#are the ride or dies with no standards for themselves.

[snekdood]

me and my boyfriend were having a conversation earlier about how creepy my dad is and how he 1 used to spy on my mom w binoculars in his car across the street after their divorce (she got a restraining order luckily) but also 2 i remember him threatening to kill my mom and her current husband and i said something about how "i used to be scared i'd see him outside of my window watching me, even though he would probably just go after my mom i was worried he might try to kidnap me-"

and then it all clicked for me. the reason zero is the way he is is bc of my dad. the reason my comic is the way it is is bc of my fucking dad!

[cantsayidont]

There are some things in DC's voluminous back catalog that they ought to properly reprint because they're good — gems of past eras. However, there are also some things they ought to properly reprint because they're delightfully stupid, like the Superman/Batman team-ups from WORLD'S FINEST COMICS. DC has actually reprinted all the stories from the '50s, through about 1961, but a lot of the '60s material has only been reprinted in the B&W SHOWCASE PRESENTS books, which is a shame.

The WORLD'S FINEST team-ups went through several distinct phases. Superman, Batman, and Robin had shared the covers of WORLD'S FINEST COMICS since 1941, but it wasn't until 1954 that shrinking page counts obliged them to actually share the lead feature. The '50s stories are pretty good of their time, with some lovely Dick Sprang art, and the presence of Superman meant the drift into science fiction was less jarring than in the contemporary Batman books. In 1964, editorial control of WORLD'S FINEST passed to Mort Weisinger and it became a Weisinger-era Superman book that happened to have Batman and Robin in it. Starting in 1967, though, things started to get stranger and stranger as Weisinger's stable of sci-fi veterans like Edmond Hamilton and Otto Binder gave way to Bob Kanigher, Cary Bates, and Bob Haney, who turned out some exceedingly weird material. Stories like the two-parter about Superman having died and willed his super-organs to various people (#189–190) aren't quite as ghoulish as the covers suggest, but their inexplicable weirdness is emblematic of the period.

For a little while in the early '70s, DC evicted Batman from the series, making WORLD'S FINEST a general-issue Superman team-up book. (DC reprinted those issues in trade paperback in 2020.) This apparently wasn't a big commercial success, but rather than immediately returning to the expected Superman/Batman format, WORLD'S FINEST began to feature the Super-Sons, the teenage sons of Superman and Batman in a hazily defined parallel reality — written by Bob Haney, whose stories consistently evoke the sensation of mild concussion. The "real" Superman and Batman also returned, although they had to alternate with their hypothetical future sons, appearing roughly every other issue through 1976. From 1976 to 1982, WORLD'S FINEST once again became an oversize anthology book, with a Superman/Batman main feature backed by a variety of other characters like Green Arrow and Hawkman. The stories in that period are not quite as ludicrous as the late '60s (although if you see Bob Haney's name in the credits, you know you're in for a wild ride), but even the soberer installments are consistently very silly, full of nonsense like Kryptonian lycanthropy and the return of some especially ridiculous older villains like the Gorilla Boss of Gotham City and Doctor Double-X.

It wasn't until issue #285 that Superman and Batman again had the book all to themselves. The late period dials back the zaniness and has mostly uninspired plots, but writers Doug Moench and David Anthony Kraft compensate with some eyebrow-raising and apparently deliberate "Superbat" ship-bait; my personal favorite is Kraft's "No Rest for Heroes!" (a short story in the back of WORLD'S FINEST #302), where Superman and Batman go to a dive bar in the middle of nowhere to talk about their relationship and Batman ends up throwing a knife at someone.

Very little of this stuff is actually good by any normal standard — although the 1964–1967 period is no more or less weird than any other Weisinger Silver Age Superman stories — and the artwork is only occasionally better than passable. However, it's so stupid and so ridiculous that it's consistently fun, in a way DC doesn't really do anymore, at least not on purpose. Assembling all the Superman/Batman stories (leaving the Super-Sons to their own TPB), omitting the various backup strips, and giving it decent color reproduction would make for a nice package, and the presence of Superman and Batman would make it more commercially viable than some of DC's more artistically worthy back catalog material. Low-hanging fruit, if you ask me.

[sarah-yyy]

Sorry to bother you, is My journey worth watching?

what: period cdrama // completed // 24 eps, roughly 50 mins each where: iqiyi (i think most eps are still vip-locked) (standard disclaimer that i don't use eng subs so i don't speak to the quality of the subs) why: ngl, i was in it purely for zhang linghe to start, but then got !!! over cheng lei and lu yuxiao, and was too invested to quit even when the plot got sloppy. extremely gorgeous cast, extremely gorgeous set. the cinematography?? chef's kiss. you can see the budget for this show was good. the relationship between the characters? v interesting.

story revolves around the Gong family who is v prominent in jianghu even though they live up in the mountains and keep themselves sequestered away from the rest of jianghu. the Gong family itself is split into 4 different factions: Shang, Jue, Zhi, Yu.

Yu 羽 - the Yu household deals with internal affairs. the head of the Yu household is the head of the Gong family (the title is Sword Wielder or zhiren)

this is our male lead, gong ziyu (a baby). second son of the Yu household. his dad is the zhiren and his big bro (gong huanyu) is the named heir who will inherit the zhiren position. has a v lukewarm relationship with his dad. introduced as being quite useless. his martial arts is :/ and he sees no need to improve his skills etc because his brother will be there to protect him.

is quite suddenly thrust into the position of zhiren when his dad and his brother die under ~mysterious circumstances :(

Jue 角 - the Jue household deals with...external affairs, they are the ones who leave the mountain to Get Things Done outside and manage all relationships/partnerships outside

gege step on me this boy is gong shangjue, head of the jue household. he is The Man. the pride and joy of the gong family. everyone (*cough*i say everyone but really yuanzhi-didi does it enough that he counts for everyone*cough*) worships him. martial arts skills?? loyalty to the gong family?? incredibly attractive resting bitch face??? he is a 10 no matter how you assess him.

missed out on being the zhiren by virtue of him not being home when tragedy struck the old zhiren and gong ziyu's brother. doesn't think gong ziyu has what it takes to be zhiren and take care of the Gong family. my boy gong shangjue would make an Excellent zhiren tbh

do i have to seduce y'all into watching this i think i have to:

Shang 商 - the Shang household develops/produces weaponry

for most of it, the show has a p dark vibe, BUT whenever gong zishang shows up, we know we're in for some laughs. this zishang-jiejie is the eldest daughter of the head of the Shang household.

her father doesn't take her v seriously because she's a girl (also because she's always following behind gong ziyu's personal bodyguard jin fan like this: 😍💖🤞🏼; valid life choices tbh because same) but she does take her craft v seriously! ride or die for gong ziyu.

Zhi 徵 - the Zhi household develops poisons

YUANZHI-DIDI!! this boy loves two things: poisons and gege. #1 gong shangjue fanboy at least 10 years in a row. parents died when he was p young, and gong shangjue took him under his wing. whiz at poisons and v fight fight fight (ง •̀_•́)ง. is suspicious about everything and VERY protective of his gege.

alright that's the main Gong sibs all sorted. there's also an assortment of Inner Mountain (houshan) characters that are v interesting but i won't get into because 1) spoilers, 2) this post will get too long if i get to talk about hua-gongzi and xue-gongzi/xue-tongzi.

okay so the Gong family live in p much a fortress up in the mountains. no outsiders are allowed in, and only a select few are allowed out of the Gong family territory at all. we learn that this is to protect the Gong family from Wu Feng, a spy organisation which has p much taken over jianghu. Wu Feng learns that the Gong family will be holding a bride selection contest thingy for gong huanyu, and sends:

yun weishan, a low-ranking assassin in Wu Feng (Chi, the lowest out of 4 ranks chi, mei, wang, liang), disguised as a bride.

her mission is to be picked by gong huanyu as his bride, and become the next zhiren-furen so she can p much feed intel to Wu Feng. when gong huanyu and the old zhiren both croak, her attentions turn to gong ziyu who is by that point already 😍🥰😘 over her anyway NO SURPRISES. the 恋爱脑 on that boy istg, absolutely head no thoughts only yun weishan at least 20 hours in a day.

shangguan qian, a higher-ranking assassin (Mei, one rank above yws) in Wu Feng

my love my wife her mission is a little different from yws. her target isn't anyone from the Yu household but gong shangjue instead. the goal is to get her hands on this secret weapon (this is also a v HMMM part of the plot but no matter we endure what we have to) that the Gong family is safeguarding.

the relationship between these two wu feng spies is so interesting too!! they're not friends, not exactly allies, but also not quite enemies. they will help each other out if they really have to (and only if it doesn't jeopardise their own positions and there is adequate compensation), but will also not hesitate to stab each other in the backs if it serves their respective missions.

i needed like 100000 more scenes of them together ngl

ANYWAY the plot revolves around the Gong family trying to Catch The Spy, the Wu Feng spies trying to Complete Their Mission, gong ziyu trying to Prove Himself as the zhiren, and ofc there's romance sprinkled around. that's p much the gist of the show.

listen listen listen... i know this show has a bad rep in the cdrama circles, i agree. the plot is......HMM and it tries to hard to be one of those clever mysteries when it should just be what it is which is p much an idol drama?? i mean...it is a guo jingming show, we weren't going in expecting to be wowed by the plot. i think if they'd just stuck to the basics, this would have been a stronger show, but imo this wasn't bad bad. the worldbuilding was good and the characters were interesting, and like i said, the whole thing is shot really beautifully!!

the ending was......but i'll keep this spoiler free and just say that it was HMMMMM and v unnecessary what they did.

with the preface that i watched it without much expectations as to the plot, i enjoyed a lot of parts of the show! it's an incredibly easy watch, and because it's only 24 eps, the pacing is quick and conflicts don't tend to drag on for too long. if you're looking for some easy entertainment, i'd say go for it, but if you have Standards regarding plot etc, this is probably not the show for you

[inthememetime]

Danny and Jazz get adopted by Harley Quinn, Pamela Isley, and Waylon Jones after the Fenton Adults accidentally forget about their kids after a science convention in Gotham. Jazz is ten and Danny is six, this uses your version of young Danny in which he can safely eat anything.

Danny and Jazz develop differently in Gotham with a loving trio of parents to guide them through life in Gotham, the Batfamily cannot comprehend how to kids raised by three supervillians can be so normal (by Gotham's twisted standards).

Also for this idea Harley is married to both Pamela and Waylon which is fully legal in the court of law, Harley is the glue that ultimately keeps their family unit together.

KILLER CROC! KILLER CROC! KILLER CR- *somebody slaps me*

Whoo! Ok, sorry, he's such a fun villain. Here we go!

It was less Harley, Waylon, and Pamela adopting them and more Jazz and Danny adopting the trio.

Danny pretty much latched onto Waylon. Literally. With teeth. Waylon thought it was hilarious, brought the gremlin home, and bam! another kid was riding on his back the whole time and he didn't notice.

At first, they try to find their parents, but the kids don't want to leave. As in 'causing potentially deadly shenanigans' don't want to leave.

And you know what? They can respect that. Waylon falls first. Not only are these kids Not Afraid of him, the little biter won't leave him alone. He shares Waylon's food (people don't like to get within 5 feet of a guy named Killer Croc when he's eating for a Reason), and he somehow accidentally starts teaching Danny how to hunt in the sewers and abandoned buildings.

(Does Danny get a taste for human flesh in this? Probably.)

Jazz likes the human mind, she's insatiably curious, and so she gets the nickname of Harley's little duckling. (Changes to Red Swan or something badass later, but she keeps the goose/swan/duck in her name because those are Scary Birds) (ooh or maybe The Cassowary)

Danny gets a nickname too. Maybe Gator-Bog or something?

More under the cut!

Despite Waylon's insistence that Danny is adopted, they all believe he's his biological son because they have witnessed Danny: bite the Joker's nose off when he got too close, eat a sewer rat, nearly bite Tim's fingers off (luckily he was wearing heavy gloves), hiss like a creachur, and he also sets off Damian's 'dangerous animal let me pet it' alarms.

Danny can eat everything because he's contaminated by ectoplasm, so there's also the reflecting eyes, sharp teeth, and weird strength.

Batman returns Danny to his 'dad' at least once a month. Keeping Danny out of Shenanigans is pretty much a full time job, so he's a lot less of a frequent bat-villain lately.

Jazz, meanwhile, seems perfectly normal. This leads to the batfam kidnapping her at least once a month for several years. Hilariously, when Danny is cleaned up, he gets confused for Damian until he opens his mouth leading to multiple accidental kidnappings.

By the time the Fentons find Danny, the batfam is just cackling. "That kid? Go ahead, pick him up. Just count your fingers after."

By the time they find Jazz, the batfam is no longer laughing because they had some weird ghost netting that managed to hold Gator-Boy.

At some point, Constantine arrives and continuously tries to persuade everyone that Danny is a ghost.

Damian is the least kidnapped member of the batfam, despite being the youngest, because kidnappers have accidentally mistaken Danny for Damian before. The ones who managed to keep their lives (Waylon is never happy about people kidnapped either of his kids), and their fingers/noses/ears (Danny has and will happily rip a kidnappers face off) spread the rumor.

When Danny actually, finally dies and becomes a halfa, because ghosts look like how they see themselves, he turns into a ghostly version of Killer Croc.

Hilariously, everyone STILL believes Constantine is wrong. That's no ghost. Clearly, that's a were-crocodile.

Danny is still a hero! Sort of. He takes a bite out of crime- literally.

Vlad tries to kidnap him. It does Not Go Well. For Vlad. Danny, Pamela, Jazz, Harley, and Waylon have a great time.

"That's a ghost!" "Yes, Constantine, Plasmius is a ghost, we know." "Danny is too!" "Leave sleeping were-gators lie, honestly"

Damian and Danny regularly blame hijinks on the other. "Damian, who beat an abusive zoo owner nearly to death?' " Gator-boy, most likely." "Danny, who rescued 200 people from Mr. Freeze?" "I heard that one of the Wayne kids was there."

OR

Alternatively for Vlad: realizes the Fentons abandoned their kids like they abandoned him and becomes the weird, slightly concerning uncle. Teaches Danny all about being a halfa, but also has cloned him.

"You cloned my son?!" "It was an accident!" "There are 4 clones!!!!" "Oops?"

Constantine breaks down into tears because there's now 6 ghosts in Gotham, and nobody believes him about 5.

Danny, the were-gator. David the were-skeleton. Don the were-Frankenstein, Michael the were-dinosaur, and of course Dani the were-shark.

Vlad's 'children' go trick or treating as sheet ghosts to Constantine's house every year because it's always hilarious.

[panickedscribbles]

One thing that always sticks out to me when listening to The Protomen is just how terrible the people of the city are.

Like, a fairly standard assumption in Hero-centric fiction is that people, as a whole, are worth saving. Yes, there are going to be evil villains the hero must fight, and yes, there are going to be scumbags who really aren't worth the heroes effort, but generally there is good in the world and it is worth fighting for.

But that just straight up isn't true in these albums! It starts in Act II with the lynch mob from "The State VS Thomas Light", which I could sort of excuse. People do stupid things when they get caught up in the heat of the moment, and pack mentality is a powerful thing. But as things slowly get worse, no one stands up and says "this isn't right."

By the time of "Breaking Out", there are a grand total of two people willing to do anything about the state of the city, Light and Joe. Then following Joe's very public death, no one else stands up and says enough. Everybody just goes back to keeping their heads down and pretending nothing is wrong, for the next 12 years.

Finally, in "Hope Rides Alone", Protoman arrives to save the day, only to find he's entirely bereft of allies. There is no rebel alliance to help the conquering hero defeat the evil empire. It's just one man, standing alone against an never-ending army. He does his best, he fights his hardest, he gives it everything he's got, but it isn't enough. It was never going to be enough. Not alone.

And this is where the first real nail gets driven into the coffin. "We are the dead." The people of the city chant this as they watch their hero fall, but it's clear he isn't included in their mourning. They cry, not for their fallen warrior, but for themselves, for the fact that they will have to live under Wily for longer. They could step in, fight back, save Protoman. But that would mean risking themselves, and that's just not worth it. And I just have to drive this point home: a man is being beaten to death in front of them, and they're busy singing "Oh, woe is us, the Real Victims™ here."

Fast forward another few years to "Sons of Fate". Megaman arrives to finish what his brother started, only to be forced to murder the man he came to avenge. The crowd that gathers eggs him on the whole time. They don't care that the man he's fighting once fought for them. They don't care that he died trying to free them. They don't care that they're asking their new hero to murder his own family. They only care about themselves. Nothing has changed. No lessons have been learnt.

What else is there for Megaman to do except walk the same path his brother did, only this time with the benefit of hindsight. There will be no last stand, no heroic sacrifice, no warrior to stand between mankind and Wily's horde. This time they are on their own. This time they will have to fight for themselves, or they will be cut down. And Megaman is fine with either option.

I think that's a really neat direction to have taken things, and I'm looking forward to seeing how things finally change for the better in part 3.

[my-shields-are-down]

WHY I THINK ROSALIND IS STILL ALIVE

The Rookie episodes follow the standard seasonal arc trope of what was started in episode 1, will be resolved in Episode 21. What were the topics of Episode 1?

Chenford

Nolan and the stupid golden ticket and becoming a training officer

Rosalind’s escape

So then each topic would need to be addressed during the season and resolved by the end, right?

The first third of the season (1-7) - NOLAN was the focus of the season and him learning and reacting to the dynamic of being a TO. I love Celina , because she is forcing Nolan to learn and adapt - much Ike Talia did because their backgrounds and motivations are so vastly different than his. And she pushes back on his smug, condescending, know-it-all-ness.

The second third of the season (8-15)- LUCY has been the focus and we’ve seen and are seeing her find confidence and strength within herself via her blossoming relationship with Tim.

In 5x1, Chenford, they are in massive denial about their feelings and attraction to one another - and have their 2nd kiss because of, and ultimately hook up blocked by Rosalind. Plus I love yous and possibly, possibly a proposal. Depends on Rosalind.

That would mean, by season’s end, they should be open and honest with their feelings with each other, in a committed relationship that everyone knows about and finally vanquishing Rosalind once and for all is the last real hurdle to them being together.

The final third (16-end) is about the capturing and ultimate killing of ROSALIND .

I never believed she actually died. Her death was too easy. I think she has a twin. You all can laugh at me, I don’t care. If Lucy + Tim can have unrelated doppelgängers who are lovers? Then, fuck yeah, Rosalind can have a Twin who she sacrificed to secure her freedom and give her time to plot. I don’t think it was an accident that Rosalind’s disguise was of Ashley, or that the Tim in time was in darker blood on the wall.

We had a conversation about EVIL today and whether a person is themselves inherently evil or a person does evil things - a third of the cast had opinions! Plus, there was a Priest in this episode- and Catholic Priests do exorcisms to battle evil. (Altho I hope Damian isn’t involved in any way with Rosalind)

Oscar. I love Oscar. He is a sociopath - EVIL personified, and every time he shows up, very bad things start happening to the people in our show,

Chris returns. Yes, this could be innocent and unrelated. But he’s always seemed off to me. He’s never fully clicked with Lucy. He’s got a nasty/mean streak to him. Hello ? He treated her like crap when she got upset about him singing that song. If he really did watch the video multiple times, that means he watched Lucy DIE multiple times. That’s heartless. And like Voldie he never seemed to care about Who Lucy actually was or help with her trauma.

Plus, the timing of his bleeding out has always bothered me. That UC op was need to know, so how did Rosalind KNOW to leave Chris on her sofa at that exact time. The only person Lucy told was Tamara. (I’m assuming everyone in the precinct is not linked to Rosalind ), so Rosalind had to have cloned Tam’s phone. (Chris and Austin had best chances to do that).

Thought of another one. Chris was picked up at night by Rosalind. A) how the hell did she know that he would need a ride and what time he would need to be picked up? B) What happened between the late night hour of his pick up and when the next morning he was placed in her apartment, like 8 hours later? Was he drugged? Held hostage? There was no mention of torture? I HAVE QUESTIONS! Seems like a very big ball for our detectives to drop.

Nolan publicly took credit for saving Lucy.

We are seeing Lucy really come into herself this season. So having a showdown with Rosalind would be in line with that.

I think the final coda will be Lucy + Nolan + Rosalind in some kind of final showdown.

Oh, hello. Melissa even said the audience said we’d see what’s coming and I believe that starts with Oscar and that smell Lucy deals with next week.

Cannot wait! Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[a-modern-major-general]

Despite their modern reputation, the original Luddites were neither opposed to technology nor inept at using it. Many were highly skilled machine operators in the textile industry. Nor was the technology they attacked particularly new. Moreover, the idea of smashing machines as a form of industrial protest did not begin or end with them. In truth, the secret of their enduring reputation depends less on what they did than on the name under which they did it. You could say they were good at branding.

The Luddite disturbances started in circumstances at least superficially similar to our own. British working families at the start of the 19th century were enduring economic upheaval and widespread unemployment. A seemingly endless war against Napoleon’s France had brought “the hard pinch of poverty,” wrote Yorkshire historian Frank Peel, to homes “where it had hitherto been a stranger.” Food was scarce and rapidly becoming more costly. Then, on March 11, 1811, in Nottingham, a textile manufacturing center, British troops broke up a crowd of protesters demanding more work and better wages.

That night, angry workers smashed textile machinery in a nearby village. Similar attacks occurred nightly at first, then sporadically, and then in waves, eventually spreading across a 70-mile swath of northern England from Loughborough in the south to Wakefield in the north. Fearing a national movement, the government soon positioned thousands of soldiers to defend factories. Parliament passed a measure to make machine-breaking a capital offense.

But the Luddites were neither as organized nor as dangerous as authorities believed. They set some factories on fire, but mainly they confined themselves to breaking machines. In truth, they inflicted less violence than they encountered. In one of the bloodiest incidents, in April 1812, some 2,000 protesters mobbed a mill near Manchester. The owner ordered his men to fire into the crowd, killing at least 3 and wounding 18. Soldiers killed at least 5 more the next day.

Earlier that month, a crowd of about 150 protesters had exchanged gunfire with the defenders of a mill in Yorkshire, and two Luddites died. Soon, Luddites there retaliated by killing a mill owner, who in the thick of the protests had supposedly boasted that he would ride up to his britches in Luddite blood. Three Luddites were hanged for the murder; other courts, often under political pressure, sent many more to the gallows or to exile in Australia before the last such disturbance, in 1816.

One technology the Luddites commonly attacked was the stocking frame, a knitting machine first developed more than 200 years earlier by an Englishman named William Lee. Right from the start, concern that it would displace traditional hand-knitters had led Queen Elizabeth I to deny Lee a patent. Lee’s invention, with gradual improvements, helped the textile industry grow—and created many new jobs. But labor disputes caused sporadic outbreaks of violent resistance. Episodes of machine-breaking occurred in Britain from the 1760s onward, and in France during the 1789 revolution.

As the Industrial Revolution began, workers naturally worried about being displaced by increasingly efficient machines. But the Luddites themselves “were totally fine with machines,” says Kevin Binfield, editor of the 2004 collection Writings of the Luddites. They confined their attacks to manufacturers who used machines in what they called “a fraudulent and deceitful manner” to get around standard labor practices. “They just wanted machines that made high-quality goods,” says Binfield, “and they wanted these machines to be run by workers who had gone through an apprenticeship and got paid decent wages. Those were their only concerns.”

So if the Luddites weren’t attacking the technological foundations of industry, what made them so frightening to manufacturers? And what makes them so memorable even now? Credit on both counts goes largely to a phantom.

Ned Ludd, also known as Captain, General or even King Ludd, first turned up as part of a Nottingham protest in November 1811, and was soon on the move from one industrial center to the next. This elusive leader clearly inspired the protesters. And his apparent command of unseen armies, drilling by night, also spooked the forces of law and order. Government agents made finding him a consuming goal. In one case, a militiaman reported spotting the dreaded general with “a pike in his hand, like a serjeant’s halbert,” and a face that was a ghostly unnatural white.

In fact, no such person existed. Ludd was a fiction concocted from an incident that supposedly had taken place 22 years earlier in the city of Leicester. According to the story, a young apprentice named Ludd or Ludham was working at a stocking frame when a superior admonished him for knitting too loosely. Ordered to “square his needles,” the enraged apprentice instead grabbed a hammer and flattened the entire mechanism. The story eventually made its way to Nottingham, where protesters turned Ned Ludd into their symbolic leader.

The Luddites, as they soon became known, were dead serious about their protests. But they were also making fun, dispatching officious-sounding letters that began, “Whereas by the Charter”...and ended “Ned Lud’s Office, Sherwood Forest.” Invoking the sly banditry of Nottinghamshire’s own Robin Hood suited their sense of social justice. The taunting, world-turned-upside-down character of their protests also led them to march in women’s clothes as “General Ludd’s wives.”

They did not invent a machine to destroy technology, but they knew how to use one. In Yorkshire, they attacked frames with massive sledgehammers they called “Great Enoch,” after a local blacksmith who had manufactured both the hammers and many of the machines they intended to destroy. “Enoch made them,” they declared, “Enoch shall break them.”

This knack for expressing anger with style and even swagger gave their cause a personality. Luddism stuck in the collective memory because it seemed larger than life. And their timing was right, coming at the start of what the Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle later called “a mechanical age.”

People of the time recognized all the astonishing new benefits the Industrial Revolution conferred, but they also worried, as Carlyle put it in 1829, that technology was causing a “mighty change” in their “modes of thought and feeling. Men are grown mechanical in head and in heart, as well as in hand.” Over time, worry about that kind of change led people to transform the original Luddites into the heroic defenders of a pretechnological way of life. “The indignation of nineteenth-century producers,” the historian Edward Tenner has written, “has yielded to “the irritation of late-twentieth-century consumers.”

The original Luddites lived in an era of “reassuringly clear-cut targets—machines one could still destroy with a sledgehammer,” Loyola’s Jones writes in his 2006 book Against Technology, making them easy to romanticize. By contrast, our technology is as nebulous as “the cloud,” that Web-based limbo where our digital thoughts increasingly go to spend eternity. It’s as liquid as the chemical contaminants our infants suck down with their mothers’ milk and as ubiquitous as the genetically modified crops in our gas tanks and on our dinner plates. Technology is everywhere, knows all our thoughts and, in the words of the technology utopian Kevin Kelly, is even “a divine phenomenon that is a reflection of God.” Who are we to resist?

The original Luddites would answer that we are human. Getting past the myth and seeing their protest more clearly is a reminder that it’s possible to live well with technology—but only if we continually question the ways it shapes our lives. It’s about small things, like now and then cutting the cord, shutting down the smartphone and going out for a walk. But it needs to be about big things, too, like standing up against technologies that put money or convenience above other human values. If we don’t want to become, as Carlyle warned, “mechanical in head and in heart,” it may help, every now and then, to ask which of our modern machines General and Eliza Ludd would choose to break. And which they would use to break them.

[salty-dracon]

Honkai Star Rail 2.0 Trailblaze Mission Liveblog

Everything I write includes four things- cool cities, found family, the most horrifying plot points I can possibly squeeze into a story, and angels with dubious intentions. Naturally, I'm PUMPED for Interstellar Fantasy Cool City Vacation with Found Family + Dubious Angels + Player Tears. Liveblog under the readmore to keep people unspoiled.

---

Foreword

This is not my first liveblog rodeo. I've liveblogged plenty of murder mystery games. But I promise to make this an entertaining experience for anyone who wants to read this.

You're probably wondering why everything I write is about killing angels. It's been a running theme in my work ever since high school, where the villain of a superhero story I wrote was a man who built himself metal wings. He was themed around control- if not by breaking bodies, by breaking minds through mind control powers. He was fucked up like that.

And I've written a lot of angels since then (a lot of them just straight up divine beings), most of which in some way have powers that are used to control others, with the protagonists fighting against them to free themselves from control. So yeah, killing angels, whether they're child-kidnapping supervillains, instigators of amatonormative authoritarianism (fellow aroaces this one's for you), or digital gods who have killed millions and would kill millions more for the sake of vengeance against everyone that hurt their human pets- it's basically standard for me at this point. No doubt whatever WIP I write next is going to involve kicking the ass of another angel.

(I didn't keep up with marketing. I have no idea what Robin and Sunday's personalities are like. Going by the trailers, Robin seems like the nice and friendly sibling and Sunday's the less nice one who has to keep her out of trouble.)

Anyway, I keep hearing theories that Firefly and/or Himeko will die, and if that happens, I'll be sad. Firefly is the closest thing Trailblazer has gotten to another girlfriend (the star rail trio are siblings, ride-or-die besties, or a polycule depending on what's funniest at the moment) and Himeko is just right up my alley being a tall, beautiful woman with red hair in a big dress and a black leather coat who beats up enemies with a CIRCULAR SAW. Still, they can't hype Firefly up as Trailblazer's closest thing to a planet BFF and not kill her, right?

Also if this happens I'll laugh, but if Welt dies. Like they're saying it's Himeko but what if.

Other theories I have, for other reasons:

Someone will attempt to steal or acquire the Astral Express, and they will succeed until a later patch.

There will be a quest involving breaking down the Family's supposed hivemind.

Social media will explode with outrage over a specific enemy that felt intentionally kept out of marketing (it's the one with the blue head sitting on a dice box, only briefly visible in certain scenes in the music video).

With Genshin being my first HYV game I was really surprised to see Tingyun die also. Unlike many other gacha games (Epic Seven comes to mind) Genshin has a really clear criteria for which characters are and aren't going to become playable, and those criteria are basically just "be alive and have a reason to aid the Traveler for the foreseeable future" to avoid plot breaking. HSR has proven that that criteria really does not apply, w/ Tingyun, canonically dead, being a potential party member, and Dan Heng having both a 3-star and 5-star version that can be in the same party if the player feels like it. (there has to be someone out there who runs "team plot breaker".)

Also, I have been spoiled on exactly ONE thing due to leaks, and I will say nothing more on that fact.

Begin Quest!

Let's get started squeeeeeee

I'm not sure whether Dan Heng just typed "..." to show that he's around, or because that's actually what he would say if they were all together and they needed to talk.

I'm having flashbacks to FFXIV Endwalker's "You may exhibit a light touch of VIOLENT AETHERIAL SICKNESS".

Oh, that's exciting. Some of the Nameless went on to live here. Tiernan the guard, Legwork the mechanic, and Razalina the surveyor.

I'm imagining the final preparation for this vacation was March zipping all over the Express gathering all of her necessary (unnecessary) things, Dan Heng diligently packing his suitcase neatly and carefully, and Trailblazer filling up a plastic bag until the other two scold them for it and tell them to at least pack a backpack or something so their stuff doesn't get thrown out with the trash. Meanwhile Himeko and Welt have had their suitcases packed for a few days already.

WHATTTT. NOOOOOO. I was really excited for the whole Astral Express family to let loose together. Noooooooo. (I mean if my theory that someone will try to steal the Express is correct, at least he'll have someone to hit with a lance.)

UHHHHHH. WH. WHERE'S THE PLANET. WHY'D WE GET SCLORPED INTO ANOTHER SPACE ENTIRELY. WHY WERE THERE MONADO VISIONS

Acheron: oh god motherfucking dammit how do these fuckheads keep getting in- Come with me.

multiplayer dreaming

Acheron: This is the border between dream and reality, mind and matter...

she's so not impressed with anything the trailblazer does lol

oh look it's everyone we'll meet here.

:/ so looks like the stellaron hunters will actually be crashing the party themselves.

Listen, I don't play that many RPGmaker games or visual novels, but red text is usually a bad and/or scary thing. So am I supposed to take this as bad and/or scary?

"Have you met Acheron before?", "Would you fear losing any of the friends you've made over the course of your journey?", "If you could stay in a dream where you could experience none of this loss forever, would you?", and "If you already knew how the journey would end, in tragedy, would you still trailblaze a path?". Fuck, these questions are hitting. And we're going to witness some kind of tragedy, that much she says.

Black, white, and fleeting red. I'm pretty sure these are the colors in Acheron's splash art. I wonder what that means.

Acheron Casts The Spell: Freshly Chopped Raw Onions.

Wait, so is it a planet, like a round planet, or is it like Asgard from the MCU where it's just a flat plane?

auuuuuuuuuugh front desk troubles i hATE them

aventurine shows up, and himeko and welt just look at each other like "who's this jackass". then himeko expertly deals with the jackass in question. how much experience has she had dealing with ipc assholes if she could verbally square up with two of the stonehearts on a turn of a dime?

I think it's really funny how the marketing keeps saying "listen the IPC aren't bad guys and they aren't unreasonable, they have a reputation to uphold" as though basically the entire Belobog Topaz quest wasn't Himeko, March, and Trailblazer giving a giant middle finger to the IPC for outright lying and manipulating Bronya. And then this guy starts complaining that we wasted ten minutes of his time.

Aventurine: This is Sunday, the most handsome man in Penacony! And that's his sister Robin, the singer renowned across the universe!

Robin: Hehe he called you handsome~

Welt and Himeko: *either heterosexual judgment or just plain confusion*

If you called my OC Grey, the Angel of Illusion and main antagonist of The City of Hands, whose ability is weaving dreams, "handsome", he'd probably just try to ignore you.

Oh, interesting. I sort of assumed that Robin was part of the Family like her brother, but I guess not...

WHICH DAY WAS HE-

There's a hotel in Disney World (World? It's the one in Florida) that looks just like this hotel. But it's supposed to be the super luxury version.

My brain has to do so much of the legwork here (> <) but i'm imagining March and Trailblazer skipping off to their rooms, full of excitement, while Himeko and Welt have a quiet, ominous chat over some drinks.

"Witness the impossible in the realm of dreams, find the legacy of the Watchmaker, Father of Penacony, and thus find the answer to the question 'Why does life slumber?'."

What...? A distress call from one of the Nameless, having arrived relatively recently since both March and Dan Heng were on the Express at the time they received it. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!!! MISSION IMPOSSIBLE ARC!!!

Based on my knowledge of Genshin, which will be a lot less useful than I hope it to be, I think most of the factions are remaining quiet because they need the help of the Nameless to clean out whatever's causing their societal issues. Plus, I'm not sure how the Annihilation Gang ties into everything. They can't be the ones who sent the invite, right?

Today I learned that Trailblazer is canonically possibly or possibly not old enough to drink! (There's rum in the Galactic Voyager!) Actually wait, I think I've had this drink before.

Himeko always just sits wherever. And she sits so RADIANTLY.

We might as well be plunging ourselves into VR heaven at this point auuuughhghg i'm so excited

We're visiting the Golden Hour first, so that means we'll be separated from the other three noooooooooo. i mean, "history and culture enjoyer", "atmosphere and people enjoyer", and "shopping enjoyer" match the other three to a tee but :(

March you're so right, this is an intergalactic live-action detective saga.

Okay, let me note this down for foreshadowing reasons. Family feuds, tragic losses, worlds torn apart, espionage situations, rivers running red with blood (acheron lol).

THIS IS FINE THIS IS FINE THIS IS FINE THIS IS FINE THIS IS FINE

I don't trust you! :)

(Doesn't TB already have the Preservation's protection? Lance, forward, and all that?)

danger. danger. danger. danger. danger. danger

thabks acheron O_O

Aventurine: How did you make this friend so fast?

Trailblazer: Oh, uh... she called me funny in a dream once?

It will be really funny if Aventurine isn't actually an antagonist here (he's trying to "reclaim" something that's in Penacony, and we all know how bad that went in the case of Belobog) and Acheron is warning us for nothing.

*bass boosted* I think it's really funny how the marketing keeps saying "listen the IPC aren't bad guys"-

I can imagine myself walking into this dream pool while fully-clothed. I keep my socks on, the bottoms of my feet touch the water, my face recoils back like I ate a sour grape. Wet socks are the worst, and I have had my fair share of wet sock troubles. Even stuffed plastic bags into my shoes to avoid them.

Mikhail.

Aventurine: Hey, Ratio, where's that bust of yours?

Every single Dr. Ratio/Aventurine shipper: WRITE THAT DOWN WRITE THAT DOWN

... So his endgame is to basically bring Penacony (penal colony) back into the IPC's hands. Or something like that. How is another question entirely.

*stares at trailblazer flying through the air like a ragdoll in dream space* weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

FUCK YEAHHHHHH MIDTOWN MANHATTAN!!! (I should go visit again one of these days...)

ehhh, she's freaking out for no reason, she'll be fine, elio never foresaw a future where she died from falling 100 stories in a dream world- SHE GOT YAMCHA'D!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA

[scene where robin checks on trailblazer who just smashed into bare concrete] my guardian angel and her friend wondering whether they should carry my soul to the afterlife after i drank too many blue raspberry slurpees and passed out behind the 7-11 at 2am

OH THANK GOD DREAM TEXTING SERVICE.

So much of this is just like the Caligula games, I like it.

so today i learned that not only is pom-pom as old as akivili, but he put akivili to task too. also, "broke the train into two pieces"? so is there a second half of the express somewhere??? *soft gasp* can trailblazer finally stop sleeping on the couch

FIREFLY!!! GIRLFRIEND!!!

(this one npc has darker skin than most of the genshin sumeru characters and yes i'm still mad about that)

Thanks, Dad- i mean, man. stranger. with dad vibes

Fun fact about me: The cheat code to designing a male character I will find super cool no matter what atrocities they commit is: brown or red hair, a formal suit, caring dad vibes, and severe mental health issues for which they have very harmful coping strategies. This rarely but sometimes applies to female characters too (makima chainsawman, and a character from a game where the antagonist's file says he likes fireworks). This also applies to Welt. Yes, I do sometimes spend my days wishing I had a better father, how did you know?

Maybe Mikhail is Firefly's brother or something? And she's a local from the Iris family...

this is gorgeous...

going on dates with my girlfriend :)

girlfriend activities :)

girlfriend simulator :)

syrupism??? just sounds like an offshoot of american consumerism to me. like my dad's friend who has a $2m collection of coca cola memorabilia. which is simultaneously the coolest and most cringe thing i've ever heard

can't wait to tell march (my girlfriend) that i have another girlfriend in another server instance

If we go on enough dates with girlfriend we get to hear her tragic backstory.

O_O we're being followed??? *long sigh* okay who is it? rude gambler boy? benedict cumberbatch's sherlock? dad 2? that angel everyone keeps turning into a creepy monster in fanart? a t rex chef?

strong build? silent steps? oh motherfucker it's S A M P O K O S K I

... that is not sampo koski. he always introduces himself with his full name.

oh and he does know who march is, and while march is also my girlfriend, that's not march.

the pepeshi are just moogles. or lalafell.

UM. UM!!!

sampo. sampo what the hell are you doing. is this going to lead us to tatalov

i KNEW IT

i swear some of these trashcan lines were ripped straight from "dog of wisdom"

eris's apple- er, trash can

THERE HE IS! GIANT SAMPO

this is so stupid LOL

i mean i did have a feeling that firefly was lying, i just couldn't figure out how or why. as for how the trash can dream is supposed to symbolize penacony, i'm not sure either.

oh noooooooo i hate walking talking cartoon characters. especially ones that sound like mickey mouse

"innocence kindness, and honesty of a child"? dude, trailblazer murdered cocolia. they have the option to lie all the time. anyway, misha.

no no no no no. i want girlfriend time.

... wait. boss stone. stonehearts? that would make them the ipc, or an expy of them.

a traumatized galactic hero, a bellboy, and a pair of lesbians wake up in a dream world together

DATE DATE DATE DATE DATE

sparkle and aventurine. i guess they have a reason to hate each other

sigonia and avgin. ????

it took me way too long to figure out that "chicken wing boy" was sunday

this entire border section is like a scene 3/4ths of the way through a teenage coming of age movie

MONUMENT VALLEYYYYYYY (you should play it)

the last time i had this much fun with an ingame girlfriend was with kasumi from persona 5 royal. i know a lot of people don't like her because she gets in the way of akeshu action but i couldn't stop smiling every time she appeared on screen, and that's how i feel with firefly. like god, she's just adorable. she's just a treat. ingame protagonist, you'd better treat her well.

firefly is a stowaway suffering from entropy loss syndrome- basically, her perception and actions are slowing down and she's slowly dying on the inside and it's affecting her mentally too. a lot like something from zero escape. she has a dream, and penacony lets her realize it. and she wants to find the watchmaker's legacy.

SELFIE! SELFIE WITH GIRLFRIEND! AAAAAAA

Okay, March found Ratio in the shopping district, Welt's had some weird things happen himself, and it's back to reality for us.

fuck off sampo, i'm going to have an angsty goodbye scene with my girlfriend

yeah i knew you were sparkle. cool transition though

we've entered salvador dali street

"the real dreamscape"... i really have no inkling as to what it might be

OH. Origami bird. That's one of Clockie's friends, and if I'm right that "Boss Stone" is meant to be an expy of the IPC, then that means that the watchmaker themselves lost Mikhail.

THIS SI FINE THIS IS FINE THIS IS FINE THIS IS FINE THIS IS FINETHIS IS FINE

THIS IS FINE THIS IS FINE THIS IS FINE THIS IS FINE

such a cool monster design

hi black swan

MOM DAD BESTIE I MISSED YOUUUUUU

Huh. Black Swan wants to ally with the Trailblazers. In exchange, she wishes to experience memories. The dreamscape is collapsing, potentially exposing a lot of danger as well as the Watchmaker's Legacy. The person who sent the Watchmaker's invite is likely behind the collapse as well. The various factions on board- the Trailblazers, IPC, Family, Masked Fools, the Stellaron Hunters, the Galaxy Rangers, the Garden of Recollection- one of them is the culprit. The IPC is the most obvious, but... where is the Annihilation Gang in all of this?

Okay. Stellaron Hunter Sam is the one Welt saw suspiciously wandering around.

Acheron!!!

Acheron is so angry all of the time. I love her.

FIREFLY!!! At least she's okay! For now!

There she is! Hug girlfrie- OH NO

FIREFLY!!! FIREFLY!!! OH NO OH NO OH NO

OH MY GOD SHE'S DEAD

D,:

Moving on...

Let's see, someone killed a lot of monsters in one strike with a blade slash, and that blade was superheated.

Firefly was betrayed by a companion after tracking down some information about the Watchmaker. That companion, probably Sam since I know he's a boss fight.

oh my god that's a boss fight that's a boss fight

DID ACHERON JUST THROW HER FUCKING KATANA AT HIM-

you, you CAPITALISTIC BITCH

actually, if aventurine was the one behind firefly's murder, which he very well could be- no, no, i'm just not going to entertain that rn

BLACK SWAN WAS THE BETRAYER?! HOLY FUCK

or, they were both trying to save the trailblazer?

Acheron's an Emanator of Nihility? Who gives a shit? I'm friends with an Emanator. Her name's Herta. She has puppets.

wHAT. Do you mean. Ifrit is dead.

... Listen, I thought it was lowkey insane that they'd drop a character design as awesome as Dubra's and then drop absolutely nothing else. I began joking in chat about how badly they'd animate Ifrit's skull. But if he was never actually meant to be an ingame character in the first place, that's crazy.

I mean like, realistically I don't trust any of these people. I really don't trust the IPC since they have a vested interest in reclaiming Penacony. But Acheron stealing her invitation is interesting, since I thought she was the most trustworthy.

Yeah, thanks for putting it mildly, Black Swan. Everyone could be lying. It could be you. It could be me. It could be Mom. It could be Dad. It could NEVER be Bestie.

Okay. Let's go. Let's see the "truth" behind Penacony.

OH NO. OUT OF ALL OF THE PEOPLE TO DIE, I DID NOT EXPECT HER!!!

Hey. Hey what the fuck. What the fuck is happening what. WHAT

oh he is NOT happy about someone disguising herself as his sister

the people here are way too horny for sunday

he's pulling out the capitalized pronouns. in christianity those are the big guns.

Final Thoughts

they told me i wouldn't be ready, and i wasn't. i wasn't even ready for how not ready i was

Also my favorite kind of Big Reveal is when you know something big is going to happen, because it's being foreshadowed (Firefly death) but that completely keeps your mind off the true reveal (Robin death) until it's time, and then the true reveal hits you like an avalanche.

You really can't trust anyone in this hotel. I have a vague idea of who's allied with who, but what they want? I have no clue.

My head hurts.

[surveillance-0011]

It’s been a while since I’ve tboi posted and I’ve def said this before but I like how the horsemen r like that . Such simple designs but they get across just the right vibe

There’s a sort of innocence in it. Isaac’s interpretation of the bringers of everyone’s doom is a couple of silly kinda gross/nasty guys that ride on toy horses that laugh and cheer when they see each other beat up babies. And sometimes cry when their horsies r taken away.

But they also have that same odd-kilter edge of grossness and morbidity. They’re not just a skinny one, a sick one an angry one and a skeleton; they’re corpses (debatable in War’s case, the redness could also read as burns and heavy scarring or exposed skin). Famine and Pestilence are decomposing. Every horse is as worse for wear as its owner. And theyre all legitimate threats, if not on a typical run then in the final confrontation for sure. There’s also their theme, how it changes to fit them all, its sophistication as Death enters the fray.

Death is a skeleton alone. It’s a universal symbol, but he’s exactly what he should be, a way to show death as an equalizer and a truth isaac must face. He doesn’t need to be flashy or a new twist. He works. And he’s funny.

But the mix just goes to show that for his odd taste and better-than-average knowledge of the Bible, Isaac is still a little kid. One who had the whole weight of the world shifted onto his shoulders as his family fell apart and he became the victim of neglect, abuse and extreme religious beliefs. He is terrified and distraught, forced to deal with much more than most other kids deal with. Instead of getting a happy, safe childhood, he spends what little years he has… like this. To the point where his mind becomes this dark place, where even the most childish and idealized aspects become warped and unsafe. And of course, the Horsemen aren’t the only aspect that show this, but I feel they do act as a more notable display of this alongside some other bosses and aspects of the game…

And Conquest… ah… Dare I say the most “mature” of Isaac’s horsemen, in terms of what the boy is going through in his head. Maybe he shares this award with death, though. Not only does Isaac acknowledge the forgotten one, but… there’s just something so. Interesting about the state Conquest is in. He, too, is a corpse, but he’s not quite like the others. He is not that skeleton picked clean and is very visibly dead, but he is relatively intact and well preserved. Even the horse head seems alright. There is… honor. Respect. Humanity. Glory. He himself is holy, one of two enemies that attack w/ beams of light. The other is Isaac.

And that’s just. It’s a lot to unpack. But I think it’s telling that Conquest is the holy one. The white rider basked in holy light, not aligned with any demon, able to keep a body not rotting, burnt or stripped of flesh…

And maybe that’s why he’s the “forgotten” one. The reason he’s not with the Beast and other demons.

Because no one wants to admit those that call themselves holy the most are the ones doing the destroying.

And In killing his own “holy” self and Dogma, Isaac already destroys the standards he was held to and overcomes the brunt of the trauma from the fundamentalist beliefs imposed upon him. Conquest is really only an extension of that. He need not fight him. Now it’s a fight against the aftermath, the rest of the pain, the worst his mother sent to him…

But the source? Dogma. And conquest dies with dogma.

[squeakadeeks]

i hope this statement isnt unknowingly swinging a bat at a wasp’s nest but man no matter how much time passes i always get such a weird feeling looking at cosplay selfies that are extremely edited in terms of the facial features. 

photo editing obviously has its place in photoshoot/display photos (especially for effects but i feel like thats an entirely different topic) and i stand firm that theres nothing inherently wrong with editing cosplay photos, but looking at ones where theres maybe a grand total of 5 pixels left unedited or I have to double-take to realize its a photo and not a drawing makes me get a bit of a knot in my stomach. to be clear i dont mean like “airbrush out eyebags” or “slight skin smoothing/boosting the lighting” i mean extreme distortion of facial features and heavy airbrushing. 

i see both sides: on one hand with cosplay its a different medium to display art and where most often main vehicle of which you share it is photos, and why not make the photo look as polished as possible? after all, its how you’re sharing the artform, photo manipulation is no secret, and if you worked hard on something it makes sense to want to make it look nice and eye-catching when presented. 

but then again its not just photos, its photos of faces, bodies, and people, and even after knowing something is edited its so deeply ingrained in our social programing to see something and attempt to mirror it in ourselves that dysmorphia is almost always along for the ride. which leads into the issue of community norms and standards; for a long time now heavy editing has been the standard- but the downside of it being so standardized is if you dont want to participate, you can be punished. this may be shocking coming from someone who almost died from an ED, but i dont take behaviors that can trigger dysmorphia lightly and dont feel comfortable editing my photos in that way, but i’ve had my work cross-compared to people who do by people outside the cosplay sphere, and when you dont do above and beyond editing, your work will look lackluster and dull in comparison. 

part of me is tempted to just say “people do what people do, just mind your business and present your work according to your values” but again, sharing things- especially images of faces/bodies absolutely does not exist in a vacuum and one person’s decision to edit themselves in an extreme manner can have significant negative consequences not just as a result of that singular image, but how it can reinforce harmful norms...which in turn leads into a pandora’s box senario (ie once the standard gets updated to extreme disfiguration it will be difficult/damn near impossible to return to the way things were before) 

[crowsandmurder]

Clay Morrow Tags and Verses

Clay  ✖ (Aesthetics)

Clay  ✖ (Thoughts)

Clay ✖ (Character Development)

Clay  ✖ (Crack)

Clay ✖ (Headcanons)

Clay  ✖ (Photos)

Clay  ✖ (Starter Call)

BIOGRAPHY

Clay Morrow was born in Sacramento in 1949 to Clarence and Kathleen Morrow. His parents had not been expecting to have a child, but his mother had been thrilled. She tried to provide him with a loving home, whereas his father was a World War II vet, who tried to teach him that he needed to be hard, responsible and needed to love his country. Clay wasn’t sure about serving in the military at first. He often found himself wandering around the streets of Sacramento, in his teenage years. It was then, that he developed his love for bikes, specifically Harleys.

His father made sure that he signed up for the draft, but Clay was happy to not be sent to Vietnam, right away. He’d just bought himself a Harley and he wanted to be out on the road. After his mother died of Pneumonia right before he turned 18, his father turned to the bottle, repeatedly telling him that he’d never amount to nothing, spending all his time on his Harley. Not longafter that, he packed up his belongings and with just 100 bucks in his pocket, he headed out on the road. It was then that, he learned how to do odd jobs, settling for a bit in Lodi, where he worked part-time in a mechanic shop, cleaning up. The owner took him under his wing and taught him everything he needed to know about fixing cars and his bike.

He was settled there for quite some time, before he went back out on the road. He felt most at home, not settling anywhere. Out on the road, he met up with John Teller, and he wound up riding with him and Piney Winston, along with six others. It wasn’t long before they started calling themselves the First 9, as the Sons of Anarchy were created by John Teller and Piney Winston. Clay was one of only three people who had not served time in the military, and some of the older guys, who did their time, made fun of him about it.

In 1969, Clay was sent to Vietnam and became part of the Army Airborne, serving time until 1972. Upon his return, he reconnected with the Sons of Anarchy and continued to ride with them, a little harder, after his time in Vietnam. In 1977, it all changed. While the guys all had women they hooked up with, JT had found himself a young one. She looked barely legal to him, but she was hot. He had definitely looked, but he knew that she had her eyes on JT. After she got pregnant, they all settled in Charming, California.

Clay was not that impressed with Charming, of all places. It just lacked anything, really, in his opinion. It was small and nothing interesting seemed to happen there. But, they had acquired a good amount of land, and that was when he and JT decided to open the Teller-Morrow Shop. They were both good at auto repair, and as time went by, Clay knew it would make a good front. Once the business got going and the clubhouse was up to his standards, Clay decided that Charming might not be so bad, after all.

Over the years, things began to become less about brotherhood and more about what they had gotten into. In the late 80s, Clay and JT went with fellow member, Keith McGee, to help with trouble that had arisen in Keith’s hometown, a suburb of Belfast. They had gotten into trouble with the IRA, and that was when Clay saw opportunity. He started pushing for the gun business back home, and he knew that JT was hesitant, but Clay was not going to give in. Once they got back, he’d managed to convince most of the guys. This could bring in the money. Clay took advantage of the fact that JT seemed to be not as focused, and he used it to his advantage.

As time went on, Clay noticed that JT seemed less focused on Gemma, even when their youngest son died. He could see that they were both broken over it, but to him, JT had become weak and unfocused in Clay’s eyes, and he had no problem anymore, in flirting and eventually starting an affair with his wife. He knew that John was not stupid and knew that he was sleeping with his wife, but he flat out didn’t care. After JT was killed in a motorcycle accident, Clay took the gavel, arguing that Piney was too old, to do so.

He went to prison a few times, usually for gun running charges, but it didn’t take him long to marry Gemma after JT’s death. While JT had tried to handle things more diplomatic, Clay had no problem spilling blood, if it suited him, which happened more than once, during the war against the Mayans.

Clay was always someone who did whatever it took, to get what he wanted.

VERSES:

v: fuck the system | FIRST NINE

Time Period:  1968 - 1993 Clay is asked to join the Sons of  Anarchy, goes to Vietnam, Is patched in upon his return and is committed to the club in a variety of ways, one of which being pushing for the gun business.  He’s also responsible for a lot of the murders during the Mayan War.  As John Teller started to lose faith in what they were doing, Clay started taking advantage in many ways, which included bedding his wife and likely sabotaging his bike, to kill him.  Faceclaim:  Cam Gigandet for the 60’s - 80’s, then Ron Perlman

v: sitting on top of the world | PRESIDENT YEARS (Pre-Show)

Time Period: 1993 - 2008 After the death of John Teller, Clay became President of the Sons of Anarchy. He continued to get them deeper in guns, resulting in a number of fatalities, and all sorts of problems.

v: it ain’t easy being king | SEASON ONE

Clay tries to run the club the best he can, with the ATF breathing down his neck, the whole time. 

v: nobody threatens SAMCRO | SEASON TWO

Clay faces new challenges, as Jax starts to challenge everything he does, due to him knowing how Donna Winston died.  That’s not all though, as he finds out later that his wife has been gang raped to send a message to him. 

v: you do what you have to do | SEASON THREE

After the Irish take Abel, Clay helps Jax do whatever he can, to get his son back. This includes traveling to Ireland, where Clay has to kill Keith McGee, another First Nine member after he betrays SAMCRO. 

v: paranoia strikes deep | SEASON FOUR

After Gemma tells Clay that Tara and Piney have the letters that could implicate him in John Teller’s murder, Clay does whatever he can, to keep the truth from coming out.  This also includes the downfall of he and Gemma’s relationship, and him losing the gavel. 

v: the whistler | SEASON 5

After Jax lets Clay live, he’s allowed to sit at the table.  He does his own scheming with the NOMADS.  Eventually, he loses his patch and is sent to jail for a murder he didn’t commit.

v: sympathy for the devil | SEASON 6

Clay spends his time in jail, before he is broken out and killed by Jax. 

v: fortunate son | AU

Anything that is AU falls under this verse

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Einherji

CR 10

Chaotic Neutral Medium Outsider

Bestiary 4, pg. 84

The souls of powerful warriors claimed by the mysterious, warlike Valkyries that pledge their services to various gods of battle, the Einherjar (in a rare instance of the statblock being titled with their plural form) are all former mortals reborn in bodies without flaw or weakness to continue battling long after they’ve died. Offense, defense, skirmish, war, it doesn’t matter to the Einherjar how they fight, only that they continue to do so. Continue to battle, continue to learn, continue to hone their skills and learn new tricks and tactics. Battle is their blood... or, more literally, their meat and bread.

When not directly created to serve a deific figure, Einherjar are hired out as extraplanar mercenaries to Chaotic or Neutral gods, often needing no pay beyond the promise of battle itself. Why? Because they’re quite literally sustained by battle itself, their wounds rapidly knitting and their essence replenishing (represented by them gaining Fast Healing 5) so long as they keep swinging their weapons at targets that are fighting back. For lack of a better target, they can even attack one another or their own allies until they’re satisfied, behavior that has to be kept in check by anyone hoping to hire more than one of these beings at a time.

Or not. Maybe just let them whip your army into a frenzy with their at-will Rage and see what happens.

On the occasion the spectral vikings actually want to relax from battle--typically because their human allies need some rest and respite--they can call upon a Heroes’ Feast 1/day to feed themselves and their brothers and sisters in battle. Because the feast grants bonuses which last all day, it’s rare you’ll fight them without the extra +4 to their Will saves (bringing them to +12) and +1 to attack rolls. Sadly, or perhaps luckily, the Outsiders are utterly immune to poison and fear (as well as disease and Cold), so the other bonuses offered by their feast go to waste.

But of course, all of this is simply window dressing for what they’re really about: Hitting things with their weapons a whole lot. These Outsiders are Battle-Trained, skilled in all forms of weapons and armor and unaffected by the weight of whatever armor they’re wearing, even able to ride whatever mount they desire in full-plate without impacting their Ride rolls. Though they can wield anything, the example statblock given has a +2 Battleaxe capable of making three attacks a round for 1d8+6 damage each round, with a savory x3 critical hit multiplier should they threaten to critically strike a victim. ... wait, sorry, did I say 1d8+6 three times a round? Sorry, I meant 1d8+9 damage four times a round, because they have Divine Power 3/day to bolster their attack and damage rolls, as well as give them an extra swing if they manage to stand and make a Full-Attack.

And they’re likely going to be making lots of Full-Attacks. Once you’re in melee with them, it’s difficult to get OUT thanks to their combination of Step Up and Stand Still thwarting attempts to 5ft-step your way away. Though they have no magical means of catching up with enemies that keep fleeing, they DO project the air of an inexorable force, their standard 30ft movement speed unimpeded by anything thanks to their permanent Freedom of Movement, their 10 resistance to three different energy types (Fire, Acid, and Electricity), 21 SR, and their DR 10/Cold iron and Lawful, a combination of attributes that’s difficult to just have on hand.

While no strangers to getting into the thick of things thanks to their bounty of defenses, Einherjar prefer to fight especially powerful foes one-on-one. They can use a standard action to target a single foe and Challenge to Single Combat, attempting an Intimidate check (+16) against their victim. If they succeed, the target is not only permanently shaken, but the Outsider gains an additional +2 to attack and damage rolls versus them (bringing their axe damage to 1d8+11)... at the cost of ONLY being able to make attacks at the target and taking a -2 penalty to their AC against anything but their target’s attacks. This mark of challenge, as well as the shaken condition, last until combat ends, the victim is dead or unconscious, or--interestingly enough--the target successfully strikes the Einherjar with a melee weapon.

Should they be unwilling or unable to pick a single satisfying enough foe to fight one-on-one, they have one trick that makes surrounding them incredibly dangerous for the party found in the small, unassuming feat at the end of their list: Strike Back, a seldom-seen feat. Rather than performing a Full-Attack, Strike Back allows the Einherjar to automatically make melee attacks against anyone that attacks it regardless of how many times that may be. If your party of melee enthusiasts is surrounding it on every side and making your own Full-Attacks, it may be pumping out anywhere between six to fifteen attacks of its own every round.

And if you simply stop attacking it, or attack it from a range? Right back to its unstoppable forward march to beat you to death. Or... near death. They have a constant Deathwatch and an eye for people who show promise. Maybe if you put up enough of a fight, it will let you live... if only to send a Valkyrie your way once you’ve improved.

You can read more about them here.

[margridarnauds]

Lazare: 16, 22, 23, 26

A childhood headcanon

[child abuse tw]

Lazare has a fear of the dark because, when he was a child, his grandfather kept him locked in the cellar whenever he didn't live up to his standards, which often included drills in the winter. He wasn't allowed to have any friendships or pets, he wasn't allowed to play, he wasn't even allowed to have a harpsichord. The one thing he kept from his time with his mother and father was his book about King Arthur and his knights.

When do you think they were at their lowest?

Oh, the worst is yet to come for him. It's definitely going to be post-Bastille.

Future headcanon

In a universe with no AUs where Ronan survives, playing 100% according to canon, Lazare dies, probably via suicide, probably after losing his command after he was made a scapegoat for what happened on July 12. I don't think he'd let the mob get him and I don't think he'd allow himself to stay along long enough to get the guillotine or to be hung up by a lamp post. He'd prefer going out on his own terms the second he realizes that the world he's been fighting for is gone.

In a universe where Ronan does survive and they're in a relationship...I think that he would transfer some of his fanaticism to the crown to fanaticism to Ronan. Like, if there was ever a time when he could put Ronan aside and focus on his career, it'd be out the window, because he needs something to cling to and, by the end of the Revolution, so would Ronan. You're in this situation where they started off trying to kill one another but by the end of five years, they're the only two people left standing who understand one another.

In a universe where Ronan survives and they aren't in a relationship...I do think that Lazare and he would come to an understanding eventually. Like, I have a fic drafted out where Ronan's returned to his village twenty years down the line and Lazare rides up, Ronan invites him in for a chat, and they come to terms with everything. Because...again...by that point, they're the only ones who understand one another. (And I think....Ronan would never FORGET what Lazare's done to him, but after twenty years, and after seeing his friends kill one another, I think that it would be harder to blame him exclusively for everything.)

When do you think they were being "themselves" the most?

I think that depends on what you believe "himself" is. If you ask Ronan, for example, in a universe where they're together, during the canon timeline (not including any future AUs) he's going to say that Lazare was most himself from the time in-between Ronan's falling out with the printing press bros/the Dauphin's funeral (June 4) and the Tennis Court Oath (June 20), when he had Ronan more or less to himself and could be more relaxed with him even though there was a growing storm. He got to be much more generous with Ronan, much more domestic.

If you ask Artois, he'd say that everything from about 1780-1789, when Lazare was devoted to Him. Everything after that was him clearly not being in his right mind.

Lazare himself would probably say that Ronan...was nice to have, he didn't resent having him around, I think he grew to like the domesticity, but he *wasn't* sure what he was doing. He would probably argue that he was most himself during his time with the American Revolution, where he was active, where he was in a combat position, where he wasn't dealing with Versailles, where he was at the front of the action and where he was earning a name for himself, or in his early days as the Comte, within his first couple of years.

But like. In canon, the Lazare that Louis sees isn't the Lazare that Ronan sees or that Artois sees. We see him as a cool-headed soldier from Louis' perspective, coming in straight from the front lines to give his report. Artois sees him as a useful pawn. Ronan sees him, in-canon, as a bogeyman, and so would probably argue for Maniaque. I think Maniaque is definitely probably...Lazare how he behaves when he has no society around him, when he isn't being pulled back by the court, but I think that...*Ronan* being there is also influencing how he behaves. He's very much acting like a twelve year old boy pulling the girl he likes' pigtails, he just happens to be a jailor with a ridiculous level of power over his crush.

So? The opening scene, probably. Because it's him in his capacity as a soldier, how he seems to fit in most of the time, before he really fell in with Ronan. Or Nous ne Sommes, where we see some of the fractures forming in him.

[yuexuan]

[Review]画怖

Title: 画怖 Paintings of Terror

Author: 瑆玥

Length: 380 + 2 extras

Rating: E (for horror/gory elements)

Tag: infinite flow, horror, mystery

Summary [taken from novel updates]:

If Ke Xun could do it again, he would have never left his house to go out and flirt with guys, even if it would mean getting beaten to death.

Weren’t they supposed to have just been taking shelter from the rain in a museum and looking at some erot*c paintings while they were at it? Why…did they enter the world inside a painting?!

Mu Yiran: Every single one of us is acting out a role in the painting.

Ke Xun’s eyes lit up: How do we get into an erot*c painting?

Mu Yiran gave him a long, drawn-out look: Shut your eyes and lie down.

Novel[translated]

Comments **contains spoilers**:

One day, Ke Xun and his bestie Wei Dong entered an art exhibition to avoid the rain. Instead, they found themselves transported into one of the paintings, kickstarting their journey of going through multiple paintings in different art exhibitions. Their goal? To survive the paintings, find the artist’s signature/seal, and solve the larger mystery of why this is happening. 

And maybe, have time for some romance in between. 

*

This novel reminded me a lot of Kaleidoscope of Death, in terms of the level of horror, humor, mechanics (e.g. people who died in the paintings would also die soon thereafter in the real world for unknown reasons), and the main character’s personality (i.e. shameless Ke Xun vs shameless Ruan Nanzhu lol). Even the ending style, with the what-the-fuck-ery, is very reminiscent. So if you like KOD, chances are, you’ll also enjoy POT.

Highlights:

Each painting has a complex worldbuilding with a message behind it. The painting that fascinates me most is probably the “Animal World”, where humans and livestocks exchanged their roles. It seems like a criticism about industrial farming and some of the inhumane practices in the industry (Ironically, this might be one of the reasons - per rumors - the novel is no longer hosted on jjwxc, on account that it depicts and possibly criticizes certain aspects of China, especially in regards to homophobia). But even more impressive is how the author ties together all the different paintings and their hints at the end. Hence the latter part of the novel is heavily invested in mystery-solving with a lot of big brain moments.

I’ll say the horror element in this story is top-tier. Not just in the spooky scary way, but in a dystopian way. Just *chef kiss* 

One thing I do find refreshing about this novel is that there is an explanation for why certain characters are so good at surviving. In a lot of infinite flow novels, the stories are structured in a way that the protagonist and his few selected friends are often incredibly lucky and/or incredibly smart in every subject - even though they are sometimes just normal students. But POT provides a reason: that is, the characters have been specifically selected by a higher force so that their specialty can ensure their survival (e.g. a doctor being selected for a painting requiring medical knowledge). 

Some of the side characters are fun - such as Wei Dong and ‘carrot’, who provided nice comic relief. I also like Fang Fei, one of the few surviving female characters in the story. Also, love the Dong Fang pairing, they are quite cute together. 

The ending is a wild ride. I love the mix of science and history behind the Shan Hai painting. That said, there are some parts that are just pure information dump and can make for difficulty understanding.

Things I don’t like

Even though I said that every character was selected for their specialty, it still doesn’t hide the fact that ML is too OP. He is an art collector and has some knowledge of the paintings, but he also possessed knowledge beyond his realm of expertise, even going so far as to be able to acquire weaponry…I’ll say he is the standard stoic gong that doesn’t inspire a lot of interest as a character.

Female characters - As with a lot of infinite flow danmeis (and danmei in general), female characters get shunned and disposed of easily…But for some reason this novel just rubs me off even more than the rest. I think it has to do with the fact that a lot of the female characters are quite competent, but they were casted in a bad light, in comparison to male characters that had similar qualities. E.g. Sha Liu - she was actually really knowledgeable and while her interpretation of the clues weren’t completely correct, the main characters seemed unfairly critical to her explanations and didn’t even care if she died??? Basically, until the latter ⅓ of the story, you can bet that most female characters are getting axed, and those that get left (with the exception of Fang Fei), are just seemingly there for narrative convenience.

[yourreddancer]

"A day in the Life of Sue Republican. 

 Sue gets up at 6 a.m. and fills her coffeepot with water to prepare her morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards.

With her first swallow of coffee, she takes her daily medication. Her medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of her medications are paid for by her employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Sue gets it too.

She prepares her morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Sue's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the shower, Sue reaches for her shampoo. Her bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for her right to know what she was putting on her body and how much it contained.

Sue dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air she breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

She walks to the subway station for her government-subsidized ride to work. It saves her considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Sue begins her work day. She has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. 

Sue's employer pays these standards because Sue's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.If Sue is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, she'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think she should lose her home because of her temporary misfortune.

It's noon and Sue needs to make a bank deposit so she can pay some bills. Sue's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Sue's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Sue has to pay her Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and her below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Sue and the government would be better off if she was educated and earned more money over her lifetime.

Sue is home from work. She plans to visit her father this evening at his farm home in the country. She gets in her car for the drive. Her car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards.

She arrives at her childhood home. Her generation was the third to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

She is happy to see her father, who is now retired. Her father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Sue wouldn't have to.

Sue gets back in her car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Sue enjoys throughout her day.

Sue agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm self-made and believe everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."

[polarfarina]

People saying "not enough people died in the us from covid for it to be causing labor shortages" are really pissing me off. Yes, it's a fraction of a percentage of the population. But you're taking that number out of the context it needs, and assuming that deaths alone are what make people unable to work.

Every single one of the millions of deaths were caused because of exposure, because that's how pandemics work. A huge amount of jobs, retail and medical and transportation and a lot of others, require face to face interactions. They require being in an enclosed space filled with people. Sometimes talking to people who you know to be exposed. The turnaround rate for hiring new people has been picking up. These jobs are the ones that are hurting the most for employees.

Working a job in an office means you see the same handful of people every day. Even when you ride the bus it's the same people who have the same routines. Your exposure is very limited. And when things lock down, you go remote, and you don't have to even leave the house to work. But the physical jobs continue on, they don't stop.

A lot companies that manage in person jobs like retail won't take pandemic safety seriously. They did in March 2020, but by April that year they were already itching to go back to normal, because it cost too much. They stopped protections very quickly. And I had coworkers get sick and never come back to work because of it. I can't know for sure how many of them died. But the jobs that are "hurting the most" for employees have a higher risk of exposure, which is a higher percentage chance of dying from covid. I've got family who worked retail and died catching it at work. It happens.

I got it and I can't breathe the same way. An 8 hour shift feels twice as long and four days a week is too much for me. A lot of people are being disabled by this disease and they can't work to standards so they get fired. I can feel management on my ass about it but I can't bring myself to care about a job that would force me to continually hurt myself to get the job done. But that's what a lot of these jobs do expect, and it's naive to think otherwise.

I don't think it's killed the entire workforce. But the people who never entered it to begin with are going to be a lot less comfortable trying it out and exposing themselves, especially as new studies of long covid effects continue to come out about how disabling it is. It's stupid to write off covid as a cause completely when it's been proportionately and literally hitting people in the healthcare and retail positions the hardest, and it's stupid to pretend people don't see that. Covid is affecting the workforce - by making it clear that many employers don't care about your health, in a way and in a volume that has never really been exposed to the public so plainly before.