#Not to override both to my detriment

[lunasilvis]

Focused mind, strong body, healthy eating, holy inner circle (+ many forest walks and tomfoolery around the block lol)

[indigosfindings]

tiff thoughts part 3

conclave was pretty solid (fantastic composition & performances), and also fascinating. its most staggering weakness is also its most interesting trait: the insistence on filtering a papal election through the lens & language & concerns of a us election (spot the jeb! spot the bernie!) makes it come off as incurious & narrowminded (and it certainly doesnt help that no particularly interesting views on catholicism OR us politics make their way into the mix), but it's also like genuinely fascinating to see the particular political fixations of usians get transposed into the vatican like this (election as seemingly endless state of crisis that overrides all other concerns, the notion of the pope being "the most important man in the world", & of course the fact that reactionary politics are positioned as Dangerous yet the film takes as a given that the system is Fine, the papacy is Good, the previous pope was an unassailable beacon of Virtue, etc). the rendition of the pope & papacy as Earth-Shatteringly Important means that this may as well be a fantasy film lmao. the unwillingness to go full-throttle on the depiction of corruption is a serious detriment, but it's still extremely gripping as both a character drama & a power-struggle thriller

perfumed with mint is a visual masterpiece--the composition is so meticulous & expressionistic & visually striking, it's as if every shot is a painting. the opening shot (a pan over a sea of mint leaves so starkly shadowed that they look like brushstrokes or mosaic tiles rearranging themselves in real time) is singed into my mind. the use of lighting is haunting, the depiction of the ghosts is chilling, & the metaphor is rich. a suffocating, sepulchral air drowns the movie, a harrowing sort of stillness that coaxes the audience into quiet contemplation. phenomenal sound design as well

else was really fucking good. intimacy is already a great vector for horror, but sublimating that into a concept as vast as "the meaning of thingness has been redefined" is a masterstroke. the body horror was great (who could have thought that cutting fabric with scissors could be so harrowing?) & i loved the many allusions to the body horror greats (when it lapsed into full-throttle style emulation of ********** i lost my mind)--frankly, the boldness of the neverending style-shifting (emulations, abstractions, WILD variance in pacing) could be easily dismissed as deritative or directionless if it didnt coalesce so cleanly as a style unto itself. there's a certain sense of universality that is rarely even attempted, let alone achieved. also the use of fractals was breathtaking

[arcanepactguile]

It's a known fact Alastor uses traditional radio SFX, covering a range of effects as seen in both the original pilot and the Amazon series.

My portrayal is a blend, including the associated songs composed by the semi-official musicians in YT: Paranoid DJ, The Living Tombstone, BlackGryph0n and Baasik.

Besides the standard radiowaves featuring static white noise, blips, station tuning, crackling, buzzing, and channel frequencies, I've expanded the existing canon library to incorporate what else was used in radio broadcasts during the years of his life to the 1950s when television boomed and it started overriding the popularity.

The different SFX emphasises Alastor's speech — never underscoring another character’s dialogue or actions.

There's the established Canon canned laughter, a rusty gate, applause/standing ovation, radio tunes, white noise, microphone feedback, electronic filters, and acoustic echoes.

I've enjoyed utilising SFX common in real life radio shows that we haven't seen yet in the show; it spices up writing and definitely sets the mood for a theatrical showman, playing up Alastor's obnoxious extroverted quirks. Expanding my Alastor's SFX vocabulary has no downsides, there's nothing that determines Alastor's knowledge is strictly limited to his living era. It'll be detrimental to his character and become repetitive if all he can employ is laughter & clapping.

So far I've included: a rattlesnake’s tail, a motorcar accident, military walkie talkie, thunderstorm, commercial jingles, crowd murmurings, indistinct chatter.

There's a whole catalogue of traditional SFX I intend to use, but won't spoil by elaborating here, half the fun is the surprise inclusion!

[agooberscanons]

Sitting at home alone, Sayori hums to herself softly as she starts cleaning up her desk. Usually used for doing work at home, today it has deserved a much needed break while the woman didn't have to go to her job today. It's Saturday, after all!

The young woman coos and sways in place as she makes the desk a little more tidy. Sayori's room is more of an organized mess, in that she knows where everything is and should or shouldn't be. She likes it that way, much to the detriment of others who come to visit.

A blank canvas, for once, as she stares at the desktop. It's good for a productive tomorrow, but it looks a little sad and lonely right now. Oh! She can do something she hasn't done in a long time: A little doodle session! It'll be a great idea! She goes to grab some thick cardstock paper and her markers, getting right to work.

Some sunshine, some cows and blue hearts all over are Sayori's telltale signs of her mood. Of course, she's so used to drawing these that her mind starts to wander. Nothing wrong with a little daydreaming, right? She closes her eyes slightly as she keeps on scribbling, clearly focused in her head and no longer on the paper.

She hears a voice. It starts soft, but it is getting louder and stronger. Is that a piano? Suddenly, Sayori is thrust into a spiral of emotions that aren't her own, but are about her. That voice. She knows that voice. It's Monika. She sounds like she's playing her heart out about.... about her.

Sayori jolts back to reality in a loud choking gasp as it seems like she had stopped doing everything while she was under. How...how long had she been sitting there like that, just staring at herself in the mirror? She shakes her head as she tries to brush off the wave of nausea while something catches her attention nearby. Her canvas.

All the hearts and cows and all are still there, but now a very detailed sketch of Monika's anguished face stares back at her. Mid-lyric even, it seems. Tears welling up in her eyes, just like Sayori's are now. She chokes out a sob as she tries to understand what the hell that just was. She knows it had to be real and happen to her because this sketch wasn't here before, but it is literally her handiwork. She knows her own style.

The young woman shakily brushes her fingers along the sketch, unsure of what to do or say. She kind of just slumps into her desk chair and holds her face in her hands, crying quietly to herself. What could she even say?

"........ I don't belong herrrrre............I don't belooooooong herrrrreee..........I don't...... belooooooong........"

She sniffles as she tries to wipe her face and nose, clearly a bit shaken by this experience. She stares at her sketch again, seeing how hurt Monika still looks even through a drawing. She needs a moment to collect herself. The young woman goes to get up and head to the kitchen. She figures that some food might help calm her down enough to figure out what happened and...and maybe call Monika about it later. It hurts a little too fresh right now to focus, otherwise.

However, another song starts pouring out of her own heart that starts to override the sad feelings from Monika's feedback. This one is a little more accurate for them both, she feels, and she'll see how Monika feels about singing it together with her later. Who knows? It helps some of her students to sing, why not her best friend and girlfriend?

"........I see the crystal raindrops fall and the beauty of it all is when the sun comes shining through....to make those rainbows in my mind, when I think of you sometime, and I wanna spend some time with you...~"

"Just the two of us...we can make it if we try! Just the two of us...just the two of us...~", hums the peachette softly while making a surprisingly normal sandwich for once. A little fictitious chicken, some fresh green romaine lettuce, a splurt of mustard and some multi grain bread.

It seems that Monika's life choices are being taken seriously by Sayori enough to at least try being better about how she eats. That means a lot for Sayori to willingly give up a lot of her favorites to try and understand someone else's point of view. She puts a few together, puts everything on else away and munches along quietly as she thinks things over still. This is going to be quite the weekend, it seems.

".......Just the two of us, building big castles in the sky....just the two of us........you and I.......~"

[sithisreadingcorner]

Hii I am here for September tarot readings.

👁️‍🗨️

My identifier: K❤️

DOB: 18-09-2000

I moving out due to study purposes. So my question is what experiences or opportunities would I gain from this new phase of my life. It does not need to be only related to my studies just want to know about my overall experiences like personal, friends or love anything you can pick.

Thank you so much!

Hello K, and welcome! Happy birthday! 🥰 I hope you had a wonderful birthday celebration! Let's see what the cards have to say.

page of wands. queen of bombs reversed. seven of wands [Sneak under their noses. Stun with immense panache.] SAVOIRE FAIRE the wild hunt reversed JESTER: "You gain 10,000 XP, or you can draw two additional cards beyond your declared draws."

If I had to pinpoint what area of your life this reading is about, I would tentatively say "social life" but what I really mean is that this is a lesson to be learned generally from dealing with people, and will probably permeate every facet of your life. In your new life, your horizons will open up, and with that, you will encounter a lot of behaviors that you have never before. I think that before this, your world has been a little bit black and white, and everything was divided into categories of good or bad. I don't know if you personally agree with this or not but at least that's how you were taught the world works. What you will find, is that the reality you are about to face is a little bit complex than that. The thing is, that most people are not really fundamentally good or evil, though they are capable of both of these things, but they are all a little bit "selfish" in the sense that they are trying to protect themselves and look out for their own interest to a degree. Some of them will be nice to you because they want something out of you, and some of them will hurt you because they don't know any better, and MOST of them will not do this with like an outright, deep seated malice, but they will do it regardless.

The thing is, that I don't really wanna sow seeds of paranoia or anything, because that's not what the reading is about. I think being a LITTLE cautious of things that sound too good to be true, can be a good takeaway from this reading, but it's not the most important one. The focus here, should be on your boundaries. You cannot be too shy protecting your own self interest either, because no one will do that for you. I think that maybe you are a little bit afraid to say no and draw lines in the sand, or maybe you think that saying yes to everything makes you a good person... and I think you can do these things to an extent to your liking, but be aware, that while most people won't exploit this in big and flashy ways, most people WILL chip away at it sort of testing how much they can get from you. Pay attention to how much of yourself you are giving to people, and where that goes. You need to - and you will - move on to a stage of life where your understanding of people's motivations will increase, but only if you are paying attention. Luckily, you seem like a very observant person, and I think you will understand quickly. I think all you need to really internalize is that most people's motivations are not simply to be a good or bad person. Be smart, and don't be shy to occasionally ask: What's in it for me? And by that I mean not just material goods - attention, energy, love, everything. Don't let the scales go too much out of balance, because it will happen at your detriment.

I pulled you a fortune cookie and it says: "The heart will show you the right way, and the brain tries to override it." What also seems to me from the cards, is that you have good intuition, but you ignore it a lot of the time. This might take a little practice to master, but try to listen to it more at a level of caution that you feel comfortable, and see where it takes you. Also, do a lot of things that make you happy, and not things that you think will make you look a certain type of way. Now is your time.

september readings (4 of 8)

tips? 💗

[mariacallous]

By Wednesday night, a sweeping anti-trans bill appeared dead in Kentucky as lawmakers debated whether it went too far. So it surprised Democrats, transgender activists, and their allies when Republicans managed to hold a committee vote, then rush the bill through approvals in both the state House and Senate the following day.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear isn’t expected to sign the bill, which passed mostly along party lines, into law, but the GOP has enough of a majority to override his veto.

People in the gallery were furious when the measure passed and yelled, “You’re all fucking pieces of shit!” at lawmakers on the floor, according to Courier Journal reporter Joe Sonka.

Democratic state Sen. Karen Berg, whose transgender son died by suicide in December, cried after the vote, Sonka reported. Berg had delivered powerful testimony as the bill was being debated.

“[This bill] is viewed as the single worst anti-LGBTQ legislation that has come out of a statehouse in this country,” she said during a floor debate.

“This is absolutely willful hate for a small group of people that are the weakest and most vulnerable,” she added.

The bill that passed this week expanded upon one that Republicans in Kentucky first introduced in February, which would have allowed students to misgender transgender students despite the detrimental impact it would have on trans youth.

The new version of the bill still allows trans students to be misgendered. But it goes much further: It also bans gender-affirming care, like puberty blockers or hormone therapy, for trans kids and requires doctors to begin detransitioning any of their trans patients who are children. It mandates that schools create policies that will not allow trans students to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. It does not allow educators to discuss sexual orientation or gender identity in any grade and forbids discussion of human sexuality until sixth grade. After that, parental consent is required.

The Kentucky GOP’s last-minute push to advance the bill is following a disturbing nationwide trend. Hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced just this year in states dominated by Republicans as part of the broader culture war on trans Americans and the push for “parental rights” — a catchall term that centers the wishes of conservative white parents when shaping policies in public schools.

Gender-affirming care for minors is appropriate and not dangerous, according to the American Medical Association. And genuine mental health risks come with widespread discrimination and health care bans: Transgender youth are at higher risk for depression and suicide.

Instead of serving the most vulnerable among us, Berg said her fellow lawmakers ignored the science behind gender-affirming care for trans children and only rushed this bill for one reason.

“My child came up here 10 years ago,” she said on Thursday, referring to her son’s 2015 testimony against a bathroom bill in the Kentucky statehouse. “You had time to understand the science… this is absolute, willful, intentional hate.”

[ensign-cadet]

I think Journey to Babel is an interesting episode for a lot of reasons, though a big part of that is that it explores Spock's relationships with not just the people around him, but also with rules.

If this was someone's first episode of TOS, but they were familiar with more recent material, this iteration of Spock's character would be familiar. He's sticking by rules, to the detriment of both himself and others. And all other characters in this episode, as well as most fans, accept that as Spock's motivations throughout the episode.

But looking at Spock's stated rationale closer, it's clear that that's not what's going on.

[ID: Two gifs from Star Trek: The Original Series. The first gif shows Spock in a blue Starfleet uniform. He is standing in a green room in front of a red-lit glass cupboard that has a vase inside. Spock is captioned saying "My first responsibility is to the ship." The second gif continues Spock's speech, but he is no longer visible, with the shot instead panning to the ship's Doctor (Dr. McCoy) and then to Spock's mom (Amanda). Spock's words are captioned as, "[Our passenger safety is by Starfleet order]". End ID]

Here, Spock's first defense of not going into surgery to save his father's life is over regulations. However, in previous episodes, it's clear that Spock is comfortable disobeying rules for his benefit. In The Menagerie, he commits mutiny to bring Captain Pike to Talos IV, and risks the death penalty by doing so. In The Devil in the Dark, he openly overrides Jim's orders, initially to protect an unknown species, then later to protect Jim. If Spock and Jim weren't so close, both of these instances could likely lead to criminal charges.

And yet, he gets cold feet here. Even if a regulation existed that prevented Spock from temporarily stepping down (which I highly doubt), he's not one to shy away from breaking regulations when he sees fit.

(Also, does the verbiage in that first gif sound familiar to anyone? That's almost word-for-word what he said to Leila when he was letting her down in This Side of Paradise; I half-expected him to finish with "to that man on the bridge". Perhaps that's a subtle indication of where Spock really feels his responsibility lies.)

He then gets a bit more specific, in saying he doesn't want to hand over command in such a stressful situation.

[ID: Two gifs of Spock in his room, in front of an intersection between a white and green wall. He is making eye contact with and speaking to Amanda offscreen. Over the two gifs, his words are captioned: "Any competent officer can command the ship under normal circumstances. / The circumstances are NOT normal." The word "normal" in the first gif is underlined. End ID]

Oddly, that's a completely different defense. And not a logical one, since Scotty has been at the helm in equally stressful situations, like in A Taste of Armageddon, or The Apple, for example. It would even be a reasonable argument that Scotty is better in command than Spock, considering how stressed Spock got in The Galileo Seven. Also, because Spock is in his room here, someone else who's capable of command must be at the helm already, so why don't they just stay there? As much as I hate to admit it, Amanda was right-- before she went on her racist and manipulative tirade-- in that Spock should be able to hand over command to someone else.

He also talks to his mom about Vulcan philosophies, but given how it doesn't benefit anyone to have an acting captain who's so keenly distracted, it's not a logical argument to stick with.

[ID: A set of three gifs from the same scene as above, where Spock is talking to his mother. They are standing in front of a white wall with red lighting. He paces around her such that his face is only visible in the second and third gif. Amanda's expressions are never shown to camera. He is captioned saying, "It means to adopt a philosophy, a way of life, / Which is logical and beneficial / We cannot disregard that philosophy merely for personal gain." End ID]

So, what's making Spock behave like this? I don't think his sudden inflexibility here is because he cares for Sarek less than Jim and Captain Pike. That may be true, but Spock was the one who suggested the experimental procedure, and already volunteered as a donor before Kirk got injured. It's also not to impress his dad with Vulcan stoicism, since Sarek wouldn't live to see that play out.

In answer to that question, the episode posits that Spock's distress over his dad's critical condition makes him unable to think clearly. Though, Spock wasn't contradicting himself like this until Kirk got hurt. Before Jim's injury, he was following a coherent thought and behavior pattern (as in: dad is injured -> research ways to help -> talk to the doctor about it). But afterwards, his level-headedness went out the window, to the extent that when he went into the surgery (only after being led to believe Kirk was okay), he was restless and asking for Jim, despite the fact that he should have been unconscious from medication.

[ID: A gif of an operation from the same episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. In it, Dr. McCoy and Nurse Chapel are standing over an unconscious Sarek. He is wearing a green surgical blanket and his chest is underneath an angular grey medical device. Spock is laying in a different bed, and between them is a wall mount that connects four tubes; the two coming from Spock's side have a light green liquid, and the two going to Sarek have dark green liquid, to indicate the filtering of Vulcan blood. Spock is awake, sat up in bed, when Bones asks, "Where do you think you're going?" and Spock replies, "I must see the captain." Nurse Chapel reaches for a syringe. End ID]

I'd be willing to buy that both his dad and Jim's injuries causes Spock to be stressed out of his mind. However, the pacing of the episode shows that it's Jim's less severe stab wound that pushes him over the edge, to the point where he's forgetting things and not able to justify himself. I even believe Spock thought his actions were logical, he just lacked the self-awareness to realize he was incapacitated.

[ID: A set of two gifs, where Spock is lying upright in a sick patient bed. He's wearing an outpatient robe, and behind him is a red pillow and grey metallic headboard. Spock is staring at the floor until partway through the second gif, until he looks up to make eye contact with Kirk offscreen. Over the two gifs, his words are captioned: "The thing I don't understand / Is why I didn't think of it earlier." End ID]

I don't have a good conclusion here, other than that his actions make no sense unless he was worried sick (about Jim, specifically), which destroyed his rationality, objectiveness, and reverted him to Vulcan emotional barriers in a situation where it's illogical to have them. It's baffling to me that no one in the episode questioned Spock's logic, since his sudden adherence to rules is inconsistent with how he behaves normally, but it does fit in with his tendency to get agitated when Jim is injured.

[masterthespianduchovny]

I’ve read various posts and comments about how people are “super upset” about the Rebecca and Rupert comparisons. Yet when people expressed being super upset about this sam x Rebecca situation we’re told we’re overreacting and infantilizing Sam.

Here’s the thing: the reason people dislike the comparison is because since it wasn’t predatory, they don’t think there’s an issue with the relationship. Keep in mind, most critics of sam x Rebecca have literally never called her a predator. We’ve criticized how the age difference puts them in two different places and the power imbalance, which is either constantly downplayed, ignored, or trivialized.

So because for them age gap relationships are only bad if someone is being predatory, they don’t understand why the comparison is appropriate.

Even when an older person isn’t being predatory, they still have a very real chance of causing very real emotional damage to the partner among other things. You don’t have to intentionally do something for it to be wrong or to cause harm. And this goes doubly so for relationships where the younger person works for the older one. Or that person has some position of power.

Because, in some way, the younger person suffers whether or not it’s directly from their partner. Their partner could be kind, lovely, and doting, yet that means nothing with their peers or colleagues. If you’re fucking your professor or boss and people know, your integrity and the integrity of your work is called into question. They don’t see you as one of them anyone and believe you’re telling their secrets to your partner. That trust and camaraderie is shattered. This effects their working relationships.

And forget “fairness”, this concept was thrown out the window when you got involved with a person with direct over you and those around you. They will always question if you for preferential treatment or not. They will question everything.

Now apply that to Sam.

His relationships with his teammate will suffer. He will feel ostracized and isolated from his peers. He will have no one except Rebecca. Because even if he does go to the coaches for support, this relationship undermines their authority. Whether or not they support his turmoil, a part of them will be upset by what this relationship means for their jobs coaching him.

So the idea that Sam won’t get hurt by being involved with Rebecca is fallacious. The idea that she was not cause harm to him is also wrong because due to her position, Sam suffers the consequences.

That’s how a young person gets hurt by an age gap relationship even if it’s not via their partner. And it’s not like it’d be unfair or unfounded for anyone to feel the way they do. They rightfully wouldn’t know what to think and would question everything.

It’s funny because the people who defend this ship or their decisions, at least, always talk about how mature Sam is all while overlooking how immature and irresponsible we’ve seen Rebecca behave. We’ve seen how spiteful she can be. We see how major her mistakes can be.

So the fact that people are arguing that Rebecca is allowed to make mistakes despite being older is funny because the argument ignores the first season. Or pretends that Rebecca is in a much better place so she won’t do anything spiteful again.

And I’m not saying Rebecca will do anything, but rather, we know Rebecca is capable of sinking low, being cunning and manipulative, and playing long games. We know that.

Rebecca could make a rash decision that hurts Sam—we don’t know, but she’s capable of it.

Sam’s maturity doesn’t override Rebecca’s immaturity especially because she has more power than him.

Furthermore, people are making a lot of assumptions of Rupert’s relationship with Bex based on his relationship with Rebecca, but based on the last time we saw her, Bex looked happy and in love. Now this doesn’t mean Rupert isn’t a piece of shit, he most definitely is, however, just because he put Rebecca through pain and turmoil doesn’t mean he will do that to Bex. That’s how pieces of shit work: sometimes they’ll make one person’s life hell and dote on another.

Yet, Rupert’s relationship is gross and Rebecca’s isn’t? Surely it isn’t because of the age gap because people have argued that there isn’t anything wrong with that especially when you don’t have power over another person, which Rupert doesn’t have that sort of power. Sure, Rupert is rich, but he isn’t Bex’s boss.

So let’s see:

Both Bex and Sam are adults, consented and were willing participants in age gap relationships, and both are dating powerful people. It’s okay to call Rupert and Bex’s relationship gross based on assumption, but it’s wrong and infantilizing Sam to express concern for his relationship.

That’s interesting.

It’s apparently okay to strip Bex of her agency because we hate Rupert, but it’s out of line to question the ramifications of Sam’s relationship.

The biggest difference between Rupert and Rebecca’s relationship is that he met Bex at a charity event and Sam is Rebecca’s employee.

What’s fucked it is that Rupert’s relationship is less problematic than Rebecca’s and she’s the one in an unethical relationship. 😬

I’d say that the super upsetting thing here is that Rupert comes out looking better than Rebecca.

Because if it all goes to shit with Bex, it stays between him and Bex and their child. If/when it goes to shit with Rebecca and Sam, at least over a dozen other people are impacted and harmed by Rebecca’s choices.

Why are people more upset about a comparison rather than the fact that Rebecca was put in a position in the first place for a comparison to be made? Or that she comes out looking worse?

Although Rebecca isn’t sadistic, heartless, and gets off on others pain, between the two of them, she’s setting a lot of people to be emotionally harmed by her actions and even a detriment to the team.

But wait, my bad, there’s no basis of comparison between Rebecca and Rupert. 🤔

[skullvins]

S4 dynamic ratings from my fave/best to my least fave/worst let's go

these are NOT necessarily as SHIPS, just their dynamic as characters. I talk a bit about ships but I'd only go for some of these in a ship sense

WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY:

aloha + skull - absolute comedic duo. they're both kinda chill/carefree and Skull's enough of a bitch that he could defo subtly get aloha to do stupid shit and laugh at it internally the whole time. they're the more obviously practically inclined of the S4 so the idea of them just going out and doing stupid shit together isn't unrealistic. I can see aloha being like 'u wanna do X?' and skulls just like sure. Let's kill some time together. I can also see them both being super irresponsible sometimes and they just enable each other. Aloha comes up with the dumb ideas and skull is the muscle that lets them happen. He's on full autopilot with aloha whilst thinking he isn't and it's great. Catch aloha pestering the staff while they're out shopping like there's no tomorrow while skull wanders about buying whatever he likes in the bg. Most underrated S4 dynamic change my mind

army + mask - they're both huge nerds and yet no one is interested in the nerd and nerd dynamic? they've both kinda gone from being super up themselves to being more chill/humble, and also they're both the more 'responsible' ones but not really. army's responsible until you compare him to mask, and then he's actually really excentric. Having the more excentric one be the more traditionally nerdy one while the more levelheaded one is the sarcastic gamer nerd makes for an amazing dynamic. army can also strike me as the slightly out of touch rich boy and altho mask is definitely not mainstream 'normal' he could defo be like army. Get with reality.

army + skull - the 'should we be concerned' / *eats popcorn* 'nope' combo. Oh my god. Look. This will make more sense with the next point but aloha and mask are a fire waiting to happen in a good way and these two are the mutual witnesses to it, except skull is SO much more easygoing/does not care with it (and probably older/more experienced with this kinda thing) while army is like uh. Guys? Is this? Is this normal? they're also probably the two more battle minded ones and I could see them sharing notes/strats, and if you go with the idea of skull being older/more experienced then there's a bit of a 'skull helps army with his turf war homework' dynamic. not saying army can't hold his own (he's part of the S4 ffs) but I think he would be somewhat open to Skull's advice. these two are pretty agreeable compared to the other two, so I could see them casually getting along. Also, food.

aloha + mask - best contender for rivals to lovers/besties. aloha's an asshole and mask initially doesn't like him, PLUS they're both the middle S4. makes for an interesting game of one-upmanship. they seem to argue the most out of the S4 too, so a long run of them slowly getting along better or finding things they have in common could be really interesting. I also think seeing them in the arguing phase is entertaining, even if I don't think initially they'd like each other very much. also, this fuels my previous point further, so there's that

mask + skull - only S4 dynamic I'm neutral on? I could see these two getting along, if only because skull can be so passive. they're more just sit in the same room and vibe characters, so tho I think they'd get along well, I don't think their dynamic is as interesting as the last four. that being said, I can see mask commenting on skull's antics being funny. honestly this is a better combo if you make mask the chatty one, which is. Weird. Could work tho

army + aloha - ohmygod this is SO OVERRATED. Someone tell me WHY this ship is so popular???? aloha has more interesting or shippy dynamics with rider, mask, hell even scuba or skull. WHAT is this???? army also has more interesting or believable dynamics with say specs, mask, rider, WHERE does this ship get all its popularity???? I do like their dynamic as friends, but more in an 'aloha shows army how to loosen up a bit in a way that is 100% to army's detriment'. if more people played them up as friends, or army's naïvety as easy fodder for aloha to be funny and/or an asshole, then maybe I could get into it more? army probably finds aloha annoying while aloha finds army out of touch and that COULD be capitalised on for humour but I don't think taking it in a shippy way is as good for it. That being said, this isn't a review of them as ships, but a ranking of their dynamic as a whole. I still think it's the blandest of the six

bonus round: combos of three but we leave someone out, GO

leave out army - comedy gold in the sense that aloha overrides masks common sense and skull doesn't give enough of a shit/finds it entertaining. you know when army gets back he's gonna have to nag at everyone and yet you know aloha is just gonna keep provoking and the other two are gonna fall for it

leave out skull - the interpretation of the other three being somewhat intimidated by skull is REALLY interesting, although I don't think it offers as many hijinks. I honestly think it's more interesting from Skull's perspective, but also the image of them all discussing skull with each other while skull is actually just off stuffing his face with ice cream is very funny

leave out mask - leaving out the ACTUAL common sense and these three are gonna get real stupid real quickly, maybe. I like skulls dynamic with em both but not really their dynamic with each other as I feel they'd both bounce so well off mask instead. army having to deal with the force of skull n aloha and aloha having to deal with the force of skull and army is funny tho. I don't think skull would end up the victim of their mutual bullshit, however, unless they could both find something obscure to agree on

leave out aloha - aloha's the confrontation that fuels most of this, otherwise it turns into the more passive three who probably wouldn't engage with each other much unless they had a central focus. more just becomes mask + army with skull as a third wheel. COULD be fun if they all had to work together on something as I feel it would bring out both the best and worst of them without aloha as one big loud pink distraction

[honorarycassowary]

Okay so unfortunately I like Egyptian mythology and dissecting Shadow Bastard like I'm a morally deficit scientist and he's a mutated radioactive rat is one of my favourite hobbies, so I'm gonna be insufferable for a bit, especially since I read up on Best Girl and have Thoughts about her, too.

(I'm gonna refer to MK!Ammit as Ammit and Bartseq!Ammet as Ammet/Shadow Bastard, both for easier differentiation and because that's the way it's spelled in the book.)

(Fun fact: Bartseq is one of the only two instances where I've seen this particular name written like this (as opposed to Ammit/Ammut/etc) and given he/him pronouns, with the other being the Polish translation of Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" (I say Polish translation bc Idk how it's written in the original.) I wonder why these choices were made while Ammit is usually depicted as feminine.)

So idk if I'm willing to agree that the only thing they have in common is their name and being 1000s years old - they have a few specific similarities, but otherwise they're nearly complete opposites of each other, and said few similarities highlight those in an interesting manner.

One of said similarities is that they're both misguided in their purpose and act according to their nature even when it's to the detriment of themselves and everyone around them.

In the original myths, it's Ammit's job to devour the hearts of the condemned, and I like how the show took that to the extreme by making her hunger for justice so great that she doesn't even wait for the soul to sin, just looks at its capability to do so and strikes even before they make the choice.

Ammet, meanwhile, takes on the form of a shadow, which traditionally represents one of the pieces of a human soul (shut/shwt/shuyet) which, depending on the text/dynasty/academic/interpretation might act as a guardian of sorts, watching over the soul on its way to the underworld. In the same way, Ammet is deeply protective of Khaba even when it's clear (at least to the audience) that K doesn't care about him. (poke me sometime and I'll go off about how this parallels Asmira's initial blind obedience to the Queen of Sheba.) An extension of that could be the instinct to protect overriding the hatred of humans and those, y'know, millennia of enslavement.

(By the way, it's pretty interesting that the entity named after a demon which eats the hearts of sinners is so desperate to obtain the heart of one of the worst sinners in the book series - a priest of Ra, too! Albeit a terrible one. Poke me sometime and I'll go off about how objectively Weird Khaba is for an Egyptian magician - a sinner who, unfortunately, has no intention of giving it to him.)

I think that the above dynamic of master/servant is a flipped version of Ammit and that little devotee of hers who helped her achieve her goal, with Ammit being dominant where Ammet is submissive. Then again, Ammit IS a goddess whereas Ammet is just a spirit worn down by years of slavery and drunk on a brief moment of being treated slightly better than usual.

So yeah, I do think tha Ammet and Ammit are both misguided and seem to genuinely believe that what they're doing is right (Ammit because it's in her nature to punish sinners and every person has a capability to sin, and Ammet because he's an egotistical simp who doesn't care about his fellow spirits and is fine with helping his bf climb on top of the world and then promptly set it on fire.)

They also are overly confident in their abilities and like to play with their prey instead of just killing it outright, leading to said underestimated prey rightfully kicking their asses and setting the whole carefully concocted scheme ablaze. Oopsie.

Then there's that thing where they both have a special little mortal they like because he's fucked up and serves their schemes/they have the same hobbies. And ambitions ("hey Ammit let me help you"/"hey Ammet let's take over the world and be terrible to people together.") Except, again, the master/servant dynamic is completely flipped on account of Ammit being a goddess and thus more dominant, and Ammet being just a spirit who is usually brought into this world enslaved and wrapped in magical chains. This might also contribute to his overall simpiness because in addition to their shared hobbies, the way Khaba is treating him is likely the best he's ever been treated - I mean, when the bar is so low that it's practically a tripping hazard in hell, stepping over it isn't particularly difficult.

I wonder if we can contrast Ammet's unrequited love for Khaba with a certain degree of indifference Ammit harbors for her little simp - it's clear that despite all the help he was to her and all the boons she gave him, the guy was just a tool and an eventual snack. In both cases shipping the couple romantically becomes yet another example of a monster falling in love with their food, like Venom. Or Hannibal if you take away the monster bit.

Listen, the "hubris-ridden mortal and a devoted eldritch horror who'd destroy the world for them" dynamic is Very Important To Me For Many Reasons, although "mortal is endlessly devoted to their godly spouse who is in turn endlessly devoted to them" is also fun, so I might just take you up on the offer to read fanfic with Ammit and her little boytoy. We do need more monster ladies in the media.

Anyway.

Yeah, like I said, both Ammit and Ammet were sent to Time-Out for a couple thousand years because they caused a few too many problems on purpose, though where Ammit starts the story this way and wanting to be free, Ammet only ends up stuffed into that amphora at the end of the book. F in the chat, you two.

In other words, sure, their arcs, pronouns and bedroom preferences are different, but in essence both of them are overly confident, overly ambitious horrors who bit off more than they could chew and not even their special little meow meows could save them from being yeeted by the (somewhat) shape-changing protagonist with several different names and a badass fighty teenager lass. Sure, they're different, but their differences are almost complete opposites of each other and their similarities enhance these differences really well.

Rest in pieces, A&A. At least one of you could say that you achieved godhood and the other of you got laid.

So uh, maybe I'm being nitpicky and over analyse stuff, but yeah, rant over. Idk if it makes sense because I'm tired and it's late, but here are some of my Thoughts on Best Girl and Shadow Bastard, spilled all over your inbox for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to pay them no attention whatsoever if you don't want to slog through all this nonsense.

oh WOW you do not have to apologize for this meta, I love thoughts on both Ammet and Ammit

re: Ammet specifically, I never got the impression that he was literally the god. (If he was actually being worshipped, I'd expect him to be closer to Nouda in power level, for one.) We know spirits in the series can have multiple names and, IIRC that book of names we see correctly, that names can be repeated. My guess is that Ammet was defined using that name to be a spirit inclined towards punishment and hounding out sinners. But there's nothing stopping him from deciding that the people who really need to be hurt are everyone who fucks with his boyfriend master co-conspirator.

[sebastianshaw]

"This long-term goal overrides any short-term political concerns."

"Your longterm goal," Shaw corrected, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed, "You believe that I share it, because I too am not only a mutant, but now an outed mutant. I cannot go back to my old life after openly being a ruler of Krakoa. And I knew this when I accepted it. I'll manage. But unlike you, I'm not married to this. You always believe, this time it will work. I. . .cannot fault you for determination. I almost admire it. I would criticize the fact you put it to a futile cause, but then, I'm the one who tangoed with your X-Men to my detriment over and over. Glass houses and all. But my point is---I consider Krakoa a short-term venture. I will serve it faithfully while I am here. I will not undermine it from within. And while you cannot, should not, trust me, as we both know, you can trust my self-interest. I'm not going to abandon a good thing. I'm just not fool enough to think that anything good can stay." @prfxxor

[prongsisabadger]

TWP Chapter 22

Ahsoka was already scouting ahead, so it was her who set the bombs that would burst the lab hatches open. She would enter the lab from her position on the ground and both her team and mine would make an airborne entrance. When we had boarded the gunships on Theed, Rex had joked about seeing me more often than he did his brothers on the 212th or the 104th, which was pretty accurate. "We might have to add some blue to that armour of yours if you keep this up, Commander." Later I found out he hadn't been entirely joking.

The pilot opened the blast doors and a few seconds later, the ground in the swamp beneath us shook with the force of three explosions. It was dark and the woods around the area lit up for a few seconds before the smoke covered it all up.

I jumped off the LAAT/i and into the open hatch, landing on a seamless squat with the aid of the force so as not to injure my legs. I turned my lightsaber on and started to intercept enemy fire as the rest of Ahsoka and I's squad rappelled down the opening. We were in the middle of a corridor, so both of us padawans took position on opposite sides in order to shield the troops. The lab was more heavily defended than we had originally expected. It was counterintuitive to have so many battle droids in a Republic aligned planet such as Naboo. Especially in Naboo.

The system was one of the most notorious defenders of peace within the Galactic Senate, to target such a political presence in the eyes of the galaxy was bold. But there was no time to consider the political implications of the lab's placement. The CIS had gone too far when they decided to resort to biological warfare. They were trying to leave the Republic, fine, but there was no reason to kill hundreds of thousands of life forms because of it. We were not going to let that happen.

The plan was going smoothly. Ahsoka, our troops and I had managed to gather the attention of almost all the lab's security personnel. We were taking the brunt of the defense, true, but that meant Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi could carry out their own missions without having to worry about battle droids.

The thing about close quarters fighting is that it's rather restrictive by nature. There is no place for maneuvering or taking cover, or getting a little creative with one's attack. And in such circumstances, numbers often have the upper hand, especially if those numbers don't have the disadvantage of being irreplaceable life forms. Normal battle droids in big numbers were annoying enough, SBD's were a nuisance no one wanted to deal with, but Droidekas? yeah those were a problem. Their deflector shields were bad enough in open combat where you could sneak past them if you were stealthy enough, but in close quarters? Bad news.

The rolling balls of death rounded the corner like a clunking stampede of metal boulders. I cursed underneath my breath and resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Of course they had Droidekas in this Force Forsaken lab.

"'Soka! I won't fit," I yelled, "You jump, I'll throw you!"

"On three!" she answered, "Rex, take care of these for a second."

"Boil, lay cover fire!" I instructed. "THREE"

"Two!" returned Ahsoka as she turned her saber off and got ready to jump.

"Go!"

Ahsoka ran the couple of meters that separated her from me and jumped. I force pushed her in order to get above and across the destroyers. The gap between the droids and the ceilings had been too narrow for me to do it, so we had to make do. Ahsoka was agile, flexible, small and light, she was the perfect person for the job, and she was skilled. With all the training and natural ability of a Torguta she landed on one of the droids and turned her saber on, right on top of its head. The first one went down. I ran forward to draw the second droid's attention while Ahsoka repeated the process. Behind us, our squad finished turning the other battle droids into scrap metal. We were done, for now.

"Report." I said as I turned to my team and reached out into the Force to sense for any signs of pain or distress on any of the men. There were.

"Ginger is dead, T.H. was shot but is still able bodied," Said Waxer "Captain Rex is also down two men, Commander"

I sighed defeatedly before turning to my wounded trooper. He would never let anyone know, but he was in quite a lot of pain. His shoulder had been hit by a blast that ricocheted on one of the corridor surfaces. I wanted him to retreat, to get him out of there and to safety before his injuries started to work against him. But I couldn't. I needed him, we all did. We had lost more men than we could afford and we still needed to reinforce the other two squads. I also knew he would have never let me do it. He was a clone trooper of the 212th and he would rather die fighting than let his team die in his stead. He was no coward. None of them were.

"How are you doing T.H.?"

"It's just a scratch, Commander. I'll be good to go once I bandage it."

"Good man, take a breather and rest a few minutes, we'll be moving out soon." I said before crouching down in front of him. "I'm sorry I can't get you clear. I need you, I need all of you."

T.H. looked up at me, I couldn't see his face behind the helmet, but I could feel his surprise, the way his chest felt lighter, the way he felt like he could take on the entire CIS army by himself. His CO needed him. His CO cared for his safety but she needed him. He would not abandon his CO.

"Don't worry about me, Commander," he said with conviction. "We'll take this damn lab and complete the mission. You'll see."

I patted his healthy shoulder twice and smiled at him before standing up.

Ahsoka was talking to Rex behind us, the Force moved slowly around them and in Rex's case it felt almost viscous, stagnant, like he wasn't affected by the pain and turmoil. I knew better, and so did Ahsoka. We ordered the fallen troopers extracted by the team above ground, they would be given a proper funeral after this was all over.

"Rex, 'Soka, whatchu guys have for me?" I said approaching them.

"General Kenobi has made it safely to the storage room and is helping disable the bombs. They are almost done," said Rex as he pulled up the lab's geoscan that we had been provided with. "General Skywalker has found the hostages and is engaged with Doctor Vindi as we speak."

"We should reinforce him." Said Ahsoka.

I touched my hand to my chin as I thought about our dilemma. Help Skywalker with the hostage situation or help Master Kenobi defuse the bombs?

"Hostage situations are tricky," I started. "stepping in during negotiations could be very detrimental to the whole effort. If Vindi has something to threaten Skywalker with, odds are, he can do the same to us. I think we should let Skywalker deal with it."

"Our men are trained to defuse bombs, but none are as good as the ones with General Kenobi. I think we would be getting in the way if we decided to go help them." Commented Ahsoka.

"Commander, if I may…" said Rex and waited until I nodded to proceed. " We should secure all known exits to the lab so that no one can get out. That way we prevent the virus from leaving the facility and scrap any droids that want to escape."

I smirked at him before raising an eyebrow at Ahsoka. Rex was a good soldier, yes, but he was also more than just that, and he continued to show me so every time I saw him.

"Rex, old boy, you are the best." smiled my friend, "We would need to split up in order to cover all exits, and there aren't many of us left."

"Then we make the best of it. Rex, you take Waxer and Boil, stay here and man the southern hatch; Ahsoka, take Nax to the eastern one; T.H will come with me to the northern hatch. Nothing gets out." I said while pointing at the holo map Rex had been holding. "May the Force be with us, Pals."

Ahsoka nodded to me before setting off and Rex nodded, turning to the men he would be working with and starting to give out orders. I returned to where T.H. was seated and offered him my arm. He took it and stood up with little effort. He had taken a bacta shot, he said.

"I would have left you here with Rex but this is where I expect the most fire," I explained. "So you'll be coming with me, trooper. I'll have your back."

He tried moving his injured shoulder a little as if to stretch the muscle. He was in pain, there was no denying that, it didn't matter how good he was at hiding it.

"You don't have to coddle me, Commander." He returned. "Injured or not, I can keep up and have your back just as well. You can count on me."

I smiled honestly at his visor.

"I know I can."

…

T.H. was on the lookout as I tampered with the hatch controls. If anyone or anything managed to get past us, I wanted to make sure they didn't escape. Thus, hardwiring the hatch controls to remain closed and booby trap the thing so that if anyone tried to override it, they'd get a nasty surprise, and their faces blown to pieces. The lab's corridors weren't exactly soundproof, so every once in a while, the distant echoes of a blaster fight made its way to us. The situation was not ideal. If battlegrounds were stressful because of the chaos, then this was stressful due to the uncertainty of it all. We had no idea how close to letting a virus lose we were. We had no Idea if everybody else was okay, even with signals not jammed. We had no Idea how many more droids -battle droids or otherwise- were left in the facility. If you asked any of us about the status of the situation, the answer would most likely be "fuck if I know". But what was important was that we had given ourselves something to do, and all we had to do was accomplish it. When in distress, give yourself something to do.

"How are things going down there, T.H.?" I asked, rolling my shoulders from the strain. I'd had my arms up towards the hatch for over twenty minutes and they were starting to hurt.

"Clear, Commander." Answered the clone. "We have comm chatter though. Hostages are secure but the doctor is attempting to escape and Skywalker is in pursuit... -" he stilled for a second as if to listen to the radio more carefully. "General Kenobi is moving to intercept, his team is done defusing the bombs."

A relieved sigh escaped me without consent. We weren't about to die of an incurable disease. I finished the job regardless. Even when we caught Vindi, there would be droids and possibly other personel trying to escape, we needed to make sure none were left free to roam Naboo once everything was over.

"Good, I want to get out of here as soon as possible," I said placing the control panel over the wires once again and clicking it in place. "I don't think the humidity on the planet agrees with me."

[geminicollisionworks]

Questions! We Get Questions! About LIFE WITH ALTHAAR!

Hello Life With Althaar fans, some of you are here (and we're grateful)! At the same time, there are groups of Althaar fans we interact with on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit, and there doesn't always seem to be a lot of overlap between these communities. So, in our desire to connect and expand our listenership, when we're asked things about the show, we'll do regular reposts of questions and answers here and at our subreddit (where longer text posts are both appropriate and possible).

B&I would like to note, at the same time, that technically, any answers we give outside of the show (while "Word of God," as they say) are not Canon. The only Canon in Althaar is what is actually contained in the (ultimately) 40 audio episodes of the series. Our detailed show bibles are Lore. The Lore is what we work from in the creation, but Your Headcanon May Vary. And that's okay.

So... a couple of questions from the digital mailbag and answers from Althaar co-creator Ian (vetted by co-creator and showrunner Berit)...

from JanglesPrime on Twitter:

"So, H.F. has called Althaar "kid" and it seems Althaar's people get added names as they gain recognition. But Althaar has only one name. I guess Althaar is a college graduate in his people's equivalent of their 20s?"

Yes, exactly -- which places him somewhere in his 50s in Human years (so H.F. may actually be about the same age as Althaar in our years). But he was always a prodigy, graduated early, and taught seminars and performed some minor diplomatic work before coming to The Fairgrounds.

Names are indeed added for recognition, or more precisely, in connection with some noteworthy achievement done by an Iltorian. Someone with Althaar's intelligence and skills might have been expected to have more than one name by this point in their life/career.

However, Althaar's interest in Humans took him off any kind of normal "career path" for Iltorians. It's regarded as an eccentricity (and even with some dismay) by his people, but indulged because he is So Promising and Smart ("if anyone can solve this insolvable puzzle, it's Althaar").

By the end of the series, Althaar will have a second name.

from Travis Brown on Facebook:

"So how does Althaar's detrimental effects work on a human? It isn't possible scientifically for an object to be so ugly that it overrides our ability to maintain composure across our entire species. I have also noticed that it is a visual and to a less extent auditory effect. Is it a psychic ability related to their empathic ability as a diplomatic species? One that works positively across all other species encountered so far?"

While Althaar's effect on Humans - rather ANY Iltorian's effect on Humans - is primarily visual and textural (though the latter has only ever been experienced by a Human less than a handful of times), there is also a minor effect on the auditory and olfactory senses - by MANY orders of magnitude less, and not even really in the same category. And whether or not it is possible within science as we know it, the effect is possible in the world of Althaar, as are, for example, teleportation, telepathy, anti-gravity, and faster-than-light travel, not to mention Lt. Frall.

The effect, as Berit and I have always discussed it, is basically some combination of elements (and "ugly" may not even be the right term for it) that directly goes right to the fear/phobic areas of a Human brain -- as B says, "we're talking lizard-brain here, not even ape brain" -- and turns them up to maximum. It is not even possible for any of us in our world to actually imagine what that might be, though most people tend, it seems, to drop their own phobias into how they consider Iltorian appearance -- Berit's an arachnophobe, and sees spidery legs as an element; I see nightmarish teeth mixed with the kind of thing that sets off my trypophobia. Hell, maybe they're colored like circus clowns, too!

Early on, we considered whether a certain kind of neurodivergent person could be unaffected, but decided that the effect works on a level so primal it is just universal among all Humans. ALL of them, and ALWAYS will be. Humans may learn a degree of "comfort" (defined here as "the ability to not run screaming from the room") around Iltorians through spending time with them (and John B is the first one to do so), but actual visual perception will forever be a no-go. (I just asked B, "Should I say 'ALWAYS?' I mean, could we be talking about evolutionary stuff that takes thousands of years here?" and they say, "Okay, maybe not ALWAYS, like maybe they come up with some weird way to nerve-staple that in a few hundred years or something, but that's WAY post-Canon.")

And, as B says, also "it's just the premise of the show and we have to accept it." Which means building an SF universe in which it makes "sense" (as the other things mentioned above "make sense," which they wouldn't always in some SF). A universe in which we can just let anti-gravity go by without details, but we have to write a lot of details (most of which will never go into the show) about Robot/Human Labor Relations, which we DO have to understand in order for things to work right.

Oh, and one from Life With Althaar actor/writer Amanda La Pergola, regarding her character, a question for the listeners:

“When are we going to start seeing Frondrinax fan art? She's simple to draw. She's just a plant!

You heard her, folks... Anyone up for some Parlor Palm rendering?

So. Any more questions? We're here!

IWH/GCW 

[madamhatter]

act 0. observer’s notes  Bastion.

a conversation about the (there lack of) manifestation of Sophie’s bastion.

however, with the idea of Topaxi characters being summonable in F/GO, the bastion could manifest itself as a move, or secondary trait, but not as a noble phantasm. 

The caster’s axiom is their 'one truth’ brought to existence, breaking the threshold of abstract and infiltrating reality. It is the wish that births the bastion, the contradiction that both exists in peace yet in torn to pieces when it exists. (Interpreted from Call It A Lesson: Topaxi - Bastions). 

Bastions work as projections of the inner person’s wish to the WORLD - the line between reality and self is given a bridge to where the interior of the self breaches through. It is the undoing of impossibilities and reveling in humanity’s strength: doing. No matter what the odds and costs are, humanity will always do. 

What then becomes of the girl whose words become true and who can speak life? A power so synced and alike to a bastion, one whose magic bypasses ‘defiance’ and ‘breaking.’  

Defied fate, defied mankind, defied unnatural, defied natural, and defied divines, all matter and ideas that were relative. Why? For you create absolution. excerpt from description of Sophie’s unnamed ability in Stat Sheet.

Surely, her magic is on par, if not a similar style, to bastions.

Yet, it would be foolish to consider that.

Walking aporia that Sophie Hatter is, she is a wishless girl. The self is one that has been countlessly built, torn apart, and stitched back together for someone else’s convenience. A temporal constitution means that wishes, desires, and other personal attributes to the mind are seen as wasteful and unnecessary. No matter how much her heart may bleed for a taste of humanity, she will consciously deny herself. 

If she were to have a wish, and the only she could remember, was one for her sisters. It never was a ‘I wish,’ but an ‘I want.’ I want Martha and Lettie to be happy. Which, in truth, is the type of wish she’d have generally for everyone.

Someone could read this as her wanting to see those around her living the life she can’t have. But that line of thought neglects how much simpler, but sadder, of a person Sophie is - she just wants people happy. And if someone were to live like her, they wouldn’t be happy because this life cannot complete that. 

Instead, she finds that her life can be used to fulfill the happiness of others. She pushes aside the concept of wishes and prefers grounded methods to accomplishing what others want. Wishing, personally, hurts Sophie because she will tell herself that it’s impossible and a waste of time (no matter how much she wants it).

If you can already tell, her own contradictions and hypocrisies fit in line with bastions. However, without a stable ‘wish’ as it is one that changes accordingly to the environment and situation, Sophie Hatter would face large difficulties being able to use a bastion.

Which, for literary purposes, we can describe this incapability as a symbol of her own conflicts and displacement that persist in her life in Topaxi. Her idea of life is fractured - the normalcy she cultivated and maintain consumed by fire and war - the purposes in her life (her sisters) far away - her confrontations with her trauma and the ‘her’ who she thought long died pushed away...

Until Sophie Hatter regains her sense of self, she will not be capable of performing a bastion. Until she figures out who she is and accepts that she is actually someone, she will not be able to move on. Until she finally confronts herself, she will only continue in dread and turmoil. 

On the flip side, a servant!Sophie from YNI would be able to use a bastion. But not in the way it should be. 

As discussed in my workshopping post, YNI heroes who have miasma (i.e., innates and artificials) would probably have their “origins” recording the heavy influence of miasma. Miasma is colloquially known as “rot” in the D.M. era, which itself can be a temporary or permanent consequence of ichor-exposure. 

In those who have ichor in them, miasma is permanent. So, it is more likely and common that their ALTER forms are summoned as opposed to their ‘original forms.’ Summoning the ‘unrotten’ forms of these spirits are very rare but does not speak much of who summoned them - it is more speaking to the how the endless story of Topaxi continues. 

Then comes Alter!Sophie (Sophter). 

The premise of this servant is “monstrosity under the mundane,” with the themes focusing on the erasure of the self from taking on others ( “Where do ‘I’ begin and end when everything is of me is from someone else? Do ‘I’ even exist? Or am I just the ‘you’ seen with your eyes?”) At least, this is the idea that comes directly from the writing ideas that I’ve created from YNI when focusing on Sophie’s identity displaced and reworked constantly in her lifetime (be it from loved ones, surviving the war, escaping the Witch of the Waste’s clutches, etc.) 

The overall idea of Sophter’s abilities is connected to the last idea much more when her body becomes a ‘receiver.’ The idea of being an tool of endless change for utility is permanent - however, it is the fact that the ‘self’ within is overlaid by granting and fulfilling the desires of others. As the YNI counterpart is able to feel and interpret ichor, which is an invisible and evermoving current, there comes the saint graph’s creation and its......faults. It mutated this ability and mindset, unable to differentiate from the other and how the person is remembered/acted in their history. Thus, exists the husk of Sophter with her decrepit philosophy in unaltered and full view. 

Simply put, the warped conscious of Sophie, with miasma infuence, is what ultimately made Sophter the Avenger class. 

Now, how the bastion itself resonates is that it takes the “wish” aspect and combines it with Sophie’s “fulfillment” ideal. The servant has no wish for themselves, but this changes in accordance to the levels/proper development made in the interlude. 

The secondary ability would probably be called “A Promise To The World.” It says that for those whose wishes and desires are filtered/received by the avenger will be granted, no matter what. Mainly applies to the Master. Following the idea of ‘absolution’ that comes with Sophie’s original magic, it does mean that Sophter can be a relentless and ruthless opponent that will act in and out of battle to accomplish what is needed of her. 

Now, the thing is, this ability does not work 100% with spoken command. If Sophter senses a discrepancy between spoken idea and the ‘true’ desire, she will act accordingly to what the heart wants. This can be a very, very detrimental obstacle for those who summon Sophter and those who summoned them may be greeted with the grim reality that the calm and, sometimes, nonchalant servant acts as a something inhuman.

Though, the master’s wishes and desires may not be synched to “A Promise to the World.” There are faults within the coding and anything strong enough (not another Master’s but an interference of a higher being) and those wishes and desire may override the Master’s.It is a very dangerous situation if the master doesn’t have a high constitution or there’s very specific situations (i.e., certain YNI characters may meddle with this...maybe someone like Kizin). 

[meet-me-in-the-kitchen]

would love to know what your take on sott is though. i know it’s about a mother giving birth or smth buy that just doesn’t make any sense to me when listening to the lyrics. and i know this is def reaching but it sounds very haylor to me. the song gives me ootw and ikp vibes if you ask me.

There’s a lot to unpack here. But one could definitely interpret this as Haylor. I also find it really...oddly specific that he says it’s about a woman dying from child-birth, but let’s move on lol.

Songs this reminds me of: Wildest Dreams, Someday, Something Great, I Know Places, Meet Me in the Hallway, Happily, Afterglow, Walking in the Wind, Two Ghosts.

The overriding feeling I get from this song comes from these lyrics:

“We don’t talk enough/We should open up: Before it's all too much/Will we ever learn?/We've been here before/It's just what we know”

These lyrics point toward two people, in a relationship, who have an obvious lack of communication and propensity to repeat their former mistakes, leading to their inevitable doom. The reason why I find the miscommunication lyric really fucking exciting is because in Two Ghosts the lyric, “tongue-tied like we’ve never known, telling those stories we already told, ‘cause we don’t say what we really mean” points toward the same miscommunication. In the Haylor fandom, we know that Harry & Taylor got back together periodically, but broke up once more due to the same things that had been to their detriment in the beginning: miscommunication, lack of planning, off timing. And as frustrating as this cycle seems, they’re not able to simply disattach themselves from it. It’s fated. “It’s just what [they] know.”

The tragedy is that they’re better together, but it’s always uncertain how much time they have left before the next roadblock.

“Why are we always stuck in running from the bullets/They told me that the end is near/We gotta get away from here”

This is also a lyric that sort of sends me into a spiral, because running seems to be haylor’s idea of fixing their relationship. It’s the same concept mentioned in Wildest Dreams when Harry infamously says, “let’s get out of this town/away from the city, away from the crowds” and Taylor searches for places to hide in I Know Places. Even in ‘Happily’ Harry writes, “I know you wanna leave, so come on, baby be with me so happily.’ As if leaving stardom is the only choice if they want to be together. Maybe it has to do with them thinking that their stardom is intwined with their individual fates crossing over for them to meet, but also playing a hand in their fallout. Maybe this lyric implies that they should no longer run from those who threaten their relationship as they did in the past, but instead band together against them.

“Remember everything will be alright/We can meet again somewhere, somewhere far away from here”

This lyric reminds me of Harry’s words in both Walking in the Wind and Someday, a song he wrote but was performed by Meghan Trainor. I think this lyric from Something Great sums it up: “Someday I’ll come into your world and get it right, we’re better off together here tonight.” Maybe someday they will be able to once again be together and make it work. Taylor basically says the same thing when she tells Harry to meet her in the afterglow, or uses symbolic paper planes in regard to what they have. Maybe the hands of fate will push them together again.

There are also some more glimpses of Two Ghosts in this song lyrically:

“You look pretty good down here/but you ain’t really good” vs. “Moon dances over your good side, this was all we used to need”

I think this lyric points moreso to how although their relationship seems perfect externally, there are many flaws no one ever mentions, and they could only go so long ignoring the miscommunication, inconsistency, and fragility of their relationship, however special and rare it may be. They have matured too much to go through that again.

Also...you know when Harry’s flying aimlessly in the SOTT music video? Seems kind of random in relation to the song’s lyrics, right? I personally think it’s because he’s paying tribute to the infamous lyric in Out of The Woods about the nature of their relationship— “Baby, like we stood a chance, two paper airplanes flying.”

Notice how he begins to fly right as he sings “we got to get get away.”

Anyway, that’s just my interpretation. If anyone has any additional thoughts, feel free to bring them up and I will add with credit.

For more, here’s my Haylor Thoughts Masterpost ;)

[finn-o-corvex]

13, 28 and 37 for the book asks :)

13. How many books have you read this year?

I have read 11 books this year! Approximately 7 of those have been in the last three weeks lol. Quarantine really took the mick outta me when it came to reading. Most of what I’ve read have been rereads though.

28. First book that comes to mind, tell us about it. Rant.

All I am going to say is that you asked for it. And I have decided to make this a positive rant.

The Copernicus Legacy by Tony Abbott.

SO FUCKING GOOD and I am about to tell you why.

[SPOILER WARNING FOR THE REST OF THIS POST! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.]

Phenomenal character development. Gives you just enough information about the characters to create a sense of empathy, but not so much as to override the main plot point. Shapes enough of a personality to relate to, but still leave plenty of room for them to grow into the people they will be by the end of the series. Has a striking balance of both seriousness and humor, albeit leaning towards the serious side.

The world building in these books is absolutely incredible. He uses real life people and events and puts new spins on them. He crafted the legendary astronomer Copernicus, who is known as one of the first Europeans to propose the idea that the Earth revolved around the sun, into a pioneer of time travel, creating a fictional time machine known as the Wayback Machine, powered by special objects called relics.

Abbott takes locations that would otherwise seem boring to young readers and makes them exciting to learn about. He subtly educates you about your location without you picking up on it too much through the characters themselves. Abbott isn’t afraid of going to the farthest corners of the globe, he sends his characters to every single continent (including Antarctica!) and it’s so fucking refreshing. He has been to every location in his books before (except Antarctica for good reasons) and has talked to locals and done research right then and there for these books. I’m sure there is stuff wrong somewhere, but he is an author that is more than willing to listen to fan criticisms of his books and even encourages it!

Also, NO ROMANCE! HUZZAH!! There are hints sprinkled throughout the books of potential between at least two pairs of two characters, but they never outright come out and say anything until the last book, and even then, the characters who said it agree that they are not ready for a relationship and decide to wait until they are older. The hints are enough for you to notice them, but subtle enough to where they can be ignored, and they aren’t detrimental to the plot line. They are much more tangible in the later books, but once again not super important to the plot and only used somewhat for character development.

GALINA! I have to talk about Galina. Galina Krause is this series’ big bad villainess, and OH MY FUCKING GOODNESS I LOVE HER. At the beginning of this series, she is portrayed as a very cruel and uncaring mistress, but for good reason. By the end of the series, the reader sees her descent into madness, her obsession with obtaining the relics and rebuilding the machine so that she can see her now deceased husband and daughter one more time before she inevitably dies of incurable cancer. Her motives make sense. She is such a tragic character. By the end of the book, she never gets to see her husband and child, as she was just a bit too late. Her story is super mysterious in books 1, 1 1/2, and partway through 2, but then it starts being more and more uncovered as we are taken through more and more flashbacks into the past through her fractured memories. Galina Krause is really just a woman who is desperate to see her beloved husband and baby daughter again, and we see her descent into madness as she runs out of her already very limited time and she seems to be getting nowhere. It is so fucking good and I am HERE for it.

Hans. Fucking. Novak. One of the main plot twists in this series that I never saw coming. Hans Novak is the (i assume) fictional assistant and apprentice to Copernicus, the only other person who knew about the Wayback Machine until Copernicus told the Guardians. Guardians are the people that were directly appointed by Copernicus to protect the relics with their lives, with the role being passed down from generation to generation, with some families devoting their whole life to protecting them. Hans is considered the first true Guardian, even before Magellan (the Guardian discussed in the first book), and was thrown through a wormhole by the Wayback Machine before Copernicus dismantled it to keep it safe. He lands in the 21st century, and disguises himself under the identity Carlo Nuovenuto, and hides Copernicus’s personal diary which he wrote away from Galina Krause. He helps our main heroes from the shadows, often stepping in when least expected, before making his final appearance in Antarctica, facing off against Markus Wolff (WHO IS ALSO A FANTASTIC CHARACTER) in a battle of wills.

If I keep going I will literally bore you to oblivion but YEAH! THIS IS AN AWESOME AS FUCK BOOK SERIES. This series is also FILLED to the brim with secret codes and messages, very clever puzzles, and it’s so freaking cool!

37. Is there a book you think everyone should read?

Uh

Well if you bothered to read the absolute monster up there, then yes I quite obviously do.

BUT! In case you didn’t, I actually have some more!!

Michael Vey: Awesome story, good representation. Main character with Tourette’s syndrome (I know right? Whose ever heard of that?), Blind black character with actual human emotions other then anger and who still needs help from his friends to guide him, and so much more! It’s an awesome read.

The Paladin Prophecy: Another really awesome story! This main character is very emotionally stunted and struggles with figuring out who he truly is because his parents have required him to wear a mask in front of everyone. It’s an action story first and foremost, but there is incredible emotional and mental development among all of the characters once you’re looking for it. Good racial representation as well!

The Shadow Children: This one is definitely older but just as good!! The story follows several main characters, all illegal ‘third children’ in a borderline dictatorship world that only allows two and punishes those with more. The real main character starts a revolution against the corrupted government and the Population Police, the people who round up third children. The conclusion of the book is open-ended, and leaves it up to the imagination whether or not the revolution is successful. Much to be desired in the representation department though, don’t go into this story expecting a ton of diversity.

I have several more recommendations but I feel like I’ve ranted on enough lol. Message me if you want more though! I’m always down for a book chat :)