#also… what makes human dissection better? its interesting

[marsbotz]

sorry ill keep falling for ragebait but this one is so funny. UR DOING BIOLOGY???

[maiko-san]

Catnap + Dogday x Reader ( Part 5 )

<<< Part 4 , Part 6 >>>

Relationship : Fluff

Warning : ⚠️ Mention of blood / gore, human experiments ⚠️

Plot : You were sleeping until you woke up and realised you weren't in the infirmary anymore

Catnap has made his decision, he decides to pay you a visit. Even if it is just a mere minute.

This is the only time he disobeyed The Prototype, surely his god would understand, right?

He had pleaded The Prototype to spare you out of all humans in the facility.

The Prototype accepted it but he won't assure about your survival during the massacre. Whatever happens to you will be Catnap's responsibility.

How about he convince you to join him? To be in the team and follow The Prototype?

It makes Catnap feel happy at the thought of the person he loves joining the team.

Just you and him, might even Dogday if he ever joined the group.

Wait...What if you refuse? Surely you wouldn't, right? If you refuse then he will force you. Yeah, definitely because he wants you safe.

Even it means dragging you down to the deepest and darkest of the Playtime Co, just to keep you safe.

As soon Catnap reaches the infirmary, he peeks his head in the room only to find it empty.

"...Star?"

You weren't in the room, where could you have gone to? Then, his nose picks up a familiar scent.

No...it cannot be.

His pupils dilate as he quickly crawls through the vents and makes his way towards the laboratory.

.

.

.

.

.

You hear voices around you which causes you to wake up.

All you see was the white ceiling instead of the colourful ones, you tried to move your body but you couldn't.

"You're finally awake"

You turn your head to the source and see one of the higher ups, a man in lab coat. You've seen him before but where...?

.....

If you remember correctly, you've seen him in the organisation chart and also on the papers you always work on.

"Dr. Sawyer...?"

"Oh, so you know me... interesting"

In his hand, he held a clipboard. He jotted something on the paper before looking down on you.

You are confused.

What's happening?

Where are you? What is this place? Why are you....here?

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions on your mind. You are in the Bigger Body Initiative programming room"

"Bigger...Body Initiative?"

"We've been monitoring you for quite a long time, now. It's quite hard to find someone that is compatible with our program. We have finally found a suitable host for our newest mascot, you are...perfect"

"Host...m-mascot? W-what are you saying?!"

You have to escape. If you stay you will never know what they will do to you!

Then, the metal doors before you open and came in a doll....

An angel doll with a pair of wings and a golden halo on top of her head, the doll is very beautiful like an angel as it is.

"All the children needed now is an angel to protect them, guide them and help the Playtime Co flourish. Your personality will become handy and guide the children to a better future for the company"

Every word he's saying, you don't like it one bit....

Dr. Sawyer leaves the room, saying you should get accustomed to the doll first.

You begin tugging on the belt on your wrist but they are too tight. You stare up at the ceiling above you.

You cannot escape....

You don't have anything on you to help you escape.

You slowly take in your surroundings, there is a table next to you full of operating equipment, which makes you pale.

Are they going to dissect you and sell your organs?!

Hell no!

"Help! Please!"

You cried out for help, though your voice fell into deaf ears. Tears start pouring out from your eyes, is this how you will die?

Plap, plap, plap.

Your ears pick up a pitter patter on the floor, you look down only to see a plush version of Catnap staring up at you with its beady black eyes.

Did...the plush just....moved?

Then, it tilts its head causing you to flinch in surprise.

The plush begins to climb on the table and hops on to you, you begin to panic and close your eyes, waiting for the pain to come.

Clack!

The straps on your wrists were loose and you open your eyes to see Catnap plush gnawing on the leather strap on your ankle.

Freeing you.

With your hands free, you quickly unstrap the belt on your other leg and hop off the bed. You walk over to the door but it won't open.

"F*ck!"

You begin to look around and notice a vent but it's high up, you can't reach it even if you climb on the table.

What are you going to do?!

You feel a soft tap on your ankle and you look down to see Plushnap, nudging your leg before pointing up at the vent.

You told it you can't reach it.

Then, Plushnap does a throwing motion before holding out its tail and stretches it with its paws.

It doesn't take you long to know what it was thinking.

Now, you hold Plushnap with your strong hand as the toy wraps its tail tightly around your wrist.

"Are you ready, buddy?"

*nods*

You give your best swing and throw Plushnap towards the vent as it tail stretches like a rope, the toy grabs hold on to the vent door as you begin to tug on its tail.

The vent door snaps open as you watch Plushnap crawl into the ventilation system, before you know it. You feel yourself being hoisted up.

How can a plush pull a full grown adult?!

Once you enter the vent, you feel arms dragging you and your face slams into rough fur.

That smells like lavender.

"Catnap?"

"Star....are you alright?"

You pull yourself off from the tight embrace and meet face to face with Catnap.

Before you could question him, he bites the back of your gown, holding you like you are a kitten and begins to crawl fast through the vents. ( you were so close to slip out of the hospital gown since it's just a piece of thin cloth )

"Catnap! W-what's happening and what is this place?!"

"....Not now, must.....get you... somewhere safe...stay quiet or...they'll hear us .."

Even though Catnap crawls through the vents fast, he doesn't make too much noise thanks to his soft paws and being lightweight unlike the other smiling critters. He was built to be silent so he doesn't wake up the sleeping orphans while he does his patrols in the night.

You look through the gap of the vent doors to see people in lab coats.

Who are these people? You know they have a science department but....these people are.....different.

Then, your eyes widen when you pass a vent door. You see a dissected body of a child....

Your hand slaps your mouth, you were horrified at the sight. Next to the dissected body is a bloody toy that has organs in it.

Are they...putting human organs into toys?

What kind of madness is this?

Are they...no, are they using the orphans for sick experiments?!

All the sudden, the alarm went off.

"Did they know?!"

"....No"

"Containment has been breached. Experiment 1006 has breached containment. All personnel please evacuate immediately and go towards the nearest evacuation centre, this is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill"

Catnap then tosses you over his shoulder as you wrap your arms around his neck.

"Hold...me...tight...."

The feline slams his paw on the vent door and jumps down on the ground.

You see people running around and being attacked by....the toys.

Your eyes widen in horror at the sight of the toys biting and clawing onto the scientists, tearing and pulling on their skin. You could see flesh and muscles, even bones!

There's so much....blood.

Suddenly, something covers your face and it was a mask. You try to pry it off but something doesn't let you do so.

"Must...wear mask..."

Catnap said into your ears, you see a thick cloud of red smoke coming out from his mouth and it begins to fill the entire hallway.

Some of the scientists begin to drop down after they inhale the red smoke. You watch as the toys begin to bite down on their motionless body like a pack of hungry hyenas.

You were breathing heavily at the horrific sight, the small toys had come to life and kills everyone.

You can hear bloodcurdling screams in the distance, some were calling for help.

Catnap's eyes look at your form, he can see your pale face through the mask and your entire body shaking like a leaf. He has to do something, he didn't expect it happen now.

Maybe ...using the red smoke on you could help you...just a little whiff.

He can manipulate your dream, yeah. He makes sure that everything was a nightmare.

Yes, he will do it.

"Catnap?"

You feel the mask loosen and the smell of the red smoke begins to enter your airway. Then, you start to feel drowsy and the next thing you know.

Everything turns black.

A/n : I'm sorry for not updating for a long time, I had a writer's block for the past days. I apologise for that 😭. I know this is a short chapter and I will do better next time, I hope this stupid a** writer's block goes away soon.

For those who send me asks, I will answer them soon.

[tinylittlemeowmeow]

Sometimes I wish I had people I could be honest with about my interest in eroguro without being lumped in with lolicons and rape fetishists. I really like Song of Saya as well as euphoria and Nei No Hakoniwa, despite my many, many, issues with both, have some interesting themes and ideas. But since they both have lolicon and rape fetish elements I can't fucking talk about them with anyone in earnest that isn't either reading them for fetish or shock value.

It's so frustrating that the genre that has themes I genuinely want to explore in realistic ways is all just fetish work. I'm desperate for stories like these to be told in a way that isn't fetishistic, and I study them so that if I make my own I can avoid the same pitfalls. I get that eroguro is a hentai genre so it's a dead dove do not eat situation, but like where else can I find dark romance with extreme body horror elements. Like it simultaneously scratches an itch of the exact thing I want while being exactly what I don't want.

Especially since I think the porn elements actually take away a lot of what the story is trying to tell in most cases. Keisuke's struggle with his own sadistic urges in euphoria honestly would have been more engaging if the scenes were less pornified. If there wasn't a fucking counter to when the cumshot was. If the h-scenes weren't as long and never ending. Like genuinely there were times where I was groaning in frustration as another h-scene popped up because I was like "Jesus Christ! Just get on with the story!" That frustration also made its true ending hit less for me. Even though it was genuinely beautiful and tragic, I was mentally exhausted and ready for it to be over.

It was the same way with Maggot Baits. I will admit the balance between plot and story was better and it felt like less of a slog compared to euphoria, but I also was getting tired of the constant barrage of h-scenes. I never felt like I really got to know any of these characters, so I never really got attached to any. The themes actually felt a lot shallower with Maggot Baits as well. I love dissecting Christianity and its flaws, as well as themes about what it is to be human and have purpose, but the story itself felt half baked in a way because I felt like not enough time was given to the plot. It's there, it can be dissected, but it's not meaty enough to actually hold my interest.

Nei No Hakoniwa has really interesting themes about how power corrupts even the purest intentions as well as misogyny and the societal expectations of women, but then the second half basically throws it away with the barrage of rape sequences that yes, have to do with the box, but I feel like there was a better way to go about doing it. It felt like it was throwing away the themes that it was setting up throughout the first half to just become slop and that enrages me. At least euphoria and maggot baits had the decency to tie the slop to its themes to a degree.

Saya no Uta is probably the closest to what I want more of, but even it has fetishized rape scenes. I genuinely wish I could recommend even the censored to more people, but since Saya is lolibait, it understandably makes people not want to read it. It's unfortunate. I think the story is very beautiful but it's held back by the fact that it pornifies things.

Call me silly or a tourist all you want, but I myself am a incest and rape victim. I want stories that can bring me some catharsis and understandings of my own trauma. But nobody cares about those things. Everyone just wants to fetishize my suffering, my existence.

Like why can't I have stories about grappling with the taboo and madness and toxic love that are raw and intense without it just being smut? Why can't I have a safe place to explore my trauma without making it myself? Why can't people actually make realistic representation of incest, rape, and pedophilia without fetishizing it? Why can't people actually care about victims?

It's not fair... Reading these vns are almost a form of psychological self harm for me. I'm desperate for an outlet for my pain. For someone, anyone, to understand what I've been through and let it out in a form that is cathartic and grotesque, but all I get is even more pain as I'm reminded of a world that pretends to care, but really doesn't. It's not fair...

[tiredandoptimistic]

favourite tsc short story? favourite and least favourite antagonists?

Ooh, it's hard to choose a favorite short story because there's so many good ones, but The Evil We Love probably has to be my top pick considering that it rewired my brain. It's responsible for making Robert Lightwood one of my favorite TSC characters (I need to dissect his brain) and solidifying the Circle as something I need to know more about. I also really enjoy how the 1984 story is foiled with the present-day one, where all the modern kids don't take the story of Valentine's influence seriously and then end up doing similar stuff because of Isabelle. What I love so much about TMI is that its main thesis is basically "you are not immune to propaganda," and that it's not enough to know who's evil and who isn't; you need to think for yourself and identify when harmful behaviors go too far. I love the Circle generation because all these characters are deeply flawed and complex, but none of them (even Valentine) actually had bad intentions. They were a part of something monstrous, and even if that wasn't what they intended, they still have to deal with the fallout and put in the work to do better in the future. (Honorable mentions to Saving Raphael Santiago, The Whitechapel Fiend, Nothing But Shadows, and Born to Endless Night)

As you might have guessed from my previous answer, my favorite antagonist is definitely Valentine. I love that he's a completely irredeemable genocidal maniac, but at the same time he's motivated by sincere love. The modern kids want him to be evil, but their parents can't see him that way because they really did love him and he really did love them. Same with Jace. He agrees that Valentine needs to be stopped at any cost, but that doesn't change the fact that Valentine was his father and he loved him. It's what makes him such an effective metaphor for fascism, because it shows that people are always people. Trying to claim that oppressors aren't really human or can't really feel love isn't a good system, because it encourages us to try and sort humanity into "good" and "bad," which is exactly what we're trying to avoid. People can still be complex and loving and nuanced while also doing the worst things imaginable to groups they no longer consider to be human, and that potential for love doesn't erase or excuse the damage they do. That complexity doesn't give them a chance at redemption, it just makes them even more effective at manipulating people into seeing their bigoted cause as justified. Similarly, it proves that our heroes need to be vigilant about their own morals, because they've seen how their parents let their good intentions and youthful righteousness guide them down a path of attempted genocide because they were convinced it was the right thing to do. There is no single trait that makes a person immune to doing harm.

Least favorite antagonist is probably Belial, which is unfortunate because TLH is one of my favorite series. I find pure evil villains less philosophically compelling, and Belial just doesn't have the swag that Asmodeus and Sebastian do. Tatiana is also a bit underwhelming overall and I wish that the series dealt more with her human side instead of making her basically pure evil over teen drama, but Grace is one of my favorite characters and I do really enjoy Tatiana's role as Grace's abusive mother. TLH is more about the characters to me though, so I'm fine letting the antagonists motivate the plot without being interesting on their own. Sebastian on the other hand is really effective as a villain, but he's an allegorical mess (which I've complained about at length in other posts), so even though I enjoy watching him be evil I can't help but be frustrated by the missed opportunity to make him more complex. Oh, also I was insanely disappointed by Annabel in QOAAD; I wanted to see her wreck shit but she just got sidelined as a villain in favor of AU Sebastian and a Trump metaphor? Let her kill more people.

Thanks for the ask! I'm definitely open to getting more of these!

[seyaryminamoto]

Scenes of a Peaceful World: Sokkla Saturdays 2024

Day Six - Discipline

Rated: T

On FF.net//On AO3

The Preservers were a unique faction within the White Lotus. The group had been built, by Sokka's express demands, all training overseen by him, so that they could see to the protection of a unique location in their world.

The hardest part of such an endeavor, of course, was taking his leave from his family occasionally in order to see this enterprise succeed. If asked, of course, Sokka would always claim that the average period of time he could endure without them was five minutes, but where the world's progress and stability were concerned, both he and Azula were ready to make whatever sacrifices were necessary.

Now, the world reaped the benefits of such sacrifices… of the success of a venture many would have considered too dangerous, too worrisome to be carried out at all. Humanity could not be trusted with this kind of responsibility…

Truthfully, Sokka agreed with that notion: thus, Sokka ensured to set all kinds of boundaries and limitations around any visitors who sought to enter Wan Shi Tong's Library.

"It's amazing that this is even possible…" Aang laughed, standing in the grand, golden halls of the library, eyes glancing over the Preservers, standing guard by the Library's entrance and its main halls. Katara smiled, looping an arm around his. "But humans and spirits are actually working together."

"I might just be crazy, but… it almost sounds like there's greater balance between our nations, and worlds, than there ever was," Katara said. Aang smiled and nodded.

"It's not effortless… but the hard work is worth it. We can teach people better… show them the right path," he said, with a proud smile.

Wan Shi Tong had been persuaded to trust humanity one more time: the grand building rose out of the desert anew. The grand doors had spread open once again. Even now, however, there were limitations to the spirit's leniency: he still probed and tested newcomers, and whoever failed to earn his approval, whoever answered his questions poorly, would have to settle for waiting for another visitor to make a copy of whatever books they wanted to check or borrow.

It could be a complicated system, but one that worked fairly well: Sokka had come up with many of its solutions, including the rather obvious one of crafting safekeeping copies for every tome, for Wan Shi Tong's reassurance. The owl spirit seemed pleased with his support and cooperation… enough to allow what Sokka had never imagined he would, once he asked it of him:

A large family, either astride or walking beside dragons, crossed the Library's golden gates on the morning when the Preservers began serving in the Library.

"Wow… wow!" Shun gasped.

"This is… it's a miracle!" Rei gasped, tears in her eyes as she covered her mouth with her hands.

"Where's the owl?" Yuuna pouted.

"So many books…!" Hotaru gasped. "N-no one would be able to read them all!"

"Fortunately, Wan Shi Tong's helpers will be around to ensure you find the ones you're interested in," Azula smiled, clapping her daughter's shoulder. "Now, then… keep your dragons in check. I'm afraid that when he turns up, they'll…"

On cue, all the dragons tensed up: a dark presence, lower down the hallway, caused Yuuna's nervous dragon to squeal, jolting back with the child riding on his back.

"Hey, hey…!" Sokka clasped the dragon's reins, ensuring he wouldn't topple backwards. "No need to worry. He's not going to dissect any of us: he promised."

"It's illegal," Yuuna said, firmly. "No one can dissect a dragon."

"Yeah, I'm sure Wan Shi Tong would feel bound by that law… right?" Sokka said, turning around with an awkward smile: the owl approached gloomily, eyeing their family with an unreadable expression. Xin Long, while also tense, appeared to reassure Hotaru and Shun's dragons, though they still shivered while hiding behind him.

"I see you have arrived. The Avatar and the Preservers said you would be here today, Sokka… and you brought your family, indeed."

"Hey there," Sokka smiled, waving at Wan Shi Tong. "Guess introductions are in…!"

"No need. I know who they are," Wan Shi Tong stated. "Rei, the eldest, a scholar. You are welcome to browse my collection."

"I… I am?" Rei gasped: Azula smiled as her daughter shivered with excitement. "Y-you'd let me…?"

"Provided you do not stay until after the doors close. Our service hours are much stricter nowadays," Wan Shi Tong declared.

Rei couldn't contain her excitement, hugging Azula eagerly at the thought of examining countless books she'd had no access to before. Wan Shi Tong turned to the next child, though:

"Hotaru. You may find our collection on firebending and swordsmanship to your liking… though I suspect you would prefer to read fantasy books, today."

"I…! W-well… maybe a few. I can… I can study and have fun, right?" she said, looking at her mother expectantly. Azula smiled and nodded.

"You're free to do as you wish, provided you follow the rules," Azula assured her.

"Shun. You may browse the firebending section with your sister," Wan Shi Tong continued: the boy blushed upon being addressed, shrinking in place. "It has expanded thanks to your parents' contributions. Ensure to thank them for it."

"I-I will. I… thank you," Shun said, bowing his head towards the owl.

"Yuuna… zoology section: third floor, fifth wing."

"Good."

The child didn't bother waiting to check with her parents: she spurred her dragon to take flight, and the whole family gasped as they took off through the floors of the Library, right towards her favorite subjects.

"Sorry about…! Oh, hell," Sokka groaned.

"I'll keep an eye on her," Rei laughed, clapping Sokka's shoulder before setting out to the third floor, too.

The children scattered, with Hotaru and Shun lingering not too far from the entrance, meeting up with Aang and Katara, while Rei chased down the restless Yuuna. Wan Shi Tong watched the two kids, though it seemed his attention lingered on their dragons.

"You fulfilled your many vows to me, in your last visit," he said, turning his head towards Azula. "I feared I shouldn't have risked trusting any of your nation anew… but I took a gamble with you, and you did not disappoint. Where I have seen much of the worst of humanity… I appear to have discovered the best of it, through the two of you."

"That might be too flattering," Azula smirked. "We're hardly upstanding in every sense…"

"Indeed. Ensure not to sully my Library with improper acts this time."

"H-hey!" Sokka squeaked. "We weren't doing anything that bad! I mean, well…!"

"He walked in on us getting slightly too comfortable in his planetarium room, Sokka: he's not going to forget that," Azula said, with a dry grin.

"Indeed," Wan Shi Tong confirmed. Sokka's cheeks flushed. "That being said, you have been rather successful across the years, building a family, bringing back the dragons, as you promised… you reclaimed peace in a world that seemed beyond all hope. While I remain vigilant, and the Preservers will continue to keep tabs on all who may enter the Library's premises, I find myself at new ease with your kind. History shall always remember what humanity owes to the both of you. I will make certain to make records of it."

"Thank you," Azula bowed her head. "And… for letting my family browse your collection. We told them what a great honor you had bestowed upon us by allowing this. I know they're hardly the most disciplined children…"

"We'll keep an eye on them anyway," Sokka smiled reassuringly. "Thanks, Wan Shi Tong!"

"It is I who thanks you. Truly."

Wan Shi Tong bowed towards them, stunning Azula with the gesture: he spread his wings after, taking flight across his Library anew.

The place truly was different compared to Azula's last visit: the whole place appeared brightened with knowledge, with renewal, with the promises fulfilled between the regal couple and the ancient spirit.

"So… what do you think?" Sokka smiled, throwing an arm around Azula's shoulders. Xin Long shook his head before pressing it against Sokka's chest, startling him. "H-hey! He's gone, no need to be scared anymore…"

"He's thanking you," Azula smiled, reaching over to stroke her dragon's fur. "For everything you've done for this place… and, of course, for successfully fending off the big owl, too."

"He'll never stop being unnerved by him, I'm sure," Sokka chuckled, hugging both Azula and Xin Long with each arm. "So… what section do you guys want to start with?"

"How about we find out if anyone has written stories about us yet?" Azula smirked. Sokka snorted. "I'm curious! There's bound to be so many outlandish tales about how on earth you and I wound up together…"

"I'm sure there's a lot of sordid, raunchy ones too…"

"Eh, well. Either we've already done those things, or it'll serve as useful research for the future, right?"

Sokka snorted and cackled: Azula's mischief never failed to delight him.

They took off together, meaning to explore the place on their terms, to enjoy themselves, keeping tabs on their kids while under the watchful supervision of the Preservers, who greeted Sokka respectfully: humanity had succeeded at reconnecting with its most ancient valuable knowledge, and they had finally learned the wisdom, as well as the discipline, to honor the vows that had finally built true peace between the imposing owl and humanity at large.

[octopuscityblues]

At The Talkies

EGGBERT: Hi! I'm Robar Eggbert of the Samarduk Tribune.

GRINKEL: And I'm Steen Grinkel of the Samarduk Sun.

EGGBERT: And you're watching "At the Talkies with Eggbert and Grinkel".

GRINKEL: Grinkel and Eggbert…

EGGBERT: In your dreams, Steen! Now we've got a lot to cover in today's episode, from stories of corporate espionage to cautionary tales of evil sofas and destructive monkeys.

GRINKEL: My esteemed colleague is referring to the three films we'll be dissecting today: "The Mole: Undercover Inside Ghost In A Bottle", "Dread Couch: The Sofa That Kills", and "Metamorphers vs. Giant Ape: The Motion Picture".

EGGBERT: Let's start with "The Mole". In this captivating documentary, gonzo journalist Jager S. MacTavish infiltrates the nefarious Ghost in a Bottle conglomerate to bring us a riveting account of the tech giant's day-to-day operations..

GRINKEL: This extremely biased documentary was funded by the radical Mothers Against GIAB International (MAGI), and boy does it show! When it's not too busy slandering a vital pillar of the global economy, it does provide a few interesting insights into the highly-anticipated Octopus City Blues project.

EGGBERT: Despite the corporation's heightened security and leak-prevention measures, Mr. MacTavish successfully managed to assemble a collage of super-secret artwork, providing a glimpse into never-before-seen areas and characters.

EGGBERT (CONT'D): Furthermore, various cryptic codewords and phrases were heard around the office, with employees working on enigmatic features such as "House of Wonders", "Cure for Baldness", "Beetle Fandom", and "Three-way Standoff". Who knows what any of it really means?

GRINKEL: Our supposed "journalist" also interviewed artist Niko Tunson, the newest addition to the team. Niko contributed a number of exquisite animations, helping to enrich the simulation's virtual world and bring its colorful cast of characters to life.

EGGBERT: I personally liked "The Mole". On one hand, it's largely a cornball exercise in sentimental manipulation—particularly all the scenes involving the baby spiderbot. At the same time, it effectively illustrates the evil lurking at the heart of a heartless zaibatsu, and serves as a scathing indictment of a history of delays and flimsy excuses.

GRINKEL: Boy, are we apart on this one, Robar! The feature I watched was nothing more than an obvious piece of MAGI propaganda, and I'm positively shocked that someone as educated as you would fall for it.

GRINKEL (CONT'D): I admit that Octopus City Blues is taking forever to complete, but you simply can't rush art. The good folks at GiaB have gotten so much done this year—they even updated the demo again last week. All you have to do is read their previous updates to better understand the delays. In particular, there's the recurring difficulty in planning around the fluctuating personal circumstances of everyone involved.

And did you even catch the leaked trailer shown after the credits, by the way? It was originally unveiled at the Six One Indie business event. The trailer's director is none other than Bitmapkid, the visionary auteur behind last year's most controversial independent film: "Are Videogames Art?" The fact that they're actively promoting their simulation should dispel any doubts you might harbor.

EGGBERT: Oh, don't give me that trite art balderdash. The only thing that matters is the finished product. People have been waiting for years, and some of them even paid money for it. What's wrong? By the rude and annoying off-screen noises you're making I take it that you disagree…

GRINKEL: It's just that Ghost in a Bottle never stopped pursuing their dreams, and that's why we should never stop believing in them. They definitely made countless mistakes, but every ghost starts out as an errant human. And if someone out there is still not satisfied, the customer relations team is always happy to answer their questions or offer refunds if needed.

Honestly, Robar, all of this makes me wonder whether you're being a contrarian for kicks, or if you simply got up on the wrong side of the bed today. Your take is the typical kind of blasé, sophisticated, cynical review we've come to expect from snobbish critics who can't place themselves in the shoes of real artists.

EGGBERT: Am I supposed to sit here and listen to insults from the same "critic" who gave two thumbs up to obnoxious snooze fests like "Carnotaurus" and "Battlestar Trooper"?

GRINKEL: And do I need to remind you that you're the only major critic who actually liked "One and a Half Pig"? And how about the time you lambasted the critically acclaimed "Silence of the Clams"?

EGGBERT: Oh please, Steen! Did GiaB pay you to be their mouthpiece? Is that what this is all about? I knew things were rough with the divorce and everything, but if all you needed was some extra money…

GRINKEL: Why would you say such a thing, Robar? You really should be ashamed of yourself!

EGGBERT: I'm not the one engaged in all the self-congratulatory bootlicking and outright dismissal of completely valid consumer concerns. My point still stands: when is Octopus City Blues actually coming out?

GRINKEL: I don't have an answer to your question. Next year, maybe? Some time in the next 6 months? They did promise to give a "more serious" update before the end of the year, whatever that means…

EGGBERT: Of course it's next year! It's always next year! But fine… I'll believe it when I finally see it.

GRINKEL: We've wasted enough time on this frivolous discussion. Moving on, let's talk about the complex symbolism in "Dread Couch: The Sofa That Kills", and what it says about humanity's place in a cold, lonely universe.

[fumifooms]

The core of Fullmetal Alchemist: All is one and Dwarf in the flask

Dwarf in a bottle is in my top 5 favorite FMA characters. No, not Father, that emotionless bland white bread empty husk, Dwarf, the whole. The sort of ball of void, the existential anomaly, so inhumanely human full with sins and individuality.

Fullmetal Alchemist is about willpower. About determination, about pursuing your goals without relenting. It is also about humility and about knowledge.

That is reflected in both the protagonist and the villain, though it is a theme common in most characters.  Both Edward and Dwarf in a bottle pursue their goals with great determination and will. Then, what is good with the manner of one and wrong with the other’s?

I believe a lot of it is about the very concept Dwarf symbolizes. Dwarf in the flask is artificiality.

An alchemy-made life. An artificial family. An artificial pursuit of knowledge and power, without caring about the journey of self-betterment that comes along with it, without caring to understand alchemy and its place in the world. Not only an artifical physical being, but also artificial emotionally; ripping apart his feelings and personality traits deemed negative to make himself into a “superior” being.

I think it’s also worth noting that yes, purging sins out of himself makes him lose those traits, even feelings. Then, if not greed, if not it all, what is pushing Father to pursue power? Greed said it himself: greed isn’t inherently bad, it’s the act of wanting. Father isn’t spiraling into a mad passion for alchemy, a pursuit of knowledge for innovation, or anything, he pursued his plan because he went through the motions, simply. As his feelings left him, all that stayed was the conviction without reasoning that since it was his plan before, he should see it to the end. Or perhaps it’s the course of action he logically came to. Perhaps alchemical enlightenment was deemed the obvious ultimate goal to have, without being interested in why it is or why it should be. Regardless, he lacks the passion and emotional intelligence to actually see the value in what he is doing, in alchemy, and ultimately that is what is punished.

I want to do a full dissection of the whole homunculus family, but I’m going to touch on some aspects of it here because it’s such an interesting topic to me. Disregarding Lust’s claim that homunculi are all individuals with a full range of emotions for a moment, I want to analyze what their traits mean in the angle that they fundamentally formed a whole all together as Father, or Dwarf in the flask.  The homunculus that is shown to be the most attached to his family members is Gluttony. The homunculus that is shown to be the most attached to relationships, in general, is Greed. Greed and Gluttony are then the homunculi, the traits, that care about people the most. And that makes sense, no? You don’t want to lose things you care about, you want to bathe in their love and their presence, and you want to keep having them for as long as you want, greed and gluttony aren’t unsimilar. Greed is interested in friendship and having companions, in possessing people’s hearts and loyalties, in making new connections and bonding with new faces. Gluttony is more interested in getting more of what he already has, more love in that way he already likes by the person he already loves, like wanting more of the familiar taste of its favorite meal. Other similar traits are pride and envy, the traits that affect your self-image. The feeling that you are remarkable and great and the feeling of wanting what others have or are, valuing yourself vs comparing yourself to others. By detaching parts of a whole, things get lost; Pride feels wholly superior but is ready to do anything to preserve himself including lowering himself to inferior beings going against his own code, while Envy only covers up his self-hatred and jealousy but would rather end himself before accepting to sully himself with the compassion of someone he looks down upon. Pride makes one value self-preservation, while envy is self-destructive by nature, perhaps. It is interesting that both feel prideful, yet Pride doesn’t reflect the fact that as part of a whole it also felt shame and low self-esteem, otherized, and Envy doesn’t reflect that Dwarf actually feels pride over traits they possess, as well. The truth is that these things coexisted in the one being that was Dwarf. Fragmented as they are, they only tell an uncomplete and incoherent story, like a puzzle. It’s ironic that maybe together, all these sins balance each other out to become healthier, less dysfunctional. Like a family, they can offer counterbalance to a trait when it becomes too central to the individual, offer support through their grounding presence. Someone slothful may feel unmotivated without greed to give them goals, pride without envy will make you stop striving to better yourself and envy without pride will give you self-loathing.

An analysis of Dwarf isn’t complicated to do: it was a being brought about by scholars and complex alchemy, enslaved, and it wished to get the power to free itself and become an individual equal/superior to everyone else. Unable to become physically and fundamentally human, he attempted to become a proxy, close enough to it; making a family, gaining a human form, etc. It ultimately wished to pursue superiority through alchemical power and knowledge when he found the result lacking, when it still didn’t feel human, couldn’t connect with others, still felt fundamentally different, like his place in the universe was somewhere else, like striving for that higher calling would solve it. Blinded by lust to find belonging, wether it be in a place or in a role, it pushed itself to extremes of alchemy in the hope it will all make sense once he gets there. Ultimately futile, as he will end up feeling betrayed and abandoned by Truth itself, not able to rise up to its own expectations once more: because there’s no magic able to make one feel whole. He seeked to sculpt himself into a perfect being, one that could be anything and do anything, one that couldn’t be reproached, if not by humans, then the world itself would confirm and showcase his objective superiority for all to see.

Much like with Shou Tucker, this pursuit for knowledge and power is all for external factors, there is no inner fuel for it besides pride, shame, desperate want that was displaced onto alchemy instead of the self-introspection that alchemy promotes and necessitates. Dwarf ended up missing what was right under his nose, and subsequently failed the test of Truth and lost everything. What he was working towards ultimately meant nothing, not to anyone and not even to himself.

Edward was able to face Truth right because he took the time to understand, learned to not abuse it, reflected on what it all meant, on the place of things in the universe. That is terrifying for Dwarf, who is terrified he may simply have no place in it, but it is nonetheless essential. The other homunculi are proof enough: Greed had friends, was accepted in the friend group of our heroes as a trustworthy and dependable person, Ling would have preferred him to stay with him forever instead of leaving. Selim gets a second chance at life with someone who has loved him with all her heart… Which is the most confusing part of FMA I have no idea how he didn’t die ngl but I’m glad for the precious lil guy~ Even Lust and Gluttony found companionship and care in being together.

Dwarf has always had a place. He simply refused to philosophizes, and alchemists are ultimately philosophers. Not thinking power through, not analyzing it, is what leads to corrupt military states. Dwarf wanted to be recognized and accepted by god and the world itself, by showing himself worthy of it and demanding it, but he was the one who rejected the nature of the world first:

One is all, all is one.

He is the very embodiment of refusing that. Dwarf always had a place in the world, artificial anomaly as he was. Perhaps Dwarf wasn’t meant to be part of this all or this one initially, not created by the world, but. Dwarf seeked to become both all and none at once. He was born artificial, but never cared to learn the rules of nature and accept the limits of the world, seeking to destroy and warp them; he was the one that desired to make himself even more distinct from the world and label himself as a perfect, artificial being. Rejecting individuality to become some empty looking glass was the mistake Edward Elric didn’t make, growing to find the value in every type of life and finding the strength to keep going through every horror of the world. Dwarf’s folly was thinking that he was separate from the rest of existence.

The philosophical dimension to the value of gold or philosopher’s stones are the important part of alchemy, power isn’t what you achieve enlightenment through. May your pursuit of knowledge be wise and your resolve aim true.

–+–+–+–+–+–+–

I recommend this analysis by another tumblr user as complementary reading!! It goes over way more than I did and encompasses more of fma than this post, I just wanted to focus on a fraction of the themes and narrative that I found summed up the story’s key points well… Idk idk I’m a humble Dwarf enjoyer I don’t want to come across as pretentious 🙇 I can only hope this was a nice read. If you don’t remember the ending of the manga/brotherhood well I imagine this being very confusing, I should do something about that

[theflowergothic]

On Self-promotion and Feelings of Inadequacy

Hey guys, it’s Flowergothic. Taking the time here to get a little more personal. I’ve been working on this on and off since last week, and now it’s ready to share.

First of all, thank you to everyone who has watched, shared, and enjoyed the Max/Kelly exposé! I’ve had a blast reading your comments, seeing the discussions it’s sparked, and realizing that, yes, we’re all collectively raising an eyebrow at the same things. The response has been so much fun, and the attention it’s gotten so far is about what I expected, given my channel size, the subject matter, and the general messiness of it all.

But I can’t help but worry that I’m not doing enough to make the videos have maximum reach. I’ll admit it, I’m not the best at self-promotion. Sometimes when I’m sharing my work repeatedly on social media, I start feeling like I’m being annoying or trying too hard. And I know that’s a dumb thought (if I don’t hype up my work, who will?). But it’s a mental block I still haven’t fully shaken.

Part of it probably stems from being told to shut up about my passions and interests growing up (the joys of being on the spectrum), and part of it is that I just don’t know what the best methods are for promoting my work. I see other creators getting their stuff out there so effortlessly, and meanwhile, I’m over here wondering if posting about my own video twice in a week is overkill.

So yeah, I’m figuring it out as I go, but I want to get better at it. Because I know this is a story worth telling. I know there are more people out there who would be interested, entertained, and just as baffled as the rest of us if they found it. But finding them is the challenge.

And in turn, some of this is feeding into my fears of inadequacy. My feelings that I could be doing so much more to make sure the exposé gets attention. My feelings that everything I’m doing isn’t enough. They don’t stem from the video itself, they’re fears I’ve had for a very long time and contribute to how I function as a human being. Because while I am deeply proud of this project and the attention it has gotten, there’s still that little voice saying, “But what if it could be bigger? What if there’s some magic formula I just haven’t cracked yet?”

I also worry about what will happen once I start my other projects back up, once I branch out beyond Max and Kelly. The next video I have planned has nothing to do with them but is something I was working on alongside Max/Kelly when the latter was still in its infancy. I know a lot of y’all found me through Max/Kelly, but I hope y’all will stay for what comes next. Because I have so much more in the pipeline, projects I’ve been sitting on for ages, waiting for the right moment to dive into. A dissection of the second Nina Paley film. A deep dive into House of Anubis. A video on Burning Man that I have a very personal stake in.

At the end of the day, I’m not planning to stop anytime soon. I’m here to tell stories, to deep-dive into the absurd, the overlooked, and the bizarre. But to keep doing that, I need to figure out how to get my work in front of the people who will care about it. I know I have my weird self-promo anxieties, but whether I push past them or trust the algorithm gods to do their thing, I’m going to keep going.

If you’ve enjoyed what I’ve made so far, I hope you stick around. I have so much more coming. And if you want to help get these videos seen, there are a few things that really make a difference. Sharing the video anywhere relevant helps so much, whether it’s Twitter, TikTok, Instagram stories, Discord servers, group chats, or even a random comment section. Engaging with the video through likes, comments, and shares also pushes it further in the algorithm. Starting discussions, whether that’s through quote tweets, reaction posts, memes, or even arguing in the comments, keeps the conversation alive. And if you see people talking about Kelly or Max, drop the link! Make more people aware of my work!

Every share, every comment, and every discussion helps push it further, and I appreciate it more than I can say. I also hope that when I branch out beyond Max and Kelly, you’ll still be here. Because this is just the beginning, and I have so many more stories I can’t wait to tell.

Love,

FG

[bernardmarie]

Your art style is very very very GORGEOUS!!!I was wondering what your art style got inspired by?

My artstyle is a combination of so many of my loves over the years and generally a mix bag depending on what you are asking.

like sketch wise its: Billy and mandy (silly little faces),class of 3000(how styles shift but stay the same at its core), homestuck and many other webcomics in the 2009-2015 range (simple till its deranged), chowder (use of patterns), Okage shadow king (the designs and details scratch my brain real good), Harvest moon/ stories of seasons/ rune factory (its the wholesome factor of simple to complex romance), Tales of games for how the bigger pictures turn out (mostly symphonia and abyss), Sonic and Dragon ball.

Coloring is a combination of me having lower color acuity (not color blind but some fucked things my eyes do with corrective lenses) and having a very intense childhood of picking up color understanding and artistry from music videos! There is a touch of softness from my appreciation for watercolors, but its mostly the first statement.

One of my favorite artists for this discussion is missy elliot because she combines that dreamlike videoscape, intense colors with high contrast, and division of self and background to create very otherworldly visions with that eerie backroom texture of where the fuck am I for the next 3 minutes.

and in each scene its like she is an entity suddenly infecting the narrative with just her presence and that she has all the control and uses the background characters as her own mouth piece like an omniscient narrator! Lots of newer artists also reference her style to the dream like state and its very interesting to see how each narrative works.I could go on about this for hours but I will share some shots from other artists that have the same feel

(Michael jackson has such a high level of cinematic artistry in his music videos that they classify as movies and with the amount of contemporary references they have at the time that they used to legitimately make people lose it. Like sometimes every shot would make a good painting and thats very hard to do! You can literally pick any music video and dissect it for hours/ pick swatches, admire the acting and choreography and come away with a better appreciation for art.)

So when I color a lot of things illustration-wise its usually because I have a narrative I'm trying to show without outright telling you because I think making people think about the art you made is a very important. Even if all you want is to make someone laugh or think 'I want to feel like that' thats the human touch to art.

That you saw others create so you made something about how it made you feel. Art is like a massive game of telephone and sometimes the style of the conversation shifts along the way to make a new topic of discussion.

[miirshroom]

Vicariously learning about Netflix DMC from people talking about it, because it does not seem like a piece of media that I would enjoy experiencing first hand.

I've heard from multiple sources about the kinds of changes in this Alternate Universe that suggest it made similar choices to DMC: Devil May Cry in tampering with the magic and worldbuilding. Kindof a red flag for the direction it's headed. The magic system of Devil May Cry is core to its world and themes. Ripping that out and replacing it with science quantum quantum explanations and making most of the demon population humans-but-not makes it a fundamentally different type of conflict, and should make the psychology of the main characters different (and if it doesn't, that's not really much better since it makes them messy in taking actions inconsistent with motivation). So if it's a choice between two different potentials which would both make the characters fundamentally different people disguised with the aesthetic of the familiar characters...it's not for me.

But really the magic thing is bothering me (because I like to dissect magic systems and their consequences)...

...like do the showrunners have the self-awareness to know that they're just swapping out pseudo-psychology for pseudo-science? Do they understand the repercussions on the message being conveyed? I still don't think that I'm particularly likely to watch the series, but a few possible points of conflict come to mind based on the general picture I've gotten so far:

Undermines the original themes of Devil May Cry, which is about fighting and rejecting pseudo-psychology and other forms of religious magical-thinking. It's a whimsical interpretation of existentialism/absurdism - rejecting the absurd by shooting it to death with bullets.

Turns a story about humans coping with their personal "inner demons" - which have manifested in physical form in various ways - into a story about how scientific innovation facilitates a disproportionately violent response towards a perceived external threat. So instead of being based on humans coping with the absurd complexes generated by millennia of religious baggage, it's about what, technological inequality? Half-demons who are inherently more quantum quantum are also inherently more prone to being governed by emotions?

People want to be addressing their inner demons and work on self-improvement - this is good. People be going on a paranoia-driven rampage of projecting personal fears and hysteria onto other sentient beings - this is bad. If the surreal inner demons are now sci-fantasy outer demons with complex and sympathetic thoughts and feelings...this is a different story with different stakes and requiring different solutions. What are you doing.

I dunno, I'm coming to the conclusion that it's actually kindof cowardly that the Netflix DMC won't confront the religious connotations of DEVIL May Cry in favor of it's science-y thing. Devil May Cry (2001) exists in the context of the JRPG tradition of "attack and kill God".....by all accounts that I've heard, Netflix DMC is too ignorant and/or too immature to execute on the existentialist themes of the original series. Belief in literal demons, The Devil, and a mythic war between good and evil is still a part of many present day religious practices - this is not some quaint and harmless obsolete belief system. It affects present day politics. By refusing to acknowledge religious magical thinking as a root cause of the conflict between irrational (emotion based) and rational (logic based) decisions I do not see how the Netflix series can be capable of more than superficial resemblance to the existing body of work of Devil May Cry.

...I guess it's good that people are getting interested from the show and picking up the games though? That's nice.

[acollectcall]

house of m liveblog

on my x-men readthrough finally got through the house of m and here are some thoughts on this high quality comic story line by bendis (its not good, despite bendis having a p good track record)

reverse racism is not a good enough thing to base your entire event plotline around especially when barely even process it as a thing happening

its just kinda fucking boring nothing really happens they just spend eight issues setting up the fact that if mutants were the majority they're actually somehow evil because they are also dicks to humans

it feels like the only reason they do this is to make the reader feel comfortable when we inevitably get to the end

there's nothing actually interesting about mutant society in the house of m, they don't actually explore how a mutant majority would change the world outside of the fact the world has a unified government under magneto

thats like the biggest issue. this is not too dissimilar to flashpoint where they basically just kind of ignore everything happening out of restoring the old world(outside of tie-ins, but the tie ins do so little outside of showing the world as a fascist dictatorship that it matters not)

it reeks of editorial interference

wanda is a bad antagonist and her powers are weird in this. bendis reveals early on that the control wanda has over the house of m is tenuous at best, since hawkeye can see the old world beyond the illusion (the newspaper scene in the pulse tie in) and then they bring back clint just to kill him off at the end again when he added nothing really to the story and does very little to really give closure to wanda murdering him during disassembled

weird world dissection of magneto

magneto during this era of x-men comics is all over the place. morrison's new x-men run has magneto be as evil as humanly possible and this was such a bad and unliked take that claremont retcons immediately during his excalibur run

magneto is blamed somehow for this and while i dont think anyone will ever argue that he was father of the year and his shitty parenting contributed to their fucked up mental states, wanda and pietro are both fully grown ass adults by this point and we cannot hold magneto responsible for every dumb decision the twins make

especially because magneto freaks out when he sees what they did after his memories are restored. the first thing he does is demand to know what they did in his name, because magneto by this point is not the one-dimensional evil man he used to be who wants a world ruled by mutants. its wanda and pietro granting what they believe is magneto's overly childish wish and why the world of house of m is fucked up to begin with.

having this be a massive crossover is bizarre because the rest of the x-men and avengers do very little. the battle pretty much ends after emma restores magneto's memories and dr strange confronts wanda, which makes sense that her two primary father figures would factor into the ending but...

"no more mutants"

thats where it ends. it reeks of editorial not liking the fact the x-men and mutants were like just filling up the world so they just use the mutants being dicks in house of m to justify the elimination of every mutant outside of the 198.

wanda doesnt even have a good reason for this. she doesnt do it out of sorror for the fear and hate mutants receive, she does it because she's mad that magneto put mutants before her and pietro so she childishly decides to remove mutants entirely

this doesn't really work though because this has to operate on the assumption that a world ruled by humans is somehow better and less bigoted

which doesn't work because immediately during the day after, humans attempt to use sentinels to kill off the rest of mutant kind now that their numbers have waned to less than 200

the fact that house of m will have consequences all the way up through the krakoa era shows how truly hellish this decision was and how long it would impact the kinds of stories x-men could tell going forward

overall, interested to see where this goes from here on out but like god it really is a fucking depressing comic. marvel really did wanna fuck up all their major series in the mid-2000s didnt they? disassembled, house of m, civil war, and brand new day all reviled and hated stories because marvel wanted to slam the reset button

extra note

love how wanda uses her powers to ruin the lives of magneto and pietro but somehow she's exempted herself from the responsibility of committing a form of genocide. magneto is left to be blamed for all of this, abandoned to isolation to die on genosha while he weeps for the destruction of those he fought so hard for and pietro is left a homeless wandering vagrant raving madly on the streets of new york

meanwhile she makes it so she is left alone in a place where no one knows her and she can live peacefully without anything while taking little to no responsibility for the murders of several avengers and the destruction of mutantkind entirely as well as the apparent murder of professor xavier

0/10 bad comic would not recommend unless you're doing a full x-men read through

[ennissg]

If nobody else asked them yet 3 and 8 for the asks?

I got the exact 3 and 8 ask for A’mos but since you didn’t specify which durge I’m gonna ramble about Dr. Vrach this time if that’s ok, I just think about both of them a lot🙏

Based on this ask. (also ty for creating it! And additionaly thank you for making it not romance specific!) While this is technically durgetash I wanna specify that it is strictly platonic between these two. Tho, I’d argue this doesn’t make their bond less unhinged. It might make it worse actually?

3. What did Durge think of the little wannabe Tyrant at the beginning? Someone competent or someone who tries really quite hard?

For this I hc they met way before Gortash even became a banite, before he was sold to Raphael even. Dr. Vrach never forgets a face, just like he never forgot the face of a certain lower city cobbler’s kid who tried to pickpocket him once but got away bc he couldn’t snatch a child in broad daylight with multiple witnesses, nor could he be bothered, when he wants to keep appearances as a well-meaning doctor. 

He is getting into his 120s when they meet a second time, both being a wizard and a demigod he was able to extend his lifespan way above what an average human has and he has full intent on going as long as he needs to bring his father’s rule and achieve lichdom himself. So, when he sees Gortash again, 10-15 years later, having successfully resurrected the cult of Bane in Baldur’s Gate and strolling over to the living(for now) flesh and blood of Bhaal for an alliance? Oh, he was intrigued to say the least. A man forged in the hells, fostered by tyranny, with an unstoppable drive for progress and absolutely no limits as to what is ethical  - what a terrifying combination for a human to have. What an amazing opportunity to observe this brilliant mind, he would’ve dissected his brain if it didn’t kill him instantly, too. He saw so much potential in Gortash, potential he could help him realize. Dr. Vrach instantly became invested in his work, he wanted to become his mentor, to teach him how much more death he can bring into this realm if he only had more knowledge.

And Gortash, finally getting that older nurturing figure in his life? Finally getting his talents not only recognised but encouraged and cultivated? Yeah, he didn't get an assassin for hire, he got a free uncle who's always elbow deep in gore and likes to call ghouls his "colleagues".

8. Both Gortash and Durge are sadistic little gremlins, so when it comes down to it, who's better at torture? And did they make a competition out of it?

Absolute torture olympics at the Iron Throne all day every day for these two. And, unfortunately, no judge survived to keep the score but it is definitely in Dr. Vrach’s favour. He is always up for “research” and there is no end to lucky participants in his very ethical humanoid trials™ as well as his lifetime experience as a necromancer and a self proclaimed medical professional. Sometimes he’d like to see how many organs a person really needs to stay alive, sometimes he’d try to turn someone’s skin inside out all in the name of curiosity of course. It's edutainment to him. Magic certainly helps to keep them alive longer, he’s not interested in seeing the limit of an average person, he wants to see the limit. Period. How much can one’s body endure before its soul is released to the Gods? How far can you go past organic matter? It was a regular Unit 731 when they got together. 

There isn’t much of a difference between Dr. Vrach’s research and torture though, so it’s hard to tell at times.

[biblioflyer]

The Trouble with Tardigrade Trolleys (Discovery rewatch)

And apologia and a rant. It's a BOGO post!

Discovery’s use and abuse of the tardigrade is a feature not a bug. Let’s try to set aside questions of whether or not this is immersion breaking for the Star Trek setting for a moment, and look at it as a thought experiment.

This is one of the better “trolley problem” style moral dilemmas that I’ve seen in Star Trek. Usually Star Trek writers are a bit self righteous or maybe squeamish. They can’t help themselves, a lot of them approach Trek as a series of moral teachings wrapped in the aesthetics of science fiction. 

A lot of the time these moral teachings are only moderately more subtle than a special episode of a children’s TV show: “Oh no, the Mauve Ranger is bullying people to fit in!”

Simple and easy stories where the correct answer is written in eleventeen foot tall neon letters and there’s very little or no ambiguity or attempt to steelman the other choice.

In edgy adult dramas, sometimes you get the guy from “24” torturing someone to reveal the location of a dirty bomb. That “someone” is a terrorist or a terrorist sympathizer or from a culture we’re socially programmed to feel less empathy for. At least I assume that’s what happened. I never actually watched “24” because even though I’m writing about Discovery’s use and abuse of the tardigrade as a trolley problem and pretending this can be dissected as a sterile intellectual discussion, I detest nihilistic storytelling that dehumanizes outgroups and constructs a permission structure to do evil because maybe the worst case scenario could actually happen. 

The point being that apologia for human rights violations usually depicts the victim as unsympathetic. Even Star Trek Picard manages to sneak in a trolley problem wherein, from a consequentialist standpoint, Seven is almost entirely in the right to execute a gangster who had dealt in ex-Borg implants extracted via torture and murder. (Spoiler: I was not happy about this scenario.)

Discovery’s tardigrade problem is remarkably willing to confront moral ambiguity and thus, to my mind, is a much better and thus more interesting trolley problem because the deck hasn’t been stacked to allow an easy and obvious exception to most well adjusted people’s moral hangups around torture and murder.

It's not trying to hide the ball here. It’s very easy to cry animal abuse or torture. It's easy because that is exactly what is happening.

Yet on the other tracks are hundreds of innocent lives.

What makes this a well constructed trolley problem is that “Ripper” the tardigrade has blood on its claws. It's also, by most standards, terrifying and hideous. It may as well be a xenomorph from Alien in how sympathetic it is. Except….. We are shown that it has a gentle side. It's surprisingly willing to trust unarmed humans considering how many humanoids have tried to kill or imprison it up to this point.

And let's face it, the show gave us every conceivable signal possible to tee us up to not feel sorry for Landry. So much so that I was completely convinced that she was from the Mirror Universe, like Lorca, until she died trying to hack off one of Ripper’s limbs. Memory Alpha informs me that Star Trek Online gave her a tragic backstory, I don’t consider STO canon and I don’t even consider it “canon until disproved by onscreen events” but I will give them credit for trying to clean up the continuity such that it doesn’t seem as much like Landry is supposed to be representative of Starfleet security for this era.

The first time the spikes that link it to the Spore drive are inserted into it, you don’t need a close up of Burnham’s face to recognize Ripper’s agony. By that point most people capable of empathy for a nonhuman, non-fuzzy creature are already starting to see it more like a manatee or a weird bear than a monster. Bringing Star Trek back into the room, in my mind this is VERY good Star Trek.

What makes it good Star Trek is that we’re being asked to empathize with a monstrous creature, to reexamine its motives and behavior in a fresh light with new context, and to appreciate its pain. If we set aside our desire to view Star Trek as a documentary of an enlightened society that has figured out how to instill perfect morality into its citizens, then I think we also see another thing that Trek is good at: showing people doing the work of realizing they’ve made a terrible decision that flies in the face of their values and trying to fix it.

It’s critical to recall that the Tardigrade isn’t suffering because our heroes are bad people. Okay Landry and Lorca are bad people (weird that the two human monsters have L names.) It’s suffering because 1. Nobody has quite realized its sentient yet. 2. Their conception of what if anything causes it physical discomfort is not very well developed (at least the first time it’s used) and 3. Hundreds of people will die if Discovery doesn’t use the Tardigrade to initiate a spore jump to the dilithium mine currently under attack by Klingons.

The original scenario in s1e4 “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry” (which is such a metal title) is very much a ticking clock that takes place in conditions of ambiguous knowledge with not a certain amount of pressure to look away from the moral hazard staring the characters in the face. It bears repeating, several hundred miners and their families are at risk, as well as a key resource keeping Starfleet able to hold the line against the Klingons.

The additional usages of the Spore Drive are harder to justify. Not impossible, but more difficult. By s1e5 “Choose Your Pain” it’s abundantly clear that Ripper is being harmed by the jumps, jumping too frequently is causing Ripper harm faster than it can recover, and some of the crew are definitely getting squeamish. Lorca rattles off a list of achievements as a result of the Spore Drive representing lives saved, the Klingon capacity to make war reduced etc. 

So the bleakness of it all is that there is inarguably blood on the crew’s hands for inflicting pain on a creature that the crew no longer is blinded to but one could also argue there would be blood on their hands if they had the capacity to intervene and failed to. (To what degree if any you have culpability for failing to prevent something profoundly awful from happening if you must violate an important moral precept to do it is what makes the trolley problem so interesting and debates around, say, Batman killing the Joker incredibly interesting, but often VERY heated.)

It's also uncomfortable but not hard to understand why, with its back to the wall, Starfleet is interested in capturing more Tardigrades and using them for propulsion, despite the mounting evidence that this is profoundly cruel.

At this point, I will once again throw open the doors to the clean room and “contaminate” it with spores of classic Trek morality.

As the secular humanist, cruelty averse do gooders; I find it shocking, offensive even as a fan, that when presented with a trolley problem that I personally think would be an example of an easy slam dunk, Starfleet balks at the much easier, much more moral path.

That trolley problem being permit the use of genetic engineering to adapt humans to act as Spore Drive navigators in place of the Tardigrades….

OR

Keep inflicting suffering upon a being that can feel pain.

And Starfleet shouts down the genetic engineering solution, because the legacy of the Eugenics War and the prohibition on genetic alterations is somehow more important than winning a war in which everything about the society in which Federation citizens currently live in will undoubtedly get A LOT worse, and the body count tremendous. Also remember at this point we don’t know that for whatever reason Stamets is the only viable candidate. 

As much as I’m enjoying rewatching this show much more than I ever expected, this is infuriating!

Who thought it was at all logically defensible for Starfleet to turn down the ability to mass produce Spore Drive navigators instead of trying to capture a lifeform that is VERY dangerous when provoked? 

Who thought it was consistent with the characterization of Starfleet to decide Eugenics was worse than torture?

To make matters worse, this isn’t an example of a Badmiral gaslighting HQ like Dougherty in Insurrection, this is Starfleet’s equivalent of the joint chiefs! What the hell?!

Clearly someone just pulled the prohibition on genetic engineering out because it was an already established piece of Star Trek canon as a way to rationalize why the obvious solution of just letting a volunteer pilot the darn ship couldn’t have been done immediately after the Tardigrade curls up and goes on strike. And critically this rationalization was conjured without any real consideration as to how silly, if not downright evil it makes Starfleet Command look.

[sharpsuite]

👗 How is the mun’s fashion sense? (for either)

🍓 What is something you and the mun disagree on? (for both)

↳ MUSES TALKING ABOUT THE MUN

👗 How is the mun’s fashion sense? (for either)

" In terms of actual fashion knowledge? Not great. Frankly, it's probably about the same as MINE. " He shrugs his shoulders. " She's not particularly interested in fashion trends either so her fashion sense probably isn't great on any type of scoring system. Most of the time she just goes for comfort and convenience. Especially in the summer when its hot and she just wants to be as comfortable as she can while suffering in the heat. " So NATURALLY the knowledge of how much the cosplays will make her suffer this weekend is amusing considering it's not like she was UNAWARE of this fact. " She does have SOME, especially when she puts more effort in and typically goes more alternative styled or dresses fancy for a rare event. But fashion sense is not her strong suit. " He blinks, slow and adds. " Although she does have sunglasses just like Ann's, the style looks best on her so she's got that right at least. " If the years of suffering wearing glasses taugh ter her ONE thing, it was at least that.

🍓 What is something you and the mun disagree on? (for both)

" Ahh...Now that's a more difficult one. " Chishiya tilts his head backwards to consider it. " Some things depend on her mood as to how much she agrees or disagrees with me." Even he could understand that to some degree whether he AGREED or NOT. " I suppose though she has a much better opinion of people's inherent nature. At least outside of extreme situations like fighting in death games. " He pauses to mull over his choice in words. " As she says, people as a whole are not as selfish as I believe them to be. That doesn't mean she's easily TRUSTING of people, but she does believe people are more willing to help strangers or acquaintances even without personal gain. I disagree. " Almost as an afterthought he adds - " Unless you're stranded on the side of the road. Then good luck, she's not stopping to help either. She's listened to enough serial killer stories, she's not taking that risk to help OR be helped unless you're a friend or family who called her to come pick you up. "

" Her and I agree on a fair amount. But I suppose she disagreed with my grim acceptance of an inevitable fate based on my past. Sometimes I don't see the point of struggling in a hopeless situation. " Too many BODIES, too many cases, at some point Ann had LOST the point of everything. " In the end the Borderlands had changed that for me. But she was vehemently to the idea of fighting tooth and claw till your last breath no matter if you knew for certain you'd die, just like the girl in that case did. It's because of people like that who do everything that we're able to catch some people. All it takes is some blood or hair or skin cells. " She folds her arms, PONDERING over anything else. " She also wasn't keen on the idea of dissecting bodies to trying and check for anything unusual. Not because of the dissecting part, she's not squeamish and she's done several albeit not human dissections. She just didn't like the idea of it and disagrees that it had any particular value after a certain threshold. " Which she had crossed. But what ELSE was there to do to try to explain the world? / @cartelheir

[woosh-floosh]

JANUARY MEDIA ROUNDUP

Here's everything notable I watched/played/listened to in January yay!! All the yewchub videos and music are linked (and also there's spoilers for the ending to season 5 of Fargo). Let's a go!!

SUPER MARIO RPG

Fun RPG! I see why it’s kept the reputation it has! I love Mario!!!

OLDER, SLOWER B/W EVERYTHING REAL IS FREE - GODDAMN WOLVES

I don’t know what changed with Seven Days a Week/Ah Maria but I’m really digging the latest Goddamn Wolves. I prefer the first song but the second one has a real Fountains of Wayne sound to it.

BARBIE

It’s fine, doesn’t live up to hype at all for me. Extremely hamfisted, shallow, babies first feminist message. Doesn’t seem to be interested in exploring anything deeper. The girl calls Barbie out when she first meets her for all the reductive views of women she represents and this never gets explored! The image of womanhood and femininity it represents is narrow and alienating for someone like me. White feminism at its peak.

IDK I guess it’s fine for preteens who are first being introduced to feminist thought, I probably would have liked it more at 11. But… can’t we do better now?

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

It’s fine I didn’t pay that much attention.  I liked Helena, I think she’s a good foil to the older Indiana Jones. There’s a lot of noticeable CGI and fake places and that made me sad. Half an hour too long.

Deepfake Harrison Ford is so scary

TASKMASTER CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS THREE

So fun and funny ^_^ I’ve been rewatching TM NZ with my parents and it’s good… but when you go back to UK you think “Why do I even watch the other versions, nothing could ever top this.”

They also announced the Series 17 line up! I only recognize Nick Mohammad from the couple episodes of Ted Lasso I watched.

BUBBLY - GOOD KID

Seems like everytime a new Good Kid comes out I think “this is good and awesome, their songs seem to keep getting better and better.” I think I am just a bigger Good Kid fan than I want to admit!!

FARGO - SEASON 5

Really good!! Lots of themes to dissect. I was mainly focusing on the theme of misogyny throughout but the finale brought in themes of religion and debt that I hadn’t thought about.

Very glad it stuck the landing in the finale. The ending scene was really funny, and thoughtful and sweet.

Going into the finale I knew they were going to give an ending to the character arc for Lorraine. I was worried that the fact that runs a debt collection agency was going to go uncommented on and thought “the only way I would come around fully to her character is if she forgives all the debt she owns.” The finale has her starting a fund to forgive the debt of prisoners specifically to fuck with the one guy she hates is 1. Very funny and 2. Perfect for her character.

PINOCCHIO IS A STORY ABOUT ART AND GOD - JACOB GELLER

The best video essays are the ones that make you want to gaze out of the window after watching, Jacob Geller consistently does it for me

Thinking about how there is an “other” component to Pinocchio. He’s a little wooden boy but not a “true” boy. Most stories end with Pinocchio becoming a “real boy.” Geller brings up how the story can be about being human, but at the same time becoming a real boy takes away the thing that’s special about him. A Pinocchio story about embracing his own difference and how that doesn’t make him any less of a real boy (because he was a real boy all along!) would make an easy trans metaphor.

Pinocchio also having to learn about the world from a lower baseline than other children seem to have (and being much more gullible) also makes an autism reading easy.

The comments are filled with people saying “You forgot about this story!” and “What about this reading?” that I think this video hit a lot of people the same way.

THE TRUTH ABOUT POINSETTIAS - INDIGO’S FINDINGS

that's a hell of a mystery no one thought was a mystery and didn't even really need solving but damn if it didn't just get solved so nice work

In all honesty, a really good deep dive about a tradition most of us take for granted.

MOONSONG / LAST BATTLE [NEW REMIX] - RADIATI0NAL

You can really hear the homestuck influence in this, I love it

Wish they were working with a bit better samples though

LA LA LAND

One of those movies that makes me go “Wow! This is a really well made movie! Must be amazing for someone who actually likes musicals, romance movies, and classic hollywood.”

SHE SENDS KISSES - THE WRENS

IT NEVER ENDS

Reminds me of the Fargo main theme, even though I don’t think they actually sound that similar? Might just be a me thing

TASKMASTER MINNESOTA - SEASON 2

Wah! I’ll miss you Taskmaster Minnesota!! Wah!!

Way better than last season thanks to the better equipment (I also think Carter makes a much better Taskmaster than Luke, though I think Luke was pretty good as a fill-in contestant!)

David Ha (and whoever else) is extremely good at making up tasks. Multiple tasks that made me think “they should do this on Taskmaster UK!” or use the setting so well it’s perfect

DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: THE DARK PRINCE

Monsters…

The performance is BAD, the environment textures are BAD, the story is BAD, but those monsters? But those monsters.. Those monsters are damn good

The end ended up being pretty grind-y, I think dragon quest games are known for that, but still a bit of a bummer way to end what I thought was a pretty fun game!

The gameplay loop of synthesis is addicting, every new area feels like an iceberg where beneath the surface are all the new monsters you can make in synthesis!

The ranking system also pushes you to change your team throughout the game to add those higher ranking monsters to your team. One of my problems with pokemon is how the game starts to grow stale once you have a full team. Dragon quest monsters and Yo-Kai watch both side step this problem and keeps the gameplay fresh to the end!

I’m curious about playing the older entries now!

My favorite monster is every slime and Imp

LEAST FAVORITE THING: When Jacob Geller brought AI: Artificial Intelligence in his Pinocchio video and I had to remember how much I hated that movie. We watched in Philosophy class. We didn't even discuss it, we just watched it.

[unseededtoast]

Rectify | Bucky Barnes

Part 18/37 | Part Seventeen, Part Nineteen

Summary: I've lived every day for the past five years looking over my shoulder. I knew they'd come for me, it was inevitable. I was foolish to think I could outrun my past. It's followed me everywhere I go, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Never would I have anticipated that the shadows would lead me to the light.

Bucky Barnes x OC

Series Warnings: Discussion of human trafficking, alcohol consumption, graphic depictions of violence, sexual content, discussion of suicidal thoughts.

a/n: Hi everyone, thank you for checking this out, I appreciate any and all support! This series is also posted on Ao3 and Wattpad if you prefer those formats/platforms! This is a completed series, and it's going to take some time for me to transfer it to Tumblr, so please bear with me!

"Turns out Hydra still has a fascination for human experimentation."

I smile as I watch the plane land, they're finally back. Bucky stands beside me, shielding his eyes from the sun as he watches. The back of the plane opens, and Natasha is the first one to walk out. She looks tired. Steve is the next one out, followed by Bruce, Tony, and Fury. They all seem to be exhausted. As they walk towards the building I notice that Bruce is carrying a scepter of some sort, a bright glowing blue stone in the center.

They walk inside, Bruce keeps the scepter in his hand as we greet them. Natasha doesn't stay very long, she heads up to her room quickly. Steve and Bucky start talking about the mission, and I go to Bruce, curious about what he's brought back from the Hydra base.

"Did they have a gift shop?" I ask, gesturing towards the large, pointy scepter. Bruce laughs a little and shakes his head,

"No, no this is the scepter that Loki used when he invaded New York. The Hydra scientists were trying to dissect it and understand its capabilities. We decided it was probably better off in our hands, so now we're going to try to dissect it and understand its capabilities." Bruce explains and I nod, looking at the scepter again. It's bigger than I imagined, sharper too.

"Well this should be interesting." I say, intrigued by the idea of understanding an alien technology. I hope Tony and Bruce let me in on their studies, though I think Tony will need more persuading than Bruce. I see Fury walk outside and get back into the plane. Moments later the plane takes off again.

"Where's he going?" I ask, not understanding why Fury would leave as soon as he just got here.

"Well, the scepter wasn't the only thing we found at the base. Turns out Hydra still has a fascination for human experimentation. We detained two people, a brother and sister who both showed some interesting qualities. Fury is going to oversee their containment." Bruce explains. I feel like my heart dropped into my stomach, dreading what Hydra's next creation could possibly be.

"What sort of qualities?" I ask, interested to see if they're heading down the Winter Soldier path again, or if they've gone beyond that.

"Well, the man was fast, very fast. The woman has some sort of telekinesis ability, I've never seen anything like it." Super speed and telekinesis? That's a lot more advanced than I thought Hydra would be.

"That sounds like some serious stuff. You think they were going to try to use the scepter for enhancement purposes?" I ask, not knowing what they saw at the base.

"Possibly." Bruce answers, not entirely knowing either. I pick at the skin on my lower lip as I think about it, there's no way it's a coincidence that the scepter and enhanced people were found in the same base.

"I don't think it's a coincidence." I say, trying to recall everything I know of the Sokovian base, which isn't much at all.

"It was truly a lovely place, I might even take my next vacation there." Tony remarks and walks over to the wet bar. In an instant, it's as if the pieces fit themselves together and it all makes sense.

"No, it's definitely not a coincidence. The day this started, I was attacked in a parking lot. The Hydra agent who tried to kill me said they had moved past the work I had done, but needed what I had to finish their newest project. Their newest project was probably these new enhanced people, and they needed the programming guide I have to install it their minds and make them subservient to handlers." I explain my train of thought. Tony had paused from pouring himself a drink, Steve and Bucky stopped their conversation. I look around, waiting for someone to say something. Maybe I sound crazy, but I don't think it's too far-fetched.

"You could be right. It makes sense anyways." Bruce agrees with me. The weight of what could have happened hits me. If Hydra was able to install my programming in super-enhanced people, there's no telling the extent of damage it would create. This is just another reason to find a cure for Bucky, and then burn the book.

I wonder how the scepter fits into all of this, what role does it play in what was happening at the base? I know that it wasn't there by accident, nothing gets put in the Sokovian base by accident. I look at the glowing blue stone, feeling nervous about what we might find as we study it.

"They never stopped." Bucky says after a long pause of silence. He looks hurt, and sad. Steve puts his hand on Bucky's shoulder to comfort him.

It was foolish of me to think that Hydra would have stopped experimenting on people once I left. Although, I never visited the Sokovian base, so I'm not sure I had any impact at all on the experiments done there. Surely my work was known, otherwise they wouldn't have been looking for the programming guide. This is all bigger than I thought.

"When do we start studying it?" I ask, wanting to get started as soon as possible. It's been a while since I've done anything productive, I miss being in the lab.

"We can start today." Bruce says and looks to Tony for confirmation. Tony downs the rest of his drink and places the glass on the countertop.

"Yeah, that works." He says and walks towards the elevator. It's a nice surprise that Tony didn't protest my involvement for once.

Bruce and I follow him, leaving Steve and Bucky on the main floor. They could use some time together anyways, I don't need to constantly be there with them. They lived for years without me being there, I'm sure they won't miss me for a few hours. Tony presses the button to take us to the basement and the doors open to a vast laboratory. It's bigger than the lab back at the Shield compound. I see parts of Iron Man suits scattered around, some suits are stationed along the walls. They're incredible, I never thought I'd see one in person.

Bruce and Tony place the scepter on a table, and Tony pulls a hologram up. He instructs his artificial intelligence assistant, Jarvis, to analyze the scepter. I watch as the hologram scans and begins running tests on it. Tony starts putting things away, and Bruce stands with his arms crossed as he watches what's going on.

"What do we know about this already?" I ask, wanting to be up to speed with everything they might know about it. I might not be an expert in alien science, but I'm going to give it my best shot.

"Loki used this scepter when he invaded New York with the Chitauri. We know it has the ability to take over people's minds and make them slaves to the scepter's master. We don't know how it does it, or anything about it beyond that." Bruce tells me as I take a seat atop one of the tables.

Having the ability to take over people's minds intrigues me, and I cross my arms as I think about how that's possible. Taking over the mind is one thing, but to simultaneously tie that person to the scepter's master and subjugate them to the master's will is another thing entirely. But, now I know why it had value to Hydra. I rub my temples, trying to rationalize the science behind the stone, but falling short every time.

"It just doesn't seem like it should be possible. How can a stone dominate and manipulate a mind in the blink of an eye?" I question out loud hoping someone else, or myself, will miraculously come up with the answer.

"This is alien technology after all, maybe we should try thinking outside of the box." Tony joins the conversation and leans on the table I took a seat on. Jarvis continues running tests and scans of the scepter.

"Well, what do we know about the Chitauri?" I want to get a feel for who may have created this technology, though it's likely not to turn up much information.

"Not much. Just that they're an alien race, Thor told us they're from an unknown world." Bruce says, turning his back to the scepter to face Tony and I. So much for that avenue of thought.

It would have been nice if Hydra had any notes taken about the research they did. Knowing Hydra, if any notes exist they were taken by one person by hand in a single notebook. There's less chance of information leaks that way.

I wonder since the scepter has the ability to dominate one's mind if it's possible that the powers from the scepter granted the siblings' enhanced abilities. After all, super speed and telekinesis seem to be a very alien concept to me. If this is the case, it means that this technology is far more advanced than anything existent on Earth and can be very dangerous in the wrong hands, and perhaps even the right ones.

"What happened in Sokovia?" I broadly ask, curious about the mission as a whole as well.

"Bunch of Hydra agents, freaky siblings. Alien scepter." Tony summarizes for me, and I frown.

"Bruce?" I ask, knowing Bruce will give me a more substantive answer.

"We got there and the place was crawling with Hydra. There were more people than just the siblings there, but I don't think they were going to survive much longer. Whatever Hydra was doing it wasn't for the weak. Of course, that's just what Natasha told me, I couldn't exactly fit inside the base." Bruce tightly smiles, and I realize he was likely there as the Hulk, not Bruce Banner. I know Natasha went to her room and probably wants some space, maybe Steve can tell me more? I can wait until tonight to ask him, I don't want to interrupt his time with Bucky.

"Let's hope Jarvis can find something substantive." I say with a sigh, feeling overwhelmed with the technology on the table in front of me. It would be less daunting if we had a something solid to go off of, but we're starting at square one with the absolute bare minimum.

"He hasn't let me down yet." Tony says and walks away to go do something else while we wait.

I get off the table and walk around the lab. I inspect the Iron Man suits closely, appreciating the details of them. Tony has prototypes laying around all over the place, I bet he spends a good amount of time here when he isn't at Shield compounds.

As I look around at all the spare parts I notice the metal is all sorts of different colors. I wonder if it would be possible for Tony to remove the red star on Bucky's arm. The star isn't just red paint on the metal, it's dyed metal. If Tony is able to color his suits red and gold, perhaps he knows how to remove the color without damaging the arm. I look around and see Tony tinkering with some tools. I walk over to him and see he's working on some sort of blaster for an Iron Man suit.

"Hey Tony, I have a question." I say. I've never talked about this with Bucky, but I'm sure he's reminded of Hydra every day when he has to look at the red star. Tony looks up from his project,

"What is it?" He asks,

"Well, I see you have a lot of colored metal around, and I was wondering if you think it's possible to remove the coloring on Bucky's arm, the red star I mean." I ask, hoping he says yes and that it's an easy process.

"Yeah, I'm sure I can find a way to remove it, give me like a half hour." He says and gets up to go to another part of the lab. I follow behind him and watch as he mixes liquids together and has Jarvis run tests to see if the concoction is strong enough to break the color molecules and remove them.

Finally, after twenty minutes or so of adding things to the mixture, Tony hands me a glass beaker full of solution. The liquid smells terribly, I'm sure it isn't good to inhale.

"You can just take a cloth or something and use that to rub it off, might take some elbow grease." He says and I nod my head. I'm sure Jarvis is going to take a while to come up with a full diagnostic of the scepter, I think it'll be okay to leave for a little while.

I pass the table and look at the glowing stone as I walk to the elevator. Bruce is still watching the scepter as it's being scanned, he's probably trying to rationalize it just like I was but maybe he'll come up with something substantial. I press the button for the main floor and the elevator doors shut in front of me and within seconds they reopen.

I see Steve and Bucky still talking on the couch but they look over to me as the elevator quietly dings. I walk towards them, hoping I didn't interrupt something important. They all scrunch their noses and look at the clear liquid I have in my hands.

"What is that?" Steve asks, a disgusted look on his face. I tap the glass with my fingertips,

"Well, I was thinking that maybe Bucky would want to take the star off of his arm and this stuff will do it. Tony created it a few minutes ago. You don't have to of course, I just thought it might be nice to get rid of it." I explain, looking to Bucky. He has a thoughtful look on his face.

"I think that would be nice." He answers and I smile, happy he agrees with me. I place the glass beaker on the counter and grab a towel Tony has stored in one of the cabinet drawers. Bucky sits at the island with his left arm resting on the stone countertop.

"Are you ready?" I ask before starting the process. He takes a deep breath and nods his head,

"Yeah, I'm ready." I dip the corner of the towel into the liquid, careful to not get it on my skin. I'm sure the liquid is corrosive enough to melt my skin. Maybe I should've grabbed some gloves before doing this, but it's too late, I already started.

I rub the solution over the star, the strong odor making me want to hold my breath. Surprisingly, the solution works like a charm and the red dye starts fading quickly. I put some elbow grease into it, like Tony suggested, as I rub back and forth and see the red dye stain the white towel. I hope Tony wasn't too attached to this towel.

After rubbing the liquid on the star for fifteen minutes, it's finally completely gone. I place the towel in the trash, knowing the red dye ruined it. I keep the beaker on the table because I'm sure I'm not supposed to dispose of it down the drain, it'll probably eat through the pipes.

I look at Bucky's arm, seeing that it's now solid silver, there's no red star blemishing it. Bucky stands up and finds the closest mirror on the wall. He turns his left side towards the mirror and looks at his arm for a few moments. He runs his fingers over the spot where the star once was and it's like he's in awe that it's gone. He turns to me with a smile on his face, and engulfs me in a tight hug, my toes lifting off the ground.

"Thank you." He says in my ear, causing me to smile.

"Of course." I say as he puts me down gently. We hold eye contact for a few moments, and I wish I could just place my hand on his jaw and brush my thumb over his strong cheekbones. Steve clears his throat, which knocks the thought from my head and I step away from Bucky slightly. Steve looks between us both, skepticism on his face but his tone remains cheerful.

"It looks great, Buck." He says. I feel the tension in the room and decide to take the solution back down to the lab where Tony may have a safe way of disposing of it without destroying the pipes.

As I go back to the lab and walk past the table, I hear Jarvis start speaking. I set the glass on the table and freeze as I hear what Jarvis says,

"Analysis complete." My heart starts thumping with anticipation and I join Tony and Bruce's side, eager to hear what Jarvis found.