#'And climate control?' 'Well yes obviously climate control.'

[irregularjohnnywiggins]

Reading through my old Woman of Truth stuff, and by far the funniest joke is that for most of Steve's sections of the first episode, there's a lot of fuss being made about this top-of-the-line stealth jet, fresh from Ferris Aircraft, cost the US millions, potentially billions of dollars, full of advanced technology...

...And after Steve crashes it on Themyscira, in the High Council chambers, Io calls it 'horrifically primitive'. 'I mean, it still uses combustion engines, for Hestia's sake! Do they still not have anti-grav?'

[tossyouforedinburgh]

I'm sick and I need to be gently cheered up, so here is more South Downs fluff for everyone

It had been so much to take in. Aziraphale must have been planning this for years, the entire cottage was a perfect home for the two of them. The sofa, long enough for Crowley to stretch all the way out on. the television, which must have been state of the art (in 1999) and a Golden Girls boxset. The sunroom with an oversized comfy chair surrounded by heat lamps, climate control for the whole room, and every single gardening tool Crowley could imagine--including a cheap plant mister from Sainsbury's. The statue of Evil Triumphing Over Good in the upstairs hallway. The compromise bedsheets in black and red tartan. As he stared around the garden, nothing much happening there yet, just a space begging to be dug up and planted and scolded, he felt a craving for a sit down and discovered a familiar looking bench shaded by an apple tree.

"Where did you get an exact replica of the benches in St James's park? Wait," Crowley interrupted himself to lean over and look underneath the bench. "This is our bench!"

"Oh yes, I did a jolly good deed and got the good people of London a brand new bench. and then I obviously had to take away the old one, so I did another good deed and brought it here. but... how did you know it was the same one?" Aziraphale peered under the bench, where someone had carved a heart into the wood. inside of the heart were the initials C and A, around the heart were wings and a little pointed tail. "How long has that been there?"

Crowley blushed and looked the other way. "A... while. Well, since they took the old benches away and put these ones in and I had to redo it. And before that... about 1990 I think."

"Well, that's no good, why is it under the bench?" Aziraphale rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a small knife, the kind you might use to cut up an apple, or defend yourself if you unexpectedly got into a scrape. well, you never know. best to be prepared. he leaned over the bench and neatly, in his best handwriting, carved Aziraphale&Crowley into the wood where it could be seen by anyone who walked by, and then paused and added a heart.

[blurrymango]

Sapheans! Yippee! Ok so. Basically I kinda rip-offed Homestuck trolls lol sue me.

So-

These motherffuckers live on a really huge and damn dangerous planet with two suns and mostly hostile creatures. There's a lot of wild and different types of climates. The water is acidic, the clouds are extremely dense, and plants are also very dangerous. Yet though, these ffuckers seem to be the only sentient bitches on the whole damn orb.

There's a lot of racism ffucking obviously but it's coming from all sides. But there's also a lot of love. Their societies range from spiraling nauseatingly tall clusters of buildings to two dudes on an island and everywhere in between.

General design notes, mostly coloration wise y'know-

Their blood can be ANY color, but shades are specific to different type. And blood color determines hair(or feather) color, eye color, fins, marking color, and antenna and whatnot. I just used red and blue and green for examples it is not limited.

Pointy parts for. Well. Protection.

The parts colored as black act as kinda like an exoskeleton, though in general their skin is pretty tough, especially the face, and especially the face fangs.

Can generally have any shape horns, they come in all shapes and sizes.

Pretty much every single one has different markings.

Clothes. Are... A thing. Yes. They wear clothes actually lol.

More joints in their legs than humans have.

Yes they can dye their hair and paint their markings different colors.

There are ghosts! This species exists in a world with magics and supernatural elements and whatnot.

Ok so. Shit I have for them at the current moment.

Land-

Majority.

Their blood is generally mid-tone, skin grey, darker in warmer areas, lighter in colder.

Good hands, feet, and tail for grabbing things.

Two horns. One set of horns. However you put it. They use them bitches for navigation and farming and electricity. And of course murder.

Sea-

Second most uncommon.

No noses we don't do that in the ocean.

Bitches be in acidic ffucking water.

Their blood is generally bright and neon, skin can range anywhere from super light grey to super dark grey depending on how deep they are.

One horn, generally. Used for controlling the water. And of course murder.

Webbed hands and feet and a second set of eyelids.

Deeper you get, the freakier they can be TBH.

Underground-

Second most common.

Smaller eyes than average DUH. They ain't using them for much.

Antennas! ANTENNAS.

Two pronged horns. Or even rarer, two sets of horns. Used for searching out minerals and rare rocks and and lava and entrances and exits to caves. And of course murder.

Hands and feet good for digging through dirt or the toughest of rock.

Feelers on the face and a long slender tail good for reaching into cracks and crevices.

Blood is pale and dull like their skin.

Sky-

Uncommon.

Feathers, not hair.

Big ol wings.

Less leg joints than the others, makes them less bulky.

Big ol eyes for absorbing all the sunlight they get.

Thinner and longer fingers and toes than others, again, to be less bulky.

Horns used to control the weather. And of course murder.

Skin is dark, cuz of the sun. Blood is dark too.

Possible mutations-

Pictured is a land dweller with bat-like wings. It is a rare trait to have, but also they can actually fly.

Blood shade that doesn't match the type.

Abnormal amount of horns for type, including no horns at all.

Two different blood colors in one guy. They do not blend. This affects eyes and hair and markings.

Pupils.

Black or white blood? Nah that's just a myth. Right? Lmao.

Various other tidbits of mixings and matchings of traits, like gills on a land dweller or antenna on a sky dweller.

That's all for now folks! If anyone sees this and cares enough to make their own Saphean character I would be absolutely delighted!

[queenofmistresses]

The Three Musketeers

Chapter 7

a/n sorry it took so long! Been a busy summer! Hope you enjoy this! Disclaimer it has not been proof read (much like most of my work). Please leave feedback, reblog, tell me what you enjoyed and what you want in future chapters! (Do i sound like a youtube channel yet?)

“Grab something!” Scott yells out as we all hold the doors shut. 

“Like what?” Stiles yells back in frustration. 

“Anything!” Stiles seems annoyed still for a split second then seems to think of something, pulling himself up and looking at something outside. I look up through the window and see what he’s looking at. 

“Stiles no you’re not going out there, it’s too dangerous.” I turn to him and say with as much determination as I can. He looks between me and Scott but I can already see his mind is made up and without a word, he turns and opens the door, sliding through quietly. 

Scott shuts the door and we both watch him tensely as he takes a second to look around before moving to grab it. Then, we see it. It crawled out from behind Stiles’ jeep, looking terrifying and snarling at seemingly nothing in particular. 

Scott starts banging on the window and yelling, “Come back! Come back!” Trying to get his attention. When Stiles looks up he realises what we’ve seen just as the alpha seems to notice him and the snarling gets worse.

He runs back in, closing the door and slamming what he picked up into the door to stop it opening. They look out the window as they pant and start asking out loud where it’s gone. Stiles grabs his touch and shines it out, trying to find it.

We all step away from the door and realise that that probably won’t hold the door for long. I cling on to Stiles’ arm, not wanting to let him go again. 

We hear the howling next, and Stiles grabs onto my hand before we all run into the closest classroom. We all go to move the desk but Stiles stops us quickly. 

“The door’s not going to hold it.” He says, I nod in agreement and Scott agrees too. “It’s your boss. Deaton? The alpha? Your boss.” Stiles goes onto to sag, directly his frustration and probably fear onto Scott.

“No.” Scott says, providing no reasoning whatsoever.

“Yes, murdering psycho werewolf.” Stiles leans forward to emphasise his point. 

“That can’t be!” Scott is obviously distressed and doesn’t want to believe it but it’s the only lead we have right now. Stiles points this out to Scott with no hesitation. 

“He killed Derek.” Ouch, did he have to say it so brutally?

“No, Derek’s not dead. He can’t be dead.” 

“Blood spurted out of his mouth okay? That doesn’t exactly qualify as a minor injury. He’s dead and we’re next.” Stiles replies. This is getting ridiculous and my head’s gotten pretty clear now.

“Both of you shut up. Scott, even Derek will have struggled to survive that. And Stiles? Try to have a little compassion please, yelling about it is getting us nowhere.” Both boys blink at me, apparently surprised at how level headed I am right now. “We need to get to Stiles’ jeep now and get out of here before anything happens.” They keep staring at me. “Now!” A whisper-yell, not wanting to attract the attention of a certain alpha. 

They glance at each before nodding and we all rush towards the window to try and work out a way out. Scott tries to open it before Stiles points out that it’s climate controlled so won’t open. Then Scott stupidly suggests we break it, which again Stiles points out will make a lot of noise. 

Scott then says something very worrying, “Stiles what’s wrong with your jeep?”

“What do you mean? Nothing’s wrong?”

“It’s bent!” I look over and see what Scott’s talking about. Shit. 

“Like, dented?”

“No Stiles, bent.” I turn to him and say. He leans over to look through the window properly. 

“What the hell-“ Stiles starts before something is thrown through the window at us. We all duck down and Stiles grabs onto me, bringing me closer to him. We realise it’s the car battery. Well now we’re really screwed.

Stiles tries to move but Scott stops him reminding us how close he is, not that Stiles is claiming to have forgotten. “Just let me take a look.” Scott tries. He slowly pulls himself up, looking out the window at all angles and tells us that he can’t see anything. We all agree to move while we have the chance.

We slowly creep out of the classroom. Me and Stiles are clinging tightly onto each other, and it feels like we’ve mutually decided not to let the other go. 

Stiles suggests we find somewhere with the least amount of windows possible and we decide on the locker room, quickly rushing towards it. 

“Call your dad.” Scott suggests when we get into the locker room.

“And tell him what?”

“I don’t know anything. There’s a gas lean, a fire, whatever. If that thing sees the parking lot filled with cop cars, it’ll take off.”

“What if it doesn’t? What if it goes completely Terminator and kills every 

cop in sight? Including my dad?”

“They have guns!” I roll my eyes at that.

“Yeah and Derek had to he shot with a wolfsbane-laced bullet to even slow him down, remember that?” 

Scott agrees and we discuss more options for a moment before we come to a slightly disturbing but good option. Derek’s car. We’ll have to take the keys from his body though, which is just… ew. 

We start to leave the locker room but Scott hears something coming towards us. We all quickly hide in a locker each, though it’s a bit of a tight squeeze. 

Next thing I know I hear what sounds like a middle aged man yelling out and being shushed, so I quickly step out and try and help Stiles make him listen to us.

He pushes us out the locker room while Stiles is still desperately trying to reason with him. Suddenly he gets dragged back into the locker room and pressed against the now closed door with blood covering him. Oh my god. 

Scott tries to open the door to help but me and Stiles quickly grab onto him and drag him away, he has no chance now. We run away fast, Stiles gripping my hand again. 

We run back to the fire exit and try to get out, but when we push it we can’t move it, it’s like something’s blocking it suddenly. Scott peers through the gap and we realise that the alpha pushed the dumpsters into the way so we can’t get out. 

Stiles keeps trying to push it, the panic setting in but I pull him away, he’s making too much noise. We start walking away, trying to find another exit. “I’m not dying here, I’m not going to die in school!” Stiles emphasise, and I squeeze his hand lightly trying to reassure him but I doubt anything I say will help. “What does it want?!” He asks frustrated.

“Me!” Scott nearly yells back, “Derek says he needs a pack.”

“Great a psychotic werewolf who’s into teamwork.” As usual Stiles jumps to sarcasm. “That’s… that’s beautiful.” 

Scott looks like he’s about to respond but freezes as he looks out the window. We both turn to look where he is and realise the alpha is on the roof on the other side of the building. And it’s seen us. And it’s running toward us. Shit. 

We started running just as it jumps through the window, chasing after us immediately. I’ve never been a good runner but if we manage to get out of this alive, I might start practicing.

Eventually we come to a dark area and we don’t know where the alpha is. “We need to do something or we’re going to die.” I say as firmly as I can. 

“Like what?” Scott asks incredulously.

“Kill it, hurt it, inflict mental anguish on it, something Scott!” Stiles defends me. We all think for a moment, not sure where the alpha is.

Stiles starts taking his keys out of his pocket and Scott quickly shushes him as it makes a noise. But because Stiles isn’t an idiot he does have a plan. He throws his keys in the opposite direction to us and we quickly leave through the door behind us as we hear the alpha growl and move in the direction of the keys. 

We block the door with the desk and hear growing and pounding at the door. Where we’ve pressed each end of the desk against the door and the wall he can’t seem to get out. We might actually make it out alive if we act fast. 

Scott quickly climbs across to the side of the desk that me and Stiles are, and I see Stiles inching closer to the door. I tug him back as Scott asks what he’s doing. “I just want to get a better look at it!” He defends.

“Are you crazy?” Scott yells.

“We need to leave, now!” I yell as well, holding his hand tight hoping he listens to me. 

“It’s trapped okay? It’s not going to get out.” Stiles keeps trying to convince us. 

Still holding my hand, Stiles climbs onto the desk and shines the torch into the small window on the door. Stupidly Stiles starts teasing it and making it angrier. It growls and Stiles jumps away from the desk but keeps teasing it. Then we hear a crash. And then creaking over us. It’s gotten into the ceiling. We all started running in the opposite direction. 

Then something weird happens. We hear a phone ring. Allison’s phone. I quickly call her and sure enough we hear a phone ring. Scott grabs the phone out of my hand before I have a chance to say anything and he starts talking to her. 

He tells her to meet us in the lobby and we try to get to her as soon as possible. Why is she here? That’s the first thing Scott asks her when we find her, turns out she got a text from someone claiming to be Scott asking her to meet at the school. This is so wrong and creepy. 

Then Allison reveals that Jackson and Lydia are here too, this is an absolute disaster. Luckily Lydia and Jackson quickly appear so we don’t have to spend ages finding them. Then we hear the creaking over our heads and Stiles slowly grabs my hand again before Scott tells everyone to run. 

I hear it behind us as it falls through the ceiling and chases us up the stairs. We barge through a door and I hear someone lock it behind us. Me and Stiles both seem to have the same thought as we stare at the windows. This is not a good place to hide.

Everyone but us starts barricading the doors with chairs, desks, anything, while Stiles tries to get their attention before we trap ourselves in. They don’t seem to hear us through all the moving about and their own fear. Eventually Stiles just shouts at them, getting their attention.

“Okay, nice work. Really beautiful job everyone.” I roll my eyes, this is not the time for sarcasm. “Now, what should we do about the 20-foot wall of windows?” He points out. 

Allison is freaking out and grabs onto Scott’s arm. This is going to get complicated, “Can someone please explain what is going on, because I am freaking out. And I would like to know why.” Scott pulls away from her, clearly not knowing what to say. 

Stiles decides to take the lead. “Someone killed the janitor.” He says, sounding incredibly sure of himself. 

“What are you talking about is this some kind of joke?” Allison is clearly directing her question to Scott.

“Who killed him?” Jackson asks, scared too by the looks of it. 

“No no no no no.” Lydia starts, I feel very sorry for her. “This was supposed to be over, the mountain lion-“ Jackson interrupts her. 

“Don’t you get it? There was never any mountain lion.”

“Who was it? What does he want?” Allison asks and Scott still doesn’t seem to know what to say. After some more back and forth, Scott finally saying something even if it’s unhelpful, Scott says something incredibly stupid. “Derek Hale did it, he killed the janitor.” Not only that but after being questioned further he claims that *all* of the recent deaths were Derek. This is going to backfire quickly. 

“Call the cops.” Jackson says.

“No.” Stiles replies, we’ve already had this conversation. 

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“I mean no. You wanna hear it in Spanish? No.” I squeeze his hand. “Look Derek killed 3 people okay? We don’t know what he’s armed with.” He tries to reason. 

“Your dad is armed with an entire sheriff’s department.” If it really was just Derek then yeah this would be a good idea, there’s no way to reason this without telling the truth. 

Then Lydia decides to call them. She doesn’t get far into the conversation before the call ends. “She hung up on me.” Turns out the got an anonymous tip that there would be prank calls about a break in at the school. Allison insists that she call again so they trace the call but Stiles says they’d go to her house before they trace the call. 

Allison starts questioning things again, which isn’t helpful. They start questioning Scott further which really isn’t a good idea because this is a stressful situation. Scott snaps at Allison a bit which upsets her, causing her to turn away from him.

Stiles drags us away from the others and talks as quietly as he can. “Okay first off, throwing Derek under the bus, nicely done.” I roll my eyes, I have a bad feeling about that. 

“I had to say something! And if he’s dead it doesn’t matter right? Except if he’s not.” He glances over to Allison for a moment. “God I totally just bit her head off.”

“Not important, we need to get out of here, she’ll get over it.” I try to reason, that small thing really is the least of our worries right now. 

“But we are alive. It could have killed us by now but it hasn’t.” Scott points out, good point. “It’s like it’s cornering us or something.”

“So what? It’s wants to eat us all at once?” Stiles asks. 

“No. Derek says it wants revenge. Against Allison’s family?” 

“Maybe that’s what the text was about?” Stiles suggests. 

“Okay! Assheads.” Jackson interrupts. “New plan. Stiles calls his useless dad and tells him to bring someone with a gun and decent aim. Are we good with that?” For some reason Scott agrees with Jackson quite aggressively.

“I’m not watching my dad get eaten alive.” He mutters back. He moves away from Scott, turning his back to everyone. Jackson quickly approaches him and tries to turn him to grab his phone but Stiles turns quicker and punches him in the face. Oh shit. 

“Stiles I’m sorry but I really don’t see an alternative.” He looks down at me and I hold his hand again. “It’s your decision.” I say. He nods and pulls out his phone. I rest my forehead on his arm as he calls his dad. But when he does call it goes straight to voicemail. He starts talking, telling him he needs to call back when we hear this banging against the door. Oh god it’s back. We all move back away from the door as Stiles tells him we’re at the school and hangs up.

“The kitchen.” I quickly suggest and Stiles agrees, defending me when Scott questions it and we all run towards the door. We all run upstairs to the next floor and keep going, we run into a lab room and block the door. We all stay quiet and wait until we see the shadow go past.

“How many people can fit in your car?” Scott whispers. 

“5, if someone squeezes on someone’s lap.” He says but Allison quickly interrupts and disagrees. 

“It doesn’t matter, we can’t get out without drawing attention.”

Scott suggests the stairwell that leads to the fire exit and down to the parking lot, which would work if it wasn’t deadlocked. “The janitor has a key.” He then suggests. “I can get it, I can find him by scent.”

“Gee that sounds like an incredibly terrible idea, what else you got?” Stiles argues back.

“I’m getting the key.” Scott decides after a moment, walking away from us. 

“Scott no, you’re not going out there just to die!” I try to get his attention as he moves towards Allison. He blanks me. Great. I move away from Stiles and sit on a desk. Amazing, now my brother is going to die getting a key after all of that. And then, I’ll really be alone, and he’ll be gone. What do I tell mum? Am I going to have to live with the truth and never tell her? I’m meant to look after him! I’ve done a crap job of that. 

I zone out for a moment but tune back in when I hear Lydia say something about a self-igniting molotov cocktail. Oh thank god she’s a genius. “Lydia you genius.” I say, looking over at the chemicals cupboard. She tries to play it off as usual but I don’t listen, moving over to the cupboard. Jackson quickly smashes it and Lydia gets to work. 

When she finishes she passes it over to Scott and Allison starts questioning things again. “Do you remember when you told me you knew when I was lying? That I had a tell. So do you.” Allison worked that out quicker than I expected. “You’re a horrible liar, and you’ve been lying all night. Just please… please don’t go. Please don’t leave us, please.” He seems to think for a moment before looking over at Stiles.

“Lock it behind me.” He says and tries to leave but Allison pulls him back and kisses him. I can’t tell whether she’s saying goodbye or hoping it will make him stay, maybe it’s both. 

I can feel myself getting upset too, he really could die. I feel Stiles approach me after he locks the door. He places a hand on my shoulder and I look up at him. He doesn’t say anything and just brings me into a tight hug, holding the back of my head and wrapping his other arm around my waist. I bring both my arms up to wrap around the back of his neck. I rest my head on his shoulder and let some of the tears fall quietly. Somehow being in his arms makes me feel safer. 

I hear Jackson reassuring Allison from near us, but I can’t bring myself to care what they’re feeling right now. Stiles seems to think the same as he hugs me impossibly tighter, not letting me go. 

“Jackson you handed me the sulphuric acid right? It has to be sulphuric acid. It won’t ignite if it’s not.” Oh shit don’t say that. I pull away from Stiles slightly as he does the same to me and we face Lydia. 

“I gave you exactly what you asked for, didn’t I?” Jackson snaps back, I don’t trust him. 

“Yeah, yeah I’m sure you did.” Lydia replies but even she doesn’t seem sure. I cling onto Stiles’ arm tightly, praying that he did. 

Suddenly we hear some kind of groaning noise and Jackson falls down in pain and starts screaming. Lydia and Allison grab onto him and pull him up and he insists he’s fine. 

“What’s on the back of your neck?” Stiles asks. Jackson doesn’t seem to want to answer and slaps Stiles’ hand away, but Lydia quickly steps in. 

“It’s been there for days, he won’t tell me what happened.”

“As if you actually care!” Jackson snaps back and honestly I decide I’ve had enough of him treating Lydia like crap. 

“Okay acting like a douche is not going to help anyone so just stop or I might consider getting Stiles to punch you again.” I roll my eyes. Stiles holds my arm gently before speaking.

“We all need to stop arguing for half a second or we’re never going to survive.” I nod in agreement and lean into Stiles’ touch. Allison voices her worries about Scott again but I decide not to answer again, I don’t think I’d help.

Then we hear a clicking noise coming from the other side of the door, making us all turn around. Allison comes to the conclusion that it’s Scott and starts trying to open the door, unsuccessfully, and yelling his name over and over. I don’t say anything but I desperately try to think why he seems to have locked us in here. The only one I can think of, is that he’s ‘wolfing out’, and if he is then we could be in even more danger. 

Lydia yells at her to stop, telling us to listen to something, at first I don’t hear anything but then I realise what she’s heard. Sirens. Getting louder and closer. 

We all rush to the window, and I beg to the universe that they’re coming to us. We quickly see 2 police cars pulling up outside the school and I feel my knees almost give way in relief and I grip Stiles harder. He holds me tight, letting me lean on him. 

Stiles’ dad and a few other officers come into the building and find us, me, Scott and Stiles walk with the Sheriff out of the building while the others are looked after by other officers.

He asks us questions about what happened, the boys stick with their story of it being Derek Hale and while I don’t say much, I agree and confirm their story. Scott reveals that he found the janitors body under the bleachers but when the officers look they don’t find anything, much to his frustration.

The sheriff promises that they’ll find the body and tries to reassure Scott that he believes him, but Scott doesn’t believe it. 

Eventually once the sheriff is satisfied he walks off leaving us alone, Stiles tries to lighten the mood by pointing out that we all survived. I haven’t let go of his arm, even in front of Scott. 

Scott doesn’t seem to notice though, he’s clearly occupied with his own thoughts, which he quickly voices. He tells us that the alpha knew where we were when we were in the chemistry room, and that the alpha must want him in the pack. 

“But I think first, I have to get rid of my old pack.” 

“What do you mean? What old pack?” Stiles asks, though I’m scared I might already know the answer to that. 

“Allison, Jackson, Lydia. You both.” He seems almost defeated, like he’s giving up hope. 

“The alpha doesn’t want to kill us.” Stiles realises out loud, making Scott sigh and look away before muttering.

“It wants me to do it.” I lean my head against Stiles’ arm, hoping I provide some kind of comfort for him like he does for me. “And that’s not even the worse part.” 

“How the fuck is that not the worst part?” I ask, standing up straight again waiting for an answer. 

“Because, when he made me shift, I wanted to do it.” He looks at me, really looks at me for the first time since this all started. “I wanted to kill you.” I feel Stiles grip my hand tighter and shift slightly closer to me. Scott looks away from me and up at Stiles. “I wanted to kill all of you.” 

I move forwards, letting go of Stiles’ hand, and pull Scott into a hug. He hugs me back but still seems tense, there’s still a huge weight on his shoulders. But I decide to be selfish and hug my big brother, hoping it reassures him for even a small moment. 

It’s not long until he pulls away and I almost say something but I see he’s focused on something behind me. Stiles seems to have noticed too and when I turn around I realise what they’re looking at. Deaton. We all walk over and ask how he got out. He seems, calm almost. Eerily calm even, he makes a joke about Scott deserving a raise for saving his life. 

Stiles’ dad comes over and tells us to leave him with the EMT and we all follow behind him, confused. Then Scott spots Allison and quickly runs over to him.

Me and Stiles stand by his dad’s car and watch them talk. “What do you think she’ll say?” He asks, quietly. 

“I think she’ll break up with him.” I say bluntly and sigh, looking up at him from the side. He seems surprised. 

“Really? Why? He risked his life for her!” I give him a pitying smile. 

“It’s what I would do if i was in her position.” He turns to face me fully, his mouth hanging open in surprise. 

“Think about it,” I start, “from her perspective she just almost got murdered. Potentially by someone that claims to know Scott quite well. She knows that Scott was lying all night, which means that she knows that he lied about what was really happening. Then he left for way longer that he should have for what he was claiming to do, and then he came back just to trap us in the room. Oh and don’t forget that the only reason she was there is because she got a fake text from someone claiming to be Scott. If I was her, I’d be scared. I’d think that he could have been involved. I wouldn’t trust him. Honestly I would stay very, very far away for as long as possible.” I look at them talking. “He’d be lucky if she gave him another shot at a relationship.” 

Stiles still seems surprised but looks like he can understand it better now. “I guess it is weird for her.” I snort at that.

“That’s the understatement of the century.” 

We stand quietly for a minute watching them, until I feel Stiles wrap his arms around my shoulders and pulling me in. He rests his head on mine and holds me tight. I hold him tight too, letting that do the talking for me. He pulls away slightly and leans down, resting out foreheads together. “I thought I was going to lose you.” He whispers. I shake my head slightly looking at him. 

“We’re okay, we’re both alive.” I whisper back, reminding myself as well as him. He nods and breathes in deeply. 

“I never want you to be that close to death again.” I pull him back in close, holding him as tight as I can manage. 

“As long as we’ve got each other we can survive anything, right?”

[lumiidragon]

So I’ve been on a bit of a break which is why I’ve been pretty MIA, so sorry about that!  but I finally got to watch Season 7 of TNR and I can finally put my own review on it~! Please note that this contains spoilers, so if you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading here!

So I’ll start with my season issues before its good points. First off, the dragon secret is out to ICARUS and it was...incredibly lack luster. We had a 1 month time jump and the big reveal of dragons was rather...anti-climatic. I was really expecting a bit more from that, but oh well. Also, in the first episode, we get to finally see nadders, but they’re all hyper aggressive and it’s the only way we get to see them. They don’t show up again. Sad on that one. Next, of course is Thunder’s “alpha”-type thing he did to stop the nadders. I REALLY hope it was just a dominance stance as in “I’m tough and I’m being loud, so back off” and not “Thunder’s becoming the new alpha like Toothless” or else he is going to lose serious character points from me. It’d make literally no sense, especially since he nor his family are obviously alpha’s of all dragons and an alpha status isn’t some unlockable ability, it’s earned.

So the next thing and probably my biggest issue with this (especially those of you who know me will know I was going to have issues with this) BUT THEY KILLED THE FUCKING DEATHGRIPPERS. YES. THEY. KILLED. THEM. The deathgrippers are the ONLY dragons that got this treatment and that is actual bullshit. Oh, and if I hear literally anyone say “BUT THE DEATHRGIPPERS WERE BAD AND EVIL AND BLAH BLAH BLAH, my eyes are literally going to roll into the back of my head so far that I am going to make actual eye contact with the demon that controls the meat puppet that is my body. I don’t want to hear this comment because they are WILD ANIMALS and literally an animal cannot be good or evil please stop pushing that onto the dragons because that is an incredibly toxic and harmful way to view an animal species. So yeah, this alone knocked off a LOT of points from me because there was actually no reason for them to do this.

My 2nd biggest issue is OH MY GOD CAN THUNDER STOP BEING A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS. The whole poison dart episode was the worst and it was so eye rolling that I could hardly enjoy it. We get it, Thunder needs special attention and saved every other episode. Let’s move past it because it’s so boring that it’s starting to hurt his character for me.

My last big issue is that for a season that introduces the Realm of Giants, we...didn’t see the realm??? What was the point of that? We saw hardly any of it and though we got the Octofin and the Shellfire, we didn’t get to see much else. Of course, I didn’t get my bewilderbeast either, so that’s a bummer.

My last petty, but still an issue is that they’re starting to force this Tom and Jun romance. I’m not against there being a romance, especially for these two, but it’s starting to feel more like a “Hey, here’s a main male and female character, so let’s make sure they have apparent crushes on each other for reasons” instead of working up a more believable romance.

As for good points, characters outside of Tom are getting some good development and D’Angelo is quickly rising to my top favorite character. Jun, also being my least and actually disliked character starting out is starting to really build and I actually like her a lot more now. Also, the humor in this series has also gotten a lot better, too. I’m loving it.

I think the BEST points for this season are the villains, however. Actions are starting to have real consequences and are things that can’t be solved in just a single day with a teenager’s big idea. Also Buzzsaw is FINALLY worth having in the series. He’s becoming a much more formidable villain who is doing actual damage and thus making his time in the series much more interesting. The cliffhanger for the series is the best one so far. Sledkin is also becoming a very enjoyable villain instead of just the “shady co-worker”. And Dagur being canon means that RTTE is canon to TNR, so that is AMAZING.

All in all, I give this season a 7/10. It’s shaping up nicely, but the deathgripper deaths and thunder hurt it a lot.

[orangetubor]

I'm back again!

DOMES! so- what can u tell me about the space and education domes. I'm so interested. Why are they separated based off of activity? Are all the domes in a giant ish dome? ALSO WHAT DO MARTIANS FARM. POTATOES? what kind of recreational activities are in the recreational dome?

Also what are the fatal flaws of your ocs... I love finding out about this stuff if u cant tell. Any funny (or otherwise) story that any of them would tell about another to like describe one of them? (that sounds very confusing but basically when I introduce folks that are my idiot friends, I give a memorable story that makes people go "ah, that's such a (friend name) thing" (e.g. One of my ex friends from school ate her essay out of spite - she wrote it on rice paper and wanted to spook the teacher)

And yes I've seen the whole "I think I'm attracted to you because youre the hottest person I know" so AMAZING JOB- I love ur ocs!!!

Respectfully curious,

a nerd who likes knowing lore and science (and character!!)

(I'M SO SORRY FOR HOW LONG THIS IS I'M JUST REALLY INTERESTED)

I'm gonna do the flaws first bcs it won't take as long so:

Martha: gets sad cuz she doesn't have a specific 'thing' like the rest of her friends (jenny's the tech guy, Evelyn's the animal guy) and she gets sad cuz she thinks you need a thing to work in and aspire to in order to live your life to the fullest

Tammy: doesn't think. Like at all ever. No internal dialogue nothing in that brain half the time she's just playing rock music on loop. Lights are on but no one's home except the lights aren't even on

Jenny: builds little robots and then gets existential about creating a pseudo life to fulfil one singular purpose. Continues to build little robots anyway.

Thomas: internal dialogue goes 100 miles a second and so when he has to take a second to actually think he just. Blanks. He also has awful memory due to things getting pushed so far back by unrelated tangents

Genji/James: has a mullet

Aled: catastrophises a LOT and overthinks literally everything he's just handing Thomas a hair bobble and he's like 'wait is this elasticy enough. Oh no there's a hair on it oh no. What if my hands sweaty what then-' baby girl it is a hair bobble

Georgie: previous break ups have left her feeling like she isn't interesting enough, now she has to always give her two cents or else she thinks she's forgettable

Dane: ~\_(°u°)_/~

Sahrah: given her uniqueness as a weird fucked up entirely new species she feels like her life has to be perfect so that her mother species doesn't get a bad rap, especially since her mother is the first of her kind to live in mars. Also she's really supposed to be a litter animal but she was the only one who survived to birth so she's lonely a lot of the time

Fun story: Martha says 'the first time me and Tammy met was when she needed someone to show a dead bee to. She asked me if I wanted to pet it'

And ... DOMES!;;

educational dome has the schools and colleges in it, a few corner stores for hungry students, it's not that interesting other than the fact that there are geese for some reason

Space dome is basically just space science stuff, it's got telescopes, research for crops, rockets, exploration base, it's also the original dome! The very first one built by the robots they sent here so that the researchers had somewhere to stay.

What kind of crops do martians grow? Well, any they can get there hands on, there are several small climate controlled domes used to grow different things, deserty, tropical, whatever Ireland is, and some animal domes that rotate various animals and grain, it's also home to the farm house that hosts the majority of Halloween parties. There's also the eden dome, which isn't connected to the farm fines, but to the space domes! It was home to the very first crops grown on mars. (Which, of course, included potatoes) and then if course. The big dome. The super massive one that uses my new favourite thing: AQUAPONICS!! obviously you can't feed an entire small country with just plain kabd, you need stacks! You need later upon layer of fish, water, wires, dirt, plants, synthetic sunlight, and more fish! They also synthesize a lot of meat because it's sci-fi. I can do what I want. And it's better for the air cuz farm animals produce a lot of gas

The recreational domes have shops, cinemas, various sports centres, a nice park, and also hosts lots of festivals. There's also a small 'market dome' that's connected to the residential dome so you don't have to go all that way to pick up some eggs or something. (Martha and Tammy's favourite thing to do is go roller skating at 'saturns rings' also there's a diner where the waiters are all in roller skates)

As to why they're separated, it makes it easier for me to design them in a cool way. Also the air inside is very different to the air outside, so smaller domes make it easier to manage, and keep out the sticky martian sand while building.

Martian sand is ridiculous

[rinisbowen]

if you're not too busy, can you give your thoughts on season 4??? been missing your analyses!!

hey anon- i popped into this blog to post something completely unrelated, but seeing this ask i'll just do a semi-brief response to this: (news flash to the me who started this answer- this is no longer brief)

i haven't watched season 4. i've seen clips. i know the spoilers. i don't know that i will actually be watching it, sad as that is for me when there are certain things i wanted to watch develop properly... i might at some point, but it doesn't look to be something i necessarily want to actually properly watch start to finish...

before anyone comes at me for having strong opinions on a season i haven't watched top to bottom- don't. i don't need to have seen every shot to have a very solid understanding. i've seen a lot via socials... i "know what i'm talking about" to the extend i need to here. people are going to have their own subjective opinions, myself included, whether they've seen every second or haven't.

i told my friend on the phone when it came out that after seeing everything it seems like season 4 is more like retcon: the musical: the series...

if anyone has anything Specific they'd like talked about, i'd probably be happy/willing to do so, but admittedly, i'm not super keen on enduring the disrespect that was done to the early two seasons of the series...

also similarly- if anyone wants my thoughts on specific aspects of an alternative season 4... like things i could've envisioned for it pre- like- us getting any content... whether it's end of season 3 compliant or even like- conceptually compliant... i'm down to perhaps talk about that kind of stuff? or a sort of five season thought process... since obviously ending the series in the middle of the school year... pretty odd... especially with how they were acting like oh no this is the End...

my thoughts on this show are largely based in my understanding of the series format and arcs based in season 1 and season 2... season 2 is a very grounded season for all it tries to accomplish with limited degrees of success... i know people dislike it for various reasons, i think i actually like it for some of the reasons some people dislike it. and conversely a lot of people like season 3 for the reasons i dislike it. (and i'm not talking ships here folks- i'm talking stories and i'm talking style)

also for all i'm saying here- and this is definitely not to the degree of a traditional analysis post i would make... i would be willing to get into certain things if i am asked about them specifically.

before anyone comes here to scream at me- the thing i dislike about the season was the way it was done- not certain things being done in general. also i think it's a bit sad that they didn't think the story they were telling in season 4 couldn't stand on its own legs and needed all the associated retcon to make sense... there were ways to pull off a lot of what they wanted to accomplish- while still respecting the series and its roots

i think the conclusion i've come to in large part is that season 4 is not the same show as season 1. this is in a lot of ways, and for a lot of reasons. some out of the writers control. some just- due to changes in climate and in process. i know there's been more effort in the latter two seasons to listen to actors more with what they want, which changes things too. this can be a good thing in some cases and less so in others i tend to think (and this is an opinion i hold beyond this show)... i think there's been some disrespect done to different characters in different ways. i think characters have been somewhat reshaped to fit the narrative the show now wants to follow rather writing a narrative which fits the original characters. (and yes this can be done while having character growth/progression.)

---

one thing i'm very happy with, to end this post on a positive note: kourtney and her story. from all i've seen- she was handled very, very well this season, and it's wonderful to see how far this girl has come. she was only supposed to be a one episode character in season 1 initially before dara auditioned and changed the game, and i think that shows in kourtney's lack of initial depth that first season. she's gotten so much more to do, and i think dara's talents being showcased in the latter two seasons even more has been a wonderful thing. i'm thrilled- and i also love that kourtney got a very solid college arc, i think that was important to do with at least one of the characters, and i'm pleased it was her. she deserves it.

[spymeister]

Thinking about BW!Jazz- and I literally, LITERALLY spouted off an entire fucking headcanon to @sparkmender @a-life-revised @ofvaporex and @gowithplana

So, uh. Long-story short. How do you make large predatory/herbivorous mammals co-exist with an ancient non-avian dinosaur?

Big ass explanation under the cut to save y'all space on your dash.

/puts on fact-hat

Continental Drift.

See, it's already a thing that happened in the fossil beds if we look at large carnivores on the northern and southern hemispheres. There's a series of convergent evolution- which means that two predators of nearly the same shape, size, and configuration became the top predator in any given area. We see this repeated over, and over, and over.

Tyrannasaurids - (North America/Europe, etc) vs. Ableisaurids (South America, Africa, Asia...etc.)

Raptors (Utahraptor (N.America) vs Macrothorax (S.America

And the list goes on.

This includes mammals as well....though, as modern tectonics as we know them really began to get where they are now around 20-30 million years ago, with the Great Interchange happening somewhere about 3-4 million years ago as the Isthmus of Panama was created as sea-levels went down because of ye olde large ass glaciers in the north and south, and mountains.

This is also including the Siberian and Deccan Traps going off their nuts and spewing enough volcanic gasses into the air to briefly melt everything, and then it just freezes right back because volcanic ash can actually COOL down the air. Shit's whack, yo.

But Meister, you ask- what does this have to do with an obviously badly animated (in 2023. Back in the 90's, this shit was epic) kids show animated purely to sell toys.

So, lemme give ya the deets:

Convergent evolution is still a thing that could happens. Let's thought-experiment that something goes down in the northern climates. Maybe it's a modified asteroid impact that has the radius of clocking out everything in North America, and another one impacts the European/Siberian area. Mongolia and Northern China are still going to be desert because y'know, equatorial inlands often are due to lack of rain able to precipitate in that area. ESP with the Himalayas, all caused because India lost control of the wheel and smashed right into the mainland.

ANYWAY.

So, we continue this thought experiment. The whole ass planet gets cold for a while, but because of the Coriolis effect- winds that would have otherwise gusted down south and fucked with weather patterns were instead pushed east/west instead of north/south. This creates a weather divide instead. So, because of this huge environmental trauma, the non-avian Dinosaurs in those climates begins to die out. Lack of food, disease, blah, blah, blah. Basically, a few things fall out of the Great Jenga Tower of Life, and it's game over.

In the south, where things aren't so bad- they continue to flourish.

So, in the North- with the ABSENCE of large non-avian dinosaurs, Mammals can finally step foot out of their little burrow and victoriously fist-pump the sky. You know, because the literal little guy won. With higher sea-levels after this whole mind-experiment disaster movie thing happening, that land bridge never forms. It takes a planet relatively a few million years to kind of right it's weather/storm/temperature patterns and a few after that to get it's climate optimal. (Optimal being: constant, but small vulcanism, tidal pull being a consistent thing without much disruption, and of course... a myriad thousand other variables- but still)

So, here we are. Mammals on the north. Dinosaurs on the south. Mammals can get big because they are now occupying niches formerly taken by said non-avian dinos, and can now be vicious and full of ATTITUDE or is it cattitude, (I think I'm funny, sometimes.)

If you've read this trainwreck of a post this far, I commend you- and also worry about your sanity.

So, now we get to the meat of the whole post.

The Decepticons would have landed second, chasing ye olde AutoButts.

Landing in the middle of summer, they would have impacted the Southern Hemisphere (for shits and giggles, let's say Africa) and would have trans-scanned the first creatures they saw. I'm also allowing for large arthropods, because why not, there's plenty of oxygen to go around. So, now we get dinosaurs, giant spiders x2, a wasp with ADHD, and a eusocial insect w/o a hive, who is his own classification.

The Autobots, having landed first, and they would have gotten here in the winter- which would account for landing in the N. Hemisphere due to the tilt of the planet. THEY would have trans-scanned the first animals THEY saw.

Which would have been mammals.

Give them a couple of hundred thousand years to blithely do their own thing, aaaaand boom. The land-bridge opens up again, the Interchange happens- and suddenly.

We get the meeting of the factions.

Anyway, long-winded as this is, my damn brain was like "Why can't I make this scientifically feasible?" And really, this isn't. It's just a lotta headcanon with some science thrown in. But, I still like the idea, and feel free to steal this.

[stitchthesewords]

Do not worry dear anon I will keep your identity a secret. In the future, you can always hit the Anonymous Ask button at the bottom right hand of the screen before you hit send and it will hide your identity from the recipient blog and posters!

Ronan loves working for his museum! He wasn't the one who started it, but he treats it like his baby nonetheless. He really cares about the work he is doing and wants to make sure that people are informed about life in the before times. A lot of his work is sort of mundane and repetitive but he likes it that way. There are other museums in the city he's in and he usually works alongside them - for example there is a museum that documents a lot of the history of Immortal Wizards and he is well acquainted with their curators. And yes! Ronan and Strofaris have worked together multiple times - in fact the story starts because Strofaris has come to lend Ronan a few items for his collection and ask him to accompany him out into the wilds. They have a professional and working relationship at the start of things that...devolves, shall we say. Strofaris isn't the only Immortal Wizard Ronan works with however - there is a group of 4 of them that watch over his city and he works far closer with them than any other immortals in the region. Many of his artifacts that were not fished out of ruins are on loan from Immortal Wizards' collections.

Ronan's favorite artifacts are often the most mundane - journals, diaries, and collections of writing. He loves to know about everyday life more than 'important people', because it paints a far clearer image of what life was like for everyone. His least favorite artifacts are big and bulky items, or magical one. Big items are harder to fit into exhibit spaces, though it can be done and is done fairly regularly; Immortal Wizards use donating to museums as a way to be showy, so he often gets annoying pieces from them. Magical items are annoying because their magic has to be contained somehow. In this story, humans begin evolving to have a magic 'node' - some of them [Like Yori] have activated ones, some have deactivated ones [which may activate later on in life or never activate], and some had 'dead' ones [Like ronan] which cannot activate. The way you figure it out is if you can feel magic or interact with magic in any capacity - Ronan can't at all, but for obvious reasons a museum guest who can would be detrimental for both their museum experience and the artifact's longevity. Ronan does also keep objects for study through the local university or independent scientists and arcane academics.

SO let me talk a bit about the apocalypse to sort of explain this. The apocalypse occurs sometime between 2030-2050. The earth's inherent magic awakens one day to start defending itself from destruction - namely in this case things like climate change and environmental destruction. This magic does two things - the first is that it creates monsters who are born with an inherent want for human life. This is because humans are the ones causing the large scale destruction the earth is trying to defend itself from. These monsters range in size from about the scale of a chicken to about the size of a semi-truck. They aren't impossible to kill; in fact, the smaller ones are fairly easy, like low level fantasy monsters, but they come in huge waves and droves, tearing through cities. The rural area see less overall destruction from them but they still see pretty heavy loss. This is obviously a very dark time for humanity. HOWEVER, within the same time frame, though a little bit after the monsters start to appear, something else happens. Regular everyday humans begin to wake up with uncontrollable magic powers. This does not go well. Many of them are maimed or killed by their own magic, or hurt others/cause more destruction to the area they're in. Imagine if you woke up one day with the ability to create *endless* magic but no ability to control what it did or turn it off. That is basically what happens to the Immortal Wizards. The other thing this magic gives them is immortality from old age - but only old age. They can still die from sickness, damage, being murdered, etc etc. They just kind of stop aging, because the earth wanted to create a group of people who could keep some of humanity from dying - humans are still important to the ecosystem after all. Eventually the Immortal Wizards who survive their first little bit with magic move away from civilizations and group up, and they teach themselves to control it through force. Either they learn to control it or die trying. At the same time, the vestiges of humanity are starting to build shelters and safehouses because I do not believe that humanity as a whole would go lone wolf. I fully believe that in an apocalypse scenario humanity would band together and help each other survive. These shelters are built with their weakest members in mind, to help them be able to escape the monsters outside. Many of these forts of safety would go on to become the first cities of the new world, including the one Ronan lives in, and begin taking on Immortal Wizards as they came back to civilization in order to aid their fellow man with their newly controlled magic powers. The time between the gaining of the magic and the control is at LEAST a few years if not a decade, and in that time many Immortal Wizards shed their 'previous lives' for new, Wizardy identities. I have an entire pinboard of Immortal Wizard fashion ideas because they dress like funky little creatures and most of them fully embrace the whole 'wizard' thing.

So on that note - Apprentices can't become Immortal Wizards for two reasons: 1. they were not gifted immortality and are completely different kind of magic users and 2. Their magic nodes limit what they can do. I think its important to not the Immortal Wizards have no limits on their magic - they're like Gandalf. The thing with all powerful magical beings is that you can't use them as a tactical nuke in your story even if you want to because that eliminates the tension. Many of the Immortal Wizards fear using their magic willy nilly because they remember how it hurt them/other people. There are laws in place about what they are allowed to do within their society, though some obviously live on the outskirts of it like Strofaris. Becoming an Immortal Wizard was traumatic for all of them in some way, shape, or form, and you can really see the memory of that in how they guard their magic. Apprentices don't really have much trauma with their magic, and generally are limited to certain kinds of magic/weaker magic overall. The Nodes within people also drain with use and need to be recharged with rest - Immortal Wizards don't have that issue. It is, however, incredibly common for Immortal Wizards to take on apprentices - while their magic skills don't translate 1:1 into how humans do their magic, its a close enough experience that they can help guide them. It is a huge deal to be taken on by an IW however - most people who do magic learn in school or from other human magicians. Being taken on by an IW is the equivalent of like, a VIP experience. It usually means that you show a lot of prowess with your magical node OR that your family has been friends with an IW for generations and they have a fondness for you. Over the centuries, IWs have also gotten better about explaining magic to humans, as they learned from having multiple apprentices how to explain the differences between their magic and human magic. If you're wondering, Strofaris took on Yori because Yori travelled all the way to his home and demanded Strofaris take them on. I love Yori. They are my beloved little gremlin and they have a bunny familiar.

Strofaris does have many IW friends and acquaintances. Networking is a pretty big deal in IW society, even for someone like Strofaris who mostly keeps to himself. He doesn't see them very often - for many IWs who live alone or away from cities, the only time they really see other Immortal Wizards is during society meetings and balls [There is one big ball that happens once a decade, which to an Immortal Wizard is the equivalent of it happening once a year] that pretty much everyone from one region attends. One of the Immortal Wizards that Strofaris keeps in close contact with is the person living inside the Memphis Pyramid [NOT the one in Egypt - google Bass Pro Pyramid to see what I mean]. He does not, however, go out of his way to talk to them outside of things like academic interest and apprenticeships. Strofaris much prefers the company of humans.

[cryptometaphor]

(Discussing le'religion and it's place in politics because armchair communists can't decide on shit)

Admin whose name is also Sarah but imma just call her Arab: Marx said religion is the opiate of the masses.

Me: Y'all always leave out the part where he says the sigh of the oppressed immediately afterwards.

Sarah: Are you saying we should pity religious conservatives like how you pity incels?

Me: Perhaps... But it's more than that. It is the natural state of man to seek God. Sometimes man finds Him, sometimes he doesn't. He'll either cope, seethe, or dilate. As with all things.

Sarah: LOL WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!

Arab: I'm seething. I'm not gonna feel sorry for people who wanna restrict contraceptives and ignore working class...

Me: That's not why people seek religion. That's people groomed into another ism.

Arab: It's religion. Yes. Ideology and religion are interchangeable, but like...

Me: Lemme ask you. What would you do if YOU were God?

Arab: What do you mean?

Me: Like Bruce Almighty. Morgan Freeman says ok Persian cat lady, you're God. Now what?

Arab: Kinda racist.

Sarah: Good question though. I mean obviously I'd do the necessary stuff first. Reverse climate change.

Me: How?

Sarah: Oh wow, you're actually applying some debate pressure on me instead of buttering me up? lol

Me: No I mean I'd like details of what that would entail. I can butter you up afterwards lol

Sarah: lol ok. I mean like... Well for one, repair the ozone layer. The temperature drops back down, uhh... Reconfigure how carbon dioxide operates so we can run on coal and oil without it hurting the planet.

Me: The planet don't give a shit either way. We do. I mean maybe a lot of animals do too... So basically in a roundabout way. You want justice for the living.

Sarah: I suppose.

Arab: That has fuck all to do with justice. You're just using nice words and pretty thought experiments to deflect from the fact that...

Me: So than what would you do Ham-ass?

Arab: Ok that was SUPER RACIST am I gonna have to kick you?

Me: You could just out debate me. Sarah over here is making the world a better place as God. She just solved climate change, made our most monopolized source of energy go green... Go on. Impress me.

Me: Which btw, under the pretext of communism this makes the job ten times worse.

Sarah: How so?

Me: You've just given the bourgeois of coal and oil to produce indefinitely. Assuming they don't fuck it up somehow, now they'll really control the means of production.

Arab: Actually that is true.

Sarah: WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON LOL

Me Bale voice: I'm on the side of justice...

Sarah: Sure you are lol

Arab: Ok fine, I Thanos snap all the rapists off the planet. How's that? Snap, poof, they turn to dust.

Sarah: Based

Me: Is it?

Arab: OH GOD HERE WE GO SOME MANSPLAINING

Me: Yeah I mean, by what merit of rape? What you consider to be rape I hope. Not like, reddit...

Arab: I mean rape rape. Not creepy behavior LIKE YOU DO I mean actual assault. I'm being literal, I'm helping women everywhere, bad people gone.

Me: Sure sure... The families of those rapists are gonna be sad doh.

Arab: Oh well.

Me: The sudden departure of so many lives without even a rational explanation, they all just disappeared means more people are gonna become religious too.

Axel: Is this a thought experiment or did you just start a dungeons and dragons campaign and being a dick DM?

Arab: No, he's right. But see... That's why religion especially Christianity sucks. You see a miracle happen before your eyes, so like... Stop making child brides and assaulting women.

Me: Well you're gonna have to make things more abundantly clear for people than. If you just snap your fingers and they disappear, that sounds like a Rapture. Gonna be 4chan rape-cults in your name.

Sarah: Also based.

Arab: Shut up Sarah lol. But ok fine, they scream in agony as they disappear. I make it perfectly clear you do this thing, bad shit gonna happen to you.

Me: And you don't think people will still misinterpret it? Like we know clearly how you defined rape. But reddit does not. More redditors, yaaaay. Now their dumbass hot takes are laws and shit.

Arab: Oh well

Sarah: You suck as a god lol

Arab: YOU SUCK lol

Axel: This is why women can't have power

Both of them: Fuck you Axel

Arab: What would you do smart guy?

Me: I...

Arab: If it involves Sarah I will kick you right now lol

Me: Darn you, ok let me think for a moment lol

Arab: FUCKING HELL

Sarah: Based. Arab: Stop saying based. Sarah: Make me

(gets kicked)

Me: Ok that's where I'd start.

Arab: What? Me: Well add her back first.

Arab: She can rejoin, I was just being a bitch lol

Me: Something so innoculous as when someone goes to kick someone from a call or a mod goes to ban someone, a sharp and noticable pain pierces through their head. Enough to notice it's in this particular action.

Arab: That sounds incredibly vague and useless

Axel: So pretty much everything Jim says anyway

Arab: Basically

Me: Y'all think too small. This subtle nudge changes how we interact. Doesn't mean no one would ever moderate, but deep down they'd know it's wrong, it comes with consequences, undoubtedly people would do it anyway. As they do any awful thing.

Axel: Isn't that life now?

Me: It is... And that's why people seek God. Seek to know God, be God. Not huff the opiate of the masses praising God for miracles that cannot be confirmed or denied like Sarah's actions, not a sigh of the oppressed like Arab Sara's where we establish lore, trying to justify to ourselves God's existence. Undoubtedly if Arab Sara's Thanos snap thing was permanent, over centuries what is God's will would just become scientific fact and they'd use efforts and coping to justify how science makes it possible. Nietzsche even said science would replace religion.

Arab: So instead you just choose not to care. Typical liberal

Me: We're all acting in accordance to selfish desires all the time. Deep down nobody can know how we truly feel but ourselves. The pain and joy alike is a mystery, does God regret? Does God celebrate? Can we measure perfection at all in such imperfect conditions? Or can we only determine what's better for our sake?

Sarah: So solipsism.

Arab: Narcissism.

Me: People are inherently irrational agents and do awful and dumb things. The competing interests of our will, our instinct, and our greater good. Three as one trying to operate here and now.

Axel: Yeah, you could interpret Freud's ego, Id, and super-ego as the trinity

Sarah: So is that why Buddhism says to experience ego death? To essentially resurrect it as a new self?

Me: See, now you're getting into Kabalah and Neville Goddard.

Arab: I could've gone my whole life without you ever mentioning that name again lol

Me: Only when the three selves agree can we ever experience goodness.

Sarah: As a rational agent, I do wonder what the implications of some rash decision like ending global warming would ensare

Me: Hence the conflict. The man is conflicted with the spirit.

Axel: Wouldn't the Id be your man as the flesh and impulses of your genetics?

Me: I'll give you that. Id can be man, but the mind is soul. It's how we know ourselves and navigate, but the spirit, the reason we do anything, is above words for the soul or comprehension of the body. Albeit most often your instincts are correct. Your body's top priority is to keep you alive. Whether or not it can guide you to happiness and fulfilment is up for debate. Even if it could, we are not that in-tune.

Arab: Ok but what does any of this have to do with religion making people into magatards?

Me: Everything. Religion isn't getting in touch with God. Rarely do I see someone open up a Bible and say "how does this benefit me"? Typically when that happens, someone is backed into a corner from a life or death experience.

Sarah: That is true.

Arab: Well all this yapping does not justify Christians acting the way they do and imposing their will on others.

Me: You're still not getting it... YOU'RE the Christian.

Arab: Nunh-unh lol

Sarah: Jim literally doing the homer meme in a robe smoking a cigar "everyone is stupid except me..."

Me: Yeth. I mean, you're not stupid either.

Sarah: BULLSHIT I can hear it now. You're thinking in your head "she's a total retard, but she's cute, HEHEHEHEHE I'M DOING MY MR. KRABS VOICE she has no idea I think she's retarded SPONGEBOB AXEL ME BOY you're retarded too..."

(everyone laughs, that actually reels in donations)

[michaelgogins]

Homelessness/Housing

In California a few years ago, visiting friends in Albany just north of Berkeley, I walked to the Berkeley marina and just around the corners of some side streets I saw many parked motorhomes and recreational vehicles. People, obviously, were living in them.

Now the news is that Los Angeles also has this (to the tune of 40,000 people) and the mayor, Karen Bass, is saying she will do something about it. She mentions tents, and I saw those too in Berkeley, but what strikes me is the motorhomes.

Let's pause here a moment and think. One -- not the only one, but a major one -- of the underlying causes here is the sheer cost of housing. In real money, the cost of housing has almost doubled while, at the same, real income is stagnant. But motorhomes, recreational vehicles, camper vans, travel trailers (I saw all of these too) are much cheaper than zoned housing. For many reasons, not least of which is "not in my back yard," which ends up enforcing class and race segregation.

One might well ask, how come there are people who don't have houses to live, in but do have motorhomes to live in? I didn't do a controlled study but the obvious hypothesis is: simply because motorhomes are cheaper.

So I have a modest suggestion. There should be a national law permitting manufactured housing, including motorhomes and travel trailers, in residential neighborhoods and, perhaps, in specially zoned neighborhoods. Such a law would evoke howls of outrage: "Ugly! Dirty! Unsafe! Not in keeping with the character of the neighborhood!"

"Ugly" is a question of taste, but the law could deal with it by banning features widely felt to be ugly and requiring some widely felt to be attractive. "Dirty" can be dealt with by installing the requisite hookups, or even by having a public utility to come by periodically with a service truck for gas and sewage. "Unsafe" is simply not true. "Not in keeping with the character of the neighborhood" would, of course, usually be true.

There's no political capital right now for such a law, and the rich will always find some way of keeping this stuff out of their view, but something has to give.

Up to now, trailer parks are, indeed, usually kind of trashy. But there are increasingly attractive manufactured homes, tiny homes, container houses, and, yes, motorhomes.

So when overpopulation (yes, that's also a major cause of this) and climate change (up to a billion people will have to move in the next 50-100 years -- where to, pray tell, and where will they then live?) increase the pressure on housing prices even further --

The law should and probably will change to permit manufactured housing, if it meets certain standards, in more places including in many current residential zones.

Currently within 200 miles of my Zip code (13740) one may buy new or used motor homes within a price range of $50,000 to $200,000. Most of these things are small and, unfortunately, hideously ugly. But, they don't have to be ugly.

And, they are homes you can live in!

Manufactured housing can be bought for similar prices, is bigger, and is somewhat better looking. This, too, does not have to be ugly. There is a "designer" variety of manufactured housing. And it doesn't always cost a whole lot more than ordinary ugly old modular homes.

[indaysinaya]

Chapter 6- Off Into the Wind We Go

ALREN

We arrive back at the apartment soaking wet, having been caught in the storm still raging on outside.

“I don’t think this will let up anytime soon,” I comment to my companion as I utter a simple spell to dry myself.

“Oui. It has been like this for the past few days. The weatherman always predicts sunshine, but the clouds tend to disagree,” Gabrielle replies, also having dried herself.

I open the door to the apartment, eager to get out of here and back in the warm, unconfusing, weather controlled climate of Pinag-adlawan.

To my (or maybe our) surprise, we find our pinili haunched on the ground, hugging herself, and very obviously crying.

Gabrielle and I look at each other, unsure what to do. I mean, I can understand the kid, it IS hard to lose someone whom you’ve depended on all your life, we both know that. But even if we both went through the pain of losing a guardian anito, our anitos weren’t our only family. Gabrielle’s anito was her nanny, and mine was (I thought) a jolly distant uncle twice removed. We both had other families during our early youth, but this pinili solely relied on her anito. It must be hard.

“Uhm…” I start, inching forward hesitantly.

“Chère?” Gabrielle also says in the softest voice she could manage.

The pinili. Wait no, her name is…what was it again? Something non-Asian…starting with an A.

Oh right! Amilyn!

Anyway, Amilyn turns around as Gabrielle and I make ourselves known. Upon seeing us, she hastily wipes her eyes and stands up. Her eyes are bloodshot. Gods know how long she’s been crying. Has she been like that since we’ve been away? Yikes!

Amilyn clears her throat, still sniffling and drying her tears.

“I’m ready,” she says in a bare whisper.

“Are you sure? We can stay for a little bit. You won’t see this apartment again, you know. Authorities at Pinag-adlawan will make it so you and your nana, along with this apartment, never existed. You can take your time looking around,” Gabrielle says encouragingly.

Amilyn shakes her head.

“No. I’m ready. We can go. You said something about missing a festival if we don’t hurry. Wouldn’t wanna miss that….whatever it is. Besides, if we stay longer, I would…it’s gonna hurt even more. We should go. I’m ready,” she repeats defiantly, sounding as if she’s trying to convince herself.

Gabrielle nods with understanding.

I guess we’re going then.

“Come then. Let’s get out of here,” Gabrielle says, holding her hand out to the pinili.

Amilyn takes it. Gabrielle smiles at her reassuringly, nodding with encouragement.

“It’s gonna be okay, chère. You’re being very brave. Maybe you should be a redhead instead,” she jokingly adds.

Why this woman! Who says we blueheads can’t be brave? I’ll have a word with her about discrimation based on hair color someday. Anyway, I should let it slide today, just today. We have an emotional pinili to deal with, and a festival to catch.

Gabrielle leads the pinili out the room. Amilyn lets herself be led away, slowly inching towards the door. Once she reaches the doorway, she turns her head, taking one last sweeping look at the apartment she grew up in. With a defiant sigh, she turns to look ahead of her.

Down two flights of stairs we go, out the building, where we are once again exposed to the beating rain and flashing lightning.

“Is there a forest nearby? Anggitay don’t like coming to crowded places,” I ask, looking around.

“Yes, well, maybe. There’s a little park with some trees a few blocks from here,” Amilyn responds.

“Alrighty, lead the way. Oh, and full disclaimer, we tried using umbrellas earlier, yeah, not really worth the effort of trying to keep them upright. The wind just likes turning them into makeshift satellites,” I say.

“Il a raison. We’ll have to brave the rain. Besides, with the anggitay, rain won’t be the least pleasant phenomena we’ll have to deal with today,” Gabrielle agrees.

“Uhhh…okay?” Amilyn replies wearily.

And thus, we thrust ourselves out into the open, rain, wind, thunder and all.

Amilyn leads us to an (understandably) abandoned park. When I say understandably, I mean, who would put a park this far away from the nearest residences? Just coming here is an exercise in itself, given the distance. And in that rain? Phew! Amilyn said “a few blocks”, and she has a different definition of the phrase.

The “park”, if you can call it that, if full of overgrown grass and rusting metal that I presume used to be playthings. Trees have obviously long since crossed the their threshold and decided to crawl towards the center of the place, so their roots scurry through the path, crisscrossing here and there.

Anyway, we arrive, and Gabrielle points to a shed hidden amid the bushes. She mumbles something inaudible amid the rain, but I get her point. In order to summon the anggitay, we’ll need to start a fire, and to start a fire, we’ll need somewhere dry. The shed is the only relatively dry place we can find, so we make our way towards it.

We arrive shivering from the cold.

“You should do it. I’m almost out of steam, and I never did well in summoning spells at school,” I tell Gabrielle.

She rolls her eyes at me, muttering some very rapid French under her breath. I doubt they mean anything good, but hey, we can’t risk me summoning a bentohangin instead of an anggitay here.

Gabrielle kneels, taking a bead from her bracelet. She brings the bead to her lips, muttering a spell under her breath. The bead glows, and then turns into a cauldron. She does this a few times, summoning, in order: a few bottles of herbs, a special set of stones, a bottle of rice, salt, and a live chicken.

Beside me, I notice Amilyn look at the scene with awe.

Right, always a wonder for the first timers.

“It’s called ornamentation. You can turn anything into an ornament. As you might have noticed, those beads return to their previous state when a spell is chanted. You’ll learn it at Pinag-adlawan,” I explain in a whisper.

“I’ll learn how to turn a chicken into a bead?” she says, sounding dumb-founded.

“Well, you’ll start with simple things, like a stone into a bead. Live stuff are more complicated, they come in the later years,” I answer.

She nods, though I’m not quite sure she understands.

In front of us, Gabrielle continues with the ritual. She mixes several ingredients in the cauldron. Then, she summons her kalis once again. She starts chanting under her breath, chicken on one hand, kalis on the other.

Gabrielle raises the chicken over the cauldron. Then, in one swift motion, she slits the being’s neck with her kalis. Blood squirts out the open wound like a red fountain, dripping down on the cauldron. Amilyn lets out a gasp.

The cauldron starts to emit black smoke. The smoke swirls over the lid of the jar like a miniature cloud. Flashes of lightning light up the small, dark cloud. Gabrielle continue chanting under her breath.

The cauldron shakes and rattles. The smoke above it continues to swirl, now a mix of black and red, flashes of lightning still evident within. The pungent smell of blood, herbs, and the familiar scent of sagangan lurks in the air. Then suddenly, the smoke drops to the ground forming a ring around the cauldron. Cracks start to form on the earth around the earthen jar, growing wider and wider by the second. The smoke seeps into the cracks, billowing like cloth as it disappears into the darkness within.

And then everything goes back to normal. Gabrielle stands, discarding a still writhing gutted chicken to the ground. She reaches for her bracelet, takes a bead and brings it to her lips. The bead bead glows and transforms into a flask.

This one I’m familiar with. Gabrielle takes a swig off the flask. I turn to Amilyn.

“We call it the juice. It’s like autotranslate in liquid form. There are lots of languages in the world, and then the supernatural have a language of their own, so it can become quite a drag to learn all the languages in pursuit of comprehension. This liquid allows you to understand all known languages, and speak them at the same time. Very handy, even trickier to make,” I explain.

Just as I finish, they arrive. We first hear the unmistakable sound of hooves hitting the solid earth in haste. Then a blur appears in front of us, as if reality has become liquid. Then they appear: three fully grown anggitay, ready to take us home.

Beside me, I hear Amilyn gasp again, and I can’t really say I blame her.

Anggitay are a sight to behold. Kinda like centaurs, but imagine female, and with a single horn protruding from their forehead. Like many of the supernatural, they don’t see the need to cover their…well…intimate parts, so their bare chests are in full frontal view. They are adorned with all manners of shiny stuff, rubies, emeralds, diamonds, gold, some shiny seashells, you name it. Supposedly, the queen is the flashiest of them, though I can’t say that from experience. I think every new one I meet is flashier than the other.

Anyway, Gabrielle walks forward to the three, lets out a series of chirps and whistles, and the one in front replies. The bewildering exchange goes on until Gabrielle turns to us, nodding. That means they agree.

“So, remember to hold on tight, no matter what happens. Make sure to tuck yourself in as much as possible, don’t let your feet and arms dangle, hide your head, and make sure to not forget to breath. The last part is very important,” I tell Amilyn.

“What?” she replies in a blank tone, still looking at the anggitay.

I lift her up by the armpits and unto one of the anggitay. This isn’t the recommended form of travel for a newbie, but we really have no choice. Besides, they won’t know fear until they know what to fear. This is good exercise.

“Wo….woah!” Amilyn yelps out as I tuck her in.

“Safe travels!” I bid her.

Her ride takes that as her go signal, and off into the wind she goes (literally). The last I hear of Amilyn is her ear-splitting scream. Ah, first timers. Those are the good old days.

“Let’s go. We need to be there when she arrives,” Gabrielle says.

“Right.”

I get on my ride, tuck myself in, and off we go.

[sheetsonfire]

The Thunder Rolls

Summary: Reader and Jay are caught in a storm on a stakeout.

A/N: Just a small fun drabble that was in my head.

Fandom: Chicago PD

Characters: Jay Halstead x Reader

Genre: humour, friendship, pre-romance (if you squint)

Word Count: 1,218

You rub at your eyes for the 10th time in as many minutes, squirming at the pressing of the damp fabric against your back; Jay's GMC truck sure picked its moment to have an AC malfunction. Jay side-eyes you with a smirk. Your excessive yawning is indicative of how you're failing to keep up with staying hydrated, an unfortunate sacrifice on a stakeout with minimal rest break opportunities. You take another desperate swig of the water beside you when your partner chimes in.

"This too boring for you, Detective?" He teases. Jay is sitting looking like the aircon was still functional, only an ever so slight sheen across his forehead gives him away, otherwise, he has all the poise and posture of a man unphased.

You silently respond with a quick jab of your fingers into his ribs, making him jolt with a grunt of discomfort, making a show of looking offended. "Hey, no need for violence, I asked a question."

He takes a sip of his water too, resuming his fixed gaze upon the live feed he had in his hands.

You let out a strained wail of frustration, throwing your head back against the seat. You turn to Jay again, with a sad puppy face that somehow manages to earn you a comforting pat on your arm.

"I know, it's not the best, but we gotta keep eyes on this kid, he's a quick mover, we can't afford to lose him again."

You sigh, looking at the house you were sitting on. That was the trouble with literal children being involved in cases, whoever had them doing their dirty work clearly knew that kids were squirrely and notoriously hard to keep track of.

So, your lookout was obviously important and time was of the essence, these were all things you knew, but it didn't stop you from craving the sweet bliss of lying on your bed in a controlled climate.

In the heavy air, fat wet drops of rain start to tumble to the ground, pattering loudly on Jay's truck as they gained speed and density, you reach over and engage the wipers for your partner, who chuckles at your small gesture of assistance. You nod a silent 'you're welcome' with a grin.

A rumble of thunder overhead catches your attention, and you whack Jay's arm. "Did you hear that?"

He whips his head towards you with a playful scowl, "Yes, I heard it. And I felt you hitting me. Again."

"Sorry, sorry... It's just I freaking love thunderstorms, and maybe it'll get rid of some of this heat."

Jay shakes his head at your enthusiasm with a small laugh, squinting at the feed now that the external cameras on his truck were obscured by the rainfall. He catches movement from the rear, a gate opening to an alleyway between houses, coming into view was the teenager you had been tracking. Jay immediately slots his radio into his vest and puts the tablet down.

"Y/N, we got movement right rear of the vehicle! It's him, let's take him."

You quickly slot your radio into your vest as well, checking your everything was secure as you push your passenger door open, stepping out into the downpour.

In the midst of nature's chaos, you see the figure turn towards you, spot you, and then bolt back down the alley they'd come from.

"Stop! CPD, put your hands up!" You holler, feeling Jay hot on your heels as you take off running, boots splashing wildly against the pavement, the rain begins to roar around you and the neighbourhood is illuminated by flashes of lightning. The thunder was now much louder and more persistent with each passing moment.

"Galen Murphy, we just want to talk, please stop!" Your yells are as loud as they can be under the cacophony the weather was making, the both of you now absolutely soaked to the skin as you follow an elusive shadow under the orange glow of street lights.

A particularly bright flash strikes ahead of you and Jay, it makes you jump but you are relentless in your pursuit, assuming Jay is the same until you feel an arm snatch you back and to a stop.

"Jay, what the hell?" You yell, wincing as your shoulder protests the sudden kill of your momentum.

"The lightning hit that tree! We're calling it off, and I'm calling CFD to take a look at that." Jay points to the smouldering branches, that are now creaking and groaning under the weight of the foliage attached, listing towards a car parked underneath it.

"It's not safe for him to be out here and if we keep chasing one of the three of us is gonna get hurt."

You take a second but ultimately nod in agreement. It was easier if the conditions around you were under your control, and right now they most certainly weren't.

You're panting hard as the rain hammers down around you, looking at the surroundings you spot a bus shelter. Immediately reaching for Jay's arm as you pull him in that direction, both of you holstering your weapons as you take shelter. Under the protection of the roof, you begin to drip onto the dry concrete. Both standing almost dumbfounded, excited giggling escaping the both of you as you are now able to simply watch the chaos in the sky. Intense purple forks of lightning followed by rolls of thunder that vibrate through the ground.

Jay watches your awed expression with fondness, only to be shaken out of the moment when the radio in his vest crackles with a familiar gravelly voice coming over the airwaves. You look to your partner, waiting to see what your sergeant had to say.

"Halstead, Y/L/N, you good?"

Jay has to yell to get his answer across, "We're alright, Sarge. We had to stop the pursuit, but we got a good idea of who comes and goes from that house, we can cross-reference that our feed with the database and pod footage."

"Okay, good work. It's crazy out there, get back to the District safe."

"Copy you, Sarge. We'll head back to the truck as soon as it eases off, we're taking shelter right now."

"Copy. Don't stay out too long."

The radio crackle stops, and you and Jay are left to watch the sky, Jay calls in to dispatch to request CFD come take a look at the damaged tree and at-risk vehicle.

Looking down at the ground, you are still amazed the water hadn't made its way too far into the shelter, the curved roof and run-off drain in the curbside was doing the job.

With a content sigh, you plop yourself on the ground, cross-legged. Jay raises his eyebrows with a smirk,

"Making yourself comfy?"

"Ah, when life gives you lightning and all that." You shrug with a cheeky expression, Jay shakes his head as he joins you on the ground.

He rests against the back of the shelter, wrapping an arm around your shoulder. "Yeah, I don't think I know that one."

You nudge him playfully, smiling as you lean into his embrace, "Well, I have a lot to teach you then."

He can't take the smile off his face, "I'm sure you do, Y/N. I'm sure you do."

-

Fin.

[esther-dot]

What is your opinion of Sansa's costumes on Game of Thrones? I love the fabrics and the embroidery of the earlier seasons, but I wonder if the later, darker costumes make such a sensitive and feminine character as Sansa appear to be too dour and "sexless?"

I didn’t think I had much to say about costumes, but I started writing and couldn’t stop so the short answer is yes and the longer answer is, well, long. 😂

I was a very casual viewer and didn’t put much thought into the show other than loving it when it aired until s7. I thought the costumes were pretty in earlier seasons but back then I never watched or read interviews or bts stuff, so it wasn’t until I got involved in the fandom (before s8), that I started hearing the thought process behind the costumes which made me appreciate their intent but imo there was a failure in that, I couldn’t see the details. I think they needed to do screen tests with the costumes because there was SO much effort put into things that failed to pick up on my tv. And, in spite of my general impression of “oh, pretty costumes!” I hope that when they do a remake, they look back at historical fashions and use those as a starting place because at a certain point, it became clear that the costumes were informed by one person’s taste rather than making sense of the climate/status of certain characters. It’s fantasy so obviously the important thing isn’t historical accuracy, but there were some...choices in s7-s8 costume-wise that were odd.

I didn’t save the links to the costume metas that more knowledgeable people wrote, but I think the costume design (just as the writing did) became more of an issue because of inconsistent approaches. I remember Dany’s white fur coat was supposed to indicate her mindset of being a savior, but if the costume design was about how the characters perceived themselves then Sansa’s and Cersei’s outfits should have been different and Jon’s costuming doesn’t fit his mindset in s8 because he’s wearing the Stark wolves when he goes into KL in 8x05 which i would argue was when he was MOST distant from Stark ideals and the Stark family. Morally, emotionally, that would have been the lowpoint as he is leading the northern armies (against the wishes of the Starks) into battle in which he knows Dany likely won’t stop even if the city surrenders. So, at times the costumes reflect the characters self-perception and at other times they don’t which is confusing. If at times you’re invited into a character’s mind and not at others, you’re getting some mixed signals, especially with a character like Dany who had a warped view.

I know it was mostly more about how the audience was meant to see the characters and shaping their view of them but I have issues with that too. Dany generally had sexy outfits which I’m sure was a deliberate choice to keep the GA in love with her and distract them from her concerning words and actions. And even though they did introduce the Viserys’ like outfits to indicate her conqueror/Targ stuff and nudge her character progression along, the white outfit continued the audience’s misconception that she’s a savior and disrupted that conquering image until she went full Nazi in the end of s8. And I don’t say that lightly, everyone recognized what they did with her in the finale and that included her costume. If that’s the goal, to control the audience’s perception of a character, I have issues with how they dressed Sansa because even though there were pretty dresses in KL, the costume designer made them not fit to indicate how out of place she was which reflects her emotional state but doesn’t work with the idea of how well she manages court life and maneuvers the dangers of her situation. Something we were meant to pick up on but most of the audience didn’t. I know her “Alayne”/Dark Sansa outfit got a lot of attention because it was much sexier than her previous outfits, but the attention she receives from men was unwanted, so again, it doesn’t ring true as what the character would want to wear or that that’s how she viewed herself, and feels more like telling the audience something...but I don’t know what? On the one hand, it’s meant to be Sansa taking some control of her life, but she very quickly is victimized/sexually abused. I guess it just seems to me that the costumes might make sense in a way, but not from other angles. I suppose the costume design was tied to the scripts and the writing was so messy they reflected that lack of coherency to me.

The one outfit that to me felt genuine to who Sansa was is her wolf dress in s6. I believe that she would have created something beautiful to wear that was luxurious in a way, but still practical (ish), and proudly proclaimed herself a Stark. Of course, if it was meant to tell the audience what to think, where Sansa’s loyalty was, where her heart and home was, the costumes in s7-8 felt like a step backwards. Messy writing, I suppose. She still has the Starky wolves and furs, but there was so much going on with the necklace and the crisscrossed straps for her furs that we begin to get that claustrophobic feeling when looking at her in s7 and then she has her armor dress in s8 which...I know she felt the danger of LF, Dany, and the Others, so having her wear those armored things makes sense in a way, except, if by her own volition she wore that beautiful dress in s6 when going to war and before she was safe in Winterfell again and before she was reunited with Bran and Arya...it feels like regression, not a believable followup. I read a fabulous meta pre s8 that pointed out how Dany’s costume mimicked Viserys, Cersei’s mimicked her father’s, and Sansa’s had a lot of Jon, so some of these choices were about creating visual parallels and pointing out how the three queens were foils for each other, but the writing in s7-8 was so contradictory, and did more misleading of the audience than genuine storytelling, that I think it was pointless in the end. So, nice idea in theory, but no one but Sansa fans/Jonsas noticed what this was saying about Dany and the rest of the fandom thought that Sansa wearing dark clothes meant she was evil. 😑

The idea of putting Sansa in that armor dress in s8 was also frustrating because Sansa was supposed to feel safe in Winterfell and she clearly was wielding more political clout than Jon or Dany in the North, but she was no warrior/fighter, so I wish they had leaned into the differences there in costumes. Like, let’s imagine Dany wearing some form of armor in light of her being on the continent to, ya know, wage war and conquer, and stick Sansa in more colorful outfits or softer outfits to reflect how happy she was to be home and have her siblings again. Wouldn’t that change the audience’s perception of the characters? Wouldn’t that make more sense for their roles and goals? Sansa’s realm of power is in the court, in relationships, in words, so to put her in something that looked like armor when even Arya wasn’t wearing anything like that and Jon was wearing a gross jerkin (???) and nothing more when fighting the others...it just didn’t make sense in any way. To me, it feels like they were indicating she was closed off which is dumb because she was the most invested in her family/relationships. At the time I wasn’t that bothered, but post s8 it’s annoying. How do they justify putting Sansa, who in s8 works to serve her people and grants mercy where others want death (Jaime), and prioritizes her family over and over into costumes that told them audiences she was closed off/meant for war? And then when you think about a scene like her one on one with Dany, how soft and approachable they made her in contrast to Sansa when one of those characters was about to become a mass murdering tyrant…I mean, the intent is to mislead, right? Dany was allegedly uncomfortable in the North, why is Sansa the one in stiff/uncomfortable costumes? Sophie sold the calm strength of Sansa, the subtle power she held, I don’t think the rigid outfits were necessary or communicating the right ideas.

And now for my least favorite Sansa look which unfortunately is her coronation outfit. It had a lot of symbolism but most of those details weren’t visible to me until I saw high quality pics on the internet so again, screen tests would have been a good idea. Also, I thought it was a VERY questionable choice to include references to LF and in her outfit. I understand that he influenced her, but LF molested her. It REALLY bothers me that the designer put references to him alongside references to Sansa’s family. The outfit also continued her armor theme and considering at this point all her enemies (LF, Dany, Cersei) were gone it made no sense that way. I already objected to the armor being a miscommunication of where her power was, and that leaves us with this idea of being protected/isolated from others which is really upsetting. Here’s an addition to a post I wrote after the finale that perfectly explained why some of us hated it:

(link)

So, unfortunately, like much of GoT, the ending made what might have otherwise been forgiven, really upsetting to me. I know the costume designer had good goals and worked a lot of meaning into her design, but ultimately, the above was my take away for various reason. The writing isn’t the costume designer’s fault, but I think in working so hard to communicate what the scripts were saying, they said things that were repulsive to me. I wouldn’t exactly call her costumes sexless, her feast dress in s8 was very sensual, but rather, the conversation about sex and relationships that they gave Sansa, from child bride to girl trying to reclaim her home via marriage to being closed off from relationships…the story those costumes had to tell because of what D&D did….they became a visual for a gross sentiment so it’s hard to hold onto my fondness for them. Even her sensual dress isn’t pretty or open, she has leather straps across her chest, as if she is still repressing, still constraining herself, and all of this might have been forgivable if it wasn’t for the fact that when Sansa is free at last, in the finale, the costume sends her back into her cage. We could write an essay about queenhood being a cage, but that wasn’t the commentary they were delivering. Sansa deserved less misogynistic writing, and it is the writing that’s at fault, but because of that writing, the costumes feel sexist too. So I appreciate the artistry, I detest the message.

[qqueenofhades]

Okay, I’ve read Joe Biden’s plans.

I’ve just sat down and spent several hours actually reading all the damn plans on his website, the whole thing, so you don’t have to. And here’s the conclusion:

They’re pretty good.

Are they absolutely everything we want immediately? Maybe not. Are they a solid Democratic agenda anyway? Yes they are. Are they better than Trump?

Light years!

His Violence Against Women plan is lengthy, detailed, and pays specific attention to violence against Native, lesbian and bisexual, low-income, disabled, rural, transgender (especially trans women of color) immigrant, domestic abuse victims, and other vulnerable women. He calls for replacing and expanding Obama-era policies and funding for campus sexual assault programs that DeVos trashed, and for providing money for culturally specific services that are sensitive to the diverse backgrounds of survivors. He also notes that sexual assault, while it predominantly affects women and girls, needs to be taken seriously and addressed for people of all gender identities.

His gun safety plan is forceful and lays out several steps for banning assault weapons, taking existing weapons from offenders, closing gun purchase background check and other legal loopholes, addressing the intersection between domestic violence and weapons ownership, and reducing or eliminating weapons and ammunition stockpiling.

His plan for tackling climate change and creating green jobs is also lengthy. He makes the connection between economic, environmental, and racial justice. He pledges to immediately rejoin the Paris Agreement and restore American leadership on the issue in pushing for even stronger climate standards, make climate change a central part of our trade, international, and justice goals, demand a worldwide ban on fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks (!!!) and if the Green New Deal is passed, to sign it, as well as for the U.S. to achieve 100% clean energy and zero percent net emissions by 2050.

His healthcare plan is decent. It offers an immediate public option for all Americans regardless of private, employer, or no coverage, and generous new tax credits to put toward the cost of coverage. It strongly protects abortion rights and federal funding for Planned Parenthood, as well as rescinding the “gag rule” that prevents U.S. federal aid money from being used to provide or even talk about abortions in NGOs abroad. It attacks generic and drug price gouging. It calls for doubling the capital gains tax on the super-wealthy (from 20% to 39.5% paid on capital gains by anyone making over $1 million) to help fund healthcare reform. He also has a separate plan on the opioid crisis in America, and on older Americans and retirement, including the protection and re-funding of Medicare and Social Security.

His immigration plan is lengthy and detailed. He apologizes for and acknowledges the excessive deportation that occured during the Obama-Biden administrations, pledges to do better, and attacks Trump’s current inhumane acitivities on every front. The policy of children in cages, indefinite detention, the metered asylum system, and the Muslim Ban are gone on day one. In this and his LGBTQ plan, he notes the vulnerability of LGBTQ refugees, incuding LGBTQ refugees of color. He proposes streamlining of visa applications and prioritizing the immediate reunification of families. It also specifically states that ICE and CBP agents will be held directly accountable for inhumane treatment.

Speaking of which, his LGBTQ plan is comprehensive. It pays attention to multiple intersectional issues, down to the high rates of incarceration among trans people of color. (He also notes the rates of violence against trans women of color particularly.) He calls for a complete ban on conversion therapy and the discrimination against HIV-status individuals, as well as removing the ban on blood donation from gay and bisexual men. He will remove the transgender military ban immediately. He calls for funding for mental health and suicide prevention among LGBTQ populations.

His plan to empower workers calls for raising the federal minimum wage to $15, as well as indexing this to median hourly wages to ensure that working-class and middle-class wages grow closer to parity, and implementing strong legal protections for unions. He expresses support for striking workers and to empower the National Labor Relations Board in workplace advocacy. Farmworkers, domestic workers, gig economy workers, and other non-traditional labor groups are included in this. He will restore all Obama-Biden policies related to workplace safety and regulation.

His plan to restore American dignity and leadership in the world calls for immediately investing in election security and reform, restoration of the Voting Rights Act, immediately restoring White House press briefings and other Trump refusals of information, tackling criminal justice reform and systematic racial discrimination, calling for campaign finance reform, and basically blowing up all the stupid things the Trump administration does on a daily basis. It also calls for an end to all ongoing wars in the Middle East, restoring the Iran nuclear deal, and new arms control treaties with Russia, among general repairing of international alliances.

His plans for K-12 education and post-high school education call for greatly expanded funding across all levels of 2-year, 4-year, and other educational options. There will be no student loan payments for anyone making under $25,000 a year; everyone else will pay a capped amount and be completely forgiven after a certain period. Public servants qualify for up to $50,000 in loan forgiveness. This is not total loan forgiveness for everyone, which is obviously important for me and many of us, but it’s acceptable to start with. Additionally, his wife is a teacher and has a proven track record of calling for education investment and supporting public school funding.

His plan for housing addresses the needs of formerly incarcerated, LGBTQ, veteran, low-income, sexual assault survivor, black and Hispanic, and other vulnerable populations at risk of losing housing. It calls for a tax on companies and corporations with in excess of $50 billion in assets to fund comprehensive new housing initiatives, including $100 billion in accessible and low-income housing development. It includes extensive investment in public transportation and a high-speed rail system. This ties into his plan to repair infrastructure and invest in new technologies across the country.

His plan for criminal justice reform calls for the end of mass incarceration, the decriminalization of marijuana, the automatic expunging of all cannabis convictions, and an end on jail sentences for drug use. It highlights systematic institutional racism and the impact on black and brown people particularly. It calls for an end on all profiteering and private prisons. It focuses on reintegrating offenders into society and funding the needs of people released from prison. It proposes to “expand and use the power of the U.S. Justice Department to address systemic misconduct in police departments and prosecutors’ offices.” It broadens funding for social services and other programs for people who are otherwise placed into the prison pipeline.

There are more plans, which you can find here. These are the ones I read top to bottom. I am not by any means a Joe Biden fangirl; he was not my first choice, my second choice, or really anywhere on my list. However, having carefully read through his policy documents, I can say that:

He has at the least a good team of advisors who are keenly aware of the political climate, and is willing to both restore Obama-era standards and to improve on them where necessary. Obviously, all politicians’ promises are politicians’ promises, but this is a solid Democratic platform with obvious awareness of the progressive wing of the party.

If progressive legislation is passed in the House and Senate, he will sign it, including the Green New Deal.

He represents a clear and definite improvement over Donald Trump.

Is he everything we want? No. Are his policies better than I was expecting? Yes. I advise you to read through them for yourself. It has made me at least feel better about the likelihood of voting for him.

I realize it’s an unsexy position, especially on tumblr, to advocate for an old centrist white man. I’m not thrilled about having to do it. However, speaking as someone who was very resistant to Biden and still doesn’t agree with all of his previous legislative track record, that’s my consensus. He is a candidate who broadly aligns with values that I care about. His policies represent a concrete end to the damage of the Trump administration and gets us on the right track again.

Joe Biden, if he is the Democratic nominee, will receive my vote on November 3, 2020. I urge you to consider what I’ve laid out above and join me.

[is-deltarune-released-yet]

Is Deltarune the answer to global warming?

Let’s imagine that everyone in the world stopped what they were doing, grabbed a computer, and only played Deltarune for the rest of their lives. Additionally, they will also be consuming chalk and moss in place of conventional food. Would the possible carbon emission drop off be worth it?

For starters, chalk. Assuming that the chalk in question is a standard piece of school chalk, it’s most likely made of calcium sulfate (CaSO4). This is a surprisingly sound source, since it is mostly natural. One hold up may be additional supply impacts, but these seem to be minimal with chalk’s relative ease of production and simple biodegradable packaging. Of course there would be some carbon footprint, especially considering we will now be making 1.9 billion tons of chalk per year.

But wait, 1.9 billion tons per year? What about the other half of largely wasted food production? Well, obviously, that will go to moss. Moss, in terms of greenhouse gases, is maybe one of the best things the world could grow. Requiring no production additives, less labor, and little water, it’s environmental benefits can not be understated. For example, moss would make fertilizer obsolete. And with 20.8 tons of fertilizer used on crops per year in the US alone, amassing up a carbon footprint that composes of 1/6th of our emissions, you can already see the massive positive impact without even going into the other aspects of agricultural production. We are literally talking the elimination of global emissions by a third.

More than that, moss could actively help fix the environment. Moss controls erosion, filters rainwater, serves as a ridiculously good carbon sequester, and if people are willing, be grown on roofs to help reduce the need for air conditioning. 1.9 billion tons of it will absolute change the climate race forever.

However, there is one thing to consider: computers. 50% of households worldwide has access to a computer. That means we have about 4 billion to take in account for, and the instant greenhouse emission of such an undertaking could easily produce 330 billion pounds of CO2 after accounting for household size. This isn’t considering the amount of people who will need a new computer to play the game. But still, this pales in comparison to the emissions the earth produces in a year.

So, overall? Yes.