#and isn’t that being doomed by the narrative in its own way?

[zukkacore]

Jace stardiamond is so darkside mirror universe Patrocles it’s insane

[inbarfink]

Among the various readings and interpretations of What the Hell is Up With the Ending to the DHMIS Web Show - one of the more interesting ones (from my perspective, at leas) has always been that it’s all a metaphor for repeating patterns of trauma and/or abuse. 

As in, most of the narrative of the DHMIS Webshow has been some sort of surrealist metaphor for Roy being an overcontrolling and manipulative parental figure for his son and his friends

And then the ending shows them finally escaping his influence -

Only that without a frame of reference for just how screwed-up their upbringing really was and without any healthy way to process their various traumas, they end up being in danger of just replicating his abuse on their own. Either on each other or maybe on the color-swapped characters who can, like, represent their own children or something. 

And so the vague ending of the Webshow is an open question, yes, the trio might’ve gotten physically away from Roy’s influence - but are they free from it mentally?

Or are they doomed to snap back into their old familiar world?

And the interesting thing about this is that like… that could be what the Web Show is about on a metaphorical level. But in the TV Show, with its greater emphasis on interpersonal conflicts and the characters - the idea of our main trio unknowingly replicating the abuse they live under is not just something we can hypothetically ruminate on. It’s something we can actually see, something we can actually feel.

Like, the first thing that made me think of Yellow and Red’s interactions with Stain Edwards.

This is basically the closest the Three of Them can get to being parental figures within the confines of the Format. He starts out as such a sweet and curious child-like being, his title for himself is literally ‘the Forever Boy’. And, well…

Red and Yellow are just so uncomfortable with his curiosity and thirst for adventure that they basically immediately try and stomp it right out. And that’s like a whole big thing about DHMIS, isn’t it? The way that children’s edutainment and the education system actually curbs children's curiosity and desire for learning so they can better memorize easily-digestible simplified concepts and Respect Their Authority Figures. 

You know, it’s the whole thing with…

And that’s kinda how Red acts with Stain? He’s a lot less violent and more subdued about it - but he also discourages the little guy from asking questions and wanting to explore the world. 

And he is trying to push him into fitting more into the Format. And, like, managing his life like the Trio’s own life is managed by the Format. First more generally into what being part of the DHMIS main trio is supposed to mean (‘just sit here and something will happen’) and then eventually literally turning him into something he didn’t want to be. 

And from our more familiar perspective, it’s clear that Red Guy really just genuinely thinks at this point that sitting passively and Waiting to Be Taught At is how things are Supposed to Be and can’t really imagine things going any other way. He is honestly just trying to get Stain to understand how their life is supposed to work. (Well until it starts becoming about making a new Duck) 

And it’s also clear to us how much Red Guy is motivated by just unaddressed grief about Duck and wanting to avoid conflict with Yellow Guy, who's a lot more explictly lashing out at Stain in his grief

"What's the matter with him?" "Nothing. Just don't look at him." "What? Where can I look? I can't look at him, can't look over there..." "No, if, if you want to look at stuff, just tell me and I-I'll make a list. Of where you should or should not look..." "Seems like a weird system..." "Yeah, well, you seem like a weird little...thing with...and you don't even... the other guy at least had his own clothes"

But looking at it from Stain’s perspective, taking aside our understanding of Red’s character and motivation. This is just an authority figure giving him a nonsense set of rules and then lashing out at him when he questions it. Never giving a deeper explanation than ‘this is how it’s supposed to be’ and basically punishing his curiosity.

Kinda like, well, how the Teachers tend to interact with the trio.

And then there’s Yellow Guy who’s just totally lashing out at Stain through the whole thing, because, again, he can’t process the grief of losing Duck. Because his environment did not give him the tools to properly process that trauma and he has no healthy frame of reference to grief and that’s kinda...

Yeah, that’s just what I was talking about. Stain’s subplot in ‘Death’ is just Yellow and Red having not interrogated their abusive environment and not really dealing with their trauma and thus repeating the patterns of the Teachers on their new child-like figure.

Which then culminates with either Duck killing Stain in the name of preserving the status-quo of the format (“there’s only supposed to be three of us”) or with Stain having internalized so much of what Yellow and Red (but mainly Red) taught him about what he’s supposed to be that he was willing to kill in the name of the Format - and then slotted in perfectly in the unadventurous, unquestioning role of Duck.

And this lil narrative is especially interesting if you believe any variance of the David Theory. Because Yellow and Red were mainly motivated in their mistreatment of Stain by their Grief about a ‘dead’ family member. Which could mirror Lesley's trapping and mistreatment of the trio and her own motivations. 

But I think this idea of mirroring and repeating patterns of abuse are reflected in more than just this one episode. It’s also reflected in the way Red and Duck tend to mistreat Yellow.

Because while Yellow doesn’t slot as neatly into the Child position like Stain did- his simplistic naïveté does mean he often plays a Child-like role in our favorite Forced Family dynamic. And the way that Duck and Red can often condescend to him can… very well mirror the condescending way the teachers address all three of them.

Especially when you also consider the similar manner both the Teachers and Red + Duck react to Yellow being fully charged in ‘Electricity’. They are all so nervous about Yellow breaking away from his supposed ‘role’ as the Stupid One. 

And they especially all seem so very insecure about the idea that Yellow might be smarter than they are.

And that’s, you know, also an aspect of children’s education that tends to actually harm children and their curiosity. This desire for ‘respect’ towards authority figures and this egotistical need for teachers and parents to always be smarter than their kids - causing them to subtly or bluntly punish children for just being clever or inquisitive. 

It’s, you know “I’m the adult, you are the child. I am supposed to be the Smart and Knowledgeable one and you are the one who must be taught. And you need to play your role!”

Again, that seems to be the whole thing in ‘Time’.

Here it’s a lot more subtle and less openly hostile, but Yellow can tell that just like that Insurance Teacher,  Red and Duck’s egos have also been hurt by the fact that they might not be smarter than Yellow Guy anymore. And he considers going back to the role he’s ‘supposed to be’, even though being fully-charged seems to feel better for him (‘this doesn’t feel wrong’), just for them. 

That’s almost literally a child giving up on a pursuit of knowledge just to placate his parental figures. 

And then, you know, his refusal to do so and his assertion of his own ability to make decisions for himself (his own maturity, "they're not in charge of us anymore" "Maybe they never were") is directly what leads to him ascending and disassembling not just the trio’s dynamic but the very structure of the Format. 

And I think, it’s not just that Red and Duck’s treatment of Yellow mirrors the way the teachers treat the Three of Them - it might be a result of it as well. With how condescending the teachers are towards them in general, bullying Yellow is their way to assert some sort of maturity and intelligence for themselves. It's super-fucked up, but this is how they internalized expressing what ‘intelligence’ is supposed to look like. And they have no frame of reference for a way of feeling smart or in control that doesn’t involve shutting someone else down. Because that's what literally every authority figure does for them all the time.

Now, do I think that means that our trio is doomed to mirror those patterns? That they will always inevitability repeat the horrors they go through on each other and others? Well, just like with every ‘cycle of abuse’, it can always be broken. But it will take some actual understanding and self-awareness and personal healing from the trio. 

And without this, they’re not just trapped within the Horrors physically, but also spiritually as well. Without it, no matter if they do manage to run away, on some level, their journey will always end up back at home....

[just-some-sorta-person]

Nagi's "Hidden Path"/ Loophole

*featuring Isagi, Bachira, and Rin analysis*

I've been thinking a lot about how Nagi represents a "hidden path" in Bluelock, and the ways in which it seems the main manga and episode Nagi disagree on whether he should succeed- the key issue being his relationship with Reo. He plays soccer for their collective dream in a manga where depending on another character for your motivation is treated as soccer suicide, which should doom him, but his own manga starts with the statement that his genius is shaped by Reo - framed as a good thing.

I've said in the past that maybe Nagi will succeed by Episode Nagi's standards, but fail by Blue Lock standards, and I still think that would be an interesting path to take, but rn I wanna discuss the alternative that Nagi succeeds by both standards, even if to a lesser extent in the main manga since Isagi is the MC. And we're assuming here that his relationship with Reo isn't permanently severed in a way that makes him more similar to every other Bllk character bc that would make him much less interesting and also remove the "hidden path" aspect that we're expecting here.

So for him to succeed by both standards, I think what essentially needs to happen is that Nagi represents a loophole or caveat in Blue Lock's philosophy. And to understand why that would be the case, we'd have to understand WHY playing for anyone but yourself is a bad thing in Blue Lock. And there are plenty of examples to draw from.

Isagi and "All for One"

We can start with the "One for all, all for one" team Isagi was in- the most extremely dependent soccer we see. I'll be drawing from Isagi's Light Novel for this, because it really just spells it out. First, let's look at the reasoning for that "all for one" given in response to Isagi's request to shoot more:

“Up until now, You could have won matches with your individual skills, but high school isn’t a piece of cake... We win together, and become stronger together! If you do that, then you'll have double the joy! And half the sorrow!”

The reasoning given here isn't that the resulting soccer is better at winning games - rather there is an emphasis on safety. "the world is tough", "If we stick together, there's half the sorrow". And within that emphasis, is the implication that the individual isn't enough.

We can also see complacency in this ideaology. When Ichinan loses, the coach says

“You fought well. It’s frustrating, but this is what Ichinan is capable of now. The third years are leaving after this… and some of you might quit soccer after today but you can be proud of the days you fought together as a team." "To me, Ichinan’s soccer team…is the best team in Japan!!!”

Within this dream doping that Ego rants about later on, we can again see the acceptance on the individual not being enough - "You fought well... but this is what Ichinan is capable of now." We also see within the dream doping the injection of safety and lack of perceived agency. Because we are one unit, there is no blame, no frustration, no need for improvement. The point is the team, not to win, so be proud.

Most damning is the way we see this reflected in Isagi

There’s no need to take a risky battle. If they lose, it will be his fault and he will feel bad for the team. He makes an exquisite pass to Tada's feet. A perfect last pass.

What's emphasized here is the risk in making an egotistical decision for the whole team in believing himself good enough to make that shot himself. What essentially happens here is a devaluing of the self - " I'm not good enough on my own, its safer to trust others, trust the system, not your instincts" And that forces Isagi to not live up to his fullest potential, to chase what he wants. Until Blue Lock that is.

Bachira and the Monster

Bachira is probably the character most directly "punished" in the narrative for playing for someone else. Though I feel like punish is the wrong word because this problem with his ego reared its head and was resolved in the same game - once he realized the problem, Bachira resolved to solve it

According to Bachira's explanation

"...Until now, I was afraid of playing soccer by myself. I guess I wanted you to come save me. But, once I tried fighting on my own, like I'd done as a kid, I realized...

And so the problem with his habit of looking for another player when playing instead of focusing on himself was again the perceived lack of agency, and devaluing of the self. Longing for someone to play soccer with led to a dependency that negatively impacted his decisions on the field

So that's why his moment of growth was breaking through all on his own to steak back Isagi and win - ignoring the idea that he should wait for someone else to help him. He needed to believe in his own agency/value to prove himself on the field and achieve his goals.

Rin and Sae

I recently took a look at Rin's Light Novel and there was a line that stood out as kinda similar to Bachira's old habit of passing to an imaginary monster before coming to Blue Lock

he understood why things were not going well. Neither their coach nor his other teammates have the slightest idea of Rin’s image of play in his head. (If it was Nii-chan, he would have made a pass here……) he thought so many times during today's practice. He jumped out in front of the goal to a position where I said, “Here!” but his teammates were like, “Huh?” “There?”

So whether you're passing or shooting, a reliance can develop, huh...

(How do Bachirin shippers feel about this parallel? haha. And what does this say about what Rin says to Bachira "But afraid of fighting alone. It is a soccer looking for someone. That luke-warm ego won't make my heart dance". Cus it seems Rin is criticizing Bachira for doing the same thing he did. What does this mean about how Rin feels about himself? (I mean.. he did already call himself lukewarm later but was he thinking about himself in that moment?))

In the light novel, I think it becomes clear one reason why Sae is so against Rin using him as his reason for soccer - it definitely affects how Rin plays when Sae is away. And since Sae becomes aware of the competition outside Japan during his time abroad, he knows that Rin's mentality as it was wouldn't be enough and thus wanted to spare him the suffering and have him give up. And this is in combination with the idea of "I've found out, that I'm not strong enough to hold you up. If you rely on me you'll fail" At least, this is my interpretation of it - but moving on-

With Rin’s last pass, they score a shot. If his Nii-chan had been there, he would have passed the ball to him in front of the goal and he would have scored it directly….. He stopped thinking. No pass is coming. That is now the reality. Anyway, the team won for the first time in a long time.

We see a lack of agency and a reliance on others once again - "If only Nii-chan was here". Like with Bachira, Rin is waiting for someone to "save" him, which limits what he chooses to attempt and stifles his potential because of how it limits his perceived agency.

We can also see this limitation in how he wants to be 2nd best after Sae - not best (de-valuing). It causes Rin to seal off his ego in order to catch up to Sae, by being more similar to Sae instead of developing according to his own unique talents/ego.

In order to catch up with his Nii-chan he saw off at the airport, he has to make the team’s victory his top priority. To do so, he must hold himself back. Hold back the you who was trying to steal the goal with everything you have using that sense of smell for the goal and assemble an attack as a team play.

Even after Sae's return he's always on Rin's mind, and this still limits his soccer. It's only after Rin declares himself lukewarm and rejects the stories others create through their relationship with him that he is able to go all out by embracing his own personal style, rather than focusing on others.

Back on Topic!

So in summary, what is wrong with depending on others? What causes Blue Lock to default to individualism? Ultimately it seems like its the resulting lack of perceived agency - the idea that you can't do things without other people present. By constraining yourself into a narrative with other people, you limit what you can do, and you limit what you think you can do by molding yourself to their vision. Thus, your potential is stifled.

How can Nagi and Reo become an exception to this reasoning? Well, maybe Nagi's decision to leave Reo during 2nd selection is part of the key.

We know from Episode Nagi and Manshine that Nagi wants to improve for the sake of his and Reo's collective dream. And he (correctly) identifies following soccer that challenges/excites him as the proper way to improve.

Here, Reo identifies them playing together as a must, but Nagi corrects him and saying that them being the best in the world together is a must, saying (in his head T-T) that he likes being with him, but that in order to protect their dream, Nagi needs to change.

It's actually pretty much spelled out here. Nagi says he's fine with Reo playing with other people, but insists that Reo stay with him till the end. Its ok to play soccer with others, but keep me in your heart always. In other words, I don't mind not playing together, but you and our end goal is always in my heart.

This is different from Isagi, Bachira, or Rin's situation because in those cases, the team/monster/Sae were considered as key to success. However, in Nagi's case, success is key to Reo. It's completely reversed. It's that nuance of "I play soccer to play soccer with you, to win with you" vs. "I play soccer for you, I win for you". Because "playing together" is not a requirement for winning, it no longer acts as a constraint that restricts agency. Nagi's concept of being together separate from playing soccer together saves their partnership from being the same as the others and frees him to (for example) join Isagi to improve.

You can see more of this in epinagi

The Tag Game

You might say this is a bad example because Nagi relies on Reo to get him un-eliminated, but by Nagi's "I figured you'd do that, Reo..." we can guess that this was more from laziness than a belief that he needed Reo's help. Indeed, when Reo's in danger of being eliminated himself, when their dream is in any real danger, Nagi takes it upon himself to solve the issue

They didn't solve the problem relying on teamwork/partnership or anything. Nagi solved the problem because they're partners.

Playing Against Barou

The next time their dream is "Challenged" is when Barou says "Becoming the world's best striker means you'll be alone until you die", essentially a challenge to the viability of Nagi and Reo's dream. Nagi's response to that is to run off and instigate a 1v1 with Barou

So again, rather than deny Nagi options, his partnership with Reo provided the motivation to act out on his own.

Playing against Team Z

Even when they play against team Z, we see this in action. Nagi plays a more reliant soccer, his dream/Reo is challenged when he sees Reo's face, and Nagi decides to act out on his own.

Nagi will rely on Reo for the sake of laziness, but when it comes to their dream, there's this pattern of deciding to rely less on Reo, take destiny into his own hands, and make an effort. It's really that nuance of doing something to be with someone vs. doing something for someone.

Beyond 1st/2nd Selection

Brief mention here of Nagi's eyes shining when Reo says "But it's not enough" when Nagi praises him. I think this might be Nagi thinking its a sign that Reo in fact has not forgotten their promise and is also working to achieve it - consistent with the idea of being together without necessarily playing together (Whereas Reo is thinking the other way round - improving for the sake of playing together because that's the only way to be together)

So, where this theory hits its roadblock is the Manshine City Arc, where Nagi asks for Reo's help. But because of all the ominous foreshadowing afterwards, in addition to Ego's words that Nagi's deep ego (implied by timing of skull imagery +all the scenes I just listed to be Reo/dream-centric) is about to be tested, I think their dynamic is bound to change in some direction within the next game. So, their relationship is still in development and the theory isn't necessarily debunked.

**edited in addition** I think the key is that regardless of their behavior, the core of their partnership (ie their internal feelings) isn't dependency, but rather reciprocated faith and commitment, though especially with Nagi's communication and introspection issues, it may take some time for them to figure that out because Reo has no idea the faith that Nagi has in him. Reo actually assumes that their partnership can't exist without dependence - assumes its over when that dependence fades because Nagi will have no reason to stay with him, but this is him insecurely misinterpreting Nagi's intentions. They also can't really flourish until Nagi figures out his ego/motivation, though that's luckily foreshadowed to be addressed. I think with how Reo misinterprets Nagi's motivations on a shallow level in 207, and how Nagi's motivation is foreshadowed to be addressed soon, we will get nagireo communication soon timeline wise (not real life lol). And hopefully with that communication, Reo's insecurity + Nagi's motivation can be addressed and they can begin to figure out a functional partnership within Blue Lock. But really the key here is that faith and devotion don't necessitate playing with only each other in mind, while dependence/reliance does.

In terms of what will happen, I think we might finally get a confirmation of what Nagi's ego is - it certainly fits with their conversation in 207, where Reo tries to give a substitute that doesn't really fit. I'm not sure what would happen once Nagi and Reo have the clarity of understanding what Nagi's ego is though...

In Any Case!

I'm running out of fuel but just to let ya'll know I was thinking really hard about what the difference was between Nagi and Reo's dynamic in comparison to partnerships or teamwork criticized by the main manga and I did not expect the difference I came up with to be the difference between reliance and devotion. "I am not enough by myself" vs. "I will make myself enough for you". I still wonder if I'm just biased?

Plz lmk ur thoughts

link to a continuation of these thoughts - Hiori's Words, Reo's Insecurity, Nagi's Enforced Indifference

[charcubed]

I NEEEED people—especially those with unfathomably large platforms???—to start doing just a tiny bit of internal evaluation before they log onto a blue website and say “I don’t want these queer characters to fuck in canon” or “I’d be fine if these characters never kissed again” or whatever.

This is a post about Good Omens and the prospect of Aziraphale and Crowley potentially having sex in season 3. It's a response to a tweet that I'm crossposting, but let it be known the above statement and this topic applies broadly across multiple fandoms too.

But anyway, in regards to Good Omens specifically:

I am seeing this take that essentially boils down to "Canon has now made it clear that these characters want to have sex with each other through subtext (i.e. Aziraphale and the ox), but I don’t want that to reach narrative completion because the idea of them having sex makes me uncomfortable or isn’t my personal preference” and it is, to put it mildly and delicately, A Very Bad Take.

This is rhetorical (and I do not expect or particularly want an answer), but: explain to me how and why queer characters who are unavoidably visibly queer (aka 2 "man-shaped beings") fucking on screen wouldn’t be a net positive, especially when you can indicate how canon has set it up.

Presumably, some people say things like this because ~they want to see them as visibly ace.~ Okay. But by some of these people’s own admission, there IS more evidence in canon now to indicate these characters crave sex with each other (vs arguing otherwise)... yet people would rather that be ignored/erased all for the sake of them feeling comfortable or feeling better about what canon shows or doesn’t show explicitly??

I’m sorry, but—speaking as an ace person, to be clear—your personal preferences for the story shouldn’t / don’t affect anything here. There’s too much in this.

Yeah, I understand on a personal level not having “representation.” I almost never see myself or my unique experiences and identity reflected in stories. And yet, I also understand that that doesn’t change any story or the world in which we live. Things like this are not said in a vacuum.

Any queer characters having sex on screen IS a net positive. It is rare and impactful, and openly calling for or hoping for otherwise when canon points to its potential is a detrimental alliance with purity culture, whether intentionally or accidentally. Because we live in a Goddamn society!

Who knows (other than Neil Gaiman) whether Aziraphale and Crowley ARE going to fuck on international TV. None of us do! But the subtext right now blatantly says they’re starving for it. And you don’t have to like the prospect of that, but honestly? We SHOULD get to see it play out. There’s no truly legitimate reason we shouldn’t ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Whether you "prefer" it or not.

And my ultimate hot take is… if someone balks at the idea of that or doesn’t understand the importance of it, despite even seeing the subtext… then they should perhaps unpack that? Just a thought.

Truly the way fandoms are managing to hit either “subtext doesn’t count :/ ” or “let’s keep it to subtext so it’s ‘open to interpretation’ :) ” nowadays depending on what corner one visits is MADDENING. Whiplash-inducing. Surreal. And so much nonsense you can’t pick where to start.

So! I do genuinely hope I'm not kicking off discourse but I felt this Needed To Be Said (and on more than one site). Because posts like “even if they never kiss again, we’ve won <3 “ make me want to be like…

These characters are YEARNING. Do not doom them and us to it. For once, we can reach for the stars and maybe–against all odds–pull them down. Embrace it!

---

[Update: after more discourse has occurred, I have somewhat elaborated on this further, from the POV of the significance of the queer themes in Good Omens and more specifically how they center illicit pleasure/desire]

[bladekindeyewear]

HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2024-08-15

(Previous post - current page 605)

I'm a bit bleary but I had an early-morning appointment cancelled and I literally HAVE NOT been able to get Homestuck out of my head, so I'm gonna do YET MORE liveblogging and keep up my storm-rush to catch up-- or at least get back to the Candy timeline I already care about so much more than this one!

But first (as evidence of my obsession), before we hit that next link, I have some THOUGHTS I typed up in the middle of the night on my phone after recovering my wits from that huge binge of liveblogging yesterday that I'd like to go ahead and paste, then I'll hit the link and continue as usual after that under the cut. Ahem:

I belatedly realized that AL is glowing rainbow because of the power she stole by devouring Lord English, and we don’t know what that power entails beyond “she’s immortal and massively powerful and could perhaps even curse others” (and/or has some extra command over the narrative perhaps, gone into below).  Dirk is still confident that he can destroy her or stop her from stopping him in time to thwart his ambitions, somehow, which is arrogant of him but also interesting and probably right because there’s no way thematically she’s going to win all on her own… the last two times she was knocked out of commission, Alt Calliope was a victim of **TIME** delaying her by knocking Jade out or knocking her out of Jade, Time serving as SPACE’s vulnerability.  All Dirk needs to do is use ploy after ploy to STALL her and dilute her power until his work is done, and once he’s responsible in sort for the creation of all that will ever exist in Paradox Space, securing his spot in a piece of the puzzle as part of the canon story writer of “FOREVER” and its Paradox-Space-spanning loop, he will have won in his eyes.  But if Sburb and its world-devouring sacrifice system of reproduction are CREATED here inside Canon, that also means that OUTSIDE OF CANON, the system of creating universes can be WRITTEN DIFFERENTLY, more kindly and without Dirk’s judgmental and character-traumatizing nature, a new game that births non-doomed timelines and universes of promise WITHOUT destroying what it came from just for “fairness’s” sake, a new game without Dirk’s need for such draconian challenge that teaches its players to become Heroes but doesn’t have to follow such punishing, destructive planet-wrecking and eliminationist rules as the original or give Gods too much control over the universes they create… a system of Orchids instead of Mistletoe, which uses the freedom of being outside Canon for possibility to bloom INDEFINITELY.

Calliope and Roxy were about to describe or debate a plan of their own to fix the broader problem, but any plans the two of them had went interrupted and unsaid… which means they possibly HAVE plans in play already which they wanted to help discuss with Kanaya and Jade but were interrupted before they could describe.  The Plot Point is happening over in Candy’s timeline… and if it’s a story that Callie is writing, that could mean that Original Calliope’s plan to save the Meat timeline, a plan appropriately assisted and thought up in part by Roxy the Rogue of Void from BOTH TIMELINES, is the way Calliope is WRITING INTO EXISTENCE an action that will influence Canon from within (Candy) of crucial importance that both Dirk and alt!Calliope are discounting!!!!

Roxy's comment on how he thought new overgrown house wasn't as ugly as alt!Calliope saw it— as a Void player, just how he thinks the and finds Calliope cute where those not infatuated with the unusual and absurd and impossible might write the cherub off as monstrous— was a thematically appropriate expression of the idea that ROXY DOESN’T HATE THESE NEW STORIES WE'RE READING.  The Epilogues and Homestuck^2 seem grotesque and sprawling to many readers and characters from a perspective on the outside, which perhaps ISN’T STRANGE or unjustified for them to think!  But as an appreciator of the Void, Roxy still finds beauty in it just as he finds beauty in what everyone else thinks of as shitty or silly or disturbing.  For both gender-fluid parts of Roxy on the inside and outside of Canon to work with the original, oft-discounted Callie to make all external fanfiction essential to the nature of reality’s existence as the final tie needed to close the loop and allow for both freedom from the competing authors inside Canon and even TRUER freedom and survival for the timelines OUTSIDE CANON, is the truest plan to this story’s meaning and themes beyond even what alt!Calliope has planned and beyond what Dirk Strider can stop, giving life to the timelines outside the Breach in ways both aspiring narrative-hijacking authors deemed unimportant and useless, and helping prove that they don’t have to be Canon to matter, once and for all.  To grow the sprawling, splitting house into a beautiful tree with two branches of promise, the canon resolution versus the unbound infinity of possibility.  Lord English’s flashing colors that AL inherited also represent her flexing her LORDSHIP OVER THE CANON TIMELINE, that intoxicating and toxic control that trapped the characters before and is trapping them back in the story now, and Roxy and Callie’s plan to bridge Canon with Non-Canon is like the ultimate refutation of that power.

(Does Terezi’s role as contest judge have an important role in the rules of the game of Sburb’s creation that will have the characters balanced at the fulcrum of disparate wills, and/or even the criteria determining the Heroic and Just death of god-tier players encoded into the very game itself?  Does her caliginous fling with Rose represent some clue as to the game’s relationship with the Horrorterrors in allegory?  Hmm…)

I've also thought about how due to his writing style and nature and the havoc he's already proved more than willing to wreak in the Epilogues, Dirk is going to try to cause the characters serious pain.  The Candy side of things has shown that even in their own before the timeline split, what the characters have gone through hasn’t been without a great deal of emotional pain themselves, though Jade seems to have suffered more than we thought in (Candy) proving that the extracanon storyline knows how to be serious when it needs to be, and did so masterfully.  Jade feeling so trapped by her Godhood that Yiffy’s birth was literally her only escape was rendered chillingly in that panel with the shadowy hands reaching out for her, enough to haunt me with her hopelessness after the fact once I was through the high of active liveblogging for the day, and I hope that after all she’s just divulged that Candy Jade can find a new way and learn to BE HAPPY FOR HERSELF too… although on top of everything, on a plot note instead of a character note, I forgot to acknowledge that the way she says Yiffy is the future (Time stuff aside) is very much in line with Yiffy and the others being the heroes of their own universe-creating session soon enough, perhaps even only at the very end of the story to demonstrate the path to the unknown multitude of futures outside of canon unfolding wherever the fans might take them.  Beautiful.

But it does make me afraid, too… afraid both on the Meat and Candy sides, Meat especially, of **who is going to DIE.**. Because this isn’t going to end without at least a few god-tier characters dying or getting soul-trapped or some other cruel fate, especially Davebot’s likely choice at self-sacrifice, but others too, possibly even one of our Jades like Candy Jade if we’re really, REALLY unlucky… except there is one more wildcard to be contended with, one last wrench in the works to wrestle a happy ending out of the dark story Dirk Strider is trying to write.

And that is the three copies of the Ring of Life in play.  Two of which are in the hands of versions of Callie… who might be willing, their stories written, to finalize their ultimate roles as the Muses who bring happiness to all of their favorite characters for the rest of their time, by giving up any of their Rings of Life to bring back someone who has passed on from the story… like the taxidermied Dave from Jade’s sylladex in Candy to bring him back to meet Karkat again and rescue that piece of Davebot back when Davebot thinks his sacrifice is finally made and over, or like John’s corpse in Terezi’s wallet still waiting for resurrection, or any other character who might die too in the upcoming struggle who deserves a second chance… although for the most part side from those who deserve it, I think Homestuck^2 is aiming for an even less traumatizing ending than the original Homestuck, and a future of promise where the rest of them don’t have to suffer as much.  Rosebot and her Ultimate Nature are thwarted and/or sacrificed to create the Game, but Rose’s life-support body is saved for Kanaya to finally have her back after they were unjustly torn apart by the Prince of Heart’s manipulation and lies and power.  John is given an opportunity to find happiness living as Nune that he was never able to before.  (Candy) and it’s Earth survive, and become a starting ground for the expansion of new realities no longer trapped in the Cherubs’ (LE and AL) or Dirk’s or Andrew’s stories, and in fact *Callie herself* by giving up her Rings, the author of (Candy), is the symbolic Death of the Author used to finally free them, one last tragic self-sacrifice that she knows she’ll be happy with because of the infinity of unbound stories, fanmade and otherwise, that the characters outside Canon are now fully free to make for themselves from the initial bedrock of her Fanfic brought to life, allowing her to finally step out of the way and infuse it with life via the Plot Point to allow it to bloom ON ITS OWN into whatever futures it may without her intervention.  Tragic and beautiful, but in a way that would allow Callie to die truly happy knowing the wonderful possibilities she created for all of her favorite friends.

I might tear up a bit!  But it’s only a possibility, right?  Yeah… only a possibility.  The rings sitting in Callie’s hands, waiting for her to take off to repay the Life that was so graciously given back to her by Roxy after her death at her brother’s hands, as thanks and out of pure love for everyone she’s ever written a story about.  A better and more honest and just author than either AL or Dirk.  The story’s last martyr.  :’C

Dave's taxidermied corpse being in Jade's sylladex is a serious promise of hope for the happiness of those in the Candy timeline, no matter which way you look at it, even if Jade and Dave's relationship is toast. If Dave is resurrected at the end of Candy from his taxidermied corpse… perhaps it’s to have a potential future with Karkat or June instead, while Jade — long after having confessed her real feelings as we just recently witnessed, and after even more heart to hearts — finally might find love again by dating Rose and Kanaya? What a self-indulgent potential future… but what would (Candy) be without a little self-indulgence?

(Side question I’m pondering, who **IS** Aradia ACTUALLY dating as was implied?  It can’t still be Candy Sollux right, she can’t go back to him through the Black Hole Barrier even by rewinding her personal timeline can she?  So it has to be another “he” we aren’t acquainted with, or don’t realize we’re acquainted with, who she capriciously visits whenever she wants to……)

Okay let’s get back to the story and distract ourselves with the lore and speculation inevitably born by their choices of new alien races.

Oh my gosh it just caught up to me that Homestuck^2 isn’t anywhere near over just yet, and when I catch up it’ll still be in the middle of things and I’ll be waiting on upd8s to liveblog them.  That’s going to be torture after the joys of all this bingeing.  XD  And there is so much author and artist commentary I’ll have to at least skim in the bonus material, especially the author commentary for that AMAZING HEART WRENCHING SCENE of Jade confessing her insecurities and her hatred of her Godhood and how Yiffy is the only thing she feels like she’s done that she can be proud of since coming to Earth C…!!!!  Holy SHIT I NEED CANDY JADE TO FIND MORE HAPPINESS THAN THAT, I’m starting to get some of my old “Jade has been through too much trauma” trauma bubbling back up and I have to fight it back down because I JUST KNOW they have to do right by her this time, I KNOW IT, she was screwed too hard in Homestuck original and put through too much pain, screwed too hard and put through too much pain in the Epilogues, is finally FINALLY VENTING all of her pain to her friends so it can FINALLY BE RESOLVED AND SHE CAN FIND COMPASSION for her insecurities, and… and god I can’t wait for Hade to be happy but the story isn’t finished yet, I hope the path to happiness for EVERY VERSION OF HER becomes clearer than ever to me soon enough!!!!!

But I’m enjoying the story too much, I’m one of the readers who dragged them back into the spotlight with my need to know what would have happened to them, and I will absolutely enjoy the SHIT out of this winding journey they’re in because it keeps getting better and better and mixing comedy and pain in the perfect cathartic blend and giving me theories to chew on and I can’t help myself, this is the exact same narcotic thrill I got from the original Homestuck and I’m finally confident again that it is and will continue to AMAZE and satisfy me.  I’m so excited despite the butterflies in my stomach.  SO EXCITED.  Excited for everything but the alien races this piece of trash is about to show us, in fact...

(MIDNIGHT PHONE TYPING ENDED ABOVE)

To continue with more stuff I thought about since last night, just this morning... (Candy)'s Rose Lalonde last time was clearly dipping into some of the complacent thoughts of her Ultimate Self, of which she is a part, and I'm glad Jade's confession of her feelings is going to serve in part to begin shaking her out of, though it will take more talks and some time. Oh, and also the Red Flickering that Vrissy and Harry saw may have been the battle alert and not Yiffy setting everything on fire, but... I'm pretty sure Yiffy is setting things on fire after what she just witnessed. There is no possible version of the gleefully-malicious-toward-the-proud-and-neglectful Yiffy that we saw sneak into that vent who wouldn't have been EXTREMELY disturbed by her mother's honest confession, more than enough for her to start breaking things. In fact with her black dog-ears and tail giving her a slight resemblance to Bec Noir, perhaps we should view her destructiveness as in part a reflection of Spades Slick's somewhat similar attitudes to her? Although Yiffy's attitudes are MUCH more based focused on the abuse of power of the proud and laying that hypocrisy low, a very political sort of view against the whims of the Gods and Goddesses that has been sorely lacking as anything but an undertone in these stories so far and SORELY NEEDED a voice serving to deliver it as an overtone instead of an undertone, to speak to the inherent JUSTICE of Just deaths and object like Jasprosesprite^2 was doing to canon President Crocker on the way the denizens of the world and universe deserve to determine the direction of its future more than its celebrity creators.

Oh gosh these are still new thoughts I'm writing this morning, not last night like I'm still dreading how the commentary on that AMAZING scene with Jade confessing the feelings she had behind choosing to have Yiffy and the toxic attitude Rose was taking and the attitudes behind it is going to be something I'll need to read and comment on... that moment as amazing as it was is becoming retroactively a little more painful for me to scrutinize but I won't let that control me. I'll charge ahead right back through to Candy if I have to and fill my thoughts on Candy's last left-off goings-on with FRESHER thoughts on the goings-on in that timeline continuing, even if I don't have time to get all the way forward to where commands are in different sorts of brackets yet that I glimpsed at the beginning of the log accidentally from time to time from the most recent updates.

Let's get back to business. I'm not at 100% capacity right now but I need to make some progress forward, I'll do what I can until I start noticing I'm missing things or out of mental energy to think clearly (because of the rocky sleep I had needing to fast despite my stomach condition only for my medical scan to get cancelled by insurance at literally the last minute), and then get some makeup midday sleep and come back to it. I've still got enough in me for a few pages though, and once I've napped I'll doubtless want to do more later today!

==>

Holy fucking shit. That is... I mean I guess that is "A LOOK" for poor Terezi here. The lankiness, adult-style curves and clothes... augh. It doesn't suit her very well, at least maybe because she isn't grinning and she's wearing the AWFUL suspenders outfit Dirk tricked her into Lil-Cal-ing it up in, but... bluh. Maybe it'll look better with one of her wicked grins on soon.

Now all that remains is to- TEREZI: D1RK Ahem. All that remains is to- TEREZI: *D1RK* Sign. DIRK: What. TEREZI: YOU 4R3 DO1NG TH3 TH1NG, *4G41N* TEREZI: 4ND WH4TS WORS3 1S TH4T 1NST34D OF 4T L34ST H4V1NG TH3 D3C3NCY TO SPOUT OFF 4BOUT SOM3TH1NG N3W OR 1NT3R3ST1NG TEREZI: YOU H4V3 1NST34D CHOS3N TO W4T3RBO4RD TH3 R4W N3UR4L T1SSU3 OF MY TH1NKP4N W1TH 4N 4CR1D 4ND SUP3RFLUOUSLY OV3RC4RBON4T3D N4RR4T1V3 R3C4P DUMP DIRK: Well, it's a recap for *you*. DIRK: But for those who haven't checked in on us in a while, it's more of a stage-setting thing. TEREZI: 1TS B4S1C4LLY 4 R3C4P FOR TH3M TOO, 1D1OT TEREZI: YOUR 1N4B1L1TY TO SHUT UP 3V3N 4S YOU 4CT1V3LY CH4MP1ON TH3 N33D TO G3T TH1NGS MOV1NG WOULD B3 4LMOST 4W3-1NSP1R1NG 1F 1T W4SNT SO 4STOUND1NGLY OBNOX1OUS

Yeah all told, it felt a little soon for a recap, but it HAS been a couple years since most of the events he was describing after that HS^2 authorswap megapause!

Terezi, as you can tell, is still decidedly less enthusiastic about this whole shindig. Maybe she's feeling a bit unheard and insignificant confronted with the reality-shaking splendor of two gods deep in their genesis bags and with little time to entertain her trivial mortal misgivings. Maybe the magnificent gravity of this is lost on her entirely, as she seems to spend all her effort these days avoidantly trudging through a mire of self-pity and principles deadlock, instead of getting into the fucking spirit of the moment a little bit and appreciating not only the opening lines of a stupendously important chapter in the history of Fucking Everything, but her privileged role in it. Maybe she'd prefer we just in-media-res'd this shit and skipped right t-

Dirk is more smug and shitbag and like his part-Doc-Scratch portion of his soul by the passing minute, except less charming.

TEREZI: Y3S, YOU P3TTY V1ND1CT1V3 J3RK, 1 WOULD V4STLY PR3F3R TH4T TEREZI: 3SP3C14LLY G1V3N TH4T 1T 1S SOM3TH1NG YOU 3XPL1C1TLY PROM1S3D M3 TH4T W3 WOULD B3 4BL3 TO DO DIRK: And we will. DIRK: After Rose and I release our progeny into the Deltritus wilds, the three of us are going to timeskip forward ten thousand years or so, so that we don't have to sit around twiddling our thumbs like assholes and waiting for our respective species to become sufficiently advanced. DIRK: Even I'm not so much of a micromanager that I'd be able to keep myself entertained for millennia with only Deltritus to play with. DIRK: Nobody has the patience for that. DIRK: Besides, we have other important shit to get to. DIRK: Also, you'd probably die of old age.

That makes plenty of sense... though it also means that except for perhaps for what Rose's Seer of Light vision shows her without his knowledge, their species might evolve to coharmonize or even interbreed in ways they hadn't expected, even with Dirk's narrative powers trying to control the outcome...? (Again half-predicting their unique traits get smoothed out to turn them into the White and Black Chess People here or something.)

TEREZI: 1M 4BOUT TO D13 OF BOR3DOM *R1GHT NOW* TEREZI: SO 1F YOUR3 F1N1SH3D MONOLOGU1NG 4ND L3CTUR1NG 4ND G3N3R4LLY B31NG 4 S3LF-S4T1SF13D P4PR1K4 PR1CK TEREZI: 1TD B3 GR4ND OF YOU TO DROP YOUR K1DS OFF 4T TH3 D4WN OF TH31R C1V1L1Z4T1ONS, F1R3 UP YOUR BULLSH1T M4CH1N3, 4ND L4UNCH US TO TH3 B3G1NN1NG OF TH3 N3W S3SS1ON L1CK3TY-SP1T DIRK: It's "lickety-split". Yuck.

That'd be pretty nice, please! Get this show on the road!! (So we can get back over to Candy!)

DIRK: Anyway, I'm pretty much done monologuing, but I've got a bit more lecturing and self-satisfied paprika prickery in me, so you're going to have to sit tight for a bit longer. TEREZI: BL3GH DIRK: Don't you BL3GH me. DIRK: You think you can just roll up to my grand commencement speech and interrupt my triumphant expository flex-sesh without taking some of the heat? DIRK: Lest you forget, you've actually got a pretty important role to play in all this.

Oh? How is Terezi actually going to be DOING the judging and such?

DIRK: Taking up the helm at the command terminal, guiding the Deltritan civilizations slowly but surely towards the Game. DIRK: A role Rose tells me you've chosen to automate. TEREZI: Y3P DIRK: ... TEREZI: ... DIRK: ... TEREZI: WH4T >:[

Excuse me, automate? AUTOMATE???!??

Did Terezi create an immortal auto-responder-like AI CLONE of herself like Dirk did in his youth which might subsequently be corrupted or co-opted into serving the judgment/balance role for all future sessions?????

==>

Oh Terezi has learned to fucking HATE this dude even more than before.

DIRK: It's just a little disappointing, is all. DIRK: Rose and I put so much work into whipping up some zany, adorable, kind of fucked up little dudes. DIRK: The least you could do is attempt to give a shit about how they turn out. DIRK: Or was all that hand-wringing about how worried you were that Rose and I were becoming big bad cosmic tyrants with no regard for the poor little mortals buffeted to and fro by the vicious momentum of our designs just virtue signaling? DIRK: Or worse... foreplay? DIRK: Wow. DIRK: Pretty low, Terezi. DIRK: I expected a lot better of you.

Why would Terezi even TRY to control these two, when she knows full well that thanks to Dirk overembracing his role and his ultimate narrative powers and smoothing out any of Rose's moral qualms and objections, he's already proven that he won't let ANY JUDGE control him in any way?

Why not standardize the process of Sburb tempting its players to inevitably play the way it always naturally ended up doing in every subsequent instance?

TEREZI: TH4T JOK3Y-BUT-NOT-R34LLY F4M1L14L GU1LT-TR1P MOOSH1T M4N3UV3R M1GHT WORK ON ROS3 DIRK: It doesn't. TEREZI: BUT 1T DO3SNT M34N SH1T TO M3 DIRK: It does. DIRK: Not that I needed to bust it out for you. DIRK: I know you wouldn't just abandon the Deltritans to the cruel march of time and whatever scant preparation you imagine we gave them. DIRK: You don't trust Rose or I to give enough of a fuck about them, and despite your occasional protestations, you are, for the most part, too good a person to just turn your back on them and let whatever happens happens. DIRK: I trust that the automated suggestions you put in place, and the conditional map that prompts them, were thought through with an honestly touching amount of care, considering your misgivings.

This makes it seem even more as if she's ended up making a core component of the way Sburb/Sgrub works in the first place, intentionally or no.

DIRK: There's no doubt in my mind that even if Rose and I hadn't already basically knocked this creationism shit out of the park, the sons and/or daughters of Deltritus would make it to the Game just fine with even the barest phantom of your counsel.

DIRK: That's why I'm allowing you to do this at all. TEREZI: 1 DONT N33D YOUR P3RM1SS1ON Wrong. TEREZI: OH FUCK YOU DIRK: And for the record, you're also wrong in your assertion that we don't care about them. DIRK: We do. DIRK: I do, at any rate. TEREZI: Y34H YOUR P4T3RN4L G3N3ROS1TY KNOWS NO BOUNDS TEREZI: 4NYON3 WOULD B3 GR4T3FUL TO H4V3 4 B3N3VOL3NT CR34TOR L1K3 YOU TEREZI: ON3 TH4TLL ULT1M4T3LY 3NSUR3 TH31R 3NT1R3 PL4N3T 1S ORB1T4LLY BOMB4RD3D 4ND TH31R SP3C13S 4LL BUT DR1V3N 3XT1NCT S4V3 FOR 4 F3W "LUCKY" JUV3N1L3S DIRK: That's just how this shit goes down for species *lucky* enough to fucking *matter*, Terezi. DIRK: Circle of life. Hakuna Matata. Que sera, sera. DIRK: And you know it.

Terezi is objecting to the very injustice in the STRUCTURE of Sburb here, essentially! To the canon system of universe creation itself and the demands it puts on species and players, the annihilation and threat it poses as payment for the creation of a universe! In ways that reinforce my theory at the beginning of the post and a bit in my previous blogpost that the Orchids versus Mistletoe metaphor is going to be extremely important in differentiating how Universe-Creating Game Sessions work OUTSIDE of Canon as opposed to INSIDE, that there's a better way of doing them that is less traumatic and ruinous than Dirk-- and for that matter, initially, Andrew-- believed the plot demanded, and perhaps DID demand, but is no longer NECESSARY for those who have escaped the brutal confines of "Story" itself and its necessary conflicts, outside the fabric of Paradox Space.

DIRK: Originally, the plan was to pop in every couple hundred years to check on the Deltritan races' progress and to give you a bit of time to guide them manually. DIRK: Which I maintain would have been pretty fun, and would encourage you (probably fruitlessly) to consider giving a go. DIRK: But hey, you say you aren't feeling it? DIRK: Fine. DIRK: I can make concessions. DIRK: I've got other agents in play, and as I've said, I know you aren't going to risk fucking your end of the work up.

Other agents in play? Did he create servants like the Midnight Crew or Felt to do his bidding that those who arrive at Deltritus and its session will need to contend with?

TEREZI: HOW C4N YOU B3 SUR3 TEREZI: M4YB3 3XT3ND3D PROX1M1TY TO STR1LOND3 D3LUS1ONS OF GR4ND3UR H4S DR1V3N M3 TO TH3 BR34K1NG PO1NT TEREZI: M4YB3 1M JUST L4Y1NG LOW TEREZI: 34RN1NG YOUR TRUST SO 1 C4N COMPL3T3LY RU1N YOUR PL4NS FOR 4NOTH3R S3SS1ON TEREZI: DO1NG 4LL 1 C4N TO TURN SK414S 4TT3NT1ON 3LS3WH3R3 4ND D1SQU4L1FY TH1S PL4N3T 4S 4 C4ND1D4T3 TEREZI: NOT ONLY TO PROT3CT TH3 UNTOLD M1LL1ONS OF FUTUR3 D3LTR1T4NS YOU PL4N TO PULV3R1Z3 TEREZI: BUT 4LSO FOR TH3 S4T1SF4CT1ON OF SH4TT3R1NG TH4T STO1C D34DP4N OF YOURS TEREZI: 1F JUST FOR ON3 D3L1C1OUS MOM3NT

Sburb code already exists on the planet; they confirmed it before they landed, at the end of the Epilogues. It's already too late for the denizens of Deltritus unless they have only one dead session, and that seems unlikely. Plus, that isn't Terezi's plan, either. Whatever she plans for John's corpse, or for making this right, it's likely after getting into or involved with the active session with these beings somehow. And she knows that if she WANTED to try and stop Dirk from murdering the civilizations they're creating for the sake of a session, she couldn't. She's just voicing her frustrations, really, about what she knows she can't do-- an Injustice that for the moment she has no ability to stop.

Her views on Justice have evolved, to the point where she'll likely be able to pontificate at least a little bit on the way Sburb ITSELF views Justice as they create the first ever reproductive session and the way it works.

==>

Ugh, this framing showing him throwing his power and influence around is so unsettling and disgusting, it's perfect.

DIRK: Must feel pretty good to imagine, huh? DIRK: But you won't. DIRK: I'm sure, Terezi, because if you did, I'd just have to take you out of the picture and start again. DIRK: Not that you value your own life that much right now, though you really should, but you and I both know you aren't here because I need you. DIRK: You're here because you need me. DIRK: You need this session to happen. DIRK: You need a chance to fix the mistake you've got in that wallet, burning a hole through your pocket.

Ah yep, it's not just how I said, but he KNOWS it's just how I said.

DIRK: You've made a lot of those, Terezi, but you know that besides being important, what we're doing here is a chance to rectify one of them. DIRK: And you aren't going to let that chance slip. TEREZI: ... DIRK: I know what it's like to make hard choices for the people you care about. DIRK: To run your brain raw thinking about how to make things right. DIRK: I've been doing it my whole damn life. DIRK: The choice you're presented with here is pretty fucking easy, and you're a very smart person, so I trust you to make the right decision. DIRK: That's all. I don't really feel like pontificating at you any more. TEREZI: ... TEREZI: GR34T

"Trust" is a loaded word here. Dirk knows Terezi's Heart well enough to "trust" that Terezi will be Terezi. That's not the same as trusting her as a person.

DIRK: We're getting ready to kick this thing off, so all I have left to ask you is DIRK: Do you think you've done everything you need to do to prepare the terminal? DIRK: We're counting on you. DIRK: He's counting on you. TEREZI: Y34H Y34H >:[ TEREZI: 3V3RYTH1NGS S3T UP TEREZI: 1 DONT F33L L1K3 B31NG PONT1F1C4T3D 4T 4NYMOR3 31TH3R SO 1M L34V1NG TEREZI: ONC3 YOU 4ND ROS3 G3T DON3 PH1LOSOPH1Z1NG 34CH OTH3R L3T M3 KNOW SO W3 C4N G3T TH1S BULLSH1T T1M3SK1P OV3R 4ND DON3 W1TH TEREZI: 1LL B3 1N MY FUCK1NG CH4MB3RS DIRK: These are shared chambers, but whatever.

Alright, looks like all we need is a talk with Rose Lalonde bot and we'll probably get this show on the road. Plus we'll get to view her "adult" bot art too likely enough.

==>

*angry brush past bunp*

Strilondes: Banter.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT we are approaching Supergiant's Hades games levels of godhood art here.

ROSEBOT: Looks like you're getting pretty good at motivational speaking. DIRK: Well someone needed to shake the rust off of her. DIRK: She's getting nerves. DIRK: Right before the big game. DIRK: We're never gonna make it to nationals at this rate. ROSEBOT: Ah, fuck. The sports. ROSEBOT: How quickly I forgot them.

And in so many ways they still haven't frickin' changed. XD

DIRK: There's gotta be some kind of sports penalty, for forgetting the sports. ROSEBOT: Oh, definitely. ROSEBOT: I've been very bad and I need to be punished, to preserve the integrity of the sports. DIRK: Let me just slip into my jackass sports judge mime outfit and get to laying down the fucking sports law. ROSEBOT and DIRK: Let's stop saying sports. DIRK and ROSEBOT: Agreed.

Okay the way that appeared on the page to emphasize that DIRK WAS PROBABLY CONTROLLING HER and/or they were just so similar that they jinxed each other and said the same things at the same time was super creepy and I like it.

DIRK: Speaking of outfits, though, look at you. ROSEBOT: You like it? DIRK: It's chic. DIRK: I dig the return of the hood. DIRK: You could deliver a whole hell of a lot of cryptic prophecies out from under that sucker. ROSEBOT: Yes, well, I figured that if I'm to appear before our chosen peoples as a harbinger of their simultaneous doom and salvation, I may as well look the part.

Damned good looking and very appropriately dramatic, yes.

Okay I know this was short, but you at least have my midnight pontifications and post-pontifications up top, so I'm going to pause here to nap and recover some mental energy before I get back to the reveal of these final civilizations we're presumably getting in-medias-res as promised or what have you. So I'm posting this very short liveblog post now but you can likely expect MUCH more in the afternoon/evening unless I indicate otherwise.

[gas-station-dragon-statue]

I am by no means a David Talbot stan, but I think there is at least one (1) interesting thing about him. I find the scene in TOtBT where he recounts his first couple of days in the titular thieved body in particular fascinating: he wanders luxuriantly around Barbados, visiting gardens, staying at a beautiful resort. He even returns there after he and Lestat part ways to continue this kind of spiritual and emotional overindulgence.

David is extremely Gustav von Aschenbach coded, and not just because he’s a weird old man. He’s a weird old man who is deeply concerned with being a weird old man, with aging and its implications, with his own elevated station in the world and with what, in his perception, he had to give up to attain that status. Aschenbach’s breakdown shows us that rigidity and hierarchy paradoxically make things brittle and unsustainable. The Talamasca are a bunch of regimented, ineffectual nerds, and at the beginning of the book, David is beginning to chafe against that.

David’s time in Barbados after he’s been shunted into the Raglan James body is in a way a perversion of Aschenbach’s trip to Venice. I think particularly of his obsession with the greenhouse he describes to Lestat, how beautiful and “savage” it is and how similar that description is to the way both David and Lestat talk about the stolen body. According to Mann, Eros, or the love of beauty, always drives people to madness and (potentially fatal) self-indulgence. It will always inherently threaten structure because of the “unjust” and chaotic nature of beauty. Beauty is terrible. At the same time, there’s very little worth having without it.

In Venice, Aschenbach encounters and is destroyed by the vastness and exoticism and beauty of the Other. David encounters and consumes pieces of the Other all throughout his life without being “corrupted” by it the way that Aschenbach believes himself to be corrupted by the end of Death in Venice. He uses it for his own purposes in typical colonizer style (learning traditional “witchcraft” from native people and using it to become a psychic cop or whatever, etc.) But like Aschenbach, he is immensely principled—he’s principled in his refusal of immortality, the greatest indulgence in the world, something that cannot be allowed.

So when David finally gets to his “Venice,” his fatal encounter, the fatal indulgence, he makes it out. He is not destroyed. He obtains the thing that should not be possible in the context of the narrative: he becomes Aschenbach absorbed flawlessly into the object of his desire. This can’t stand. It’s a philosophical “Final Destination” where David is that guy in the car and the big log that shoots through his windshield and crushes him to a fine pulp is obliteration of the Self by the Other (good metaphor no notes).

In the end, we find that it wasn’t actually the body that was David's “Tadzio”, the being which his Self cannot stand having encountered—it was Lestat and his promise of immortality. Unlike Aschenbach, however, David doesn’t die in his pleasure; he doesn't give into it even though he's already been doomed by the fatal encounter. He isn’t gently ushered into the other world by his “Tadzio.” He’s brutally (vampire) raped and murdered. I don’t really know what conclusion to draw from that, but it is interesting to me.

[sepublic]

What if we reimagined all of the other non-Teridax Makuta as eldritch horrors, just as Teridax was initially presented in the early years of Bionicle? What if we used each Makuta as a prompt of sorts; What if THEY were the big villain terrorizing an island, their individual name unknown so they’re just THE Makuta to the local Toa and Matoran? Make each one feel worthy of the title of Makuta, with their depictions in Karda Nui being akin to physical, humanoid avatars meant to interact with others, just as the scheming Teridax is like for the vortex from MNOG?

Like for example, Chirox! You have this swarm of spiders known as the Visorak, led by one massive spider, known as Makuta. The Visorak mutate their victims, before dragging them back to their master.

Makuta is a spider-like entity that emerges from a cave, using his spindly limbs to grapple with and analyze his victims... Potentially drawing upon them for inspiration, before tearing and prying them apart into their base pieces, adding them to his massive collection. From these recycled parts, Makuta creates more Visorak, or dreaded Rahi creatures that wreak havoc on the ecosystem. Like Makuta, they are poison, destruction incarnate; They always inherit his twisted spirit that destroys.

That’s all Makuta does, even when he does create; He inevitably just destroys. Instead of coming up with new things on his own, he relies on Fate to mutate the living into something random, hoping chance will eventually grant him a working design for Makuta to copy. You could say Makuta has no real ideas of his own, and is a gambler, a parasite, betting something will come along for him to take. 

But isn’t destruction the same as creation, isn’t destroying his victims necessary to make things? That’s where the imagery of the spider comes into play; Its long, spindly limbs? They’re fingers. Makuta is not just a spider, he is a hand; The same hand that reaches into the parts bin to make new creations, plays with MoCs before tearing them apart to make something new. Just as Teridax represents the parts bin, Chirox is the builder’s hand, like in the Lego Movie, or Super Smash Bros. 

Each Visorak is like a hand of its own, grabbing victims, reassembling them randomly with mutation. Dragging them back to Chirox, whose hand motif is also inspired from the fact that he is the only Makuta who can fully control his Shadow Hand. And Makuta’s spider-like form? It’s attached to something much, MUCH bigger... It is not just a hand metaphorically, it is a literal hand and when Makuta’s lair collapses around him, it reveals the massive figure he is attached to; His whole, true self, a titan more resembling the Chirox we are familiar with.

The others are different angles and facets to approach the myth, the legend of the Makuta; Different re-imaginings, just as people came up with their own G3 and their own take on Makuta. Just like the Makuta contest we had for G2. Vamprah can represent the animalistic side of Makuta; The raging, kicking, screaming beast he was once described as by Vakama. The apex predator, for if his minions are the Rahi beasts, he is the greatest of them all.

Or Bitil! A temporal entity, haunted by his past selves, constantly summoned by his future self. Always going through different iterations, just as a MoC is frequently edited, redone, rebuilt; You can track his transformation, his evolution across his many selves; Makuta represents the existential horror of the timeline, of the way things change. A ghost of the past, and also a vision of the future. If the Vahi is central to the tale of Bionicle as the Mask of Time, what about Makuta as someone who constantly exploits and distorts this force?

Those are some of my initial ideas. Makuta needn’t always be this faceless force of nature, they can be a humanized figure, like Krika, who can be a sympathetic, tragic villain doomed by the narrative, consigned to his role and aware of it as part of a meta discussion; Miserix is the mighty dragon our knights must slay; The Makuta of Stelt, a land of merchants and commerce, the all-consuming force of corporatism that stifles creativity, or a bargaining devil. Gorast is a fanatical priestess hoping to bring in a new age, Mutran the quintessential mad scientist who played god and flew too close to the sun in his obsession.

Spiriah is a corrupt lord seething over his failures, who transformed and resents his people the Skakdi and must be rebelled against; Tridax is a multiversal collector providing commentary on adaptations; The Vortixx hope to harness the ultimate weapon that is Antroz; Kojol is the arcane keeper of knowledge like Lucifer, who stole the Light of enlightenment from the land of thinkers and is burned for it; And Icarax? A completely straightforward dark lord to conquer, as he always intended to be. Each plays the role of Makuta, as the final villain, the ultimate evil who started this conflict, whom our protagonists must rise to eventually vanquish.

[quillkiller]

not you ranting 💀 it’s misogynistic to make Harry regulus child when Lily is the mom not regulus GODDAMN.

bro..,.. they’re not real. go touch some grass

listen ive seen people being misogynistic towards lily in order to favor jegulus. it does happen and i wont deny it, however i will simply just stay away from it and not interact. im way more interested in evolving lilys character and give her her own narrative instead of just using her to hate a mlm ship and claim to be feminist about it. like it’s fandom. make your own goddamn peace and create a space that you fucking enjoy. yall are not trying to defend lily when yall do this you’re just trying to be anti jegulus and using her to do it

no one is saying that regulus is ’the mom’ but like. people can do whatever the fuck they want. if people dont want to write lily but they want to write jegulus being harrys parents then by fucking god let them. who CARES. i wont interact with it and it doesnt interest me but oh my fucking god it’s fandom. people are out here writing mpreg and a/b/o and tentacle porn and incest and whatever the fuck else. this is simply not a problem. none of it is. its fandom and its free and its for fun

(i never see any of you complaining about tonks glaring absence in wolfstar teddy fics……..)

just don’t interact if it bothers you. i have things i wont interact with and topics i find problematic, so i stay the fuck away from it. no one is profiting and no one has to fucking read it. its not being advertised and its not being goddamn taught in schools

i will always defend lily and my priority is simply evolving her characters and giving her a narrative that just simply isn’t being a mom or a wife. like bro im in the middle of writing a lily character study canon divergence fic where she simply wasnt home when voldemort came and she doesnt save harry with the power of ’motherly love’. it will be morally grey and highly disturbing and a lot of people wont want to read it. however i want to write it to rebel against her doomed narrative in canon as a dead wife and mother. she wont necessarily be likeable or someone to root for but thats what i want to explore in my goddamn fanfiction

yall are acting as if some people writing regulus being harrys parent actually has a broad negative impact on the political climate or some shit as if its not just a silly little thing people do online bc it makes them happy. GO OUTSIDE…. TURN OFF YOUR PHONE…..????

and as i said. i simply wont interact with lily bashing but that’s just me. that’s my preference. i will consider interacting with this trope if lily just simply isnt involved. HOWEVER. THATS JUST ME. PEOPLE DO WHATEVER THE HELL THEY WANT.

it’s fandom. it’s not real. no one is profiting. there are no editors involved except for lovely people who will sometimes beta. it’s not professionally done. it’s free. it’s an outlet to be silly and fun and explore dynamics. these are fictional characters that do not exist

[burberrycanary]

What's your sticky spot for the old Hollywood fic? It's so interesting to me where things get stuck.

Thanks for the ask! And also for the incomparable @booksandabeer, who asked after this as well 😘

I can’t let this Stucky Old Hollywood idea go—the aesthetic alone! 

I’m not an AU writer so the only way I could do this concept is as canon divergence where the Barnes family moves to Los Angeles rather than Brooklyn when Bucky is a kid—and Bucky becomes a child star. So Steve and Bucky don't meet.

I’ve been slowly working out the concept and completing the foundational research, but lately I’ve fallen into a really meta place around the question: would Bucky still have been drafted? 

The quick version of the historical context is that, unlike later drafts and most iconically the Vietnam draft, WWII-era conscription was conducted by local boards that assigned each registered man a lottery serial number (not the same as an army serial number) after all the completed registration cards were shuffled.[1] Bucky would have registered in October 1940 under the Selective Training and Service Act[2] and could have been called up in any of the three drafts: 29 October 1940, 17 July 1941, 17 March 1942.[3] If Bucky was in a different part of the country—and in consequence subject to a different local board’s instance of this random number assignment process—odds are he would have been assigned a different random lottery serial number, which means he could have been selected in an earlier draft, the same draft or not at all. And there’s no logic for how he would have ended up with the 107th.

And here’s where it gets meta. Because narratively Bucky is drafted to be a foil for Steve, who can’t join the military despite desperately wanting to. And Bucky becomes a POW to motivate Steve into the action that transforms him from a performer to a combatant, thereby achieving Steve’s—and the narrative’s—vision of idealized masculinity. And Bucky falls off the train to push Steve into more radical action against Hydra, which culminates with him putting the plane into the water. Bucky isn’t doomed by the narrative. He’s doomed by Steve’s narrative. In the original work, the pre-TFATWS MCU, Bucky’s suffering only has narrative meaning because of its effect on Steve. And you can argue that things only occur in a story if they have narrative meaning. 

Without having to be a plot device and motivator for Steve, Bucky is theoretically relieved of the narrative requirement of being a POW. He wouldn’t have to fall off that train.

But, at heart, fanfiction is a rejection of this model of narrative meaning. As soon as you create a Bucky-centric reading or write a Bucky-centric version of canon, then his suffering has the potential for intrinsic narrative meaning. And Bucky’s story of victimization and heroic resilience speaks deeply to a lot of people, myself included. Bucky lacks the protagonist’s halo of always beating the odds, of the doors always closing just after safely jumping through, of being able to close that gap and grab the hand reaching out for him, and of being looked for by friendlies and discovered as still alive in the cold. Of course, if Bucky was a protagonist, the serum would have kicked in faster; he would have broken his own restraints; he would have rescued himself and the remnants of the 107th. 

But that’s not Bucky’s narrative function. 

Bucky is so fascinating to me because his story doesn’t follow the pattern of male-hero-protagonist. He has a sympathetic villain’s narrative arc but then refuses to become a villain. So, in this revisionist analysis, Bucky is doomed and saved by his own narrative. And this is why I’m leaning toward Bucky still being drafted, even if his experience of the war plays out differently, but not making him a POW so long as the part of Bucky’s story that's about being controlled and dehumanized by larger forces can be transferred to a different part of the narrative. 

I’ll sign off with this piece of inspiration about Mickey Rooney, an iconic child star of the era:

Mayer naturally tried to keep all his child actors in line, like any father figure. After one such episode, Mickey Rooney replied, "I won't do it. You're asking the impossible." Mayer then grabbed young Rooney by his lapels and said, "Listen to me! I don't care what you do in private. Just don't do it in public. In public, behave. Your fans expect it. You're Andy Hardy! You're the United States! You're the Stars and Stripes. Behave yourself! You're a symbol!”[4]

Sources:

1. World War II Selective Service Draft Registrations

2. The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940

3. Wood, Richard G., comp., Records of the Selective Service System, 1940-47 (PI 27); National Archives (NARA), 1951.

4. Wayne, Jane Ellen (2005). The Leading Men of MGM. Carroll & Graf Publishers. p. 246

[bestworstcase]

to what degree do you think ozma is projecting/flat out lying when he tells hazel salem wants to destroy remnant and die? does he know or have an inkling of what her real motives are? i would imagine he does given the breaking point between them was over the gods, but i find it interesting the degree to which he obfuscates it

wrt what ozma says to hazel, i think it’s worth keeping in mind that:

ozma believes fear is the fundament of all living beings (“the single quality that is common across all living creatures on this planet […] we so easily underestimate its power”);

ozma is a habitual, nearly compulsive liar;

when ozma tells hazel that salem craves nothing but release and she intends to doom everyone else so that she can finally die, he does so with the explicit purpose of manipulating hazel the way he believes salem manipulates his own inner circle, i.e. he is deliberately setting out to do to hazel what salem did to lionheart.

those are three solid reasons to think ozma is, if not lying through his teeth, then at least distorting the facts and lying by omission just as he did in V5. he also describes salem’s immortality as a proper curse with “as long as this world turns” as the implicit end clause, which we know he knows isn’t the truth. so there’s certainly a degree of deliberate deception and obfuscation going on here, as he’s emphasizing salem’s (notional, presumed) suicidality as much as possible in order to scare hazel out of following her.

i think he does, absolutely, know what salem really wants. not just because of their falling out over the question of whether to do what the god of light told him to do but also because of the fairytale anthology, which is like… paraphrasing,

ozpin’s notes on the grimm child: “the detail about the possessed victims of this grimm having stark white hair and dark eyes isn’t a traditional part of the fairytale, i put it here because the story reminds me of this other story about a witch who lived in the woods :) and also to underscore the futility of expecting evil to be simple and obvious, because in reality evil can lurk behind any face and we’re often the slowest to recognize it in ourselves…”

ozpin’s notes on the infinite man: “no story on remnant has been used as propaganda more often than this one. i think the man was both a hero and a fool and made terrible mistakes that may not be worthy of forgiveness. also truth is not absolute and everyone has the freedom to make their own choices.”

ozpin’s notes on the story of the seasons: “by the way, i have nightmares about a world where everyone had god-given magic. that would be terrible.”

ozpin’s notes on the girl in the tower: “hi this one is propaganda too. it ended in tragedy and the hero turned out to be a villain, but hopefully villains can turn out to be heroes too. also you should question everything, especially if you’re told it’s the absolute truth, because storytellers have absolute control over the narrative.”

ozpin’s notes on the gift of the moon, which is the last tale in the anthology and comes directly after the girl in the tower: “this is an allegory about how humans broke the world, then came together to not only replace a celestial gift from the all-powerful god of light but improved upon it through their own ingenuity. the divide between day and night, light and dark, is the real problem actually”

something something in waves of shame/we’re desperate to make amends… fairytales of remnant reads like a tortured apology to salem that he is desperately trying to contort into condemnation and that really does not make sense to me unless ozma knows damn well what she really hopes to accomplish.

he’s just in a position where everything he’s achieved rests on the precarious narrative that salem exists as the Root Of All Evil. if he doesn’t have that, all he has is the genocidal god he serves and “help me usher in the day of judgment so my god can decide whether we deserve to exist or not” is, erm, not what you’d call an inspiring cause.

[dwreader]

Can I ask what has made you think the season isn’t Louis/armand/claudia centred? I know the fandom is annoying but I’ve yet to see anything to convince me that the actual show itself isn’t going to be completely centred around them. Daniel is just a part of their modern day narrative, he has to have some character exploration or there’s no point to him/ no vehicle for the interview to take place. Lestat is just a part of the past narrative, I think the flashbacks are mostly going to be about Armands past with the theatre which involves Lestat and Nicki, Armand needs to be fleshed out a bit as a character cause I doubt we’ll get to a TVA season. I just haven’t seen anything yet that makes me think it’s Daniel/Lestat’s story they’re just a part of the overall story. Idk I’m just hopeful I guess but I don’t see why we’re doom posting before we know what we’re actually gonna get, unless there’s something you’ve seen in particular?

I think the interview happening because of a daniel lost memories arc completely undercuts the story as being louis's no matter how much or little screentime they actually devote to it. I don't rly think there's going to be a lot of screentime on young daniel just based on how little the actor was there (even nicki's actor was on in prague way longer) but the central question of the season/second half of the book being what happened to claudia and does louis know turning into what's been erased from daniel's mind completely changes the show's centrality. It's not necessarily that daniel is suddenly going to be the main lead which he's obviously not but what the show deems an impactful reveal does affect how we view the importance of the characters and relationships. And to me throwing in a whole amnesia storyline about the white guy 100% takes away from the premise of the interview altogether. Its very very jarring when in the book daniel was entirely irrelevant to loumand but in the show suddenly he's the main figure in the room... very deliberate choice and kind of screams they have no confidence in loumand carrying the show on their own.

As for the Lestat/Nicki/Marius/etc flashbacks, I just think it's not relevant to the Louis + Claudia arc in the book at all? and you'd never in a million years see a Lestat-centric TVL season be shoehorned with random bits of Louis or Claudia backstory that occur w/o Lestat even there and have little to no relevance to the main plot. In fact, you probably could've dropped some TVL bits in s1 since it's clear Louis does know about Nicki already in NOLA but the show doesn't go there cause it doesn't feel the need to (as Lestat is already a co-lead in s1 and has a lot of screentime as is). But I think once they were given the OK to make the book into 2 seasons they realized the second half was going to be almost entirely louis-armand-claudia with only a brief lestat appearance at the end... and yeah. If they really have the confidence that the show would get multiple seasons then why try to cram so much later book stuff into this season? Supposedly AMC wants 10 seasons and like theoretically you'll have plenty of time for all this when Louis's main arc is over so why are you doing this now when he actually does have a story left to tell? Or do they think if they don't sprinkle this shit now, most of their book loyalists will bolt since they don't care about non-white characters without a white person tether.

[variousqueerthings]

And I’ve been flouting the principle of my people ever since

FINAL EPISODE FINAL EPISODE FINAL!!!!! "Time Of The Doctor," let's do it: it's ASDA's Own Brand "Parting Of The Ways"

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 4/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 2/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 3/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 4/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 3/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 3/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 5/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 4/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 4/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 4/10

FULL RATING: 36/100 (if I can count….)

CONGRATULATIONS! ELEVEN'S RUN HAS ENDED ON THE OFFICIALLY LOWEST RATED EPISODE BASED ON THESE CRITERIA OF THE ENTIRE RUN!

Now there's a saying that goes something along the lines of being Bad is not bad. Boring is bad

well this episode is Bad and Boring. but at least the music is great!

OBJECTIFICATION: there's a woman who's the high priest of a religious organisation (it's in fact the religious organisation that filters back in time and causes all the trouble for the Eleventh Doctor this whole era) and guess what????

she's sexy

shocking, really. she's the amalgamation of the River Song/Queen Liz The Tenth/Nefertiti with a sprinkle of Irene Adler Bullshit given one last Hurrah!

genuinely she's meant to be at the centre for quite a complex arc of powerful leader with whom the Doctor has an uneasy alliance to years long antagonism with a dash of strange friendship to sticking up for one another at the last Conflict, and all I can tell you about her is that she is sexy, allegedly

OH also that she's apparently a psychopath too

there's also non-consensual kissing, which I've opted to put in the "sexiness" category, but belongs just as much here!

PLOT-POINT: Clara calls the Doctor to be her pretend boyfriend for Christmas (at least she has a family, and while we've not properly met them before now outside of her dead mum in flashbacks, I can buy these people in this estate!)

and from there Clara's feelings about things is uh. The Doctor is great and please don't leave me behind, which the Doctor does... twice!

but this is no Parting Of The Ways/Dooms Day big dramatic event -- Clara is not the focal point here, or her emotions about her life and what it means to be whisked away from it on these adventures, no matter how dangerous, or how it affects her relationship with just-met family, or anything to do with class or feelings of self-worth or or or... no nonoooo what this episode suggests is that she fancies the Doctor

and she has another similar Moment to Parting Of The Ways in which the Doctor changes in front of her (the big emotional moment is with a hallucinated Amy Pond, Clara is kind of just... also there), and she asks him not to, even though to her, as far as I've seen this season, the Doctor is a really good mate, whom she already knows regenerates, because she's seen all 11 of their lives, so where is this emotion coming from? Idk, I guess because she thinks Eleven is hot, or something, that's all I can come up with. general human angst about things not being the same? whatever it is, it's not grounded in anything character-based that I've seen

the point is that things happen and she does some things but none of this is about her and she could as well not be in this story

COMPLEXITY: ARGH okay so me calling this Parting Of The Ways redux -- the Doctor lands on Trenzalore (without knowing it's Trenzalore?) after a bunch of pointless buildup that is way too similar to Pandorica Opens and once again gathers the greatest hits of Daleks, Cybermen and... Slitheen (this has happened twice, does M*ffat know the Slitheen are a family and not a species? gosh I'm getting pedantic now, but you ain't seen nothing yet, because I've just watched all of Eleven's era and had to suffer through things that could have been good but instead were.... this!)

and other species, Sontaran uh... oh Angels at the beginning and... just take my word for it, other species. because there's a Signal, and the Signal is beaming out a Question, and the Question is... it's still Doctor Who, that's still The Question, which the Answer is a Code Word that will bring back the Time Lords from where they're hiding. so many things are Capitalised, because everything is given Capital Importance All The Time

Anyway, this is all centred on a... town called Christmas. because it's a Christmas episode. we're really going to have to get into some cultural Christianity type judgement at this point I feel, although I do acknowledge this isn't a M*ffat fault so much as the fact that there is a Christmas special. one day the Doctor is going to travel with someone who's idk. Jewish. Hindu. Muslim. Druze. Sikh. Take your pick

I do think M*ffat is worse than RTD for inserting Christmas as this all-important Universal Type Thing, whereas at least in Christmas Invasion it was just like... we're celebrating a local family's Christmas traditions. Runaway Bride? fucking hate Christmas. Titanic episode a bit shakier, but makes fun of Christmas, which I enjoyed

eh The Next Doctor... shakier. anyway, it's shaky, where was I?

A TOWN CALLED CHRISTMAS! where you can only tell the truth, which will not matter at all to the plot, I think? unless I missed something massive while yelling NO STOP FUCKING WHAT???? at the screen

and the Doctor and all these species enter into a several hundred years long stalemate, where the Doctor allegedly can't leave because... they'll bomb it to get rid of the signal that indicates where the Doctor must answer the Question to bring back the Time Lords I think? and then the people of Christmas will die

and they can't invade Christmas because the Doctor is single-handedly defending it, which the Doctor can do now I guess

but then at the end the Doctor can't because he's old and it's been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years in this frankly boring as fuck town that never changes and has zero personality, and the Daleks invade, and then Doctor regenerates (he was afraid he couldn't because due to technicalities this is the last regeneration, except we know it's not -- not mad at that, I get it, give it some emotion, makes sense) and uses the energy to just blow up all the Daleks

IIII am not convinced that regeneration energy can blow up all the Dalek ships, dunno... but it's not the stupidest part of this episode, which is really just the Doctor's whole *waves hands* Thing about this town that needs to be this way because the Plot Demands It and the surrounding aliens and the Doctor is so very interesting and powerful and rather than dig into the plot, we have a Voice Over giving quick explanations to tie us in from one scene to the next

I'm not sure we ever find out who that is? but M*ffat LOVES a Voice Over, almost as much as he likes a not-so-cryptic mysterious prophecy wrapped in a simple rhyming sche- OH YEAH WE GET THAT TOO

If I'd known to count these from the beginning I would have done so, because frankly it turned out to be one of my biggest pet peeves of the era. why is this thing happening? oh see, there was a prophetic Rhyme said at some point by any rando so it's gotta, sorry. Prophetic Rhymes. gotta Prophecy, because it's in a rhyme that could have been put together by a five year old, that's how you know it's extra Prophetic

anyway then the Crack In The Wall/Universe reappears in this place and is just vibing with the Doctor for all these years, and at the end Clara kneels down next to it and asks it to... save? the Doctor... I've gotta be honest I must have faded out at that point, because I cannot remember if it's explained

. how does Clara come up with the idea to do this?/what is her connection to the crack in the wall that she'd think it was sentient or even that important to events or idk... capable of doing what it later does?

. how does it become sentient??

. uh what does it do other than be kind of spooky and suck up a few daleks?

. where does it go?

. why was it there?

OH and the Daleks infiltrate that Religious Organisation and take over all of them/turn them into the human Daleks we saw back in Asylum and it's... idk whatever, I never cared about this organisation (but we'll get to that)

and then the Doctor regenerates into Peter Capaldi

the point is, I couldn't help but think of Nine's final episode, staying behind to protect the earth, as every character we met in this two-parter has died doing the same. in this episode Eleven stays to protect... some people in some place who have no real character other than as reflecting onto the Doctor. Rose and Clara are both sent away, and both come back, but for Clara that's not part of her arc, it's just that she arrives at key moments to witness the Doctor Doing Stuff

all of the emotional weight behind Parting Of The Ways is superficially recreated in this story, right down to big old Massive Dalek Spooky Voice, which I think epitomises M*ffat's writing. stay on the surface and it'll feel epic and big and complex and like it's emotionally doing something and going somewhere, look at it the tiniest bit closer and it's just... Flash Scene after Flash Scene

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: And then the Doctor regenerates into Peter Capaldi. nothing else important happens in this episode. Clara and the Eleventh Doctor end statically (no real Anger anger about being abandoned twice, it's a short little argument and then they hug the first time and the second she's just... there at the end)

no new info really on the Time Lords/Gallifrey. the name being a Code Word might be new actually

um. Christmas is just some place at the end, why is it safe now?

COMPANIONS MATTER: Sorry Clara you got pulled into the Bullshit of a patented M*ffat finale episode

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurgh the Doctor can single-handedly hold off fleets of Daleks, Cybermen, Angels, Sontarans...... Slitheen... I guess... etcetc... and yes they can't bomb the place from orbit, but wow what a way to render all of the main players in DW as apparently utterly boring when up against specialist boy of all time

also the episode cloaks itself in so much grandeur (the most successful layer of which is of course Murray Gold's score), and so much alleged mystery and Oh The Doctor Is So Interesting for a story in which, I cannot stress enough, despite my large write-up above, Barely anything happens!

back into pedantic mode but having just watched Eleven's whole era, which had a few great episodes, a bunch of mediocre ones, and wahaaay too many absolutely unwatchable ones, I find the speech at the end to be entirely too meta self-aggrandising. what are the important things about Eleven, what do we take away? that it was all super awesome and "I'll never forget when the Doctor was me" said straight at the camera -- I'm shocked he didn't wink

yes, Nine had "you were fantastic and so was I" (paraphrased I know), and Ten had "I don't want to go," but it's based in what's been going on with the characters up until that point in various ways, and also wasn't preluded by seasons of narrative that made you want to claw your brains out, so that a line about not wanting to forget a single moment makes you go "actually I'd be happy to forget a fair bit"

this probably feels different if one really enjoyed this Era outside of select episodes, but since I have sooo much baggage tied into it and it hasn't mysteriously improved upon rewatch, it makes me want to shake M*ffat by the scruff of his neck

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: mmmm as far as I'm aware there's barely anything here, apart from youknow. Daleks and Cybermen and a throwaway about TenToo being down to "vanity issues" which I can take, because the Doctor often trivialises things in order not to discuss them

I guess all the callbacks were for Day Of The Doctor, but still. kind of an oddly connectionless regeneration episode. it's your last Hurrah and it's tying up all of M*ffat's loose ends unsatisfactorily and in a rush before getting the heck outta dodge (because who cared about this town where the whole thing is set, really???)

oh and "reverse the polarity"

“SEXINESS”: OHHHHHHH WELL YOU SEE! YOU REMEMBER! that woman I mentioned who's the allegedly mysteeeerious powerful leader of the Religious Organisation?

well she just can't resist the sexy sexy Doctor. her introduction scene includes all of this within idk. ten seconds: Hey babes. New body, give us a twirl. Nice though. Tight.

it is important to note that although the audience can't see it, the Doctor is technically naked when she says these things, because there's a pointless plotline where they have to briefly beam onto the planet and can't bring anything with them, including clothes, so they... hologram them on???

the Doctor also does this in front of Clara's family who all see him naked and don't really interact with this beyond grandmother being visibly into it, and Clara pushing the Doctor into the kitchen and saying "he's Swedish"

also actually, in the beginning of the episode Clara calls asking the Doctor to "be her boyfriend" (omitting the word "pretend" by accident) and he responds by going "Ding Dong"

it's just... really M*ffat's Greatest Hits

I wrote the words WHY IS THIS BEING SEXY??? AGAIN???? several times in my notes, including one bit where he insults Religious Lady enough to make her angry enough to reverse her Dalek brainwashing/death... whatever just to slap him (I think this also doubles as a sexist moment, because the Doctor starts the insulting by pointing at Clara and going that is a Woman! meaning Clara is just representing People better by not being cowardly, but like... why frame it like that, when there's been all this badly-written non-tension between you two), at which point he grabs her and dip-kisses her without her consent

Religious Lady, winded: Kiss me when I ask The Doctor: Well you’d better ask nicely

she smiles, clearly kind of turned on by that bit of misogyny

oh so sexy

INTERNAL WORLD: Town called Christmas? Nonsense, no personality, nothing. Big Religious Organisation that engineered the whole set of events of this era? as bland and boring as when we met them back in s6 (seriously what do they stand for, I still don't know who they are in any meaningful way). Clara's family? yeah I'll give it that, she has a family, which is, again, more than can be said for Amy

POLITICS: I've already done my Christmas Spiel. the other thing is something I said in the review for the last episode, which is that "ordinary" people don't matter. the people of Christmas, Clara, her family, they're just set-dressing for the really Important people (Big Religious Organisation, Dalek Commanders, The Doctor) to do their Important People Things

how do they feel about it? what part of the story do they affect? why do we care about these people?

no, the important thing about this story is apparently the Gods, the Military, the Religious Institutions, who also aren't represented by ordinary people for that matter, but by their Structures and the Leaders Who Uphold them... as practically Inhuman

FULL RATING: 36/100 (if I can count….)

listen... Capaldi is here. and yes, he starts underground in terms of the bar and has to claw his way up, but I know he does it!

meanwhile what can I say about the end of an era?

there were some good'uns. we'll get to that on a bigger summing up, but I will not lie, they were there. not... when M*ffat was writing

it was around this time (actually earlier s7) that I stopped watching, and I'm glad I did, because I can watch it now and enjoy the good without taking the bad so much to my very emotional teenage heart

this episode shouldn't exist, if I'm being honest. they should have ended Eleven's run in the 50th Anniversary, which, while very very flawed, was at least suitably actually epic and is the episode that sets up a lot of the next arcs

the most I can say for this is that it leaves behind a lot of the baggage of s5-7 -- not tying it up suitably, but at least ending it. don't need to care about cracks in walls, the silence and their weird cult, Trenzalore, or The Question... at least I bloody hope not!

[idkaguyorsomething]

Why You Should Read Known Associates

might as well start shouting it from the rooftops now that i’ve got one of these, but if you are in the Detective Conan/Case Closed fandom and you haven’t read Known Associates by @halfpennyjones you are missing out. it’s easily one of the best fics i’ve ever read and blows its source material out of the water.

who it centers on: kogoro mori/richard moore, ran mori/rachel moore, and conan. the story is told entirely from kogoro/richard’s perspective, so the focus tends to be on the people closest to him, like eri and inspector megure. there’s not a lot of the black organization or heiji, so if you’re just here for them, maybe this isn’t the fic for you. there’s so much great stuff, though, so don’t discount it just because of that!

why you should read it: Known Associates is one of those fics that expands upon canon characters and events that its source material didn’t give too much time to shine. retelling a lot of the events of the story from the perspective of kogoro/richard, it has a much more realistic take on a lot of canon. stuff like kogoro/richard’s subpar parenting skills, his divorce, his alcoholism, and mental illness are all taken a lot more seriously here. the story doesn’t shy away from how flawed of a man he can be, but it treats him sympathetically and remembers the good stuff he does as much as the bad. it’s a tricky tightrope to walk, but the result is a fascinating character study of a deeply flawed, but ultimately good man with a metric ton of issues to work through. this extends to the rest of the characters as well! we get insight into how ran/rachel is affected by all the crime and disappearances around her, as well as conan struggling to cope with his new situation. the latter is especially great to read about because of the layer of dramatic irony where we know about his secret but the POV character doesn’t, which makes for some fantastic little details that are so, so satisfying to catch on reread. it’s not all doom and gloom either, since the narrative maintains a very wry sense of humor that never feels like it goes too far. if you’re a fan of twisted jokes, at least give this fic a try just for the narration. all this comes packaged along with a strong emotional core that adds so many layers to these characters that i promise you will never look at them the same way after reading this. and it has inspector megure being a great friend, so what’s not to love?

possible reasons to stay away: as mentioned before, this fic doesn’t shy away from themes of child neglect, alcoholism, and mental illness. it also goes into the full implications of conan repeatedly non-consensually drugging a man, which can be quite harrowing to read about. and it should probably go without saying, but there is a lot of murder and kidnapping going around, the main difference between this and canon being that people react to it somewhat more realistically rather than shrugging it off once the case is solved. all these subjects are handled with tact and are well-written, but if they trigger you then you may want to avoid this fic.

TL;DR Known Associates is an amazing fanfic with a lot of humor, heart, and darkness. go do yourself a favor and read it if you haven’t already, but be wary because it treads some rough waters on a magnificently well-written journey

[cannibalistic-cucumber]

Okay so

For various reasons, Sonic Adventure (SA1) is among my dead favorite games. The two relevant to this rant are the characters and the gorgeous soundtrack (in fact, I might go on a tangent about individual songs at the end of this).

My favorite character in the game is E-102 “Gamma” (btw if you derail this post about Omega, you die), a robot built by Eggman, who runs on animal power, as Eggman’s robots usually do. However, Gamma contains a very special animal - it’s a surprise tool the will help us later. Five minutes into being born (and after training, ofc), he is forced to shoot his brother, E-101 “Beta”. Following this, he board’s Eggman’s ship (the Egg Carrier) and is tasked with catching the tailed frog. Upon collecting the frog, he is transported to the past, where he experiences childlike wonder at the chao. Back on the Egg Carrier, the rest of his siblings are cast out because of their failure to get the frog. After that, Gamma is sent to execute a prisoner. On the way, he makes a wrong turn and ends up in the machining room, where he experiences eldritch horror at the sight of his brother being disassembled and reassembled. In the prison, he finds Amy Rose, who has a blue bird flying around with her looking for its parents. She convinces him not to kill her a la Mindy Animaniacs, and protects Sonic out on the deck of the ship, further confusing Gamma. He leaves the crashing ship, now convinced to “rescue” his disowned brothers. After successfully disposing of them, he is ambushed on the Egg Carrier by Beta Mk II, who feigns death in order to shoot Gamma in the back, and they both die as a result. Lo and behold, Gamma and Beta contained the parents of the bird. Reunited, they fly off into the sunset.

TLDR: Gamma is Eggman robot who experiences eldritch horror and compassion and forsakes his master as a result. He “rescues” his siblings before dying himself, and the animal inside him reunites with its family.

Now, a little more background before we get to the main point. SEGA Sound Team popped off for this game. Each character has a theme song that plays during their respective recaps and end credits (each one has an entire storyline with slight variations on who does what (it’s all happening at once)). Side note: I’m like 70% sure SA1 is the origin of Knuckles jazz. It should also be noted that I have a youtube playlist of songs on queue for downloading, and when I run out of ideas I scroll through the recommended additions section.

E-102’s theme is in my top three favorite songs from SA1. You’ll never guess what it’s called! Theme of E-102γ. And that’s my first talking point. I was reading the comments on one of the music videos, and one of them made a connection that his theme doesn’t get a proper name because he’s just another cog in the machine. Even Big the Cat has a greater role in the main story than him. And yet, doomed by the narrative as he is, he gets his own story. As another comment pointed out, each story has its own (literary) theme: Sonic is Adventure, Tails is Independence, Knuckles is Recollection (I’m kinda iffy on that one), Amy is Protection, Big is Friendship, and Gamma? Gamma is heart and soul. Compassion. Morality, something that shouldn’t be possible, and definitely isn’t comprehensible for a robot, especially one of Eggman’s creation.

As a side tangent here, I’ve been putting rescued in quotes when it comes to Gamma and his brothers, but I realized something between the time I started writing this and now. The animals that drop from the E-series robots are birds. They’re all his brothers, inside and out. I had always assumed that Gamma had meant rescue only in the liberation sense. I never realized that he meant it both ways. I just… I’m need a moment.

As a side side tangent, I think this is one of the biggest differences between E-100 ZERO and the rest. To my knowledge, he didn’t have any animals, much less another bird, and that was what led him to the brutish oafishness that we see displayed by him.

Back to the main points, I think that all of this is reflected in the song. It starts out with all of the synth, vague vocals, electro, etc. that would be expected from the theme of a robot, and then you’ve got… PIANO. Oh my god the piano. Piano Man has its harmonica, and this song has its piano. In the midst of the circuits, the wires, the computers, there’s life, a heartbeat, a soul. And with the soul comes that twinge of sadness. Sure he freed the animals, but to do so, he had to kill his brothers with his own two (?)(does the gun count?) hands. Due to this and the cumulation of everything else, hearing the song (or the variation of it) during his final cutscene hits and hits hard.

THE REPRISE OF THE MAIN THEME PIANO AS HE DIES IN OBSCURITY. THE OTHER BIRDS ARE LIKELY THE ONLY ONES THAT END UP KNOWING ABOUT HIS DEATH

It’s okay I’m okay I’m so normal about this

Now that the main rant is over, it’s time for me to hoot about the other songs

Be Cool, Be Wild, Be Groovy …for Ice Cap

I get that it’s a snowboarding section, but still. THEY BOTHERED TO USE GUITAR IN A SNOW LEVEL. NAME ONE OTHER INSTANCE OF THAT THAT ISN’T LITTLE BIG PLANET’S THE WILDERNESS’S SITAR.

Limestone Cave …for Ice Cap

Ambience plain and simple. Good for falling asleep to

Snowy Mountain …for Ice Cap

Another ambience piece, this time with another guitar (no this doesn’t count for the challenge I posed above). Love the mix of electric and acoustic

Welcome To Station Square

“The train headed for the Mystic Ruins will be departing soon.” Came for the guitar, stayed for the trumpet.

Red Barrage Area …for Hot Shelter

SAX (shout outs to the rest of Hot Shelter’s music btw)

Militant Missionary … Boss Egg Walker & Egg Viper

Hopelessness, despair, DRAMA. Things may not have gone to plan, but Eggman is surely still the one in control.

And finally, shoutouts to Bad Taste Aquarium, Pleasure Castle, and Dilapidated Way for going full throttle right out the gate.

@green-mountain-goose @greetings-inferiors @cue-jay @kimu-dem

[angeygirl]

June of Doom Day 12: "I can't stand to see you like this" Coma, Grief, Dehydration

[Warning for implied child death in the sense that a child dies and the narrative just doesn't use those words exactly, and implied alcoholism but its way more subtle. Neither of these are the focus, but they're in there]

---------------------

Henry Emily was not fond of hospitals in the way that no one was fond of hospitals. The fear of being turned away was almost strong enough to prevent him from entering. His loyalty was stronger. Very cautiously, he approached the ICU and entered. There were two figures in the room, a very large man and a very small boy.

Henry had expected the boy to look like he was sleeping. He was, but it was not a peaceful sleep; it was nightmares. The soft, young features looked as though they would spring awake screaming at any moment. Henry carefully reached out a hand to touch his friend's shoulder.

William looked up dully for a moment, then back to his son. “How many sick days do I have left?” He asked roughly.

“What?”

“How many sick days do I have left?”

“I dunno, a week maybe?”

William nodded and dropped his head into his hands.

“What have the doctors said?”

There was a long pause. “Hmm? What was that?”

“What have the doctors said?”

William’s eyes went glassy.

“Is it bad?”

He nodded.

Henry was lost for words. The pair stayed locked in a heavy silence for about ten minuets before it weighed too heavily and Henry quietly left.

-----------------------

No matter what the doctor had said, William was adamant the passing was anything but peaceful. He insisted the boy had quite literally been frightened to death by his own nightmares. The doctor said the bleeding had restarted on its own.

That first day was the eye of the storm. The winds had been harshest just before it happened, lulled to total calm, and then kicked back into a fury as denial wore off. Now, William seemed to be controlled by three different people. The first version of himself was totally unchanged, the same cheerful persona he put on at all times. It must have been second nature to him; must have been easier to put on an outward mask then to face the feelings within. The second version did not have an ounce of patience. Henry wished he could ask for others to be patient instead, but when someone as large and imposing as Mr. Afton begins to lose his temper, all others are excused for being afraid. This version would only appear for minuets at a time at work, and then vanish back into the initial persona. Judging by how timid the remaining two children were, this variant of their father was still quite active at home.

Henry Emily was not a man who understood people. He didn’t know whether to get closer or pull away. He couldn’t bring himself to imagine what would happen if he was in that situation, but he didn’t know how to tell someone who towered over everyone else to control himself.

There was a third persona, however. This was who Henry was truly afraid for. It was someone he thought he could help, but would never have had the words. This was someone Henry found in the dark of the maintenance closet all alone, usually with a whisky nearby. Someone who seemed to subsist on caffeine and alcohol alone.

Summer dragged on. The rage had subsided, the drinking had not. Even as the desert heat continued to climb, William insisted on taking his time in the rabbit suit; said it made things feel better. Henry himself knew how much freedom was to be found inside a costume, but he also knew the dangers. Specifically, he knew the dangers other then the spring-locks.

It was late in August and, dry air or not, much too hot to be wearing a furry costume.

“What? It’s not like we’re outside.”

“Yeah but the A/C isn’t enough to keep up with the heatwave.”

William waved his hand dismissively and continued pulling on the rabbit pants.

Henry leaned on the door with concern in his eyes. “Bill, I know you hate when I ask to talk, but are you sure you’re hydrated enough, at least?”

William thought for a moment. “Dunno, but it’ll be fine.”

“The first rule of mascot safety is to drink your water, I don’t think you’ve had a drop in weeks.” Henry stepped closer.

William huffed. “Would you just stop?”

“No. I can’t. Bill, I can’t stand seeing you like this.”

“Like what exactly?” He snapped.

Henry shuffled back and looked down. “I dunno. You haven't been acting like yourself. You’re.. meaner. Irresponsible. Its just… I dunno.”

“You don’t think I’m like myself but you want to stop me from being myself.” William clicked the fastenings at his back shut. “Sorry to disappoint you, but Spring Bonnie is more like William Afton then William Afton is like himself at the moment, and Spring Bonnie has a show to put on. If Fredbear would like to join, he’s more then welcome to, if not, then we will be dancing alone as usual.”

Henry glanced at the decommissioned animatronic bear in the corner. It sat on a bench, looking lonely, or perhaps guilty. Henry couldn’t tell. Spring Bonnie went out to entertain the dwindling crowd, while Henry watched from the maintenance room door. A few minuets into the routine, he noticed a sort of lethargy in the yellow bunny. The wide, preformative movements were downplayed. A few minuets later, it perked up once again. Henry bit the inside of his lip. He tried to call the rabbit over to him in such a way that it looked part of the show, with a goofy exaggerated wave.

The rabbit tilted its head and waved goodbye to the three children it had been playing with and skipped back into the maintenance room.

William fumbled off the costume head, hair sticking to the sides of his face. “What? What happened?”

“You looked dizzy out there. I can tell even with the costume on.”

William shook his head and Henry noticed how pale the man looked. “I was dizzy but I’ve got my second wind now.”

“Second wind? William you’re about to go under!”

“No, I’m- I’m... I’m seeing spots.” He tried to swallow. “Henry? Henry, I’m seeing spots.”

Henry scrambled around behind him and started to undo the clasps keeping the suit on.

William tried to help, but his fingers seemed to lose all dexterity. “I feel fine, I just... I... I can’t see.”

The top part of the suit fell away, and the black undershirt was only slightly damp. With the heat, William should have been letting off dangerous amounts of sweat. Henry winced a little as he tried to unclasp the belt keeping the suit’s pants up.

“Ok, step out of it.”

William tried to obey but his eyes were glazed over. He stumbled forward a few paces and crumpled to the ground with a thud. Henry jumped up and rushed into the kitchen to find a rag. He quickly drenched it and darted back to the maintenance room. A cook had followed him.

“Mr. Emily what’s-?” She yelped when she saw the other manager on the floor. “I’ll get him some water!”

The initial sweat was drying, but there didn’t seem to be any more. The man’s mouth looked dry too; his eyes were sunken. The cook came in with a glass of water and promptly poured it all over her boss’s head. He didn’t react.

“Worth a shot.” She shrugged.

“Get another glass!” Henry shouted, exasperated and started pressing the wet rag on William’s neck and arms. The cook seemed to misunderstand. She darted away and came back, only to drizzle water along Mr. Afton’s back.

Henry raked his fingers through his hair. “Let him drink it next time!”

Embarrassed, she nodded and hurried to refill the cup. A redheaded security guard cautiously came in. “Is everything alright?”

“I...I dunno. We might need an ambulance.”

The man on the floor groggily pushed himself to his elbows. “He-hen-hen...”

Henry wiped the rag against William’s face. “It’s ok bud, it’s ok.”

William made a sound that almost sounded like ‘help’, but collapsed again.

Henry nodded to the guard. “Go call an ambulance.”

The cook came back with the water cup and timidly offered it. William propped himself up on one arm and drained it in seconds. The cook was gone and back again in time for the guard to confirm help was on the way. Henry helped hold his friend upright.

“Drink it slower this time, bud. Think of it like those bottles on the sides of rodent cages, you gotta drink it in little sips.”

“L-l-lag-a-m-m-mor-phszz.”

“Huh?”

“L-lagam-m-morphsss.”

“You’re makin’ up words there, friend.”

“R-rabbitsss are lag-a-amorphsss.”

"Same idea." Henry ruffled the other man’s hair. It was sticky.

Nevertheless, the rabbit cage analogy seemed to come in handy. William took the water in little sips, and seemed slightly recovered by the time the paramedics arrived. They checked him out fully and determined the cause was dehydration. Heat exhaustion had also been to blame. The only reason they had convinced William to go to the hospital with them was because he was too close to unconscious to argue.

William did not stay in the hospital overnight. In the meantime Henry went to make sure the Afton kids were all taken care of. Michael was mostly capable, but had been too emotionally drained to be at full strength.

When Henry knocked on the door, Elizabeth had answered. “Uncle Henry! Why are you here?”

Henry stepped inside shyly. “You’re dad ain’t doing to well. He’s alive, don’t worry about that.” He was careful to reassure Elizabeth when he saw the fear in her eyes. “But he’ll be tired when he comes home.”

Henry explained the situation and helped the two reheat a donated casserole. Michael was fine to eat it cold and Elizabeth was too scared to use the stove. William came home at a somewhat decent time and dropped himself directly on the couch.

Henry appeared and sat on the other side. “So, you’re alive?”

William nodded.

“Tired?”

He pinched his lips together and nodded again.

“You gotta drink your water.”

William glared. “Water isn’t very good for sleeping.”

“Neither is- Never mind.”

“Say it.”

“Naw, I’ll spare you the lecture.”

William nodded. “Much appreciated.”

There was several minuets of awkward silence. Usually Henry appreciated that, but not now. Elizabeth seemed too frightened to approach her father without permission and Michael had vanished into his room again.

“Guess I better be heading home. Take care of yourself, Bill.”

William sighed and nodded.

Henry glanced over his shoulder as he was about to leave. “I mean it.”

---------------------------

@juneofdoom

idk why this was the prompt that spoke to me, but it spoke so clearly that I mixed in all four ideas into one

R.I.P. random cook and security guard, you existed only to serve the plot briefly

(plz don't tag as a ship?)

[angleofmusings]

ok danger days analysis. this starts with bulletproof heart because i was super feral about it and couldn’t wait until after look alive sunshine and nanana.

bulletproof heart. “too much talking with a laser blade” it isn’t about using violence as a form of diplomacy. it’s not that at all. it’s the opposite. there’s too much talking with weapons instead of words. insert that astronaut meme “it’s all anti-war?” “always has been”

sing. “sing it till you’re not / singing out for the ones that’ll hate your guts” well fuck okay. if that ain’t something that they sure as hell r living up to now.

planetary (go!). it’s saying, let’s fucking get out of here! “this is a letter / my word / is the beretta / the sound of my vendetta / against the ones that planned it”

the only hope for me is you. well. this is just. a letter to queer youth. it’s no accident that it’s right after planetary (go!) on the album. it starts with “remember me” and invoking imagery of nostalgia and shared history, then the fucking amazing lyrics “and if we can’t find where we belong / we’ll have to make it on our own / face all the pain and take it on / because the only hope for me / is you alone”

jet star and the cobra kid / traffic report. and then jet star and the cobra kid fucking die so. hello narrative foreshadowing

party poison. anygays this one is very interesting tbh it needs a whole analysis of its own. for this purpose tho it basically is the turning point in terms of like, no longer being able to safely play along with society even if you wanted to

save yourself, i’ll hold them back. the first fucking lyric: “right now, i hope you’re ready for a firefight / ’cause the devil’s got your number tonight / they say! we’re never leaving this place alive / but if you sing these words we’ll never die”

the “they” is evidently jet star and the kobra kid, which just. ough sobbing rn. but the interesting part is the first half, basically like, yeah this is about to boil over, i hope you’re ready.

“for all of us who’ve seen the light / salute the dead and lead the fight / hail hail! / who gives a damn if we lose the war? / let the walls come down / let the engines roar!” so these lyrics are linked ofc. “salute the dead” -> “hail hail!” and then “lead the fight” -> “who gives a damn if we lose the war? / let the walls come down / let the engines roar!”

so yknow. it’s about being okay with losing the war. as long as you lived life to the fullest. who cares what happens in the end as long as you live on the way to it?

“be a burning star if it takes all night” the night in the desert is when you’re safe from the sunlight that kills you. well you gotta leave your mark somehow! be a burning star, even though you gotta spend all that safe time getting there.

“i’ll tell you all how the story ends / where the good guys die and the bad guys win / who cares!” it doesn’t fucking matter what the ending is! we’re doomed to die but that doesn’t mean the story is lost! even if they win, that isn’t the point of the story. the outcome is irrelevant, what matters is the legacy you leave behind. the graffiti they write on your grave. i’ll hold them back so you can leave a mark on the world before we go. i can give you tonight, make it count, leave behind a memory of who you really were. be broken glass when the sun rises on the empty space we fled from.

s/c/a/r/e/c/r/o/w. now this song is talking to a child, coaxing them into shelter before the bomb hits, knowing that when society falls it’ll be devastating no matter how terrible that society was. of course s/c/a/r/e/c/r/o/w is like an actual BLI thing that is a very real threat in the zones and you have to hide from it, and they come out during the day in the sunlight, but you still gotta move yourself when that sunlight of BLI’s presence is gone, because if BLI dies then that means something worse is on its way. and not even love is enough to stop that from coming. no matter how strong or defiant or queer that love is, it won’t be enough. you have to run.