#verse; modern world (AVALANCHE)

[sasorikigai]

it's funny. sometimes i think i've already fallen in love with you as much as possible... and then we share a night like this. ( any of their modern-ish verses plz )

PROMPTS FOR INTIMATE PILLOW TALK || @sonxflight || accepting

💥 || He had long learned to become invisible; not seen, not heard, to blend into the immovable walls. Like camouflage, to hide beneath the covers to appear indifferent and uncaring. He had long learned that grief and sorrow is a hereditary disease, for his vitriol anger is the vicious, skin-ripping monster that lives in the depths of his heart, as it had controlled, transformed, and completely destroyed Hanzo Hasashi's nature.

Despite being both cursed and blessed with the immortal flesh and blood, there is this ever-permanent and unyielding sadness under the skin, rendering him as the brittle bones of a life only half-lived. He's been broken, but never defeated - he has learned to try again and again, sempiternally, putting the bitter and grim days behind. For despite all the seemingly eternal silence, followed by the hollowed voice and equally void stretch of nothingness, the revivified creation of his being would start everything over, as if life blooming like a night flower.

Then, Ryou Sakai became a shining star amidst the onslaught of destruction; it hurts his eyes even though it was afar. Trials and tribulations avalanched and toppled over him, and yet, he would stare, rather amazed, instead of screaming in torrential excruciation of pain and agony felt. The world now anew has grown far from before, for despite feeling turbulent like an uncontrollable flames at times, Hanzo finds himself crashing into the tranquil waters of his beloved's being. How pain would become a mirage, as the rough currents of conflagrations, swirling into a treacherous storm underneath his psyche.

"You are the one who saw a broken soul with a heart worth saving. You pulled me out from the depths of my own personal hell and we ascended to our own personal heaven," and how they had shared this, this softness; an unclenching, every tensed ligament of his body, breathing open and open and open, to relax into the waiting arms of someone who will smooth his hair as he let the shuddering stress of the day dissipate. The way it feels to slip into the steaming water as a shelter as they share a bath. Lingering taste of Ryou's lips become a lingering gasp, as the familiar musculature, the solidness of their bodies conjoining as they remain an inch of each other's respective grasp.

Hanzo plants quick kisses to his beloved's tender lips, hands forming to his hips as he yearns to collide again and again in that luscious, exquisite race. His body coordinate beneath Ryou, as the sincerity of his loving, longing gaze which further accelerates the wanton desire to hold their hearts together. "As long as our passion and purpose of existence remain unyielding and unbreakable, we will continue to share treasured experiences of healing and synchronicity." 💥 ||

#✗ the ineffable testimony of spawned hellfire (scorpion) #✗ ugly syllables of conjured vindictive crimson (modern au) #✗ undaunted intensity of solar flare (old guard au) #✗ there is a bullet for everyone (assassin/hitman verse) #(hanryou) #(nsfw) #sonxflight

[ofmythsandfables]

Brenna / W.itcher OC

starter call | open starters | aesthetics | headcanons | photos

DISCLAIMER

Though Brenna is an OC, she is based in the world of N.etflix’s The W.itcher (not going passed season 3 folks, sorry). Her lore has been gathered by what I’ve read online and based around her being a Griffin, but she is set within the world on the show. I am currently reading the books and I have played W.itcher 3: W.ild Hunt but I don’t have extensive knowledge from the books themselves. Anything to do W.itcher wise will be mainly show and game based for now.

SYNOPSIS

A child was born out of wedlock between a queen and a guard and left in the woods to die in the frigid elements. It was then a Witcher, Keldar, found the baby in the brush and took it with him back to his keep: Kaer Seren, where he cared for the baby as best he could and as if she were his own. He gave her the name Brenna, and though his fellow Witchers weren’t fond of the idea of having a baby within the keep, Keldar was respected highly among them and they trusted him. Soon, they all became a family to her, raising Brenna the only way they knew how. That was until she was seven. She, along with other young children, went through a series of experiments that were torturous and for some, deadly. Brenna and two others survived the experiments and went on to train as Witchers within the School of the Griffin. As years went on, she became one of the top Witchers and was given her Griffin medallion. Brenna flourished within Kaer Seren’s walls. She mastered alchemy and magic, enjoyed reading and learning from the many books in their famed library, and training under Keldar’s watchful eye. She then was old enough to venture out on her own, slaying monsters and beasts and defeating spectrals. It was no easy task, having to do it all on her own, but over time she became unstoppable and thrived. She often wondered who her real family was, but she never questioned Keldar about it since he and their brethren were the only family she ever knew.  Unfortunately, years later, mages grew jealous of the school’s extensive knowledge on magic and caused an avalanche to destroy Kaer Seren. All the Griffins, save for Keldar, Brenna and Coen (who was not there during the attack and instead on the Path), had died and Kaer Seren fell into ruin. Despite the attack on the fortress, Keldar and Brenna still call it home, having repaired some of the fortress to make it livable again. Though Keldar chooses to guard the keep, Brenna still goes out to do what she does best: kill monsters.

SKILLS/OTHER

Brenna is a master at magic. She enhanced the power of the Witcher signs with her extensive knowledge on magic, as well as magic not usually known to a Witcher and only mages. Her go-to sign is Aard, though she does favor a few other magical elements that are not Witcher based. She is also very well versed with a sword and tactical skills. To help with constantly refreshing her knowledge on magic, the bestiary and alchemy products needed for a Witcher, Brenna carries a book with everything she needs to know to keep her memory sharp and intact. When she’s not battling a monster or spectral, Brenna enjoys a good ale at a nearby tavern and a leisurely swim. When on her travels, when coming across a beach, she’ll collect a few seashells and bring them back to Kaer Seren as a keepsake.

VERSES

The Way of the Griffin - Main verse

Brenna is traveling through the Continent, ridding the lands of monsters as she was trained to do. Being one of the only Griffins left, Brenna takes her job more seriously than ever before and doesn’t have time for distractions as she travels on the Path.

Monster Hunter - Modern

Brenna is a highly skilled supernatural hunter, owning her own business that aides those in need of purging their homes and cities of the monster kind.

#{ brenna / verses }

[ofmythsandfablesaa]

Brenna ( OC Witcher )

DISCLAIMER

Though Brenna is an OC, she is based in the world of Netflix’s The Witcher. Her lore has been gathered by what I’ve read online and based around her being a Griffin, but she is set within the world on the show. I am currently reading the books and I have played Witcher 3: Wild Hunt but I don’t have extensive knowledge from the books themselves, so anything to do Witcher wise will be mainly show and game based as of right now.

SYNOPSIS

A child born out of wedlock between a queen and a guard, left in the woods to die in the frigid elements. It was then a Witcher, Keldar, found the baby in the brush about to be eaten by a wolf. With the wolf slain, Keldar took the baby with him back to his keep, Kaer Seren, where he cared for the baby as best he could and as if she were his own. He gave her the name Brenna, and though his fellow Witchers weren’t fond of the idea of having a baby within the keep, Keldar was their leader of sorts and they trusted him. Soon, they all became a family to her, raising Brenna the only ways they knew how. That was until she was seven. She, along with other young children that were living on the streets within Kovir and Poviss, went through a series of experiments that were torturous and for some, deadly. Brenna and two others survived the experiments and went on to train as Witchers within the School of the Griffin. As years went on, she became one of the top Witchers and was given her Griffin medallion.

Brenna flourished within Kaer Seren’s walls. She mastered alchemy and magic, enjoyed reading and learning from the many books in their famed library, and training under Keldar’s watchful eye. She then was old enough to venture out on her own, slaying monsters and beasts and defeating spectrals. It was no easy task, having to do it all on her own, but over time she became unstoppable and thrived. Though, she never learned of her bloodline, the House of Thyssen, who ruled Kovir and Poviss. Always a looming thought, yet she never questioned Keldar about it. Despite him having heard of rumors within Kovir’s city walls, there was never any real proof of who Brenna really was.

Unfortunately, years later, mages grew jealous of the school’s extensive knowledge on magic and caused an avalanche to destroy Kaer Seren. All the Griffins, save for Keldar and Brenna, had died. And Kaer Seren fell into ruin. Despite the attack on the fortress, Keldar and Brenna still call it home, having repaired some of the fortress to make it livable again. Though Keldar chooses to guard the keep, Brenna still goes out to do what she does best: kill monsters.

VERSES

The Way of the Griffin - Main verse

Brenna is traveling through the Continent, ridding the lands of monsters as she was trained to do. Being one of the only Griffins left, Brenna takes her job more seriously than ever before and doesn’t have time for distractions as she travels on the Path.

Monster Hunter - Modern

Brenna roams around hunting unwanted monsters and supernatural beings.

#&. * brenna — verses

[holyguardian]

"Why so tense? You gave a nice concert after all."

"You're toying with me." Aerith accused, choosing not to filter her thoughts on the matter. She had played at this game before and it wasn't as though she could do or say anything to change the outcome. Rufus Shinra would keep coming after her in any way he could find while the Lucis Caelum family had connections to AVALANCHE.

"You know that appearing here like this is upsetting, you wouldn't be here for a nice talk about the concert. I don't even believe you would listen to our music willingly!" She opened her arms into a frustrated stance. What was she supposed to do? What did he want from her? The deal had been long since made with Somnus, and while she was allowed some small input there wasn't a way to alter what was in place. She fought for the amount of drugs that could be sold, nothing to an individual that could lead to an overdose, and she fought for an expanded medical team to monitor any problems but those were her limits.

"Why do you have such a hard-on for me? Or is it really my boyfriend that's got you so hooked, you can't leave us alone." On edge, she reached to shove a hand back through her sweat-dampened tresses, caught in a bit of an odd place inside the dressing room that was meant to be a place to decompress until transport was ready to take the band back to the hotel. "You want me to tell Somnus you got past security, that's pretty clear, but is there some actual reason you're here right now where his team could still get you or is this just about a thrill at this point man?"

#rufusofshinra #verse; modern world (AVALANCHE) #tw: drugs #Look at what he's doing #diabolical #making her rant psh #>:\

[ofmythsandfables-a]

BRENNA

GENERAL INFO

FULL NAME: Brenna / Brenna Morwen (Modern - to be determined)

SPECIES: Human (Witcher)

AGE: 78

PLACE OF BIRTH: Kovir and Poviss / Kaer Seren (home)

GENDER AND ORIENTATION: Female / Bisexual

FC: Bridget Regan

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

HEIGHT: 5′5

HAIR COLOUR: Brunette

EYE COLOUR: Blue / Gold

DISTINGUISHING MARKS: Various scars on her body

BACKGROUND INFO

LANGUAGES: English (Common Speech), some Elder Speech

OCCUPATION: Witcher

DISCLAIMER

Though Brenna is an OC, she is based in the world of Netflix’s The Witcher. Her lore has been gathered by what I’ve read online and based around her being a Griffin, but she is set within the world on the show. I am currently reading the books but I don’t have extensive knowledge from them, so anything to do Witcher wise will be show based as of right now.

SYNOPSIS

A child born out of wedlock between a queen and a guard, left in the woods to die in the frigid elements. It was then a Witcher, Keldar, found the baby in the brush about to be eaten by a wolf. With the wolf slain, Keldar took the baby with him back to his keep, Kaer Seren, where he cared for the baby as best he could and as if she were his own. He gave her the name Brenna, and though his fellow Witchers weren’t fond of the idea of having a baby within the keep, Keldar was their leader of sorts and they trusted him. Soon, they all became a family to her, raising Brenna the only ways they knew how. That was until she was seven. She, along with other young children that were living on the streets within Kovir and Poviss, went through a series of experiments that were torturous and for some, deadly. Brenna and two others survived the experiments and went on to train as Witchers within the School of the Griffin. As years went on, she became one of the top Witchers and was given her Griffin medallion.

Brenna flourished within Kaer Seren’s walls. She mastered alchemy and magic, enjoyed reading and learning from the many books in their famed library, and training under Keldar’s watchful eye. She then was old enough to venture out on her own, slaying monsters and beasts and defeating spectrals. It was no easy task, having to do it all on her own, but over time she became unstoppable and thrived. Though, she never learned of her bloodline, the House of Thyssen, who ruled Kovir and Poviss. Always a looming thought, yet she never questioned Keldar about it. Despite him having heard of rumors within Kovir’s city walls, there was never any real proof of who Brenna really was. 

Unfortunately, years later, mages grew jealous of the school’s extensive knowledge on magic and caused an avalanche to destroy Kaer Seren. All the Griffins, save for Keldar and Brenna, had died. And Kaer Seren fell into ruin. Despite the attack on the fortress, Keldar and Brenna still call it home, having repaired some of the fortress to make it livable again. Though Keldar chooses to guard the keep, Brenna still goes out to do what she does best: kill monsters.

VERSES

The Way of the Griffin - Main verse

Brenna is traveling through the Continent, ridding the lands of monsters as she was trained to do. Being one of the only Griffins left, Brenna takes her job more seriously than ever before and doesn’t have time for distractions as she travels on the Path.

Modern Verse

To Be Added

#::muse ; brenna:: #i did a thing y'all o.o

[solsend]

dream's     end.        ݁⠀ ☼ ⠀⠀ ˚      au    /    crossover  verses  .

a000.   swim  low  in  the  back  dry   :    carrying  the  weight  of  great  expectations,     he  pushes  on  in  increasingly  misguided  efforts  to   𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙨   his  estranged  father’s  athletic  accomplishments.     a  verse  for  a  normal  modern  world-ish  tidus .

a001.    did  you  fool  yourself ?  that’s  a  luxury    :     father  missing      &&      mother  ailing  in  seclusion,     comfortable  life  on  the  upper  plates  of  the  great  city  entirely  uproots  at  the  heels  of  a  new  guardian  come  to  pack  up  tidus’  belongings  and  move  him  out  to  junon .    rumors  had  always  nipped  his  neck,     but  growing  closer  now  to  an  adult  than  a  child,     tidus  nearly  feels  now  it’s  better  not  to  know .      a  verse  for  ffvii    /     former  avalanche  member  auron  collects  tidus  as  a  favor  to  jecht      &&      moves  him  to  safer  grounds  in  the  midst  of  ongoing  turmoil .

a002.    tired  of  eating  all  my  misspoken  words    :     where  his  home  was,      tidus  couldn’t  say  one  way  or  another.   friends  and  community  units  shed  over  the  years  like  new  skin,    lost  over  time  to  poisoned  loyalties  or  rampant  daemons  too  strong  for  his  own  fickle  swordsmanship       ------     in  the  end,    𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩  grapples  strong  to  a  niflheim  defector  and  her  older  brother,      and  steady  congregation  builds  by  the  docks  of  altissia  where  they  could  spend  their  daylight  contracting  diving  jobs  for  lost  material  long  since  sunken .      a  verse  for  ffxv  .

a003.    all  the  awful  dreams  felt  real  enough     :          a  loose  freeform  verse  for  casual    &&    undefined  things  .

#⠀⠀.⠀ ݁⠀ ☼ ⠀⠀ ˚⠀⠀ . study. but my head was underwater.

[onepartbrave]

Verse updates.

Aftermath. [Main]

Four years after the end of the Sorceress War, Squall controls the mobile military giant that is Balamb Garden. ‘SeeD Commander Leonhart’ to most, he appears as cool and detached as the day he accepted his role. Not many are privy to the information that he still fights against indecipherable shadow and living nightmares. How? By ignoring them, naturally.

*Dissidia is an extension of this verse.

Apathy. [FFVIII AU]

When Squall’s pulled from the mess that is Time Compression, something isn’t quite the same. For a while, he ignores it – the soulless void inside – and resumes his role as Commander. Slowly, though, cracks start to show. One simple mission turns into an absolute massacre and he just – doesn’t care. He prefers the silence when the screaming stops. And if he slowly drags the newest impressionable Sorceress along the path with him from their willing connection… so what?

Wildcard. [FFVII]

With much of his younger years being a blurry mess, Squall spends most of his time roaming lands as ‘help for hire’ while seeking snippets of the who and why he exists. Endlessly drawn to where the Mako is most potent, it’s how he winds up reluctantly partnering up with the AVALANCHE rebel faction on a mission or two. He can’t complain – they have a vendetta against ShinRa that he happily uses to his advantage.

Daylight. [FFXV] 

Years of serving at an elite military academy (and once guiding it through a victorious war), a fateful encounter in the beautiful city of Insomnia changes Squall’s directive. After successfully applying for the exclusive membership club of the Kingsglaive, he jumps in head-first and welcomes everything protecting the King wrings. Life is never uneventful.

What’s New Pussycat? [Cursed AU]

Due to a mistake made by his wayward parents, Squall’s cursed at a young age. Born as an ordinary, unmagical human, his body being forced to mimic that of a Shifter – the timing spontaneous without discrimination of time or place – is slowly wearing on him and, he fears, killing him. Learning what he can of curses and their creators, most of his free time when not working or living is spent traversing in search of someone who can nullify the hex.

Welcome to Griever’s. [Modern]

Twenty-five and five years free from his military service, Squall runs a vehicle maintenance workshop, ‘Griever’s.’ for all lightweight transport. Withdrawing further into himself after the catastrophic end of duty, being the only mechanic in town helps to keep him in business. Allegedly, an abrasive attitude and disinterested demeanour isn’t favourable in the business world. Tch, whatever.

#verses. #Aftermath. [Main] #Apathy. [FFVIII AU] #Wildcard. [FFVII] #Daylight. [FFXV] #What’s New Pussycat? [Cursed AU] #Welcome to Griever’s. [Modern] #looong overdue heh #but these are what I have so far #and they will be elaborated on at some point with a short story

[avoutput]

Gaps Between Worlds || Mega Man X

Recently I have been searching for the answer to a problem I have been drowning in: Do I still love playing video games? There was a time when new video game releases would get me hyped, and it could just be that I am getting older and my priorities are changing, or my love for games is evolving, but I think there is a better answer that sounds more analytical and less like a platitude. I had to start thinking about what made me fall in love with games in the first place, which was easy enough to do; it was an escape. We need to go deeper. What about games, about the escape grabbed me. Looking back at my most recent completions: Dark Souls, Persona 5, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, most of them offered a balance between challenge and story. For a long time in between the excitement of a title, I had been relying on a game either appealing to the challenge or the story, on a sliding scale in one direction or another. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by my lack of enthusiasm for new games, I pick up a game from my childhood, something that made me feel nostalgic, something like Mega Man X. They have this ability to lift my spirit and invigorate me. That’s when I realized what was missing from modern games: my imagination.

When I booted up my copy of Mega Man X this weekend, it was like it was calling to me. I did it subconsciously. I was struggling with my drive to play Persona 4 Golden, and picked up Nioh, a playstation plus game that had been sitting around for awhile. I was working on a boss, and I just wasn’t feeling it. That’s when I went looking through my games library. I had actually picked up a copy of Mega Man X Legends a while back, installed it, and never played it. Without thinking, just like I did when I was a kid, I just started playing it. The Capcom sound plays and the Mega Man logo flashes across the screen and I am instantly back on my friends bedroom floor, hogging the controller. When the first level starts, it’s instantly chaos, cars flying down the highway, trying to escape the ensuing carnage. You can find out why if you wait for the demo screen that explains the game instead of instantly pressing start, but I never did as a kid, and this led precisely to what I am here to talk about. I filled the gaps with my imagination, even in places where the game didn’t ask me to. I was hungry for a world that I could make cohesive. One that offers a clear definition, a map that leads the eye and the mind to a conclusion, but open enough to let that conclusion be anything that suits you. (The opposite of the Nomura-verse!)

In the era of 8-bit and 16-bit games, the worlds were often presented as flat, layered objects, but drawn to appear in three dimensions like a diorama or, as they often called levels back then, a stage. After you beat the opening level and receive a helping hand from your… friend… or brother… or just some other robot who looks cooler than you, Zero, you are introduced to the classic Mega Man selection screen, but with an interesting tweak. You now can access the enemy’s location via the map screen. This really got my imagination going as a kid and still does to this day. It’s just a minor tweak to the usual formula for the series, but it suddenly added a new layer of depth. I always knew they had to exist somewhere, but it never occurred to me that there was an interconnected ecosystem. They boldly took this approach a step further. Defeating certain Mavericks (the stage bosses) affected another Maverick’s stage. For example, defeating Storm Eagle causes the plane you fight on to crash into Spark Mandrils’ stage. I loved this because as much sense as it made, it also really didn’t make any sense.

Take a look at the map. It is an incredibly dense locale, seemingly made up only of the locations related to the Mavericks. You start the game in some sort of cityscape, but now, you appear to be on some kind of island or peninsula that maybe… supplies all of the needs of the people in the city? Some of the functions of these stages are clear, some you have to make a stretch, and others defy clear explanation. You have a power plant, an airport, a mine, and a factory, all pretty straightforward. As a stretch, we have a forest that possibly processes carbon into oxygen. It doesn’t seem to produce wood, the trees are all made of electronics and covered in a wood veneer. The sea port is also a bit mysterious. It seems more military related than shipping related. All of the robots aren’t the repurposed kinds you see in other stages. They already have missiles and lasers, they are attack focused. So this is probably a military research facility. In the unexplainable, first we have the icy mountain stage, which could be a mine or maybe a research station. I often thought that it produced and controlled weather, but what exactly does a mountain have to do with that? Maybe it is rooted in science, but as a kid, the mind isn’t fully formed, and as an adult, you just know that water becomes clouds and it rains. The American Education system is broken. Lastly, we have a tower that appears to be surrounded by a moat. As a kid, I used to think this was the control tower for the airport, but now I am thinking it might be the control tower for the entire peninsula’s robot ecosystem. It’s not clear, at all, but that's what makes it fun. It is the inconsequential nature of their necessity that makes it fun to explore in your imagination. The bosses don’t speak between each battler or even introduce themselves beyond the shonen bad guy thumbs down, phase in, or muscle flex posturing. If you dig, I am sure there is some concrete answer, but the power is that it ultimately doesn’t matter, it’s just fun to play and explore, either way you go about it.

What also stands out about the construction of the map is how one stage actually interacts with another. If you notice, the Chill Penguin stage is way up at the north side of the map and the factory is to the south, and yet, when you beat Mr. Chill, you Flame Mammoth’s stage is frozen over. There are other stages between the mountain and the factory that are totally in the way of the possible avalanche that would have hit the factory, and yet they are unfazed. I get it, fire is weak to ice, but since there isn’t really an overall method to the madness in the construction of the Map image, as far as I can tell, I just can’t figure why they didn’t move the stages into proximity of the stage that is affected by the defeat of a Maverick master. What is hilarious, the defeat of Launch Octopus causes the forest to overflow, and wouldn’t you know it, they are right next to each other. Same with the airport and power plant, helmed by Storm Eagle and Spark Mandrill respectively. The funny thing about the airport is that because you destroy an airplane in midair, you could have destroyed any stage on the map, and it would have made sense. It would have been even cooler if they had made it so that the longer it takes to defeat Storm Eagle, that changes where the plane falls, and thus the stage it destroys.

It’s not that modern games don’t have these imaginative gaps, it’s just that there are much fewer obvious gaps in the world because they have so much more space to create in. Just looking at the file size between games of the past and today, it’s like comparing the size of Mercury to Jupiter. With that in mind, it could be that I haven’t spent the time to really dive in and find the cracks in modern games. As a kid, I just played the same games over and over again and committed these gaps to memory.

I decided I would use this title to discuss different aspects of the gaps between the imaginative leaps that storytelling asks us to make. Like how we all came up with a particular internal story about what happens inside a Pokeball. I was part of the crowd that thought maybe they get their own personal oasis that suited their type. Or maybe we can discuss the implication of the relationship that Zelda and Link must have based on the minimal interactions we actually get to see them in. Mega Man X has many more facets as series we can dive into, like how exactly his buster arm might actually function and be powered? Maybe it is an internal nuclear reactor offset or totally green and powered by the sun. If it was nuclear, does he leave behind fallout at every defeat? Hopefully I can dedicate more time to this! Thanks for reading.

#Articles #Megaman #Mega Man #Mega Man X #Gaming #Video Games #Zero #Rockman #Rock and Roll #Roll #Dr White #Dr Wiley #Sigma #Penguin #Chill #Games #SNES #Retro Gaming #Retro #Anime #Japan #Capcom #Keiji Inafune #X Buster #Gaps Between Worlds

[escapekissed]

@pcisoner [ PLOTTING CALL ] in which i throw all my muses at u (fuck anxiety!) and we see what sticks BC SHE CANT HATE EM ALL lol

FINAL FANTASY MUSES

GLADIO - my idea is this! gladio works for the yakuza prince, who has lots of business all over the world. the lucis caelums are actually a political family---but they’re most known for their direct, unproveable involvement in shady boots business. gladio was raised by regis’s liutenant and political campaign manager, and regis & clarus have always plotted for their sons to follow in their respective places. as noctis has grown up, however, he’s found sort of a gang of his own and relies more heavily on prompto and ignis, and even hardened criminal gladio grows weary of noctis’s bad attitude and a life of killing and crime. 

he’s just kind of going along with it for now. when gladio first meets tabby---they’re cementing noctis’s overseas political & gang affiliations. gladio is a natural charmer, but also hopes to find out dirt on pretty much everyone he meets, as he appears to most as simply a bodyguard. he’s good at picking up on people---and tends to want to see through tabby’s flimsy outer mask and want to get into her head more than most people. he is VERY persistent.

does A RIVALMANCE bloom? gladio’s self-loathing and guilt mixing with tabby’s in toxic, interesting ways as they call each other out but are equally impressed with each other? do they become reluctant friends, as gladio continues to press tabby’s buttons but is inextricably tied to her life as the yakuza prince’s western influence grows and he NEEDS the information and skills she possesses? does gladio just annoy the fuck out of her and that’s it? WHO KNOW.

FANG - ok so i want witch fang & witch tabby lol. i would love a coven au where fang tries to get tabby to join her coven of [australian voice] bad bitches. but the coven is only vanille & fang right now and SURPRISE vanille is currently HIT WITH A CURSE from a nearby gang of wizards. actually this could be a good found family verse where fang & tabby just collect my girl muses that all go up against my guy muses as side characters or something. is that stupid? IDEK. i just want girl gang modern fantasy witches tbh. fang has a motorcycle in this. also fang in this like. hates tabby and calls her out all the time! but to CHALLENGE her to be better. anime magical girl rivals mance lol.

BARRET - tabby joins AVALANCHE and becomes a thorn in barret’s side as their consumables and poisons expert. barret both hates and loves her. (she is his favorite but also FUCK OFF ‘bitha. would it kill u to join in with the group for a change!)

WEDGE- WEDGE INSTATES AERITH’S BEST FRIEND FOR RELATIONSHIP ADVICE. TENDS TO GO POORLY. OVER TIME TABBY GROWS A SOFT SPOT FOR HIM. unlike the muses i want to call tabby out. he just supports her all the time and kind of tries to EASE her into talking about her feelings. wedge: i want to talk about feelings. tabby: i know, wedge. wedge: do you want to talk about feelings? tabby: not on your life. 

AERITH - i like what we have going on right now TBH!!!! they are CUTE gay-but-no-homo-but-also-yes-homo?-no-i-didnt-yes-i-did-:3c friends lol. i would love to go DEEPER with them but also they are allergic to genuine feelings that are not said when drunk. obviously, we have to get them drunk.

DRAGON AGE MUSES

isabela - okay but pirate captain isabela attacking a ship apothecary tabby is on and isabela decides to TAKE PRISONERS and throw the rest of the fucks off the ship. tabby just wants to go home lol.

DISNEY MUSES

tiana - no one will call out tabby like tiana does. NO BULLSHIT FROM TIANA. KINDLY AND FIRMLY. and then tabby can call out tiana too bc tiana works too hard and takes on everybody else’s burdens and tabby’s like ARE YOU IN TOUCH WITH UR FEELINGS? and tiana’s like i’m feeling BOTHERED right now lmfao. also au where both of them are witches? yes please.

elsa - elsa going out into the world to learn more about other people with magic abilities like herself. she’s the spirit of magic, but sometimes that can be lonely. she feels like there must be other people like her, somewhere. what she finds is tabby! and she’s automatically obsessed lol but tabby wants NOTHING to do with her.... elsa has to get inside tabby’s defenses >: 3c SO THEY CAN BE BEST MAGICAL FRIENDS!!!!

eugene - i simply think tabby and eugene should be divorced exes that got married while drunk in vegas bc they DARED each other about it they were so high they were like ‘I BET YOU WOULDNT MARRY ME, COWARD.’ and it just escalated. and IMMEDIATELY got it annulled the next morning but also. sometimes eugene still thinks about it bc he’s a big sappy romantic and tabby is just like ‘GET OVER IT FITZHERBERT.’ lmfao

gothel - consider an au where gothel is the one that teaches tabby magic and they have a cunty i-hate-my-boss-but-shes-so-good-at-magic-so-i-have-to-stay-but-i-HATE-HERRRR relationship lol except both of them GROW AS PEOPLE FROM IT and gothel grows a secret fondness for her... wow

OTHER

howl - i just want them to hate each other. my idea for this is that howl gets called to wherever the heck tabby is currently living and tabby gets involved in it somehow and she FIGURES OUT HIS TRICK and immediately like. WANTS IN ON A REALITY BENDING ADVENTURE lmfao. they would hate each other too lol

#pcisoner #i'm not feeling too confident in these i might make another post later LOL #ooc #ooc: replies

[starryburglar-archive]

Tifa Info

Full name: Tifa Lockhart

Species: Human

Age: 20

Sexuality: Bisexual

FC(s): ???

Bio: Owner of Seventh Heaven located in the Sector Seven slums and a member of Avalanche, Tifa Lockhart is a kind motherly figure to her comrades and friends who can also kick a lot of ass with her bare fists. She’s a childhood friend of Cloud Strife, having grown up together in Nibleheim before he left the town. She joined Avalanche due to her hatred for Shinra, since they are responsible for her town’s destruction.

Note: Characterization and timeline will exclusively be from the REMAKE, not the original ( plus my own headcanons but that’s beside the point ). I never played the original, nor do I intend to one day. This is my introduction to this particular game ( not to the universe, though, as I have watched Crisis Core ) and I plan to keep it to this remake and following games. My characterization will evolve as future entries are released, please be understanding of this.

[ MAIN || INBOX || HEADCANONS || VISAGE || MUSINGS ]                                -----------------------------------------------

V001: FF7R

Default main verse. Will mostly take place pre-game or mid-game tho can also be used for post-game as well.

V002: KH

Kingdom Hearts verse. Tifa is a citizen from Radiant Garden who, when the world fell into darkness, began her search for her beloved childhood friend Cloud. After she found him again and saw him and Sephiroth vanish to continue their fight, Tifa stepped down from her search, knowing Cloud will someday return home. She’s a member of the Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden Restoration Committee, owns a bar called Seventh Heaven, and will join fights, like the battle of heartless and nobodies, with other members of the RGRC acting as “military”: Avalanche.

V003: Modern

Modern verse. Tifa is the proud owner of Seventh Heaven, a bar that has been passed down her family for generations and has been her home for as long as she can remember. She’s a masterclass bartender and more than a decent cook, but she’ll also lend an ear and provide comfort for those who need it. Don’t take her kindness lightly, though, she WILL kick your ass.                                -----------------------------------------------

CONNECTIONS

--

[songs-from-mount-chorus]

Songs From Mount Chorus’ Top 50 Albums of the 2010s

Hello all!

We’re on the very last legs of 2019, which means a time for reflection on the year, as well as on the decade at large. Here at SFMC, that means - almost exclusively - an examination of the music I’ve consumed over the past 10 years. And what a decade it has been. In the past ten years, I’ve graduated college, held residence in seven different states, and am daily adding to the record of “longest time worked at a single place of employment” (go me). Along the way, I’ve always had a rollicking soundtrack to score the highs and lows of my itinerant twenties, which is what we’re here to discuss.

What follows is a list of what I consider the 50 “best” albums of the past ten years. “Best” is a subjective term no matter which way you slice the cake, and I’m sure that those of you reading this will have your own opinions as to what should or should not be on such a list. Therefore, a minor disclaimer, and then we’ll get things underway. When I was putting this list together, I had a handful of criteria, but they all largely boiled down to a few questions I could ask of any album: Did I enjoy listening to it, front to back? Did it bring me back for repeat listens? Did it make me feel something (joyous or sombre - I can take a good cathartic cry with the best of them)? Has it held up to my tastes in 2019? With those questions in mind, I whittled a list of 73 long-list contenders into the final 50 you’re about to see.

And that should about cover it. Without further ado, the list, and then onward into whatever the ‘20s has waiting for us.

50) The Death of the Self Preservation Society - Two Cow Garage (2013) 49) Interrobang - Bayside (2019) 48) Live the Dream - Ramshackle Glory (2011) 47) The Suburbs - Arcade Fire (2010) 46) Father of the Bride - Vampire Weekend (2019) 45) Wasteland, Baby! - Hozier (2019) 44) Emotion - Carly Rae Jepsen (2015) 43) Paramore - Paramore (2013) 42) Puberty 2 - Mitski (2016) 41) The Winter of Mixed Drinks - Frightened Rabbit (2011) 40) Handwritten - The Gaslight Anthem (2012) 39) Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied - The Fratellis (2015) 38) Suburbia I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing - The Wonder Years (2011) 37) Beat the Champ - The Mountain Goats (2015) 36) Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon - Murder By Death (2012) 35) Romance Is Boring - Los Campesinos! (2010) 34) Avalanche United - I Am the Avalanche (2011) 33) Steel Train - Steel Train (2010) 32) The Desired Effect - Brandon Flowers (2015) 31) Songs of God and Whiskey - The Airborne Toxic Event (2015) 30) American Slang - The Gaslight Anthem (2010) 29) How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful - Florence and the Machine (2015) 28) Tape Deck Heart - Frank Turner (2013) 27) Harmlessness - The World Is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die (2015) 26) Brill Bruisers - The New Pornographers (2014) 25) After It All - Delta Rae (2015) 24) Foxy Shazam - Foxy Shazam (2010) 23) White Paint - Hollerado (2013) 22) Contra - Vampire Weekend (2010) 21) Theatre Is Evil - Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra (2012) 20) Hebrews - Say Anything (2014) 19) Bury Me in Philly - Dave Hause (2017) 18) Wolves - Rise Against (2017) 17) Transcendental Youth - The Mountain Goats (2012) 16) Calm Down, Everything Is Fine - Mike Mains & the Branches (2014) 15) No Closer to Heaven - The Wonder Years (2015) 14) Engine of a Million Plots - Five Iron Frenzy (2013) 13) The Other Shore - Murder By Death (2018) 12) America, Location 12 - Dispatch (2017) 11) Morbid Stuff - PUP (2019)

10) Going Out in Style - Dropkick Murphys (2011)

9) Ceremonials - Florence and the Machine (2011)

8) Sleepwalkers - Brian Fallon (2018)

7) Death of a Bachelor - Panic! at the Disco (2016)

6) The Hands That Thieve - Streetlight Manifesto (2013)

5) Talon of the Hawk - The Front Bottoms (2013)

4) On the Impossible Past - The Menzingers (2012)

3) My Dinosaur Life - Motion City Soundtrack (2010)

2) Pedestrian Verse - Frightened Rabbit (2013)

1) Modern Vampires of the City - Vampire Weekend (2013)

#songs from mount chorus #sfmc #music #best of the decade

[bugheadfanfictionawards]

FULL LIST OF PAST WINNERS

Hi everyone! in preparation for the next award season i made an easy to comprehend list so nominations are easy for both you and me. if i have discredited anyone please let me know. remember if they are on this list they can’t be nominated for another award.

#

101 Ways to Cope (or not) With Being Post Grad by @tory-b

A

A Bump In The Road by @remyrabid

Alice Cooper Adopts the World by @EmeraldAshes

All’s Fair In Love (& War) by @rivervixens @stillscape 

among the wildflowers by @heavy-lies-the-crown

and in heaven below by @paperlesscrown

B

Be Lonely with Me by @bughead-is-riverdale

Blackmail by @dazing-days2410

Born Losers by @sylwrites

bring the sin by @sopaloma

By Mere Happenstance by @it-happened-one-starry-night

C

can’t fall in love without you by @thetaoofbetty

Carry Me Home (Tonight) by @stories-of-blue-and-gold

chasing cars by @flwrpotts

christmas (through your eyes) by @bugggghead

Come On, Let’s Go! by  @it-happened-one-starry-night

Cowboy Jones: Chock'lit Covered Dreamsby @writeradamanteve

Cowboy Jones: Origins of Life by @writeradamanteve

D

Daddy by @lazydaizies

Dandelion Clocks by @itsindiansummer13

Dianthus Caryophyllus by @stillscape

Drive by @writeradamanteve

Do You Believe in Fate? @jennimisk

Double-Booked by @itsindiansummer13 

E

Erase & Rewind by @sopaloma

eye for an eye by @lazydaizies

Eye Of The Storm by @lilibug–xx 

F

Fade Into Me (I’ll Fade Into You) by @elegantmoonchild

Fall In Light by @sylwrites

Falling Into You by @lazydaizies

For a Good Time, Call Betty by @mothermaple

For All the Words I Can’t Speak Aloud (I’ll Write Down in Verse)by @itsindiansummer13 

For The Life Of Me by @stillscape

G

Give Me Shelter Or Show Me Heart by @cooperjones2020 

Go Ahead And Laugh (Even If It Hurts) by @stardustparker

H

Harvest to Home by @writeradamanteve

Here Where We Intersect by @dreamersshouldknowbetter 

High by @kmlefev

Hold On, Is This A Kissing Fic by @juggydunes

House of Memories by @thenurseholiday

How to Train Your R.A. by @tory-b

I

I Was Not Born to Drown by @heytherejuliet-fanfic

if i told you who i am (can i call you baby?) by  @thetaoofbetty

In Here, Too by @paperlesscrown

In Hot Water by @bugggghead

It Starts And Ends With You by @lilibug–xx

It’s Not Sticking (Not This Time) by @milkshakeandmurders

J

Jones Industries by @bugheadotp 

K

Keep Your Eyes On The Ground by @imreallyloveleee

L

Lost And Found By @lusterrdust​

Love, Avalanches, and Other Natural Disasters by @mothermaple

M

Modern Love by @malmo722​

murder, he wrote by @psychobetts and @shrugheadjonesthethird

(My Youth Ain’t) Tangled Up In Bad Decisions by @rivervixens

N

O

Oil & Sugar by @lazydaizies

Oil & Water by @onceuponamirror​

On Borrowed Time by @aisforr

Order Up by @itsindiansummer13

Ouroboros by @elegantmoonchild

Overcome by @melton-my-heart

P

Painted in Flames by @lana-luthor

Painted Skin by @mothermaple

Pretty In Pink by @theheavycrown

Pumpkin Spice (and all things nice) by @itsindiansummer13

Q

R

red ribbon winner by @heavy-lies-the-crown  

S

“S” is for Southside by @lovedinapastlife

Santa Fe by @it-happened-one-starry-night

Scars by @itsindiansummer13

Shooter by  @lazydaizies

show me your soul (i’ll show you mine) by @paperlesscrown

Smoke and Glitter by @tory-b

Something Good Will Come by @lilibug–xx

Something to Tell You by  @findingbetty

Southside High by @noorakardemmomesaetre

Stardust by @pennyroads

Stealing Home by @onceuponamirror

Summer Storm by @lazydaizies

Sweetest Little Part Of Destiny by  @sylwrites @rivervixens

Sweethearts by @raptorlily 

T

Tacos And Tequlia By @jugandbettsdetectiveagency

Take Me Home by @sylwrites

That’s What You Get For Waking Up In Vegas by @wordsonpages1

The Baddest Thing by @noorakardemmomesaetre

The Babysitter Series by @crashhale

The Con by @jerepars 

The Missing & Extended Moments by @litladyloveshp

The Roommates  @javajunkieao3

The Secrets Deep Within by @riverheadcf

The Serpent & The Swan by @jugandbettsdetectiveagency

The Stacks by @malmo722

Tired by @Bettyluvsjuggie

to face unafraid (the plans that we made) by  @sylwrites @rivervixens

Trading T-Shirts by @jugandbettsdetectiveagency

Try Me On (Baby) by @it-happened-one-starry-night 

U

Underneath The Night Sky by @itsindiansummer13

V

Vanilla Lips & Cigarette Tips by @bitchezbebonkers​

viva americana by @heavy-lies-the-crown

W

Welcome To The Southside by @heytherejuliet-fanfic

What Does Shakespeare Know? (2) by @typing123

What She Wanted by @paperlesscrown

What’s In A Name by @tory-b​

When the Lights Go Out by @tory-b

Where It Ends, Where It Begins by @paperlesscrown

Where The Wild Roses Grow by @believe-that-you-can-my-friend

White Swan Finds Love by @typing123

Wicked by @writeradamanteve

Wicked Games @lana-luthor

Wilder Mind by @kmlefev

X

Y

You (Again) by @pennyroads

you better watch out by @stillscape and  @sylwrites

You Build Me Up, Believer by @jugandbettsdetectiveagency

you had me howling by @theheavycrown

You Shook Me All Night Long by @sopaloma

(You’re My) Playground Love by @sopaloma

You’ve Got Everything You Need (Especially Me) by @tabledragon

Z

#bughead #bughead fanfiction #bughead fanfic #bughead fic #bughead family #bughead fandom #bughead edit #bughead fanfiction awards #bughead fanfiction awards 2019

[holyguardian]

☹ : For a letter my muse doesn’t even the courage to send.

MEME → For a letter from my muse!

The letter had slipped down the back of a drawer, hiding where it would have otherwise gone undiscovered had it not been for the room undergoing extensive renovations for security. Somnus' team had been brought in and while Aerith's chateau was adequate in being protected and secure it didn't come close to the standard that the heir required.

One of his men handed him the unassuming blank envelope, which had already been opened and the contents checked over before it was delivered to his hands. There was no such thing as too thorough and if Aerith had any paper trail on his world it would have been a danger to them both.

The date on the letter indicated it had been penned 6 months ago, enough time for the young couple to become serious about Somnus living in with her, but not enough that he would be fully confident the contents of the letter didn't still stand in some way. It rested with him if he would ever speak up about discovering it.

Som,

I don't like the person I'm becoming when I'm with you. Don't get me wrong, you're amazing, you're so fucking good to me even during the times when I don't deserve the time of day from you because of my behaviour.

I don't like ME.

You've been holding the door protecting me from your world, but I keep looking in. I know that there are secrets on the other side that I should never know about and I care less and less about that the more I'm with you. I make stupid decisions, I can't claim that is owing to you because I have always acted recklessly in life — didn't land on my feet so well inside the music industry for being such a sweetheart. Though stupid decisions in the orbit of your life are dangerous.

I'm a bit of a mess, yeah, but I don't like how far I'd be willing to go for you and it scares me. You can't pretend it doesn't scare you too.

I think we should take a break.

I don't want to lose you, but I don't want to lose myself either. I need time to rediscover myself. I can't possibly do that when we are so closely in each others lives that we're living in my home like we've legit settled down.

I knew I had to write this down because as soon as I'm talking to you I just. I'd give you the world.

I love you.

- Aer

#somnus-lucis-caelum #answered #verse; modern world (AVALANCHE) #The prompt said she didn't send it #It said NOTHING about him getting it anyway 8D #Free real estate

[bloodfcst-a]

Is there a plot etc you really crave to write?

Y’all I have a lot of ideas so prepare in advance.

I know I certainly want to write with my modern verse a lot. 

I want to see Yuffie doing ordinary things, living an ‘ average ’ life because… in canon, she doesn’t have much of one. The only time she gets to be ‘ ordinary ’ is when she’s traveling around with a group of eco-terrorists who carry the name of a vigilante group who used her country as a bargaining chip against the enemy they’d just recently lost a war against. She needs some… average interactions with basic friends? That would be nice. @sharkapologlst @softestmood @cheiian + I know I’m forgetting others… but I’m looking at y’all !

I’ve talked about it a bit with @sharkapologlst & also @garrotejima ( @fatesrot you can bet I’m gonna drag you into this too ), but I made her a yakuza for a reason, and I want to write crime-based threads or yakuzie based threads. Part of it is bc… well, I’m not gonna lie, I’m a hoe for the Yakuza series. But also, nothing about Yuffie’s life is ordinary. She is a princess canonically, so I wanted that same sense of hierarchy to trickle down into modern era. We see Yuffie all the time getting down and dirty & in my assumptions of her, I think stealing / mugging / espionage is just really the top of it. I completely believe given the motivation and necessity, she would be capable of doing more. And I don’t want her to stoop down to just… a red light district girl. No, she’s definitely a person of importance, she’s definitely got something to defend more than familial honor, and she’s able to blend into her surroundings to get the job done. So… there’s that.

As for more ‘ canon-based ’ interactions? Let’s start with KH.

I’ve started experimenting a bit & reaching out to people, but I don’t think KH should be limited to just the restoration committee, because we see already she’s capable and involved in so many other things. That’s certainly the last place we see her, yes– but once Radiant Garden’s restored, then what? She may not be canonically a ‘ warrior of light ’ or ‘ princess of heart ’ ( that’s Square limiting themselves tbh ), but there’s certainly other roles for her to preside in. I’m sure Yuffie can be tech savvy, given that Cid’s her adoptive father figure. Why not help Ienzo? Or, we know that she’s capable of traveling to other worlds because she’s gone between Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden, Olympus Coliseum, and Traverse Town without Sora’s help or “ the heart travels going to and from the body ” shenanigans. Have her travel to other places! Sora doesn’t need to be the only person collecting Ansem’s reports, for example. Sora and Riku also don’t need to be the only people going to different worlds and fighting the Heartless. For the whole “no meddling” rule to exist, Yuffie’s done plenty of that already in canon and no one’s critiqued her. Let’s keep it up.

Also, KH interactions in general. @dawnled @thekeybladehero , other KH muses… let’s make it happen. 

Also, I know I’ve bothered @idno41269 about this, but uh… if you’re an FF character and you wanna interact in the realm of KH? Let’s make it happen scoobs.

As for the Compilation… I guess there are things I’d like to do, but not sure if threads or meta are the best way to go about it? Maybe even some drabbles from time to time. But here are some things to consider for sure:

Yuffie’s relationship with the Shin-Ra is complex. Because, certainly, as a corporation she thinks they’re evil for what they did to Wutai. She doesn’t agree with the concept of mako reactors, and has seen what they do to the planet– they’re not harmonious. But? Recall that when she’s in the pagoda stealing bombs that AVALANCHE has planted & returns them to the Player Turk, she’s conflicted not because of the Turks, but because by an extension she’s now helping the Shin-Ra…. She’s personally fine with Tseng, Reno, Rude, Cissnei, etc. I HC that the Turks were quite polite to Yuffie during the Negotiation Era. But certainly her feelings would be messy, especially in a post-war future where WRO is receiving funds from Shin-Ra, and the assumption later that the Shin-Ra are still an influential organization with an abundance of wealth, and thus access to resources. She will have to partner with them at one point or another to restore and create a better planet. But all the feelings in between are… wild, and I think it would be really fun to elaborate on that in more detail.

The “Treasure Princess Era.” Roughly from ages 9-13 you have Yuffie just… roaming the world, finding locations of suspiciously powerful treasures that Rufus has leaked to Godo, but her dad’s too shaken up to act on. That’s a lot to unpack right there. She’s traveling the world alone at 9. Who is supporting her? We know Zack, when it comes to the actual treasures, but what about the in-between? Her actually navigating, where is she staying, how is she viewed and how do people interact with her in a fresh-outta-war society? To anywhere with Shin-Ra influence, Wutaians were the enemy… do they spare her because she’s a child, or does she still see that wrath? I HC that as a teenager, certainly she would, and I’d like to write about that more later. But in her earlier years… I think that’s definitely some curious stuff to write about.

My default verse might be post-Compilation, but I’m still interested in writing things during it. Shenanigans on the Original Journey, stuff with like On a Way to a Smile, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, etc etc. 

There’s stuff that doesn’t like… neatly fall into these organization bins, right? Like, I love Ace Attorney and Devil May Cry and Metal Gear Solid, so I’d have to work a bit on figuring out how interactions with those fandoms would work. And I follow other characters & fandoms too. At the end of the day… if I’m following you, I’m intrigued by you and would be interested in writing with you at some point or another. So while I hope this gives you some ideas, I would encourage you to just poke me, or send a meme, or interact with an inbox or plotting call… something that would foster some interaction between us and further our writing relationship.

This was wordy, but I hope this is okay! Thanks for sending this in!

#Anonymous #♝ answer. #♝ wishlist.

[a-wandering-fool]

I just saw a post go by arguing that the German NAZI party was somehow not “socialist.” That while they did have the “socialist” name in the party name–that was done to attract voters, and had no real impact on German’s economic policies. No; instead, we’re told that the NAZIs weren’t socialist because, well, they were racist and their political policies were terrible and they had all these concentration camps–and “real socialists” care about all people and are fuzzy and adorable and just want to help.

I’ve heard similar arguments elsewhere.

The Soviet Union was not socialist, despite calling themselves the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, because they weren’t caring enough and discriminated against certain types of people and the called themselves “Communists” and engaged in wars. Venezuela was not socialist because despite passing policies which controlled corporations and set price targets and nationalized various industries left and right–well, they clearly don’t care enough because their President is an asshole or something, and people are starving.

And besides, many of these places did not practice “true Socialism” (whatever that is), they practiced cartelism or fascism or crony corporatism or a thousand other terms which describe the government or collective ownership or control of the means of production–but isn’t really the collective ownership or control of the means of production in the way “true Socialism” requires.

And if you dig into some of the more esoteric discussions in Socialist circles, the amount of meaningless gobbledygook piles up miles high. Buried in there somewhere you find discussions of artisan guilds and collective oversight of workers and occupational autonomy. You’ll find a whole host of obscure philosopher’s names from the 18th through the 20th century and you even find idealists who think increasing computational power will lead us to better real-time management of peer-to-peer relations. And you’ll find tons of anarcho-whatevers floating around, like anarcho-syndicalism, or the idea that society is best organized by worker self-management without hierarchical control.

Look. All this gobbledygook gives me a splitting headache. It feels like an avalanche of bullshit being piled on to confuse the reader. And as I observed the other day, if you don’t have a philosophical compass, it’s easy to be taken by profound-sounding bullshit. (I mean, there’s research and everything which shows this result.)

So let’s find ourselves a philosophical loadstone to get us out of the weeds, shall we?

In this case, let’s simply characterize economic decision making broadly into two categories. I know that most modern economies (including the United States) have a mix of both–and often you see features of both types of decision making across the economic spectrum. But these two broad categories will help us categorize our thinking and, hopefully, cut through the fog of bullshit.

There is “top-down” decision making–where decision making is concentrated at “the top” for some definition of “top”. And there is “bottom-up” decision making, where decisions are distributed to “the bottom” rather than concentrated upwards.

A concrete example is in order to show what I mean.

Suppose I want to buy bread, because I’m hungry. So I go to a store which sells bread.

In a top-down decision making system, the type of bread that is available and its price has been determined in advance by a central decision making entity. (What that entity is is immaterial to this discussion.) There perhaps are only three types of bread–perhaps they’re made by a single company, perhaps they’re made by three cooperating companies. But the price is set–and I buy my bread.

In a bottom-up decision making system, the type of bread that is available and its price has also been set by the time I arrive at the store–but what type of bread and its price has been determined by multiple, competing entities. Those entities are not cooperating but in competition with each other–each vying for my money. But again, the price is set, and I buy my bread.

Cooperation verses competition.

Top-down verses bottom-up.

Now here’s the interesting part. When decisions are made top-down–inevitably politics will get involved. It doesn’t matter if the decision of what sort of bread we have available to us was made by a Venezuelan strong-man dictator, or an anarcho-syndicalist worker’s cooperative. A decision as to what sort of bread to produce must be made, out of thousands of possible breads that can be produced.

And that requires politics.

Why?

Well, fundamentally, if all decisions as to the type of bread to be sold is driven from the top-down, and if there is no competition, there can be no price discovery. Multiple competing products (using different manufacturing techniques and different ingredients, slowly improved over time by workers interested in getting a bigger share of the market) can’t exist, since by definition in a top-down system, the companies are cooperating and collectively have all the market share.

And without price discovery, driven by price signaling (since any entity with 100% of the market inevitably destroys price signals, which require competition to develop), there is no other means to determine product manufacturing and pricing other than political considerations.

By contrast, in a bottom-up system where companies must compete for the consumer’s dollar–price signals abound. Perhaps your marketplace competitor discovered that they can make more money by selling specialized whole grain breads. Or perhaps your competitor discovered a way to redesign their bread-baking ovens so as to reduce the cost of a loaf of bread. Or perhaps your competitor has discovered that they can make more money by using all non-GMO ingredients.

How will you discover this? Through price signaling–which is a polite way of saying suddenly your bread isn’t selling at the store, and you’re losing money. “Price signaling” is the economic term for “someone is swinging a clue stick at your head, saying DO SOMETHING!”

And it’s stressful for you. Now you have to figure out how to outwit your competitors. Perhaps you need to switch to non-GMO ingredients yourself. Perhaps you need to find a cheaper way to make your bread. Perhaps you position yourself in the market as being the ‘cheap’ option for consumers as your competitor takes the ‘luxury bread’ market.

Or perhaps you can’t figure it out–your competitor has you dead to rights. And so you run out of money, go bankrupt: your workers quit and work for your competitor, your factory sold off at auction to pay your outstanding debts.

But in a bottom-up system, it’s economics, not politics, which drives your decision making processes.

So: top-down systems are cooperative systems where decisions are made by politics.

And bottom-up systems are competitive systems where decisions are made through economics.

Now one of the major criticisms of bottom-up systems driven by economic decision-making processes is that they are motivated by “greed.” Our movies and TV shows are full of paeans against “greed”; the most well known being from the movie “Wall Street” from 1987 where a smarmy bastard Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas) lectures a room full of regulators that “greed is good”, reflecting many of the arguments that have been made by supporters of free-market capitalism, just before he goes off and breaks the law.

We’re taught not to be greedy, an idea that is as old as the Bible, and reflected in more modern tracts on morality.

And having concluded that capitalism is motivated by greed: “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (such as money) than is needed”–we’ve concluded that capitalism itself is broken, and there must be a better way.

The problem is this: who doesn’t act in our own self-interest?

Milton Friedman said it best in his interview with Phil Donahue:

What is greed?

Of course none of us are greedy; it’s always the other fellow who is greedy. (audience laughter)

The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests.

This is important to remember. As Adam Smith put it in “The Theory of Moral Sentiments:”

The administration of the great system of the universe … the care of the universal happiness of all rational and sensible beings, is the business of God and not of man. To man is allotted a much humbler department, but one much more suitable to the weakness of his powers, and to the narrowness of his comprehension: the care of his own happiness, of that of his family, his friends, his country…. But though we are … endowed with a very strong desire of those ends, it has been entrusted to the slow and uncertain determinations of our reason to find out the proper means of bringing them about. Nature has directed us to the greater part of these by original and immediate instincts. Hunger, thirst, the passion which unites the two sexes, and the dread of pain, prompt us to apply those means for their own sakes, and without any consideration of their tendency to those beneficent ends which the great Director of nature intended to produce by them.

In other words, we are incapable of seeing beyond our own self-interests–but the world has been arranged so that as long as we can all pursue our own self-interests, the world will act as if lead by an “invisible hand”–which is Adam Smith’s allusion to the hand of God.

So let’s dispense with this idea of “greed,” as it requires me, acting in my own self-interest, to judge you, as you act in your own self-interest, and question your consumption habits.

It’s not to say we cannot diagnose right from wrong: clearly it’s wrong to take something that belongs to someone else. It’s wrong to cheat. It’s wrong to treat people unfairly. It’s wrong to abuse other people.

But to tell someone what they have, assuming it was gained through their own efforts (and not through lying, cheating or stealing) is to judge them for their efforts. It’s to tell them their efforts is wrong. It’s to tell the painter he shouldn’t paint beautiful paintings or the writer to stop writing such excellent poetry. It’s to hobble the world because you don’t like the fact that someone else has a talent they have expressed in the world.

It’s to make life a little meaner, because you don’t like that someone else has talents you do not share.

So let’s review.

Top-down systems are cooperative systems are politically motivated systems.

Bottom-up systems are competitive systems are economically motivated systems.

And throughout the world we see top-down, cooperative and politically motivated systems fail left and right. Why?

Because of something I observed earlier about the nature of cooperative systems. They destroy price signaling and price discovery.

Instead, top-down systems impose political pressure to establish pricing and product manufacturing techniques.

And these will inevitably fail for the simple reason that, by destroying price signaling, you will inevitably have storages and economic collapse because the world is an unpredictable place and one which, fundamentally, cannot be controlled by political pressure.

And because cooperative systems destroy the multiple redundancies that inevitably evolve as multiple companies seek to compete against each other, there is no margin for error.

Price signals help smooth the ride when there are economic shocks, in the same way shock absorbers in your car smooth the ride when you hit a patch of bumpy roads. By allowing prices to swing upwards when there is a shortage, there is both a clear signal to consumers that they may wish to rethink their purchases (either by buying less, substitution with a good the consumer thinks is equivalent, or by rethinking other purchases so they can spend more).

For example, you love apples, and you eat an apple a day. But one day you go to the grocery store and, unbeknownst to you, there was a horrible apple worm infestation which destroyed half the apple crops. If prices then go up to reflect this fact, you can decide “sure, I’ll pay twice as much for apples.” Or “gosh, perhaps peaches will work equally well.” Or even “you know, I really don’t need to buy frozen TV dinners; I’ll buy the raw ingredients and save some money for my apples.”

But without price signals, what happens? Well, what we’ve seen in general (and what we saw in Venezuela) is political pressure to keep prices low. (Remember: today we may bad-mouth Venezeulan President Maduro as a strongman dictator–but he was swept into power on promises to keep the price food low so the poor could eat well. A promise, by the way, he actually kept until the economy collapsed.)

And when prices are low–what happens? Well, as a consumer you just bop on down to the store, unaware of the apple shortage. So you buy your apples–but there aren’t as many available. Or perhaps the store runs out.

In essence, without a signal to indicate a shortage, consumers keep on consuming right up until we run out of stuff.

Then comes rationing, long lines, the hope against hope that there will be any apples.

And look at this on the producer side. Without price signals–without apple growers suddenly getting more for their failed crops–apple growers wind up being paid less for their overall crops. Meaning if you only produce a thousand bushels of apples instead of two thousand–but you’re paid the same price per bushel, you get half the money you were expecting.

Money that you would use to spray pesticides to get rid of the infection. Money you would use to maintain your trees. Money you would use to get ready for next year’s crops. Money you would use to pay next year’s apple pickers.

And without higher prices there is no signal to other farmers that perhaps they may want to think about planting more apple trees. There is no way producers know, in other words, how to adjust their outputs–and no way for them to have the money necessary to continue to produce their outputs.

Eventually, without money, total apple supplies dwindle. There are no new competitors to replace them–remember: top-down systems are cooperative, not competitive. And while governments can help subsidize apple growers in the face of economic disaster–governments themselves only have so much resources at their disposal. Enough economic disasters without any margins of error built into the economy (thanks to a lack of competition), and eventually the lights go out, people starve, and sometimes even resort to cannibalism.

And while I’m picking on Venezuela here, we also saw this towards the end of the USSR, and we’ve seen echos of this in places like Cuba and Cambodia and Ethiopia.

Further, notice what I did not say. I did not say that socialism fails, though I’ve used socialism as an example. I did not say that communism fails, though other examples in the prior sentence described themselves as communist.

I said top-down systems fail, because economic cooperation destroys price signaling. And this leads to economic failure as economic decisions are replaced by political decision making.

Go back to Milton Friedman’s video above. People pursue our individual separate interests, because that is all we know how to do. If that self-interest is arranged through a system of competition so that people are forced to cater to consumers, then we see redundant and parallel products that buffer us from failure: all the non-GMO bread ingredients are wiped out by some strange disease, yet all the consumer sees is that his favorite brand of bread is no longer available, and he has the hard decisions of eating bread with GMO-based ingredients or buying something else entirely. Meanwhile, non-GMO ingredients go up in price–signaling entrepreneurial farmers to figure out a way to plant and deliver non-GMO ingredients in the future.

And all without top-down cooperation by politically motivated groups.

So tl;dr: top-down systems are cooperative systems and politically motivated. Cooperative systems lack the competition that leads to people making better products and to having a multitude of products to choose from. This creates thinner margins, which have the potential to lead to economic failure.

And make no mistake: crop failures happen all the time in the United States. We’ve seen oranges fail in Florida and corn yields drop in the midwest and shortages of beef and chicken going back decades.

But did people starve in the United States? No; we just paid more for certain things, and changed our eating habits to accommodate those higher prices. Meanwhile competing farmers worked harder to produce the products we wanted–so the following year, the lack of oranges or chicken became a distant memory of a minor inconvenience.

This is why the discussion to if the NAZI party was socialist or “corporate cartelists” is an entirely moot discussion.

Both systems involve top-down organization of the economy at the hands of a central decision-making body. And it’s why both systems are similar to anarcho-syndicalism and Italy’s dabbling with fascism: decision making in all of these systems are pushed to the top, where they are divorced from price signals. Cooperation amongst organizations (either because they’re controlled by the government, by a workers’ committee or by a cartel or a fascist cooperative) means less effort to improve products to cater to the consumer–since there are no pesky competitive organizations to second-guess.

Margins of error are lost, and eventually systems fail–and lack the ability to recover.

It’s also, if you’ve been following along, the problem with monopolies and large corporations–which also suffer from top-down management.

But unlike government-run top-down systems, in a properly functioning bottom-up economic system with competition, large corporations can fail without destroying the entire house of cards.

So long as there is competition, in other words, it doesn’t matter if the CEO of an AT&T or a General Motors or a General Electric screws the pooch. There will always be a competitor ready to eat their lunch when these large corporations–some dating back a century or more–collapse in failure and ruin.

But cooperative systems–when they fail, there is no-one waiting in the wings to take over.

Governments cannot be easily replaced with competitive governments. (Well, they can, but this is called “invasion” and “overthrow”–and generally they create worse problems than the bankruptcy of a Sears.)

And this distinction: that top-down systems involve cooperation and use politically motivated decision making, while bottom-up systems involve competition and use economically motivated decision making, that should be at the bottom of our philosophical stack.

So when someone starts babbling away about the writings of Grün and Püttmann, and how “you don’t understand what Democratic Socialism involves”–all you have to do is wade through the bullshit and ask yourself the following questions:

Are the people who control the means of production competing or cooperating? And can a new person or group easily enter the market as a competitor?

And:

When companies compete under this hypothetical system, do they compete for consumer dollars? Or political favoratism?

======================

I recently saw that claim also....   That the Nazi Party wasn’t “Socialist” so I thought this was an interesting post on the topic.

[desertislandcloud]

“I originally wrote this song in 2017 about the end of a relationship, but I recently heard it again and realized it’s more about how the internet’s starting to change my relationships in general. Our culture's endless content loop is making us addicted to immediate gratification, and it gives us overwhelmingly layered expectations for everything and everyone. When you have a lens on the whole world, it can be hard to not want more. But who's to say you shouldn't? In the context of this song, it sucks to find your partner has romantic FOMO, but what if it leads to positive change for both of you? Is love a finite resource? I don't know. But if we can’t opt out of our chaotic reality, maybe we can at least learn to see the entropy as a good thing.”

- John War

“Plurals” is an indie rock song with gauzy, retro-modern features and a singer-songwriter core. Influenced equally by Car Seat Headrest, J Dilla, Frank Ocean & the Avalanches, it sequences between lo-fi rock verses, slick modern choruses, and hazy, homespun plunderphonics.

Links https://www.facebook.com/jjoohhnnwwaarr https://twitter.com/johnwar_ https://soundcloud.com/jjoohhnnwwaarr

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