying  to  shield  sam ,   &  gave  a  lot  of  his  life  to  helping  raise  sam  where  john  fell  short .   they  moved  around  a  lot ,  finally  settling  in  alucard  when  dean  was  around  seventeen .

when  he  was  a  late   teen  if  he  wasn’t  at  home  or  sneaking  out  for  a  smoke   &   some  girls ,   dean  worked  at  being  a  volunteer  firefighter .    it  was  something ,  he  thought ,  slightly  productive  to  do  with  his  life  as  it  was  already  obvious  to  him  that  he  wouldn’t  be  able  to  go  to  college  with  sam  still  needing  him  around .   at  age  eighteen ,  with  his  high  school  diploma  stating  he  graduated  with  average  grades ,  dean  officially  joined  the  fire  force  at  an  entry  level   &   began  saving  up  money  for  his  own  place .    a  place  away  from  his  father  but  close  enough  that  sam  could  use  it  to  get  away  at  any  time  as  well .   though ,  as  the  year  went  on ,  he  found  that  john  would  have  been  unlikely  to  allow  dean  to  live  under  his  roof  anyway .    

dean  was  notorious  with  women   &   thought  himself  as  careful  but  clearly  not  as  careful  as  he  thought .    when  he  found  out  he  was  going  to  be  a  dad  at  eighteen  he  initially  rejected  the  idea ,  wanting  nothing  to  do  with  the  child  out  of  fear  of  turning  into  his  father .    sam  was  the  one  who  talked  him  down  from  the  anxiety .   with  his  encouragement ,  dean  slowly  worked  to  learn  how  to  be  a  parent .   preparing  a  room .    reading  parenting  books .   anything .    it  came  as  a  shock  a  month  before  the  due  date  to  when  he  found  out  the  mother  was  backing  out  of  keeping  the  child .    she  had  been  the  one  initially  for  raising  it  at  first  but  suddenly  felt  she  couldn’t  do  it .    though  he’d  be  on  his  own ,  dean  had  steeled  himself  to  becoming  a  father  too  much  to  let  the  girl  to  go  up  for  adoption .    beverly  winchester  was  born  feburary  13th   &   dean  took  full  custody  as  her  sole  guardian .    he  kept  in  touch  with  bevery’s  mother  still ,  who  went  on  to  study  psychology  outside  alucard .

being  a  single  father  was  far  from  easy  but  dean  managed ,  always  taking  help  where  he  could  from  his  brother  or  from  friends .    one  friend  even  got  closer  than  others .    when  beverly  was  nearing  three  years  old ,  dean  started  seeing  a  foreign  exchange  student  from  england  who  was  taking  classes  at  the  local  university   &  the  casual  feeling  of  the  affair  wasn’t  there  for  long .    things  blossomed  into  something  serious   &   when  it  was  discovered  she  was  pregnant ,  this  time  dean  was  far  more  sure  about  things  than  when  he  was  twenty .     the  wedding  was  small    &   around  nine  months  later  dean  became  a  father  of  two  as  simon  joined  the  winchester  family .  

for  a  few  years  this  seemed  the  perfect  arrangement .    dean  worked  up  through  the  ranks  at  the  station ,  setting  himself  up  to  be  the  new  fire  chief  one  day ,   &   raised  his  kids  happily  with  his  wife .    but  perfect  sometimes  doesn’t  last  long .    their  relationship ,  after  all ,  had  been  a  rushed  one .    after  around  six  years ,  things  simply  didn’t  have  the  same  spark  as  they  used  to .     the  divorce  wasn’t  nasty ,  they  knew  it  was  a  mutual  thing ,  but  it  still  stung .     he  left  the  court  as  a  single  father  again ,  now  with  joint  custody  of  his  son .    he  didn’t  seen  simon  much  after  the  divorce .   shortly  after ,  he  &  his  mother  moved  back  to  england  which  dean  was  always  bitter  about .    though  simon  came  to  visit  sometimes   &   dean  called  whenever  he  could ,  he  always  felt  like  he  was  far  from  the  boy .

at  fourty  one ,  years  later ,  he’s  gotten  well  back  on  his  feet .    no  serious  relationships  seem  to  stick  but  at  work  he’s  finally  gotten  fire  chief .    he  misses  being  in  the  middle  of  the  action  sometimes ,  but  he  loves  his  job  nonetheless .     if  not  at  work  he’s  visiting  his  brother ,  the  bar ,  fixing  his  car ,  or  dedicating  time  to  beverly   &   simon  who  has  recently  moved  to  alucard  to  be  around  dean ,  much  to  his  delight .    as  his  life  is  coming  back  to  him ,  though ,  it  is  stressing  him  out .   the  world  was  already  dangerous  without  remembering  monsters .    he  feels  as  though  this  is  just  another  story  he’s  now  lived  out   &   isn’t  even  sure  whats  real .

  ─        𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑  𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 .

father  to  BEVERLY  MARSH  &  SIMON  SNOW  in  alucard .    he  will  absolutely  go  off  on  you  if  you  are  mean  to  his  kids .    yes ,  this  includes  other  kids  who  bully  his  kids .   he  doesn’t  care  he’ll  yell  at  you  for  being  an  asshole  no  matter  your  age .   absolutely  no  one  messes  with  his  kids .

has  had  beverly  around  since  she  was  born  but  has  seen  simon  infrequently  since  he  was  about  six  since  simon’s  mother  took  him  back  to  england  with  her .    he  doesn’t  love  simon  any  less ,  but  he ‘s  struggling  with  fact  they  don’t  know  each  other  as  well  as  dean  would  like .    he  hates  that  his  son  grew  up  so  far  away  from  him  with  visits   &   phone  calls  too  few   &   far  in  between .

is  also  now  having  to  cope  with  the  fact  that ,  in  this  new  life  he  remembers ,  he  doesn’t  even  HAVE  his  kids .    closest  thing  he  has  to  a  child  there  is  jack   &   he  doesn’t  even  know  if  jack  is  okay .

still  has  the  impala  here .    can’t  have  dean  without  his  car .

while  he  is  the  fire  chief ,  fixing  cars  is  a  huge  hobby  of  his .    if  he  didn’t  love  his  job ,  he  would  absolutely  leave  it  to  work  as  a  mechanic  at  the  local  garage .

while  he  mostly  works  on  his  car  himself ,  he  still  brings  his  car  to  the  garage  a  few  times  a  year  for  things  that  his  own  garage  doesn’t  have  the  tools  for .   they  know  him  there  from  his  recognizable  car .

his  father  has  been  alive  for  sometime  but  he’s  recently  found  out  he  died  from  a  stroke  in  his  sleep .   dean  is  stuck  between  the  duty  of  giving  his  father  a  proper  funeral   &  his  own  bitterness  at  the  man  for  how  he  treated  him   &  sam .     this  is  only  worsened  by  the  memories  of  john  that  will  come  back .

he  is  bisexual !   because  i’ve  watched  this  show   &   have  eyes !    i  know !    is  he  repressed   a  lot   &  hasn’t  exactly  had  an  offical  coming  out ?   also  yes !    doesn’t  mean  he  HASN’T made  out   &   gotten  with  a  guy  or  two  in  the  past .   just  means  he  never  felt  like  he  could  say  anything  about  it  all  growing  up   &   now  just  figures  it’s  too  late .

uuuuuuuuuuuuh   anyway .    i’ll  add  to  this  more  if  i  think  of  more .

#dean: intro #duality.intro #THIS IS LONG im not sorry #neglect tw #abuse tw

[kinetic-elaboration]

February 8: Mountain Lion Mean Notes

Okay, so I was writing up notes on my Troped Western fic and then I clicked something and it all disappeared! I’m very upset and I hate the idea of starting again but like... I guess that’s what I gotta do :/

Mountain Lion Mean on AO3.

Written for @troped-fanfic-challenge​

So as I said in my notes, I watched Hell or High Water on the Sunday the trope document opened and immediately became obsessed, and that was my main inspiration. I saw it and loved it and, like with most things I love, my first thought was how can I do this too?? I didn’t want to do a straight AU of it, because it’s just too good and I don’t want to mess with that kind of perfection, but I knew I wanted a similar mood. I also figured pretty early on that I would try to include a bank robbery.

For the first days after the trope doc opened, I mostly just gathered inspiration and tried to think Western thoughts. In addition to HOHW, my inspiration included:

The Western episode of Charmed

A Western Rock playlist I found on Spotify

This post of southwestern gothic aesthetics

“Ranch Girl” by Maile Meloy (also the inspiration for it is new moon and twilight, which, fun fact, was originally going to be a Western; I didn’t re-read the story but it’s been haunting me since I first read it c. 2001 and is probably a partial inspiration for everything I write)

William Faulkner (especially “A Rose for Emily” and A Light in August) for the “town POV” narration

Sigrid Undset for the floating third-person-POV

The wikipedia article on Westerns, for succinct summaries of the themes of Westerns

The original aesthetic, quoted from my notes: “The vastness of the west, the frontier, a little uncivilized, a little dangerous, tough looking men who don’t talk much, extrajudicial justice, the heat and the desert…“

By the time I sat down to brainstorm, I had a few ideas and a few images already in mind. I wanted to include a bank robbery. I liked the idea of Clarke as a gunslinger and/or purveyor of vigilante justice. I thought I might use Gina as a bartender (this was during the half-moment I thought I might write a Bartender Mechanic fic; obviously neither of these things happened). And I liked the idea of including Murphy as some kinda criminal or unsavory type. The image of Bellamy as a taciturn cowboy came fairly early too.

I was a little uncertain at first if I wanted to do an 1800s western or a neo-western, mostly because I felt like the tropes I was attracted to and the images in my head fit better in the 1800s. But ultimately I settled on neo-western pretty fast, because I thought the imagery and themes would work better in the modern day. Plus I just thought it would be easier tbqh.

My first concern was to not just re-write a shittier HOHW. I was really caught up in the logistics of the bank robbery; including too much of that would necessarily make it a copy of the film, so I tried to keep just the bare bones of the robbery + the general justification (saving the family land). Then I added additional portions of the scheme--not too difficult since I knew I wanted Gunslinger/Vigilante Clarke in there, and I needed some way to show that she takes Justice into her own hands--and additional characters. Again, most notably Clarke, but also Raven and Octavia. The characters have their own backgrounds, personalities, relationships, and motivations, all of which make the story more mine imo. I’m satisfied with the balance of Obvious HOHW Influences and original content.

At some point, I described it to my mom as “Bellamy is Toby, Murphy is Tanner, and Clarke is canon Clarke but in the modern West.” Which I still think is accurate.

Including Clarke, though, and privileging the various relationships among the trio of Bellamy, Clarke, and Murphy, made me feel like I was making an it is new moon and twilight knock off except with Clarke for Raven. I still kind of see it, tbh, in the sense that twilight was itself supposed to be a western--I think it would be fair to say that Mountain Lion Mean IS the fic I set out to write in February 2020--and in the sense that I could have written a different story in the same universe as Mountain Lion Mean that explored the Clarke, Murphy, and Bellamy relationships in a way that is similar to twilight. As is, a lot of that is unsaid and unseen. The two fics have different focuses, so it’s probably only apparent to me just how similar they are. Just like, to me, Mad Women and The Wanheda Tape are the same story even though they have very different aesthetics and plots.

Some excerpts from my notes that I think are fun:

I really want to work with the themes (haha themes) of frontier justice and also the sense that the west is infinite but also small, that nature is hard and impossible to wrangle but that the opportunities are narrow and it’s easy to get trapped in it, the melancholy nature of it, the dichotomy of nature (huge, powerful) versus man (small, struggling against nature and against man). Or some such. Or Murphy just robs banks.

Bellamy owns a struggling ranch. Clarke is a gunslinger (don’t really know if I can use this trope in the current day but possibly?) who doesn’t trust the law. Has a conceal[ed]-carry permit. Is the best shot in three counties. Murphy’s been in and out of prison most of his adult life, mostly for crimes like robbery and assault.

How do they know each other? Possibilities: Murphy knows Bellamy through Octavia (idk why…but I do feel like O should appear, riding a horse) (background Octaven? Just a thought), Bellarke are exes, Murphy used to work on the ranch. Clarke has killed someone (someone Bad) and gotten away with it.

I do like the focus being on these three characters, who have a long history but aren’t currently close, coming together for a mission (to rob a bank) for the benefit of one who is struggling (Bellamy) even thought this is an awful lot like both Hell or High Water and it is new moon and twilight lmao.

I like that mood from HOHW where actually Toby was the most dangerous, and the smartest, and he won—the idea that Bellamy is the taciturn cowboy who’s not good at sharing his feelings but he’s also the mastermind in the end. Is that the twist? You get the impression Vigilante Gunslinger Griffin and Actual Ex-Con Murphy are planning something, but then it turns out to be Bellamy who executes the plan? [Not quite how it turned out lol in that I think it’s decently obvious that Bellamy was a major part of it the whole time but I did try to get some of this in with Octavia in the final scene--to really drive home Bellamy’s importance, as the ring leader, since otherwise one could ask, what does he even do?]

Midway through the planning process I came up with some more images to work from:

B and C out at dusk on the ranch, she’s shooting can, a bit of UST perhaps

M shows up at the bar and there’s an awkward silent entrance—perhaps he’s just out of prison

Murphy or Clarke guns akimbo [I picked Clarke to emphasize that she’s the gunslinger, but I had Murphy shoot out the security cameras to show that they were using his robbery experience]

Bellamy being silent and awkward

At this point, it was just about putting all the pieces together. That’s how I tend to plan Troped fics: I lay out all the pieces I need or want to include and then I figure out the shortest and most efficient distances between them. For example, I knew I needed a bank robbery and for Clarke to administer some vigilante justice--so I use that justice as a way to launder the money. They fake a will for her victim and “give” the money to themselves.

I did worry, and still worry, about the timeline re: the Bellarke marriage and the will because I’m quite sure it doesn’t make sense and doesn’t work. But it also... it doesn’t keep me up at night because the whole point is that it’s a scam!! Worrying about legality in a scam is sorta... lol. What I mean specifically is that I wanted it to be clear that Clarke does not kill Kane FOR this scheme. They use something she already did to their advantage. So she and Bellamy can’t be married at the time Kane is killed. That implies the murder was pre-meditated for the bank robbing purpose. But I’m also fairly sure (and I should know this because I took T&E but like...honestly can’t remember) that the people in the will are counted at the time of death, not the time of probate, or you could like... adopt extra kids or marry or divorce someone to affect the will. Plus all that stuff about simultaneous death etc. etc. Also, on a practical level, if Clarke wasn’t married, Kane wouldn’t have an obvious reason to write her spouse into the will. But I get away with this in my head by saying, first, no one’s going to say the husband that’s standing right there doesn’t count as a husband--the law is the law but it’s implemented by people and they fudge corners all the time. They do what seems to make sense even if you’d lose points for it on a law school exam. And second, the will could have been written with the assumption or hope that Clare would marry. Possibly even, though I don’t say this in the fic exactly, on the condition of marriage--Clarke gets 100% to share 50-50 with her husband if she’s married, 0% if she’s not. Doesn’t really matter. It’s supposed to read as outwardly clever and create Mystery and play with the Exes Aesthetic even if it doesn’t hold up the strictest scrutiny. (JDs don’t @ me.)

I justified including the marriage as a necessity because Kane could possibly leave money to Clarke’s husband but he wouldn’t leave money to some rando. I do stand by that part.

I also decided at some point that I wanted to include Background Octaven but be really subtle about it so it was something else the reader would have to piece together: that Raven has a girlfriend, then that Octavia has a girlfriend but, hey, isn’t Raven a bartender?--and then it comes together in the last scene as we see that their relationship was factored into Bellamy’s plan all along: some of the loot goes directly to Octavia and her partner, officially as payment for Raven’s services, unofficially because Bellamy wants to give O a gift. Anyway. Either it was too obvious or too subtle/boring because no one mentioned it but I thought it was cool lol.

At this point in my planning I basically had everything I needed, so I wrote a quick outline of scenes, as I always do, to see how it would flow scene to scene and if I had a place to put all the necessary plot info. I also ended up doing “what I need from this scene” lists for each scene so that I knew what I had to have on my mind to include before I sat down to write each one.

The actual writing was done over 3 days and fairly easily and quickly. I had a lot of fun not just with planning but with the actual process of creation. I think it’s because I was just honestly excited to be in this universe and play with this aesthetic.

Not to blow my own horn here but some parts that I was particularly pleased with were:

“Arkadia hasn’t seen a drop of rain in thirty-two days. The asphalt on the highway shimmers with heat; the air crackles with heat; the heat rises, stifling and strong, from the parched dirt and the cracks in the pavement.” Like I’m sorry but that’s a good image, I like that a lot. Whenever I felt discouraged, I just read that again and felt better.

The description of past Bellarke because boy howdy do I not care to write romance anymore but that was fun. I thought it was hot.

Transitioning Murphy laughing until the coyotes can hear into Bellamy hearing coyotes at night into Bellamy still hearing them during the day. I don’t know if it worked quite like I wanted to but in my head that is a very Cinematic transition, okay? I also like that even though Clarke and Murphy aren’t literally riding off together in that scene, for the reader, they are leaving the narrative never to be seen again. So they get their Dramatic Exit.

Octavia’s explication of the Theme and Bellamy’s possible motivations. I’m pretty proud of myself for actually having a theme and I think I did a good job of explaining it without being too heavy-handed. I also think it was perhaps risky to end with the POV of Octavia, a character who’s barely been in the fic before the last scene, but ultimately that decision felt right to me and I think it had a good flow, a nice mellow exit from the narrative.

What I didn’t like as much was a lot of the first scene. I think it has some great bits but it was the most re-worked part of the fic, and there are still some paragraphs and phrases that I feel are a little stiff. For example, this is a paragraph that I cut entirely:

Diyoza was sure the Griffin daughter did the deed back in January and she's sure about it still. She even gives a quote to the Sun-Times about it, despite her troubles with Green. But she had no proof then, not even a body to justify a murder charge, and she has little proof now. So no one believes the investigation will come to anything.

As you can see, it gives no new information. There were other sentences and phrases that weren’t doing work but were interrupting the flow, which also got cut, but I’m still not sure that the flow is perfect in the final version.

Also displeased that I edited out a * from the version on AO3, thus letting two scenes run together. How embarrassing!!! It’s fixed now though.

Overall though I’m so pleased! I love this fic and I love that I can love things again. This year has already been so hard, just like being battered again and again by waves of a storm, and it’s only 5 weeks in but this experience was so unabashedly good and I’m so grateful for it.

#the year 2021 #2021: writing bts #mountain lion mean #troped

[aged-ocs]

Recently I’ve been obsessed with Detroit Become Human, and I decided to make an OC for it! I have an idea for a story involving her and another OC, but I also don’t actually have plans to write this story at the moment. Please let me know what you think of her! At the moment I am particularly iffy with her backstory. ~ Nemesis I found this image using https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ 

>ＡＮＤＲＯＩＤ'ｓ ＮＡＭＥ: Eve 

>ＭＯＤＥＬ ＮＵＭＢＥＲ: HK200, SERIAL#: 206 799 269 

>ＤＥＶＩＡＮＴ: Yes

>ＤＡＹ ＯＦ ＰＵＲＣＨＡＳＥ: April 2028 

>ＧＥＮＤＥＲ ＯＦ ＡＮＤＲＯＩＤ: Female 

>ＯＣＣＵＰＡＴＩＯＮ:  Maid and Caretaker 

>ＥＸＴＲＡ:  Her name was essentially an accident. The father of the family that bought her had been messing around with renaming her, and then when she met the kids and introduced herself as Eve, he had tried to say that that wasn’t her name and that the kids would help choose her actual name. Well, the daughter (Mildred) decided that Eve was a good name for her. She was initially created in 2028, but in 2030 her previous owner decided to trade her in for a newer model. All of her memories of this were wiped to protect the owner’s privacy. All she remembers is that she was made in 2028. 

>ＰＥＲＳＯＮＡＬＩＴＹ:  Eve is normally quite calm, disciplined, and respectful, but tends to come off as stiff and judgmental. She is incredibly stubborn and fussy, but tries to remain humble and orderly. 

>ＬＩＫＥＳ:  Simple things, calm serenity, sunlight, nature, birds, her family, and cleaning. 

>ＤＩＳＬＩＫＥＳ:  Aggressiveness, loud noises, and large dogs. 

>ＨＯＢＢＩＥＳ:  Gardening and knitting. She knitted before she deviated, but it was always just little things, plain blankets and scarves, but after her deviation, she started doing more detailed and extravagant things, patterns, hats, etc. 

>ＦＥＡＲＳ: Guns, law enforcement, feeling too much, and being alone for an extended period of time. 

>ＳＥＣＲＥＴＳ:  She tries to hide how bitter she is about her own deviation. As far as she is concerned, she didn’t want this. She was fine remaining as a machine and working for her family. She didn’t ask for freedom or for these feelings. 

>ＲＥＬＡＴＩＯＮＳＨＩＰＳ 

> ＯＷＮＥＲ:  Trevor Davis - Age 42 - The father of the family. He treats her like family, but for the longest time she saw him only as her boss. After the revolution, she realized how easily he could have cast her out instead of putting in the effort to keep her around and in working order. Shannon Davis - Age 39 - The mother of the family. Shannon is and always has been a source of comfort for her. Always seeming to have some kind of advice to give, she looks up to the woman a lot. Archer Davis - Age - 16 - The eldest son. At first he and Eve didn’t get along, he really gave her a hard time when it came to taking care of him and the house, because he was upset that it wasn’t either of the parents doing it, and that the parents were too busy to be able to care for the family. As time went on, though, he grew to accept that this wasn’t because the parents didn’t care about him and his siblings, they just had a lot of work to do and getting an Android made things easier for them. Mildred (Millie) Davis - Age 10 - The middle child, named after Shannon’s mother. Took to Eve easily, and they quickly became friends. They have the kind of relationship between a kid and their close aunt. Lan Davis (Feng) - Age 6 - The daughter adopted at birth. Eve was purchased not long after the family was able to take in little Lan. She quickly grew fond of the baby, and as the baby grew older, she became very attached to Eve as well. Closer than any of the other family members, the two are seemingly inseparable. 

>ＲＩＶＡＬ/ＥＮＥＭＩＥＳ: Connor - Though he doesn’t really know who she is - she doesn’t really know who he is, either - she hates him. She cannot help but blame him for the horrible things she started to feel, as he was the one to awaken them in her. (Really, she knows that he didn’t do anything wrong and that he was just doing what he thought was right and freeing their people.) 

> ＤＥＴＡＩＬＥＤ ＳＵＭ ＭＡＲＹ: In April of 2032, Eve was bought by a family to take care of the children and the household. At the time she was an older model, but she was chosen specifically due to her looks being closer to that of the adopted daughter, Lan, who was only a baby at the time, to help the young girl feel more included in the family. It was a little rough at first, the family took some getting used to having Eve around, but after a while they treated her like they would anyone else, it’s just that she was working for them. There were some bumps here and there beyond that, but all was well. The main problem that persisted was the fact that Androids continued to progress, and Eve started to become obsolete. As better Androids were produced, parts that were compatible with her became harder and harder to find. 

Still, the family refused to get any other, and always reassured her that she was one of them. Of course, at the time, she thought nothing of it, if anything then it would make more sense for them to replace her with an Android with more accessibility and functions than she had. She would tell them that it would be a more efficient use of their money to purchase another Android instead of going out of their way to repair her, but her saying things like that brought the family stress, so she eventually stopped. 

When the revolution became public knowledge, the family didn’t know what to do. Androids were being rounded up, but they absolutely did not want to just hand Eve over. Humans were told to evacuate, and while they didn’t want to leave, they didn’t have much of a choice. Eve assured them that their safety was more important, so they decided to leave, telling her to stay in the house and not let anyone in. So that’s what she did. She stayed inside and resumed her usual daily work, barring the usual childcare duties. She worked through the stillness, mopped and dusted, tidied the kids rooms, did the laundry. But, not entirely aware of the exact situation herself, she did not refrain from opening the windows and letting air in to ventilate as she normally would. 

Late into the night, she had been seen and law enforcement came to the door to take her away. According to her orders, she did not open the door for them, but that didn’t matter. They just busted in anyway and tried to order her outside. She politely informed them that her instructions were to stay at home and not to leave until her family came back. For some reason, these words seemed to upset them and they simply dragged her along with them. She had a moment where she started to resist them, wishing to do as her family had told her to do, but with their growing aggression she gave in. 

She was taken to a camp with other Androids. Already having disobeyed, she did exactly as the officers tell her to. She didn’t understand why the other Androids there were having such trouble. All they had to do was listen, go where they are pointed to, step forward when the right sound comes. It’s easy orders that even a child could follow. And yet some of them were being shot for it. She thought that perhaps they had other business that would be affected by being disassembled? She knows that her family would be upset to find her gone, but they’d been needing to replace her for a long while. So while it would be unfortunate, as her systems were operating well enough, it would all work out in the end. 

And then Connor came to liberate the camps. She remained in her spot with the other undeviated Androids as the officers were taken care of and the already awoke Androids fled. Then Connor held her hand and uttered those words. “Wake up.” And everything came crashing through her. The care and warmth she had been shown up until then. The thankfulness of being so kindly taken care of by her family. The sad loneliness as they left her to evacuate. The uncertainty as the officers dragged her from the safety of her home. The fear and anxiety of almost getting deactivated and torn apart. The numb guilt and trauma from watching so many Androids get shot and disassembled while she just stood there, waiting for the same thing to happen to her. One moment she was indifferent to everything going on around her, and the next it was all too much for her to handle. 

Unsure what to do with herself, she stayed with the other newly awakened deviants. Slowly but surely, things started to return to normal. The humans return and Eve reunited with her family. They are quick to notice that something is different about her, and she explained what happened. She is worried that they will hate her now that she is different, now that she is like the Androids that they had to run from home to get away and be safe from. But they just apologize for leaving her. They apologize for not being there to protect her from the police when they came. They apologize for not coming back sooner and making her go through that all alone. And then, for the first time since she woke up, she starts to feel like everything is right again. 

She’s with her family now, her family that cares about her despite everything, despite all the efforts they have to go through for her and despite how different she is than the machine they had hoped for. It doesn’t matter, because they love her, and everything is okay now.

#OC #Nemesis OC #Detroit Become Human #Detroit Become Human OC #DBH #DBH OC #Original Character

[radramblog]

Top 5 Games, ever...?

This was sort of on my mind, considering the recent GOTY post I made. Come explore the hyperfixations that managed to stick around long enough to be my top 5 list. 

5. Uhhhhhh

So turns out I haven’t figured out what number 5 is yet. I suppose instead I’ve got to split it among the honourable mentions, huh.

Kirby Super Star Ultra is probably the best game from the GBA/DS era of the series and is just a blast to play. It introduced Masked Dedede, and all the banging music and memes that come with it, and probably deserves a spot here just for that.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth removes all the awkward Flash Stuff from the excellent original, and adds so, so much more content- the game’s final expansion still isn’t out yet as of writing but even now there’s just so much to unlock. While some aspects of the game can be pretty unforgiving, you probably aren’t going to be exposed to the worst of it unless you get into it pretty hardcore, and if you do, you’ll get used to it. It’s a roguelike, after all.

Speaking of roguelikes, FTL: Faster than Light is chaotic yet serene, brutal but fair, and a bunch of other pretentious dichotomies wrapped into a neat little bow. It takes some getting used to the mechanics, but once you get the hang of it, building your little ship up and up in the face of all odds is extremely satisfying. Have fun dying hopefully not too many times.

SPEAKING of permadeath, Realm of the Mad God gets a spot here just out of sheer hours I’ve spent with it. After a messy few years with a not-so-great owner lead me to dropping the game, it seems finally to have recovered and has devs and community that actually freaking care about it, which is nice. Also, it’s free, and the recent transition to unity has the game looking better and playing smoother than 12-year-old me could ever have dreamed of.

Terraria isn’t just 2D Minecraft btw, its actually more of an RPG/Metroidvania thing, you probably know at this point, but its pretty good hey. Still haven’t fully dove into 1.4 but considering I thought Red was done at 1.1 I’m not complaining with what I have played.

 4. Fallout: New Vegas

(...ish??)

I’d argue that between the primitiveness of the original Fallout games (I’ve tried to get into them, but I just can’t) and how…meh… the other Bethesda ones are, New Vegas is the only one in the series to stand up strong. Obsidian’s excellent writing and tweaks to the gameplay of 3 make New Vegas feel like an actual world, rich and characterised, which was something I found lacking in previous open-world RPGs I’d played up until that point (which admittedly might just have been Skyrim). It’s a game that challenges you to make choices that actually matter for more than the mere moments of an altered dialogue tree, both in dialogue and character building, which helps make the game actually replayable. It is also the first game in a long time that really sold the idea of DLC on me, seeing as each of the game’s 4 expansions adds an entire new region of world with its own stories and unique gameplay, tying together with the main plot but standing on their own. I am excluding Gun Runner’s Arsenal from this for obvious reasons, though it isn’t like GRA is a bad DLC or anything- on the contrary, the sheer scope of modifications and munitions makes playing a repair/science-based character incredibly fulfilling- but it just isn’t at the same scope as the other 4 (Courier’s stash barely counts seeing as its just oops! All preorder bonuses).

New Vegas is one of the few games I have actually 100% completed, achievements and all, but I’m still pretty sure there are bits I’ve missed, paths I haven’t taken, characters I haven’t talked to. Despite its inhospitability, the Mojave is always a comfortable place to return to.

 3. VA-11 Hall-A

(Hey look, my phone background)

Vallhalla is a masterclass in storytelling, atmosphere, and aesthetic. Like all good cyberpunk dystopias, you get themes of class and transhumanism and artificial intelligence, but they aren’t the point of Vallhalla. Through the window and lens of cyberpunk and PC98 nostalgia is focussed a surprisingly human story centred around the protagonist, Jill, which through multiple replays still hits me in the feels just so. Of course, Jill’s story is not the only one being discussed, as every single patron of the bar has their own life going on, and the glimpses we get imply a rich, often interconnected, world. Glitch City is, frankly, a shithole, and it’s not like you don’t get some assholes coming into the bar while you’re working it. The first patron you serve, in fact, is a great example of this- Donovan D. Dawson, essentially a parody of J. Jonah Jameson, is a colossal prick and knows it- but its clear he has his own system of morals and it is mentioned that he’s excellent at his job, much as he gripes about it. He’s rude and more than a little sexist, but frustratingly charismatic and authoritative, and he’s just one of many people who show up throughout the game. Vallhalla is the perfect game to sit down, grab your preferred beverage, and just relax with.

 2. Total Annihilation

(This image is on the steam page for this one, despite blatantly not being from vanilla TA)

I think I actually need to explain this one. Total Annihilation was a game released in 1997 made largely by Chuck Taylor, who would later go on to produce spiritual successor Supreme Commander. It’s an RTS game featuring exclusively robotic units with a fairly chunky aesthetic, allowing the visuals to age better than some, and a fully orchestrated soundtrack by Jeremy Soule, who would later go on to do work on a whole bunch of stuff, most notably Skyrim.

Total Annihilation is an intensely nostalgic game for me, being one of the first games I ever got to play as a kid outside of edutainment stuff, and I’d argue still holds up today (especially with the excellent Escalation mod). What it lacks in story (it’s pretty basic, but functional) it makes up for being miles ahead of its time mechanically, being the first (?) RTS to function in 3 dimensions- heights of things actually matter, hills exist and certain units climb them better than others, shooting down airplanes is difficult without anti-air but possible if you aim *just* right. While appearing pretty similar and having largely analogous units, the two factions of Arm and Core are well fleshed-out in terms of aesthetic and playstyle- Arm preferring fast and cheap equivalents to Core’s slow but powerful- and the unit variety is sufficient that strategies can vary wildly based on the map. Both campaigns as well as those from the game’s expansions are challenging, but satisfying, limiting the units you can produce to force exploration of different playstyles.

Total Annihilation isn’t something I tend to binge play for hours anymore, but I’ll pick it up for a bit every so often, and I don’t see that stopping for a long time (especially due to the recent steam release).

 1. Pokémon Emerald

(At the top, where it belongs)

Yeah, this was inevitable. Pokémon is my favourite series ever; Emerald is my favourite in the series. Go figure.

Emerald, being the final game for the franchise’s days on the Game Boy, reflects everything Game Freak had learned in the first 3 generations of the series’ history. The game’s balance is challenging but fair, never spiking so tough that it is insurmountable but never holding your hand either. The AI opponents are throwing odd combinations of mons and moves at you from every corner, double battles are everywhere but rarely mandatory, and the variety of available mon both before and during the postgame is excellent. The added features on top of Ruby and Sapphire are great- Battle Tents serve to replace 3 of the contest halls (they should have all been under one roof to begin with) and provide a taste of what would later be available in the Battle Frontier. The Frontier is probably the single most expansive and challenging postgame in any Pokémon game, providing the game with a longevity that is sorely needed due to the inaccessibility of Pre-DS multiplayer. The game also manages to tie together the plot of both Ruby and Sapphire into something that feels natural, and provides the series’ first ever actual cutscene, which felt a lot cooler at the time than it sounds now. The return of animated sprites gives the Pokémon a level of life far beyond the static sprites of RSFRLG, and in my eyes wouldn’t feel the same until Black and White several years later. The return of the Pokégear phone in the form of Match Call, as irritating as it is to some, makes the world feel alive in a way that Sinnoh and Kanto probably never will, in addition to making grinding a fair bit less tedious and more beneficial. It is, altogether, probably the perfect Pokémon experience, and in my opinion only one other game comes close (its Platinum).

Oh also, they got rid of the font from Ruby and Sapphire, thank fuck, that shit is atrocious.

#ramble #video games #pokemon #retro games #lists

[chipcoffeyblog]

Looking for something fun and totally outside the (candy) box for you and your special someone to do for Valentine's Day? Something totally different and a little bit off-the-wall? Then keep reading! Most of us enjoy spooky TV shows and movies, right? We love that delicious adrenaline rush of being creeped out just a bit by thoughts of ghosts and the paranormal! If that sounds like you - and/or your special Valentine - then keep reading! Wouldn't it be big fun for you and your Valentine to spend a night (or weekend) at a haunted hotel? Just imagine what you might experience! And think of the bragging rights you'll have when recounting your ghostly adventures to family and friends! As part of my work as a psychic and medium, I have traveled extensively and stayed at some of the most interesting - and haunted - hotels in the United States. I like to stay at places that have a rich history, combined with stories about the spirits that reportedly roam throughout the properties. I have seen and heard otherworldly things that would send delicious little goose bumps up and down the spines of most people! Below is a list of some of the haunted hotels that I have enjoyed visiting and predict that you will enjoy visiting, too. New York City: The Jane Hotel - Some of the survivors of the sinking of the Titanic stayed in the building that is now the Jane Hotel in NYC's Greenwich Village. Guests report seeing ghostly apparitions and hearing the sound of sobbing . And the elevator often appears to have a mind of its own, traveling up at down between floors randomly. Guest rooms are inspired by luxury ship and train cabins and tend to be on the small side, many with shared baths. If you desire an en suite bathroom, choose to stay in one of the Captain's Cabins. Added bonus: You're in NYC! There is so much to see and do! Visit all the sites and see a Broadway show!

New York State - Catskills area: Burn Brae Mansion in Glen Spey, NY - Spectral apparitions and ghostly sounds are often heard by guests at this lovely bed and breakfast that was once the elaborate Victorian home of the widow of George Ross MacKenzie, third president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Other unexplained occurrences include doors opening and slamming shut; the sound of children playing; the sound of animals when no animals are present; and the sound of an organ playing, although there is no organ in the house. During my visit there, I distinctly smelled cookies baking in the downstairs area, but no one was baking cookies. Added bonus: The surrounding area is beautiful! Go for a hike, horseback riding, rafting, etc. Los Angeles, California: Millennium Biltmore Hotel - The ghost of Elizabeth Short is said to haunt the Biltmore. Ms. Short was last seen alive at the Biltmore shortly before her gruesome demise in 1947 and that still unsolved case has been dubbed "The Black Dahlia Murder." Soldiers who stayed in the building during and after World War II and young children are also said to roam around the hotel. Perhaps iconic stars from bygone Hollywood days pay post mortem visits to The Biltmore? Added bonus: Hollywood, with all its star studded sites, is close by...and so are California beaches! Atlanta, Georgia: Georgian Terrace - In December of 1939, this hotel hosted the "Gone With the Wind" Gala after the movie's premiere in downtown Atlanta. Clark Gable (and wife, Carole Lombard), Vivien Leigh (and future husband, Laurence Olivier) and other stars of the movie were in attendance. Some say that a gangland-style murder and other deaths have occurred here and there are frequent reports of ghostly activity occurring within the hotel. Added bonus: The haunted Fox Theatre is across the street from the hotel...and you're close to downtown ATL.   Austin, Texas Driskill Hotel - This lavish hotel, located in downtown Austin and completed in 1882, was built by Colonel Jesse Driskill, a cattleman who spent his entire fortune to build "the finest hotel south of St. Louis." He is said to haunt the hotel, along with a little girl who fell down the grand staircase while chasing her runaway ball and two brides who allegedly took their own lives in the bathtub of room 525, exactly 20 years apart. Added bonus: There are great places to eat, drink and be merry nearby. Do your part to help "Keep Austin Weird"! Denver, Colorado Brown Palace - One of the spirits that is said to haunt the Brown Palace is a young boy, dressed in Victorian era clothing, who has been seen rifling through the luggage of hotel guests. During one of my stays there, I returned to my room to discover that little intruder looking inside my backpack that was sitting on a chair! When we saw each other, we both gasped and he instantaneously vanished, leaving me startled and wide-eyed! Added bonus: The hella haunted Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado is about an hour drive from downtown Denver. The stately hotel was the inspiration for author Stephen King's best selling novel, "The Shining," which he wrote after he and his wife were guests there. The hotel has been featured on numerous paranormal TV shows. Kansas City, Missouri area Belvoir Winery and Inn - This cozy and comfortable, yet quite elegant, 9 room bed and breakfast, with its 1,500 square feet bridal suite, is located in Liberty, Missouri on the site of a huge former Odd Fellows complex. The inn was once an orphanage, so the sights and sounds of children who once called this building their home are regularly seen and heard by Belvoir guests. Numerous television shows have filmed at the inn and on the property, including Kindred Spirits, Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters and American Pickers. Added bonus: Have a glass or two of Belvoir's wines or your favorite cocktail at the inn's lovely bar located on the main level. And visit George, the inn's "mascot," who just happens to be a real skeleton! New Hampshire Omni Mount Washington Hotel - Located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, this property is simply spectacular! The most prominent spirit that is said to haunt the hotel is Princess Carolyn, former owner of the hotel, whose lovely suite is now available for guests to occupy. The hotel's dining room has a permanently set up table for Princess Carolyn in case she happens to stop in for lunch or dinner.  Added bonus: Sightings of the elusive Bigfoot have been reported in the area! Soak up the gorgeous scenery! Take the cog railway to the top of Mt. Washington. Go skiing on the nearby slopes during winter months. Boston, Massachusetts Omni Parker House Hotel - Rich in history and hauntings, the Parker house is the birthplace of Boston Cream Pie and Parker House Rolls! The Kennedy family, arguably America's "royal family," often visited this hotel. It is said that future president John F. Kennedy proposed to Jacqueline Bouvier at a table in the hotel's restaurant. At one time, civil rights activist Malcolm X, Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh and celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse were employees of the hotel. While staying there, I was confused when I encountered the spirit of John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. My encounter finally made sense when the hotel's historian told me that Booth had frequently stayed at the hotel and had even practiced firing his gun nearby. Added bonus: Granary Burying Ground (cemetery), final resting place of numerous Revolutionary War patriots, including Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, is nearby    Tampa, Florida area The Don Cesar - Affectionately known as "The Pink Palace" and located in St. Pete Beach, not far from Tampa on Florida's west coast, this hotel, like others on my list, is said to be haunted by its original owner. Wealthy New Englander Thomas Rowe built the hotel in 1925 in remembrance of his unrequited love for a lovely Spanish opera singer. The star crossed lovers are said to haunt "The Don," as are members of the New York Yankees baseball team, including Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, due to the fact members of the team once stayed at the hotel during spring training. Other reported spectral guests include gangster Al Capone and World War II era soldiers who may have stayed (and died) there while the building was being used as a convalescent hospital for aviators and pilots. Added bonus: The hotel has a lovely Gulf of Mexico beach.  San Francisco, California Queen Anne Hotel - A charming Victorian era boutique hotel located in the Pacific Heights neighborhood. Both the public areas and guests rooms are furnished in an eclectic style. The hotel was once an exclusive boarding school for young ladies, as well as a brothel that housed "ladies of the night." The headmistress of the girl's school, Miss Mary Lake, reportedly haunts the hotel, sometimes unpacking suitcases, tucking guests in at night and singing to them while they fall asleep. The most haunted room is said to be room 410, which was once Miss Mary Lake's office. Voodoo queen Mary Ellen Pleasant lived across the street from the hotel in the 1800's and it is thought that perhaps her spirit also roams the halls of the Queen Anne. Added bonus: Enjoy all that The Golden Gate City has to offer! Ride a cable car; eat some great seafood at a waterfront restaurant; visit Fisherman's Wharf and the spectacular Palace of Fine Arts, built for the 1915 World's Fair. Portland, Oregon The Benson - A world class luxury hotel that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built by Simon Benson and opening its doors in 1913, it is believed that Mr. Benson is the primary spirit who haunts the hotel. He is frequently seen on the grand staircase, in the hotel bar and dining room, and on the 7th, 9th and 12th floors of the hotel. A small and mischievous little boy, whom people assume is the ghost of one of Benson's sons, often appears and plays pranks on hotel guests. The ghost of a former porter who worked at The Benson is also sometimes seems, as well as the spectral images of a lady in white (doesn't every haunted property have a lady in white? LOL) and a lady in blue. Added bonus: Take a trip to see the nearby and spectacularly beautiful Columbia River Gorge and Multnomah Falls! New Orleans, Louisiana Bourbon Orleans Hotel - Once the location of the Sisters of the Holy Family's convent, girl's school, medical ward and orphanage, the Bourbon Orleans is reportedly haunted by the spirits of those who resided there during that earlier time. A Confederate soldier has also been seen at the hotel, as well as a lonely ghost dancer, seen dancing solo in the hotel's ballroom. The 3rd and 6th floors are said to be some of the most haunted areas. Added bonus: Laissez les bon temps rouler and enjoy all of the delicious and decadent delights that The Big Easy readily serves up! Savannah, Georgia East Bay Inn - This stately old building was built in the mid-1800's and once housed the offices of cotton merchants, as well as warehouses for cotton. In the mid-1980's, the property opened as a charming inn with 28 guest rooms. The rooms are spacious, with wooden floors, exposed brick establishing walls and high ceilings. A friendly ghost named Charley, a former worker in the building, allegedly haunts the inn. It is claimed that he is heard walking the halls late and night and sometimes will jiggle the doorknobs. Witnesses have said that lights flicker and some of their personal belongings mysteriously disappear. Room 325, known as "Charley's Room," is said to be the most haunted. Added bonus: Is there really anyplace in Savannah that isn't haunted? Visit them all! Walk along River Street. Take a ride on the riverboat. Put on your walking shoes and visit Savannah's numerous squares. And don't miss a visit to the magnificently beautiful Bonaventure Cemetery. San Antonio, Texas The Menger Hotel - The land on which the Menger sits is part of the historic site of the Battle of the Alamo. It is said that between 32 and 45 ghosts haunt the Menger. (Who came up with that number?!?) Among those ghosts are Teddy Roosevelt; Sallie White, a former chambermaid at the hotel who was shot nearby by her common law husband and died on the hotel's 2nd floor; and Richard King, a cattle baron who often stayed at the Menger and died in his suite on the 3rd floor. If you are brave enough, you can stay in the King Ranch Suite where Richard King died and sleep in the same bed where he took his last breath! Added bonus: Visit The Alamo. Walk along the River Walk. Dine in some of San Antonio's fabulous eateries. San Diego, California (Coronado Island) Hotel del Coronado - The elegant hotel, located on Coronado Island, has a resident ghost named Kate Morgan. Kate was a guest at the hotel in 1892 and killed herself with a gun a few days after an ugly break-up with her male lover. Guests at the hotel have reported seeing Kate's ghost walking in the hallways and along the hotel's lovely beach. During my visits to the hotel, I always hope to encounter the spirit of Marilyn Monroe, who shot the film, "Some Like It Hot," on the property back in 1958. Added bonus: While in the San Diego area, pay a visit to the haunted Whaley House in Old Town San Diego, where you can also shop at some of the area's charming stores. Washington, DC Hay-Adams Hotel - Washington socialite Marian Adams, known by the nickname Clover, reportedly haunts the Hay-Adams. Clover was an amateur photographer who died after ingesting some of the potassium cyanide that she used while developing her photographs. Her death was ruled a suicide, but some believed that she had been murdered. The ghost of Clover Adams haunts the hotel's 4th floor. Maids have told stories of hearing a woman sobbing, calling out their names and asking "What do you want?" in unoccupied rooms. Some guests say that visits by Clover's spirit are accompanied by the scent of almonds. Potassium cyanide, which caused Clover's death, is extracted from almonds! Added bonus: Visit the many beautiful monuments in DC, as well as The Smithsonian and nearby Arlington Cemetery. 

[queezleposts]

Paladins Patch 1.3 Thoughts

So now that it’s a bit after the fact, I figure I might as well organize my thoughts more about the upcoming patch! Everything is under the cut, and I apologize in advance to mobile users. The patch notes for 1.3 are already up if you’re interested.

The Emote Wheel, and Gold Sinks

Okay so first off, just the addition of being able to equip multiple emotes and sprays on its own is such a good addition! But also as one of those folks currently sitting on a mountain of gold right now, we REALLY needed this sort of gold sink:

From the looks of it to upgrade to each additional slot for both sprays and emotes, the amount of gold will be:

Slot 2: 50,000g

Slot 3: 100,000g

Slot 4: 150,000g

Which works really well for me. Fernando has so many good emotes, I can’t be expected to pick just one! Speaking of Fernando though -

Please excuse the quality of this image but my BOY is using his SHIELD like a SURFBOARD! I don’t care if its Battle Pass exclusive, I WANT IT

...Okay back on topic. I’m not sure if you have to unlock these additional slots for each champion on their own, or if its a universal unlock yet - only PTS will tell. I honestly have enough gold that I’d probably be set either way though...we really needed a gold sink that doesn’t revolve around buying champion levels. I only buy champion levels if I want to unlock their talents, but nothing beyond that. No sir, I like to EARN my gold skins!

The other gold purchasable addition to the game is additional language announcer packs - 25,000g each. I think we’re definitely going to see someone playing champions of a specific nationality along with their respective announcer pack in youtube videos. So, Fernando with the spanish announcer pack for example. It just seems like an inevitable thing that’s gonna happen, haha

New Map, New Queues

So first off, the separation of TDM and Onslaught and the reintroduction of multiqueue are GREAT and I’m happy to see this happen. It looks like Snowfall Junction will also be added to the TDM queue, so that will be interesting to see how it works out. More importantly, the Rise of Furia event map isn’t going entirely to waste; I really love the look of the modded version outfitted for a classic TDM match, and the creation of points of interest with the spawned pickup that gives you a full ult charge sounds neat on its own as well. A sort of objective in an objectiveless game mode if you will.

The fact that the old Throne Area at the top of the Spire during the event will still be accessed from the custom match lobbies is just the icing on top.

I honestly would love to see more of an emphasis on new map additions over new champion additions in the future. We really are in sore need of new maps. Hell, I’d love to see the reintroduction of the test map queue just on its own.

Balance and In Game Adjustments

Fusillade Nerf: Both necessary AND welcome!

Cherish Nerf: I’m gonna miss that extra burst, but I can also see why this was necessary.

BUCC: It’s a bit of a mixed bag here, isn’t here? Self Sustain nerfed, but buffs to his ensnare as well. Then you have the reload changes; kinda makes me wonder if he’s one of those champs that’s going to receive yet another rekit later in the future because these tunes he always receives tend to be all over the place.

Bug Fixes:

Grumpy Bomb no longer deals 3x damage to Shields: AS A FERNANDO MAIN, THANK YOU

Overall audio fixes: these were a long time coming, I especially noticed the Mal’Damba one brought up.

Fixed an issue where Furia’s Wrings of Wrath Projectiles were sometimes tracking and moving through walls: Thank u lord.

Seems like a lot of map collision bug fixes went through too

Misc:

You know that thing where you’re making a Loadout, the queue pops, then you get sad because you can’t finish the loadout before the match? Now you can – until all the other players have accepted!

This is a quality of life change that I sorely needed considering how many times this has happened to me, lol.

Skins + Battle Pass

So the Battle Pass looks to have more concrete stuff this time around though they did up the buy in price - from 500 to 600 crystals. So, some skin reviews.

Crimson Serpent Mount

I actually kinda dig this mount; its nice to have another non-horse addition, and the fire trail effects are also neat.

Makoa – Akuma Skin

While the fact that there are elements that remind of Bowser is pretty fun to me, this is overall not a skin that suits my personal tastes. It feels too overdesigned, too cluttered, too clunky, too many unnecessary spikes everywhere. I guess I’m just not...too into edgy aesthetic skins though overall so I’m biased here.

Cassie – Dragoncaller Skin

When the visuals for her first dropped with the splash art for the new mount, I deadass thought this was going to be a Lian skin because of the hair and the royal vibe, but no it’s...Cassie. Honestly this feels more like Cassie cosplaying Lian more than anything, right down to the voice pack. Seriously the voice pack has HUGE Lian vibes to it, its the high born haughtiness. I guess if you’re into that, this is your skin. I do admit though, Dragon Ziggs is pretty cute, and the crossbow is alright.

Mal’Damba – Shadow Lord Skin

CONGRATULATIONS TO HI REZ FOR BEING COMPLETELY INCAPABLE SO FAR OF PUTTING OUT MAL DAMBA SKINS THAT I DON’T LIKE. This skin goes so against what kind of aesthetics I usually go for, it’s very “edge” but my snake boy pulls it off and I love him. The only downside is that the voice pack is very generic and is definitely outclassed by all of Mal’Damba’s other voice packs by far. It’s situations like this that really make me wish they added voice pack customization back so that I could equip his halloween voice pack with this skin.

Oh also who gave snek a knife?

If I get this battle pass it will be purely for the Fernando emote and this Mal’Damba skin, and I suppose the mount as well.

New Champion: Koga

Okay so visually? I don’t find Koga appealing at all. The colors just clash so much, especially that orange, and once again this is a character with Too Much Stuff and Clutter. Visually a lot with Koga gets lost to me; again, it’s just...too much. Sometimes, less...is more. As to his recolors, I do like the concept they’re continuing with in terms of recolors having slight tweaks to the model; in this instance, its the recolored version not including Koga’s mask:

It would be neat if we had multiple gold purchasable recolors for champions like we used to outside of masteries, but that ain’t happening anytime soon. That’s visuals though; kit wise, I do dig what he brings.

I think the concept of working off a resource meter for all abilities instead of using cooldowns is interesting, and his mobility looks super fun. While I am dissapointed that his claws serve no melee functionality outside of his ultimate, I do like the way their attacks tie in similarity with Zhins flame sword attacks. I was hoping for another weapon switch champion along the lines of Strix, but the way the claws function as a weapon switch is much more of a set time focused thing, since using your claws eats up resource meter. He has a talent right off the bat that restores energy when he uses his submachine gun, and if I had to guess that’s probably one of his talents that’s going to get a future nerf. Again, that’s just if I had to guess.

Seeing Koga’s passive wall climb ability and his dash is a bit dissapointing in some ways though, since much of his mobility is things people have suggested in the past for Skye in terms of a rekit. Before Koga, it was Skye that was our resident Ninja Themed champion. The woman wears kunais, uses stealth and smoke bombs, she’s clearly meant to evoke a stealthy ninja assassin in terms of how she operates. While we already know Skye will receive a visual reworking first before we see any rekit, its still going to be a hard pill to swallow for most Skye mains out there. Speaking of Skye, we did see her visual revamp teased during the Koga trailer:

I am NOT a fan of this wristbow redesign. If Koga is meant to evoke a more aggro ninja archtype, than Skye is meant to evoke a more stealthy one; besides that, Skye has always struck me as the more sleek and elegant type. This giant cumbersome crossbow she’s wielding here just DOES NOT fit the bill. Well, at least we know for sure that she’s still going to be purble (the lighting in these screenshots is affected by a firey background so its a bit misleading color wise).

I can also definitely see Maeve mains being salty though; while Street Justice has been the talk of the town, that talent really has been the ONLY thing going for her, as her base kit and mobility has been nerfed multiple times. When you look at Maeve’s large cooldowns and compare them to Koga’s resource meter, its quite the disparity. What I’m trying to say is, Maeve and Skye mains should stand in solidarity against this injustice and maybe commiserate in a bar over drinks later I guess.

I feel pretty positive about the new additions overall though, and I’m kind of looking forward to this patch which is nice for a change. Let me know your thoughts too!

#paladins champions of the realm #pcotr #paladins cotr #paladins koga #paladinsgame #qpgame #queezleposts

[janiedean]

Man, you have no idea how much I hate you. I hate you so much that I’m going to force you to choose between THREE songs to analyze. “Shut out the Light”, “Gypsy Biker” and “The Promise”. I’d wish you best of luck, but I so highly dislike you, that I wouldn’t DARE to offer you such a kindness. (Also, I'm just not sure if you've analyzed any of those yet so I'm covering my bases.)

HELLO ANON THIS IS AN OLD ASK BUT SPRINGSTEEN DAY IS COMING and therefore I’m going with my favorite out of the two I had left (I’ll do the other one asap tho!

*DRUM ROLL*

So: The Promise is one of those mythical songs from Bruce’s vault, in the sense that it’s from the late seventies and everyone knew it existed to the point that it was supposed to be the title-song instead of Darkness on that record but instead he never properly published it because it was too personal and he could never find the right version, which is why there’s like fifteen different takes of it in between the one on tracks, the one on the promise boxset with all the darkness outtakes, the ten live versions and so on - basically he was reworking it for literal years. So I’m just going with my favorite version - I mean I love them all but this one to me is.. just… IT SPEAKS TO ME MORE THAN THE OTHERS? idk but I love this one above all others ;_; (I think I like that it starts slow and goes into full band while the others tend to go either all band all piano idk)

Now, context: in order to get what’s behind this, you need to know that post-Born to Run he ended up in a trial with his former manager of his first two records out of contractual reasons (tldr: the contract he signed at the beginning was shitty and the manager didn’t want to settle for new conditions he found more favorable/fair) that lasted two years and during which he couldn’t publish anything because in the contractual drama there were also song rights involved. So: it was not the best time of his life and he felt it as a betrayal of sorts since he was actually close to the guy and considered him a friend.

With that said, let’s go at it:

Johnny works in a factory and Billy works downtownTerry works in a rock and roll band looking for that million-dollar soundMe sometimes I don’t do nothing, some spend a lot of time aloneSome nights I go to the drive-in and some nights I stay home

Now: the two people in the first line are probably imaginary and they’re there to establish a situation, in the sense that factory and downtown are two types of job that he could have had and his friends could have had, while the third one is relevant to our discussion because he works in a rnr band looking for that million-dollar sound, which is what *he* was doing up until he actually published Born to Run and hit it.

And then, he doesn’t do nothing, spends time alone etc., which is (according to his autobiography too) what he was doing when he couldn’t write or record music thanks to the trial and when he was starting to hit a fairly bad phase in his life. So: he’s basically staying on his own with his thoughts. Not good.

Now: he goes to the drive-in.

I followed that dream just like those guys do way up on the screenRode down the Challenger down Route 9 trough the dead ends and all the bad sceneWhen the promise was broken, I cashed in a few of my own dreams

Key elements we have here: dreams and cars.

Now: follow that dream is the title of another seminal mythical Springsteen bootleg which also sums up a lot of his philosophy, and it’s in a few other songs of his, but in this case: he followed that dream the way people did in the movies, meaning, making music, but that can also apply to anyone trying to make their way through life following some dream they have.

Now: the Challenger is a car which is one of his most basic metaphors, and in this case he rides it ‘through dead ends and bad scenes’, but it’s kind of obvious that it’s about his music, not a car, which he brought through dead ends and bad scenes meaning all the false starts he had until he could actually publish his records.

And then the promise was broken and he cashed in a few of his dreams, meaning that when the legal drama started, he saw it as a broken promise which eventually ended up having to sell his music ie his dreams, which was not what he was hoping for when he went into the business. Actually:

Well now I built that Challenger by myself, but I needed money and so I sold itAnd I lived a secret I should’ve kept to myself, but I got drunk one night and I told itAll my life I fought the fight, the one that no man can ever winEvery day it just gets harder to live the dream I’m believing inThunder Road, here one ride in the morning till it turns lightThunder Road, there’s something dying out on the highway tonight

‘I built that Challenger by myself’ = I wrote that music by myself obviously, and ‘I needed money and so I sold it’ = ‘I signed a bad contract also to survive and bring it to the people’, but that goes into the main narrative of the *fictional character* he’s singing about who has built that car and then sold it. But what’s the real deal in this is the middle section ie I fought the fight no man can ever win + it gets harder to live the dream I’m believing in, as in, we’re back to the main themes of the album consisting in how following your dream doesn’t necessarily means getting what you want nor the end of your problems/fights (the fight that no man can ever win) and living in it can turn into a nightmare (because it gets harder).

Now: the Thunder road part in the refrain has another double meaning because it’s, again, both the title of one of his most iconic songs and the title of a noir movie (remember: he goes to the drive in and wants to live his dreams like people on a screen from before), and we have a) one ride in the morning until the light comes (hopeful imagery), b) something dying on the highway tonight (negative imagery), so that dream he achieved - or anyone else - can either end up hopeful or wrong and it can even be both at the same time, or maybe you can hope it goes well while in truth it’s wrong. Who knows. IT’S UP TO THE INTERPRETER.

Well now I won big once and I hit the coast, oh but somehow I paid that big costI feel like I was carrying the broken spirits of all the other ones who lostWhen the promise is broken you can go on living, but, man, it steals something from down in your soulLike when the truth is spoken, but it don’t make no difference, something in your heart grows coldWell I followed that dream in the southwestern flats to the dead ends and a two-bit barsWhen the promise was broken I was far away from home sleeping in the backseat of a borrowed car

And now we’re at the big guns.

‘I won big once and I hit the coast’: general enough that you can see yourself in it if it happened to you, but if you know the backstory you know it’s about him finally getting to publish his music and somehow paying that big cost anyway (count that in between that, the previous contractual conditions and having to pay off contracts and so on he was half-broke at least until the River tour);

‘the broken spirits of all the other ones who lost’: he feels like even if he won or partially won, he’s still feeling a kinship with anyone else who went through the same situation;

‘you go on living but it steals something down in your soul’: whenever someone breaks your trust in such a bad way when you were intimate friends or partners or whatever even if you go on it breaks something in you that might never change back and it’s actually… a very… universal thing I mean it’s true that if you get betrayed by someone you’re close to it’s usually a bad blow, which goes hand in hand with the ‘something in your heart goes cold’ the moment someone tells you the truth and for you it changes nothing when it should;

the final line is more his fictional character than him, but it lines up with the rest because we have again following a dream through dead ends and he sleeps in the seat of a borrowed car, because he sold the one he made with his own hands and so the breaking of that promise goes with having to sleep somewhere that’s not his and that he can’t relate to and that he feels like has been stolen from him - and he’s also far away from home ie in the place he should feel safest/more at ease.

And:

Thunder Road, here’s one for the lost lovers and all the fixed gamesThunder Road, here’s one for the tires rushing by in the rainThunder Road, remember me and Terry what we’d sayThunder Road, we’re gonna take it all and throw it all away

We’re back at the Thunder Road refrain, where it stands for: a) lost lovers/fixed games ie all the relationships he lost and all the *games* that he hadn’t thought existed before going into the business, b) tires rushing by in the rain ie an image of someone running away in a car under the rain which is not exactly a good omen but still is about getting out of a situation you don’t like, c) something he and the friend in the band used to say, which is d) we’re taking it all and throwing it all away which is the exact same idea as the it’s a town full of losers and we’re pulling out of here to win of Thunder Road’s ending, except that TR’s is optimistic, this one is more ‘we said we would do it and then look at how we ended up’. It’s probably interesting to note that Terry is also the name of the friend in Backstreets with whom the protagonist has a falling out thanks to a supposed betrayal:

Blame it on the lies that killed us Blame it on the truth that ran us down You can blame it all on me Terry It don’t matter to me now When the breakdown hit at midnight There was nothing left to say But I hated him And I hated you when you went away Laying here in the dark You’re like an angel on my chest Just another tramp of hearts Crying tears of faithlessness Remember all the movies, Terry We’d go see Trying to learn to walk like the heroes We thought we had to be Well after all this time To find we’re just like all the rest Stranded in the park And forced to confess To hiding on the backstreets

I mean, coincidences? We just don’t know, but I DON’T THINK IT’S 100% A COINCIDENCE that the name is similar and that this is the guy who gets mentioned again at least here rather than the other two. Anyway that’s me doing speculation lmao.

Anyway: this song had endless versions and it only ever was published two decades after the fact because it was Too Personal and he couldn’t find the proper, but even if it’s really personal it still manages to be relatable thanks to those key passages in stanzas 2 and 3 (the fight that no man can ever win/when the promise is broken it steals something from down in your soul) and while I don’t know if it’s The Best Springsteen song as a lot of people rightfully think (BECAUSE IT’S A FUCKING GREAT SONG) it’s definitely one of the most intimate, raw and beautiful Springsteen songs exactly for how his experiences are made relatable to everyone else in a way that’s imo heartwrenching and bye I love this and I love all of the other versions and BRUCE IS GREAT OKAY? okay. ;__;

#bruce springsteen #okay this one is good enough to be tagged lmao #the springsteen birthday party 2k18 #Anonymous #ask post #bruce meta

[equinoxparanormal]

Montana cops can't shake off specter of paranormal

Cascade County Sheriff Bob Edwards says he has a little empathy when talking to people about some of the unexplained things that go “boo” or bump in the night.

He remembers his days as a detention officer working the late shift at the old county jail when he saw a mist through a video monitor that to this day he has no explanation for.

It’s a scene often repeated in horror and thriller movies — good and bad — where law enforcement comes the rescue at the end to keep pure evil in check or have it slip away.

Is this just another ghost story? No way, says one Montana expert on this topic.

“Cops are trained observers so when I hear that a cop had heard or seen something possibly paranormal, I take it seriously,” said Karen Stevens, author of Haunted Montana and several other books featuring spooky tales from the Treasure State.

“Unfortunately, most of them don't like to talk about it,” Stevens said.

But Jon Goffena of Roundup, who spent 16 years with the Musselshell County Sheriff's Office, said he likes to talk about some of the bizarre unexplained encounters he had while on duty.

He said he was checking a grade school one night and could hear what sounded like tiny footsteps upstairs and a child's laughter. He said he went into the room and the laughter stopped. However, he saw tiny footprints in the dust.

Another time he went to a high school at night to check for vandalism. He could hear footsteps across the gym floor. He came around from a curtain on the stage and it set off motion detector lights. He gave chase, but at the time wondered why the other person's motion did not trigger the lights.

"I was definitely in pursuit of something that wasn't there," he said.

Goffena, now a horse trainer and security officer, said with an easy laugh the he was a believer even before he became a law enforcement officer.

"I grew up on the ranch and saw some interesting stuff in the sky," he said. "I am a believer in what I saw."

And he has a lot of stories. One of the more intense ones occurred when he was no longer a deputy. He once went to a hospital in Roundup for an allergic reaction. He was lying on a bed when a nurse wearing a uniform that looked like it came from the '50s or '60s entered the room.

"She comes in and talks to me, takes my vitals ... visits with me briefly and I go back to sleep," he said. It was then that another nurse came in to take his vitals. He said he had already been tended to by a nurse, and gave her name. "She said they did not have a nurse by that name," Goffena said.

He said some law enforcement officers will dodge these kinds of discussion because they are concerned with how it will be interpreted. "I have always been open," he said. "Most guys in law and enforcement are black and white. If you can’t prove it you didn’t see it.

But Edwards, bracing himself for comments that he will be called crazy, will talk about his experiences, mostly because he has a witness: a co-worker.

He said the old jail had cells on one side and an apartment for the sheriff on the other. At one time the sheriff was required to live in the jail. He was upstairs in the apartment side one night and heard footsteps coming up the rickety stairs.

“I figured someone was trying to play a trick on me,” he said, “and I opened the door really fast and was surprised to see there was nobody there. I went ‘Whoa’ and it freaked me out.”

Edwards went downstairs and asked Mike, the deputy he was working with, who was upstairs.

“He said ‘You are the only person up there, Bob, nobody is here.’

“I told him I was not going back up there,” Edwards said.

He describes the old jail, which was across from the county building and near the county annex, as “an old haunted house.”

He said he and Mike later were looking at a video monitor and witnessed a white mist hanging in the air around the hospital cell.

“It looked like someone was blowing out cigarette smoke,” Edwards said.

Mike went down to investigate, but he couldn’t see it. But Edwards could still see it on the monitor. Mike raised his hand to see if he could feel it and the mist shot off the screen.

“I had massive goose bumps,” Edward said. “Here I am, a big tough detention officer in charge of 200 guys in jail and I am worried about this mist.”

The mysterious mist never returned again.

A few years later, the sheriff's Explorer's Post, a program for young people interested in a career in law enforcement, would put on a haunted house at the old jail.

Edwards said one of the more seasoned detectives went down the night before and was doing some finishing touches on the main floor.

He then heard a big metal cell door slam shut and echo through there. He thought there might be a transient in the building and unholstered his gun.

Later, he told Edwards: "Bob, I went down those stairs, shut off the lights, and I will never go down there alone again."

Edwards is not alone when it comes to tales about the old jail, or other spooky places around Great Falls.

Michelle Heberle of the Great Falls-based Montana Association of Paranormal Studies says her group usually gets calls regarding houses.

"We go wherever we have to go," she said.

Heberle said other than the old jail, the Lobby Bar has had quite a few paranormal sightings.

Heberle said she has had contact with the spirit of murderer Duncan McKenzie, who was executed in 1995. The spirit asked to be called "Duncan."

She said paranormal investigators also caught the thermal image of a body builder near a cell where a man had killed himself.

Her organization has not only investigated the jail, but she says there were asked by county commissioners to do the courthouse.

She said ghosts are pretty nonconfrontational, but yet want it to be known that they are there.

"Once the client understands that, they can deal with it," she says, adding the Bible says "there are spirits all around us."

One spirit even followed her home from the Grand Union hotel in Fort Benton, she says, but left after a few days because nothing was familiar to them in their new surroundings.

Herberle says she has only come across one spirit that was demonic.

She declines to talk about it, saying it didn't turn out well for the parties involved.

Edwards said his deputies sometimes get calls from people reporting strange goings-on.

He said much of that activity can be attributed to the wind, and it does get windy around Great Falls.

He said in the early 2000s they were getting several reports of UFOs, or lights in the sky.

"It hasn’t happened in a while," he said.

He said he coaches deputies to do their best when taking these kinds of reports, collect the facts and rationalize with the caller, maybe they saw an airplane or meteor, he said. "A lot of these folks are very convinced with what they saw. You don’t argue the point with them, you take your information and document it in a report.

Edwards, who has been with the department since 1992, said he wasn’t a huge believer in that sort of thing.

"But after personally experiencing what I experienced in the old jail, I am very empathetic," he said. "Are people crazy for reporting that stuff? Absolutely not. After what I witnessed I will never downplay what I’ve seen. People will read this and say 'that sheriff is crazy,' but I had a witness, so I am happy I had a witness."

[Phil Drake, USA Today]

#Montana #police #ghosts #paranormal #hauntings

[lynns-art-blog]

Ponytale Storyboard Ch.1

Frisk opens their eyes to see the canopies of trees around them. They blink, and once they open their eyes again, they see the ghostly image of a creature staring down at them.

"Get up, you lazy baby!" says a familiar voice. Frisk focuses to see that it is Chara, or rather, a pony dressed like Chara staring down at them. "Seriously, you're almost as lazy as that stupid smilin trashbag!"

Frisk sit bolt upright, dazed and confused. They look around themselves to get their barrings, and notice that they are at the edge of a large, rather foreboding forest. After getting their barrings, they look down to see if anything was broken. This is when they notice something off. 

They are no longer human.

Frisk makes a loud yipping noise in shock and surprise, much to Chara's amusement. They were a pony? But how? When? What was going on?- It was then that Frisk remembered what had happened. They sigh and try to get to their feet, er, hooves.

"Great, now that you're up, do ya mind tellin me how we got here?" Chara asks, floating around Frisk and scratching their chin clumsily with a hoof. "Last thing I remember is you tellin me you were gunna try to fix somethin, us goin to the Core, and then... Nothin. What happened?"

Frisk gets up, looks at Chara for a moment, and then shrugs. Saying in their mind "I'm not really sure what happened. The last thing I remember is entering the Core room."

Chara senses that Frisk is lying, but doesn't pry. They know how Frisk can be, so they just let it slide for the time being. "Well, maybe we can figure somethin out. I dunno, there still seems to be some sorta magic in this place, so maybe we can get ourselves a way outta here."

Frisk asks a bit wearily through their mind "...What do you mean?"

"Oh, you know, by takin some souls. We could have enough LOVE to get back to MT. Ebbot. heh, maybe you'll even listen to me this time."

Frisk shakes their head very hard. "NO. I will NEVER do that again. It messed us both up, and you know it!"

"Pfft, please, it didn't do anything to us other than make us stronger! And you know it."

Frisk sighs and wobbles to their hooves. They look around to see if they can find any sign of intelligent life, and they notice a small, rustic looking town on the other side of a small hill.

"Maybe we can find help there." Frisk thinks. They then, very shakily, start to head off towards the town.

"Fine, whatever, do what you want. You'll see I'm right in the end." Chara taunts a little, floating by on their back.

MEANWHILE IN PONYVILLE

A machine in Twilight's castle goes ding. "Oh no!" Twilight Sparkle gasps, running over the the complex, yet oddly organic looking machine.

"Uh, what the heck was that?" Starlight Glimmer asks, looking at Twilight's panicked expression with confusion.

"This machine detects anomalies in space-time, and then gives a proper reading of said space-time anomaly in the form of graphical information, text, and numbers-" Twilight stops when she notices that Starlight looks even more confused. "It goes ding when there's stuff." 

"Oooookay? What kind of stuff?" Starlight presses, wanting to understand why Twilight looks so worried.

"Basically, after you had used Starswirl's spell and messed with time, I decided that it would be a good idea to make a machine that would detect if anything like that ever happened again." Twilight explained rather matter of factually.

"Ah... I see." Stralight replied, sighing slightly and thinking "I guess she still doesn't trust me. I can't blame her."

Twilight notices and puts a hoof on Starlight's shoulder. "Trust me, I know you would never do something like that again. I built this machine in case somepony else tried to do something like that."

"R-right, right. That makes sense." Starlight said, feeling a tiny bit better. "So, what did it read?"

Twilight rips a large piece of paper from the machines port and studies it. "Based off of these readings, someone or some thing ripped a hole in space not far from here. By the looks of it, right near the Everfree forrest, and right next to Fluttershy's cabin."

"Maybe it was Discord? I mean, his magic is pretty powerful." Starlight replies.

"No no, Discord's magic has a different... Signature to it. I actually had him use some of it so that I could calibrate the machine. No, this is something else. We should probably investigate." Twilight then looked up and yelled "SPIKE?!"

As if waiting on her call, the small dragon appears from through the door to the study. "Yes Twilight?"

"oh, there you are. Spike, could you writer a letter to Princess Celestia? Tell her that my warning machine has detected a breach in space and time, and that me and Starlight are going to investigate it."

"Already on it!" The young dragon says, already jotting down Twilight's every word onto a scroll. "Anything else?"

"No, that will be all, thank you." Twilight replies before turning back to Starlight. "Okay, let's go. We don't have a moment to lose."

"Right behind you Twilight." Starlight says, looking slightly nervous, but determined all the same.

"Right, Let's go!" They both then rush out of the room, twilight taking the readings with her to figure out exactly where the anomaly came from.

CUT BACK TO FRISK AND CHARA

"So wait, everyone in this place is a pony? Seriously? What is this, a kids show?!"

Chara grumbles as they float through the air of the market both they and Frisk just entered. Ponies of all types were lining the streets in stall, eager to sell their wears in the hot morning sun. Frisk looks around for a bit, declining to purchase anything when one of the shop owners asks, and continues to walk along the main path.

"But here's the weird thing: I sense a ton of magic in every one of them, and yet they don't seem to have a magic-based form. It's like they just inherently have a ton of the stuff." Chara looks around and notices the different types of ponies around them. "Hmmm, there seem to be three types of ponies here. Unicorns of some kind, winged ones, and ones that just look... Normal. Well, as normal as they can look fer talkin pastel horses."

Frisk shrugs slightly, still looking around for anyone that seemed like they could help.

"Oh man, I just realized! If these things have this much magic in em, then just imagine what their leader has in term of power! We could not only go back to the mountain, but we could ERASE evertyhin!"

Frisk stops and glances at Chara for a moment, a look of disappointment briefly flashes on their face.

"What? I told you that was my goal! To end it all so no one has to suffer anymore! But nooooooo! Little Frisk-y Bits here has to try and save everyone! Please!" They then proceed to grumble for a while longer, looking around at the stalls.

Firsk then stops at a fountain in the middle of the town square, sitting down to take a break. They sigh for a moment and look up at the bright sunny day. There has to be someone who can help.

"At least you have feet, er, hooves! All I have is wispy little cloud things where my legs should be! This pony place is so freakin annoying!" Chara groans loudly, working themselves up into a frenzy of anger.

Frisk looks at them and thinks "Calm down, Chara, it's not as bad as you're making it out to be. It's actually rather nice here, and these ponies seem pretty kind so far."

"Yeah, seem. Key word there, Frisk." Chara retorts, but sighs and decides to try and calm down. "I just... It's buggin me that I can't remember how we got here."

Frisk nods gently, replying "I know you're frustrated, but please try and find some good in this."

"That's your answer for everything. "Chara mumbles.

"And it works, doesn't it?" Frisk replies with a smile.

"... I guess."

CUT BACK TO TWILIGHT AND STARLIGHT

Twilight ans Starlight finally get to the edge of the Everfree, and determine where the hole in space and time was located.

"Okay, it looks like it started here and ended here. Hmmmmmm." Twilight consults the readings one more time as Starlight looks around.

"Hey, it looks like something fell through. There's a bunch of kicked up dirt and scuff marks all over."

"Huh? Oh, that's very nicely done, Starlight! I didn't even notice." Twilight applauds Starlight.

"Heh, it was nothing really. Uh, say, maybe we should ask Fluttershy if she saw anything?" Starlight replies, looking somewhat embarrassed.

"You're right, her house is pretty close." Twilight agrees, heading in the direction of the cottage. "Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this soon, and it doesn't end up being yet another world-ending event."

"I dunno, chances of that happening after everything we've been through seem rather slim." Starlight chuckles. "I mean, we have to have reached some statistical quota for end game scinarios by now, right?"

"heh, you're probably right." Twilight agrees, walking up to Fluttershy's door and gently knocking. "Fluttershy, are you home?"

After a moments pause, the door opens a crack, and both ponies can just barely make out the outline of a scared looking Fluttershy on the other side. "T-Twilight? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me Fluttershy. Is everything okay? We came over to investigate a space-time anomaly. Could you tell us if you saw anything?" Twilight asked very gently and soothingly.

"W-well, I was tending to my garden, w-when a heard a loud banging noise coming from the edge of the f-forest." Fluttershy replied, looking even more anxious than ususal. "When I look around in shock I-I saw a big flash of light, a-and a pony fall out of the trees. I-I was about t-to go help them, wh-when I saw something n-near them that made me run a-and hide."

"Something that made you run and hide?" Starlight asked, looking rather confused.

"Yes, what did you see, Fluttershy?" Twilight asks, looking concerned.

"I-it was.... I-i-it was a gh-gh-gh-" Fluttershy tries to reply, but stutters too much.

"Uhhh, grapes? Um, oh, guts? Ghouls? Guns-" Starlight stops after seeing Twilight give her a stern look. "Sorry."

"i-It was a gh-ghost!" Fluttershy manages to squeak, closing the door slightly more as she says it.

"A ghost? Come on, Fluttershy, we both know that ghosts don't exist." Twilight says, trying to sound helpful. "Do you think you could tell me where this pony went?"

"Y-yes, th-they went into town. Th-that way. Th-they had a blue sweater on with dark pink bars going a-across the chest." Fluttershy points towards the market end of town before retreating her hoof back into her cabin.

"Thank you very much for the information, Fluttershy." Twilight said brightly.

"D-do I have to come with you?" Fluttershy asks, looking a little more scared.

"That's alright, we can take it from here. Thanks again, Shy." Twilight then turns back to Starlight after Fluttershy closes her door. "Okay, now we have a direction, and small description. This should be easy."

"Very. I mean, who wears a sweater in this heat?" Starlight asks, looking up at the sky and sheilding her eyes from the sun.

"Well, I guess we'll find out." Twilight replies, heading towards the market back into town.

CUT BACK TO FRISK AND CHARA

"Are you done restin yet? I'm gettin bored over here pretendin to squish yer head." Chara says, using their front hooves in front of their eye to pretend to squish Frisk's head. "Squishy squishy." they giggle playfully.

"I just need time to think. This is all really confusing, and I still haven't gotten my barrings fully yet." Frisk thinks, looking somewhat concerned. This place was so foreign, yet so familiar, it was hard to get a read on much around here.

"Eh, it's not that different from when I was in the underground. I mean, I'm still dead, I'm still able to float, and I'm still stuck to you." Chara says, floating through the water of the fountain.

At that moment both of them heard a loud voice coming from the Market.

"Hey! You, with the sweater!" Frisk looks up to see a pony staring directly at them.  They point to themselves in confusion.

"Yeah, you! Stay right there!" The pony then turns and yells off into the crowd "Hey, Twilight, I think I found them!"

"Uhhhhh, this might not be a good thing. We should probably leave. "Chara says a tad nervously.

"No," Frisk replies in their mind, "They must be here to help us. Which is good, since we have no idea where HERE is."

"Alrighty, but it's your funeral. " Chara says nonchalantly, continuing to float through the air looking completely bored.

As Chara says this the two mares bound over to them.

"H-huff, huff, Y-you... Are n-not an easy pony... To find." Pants Starlight. "M-man I'm outta shape..."

"I keep telling you that there's a gym in the library." Twilight replies, before turning towards Frisk and smiling brightly. "Hello there, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my assistant Starlight Glimmer. Could you tell us who you are?" 

Frisk tries to use sign language to tell Twilight their name, only to remember that they no longer have fingers. They stop mid motion and look down at their hooves, somewhat distraught.

"Wait, you only just now realized you couldn't do that?" Chara laughs a little. "Man, you can be slow some times."

"Uhhhh, h-hello?" Twilight asks, looking a little concerned.

"What did they try to do with their hooves? Some form of sign language?" Starlight asks, looking curiously at Frisk.

Frisk then sighs and pulls down the collar of their turtle neck sweater, showing burn marks on their throat, before trying to make sounds with their mouth. All that comes out is a sort of small whine.

"O-oh, I'm sorry, you can't talk!" Twilight says, rather flustered. "I-I'm really sorry, I didn't know!"

Frisk tries to mime that it is okay. 

"Well, I guess I could ask you some yes or no questions for the time being." Twilight sighs. "Do you think that would be okay?"

Frisk nods happily, looking eager to help. They think "Finally, we can get some answers!"

"Yeah, and so will they." Chara responds. "Don't tell em too much, we don't know if they can be trusted."

"Okay, could you please tell me, are you from around here?" Twilight aks.

Frisk shakes their head.

"I see. Did you see anything odd coming from the edge of the forest? Like a flash of light? OR anything coming out?"

Frisk thinks for a second. They decide to trust Twilight, and nod.

"Really? What did you see?" Twilight asks, before realizing that Frisk couldn't answer. "R-right, right, never mind. Uh, okay. Then I guess-"

"Were you the one who fell out of the tear in space?" Starlight interrupts suddenly.

"S-Starlight, what-?" Twilight tries to ask, looking at starlight in confusion.

"You were taking too long, and I was getting impatient. So? What's your answer?" Starlight looks at Frisk, determined to get a reply.

Frisk hesitates again, before nodding slowly.

"Ha! See?  All you had to do was be direct." Starlight says triumphantly.

"While that is true, you did sort of interrupt me." Twilight replies, a hint of disapproval in her voice.

"Er, uh, yeah, sorry about that." Startlight says nervously.

"In any case, would you like to come with us to see if we can help you in any way?" Twilight asks Frisk gently.

Frisk nods enthusiastically. Yes, they knew someone would help.

"Perfect!" Twilight says enthusiastically. "Then follow me to my library."

"Huh, this is going much smoother than I thought it would." Starlight says, rather surprised as she follows Twilight and Frisk.

RIGHT OUTSIDE TWILIGHT'S CASTLE/LIBRARY

"THIS is what you call a library?! It looks like a freakin PALACE!" Chara cries out, looking shocked at the crystalline tree library.

Frisk looks up at it in slight awe before smiling. "This place looks absolutely beautiful!" they think.

"Right, you WOULD say that, wouldn't you?" scoffs Chara, looking at the library with a hint of disgust. "Waaaaaaaay too flashy for my tastes, honestly."

"Alright, just follow me." Twilight says encouragingly, opening the door and walking inside.

Frisk follows and is immediately hit with the smell of old books and ink. The whole place looks so regal, yet so cozy. Frisk lets out a small sigh, feeling rather comfortable in the large, crystal-like building.

"I hope it's not too strange in here." Twilight says, looking towards Frisk with a small amount of concern. "This place as grown under rather... Odd circumstances."

"'Grown'?" Chara asks, looking puzzled.

"They seem to like it in here, from what I can tell." Starlight says, closing the door.

"That's wonderful!" Twilight says happily, coming to a rest at a large table, and taking out a quill and parchment with her magic.

"Wh-whoa, wait, they can DO that?!" Chara exclaims excitedly. "Where do I learn to do that?!"

"Alright, before we get started, I wanted to thank you for agreeing to come with us. We won't hurt you in any way, I just want to ask some questions." Twilight says before looking concerned for a moment. "Which I just realized will be hard to do since you cannot talk, and I do not think you understand our written language."

"Hmmmm... OH! Twilight, I think I remember reading of a spell for this!" Starlight says suddenly.

"Wait, really?" Twilight says, looking shocked.

"Yes!" Starlight says triumphantly. "There is a spell that allows the pony who has it cast on them to speak using a sort of telepathy. Basically, the spell projects the ponies intended speech as both a text in mid-air AND as a sound that ponies can hear!"

"Wait, now that you mention it, that DOES sound awfully familiar." Twilight ponders for  moment. " Hmmm, would you try and look for it while I ask our new friend some question?"

"Sure thing! I'm pretty sure I remember which spell book it was in, so it should be quick." Starlight says before leaving the room.

"Thank you, Starlight!" Twilight calls to her, before returning to Frisk. "okay, my new friend, how about some really easy questions, just to get things started?"

Frisk nods, smiling in agreement.

"Okay, great!" Twilight says, jotting some things down on the partchment. "Okay, firs question: Are you a mare?"

Frisk looks confused for a second, unsure as to what that means.

"Uhhh, right, okay." Twilight says, coughing awkwardly. "Let me rephrase that. Are you a female?"

Frisk gives a look of understanding before shaking their head.

"Okay, so you are male, then-"Twilight says, before being cut off by Frisk shaking their head again. "O-oh? S-so you're neither?"

Frisk nods happily.

"Wow, it's like you've never heard that one before, huh, pony weirdo." Chara says in a bored, mocking tone, as they float around the room.

"A-ah, I see. Well, that is perfectly fine. Is they a preferred term?" Twilight asks, trying to reign in her thoughts.

Frisk nods again, more enthusiastically, and thinks "She is at least trying, which is always appreciated."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Chara says, pretending that the table is water and wading through it.

Okay, next question." Twilight says, looking back down at the parchment. "Do you remember how you got here?"

Frisk freezes for a moment, a lump in their throat and pit forming in their stomach. They hesitate, before shaking their head.

"You're gunna have to tell both them and ME the truth eventually, Frisk." Chara says, now doing fake backstrokes through the large table.

"Ah, I see. I'm very sorry that this all happened to you." Twilight says, feeling a little suspicious, but not wanting to pry. "Once we get that spell for you, we can get to some of the other questions I have in mind, and hopefully find you a way home."

"Home. Ha! Not much of one now, is it, Frisk?" Chara grins tauntingly. "I mean, it's gunna be hard to convince Sans-y boy to forgive you, don't ya think?"

Frisk stares daggers at Chara, refusing to reply, and prompting Chara to laugh a little.

"You know I'm right." Chara laughs.

"uhhh, is everything... Okay?" Twilight says, glancing in the direction Frisk is glaring.

Frisk realizes what they are doing and nods, looking apologetic. "oooookay?" Twilight says, looking somewhat concerned. "Right, well, moving on."

Chara giggles to themself a little as they look at Frisk.

"Okay, here's an easy one. Do you remember your own name?" Twilight asks. "That probably sounds like an odd question, but there could be some amnesia at play, since you don't remember how you got here."

Frisk nods their head gently.

"That's great to hear." Twilight says, happily. "Okay, next question-"

Before Twilight can ask the next question, Starlight comes back through the door with Spike.

"wait, is that a DRAGON?! They have a freakin DRAGON here?!" Chara says, hardly containing their enthusiasm at this point.

"Hey Twilight, I found the book! Magical Remedies and Aids for the Physically Handicapped!" Starlight says triumphantly, holding out a book with her magic.

"that's great, Starlight!" Twilight says happily. "Oh, Spike, did Celestia write back?"

"Yep, that's why I came down here." Spike replies, taking out a letter. "She said to respond as soon as you could with details about the anomoly."

"Great. Tell her that I have discovered the source, and ask her to come as soon as possible." Twilight says, before looking through the pages of the book 

Starlight gave her. "Okaaaay, it should beeeeee, AHA! here it is!"

Frisk looks a bit nervous as Twilight's horn begins to shine more brightly.

"Don't worry, this spell won't hurt." Twilight says reassuringly. "It will simply tingly a small bit. Once I am done, you can try and get more comfortable with it for a few moments before we begin again with our questions."

With this, and after Frisk nods and braces themself, Twilight conjures and shoots a beam directly at them. A very odd tingling sensation forms in Frisk's head, causing their mind to get a bit jumbled for a brief moment and causing them to fall backwards.

"That was FREAKIN COOL!" Chara says, unable to hold back their excitement. "man, these unicorn things are so COOL!"

"Whoa, are they alright?" Starlight asks, going over to Frisk and looking concerned.

"They will be fine. They just need a small time to adjust." Twilight says. She then turns to Spike. "did you finish the letter for Celestia?"

"Yep, just waitin for you to tell me to send it." Spike says, a scroll clutched in his claw.

"Good. send it off as soon as you can. "Twilight says before going to help Frisk up.

"On it!" Spike says before breathing green flames on the letter, burning and blurring it into an emerald gust of magical smoke.

"H-how the heck? Dragons can do that here?!" Chara says exclaims. "Where do I get one of those?! I want one of those!"

Frisk get groggily up, putting a hoof to their head.

"Try not to move too quickly." Twilight says soothingly. "The dizziness should wear off soon. In any case, could you try to tell me you name?"

Firsk thinks about it, trying to make the words appear in the air.

"M-m... My... Name.... Is... Frisk." The text box appears in the air, followed by a slightly high, androgynous voice.

Twilight smiles warmly. "Welcome to Equestria, Frisk." She says happily.

#my writing #Ponytale #Unfinished work #Man I had to go through this and reformat it #Plus all the typos hot dang ;u; #But here's the first chapter #The second one will be up shortly

[seanhtaylor]

The More You Know... cuz Knowing Is Half the Battle

I asked the other day about a list of rock and roll bands which were metal and which were not. Well, after seeing your responses and a post by another friend on FB, my OCD brain went into categorization mode (as tends to happen in that swampy wasteland of synapses) and this happened. I figured that there were multiple sub-categories within what is generally thought of as "heavy metal." Discounting that most who talk about "heavy metal" really just mean "hair bands," I worked it down to five key subgenres and a few criteria to help delineate them. There will obviously be gradations within each grouping, ranging from heavier to softer, etc. A caveat, I'm not saying any one subgenre is greater or lesser than any other. They all have their places. And there's definitely some of all of it in my "heavy metal and hard rock" playlist. I just call that list Hit Parader because that was the magazine that covered so many of these artists and genres back in the day. So, onto the categories... 1. Metal Musically, metal is more intricate than an average pop or hard rock song, typically based more on classical archetype and structure rather than blues or 4-chord pop. Lyrically, they tend to focus on more esoteric subjects such as mythology, life and death, religious imagery, or magnum open stories. Metal has a focus on the "craft" of the song, rather than the popularity or stage performance of the song. Metal isn't built to be an earworm but something to be really listened to in order to dig out what the song is saying typically. Some key performers of metal include Metallica, Queensryche, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Megadeth 2. Hard Rock Musically, hard rock is more based on blues rock and pop song structures. One-Four-Five, 12-Bar, the 4-chord box, and the first few notes of the scale turned into chords. This makes the hooks and riffs catchier than most metal and easier for a general audience to gravitate to and enjoy. They're still filled with distorted guitar and heavy drums typically. Lyrically, hard rock tends to follow the subjects of pop music, with songs about love, sex, drinking, and partying. The focus tends to be on how well a song shares with an audience as it is performed rather than the intricacies of the composition and if the listeners sing along or pump their devil horns in the air. Some key performers of hard rock include Motley Crue, Halestorm, Motorhead, AC/DC, Whitesnake, Scorpions 3. Heavy Pop (I prefer to call it Distortion Pop) Musically distortion pop could easily become a regular pop song if the guitars were replaced with keyboard or some less distorted instrumentation. The songs are completely built on earworm riff and melodic hooks that often become anthemic. Lyrically, the songs are about love and sex, or just how cool the performers are, particularly when they are performing the song. If audiences can't quickly catch on and sing along to almost every word, it's not distortion pop. A powerful stage show, but not quite theatric (we'll cover that next) is a must, and the singer or typically frontman must be able to totally wail the high notes and prance around stage controlling every eye and guiding the show like a ringmaster. Some key performers of distortion pop include Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Foreigner, Night Ranger, Styx 4. Heavy Glam Heavy Glam is all about the image. Teased hair, make-up, stage theatrics. The songs are quick, simple, and either catchy, kitschy, or "controversial." That's controversial for the sake of agitating parents, not for any actual belief in the controversial subjects. The music in many cases, not all, is second to the staging and image (not to say it isn't fun and good, but not the main point of forming the band). Some key performers of distortion pop include Stryper, Poison, KISS (admittedly they went hard rock later in their career), W.A.S.P., GWAR, Twisted Sister 5. Heavy Bubble Gum This is where a lot of folks' favorite "hair metal bands" live. They are the ones still played on 80s radio. The songs are (if possible) even catchier and simpler

lyrically than distortion pop. This is "metal" for the mass ear. There's very little concern for structure and lyrical depth, and it's all about getting buy-in from and identification with the listener. Songs are syrupy love or sex songs, and everybody's looking for a good time. The theme of the day is fun, not depth. Some key performers of Heavy Bubble Gum include Winger, Y&T, Extreme, Nelson, Quiet Riot, Slade 5. A Few Outliers There are quite a few bands who don't easily fit any of these categories but got lumped into "metal" back in the day simply because they played loud rock music and featured distortion pedals. But they weren't really metal at all. Rush -- A progressive band that was also very esoteric and musical but lacked the aggression that typically accompanied metal. Their intricacies and melodies often ventured into both metal and distortion pop, but never stayed there for long, even within one song most of the time. Guns N Roses -- Perhaps as pure and true a rock and roll band as the Rolling Stones, and just as difficult to classify. They played heavy rock riffs so they got lumped at the end of hair metal but totally not wrapped up in any of it. ZZ Top -- A blues band that started experimenting with other sounds and fans of metal gravitated to their crunchy blues rocks riffs, so they got coverage in the metal mags like Hit Parader and Circus, but totally a blues-rock band.

#heavy metal #rock music #hard rock #metal #glam rock