#Syndicate I actually vibe with quite a bit

[raksh-writes]

Been having a pretty big writer's block (and probably a severe case of burnout too) these past few months weeks so Ive been gaming a bit instead. Ive put like over 30h into V Rising, after their big update in May, and now I started Assassin's Creed Revelations again, first time in a few years bcs I saw a lil' bit on a stream and Im a Sucker for Ezio's trilogy, but there's the steam summer sale going on and AC: Syndicate has such a nice discount now and I kinda wanna buy it. Ive never played it but I saw the gameplay as it came out and I still really dig the victorian vibes a lot (+ Evie!), but then I look at the AC: Unity that has been chilling in my steam library since forever (that I never even installed) and Im like "but WILL I even play it?" aaaaaand I dunno. I do have the money on my steam account already tho soooo... I could also get the Shadow of War/Mordor combo, which is even cheaper, but Im kinda in the AC mood rn hmmmmmmm

[edgepunk]

Okay, filtered MSM 2 thoughts:

We knew Kraven was gonna show up in the sequel, however, I def did not expect The Lizard/Dr. Connors and the fact that Kraven is focused on him instead of Peter or Miles is very interesting. I wonder if they're gonna sort of recreate/reference Kraven's Last Hunt 👀

Either way, I'm very excited to see these classic villains showing up. Maybe we'll see Yuri Watanabe/Wraith too??? They were building her up in one of the DLCs quite well. Also, interested to see how Peter will react since they were friends.

Gameplay!!!!!! I already loved the gameplay in the first game, and the Miles Morales game improved upon that. And they seemed to take it another step further, it's like they actually listened to the criticism that people had, and I didn't know it was possible to improve the already banger gameplay (tho yes the first one was a little clunkier but still v intuitive)

The new traversal features look so good hello?? The web wings used as a glider? Miles slingshotting himself across the city??? aoughhfg and also!!! It looks like we'll be able to explore other parts of New York like Queens and maybe Brooklyn??? tbh Manhattan became a little restrictive after a while in the first two games, so it would be cool to expand the map a bit. Y'all know I'm meh about huge maps with some exceptions, but if done right, I think it's gonna be good.

Putting this under a read more bc this game is driving me insane I'm eating drywall

So I was right that we'll be able to switch between Peter and Miles. I kinda guessed that they're gonna be mission specific, and maybe, we can switch between them in free roam like with Jacob and Evie in AC: Syndicate (this specific feature isn't confirmed, just speculation on my part)

Looks like Nuform changed Miles' abilities since his Venom (heh) powers can turn blue? I'm interested to see what it did to him and if they're going to address it. Maybe it's purely for aesthetic/gameplay reasons. Who knows, I'm still curious.

Also, love how they incorporated Ganke as their guy in the chair. I loved him in MM and the fact that he helped Miles with the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man app. Just give me more Ganke please, he was really charming and they managed to differentiate him from MCU Ganke Ned that he feels like his own character.

Okay, I'm done beating around the bush and I'm going to address the elephant in the room - the symbiote. This is all we've been waiting for, we knew from the post-credits scene from the first game that Peter is gonna have the black suit. I'm glad Insomniac were like "yeah let's get this over with" and showed it to us.

And people are already calling him Bully Lowenthal 💀

Now, I was a little bit iffy about the design of the black suit, but after I watched the trailer a couple of times, it's starting to grow on me? Maybe I'm looking too much into it but the organic armor/exoskeleton design gives me xenomorph vibes, and I love the tendrils in the "exposed" exoskeleton. The texture looks gross and slimy and I love it. I was wondering if they're gonna add some subtle sci-fi horror elements to it and they delivered. I've always said that the symbiote has a lot of space/eldtrich horror potential.

Which brings me to the tendrils (I can already hear the p*rn artists working hard), jokes aside, they look so cool and they're animated so well???? The way Peter fights with them??? He straight up turns into a uhhh tentacle monster for a split second. And his fighting style is so brutal, I liked when he kept repeatedly kicking the guy as if he was a punching bag ddjhsjh

but the scene where he shows up in the sewers(???) yeah this shot legit gave me chills bro looks fr intimidating

And do I really need to gush about Yuri Lowenthal's voice acting? Ben 10 off the shits I'm gonna do it anyway bc holy shit he got the guttural growl down to a T. However, I do wish they put a very subtle filter on his voice. Doing that kind of growly voice must've hurt his throat real bad. Maybe his voice is gonna become more monstrous as the game progresses, that'd be real neat :3c

Honestly, I'm really curious to see how it will affect Peter since May is dead, the whole thing with Otto (I think they're gonna have a convo on the Raft maybe???), he's got a lot of debts to pay and he mentioned that Harry is dying. Bro's going through it fr also parksborn angst???? I'm ready for the homoerotic undertones in their cutscenes kdjkdjdkj I'll take any crumbs I can get 👀

And the way that Peter just dismissively shoved that one civilian away??? Ah?? I'm not ready for Peter to become an absolute cunt and be mean to Miles. There's a high probability we're gonna have to fight Peter in a boss fight as Miles aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

ANYWAY THAT'S IT I'M LOSING MY MIND

[thehitchhikerguide]

Season 1, Episode 3: Split Decision

Finally we get to an episode I remember watching back in the day. Even though I knew what was going to happen in this one, I was still very excited to re-visit it as I remember it being kind of bizarre.

We start with the opening theme music and then, wait what's this?

Who is this guy? We've spent all our time establishing a relationship with Page and then we see someone else?

Oh so he does exist! I guess this was one they couldn't re-shoot with the new Hitchhiker so they kept it as is. I knew I had seen a version with him in it, so it must have been this episode.

They actually used to play this one quite a bit in syndication despite the fact that it's a totally different guy. I honestly don't know why they bothered to re-shoot the other ones when they couldn't do this for all of them, but whatever. I was curious if somehow the Hitchhiker ends up more integrated with the plot.

This episode actually takes a different approach and instead of starting with the main character driving, we see him in his office. This is Jake, a down-on-his-luck real estate agent who has some interesting vintage phones on his desk.

I guess instead of having a phone with multiple lines, he just has two different phone lines? At first he doesn't seem like your average Hitchhiker protagonist since he's pretty dorky and you can't really imagine any sexy situations with this guy, but this is HBO after all.

I'm not sure he's actually talking to anyone on these phones since he happens to accidentally hang up the phone with the other receiver, yet the caller is supposedly still on the line.

How is that possible?

Anyways, it's time for driving so we can figure out how the Hitchhiker fits into this plot. Wacky music starts playing when we see this character's crappy car. I guess this is to establish that he is indeed very desperate and bad at his job. Hearing this music I expected a bunch of clowns to start coming out of it. But instead it looks like the car is about to burst into flames.

He meets the Hitchhiker while Jake is lost in some suburban neighborhood. He approaches him to ask him if he knows the road of the house he's trying to visit and he just points.

I guess this was why they couldn't re-shoot this because the editing would probably look pretty bad. My main question with this scene is, is this guy hitchhiking in some residential neighborhood? Isn't that a bit creepy?

The Hitchhiker seems to know him after he drives away since he tells the camera that Jake seems to think he's charming sort of a guy. Wow this hitchhiker sounds really Canadian and much friendlier than the one we are used to. I definitely prefer the creepy vibe that Page gives off more, but this was interesting. Anyways, charm can sometimes fool the charmer, or so the Hitchhiker says.

Jake drives up to the house he's been asked to sell. This guy really doesn't look like a Jake, more like a Herman or a Norman or some gross dorky name. We meet sisters Frances and Priscilla Packard played by real life actress sisters Audrey and Judy Landers. Now here are some actresses that look familiar. I know Audrey from singing that Tits and Ass song in the A Chorus Line movie. Judy Landers was in that Stewardess School movie which I caught 10 minutes of on Comedy Central back in the 1990s. Audrey actually went to Julliard and somehow she is still in this show. Both had made a number of television appearances in the 1980s so they are very familiar character actresses. Both are very good in this episode playing dumb sexy blondes which is basically their M.O.

They also like to dress as magician assistants around the house. This is because their father who left them this house was a famous magician.

Jake was very subtle when meeting these bodacious babes.

Get a good look Constanza?

He also says to one of them "You should have a sign that says 'beware of bush!'" Considering what happens to this guy in this episode, I think he should maybe take his own advice.

He also comments on how he likes the mounds in the garden. Real smooth.

There is some wackiness where he thinks both sisters are actually the same person until they appear together.

Of course being a classy guy he says "Stereo blondes! This is going to be delightful." I guess due to the unfreezing process he seems to have no inner monologue.

As he moves through the house we see a lot of cutlery imagery. One uses a chain saw, he runs into a hand saw, there is a random guillotine in the living room. Very curious.

There is also a bear in the closet. Oh Canada!

After the house tour, we learn that the sisters have trouble sharing. They had a doll someone gave them once and they had to split it down the middle so they didn't have to share it.

You can see here this doll is perfectly in tact with not even a seam down it, but somehow...

Jake is back in business as he gets to show his two new clients each a new home they can buy after they sell the home they are in.

This lady seems to be the only person to realize how disgusting this guy is.

The first sister gets shown a nice modest house. She gets horny when she finds out it has a fireplace and immediately strips and seduces Jake. Good Lord.

The second sister is shown a condo complete with creepy mannequins. He turns on the fireplace and we find out that fireplaces turn this sister on too.

There is a weird jump cut with this scene. My guess was the actress was too disgusted having to pretend to have sex with this guy and they had to cut out a facial expression.

At some point he does say the line "Let's slide into escrow together." Yuk.

I have to say the score on this episode with the wacky music is really distracting. Jake goes back to the house sometime later because he finds out the girls are not going to sell the house. Both sisters are just hanging out in their underwear.

Oh and one of them is making a sandwich. I'm sure this is doing it for someone right now.

They let Jake know that they both like him and they can't share him so they are not going to sell the house. He does seem more concerned with the fact they won't sell than the fact that these sisters are both after him. They both want him for some reason so his solution is that both of them can have him. They decide to take a photo to commemorate this moment.

There seems to be something happening behind him. Watch the birdie!

Wow that's a perfectly sliced sandwich! Ta-dah!

This scene has weird blocking, I couldn't tell how they got to this spot. And why is there no blood?

We end with the sisters walking through their garden talking about what new things they were going to plant in their mounds. The Hitchhiker has a voiceover, but we see his reflection in the door meaning he has been creeping around this neighborhood the whole time. He informs us that Jake would do anything for a sale and now he's a permanent fixture in the house.

Wait a minute...mounds in the garden? Are all those mounds other bodies of people they have done this to? Who is supposed to be the villain here?

I did like this episode. It was still crazy even without any supernatural elements. And it's nice to see that Nicholas Campbell wasn't completely erased from existence.

This is the last of the first season that was shot with the first Hitchhiker. The next one is the start of season 2 where I think they have finally figured out how the Hitchhiker fits into the series. I can't wait to find out what happens next.

[luvie-42]

Assassin of jazz Spike spiegel x Y/N

I am way to damn tired to actually try and recap what happened last time so i basically read my own draft

-After you and your new friends ate your food, Lucy was a bit concerned because ya'll were sent by Jason. Vicky had the right question to answer your curiosity. "How do you know Jason, Lou?" Lucy preferred if you called her Lou. "He was an old flame from the past, We broke up when i found out that he worked for a syndicate..." Lou went silent for a good minute, but picked up her confidence to speak again. " He would always come back with his blood or someone elses blood so I had to clean up after him" "Sooo it's like basically a romance TV show but it's a little bit...Sadder than it has to be?" Laura asked with the same level of curiosity that you had before. "Uhh yeah! You could put it like that"

-The rest talked but you could feel a cascading sense as if something was approaching you. Looking out the diner window you saw a shadow standing there holding a lighter, sparking it again and again. "Hey I'll um..Be right back." Walking out the diner as fast as you could but as calm as you could look. Outside was a woman with blonde faded hair with a red highlight on her bangs. Wearing a dark red button up shirt with a black dress jacket & shoes. Another thing was she had sunglasses so you could barely see her face. "Oh, hey kid. What do you want?" She asked in a tone as if SHE was the one who wanted something. But as if she wanted from you. "Why are you here? Can't you go smoke somewhere else? There's plenty of pla-" Cutting you off "Ah, Before you go on a rant... Let me ask you something"

-You had a bad vibe, but there were chances this woman was good. You didn't know what to do, y'know what? Fuck it. "Fine, ask away." You could just run back in the diner but, you could be careless. "You know the show Big Shot? The one that tells the bounties for the weeks?" It was quite popular ever since it aired. I mean it was one way to make some easy woo."The one with Punch & Judy?" Your memory was a bit foggy but you could remember watching your favorite show and it would cut off with Big Shot playing. Your father had to calm you down because you would cry every time it cut off "Bingo!" She said. "In this world it hunt or be hunted but what if you could feel like you weren't either of them?" She was trying to get your interest peaked and she did. "A world where you're on top you mean?"

-"Exactly"

-"You and I, think the same." She was right. And you couldn't deny it either. "What's your name hmm?" Asking you while handing you a card with the words "Syndicate of Lady Jo" (NOTE: I got the Lady Jo character from another head cannon of spike spiegel but i don't remember the name or author so if you know pls comment it) Thinking back to what Vicky said. ("What if i call you Delta, Delta Tokiyoma?) "It's Delta" It was better than any other name a stranger could call you. It was better than Curse even.

-"If you take my offer now, I can lead you into that type of world."

Ya'll im tired but still want to write so i'll probably post later today or tommorow. But good night/day Little ones!

[sparxwrites]

What would be your ideal dream smp ending?

honestly?? idk! there are just... so many variables here, so many bits and pieces we don’t know about, so much mysterious shit (“what the fuck is up with xd” and “why did dream Want to be in the prison”, for starters), that i think pinning down “i want x event to happen” just seems unfeasible.

(or so i thought when i started typing all of this. the volume of bullet points below the cut appear to have made a liar of me, here.)

that said, i do want an emotionally and narratively satisfying ending, and there are a few things i think need to happen (or that i would like to happen) for that:

dream needs to die. it needs to be sad, and underwhelming, and not a cool death. ideally, he in some way recognises that he’s backed himself into a corner with this and that death is the only way out.

i’m still torn between whether i want tommy, tubbo, or sapnap to be the one to do it. current favourite is tubbo gets between dream and tommy, and then sapnap steps in because he doesn’t want that sort of thing on tubbo’s conscience / he feels he has a promise to fulfil re: what he said about killing dream if dream got out.

everyone is there. big group finale. if the dsmp has been playing with themes of family, and posessions, and community, and power, and the ties that bind - you gotta culminate that shit. and you do that by having everyone on the server pull together, as a single group, with a single aim, and not just putting aside their differences but facing them head-on and apologising, making right, making ammends, as they all gear up for the big showdown against dream. there needs to be, not complete closure or anything, but this sense that everyone’s managed to get a sense of perspective, and some empathy for what everyone else has been through, and a general acknowledgement that really they’ve basically all been played by dream and a lot of the shit they blame each other for is stuff that’s come from dream’s manipulation. i want “never thought i’d die fighting next to an elf / what about next to a friend?” vibes here, i want foreheads pressed together, i want hugs and tears and apologies and clasped forearms. the whole bromance thing. let’s go!!!!!

philza & techno get smacked around the head with a big ol’ “get some perspective and stop being dickheads; helping dream and destroying people‘s shit is bad, and you’re not anarchists, you’re just bullies” hammer.

please let niki be the one to do this actually. she deserves it. she’s so sad, and she’s so clearly going against her moral intuition with the syndicate, and i would love for her to find a bit of the backbone she showed during the manburg era and basically be like “for fuck’s sake” at them.

this works well with the whole “everyone pulls together” finale thing. either techza join with the server-wide pulling-together and realise that, hey, they fucked up with the whole “no government” thing bc this isn’t about power, it’s about community; or they don’t, because they’re too cool and apathetic and also dream hasn’t done anything to them, and that de facto excludes from the “big damn heroes, strength in numbers, you tried to break us apart but you just made us stronger” moment, and they shrug and move on their way to another server somewhere, too old and powerful and tied up in each other to particularly care or learn from their mistakes, and there’s some weird narrative parallel only not quite with dream or sth. idk.

i am fucking desperate for eryn to get the arc i think he’s angling for - which is where he entirely misreads the dynamic between dream and tommy (”ah, my nemesis, my raison d’ete” a la quackity and wilbur, rather than the real “abuser and his terrified victim”) and ends up as basically dream’s acolyte because he thinks this is all fun and games and he’s helping tommy enjoy himself (and because, really, deep down, he just likes feeling big and scary and important, and he’s got a bit of resentment towards tommy for whatever reason, and because dream is very good at charming people into feeling like they’re special). and then i think he should get a moment in the finale where he gets to be tommy’s narrative mirror, and they face off, and eryn is forced to confront what he’s become and who he’s sided with - and then, crucially, unlike dream, he recognises that what he’s become is Bad, Actually and goes. yeah. i’m done with this shit. and turns his back on dream and returns to the rest of the server and stands by tommy’s side.

quackity & wilbur (& sam, actually, tbh) get a chance to redeem themselves, in the sense they recognise how badly they have hurt certain people, and acknowledge it, and apologise and make a demonstrably sincere commitment to change. wilbur ideally apologises to tommy, specifically, and acknowledges their dynamic is unhealthy; quackity, ideally, apologises to like... the whole of las nevadas lmao, but also specifically acknowledges the torture thing was fucked up (though i think the latter is unlikely).

especially for wilbur and sam, like... talk of explicitly getting help? of community support? i’m not asking for “i am going to go to minecraft therapy now”, but i am asking for some explicit acknowledgement of the huge mental health problems wilbur (and others!) have, and support mechanisms being put in place and/or asked for by those who need it - and given by those who have the capacity for it!

something dope should happen with xd. idk what, and i don’t even really care what tbh, i just fucking love minecraft gods and i think he should do some evil and fucked up and very cool stuff. as a treat for him and also me.

jack manifold coming in clutch. idk how and, again, i don’t really care, i just think it would be narratively satisfying.

sub-plots (karl and quackity, whatever the fuck is going on with george, tubbo/ranboo and michael, probably a bunch of other shit) get wrapped up, even if it’s just a few summary lines in the finale or a “word of god” kind of thing or whatever. don’t leave stuff hanging! honestly, as much for the ccs (wilbur and his burger van my beloved. ranboo and his character arc my beloved.) as for my own personal satisfaction.

i would like tubbo and ranboo to get a nice house somewhere with lots of bees and flowers, please. this has literally no relevance to anything, i just think it would be nice and they deserve it.

narratively satisfying closure of tommy destroying the logsteadshire suicide dirt pole pls. i think that would be very cool.

final shot of tommy and tubbo on the bench, listening to the discs. please. i beg. let me die happy with this, pls. it would be such good imagery. i can imagine the animatics as we speak... the fanart... the poetry...

and then, actually, more than that - everyone moving on from that server. like. that place holds such pain, such destruction, such happiness; give them the narrative grace and simplicity of a new start, a new world, a fresh world, with them all stood together as a family, the ties between them stronger for what they have endured.

[pen-emue]

Why c!Techno is awesome actually, an essay

So lately I've been thinking about why I enjoy c!Techno so much, he's definitely one of my favourites on the smp. And since Tumblr is one of the few places where writing it out won't be preaching to the chore, I thought I might as well.

A lot of people on here hate him, and that doesn't bother me or anything. I'll just unfollow if it's really harshing my vibe, and usually I enjoy the analysis and agree with it. It really just comes down to what level you engage with the story on: how serious you take it. Do you watch it to be a deep story that evokes emotions like fear or sadness? Or are you just here for excitement, here for the spectacle without much emotional attachment to the characters?

If I was in the second catagory exclusively that would be the end of this post, but I'm just as much in the first catagory. I love engaging with the smp writing and characters on their level. So why do I still love c!Techno to bits, even when I'm mentally hanging out in the first catagory?

1) He's a well written character who can be understood.

A mark of a well written character is even if they are incredibly different from yourself, making choices and doing things you never would, you're still able to put yourself in their head and understand their thought process. For c!Techno, every time you can ask "why did he do this bad thing?" there's an answer that can be given. Even if the way he views reality is warped, from your perspective, one is still capable of saying, for example... "well he went to investigate Tubbo because Tubbo was in charge when they tried to execute him, and Techno is as a character always afraid, repeatedly and consistently unaware of his own power, and therefore not drawing the sense of safety he should from it."

This is in contrast to a Pure Evil Villain (tm) who also definitely have their place in fiction, but who it's harder to love as a character if your engagement with the media goes any deeper than "oooh exciting and powerful." At the moment an example of this would be Dream, who is an incredibly important character within the narrative, but any thought process of his must be entirely imagined by the audience. (For the time being.)

2) He is very fun. Very epic. Badass anime character.

After some self reflection, I've realized I see him a bit like a force of nature. Like yes it's tragic that hurricane destroyed your home but you can't really be angry at the hurricane, that's just what it is. Within the story, he sometimes really does seem to function as a weapon, an explosive maguphin. I'm not saying Tommy saw him like that, I'm saying the narrative did. Like you summoned the war demon and it blew up the building your pentagram was in?... oh no... how terrible... I'm so sorry.

He's not necessarily relatable since most of us don't have the life experience of being incredibly powerful, but he's super interesting and exciting to see on screen. I always love the ridiculously overpowered characters in anime, and Techno fills that role for me on dsmp.

That's why I super hate when people attempt to bring things like real world anarchy and political discussions into this. The man said, and I quote "how can I sell you on massive anarchy from which the nation never recovers and just dissolves? And the world regresses into a dog eat dog world where only the strong survive and the weak live huddled in fear."

Is this the character you want representing your real world political ideology? Are you 100% sure? His character's not that serious guys... guys... it's just a video game... guys. That's why meta jokes work so well for him, because that's the kind of story he's in.

The show where Techno is the main character is very different in tone from the one where Tommy is the main character, which is different from the one where Ranboo is. And as much as I am very much here for them exploring telling dark stories, sometimes I do a double take and am like "damn you have really decided to go there, huh?"

And there's probably a reason I love both the Syndicate and Tubbo and Jack's nuke debacles so much. It's still lore, still a story, without quite as much edge (loving). Also I'd be upset if the edge went away. I just want us to peacefully coexist

[not-saying-revolution-but]

url song titles game

Rules: spell out your url with song titles, then tag as many people as there are letters in your url

thanks for the tag, @i-am-just-a-kiddo! I am always ready to talk about music

Absolutely not tagging 22 people because I am a sensible person and that would be crazy, but @circumference-pie, @tofufei, @angelxhunter, @ahlanzhan, here’s a tag if you’d like to share!

Generally pulling from songs I’ve listened to recently, though a person only has so many v- and y- and u- songs. If something comes up from 2009 we get what we get ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Read on for commentary

N – Nothing is Safe by clipping. – forever thinking about the line “truth like death comes for everyone” in the context of LYB

O – Out Like a Light 2 by The Honeysticks and Ricky Montgomery – the original version of this song is a classic for me but this version, uh, changes the meaning of the lyrics a bit

T – Tactics by Japanese Breakfast – currently reading Michelle Zauner’s memoir (Crying in H Mart), so I’ve had the whole Jubilee album on repeat to get in the mood

S – Sinnerman by Nina Simone – a masterpiece, need I say more

A – Agnes by Glass Animals - not sure if I can articulate all I feel for this song in anything shorter than a novella, will not attempt

Y – You Wouldn’t Like Me cover by Sleeping At Last – every song is improved if it’s covered by Sleeping At Last, send tweet

I – Il male è grande e vasto by Na Sang Jin and Park Se Jun - asdfghkjl this is from the Vincenzo soundtrack... say what you will about the show itself, but the soundtrack fucking slaps and I will put that on my gravestone (I beg thee, how often must one make a playlist called ‘songs that make me want to join an international crime syndicate specifically so I can play them while doing bad deeds’?)

N – Nước chảy hoa trôi (Reborn) by Nguyễn Trần Trung Quân – I watched the music video so many times when it first came out that now I need only throw the song on to enjoy a little screening inside my brain! Love when that happens

G – Gang Gang Schiele by HYUKOH - I started listening to them idly while working a few days ago. It started out as “sounds like a good vibe” and then it became “a lot of these songs are actually really great” and now it is “I think I need to consume their entire discography”

R – Rainy Night in Georgia by Brook Benton – when I was much younger, I would put this song on during early morning workouts, which makes no sense because it is the definitional opposite of a workout song

E – Extrication by SHIO 郭修彧 – I quietly associate this song with The Ghost Bride for reasons that aren’t clear to me. Did I maybe see a video with this song for that show? Am I imagining things? Who knows, certainly not me

V – Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks by The National – prime example of how I choose most songs based on vibes alone. I don’t even want to look at the lyrics because it would ruin the experience

O – Oh You Are Not Well by Chloe Foy – what it says on the tin! I particularly like the folk elements of this one

L – Le pré des corbeaux by Maxenss – this song feels like summer but is textually not very much about summer at all

U – Under My Skin by Jukebox The Ghost – I’ve been listening to them for quite a while and I keep thinking they’re going to break into mainstream pop and I won’t be cool anymore

T – Tujhe Dekha To by Lata Mangeshkar and Kumar Sanu – from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which I have not watched in I don’t even know how long but remember liking

I – I Of The Storm by Of Monsters and Men – "Little Talks" was the anthem of my mid-teenage years. Since then, I’ve come to appreciate the rest of their work on multiple levels. Also, the music video for this song moves me to tears every time I watch it

O – Oh my god by (G)I-DLE – I heard this soon after it was released two Aprils ago and had a “wait... did I just hear a she pronoun???” kind of moment. I appreciate the aesthetics of the music video as well

N – Nar_C by Holland – my experience with Holland began with “the first openly gay k-pop idol? Yes let’s see what he has” and is now “I will listen to anything he creates and also I would die for him”

B – Bad Dreams (Stripped) by Faouzia – despite being obsessed with her voice, I actually haven’t listened to much of her work beyond this song? Gotta get on that. Nevertheless, the powerful vocals + piano makes an excellent combination in this version

U – Underdog by Mayaeni – another artist who I would like to explore more! I connect a lot to the lyrics of this one

T – The Way You Felt (你的目光) by Alec Benjamin – linking the Mandarin version because 1) I like it more than the English version and 2) I more often hear songs that are translated from their original language into English. This is one of the few (contemporary) English bops that I’ve seen a mainstream artist intentionally release in another language and I do respect Alec Benjamin for that

(this got real long, shoutout to anyone who read to the end <3)

[felidaefighter]

Our Metaphorical Get-Along Sweater

In which Wilbur thinks of Ranboo as an arch-nemesis while Ranboo is just There Vibing and also, Phil has adopted Ranboo, making for two very different siblings and a very interesting relationship

[Fluff, comedy, fix-it fic, some light angst that is immediately softened, work in progress; every chapter will swap POV]

Chapter 3: How Not To Babysit

    Wilbur and Phil were outside on the porch, enjoying the fresh air, when Ranboo had stopped by to say hello as he was heading to the portal. “Tommy and Tubbo and I are going to try to fix up Tommy’s old skyway rail today,” he was explaining to Phil. “Ohhh I can’t imagine that ending without at least a few broken bones.” Ranboo nodded. “That’s why I’m bringing a bunch of gapples.” Wilbur raised an eyebrow at the mention-- it had been ages since he’d seen the thing, it was probably way more rundown than even he remembered it. “That sounds like it’ll be funny to watch,” He said. “I’d like to see how many times Tommy can fall off before he realizes he actually has to do work to fix it up and quits.” 

    Ranboo looked towards Wilbur. “I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s alright for you to join us if you want,” he offered, much to Wilbur’s surprise. Internally, he thought that was extremely suspicious. A large part of him believed it was likely Ranboo was just trying to butter him up, get on his good side because that’s what he did, wasn’t it? Got on everyone’s good side, a neutral, conniving-- “Really? I--” Wilbur interrupted his own thoughts and looked between Phil and Ranboo and back again in quick form, thinking. “Sure! I don’t have much of anything else planned for the day, it might be interesting to see how the three of you get on.”

    “Oh, okay, great!” Said Ranboo, sounding as surprised as Wilbur was at the man’s answer. “You two have fun now,” Phil said with a sly, knowing smile, and Wilbur rolled his eyes. He knew that Phil was thinking Wilbur would actually wind up enjoying himself, but Wilbur knew that whatever fun he might’ve had catching up with Tommy and Tubbo would be ruined by Ranboo’s presence. There was no way the spineless hybrid would be able to hold his own against the banter that he and the two best friends could get into. Honestly, he didn’t know how Tommy or Tubbo could stand him; he was just that sure that Ranboo would infringe upon their chaotic natures just by being his boring, neutral self.

    Ranboo tried to make conversation on the way there, of course, but Wilbur answered as curtly as he could without being outright rude. In all honesty, he was still fuming from the other day when Ranboo had told him he wasn’t a bad person. First of all, it wasn’t true. He was a bad person. Everyone knew it. (He tried not to focus on the fact that he was sounding more and more like he was trying to convince himself, as if it wasn’t true.) Second of all-- didn’t that just prove that Ranboo was spineless and would say whatever he needed to get on a person’s good side? Wilbur didn’t trust Ranboo. Wilbur didn’t want to trust Ranboo. And fine, maybe he was being stubborn-- so what, Rational Thoughts In His Head That Took On The Voice Of Phil-- nothing wrong with being stubborn when it meant being the only person around who could actually resist Ranboo’s weird, enderman Bewitching Powers. 

    Speaking of. “Ayyyy Ranboo!” A familiar voice called as they approached the hillside house that was almost always where people met up with Tommy-- who, upon seeing Wilbur too, narrowed his eyes. “Wilbur. You aren’t going to get in our way are you? We don’t need you bossing us around,” Tommy said pointedly, while Ranboo greeted Tubbo. Tubbo. Wilbur hadn’t really seen Tubbo since-- Oh. That was-- ohhhhh. Wilbur swallowed a bit guiltily. He. He definitely had some apologizing to do there, huh? “Oi, pay attention to me when I’m talking to you, dickhead!” Tommy snapped Wilbur out of his thoughts, who, still distracted, muttered “Sorry, I just-- got caught up thinking.” There was a look of confusion on Tommy’s face at the soft, genuine tone, so Wilbur remembered his manners. “Prick,” He added, which righted things as Tommy instantly scowled.

    “Tubbo!” Wilbur called with a grin, who froze in a mirror of Wilbur just a few seconds ago. “It’s been a while man-- how’ve you been?” Tubbo looked rather taken aback. “I’ve been-- I’ve been alright, I guess. Just around, y’know. Building things here and there.” It was, for all its honesty, a guarded answer. Not that Wilbur blamed Tubbo. Of course he couldn’t. “Yeah, I uh, I wanted to say I’m sorry, man,” Wilbur blurted out before he could think better of it. Everyone stood around awkwardly and uncomfortably. “It’s uh, it’s alright, I forgive you,” Tubbo replied, too bewildered to really put thought into it. He was probably just saying that because he felt like he had to, then. “You don’t have to forgive me,” Wilbur promised, but Tubbo just shrugged. “I do forgive you. Doesn’t mean I trust you.” Well. There it was. Of course.

    “AN-Y-WAYS!” Tommy shouted, breaking the strange moment (though not without shooting Wilbur a dirty look). “Did everybody bring tools and whatnot? Pickaxes, etcetera? Although I suppose we’ll need rails--” Tommy was cut off by Ranboo. Of course Ranboo would be the one to cut Tommy of all people off. And nobody would think anything of it because why would they? It was Ranboo. Wilbur was sulking a bit, admittedly. He’d missed hanging out with the two boys and there was a deep ache in his chest. No trust. No easy conversations. No room on the bench for more than three people. “For in case you fall off,” Ranboo was explaining to Tommy while shoving a handful of gapples at him. “Oh my GOD I don’t want your pity gapples man,” Tommy growled while taking them anyway.

    “Thankyouthough-- anyway-- So I was thinking right, like the skyway is cool and all but all of these buildings are old y’know? Nothing around the prime path is new anymore, nobody comes here except me! So I was thinking-- Tubbo you have a pickaxe on you yeah?” Tubbo nodded, then slid his rather hefty backpack off one shoulder to open the top of. “I also have TNT,” He explained, holding up a stick, which earned a nervous and confused chuckle from Ranboo, a startled “whoah!” from Wilbur, and an “Oh my god why do you have TNT-- I mean that works too though I guess!” from Tommy. Tubbo looked extremely offended that anybody would question the sensibility of having TNT on hand. “Well, y’know, like, in case we need to do any demolition work, it’s a lot faster than having to mine things all by hand.” 

    Wilbur saw the TNT and tried desperately, for everyone else’s sake if not his own, to shove his associations with it deep, deep down in his brain where it wouldn’t hurt anyone. “Ah, Tubbo, that’s…” Wilbur started nervously, avoiding eye contact, but he didn’t miss the way Ranboo’s face lit up with recognition and understanding. “Maybe don’t get the TNT out too much around Wilbur,” Ranboo said in a hushed tone to Tubbo, who mumbled “Oh god! Oh, yeah, good point, yeah,” and put it away. It just had to be Ranboo that picked it up and said something, huh. That was nothing if not salt in a gaping wound. Wilbur was certain Tommy would’ve said something if the hybrid had waited just a few seconds more. 

    Right. No. He was supposed to be polite, he wanted to be on good terms with Tommy and Tubbo; he was grateful that Ranboo had stepped in. Disgusted with himself for reasons that made him miserable to think about sifting through, Wilbur swallowed pride that tasted like bile and nodded silently at Ranboo after catching his eye. Ranboo nodded back. Well, he didn’t much like it, but Wilbur supposed he could put aside his feelings at least for a day. Poorly-concealed hostility towards the hybrid was clearly not earning him any points in Tommy’s good book, and presumably not Tubbo’s as well; though it was genuinely hard to gauge Tubbo’s reaction considering how the years the man had spent as a spy had given him practice in having a good poker face.

    “I’m gonna give this whole place a shout,” Tommy muttered, typing something into his communicator that Wilbur knew would ping his own in just a second, “If anybody wants to stop me they’re gonna have to do it fast.” Looking at Tommy then-- in his favorite red-and-white shirt, on the prime path, by his stupid dirt hut, side by side with Tubbo and ready to cause mischief-- something unfurled from his un-undead heart that Wilbur wasn’t quite certain had been there anymore. That was his Tommy, alright. Wilbur tried out of habit to hide the fond smile that was threatening to creep across his face, but even then he couldn’t hide the way his resting scowl softened. “Tommy, Tubbo-- I missed this. I missed hanging out with you guys,” Wilbur confessed, and hey, it’s not like he was ignoring Ranboo if he’d never done any hanging out with him previously that he could miss. “I know, Tommy-- I know we hung out the other day, but that was-- that was different. This is nice.”

    “Yeah I missed this too!” Tubbo said genuinely, while Tommy tried to avoid emotions and rolled his eyes. “Honestly, it’s been ages since we’ve all hung out like this. How long has it been?” Tubbo wondered out loud. Tommy looked like he was thinking, and opened his mouth to speak. “Actually that reminds me--” He said, and Wilbur almost thought he was gonna say something nice to him for once. Almost. “Ranboo, I heard a word the other day, let me type it to you, can you tell me what it means?” Ranboo looked entirely puzzled, and not just because of the fact that he was suddenly being included in the conversation again. “Huh? Sure, okay.” He squinted at the no-doubt misspelled word Tommy had just messaged him. “What a syndicate is? Oh, I think it’s, like, a book club,” Ranboo said. Tommy spoke in a quick, pleasantly-lilted voice before going back to his usual gravelly shouting. “Thank you Ranboo that’s very helpful because Wilbur actually told me it was a government and I’m ah, far more inclined to believe you at the moment.” He turned aside. “Tubbo!” He barked out. 

    Wilbur stared directly at Ranboo (trying so hard not to make eye contact, he was respectful of boundaries), thinly veiled outrage on his face. And Ranboo, Ranboo smirked at him knowingly. Oh. So he knew knew. Wait. He knew?!? Technoblade had approved him for The Syndicate? Not to mention-- not to mention Wilbur’s feathers were all ruffled because despite him thinking of Tommy as an annoying brat most of the time, he couldn’t help but feel a little dejected at the fact that Tommy would rather listen to Ranboo’s explanation than his own. Had the charm of having an older brother really worn off that much for Tommy? Was he really stuck with Ranboo as his only younger brother? Sure, he’d always joked about getting rid of the little gremlin but-- Why like this?

    Wilbur was so busy bemoaning his own self-made prediacement that he didn’t notice the trio snickering and sneaking off until it was almost too late. He zoned back in and narrowed his eyes at the three of them, who all blinked innocently at him. “What were you three talking about just now?” Wilbur asked, curiosity in his voice intermingling with suspicion. “Oh, nothing,” Ranboo said through a grin. “Don’t worry about it Big Man,” Tubbo agreed. Tommy just looked at Wilbur smugly. Wilbur narrowed his eyes again with a huff. “Don’t you three give me that-- what are you all up to?” Tommy looked upwards, thinking and tapping his chin before looking back at Wilbur. “Frankly, uhhh-- none of your business!” He said in a hoity-toity tone. Wilbur released a long-suffering sigh. “Children, all of you,” He muttered. “Children!” At least he didn’t have to worry about memory fooling him in regards to their ages; the one thing about Ranboo Wilbur was grateful for was the explanation about the passage of time.

    For now at least though, Wilbur was content to just observe. He had been interested in figuring out how Ranboo fit into the group, to be fair; now was his opportunity. He watched as Tommy and Tubbo bickered and Ranboo offered compromises; he watched as Tommy and Ranboo quarrelled and Tubbo attempted to mediate. He watched as Tubbo and Ranboo bickered and Tommy egged them on. Somehow, instead of meaning they didn’t work together, this meant that they were in perfect sync about everything, and moved nearly flawlessly together as a unit without needing too much direction or getting in one another’s way. They were clearly not beyond getting sidetracked though, as right now they were meandering about with the hours ticking away, putting all their energy into “clearing up” abandoned and unused buildings and rubble with whatever tools they had on them at the moment.

    “Anyways, what is it exactly we’re doing here Tommy?” Wilbur asked, growing restless. “All you’ve been doing is running around placing TNT on abandoned buildings and tearing them down. I thought we were meant to be working on the skyway.” He’d genuinely been hoping to see the old thing, ugly as it was. To say nothing about all the TNT. “Oh of course you’re still thinking about the skyway,” Tommy mocked, eyes rolling, voice gravelly. “What d’you MEAN ‘of course you’re still thinking about the skyway’ you were the one who said that’s what we were working on!” Wilbur refuted, aghast. “Yes but I changed my mind!” Tommy huffed, and then for good measure, added “Duh!” 

    The two of them began aggressively and gleefully bickering, mocking, and name-calling; Wilbur calling Tommy an annoying child and Tommy in turn calling Wilbur a dirty old man-- until Tommy gave up with an exasperated growl and Wilbur gave up with a disgusted scoff, and wordlessly Tommy handed Wilbur a pickaxe to help terraform the area; and Wilbur, of course, silently started mining. The four of them got a decent amount of work done together, chatting idly and pleasantly, until all of the sudden a golden figure came sprinting down the stairs, out of breath. “Aw geez I came here as fast as I could I hope I’m not late-- you better not be taking down any of my builds!” The man said as he reached the group, taking a moment to catch his breath. “Oh hey Foolish what’s up!” Ranboo greeted.

    For a solid second, Wilbur was almost impressed, thinking Ranboo was just being utterly and blatantly rude to this strange man. But Tubbo then greeted him in kind and Wilbur realized that no, that was just his actual name. “Hey guys,” The man apparently called Foolish greeted. “Tommy-- Tommy, please tell me you didn’t take down any of my buildings,” He said, distraught. Tommy looked at him and shrugged. “We’ve just been taking down abandoned buildings along the Prime Path here, so unless one of them was yours--”

    Foolish cut Tommy off. “Ohthankgod. No, nope, none of those were mine. I am glad you took down that Christmas building actually it was kinda out of season,” he said, perpetual grin on his face, gesturing wildly as he spoke. Tommy looked at Foolish for a second, calculating, before a familiar-looking lightbulb went off in his head. “You’re going to help us take these buildings down,” Tommy asserted. “What?” Foolish asked, blinking.

    “You’re going to help us take these buildings down,” Tommy said again in the same tone, with his eyebrows raised in a “watch this” expression. Foolish stared at him for a moment and then shrugged. “Sure! I’m usually a builder, I don’t get to take down stuff a lot. I wouldn’t mind helping.” Tommy nodded curtly, sharing a glance with Tubbo and Ranboo, who were looking at him with fond exasperation. “Gets ‘em every time,” Tommy said to himself smugly, and Foolish looked at him. “Huh? What was that?” Foolish said, his grin giving away the fact that he did in fact hear what Tommy had said and was just going along with it all for fun. “I said get mining Totem Boy,” Tommy said, and Foolish giggled before unearthing his pickaxe to start to help. He glanced at Wilbur curiously for a moment before striking up a conversation.

    “You know, I don’t think we’ve ever officially met,” He said, pausing his pickaxe swing to extend a hand, “I’m Foolish Gamers! And I take it you’re Wilbur.” Wilbur nodded, and shook Foolish’s hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you!” Foolish continued, which definitely wasn’t a sentence that invoked any sort of dread in him, nope. “I’m afraid I can’t say the same about you,” Wilbur said apologetically. Although he was a bit of an odd one in whatever species he was, that didn’t necessarily mean anything. “I do a lot of big fancy buildings and stuff. Contract work, y’know. I actually built this huge mansion for Ranboo and-- Oh wait!” Foolish stared down Wilbur for a second, which was admittedly very unnerving with the way the man’s eyes were pure emeralds.

    “You’re Philza’s kid right?” Foolish asked, and Wilbur narrowed his eyes, now entirely unsure of where this conversation was going. “And Ranboo is too right?” Ranboo, hearing his name, hopped into the conversation and nodded. “Oooh wait, so that means you guys are both siblings then? Really? Oh wow,” Foolish said, curious. They both hummed in acknowledgement, though Wilbur’s admittedly was more of a grumble. “I’m the adopted one, by the way,” Ranboo said, which wasn’t funny. “I never could’ve guessed,” Foolish said, which actually also wasn’t funny. “Very funny. Humor. Good job,” Wilbur deadpanned at them both, who were both grinning far too proudly for their stupid jokes. “Thank you, thank you,” Ranboo said, despite certainly being aware that it wasn’t a compliment. 

    “No but like to be fair you don’t have wings and Ranboo’s only half enderman so like it could go either way, technically,” Foolish was saying, and Wilbur started muttering under his breath about stupid enderman and weird totem men comparing him to his dumb adoptive sibling as if he wasn’t clearly the one more like Phil, and Ranboo stage-whispered to Foolish “I think that might be a bit of a sore spot for him,” to which Foolish replied also in a stage-whisper “Ooh you’re right you’re right, I can kinda see that now, I’ll keep that in mind.” 

    Wilbur rolled his eyes at those two, Foolish starting to mine again and Ranboo disappearing to go be closer to Tubbo again. Somehow everyone he managed to find himself hanging around with fit the description of “annoying brat who thinks they’re clever and funny”, huh. Except Tubbo, of course, Tubbo was an angel compared to the rest of them even if he was just as prone to chaos-- which Tubbo proved at that exact moment he thought it, shouting “Look out below!” which was accompanied by a high-pitched, startled Tommy-scream. Wilbur just barely managed to dodge the TNT that had been dropped from the now-dilapidated roof before it exploded. He looked up to where it had dropped from, seeing Ranboo, Tubbo, and Tommy at the top, the former two grinning somewhat manically.  “Oops,” Ranboo and Tubbo both called down apologetically, while Tommy went off on a tirade just for the fun of it. These kids-- Wilbur looked up at the sun to gauge the time. Exactly how much longer was this going to go on for?

---

    “I will say, Ranboo,” Wilbur said with a small smirk as they were striding along home, “I do appreciate the level of chaos you seem to conjure when you’re around Tubbo. You described yourself as so neutral to me I guess I didn’t factor in that morality and politics have nothing to do with teenage shenanigans.” Ranboo looked to Wilbur, surprise written on his face, but he offered a small smile to the older man. “Mhm! Oh, yeah, absolutely. I usually try to be the responsible one since Tommy and Tubbo have no self-control--” The hybrid mumbled “Seriously they have no self-control” before continuing-- “But when someone else like Phil or you is around to do that instead?” Ranboo grinned mischievously. “Oh man,” he concluded.   

    “Well, don’t expect me to babysit all the time,” Wilbur said with a small scoff, “I do have my own things to be doing.” Ranboo shot Wilbur an offended look. “Babysit? I don’t--” Ranboo sighed and shook his head. “You don’t have to worry about that, Wilbur. We can get up to plenty on our own. Probably more, actually,” He added with a slightly mischievous tone. Wilbur sighed. “It’s not gonna be my fault if you three get yourselves killed,” he told Ranboo, fully meaning it. “Ehhhhh we’re not gonna get killed,” Ranboo said with a dismissive handwave. “I got Tubbo and Tommy full maxed-out enchantment netherite, and we all have totems. Plus we’re not that reckless. I think.” Wilbur groaned. These kids were going to be the second death of him. Even if they weren’t technically his responsibility. Luckily, he didn’t have to think about that too much as they trekked the rest of the way through the thick snow in silence.

    “So, did you two have fun on your day out today?” Phil asked as the two of them walked in the door. “It was horrible,” Wilbur deadpanned, “Terrible. They are all chaotic gremlin children.” Phil grinned at Wilbur. “Nahhh. Not Ranboo, surely. He’s responsible, right Ranboo?” Ranboo smiled innocently at Phil. “Mhm!” He said. “Even Ranboo,” Wilbur continued on in his deadpan as if Ranboo hadn’t spoken. “You wouldn’t believe some of the awful things he said to me today. It was genuinely horrific, actually.” Phil shot Wilbur a completely bemused expression. “That’s not true!” Ranboo protested. “Philllll Wilbur is slandering meeeee!” He said with pseudo-pout. Wilbur scoffed. “As if! It’s not ‘slander’ if it’s true! The lot of you just wouldn’t shut up about--” Phil cut him off with a barked-out cackle. “I’m glad you two had fun,” he said with a knowing smile. Wilbur grumbled and Ranboo thanked Phil, before heading back to his own house. 

    As much as Wilbur hated to admit it, he did have fun, though. It was… strangely nice, getting to see Tommy and Tubbo just happy and acting like kids-- or rather, teenage brats, again. And he found he didn’t dislike having Ranboo in the mix, either. The hybrid blended perfectly, no pun intended, with the two best friends, and they all had a level of respect and established banter that Wilbur was almost (but not quite) envious of. He did actually hate being the voice of reason, but it was a little bit worth it just to see Ranboo of all people, the neutral nervous wreck, let loose and cause chaos. He did himself like a little chaos, after all, so it was nice to know it wasn’t out of the question for his newfound sibling. Startled at his own thoughts, he quickly checked himself with a modicum of disgust. Wow. If he wasn’t careful, he might actually wind up feeling attached. Good thing he’d never let that happen. He glanced at Phil, who was smiling smugly at him as if he knew something Wilbur didn’t. Right. One more time for reassurance, then. He’d never let that happen.

[felassanis]

Everything I love about Assassin’s Creed

1. Ezio da la la la

2. If you idle for long enough in Odyssey Ikaros comes and lands on Alexios’s/Kassandra’s arm and then alexios/Kassandra will greet him.

3. Edward’s outfit is by far my favourite Assassin robe. It looks so fooking cool.

4. Alkibiades

5. The first mission in Assassin’s Creed III. Finding the temple and it coming alive with all the lights and the humming was so fucking cool and the theatre with Haytham was such a good way to start the game, I loved the environment that went with the theatre and the parkour was really good too, everything was good even though I had no idea why we were there in the first place lol.

6. SHAUN HASTINGS

7. Edward’s tattoos being the only reason why I go whaling in AC:Black flag

8. The dynamic between Jacob and Evie, I’ve always wanted a twin duo in a game and Jacob and Evie Frye were awesome and y’all keep sleeping on them.

9. The different colour schemes in Assassin’s Creed 2 for the different cities gave the locations their own feel and vibe and it differentiated them from each other while also ensuring that the landscapes were utterly gorgeous. For example, Venice had cooler colours, very blue and silver while Florence was warmer, with more orange and brown thrown into the mix. It really gave those maps their own identity and it was great.

10. All of Lineage. all of it, it was flipping fantastic and I know it’s not a game but it was brilliant and the other Assassin’s Creed movie will never top it despite Michael Fasbender being in it.

11. That cutscene in Black Flag where Blackbeard lights his beard on fire, I love that historical accuracy because it was very likely true and it’s so SO bad-fucking-ass

12. Alkibiades

13. How quickly I fell in love with Frederico Auditore despite the fella only having about 5 lines.

14. Also just how quickly I came to love the Auditore family, that was how well written they were, that I fell in love after 30 minutes with them. 

15. LEONARDO DA VINCI

16. Desmond Miles’s snark.

17. ‘Hey whatta matta with you altair,’

18. SHAUN HASTINGS

19. How buffy Kassandra is

20. The hookblade was actually amazing in Revelations and I’m in full support that it shouldbe brought back. The noise it made was also oddly satisfying too?

21. The Glyphs in AC2 were spooky and ominous and I refused to do the last mission until I had found all of them and uncovered the Truth. Because that entire side quest was full of anticipation and the creepy vibe the Glyphs gave off and how the footage of Adam and Eve was cut up and glitchy was just really interesting and it peaked with a climax.

22. LEONARDO DA VINCI

23. The golden beads in Alexios’s hair.

24. And Alexios just being an overall gorgeous human being who’s face was chiselled by the gods.

25. The flying machine mission in AC2 while really aggravating if you didn’t do it the first time was also really fun and getting to see Leonardo all giddy and happy made it worth it.

26. I don’t know if it’s just me? but Connor’s hair? like I know for a fact that I like men with long hair but something about his hair and the feather intertwined into it was just really appealing? and while I know why Connor shaved his hair I couldn’t help but screech when he did lmao but that’s because it’s obviously not my tradition and it’s abnormal to me. pfft

27. Revelations is one of the best AC games and I’ll fight anyone on this. It was phenomenal given how it finally concluded Ezio’s story (and remember Ezio was the face of the franchise for years and he was fan favourite and still is so there were some pressure and expectations) and how it also concluded Altair’s story.

28. Altair wasn’t that interesting in the original game but Revelations added depth and layers to his characters and made him way more intriguing. The game also gave this character important significance to the lore and I think that’s the perfect way to honour the guy who started it all. As much as we love Ezio, Altair came before and without him, Assassin’s Creed wouldn’t quite be the way it was today. (although it’s up to you if that’s a bad thing or not lmao)

29. And seeing Ezio old and matured, becoming this wise legend of a man was really cool and getting to play as him in his final journey was both heartbreaking but satisfactory.

30. I have to give a massive applause to Ubisoft for making Leonardo gay as well in Brotherhood prominently. I don’t think it was ever proven historically if he was? but it was rumoured? and yet Ubisoft went and made it canon giving that representation while also having Ezio outright say he’s okay with Leonardo dating men?! Like, in that time period if you were gay you could go to prison and the general view of homosexuality was that of disgust and yet Ezio is just here supporting his best friend? hell yes.

31. ALKIBIADES

32. I have certain feelings with Unity, but I won’t lie that the parkour was spot on in that game.

33. Gideon Emery....just Gideon Emery as Reginald Birch. The character’s a massive prick but god...that voice.

34. Connor mentioning his grandfather Edward as he’s sailing the Aquila.

35. Getting to see the wreck of the Jackdaw in Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry was gut-wrenching.

36. Finally getting to pet animals in ACIII.

37. Finally getting to feed pigs in a video game ^^

38. SHAUN HASTINGS

39. OKay, I like Shaun because the guy is really entertaining and he’s British like me and I need to see this fucker in future games again...because after Syndicate he just vanishes and we got...Fucking Layla ugh.

40. The Naval combat in Black Flag is unmatched, fighting other ships never felt like a chore and it was fun and thrilling and the rewards felt deserving. And the feeling of taking down your first Man’o War is RIVETING.

41. Rebecca calling the Animus ‘Baby’

42. She’s another character I want to see come back. And she and Shaun better come back and be alive.

43. Lucy being a Templar was a plot twist I never saw coming but I was all for that angst especially when it seemed like they were setting up what I thought was the inevitable Desmond x Lucy romance. But I guessed wrong.

44. Yusuf Tazim being the joy and light of Revelations. fuck you Ubisoft

45. Ezio’s family theme song is the most iconic video game songs ever.

46. The introduction of Alkibiades in Odyssey, what a great way to introduce a character. like seriously, I fell in love with that fucker the moment he started speaking and felt up Kassandra’s arms while being half naked and wasted.

47. Bayek being a breath of fresh air in wonderfully written complex characters whose story was powerful and tragic. He needs a sequel.

48. Assassins Creed Brotherhood’s trailer being iconic.

49. When returning to Florence to retrieve the apple and you bring Ezio back to his old home only to see the ghosts of his entire family waiting for him. I was gobsmacked when that happened and it’s such a beautiful detail.

50. Mary Read/James Kidd being one of the best characters in Black Flag and leader in the ‘did not deserve it’ club. Every minute of her was flipping terrific and her significance in Edward’s story as one of the driving points that turned him into a better man was great.

51. I cried at the end of Black Flag.

52. The little text about Shaun sobbing when you look at the database on Desmond the dog in Syndicate.

53. The lip scar being shared between Desmond, Ezio and Altair was a cool detail.

54. The interchangeable cloaks in ACII.

55. Henry Green was so soft, kind and lovely and I honestly adore him.

56. Cane swords in Syndicate WERE AWESOME

57. NO fall damage in Odyssey. Keep this feature I don’t care how impossible it is for me to survive a jump off of a giant statue of a naked god it’s cool and I want it for every other game about to be released.

58. If you walk through grass in Origins Bayek sticks his hand out like that scene in Gladiator.

59. The scene in ACII Where Ezio uncovers his father’s robes from the chest and holds it up, It’s an incredible scene and the music fits so well with it and if you’ve watched Lineage it’s all the more amazing.

60. Rosa being pretty and terrifying in ACII.

61. The Bleeding effect being that other thing in lore that is SO BLOODY INTRIGUING and I wish it was explored a bit more. Can you actually imagine having the bleeding effect? where you can’t tell the past and the present apart? where you see ghosts from the past and hear voices no one else hears? jesus,..

62. getting answers about Clay/Subject 16. Ever since he left that writing in the wall with his own blood I was hooked on his story and thank god we got answers and a face to the legendary name. I wouldn’t mind more of him though.

63. I’ve always been fascinated with Native Americans and finally getting to explore them a bit more in ACIII proved to be interesting and I hope it was satisfactory representation for Native Americans.

64. finally getting to play in the present day in assassin’s creed brotherhood and 3, like actually getting to run around and explore as Desmond.

(I did a post like this on my old blog and I’ve rewrote them on here but I also got some new things, I just like having a post like this on my blog and I like seeing people who also agree with these brilliant features in this franchise, you can pretty much tell which two games are my favourite lol, Black Flag and 2 will always have a special place in my heart,)

[renegadewangs]

Here's another fun post for Phantoms & Mirages fans! (And very uninteresting for those who never read it.) Recently my mind was doing that 'what if' thing again and it was like... what if Lex Sr. had another kid after Lex Jr.? What if Zerene had lived long enough to get pregnant a second time? This came down to: another son, this one conforming to Cohdopian names by being semi-named after Colias with a name like... Lias. Lias Luster.

And this one would not be emotionally impeded and instead be over-emoting, because after what happened with his first kid Lex Sr. would absolutely encourage emotional responses. So he's very outgoing, and constantly mingling with Cohlex employees to the point where they all can't wait until he officially takes over from his dad as the CEO. Charming is the best word to describe him, really. The opposite of how Lex turned out, even with his emotions fixed. To further illustrate the difference, Lias has brown hair like his dad and darker skin like his mom's side of the fam, so he doesn't really resemble Lex too much. The only thing they have in common is their dull brown eyes. I'm always a huge fan of 'opposite character' dynamics, so the idea of Lex having to reconcile with a sibling who was raised to 'not have his flaws' and instead be an overly emotional, social, 'normal' person... It really jives with me. Bonus points for the other kid not being deemed a monster and in hindsight being “dad's favorite”, and probably just being allowed to go out and play with other kids instead of being kept inside because 'what will the neighbors think'. Lex Sr. would've spoiled the heck outta Lias so he's probably got an entitled 'I'm always right' attitude. As additional tidbits, he is pretty much constantly on his phone because he has a lot of business to attend to. It's not easy being the son of a millionaire CEO- and later CEO himself. He'd know about his lost older brother, if only because his uncle told him. Nooot so much about the lack of emotions, because Lex Sr. and Zerene never told anyone about that. The missing brother is never discussed in front of Dad, because it's “too painful”, which really just makes Lex Sr. sympathetic in Lias's eyes. He'd have no idea the kind of abuse Lex suffered and he'd probably assumed before then that their dad treated his brother just as good before he vanished. He absolutely would refuse to believe Lex Sr. hit Lex or kicked him out of the house, and "if he did, you probably did something to deserve it". At least at first. After all the smuggling fallout, he'd be more inclined to believe it. So basically, the timeline as it would play out in the fic is this: Lias's name is first introduced into the story during that scene in Sam Specter's apartment where the Phantom explains to Simon just what's going on in Cohdopia and what his plan with Bobby is. Immediately there's a warning of 'watch out for this guy. Unless we expose Cohlex's involvement as a whole instead of just Luster's personal ties to the ring, his son will take over and this whole mess will just keep going'. What makes it even more ominous is that even after digging around as Sam Specter, the Phantom still doesn't quite know what Lias's current role in the smuggling ring is. He never heard so much as a whisper about it, so either Lias (and his pops) intimidated their flunkies into keeping quiet at all times, or they trained the flunkies very well. Either one is bad news. After Lex Sr. is murdered, even more question marks get raised. Why did Mirage kill the guy who was trying to usurp her spot, but then leave the next-in-line alive? Something is very suspicious about it. Because of that, they take extra care to hide the ploy to expose Mirage in court. (The only reason Palaeno even knows something is up halfway into the trial is because he was there during that whole Shih-na thing in the embassy, or he would've been out of the loop on it too.) So even after the DNA results are dropped and Lias goes to see Lex in jail along with Palaeno, they keep real quiet about who really killed Lex Sr. and why. Naturally, Lias would insist that it was Lex and “sorry uncle, but that's just how it is. Didn't the prosecution just prove it?” So after that mess, the conspiracy theories get even wilder. They range from “Lias collaborated with Mirage to get rid of Lex so he could inherit all those riches and rule himself” to “he's the real mastermind behind it all and he's manipulating Mirage somehow” to “are they sleeping together??? Ugh, she couldn't have me so now she's banging my little brother”. And who's to say that Lias isn't the exact same as his brother, meaning his whole personality is a lie? And clearly this guy is up to something, because he keeps having hushed conversations on his phone and breaking into sweat and just look at those shifty eyes. After the hostage thing in the courthouse which ends with Mirage being detained, they finally get a chance to subject Lias to the Athena Cykes lie detector of sorts, only to find out that every single emotion he's feeling is genuine. He's genuinely upset about his dad's death, genuinely shocked at the whole smuggling ring thing and genuinely angry with Lex and Mirage for that whole shitstorm surrounding his father's death. He's also very angry with Lex Sr. for having an illegal double life and hiding it from him. Turns out he's not a criminal mastermind or even a person of interest at all, he's a Palaeno. And it's precisely because he's so much like his uncle that Lex Sr. decided not to clue him in on the smuggling ring activities. Wearing your emotions on your sleeve and having a constant suspicious vibe around you is fine when you're a CEO for a company which basically runs itself, but not when you're a honcho in the criminal underworld. You'd have the police on you faster than you could say "sorry about that, I know I must have left those financial files for the taxes somewhere... I could have sworn..." Also, Colias babysat him pretty often after Zerene's death, so that sure contributed in how he turned out. Lex Sr. didn't want to lose another son, so he gave Lias plausible deniability on Cohlex's ties to criminal activity. Lias will hold a grudge against Mirage for killing his dad forever, but he may in time chill towards Lex. (not the Phantom, only Lex.) He'd be back in Cohdopia trying to keep Cohlex together around the time of the surgery and recovery, but come back to L.A. for the Phantom-or-maybe-not-Phantom-anymore? trial. He isn't called up to testify, because he's really got nothing to testify about. He's informed on the real results of the trial, being Lex's closest living relative, but Lex still goes to live with Palaeno because Lias does not want to touch that trainwreck with a ten foot pole. Lias is still sticking around during the Christmas dinner where it's revealed to Simon and co. that Lex is alive. At first, Simon and co. aren't sure what to make of Lias. Simon in particular thinks he's being super rude by being on the phone and jabbering away in Cohdopian. Then Bobby tells him that Lias is trying to make it clear to the other person that he's not doing any interviews until after the holidays are over and 'stop calling him already, he's trying to have dinner with his family'. Even after the stuff with the Syndicate, he's kept in the loop on Lex's whereabouts and, on rare occasion, visits him at Benny's house. Buuut by then Lias would be exhausted/stressed/close to burnout from trying to keep Cohlex afloat after all that bad publicity. Coming over for Christmas dinner with the fam and just immediately collapsing on the couch like "bluuuuh". Phone rings, he hides it under the couch cushion. Lex cannot fathom for the life of him why his brother would want to keep their dirtbag father's legacy alive, but Benny offers words of wisdom by reminding him that regardless of that legacy, they're still talking about the employment of thousands of innocent people. Addition from @scarlettlawyer : “What if being told he had an older brother by Uncle Palaeno gets kid Lias thinking about that and he's actually pretty lonely being an only kid and grows up really wishing he had a sibling and thinking about the brother he never got to meet, and he has this idealised image in his mind, both of the brother and how they would have gotten along, 'cause he was never told about the emotions thing. IN THIS AU LEX SR IS JUST A LITTLE BIT LESS LONELY AND MISERABLE see: when the narrative comments on him losing Everything that had really mattered despite having gained so much wealth and all. In this AU he still loses Zerene, first son still vanishes, but he still has a son that he raises and is by his side. The idealised image child Lias had of Older Bro and how close he and Older Bro supposedly could have been clashes SO severely with the reveal and it's a VERY nasty shock and it's an additional reason why he doesn't take it very well at all.”

[dawnasiler]

Critics’ Choice Awards 2020: The Best Skin, Hair and Makeup Looks on the Red Carpet

Award season just got underway with last week's Golden Globes, and now we've got another batch of celebrity beauty looks to pore over, from the annual Critics' Choice Awards!

Held last night in Los Angeles, the event always calls for a creative approach to glamour—exemplified this year by Lupita Nyong'o's dramatic updo, Olivia Wilde's negative-space cat eyes and Zendaya's pink shadow and box braids.

Take a look at the must-see skin, hair and makeup of the night:

Lupita Nyong’o

Lupita Nyong'o at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Lupita Nyong'o at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Has any celebrity ever glowed like Lupita is glowing on this red carpet? No highlighter could create this kind of luminosity! But the makeup is impressive, too—especially the warm red lipstick and copper eyeliner. I'm also digging the cloud-like bun with gold wiring. 

Lupita is wearing: Moisturizer • Foundation in 555 Suede C • Highlighter in Lumières d'Or Rose • Eyeshadow in Haute Couture • Eyeshadow in Terre de Sienne • Eyeliner in Cuivre • Lipstick in Rubiez

Olivia Wilde

Olivia Wilde at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Olivia Wilde at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Cat eyes are my favourite makeup look for Olivia, so of course I'm obsessed with this. If you look closely, the wings actually have a tiny bit of negative (open) space! Light pink lipstick and a soft bun keep the focus on the eyes.  

Zendaya

Zendaya at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Zendaya at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Zendaya is taking more and more risks on the red carpet, and I love it! Here, she gave new meaning to "matchy-matchy" by pairing her pink eyeshadow with a futuristic pink breastplate (!!). Box braids down to her waist give it even more flair.

Anne Hathaway

Anne Hathaway at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Anne Hathaway at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

It's been nearly a year since we've seen Anne (who recently welcomed her second child). The only thing she's changed up is her hair colour, by going darker and ditching the red. I think this makeup is just lovely, especially the brown liner to match her hair and eyes. I also love the juxtaposition of a peachy blush with a pinky lip.

Florence Pugh

Florence Pugh at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Florence Pugh at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Florence is a new face on the red carpet this year, and with looks like this, she's one to watch. How fabulous is that shimmery, almost wet-looking white eyeshadow? She also has fantastic brows, amped up with two shades of pencil (which her makeup artist says creates the most natural effect).

Florence is wearing: Foundation in 4 • Concealer in 2 • Highlighter in D'Or • Eyeshadow in Hadaka (on cheeks) • Blush in La Rosee du Soir and La Vie En Rose • Eyeshadow in Kira Kira • Eyeshadow in Starr, Scintillante and Rosâtre • Eyeliner in Mousseux • Mascara in Noir • Brow pencil in Brunette and Rousse • Lip liner in Faire La Bise • Lipstick in Gamine

Alison Brie

Alison Brie at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Alison Brie at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

This has to be a personal best for Alison! I think it's mainly down to that amazing lip colour (created with not one but three products) and the loose, wavy updo. The orange dress also adds something, because it wouldn't have been as exciting with black. My only gripe is the way her brows were filled in. Hair-like strokes would be better!

Alison is wearing: Eye mask • Tinted lip balm in Berry • Lip stain in AT03 • Lipstick in Bang

Joey King

Joey King at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Joey King at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

After a heavier look at the Golden Globes, Joey lightened things up considerably with this subtly winged green eyeshadow (actually three liners). With understated lips and vintage-inspired waves, it's classic with a twist. 

Joey is wearing: Primer • Eyeliner in Deep End, Overdrive and Mildew

Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Saoirse Ronan at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

I'm a fan of Saorise's avant garde aesthetic, but sometimes there are aspects that seem a bit too "mature." Like this ladylike red lip and one piece of curled hair... I don't get it! I think something more casual would've worked better with this high, buttoned-up neckline. But I do love the shimmery peach shadow, and the fact that she was wearing bright yellow nail polish!

Saoirse is wearing: Eye cream • Foundation in 10 Beige • Eyeshadow in Warm Memories • Eyeshadow in Quartz Rose • Mascara in Deep Eros • Brow pencil in Blond Clair • Lipstick in Rouge Spectaculaire • Lip gloss in Crystal Clear

Kate Beckinsale

Kate Beckinsale at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Kate Beckinsale at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

There's nothing fashion-forward about Kate's ensemble, but I appreciate that she experimented just a wee little bit here. It's the smoky pink shadow all the way around her eyes that is new—and really quite pretty with the slightly warmer pink blush and lip colour. (Seriously, her lips look so good!) I'd prefer it without the false lashes, but we can't have everything.

Awkwafina

Awkwafina at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Awkwafina at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Awkwafina is back with another red lip, same as at the Golden Globes, but this time she wore it with long waves and bright gold winged eyeshadow. She has a more relaxed vibe here, but I'm really on the fence about that gold—I think it may be competing too much with the yellow dress. Also, her brows should be ashier.

Kristen Bell

Kristen Bell at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Kristen Bell at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Chartreuse is not an easy shade to wear, so Kristen basically opted out of any strong makeup colours and stuck with peachy, rosy neutrals instead. It's fine, I guess, but she never used to be this boring! As for the slicked-back bob, I think Reese did it better.

Lucy Hale

Lucy Hale at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Lucy Hale at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Then we have Lucy, who at least tried—but didn't quite succeed with this mint and brownish-nude palette. Honestly, I think it's the most unflattering makeup I've seen on her. The colours don't do anything for her skin tone, and the eyes just seem unnecessarily heavy. Jewel tones are your friend, Lucy!

Lucy is wearing: Illuminator in Blush • False lashes • Brow colour

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Jennifer Lopez at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

I'm happy to report that JLo didn't cake on her makeup like she did at the Golden Globes. In fact, this would be quite gorgeous if it weren't for the two-toned skin and her signature ring-around-the-lips. The hairstyle is very elegant, she looks great in the peachy-pink tones, and I can even live with these false lashes.

Mandy Moore

Mandy Moore at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Close-up of Mandy Moore at the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards.

Surprisingly, I was most disappointed by Mandy's look (and I never say that!). I'm not opposed to a low chignon, but something about this hairstyle is so matronly. Her lashes are also insanely clumpy, and combined with the liner look amateurish. On the plus side, the peach lipstick is very pretty.

Mandy is wearing: Eyeshadow in Dusk and Brûlée

Who had your favourite (and least favourite) beauty look on this red carpet?

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Critics’ Choice Awards 2020: The Best Skin, Hair and Makeup Looks on the Red Carpet syndicated from The Skincare Edit

[lord-rosenth0rne]

I love how I make characters to be my persona in certain universes and I end up putting too much thought in them to where I make a background and alter them so much that when I do something that I would normally do, it becomes too OOC for that character and I have to go back to the drawing board XD

My Pyro Main just became that...She went from destructive, fun-loving, hopeless romantic to this silent Michael Myers type who killed her mother for forcing her into beauty pageants with a penchant for throwing gasoline around and lighting people on fire just for the hell of it. 

Yeah... This oughta be fun. Might still be able to shoehorn the hopeless romantic bit in there somewhere for her but the rest went out the window.

Edit: I kiiiinda also made my own team... On paper and SFM too... I think I kinda went overboard... I can post the SFM stuff later if anyone’s interested. The rest is undercut. Some just have a couple of things off from their original counterparts.

Jethro: An elderly cantankerous engineer. Years in the mercenary field has taken a toll on him and made him salty. Due to this, his teammates try to avoid him on the field and off. He won’t hesitate to call you out on bullshit or make an example of you if you try to push him. He absolutely hates incompetence and believes his ‘team’ is full of idiots who ‘can’t tell their asses from holes in the ground’. He can usually hold his own very well which has led the opposing team to gang up on him in order to take him down. This has become an issue but due to his reputation with the other teammates, he can’t get the help he needs. He is the oldest by far out of all of the mercenaries. His favorite word is ‘Dumbass’ but his insults can get quite colorful and creative. His past isn’t well known other than the fact he was once married and had kids.

Stefan: The team’s Medic and leader. As a young man studying in the medical field, he was forced to join the Nazi cause but fled the moment he could, however not before performing unspeakable acts under the threat of those same acts happening to him. He is haunted by what he has done and has tried to turn himself in once the allies had taken over only to be brushed off due to lack of evidence. The commander who forced him to do those acts had taken credit for all of it for some twisted sense of ‘glory’. Stefan suffers from a heavy form of PTSD and can’t be left alone to his thoughts without alcohol. He considers himself a monster who can’t go back to normal life. He has been under Jethro’s wing since he entered the Mercenary scene. He tries to atone for his past by being a good leader and Medic to his team.

Jasper: The team’s Sniper. He’s very calm, quiet and reserved. He doesn’t often get involved in any conflict with other teammates unless it is to break up a nasty fight. If he has to raise his voice, someone is going to pay. He prefers the solitude his job gives him. He has several birds which he uses to communicate with others without leaving the watchtower of the base headquarters. He’s rarely seen outside of the base when not fighting. His teammates chalk it up to his job needing stealth more than him actually wanting to be alone.

Nikoli: The team’s Heavy. That’s all anyone knows minus his favorite foods and past times. While he is friendly and can be quite boisterous, the man is careful not to reveal anything about his past. He will become stone-faced if asked about it and will promptly change the subject. He is well versed in multiple weapons and can be an efficient leader when given the opportunity. Rumor has it that he may have been or still be a sleeper agent but no evidence has surfaced. The Soldier tries to butt heads with Nikoli over the fact he’s Russian but Nikoli laughs him off and offers to buy him a drink.

Gawen: The team’s Demoman and second in command. Gawen came to America looking for a better life only to fall deep into the crime scene when he was met with resistance and racism from the locals. The only jobs he could land were those no one wanted to do but even then they didn’t pay well. He was soon picked up by a local crime syndicate after he finished a fight that he didn’t start in a local pub against rival gang members. As a member, he thrived for years while discovering his love for explosives but once the head of the syndicate was assassinated, it was disbanded and caused him to go west to find work.

Jack: The team’s Scout. Fancies himself as ‘Jumping Jack Flash’. Some kid from the Bronx who thinks he’s hot shit with a passion for sports, not just baseball. After beating a customer to near death with a metal bat at the sports store he used to work at, he fled and ended up at Teufort. He insists the customer was asking for it and doesn’t seem to regret his actions. Jack also seems to be a closeted homosexual and shows extreme fear when someone jokingly alludes to him being gay which often leads to him trying to ‘prove heterosexuality’ to the person. One of his cousins was tortured and murdered for being homosexual by people who were supposed to be friends.

Iggy: The team’s offensive Pyro, but he usually goes by ‘Pyro’. Not many of the Mercs actually know it’s ‘Iggy’. He looks like an absolute badass biker but it’s all for show. The other team doesn’t need to know that though. He does not take off his mask for anyone except the Medic. He does own a motorcycle and will go off on his own for long periods of time. When he’s at the base, he usually knits, cooks, and cleans. He does not like Jethro as the codger made him cry on more than one occasion.

Arsene: The team’s Spy. Because no one is using their original names, this man has decided to choose the name of the famous gentleman thief, Arsene Lupin, who may or may not exist in their fictional universe. Not much is known about the man otherwise, other than the fact he may be on several watch lists under several different names. He loves gardening and incorporates fresh flowers in his dapper style whenever possible. He tends to flirt with anything that moves.

Warren: The team’s Soldier. Second oldest on the team and an actual war veteran… er, war criminal. He abandoned his platoon in order to carry out some extreme measures on the enemy. He was hoping to get to Hitler himself and strangle him. Once he got word of Hitler’s suicide, he set his sights on Stalin but was caught before he could even reach Russia. His kill streak spans into the hundreds. He and Stefan have crossed paths once before with Stefan narrowly escaping his rampage.

Cynder: The team’s defensive Pyro and the only female to date on the team (Soldier bitches about it behind her back). She was hired onto the Red team at Stefan’s request to help Jethro as none of the other teammates wanted to and basically does intern work outside of battle. While she has no recorded work experience, she does have training as she comes from a long lineage of mercenaries. She is often silent and has a Michael Myers vibe about her when she is working, using only gestures to communicate. She has a habit of just appearing out of nowhere. She uses this to her advantage, often splashing targets with gasoline and lighting them on fire if the situation calls for it. It’s a game of Russian Roulette, leaving witnesses to wonder if she’ll light the gas or not. She often carries an old silver zippo lighter with a skull etched in the side. The shotgun she uses is an old stock shotgun with ornate markings down its barrel that belonged to a family member of hers. Her teammates do not know what to make of her and the presence of a woman on the team has caused opposing team to hesitate when squaring off with her. She doesn’t have Pyrovision but is brutal enough without it. Cynder is considered the catalyst for more female mercs to be hired by the two companies.

[mvnikin-blog]

alden ehrenreich + cis male + he/him.┊ ❛ ━ hey, is it just me or do you hear all i want by walk the moon playing in the distance ? oh, thats just manikin, a neutral good member of the LEAGUE OF HEROES. i suspect they might be brayden “ray” gray, a twenty-five year old bouncer at no angels nightclub with the ability of self-manipulative puppetry. according to my sources, he can be stoic, but also facetious which is probably why they remind everyone of the slightest falter of a practiced grin and freshly fallen cigarette ashes so much. anyway, a superhero or not, crystalline city is keeping a close eye on them! (logan, 18, est, she/her )

hey, howdy, hey  ! i’m logan, and this is my dude brayden gray. basically, he’s a former syndicate member who found the errors of his ways but doesn’t really know where to go now that he’s apparently a hero and working a somewhat normal job again. if you want to find out more, take a gander down below here. and, if you’re so inclined, send me a lil IM to plot ! i’ve been actually trying to find an excuse to play alden and this power so i’m kind of super excited right now.

POWER

SELF-MANIPULATIVE PUPPETRY the power to control the user's own motor functions regardless of what state their body is in. user can control their own body like a marionette, allowing them to move freely even if they possess injuries or ailments that would normally impede normal movement such as paralysis, broken limbs or dislocated joints. - superpower wiki

how i’m interpreting this is he can pick up anything just like that. ballet, football, martial arts... you name it and he can do it after a few hours of watching or listening to people do it. the problem is that around the age of 21/22, he had gotten an injury that cost him the use and feeling of his body below the neck until his power kicked in yet again. his once fluid and somewhat perfect movements began to look forced and jerky. he still can’t get to those natural movements down, but he has total control over his body so he can’t fight against his power anymore. he also can’t feel anything below his neck, so things like breaking his thumbs to get out of handcuffs and fighting got a whole lot easier after.

PERSONALITY

ray is a good kid. generally speaking, he tries his best to be a good person for his family and friends but sometimes he doesn’t know the best way to do it so he slides into situations most good people avoid because it’s all he can figure out.

he’s also a very, very, very closed off individual. that jelly jar you can’t open ? it’s him. not to say he’s not friendly with people (because that’s entirely the opposite of true), but he hates talking about himself and his issues. he’d rather die of a splinter than ask someone to take it out for him. instead of talking about real problems he makes jokes and changes the subject if it’s about him. if someone else needs help and they’re apart of his friend/family group, you better bet he’s there in minutes to help or to at least make them laugh. very heavy dad friend vibes because he basically was a dad for so long at so young.

honestly ? he hates fighting, but he attracts it like a light to moths... but, he’s also really good at it ? ever since he was 16 he had been working at bars and clubs as a bouncer because fighting just came easily to him and every time he got into one he hated it but it was what it was. and when he became a villain it kind of just was what it was. it was part of the trade off to him but don’t think for a second he didn’t have long nights trying to forget all the things he did.

he’s way more mature than a 25 year old should be. granted, he’s made mistakes and he seems like that one annoying kid singing offkey in a starbucks to make someone laugh, but he’s really not. he has wrinkles in places he shouldn’t and hands rougher than they should be, he’s seen the side of people that are typically very well hidden, and he’s skipped over the whole being a kid phase to grow up quick. so when he says “i understand,” he almost always genuinely means it.

BACKGROUND ( death, paralysis tw )

from the second ray was born, he laughed and it took a whole lot to make him finally cry. he had a mother who loved him, a father who couldn’t care any less, and a whole world waiting to take him in. when he got home, he was safely secured in his mother’s arms until the next year when he started walking and running around the house causing a little bit of chaos for his stay-at-home mother and his father who, after coming home from long days working, just went to bed and left his wife to deal with the energy he had.

just as he was starting out kindergarten, his family changed very rapidly. his baby brother, noah, was born and their father left the family for another woman the same month. his mother had to get a job and ray had no choice but to help take care of his brother while doing school and trying to continue being a kid at the same time.

his life started to become a pattern. he had school, some sort of free after school thing, walking home to his brother, cook dinner, start the coffee for his mother when she came back for her two hour nap, sleep, repeat. after he turned 16 however, when his brother was about 11, he made the decision to drop out of school and begin working in at a nightclub that gave him some slack for his age if they could pay him in cash. he agreed immediately and the extra income and time during the day helped out with the family a lot more than going to school would have helped him and it gave his brother a chance to not have to do the same.

a year into this brand new job, ray found out that the reason he was getting paid in cash wasn’t just so that he could work the long hours at his age and not have someone on payroll... it was instead because they weren’t just a club. they had an illegal business in the back that they wanted to protect as well. there they sold objects you wouldn’t want people to know you have like guns, drugs, high tech, and more... when he found this out they called him into the office and offered him a lot more money if he took care of security for the club and started going out with them on deals for safety. there was hesitation, but it came down to how much good he could do for his family when he told them yes. they were in too much debt and their house was on the verge of foreclosure for him to say no.

from there he continued to stay home to help his family and their debt, but he also spiraled into a lot more criminal acts. he started getting more involved in this organization and as he got older, he got more useful to them and more stuck in the cycle. he never stopped raising his brother, in fact he worked harder to make sure he was better than himself, but his time home became less and less. he didn’t know anything else to do so he kept with it for the next five years when he thought his brother had ran away.

the moment his mother called him freaking out, he quit working with these people and drove home as fast as he could. part of him worried it was the line of work he was in, but the reality was that it was a hard environment to live in and he figured he tried to run away. there was a few nights calling around and praying someone would know something before he decided to pack up his things, leave most of his savings to their mother, and look in the city in case he could find his brother or someone who could find him.

a few weeks into the investigation, his mother had come down to visit him in a ragtag little apartment and while the two were talking the building came down. nobody really knows what happened, but within seconds the building started to crumble and lives were lost... including his mother’s. on top of that, ray was severely injured and at the hospital he was told that his spine had been damaged and he wouldn’t be able to move below his neck. it was so much devastating news, but what made it worse was that something was off with what the doc said. when she left, he tried to scratch his nose and instead of realizing what she actually said and going “oh,” he actually did it. that’s when he knew that he had some sort of ability and he sort of freaked out. during that night, he left the hospital so he didn’t have to explain anything and then he sat down and tried to come up with some sort of plan to avoid thinking about his mother.

somehow his plans led to him meeting someone from this syndicate who promised him that they'd find his brother if he helped them out. he's done some bad things in his time to help out his family, so what would have made this different? he agreed with only a thimble of hesitation and put in the same work effort he had had oh so long ago.

after being with this organization of supervillains for so long, he lost hope that he'd fine his brother. he figured that if he hadn't found him in these three years that he'd never do so. his conscience began to weigh on him and when the first of the year came around, he took a chance to leave the organization and use his gift for good instead of being selfish and these past few months have been a trial period for him because who would trust a guy with his background ?

CONNECTIONS

the person who vouched for him to the league. maybe they knew him for a while and then found out who/what he was ? maybe they were the one he got into contact with when he wanted to change sides ? maybe they were fighting and suddenly he goes “i want to be good again” ? we can talk about this and figure it out because this is a biggie.

a genuine friend at the syndicate. someone who he still keeps in contact with despite now being on opposite sides. they get coffee together in secret, and just are good friends. maybe they’re both set in their paths and while he would like them to come with him, he’d rather them both to be friends... or maybe they want to change too ?

an ex because honestly ? an old s/o would really be sweet and there’s so many connections you could do with it.

i don’t know, more to come !

[ftcvmeron]

╰☆╮ JUSTIN BIEBER ─ CAMERON BURNS identifies as CISMALE and uses HE/HIM pronouns. they’re a BAR CHAIN OWNER, and they’re only TWENTY-THREE ! they’re said to be TENACIOUS, but also STANDOFFISH. i guess that’s why they’re known as THE ACE in the tabloids.

MATURE THEMES: violence, drugs/crime, guns are IMPLIED & some are MENTIONED.

HI. i’m jess + this is........going to be a mess. bc im a mess. love me? 

i was going to make cameron a little der + a little himself (keep some key points but otherwise he’d be his own character) but i decided instead to move back the burns family timeline so : cameron is the great-great-great-great grandson of derek burns?? bc i like the idea better so LEMME GET INTO IT. he’s also a new character so ;-;-; bear with me !! 

AESTHETICS SO FAR: arrogance, chewing gum 25/9, nice cologne, v well dressed or casual but always looks good, tattoos + bloody knuckles, pretty boy w/ a side of violence, always trying to joke, can be a bit of a talker, doesn’t like to get personal, doesn’t like attachments but is #soft also like derek was + he smokes, drinks, always ready for trouble, at the gym when he’s not being a lil shit !!

cameron james burns + twin: first name + j-middle name burns (fraternal or identical. identical w/ a diff face ofc. could be a connection if someone wants to do it.) were born to saint oliver burns + gemini rylen burns (nee marseilles)  + fyi: apparently the boy gene is higher with the burns family than the girls ;-; another familial trait is twins. fight me. i have a PROBLEM > I KNOW ;-;-;

i imagine the crime syndicate / empire that derek started has grown from his beginning to widen his horizons (at age 25) + owning 1 bar. the burns empire has built into an even bigger corporation despite quite a few shots at the family’s work (from cops, from enemies, from fake friends, etc.) & these days they are a big name worldwide for property rentals/real estate endeavors, nightclubs & strip clubs, and bars. they have a few investments into politics/the gov’t & built their own hotel line. most of their focus tho is on the drug/crime empire to keep money flowing in. their stripclubs are under some variation of the name “PRINCESS PEACH’S / 2P” + their nightclubs are under some variation of the name “YOSHI’S ISLAND” + all of the bars are under “BOWSER’S CASTLE” bc of dallas (der’s twin pro-baseball bro) & his obsession with mario + numbers + baseball. the real estate + hotel line endeavors are under the Burns name. i imagine the burns family name carved in gold & that’s... what i have so far for that. 

cameron inherited the bar chain of the corporation + the strip clubs. he is a candidate for the leadership of the derek burns crew (i don’t have another name for it but it’s probably better to say the burns crew O R it might just be legacy instead tbd) but he’s in comp. w/ his twin & maybe a cousin or two. (which could be v cool connections.)  

cameron has been in jail once. he was 17 years old & they almost tried him or attempted to try him as an adult. they also tried to get him for more than what he was arrested for, but it fell through. he spent 2 years in jail. 

FOR HIS WC of his ex and high school sweetheart: i wouldn’t imagine someone insanely sweet, bc we love someone with attitude. this person, however, didn’t know about his family history & the reasons in which they didn’t work out could be simply bc he was in jail & they ditched or they ditched bc he was in jail AND they didn’t think they were getting involved w/ someone legitimately on the wrong side of the law or just they ditched bc they didn’t know what they were getting into until that wakeup call o r whatever but i’d die for this. 

he’s cocky as who knows what & that’s really most of what i got for him rn. he’s probably very angry (kind of quiet angry like derek) + he tends to keep his private life private. like. v v v private. sealed away tight. but he’s always looking to go do some shit & fuck things up?? like starting a riot for nothing or anything violent. 

he’s heterosexual..........but that’s just what vibe i get from him RN this could change. as weird as that sounds, but he could fancy some m + nb as well but rn i get the girls, girls, girls vibe from him ;-;-;-; 

i keep wanting to call him cam but i also don’t so it’s tbd on how he feels for that nickname ???

MORE AESTHETICS: eats v healthy, tries to stay fit as ever. NEVER wears a shirt unless he has to (for the most part), always seems to be doing nothing even tho he’s busy 99.9% of the time, goes for a morning jog daily. gets a new tattoo for occasions he deems “special” + always drinking water unless he’s getting drunk/wasted. probably a slut bc he loves women sm like “they’re all so beautiful” a quote from my boy. v body positive but he’s also promotional of health for the sake of it (even tho he has some p nasty health habits; i.e. smoking), nomadic behavior + sleeping at the Burns’ hotels more often than his own loft. has a loft above his bar. he’s either sleeping at the gym, the hotel, the bar or one of his girls’ homes.

COOLIO CONNECTIONS TO FILL: 

EX/HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEART: i really would love this + alexis ren. but i’m down for anything angsty.  PR STUNT EX: for whatever reason. ALSO PR STUNT CURRENT GF: ????? we could make them hate each other but have to be stuck with each other O R a slowburn o r anything. maybe?? TWIN BROTHER O R SISTER: bc that’s cool af................. COUSIN(S): 1 OR 2 BC what’s the big fight for the throne w/o COUSINS !!  FWBS/ONE NIGHT STANDS: classic + cool but still not as fun as angsty things !! BEST FRIEND AKA THE RIDE OR DIE: always there for the mans + also his fave person.  FLAKE FRIEND(S): a couple for the drama !!  PARTNER IN CRIME: is always down to LITERALLY fuck shit up (actually start riots + break things + it’s always been like this, they’ve known each other forever + they kind of got worse as time went on but also one of the realist people cameron knows)  SIDECHICKS: I mean. maybe why not. girls he calls in his time of need. or just to hangout when he really is free or bored. or when he needs a place to sleep.  SQUAD: let’s make one. alright? ALRIGHT. 

LIKE THIS & I’LL SLIDE INTO YOUR DMS IF YOU WANT TO PLOT W/ ME + CAMERON !! <3

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Tangents

Sydney-based quintet Tangents have been playing together since 2010, but 2016’s Stateless LP marked a shift in the band’s method and sound, bringing their improvisational, collaberative playing into the studio to be reconsidered and reconfigured in the moment. This year’s Stents + Arteries EP showed the continued vitality of that approach and teased their new album New Bodies, of which Dusted’s Ian Mathers said their “post-everything mode of working is embracing rather than exclusionary [...] the result creates something intoxicatingly new.” To mark the occasion, all five band members have contributed to our Listed feature, with influences and interests running from U2 to µ-Ziq and back.

SHOEB AHMAD

Tony Conrad & Faust—Outside The Dream Syndicate

Leading up to the New Bodies recording session, I started playing bass guitar at points during our live set and really enjoyed locking into Evan with a singular pulse while the other three could let loose melodically. I wanted to pursue something similar in vibe when recording so that’s what you hear from me on ‘Gone To Ground’.

This album is pretty up there for me - not as ecstatic as LaMonte Young’s “dream music” works that Conrad was part of but also not as freewheeling as the Faust albums before this and definitely darker than both.

I love the myth of Jean-Herve Peron playing the second bass note on “From The Side of Man and Womankind” against Conrad’s wishes and I’d like to say that the loose implied funk of my bass playing is in a tribute to that.

U2—”Stay (Faraway, So Close!)” from Zooropa (1993)

Tangents is pretty left field with our musical aesthetics so this selection could be seen as a complete joke but I’ll own U2’s influence on me as a musician, even if it’s a bit naff to others.

A lot of the processes in place for the making of Zooropa (the album this track is from) remind me of how we like to work in Tangents - Ollie in a pseudo Eno role with his loops and live effects, melodic/harmonic improvisations and rhythm based studio jams - but the thing that resonates most about this song in particular is The Edge’s lullaby-like guitar riff that creates and then sustains the sweet sentimentality throughout. I’d say as much as his “single note through effects” style is basically the seed from where my guitar playing grew from, his fondness to write simple twee melodies on their best songs has influenced me more. I enjoy being able to do something similar to offset the more adventurous elements of our music and I’d say it comes to the fore in New Bodies more than before too.

Oh - did I say I was a sucker for the Wim Wenders video that was intercut with scenes from Wings Of Desire? I be honest, I think U2 may have more to answer for in making me wanna pursue an Art Pop vibe...

PETER HOLLO

µ-Ziq vs The Auteurs—”Lenny Valentino 3″ from The Auteurs vs. μ-Ziq (1994)

If we talk strings in Tangents, we’ll probably be referencing somebody like Godspeed, but as contemporaries I find it hard to describe them as an influential. I love their work but never for a second think of them when I’m playing the cello. So I’m choosing this gorgeous piece of faux-classical string pads with overdriven beats from the maestro Mike Paradinas aka µ-Ziq (it’s got very little to do with the Auteurs), because mid-’90s idm is in my blood, and Mike’s (and Richard D James’) plangent layered strings are always in there when I’m layered cello lines.

Amon Tobin—”One Day In My Garden” from Bricolage (1997)

Ollie & I have many discussions about our love of jungle & drum’n’bass. Ollie’s duo Icarus of course were contemporaries of early Amon Tobin, and a track from their first album appears on his Recorded Livemix album - serious props! Obviously the insanely chopped beats of the junglist pioneers, then Photek & Source Direct et al, contribute to our modus operandi(Photek joke, sorry), as do the more avant-garde sounds from Plug, Aphex, µ-Ziq et al. But Amon Tobin drew from his love of jazz and Brazilian music to create magnificent journeys in each track - the samba gives way to snapping breaks as, presumably, the garden becomes a jungle, and calm is returned by the end. Amon Tobin once regarded himself as a collagist more than a musician, and this collage aspect, albeit drawn from the instrumentalists in the band, is a big part of Tangents’ construction of our music.

EVAN DORRIAN

Arca—Arca

Everything Arca does has been blowing my mind for a while now. The production, rhythms, art, various (high-profile) collaborations, and on this record, his beautiful vocals, are all next level. Funnily/awkwardly enough I first heard Arca because his Soundcloud release (set/mix) Entrañas was reviewed next to our album Stateless by Pitchfork. A real honour to paired up with such a incredible modern artist, even just in web print. Looking forward to hearing more from him.

Scott Walker—Bish Bosch

This was and is a very important record for me, as is all Scott’s stuff from Tiltonwards (and Scott 4). When I first heard it I wasn’t sure how to take it all in and I’ve come to accept that I won’t. It’s a complicated and dark record that has a lot of wit and heart too.

ADRIAN LIM-KLUMPES

Tim Hecker— “I’m Transmitting Tonight” from Radio Amor (2013)

Tracks from New Bodies like ‘Immersion’ and ‘Oort Cloud’ spring from music like that of Tim Hecker. To call this music ‘drone’ or ‘noise’ is to ignore the delicacy of the rhythms of the layers, as well as the jazz-like piano chords that flutter around in his musical stratosphere. ‘I’m Transmitting Tonight’ drifts along but also has a driving momentum, depending on your perspective while listening. Our music too has different angles to approach it. When I produced ‘Immersion’, I enjoyed crafting the stretch, reverb and delay of the piano and guitar, while slamming the cello down an octave so it pensively mumbles below the stacked drum takes. This means you can hear this track almost as jazz, drone or minimal, depending on what your ear is drawn to. ‘Oort Cloud’ has similar cascading piano loops over cello and guitar drowning in sometimes noisy processing, all with an uptempo drum take layered in behind.

Bill Evans—Live in Helsinki 1970

“You use the intellect to take apart the materials, learn to understand them and learn to work with them. It takes years and years of playing so that you develop the facility so that you can forget all of that, and just relax and just play.” - interview during the filming in Helsinki, 1970.

The music of Bill Evans has inspired me for many years. His approach to harmony, melody and interplay is nuanced and emotive, and almost always a sense of calm pervades his music. Playing like Bill Evans, and thinking like him, is a lifelong pursuit. With Tangents, Bill’s philosophy of facility before play is spread across many domains. This includes pianism, a fluid approach to harmony and layering, and even the skills involved to intuit the use of effects pedals and software. The same goes for the others in Tangents - having a meta-consciousness of our band sound while improvising on stage or in the studio is necessary for all of us.

I’d love to see more live concert videos where the artist eloquently discusses musical approaches mid-set.

OLLIE BOWN

This is more of a discussion of records that I dream might be more explicitly inspirational in future Tangents records.

Alice Coltrane—Eternity

The loose funky joyousness that I associate with Coltrane is something I think we've started to explore in Tangents of late, though it is still quite latent. We don't really foreground solos too much though, which is something I like about our sound. I've been digging into her archives a bit lately and reflecting on how hard but rewarding it is to find that playful balance point where everything is poised on the verge of falling apart, as in the jammy madness and rhythmic pushing and pulling of Los Caballos. Many bands do this exquisitely and in one guise or another it's always been a strong interest for me, starting in my work with Icarus. There are moments where I think Tangents take it there, such as in the middle section of Terracotta. I look forward to exploring this more both in live improvisation and in studio post-composition. Then I love the fact that this record drops into a Rite of Spring passage (my favourite passage, seriously funky, excellently done). Also inspiration for future work: I'd love to work with Tangents to explore innovative covers and reinterpretations one day.

Pink Floyd—Wish You Were Here

You can't get more boring than to pick Pink Floyd as an influence. Is anyone still reading? But! Truth told I was having a melancholy moment the other day and I put on Wish You Were Here and for the umpteenth time in my life it just blew me away. Tangents' current work is nowhere near this carefully planned, but I hope we might engage in this kind of strict structuring in a future album. Nevertheless that kind of space and casual smoochy blueseyness is something I think we have explored our own way in tracks like Lake George and Gone To Ground, which I actually think is very Floydy. I love the pace of Shine on You Crazy Diamond, that sax solo bursting out of nowhere is stunning, verging on ironic, but completely loveable. I love how Pink Floyd do suites and guest appearances and carefully work the segues between tracks.

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 5 Review: Die Trying

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This Star Trek: Discovery review contains spoilers.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, Episode 5

Since the Discovery first landed in the 32nd century, the ship and its crew has been searching for the missing Federation. This makes sense. Starfleet is a hierarchal structure, and its ships are part of a larger organization with a larger purpose. Without a Federation or Starfleet to report to, Discovery has been in survival mode (relatable). It’s painful for them to think about the past, which represents an immeasurable loss. Instead, Discovery has put all of its faith in this new future: in the belief that, once they find the Federation, everything will make sense again.

Like so much in this excellent Season 3, the Discovery’s hope is rewarded, but not without its nuances and complications. They find the Federation and it’s frankly in better shape than I expected, but it’s still not the organization they left behind. It’s much smaller—both in terms of number of ships and number of member planets. The Federation is in survival mode too, and arguably more exhausted than the crew of the Discovery—after all, they have been in survival mode for much longer, since the mysterious Burn more than a century ago. This isn’t a Federation of five-year missions of exploration; this is a Federation just trying to solve the latest crisis.

Much of the dramatic tension of the episode comes in the question of whether Discovery still fits inside of the Federation. Saru and Michael’s initial conversations with Admiral Vance are not as warm and welcoming as the Discovery might have hoped for, but it’s easy to understand given what we know of the state of this corner of the universe why the Federation is so damn cautious. It might have been tempting to make the Federation evil or compromised or an absolute mess here, but I’m glad Discovery didn’t go in that direction. This 32nd-century, post-Burn Federation isn’t bad; they’re just tired and forced to be smart about their resources. And, ultimately, yes, the Discovery believes they can find a place here, that they can be of use.

At first, Vance plans to separate the crew of the Discovery, which is a horrific idea from the viewpoint of the Discovery and us viewers. As Michael points out, it’s not simply that the ship and its various crew members will not be as effective apart, it’s that members of the crew might never recover from that separation. They have already lost everything they have ever known. To tear away the little piece of home they have left would damage everyone’s already fragile mental states even further. This wouldn’t be good for the Discovery crew and, frankly, it wouldn’t be good for the Federation. “Die Trying” is about the crew of Discovery working to prove to Admiral Vance that they are a much better asset together than apart not by pulling a Kirk and stealing the ship to make a point (as Burnham basically suggests), but by playing by Saru’s rules for now and going through the proper channels… because, you know, the proper channels still exist and, in a quasi-lawless future, that’s not nothing.

This test takes the form of a last-ditch effort to cure a group of alien refugees suffering from prion disease. Their only hope of survival lies in a Federation seed vault ship located too far away for any ship without a spore drive to make it there and back in time. Listen, it’s a MacGuffin crisis with a MacGuffin mission, but it does give our gang a chance to show the Federation what they’re made of—and a chance for us to get to know Commander Nhan a little bit better, before she leaves the ship for the foreseeable future.

While “Die Trying” cleverly uses the mission as an excuse to explore Nhan’s Barzan culture, there really isn’t enough time to do the narrative ambition justice. In the story of a Barzan father desperate to save his already-deceased family, kept in stasis on the seed fault ship, we learn that Barzans have a different cultural understanding of death than we do. While this is a thematically rich idea to explore, the episode never really explains what that means, instead leaning into a story about Nhan’s own regrets about having left her homeworld behind. While that’s also an interesting angle to explore, there are several moments during which it seems like “Die Trying” is trying to place the various Barzan characters’ decisions in the context of their culture, but never actually figures out how.

Then again, this episode was already clocking in at the 55-minute mark, much longer than your average length of network TV and the longest episode of the season so far. In just this episode, we get the Discovery’s arrival at the Federation’s new headquarters, a debrief sequence, the Discovery’s quest to a Federation seed vault ship, the solving of the seed vault’s familial mystery, a mini-character study of Nhan, and a compromise within the Federation hierarchy. It’s a lot, and the episode can’t quite pull it all together thematically, making for this strong season’s sloppiest episode so far. That being said, “Die Trying” gets its most important job done: transitioning Season 3 from a story about a lone Starfleet ship in a future without the Federation to a story about the Discovery starting the long process of building a new home within the Federation.

Because “Die Trying” makes clear that’s what the crew has really been looking for: a home. That is what Starfleet has been for all of them in the past: a place of belonging and purpose where nobody gets left behind. This isn’t the Federation they left behind almost a millennia ago and it’s going to take some time and some work before those feelings of belonging sink into their bones. For now, they’re going to have to settle for a sense of purpose and have it be enough. In Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, finding the Federation doesn’t solve everything, but it’s a start and, in a world and pop culture that skews so damn dark right now, I’ll gladly and unexpectedly take that hopeful beginning.

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Additional thoughts.

I’m sad to leave behind the story of the Discovery as a lone stranger in a strange land, though I recognize that we already had so much of that explored in Voyager. Also, this season has been so good so far that I am willing to see where this new phase of Season 3 brings us. I just… am a sucker for motley crew on a loner ship stories, you know?

In what was the most intriguing and also subtle subplots of the episode, Emperor Georgiou has a conversation with a bespectacled man (played by David Cronenberg) who gives her a history lesson on the Terran empire. Is this setting up the Michelle Yeoh’s spinoff? Is this a clue about The Burn? What did David Cronenberg do to or tell Georgiou that had her so shaken when Michael meets her in the hallway? And how is Michelle Yeoh/Georgiou so cool?

Season 3 is moving at a steady clip. In previous seasons of this show, Discovery would have been distracted by about 12 other storylines by now, not making it to the Federation hideout until the end of the season. Not Season 3, though! Season 3 is keeping its eye on the prize, steadily committing to even its minor subplots in a way this show rarely did before. If the show drops a narrative hint that Detmer has some kind of PTSD from the jump through the wormhole, then god dammit, she’s going to have some form of PTSD. If Detmer and Stamets get in a fight in one episode, Stamets is still going to be a bit sore about it in the next. This episode even manages to remember that Michael has a mom in this time and she might have some questions for the Federation about her whereabouts. This is good serialized storytelling, and it reinforces the world and these characters in a way that Discovery, with all of its behind-the-scenes issues in the first two seasons, has never quite managed before.

Admiral Vance is played by Oded Fehr, who was Ardeth Bay in The Mummy. You’re welcome.

We get several references to the Emerald Chain, which is not a club drug. Presumably, this isn’t the last we’ve heard of this crime syndicate.

Commander Nhan, stop trying to make Airiam happen. I get it, though. This was one of your character’s few, big moments prior to this episode.

“Then I was murdered…” I love an interrogation montage scene played for laughs. See also: The Expanse and Firefly.

Hugh having to coach someone in this episode to tell someone else that they have to let go of their dead family is kind of ironic given his backstory.

Lieutenant Willa is a security officer and seems to be into the Discovery’s vibe. Could she replace Nhan? And will we see Nhan again? I hope so.

Saru’s even-keeled and patient leadership continues to be an asset in this new and strange time, and complements Michael’s brash creativity nicely. As long as they continue to communicate,

We didn’t get much Adira in this episode. I still have so many questions about Gray.

Although the Federation has shrunk, both the Barzans and the Kelpians are now members. That’s nice.

The post Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 5 Review: Die Trying appeared first on Den of Geek.

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