#and if it's just an oversight then well it still has to have an explanation in the fictional universe even if it wasn't intended

[yuhaosturtle]

you know what I've been thinking about since last friday? ayan's necklace in the pool scene. because it's normal before he jumps in the pool. but afterwards the pendant is in the back and it stays like that during multiple shots:

this is only a small detail that was maybe not intentional or just so khao wouldn't get hit by the pendant during the underwater kiss- but what if it has meaning? because in ep6 when akk kicks ayan off the bed the same happens. but the necklace is in place again in the next shot - meaning for us as audience that ayan must've righted the necklace in between shots (the way someone who is deeply attached to a pendant necklace would do).

so what if in the pool scene it stays like that because ayan forgot to put it back? what if he enjoyed his time with akk so much that he didn't notice it?

and in the general theme of akk as sun / ayan as eclipse, what does it mean when ayan while looking at akk (the sun) forgets to put the necklace (the moon/eclipse/his reminder of dika) back? just how important is akk to him? how big are his feelings for akk?

[guiltycorp]

I feel like when ppl discuss the influence of trauma on Geto’s downfall, how Gojo managed to move on by immediately overcoming his weakness & dealing with their assailant and then proceeding to hone his technique instead of stagnating...  They often miss that it wasn’t just the trauma for Geto.  The most important thing for him was always looking for meaning, his anxious and righteous nature forcing him to come up with an explanation for their world and his own purpose in life. His simplistic views of ‘there are strong people (sorcerers) and weak people (non-sorcerers), and the strong must protect the weak’ as well as trust in their system were challenged time and time again throughout the backstory arc. But it wasn’t only Geto being depressed and reactive, it was also about fixing his previous assumptions. Unlike Gojo, he overthought things to a fault, eventually coming to the wrong conclusions (even when Yuki offered him her solution on a plate, that being the research into making non-sorcerers into sorcerers), likely out of prolonged misguided fixation on the dichotomy of weak vs strong, but nonetheless it was a product of a thought experiment and deliberation, even discussion with Haibara and Yuki.  Still, my point is that... Gojo simply never cared enough about things like ideology. The light novel made it seem like he only realised that maybe there is something wrong with the system when Geto left, not when Riko or Haibara died! He simply didn’t think about those tragedies as anything other than random sad occurrences that he could prevent in the future by being better at being the strongest (spoiler: he couldn't). He tried to internalize Geto’s original values of protecting the weak since he could sense some merit to them, finding joy in entertaining Riko and later his students, but he completely missed the reasoning behind those values. This is why he spouted all those things about not saving/reaching Geto (without having attempted it in the first place) and about becoming a teacher to prevent young sorcerers from missing out on their youth (immediately going to indoctrinate young Megumi into their messed up system as a pretext of saving him from the Zenins, exploiting Maki’s childish ambitions of getting back at her family, later risking students’ lives to progress Yuta’s potential, letting Itadori run around without much oversight, ignoring the situation with Megumi’s sister, ignoring the more ‘uninteresting’ students, the list goes on)... He has only a vague idea of what his perfect world would be like (still kind of ridiculous and reliant on Being Strong a-la Sukuna), but he makes no effort to properly explain it to his students who are supposedly meant to change their society in the future.

The only way he can empathize with them is by remembering what he himself enjoyed in his youth, that being companionship with his bff and his growing power. And when some of them don’t show interest in that (like poor fucking Megumi) Gojo is simply not interested in exploring alternatives.  To him, it’s not a question of ‘why’, it never was. ...All that said, this could all be eaaaasily author’s bias who leans towards Gojo’s way of thinking irl, in which case it’s unlikely to get a resolution of some kind :^) Personally, I hope it will bite Gojo in the ass more than it already has. I do have some hope since the current fight vs Sukuna is underlining how similar they are to each other. 

[ladyluscinia]

Honestly I kind of like that there's no guards for Blood & Cheese.

Like, yeah, it does kind of push belief for drama, but frankly there's so much happening in this episode and I imagine they have a lot of events they want to get to this season. There's a lot of moving parts and various character arcs that need to get into place before anything. At some point plot explanation and building tension becomes a trade-off with how far you can take story arcs in a certain amount of time. We can revisit if this was "rushed" once we see how they've used the rest of their season. It's a bit silly to do it now, though.

Well. Anyway - I like that there aren't guards. I like that you can probably read a lot of not-unreasonable implications into there not being guards.

Larys just finished a purge of the castle to ensure everyone inside is unquestionably pro-Green. Now he's talking about servants, but the twin at Dragonstone points out that every single member of the Kingsguard swore to protect the whole royal family and they are all going through some degree of the "what do you do when the royals start killing each other?" conundrum. How many have deserted Aegon? How many did they kill recently for objecting to the usurping? How short-staffed are they really?

The guards we do see are Aegon's (and their eyes pass over the ratcatchers with no acknowledgement, like you would expect from the highborn sons they are). Guards who would likely fan out through the royal wing for the night once the newly installed king - the biggest target, the most important charge - goes to bed, but he's not doing that now is he? No, Aegon is downstairs with his robust guard getting drunk on the iron throne in the wee hours of the night with his new mandatory status-friends.

Aemond has wandered off - perhaps up to the battlements? The battlements where a bunch of guards must stand ready every hour in case a dragon arrives to escalate the war he's made inevitable. The war he's straining at his leash to go start properly, same as Daemon. The assassins are here for him, they show up in his room, but he won't be the one who meets them.

Criston Cole, who should maybe be on duty somewhere and certainly is a driving force behind deployment priorities, is off having an affair in an abandoned royal room. He's been just as keen on the war as every other man in this keep - egging on Alicent and her children's hostility for years, killing Beesbury - and earlier that night he was with Aemond also looking forward to more violence. Where the guards are isn't an oversight on his part, or a dereliction of duty - it's a reflection of what the Greens have been focusing on. The fact that neither he nor Alicent clock a reduced presence in the royal wing as a problem vs a convenience for illicit sex plans is just a bonus.

Of course no one is protecting Helaena or her children from being casualties. She's been begging them to do so since she was a little girl and they still just ignore her.

Of course there's no guards.

[niobiumao3]

Okay separate from 'who is Clone X' let me make an explicit list of reasons I think it's not Tech.

This is NOT to say I think Tech isn't alive. He definitely is IMO. Just not as Clone X.

So. Problems that arise if this Clone X is Tech, and would require some sort of explanation or at a minimum handwave:

Why is Pabu still standing? The moment Omega and Crosshair get away, a Clone X Tech would be activated so Hemlock can ask where they're going. Full stop. It's been way too long and that hasn't happened. An argument here could be he has amnesia. This works to explain not knowing where Pabu is, but now we're to, why was this Clone X not activated when Omega and Cross escaped? He was only activated once the other one was lost. That seems like a huge oversight. An added meta-issue here is so now we have a Clone X Tech who ALSO has amnesia. That's pretty convoluted and honestly I don't see how that gets dealt with alongside our other awaiting plot threads in the remaining episodes.

Why didn't Crosshair know? There's literally NO way Cross wouldn't have told Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo that Tech had been indoctrinated and needed rescuing, that would have been the first thing out of his mouth. He clearly doesn't do that. Possible explanation: Cross doesn't know. But these guys are clearly trained in cohorts and groups, we see Cross being rotated through with them frequently. So if Tech is a Clone X he has to have been trained completely separate from Cross. This seems odd because now two separate Clone Xs have known who Crosshair was the moment they laid eyes on him. It also adds another convoluting layer to the above: Tech has amnesia, and had to be indoctrinated fully separately from Crosshair with a totally different group or groups. Certainly Tantiss seems large enough for this but we're getting to a lot of folding layers to make this fit.

Why did Cross not break while Tech did? Crosshair talks about Clone Xs like they have a 'choice', but ofc that choice can easily be 'convert or suffer eternally'. Certainly that was implied by Cross' no good very bad time. This indicates Cross didn't break and Tech did. The man who hobbled around on a busted femur and shot out a connecting hinge without hesitation nor a waver in his hand and had the nerve necessary to race against droids. Cross says he thinks his resilience is because he's defective. He could be wrong about that, but if he's not, okay then once again, why Tech and not Cross? We could go with, well maybe Tech was badly injured and had serious trauma. Okay so NOW, he has amnesia (to explain why Pabu is still intact) and a traumatic injury, which makes him susceptible to indoctrination. Once again, that's a lot of shaving to fit this square peg into the round hole.

How did Wrecker, Hunter, and Crosshair all fight him not realize it was Tech? These guys grew up together, trained together, fought in the war together, and Hunter and Wrecker have been with Tech since then as well. How would they not recognize Tech in a fight? If we want to claim his style has changed, that runs counter to the Clone X's per Cross' description--they're not mindwiped, their memories aren't gone, their personalities aren't gone, they're just indoctrinated. Their personalities are still there, they've just been distilled into True Belief. Tech would ultimately still have Techlike tendencies, yet showed almost none of them. For example:

This guy is athletic as hell and never slips. If you go back over S1 and S2, Tech is slipping on solid unmoving surfaces all, the, time. It's an amazing bit they do for him. This guy? None of that.

I'm only slightly joking when I say, he does not one single completely unnecessary roll or flip. Tech did those all the time. He was born to be extra.

He tries fruitlessly to use his suit controls for his ship, never once makes an attempt to fix them.

Why was the throwdown with Crosshair and this guy so very personal if it's Tech and Crosshair doesn't know, having never met him? The Clone X is busy echoing Crosshair's own words to Hunter from S1 right back in his face during their brutal fight. Chances, choices, etc.; it's the same things Crosshair said once upon a time in an uglier life. This guy is a Shadow!Crosshair, in effect, which really does NOT work as a plot point if he's actually Tech (because per above, Tech would have to have all agency and choice stripped away to become this--he really, really would). This fight is personal; this person watched Cross go through the program and refuse it. This isn't someone who 'heard about' Cross denying them. Crosshair would then know this is Tech.

It is possible they can somehow explain all of this, I just don't see that happening without it turning into some sort of marlinspike-worthy twisting of the rope to work in amnesia and succumbing when Cross didn't and Cross not knowing AND Hunter and Wrecker not recognizing his fighting style. That's a lot.

Separate item:

What if it's Tech and Cross feels guilty and isn't telling anyone?

My main reason for thinking this doesn't work is that when Howzer stunned the Clone X off Cross and over a waterfall Cross failed to react about it in any way. I just do NOT think that would have happened if it was Tech and he knew. He'd have wanted to capture him at all costs and hope for SOME kind of solution, any kind.

Instead it's 'let's get the fuck out of here after we talk to Wolffe who is being a himbo about things'. Not a single thought to that guy.

I personally suspect Clone X is either a Named (Dogma, Slick, Cody, whatever) or, a random reg that Cross went through indoctrination with. They both tried to hold out, desperately. They were both about to slip. This other clone did; Cross was thinking of giving in ('I belong in here'), when Omega announces they're escaping. She saves him from that fate.

[fncreature]

So. updated theory after 1. rewatching some of Kenadian’s other videos and 2. seeing the but there was more video (thank you @brain-empty) I rewatched the last couple videos in the Omziscool saga, to try and figure out the lore, and oh boy did that help. Here’s my previous theory post, which does relate. (Oh, and here’s the timeline order playlist I made)

After Kenadian kills Omz in the hopper prison video, he gets the Omz mask. From the train escape, and an unlisted video in his lore playlist, it’s shown that he goes on a massive hopper rampage, destroying a large city before… something happens. He wakes up in a cell, with little memory, and the mask is gone with no explanation.

But Kenadian isn’t the only important character found in those videos. In the train escape, one of the guards, is Wato1876. Yes, seriously. It’s entirely possible that during Kenadian’s rampage, a guard or player- Wato- killed him and helped imprison him. And unknowingly, obtained the Omz mask in the process.

EDIT BECAUSE I FORGOT TO MENTION THIS: Wato does not have the mask on in the train escape video. This is either because it was an oversight and they didn’t think the lore would go this far, or I was completely wrong. I think it’s an oversight, as I don’t think they had plans to take it further until this april fool’s joke.

Here’s where I go completely into theory. I think that the Omz Mask takes the characteristics or some memories of the previous wearer. Kenadian would never go on a hopper rampage of his own volition- he hates hoppers. But Omziscool loves hoppers- they give him power. And it also makes the wearer lack great decision making skills, which Omz is notorious for not thinking through better options. So, once Kenadian gets the mask, he goes on a blind rampage, not thinking through any better solutions. So, then, what happens to Wato? Well, what would Kenadian do? He’d play the long game. He’d think through his options, and play his escape room long game.

That’s where Evil Wifies comes in. The two meet at some point, and he’s still Wato- he can still make good escape maps. And Evil Wifies, is, well, evil. Wato is a knowing participant- but only because of the mask. So, he creates these escape maps for Evil Wifies, until Evil Wifies gets a bit more power hungry- and decides he wants the Omz mask. This is all about power- he creates the clones to make content, for the viewers. It’s only a show if he can get people to watch it. And Evil Wifies is smart- he knows, surely, the mask has drawbacks. He can see them in Wato. So, he makes some sort of agreement that sounds fair, and using one of the smarter clones and slaying Wato for the Omz mask, Omz Mask Wifies is created. All this occurs during the later stages of development of the map made for the debunk. Omz Mask Wifies finishes off the map.

This explains the behavior of Omz Mask Wifies in the prologue- Wato built the escape room. But he can remember bits of it, just the mostly finished version that Wato remembers.

What happens to Wato? I’m not sure. Likely, he has very foggy memories of the entire thing, as seen in the epilogue. He likely stayed a bit longer with Evil Wifies, helping with the rest of the escape room. We can’t be sure what happens after that.

Now, the but there was more video. I honestly have no explanation for what Kenadian is doing there or how he finds it. But from what I can tell, it’s all of the rooms from Wifies’ previous escape maps put together, along with additional rooms in the same style. This takes place after the epilogue, and at some point in between the two videos, Omz Mask Wifies is killed. It’s the same skin- the Wifies body with the Wato ears, but there’s no mask. What happens to him now, we don’t know. Most likely, he was killed by Evil Wifies, but there’s no evidence to support that.

Here’s what I think the timeline is:

-Omziscool Fiasco

-Kenadian gets the mask after killing Omz

-Kenadian goes on a destructive rampage after getting possessed by the mask and is killed by Wato, who is a guard, and sent to prison. 

-Train escape video

-Wato, who now has the mask, and Evil Wifies somehow meet, and Evil Wifies and Wato start working together, creating escape rooms for the Wifies clones.

-Evil Wifies and Wato create Omz Mask Wifies during the later stages of development for the last escape map.

-Prologue (Except the lore bits)

-Main two videos

-After Evil Wifies’ death in the trivia Omz Mask Wifies is sent into the escape room.

-Epilogue, and prologue lore bits

-Omz Mask Wifies is killed, losing the mask

-but there was more occurs

And, a quick summary of all the characters:

Kenadian: Gets the mask after killing Omz, goes on a rampage, is slain by Wato and then escapes from prison transport. At some point after the epilogue, he finds the massive structure of escape rooms

Wato: Is a prison guard before killing Kenadian after his destructive rampage and is a guard on the train as Kenadian escapes. Evil Wifies and Wato meet somehow, and strike some sort of agreement in which Wato is under his control. At some point in the design process for the escape room in the main videos, Omz Mask Wifies is created and, while no longer having the mask, likely helps finish off the map before he’s somehow found by Wifies and Kenadian and questioned in the epilogue.

The Wifies

Wifies: A clone, created by Evil Wifies. There’s not much more to him other than what happens in the main video.

Evil Wifies: ??? No idea who he is or what his lore is. He creates clones to solve escape rooms created by Wato for content. He works with Wato for almost all of the known lore, and creates Omz Mask Wifies to have full control over the Omz Mask. After dying in trivia, he sends Omz Mask Wifies through the map.

Omz Mask Wifies: Oh boy. Everything about this guy is my own speculation. Created by Evil Wifies and Wato for… something? Likely so Evil Wifies can control the Omz Mask without the other issues the Omz Mask causes. Is sent through the escape room after Evil Wifies is killed. At some point after this, he is killed, losing the mask.

Is all of this entirely speculation and probably wrong?

Absolutely. There are so many things I still have questions about. I’m fairly certain Omz Mask Wifies and Wato are two seperate characters (discussed in my previous post about this), but if that’s true, why does Wato say that he “remembers the sunrise. The escape room was already done”? Who killed Omz Mask Wifies? It was likely Evil Wifies, but why? How does Kenadian get to the place in ‘but there was more’, and why is he out in the middle of the void? What does the Omz Mask even do?

I’m still very confused.

[averagewriter-inthedark]

The Young Avengers 🦅 | Marvel Headcanon

Takes place during Phase 4 of the MCU

Link to my marvel Masterlist

Requested 📨 yes/no

Being a young former Black Widow and forming a team with Shuri, Kate, Elijah, Joaquin, and Kid Loki would look like:

To be honest you weren’t to fazed with the idea of forming a team with the younger crowd of up and coming superheroes. Sure you had been friends with Shuri since 2018 and met the others through Sam, Clint, and Thor, but the idea of creating a team like the Avengers never crossed your mind until Shuri proposed the idea. “Ain’t that Val lady forming her own team? Or Secretary Ross is, they’re calling them the Thunderbolts? Yelena was telling me about it—anyway, point is if there’s already a new team of heroes then why make our own?” “Calling them heroes is a little…far fetched if we’re being honest. They are more like the Dark Avengers—and no I was not trying to make a joke. You look at who she’s recruiting and it’s literally that. Think of us as their antithesis.”

It didn’t take much convincing after that with you literally going, “Fuck it. Let’s do it—might actually give me shit to do now that the world has gone to shit trying to get back to the way it was.” Within the hour you were pulling up to a hangar to meet the others. They all looked excited except Kid Loki. He looked rather annoyed being there—really it was Thor’s idea to have him join to keep him out of trouble. “It was either this or join him in his adventures across space. Frankly I’d rather stay in one place after escaping the Void.”

Considering you all are some of the most powerful and intelligent kids on the planet, there is bound to be some restrictions. Likely y’all would be staying at Avengers compound or create your own base camp but there would still be oversight. If Fury is not dealing with the Kree then he and Maria are who y’all report to. Other than them, the veteran Avengers tend to look after you guys—like Sam and Clint. “So since you’re now Captain America and you’re technically retired, does that make Torres the Falcon and Bishop Hawkeye?” “If that’s what they want to go by. You’re still called Black Widow aren’t ya?” “Touché”

So there you have it. Shuri: The Black Panther, Joaquin: the Flacon, You: the Black Widow, Kate: Hawkeye, Kid Loki, & Elijah: The Patriot.

As expected you’re a rambunctious group of heroes. Sometimes y’all find yourselves in trouble when you weren’t planning on it. Trouble just finds you guys 90% of the time. Agent Everett Ross has a whole supply of advil because keeping track of you all gives him a headache. “You’re job was to get it, get the intel, and get the hell out of there. What went wrong?” “Well…….as you can see um….yeah I have no explanation. Shuri you got anything?” “Nope. Torres, you?” “I can’t even remember what we were doing there.”

One time on a mission you guys actually ran into the Thunderbolts and it was quite the scene. First of all you and Yelena were like, “Hey sis! What are you doing here?” Meanwhile Bucky was scolding Elijah & Torres and Walker was getting annoyed with Kid Loki’s tricks. Kate just looked out of place while Shuri was trying to calm everyone down, “It seems there has been a misunderstanding. Unless….it was the plan for all of us to be here.” “What are you saying, Shuri?” “I believe our teams were set up, white wolf. Why else would both of us be called to the same place, for the same exact thing, on the same day?”

Having a genius like Shuri on your team meant you guys were equipped with some of the best technological advances than anyone else. Even the Thunderbolts were envious of y’all’s artillery. Not only did Joaquin get an upgrade on his falcon wings, but Kate got high tech trick arrows, Elijah a vibranium shield, kid Loki with a scepter and you got some additions to your Widow’s bite and suit. “Shit, I feel like I could take down even Thanos with these.” “Try not to show them off to much, Widow. Secretary Ross is still trying to get me to develop stuff for the Thunderbolts and i’ve given him the impression I’m not even advancing our weaponry. So..keep it on the down low.”

After some time as a team, you guys would recruit Kamala Khan, RiRi Williams and Cassie Lang as y’all’s Ms. Marvel, IronHeart & Stinger. Peter Parker would eventually join, bringing in his buddy Ned and America Chavez who were Masters of The Mystic Arts. The team grew so large y’all could actually split you guys up when multiple missions came in. With their initiation, Dr. Strange, Captain Marvel, and Scott Lang joined Sam, Clint, Fury, Ross, and Hill as ‘chaperones’.

“So what do we call ourselves?” “The Young Avengers.” “Isn’t that a derivative?” “Yeah, but it sounds less menacing than Dark Avengers or the Thunderbolts. I mean we are Avengers…just we’re young so it fits.” “True…”

[mllemaenad]

The Magnus Protocol: Give and Take

Huh. It sounds rather as though Chester has some opinions about barging into other people's space in the workplace.

I must admit, I don't go in for a lot of worrying about whether a piece of information is somehow a red herring and doesn't really mean what I think it means. Mostly because I don't think The Magnus Archives really worked like that.

It had a lot of complex world building that it revealed in pieces, and its central conceit was that its protagonist was a man who had an urgent need to understand the mechanics of the world but, as the villain of the piece was actively denying him access to that information, he had to drag it out of horror stories one weird fact at a time.

I don't mean to say that there was never a misdirect: in season 3 the characters really needed to believe in the threat of the Unknowing, and so for the duration of that story arc it was a threat. It had a reasonably plausible explanation for why the rituals had always failed – that if it wasn't Gertrude Robinson blowing them up it was the servant of some other rival power – and you could just go along with it. But when the story wanted you to think about the rituals, it immediately and clearly started saying that actually, they collapse on their own all the damn time.

By and large, if something seemed weird it probably was. If you heard the same name twice, you'd probably keep on hearing it. The lady infested with bugs you learned about in episode six, and who definitely freaked John out, was in fact going to be a problem. And so on. I don't mean this as a criticism: stories with endless impossible-to-guess twists are often just annoying. Solid world building that makes more and more sense as you go on is a positive.

It's possible that The Magnus Protocol is a different kind of story, and is actively trying to mislead its listeners. But that feels like a problem for a later me, should evidence of that arise.

It does deal quite differently with the way information is distributed across its cast, though. I mean – Jonah Magnus/Elias Bouchard absolutely hoarded information, but otherwise it was fairly well distributed. If another character found out something important, John heard it on the tapes. Martin also listened to the tapes. And honestly, John was reasonably forthcoming if he knew a useful fact the others didn't. I'm not disputing the time everybody forgot to tell Tim about an impending apocalypse for a couple of weeks ... but even that got resolved by Martin realising and telling him about the impending apocalypse.

Here, though ... everyone is following a different thread, and nobody is sharing what they know. That creates a very different atmosphere.

And the story ... I mean, it's mostly about a workplace getting wildly out of control.

It's interesting that Alice seems to like Chester, but dislike Norris. I suspect that there's mostly just a meta joke there, as the episode was penned by Norris's voice actor. But still: it's hard to imagine the sense in which Norris could be a "whiny little toad" when his personality fluctuates with the cases he reads. And Chester's case, here, was definitely someone having a whine. Don't get me wrong: Dianne had a horrible experience. But she is very much here to complain about it.

You could argue, as a starting point, that the whole case reads like a broad summary of how things went in The Magnus Archives:

Got dropped into a managerial role following the long absence and eventual death of my predecessor

Did not receive any reasonable training or oversight during the transition period

Found the place completely empty of staff and had to just deal with that

Completely winged it on actually running the place

Direct line manager was unhelpful and almost gleefully unresponsive to requests for assistance

Several people just ... signed up to work there, with no process whatsoever and nothing that even had a whiff of a related skill set

Then there were monsters everywhere, which was just great

The situation was very much out of control

Was very much in peril of being actually be crushed to both despair and actual death by the sheer number of monsters and other weird crap that had taken over my world

Everything was on fire

Sitting on the floor and screaming does feel like a reasonable response to all of the above

Even Dianne's mild officiousness (she keeps ... listing her bachelor's degree. Why on earth?) is reminiscent of how John could sound when he wanted people to think he knew what he was doing.

That said, it is a relief to encounter a character who had a supernatural experience and reacted by noting that this was some horrible bullshit and leaving.

Of course the primary difference between this and The Magnus Archives is where the threat came from. The archival staff could be a cantankerous bunch, but they were never in themselves the problem.

Dianne's weird volunteers remind me most of the eerie students in Anatomy Class. Which isn't to say that they're the same – just that it has the same kind of feel to it, where the point is that their behaviour is almost recognisably human. And as the working situation spirals out of control in the story, you feel it also deteriorate in the OIAR.

It's all about intruders. Celia is the least obvious intruder – the new hire, who has a much reason to be here as anybody else. But there's the sense that she may have come here from very far away indeed, and like the volunteers in the story, she brings odd things with her:

Celia Is there any way to look up specific files? Alice Like what? Celia Oh I don’t know. Every case about being buried alive or meat or… whatever. – The Magnus Protocol: Give and Take

Celia seems to be very much referencing the entity categorisations from The Magnus Archives. So you have to wonder – is that relevant here? She might operate as an audience insert here, with preconceptions about how the world works that ultimately won't help her.

I don't think it is necessary to throw out everything you know from The Magnus Archives to enjoy this story. It's hardly unusual for a sequel to be accessible to a newcomer but provide a richer experience to anyone familiar with the original. Gwen Bouchard likely has some interesting connection to Elias Bouchard that will come up eventually. If you listened to The Magnus Archives you know the name and can anticipate and be curious about what that means. If you didn't – well, they'll tell you when they get there.

But this is more about the nature of reality. Robert Smirke's fourteen was one man's attempt to categorise, explain and control a nebulous collection of supernatural experiences and beings. It continued to be relevant in The Magnus Archives because many of Smirke's associates were still around. They set up cults and organisations around their own personal obsessions, and taught younger people to think as they did. The broken world was largely the fault of an assortment of privileged men from the heyday of the British Empire literally defining the rules of existence.

Here – well, the existence of The Magnus Institute implies the existence of a Somebody Magnus, if not necessarily a Jonah. But the fact that it's located in Manchester makes it quite clear that the early events from The Magnus Archives could not have occurred in the same way. So are there different people involved? Different obsessions? Different rules?

None of the items were fit for sale. I specifically recall two large, soiled Crinoline dresses, a Chaise Longue with cushions filled with some sort of coarse sand, a taxidermied vulture, a rusty antique printing press and a collection of old medical equipment that had seemingly been recently used. There were many, many additional items but I was unable to take a full inventory as the shop floor was overfull. – The Magnus Protocol: Give and Take

There's a lot going on, and it's all creepy and wrong. But how do you sort and make sense of it all?

And then there's Sam, who finally pushes his way into Colin's private space. There's the question there about relevance again. Sam has come to ask about a weird email (and as an aside, I am going to amuse myself imagining that Alice has a filter on her inbox to send anything from that address to spam, and every one of the hundreds of affected emails says "stop calling me Chester"). Colin does not care about the weird email, although he cares about being recorded enough to assault Sam and break his phone.

Sam brought something weird and unwanted – the phone with is internal microphone, and the audience can be certain Colin is right: it's listening.

While I have no doubt there are weirder things in the world than internal emails from people who don't work at the OIAR, it does seem like a strange thing to dismiss out of hand. Sam has received mysterious forms from a supposedly "automated" process, and a peculiar email from a "John" who does not exist. Alice has received a security notification regarding Sam's search activities. Gwen has received a recording of Lena attempting a murder, and apparently information from a "source" indicating that Lena hid that information from her superiors.

Someone or something is listening, and someone or something is communicating. It could even be multiple someones – but nobody at the OIAR is comparing notes to find that out. If Colin knew about the other instances, would he care more about the email?

There even seems to be disinformation being spread, as Alice explicitly told Celia the search does not work:

Alice Well, there’s a search bar, but it doesn’t actually do anything. You’d have to dig through them all manually. – The Magnus Protocol: Give and Take

But we already know that it does from Sam's research into The Magnus Institute:

Alice Apparently you tried searching for files with the terms… (checking printout) "Magnus” and “Protocol"? Sam That’s what this is about? I mean, yeah, okay, I got a case referencing the Magnus Institute and then I looked it up and found a few files on the system that mentioned using “The Protocol”. Why would that be restricted? – The Magnus Protocol: Taking Notes

I don't know why she did that, aside from her general aversion to digging into the cases she assesses, but it does make it harder to keep everybody on the same page.

And then Gwen, who both unceremoniously bursts into Lena's office, and apparently blackmails her way "in" to the true business of the OIAR. She too brings something unwanted: evidence of Lena's attack on Klaus-the-presumably-former-IT-guy-whose-fault-it-is-the-damn-code-is-in-German.

But what does "in" mean, and what does an "external liaison" do? The most reasonable assumption seems to be dealing with these Starkwall people, who were also likely the people who charged in to the Hilltop Centre and dealt with a messy situation by a) shooting everybody and b) setting things on fire. I see now why the first word Sam associated with those people was "massacre".

It's interesting to consider what Gwen might be trying to get out of this. Lena keeps referring to her as ambitious, but a managerial role on the night shift at a creepy data warehouse isn't exactly reaching for the stars. Obviously there is more than that going on here – but how and what does Gwen know about it? And if Starkwall deals with everything the way they dealt with the situation at Hilltop Centre, what could standing next to that mess gain a person?

Finally there is Hilltop Centre itself. It's interesting that in both universes the place seems to have latched on to charity as a cover: Hill Top Road's most notable incarnation was as a halfway house, and Hilltop Centre is a charity shop. The former gave the owners access to discarded people; the latter to discarded objects. It also suggests, though does not prove, that this is not the same reality from which Anya Villette hailed. Of course, the house could have been repurposed since her cleaning job in 2009, but it does seem a stretch since at that point in time it had been newly constructed as a private residence. It is also interesting that it was once again destroyed by fire.

So what was this "good cause" the volunteers were so diligently serving? And – if it was Starkwall and the OIAR that dealt with the situation there – who called it in? Dianne's report is clearly after the events, so this is not the case that summoned them.

I'd be interested to hear what did, and what they thought was going on.

[radiaurapple]

Lucid Dreams of New Orleans: Chapter 9

CHAPTER SUMMARY: IN WHICH Lucifer suffers the consequences of an unexpected oversight.

FIC SUMMARY: Lucifer has always kept his distance from sinners. It's what keeps him (relatively) sane — if he gets too close, he is haunted by visions of the tragic mortal lives that landed them in Hell.

But in his new life at the Hotel, it is more difficult than ever to stay away — and when it comes to light that his daughter's insufferable facilities manager is gravely wounded, it falls to Lucifer to deliver his soul from Death.

In so doing, he falls headfirst into the sins, past lives, and heartbreaks of the one human whose contradictions he is powerless to resist.

[AO3 LINK]

It's Saturday so it's new chapter time, and I'm very excited about this one!! No promo art this time, but I do have a shiny new fic summary 📻🍎

Chapter preview below!

The days pass. On one slow afternoon, Alastor slips out of the hotel for tea with Rosie. He returns as the violet of evening bleeds across the horizon. The bar is deserted — Husker has vacated his post.

There is a low, menacing chuckle behind him. Alastor turns, sighs in fond exasperation, and plucks Niffty from her perch above the doorframe by the back of her dress.

“Alastor’s home!” Niffty screeches.

“Great!” Charlie calls from the next room. “Will you ask him to join us in the dining room, please?”

“Charlie wants you in the dining room,” Niffty says.

“So I hear,” Alastor says. He sets Niffty down and she scampers off — Alastor follows.

The hotel’s residents are gathered at the table, mid-meal; a plate has been set out for him between Charlie and Angel Dust. It is piled high with what he can only hope is spaghetti — he notes with resignation that everyone at the table is ignoring their food, apart from Niffty, who has clambered back up onto her chair and is digging in with reckless abandon.

“Okay!” Charlie claps her hands together. “Now that everyone’s here, I can finally share the good news!”

Angel grips the edge of the table with four hands. “I’m unbanned from the ice cream machine?”

“Absolutely not,” Vaggie says. “After what happened last time, you are never touching that thing again.”

“Neither am I,” Husk mutters.

Angel frowns and slumps back into his chair.

“Actually, the news is a little more exciting than the ice cream machine!” Charlie says. “Emily reached out to me, and Heaven has invited my dad and I to visit Sir Pentious! While we’re there, they want to meet with us about the redemption exercises we do at the hotel.”

Vaggie smiles. “Charlie, that’s amazing!”

“I know!” Charlie says. “Maybe they’re finally taking us seriously.”

The table erupts with chatter — but Alastor is hardly listening. He is looking at Lucifer across the table. He has gone very still, his expression neutral apart from the faintly downturned corners of his mouth — his shoulders are drawn inward, slightly, and Alastor is reminded of the blanket he wrapped around himself when he was crying, in the memory Alastor caught only a glimpse of.

A disquieting emotion churns inside of Alastor. He himself has certain memories he would rather run from.

“It’s interesting that they requested Lucifer’s presence,” he says lightly.

“Yeah, I was a little surprised,” Charlie says. She turns to Lucifer. “Emily seemed convinced that you were the reason for our success, even though I explained that you only joined us after Sir Pentious was already redeemed.”

“Well, if they’re sure they want me there,” Lucifer says, and the thread of tension in his voice only strengthens Alastor’s assessment.

“Hold on. Lucifer — are you sure you can spare the time? I’d be happy to attend in your stead,” Alastor says — and then the gears in his mind come to a screeching halt as he processes what he’s just done. What he’s just volunteered to do. He scrambles for a way to back down and still save face, but comes up empty — when that fails, he searches for an explanation to smooth over his uncharacteristic lapse in self-interest. What dynamic was he meant to have with the King of Hell, again? Ah, yes — antagonism. “Besides, if Heaven asks any pertinent questions about our operations, I’m sure they’d prefer accurate answers, as opposed to whatever meaningless folderol you might see fit to share.”

Not his most convincing barb, but Charlie frowns anyway. Lucifer, however, seems to see through the deception and recognize the olive branch Alastor has extended. His expression is pure, unfiltered gratitude.

“I, uh — yes,” Lucifer says, too quickly. “That’s fine with me. I don’t mind at all. I’ve got lots of — uh — stuff on my plate already. Thanks.” Then he tacks on, as an afterthought: “Asshole.”

So Alastor’s interpretation was correct — and now there’s nothing else to be done but see this through. He widens his smile.

Charlie’s mouth snaps shut and she blinks in surprise. “Okay, then! It’s settled,” she says after a moment of floundering. “A week from today, Alastor and I will go to Heaven.”

Alastor clenches and unclenches his fists beneath the table. “I look forward to it,” he says.

Lucifer lasts scarcely five more minutes at the table before he mutters something about a project he needs to get back to and slinks from the room.

Alastor watches him go. There is a tightness in Alastor’s chest, one that is completely separate from the newfound dread of his imminent trip to Heaven. No — this is somehow related to the sight of Lucifer across the table, frozen in shock — to the barely-concealed tension in his voice.

“I had best be going,” Alastor finds himself saying. “Thank you for the lovely meal.”

He drops his napkin on the table and leaves the room — once he’s out of sight, he dips into the shadows.

So it seems his self-sacrificial episode in the battle with Adam may not, in fact, have been an anomaly — it may have been the beginning of a new and troubling pattern of behavior. Why this surge of protectiveness? Alastor has always been defensive of his allies, but the Devil hardly warrants such behavior.

He reforms and realizes belatedly that he has not gone to the radio tower — he’s standing at Lucifer’s door. He raises his fist to the door, hesitates —

Well. He and Lucifer have only recently settled into a mutually beneficial routine, and it won’t do to disrupt it now. So he knocks.

[AO3 LINK]

[luna-rainbow]

do you think steve was depressed and/or had suicidal tendencies in the mcu (especially in catws)?

on one hand i hate it when people believe he can't have any mental health struggles because he's captain america (what kind of weird argument is that??). or becauce he didn't have a mental breakdown in the movies. but on the other hand i'm not sure if it was ever the intention of the writers portraying steve as someone who has to deal with these kind of issues.

I keep having a strange sense of deja vu like I’ve answered the exact same ask before, but I can’t find it 😕

Similarly to interpreting any Bucky and Steve-Bucky scenes, the movies are a product of writer intent, directorial intent, actor intent, and editorial intent.

What I mean is that the writer has one version of the story they’ve pumped into the script. That script is open to interpretation by both the director and the actor. The director has an overall vision of where the story arcs are for all the characters. The actor is the one most likely to have researched in depth about their character’s background, and also deep-dived into their psyche. So while the directorial vision might be important for the tonal cohesiveness of the story, there’s also a lot of personal touches and subtleties a character actor can add. Finally, the editor is the one who snips all the scenes together, usually with directorial oversight, but don’t underestimate what effect a well-placed juxtaposition or a perfectly timed melancholic piano tune might have on how much emotional impact a scene gives.

That’s a long-winded way of saying — I don’t think there was writer or director intention on making Steve depressed, but I believe there was actor intent. I get the sense that Steve is intended to be written as having the personality of the perfect soldier (we need to acknowledge that the MCU is intended to be pro-military): calm under storm, stoic, brave, quick-thinking, valiant, not easily swayed by emotions unless it involves Bucky, etc.

And I think CEvans looked at the history of Steve Rogers, both his comics version who went all the way to grand canyon just to mourn his lost partner, and his movies version, who spent the entire first movie breaking rules for Bucky's sake and spent his only tears on him, and said well I know where Steve's emotional fulcrum is. As an actor, it's much more interesting to peer into the emotional motivations under an outwardly stoic shell, than to just pretend Steve has no thoughts, only soldiering.

So CEvans acted a guy who was still feeling displaced from home. He's still searching for home, he's searching for trust and safety, he's keeping the lid on grief and doubt, he's pushing himself forward but not really knowing if there's a goal in sight and not knowing if he wants to keep walking. So yeah...even if he were not textbook depressed, he's certainly not in a good mental state.

As for suicidal tendencies...I'm on the fence about this (although I know a lot of people do think he did). The long explanation of it is - all of us make decisions by judging the risks, and all of us have taken actions that have a real risk of death (even driving, for example). There's always some debate about whether going for sufficiently high-risk activities (e.g. skydiving, motocross, managing a nuclear plant etc) means you're "suicidal" or "thrill seeking" or...simply doing something you believe in. Being a soldier is inherently a very high-risk job (especially at the time Steve enlisted) - so was it suicidal, or was it a person in a normal state of mind weighing up the risks against his values, and saying "despite the real risk of death, I will nevertheless do it because I believe it needs to be done"? Even his actions of leaping off the Quinjet in the beginning of CATWS - that was a very calculated jump. Was that suicidal, or him being perfectly attuned to his own limits?

And similarly, when he said to Bucky, "Then finish it, I'm with you to the end of the line," was he suicidal, or was he simply accepting the real risk of death - as he had had to do every day in this job - while challenging someone he had always trusted to have his back this one last time?

[swallowtailed]

palisade 50 / finalisade pt. 5

structure thoughts

okay, i have a lot of thoughts re structure this week. i had these last ep too, but i wanted to give it another episode to see how a few things shook out, because fatt tends to move quite slowly in that way. (also i had just gotten cursed with dawn work and had no brainroom for real thoughts.) i do still think there's room for some of these things to develop, and fatt tends to hang together much better in retrospect. but this is my read right now.

the reintroduction of cas'alear & co: i am content to wait a bit for some interaction with them or some explanation of why they're here, because palisade is currently being forced through seven separate funnels and a brand new problem won't fit somewhere instantly. that said. bro we better find out what's up. they're physically on the blue channel, that can't just get handwaved

and re material circumstances of blue channel & crew--to my eye the dice valuation of relationships is causing some real siloing off of characters and storylines. which is really unfortunate because the bonds between the crew were a huge strength of palisade and it just feels like an oversight to miss that in the finalisade. (this is also a factor of not doing a ton of rp in this game. one thing i'm really missing is bringing the misfortune options into the result of a scene.)

and on a similar note, i really liked august's scene with righteousness, but it could've been even better if palisade had engaged more with delegate characters and what it means to be a delegate throughout the season. instead this & a bunch of other thematic threads are being advanced way more actively than before now that it's the finalisade, which feels kind of hollow.

i also really wish eclectic was still around. having had a leap scene, i've solidly come down that it was a bad narrative decision to kill eclectic. introducing a new (to the season) character in the middle of the finalisade, on top of a bunch of other new/er pcs, was always gonna be awkward, and leap doesn't work here. his goal, to take kesh for every last cent, has a very similar problem to clem's--kesh isn't there. which is less of a direct issue when the end goal is just "steal", but it's still a goal from a partizan paradigm, not a palisade one. you know? like, leap's fixated on kesh and kesh is a shrinking speck on a planet with new and different problems.

also ideally leap's reintroduction would create contrast for the ways brnine and thisbe have changed since partizan. maybe we will get to that later.

hey i actually think talking about a justice system would be extremely relevant given how many characters have goals in that direction?

i think overall my sense is that finalisade feels disconnected from the rest of the season due to all the character changes and some rushed thematic work.

anyway obv this is fatt so there's every chance all of the above will be resolved by the end of finalisade but from here i'm feeling a little doubtful

various other notes

jesset's gun arm! i stopped to wonder which it was back when that happened, but since it wasn't addressed i figured it was intended to be his prosthetic arm. wild.

the autonomy reveal... love when a reveal is so well seeded and rings so true that you have to be like "hang on was that not already canon". very cool. very perennial. miserable, also.

taking a minute though to sit and think about perennial and loneliness. also taking a minute to think the phrase "did perennial effectively utilize girl power in creating autonomy itself".

re cori's scene: the suggestion that perennial's consecration might change the flora and fauna really caught my ear. not beating the "millennium break is also colonizing palisade" allegations. it seems like they went another direction (just the sky changing?) but that rang really weird to me, especially when the colonial angle of gardens wrt the bilats had just been raised a few episodes ago.

very much appreciated janine taking the time to explicitly bring up the framing of unction's fate as something that would, in-universe, be a question and a conversation

[dogtoling]

Ok, with Kraken coming what's your explanation for it returning considering the whole debacle from your Kraken post?

incredibly good question. for context, at the end of my years-old Kraken post explaining what the Kraken is (a deimatic display, which was harnessed as a turf war special through the use of cool steroids for fun), I explained that it was discontinued because use of the drug that triggered the special made the body more responsive to the natural, emotional triggers for the Kraken over extended use. That would make natural Krakening easier to trigger over time for people who are already used to Krakening very often, even through unnatural means (the drug), and as the Kraken is a self-defensive reaction to extremely dangerous situations normally, that is Very Bad. So, once cases of this happening became more common and more known over time, the drug and Kraken with it was promptly banned from Turf Wars alongside the other current Specials during the Special Weapon Overhaul. And at the end of that post I specifically said it's VERY UNLIKELY that the Kraken will ever return to the battlefield.

Well, here we are! The Kraken has returned! HOORAYYYYY!

back to the topic at hand. WHY?

There's multiple options, honestly. First off, we're in the SPLATLANDS now. Splatsville is the city of chaos and they clearly don't give a shit about some "special weapon overhaul" over there! They're probably not bound by laws of the Inkopolis turf scene. So this is the theory that Splatsville Turfers Simply Don't Care and the Kraken is still objectively REALLY, REALLY COOL and they want to be Krakens! A lot of Splatsville's turfing culture and weapons seems to have been inspired by Inkopolis' early turfing culture, so it wouldn't be surprising that Kraken made it in eventually - whether they know about its cons or not.

So the theory has one pretty obvious flaw, that being that Splatoon 3 also has Turf Wars that take place in Inkopolis maps. Um, in that case yes, actually the Inkopolis Turf Laws actually DO apply. So, we could extend the meaning of the Order vs. Chaos Splatfest and say that since chaos won, the Special Weapon Overhaul might have been seriously revised or just... undone, and the rules loosened overall. It would make sense given that really powerful special weapons like the Triple Inkstrike and Trizooka are ALSO being used on Inkopolis grounds despite those weapons already being banned once before pretty much, but seems like kind of a huge oversight...

There is also the chance that the drug used to trigger this Kraken is a different, improved one - it's called the Kraken ROYALE now (i think) after all, not JUST "Kraken". I have no idea how they would've made an improved drug that just makes involuntary Krakening not happen over time, assuming the drug itself wasn't the problem... the Krakening itself was the problem. Or they were both part of the problem. But the point is, not sure how they'd manage to make a drug that accomplishes the exact same thing without triggering a third thing that directly correlates with repeated Krakening using an outside trigger. But like, there's the chance that they somehow did?

And, you know, when we're talking about capitalism and monetary gain there's always the chance that the people selling the drug in the first place are trying really hard to push the New Version really hoping that everybody forgot what happened last time. It's been a few years.

Of course, the final theory is not a theory, but the brewing fear that now that the Kraken is relevant again, Nintendo will give a canon reasoning as to what the Kraken ACTUALLY is and I'll have to rewrite all my OC lore.

[kelnexia]

So I know that it’s commonly believed to be cannon that the cycle is a time loop and/or transfer of consciousness into an alternate universe. Basically appearing as it does in the game mechanics.

However this idea has some flaws and oversights that lead to some massive plot holes…

The previously stated mechanics would only allow a single individual to know about the existence of the cycle in any given instance. Why would this be the case? Well, in this circumstance whenever you experience the cycle it would create a spit in the timeline aka an alternate universe. In one reality you’re dead, plan and simple, no one will ever see you again. In the other you’re still alive, perhaps you had a weird dream where you died multiple times but otherwise your seemingly fine.

Now so far it appears that this could actually work. However this split in the timeline would be a copy of your old reality – not one that already existed. You would be alone in your knowledge of the cycle. This doesn't line up with anything mentioned in the lore pearls, the cycle is something that’s universally known about. Something isn’t lining up here…

So I have an alternative that I’d like to present, an alternative that aside from it not 100% aligning with the game mechanics, has very few plot holes…

What if the cycle is a reincarnation cycle? There’s nothing in the pearls that would completely debunk this idea to my knowledge, and it would be a good explanation for several aspects of the lore.

It could serve as an in universe explanation on how the ancients got their name. What if they retain their memories from their past lives even after entire eras worth of generations has passed? It would certain explain why they’re so desperate to ascend if they’ve been stuck in one continued line of existence for centuries upon centuries. Just think about how repetitive and tiring it must be to have to go through the cycle of life and death over and over and over and over and over and over and… I think a lot of people would get tired of it at some point.

It would also explain how the ancients achieved such an impressive level of technological advancement. Whenever you die you would just come back in a new body to be able to pick up your work right back where you left it. All of their world’s greatest creative minds would still be around and able to continue their work for as long as they cared about it.

So in conclusion… I’m not trying to impede on anyone here, don’t get me wrong. But I would like to bring up this alternative to the table as it has a lot of potential.

[paper--moons]

Regressor!Miroku Headcanons

(with cg!Inuyasha)

Despite being a fairly perceptive person, Miroku is largely unaware of his own regression. Although perception does not necessarily equate to introspection of oneself, it still seems like he should have noticed this aspect of himself. This oversight can be chalked up to the fact that he has a lot going on, to put it mildly—forget trying to navigate the typical struggles that come with entering adulthood, no, he has to worry about finding Naraku and destroying him in order to get rid of the Kazaana unless he wants to be swallowed up by it (like his father before him, and his father's father). So it's understandable that he may have overlooked some things (or more accurately, ignored), like the dislocated, heady feeling that sometimes overcame him late at night when he closed himself away in whatever accommodations he had managed to secure for the evening. And even when he did acknowledge it, it was easy enough to brush off as something he was more familiar with and had a word for. Like fatigue. Surely it was only fatigue? The constant traveling, performing exorcisms, and doing palm readings and the like having caught up to him, as well as the ever-mounting pressure of time—running out of time—looming over him. But the swimmy feeling wasn't unpleasant, instead being quite the opposite. It made things easier, and so Miroku didn't have to acknowledge it. He wouldn't. Though this becomes something of an issue when he picks up some traveling companions (or rather, they pick him up) and they take notice of the occasional odd behavior; it's difficult to hide things when they are constantly in close proximity of one another. And while neither Kagome nor Sango push the issue, Inuyasha is a lot more stubborn.

This stubbornness is borne out of the belief that he's right, of course. Inuyasha can't exactly blame the rest of their group for not noticing—Sango and Kagome are only humans, after all, and Shippo is, well...Shippo, so of course he didn't notice either. Although he comes closer than the other two, not exactly noticing the way Miroku seems to almost be indulging himself when playing with the young yokai. And it could easily enough be explained away that he's just good with kids—an explanation that Miroku uses like a crutch when Sango mentions how good he is with Shippo—but there's more to it. Inuyasha can tell there's more to it, because the way Miroku smells changes. In fact, it was that subtle change that first tipped him off to the fact that Miroku regresses; Inuyasha might have bought the ready-made excuse if not for the fact that his yokai senses were telling him otherwise. While it's pretty typical for a human's emotional state to be picked up by a yokai, it's also typical that it fluctuates. It doesn't help that humans can't mask this like yokai can nor can they detect it themselves. But Miroku smells like a baby a lot more often than other people he's been around, and Inuyasha starts to get very protective without realizing it. He pushes, Miroku pushes back, the two butt heads about it, until finally everything bubbles over when Miroku gets sick from using the Kazaana to swallow up the nasty miasma Naraku so often liked to use against them. It's happened before, but this time he drops hard and he isn't even sure why that is. All Miroku knows is that it hurts and he wants to be held. His thoughts are a lot more jumbled than when this usually happens, his head a lot more fuzzy...although that could be attributed to the soft white hair he's crying into as he's held protectively against a familiar chest. And really, it's hard for Miroku to deny this isn't something he needs after clinging to Inuyasha like his life depended on it.

His regression being acknowledged (and assigned a proper term, thanks to Kagome and her modern understanding of what he's been experiencing) does not make things any easier on him. Miroku doesn't want to be so small, doesn't have the time. And it's frustrating when he finds that he suddenly has a caregiver (another term from Kagome, this time for Inuyasha), especially one that often knows just how small he's feeling. They all figure out fairly quickly that Miroku has what Kagome called a wider age range, roughly estimating that he falls anywhere from baby to about twelve. This might have been okay in his opinion (embarrassing, sure, but okay) if he stayed on the twelve end of things. More often than not however, Miroku slips dangerously small given what their escapades on a daily basis usually consist of. A reality that isn't helped by the fact that Inuyasha has decided he's his pup now. The way the half-yokai will essentially just lift him up whenever he feels like with a dismissive What? Fussy pups get scruffed, an' you've been whinin' all morning should not make Miroku feel so cared for and yet...it's nice. Not that he would admit it, though the way he melts into Inuyasha's hold and is soothed by the bouncing is quite telling in and of itself. But Miroku can't even remember a time when he wasn't preparing to face Naraku and get rid of the curse held in his palm. So much of his actual childhood was overshadowed by his father trying to do the very same, with his father's efforts to get rid of the Kazaana so it wouldn't be passed along to his son resulting in a lot of emotional neglect. For Inuyasha to be so perceptive of his emotional state and to make the big decisions for him, if only for a little while, in all honesty felt like a great relief. Not only does it come as a great relief, but the feeling of care and safety the yokai provided starts to push him smaller than he might have otherwise let himself be.

Despite Inuyasha seemingly being a mind reader (a regression reader?), the whole group makes efforts at getting Miroku to regress in a more healthy way, rather than just relying on Inuyasha to decide when he's done enough time being a big boy for the day. Even if he can accurately know those things, Miroku needs to slip occasionally under more positive circumstances rather than because he pushed himself too far again. There's more gentleness shared between them all even if at first their efforts are directed moreso at Miroku. Little things that are actually big things, like checking in to make sure he is feeling okay or helping him with tasks that he's done alone a million times. Though it takes a lot less encouragement to get him to regress than any of them could have expected however, because suddenly it's like the floodgates have been opened as he comes to accept his regression. To be told that it is okay, that he isn't running out of time because they're in this together. To be promised by Inuyasha that he will personally make sure Naraku is defeated and the Kazaana removed. To be reassured that he is allowed to be small. It finally brings him some much needed relief, and with that relief he is able to properly seek the comfort he needs for the first time in his life. Suddenly they're faced with the fact that Miroku middlespaces a lot given that he finally has a support system, and regresses much more regularly whenever they have downtime. Regressing at night certainly keeps him from being so fussy the next morning too, though Inuyasha will still find an excuse to scoop him up so he can nap a little before they stop for lunch.

With an increased positive association with regression comes some new activities. Not that his association with negative emotions was inherently wrong, of course; those negative emotions when he was feeling small only really saw him experiencing one end of the regression spectrum, and with that meant he was only really doing more low-energy or self-soothing activities. But now that his regression has opened up to other emotions, it turns out Miroku is a very high energy kid! Sort of like he hasn't gotten to play outside in a really really long time because it was raining, and so he has a ton of pent up energy—so much so that it's difficult for anyone to keep up with him, with Inuyasha being the exception. Miroku bounces from one game to the next with reckless abandon, absolutely delighting in the fact that he's free to play and has someone playing with him. However it becomes clear to Inuyasha that Miroku is missing something. Something that was a part of even his own childhood experience: toys, and by extension, comfort items. Inuyasha can recall cherishing the few toys he had as a child and with that thought in mind, sets out on a little excursion to find a nearby village where he might be able to secure a few things. It's only a day trip, though Miroku gets restless back at their camp. But the wait is worth it when Inuyasha returns and with a smug grin spreads out what he managed to scrounge up: a simple ball, a spinning top, and a soft blanket. He starts to say he wants to try and get Miroku a few other things, but doesn't get to finish before the boy is practically tackling him in a hug. His haul might have been small, but Miroku is impressed nonetheless and almost immediately gravitates towards the blanket despite it not being naptime.

Some of Inuyasha's caregiving habits don't always make sense to Miroku, no matter if he's big or small—there are just some things that have to be written off as yokai instincts. Specifically as dog yokai instincts. Like getting scruffed; he has grown more than accustomed to getting picked up at the drop of a hat. He's in trouble? Scruffed. He's getting a little too rambunctious? Also scruffed. Then there's the fact that Inuyasha will quite literally growl at people that he doesn't trust getting too close to the baby. Somewhat embarrassing as Miroku is (mostly) big whenever that happens, but he gets it. What he doesn't get though is the fact that he gets sat down and groomed at the end of the day. It doesn't matter if he's clean or dirty, doesn't matter how recently he's had a bath or brushed his hair, he's getting tugged down into Inuyasha's lap. And while he doesn't fully understand why it's something he (seemingly) has to have done every day, Miroku doesn't find it uncomfortable, nor is it fully unwanted either. Quite the opposite, in fact! The claws finger-combing his hair and lightly scratching at his scalp feel so nice, not to mention that the act itself is so attentive. It's not something Miroku would have ever guessed Inuyasha would do for him, nor would he have guessed just how easily it lulls him to sleep. (And, should he think about it, he might come to realize that perhaps that's exactly why Inuyasha does it.)

While Miroku tries to stay big on nights with a full moon after learning about Inuyasha's secret, he can't always manage it. It's a scary thing! Even if he were to keep himself from regressing, he would be worried sick despite the fact that Sango and Kagome are helping keep watch too—as it stands, it is that anxiety that something might happen while Inuyasha is so vulnerable that ultimately causes him to slip. However, this does not stop him from helping to protect him. Or trying to, at least in his own way. Baby Miroku is a little on the clingy side, and figures that if the girls are watching their camp's perimeter then he is going to be the one to keep a close eye on Inuyasha. Naturally this "protection" takes the form of cuddling up to him for the entire night so they can both get some rest. It's what Inuyasha does for him when he's feeling icky, and as far as Miroku understands when he's small like this, his cg feels very icky yucky when the moon is full. It's very much the manifestation of that little kid mentality that believes everyone should get as much help and the same kind of help as they do! And so he occupies a soft toddlerspace as he tucks Inuyasha in with his blanket before gently petting over the jet black locks that only a few hours ago were as silver as the moonlight now bathing them. Miroku wastes no time moving to cling to him, with tiny murmurs of s'okay being whispered while he settles in beside him. For his part, Inuyasha is quite touched by this—the emotional response of course being blamed on his temporary, fully human state—and finds himself hugging onto Miroku equally as tightly as he drifts off to sleep. They won't discuss it the next morning, or ever, because the gesture itself is more than enough.

[majorbaby]

Can you elaborate on your personal gripes for how mulcahy is used in the narrative? I have seen people talking about not liking him but I think it was more disliking him as a guy, so I would like to hear your thoughts

okay well, first i'd just like to say that nobody is a bad person for liking mulcahy and i have less of an issue with HIM as a guy (his thoughts, feelings, wishes, his favourite colour, his favourite food, his relationships with others) as i have with how he is positioned by the narrative. you seem to get this, but i still want to make it clear. if anything i'm all for mulcahy getting it on with whoever because it would undermine his vocation as a celibate priest.

long explanation under the cut but TL;DR: mulcahy is positioned as being a morally upright person. this is dangerous because apart from his being a character on the show, he is also representative of the catholic church. moreover, positioning the church this way severely undermines the show's central, anti-establishment, anti-war messaging.

there's lots to love about MASH, but the way it deals with religion and the church is a major weakness. the show wants me to accept that patriarchy, militarism, imperialism, social conservatism are bad, but draws the line at critiquing religion, by positioning its chief representative in positive light. it's a big oversight.

let me try this a new way compared to how i've done it in the past and start with the military:

fuck the military, right? we agree that it is bad? and we agree that MASH came out swinging against the army and that that is part of the central messaging of the show? and we agree that one of the best things about MASH is that it took such a hard line against the military? cool.

why do we hate the military? it's violent, it's paternalistic, it eats up public money that could otherwise be spent on making peoples lives better, it influences public policy in a negative way, it's hostile to equity-seeking people (racialized people, lgbtq+ people, women, people with mental and physical disabilities), it is also hostile to even the most privileged in our society. MASH specifically took aim at the draft, which still functionally exists in US law.

basically, it is overwhelmingly oppressive and does far more harm than good, if you can even make a case for what good it does.

the catholic church is bad for all the same reasons. most catholics are born into the church, assigned catholic at baptism, which occurs when you are a baby and which cannot consent to. its ranks are overwhelmingly male and priests are literally called "Fathers".

your mileage may vary when it comes to the separation of church and state but...

where i live, the catholic school system is funded by tax dollars - technically any child can attend a catholic school even if they aren't catholic, but say, idk, want some free indoctrination. but you must be catholic to teach in catholic schools, so half of all these 'public service jobs' which are unionized, pay well and difficult to secure are only available to catholics. you can go to catholic school yet grow up and be unable to teach in one, like, currently, in 2023, in Canada which has some fucking nerve to be still upholding this archaic system. people aren't born pro-life or homophobic or believing that sex should be between a man and a woman and purely for procreation, or that masturbation is a sin... these are all things we see in policy, in education, in medicine, in media, as a result of the influence of christianity. what flavour of christanity varies based on where you live but in many instances, it's catholicism. you could extend some of these critiques to organized religion in general but i'm not doing that right now because mulcahy is catholic specifically.

like... purity culture didn't just pop out of nowhere. you may not be christian but sex shaming and the elevated ideal of marriage and the gender binary and the idea that we need to be 'civilized' in a certain way are all christian values that were spread violently across the globe, often hand-in-hand with military exploits. not only are the military and the church similar, they're often indistinguishable and they very much need one another.

MASH was trying very hard to say, originally at least, that there are no good military brass. even henry gets the piss taken out of him whenever he tries to be a 'colonel' to hawkeye and trapper. so why henry, and not mulcahy? (also why not potter but like, that was a different era and potter is a character i actually do proper hate)

if there can be no good army officers, then there can be no good priests. and mulcahy was both.

[spite-and-waffles]

You did a little explanation on how rich the Wayne’s are right here: https://at.tumblr.com/spite-and-waffles/i-always-wonder-whether-batfam-fans-really-get/0ctrzj4qhiww

Now I was wondering if you could do a part 2 explaining how rich the Al Ghuls are, it’s be amazing 🤩 to see how everyone reacts to Dami being an Al Ghul which is essentially royalty, and Damian being idk the prince of Nada Parbat and the Batfam’s reactions to it please

The discussion on that post went a lot into how rich Ra's might be, and whether he was richer than Bruce. (I made an edit about it, which I later moved into reblogs, which is why you'll see it in different places in the reblog chains.)

@rasalghul777 made a more involved post about Ra's in this reblog. It's a very well considered response, and I'm not very economically literate, but I didn't agree about the gold. Gold prices crash all the time, being subject to the same supply and demand as other goods. It's supposed to be a safe haven in times of inflation and economic downturn, but it's gone down 20% these days.

And I think the bit about counting income in expenses didn't account for purchasing power parity, which means that a basket of essential goods can be exponentially cheaper in the Global South. Especially if you're buying them, even weapons, at grate price.

This reblog goes into the comparisons between the cumulative wealth of individual billionaires vs. foreign debt of entire countries (the results will make you want to start killing people yourself). I think Ra's wealth in maintaining his assassins would function like a feudal economy, and I wanted to research that a little more before I responded, but then I...forgot. Lol.

As for the Al Ghuls being "royalty" – no. They're warlords with delusions of grandeur. Well, Ra's is. Both Nyssa and Talia just wanted out, and Dami is just parrotting what he's been made to believe. Nanda Parbat is the headquarters of a cult, that functions as a citadel. Royalty entails control of a country, that interacts with other rulers and nations. Ra's's idea of interaction is probably keeping a whole bunch of blackmail on everyone in his back pocket and culling favours by bribing and terrorizing them from the shadows. He's had centuries to build up his mystique, Illuminati-style, and rich and powerful people tend to be superstitious, especially in Asia and Africa. A myth is always more powerful than a man. The trouble with Ra's is that he buys his own hype, which always an Achilles heel. (And just tacky, tbh. But then so is royalty.)

Damian has been raised on all of Ra's's delusions about himself and his place in the world, and probably thinks of himself as a prince, because he's still a child. However, between his grandfather and his father, he can leverage the kind of power and influence that actual modern-day royalty can only dream of, because today's monarchies are answerable to their parliaments and the international community. (Granted, the complete lack of oversight and accountability checks around the Bats in general is a consistent cause for fridge horror). In terms of money, he stands to inherit one-fifth of Bruce's estate (one-sixth now? What's Duke's adoption status again?) as well as Ra's's fortune, so his personal wealth would be on par with or higher than the richest monarchs today (the current richest monarch in the world, King Vajiralongkorn of Thailand, is worth $43 - $30 billion). But like I said, royalty are the representatives and political leaders/ figureheads of a country, that existed either in the present or the past. The Al Ghuls aren't. So they're no more royalty than Bruce is. You could make the case that the Al Ghuls and Waynes are "aristocrats", the criteria for which is fuzzier but has something to do with noblesse oblige.

(Opinions have possibly been coloured by writer's extreme distaste for royalty and rich people, even in fiction. 😂 Dami will hopefully grow to share it. I mean, his favourite person is a carnie boy, and his Batgirl a working class girl and queen of dollar store scrunchies. His first friend was disabled orphanage child Colin Wilkes. Children are so much more than moulds their forebears want to cram them into.)

[godtier]

hi guys, i been busy but i needed to rant about the trashfire that is FFXVI. so an obvious warning: this is spoilers for FFXVI, proceed with caution, read at your own risk, etc

so i am at the point in the game where dion is in bed and joshua is awake from his injuries. he has a conversation with clive and jill, discussing ultima and his plans.

clive, being the dumb slut he is, is like “BUT WHY ME” wrt to being ultima’s target vessel (as if ultima didn’t talk to him about it directly back when cid got murked but idk i guess i can forgive him for not remembering since his bf had just gotten filled with holes) and joshua has to explain the fucking obvious to him by saying that dominants are beholden to their eikon’s elemental affinity. meaning, joshua can only cast fire magicks, jill can only do ice, etc. clive is different for this reason, since he currently shares a headspace with now five eikons and can use their powers at will (concurrently with his blessing of the phoenix, which i still get confused about that. maybe i forgot or missed an explanation but it’s just weird to me idk)

that’s all well and good, because it’s what i had assumed from the start. eikons represent a specific element. if you’re basically the vessel for that eikon, it makes completes sense that you only have access to their elemental prowess. 

HOWEVER

this creates a hole. a minor hole (unlike the ones that were put in cid lol), but a hole nonetheless. an oversight that, while minor at a glance, kinda throws off the lore and logic the game has established up to this point.

what, exactly, does this information contradict? well, i’m talking about this scene in particular (clipped to the correct timestamp): 

if the video doesn’t load for whatever reason, the scene i’m talking about is when benedikta is talking to that group of magistrates or whatever and then decides to light her pipe with her finger, using magicks.

the issue? benedikta’s eikon was garuda. garuda is the eikon of wind. 

HOW THE FUCK

DO YOU LIGHT A PIPE

WITH WIND

well you don’t, silly

because it’s very clear in the scene that she wasn’t using wind, she was using fire.

which begs the question: HOW.

HOW did she use fire if she supposedly is beholden to garuda’s element of wind? if what joshua was saying was true (which admittedly, it makes sense given the rest of the framing of how magick seems to work in the world) then why wasn’t this seen as a bizarre quirk she was able to do? 

i’ll tell you why

it was a lazy oversight. and though it was a minor scene, it was one that was framed in a way that drew direct attention to the action itself and used to clearly define the differences between people in this world. 

right before she lights the pipe, a man was using a crystal in the foreground to fill a cup with water. the scene was meant to illustrate the disparity between those who are not magick users (thereby forced to use crystals for simple magick tasks, or bearers if they can afford them) and those who are magick users. it was framed to show that benedikta wasn’t beholden to the limitations of using crystals for magicks. she could do it herself. 

but she shouldn’t have been able to.

the problem therein is that you used a character who, by the self-proclaimed logic of the game, would have no way to use fire like that naturally. though the scene itself was very effective and framed well, imo, it ultimately breaks apart the rules of the world building they’ve established (or at least come to fully establish by the point i’m in; it was pretty much implied if you ask me).

from the start, i had figured that eikons were only able to use their assigned element. when i saw benedikta do that, i had thought “oh... maybe there are some exceptions? it was a pretty small flame, maybe they can only do minor magicks that aren’t associated with their eikon?”

but then i thought about it more. if their power comes directly from eikons and not the crystals (which to my understanding is how bearers are able to cast magicks) how would garuda bestow even a slight ability to produce a flame? garuda is entirely wind. there are no powers she has that hint at being fire-adjacent (such as in some games classifying water and ice magic as the same “family,” is what i’m getting at). there was nothing to indicate any cross-contamination, of sorts. their powers are from the eikons and the eikons alone, not the crystals directly.

so while this is a scene that many may forget about or brush off, i think it honestly creates a larger hole in the logic than most might first think. it totally contradicts everything joshua had said, it also makes clive not that special if benedikta was able to use fire as well.

ultimately, i think that it was a very lazy oversight. they wanted to show the disparity between regular people and bearers/dominants. but they thought about it for a min, and went “well the only other dominants that can use fire wouldn’t be in this scene. we can’t use them to illustrate this. and we can’t exactly have benedikta use her wind powers to make a mundane action more convenient... so let’s just have her light it with her finger and move on.”

OR 

the game was so disjointed in its logic/world building that they just straight-up forgot that they had benedikta do that at the start of the game by the time they got to writing out the rest of the story. i think this one is the more likely option; they just were so bad at keeping a lore bible or referencing it at all that they stupidly forgot that they had benedikta do something she should not have been able to do by their own established rules. or the rules weren’t even established at all until the point joshua talks about it! who knows!

to get an idea of my immediate reaction to joshua’s lines, please witness this conversation between myself and @sapphire-weapon​

anyway, i’m not ready for how bad the game apparently gets as it goes on. it’s such a shame because overall? i do like this game. it’s fun to play. i like the characters a lot. but my god the story... the backbone of any game, imo, is the story. it could play like shit but have a banger story, i’d suffer through it. but it’s so much worse to me to have a game that has really fun gameplay and characters, but an abysmal story. 

don’t get me wrong, i like the overall idea of the story. i like the overall framing. it’s the details that pile up, the weird choices in narrative movement (like clive’s coming to terms with “killing” joshua??? makes no sense at the point i’m at anymore!) that are really wrecking it for me.

anyway thanks for comin to my rant. enjoy ur day pls.