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lisafication · 11 months

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Digging Graves for your Morals; Or, The Ethical Problem of Outlawry

Hello, yes, I am here again. This one is shorter, I swear (it’s under four thousand words, even). If this is the first post from me you’re seeing, this is a follow-up to my prior essay posted here on the game The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, although it should be able to mostly stand alone.

At the end of my last essay, I touched on both the game’s nearly uncompromising moral scepticism and relativity, but I didn’t really dig into it. I outlined that the game only textually frames actions as ‘morally bad’ in the context of a morality set by the society and the world that has treated them as no better than farm animals raised for the slaughter. Well, I have a lot to say on the topic of ethics on the topic of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, so buckle in, this one’s going to talk about the social contract, moral scepticism and everyone’s favourite topic: Mrs. Graves.

As usual, this was originally posted and formatted for on Sufficient Velocity and you can perhaps more easily read it there. Spoilers abound, and my content warning from last time still applies.

She’s not too hot on either ethics or her mother

The Meat of the Matter

Since a lot of this is optional or otherwise missable information, let’s review the premise the game gives us. If you’re already aware of all of this, I apologise, it won’t take long.

First off the bat, the quarantine at the start of the game was a hoax-driven money-making scheme of which you can pick up more-or-less all the relevant details of. This is entirely missable and by the time it’s possible to discover, our protagonists have better things to dwell on and have dialogue about, so I’ll give you a summary of what you can deduce from reading the notes and thinking about it.

The quarantine is an organ harvesting operation, as per some documents you can discover in the wardens’ office. They entrap the residents, test their blood types and starve to death those they deem surplus to requirements — alternatively the starvation itself could be their method of ‘preparing the harvest’, there’s evidence in both directions and it hardly matters — harvesting the organs of the others for sale. As our protagonists are AB-typed, the ‘universal recipient’ or ‘most selfish blood type’, they’re some of the first on the chopping block.

If you read through the newspapers and the documents in Mr. Washing Machine’s car, you can discover that ultimately ToxiSoda are responsible, and a similar thing is happening in a different city under the guise of a ‘chemical leak’. Should you further investigate matters, you will find mentions of the ‘man behind it all’, the doctor, or the Surgeon, as the fandom have been referring to him — you may recall Mrs. Graves mentioned someone similar! Yeah, he’s the guy who runs ToxiSoda, who are themselves partners with the water company that faked the parasite outbreak in the first place.

It’s all a life insurance scam, apparently

How much the details of the operation matter is something open to interpretation — it might just be something for players to figure out and Episode 3 will not cover the Surgeon at all, or he might play a major part; it's not particularly relevant to this essay. What matters is that it happened at all — indeed, it’s fairly easy to justify Ashley and Andrew in everything they did in Episode 1 (flashbacks aside), arguing that if they’d made any other decisions they’d have died — an argument that the victims dug their own graves, even if the Graves siblings put them in them. How correct that is is a matter of debate, but that you can make the argument at all matters, and we’ll be returning to this later. In my last essay (and again in the introduction here), I made an analogy to farm animals, raised without love and for slaughter. Let’s put a pin in the ‘for slaughter’ part for now and take a look at the ‘without love’ part.

That’s right, it’s time to meet the parents.

As Andrew notes, there are significantly more compelling reasons for you to say that

They Fuck You Up, Your Mum & Dad

They really do.

Our charming protagonists are, as with many things depicted in this game, an exaggerated, almost farcical example of this phenomenon — one that’s just grounded enough to still feel very real, just like the siblings themselves.

The late and lamentable Mrs. Graves is just the same: originally a teen mother, hopelessly out of depth with two difficult children — even if one was good at masking it — and an unreliable, emotionally unavailable (at least to their children) partner who can’t hold down a job, ends up foisting them off on each other and doing a Parental Negligence because she simply Cannot Cope. That’s the real part. The part where she gets paid off by an organ harvesting operation to leave them to die, that’s the borderline-farcical exaggeration that throws all the nooks and crannies of her character into sharp relief.

Mrs. Graves does not have a good relationship with either of her kids. Having self-admittedly fobbed the job of raising Ashley off on her son, to the degree that they did not even celebrate her birthday as kids, both of them hold differing degrees and types of resentment for her.

For Ashley, it’s hate — perhaps not quite so clear cut as that, as it’s her that calls for the eulogy and she shows some potential signs of discomfort while cleaning up her parents’ corpses, but by and large, it’s fairly simple and straightforward, as usual for Ashley. The sentiment is not exactly unreturned, either.

This brings Ashley’s heart great delight!

The most clear incident raising her from everyday ‘neglectful’ to ‘wow she wanted nothing to do with this kid’ is the optional ‘birthday cake’ scene, obtained by finding the present in Ashley’s first ‘transitory world’ dream, in which we see Ashley’s birthday and the founding of a lemon cupcake tradition between Leyley and Andy. She has received nothing from her family, notes that her ‘friends’ would say they were busy before she even told them the schedule and Andy takes her out to buy cupcakes with his pocket money.

This scene gets a callback in Andrew’s dream later. Just remember to Ask Nicely, rather than Kill Her.

Parents of the year, everyone.

So with Ashley it’s as straightforward and obvious as she herself is — she hates her mother, her mother hates her. With Andrew, as with Andrew himself, it’s a fair bit more complicated. His mother is a much more nuanced figure, who is believable in her role as an unfortunate teen parent who was trying her best. He has a degree of trust in her against, seemingly, his own good judgment In her conversation with Andrew, she acknowledges her fault in raising him and seemingly sincerely tries to offer him a ‘way out’, an olive branch.

I think many people have had relationships where they might say this

This scene in particular intrigues me, because she is acknowledging fault in a way that Andrew strictly avoids doing — and well, there’s nothing Andrew likes more than a good way to avoid acknowledging any fault of his own. With her dominant relationship over their father as a model for Andrew to draw comparisons to his own relationship with Ashley with, it’s no surprise that the narrative resonates with him to the point of ‘Accept’ being many people’s first completion.

Of course, that’s not all there is to it. There is a fascinating contrast with her later conversation with Ashley, where she — despite accusing Ashley of brainwashing Andrew — refers to Leyley and Andy as ‘two psychos’ and states that she always knew they were responsible for Nina’s death and that, implicitly, they owe her for not turning them in.

There's something about mother-daughter relationships here that I just do not have the time or reading to dig into, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, when Andrew interrogates her on her possession of their death certificates, she has… an interesting, plausible story about a life insurance scam and claims that she really did think they died in the fire, implicitly denying the claim that she sold them. It’s entirely possible that she’s describing the details of the ‘scam’ correctly — you can even buy that she genuinely does care for Andrew in some way, if not Ashley, but her claim about being an honest, grieving parent shocked at their deaths… doesn’t add up?

This is a very normal reaction to your supposedly dead children showing up in your house.

As Andrew himself notes after hearing her story, she’s full of shit. This gets into speculation, because there are a few ways to read this, but the most plausible ‘gist’ is that she and her partner were paid off in money and jobs to not raise a fuss — the surgeon she mentioned is almost certainly the founder of ToxiSoda, remember?

The overwhelming difference in presentation between how she speaks to Andrew and Ashley invites investigation — and when Andrew turns down her offer and tells her he isn’t interested in her offer in Decline, her reaction isn’t… despair, it’s shock — and well, there’s a good reason for that.

Why do you think she did it in the first place?

This is the happiest we see her

Well — it’s so she can finally fit into society. That white picket fence, that idyllic 1950s life — hell you can call it the American Dream. She wants that, or as close to it as she can get — the working-class teen mother, living in poverty, aspiring to the middle-class. It’s a very common, very real and very grounded motivation.

And to that end, she effectively sold off her children. It’s no wonder she can’t fathom why Andrew wouldn’t choose the same.

That’s the part that makes you think — just like the deaths in Episode 1, well- maybe the siblings are justified here, too. It’s a weaker argument, but it’s still one you can make under many common moral paradigms today — what goes around comes around, all that jazz. Just look at how awful she was to Ashley.

She’s finally found what she’s been striving for.

Here’s the thing, here’s the thing though — what, reasonably, could she have done? Andrew and Ashley briefly highlight this in conversation about Ashley’s ‘friends’ in Episode 1 — was she supposed to fight gunmen to try and break them out? Throw food to the balcony from four stories?

Moreover, as she herself says to Andrew… would anyone really have been able to do better than her in her position? She was seventeen when Ashley was born, living in poverty with a partner who couldn’t even remember Andrew’s name when he was a kid. Anyone would have had difficulty, let alone with these kids.

Her evils are — they’re not any deliberate action, but rather… prompted inaction. She didn’t have the emotional energy, resources or plain capability to properly parent her children, she didn’t have any solutions to their murder of Nina in a state so blatantly hostile to its underclass, she didn’t have a way to connect with Ashley and she took the money rather than fight a futile and likely suicidal battle against a corporation and its armed goons in a dystopian setting.

Ashley, notably, does not deny this.

Her sin is the one we’re all, I think, guilty of — that of not trying hard enough, that of inaction in the face of difficult tasks, of not standing up on principle because it’s just too much that day and you don’t have the spoons, you’ll do it tomorrow (no you won’t). It’s a petty, everyday kind of evil — that of not doing enough.

Is that enough to condemn her? Certainly, there’s a pretty manipulative read of her that likely has some truth to it — in the locked door in Ashley’s dream in ‘Decay’ you can discover that she has a ‘not-hatched’ tar soul — but consider that lens — the game won’t make up your mind for you, so you’ll need to choose that for yourself.

The dad is interesting in terms of negative space — but he’s mostly important in that he doesn’t matter, so I decided to not fit him in here. He has art, though — just no sprite, because, well, he’s never mattered to either sibling.

The Contract We Call Society

Right, it’s time to get a little bit Theoretical in here. Not much, but a little. Social contract theory is a complex topic with a lot of nuance, much of which I will be eliding in the name of not writing a twenty thousand word paper on semiotics, law, and anthropology, but the short analogy is… the idea that as long as you play by society’s rules, as long as you are a good citizen, a good person, the state, or the community, will take care of you.

In a number of ways, the harshest penalty levied by many historical states and legal codes was not death, but rather the criminal status of outlawry, a practice that’s cropped up a number of times in history — the practice of no longer being protected by the law. This meant one could be killed or worse with impunity — you were no longer protected by mob justice and, while overexaggerated as a term of reference, certain texts from Medieval England refer to outlaws as bearing a wolfshead, ‘for the wolf is a beast hated by all folk’. Never minding that wolves are actually delightful, this was a time when wolves were actively hunted and sold by people — and the same was intended to happen to outlaws. They were ‘fair targets’ as far as society was concerned, no longer to be treated as your fellow citizens.

This was the gravest punishment on the books, for most of these legal codes — something saved for those who had broken the social contract so completely that there could be no turning back (civil outlawry is… a bit different, that’s not the topic here). Among others, a modern critique of the concept is that it offers no incentive for improvement, no incentive to change or to cease harming society — if an outlaw has none of the social contract’s protections, what reason do they have to obey… any of the social contract? If that seems familiar, well, let me ask you this:

What if the state or community fails its end first? What responsibility does the innocent outlaw have to that contract?

It’s an interesting phrasing, that the world is better off.

It’s time to talk about the incest, and part of why it’s there. The cannibalism too, but that’s less impactful here. If you’ve seen me elsewhere, you might have seen me say that the incest is a load-bearing narrative pillar — in large part due to it being a critical facet of the siblings’ relationship, but in another large part due to it being an equally critical part of how the game uses taboo.

A taboo is in this context something that is considered repulsive and to be avoided by society. It’s a more complex term than that — you can also use it for certain sacred actions or utterances that are only permitted to certain people, for example — but that’s what it is here. Swearing, premarital sex, BDSM and murder are, approximately from weak to strong, some example taboos held in modern Anglospheric society.

Strong taboos are a staple of horror — they shock, they disgust, they draw people’s attention and it’s that last one that’s critical here. Incest is a very strong taboo — while I am absolutely not segueing into its historical context, the very well-established Westermarck effect gives it a certain timelessness and immunity to desensitisation that most other taboos don’t have — murder, to contrast, is a taboo we’re largely desensitised to in modern media and works of modern media have to put in actual work to make a murder seem horrifying — through atmosphere, cinematography, evocative prose etc.

And this is important because the use of taboo I’m covering in this essay is that the incest is used to invite judgment — it is so ingrained as a ‘wrong thing’ in people’s brains almost regardless of background that it forces the player to engage with the work morally. And that’s where the fun starts.

I’ve mentioned before, very briefly, about the juxtaposition of tone between the Burial & Decay endings, contrasting with the very monstrous difference in morality. Burial is remarkably light-hearted — they play around with the drain blockage, they joke about their mother’s personality and this is further exaggerated on the Love path, where Andrew is much more comfortable with casual contact and the two make a game out of how far they can throw their parents’ skulls, the humour is directly contrasted against their abhorrent actions.

I’ll be real Ashley is far more merciful than I, I’m shuddering at the thought of that gunk in my hair

In comparison, Decay is… bleak. I’ve seen it being referred to as being ‘emotionally sandblasted’ and, yeah I think that’s fair — it’s uncomfortable, it’s heavy and it’s just not fun. And this is the route in which, if you chose Trust into Accept, Andrew has bought into the narrative that his mother’s offered — that he can fit just fine into society if he wasn’t stuck, if not for Ashley — the route that ‘fits’ most closely to the social contract, to Andrew feeling the guilt that we think he should and hating the monsters that they’ve become, as the social contract deems them. Given the pains the game takes to attach the player to the protagonists, this normative moral ending is very easily interpreted as the bad ending.

And well, isn’t it?

Thing is, as mentioned above, the social contract has never held up its end for them. The game takes careful pains to point out to a viewer that they’ve never had the life that society promises people, so why do its moral standards apply?

The game invites you to judge the characters, and in the same motion, asks you from what principles you judge them, making a pretty good guess in that, like most people who haven’t spent a large amount of time navel-gazing and reading some very boring books by very dusty old men, they come from the society around you.

Love even has Ashley express this sentiment directly after the incestuous dream — she asks you — well, Andrew, but this is also something for the player to mull over — why this is what’s engaged your morality or sense of revulsion, rather than the desecration, cannibalism or murder.

Andrew and Ashley are both very funny and very fascinating in this scene.

And that’s the framing that it casts all of its own moral judgement in — even the ‘tar-soul’ aspect is… well, it’s unclear what it even means. Mrs. Graves was a ‘not-hatched’ tar soul, after all. Other than that, it’s society and the world being better off without them, rather than any kind of assertion of objective morality. Due to the present of ‘soul colour’, we’ll presumably see the game make some moral statements in Episode 3, but as it stands?

It’s nearly completely morally sceptical, in and of itself — it’s not interested in moral assertions or education, it’s interested in making you question your own morals. Deconstructive (not that kind), rather than dialectic, to be mildly pretentious.

It uses taboo and shock to invite moral judgement, but then uses tone, charm and our instinct to look for the happiest end for our blorbos to get you to recognise that these are principles you yourself brought into the game, rather than any it’s handed you.

To summarise: you’ve brought these principles in from society, but what do the siblings, the protagonists, the villains to the world, owe society? Enough that they should follow them? It failed them first, after all.

Closing Thoughts

This one is a bit less energetic than the last, tragically — my sleeping schedule is the stuff of nightmares recently, I love windy weather. Wait, no the opposite. Huge thank you to everyone who commented on the last one, you are the wind beneath my wings and the main reason I managed to get this out this week.

This essay is a bit more interpretative than my last one — certainly, there are alternative readings and I’ve been toying with the idea of deliberately taking a reading I don’t like very much and writing from that perspective as a demonstrative exercise recently — mostly that you shouldn’t just take my word for things!

Otherwise, if the last bit at the end seemed murky, I apologise — I did try to write a more detailed version, but firstly, it was three thousand words and secondly, I re-read it the next day and I could not understand what the fuck I was talking about. Personally, I blame Derrida — suffice to say that I strongly recommend playing through it with an eye towards considering culpability, morality and why you think certain characters are more or less forgivable than others, and for what deeds. See what you get out of it.

I managed to keep one particular thread open to wrap up with here — I try to keep speculation on Episode 3 content to a minimum in the main essays, but it should be fine here — you might have noticed that I refer to Episode 1 and Episode 2 being on something of a spectrum of justifiability, with the siblings’ actions being ‘more’ justifiable in Episode 1 and ‘less’ justifiable — but still justifiable if you try — in Episode 2.

To continue the thought of the happiest ending being the one in which they step the furthest away from common morality and to further jar the viewers’ sense of morality by contrasting societal morality and blorbo-oriented morality, Episode 3: Burial could continue this trend in having a major victim be someone who, well, has done nothing wrong and isn’t even guilty of bystander syndrome.

I wonder if there’s any good candidates, someone who’s sweet, harmless and will indisputably be an innocent victim…

…I’m sure she’ll be fine

#the coffin of andy and leyley #tcoaal #analysis #essay #ashley graves #andrew graves #mrs graves #nnnnot sure what the next topic will be #might do a deranged take on purpose #this one and the last one have been very grounded #I'll get to my asks tomorrow #probably #I've been busy sorry

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x-puzzlejune-x · 4 months

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PuzzleJune 2024

Welcome to PuzzleJune 2024: A Love Forever in Bloom!!

As usual, this month is all about creative freedom that celebrates the special and unique relationship between Yugi Muuto and Pharaoh Atem. Whether you want to share a story of them in the context of canon, or put them in an alternate universe where happy endings abound, we want to see your work! We love to celebrate his special love with poetry, fanfiction, art, or whatever you want to express your admiration of their relationship.

We want everyone who wants to participate to express themselves freely. Doing a prompt every day is not required. You can do one prompt a week, one prompt for the whole month, or maybe pick and choose which prompts you want to use for your creative works. Maybe you want to use multiple prompts for one work. No matter how you go about it, we want to see it, whatever it is! However you want to celebrate is great! This month is all about coming together to celebrate our favorite puzzleboys.

When you post to social media or Ao3, please use the following tags: #puzzlejune2024 #puzzlejunebloom So that others can find your work.

Also for Ao3 users, please post your fanfiction works to the following collection so that readers can enjoy these works for years to come! https://archiveofourown.org/collections/PuzzleJune2024/profile

Special thanks to @hikariandyamiblog and @cloudsmachinations for this year's prompts. Thanks to @wisyhana for the beautiful art.

Happy creating! And happy PuzzleJune!

#puzzlejune #puzzlejune2024 #puzzlejunebloom #puzzleshipping #puzzleshipping fics #puzzleshipping art #yugioh fanfiction #yugioh fanart #yugioh dm #yugi mutou #pharaoh atem

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goodqueenaly · 3 months

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Not to be too "true crime" about, but it you think Jaehaera Targaryen was actually murderer and if what she had survived her fall?

Spoiler alert: it was Unwin Peake.

I don’t find any of the alternative explanations (other than the rather obvious one above) for Jaehaera’s death very convincing. While Jaehaera was certainly a very traumatized child, the proffered explanations as to why she would have chosen that moment to end her life seem rather thin: at no other point does Jaehaera appear to express sympathy for Rhaena (such that she would be so traumatized at the news of the latter's miscarriage), or jealousy of Baela (over the latter’s continued pregnancy), and the idea that Jaehaera “loved the king with all her heart” and mourned that he “paid her no mind” and “showed her no affection” appears at odds with the queen who was “loath to leave her chambers” where she “had seemed content … with her maids and ladies, her kittens and her dolls”. Likewise, Gyldayn himself acknowledges that while rumors abounded blaming the king, or Cassandra Baratheon, or one or more of the queen’s servants for her death, “[w]ith hindsight, we can say for a fair certainty that none of these played any role in” Jaehaera’s death. This is not, I think, an inaccurate take from Gyldayn either. Aegon was definitely withdrawn and gloomy, but he was certainly no child sadist as young Maegor the Cruel had been, and his lack of interest in either his queen or partisan vengeance argues against any role he may have had in killing her. Cassandra Baratheon may not have liked Jaehaera, but the rumor that she had had the queen killed seems to stem more from antagonistic scheming by Unwin Peake, the better to promote his own daughter, rather than any real motivation on Cassandra’s part (and you might think Cassandra would have admitted, alluded to, or been questioned about any role she might have had in Jaehaera’s death during the unraveling of the poisoning and treason conspiracy).

By contrast, the means, motive, and opportunity behind, as well as the overall general character of, Jaehaera's murder all fit far too well with Unwin Peake. The Kingsguard posted at the door of Jaehaera’s chamber on the day of her death was Mervyn Flowers, a man whose connections to Unwin Peake were both natural and explicit: not only was Mervyn Unwin’s bastard brother, who was put on the Kingsguard by Unwin himself (along with another Peake relative, Set Amaury), but Mervyn would also continue acting in Unwin’s barely disguised name thereafter: colluding with Tessario the Tiger and Cassandra Baratheon to murder Daenaera Velaryon, arresting the Hand Lord Rowan, and being named alongside Peake’s other co-conspirators by George Graceford. Nor, as Gyldayn admits (albeit rather reluctantly - more on that below), would Mervyn Flowers have had to get the queen’s blood (metaphorically) on his hands: as Mushroom alleges, Tessario, the unscrupulous and mercenarily violent captain of Unwin Peake’s personal guard and as much a co-conspirator with Peake as Mervyn himself, might easily have been allowed into Jaehaera’s chambers to throw her to her death. That Unwin Peake confronted Aegon just one week after Jaehaera’s death with the news that the young king was already betrothed to his, Peake’s, own daughter demonstrates Peake’s naked ambition, and his motive for removing the sitting queen; even Gyldayn acknowledges that the hasty fait accompli-style betrothal acts as its own sort of proof of Unwin’s guilt in Jaehaera’s death. Moreover, Unwin’s vigorous bias against the succession of either one of Aegon’s sisters or Baela’s then-unborn child - caustically referred to, presumably by Unwin himself, as “the whelp of a wanton and a bastard” - supports Unwin’s motive: eager to secure the succession of his preferred line - that is, not just a child of the only surviving male-line male Targaryen, but also one through the Peake family - and concerned that he would achieve neither if the king acknowledged the unborn child carried by Baela as his heir, Unwin I think had all the reason he needed to make the Queen’s role vacant, the better to push his daughter into it.

Too, I think Unwin arranging Jaehaera’s death as such aligns with Unwin’s other murder plot - that is, the attempted murder of Daenaera Velaryon, which actually resulted in the murder of Gaemon Palehair. In both cases, Unwin’s goal was the same: the elimination of Aegon III’s wife and queen so that his own daughter could be slotted into her space. What’s more, in both cases Unwin seems to have utilized a clumsily obvious framing narrative for each death, the better either to excuse himself and/or to work against his enemies. In the case of Daenaera, Unwin I think specifically used the “tears of Lys” in order to fuel his anti-Rogare conspiracy - of course, Unwin I think tried to suggest, those no-good-very-bad Lyseni would use a poison whose very name advertised their origins to try to kill Aegon III. Likewise, In the case of Jaehaera, her death is deliberately paralleled with that of her mother: just as Helaena is widely (and I think correctly) assumed to have thrown herself to her death toward the end of the Dance, so I believe Unwin wanted onlookers to believe that Jaehaera had, quite literally, followed her mother to the grave. (Of course, when it then became profitable for Unwin to undermine other young women ahead of the Maiden’s Day Cattle Show, he was also quite willing to shift the parallel - blaming Cassandra Baratheon for her death, just as Rhaenyra had been blamed for Helaena’s.) In both cases, however, Unwin all but gave himself away through the ruthlessness and obviousness of his ambition: just as the king and Prince Viserys sniffed out the Peake conspiracy through the tortured false confessions of Thaddeus Rowan, so the unseemly, peremptory hastiness of the king’s betrothal to Lady Myrielle revealed Unwin’s hand (no pun intended) in brutally moving Jaehaera out of the way for Myrielle’s sake. In both cases, moreover, Unwin relied on his known, unsubtle agents Tessario and Ser Mervyn, whose later guilt only I think highlights their guilt for the earlier murder.

I do also think it notable that while Gyldayn does show a rather baffling (to me, at least) level of favoritism toward Unwin Peake, even the maester-author has to concede the likelihood that Gyldayn was responsible for Jaehaera’s death. Though he adds the exculpatory parenthetical that “there is no shred of proof of that [i.e. that Jaehaera was murdered]”, Gyldayn names “the only truly plausible culprit” as Unwin Peake; too, after explaining the reasoning behind this possibility, Gyldayn concludes that “[i]f murder was indeed the cause of her demise … the man behind it could only have been Lord Unwin Peake”. Further, as noted above, Gyldayn also states that “without proof, none of this would have been damning … [sic] if not for what the Hand did afterward” - that is, betrothing Aegon III to his daughter. If even an author who spends multiple paragraphs praising the Peakes generally and Unwin specifically admits the high likelihood that Lord Peake was behind Jaehaera’s murder, I take that as pretty conclusive evidence of where we as readers are supposed to lay blame for Jaehaera’s death. (Nor, indeed, does that other maester-author, Yandel, quibble about Peake’s guilt: Yandel simply states in TWOIAF that “[t]hough we will never know the truth of the events that day, it now seems likely that Jaehaera's death was somehow instigated by Lord Peake”.)

To that point as well, I think that GRRM wants us readers to compare the murder of Princess Elia (and, relatedly, those of her children at the same time) to that of Queen Jaehaera. While neither Tywin nor Unwin put their own hands on Elia (and her children) or Jaehaera, respectively, their guilt behind the scenes is made very evident: these two similarly named men, sometime Hands with vindictive streaks and a desire to see their daughters made queens (and, incidentally, a penchant for stealing dead men's Valyrian steel swords), sent their personal, violent agents against a royal woman and her children or a royal female child herself, with the expectation that those agents would see to the murders of these people (something I've talked about specifically with Tywin). Therefore, despite the unwillingness of biased in-world scholarly sources to commit, in whole or in part, to placing the blame on these men - recall Yandel’s weaselly statement “[i]t is tragic that the blood spilled in war may as readily be innocent as it is guilty, and that those who ravished and murdered Princess Elia escaped justice”, and his laughable attempts to blame Aerys II or even Elia herself for those deaths - I think GRRM himself makes clear that both Tywin and Unwin were responsible for their respective royal murders.

#asoiaf meta #fire and blood volume 1 #jaehaera targaryen #unwin peake #tywin lannister

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bad-traffic-smp-ideas · 10 months

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new life series idea: normal life (alternatively: heterosexual life). everyone is given a strategically determined amount of lives depending on how absurdly homoerotic they’ve acted towards other characters in past series. if anyone says anything even remotely gay they immediately lose 1 life. family dynamics abound but all are nuclear families. bdubs and etho are forbidden from talking to each other. martyn is explicitly kept from being within 20 blocks of ren (almost out of range of voice mod so all their interactions are limited to either shouting at each other or the chat). scott is the only one exempt from the titular rule and spends the entire series taunting every other member (except pearl and cleo) because no one is allowed to respond to him. he ends up losing anyway because everyone sets out to kill him. scar dies second (after jimmy, who falls from a cliff while running away from scott, who had been chasing him and shouting marriage proposals. no one can decide on whether it was an accident or purposeful) because he keeps forgetting and can’t stop himself from complimenting everyone else’s appearances. grian shrivels up and dies from lack of affection. the watchers conclude this was the worst idea they could have ever come up with and wipe it from everyone’s memory

Homophobic life bro 😭

#“grian shrivels up and dies from lack of affection” WAHHHH #SCOTT IS SO????#WATCHERS **GAVE UP.**#BRUHAUHDKFJHKLS.#bad traffic idea #ask #trafficblr

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buddierecs · 3 months

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long (40k+ words) buddie fics

all of these are general audience, teen and up or not rated (no smut) make sure to kudos/comment on these amazing works :)

those two firefighters by: darkfairytale "#thosetwofirefighters starts to gather a following on social media, as everyone tries to figure out if those two cute firefighters from the 118 in LA are a thing or not." word count: 64k important tags: crack treated seriously, oblivious!buddie, internet, social media, slow burn let's hear it for the boy by hattalove "in which eddie attends a self-empowerment group for gbtq men to supplement his therapy, and is empowered to: forgive himself, say "i'm gay" to his own reflection in the mirror, accidentally adopt an adult, make fried rice, and tell his straight best friend that he's in love with him. not necessarily in that order." word count: 56k important tags: self-discovery, coming out, friends to lovers, pining, gay disaster!eddie diaz. what a heart can do by: bvckandeddie "in which buck becomes the guardian of the daughter he never knew he had. together, they discover what happiness truly means to them." word count: 86k important tags: girldad!buck, slow burn, friends to co-parents to lovers, oblivious!evan buckley, therapy, light angst, emotional hurt/comfort hurt locker by: bvckandeddie "after finding out shannon is pregnant, eddie enlists in the military. buck goes with him." word count: 77k important tags: miltary au, pstd, minor character death, childhood friends, slow burn, friends to lovers, miscommunication, oblivious!evan buckley the ordeal of dating your captain's (adopted) son by: polish_amber "or, the au where miscommunication abounds as eddie seeks advice about his new relationship, bobby despairs over his adopted son's career prospects and his refusal to talk about it, and evan buckley-nash juggles training at the fire academy, building a family with his new boyfriend, and trying to work out how to tell his overprotective dad that he's already chosen the life he wants, actually. It takes a goddamn tsunami, of all things, to get the story straight." word count: 60k important tags: miscommunication, firehouse 118 crew as family, bobby nash is evan buckley's parent, light angst, protective!bobby nash, developing relationship if it weren't for second chances by: alasse a story about how buck finds a chosen family, and with a few twists and turns, eventually gets to the 118, meets eddie diaz, and maybe finds himself a second and a third (or, an evan nash story). word count: 47k important tags: alternative universe, family feels, bobby mash is evan buckley's parent, slow burn, therapy we found love right where we were by: polish_amber the one where may ensures buck is enfolded properly into the grant-mash clan, which means bobby (and by extension the firefam, because gossip) suddenly gets significantly more insight into the inner workings of the buckley-diaz family, and all roads lead to buddie word count: 70k important tags: developing relationship, evan buckley is apart of grant-nash family, buckley-diaz family, fluff, getting together, team as family another heart to love by: aroofstories "buck learns that he has a daughter and tries to deal with his past while trying to help his kid with his found family by his side." word count: 94k important tags: girldad!buck, slow burn, sick child character, leukemia (no one dies), friends to lovers, family feels, hurt/comfort, angst, supportive!eddie diaz listen to you breathing (is where i wanna be) by: yavilee the one where buck is presumed dead after a building collapse and eddie has to live through the reminder that tomorrow isn't promised to anyone word count: 41k important tags: presumed dead, major character injury, hurt/comfort, heavy angst, friends to lovers, grief/mourning, panic attacks, nightmares, domestic fluff, mutual pining

the parent trap by: abow123456 "evan buckley is 7 years old when his mother leaves him at a gas station, where he meets bobby nash. 20 years later, evan "buck" nash is a firefighter with the 118, when he meets 7 year old christopher diaz at a gas station, after his mother killed herself. he takes the boy in, just like his father did to him, and cares for him. but, when christophers father finally comes into the picture, how will things change?" word count: 53k important tags: different first meeting au, adoption, bobby nash and athena grant are evan buckley's parents, army!eddie diaz, getting together, idiots in love

#eddie diaz #evan buckley #buck x eddie #buck x eddie fic #911 abc #911 show #buddie fic #911 fandom #buddie fics #evan buck buckley #buddie fic rec #buddie fanfics #buddie recommendations #buddie recs #911 fic rec

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astoundingbeyondbelief · 5 months

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Mothra wasn't in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire every step of the way. At one stage, which appears to have overlapped with principal photography, she was replaced with an original monster called Phosphera (alternate spellings abound). Director Adam Wingard explains:

“There was briefly another character called Phosphera that we had in place of Mothra. But Mothra was always what the character was written around,” Wingard told TheWrap. “And there’s this false narrative online that this other character tested badly, and then we were like, ‘Let’s get Mothra.’ The plan was always Mothra. But we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to get Mothra. And once we tested the movie, we had the previous version of that, and by then, things had cleared up and we were able to do Mothra.” Wingard continued: “It would have been really dumb to not do Mothra because if you look at this other creature, it did and said everything the way Mothra does things, but it would have been another creature. It would have been very disappointing if, ultimately, we wouldn’t have been able to land that. I don’t like that some people think that it wasn’t the plan all along. If you look at the very first draft of the script, it always says Mothra.”

There's still a trace of Phosphera in the movie by way of an Iwi mural, which also can be seen in the background of some staff/cast interviews. And you'll notice no one in the movie ever says "Mothra" while facing the camera, suggesting that all of those lines had to be redone.

#phosphera #mothra #godzilla x kong the new empire #art #behind the scenes

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drmapzo · 7 months

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Hello, everyone!

Exploring the cavernous depths your party comes across some old ruins. This place was probably some sort of temple or fort way back in the day, but now dust and cobwebs abound in its halls.

But that doesn't mean that it's going to be an easy ride trying to uncover its secrets. Many traps are still waiting for the unsuspecting adventurer and monster could be hiding in the shadows ready to attack!

The creature tokens for this map are a Cave Worm, a Corrupt Warrior Fairy and a Skeleton Assassin. Emerald tier gets the Skeleton Assassin while Diamond tier gets all three. In addition, Sapphire tier gets extra creature token variants.

You can see a preview of all of this week’s Patreon content here.

Thank you very much for taking a look and be sure to check out my Patreon where you can pledge for gridless version, alternate map versions as well as the tokens pertaining to this map.

#dungeons and dragons #dnd #pathfinder #dnd map #battle map #roll20 #rpg map #cave #ruins #dungeon

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sophia-zofia · 11 months

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WHY TARGET ELBIT? Every hour, we receive thoughtful, well-aimed suggestions or inquiries about alternate targets for direct action: political offices, Embassies, NGOs, other weapons companies, intersections, etc., all of which have clear ties to the Zionist occupation of Palestine, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. It is right and just to rebel and act boldly in all places and moments, with all tactics, without a doubt. The more chaos ensues in the halls and courtyards of the normalizers and genocidaires, the better. But focus in targeting, from a strategic perspective, is the most effective route, which is why our campaign is singularly focused on Elbit Systems, Israel’s *largest* weapons producer.

Palestine Action US has been given the privilege of carrying the banner of one of the Western world’s most successful grassroots direct action campaigns. Palestine Action UK, founded over three years ago by a Palestinian-Iraqi woman, has successfully shut down two of Elbit’s UK locations, permanently, and got HSBC to divest from Elbit. Their pressure has escalated over the years into a constant, relentless campaign, to the point where we see disruptions at Elbit in the UK nearly every day. Since October 7th, that pressure has only grown, and also exploded into the US, Canada, Australia, and everywhere Elbit is headquartered. In that time, while other weapons firms’ profits have skyrocketed, Elbit shares have taken a nosedive.

If one wishes to help build a city, one must first build a house, so others might see how it was built. Like other historic campaigns which have isolated the enablers of injustice, we start with Elbit, we shut down their operations, and we strike fear in the hearts of their staff and their investors. Once Elbit Systems of America has been vanquished, we will have a replicable model for targeted direct action, which might be used to target every single conspirator in the occupation of Palestine and the subjugation of the colonized world. Further, we absolutely uphold the necessity of mass demonstrations, marches, and softer forms of direct action. These are all elements of the elaborate tapestry of resistance, but marching alone isn’t enough. Thousands have been arrested in the US for civil disobedience since Oct 7; most of these arrests have been purely symbolic. Imagine if these bodies were blockading arms shipments, dismantling weapons companies, and actually threatening capital.

Power has shown it doesn’t move, even when millions have taken the streets, unless their profits are directly affected, or ruling class fear abounds. Beware of those who wish to co-opt the language of Direct Action for the benefit of their own opportunism and brand-building. Beware of “Shut it Down,” actions which are little more than theatrical performances, meant to contain the revolutionary instinct. For those who don’t live near a primary Elbit Systems location, there ARE targets near you. Bank of New York Mellon is Elbit System’s primary investor, along with being the fiscal sponsor for the Friends of the IDF, a non-profit which allows US citizens to materially support the Zionist Occupation Army. We have officially put Bank of New York Mellon on notice as a target of Palestine Action, and they are in major cities across the country and across the globe. Use this map to find Elbit Systems or Bank of New York Mellon locations near you, connect with Palestine Action US, and build an affinity group today.

Together, we become ungovernable, Together, we defeat the Zionist beast, beginning with Elbit Systems.

#palestine #free palestine #israel #elbit systems #palestine action us #direct action #censorship

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lebuc · 3 months

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love & loss

* one - expansive, generative with a seemingly boundless span, intoxicating in the finest of ways

then, it's gone - shifted dissipated into the other, with effects lingering well past its departure.

in the ebb & flow of time & trials we luxuriate or lament - alternatively

when one or the other passes over as drifting clouds part for, or obscure the sun's soothing reign.

each, ephemeral as oft' mentioned ether, never tangible enough to grasp even as a concept

but those feelings - oh!

all storms come & go; laughter, smiles & tears abound oft times bemoaning silent despair in the undertow.

buoyant - now leaden, healing hearts of lovers attest

living, experiencing, learning, enduring for another go, surely

& through it, we'll grow

...at our best.

( at least one deep thinker thinks so ) * 7/24 - lebuc - love & loss

#poetry #poets on tumblr #creative writing #free verse #spilled ink #twc #writerscreed #poetryriot #alt lit #lit #love & loss

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not-another-walnut · 1 year

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zero escape is really the game of all time, it has plot critical blindness, amnesia, prosopagnosia, prosthetic limbs, secret family relationships, not secret family relationships, ghosts, half girl half ghosts, time travel, alternate timelines, history repeating, theoretical physics, paradoxes abound, psychic connections through time, unhinged conspiracy theories, three different murder mysteries, last minute reveals, last second reveals, absolute last half nano second reveals, and also a mummy. and it fucking slaps.

#AND a character canonized as gay via audience poll #you’ve never been so excited about a prosthetic arm before #I love that game so much #zero escape #zero escape spoilers #999 #9 persons 9 hours 9 doors

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fighting-these-demons · 5 months

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Royal Flush Haunted Honk - The Updated Bones!

Hello Internet Stranger looking up G Gundam on Tumblr dot com!

This is an idea for a Horror Alternate Universe involving Queer Non-Canon Relationships between the characters of the series.

It is based on the idea in the post that is linked above.

If you are not looking for this content please scroll on.

If you ARE looking for this content - and you're ok with reading my and other's Headcanons for this Alternate Universe I've haphazardly spun up -

Then go ahead and feel free to:

Check The Tags Of This Post For The Pairings

and click the Read More below!

Also the majority of the brainstorming is happening in the replies if you're so inclined.

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Behold! The Update! It's the bare bones intro and the outline! It's 2.5K! Whoops! 😅

Some of this is just straight copy and pasted from the notes and other bits have been lightly reworded or built upon to connect to other bits.

I've gotten some scenes sent to me by @thedragonchilde that I loved and I think will fit in well with what we've got so far for the fic.

If you'd like to link or reblog them please do!

@amplexadversary feel free to message me or reblog with scenes you've thought up or written up! I can't wait to read them!

I think we've set the stage pretty well to start brainstorming the horror and whump! 😃

I'll see y'all in the replies for ideas on new plot points! 🪦💥🌩

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This is backstory and general outline only.

It is barely edited. Typos abound.

The dialogue is extremely minimal and it is a framework upon which to build the fic. 💖

I am giving this explanation for the benefit of internet strangers as all parties working on this fic are already familiar.

Hello Internet strangers! 👋

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Wherever the tendrils of the Devil Gundam hovered over the earth, and subsequently were destroyed, are places that may have had DG cells distributed through the atmosphere.

Atmospheric DG plumes have lead to DG infection in those areas. There's also likely tendril debris.

Neo-Japan, since the Devil Gundam's destruction, has been working with Neo and world governments on a cure for DG infection.

At the moment the current treatment involves Kyoji or Schwarz controlling the DG cells of the individual and shutting them down; however, they are making breakthroughs with advancements on a nanocite injection that they're synthesizing with an executable program that shuts the DG cells down.

The biological compatibilities are the hurdle at the moment as evidenced in animal testing.

Kyoji and Domon are traveling to some sites in the USA that were affected by tendrils. Domon is there as a body guard since Schwarz is handling infection cases elsewhere (unspecified).

Chibodee is their escort. America is a Different Beast to Japan even in the future. So they'll need an escort to get through the militant landscape and across the sheer distance of it all.

Rain wanted to come with them, but with the volatility of the current landscape of the US - Especially where they're going - Kyoji didn't want to needlessly risk her safety.

He's assured her that Domon, Chibodee, and Chibodee's team will be watching his back.

Dr. Kasshu will be with them for the first days in New York to help with setup of the mobile lab before heading back to Neo Japan to continue working alongside Rain.

Once they've rested and are ready to head out, Domon, Chibodee, Kyoji, and The Gals will take Neo America's Core Lander and a mobile lab to the TD Site and it should be a fairly straight forward affair since they've gotten permission from the national and state governments, as well as permission from Gunsinto to be in the area.

They shouldn't be more than a few days travel to get there and retrieve samples and data and get back. He should be gone a week at the absolute most.

Kyoji gives rain the contact info to their hotel in New York as well as their sponsored Gunsinto accommodations in the Midwest and lets her know that he'll call once they've arrived palnetside.

He makes good on that promise the next day, letting Rain know that their shuttle landed, Chibodee and the girls picked them up without hassle, and lets them know that they're set to have a great dinner at a favorite restaurant of Chibodee's that evening.

Seeing Chibodee is like a breathe of fresh air that Domon didn't know he needed. Life has been so needlessly complicated lately but after Chibodee releases him from the bear hug given in greeting and throws an arm over Domon's shoulders they fall into step as if they'd never been apart.

Keeping in touch wasn't exactly easy. Domon doesn't respond quite as often as Chibidee would like, but every message Chibodee left was listened to and saved.

Ever since they got wind of this mission it's all either of them has had on their minds for days.

I need some help here with feelings and dialogue and inner thoughts but Basically

They both independently realize with clarity over the days leading up and the time in New York how much they've missed each other and how easy and comfortable it all is - being teamed up again.

Domons semi-recent revelations and feelings fresh on his mind. Chibodees crush ever looming.

Hearts racing. Feeling lighter than they have in God Knows How Long. Chibodee smiling so much his face cramps. Domon feeling so comfortable and nearly zen he loses his permanent frown from constantly thinking and just vibes. Smiling occasionally even!

Chibodee proposes they spar real quick before dinner "To work up an appetite! And C'mon! I wanna see what I'm up against in the upcoming Gundam Fight!" With a grin slamming his left fist into his open right hand. (He's left handed right? Or was that someone else?)

They Spar and there's Feelings

(I have a small scene outline put together for the spar for your consideration. @thedragonchilde has submit 2 scenes that would be great for just after the spar and are an awesome read! I'll include my outline for the spar scene in a reblog)

Then they have dinner together and later part to settle in their hotel rooms for the evening.

The next day they focus on briefing the expedition and setting up the Mobile Lab that The Gals will be in charge of transporting.

Once the lab is set up, they see Dr. Kasshu off on his shuttle back to Neo Japan that has been on standby since they arrived.

Kyoji volunteers to ride with The Gals under the excuse of getting a head start on some data processing - to give Domon and Chibodee some time alone together.

Chibodee is not about to let himself be alone in a Core Lander with Domon for HOURS. He may blurt out something he regrets. He insists that Kyoji ride with them and leave the Gals to themselves.

As they make their way out west, Chibodee starts explaining why they'll want to keep their guard up.

There's been a lot of unrest recently and especially the last 10 years since Gunsinto bought out the last of their land and displaced so many communities.

Domon asks occasional questions but Kyoji isn't saying much of anything at all. Opting to rest most of the journey. Domon seems tense, which is understandable considering the events before they left New York.

Suddenly they hear gunfire and what might be a canon of some kind.

They expected resistance outside of Gunsinto territory but they didn't expect it after they crossed the border!

Aren't the Greenlords supposed to be patrolling the area???

So they're on the run from a group that blames Domon and Kyoji for all the bullshit post DG Incident. The group is made up of various parties working together to hold Neo Japan responsible for their crimes against humanity since nothing held up in court and Neo Japan is currently in control. Plus near endless bitterness at America's loss of Super Power status for decades and the effect that that has had on their economy and natural resources put under stress from these Big Space Battles.

Chibodee and The Gals are aware of THIS group of violent individuals… but they're not aware of the OTHER group of violent individuals. (The Clown gangs are kept under wraps by the Greenlords - Gunsinto's private militia similar to to the Pinkertons as going public would be an embarrassment and an open invitation to more trespassers.)

They have a good idea of what weapons they have at their disposal and what their general tactics are.

They decide to split up and have The Gals create a distraction to lure the majority of the aggressors off before rendezvousing close to the TD Site in this region.

After they split, the core lander has some issues and breaks down in the middle of nowhere. As they break down Kyoji has an awful headache. There's a terrible signal he can feel and he knows it affected the core lander's processors but he's not sure what it is.

(It's a device that broadcasts a malicious signal that infects the processing units of hovering vehicles - was gonna be an emp but realized that would mess up their gps. It has only a very mild effect on DG cells it seems. Their GPS was made by the Kasshus with DG tech so it's unaffected. - Their communicator was issued by Gunsinto and was not so lucky - it's dead.)

Luckily for them their map data integrated into their GPS shows there should be a former town nearby.

The nearest town is seemingly abandoned. There's simply not enough water here according to Chibodee.

The only building not completely crumbled is a lone Motel. Chibodee curses his Rotten Fucking Luck. (Clown Music!)

They're exhausted from carrying their emergency supplies through the heat of the day. They're not going any further. This will have to be it. Domon is clearly tense and Chibidee seems about to jump out of his skin but Kyoji doesn't really know why. He could be over sensitive after sitting with their tension in the core lander and then walking with them through the heat.

Chibodee considers attempting to convince them to camp outside but with the wind picking up as bad as it is, he has no leg to stand on. They'll be sleeping inside.

Strange though. There's a light on. That's odd.

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Meanwhile The Gals have incapacitated the pursuers after radioing in help from the Greenlords who are cooperating on this mission.

They're of course like “Whaaaaaat? That's Crazyyyyyyyyy.” And don't breathe a word of the Other Issue inside The Fields. Instead electing to simply refuel the mobile lab and send some extra men with The Gals as escort.

The girls start back on their journey to Rendevous with the guys.

The arrive at the TD Site with no sign of the guys. After waiting 2 hours they decide to try and ping their location.

There's no result. What they assumed was poor signal is worrying them now.

As they double back in the direction the guys should have been coming from they discover the crashed Core Lander and some prints headed South West.

They check their maps of the area which indicate a former town a few miles south west. They hop in their mobile lab and head that way.

When they make it to the town, the only standing structure is a Clown Themed Motel that looks like it was pulled straight out of a historical classic horror film.

They share a look. There's no way Chibodee would be here. They decide to check for other towns and head further south. Eventually as it starts to get dark the escort advises that they head to the designated accommodations for the evening and the Greenlords will start a search.

Kyoji kept his word to Rain that he and his father would check in when they arrived in New York. When the second day stretches on with no word Rain starts to worry.

Her father has made it home, but she's still heard no word from Kyoji.

On Rain's 5th call in as many hours -at about 2:00 AM- The Gals answer.... it's Bad News.

They've been separated by a roaming militia group hellbent on serving American Justice to these Neo Japan Planet Destroyers. The Gals were supposed to Rendevous with Chibodee and the guys at the TD site but they never showed and they didn't find them on their way to the Gunsinto Accomodations either.

The Gals reassure her that the Greenlords and Gunsinto are starting a search and they should have word soon.

Dread starts to settle in the pit of Rain's stomach.

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Meanwhile The Guys walk into the Hotel expecting it to be abandoned. It certainly looks that way from the outside.

As they walk in though, they meet a rather average looking man smoking a cigar and watching some movies on a TV in the corner of the dark Lobby.

He looks surprised (he isnt) and quickly stubs out his cigar in the ash tray nearby before walking into the only light in the lobby by the front desk.

He welcomes them with a smile and asks how many guests. Letting them know that unfortunately he's only got one room available and There's Only the One Bed. He asks if that's alright.

Chibodee sputters. Shocked that there's someone here at all. He asks as much and the man says that the Hotel is a side business of the Greenlords’ for “Employee Services” if you catch his drift.

Average guy asks after them as he's never seen them before. Kyoji has a bad feeling and smooths things over by advising that they're there as horticultural graduate students studying genetic modification with their Professor and a few other students. Kyoji tells a tale of how they got separated in the fields and this was the closest area with shelter according to their map data.

The Average guy is surprised to hear that they have a functioning GPS and says that this area has bad signal. It's a blessing they can find their way.

He directs them to their room and leaves back toward the lobby.

Kyoji has a bad feeling. He can sense a ton of corrupted DG cells nearby. Somewhere underground, but isn't sure why or what it means.

He also keeps getting flashes of screaming men and women in clown costumes….

He relays as much to Domon privately as Chibodee is clearly already on edge and doesn't need any more stress.

Kyoji asks Domon if Chibodee is alright. Domon informs him that clowns and clown imagery is a problem but there's really nothing they can do about it in this situation. His fists are clenched. Domon i's pissed they have to stay here.

Kyoji takes a moment to let Domon know he'll take the floor and for Chibodee and Domon to take the bed. This throws Domon for a loop, but before he can argue Kyoji insists that out of the 3 of them he can probably take the most stress and that Chibodee looks like he needs someone to sleep next to.

Kyoji also mentions that he'll be blocking his hearing on a nano level to give them privacy in case they need to talk. Domon is a bit flustered by this but decides to take it in stride and go to Chibodee who is pacing and silently melting down. He looks like he's about to both through the window and back into the fields.

Domon puts a hand on Chibodee’s shoulder and suggests they go ahead and bunk down for the night.

He and Domon each take a seat on the end of the bed while Kyoji remains standing and they discuss Watch Rotation.

It'll probably be better to have 2 people awake and 1 person resting at any given time.

None of them trust this guy at the front desk. Especially not Kyoji.

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Not sure how to segue from bunking down to the horror bit below gracefully; but I know we need to.

I feel like it's the perfect time for Domon and Chibodee to take Kyoji up on his offer of audible privacy to have a quick heart to heart..... before it's unfortunately and terrifyingly interrupted. 😨

Mostly because I'm mean. 😂

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My first thought for 4 is that it probably looks like a normal-ass bed but in the middle of the night when both the guys are like half asleep, a clown hand bursts up from the center of the mattress in a classic zombie style Then an improbable amount slowly crawl out of that same hole as Chibodee drags Domon to the door (Domon for his credit is ready to beat a clown with another clown)

Since the FC does have the lightest touch of Newtype bullshit (mostly seen in the Schwarz/Rain chase scene where Schwarz gets the newtype flash), I'm interested in it being ghosts because the NT thing sometimes goes that way.

Ghosts usually have some kind of backstory as to why they're around, and I think it fits the setting to have a sort of clown culture war going on

so you have gangs like the one that killed Chibodee's mom, and then you get ordinary clowns going vigilante to hunt the ones that do that down for flagrant violation of the clown code

But the problem with vigilantism is you sometimes get the wrong guy, so that eventually happens and another group of clowns goes vigilante to go after the first group because they've gone bad (doesn't matter whether or not this is true for our purposes). And then you get more guys like the original circus terrorists playing themselves off as vigilantes as an excuse to kill people.

So now you have a clown gang war and more clown terrorists than you started with. And with the other problems Earth and the Colonies have it isn't *really* a big enough deal for anyone outside of the business to really care, so you get a sort of uneasy status quo with occasional bursts of clown violence.

The motel in question has a ghost problem because it's a former base of operations of a clown gang, where they would frequently dispose of their clown victims.

Chibodee is not at all aware of this. Or else he never would have agreed to this. He would have had some sort if Military backup. Gunsinto and The Greenlords have kept this under wraps to avoid broadcasting their farm territory as terrorist territory.

The clowns were affected by DG cells pre-murder and with Kyoji nearby they seem to be activating.

Yikes.

Kyoji can affect DG cells in a lof of situations... but can he affect them to his advantage here???

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Stay Tuned to Find Out!

#Royal Flush Haunted Honk AU #Haunted Honk #Domon/Chibodee #Chibodee/Domon #Kyoji/Rain/Schwarz #The Gals #domon kasshu #chibodee crocket #there's only one bed #At the Clown Motel #royal flush #Belatedly realizing I forgot the backstory about Gunsinto whoops. I'll add it later.

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