#I like to think Dan is Chief of their police force

[forgottenac3]

Okay so I have a idea

After the defeat of pariah dark Danny doesn't have to be ghost king (maybe someone else takes the position or maybe they just get rid of the position)instead he becomes The mayor of a city

I think we will call it Infinty City, and it becomes what is considered the capital of the Infinte realms

How Danny became the mayor of a city?

I don't know

Anyways, Infinty City expands with the Infinte realms

Since theirs billions of ghost living there how is their no fighting?

Well, Infinty City is what's known as a city haunt. Each ghost has a smaller haunt while Infinty City is no one's haunt, but at the same time, everyones

There's almost everything you can do in the city

There is a currency(though I don't know what), and a lot of the ghosts living there have jobs

I also like to imagine there's not just ghost living there their is also different species (Fae,Demons,etc)

If your looking for something you'll most certainly find it there

Alot of magic users go there for that reason

Infinty City is somewhat alive, not sure how alive though

So anyways

Damian takes the batfamily on a vacation

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Joyce Vance at Civil Discourse:

Friday night, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (who is black) and the Navy's top admiral (who is female) were fired, along with the most senior Judge Advocates General (JAGS) for the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and an advocate of anti-racism training in the armed forces, has been replaced by Dan “Razin’” Caine. Caine is a retired Air Force lieutenant general, with none of the traditional qualifications for this position and whose return to active duty from retirement will require a legal exemption. Trump made it clear that Caine possessed the key quality he looks for in all of his top-level appointees: personal loyalty. In announcing the selection he recounted the story of meeting Caine in 2018, when Caine supposedly said, “‘I love you, sir. I think you’re great, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir.” Trump claims he then put on a Make America Great Again hat. Laughing, Trump said, “You’re not allowed to do that, but they did it.” It forces the question: Is Donald Trump trying to turn the military into a political weapon, just like he’s trying, and at least partially succeeding, in doing at the Justice Department? The Founding Fathers created a military with civilian leadership to minimize the prospect of a takeover by a military strongman. The principle of civilian leadership of the military is so deeply ingrained in Western democracies that it’s a requirement for inclusion in NATO.

[...] And that’s the heart of it, why dismiss them? Why on a Friday night? Why so many all and once? And why the Judge Advocates General? Members of the Judge Advocates General Corps, for instance, respond to legal questions about rules of engagement, targeting, intelligence law, and detainee operations. They are military lawyers whose core functions involve military justice and law of war. They offer advice on questions including what constitutes an illegal order, what is a war crime, what is a constitutional violation. Replacing their leadership with Trump loyalists could have serious implications for how the military reacts in a number of situations, including assisting with mass deportations and policing protests, which they are currently prohibited from doing by the Posse Comitatus Act. Members of the military take an oath to the Constitution, not a loyalty oath to the president. The idea of loyalty to the Constitution is deeply ingrained in the officer corps and among senior enlisted soldiers. But principles can be undercut, and the concern is that is what Trump and Hegseth are putting into motion.

Hegseth is now making good on the opinions that likely got him the job in the first place. On November 7, 2024, in a podcast interview, he said, “First of all, you got to fire the chairman [of the] Joint Chiefs. But any general that was involved—general, admiral, whatever—… in any of the DEI woke shit has got to go.” Hegseth criticized chief of naval operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve as the Navy’s top combat officer, in his 2024 book, where he dismissed her as “another inexperienced first.” Hegseth’s baseless insistence that Black people and women can only achieve high rank by scoring what he characterizes as “DEI points” is despicable. And it’s belied by the fact, that Brown and Franchetti both have military experience that far exceeds Hegseth’s. They also have demonstrated commitment to the Constitution and our national security.

The Trump/Hegseth purges of military leadership on Friday night are about turning the military into a tool that serves Trump instead of the Constitution.

Guess who the ones purged by this military readiness-weakening move?

Mostly women and minorities in leadership roles.

[jakesnymos]

Duskwood is Calling (SNEAK PEAK)

A/N: Hi friends, hello. Here's the start of the novelization I talked about a while back. This is just the intro to the first chapter, so think of it almost as a prologue, if that makes sense. Obviously spoilers through chapter 10 of the game, so don't read if you're avoiding those. Anyways. Here it is:

You don’t know how you got here. Not really. 

 If they asked you- everyone, all of them, Thomas and Cleo and Dan and Lilly and Jessy and Hannah and-

 And not Jake. Not Jake, because Jake was stuck in the mines. Stuck with Richy, and the fire, and the unstable mineshafts and the dark and the cold and-

 “(Y/N).” Alan breaks you from your train of thought. “(Y/N), I’m sorry. But I need to ask you a few questions about tonights events.” You nod. “How did you get here?”

 I don’t know, you think. “I took a train.” You answer, because Alan means ‘What was your mode of transportation to Duskwood?’ and not ‘How did you come to know these people so intimately that thier loss has shattered something deep inside you?’

 “I took the earliest train I could get out of Grand Central Station to Duskwood.” You pause, thinking of the frantic way you’d run to the ticket booth, of how the minutes it took to get your ticket felt like hours, and how the couple of hours on the train itself felt like eons. “It was only a few hours.” You continue, “I didn’t tell the others I was coming. They didn’t know until-” You gesture vaguley, still not comfortable acknowleding the nights events outloud. 

 “You didn’t tell any of them?” It seems to have genuinely shocked him, and that, in turn, surprises you. “Not Jessy, or Thomas?” You shake your head. “Why?”

 “I didn’t want to worry them.” You shrug. “After everything else with Richy, and you finding Hannah, I didn’t-” You swallow against the lump in your throat. “I didn’t want them to worry about someone else being in danger.” 

 “But someone else was in danger, (Y/N).” Your eyes close against the harsh truth of the words, and you force yourself not to respond. “Jake Donfort was in danger.”

 “I don’t know who that is.” You lie. You open your eyes again. Sitting before you is still Chief of Police Alan Bloomgate, this time looking much more sympathetic. He nods. “I don’t, Alan. I don’t know who Jake Donfort is.”

 “I believe you, (Y/N).” He pauses, making sure to hold your eye contact. “I think that’s all we need from you, now. End of interview.” The click of the recorder puncuated the following silence. You stare at Alan in confusion. 

 “What-”

 “You should get some rest, (Y/N).” He fixes you with a stern look. “You’ve had an emotional night.” You nod. “Do you have somewhere to stay?” You nod again, though this time it’s a lie. You didn’t think about what would happen after the mines. You didn’t think about anything but getting to Jake. “Miss Hawkins is outside.” 

 That grabs your attention. “Jessy is here?” Alan nods, collecting the files and paperwork from the interrogation table in front of you. “I’ve been told she refused to leave when she learned you were being detained for questioning.” You manage a small laugh. “She’s worried. Perhaps you should stay with her tonight. I’m sure the motel will keep your booking.” And something in his voice tells you he knew you were lying. 

 “Yeah, thanks.” You agree, finally standing from your chair. It bothers you, though. The fact that he didn’t push you about Jake. About knowing him. “Detective Bloomgate-”

 “It doesn’t matter, (Y/N).” He cuts you off again. “No one could have-” He pauses, seeming to think over his words. “I’m sorry. But no one could have survived that fire. And even if he could, those shafts were unstable before the fire. I can’t imagine thier state now.” He shakes his head, sighing to himself. “I’m sorry. I truly am. But he’s gone. It doesn’t matter if you knew him on record or not. Jake Donfort is dead.”

 He’s right, and you know it, but you don’t understand. You can’t understand how this could be happening. 

 I don’t know how I got here.

[thevoidstaredback]

We're watching Let There Be Carnage today, bois!!

This would be so much more enjoyable if my prescription wasn't going out....

Also. 'Cletus'? Who names their kid that? I refuse to believe there are really people named Cletus. Just like there are no babies named Bob.

Maybe don't taunt the pretty lady with the badass scar and the supersonic scream...

Eddie!

Venom's a mood. I love him.

He's so nice to Eddie.

Eddie, my dear, we both know that Cletus is shady af.

I want Venom's ability to draw!

Why did you have to go piss off Cletus? We know he's shady. I don't care if he calls you his friend, he's not.

Eddie called Venom abusive!

Chickens do have tiny brains. It's funny.

Good job setting boundaries, Eddie.

Poor Venom, stuck eating chickens.

Calm your tits, though, my dear.

He's like a puppy dog when Anne calls!

Golden Retriever energy.

Poor Eddie, though, being forced to take a phone call while dangling from a roof...

I love the dichotomy of what Eddie's saying vs. what Venom is saying. It's really funny.

"I'm going to make you cry now. Cry. Cry!"

Cletus just called you "Paly, pal" in a letter to invite you to watch him die. Listen to Venom. Do not go to his death sentence!

"You feel like home to me." That's mildly concerning.

Hello, Carnage.

It's cute that Eddie thinks he can beat Venom in a fight.

It's cute that Venom thinks he can kick Eddie out of his own apartment.

His bike!

Hello, Carnage!!

Bullets aren't working. Maybe, idk, crazy idea: Stop firing?

Cletus escapes. Knocks on Eddie's door. Eddie opens door. Fucking idiot. It's the chief of police, but still-

Eddie, Cletus is gonna be gunning for your head on a pike. You don't open the door when someone is coming for your head!

"I am out of the Eddie Closet!" Honey. Sweetie...Babe.

I can appreciate Cletus's taste in cars. That's a nice car he stole, smh.

Venom thinks this rave is for him and everyone else is too drunk to correct him and are just going along with it. The only people not too drunk are too scared.

No! He died!

Eddie, you fucking idiot. You are not invincible anymore. Do not go to the creepy ass mansion!! You'll die!

Dad says I can't drive like Cletus.....😞

Don't taunt the pretty lady with the badass scar and the supersonic scream!

Awwww! They're together again!

He's so soft with her! He even stole her dream car!🥰

Prof. X would be horrified by Francis' treatment.

Eddie really just pulled "I can fix him!" when talking about Venom.

Poor Dan.

Aw! Cletus is inviting Eddie to his wedding!

Now Anne understands the dichotomy of having Venom in her head! Poor Dan is stuck watching this all go down.

Again, mister cop, sir. Bullets aren't working. Stop firing and run.

She has a beautiful dress. I love it very much. Cletus could've matched better.

The priest looks terrified. Poor Anne.

Venom! Perfect timing.

"Death to you, father!" "No!" "Not you, father. You father!" Patricide at its finest.

Eddie looks scared out of his mind. Venom doesn't wanna deal with his kid.

Carnage! You can't just slap people!

"Time to die!" "That's the spirit!" "I mean us. We are going to die."

Poor father just got called a power up

Maybe going to higher ground was not the decision, mister cop man sir...

Good job, Dan!

Shit, now he's a target.

"Manno a Manno", Cletus? There's a ringing bell! Missed opportunity to say "For whom the bell tolls" but whatever.

Filicide!

He said the thing! Carnage said the movie title!

Patricide!

FB Is going down screaming!!

Oof. Crushed by a bell...

Goodbye, Cletus. Goodbye, Carnage.

Wait.

Filicide. Venom ate Carnage. Yucky

Cletus just wanted a friend.....

Venom says no. He ate his head.

He's got his toes in the sand! He doesn't have hair, though...

"...When you love someone..." I see you, Venom. Eddie sees you, too!

I am so fucking excited for Along Came A Spider to come out!!! Words cannot describe-!

(I swear I've seen a trailer and an announcement for it. Unless I hallucinated it......I'll cry if that's the case)

[fujunfuren]

I watched all the released episodes! It's saddening though.... It took me days to finish episode 1. I thought with this level of interest, I would slowly watch it and see the end casually. But now, there is no more episode to watch! Haha "everyone is sus". I'm in this mood, too, but I was easily distracted by the story/characters. Although some people were sus, I let them go. Thankfully I'm not as idiot as the ones in the police station (especially that annoying bastard who interrogated Jeong Woo 10 years ago). Do you have any guesses on the actress? The amount of devotion she shows seemed dangerous to me. People don't talk much about Dan Oh. I think her case will be the second half's topic. Do you have any guess about the murders? And lastly, is there anything you specially like in this drama?

im just sooo devastated for jeongwoo the whole village owes him soo muchhhhhh. i started with low hopes (actually waited so long since the announcement of the cast lol but we keep it low to avoid disappointment) and I want more every other week. just caught up to the latest ep 8 and omggggg can they alll just jkddhafdfskajlsa. the people in the police station...gosh where do i start. seriously if sangcheol didnt join the team as new chief, there is really little to no hope of anything. that annoying bastard have a special place in hell, he just wanted to close the case that time.

i am reallyyyyy suspicious of the actress friend and she's soo stalkerish and obsessed with jeongwoo. i'm sorry girlie, the guy had no feelings for you then and now and if you're really his friend, you should have helped him to uncover the truth not force him to forget and move on. you are right, they'll prob find Da-eun's bones sooon.

geon-oh/sun-oh's dad, the doctor (assemblywoman's husband) are still very suspicious. like literally the whole village are some sort of complicit to the case goshhh

1 of the things that I admire is jeongwoo's character. he went through shit but when he reconnected with his "friends", he treats like them like he always did. and i liked how they uncover things, it's not too predictable. giving a tiny bit of beyond evil, so i love it.

[lovelahela]

𝐢𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤  ↠  𝖎𝖙 𝖑𝖎𝖛𝖊𝖘 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓  [day six, @it-lives-week​]

❛ the power is back, and it’s more powerful than ever. you must band together and defeat it once and for all... or die trying. ❜

n.b. i’m basing this off my ilitw mc taking jane’s place and everyone survived in both ilitw and ilb, so some plot points are interchangeable. plus, ilitw and ilb mcs’ characteristics are obviously interchangeable depending on how you played in your own playthroughs/how you have written them.

significant characters.

         ↠ (DETERMINANT) mc: it lives within main character [LI: determinant]. possible faces to choose from: caucasian, south asian, middle eastern, latina,  african. sexuality is determinant. nerve subject to change.

         ↠ (F) marisol reyes: it lives in the woods main character [LI: noah marshall]. filipina. bisexual. nerve subject to change.

         ↠ (F) harper vance: it lives beneath main character [LI: tom sato] african-american. pansexual. nerve is not subject to change if your mc survived ilb.

         ↠ (NB) jamie mcleod: it lives within side character [LI: mc or andy kang]. singaporean, irish. pansexual, demisexual. nerve subject to change.

         ↠ (F) sun-hee ‘sunny’ pong: it lives within side character [LI: mc or dan pierce]. south korean. bisexual. nerve subject to change.

         ↠ (M) okeyo ‘oak’ liao: it lives within side character [LI: mc or jocelyn wu]. kenyan, chinese. bisexual. nerve subject to change.

         ↠ (F) jocelyn wu. it lives in the woods + it lives within side character [LI: mc or okeyo liao]. pansexual. nerve is not subject to change.

romance.

         ↠ so i don’t know if this is gonna make sense but like in the game harvest moon, you can choose to/accidentally activate “heart events” that set your LI up with a different character, so i thought it would be a cool change for you to see an LI option end up with someone else if you don’t romance them. would probably be paywalled though, kind of like grace/aleister in endless summer.

         ↠ jaimie would not have intimate scenes until the second half of the book if mc has established a strong relationship with them.

plot points.

the plot isn’t complete, these are just some ideas i had in mind. i may change some or even all of them when i write my it lives 3 au.

          ↠ [this piece of information is not revealed until late into the story] noah ends up finding a ritual that allows him to bring marisol back, on the condition that he would have to give his soul up to the power after six months and take her place. 

         ↠ in the midst of arguing with his former westchester friend group after revealing his face to them to propose an alliance in order to put a stop to the power, they are interrupted by marisol entering the room, looking and wearing exactly the same as she had on homecoming night, dazed and confused.

         ↠ noah, having thought the ritual hadn’t worked, is just as shocked beyond belief as the rest of them. it is then concluded that marisol does not remember a single thing during her three years as jane’s replacement (though memories come back to her in bits and pieces through nightmares and flashbacks throughout the story), and believes it is still homecoming night and the last thing she remembers is speaking to jane. they do their best to ease her into the fact that 3 years have passed.

         ↠ the main character’s parents were members of the society prior to their death, but they were away for college during the events of it lives beneath. upon hearing of their deaths, they move temporarily to pine springs, and notice that something was off with the quaint town.

         ↠ they take it upon themselves to investigate further into this and later discover the society by following one of its few remaining members into a forest. they are kidnapped, then immediately recognized as the child of their highly esteemed comrades, so they then decide to go easier on them and explain everything about the cult and their parents’ place in it.

         ↠ they are interrupted when a group of strangers [it lives beneath main group] bust their operation and the chief of police ends up hauling off what they then believed to be the last remaining members of the society into jail. meanwhile, tom, imogen, danni, and harper reveal what they had left out about josephine vance and the power that once lived in the lake.

         ↠ the main character, harboring bitter anger towards their parents’ greed for the power and how it got them killed, is immediately motivated to put a stop to it, so they are introduced to connor green, whom tom knew was organizing a group to fight against the supernatural force. together, they move to a town they suspected contained it: northbury, oregon - which was equidistant from westchester and pine springs, both of which were an hour away. 

         ↠ the main character is introduced to the westchester group, including marisol and jocelyn; however, only connor, noah, jocelyn, dan, noah, and andy had decided to move to northbury. the rest decided to remain in their respective towns since they weren’t far away anyway. 

         ↠ in an attempt to blend in with the locals and gain information about the recent disappearances simultaneously, MC makes it their mission to get to know the most significant current residents of northbury that ava cunningham and parker shaw had pulled up information about: jamie mcleod (the younger sibling of one of the missing victims), lawrence khan (northbury’s chief of police), jiao-long liao (occult studies professor at northbury university), and sun-hee pong (a college student who had been caught trespassing on properties including the homes of the missing victims multiple times, and the daughter of one of the missing).

         ↠ upon their arrival, more people start to go missing, and the gang discover that northbury has had a much darker past than westchester and pine springs combined. disappearances date back decades, and the rates are alarmingly high for a town that appeared to be bustling with residents. a local conspiracy blog/forum exposes numerous reports of dead animals cut in a ritualistic/sacrificial manner, sightings of a dark humanoid figure wandering in the trees at night, and rumors of a secret underground cave full of occult symbols drawn with blood on the walls, dust-coated skeletons, and a myth surrounding an ancient monster that was offered sacrifices by its people unknowingly. 

         ↠ honestly this is all i have planned so far lmao but a few more things i had in mind were: (A) there could be a bad ending where they don’t defeat the power, meaning noah’s soul is claimed and he becomes the new redfield (B) if the power is defeated noah gets to stay alive and ends up with marisol, goes to culinary school, all that good stuff (C) i was thinking that even some characters without nerve could have multiple fates depending on how the story goes and who lives, like connor and jocelyn, and maybe it could be dependent on the nerve of others that way the stakes are higher and you’re more motivated to keep the nerve high. e.g. if MC’s nerve is low and they can’t complete a certain task that could save others, jocelyn ends up doing it instead and dies in the process.

so yeah this is mainly what i have in mind for an it lives 3 book! i hope PB change their mind one day and revisit it because it’s truly their best series.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 6, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) backed down from his obstructionism, agreeing to let the Democrats raise the debt ceiling by a simple majority rather than by the 60 votes they needed when the Republicans kept filibustering their bills.

A quick recap: the issue at stake was whether the United States would default on its debts, which it has never done before. The threat to default was purely a political ploy on the part of the Republicans to try to force the Democrats to abandon their very popular infrastructure measure.

Here’s the backstory: Congress actually originally intended the debt ceiling to enable the government to be flexible in its borrowing. In the era of World War I, when it needed to raise a lot of money fast, Congress stopped passing specific revenue measures and instead set a cap on how much money the government could borrow through all of the different instruments it used.

Now, though, the debt ceiling has become a political cudgel because if it is not raised when Congress spends more than it has the ability to repay, the country will default on its debts. The cap has been raised repeatedly since it was first imposed; indeed, the Republicans raised it three times under former president Donald Trump. Once again, it is too low, and by October 18, the Treasury will be unable to pay our debts.

To meet the nation’s obligations, Congress needs either to raise taxes, which Republicans passionately oppose, or to raise the debt ceiling so the Treasury can borrow more money. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has voted to raise or suspend the debt ceiling 32 times in his career, including the three times under Trump, refused to allow Republicans to vote to raise the debt ceiling.

Although the ceiling needed to be lifted because Trump added $7.8 trillion to the debt (which now stands at about $28 trillion), in part with the huge 2017 tax cuts that went overwhelmingly to the wealthy, McConnell tried to tie the need for more money to the Democrats’ infrastructure plan. This was false: the debt ceiling is not an appropriation; it simply permits the government to borrow money it needs to pay debts already incurred.

But McConnell and the Republicans want to dismantle an active government, not to build it. They hope to convince Americans that Democrats are racking up huge debts—even though it is the Republicans on the hook for today’s crisis—and that they should not be permitted to pass a bill that supports children and working parents and addresses climate change.

The Democrats insisted that the Republicans should join them in raising the ceiling, since they had been instrumental in making it necessary, but McConnell and his caucus refused. Finally, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warning that defaulting would crash the economy and with financial services firm Moody’s Analytics warning that a default would cost up to 6 million jobs, create an unemployment rate of nearly 9%, and wipe out $15 trillion in household wealth, the Democrats tried to pass a measure themselves.

Republicans wouldn’t let them. They filibustered it, trying to force the Democrats to save the country by raising the debt ceiling through a bill that can’t be filibustered, a process called reconciliation, which would make it harder for them to use reconciliation for their own infrastructure bill since Congress can pass only one of that type of reconciliation bill per year.

It was a remarkably cynical ploy, risking the financial health of the country and our standing in the world to make sure that a Republican minority could continue to hamstring what the Democratic majority considers a priority. Republicans have played chicken with government shutdowns since the 1980s, refusing to pass measures to fund the daily operations of the government and thereby stopping paychecks and government operations.

But defaulting on our obligations was a whole new game of brinksmanship. The greatest international asset the U.S. has right now is its financial system. To bring that to its knees to score political points would be interpreted, correctly, as a sign our country is so unstable it must be sidelined.

Midday today, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin highlighted this international doubt when he took the unusual step of weighing in on politics. He warned that a default would “undermine the economic strength on which our national security rests.” Paychecks for 1.4 million active duty military personnel and veterans’ benefits for 2.4 million veterans, as well as payments on military contracts, would stop. Equally dangerous, defaulting on loans would devastate the nation’s international reputation "as a reliable and trustworthy economic and national security partner."

Democrats said they could not guarantee the country would not default, and they were clearly starting to consider getting rid of the filibuster, at least for this particular issue, to enable them to pass a debt ceiling bill by a simple majority rather than by 60 votes.

Then McConnell blinked (although he didn’t cave). In a scorching statement that laid all the blame for the crisis on the Democrats, he offered to “allow” Democrats to use normal procedures—that is, the Republicans won’t filibuster them!—to extend the ceiling into December. Democrats indicate they will take that deal.

There is one major takeaway from this manufactured crisis: McConnell was willing to come right to the verge of burning the nation down to get his way. In the end, he stopped just before the sparks became an inferno, but it was much too close for comfort.

Still, he stopped. Trump and his supporters did not. The former president has been pushing Republicans to use the threat of default to get what they want, and he was not happy that McConnell had backed down. He issued a statement blaming McConnell for “folding” and added “He’s got all of the cards with the debt ceiling, it’s time to play the hand.”

Trump’s willingness to burn down the country is ramping up as the January 6 investigation gets closer to him. Tomorrow is the deadline for four of his aides to respond to subpoenas for documents and testimony from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol: former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, adviser Steve Bannon, and Defense Department aide Kash Patel. Meadows worked to overturn the 2020 election results and was in the thick of things on January 6, Scavino had met with Trump to plot to get congresspeople not to count the certified votes on January 6, Bannon strategized with other officials on January 5 to stop the count, and Patel was part of discussions about the strength of the Capitol Police.

The four are expected to defy the subpoenas at Trump’s insistence, a defiance that suggests they think he and his people are going to regain power. According to Glenn Kirschner, a former U.S. Army prosecutor, contempt of Congress earns a year of prison time; obstruction of Congress, five years; and obstruction of justice, 20 years.

The rest of the former president’s statements today were unhinged attacks on the committee.

A final note for October 6: U.S. District Judge Robert L. Pitman has temporarily blocked enforcement of Texas’s S.B. 8, the so-called “heartbeat” bill prohibiting abortions after six weeks, when most women don’t know they’re pregnant. The Justice Department had sued to stop enforcement of the law. Pitman stopped it on the grounds that it deprived “citizens of a significant and well-established constitutional right.”

—

Notes:

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2021-10-06/pentagon-warns-of-national-security-fallout-from-debt-ceiling-crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/06/trump-aides-capitol-attack-house-select-committee

Glenn Kirschner @glennkirschner2Contempt of Congress - 1 year. If prosecutors bring obstruction of Congress charges - 5 years. Or obstruction of justice charges - 20 years. https://t.co/1UXtetgiMa@glennkirschner2 Glenn, how much jail time can they get for not answering supoenas?

Deeheart4 @Deeheart99

2,055 Retweets5,855 Likes

October 6th 2021

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/gop-sens-ready-to-blow-up-debt-crisis-in-nakedly-political-gambit

https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/show_temp.pdf

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-lawsuit-decision/2021/10/06/ae70d946-22e7-11ec-9309-b743b79abc59_story.html

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[rvmmm21]

. saviour .

summary : seungwan's walk to work is a dangerous one, joohyun knows that. she'll always be seungwan's hero. it's only to look out for her favourite secretary, after all.

small note : i was going to make this longer but my brain glitched, so it’s just here as a tentative one-shot.

tw : noncon, harrassment, physical intimidation.

[yandere!joyrene x secretary!wendy]

...

Her boss was her saviour.

…

It’s getting dark and she’s walking home from work, bundled up warm to keep out the winter chill. Her mind is on a nice, hot dinner and a relaxing bath after an incredibly stressful day. Gosh, it’s finally the weekend, and that means she’s taking full advantage of those forty-eight hours of ‘her’ time. Of course, that probably means binge-watching the latest episodes of her favourite drama with a tray of home baked ‘weekend muffins’ – strawberry shortcake! – and perhaps, if she’s feeling particularly tense, a short walk in the park. Playing secretary to the Chief Inspector attached to one of the busiest police stations in the city of Seoul is as hectic and draining as you’d imagine, and it often leaves her with little time to herself. So naturally, the highlight of everyday is the end of it, where she can actually sit and breathe.

Except, it’s a bit hard to even think about breathing now, because she’s ambushed just around the corner of the convenience store a few blocks away from her street.

“My, you are a pretty little thing, aren’t you?”

Seungwan isn’t sure when she started crying, but she’s beginning to curse herself for cracking at the first thing that came out of this stranger’s mouth. She really needs to learn not to look so weak. Especially not when she’s stuck with a woman who’s so tall, she has to look up at her while she’s pressed up against the wall of this perfectly deserted, perfectly claustrophobic alleyway.

No part of her wants to be stuck with any part of this… this villain, gorgeous as she is.

“Aw, don’t cry. What’s wrong, darling? You’re scared, huh...” The woman reaches up momentarily to wipe the tears streaming down her cheeks, leaning in a little too closely to do so. She has one arm against the wall beside Seungwan’s head, and the iniquitous laugh to top it all off.

Seungwan recognises her… vaguely. I mean everybody has eyes, a nose and a mouth, but the way they’re situated on the face in front of her just… she swears she’s seen that face somewhere, if only from hearing her boss rant about - oh no, oh my gosh. The posters, the meetings that were hastily wrapped up as soon as she opened the door to serve her superior her obligatory morning coffee. The woman holding her at knifepoint right now… is the felon Inspector Bae is currently gathering information on, trying to hunt down to keep behind bars.

This woman is top priority at the station. A criminal. Dangerous.

J-Julia?

Jay?

The name comes to her when a gloved hand reaches up to grab her jaw, forcing her chin up so she’s looking straight into glinting eyes.

Joy.

Seungwan tries her best not to make her terror known, but it’s a miserable failure. “Please,” she whispers hoarsely, too terrified to even beg at a normal pitch. “I’m just – I’m an assistant, I just bring the coffee, I don’t have anything important! They don’t tell me anything! I don’t know about the c-cases, Inspector Bae won’t even tell me her address, I have nothing you want, I – ach!”

A forearm across her throat stops her rambling. Hard bone digs into her windpipe, cutting off more than what she had originally wanted to say. Her hands reflexively shoot up to grasp at the appendage choking her, but she’s only shoved further into the stone whenever she tries to pry it away from her neck. “N-No… no i-information…” she weakly gurgles out, desperately trying to hit it home that she really isn’t of any use. “… h-have… nothing, p-please…”

“Shut up.” The woman threatens her before physically doing it, clamping tighter around Seungwan’s jaw and dissolving her verbal pleas into pleading whimpers. The smirk on those crimson lips is so much scarier than anything she’s said so far. “Silly girl, you have everything I want. I want to send a message. That’s what you’re for, isn’t it? What do you think, baby? Do you think your precious Inspector will stop bothering me if I send her cute little toy to work all messed up, hm?”

Seungwan doesn’t answer. She can’t, with how hard she’s sobbing, breathing still painfully restricted, and trying to curl further into herself. Kicking, punching and screaming for help crosses her mind all at once, but those thoughts are fizzled away by the reality of just dropping to her knees and begging this woman to have mercy on her. Tempting as those instincts are, however, she hasn’t time to act on any of them.

As soon as she’s sure she’s not leaving without at least one lovely, permanent scar, Joy is forcefully ripped away and thrown to the side. And as soon as Seungwan can take her first full breath of air, she’s bolting, instinctively getting as far away from that alley as she can. She only realises she’s been dragging her saviour along with her when two arms around her waist abruptly pull her backwards into a warm body. At this point, the poor girl is so confused that she just turns and buries her face into the front of whoever’s just answered her prayers.

A gentle hand comes up and strokes her hair as she shivers from the aftereffects of the ordeal. After a moment of silence, Seungwan dares to slowly glance up at her rescuer. When she meets those kind eyes, the tension almost immediately shreds away and it’s replaced with a small, fond sigh.

“I-Inspector B – ”

And then the voice corrects her with an awkward sternness. “I’m not in uniform, Ms. Son, please don’t address me like that. Joohyun is fine.”

Joohyun, right. The girl wants to correct her too, to tell her she’d much rather she be ‘Seungwan’ instead of ‘Ms. Son’, but she’s too busy being grateful to form any words other than the ‘thank you’ she thinks she’s repeated at least thirty times now.

“Oh dear, what’s this here?” The raven-haired woman brings a finger up to delicately brush Seungwan’s fringe to the side. The smaller girl can only stare at the shiny silver buttons on her black Burberry trench coat as she’s being inspected.

She winces and flinches back when a frigid draft brushes over the cut on her eyebrow, stinging it.

But Joohyun presses her closer. “No, no, it’s okay, let me see it. I can help.”

Obediently, Seungwan stills to allow her to assess the extent of the damage. A sigh of fatigue draws from her lips when Joohyun’s fingers trace over the small wound. The touch is light and comforting. Comforting enough for it to slip her mind that it’s very late at night and the leftovers sitting in her fridge are waiting to be reheated. That, and her direct superior is in front of her, holding her up while she studies her condition.

She shifts slightly to catch the other woman’s attention. “I’m fine… Joohyun, really.” The name sounds funny coming off like that. “We need to report this, I can come in tomorrow. That was – I think that was Joy – and if she’s in the area then you could be in dan – ”

The grip tightening around her waist is more than mildly inappropriate, but it’s successful in cutting her short. “Don’t worry about that, I’ll file the paperwork, you need to rest.”

Yet again, Seungwan tries to insist that reporting the incident sooner rather than later could be vital in capturing Joy, and that Joy’s arrest took precedence over a minor cut. But Joohyun remains resolute. “Come on,” she says, heaving one of Seungwan’s arms over her shoulder and curling the other around her waist, “I’ll walk you home, just tell me where to go. You could still be targeted. It’s not safe.”

The space between them is non-existent, and the room to compromise, even more so. Joohyun reaches over briefly to tuck Seungwan’s scarf back into her coat before they start walking, and the girl drops her gaze. The fright has worn off and it’s just now terribly embarrassing for her to even be in the presence of someone like Joohyun. I mean, she’s Chief Inspector Bae for god’s sake. She didn’t just get that title, all those gleaming medals and framed awards from twiddling her thumbs and sitting pretty at her desk all day.

It almost makes Seungwan feel like a liability.

If she can’t defend herself from one attacker, why is she even working as an assistant to a woman who hunts villains down for a living? How many times does she think Joohyun is going to be there to catch her when she falls?

But that’s just it.

She is so relieved at the fact she’s still alive, that she forgets to ask how her boss knew exactly where to find her.

…

Much later into the night, a familiar figure in a black trench coat re-enters the alleyway. It’s quiet, and empty. Even emptier than it had been when Seungwan was walking back earlier on, save for the dark, hooded silhouette on the far right, and the grating sound of steel against brick.

“Aaand she finally appears.” The hooded figure greets, sheathing her dagger. “Did your little secretary get home alright?”

Black trench coat scoffs, stepping into the darkness and doing her best not to seem offended. “Sooyoung, did you really have to be that rough? You gave our poor angel such a nasty looking cut. And you made her cry.”

This time, it’s Sooyoung’s turn to take a defensive tone, albeit slightly playful. “Hey, I followed the plan! Scare her, threaten a little… you know, all that bad-guy stuff.” She can’t help herself, she’s always like that with Joohyun: relentlessly teasing. The mockery in her voice alone should be enough for Joohyun to cuff her on the spot, but she knows she’ll never do it.

She’s learnt to tolerate every aspect of Sooyoung’s personality; endearingly annoying as they may be. Still, it doesn’t stop the sinister growl from her throat, despite the grin on her face. It gains the other woman’s full attention instantly.

“Aw, what’s the matter, Hyunnie? Afraid you won’t have any eye-candy at work for a while?” She slides over to her, casually poking the shorter woman in the ribs. There’s a beat of silence and then Sooyoung sticks her bottom lip out in a pout when she’s left hanging. “You think I took it too far, don’t you?”

Joohyun’s reply is a smile. The image of Seungwan trembling in her arms, looking up at her through those fluttering, innocent eyelashes after Sooyoung’s ‘ambush’ is reassurance enough that everything happened at the right time and at the right intensity. Seungwan had looked at her like her saviour. Sooyoung hadn’t overdone it.

Sooyoung takes a tentative step forward, even closer now. “Hyun…”

There’s a genuine gratitude in her voice when Joohyun speaks again. “Thank you, Sooyoung. Really, you did so good for me. For us.”

“No problem, unnie,” Sooyoung makes a show of giving her an exaggerated courtesy, the playful lilt surfacing once more. “It’s my duty, as your – ”

And she’s pulled into a kiss. Five fingers firmly twist into the lapels of her jacket and tug her down into a searing, passionate kiss against the same wall Seungwan was pinned to a few hours ago, where she cried her eyes out.

Joohyun pulls away roughly, lips swollen and tingling from the cold. She smirks when Sooyoung looks as glazed-over as she feels. Their heaving breaths create a thin, silvery fog between them, as Joohyun holds the taller woman’s gaze with ease.

“You are the best, Young-ah. I love you.”

[blackjack-15]

The Puzzle is Just the Italian Language — Thoughts on: The Phantom of Venice (VEN)

Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI, SHA, CUR, CLK, TRN, DAN, CRE, ICE, CRY

Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.

Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it. Like with all of the Odd Games, there will be a section between The Intro and The Title called The Weird Stuff, where I go into what makes this game stand out as a little strange.

If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraph above, along with links to previous metas.

These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: VEN, RAN.

The Intro:

From the French-inspired streets of New Orleans, Nancy jumps on a plane to Venice and is caught up in international espionage, theft, a mafia ring, and a cast of hostile suspects living in the same house as her.

Sounds a bit like my first semester of college, honestly. Minus the whole “Venice” and “international espionage” parts.

Coming directly after CRY, VEN isn’t quite as thick with atmosphere, doesn’t have any of its philosophy or thematic elements, and is really only famous for being set in Italy and for the fact that they hired four voice actors for our main cast sans regular characters (Colin, voiced by our good ol’ boy Jonah Von Spreecken, counts as a returning VA), but hired 6 distinct VAs for the singing gondoliers, most of whom the average player will never hear.

Yeah, VEN is kind of that type of game.

There’s a lot that makes VEN the trippy experience that it is – more on that immediately below – but nearly none of that makes VEN as confused as it is. Nancy’s hired by a foreign government – sort of – but there’s also a love line – sort of – a roommate story – sort of – and some touristy stuff like overpaying for flowers and gelato.

Taking place overseas, VEN might have been mistaken for a Jetsetting game if it weren’t for the fact that every bit of the game is permeated with the sense that nothing was quite thought out, nothing quite flows together, and there’s no emotional response in anyone – including the player.

That’s not to say that there’s nothing enjoyable about VEN; it’s one of the most highly memed games, in fact, with a catsuit, horrific fashion choices, and little laser roombas all making up the most memorable meme material (and that’s not even touching discount Justin Timberlake and his slides of seduction). It has strongly-painted characters (even if there’s a touch of the caricature about them), the return of recurring characters, the first appearance of a semi-recurring character, poisoned chocolates…it’s almost like someone tried to do STFD, but with a sprinkling of spies and Italy thrown in for good measure.

VEN can be a lot of fun, but it’s also a grind a lot of the time; the required puzzles can be ridiculous, for example, and, in a twist for Nancy Drew games, there’s a puzzle for everyone to hate, no matter if you dislike stealth games, card games, speed-reaction games, or even language puzzles.

Which brings us to the biggest problem with The Phantom of Venice: the common puzzle thread, the thing that keeps recurring, the ‘mission statement puzzle’…it’s just the Italian language. The game hinges on the idea that the player won’t know any Italian (or any Romance language, honestly), and that’s where the majority of the difficulty in the game (barring bad hand-eye coordination) comes from. It’s not a good thing at all, and it brings the entire game down with it.

Well, it has a little help. Let’s talk about the Roomba in the museum, shall we?

The Weird Stuff:

There’s a lot of things that are weird about VEN, no getting around it. But there’s one solid thing that makes it…well, Odd in the way that the other Odd games are qualified, and that’s this one simple fact:

This is a Hardy Boys mystery, with Nancy clumsily inserted in instead of Frank and Joe.

Think about it; called in by a foreign government, espionage, nearly drowning, contacts in the government and police force, an Italian crime ring…these are all things straight out of a Hardy Boys novel, not a Nancy Drew novel. There is a Nancy Drew book titled The Phantom of Venice, true enough, but this game doesn’t bear any resemblance to it besides, well, Venice itself. You could swap out Nancy with the boys and the whole game could go on, minus the whole ‘keepsake necklace from Ned’ thing, and depending on what you ship, even that might fly under the radar.

And no, I didn’t forget the dancing in a catsuit thing. Pure comedy right there.

Nancy’s a homegrown detective; most of her cases are ‘small thing spirals into bigger thing’. It’s not that she doesn’t deal in espionage, at times in foreign places, or stumble upon a crime ring. It’s just that that’s not the type of thing Nancy’s called in for, it’s the type of thing she trips over halfway into a lower-stakes mystery.

The Hardy Boys, however, because of their father’s contacts (in the novels) and their position in ATAC (in the games) are exactly the kind of people that work with police chiefs and security experts and foreign spies and the like. It’s very nearly their bread and butter. Which is why I have a wild but not out-of-the-way wacky sorta-serious theory. Bear with me:

This game was designed as a Hardy Boys game, and Nancy really was clumsily inserted in with a few weeks to spare.

At this point in history – the far-behind time of July 2008, as the Great Recession was descending, the fury of an election year was coming to a head, and you couldn’t go to a supermarket or clothes store in America without hearing OneRepublic tell you that it was just a little too late to apologize – HER wasn’t doing badly, per se, but they certainly weren’t doing as well as they could have been. They weren’t that far from having had to majorly upgrade their engine for a rapidly changing technological world, and there seemed to be no end in sight. HER had plenty of staff change-ups coming because of new sponsors, but weren’t making enough simply with what they had.

Put simply, they needed a carrot. And what better carrot than the fan-favorite Hardy Boys?

There are two Hardy Boys games put out around this time: The Perfect Crime and The Hidden Theft. While neither one was done by Her Interactive, there was a HER Hardy Boys game in the works: the DS masterpiece Treasure on the Tracks. The audience for a Hardy Boys game was meant to be young boys/teenaged boys, but the side audience expected was fans of the Nancy Drew books and games.

So while I know logically that Phantom of Venice was just the latest in a  line of ‘adulted-up’ Nancy Drew books (and games), in my head it makes much more sense to say that it was supposed to be a Hardy Boys game meant to promote Treasure on the Tracks and HER got nervous and pulled the plug, stuffing their erstwhile teen detective in instead.

The Title:

As far as a title goes, The Phantom of Venice isn’t a bad one; you can tell it comes from the ‘hotter and sexier’ Nancy Drew books, and as a collection of words, it works rather well. It’s an evocative title, giving us our location, our crime (‘phantom thieves’ are common as a type of thief), and doesn’t say too much else, so as to not spoil the mystery.

As a title for this game, however…well, so little of the actual game deals with the Phantom that it’s rather non-indicative as a title. By the time you’re 16 Scopa games deep and are wearing a sparkly red dress with a cat mask and sneakers around Italy, you’ve pretty much forgotten about the Phantom and are more worried about exactly what happened to the pigeon you used as a messenger and why exactly flowers and gelato cost so much for 2008.

The Phantom of Venice just…deserved a better, more cohesive, more…well, phantom-y game than it got. That’s all.

Now, onto the mystery!

The Mystery:

Nancy’s been called in by the Secret Italian Police because a thief has been stealing art.

No, really, I’m being serious.

Sure, Prudence Rutherford has a hand in getting her called in, but basically Nancy goes from small-time cases, sometimes getting her name in the papers, to called in by the Italian Secret Police.

Caught up at a house where no one likes her (understandable, given that she just Appears one day, forced on the Ca’s owner, Margherita Fauborg, and her residents at the Ca’), Nancy soon becomes embroiled in a mystery most foul when she discovers ties to the art thief – or thieves – right around the Ca’, poisoned sausages and message-laden chocolate boxes, and shades and shades and shades of tiles offered by the Ca’s resident nerd.

Soon, Nancy is juggling police contacts, heists, Scopa games, and the impersonation of a world-class spy just to give the Italian police a hint as to who might be stealing Venice’s greatest artworks. It gets personal, however, when the Phantom Thief himself shows up, stealing Nancy’s locket which she’s just been given by Ned.

Oh, and did I mention that the whole thing is told in media res? Yeah, very, very weird choice right there.

Honestly speaking, the mystery isn’t…bad, per se. It’s got solid bones – art theft, mysterious thieves, romantic location, interesting-seeming suspects, some spy shenanigans. The problem with VEN’s mystery, largely, is that there just isn’t any cartilage to connect those good bones. Without something to hold it all together, it just kind of falls apart – exactly like a skeleton without cartilage.

Simply put, there’s a lot of mystery, but no plot to carry the mystery along.

The Suspects:

Beginning with Margherita Fauborg, the tanning-obsessed matriarch of the Ca’ Nacosta, seems like a good place to start. Dismissive of Nancy, tourists, and Nancy being a ‘tourist’, Margherita prefers to stay on top of her house tanning the day away rather than take part in any shenanigans.

Having Margherita not be a member of the ring was almost as inspired as having Helena lead it; she’s not nice, does suspicious things, is entirely self-centered – but she’s not a villain, nor does the game really pretend that she is for more than a second. I really like characters like this in the Nancy Drew games, who are honestly just People not enamored with the teen detective, but aren’t villains just because of that.

Also, the story of her husband’s death is just incredibly hilarious.

Her half-ward, half-employee Colin Baxter, on the other hand, is anything but dismissive of Nancy. He’s part of the ‘kinda crushing on Nancy’ club, but is Far less beloved than any other member of that club. It comes from his inherent creepiness, criminal record, and love for tile slides, I think.

Colin, as a suspect…well, he’s just there to make the numbers add up. It’s a shame that his largest utility is to show Margherita’s slightly unscrupulous nature, but he should have been kept as perhaps a figure that Nancy could call to get the story, rather than an in-person suspect.

The other person staying at the Ca’ is Helena Berg, fulfilling the HER mandate for having a German villain in their European games. Having Helena be the mastermind of the ring is a pretty good plot point, honestly, as I expected the first time for her to just be part of it, and to have that be the Big Surprise.

She’s also one of the few villains who promises revenge on Nancy and/or is still out there. I know it would have been Way too soon to have Helena be the returning culprit in RAN rather than Dwayne, but honestly she was a better candidate for it. While any hope of a good ND game (and mostly any game, honestly) is pretty far from me, I always hoped one day Helena would return in all her platinum blonde glory.

Enrico Tazza is our most encountered (kind of) and outwardly suspicious suspect, but he’s not exactly…well, scary. He makes Nancy-as-Samantha play a card game with him, then disappears, despite being the Preeminent Villain Face for the first half of the game.

I do love Tazza, however, just for his presence in the game. He’s cartoony, fun, well-acted…he’s just great. And as a potential villain, he’s great too! You’re never meant to doubt that he’s a ‘baddie’, you’re just meant to go along for the ride. Excellent.

Finally, Antonio Fango is the most prominent suspect that you’ll ever completely forget the name of, due to his lack of screen time despite being the Italian Police’s favorite suspect. He has a whole convoluted backstory involving multiple colleges and degrees, but really he’s just the communication go-fer for Helena’s theft ring.

As a villain…well, Fango does his part, but due to being a nigh-unseen suspect, he’s really just not very memorable. He’s like most of the ring – necessary to establish the numbers, but other than that, a non-entity.

The Favorite:

Despite the plot holes wide enough to steer a gondola through, there are a few things that really make VEN stand out.

The first is Samantha Quick; originally a stage name suggestion from Simone in FIN, she shows up as an actual character in VEN, albeit only by phone and shadow. Her pissed-off phone call to Nancy is a highlight of the game, especially as she ends with the vaguely threatening line “say hi to Ned for me”. Her shadow at the end in Colin’s window is the final clinch to make SQ a personal favorite of mine, and her presence (and the feeling of her presence, which is sort of different) is a high point in the game.

The location of the game is another plus; not so much Venice, but the Ca’ Nacosta itself. It’s a wonderful ‘home base’ location for any Nancy Drew game, filled with light, staircases, and pretty impressive stonework given that just a few short games ago, everything looked like it was animated out of melted gummy bears.

My favorite puzzle(s) are the chess puzzles, honestly. I just kind of like chess puzzles to begin with, and it’s a nice respite from forcing pigeons to do your bidding and avoiding various foods.

My favorite moment in the game is honestly the Samantha Quick shadow, but if I had to pick another moment, it’s where Nancy implies that she’s stripping for money, and Ned just replies that he’ll be really glad when she’s back home safe in the States. It’s such a random, hilarious thing to happen, and Ned’s complete underreaction to the idea of Nancy earning money in such a way (as she makes it sound way worse than it actually is) is what really sells it.

The Un-Favorite:

There are some un-favorites as well, however, that drag down the game to the place it currently resides.

The first is…well, the location and the means used to get Nancy there. As much as I have no problem with Venice, this attempt to open up the world makes little sense when you consider that there’s no way the Italian Secret Police would hinge their hopes on a small-time 18 year old American detective, no matter how highly Prudence spoke of her.

The jumbled plot (when there is a plot, at least) is another point against VEN; the writers just didn’t know what to do with Nancy being in Venice, and so just…didn’t do anything with it.

I also dislike that this game happens in media res. There’s no real reason to do it – and it makes any actions that the player takes that’s slightly apart from the ‘main plot’ – gondola rides, ice cream, looking at slide after slide after slide – seem incredibly out of place and borderline inappropriate. At the very least, if the Hardy Boys were part of the game, they could be yelling her name as she began to drown, which would give a sense of urgency that’s missing from the confused opening.

My least favorite puzzle…well, that brings me to a huge problem: every puzzle in this game is based around the fact that it’s in Italian, and they expect no one playing this to even have an idea of Italian (or any romance language). It boils down to this: the puzzle is just the Italian language, and they have nothing else up their sleeves. I don’t have a least favorite puzzle, because apart from a select few, they’re all the same puzzle, wrapped in slightly different clothing.

The Fix:

So how would I fix The Phantom of Venice?

Coming off of CRY, we’ve now had two games with two (or three) player characters, so that’s what I’d start with doing. Include the Hardy Boys, who have been called on by the Italian Secret Police because of their work with ATAC. They’re helping the mystified police track down this ring of thieves when Nancy mentions offhand that Prudence Rutherford is recommending a stay at a Ca’ in Venice whose owner owes her a favor (as a treat/vacation). Upon hearing this, the Hardy Boys ring her up and ask her help, as they’ve stalled out. They’re not allowed to come into physical contact with Nancy (to save money on animating them/Nancy), but they want her to investigate from her end, as she won’t be suspected at all.

The real reason the Italian Police let the Hardy Boys get her involved, of course, is that they need someone to impersonate Samantha Quick, and they’re having a rough time with their Joe-in-a-wig tests. They need an American who can convincingly pull off the act, and the brothers mention Nancy’s stints undercover. Desperate enough to grasp at anything, Nancy’s officially in.

That along would help beef up the plot, as suddenly we have an actual police plotline with the Hardy Boys (playing as one or the other, it doesn’t matter, or maybe both with different ‘jobs’ to do as one or the other). Diving the suspects is a good idea too; Nancy would take Helena and Tazza as her primary suspects (of course, only Tazza would be the ‘primary’ at the beginning), while the Hardy Boys handled Fango and his side of the ring.

The final puzzle (with the flashlights and such), especially, makes more sense as a Hardy Boys sort of thing. Nancy can snoop around the market and the Ca’, discovering clues as to Helena’s guilt and such. The Hardy Boys take down the ring, but Nancy takes down Helena.

I would also give Nancy a better reason to be undercover at the dance club. It’s a weird little minigame to be sure, but if it’s gonna exist in the game, there should be a better reason. Even better, take it out and have her solve puzzles – something other than the Italian Language, mind you – in order to get money from the police or something.

(Even better, take out the money thing, as someone helping the Police and pretending to be a spy should not be or appear to be short on funds.)

The last big change I’d do is to take Ned out (sorry, Ned, but there’s really no reason for you to be in this game) and swap him for Carson. Carson really should be in a few more games than he is as it stands, and this is a great way to bring in the fact that…well, Carson can’t be entirely Comfortable with the direction that Nancy’s life is going, even if he is proud of her.

Most of the time, Nancy’s family and friends are just used to say “and she’s ‘normal’ and loved and supported even though she’s never home”, and I think using them to establish her character and the stakes is a far better use of these pre-existing characters.

[optimistic-dinosaur-nacho]

could you make a call platonic! andy barber imagine? the reader is an officer and is andy’s best friend. the reader is the one to arrest jacob and they get into an argument about it. it would be great if you could do that and you can also change it up a bit if you’d like but that’s just a summary (you can also decide wether you want them to make up or not) -ty 🙂

Platonic!Andy Barber x Fem!Reader

Thanks for dropping in and your request! It really means a lot. 

Warnings: Angst, Language

~~~

The morning had just started and you were gonna stop by a friends house before you go into work. You stopped by the cafe to grab a few cups of coffee before driving over in a police car.

You pulled up and saw someone step out. Taking the coffees you walked up and noticed it was Jacob. “Good morning, Jacob,” You spoke. The boy stops and shoves his hands in his pockets and forced a smile.

“Hey,” He says, you looked around, “Is your parents still home?” You asked. He nods his head, “Yeah, they are.”

You smiled at him, “Do you need a ride to the school? If you give me a second I can take you-”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll take the trail. Thank you. See...See ya,” He says. You grinned at him as he walks down the street and you walked up to the porch. Andy and Laurie were good parents. You never doubted them once. Andy was your friend for a long time. You probably knew him more than Laurie did. Which you didn’t brag about.

You reached the red door and knocked on it. 

It took a few minutes before someone opened the door. “Y/N,” Laurie sounded surprise, she looked almost frightened. You smiled, “Hey, Laurie. I just wanted to come by, see how you guys are doing. You know...” You shrug.

Andy comes in view over Laurie’s shoulder and his face drops, “Hi,” He said. Laurie smiles, “Do you want to come in?”

“Sure, I can’t stay for long but I just went by the cafe and grabbed you guys coffee?” You showed them the cups and they both grinned. “Thank you, please come in.” You walked in and placed the tray on the counter. 

Andy was in his usual suit and tie. You smiled at him, “I’m sorry to hear about Ben. I only saw him once or twice around the school.” Andy nods and hung his head low.

“We barely knew the parents and Ben but... it’s hard,” He says. You nod, “I hope Jacob is doing good, how was he?”

Laurie looks at Andy, her arms were crossed, “He’s doing okay. At least what he said.” 

You nod again. “Well... if there’s anything I can do. I’ll do it. I should head back to the station.” Andy nods, “I was gonna go there. Once you get there, I’ll be in a few minutes. I got to drop something off,” Andy looks at Laurie again and you smiled.

“Sure. I guess I’ll see you there. Bye, Laurie.”

“Bye, honey. Thanks for the coffee,” She says. You smiled, “Of course.” You gave Andy one last glance before heading out the house over to your car. Turning on your car, you glanced at the house one last time before driving down the street over to the station.

.

You stopped in the front and hopped out, meeting Pam Duffy. “Officer L/N,” She says.

“Duffy.”

She grins at you before taking you up the station, “We got a guy, named Leonard Patz. He might be tied to the case, but we’re unsure.”

“Who asked for him?”

“Your friend. Andy,” You look over to mention of his name. Pam opens the door for you, giving her a small thanks as you walked in. You let Pam go first when someone called you over. “I’ll be up there in a minute,” You said, Pam nods and goes up the stars.

.

“Y/N. You made it,” The man says, you stood by and looked at the cameras with the guy. 

“What’s his deal?” You asked.

“He’s assaulted a kid in the library, grabbed his junk and so here we have him here,” He replied, “Grabbed him from his work.” You look up to him and he looked very uncomfortable. Like a dog with its tail between its legs. 

You hear someone walk in and Andy comes in, “Morning.” The man in the chair nods, “Hey, morning.” Andy drops his jacket on the chair, “How’s it going?” He asked.

“Well, they got him to admit to being in the park the morning of. And that’s it so far.” Andy glanced at you, “How’s your morning so far?” He asked with a grin.

You sighed, “Long, but we’re getting there.” Andy smiles at you and his eyes dart over to the door causing you to look over.

“L/N, we just got called in for that search in the park. You coming?” The officer asked. You straightened up, “Yeah. I’m coming.” 

Andy looks over to you, “You’re on the search?” He asked.

You shrugged, “They’re mostly calling all officers in for it, so you’re going after... this. I’ll be there.” He nods with a grin. “I’ll see you there then.” You smiled as you walked away. Andy watched you disappear from his view.

.

“Officer L/N, the cop we’ve all been waiting for,” An officer calls, you walked over with a grin. “Anything yet?” You asked, the man looks around to the group of people with bright orange jackets. 

“Not much, yet, but we still have time.”

You look out to the forest and saw them kicking and bending over through the leaves looking for weapons or any signs of evidence they could use. You watched them, waiting for someone to blow the whistle. 

The K9 also in the search, sniffing through the brush. 

“Well, well, well... Look who came,” Someone says, you look over and spotted Andy’s black Audi car. You walked up as he stopped the car and rolled the window down. 

He leaned over to see you. “Hey, Andy,” You say. He smiles at you, “Any luck so far?”

You sighed, “Not yet, but we still have daylight left.” He looks around and glances at you, “Okay if I hang out here?” You held your hand up and dropped it, “Wherever you want.”

“I’ll just block your car in,” He jokes grinning at you. You smiled, “You do that, I might have to tow your car, Mr. Barber.” He smiles and rolls his window up, leaving you with a grin as he finds himself a spot in the road.

“You and Barber?” Dave asked, you walked over, “What about us?” You asked.

He grins, “Nothing.” You looked over and scoffed, “Whatever you’re thinking you’re stupid. I think you got the wrong coffee, Dave. Making you see things. Him and I are friends, don’t get any ideas.”

Dave holds his hands up and grinned, “I wasn’t even thinking.” Andy comes up with his hands in his pockets. He grinned up at you, “Morning, guys.”

“Mr. Barber,” Dave says.

Andy stands by you and he looks over, “Anything on Patz?” You asked. He looks out to the forest, “Duff’s saying he may not be the one but they’re just not looking hard enough.”

You tilt your head, “Well, maybe give it a few days. Once we find that knife, we’ll find out who it is.” You felt Andy shuffle next to you and sighed.

You all waited for something to be found or happen.

Andy was leaning on the car as you all waited. You glanced over your shoulder and spotted someone walking up. You leaned off it, “Is that Rifkin’s father?” Andy turns and follows your gaze.

Andy walks over to him and you watched from the distance. Dan Rifkin was Ben’s father, the kid who was murdered. He looked like he was upset, crying. You didn’t like that how tensed him and Andy were.

You could barely hear them but you knew it wasn’t good when Dan walked away and Andy immediately pulled out his phone.

Who was he calling?

You see him put down the phone and you walked over. “Andy? What happened?” You asked, looking over to Dan storming away. “I have to go,” He said.

You followed him, “Andy, tell me what’s going on?”

“Officer L/N!” Another officer calls, you stopped and Andy continued to his car. You watched him drive away and you turned to the officer who called you. “What?”

“We got a dispatch. They found the suspect.”

“Who is it?”

“Jacob Barber.”

.

You drove to the Barber Residence and you checked the clock. It was 30 minutes after Jacob had just left school. You tried to reach Andy but he never picked up his phone. 

What’s his son got to do with Ben Rifkin’s murder? If you were the one to arrest his son. It would not end well. You loved Jacob. You took him to school sometimes. You hung out with him and he liked having you at the house for dinners. 

You reached the house to find other police cars. You stepped out and rushed over. The police brought their attention to you, “You know this family, right?”

“Yes, have you found Jacob?”

“No, we waited here for almost an hour. School ended 30 minutes ago,” You closed your eyes and muttered, “Shit.” You rubbed your forehead. “What’s going on now?”

“Duffy is coming with a warrant, we’ll be searching the house. They said they found a fingerprint on the body’s sweatshirt.” You shook your head. Everything was happening at the wrong time for you. This family was too happy to just have it crumble at their feet.

You just have to let it happen. It’s part of the job.

.

You stayed at the house in case Jacob did come home. You’d be the one to reassure him since he knew you. 

Everyone was looking at you because you knew the family more than they did. 

You knew the kid. The chief could possibly put you on leave for that reason. You hear a car zoom through and Andy pulled up half way in his driveway. The officers started to follow him.

“Mr. Barber,” The officer calls, Andy ignores him and rushes up. “Sir! You know this house is frozen-” Andy turns and points.

“You got a warrant, yet?” The officer doesn’t speak, “Yeah, I didn’t think so. It’s my house. I have a right to go inside.” You were the one who was gonna talk to him and reassure him but Duffy pulls in. “Andy!”

The man turns to Duffy who got out with the warrant in hand. He sighs and pulls away. You see her speak to him as you stood by the officers. To you it was hard to watch. 

Andy opens the front door and he says something to her before she nods at the officers. They all go in and you were the last one to go up his porch.

He looks over to you. “I’m sorry,” You said. He looks over and sighed. “I’m sure you are,” He says. You glanced at him and sighed. Andy never sounded like that. The tone he had wasn’t welcoming. 

You took that as a ‘go away’ sign and turned away. Walking back to your car to head back to the station.

“Dispatcher, what units are available for the search of Jacob Barber?” You stopped and looked down at the comm in the center console. You sighed and pulled it up to your mouth.

“10-4,” You say, changing the gear and drove off. Andy watched you go, dropping his head and sighed.

.

After multiple calls to Jacob personally. You drove around for hours. Your windows rolled down to either call out to Jacob or hear sudden sounds. Andy called you multiple times, but you never picked it up. 

It was getting dark and you heard on the radio, they found the knife. You started to feel worried. If that knife has some trail of Jacob’s print, it could end there. You look over to the elementary school and thought to check there.

You got out with a flashlight and walked over to the play structure. You shined the light over the obstacles. “Jake? Buddy. It’s Y/N,” You called, walking further. You hear shuffling and turned the light to the swings. 

You turn to Jacob who sat on the swing. You walked forward, “Hey, bud.” You saw the tears fall down his cheeks as he looked up in fear. You took out your cuffs. You hated to do this to him. 

“I have to put these on you. Can you do that for me?” He stands up and you smiled at him. “Hands in front,” You cuffed his wrist but kept them a bit loose so it didn’t hurt him.

Taking him to your car, you gently sat him in the back. You grabbed his bag as well and dropped it in the passenger seat.

You turned on the car, “People have been looking for you. I was getting worried, Jake.”

“I didn’t do it,” He said. You look over in the rear view. “Do what?”

“Kill Ben. I... I didn’t do it. I just found him. He was just lying there on the ground and... I thought maybe he was hurt so I went over to pick him up... then I saw the blood and his eyes were open and...” He shifts and the tears stream down his face.

“I got scared and I ran...”

“And you didn’t tell anyone?” You asked, he lowers his head and shakes it. You frowned, “Why not?” He pierces his lips to prevent himself from breaking down in tear, you just nod.

“Okay.”

“I want my dad,” Your hand stops at the ignition as you stared forward. “Please... I want my dad...” He says. You closes your eyes and turned on the car, driving your way to the station.

.

You walked in the station and the other officers reached for Jacob. “Please, be careful with him?” You asked they nod at you and Jacob looks over to you. “Don’t worry, your parents are coming.” He turns away and followed the officers as you let out a sigh.

Never in your life arrested a best friend’s child. It was hard. It’s like all the trust just crumbles at your feet and you can’t find the ways to pick them up and fix.

You wanted to wait for Andy. If Duffy told him you found him and arrested him, he might not even talk to you. 

You hear someone walk in and you turned to face Andy and Laurie. “Can I talk to you?” Andy asked. He sounded pissed. You looked at Laurie who was more worried than angry. He looks over to her, “Wait here, honey.” You followed Andy outside.

He meets the bottom of the stairs and turns to you, “What the hell are you doing?”

“What?” You asked.

“You arrested my son? What kind of friend does that?” He almost shouts. You stared at him in disbelief, “Andy, that was my job! It’s the law.”

“I don’t fucking care about the law, he didn’t do this.”

“I didn’t want to arrest your son. I love Jacob, you know that.”

“But you did it anyway,” He said. You scoffed, “If you have a problem of the arrest of your son, you can talk to the chief. That’s the law. So I suggest you understand them and let me do my job.”

“You’re ruining his life!”

“He ruined it himself if he’s the suspect!” You shout back. You watched Andy’s shoulders drop and he shakes his head. Andy drops his head and walks around you, heading back up the stairs.

He left you in the dark. You shook your head and placed your head in your hands and choked a sob. You walked back to your car and drove back home. 

.

The next day, you didn’t call in for work. They asked you to be at the courthouse with the reporters. You rejected it and stayed at home. There was no reason for you to go to that court for Jacob. You didn’t want to be there and see Andy.

You regret what you said. It was fucked up. If Jacob wasn’t guilty, it would been worse. If you were... You didn’t want to think about that.

The news was showing the Barber family on the screen. You turned it off once you saw their faces and did things around the house. No calls from anyone throughout the day. 

Possibly one from your mother. Hearing about Andy and his family. It was nighttime and you were just about to go to bed. The  TV was on and you turned it off. The sound of walking was heard outside your yard.

You peaked through the curtains and didn’t see anyone. You hear your backyard light get triggered by the movement outside. You walk over and slid the door open.

You stood out and crossed your arms. “Hello?” You called, you turn back and grabbed your gun. You saw someone walk forward and you sighed.

“Jesus...” You whispered. Andy comes out in the darkness. He saw you with the gun in hand and sighs, “Sorry.” You placed the gun on the counter and crossed your arms. 

“What are you here for?” You asked.

He looks down at his feet and walks forward, “I wanted... I wanted to say I’m sorry.” He looks up, his hands in his grey jacket as he steps closer. “I shouldn’t have gotten upset. I was just scared.”

You nod at him, “I’m sorry, too. For what I said, I--I didn’t mean it.” He was close as you thought. He pressed his lips together and formed a grin. You forced a smile on yours and sighed. “Friends?”

He smiles, “Of course.” He watches as you lean forward and wrapped your arms around him. He sighs softly and hugs you back. “I might talk to Duffy about the Patz case.”

“I thought he wasn’t their priority now?”

“He is to me. There has to be some connection to him. I might need your help sometime,” He said. You sighed against his chest. “Just don’t get me fired. They almost put me on leave because I knew your son.”

“They might. But it doesn’t stop us from defending Jacob.”

~~~

Some ending there, could’ve been worse but thank you for that request!

TAGS:

@jtargaryen18 @joannaliceevans-fanficblog @chrisevans-imagines @princess-evans-addict @bucksgoat @sweater-daddiesdumbdork @ifuseekamyevans @rororo06 @patzammit @axen-gers

[fuckyeahtx]

Late in the afternoon on the last Monday in June, 430 Democrats, who had paid up to $100,000 each, clicked into a private, Texas-themed Zoom call organized by Joe Biden’s campaign. They were greeted by former Planned Parenthood chief Cecile Richards, whose mother, Ann, was the state’s last Democratic governor. They heard from Julián Castro and Beto O’Rourke, and they were treated to a performance by Willie Nelson, who sang a song with his son Lukas called “Vote ’Em Out.” It began, “If you don’t like who’s in there, vote ’em out. / That’s what Election Day is all about. / The biggest gun we’ve got is called the ballot box.” And they heard from Biden, who — just four days after a Fox News poll showed him narrowly ahead of Donald Trump in the state no Democratic nominee has carried since Jimmy Carter — told them, “I think we can turn Texas blue.”

From Amarillo to Brownsville to Beaumont to El Paso, you could practically hear the sighs: Here we go again. Texas Democrats hear a version of this overture in every election cycle as outsiders swoop in citing statistics about demographic shifts. The national party has long regarded the Lone Star State’s 38 electoral votes as the just-out-of-reach golden key to perpetual success.

Still, the ex-VP is now basking in a double-digit lead nationwide, and we’re improbably entering month 17 of close polling between Biden and the president in Texas, which Trump won by nine points in 2016. The state’s Republican senators are warning that Texas will be “hotly contested” (Ted Cruz) and “at risk of turning purple” (John Cornyn). And after months of bluster from its GOP leaders — in March, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said seniors like him would be willing to die to restart the economy — Texas is under assault from COVID-19, and frustrations are turning into fury. Governor Greg Abbott has backtracked on plans for reopening as more than 5,000 new coronavirus cases flood in each day, while Houston hospitals are at capacity and millions remain out of work.

Four months into lockdown — about halfway between being left for dead politically early in the primary and Election Day in November — the nominee and his campaign are still adjusting to political fortunes they can hardly believe all around the country, let alone in Texas. As the summer stretches on, party leaders are starting to work out whether Biden’s lead and Trump’s spiral mean Democrats can afford to experiment in conservative states or if it’s worth shining a brighter light on down-ballot races that could hand a President Biden the Senate.

Of course, no national Democratic group has spent a dime on TV advertising in Texas, and they’re unlikely to. Biden doesn’t need Texas to win the White House. Far from it: Carter is the only Democrat to win there since native son Lyndon B. Johnson. Pro-Biden groups, like the Unite the Country super-PAC, that aim to get him to 270 electoral votes have been spending money in top-tier battleground states like Florida and North Carolina, not Texas, where Trump still has a slim lead in some polls. “If we win Texas, it will be the 350th or 370th electoral vote,” says Lily Adams, a senior Unite the Country official (who happens to be Ann Richards’s granddaughter and Cecile Richards’s daughter). “Not the 270th.”

And Democrats are still haunted by their 2016 confidence, especially in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Hillary Clinton’s wasn’t even the party’s only semi-recent collapse; one July 1988 poll showed Michael Dukakis beating George H.W. Bush by 17 points. Trump’s team, meanwhile, insists it hasn’t started fully unloading on its opponent yet. But this year’s race is showing signs of becoming something entirely different: Despite being stuck at home in Delaware because of the virus while Trump soaked up the national attention, Biden held a roughly ten-point lead in national polling averages by the end of June — about four points wider than the margin at this stage of any race in recent history. It would be overly kind to describe Trump as “flailing” as his poll numbers continue to hit new lows amid the pandemic and the protests against police brutality. His answer is to desperately look for a more cutting nickname for Biden, as he’s worried that “Sleepy Joe” isn’t good enough. (The 74-year-old Trump’s allies think their best bet is to portray 77-year-old Biden as frail and deteriorating. When asked by a Fox News producer about “cognitive decline” late last month, Biden replied, “I’m constantly tested … I can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man I’m running against.”)

Biden’s leads in the crucial swing states are more solid than expected — Trump’s campaign team is already worried he may have too big a mountain to climb in Michigan, the site of perhaps his most shocking 2016 victory — but the leads are still smaller than Biden’s apparent national margin. Biden has only recently begun venturing out for campaign events and rarely travels farther than next-door Pennsylvania. Wary of distancing recommendations, he isn’t planning to hold rallies in the fall, and only now, with four months left, is he building up senior teams in Wisconsin, North Carolina, and the like, while his allies pound digital and TV airwaves in those battlegrounds with a barrage of anti-Trump ads.

A Biden sweep still isn’t certain, which is why he probably won’t go all-in on a state like Texas. “My grandmother used to say, ‘You don’t know the size of Texas until you’ve campaigned in it,’ ” warns Adams. O’Rourke’s race against Cruz was the priciest Senate contest ever — and he still lost. But, Adams continues, “what you may be witnessing is a confluence or perfect storm of events that is making Texas more competitive this cycle than any other in recent history.”

Three Democrats independently used the “perfect storm” metaphor in conversations with me to refer to the pandemic, Trump’s plummeting popularity, and demographic shifts that have increased the state’s number of Latino voters and city dwellers. (A fourth called it a “perfect shitstorm.”) While that combination doesn’t yet have party leaders considering Texas a central swing state, it has forced them to shift it solidly into their expanded conversation about electoral battlegrounds, just behind Georgia.

Those closest to Biden have better things to worry about than these debates — like picking his running mate and designing his coronavirus-recovery proposals. When they do get sucked in, though, the pro-Texas-investment arguments usually start by noting that this ain’t the Bushes’ Texas anymore. O’Rourke, whose presidential campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, now runs Biden’s effort, came within three points of Cruz in 2018. That was just four years after Abbott beat Democrat Wendy Davis by 20 points, and the state’s briskly growing cities and suburbs are sprinting away from Trump’s GOP. Long-term trends have seduced Democrats: The Census Bureau in June reported that Texas’s Hispanic population grew by more than 2 million in the past decade. And the state’s present crisis has only sped things up. It’s the latest stage in a four-month saga during which Trump’s polling has dropped precipitously, but it mirrors similarly dire pictures for Trump in Florida and Arizona. “It’s 24/7, all over the place on TV, on their cell phones, as counties send out emergency texts to every single person in the county,” Castro, the former presidential candidate, tells me. “People are putting two and two together that this is the direct result of a failure by Donald Trump and Greg Abbott.” Whereas Biden has lagged previous Democrats a bit in popularity among Latino voters, Latino communities have been hit especially brutally, causing many to turn hard against Republicans.

The party’s wallet will stay shut for now anywhere but Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona, and Florida. Still, before Willie Nelson and his guitar took center stage that Monday afternoon on Zoom, O’Rourke warned that if the vote tally is tight on Election Day, “I believe that the current occupant of the White House — who does not believe in the rule of law, who does not respect the Constitution, who will do anything he can to maintain and increase his purchase on power, will exploit a close outcome to attempt to steal the election.” But, he continued, “the greatest safeguard against that outcome is Texas.”

[contes-de-rheio]

Creating an army

For the needs of Rising Queens, I had to create an army. Since I'm an accountant and have never served in the military nor lived sometime between 1650 and 1820... I knew nothing about how to do that, so I researched, not a lot, but enough I think to give some tips and directions to anyone planning to do the same crazy thing.

Let's get started. Please note this is for fantasy writers, a number of elements do not apply to modern or futuristic armies. (words with a * are translated in French at the end, because I'm a little chauvinist)

1. How big is your army ?

So, if your army is a professional army, in clear if soldiers are soldiers all year long and paid for it, the size of your army is limited. Mostly because resources are not infinite, and your army depends on the rest of the population to be fed. This rule would also apply for mercenaries, as your nation must still be able to pay them.

In consequence, its size should not be more than 1% of the population. This number was true in the past, and is still true today. And 1% is the upper limit, it assumes your nation is able to collect taxes efficiently!! If it's not, your army must be smaller, or your nation will go bankrupt.

If your army is not professional, then the problem is a little different: your soldiers are no longer working all year long. The question is how big can your army be during x time? The longer the war/conflict lasts, the smaller your army will be, as your resources are limited and you need people to tend to the land. Or you can have a big starving army, your choice (or a starving population... or both...). After some research, it happens that number is 7% of the population for a period of 90 days (which was the length of a campaign season).

2. Support

So, yes, your soldiers are soldiering, or at least a part of them is... the rest is working as support, they are the spine of your army, without them everything could crumble. Without them you don't have supplies, or meals, or doctors, or clothes, or payslips or...

Among the various support departments in military, we will first start with one that probably was the biggest: Supplies (aka Furir*). They originally were in charge of housing and food for men and animals, but over time they came to be in charge of all supplies, including their logistics. In the French Navy, they once were in charge of payslips. Without them, you don’t have food, but you also don’t have uniforms, weapons, or munitions...

While we are here, let's note that most armies, while away from home, survived through plunder of the land around them. Which is great if you're not staying in the same place too long, and if your enemy does not decide to burn everything left behind. Mercenaries, who were not paid by their employer, also plundered the land of their employer as a form of revenge.

The Postal Service* is like a web, they have a presence everywhere in the military organisation (including schools, jails, navy...). Not only do they make sure the letters are sent to the right person, but they also take care of censoring the letters of the soldiers. This is a job that require discretion as you might end up in the confidence of secrets that do not concern you nor the public.

The War Commissaries* are in charge of the administration of the army, which includes: finances, human resources, audit and control, law assistance, accounting. In some cases, Furir and Postal Services are also incorporated under their supervision.

One of the support functions we probably don’t think much about are the surgeons. Doctors, especially, surgeons were a priority on a battlefield. Mostly they acted after the battle, but they also took care of the soldiers all year long in a professional army. Military hospitals were created, some of them were used as medical schools too, and not all of them were situated in a military base. I haven’t been able to find if any ancient military hospital was opened to the public, but I personally don’t see why not. Generally each company (about 100 men) had one surgeon.

I will not discuss soldier being soldier, if you want more information on this, I will leave some links at the end of this article, please refer to it.

3. Army or Not ?

Some people, depending of your organisation, of your country, may be considered part of your army, even though their role is unrelated to the protection of the country against foreign forces, such as: police, spies, customs...

It really depends on how you see your organisation as a whole, and also who pay who, or what Minister these people depend from. For example, the police might be paid directly by the city thanks to local taxes, while customs are under the supervision of the Finance Minister, and spies answer directly to the Crown. Or you can incorporate them in your army.

4. Equipment

The main question in regards to equipment is who provides what. There have been times, when each soldier was expected to procure themselves their own equipment: armor and weapons, horse, sometimes even food. You could tell a soldier's social background with just a look. 

In some cases, the obligation to procure one's own equipment was attached to citizenship. Only citizens were required by law to serve in the army, and to be citizen you were required to have a given level of revenues.

At all times, heavier weapons (for siege, and later canons) were provided by the State or the lords.

5. Hierarchy

There are two main type of hierarchies: hierarchical (or traditional) and flat. My partner could tell you all about the advantages and disadvantages of both in details (and how mixed/new models exist), but for our purposes let's keep it simple.

Here is a drawing of both systems:

The bigger your army is, the less likely your hierarchy will be flat, for the very simple reason that your general in chief (or king, or whatever their actual title is) cannot be everywhere at once and has to delegate their power to keep the whole system working. In fact, at some point, the higher men in the hierarchy become strategists and/or administrators. Furthermore, if the official leader of your army is indeed the king, they might still need to delegate as 1) they are running a kingdom, and might need the time for something else, 2) they are very bad at leading an army (not everybody can be Frederic II or Napoleon...).

Next thing to determine is the numbers of levels in your hierarchy. I would advise to keep it as simple as possible. As an example, in Rising Queens, my army has 7 levels of hierarchy (including the soldiers without rank). Each rank correspond to an unity (i.e. company, regiment...). I merely added some nuances to distinguish some Navy ranks: a General and an Admiral have the same rank, but the later serves in the Navy.

If you want to get an idea of what ranking system you can implement, I would suggest you hit Wikipedia, as they have the organisations of a few armies listed. Just never forget reality is always more complex than fiction.

6. Magic

If you have magic in your universe, consider how it changes war strategy and organisation.

And since someone wrote extensively on the subject, allow me to redirect you to @warsofasoiaf post, right here.

Don't hesitate to drop me a message for questions, clarifications or comments :)

Some Useful Links

On Demography

Medieval Demography made easy (French version)

Notes on Medieval Population Geography

Medieval WorldBuilding Mega-Tutorial (includes info about army, and many other details)

On Armies and fighting

@transcriptroopers is a great resource about the life of modern soldiers.

@writenavy for anything related to Navy, both ancient and modern.

@howtofightwrite advices for anything regarding fighting, in nearly any context.

Medieval Warfare

Writing a War

Vocabulary - French translations

Furir - Fourrière (du mot fourrage)

Postal service - Vaguemestre

Commissaries - Commissaires (du mot commission, dans le sens de paie)

[reynoso79-blog]

The Simpsons - A Commentary on American Culture

No one could have predicted that the grungy drawings of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson on the sketch parody program, "The Tracey Ullman Show" would change into a tremendously worshiped pack hit among watchers everything being proportionate and establishments. As the longest running restored course of action all through the whole closeness of TV, it is in like turnpike one of the most esteemed. "The Simpsons" scenes are routinely themed around advancing new unanticipated turns of events – even imperfect subjects, for instance, gay marriage and religion in state financed schools. There is nothing of the sort as difficult to show up at point on "The Simpsons." Topics on the show are facilitated distraction that is truly spun around all ages, races, sexual course and religions rick simpson oil .

Credits

Producer and authority creator, Matt Groening is attributed with restoring the excess satire to prime time TV with the introduction of "The Simpson's" hypothesis on Fox in 1989. Official creator James L. Streams is an Emmy and Academy award winning producer and creator of films that wire Terms of Endearment and As Good as it Gets. Al Jean is the third official creator other than head producer (Simpsons, 2006). As a stunning little attestation, staff writer, Daniel Chun is the more fiery get-together of a juvenile this author dated in assistant school. Al Jean and Mike Scully are in like manner two fundamental researchers.

Regardless of the conspicuous VIP guest stars who have voiced different sensational characters on the show, it is the voices of the standard characters that are central and key to the show's continued with progress. Everything considered striking for giving out the general filtered through "D'oh!" as Homer Simpson, Dan Castallaneta past Tracey Ullman cast part, is other than Mayor Quimby, Grandpa Simpson and Groundskeeper Willie among others. What's logically a Tracey Ullman alumna, Julie Kavner prompts her voice to Marge Simpson and her two upsetting Homer-disdaining, MacGyver focused, chain smoking sisters Patty and Selma. Nancy Cartwright is the voice of multi year old Bart Simpson, paying little mind to Ralph Wiggum, Nelson Muntz and Todd Flanders. Focus youthful, multi year old Lisa Simpson is outlined by Yeardley Smith. Both Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer offer voices to different Springfield's essential characters (Simpsons, 2006).

The Simpsons' Lucrative Heyday

In its exactly on an ideal opportunity to mid-'90s importance days, "The Simpsons" was less at the height of clear quality and evaluations, at any rate the show was gathering a few millions in referenced thing bargains. Parties couldn't get enough stunning Homers that drooled "Mmmm… doughnuts" or battery worked Barts hollering "Announced carumba!" at the push of his mid-locale, paying little psyche to PC games, dress, home enhancements from this time forward commonly more. Bart's catchphrases which included "Don't have a dairy creatures man!" and "Eat my shorts" were heard everywhere. Near the evaluations, systems of Simpsons referenced things have declined starting late, yet the section scholars' and producers' undertakings to keep the show new and attracting have not gone unnoticed by various watchers who have remained focused on the inhabitants of Springfield, USA.

A Window into Our Nation

How the show is set in a dull state shows an effort concerning the stars to reflect American culture everything considered in each scene. This has related with the show to draw watchers from wherever all through the country. For instance, a show like "Sex and the City" may have an especially beast after of New York watchers, while "The Simpsons" with its unidentified setting can interface all Americans. The two-story Simpson home on Evergreen Terrace energetically shows up additionally as a standard home in an American suburb – short the festival like striking shades.

The Main Characters – the Simpson family

The show is based around the Simpson nuclear family model of two watchmen, 2.5 young people (Maggie could be considered the .5 thinking about her as deficiency to talk) notwithstanding cats, Snowball I, II and III and ensured about greyhound, Santa's Little Helper. The family structure and character characters reflect standard American checks. While the Simpsons are truly broken, (as show by one of the past scenes where the family experienced incapacitated individual treatment with Dr. Marvin Monroe to vanquish their issues), finally, we when in doubt have issues, at any rate toward the day's end, there is an enormous level of warmth and solidarity in different families. This is unmistakably, if you pardon the trustworthy introductions of youth abuse where Homer stiflers Bart until his eyes swell off of his brain and the way that kid Maggie is certainly once in a while wandered out from home alone.

Submitted adornment and mother Marge is a tribute to enduring American moms. She is the heart, soul and glue of the Simpson family. As opposed to her life right hand, Marge doesn't have any mates or time to be social as she is an over the top level of clamoring paying unprecedented cerebrum to her adored one and adolescents. Homer, who has a huge level of irrelevant progression mates, is the pulverizing imbecile of a genuine proximity embellishment and father. What he needs sharp, he makes up in mix use at his kept up watering opening, Moe's Tavern. He isn't for each condition completely gave to his family and is continually fuming and crazy, yet near the fulfillment of most scenes, he picks the best choice – and that is the spot we see the spirit of the American father.

Bart is the artfulness, free vivacious most settled youth who uncovers burden all finished, regardless, like his father, as a last resort finds recuperation and a liberal closeness practice before the accreditation of a scene. Lisa is the totally evident still, little voice of the Simpson family. An especially read, caring youth who follows Buddhism and perpetual new unexpected new turns of events, Lisa can in like course chuckle with Bart at the especially energetic scenes of the cat and mouse enemies, Itchy and Scratchy. Kid Maggie, while the humblest and calmest character, says a great deal with the sucking of her pacifier. Managers have dependably given Maggie a discernible information and care that isolates her young age. She even has a uni-browed baby adolescent pre-grown-up kid foe.

Social Commentary

Notwithstanding the Simpson family central characters, the show features packs and unquestionable Springfield tenants with staggering records and excited characters, all of which address the focal characters an epic bit of us will establishing with the course of our lives. For instance, our country is over-issue with odd government supervisors and Mayor Quimby addresses an absolute vexatious political figure. He is routinely caught in exchanging off positions selling out Springfield and swaying with young people, yet he remains in force and no one in the town seems to shudder an eyelash. Completely when he even addresses the townspeople as "botching hicks" and they are not sifted through by it.

Punching fun of the police structure, The Simpsons features Police Chief Clancy Wiggum, perhaps the second most essential bozo on the hotshot near Homer. He is in peril for Springfield's security and thriving with his two side-kicks who rout Wiggum in information. His stagger factor is wavering and the town would be in a perfect circumstance rushed toward dread based oppressor savages with access to weapons of mass pummeling. Any police chairman who says "Aww, wouldn't anyone have the decision to in this town censure all position?" may not be the most qualified open entries for the turn of events (Simpsons, 2006).

Estimation of the Elderly

The show other than limits the fundamental issue of old dismissal. Homer's father, Grandpa Simpson, lives in the Springfield Retirement Castle. A surrendered war sifted specific, Grandpa was hard for Homer in his pubescence. As perhaps a kind of subconscious response, Homer put Grandpa in a home where his own fulfillment is poor. Doubtlessly Grandpa and various tenants are regulated genuinely. His ill-manners is clear when in one event, Grandpa won't let Homer get the phone with the objective that he can "respect the rings." Yet Grandpa appears in changed scenes as a singing, hypnotizing character who credits his novel, upsetting outlandishness to the show. Potentially the specialists are endeavoring to plot that different old paying little respect to everything have a great deal to contribute and should not be disposed of as aggravations.

Phil Hartman

The late Phil Hartman of Saturday Night Live acknowledgment influenced his voice to two prosaism Simpsons characters: miserable authentic guide Lionel Hutz and lighting up film star, Troy McClure. Troy McClure would normally progress by saying something like "Howdy, I'm Troy McClure! You may review me from such open assistance stories as 'Alloted Drivers, the Lifesaving Nerds' and 'Phony Tornado Alarms Reduce Readiness'" (Troymcclurepage, 2006). Troy was a boggling of a character a broad bit of us found in our giganticness in potentially a couple of state maintained school films that by chance held any illuminating worth.

Certifiable guide Lionel Hutz was a crude, salvage vehicle filtering for after, picked authority who now and again out of the blue appeared in a situation where his confirmed "achievement" may have helped him advantage by somehow. His authentic practice was named "I Can't Believe it's a Law Firm!" and offered clients gleams, for instance, a free pizza if their settlements were not formed in a brief timeframe or less (Lionel Hutz, 2006). Lionel's character unfalteringly exemplified the hypothesis of the unquenchable, money grubbing confirmed help.

[comicbookuniversity]

Game Idea: Spider-Man_Goblin Empire

Introduction

Spider-Man’s the best. He has the most fully realized character and franchise of any superhero in terms of supporting cast (civilian and heroes), villains, and recurring themes that still manage to feel relevant. As a result of the work put into his franchise, Spider-Man has developed a number of heroes who have not seen enough of the spotlight, despite being awesome enough to first appear in his book. I was thinking about the sheer scope of all of the heroes and villains within the Spider-Man franchise, and it occurred to me that there is a game that should be made that could show off the sheer size of it all and be fun as hell. Basically, a squad-based 3rd person combat game; or shorthand- Overwatch with Spider-Man but more story-driven. I call it- Spider-Man: Goblin Empire.

Story and Gameplay

Taking a cue from Dan Slott and Insomniac Games, the story sees a veteran Spider-Man, four or five years into his superhero career, having to organize and lead the heroes of NYC to help the police fight the Goblin Empire and their allies, the Sinister Six. In a swift and impressive display of power and organization, The Goblin King Norman Osborn has managed to block off and gain control of NYC in a single night. He has ambassadors, industry leaders, and celebrities as hostages to leverage against the world as they grapple whether to recognize the hostile takeover of NYC and the sovereignty of his newly proclaimed empire. His Goblin Commanders are going to precincts to ensure that the instill martial law until the Goblin King lays out all of the new laws; many are complying operating under the assumption that compliance is less risky and thus harmful to the citizens than resistance to this overwhelming new power. But others are not, and the resistance is led by Deputy Chief Yuri Watanbe with the support of Spider-Man and the heroes gathered with him. Spider-Man and allies must work to secure the future of NYC from Osborn and Octavius as well as keeping citizens safe from other threats within the city such as the combined forces of Kingpin and Hammerhead, Mister Negative and his Inner Demons, and the ‘neutral’ but greedy Alchemax.

The game will have a more cartoonish over realist visuals and would have single player, co-op, and multiplayer campaign modes as well as different PvP style matches. Players in campaign mode would play through different missions that would move the story forward, but against an internal clock. In single player campaign, you can build a team of up to 3 support NPCs for missions. The goal is to complete certain missions by a certain times within the game or the Goblin Nation becomes official, which represents ultimate failure. There is no particular order in which the missions must be completed, but the series of missions completed will affect the ‘Hope meter’ or measurement of confidence in the rebel forces by the world community as the delay or accept the power of the Goblin Nation. Certain series of missions will create greater hope than others, so the goal is to try to keep the ‘Hope meter’ up as much as possible in order to gain enough time to defeat Osborn.

In the comics or a show, this story might play out with the Goblin Nation being recognized to drive up tension, but within the game this will mean a hard reset of progress. Why? One, because of the challenge of figuring out what order of missions will keep Norman from being recognized as a legit King and the urgency it creates. And two, because Norman wouldn’t negotiate a deal that doesn’t grant him help against ‘rebels’ from other nations, ie America and Canada. ‘Help’ being code for later Avengers and Alpha Flight updates/expansions.

The campaign would not be all that there is to the game. Players could have team deathmatches, king of the hill, escort missions, capture the flag, or control style matches. The maps would be based on the five boroughs of this fictional NYC with each borough having 5-7 maps of varying sizes for different size of teams. All characters, no matter their faction, would be available for play in non-campaign mode. And obviously upgradeable gear and appearances will be available.

Villains would only be playable after the completion of regular campaign, and a new campaign would be available where you play as the villains to defeat the rebels. In the villain campaign, instead of a ‘Hope meter’ there would be a ‘Support Meter’ that measures how many citizens accept Osborn, Octavius, Kingpin, or Mister Negative as their new leader depending on which villain faction you choose to play the campaign as. It would still be the same basic game, but seen from the other side and with a new set of characters with new combat abilities to play with.

Factions

With the goal of showing off how big and awesome the Spider-Man franchise really is beyond the main man, I decided the golden rule for who gets to be a playable character is that they must have first appeared in a Spider-Man title. This being the first game, I decided that I wanted to go big, but there are some exceptions. That all being said, here are the following playable factions.

Rebels:

1. Spider-Man (Parker)

2. Spider-Man (Morales)

3. Araña

4. Prowler

5. Silver Sable

6. Puma

7. Cardiac

8. Jackpot

9. Ghost Spider

10. Agent Venom

11. Black Cat

12. Silk

13. Rocket Racer

14/15. Cloak and Dagger

16. Solo

17-21: The Slingers (Dusk, Prodigy, Hornet, and Ricochet)

22. Alpha

23. Rumor

The rebels are supported by NYPDR, New York City Police Department Resistance.

Kingpin�� Syndicate:

1.Hammerhead

2.The Spot

3.Molten Man

4.Shocker

5.Tinkerer

6. Hydroman

They are supported by their combined Maggia criminal battalions.

Mister Negative's Shadow Captains

1. Overdrive

2. Big wheel

3. Tarantula

3. Screwball

4. Tombstone

5. Shriek

Backing up the Shadow Captains are the Inner Demons.

Sinister Six

1. Doc Ock

2. Vulture

3. Mysterio

4. Rhino

5. Kraven

6. Sandman

Ock-bots of various size and firepower roam the city and support either Goblins or members of the Sinister Six; Sixers are first priority protection over Goblins.

Goblin Commanders

1. Hobgoblin (Leeds)

2. Menace (Hollister)

3. Dark Goblin ( Urich)

4. Goblin Knight (Harry)

Goblin foot soldiers are known as Greys, because of the tint of their skin with the modified formula they have. The Greys are not as strong or well equipped as the Commanders, but they are formidable and can easily toss over a police precinct if left unchecked.

Neutral-ish: Alchemax and Alistaire Smythe

They are supported by Alchemax security and Spider-Slayer drones. They may or may not assist the player depending upon what missions have been completed and where the ‘Hope Meter’ is at.

Assorted Notes:

I think Agent Venom needs a new look. I’m not sure what direction to go necessarily, but a new look would be good. I’m also thinking not strictly military; could be a SWAT dude beforehand. I will give further consideration to this development.

Flashback narrative sequences would be achievable after related missions to help flesh out backstory. Basically, these would be 1-4 minute stories, and hypothetically, I’d like one for each character. That would clearly take some time to work out; possibly released as updates depending upon development.

I think it would be fun to have a single player fighting game style mode as well, but I’m uncertain if that would be with launch or a new expansion.

I think a larger Symbiote and/or Clone expansion is definitely in the future. Those could be tied together narratively, or more likely, done as two different expansions. The Clone expansion could even be tied into a Spider-Island style narrative, but that’s just speculative for the moment. I’ll need to think of something more for those expansion ideas.

I do think the larger Marvel Universe exists, but I wouldn’t even mention them within the first game or within the first couple of expansions to keep with showing off the Spider-Man breadth and depth.

I’ve avoided different universe/timeline versions of characters for now, but that could be a whole sequel.

*

This is my vision as succinctly as can be put without making the actual game. Hope you enjoy the idea as much as I did.

[thewillowbends]

Thoughts on Lucifer (TV) Season 4

So I've spot-rewatched parts of season 4, and I've more or less got a sense for what did and did not work for me.  Lucifer is the kind of trash television I reluctantly love because I enjoy the characters so much, even as they are stuck in a painful mishmash of bad writing with the occasional moment of brilliance carried along by dedicated and talented actors.

SEASON 4 SPOILERS AHEAD OBVS

Let's get what I didn't like out of the way first -

Stuff That Makes Me Cringe

1.)  Up first is my completely shallow dislike for the new devil makeup.  The wings were really well done, but the face/body is kind of meh to me.  It's not badly designed, per se, but it's definitely narm territory in some places.  (While I do like the whole "king of hell" scene at the end and what it portends in terms of Lucifer's final decision, it is hilariously campy, too.)  In my opinion, season two and three still feature the best up-close devil look, particularly in the reveal scene to Linda.  It's disturbing in an uncanny valley sort of way that gets lost with the heavier makeup, and also...the wet blood is a really nice, creepy touch that I'm sad got dumped after the first try!

Also shallow opinion - Tom Ellis is fine as hell, don't get me wrong, and I appreciate that he worked out like crazy for this season, but I actually kind of miss his slightly less muscular look from the earlier seasons.  I feel like he's a guy who looks better with shoulders that are a tad less broadly defined, yeah?  It felt like it made more sense for Lucifer to be well built but not hyper muscular, since he wasn't a warrior in the way, say, Amenadiel or Michael were.  Samael was the tempter - he's built for beauty and desire, with kind of a sly appeal to him.

2.)  Eve.  I really like Eve as a character over all, but I do wish her motivations were explored more explicitly.  I do really like the vaguely feminist undertones of her story, that she's a woman whose entire life has been dictated to her by God and husband, and her decision to leave Heaven is a rebellion against that, a desire to pursue what she wants for herself even as she struggles to break free of old patterns.  While the story does seem to suggest this is her true motivation, I do wish it was given a little more individual reflection.  The thing I find the most poorly handled about her character is the punishment fascination.  I get that it's part of her tendency to try and mold herself into what she thinks the men in her life want, good or bad, but I would've liked more clarity on whether it held any personal appeal to her - i.e. she discusses her son, Cain, but there's little attention given to what it must have been like for her to watch him walk the Earth cursed, much less losing her son Abel to Hell.  Does she resent God?  Is she angry that human life is so short yet the recompense for a life well or poorly lived is so permanent?  Does she feel like her life was stolen for her in a way that other human's choices weren't?

She's already a foil for Lucifer in that she's daring to go against God's plan to explore her own freedom of choice, with the major caveat being that she left Heaven willingly in contrast to his exile.  So while I do feel she was a relatively well rounded character (as far as she could be with what they wanted to do with her), a little more exploration of those motivations was in order, but I absolutely would love for her to come back in a potential season five.  She has a lot of opportunities for growth and a lot of directions they could take her.

3.)  Mazikeen.  I'm actually not completely unhappy with the direction of her story.  It feels like a natural continuation of her struggles in season 3, learning how to "human" and find her place in the world, but the problem is she isn't being given much to do outside of that.  I like that her relationship with Linda is emotionally complicated (it's honestly one of the best female friendships on the show) with elements of platonic, erotic, and maternal love woven into it, but that the story is making it clear she still needs to learn how to develop herself independently.  In season 2, Lucifer states that Maze is like a "baby bird  that imprints on anything near."  Now that we know demons are naturally inclined to want leadership and direction, that actually provides a literal context for why she's clinging to Linda for purpose afterwards.  We just need to move that into a more strongly defined character arc.  Since we know have the Lilim introduced as a legitimate threat, I feel like that's a no-brainer for what should happen if season five occurs with her.  Let's see a storyline with Maze dealing with her family history (the Lilith), having to confront the fact that Hell is no longer her home, while grappling with a life on Earth minus the companion she's had for nearly all of her existence (Lucifer).  Let her evolve into a fully fleshed out character.

4.)  Cain.  I'm not sad to see him go out with a whimper since they clearly had no idea what to do with his character in season 3, but the fallout gets completely brushed over way too easily.  There's no way a federally investigated criminal revealed to be chief of the LA police wouldn't lead to absolute chaos in the precinct for quite a bit afterwards, and God knows, Chloe certainly would've been under the microscope for her role in what went down.  It would've made more sense to have a throwaway line about how she was suspended for a month and kept away LA proper for a few weeks until they made certain the danger was clear and the drama had settled down media-wise.

5.)  Chloe.  I'll be up front that I actually don't mind her more dramatic response to Lucifer's face.  For how easy it is to want to imagine she would handle it better, we've seen pretty much everybody freak the hell out when they see it, so she really shouldn't have been different.  The context also matters significantly here - she encountered it at a violent crime scene shortly after he killed a person.  HUGE difference from how a lot of the other characters were introduced to the truth.  So I don't find her characterization completely OOC there, but what I wouldn't give for just one more episode this season exploring her feelings during that period, what drove her to Europe, what destabilized her sense of who and what Lucifer is.  What I do like is that we got to see her make mistakes and have to answer for them - up until this point, it's been about Lucifer improving who he was to be somebody worth pursuing, but here we finally get to see Chloe's flaws, her struggles to be the better person she wants to be, to get told 'you f*cked up' and have to accept that she's possibly missed her chance.  I felt like her relationship with Eve was well done, that they didn't go the easy route of them being catty with each other all season, but that each provided a different but ultimately legitimate perspective on Lucifer's complicated character.  She could easily be set up as a primary protagonist of season five now with all the changes she's going through.

6.)  The Father Kinley plot.  I actually have no real problem with it for the most part - it provides a central antagonist that is far more threatening than Cain ever was, but I do wish they'd rethought the story of his introduction to Chloe.  It seems to me it would've made more sense for him to seek her out in America.  As a writer, I would've kept Chloe relatively local and had her confessing her fears and secrets to a local church pastor - who could have contacted the Vatican and brought Kinely to her in L.A.  That would've conveyed a sense of Kinley's operation being part of a vast network of religious authorities "in the know" and provided a possible set up for later conflicts if there were others out there like him.  Kinley actively seeking her out would've also reinforced her sense of how dangerous Lucifer is knowing that authorities had been tracking him for years, which could have undermined her own beliefs about who he is.

7.)  The Caleb plot.  I get what they were trying to do, and I appreciate that the show attempted to go there even as it is didn't fully succeed in treating the subject matter as well as it should have.  I get that it's meant to show us that life can be unfair, and that embracing the right to free will comes with the potential cost of suffering, that we must accept the risks of loving and caring for each other.  However, at the end of the day, you have a male POC killed off for a plot that ultimately leads nowhere, and that's...not great.  I mean, I'd rather them try and stumble then completely ignore such things, but it's definitely not the season's shining moment.

8.)  Other thing this season didn't shine on - the pacing.  I get why it happened, since these writers are used to having more leeway to work with time-wise, and ten episodes is not a whole lot to pack in all of the emotional and story conflicts, but the first four episodes in particularly really feel strained.  Even the humor feels slightly off kilter, like they were struggling to find the right tone.  It's better than season three's tendency to sacrifice pathos for humor, but to date, season two remains their best work in terms of the over all pacing and tone.

9.)  Dan.  His backsliding and self-destructive behavior makes sense in light of his depression and sense of powerlessness, but it does feel redundant in light of Lucifer's own backsliding in season 3 and even here.  Frankly, Dan has a legitimate point about how their tendency to write off Lucifer's worse behavior doesn't help him in the long run, but he's, y'know, one to talk.  I honestly think the best direction for his character in season five is to leave the police force.  In particular, I would not be unhappy to see him team up with Mazikeen to fight some supernatural demon crime, actually.  I feel like their relationship has a lot of potential.

10.)  Dan/Ella.  I don't hate it, per se, but I'm just very neutral on it.  The age difference is a little off-putting (he's fortyish, divorced with a kid, yo, and she's clearly a twenty-something), but I don't mind it being a hook up that occurred when they were both in a low place.  I'm uncertain if I want to see it go beyond that.

11.)  Remiel is a lot of fun, but I vacillate over whether her presence is particularly significant in light of Amenadiel's ultimate decision to stay on Earth.  I highly suspect she's being introduced now as a placeholder for further events down the road if the show gets renewed.  She's clearly there to generate conflict in Amenadiel rather than be the conflict itself, but I wonder if they plan on making Charlie's existence more of an issue if the series progresses.

12.)  As always, I appreciate that the series' maintains an unflagging dedication to diversity.  They cast an Israeli Jewish women as Eve.  All of Lucifer's siblings have been POC.  The show has probably MORE bisexual members in the cast than any other mainstream series that I've seen.  It's not perfectly handled, it it definitely has its stumbles where race and LGBT+ content is concerned, but it's trying.  That's more than I can say for most series.

The Stuff That Gives Me Life:

1.)  Tom Ellis acting the shit out of that script, no matter how ridiculous the scenes they gave him were.  I really appreciate that he's so gung-ho for giving his all to the character even when the material fails to rise to the occasion.  Respect, too, for what I assume was basically him living in a gym for the past year.  If Leslie Ann Brandt had to squeeze herself into leather pants two months after giving birth, I appreciate that he rose to the occasion for getting naked all over the place and providing an ass tight enough to bounce a quarter off it.

2.)  Lucifer's character development was on point for me across the entire season.  I feel like everything we saw building up from previous seasons - the anger, the grief, the self-inflicted wounds he refused to let heal - finally came together here.  That moment at the end of episode eight is the perfect culmination of his character development, the painful realization he has about who really is responsible for everything that's happened to him.  And now he can start making the real journey to being a better person.  What happens at the end of the season is exactly what was bound to happen, no matter what story came before, because he needed to recognize the importance of punishment as a LESSON about the consequences of our actions.  Responsibility sometimes means sacrificing what we want to protect what we care about.  That's actually a rather clever nod to the comic version of the character who ultimately had to give up his individual existence to achieve total freedom - this version chooses submission out of recognition that to love and be loved, to be good is to be fettered to our responsibility to others.

(Which makes me really wonder if they are going to eventually push a story where Lucifer becomes a true king of Hell - not only a tyrant who deals punishment and controls the demonic masses but one who begins to show mercy and help some of those souls find release and forgiveness.  Ah well, don't worry friends, if they don't write it in show, I'm already writing it in a fanfic.)

3.)  Deckerstar 4 lyfe.  I didn't expect them to wind up together because they weren't there yet, but it ended on such a pitch perfect note.  Something this show has done remarkably well is avoid the idea of Chloe as the sole source of motivation for Lucifer to improve himself.  It's emphasized over and over again that he has to want it, that he's the one who had to desire the good in himself.  The worthiness comes with the recognition that you want to be worthy of love - and that you are.  Lucifer had to come much farther than she did, but it was nice to see the dynamic switched up a bit with Chloe having to grow, mature, and reconcile herself to her mistakes.

4.)  Eve was MUCH better as a character than I'd thought.  I'm a little smug about predicting so much about her, but that's not an entirely terrible thing.  While her storyline isn't perfect, I did like that it's a deconstruction of an idea of the "perfect woman/partner."  Eve is in love with the idea of Lucifer and the idea of who she can be with him, not so much the reality of who they are.  It makes me a little sad because I do think if they'd met at a point where she was further along in her character development, or he wasn't already in love with Chloe and so far ahead of her in growth, they could have actually worked and fallen in love with each other.  And that's fine!  Part of the point it's making with her character is how important our individual journeys are.  At the end, Eve recognizes she needs to figure out who she is outside of God's plan or what she THINKS is what she wants.  That honesty toward the end, that she really left Heaven for *herself* and not for Lucifer, is a huge revelatory character point that can go a lot of places next season.

5.)  The demons.  Just...everything with Dromos is gold to me.  From his initial excitement at seeing Lucifer to his frustrated attempts to reason with him...to being much craftier and scarier than anybody possibly expected.  Regardless of how we look at it, he played the endgame to the benefit of his stated purpose - loyalty to the infernal throne.  Hell has a king again, one way or another.  And now we have an established threat to keep Lucifer in line over the next couple of seasons, as well as tying up the arc that was begun all the way back in season 1.

6.)  Pulling in the Vatican and a secret society of "in the know" sects was wise.  While I wish the introduction had been slightly different, it leaves open opportunities for later.

7.)  MY GIRL LINDA.  Rachel Harris is such an underrated part on the show.  She has such great chemistry with Ellis in the therapy scenes, and her becoming a mother feels like a natural extension of the underlying maternal element she provides the show.  I like that we get to see her outside of the office now, engaging in a story of her own, which allows her to stay in the cast without losing significance of no longer being Lucifer's therapist.

8.)  AMENADIEL.  He's probably had the strongest and most well directed character development out of any secondary cast member on the show.  Having him forfeit his power to stay on Earth with the humans he loved is such a nice touch, but I like that it was a decision he had to wrestle with.  The idea of human life necessarily being complicated, messy, even unfair and unkind fits well with the theme of responsibility for our choices.  If he stays on Earth, he has to accept that his son will not have a perfectly Heavenly life, that to be human is to accept all that comes with it.  DB Woodside has great chemistry with the cast, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they'll do with him in future seasons.

9.)  Lucifer holding baby Charlie for two seconds, awkwardly cooing at him, then immediately passing him off like a hot potato.  That's real character development, guys.

10.)  Amenadiel saying goodbye forever to Lucifer in the baby ward, for what is ultimately and tragically not the reason he expects it to be the last time he gets to say it.  Woodside and Ellis have such great chemistry.

11.)  Ella's loss of faith is handled pretty well.  I appreciate that she had to reclaim it herself and not because she got to see the divine is real.  Fits nicely with the theme that we have to actualize our own beliefs and realities.

12.)  LGBT+ representation was better this season.  It's too late for Lucifer's pansexuality to have any real meaning at this point, but I appreciate him stroking the guy's face while using his eye voodoo in episode 1.  Little touches like that make the "Bi the way" aspect of his character seem less tacked on.  Mazikeen, on the other hand, is where things got much better - she's actually seen dating both men and women, having difficulty parsing her complex emotional relationship with Linda, being openly attracted to and pursuing Eve (also openly bisexual).  Please don't disrupt this improvement next season by giving her a male love interest, Netflix, I'm begging you.  Give us at least SOMETHING here.  She's got the most open-ended story for a relationship, and her development is clearly suggesting she wants family to call hers outside of what she has with the rest of the cast.  (I know I was saying I low key ship her with Dan, BUT I TAKE IT BACK.)

13.)  The dragon wings are admittedly very cool looking.  I prefer the more streamlined devil makeup otherwise from seasons 2 and 3, but the wings can stay.  I imagine the amount of fic tagged "wing kink" on Ao3 is going to increase several fold now.  (Yes, that is an actual thing.)

14.) Lauren German showing up to play this season!  She finally gets to do more than just be the straight man.  All of her dramatic moments with Ellis were well done.  No complaints.  I have way more faith now seeing her move into a primary protagonist role in season 5 if we get it.

15.)  LESLIE ANN BRANDT CAN SING!!!  What a sweet moment and what it says about Mazikeen's development as a character (even if it is ruined by Eve's obtuse logic afterwards).  How much do we want to bet that Lucifer's reaction to that is what made him decide to leave her behind on Earth?

16.)  AJKLSJD;FLSAFDAS THANK YOU FOR FINALLY BRINGING IN MORE SUPERNATURAL STUFF.  We finally get to see the throne!!!  There are prophecies!!!  WINGS!!!  (How cool are Remiel's??)  Demons can possess people canonically!  The Lilim are a well established thing!  Lucifer is back in Hell!  So many place this can go now.

Anyway, I have good feelings for the most part.  It’s still a heavily flawed series, but it’s not so bad that I’m going to dive out of it ala Hemlock Grove, which I’m fairly certain gave me brain damage by mid-season 2.

[the-firebird69]

I guess we're not making ourselves clear it looks like we want you to do something some job or hang around bother us on purpose we never said anything like that. We want you out of here you too that's like three of you Terry Trump and Dan that's a listed or it might be him and all this other crap you say but now it's nice we have clarified it here. But we want to clarify it for you to know. It's very strange you never ever get it. We need you to leave that apartment and we don't care this whole thing there it's not you I mean we do and we're going to find out from Tommy f I just kind of an active War right there. And our friend says kind of of course it is. So I'm going to look for things that work on moving you out and we found a few you didn't find more you don't belong there in that house this is not your apartments you don't have an agreement and you never owned of owned it ever and yeah we had the Trinity test done and had Tommy f do it. But you three are out of control and Tommy f is a complete animal. And we don't want you in town if you come around we shoot you if you don't leave the apartment we shoot you and we said that we thought we were clear we'll put it in writing today you are not to enter this town ever it's a several of you and if you don't get it you're going to constantly get dinged. But she was left of your invasion Force. Practically nothing. No it's gone and took a while for it to leave because after you all died and had to be picked up and it's some things going around with big huge vacuums it was disgusting it sucked up giant piles of you in seconds then we have them too but gross. Your arms are starting to fill in again and you should feel at risk and you should feel comfortable and you should feel wrong but you don't feel any of that so you have to come in there and get Intel

Mac daddy

Today Max got up and this a.m. said it doesn't feel right and our son woke up and said what are you doing harassing me about the house you have any other subjects like your army is gone or you need to go to a wake. It's true too he's thinking that. We need to take care of this garbage but we are there's army's fillion at the five points that's like 200 million already that's half of what the force was last night that failed one more push like this they'll be gone. I have to tell you there are several things that are going to happen today they're going to make the idiots I rate and so bring more idiots to their execution areas.

-they have about 4,500 sheriffs on the way here to arrest is very use as they can. There are about 300 cops in town and five of you and today they're going to fire the three that remain and yes are the sheriff they're going to fire 198. Leaving only the sheriff and deputy sheriff and Chief and the deputy chief. There's a lot of other stuff happening how's it going after the people in the police here cuz I push you out of the military and you got to 10% and he's noted it though earlier but they did have a follow-up meeting and stated some different numbers they intend to pull everybody out of Florida law enforcement but we need 10% no it's going to clear it all out and leave a couple headed idiots and see how stupid they are. There is also going to be a change in their approach to these defunct fake police they're going to the headquarters and grabbing them and grabbing their stuff and taking all the data and equipment and vehicles and found them zooming around them 20 minutes later. So what they did was put a roadblocks to pull them out but we're going to do they said is we're going to go in there and throw you in prison if you're back at your dumb building or any building saying that you're these fake police agencies and a lot of them don't get it so that's going to be most of them will die and truthfully they'll be arrested and killed. We are going to find Trump and Dan for this morning's routine and it's going to be very pricey and already we see their weakening finally and so it will be a little kittens and we can get rid of them. And other agencies Florida highway patrol the retaining but emptying out and today they want to empty all of them out and the captain's and so forth will still be there and people won't get it they're stupid at the top. Also they put an order out this morning on Dan and John remillard and Terry cheesman to bring them in any way they can and that went out about 5 minutes ago because I see you sitting here making stupid faces and imitating them and all sorts of weird stuff. Yeah that says you cuz they want to be in the apartment not you s*** for brains you want to know who that was that was Becca take a little crap hola on your head Trump and then she says that's wonderful mutant speak. So we have a lot going on and the agencies from the federal government that's clear you out everybody does leaving the leaders. We're going to hit you pretty good here to shut you down you two idiots and furthermore the agency like NSA CIA DEA FBI ATF secret service and foreign agencies Interpol Mexican secret police KGB pla NATO the United Nations, and so on all of offices in Miami and some in Tampa etc I'm going to be trimmed down of morlock they want to remove a lot of the people who are not Max but they're having trouble so they're going to take the places of the idiots and they're going to push them out. Truth be told that's going to be a lot of assholes running around with an extra grind

-on top of yesterday's 70% total loss to date they're adding about 20% today of private industries in Florida it's just Florida and the rest of the world is probably going to be at 60% at the end of the day a lot of them are gone they were laid off for fired we're asked to leave and a lot of them left in combat so good and bring it up 20% more will affect industries that have been bothering our son and of course his wife forever they are horrendous to him and these particular places just constant nags 100% ridiculous over and over just repeated the same s*** and really he's just sitting there haven't even hit and you people are assholes so you get to look forward to that today getting fired and a lot of you don't want to. A lot you expressed it yesterday I'm doing the job I'm trying, and you didn't get too much help he just said I know and then you would have got to normal and you're all in trouble you said you looking good you doing a good job but Max don't care and I care aunt Lois said our son said I care too, but that's the one who in positions like this in a lie to get real upset irate and you sleep for days and you go through other people's stuff and get real negative then you try to do something we don't want you to. It's going to be a hell of a day tons of you are going to die but there's more to it

-there were 4500 top level jobs last year in Charlotte county and early this year. It started frying you 3 months ago because of insubordination rule behavior and we're not informing your job and almost any level and they fired 500 of you and the rest you started making it look like you're doing stuff and it's disgusting. So they fired like 800 more and then it stopped for a long time and I thought it was that and it turned out to be no. It's really the fact that you are heinous. So today they took some time and they looked at it so these people work for these people. So they have about 2,500 left I decided what to do with you and they said that we can't say don't be a fraction of that number that will be let go

-so you're watching you bother him we strike . We're interested in new and old trump orders and others here rapidly

-there's several other things happening right here in the garden in Port Charlotte and Max got together and decided to stop these people and have a plan. That's also said the kid has his Head on straight and said he. Empire City on big teams and pulled you in and that's where it should be.

-not make tricks with this and we are attacking you now because of what you're doing here mostly

Republic now come back to it it's kind of a low

Thor Freya

There is but they're important things happening and on our side of the coin too

Olympus