#i cheated and use noise. you could say. its not-binary-

[saturnsickle]

tried using the binary brush for a full drawing

[legacyridley]

— LYING IS THE MOST FUN A GIRL CAN HAVE WITHOUT TAKING HER CLOTHES OFF (BUT IT’S BETTER IF YOU DO!)

“I CAN’T RECALL a single amazing thing i have seen first-hand that i didn't immediately reference to a movie or tv show. a fucking commercial. you know the awful singsong of the blasé: seeeen it. i've literally seen it all, and the worst thing, the thing that makes me want to blow my brains out, is: the secondhand experience is always better. the image is crisper, the view is keener, the camera angle and the soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality can't anymore.”

                                                                                          — gillian flynn , gone girl

ooc —

hi there ! i’m shannon, i’m non-binary, my pronouns are she/they and i’m from the united kingdom. you can just call me the ceo of the unhinged rosamund pike cinematic universe, though. or keira knightley’s bitch, because i am, even if i decided against bringing her this time ( still might later ! ) i love morally corrupt women, i’d give my life for them, if one couldn’t tell by . . . uh. frankie. 

application —

[ rosamund pike | 40 | she/her | cis woman ] if it isn’t FRANCESCA RIDLEY ! you know, FRANKIE ! they’ve lived in monarda for TWO MONTHS. some people say that they’re CONSCIENTIOUS & CHARMING, but that they can also be PRIVILEGED & AVARICIOUS. last i heard, they were working FREELANCE as a BUSINESSWOMAN ! i’ve also heard the rumor that they’re a WITCH. if you’d ask me, they remind me of BEING BORN WITH THE METALLIC TANG OF A SILVER SPOON IN YOUR MOUTH ( JUST LIKE THE TASTE OF YOUR OLD-MONEY BLOOD ), “MANEATER” BY NELLY FURTADO PLAYING, SLIGHTLY MUFFLED, FROM INSIDE YOUR CAR, LIKE MUSIC FROM A PARTY BATHROOM, & THE NOTION OF A NEW SELF YOU’LL FIND BY THE SHORE ( BUT HOW’S THAT WORKING OUT FOR YOU, HONEY? DO YOU FEEL LOVED? ) ! i wonder what monarda’s got in store for them today!

BASICS —

NAME: francesca legacy ridley ( yes, really. )

AGE: forty ( b. 28 january, 1981 — knightsbridge, london, united kingdom. )

NICKNAMES: frankie , and frankie only.

GENDER: cis female.

ORIENTATIONS: bisexual / biromantic.

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: divorced & single.

NATIONALITY: british-american ( dual. )

ETHNICITY: white ( english. )

LANGUAGES SPOKEN: english, french, german.

OCCUPATION: social media mogul & socialite. ex-sunglasses model. 

EDUCATION: institut le rosey & magdalen college, oxford.

PERSONALITY —

ASTROLOGICAL BIG THREE: aquarius sun, scorpio moon, scorpio rising.

MBTI TYPE: entj-a. ( the commander. )

HOGWARTS HOUSE: slytherin ( ravenclaw hatstall. )

ENNEAGRAM TYPE: eight with a seven wing ( the maverick. )

THEME SONG: maneater by nelly furtado.

FAVOURITE SONG: lay all your love on me by abba.

FAVOURITE ALBUM: super trouper by abba (1980)

PET PEEVES: people who don’t say ‘thank you’ when you open the door. back-seat drivers. chewing too loudly. tea that’s too milky. cambridge graduates. 

PHOBIAS: trypophobia. hemophobia ( blood ). arachnophobia. coulrophobia ( clowns. )

GUILTY PLEASURES: radio-friendly pop music. sunglasses, still. netflix-binge style sitcoms. kate winslet movies. true crime documentaries. st trinian’s (2007) dir. oliver parker.

ABOUT —

she’s deeply charming but also . . . it’s mostly theatre. ridleys know how to put on a show. ridleys know how to make friends. so meet frankie: #1 flirt, #1 liar, and perfectionist to the nth degree.

oxford graduate from a family of oxford graduates ; if you don’t get what that means for a person, substitute oxford with harvard and you might just about be getting there, right down to the annoying person — the sort of humdrum regular who grinds on francesca’s gears — who says ‘ oh, you went to harvard? say something smart! ’ growing up in a house in london that looks like it is out of a fairytale ( would be, if the city and all its bustle and noise weren’t on the doorstep ) is about as sweet as it sounds, and who could blame one for getting a touch . . . jealous ? well, other than frankie, a product of a private school in switzerland, an oxford college, and a trust fund, who could judge someone for breathing incorrectly, and says things such as ‘ jealousy is a disease, get well soon. ’

HOW DID SHE GET TO HER CURRENT POSITION ? . . .other than her parents’ money and a wealth of connections? well, frankie quickly came to understand something; that every time the older generations catch up to a social media platform, there’s a sudden vacuum as the younger generation work out where to go. and where the audience go is where the influence is, which gains you more connections, more wealth, more influence in places people would never even think to look. do you ever think about what information leaves your hands, and where, when you agree to the terms and conditions? you probably should. 

[ NOTE : when i imagine the platform, it’s something fairly twitter-esque, but without the people who use long hashtags and can’t figure out how it works. and more . . . aesthetic, somehow. like pinterest-level aesthetics. i’ll be working it out over time, but i’ve named it spectrum. yes, it’s named after the florence & the machine song, please don’t judge me. it started off as a university project á la the social network ( brilliant bloody movie ) that went onto a massive scale & became trendy and addictive. imagine if mark zuckerberg was a cool, bisexual, female ex-sunglasses model who once married the heir to grovesnor group, made him sign a considerable prenup and then divorced him when he cheated ( there was some full diana revenge dress content ) fifteen years ago, just before her old university idea went mainstream. he regrets it now, doesn’t he ? ]

imagine the kind of assholes who would give their child ‘ legacy ’ as a middle name to remind her of the constant pressure on her shoulders ? welcome to the ridleys, london-born mother & father to francesca ( golden child, with more issues than meets the eye, actually as much of a party girl as her sister but successful ) and roman ( motorbike-obsessed disgrace. ) they’re one of the oldest witch families out there, but — up until frankie & roman — they’ve been able to keep it quiet for their own benefit. 

so what does frankie DO with her magic? she always says she specialises in the tempting, though the addictive is perhaps more apt. want to feel so excited about something you’ll never be bored again? want the best trip of your life? frankie’s your gal. and does it have anything to do with how influential spectrum became & how much of an addictive presence she can be? . . . well, that’s for her to know & no one to find out. 

AND NOW, THE FINAL QUESTION: why the fuck is london’s premier rich bitch in where she’d consider nowhere, maine ? well, she’s on sort of a self-recreation trip right now. think about tahani in the good place when she tries to step out of the spotlight without actually doing it, except she’s thinking the sea air will cleanse her of a slight... unease coming with the approaching mid-life crisis and having to dye her greys out. 

but now she’s in a smaller place than sprawling london, living in that house you look at and think ‘fuck, i’d kill for that view,’ having to associate with people properly rather than being almost a concept of a person . . . what if people tear aside the mask and discover the serpentine nature and the moral rot that lies behind it ?

credits —

template !

[banditvld]

hello babies. it is i, kit. this is my prettie nb kiddo bandit, lead rapper for particle and deadpan Disaster. pls find some info about them under the cut !! you can also find their pinterest here, and their bio here. pls like this for me to send u a message to ur ims or hit me up @ ho ho cham#8974

under the cut: infidelity tw, gender dysphoria tw, internalized h*mophobia tw, cats tw

first thing’s first, bandit identifies as non-binary. they use they/them pronouns, however with how south korea/the idol industry/etc are, they’ve had to learn to accept he/him assumptions. they sort of take it as being called male passing. 

only really particle and close friends will know about them identifying as non-binary as well, so that’s something we’ll have to plot !

the only time its "ok" to use he/him is if your muse has dialogue talking about them and they dont know better. please use they/them in your internal musings. 

while it’s not something that’s widely known or ever been confirmed on camera, over the years in v-lives, interviews, etc they’ve definitely dropped little breadcrumbs about their identity

from a distance you could be like oh they’re just an lgbt ally but if you squint u could take a good guess

if you have any questions feel free to ask me !

onto the tldr of their bio !

born in south korea, has an older brother and a younger sister

for years their father was cheating on their mother, she knew the whole time and eventually had enough, dumping his ass and taking the kids with her

mom fell in love with an italian woman in south korea on business, and after years of long distance dating she moved herself and the kids to italy

due to mayb a little internalized h*mophobia bandit was never rly Down with having two moms, on top of trying to fit in a european country when they barely spoke the language. it was all a lot at once

so when they were 15 and dad got into contact and asked if bandit wanted to live with him they said hell yea

regrets were had. dad was a dick. put himself on a pedestal he couldn’t live up to. did Not nurture bandit’s creative spirit the way their mom’s had but they didn’t realize how good they had it in italy until it was too late

bandit started to rebel. skipping school. sneaking out at night. eventually they found the underground rap scene and was Embraced. which was the support they were looking for

kmg were sniffing around and Found bandit, promised maybe more than they would deliver but they signed on the dotted lineeeeeeee

and, some more info !

acts like they dont care -- but trust they care a lot

has two sphynx cats at home, feta and cammy ( camembert ). they r........ their children

is demisexual/demiromantic. is actually a pretty sexual person but doesn’t have the Trust to be open with a lot of people like that

their mom worked as a makeup artist and would often try out looks on them and teach them techniques. it’s an art form they rly respect and can get creative with it themselves sometimes

is creative in a lot of different ways. paints, sculpts, draws, whittles, makes soaps and candles, knits and crochets once in a while. they are Average at most of these hobbies

all their gifts are hand made.......... forget whats in their bank account the bitch is making u a scented candle for ur birthday

and has knit their precious cat babies most of their sweaters

basically everything in their house is second hand from a market or a thrift store

closet included

very much a home body. will go out if they’re asked but will not organize themselves

with their introverted personality, they speak a lot through their music. prefers Loud beats and noise

pretty deadpan with dry humor. deep but not that deep

ask for advice? great, they will support you 100%. go against what they say and ask for more advice? don’t bother

they are affectionate if they’re really comfortable with u, otherwise Dont Touch Them.... unless ur matter then u can touch

will grow their hair out as Long as Possible between promos. will have apple top hair, space buns, u name it to keep their hair out of their face

if they have to cut their hair......... they want something funky. dye it. give them a mullet or smth pls @ kmg

can speak korean and italian, but their english is........ Fine. they’ve been learning japanese for the past year or so

that’s all for now i think pls love them

[theclash]

I was gonna say do all of them but that’s a fucking lot so do all the evens

okay babeeeeey I’m finally getting around 2 it!

2: What’s your dream pet? (Real or not)A RACCOON 

4: What was your favorite video game growing up?Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Sonic and Tails 2

8: What is your Greek personality type? [Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, or Melancholic]just had to take a quiz for this, I got melancholic 

10: Are you allergic to anything?penicillin, msg, pollen, various food dyes and random other things

12: Do you prefer tea, coffee, or cocoa?COFFEE

14: Would you rather be a vampire, elf, or merperson?vampire

16: How tall are you?5ft 8in

18: How much do you weigh? [Only ask this if you know the user doesn’t mind!]116lbs

20: Do you like space or the ocean more?space

22: Pet peeves?loud chewing, tapping, background noise that’s repetitive 

24: Favorite constellation?leo cuz im a leo 

26: Do you like ball-jointed dolls?this is such a weird question ghfjdkhgkh uhh idk!

28: Do you think global warming is real?duh

30: Favorite movie?the wall or yellow submarine

32: How many pets have you own in your lifetime?3 dogs, 2 cats, probably about 60 different chickens, 20 or so fish, a cricket, a spider

34: What is a color that calms you?blue

36: Where were you born?Tacoma, WA

38: Introvert or extrovert?Extrovert

40: Hugs or kisses?both but only for my gf

42: Who is someone you love deeply?gf :)

44: Do you like tattoos and piercings?yea but its not like OOGOHHH TATTOOS PIERCINGS SO SEXY its more like I like them but I dont have a preference whether someone has them or not

46: Talk about your crush, if you have one!her name is Em and she’s strong and cute and soft and fun and i wanna see her Right NOW

48: A sound you really love?seagull noises

50: Can you do the splits?nope

52: Favorite movie?it already asked this ghfjkd

54: What color would you like your hair to be right now?i like it brown but like if I didnt have to have it look decent/’appropriate’ at work then silver or something would be cool idk sometimes I feel like I wanna bleach it too

56: Something that calms you down?watching soap carving asmr videos honestly LMAO. & being held by gf obv

58: What does your URL mean?i like the clash and joe & I’m a lesbian

60: Do you believe in evolution?Yup

62: What makes you follow a blog?pure clout

64: Favorite animal(s):raccoon :)

66: Favorite emoticon:🤠

68: What is your MBTI personality type?ENTP

70: Can your dog roll over on command, if you have a dog?mine couldn’t

72: Post a selfie or two?I’m on computer snzzz 

74: What is one random but interesting fact about yourself?i’m sexy

76: Do you like birds?DUH

78: Is swimming or ice skating more fun to you?I’ve never been ice skating cuz I’m too clumsy but swimming isnt very fun either idk I cant see for shit when I’m in the water

80: Some thing you wish did exist:lil wayne

82: Something you really enjoy doing:being swaggie 

84: What was your first impression of Tumblr?god I have no clue I joined it within its first year of existence 

86: Can you run a mile within ten minutes?yea my avg is/was around 7

88: Can you touch your toes and keep your legs straight completely?no

90: If you were an animal, which one would you be?raccoon but im not a furry

92: A store you hate?ummm. idk. hollister I guess fuck hollister lives (sorry paul simonon)

94: Would you rather be able to fly or read minds?fly (2 gf)

96: Winter or summer?summer

98: Least favorite person?god

100: A store you love?local record store

102: Where do you live?house

104: What is your favorite mineral or gem?stevens universe. idk any of the blue ones are epic

106: Do you like bugs?not the ones that fly constantly (ie pine conifer bugs are my fav and they fly but like I hate flies, gnats, moths, etc)

108: Something you get paranoid about?oh boy lol

110: Nosiest question you have ever been asked?i have no clue who tf keeps track 

112: Ever been bitten by a spider?most ppl have?????

114: Do you prefer cloudy or sunny days?sunny

116: Favorite cloud type:sick clouds xD xD xD XD

118: Do you have freckles?no

120: Fruits or vegetables?vegetal

122: Is the ocean or sky prettier?do you love the colors of the sky

124: Bright or dim lights?dim usually cuz I often have a headache but I also cant see for shit when its dim

126: Something you hate about Tumblr:mclennon shippers

128: What do you think about the least?bro how are we supposed to just come up wth what we thinkg about the least. what I think about the least is Whatever it is that I think about the least

130: Who would you like to punch in the face right now?some men.

132: Do you smile with your teeth showing for pictures?not usually I’m really self conscious about my mouth in pictures I usually try to cover it honestly lol except in selfies cuz I can actually see how it looks

134: Do you like roller coasters?yes but not the ones that do loops

136: Are your ears lobed or attached?i looked up the two for a comparison so I could give an answer and apparently that whole concept is a myth

138: On a scale of 1-10, how attractive would you say you are?usually like a 7 

140: Did you have any pretend or imaginary friends?nope

142: Would you say you are a good or bad influence to others?good? idk

144: What makes you angrymen. thinking in both a broad and specific sense

146: Do you prefer boys, girls, and/or non-binaries?im a lesbian

148: Favorite physical thing about yourself:eyes

150: Name three people you would like to talk to right now in person.Em, Greg Hawkes, Roger Waters

152: Do you like BuzzFeed?

154: Do you like to kiss others’ foreheads or hands for platonic reasons?I have never platonically kissed anyone lol I’ve literally only kissed my GF 

156: What embarrasses you?not much

158: Biggest lie you have ever told:once I was questioned whether I cheated on my math by using a calculator and I said no which was a lie then I got detention

160: How many posts do you have on your blog(s)?29,551 

162: How many likes do you have on your blog(s)?17,329

164: Do you have long or short hair?medium?

166: Why do you like, dislike, or have neutral feelings about religon?mmmm dont make me get in to it

168: Do you like to wear makeup?only sometimes

170: Did you answer the questions you were asked truthfully?yes

[carry-the-sky]

as drop by drop fills the sea

or: four times hera didn’t tell him, and one time she did.

hera learns how to be objective from her father, who is decidedly not. (monsoon, they used to call him before the war, cham syndulla, unpredictable and unrelenting. she has a memory of watching him on the holonet, rallying his resistance against orn free taa and the corrupt senate, his voice strong and scared, all at once. strength through unity, she remembers him shouting, we will rise or we will fall, ryloth, and we will do it as one! —)

hera learns to be objective.

well. most of the time.

“still not talking to me, huh?”

she scowls in her seat and keeps her eyes firmly forward. the white-blue streak of hyperspace outside the viewport usually helps calm her nerves after a mission, but not tonight. she hasn’t been this angry since —

steady, she thinks, steady.

(no, her veins thrum in response, rage, rage and scream and storm —)

“hera — ”

“don’t,” she growls. there’s a beat of silence — he’s looking at her, she knows, she feels — and she digs her nails into her palms. “don’t play with me, kanan. you know why i’m upset.”

he sighs and slides into the co-pilot’s seat. “listen, chop’s intercepted another convoy signal — two, actually, near the toydarian system. hutt space, which isn’t ideal, but at least we’ll get another shot at those shield generators —”

“count me out,” she snaps, surprised at the venom in her voice. this is her father talking. these are his words, his blood burning her insides. 

kanan’s irritation is palpable. “you’re not serious.”

“you ignored the mission parameters. we agreed this would be a covert operation, in and out. and now, thanks to your heroics—” she glances sideways. his mouth is a thin line, but his eyes are soft, more confused than anything else. guilt twists beneath her ribs, cold and sharp. (you would turn your back, cham had said, snarling, the day she left ryloth. you would turn your back on your blood, your family —

hera had smiled, soft and sad. you taught me how.)

her eyes are — wet, when she blinks, kanan’s face going blurry. mortified, she pushes up from her seat and bolts for the cabin door, but he beats her there.

“hey,” he says, his warm hands on her shoulders. “this — isn’t about the shield generators, is it?”

“slag the generators,” she hisses, scrubbing a hand across her eyes. “you’re too reckless, kanan, you — you could’ve —”

he pulls her close, arms encircling her waist. “i’m sorry,” he says, and the rest of her rebuke dissolves on her tongue. his cheek is soft against hers, his heartbeat a steady rhythm through his shirt. she wonders if he can hear hers, rushing like thunder in her ears.

i love you, she thinks. you know that, don’t you?

he’s smiling when they pull away from each other, so she punches him in the arm, hard enough to let him know she’s serious.

“let’s get to work, then,” she says, and kanan laughs.

“you’re cheating.”

kanan smirks at her from across the dejarik table. “that’s a heavy accusation coming from someone who’s on her third drink.”

“second,” hera scoffs. it certainly feels like she’s had more than that — everything is slightly tilty, like a planet pulled off its axis, and warm. she can feel the heat tingling in her palms. “and it’s not an accusation. it’s a fact.”

“ah. so you have proof, then?”

“you’re winning,” hera says, smiling. “how else would you explain that?”

kanan makes a show of crossing his arms over his chest. “maybe you’re just not as good as you think you are.”

get a room, chop beeps in binary from across the room, and hera almost chokes on her drink. kanan just laughs, and she’s momentarily lost in the bright flash of his teeth, the slant of neck as his head tips back. something unfurls in her chest, slow like sun-warmed honey.

gods, i love you, she wants to say. she wants —

maybe it’s the alcohol, maybe it’s not, but she’s leaning closer to him, and he’s not laughing anymore. he’s — looking at her, and it feels like falling, like she’s been wrenched from hyperspace too soon.

“kanan,” she says. this close, she can see that his eyes have little flecks of gold in them. “kanan, i want to tell you —” her fingers flash deftly over the gameboard, moving her K’lor’slug into attack position — “that it’s your move.”

kanan grins. “who’s cheating now?”

“i think i’ll live,” hera answers, and closes the space between them.

she opens her eyes. that’s her first mistake.

“urgh,” she groans, or tries to — her throat feels like it’s been scrubbed with bantha wool. when she tries to speak again, nothing but air comes out.

“zeb!” someone is shouting. hera blinks rapidly; kanan’s profile swims into focus, cheeks flushed and eyes blazing. “zeb, i need that bacta, now!”

she tries to lift a hand. pain erupts in her lower abdomen at the movement, and she falls still, breath hissing sharply between her teeth. kanan swivels towards her.

“hey,” he says, his voice steady and betraying none of the wild panic in his eyes. “hey, welcome back.”

“what —” she croaks, then abruptly stops, because talking hurts. she feels heavy, like her bones are durasteel. obliquely, she’s aware of kanan’s hands on her, pressing something to her stomach.

“you’re okay,” he’s saying, “you’re okay —”

there’s a flurry of movement and sound, and then zeb is barrelling into her field of vision. “better late than never, eh, hera?” the lasat grumbles as kanan releases the pressure from whatever he was holding. something wet and warm seeps from the place his hands just were, and then zeb is covering it with a bacta patch. The bandage is cool against her hot skin, and she can’t help the stuttered sob of relief that breaks past her lips.

“you —” she wheezes, “you should — see the other guy.”

zeb barks a laugh in response. “karabast, you’re makin’ jokes. remind me never to get on your bad side.”

“too late.”

kanan makes a noise in his throat. he’s holding her hand, she realizes, tight enough for her to feel his fingers shaking, and when she glances up, his eyes are wide. (she swallows the delirious urge to laugh, because jedi don’t feel things like fear, not with the force at their back and in their blood. they don’t —)

“you’re okay,” he breathes, again. she fumbles, clutches at his fingers as hard as she can. whatever is in the bacta is definitely working, because the world is slowly going out of focus, blurring at the edges. kanan, she says, or maybe she thinks it, she’s not entirely sure. kanan, there’s something i need to tell you —

(he’s there, when she wakes up.)

her hands are everywhere; in his hair and at his shoulders, nails digging half-moon imprints into his skin. he’s breathing, wild and ragged against the curve of her neck, and she thinks it might be the most wonderful sound she’s ever heard.

“hera,” he gasps, and — no, that’s the most wonderful sound, her name in his mouth.

(i love you, she thinks with sudden, fierce longing. i love you, kanan, i love you, i love —

she’ll say it, soon, but not here. not now —)

the last time —

lothal is greener than she remembers. plains stretch in every direction towards the horizon, rippling like waves beneath a midday sun, and hera allows herself to look, for a moment. look, ezra, she thinks. all of this, look —

“pass me the bit driver, would you?” sabine asks from behind her. hera glances over her shoulder to see her friend crouched beside the ghost’s landing gear, a pinched, frustrated expression on her face.

“oh no,” hera groans. “i’ve seen that look before. we aren’t going anywhere for awhile, are we?”

sabine pokes her head close to the back struts. “not if i have anything to say about it.” she extends a hand without looking up, and hera hands her the bit driver, smiling. no matter how much time passes between her return trips to lothal, coming back always feels like coming home.

“mom! aunt sabine!”   

hera turns, bringing a hand up to shade her eyes. a small figure is standing a short distance away, the line of his shadow rippling with the grass in the wind and sunlight catching in his green, green hair.

“there you are!” sabine shouts, waving. “i could use your help, this back strut is giving me some trouble!”

even from this distance, hera can make out her son shrugging theatrically. “that sounds like a personal problem, aunt sabine!”

sabine fixes hera with a knowing look. “i know where he gets that.” without waiting for a response, she pushes onto her feet and takes off running towards jacen, who shrieks with delight and bolts away.

hera is sure she’s imagining it, as she watches them chase each other in circles across the field, the sudden pressure of a warm hand resting at her shoulder, fingers grazing the nape of her neck —

— a voice in her ear, light as a breeze. hera —

she lets her eyes flutter shut. “kanan,” she whispers, throat catching against the word. “i love you.”

he’s gone, when she opens her eyes. sabine has caught up with jacen, scooping him into her arms and lifting him high into the air, their laughter bright and lilting.

hera starts walking towards them, feeling lighter with each step.

[mechagalaxy]

“Will the owner of the nuclear weapon, please contact reception?”

 There are things I love about Faction War, and things that I dread.  What I love about Faction War is the chance to bring 1600 hard core and only partially wrapped mercenary mecha jocks together to shake the pillars of heaven, kick ass, and run up a bar tab exceeding the GDP of some core world systems. There are things I hate as well.  Among 1600 hard core killing machines, lurk the most dangerous forces known to mankind, because the Forerunners lacked this gene, and went extinct, probably to avoid being here when the universe thought it was a good time to experiment.  I speak of course of the tinkerers.  The kind of people who look at an undead cyborg that literally tore a hole in reality and attempted to wipe out all life and thought…..you know those spiky things looked kind of cool, I bet if I coupled it to a niode matrix and linked it my engine amplifiers, there is a good chance it would make a really wicked damage stacking laser…..or generate a black hole and suck something like sixty cubic kilometers of battlefield, atmosphere, and city before the generator blew. What the hell, lets try it!

 I was at a meeting with our leadership team talking about specialist options, trying to match our abilities with the maximum tactical flexibility so whatever terrain we found ourselves fighting over we could cheat like a mother fether when I heard the page over the PA.

 “Will the owner of the nuclear weapon, please contact reception?”

 At first many of the clan leaders laughed, but Paul Knight, Sten Hugo Hiller and I reacted with the well drilled panic that comes from supporting Bunnylabs and Star League R&D (Radiation and Danger).  We got to reception to find The Armourer (weapon master of Myth and Legends) oohing and ahhing as only a true weapon geek can with Knockers McGuinty (chief technician, Spirit of Bunny).

“Check the serial numbers, the typo? That is an exact replica, I did a paper on the Tsar back in Collegia Tactica”  The Amourer was extruding mechandrites from his artificial arm to probe the casing of the odd weapon as the more limber Bunny was crawling beneath it with her own probes. “Don’t you love the pitting effect?  It is like the effect of time has been simulated, as if it was the real Tsar Bomb from pre-gate earth, the Cold War.  The materials though, you have to admire the artistry, I mean it looks visually like a common, every day fifty megaton hydrogen bomb, but the technology here is way wickeder.  Looks like a geometric yield increase, but honestly a lot of it is just show.  If I were building it, I could have ramped the output a lot higher, maybe done something really sexy with it”  Knockers was projecting a side by side holograph of what she actually saw, and a proposal for how she would have upgraded it, the armourer was making approving noises and adding highlights and suggestions to the image. The clan leaders looked on in interest as Paul Knight finally broke down and asked the question with the calm that only a large scaled dragon can possess leaning casually on what looked like an exact replica of the largest Hydrogen bomb produced on old earth during the cold war. “Is this bomb real, is it, oh what is the word…..live?”

 Cheesy grins and thumbs up provided the answer everyone was afraid of, yes.  There was a “a lot more than fifty megaton” nuclear weapon in the lobby, beside the receptionist.  On the Tsarbomb was a hand printed note, “Would the owner of the nuclear weapon please see reception to have it delivered to their own bay, storage of weapons of mass destruction in the lobby is punishable by loss of wet bar privileges”

 Holy Damn walked up and looked at the weapon, and muttered to himself in one of the dozens of voices that came from the constantly shifting vocoder that replaced his long missing throat. “That looks like the one from the Death Collectors Art of Death exhibit, but when I tried to compare by calling up the visual records, now it claims the weapon was never part of the Art of Death collection. Someone is altering data…..very bad…..very bad to alter data.  I had offline copy of the Art of Death catalog, and now it doesn’t match.  Am I right, are they right?  Is my data corrupted?  Must go check my software, my programs……..” Muttering to himself he wandered off.

 Life went on as the Berserkers prepared for war, and activity always seemed to be buzzing around the big weapon, but no one claimed it. Six days later, Holy Damn burst into the briefing room screaming in binary code, bursts so dense the unaugmented could actually hear it, but so fast that only those who were seriously augmented with cerebral processors could follow it.  Unfortunately, this command briefing was post training battle, and post-post battle party, so everyone was seriously hung over.  Everyone winced, most groaned, and two drew weapons to point at Holy, trying to decide if they were louder than he was before they pulled the trigger.

 Mark Spiznet waved with his coffee and translated “Holy says the bomb’s a trap, its on a timer, and going to go off in about three and a half minutes from………….mark”

 He grinned and answered the shocked looks “I took binary in college as a minor, there was a hot chick from the Forge World who had the most amazing implants….”

 The assembled leaders rushed to the reception room, ordering evacuations that could not possibly be in time, but guaranteed that at least the last seconds of everyone’s existence would constitute a good readiness drill.

 Several things happened at once.

 The crystal shields dropped across the hallways, leaving only visual sensors to observe what happened next.

Initiating charge triggered, two nuclear masses merged and went critical. Initial EMP took out active sensors beyond the visual range.

 Myth and Legends Armourer additional amplifiers boosted the yield by a factor of two hundred…………Spirit of Bunny chief technicians Gravity field generators channeled the energy of the blast into an infinite compression, generating a micro black hole………Slaughter House Five’s Weapon Master niode matrix  attempted to beam the released energy as a single beam theoretically powerful to blot the largest starship from the sky, but the amplification and compression into a black hole turned the gate into a single instant of a cosmic string of infinite length.

 Somewhere in deep space, a fleet of unimaginable power lay at rest in an uncharted binary system. Ten thousand ships, each filled with legion after legion of tireless, relentless, merciless inhuman troops rested at anchor, awaiting the signal that the human foe had concentrated its forces for them to descend and slaughter. For a femtosecond, a time literally so small it was almost impossible to calculate, a cosmic string connected both elements of the binary star system together with the masses of two other suns also caught upon the string, and the combined masses generated a supernova.

The blast burned thousands of ships, each as large as a small moon, out of existence.  The great armada was shattered, over half its strength wiped out in an instant.  The enemy had a new weapon, they could no longer wait.  The invasion was on, now. Ponderous ships began to move at last towards the War World where the assembled Factions of Mecha Galaxy would go to war. The shock of so many shattered suns and the storms of gravity that twisted the currents of the immaterium through which hyperspace ships navigated meant the trip that should have taken hours would take days.  The blow that was supposed to strike as the human Factions were at each others throats might now fall when they had just finished their war. The numbers that were once guaranteed to bury the humans under a mass of attackers they could not hope to face were now reduced to a shadow of themselves.  What was once going to be nothing more than an execution, was threatening to turn into an actual war. Curse the humans and their superweapon! Curse the fate that allowed them to pierce the supposedly perfect cloak that hid the fleet.  What genius was it that guided them, what cunning allowed them to break the jaws of a trap before it even began to close on them?

 Berserker HQ: Accident investigation “So, the AFF did kind of try to assassinate us all.  That is point one.  Point two is that it seems every single contributing clan screwed the nuclear weapon in the lobby.  Myth and legends amped its power, Bunnies turned it into a gravity imploder, Slaughterhouse turned it into some sort of gate weapon, the only reason we aren’t all dead is that the Star League was using some chroniode crap to make it actually destroy things before it touched them, which turns out to save us because it destroyed itself here before most of the effects happened, only lasting for a fraction of a second as you get really far away.”

 The table quietly erupted into embarrassed giggling as the reality that the world almost ended failed to hide the fact each of the groups contributed a portion of the crazy until the critical mass of suicidal impulses actually kept them alive by accident.

 John shared a quick look with the rest of the leadership and announced his decision. “Right, two things, send a fruit basket to the AFF, sign it from all of us, and just say “Thinking of you”.  I figure they will do the hard work of reading into that enough to get paranoid without us bothering.  Second, new rule, NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN THE LOBBY.” It said a lot we need a rule like that. Faction War.  What can you do?

 John T Mainer 28840

[keenmindspodcast]

About Tom death and casual fans who don't belive in his death. I wish they kill him in more convincent way: blown him away, put 20 bullets. That nobody have doubts he is dead. I wish it was Liz in morgue not Harold. We still don't know forwhat was 10 months gap. I don't want find out reading interviews. When I watch show normaly don't do that.

Hi friend.  I agree with Jen, all of the casual fans I know do not believe in Tom’s death. True, most of them do not follow any of the actors or writers or TPTB in twitter or Facebook, so they do not know about 2 cakes, or even about Ryan Eggold being cast in another show as the lead. (a  NBC’s show set in NYC)

Jen approaches Tom’s death from her perspective of character analysis, and she feels (I think I correctly interpret her feelings her but feel free to correct me Jen) cheated of a show that has hope because Liz has lost her dream.  Red failed his daughter by not going to extreme measures to protect Tom. 

In many ways The Blacklist is a show about families and love. A family love story.  

One thing that is most unbelievable to me about those who hate Tom is that they treat Red as a god, someone whose words must be followed as gospel.   And that is very funny, because I have strong suspicions  that they never listen to their parents, and went out with the boy or girl they parents told them not to, smoke or injected what they were told not to, and had sex when and with whom their parents told them not to.  Yet they expect Liz and Tom to blindly follow what Red tells them to do. Even when Red admits to Dembe that he does not know why he cannot be honest with Liz and accepts Dembe’s accusation that he is still lying to both Liz and Tom.

At the end the most difficult thing about parenthood, and I speak of this from a distance, as I myself am not a parent,  but I am a daughter, so perhaps I have a less involved perspective, is letting go.   Is accepting your child has grown up, and doing a leap of trust to treating them as adults.   Red has made some headway:  he tells Kate that Liz is who she is, and she has chosen to remain close to the criminal side, even as she is on the other side. He calls her Elizabeth, instead of Lizzy.  And he has begun to treat her chosen life partner with a semblance of civility.  

And perhaps the most difficult thing to do for a parent is to accept a child’s chosen partner. To accept that regardless of such acceptance, this person is now part of ones family. That person is never who the parent would have chosen, but it is not the parent’s choice.  Once children are born, that link closes. Even if the in-law leaves, the child creates a bond for life. 

The wise parent accept the choice and welcomes the person into the fold.

So we know that Red could have trusted Tom as being a family member.  He could have shared the identity of the bones, or he could have at least told him why he needed to keep that secret.  

I do not count: 

Your curiosity is understandable. A mysterious suitcasebequeathed to you by a dying woman who insists that Elizabeth must be apprisedof its contents. But what if instead of happiness or closure,giving it to her has the opposite effect? 

the “what if” there pretty much sell it as a clever turn to phrase that allows Red to be honest and avoid the truth.  Like “the way Sam told the story”, and denying he is Liz’s father because Sam is, yet Liz is his daughter.  being honest and being truthful are not the same thing.

The reasons Red gives for not trusting Tom, that he married Liz because he fell in love with her, are very shallow, coming from a man who in appearance fell in love with a soviet soy and had a child with her, carrying the affair for at least 5 years and in theory abandoned his wife and child, and betrayed his country,

But then again, Red has apparently only trusted fully Dembe. Not even Kate knew it all: She did not know that Red is Liz’s biological father and she did not know about Dom, which means she did not know Katarina’s real identity and possible her real relationship to Red.

At the end, it was precisely that which created the big problem, because Kate thought Red was acting above his rights as Liz’s protector, not as her father. 

Red has trust issues, which work perfectly well for his endeavors, but which are not good for family matters.  I suspect part of Red’s secret has to do with shame or fear, which @schadenfreudequeen ‘s excellent Jungian analysis confirmed.  

Most of what Red saw and feared with Tom had less to do with Tom himself, that with his feelings and unresolved issues with Katarina.  Even before we learned that Katarina was a soviet covert agent, a honeytrap, I already was suspecting that Red’s feeling about it were a lot more personal than care for Liz.

Tom was a walking, talking parallel to Katarina.  The show went to great lengths to pummel  these parallels:

Tom is assigned to Liz.

Tom falls in love with Liz and marries her

Tom makes believe his new employer that he did so as a job, masking his true feelings

Liz finds out and stays in the marriage, doing her own spying

Liz and Tom get back together, have Agnes.

Tom is drawn into the suitcase’s business by Mr. Kaplan. He is eventually killed.

Liz finds out when she recovers from her extensive injuries that Tom is dead. 

She feels unable to be a parent, consumed by anger, wanting revenge, and worried about the wellbeing of her child.  She places Agnes with Scottie.

In the midst of her recovery Liz has an incident that propels her forward, one in which she has to resort to extreme violence, and continues forward.

The show also has gone to great lengths to show a fundamental difference between Red and Liz: Liz believes in getting even, and then moving on. Red cannot: he functions in that respect as a binary being: he kills or he does not.

Betraying Red carries death, or in the case of people closest to him, banishment.  Liz, in a trait she shares with her mother in law, believes in punishment appropriate to the offense, and moving on.  She broke Tom’s thumb, shot him 3 times, and she imprisoned him  in a filthy and cold boat for 4 months, exchanging blankets and medical attention for information, and then she was able to move on.  Scottie had Solomon beat him up.

I kept him prisoner in the hull of a ship andtortured him for two months, so in my book we’re even.

Can the score be even now? Can this be over? 

So, where am I going with all this?

To a point that I have tried to make many times.  The parallels work even better if we ask ourselves three questions:

Why is Dom’s identity such a close guarded secret?

Why does Dom have NO pictures in his house?

Why does Red have no pictures anywhere of both the blond child and of Liz?  It is one or the other.

The key to the show resides in those 3 questions.  Because the real identity of Katarina, her real name are of paramount importance.

I think most people imagine that Katarina is not dead.  So, we have 2 fundamental aspects in which Liz’s story deviates from Red’s:

Liz was married to Tom

Tom is dead

So, can I go back now to Cape May?  In his hallucination, when forced to explain the second dish on the table, he says is his wife.  When he is watching Liz as Bubble girl, we have a woman seen from the waist down. Why? Why is there no residence in which Red indulges by having pictures of the blond girl, the one in the swing and of Liz?    He obviously cares about both, Jennifer and Liz?   Red has stressed that biological links are unimportant, that is caring for a child that makes a father, so how could be so detached from Jennifer?

And when we start to think of Dom’s relationship to Red, it is inevitable to me that we arrive at a relationship that most of us know well: in-laws. Either we are an in-law, we grow up seeing our parents relate to their in-laws, we have in-laws.  Forget about the noise of the plot and watch the performance.  Ask a total stranger to watch Red and Dom scene and ask them what he think the relationship is.

And so, I suspect Red was married to Katarina.  Red experienced the betrayal of a spouse but was not able to move forward.  Red believes that Liz is playing house with Tom, when she had him on the boat.   So, watch the scenes with Carla, again forgetting about the plot.  Add that they cannot express any of their real feelings and issues because they are witness.  They have a few moments alone that we see: in the cabin, when we start by Carla punching Red in the mouth.

Now: If Carla is one of Katarina’s many names, then she is most certainly alive, and Red knows where she is.  And Red had prevented her from coming into Liz’s life via their agreement, something Liz calls unforgivable: keeping her from her mother.

And if so, we know that Red believed her dead at some point, in all he tells Ressler and Liz, and that Katarina thought he was dead.  We have a Romeo and Juliet situation.

And so now we have Liz waking up to learn Tom is dead.  Do we have a direct knowledge?  No. It was Harold whom we see in the morgue. We have a tombstone that reads Keen Tom.

And we have a character who learned almost all of the big secret, if not all.

Tom may be alive, and kept away for various circumstances,  But if he is, he will not come back until close to the end, because he learned it all.

So the question is, is The Blacklist close to the spy genre, in which almost inevitably romance and love does not bear well, the very traits that makes a spy good prevent them from that happy family life.  Or will the show be a brilliant caper, in which the protagonists will eventually walk away with the treasure?

That I do not know.

But I would say you are correct in discarding anything you have not learned from watching the show as it aired.  

Tessa.

PS. I am sure Jen will have a different answer than mine.  I hope she answers it too.