#Performance indicator: Least important for us to do

[erzva]

…

zoro

how he shows love

acts of service & physical touch

zoro is a very sufficient and blunt, cut to the chase kinda guy bc he doesn't like waiting. he prefers things to be direct. he's not good with words and he doesn’t see the point in being. he doesn't like talking bc he's more of a listener, so he isn't too big on words of affirmations, in both ways.

he would get annoyed with disgusting over the top phrases about how great he is or how much you love him. even worse if you use stupid petnames. he would just be very weirded out and annoyed.

he's awkward with words. he never seems to be able to put what he's thinking into words correctly. it frustrates him that he is bad at conversing. most he can do is say that you're cool or impressive. if you're looking for a romantic poet, he's not the one for you. he just trusts you know that he loves and cares for you without having to put it into complicated words. the most you’ll get from him is an “i love you”/“i’m in love with you”. that’s as straight forward as it gets. he can do that.

he's an ‘actions speak louder than words’ person. he'll make sure you feel as loved as possible with the little amount of sweet talk you get from him. but just bc he can't tell you how much he loves you in riddled poems doesn't mean he isn't loving. it’s evident that he’s in love with you with all the things he does for you. you definitely get prince:ss treatment.

he's always near you, hovering like a shadow. he seems like a puppy the way he follows you around. or rather a grumpy wolf, ready to ward off anyone who gets too close. he sneaks little touches throughout the day and always finds a way to surprise you and make you feel special. and he gives the best hugs. they're warm and soft and he just holds you so perfectly. or maybe it’s just that you fit into him so well bc he’s so buff. it definitely adds to the confortness.

he doesn't really like/need quality time. he is a very out of sight out of mind person and spending a lot of time with someone is not an indicator of how much you love them to him. at least that’s what he used to think before you came along. he can’t help but feel warm whenever you seek him out to spend your free time with him. and he has found himself doing the same with you without even realizing it, accompanying you almost everywhere you went.

what he needs from you

physical touch & quality time / affirmations

your love prevails even after long periods of time apart but he would still rather have you with him all the time. that way he has an eye on you and can protect you. not that you can’t do it yourself, he just feels more at ease that way. you not being with him makes him worry and feel stressed so quality time is definitely something he needs now. you don't have to be doing anything important, just being together with you is good for him.

he likes it when you watch him train for example. having your eyes on him makes him wanna perform even better than usual and catching you staring at his chest or back is always something he looks forward to. and even though he gives his best and powers himself out, he’s never too tired for a little fun afterwards. your reward for being so patient.

he especially loves it when you join him for a nap. there's nothing that makes him feel more content than feeling your warmth and body close to his while he's sleeping. again, he likes having you close in case anything happens but it's also just very comforting and comfortable. he sleeps much better with you. he didn't know what a good night of sleep was before you joined him for a nap for the first time. and now he hates it whenever he has to sleep alone. but waking up alone is even worse. you need to join him for naps. if you see him napping just go lay down beside him so he can feel ok.

you’re good with your words. (even if you aren’t, it seems that way to him bc he’s not) and he admires that. he’s fascinated with how well you articulate yourself. he holds the same admiration for robin. only that his admiration for you is a bit stronger because your words are often directed at him, spoken in secret in your chambers with no one else to hear but him. and unfortunately he has grown to like it.

…

[icanseethefuture333]

Singer: persona chart 🎤

Do you want to be a singer? Here's what your Singer persona chart means 🖤! Go to astro.com and click on the extended chart option. Scroll to the bottom and type in 10698 to find the Singer asteroid. Then select which chart type and pick "persona chart".

The Singer asteroid is your overall voice and sound as an artist.

The ascendant is your public image as a singer or your musical concept. What people will know you for.

Your sun sign is your identity as a singer.

The moon is how you express your feelings and emotions while singing.

Mercury is the thought process of your song writing and what your lyrics are about. It also is how you communicate to people in interviews, radio stations, or talk to other celebrities.

Mars is how active you are physically while performing and your stamina. As well as your temperant when faced with conflict or your passion for singing.

Venus is your beauty and style. What makes you stand out visually or how your music videos could look like. It could also represent what record label you sign a contract with and what kind of people you work beside.

Jupiter is where you can find your success as a singer and what would help you attract the most abundance. What would make you famous.

Saturn is what humbles you as a singer and what scandals/rumors you could possibly get involved in.

Uranus is your connection to the world and how you interact with your fanbase. Also how to promote your music with technology.

Neptune is what people don't see behind the scenes or what could happen to you that others might not know about.

Chiron is the wounds and hardships of being a singer.

North node is your life path as a singer and what destiny you have to fulfill. The longevity of your career as a singer.

Midheaven is your social status and professionalism as a singer.

Use the degree theory to see what energy is associated with your signs/planets. Here are some indications of fame degrees in a chart.

Aries singers are expressive with their identity. They are often fresh on the scene and have a lot to prove to the world. Their attitude can be described as spunky and charming. They sing from their head and chest more than their diaphragm, could have trouble projecting their voice properly. These singers are competitive or could make their debut performance in a singing competition.

Taurus singers are more reserved and sensual. Their voices can sound velvety and seductive. Their best songs are recorded at the privacy of their home. They could sing in intimate places like singing in a jazz bar or a coffee shops, something like the Tiny Desk series. They could perform in green, earthy sceneries. Their music makes people feel soothed and comfortable.

Gemini singers have a duality and are able to switch up their concepts. Their voices could have multiple layers or tones to them. They could have a high pitched voice or low pitched voice. For example, when some people talk their voice is deep but when they sing its really high and vice versa. Gemini singers perform at radio stations or live on social media.

Cancer singers carry a lot of emotion in their voice. It could almost sound like they're crying or choking up. They are best at conveying their feelings through a song. Their notes have a lot of resonance. They are shy and don't like being put on the spot when singing. These singers have terrible stage fright. They are the least likely to perform in front of other people. They could like to sing at the beach.

Leo singers are bold and charismatic. They like to be very theatrical on stage and enjoy giving a great performance. Their voices are loud on it's own and they could even perform without a microphone if asked to. They are perfectionists and they hate when things get messed up on stage. Their image is important to them. Beyoncé has a Leo ascendant in her singer persona chart and she's known for her diva presence ("Somebody's gettin' fired!"). Leo singers perform in big stadiums, theaters, or musical plays. They could also be actresses.

Virgo singers could get criticized a lot on social media. Some people enjoy their voices, others do not. They can be hard on themselves and practice until they can't sing anymore. Their voices could sound very thin, but they have great enunciation skills. They could experience a cold often or they have to take care of their throat more than the other Singer signs. Singer songwriters are most likely to be Virgos. They could perform in hospitals or at senior citizens centers.

Libra singers are flirtatious and popular for their beauty. Their voices are attractice and have a great singing technique. People could view them as the total package. Libra singers could have to heavily rely on endorsements and commercials than their music. They have to balance music with work. They could have a fanbase that's mostly men or women depending on their gender/sexuality. Their music mostly consist around romantic relationships and they could perform at churches, weddings, or venues.

Scorpio singers are like sirens. Their voice echoes through a room and have a hypnotic effect on people. It's hauntingly beautiful. Their music could have much darker elements or Scorpio singers could make music that expresses their grief or new chapters in their life. People who listen to Scorpio singers could play their music when they are experiencing a transformation in life. Perhaps during a break up or the death of a loved one. Scorpio singers are most likely the ones to perform at a funeral.

Sagittarius singers are free spirited and their music is very optimistic. Their music makes people have a different perspective on life and appreciate the little things in life. They are very wise. They could like to do voice breaks while singing. Sagittarius could perform in public areas and where tourists visit to do busking. They are very active on stage and move around a lot.

Capricorn singers are serious and elegant. They could sing on very deep topics. Their music could make people question themselves and if they are learning from the lessons the universe is trying to teach them. They could also talk about money and success in their music. They use a lot of vibrato and have husky voices. They perform in class or auditions, anywhere they can show off their skills.

Aquarius singers are nonchalant and chill. They like to be "cool" and do something different than the other mainstream artists are doing. Their voices could have a unique tone or sound nasally. Robotic or alien-like. Their music is very avant garde or experimental. People could want to gatekeep their music. They could perform online by posting covers on tiktok/youtube or do virtual tours.

Pisces singers have ethereal or angelic voices. They are gentle and soft. Their music sounds dreamy and ambient. They could perform in auditoriums or when it's raining. People could feel their music has caused them to have a spiritual awakening or are being healed as they listen to their music.

1st house stellium in the persona chart could mean that you get discovered quite fast for your singing or you could look like an idol.

2nd house stellium in the persona chart means you could make a lot of money from singing professionally. You could receive a lot of offers that will give you financial security in the music industry. If there is negative aspects this could mean someone could rip them off or steal a lot of money from them.

3rd house stellium in the persona chart is people could make someone be well known in their hometown for being a singer or be the talk/star of the town. They could make a lot of connections in the music industry. Their family member could work with them or helped them get started in their career.

4th house stellium in the persona chart people have their parents, specifically moms, as their managers. They could come from a family of musicians as well. These singers are mostly likely to be nepo babies. They could have possibly chaotic relationships with their families if negatively aspected.

5th house stellium in the persona chart people could be popular with kids or will be remembered as their childhood idol. They are well known for being creative and artistic. If negatively aspected, parents could not want their children listening to their music, they could see them as a bad influence.

6th house stellium in the persona chart means that being a singer would become a daily routine for you. You could have to practice frequently or be in the studio a lot to record. It could impact your health if you are overworked.

7th house stellium in the persona chart could mean the legal matters of your contract. What partnerships you make as a singer and possibly dating/marrying someone in the music industry. If negatively aspected, this means that your company is unfair or your partner will betray you somehow.

8th house stellium in the persona chart could mean your career as a singer will have a lot of transformations and changes. Being a musician for you could mean there will be a lack of stability emotionally. A lot of ups and downs. It could also mean you will be remembered for your legacy when you die. If negatively aspected, these people could get involved with scandals or meet people from cults.

9th house stellium in the persona chart people could be more popular overseas than in their own home country. They could travel to a different country to be a singer or they will travel a lot to perform. Their world tours will be the most successful. If negatively aspected, these people could get banned from entering certain countries.

10th house stellium in the persona chart people will have long term success in their musical career. Their fathers could be their managers or their fathers were famous musicians. If negatively aspected, they could have a strict company or contract that forces them to continue to be a singer even if they wanted to quit.

11th house stellium in the persona chart people could of had their friends push them to be a singer or they work with their friends. Singers with a 11th house stellium most likely are in bands or groups. They are popular on social media. If negatively aspected they could get kicked out of bands/groups or get a lot of hate on the internet.

12th house stellium in the persona chart are meant to fulfill their life purpose as a singer. They are supposed to help heal the world and transcend the energetic collective's minds. If negatively aspected these singers could make sacrifices that are damaging to their mental health or get involved with substance abuse.

[lisbeth-kk]

May Prompts (13) Laugh

The Luckiest Girl in the World (chapter 13)

Summary: Rosie gets a surprising gift from her parents. Later, she surprises her Papa by proposing an interesting experiment.

Thirteen Years Old

I’d wanted one for a long time, but for some reason I’d given up hope, so you can imagine my surprise, when I opened the box Papa handed me.

“But it’s not my birthday yet,” I protested more out of courtesy than actual refusal.

“You need it now, and your birthday is months away. Think of it as a gift in advance if you must,” Papa said impatiently.

That should’ve given it away, but I was so taken aback, and my brain cells probably weren’t at their brightest. The box was heavy and by the look in Papa’s eyes, it was clear that this wasn’t just a tiny thing, but something grand and important.

“Open it before Papa combusts,” Dad suggested with amusement.

Papa huffed and urged me to unwrap the damn box.

“Sweetheart, are you alright?” Dad asked when I’d peered into the now open box.

I had become mute, and apparently also adopted Papa’s way of reacting when something unexpected and sentimental was bestowed upon him - rapid blinking.

“Fine,” I whispered and finally looked up at my expectant and slightly worried parents.

I placed the box with utmost care on the table and fell into Dad’s waiting arms.

“You liked it then?” he inquired.

“Of course!” I exclaimed. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”

I kissed his cheek and turned to Papa. His arms embraced me hard.

“Thank you, Papa. I should’ve realised, but I got distracted,” I murmured against his chest.

“You’re welcome, Bee. I’m glad you liked it. You’ll need it the next couple of weeks with that science project of yours, and after that…well, I’m sure we can find some use for it.”

The gift was of course my very own microscope. A professional one like Papa’s. I’d tried his numerous times but having my own meant that I didn’t have to wait for Papa to finish using his. The things I missed were a Bunsen burner, flasks, beakers, tongs and so on, but I gathered that I would be allowed to borrow what I needed under supervision. I was already equipped with safety goggles, gloves and a thick apron. 

Papa had a whole lab set up down in 221C, which he used for his fouler smelling and toxic experiments. I knew I wasn’t allowed down there when one of them was ongoing, but hopefully I could persuade him to let me in if I was cunning enough.

***

In the weeks following my science project, I collected the items I wanted us to examine together. I had no idea if Papa already had studied this and made a spreadsheet like he usually did with things concerning the residents in 221 Baker Street. Truth be told, it was likely that he had, but I decided it was worth a try.

“I have a request,” I said after breakfast a rainy Saturday morning.

It would peak Papa’s interest if I used more adult language, instead of just blurting out: I want to do this and that.

“Pray tell.”

I had to try hard to keep my poker face intact when Papa’s eyes beamed at me from across the kitchen table.

“I know I’m not normally allowed downstairs, but I’ve noticed that there’s no ongoing experiments at the moment.”

I waited for Papa to respond, but he just narrowed his eyes and waved his hand, indicating that I should continue.

“Could we perform an experiment together?”

Dad cleared his throat.

“Nothing dangerous,” I hurried to assure him. “Just…come up to my room and see for yourselves.”

My courage was about to evaporate, but I straightened my shoulders and soldiered on. I added a please for good measure, and we all went upstairs.

I had placed everything on my desk. Zip bags with hair samples, threads from our clothes and fingernails, (alright, the latter was a bit disgusting, but at least it wasn’t toenails). In the petri dishes, I had collected our different shower gels, shampoos, conditioners and hair products. Sadly, Nana used hair spray, so there would be a gap in my spreadsheet.

“What do you think?” I asked expectantly. “We can compare…”

“Rosamund Watson-Holmes, you are brilliant!” Papa exclaimed, quite elated, laughing like a big child at this wonderful prospect.

“I guess, Christmas came early this year,” Dad added dryly. “Have fun, you mad scientists.”

He still shook his head fondly and I could hear him laugh quietly as Papa and I made our way down to 221C for a weekend of lab work.

Also available on AO3

@calaisreno @totallysilvergirl @keirgreeneyes @raina-at @helloliriels

Other tags in the replies

[coraniaid]

I think Oz's throwaway comment in Band Candy that his parents "ate a ton" of the titular cursed candy might be the only indication we ever get that Oz even has parents at all. I mean, I might be wrong but I think that's literally the only mention of them the show ever makes.

We certainly never see them on screen, even though we visit Oz's house several times. (In Phases, in particular, Oz seems to live entirely alone.) Which -- even in a show like Buffy, where parents other than Joyce Summers are rarely seen on screen -- feels a little bit weird. We at least know something about how Xander and Willow and Cordelia relate to their parents. In fact, we know these relationships tells us something quite important about their respective characters: Xander's lack of self-belief is heavily tied into his family's poor background (as well as the fairly strong hints that he himself is the victim of abuse); Willow is clearly desperate for positive attention or emotional support of the kind her parents aren't providing; Cordelia's high social status is clearly tied heavily into her parents' wealth (which is why both these things are taken from her almost at the same time). But for Oz ... there's nothing.

Which I suppose makes sense, because Oz really doesn't have a character to illuminate. Oz is not a fully rounded person at all. He enters the show as Willow's Cool Boyfriend and (werewolf curse aside) that's somehow all he ever is. Does he have any friends of his own? None that we ever really see, outside his band. Does he have any ambitions in life? No, explicitly he does not. (The show makes a big deal of Willow giving up the chance to go to better colleges to stay in Sunnydale with Buffy; it's simply taken as read that Oz will also be staying with Willow.) Does he have any sort of character arc, before the show decides to write him out? I honestly don't think so.

So it's always slightly odd to me to see Oz doing well in character polls on here. Is Oz nice? Is he funny? Does he say supportive things about his girlfriend? Sure: he is all these things by construction (otherwise he could not perform his role of Willow's Cool Boyfriend!). I too would be happy to spend time with Oz. But -- considering that he's in the opening credits for over a year, considering that the show treats him as one of the core Scoobies -- he is remarkably boring.

In theory, it would have been great if Oz could have stayed on the show after Willow came out and started a relationship with Tara. I think it would have been nice to see how Oz dealt with that; to give him a chance to relate to Willow (and the rest of the Scoobies) in a different way than he had before. In theory. But in practice, of course he has to leave town at this point. Without being Willow's Cool Boyfriend he has no personality at all. He simply ceases to exist.

[tombfreak]

A Deep Dive Into Antisocial Mindsets

how does the mind of a person with aspd work?

First off, it's important to understand what ASPD is, so let's get a few things cleared up before we really dive into it.

Antisocial Personality Disorder is classified in the DSM-5 as a cluster B personality disorder, and in the ICD-11 as a "personality disorder with dissociality".

(Since I live in a country that typically uses the DSM-5 as a guideline and it has a set classification for ASPD, I will be referring mainly to that.)

It's described as "pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others", and characterized as a maladaptive* practice of antisocial* behaviours.

*Maladaptive: Behaviours that cause issues in someones ability to adapt normally to daily situations

*Antisocial: Behaviours that are antagonistic to social practices, rules, and/or expectations

A personality disorder is

characterized by deeply ingrained maladaptive patterns of behavior, thoughts, and emotions that deviate from the cultural norms and cause distress or impair functioning in various areas of life

The current criteria for diagnosing ASPD involves a reoccurring, ingrained pattern of three or more of the following (occurring from at least age 15):

failure to conform to social norms, as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest.

repeated lying, deceitfulness, conning others for personal pleasure or profit

impulsivity or failure to plan ahead

irritability and aggressiveness

reckless disregard for safety of self or others

consistent irresponsibility

lack of remorse, being indifferent to or rationalizing having mistreated another

To understand ASPD, we need to dig a little bit deeper than a set of symptoms. It is important to note also that antisocial traits and beliefs are not necessarily an indication of antisocial personality disorder.

"only when antisocial personality traits are inflexible, maladaptive, and persistent and cause significant functional impairment or subjective distress do they constitute antisocial personality disorder." - DSM5

Antisocial beliefs in ASPD are views about themselves, others, and the world that are heavily engrained into their thoughts, perceptions, and behaviours. Most importantly, these traits negatively impact the individuals life on a regular basis. They are dysfunctional and reoccuring. In the criteria for ASPD, these harmful behavioural issues must have been present in the individuals life from at least 15 years old.

Looking into what causes ASPD can help us further gain insight into the condition as well.

"child abuse or neglect, unstable or erratic parenting. or inconsistent parental discipline may increase the likelihood that conduct disorder will evolve into antisocial personality disorder." -DSM5

"...in the absence of a parent or other caring, involved adult, a child cannot internalize his parent's values, a necessary factor in the development of morality."

"in homes where no adult takes an interest in or expresses love to a child, the conscience does not develop and the individual fails to be socialized in this very critical way. It seems likely that this is at least one possible cause of antisocial personality. Another possibility is that highly inconsistent discipline and attention, even from the same person, prevents the child from forming normal values."

"This form of child rearing allows the child to grow up without a clear understanding of what is right and what is wrong. Behaviorists believe that individuals learn their behavior by testing behaviors to see which is successful. Studies have shown that people with antisocial personality disorder frequently have fathers with the same disorder, and the child often observes and mimics the father's behavior." - Drug Therapy & Personality Disorders

A very important factor in early years of development is being taught about the "social contract". Like any other animal, children learn by seeing, and doing. They are highly impressionable, coming into the world as a blank slate. Children look to their peers and primary caregivers for guidance on how to respond to situations, and how to view the world.

(It is believed that there is commonly a genetic component to ASPD, and the environment may either worsen the antisocial traits or teach the child how to cope/adapt in positive ways)

If a child develops in an unstable situation, they may internalize maladaptive behaviours as a way to adapt, or because they don't have any healthy guidance to challenge these beliefs and behaviours towards the world.

Studies show that people with ASPD are highly likely to have grown up in neglectful and/or physically abusive households. There is also a correlation with children growing up witnessing criminal activity and the development of ASPD.

This is a very important factor to consider when looking into the mindsets of somebody with dysfunctional antisocial traits.

If a child comes into the world with no clue how anything works, or what anything means, and the only information they're given about the world is harmful, they will uncritically learn and adapt to that information.

A key element of ASPD beliefs is self-preservation. This heavily connects to a history of neglect, as the child who had no stable caregiver will grow to not trust that others will be reliable. They may also grow to not know what a healthy, trusting, caring connection with others looks like.

Personality Disorders are often thought to be something of a defence mechanism. A maladaptive defence mechanism as a response to a stressful environment in childhood that remained unchallenged and unsoothed.

Another key feature of this is that antisocial beliefs are related to justification. This is directly mentioned in the DSM-5 criterion A.7

"being indifferent to or rationalizing having mistreated another"

It is important to note, however, only 51% of those with ASPD will match this criteria. This doesn't necessarily take away from the general idea that antisocial beliefs include a rampant chain of excuses and justification to brush off their behaviours.

"individuals with personality disorders often view their symptoms as consistent with their own self-image, or ego-syntonic, and not as problems that need treatment." - Drug Therapy & Personality Disorders

ASPD is characterized by a disregard for others, rules, and norms. A common belief in people with ASPD is that they are above consequences, and never in the wrong. They refuse to put themselves in a submissive position to others, which often manifests as refusal to follow rules, responsibilities, and expectations.

At their core, they fear being controlled, weak, and losing power/dominance in a situation. They often lack the care, self-control, and forethought needed to healthily adapt to situations that threaten them. To them, it is a dog eat dog world, every man for themselves, survival of the fittest.

If we view ASPD as a maladaptive defense mechanism, then we can understand better how and why they respond to situations this way.

Studies show that reactive aggression* and hostile interpretation* is heavily prominent in those with antisocial behavioural patterns.

*Reactive Aggression: Aggressive behaviour in reaction to a perceived threat

*Hostile interpretation: Interpreting something as hostile or threatening to them

This means that people with ASPD are more likely than the average person to view an ambiguous comment, situation, etc as hostile (regardless of whether or not it actually was), and more likely to respond to that percieved threat with aggression.

The child who grew up in a hostile environment may have developed a brain that scans for the tiniest sign of an attack, and responds as it sees fit. It bites back.

As stated before, self-preservation is a very prominent trait in those with ASPD, and it is associated with a justification of their actions. People with ASPD think and act based on a worldview that everything is a matter of power and control, being on top or being hurt, dog eat dog.

In those who have ASPD, they commonly find themselves unwilling to, or unable to, care for anything but themselves. They often lack an empathetic response to others. "Not my life, not my problem". They are typically very defensive and protective of themselves, and protective towards things they value, but wont experience or express any care, compassion, or empathy towards anything they deem 'unworthy'.

It is the persistent irrationality and the ingrained lack of healthy adaptations and reponses to situations that makes ASPD a disorder. And it's the aggressive/dominating responses to threats, and justification of their responses, that makes the disorder antisocial.

[whumped-by-glitter]

A Quick View of Tallis' Banding System

⚠️CW: Institutionalized Slavery

Just a bit of lore dump since I've gotten a few questions about it.

Here are 3 different classes of slave bands. These are differentiated by different metals. They indicate what the slave is trained for is also (usually) an indication of their master's social class. Slaves are also sometimes referred to “[type] band”.

Gold bands:

the highest “rank” of slave. They are owned by the royal family. They are split into 2 categories- Palace and Personal slaves. Both categories can be used for entertainment, though it’s more common for personal slaves.

Personal slaves are owned by a specific member of the royal family and tend to their every need. They also perform bodyguard duties if necessary. They are distinguished by a jewel embedded on the bale of the O ring on their collar. Their uniform includes a corset vest with solid boning in the back and front. This restricts their movements and provides an extra layer of safety to the royal they serve. It is essentially a cage hidden behind fancy fabric. Personal slaves, sometimes called gem slaves, do have a small amount of authority over other slaves. They are usually the most highly trained/ specifically skilled.

The palace slaves do not have a specific master and instead answer to a servant overseer. They help in the kitchens as well as laundry, housekeeping, and working the stables, among many other important jobs, such as repairs and groundskeeping. They keep the palace functional and running smoothly.

Silver bands:

They are slaves owned by nobles. Silver bands are used for housekeeping, childcare, food service, and protection. However, usually they are just used for entertainment. They are often the least educated of the 3 classes and the most mistreated. The nobles usually see them as disposable and easily replaced.

Brass bands:

The final class of slaves are the brass bands, sometimes called drudge slaves. Owned by commoners, they are the heartbeat of Tallis. Without them the kingdom’s economy would collapse. Ironically, they are generally treated the best out of the three classes. They are usually given days off, and often have their own living quarters. Sometimes entire villages must pool their resources to buy them, so they are rarely mistreated since they can’t be easily replaced. Their masters often get to know them and care about them. They are usually educated in the most basic reading, writing, and math, if at all.

Potential jobs include (but not limited to)-

Miller

Farm hand

Running the shop when their master is away.

Childcare

Laundry

Stable keep

Construction

And many other jobs requiring heavy lifting or are tedious or time consuming.

@whumpsandbumps, @whumperofworlds, @skittles-the-whumpee, @3-2-whump, @wounds-seen-and-unseen

@generic-whumperz, @emptycalories-splitlip, @pigeonwhumps, @i-eat-worlds, @starfields08000

@onlywhump, @snakebites-and-ink, @aloafofbreadwithanxiety, @turvuren, @whumps-and-bumps

@paingoes, @spectral-whumpy-writer, @vampiresprite, @whumping-in-the-dark

I am also creating an 18+ blog to include spicier scenes and content. It'll be the same story, just with add parts. please let me know if you want to be added to that taglist instead or as well.

[covid-safer-hotties]

US State Restrictions and Excess COVID-19 Pandemic Deaths - Published July 26, 2024

Key Points Question How did state restrictions affect the number of excess COVID-19 pandemic deaths?

Findings This cross-sectional analysis including all 50 US states plus the District of Columbia found that if all states had imposed COVID-19 restrictions similar to those used in the 10 most (least) restrictive states, excess deaths would have been an estimated 10% to 21% lower (13%-17% higher) than the 1.18 million that actually occurred during the 2-year period analyzed. Behavior changes were associated with 49% to 79% of this overall difference.

Meaning These findings indicate that collectively, stringent COVID-19 restrictions were associated with substantial decreases in excess deaths during the pandemic.

Abstract Importance Despite considerable prior research, it remains unclear whether and by how much state COVID-19−related restrictions affected the number of pandemic deaths in the US.

Objective To determine how state restrictions were associated with excess COVID-19 deaths over a 2-year analysis period.

Design, Setting, and Participants This was a cross-sectional study using state-level mortality and population data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2020 to 2022 compared with baseline data for 2017 to 2019. Data included the total US population, with separate estimates for younger than 45 years, 45 to 64 years, 65 to 84 years, and 85 years or older used to construct age-standardized measures. Age-standardized excess mortality rates and ratios for July 2020 to June 2022 were calculated and compared with prepandemic baseline rates. Excess death rates and ratios were then regressed on single or multiple restrictions, while controlling for excess death rates or ratios, from March 2020 to June 2020. Estimated values of the dependent variables were calculated for packages of weak vs strong state restrictions. Behavioral changes were investigated as a potential mechanism for the overall effects. Data analyses were performed from October 1, 2023, to June 13, 2024.

Exposures Age and cause of death.

Main Outcomes Excess deaths, age-standardized excess death rates per 100 000, and excess death ratios.

Results Mask requirements and vaccine mandates were negatively associated with excess deaths, prohibitions on vaccine or mask mandates were positively associated with death rates, and activity limitations were mostly not associated with death rates. If all states had imposed restrictions similar to those used in the 10 most restrictive states, excess deaths would have been an estimated 10% to 21% lower than the 1.18 million that actually occurred during the 2-year analysis period; conversely, the estimates suggest counterfactual increases of 13% to 17% if all states had restrictions similar to those in the 10 least-restrictive states. The estimated strong vs weak state restriction difference was 271 000 to 447 000 deaths, with behavior changes associated with 49% to 79% of the overall disparity.

Conclusions and Relevance This cross-sectional study indicates that stringent COVID-19 restrictions, as a group, were associated with substantial decreases in pandemic mortality, with behavior changes plausibly serving as an important explanatory mechanism. These findings do not support the views that COVID-19 restrictions were ineffective. However, not all restrictions were equally effective; some, such as school closings, likely provided minimal benefit while imposing substantial cost.

Proven by statistics: Masks save lives. Distance work saves lives. Remote options save lives.

[unhappy-day-in-hell]

The Dissection of Hazbin Hotel, Episode One: part 4

Onto the end part, Charlie meeting with the angels and... Vaggie's advertisement.

Let's finish this!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4: //

--Uh. The fuck is this building and why is it in Hell? Are we not going to explain? (Trick question, there’s already so much exposition that it wraps right back around to leaving us in the dark!!)

--Ohhh. That's Adam’s voice? Someone as important as him does not sound like that.

...Stupid thought I just had: Adam has the first Adam's Apple in all of history too... because it's that little saying, that Adam got a piece of the forbidden fruit stuck in his throat to remind him of eating it. So Adam, really, should either sound like he's constantly choking on something/has a stuffed up scratchy throat, or he should have a super deep voice to indicate his adam's apple.

--Heck is wrong with your mouth girl?

--B Plot is them filming an advertisement. I know I tried to re-write this in the review earlier (and will offer an alternative near the end of the review), but this is the kind of smaller-time plot we need to do in these early episodes BEFORE we get to Charlie's stuff. It's not very good tonal whiplash to pair these two plots up.

Also Vaggie’s doing this on Charlie’s behalf. This is, once again, something Charlie should be doing.

--Why doesn’t Charlie know the leader of the Exterminators is Adam? Does that mean she doesn’t know anything important about her world in general? Or is Adam’s presence a secret to the world? Does Lucifer know Adam is here?

--Good god, Adam really IS just Mammon. He's even a performer who is like a rockstar. Viv has zero new ideas.

--We're cutting between Charlie’s "important" meeting with Adam and the filming for the advertisement. We really are. I guess this episode and Western Energy spring from the same source.

--“How were you this weekend” is at least a little amusing. If Adam was more airheaded like that and not *gestures* all this, I’d probably hate his presence less.

--There it is. The Vagina joke for Vaggie’s name. They… they really did that. They just couldn’t help themselves. Viv just can’t help herself.

Because really, what are you supposed to do with this name? People having to say “Vaggie” out loud or print it on merch is embarrassing. They could have called her anything. Maggie. Aggie. Naggie. Saggy. Haggy.

--Vaggie: We’ll fix it in post. Angel: Do you even know what that means?

Well you see Angel! Vaggie’s origin can be split!

For a long time, Vaggie was thought to be a sinner who died very recently, so of course she’d know about editing, because she had grown up in the era of that kind of tech.

Except now she’s been changed to be a fallen exterminator! This means there are a lot of implications. Are we going to use this moment to hint how ANCIENT Vaggie is as a former angel, by showing her as not knowing how to work technology? No, no of course not -- Vaggie seems competent with the camera, it’s just that her actors are dumb fucks.

This criticism spreads over to Adam, who talks just like a “normal guy” and he’s a modern rocker and all that shit. Adam, the first human, who is incomprehensibly ancient… doesn’t show any signs of being as ancient as he is. They couldn't even write him using outdated slang? Make him a disco lover or something and have him say "Groovy?" No? (He IS a thing made of light, he could shine like a disco ball!)

--Vaggie: I’LL FIGURE IT OUT.

Godddd Vaggie can’t have one single line with any life in it. How does she scream in anger with no anger.

--Hi Al. This shot reminds me of why I used to like you, because I DID like your design and your mannerisms once upon a time. I still feel an echo of the enjoyment I used to get from you, and it makes me sad how far you’ve fallen, to being Rosie’s lapdog. You do look good with this muted blue tinting your color scheme. I wish Hell was more of this color, it’s much softer on the eyes.

(Even when I was still a fan, I hated how overused red was. It was one of the first complaints I had. Then the show doubled down and removed even more of the colors from the color pallet to make it even redder.)

--Vaggie to Alastor: Why are you even here? Alastor: For the entertainment!

Actually you’re here because LilithRosie asked you to. She filed down your fangs. You are a toothless character.

--Alastor: I came here because I love seeing wasteful souls struggle to accomplish something meaningful and fail spectacularly!

This is almost exactly a line from the Pilot where Alastor said “I want to watch the scum of the world struggle to climb up the hill of betterment! Only to repeatedly trip, and tumble down to the fiery pit of failure." Except it just. Lacks. Any of the danger. Or the manic insanity boiling just under Alastor’s surface. The delivery is so deflated.

The words are stilted, like they were with Vaggie a while back.

--Much better qualified people than I have spoken about the use of vodou symbols around Alastor. All I can say is this: Practitioners of vodou have spoken about how harmful it is, and therefore, the symbols should not be in the show. It's that simple. It would have cost the team literally nothing to refrain from using them. In fact, we’re in Hell, and we’ve already used the Ars Goetia in Helluva Boss; why don’t they use the symbols of the Ars Goetia? Or other demonic Christian symbols? Or Lovecraftian symbols from the fictional Lovecraft universe? Or make up their own??? There were a million other options besides digging in your heels. It shows the crew and Viv’s inability to just learn or just be nice.

“This face was made for radio!” that shot, bleck, they made a discount of that scary shot from the pilot. Why is every line they reuse for Alastor worse than it was in the pilot? The pilot where Alastor said “I would have done so already” let Alastor be a little aggressive and threatening, but here, it's just him equating it to “this face can’t be captured on video” instead of him being allowed to flex his power and scare Vaggie and Charlie a little bit….

It makes me sad.

--AND AGAIN, THIS IS VAGGIE HAVING THIS IMPORTANT CONVERSATION WITH ALASTOR. Why is it Vaggie who is getting Alastor’s motivation speech and seeing his Scary Face and not CHARLIE!? The Hotel is CHARLIE’S! Charlie is the main character, she’s the one who has to face these moral battles! Alastor’s motivation and his scorn for her Hotel are CHARLIE’S obstacles to deal with; she has to be the one to face them, consider them, debate them, and find a way to overcome them. But Vaggie is the one here, again, in Charlie’s place. (And Vaggie doesn’t even seem to have any enjoyment or passion for the Hotel either, so SHE doesn’t offer anything in return when she’s facing these opposing ideas.)

--So Alastor is going to make a good advertisement for the Hazbin Hotel, in exchange for never having to work with television ever again.

God, it’s so… WHINY. This isn’t a powerful Overlord of Hell, who is able to manipulate the Hotel behind the scenes and everyone has to watch out for his power because they both need his power but also fear it. This is a dude bargaining over what chores he has to do. It’s depressing.

--And it ends with Alastor giving everyone new outfits. Like the pilot. Because of course. Viv has no new ideas in her head at all. Also Charlie's not here.

--I feel like this scene COULD have been a standout moment in another universe, where someone else wrote this story. The colors are very nice, and Alastor is genuinely one of the only sources of ANYTHING you might consider fun in this episode, even if he’s a pale shadow of what he used to be.

Imagine this as a rewrite for this Episode, and how it could have ended:

At the beginning of the episode, the Hotel staff is still figuring things out. They have a meeting and decide they want to make an advertisement to get people to come to the Hotel, but Al refused to take part, because he hates TV. Charlie then tries to film her own advertisement with Vaggie’s help, but fails to make anything good.

As she starts feeling discouraged in the blue room while cutting up tapes, Alastor walks in to taunt her for a little while. After a back and forth where Charlie asks what he even wants here, he gives his motivation speech, so Charlie can have her goal challenged. But eventually, Charlie asks him to use his power to help her with this, by getting the word out to the people of Hell; and Al agrees, because an empty Hotel is no fun… in exchange for something Al wants: he’ll be allowed to observe any part of the Hotel and give commentary over it whenever he feels like it, and he’s allowed to say anything he wants, positive or negative. Charlie reluctantly agrees to these terms.

Then Alastor uses his power and creates a huge radio tower out of the back of the Hotel. The rest of the Crew feel the Hotel shaking and run outside, and watch in confusion as the tower reaches up into the sky. Al then floats up to the top room, where an old radio station is set up inside. Taking his seat in the booth, Alastor uses his power to broadcasts a spectacular old-timey radio show all across the radio waves of Hell, which are impossible for people to turn off, so it reaches millions of them.

(This also marks his grand return to Hell after his time away…… I guess. Since they're going with that.)

Boom, now Alastor has a radio tower that he hangs out in for the rest of the series, and he’s often giving SCATHING commentary about what goes on inside the Hotel in its quest for redemption. It’s usually making fun of everyone, or damning criticism -- but every so often he compliments something or someone, or gives a bravo for a job well done if a character does manage to accomplish something (but it's always with this HINT that he doesn’t expect their victory to last.)

There.

I provided a better hook for Episode One to end on, something fun to look at -- AND it has Alastor being in total control, while still helping the Hotel, but clearly primed to fuck with it. It also gives the show its first stakes -- small ones, but a status quo is established and we know Charlie will be butting heads with Alastor for the foreseeable future.

--Back with Adam and Charlie, it has become an argument that sinners have earned eternal damnation by making mistakes, and angels and the souls in heaven are not the same; and that angels have never made mistakes. Adam even says he’s never made a mistake.

Why doesn’t Charlie bring up the fact that Adam ate the fruit of knowledge that damned humanity, literally the first sin ever committed alongside Eve? Would that require too much thought, because Adam could just say “hey Eve was the one who did that, then she forced me!” and Charlie would have no rebuttal, because this show doesn’t seem to care about logical or moral battles. (Honestly, I can bet Viv would genuinely believe that for Adam.)

Why don’t they also bring up the fact that all human souls are descended from Adam too? It would force Adam to say: “yeah I don’t care, they may be my grandkids but they made their choice and as the original father it’s my job to whoop their asses when they get out of line,” which would show off how horrible he is. (Or, just not have Adam act this way. The next point elaborates on that:)

--I keep asking myself WHY Heaven and the angels have to be depicted this way. Not "why they’re corrupt" -- but why they’re *gestures vaguely* like this, and so cartoonishly.

Some shows take themselves too seriously and need to lighten up, but a show like Hazbin Hotel has the opposite problem, where it won’t be serious when it needs to be serious.

Adam acts exactly like a demon. There is no distinction between demons and angels. They’re as foul-mouthed, raunchy, and gross. Why?

Is it supposed to be “commentary” or “satire” about real world issues, where authority/radical Christians think they’re better than everyone else just by virtue of being Christian? That’s my first guess.

But just like with Helluva Boss’s commentary on cartoonishly evil abusers: it’s not saying anything we don’t already know, and it hits you with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face.

When Hazbin uses Adam to say “See? Heaven is hypocritical! It does the exact same bad shit as Hell, but gives ITSELF a pass!” it makes Hazbin Hotel worse for it, because of how one-note it makes literally everything in the universe, and how it sacrifices any actual clever worldbuilding, storycrafting, or realism for the sake of shock value. 

Hazbin Hotel is supposed to have a serious storyline meant for adults. It was meant to explore a serious moral question, and the angels are supposed to be one of the serious threats that Charlie has to change the mind of. You want us to take your show SERIOUSLY? Then you need to make villains we can TAKE seriously.

Think of it like this. If Heaven was allowed to have a different personality from Hell (if angels were allowed to act differently than demons), you’d be so much better for it.

First of all, it would give the show variety. Hell already has all the sex jokes, curses, and gore you could ever ask for – that’s Hell’s atmosphere. So let Heaven have a different atmosphere -- let its people has "serious" personality traits. Let them take themselves TOO seriously. That way, there’s some variety when characters go from one place to the next.

Second of all, it would give you way more personality types to play around with! (How boring must it get, writing the same screaming, cursing, sex-spewing archetypes over and over?) AND it would let different temperaments clash! Imagine Angel Dust meeting an Exterminator; Angel Dust makes everything a joke, and the Exterminator takes everything way too seriously, aaaaaand their personalities slam into each other. Imagine the possibilities.

But we can’t have that.

We can’t have anything because Viv can’t let herself be sincere or think this far ahead.

Instead we’re just stuck with Adam, who is Mammon.

--Lute says Charlie was “pardoned by daddy”? Who?? Lucifer? If Lucifer has the ability to blacklist souls from being killed, why can’t he just tell the exterminators to fuck off? Or are they referring to “God” as daddy, for which, I thought they weren’t going to touch God in this show?

The dialogue for this show is confusing. There was clearly no editing or rewriting to make anything make sense.

In the old pilot continuity, only an angel of higher rank had the ability to kill Lucifer, which means the exterminators were unable to kill him. Charlie, as his daughter, was directly below him in power, meaning Charlie would also be immune to them because she's stronger than them. But here apparently she's weak enough that the exterminators not only COULD kill her if given the chance, they WANT to kill her but have to hold back by some... law.

--Another song. Okay.

My opinion is that Brightman is a good singer, and this song definitely has more going on than the first one did. So… not terrible… but there’s also something missing in these lyrics. The way the music flows isn’t interesting and it goes by so fast. And Adam’s voice isn’t grating or terrible to listen to, but his dumb rockstar voice just kind of clashes into Brightman’s singing voice every so often, and makes it sound weird to me.

I could do without.

--OOH LAWD SHE ABOUT TO GO OFF. (That meme will never stop being funny. The shot is so tame. She doesn't even get to do any flexing or anything?)

--They’ll be back in six months?? Oh right, ahem, ahem: We’re putting this into EPISODE ONE? (I’m getting tired of saying that.)

Side note: they better not blame Charlie for this one, or try to make it out like she did something to cause this. Because... She literally didn’t. She didn’t get a word in edge-wise. (If they blame Charlie for making Hell worse, not only is it another Potential Dramatic Plot Moment they waste here, where Charlie would legitimately do a fuckup and have to face the consequences of her actions and it’s Oooh Drama -- it’s also totally unearned here, because Charlie Didn’t Do Anything. Literally if this is supposed to be “Charlie’s Mistake”, she didn’t do anything to MAKE A MISTAKE. )

--Alastor: I pulled a few LIMBS too, Hah hah hah!

Now you sound dead Alastor. I miss your fast-paced deranged laughter.

--To hear Blitzo’s voice coming out of Katie. Not even for a joke. I just. Vomit.

--(Quick question, is it just me or does it feel WEIRD to see Hell freaking out about the exterminations happening sooner, the way it is now? I mean, it’s a bad thing of course – but at the same time, it’s 6 WHOLE months away. That’s still a very long time; it’s not like the angels said they’d be coming in 1 WEEK or anything.

And again, moving the Extermination up to the mid-point of the year COULD have been a good plot punch a few episodes in – if the show had established itself as having a one year time limit before the next extermination, for instance, and for the first season we watch the weeks or months go by. The cast think they’re safe because they always have more time; “the year isn’t even half over yet.” But THEN, Charlie fucks up a few months in, and suddenly the date of the extermination is moved up!! WE ONLY HAVE A MONTH LEFT!! SHOCK AND HORROR. THERE IS MUCH LESS TIME NOW. HOW CAN WE DO THIS IN TIME!? PANIC! STAKES! DRAMA.

Makes my poor writer heart sad.

Imagine if we lingered on the Exterminations for a while before all this, and we learn that every single year, it takes about 3 months worth of planning in order for Sinners to secure hiding spots away from the Angels (a play on the three big holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas). This is CRITICAL for Sinner survival; those who can't or don't are the ones who die, and spots are so competitive that it takes all that time for anyone to secure themselves. So when Charlie fucks up midway through the year and causes the Extermination to be moved up to just 1 month away, NO ONE IS SAFE, and there isn't enough time for three months of prep, which is why everyone flips their ever-loving shit: they know they're going to die and now there's a hysterical scramble all throughout Hell trying to secure safe spots.

--The ending shot shows an exterminator dead, and the angels out for blood about it.

Again, ahem-hem: EPISODE ONE.

And now, the Exterminators don’t even feel threatening -- because we know they can be killed.

What made the angels scary, originally, is that they were virtually untouchable. Demons could not defeat them, and angels could kill any demon they wanted to by default. (Even Alastor seemed to be weaker than the angels.)

The angels should have been a looming, impossible-to-defeat threat (at least for a while). This would have given the story tension, because the audience would know the sinners stood no chance if they ran out of time or failed to convince the Angels – it was a battle of MORALITY. It was a challenge for sinners to prove to Heaven they were redeemable, because Heaven held all the power.

They de-clawed their villains in their introductory episode.

…

Do Adam and the Exterminators even HAVE the authority to enact a full genocide??? Wasn’t there a “council of Angel Elders” mentioned in the beginning? Aren’t the exterminators just assigned to this post, and meant to keep the population low??? Won’t they get in trouble for overstepping their bounds!? ARE WE GOING TO GET ANY EXPLANATION AS TO HOW THE HIERARCHY WORKS OR HOW HEAVEN WORKS FIRST!? BEFORE WE GET INTO THIS!?!?

AAAAAAAAAAAAND ~CURTAINS!~

………………………………………………………………………

And that was the end of Hazbin Hotel Episode One.

…

So! What have we learned here today?

My personal takeaway is that, even though it’s cathartic to see this all start to go down in flames, I still feel disappointed and frustrated because of how much time I invested in it, even defended it to other people for a time. I'm frustrated because none of it had to be this bad. Viv didn't have to be evil. There was promise and potential, once upon a time.

Quite frankly, we were lied to. The premise that everyone fell in love with was dumped in the trash. For over four years, we were told this would be a story about redeeming sinners -- that’s what fans put so much of their time and money into. But that premise was discarded immediately, in favor of a generic War Against Heaven. Viv LIED to us, knowing from the start that the redemption storyline was never going to go anywhere.  

I just wonder how many resources were wasted creating this, how many people Viv hurt, how many opportunities were handed to Viv that could have gone to anyone else more deserving of it.

There wasn’t a single worthwhile thing in this episode. A handful of individual shots here and there were passable, but nothing enough to sit through it. Abysmal animation, pacing, storytelling, dialogue, voices, songs; characters that were flat and unmemorable, or stripped of what made them unique.

Charlie wasn’t the main character in her own show -- Vaggie was the one dealing with the morality of the other characters. (And frankly, Charlie didn’t NEED to meet with Adam. It accomplished nothing. If the angels had already decided to do the extermination in 6 months; they could have just done it, they didn’t necessarily NEED to meet with Charlie to enact it.)

Somehow, Hazbin found a way to do everything wrong!

This show should be taken as a lesson on what not to as an artist. (Any kind of artist, really.) 

In my opinion, the greatest weakness of this show is its inability to write anything sincere.

(And there’s a difference between something having sincere emotion, and melodrama, which Viv dumps in boatloads in her writing.)

I won’t re-write it all, but I basically mean what happened with Adam and the angels, where they aren’t allowed to be any different from the demons. They aren’t allowed to be serious, wise, ancient; because Viv CAN’T write them as sincere. (But this also includes so many other aspects of this show and this world as a whole.)  

(And its genre doesn’t shield it. Hazbin Hotel is trying to tell a STORY, so it doesn’t get to hide behind the genre of being an “episodic adult comedy”. It HAS to follow the rules of storytelling, and when it doesn’t, it is failing.)

And Hazbin Hotel is just one giant failure.

With that, I’ll wrap this up. I think I’ve said all I want to.

I don’t know if I’ll review any other episodes like this (or, if they’ll be this long), because they get worse and worse; and Episode 4 is such a serious, disgusting episode that I don't know if it's even worth it -- but I REALLY wanted to get my thoughts down for this one.

If you read it all, thanks for sticking around! It was fun to rip it apart.

If you have any thoughts you want to add onto this, I’d love to hear!

[torao-chan]

So going back and forth about Leander I was wondering how quick you caught on to his scheming. Because I first I didn’t like him but I didn’t really have a reason why I just didn’t. But upon rereading his dialogue I was like hmmmmm

Oh man, I clicked like. maybe three lines in.

I have what my friend affectionately dubs an 'evil-dar'. I may not be able to tell you exactly why someone's fucked up, but if I see them and I immediately like them- they fucked up.

Probably, I think the earliest sign for me, was the emphasis on performing.

A pair of gilded boots stride across the tabletop. "Seriously, you dogs? Again?" Scattered laughter and cheers rise from the audience. I drag my eyes upwards... a well-dressed man stand on the table in front of me, his broad shoulder framed by the thick lapels of a trench coat. "This really is the last time, alright?" This time, when he speaks, the audience falls silent, as though bewitched by his magnetic presence or rich, low voice. But nothing is as captivating as his smile. He beams at the crowd around him, a performer on his makeshift stage. "Don't blink, or you'll miss it."

These were the bits the immediately drew me in, the bolded bits. And it's the bolded, italicized bits that immediately made me go 'he's hiding something, and it's horrific, and I want to know more.'

Gilded boots in a downtown pub; carefully designed, likely expensive in taste, and yet he's in the slums- the place where people pull a face when you mention going there. It doesn't say cheaply gilded, or with a fancy design- it's just gilded. It's intentionally not giving us much, but telling us something important- this is a man who is conscious of his appearance. Of how he looks, how he presents, right down to the design on his boot. And he cares enough to throw money at it. If it was just from his upbringing, he wouldn't maintain them, wouldn't still have them today. We don't have a word describing how put together the boots are, how well maintained, but we do immediately get told that he's a performer. It's highly likely that they are chosen and maintained intentionally.

"This really is the last time, alright?" is tasty tasty to me. How will this be inflected, when voiced properly? Is this an establishment of boundaries, from a man placating his pack of puppies? A certain firmness there, that indicates that his word is law here; he's not joking this time? Or is it a man caving to the pleads of his people, throwing them another bone to keep them satisfied in between working on other schemes? Either way, this is a man who has power and is prone to indulging people; and indulging them in a way that indicates he is above them. Whether intentionally or not, consciously or not, this is the stance it takes- to me, at least.

The audience is bewitched by him, the mage. His charisma is high, he's generally liked and adored, and that means he's a man who can get away with a lot of shit. He can work a crowd, appeal to masses and individuals as one, and makes them all feel special- whether they're all together or by themselves. This gets emphasized a lot later, too, and in a lot of his profiles and lil details, but this is when I knew that. He knows how to work a person, and that usually comes from trauma or social ambition, and either way- I'm interested and hungry.

The fact that they outright state he's "a performer on his makeshift stage" makes me so ravenous alksjgldsjgl. The table is his stage, the pub is his stage, heck! The whole town is his stage and he's performing nonstop the entire time we interact with him. Fake or real, undecided- but performing nonetheless. A performance doesn't have to be dishonest, but it is intentional. And intentional means that there's a goal to be achieved- grand or otherwise.

And then there's the warning.

Three lines in (damn, I was right- literally three lines of dialogue from him).

"Don't blink, or you'll miss it."

Such an enticing statement, always. It's so easy to miss, his flashes of soul under the performance. The moment in the pub, later, when he's content to leave the chaos to reign until the player turns to him for help (and then he sighs, like he didn't want to, wasn't planning to, but who was he to let down a new audience member?). The moment of flat on his face, when you refuse his hand, and he grabs you anyway, determined to pull you into his web, into his puppet show. You could be a valuable piece- a fresh pawn off the woodcarver's table, and unblemished, yet, by the rest of the city. The moment when he looses his composure slightly, unaware to what extent Kuras had seen you during your examination.

There's so much there that sold him to me immediately as a favourite, as a schemer, as someone to watch out for because they've always got a knife three inches from your back, and that is super attractive, but man.

Yea, three lines of dialogue in, and I knew.

As my friend said, I have an 'evil-dar'. asdlkjlgsjg if I like the character, she knows 9/10 times, they're definitely fucked up in some way aslkjdklgsdg

[hawkogurl]

Hi! 😊 I saw you post something saying it was clear to you that raimi harry Osborn was schizophrenic do you think you could please explain that a bit? (If you've already made a post about it and I've just missed it I apologise) Have a nice day!

Probably won’t be the best worded so I’ll be happy to elaborate further. Also feel compelled to state that I probably view that constitutes canon pretty differently than most people. What I mean by the idea that Harry having some sort of psychotic disorder in the raimiverse is at least semi-canon is generally pretty complicated so bear with me.

A lot of what has brought me to this conclusion is pretty doylist. It’s not a plot hole that Harry’s hallucinating in the second movie, the way the first two movies are written in this regard before Sony decided to fuck with things in the third is too deliberate. Raimi’s history as a horror directors shows in a lot of areas, but it never really feels like he’s throwing elements in for the hell of it, whenever something feels horrorish, it’s pretty deliberate. All this to say that Harry’s not hallucinating for the hell of it.

When it comes to specifically raimiverse based interpretation, there’s generally four things I see a lot. The first and in my opinion weakest being the idea that it’s happening as a result of the serum in the nearby hidden room leaking. I understand how this is seen as appealing or interesting, especially in any case where someone might think it doesn’t make sense for Harry not to have developed a goblin persona like Norman had. In the past I’ve gone into how I believe that’s also a pretty deliberate narrative choice, so putting all that aside, I don’t think it makes sense for this to be intended by the creators. From a writing standpoint, if that’s what we were supposed to think, you’d be shown shots to indicate things like that. Additionally, the serum itself is always shown to be stored in a liquid form, only gas when it’s applied to a person, a process that consistently requires quite a bit of machinery. I understand the appeal of the theory, but if I’m looking at what I think is most likely to be the thought in the creators heads, I don’t think this is likely.

I also see it generally get dismissed as ghosts a lot, which also feels strange to me. The only other instance of something happening that could be seen as similarly supernatural would also be in this movie, being the scene where Peter, conflicted about how being Spider-Man effects his life, has a conversation with Ben, who is also dead, in the car from the first movie in the middle of a white void. This scene occurs in an ambiguous white background using imagery from the last conversation Peter had with Ben before he died and also draws on how that conversation has affected Peter’s worldview. This scene ends by cutting to Peter, who’s sitting in bed with his eyes open as he comes to the conclusion he can’t keep being Spider-Man. Because of the framing of it in a space that isn’t recognizable as the normal physical world and the fact we’re shown Peter in the physical world after it, we’re not meant to be taking this scene literally. This scene is a metaphorical expression of Peter’s internal conflict, not a literal event that’s physically happening in any sort of meaningful capacity. It’s a visual expression of a non physical story element. This isn’t all that important for my point, but I find it important to state for later comparison.

This leaves Harry’s interactions with Norman after he’s died as the only remaining event that can be simply explained with the supernatural. That being said, it doesn’t really make internal sense for this to be the case. Though fantastical, every superhuman element of this story has been at least connected to some sort of scientific idea that grounds it in reality, never something more fantastical. The Green Goblin is the result of a performance enhancing drug created for the military. Doc Ock is the result of malfunctioning AI and his most dangerous goals rely on using nuclear fusion to create energy. Sandman was created by the writer’s rather incorrect idea of what a particle accelerator is. Venom is an alien, but still connected pretty blatantly to real life biology ideas of real word symbiotes. It’s all rather fantastical and implausible, but it’s all still connected to real world familiar scientific ideas. To randomly bring the supernatural into it for scenes it could be easily replaced with something else to accomplish the same end results and never elaborating on the idea that apparently ghosts are real would be a really bizarre world building choice.

But going back to the scene with Peter, unlike that this scene is not framed to be metaphorical. It’s happening in the real world right before and after real physical events with Harry and has physical results on the world and the characters. In some capacity, what’s happening here is literal—but I don’t think that means some piece of Norman is physically there. The audience is viewing this alongside Harry and from his perspective, there’s never any other character who’s present for scenes where Harry experiences things like this. The events are literal and intended to be something physically happening, but only from Harry’s perspective. There’s no other set of eyes to establish the reality of this from beyond Harry’s sole perspective.

Among the common theories I see, I probably like the idea that it’s alcohol induced the second most. I don’t really like to demean it because I think it’s very likely that this idea is important to people in the same way it being psychological is important to me. That being said, I don’t know how much I think it holds up to scrutiny. Yes, Harry’s shown to be drinking pretty heavily around this period, but in the moment he first experiences his hallucinations, he’s not shown to be drinking. He at least appears to be somewhat sober. In the second instance, he is shown to drink, but only in the literal seconds before he hallucinates. If this is intended to be the actual cause, the creators would more likely put more emphasis on him drinking in relation to the hallucinations or similar. That being said, I have reasons I think it was kept more vague that I’ll get into.

If I’m looking at what was likely intended, the most likely doylist explanation for why these scenes exist, the idea it’s psychological for him is the only thing that’s going to consistently check out. For one thing, in the comics, Harry is schizophrenic! That’s outright the word used to describe what he has going on, he is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Additionally, in a lot of comics with Harry at the time, he’s hallucinating Norman as an expression of a lot of his internal conflicts, similarly to what we see here. In the comics that Raimi Harry most closely follows the broader beats of, he has persecutory hallucinations of his father as an expression of his internal conflict, hallucinations that target the things that he feels make him weak and drive him towards his worst behaviors while also being specifically schizophrenic. In the raimi trilogy, Harry develops persecutory hallucinations of his father that particularly target the idea that he feels weak and drive him towards his worst behaviors. From that alone, it’s not irrational to conclude that it’s at least something of a reference towards his schizophrenia in the comics.

What’s more, in the novelizations it appears to be rather explicit. While interviews and Reddit AMAs have made it somewhat clear that Peter David, their author, did have quite a bit of freedom, they also made it clear he was still obligated to follow the scripts he was given rather closely and his writing still had to be approved. The novels were primarily only allowed elaboration, not outright reimagining. In the novelizations, Harry is written to hallucinate much more frequently. He’s often paranoid of the world. His behavior is more erratic. He experiences moments of Cotard’s delusion. His behavior through the third movie goes from likely being inspired by or intended to reference and imply Harry’s comic-canon schizophrenia to, in the novels, being outright written to resemble and follow the symptoms of schizophrenia far more closely. While they very much aren’t the movies, the fact that they were being written from the scripts at the time of the movies release and a lot of the information we have on how they were written does point me towards the idea that while you can’t exactly treat them as above the movies in terms of what’s canon, you can treat them very fairly as auxiliary information in terms of interpreting the intended story.

Additionally, I think they provide a pretty interesting piece of information that also sort of solidifies the idea for me that what Harry’s experiencing is some form of psychosis. Harry only develops these issues after learning Peter is Spider-Man. Not after taking the serum, specifically immediately after learning Peter is Spider-Man. At this point in the story, Peter is Harry’s closest friend and arguably the most important person in Harry’s life. I don’t need to explain that Spider-Man is the exact opposite. It’s likely rather shattering to how Harry perceives reality to realize the most important person in his life is the person he hates the most, and that he’s been lying to him after in Harry’s perception killing his father for multiple years. Psychosis is specifically a break in someone’s grasp on reality. I don’t think it’s that hard for me to believe that a revelation that shattered how Harry perceived reality that severely might risk causing a psychotic episode of some form.

Additionally, it’s the most consistent with how the world and writing of these movies work internally. It’s never really about the fantastical elements narratively—these movies are about people. The internal, human elements of these characters lives are the most emphasized, the supernatural elements are almost always allegorically connected to some aspect of humanity or very human flaws. That’s always what’s emphasized. Narratively, the goblin is representative of Norman’s greed and ego, his conviction that he is superior to others and entitled to power and control. Otto isn’t about the arms, not really, it’s about selfishly motivated ambition even with the best of intentions and turning those motivations into selfless ones. Flint being Sandman is secondary to how poverty has fucked him over, how he’s been forced into crime in his desperation to help his ill daughter. Eddie wasn’t really corrupted by Venom, he was a selfish and self centered man with a massive sense of entitlement to what he wanted who was given the power to do what he wanted. By extension, it makes the most sense that Harry, who’s already defined by trauma, cycles of abuse and identity would be far more connected to the very human idea of mental illness than something far less poignant like inexplicable supernatural elements.

All this to say that when I, guy who’s always going to feel compelled to take doylism and authorial intent into account when doing my analysis, look at all the information that I have, I think it’s very likely that Harry’s comics schizophrenia or hallucinations were on the writer’s minds when they were planning out or writing the scenes I am referring to. I don’t think that was ever likely to end up explicit—it’s not practical for a movie with its demographic, with a studio prone to intervention, especially with how messy SM3’s development was. It’s not practical for it to be super explicit in a movie of its demographic in 2007, but I think it’s very likely to be on the writers minds when it was written.

[brandwhorestarscream]

Imperial harem au

so how does the first meeting between starscream and his harem go?

Simple: it doesn't 🤭

Starscream is very against the idea and is definitely dragging his feet. Usually he thrives on attention, and you'd think he'd be all over the idea of schmoozing with a bunch of wealthy and well-bred beauties desperately clamoring for his attention and trying to seduce him.

But no. Starscream may be a narcissistic and he does love attention, but this Starscream is incredibly young compared to the one we know in canon. He's fresh out of school, has just graduated with his first degree. The closest thing he's ever had to a real relationship is Skyfire, and that whole thing is messy, to say the least, due to Vosian politics. He's not in any rush to give himself to anyone, not only because he's young and inexperienced and wants to be strategic about it, but because it feels so completely objectifying. Dehumanizing, if you will. One of those concubines is going to be his future trine mate, whether he likes it or not, and he's dreading it. He doesn't know these people. He can't stand the idea of spending the rest of his life tied to a couple strangers that will only be using him for the position of royalty for the rest of his life. And he has to touch them to do it? No thank you. This Starscream is so wet behind the ears and has been so dedicated to his studies he's not even had his first time yet. He wants it to happen naturally, wants it to be with someone that'll make it feel good physically and emotionally.

So, he's not exactly jumping for joy when the day comes for the ceremony to be performed, to welcome the contenders into the palace. His parents go all out, naturally: though they may be of higher rank, they're still greeting and welcoming a bunch of very important young lords and ladies as their extended guests, and the last thing they want to do is insult their families and cause turmoil. The professions are grand, palace gates and courtyard decorated with finery and dazzling lights and jewels as each one arrives, all dolled up in the finest paint and polish with an entourage of attendants handpicked from their less fortunate relatives, being led by the head trine of their aerie coming to present them.

Starscream is naturally posted with the Winglord and his trine as the offerings arrive; each and every one is clearly well loved and doted on, soft and lovely faces, plenty of jewelry and ceremonial glyphs, grace incarnate as they approach. Upon each of their forehelms they're marked with the titles they have been awarded, traditionally indicating which house they hail from. The Peaceful, Vigorous, Wise, Protective, and Gilded Consorts. The final one is the only one he pays any attention to, presented from the noble house second only in power to his own. The beloved grandson of the House of Commerce's matriarch is covered helm to thrusters in metallic golden glyphs, draped in golden chains and golden bracelets. The other concubines have their glyphs done in traditional black or white. It's quite a statement, and is rife with cheek. He sparkles and shines so brilliantly it's hard to look at him, and it's a clear statement to everyone: he's the favorite to win.

Thundercracker himself has a deadpan look on his face, optics blank and laser focused straight ahead of him, expression cold and unwavering and perfect like a lovingly sculpted statue. He's the very picture of icy cold arrogance and class, and even without his parents' say-so Starscream knows he should probably be one of the two he chooses. His House has the economy in the palm of their hand, after all, and own over half the city's assets and housing. Grand Matriarch Permafrost deeply adores him, her favorite grandchild of all, and to snub them would not bode well.

Following the welcome ceremony where he says all of but six words, "I thank you for your presence.", the concubines are taken to the inner palace's courtyard to settle in and be assigned their pavillions. Traditionally at this point the prince would go survey the goods one on one, but Starscream couldn't care less. He doesn't want to go. The sooner he sets foot in there the sooner he'll have to start performing nightly duties, and he's quietly dreading it. Being with another person seems like such a big deal and he feels vaguely nauseous at having to be touched by someone he barely knows.

He avoids it as long as he can, squirreling himself away in inconspicuous library wings to study law or mathematics or anything, really, so long as no one can say he's wasting time. He is, mind you, but at least he's doing something productive. A unique brand of procrastination, to be sure 🤭 this goes on for exactly a decacycle (10 days), before the Winglord steps in. Sternly telling him that he has to actually go see his concubines, and while a vorn may sound like a long time, conceptions can be finicky. If he wants to get to know them better before bedding them, that's fine, but in that case he needs to actually make an effort to familiarize himself. A new private rule is implemented: he has to go see each of the concubines at least once a decacycle: that's 5 days out of every 10 that he has to go visit the inner palace, effectively immediately. He's less than thrilled.

He has no idea which one to visit first, so leaves it up to chance. Tosses all five names into a random generator and decides whichever one it spits out, that's who he's going to see

...

I have already decided who he's going to visit first and the drama that ensues 🤭 any guesses owo

[rustingcat]

Twilight

They started working on the test immediately. Bringing both Brainy and Nia to draw blood, as Kara and Lena started loading materials and performing last minute check ups before their real full trial. Their preparations took longer than expected, both Lena and Kara had important day jobs to get back to after all. After work, they started testing the nourishment distribution system. Hopefully the main system they would need to update and temper with in the long run.

A problem with a delicate Foundation project called Lena away in the late evening. Kara insisted on continuing by herself as there was not much left to do, Lena agreed and promised she would come back as soon as she could. Lena ended up coming up to check on updates every time she had a minute before needing to go back to deal with another issue.

It was getting much later than Kara anticipated when she finished setting up the PF, checking the numbers twice before proceeding to the next stage. The excitement came back to her in full force when she faced the familiar UI once more.

Their first trial was about to begin, their first test to see if their machine was capable of creating life!

She happily pressed continue through the proceeding warning windows and activated the nourishment system. She watched in glee as one of the pods lit up, indicating its activity. A warm feeling spread in her chest as she felt her smile widening. That little thing would become a baby, a baby that would be so loved and cared for by everyone around them, they're gonna drown in it.

Kara wiped off a tear and checked the status of the PF, which should start its transformation into an active embryo pretty soon. The numbers seemed to be on par as expected as PF1 made its new home in pod number one, pretty fitting Kara smiled. It took her a second to realise her mistake.

Getting closer than necessary to read through the genetic data of the new embryo confirmed her suspicions. She accidentally processed her and Lena's genetic data. The baby being created belonged to her and Lena!

Kara took a step back in sheer shock, her eyes as wide as saucers locked on the screen.

"Hey Kara." She heard Lena's voice from behind her.

Kara turned quickly, moving her hands around frantically from the shot of anxiety that went through her system and swallowed hard while she did her best to look normal. She gave Lena her best reassuring smile, that might have showed a bit too much teeth. Luckily Lena was engrossed in her tablet, writing down whatever it was that needed her attention. Kara was grateful her mistake was yet to be discovered.

"How did it go?" Lena continued, finally looking up from her tablet to meet Kara's questionable gaze. "Did it process Nia's and Brainy's genetic data?" She asked, concerned. With the crisis she was dealing with she was probably desperate for some good news.

A small giggle left her lips as Kara swallowed hard. "All is fine." She lied, raising a thumb up to solidify her claim. She would be the first one to admit that her statement was not as convincing as she hoped it to be, but at least it wasn't 'I accidentally started a process to create a baby for us', which was honestly a win by itself.

Lena studied her for a second. "Are you ok?" She asked with concern.

"Yeah, yes. Definitely. Just… you know, excited. Yes, I'm just so excited." She nodded enthusiastically.

"If you run into any problems you–" whatever it was that Lena was about to say was cut short as the power for the entire building was suddenly cut off. The room was illuminated by the moon and the few computer screens that moved to work on the back up generator and the New Birthing Matrix that had its own personal power supply created specially for it.

"God dammit," Lena muttered, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "I'm really sorry, I'll be right back." Lena stormed off the room and Kara selfishly wished she would exhaust all of her frustration on either her problematic project, or the people responsible to it so she wouldn't have the energy to be mad at Kara. Rao, she was terrible.

Breathing a small sigh of relief once she heard Lena entering a room a few floors down, Kara turned back to the machine.

Standing in the dark room, staring at the small pod illuminated almost exclusively by the twilight as the moon shined brightly through the opened window, Kara felt a shiver running down her spine.

Kara moved closer to the monitor, her fingers hovering over the termination button once again, only this time she would destroy something else, something more.

She saw them again, those flashes of small hands, chubby cheeks, and dimpled smile holding a small bundle of rags. A possible future. A future that had been haunting her dreams for months at this point. A possible future she suddenly desperately wanted to see to fruition.

Kara stepped back from the monitor to stand in front of the pod. She lay a hand on the protective glass, it was warmer than she anticipated. A small smile spread on her lips, knowing her hand was only inches away from their baby. She tasted something salty in her mouth only to realise she was crying. Rao, what a crazy day, a small chuckle escaped her lips as her tears became stronger. She was crying, she was standing in front of what she desperately hoped would become her first born child, a bizarre thought by itself.

Kara let herself have that moment, before drying her tears and turning back to the machine. She had still promised Nia and Brainy a child after all. It suddenly dawned on her, it would mean that their children could be born at around the same time! Give or take a few weeks, depending on the development of all the different species involved, but it would mean lots of conjoined birthday parties – if the kids wanted to of course – happy playtime together, and a chance to gain a true friend for life. Suddenly, this idea seemed like the perfect plan, she frankly wasn't sure why she hadn’t thought of it earlier.

Kara processed the second PF to pod number two, then lit up similarly to the first. They were already best friends, Kara smiled to herself, living next door to each other and all. "Be kind to your neighbour." She addressed her unborn child. And took a deep breath, exhaling slowly and turning back to the monitor.

She confirmed everything was okay with Nia and Brainy's data before letting herself sit down on the small couch in the corner of the room. In the dim twilight, Kara felt the dawn of a new era begin. Growing, in front of her eyes.

Kara wasn't sure how long she'd been staring at the pod before she fell asleep.

The morning sound that woke her up was not her usual alarm, nor was it the warm rays of the sun, but a loud voice that felt way too close to her face.

"Kara!" It rang in her ears, "Explain! Now!"

Read everything in order on AO3

Also, this whole fic was inspired by my little animation I did for last year's Supercorptober! This one right here

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

didn't the showrunners for some reason portrayed helaena-aegon marriage as sexual abusive one like their parents marriage?

Hi anon! So, I didn't really interpret it that way, but I think it's one of those things where your mileage may vary. We really were only given crumbs about their marriage in the show, so this is just how I interpreted it.

The only line we get from Helaena about her marriage to Aegon is that "it isn't that bad, mostly he just ignores you, except sometimes when he's drunk." It's completely devoid of context, so for all we know Aegon comes back home drunk to bitch and moan or cry on Helaena's shoulder, not to have sex with her. But assuming she is talking about sex, we know from episode 7 that Aegon didn't want this marriage, so you can also easily read that line to mean that Aegon can literally only perform with her sexually when he's intoxicated. Also, if you watch Aegon's reaction when Helaena says this, he's clearly embarrassed. She's roasting him in front of the whole family, exposing him for being a shitty husband who isn't very present, but he's not getting angry, instead he looks like he wants to sink through the floor. And like, obviously victims can act any sort of way around their abusers, there's no rulebook, but I think that if the director of this episode intended for us to read the dynamic between them as an abusive one, they would probably not have had Helaena gleefully mocking Aegon and Aegon reacting with obvious shame. It's important to remember two things about Helaena and Aegon. First, she's his sister, and second, it was an unwanted marriage that happened when they were both too young. And Aegon and Helaena would have been pushed into doing their duty and securing his line with children the same way Rhaenyra was. They wouldn't have been given a choice. And although they're Targaryens, Aegon, at least according to TGC, hates being a Targaryen. Brother-sister marriage is something only Targaryens do in this world, something their mother might grudgingly accept but which goes against her faith. If Aegon rejects his heritage (with the notable exception of his dragon!), he probably has a hard time being married to the sister he never wanted to marry in the first place. In this context, him needing to be drunk to make it happen makes sense.

So I don't know anon. From the (albeit limited) dialogue in the show as well as the interviews that the writers and TGC have given about Aegon, I just don't think we were meant to interpret that line as indicating he rapes Helaena. Just because show!Aegon raped a serving girl doesn't mean that he never has consensual sex or that he rapes every woman he lays eyes on either. In fact, that's one of those dangerous misconceptions about the nature of sexual assault. It would be great if it was that easy to identify potential rapists, but in reality a person can have a consensual relationship which never crosses any boundaries with one person, and still cross the line of consent with another, especially when there are power imbalances involved. So in this case I'm inclined to believe that Aegon's relationship with the Helaena is not sexually abusive. He and Helaena both seem to draw lines with each other, both as brother and sister and as husband and wife, whereas clearly Aegon lacks any sense of boundaries when it comes to the staff.

[meeeeeeese]

So I want to talk about the altar of Glaust, because it's incredibly important to the story and yet it almost never gets brought up.

What I think most people know about the altar is that its a forgotten artifact that was responsible for Glint, and by extension, Aurene being freed from the yoke of Kralkatorrik. While you can visit it in Arah, it kind of exits the story from there with no character ever thinking to use the sole artifact with the power to grant corrupted creatures free will again. However there's a few details that I think a lot of people miss that I find kind of interesting at least.

The first thing is that the altar itself is only a part of the process, it's just a component of a spell or ritual that does the actual work of cleansing the corruption.

Secondly, the spell needs to be performed at Arah. Though I don't know whether that's simply because the forgotten built the required altar there or because Arah is special somehow.

Personally, I think that there's something special about Arah that's required for the spells function beyond the mere presence of the altar. Zhaitan's presence indicates that it's almost definitely a ley-line nexus, and something about the land there was special enough to call the gods to tyria. So I think it'd make sense that they'd have to do it in Orr (which also suggests, given the forgotten attempted to purify Kralkatorrik, that ol'Kralky used to be active in Orr during the last dragonrise before flying up to the blood lands for his nap)

I think that would go some way as to explain why we're not using this incredible power, as the only way to do so is to venture through an unchained-infested city all the while lugging about whatever corrupted creature you want to cleanse.

And while I'm on the subject of why the altar isn't in the story more, there's also the fact that making corruption being curable more of a thing really changes the nature of dragon minions. Where before they're poor victims who can only be put down for everone's safety, the altar's presence makes them victims who, if you put in enough effort, you could save. Which would probably change the focus of the story quite dramatically as we have to weigh protecting still uncorrupted people against trying to save the corrupted from their fate.

(though imagine if we used purified branded to create living dragonsblood weapons, warriors uniquely suited to fighting branded who are immune to corruption because I don't think Kralkatorrik can brand them twice)

(as a sidenote, if you haven't done the forgotten path of the ruined city of arah you might not know that the altar is blimmin huge, check out the pic below with risen giants for scale)

Finally, just an interesting/annoying note is that we never got any explanation as to how the forgotten purification works, does it block the elder dragon from issuing commands to said minion? Does it work to nullify the dragonvoid lurking at the heart of the creatures magic? Replace the corrupted dragon magic with more benign ley energy? Who knows! Not us, and we likely never will now that we're moving away from the dragon storyline. And I promise I'm not salty about that.

So yeah, that's pretty much it, the altar's a pretty cool object and, for how little it comes up, a really important part of Aurene's ascension to non-mad elder dragon. Hopefully it'll one day get more attention, if only so we can have the commander go "Wait why haven't we been using this the entire time"

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Sheja'iyya, July 4 - A nightmarish creature tasked with scaring preschoolers and other small children from beneath the furniture at night complained again today that it cannot perform its nocturnal fright duties because the entrance to an underground passage for Islamist fighters takes up all the space he needs to do proper lurking.

Cujo Al-Wahsh, a six-legged, eight-eyed, segmented, hairy, horned, drooling, eight-foot-tall, carnivorous spawn of Hell, lamented the cramped conditions under which he must operate night after night in the Al-Masri household, where Hamas installed a shaft to its tunnel network right underneath the bed of four-year-old Wafa Masri.

"Even without the shaft there, it's a squeeze at best," the creature explained. "But now it's a workplace safety violation, if Gaza had such a thing. Hamas used child labor to begin with in digging and reinforcing the tunnels, resulting in at least dozens, if not hundreds, of dead kids, which should indicate just how important worker safety is to the powers that be in Gaza."

"If some Hamas guy opens the shaft to come out of the tunnel while I'm lurking there, I'm in big trouble," he noted. "Venomous fangs or no venomous fangs, my employment future in Gaza is toast if i so much as look the wrong way at a Hamas man. To say nothing of making way for men entering the shaft from the outside. I can't do my job under these conditions."

Al-Wahsh has successfully scared little Wafa only four times in the last month, resulting in a negative performance review and the continuation of a sharp decline in his once-powerhouse statistics. "I was tops at my game back in the first decade of the century," he recalled. "Even the 2010's started out on the right foot. But once reconstruction began after the 2014 conflict, and Hamas started placing a tunnel network with access points in every new or rebuilt structure, my work got harder and harder."

Anecdotal reports indicate a general decline in under-the-bed monster-scares across Gaza long before hundreds of thousands of the territory's residents fled their homes ahead of the current fighting. A counterintuitive statistic even points to a slight bump in successful scares in the tent camps that Israel facilitated outside its predefined combat areas, given the lack of tunnel shafts and the relative stability of life in those zones.

Monster officials have reported only one monster casualty amid the current fighting, from a failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch that fell short and hit a home in Khan Yunis four months ago.

[ampersketch-art]

tell me abt your favorite video game character from anything

Ok, I was going to talk about one character but now it’s two because they both share a space in my thoughts. Also enjoy the rambling of someone who’s bad at explaining stuff.

Spoilers for Portal & Portal 2, and minor character detail spoilers for A Hat in Time.

Firstly there’s GLaDOS from Portal. I like how in Portal 1 she seems like a regular robotic voice guide for the testers (and especially Chell), and even with some of the unethical workplace testing lines she delivers, but never anything to indicate she’s sentient. She can actually call you a horrible person early on in one of the test chambers, but it’s optional so the player can completely miss it.

Then after the tests are over and the player gets rewarded (with fire), her mask slips a bit after the player escapes. Then while continuing to escape, GLaDOS drops all pretenses of ever wanting to help you and starts talking to the player in a “I’m not mad, just disappointed, and also I hate you” kind of way. And it’s wonderful.

Don’t think I need to explain too much about GLaDOS because she is an iconic video game character (or at least I think she is). Portal 2 is where she shines the most, but I also wanted to highlight the first game as well. One of the best things that happens is you teaming up with her in a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” sort of deal when she gets put in a potato battery and can do literally nothing.

There’s also the sympathetic element with her when it’s revealed she used to be a human named Caroline whose brain was put into a supercomputer because of the dying wishes of her boss (another great performance by JK Simmons but also fuck you Cave Johnson). So a lot of what GLaDOS does, while not morally right (morals? In Aperture Laboratories?), it’s also understandable why she turned out this way.

Also I was never a believer of the “Caroline is Chell’s mom” theory, but now that I’ve grown up and can understand that a lot of Glados’s dialogue can also sound like it’s being said by a bitter ex, it only makes her even funnier in my mind. I’ve said before that Portal 2 is one of my favorite games and one of the main reasons is because of her. Ellen McLain does a great job portraying her and is given some funny lines, as well as singing three of the greatest songs in this game (Still Alive, Turret Opera, and Want You Gone).

Speaking of characters that used to be human and whose voice actor gives a great performance.

I love Snatcher. Glados was my favorite for a while and then he showed up. I think one of the reasons I gravitate towards him more is that I’m generally more interested in ghosts rather than robots. He can also be very intimidating, with him stealing the players soul and straight up killing the player if you refuse to sign his first contract. But also he looks like this:

(this used to be my discord icon for a while)

I like silly goofy character designs, what can I say?

As I said before, Snatcher also has a sympathetic backstory with him once being a prince. Then his lover, Vanessa, locked him up in the basement of her manor when she thought he was cheating on her (he wasn’t), then everyone in the kingdom died, including him, then in between all that he became known as The Snatcher and now rules Subcon Forest.

This wasn’t even supposed to be his backstory, but it was after the character it was made for (never forget Moonjumper) was cut from the final version of the game. This backstory isn’t important overall to the main game as Subcon Forest is only part of the overall game (I have not played the Vanessa’s Curse DLC where I know it’s brought up again) but even without the backstory I would’ve considered him my favorite character of all time. He’s funny, he’s goofy looking, he’s a “soon-deh-ray” (as his steam trading card calls him), and he’s amazing. (Also 'Your Contract Has Expired' is a great track).